This Day, February 12, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
February 12
553:
Byzantine Emperor Justinian ordered the public reading of the Greek translation
to Parshat Hashavuah (weekly Torah portion) on Shabbat morning and prohibited
Rabbis from giving drashot on the Torah portion.
1049:
Beginning of the papacy of Leo IX, one of the major players in the creation of
the Schism of 1054 that would result in the official split of Christianity into
the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Over the next several
centuries, Jewish communities would get caught in the cross-fire between these
completing Christian sects resulting in death and destruction. One
example was the Great Cossack Uprising that would pit Eastern Orthodox
Ukrainians against their Polish Catholic masters. The worst example is
World War I which started, in part, when the Tsar saw himself as the protector
of the Serbs who were Orthodox against the Austrians who were Roman Catholics.
1130: Innocent
II was elected Pope. He presided over the Second Council of the Latern which
did not issue any canons aimed at the Jews. But it did issue one that
forbade Christians from lending money for interest which would have a
long-range impact on the Jews.
1209: Pope
Innocent III confirmed the election of Rodrigo Jimenez as archbishop of Toledo
who, when he became “vexed the prosperity of the Jews in his diocese” led a
“mob” to the Synagogue where “he dispersed” the Jews and “then began to plunder
the houses of the unbelivers..”
1481: The
first Auto de Fe took place in Seville, Spain. Six Morrano men and six
women were burned for allegedly practicing Judaism. These practices could
include not eating pig - for whatever reason, washing hands before prayer,
changing clothes on the Sabbath, etc. Over two thousand Inquisitions are said
to have taken place in the Iberian Peninsula and its colonies. The number of
victims in Spain alone is estimated at 39,912.
1486: Over 750
people would be mandated to participate on this very cold day as prisoners in
an auto-de-fe in Toledo. They were forced to march barefooted and bareheaded
through the streets. Many people came from the countryside to howl and scorn at
the prisoners. Among some of the many stipulations of punishment, was the
fining of 1/5 of their property, to which the funds went to battle the Muslims
in Granada, as well as public self-flagellation over six consecutive Fridays.
1541:
Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia. One of those accompanying de
Valdivia was a Converso named Rodrigo de Orgonos. Any “Jews” settling in the
lands of the Inquisition would have been Conversos so lineage can be a
difficult thing to establish.
1663:
Birthdate of Cotton Mather the famous Puritan minister who wanted the Jews to
convert to his brand of Christianity but who was not an anti-Semite willing to
use secular power to bring this about.
1665: Today,
Thomas Lynch who as Governor Barbados would oppose the expulsion of the Jews
and “paid a striking tribute to the Jews of the colony” wrote to Lord Arlington
complaining that the governor had discharged him from the council and the
office of chief justice without giving any public reason.
1689: The
Declaration of Rights which had been drawn by the Convention Parliament was
finalized today. The Declaration created the legal fiction that would
protect the rights of Protestants in England and pave the way for William and
Mary to ascend to the throne. The latter event was in the best interest
of England’s fledgling Jewish population.
1699: A
committee consisting of António Gomes Serra, Menasseh Mendes, Alfonso
Rodrigues, Manuel Nunez Miranda, Andrea Lopez, and Pontaleão Rodriguez signed a
contract with Joseph Avis, a Quaker, for the construction of a building that
would serve as a new synagogue in London at a cost of £2,750. Avis would later
decline to collect his fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from
building a house of God. In 1698 Rabbi David Nieto had taken charge of a
congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews or Sephardim who met in a small
synagogue in Creechurch Lane. A significant growth in the Jewish community had
made it necessary to find larger quarters for the congregation. The
result of this quest was this new construction which would eventually take place
on a tract of land at Plough Yard in a section called Bevis Marks; hence the
synagogue came to be known as the Bevis Marks Congreaton.
1753:
Birthdate Bernhard Eskeles, the Viennese son-in-law of Daniel Itzig who
established the banking house of Arnstein and Eskeles with his brother-in-law
Nathan Arnstein and who provided financial guidance to “Emperors Joseph II and
Francis II.”
1762: Rabbi
Hirschel Ben Arye Löb Levin (also known as Hart Lyon and Hirshel Löbel, the
Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and of Berlin, and Rabbi of Halberstadt and
Mannheim and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Solomon Hirschell who was the Chief
Rabbi of Great Britain, from 1802 until his death. He is best remembered
for his unsuccessful attempt to stop the spread of Reform Judaism in Britain by
excommunicating its leaders. His older brother was Talmudist Saul Berlin.
http://www.oztorah.com/2010/06/solomon-hirschel-high-priest-of-the-jews/
1768: In
Tuscany Emperor Leopold I and Maria Luisa of Spain gave birth to Frederick II,
the last of the Holy Roman Emperors and Fredrick I, the first of the Emperors
of Austria.
1737: Prince
Carl Alexander, the duke of Württemberg, declared in a decree today "that
the privy councillor of finance Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was a faithful servant
of his prince and of the state, and was intent in every way upon the welfare of
both, for which he deserved the thanks of all. Since instead he was persecuted
by envy and ill-will to such an extent that attempts were even made to bring
him into disfavor with the duke, the latter accorded him his especial
protection and expressly forbade the continuation of such attacks." This
was the Duke’s way of protecting Oppenheimer. The protection would end
with the Duke’s death.
1757: Joseph
Lopez, the son of Aaron Lopez was circumcised today.
1759:
Birthdate of Bavria native Gabriel Hirsch Benda, the husband of Sara Asscher
with whom he had five children.
1762: In
London, Hirschel Levin, the Chief Rabbi of London and his wife gave birth to
Solomon Hirschell who served as Chief Rabbi of Great Britain from 1802 until
his death in 1842.
https://www.oztorah.com/2010/06/solomon-hirschel-high-priest-of-the-jews/#.WoDD3UxFx9A
1768:
Birthdate of New York City native Rachel Judah, the “daughter of Samuel Judah.”
1771:
Gustavus III, during whose reign the Jews of Stockholm invited Levi Hirsch to
serve as their rabbi, ascended to the Kingship of Sweden today.
1778(15th
of Shevat, 5538): Tu B’Shevat
1779:
In Charleston, SC, Rachel Andrews and Myer Moses, gave birth to Myer Moses, the
husband of Esther Phillips with whom he had five children.
1783:
Robert Plumer Ward,
the London born son John Ward and his wife Rebecca Raphael, a member of “a
Sephardic Jewish family from Genoa” matriculated today at Christ College, Oxford.
1786:
In Savannah, GA, Sarah Sheftall and Abraham de Lyon gave birth to Isaac de Lyon,
“a Sergeant with Johnston's Regiment, in the Georgia Militia, in the War of
1812.”
1787:
In Ichenchausen, Babette and Gerson Gerstel gave birth to Rafael Gerstle, the
husband of Esther Gutmann with whom he had thirteen children.
1797(16th
of Shevat, 5557): Rachel Judah the daughter of Baruch Juda and wife of Manuel
Josephson, the “sutler” who had supplied the Continental Army during the
American Revolution and who “was given the honor of extending the
congratulations of four Jewish communities to George Washington on his
assumption of the presidency in 1790” whom she had married in 1759 passed away
today in Philadelphia, the city to which her husband had moved the family from
New York during the Revolution.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/josephson-manuel
1798(26th
of Shevat, 5558): Johann Jacob Rabe, who translated both the Babylonian and
Jerusalem Talmuds into German passed away today.
1800:
David Barnard married Rebecca Davids at Portsea, Hampshire, UK.
1804:
German philosopher Immanuel Kant passed away. Like many other philosophers of
the Enlightenment Kant had less than positive things to say about the Jews.
While this should not be the full measure of the man he did “note in a lecture
on practical philosophy, ‘Every coward is a liar; Jews for example, not only in
business, but also in common life.’" In “German Idealism and the
Jew, Michael Mack, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
argues there is a deep affinity between modern anti-Semitism and the philosophy
of Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest thinker to emerge from the
Enlightenment.” According to Mack, “for Kant, motives could only be good
if they were not aimed at any material benefit. He saw Judaism as an inherently
materialist religion, based upon a quid pro quo between God and His chosen
people. In order to fully define the formal structures of his philosophy
(autonomy, reason, morality and freedom), Kant almost unconsciously fantasized
about the Jews as it’s opposite. He posited Judaism as an abstract principle
that does nothing else but, paradoxically, desire the consumption of material
goods.”
1806:
Phillip Jacobs married Rosetta Hyams today at the Great Synagogue.
1808:
Birthdate of French native Emily Ascoli, the wife of Abraham Israel Brandon and
mother of Joshua and Emanuel Brandon.
1809:
Birthdate of Charles Darwin, the naturalist who developed The Theory of
Evolution. For the most part Jewish leaders have been able to harmonize
Darwin with the Bible. One of the exceptions is Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who
opposed the theory of evolution and issued rulings forbidding the reading of
text on evolution.
1809:
Birthdate of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States. Jews
made up a comparatively miniscule part of the American population during the
Age of Lincoln. When Lincoln was born there were approximately seven
million people living the United States of whom approximately 2,000 were
Jewish. By 1850, when Lincoln’s political career was extremely active, there
were approximately 50,000 Jews living among a population of over 23 million
Americans. In Illinois, the Jewish population could not have numbered
much more than 200, most of whom lived in Illinois. By the time Lincoln
was elected President, there were approximately 150,000 Jews living among
31,000,000 Americans. Of the 1,700,000 people living in “the Land of
Lincoln,” approximately 1,500 were Jewish. Given these comparatively
miniscule numbers, there was a surprising close connection between Lincoln and
the Jewish people on both a personal and communal basis. At the personal level,
Abraham Jonas of Quincy, Illinois, the brother of Joseph Jonas, the first
Jewish settler of Cincinnati was one of Lincoln’s closest friends and earliest
supporters. According to the City of Quincy Lincoln Bicentennial
Commission, Jonas arrived in Quincy I838 and was the town’s first Jewish
citizen. The friendship between Jonas and Lincoln began that same year and was
to last for the next quarter of a century. Their personal bond was
cemented by a politics when the two served together in the Illinois legislature
during the 1840’s. Jonas and Lincoln were early members of the Republican Party
and Jonas “handled arrangements for his friend’s arrival for the 1858
Lincoln-Douglas debate in Quincy.” Jonas and his law partner, Henry
Asbury, may have been the first two to “float” Lincoln’s name as Presidential
candidate. When Horace Greely, the powerful New York newspaper publisher
spoke in Quincy in December of 1858, the two proposed that the eastern
powerbroker might want to consider Lincoln as candidate for the top spot on the
Republican ticket in 1860. Jonas did go to the Republican convention in
1860 where “he worked the floor to help secure the nomination” for his long
time personal and political friend. Louis Naphtali Dembitz a twenty-eight year
old lawyer, civic leader and prominent member of the Louisville, KY. Jewish
community was one of the three delegates who placed Lincoln’s name in
nomination at the Republican Convention held in Chicago. Dembitz was the uncle
of Louis Dembitz Brandeis who was four at the time of the convention and who
would become the first Jewish Justice to sit on the Supreme Court.
Abraham Kohn, City Clerk of Chicago, was another Jew who was an early supporter
of Lincoln and who worked at the Republican Convention to secure his
nomination. After Lincoln’s nomination, Kohn gave him a flag that
included the following verse from the Book of Joshua, “Be strong and of good
courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is
with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Other early, ardent supporters of Lincoln included
the philanthropist Moses Dropsie, founder of Dropsie College and Sigmund
Kaufman a German-Jewish newspaper publisher in New York “who worked furiously
and successfully to deliver the German immigrant vote to Lincoln.”
