This Day, December 7, In Jewish History by Mitchell and Deb Levin Z"L
DECEMBER 7
43 BCE: The famous orator Marcus Tullius Cicero
died. Cicero was a Patrician, member of
the Senate and opponent of Julius Caesar.
Following Caesar’s assassination, Mark Anthony and Octavian executed
those whom they viewed as enemies of the state.
Cicero fell into that category.
Based on his public utterances, Cicero had no use for the Jews.
"The Jews belong to a dark and repulsive force. One knows how numerous
this clique is, how they stick together and what power they exercise through
their unions. They are a nation of rascals and deceivers." While serving as defense counsel at the trial
of Flaccus, a Roman pro-consul accused of diverting one hundred pounds of gold
bound for the Temple in Jerusalem, Cicero described the Jews as a people born
to slavery who had become far too intrusive in the affairs of Rome. Was Cicero
an anti-Semite? Or was he merely a
member of the old order who resented the changes in society (sort of a Roman
version of Henry Adams or Gore Vidal); a person who demonized Jews because they
were different? Regardless of the cause,
the statements speak for themselves.
1158: Abraham Ibn Ezra, under the influence of an inspiration or
vision he had on that Shabbat day, decided to defend the traditional reckoning
of the Jewish holidays and Sabbaths against the trend to begin them only at
daybreak rather than the previous night. Immediately after the Sabbath he began
to write his Iggeret Shabbat ("Shabbat Letter") in which he
used both religious and astronomical sources to defend his position. He wrote
it while visiting England, making it one of the few Hebrew works composed there
prior to the expulsion of the Jews in 1290.
1237(18th Kislev, 4998): Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon the son of
Maimonides aka the Rambam who followed his father as the leader of the Egyptian
Jewish community passed away.
1254: Pope
Innocent IV passed away. During his papacy, Innocent “denounced the Blood
Libels as unfounded.” In 1247, Innocent
agreed to grant a request from the Jews by issuing a declaration stating, “that
the Talmud was an absolute necessity for the Jews, if Judaism were to continue
to exist as a separate religion, and that the burnings of the Talmud were to
cease.” These actions certainly make him stand out from many of those who
served as the Vicar of Christ in Rome.
1279(O.S.): King Boleslaus V of Poland passed away. In 1264,
Boleslaus V issued a charter that allowed for Jewish residence and protection,
hoping that Jewish settlement would contribute to the development of the Polish
economy. This charter was similar to one that had been granted to the Jews of Austria
in 1244. While Jews were not granted the
same degree of protection as other citizens and while Jews were excluded from
privileges afforded Christian merchants and burghers, the charter did include:
recognition of legal testimony of Jews, fines for harming Jews or Jewish
property, prohibition of blood libels, and equal commercial rights. Even though the charter was not always
followed, it marked a major improvement over conditions that Jews were living
under in other parts of Europe and helped encourage a major eastward migration
of the Children of Israel.
1383: Wenceslaus IV who as
Emperor failed to continue the Imperial protection of the Jews of Luxembourg
led to their expulsion in 1391 began his reign as Duke of Luxembourg today.
1626: In Stockholm,
Gustavus Adolphus and Mary Eleanor of Brandenburg gave birth to Christina
Augusta, the Queen of Sweden from 1632 to 1654 who studied Hebrew literature in
her youth, “welcomed eminent Hebrew scholars at her court,” favored “permitting
Jews to settle in the West Indies” and who appointed Isaac Manoel Texeira to
serve as her “financial agent and resident minister at Hamburg.” (As reported
by Richard Gottheil and Isaac Broyde)
1655: The Whitehall
Conference which had been called by Cromwell to consider allowing the Jews to
return to England continued the deliberations which had begun on December 4.
1660: Today’s Order in
Council read “Upon reading and debate on petition of the merchants and
tradesmen of the City of London for the expulsion of the Jews, and also the
petition of Maria Fernandez Carvajal, widow, and others ,merchants, Jews by
birth for his Majesty’s protection to continue to reside in his dominions; His
Majesty judging it a business of great importance is pleased to refer said
petitions to the consideration of the Parliament desiring their advice thereon,
ordered both the petitions to be delivered to one of his Majesty’s most
honorable privy councilors (a member of the House of Commons) to be presented
to Parliament.
1655:
A special Conference which had been established by Cromwell and the Council of
State to consider all of the issues pertaining to the Jews and their
readmission to England which had already decided “that there was no law which
forbade the Jews’ return into England” today began to consider the question, if
it be lawful to allow the Jews to live in England, “upon what terms it meet to
receive them?”
1700:
Another decree was issued today in Berlin “which revoked the poll-tax, fixed
the protection-money at 1,000 ducats, and placed some restrictions upon
commerce” that included at the request of the shopkeepers’ guild forbidding
Jews to keep public shops and stalls.”
1701(6th
of Kislev, 5462): Joshua de Fonseca, a physician in Hamburg and the son of
Hakam Abraham de Fonseca passed away today.
1707(24th
of Kislev, 5468): The first Chanukah Candle is kindled for the first time in
Great Britain which had been created by the Act of Union joining England and
Scotland.
1742:
Talmudist Judah Lob Mokiach, the son of Mordecai Mokiah the father of “David
Berlin (Mokiach) and Isaiah Berlin (Mokiach), known also as Isaiah Pick” passed
away today in Pressburg
1764:
In his will, dated today, “twenty days before his death, Aaron Louzada of
Bridgewater, Somerset County, New Jersey, ³being of old age left to his wife
Blume f 200 and the use of his real and personal estate to bring up his
children. He directed that his children were to be put to trades. One of these
children was Kitty Abrahams. To Benjamin and Abigel, children of his brother
Moses, he bequeathed f 50 each. The inventory set the value of his estate at f
468.10.8. (From New Jersey Archives - First Series Vol. XXXIII - Abstracts of
Wills Vol. IV 1761-1770.)”
1765(24th
of Kislev, 5526): Parashat Vayeshev; The first Chanukah Candle is kindled for
the first time after the Stamp Act, one of the steps on the road to the
American Revolution had gone into effect.
1768(27th
of Kislev, 5529): Third Day of Chanukah
1771(30th
of Kislev, 5532): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1771:
“Jacob de Beer was employed today by the Dutch East India Company.”
1776(26th
of Kislev, 5637): As Jews observe Shabbat and prepare to kindle candles for the
third night of Chanukah, Washington’s Army successfully finishes crossing to
the south bank of the Delaware River, thus escaping destruction by the British
who chased the revolutionary army from New York down the entire state of New
Jersey.
1779(28th
of Kislev, 5540): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on the day that General
George Washington wrote to William Livingston expressing his appreciation for
gaining Dutch support for the American Revolution
1784(24th
of Kislev, 5545): The first Chanukah candle is kindled on the day that
Alexander Hamilton, an aide to General Washington and future Secretary of the
Treasury who was reportedly of Jewish heritage wrote to John Jay expressing his
support of Baron von Steuben’s claim for compensation because of his
“substantial services to the American cause.
1787(26th
of Kislev, 5548): Second Day of Channukah
1787:
Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Delaware abolished religious tests for public
office in 1792. For more about the
history of the Jews of the “first state” see http://www.hsd.org/DHM_exhibit_Half_A_Chance.htm.
1789:
Hannah Manuel and New York City native Gershom Mendes Seixas gave birth to
Grace Seixas, the wife of Manuel Judal and the mother of Abigail, Louisa and
Gershom Judah.
1790(30th
of Kislev, 5551): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet observed on the
same day that Counsel Samuel Shaw wrote to President Washington from Canton
concerning limitations on American trade with Batavia.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-07-02-0020
1793(4th
of Tevet, 5554):
Herz Cerfbeer of Medelsheim the military contractor
and philanthropist passed away today at Strasbourg. Born Naphtali Ben Dov-Beer at Alsace in 1730,
he was granted citizenship rights by Louis XVI in 1775. A spokesperson and
supporter of the Jewish community he published rare Hebrew books including
Lechem Setarim by Solomon Nissim Algazi the 17th century Talmudist
who served as a rabbi by Smyrna and Jerusalem.
1795(25th
of Kislev, 5556): Chanukah
1796: Elias
Jacobs married Elizabeth Lazarus at the Great Synagogue today.
1797: In
New York City, Leah Nathan and Jacob Naphtali Hart gave birth to Lyon Hart.
1797: In
New York City, Philadelphia born Leah Nathan and Bavaria born Jacob Naphtali
Hart gave birth to Nathan Hart.
1798(29th
of Kislev, 5559): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed as British forces clash with
French forces in the aftermath of Napoleon’s failed Egyptian campaign.
1802:
Birthdate of German poet and editor Lesser Ludwig who wrote, “One thing to Life
you owe: Struggle, or seek for rest. If you're an anvil, bear the blow; If a
hammer, strike your best” and who was supporter of the Reform movement.
1809(29th
of Kislev, 5570): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed for the first time during the
Presidency of James Madison.
1814(24th
of Kislev, 5575): The Channukah candled was kindled on the same that “General
Andrew Jackson enlisted the help of the Lafittes, a group of jailed pirates, to
defend New Orleans” against the British in the run-up to the Battle of New
Orleans which, unbeknownst to the participants was a wasted battle since the
peace treaty ending the War of 1812 had already been signed.
1815
Birthdate of Louis Bernheim the husband of Emma Simon and father of German
historian Ernst Bernheim and father-in-law of Amalie ("Emma")
Henriette Jessen.
1817(28th
of Kislev, 5578): Fourth day of Chanukah on the same day that “William Bligh,
the British naval officer and captain of the HMS Bounty, died in London”
1819: In
Pesaro, Italy Ricca Rosselli and Angelo Levi gave birth to Sarina Levy, the
wife of Meyer Moses Nathan, a German-born Jewish stockbroker who lived in
London who after the death of her husband in 1859 gained fame as Sarina Nathan,
the “financier and confident of Giuseppe Mazzini the driving force behind the
creation of unified, democratic Italy.
1819: Today’s “report of the Privy Council of relates that Joseph
L. Friedländer came to Bautzen in March 1813 and in the year 1819 had already
left his birthplace Mühlendorf in Hungary 46 years earlier. Concerning his family, it further relates
that his “child is weak and not more than 2½ years old,” and his wife is
pregnant. The Bautzen city
administration found a place for the Jewish family to reside because it had
work for Friedländer in translation service for 1813-1816.”
1820: Three days after he had passed away, 56-year-old Phillip
Cohen, the husband of Hannah Cohen, was buried today at the “Brady Street
Jewish Cemetery.”
1822(23rd
of Kislev, 5583):
Rabbi Yosef ben Moshe Mammon, the native of Morocco
who taught at the Yeshiva in Safed before settling in Burkhara in 1793 because
the people needed strong Jewish leadership, passed away today. Among his descendants is the Dorit
Moussaieff, the First Lady of Iceland.
1822: In
Breslau, Amalie Kempner and Salomon Silberstein gave birth to Emma Silberstein,
the future wife of Louise Loewe and the father of James Loewe.
1823: In
Liegnitz, Silesia, Isidor and Johanna (née Prausnitzer) Kronecker gave birth to
German mathematician Leopold Kronecker
1827: One
day after he had passed away “Joseph ben Chaim Schwab” was buried today at the
“Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1828(1st
of Tevet, 5589): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1828:
Birthdate of “Herford, Germany” native Ferdinand Falk, the husband of
“Jeannette Levy Falk” and father of “Arnold, Gustave, Myron and Gertrude Falk.”
1830:
Birthdate of Judah Leib (Ben Asher) Gordon, the native of Vilnius also known as
Leon Gordon, who became a leading Hebrew poet of the 19th century.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gordon_Yehudah_Leib
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/239127/Judah-Leib-Gordon
1831(3rd
of Tevet, 5592): Eighth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that the citizens of Fauquier County submitted a
request to the General Assembly that all African Americans in Virginia be
“removed to Africa.”
1833:
Birthdate of Louis-Norbert Carrière the anti-Dreyfusard “government
commissioner who successfully pled at Rennes for Dreyfus’s second conviction
even if it meant misrepresenting evidence.
1834: Two
days after she had passed away, “Kenadel Goldsmid,” the widow of Nathan
Goldsmid was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1834(5th
of Kislev, 5595): Isaac Solomon, the son of Sally Prager and Solomon Polack and
the wife of Hannah bat Meir whom he married at the Western Synagogue in 1830
passed away today after which he was buried in the Brompton (Fulham Road)
Jewish Cemetery.
1835(16th
of Kislev, 5596): Sixty-nine-year-old Judith van Samuel Peixotto, the Amsterdam
born daughter of Samuel van Isaac Lopes Salzedo and Sipora De Isaac Hisq. de La
Penha, wife of Cantor Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto and mother of Dr. Daniel Moses
Levy Maduro Peixotto; Raphael Peixotto; Sarah Mozes Levi Maduro Naar and Grace
Peixotto passed away today in New York City.
1837:
Benjamin Disraeli made his maiden speech in Parliament.
1839:
Birthdate of Polish native Louis M. Falk, the husband of Hattie Goodhart Falk
with whom he had three children – Morris, Estella and Harry.
