This Day, February 7, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
457: Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine
Empire. As can be seen from this decree, Leo was no friend of the Jewish
people. "Therefore We, desiring to accomplish what Our Father failed to
effect, do hereby annul all the old laws enacted with reference to the Hebrews,
and We order that they shall not dare to live in any other manner than in
accordance with the rules established by the pure and salutary Christian Faith.
And if anyone of them should be proved to, have neglected to observe the
ceremonies of the Christian religion, and to have returned to his former
practices, he shall pay the penalty prescribed by the law for apostates."
Jews who converted in public but were found practicing “the faith of their
fathers” faced a variety of punishments including loss of estates and
possession, loss of the right to transfer property to their heirs and/or loss
of life.
1413: In Aragon (Spain), Vincente Ferrer
returned and assisted by an apostate Joshua Lorki (Geronimo de Santa Fe), known
to the Jews as Hamegadef (the blasphemer) convinced Anti-Pope Benedict XIII to
stage a disputation at Tortosa. It was presided over by the Pope himself and
lasted for a period of twenty-one months in sixty-nine sessions. The Jews, led
by Vidal Benvenisti and Joseph Albo, were faced with an opening salvo by
Benedict when he made the expected outcome clear. Hamegadef attacked the Talmud
as anti-Christian and urged its banning. None of the Jews' counter-arguments
were officially recorded.
1497: The bonfire of the vanities occurs in
which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like
cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy. For once, the books of the Jews
may have been spared since Savonarola, had expelled the Jews from Florence
earlier in the decade.
1550: Julius III becomes Pope. Julius had
mixed record where it concerned the Jewish people which made better than most
of his contemporaries or others who served as Pope. Julius confirmed the rights
of the Jews in Ancona. “He condemned the blood libel and forbade baptism
of Jewish children without parental consent.” At the same time, he was
unable to stand up against the power of the Holy Office. Under pressure
from the Inquisitor General he collected copies of the Talmud and other Jewish
books and burned them.
1569: The Inquisition is established in South
America. About a half a century after the Spanish landed in South America,
the Inquisition reared its ugly head. Unlike the English colonies founded
in North America in the next century and half, there was no place for religious
toleration in New Spain. Rather the hunt for all manner of backsliders
including Marranos, Conversos or Secret Jews became part of Spanish culture in
the New World. When we study the history of Jews in the New World,
hopefully we will have time to take a side trip to the little-known secret
Jewish communities in what later became Arizona and New Mexico.
1624: The Jamestown City (Virginia)
Census demonstrated that 38-year-old Elias Legardo, a Jew, came to America in
1621 on the ship Abigall. Legardo was one of the earliest Jews in the Colonies.
1649: Birthdate of Pietro Francesco Orsini, who
chose to be called Pope Benedict XIII which led to him confused with the 14th
century anti-Pope Benedict XIII who worked at a mass conversion of the Jews.
1685: A document written today, a copy of which
found its way into the archives of Breslau, “advised against the establishment
of a Hebrew press in Silesia, ‘because there are three very large Jewish
printing establishments at Amsterdam in Holland, whence books are sent by sea
to Danzig and Memel, thus abundantly providing for the Jews of Poland and
Lithuania.’"
1714: In New York, Mordecai Gomez received his
certificate of citizenship today.
1754(15th of Shevat, 5514): Tu
B’Shevat observed for the last time in the U.K. under Prime Minister Henry
Pelham.
1765: In Arnhem, “three Jews, as wardens of the
Jewish congregation, presented a petition stating that the congregation had
greatly increased in numbers, and that their meeting-place for prayer in the
house of Solomon Cohen, which they had used a number of years, had become too
small” which led to them being “requested to prepare a plan and submit a
constitution and by-laws for the government of an incorporated congregation.”
1787: Esther Cohen, the English born daughter
of Jacob Raphael Cohen married Michael Hart today in Philadelphia.
1791: Having passed the “De Judaeis law” which
regulated the treatment of the Jews of Hungary, the Diet today appointed “a
commission to study” ways to ameliorate the conditions under which the Jews of
Hungary lived.
1791: In London, Moses Ancona and the former
Hannah Montefiore gave birth to Moses Montefiore Ancona who lived in Barbados
and Jamaica before settling in Pennsylvania where he used the first name of
Moses, married Mary Ann Knapp, and practiced medicine until he passed away
after contracting pneumonia.
1803(15th of Shevat, 5563): Tu
B’Shevat observed 12 days before the state of Ohio joins the union
1806: Birthdate of Charleston, SC native Henry
Florance, the husband of Mary Levy Florance with whom he had three children –
Sarah, Henry and Alfred.
1808: Henry Hart married Phoebe Myers at the
Hambro Synagogue today.
1812: Birthdate of Charles Dickens. The
author of A Christmas Carol and David Copperfield was not
Jewish. But he did portray Jewish characters in at least two of his
works. The most famous was Fagan in Oliver Twist. Eliza Davis, a
Jewish acquaintance of Dickens, whose husband had purchased Dickens’ London
residence, wrote a famous letter complaining about the Jewish characterization
of Fagan. Dickens saw himself as a friend of the Jews. In his
response he wrote, “Fagin is a Jew because it unfortunately was true of the
time to which the story refers that that class of criminal invariably was a
Jew. But surely, no sensible man or woman…can fail to observe that all of
the rest of the wicked dramatis personae are Christians and the Fagan is called
a Jew, not because of his religion, but because of his race. I have no
feeling toward the Jewish people but a friendly one. I always speak well
of them whether in public or private and bear testimony to their perfect good
faith in transactions as I have had with them.” In Our Mutual Friend,
Dickens created “Mr. Riah” a “totally sympathetic Jewish character notable for
his gentle nature and great dignity.” In a case of what some might
consider role reversal, Mr. Riah falls victim to a gang of Christian
moneylenders. Mrs. Davis recognized Dickens’ sincerity when she gave him
a Hebrew-English Bible as sign that he had “exercised the noblest quality men
can possess – that of atoning for an injury as soon as conscious of having
inflicted it.”
1817: Joel Hart was appointed by President
James Madison United States consul at Leith, Scotland, and remained there in
that capacity until 1832, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice
of medicine. He was well known in Masonic circles in New York City. A native of
Philadelphia, Hart received the degree of M.D. from the Royal College of
Physicians and Surgeons, London and he was one of the charter members of the
Medical Society of the County of New York.
1819: In New York City, Sarah Nathan and Isaac
Mendes Seixas Nathan gave birth to Esther Nathan who became Esther Lazarus when
she married Moses Lazarus.
1821: In London, Rabbi David Aron de Sola, the
Durch born son of Rafeal Arron de Sola and his wife Rebecca de Sola gave birth
to Stella Langer the wife of Julius Langer
1829: One day after he had passed away Raphael
Harris, the son of Rabbi Zvi Lissa and his wife “Kitty” was buried today at the
“Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1833: Eighty-six-year-old Philip Moses was
buried today at the “Plymouth Hoe Burial Ground.”
1833: Birthdate Jefferson Medical College
graduate Jacob Mendez DaCosta, a native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Island and
surgeon in the Union Army responsible for identifying what was known as
“DaCosta’s Syndrome,” a form of ptsd who furthered the study of psychiatry at
the University of Pennsylvania and was the husband of Sarah Frederica Brinton
DaCosta and the father of John M. DaCosta.
1838: Judah Joseph and Elizabeth Marks were
married today at the Great Synagogue.
1838: Moses Levy married Alice Moses at the New
Synagogue today.
1840: Isaac Samuel married Fanny Heilbronner in
Paris, France today.
1841” Three days after he passed away, Henry
Ellis, the son of Zalman Ellis and the brother of Lambert Ellis was buried
today in the UK.
1841: Today, the New Orleans Times-Picayune
reported that Rabbi Abraham Hyam Cohen, the “Minister of Beth Shalome
Congregation of Richmond who had been born in 1779 had “died suddenly” and was
buried at Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond.