Kaufman also served as one of the electors for the State of New York and as
such helped turn Lincoln’s popular vote lead into an Electoral College
victory. In 1863, following the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lincoln
visited the hospital bed of the mortally wounded hero Lt. Col Leopold Newman,
and personally presented him with his commission of appointment as a brigadier
general in the Union Army. At the communal level, Lincoln was the first
President to make it possible for Rabbis to serve as military chaplains. He
signed the 1862 Act of Congress which changed the law that had previously
barred all but Christian clergymen from being chaplains. Lincoln showed his
support for Jews in the face of European anti-Semitism. He appointed a
Jew to serve as Counsel in Zurich as a way of letting the Swiss know that the
United States government would not tolerate discrimination against American
Jews doing business in Switzerland and that the United States Government did
not look favorably on the discriminatory treatment of Swiss citizens who were
Jewish. But Lincoln’s most famous moment in dealing with the Jews came when he
countermanded Grant’s infamous Order #11. The vast majority of Jews were loyal
supporters of the Union even in those dark days when the Copperheads and their
allies called upon Lincoln to “let our wayward sisters depart in peace.”
Of course, Lincoln came to be viewed as an American Moses who led the
African-American Slaves to freedom. Ironically, Lincoln was killed during
Pesach, the Jewish holiday of freedom that provided so much of the liberation
motif for the work of the Great Emancipator.
1815:
Birthdate of Hermann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche the anti-Semitic author who
wrote under the pseudonym Sir. John Retcliffe.
1815: In
Philadelphia, Zalegman Phillips, the son of Rebecca Mendez Machado and Jonas
Philips and his wife Arabella Phillips gave birth to Gabriel Phillips the
brother of Colonel Naphtali Philips.
1818: Bernardo
O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción. According to the Virtual
Jewis Library “The Inquisition was abolished with the establishment of
Chilean independence in 1818. Many Jewish citizens or descendants of Converso
families were involved in the country's struggle for independence, including
General Jose Miguel Carrera, who traced his lineage back to Diego Garcia de
Caceres. Carrera was nominated to be the first president of Chile, although
Manuel Blanco Encalada actually became the Chilean leader. Diego Portales,
father of the 1833 Chilean constitution, also claimed descent from Caceres.
Many non-Jewish leaders of the revolution had close ties with Jewish
individuals. The first president of the Republic of Chile, Bernard O'Higgins,
spent time in the home of Juan Albano Peyreyra, possibly of Jewish ancestry.”
1821: Raphael
Picard married Rose Bumsell in Strasbourg today.
1821: In
Demmesldorf, Germany, Deborah Cohen and Solomon Stix gave birth to Louis Stix
who married Yetta Stix in Cincinnati, OH after which they had ten children
before he finally passed away in NYC.
1824:
Birthdate of Czech native Gustav Freund, the husband of Rosa Fruend
1826:
Birthdate of German Chemist Moritz Traube whose work was sought after by many
leading scientists of the time and whose marriage to Bertha Moll in 1855
produced chemist Wilhelm Traube and mineralogist Hermann Traube.
1827(15th
of Shevat, 5587): Tu B’Shevat
1828:
Birthdate of Nottinghamsire native Nahum Salaman, the husband of Amelia Bertram
with whom he had six children.
1829:
Birthdate of Leonce Cohen, the Parisian musician who received the "Prix de
Rome," in 1851 “and became soon afterward one of the violinists at the
Thétre Italien at Paris.”
1837(8th
of Adar I, 5597): Fifty-year old Karl Ludwig Börne the German author and
political philosopher who had changed his name from Lion Baruch when he became
a Lutheran, passed away today.
1839:
Birthdate of Leopold Loeb who would pass away in Morgan City, LA in 1921.
1842:
Birthdate of Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu author Les Juifs et l'Antisémitisme; Israël
chez les Nations which was translated as Israel
Among the Nations: A study of the Jews and Antisemitism by Frances Hellman
and published by Putnam and L’Antisémitisme in 1897.
1845: Julia
Isaacs and Amsterdam native Joseph Myers and gave birth to Sarah Myers.
1848: In
London, Adam Speilman, the son of Michelle and Lewin (Judah) Spielman and his
wife Maria gave birth to Amelia Marian Spielman
1849: An
article published in Wetumpka Daily Standard was critical of Judge Solomon
Heydefeldt's plan to put an end to "unlimited slave immigration" in
Alabama. Heydefeldt was no abolitionist. He was afraid that
"the state would become impoverished through the uncontrolled 'dumping' of
slaves in Alabama." His critic claimed that the Judge's plan would
cause the price of slaves to soar and would deprive "the poor who hoped
... to become slave owners of any expectation of economic advancement.
1849: One day
after she had passed away, 80 year old Elizabeth Solomons , the wife of David
Solomons was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery
1852: Austen
Henry Layard, the archeologist who excavated Nimrud and Niniveh as described in
Discoveries at Nineveh began serving as Under-Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs for the first time.
1853:
Birthdate of Alois Eisler, the husband of Emilie Eisler.
1855: In
Odessa, Hessye Halperin and Feivel Abramovitch Adler gave birth to Yankev P.
Adler, who, as Jacob Adler who would gain fame as an actor and a star of the
Yiddish Theatre in Odessa, London and New York City who was the husband of
Sonya Oberlander, Dinah Shtettin and Sara Adler with whom he had nine children
including Ceilia, Jay, Julia, Stella and Luther Adler.
https://archive.org/details/lifeonstagememoi00adle
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0012169/
1855: Michigan
State University was established. According to recent figures, MSU has 3,000
Jewish undergrads out of a total of 36,000 students and 500 Jewish grad
students out of a total of 10,000 graduate students. MSU offers
approximately 25 Jewish Studies courses as well as a Major in Jewish Studies.
The university offers a study program in Israel and is home to a Hillel
chapter.
1860(19th
of Shevat, 5620): Seventy-one-year-old Isaac Baer Levinsohn, the Russian leader
of the Haskalah whose seminal work was Bet Yehuda published in 1837,
passed away today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Levinzon_Yitshak_Ber
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Levinsohn,+Isaac+Baer,+1788-1860
1862: After
having been arrested and imprisoned at Warsaw in November, 1861 for
activities construed supportive of the Polish Revolution, Talmudist Marcus
Jastrow was released because he was a Prussian after which he was deported.
1863:
Birthdate of Gatchell Isaacs, the native of Poland brought to London in his
infancy who became the rabbi of the Hackney and East London Synagogue in 1890
while also serving as the Chaplain of the Hackney Company of the Jewish Lads’
Brigade and as a teacher for twenty-one years at his alma mater, The Jews’ Free
School.
1864: During
the Civil War, "the Confederate Congress voted in secret to create
"bodies for the capture destruction of the enemies' property."
Officially known as the Bureau of Special and Secret Service, the unit was
funded by the Department of State which was headed by Judah P. Benjamin who now
"took on the most dangerous assignment Jefferson Davis had given him, that
of spymaster."
1865: In
Cassel Germany, Edward and Hanna (Speigelberg) Wise gave birth to Columbia
trained attorney Edmond E. Wise, the general counsel of R.H. Macy and Company
and leader of the Jewish Community as can be seen by his support of several
organizations including the Y.M.H.A. , United Hebrew Charities and the
Educational Alliance who was the husband of Irene Kohns.
1870: Women
gained the right to vote in Utah Territory. At this time, the Watters family,
Ichel and his new bride Augusta were active members of the community.
According to one account, “Augusta thrived on the challenge of frontier life,
becoming a hardy pioneer and eventually a mainstay of the Salt Lake City Jewish
Community.
1873(15th
of Shevat, 5633): Tu B’Shevat
1873:
In Yale, British Columbia, Cecilia and August Isaac Oppenheimer gave birth to
McGill trained physician Sidney Solomon Oppenheimer, the husband of Dorothea
Oppenheimer and father of Regina, Montague, Estelle and Jesse Oppenheimer who
settled in Spokane, WA where he was a member of B’nai B’rith.
1874: In Russia, Rachel and Benjamin Danzis
gave birth to NYU trained physician Dr. Max Danzis the husband of Jennie Reich,the
organizer of the Newark, NJ, Beth Israel Hospital and chairman of the “local
chapter branch of the American Jewish Physicians Committee for Hebrew
University.”
1874: The
Young Ladies’ Charitable Union is scheduled to host a fund raiser at the Lyceum
Theatre for the Home for Aged Hebrews.
1876: In the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, Herman and Emilie (Gross) Kornfeld gave birth to
University of Cincinnati and HUC graduate the husband of Josephine Blumenthal
who went from teaching at McGill University to a long-time rabbinic career that
began with his service at Congregation in Pine Bluff, AR and that included
service as minister plenipotentiary to Persia during the Presidency of Warren
Harding.
1877: It was
reported today that the Ottoman government “will not press its condition
regarding the treatment of the Jews of Serbia.” [Editor’s note: This has
little to do with the Jews and everything to do with the Great Powers jockeying
for control over the Ottoman Empire. In an attempt to discredit the
Constantinople Conference at which the great powers began slicing up the
European portions of the empire, the Turks announced the adoption of a
constitution that included a declaration of equal rights for all religious
minorities in the Islamic Empire. This brief statement, which proved to
be true, was the Porte’s way of saying that the Christians of Serbia would not
have to grant equal rights to the Jews which the Sultan hoped would be a way of
guaranteeing Serbian loyalty.]
1878: In New
York Cit, Jeannette Young and Julius Stern gave birth to Columbia (BA, MA) and
Cambridge University (Ph.D.) graduate Nathan Stern, the JTS and HUC trained
rabbi who began his career with pulpits in Marion and Wabash, IN who went on to
serve as the Chaplain at the New Jersey State Prison, a lecturer at Brown
University, and starting in 1920 the spiritual leader at the West End Synagogue
in New York City.
1879:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Carrie Davidson, “a
founder of the National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America,”
“the editor for 24 years of The Women’s League Outlook” and the wife of “Dr.
Israel Davidson, the Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at JTS” with whom
she raised two daughter.
1880(30th of
Shevat, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Adar observed on the same day that a tornado struck
Lincoln County.
https://www.weather.gov/lmk/tornado_climatology_february121880
1881:
Birthdate of Hungarian native Gabriel Lorie Hess “the attorney for Will Hays
and the Motion Picture Producers of America who was the husband of Helen Baer
Stamm and Linda Watkins.
1882: It was
reported today that the Times of London has published an article written by a
mysterious Russian woman known as “O.K.” in tone that offers an apology for the
treatment of the Jews living in Russia. The veracity of this author is
questionable since she also extols the virtues of Siberia which she described
as a land of promise which will soon be over-run by Russian emigrants seeking
to live there.
1883:
Birthdate of Ludwig Stössel, the German actor who returned to his native
Austria when Hitler came to power and after the Anschluss was imprisoned before
finally being able to escape to London before settling in Hollywood where he
re-kindled his career.
1883: The
United States State Department sought Adolphus Simeon Solomons’ advice and
assistance regarding the distribution of charity funds to Americans in Ottoman
Palestine. Solomons was as a Sephardic Jew born in New York in 1826 who moved
to Washington, DC where he made several influential friends and was important
enough to have been offered the position of Governor of the District of
Columbia by President U.S. Grant. Solomons did not accept the offer.
