This Day, December 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
December 27
175
795: Leo III
who “introduced public disputations between Jews and Christians, resulting in
forced conversions to Christianity” began his papacy today.
1350:
Birthdate of King Juan I of Aragon. In
1392, Juan granted amnesty to those who had attacked the Jews of Majorca and
the Christians who sheltered them in 1391. At least 300 Jews were murdered.
Juan granted the amnesty
“because they had done it for the welfare of king and
state; and he further declared all debts of the Christians to the Jews to be
null and void.”
1480: In
Spain, a second royal decree was issued directing the Mayor and other officials
of Seville to assist the inquisitors in their work since they had shown an
inclination to protect the converted Jews with to whom they were drawn either
because of reasons of kinships or friendship.
1503:
Followers of Zechariah of Kiev were burned in Moscow, on charges of
Judaizing. This term refers to helping non-Jews convert to Judaism.
1504: "Proselytizing" Jews in Moscow and Kiev
were expelled after a few high officials converted to Judaism.
1587:
Coronation of Sigismund III Vasa as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania
under whose reign the rollback of religious granted to non-Catholics, including
the Jews began at the behest of the Jesuits and others involved in the
“counterreformation.”
1657: Three
years after the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam and dealt with the bigotry
of Peter Stuyvesant, a group Englishman living in the Dutch colony submitted a
petition to the Governor-General requesting the lifting of the ban on Quaker
worship. Known as the Flushing
Remonstrance, they were greeted with even greater hostility by “Peg-leg Pete”
than he had shown to the Jews.
1747: In
London, Sarah Nunes Navaro and Aaron Nunez Cardozo gave birth to Judith Nunez
Cardozo
1753(2nd
of Tevet, 5514): Seventh Day of Chanukah
1760:
Rebecca Mears and New York native Jacob Isaacks gave birth to Samson H.
Isaacks.
1764(14th
of Tevet, 5525): Wealthy shop keeper and merchant Aaron Louzada, the son of
Jacob Louzada and the husband of Blume Michaels passed away today in Bound Brook,
NJ.
1769(28th
of Kislev, 5530): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1771: In
Curacao, Leah Cohen Peixotto y Campos Perera and Samuel Levy Maduro Peixotto
gave birth to Grace Peixotto.
1772(1st
of Tevet, 5533): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1775:
Merchant Aron Hart, one of the earliest leaders the Canadian Jewish community
wrote to Colonel Livingston expressing best wishes for his safety and health
while reviewing the money owed by the military to him for delivery of goods to
the military including £121.14.10 for the Colonel’s regiment.
1777(27th
of Kislev, 5538): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of Chanukah.
1777:
Despite the promise of French aid that was supposed to come to the Continentals
after the victory at Saratoga in October, prospects of the American Revolution
are not bright as the Jews prepare to kindle the Fourth Chanukah candle.
1779:
Birthdate of Samson Mears Isaacs, the New York born son of Jacob Isaacs who
would die before he reached the first month of life.
1786:
Esther Levy married Isaac Simons today in Easton.
1780(30th
of Kislev, 5541): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1780: As
Jews prepare to light the Seventh Chanukah Candle, the British strategy to
shift fighting to the southern colonies the Americans raid Hammond’s Store on
Williamson’s Plantation in South Carolina.
1783(2nd
of Tevet, 5544): Parashat Miketz and the Eight Day of Chanukah observed two
days after “General George Washington resigned his commission as
commander-in-chief of the Continental Army” and began the trip back to his home
in Mt. Vernon
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-05-02-0157
https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17831227aa
1788(28th
of Kislev, 5549): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1786: In
Easton, PA, Esther Levy married Isaac Simons.
1790: In
Curacao, Rachel Sasportas and Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto gave birth to Leah
Peixotto, the wife of Moses Jessurun
1791(1st
of Tevet, 5552): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1792(12th
of Tevet, 5553): After passing away today, six and a half year old “Reizcha bat
Jacob ben Zvi” was buried at the “Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1793(24th
of Tevet, 5554): Sixteen-year-old Moses ben Elijah Gubitz passed away today
after which he was buried after which he was buried at the Globe Road Jewish
Cemetery.
1796(27th
of Kislev, 5557): Third Day of Chanukah
1796: “The
government deprived” Rabbi Wolf Boskovitz “of his office today and ordered the
community to elect” a replacement but said the replacement could not be Rabbi
Moses Munz.
1797: Joel
Benjamin married Rachel Levy at the Great Synagogue today.
1797: In
New York, 34-year-old Richa (Rachel) Hendricks, the daughter of Uriah
Hendricks, married Abraham Gomez.
1798: In
Lorraine, France, of Jonas Alexandre Aron and Sara Zerlé Simon Aron gave birth
to Esther Cahn the wife of Elie ben Abraham Lazard and Moïse Cahn
1799(29th
of Kislev, 5560): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1799: As
Jews prepared to light the Sixth Chanukah candle, citizens of the United States
observed “a Day of Public Mourning for the Universally Lamented, General
Washington, the late President of the United States.
1801: In
London, Zipporah Isaacs and Hyman Cohen gave birth to Henry Hyman Cohen
1805: David
Cromelien and Adeline (or Amelia) Cromelien gave birth to Moses (Monroe)
Cromelien, the husband of Phoebe Cromelien and the father of Pauline Cromelien;
Chapman Cromelien; Hester Cromelien and Charles Cromelien
1807(26th
of Kislev, 5568): Second Day of Chanukah
1810(30th
of Kislev, 5571): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1810:
Birthdate of Levi Herzfeld the native of Ellrich who became a leading German
rabbi and historian who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1836.
1812(24th of Tevet, 5573): Shneur Zalman of Liadi
founder of Chabad Hasidism passed away (date based on adjusted secular
calendar). Born in 1745, Shneur Zalman
of Liadi was a descendant of the mystic and philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew (known
as the "Maharal of Prague"). He was a prominent disciple of Rabbi
Dovber of Mezeritch, the "Great Maggid" who was in turn a major
disciple of the founder of Hasidism Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer known as the Baal
Shem Tov ("Master [of the] Good Name"). After the death of Rabbi
Dovber of Mezeritch, his students dispersed over Europe. Rabbi Shneur Zalman
became the leader of Hasidism in Lithuania and is accepted as one of the great
Hasidic leaders. The movement he founded was moved to the town of Lubavitch in
present-day Belarus by his son and successor Rabbi Dovber Schneersohn. In 1940
the Chabad Lubavitch movement moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York in
the United States with branches all over the world staffed by its own
Lubavitch-trained, and ordained, rabbis with their wives and children. He
involved himself in opposing Napoleon's advance on Russia and supporting the
Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, then under the control of the Ottoman
Empire. Due to false charges from his Misnagdim opponents in Vilna, he was
imprisoned by the Czar on charges of supporting the Ottoman Empire, since he
advocated sending charity to the Ottoman territory of Palestine. The day of his
acquittal and release, the 19th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, is celebrated
as the "Hasidic New Year" by Lubavitch Hasidim, who have a festive
meal and communal pledges to learn the whole of the Talmud known as
"Chalukat Ha'Shas." Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi is well known for
his systematic exposition of Hasidic Jewish philosophy, entitled Likkutei
Amarim, and more popularly known as the Tanya, first published in 1797.
(The fuller and more authoritative version of this work dates from 1814) Due to
the popularity of this book, Hasidic Jews often refer to Shneur Zalman as the Baal
HaTanya.He is also well known for his work Shulchan Aruch HaRav, his
version of the classic Shulkhan Arukh, an authoritative code of Jewish
law and custom. The work states the decided halakha, as well as the underlying
reasoning. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav is used by Lubavitch Hasidism.
However, citations to this work are sometimes found in non-Lubavitch sources
such as the Mishnah Berurah and the Ben Ish Chai. Rabbi Zalman is one of three
authorities on whom Shlomo Ganzfried based his Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh. Descendants of Rabbi Shneur Zalman
adopted the names Schneersohn or
Schneerson to accommodate
Napoleonic edicts that required all subjects to take permanent surnames. (Prior
to Napoleon's conquests and the winds of Enlightenment he brought in his wake,
Jews only had their traditional names such as Shneur ben (son of) Boruch.) The
last two Rebbes of Chabad Lubavitch, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn
(1880-1950) and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), adhered strictly
to their family surnames.
1815(25th
of Kislev, 5576): First Day of Chanukah
1815:
Divinah Cohen and Isaac Cohen, who were married in 1803 gave birth to Emily
Minis.
1818:
Don Judah Benoliel, the president of the Jewish community on Gibraltar and the
consul for Morocco and Austria and son of Judith and Solomon Benoliel and his
wife Esther Ben-Oliel gave birth to Gibraltar native Moses Benoliel.
1819:
Karoline and Maier Mendel Einhorn gave birth to Sigmund Max Einhorn whose wife
was also named Karoline with whom he had four children – Pauline, Fanni, Rosa
and Max.
1820(22nd
of Tevet, 5581): Abraham ben Gedaliah Tiktin, the native of Posen who “became
chief rabbi at Breslau”: passed away today.
1828(21st
of Tevet,5589): Parashat Shemot
1828(21st
of Tevet, 5589): Meyer Hayman passed away today and would be buried tomorrow at
the Brompton Jewish Cemetery.
1827:
Lewis Phillips married Sarah Jonas today at the Great Synagogue.
1830:
In the U.K., Rachel Mocatta and Lewis Raphael gave birth to Edward Louis
Raphael,
1834(25th
of Kislev, 5595): Parashat Vayeshev; First Day of Chanukah
1834:
Fifty-nine year old English author and poet Charles Lamb who used anti-Semitic
tropes in his attacks on tenor John Braham while mocking him for having married
a gentile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Braham_(tenor)
1837(29
of Kislev, 5598): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1838(10th
of Tevet, 5599) Asara B’Tevet observed on the same day that the rebellion known
as “the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt exploded with slaves setting fire to the
Kensington Estate “in the hills above Montego Bay.
1842:
Birthdate of Dr. Sigmund Mayer, the native of Bechtheim in Rhenish Hesse who
became a physiologist and histologist who is the Mayer in “Traube-Herring-Mayer
“a phenomenon that deals with rhythmic variations in
arterial blood pressure.”
1843: Montague Hyam married Rachel Nathaniel Levy today
at the Great Synagogue.
1845(28th of Kislev, 5606): Shabbat shel
Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1846:
In Whitechapel, London, Phoebe Levy and Aaron Samuel gave birth to Lawrence
Samuel.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/04/16/100150402.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1848:
In Charleston, SC, Jacob Ottolengui married Eliza Emma Jacobs, the daughter of
Colonel Jacobs.