1842: In London, Caroline Samuel and Frederick
David Goldsmid gave birth to their third daughter, Isabel Goldsmid.
1845: Birthdate of Yaakov Dovid Wilovsky, the
native of Kobrin, Russia who served as the Rabbi for several European
communities including Vilna before moving to the United States where he was elected
“elder rabbi” by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America and chief rabbi of a
Russian-American synagogue in Chicago Illinois. He passed away in Safed
in 1913.
1848: In West Maitland, Australia Julia and
Lewis Wolfe Levy gave birth to Martha May Levy who became Martha May Cohen when
she married Louis Samuel Cohen
1849(15th of Shevat, 5609): Tu
B’Shevat
1849: Birthdate of Arthur Frankau, “the son of
Bavarian-born Joseph Frankau (previously Frankenau), a Jewish merchant who
moved to London from Frankfurt in 1837,” the husband of Dublin, Ireland, native
Julia Davis, the novelist who wrote under the name of Frank Danby and father of
novelist Gilbert Frankau, who was a managing partner in the family dry goods
business, originally known and Adolph Frankau and Company.
1849(15th of Shevat): Rabbi Nehemiah of
Dubrovno, author of Divrei Nehemiah passed away
1851: In Darmstadt, Germany, David Simon and
Elise Simon gave birth to Joseph Simon, a German immigrant who serve as U.S.
Senator from Oregon and Mayor of Portland, Oregon.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-simon
1853: The executors of the will of Jonas
Fränckel asked Zacharias Frankel to be president of the soon to be opened
Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau. Funds for this new Jewish institution
of higher learning had been part of the late Fränckel’s will.
1853: "Jewish Plantation of Ireland,"
an article published today claimed that in 1703, James Harrington, the author
of Oceana, had proposed that English Jews should be brought to Ireland where
they could farm the land which produce revenues of "about four million a
year." He claimed that Jews had "always showed their aptitude
in all pursuits of agriculture." How credible is this?
Harrington died in 1677 so it is unlikely that he was making any proposals about
Jewish farmers in Ireland in 1703.
1862: Birthdate of Baltimore native and CCNY
grad Richard Aaron Guinzburg, the President of Gem Paper Bag Company and active
member of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in New York.
1862: During a debate in the House of
Representatives, Congressman Hale of New Hampshire showed the impact of the
Hebrew Bible on American culture when he responded to critics by stating that
he would to Lincoln's Administration "as the old Hebrew Prophet said to
the King of Babylon: 'Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to
another, but I will read to the King the writing declared to me and the
interpretation of it.'"
1863: Philadelphian Corporal Jacob Benedict
completed his service with Company H of the 122nd regiment today.
1864: In Hamburg, Germany, George Gershon
Charles Raphael, the London born son of Lewis and Rachel Raphael and his wife
Charlotte Hanne Raphael gave birth to Gertrude Emily Raphael who became
Gertrude Spielman when she married Sir Meyer Adam Spielman
1865: In London, Abigail Jacobs and Jacob
Aarons gave birth to Benjamin Aarons.
1868(14th of Shevat, 5628):
Seventy-two-year-old Rebecca Lopez, the Charleston born daughter of David Lopez
and the wife of Mordecai de Leon passed away today in Washington.
1869(26th of Shevat, 5629):
Thirty-two-year-old Swedish opera singer Eufrosyne Abrahamson, the wife of
“Swedish businessman and patron of the arts” August Abrahamson passed away
today “unexpectedly after a short illness.
1869: In Philadelphia, PA, Leon Levy Hyneman
and Grace Marks Hyneman gave birth Edwin I. Hyneman who played football and
baseball at the University of Pennsylvania from which he graduated in 1889 and
eventually became a part of the Philadelphia baseball team which competed in
the National League.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C06E4DE1238E53ABC4C53DFBE66838D659EDE
1870: In Norfolk, VA, formation of Congregation
Beth El whose members would later come to include Rabbi Leopold Heiman, J.W.
Spagat and Charles Myers.
1870: In Natchez, MS, Emma Mayer, the daughter
of Aaron F. and Jeanette W. Helena Roos and her husband Simon Mayer gave birth
to Hennie Mayer.
1870: Birthdate of Austrian physician and
psychologist Alfred Adler the husband of Raissa Epstein who fled his homeland
for New York in 1932 when the Nazis became the dominant political power.
https://www.notablebiographies.com/A-An/Adler-Alfred.html
1873: In New York City Henry Goldwater and Mary
Tyroler gave birth to Dr. Sigismund Schulz Goldwater the superintendent of
Mount Sinai Hospital and Commissioner of Health in New York City.
1873: Eduard Lasker delivered a speech today
“in which he attacked the management of the Pomeranian railway” and exposed
financial mismanagement by one of Otto von Bismarck’s “most trusted assistants”
which led to his being a target of attacks from the Iron Chancellor.
1873: In Bohemia, Isaac Reich and his wife gave
birth to JTS trained rahbbi, Siegmund Moses Reich, the graduate of CCNY and
Columbia who taught at JTS and in the New York public schools before filling
the pulpit at Temple Beth Zion in Bradford, PA.
1875: In Indiana, Esther Amanda Ritterband and
Moses Maness Ritterband gave birth to Leon Maness Ritterband, the husband Laura
Ritterband.
1876: In Kings Count, the defense is scheduled
to continue presenting its defense in the sensational murder trial in which the
state has accused P.N. Rubenstein of murdering his cousin Sara Alexander.
1876: A decree issued today was one of two
decrees that regulated the behavior of the Jews of Ghent.
1878: Birthdate of Ossip Gabrilovich the
Russian born American composer, pianist and composer who married the daughter
of Samuel Clemens and who was the father to the last known lineal descendant of
the man most people know as Mark Twain.
1878: In Troy, NY, Levi and Thekla (Mayer)
Weingarten gave birth to Newark, NJ businessman Oscar L. Weingarten, the
President of Weingarten Bros Inc. and husband of Estelle Mansbach who was a
director of the Hebrew Orphans Asylum and the United Hebrew Charities of
Newark, NJ.
1878(4th of Adar I 5638): In Vienna
twenty-eight-year-old Pauline Herzl, the older sister of Theodore Herzl, passed
away after contracting Typhus. After the creation of the state of Israel
her remains would be laid to rest on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Herzl
named his daughter after his sister.
1878: Pope Pius IX who had been the subject of
an ode by David Levi when he was elected because of hopes that he would be a
progressive but turned reactionary, passed away today.
1880(25th of Shevat, 5640): Parashat
Mishpatim and Shabbat Shekalim
1880: Seventy-four-year-old Kassel native and
convert to Christianity Franz Ferdinand Benary, the orientalist, and University
Berlin associate professor of Old Testament exegis who “was the older brother
of classical philologist Agathon Benary, passed away today in the German
capital.
1883(30th of Shevat, 5643): Rosh
Chodesh Adar I observed on the Yahrzeits of Rabbi Rueben Horowitz and Salomon
Monk
1884: The opera “Nell Gwynne” in which Giulia
Warwick (born Julia Ehrenberg) played the title role “was first performed at
the Avenue Theatre in London” today.
1885(22nd of Shevat, 5645): Parashat
Yitro
1885: Birthdate of Rzeszow, Poland native Lieb
Wiesenfeld who gained fame as Leon Wiesenfeld “a journalist, editor for the
Yiddish language press and Jewish community leader” in Cleveland, OH.
https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/wiesenfeld-leon
https://case.edu/ech/articles/w/wiesenfeld-leon
http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/OCLWHi2546.xml&doc.view=printead;chunk.id=0
https://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/people/wiesenfeld-memoir.htm
1887: In Galveston, TX, Morris and Nettie
Heidenheimer Lasker gave birth to Loula Davis Lasker, the sister of
philanthropist Albert D. Lasker and national vice president of Hadassah who
“donated $600,000 to help the Lasker Rink in New York’s Central Park.
https://www.jta.org/1961/01/31/archive/funeral-services-held-for-loula-lasker-hadassah-leader-was-72
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/01/30/97655288.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1889: In Bohemia, Jakob Bondy and Barbara
(Babette) Bondy gave birth to Bohumil Gottlieb Bondy who died at Auschwitz.