1884:
Birthdate of Halifax native Sigmund Feinblatt who served as the executive
director of the Hebrew Orpah Home in Philadelphia and the Hebrew Home for the
Aged in Baltimore.
1884(16th of
Shevat,5664): German author and religious reformer Aaron Bernstein, the nephew
of Edward Bernstein passed away
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3133-bernstein-aaron-david
1884:
Birthdate of Max Beckmann, German-born post-modernist painter.
https://www.moma.org/artists/429
1884: In Ohio,
Lazard Kahn and his wife “Coralie Alice Lemann of Donaldsonville, LA” gave
birth to Bertrand B Kahn who became a vice president in the Estate Stove
Company which had been founded by his father and who was the brother of Milton,
Lucian and Jerome Kahn. (As reported by Jim Blount)
https://sites.google.com/a/lanepl.org/jbcols/2000/december
1885:
Birthdate of Philadelphia, PA native and West Point graduate Samuel Edelman who
was an active member of the Alliance Israelite Unverselle.
1885: In
Eisenheim, Bavaria, Karoline and Leopold (Lehmann) Schloss gave birth to Emil
Schloss.
1885: In
Lithuania, Deborah Norman and Jehudah Joseph Light gave birth to Rabbi David
Gershon, the husband of Rose Chira Schiff, who in 1912 came to the United
States where he led congregations in Bay City, MI, and South Bend, IN before
settling in at the Sons of Zion Congregation in Providence, RI.
1885:
Birthdate of vicious anti-Semite Julius Streicher, the Nazi leader who created
such publications as Der Strumer
1886: Ha-Yom,
the first Hebrew daily newspaper was published in St. Petersburg.
1886:
Birthdate of Russian native Temple University Professor of English Literature
Dr. Hayim Fineman, the son of Bella and Morris Fineman, who at the age of one
came to the United States where he earned a Ph.D. from the University of
Pennsylvania, married “former Queena Pollock, with whom he had three sons –
Daniel, David and Gabriel – and became an active leader in the Zionist movement
as can be seen by his role in founding American Paole Zion and writing What
is Paole Zionism?
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/fineman-hayyim
1886:
Birthdate of Yampol native Solomon Pincasovich, the product of the Slobodka
Yeshivan and the Odessa Conservatoire who became the cantor of the New
Synagogue in Manchester, UK in 1921 and a lecturer at Jews College in 1947.
1886:
Birthdate of Louis C. Wallach, the New York native who boxed under the name
Leach Cross and was known as “The Fighting Dentist” due to the dental degree he
earned from New York University.
1888(30th of Shevat 5648): Rosh
Chodesh Adar
1888(30th of Shevat, 5648):
Eighty-year-old German born New Orleans diamond merchant Louis Rose, the husband
of Caroline Marx of Matilda Newman who traveled by wagon train in the 1850’s to
San Diego, CA passed away today.
https://cbisd.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/150th_book_chapter1.pdf
1888: In
Vilna, Rabbi Bernhard and Minnie (Kleinberg gave birth to Columbia graduate and
JTS rabbi Israel Herbert Levinthal, the husband of May R. Bogdanoff who led
both Temple B’nai Shalom and Temple Petach Tikvah in before taking the pulpit
at the Brooklyn Jewish Center in 1919.
1890: A
summary of the activities of the United Hebrew Charities for the month of
January published today described the aid given to 963 families containing
4.4042 members for the month.
1890: “Among
the East Side Hebrew Poor” published today described a meeting at Temple
Beth-El attended by a large number of young Jews as well as prominent leaders
including Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler and Mark Ash of the Young Men’s Hebrew
Association where “plans were formulated “to create an organization to aid the
Jews living “on the east side between 42nd and 86th
Streets and from Fifth Avenue to the River.”
1890: The
Independent Order of the Free Sons of Judah was organized today with
headquarters in New York City.
1890: It was
reported today that Rudolph Grossman, the assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth El has
been elected president of newly formed organization designed to bring aid to
the poor Jews of the East Side from their wealthier coreligionists.
Charles S. August has been elected Secretary.
1891: In
Albany, NY, Hyman and Lillian (Gallup) Bookstein gave birth to Albany Law
School trained attorney and husband of Edith Friedman who rose to become a New
York State Supreme Court Judge.
https://www.nytimes.com/1973/05/09/archives/isadore-bookstein-exstate-justice-82.html
1892: In New
York City, David and Pearl (Mueller) Bookstaber gave birth to HUC ordained
Rabbi and holder of a Ph.D from the University of Cincinnati Philip David
Stabler who began serving Temple Ohev Sholom at Harrisburg, PA in 1924.
1892: As New
York public health officials start to deal with an outbreak of typhus it was
reported that some of the first victims were fifty-seven Jewish men, women and
children who had been “driven out of Russia” who finally made their way to
Marseilles where they board the SS Massilia. They arrived in New York
after twenty-nine days at sea. These public health officials connect the
outbreak of typhus with conditions aboard the ship and debilitated conditions
of the immigrant passengers.
1892: In San
Francisco, Joseph and Lisa (Jocheles) Rabinowitz gave birth to the Hastings
College of Law trained attorney Leo J. Rabinowitz who was the “first campaign
director of the Jewish National Welfare Fund of San Francisco and a member of
the Z.O.A.
1893: It was
reported today that at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Jastrow has
begun teaching a special course in Hebrew designed primarily for (Protestant)
clergyman. (Editor’s note: Professor Jastrow is Morris Jastrow, Jr., who
the librarian-in-chief at the school and the son of Marcus Jastrow, the rabbi
at Philadelphia’s Rodeph Shalom.)
1893: “Priests
and Pigeons” published today described a humorous episode during a Sunday
school lesson being taught to youngsters about Haggai and Zachariah.
1893:
“Interesting News From Other Schools And Colleges” published today described
newly created Harvard Semitic Museum which included Hebrew “rolls of the law
and rolls of the prophets” as well as “some translation of the Hebrew Bible
into Arabic.
1893: The
committee formed by the Central Conference of American Rabbis “to arrange the
seconding part of the Union Prayer book containing the services for Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur” met for the first time today in Chicago.
1894:
Sixty-four-year-old musical leader and reputed anti-Semite Hans von Bulow
passed away today
1894:
“Ingersoll Praised and Censured” published today summarized the disagreement
that Rabbi Joseph Silverman has with agnostic Robert Ingersoll over the
latter’s views on Moses. Silverman does not blame Ingersoll for his
mischaracterization of the Jewish sage because “The spirit of the Hebrew
Scriptures can never be translated. A man, to read the Bible rightly must
hot only understand the language in which it was written, but he must know the
customs and traits of the people.”
1895: The
Purim Association will sponsor a performance of Verdi’s “Falstaff” at the
Metropolitan Opera House. The associated has been sponsored an event like this
each at Purim time since 1868. Since 1874 each of these events has raised
on the average of $15,000 in net proceeds which go to a variety of charities
including Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home and the Hebrew Orphan
Asylum.
1895: The
district of B’nai B’rth that includes the states of Georgia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia opened its
annual convention in Atlanta, GA today.
1896: Herzl
writes a "Literary Testament".
1897: During
today’s dedication of the new building belong to the Hebrew Technical
Institute; Joseph B. Bloomingdale presented the key to the building to James H.
Hoffman, President of the Institute.
1897: In the
course of his talk at the dedication exercise of the Hebrew Technical
Institute, Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt explained that he had a duty
to see to it that Herr Alwardt, the German anti-Semite could speak publicly and
that he was fully protected by the police. To that end, Roosevelt
“selected a cordon of forty officers to preserve the peace, and they were all
Hebrews, and what is more, they did preserve the peace.” (Editor’s Note: This
year, an episode of “Blue Bloods” a television show featuring Tom Sellick as
the NYC Police Commissioner drew on this event to resolve part of it plot
line.)
1897:
Birthdate of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Known as "Czar
Lepke," Buchalter was a product of the Brooklyn underworld. During
the 1920's he formed the notorious gang called "Murder
Incorporated." The gang specialized in the protection racket.
They began with furriers and leather goods and eventually branched out into the
entire garment industry. During the 1930's, Murder Incorporated was being
a small fortune by the movie studios in Hollywood. Lepke's two
decade long reign of terror came to an end when Thomas Dewey went after a
variety of gangsters during the late 1930's and 1940's. Lepke was
convicted of murder and electrocuted in March, 1944. Yes, there were
other Jewish gangsters. But they were a small part of the Jewish
population and their criminal activities were never a source of pride.
1897: It was
reported today that Secretary Edward T. Devine has said that “The Department of
Charities finds no material increase of destitution this year…except among the”
Jews because so many of them worked in the garment making industry which is in
a slump. The Department sends all of the “destitute” Jews to the United
Hebrew Charities which takes care of them. (These comments came during a
debate about the advisability of providing free food to the poor, something
Devine and others opposed)
1897: Rabbi
Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El delivered the opening prayer at today’s
dedication of the new building that will be part of the Hebrew Technical
Institute on Stuyvesant Street.
1898: Today,
Edgard Demange, one of the lawyers who had represented in Alfred Dreyfus in his
trials, testified at trial of Emil Zola, stating that the law had been violated
in 1894, but that without political will, light could not be shed on the
Dreyfus Affair.
1898:
Birthdate of Russian native Beryl David Cohon who in 1906 came to the United
States where he graduated from the University of Illionis, was ordained at
Hebrew Union College and went on to be the founding rabbi of Temple Sinai in
Brookline, MA and serve on the faculty of Tufts University.
https://www.sinaibrookline.org/about-temple-sinai/our-staff/prior-rabbis/rabbi-cohon/
1898:
Birthdate of Springfield, MA native and insurance agent Charles Sidney Albert
who served as city councilman.
1898:
Professor C.H. Toy delivered the second in a series of lectures on “The Dawn of
Literature” entitled “The Dawn of Literature in Babylonia and Egypt” which
included numerous comparisons between these two cultures and the literature
created by the Jews that is preserved in the Bible.
1899: Among
the bills introduced in the New York State Legislature seeking tax exemptions
was one brought forward by Mr. Sanders, “exempting the real estate now owned or
which may hereafter be acquired by the Beth Israel Hospital Association in the
City of New York”
1900: Founding
of the Sabbath Observance Association Synagogue at 70th and Central
Park West whose members include Mark Blumenthal, Leonard Lewisohn, Moses
Ottinger, and Leon Huhner.
1901: Herzl
meets Lady Battersea, Rothschild's cousin in the apartment of Israel Zangwill.
1901: Haim and
Mazal Tov Isaacs gave birth to Irving H. Isaacs, the husband of Anne Isaacs
with whom he had two children.
1902:
Thirty-one-year-old Max Sol Mandlell, the Russian born son of Getchel and
Deborah Mandell who was the Columbia educated Instructor of Russian Language
and Literature at Yale University and who was also active in the New Haven
Jewish community as can be seen by his long term service as the secretary of
the “Jewish Charity Society of New Haven” married Dora Rubenstein today.
1903(15th
of Shevat, 5663): Tu B’Shevat
1903: Three
days after he passed away funeral services are scheduled to held for
seventy-two-year-old Hungarian born and California Gold Rush participant Morris
Tuska who in 1857 “established himself in the wholesale upholstery business” in
New York where “he was instrumental in the founding of the United Charity
Organization” and the Hebrew Technical Institute while being an active member
for 45 years of Temple Emanu-El and raising one daughter and two sons with his
wife.
1903: The
American Jewish Historical Society held its eleventh annual meeting in Carnegie
Hall today during which “members presented papers on phases of the history of
the Americas in which Jews had played a part” and then held the election
officers.
