This Day, December 31, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
335: End of
the Papacy of Sylvester I “who convinced Constantine to prohibit Jews from
living in Jerusalem.”
535:
Byzantine General Belisarius took the city of Syracuse which marks the
completion of the conquest of Sicily. In 536 he would march into Rome itself.
This military action was part of Emperor Justinian’s plan to take back what had
been the Western Roman Empire and recreate the Roman Empire of the Caesar’s
with the capital at Constantinople. Belisarius’ victory probably did not over-joy
the Jews living in the "Giudecche" or Jewish Quarters of Sicily since
it brought with it Justinian’s Code. Amongst other things the code “prohibited
Jews from building synagogues, reading the Bible in Hebrew, assemble in public,
celebrate Passover before Easter, and testify against Christians in court.”
1229: James
I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain)
thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca. Following his victory, James “gave the Jews a quarter in
the neighborhood of his palace for their dwellings, granted protection to all
Hebrews who wished to settle on the island, guaranteed them the rights of
citizens, permitted them to adjudicate their own civil disputes, to kill cattle
according to their ritual, and to draw up their wills and marriage contracts in
Hebrew. Christians and Moors were forbidden, under severe penalties, to insult
the Jews or to take earth and stones from their cemeteries; and the Jews were
ordered to complain directly to the king of any act of injustice toward them on
the part of the royal officials. They were allowed to charge 20 per cent
interest on loans, but the amount of interest was not to exceed the capital. In
case a Jew practiced usury, the community was not held responsible. The penalty
for lending money on the wages of slaves hired out by their masters was loss of
the capital. Jews could buy and hold houses, vineyards, and other property in
Majorca as well as in any other part of the kingdom. They could not be
compelled to lodge Christians in their homes: in fact, Christians were
forbidden to dwell with Jews; and Jewish convicts were given separate cells in
the prisons. If the slave of a Jew or Moor adopted Judaism or Mohammedanism, he
had to be set free and was required to leave the island.”
1349: By
the end of this month, the Black Death had reach Cologne just four months after
the pogrom that took place on the night of Saint Bartholemy had devastated the
Jewish community.
1378:
Birthdate of Callixtus III the Pope who issued “Si ad reprimendos” the Bull
that confirmed “Dudum ad nostram audientiam” which forbade Jews to live with
Christians or to hold public office.
1492: One
hundred thousand Jews were expelled from Sicily.
1539: In
Poland, King Sigismund I “ordered the Jews of Cracow, Posan and Lemberg (Lvov)
to buy 3,350 Jewish books from the Printing house of the apostate Helitz
brothers. The Jews bought the books as ordered - and then destroyed them all.”
(As reported by “The History of the Jewish People)
1599: The
British East India Company is chartered. Joseph Salvador was the first Jewish
director of the British East India Company. The Salvador family would become
involved with the settlement of Georgia. Francis Salvador, Joseph’s
great-grandson would become one of the heroes in the American War for
Independence, a rebellion against King George III. Ironically, when King
George III ascended the British throne, Joseph had arranged an audience for the
seven-man delegation that officially congratulated the king on behalf of the
Jewish community. (Ed. Note – some sources give the date as 1600, not 1599)
1673: English
Judge and MP Oliver St. John who had been the head of The St. John Mission which
had been “instructed to study the Jewish Question and in all probability entered
into negotiations with the Jews of Amsterdam” passed away today.
1678: By
the end of this month, Jews were living “in the communities of the Surb valley”
in accordance with a resolution that had been adopted earlier in the year by
the Tagsatzung, “the legislative and executive council of the Swiss
Confederacy.”
1720:
Birthdate of Charles Edward Stuart the leader of Jacobite forces whose invasion had
caused panic among many of London’s financiers, except most notably Sampson
Gideon” who provided the government with money and support, that led to the
crown’s victory at the Battle of Culloden which ended a major threat to the
Hanovarian English monarchy.
1746:
Birthdate of Joseph Wolf Fraenkel, the husband of Edel Teomim-Fraenkel
1763:
Oliver St. John who as Chief Justice of Common Pleas was part of
the St. John Mission “was instructed to study the Jewish Question and in all
probability entered to negotiations with the leading Jews of Amsterdam” passed
away today.
1766:
Silversmith Israel Samuel, “the first recorded Jewish resident of Brighton”
married Suzy Phillips today at the Great Synagogue.
1767(10th
of Tevet, 5528): Asara B’Tevet observed on the same day that the Pennsylvania
Gazette published advertisements concerning runaway slaves and the sale of
slaves. (Editor’s note: Slavery was a tragic part of the American experience)
https://adverts250project.org/2017/12/31/slavery-advertisements-published-december-31-1767/
1769(3rd
of Tevet, 5530): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1776: As of
today, Jews “were further to restricted to living in only Endigen and Lengnau
two communities in Switzerland.
1776:
George Washington convinced most of his small army to re-enlist which meant
they would be available for his audacious plan to cross the Delaware, which
saved the Revolutionary cause which was supported by most Jews living in
America.
1777(1st
of Tevet, 5538): Eighth Day of Chanuka; Rosh Chodesh Tevet observed on the same
day that George Washington writes from his winter quarters at Valley Forge to Major
General Lafayette.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-13-02-0075
1780:
Twenty-one-year-old Isaac Franks, the New York born son of Moses and Sarah
Franks, who rose to the rank of Colonel in Washington’s Army completed the
second part of his military service that had begun in 1777.
1780: The French
Consulate in Salonica signed a document stating that Abraham Samuel Covo, Chief
Rabbi of Salonica is under his protection.
1786(10th of
Tevet, 5547): Asara B’Tevet
1786: In Newport, RI,
Jochabed Levy and Moses Mendes Seixas gave birth to Grace Seixas, the wife of
Benjamin Cohen whom she married in 1858.
1791: Empress Catherine of Russia issued a ukase restricting the
right of Jewish residence in Russia which marked the start of the Pale of
Settlement.
1794:
Birthdate of Jacques-Simon Herz, the native of Frankfort-on-Main who studied
piano in Paris, “played and taught in England” until he returned to Paris in
1857 where he composed “two violin sonatas, a horn sonata and a waltz.”
1794: Moses
Mocatta, the son of Esther Isaac Lamego and Abraha Lumbrosco De Mattos Mocatta
married Abigail Lindon today at the Bevis Marks Synagogue
1795: As of
today, the population of Amsterdam totaled 217,024 of which 20,052 were Jewish.
1796(2nd
of Tevet, 5557): Parashat Miketz; Eight Day of Chanukah observed for the last
time during the Presidency of George Washington.
1807(30th
of Kislev, 5568): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1807: In
Chatham, Sarah Moses and Lazarus Philip Magnus gave birth to Pamelia Magnus,
the wife of Michael Hart.
1811: In
Charleston, SC, Isaac and Rachel Mordecai Harby gave birth to Lieutenant
Solomon Harby, the brother of Octavia, Armida, Samuel Horace ad Julian Harby.
1812: In
Philadelphia, Abigail Seixas and Benjamin Jonas Phillips gave birth to Zipporah
Phillips
1815(29th
of Kislev, 5576): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1817: The
marriage of Benjamin Moise and Recca Levy took place in their hometown of
Charleston, SC.
1821: In
Middlesex, Phoebe and Ephraim Benjamin gave birth to Benjamin Benjamin.
1823: In
London, Phoebe and Ephraim Benjamin gave birth to Lewis Benjamin, he husband of
Mary Benjamin and the father of Abraham, Moss, Solomon, Benjamin, Ashe, Ephraim
and John Benjamin.
1824(10th
of Tevet, 5585): Asara B’Tevet
1825: In
Germany, Zidone Wald and Joseph Hackes gave birth to Simon Hackes who
eventually settled in New Jersey.
1826: In
Charleston, SC, John Drummond and his wife gave birth Elizabeth Drummond to
whom the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Charleston would
present “a handsome testimonial for unobtrusive but signally useful charity
bestowed upon a poor Jewish family heavily visited with the fever last summer.
1827: In
Philadelphia, French born American Jew Elias Mayer and his wife Abby gave birth
to Adolph Henry Mayer.
1826(1st
of Tevet, 5587) Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1826(1st
of Tevet, 5587): Bilhah Polock, the daughter of Isaac Polock and the wife of
Joseph Jacobs passed away today in New York.
1828: John
Simons, a “fancy costumier” Sarah, the daughter of Judah, at the Western
Synagogue in London after which they gave birth to three children – Abraham,
Henry and Gabriel.
1829:
Birthdate of “Italian patriot, diplomat, financier and author” Isaac Artom “the
first Jew to sit in the Italian legislative body.”
1830:
Birthdate of Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt whose career was closely linked
to the building of the Suez Canal. After the canal was opened in 1869,
Ismail’s efforts “to encourage outsiders to settle in the country as a way of
developing its economy” included setting aside “the age-old restrictions and
humiliations of the dhimmi status…Those Jews who responded to the Khedive’s
call were granted special privileges in return for their skills and expertise.”
1831(27th
of Tevet, 5592): Parashat Vaera
1831(27th
of Tevet, 5592): Mrs. Elizabeth Barnett, who married Naphtali Hart after being
married to Nathan Barnett passed away today in Philadelphia.
1831:
Birthdate of Aristide Felix Cohen, the native of Marseilles and brother of
composer Jules Cohen who became a leading French author.
1831:
Birthdate of “Austrian mathematician Josef Schlesinger” who overcame poverty to
graduate from the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna” where he served as an
assistant before becoming a Professor of Geometry at several institutions.
1832: In
Jamaica, Daniel Jacobs “was appointed” an Ensign today.
1834: In
Trieste, Graziadio Treves, the rabbi for the community and his wife, the former
Lia Montalcini gave birth to journalist Emilio Treves
1836(23rd
of Tevet, 5597): Parashat Shemot read for the last time during the presidency
of Andrew Jackson.
1840(7th
of Tevet, 5601): Myer Solomon, the head of the Denmark Court Congregation who
founded the St. Alban’s Place Synagogue in London who served as “preacher,
mohel, hazzan and shochet” while writing two Torah scrolls and who “delivered
the funeral sermon” when King George IV passed away.
https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13884-solomon-myer
1841(18th of Tevet,
5602): Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dynov passed
away. Born in 1783, he was the author of the Chassidic work B'nei Yissachar.
1844: The right to collect a tax ("basket tax") on
all traditional Jewish clothing, including head coverings as well as a tax on
kosher meat and other Jewish necessities was auctioned to the highest bidder in
Poland-Lithuania. It was still in force until the 20th century.
1845(2nd
of Tevet, 5606): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1845(2nd
of Tevet, 5606: Seventy-seven-year-old Joshua Lopez, the son of Sarah Rodriguez
Rivera and Aaron Edward Lopez whose first wife was Rebecca Hays Touro and whose
third wife was Mary Ann Gomez passed away today.
1845:
District Rabbi Jonas Wiesner married Estra (Therese) Wiesner
1848: In
New York City, the constitution of Ahawath Chesed, a congregation primarily
made up of Ashkenazi Jews, was adopted and signed by 31 members.
1848: Dov Beresh Meisels was elected to the Austrian
Parliament. He was also elected to the Municipality of Cracow in the same year.
An outspoken supporter of Jewish rights, he aligned himself with radicals
because "Juden haben keine rechte" (Jews have no rights)
1849: Vita
Forti, “participated in the General Assembly of the French Nation in Tunis today.
1851:
Today, Helen Solomons married 23-year-old Middlesex native Joel Woolf today at
the Great Synagogue in Londo.
1852(20th
of Tevet, 5613): Dr. Zacharias Wertheimer, the native of Vienna who “was
involved in fighting the typhoid epidemic that had broken out on the Hungarian
border before becoming a physician at the Zachar Hospital in Vienna, passed
away today.
1853(30th
of Kislev, 5614): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1853: The partnership of Gustav Christian Schwabe, his
father-in-law, Benjamin Rutter, and Adam Sykes which was known as the merchant
company Sykes, Schwabe and Co, was dissolved today. Schwabe was born Jewish in
1813. However, his family was forced to convert to Lutheranism and Gustav
was baptized in 1819.
1854(10th
of Tevet, 5615): Asara B’Tevet
1854(10th
of Tevet, 5615): Eighty-six-year-old
Rebecca Moses Harby, the daughter of Myer Moses and the wife of Solomon Harby
with whom she had had six children passed away today and was buried at the
“Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Cemetery” in Charleston, SC.
1854: As of
the year ending today, there were forty-one Jewish families living in Pilsen
made up of 118 males and 131 females.
1858: Jacob
and Amalia Freud gave birth to Anna Freud.
1860:
Birthdate of German chess master Berthold Lasker.
1861: In
Cincinnati, OH., Leopold Pappenheimer and Marie Pappenheimer gave birth to
Alexander T. Pappenheimer, the husband of Pauline Pappenheimer
1862:
During the Civil War, Jacob C. Cohen of the 27th Ohio Infantry,
wrote a letter describing conditions at Parker’s Crossroad, TN which was part
of the Confederacy.
http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/jcc08.html
1862:
The 79th Indiana under the command of Colonel (later General)
Frederick Knefler are part of the Union Army that meets the Confederates as the
Battle of Stone River begins.
1862: General in Chief
Henry Halleck read the telegram from several prominent Cesar Kaskel, Julius
Kaskel, Daniel Wolff, Marcus Wolff and Alexander Wolff protesting General Order
No. 11. Not knowing who the men were or the circumstances under which it
was written, Halleck, ever the cautious political general took no action saying
he needed more information.
1862:
President Abraham Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union. “The first official Jewish settlement in West
Virginia was at Wheeling where a Jewish cemetery and informal congregation was
established in 1849. At the time it was still the state of Virginia as West
Virginia did not become a state until 1863. Jews lived and traded in West
Virginia prior to 1849, and as early as the late 18th century, but the official
community did not get its start until Congregation L'Shem Shomayim was established
in Wheeling in 1849. An earlier Jewish cemetery was established in Charleston
in 1836, but the B'nai Israel Congregation in Charleston was only informally
organized in 1856 and legally chartered as the "Hebrew Educational
Society" in 1873.” This quote is from the website of West Virginia
Jewish History and Genealogy Jews- they are everywhere and darn proud of it.
www.westvirginiajewishhistory.com.