1851:
Birthdate of Max Judd, the Polish native, who founded the St. Louis Chess Club
and served as U.S. Counsul to Austria during the 2nd administration
of President Grover Cleveland.
1853(26th
of Kislev, 5614): Second Day of Chanukah
1853:
One day he had passed away, Joseph Phillips, the son of Lyon and Elizabeth
Phillips and the husband of Sarah Elizabeth Phillips with whom he had had one
son – Lewis – was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1854:
“Coming Events” published today reported on the prominent role that Benjamin
Disraeli will be playing in the upcoming session of Parliament as the lead of
“the loyal opposition.” Among other
things, he is expected to join with Lord Derby in support Parliamentary reform
along the lines of the Chartist Movement.
This will set him on a collision course with Lord John Russell who talks
more about reform than he delivers.
“Disraeli will probably propose that every householder shall have the
elective franchise and that representation shall be based upon population. If he he goes to this extent Russell will be
‘nowhere’ in the race and Disraeli will become champion of popular
rights.” [Did Disraeli’s Jewish roots
explain the fact that a leader of the Conservative Party was a leading
proponent for this most liberal reform?
Is there a connection between social justice and Judaism that a trip to
the baptismal font cannot wash away?]
1855:
“Do You Eat Pork?” published today reported that “physicians have just
discovered that the tape worm only troubles those who eat pork” According to The
Gazette Medicale “ the Hebrews are
never troubled with it” while pork butchers are “peculiarly liable to it and
dogs that are fed Pork “are universally so afflicted.”
1857(10th
of Tevet, 5618): Asara B’Tevet observed for the first time during the
Presidency of James Buchanan.
1859(1st
of Tevet, 5620): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1861(24th
of Tevet, 5622): Sixty-five-year-old Jacob Eiechenbaum, the native of Galicia
who became “one of the pioneers of modern education among the Russian Jews”
passed away in Kiev.
1861:
Rabbi Abraham Fischel wrote a letter to Henry I. Hart describing the conditions
of the troops encamped around Washington, DC which he has visited while waiting
to hear from Congressional leaders about his efforts to get the law changed so
that Jews can serve as Chaplains in the Union Army.
http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/af122761.html
1862(5th
of Tevet, 5623): Sixty-five-year-old Michel Goudchaux the French banker who
served as Minister of Finance during the Second Republic who was a fierce
opponent of Louis Napoleon and his imperialism passed away today.
1863: Five
days after she had passed away, 62 year old Jane Jones, the wife of Alexander
Jones with whom she had had five children was buried today at the “Lauriston
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1863: In
Holland, Abraham de Pinto was appointed “Landsadvocaat” (Land’s Advocate)
today.
1864(28th
of Kislev, 5625): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1864:
Birthdate of Boston native Max H. Aronson, the husband of Rebecca Kantorowicz
Aronson with whom he had ten children.
1865(9th
of Tevet, 5626): Sixty-five-year-old Samson Samson Genese, the sone of Esther
Abraham Bernal and Samson Isaac Genese who was the husband of Hannah Isaac
Simons whom he married at Bevis Marks in 1851 and with whom he had six children
passed away today.
1865:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native Sara Teresea Ameringen, the wife of Moses Alvares
Vega and the mother of Abraham Moses Alvares Vega.
1868:
Rumanian Jews were excluded from the medical profession.
1868(13th
of Tevet, 5629): Thirty-four-year-old Dr. Louis Man Emanuel who had earned an
M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1860 and served as surgeon with the
Union Army from 1861 to 1864 seeing action at numerous battles including
Fredericksburg and Gettysburg died today in Linwood, Pennsylvania from “an
attack of diabetes mellitus brought on by exposure” while serving his country.
1868: In
Plock, Anna and Ludwick Flatau gave birth to Polish neurologist and
psychiatrist Edward Flatau.
1869: Carl
Theodor Liebermann and Antonie (Toni) Amalia Liebermann gave birth to their
daughter Else who became Else Preuß when she married Dr. Hugo Preuß (Editor’s
note: ß is a letter in the German alphabet for which there is no equivalent in
the alphabet of the English language, although the proper pronunciation
approximates the letter “s”)
1869: Forty-three-year-old
Isabella Seixas, the New York born daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro
Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto and her husband of Benjamin Hayman
Seixas gave birth to Frederic Benjamin Seixas.
1869: In
Cincinnati, OH, “Herman S. and Jennie (Wolf) Mack gave birth to Harvard
trained, attorney Edwin S. Mack, the member of the Wisconsin bar and faculty
member of the University of Wisconsin Law School faculty and husband of the
former Della Adler with whom he had three daughters – Theresa, Elizabeth and
Jean."
1870: “The
Jews In Rome” published today provides “an interesting summary of the peculiar
legal status of the Jews” living in the Italian capital courtesy of the
Florence correspondent of the London Daily News who reported that “the 4,800
Jews huddled together in the Ghetto were until a very few years ago forcibly
penned up there, the huge iron gates being closed at nightfall and neither
ingress nor egress permitted by the guards until the following morning.”
1871: Rabbi
J.J. Lyons officiated at the wedding of Nathan S. Hart and Ada F. Samuel, the
daughter of Morris L. Samuel
1871:
Birthdate of Russian native Edward Cohen who settled in Cambridge, MA where her
was member of the committee working on revising the City Charter and an officer
of the Zionist Organization of America.
1872: In
Giessen, Germany, Dora and Mayer Livingston gave birth to Sigmund G.
Livingston, the Illinois lawyer who “was the founder and first president of the
Anti-Defamation League.
1874: It
was reported today that Rabbi Moses Dimant who had been jailed for failing to
provide the four dollars in court ordered support for his wife Liebe was
released today on a writ of habeas corpus.
The writ was obtained by the wife who said she no desire to see her
husband in jail.
1874(19th
of Tevet, 5635): Asher Jacob Covo, Chief Rabbi of Salonica who was born in
1797, passed away.
1875(29th
of Kislev, 5636): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1875:
Birthdate of Kovno native and successful Chelsea, MA coal merchant Barney
Portnoy, the husband of Ida Portnoy with whom he had two daughters.
1878(1st
of Tevet, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1879: In
New York City, as part of Hospital Saturday, Jewish congregations collected
pledges estimated to total more than $20,000.
In years gone by, this money would have gone exclusively to Mt. Sinai
Hospital. This year the money will go to
a city-wide fundraising effort for all participating hospitals. The total raised yesterday does not count
contributions by individual Jewish donors or donations made by businesses owned
by Jews.
1880:
Birthdate of Emil Kiesler, the father of Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler who gained
fame as film star Heddy Lamar.
1880: It
was reported today that Lawrence Oliphant’s new book, The Land of Gilead,
includes a plan for “colonizing on of the rich and unoccupied districts in
Turkey with Jews, to whom the Ottoman authorities can have no possible
objection on political grounds.”
1881(5th
of Tevet, 5642): The Warsaw Pogrom which had begun on Christmas Day in an area nearer
the Holy Cross Church came to an end today leaving in its wake damaged shops,
homes, and two dead Jews as well as another 24 injured Jews.
1882: It
was reported today that “Grand Master Julius Harburger” has delivered $606 to
the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society which was collected by the lodges of the
Independent Order of the Sons of Israel. This brings the total collected for
aid to the Jewish refugees from Russia to $3, 836.15
1882:
Birthdate of Jacob B. “Jack” Findling, the former resident of New York City and
Chicago who settled in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1908 where he became President
of the Boston Store, founder and President of “the Salt Lake Jewish Community
Center Association” and President of “District No. 4 of B’nai B’rith.”
https://www.jta.org/1933/04/19/archive/jewish-leader-in-west-found-dead-in-his-auto
1883(28th
of Kislev,5644): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1883(28th
of Kislev, 5644): Eighty-one-year-old Moravia native Hirsch Bar Fassel who gave
up a career in business for the rabbinate, eventually leading the congregation
at Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary while contributing to various Jewish publications in
the Orient passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6032-fassel-hirsch-bar
1883: In Russia,
Paul Geller and David Bookstaver, gave birth to CCNY alum and insurance agent
with New York Life and Traveler’s Joseph D. Bookstaver, the husband of Nettie
Beofsky and The Treasurer of the Jewish Probation Society who was “active Jewish
communal and national affairs.’
1883: In
Russia, Jacob and Anna Lasky Grosberg gave birth to Joseph E. Grosberg, the
business partner of Lewis Golub with whom he created Central Markets, one of
the first supermarket chains who was the husband of Rachel (Rae) Kadisky
Greenberg with whom he “had three daughters: Mildred Grosberg Bellin, a food
writer best known for her influential works Modern Jewish Meals and The Jewish
Cookbook; Rosalind Cohen; and Marian Champagne, an attorney and author” and who
was “one of the founders of the YMHA in Schenectady” and chairman of the UJA.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/27/archives/joseph-grosberg.html?searchResultPosition=1
1884(9th
of Tevet, 5645): Parashat Vayigash
1884:
Birthdate of Ukraine native Benjamin Rosenberg who gained fame as the American
modern painter Ben Benn.
https://rogallery.com/Benn_ben/Benn-bio.htm
1884(9th
of Tevet, 5645): Forty-one-year-old Mortiz Wottiz, the son of David and
Karoline Wottitz and husband of Eugene Wartski Wottitz passed away today in
Vienna.
1884: It
was reported today that the Jews living in the western Russian province of
Volhynia are refusing to serve in the army.
1885: It
was reported today that Rabbi S.M. Morais and Rabbi Henry P. Mendes are among
those calling for the establishment of a new seminary in the East to train
rabbis. This is a reflection of the
dissatisfaction with the changes being advocated by the Reform Movement lead by
Rabbi Isaac M. Wise and being taught at Hebrew Union College.
1885: It
was reported today that there 2,064 students attending the schools supported by
the Hebrew Free School Association in New York City.
1886(30th
of Kislev, 5647): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1887: The
Ladies’ Bikur Cholim Society hosted a fundraiser tonight “for the benefit of
the Industrial School for Poor Girls.”
1887: In
South Carolina, Rabi Levy officiated at the marriage of Henry Rashbaum and Emma
(Brown) Baum.
1887: Birthdate of Paris native and Sorbonne trained investment banker Andre
Istel whose role on the international financial stage including negotiating the
Franco-British financial agreement in 1939 and who served as a limited partner
of Kuhn, Loeb and Company while raising two sons and a daughter with his wife,
‘the former Yvonee Cremieux.
1888: In
New York, the City Court Judges heard an appeal by representatives of the
Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and Orphan
Asylum ask that they overturn their decision to allow only the Police Justices
to hear applications for the commitment of children to charitable institutions.