1904:
Birthdate of Polish native Morris Pizer who in 1921 came to the United States
where he where he eventually became President of the United Furniture Workers
of America. (Not to be confused with Morris J. Pizer)
https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/labor/id/1966/
1904: In
Philadelphia, Joseph and Leah Alpert gave birth to Rose Alpert Rothenberg.
1905:
“Alternative to Zionism” published today challenged Israel Zangwill’s Zionist
vision and suggested that the large Jewish population settling in Brownsville
was an example of a better way.
1906:
Birthdate of Brest-Litvosk native and NYU graduate Frank Leff, the “director of
special projects for the American Jewish Committee” and the husband of Johanna
Leff with whom he had two children – Bernard and Naomi.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/11/30/89979923.pdf
1906: Today “a
massacre of the Jews was reported to have taken place at Kalarashi,
Bessarabia.”
1906: Algernon
Lee wrote from New York challenging Lewis Nixon’s plea to “Give the Czar a
chance” citing all of the Czar’s missed opportunity to improve conditions for
his subjects including his failure “to protect the poor Jews…in his empire in
the pursuit of their peaceful vocations.”
1907:
Following a banquet given in his honor yesterday evening by the Federation of
American Zionist, Dr. Shmaryahu Lewin is scheduled to leave for Europe today.
1908:
Birthdate Mikos Sarkany who won Gold Medals for Hungary in Water Polo at the
1932 and 1936 Olympics.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/MiklosSarkany.htm
1909: The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded. Julius
Rosenthal, Lillian Wald, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsh, Stephen Wise and Henry Moskowitz
a Jewish physician, and civil rights activist, were among the co-founders of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Jewish attorney
Jack Greenberg played a prominent role in one of the most famous moments in the
history of the N.A.A.C.P. He was Assistant Counsel from 1949 to 1961 for the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and then, from 1961 to 1984, he
succeeded Thurgood Marshall as Director Counsel. Greenberg was one of the
attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the United States
Supreme Court as co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Thurgood Marshall.
1910(3rd
of Adar I, 5670): Parashat Terumah
1910(3rd
of Adar I, 5670): In Odessa, 66-year-old “Jewish scholar and author” Moshe Leib
Lilienblum, who also used the pseudonym Zelophehad Bar-Hushim” and was one of
the leaders of the early Zionist movement Hovevei Zion” passed away today.
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/lilienblum_mosheh_leib
1910: “A Study
of the Jews” published today described the plant of The Walter Scott Publishing
to put on sale this spring The Jews: A study of Race and Environment by
Dr. Maurice Fishberg “which is described
as a comprehensive study of the anthropological, demographic, pathological and
sociological characteristics of the Jews.”
1911: “A Study
of the Jewish Race” published today examines the contention of New York
physician Maurice Fishberg that Jews “are essentially in no way different from
other people except in so far as their religious practices and social
environment” which often are a result of the persecutions they have suffered.
1912:
Arrangements were made today by the family of Washington Seligman to move his
body from the Hotel Grand where he had shot himself to Temple Emanu-El on Fifth
Avenue.
1912(24th
of Shevat, 5672): Louis Heilprin, the Hungarian born historian and encyclopedia
editor who was a follower of Lajos Kossuth passed away. He was part of an
intellectual family including his brother Angelo, his grandfather Pinchas and
his father Michael who was an editor for the American Cyclopedia and a
contributor to The Nation.
1913: Mrs.
J.B. Malkes is charge of preparing the program for today’s “regular monthly
meeting of the Baron Hirsch Women’s Club” at the Auditorium Hotel.
1913: In Plaquemine, LA, Hippolyte and Dora Kahn
Uhry gave birth to Tulane University graduate Julian Kahn Uhry, the husband of
Marguerite Joyce Taylor Mazo and the “uncle of Pulitzer Prize winning
playwright Alfred Uhry.
1914: In
Dallas, Horace Haas Landauer, the Winnsboro, LA born son of Henriette and Aaron
Landauer and his wife Gertrude Landauer gave birth to Sarah Jane Landauer, the
wife of Frank Hart Lichtenstein.
1914: “The
Squam Man” a silent cowboy film produced by Jesse Lasky was released in the
United States by the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation today.
1915: In
Ottawa, Ontario, “Russian Jewish immigrants “Dora (née Grinovsky) and Daniel
Green, a shoemaker” gave birth to Lyon “Chaim” Himan Green better known as
actor Loren Greene, whose most famous role was that Ben “Pa” Cartwright on
Bonanza. (Editor’s note: Considering the fact that Little Joe was also
played by a Jewish actor, half of America’s favorite cowboy family were MOT-
“The Ponderosa” as western homeland for the Jews.)
1915: Joseph
Zimmerman was award the Pell Gold Medal for the student who ranks highest in
all the studies of the year and the Prager Memorial Prize for the student who
ranks highest in the senior year at today’s commencement exercise for the
College of the City of New York today.
1915: “The
American Jewish Relief Committee for the Sufferers from the War, of which Louis
Marshall is President and Felix M. Warburg is Treasurer, announced” tonight
“the appropriation of $200,000 for the relief of Jewish war suffers” which
“will be divided equally between Russian and German Poland.
1915: A list
of contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee published today
included the Jewish Charities of Cleveland, Ohio, Calgary J.R.C., Lafayette
Indiana Orthodox Jews, and the Young Russian Friends Association.
1916: In
Norfolk, VA, the building housing Oham Shalom Synagogue which had been built
fifteen years ago at a cost of $70,000 “was destroyed by fire caused by
defective insulation.”
1916:
“According to a statement issued” today “one out of every 321 Jews in New York
City contributes to the Educational Alliance” of which Justice Samuel Greenbaum
currently serves as President
1916:
Birthdate of Dutch born actor Max Geldray. Born in Holland and living in
France and touring under such names as "Mac Geldray and his
Mouth-Accordion Band", Van Gelder fled to England during the early days of
WWII and was injured participating in the Normandy landings in 1944.
Tragically, his sister died in a concentration camp during the war. After the
war Geldray continued his career as a jazz harmonica player. He was part of the
original cast of the 1950's radio show The Goon Show sharing the stage
with Peter Sellers. He stayed on the show for its entire run of nine
years. Afterwards, he retired to California, playing at gigs in Reno and Los
Angeles, later volunteering at the Betty Ford Center and similar
institutions. He passed away in 2004.
1917:
“Charities Uniting Jews” published today described an address by Jacob H.
Schiff given to “members of the Hebrew Free Loan Society” in which “he praised
the idea of federating Jewish charities and philanthropy” say “it would become
a power force in unifying Jewry.”
1917: At
today’s meeting of the National Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights the
delegates “decided to continue present methods” to provide relief for “Jewish
sufferers in the European war zone” and “adopted a resolution declaring it to
be the duty of Socialist parties in all neutral and belligerent countries to
begin agitation for immediate peace.”
1918:
Following the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the French issued a
statement today expressing their support for the creation “of a Jewish national
homeland in Palestine.’
1918: In New
York City, Belle (née Rosenfeld) and Benjamin Schwinger, a garment
manufacturer, gave birth to Nobel Prize winning American theoretical physicist
Julian Seymour Schwinger
http://www.nobel-winners.com/Physics/julian_seymour_schwinger.html
1918: In Manhattan, Harry and Sarah Schwartz
Lefrak gave birth to Samuel Jayson LeFrak, the chairman of LeFrak Organization
who had followed in the family footsteps while raising four children – Denis,
Richard, Francine and Jaqueline – with his wife, the former Ethel Stone. (As
reported by Alan Oser)
1919: In
Newark, NJ, at today’s session of the 27th annual meeting of the
American Jewish Historical Society, Dr. Cyrus Adler read “a statement from John
Leavitt, the Director of the Office of War Records” which showed that one
hundred thousand Jews took part in the World War “and of this this number forty
percent were volunteers.
1919: Funeral
services were held in Chicago today for Alexander Newman, the husband of Eva
Newman and the father of Julius, Sol, Maurice and Emanuel Newman
1920:
Birthdate of the University of Pennsylvania and University Chicago alum and WW
II veteran Irving “Bud” Latz 2nd, the President of Sci-Agra, Inc. in
Ft. Wayne, IN and member of Achudth Vesholom Congregation who raised two
children – Gil and Sara – with his wife Janet H. Lantz.
1920:
Birthdate of Abraham Shadrinsky, who gained famed as record producer Robert
“Bob” Shad who worked with such jazz greats as Charlie Parker, Billy Eckstein
and Dinah Washington.
1920: A
performance of Massenet’s “Herodiade” an opera depicting the Herod dynasty
which had first been performed at Hammerstein’s in Manhattan opened the Chicago
Opera Association’s season tonight.
1921:
Birthdate of fencing champion Albert Axelrod.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/sports/albert-axelrod-83-a-champion-in-fencing.html
1921(4th
of Adar I, 5681): Parashat Teruman
1921:
Congregation Shaaray Tefila continued to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of its incorporation for a second day.
1921:
Birthdate of Joshua Eilberg, the native of Philadelphia and Wharton graduate
who served in the House of Representatives for twelve years.
1921:
Birthdate of fencing champion Albert Axelrod.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/sports/albert-axelrod-83-a-champion-in-fencing.html
1922: Achille
Ratti is formally installed as Pope Pius XI. Early in his papacy, Pius did sign
concordats with various fascist governments. But he must have had a
change of heart. By the time he died he spoken out against fascism and
racism and called for measures to protect Jews.
1922: The
Committee for Mental Hygiene Among Jews, which is led by Dr. Israel Strauss “is
appealing for additional members to provide an institution for the care of the
mentally disturbed.”
1923: In Los
Angeles, real estate broker Joseph Levy and his wife Bessie gave birth to WW II
veteran and producer Jules Victor Levy who formed the production company of
Levy-Gardner-Laven with Arthur Gardner and Arnold Levy.
1923:
Birthdate of Romanian native Hyman “Hy” Weiss who came to the United States as
an infant, served in the Army Air Force during WW II and became a leading
record producer.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1547655/Hyman-Weiss.html
1923: Twenty-five-year-old
Gene Barry (born Eugene Klass) married Betty Claire Kalb
1924: George Gershwin's
''Rhapsody in Blue'' received its premiere in the concert, An Experiment in
Modern Music, which was held today, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Whiteman and
his band with Gershwin playing the piano
1924: George
Kaufman's "Beggar on Horseback" premiered in New York City.
1924: The
Eveready Hour was the first commercially sponsored variety program in the
history of broadcasting which featured repeated appearances by conductor
Nathanial Shilkret on WEAF Radio in New York.
1925:
Birthdate of Rosalyn “Dolly” Saget the wife of supermarket executive Benjamin
Sage and the mother of comedic actor Robert Lane “Bob” Saget.
1925:” The
Estonian government passed a law pertaining to the cultural autonomy of
minority peoples. This was a logical step forward in the national policies of
the Estonian Republic. The Jewish community quickly prepared its application
for cultural autonomy. Statistics on Jewish citizens were compiled. They
totaled 3,045, fulfilling the minimum requirement of 3000 for cultural
autonomy. In June 1926 the Jewish Cultural Council was elected and Jewish
cultural autonomy was declared. The administrative organ of this autonomy was
the Board of Jewish Culture, headed by Hirsch Aisenstadt until it was disbanded
in 1940.”