1841(24th
Kislev, 5602): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1841: Michael Solomon Alexander, a convert from Judaism was
ordained as Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem at Lambeth Place. He would arrive in Jerusalem in the first
month of the following year
1842: The
New York Philharmonic gave its first performance. Numerous Jewish musicians and conductors have
been involved with the Philharmonic in its 163 year history. One of the most famous Jews connected with
the Philharmonic was not a musician. In
1909, Minnie Utermyer, wife of prominent businessman and lawyer Samuel Untermey
led a group of philanthropists in guaranteeing the future financial solvency of
this great American musical institution.
1844(26th
of Kislev, 5605): Shabbat shel Channukah; Parashat Vayeshev
1844: Ein Feldlager in Schlesien (a Singspiel in three acts by
German-Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer was first performed today at the
Hofoper, in Berlin.
1847(29th
of Kislev, 5608): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1847: Birthdate of Solomon Schechter. “Solomon Schechter was born in Rumania into a
Chabad Chassidic family. His Chassidic upbringing did not satisfy him, however,
and, in 1879 he went to study at the Berlin Hochschule fur die Wissenschaft des
Judentums and at the University of Berlin. In 1882 Schechter was invited to be
a tutor in Rabbinics in London. He quickly rose to prominence as a rabbinic
scholar and spokesman for Jewish traditionalism. In 1890 he was appointed
lecturer in Talmudics and in 1892 reader in Rabbinics at Cambridge University.
In 1899 he also became professor of Hebrew at University College, London. He
gained international fame as a scholar when he discovered and brought back to
London more than 100,000 pages of rare manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza.
Beyond sorting and filing the documents, Schechter wrote on the newly-found Ben
Sirach materials, unknown until then. Schechter accepted the invitation to
become president of the Jewish Theological Seminary and succeeded in attracting
an outstanding group of scholars to teach. The Jewish Theological Seminary
became a recognized center of Jewish learning. In 1913 Solomon Schechter was
instrumental in founding the United Synagogue of America, the umbrella
organization of all Conservative congregations. Though a staunch
traditionalist, Schechter admitted that there could be change in modern
Judaism. However, he felt that changes should not be introduced arbitrarily or
deliberately. Rather, ‘the norm as well as the sanction of Judaism is the
practice actually in vogue. Its consecration is the consecration of general
use—or, in other words, of Catholic Israel.’ Although it may be apocryphal, my
favorite quote from Solomon Schechter is, ‘Gentlemen, in order to be a success
in the American rabbinate, you must be able to talk baseball.’"
1849: In Freudental, Germany, Simon and Babette Horkheimer gave
birth to General Morris Horkheimer, the husband of Cecilia Horkheimer with whom
he had four children.
https://www.ohiocountylibrary.org/wheeling-history/4279
1850(2nd of Tevet, 5611): Shabbat Shel Chanukah;
Parashat Miketz; 8th Day of Chanukah
1852(26th of Chanukah, 5613): Second Day of Chanukah
1852:
Reverend Edward Robinson, DD read a lengthy paper based on his recent visit to
the Holy Land at the regular monthly meeting of the New York Historical
Society. After Reverend Robinson finished his presentation Dr. Adams said that
to some such a detailed report of such a distant place “was not the most
appropriate for the New York State Historical Society. But on reflection every man should feel that
Palestine was not a strange land to us. It was our home, ‘Jerusalem is the
mother of us all.’ …They therefore felt thankful to the Doctor for his
laborious research.” [This is an early
manifestation of philo-Semitism that would be beneficial to the Zionist
movement.]
1856:
In Albany, NY, Catherine Lederer and Solomon gave birth to Cornell University
trained architect Adolph Fleischman, the husband of Rosetta Mann who helped to
build synagogues in Albany, Troy and Rondout.
1857:
Birthdate of Sigmund Kohlman who was buried at Springhill Avenue Temple
Cemetery in Mobile when he passed away.
1857: The first session of the 35th United States
Congress in which Philadelphian Henry Myer Phillips served as a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives opened today in Washington, DC.
1857:
Birthdate of Sigmund Kohlman, the secretary and treasurer of The New Orleans
Foundry Company and husband of Julia H. Kohlman.
1859:
Lewis Emanuel married Mary Sampson at the Great Synagogue today.
1860:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native Rebecca Swope Steinhart, the wife of Bernard Steinhart
whom she married in 1879 and the mother of Corinne Steinharter Frank and
Harvard Medical School trained gynecologist and surgeon Edgard C. Steinharter,
the WW I veteran attending gynecologist at Cincinnati General Hospital and the
Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati.
1860:
“The Commercial Relations Between the North and South,” published today reviewed
the impact that Southern Secession would have on the business operations in
what has been the United States of America using the ability of Jews and
Christians to engage in commercial activities as its template:
“How,
then, is New-York to lose its Southern trade? If at all, from political
considerations alone; South Carolina says, "I do not like your political
sentiments, and will have nothing to do with you." She is not as tolerant
as the Jew who would buy and sell with the Christian, but not eat or drink with
him. But will, or can she deliberately persist in any course in violation of
her own interest? No! The thing is impossible. It has not an example in all
history. If there be a law unerring in its action, and firmly engraved upon the
popular mind, it is that "men will sell in the dearest market and buy in
the cheapest," and will always take the shortest and most convenient
method to accomplish their ends. South Carolina can no more stay away from us
than matter can refuse to obey the laws of gravity, which is not a whit
stronger in its way than is the law of self-interest with the individual.”
1861:
Today, at a meeting in Davenport, IA, the Jews “decided to name the
congregation B’nai Israel, to conduct it upon Orthodox principles, to purchase
a cemetery and engage a shochet and Hebrew teacher.”
1863(26th
of Kislev,5624): As Jews observe the second day of Chanukah, “Confederate
sympathizers from the Maritime Provinces capture the American steamer
Chesapeake off the cost of Cape Cod.”
1865:
Birthdate of Hamburg, Germany native Otto John Beit, “the younger brother of
Alfred Beit” who “went to England in 1888” where he became a successful
stockbroker and then went on to South Africa to play “an active role” in the
diamond and gold mining industries before return to England where he became
active in cultural and artistic affairs while becoming a British citizen in
1898.
1866(29th
of Kislev, 5627): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed for the first time in Romania
under the rule the anti-
Semitic
Ion Brainau.
1867:
In Germany, Abraham Elzas and Henrietta Lowenthal gave birth to Barnett Elzas,
the graduate of Jews College, the University of Toronto and the Medical College
of South Carolina who was the husband of the former Annie Samuel London and the
Rabbi of K.K. Beth Elhoim in Charleston, SC.
1868:
In San Francisco, Joseph M. Brandstein, and Jane Jeannette Brandenstein gave
birth to Henry Ulysses Brandenstein
1869:
In Charleston, SC, Edward Joseph Lewith and Nena Frank Lewith gave birth to
future Charlotte resident, Josephine Lewin Schafter, the wife of Nathan Phillip
Jacoby whom she married in 1908
1870:
Birthdate of Pittsburgh businessman Charles Dreifus, the president of the Charles
Dreifus Company and a member of the Scrap Iron and Steel Advisory Committee of
the War Industries Board during WWI
1871(24th
of Kislev, 5632): Light the first Chanukah candle.
1871(24th
of Kislev, 5632): Seventy-three-year-old Orthodox German rabbi Jacob Ettlinger
passed away today at Altona, Prussia.
1872:
In Erie, PA Hannah and Julius Schwartz gave birth to future Des Moines resident
Samuel S. Schwartz, the husband of Harriet Hattie Schwartz and the father of
Adele, Eleanor and Corrine Schwartz.
1873:
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Rebecca and William Jacob Mack gave birth to Millard
William Mack, the husband of Lydia Mack and father of William Jacob Mack – all
part of the Cincinnati Mack dynasty.
1873:
Birthdate of Olga Lehmann who was transported from Berlin to Terezin in 1942
and from Terezin to Auschwitz in 1944.
1874:
Two days after she had passed away, “Simha Toledano” a native of Gibraltar was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1875:
Today’s session of the Hebrew Charity Fair raised over $12,000 for the Mount
Sinai Hospital.
1875:
“The Society for Providing a Home for Aged, Infirm and Destitute Israelites in
the city of Albany, NY” which meets on the second Sunday of each month, was
incorporated today
1875:
It was reported today that the bodies of Abram and Aaron Dietz, William Meyers,
Abram Kurtz and William Laser who died in the Brooklyn Theatre Fire which
claimed the lives of 278 people were taken from the City Morgue by
representatives of the Brooklyn Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Society and taken
to Temple Israel. The bodies were so
badly charred that the identification of the victims has been so slow and
difficult.
1876:
In Curacao, Jacob Baiz, the son of “Isaac and Rachel Pereira Baiz” and his wife
“Rebecca Baiz” gave birth to Angela Baiz.
1877(1st
of Tevet, 5638): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1877:
In Raleigh, NC, Michael and Regina (Einstadter) Grausman gave birth Columbia
trained physician and surgeon Philip M. Grausman, who “was attached to the Red
Cross in WW I” and who used his surgical skills at the Hospital for Joint
Diseases and the Jewish Maternity Hospital” while enjoying a membership in the
Harmonie Club.
1878:
In Brooklyn, Harris Alexander and the former Betsy Harris gave birth to David
Alexander, the husband of the former Iren Schwab and graduate of the University
of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the rabbi of Temple Israel
in Paducah, Kentucky and the Akron, OH, Hebrew Congregation.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/01/15/121627134.pdf
1879:
Based on information that originally appeared in an article entitled the
“History of Money” by famed numismatist Sir John Lubbock, it was reported today
that the ancient shekel is one of the most popular coins among collectors
possibly because of its Biblical connection.
However, it is the most frequently counterfeited ancient coin and “of
so-called shekels found among collectors, over three-fourths of them are
forgeries.
1879:
“The Prussian Press and Bismarck” published today describes the government’s
control of the content of newspapers in Germany which is under the direction of
a Privy Councilor named Hahn, who is a convert from Judaism. (This will not be
the last time that the Jews are accused of controlling the media in Germany or
elsewhere)
1879:
President Abraham Oettinger chaired the 15th annual meeting of the
Hebrew Free School Association. The association operates 5 schools and is
planning to open a sixth. The school
employs twenty teachers, five of whom are women. The association serves 1,129
students. All of the students must attend public school during the day since
the association’s schools are intended to supplement and not supplant public
education offerings. Two of the
association’s schools conduct Saturday morning services which draw
approximately 600 worshippers.
1879: The formal incorporation of Or Chaim takes place in New York
City with the adoption of its constitution and by-laws at its first meeting
attended by two of its first members, Sigmund Arnstein and Marcus J. Cohen.
1880: “Modern Persecution of the Jews” published today described
the outbreak of anti-Semitism sweeping across Germany. It is based on the premise that a million and
half Jews are trying to control the lives of forty million Germans. German
nationalist hate Jews because they do not engage in manual labor while the
Socialists hate them because they are all millionaires. The outbreak of anti-Semitism coincided with
the economic downturn that came after the bubble created the victory over
France came to an end.
1880: It was reported today that German Jews do not serve in the
army because they are prevented from rising above the rank of 2nd
lieutenant.
1880(5th of Tevet, 5641): Seventy-nine-year-old Lob
Oppenheimer, the husband of Bina Oppenheimer and the son of Rachel and Abraham
Oppenheimer passed away today.
1880: It was reported that German Jews do not serve in the German
navy or the merchant marine because they have no hope of ever serving as
captain of a vessel. This based on “an
old German superstition that a Jewish Captain would sink his vessel.”
1881: A four-act version of “The Tales of Hoffmann an opéra
fantastique by Jacques Offenbach with recitatives was staged at the Ringtheater
today”
1881: It was reported today when Chester A. Arthur sent his
Presidential message to Congress he took note of the fact that the Senate
resolutions expressing condolence at the time of the assassination of Czar
Alexander II had been sent to the Russian government which he hoped would
improve the treatment of American Jews visiting that empire. The Russians, Arthur wrote, had a tendency to
treat American Jews in the same manner they did Jews living under the Czar
1882(26th of Kislev, 5643): Second Day of Chanukah
1882: During the Tiszaeszlár Affair, a Hungarian blood libel, the
body found in Tisza was exhumed and reexamined by three professors of medicine
from the University of Budapest. They
would conclude that the original autopsy “had no scientific basis” and showed
“grows ignorance” on the part of the examiners.
1882:
Marianne Trenel and Rabbi Simon Debré gave birth to
French pediatrician Robert Debré
1884: According to reports published today L’Académie française has admitted its first Jewish member, Ludovic
Halévy who has agreed to focus only on writing novels from now on.
1884: The list of Holiday Books published today included Our
Young Folks Josephus: The Antiquities of the Jews and Jewish Wars simplified
by William Shepard which is a simplification of the works of Josephus with
illustrations by Dore.
1885: In an attempt to thwart the efforts of the members of St.
Bernard’s Church to stop construction of a side track on Van Rensselaer Street
on Sundays, the attorney for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company says he will
hire eight Jews “to test the question whether a Jews breaks the Sabbath by
working on Sunday.”