1889: Paducah, KY, Max and Rozetta (Minsky)
Levy gave birth to University of Tennessee Medical School and Brooklyn Eye and
Ear Hospital trained physician Louis Levy the founder of the Memphis (TN) Eye,
Ear Nose and Throat Hospital and WW I veteran of the U.S Army Medical Corps who
was the husband of Caryne Ella Levy and a member of both the Congregation of
Israel in Memphis and B’nai B’rith.
1890: Birthdate of Victor Alter, the Russian
born mechanical engineer who as a leader of the Bund and the Second
International.
1891: Myer S. Isaac said tonight that since the
New York Trustees had begun receiving contributions from Baron Hirsch, they had
been able to found jobs for 3,000 people most of whom were heads-of-households.
1891: In Neustadt, linen factory manager Max
Pinkus, the son of Josef Pinkus and Auguste Fränkel and Hedwig Pinkus gave
birth to Hans Hubert Pinkus
1891: Joseph Klein, the president of a Hebrew
Cemetery Association in New Jersey was convicted of fraud today.
1893: It was reported today that
President-elect Grover Cleveland is considering appointing Isidor Straus to the
position of Postmaster General in his cabinet which will be sworn in in
March. The forty-five-year-old Straus is the brother of Oscar Straus who
served as Minister to Constantinople in Cleveland’s first administration and
the brother of Nathan Straus the Park Commissioner.
1894: “Theatrical License Money Divided”
published today provided a list of the charities receiving funds including: the
Montefiore Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews which got $1,000 in 1893 but only
$500 in 1893; Beth Israel Hospital which got $100 in 1893 and the same amount
in 1894 and the United Hebrew Charities of New York which got $1,500 in 1893
but only $1,000 in 1894. (The reductions were probably a reflection of the
depression that had begun in 1893 and gained momentum in 1894)
1893: In Bowling Green, KY, Max and Sunshine
Friedman Nahm gave birth to Emanie Nahm who became Emanie Sachs when she
married Walter Edward Sachs in 1917.
1894: In New York City, Caroline (Carrie)
Weiss, the New York born daughter of Yetta and Louis Stix and her husband
Samuel Weiss gave birth to Louis Stix Weiss.
1894: Clara
Chasia Hochberg, the Ukraine born Daughter of Schmuel/ Samuel Rattner and
Muriel Rattner and her husband Rabbi Enoch Henry Hochberg gave birth to Edith
J. Berman, the wife of Jack Berman.
1895: Based on information from its 6th
annual report, it was reported today that the Aguilar Free Library “now has
25,848 volumes” and that in 1894, it circulated 253,349 volumes.
1895: Birthdate of Pieter Anthonie Larusse van
Passen the native of Gorcum, Netherlands who gained fame as Pierre van Paasen
the “Canadian-American” author, the WW I Canadian Army Veteran and Unitarian
Minister who was an early constant support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine as
can be seen from such works as “the 1939 best seller Days of Our Years
and The Forgotten Ally.
1896: Henry Steinhal, “one of the actors”
performing in “The Russian Jew” at Adler’s Theatre “was accidently shot in the
leg” when “a piece of wadding” from a blank cartridge went off and “embedded
itself in” his limb.
1896: Birthdate of Polish native Rabbi Aaron
Dym, the graduate of the University of Budapest and resident of New York City
who was a member of the Federation of Orthodox Rabbis of America.
https://www.biblio.com/book/haggadah-service-first-two-nights-passover/d/867118625
1896: Jews were among the melting pot of
immigrants who attended James Pryse lecture on “The Masters” at Centennial Hall
on New York’s lower East Side.
1897: It was reported today that Rabbi Gustav
Gottheil and Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt will participate in the
upcoming ceremonies dedicating the new building housing the Hebrew Technical
Institute.
1897: In Chelsea, London, Alexander Neumann, a
native of Bomberg who had moved “to London at the age of 15” and Sarah Ann
(Pike) Neumann gave birth to Maxwell Neumann, who gained fame as “British
mathematician and codebreaker” Max Newman.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Newman.html
1897: It was reported today Reverend Faust, a
Presbyterian missionary attempting to convert Jews in New York “said that the
distress among the poor east side Jews was very great…and that he hoped that
the wealthy Jews” would join with those who were working and wealthy Christians
would contribute to alleviate their suffering.
1897: It was reported today that during a
meeting at church on the lower east side about how to relieve the suffering of
the poor Reverend John B. Devins of Hope Chapel “thought it best for the poor
Jews to apply for relief to the United Hebrew Charities.”
1898(15th of Shevat, 5658): Tu
B’Shevat
1898: Emile Zola was brought to trial for
libel for publishing J'Accuse. “J'accuse accused the French government
of anti-Semitism and of wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail. Zola was
brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse on February 7, 1898
and was convicted on February 23. Zola declared that the conviction and
transportation to Devil's Island of the Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus came
after a false accusation of espionage and was a miscarriage of justice. The
case, known as the Dreyfus affair, had divided France deeply between the
reactionary army and church and the more liberal commercial society. The
ramifications continued for years, so much so that on the 100th anniversary of
Émile Zola's article, France's Roman Catholic daily paper, "La
Croix", apologized for its anti-Semitic editorials during the Dreyfus
affair.”
1898: A fire broke out tonight at the Hebrew
Sheltering Guardian Society’s building which is home to 835 youngsters.
1899: Isaac L. Rice took over the leadership of
Electric Storage, a company that was trying to build the first modern
submarines that ran on electric power while submerged for the U.S. Navy and
changed its name to the Electric Boat Company. The company operated by
the Jewish professor was so successful that it during World War I it would
build 85 submarines and 722 sub-chasers. (The company lives on today as General
Dynamics.)
1900: Birthdate of Polish native and American
attorney Joseph Fischer Barr who in 1904 came to the United States where he
served as the associate general counsel at the United States Veterans
Administration and national executive director of the Jewish War Veterans while
raising his son John “Johnny” Barr, a graduate of Coolidge High School in
Washington, DC.
1900(8th of Adar I, 5660):
Seventy-six “Baron Carl von Rothschild, the husband of Baroness Julie Von
Rothschild and head of the House of Rothschild branch in Naples passed away
today in Paris.
1901(18th of Shevat, 5661):
Thirty-seven-year-old Max Schwarz, the Budapest native who in 1880 followed his
father Austrian born chemist Anton Schwarz to the United States where he
followed in his father’s footsteps and became editor of The American Brewer”
and the “principal of the Brewer’s Academy” passed away today.
1901: In Boston, MA, Albert B. and Annie Botkin
gave birth to Harvard graduate and folklorist Benjamin Albert Botkin, the
holder of a Ph. D from the University of Nebraska and husband of Gertrude Fritz
who taught at the University of Oklahoma and who is the namesake of Benjamin A.
Botkin Prize present by the American Folklore Society.
https://www.loc.gov/folklife/botkin/hirsch.html
1902(30th of Shevat, 5662): Rosh
Chodesh Adar I observed as Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., the son of the philo-Semitic
President Teddy Roosevelt and the Fourth Infantry Division’s assistant
commander who led the first wave ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day a month before
he died of heart attack, was fighting a bout of pneumonia today at Groton
School.
1903(10th of Shevat, 5663): Parashat
Beshalach
1903: “Jews Take Up Prairie Lands” published
today described how 56 Jewish families from Chicago comprising 302 people have
begun farming 5,440 acres of North Dakota land thanks to the support of the
Jewish Agricultural Society led by its president. Adolph Loeb.
1904: Twenty-eight men from 18 local families
in the Champaign-Urbana (Illinois) community met and formed the
Champaign-Urbana Hebrew Congregation. Rabbi George Zeppin of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations presided over the meeting.