1925: After
arriving in New York yesterday, Dr. Chaim Weizmann reports on the vibrant
condition of the economy in Palestine and of “the numerous business
opportunities of which Americans may take advantage.” Weizmann said that
while in the United States he will be seeking a loan of $2,000,000 at seven per
cent interest designed to pay for development in Tel Aviv and four large
near-by settlements. The government in Palestine had already given its
approval for Weizmann to try and raise the funds.
1926: “The Man
Without Sleep” a silent film written by Max Glass was released in Germany
today.
1926(28th
of Shevat, 5686): Fifty-six year old René Worms, a scion of the distinguished
French family whose accomplishments including the establishment of the "Revue Internationale de Sociologie”, the "Bibliothèque
Sociologique Internationale," the Institut International de Sociologie and
the Société de Sociologie de Paris which earned him being named a chevalier of
the Legion of Honor, passed away today.
1927: Birthdate of Bucharest native Henry Herscovi who
competed as a sports shooter for the Israeli Olympic Teams in 1968 and 1972.
1928: “Table of 1470 B.C. Is Found in Palestine”
published today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/12/issue.html
1928: S.
Herbert Gold and Mrs. Jacob Cohen welcome the three hundred delegates at the
Young People’s League of the United States of American annual convention today
where resolutions were adopted “urging synagogues to give young Jews a greater
voice in the affairs of heir congregations.”
1929: “The
Christian and the Moslem communities of Palestine were urged to lend their best
cooperation to the efforts of the Jewish people in the rebuilding of the Holy
Land by John Haynes Homes, pastor of the New York Community church, was the
guest of honor at a reception given to him today by the municipality of Tel
Aviv at City Hall.
1929: “The
life of Abraham Lincoln has yet to be written, Emanuel Hertz” the Jewish “authority
on Lincolniana, asserted tonight at the annual Lincoln Day dinner of the
National Republican Club at the club's headquarters, 54 West Fortieth Street.”
1929:
Birthdate of Gyorgy Braun, the native of Mateszalka, Hungary, who survived the
Holocaust and made a new life for himself in Los Angeles as George Brown
1930:
Birthdate of Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. During the
twentieth century, most Jewish office holders were Democrats. Specter was
unusual because he rose to prominence as a Republican. Today, there are a
record number of Jews serving in the U.S. Senate. For most Americans,
Jewish public officials are such an accepted fact of life that both Senators
from California are Jewish. And places like Minnesota, hardly a state
with a large bloc of Jewish voters, elect Jews to Congress (As reported by
Peter Jackson)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-pennsylvania-senator-arlen-specter-dies-at-82/
1931: One
thousand students participated in a Palestine festival today which “was staged
by the League of the Jewish Youth at the Kaufman Auditorium at the Y.M.H.A. on
east 92nd Street.
1932:
Birthdate of economist and author Julian Simon.
1932:
Birthdate of pianist Jerome Lowenthal.
1933: The
installation of Rabbi Solomon Friedman, who has been leading Congregation Poale
Zedek in Pittsburgh for 13 years, as president of the Conference of Orthodox
Rabbis in America is scheduled to take place this afternoon at the Washington
Heights Jewish Congregation.
1933:
“Organization of a Youth Zionist Federation in the United States and the
stimulation of Palestine studies in Jewish schools and educational institutions
were advocated by speakers at a two-day conference to discuss problems of
Jewish youth which began this morning at the Young Men's Hebrew Association,
Ninety-Second Street and Lexington Avenue
1933(16th
Shevat, 5693): Attorney, bibliophile and “art connoisseur” Benjamin Alexander
passed away today in Philadelphia.
1934:
Publication of a review of Hours of Decision by Oswald Spengler, the
historian and author of The Decline of the West who on his mother’s side was a
descendant of “a Jewish woman named Bräunchen Moses, the daughter of Abraham
and Riele Moses who was baptized shortly before her marriage.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,746957,00.html
1935: The
first Palestine-owned ships of modern times will start service here today,
restoring to the Jewish people a profession in which they have had little part
since the ancient Phoenicians. Two new ships Mount Zion and Tel Aviv sail
between Palestine, Constananza and Trieste. While the ships are of
“British naval design” they will have Jewish skippers and crews.
1936:
Birthdate of American actor Paul Shenar described as being of Turkish and
Jewish ancestry. (Count this as a maybe.)
1936(19th of
Shevat): Yiddish historian and journalist Peter Wiernik passed away
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2016/06/perets-vyernik-peter-wiernik.html
1936:
Birthdate of Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer, a native of Iraq who made Aliyah in
1950. He served in the IDF from 1954 through 1984 and then entered into a
successful political career that included service as the Minister of Defense
and Deputy Prime Minister.
1937: U.S.
Premiere of “On the Avenue,” with a story and songs by Irving Berlin and Samuel
Pokrass, co-starring the Ritz Brothers.
1937: Wilhelm
Zoellner resigned as head of the Confessing Church “after the Gestapo had
denied him the right to visit some imprisoned pastors.”
1938(11th
of Adar I, 5698): Parashat Tetzaveh
1938: Rabbi
William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Great Jews of Today” at
Temple Israel.
1938: Rabbi
Louis I Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon “The Religion of Abraham
Lincoln” today at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1938: Rabbi
Nathan Perilman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Makes a Thing
Jewish?” today at Temple Emanu-El
1938: Rabbi
Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to give a sermon today on “Lincoln and God” at the
Central Synagogue.
1938: During
the Spanish Civil War, The Botwin Company, a Jewish unit of the Polish
Dombrowski Brigade went into action in the Sierra Quemeda near Belal Alcazar.
1938: Hitler
met with Chancellor Schuschinigg of Austria, claiming that the acts of Austria
were treasonous. Hitler put forth extreme written demands designed to make way
for Nazism in Austria. Hitler threatened to end a civil relationship between
their two countries.
1938: In
Rumania, Jews did not have to prove their citizenship today as originally
ordered by the government because the Juridical Committee ruled that the decree
calling into question “the citizenship of Rumania’s 750,000 Jews” was
unconstitutional “because it singled out one class of citizens, namely the
Jews, for special treatment by forcing them and only them to prove
citizenship.” (Editor’s Note – this is one more example of the anti-Semitism
that was prevalent in Europe in the inter-war years which helps to explain why
the Germans were so successful in their implementation of the Final Solution.)
1938: In
Elizabeth, NJ, homemaker Esther (née Rosenfeld) and dentist Ralph Sussman gave
birth to Judith Sussman who gained fame as author Judy Blume. “Her most famous
book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; focused on an 11-year-old
girl being brought up by Jewish and non-Jewish parents, and the difficulties
she faced in trying to decide which religion to follow.” http://www.judyblume.com/
1939: Robert
Briscoe, a member of the Irish Parliament delivered an address at Temple Rodeph
Sholem tonight in which he expressed his support for “Palestine as a homeland
for the Jewish people.”
1939:
Birthdate of Leon Richard Kass the Chicago born son of “Yiddish speaking,
secular, socialist” Jewish immigrants whose exciting life has included
everything from Civil Rights Summer with his wife Amy Apfel to serving as
chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics during the George Bush’s first
term in the White House.
http://www.aei.org/scholar/leon-r-kass/
1940: The
British War Cabinet discussed the 1939 White Paper to limit Jewish land
purchase in Palestine. Despite a protest from Churchill, the land
limitation regulations would be put into force.
1940:
The Nazis began the first mass deportation of Germans Jews to Poland.
1940:
Among those attending the American Jewish Congress Conference which is
scheduled to meet today for the second and final time is Rabbi M.L. Perlzweig,
“the head of the North Western London Reform Synagogue.
1941: The
Nazis established the Jewish Council for Amsterdam under Abraham Asscher,
prominent Amsterdam businessman and David Cohen, a professor of ancient history
at the Municipal University of Amsterdam.
1941: In
Amsterdam, German soldiers, assisted by Dutch police, encircled the old Jewish
neighborhood and cordoned it off from the rest of the city by putting up barbed
wire, opening bridges and putting in police checkpoints which meant that this
neighborhood was now forbidden for non-Jews effectively making it a Ghetto.
1941:
Occupation Police arrested the "Jewish Foursome"1942(25th of Shevat, 5702): The Nazis rounded up and
murdered 3,000 Jews in the Ukrainian town of Brailov. The Jewish community in
the Shtetel of Brailov can be traced back at least to the start of the 17th
century. After the war Brailov was the subject of a 52-minute documentary
called “Judenfrei: A Shtetl Without Jews.”
1942:
At Kibbutz Mishmar HaSharon, Esther (née Godin) and Yisrael Mendel Brog gave
birth to Ehud Brog, the eldest of their four sons who gained fame as Ehud
Barak, the Chief of Staff of the IDF who would later serve as Prime Minister of
Israel.
1942(25th
of Shevat, 5702): Avraham Stern was killed after being captured by British
authorities in Tel Aviv. Stern was the leader of Lechi a Hebrew acronym
for Lohamei Cherut Israel, "Fighters for the Freedom of
Israel", לח"י - לוחמי חירות ישראל) also
known as the Stern Gang. The Polish born Stern had become progressively
more violent as he moved from the Haganah, to the Irgun, to his own Stern
Gang. Stern reportedly approached the German and Italian regimes offering
to swap helping them in defeating the British for the creation of a Jewish
state. Needless to say, the leaders of the Yishuv disowned Stern and his
gang, labeling them as terrorists operating in a way unacceptable to the Jewish
community.
1942: Six
months after having been released in the United Kingdom, “Pimpernel Smith”
directed and produced by Leslie Howard (born Leslie Howard Steiner), who also
starred in this “updated” version of portrayal in “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and
was filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released in the United States
today.
1943: Aizik
Feder smuggled a letter out of Drancy, France, to his wife. "Tomorrow I am
leaving. . . Courage! Courage! Courage!" The next day he is one of 1,000
Jews sent to Auschwitz. He and 311 others were tattooed with a number. The rest
were killed. Only 20 of the 311 would survive the war.
1943: “Journey
into Fear” a spy film with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and edited by Mark
Robson was released in the United States today.
1943 As
documented by his secretaries, Heinrich Himmler visited Sobibor today.
1944:
Incendiary bombs that exploded simultaneously in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv
tonight damaged immigration offices in all three cities. The bombings
were thought to be the work of those who sought to destroy the buildings where
the anti-Jewish immigration policies are given practical application.
“Responsible Jewish” leaders expressed their disapproval of the “criminal
methods of fighting the immigration issue.”
1945: Today,
Albert Maltz wrote an article for the New
Masses calling for more intellectual freedom in the Communist Party in
which he said, "It has been my conclusion for some time that much of the
left-wing artistic activity - both creative and critical - has been restricted,
narrowed, tuned away from life, sometimes made sterile - because the atmosphere
and thinking of the literary left-wing had been based upon a shallow
approach... I have come to believe that the accepted understanding of art as a
weapon is not a useful guide, but a straitjacket. I have felt this in my own
works and viewed it in the works or others. In order to write at all, it has
long since become necessary for me repudiate it and abandon it."
1945: A second
funeral service was scheduled to be held this afternoon at 2 o’clock for
98-year-old, the veteran of the U.S. Navy who is “said to have been the last
survivor of the eight thousand Jewish soldiers who fought on the Union side
during the Civil War.
1945: The
Jewish War Veterans are scheduled to hold a funeral at three o’clock for U.S.
Navy Civil War veteran Daniel Harris at the Union Temple in Brooklyn followed
by burial at Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn.
1946: Today,
Rabbi Baruch Korff announced, “the formation of a Political Action Committee
for Palestine to contribute to the goal of Zionism by enlisting the aid of
American political leaders and to engage the interest of those at the helm of
world leadership.”