1888: In
Tokyo, 42-year Dr. of Jurisprudence Albert Mosse and his wife Caroline (Lina)
Mosse old gave birth to Hans Mosse
1888: A
piano solo and a presentation by Elliot F. Shepard were part of the
entertainment at this evening’s program presented by the Young Men’s
Association of Temple Beth-El.
1889(4th
of Tevet, 5650): Seventy-eight-year-old German portrait artist and painter
Eduard Julius Friedrich Bendemann passed away today in Dusseldorf.
1889: Rabbi
Kaufmann Kohler of Temple Beth-El is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of
Valentine Koon, a native Stuttgart,
German in 1810, who came to the United States where he found success in the
manufacture of shoes for the army and New York real estate and as an elector in
the national election, voted for Abraham Lincoln while serving as one of the
founders of the New York chapter of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith.
1890:
Birthdate of Hungarian Communist Tibor Szamuely who would help form the short
lived Hungarian Soviet Republic formed by Bela Kun in 1919.
1890: In
New York City, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment presented the budget for
1891 which included an allocation of $60,000 for the Hebrew Benevolent Society
and $70,000 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1891(26th
of Kislev, 5652): Second day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle three candles
1891: The
Hebrew Free School Association of Brooklyn held its fourth annual examinations
at Weber’s Washington where the students were tested “and showed great
proficiency in translating Hebrew into English” as well as demonstrating “an
accurate knowledge of Jewish History. Following the distribution of prizes and
recitations by the students, three candles were lit as part of the celebration
of Chanukah.
1891: Based
on information that first appeared in the Pall
Mall Gazette it was reported today that “Notes of a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
and the Holy Land” in which F.R. Oliphant describes his visit to Palestine has
recently been published in Great Britain.
Oliphant recorded the final years of Laurence Oliphant which included a
variety of anecdotes involving Germans, Druses and Romanian Jews whom the older
Oliphant had rescued from economic distress when he found living on the streets
of Haifa.
1891: In
Tupelo, MS, Moses Plough and his wife gave birth Abe Plough the Chairman
Schering-Plough.
https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1064
1891: It
was reported today that “Galician newspapers are filled with articles
advocating the renewed enforcement of repressive measures against the Jews of
Russia and Poland”
1891: It
was reported today that the arrest of large numbers of Jews in and around
Russia has been done in complete secrecy “with people suddenly disappearing.”
1892: Plans
were published today for the upcoming dedication of the new Hebrew Orphan
Asylum in Brooklyn.
1893: The American Jewish
Historical Society opens its second annual meeting at the Columbia College
Library Building in New York City.
1893: Birthdate of
Leopold Pick, the resident of Vienna who was shipped to Terezin and then to
Auschwitz where he was murdered at the age of 50.
1894: In Cincinnati,
Ohio, Emil Pollak and Carrie (Caroline) (Carolyn) Pollak (born Benjamin) gave
birth to Julian Albert Pollack who served on the City Council and was an
executive with the Community Chest.
1894: The third annual
convention of the American Jewish Society which began yesterday came to an end
today, having heard numerous papers including “The Jewish Soldier” presented by
Simon Wolf and having decided to hold next year’s meeting in Philadelphia.
1894: The final budget
figures for 1895 presented today at the meeting of the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment included $80,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, $90,000 for the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and $5,000 for the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children
1894: “Irritation About
Dreyfus” published today described start of a “Jew-baiting campaign” by the
revolutionary and anti-Semitic newspapers.”
“La Parole predicts that the Jews by presuming to consider themselves equals
with Frenchmen and competing with them are preparing the most fearful disaster
that ever marked the tragic history of the race.” (The first steps on the road
to Drancy?)
1895: “The Brooklyn
Hebrew Aid Society has officially been incorporated.”
1895: “Raphael Tuck
& Sons “a business started by Raphael Tuck and his wife in Bishopsgate in
the City of London in October 1866,selling pictures and greeting cards, and
eventually selling postcards, which was their most successful line” was
incorporated as a limited company, with a registered office at 72 Coleman
Street, London, E.C., “in the same year, that the company opened a new branch in New York and during
which Raphael's wife Ernestine died…”
1895: Birthdate of
Siegfried Aron, the native of Hamburg, Germany who gained fame as actor
Siegfried Arno whose successful career in Germany was cut short by the rise of
the Nazis which forced him to leave and eventually continuing his career in the
United States starting in 1939.
1895: At least 23
people died today in Baltimore when a fire broke out at the Front Street
Theatre where a 2,500 people most of whom were Jewish had gathered to see the
“Jewish opera, Alexander.”
1896:
Birthdate of German writer and playwright Carl Zuckmayer who did not think of
himself as being Jewish until the rise of Hitler. His mother was the
daughter of a Protestant church councilor who had converted from Judaism.
This made him Jewish in the eyes of the Nazis and no doubt accounted for his
fleeing to the United States where he spent World War II.
1896: The San Francisco
Call reported that word has been received regarding the engagement of New York
State Senator and prominent New York attorney Jacob A. Cantor to Loie Fuller
“the famous and fascinating danseuse and artist in feminine draperies.”
1897(2nd of
Tevet, 5658): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1897: It was reported
today that “fully one-third of the delegates” attending the Hebrew Socialists
Convention at Liberty Hall “were females.
1897: Birthdate of
Haverhill, MA, native William Cantor the Harvard alum who graduated in three
and half years while serving on the University Dining Council and being a
member of the “Menorah Society Zionist Club” who went to become an “insurance
executive” and “officer in B’nai B’rith.”
1898: In Stolin, Russia,
“Samuel and Eva (Goberman) Sandweiss gave birth to University of Michigan
trained physician David Jacob Sandweiss, “the chief section gastroenterology
and attending physician division of internal medicine at Detroit’s Sinai Hospital
and a member of the Board of Directors the Hebrew Benevolent Society who raised
four children – Samuel, Flora, Donald and Sandra – with his wife Sandra Gail.
1898: Birthdate of Russian
born David Jacob Sandweiss, who came to the U.S. in 1909, earned a Medical
Degree from the University of Michigan, practiced in Detroit where he raised
his son Samuel with his wife Frieda.
1899: In New York, Moses
Shindeling, the Lithuanian born son of Isiah J. Schoneling and Rachel
Schoneling and his wife Dora Dora Shindeling gave birth to Julian Mark
Shindeling.
1899(25th of
Tevet, 5660): Moses Levi Ehrenreich, the native of Brody who became the chief
rabbi of Rome whose “chief literary work consisted of the part he took the
translation of the Bible into Italian under the direction of Luzzatto, for
which he translated Hosea, Micah, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah” passed away
today.
1900: It was reported
today that “the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York has issued an
appeal funds” which it hopes will the $350,000 need to feed, clothe and educate
the 950 children that are living at the institution “located on the block
bounded by 11th Avenue, Grand Boulevard, 150th and 151st
Streets” which is led by Samuel D. Levy, the President of the Board of
Management.
1901: The Zionist Congress
which opened yesterday in Basel with a speech by Dr. Theodore Herzl of Vienna
which was heard by the 1,000 delegates continued for a second day with a speech
by Max Nordau.
1901: In Syracuse, NY,
Fannie Shubert Weissager and her first husband businessman Isaac Isaacs give
birth to Morris Isaacs who gained fame as Milton Isaacs Shubert.
1902(27th of
Kislev, 5663): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of Chanukah
1902: In Bucharest, “at
today’s session of the Senate during a discussion of the question of the
naturalization of the Jews, the Minister of the Public Instruction referred “to
the calumnies against Roumania so widely disseminated’ in connection with the
Jewish question” which was an obvious reference to the note written by
Secretary of State John Hay “to the signatories of the Treaty of Berlin” in
which he addressed the pitiful conditions of the 400,000 Jews living in
Rumania.
1903: In the United
Kingdom, Samuel B. Hamburger the Latvian born son of Joseph and Kiva Hamburger,
and his wife Annie H. Hambruger gave birth to Sarah Sallie Hambruger, who
became Sarah Sallie Knott when she married John F. Knott and later became the
other of Joseph Knott.”
1904: Charles Frohman produced “Peter Pan or the Boy
Wouldn’t Grow Up” which debuted today at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.
1905(29th of Kislev, 5666): Fifth Day of
Chanukah
1905: It was reported today that the Russian government
claims “that the leaders of the revolutionary at Moscow are mostly students
from Kiev, Kharkoff and Odessa, among whom are many Jews.
1906(10th of Tevet, 5667):
Asara B’Tevet
1906: In Pittsburgh, PA, Max and
Annie Radin Levant gave birth to composer and pianist Oscar Levant.
http://www.touchoftonga.com/DavidMulliss/oscar-levant.html
1906: In
Paris, “Julia Berg, a German Jew” and “American painter Lyonel Feininger gave
birth to photographer Andreas Bernhard Lyonel Feininger who was fortunate
enough to get out of Europe before WW II and augmented his life as a free-lacer
by working with Life, the premiere photo magazine of its day
https://www.biography.com/people/andreas-feininger-39329
1906: In
Brooklyn, Edward and Martha Esther Cahn gave birth to Alma Bionion Cahn, who
gained fame as Alma Binion Schapiro, the painter, the wife of investment banker
and chess master Morris A. Schapiro and the mother of Daniel and Linda
Schapiro.
1907: Emperor
Menelik of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) granted letters of protection to Rabbi Haim
Nahoum and his team who were sent by the Alliance Israelite Universelle to
study the condition of the Falashim (Ethiopian Jews).
1908: Twenty-six-year-old
Galicia native Samuel Schimmel the founder of Schimmel Electrical Supply in
Philadelphia, PA married Anne Feigenbaum with whom he had “five children –
Herbert, Ruth, Leonard, Bernard and Nathaniel.”
1908: Dr.
Herbert Friedenwald, Secretary of the American Jewish Committee said today that
the Russian newspapers he had just
received showed that Czarist state had resumed the persecution of its Jewish
citizens.
1908: Based
on a letter whose contents were made public today in London, Israel Zangwill
has denied reports coming from the United States that he is planning on turning
his play “The Melting Pot” into a novel which would be dedicated to President
Theodore Roosevelt.
1909
Birthdate of Benjamin Morris Jebaltowsky the middleweight who fought under the
name Ben Jeby
1910(26th
of Kislev, 5671): Second Day of Chanukah observed on the same day the Great
Northern Bank, a large financial institution was closed due to the financial shenanigans
of its chairman.
1912(17th
of Tevet, 5673):,Fifty –five year old Russian-born Berry Dantzig, the husband
of Anna Kasor Dantzig passed away today passed away in Kansas City, MO after
which he was buried in the Sheffield Cemetery. (Another source shows December
12)
1912(17th
of Tevet, 5673): In Berlin, Judicial Councilor Erich Lello passed away today.