1905: Birthdate of Jersey City, NJ native and
holder of a Ph.D. from Columbia. “Israel E. Drabkin, the chairman of the
department of classical languages and Hebrew City College who married Miriam
Frideman after his first wife Norma Lowenstein died passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/03/28/97189720.pdf
1906(12th of Shevat, 5666):
Eighty-four-year-old Bella “Betty” Baer, the wife of Jacob Baer passed away
today.
1906: As of today, “over $3,000,000 has been
raised for the relief of the Jewish victims of the” outbreak of anti-Semitic
violence in Russia of $1,200,000 was raised by the American National Relief
Commission of which Jacob H. Schiff is the Treasurer.
1906: “Soon after his arrival at Gomel,”
General Orlott met with a group of prominent citizens including at least one
rabbi who declared “that the outrages” that had taken place “were entirely
unprovoked.”
1907: Two days after he had arrived in the
United States aboard the steamship Kaiser Wilhelm II, Wolf Margolies, the chief
rabbi of Grodno and brother of Hirsch Margolies is scheduled to leave for
Boston today where he will take up leadership of an orthodox synagogue.
1907(23rd of Shevat, 5667): Jonah
Kaplan, the father of Jennie, Frieda, May and Moses Kaplan passed away today after
which he was buried at Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery in Ladue, MO.
1908: It was reported today that Countess
Muravieff, the prominent Russian actress, is scheduled to perform in the
upcoming New York performance of “The God of Revenge” Jewish playwright Sholom
Asch
1909:
Tonight, one day after Tu B’Shevat, Rabbi Henry S. Morais addressed a crowd of
150 Zionist supporters at the “uptown Talmud Torah” on East 111th
Street.
1909
Tonight, Rabbi Elias Margolies addressed a gathering of 400 Zionist supporters
at Kehilath Israel Congregation.
1909:
At least 1,000 people attended the meeting held “in the Synagogue Zewach
Zedeck” chaired by the editor The Jewish Daily News where they heard eulogizes
for Theodore Herzl.
1910(28th
of Shevat, 5670): Seventy-one-year-old Avrohom
Bornsztain, founder and first Rebbe of the Sochatchover Hasidic dynasty” who
was “known as the Avnei Nezer ("Stones of the Crown") after the title
of his posthumously-published set of Toroth responsa, which is widely
acknowledged as a halakhic classic” and whose “only son, Shmuel, author of Shem
Mishmuel, succeeded him as Rebbe” after he passed away today.
1911: Birthdate of German native Siegbert Koch
who made Aliyah in 1934, “fought with the international Brigade during the
Spanish Civil War and who as Shimon Koch served in the Palmach and led the
Givati Brigade during the 1948 War of Independence.
1911(9th of Shevat, 5671): Solomon
Davidson, the husband of Clara Taube Getzoff Davidson with whom he had two
children – Rose and Joseph – passed away today after which he was buried at the
United Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond, VA.
1912: The
Portland Evening Telegram described the Portland Equal Suffrage League
which was founded by Josephine Hirsch as one that “will wield an important
influence” even though it is “one of the youngest leagues to be formed.
1913(30th of Shevat, 5673): Rosh
Chodesh I
1913: Lejb and Liba Rothlic gave birth to
typesetter Szapsel Rotholc and medal winning boxer who was denied a chance to
fight in the Berlin Olympics and who survived the Warsaw Ghetto because the
Nazis valued his boxing skills.
Szapsel Rotholc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(pl-m-wikipedia-org.translate.goog)
1913(30th of Shevat, 5673): Seventy-seven-year-old Lavina Abigail
Cardozo, the New York born daughter of Ellen Hart and Michael Hart Cardozo
passed away today.
1913: Boris Thomashefsky is scheduled to
present “Tata Mamas Zures” at the Haymarket in Chicago.
1914: Charlie Chaplin's signature
character, "The Tramp," debuted in a film called "Kid Auto Races
at Venice."
1914: Birthdate of U.S. poet David Ignatow.
1915: More than seven thousand dollars was
raised tonight at “the 27th annual entertainment and dance given for
the benefit of the Ladies’ Hebrew Fuel and Aid Society” which was held in the
Astor Gallery of the Waldorf Astoria.
1916: Birthdate of Floyd K. Haskell, the U.S.
Senator from Colorado who was the husband of Nina Totenberg. She was
Jewish – he was not.
1916: “At a small information luncheon at
Little Hungary on East Houston Street,” attended by a number of Jews living on
the east side and “several prominent rabbis” Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
“pledged his support to the movement organized to obtain equal rights of
citizenship for the Jews in every country of Europe at the end of the war.”
1916: “Judge Samuel Seabury of the Court of
Appeals of the State of New York said in a speech to the Far Western Travelers’
Association at their annual dinner at the Hotel Astor” tonight “that President
Wilson had made a great appointment in naming Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme
Court of the United States”
1916: Leon s. Moisseiff, President of the
Jewish newspaper The Day criticized
the work of the Educational Alliance saying that “the east side does not
believe that the alliance does as much work as it could” because “the great
mass of the people of the east side do not feel that this institution in any
way links up with the old Jewish customs and traditions.”
1916: Justice Greenbaum responded to criticism
of the Educational Alliance by pointing out that “the alliance not only taught
Hebrew, but also gave instruction in Jewish history and Jewish customs.”
1916: “The Bronx Jewish War Suffers’ Committee
announced” today “that management of the Adams-Flanigan store” in the Bronx
“will devote 10 per cent of all cash purchases” for the next two days “for the
Jewish war sufferers.”
1917: The first draft of the Balfour
Declaration was written at the Gaster home today in the presence of Chaim
Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, Baron Rothschild, Sir Mark Sykes and Herbert Samuel
1917: The U.S. military expedition that had
been trying to capture Pancho Villa since March of 1916 and during which Rabbis
had been to various camps on the border by the Army and Navy Committee and the
Central Conference of American Rabbis to conduct religious services, came to an
end today.
1917: Forty-nine-year-old skirt manufacturer
Jacob Hyman and his wife, the former Regina Zeltenwerth, a native of Tarnow,
Galicia celebrated their silver wedding anniversary.
1917(15th Shevat, 5677): Yosef Levi
passed way in Paris. Levi was an archeologist and philologist of African and
oriental languages. Born in Adrianople on December 15, 1827, he went on to
write 33 books during his career.
1918: In Chicago, Leon B. Sager, an advertising
executive, and Deborah Borovik Sager who died in the Great Flu Epidemic, gave
birth to geneticist Ruth Sager, the University of Chicago Phi Beta Kappa who
was chief of cancer genetics at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston when
she passed away
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2004/11/ruth-sager/
1918: In Brownsville, Abraham Rosenbaum, a
Jewish immigrant working as a baker and his wife gave birth to Terry Rosenbum
the teacher whose career would be a casualty of Joe McCarthy and the
red-baiting right-wingers who distorted the intellectual and political
landscape of post-World War II America.
1919(7th of Adar): Rabbi Isaac Jacob
Rabinovitz, author of Zekher Yizhak passed away.
1919: Today, artist William Meyerowitz, a
native of Ekaterinoslav (later Dnepropetrovsk), Russia and student of the
National Academy of Design in New York married fellow artist Theresa Berstein
whom he had met in 1917.
https://theresabernstein.newmedialab.cuny.edu/?page_id=4235
1920: The Northamptonshire Yeomanry in which
actor Leslie Howard (Leslie Howard Steiner) had served as a subaltern during
World War I “was reconstituted in the Territorial Army with HQ at the Old
Militia Barracks in Clare St, Northampton.”
1921: “Hashish, the Paradise of Hill,” a silent
movie filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released today in Germany,
1921: As Americans adjust to Prohibition, “the
Chicago Rabbinical Association adopted a resolution to refuse to sign all
requests for fermented wine for sacramental purposes.”
1921: Evening classes will begin tonight at the
Bath Beach Y.M.H.A. under the leadership of the executive director, Dr.
Hochfelder.