1863: As of
this date, Louis H. Mayer, the native of Cincinnati who had first enlisted in
the Union Army in 1861 at the age of 16 when Lincoln made his initial call for
volunteers had been honorably discharged so that he could “accept a position as
Assistant Paymaster in the United States Army at Memphis, TN.
1863: In
Germany, Jettchen and Perez Rothschild gave birth to Isaak Rothschild who died
at Treblinka and who was the husband of Malchen Amalie Rothschild with who he
had six children.
1864(2nd
of Tevet, 5625): Parsha Miketz; 8th day of Chanukah – last day of
the year and the last day of Chanukah coincide
1864:
Kalmus Calmann Levy and Pauline Levy gave birth to Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy
1865: In
Vienna, Louis Mittler and David Rosenfeld gave birth to CCNY and Columbia
graduate Maurice Rosenfeld, the Chicago Musical College trained piano
instructor and music critic , the husband of Estelle Slesinger and founder of
the Maruice Rosenfeld Piania School who since 1907 has lectured at the Chicago
Musical, College, the Sinai Center and the Chicago Hebrew Institute.
1866:
Birthdate of Adolph Schwartz, a native of Germany who found fame and fortune as
a merchant and civic leader in El Paso, TX.
1866: In
New Orleans, LA, Rosa Meyer and Marx Levy gave birth to architect William M. Levy
who had strong ties to the Jewish Community in St. Louis and whose works included
designing The Jewish Hospital, the Jewish Sanitarium for Chronic Invalids and Tubercular
Patients and the Jewish Charitable and Educational Building. (Editor’s Note: He
is not to be confused with William M. Levy, the Jewish political leader from
Louisiana.)
https://www.landmarks-stl.org/images/uploads/newsletters/Fall%20newsletter%20appeal%20final.pdf
1867: Eliza
Spyer, the daughter of Nathaniel Nathan and Rachel Levy, the wife of Stephen
Joseph Spyer and the mother of Angelina, Olivia and Eliza Spyer, was buried
today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1867: In
Knoxville, TN, Louis Alexander Gratz, the Mayor of North Knoxville, TN and a
Major in the Union Army and Elisabeth “Lizzie” Trigg Gratz gave birth to their
daughter Laura who became Laura Bearden Leigh when she married John Marion
Leigh
1869: In
Lida, Russia, Bernard and Aida Pollack gave birth to David Pollock, who became
the Superintendent of Zion Hebrew Sabbaths Schools in Chicago as well as the
editor of the Zion Messenger.
1870(7th
of Tevet, 5631): Parashat Vayigash
1870: In
Philadelphia, David Hays Solis and Elvira S. Solis the daughter of Isaac and
Sarah Nathan gave birth to Albert Benjamin Solis
1871(19th
of Tevet, 5632): Fifty-six-year-old Samuel Benjamin Sofer, the son of the
Chasam Sofer and a leading Hungarian rabbi passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sbsofer.html
1872(1st
of Tevet, 5633): On the last day of 1872, Jews kindle the Chanukah candles for
the last time
1872(1st
of Tevet, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Tevet – the last day of the year is the first day
of the month!
1872: In
Kalamazoo, MI, “Bernhard L and Bertha (Schuster) Desenberg gave birth to Alma
Desenberg who became Alma Desenberg Cowen when she married Texas born attorney
Israel Cowen on March 15, 1897, after which she had two children, Bayard and
Elizabeth, while becoming active in numerous social causes in Chicago including
the K.A.M auxiliary and the Jewish Women’s Council.
1873:
Birthdate of Louis Falk, the Russian born husband of Ida Falk.
1873:
Horace Porter, the Civil War General and personal secretary of President Grant
who was also U.S. Ambassador to France during the attempts to exonerate Captain
Dreyfus, resigned from the U.S. Army today.
1874: In
Portland, OR., Aaron Meier “a merchant and founder of Oregon's largest
department store, Meier & Frank, and Jeannette (Hirsch) Meier” gave birth
to University of Oregon trained attorney Julius Meir, the husband of Grace
Mayer, the President of Beth Elohim Congregation and the 20th
Governor of the State of Oregon.
1876:
Birthdate of Pizer W. Jacobs, the son of Wolfe Jacobs, the Hebrew Union College
trained rabbi who served a congregation in Albuquerque, NM before assuming the
pulpit of Congregation B’nai Sholom in Huntsville, AL in 1902
1876: It
was reported today that “the American churches have been showing their
patriotism during the year by joining in the celebration of the nation’s
Centennial anniversary including the Jews who have contributed a statue
commemorating religious liberty.
1878(6th
of Tevet, 5639): Thirty-seven-year-old German born American poet Minna Cohen,
the wife of Rabbi Kleeberg whose collection of poems Gedichte was
published in 1877 passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Kleeberg.html
1880:
Anti-Jewish riots broke out on New Year ’s Eve in Berlin which were, in part,
“attribution to Ernst Henrici’s” anti-Semitic speeches.
1880: It
was reported today that Samuel Hirsch seeking $5,000 in damages from Isaac
Moses a rabbi and newspaper publisher in Milwaukee for describing him as a liar
and a thief.
1880:
Birthdate of George C. Marshall one of America’s unsung heroes. As
U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Marshall deserves much of the credit for the Allied
victory in World War II. United States. As Secretary of Defense and
Secretary of State under President Truman, he was a leading architect of the
American policy that checked Stalin’s imperial designs. He did oppose the
partition plan in 1947 and 1948. His fear was that American troops would
end up having to intervene to save any newly created Jewish state and he knew
that America did not have the men to match the mission. Although he
disagreed with Truman on this issue, much to his credit, he did not resign his
post.
1881: Birthdate of
Jacob Israel de Haan, Dutch poet and writer. Israel de Haan was an
“ultra-Orthodox leader who was working to establish the Orthodox community as a
separate entity distinct from the Zionists.” He was willing to enlist the
support of non-Jews hostile to Zionism in to advance the cause of
ultra-Orthodoxy. In one of the most regrettable episodes in modern Jewish
history, de Haan was assassinated in 1924 before he could continue his meetings
with British authorities.
1881: It was reported
today that “the disorganization of society in Russia” can be seen “by the
violent and murderous attacks on the Jews.” The riots in Kiev resulted in
property damage valued at twenty-four million dollars while the property
damaged at Ellisabetgrad was valued at $1, 600,000.
1882: New
York Governor Alonzo B. Cornell who had appointed Myer Samuel Isaacs Justice of
the Marine Court, possibly making him the first Jew to hold that position,
completed his term in office today.
1882:
Following the death of Dr. Henry Vidaver on Rosh Hashanah, 5642, today his
brother, Dr. Flak Vidaver became the rabbi at Sherith Israel in San Francisco.
1882: Birthdate of
David Cohen, Dutch historian and Chairman of the Jewish Council.
1882: “Delegates from
the lodges of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith, the Independent Order of
the Free Sons of Israel and the Order of Kesher Shel Barzel met” this afternoon
in New York to considering the benefits of “uniting the three orders.”
1883(2nd of
Tevet, 5644): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1884: In the report
that F.N. Owen made to the Tenement House Commission today on conditions 968 houses
sheltering 8,811 families he noted that “in houses occupied by Polish
Jews…ashes are rarely found in the cellars but are in their rooms.” (This
strange notation may indicate that each dwelling had its own coal burning stove
as opposed to the central heat we connect with apartment dwellings)
1884(13th of
Tevet, 5645): Arnold Meyer Epstein, the infant son of Ephraim and Sallie Lasker
passed away today at Ozark, AR after which he was buried in Little Rock, AR.
1885: Jacob Platzky
reportedly stole $500 worth of goods from a store at 27 Allen Street that
specialized in hosiery and fancy goods.
1885:
Twenty-five-year-old Joseph D. Zelenko, the Minsk born son of Rose Kaufman and
Noah Zelenko who in 1882 came to the United States where he manufactured cloaks
and suits and served on the board of
Beth Hospital married Fannie Weinstein today in New York City.
1886: Israel Rokach,
the future mayor of Tel Aviv was born in Neve Tzedek, which, at the time, was
part of Jaffa.
1886: Birthdate of
Henry Pearlman, the native Kovno, who earned an LL.B. from NYU and served as
the Director of the Jewish Community House.
1887: It was reported
today that “higher government authority has rejected the proposal of the
Imperial Commission to permit Jews to reside in any village in Russia.”
1887(16th of
Tevet, 5648): Parashat Veyechi followed by New Year’s Eve
1888: In Paris, Adolphe
and Noémie Bloch gave birth to René Georges
Bloch
1888: It was reported
today that Jewish bankers in Europe are pleased with the successful offering of
the loan needed by the Russian government.
1888: In Brooklyn
founding of the Lawrence Club which meets on the first and third Sundays of
each month.
1888: It was reported
today that a children’s choir under the director of Sigmund Sabel provided part
of the entertainment at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum’s annual holiday party.
1888(27th of Tevet,
5649): Samson Raphael Hirsch passed away. Born in
1808, he was a “German rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the
Torah Im Derech Eretz School of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally
termed neo-Orthodoxy, his philosophy, together with that of Azriel
Hildesheimer, has had a considerable influence on the development of Orthodox
Judaism. Hirsch was rabbi in Oldenburg, Emden, was subsequently appointed chief
rabbi of Moravia, and from 1851 until his death led the secessionist Orthodox
community in Frankfurt am Main. He wrote a number of influential books, and for
a number of years published the monthly journal Jeschurun, in which he outlined
his philosophy of Judaism. He was a vocal opponent of Reform Judaism and
similarly opposed early forms of Conservative Judaism.”
1889: It was reported
today that Myer Silberman, an immigrant Jewish jeweler, had left a suicide note
blaming his death on Max Kantrowitz whom he claim had stolen his money and
diamonds. He also asked that the death benefit due him as a member of Raphael
Lodge be sent to young daughter who is still living in Europe with family
members.
1889: According to
census figures, as of today the total population of Amsterdam was 408,061 of
whom 54,479 were Jewish including 49,946 Ashkenazim and 4,533 Portuguese Jews”
also called Sephardim.
1900: Lithuanian born
Rabbi and “certified Mohel” Philip aces, the husband of Minna Gelhaar and the
father of Leopold Jaches came to the United States today on board the SS
Columbia after which he became “a founding member of HIAS, the Hebrew Free Loan
Society and the Hebrew Free Loan Society while eventual leading Congregation
Kahal Adas Kurland.
https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.511050802384481.1073741849.273437142812516&type=3
1890: 20th
of Tevet, 5651): Seventy-three-year-old Simon Mendes Nathan, the New York City
born son of Sarah Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan and the husband of
Canadian native Rebecca Solomons with whom he had twelve children, passed away
toay.
1890: The funeral for
65-year-old Henry S. Henry the native of Ramsgate who came to the United States
in 1848 where he became a successful commission merchant is scheduled to take
place at his West 25th Street home.
1891(30th of
Kislev, 5652): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1891: The Barge Office
ended its role as the entry point for immigrants, including tens of thousands
European Jews, coming through the port of New York.
1892: A dispatch from
Paris published today said that the secret way that Corneilus Herz was made a
Knight of the Legion of Honor is proof that it was done “in the interest of the
friends of the Panama” Canal Scandal, supposedly the worst financial scandal to
hit 19th century France.
1892: A new structure
built from Georgia Pine opened today on Ellis Island to serve as an immigration
depot. Hundreds of thousands of Jews would pass through Ellis Island including
approximately 140,000 in 1914 which was the year that saw the largest influx of
Eastern European Jews arriving in the United States.
1892: Benjamin Kossman
began serving with the “Regulars” (US Army) today as a private with Company D
of the 6th Cavalry
1892: “It almost took
Europe’s breath away this morning to read in the dispatches from New York” that
1892 “has been one of unexampled prosperity in America” since just the opposite
is true in Europe as can be seen from six hundred million dollars lost by the
English “investing and small income classes” which comes after losses for four
hundred million dollars in 1891. The disparity in economic conditions
helped to explain the wave migration to American including the hundreds of
thousands of Jews who made the trek (Editor’s Note – by this time in 1893, the
United States would be suffering its worst economic downturn until 1929 which
would heavily on the newly arrived Jewish immigrants)
1893: Based on reports
published today of the additional 2,172 families that have applied to the New
York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor from December 1 thru
December 23, 110 are Jewish.
1893 Simon Rosendale
completed his term as Attorney General of New York.
1894: A French court
rejected Dreyfus’ appeal of his conviction.
1894: Three days after
he had passed way, 40-year-old Lewis Levy, the son of Abraham and Jane Levy,
was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1894(4th of
Tevet, 5655): David Rosin a German Jewish theologian born at Rosenberg,
Silesia, in 1823, passed away. Having received his early instruction from his
father, who was a teacher in his native town, he attended the yeshibah of
Kempen, of Myslowitz (under David Deutsch), and of Prague (under Rapoport);
but, wishing to receive a regular school education, he went to Breslau, where
he entered the gymnasium, and graduated in 1846. He continued his studies at
the universities of Berlin and Halle (Ph.D. 1851) and passed his examination as
teacher for the gymnasium. Returning to Berlin, he taught in various private
schools, until Michael Sachs, with whom he was always on terms of intimate
friendship, appointed him principal of the religious school which had been opened
in that city in 1854. At the same time Rosin gave religious instruction to the
students of the Jewish normal school. In 1866 he was appointed Manuel Joël's
successor as professor of homiletics, exegetical literature, and Midrash at the
rabbinical seminary in Breslau, which position he held till his death.
1894: In Port Gibson,
Mississippi, Max and Regina (Bock) Isaacson gave birth to Tulane University
trained surgeon and author Julius Emanuel Isaacson who was on the staff of New
Orleans Charity Hospital and the husband of Florence Bach.
1895: “Disraeli in
1867” published today relies on information from The Table-Talk of Shirley in
which Sir John Skelton described the future Earl of Beaconsfield as being
“unlike any living creature one ever met with his olive complexion and coal
black eyes and the might dome of his forehead (no Christian temple to be
sure” Shirley prophetically wrote, “England is the Israel of his
imagination and he will be the imperial Minster before he dies.”