1913(28th
of Kislev, 5674): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1913(28th
of Kislev, 5674): Seventy-one-year-old Bertha Spiegelberg, the native of
Borgholz, Germany and wife of Levi Spiegelberg passed away today in New York
City.
1913: The Sisterhood of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue
will hold its annual Chanukah celebration at the Astor Hotel.
1914(10th of Tevet, 5675): Asara B’Tevet
1914: Eugene V. Debs, the former Socialist candidate for
President of the United States wrote from Terre Haute, Indiana, that “I have
followed the Leon Frank case in the press on account of its extraordinary
nature, and the conviction was forced upon me so long ago that Frank’s trial
was a farce and that the prejudice against him on account of this races was so
intense that, however innocent he might be, he had not a ghost of a chance for
his life.”
1914: In Brooklyn Cecile Klevinsky married Samuel Nathan
today.
1914: Today, the Executive Committee of the American
Jewish Relief Committee appropriated $100,000 “for the relief of Jews of
Russia, Poland and Galicia” which is “in addition to $75,000 appropriated for
the same purpose at a prior meeting” and the $50,000 “sent to the Jewish
Colonization Association at Petrograd.”
1914: In Rochester, NY, “the usual Sunday morning
services of Berith Kodesh Temple were incorporated into the activities of the
Jewish Chautauqua Convention which was addressed by Dr. William Rosenqau of
Baltimore, MD, the organization Vice Chancellor.
1914: “Zabara” published today provides a review Sepher
Shaashchim by Joseph ben Meir Ibn Zabara translated by Professor Israel
Davidson.
1914: It was reported today that the USS Tennessee and
her sister ship the USS North Carolina which had taken gold raised by American
Jews to Jaffa where it was to be sent to aid those in Jerusalem are now
believed to have sailed north to Beirut.
1915: It was reported today that Dr. Christian F. Reisner
delivered a sermon at the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in “which he praised
the Jews for the large contribution they have made to sufferers of their race
in Europe” saying that their “wonderful exhibition of giving” is attributed to
the fact that “the Jew has suffered so much that he sympathy for others that
suffer.”
1915: Ex-Judge Leon
Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society is
scheduled to address a meeting sponsored by the Society in the auditorium of
the Bank of the United States at a list of “Jewish war sufferers who anxious to
communicate with their relatives and friends in the United States” will be read
for the first time.
1915: “The Foreign
Relations Bureau of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society opened
tonight in the building of the Bank of the United States at 77 Delancy Street”
in NYC.
1915: It was reported
today that “efforts to care for the Jews in the neighborhood of Constantinople
were being made through Ambassador Morgenthau to whom $5,000 is being sent
every three months for distribution.”
1915: the American Jewish
Relief Committee for the Jews suffering from the war planned to have raised
another million dollars by today.
1915: “Cash contributions
to the $5,000,000 fund to be raised by the American Jewish Relief Committee for
the Jews suffering from the war continued to pour into the offices of the
Treasurer, Felix M. Warburg at 52 William Street.
1915: At the afternoon
meeting of the National Association of Young Judea, it was decided to continue
with the establishment of Young Judea Center “in which member can participate
in literary work and other activities.”
1915: In St. Louis, MO,
the national meeting of the Jewish Chautauqua Society continued for a fourth
day.
1916(2nd of Tevet,
5677): 8th & final day of Chanukah
1916: The
26th Annual Assembly of the 5,000 member Jewish Chautauqua Society
whose officers include Jeanette Miriam Goldberg of Jefferson, TX is scheduled
to come to an end today in New Orleans.
1916: It
was reported today that The Daily Jewish
Wahreit will begin printing the story of Sergius Michallow Trufanoof better
known as “Illiodor, the Mad Monk of Russia” which were not published in “a
recent issue of the Metropolitan
Magazine.
1916: In
New York City, the packing companies which slaughter cattle in accord with the
laws of Kashrut met with representatives of the Federation of Retail Kosher
Butchers and agreed to sell them kosher meat for 15 cents a pound. Last week, they had been charging 18 cents a
pound which led to a boycott by the kosher butchers. The packing companies
further promised that before they raised prices again, they would meet with the
butchers and explain the reason for the increase.
1917:
During WW I, the first British train arrived in Jerusalem after the Ottomans
left.
1917:
Colonel Ronald Storrs, the newly appointed British Military Governor of
Jerusalem, viewed the distant mountains of Moab in the glow of the sunset. For the first time since the Crusades, 600
hundred years ago, a Christian power controls Jerusalem. From the Jewish point of view, the Christian
power was Great Britain which, under the terms of the Balfour Declaration, was
committed to the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine.
1917: The
Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs announced today
that “the Turkish army that surrendered Jerusalem to General Allenby executed
thirty Jewish men and women of that city” including “the father and a sister of
Aaron Aaronsohn, head of the Palestine Agricultural Experiment Station which is
subsidized by the American Agricultural Department.
1917: At a
meeting of naturalized American of Rumanian birth held tonight at Cooper Union
several speakers including John Trowbridge, Chairman of the Rumanian Red Cross
in America “said that Rumanian Jews could be assured that the United States
would see to it that they would obtain freedom after the war”
1917: Three
days after he had passed away, 45-year-old Solomon Vitofsky, the husband of
Vella Vitofsky with whom he had had four children was buried today at the “West
Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1917: More
than $2,500 dollars was contributed by Rumanian Jews living in the United
States for the Jewish Relief Fund.
1917:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Herbert (Lefty) Karpel, the southpaw who pitched
in two games with the New York Yankees.
1917(12th
of Tevet, 5678): Seventy-one-year-old antiquarian Joel Koopman passed away
today in Brookline, MA.
1918:
Dispatches from Warsaw today report that Ukrainian General Symon Petliura “has
promised protection to the Jews from pogroms” – a promise he was either
unwilling or unable to keep as can be seen from the death of approximately Jews
during Pogroms in the Ukraine.
1918: Harry
James Lehman, the Bradford PA born son of Marian Greentree and Maurice Lehman
and President of the Wildroot Company and a member of the governors of the
Jewish Hospital Association in Buffalo, NY married Mildred Pickard today.
1919(5th of Tevet, 5680): Sir Charles Solomon
Henry passed away. Born in 1860, he “was an Australian merchant and businessman
who lived mostly in Britain and sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) in
the House of Commons from 1906-1918.”
1920: “The 29th annual assembly of the Jewish
Chautauqua Society” is scheduled to meet for a second day today in Cleveland.
1920: In the Bavarian village of Leutershausen, Nathan
Jochsberger, “a cattle dealer…and the former Sofie Enslein” gave birth to Hilda
Jocbsberger the musically talented refugee from Nazi Germany who founded New
York’s Hebrew Arts School for Music and Dance.( As reported by Richard
Sandomir)
1921(26th of Kislev, 5682): Second Day of Chanukah
1921: Birthdate of Judith Hannah Saretsky who gained fame as
“Judith S. Wallerstein, a psychologist who touched off a national debate about
the consequences of divorce by reporting that it hurt children more than
previously thought, with the pain continuing well into adulthood…” (As reported
by Denise Grady)
1921: In
Atlanta, GA, Alan and Edith Gavronski Lipshutz, gave birth to Robert J.
Lipshutz, the White House Counsel for President Jimmy Carter “who played an
important behind-the-scenes role in negotiations leading to the Camp David
peace accords.”
1922: It
was reported today that “a crowd of students at Galatz on the Danube” had
attacked a group of young Jews returning from a meeting in the Maccabee Club”
and that a mob later went into to the commercial district and looted several
shops owned by Jews.
1923:
Arthur Hays and Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger gave birth to their third child,
Judith Peixotto Sulzberger, who gained fame as “Dr. Judith P. Sulzberger, a
physician whose philanthropy led to the creation of a center for genome studies
in her name at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.” (As
reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1924(30th
of Kislev, 5685): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1924: Myer
L. Brown addressed the opening of the 15th annual convention of the
Jewish Socialist Labor Party of America being held at the Town Hall in New
York.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/12/29/75705909.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1925:
Birthdate of Moshe Arens, the native Kaunas who made Aliyah in 1939 and whose
career has included service as Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Ambassador to the US.
1926: Latkin Square in the Bronx was named for the first US Jewish
soldier to die in WWI
1927: At the behest of Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich
Bronstein, is expelled from the Communist Party.
1927: Today, “The New York Board of Jewish Ministers, representing more
than 100 congregations adopted a report of its executive committee asserting
that conditions in the Kings County Hospital where ‘anti-Jewish prejudice and
intolerance’ was to have prevailed have prevailed, ‘materially prevailed’.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/01/06/118335128.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1927: Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat" premiered
at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City.
If you need more of a Jewish connection than Kern and Hammerstein, this
Broadway hit was based on the novel of the same name written by Edna Ferber.
When Edna Ferber published Show
Boat in 1926, she was already an established writer, with eleven
books, two stage plays, and a Pulitzer Prize (for So Big, 1925) to her credit. But when the musical adaptation
of the novel opened on Broadway with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music
by Jerome Kern, it was unlike any earlier production. Combining music and dance
with fully formed characters and serious themes, “Show Boat” departed
from both operetta and the musical comedy revue, establishing a new style of
American musical. Ferber's work in Show Boat and in later novels grew
from a keen eye and a gift for observation of the world around her. Raised in
often precarious economic circumstances in small towns in Iowa and Wisconsin,
Ferber always identified with the lives of ordinary working people. She
believed that they had "a kind of primary American freshness and
assertiveness." She tried to communicate those qualities and do justice to
the lives of working folks in all of her writing. Ferber's work also drew on
the oppression she felt she had experienced as both a woman and a Jew.
Subjected to anti-Semitism as a child, she felt she had gained strength from
facing her tormentors. Similarly, she believed that women's experience of
social limitations led them to develop special strengths. Many of her early
works featured strong women overcoming social obstacles to professional
success. Show Boat, which tackled the theme of interracial marriage,
also addressed the issue of social constraints. After its successful Broadway
debut, “Show Boat” ran for 572 performances, and was later made into a
film twice. Revival performances continue to entertain audiences across the
country.
1928: In Tel Aviv, “a seamstress and a carpenter” gave birth Israel political
leader and winner of the 200 Israel Prize Shulamit Aloni and husband of Reuven
Aloni who went from being a schoolteacher to being the founder of the Ratz Pary
and a leader of the Meretz Party.
1928: It was announced today that Harris L. Selig, the executive director
of the Yeshiva College Building fund who has raised “more than three million
dollars” the school “has resigned from the building campaign committee” and
will be leaving “for a trip to Europe and Palestine in January
1929(25th of Kislev, 5690): Jews observe Chanukah, in what
will be the first winter of the Great Depression.