1922: One day after he had passed away, Morris
Jacob, the husband of Matilda Jacob was buried today in the Belfast Jewish
Cemetery in Northern, Ireland.
1923: Today in Berlin, Herr Auer, the Vice
President of the Bavarian Diet, gave a report to President Ebert in which he
accused Henry Ford “of financing a Bavarian monarchist revolution” while Auer
told The Tribune “that Henry Ford’s financial as well as moral backing had been
to Bavarian reolvtuion-makers during the past year because a part of the
program of Herr Hitler, leader of the Monarchists, is the extermination of the
Jews in Germany.”
1924(2nd Adar I, 5684):Sixty-six
year old Rabbi Henry Berkowitz, the
Pittsburgh, PA born son of Louise and Henrietta (Jaroslawski) Berkowitz, and
graduate of the University of Cincinnati, and Hebrew Union College who served a
number of congregations including Temple Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia where he
helped to found the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the Philadelphia
Rabbinical Association but who may be best known for his role in found the
Jewish Chautauqua Society, passed away today. Emily Nepon, his
great-great-great-granddaughter described him in the following words. Born in
1857, Rabbi
Henry Berkowitz was the “Beloved Rabbi” of Mobile, Kansas City, Missouri and
Philadelphia. He is best known for being the founder of the Jewish Chautauqua
Society in 1893 and was one of four members of the first graduating class of
Reform rabbis in the United States. Rabbi Henry Berkowitz was an
activist, philanthropist, counselor, community leader, voracious learner,
teacher, prolific writer and speaker. And, in keeping with mainstream Reform
Judaism of his day, Berkowitz was also anti-Zionist.
1925(13th of Shevat, 5685): Parashat Beshalach
1925(13th of Shevat, 5685): Eighty-year-old Alabama natve
Nancy Priscilla “Nannie” Mordecai Cash, the eldest child of Samuel Jefferson
and Martha Louisa "Tarrant" Mordecai and wife of Wesley Sheppard Cash
passed away today.
1926: “More than one hundred prominent artists have volunteered to
appear” The Jewish Theatrical Guild benefit which is scheduled to take place
today at the Manhattan Opera House.
1926: “Franklin and Other Patriots Aided Jews After Revolution”
published today told of how “on the subscription list of Congregation Mikve
Israel, the oldest Jewish religious organization in Philadelphia, are the
signatures of Benjamin Franklin, printer William Bradford, astronomer David
Rittenhouse, Charles Biddle and John D. Sargeant.”
1927: Birthdate of “stand-up comedian” and Catskill funny man Sammy
Shore, the co-founder of the Comedy Store whose four children including Pauly
Shore who followed in his father’s comedic footsteps.
https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/sammy-shore-dead-dies-comedy-store-co-founder-1203219787/
1928: “Ruins of the Palestine Bear Out the Bible” published today
included the assertions by Professor John Garstang of the Institute of
Archaeology at the University of Liverpool that “recent excavations in
Palestine have proved that there is not a flaw in the biblical narrative of the
campaigns of Joshua and the can now be traced with absolute topographical
accuracy.”
1929: It was reported today that “The Alliance Israelite
Universelle…recently received a donation of $100,000 from an anonymous American
in honor of Nissim Behar, the octogenarian leader of the alliance.
1930: It was reported today that “Solomon M. Stroock, president of the
Metropolitan League of Jewish Communities Associations and former president of
the Y.M.H.A of New York” has been elected “chairman of the board of directors
of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, succeeding the late Louis
Marshall.”
1931(20th of Shevat, 5691): Sixty-year-old Rabbi Abraham Ber
Goldenson who served for 13 years as the “head rabbi for the Nusach Hari Shul
in St. Louis” passed away today.
1932: “The Monster Walks” a horror film featuring Mischa Auer was
released in the United States today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monster_Walks#/media/File:The-Monster-Walks-Poster.jpg
1933: The London Gazette reported that the King has conferred
“the dignity of a Baron of the United Kingdom upon Sir Joseph Duveen…and the
heirs’ males of his body lawfully begotten…”
1934: During the Stavisky Affair, a night of rioting fomented by
right-wing parties came to an end. The right failed in their effort to
overthrow the Third Republic, but the event was a harbinger of the social rot
that would lead to the quick defeat of the French in World War II and the rise
of Vichy.
1934: Vatican directed
the Holy Office to place Nazi leader Alfred Rosenberg's Myth of the
Twentieth Century on the Index of Forbidden books
1934: The Halevy Singing Society is schooled to move into new quarters
at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism at 15 West 86th
Street. (As reported by JTA)
1934(22nd of Shevat,
5694): Abraham I. Shiplacoff “sometimes called the Jewish Eugene V.
Debs”, passed away today in Brooklyn “after a long struggle with kidney
disease. Born in Chernigov, Russia in 1877, he “came to the United States with
his parents at the age of 13 in 1891. For several years he worked long hours in
a garment shop and studied at night. During this period, he married Henrietta
(Yetta) Zwickel, and they eventually had three children, Frederick Engels
Shiplacoff, William Morris Shiplacoff, and Lydia Shiplacoff Greene. Beginning
in 1905 he taught school at P.S. 84, Brooklyn, served as a clerk in the customs
service, was briefly labor editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. In 1914
he became secretary-treasurer of the United Hebrew Trades. Politically active
in the Socialist Party, he was elected as the first Socialist Assemblyman from
New York City in 1915, re-elected in 1916 and 1917, and led the Socialist
delegation in the Legislature in a campaign of strong opposition to World War
I. He also supported the dissemination of birth control information, curbs on
police power and other controversial causes. When, as a street-corner orator,
he denounced U.S. military intervention in Russia shortly after the Bolshevik
Revolution, he was indicted under the wartime Espionage Act; the indictment was
later quashed. He was elected to the Board of Aldermen from Brooklyn in 1920,
managed the mayoral campaign of Norman Thomas in 1925, chaired the
Sacco-Vanzetti Liberation Committee in 1927, and became a vigorous participant
in Socialist battles with the Communist Party. During the twenties and early
thirties he served as general manager of the Joint Board of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America and the International Pocketbook Workers Union. He
had a longstanding interest in Palestine and Zionism and became national
chairmen of the National Labor Committee for Palestine in 1933. He was actively
involved in many Jewish philanthropic and cultural organizations, and served as
executive director of the Deborah Sanitarium, Browns Mills, NJ.”
1935: In Milwaukee, Jewish immigrants Mary
Hiken and Make Kohl gave birth to University of Wisconsin and Harvard Business
School MBA and U.S. Army veteran Herbert Kohl, the president of the family-owned
department store chain Kohl’s, the owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and United
States Senator.
1935: The Eoff Street Temple in Wheeling, West
Virginia is scheduled to begin celebrating its 85th anniversary
today.
1935: After being released in the United
Kingdom in 1934, “The Scarlet Pimpernel” produced by Alexander Korda, starring
Leslie Howard and with music by Arthur Benjamin was released today in the
United States today.
1936: “The Milky Way” a comedy featuring Lionel
Stander as “Spider Schultz” was released in the United States today.
1936: In his message to the National Conference
of Jews and Christians endorsing the upcoming observance of Brotherhood Day,
New York Governor Lehman said, “I am heartily in accord with the purposes of
Brotherhood Day” and I think the National Conference of Jews and Christians
“has done much to bring a greater understanding among those of different faiths
and races.”
1936: Today “in the vicinity of the Winter
Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps there are some highly
conspicuous road signs” – anti-Jewish placards and streamers which
correspondents had said were removed because of the Olympics.
1936: George Althuas, “a former Protestant
pastor in Timmerlach” was sentenced to six months in jail by the Summary Court
after having been accused of including his prayers “God protect the poor and
persecuted Jews,” “having told his Sunday School pupils not to participate ‘in
the hue and cry against Jews’” and “having banned the Hitler salute from his
Sunday School.”
1936: Georgetown University sophomore Harry
Bassin scored “a team high 11 points” during today’s upset of the NYU
basketball team.