1947(22nd of
Shevat, 5707): German born social psychologist, Dr. Kurt Lewin, a believer in
Gestalt psychology, and a veteran of the Kaiser’s Army who came to United
States in 1933 and became a U.S. citizen in 1940 passed away today
1947(22nd of
Shevat, 5707): Eighty-one-year-old Moses Gomberg the born son of Maryam-Ethel
Reznikova and Hershko (Hirsh) Gomberg who was a professor of Chemistry at his
alma mater, the University of Michigan, and who is considered to be “the father
of radical chemistry.”
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/gomberg-moses.pdf
1948: At Lake
Success, NY, “The Palestine Commission reached agreement today on "all
major points" of its special report to the Security Council calling for an
international armed force to enable it to implement the partition of the Holy
Land.”
1949(13th
of Shevat, 5709): Parashat Beshalach
1949: “The
Quiet One,” with an “original screen play by Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb and
Sidney Meyers; directed by Sidney Meyers and produced by Janice Loeb” opened
today “at the Little Carnegie” in New York.
1949: An
unidentified aircraft bombed Jerusalem. Based on various sources the
plane might have been Egyptian or British.\=
1949: In
Berlin, Litzi Friedman and Georg Honigmann, the chief editor of the Berliner
Zeitung gave birth to German author and dramatist Barbara Honigmann.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Litzi_Friedmann.htm
1950: Albert
Einstein warned against the building of the hydrogen bomb.
1950: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this morning Park West Memorial for
Lithuanian native Israel Matz, the founder and president of Ex-Lax, Inc, the
famous laxative company and husband of Gussie H. Matz who as “pioneer Zionist
widely known for his philanthropies and his work in re-establishing Hebrew as a
living language…”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/matz-israel
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that 20 persons were injured in the course of a
Communist demonstration held in Tel Aviv by the Israel-USSR Friendship League.
Skirmishes broke out, outside the previously bombed Soviet Legation, between
Communists and Israelis outraged by the recent vicious anti-Semitic and
anti-Israeli Soviet campaign. The Soviet Ambassador, Mr. Pavel Yershov,
received Mr. S. Mikunis and Dr. Moshe Sneh, in the presence of reporters, an
unusual diplomatic occurrence. Israeli police arrested 27 persons in connection
with the bombing of the Soviet Legation. Moscow radio accused Israeli police of
a "clear connivance" in the bombing.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that in his address to UN officers, Syrian Colonel
Ghassan Shabib, a senior Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission delegate had
declared, "This country has no room for both peoples. There should be
either Jews or Arabs."
1954(9th
of Adar I, 5714): Fifty-eight-year-old David Abelevich Kaufman the Soviet
documentary director known as Dziga Vertov whose brother Mikhail, and Boris and
wife Elzaveta Svilova were also film makers, passed away today in Moscow.
1955(20th
of Shevat, 5715): Parashat Yitro
1955(20th
of Shevat, 5715): Seventy-four-year-old German dramatist Julius Dab, a
cofounder of the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden who escaped to the United States in
1939 passed away today in Roslyn Heights, NY.
https://www.lbi.org/digibaeck/results/?qtype=pid&term=431122
1956(30th
of Shevat, 5716): Forty-six-year-old German born Israeli journalist Ezriel
Carlebach died of a heart attack. There is no way that this blog can do just to
the fascinating life of this man, whom if you did not know he was real, would
swear that Ian Fleming or David Baldacci, had created for one of their novels.
1958: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held at noon today for Hyman Bookinder, the
husband of Rose Bookbinder and father of Matthew, Louis, Charles, William,
George and Sidney Bookbinder, the latter of whom was a member of the Free
Dental Clinic and the Sidney Friedman Association.
1959: The
Prime Minster officially opened the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, “an outdoor
performance venue in Melbourne” the construction of which was “inspired by
businessman and philanthropist Sidney Myer.”
1961:
Birthdate of New York City native University of Chicago (MA and Ph.D.) educated
anthropologist a David Rolfe Garber and husband of Nika Dubrovsky
whose “bestselling books on bureaucracy and economics included Bullshit Jobs: A
Theory and Debt: The First 5,000 Years” passed away today.
1963(18th
of Shevat, 5723): Eighty-three-year-old Rebecca Jacobson, the daughter of
Abraham Moses Jacobson and Sara Leah Jacobson passed away today.
1964: The
Beatles performed at a sold-out concert in Carnegie Hall arranged by impresario
Sid Bernstein who repeated the same success later with the Rolling Stones.
1964: A
funeral service for fifty-year old Arnold Manoff, he author and scriptwriter
who was a victim of the HUAC blacklist is scheduled to take place at Riverside
Memorial Chapel where his two sons Thomas and Michael; his two daughters Dinah
Beth Manoff and Mrs. Eva Russo; his mother Mrs. Gussie Manoff; and his sisters
Mrs. Sophie Parsons and Mrs. Flora Blum will say their final farewells.
1965: In the
Rhawnhurst neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Ruben Amaro, Sr., “a Marrano
Sephardic Mexican-Cuban and Judy Amaro-Perez (née Herman), the descendant of
Russian Jews gave birth to baseball player and executive Ruben Amaro, Jr.
1966(22nd
Shevat, 5726): Yitro
1966:
Birthdate of Mario Javier Saban, the native of Buenos Aires who “who is
descended from Spanish Jews who took refuge in the Ottoman Empire” and is the
author of the best-selling Converted Jews.
http://www.tarbutsefarad.com/index.php?lang=en
1966: The 40th
anniversary dinner dance of the Physicians Wives League of Greater New York
whose president is Mrs. Louis Wexler is scheduled to take place today at the
Waldorf-Astoria under the chairmanship of Mrs. Seymour Grossman.
1966: Today,
“Rabbi Morris Adler, longtime leader of the Conservative synagogue Sha’arey
Zedek, in suburban Detroit, was shot in front of his congregation by a mentally
disturbed young member, who then turned his gun on himself.”
1969(24th
of Shevat, 5729): Sixty-one-year-old James Joseph Packman, the native of Biala
who came to the United States in 1910 and carved out a career as a “banker,
journalist and publicist passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9D06E1D6153DE134BC4B52DFB4668382679EDE
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15314.html
1969: In
Brooklyn, public school teachers Charlotte and Abraham Aronofsky, who are
Conservative Jews of Ukrainian Jewish descent gave birth to film director
Darren Aronofsky
1969: “Paul Zukofsky,
who is to the contemporary violin literature what Joan of Arc was to the
Dauphin, tonight negotiated the second of his three concerts this season,
collectively entitled "Music for the 20th-Century Violin.”
1970(6th
of Adar I, 5730): Sixty-eight-year-old “novelist and screenwriter” Samuel Guy
Endore, born Samuel Goldstein, passed away today.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2p30043h/
1971(17th of Shevat 5731):
Seventy-two-year-old Chicago native Edwin Silverman, the husband of Velma
Silverman and father of Susan, Jack, and Alan Silverman with Sidney Spiegel,
Jr., (the grandson of the founder of Spiegel Catalog) co-founded the Essaness Theatre
Corporation and founded WSNS-TV passed away today.
1971(17th of Shevat, 5731):
Seventy-year-old Nelson Glueck, American Jewish archaeologist. Director of the
American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem between 1932 and 1947, he
explored and dated over 1,000 ancient sites in Palestine and the Near East. One
of his popular works was Rivers in the Desert passed away today.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0160/ms0160.html
1971:
Birthdate of Antwerp native Nathan Kahan middle distance runner who represented
Belgium in the 2000 Olympics and later became a sport psychologist.
1973(10th of
Adar I, 5733): British composer Benjamin Frankel passed away at the age of
67. Born to Polish parents who had moved to England, the first major work
to bring Frankel to wider public attention was the Violin Concerto dedicated
" In memory of the six million'", a reference to the Jews slaughtered
in the Holocaust.
http://www.musicweb-international.com/frankel/
1974: In New
York, Merryl Shaffir and Holocaust survivor Nat Shaffir gave birth University of Maryland graduate Ari David
Shaffir “an American comedian, actor, podcaster, writer, and producer” who
produces and hosts the Skeptic Tank podcast.
1977(24th
of Shevat, 5737): Parashat Yitro
1977(24th
of Shevat, 5737): Seventy-eight-year-old Washington, DC native and National
University Law School trained attorney Nathan Cayton who when appointed as a
Judge of the DC Municipal Court “was the youngest man ever to be appointed to a
judicial position in the District of Columbia” passed away today.
https://prabook.com/web/nathan.cayton/931886
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the US Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, called
on Israel to cease all settlement activities in the administered areas and
dismantle the existing ones in the Rafiah salient.
1979(15th
of Shevat, 5739): Tu B’Shevat
1979(15th
of Shevat, 5739): Seventy-year old Abraham Belsky, the Philadelphia born son of
Louis and Esther Pripstein Belsky and husband of Fannie Turnoff Belsky passed a
way today In Philadelphia after which he was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park
in Trevose, PA.
1980(25th of
Shevat, 5740): Muriel Rukeyser, poet and political activist, best known
for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism, passed
away. “Her poem To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century (1944), on the
theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and
Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said
‘astonished’ her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early
life.”
1982: “One
from the Heart” a musical based on a story by Armyan Bernstein who co-authored
the screenplay and featuring Allen Garfield was released today in the United
States.
1982: U.S.
premiere of “Making Love,” “one of the earliest films to deal with
homosexuality” directed by Arthur Hiller, co-produced by Daniel Melnick with a
story by A. Scott Berg.
1982: “Quest
for First” a film adaptation of the 1911 Belgian novel co-starring Ron Perlman
was released in the United States today.
1982: “Policemen
burst into the apartment of refusenik Mikhail Nekrasov during a lesson. They
confiscated Hebrew textbooks, dictionaries, and cassettes and warned students
to stop attending Hebrew classes and seminars. Nekrasov was told that he would
lose his Moscow residence permit if he did not stop teaching Hebrew.”
1986: After
spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, human rights activist
Anatoly Scharansky was released. The amnesty deal was arranged by Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a summit meeting
three months earlier. Scharansky was imprisoned for his campaign to win the
right for Russian Jews, officially forbidden to practice Judaism, to emigrate
from the USSR. Convicted of treason and agitation, Soviet authorities also
labeled him an American spy. After his release, he immigrated to Israel, where
he was given a hero's welcome. Later, as a member of Israel's parliament, he
was an outspoken defender of Russian Jews.
1989(7th
of Adar I, 5749): Ninety-three year old Esther Untermann, a graduate of Panzer
College in East Orange, NJ who in 1944 became “Judge of the Newark Second and
Third Criminal Courts” following the death of her husband Judge William
Untermann whom she followed in that position and who was so involved civic
activity that she was referred to as “Newark’s original organization woman” and
as “First Lady of Essex” passed away today after which she was “buried
alongside her husband at the King Solomon Memorial Park in Clifton.”
1989: The
Solomon Mikhoels Cultural Center, which is based at the Moscow Jewish Musical
Chamber Theater, was dedicated today.
1990(17th
of Shevat, 5750): Eighty-nine-year-old Nat Homan “one of the younger brothers
of Hall of Fame coach and player Nat Holman who played for NYU and helped the
school with the AAU championship passed away today.
1990: Vanities
on the Bonfire published today described the fall from financial grace of
Peter Cohen, Chairman of Shearson Lehman Hutton.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/printout/0,8816,969389,00.html
1990: In “As
Jerusalem Labors to Settle Soviet Jews, Native Israelis Slip Quietly Away,”
published today Joel Brinkley describes Israel’s attempts to deal with the
challenge of Yoradim.