1886: According to reports published today, a society has been
formed at Minden, Germany to promote marriages “between Christians and Jews.
1887: A Polish Jewish immigrant named Burkmann was pulled from the
water when he attempted to kill himself by jumping off the pier at Castle
Garden.
1887: Birthdate of Austrian composer Ernst Toch whose works ranged
from the classical to the Hollywood musical scores, the most famous of which
was for the 1937 classic Heidi.
1888: In a case of Jew versus Jew, 19-year-old Ernestine Nolfen
sued Noach Soenfeld in Minneapolis, MN for “breach of promise.”
1888: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs was reported today to have been among
the clergymen who met with Mayor Hewitt today to discuss plans for the
celebration of the Centenary of the Inauguration of George Washington as
President of the United States which is scheduled to take place on April 30,
1889.
1888: It was reported today that Rabbi Wolf Berger of Anshe Chesed
has sued the brothertwenty-fivete Mr. Kingsburgh who owned a stationery and
tobacco store near the local post office for twenty five dollars. Berger claims he is owed the money for
teaching the decedent’s sons the appropriate prayers for mourning their father
and for composing the inscription on his tombstone.
1889: Today Vanity Fair magazine published a picture of French
journalist Henri Blowitz who “predicted the collapse of the French empire
during the Franco-Prussian War” and whose “most famous achievement was in 1878,
when he managed to obtain the text of the Treaty of Berlin and publish it at
the very moment that the Congress of Berlin was finally signing it”
1890(25th of Kislev, 5651): Chanukah
1890: M.S. Isaacs presided over the annual meeting of The Hebrew
Free School Association; an organization dedicated to “Americanizing” Jewish
immigrants.
1890: “Baron Hirsch To Send Jews To The Argentine Republic”
published today described plans that Baron Hirsch has for settling some of the
half million Jews expelled by Russia in the South American country; a plan for
which he is ready to spend twenty million dollars and which has the support
Argentine President Carlos Pellegrini who has a Jewish brother-in-law.
1890: It was reported today that Dr. George Allan Heron’s “”newly-
published work on the communicability of consumption dwells on the
well-ascertained immunity from
tuberculosis of carefully-conforming Jews whose meat is inspected in a manner
which would require the rejection of an entire carcass if any speck of tubercle
were discovered.” (In other words he is making a positive connection between
the observance of Kashrut and immunity from Tuberculosis. At the same time, opponents of immigration in
the United States demonized Jews as carriers of TB.)
1891: In New York, seven Russian Jews – Hirsch Bachletsky, Susman
Wilkisky, Elias Chyot, Benjamin Soldofsky, Adolph Baum, Solomon White and Jacob
Schwartz – “appeared before the British Consulate on State Street and made
formal charges against a foreman of the cattlemen employed on the steamship
France after having tried to report their theft and abuse to the local police
and the United States Commissioner.
1891: In Albany, NY, Max and Dora Ettelson Aronowitz gave birth to
Dartmouth undergraduate and Albany Medical College trained surgeon Milton
Aronowitz, the husband of Gretchen Aronowitz.
1892: Birthdate of Max Michaelis Ehhrlich, the multitalented
Berlin born entertainer who would be murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in
1944.
1892: As a result of a campaign led by Joseph Barondess Governor
Fowler pardoned cloakmaker Frank Rheingold who had been convicted of 2nd
degree burglary as a result of actions taken during the cloakmaker’s strike at
Benjamin & Caspary.
1892: In Washington, DC, the convention of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations came to an end with a report by the financial committee
that the Union has raised $26,539 with $22,804 going to support the Hebrew
Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1892: During Hermann Ahlwardt’s trial for slandering a Jewish arms
manufacturer the presiding Judge fined self-professed anti-Semite’s counsel 100
marks when he attempted to resign following rulings from the bench that he did
not like
1892: In describing the changing population mix in New York,
Reverend William T Elsing was quoted today as saying that the east side below
Houston Street has become “a great Hebrew center.”
1892: Eighty-four-year-old Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey,
whose work provide one of the “earliest surviving records of the lands of the
east Mediterranean including Palestine and Jerusalem passed away today.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4486020,00.html
1893(28th of
Kislev, 5654): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that "The
Damned Thing" a horror short story written by American Civil War soldier,
wit, and writer Ambrose Bierce first appeared in Town Topics.”
1893: Thirty-four-year-old University of Cincinnati Law School
trained attorney Simeon Moses Johnson the Cincinnati born son of Frederick A.
Johnson and Julia Moses, the Democratic party leader and Vice Mayor of
Cincinnati married Gertrude Cohen today.
1893: Birthdate of Pensacola, FL, native Paula Herskovitz, the
wife of Rabbi William Ackerman who as “Paula Ackerman was thought to be the
first woman to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leading the
Beth Israel congregation in Meridian, Mississippi from 1951 to 1953 (making her
the first woman to assume spiritual leadership of a U.S. mainstream Jewish
congregation) and the Beth-El congregation in Pensacola, Florida briefly in the
1960s.”
1894: Silver Dollar Smith, the Jewish Tammany politician and
saloon keeper is scheduled to appear in court today where he must answer
charges that he assaulted August J. Gloistein, the operator of another nearby
saloon.
1894: Max Lissauer explained that the Jewish members of the
Committee had not attended the reception at the Union Club for Mayor-elect
William Strong, even though they had “worked as hard as they could for his
election” because they did not feel comfortable at the Union Club which refused
membership to a co-religionist, Theodore Seligman who had been blackballed
because he was Jewish.
1895: Birthdate of Peretz Davidovich Markish, the Russian poet
whose language of choice was Yiddish whose wife Esther and his sons, literary
scholar Shimon Markish and prose writer David Markish sought to redeem his
reputation after he was murdered in the Stalin purge “Night of the Murdered
Poets.”
http://yiddishkayt.org/view/peretz-markish/
1895: Financier Henry Clews who organized the “Committee of 70”
was quoted today as saying that “the best thing that” German anti-Semite
Hermann “Ahlwardt can do is to go home.”
“The Jews as a class are good citizens.
They respect the laws and benefit business and society.” Ahlwardt, “may
as well understand that he is a most unwelcome visitor.”
1896: Birthdate of Polish native and Yiddish author Eliezer Blum
the husband of Etta Blum who used the pen-name B.Alquit while serving as a
columnist and member of the editorial staff of the Jewish Morning Jewish
Journal.
1897: In Shanghai, David Haimovitch of Shanghai married Berth
Gersburger of Alsace-Lorraine at the Beth El Synagogue.
1898: In Chicago the fair and bazaar sponsored by the Young Men’s
Hebrew Charity Association which is raising funds for Michael Reese Hospital
and the United Hebrew Charities is scheduled to come to an end.
1898(23rd of Kislev, 5659): Eighty-year-old Baden,
Germany born Lemuel Benjamin Oppenheimer, the husband of Henrietta Mansbach
Oppenheimer whom he married in 1846 and with whom he raised four children –
Michael, Amelia, Marry and Bessie – while operating “a clothing business”
passed away today in Baltimore, MD.
1899: Vanity Fair magazine published a picture of Bohemian born
Jewish journalist Henri Blowitz.
1899: As a result of his participation in today’s Battle of
Anguillan, Dr. Joseph M. Heller who served as surgeon with the 24th
U.S. Infantry during the Philippine Insurrection received a Silver Star
Citation
1901(26th of Kislev, 5662): Parashat Vayeshev; Second
Day of Chanukah
1900: It was reported that “an ancient Hebrew Scroll of the Law,”
“written on leather prepared according to the direction of Maimonides” which
was used by Yemen Jews in their synagogue in Southern Arabia” and which had
belonged to the late Joseph W. Sprague of Louisville has been sold at auction
for $210.
1900: Oscar S. Straus, the Minister to Turkey was one of the three
judges when debaters from Yale and Harvard squared off in the Sanders Theatre
in Cambridge.
1901: In New York, Frederick Margareten, the Hungarian born son or
Rabbi Joel Margaraten and Julia Margareten, and his wife Regina Margareten gave
birth to Lilian Rose Margaretten who became Lilian Rose Sikolow when she
married Moe Sokolow.
1901: Birthdate of Columbia graduate James Waterman Wise, the
Portland born son of Rabbi Stephen Wise, the father of Stephen, Halle and
Deborah Wise and “an author, art dealer and lecturer who warned against Nazism
before Hitler came to power” as can be seen in two of his books, ''Swastika,
the Nazi Terror'' written in 1933, and ''Nazism, the Assault on Civilization''
written in 1934.
1902: After having preached his first sermon on Zionism two weeks
ago in which he said that Zionism was a dream utterly impossible of realization
and that it was only believed in by a small minority of the Jews all over the
world” Rabbi Joseph Silverman preached his second sermon Zionism in which he
that “his solution of the Jewish question” was “Evolution and Assimilation.”
1903: The first New York Company of the Boy’s is scheduled to meet
today for the first time at rooms provided by B’nei Zion under the leadership
of Drill Instructor Lebensohn
1903: Today, the correspondent of The Times London at Tangiers
says that “Jewish refugees from Tesa gave a heartrending account of the
barbarities by the Government troops after their reoccupation of the town”
where ‘few of their women escaped the brutality of their soldiers “and where
the Jews are “absolutely destitute” because the soldiers “robbed them their
possessions.”
1904(29th of Kislev, 5665): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1904: In New York City, Benvenida Solis Davis and Goodman Richard
Davis gave birth to Goodman Richard Davis, Jr, the “brother of Walter Alan
Davis.”
1904: Birthdate of New York naïve Viola Regina Philo, the New York
College of Music trained operatic soprano whose career included appearances at
Radio City Music Hal and the Metropolitan Opera.
1905: In a letter to the editor published today, Lucien Wolf
replied “to the allegation that the massacre at Odessa originated with the
provocative attitude of the Jews and that had they not been armed and organized
the efforts of the reactionaries and local authorities to stir up the populace
against them would have failed.”1905(9th of Kislev, 5666): Eighty-two-year-old
Julius Freiberg, the husband of Duffie Frieberg and father of UAHC president
Julius Walter Freiberg, passed away today in Cincinnati.
1905: Birthdate of Leonard Goldstein who would
become President of the American Broadcasting Companies in 1968.
1905: According to reports received today in Vienna at least 8,000
people of have been killed in Odessa since the attacks on the Jews began in
that Russian city.
1906(20th of Kislev, 5667): Isaac Samuel Isaacs, the
second son of Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs and Jane Symmons, and Columbia trained
lawyer who “was a member of the firm of M.S. & I.S. Isaacs” which “is
counsel for the Baron de Hirsch Fund” who was the long time President of the
West End Synagogue passed away today in New York City.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43057806?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/12/08/101852509.pdf
1907(2nd of Tevet, 5668): Parashat Miketz; Seventh Day
of Chanukah
1907:
In Chicago, Leon Oboler and Clara Oboler, Jewish
immigrants from Riga, Latvia, gave birth to Arch Oboler an American actor,
playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in
radio, films, theater, and television.
1907: Birthdate of Frija Zoaretz, the native of Libya who made
Aliyah in 1949 and served “as a member of the Knesset for the National
Religious Party between 1955 and 1969.
https://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=403
1907: Conductor Arturo Toscanini and his wife Carla De Martini
gave birth their daughter Wanda, a Catholic who became Wanda Horowitz in 1922
when she married “pianist Valdimir Horowitz.”
1907: Birthdate of Lithuanian native Fred Rosenberg who moved to
Canada and as Fred Rose gained fame as a
labor organizer and Canadian communist politician.
1907:
The Trustees, Faculty, and students of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America gave a "surprise party" to Dr. Solomon Schechter,
the President of that institution, in celebration of his sixtieth birthday. Dr.
Schechter has only been in this country five years, having been summoned by the
Trustees of the seminary from his position as Reader in the Rabbinic in
Cambridge University, England, and Professor of Hebrew in the University of
London.
1908 It was reported today that at a meeting of the Judeans,
Nathan Straus who had worked so hard to established pasteurized milk depots
“took direct issued with Dr. Koch’s contention that bovine tuberculosis was not
to be feared in so far as lung infection is concerned.
1909: It was reported today that Isidor Sacks has been appointed
chairman of committee of the newly created Manhattan Central Improvement
Association whose members include Oscar Straus which will examine the issues
surrounding the widening of 34th Street.
1910(6th of Kislev, 5671): Fifty-five-year-old Rabbi Hirsch
Hildesheimer, the son of Rabbi Azriel Hildesheimer and Henriette (Jettchen)
Hildeshiemer and the husband of Rosa Therese Hildesheimer passed away in Berlin
1910: Birthdate of Richard Franko Goldman conductor, educator,
author, music critic, and composer who was the son of Edwin Franko Godman. The son followed the father as conductor of
the Goldman Band of New York City.
1911(16th of Kislev, 5672): Seventy-eight-year-old Sir
George Lewis passed away.
http://www.fivenine.co.uk/family_history_notebook/source_extracts/obituaries/george_henry_lewis.htm
1911:
Cambridge University conferred an honorary LL.D. degree on Lord Rothschild.