1937: George F. Pelham, the Canadian born
American Architect who in 1905 “designed a new synagogue building for
Brooklyn's Beth Jacob Anshe Sholom, based on Arnold Brunner's West Side
Synagogue building on Manhattan's West 88th Street” passed away today.
1937: James Waterman Wise is scheduled to
deliver a lecture on “Is Soviet Russia Anti-Semitic” this morning at the Free
Synagogue in Carnegie Hall.
1937: Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to
deliver a sermon on “When Propaganda Is Substituted for Education” at Temple
Emanu-El.
1937: “A message from President Roosevelt
lauding ‘the vitality and vision of the Jewish pioneers in Palestine’ was read
to the National Conference tonight” after the organization had committed to
raising four and a half million dollars to finance the “Jewish colonization of
the Holy Land.”
1937: Senator Norris of Nebraska “told the
National Conference for Palestine that the dissenting opinions of Supreme Court
Justice Brandeis would ‘ultimately become the universal law of the land’” and
that “Senator Kenyon who had fought the Brandies confirmation had told him
shortly before his death that he would ‘give anything if I could retake that
step.’”
1937: Harry Einstein, who was famous for
appearing as “Greek chef Nick Parkyakarkus on the Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson
radio programs” married actress Thelma Leeds (nee Goodman) today, union which
resulted in the birth comedic talent Albert Brooks.
1938: Professor Norman Bentwich, the former
director of the High Commission for Refugees From Germany told The League of
Nations International Conference meeting in Geneva to settle the status of
refugees from Germany “that 130,000 Jewish…refugees had left Germany” and “had
been able to establish themselves overseas.”
1938: The Palestine Post reported that
according to the London Daily Herald, the Mandatory government planned
to erect a 20-foot-high barbed-wire barricade along the northern border in
order to prevent the movement of the gun runners, smugglers and terrorists
between Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.
1938: In a leading article on the elections to
the Jerusalem Communal Council (Va'ad Hakehila), The Jerusalem Post
expressed the hope that the people serving on the council would be able to cast
away heavy obsolete traditions, eliminate inefficiency and stand up to vested
interests.
1938: Approximately 200 people attended the
meeting of the Bergen County chapter of the German American Bund at the home of
Caroline Meade, a teacher and actress, where Fritz Kuhn, the national leader of
the Bund told the attendees that the Jews in the United States “must be driven
from their high posts in government, finance, and education as they have been
in certain European countries.”
1939: In Berlin, “reiterating the contention
that ‘the Jewish problem in Germany will be solved only the last Jews has left
the Reich, Nazi party leader Dr. Alfred Rosenberg declared that the “problem
must be settled definitively not only for the German Jews, but later for the
millions of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe.” (Editor’s note – The Nazi goal of a Jew free
Europe was no secret and they made no attempt to hide it from anyone who
listened to their spokesmen.)
1939: Dr. Alfred Rosenberg offered a specific
proposal to turn either British Guiana or Madagascar into a “Semitic
reservation” which solve “the Jewish question.”
1940: In Prague, the police informed the
leaders of the Jewish community “that a reported order prohibiting the presence
of Jews in ant public café…after 8 P.M. was based on a misunderstanding” and
there never was such an order.
1940: “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, president of the
American Jewish Congress explained” today “that at a recent luncheon of the
Brooklyn Women’s Division of the congress he said ‘that the Eruopean nations
should have recognized sooner that Hitler’s attack upon the Jews was a sign of
his readiness to destroy civilization, including the religious life of the
world, and that the nations and churches of civilization should have united to
make impossible the Nazi assault upon life’s decencies and values,’ rather than
attributing the current war to the failure of the Catholic Church to speak up
against the ill treatment of the Jews.”
1941: U.S. premiere of “Back Street” the second
cinematic treatment of the Fannie Hurst’s novel of the same name.
1941: Today, in Luxembourg which the Germans
had invaded on May 10, 1941 it was mandated by law that the property all of
those who had emigrated up until 1940 which would have included the 50,000 who
had fled the duchy was subject to confiscation
1942(20th of Shevat, 5702):
Thirty-eight-year-old lyricist Irving Kahal who collaborated on such classics
as “Wedding Bells Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine” and “I’ll Be Seeing
You” passed away today in New York.
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C49?exhibitId=49
1942: In the aftermath of the release of the
Jews on board the Darien, Lord Moyne continued to protest Churchill’s arguing
that the Prime Minister’s decision would undermine the Mandatory
Government. Churchill had already tried to assuage Lord Moyne’s fears by
reminding him that there was little risk of any mass immigration of Jews since
most of Eastern and Southern Europe were under Nazi control.
1943(2nd of Adar I, 5703):
Forty-nine-year-old Louis Weitzenkorn, “author of ‘Five Star Final’ and other
plays and a former newspaper man was found dead of burns and suffocation today
in the kitchen of his apartment.”
1943(2nd of Adar, I 5703):
Sixty-five-year-old Ships Surgeon Joseph Grabenstein was among those who
perished today when the troopship USS Henry R. Mallory was torpedoed by U-402.
1943: In New York, Liza (née Kraitz), a high
school art teacher, and historian Jack D. Foner gave birth to historian Eric
Foner whose The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery hit
the triple header when it won the Pulitzer, Lincoln and Bancroft prizes.
1943: The first armed struggle between Jews and
Nazis takes place in the Warsaw ghetto. Most people connect the
Warsaw Uprisings with Pesach (April) of 1943. Actually, the first
fighting took place in February. Unsettled, by Melvin Konner has an
interesting chapter (entitled Smoke) that deals with the issue of Jewish
resistance in Europe during World War II. 1946: While taking part in two
month speaking tour with self-proclaimed anti-Semite, Gerlad L.K. Smith, Father
Arthur W. Terminiello of Mobile, Alabama, a self-styled Father Coughlin of the
South, delivers an address at the Chicago’s Veeran Hall in the heavily Jewish
neighborhood of Albany Park that resulted in a riot and in his subsequent
conviction on charges of disturbing the peace. Three years later, the
U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision in a major freedom of speech
case.1946: The Palestine Information Service issued a statement today
describing yesterday’s failed attempt to attack a British military camp and
seize weapons for the fight to create a Jewish state.1946: Arabs in Lebanon
protested the British “decision to permit 1,500 Jewish immigrants to enter
Palestine” each month by staging a general strike today.
1944: “A twelve-point program "to help
save 3,000,000 Jews in Europe form extermination by the Nazis" was
outlined today at a special conference of 400 Jewish leaders from all sections
of the country who are attending the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare
Funds.”
1945: After Representative Emanuel Celler of
New York said that the American Dental Associations support of “religious tests
being required for entrance into dental colleges as ‘un-American,’” John Rankin
of Mississippi “jumped to his feet shouting ‘I am getting tired of the
gentleman from New York raising the Jewish question in the House” and while
defending the American Dental Association’s right to use a religious test said
that “90 percent of the doctors who get on the Civil Service roll are Jews and
6o percent of the ones we are compelled to accept in veterans’ hospitals are
Jews.” (Editor’s note – Ranking would later refer to Celler as a Kike.)
1946: In Buenos Aires, Jaime Babenco, “an
Argentine gaucho of Ukrainian Jewish origin” and Janka Haberberg, “a Polish
Jewish immigrant” gave birth to “Brazilian film director, screenwriter,
producer and actor” Héctor Eduardo Babenco.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/brazilian-film-director-hector-babenco-dies-at-70/
1947: This date marks the official founding of
the Jewish Agency, a world-wide organization centered in Israel. It is
dedicated to the establishment of Israel as the Jewish Homeland, and to the
encouragement and fulfillment of Jewish Aliyah from around the world.
1947: Forty-eight generals who served with
distinction in World War II, including Brigadier General David Sarnoff and
Brigadier General Julius Ochs Sadler who “served as assistant division
commander of the Sixth Infantry Division and recently was appointed commanding
general of the reactived Seventy-seventh Infantry Division” “were nominated today by President Truman as
general officers in the Officer Reserve Corps.”