1991: In the
early morning hours Iraq carried out its 13th Scud attack. The Scud
was hit by the Patriot over a populated section of Tel Aviv and flaming missile
parts slammed into the city. At least seven people were lightly injured. The
Army reported extensive damage to houses and businesses. Rescue workers, firemen
and ambulance crews rushed to the scene and set up barricades to keep curious
neighbors away from the damaged area. The light injuries were typical of those
sustained by hundreds of Israelis in three weeks of Scud missile attacks by
Iraq. Most people have been hurt by shrapnel, flying glass, falling furniture
or shock. One man was killed when his house collapsed during an early Scud
attack, and three elderly Israelis died of heart failure during another assault
1991: The
first Lincoln Prize, funded by Lewis Lehrman, was awarded today to “film-maker
Ken Burns for his Civil War Series on PBS” that was narrated by Shelby
Foote. (Lehrman and Foote were Jewish; Burns was not)
1991: The
Knesset passed a law whereby a Knesset member who changed political parties
while still able to serve and vote in the Knesset itself, could not be made a
Minister or a deputy minister and could not be promised a seat in the next
Knesset.
1993: U.S.
premiere of “Groundhog Day,” the classic comedy directed by Harold Ramis who
also co-authored the script.
1994(1st
of Adar, 5754): Parashat Terumah; Shabbat Shekalim; Rosh Chodesh Adar
1995(12th of
Adar I, 5755): Ninety-eight-year-old basketball legend Nat Holman passed away
today in the Bronx. (As reported by Sam Goldpaper)
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/13/obituaries/nat-holman-is-dead-at-98-led-ccny-champions.html
http://digital-archives.ccny.cuny.edu/exhibits/holman/intro.html
1996(22nd of
Shevat, 5756): Eighty-three year old
Austrian opera singer Désirée Louise Anna Ernestine "Dési" von
Halban the daughter of Josef von Halban and Selma von Halban passed away today
in the Netherlands.
1998: Yehuda
Lev writes about “The Truth About the Media and Jews.”
http://www.jewishjournal.com/articles/item/the_truth_about_the_media_and_jews_19980213
1999: Eight
months after opening in the United States, “My Giant” a comedy starring Billy
Crystal who also served as producer and wrote the script along with David
Seltzer was released in the United States today.
2000(6th
of Adar I, 5760): Parashat Terumah
2000: “Just
after headlines here pronounced an easing of this week's heightened violence in
southern Lebanon, Shiite Muslim guerrillas killed another Israeli soldier
today, and Israeli warplanes responded swiftly with air strikes at suspected
guerrilla targets.”
2001: “In a
housewarming present for Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, Palestinian gunmen
fired tonight toward the Israeli neighborhood of Gilo, on the outskirts of
Jerusalem, for the first time in more than a month.”
2002(30th
of Shevat, 5762): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2002(30th
of Shevat, 5672): One hundred eleven year old Theresa Bernstein, the Krakow
native who became a leading American artist passed away today. (As reported by
Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/16/arts/theresa-bernstein-an-ash-can-school-artist-dies-at-111.html
http://forward.com/articles/189491/why-theresa-bernstein-was-the-jewish-artist-of-the/
2003: “A
recorded message apparently made by Osama bin Laden called on Muslims today to
repulse any United States attempt to invade Iraq, urging them to apply the
lessons learned by Al Qaeda, his terror network” and reminding them of “a
Koranic verse against taking Christians and Jews as allies” and the
effectiveness of suicide attacks that had been carried out in Israel.”
2004: Mattel
announced the split of Barbie and Ken. Barbie and Ken were named for the
children of Jewish businesswoman Ruth Handler, the guiding light behind Mattel
who gave the world these iconic toys.
2005: In “A
View of Democracy, Forged in Totalitarian Prison” published today, Roger Cohen
reviewed The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny
and Terror by Nathan Sharansky,
2006:
Professional Indian-Jewish cricketer played for Saurashtra in their match
against Maharashtra
2006: The
New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins (Jewish
father, Anglican mother)
2007: Bar-Ilan
University is resisting pressure to fire history professor Ariel Toaff for
writing a book arguing that there is a factual basis to some of the blood
libels against the Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages, university president
Moshe Kaveh's media consultant said today.
2008: The 12th
New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with showings “Italian Jewish
History and Identity,” two programs of documentaries,
television shorts and fiction films exploring little-known aspects of Italian
Jewish history and identity presented by Centro Primo Levi
2008: James
L. Kugel, a professor of Hebrew at Harvard University from 1982 to 2003,
discusses How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now at
the D.C. Jewish Community Center.
2008: The
social component of the Oscar award season kicked off for Beaufort with
a screening and reception sponsored by the Israeli consulate and the
entertainment division of the Jewish Federation.
2008: The
city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted this afternoon to designate as a
landmark what is believed to be the oldest structure in Queens built as a
synagogue. Estée Lauder once worshipped there, and Madonna once lived at a
former yeshiva nearby. The synagogue, Congregation Tifereth Israel, at 109-18
54th Avenue in Corona, was built in 1911, when only 20,000 or so of New York’s
1.5 million Jews lived in Queens, according to a report by Kathryn E. Horak, a
researcher at the commission.
2009: The
American Friends of Tel Aviv University present a lecture by Professor Asher
Susser, one of Israel's foremost policy analysts and a director of Tel Aviv
University's Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies entitled
"After the Vote: What's Next for Israel?"
2009: In
Australia, a program sponsored by the Arts Centre to mark the 50th anniversary
of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl began today.
2009: Eric
Weissberg joined the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College orchestra
and chorus, along with the Riverside Inspirational Choir and NYC Labor Choir,
in honoring Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday at the Riverside Church in New
York City. Under the direction of Maurice Peress, they performed Earl
Robinson's "The Lonesome Train: A Music Legend for Actors, Folk Singers,
Choirs, and Orchestra" in which Weissberg was the banjo player.
2009: By a
voice vote, the New York State Senate confirmed the appointment of Jonathan
Lippman as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals.
2009: Career
U.S. diplomat Maclom Toon who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel passed away
today.
2009: One
Hundred Years Ago today, WEB Dubois, Julius Rosenthal, Lillian Wald, Rabbi Emil
G. Hirsch, Stephen Wise and Henry Malkewitz formed the NAACP
http://israeljewishnews.blogspot.com/2009/02/in-1909-web-dubois-julius-rosenthal.html
2010: The
Winter Olympics are scheduled to open in Vancouver, Canada. Israel will field a
team of three in Vancouver: Mykhaylo Renzyhn, an alpine skier originally from
Latvia, and the brother-sister duo Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky, born in
Belarus, who compete in ice dancing. Chicago native Ben Agosto, a 2006 Olympic
silver medalist, is returning to compete in the ice-dancing pairs. Steve
Mesler, a bobsledder from Buffalo, N.Y., is back for his third Olympics.
Laura Spector, 22, had qualified for the U.S. Olympic biathlon team that will
be competing this month in Vancouver.
2010:
Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim an exhibition featuring
the work of Tel Aviv native Dror Benshtrit is scheduled to open at the Solomon
Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
2010: The
Israel Defense Forces thwarted an attempted stabbing attack by a Palestinian in
Hebron today.
2010: IDF
soldiers opened artillery and gun fire on a group of four Palestinians rigging
explosives near the Gaza border.
2010: Anders
Hogstrom was arrested today in Stockholm for allegedly ordering the theft of
the metal sign reading “Arbeit macht frei” from the front gate at
Auschwitz. He was reportedly acting as angent for an unnamed British Nazi
sympathizer who wanted to own the sign.
2010(1 Adar,
5770): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2010(1 Adar,
5770): Seventy-one-year-old Allan Kornblum, who helped steer the F.B.I. into
the post-J. Edgar Hoover era by drafting guidelines for its surveillance
operations in the 1970s, and whose testimony helped convict the murderer of a
black man in a celebrated civil rights case revived nearly 40 years after the
event, died today in Gainesville, Fla. (As reported by Patricia Sullivan)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/14/AR2010021403994.html
2010: The Art
Market Monitor reported that The Jewish Museum in New York went shopping in
London last week, where it bought a 1913 painting by Vuillard at Christie’s.
The museum paid $464,430 for the painting, well above its $288,554 high
estimate. The money was provided by a patron who wishes to remain anonymous.
2011: The
Matchmaker, “enchanting coming-of-age drama that tells the story of a
relationship between an Israeli teen and a Holocaust survivor who makes ends
meet by brokering marriages and has been nominated for 7 Israeli Academy
Awards, including Best Film, is scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish
Film Festival.
2011: “The
Yankles” and “Army of Crime” are scheduled to be shown at the 21st
Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Egypt's
ruling military reassured its international allies today that there would be no
break in its peace deal with Israel following the ouster of President Hosni
Mubarak
2011(8th
of Adar I, 5771): Ninety-six-year Sofia Cosma, the concert pianist who survived
the Gulag, passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/22/local/la-me-sofia-cosma-20110222
http://www.suitcasefullofchocolate.com/wordpress/sofia-cosma/
2012: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “All The Time In The World: New
and Selected Stories” by E. L. Doctorow.
2012: “Ahead
of Time” and “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” are scheduled to be shown at
the Athens Jewish Film Festival in Athens, GA.
2012:
As we celebrate the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, Edmon
Rodman, has suggested that we take some time to remember Alfred W. Stern a
Jewish clothing manufacturing executive who was “one of the greatest private
collectors of works about Abraham Lincoln. (As reported by Edmon J. Rodman for
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
2012: A man was killed and three others were injured in an attack
by the Israeli Air Force on tunnels and a weapons depot in the Gaza Strip
today.
2012: The Israel Air Force may stop the production of the Iron
Dome and David Sling missile interception systems in 2012 as a result of
insufficient funds, a military budget breakdown revealed today.
2013:
In Philadelphia, PA, the NFL held a memorial tribute honoring the life of Steve
Sabol Z”L and his contributions to professional football through “NFL Films”
which he founded with his father Ed.
2013:
A multi week-course entitled “The Supreme Court in the Age of Holmes and
Brandeis” is scheduled to begin this afternoon. How the scion of a prominent
New England family and Kentucky-born son of Jewish immigrants came to make
common bond on the High Court should make for a fascinating trip through the
legal and social history of the United States.
2013:
“The Final Journey of King Herod the Great” is scheduled to open today at the
Israel Museum. (As reported by Jessica Steinberg)
2013:
Prisoner X,” who hanged himself in an Israeli jail in 2010, was an Australian
citizen who worked for the Mossad but apparently committed a heinous crime,
perhaps treason, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported today.
2013:
Emergency services in Jerusalem were placed on high alert today due to
intelligence reports of a terror threat to the capital.
2013:
Merrick Garland assumed the office of Chief Judge of United States Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia Cirucit.
2013:
Journalist and author Joshua “Lehrer publicly apologized for his plagiarism and
fabrications in a speech before the Knight Foundation” today
2014:
The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to present “Threshold to the Sacred:
The Ark Door of Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue.”
2014:
“Zaytoun” and “Aftermath” are scheduled to be shown at the 14th Annual Jewish
Film Festival at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center
2014:
“The Eleventh Day – The Survivors of Munich 1972” – a documentary in which the
seven Israeli Olympians who survived the massacre tell their own story – is
scheduled to be shown at San Diego’s Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
“Some of France’s most esteemed culinary artists, including the head chef at
the official residence of the French president, are scheduled to join the
kitchens of some of Israel’s most popular restaurants, from Haifa to Beersheva,
for a week of special menus and fusion cuisine.”
