This Day, December 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
December 5
63
BCE: Cicero read the last of his Catiline Orations which exposed Cataline’s
conspiracy to overthrow the government of Rome. There is no record of how
Cataline felt about Jews, but Cicero said that Judaism was a barbarous
superstition whose adherents were born to be slaves.
220 (22nd of Kislev, 3981): On
the secular calendar Rabbi Judah Hanasi
or Judah the Patriarch passed away. Born
in Eretz Israel in 138 (three years after the last rebellion against Rome)
Judah, as the Nasi and head of the Sanhedrin, was both the religious and
political leader of the Jewish community.
His greatest claim to fame was his role as the compiler of the Mishna. The Mishna is a
compilation of Oral Law which would serve as the basis for both the Babylonian
Talmud and Jerusalem Talmud. The Mishnah is divided into six
"orders": Zeraim - Seeds, Mo'ed - Festivals, Nashim - Women, Nezikim
- Damages, Kedushim - Holy Matters, Taharot - Purity. There are a total of 63
"tractates." It was compiled in Hebrew and intended to be memorized.
It served and still serves as a code for regulation of all Jewish life. Some of
his more famous sayings include: “Be as punctilious in observing a light as a
weighty commandment, for your do not know their relative reward.” “Contemplate three things and you will avoid
transgressions: above you (in Heaven) is
an eye that sees, an ear that hears and all your deeds are faithfully
recorded.” And the favorite of all those
who teach, “I have learned much from teachers, more from my colleagues, but
most from pupils.”
663:
Fourth Council of Toledo takes place. Among the other things the council
adopted stringent measures that should be used against baptized Jews who had
relapsed into their former faith.
1349: During
the Black Death Riots 500 Jews were massacred at Nuremberg.
1443:
Birthdate of Pope Julius II, the prelate who commissioned Michelangelo to paint
the Sistine Chapel. Julius entrusted his
health to a Jewish physician named Samuel Sarfatti. “More importantly for Jews at large, the
pope’s mind-set…did not include attacking Jews.
Benevolent neglect was indeed welcome.”
1484:
Pope Innocent VIII issued the Summis
desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James
Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to
one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history. Innocent VIII
seemed to have a penchant for Inquisitions since he was successfull in getting
the King of Portugal to establish one aimed at the Jews and Marranos who had
fled Spain. Those caught suffered long
imprisonment or death by fire.
1496: Today “King Manuel I of Portugal signed
the decree of expulsion of Jews and Muslims to take effect by the end of
October of the next year.” Manuel of Portugal befriended the Jews during his
first year of reign, but his desire to unite the Iberian Peninsula through
marriage to the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella changed all that. Four years
after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, he ordered them expelled from Portugal
within 11 months.
1497:
King Manuel I proclaimed an Edict which demanded the Jews convert to
Catholicism or leave the country. However, fearing most Jews would leave rather
than convert, the Crown closed the ports, thus halting any potential Jewish sea
escape.
1590:
Niccolò Sfondrati was elected Pope and as Gregory XIV followed the
comparatively benevolent policies of his predecessor Sixtus V including
“allowing Jews to settle in the Papal States.
1633:
In Bohemia, an order was issued “to the head of the administrative of the
castle of Reichenberg: “The Bassewi Jews, who have the privilege to direct
their business affairs in your town without any hindrance and a copy of whose
privilege is in your possession, shall be supported and protected in the best
way and shall have any support that they require to ensure their freedom.” (The
Bassewi Jews refers to the family or followers of the “Prague banker and
merchant Jacob Bassewi” who “was the first Jew in the former Austria to achieve
the status of nobility.)
1655:
The Whitehall Conference called by Cromwell to discuss the issue of readmitting
the Jews to England considered for a second day.
1678: Josel (Joseph) Witzenhausen and Joseph Athias defied
warnings from powerful secular and religious leaders and today began printing
their version of “a Judaeo-German edition of the TaNaCh.”
1693(17th of Kislev, 5454): Sara d’Andrade, the
marano who openly acknowledge her Judaism in either 1647 or 1648 who was the
wife Portuguese born Marano Diego Teixara and kept a princely house, which, in
1654, was for some time the residence of Queen Christina of Sweden, passed away
today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14351-texeira
1707: The
first informal meeting of the modern Society of Antiquaries, whose first Jewish
member may have been naturalist Emanuel Mendes da Costa occurred today at the
Bear Tavern on The Strand
1755(1st
of Kislev, 5516): Rosh Chodesh Kislev observed on the same day that George
Washington wrote to wrote Robert Dinwiddie, the Royal Governor of Virginia
concerning financial and other needs growing out of fighting during the French
and Indian Wars.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-02-02-0203
1757:
“In Berlin, the head rabbi delivered a patriotic sermon of thanksgiving:
following the victory of “the glorious King of Prussia over the united and far
superior forces of the Austrians in Silesia.”
1764:
Jacob Raphael Cohen, the London educated mohel and spiritual leader of the
Congregation Shearith Israel in Montreal married Rebecca Luria today after
which “they had five daughters.”
1768(25th
of Kislev, 5529): Chanukah
1771(28th
of Kislev, 5532): Fourth Day of Chanukah celebrated at the same time that Court
of King’s Bench was involved in hearing what became known as Somerset v Stewart
case which eventually led “to the end of slavery in Great Britain.’
1776(24th
of Kislev, 5537): For the first time the Chanukah candle is kindled in the
newly independent United States.
1776: Phi Beta Kappa, the first and
most prestigious American scholastic fraternity was founded at William &
Mary College. Some of the Jewish members of the honor society include Bernard
Baruch, Felix Frankfurter, Walter Lippmann, Jonas Salk, Daniel Boorstin, Betty
Friedan, Henry Kissinger, Arlen Specter, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Gloria Steinman,
Robert Rubin, Nadine Strossen, Joseph Lieberman, Ben Bernanke, Eliot Spitzer
and Daniel Pearl.
1779(26th
of Chanukah, 5540): Second Day of Chanukah observed as General George
Washington is establishing winter quarters for the Continental Army at
Morristown, NJ.
1782:
Birthdate of Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States, who
intervened in the so-called Damascus Affair, seeking to use the good office of
the Presidency to protect the lives and well-being of a group of Syrian Jews
who had been falsely accused in another round of the “blood libel.”
1787(24th
of Kislev, 5548): The first Chanukah light was kindled on the same day as the
issuance of The Federalist Number 17, part of the fight to gain ratification of
the U.S. Constitution.
1790(28th
of Kislev, 5551): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that
President Geroge Washington wrote to his nephew and future executor of his
estate about courses he was taking in college and the expenses of his
education.
1791:
Thirty-five-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose Jewish friends included Fanny
von Arenstein born in Berlin as Franzeska Itzig, the daughter of a well-known
financier/mint-master passed away today.
https://www.jpost.com/arts-and-culture/music/with-a-little-help-from-his-friends
1792:
William Moultrie began his second term as Governor of South Carolina. Moultrie
may have been the first Governor to attend the consecration of a
synagogue. In 1794, he was present for
the consecration of the new synagogue housing Beth Elohim in Charleston, SC.
1792:
Samuel Raphael married Charlotte Levy at the Great Synagogue today.
1792:
In New York City, Leah Nathan and Joseph Naphtali Hart gave birth to Esther
Hart, the wife of Alexander Marks with whom she had fourteen children.
1792:
Moses Jacobs, “a self-described bachelor” was buried today at the “Alderney
Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1795(23rd
of Kislev, 5556): Parashat Vayeshev
1795:
In Manhattan, Philadelphia native
Leah
Thérèse Nathan Hart and Bavarian born
Jacob Naphtali Hart gave birth Esther “Hetty” Hart who became Esther Marks
after she Alexander Marks in 1816 after which she bore him ten children.
1797:
In Darmstadt, Germany, Sara Haas and Alexander ben Moses Billstein gave birth
to Baruch Sender Billstein, the husband of “Beilie Wertheim” with whom he had
eleven children.
1798(27th
of Kislev, 5559): Third Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that the
Peasants’ War, which was part of the French Revolutionary wars came to an end.
1799:
In Frankfurt am Main, Gutle Schott and Moses Yantoff Oppenheim gave birth to
“Sebastian Oppenheim,” the husband of Henriette Strauss with whom he had eight
children.
1800:
In Maison Commune, France, Jonas Alexandre Aron, the French born son of
Alexandre Sender Nathan Aron and Antoinette Judelen (Judlen, Yitele, Judle)
Aron and his wife Sara Zerlé Simon Aron gave birth to David Aron who passed
away in 1804.
1805:
Today, “was proclaimed a day of general thanksgiving for Trafalgar” during
which “All the Churches and Chapels were crowded, all distinctions of sects
were done away and Christian and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, all united in
the expression of one feeling of piety and gratitude to the Almighty.” “The
Chief Rabbi, Solomon Hirschell, and the Haham (spiritual leader of the
Sephardim), Raphael Meldola, jointly prepared “The Order of Service and Special
Prayer of the Hebrew Thanksgiving”, recited in all London synagogues. Hirschell, whose normal vehicle was Yiddish,
preached a commemorative sermon at the Great Synagogue that was subsequently
translated into English and printed; Meldola delivered one at the Sephardi
synagogue, Bevis Marks.”
1807:
In London, Matilda de Metz and Levy Salomons gave birth to Esther Salomons.
1809(27th
of Kislev, 5570): Third Day of Chanukah, observed on the natal of Edmond Le
Boeuf, who rose to the rank of Marshall in French Army while seeing action
during the Crimean War and the Franco-Prussian War.
1810:
Israel Moses married Deborah Cohen, the daughter of Jacob Raphael Cohen almost
thirty-eight years before she passed away in St. Joseph, FL.
1817(26th
of Kislev, 5578): Second Day of Chanukah
1819:
Joshua Poland married Esther Isaacs at the Great Synagogue today.
1820:
In the UK, Emma Lyon and Abraham Henry gave birth to Julia Henry.
1823:
In Amsterdam, Mozes Israel Gans and Elsje / Telzi Salomon Turfman gave birth to
Jacob Moses Gans, the husband of Rebecca Mozes Gans and father of Isaac Jacob
Gans; Elsje Gans; Mozes Gans; Meijer Gans; Alexander Gans; and Mozes Gans.
1824:
Jacob Mandelbaum, a native of “Sachsen-Weimar” and Bella Epstein gave birth to
their sixth and youngest child Vogel Mandelbaum today.
1825(25th
of Kislev, 5586): Chanukah observed for the first time during the Presidency of
John Q. Adams.
1828(29th
of Kislev, 5589): Fifth Day of Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the
presidency of John Q. Adams, who “like his father supported the rebuilding of
Judea as an independent nation
1831(1st
of Tevet, 5592): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1831(1st of Tevet, 5592): Sixty-three-year-old
Isaac Gomez, Jr. the author of “a manuscript entitled ‘The Genealogy of the Gomez
Family Down to the Year 1826’” passed away today in New York City.
1831:
Forty-eight-year-old Samuel Ottenheimer married his second wife Amalie
Wimpfheimer today.
1832:
Birthdate of Hamburg native Ernst Jacob Oppert, the merchant who traveled to
Hong Kong in 1851, founded a business in Shanghai and traveled to Korea before
returning to Hamburg, the hometown of his brother Jules Opert.
1832:
Birthdate of Hamburg native Ernst Jacob Oppert, a German merchant who “went to
Hong Kong in 1851…founded a business in Shanghai…and traveled through Korea” in
the 1860’s.
1834:
In Binau, Germany, Sarah and Manassa Sheuerman gave birth to Rose Sheuerman who
became Rose Adler when she married Leopold Adler with who she had eight
children.
1839:
In Charleston, SC, Jacob I. Moses of Columbus, GA, married Rinah Ottolengui,
the daughter of Abraham Ottolengui.
1844(24th
of Kislev, 5606): Kindle the first Chanukah light.
1844:
Birthdate of Penrose Felisher, who upon passing away in 1931 would be buried at
Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1847(27th
of Kislev, 5608): Third Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that “the
Apostles met in Elder Orson Hyde's cabin to reorganize the First Presidency of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”
1849:
Birthdate of Frankfurt Am Main native and “educator, writer and poet Helene
Adler who “gave up teaching in 1882 due to her declining health” and shortly
thereafter published “her first collection of poetry, Beim Kuckuck.
1849(20th
of Kislev, 5610): Baruch ben Judah Lob Lindau the native of Hanover who gained
fame as a German mathematician passed away today in Berlin.
1850(30th
of Kislev, 5611): Sixth day of Chanukah
1850:
In Lubeck Germany, Moses Heinemann Heymann Lissauer and Betty Bertha Lissauer
gave birth to Abraham Adolph Moses Lissauer, the husband of Frieda Lissauer,
the daughter of Fanny and Abraham Mendel Auerbach.
1850:
Birthdate of Bernhard Baron, the Russian born inventor of a cigarette making
machine that led to his being the managing director of the National Cigarette
Tobacco Company of New York and the patent for which he sold to the United
Cigarette Machine Company for £120,000 who was the husband of Rachel Baron and
the father of Louis Baron.
1852(24th
of Kislev, 5613): Kindle the Channukah candle
1854:
Solomon and Jane Green were married today at the Great Synagogue.
https://archive.org/details/alifewilliamsha04leegoog
1855(25th
of Kislev, 5615): First Day of Chanukah observed as pro and anti-slavery forces
clash in what became known as Bloody Kansas
1859:
In Austria, Abraham and Magdelena Schultz Woolner gave birth to Hannah Woolner
Szold, the wife of Jacob Szold with whom she had seven children including Ira,
Allbert, Aline, Adolph, Max, Ruby and unnamed infant.