1948(27th of Shevat, 5708): Parashat
Mishpatim
1948(27th
of Shevat, 5708): Seventy-nine-year-old Daniel England Sr., the Pittsfield, MA,
born son of Moses and Rosa Rosenthal England, and “vice president and treasurer
of England Brothers Department store” founded by his father in 1857 who was the
husband of “the former Myra Bendell; with whom he raised two sons and one
daughter and the seventh mayor of his hometown passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/02/08/86893919.pdf
1949: “Dr. William Haber, adviser on Jewish
affairs to United States Army commanders in Germany and Austria, said today
that the task of resettling displaced Jews in occupied zones was "over the
hump" and predicted the closing of the remaining fifty-three camps by June
30, 1950.”
1950: Arnold Eidus gave a recital at Carnegie
Hall that “featured the debut and only public performance of jazz/pop composer
Raymond Scott's Suite for Violin and Piano (which reportedly was composed as a
showcase for Eidus) during the composer's lifetime.”
1951: The body of 73-year-old Louis Kovner, the
president of the Park West hospital in New York and the father of Sidney and
Harold Kovner is scheduled to be sent to New York today from Miami Beach “for
services and burial in New York.
1951: It was reported today that a Federal Judge
had reinstated Bernad Austin to practice law in the Federal District Court
after he had been disbarred on August 14, 1944 “for illegal practices in the procurement
of permanent visas permitting aliens to remain in this country.”
1952: The DuMont Television Network broadcast
the first episode of “Steve Randall” starring Melvyn Douglas in the title role.
1952(11th of Shevat, 5712):
Forty-two-year-old Phillip G. Epstein died of Cancer a decade after having
co-authored the Academy Award winning script for Casablanca, which Time
magazine called the greatest movie of all times. Epstein’s grandson,
Theo, broke Bambino’s Curse and brought World Series victory to the Boston Red
Sox and then did the same for the Chicago Cubs.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported
that two policemen who found safety on a rock were saved by a helicopter, but
the third was missing, when a captured Lebanese vessel they were towing to
Haifa broke up in a heavy storm off the northern coast.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that
Moscow's press was intensifying its drive against the Jewish and
"bourgeois" influence in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that
An airlift of immigrants from Iran was stopped, following the intervention of
the Egyptian government.
1955(15th of Shevat, 5715): Tu
B’Shevat
1956: Nineteen-year-old lightweight boxer Larry
Boardman won his 31st victory in his first 32 professional bouts
today, “leading to him being rated # 10 in the world in the lightweight
division by Ring magazine.”
1960(9th of Shevat, 5720):
Cabinetmaker Abraham Goodman Jacobs, the son of Abraham and Rebecca Jacobs and
the husband of Sarah Jacobs passed away today in London.
1960: ABC broadcast “The Crime,” an episode of
“The Rebel” directed by Irvin Kersner.
1961: Mortimer Caplin began serving as The
Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
1961: “Australian Nationalist Workers Party
Withdraws Invitation to Rockwell” published today described the decision
announced by Arthur Smith to tell the American Nazi leader not to come because
the “invitation has caused too much trouble” and “would have antagonized the
government.”
1962: U.S. premiere of a remake of the 1921
film “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” co-starring Lee J. Cobb with a score my
Andre Previn.
1962: Carl Foreman “One of the nation's most
successful writer-producers sees little hope that Hollywood can avert almost
complete destruction as a moviemaking center” and “said that the movie industry
here could be saved only by Federal subsidy and the establishment of an
industry-sponsored school to train new creative and technical talents.”
1962: Violinist David Montagu, “a sensitive,
unassertive artist” participated in a concert tonight at Town Hall where four
violin sonatas were played.
1964(24th of Shevat, 5724: Esther
Pripstein Belsky, the Russian born wife of Louis Belsky and the mother of
Abraham and Raymond Belsky passed away today in Philadelphia after which she
was buried at Mount Sharon Cemetery in Springfield, PA
1966(17th of Shevat, 5726):
Ninety-seven-year-old Blanche Abrahams, the daughter of Elizabeth and George
Joseph Emanuel and wife of Samuel Abrahams passed a way today.
1967(27th of Shevat, 5727): Henry
Morgenthau, Secretary of the Treasury under FDR and author of the Morgenthau
Plan, passed away. Morgenthau was nominally Jewish. He was
appointed Secretary of the Treasury because he was FDR’s neighbor in Hyde Park
and because he was bland enough not to rock the financial boat while FDR was
building the New Deal. During the war, Morgenthau began to get
increasingly upset with the State Department’s handling of the “Jewish
Question.” He became aggressive in terms of trying to force FDR to take
action. Obviously, the outcome of the desires of “the next-door neighbor”
left something to be desired.
1967(27th of Shevat, 5727):
Sixty-eight-year-old Saul Adler passed away in Monroe, LA. Born in Russia he
served in the U.S. Army during World War I. The Saul Adler Community Center in
Monroe was named in his honor.
1967: U.S. premiere of “The Fox” directed by
Mark Rydell.
1967: U.S. premiere of “Tobruk” a WW II movie
directed by Arthur Hiller
1968(9th of Shevat): Just eight days
from his 86th birthday Rabbi Eliezer Silver, a refugee from the
anti-Semitic Russian Empire of the Czar who worked to save Jews from the
Holocaust passed away today.
https://web.archive.org/web/20051203005136/http://www.cincypost.com/living/1999/silver051199.html
1968: Arthur Miller's "Price"
premiered in New York City
1969: In Boston, MA, Molli Newman, a lawyer,
and Dr. Reuben Mezrich, a chairman of radiology at the University of Maryland
School of Medicine gave birth to author Ben Mezrich whose works include Bringing
Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for
Millions
1970(1st of Adar I, 5730): Rosh
Chodesh Adar I; Parashat Mishpatim
1970: The Associated American Artists galleries
on Fifth Avenue is hosting an “extensive exhibition” of the works of Jacob
Landau while “identical exhibitions of these lithographs and woodcuts are being
held simultaneously at the Print Club of Philadelphia, the Birtton Fine Arts in
San Francisco, the Giraffe Gallery in Los Angeles, the Van Stratten Gallery in
Chicago and the Lunn Gallery in Chicago.
1970(1st of Adar I, 5730):
Seventy-four year old Joseph Brainin, the Vienna son “Reuben and Miriam (Amsterdam) Branin and
Laval University (Montreal) educated journalist who wrote for two New York
newspapers, using the pen-name Phineas Piron, and who served in Palestine as
part of the Jewish Battalion under General Allenby and “as executive Vice
President of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science in
Rehovot while raising a son and a daughter with his wife “the former Salomea
Neumark passed away today.
1970: In Roslyn Harbor, NY, producer and media
executive Charles Koppelman and Bunny Koppelman gave birth to Jennifer
Koppelman who, after marrying Keith Hutt in 1997, was known as Jennifer Hutt
the radio and television talk show host who co-authored Whateverland.
1971(19th of Shevat, 5731):
Fifty-year-old Brooklyn College graduate Joseph Dames, “the director of special
gifts of the American Jewish Committee’s Appeal for Human Relations and the
husband of Lucille Dames with whom he had two children – Tamar and Lisa.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/19/archives/joseph-dames-dies-jewish-appeal-aide.html
1971(19th of Shevat, 5731):
Seventy-five-year-old Marie Trommer who moved to Brooklyn 1905, attended Cooper
Institute and gained fame as “an artist, poet and author” who worked for the
Jewish Tribune and Jewish Daily News passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/trommer-marie
1972: Three days after she had passed away,
funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon for
sixty-nine-year-old Latvian born psychotherapist and author Asya L. Kadis, the
widow of textile manufacture Max Kadis
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/05/archives/tlsa-l-kadis-psychiatrist-group-therapy-expert-dead.html
1973: “Black Caesar” a remake of the gangster
classic “Little Caesar” written and directed by Larry Cohen who followed up
later in the year with a sequel “Hell Up in Harlem” was released today in the
United States.