1896: Two days after
she had passed away, 78-year-old Marianne (Hart) Levy, the wife of Aaron Levy
and the mother of John and Alexander Levy, was buried today at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1896: Birthdate of New
York City native and CCNY graduate Julius Isaacs, the NYU trained attorney.
1896: Morris Goodhart,
the son-in-law of Judge Phillip J. Joachimsen, was operated on today for an
abscess. (Complications from this operation would eventually prove fatal.)
1897(6th of
Tevet, 5658): Sixty-three-year-old Bavarian native David Oppenheimer who lived
in New Orleans and in California during the Gold Rush before settling in
Vancouver where he became a successful businessman and served as its second
mayor passed away today.
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=6346
1897: With Shabbat
starting 3:30 this evening, Friday night services were held at Bevis Marks.
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/01/14/archives/edwin-l-weisl-sr-key-democrat-dies.html
1897: It was reported
today that among the papers presented at the final session of this year’s
meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society were “New York Jews During
the Struggle for American Independence” and “Some Early American Zionist
Projects” Max J. Kohler.
1898: Dr. Herman Baar
delivered his last address as superintendent during Saturday morning services
as the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1898(18th of
Tevet, 5659): Parshat Vayechi followed by New Year’s Eve
1898: Frank Black, who
appointed Jewish political leader and philanthropist to the state board of
charities in 1897, completed his term as the 32nd Governor of New
York.
1898:
Twenty-five-year-old Israel Cass, the native of Russia who came to Boston in
1890 and was a partner in Cass and Rosental, a manufacturer of children’s
clothes “became a naturalized citizen today in New York City.
1899: By the end of
this month, Children of the Ghetto written by Israel Zangwill had been
performed for the last time at Herald Square Theatre.
1899:
Fifty-eight-year-old Alsace native Elie Scheid who served for sixteen as the
inspector for the Comité de Bienfaisance
et de Secours aux Palestiniens (Committee for Charity and Support for the
Palestinians) during which he made annual trips to examine the progress being
made by the settlers in Palestine retired today with a pension provided by
Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
1900: It was
reported today that city authorities have decided to locate the Baron and
Baroness de Hirsch memorial at the eastern edge of Central Park at the Fifth
Avenue and 72nd Street Gate.
1900:
Twenty-seven-year-old Temple University alum Joseph Herbach, the Hungarian born
son of Jahanna Golberger and Gimbel Herbach who went from working in a cigar
factory to organizing several building and loan associations while serving as a
direct of the Federation of Jewish Charities in Philadelphia married Fannie
Wiessler today.
1901: Birthdate of
Warsaw native and Berlin trained actor, director and author Yankev Parnas whose
travels took him to France, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Israel and the United
States.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/08/yankev-parnas.html
1901: Twenty-five-year-old
Lithuanian born American “journalist, poet, novelist” and future U.S.
Ambassador to Albania married Sophie Friedman married today after which they
had four children – Hilda, Dorothy, Violet and David who became a newspaper
editor in Binghamton, NY>
1901: The Fifth Zionist
Congress ends its meeting at Basil, Switzerland.
1902: Birthdate of
Louis Farer who starred at CCNY and Columbia University from 1921 through 1924
after which he played professionally for four years.
1903: Jacob A. Cantor completed
his term as 3rd Borough President of Manhatttan.
1903(OS):
Birthdate of Russian-born American violinist Nathan Milstein.
1903: Dutch
jurist Aaron Adolf de Pinot who had been appointed justice of the Supreme Court
in 1876 was named vice president of that court today.
1903: As of
today, the Independent Order for the Free Sons of Judah had a total membership
of 7,608 which was divided into 115 lodges, “of which 6 were ladies’ lodges”
located in six states and the District of Columbia.
1904: Following the
recent death of his father Clarence Charles Minzesheimer head of the banking
and brokerage house of Charles Minzesheimer & Co which had been founded in
1860, reformed the business with two new partners
1904: Thirty-three-year-old
NYU Law School graduate Otto A. Rosalsky, the brother of engineer Murray G.
Rosalksy and the husband of Bessie Simon Rosalsky ended his term as a member of
the General Sessions bench today.
1905:
In London, “Anna Kertman and Isadore Stein, emigrants from Ukraine,’ gave birth
Julius Kerwin Stein who gained fame as Chicago Musical College alum and award-winning
composer of songs and Broadway musicals Jules Styne
http://www.julestyne.com/Biography.php
1906:
Thirty-year old Otto A Rosalsky completed his service on the General Sessions
having been appointed by the Governor to “fill the unexpired term of” of the
incumbent who had moved on to the State Supreme Court.
1906(14th
of Tevet, 5667): Thirty-six-year-old Frank Henry Nathan, the son of Charleston
native Eudora H. Hart and Gratz Nathan and husband of Sarah Moss passed away
today.
1906: The
Central Conference of American Rabbis paid $10.20 for “clerical work” and Toby
Rubovits $1,027.55 for “printing and mailing Year Books and Officers’ Reports.”
1906(14th
of Tevet, 5667): Julia Goodman née Salaman a
British portrait painter, passed away.
1907: Twenty-eight-year-old
JTS and NY Law School graduate David M. Bressler, the German born son of Julius
and Sarah Bressler married Irma Loeb today in New York.
1907: Dr. Edward C. Hirsch told the those attending the final session of the
convention of the American Ethical Societies that “that to be a Jew in the
United States, with all its boasted democracy and civilization is not such a
comfortable thing.”
1908: Birthdate
of Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/simon-wiesenthal
1908: Birthdate of
Vancouver native and U. of Washington trained attorney Alex Caplan who practice
law in Seattle and was active in the B’nai B’rith as can be seen from entries
in the Jewish Transcript.
1908:
Birthdate of Lillian Klein Pollack, the Brooklynite who was active in the
Jewish Child Care Association, Federations of Jewish Philanthropies and
Hadassah and who was the wife of Milton Pollack.
1908: Louis A.
Hensheimer, a member of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb and Company was operated
on today for appendicitis.
1910(30th of
Kislev, 5671): Parashat Miketz, Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1910: In New York City,
George Washington Leder, the Jewish Broadway producer and director and Reine
Davis gave birth to screenwriter and director Charles Davis Lederer who showed
is range by writing such comedies “Front Page,” “His Girl Friday,” and
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” as well as such weightier films as “The Spirit of
St. Louis” and “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
1911: Forty-five-year-old
Harvard trained attorney Julian Mack, the San Francisco born son of William
Jacob and Rebecca Tandler Mack completed his service as the Judge of the United
State Circuit Courts for the Seventh Circuit.
1911(10th
of Tevet, 5672): As large parts of the World fill themselves with food and
drink as they get ready to usher out the older year, Jews are observing the
fast – Asara B’Tevet
1911: Russian
troops, occupying the Persian city of Tabriz where Jews had been massacred in
1830 by Shi’a Muslims, carried out the execution of Shiite Muslim cleric
Seqat-ol-Eslam Tabrizi, along with 12 other Iranian nationalists, in
retaliation for their opposition to the Russian invasion.
1912:
Birthdate of Newark, NJ, native Beatrice (Ribak) Mandelman the muralist and
printmaker who” attended Rutgers University, the Newark School
of Fine and Industrial Art and the Art Students League in New York City” and
who worked for the WPA from 1935 to 1942 where she was “one of the original
members of the Silk Screen Unit.”
1912: Brooklyn
born Edward Lazansky completed a year one term as New York Secretary of State.
1912: A
Russo-U.S. trade treaty, originally ratified in 1832, was abrogated by
President Taft because of Russian discrimination against Jews who were American
citizens.
1913(2nd
of Tevet, 5674): Eight Day of Chanukah (Editor’s note – the last time the
holiday would be observed before WW I which found English, French and Russian
Jews fighting against Jews from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire)
1913: By
the time the copyright of the opera “Parsifal” expired today, it had been
performed 43 times since first performed under the direction of Heinrich
Conried who began managing the Met in 1903.
1913: In
New York, Julius Harburger completed his term as Sherriff.
1914:
Mitchell May completed his term as New York’s Secretary of States.
1914: “In a
letter to Louis Marshall, President of the American Jewish Committee, the State
Department informs him that there was much exaggeration in the cabled report
published a few days ago to the effect that a large number of Jews in Jaffa had
been summarily expelled from that city and summarily expelled from that city
and transported to Alexandria, and that they had suffered from violence and
insult at the hands of Turkish officials.” (Editor’s note - one wonders
why the State Department decided to whitewash what was an effect a pogrom)
1914: As
conditions continue to deteriorate for non-Moslems in the Holy Land, “three
hundred French and forty Russian monks and nuns arrived at Pireus today from
Palestine.”
1914: It
was reported today that when the ship sponsored by the American Jewish Relief
Committee sails from New York “it will carry relief, not only to the Jewish
sufferers of Palestine but to the constituencies of the Presbyterian Board of
Missions, the American Missionary Board and The Christian Herald.
1914: “The
Provisional Executive Committee for general Zionist affairs…announced “today”
that the Turkish Post Office has prohibited the use of all languages except
Turkish, Arabic, French and German” which will present a problem for Jews
writing to Palestine because most of them write in Yiddish, Hebrew and/or
Russian.
1914 It was
reported today that among those contributing to the fund for the relief of the
Jews of Russia, Poland and Galicia were Camp Zion of Des Moines, Iowa and
Temple Emanuel of Helena, Montana
1914:
“Denver Jews To Aid Frank” published reported that “the Jews of Denver ask only
for a fair trial for Leo Frank – a trail free from prejudice and the menace of
hissing, howling mob outside the courtroom.”
1914: It
was reported today that Dr. Leon Harrison of St. Louis believes that the Leo
Frank case “shows that the prejudice again the Jews has been entirely removed”
and it shows “that the Jew is born to suffer.”
1914:
Martin H. Glynn, the 40th governor of the state of New York
completed his term in office. Five years later he would come to the defense of
the Jews of post-World War Europe in an article entitled “The Crucifixion of
Jews Must Stop!” Since he was a Roman Catholic who never ran for office after
leaving the statehouse, we can only assume that his article was written out of
personal conviction.
1914: It
was reported today that the American Jewish Relief Committee has sent fifty
thousand dollars to the Jewish Colonization Association at Petrograd for
distribution to the needy
1914: It was reported
today that the American Jewish Relief Committee has collected $262,067.97.
1915(24th of
Tevet, 5676): Seventy-year-old Joseph Goodhart, a former member of the Board of
Education passed away today in Cleveland, Ohio.
1915: The
commander-in-chief of the BEF gave orders that Solomon Joseph Solomon should be
given the temporary rank of Lieutenant Colonel so that he can begin the work of
setting up “a team to start the production of camouflage materials in France.
1915:
“Jacob R. Fain, representing the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Society of
America arrived” in Seattle “from New York today to assist in caring for Jewish
refugees from the Russian war zone.”
1915: Three
days after the order had come for the disbandment, “at the last parade” today
Joseph Trumpeldor addressed the men in Hebrew saying “‘We are leaving tonight;
our work is done. We have a right to say; well done … we and the Jewish people
need never be ashamed of the Zion Mule Corps!’”
1915: It
was reported today that the American Jewish Relief Committee had received a
telegram from Isidor Herschfield, who was traveling in war torn Eastern Europe
on behalf of the committee and HIAS that described the need for shoes, food,
clothing, fuel and “enormous sums” in Bialystock, Peski, Ross and Vilna.
1915: “The
American Jewish Relief Committee which is attempting to raise $5,000,000 before
the end of 1916 for the benefit of Jews suffering the war announced” today at
the office of the Treasurer, Felix Warburg the receipt of $1,200 from non-Jews”
including ex-Senator W. A. Clark, $1,000; R. Fulton Cutting, $100 and Paul D.
Cravath, $100.”
1915: “Dr.
Felix Adler warned the member of the Society for Ethical Culture at the meeting
held” this “morning in Carnegie Hall that there are crises pending in the world
and that it behooved the educated class to organize for the purpose of meeting
them” and “he especially urged upon the society the advisability of taking a
united stand in all matters pertaining to the social and moral status of the
people.”
1915: Louis
D. Brandeis and Dr. Schmarya Levin are scheduled to be the guests of honor at
the 19th annual convention of the Knights of Zion opening today in
Chicago.
1915: In
writing today about why the United States should join the Entente powers, Isaac
Don Levine said that, among other benefits would be a shortening of the war and
providing support for “oppressed nationalities including Jews, Poles and
Armenians.”
1916:
Birthdate of Leo Kahn, whose success in pioneering big-box, warehouse-style
supermarkets led him to join with another entrepreneur in 1986 to start Staples,
the retail chain that calls itself the “office superstore…” (As reported by
Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/business/13kahn.html?_r=0
1916: “Mr. and Mrs.
Henry L. Gideon of Boston” are scheduled to “give a recite of Jewish music this
evening…for the Sunday Evening Forum of the Free Synagogue. (Gideon was the
author of Jewish Hymnal for Religious Schools.)
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Religious-Schools-Classic-Reprint/dp/1332748074
1916: Among the
contributions listed today by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews
Suffering through the War were $100 from the Jewish Alliance of Hamilton,
Canada, $500 from the Ontario, Canada, Committee and $20 from the Chevra
Kaddisha in Rockland, Maine.
1916: Extracts from a
speech delivered in the Russian Duma by Deputy Friedman were made public today
the American Jewish Committee in which he said, “The Jewish people are deprived
of the right to have their own press and recently of the right to have prayer
books, textbooks and reference books in their own language” and “as before
hundreds of Jewish youths are not admitted to the educational institutions.”
1916: In
Constantinople, Arthur Ruppin, a German born Zionist wrote in his diary,
“Apparently the war is gradually coming to a close. Probably, it will
still take some time, but 1917 will bring us peace.”
1917: Nathan D. Perlman
completed his two-year term as a member of the New York State Assembly from 6th
district in New York County.