1859:
Birthdate of Solomon Lazarus Lee, who gained fame as Sir Sidney Lee, the
graduate of Balliol College, Oxford where he majored in modern history and rose
to be the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Lee,_Sidney
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Times/1926/Obituary/Sidney_Lee
1859:
In Amsterdam Rebecca Mozes Gans, the Dutch born daughter of Moses Jacob Pereira
Mendoza and Sara Josua Pereira Mendoza and her husband Jacob Moses Gans gave
birth to Meijer Gans.
1860:
Herman W. Hellman who arrived with his brother Isias in Los Angeles in 1859,
today left the “forwarding and commission business of General Banning” and went
to work in the “book and stationary business.”
1861(2nd
of Tevet, 5622): Eight Day of Chanukah.
1861:
The Grand Jury of Monmouth County returned a bill of indictment charging a man
named Radski with the murder of a German Jew named Sigismund Fellner.
1861:
Birthdate of Benjamin J. Kohlman who was interred at the Springhill Avenue
Temple Cemetery in Mobile when passed away.
1861:
A detachment of Union troops reportedly under the command Gabriel Netter, a
French born Jew who had settled in Kentucky, seized a railroad bridge at
Whippoorwill, KY that was held by Confederate forces and burned it.
1862:
Four days after he had passed away, 55 year old Solomon Joseph, the husband of
Priscilla Samuel with whom he had had five children, was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1863(24th
Kislev, 5624): As General Grant assumes command of the Union Armies and
prepares the national campaign that will put an end to secession and ensure the
newly won freedom of African Americans Jews read Parasha Vayeshev and kindle
the first Channukah candle.
1866(27th
of Kislev, 5672): Third day of Chanukah
1868:
“La Périchole an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach” was first
seen outside of France when it was performed today in Brussels.
1868:
Isaac Phillips and his second wife Miriam Trimble Phillips gave birth to
Naphtali Taylor Phillips a lawyer he held various political offices, e.g.: he
was member of the New York state legislature, served on the judiciary and other
committees and as a member of the Joint Statutory Revision Commission of that
body (1900); and deputy comptroller of the city of New York (from 1902). He
also was a trustee of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society,
and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and of the New York
Historical Society. He served as treasurer of the Jewish Historical Society and
has contributed several papers to its publications. For fifteen years he was
clerk of Congregation Shearith Israel. In 1892 Phillips married Rosalie
Solomons, daughter of Adolphus S. Solomons. Mrs. Phillips was an active member
of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
1869(1st
of Tevet, 5630): Seventh day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1869:
In Memphis, TN, Sarah and Jacques Gaisman gave birth to multi-talented inventor
Henry Jacques Gaisman, whose patented safety razor made him a wealthy man and
who married his former nurse, Catherine “Kitty” Gaisman when he was eighty
years old
1871:
In Sulzburg, Sara and Baruch Dukas gave birth to Julius Dukas, brother of
Moritz, Charlotte and Eduard Dukas.
1871:
Birthdate of Pittsburgh, PA, native Louis J. Affelder, the U. Pittsburgh
educated civil engineer, “assistant division manager of the American Bridge Co,
civic leader and husband of Estelle May Affelder with whom he had one son and
two daughters.
1873:
In Buffalo, NY, Louis and Emelia Desbecker Weill gave birth to attorney and future
Philadelphian Alfred Sigismund Weill, the husband of Louise Steele Young and
the father of Ann and Louise Weill.
1874(26th
of Kislev, 5635): Parashat Vayeshev; Second Day of Chanukah
1874(26th
of Kislev, 5635): Thirty-one-year-old Eudora H. Hart, the Charleston, SC born
daughter of Hetty Maria Gomez and Hyman Hart and the wife of Gratz Nathan with
whom she had two children, Constance and Frank, passed away today in New York.
1875:
An interview of the three men waiting to be hung for the murder of Abraham
Weissburg, a Jewish peddler, was published today.
1875:
It was reported today that an English missionary named Dr. Stern appeared
before the Jews of Yemen claiming, “that he was the bearer of happy
tidings.” The Yemini Jews accepted him
as a co-religionist until he attempted to convince them that Messiah was the
founder of the Christianity at which point, they told him to leave their
community. The missionary complained to
the Sultan who told the Jews “Listen ye Jehuds, you are a miserable
people. You pray in your synagogues that
Allah may send you the Messiah and now when the good tiding is brought to you
that he has come long ago, you ridicule the report as you have ridiculed and
slandered our nebbi (prophet). In punishment for your conduct, you shall pay
double the head tax this year.” [The nebbi refers to Mohammed] This episode an
unnamed Jewish teach to proclaim that God had ordered him to gather all the
Jews and lead them Jerusalem. Large
numbers of Jews across Arabia flocked to his leadership and viewed him as the
Messiah promised in the TaNaCh. At the
same, Yemen was conquered by Turkey and this unnamed Messiah gave up his
leadership role rather than face the Ottomans.
1875(7th
of Kislev, 5636): Abram Kurtz, William Lasser, William Meyers, Abram Dietz and
Aaron Dietz were among the 278 people who perished in the Brooklyn Theatre
Fire.
1875:
In Austria, Dr. Jozsef Bettelheim, the Slovakia born son of Samuel and Chava
Eva Bettelheim and his wife Ernestine Bettelheim gave birth of Hugo Bettelheim.
1875:
Birthdate of Chicago native Edwin Frank Mandel, the chairman of the family
business – Mandel Brothers Department Store – and philanthropist who donated
untold millions to Michael Reese Hospital.
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2755.html
1877:
In Kensington, London, Florence Justina Cohen and Abraham de Mattos Mocatta
gave birth to Effie Bertha Mocatta.
1877(29th
of Kislev, 5638): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1877(29th
of Kislev, 5638): Sixty-two-year-old Henry Emanuel Goldsmith, the Dutch born
son of Emanuel Levie Goldsmith and Alijda Joseph Joel Goldsmith and the husband
of Anna Goldsmith and Pauline Goldsmith passed away today in NYC after which,
in 1880 his widow wrote to Sabato Morais in 1880 offering donate the books
belong to him and his father to the “Theological Seminary
1878:
In Boston, founding of the Hebrew Women’s Sewing Society which was “affiliated
with the Federation of Jewish Charities.
1880:
It was reported today that the library of the late Baron James De Rothschild of
Paris will soon be sold at auction.
1880:
It was reported today that Trubner & Co has just published Early Hebrew
Life: A Study in Sociology by John Fenton
1881:
In New York City, Tillie Roth and Simon Wels gave birth to NYU trained attorney
Isidor Wels, the husband of Belle Hoffman and senior part of the law firm of
Moss, Wels and Marcus who belonged to Temple B’nai Israel and the American
Jewish Committee
1881:
It is reported today that Russian Jews are excited by the prospect of Count
Schovaloff replace General Ignatieff as Minister of the Interior given the
former’s enlightened attitude towards deal with the Jewish population.
1882(24th
of Kislev, 5643): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1882:
It was reported today that “five soldiers of a regiment of dragoons…have been
condemned to 15 years at hard labor in the mines…for taking part in riots
against the Jews.”
1882:
A warrant procured by Bernard Jaworower of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society for
the arrest of Hahal and Abraham Bronstein, two Jewish immigrants from Russia
living at Ward’s Island was given to the Harlem Police so they could take them
into custody.
1882:
In Russia, Leah Galanti, Tobiah Petachiah Schapiro gave birth to editor,
teacher and librarian Israel Schapiro, the husband of Miriam Kirschberg and co-editor of “Haderor,” a Hebrew language
weekly who served as Chief of the Division of Semitic and Oriental Literature
at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and Professor of Semitics at
Geroge Washington University.
1884:
“Virchow and Herr Stoecker” published today described the electoral contest
between liberal democrat Rudolf Virchow, the renowned pathologist and “the Jew
baiting Court Chaplain Adolph Stoecker” in which Virchow appears to have won
thanks to the support of the Socialists.
1884:
Mother Mandelbaum, the noted “receiver of stolen goods” and her son Julius
arrived in Montreal tonight where they are staying with a Jewish family that
used to live in Brooklyn.
1884:
In Milwaukee, WI, Riekchen Katz and Abe Meissner gave birth St. Louis
businessman Edwin B. Meissner, the president of the St. Lous Car Company and
board member of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis who was the husband Vassar
College graduate Edna Rice Meissner, a leader of the National Council of Jewish
Women.
1884:
Customers at Kaplan’s Coffee House identified the man who shot himself in the
park last night as Jacob Asch a native of Posen who came to the United States
20 years ago where he went into the millinery business, married, had four
children and moved to Chicago. He had come back to New York in what proved to
be a futile attempt to improve his fortune; a failure that apparently led to
his death.
1885:
In Brooklyn, NY, Judith Bensinger and Jacob Kronheim gave birth to Sylvan
Kronheim the manager of the men’s department at Maison-Blanche in New Orleans
and the merchandise manager for the Rosenbaum Company in Pittsburgh who went on
to found the Kronheim Continental Company which opened two men’s apparel stores
in New York while raising two children Myron and Judith with his second wife
ethe former Cecile Younger.
1886:
University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC trained rabbi, Joseph Silverman, the
Cincinnati born son of Ulrika Piorkowsky and Michael Henry Silverman married
Henrietta Block in Galveston, TX while leading Temple Israel in Galveston and
before moving on Temple Emanu-El in New York.
1887:
In Romania, Anna and Simon H. Silver gave birth to the future President of New
York City’s Board of Education Chales H. Silver, the father of Natali Moscow and
Evelyn Rosenstein and recipient of the
Man of the Year award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1976
who rose from being a $2.50 a week office boy at American Woolens to the positions
of vice president and director and who was on the boards of Beth Israel Medical
Center, Yeshiva Univsity and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies while
always finding time in his busy schedule for “praying every morning before
work.”
1887:
Reverend E. D. Simons of New Bloomfield, NJ, is scheduled to read a paper today
entitled “Why the Jews Crucified Christ.”
1888(1st
of Tevet, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh day of Chanukah
1888:
Birthdate of Berezino, Russia native Joseph George Cohen who in 1891 came to
New York City where he earned a Ph.D. from NYU and became the director of the
graduate division of Brooklyn College.
1889:
The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today at the house
of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association
1889:
It was reported today that Mayor Hugh Grant will preside at the official
opening of the upcoming Hebrew Educational Fair in New York City.
1890:
In Vienna, Anton Lang and the former Pauline Schlesinger, a Jew who had convert
to Roman Catholicism gave birth to director Fritz Lang whose trouble with the
Nazis stemmed as much from his art as did the fact that under the Nuremberg
Laws he was Jewish.
1890:
Plans were published today for the upcoming meeting of The Hebrew Free School
Association in Manhattan.
1890:
In Birmingham, “Polish Jewish immigrant leatherworker Abraham Bomberg and his
wife gave birth to Painter David Garshen Bomberg, one of the “White Chapel
Boys” who received assistance from “The Jewish Educational Aid Society which
enabled him to go to the Slade 1911-13, winning the Tonks Prize for a drawing
of fellow student Isaac Rosenberg and who in the 1920’s lived in Palestine
where he worked for the Zionists and furthered his painting career
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/david-bomberg
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/the-whitechapel-boys
1892:
Birthdate of Al Boasberg, the native of Buffalo career who began his career
doing vaudeville with Jack Benny before pursuing a career writing scripts for
films, the most of which might have been the Marx Brothers, “A Night at the
Opera.”
https://travsd.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/al-boasberg/
http://www.buffaloah.com/h/boasberg/index.html
1892:
Jacob Gerber arrived back in Omaha, Nebraska after having spent the last 18
months in Siberian Exile to which he had been condemned when he returned to
Russia to help his family leave the Czar’s domain.
1892:
The secret documents that had been presented in camera at the libel trial of
Hermann Ahlwardt which showed the 520 of the 939 Loewe rifles tested required
repairs were read in open court today.
1892: Pasot Hermann Ahlwardt, an avowed anti-Semite, who is “on
trial for slandering Herr Loewe, the Hebrew small arms manufacturer” was
elected to Germany's Reichstag.
1893(26th
of Kislev, 5654): Second Day of Chanukah
1893(26th
of Kislev, 5654): Budapest born Benjamin Solomon Spitzer, the rabbi and leader
of Austrian Orthodox Jewry known Reb Zalman Spitzer who married the daughter of
R. Moses Sofer passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13975-spitzer-benjamin-solomon
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/spitzer-solomon
1894:
The Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home held its first
annual reception in the recital chamber of the Music Hall. The League’s purpose
is to aid in raising funds for the Montefiore Home.
1894:
“An enthusiastic and appreciative audience” representing some “of the best
elements” of Jewish society attended the fundraiser hosted by the Monte Relief
Society tonight at the Lexington Avenue Opera House.
1894:
In New Orleans, LA, today’s session of the convention of American Hebrew
Congregations (Reform) a group of rabbis led by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, the
President of the Hebrew Union College protested the opening speech by Leo Levi
Galveston in which he asserted that “reformed Judaism” was “endangering the
very edifice of the Israelite faith.”
1895:
Birthdate of David-Zvi Pinkas, the native of Sopron who was active in Zionist
youth groups before making Aliyah in 1925 which led him to a political career
that included service in the First Knesset and as the first Minister of
Transport.
1895:
In La Jolla, CA, Esther and Morris Starrels gave birth to HUC and University of
Cincinnati graduate Solomon Elihu Starrels, the first rabbi to lead
Congregation B’nai Jershurun in Lincoln, Nebraska and the husband of Gertrude Starrels.
1895:
Hermann Ahlwardt, a member of the Reichstag who is about to commence a speaking
tour in the United States said that he stands “on the grounds of racial, not
religious anti-Semitism” and the he is “striving to unite the working people
and the artisans against the Jews” who “achieve nothing through their own
honest efforts.”