1929: “Their Own Desire” a movie version of the novel starring Norma
Shearer who was nominated for a best actress Oscar was released today in the
United States.
1930: In Philadelphia, “Harold M. Saunders, an architect and the former
Marian Weihenmayer, a jewelry designer, gave birth Harold Henry Saunders, the
American diplomat who worked with Henry Kissinger to gain interim agreements
after the Yom Kippur War and “was credit as one of the Camp David accords.”
1930(7th of Tevet, 5691): Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, son of
German born Anglo-Jewish chemist Ludwig Mund and Frieda, née Löwenthal Mund
passed away.
1930: “The Right to Love” a movie version of the novel starring Paul
Lukas and featuring Irving Pichel was released today in the United States.
1931: “In Bible Lands Before the Macedonian Conquest” published today
provided a complete review of History of Palestine and Syria by A.T.
Olmstead.
1932(28th of Kislev, 5693): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1932(28th of Kislev, 5693): Fifty-nine-year-old
Arthur S. Bandler, the Austrian born son of Bernard and Pauline Bandler, the
husband of Edna Bandler and the President of Leslie-Mott, Inc. passed away
today.
1932: Civil War veteran Charles De
Young, who should not be confused with the famous newspaper publisher, passed away
today in Philadelphia.
1932: Radio City Music Hall opened in
New York City. This American cultural landmark was a project produced by three
people – multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and two Jews, Samuel Roxy
Rothafel, who previously opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927 and RCA chairman David
Sarnoff.
1933: It was reported today that “the
American Economic Committee for Palestine has received 1,379 inquiries from
potential settlers in Palestine since its organization in July 1932…”
1934: “Broadway Bill” a comedy: written
by Robert Riskin and based on the short story "Strictly Confidential"
by Mark Hellinger” was released in the United States today.
1934: Starting today “Columbia concentration
camp (also known as Columbia-Haus) a Nazi concentration camp situated in the
Tempelhof area of Berlin…was administrated by the Concentration Camps
Inspectorate.
1935: Birthdate of Rabbi Raymond Apple
who served as the Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Sydney between 1972
and 2005]. In this role, he was one of Australia's highest profile rabbis and
the leading spokesman for Judaism in Australia
1935: Regina Jonas received her semicha
and was ordained by the liberal Rabbi Max Dienemann, who was the head of the
Liberal Rabbis' Association, in Offenbach am Main
1935: Birthdate of Dr. Victor Brailovsky
a native of Moscow, a computer scientist and MK who served as Minister of
Science and Technology. Bailovsky was a refusnik who spent three years in a
Soviet prison because he wanted to make Aliyah.
He finally was allowed to leave for Israel in 1987.
1936: In New York, “Daniel Bonn Salk and Dora Press Salk gave birth to
child psychologist Lee Salk, the husband of Kerstin Salk.
1936: Today, the National Advisory Council of the Jewish National Fund
voted to provide the financial support for a project that will reclaim
swampland in the vicinity of Lake Huleh which “will create an area of 14,000
acres on which 2,500 homesteads may be established” and which be “developed for
agricultural uses for the benefit of Jews and Arabs beginning in 1937.”
1936: Today, “at its annual meeting in the Commodore Hotel, the Greater
New York Council of Jewish Organizations” which represents “about 250 Jewish
communal and fraternal organizations with an aggregate membership” “urged Jews
in the United States to contribute their share of the $5,000,000 fund for
“rebuilding Palestine” which takes on an added urgency because of “the need for
the rehabilitation of distressed Jews in Germany, Poland” and other countries
in Europe.
1936: In Washington, DC, delegates to the convention of Junior Hadassah
“adopted a budget of $75,000 for the Junior Hadassah Palestinian Projects and
for the Jewish National Fund” following which they attended a dinner featured
speaker Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Baltimore said that “the difference between
communism and Zionism is the difference between dictatorship and democracy.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported two British
army casualties: an officer and a private, both of whom fell while searching
for arms in Arab villages in Galilee. Rafael Yavneh, 26, was shot and badly
wounded at km. 16 of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road in the fourth Arab attack on Jewish
transport within a week. The Arab Defense Party met at the house of Bisharra
Debbas, a Christian and the former governor of Acre, and appealed to stop
terror and to consider a new Arab representative body - an Arab Higher Council
- as the alternative to the radical Husseini Arab Higher Committee.
1937: The Haganah decides to establish Field Companies under the
command of Itzhak Sadeh.
1938:
Jewish organizations provided “food and clothing” for “five hundred refugees
from Germany, Austria and Hungary who left Varna for “an undisclosed
destination” today.
1938:
Following a year-long survey that had been conducted by J.X Cohen, using
information from “classified advertising columns of newspapers and confirmed by
an investigation of the leading employment agencies in New York City and of the
personnel records various industries including public utilities,
quasi-government agencies, banks, insurance companies, hotels and department
stores,” “the American Jewish Congress
reported today that the employment of Jews in the United States had increased
since Hitler’s rise to pwer and was now at a record high mark.”
1938(5th of
Tevet, 5699: Poet Osip Mandelstam died in one of the labor camps of Stalin’s
Gulag.
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/698
1939: At Riverdale
Memorial Chapel in New York City, Dr. Elias Solomon officiated at the funeral
of eighty-year-old Jacob Leo Markel, the President of the Merchants Bank of New
York who was described as “a loyal American self-revealing Jew.”
1939:
“Persecution of Jews, a subject that has been taboo since the signing of the
signing of the Soviet-German pact, was rediscovered today by the army organ,
Red Star.”
1940: In a
speech given while was “accepting the Inter-Faith award conferred on him by the
National Conference of Christians and Jews,” Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
denounced “rancor, bigotry, racial animosities and intolerance” saying that
these “deadly enemies of true democracy are more deadly than any external force
because they undermine the very foundation of the democratic effort.
1941(7th
of Tevet, 5702): Parashat Vayigash
1941: At
Shaare Zedek Synagogue, during his sermon on the meeting between President
Roosevelt and Prime Minister Church, Rabbi Elias Simon said, “Like Joseph of
old, they seem to have been chosen to preserve life and liberty for all men and
nations.”
1941:
For
all his professional emphasis on glitz and glamour, Stanley Marcus, one of the
co-founders of Neiman Marcus, made another, very different mark on the American
fashion industry when he was asked to join the War Production Board in
Washington.today.
1941: At
the Montefiore Synagogue, Rabbi Jacob Katz delivered a sermon in which he said,
“Conscious of the privilege bestowed upon us by American citizenship and
courageous as Jews who will yet win their rights, as an historic people, we
find ourselves consecrated to the cause symbolized by Roosevelt and
Churchhill.”
1942(19th
of Tevet, 5703): Sixty-three-year-old Dora Blumenthal, the Dresden born
daughter of Gustav and Amalie Pinthus and the wife of Oskar Michael Blumenthal
died today at Theresiendstadt.
1942: In
Worcester, MA, Frances and Jacob Hiatt, a highly successful businessman and
leader in he Jewish community gave birth Myra Nathalie Hiatt who became Myra
Kraft when she married Robert Kraft best known as the owner of the New England
Patriots who was a powerhouse in her own right as can be seen by the fact that
her philanthropy led to her being chosen as “one of the 20 Most Powerful Women
in Boston.”
1943: Sam “Pivnik was admitted to the prisoner infirmary in
the Quarantine area KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B IIa, Block 9, with suspected
typhus.”
1943: The keel of the SS Meyer London, a “liberty ship” was laid today. The ship was named in honor of Meyer London,
a Jewish political leader and reformer who was one of only two Socialists to be
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ironically, London had voted against the declaration of war that led to
American involvement in World War I.
1944: Dr.
Rudolf Kastner left Switzerland for Budapest but could get only as far as
Vienna because “the Red Army had encircled “the Hungarian capital.
1944(11th
of Tevet, 5705): Seventy-five-year-old Ludwig Behr Bernstein, the husband of
Ethel Bernstein and the father “of Stanley Burnshaw; Evelyn Krohn; Pauline
Oseroff and Marie Nemer” passed away today in Los Angeles, CA
1944: Arrow Cross members came to the shelter run by Sister Sara
Salkahazi's. The Hungarian nun was
active in hiding Jews from the Arrow Cross and the Nazis. Salkahazi and four
Jewish women who did not manage to either hide or flee were taken to the bank
of the Danube, where the Arrow Cross men stripped them, shot them and threw
their bodies into the river. At the site where
Salkahazi and those who shared her fate were executed, not far from the tourist
mecca of Budapest's main market, a modest memorial has been erected. Her name
and memory also grace a tree on the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations
at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. And now, the Catholic Church has also recognized
the importance of her deeds.
1945: The
World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations. Among
Jews associated with the bank were Eugene Meyer, the first president, James
Wolfensohn and Paul Wolfowitz, both of whom served as Presidents between 1995
and 2007 and Stanley Fischer, Lawrence Summers and Joseph E. Stiglitz who
served as Chief Economist from 1988 to 2000.
1945: The
British authorities in Palestine blame the Haganah for bomb blasts and gun
battles in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, including an attack on a Tel Aviv
arms depot.
1945:
“Terrorists struck tonight in the heart of Jerusalem, blowing up the Civil
Investigation Department building in the Russian compound near the main post
office. At least three policemen are dead and six injured.” Other attacks were reported on a police
station in Jaffa and installation of the Royal Engineers Workshops in Tel Aviv.
1945(23rd
of Tevet, 5706): Seventy-six-year-old Philadelphia native Simon Walter, “the
head of the paper firm S. Walter, Inc. and former member of the City Council
passed away today in his home town.
1945: “In
the greatest mass arrests in the history of Palestine more than 1,500 people
were taken into custody tonight” after unidentified people blew up the British
police station in the center of Jerusalem.
1946:
“After refitting in Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, USS Cythera (PK-31), renamed SS
Abril, sailed from New York City for Southern France and Port-de-Bouc., with a
21-man crew, mostly American volunteers, seven of whom were from Brooklyn.”
1947: It
was reported today that the British police in policed had revealed that the
headmaster of the government school in Ramallah had received a warned that the
Irgun would blow up the school.
1947(14th
of Tevet, 5708): A convoy that counted Gold Meir (future Prime Minister of
Israel) as one of its passengers came under attack. Seven Jews were killed by the Arab attackers.
1947:
Sherut Avir was formed today, “with the few light aircraft at the Jew’s
disposal” with “responsibilities that included liaison, recon, transport, and
convoy escort.”
1947(14th
of Tevet, 5708): Eighty-three-year-old old Julia H. Kohlman, the wife of
Sigmnund Kolhman passed away today after which she was buried in “Springhill
Avenue Temple Cemetery” in Mobile, Alabama.