1911:
Arthur M. Myers were re-elected to serve as a “member for Auckland City, East
New Zealand.”
1912: It
was reported today that Adolf Kraus, President of the Independent Order of
B’nai B’rith has received an urgent appeal by cable from the President of the
Grand Lodge in Turkey requesting speedy financial assistance to aid Jewish
sufferers from war and cholera” as well as a similar appeal from the President
of the Grand Lodge of Romania on behalf of the Jews of Bulgaria.
1912: Rabbi
Tobias Schanfarber is scheduled to speak to the “children of the Sabbath School
at the Hebrew Institute this afternoon.
1913: “The
Prophets,” By Sargent, Added Greatly to His Fame” published today began by
describing the great frieze “The Prophets” which is found in the Boston Public
Library, and which was painted by John Singer Sargent to” illustrate the
monotheistic and spiritual principles of the Jewish religion”.
1913: It
was reported today that “Henry Green, organizer of the Jewish-American Rumanian
Jewish Committee” is scheduled to set sail for Southampton on December 11 so he
can attend an informal meeting of delegates who are, like him protesting
against the Rumanian Government’s treatment of the Jews and who will be
attending the International Conference at Berlin in January.
1913: In
“The Inquisition: Study of a Much Misunderstood Chapter in History,” Joseph
Jacobs provides a review of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition by Rafael
Sabatini which included a lengthy description of the cases of Pedro Argues who
slain by a conspiracy of the “conversos” and “the cause célèbre of the sainted lad of La Guardia” which are
supposed to helped to lead to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
1913: The
Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood which was by in 1888 by Rabbi Gottheil is scheduled
to celebrate its 25th anniversary tonight.
1914(19th
of Kislev, 5675): Seventy-seventy-year-old Georgia Medical College trained
physician and CSA veteran Dr. William Theodore Heidt, the Savannah, GA born son
of William and Eliza Heidt who had one child William with his wife Caroline
Sheftall Hedit passed away today
1914: The
Federation of Oriental Jews organized the Oriental Jewish Community of New
York. They plan to establish and maintain their own institutions, burial
grounds, Talmud-Torahs, etc., and to care for the poor and sick Ladino speaking
community.
1915:
Abraham Shalom Yahuda of Madrid is appointed ordinary professor
"Catedratico numberario" of rabbinic literature at the Central
University. The appointment came despite the fact that there no synagogues in
Spain and that there had not been one in the country since 1492.
1915: The
seventh annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers being held in the
auditorium of the Educational Alliance building on East Broadway goes into its
third day with a morning discussion on “educational and social problems on the
farm,” an afternoon business session and a dinner in the evening at the
Broadway Central Hotel.
1915: In “Red Hook, Brooklyn” Polish-Jewish
immigrants “Abraham and Bertha (Schorr) Wallach gave birth to Eli Herschel
Wallach the graduate of the University of Texas who earned a Master of Arts
degree from CCNY before serving in the United States Army during WW II and
gaining fame as act Eli Wallach one of his best was as the Mexican outlaw
leader in The Magnificent Seven.
1916: In New York City, “Jewish immigrants Isaac Sackler” and the
former Sophie Greenberg gave birth to Dr. Mortimer D. Sackler, a psychiatrist
who was a co-owner of the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, makers of the
controversial painkiller OxyContin, and whose lavish gifts to the Guggenheim
Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Columbia University made him one of
New York City’s most prominent benefactors. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/01sackler.html
1916: During World War I, David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister and
forms a new government. Lloyd George re-invigorated the British War
effort and helped ensure the Allied victory over the Kaiser. Lloyd George was the Prime Minister when the
Balfour Declaration was issued and continued to fight for the Zionist cause
after the World War when other British leaders were determined to break their
war-time commitment to the Jewish people.
1916: Herbert Louis Samuel (the Viscount Samuel) completed his first term
as Home Secretary in the UK.
1917: As the Egyptian Expeditionary Force of the British Empire on one
side and the Yildirim Army Group of the Ottoman Empire and German Empires
prepare for the climactic fight for control of Jaffa, “three infantry divisions
of the British XXI Corps, under the command of Lieutenant General Edward
Bulfin, began moving their units into position on the coastal plain.”
1917: The U.S. government, which had declared war on Germany in April,
declared war today on its ally the Austro-Hungarian Army.
1917: The 53rd (Welsh) Division of the Egyptian Expeditionary
Force, also known as Mott’s detachment, which was supposed to cut the road
between Jerusalem and Jericho captured “Solomon’s Pools to the south of
Bethlehem” this evening.
1917: “The forty-six teams which are collecting subscriptions for the
five-million-dollar fund for Jewish war relief and welfare work in the army”
stopped their work tonight at sunset tonight because the start of the Sabbath
but will resume their activity tomorrow afternoon.
1917: Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman, Chairman of the Jewish Welfare
Board said that “the Jews of America have furnished the army and navy 50,000 of
their finest young men” and the Jews “who cannot serve it as fighters” owe to
their country to contribute so that their spiritual needs can be met – in the
same that the supports of the YMCA and Knights of Columbus have already done.
1917: In Kostroma, the Jews formed a “self-defense corps.”
1917: In Odessa, “the general in command of” the city’s “garrison
announced that he would suppress attempts to attack Jews” while “a large part
of the garrison openly declared its ‘neutrality’ in events of a pogrom.”
1917: Pogroms took place in “Belgorodsk, Skuria and Rezev.”
1917:
On the Western Front, the Battle of Cambrai in which the German forces that
included Carl Anker, drove back a British forced led by the Mark IV Tank.
1918: As Allied troops march into Germany and
establish zones of occupation under the terms of the Armistice signed on
November 11, German born Zionist Arthur Ruppin wrote in his diary, “Never
indeed, in the history of the world has a people been confronted with such
terrible armistice terms and admitted its complete defeat, although no enemy
has yet set foot on its soil and on the contrary, its armies are still deep
within the territories of its enemies.
The simple man in the street cannot understand what has happened so
suddenly and feels completely lost.”
1918:
Achille Ratti, the future Pope Pius XI, writes a letter to Cardinal Pietro
Gasparri, Vatican Secretary of State, apparently complaining about what he
considered the disproportionate power of Jews in Poland. "There are about
600,000 Protestants and about 2 million Jews, but their religious importance is
negligible, outside of the fairly frequent conversions to Catholicism. But by contrast their economic, political,
and social importance (especially that of the Jews) is large and indeed
tremendous." (As reported by Austin Cline)
1918:
“Camden Jews opened the great drive of the Federation of Jewish Charities of
Camden with a mass meeting at the Towers Theatre” tonight.
1919:
Thirty-six-year JTS trained rabbi, Nathan Blechman, the Riga born son of Isaac
and Rose (Friedlander) Blachman, the rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Houston, TX and
the vice president of the Texas Zionist Association who served as the rabbi at
Camp Upton during WW I married Esther Lind today.
1919:
In Albany Park (Chicago), the bazaar sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple
Israel is scheduled to come to an end today.
1919:
Mrs. Morris S. Rosenwald is scheduled to perform for the Symphony Concert at
the Chicago Hebrew Institute.
1920(26th
of Kislev, 5681): Second Day of Chanukah
1920(26th
of Kislev, 5681): Seventy-year-old Esther Cohen, the Melbourne born daughter of
Michael And Elizabeth Cashmore and the wife of Henry Cohen with whom she had
eight children passed away today in her home town.
1920:
“The project for a British mandate for Palestine’.. was forward to the League
of Nations today by Earl Balfour.
1920:
“Jews To Work With League” published today described the arrival of a
delegation of prominent Jews led by Lucien Wolf, “representing the Jew Board of
Deputies in the British Empire” in Geneva where the plan “to place before the
League of Nations a memorandum regarding he question of the protection of
minorities and finding some remedy against pogroms.”
1921:
Thirty-seven-year-old Tulane graduate and Harvard trained attorney, Monte M.
Lemann, the Donaldsonville, LA born son of Harriet Friedheim and Bernard Lemann
married Nettie E. Hyman today after which he became a partner in the law firm
of Monroe and Lemann while continuing to serve as a professor at Tulane Law
School.
1921: The graduation of the nursing class from Hadassah hospital, which
had been postponed due to Arab attacks in November, took place. The graduation address was given by Dr. Eder,
a distinguished British Jew and member of the Zionist Executive who spoke in
English. Dr. Eliezer Ben Yehuda, one of
the pioneering fathers of Modern Hebrew, walked out in protest.
1922: Professor George L. Scherger is scheduled to lecture on “George
Bernard Shaw” this evening at the Sinai Social Center in Chicago, Illinois.
1922: In Manhattan, Walter and Marion Pollak gave birth to Louis Heilprin
Pollak, “a federal judge and former dean of two prestigious law schools who
played a significant role in major civil rights cases before the Supreme Court,
including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case” (As
reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-10/news/31669640_1_chief-judge-fellow-judges-judge-pollak
1923(29th of Kislev, 5684): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1923: In Philadelphia, clothing manufacturer Louis J. Goldberg and
milliner Kate Malmed gave birth to Robet Leon Goldberg who gained fame as “Robert
Geddes, the transformative first dean of Princeton’s School of Architecture and
an architect of elegant modernist buildings…” (As reported by Fred Bernstein)
1923: Birthdate of Professor Sir Abraham Goldberg, the husband of Clarice
Cussin and the father of Richard (Professor of Law at Durham University), David
(Professor of Public Health at Glasgow Caledonian University) and Jennife who
became Regius Professor of the Practice of Medicine at the University of
Glasgow.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12772438.Sir_Abraham_Goldberg/
1924: In Frankfurt am Main Gustav and Toni (née Koch) Fleischmann gave
birth to Ernest Martin Fleischmann who fled the Nazis and eventually became
“imperious impresario who ran the Los Angeles Philharmonic for nearly three
decades, helping to elevate its stature to that of an orchestra of the first
rank.”
1924: Long Island Medical College trained doctor and Brooklyn Law School graduate
Lester David Volk, the Brooklyn born son of Aron Barney and Esther Volk, and lawyer
and physician turned Congressman from New York’s 10th District who
served the Army during WW I married Florence S. Volk with whom he had one child
- Alan M. Volk.
1925: Birthdate of Brooklynite Max “Slats” Zaslofsky the St. John’s
college basketball player who played for “the Chicago Stags of the newly
organized Basketball Association of America, the forerunner of the National
Basketball Association” after which he coached “for two seasons in the American
Basketball Association with the New Jersey Americans/New York Nets.”
1925: In Great Britain, movie mogul G.B. Samuelson and his wife gave
birth to Sir Sydney Wylie Samuelson who was appointed as the first British Film
Commissioner in 1991 and the first President of the UK Jewish Film Festival.
1926: Author Alfred Döblin and his wife gave birth to their third son
Stefan
1927: It was reported today that “John D. Rockefeller, Jr. has given
$50,000 to the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies”
which “is the largest ever made by a non-Jew to any local Jewish philanthropic
cause.”
1927: A banquet was held today at the Hotel Pennsylvania honoring Jennie
Goldstein for her twenty-five-year career on “the Jewish Stage.
1928(24th of Kislev, 5689): Kindle the first Chanukah candle.
1928: Birthdate of Noam Chomsky.
1928: The annual Who’s Who issued of the American Hebrew Magazine
published today revealed that John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who contributed $500,000
toward Jewish colonization in the Soviet Union was one of “four Christians
among the twenty-six persons who have merited special distinction because of
achievements in spheres of mutual endeavor among Jews and Christians in
American during the year 1928.”
1929: “Glorifying the American Girl,” a musical comedy with songs by
Irving Berlin and featuring a cameo appearance by Eddie Cantor was released in
the United States today.
1930(17th of Kislev, 5691): Edward David Cowen, the newspaper man whose
articles and life were chronicled in Newspaper career of E.D. Cowen,
with biographic sketches by Charles A. Murray, Slason Thompson, R.E.M.
Strickland, C.E. Arney, Hugh Hume, Frank M. Dallam, Jr passed away today.
http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2010190032/
1930(17th of Kislev, 5691): On his 65th birthday
German born British financier and patron of the arts Otto John Beit, 1st
Baronet, the husband of Lilian Carter with whom he had two sons, passed away
today.
1930: Pauline “Koner's first choreographed piece was presented today] at
the Guild Theatre.”
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/author/koner-pauline
1931(27th of Kislev, 5692): Third Day of Chanukah
1931:
Although Beth El in Camden,
NJ, had been organized in 1920, the tenth anniversary was celebrated by
Sisterhood at a special meeting” today which was held in conjunction with
Hadassah and Council of Jewish Women and featured Dr. Israel H. Leventhal of New
York's Brooklyn Jewish Center, the son of Philadelphia's "Chief
Rabbi", Bernard Leventhal, as the guest speaker.
1932: “Walk A Little Faster,” “a musical revue with sketches by S.J.
Perelman…and lyrics by E.Y. Haburg” which included the famous song “April in
Paris” opened on Broadway today at the St. James Theatre
1932: In Warsaw, “three Jewish Deputies, members of the government bloc,
called upon the Minister of the Interior today to protest against the
anti-Semitic disturbance in Lwow.”