1895:
Dr. S. Solis Cohen of Philadelphia is scheduled to deliver a lecture on
“Judaism a Living Force,” the second in a series of talks sponsored by the
Young Men’s Hebrew Association followed by a performance of the Amateur
Philharmonic Orchestra.
1896:
Oscar Altman and Rose Wachtel became engaged according to information she later
included in her breach of promise suit filed against Altman.
1897:
Birthdate of Gerhard Scholem, the German born Israeli-Jewish philosopher and
author who gained fame as Gershom Scholem who served as the first Professor Of Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew
University where he pursued his ground-breaking academic study of the Kabbalah.
1896:
Birthdate of Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori who was the first American woman to
receive the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, in 1947, which was shared
with her husband, Dr. Carl F. Cori, and Dr. B.A. Houssay of Argentina. Austrian
born biochemist.
1898:
“Gen. Porter and the Dreyfus Case” published today contains Henri Rocherfort’s
accusation that General Horace Porter, the United States Ambassador “recently
said England had financed the Dreyfus syndicate with a view of dividing and
weakening France” followed by Porter’s response that “that the statement was a
fabrication, pure and simple.”
1900:
Today Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy signed a treaty providing that their
navies would work together in the event of an attack on either nation by France
or Russia which was yet another of the interlocking treaties that led to WW I,
the disaster for so many European Jews that led to that even greater disaster,
the Shoah.
1900:
Today, twenty-two-year-old Oscar Berman, the Kovno born son of Charles Meyer
and Sophia Berman and younger brother of Jacob Berman, the Chief Rabbi of
Berditchev who in 1893 came to the United States where he settled in
Cincinnati, OH where he founded the Crown Overall Manufacturing Company married
Cora Frank with whom he had two sons, Benjamin and Arnold.
1901:
In Chicago, Illinois, Elias and Flora Disney, gave birth to father of Mickey
Mouse and Donald Duck – Walt Disney whom some have accused of being an
anti-Semite despite the fact that he “donated regularly to Jewish charities and
“was named 1955 Man of the Year by the B’nai B’rith Chapter in Beverly Hills.”
1902: The
Convention of the National Council of Jewish Women continued for a fourth day
at the Eutaw Place Synagogue in Baltimore, MD.
1902:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Herman Jacobs the holder of a BS from NYU and an
MA from Columbia who worked with the YMHA and YWHA in the New York City are
while serving as the executive director of the Jewish Community Council and as
an officer with the National Association of Jewish Center Executives.
1902:
In Miskolc, Hungary, Kálmán Pressburger, estate manager, and his second wife,
Kätherina (née Wichs gave birth to Imre József Pressburger who gained fame as
movie director Emeric Pressburger
who won his only Oscar in 1942, for Best Writing for the original story of The Forty-Ninth Parallel.
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/447372/index.html
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp71284/emeric-pressburger-imre-josef-pressburger
1903(16th
of Kislev, 5664): Parashat Vayhislach
1903:
It was reported today that in Russia “no new rules have been issued in
connection with admission of Americans or other Jews” and that “visas are still
declined to Jews of all nationalities in accordance of long-standing policy.”
1903:
Leopold Greenberg and Herzl hold consultations about the line of activity to be
pursued in England. Herzl has the impression that the British government is
withdrawing the East African offer. Greenberg is to press once more for Sinai
and El-Arish.
1904(27th
of Kislev, 5665): Third Day of Chanukah observed for the first time in the UK
under the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Henry Bannerman, the successor to
Arthur Balfour of Balfour Declaration fame.
1905:
Representative Goldfogle of New York introduced a resolution in the United
States House of Representatives condemning the massacre of the Jews of Russia,
expressing the sorrow of the House over these killing and asking the President
to intervene with the Russian government.
1905:
“In Perth Amboy, NJ, “at a meeting at Temple Shaarey Tefiloh, fifteen hundred
friends of the victims of the Russian massacres became so wrought up by the
addresses made that they threw watches and jewelry into the contribution basket
when relief funds were asked for.”
1905:
It was reported today that Louis Marshall told those attending a mass memorial
service for the Jewish victims of Russian violence that “how in 685 communities
within the Russian pale, 25,000 human beings had been trampled into the soil on
which for five centuries their ancestors had dwelt, and 100,000 unfortunates
had been maimed, disfigured and disgraced.
1905:
It was reported today that in addition to all of the memorial services that had
been held in synagogues in New York, the actor Jacob P. Adler spoke to those
attending the Grand Theatre about the plight of Russian Jews.
1905:
Mr. Simon Wolfe, the Jewish communal leader, sent a letter today to the
National Committee working to relieve the suffering of the Russian Jews from
Carl Schurz in which the famous German born American reformer wrote, “Let me
congratulate you on the word you are doing for the Jews in Russia. Nothing in modern times has been more
terrible than their situation and to save them a fight has to be carried on not
only against the barbarism of the Russian government, but, what is far worse,
the barbarism of the populace.”
1905:
“Camden Hebrews Memorial Service” published today described the service held
the Sons of Israel Synagogue at 8th and Sycamore Streets to honor
the Jews who had been murdered the Odessa Pogrom.
1905:
It was reported today that the Sons of Israel in Camden, NJ has raised over
$700 to be sent to the Jews in Russia who have suffered from a wave of pogroms.
1905: In “Wiznitz, Austria-Hungary (present-day
Vyzhnytsia, Ukraine),” “Josefa
(née Fraenkel) and Markus Preminger” gave birth to producer/director Otto Preminger whose credits
include “Luara” and the film adaptation of Leon Uris’ best-selling novel, Exodus.
https://www.biography.com/people/otto-preminger-9446387
1906: Birthdate of New York City native and CCNY
graduate Harry Louis Levy, the holder of a Ph.D from Columbia, the classical
scholar who served dean of Students at Hunter College and Vice Chancellor of
City University in New York before becoming a visiting professor of classical
studies at Duke University where his wife, the former Ernestine Friedl is dean
of arts and sciences at the University’s Trinity College.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/12/obituaries/harry-levy-ex-official-at-city-u.html
1907(29th of Kislev, 5668): Fifth Day of
Chanukah
1907: “Aaron and Esther (Enteen) Rabinowitz” gave
birth to Brooklyn trained attorney and Democratic Party activist Samuel G.
Rabinor.
1907: In Manhattan, Minnie and Dr. Richard Weil gave
birth to Richard “Bob: Weil, Jr the husband of Allene Berris Weil and the father
of Dr. Richard Weil, III and Martha Whittall De Bourgnecht who was the grandson
of Isidor Strauss, the co-founder of Macey’s who was president of Macey’s.
1907: As part of a determined effort to have the
public see the Department of Commerce and Labor as an entity that can improve
“commercial operations” in the United States, Oscar Straus, the recently
appointed Secretary of that department and the first Jew to hold a cabinet post
is scheduled to host a meeting today in Washington “of representatives of the
various Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce and other commercial
organizations.”
1908: Birthdate of Estelle Strossman, the wife of
Brooklyn native Samuel L. Multer and the mother of Rhode Island basketball star
Barry Multer.
1908: Birthdate of “Shobha Magdolna Friedmann Nehru,
a Hungarian Jew who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, married into India’s
leading political family.” (As reported by Ellen Barry)
1909: Birthdate of New York native Harold Joseph
Huberman who gained fame as Harold Huber the NYU graduate and began his career
on Broadway with an appearance in “A Farewell to Arms” in 1930.
1909:
Many of New York City’s most prominent Jewish leaders took part in a memorial
meeting this afternoon in honor of the Rabbi Joseph Mayer Asher, Professor in
the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and rabbi of the Orach Chaim
Synagogue, who passed away unexpectedly at the age of 37 on November 9. It was
held under the auspices of the Jewish Community of New York City in the
auditorium of the Hebrew Charities Building, at Second Avenue and Twenty-First
Street.
1910: In New York City, “Russian Jewish immigrants,
Henry and Rebecca (née Rosoff) Polonsky gave birth to Abraham L Polonsky, an
American born writer and director, whose political views led to him being
blacklisted following World War II.
After being “rehabilitated” he made one of his most famous works, “Tell
Them Willie Boy Is Here.”
1911(14th
of Kislev, 5672): Eighty-year-old Leopold Seligman, seventh of the eight
Seligman brothers and co-founder of the Anglo-Californian bank and “who with
his brother Isaac” headed “the well-known banking firm in London of Seligman
Brothers” passed away today in the English capital city.
1911:
Today, twenty-nine-year-old Johns Hopkins trained medical doctor Solomon
Strouse, the Baltimore born son of Benjamin and Fannie (Kahn) Strouse and
associate professor of Northwestern University married Edith J. Mayer in
Chicago.
1911:
Birthdate of Polish pianist Władysław
Szpilman. He worked as pianist
for Polish radio in Warsaw until 1939.
He was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto where he continued playing while
helping to smuggle weapons into the ghetto.
When the rest of his family was sent to Treblinka, Szpilman
escaped. Eventually he was captured by
the Germans. However, thanks to Wilm
Hoseneld, a Wermacht Captain who had become disillusioned with the Nazis,
Szpilman survived the war. His autobiography became the source for the script
of the 2002 film entitled “The Pianist.”
1911:
Forty-six-year-old Russian born painter and portrait artist Valentin
Alexandrovich Serov passed away. For a display of his work including his
self-portrait see
http://www.tanais.info/art/en/serov.html
1912(25th
of Kislev, 5673): Chanukah
1912(25th
of Kislev, 5673): Forty-year-old Hoboken, NJ philanthropist A.E. Solomon passed
away today at Jacksonville, FL.
1912:
In Warsaw, “David Grobsmith, a shoe designer, and Lonia Grobsmith née Babicz, a
corsetiere” gave birth to Kaila Grobsmith, who gained famed as Hunter College
graduate and author Kate Simon who married Robert Simon after the death of
Stanley Goldman.
1912:
Two days after he had passed away, 70 year old Sigmund Pollitzer, the husband
of Rebecca Pollitzer with whom he had had four children was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1912:
Today, “Rabbi Schanfarber addressed the Jews of Michigan City” today “and
“urged the formation of Sabbath School.
1912:
The ninth convention of the Rivers and Harbors Congress which Jacob A. Cantor
is attending as a delegate from New York continued for a second day in
Washington, D.C.
1912:
Birthdate of Senetta Punfud, the native of Fürth, Germany who gained married
Giroa Yoseftal and gained fame as Israeli political leader Senetta Yoseftal, a
founder of Kibbutz Galed and Knesset Minster.
1913(6th
of Kislev, 5674): Seventy-year-old Cincinnati native and Civil War veteran
Jacob Trost, the son of Wolf and Hannah Kahn Trost and the husband of Carrie Solomon Trost with
whom he had had two children – Belle and Jeannette – passed away today after
which he was buried at the Judah Touro Cemetery in Cincinnati.
1913:
According to a report published in “La America” after the sisterhood’s old
Neighborhood House “became inadequate” the facility was moved to Orchard
Street.
1914:
“War Hits Zionism, Says Zangwill” published today provides the views of the
Israel Zangwill of the war on the Jewish people. Among other things he believed “that the
present war will for some years make it impossible to have German, English,
Austrian and Russian Jews meet on a common basis, that the establishment of a
national home in Palestine will not solve the problems of discrimination faced
by most Jews and that at this time he will work to have Lord Gray, the British
Foreign Secretary, pressure the Russians to improve the conditions of Russian
Jewry.
1915:
“A new Jewish theological seminary which is to be called the Rabbinical College
that has been established by the Yeshibath Etz Chaim and the Rabbi Isaac
Elchana Seminary” for the purpose of training Orthodox rabbis located at 9 and
11 Montgomery Streets” is scheduled to be formally dedicated this morning in
New York City.
1915(28th
of Kislev, 5676): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1915:
A hoped for 5,000 volunteers were scheduled to take part in Zion Flag Day which
was supported by numerous organizations including David Wolfsohn Zion Club in
Manhattan, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in the Bronx and the Young Judean
Club in Brooklyn
1915:
The New York Chapter of Hadassah is scheduled to host a Chanukah celebraton
this eveing at the Hotel Majestic to raise money for the Emergency Fund
providing aid to the suffering Jews of Palestine which will feature “a program
of Hebrew and Yiddish Songs” and “a dramatic reading by Miss Jennie Mannheimer
of Cincinnati.
1915:
As previously decided by the Executive Committee of the Federation of American
Zionists, Flag Day is scheduled to be celebrated today.
1915:
It was reported today that in Russia “it is not feasible to replace coal with
timber, which is abundant in the Russian forests, because the timber trade is
exclusively in the hands of the Jews and they have been decimated by the most
cruel pogroms or expelled from the west and the northwest which is the great
forest land of Russia. (Given a choice between anti-Semitism or winning the
war, it looks like the Czar preferred the former to the latter.)
1915:
“At the opening session of the seventh annual convention of the Federation of
Jewish Farmers of America held in the auditorium of the Education Alliance
Building” tonight “Jacob H. Schiff predicted that after the war there will be a
tide of immigration of European Jews to” the United States “because of the
persecutions they are undergoing in Russia and Poland” and “plans must be made
to accommodate these people in” rural areas because the cities are already
overcrowded with immigrants.
1915:
Among those listed today as having made contributions to the American Jewish
Relief Committee to provide funds for those living in the war zones include
$104 from the Fargo, North Dakota, Association of Jewish Charities, $200 from
the Calgary, Canada Jewish Relief Fund, $1,000 from the Des Moines, Iowa Jewish
Community and $100 from the Jewish Conference of Minneapolis, MN.