1917: Today, the New
York State Supreme Court ruled that Mitchell Mark “had the sold right to use
the ‘The Strand’ for a movie theater.” Starting in the 1890’s Mark became
one of the first entrepreneurs to dominate the field of movie distribution. In
1914, Mitchell and Moe Mark opened the million-dollar Mark Strand Theatre in
New York City, which “may have been first real movie palace, specifically built
only to show motion pictures…The New York Times favorably reviewed the
opening of this theater, helping to establish its importance.” Having spent
that kind of money (a million dollars was big money in the second decade of the
20th century), it is understandable that Mark would take steps to
keep others from encroaching on the fame of his new theatre.
1917: It was reported
today that eighteen-year-old Max Rosen, the son of Rumanian immigrant and
Bowery barber shop owner Benjamin Rosen, has returned to New York from Europe
where he has been studying and performing to adoring audiences for the last
five years is scheduled to make his debut in January with Philharmonic
Orchestra in Carnegie Hall next month.
1917: Tonight, Albert
Lucas announced that today “more than $750,000 was paid into the treasure of
the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds For Jewish War Suffers”
which meant that Julius Rosenwald would pay an additional $75,000 into the fund
based on his promise to give ten percent based on the total of all money
received by December 31, 1917.
1917: Resolutions were
passed today at the fifth annual convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah
Association meeting at Columbia University “expressing the gratitude of the
association to the British Government for its declaration favoring the
establishment of a national home for Jews in Palestine and pledging the
whole-hearted support of the association to the United States Government in the
war.”
1917: It was reported
today that the 85 organizations affiliated with the Federation for the Support
of Jewish Philanthropic Societies have spent $3,980,962 so far this year and
are requesting $4,685,362 for 1918.
1917: The 21st
Annual Convention of the Federated Zionist Societies of the Middle West which
was organized in 1898 opened today in Chicago.
1917:
Colonel Storrs, the newly appointed British Military Governor of Jerusalem
“received New Year’s greeting from all the city’s communities – Muslim,
Christian and Jewish.” The Jewish community sent two greetings, one from
the Ashkenazi Community Council and one from the City Council of Jerusalem
Jews.
1918: Birthdate of Antonio Yosef Ben-Jochannan the Puerto Rican born historian
and prolific author whose best-known work may be Abu Simbel to Ghizeh: A
Guide Book and Manual
1918:
Charles S. Whitman, who as Governor-elected “had stated” that he would “appoint
at least one Jew to each Board of Managers of the State hospitals” completed
his service as the 41st Governor of New York.
1919: Adelaide Cohen, Baroness Cohen, the
London born daughter of Sir Isidore Spielman and Emily Sebag-Montefiore and her
husband Lionel Cohen, Baron Cohen, gave birth to Elizabet Adelaide Samuel, the wife
of Peter Samuel, 4th Viscount Bearsted and Captain Arthur John Pearce-Serocold
1919: Twenty-three-year-old Columbia trained
psychologist Dr. Elsie Oschrin Bregman, the Newark, NJ, born son of Aaron and
Theresa (Goldstein) Oschrin married Adolph Bregman today.
1919:
Fiorello La Guardia whose father was a Catholic from Italy and whose mother was
Jew from Trieste, completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 14th District.’
1920: Abram
I. Elkus completed his service on the New York Court of Appeals.
1921(30th
of Kislev, 5682): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah.
1921:
Senator Boise Penrose who in 1911 described “discrimination by the
Russian Government against American Hebrews as an assault on American
principles and traditions” and assured a delegation of Jews from Philadelphia
“that he agreed with their contention that the violation of their treaty rights
as American citizens was not a proper subject for an arbitration tribunal but
should result in the passing of a resolution by Congress denouncing the present
treaty” with Russia passed away today.
1921: 1919:
Fiorello La Guardia whose father was a Catholic from Italy and whose mother was
Jew from Trieste, completed his service as a member of the tenth President of
the New York City Board of Aldermen
1922: A
delicatessen dinner and reception are scheduled to be held at the Brooklyn
Jewish Center on Eastern Parkway.
1922:
Consul A.E. Southard reported from Jerusalem that there are “about 700
passenger cars, 100 motor trucks and 100 motorcycles now in used in Palestine”
and that approximately 90 percent of the of the passenger cars and 75 percent
of the trucks are from the United States.
1922: It was reported
today Counsel A.E. Southard who is stationed in Jerusalem that there are “about
700 passenger cars 100 trucks and 100 motorcycles now in use in Palestine.
1922:
The Alumni Association of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society hosted a
bazzar at the Central Jewish Institute in NYC from noon until midnight.
1922:
Birthdate of Marek Edelman, Jewish-Polish political and social activist,
cardiologist, and one of the last living leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1923:
Columbia trained attorney Nathan Bijur , the New York born son of Asher and
Pauline Bijur and thew husband of Lily Pronick completed his first term as
Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.
1923:
Birthdate of New York City native and CCNY graduate Seymour David Simpson, the
“food chain executive, WW II and active member of the UJA.
1923:
Birthdate of Arthur Siegel, the classically trained musician who gained fame as
an American songwriter.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/17/obituaries/arthur-siegel-song-composer-and-pianist-70.html
1923: “Kid
Boots” starring Eddie Cantor opened on Broadway at the Earl Carroll Theatre.
1923: “Dr.
Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, and Louis Marshall,
lawyer, speaking this morning at the dedication of the new $1,000,000 Brooklyn
Jewish Center, on Eastern Parkway, between New York and Brooklyn Avenues, paid
a tribute to American and Jewish ideals.”
1924:
Birthdate of Dutch born American economist Hendrik Samuel “Hank” Houthakker.
1924:
Deadline set by Governor General Primo de Rivera of Spain offering all
Sephardim the possibility of reacquiring Spanish nationality. Very few Jews
took him up on this offer.
1925:
Arthur Kober, the Brody-born American author and playwright Lillian Hellman
married today.
1926: “The
General” a film that included “gags and bits of business” by Al Boasberg was
released today in Tokyo.
1927: Henry
Ford ended publication of the Dearborn Independent after having written “a
public letter to ADL president Sigmund Livingston recanting his anti-Semitic
views.
1928: “An
explanation of the mechanism of growth of plant, animal and human tumors,
including cancer, was made at this morning's session of plant pathologists in
the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science” by Dr.
Michael Levine of the medical laboratories of Montefiore Hospital, New York.
1928:
Funeral services were held at Temple Emanu-El for diamond importer Leopold
Stern where his “close friend, Dr. Samuel Schulman paid tribute to ‘his well
–rounded life characterized by the virtues of work, service, character and
faith” after which he was buried “in the family mausoleum in old Beth-El
Cemetery.”
1928:
Republican Albert Ottinger completed his service as New York State’s Attorney
Generaly
1929: In
Mineola, NY, James J. Silvers a salesman, sometime farmer and small business
owner, and Rose Roden Silvers a music critic for The New York Globe and one of
the first female radio hosts for RCA gave birth to Robert B. Silvers, a founder
of The New York Review of Books.
http://www.nybooks.com/robert-silvers/
1929(29th of
Kislev, 5690): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1929: “Former Governor Nathan
L. Miller, attorney for Universal Pictures in the defense of the suit by which
Anne Nichols hopes to win $3,000,000 for alleged, plagiarism of her play,
"Abie's Irish Rose," in the picture "The Cohens and the Kellys,"
attacked Moses L. Malevinsky's 657page bill of particulars in cross-examining
Mr. Malevinsky before Federal Judge Goddard” today.
1929(29th of
Kislev, 5690): Sixty-seven-year-old Warsaw born pianist and music teacher
Alexander Lambert who “was either student, teacher or close personal friend of
almost every important pianist in the last fifty years” died today after having
been accidently struck by a cab owned by Julius Isaacson.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/01/01/92052002.pdf
1930: In
Bayonne, NJ. Austro-Hungarian Jewish immigrant and saloon owner Jacob Sturz and
Ida (Meirowitz) Sturz gavebirth to Herbert Jay Sturz “a self-taught expert in
criminal justice and urban planning who profoundly but inconspicuously
influenced public policy across a remarkably broad range of issues in New York
and beyond…” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1931: It
was reported today that S.Y. Haim who had been arrested five years ago while
serving as acting president of the Zionist Organization of Person on charges
that he had “participated in a conspiracy against the government and plotted
the death of the Persian Shah” has been executed.
1931:
Birthdate of “Irish journalist, novelist and feminist” June Levine
http://www.irishwriters-online.com/levine-june/
1931:
Jewish author Emil Ludwig interviews Joseph Stalin. The interviews will
provide material for his biography on the Soviet dictator.
1932(2nd
of Tevet, 5693): Parashat Miketz; Eight Day of Chanukah
1932: “The
Match King” a biopic produced by Hal B. Wallis and featuring Harold Huber was
released today in the United States.
1933:
According to reports published today, Erika Morini, the Jewish violinist from
Vienna, will be coming to the United States during the Fall of 1934 for her
fifth tour in this country. Morini is considered a real child prodigy.
Born in 1904, she made her concert debut in 1917.
1933(13th
of Tevet, 5694): Hungarian born American rabbi, scholar and author George Alexander Kohut passed away today
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9405E7D7173DE33BBC4E52DFBE66838D629EDE
http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=17635
1934: By
the end of the month, movies goers in the United Kingdom had a chance to “The
Man Who Knew Too Much” a mystery produced by Michael Balcon and starring Peter
Lorre.
1934: As of
today, Otto A. Rosalsky was scheduled to complete his fourteen-year service on
the General Service bench, having been elected to a fourteen-year term with
Republican and Tammany Hall support.
1935: Under
the leadership of Seymour Weiss, in New Orleans, the Roosevelt Hotel made a
major upgrade with the opening of the Blue Room, which for decades, was one of
the leading, if not the leading and classiest place to spend an evening in “the
city that care forgot.
1935: The last Jews remaining
in Germany's civil service are dismissed by the government.
1936: Leonard Stein,
the local adviser to the Jewish agency in London testified for almost three
hours today before the Royal Commission in a last-ditch effort by the Zionists
to prevent Great Britain from changing the terms of the mandate which had been
“granted for the express purpose of establishing a Jewish national home” to a
new interpretation that would favor the Arabs.
1937: Birthdate of
Avram Hershko Israeli biologist who won 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the
discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation.
1937: The
Palestine Post reported from London that a number of influential British
Cabinet members recommended an entirely new policy in Palestine. They demanded
the abandoning of the Lord Peel Partition plan, and the overthrow of the idea
of the Jewish National Home as conceived in the Balfour Declaration of 1917,
and offered an alternative of a permanent Jewish minority in an all-Arab
Palestine state, so much for the concept of British honor.
1937:
Birthdate of German journalist and businessman Paul Spiegel
1937(27th
of Tevet, 5698): Yehiel Ephroni, 33, was fatally wounded by shots fired by an
Arab terrorist gang at an Egged bus at Km. 16 of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Road.
1937: The
Bucharest Stock Exchange crashed when Romanian Jews started to liquidate their
assets, fearing the new government’s anti-Semitic policy.
1937: Final
Broadway performance at the Ritz Theatre of “Love in My Fashion” produced by
Morris Green
1937:
“Stage Door” the movie version of the Edna Feber and George Kaufman stage play with the
same name produced by Pandro S. Berman was released in the United Kingdom.
1938: Five
hundred Jews attended a New Year’s Eve dance at the King David Hotel in
Jerusalem. According to John Martin, the Secretary of the Peel
Commission, a female reveler broke into the room of Sir Horace Humboldt, the
official who called the Jews of Palestine an “alien race’, blew a small trumpet
to awaken him and then proceeded to tell him the ‘he was the ugliest member of
the commission and various other home truths while he cowered helpless beneath
the counterpane.”
1939:
Kibbutz Usha, Rachel (Rushka) and Shmuel Pazi gave birth to war hero and
Paralympic Medalist, Igal Pazi.
1939(19th
of Tevet, 5700): Eighty-two-year-old Georg Wertheim who “joined the department
stored founded by his father Abraham” which employed 10,000 in its pre-World
War I heyday but was lost to the family when the Nazis came to power passed
away today in Berlin.
1939: As World War II
began 1,210 Jews boarded the river boat Uranus, looking to be transported to
Palestine.
1940: Photographer and
Jewish refugee Roman Vishniac arrived in New York today and “soon afterwards
opened a portrait studio.”
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/roman-vishniac?all/all/all/all/0
1940: On New Year’s
Eve, at Dachau, Fritz Grunbaum, who was gravely ill with tuberculosis put on
his last show as he entertained the prisoners in the camp infirmary.
http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/places/camps/music-early-camps/dachau/grnbaumfritz/
1941: A New Year’s Eve costume party was held in Riga,
Latvia.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/04.asp
1941:
Hitler approved Alfred Rosenbeg’s request to plunder the French Jews and
distribute their property to Nazi party members and members of the Werhmacht
staff. The fact that the Werhmacht profited from this should be an
indicator that the German General Staff was aware of what the fate of the Jews
from the early days of the war.
1941: In Washington, DC, on “New Year’s Eve in the
dead of night, the National Gallery loaded seventy-five of its best works and
secretly slipped them out of town” as they began their trip to “safety” in
North Carolina in what was part of the effort to protect America’s value
historical documents and art which was part of an activity that was the first
move in what would eventually become the work of “the Monuments Men.”
1941: In
the dark days of the European Night, this was an attempt to strike a match and
bring a flicker of hope to the desperate. On this night, Abba Kovner
uttered some of the most meaningful lines of the 20th century. On New
Year’s Eve, Abba Kovner spoke out at a meeting of Zionist Youth hiding in a
convent outside of Vilna. He asserted that Hitler wanted to kill all the
Jews and called for armed resistance with his famous words. "Let us not go
as sheep to the slaughter." As a result of the meeting and his
stirring call to action, the Jews formed the United Partisan
Organization. Kovner’s revolt failed and he became part of a partisan
unit. Later, he was active in smuggling Jews into Palestine. After
fighting in the War for Independence, he settled down on a kibbutz with his
wife and pursued a career as a poet. He was one of the witnesses against
Eichmann when the Nazi butcher was brought to trial in Jerusalem.
1942:
Captain Isidore Newman, a member of the SOE reported to Training School S2
today where he began learning “the latest radio techniques.