1933: Premier of the cinematic version Elmer Rice's play
'Counsellor-at-Law”' starring John Barrymore. Rice was Jewish. Barrymore was not.
1934(1st of Tevet, 5695): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of
Chanukah
1934(1st of Tevet, 5695): Forty-eight-year-old Odessa born and
CCNY graduate Sherman Lippitt, the George Washington University trained
physician and a member of the Marquette University faculty passed away today.
1934: “Exiled Jews In Saar Relieved At Accord” published today described
an interim agreement that appeared to protect the rights of Jewish refugees in
the territory but which would prove to be worthless because they were based on
a Nazi officials promise not to discriminate against Jews.
1935(11th of Kislev, 5696): Parashat Vayetzei
1935(11th of Kislev, 5696): Fifty-nine-year-old Herman Morris
Adler, the son of Dr. Isaac Adler, the nephew of Felix Adler and the husband of
Frances Porter who graduated from Columbia and Harvard Medical School who went
on to a career as a “psychiatrist and criminologist” passed away today in
Boston.
http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb9q2nb5z2&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00002&toc.depth=1&toc.id=
1936: Birthdate of Robert Belinsky, the native of New York’s Lower East
Side who gained fame as major league pitcher Bo Belinsky who was better known
for his off the field antics than his on the mound skills.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/27/sports/bo-belinsky-64-the-playboy-pitcher-dies.html
1936: It was reported today that Senator Royal S. Copeland declared that
“the British Government’s lack of any definite policy in administering its
League of Nations mandate in Palestine was responsible for the Arab rioting”
and that because of a special treaty with Great Britain, the United States “is
under a solemn obligation to see to it that Great Britain carries out its
duties.
1937: Pianist and composer Alexander Tansman married Colette Cras, a
pianist of repute who was the daughter of the composer Admiral Jean Cras and
the mother of his two daughters, Mireille and Marianne.
1940: In Brooklyn, Sol Frank Steinhardt and his wife gave birth to
Michael Steinhardt, the hedge fund manager who founded Steinhardt, Fine,
Berkowitz & Co and the husband of Judy Steinhardt with whom he had three
children including philanthropist and journalist Sara Berman, the wife of Mark
Bloom.
1941: A ship from Lisbon arrives at Ellis Island arrives carrying Wanda
Landowska.
1941, Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific
fleet at Pearl Harbor, an act that led to America's entry into World War
II. Approximately 500,000 Jews served during World War II. This was
about ten per cent of the Jewish Population in the United States, which would
have made it higher than the average for other ethnic groups. The numbers
put the lie to the anti-Semitic slur that Jews were nothing but black-market
profiteers. Approximately 52,000 of the Jewish service personnel were
decorated during the war.
1941: Time Magazine correspondent Theodore
White dropped slips of paper down twenty-nine floors to the street from Time
offices at Rockefeller Center to inform bewildered Christmas shoppers below
that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. This young Jewish Harvard graduate would
go on to write The Making of the President 1960, a classic which would
change the nature of political literature while helping to create the Kennedy
Legend and the Concept of Camelot.
1941:
SS and Latvian firing squads began a slaughter of the Jews of Riga. Between December 7 and December 9, 1941, 25,000 Riga Jews were put to death by firing squads. Combined with
previous actions by the SS and their Latvian allies, only 20% of original
Jewish population in Riga now remained. This ghetto was now ready to house
German Jew deportees. Among the victims is a preeminent Jewish historian,
81-year-old Simon Dubnow.
1941: While
“writing bulletins for The Times’s radio affiliate, Lester Bernstein was the
first staff member to report the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.”
1941: At
Pearl Harbor, Ensign Nathan Asher, a graduate of the Naval Academy took command
U.S.S. Blue since the skipper was ashore and in a harrowing trip lasting one
and half hours guided the ship out to open waters and safety while Ensign
Milton Moldane, a graduate of Washington University Law School “took charge of
the forward machine guns” fighting off the attacking Japanese aircraft.
1941(17th
of Kislev, 5702): During the attack at Pearl Harbor, Radio Mechanic 3rd Class
Rosenthal gave his life aboard the U.S. S. California.
1941(17th
of Kislev, 5702): Private Louis Shleifer, a native of Newark, NJ, serving with
the U.S. Army Air Corps was mortally wounded as he helped his comrades move
planes into hangars to avoid having them be destroyed by attacking Japanese
aircraft.
1941(17th
of Kislev, 5702): Lee Goldfarb, a native of Jersey City, NJ, serving as a 3rd
Class radioman aboard the U.S.S. Oglala lost his life when a Japanese torpedo
struck and sunk his ship.
http://jewishgen.blogspot.com/2009/12/jewish-soldiers-at-pearl-harbor.html
1941: The
attack at Pearl Harbor brings the U.S. into WW II during which approximately
200 Jews from Utah would serve in the various branches of the Armed forces.
1941:
According to the Glenn Flower, German-Dutch landowner Johannes Steel who fled
to the United States after the Nazis came to power was one of the few who
“predicted the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a week before it occurred.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/03/obituaries/johannes-steel-80-commentator.html?pagewanted=1
1941: The
Tatsuma Maru whose passengers included Lew Zikman, which had left Japan on
December 1st bound for the United States, turned around today and
returned to Yokohaman.
1941: The Nazis begin gas-van extermination operations at the
death camp in Chelmno, Poland
1942(28th
of Kislev, 5703):
Eighty-three-year-old Hannah Greenebaum Solomon the
celebrated founder of the National Council of Jewish Women which was the first
national association of Jewish women and also an important force for reform in
Chicago around the turn of the twentieth century” passed away today. (As
reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)
http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/07/1942/hannah-greenebaum-solomon
1942:
Today, “during the pacification action around Ciepielów, a group of 14
Christian Poles were shot by the gendarmes for hiding Jews including Wojciech
Skrzak, Marianna Skwira, Barbara Stefanek, the Wdowiak family including
Benedykt (58), Aleksandra (17) and Marianna (94); as well as the Wojewódka
family with Ignacy (50), his wife Marianna (45) and children Wacław, Jan,
Stanisław, and Józef, age 7. (Editor’s note – The price for being a “righteous
gentile” was high, a grim reality that should be factored in when studying the
response to the Nazis and their allies during WWII)
1942: “Went
the Day Well?” a British war film directed by Michael Balcon, the youngest son
of “Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe was released today in the United
Kingdom.
1942: German troops enter the Polish village of Bialka and murder
96 villagers suspected of shielding Jews fleeing the anti-Jewish Aktion
in the nearby Parczew Forest.
1942: United States State Department official G. Robert Borden
Reams, an "expert" on the Jews in the Division of European Affairs,
advises that the United States government remain silent concerning details of
the Holocaust.
1942: British official John Cecil Sterndale Bennett is upset
because Bulgarian Jewish children may be allowed into Palestine.
1943:
Eighty-two-year-old Baltimore born ophthalmologist Charles Henry May, MD, who
had earned a degree in Pharmacy before pursuing his medical career, passed away
today.
https://bjo.bmj.com/content/bjophthalmol/28/6/313.full.pdf
1944 (21st of Kislev, 5705): Satmar Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum
rescued. The Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum (1887-1979), was rescued from
the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, along with 1,368 other Jews, through the
efforts of Rudulf Kastner, head of the Zionist rescue operation in Hungary (an
earlier transport of 1,686 Jews had been rescued on Av 29). The Satmar
community celebrates the 21st of Kislev as a day of thanksgiving.
1944: USS Drum (SS-228) a Gato-class submarine which has been
under the command of Maurice H. Rindskopf set out on 12th war patrol
1944: The Kasztner transport’s 1, 361 Jews who had left Bergen
Belsen on December 4 crossed the border into Switzerland today. For more see
the work of Gaylen Ross at http://www.killingkasztner.com/where you
can order a copy of “Killing Kasztner)
1945(3rd
of Tevet, 5706): Eight Day of Chanukah
1945(3rd
of Tevet, 5706): Seventy-two-year-old Philadelphia native Benjamin De Casseres,
the “journalist, critic, essayist and poet and husband of author Bio De
Casseres “who spent most of his
professional career in New York City, where he wrote for various newspapers
including The New York Times, The Sun and The New York Herald” passed away
today.
https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=7648
1945:
Irvine Robbins opened his first ice cream store -- called Snowbird because he
couldn't think of anything else – on the day after his 28th
birthday. Robbins used $2,000 he saved and cashed a $4,000 insurance policy his
father had given him at his bar mitzvah at Seattle's Temple DeHirsch Sinai to
finance the venture. Robbins had 21 flavors then, and his cousin bought $39 of
the first day's $53 total ice cream sales.
1946: U.S.
Secretary of state James “Jimmy” F. Byrnes said endorsed the creation of a
Jewish state when he said that partition was the best solution to the Palestine
Problem.
1947(24th
of Kislev, 5708): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light
1947:
During a meeting of the Jewish World Congress, it was charged that anti-Jewish
incidents are taking place in Iran
1947: Sir Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner
asked David Ben Gurion to meet with so that he could tell him that the British
"had decided to evacuation Palestine as soon as possible."
1947(24th of Kislev, 5708):
Eighty-one-year-old French author and lawyer Tristan Bernard whose health was
broken during his imprisonment at Drancy passed away today,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tristan-Bernard
1947(24th
of Kislev, 5708): Pessia Lev, a nineteen-year-old student nurse was killed by
Arab snipers when the eight-bus convoy she was riding in was attacked as it
made its way to Jerusalem. Lev was going
home to celebrate Chanukah with her family.
1948:
Birthdate of Hartford, CT native and winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace
Prize Mark Kurlanksy whose works include Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons
from the History of a Dangerous Idea.
1948:
President Truman announced that he would ask Congress for money for the
Palestinian refugees. This would appear
to be at odds with the British who want to furnish supplies and money for the
refugees from UN working capital funds.
1948: The
Transjordan cabinet gives its consent to crowning of King Abdullah as king of
united Palestine and Transjordan. [In
other words, having crossed the Jordan River, seized what is called the West
Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jordanians were staking their claim to
the land as opposed to turning it over to the Palestinians for a state of their
own.]
1948: On
the third and final day of Operation Assaf, the Egyptians prepared to
counter-attack and drive the Israelis back. “However, Israeli Air Force
reconnaissance revealed the Egyptian preparations in the morning. The Israeli
assault battalion was sent to the Egyptian's north (left) flank and stormed
their forces southwards, then chased the retreating Egyptians westward,
eventually stopping in face of strong anti-tank Egyptian positions.” With the
end of Operation Assaf, the Israelis cleared the area of mine’s and built
defensive lines in case the Egyptians came back, before being withdrawn to take
part in Operation Horev.
1949: It
was reported today, that Meyer W. Weisgal, the Chairman of the Executive
Council of the Weizman has said that “while India has not yet recognized the
Government of Israel, overtures have been for scientific relations between the
two countries.
1950(28th
of Kislev, 5711): Sixty-six year old, the Labor Zionist leader “served as the
secretary of the World Union of Poalei Zion” passed away today in Haifa.
1951:
An instrumental version of “Charmaine" co-composed by Lew
Pollack reached the top spot on Billboard today.
1952:
Yigael Yadin resigned today, over disagreements with prime minister and defense
minister David Ben-Gurion about cuts to the military budget, which he argued
should be at least one third of the national budget
1952: Mordechai Maklef became the I.D.F.’s Chief of Staff
1953(1st
of Tevet, 5714): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1953:
Comdr. Hugo Frankberger, (USN Ret) a native of Charleston, W.VA, and a graduate
of the U.S. Naval Academy is scheduled to be buried this morning at Arlington
National Cemetery after funeral services at Fort Myers, Va.
1953: To
the amazement of the Israeli public, Ben-Gurion resigned as Prime Minister and
retired to the small farming community of Sde Boker in the Negev.
1956:
“Rock, Rock, Rock!” produced by Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky who also
co-wrote the screenplay and music for the film which was released today in the
United States today.
1957: NBC
broadcast the last episode of “Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion” produced
by Harry Saltzman.
1957(13th
of Kislev, 5718): Eighty-eight-year-old
NYU trained attorney and Tammany Hall politician Morris Cukor the
Hungarian born son of Joseph and Victoria Cukor and the “husband of Cora Cukor”
passed away today in Los Angeles.
1959: The
Broadway production of “Saratoga” Harold Arlen’s musical adaptation of Saratoga
Trunk by Edna Ferber “opened at the Winter Garden Theatre where it ran for
80 performances.”
1959: David
Susskind produced “Simply Heavenly” on The Play of the Week.
1960: In
New York, Julian Frieden, the chief of coronary care at Montefiore Hospital and
New Rochelle Hospitals in New York and his wife gave birth to Thomas R.
Frieden, “the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” under
President Obama who in 2008 was arrested “and charged with groping a woman in
his apartment in 2017.”