1916: Birthdate of Hilary Koprowski the Polish-born Jewish
virologist and immunologist, and inventor of the world's first effective live
polio vaccine. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1916: Twenty-four-year-old University of Pennsylvania attorney,
Louis E. Levinthal, the Philadelphia born son of Bernhard and Minna (Kleinberg)
Levinthal who became a member of the National Executive Committee of the ZOA
and member of the board of trustee of JPS married Lenore Chodoff today.
1917: As Imperial forces battled their way to Jerusalem, the
advanced guard of the 53rd (Welsh) Division also known as Mott’s
Detachment moved three miles north of Hebron under the cover of darkness.
1917: At a time “when the Turks under German control are deporting
Jews wholesale from Palestine,” The Frankfurter Zeitung published an account
supplied by Count Ernst Graf zu Reventlow “of a secret anti-Semitic movement
which is collecting funds for a violent German campaign against Jews” which is
“to open directly after peace is concluded.” (Reventlow was an anti-Semite who
joined the Nazis)
1917: Rabbi Joel Blau
of Rochester, NY delivered an address on “Israel After War” at the meeting of
the Menorah Society in which he declared that “Jewish freedom can mean only one
thing: not merely freedom everywhere, but a free Israel in its own land,
Palestine.”
1917: The convention of the Association of American Jewish Rabbis
that has been meeting at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association adjourned today
after reaffirming its previously adopted motion express thanks to the British
government for the promulgation of the Balfour Declaration.
1918: Lord Curzon chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Eastern
Committee attended by General Jan Smuts, Lord Balfour, Lord Robert Cecil,
General Sir Henry Wilson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, T. E. Lawrence
and representatives of the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Admiralty, the
War Office, and the Treasury at which the status of Palestine was discussed.
(Editor’s Note – This list of attendees should prove that the issue of the
future of Palestine was one of major concern to the British as they prepared to
deal with the post-war world.)
1919(13th of Kislev, 5680): Clara S. Kraus, the wife of Louis Kraus and
mother of Muriel Kraus passed away today in Chicago where she was a member of
Temple Sholom.
1919:
Mortimer L. Schiff, Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Jewish Welfare
Board was among the passengers on board the SS Mauretania that set sail for
Great Britain today. Schiff was accompanied by George W. Perkins, Chairman of
the Finance Committee of the War Work Council of the YMCA. The trip which representative of kind of
inter-religious harmony unique to the United States, was the first step in
assessing how the funds collected by these two organizations could best be used
to alleviate the suffering in post-war Europe.
1919:
A delegation of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) including Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Louis Robinson and Bernard Flexner set sail
from New York for London where they will meet with leaders of other Zionist
organizations, including the Zionist Political Committee.
1919:
The Turkish Minister of War issues a decree releasing all Jews (as well as
Greeks and Armenians) from obligation in the military.
1920(24th
of Kislev, 5681): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1920:
At 10 o’clock today, “the clubs on Washington Heights” are scheduled to
“present a program of Jewish plays, tableaux, recitations and motion pictures
at the Audubon Theatre” as part of the Channukah celebration.
1920:
Cornell graduate and Long Island College Hospital trained medical doctor Murray
Burnes Gordon, the New York City born son of Pera Lichtman and Isaac Gordon
married Harriet Engel today after which he became the president of the medical
staff of the United Israel Zion Hospital
1921(4th
of Kislev, 5682): Eighty-nine-year-old Austrian feminist Ottilie Bonday, the
daughter of Johanna and Dr. Aloys Isidor Jeitteles passed away in Munich.
1922:
At the Conference of Lusanne, Russia pursued its goal to control the
Dardanelles which has had a long running effect on the Middle East, by demanded
“the closure of the straits, in peace and war, to the warships and aircraft of
all nations except Turkey.
1922:
In London, Major Harry Louis Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan and Eleanor Joan Clara
Nathan gave birth to Captain Roger Carol Michael Nathan, 2nd Baron Nathan
1922:
Birthdate of Lois Ruth Mell, who would become known as Casey Ribicoff, the wife
Abraham Ribicoff a great liberal Democrat and decent man who served as U.S.
Senator from Connecticut and Secretary of HEW.
1922(15th
of Kislev, 5683): Benjamin Levinsky was shot and killed this morning “by
William Lipshitz while entering a Broadway loft building where he was employed
as a cutter for the Levinson Brothers. He had driven to work in a taxi with
Benjamin Massauer, an ex-convict who had spent the night at his home, and who
had told the driver to stop the cab when two shots were heard shortly after
Levinsky entered the building. As a crowd gathered in front of the building,
Lipshitz ran out from the doorway and into a patrolman who had arrived at the
scene. When questioned, he denied any knowledge of the shooting and claimed to
have been buying a suit when the murder took place. Both Lipshitz and Massauer
were taken to the Mercer Street police station where they were further
questioned by police. Lipshitz maintained he had no involvement in Levinsky's
murder but was caught lying when he claimed to have no criminal record. He had
been using the alias William Levine but admitted to being William Lipshitz when
confronted with his photo in the precinct's Rogue's Gallery. A witness also
claimed to have seen he and Levinsky fighting in the doorway when the shooting
occurred. Lipshitz was eventually charged with Levinsky's death while Massauer
was held as a material witness until paroled in the custody of lawyer Hyman
Bushel who had been hired by Levinsky's family. Although police suspected his
murder had been committed by a personal enemy, Bushel later issued a statement
from the family claiming that Levinsky had been murdered as the result of a
murder contract by businessmen. Benjamin Levinsky, who was born in 1893, was an
American gang leader, labor racketeer and organized crime figure. Spending
almost twenty years in and out of reformatories and prisons, Levinsky had a lengthy
criminal record prior to the start of Prohibition. He was first arrested in
1902 for incorrigibility and sent to a reformatory asylum. He was caught
pickpocketing five years later and was imprisoned on a variety of charges over
the next decade including petty theft, grand larceny, felonious assault and
vagrancy. He became involved in labor racketeering in Manhattan's Lower East
Side and, prior to the third "Labor Slugger War", Levinsky reportedly
became "a thorn in the side of clothing contractors". Due to his
unionizing activities, he apparently became the target of assassination by
certain business interests. Other sources claim he headed a gang of gunmen and
thieves which began muscling in on the territory of other "labor sluggers”
particularly that of newsboy and labor racketeer William Lipshitz.”
1923(27th
of Kislev, 5684): Third day of Chanukah
1923:
American Jews absorbed the warning reported yesterday that Chaim Weizmann said,
“a wave of anti-Semitism sweeping over Eastern Europe is endangering the lives
of eight million Jews.”
1924:
Benjamin Sivitz and his wife gave birth to PFG Sanford S. Sivitz who was buried
in the Beth Shalom Cemetery in Shaler Township, PA after being killed in action
during WW II while serving the 114th Infantry Regiment of the 44th
Division of the U.S. Army
1924:
In Baltimore, MD, “the former Florence Decker, an amateur painter” and her
husband Gustave gave birth “comic-book artist” Samuel Joseph Glanzman. (As
reported by Richard Sandomir)
1925
After 319 performances on Broadway, the curtain came down on “Louis XIV”
featuring the music of Sigmund Romberg.
1925(18th
of Kislev, 5686): Parasha Vayishlach
1925:
New York native Bernhard Baron who made his money in the tobacco business in
London celebrated his seventy-fifth birth today “by giving £50,000 to charity
from his private fortune” which “brings the total of his gifts to charities and
to his employee in the present year to £200,000 and for all years £700,000.”
1925(18th
of Kislev, 5686): Yehuda Leib Levin, oldest of the Hebrew poets in Russia,
known for more than half a century under his pen name ‘Jahalel,’” passed away
today in Kiev. Born in Minsk in 1844,
Levin studied Talmud, worked as a teacher before serving as a treasurer for
local flour and sugar mills. The first collection of his poetry was published
in 1871 under the title Sifte Raananim.”
In 1877, “Kishron Massech” his poem “devoted to a description of the
social conditions of Russian Jews” was published. In a case of Jew meets Jew, Levin translated
Disraeli’s Tancred into Hebrew.
1926:
“Yes,
Yes, Yvette”, a musical in three acts with lyrics by Irving Caesar, “the son of
Morris Keiser, a Romanian Jew” and music by Ben Jerome premiered in Chicago at
the Four Cohans Theatre today.
1926:
Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin," debuted. Eisenstein was a famed Russian director whose
father was a Jewish architect. As a
“child of the Russian Revolution,” Eisenstein did not profess a belief in any
religion.
1927:
In the Bronx, Irving Newman, a baker working in the family business and Mary
Rotker gave birth to “Marvin Newman, a renowned photographer who brought a
quirky, artistic eye to capturing shadows on a Chicago main street; people in
front of shuttered storefronts on Coney Island; and athletes in competition,
including Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates smashing the 1960 World
Series-winning home run…” (As reported by Richard Sandimor)
https://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/marvin-e-newman
1927:
In the Czech Republic, Ernst Löw the Czech born son of Karl Löw and Rosa Löw
and his wife Rosa / Růžena Rosalie Löw gave birth to Herbert Löw,
1928(22nd
of Kislev, 5689): Fifty-six-year-old Sarah A. Moses, the Montgomery, AL born
daughter of Jeanette Nathan and Alfred Huger Moses who were married in 1871 at
Louisville passed away today in St. Louis, MO.
1928:
“According to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatch sent today from Warsaw “an
anti-Jewish boycott has been started in Upper Silesia threatening 6,000 Jewish
peddlers with economic ruin.” (Editor’s note – so much for the myth that the
treatment of the Jews by the Poles during the Holocaust was because “the
Germans made them do it.”
1928:
At the opening meeting of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in
America, Dr. S. Parkes Cadman said, “that he considered himself radio minister
to Jews and Gentiles as the committee in charge of the programs was not
confined exclusively to Christians.”
1929:
In Topeka, KS, Hanna and Irvine Ungerman gave birth to Stanford University
trained attorney and U.S. Air Force veteran Maynard Ivan Ungerman the husband
of Elsa Leiter Ungerman whom he married in 1950 who was active in community
affairs in Tulsa, OK and who was the “long-time chairman of the Jewish
Federation’s Community Relations Committee” in Tulsa.
1929:
“Jewish Honor Roll Lists 4 Christians” published today reported that the soon
to be published “annual Who’s Who issue of the American Hebrew will list four
Christians” – Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia; Dr. A. Lawrence Lowell of
Harvard; Dr. W.H.P. Fuance of Brown and John D. Rockefeller, Jr – “among those
listed as having performed outstanding work the Jewish people in 1929…”
1930:
The Baltimore Jewish Times reported
that Cantor Abba Yosef Weisgal’s Adolph Coblenz was his “first rabbi in
Baltimore, MD.”
1930:
In Los Angeles, “a jeweler and an actress” gave birth to Frederick Lawrence
Kert who gained fame as singer Larry Kert, best known for playing the lead in
Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway hit “West Side Story.”
1930:
“The Blue Angel,” a tragi-comedy directed by Josef von Sternberg who also
co-authored the script with music by Friedrich Hollaender and Franz Waxman was
released in the United States today.
1931(25th
of Kislev, 5692): Chanukah
1931:
“A Governor’s warrant for the extradition of Montefiore E. Kahn from to New
York City to New Jersey will be sought today by…the Prosecutor of Hudson County
following Kahn’s indictment yesterday on a charge of embezzlement of $100,000
from Oil Shares, Inc. of which he was vice president.”
1931:
The False Madonna, with a screenplay co-authored by Arthur Kober was released
today in the United States.
1932(6th
of Kislev, 5693): Eighty-one-year-old German born Cincinnati businessman
William Ornstein, an officer with B’nai B’rith passed away today.
1932:
Birthdate of Farhat Ezekiel Nadira, a member of a prominent Baghdadi Jewish
family who gained fame as Nadria, a leading Indian movie actress.
1932:
“German” physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa. Einstein was the kind of German who had to
use his visa to flee to the United States where he could continue his work and,
more importantly, continue to stay alive.
To history he may have been a “German” but to the Germans he was one
more candidate for the Final Solution. As those who studied Jewish
History on Monday nights at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids learned, “who writes
history often determines what the history is.”
1932:
In New York, Jewish immigrants Bella (Rubin) and Lewis Gluchovsky, a plumber
gave birth to Sheldon Glashow who
developed the Electroweak Theory and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979.
1933: Edith Frank-Holländer and her daughter Margot join their father Otto in
Amsterdam. Her sister Anne will leave Germany and join them in February of 1943
1933(17th of Kislev, 5694): Fifty-eight-year-old
Columbia trained physician Alfred Fabian Hess, the husband of the former Sara
Strauss, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Strauss with whom he had four
children and the developer of the Hess Test which came about while studying
“the role of nutrition in scurvy and rickets” passed away today.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/1176548
https://library-archives.cumc.columbia.edu/obit/alfred-fabian-hess
1933: Utah becomes the 36th State to
ratify the 21st Amendment marking the end of Prohibition at the
federal level in the United States.
http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1991_43_02_00_sprecher.pdf
http://forward.com/articles/143791/prohibition-tells-changing-story-of-jews-in-americ/
1934: In response to questions from Labor MP Colonel
Josiah C. Wedgwood, “Colonial Secretary Sir Phillip Cunliffe-Lister” told the
House of Commons “that between January 1 and November 24, 627 Jews were
deported from Palestine” at cost unknown to him at this time.