1942: Ayn
Rand's The Fountainhead was delivered to her publisher. Although it was
not her first novel, it was the first to win a wide following for the
philosophy she called Objectivism. She explained that: "My philosophy, in
essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the
moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity,
and reason as his only absolute.” The Fountainhead illustrated this
philosophy for the public through the tale of an architect who sticks to his
artistic convictions against massive social opposition. Though critics failed
to praise the book, it eventually became a best-seller, and was made into a
movie starring Gary Cooper in 1949. Together with Atlas Shrugged (1957),
The Fountainhead has become one of the central texts of an Objectivist
movement that emphasizes capitalism, individualism, and the pursuit of
individual ambition. Although her idea that altruism is bad and selfishness
good contradicts traditional Jewish values, Rand's promotion of individual
ambition was typical of Russian Jewish emigrants of her generation. Rand
herself came from Russia to the United States at age 21, drawn by the
conditions depicted in American movies, and eager to leave Stalinist Russia.
Jobs as a screenwriter and script reader in Hollywood supported her writing,
and also introduced her to husband Frank O'Connor. Literary critics and
philosophers have never taken Rand seriously, but her works have garnered
popular acclaim. Despite mostly negative reviews, her four novels have together
sold over twenty-five million copies, and Objectivist discussion groups and
internet sites abound.
1942: By this date, the German Reich has deported more than
two million Jews to death camps. Hundreds of thousands more Jews have been
murdered by Einsatzgruppen and police battalions.
1942: In
Petah-Tikva, Simcha and David Mizrahi gave birth to Yehezckel Mizrahi who
perished aboard the Submarine Dakar.
1942: At a
meeting of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Churchill asked if would be possible
for the RAF to undertake two or three heavy raids on Berlin in January.
In addition to dropping bombs on the German capital, the planes would drop
leaflets warning them of the fate that awaited them at the end of the war and
that the attacks were reprisals for Nazi persecution of Poles and Jews.
Sir Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff “warned that any such raids
avowedly conducted on account of the Jews would be an asset to enemy
propaganda.” The RAF and the USAAF had at least one thing in common.
Neither military unit was going to exert any effort to slow down the impact of
the Final Solution.
1943(4th
of Tevet, 5704): Sixty-nine-year-old Halifax, NC native and graduate of UNC and
U. Md. School of Medicine, Dr, Lee Cohen the Captain in the Medical Corps
during WW I who “was among the first in American to undertake plastic surgery
on the nose and who designed many of the instruments used in plastic surgery”
passed away today at Johns Hopkins Hospital leaving behind “a widow and three
daughters.
1943: It was reported
today that William B. Herland, the Commissioner of Investigation, has been
appointed to the executive committee of the metropolitan section of the
National Welfare Board which is responsible for centers serving one hundred
thousand persons.
1943: U.S. premiere of
“Destination Tokyo” produced by Jerry Wald and Jack L. Warner, co-starring John
Garfield with music by Franz Waxman and a script co-authored by Albert Maltz.
1943: Had it not been
for his death in 1941, today would have marked the end of Israel J.P.
Alderman’s ten-year tenure as City Court Judge in New York City.
1943: “Thanks to the
ceaseless importunity of Rabbi Kalmanowitz, the firsthand reports of Laura
Margolies, the vigorous efforts of Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau,
Jr. and John Pehle, the director of the Division of Foreign Funds Control,” by the
end of this month, “the interpretation of the Trading with the Enemy Act was
finally relaxed” which enable the JDC to be able to provide aid to the
suffering Jews trapped in the Shanghai Ghetto.
1944: Hungarian Arrow Cross members storm a Swiss-sponsored
"safe house" in Budapest and attack residents with machine guns and
hand grenades. Three Jews are killed but the rest are saved by a Hungarian military,
1944: After
27-years of service, Rabbi Samuel Cohen resigned today as executive director of
the United Synagogue of America,” the umbrella organization for the
Conservative Judaism.
1944(15th
of Tevet, 5705): Jewish educator Abraham Handelman, who in 1913 came to the
U.S. where he earned degrees from Drake and Dropsie in Philadelphia passed
today.
1944(15th
of Tevet, 5705): Sixty-nine-year-old Halifax, NC native and UNC graduate Dr.
Lee Cohen, the University of Maryland School of Medicine trained plastic
surgeon who was a Captain in the Medical Corps I and WW I and “was among the
first in America to undertake plastic surgery on the nose…” passed away today
in Baltimore.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/01/01/83962145.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1944(15th
of Tevet, 5705): Josephine Sarah Marcus passed away. Born to German
immigrant parents in Brooklyn, NY, in 1861, Marcus grew up in San Francisco.
Enchanted by a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore,
she ran away from home at age 18 to join the theatre. On tour in Tombstone,
Arizona, she met and married Wyatt Earp, then a deputy U.S. Marshall for the
Arizona Territory. In 1881, Wyatt Earp won lasting fame when he and his
brothers fought a gun battle with their political rivals the Clanton gang at
the O.K. Corral. Fleeing indictment for murder in the aftermath of the
shootings, Wyatt and Josephine moved to Colorado. Wyatt's and Josephine's
marriage lasted another forty-eight years, until his death in 1929. During
these years, they moved frequently around the American west, following gold,
silver, and copper mining, until they settled in Southern California. There,
they invested in real estate and racehorses, wrote Wyatt's autobiography, and
drafted a screenplay based on his exploits. After Wyatt's death, Josephine
contributed to published and film portrayals of his life, helping to establish
an enduring American legend. Josephine Marcus-Earp was buried beside her
husband in a Jewish cemetery in Northern California, where their graves are
today the primary local tourist attraction.
1945:
Birthdate of Leonard Max Adleman a theoretical computer scientist and professor
of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern
California. He is known for being a co-inventor of the RSA
(Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptosystem in 1977, and of DNA computing. RSA is in
widespread use in security applications, including digital signatures. He won
the ACM Turing Award in 2002.
1945: “Doll
Face,” a movie adaptation of “The Naked Genius,” a play co-authored by Mike
Today was released today in the United States.
1945:
Fiorello La Guardia whose father was a Catholic from Italy and whose mother was
Jew from Trieste, completed his service as the 99th Mayor of New
York City.
1945: In
Pittsburgh, a gang of seven Italian American robbers killed a Jewish restaurant
owner. The Pittsburgh Jewish Community Relations Council “made a point of
downplaying the role of group antagonism as a motivation for this tragic event
in order not to harm Jewish-Italian relations.”
1946: Another combined military and police search for the
terrorists responsible for Thursday night's explosions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv
and Jaffa was carried out in the slum area of Jerusalem this morning. More than
400 persons were detained for interrogation.
1946: In
Brussels, Leon (Lipa) Halfin and Holocuast survivor Lilane Nahmias, gave birth
to Diane Simone Michelle Halfin who gained fame as fashion designer Diane von
Fürstenberg
http://www.makers.com/diane-von-furstenberg
1947:
Following an Arab attack on the refinery at Haifa where they killed 47 Jews,
members of the Palmach launched an attack on Balad al-Shaykh, Haifa.
1947(18th
of Tevet, 5708): Fannie Kaplan, the mother of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan passed away
today which resulted in his sisters Sandra and Barbara being “sent to a foster
home” and turning the 13-year-old into a non-observant, rebellious “street
kid.”
1947:
Because of constant attacks from Arabs and the siege of Jerusalem, Hebrew
University was forced to end all courses and close its doors.
1947:
Benjamin J. Rabin completed his term as a Member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 24th District today.
1947:
Darius Paul Dassault, the French military leader who had changed his name from
Darius Paul Bloch was serving with the Resistance was promoted to the rank of
Army General (général d'armée)
1948(29th
of Kislev, 5709): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1948:
“Words and Music” a biopic “based on the creative partnership of the composer
Richard Rodgers and lyricist Lorenz Hart who provided the score for the show
which was directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Arthur Freed was released
today in the United States.
1948: In
response to a British ultimatum, Ben-Gurion dispatched the order for Israeli
forces to evacuate the Sinai and return to the Negev. A Jewish brigade was on
the brink of capturing the Egyptian city of El Arish. Despite pleas from
Yigal Allon, who was in command of the forces, Ben-Gurion refused to change his
mind. Ever the realist, Ben Gurion knew he needed a successful conclusion to
fighting with the Arabs; not a widening war with the British.
1948: U.S.
President Harry Truman cabled Ben-Gurion demanding that Israeli forces evacuate
the Sinai or face the possible loss of U.S. support. Truman did not know
that Ben-Gurion had already issued orders for such an evacuation. There
are those who think Truman was moving to shore up the British whose support he
needed in dealing with the threat of Soviet Imperialism.
1948:
“While flying a Spitfire (White 15) on a patrol over the Sinai” Danny Wilson
“spotted an Egyptian aircraft - an Italian Fiat (Macchi) - coming back to its
airfield at Bir Hama” which he shot down and from which the enemy pilot escaped
when the pilot bailed out.
1949: The
curtain came down “Born Yesterday” starring Judy Holliday today after 1,642
performances.
1949:
Birthdate of American author Susan Schwartz.
1950(22nd
of Tevet, 5711): Sixty-eight-year-old Vilna native Jacob
Billikopf, Ph.B., L.L.D who was a nationally
known figure in social work, Jewish philanthropy and labor arbitration passed
away today. Billikopf had a long and distinguished career in public service
work. He served as superintendent of the United Jewish Charities in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin and Kansas City, Missouri, before becoming the executive director of
the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, chairman
of the National Labor Board for the Philadelphia region during the first years
of the New Deal. He served as impartial chairman of both the Ladies' Garment
industry and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in [Philadelphia]. He later
represented the department stores of Philadelphia in their labor relations. He
was also a member of the board of trustees of the New School for Social
Research, and president of the board of trustees of Howard University. In 1937
and 1938 he dedicated himself fulltime to bringing European Jewish refugees
into the United States. Following World War II he served on the Clemency Board
in Washington which was established to review court martial sentences.
1951(2nd
of Tevet, 5712): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1951:
Seventy-five-year-old Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet leader whose greatest
accomplishment may have been his ability to survive Stalin’s paranoia and
anti-Semitism passed away today.
http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSlitvinov.htm
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported
that the Knesset passed the first reading of the War Invalids Bill, submitted
by the Minister of Labor, Mrs. Golda Meyerson (Meir).(This is the same Golda
Meir who would become Foreign Minister and Prime Minister in the 1970's in time
for the Yom Kippur War.) The bill assured veteran rights, the same as
provided to the casualties of the Israel Defense Forces, to the invalids of the
World War II Palestinian units of the British Army, and to the invalids of the
Haganah. Pensions were also granted to partisans who fought Hitler. The bill
was attacked sharply by Herut Knesset members on the grounds that it
discriminated against the fighters of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and Fighters for the
Freedom of Israel (Lehi). (The Labor Zionists did not the Irgun or the Stern
Gang as legitimate parts of the IDF and this was their way of rejecting them
and their behavior once and for all.)
1952: In
the wake of the “Red Scare” Rutgers University fired Moses Finley even though
the Special Faculty Committee had issued a report “stating there should be no
charges against…Finley and the University should take no further action in the
matter.”
1952: “The
Stooge” a comedy directed Norman Taurog and co-starring Jerry Lewis, Polly
Bergen and Eddie Mayehoff, the son of Russian immigrant Jew was released today
in the United States.
1953: In
Boston, MA, Elizabeth Mary and S. Roy Remar, an attorney gave birth to American
actor William James Remar whose “paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish
immigrants” who name was originally “Ramarman.”
1953:
Tammany Hall stalwart Herbert Rosenberg was appointed Board of Water Supply
Commissioner today.
1953: In
New York, Reuben Levy has received a 10-year appointment as a city magistrate.
1953: In
Brooklyn, Frank Rabinowitz, “a high school P.E. teacher” and “Shirley (Felman)
Rabinowitz” gave birth to Alan Robert Rabinowitz, the University of Tennessee
Ph.D. conservationist best known for his work with saving the Jaguars from
extinction. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
1954:
Republican Nathaniel Goldstein completed his third and final term as Attorney
General of the State of New York.
1954: In
New York City, “Abigail Heyward and Irwin Schneiderman” gave birth to Harvard
Law School trained attorney Eric Tradd Schneiderman who resigned his position
as Attorney General of New York after being accused of sexually abusing at
least four women while serving as A.G.
1954: Jacob
K. Javits completed his service as a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from New York’s 21st District.
1955(16th
of Tevet, 5716): Parashet Vayechi
1955: NYU
trained attorney and New York State legislator Philip M. Kleinfeld “was
designated by Governor Averell Harriman to the Appellate Division Second
Department” today.
1955(16th
of Tevet, 5716): Forty-two-year-old Sid Grossman, the WW II veteran and
photographer who taught art to several budding youngsters passed away today.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/31/reviews/001231.31schort.html
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/redeeming-a-life-in-photography/?_r=0
1955(16th
of Tevet, 5716): Seventy-three-year-old novelist and translator Ludwig
Lewisohn, one of the original members of the faculty at Brandeis university
passed away today.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/summary/v020/20.2kessner.html
http://www.jta.org/1956/01/03/archive/jewish-organizations-mourn-death-of-ludwig-lewisohn-was-72
1956: Birthdate
of Dr. Martin Joseph Fettman. An astronaut, Fettman was a Payload
Specialist
1957: David Ben-Gurion
resigned as Prime Minister “over the leaking of information from ministerial
meetings.
1957(8th of
Tevet, 5718): Eighty-five-year-old retired State Superior Court Judge Isadore
L. Harris suffered an apparent fatal heart attack today at the Whitcomb Hotel
in San Francisco.
1958: In Princeton, NJ,
Sydney Anne and Lee Paul Neuwrith gave birth to actress Beatrice “Bebe”
Neuwirth
1958: The Palestine
Jewish Colonization Association, commonly known by its Hebrew acronym PICA,
which had been established in 1924 “agreed to vest its right to land holdings
in Syria and Lebanon to the state of Israel.
1958: On New Year’s
Eve, while dictator Flugencio Batista was preparing to flee Cuba one step ahead
of Castro’s revolutionary forces mobster Meyer “Lansky was celebrating the $3
million he made in the first year of operations at his 440-room, $18 million
palace, the Habana Riviera.”