1961(29th
of Kislev, 5722): Fifth day of Chanukah
1961(29th
of Kislev, 5722): Seventy-six-year-old Professor Leonardo Olschki, the son of a
Verona, Italy “book dealer and publisher” who taught at universities in Germany
and Italy before coming to the United States 1939 and becoming an American
citizen in 1945 while teaching at Johns Hopkins and the University of
California at Berkeley while being married to Kate Mosse Olschki passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/12/12/118526395.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1964(2nd
of Tevet, 5725): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1965(13th
of Kislev, 5726): Sixty-nine-year-old Ukrainian born American labor activist
and leader of the ILGWU,Roe Pesotta, the third women to serve as a vice
president of labor union passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pesotta-rose
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pesotta-rose
1966(24th
of Kislev, 5727): Kindle the first Chanukah candle on the 25th
anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor
1967(5th
of Kislev, 5728): Eighty-seven-year-old NYU trained attorney and Republican
party member Meier Steinbrink, the New York born son of Samuel Steinbrink, who
operated a small candy store on the east side and Fredricka (Stein) Steinbrink,
the husband of Sadie Bloch and father of Stuart Steinbrink and Miriam Abelow
who became a New Your State Supreme Court Justice and President of Congregation
Beth Elohim in Brooklyn as well as a “director and incorporator of the Brooklyn
Federation of Jewish Charites” passed away today..
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/12/08/89997995.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1967:
“Rabbi Jay Kaufman, executive vice president of B’nai B’rith, charged today
that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
had permitted its facilities to be used to “subvert minds and poison hearts”
against Israel in its “desire to remain acceptable to the host Arab countries.”
(JTA).
1967: How Now, Dow Jones a musical comedy by Academy Award winner
Elmer Bernstein, Tony Award nominee Carolyn Leigh and Max Shulman opened at the
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
1968(16th
of Kislev, 5729): Parashat Vayishlach
1968(16th
of Kislev, 5729): Fifty-four-year-old multi-talented Nat Hiken the Chicago born
son of Jewish immigrants Max and Minnie Hiken who created The Phil Silvers Show
and Car 54 Where Are You” while being married to Ambur Hutchinson passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/12/09/76914701.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1969(27th
of Kislev, 5730): Third Day of Chanukah
1969(27th
of Kislev, 5730): Sixty-eight-year-old NYU trained lawyer Joseph Gershman who
“was a past president of the Educational Alliance, treasurer of the Jewish
Education Committee” and “a founder with Herman Wouk of the Fire Island
Synagogue” passed away today in Beth Israel Hospital.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/12/09/78547297.html?pageNumber=55
1969: CCNY
graduate Marvin Kitman, the Pittsburgh son of Russian Jewish immigrants “began
writing a syndicated column for the Long Island daily newspaper Newsday today —
“a day that will live in infamy,” he said, “as far as the TV industry is
concerned.”
1969(27th
of Kislev, 5730): Seventy-eight-year-old New York born, Harvard grad Howard
Joseph Sachs, an investment banker with Goldman, Sachs passed away today.
1970(9th
of Kislev, 5731): Cartoonist Rube Goldberg passed away. The winner of the 1948
Pulitzer Prize for cartooning made his name synonymous with complicated ways to
perform simple tasks.
http://mousetrapcontraptions.com/history-4.html
1971: A
funeral service is scheduled to be held at Frank E. Campbell’s for 84 year-old
Columbia university trained engineer and former president of the Ogden
Corporation Maurice L. Sindeband who “was credited with, several devices,
including an automatic train control system, an automatic re actor for electric
power circuits, an electronic voltage regulator for generators and a method bf
preventing lightning from damaging high‐tension transmission lines” who raised two son – Seymour and Allan
– with his wife “the former Lyllian Levy.
1972(2nd
of Tevet, 5733): Seventh Day of Chanukah
1972(2nd
of Tevet, 5733): Eighty-nine-year-old German born composer and conductor Klaus
Pringsheim, Sr. the father of “Klaus Pringsheim, Jr., who attended Bunce Court
School, a German-Jewish refugee school in Kent, England during World War II”
and the brother-in-law of Thomas Mann passed away today in Tokyo.
1972(2nd
of Tevet, 5733): Eighty-two-year-old Cornell trained neuropsychiatrist Dr.
Louis Hausman, the husband of “the former of Esther May” who spent much of his
career teaching at his alma mater passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/10/archives/dr-louis-hausman-taught-at-come-i-medical-college.html
1973(12th
of Kislev, 5734): Seventy-three-year-old Benn Wolfe Levy, the playwright and
Member of Parliament passed away today.
1976(15th
of Kislev, 5737): Eighty-three-year-old Odessa native Boris Pragel, who
partnered with his younger brother Alexander to become a leading dealer “in
uranium and other radioactive elements and who was the husband of painter
Alexandra Pragel passed away today.
1977(27th
of Kislev, 5738): Third Day of Chanukah
1977(27th
of Kislev, 5738): Peter Goldmark passed away.
Born in Hungary in 1906, Goldmark was an engineer who played a major
role in the development of the long-playing record and the first commercial
color television.
http://www.earlytelevision.org/goldmark_article.html
1978(7th
of Kislev, 5739): Seventy-one-year-old Chicago native and University of Chicago
trained attorney David L. Krooth, who served as assistant general counsel of
the old U.S. Housing Authority and general counsel of the Federal Public
Housing Authority and the Defense Homes Corporation during the administrations
of FDT and HST and who raised two children – Dorothy and John – with his wife
Molly passed away today.
1979(17th
of Kislev, 5740): Ninety-year-old “Walter A. Haas, Sr. the former chairman of
the board of Levi Strauss and Company passed away today.
http://www.jmaw.org/hass-jewish-los-angeles/
http://www.jmaw.org/hass-jewish-san-francisco/
http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/haas/about/WHaas.html
1979(17th
of Kislev, 5740): Eighty-one-year-old Edward “Eddie” Gottlieb the native of
Kiev for whom the NBA Rookie of the Year Trophy is named and whose dominate
role in the early days of the National Basketball Association earned him
election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame passed away today.
1980(29th
of Kislev, 5741): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1980:
It was reported today that “most of the emigres” from the Soviet Union “came to
America ‘to escape the ignominy of being Jews’ and to take advantage of
material freedoms in the United States” and that while “care little for
spiritual instruction…they placed a high value on” secular “education for their
children.
1981:
Philip C. Habib, President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, is
scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Jerusalem today.
1983(1st
of Tevet, 5744): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1983:
“Romantic Comedy” the movie version of the play by the same name, directed by
Arthur Hiller, co-produced by Walter Mirisch with music by Marvin Hamlisch and
co-starring Ron Leibman was released in the United States today.
1984:
“City Heat” a crime film directed by Richard Benjamin and co-starring Madeline
Kahn was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.
1984:
In his review of the new four hour made for television film version of “The Sun
Also Rises” John J. O’Connor reminds us that “the anti-Semitism in Hemingway’s
work clearly remains a problem” as can be seen by the depiction of the
fictional “Robert Cohn.” He is “the New
York Jew who is never quite swell enough to be fully accepted into…the special
inner circle of” Jake Barnes and who “emerges as an obnoxious whiner with a
pronounced streak of nastiness.” (Hemingway is but one of a series of noted
American writers whom critics felt dabbled in anti-Semitism, something that was
not mentioned when Pappa was busy “fighting fascism” during the Spanish Civil
War.)
1986: Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David
K. Shipler is among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the
country during the preceding year.
1986: NBC
broadcast the first of the two part series “Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna”
written by James Goldman and co-starring Amy Irving.
1987: About
10,000 Israelis held a rally today to demand that the Kremlin open the gates
for Soviet Jews to emigrate. ''We say to the Soviet leader, free my people,''
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told the crowd. ''We want him to know we will not
forget our brethren in the Soviet Union.'' ''No more gestures, no more
tokens,'' President Chaim Herzog said. ''For us, the outcome of the discussion
of human rights will be the litmus test for the success of this summit.
1988:
President-elect George Bush announced the appointment of Thomas B. Pickering
who has served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel since 1985 to be the next United
States representative to the United Nations. Mr. Pickering has condemned
what he considered violations of human rights, particularly since widespread
unrest by Palestinians began almost a year ago in the occupied territories of
the West Bank and Gaza. A member of the political inner circle of Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir has called Mr. Pickering ''a hostile ambassador of a
friendly state.'' Mr. Pickering's greatest frustration in Israel has been the
refusal of Mr. Shamir to cooperate in a peace initiative by Secretary of State
George P. Shultz that would involve an international conference on the
Israeli-Arab conflict.
1988:
Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist. Given what transpired afterwards including
the Second Intifada, he must have had his fingers crossed.
1990: In a
column entitled “Abroad at Home; A Broken Dream” Anthony Lewis described the
anguish of Yuval Neria, a decorated war hero and poet who became a clinical a
psychologist and author the semi-auto-biographical bestselling novel entitled
“Fire.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/07/opinion/abroad-at-home-a-broken-dream.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1991(30th
of Kislev, 5752): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1991(30th
of Kislev, 5752): Seventy-year-old Brooklynite and movie producer Herb Jaffe
who began his career as literary agent for such notables as Paddy Chayefsky,
Reginald Rose and Joseph Heller, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/10/obituaries/herb-jaffe-dies-at-70-hollywood-producer.html
1992(12th
of Kislev, 5753: Hamas murders three Israeli soldiers and proclaims the
killings to be acts of heroism.
1993(23rd
of Kislev, 5754):
Palestinian gunmen killed a Jewish settler and his
son today and wounded three other sons near the West Bank town of Hebron,
apparently in revenge for the weekend killing of an Arab by settlers. The
attack was the latest explosion in steadily increasing violence between Arabs
and Jews in Hebron, and it drew a strong condemnation from Secretary of State
Warren Christopher as he returned to Israel after stops in Syria and Jordan to
push forward Middle East peace efforts. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said that
despite the violence, he would press ahead with efforts to carry out an
agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestinian self-rule,
starting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
1994: In a sign of Washington's mounting frustration with Yasir
Arafat and his Palestinian Authority, Secretary of State Warren Christopher
said today that Israel cannot be expected to withdraw its army from the
occupied West Bank until Palestinian attacks on Israelis come to an end.
1997: Inbal Segev, a world-renowned female cellist who grew up in
Israel, made her Carnegie Hall debut today
where she performed the Carnegie Hall premiere of Trois strophes sur le nom de
Sacher for solo cello by Henri Dutilleux
1997: The New York Times list of the Best
Books of 1997 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by
Jewish authors including American
Pastoral by Phillip Roth and
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick.
1998: “Louis B. Mayer:
Lion of Hollywood” published today provides Budd Schulberg’s view of the movie
mogul and the world he created.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,989771,00.html
1998: In “Beauty
Queen,” published today, Grace Mirabella described how Estee Lauder “turned
cosmetic into a big business”
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,989786,00.html
1998(18th
of Kislev, 5759): Dr Martin Rodbell an American biochemist who was awarded the 1994
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine passed away. (As reported by Wolfgang
Saxon)
1999: “The
international panel released its finding today on the assets of Holocaust
victims in Switzerland” which “concluded that while the actions of some
individual banks had been misleading there had not been a conspiracy or
organized to deprive survivors of Nazi Germany of their funds.”
2000:
Austrian born, American investment banker Felix Rohatyn completed his services
as “U.S. Ambassador to France and Monaco.”
2001: Mr.
Abu Sway, who had failed to kill anybody when the explosives wrapped around his
body detonated prematurely in Jerusalem “was praised by his wife and children
today as martyr who have his life for God and Country.”
2002(2nd
of Tevet, 5763): Parashat Miketz; Eighth Day of Chanukah
2002: “The
Kenyan police today found the two missiles that were fired at an Israeli
airliner, buried in a cornfield about six miles from the spot where the
attackers launched them.”
2003: The New York Times book section featured
books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including The Complete Lyrics of Frank Loesser
Edited by Robert Kimball and Steve Nelson
2003: The
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is scheduled to “honor the lifetime achievements
of San Francisco born philanthropist William “Biily” Veprin and his wife Tootsie
2004(24th
of Kislev, 5765): Kindle the first Chanukah candle
2004: In his talk, "The Royal Court Preacher and
the Hebrew Book: Early Enlightenment and Hebrew Publishing in Prussia,
1700-1750," Menachem Schmelzer examined the role of an influential figure
in the Prussian court, the Christian theologian and scholar D.E. Jablonski, who
founded the Hebrew press in Berlin in 1690. Schmelzer discussed Jablonski's
life, work and his activities as the publisher of Hebrew books in order to shed
light on the spread of secular culture and the ideals of Enlightenment and
religious tolerance among the Jews of the time. Menachem
Schmelzer is Senior Distinguished Scholar at the Library's John W. Kluge
Center. Schmelzer has published books, articles and reviews in the fields of
medieval Hebrew literature and Jewish bibliography and was the editor of Aron
Freimann's "Union Catalog of Hebrew Manuscripts and Their Location,"
Alexander Marx's "Bibliographical Studies and Notes on Rare Books and
Manuscripts in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America"
and the poems of Isaac ben Abraham Ibn Ezra.
2004: “An IDF soldier
of the Oketz canine unit was killed by a bomb, along with his dog, when a
booby-trapped chicken coup exploded northwest of the Karni Crossing. Four
soldiers were wounded in the exchange of fire while evacuating him. Hamas
claimed responsibility for the attack.”