1934: In Newark, NJ, H. Jerome Sisselman and his
wife gave birth to art collector Naomi Wilzig, the wife of Siggi Wilzig, an
Auschwitz survivor and an early leader of the U.S. Holocaust Museum,
1935: Birthdate of Auckland, New Zealand native
Maxwell Harold “Max” Gimblett the American artist and the husband of Canadian
born scholar Barbara Kirsheblatt-Gimblett.
http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2016/04/28/max-gimblett-and-the-art-of-remembrance/
1935:
In Kansas City, MO, Edythe and Abe Trillin gave birth to Calvin Trillin, the
journalist, humorist novelist and creator of comic verse, best known for his
writing about cooking and food. A few of
his famous one-liners include: “Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of
schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires
heartburn if they get through the garlic defense.” “The most remarkable thing
about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but
leftovers. The original meal has never been found.”
https://www.thenation.com/authors/calvin-trillin/
1936: It was reported today that Dr. Wildhagen, an
Aryan who “sits on the bench of the Leipzig Supreme Court” was among those
whose books were banned the National Socialist Party because they erroneously
identified him as being Jewish.
1937: The Palestine Post
reported that Sir Alfred MacMichael, governor of Tanganyika since 1934, had
been appointed to replace Sir Arthur Wauchope as the High Commissioner and
Commander-in-Chief of Palestine and the High Commissioner for Transjordan.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that in
Jerusalem Abraham Perlman, 20, was shot dead and two young girls were wounded
when they strolled together towards the King David Hotel.
1938:
Today Herbert Gollnow, a member of the Red Orchestra who died by firing squad
for his role in the resistance “joined the German Foreign Office to prepare for
service as a consulate secretary.” (Editor’s note: Everybody knows the name of
the murderers. We should remember those who fought the evil and paid the ultimate
price.)
1937: "A Trio by the Thames" published today described
the opening of a four week season of the Habima Players in London. By
November 19, at the end of the first of the four weeks, the Palestinian troupe
had displayed "the Habima Method" in a faultless performance of the
Dybbuk.
1938: Following Kristallnacht, 18-year-old Helmut Newton
fled Germany today with the intention of going to China but ended up in
Singapore where he pursued his career as a photographer: first for the Straits Times and then as a portrait
photographer”
1938:
Birthdate of Stepney native and “footballer” Mark Lazaurs whose career reached
a high point “when he scored the final goal for QPR against West Bromwich
Albion in the 1967 League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.”
1938:
As the Arab uprising intensified, Abd el Bader Abu Saleh, an Arab leader was
shot dead by Arab terrorists. Snipers
attacked Jewish settlements as well as military and police installations in
Gaza. Damage done to the railroad
running between Lydda and Tel Aviv was repaired within hours after having been
discovered.
1938:
The following article entitled “Germany: Ad Nauseam” published today proves the
world was not ignorant of the fate of German Jewry.
How
62 prosperous German Jews were forced to run a bloody gantlet at Sachsenhausen
Concentration Camp was reported last week in the Liberal News Chronicle of
London. Two long ranks of Adolf Hitler's personal Schutzstaffel formed the
gantlet, down which the 62 Jews were forced to run. "As they approached
between the ranks, a hail of blows fell on them," said the News Chronicle.
"As they fell, the Jews were beaten further. The orgy lasted half an hour.
. . . Twelve of the 62 were dead, with skulls smashed. All the others were
unconscious, some with eyes out and faces flattened in. ... Police, unable to
bear the cries, turned their backs." This nauseating atrocity, whether or
not the honest News Chronicle was correctly informed as to exactly what happened,
is undoubtedly the truth in the sense that such atrocities do occur today in
many parts of Germany, especially the countryside. The case for antiSemitism,
as it appears to strong-stomached Nazis, was taken last week before the bar of
German public opinion. It is to be kept there for many weeks, with more than
1,500 major anti-Semitic mass meetings, scheduled throughout Germany, plus
countless anti-Semitic lectures—all under the showmanship of Dr. Paul Joseph
Goebbels. Dr. Goebbels is sometimes described in print as a barking, brawling,
screaming propaganda maniac. Actually the Minister for Propaganda & Public
Enlightenment is one of the great political orators of this century. He opens
suavely, is restrained most of the time, mellifluent, knows how to whip a point
over with the sting of humor, a trifle crude at times—or very crude if Dr.
Goebbels is radiorating to the masses. The importance in Dr. Goebbels' mind of
the "educative campaign" he was starting last week caused him to
summon 2,000 of his picked Nazi stooge-orators to meet him in the Kroll Opera
House. "I have never made anti-Semitic propaganda in the outside
world," said Orator Goebbels softly. "The dear Jews have done that
for themselves. . . . Anti-Semitism is latent among all peoples. The Jews
awaken it. ... All we have done is to eliminate Jews from public life in
Germany. Let the English say what they will, what we do is our business! . . .
After five-and-one-half years of National Socialism, the Jews still have in
Germany proportionately four-and-one-half times as much wealth as the
Aryans!" From this Dr. Goebbels proceeded to an economic attack on the
Jewish Question. According to him, if the average German owned as much as the
average German Jew still owns today, the national wealth of the Reich would be
not as at present some 200 billion marks but over 900 billion marks. As though
for a Liberty Loan Drive, the Ministry for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment
rushed to German "educative meetings" Dr. Goebbels' brand new
"educational film" prepared weeks ago—Jewry Without The Mask. This
was not all, by any means. With typical German thoroughness, Dr. Goebbels
forced the Jewish Theatre of Berlin, which wished to remain closed, to re-open
last week and ordered a Jewish director Fritz Wisten brought directly from a
concentration camp to put on a comedy, The Wind And The Rain—or else. A
policeman then noted in his little book and reported back to his Nazi superiors
what was also noted by the Associated Press correspondent: The bedraggled
Jewish audience "occasionally applauded" this comedy which they were
obliged to sit through by Dr. Goebbels so that his 2,000 orators can
"truthfully" tell the German people such things as this: "There
is right now a Jewish theatre going full blast in Berlin and playing comedies
at which the rich Jews laugh and applaud while poor Jews are starving!"
Such despotic acts of State are the most effective form of 1938 streamlined
propaganda, but Orator Goebbels of course uses many first-rate German
orators—as well as his 2,000 regimented speakers. First-rate Orator Dr. Robert
Ley, führer of the Labor front of 20 million German workers (who have to take
him as their trade union boss whether they like him or not), declared last
week: "The resurgence of the German people had three stages: first,
unification under a Führer; second, the bursting of the Versailles bonds;
third, exposure of the Jewish enemy and the battle with him."* Dr. Ley did
not forget that he was addressing, among other German workers, many more or
less devout Catholics, all of whom know that Pope Pius XI has taken the
strongest stand against anti-Semitism and inferentially against Naziism (TIME,
Aug. 14). Attacking His Holiness directly, Labor Front Ley blasphemed:
"The Pope is wrong because he recognizes only one Catholic race. But
Almighty God was not so papal as the Pope. He made differences among races!
There are positive and negative elements in the human race and the negative can
exist only as parasites—as witness the Jews!" Herren Hitler, Goebbels, Ley
et al. are the remorseless leaders and directors of the Nazi program to
liquidate the Jews. But the merciless hand of 185,000 who eagerly carry out
their orders to the hilt and then some are the 185,000 bullyboys of the
Reich—the Schutzstaffel, the vicious elite of the Nazi storm troops. Their
organ, and that of the Gestapo (secret police) is Das Schwarze Korps. This
Party paper recently stated it as a fact that international Jewry had declared
war on Germany. Last week Das Schwarze Korps, descended from appalling
generalities to particulars. It proposed this program to destroy Germany's Jews
as follows: first impoverish them; this will end in the Jews' having no other
means of livelihood than to descend to criminality; "at this stage of
development we should therefore face the hard necessity of exterminating the
Jewish underworld in the same fashion in which ... we exterminate criminals
generally—by fire and sword. "Because it is necessary, because we no
longer hear the world's screeching and because, after all, no power on earth
can hinder us, we will now bring the Jewish question to its totalitarian
solution," declared Das Schwarze Korps. "The program is clear.
"The Jews must be quartered in streets and housing blocks where they will
be among themselves and come into touch with Germans as little as
possible." No one of the ghettos which would be Stage 1 of the
Schtitzstaffel's plan had yet been set up in Germany last week. But the laws to
put Jews outside Germany's social and economic life were being promulgated
daily. No German Jew may enter any non-Jewish place of entertainment or
education. No Jew may conduct any commercial business or service. The
professions had not been entirely closed to them. That would come later.
Meantime, blustering Reich Master of the Hunt Hermann Göring withdrew all
Jewish hunting licenses. *Newshawks who few weeks ago reported that Germany's
famed folk song, Heinrich Heine's Lorelei, had been banned because its author
was a Jew, discovered that Dr. Ley had nonetheless named his newborn daughter
Lore Ley.
1939:
German authorities seize Jewish property in Poland. Items that are appropriated
include businesses, homes, furniture and other household goods, currency and
bank accounts, art, jewelry, and other valuables. Now economically helpless,
the Jews have virtually nothing with which to sustain themselves.
1940: British government official Sir
John Schuckburgh wrote that "the Jews have no sense of humor and no sense
of proportion."
1940:
“The Thief of Bagdad” a fantasy produced by Sir Alexander Korda, with contributions
by Vincent and Zotlan Korda, the other two siblings of this fascinating trio of
Hungarian born Jews was released in the United States today.
1941:
“Jewish Army Urged To Win Just Peace” published today described plans for a
volunteer force of 200,000 Jews that would be trained in Canada and receive
equipment under lend-lease that was
supported by, among others, Colon John H. Patter, the English Commander of the
Jewish Legion in World War I who “had long advocated the formation of a Jewish
army because he knew it would help win the war and second because he believe
that that without such an army there will be no just peace, no any true
democracy after the war.”
1941:
The Nazis collected 7,000 Jews in the town courtyard at Nowogrodek, Poland.
After a night in the courtyard, the Jews were selected to the left for work, or
to the right for death. Five thousand of the Jews went to the right.
1941:
Two days before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, “Mr. Bug Goes to Town,” the film
that ended the partnership between Max and Dave Fleischer had a limited
release.
1942:
Four days after his 38th birthday Czech journalist Josef Taussig and
his parents – Otto and Frederike, née Federer, Taussig – and “at least five of
his other relatives” were shipped to Theresienstadt.
1943:
The New York Times reported today that 34 of the Jews arrested by the
British during their search for arms at Ramat HaKovesh were released during the
last weekend in November, 1943.
1943(8th
of Kislev 5704): Seventy-three-year-old Louis Aaron, the Chicago born son of
Benett and Minnie Lewin Aaron (AKA Barney Aaron and Yetta Levin) the husband of
Carrie Feldon Aaron whom he married in 1897 and the father of Ben Feldon passed
away today after which he buried at Chicago’s Rosehill Cemetery.
1944:
In “Bids Jews of U.S. Take Judaism Lead” published today, it was reported that
Dr. Ignacy Schwartzbart of the Polish National Council told the American Jewish
Conference “the destiny of the Jewish people throughout the world now rests
with active and responsible leadership from the American Jews.”
1945(1st
of Tevet, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1945:
“1,000 at Hanukah Dinner” published today described a dinner at the Hotel
Commodore sponsored by the JNF where each of the attendees have given enough
money to purchase one dunam or a quarter of an acre of land in Palestine.
1945:
Birthdate of Moshe Katsav, future President of Israel.
1946:
“Till The Clouds Roll By” a musical biography of Jerome Kern, produced by
Arthur Freed and featuring Dinah Shore was released in the United States today
by MGM.
http://emanuellevy.com/review/till-the-clouds-roll-by-9/
1947:
Cartoonist and Chairman of Marvel Comics Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber)
married Joan Clayton Boocock today.
1947:
The U.S. State Department announced that no arms will be sent to the Middle
East. [This American arms embargo worked to the advantage of the Arabs who had
standing, well-armed militaries the best of which was the Arab Legion, the
Jordanian Army supplied by the British with equipment and officers.]
1947:
“The Jewish Agency announced the call-up of all men and women between the ages
of seventeen and twenty-five for national service.” This was part of the Yishuv’s response to the
immediate increase in Arab violence following the vote to adopt the UN back
partition plan.
1948:
“An Act of Murder” based on a novel by Ernst Lothar, an Austrian Jew who
escaped the Nazis and a screenplay by Michael Blankfort was released in New
York City today.
1948:
At its meeting in Tel Aviv, the Knesset publicly declared the Jerusalem was the
capital of the new Jewish state.
1948:
First day of Operation Assaf, a campaign by the IDF to secure the western Negev
by dislodging the Egyptians who had invaded the area out the outbreak of the
war. The first day was a success for the IDF which captured several Egyptian
positions without sustaining serious casualties.
1949:
“Prime Minister proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
1950(26th
of Kislev, 5711): Second Day of Chanukah
1950(26th
of Kislev, 5711): Sixty-eight year old Dr. Benjamin Gruskin, the Lithuanian
born son of Leon Gruskin and a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and
Rush Medical School who was “a leader in experimental medicine” “credited with
several medical discoveries” including the discovery of the therapeutic value
of chlorophyll, blood and skins tests for cancer, a test for inactive
tuberculosis and a pregnancy test” passed away today in a hospital in Durham,
NC after which he was buried at the Beth Shalom Cemetery in Pittsburgh, PA.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/12/07/91122526.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1952:
The Jerusalem Post reported that it
was decided to proceed with the release of accounts held by Arab refugees in
banks in Israel. Arab states made no such offer of releasing funds of
Jewish refugees held in Arab banks in such places as Morocco or Yemen. At the
UN Britain joined Canada in urging the Arab states to enter into direct peace
negotiations, without any preconditions, with Israel.
1954:
Birthdate of music promoter Ruth Polsky,
http://thejewniverse.com/2017/this-jewish-punk-heroine-died-tragically-young/
1955:
It was reported today that Jules Levey, the former general sales manager for
R.K.O. who has not produced a picture “for about seven years” “will return to
independent production by filming the bestselling novel The Tontine.