1959(30th of
Kislev, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1959: Isidore Dollinger resigns as a member
of the House of Representatives from New York’s 23rd Congressional
District.
1960(12th of
Tevet, 5721): Parashat Vayechi
1960(12th of
Tevet, 5721): Twice married, forty-seven year old Richard Simon Hirschland the
New York born son of Gula and Franz Hirschland and president of the George V.
Clark Company passed away today.
1961: Having led the
New York Giants to the Eastern Conference Champion, Coach Allie Sherman
suffered a loss to Green Bay in today’s NFL Championship Game.
1962: “40
Pounds of Trouble” a comedy starring Tony Curtis and Larry Storch was released
in the United States by Universal Pictures.
1962: Max
Goberman who conducted “the original productions of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘On the
Town’ and West Side Story’” passed away today.
http://www.naxos.com/person/Max_Goberman/100862.htm
1962: Lesser
Enterprises the real estate development firm led by Louis Lesser announced its
first cash distribution – 21 cents a share – today.
1963(15th of
Tevet, 5724): Seventy-seven year “Jacob Halpern, old a former vice president of
the International Ladies Garment Workers Union” the husband of Mary Halpern and
the father of Mrs. Bella Klosk and Alexander Halpern, “a commissioner of the
Port of New York Authority” passed away today.
1963:
Israel's first desalination plant opened at the port of Eilat.
1963: Birthdate
of Scott Rosenfeld who gained fame as Scott Ian a guitarist for Anthrax.
1966(18th of
Tevet, 5727): Parashat Shemot
1966(18th of
Tevet, 5727: Sixty-nine-year-old Columbia trained attorney Nathan Probst who
was a professor of law at St. Johns University School of Law for a quarter of a
century and the brother of J. Anthony and Leonard Probst and the Mrs. Beatrice
Wellman suffered a fatal heart attack at his Brooklyn home today.
1966: Kitty “Carlisle
made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera, as Prince Orlofsky in Strauss's Die
Fledermaus.”
1967(29th of
Kislev, 5738): Fifth Day of Chanukah
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2019/03/yoysef-kisman-joseph-kissman.html
1968(10th of
Tevet, 5729): Asara B’Tevet
1968: In an essay
entitled “On Not Being a Jew” Edward Hoagland “complained that he was ‘being
told in print and occasionally in person that I and my heritage lacked vitality
because I could field no ancestry who had hawked copper pots in a Polish shtetl.’”
1969: It was reported
today that “Jack J. Dreyfus Jr., one of Wall Street's leading financiers, will
retire tomorrow from Dreyfus Co. to devote full time to studying and working
with a drug that he believes may have broad implications.”
1969: Five
unarmed Israeli gunboats arrived in Haifa tonight ending a 3,000-mile journey
from Cherbourg, France. Their arrival did little to unravel the mystery of
their departure, which when the story became public, sounded like something out
of an Ian Fleming novel.
1969: On the day after
he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at
Sinai Temple in Mount Vernon, NY for 58-year-old Milton Kahan, the husband of
Muriel Kahan with whom he had two children, Barbara and Richard who was a Board
Member of Sinai Temple and a past president of the Board of Directors of the
Philharmonic Symphony of Westchester, NY.
1970:
Seventy-four-year-old Hungarian born, English psychoanalyst Michael Balint, a
convert from Judaism to Christianity passed away today.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1464079/
1970(3rd of
Tevet, 5731): Arnold Reuben, a German immigrant who founded Rebuen’s Restaurant
and Delicatessen, one of the delis that claimed to be the home of The Reuben
(sandwich), passed away in Palm Beach at the age of 87.
1971: “A group of
people who wanted to create a warmer, more intimate, and more democratic Reform
temple” founded Temple B’Nai Sholom in Albany, NY which held its first service
on this date. Within a month the congregation was incorporated. The congregation
met in a church until its present building on 5 ½ acres of Whitehall Road was
dedicated in 1979. In 1998, an educational wing was added, and existing space
was reconfigured to beautify the sanctuary and add a library, lounge and
meeting room.
1971: ‘’Diamonds Are
Forever” the seventh of the “James Bond” films produced by Harry Saltzman, with
a screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz and featuring Marc Lawrence
as “Rodney” premiered in the United Kingdom today.
1972: The Socialist
Party of America which had been founded in 1901 and attracted a large following
among Jews including Congressman Meyer London of New York, Congressman Victor
Berger of Wisconsin and Morris Hillquit was dissolved today.
1972(26th of
Tevet, 5733): Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Emanu-El
for sixty-two-year-old city planer Samuel Ratensky the Brooklyn born graduate
of the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture whose memory is
honored by the AIA hosted Samuel Ratensky Lecture series and whose best
remembered by some as one of the famous “Monuments Men.”
https://www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org/ratensky-lt-samuel
1973: Elections which
had been scheduled to be held in October and were delayed by the Yom Kippur War
took place. Likud a new political party won 39 seats in the Knesset.
1973(6th of
Tevet, 5734): Ninety-one-year-old Galicia native, Robert Durst, the husband of Rose
Friedwald and father of Seymour, Roy,
Alma, Edwin and David Durst who in 1902
arrived in the United States and parlayed is profits from dress-making company
Durst and Rubin into what became the real estate giant known as the Durst Organization
while “serving on the executive
committee of the Jewish Education Association and as president of the Hebrew
Free Loan Society” passed away today.
1974: Congregation
Adath Israel Brith Sholom, a Reform synagogue located in Louisville, Kentucky,
was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.
1974: Abe Ribicoff, the
Democrat from Connecticut began serving as Chair of the Senate Governmental
Affairs Committee today.
1974: Mikhail Stern, a
victim of the Soviet Union’s anti-Zionism went on trial at Vinnitsa.
1975: Isidore Dollinger
completes his career as a Justice on the New York Supreme Court.
1975: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held in the Riverside Chapel for
eighty-eight year old Julius Borentstein “a native of Rachov in Russian Poland,who
fled Tsarist military service and came to the United States where went from
working in the garment industry to becoming a builder in the Bronx and worked
to ensure “the survival of Jewish cultural life by helping to bring the YIVO
Institute to New York from Vilna at the outbreak of WW II while raising two
daughters – Esther and Sonya – with “his wife, the former Sarah Saltzman”
1975: Cornell student
Sue Fishkoff landed in Leningrad today. Within hours of her arrival, she found
herself “in a Jewish apartment within hours” of her arrival, plucked out of the
crowd by a young Jewish member of the Komsomol group sent to greet” those
arriving at the airport. “The table was spread with a lavish repast --
mushrooms in cream sauce, pickled vegetables, carrot salad, all kinds of smoked
fish.” She “learned later how long the family had scrimped to put together that
holiday meal. People crowded around her, eager to ask questions about America.
Was there really so much street crime? What did people think of the pullout
from Vietnam? Had she ever been to Israel? Then two young men dragged out a
book and thrust it into her lap. It was an English-language edition of the
Encyclopedia Judaica they had opened to the page on Chanukah. One of them
pointed to a drawing of the nine-branched Chanukiyah and asked her to explain
its use.Thinking he was joking, she smiled. These were university educated people.
This was the 20th century. He had to be pulling her leg. He wasn’t. And she’ll
always remember her shock and sadness as she realized it.”
1975 It was reported
today from London that Golda Meir’s My Life and Chaim Herzog’s War of
Atonement are on the best seller’s list for 1975.
1976(10th of
Tevet, 5737): Asara B’Tevet
1976: Iris Origo who
had risked her life by providing assistance to Jews, downed Allied pilots and
anti-fascists partisans in Italy during World War II, was appointed Dame
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the Overseas and
Diplomatic List. The Anglo-Irish writer also helped tEo save Jewish
children through the kindertransport including the painter Frank Helmut
Auerbach.
1977: Ed Koch completed
his service as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 18th
District.
1978: Stanley Steingut
completed his service as “115th Speaker of the New York State
Assembly.”
1978: After having
served in the position for twenty-four years, Arthur Leavitt, Jr. completed his
sixth and final term as New York State Comptroller.
1978: Eighty-five-year-old
Bernard Faÿ, a French historian of Franco-American relations, an anti-Masonic
polemicist who believed in a worldwide Jewish-Freemason conspiracy and during
World War II served as a Vichy official but was a friend of Gertrude Stein
passed away today.
1978: After 1,920
performances the curtain came down on “The Magic Show” “a one-act musical with
music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.
1979(11th of
Tevet, 5740): Fifty-three-year-old Brooklyn born, and Tulane trained M.D. Saul
Frederick Rabiner passed away today.
1979(11th of
Tevet, 5740): Eighty-one-year-old Aleppo born American businessman Joseph
Ashear who in 1912 came to the United States where he founded Ashear Bros.,
Inc., importers and manufacturer of handkerchiefs and served first President of
the Magen David Community Center in Brooklyn while being such an active Zionist
that he received both the Masada Medal and the Israel Freedom Medal passed away
today in Brooklyn.
1980: A Jewish owned
hotel in Nairobi Kenya was bombed killing 18.
1980: Chuck Schumer
completed his service as a “member of the New York State Assembly from the 45th
District.”
1980: A department
store that had been built on the site of the Praška Street synagogue burned to
the ground. The synagogue had been demolished without the consent of the
Jews in 1941. After the war, the communist regime confiscated all religious
property including the land of the synagogue.
1981(5th of
Tevet,5742): Sixty-seven-year-old Lublin born Chasidic Rabbi Bernard Twersky,
the husband of Ettie Twersky who lived in Manhattan, was public-relations
director for the Rabbinical Council of America, the largest organization of
Orthodox rabbis in the world, secretary-treasurer of Beth Din of America, the
religious court that reviews marriage disputes, and one of the founders of
Tradition, a leading Orthodox scholarly quarterly passed away today.
1981: Iraq said today
that two Israeli fighter planes had penetrated 30 miles into southwestern Iraqi
airspace near the Saudi Arabian border but had been intercepted by Iraqi planes
and forced to withdraw. The Israeli military command in Tel Aviv refused
comment on the statement.
1982(15th of
Tevet, 5743): Seventy-nine-year-old New York jeweler Henry Lewis Lambert, the
brother of Victor Lambert – the creator of the Lambert Trophy – passed away
today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/01/obituaries/henry-l-lambert-79-headed-gem-company.html
1982: NBC broadcast the
last episode of “The Doctors,” the long-running soap opera in Doris Belack, the
daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants played “psychiatrist Dr. Claudia Howard.”
1983(25th of
Tevet, 5744): Parashat Vaera
1983(25th of
Tevet, 5744): Seventy-three-year-old
Harriett Carolyn Hirsch
Kern, the daughter of Ferdinand and Nellie Levinson Hirsch and the wife of
Joseph Kern, the WW II veteran and past President of Temple B’nai Israel,
passed away today after which she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Monroe,
LA.
1984(7th of
Tevet, 5745): Seventy-one-year-old Yitshaq Ben-Ami, the Tel Aviv born son of
Sara Brayna Rosen and Menachem Mendel Rosin and Hebrew University educated
member of the Irgun and co-founder of the American Friends for a Jewish
Palestine whose literary output including Years of Wrath, Days of Glory:
Memoirs of the Irgun passed away today in Manhattan
1986: In Washington,
DC, Len and Marjorie Freiman gave birth to major league baseball player Nathan
Samuel "Nate" Freiman
1987(10th
of Tevet, 5748): Asara B’Tevet
1987: In “Early Neil
Simon, ‘Come Blow Your Horn’” Mel Gussow reviewed the playwrights
semi-autobiographical drama.
http://www.theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9B0DEFD61F3CF932A05751C1A961948260
1987(10th of
Tevet, 5748: Forty-eight-year-old Leo Steiner, the restaurateur best known as
the co-owner of the Carnegie Deli passed away today – which is sort of strange;
a man who sells “Jewish” food for a living dies on a Jewish fast day.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/01/obituaries/leo-steiner-48-owner-of-a-deli-known-for-wit.html
1987: The police said today that 10 identical
letter bombs had been mailed from Turkey to several locations in Israel. Two
residents of Or Yehuda, near Tel Aviv, were slightly wounded by one of the
bombs, but the others were defused, the police said.
1987: ''A People in
Print: Jewish Journalism in America.'' a major exhibit celebrating the freedoms
of speech and religion at the National Museum of Jewish History comes to an
end. In the following article entitled History of “Jewish Journalism On Display
in Philadelphia” the author provides interesting highlights into this little
studied topic.
1988(23rd of
Tevet, 5749) Parashat Shmemot
1988: Rabbi Gunter
Hirschberg officiated at the marriage of Rona Lefkowitz Pinkus, the daughter of
Nat Lefkowitz, a co-chairman of the William Morris Agency and attorney Joseph
Lawrence Forstadt, a political ally of Mayor Lindsay.
1988: An Off-Broadway
revival production of “Godspell” a Stephen Schwartz musical which had opened at
the Lamb’s Theatre in June came to an end today.
1989: Today, Prime
Minister Shamir said he had dismissed Ezer Weizman from the cabinet for
violating Israeli law by maintaining contacts with the Palestine Liberation
Organization. Mr. Shamir accused Mr. Weizman of giving advice to the P.L.O. on
how to respond to Mr. Shamir's plan for elections in the occupied territories.
1989: After 1,420
performances the curtain came down on a Broadway revival of “Me and My Girl”
featuring George S. Irving in “his Tony nominated performance as Sir John” at
the Marquis Theatre
1989: Ed Koch completed
his service as New York’s 105th Mayor
1990: Garry
Kasparov retained his title by winning the World Chess Championship.
1990: According to
reports published in today’s New York Times, “Israeli military experts are
virtually unanimous that in the event of war, Iraq would launch at least 20
missiles against Israel armed with conventional or chemical warheads, and that
some of those missiles would be certain to penetrate Israeli defenses.
1991(24th of Tevet,
5752): Felicja Blumental, a Polish-born Brazilian pianist who was known for her
performances of 19th-century rarities and music by contemporary composers, died
today in Tel Aviv, where she was attending a recital by her daughter, Annette
Celine Blumental, a soprano. She was 80 years old and lived in Monte Carlo. She
died of heart failure, said her husband, Markus Mizne. Miss Blumental was born
in Warsaw on Dec. 28, 1911, and studied composition with Karol Szymanowski and
piano with Zbigniew Drzewiecki and Joseph Goldberg at the Warsaw Conservatory.