1947(14th of Tevet, 5708): Hans Beyth, a central figure in
welcoming newly arrived immigrant children to Eretz Israel, was one of seven
Jews killed by Arab snipers as they traveled in convey coming from the coast up
to Jerusalem. Beyth had just completed arrangements for the care of 20,000
young survivors of the Holocaust and other youngsters from Europe.
1947: Houses belonging to Jews and Arabs were set on fire today in
the Jaffa-Tel Aviv region.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30D10F93B58147B93CAAB1789D95F438485F9
1947: As communal strife continued to intensify, troops had to be
used to end a six hour between Jews and Arabs near Tulkarm.
1947: A private source in Haifa said tonight that in the last 48
hours the verified deaths included nine Jews, eight Arab and two Britons. Forty-three people were reported to have been
wounded during the same period.
1948(25th of Kislev, 5709): Chanukah
1948:
Members of the Moslem Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Fahmy
Norashy Pashy because of Egypt’s failure to win the war in Palestine.
1948:
Israel bombs Arab forces in Gaza.
1948:
Fighting between Israeli and Egyptians in Fallujah.
1948:
During Operation Horev, an Israeli armored brigade attacked al-Auja. The
successful attack led to the surrender of Egyptian forces in the area.
1948: Birthdate of actress Tovah
Feldshuh
1949:
“Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz, the president of Agudath Israel Youth” arrived today in
New York…with plans for a three month-tour of the United States to recruit
Jewish youths for settlement in ‘the strategic agricultural areas of Israel.’”
1950(18th
of Tevet, 5711): Max Beckmann
German-born painter/graphic artist passed away at the age of 66.
1951: Birthdate of Henryk Halkowski historian,
journalist, essayist and translator of Jewish origin, scholar of Hasidism and
the history of Krakow's Kazimierz.
1952: In New York, attorney Sidney Feldshuh and the former Lillian Kaplan
gave birth to Tony Award and Emmy Award nominated actress Terri Sue “Tovah”
Feldshuh, the sister of playwright David Feldshuh who may be best known for her
performance in “Golda’s Balcony, “the longest-running one-woman play in
Broadway history.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
Rokach, mayor of Tel Aviv for the past 17 years, had relinquished his post to
Haim Levanon, the Deputy Mayor.
1952(9th
of Tevet, 5713): Jesse Hieman, the son of Max Heiman who “developed Gus Blass
Company into the largest department store” in Arkansas and the husband of Adele
Blumenthal Heiman, passed away today.
1952:
Today, “the American Legion announced that it disapproved of the “Moulin Rouge”
the movie based on the life of artist Toulouse-Lautrec featuring Theodore
Bikel.
1952:
Birthdate of David Knopfler
Scottish-born guitarist, singer and songwriter who along with his brother Mark
was part of Dire Straits.
1953(21st
of Tevet, 5714)
Poet Julian Tuwim passed away. Born in 1894 in Łódź,
“he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University. In 1919 Tuwim co-founded
the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław
Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature and was also known for
his contribution to children's literature.”
1953: “His
Study Was Man” published today provided a complete review of Franz Boas: The
Science in the Making by Melville J. Herskovtiz.
1954(2nd
of Tevet, 5715): Eighth Day of Chanukah on the same day that Walt Disney was
the cover story for TIME.
http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19541227,00.html
1953: In
Detroit, Michigan, Reva (nee Kolodney) Taubman and shopping mall developer
Adolph Alfred Taubman gave birth to Robert S. Taubman, the husband of Julia
Reyes Taubman who followed in his father’s footsteps to become CEO of Taubman
Centers.
1956(21st
of Tevet, 5717): Fifty-six year old University of Chicago professor Dr. Ralph
Marcus, “an authority on the Dead Scrolls passed away tonight after suffering a
heart attack.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0363/ms0363.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/542757?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
1957: In
New York, funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Emanu-El
for H.U.C. trained Rabbi Ephraim Frisch, the founder in 1915 of the New
Synagogue and since 1948, the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth-El in San Antonio,
TX.
1958(16th
of Tevet, 5719): Parashat Veyechi
1958: Today
Max Raskin, Marquette University trained attorney who specialized primarily in
labor law announced the formation of the “law firm of Raskin, Zubrensky and
Padden” with Padden being his 29-year-old son in law Phillip Padden, the De
Paul University trained attorney
1959(26th
of Kislev, 5720): Second Day of Chanukah
1959: ABC
broadcast “Gun City” an episode of “The Rebel” directed by Irvin Kershner with
a script co-authored by Richard Levinson.
1960(6th
of Tevet, 5721): The former Meta Pollak, who had married Paul Joseph Sachs with
whom she had had three children passed away today.
1964:
Elinor Bluemnthal married John Muir Gold.
1964: Art
Modell’s Cleveland Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts in the NFL Championship
Game at Cleveland Stadium.
1964(22nd
of Tevet, 5725): Sixty-eight-year-old Minsk born and Brooklyn Law School
trained attorney Louis J. Gribetz, a leader of the Jewish community as well as
the author of The Case for the Jews and Jimmie Walker: The Story of a
Personality who was the husband of “the former Bessie Lexin” and the father
of Grace Glasser passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/28/louis-j-gribetz-lawyer-dies.html?searchResultPosition=2
https://www.antichay.com/pages/books/634/louis-j-gribetz/the-case-for-the-jews
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13900542.Louis_J_Gribetz
1965: It
was reported today that Dr. Salon Baron “professor emeritus of history at
Columbia University’ has been elected President of the American Academy for
Jewish Research, succeeding Professor Saul Lieberman.
1965:
“Marat/Sade” by Peter Weiss opened at the Martin Beck Theatre starting a
Broadway run that would last for 145 performances.
1965(4th
of Tevet, 5726): Seventy-five-year-old Austrian-American architect and designer
Frederick John Kiesler passed away today in NYC.
http://www.askart.com/artist/Frederick_John_Kiesler/81029/Frederick_John_Kiesler.aspx
1966:
Birthdate of former professional football player and wrestler, Bill
Goldberg. In 1998, Goldberg did a Koufax
when he refused to wrestle on Rosh Hashanah.
1967(25th
of Kislev, 5768) Chanukah
1968: In
the Bronx, David Rubinstein, a psychiatrist and his wife aerospace engineer
Diane Rubinstein gave birth to Emory and Columbia graduate Julian Rubinstein,
the journalist best known for his work of non-fiction, Ballad of the Whiskey
Robber.
http://www.julianrubinstein.com/
http://www.whiskeyrobber.com/index.html
1969(18th
of Tevet, 5730): Parashat Vayechi
1969(18th
of Tevet, 5730: One American was “killed in a shooting attack on a bus near
Hebron.
1969: By 2
a.m., during Operation Rooster 53, when the paratroops had taken apart the
radar station and prepared the various parts for the CH-53's, the two
helicopters were called in from across the Red Sea. One CH-53 carried the
communications caravan and the radar antenna, while the other took the heavier,
four-ton radar itself. The two helicopters made their way back across the Red
Sea to Israeli controlled territory.
1970(29th
of Kislev, 5731): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1970: After
2,844 performances at the St. James Theatre, David Merrick’s “Holly Dolly” came
to a close.
1970: The
Golani Brigade took part in a retaliatory strike came against the village
Yatar, a major guerrilla base.
1972: After
two previews, a Broadway revival of “Purlie” with lyrics by Peter Udell, music
by Gary Geld and directed by Philip Rose opened today at the Billy Rose
Theatre, where it ran for fourteen performances.
1973(2nd
of Tevet, 5734): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1973: Bora
Laskin completed her service as Pusine Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
and took office as the 14th Chief Justice of Canada
1974: The Dear Abby Show ended its run on CBS radio after 11 years. Dear Abby is the pen name for a Jewess from
Iowa, who along with her sister became the twin queens of advice during the
last half of the 20th century.
1974: Human rights activist Sergei Kovalev was arrested today in the
Soviet Union.
1975(23rd of Tevet, 5736): Parashat Shemot
1975(23rd of Tevet, 5736: Just days before his 74th
birthday, Polish born Yiddish poet Yankev Parnas passed away today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/08/yankev-parnas.html
1976: Malcom Toon left his post as U.S Ambassador to Israel.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from
Ismailia that the Begin-Sadat summit meeting made definite progress, despite
the apparent Egyptian disappointment over the lack of an anticipated joint
declaration of principles. While the US proposed a timely Israeli-Egyptian
mediation, settlers at Ofra declared war on Begin's possible "occupied
territories" concessions.
1978(27th
of Kislev, 5739): Third Day of Chanukah
1978 (27th
of Kislev, 5739): Seventy-seven-year-old Phil Meyers, chairman and founder of
Standard Wine & Liquor Company of Woodside, Queens,” “the city's oldest
licensed wholesale distributor of wines and spirits” and a leader “in the
United Jewish Appeal and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” who raised
two daughters – Renee and Adrienne – with his wife Mae, passed away today.
1979: CBS
broadcast the first episode of “Knots Landing” a prime time television soap
opera created by Baltimore native David Jacobs.
1980(20th
of Tevet, 5741): Parashat Shemot
1980(20th
of Tevet, 5741): Eighty-three-year-old Herman Levin, the lawyer turned Broadway
producer who gave us such hits as “My Fair Lady” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”
passed away today.
1981(1st
of Tevet, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh of Day of Chanukah
1981(1st
of Tevet, 5742): Eighty-two-year-old movie producer Edwin Knopf passed away
today.
1981: In
this excerpt from his “Travel Advisory,” Robert J. Dunphy describes the “dig”
at Bet Shean and provides historic perspective for what is being unearthed in
modern day Israel.
The
trumpets sound as the gladiator enters the arena. The crowd roars and cries for
blood as the man-eating beasts are unleashed and the contest is about to begin.
The scene is easy to envision in Bet Shean, Israel, where a Roman amphitheater
is being unearthed. Built around 200 A.D., the arena served as the site for
gladiatorial combat, circuses and sports contests for more than two centuries.
The first-century historian Josephus, whose writings also detailed the dramatic
story of Masada, also in present-day Israel, mentioned the existence of several
amphitheaters in the area but that in Bet Shean is the only one that has been
found to date. The elliptical structure is 120 yards long and 73 yards wide.
The arena floor was below ground level, and a high wall protected spectators
from the wild animals in the gladiatorial contests. The three front rows of
seats were hewn from white limestone and above them were wooden seats. The
outer wall was made of black basalt. The dig is situated several hundred yards from
a Roman theater, which for years has been one of Israel's most impressive
tourist attractions. With the discovery of the amphitheater, the entire area
will be converted into a giant antiquities park. Bet Shean, about two hours by
car from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, was the site of a Roman garrison and the
principal city in the north of the country.