1955:
Based on the story in the NYT graphic designer Alvin Lustig passed away on
December 4th and not December 5th as shown by Wikipedia.
1956:
During the Suez Crisis, Golda Meir addressed the General Assembly. In part of
her speech Mrs. Meir compared Israeli treatment of Jews who had been forced to
flee from Arab countries with the pitiful conditions under which Arab nations
forced the refugees in Gaza to live.
“While Israel ‘fed those babies and cured their diseases, the fedayeen
were sent in to throw bombs at children in synagogues and grenades in baby
homes.’”
1956:
Tonight, in front of 15 million viewers, Charles Van Doren, the epitome of WASP
New York defeated Herb Stempel, the Brooklyn born CCNY grad on the quiz show
“Twenty-One” in what was a totally rigged event that Stempel, out of anger,
exposed during that Quiz Show scandal which in those simpler days rocked the
nation.
1957:
“Sayonara” a film adaption of the novel produced by William Goetz, with music
by Franz Waxman and co-starring Red Buttons was released in the United States
today Warner Bros.
1957: New York City passed the Fair
Housing Practices Law making it the first city to legislate against racial or
religious discrimination in the housing market. A decade after the Holocaust,
it was still legal to keep a people from buying a house because they were
Jewish.
1958(23rd
of Kislev, 5719): Sixty-five-year-old Frampol, Russia native Aaron Maiberg who
served with the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and “was one
of the first settlers of Shechumat Borochov” and who established his home at
Idofit passed away today.
1959:
“Operation Petticoat” a comedy with a script co-authored by Stanley Shapiro,
co-starring Tony Curtis and music by David Rose was released today in the
United States.
1960:
Jewish Ministers Cantor Association of America & Canada held its 60th
Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden.
1961(27th
of Kislev, 5722): Third Day of Chanukah
1961(27th
of Kislev, 5722): Eighty-three-year-old NYU trained attorney and former owner
of the Boston Braves of the National League Emil Edwin Fuchs, the son of Hermann
and Henrietta (Wollenberg) Fuchs, and husband of Aurelia “Oretta” Marcovich,
who gave Babe Ruth his last chance to play in the Major Leagues passed away
today.
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/judge-emil-fuchs/
1961(27th
of Kislev, 5722): Fifty-seven-year-old Novgorod born Russian pianist Grigory
Romanovich Ginzburg, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory whose students
included Jewish pianist Sulmtia Aronovsky passed away today.
1962:
Comedian Lenny Bruce “was arrested at the legendary Gate of Horn folk club in
Chicago.
1962(8th
of Kislev, 5723): Thirty-six-year-old author Edward Lewis Wallant, whose
best-known work may have The Pawnbroker which was made into a moving picture
starring Rod Steiger, passed away today.
1963(19th
of Kislev, 5724): “New Year of The Chassidim”
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm
1963(19th
of Kislev, 5724): Eighty-five-year-old Herbert H. Lehman, the former governor
of New York passed away today.
https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/mep/displaydoc.cfm?docid=erpn-herleh
1963:
“Charade” a film based “The Unsuspecting
Wife” by the screenwriter Peter Stone, directed and produced by Stanley Donen
and co-starring Walter Matthau was released today in the United States.
1964(30th
of Kislev, 5725): Sixth Day of Chanukah, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Parasahat Miketz
1964(30th
of Kislev, 5725): Rabbi Saul B. Applebaum who had served as the interim rabbi
at Congregation Beth Israel in Portland and who was the son of Rabbi Meyer and
Rose Applebaum passed away today in Chicago.
1965(11th
of Kislev, 5726): Fifty-seven-old Russian born, and Columbia trained physician
Dr. Sidney Tarachow, the former member of the faculty of Iowa State University
and director of the division of psychoanalytic education of the Downstate
Medical Center in Brooklyn and clinical professor of psychiatry passed away
today.
1965(11th
of Kislev, 5726): Joseph Erlanger passed away.
Born in 1874, Erlangerborn was an American physiologist who discovered
that fibers within the same nerve cord possess different functions. In 1910 he
accepted the chair of physiology at Washington University in St. Louis, which
he held until his retirement in 1946. While his department became one of the
major research centers in physiology in America, Erlanger continued his work on
cardiovascular physiology. During WW I, he carried out research on the problem
of shock. In 1921 he shifted his interests to neurophysiology, and began joint
work, with colleague Herbert Gasser, on the amplification and recording of
nerve action potentials with the cathode ray oscilloscope, for which they were
awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944.
1966(22nd
of Kislev, 5727): Ninety-seven-year-old Dr. Oskar Moos, the German born “son of
Felix Ephraim Moos and Karoline Moos, the husband of Elise Moos and father of
Hans Otto Hermann Moos; Kurt Moos and Walter Moos passed away today in the
Netherlands.
1967: Poet Allen Ginsberg was
arrested protesting Vietnam War
1968(14th
of Kislev, 5729): Eighty-four-year-old Newark, NJ attorney Aaron Levinstone,
the Grodno, born son Yeruchim and Esther Levinstone. the husband of Etta G. Goldstein and Jewish
community leader who was Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal, a member of
the National Executive of the Z.O.A and a member of Temple B’nai Abraham passed
away today after which he buried B’nai Abraham Memorial Park in Union, NJ
1968:
“Jimmy Shine,” a play with music written by Murray Schisgal and starring Dustin
Hoffman in the title role opened on Broadway today at the Brooks Atkinson
Theatre.
1969(25th
of Kislev, 5730): Chanukah
1969:
Four mid-eastern terrorists were arrested thwarting an attack on a plane the
London airport
1969:
In landmark case involving “Dr. – Patient Confidentiality” Dr. Joseph Lifschutz
who had “refused a court order to testify about one his patients” was cited for
contempt of court “and sent to the San Mateo Jail.
1969:
Princess Andrew of Greece and Denmark, the mother of the Duke of Edinburgh and
the mother-in-law of Queen Elizabeth II passed away. During World War II,
“After the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in September 1943, the
German Army occupied Athens, where a minority of Greek Jews had sought refuge.
The majority (about 60,000 out of a total population of 75,000) were deported
to Nazi concentration camps, where all but 2,000 died. During this period,
Princess Andrew hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children, who
sought to evade the Gestapo and deportation to the death camps.[40] Rachel's
husband, Haimaki Cohen, had aided King George I of Greece in 1913. In return,
King George had offered him any service that he could perform, should Cohen
ever need it. Cohen's son remembered this during the Nazi threat, and appealed
to Princess Andrew, who with Princess Nicholas was one of only two remaining
members of the royal family left in Greece. She honored the promise and saved
the Cohen family.”
1970:
Birthdate of Royal Academy Dramatic Art trained British actor Adam Levy “best
known for his role as Peter in A.D. The Bible,”
1971(17th
Kislev, 5732): Eighty-four-year-old Columbia trained engineer Maurice L.
Sindeband the inventor of several devices, including an automatic train con
trol system, an automatic re actor for electric power circuits, an electronic
voltage regulator for generators and a method of preventing lightning from
damaging high‐tension
transmission lines and the husband of the former Lyllian Levy with whom he had
two sons Seymour and Allan passed away today.
1972(29th
of Kislev, 5733): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1972:
“Five former Gestapo agents received prison terms today of up to five and one‐half years for assisting in
the 1942 killings of about 5,000 Jews in German‐occupied Poland.”
1973:
U.S Premiere of director Sidney Lumet’s crime classic “Serpico” co-produced by Martin Bergman with a script
co-written by Norman Wexler and filmed by cinematographer Arthur Ornitz.
1974:
“Premier Yitzhak Rabin said today that Israel was prepared to Make far‐reaching territorial
compromises with the Arab nations in return for peace, but he ruled out a
return to the borders that existed before the 1967 war.”
1974:
The
Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art an American documentary film directed, written
and produced by Herbert Kline which “was
nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature” was released today
in the United States.
1975(1st
of Tevet, 5736): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1975(1st
of Tevet, 5736): Eighty-year-old pioneer Zionis and five time member of the
Knesset passed away today.
https://jwa.org/people/idelson-beba
1976:
“Bound for Glory” a cinema adaption of the autobiography of the same name
produced by Harold Leventhal, filmed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler and
featuring Bernie Kopell was released in the United States today.
1976(13th
of Kislev, 5737): Seventy-three-year-old Bessie Bassok Warshawsky, the Russian
born daughter of Nathan Bassok, the wife of Samuel Warshawsky whom she married in 1923 and the mother of
Irving Warshawsky passed away today in Lowell, MA after which she buried in the
Montefiore-Israel Brotherhood Cemetery in Pelham, N.H.
1977(25th
of Kislev, 5738): First Chanukah during the administration of Pres. Jimmy
Carter.
1977: The Jerusalem Post
reported Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's warning that if Israel wanted the
previous month's mutual non-aggression pledge to stand, it had better bring a
softened negotiating position to the planned Arab-Israeli talks in Cairo.
1977:
“Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?” a documentary film
narrated by Henry Winkler was released in the United States today.
1977: In response to the Declaration of Tripoli
Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South
Yemen. The Declaration of Tripoli was part of an Arab attack on Sadat for his
visit to Israel and his willingness to recognize the Jewish state.
1979(15th
of Kislev, 5740): Ninety-seven-year-old Minnie Lichtenstein Marcus, the
daughter of Hattie Mittenthal and Meyer Lichtenstein and wife of Herbert
Marcus, one of the founders of Neiman Marcus which she served as vice president
while pursuing her interest in horticulture passed away today.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/marcus-minnie-lichtenstein
1979:Jerry
Weintraub served as executive producer and
George Wyle served as music director and arranger for “John Denver and
the Muppets: A Christmas Together” which
was broadcast on ABC television tonight.
1979(15th
of Kislev, 5740): Sonia Delaunay, one of the foremost painters of her day and
one of the last survivors of the Parisian art world before 1914 died today in
Paris at the age of 94. (As reported by John Russell)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00617F6385A12728DDDAF0894DA415B898BF1D3
1982:
Rabbi Louis Stein officiated at the marriage of Debra Michele Freedman and
Andrew William Sideman at the Westbury Hotel.
1982(19th
of Kislev, 5743): Eighty-year-old English critic, novelist, and journalist
Carly Brahms passed away.
1982:
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally and Years of Upheaval by
Henry A. Kissinger are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the best books published in the
country during the preceding year.
1983(29th
of Kislev, 5744): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1983:
For the first time NBC broadcast “Choices of the Heart” starring Melissa
Gilbert as a nun who was brutally murdered “by a Salvadoran death squad.”
1986(3rd
of Kislev, 5747): Seventy-year-old Moshe Baram who first served as an MK for
Mapai and who served both as Minister of Labor and Minister of Welfare, passed
away today.
1984:
Beverly Hills Cop an American action-comedy film directed by Martin Brest,
co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featuring Paul Resier as “Jeffrey” was
released in the United States today.
1989:
“Pergament Home Centers, a chain that sells home-improvement products, said today
that Michael H. Lurie had been named president and chief operating office.”
1989:
“Mencken Was Pro-Nazi, His Diary Shows” published today described the negative
views author and columnist H.L. Mencken had where it came to Jews and Blacks.
1990:
Responding to growing fear over a rash of Palestinian knife attacks on Jews,
the police broadened surveillance of Arab workers in Israel today with spot
checks, searches and a new network of roadblocks along the West Bank. More than
20 Israelis have been stabbed over the last two months. Five of the victims
died of their wounds and seven Arab attackers were killed. Until this fall,
anxiety about knife attacks had been limited largely to Jews in the occupied
territories and along the boundaries between Arab and Jewish sections of
Jerusalem. But recent stabbings have also frightened Israelis in the heart of
the country, in Tel Aviv, the Galilee and the southern coast. Requests for gun
permits have soared, and thousands of Jews have begun carrying pistols, knives
and mace.
1991:
"Catskills on Broadway" a comedic celebration of a slice of Jewish
culture, opens at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York City for the first of452
performances.
1991(28th
of Kislev, 5752): Eighty-four-year-old Sir Raphael "Roy" Welensky
whose father was a Jew from Lithuania and was “the second and last prime
minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland” passed away today
1993(21st
of Kislev, 5754): David Mashrati, a reserve soldier, was shot and killed by a
terrorist attempting to board a bus on route 641 at the Holon junction. The
Islamic Jihad Shekaki group claimed responsibility for the attack.
1993:
Shylock: A Legend and Its
Legacy by John Gross is among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the
best books published in the country during the preceding year.
1994(2nd
of Tevet, 5755): 8th day of Chanukah
1994(2nd
of Tevet, 5755): Jacob Kaplan, the former Grand Rabbi of France, died in his
home in Paris today. He was 99 years old. Rabbi Kaplan was known both for his
openness to dialogue with the Christian churches of France and for his staunch
support of Zionism. He spoke out during World War II against anti-Jewish
measures adopted by the collaborationist Vichy Government. Rabbi Kaplan, who
was born in Paris on Nov. 7, 1895, was wounded in action during World War I and
received the Croix de Guerre. He completed his rabbinical studies after the war
and served as a rabbi in Mulhouse in eastern France from 1922-29 and then in
Paris. He became the Grand Rabbi of Paris in 1950, and was elected Grand Rabbi
of France in 1955, serving as spiritual leader of France's 700,000 Jews until
his retirement in 1981.