2014: One
hundred fifth anniversary of the founding the NAACP, America’s leading Civil
Rights organization whose founding 6 members included Dr. Henry Moskowitz
2014:’Israeli
pairs skaters Evgeni Krasnopolsky and Andrea Davidovich finished the free skate
finals in 15th place in the Sochi Winter Olympics today.”
2014(12th
of Adar I, 5774): Ninety-one-year-old comedian and early giant of live
nighttime television Sid Caesar passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/sid-caesar-comic-genius-of-1950s-television-dies-at-91/
2014(12th
of Adar I 5774): Eighty-four-year-old New York real estate developer William
Zeckendor, Jr. passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2015: In
Skokie, Illinois, Lyric Opera Orchestra is scheduled to perform chamber music
by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, composer of The Passenger at Illinois Holocaust Museum
& Education Center
2015: The
Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host the Commemoration of the 70th
Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz which was re-scheduled from January
27.
2015: The Legacy Council at the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “The History of Matchmaking in the Jewish Community” with Dr. Ruth
Westheimer.
2015(23rd of Shevat, 5775): Seventy-year-old
Harvey J. Goldschmid who was appointed to the Securities and Exchange
Commission by President Bush in 2002 passed away today. (As reported by Julie
Creswell)
2015(23rd of Shevat, 5775):
Ninety-one-year-old nuclear physicist Ernest Sternglass passed away today. (As
reported by Kenneth Chang)
2015: The
Skirball Center is scheduled to host a Night of Israeli Cinema.
http://emanuelskirballnyc.org/events/israeli-cinema/
2015:
Observance of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the 16th President of the
United States who is the subject Lincoln and the Jews: A History by
Jonathan Sarna and Benjamin Shapell published this year which should be as
informative and interesting as Sarna’s previous Civil War efforts Jews and
the Civil War and When Grant Expelled the Jews.
2016: Today
the New York Historical Society announced today that Eric Foner’s Gateway to
Freedom: The History of the Underground Railroad has received The American
History Book Prize.
2016: “Flory’s
Flame,” a “documentary about the life and music of renowned 90-year old
Sephardic composer and performer Flory Jagoda” and “Peggy Guggenheim” a
documentary about the famous art patron are scheduled to be shown at the San
Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2016:
Anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Below is a potpourri of articles
about Lincoln and the Jewish people. Of
course, Lincoln’s greatness transcends all of this. The totality of the man was certainly greater
than the sum of all of his parts.
http://www.jhsgw.org/exhibitions/online/lincolns-city/exhibits/show/mr-lincolns-city/essays/holzer
http://forward.com/culture/217863/abraham-lincolns-greatest-gift-to-the-jews/
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/190291/rediscovering-lincolns-jewish-connections
2017(16th of Shevat,
5777): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of Rabbi Sholom Mordechai Schwadron,
the son of Rabbi Moshe Schwadron, the father of Isaac Schwadron, the rabbi of
Khotymyr and the grandfather of Rabbi Sholom Schwadron, “the Maggid of
Jerusalem.
2017: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish
Book Center is scheduled to host a screening of “The Venice, Ghetto, 500 Years
of Life,” a film that “tells the story of the oldest ghetto in Europe (which
marks its 500th anniversary this year) and of Venice’s Jewish community, seen
through the eyes of a Jewish teenager from New York visiting family in the
city.”
2017: “After 11 scoreless games Mike
Brown was released from his position with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
2017: “The Pardes Institute of Jewish
Studies, together with the London Partnership Minyan are” scheduled to present
“a shiur by Rav Rahel Berkovits on ‘Women Rabbis and the Nature of Halakha.’”
2017: “Nazi Persecution of
Homosexuals 1933-1945” – a traveling exhibition of the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum is scheduled to open today at UNC Asheville.
https://www.ushmm.org/online/calendar/eventDetails.php?event=TEPERSHOMONC0217
2017: “Scots Jews: Photographs by
Judah Passow” is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum in London
today.
2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Genius of Judaism by
Bernard-Henri Lévy, The Attack by Loïc Dauvillier, The Arab of the Future by
Riad Sattouf, Rolling Blackouts by Sarah Glidden and Black Edge: Inside
Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on
Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar that provides a detailed account on which
examines the career of hedge fund manager Steven A. Cohen.
2018: The Oxford University Jewish
Society is scheduled to co-host the Interfaith Formal at Trinity College this
evening.
2018: “Alouette” and “Maydeleh and
the Prisoner” are scheduled to be shown at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival
as a part of the “Joyce Forum – A Day of Short Films.”
2018: The Streicker Center is
scheduled to host Dr. Avivah Zornberg lecturing on “Narratives of Redemption:
Trauma and Healing.”
2018: Today, “the Trump
administration denied Prime Minister Netanyahu’s claim that the US and Israel
were discussing proposals for Israel to annex West Bank Settlements.” (As
reported by Eric Cortellessa)
2018: Celebrate the 209th
Anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln by reading Lincoln and the Jews by
Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin Shapell.
2019: The Center For Jewish History
and the American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present a with
Adina Hoffman, author of Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures and
Columbia University Professor Phillip Lopate
2019: The Mandel Public Library of
West Palm Beach, FL is scheduled to host “How Did American Act? Heroism on the
Home Front” which includes a look at home some women sounded “the alarm about
the plight of Europe’s Jews”
https://www.ushmm.org/online-calendar/event/seuswomenactpp0219
2019: As we celebrate the 210th
anniversary of Abraham Lincoln, whom some compared with Moses because of their
roles in freeing slaves we might do well to remember the words and life of a
man who lived a life that would have made the Biblical prophets proud. http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln2.asp
2020: In Danvers, MA, the Davenport
Yacht Club is scheduled to host the Combined Jewish Philanthropies’
Conversation for Action.
2020: In Boston, the first of a
two-part learning for young adults is scheduled to explore the “two hallmarks
of Shabbat – hospitality and challah.”
2020: In Los Altos Hills, CA,
Congregation Beth Am is scheduled to host a “briefing by HIAS Senior Vice
President Raphael Marcus on the current situation in Central and Latin
America.”
2020: In Berkley, CA, Chochmat HaLev
is scheduled to host “Elijah the Prophet: The Man Who Never Died, “the first in
a “workshop series led by Daniel Matt on the significance of the prophet.”
2020: In London, JW3 is scheduled to
host the penultimate screening of “The Unorthodox.”
2020: Catchers and Pitchers for Theo
Epstein’s Chicago Cubs are scheduled to report today marking the start of
Spring Training.
2020: Observance of Lincoln’s
birthday which could lead to reading
Lincoln and the Jews by Jonathan D. Sarna and Benjamin
Shapell or The Elected and the Chosen by Denis Brian.
https://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-Jews-Jonathan-D-Sarna/dp/1250059534
2021(30th of Shevat,
7801): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2021: The “first episode of LUNAR:
The Jewish-Asian Film Project” premiered today.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/12/2021/first-episode-lunar-jewish-asian-film-project-premieres
2021: The American Jewish Historical
Society, for which Mitchell Levin is an “official content provider, is
scheduled to present “Sexing American Jewish History” during which participants
are scheduled answer the questions “What differences have Jews and Judaism made
in the history of American sexuality?” and “How has sexuality shaped the
history of American Jews and Judaism?”
2021: Congregation Beth Elohim is
scheduled to present online “Potential and Peril: Attempting to Live a Life of
Jewish Values with Ruth Messinger, the “social justice consultant, educator and
former CEO of American Jewish World Service (AJWS) who is the
scholar-in-residence.
2021: Birthday of Abraham Lincoln who
counted among his friends and supporters attorney Abraham Jonas of Quincey,
Illinois, publisher Sigmund Kaufman and chiropodist Dr. Isachar Zacharie and
who struck a blow for full religious liberty when he made it possible for
Jewish clergy to serve as Chaplains in the U.S. Army.
2022: Congregation Kehillath Israel
is scheduled to present its first-ever “Melaveh Malkah” series,hosted by Kol
Kahol, Boston’s premier Jewish and bluegrass band…
2022: Double Simcha – Observance of
Shabbat coincides with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. For more see https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466864610/lincolnandthejews
2022(11th of Adar I,
5782): Parashat Tetzaveh
2023: The Weekly Daf Yomi Class is
scheduled to present online, the first event marking the study of the tractate of Nazir (“The Nazirite”),
which is the fourth tractate in Seder Nashim (“Order of Women,” which addresses
family law)
2023: In Berkley, CA, Afikomen
Judaica is scheduled to host Natan Margarlit as he discusses The Pearl and the
Flame, his book, which details his journey from a secular upbringing in
Honolulu to Orthodox Judaism in Jerusalem, and back to his own spiritual path.
2023: As part of the Newton Watermark
Project Series, the National Library of Israel is scheduled to host a lecture
by Dr. Marc Adam Kolakowsk on “Towards a Reconstruction of Newton's "Church
History complete": New Methods, New Results?”
2023: The Museum at Eldridge Street
is scheduled to host a walking tour that focuses on “Love and Courtship on the
Lower East Side” as it took place a century ago.
2023: In theatres, the Palm Beach
Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of the documentary “Back
in Berlin.”
2023: In Atlanta, Bagels & Books at The Breman is scheduled
to take place with author and citizen extraordinaire, Janice Rothschild
Blumberg as she is interviewed by her son, Bill Rothschild.
2023: In Israel the Ministerial
Committee on Legislation is scheduled to meet today where Justice Yariv Levin
said the proposed bill criminalizing egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall
will not be discussed. (As reported by Ash Obel and Michael Bachner)
2023: In Massachusetts, Temple Isaiah
is scheduled to celebrate the “New Year of the Trees” by taste testing the
seven species of Israel (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, pomegranates and
dates) as attendees discover them during our nature walk.
2023: The New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Oscar Hammerstein II and the Invention of the Musical by Laurie Winer
and Unscripted: The Epic Battle
for a Media empire and the Redstone Family Legacy by James B. Steward
and Rachel Abrams.
2023: Israeli military search and
rescue experts who had pulled a 9-year-old boy from a collapsed building in
southeastern Turkey, continued their efforts to find more survivors of the
massive earthquake that struck last week.
2023: The Philadelphia Eagles owned
by Jeffery Lurie and led by general manager Howie Roseman are scheduled to play
the Kansas Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
2024: Observance of the 215th
anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president of
the United States who was nominated at the convention by Lewis Naphtali Dembitz,
a Jewish delegate to the Republican Convention from the state of Kentucky.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dembitz-lewis-naphtali
https://web.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/history/lincoln_jews.pdf
2024: As part
of The Morris W. Offit Lecture Series, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host James
S. Snyder, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, who will be in conversation with
artist Zoya Cherkassky, whose installation the 7 October 2023 series is on view
through March 18, 2024.
2024: YWIN
Chicago's is scheduled to host “Eggsplore & Empower: A Reproductive Health
and Genetics Workshop.”
2024: JWI is
scheduled to host a presentation on “Life$avings: Financial Empowerment for
Survivors of Abuse program.”
2024:
Professor Adamiel Kosman is scheduled to host an online lecture on “To be a
light to others": according to the Talmudic story."
https://agnonhouse.org.il/event/%d7%97%d7%95%d7%a9%d7%9a-%d7%90%d7%95%d7%a8-2-2/
2024: As
February 12th, begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 129 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.)