1982(11th
of Tevet, 5743): Ninety-six-year-old Bavarian born Elsa Haas, the daughter of
Joseph Schülein and Ida Schülein and the wife of Dr. Alfred Hass with whom she
had two children -- Charlotte 'Lotti' Schüller and Gerhard Julius Haas – passed
away today in New York City.
1982: Frank
Lautenberg was sworn in as a U.S Senator representing the state of New Jersey.
1983(21st
of Tevet, 5744): Fifty-seven-year-old Baltimore native and active member of the
World Zionist Organization Harold Hill passed away today in Tarrytown, NY.
1985: Abu
Nida, the Palestinian terrorist organization, kill eighteen people during
attacks inside the airports in Rome and Vienna. According to some, the attack
was a fallback. The terrorists had
really wanted to hijack El Al planes and destroy them over Tel Aviv (this is 16
years before 9/11).
1987: Three Palestinian guerrillas infiltrated a short distance
into Israel from Jordan Friday night and were captured alive by Israeli troops
after a shootout, the Israeli Army spokesman announced today. One of the
guerrillas was wounded during the clash in a wheat field of an Israeli border
settlement, but no Israeli soldiers or civilians were hurt, said the army
spokesman, who released the account this afternoon.
1987:
''Furniture Making in East London: 1830 to 1980 '' an exhibition which is part
of a celebration of London’s East End’s Jewish heritage comes to a close at
Geffrey Museum
1988: Yossi
Ahimeir, an aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said today that the Prime
Minister may ask the United States and the Soviet Union to sponsor Middle East
peace talks. Mr. Ahimeir said in a telephone interview that Mr. Shamir would
make Moscow's renewal of diplomatic relations a condition of his proposal. The
Soviet Union broke ties with Israel during the 1967 Middle East war.
1989(29th
of Kislev, 5750): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1990(10th
of Tevet, 5751): Asara B’Tevet
1990: The
Israel Philharmonic played two Wagner overtures under the direction of Daniel
Barnboim.
1991(20th
of Tevet, 5752): Seventy-two-year-old Eitan Livini, a member of the Irgun,
member of the Knesset and father of Tzipi Livini passed away today.
1991: U.S.
premiere of the “Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenberg who also wrote the
script, filmed by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky with music by Howard Shore.
1992(3rd
of Tevet, 5753): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1992: The standoff between Lebanon and Israel over the fate of
415 Palestinian deportees trapped in a snow-covered valley in southern Lebanon,
continued today as both sides again rejected appeals to allow relief agencies
to deliver food or medicine. Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose Government
has blocked relief assistance from reaching the group since Monday, asked
Washington to intervene with Israel to allow aid to reach the Palestinians. But
at the same time, his Government turned down a request by the deportees to give
the ill and injured treatment in Lebanese hospitals. An envoy of Yasir Arafat,
chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said he supported the
Lebanese Government's decision to refuse entrance to the men. He said that if
the deportees were accepted by the Lebanese, Israel might carry out new mass
deportations across the border. Israel expelled the Palestinians last week,
saying they had links to to two Islamic fundamentalist groups that Israel
contends are behind attacks on soldiers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza
Strip. The expulsion came after five Israeli servicemen were killed in attacks
for which the militant group Hamas took responsibility.
1993: “The
ultranationalist Russian politician Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, who has recently
made anti-Semitic remarks, sought an application to immigrate to Israel 10
years ago, Israeli officials said today.
1995(4th of
Tevet, 5756): Eighty-four-year-old Shura
Cherkassky passed away. Born in the
Ukraine in 1909, his family found refuge in the United States during the
Russian Revolution. The brilliant
classical pianist performed almost until the end of his life.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1995/12/29/issue.html
1997(28th
of Kislev, 5758): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1997:
Harvard graduate and American businessman Alan John Bliken, the New York born
son of Maurice and Ethel (Horowitz) Blinken completed his three and half years
of service as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.
1997: Final
broadcast of “Hee Haw” a long running rural based comedy and music television
program whose producers included Bernie Brillstein was broadcast for the last
time today.
1998: The New York Times Book Section includes
a review of On Sunset Boulevard: The
Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov which tells the story of how a Jew born in a town
south of Kracow became one Hollywood’s leading writers and directors.
1999(18th of Tevet, 5760):
Ninety-four-year Leonard Goldstein passed away.
Born in 1905, he became President of
1999: Belizean rapper Shyne who adopted the name Moses Michael Lev
when converted to Judaism and his girl were involved in a shooting at a
Manhattan club which left three people injured and found him facing criminal
charges that resulted in his being sentenced to prison for ten years.
2000: Release date for “Confusion of Genders” directed by Ilan
Duran Cohen, the French born author who studied at the New York Film School
2000: “Tamir Goodman of Towson University recorded 9 points, 5
assists and 4 rebounds in 34 minutes in the Tigers’ 73-71 loss to the
Wolverines.”
2001: Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer “appeared his morning
to have won an election to the Labor Party” thus “extending the life of the
broad coalition government.”
2002(22nd of Tevet, 5763):
Terrorists broke into a dining hall at a yeshiva in Otneil, south of Hebron,
and killed 4 students who were working in the yeshiva kitchen, and injured ten
others. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
2003: The musical version of “A
Christmas Carol with lyrics and a book by Lynn Ahrens and music by Alan Menken
was performed for the last time at the Paramount Theatre in Madison Square
Garden.
2004: A fire broke tonight in the “Commercial Block” of Cheyenne,
Wyoming that began to consume the Idelman Building which had been built in 1884
by two brothers, Max and Abe Idelman” who used for their “wholesale liquor
business.”
2005: “A
Wounded Poet Who Sang the Crucible of a Generation” published today provided a
review of Max Egremont’s Signified Sassoon: A Life that tells the tale
of son of father from the wealthy Sephardic Sassoon clan and a mother who
raised her son as a member of the Church England.
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/books/a-wounded-poet-who-sang-the-crucible-of-a-generation.htm
2005:
“Quantum Trickery: Testing Einstein’s Strangest Theory,” published today described
the impact of the paper published seventy years ago by Einstein, Boris Podlosky
and Nathan Rosen that provided the cornerstone for the new field of quantum
information.
2006: The
exhibition of Jerusalem painter Maureen Fain at the Artura Studio in Jaffa
comes to an end.
2006: Heavy
snow fell on Jerusalem forcing the Egged bus company to shut down its routes
“citing dangerous road conditions. Snow
began falling on the Golan Heights in the early morning hours and by evening
reach as far south as Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev. Although it was technically too late, many
Israelis began humming that old standard “I’m Dreaming of Chanukah Ch-e-vair.”
(The last sentence is mean to be funny.)
2006(6th
of Tevet, 5767): One hundred two-year-old “Itche Goldberg, a champion of
Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved language in the face of all
those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost cause “passed away today. (As
reported by Ari Goldman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/obituaries/03goldberg.html
2007: In
Anaheim, California, the USY International Convention comes to an end.
2008: In a
ritual rarity, three Torah scrolls are used because of Shabbat, Chanukah and
Rosh Chodesh Tevet. The Prophetic
readings are equally unusual due to Shabbat Chanukah, Machor Chodesh and Rosh
Chodesh.
2008:
Just days after the cabinet gave the military final
approval to counter ongoing Palestinian rocket fire against communities in the
western Negev; the IDF launched a massive operation, striking Hamas
installations throughout the Gaza Strip.
2008: The publisher of a disputed Holocaust memoir has canceled
the book, adding the name Herman Rosenblat to an increasingly long line of
literary fakers and bringing down with a crash his story - embraced by Oprah
Winfrey, among others - of meeting his future wife at a Nazi concentration camp.
2008 (30
Kislev 5769)
Beber Vaknin, aged 57, was killed by missile in his
hometown Netivot when he other literary and political figures, including those
associated with her father’s generation, as well.
2009(10th
of Tevet, 5770: Fast of the Tenth
of Tevet
2009(10th
of Tevet, 5770: Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Footnotes in Gaza
by Joe Sacci, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth, and Power — A Dispatch From the
Beach by Gerald Posner and Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey
of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell.
2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including Goddess of
the Market:
Ayn Rand and the American
Right by Jennifer Burns and Ayn Rand and
the World She Made by Anne Heller
2009: Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is expected to deliver
his recommendations to the Supreme Court about "mehadrin" bus lines -
which designate separate seating for men and women - some residents of the
capital plan to make their voices heard on the subject.
2009: The
Yerushalmim movement, along with members of the New Israel Fund and Meretz, is
scheduled to lead a demonstration against the continued existence of the
“hehadrin” bus lines.
2009: The
United Synagogue Youth (USY) International Convention opens in Chicago, IL.
2009: In
“Sigmund Freud saved by Nazi admirer,” published today Richard Woods reviews The
Escape of Sigmund Freud by David Cohen.
2010: The USY
International Convention is scheduled to open today in Orlando, FL.
2010: Today
marks the second anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF’s
operation in Gaza which was aimed at stopping the daily rocket attacks by
Gaza-based terrorists towards southern Israel.
2010: In King
County (Seattle), twelve buses were scheduled to hit the streets carrying an ad
reading “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work” with an image of a group
of children next to it, showing one little boy staring out at the viewer while
the others gawk at a demolished building. The ads were paid for by the Seattle
Mideast Awareness Campaign. The ads did not run because King County Executive
Dow Constantine said that the proposed ads may be a potential source of
disruption to local public transit and implemented an interim policy that bans
the Seattle transit service from accepting any new advertising that is
non-commercial.
2010: An Israeli activist was sentenced to three months in jail today for his
part in a 2008 protest by Tel Aviv cyclists opposed to the blockade of Gaza.
2010: Israeli archaeologists said today they may have found the earliest evidence
yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the
origin of humans.
2010:
“Disaster Relief Group Still Finding A Need” published in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette described the
efforts to help the needy residents of Cedar Rapids who were displaced by the
Floods of 2008. Jeff Schneider, a member
of Temple Judah, has played a leading role in the effort which has “delivered
10 semi-trailer loads of furniture” to people who literally lost
everything. Jeff started Temple Judah
Disaster Relief which after two years of work is now faced with meeting the
challenge as sources of funding in the community have dried up. While Jeff and three of the volunteers who
inspired him – Tom Hill, Marie Hill and Rob Hill – continue to look for in-kind
donations of old furniture, etc. they have not made any appeal for funds
although volunteer contributions would be greatly appreciated.
2010: A
two-day symposium on the history of the Jews in Indonesia being held at the
University of Haifa came to an end to today. “The gathering included many
firsthand accounts by former community members…who spoke about what it was like
being part of a tiny Jewish minority in what is now the most populous Muslim
country in the world.”