During the early years of World War II, she hid in France and Luxembourg but
was able to leave in 1942 when her husband, who had escaped to Brazil, obtained
a performer's visa for her. She became a Brazilian citizen and lived in Rio de
Janeiro until 1962, when she moved to Milan, Italy, and in 1973 to Monte Carlo.
Her early performances in Brazil impressed that country's best-known composer,
Heitor Villa-Lobos, who composed his Piano Concerto No. 5 for her in 1954. The
Polish composers Witold Lutoslawski and Kzysztof Penderecki also wrote for her.
Miss Blumental was well known in the 1960's for her adventurous approach to the
19th-century repertory. Although she performed and recorded much of the
standard repertory, she also revived neglected works by Hummel, Czerny and
Clementi. Her daughter lives in New York.
1991(24th of Tevet,
5752): Benjamin Joseph Buttenwieser passed away. Born in 1900 he was an
American banker, philanthropist and civic leader in New York. Buttenwieser
entered Columbia College at age 15 and graduated in 1919. He eventually became
a partner of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and director of many companies, including
Revlon; Benrus Watch; Tischman Realty and others. Buttenwieser married Helen
Lehman Buttenwieser in 1929. She was the niece of Governor Herbert Lehman and
an attorney for Alger Hiss. Their activism landed him on the master list of
Nixon political opponents. The Buttenwieser Professorship at Columbia
University was established in 1958 with a gift to the University from
Buttenweiser, a longtime University Trustee and clerk of the Trustees, in honor
of his father, Joseph. He was also a trustee of Lenox Hill Hospital and the New
York Philharmonic. He was also a president of the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies.
1991: An Arab woman
from Bethlehem was preparing an explosive charge in a toilet in the Mahane
Yehuda market, the main Jewish market of West Jerusalem, when the charge
exploded killing her and no one else.
1991: All official
Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet
Union is officially dissolved. There is so much that is positive about
this for the world in general and Jews in particular. The demise of the
Soviet Union open the flood gates and made it possible for the long-suffering
Jews living in the various Soviet republics to make Aliyah
1992: Amnon Rubinstein,
a member of Meretz, completed his service as Science and Technology Minister.
1992: Czechoslovakia is
dissolved, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Jews
will always have a warm spot in their hearts for Czechoslovakia. In 1948,
when faced with an arms embargo and the invasion by well-armed Arab armies, the
Czechs sold the Israelis their first combat aircraft. Ironically, these
were surplus ME-109’s – the fighter plane that had been the pride of the Nazi
Air Force. These fighter planes, one of which was flown by Ezer Weizmann
played a key role in halting the Egyptian drive to seize Tel Aviv.
1992: Amnon Rubenstein
completed his term as Minister of Science and Development.
1992: “Jeffrey,” Paul
Rudnick’s comedy about AIDS opened today “at the tiny WPA Theatre.”
1993: Elizabeth
Holtzman completed her term as the 40th Comptroller of New York
City.
1993: G. Oliver Koppel
completed his service as a member of the New York State Assembly where he had
begun serving in March 1970.
1993: Robert Abrams
completed his service as New York State Attorney General, a position he had
held since 1979.
1993: Entertainer
Barbra Streisand performed her first paid concert in 22 years, singing to a
sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.
1993: Formally
recognizing each other after decades of diplomatic aloofness and centuries of
frequent Jewish-Catholic rancor, Israel and the Vatican signed an agreement
today to establish diplomatic relations.
1993: G. Oliver Koppel
completed his service as a member of the New York State Asssemly.
1993: Chaim Weizman and
David Bizi were found after being murdered by terrorists in a Ramle apartment.
ID cards of two Gaza residents were found in the apartment, together with a
leaflet of the Popular Front 'Red Eagle' group, claiming responsibility for the
murder.
1994(28th of
Tevet, 5755): Leo Fuchs Polish born U.S. Yiddish actor passed away at the age
of 83.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-leo-fuchs-1568528.html
1994: Gabriel Oliver
Koppell completed his terms as the 61st New York State Attorney
General.
1995: In writing about
the “Emotional Overload and Emotional Lift” captured by television in 1995,
Walter Goodman cites the tragic events that occurred in Israel. “The shock at
the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Prime Minister was to some extent
alleviated by the immediate surge of revulsion, expressed on television both in
the United States and in Israel, over violent political language as well as
acts of violence. At the widely covered funeral, the tributes of so many heads
of state were heartening, with the pictures of an obviously moved King Hussein
of Jordan carrying special force. Even amid the anxiety over the future, it was
a historic and consoling moment: an Arab leader showing personal sorrow for the
death of an Israeli leader.”
1996: Seventy-year-old
University of Michigan Law School graduate Charles Leonard Levin, the son of
federal district court judge Theodore Levin and the cousin of U.S. Senator Carl
Levin completed his service as an Associate Justice of the Michigan Supreme
Court.
1997: Marv Levy
retired as coach of Buffalo Bills.
1997: Despite American
calls for a ''timeout'' in settlement building, Defense Minister Yitzhak
Mordechai of Israel shoveled cement into a hole today for a new extension of
this Jewish settlement in the hills north of the Palestinian-ruled town of
Ramallah.
1998: The United States
Ambassador to Israel ordered the American Embassy in Tel Aviv closed today
after what embassy officials called a ''direct and credible'' threat of a
terrorist attack against the building.
1998: Franz S. Leichter
completed his services as a member of the New York Senate which had begun in 1975.
1999: Barbra Streisand
opened her “Timeless” tour when she took the stage at the MGM Grand Garden
Arena in Las Vegas tonight.
1999(22nd of
Tevet, 5760): Russ Landan, the daughter of Bertha Stern and Abraham Alfred
Weinber and te te wife of Shmuel Aron Landa passed away today
1999: The last commercial flight out of Kennedy International
Airport for 1999 took off at 10:17 p.m. for the 10-hour nonstop flight to Tel
Aviv with a mere 12 paying passengers on board.
2000: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about
subjects of Jewish interest including Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism by George Soros, The Modern Jewish Canon: A Journey Through
Language and Culture by Ruth R. Wisse and Canon and Creativity: Modern
Writing and the Authority of Scripture by Robert Alter.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/31/reviews/001231.31schort.html
2001: Alan
Hevesi completed his term as New York City’s 41st Comptroller.
2001: After
seven years, Michael Applebaum completed his service as Montreal City
Councilor for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
2002: “Confessions
of a Dangerous Mind,” a comical biopic loosely based on the life of Chuck
Barris premiered today.
2002: Eric
Schneiderman completed his service as a Member of the New York Senate from the
30th District.
2002:
Pianist Alberto Portugheis performed in recital at today’s “Concert of Latin
American Blend”
2002: Maxine Frank
Singer, a leading biochemistry researcher and advocate of science education,
stepped down after 15 years at the helm of the Carnegie Institution.
2003(6th of
Tevet, 5764): Gerald Yael Goldberg the native of Cork born in 1912 who became
the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977 passed away.
2003: German-born
American physicist Arthur R. von Hippel passed away. Von Hippel was not
Jewish, but his wife was. Von Hippel was an opposed to the Nazis.
For these two reasons, Von Hippel left Germany and eventually made his as to
the United States where he spent the rest of his life.
2004(19th of Tevet,
5765): Israeli Poet and playwright Elisheva Greenbaum passed away. In June of
2003, at the Metulla Festival of Poetry, Elli was awarded the prestigious
"Tevah" prize in poetry. Earlier, in 2002, Elisheva was awarded The
Prime Minister's prize for poetry.
2005: Premier of
“Six Actors in Search of a Plot" a new bilingual Arabic-Hebrew written by
the Palestinian playwright Mohammad el-Thaher.
2005(30th of
Kislev, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2005: In
the evening, Havdalah and New Year’s coincide. How ironic that "2005"
separates itself from our lives on the evening when the Jew separates the day
of rest from the week of work
2005: Jimmy
Young the long-term “caretaker and chief custodian” at Adas Israel in
Washington, DC retired today having become an “institution” at city’s venerable
Conservative synagogue.
2005:
Neil Diamond appeared on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2006.
2005:
Norman Pearlstine completed his ten-year tenure as editor in chief of Time,
Inc.
2005: A
Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s “Sweet Charity came to a close today after 279
performances.
2005: In
“Hiram Bingham: Heroism Beyond Diplomacy” published today Rafael Medoff, the
Director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies described the
life-saving activities American diplomat.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001270.html
2006(10th
of Tevet, 5767):Asara B'Tevet
2006(10th
of Tevet, 5767): Yahrzeit of Judith “Judy” Sharon Rosenstein (nee Levin).
2006: The
Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who
Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton.
2006: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who
Fled Hitler and Changed the World by Kati Marton, Emma Lazarus by
Esther Schor and Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Amanda Vaill.
2006(10th
of Tevet, 5767): Seymour Martin “Marty” Lipset “the most revered analyst of
American society and democracy since Alexis de Tocqueville” passed away at the
age of 84.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/04/obituaries/04lipset.html
2006: At
the Jewish Museum in New York an exhibition styled “Ours to Fight For: American
Jews During the Second World War” comes to an end.
2007: The
New Republic magazine featured a review of The Age of Turbulence:
Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan.
2007: Rabbi, Naftali Tzi Weisz, 59, and his assistant, or gabbai,
Moshe E. Zigelman, 60 spent some of the time studying Hebrew books and reciting
psalms while waiting to appear in court having
been charged in an indictment that alleges a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud
U.S. government agencies, to operate a underground money transfer system and to
launder money through an Israeli bank.
2007(22
Tevet 5768): Rabbi Arnold G. Kaiman, 74, rabbi at Congregation Kol Ami on the
Near North Side for 21 years, died of lung problems, in a West Bloomfield,
Mich., hospital. He moved to West Bloomfield after his retirement from
Congregation Kol Ami in 1994. Rabbi Kaiman was known for denying and
conformity. The longtime Congregation Kol Ami rabbi liked incorporating popular
music into his services and conducted many interfaith marriages. Believing that
love and commitment trumped religious background, Rabbi Kaiman presided over
many interfaith marriages during 36 years as a Reform rabbi. Born in 1933,
Rabbi Kaiman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household in Omaha. He remained
Orthodox through his undergraduate years at Yale University and at the University
of Cincinnati, where he did his graduate work. It was as a rabbinical student
at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati that he shifted to Reform Judaism,
attracted by the movement's modern ideas and lack of reliance on ancient
ritual, his daughter said. Rabbi Kaiman served congregations in Philadelphia,
Larchmont, N.Y., and Los Angeles. Rabbi Kaiman came to Chicago in 1973 and
maintained a high profile for much of his two decades in the city. He hosted
the "Ask the Rabbi" radio show and, in the late 1980s, the TV show
"Of Cabbages and Kings.” He volunteered as a chaplain for inmates in
Illinois prison and for the Chicago Police Department, and he was a member of
the city's Interfaith Council under the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. For Jews seeking a spouse outside the
faith, Rabbi Kaiman was the go-to guy. He was one of only a handful of rabbis
who would administer interfaith marriages, and he traveled throughout the
Midwest to perform such nuptials in addition to the many he conducted in
Chicago. "He just felt really strongly it was about love, it wasn't about
religion," his daughter said. "He just felt it shouldn't be so
limiting. For many Jewish parents, Rabbi Kaiman's actions kept the door open
for their children to maintain ties to the faith, said Shom Klaff, executive
director of Congregation Kol Ami. "I had so many families come to me and
say, 'He saved our kids for Judaism,' " Klaff said. Rabbi Kaiman's
services at Kol Ami, held in Water Tower Place since 1976, were spiced with
popular music, an attention-getting device he started using while an Air Force
chaplain. Selections included everything from "Wind Beneath My Wings"
to "Somewhere, Over the Rainbow." In a 1990 Tribune story,
Rabbi Kaiman acknowledged his methods were alienating to some. "Let me put
it in my bluntest way. You either love me or you hate me," he said.
"That's OK. I don't want to be a rabbi who is so conformist that he's
accepted."
2008: In
“Striking Deep Into Israel, Hamas Employs an Upgraded Arsenal” Mark Mazzetti
described the increased power of the group governing Gaza.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/middleeast/01rockets.html?_r=0
2008:
An exhibition entitled "From Distant Places to Dubuque's Shores: 175 Years
of Jewish Life" at the National Mississippi River Museum&
amp; Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa comes to a close.
2008: The Village
Voice, which had regularly published Nat Hentoff's commentary and criticism for
fifty years, announced today that he had been laid off
2008: The
Maltz Museum offers museum guests an opportunity to toast in the New Year at a
7 p.m. function before moving on to other holiday parties. \
2008: Haaretz
reported that Katyusha rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip exploded in
Be'er Sheva region, 37 kilometers from the coastal territory, which was the
furthest point eastward which a Palestinian projectile has managed to reach.
2008: Two
Israelis were lightly wounded when they were shot by a group of men in a mall
in Odense, Denmark this afternoon. The Israelis were selling Dead Sea cosmetics
at a stand in the mall - a job many young Israelis pursue, usually following
military service, in order to save money for their future and to continue their
travels. The shooting took place at the Rosengaard mall in Odense, 170
kilometers west of Copenhagen.
2008:
Judith Smith Kaye the first woman to hold the position of Chief Judge of New
York completed her service in that position today.
2008: The
New Republic magazine featured a review of “Adam Resurrected,” a
film based on the novel by Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk starring Jeff Goldblum
as the protagonist, Holocaust survivor Adam Stein.
2009: Final
session of Limmud in the United Kingdom.
2009: President Barack Obama named Amanda Simpson to the position
of Senior Technical Adviser in the Bureau of Industry and Security at the U.S.
Department of Commerce making her the first transgender woman appointed by any
administration and the first transgender individual to hold an executive branch
position.
2009: At the Center for Jewish History an exhibition entitled
“Stars, Strikes, and the Yiddish Stage: The Story of the Hebrew Actors' Union,
1899-2005” comes to an end. “Founded in 1899, the Hebrew Actors' Union (HAU)
was the first union for actors in America. Its membership included the most
famous actors and actresses of the Yiddish stage. Throughout its existence, the
HAU championed actors' rights to fair wages and decent working conditions.”