1994(2nd
of Tevet, 5755): 8th day of Chanukah
1994:
Outfielder Brian Kowitz “was again drafted by the Minnesota Twins as part of
the Rule 5 draft…”
1994(2nd
of Tevet, 5755): Eighty-four-year-old “Academy Award-winning film designer”
Harry Horner the father of Oscar winning composer James Horner, scenic designer
Christopher Horner and pediatric immunologist Anthony Horner, M.D., passed away
today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/08/obituaries/harry-horner-84-designer-of-films-plays-and-operas.html
1995:
“Bush v. Vera” a voting rights case in which Edward Blum was one of six
plaintiffs “challenging 24 of the State of Texas’ 30 congressional districts as
racial gerrymanders” was argued before the Supreme Court Today.
1997:
“Dedication of the Hanns Sachs Library at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society “on
the 50th anniversary of his death” which “was also the 65th
anniversary of his invitation to become” the society’s “first permanent
training analyst.”
http://openvault.wgbh.org/exhibits/boring_and_sachs/article
1997:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held at noon today at Rodeph Sholom in
Bridgeport, CT for Dr. Maxwell Bogin the husband of Edith Bogin and the father
of Deborah Abby.
1999:
The New York Times list of the Best
Books of 1999 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by
Jewish authors including Reading the
Holocaust by Inga Clendinnen and An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of
President Clinton
by Richard A. Posner.
1999:
ABC broadcast “Tuesdays with Morrie” the movie version of Mitch Albom’s book
based on “the time he spent with Professor Morrie Schwartz of Brandies
University.
2000: In Mexico,
Claudia Sheinbaum began serving as “Secretary of the Environment of the Federal
District” today.
2000:
The funeral for Neale D. Katz, who served as “Israel Representative and
Director General of the United Israel Appeal and who played a role in the
success of Operation Moses is scheduled to be buried in Jerusalem.
2001:
A suicide bomber exploded a powerful bomb shortly after 7:30 AM on King David
Street in Jerusalem. A number of people waiting at a nearby bus stop were
lightly injured. The terrorist was killed in the blast. Police are
investigating whether the bomb, packed with nails and shrapnel, went off
prematurely. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
2001:
A Villager article published today about Grand Street co-ops selling briskly
after going market rate noted that Harold “Heshy” Jacob “prided himself on
having operated the complexes without increasing carrying charges for nine
years.”
2002(30th
of Kislev, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
2002:
In what would prove to be one of the most destabilizing statements in modern
history for the Middle East and the World “The White House…said President Bush
has ‘solid’ evidence (that) Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.”
Welsh became interested in
aeronautics after he observed Orville Wright's flights at Ft. Myer, VA, in
1909. In 1910, Orville and Wilbur Wright accepted him into their first flying
class, where he worked closely with them, first as a student and, subsequently,
as a pilot and instructor at the Wright Flight School in Dayton, OH. Among the
people Welsh trained were Henry H. (Hap) Arnold, who later became a five-star
general and U.S. Army Air Chief of Staff during WWII. In 1912, the Wrights sent
Welsh to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in College Park, MD, to serve as a civilian
test pilot for a new plane for the War Department. On June 11, 1912, Welsh,
accompanied by Signal Corps Lt. Leighton W. Hazelhurst, was attempting to
complete final military tests of the Wright Model C airplane when the airplane
buckled under its 450- pound load. Both men were killed instantly, the
first-ever fatalities at College Park. The Washington Times, Jewish Forward,
and various aviation publications, including Fly and Aero: America's Aviation
Weekly, covered Welsh's death.
2004:
The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Jews of Oudtshoorn, South Africa, celebrated the 120th anniversary of their
town, which was known as the "little Jerusalem of Africa."
2004:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 101 year-old Morris C.
Kessel, the husband of the late Jeanette Kissel and father of Paul Kessel who
was an active supporter of the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and
Rehabilitation.
2004: The
Five Books of Moses: A Translation with commentary by Robert Alter
appears on the New York Times
list of "100 Notable Books" of 2004 and the Washington Post listing
of the "best books of 2004." The Cedar Rapids Gazette had
previously published a review praising this volume describing at as a great
gift for either Christmas or Chanukah. Considering the text itself and
the nature of the commentary this is another reminder that despite oft repeated
reports of the demise of the Jewish people, Am Yisroail Chai.
2005(4th
of Kislev, 5766): Five people were killed and 50 wounded after a suicide attack
at a Netanya shopping mall. The five known dead are Eliyah Rozen, 39, of Bat Hefer, Daniel Golani, 45, of Nahariya, Haim
Amram, 26, of Netanya, Keinan Tzoami, 20, of Petah Tikva and Alexandra
Zarnitzki, 65, of Netanya. Islamic Jihad
proudly took credit for the attack on the northern seaside town.
2005: Frits Phillips, the
former head of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, who helped save the lives
of hundreds of Jewish workers during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in
World War II, passed away at the age of 100. During the war years, when Philips
supplied electronics to Germany, he secured positions at his factory in the
Vught prison camp for as many Jews as possible, delaying their deportation to
the Auschwitz death camp. Frits Philips was imprisoned by the Nazis after a
strike during the war. He was awarded the Yad Vashem medal by Israel in 1995
for his efforts to save Jewish workers - almost 380 prisoners survived out of
496 who started work. He said he was no hero and that many others had helped to
save lives. According to the staff at Yad Vashem, "Frits Philips, in
risking his life to save Jews during the Holocaust, showed extraordinary
courage in the face of terrible circumstances."
2005:
A London production of “Once in a Lifetime” by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
opened at the Royal National Theatre.
2006:
Haaretz reported on the development
of new flavors and styles of sufganiyot.
The original red jam filling has been replaced by a variety of baked and
deep-fried “delicacies including ones filled with Roquefort cheese, chocolate
and halva cream. (Can chocolate chip
latkes be far behind?)
2006(14th
of Kislev, 5767): Chess grandmaster David Bronstein passed away at the age of
82.
2007:
The Maymana dance troupe produces “Adraba” for its seventh Chanukah celebration
at Heichal Hatarbut in Rishon Letzion.
2007:
Eli Nissman and Ashdod’s municipal cultural organization put on the children’s
song festival, “Yeled Pele” (Wonder Child) as part of the Chanukah celebrations
in Ashdod.
2007: Sixty-one years after he was buried at a
cemetery in southeast Washington, the exhumed remains of Stephen Theodore
Norman, the only grandchild of Theodor Herzl will be buried on Mt. Herzl in
Jerusalem, thus finally joining his famous grandfather in his famous resting
place.
2007(25th
of Kislev, 5768): First Day of Chanukah
2007:
“The Golden Compass,” directed and written by Chris Weitz was released today in
the United Kingdom.
2008:
At the Ma’ariv service being reciting הכרבל רטםו לט (Dew and rain) for a blessing. Normally this is done at Ma’ariv on December
4, but when it is leap year on the civil calendar, then the change is made on
December 5. [Editor’s Note: I have not
been able to find out why this change is tied to the civil calendar instead of
the Jewish calendar.]
2008:
Lital Levy, assistant professor of comparative literature at Princeton presents
"Israel, Interrupted: When Arabs
Write Hebrew and Jews Write Arabic as part of the Friday lunch
works-in-progress seminar sponsored by the Princeton University Program in
Judaic Studies.
2008:
Palestinian rocket fire on the western Negev continued today, with five Kassam
rockets fired from the Gaza Strip throughout the day. One rocket landed in
Sderot, and the other four landed in open areas near the city. No casualties or
damage were reported in the attacks. Also today, two mortar shells fired from
the northern Gaza Strip landed in the Eshkol region. No casualties or damage
were reported.
2008
(8 Kislev 5769): Richard Topus, a pigeon trainer in World War II, passed away
at the age of 84.
2008
(8 Kislev 5769): A. Bernard Ackerman, a founding figure in the field of
dermatopathology who trained a generation of doctors to recognize skin diseases
under the microscope passed away today at his home in Manhattan at the age of
72
2009:
In Cedar Rapids, Saturday morning traditional minyan at Temple Judah is
dedicated to Jewish Book Month.
2009(18th
of Kislev, 5770): Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Rebbe of the Bostoner
Chasidim (Boston Chassidic Sect) passed away today in Israel. According to some
sources the Bostoner Chasidim are the first Chassidic organization to have
started in the United States as opposed to having here from Europe.
2009:
Mark Eliyahu and percussionist/clarinetist Daniel Yaakov Zol will be
accompanying Wieder-Magen and the TCJ when they perform at Mishkenot Sha'ananim
at 9 p.m.
2009:
In Washington, D.C., the 20th Washington Jewish Film Festival
includes screenings of “Camera Obscura,” a film about life among a colony of 19th
century Argentinean Jews and “My Mother’s Courage,” in which the renowned
Hungarian Jewish playwright, director and actor George Tabori who passed away
in 2007, tells the true story of what happened to his mother Elsa (Pauline
Collins), 50 years earlier during the deportation of the Hungarian Jewish
community.
2009:
Opening of the 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival. The opening gala
honors Elliott Gould with 2009 IFF Lifetime Achievement Award; Donald Krim with
the 2009 IFF Visionary Award; Paul Schrader with the2009 IFF Achievement in
Film Award.
2010:
"My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish, and I'm Home for the
Holidays!," is scheduled to have its final performance in Charlotte, NC.
2010:
Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to presents its “Chanukah Extravaganza!”
2010: After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United is scheduled to
have its DC premier at the 21st Washington Jewish Festival. “In
2004, Bnei Sakhnin was the king of Israeli soccer as the first team from an
Arab town to win the country’s Cup and represent Israel in the European
competition.
2010: The LA Times includes a review of Job by
Joseph Roth, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
2010: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Scorpions:
The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices by Noah
Feldman and The Witness House: Nazis and Holocaust Survivors Sharing a Villa
During the Nuremberg Trials by Christiane Kohl.
2010:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including They Live by Jonathan
Lethem
2010:
The New York Times “100 Notable Books of 2010” list includes the
following works by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Ask by Sam Lipsyte, Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick, Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, Great
House by Nicole Krauss, The Invisible
Bridge by Julie Orringer, The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems,
1975-2010 by Edward Hirsch, The Long Song by Andrea Levy, The Three
Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine, To The End of The Land by
David Grossman, Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff, Finishing The
Hate: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles,
Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim, Koestler:
The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by
Michael Scammell and The Sabbath
World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time by Judith Shulevitz
2010:
Cuban President Raul Castro celebrated Hanukkah today with Cuba's tiny Jewish
community, a heavily symbolic act at a time when his government is holding a
Jewish-American subcontractor on suspicion of spying
2010:
Shalshelet’s 4th International Festival at Congregation Ansche Chesed, New York
City came to an end today.
2010(28th
of Kislev, 5771): Ninety-one-year-old “Heda Margolius Kovaly, a Czech writer
and translator whose memoir, “Under a Cruel Star,” described her imprisonment
by the Nazis during World War II and her persecution by the Communists in the
1950s and became a classic account of life under totalitarianism, died today at
her home in Prague.” (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/books/09kovaly.html
2010:
Evelyn Selig, 64, a Laredo retailer and widow and Irving Greenblum, an
81-year-old investor and retired furniture store owner plan to enjoy a Chanukah
party with 50 other co-religionists at the conservative synagogue in Laredo,
Texas.
2011:
Tony Kushner, the Jewish Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter,
and polarizing political voice, is scheduled to be awarded $100,000 for
“Creative Citizenship” at The Nation Institute’s Annual Gala in New York.
2011:
The Tulane University Hillel Executive Committee is scheduled to meet at the
Goldie & Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life.
2011:
Today “Kraft announced that Irene Rosenfeld would stay on as chairperson of the
$31 billion global snacking company, which will be called Mondelēz
International, Inc.”
2011:
“Through the Eye of the Needle,” “The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz,”
“Letters Home” and Yizkor are four of the films scheduled to be shown today the
Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2011:
Lebanon filed a complaint in the United Nations against Israel today for its
retaliation to Katyusha rockets fired into Israel late last month, Lebanese
newspaper the Daily Star reported
2011:
Israel's Education Ministry issued an unusual order today forbidding any school
trips to take place around the southern Israeli city of Eilat, following
warnings against a possible terror attack on the Israel-Egypt border, Channel
10 reported.
2011(9th
of Kislev, 5772): Muriel Kadoorie, the widow of Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron
Kadoorie passed away today.
2011:
Today Kraft announced that Irene Rosenfeld would stay on as chairperson of the
$31 billion global snacking company, which will be called Mondelēz
International, Inc. making her one of the most powerful Jewish businesswomen in
the world.
2012(21st
of Kislev, 5773): Eighty-four-year-old Felix Weinberg, who survived the death
camps to eventually become Emeritus Profess or Combustion Physics at Imperial
College London passed away today.
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/117808/tribute-felix-weinberg/
2012:
Dalia Itzik announced she was “taking a break from politics.”
2012:
Ya’akov Erdi, a member of Kadima, announced he would not be taking part in the
upcoming elections.
2012: Professor Bob Moore of the University of
Sheffield is scheduled to deliver an address entitled “Integrating Self-Help
into the History of Jewish Survival in Western Europe´ at the Weiner Library. Moore is the author of 'Survivors: Jewish
Self-Help and Rescue in Nazi-Occupied Europe'.
2012:
The Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to sponsor “Una Noeche: An Inside
Look At Cuba’s Jewish Community” at the Maritime Hotel in New York City.
2012:
Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean & Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is
scheduled to introduce “It’s No Dream: The Life of Theodore Herzl” before it is
shown at The Jewish Center on West 86th Street.
2012:
United Nations forces based inside Syria to monitor a longtime ceasefire
between Syria and Israel will bring in armor to reinforce their security
because of a threat posed by an influx of Syrian rebels, the UN peacekeeping
chief said.
2012:
Police appealed to the public today to help in locating a missing soldier amid
fears he may take his own life. Liraz Benbenishti, 20, left his base near
Gedera yesterday and police said he was seen on Medinat Hayehudim Street in
Herzliya later that day. However, since then he has vanished without a trace.