2010(27th
of Tevet, 5771): Ninety-three-year-old “Alfred E. Kahn, a Cornell University
economist best known as the chief architect and promoter of deregulating the
nation’s airlines, despite opposition from industry executives and unions
alike” passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/business/29kahn.html
2010(27th
of Tevet, 5771): Joan Rodker, a longtime left-wing activist in Great Britain who
had contact over decades with writers such as Doris Lessing, Jessica Mitford
and others passed away today http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/feb/09/joan-rodker-obituary
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/8277253/Joan-Rodker.html
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00170/hrc-00170.html
2011(1st
of Tevet, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2011(1st
of Tevet, 5772): Eighty-three-year-old “Helen Frankenthaler the lyrically
abstract painter whose technique of staining pigment into raw canvas helped
shape an influential art movement in the mid-20th century and who became one of
the most admired artists of her generation” passed away today. (As reported by
Grace Glueck)
2011: In
“Honoring All Who Saved Jews” published today Eva Weisel described her
Holocaust experience and the courage of
Khaled Abdul Wahab, an Arab Muslim who was “rescuer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/opinion/honoring-all-who-saved-jews.html?login=email&_r=2
http://www.timesofisrael.com/why-hasnt-yad-vashem-honored-more-arabs-for-saving-jews/
2011: In Iowa
City. Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual Chanukah party this evening.
2011: The
Sephardic Music Festival in NYC is scheduled to come to an end.
2011: “Women
Unchained” is scheduled to be shown at the Limmud Conference in London, UK
2011: Today, President Shimon Peres called on Israelis to attend a demonstration
against religious fanaticism, after two days of rioting by ultra-Orthodox
extremists in Beit Shemesh., threw rocks at them and set dumpsters on fire.
Officers detained three suspects for questioning.
2011: Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that the
Israeli army will not excuse religious soldiers from official army events that
feature female soldiers singing.
2012: “Babylon
Blues” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The JCC
in Manhattan is scheduled to host “Israeli Dance with Tamar.”
2012: In a whirlwind of legal arguments, wrestling and threats
to change the law to make it easier to disqualify Knesset candidates, the High
Court of Justice heard Balad MK Haneen Zoabi’s petition to be reinstated for
the current campaign.
2012: In a fierce excoriation that brought Israel’s
subterranean racial tension to the surface for the first time in this election
season, Aryeh Deri of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party today lashed out at the
Yisrael Beytenu party’s chief, Avigdor Liberman, claiming that he and his
Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list were on a crusade against Sephardi politicians.
2012: Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who replaces the late Sen.
Daniel Inouye, was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden at 2:36pm ET.
2013: “Hunting Elephants” and “The Killing of Sister
George” are scheduled to be shown today at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from
hospital late tonight after being treated for sinus problems
2013: Gaza's only power plant ground to a halt again on today,
only 12 days after being brought back online following a 7 week shutdown due to
fuel shortages which officials blamed on the Israelis but which were really a
result of Egyptians shutting down the tunnels through which fuel has been
brought into the Hamas controlled territory.
2014(5th of Tevet, 5775): Parashat Vayigash
2014(5th of Tevet, 5775): Three days after his
89th birthday, American pianist Claude Frank passed away today. (As
reported by Anthony Tommasini)
2014(5th of Tevet, 5775): Ninety-one-year-old
Chanoch (Hans) Seligman, a native of Chomutov, a town which had been part of
the Sudentenland, and the son of Emil and Irma Seligman passed away today in
Kefar Sava
2014: The Jerusalem Opera is scheduled to perform
“Figaro” by Mozart at Ashdod with the Ashdod Symphony conducted by Omeri
Arieli.
2014: “The Smurfs” and “The Chaos Within” are scheduled
to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “An apartment in a Jerusalem neighborhood was
firebombed this evening, causing some damage to part of the home. The attack
follows a firebombing that injured an 11 year old girl who was riding in a car
with her father.
2014: A Palestinian baby collapsed while crossing the
border between the West Bank and Jordan, prompting the IDF to send a helicopter
to evacuate the child to a Jerusalem hospital, effectively saving his life.”
(As reported by Itay Blumentahl)
2015(15th of Tevet, 5776): Ninety-three-year-old
Oscar winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler passed away today. (As reported by
John Anderson)
2015: The New York Times features books by Jewish authors
or of special interest to Jewish readers including Emblems of the Passing
World: Poems After Photographs By August Sander by Adam Kirschand the
recently released paperback publication of Better Than Before: What I
Learned About Making and Breaking Habits — to Sleep More, Quit Sugar,
Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life by Gretchen Rubin.
2015: “Orchestra of Exiles” a documentary about Polish
violinist Bronislaw Humberman “whose extraordinary efforts saved hundreds of
Jews from the approaching Holocaust” is scheduled to be shown at the Yiddish
Book Center in Amherst, MA.
2015: Israeli artist “one of the pioneers of middle
eastern music in the Arabic and Turkish genres” is scheduled to perform at BB
King Blues Club.
2015(14th of Tevet, 5776): Yahrzeit of Pinchas
Rutenberg founder of the Israel Electric Corporation.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_14.html
2016(27th of Kislev,
5777): Third Day of Chanukah
2016(27th of Kislev,
5777): Ninety-two-year-old “Joel Sollender a World War II POW who appeared in
television ads for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign” passed away today.
2016: The funeral for Libby
Bucksbaum, the wife of Arnold Bucksbaum, is scheduled to take place in Cedar
Rapids, IA, followed by burial at Eben Israel Cemetery.
2016: “Chanukah at the Riverwalk” the
biggest community event sponsored by Chabad Lubavitch of Louisiana is scheduled
to take place this evening including lighting of the region’s largest Chanukiah
built by Isak Borenstein of blessed memory. (For more see the Crescent Jewish
News, the leading source of Jewish news in the Crescent City and along the
Bayous of the Gulf Coast)
2016: At a “Vodka and Latkes Party”
YNY is scheduled to “present the
Ternovka Ensemble, a new collaboration between renowned Yiddish singer Zhenya
Lopatnik (who recently relocated to New York from Kharkiv, Ukraine) and
tsimblist (hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky.”
2016: Its official – This Day in Jewish History is
one of the “Top Jewish Blogs and Websites on the Web” as chosen by Feedspot
Blog Reader for 2016
2017:
Today, “The Jewish Music Research Centre joined with the National Sound Archive
of the National Library of Israel in celebrating the life of Dr. Tzipora H.
Jochsberger, the pioneering German-Israeli musicologist who passed away at the
age of 96 in October.”
http://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/tzipora-jochsberger
2017:
Mona’s is scheduled to host a “Late-Night Kelzmer Jam Session” as part of
Yiddish New York.
2017:
Yiddish New York is scheduled to host “an evening of song and music to
celebrate the legacy of late, visionary singer-scholar, Adrienne Cooper.”
2017(9th
of Tevet, 5778): According to Tradition, ninth of Tevet is the Yahrzeit of
Ezra.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_9.html
2017:
“A year-end report” conducted by the Taub Center which was “released today
found that the cost of living in Israel is among the highest of developed
nations.”
2018:
Award winning concert pianist Eliah Zabaly is scheduled to perform this evening
in “Mal’ha, Jerusalem” this evening.
2018:
Yiddish New York is scheduled to host a series of lectures and teen and youth
programs culminating in “the final student concert” this afternoon.
2018:
“The Squirrel Hill JCC Kaufman Dance Studio” is scheduled to an evening of
Israeli dancing this evening.
2018:
In an example of “tikkun olam” in Memphis, TN, members of the Sisterhood of
Temple Israel are scheduled to gather this afternoon to “knit bears for
children infected/affected with HIV/AIDS in emerging nations.”
2019(29th
of Kislev, 5780): Fifth Day of Chanukah
2019:
Israel coped with aftermath of its first snowfall of the season and the
flooding in north that resulted from “torrential rains.”
2019:
In Natick, MA, the Bacon Free Library is scheduled to host “PJ Library Chanukah
Mitzvah Meetup and Story Time.”
2019:
In San Francisco, Sherith Israel is scheduled to host “Hanukkah Klezmer and
Comedy,” a “community dinner with musician Peter Bonos and stand-up comedian
Alicia Dattner.”
2020:
YNY is scheduled to host lunchtime concert with Cookie Segelstein and Josh
Horowitz and in the evening the “Ninth Annual Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in
Yiddish Concert and Award” followed by a “Yiddish Karaoke Bar.”
2020:
In partnership with the American Israel Friendship League, Israel’s Office of
Cultural Affairs in North American is scheduled to present a program that “will
include a conversation between Vertigo’s Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Noa
Wertheim and Joan Finkelstein, Executive Director for the Harkness Foundation
for Dance in New York, moderated by Wayne L. Firestone, Executive Director of
America-Israel Friendship League.”
2021: Temple Emanuel of
Newton is scheduled to present “Music and Movement with Little Beats” which is
a “45-minute class that promotes early childhood learning through song, dance,
instrument and prop play.” (As reported by Reuters)
2021: Sheba Medical
Center, a major Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv, is scheduled to “begin
administering a four COVID-19 vaccine shot to 150 staffers” today “in a trail
aimed at gauging whether a second booster is necessary nationwide.”
2021: The Limmud
Festival is scheduled to continue for a third day.
2022: Yiddish New York
is scheduled to continue today with several events including an online lecture
by Gleason Freidberg on “Yiddish in Mexico after the Revolution.”
2022: Filmmaker Aviva
Kempner is scheduled to introduce the first screening of “The Spy Behind Home
Plate” as the ANU-Museum of the Jewish People.
2022: “More than 1,000
former senior Israel Air Force officers including former chief of staff Dan
Halutz, warned in a letter to the country’s top jurists that Benjamin
Netanyahu’s incoming right-wing and religious government would “destroy” the
democratic country they had fought for.”(As reported by Emanuel Fabian)
2022: The Executive
Committee of the National Council is scheduled to meet in New Orleans.
2023: Yiddish New York
is scheduled to continue for a fifth day.
2023: YUM’s Director
Gabriel Goldstein is scheduled to lead 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:
Another lecture in the series "Emmanuel Levinas with Beloved Poets and
Writers", is scheduled to t take place at Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem, Rabbi
Daniel Epsteinabout will talk about the concept of others through reading
Proust's book "Albertine is Gone".
2023: Virginia Tech is
scheduled to play Tulane University, the home of Brian Horowitz, the holder of
the Sizeler Family Chair of Jewish Studies at the Tulane Department of Jewish
Studies, in the Military Bowl.
2023: As December 27
begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 82
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)