2005: Two
days after the murder of five Israelis at a shopping mall, an IAF helicopter
destroyed the car carrying a PRC leader.
The PRC is part of Hamas. The
attack is part of a targeted response designed to destroy the terrorist
infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank.
2006: Zachor? Who will remember that today is the
65th anniversary of “The Day that Will Live Infamy”?
2006: The
House of Representatives gave final passage to a bill aimed at forcing the
Palestinians' ruling Hamas government to accept Israel and join negotiations
toward a Palestinian state in formerly Israeli-occupied territory. "This
bipartisan legislation gives incentives to the Palestinian Authority to take
another step toward joining the community of peaceful nations and a step away
from the abyss of supporting terrorism," Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republican
chief sponsor of the bill, said in a statement.
2007(27
Kislev, 5768): Harvey David Luber, 71, son of Nathan and Anne Luber, passed
away today. Born July 20, 1936 in Chicago, IL, he shared 52 years of marriage
with his beloved wife, Elaine Roberta Barg, and was blessed with 4 children, 7
grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, son and daughter-in-law, Philip and
Jackie Luber; daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Mark Mackey; daughter and
son-in-law, Gayle and Steve Mink; and son, preceded in death, Sheldon Luber.
While Harvey was justifiably proud of being graduate of Northwestern University
with a double major in Chemistry and Biology with a minor in Humanities and he
was even prouder of having earned MSJS (Master of Science in Judaic Studies)
from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago, Illinois. As a member of
Temple B’Nai Israel and previously Congregation Agudith Achim, Harvey devoted
40 years of his life to educating young people and serving in many board
positions within the community. He also served as Executive Director of the
Jewish Federation of Arkansas for many years. He believed in education as a way
to understand one another, speaking to schools about the Holocaust and church
groups about comparative religion. He shared his love and knowledge of
photography and Judaism by teaching at the Arkansas Art Center and UALR. He was
an outstanding teacher, role model and friend and touched many people’s lives
of all ages. He was my friend, a chever in the truest sense of the term. As long as a camera shutter clicks, his
students open books or one of us chuckles over the memory of unique “Harvey
moment” he will always live amongst us.
2007: After
having premiered in London, “The Golden Compass,” directed and written by Chris Weitz
was released today in the United States.
2007: As a testament to the strength and creativity
of small town Judaism in the 21st century, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
Temple Judah hosts a Shabbat Chanukah potluck complete with latkes and apple
sauce.
2007: On
Friday, the fourth day of Chanukah, four Jewish subway riders were approached
by a group of ten people who offered holiday greetings. When the Jews responded with greetings of
Happy Chanukah, they were pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten.
2008: The First Annual Goldstein Lecture in
memory of Jonathan Goldstein is presented by David Schoenbaum on Sunday
afternoon at Agudas Achim. Schoenbaum’s topic is "Fiddlers on the Roof:
How They Got Up There, and How They Got Down.” Professor Jonathan Goldstein was
a long time member of Agudas Achim and had a joint appointment in the UI
History Dept and Classics Dept. He was an ordained rabbi, and his research was
in Jewish Studies. He was considered the expert on the Hasmonean period.
2008: Barbara Streisand
is among those honored by the Kennedy Center for her contribution to Arts in
America.
2008: In The Washington Post, critic Jonathan
Yardley’s list of the fifteen best books he reviewed in 2008 include For the
Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb and the Murder That Shocked Chicago, by Simon
Baatz and The Spies of Warsaw by Jewish author Alan Furst.
2009(22nd of
Kislev, 5770): Roy Solomonoff, a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, passed
away today. (As reported by John Markoff)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/science/10solomonoff.html?_r=0
2009: Poets and writers
from Israel and all over the world come together in Jerusalem at Beit Avi Chai
and Mishkenot Sha'ananim, for the
opening session of the third annual Kisufim Conference, which aims to "encourages encounters
between Israeli creativity - in Hebrew and other languages - and world Jewish
creativity that is both multilingual and multicultural," according to the
organizers. Some of the issues to be tackled in the meetings include the
writer's identity, the meaning of exile today, the identity of text and place
and the function of translation in a literary work with a Jewish identity.
"It is no coincidence that the Hebrew acronym for this gathering is
Kisufim (yearnings). Jerusalem has been the heart of yearning in Jewish
literature for many generations," the organizers said. This year's
participants include Miriam Anisimov (France), Jonathan Rosen (USA), Dara Horn
(USA), Rodger Kamenetz (USA), Linda Grant (UK), Marcelo Birmajer (Argentina),
Ilan Stavans (Mexico/USA), Emmanuel Moses (France) Robert Schindel (Austria),
Esther Bendahan (Spain), Lucette Lagnado (Egypt/USA), Lisa Ginzburg (Italy),
Geza Rohrig (Hungary/USA), Angel Wagenstein (Bulgaria), Alessandro Piperno
(Italy) and Norman Manea (USA).
2009: The 20th
Washington Jewish Film Festival includes a screening of “Human Failure,” a film
that “documents the bizarre competition that developed between bureaucrats as
to how to organize the robbery of the German Jews before they were ever
expelled or sent to their deaths.”
2009: The 24th Annual
New York Israeli Film Festival includes a screening of “The Voice of
Jerusalem,” a documentary that examines the city’s “glorious feature” and
“bleak future.”
2009: Galilee police
arrested two additional suspects in an attempt to extort millions of shekels
from McDonald's Israel. The suspects, both 22-year-old residents of Tira, are
believed to have filmed a short video that they claimed showed extremely poor food
safety standards at a McDonald's chain. The two were brought before the Tel
Aviv Magistrate's Court today, where their remand was extended by three days.
Police said neither man had a criminal record and that they and the central
suspect could face charges of conspiracy and aggravated extortion.
2009: A four day conference entitled "A Century of
Yiddish: 1908-2008" opened in Jerusalem
2009. The third annual
Kisufim Conference opened at Beit Avi
Chai and at Mishkenot.
2009: Ambassador Michael Oren addressed a breakfast
session at the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's biennial convention
during which he "bashed" J Street as being "out of the
mainstream."
2010: Dozens of
Israel's municipal chief rabbis have signed on to a religious ruling that
forbids renting homes to gentiles, and more specifically to Arabs.
2010:
The East Coast Premier of Jews In Space is scheduled to take place at
the 21st Washington Jewish Film Festival. “On the eve of Passover, a
large, somewhat eccentric Jewish family in Buenos Aires tries to overcome years
of separation and fighting to put together the perfect seder, the special
holiday dinner. Cousins Luciana and Santiago, childhood crushes who are still
attracted to each other despite being related, lead the crusade for family
reunification while their battling mothers aren’t so eager to call a truce.
Making this meal happen means juggling a suicidal grandfather, feuding mothers,
the art of Jewish cooking and a drunken family friend”
2010: The Jewish Study
Center is scheduled to present a program entitled The Military Siddur — and
Soldiers’ Prayers in which Michael Bloom will look at the special prayerbook
for Jewish members of the Armed Services and the unique prayer for and about military
personnel and our national security.
2010(30th
Kislev, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2010: Eighty-seven-year-old
Dr. Samuel I Mintz, a Fulbright Scholar and Guggenheim Fellow who was Professor
Emeritus of English at CCNY and CUNY Graduate Center passed away today.
2010(30th
Kislev, 5711): Eighty-six-year-old “Arnold Hans Weiss, who fled to the United
States from Nazi Germany as a 13-year-old and returned as an American soldier
during World War II, becoming a principal in the investigation that led to the
discovery of Hitler’s last will and political testament, died today in
Rockville, Md. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/world/02weiss.html
2010: A farewell
ceremony was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem today for the
international firefighting forces that assisted Israel in putting out the
recent fire in the Carmel Forest region. Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon spoke
at the ceremony and gave each delegation a certificate that a tree was planted
on their behalf by the Deputy Foreign Minister.
2010:
Former European Union Commissioner Frits Bolkenstein said that Jews have no
future in the Netherlands and recommended that they emigrate to the US or
Israel, Dutch magazine Elsevier reported today.
2011:
The Israeli documentary “I Shot My Love” is scheduled to be shown tonight at
the 22nd Annual Jewish Film Festival in Washington, DC.
2011:
The Northern Virginia Legislative Reception complete with “light kosher buffet”
is scheduled to take placed at the JCC of Northern Virginia in Fairfax, VA.
2011:
The post-Chicago national tour of Nora and Delia Ephron’s “Love, Loss and What
I Wore” began today.
2011:
Seventieth Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. How many will remember “the day that will
live in infamy”?
2011:
Israel's Yav Vashem Holocaust memorial said today it has received its largest
private donation ever - a $25 million gift from U.S. casino mogul Sheldon
Adelson.
2011:
Today, a representative body of medical residents voted in favor of a draft
deal with the Finance Ministry to end a months-long labor dispute
2011:
Moshe “Katsav arrived at Maasiyahu Prison in Ramla to begin serving his
seven-year sentence.”
2012:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor “First Friday Book Group.”
2012:
In Fairfax, VA, Gesher Jewish Day School is scheduled to sponsor a Sheldon Low
Concert
2012:
“Human Rights Shabbat” is scheduled to start this evening at Adat Reyim in
Springfield, VA.
2012:
Jewish Book Month comes to an end.
2012:
Roei Fridman, Elyasaf Bashari, Netanel Lesser, Yishai Ben Yaaov and Yishai
Tsarfaty are scheduled to perform “Hamshushalym” at the Eden-Tamir Music
Center.
2012:
71st anniversary of “The Day of Infamy.”
2012:
Two IDF soldiers and a border policeman were injured lightly this afternoon
when a group of about 40 Palestinian protesters threw stones in their direction
in the northern West Bank town of Kafr Qaddum.
2012:
As Israeli politicians shift alliances as part of the current election
campaigns, her two neighbors conduct politics in a different style. The world watches and wonders about the
possible use by the Syrian government of chemical weapons on its own citizens
in a civil war that has claimed the lives of mostly innocent civilians. At the same time, mobs in Egypt clash over
President Morsi’s new Islamist constitution and his granting to himself
(temporarily of course) of sweeping powers that make his actions immune from
judicial review.
2012:
“Anarchy in the U.S.A.” published today provides a review of Sasha and Emma:
The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman by Paul Avrich
and Karen Avrich
2012(23rd
of Kislev, 5773): Seventy-three-year-old Saul Steinberg the Wharton graduate
who tried to use Leasco as the base on which to build a financial empire based
on a series of acquisitions passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/business/saul-p-steinberg-bold-corporate-raider-dies-at-73.html
2012(23rd
of Kislev, 5773): Eighty-two-year-old Table Tennis champion Marty Reisman
passed away today (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013:
JOFA’s 8th International Conference of Feminism and Orthodoxy is
scheduled to open this evening at John Jay College in New York.
2013:
The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “An Evening in Honor
of Yehuda Amicahi.”
2013:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to present “Jackie Hoffman’s A
Chanukah Charol.”
2013:
The IDF said today that an Israeli military vehicle damaged by a bomb attack
set off by Syrians on the Golan Heights was the first “targeted bombing of
Israeli forces” since the start of the Syrian civil war. (As reported by
Reuters and Forwards)
2013:
The Traditional Shabbat Minyan remembers those who answered the call to service
as it observes “Pearl Harbor Shabbat” at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2013:
Kansas-raised Jew Paul Rudd is scheduled to host Saturday Night Live this
weekend. (As reported by Jordan Hoffman
2013(4th
of Tevet, 5774): Eighty-three-year-old Jack Fishman “who helped develop
naloxone, a powerful medication that has saved countless people from fatal
overdoses of heroin and other narcotics” passed away today. (As reported by
William Yardley)
2013(4th
of Tevet, 5774): Eight-two-year-old Olympic gold medal winning coxswain and
rowing coach Allen Rosenberg passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2013:
Germany’s Bild newspaper reported
today that “German has signed a multimillion arms deal with Israel” which will
provide the Jewish state with two guided missile destroyers that can be used
her natural gas pipelines. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)
2013:
Acclaimed Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin is scheduled to be granted Israeli
citizenship in a special ceremony this evening in Jerusalem.
2014:
In Bethesda, MD, Ruth Marcus, “an op-ed columnist and member of the editorial
board of The Washington Post” is scheduled to speak at the 54th
annual meeting of Congregation Beth El.
2014(15th
of Kislev, 5775): One hundred-year-old William “Billy” Salomon the former head
of Salomon Bros. passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-william-salomon-20141210-story.html
2014:
The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host The Ruth
Spector Memorial Mah Johngg Tournament.
2014:
The UK Jewish Comedy Festival is scheduled to “Comedy Club 4 Kids.”
2014:
The funeral for Gil Marks is scheduled to take place today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-food-historian-gil-marks-dead-at-62/
2014:
On day after the story of Dinah is read as part of the weekly sedrah, Lifetime
is scheduled to broadcast the first in a two part series based on The Red
Tent, a novel that “took the shards of Dinah’s story, told in a fairly
short chapter of Genesis, and recast them as a layered tale of sisterhood,
friendship and love.” (As reported Debra Nussbaum Cohen)
2014:
“Prominent Israeli authors Amos Oz, David Grossman, and A.B. Yehoshua were
among 800 Israeli signatories to a letter sent to the Belgian parliament today,
calling on it to recognize a Palestinian state.”