2012:
With polls indicating “Kadima either barely getting into the Knesset or not
even passing the threshold” in the upcoming elections Marina Solodkin announced
that she would not be a candidate.
2013(2nd
of Tevet, 5774): 8th Day of Chanukah
2013(2nd
of Tevet, 5774): Eighty-five-year-old General Danny Matt, the native of Cologne
who made Aliyah in 1934 and fought in five wars starting with the War for
Independence and climaxing with the Yom Kippur War passed away today
2013:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present a
lecture by Dr. Peter Hayes entitled “Antisemitism and Homophobia in Nazi
Germany: Commonalities and Differences”
2013:
The Holocaust Education Program & Adult Jewish Education is scheduled to
host the opening reception of “Raoul Wallenberg: Modern Day Hero.”
2013:
Ohad Meromi is scheduled to present his recent video Worker! Smoker! Actor!
(2012), for its debut screening in NYC, followed by a conversation with curator
and artist Naomi Lev at the ICI Curatorial Hub.
2013:
The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Joy of Israel with Jamie
Geller.”
2013:
NPR’s Larry Abramson is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion “Discovery and
Recovery: Eyewitness Accounts” that looks at the retrieval “of water-logged
treasures from Baghdad’s Jewish past.”
2013:
Nelson Mandela passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/nelson-mandela-was-close-to-jews-resolutely-loyal-to-palestinians/
2013:
The Houston Rockets’ Omri Casspi, the first Israeli hoopster to ever play in
the NBA, relished the honor of meeting US President Barack Obama today (As
reported by Spencer Ho)
2013:
A wet and cold winter storm hit Israel this morning, bringing welcome rain to
much of the country and raising the Sea of Galilee by one centimeter in a
matter of hours.
2014:
Lewis Black is scheduled to appear at the Music Box in Atlantic City, NJ.
2014(13th
of Kislev, 5775): Sixty-two-year-old “culinary historian” Gil Marks passed away
today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2014(13th
of Kislev, 5775): Ninety-six-year American photographer Arthur Leipzig passed
away today.
2014:
The UK Jewish Comedy Festival is scheduled to host “Friday Night Supper Club”
where attendees “will learn how to improve their joke-telling skills and learn
gags they'll be dining out on for months to come.”
2014;
Gal “Mekel signed a two-year, non-guaranteed contract with the New Orleans
Pelicans
2014:
“Starting today, when Digital Einstein is introduced, anyone with an Internet
connection will be able to share in the letters, papers, postcards, notebooks
and diaries that Einstein left scattered in Princeton and in other archives,
attics and shoeboxes around the world when he died in 1955.”
2014:
“Reports indicated today that the Labor Party headed by Isaac Herzog and the
Hatnua party led by former justice minister Tzipi Livni were considering
running together in the March 2015 elections.”
2014:
“Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, suspected of killing four people at Brussels’
Jewish Museum in May, was remanded in custody for another three months today,
judicial officials said.”
2014:
Talya Lavie’s “Zero Motivation” is scheduled to be shown at the Film Forum in
New York.
2015:
In Alexandria, Beth El Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to host “Songs in the
Key of Light” an evening of song with Cantor Jason Kaufman, Eric Schnobrick and
Leo Morris.
2015(23rd
of Kislev, 5776): Shabbat Va-yayshev
2015(23rd
of Kislev, 5776): Eighty-eight-year-old literary agent Timothy Seldes passed
away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/books/timothy-seldes-literary-agent-dies-at-88.html
2016:
“A.K.A. Nadia” and “Nazareth Cinema Lady” are scheduled to be shown at the 10th
Annual Other Israel Film Festival.
2016:
The Center for Jewish History, Forward, American Jewish Historical Society,
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Jewish Book Council are scheduled to
host “Have I Got a Story for You: More than a Century of Fiction from the
Forward,
2016:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host “Jewish Voice, “an annual event with readings by prominent Jewish poets
and writers.”
2016:
Today, “Gimlet Media announced” that Arnold Stephen “A.J.” “Jacobs would be the
host of Twice Removed, a podcast focused on genealogy.”
2016:
“Atlanta Collects” which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Breman Museum
by highlighting diverse pieces from Jewish collectors in and around Atlanta” is
scheduled to open today.
2016(5th
of Kislev, 5777): Yahrtzeit of Talmudic commentator Rabbi Shmuel Eliezer Edeles
(MaHaRSHA) who passed away on the 5th of Kislev, 5392
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111910/jewish/Rabbi-Shmuel-Eliezer-Edeles.htm
http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1550&endyear=1559
2016:
The Marcus Foundation, established by Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot
and his wife Billi said today “it would make a $38 million donation to a new
Hillel staffing initiatives – Talent Grants.”
2017:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to offer the third part of Yitzhak
Lewis’ “Introduction to Gershom Scholem”
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Rufus Learsi whose
works included The Jews In America: A History one of the first Jewish
history books I ever read, continues today.
2017:
The USCJ Convention is scheduled to come to an end today in Atlanta.
2018(27th
of Kislev, 5779): Third Day of Chanukah
2018:
Fifty-six-year-old Claudia Sheinbaum, “the second daughter of chemist Carlos
Scheinbaum Yoselevitz and biologist Annie Pardo Cemo and a graduate of UNAM began serving as “head
of the Government of Mexico City.”
2018:
“Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London are scheduled
to speak tonight at “this year’s Chanukah in the Square celebrations in
London.”
2018: 85th Anniversary of the repeal of
prohibition which among other things put an end to Welch’s ill-fated attempt to
sell grape juice as “kosher unfermented wine” and provided the Bronfmans, with
“a unique marketing opportunity because, unlike most of its American
competitors, their Seagram Distilleries had large supplies of aged whiskeys on
hand” with which to quench the thirst of those in “the lower 48.”
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Disobedience.”
2018:
Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host a performance of “A First Candle Tale,” “a
play inspired by Nathan Alterman’s poem, ‘This Happened in Hanuka’.”
2019:
Pianist Yefim Bronfman is scheduled to join the New York Philharmonic in a
performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.
2019:
In San Francisco, the Herbst Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of
Handel’s “Judas Maccabaeus.”
2019:
In Berkley, CA, Congregation Beth El is scheduled to host “Israel’s Elections:
An Endless Cycle? “during which Koret visiting scholar Tomer Persico and J.
editor-in-chief Sue Fishkoff discuss what has shifted in Israeli
society/politics, what hasn’t and what the future might hold.”
2019:
In New Orleans, “at historic St. Augustine Hight School,” “the Jewish
Federation of Greater New Orleans” is scheduled to host “the Federation's
second annual Alex Schoenbaum Jewish Scholarship Fund award ceremony and
assembly.”
2019:
Jessica Tisch begins serving as the Commissioner of the New York City
Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication.
2019:
The Yeshiva University Museum and the American Sephardi Federation are
scheduled to host “Elad Kabilio and the MusicTalks ensemble featuring Ariella
Edvy” in a celebration of “the music of Yemenite Israeli singers including Ofra
Haza, Izhar Cohen and Gali Atari.”
2019:
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host “Reconsidering the
Catholic Church and the Holocaust” including a “special film screening followed
by discussion.”
Special
Film Screening and Discussion
2019:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening of Noah Baumbach’s
“Marriage Story.”
2019:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Anita Hill: Speaking
Truth to Power.”
2019:
Today “in this year's Pfeffer Family Forum, leading 20th-century political
propaganda scholar David Welch, Director of the Center for the Study of
Propaganda and War at the University of Kent (England) is scheduled to speak to
the power and perils of propaganda throughout history, and why combating
hateful rhetoric today is so critical.”
2019:
In La Jolla, CA, Congregation Beth El is scheduled to host “Crying Hands: The
Deaf Experience under Nazi Oppression.”
2020:
This evening The Other Israel Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of
“Til Kingdom Come
followed by a Q and A.
202019th
of Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, The “New Year” of Chassidism.
2020:
This evening, the San Francisco Yiddish Combo is scheduled to perform a
“streaming concert by a group that blends klezmer, jazz, blues, folk and
hip-hop.”
2020:
Jewish Family and Children’s service is scheduled to present on an “Inclusive
Torah Study with Jewish life coordinator Alex Maslow.
2020(19th
of Kislev): In one of those calendar quirks, the Hebrew and secular birthdates
of Avraham Elimelch ben Yosef coincide making him the same age as they “in the
streets and in the Shul.”
2020(19th
of Kislev): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of the “Maggid of Mezrech
(1710-1772), the successor of the Baal Shem Tov.”
https://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_19.html
2020(19th
of Kislev, 7801) Parashat Vayishlach
2021:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Madam: The Biography of Polly
Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age by Debbie Applegate and Garbo by Robert
Gottlieb.
2021:
Via Zoom, in Iowa, the Ames Jewish Congregation is scheduled to host a candle
lighting.
2021:
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience to present Eid Al-Banat.
2021:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to present via Zoom
“Hollywood Yiddishkeit: Jewish Images in American Film” with John Kenrick.
2021:
In Little Rock, AR, Lubavitch of Arkansas under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas
Ciment is scheduled to host it “Annual Chanukah Parade of Light and Love”
2021:
Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein is scheduled to
take part in an in-person conversation
with Moment Magazine editor-in-chief Nadine Epstein about her new
intergenerational book, RBG’s Brave and Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to
Inspire Everyone followed by a Hanukkah candle lighting with Rabbi Rachel
Gartner, Director of Jewish Life at Georgetown University, in memory of RBG and
other brave and brilliant women who have helped keep the struggle for gender
equality alive.
2021:
In New Orleans, Krewe du Jieux-Chanukah Parade is scheduled to resume its annual tradition of dancing
through the Quarter to the music of Panorama Jazz Band and lighting menorahs
and enjoying a nosh at the Café du Monde.
2021:
In partnership with Menemsha Films, The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth
County is scheduled to host a screening of “Here We Are” on the final night of
the Hanukah Film Festival.
2021(1st
of Tevet, 5782): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2022:
The Center for Jewish History and LBI are scheduled to present a screening of
Reckonings which recounts the tense negotiations between Jewish and German
leaders over compensation for the survivors of the largest mass genocide in
history which was directed by award-winning filmmaker Roberta Grossman.
2022:
Martin Kaufman is scheduled to deliver the final lecture on Maimonides’
Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Scripture at the Streicker Center.
2022:
Based on previous published information, it is official now that Tulane
University, home of the Tulane Jewish Studies Department and the Tulane Hillel
Chapter of which Mitchell A. Levin was once president is going to the Cotton
Bowl!
2022:
President Herzog is scheduled to complete his historic visit to Bahrain and
then leave for a visit to the United Arab Emirates.
2023:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Tanya Gold and Jake
Wallis Simons on “Israelophobia: The Demonization of a Nation.”
2023:
The Weitzman Book Club is scheduled to host “Jews, Lakota and An American
Inheritance” with Rebecca Clarren and Sarah Podemski.
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Streat is scheduled to co-host an exploration of
Christmas classics written by Jewish composers and lyricists that will include Irving
Berlin’s White Christmas, Sammy Cahn’s Let It Snow and Mel Tormé’s The
Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting Over an Open Fire).
2023:
Temple Judea is scheduled to host “Modern Mussar with Michael Ross.”
2023:
The Jewish Federation of Greaer New Orleans and Building Block Workshops are
scheduled to host a contest for the building of the World’s Tallest Menorah
made of LEGOs.
2023:
As December 5 begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 60 in captivity.
(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we
are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
2024:
“Sabbath Queen,” a "film about "Amichai Lau-Lavie's journey from
radical drag queen to influential Rabbi of a God-optional, artist-driven New
York synagogue” is scheduled to premiere today in Los Angeles.”
2024:
The 16th European Cantors Convention in Budapest, Hungary at which Cantor Abbie
Strauss, has been invited to lead a workshop and sing(“chant”) is scheduled to
continue today. (Editor’s note – this one is personal since I know that her
parents Dr. Robert and Laurie Silber are button-busting proud of their daughter)
2024:
Based on previously published reports an Israeli delegation is scheduled to
visit Cairo for talks aimed at “securing a deal for the release of” the
hostages held by terrorists in Gaza.
2024:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, the author of For
Such a Time as This, as he “provides a guide to help readers make sense of
this fraught moment, what it means to be Jewish today, and the challenging
questions embedded in the soul of contemporary Jewry.”
2024:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host James Beard Award-winning
chef and author Rozanne Gold is scheduled sit down with The League of Kitchens
founder Lisa Kyung Gross to discuss the impact of women and immigration on our
food culture and society in celebration of the new League of Kitchens Cookbook,
named one of the Best of 2024 by Forbes.
2024:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host Join “author and longtime
OPRF teacher Michael Soffer as he dives into his community’s tumultuous
response to the Kulle Affair to explore how and why American communities rose
to defend their Nazi neighbors, even after their gruesome pasts were revealed.”
2024:
JWA and Central are scheduled to host another “deep dive into the protests of
Jewish women, who have fought for change from factory floors to college
campuses to legislative sessions.”
2024:
The Weitzman Museum is scheduled to host “Secret Chord Concerts Live: Chana
Raskin’s RAZA Ensemble.”
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Helen Fry on Pius XII:
Hero or Villain?
2024:
YIVO is scheduled to present the US
premiere of the POLIN Museum's new documentary, “Proof of Identity” followed by
a discussion with director Mikolaj Grynberg.
2024:
As December 5th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of
anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist passengers
on a New York subway to raise their hands, demonstrations at a high school
production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and the beating of a college student in
Chicago sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 426 in
captivity while Israelis brace for more rocket attacks by Hezbollah, Iran and
terrorists based in Iraq (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid
for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at
midnight Israeli time)