2009:
“Publishing in Exile: German-Language Literature in the U.S. in the 1940s” a
joint exhibition of The Goethe-Institute New York and Leo Baeck Institute,
sponsored in part by the New York Council for the Humanities came to an end. \
2009: On New Year’s Eve, Off The Wall Comedy Empire presents
David Kilimnick, Israel's ‘Father of Anglo Comedy,' whose monologue “brings on
new complaints” as he “addresses the issues of what really makes the right resolution”
for the New Year. Israelis know him as the “creator of the 'The Aliyah
Monologues,' 'Find Me A Wife,' 'HaOleh HaChadash' and 'Frum From Birth'”.
2009: Two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip exploded in a
southern Israeli town. The two Grad type rockets, which have a range of about
13 miles, hit the Israeli town of Netivot late today. No one was hurt.
2009: The last H&H bagel of the year which was sold at the
company's 80th Street store was a poppy seed bagel purchased moments before
midnight by Ezra Millstein, of West 73rd Street.
2009: Hamas activist,
Ibrahim Za’arah, 44, was arrested with two bombs on his person weighing 6-7
kilograms, as well as detonation devices as he tried to enter Israel.
2010: In New York, The
Peridance Capezio Center is scheduled to host the first in a series of GAGA Master Classes with Ohad Naharin. “Gaga is a movement language developed by Ohad Naharin in Israel to help
dancers (and non-dancers alike) reconnect to the way they move. Already a
renowned choreographer, Ohad Naharin was appointed Artistic Director of
Batsheva Dance Company in 1990.
2010: Jehuda Reinharz is scheduled to end his 16 years as President of
Brandeis University today. He will be succeeded by Frederick Lawrence who
will become President on January 1st.
2010: Eric Schniederman completed his service as a Member of the New
York State Senate from the 31st District.
2010: Bezalel Fair, the largest arts & crafts fair of its kind
in Israel where all work displayed in handmade Israeli art, is scheduled to
open in Jerusalem at 9 a.m.
2010: The 92nd
St Y is scheduled to host “A Champagne New Year's Eve with Sharon Isbin the world-famous
guitarist who is a native of St. Louis Park, MN.
2010(24th of
Tevet): On the Hebrew calendar, Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi. The
founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of died on the eve of the
24th of Tebet, at approximately 10:30 pm, shortly after reciting the Havdalah
prayer, which marks the end of Shabbat.
2010(24th of
Tevet): On the Hebrew calendar, Yahrzeit for the four thousand Jews of Safed
and the one thousand Jews of Tiberias who were killed in the 1837 Galilee
Earthquake.
2010: Kathe Goldstein
is scheduled to lead Friday night services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,
IA. Since Shabbat and New Year’s Eve coincide, Jews and non-Jews will be
celebrating in the same manner. Both will be wearing hats, consuming
alcohol, singing festive songs and enjoying special treats. Regardless of how
or what you celebrate, may everybody enjoy themselves and return safely to
their homes.
2010: The winner of
“Jerusalem in 2111” competition, featuring science fiction clips depicting the
city in 100 years, was announced today. The winning video, Secular Quarter #3,
directed by David Gidali along with cameraman Itay Gross, two Israeli students
studying at the prestigious AFI Film school in Lost Angeles, was chosen among
dozens of videos entries from all over the world.
2010: Palestinian
Authority terrorists attempted to murder a Jewish shepherd this morning,
according to a report from the Samaria Regional Council. The terrorists opened
fire on the shepherd as he tended his flock near Maaleh Shomron. The intended
victim managed to take shelter and call for help. The attackers fled before IDF
forces reached the scene.
2010: KlezKlamp, proof
of the revitalization of Klezmer, the Yiddish language, comes to an end.
2011: The riotous
Sandra Bernhard is scheduled to perform on New Year’s Eve at Joe’s Pub
2011: Party diva Lori
Brizzi and DJ Nelson “Paradise” Roman are scheduled to host the New Year's Eve
Millennium Dance Party at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.
2011: Jackie Hoffman
starred as Grandmama in the Broadway musical The Addams Family, which closed
today after an 18-month run at the Lunt-Fontaine Theatre.
2011: Over a thousand
ultra-Orthodox men assembled tonight in Jerusalem’s Kikar Hashabbat (Sabbath
Square), in protest of what they termed the exclusion of Haredim, a response to
the recent outrage over the exclusion of women in Beit Shemesh and elsewhere.
2011: The curtain came
down on the original Broadway production of The Addams Family starring Bebe
Neuwirth as “Morticia Addams.
2012: “The Garden of
Eden,” a documentary about the Sakhne National Park and resort, is scheduled to
be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The Muslim
authority managing the Temple Mount yesterday dumped tons of unexamined earth
and stones excavated from the holy site into a municipal dump, in violation of
a High Court injunction, Maariv reported today.
2012: Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu apologized late today to a top government official who
received a firing notice via email.
2012: As of today,
Wisdom Tree Investments led by Chairman Michael Steinhardt “had $18.3 billion
under management and was growing by 10% a month.”
2012: After having
served as editor of the Boston Globe for the last 11 years where the paper
earned a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the priest driving sexual scandal,
Martin “Marty” began serving as the editor of the Washington Post, a position
he would hold until January of 2013 when he was promoted to Executive Editor.
2013: Today Mathieu “Schneider
appeared as a member of the Red Wings alumni team at Comerica Park against
members of the Toronto Maple Leafs alumni
2013: The Jewish
Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to usher in the New Year
with a special Klezmer concert with acclaimed band, Machaya.
2013: “Like Father,
Like Son” and “When Harry Met Sally” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem
Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Gabriel Oliver
Koppell completed his service as a member of the New York City Council from the
11th District.
2014: “The Rover” and
“Sofie” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
2014: The Jewish
Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a friendly family
afternoon Klezmer Concert where families can usher in the New Year.
2014: “After years of
financial trouble, Israel’s Channel 10 is scheduled to stop broadcasting
today.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014: The Israel
Antiquities Authority announced that “hundreds of ancient coins and ancient
artifacts were found at the home of a suspected antiquities thief in Beit
Shemesh last week after the man was caught in the act at a nearby
archaeological site.” (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2014: According to the
French, “nearly 7,000 French Jews immigrated to Israel in 2014” which is more
than double the number for 2013 when 3,400 French Jews made Aliyah. (As
reported by Stephanie Butnick)
2015: The Jewish
Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to welcome the 2016 with
the Third Annual First Night Klezmer Concert featuring the “acclaimed band,
Machaya.”
2015: Dr. T Alan
Hurwitz “the first born deaf and Jewish person to serve as President of
Gaullaudet University retired today.
2016(2nd of
Tevet, 5777): Parshat Miketz; Seventh Day of Chanukah
2016:
Today, the “Carnegie Deli on Seventh Avenue closed after almost eighty years of
service.”
2016: “IDF soldiers
were attacked by West Bank settlers today after arriving at the scene of
clashes between settlers and Palestinians near the village of Sussiya, south of
Hebron, police said.”
2016: Shabbat and New Year’s Eve coincide just as they did
seventy-five years ago when Abba Kovner uttered the words of resistance "Let us not go as sheep to the slaughter.”
2016: In Little Rock, Chabad Lubavitch under
the leadership of Rabbi PInchas Ciment is scheduled to host “the Arkansas
Chanukah Menorah Car Parade.”
2016: “Art School, HaMidrasha Faculty of Arts
at Seventy” is scheduled to come to an end in Tel Aviv.
2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Doomsday Machine:
Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsberg and the recently
released paperback edition of The People and the Books: 18 Classics of Jewish
Literature by Adam Kirsch as well as “When ‘All Thumbs’ Becomes a Compliment”
by Calvin Trilling.
2017: Based on an announcement made on December 22, today
is James Samuel Rosen’s last day working as a correspondent for the FOX News
Channel.
2017: On the last day of the year in one more example of
the changing economic and social conditions in the United States, “Congregants
from Temple Hadar Israel in New Castle, Pennsylvania gathered at the local
Tifereth Israel cemetery to bury ritual objects from their defunct synagogue.”
(As reported by Alanna E. Cooper)
2018: Today marks the deadline for submitting applications
for the newly created “Krauthammer Fellowship,” “a two-year opportunity for
aspiring writers and editors” created by a partnership of Mosaic magazine, the
Tikvah Fund and the Paul E. Singer Foundation created to honor Charles
Krauthammer, the recently deceased “intellectual journalist.”
2018: As much of the world prepares to ring in the New
Year, ironically Israel joins countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iran in
avoiding the celebration and treating it with “disdain”.
2018: According to “figures released by the Jewish Agency”
the year ending today saw an increase in Jewish immigration to Israel of
approximately 5 percent compared to figures for 2017 which can be attributed to
a spike in immigration from Russia and Ukraine which offset declines from such
places as France and the United Kingdom. (As reported by YNET)
2018: In Rochester, NY, the CenterStage Theatre At the
Louis S. Wolk Jewish Community Center is scheduled to present the final
performance of “Big Wigs.”
2018: According to manager Herzl Levi, The Crowne Plaza in
Haifa “will not allow New Year’s parties to avoid upsetting the supervisors
that certify the hotel’s kitchen as kosher.” (As reported by Daniel Estrin and
Dan Perry)
2018: For the 8th year in a row, “the old Jaffa
at Beit Kandioff” is scheduled to host what it considers to be on of Tel Aviv’s
premiere New Year’s Eve parties.
2018: This evening the Gala Hispanic Theatre is scheduled
to host the final performance of “Talley’s Folly,” “the Pulitzer Prize-winning
comedy about Matt Freidman, a middle-aged Jewish accountant.”
2018: “The Special
Investigative Committee on Oversight that was investigating Missouri Governo
Eric Greitens released its final report” today which according to The St. Louis
Post-Dispatch “which showed that Greitens ran an off-the-books gubernatorial
campaign in 2014 and 2015, and lied about his campaign's acceptance of a charity
donor list from the Mission Continues, a veterans charity Greitens founded in
2007.”
2018(23rd of Tevet, 5779): On the Jewish
calendar, Yahrtzeit of Nathan Straus.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_23.html
2019: Israelis are scheduled to welcome in the New Year at
numerous venues including the “Beer Bazaar, in Jerusalem which is welcoming
2020 with craft beer and music from Solomon Brothers and DJ Zohar. Beer Bazaar”
or “The Shablul Jazz Club in Tel Aviv which will be celebrating the New Year
with Chicago Blues legend Mark Rashkow.”
2019: Three days after he passed away, funeral services are
scheduled to be held today at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids for ninety-one-year-old
Berlin born and Cornell University trained University of Iowa Political Science
Professor Jerry Lowenberg, the husband of Ina Lowenberg with whom he had two
children – Deborah and Michael.
2019: JW3 is scheduled to host the final London screening
of “Spider in the Web.”
2019: It was reported today that Mitchell Silber “a counter-terror
expert who formerly held a high-level intelligence post with the New York
Police Department will lead a new initiative to secure Jewish institutions in
New York City.”
2019: As Jews grapple with the latest outbreak of
anti-Semitic violence, they may be pondering the fact that the spokesman for
the accused machete wielder appears to be a Jewish attorney.
2019: At YIVO in New York City, the “Rise of the Yiddish
Machines” is scheduled to come to a close.
2020: Jewish Family and Children’s Service is scheduled to
present via Zoom “Music Therapy for Kids.
2020: Rabbi Baruch HaLevi (Rabbi B) and Ariela HaLevi
(formerly of Congregation Shirat Hayam) are scheduled to present “The Soul
Experience,” a virtual, spiritual and healing service incorporating
Jewish-inspired prayer, meditation, mindfulness practice, chanting, singing,
yoga, mystical text study, guided visualization and more.
2020: New Year’s Eve, or as the Israelis call it
“Sylvester” is scheduled to be celebrate in Eretz Israel.
2020: As Israelis wait to welcome the New Year, they are
digesting yesterday’s report by Professor Nachman Ash that the “nationwide
lockdown in its current form is not effective enough in bringing down the
infection and needs to be much stricter.”
2021 Malik Faisal Akram, a British citizen whose family was
originally from Pakistan traveled to Dallas today on his way to seizing hostages
in January at the Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, TX.
2021: At noon today, Kan Kol HHamusika is scheduled to
broadcast, a Young Artists Concert featuring cellist Ori Ron and pianist Amir
Ron
2021: As Israelis gather to ring in the New Year, for the
first time, they must cope with a mask mandate that applies to outdoor
gatherings of fifty or more people. (As reported by Sivan Hilaie)
2021(27th of Tevet, 5782): Erev Shabbat meets
New Year’s Eve.
2022(7th of Tevet, 5783):
Vayigash (“And he approached”) 44:18-47:27 Bereshit
(Genesis)
2022: Nesya Rosenbloom whose parents are Josh and Judy Rosenbloom
and whose Saba and Savta are David Levin and Debbie Rosenbloom is scheduled to read
from the Torah at a women’s only mincha service this afternoon as part of the
celebration of her Bat Mitzvah.
2022: The Friends and Family of Mike Brown of Indiana
Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to enjoy a double simcha – shabbat and
his birthday//
2022: The Eden Tamir Center is best to host a chamber music
concert with “pianist Oxana Yablonskaya and Friends.”
2023: “Convergence: Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian Calligraphy
in Conversation,” an exhibition presented by the American Sephardi Federation
in the Leon Levy Gallery at the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to close
today.
2023: Scheduled end for registering for “The Wisdom of
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks” offered by the Tikvah Fund.
2023: “Etrog: The Wandering Fruit Exhibition” is scheduled
to come to a close at the Benard Museum of Judaica
2023: In the second lecture in the online lecture series
“The Beloved and the Hall” presented by Agnon House, Professor Tzachi Weiss is
scheduled to deal with the riddle of the "beautiful maiden who has no
eyes" and will read the beloved parable that only a person who discovers
the secrets of the Torah can witness and its beauty.”
2023: As of December 31 begins in Israel,
the Hamas held hostages begin day 86 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