2014: Israel did not respond to charges by Syria of air attacks the IAF, which according to other sources were an attack on a weapons cache destined for Hezbollah. (As reported by Ave Issacharoff)
France’s
interior minister vowed today to make the fight against anti-Semitism a
“national cause” after a couple was attacked apparently because the man was
Jewish.”
La Scala’s gala season premier “Fidelio” today
marks Daniel Barenboim’s final opening-night bow as musical director as Italian
opera enters one of its most tumultuous seasons in memory.”
2014: The New York Times list of “100 Notable
Books of 2014” published the following works by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers: American Innovations by Rivka
Galchen, Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Gluck, Lena Finkle’s
Magic Barrel by Anya Ulinich, The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman, A
Replacement Life by Boris Fishman, American Mirror: The Life and Art of
Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The
Unexamined Life of a Mass Murder by Bettina Stangneth, The Invisible
Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein,
Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart, The Teacher Wars: A History
of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein, Thirteen Days
In September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright, This
Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate by Naomi Klein and World
Order by Henry Kissinger.
2015:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “The
Unvanquished” the 1945 film was the first Soviet cinematic depiction “of the
mass murder of Jews and one of the first ever Holocaust films” which “includes
scenes of mass executions that were filmed on location in Babi Yar” followed by
a discussion led by Anna Shternshis, University of Toronto and Olga Gershenson,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
2015: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education
is scheduled to offer special incentives marking National Human Rights Month.
2015:
Librarians at the Martin Luther King Librarians and staff from U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum are scheduled to work with “citizen historians to research how
Washington, DC area newspaper reported on several events during the Holocaust.”
2015:
In what was later described as “just a joke,” Rick Kriseman, “The Jewish mayor
of St. Petersburg, Florida made it known today that Republican presidential
candidate Donald Trump was unwelcome in his city, following Trump’s suggestion
the same day that the United States prevent all Muslims from entering the
country.” (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)
2016:
“The a-Sham Arab Food Festival in which 45 leading chefs from the Arab (Muslim,
Christian and Druze) and Jewish sectors will showcase the culinary treasures of
the region passed down through generations, but with modern twists” is
scheduled to open in Haifa today.
2016:
“Big: The Musical” featuring music by David Shire and with a book by John
Weidman, the son of Jerome Weidman is scheduled to open at the Bord Gáis Energy
Theatre in Dublin.
2016:
“Beyond the Mountains and the Hills” and “Sand Storm” are scheduled to be shown
at the 10th Annual Other Israel Film Festival.
2016:
The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present Ismar Schorsch, Chancellor
Emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary and President Emeritus of LBI, who
will discuss his new biography of Leopold Zunz, “a key figure in the
19th-century development of the academic study of Judaism.
2016:
On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor we remember
those who fought there on that seemingly long-ago Sunday morning including
Philadelphians Alex Sherman on board the U.S.S. New Orleans, Ben Lichtman on
board the U.S.S. West Virginia and Irvin Greben serving at the Naval Air
Station in Kaneohe Bay as well as Stan Levitt from Overland Park, Kansas on
board the U.S.S. Rigel and Bernard Rubien from Rancho Mirage, CA serving at
Hickam Field. (Courtesy of Florida Atlantic University)
2017:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the final session of David Wolpe’s
“Lessons on Lust and Love from the Bible.”
2017:
The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a “tour of the Fox Theatre and learn
about founder William Fox, born Wilhelm Fuchs and his imprint on the
entertainment business.”
2017:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to lecture by
Dr. Gideon Grief, the author of We Wept Without Tears on “Confronting
Murder: The Jewish Sonderkommando of Auschwitz Birkenau.
2017:
The URJ Biennial is scheduled to continue for a second day in Boston.
2017(19th
of Kislev, 5778): CALENDER COINCIDENCE – December 7, 2017 the anniversary of
the Attack on Pearl, coincides with the 19th of Kislev this year on
the Jewish calendar which is the “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.”
2017:
“Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America,” was among
those who attended “a ‘Hanukkah Nightcap’ party” at the Trump International
Hotel, which “was hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition, the organization
funded by the casino magnate and Republican superdonor Sheldon Adelson, and
America First Action, a political action committee staffed by Trump allies.
2017:
The American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History are
scheduled to host a ‘book talk to launch…the new English translation of Ruby
Namdar’s The Ruined House.
2017:
Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat “said late this morning in a speech on
the Senate floor that he would resign “in the coming weeks” “following
accusations of sexual misconduct by several women.”
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as David Schoenbaum
whose works included The United States and The State of Israel, continues
today.
2018(29th
Kislev, 5779): Fifth day of Chanukah
2018:
“A menorah may been the cause of a house fire on Bellair Avenue in Fair Lawn,
NJ which burned tonight on Shabbat and the sixth night of Chanukah.
2018: Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary fame is
scheduled to perform at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center this evening.
2018:
Professor Avigdor Shinan is scheduled “to bring the weekly haftarah to light”
at the Israel Museum.
2018:
“Dr. Rachel Tzarfati, the Senior Curator at the Jewish Art and Culture Wing of
the Israel Museum is scheduled to lead a discussion of “Miketz.”
2018:
The Bloomfield Science Museum is scheduled to host another day of Games of Fire
where “visitors will have a rare opportunity to meet with firefighters, to
learn firsthand about firefighting and rescue operations and their importance,
to see the equipment used by firefighters and, above all, to ask the
firefighters all the questions they have always wanted to ask.”
2018:
The “25th Anniversary Re-release” of “Schindler’s List” is scheduled
to take place today.
2019(9th
of Kislev, 5780): Parashat Va-Yaytzat;
2019:
“Hanukkah in Paris,” the “sixth annual party hosted by Adam Swig and Adrian
Goddard” is scheduled to take place in San Francisco.
2019:
The “Family Gala 2019: Blue Jean Ball,” a celebration of the Contemporary
Jewish Museum’s “Levi Strauss: A History of American Style,” an exhibit on the
founder’s Jewish immigrant story, the origins of the blue jean and how it
defined American style. Includes performances, art-making and games” is
scheduled to take place this evening in San Francisco.
2019:
In Boston, the USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly is scheduled to end Shabbat
with a Havdalah concert and Melaveh Malkah featuring Deborah Sacks Mintz,
Hadar’s Rising Song Institute and rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological
Seminary.”
2019:
“Last Tree in Jerusalem” and “A Page of Talmud,” two plays by Dani Horowitz are
scheduled to be performed this evening at the “TheaterLab” in New York City.
https://twentyfoursix.weebly.com/
2019:
As Israelis greet the new day, they will be looking to the skies to see if
yesterday’s rocket attack from Gaza was an apparition or the start of new wave
of terror.
2020:
J-Loft is scheduled to present online a Hanukah Party for Teens”
2020:
In last part of the three-part series, “Global Response to the Holocaust
Series,” writer and educator Irene Shaland is scheduled to discuss “The Islands
and the Boot: Cuba, Calabria/Italy, Malta, and Corsica”
2020:
The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to present online “Finding the Hidden
Light.”
2020:
The Other Israel Film Festival is scheduled to host a class on “Arabic as a
Cultural Bridge.”
2020:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host an “AIPAC Club
event for our most invested activists.”
2021:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to welcome Lin-Manuel Miranda
to talk about the creative life of the Heights, the evolution of his play and
chasing the universal question: Where do I belong?
2021:
The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan is schedule to host a special screening of
“Let It Be Morning.”
2021:
The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host online a class that explores “Chagall:
Love, War and Exile.”
https://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/chagall-love-war-and-exile
2021:
The East Bay Jewish film fest is scheduled to offer, virtually, “Philip Roth in
Cinema,” “a taped lecture by Yeshiva University cinema scholar Eric Goldman” in
which he “explores that the seven Roth novels that have been adapted to film.”
2021:
The JDC Archives is scheduled to host the Annual Helen Cohen Memorial Lecture
featuring a Book talk by Susan Gilson Miller author of Years of Glory: Nelly
Benatar and the Pursuit of Justice in Wartime North Africa
2021:
The Executive Committee of the Jewish Foundation is scheduled to meet in New
Orleans.
2021:
80th Anniversary of the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
2021:
Exactly 80 years
after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Lady Esther Gilbert is scheduled to present a
series of readings from Sir Martin’s work focusing on this pivotal moment of
world history.
https://sirmartingilbertlearningcentre.org/event/pearl-harbor-readings-from-sir-martins-work/
2022:
YIVO and The Workers Circle are scheduled to present a conversation with Irene
Klepffisz whose latest book is Her Birth and Later Years: New and Collected
Poems, 1971-2021 and Rabbi Ellen Lippman.
2022:
At the Streicker Center, Dr. Daniel Rynhold is scheduled to deliver the final
lecture on “Maimonides and Spinoza: Friends or Foes.”
2022:
NLI USA is scheduled to host an event marking December 7th, National Pearl
Harbor Remembrance Day, featuring Ambassador Michael Oren a historian, statesman, and gifted writer,
most recently of the WWII novel, Swann's War in conversation with the
New York Times best-selling author and former U.S. diplomat Laura Blumenfeld
during which Oren will explore the amazing grace and occasional failure of
Jewish courage from the ancient Bible to the modern battlefield.
with
Laura Blumenfeld. Ambassador Oren is a historian, statesman, and gifted writer,
most recently of the WWII novel, "Swann's War." In conversation with
the New York Times best-selling author and former U.S. diplomat Laura
Blumenfeld, Oren will explore the amazing grace and occasional failure of
Jewish courage from the ancient Bible to the modern battlefield.
2022:
“Hadassah Magazine Executive Editor Lisa Hostein is scheduled to
interview New York Times best-selling
author of The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz, about her latest book The Latecomer
which tells the story of the dysfunctional Oppenheimers, a wealthy New York
Jewish family struggling under the weight of secrets.
2022:
At the Streicker Center, Rabbi Jessica Lenza is scheduled to deliver the final
lecture on “Bad Girls of the Bible.”
2023:
Falmouth Jewish Congregation is scheduled to host a Jewish Book Council author
talk by Elizabeth Graver on her novel “Kantika,” a dazzling Sephardic
multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New
York, exploring displacement, endurance, and family as home.
2023:
At Temple Judea, the husband-and-wife team of Rabbi Feivel and Cantor Abbie is
scheduled to lead the morning minyan.
2023:
At Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, leader
of the Moses Synagogue in the Abayudaya community of rural Eastern Uganda, is
scheduled to discuss Jewish life in his country.
2023:
“Hanukkah Night: Latkes and Klezmer,” a first night celebration with live music
from Jason Ditzian, Lila Sklar and Dan Cantrell plus vegan dinner featuring
latkes with yuzu applesauce, borscht, corned tempeh with homemade rye bread and
cranberry-yuzu chocolate cake” is scheduled to take place in Oakland, CA.
2023:
Starting today and lasting throughout Hanukkah, the Manchester Community
Theatre Players’ staging of “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins” is scheduled to
be available to stream on demand,
2023:
Hanukkah Story Time with Rabbi Esther is scheduled to place at the Iowa City
Public Library.
2023(24th
of Kislev, 5784): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle
2023:
As December 7 begins in Israel, “students say antisemitism is the ‘new normal’
at Columbia University,” despite heavy fighting from Hamas the IDF has breached
“the defense lines in Jabaliya, Shejaiya and Khan Younis, thousands of Israelis
still cannot return to their homes in the north due to shelling from Hezbollah
and the Hamas held hostages begin day 62 in
captivity. (Editor’s note:
this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a
snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
2024:
In Australia, worshippers will not be gathering for Shabbat services at the
Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea because two masked “individuals” torched the
building that “was built by Holocaust survivors.
2024:
Protesters are scheduled to gather this evening at the intersection of Kaplan
Street and Begin Road despite the announcement that police will bar the
gathering because “recent rallies have been too small to justify blocking the
key intersection and are demanding that the protest be relocated a short
distance away from the junction, near IDF Headquarters’ Begin Gate.”
2024:
The New Art Center in Newton, MA is scheduled to host a family friendly,
immersive art experience for families with children of all ages to explore,
reflect upon, and celebrate the things that bring us light this Chanukah
through art-making and storytelling,
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Professor David Peimer
and Jeffrey Cohen on “Three Remarkable Women Scientists: Marie Curie, Mileva
Einstein, Lisa Meitner.”
2024:
“Distant Cousins” is scheduled to perform live at Congregation Beth Shalom,
with Havdalah preceding the actual concert.
2024:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “The Glorious Sound of the
Piano; Oxana Yablonskaya and Friends”
2024(6th
of Kislev, 5785): Parashat Va-yaytzay: for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
Eighty-third anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the “date will
live in infamy.”
https://aish.com/jewish-valor-at-pearl-harbor/
https://reformjudaism.org/blog/reflections-significance-pearl-harbor-american-jewry
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/pearl-harbor
2024:
As December 7th 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 428 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)