1974: Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles"
opened in movie theaters across America.
1976(6th of Adar I, 5735): Parashat
Terumah
1976(6th of Adar I, 5735):
Eighty-eight year old Columbia University trained bio-chemist and Professor of
Chemistry at NYU School of Medicine Isidor Greenwald, the New York City born
son of Jacob and Mary Greenwald, the husband of Alma Greenwald and the father
of David Greenwald passed away today
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/02/10/archives/isidor-greenwald-professor-at-nyu.html
https://www.amazon.com/history-goiter-Africa-Isidor-Greenwald/dp/B0007K0K80
1976(6th of Adar I, 5736):
Sixty-three-year-old rabbi and author Avraham Eliyahu Mokotow who made Aliyah
in 1936 whose works include Chassidim v’Anshei Ma’aseh, a five-volume
collection of Chassidic stories passed away today.
1977: The Soviets arrested Alexander Ginzburg
and Yuri Orlov, members of the “Moscow Helsinki Group.”
1979: War Criminal Josef Mengele who as
the concentration camp doctor was known as the Angel of Death, reportedly
drowned.
1983: First episode of Krovim Krovim, an
Israeli television sitcom” was broadcast today.
1985: "New York, New York"
becomes the official city anthem of New York City. "New York, New
York" is a song from the 1944 musical On the Town. The music was
written by Leonard Bernstein and the lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
1986: “Hannah and Her Sisters” directed by,
written by and starring Woody Allen was released today in the United States.
1987: According to reports published today,
Israel's universities, the reputation and achievements of which have been a
source of national pride, are facing a severe financial crisis.
1990(12th of Shevat, 5750): Nathan
Wartels, Chairman of the Board of Crown Publishers, passed away at the age of
88.
1991 (23rd of Shevat, 5751):
Lieutenant Colonel Amos Yarkoni one of six Israeli Arabs to receive the IDF’s
third highest decoration, the Medal of Distinguished Service and the first
commander of the Shaked Reconnaissance Battalion of the Givati Brigade died of
cancer at the age of 71.
1991: Months after its premiere in the United
States “Avalon” the saga of a Jewish immigrant family in Baltimore, MD,
directed, produced and written by Barry Levinson, with music by Randy Newman,
starring Leo Fuchs, Leo Jacobi and Kevin Pollak was released today in
Australia.
1993: The United States has protested to Israel
over the treatment of three Palestinian-Americans who have been jailed on
suspicion of having ties with a militant Islamic group in the occupied
territories, a United States Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv said todayIsraeli
authorities said they had evidence the three detainees were helping to rebuild
Hamas and to finance terrorist activities after scores of Hamas leaders were
deported to southern Lebanon by Israel in December. The authorities said the
two of the men had been found with more than $100,000 and with plans from Hamas
leaders in the United States.
1994: “Tzomet MKs Segev, Esther Salmovitz, and
Alex Goldfarb split from their party to form the Yiud faction.”
1994(26th of Shevat, 5754):
Seventy-six-year-old University of Michigan graduate and WW II veteran Irving
Mathews, the Toledo, OH born son of retail apparel store owner Samuel Henry
Mathews, who devoted four decades to Frost Brothers Department Store while
served as a director of the San Antonio Branch of the Federal Reserve and
co-founder of the San Antonia Spurs NBA team passed away today.
1995: The INS Hanit, a Sa'ar 5-class corvette,
was commissioned today.
1997: “The Beautician and the Beast” starring
Fran Drescher who also co-produced the film was released in the United States
today.
1997(30th of Shevat, 5757): Rosh
Chodesh Adar I
1997(30th of Shevat, 5757):
Ninety-eighty-year-old Polish born Benjamin Gebiner, the long-time general secretary
of the Workmen’s Circle and multi-faceted Jewish communal leader passed away
today.
Benjamin Gebiner, 98, Servant of Jewish Culture - The New York
Times (nytimes.com)
1999; The New York Times book section
featured reviews of A Journey to the End of the Millennium by A. B.
Yehoshua; translated by Nicholas de Lange and Preempting the Holocaust
by Lawrence Langer.
1999: Bruce Fleisher won the Royal Caribbean
Classic.
1999: A Broadway revival “Little Me,” “a
musical written by Neil Simon, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Carolyn
Leigh” closed today after “99 performances and 43 previews.”
2000: In “Lindbergh Family Bashes Biographer”
published today examines the story behind the writing of Anne Morrow Lindbergh:
Her Life by Susan Hertog, the wife of financer and philanthropist Roger Hertog,
the Chairman of the Tikvah Fund.
https://www.salon.com/2000/02/07/lindbergh/
2001: Today “reaction in the Arab world to the
election of Ariel Sharon was a mixture of indifference, predictions of dire
consequences for any agreement with the Palestinians and occasional relief
among Arabs hostile to Israel that the notorious general would be the one to
abort the idea of coexistence.”
2002: “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel
said today that he expected to see a Palestinian state at the end of the Middle
East peace process -- though that process is now moribund -- even as President
Bush said the United States would keep up pressure on Yasir Arafat, the
Palestinian leader, to crack down on violence.”
2003: “Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner” the Jewish
spacemen “attended the Lucian Freud opening in Los Angeles” today
2004: On the same day that an Israeli
helicopter fired a missile that killed a Palestinian terrorist traveling in a
car, four Palestinian men went on trial “in a Palestinian security court on
weapons charges liked to a roadside bombing that killed three American security
workers as they escorted a United States diplomatic convoy into the Gaza
Strip.”
2004(15th of Shevat, 5764): Parashat
Beshalach; Tu B’Shevat
2005: Ian Livingston “the fourth-generation son
of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago became CEO for
Retail of BT Group.
2005: Rabbi Raymond Apple “marked his
retirement today after 32 years at the helm of Sydney's Great Synagogue..”
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/06/1107625057722.html
2006: Seeking a leader to guide a much-disputed
9/11 museum into existence at ground zero, officials announced that they had
settled on Alice M. Greenwald, an associate director for museum programs at the
Holocaust Museum in Washington.
2006: “Dutch to Return Aft Seized by Nazis,”
published today described the return of Nazi looted art to the heirs of a
“Dutch Jewish dealer and collector.”
2006: “A few days before the theatrical release
of a “Curious George” motion picture the body of Alan Shalleck who produced
“more than 100 short episodes for the Curious George television series” was
found in his Florida home, the victim of an apparent robbery/homicide
2006: The day after Betty Friedan passed away,
The Guardian publishes “The Betty I Knew” by fellow feminists Germain Greer who
raises questions about the importance of Ms. Friedan’s role in the “Women’s
Movement.” (You can decide if this is Lshon Hora.)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/feb/07/gender.bookscomment/print
2007: Publication of “America’s First Torah
Scholar: Israel Baer Kursheedt” by Dr. Yitzchok Levine
2007: Daniel Friedmann was sworn in today as
Minister of Justice succeeding Tzipi Livni.
2007: During his freshman season in which he
started all 33 games for the Duke Basketball team, today Jonathan James
"Jon" Scheyer “scored a season-high 26 points in a loss to North
Carolina.”
2007: In “Sold on a Stereotype” published today
the Washington Post reported on the growing popularity in China of “a
genre of self-help books that purport to tell the secrets of making money ‘the
Jewish way.’” Volumes include The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets
of the Jewish, The Legends of Jewish Wealth, and The Jewish
People and Business: The Bible of how to Live Their Lives. While some
of the volumes tout the success of the Lehman Brothers and the Rothschilds,
others miss the mark when the identify J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller as
Jews.
2008: First Day of Adar I (2nd Day
Rosh Chodesh Adar I 5768
2008: Scholar Michael B. Oren, a senior
fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem, discusses and signs copies Power,
Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present at the
Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
2008: In Bethesda, Maryland, Open Arms,
the women's giving circle of the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA), hosts its
first annual "Meet the Author" evening with novelist Elinor Lipman,
author of The Inn at Lake Devine, Then She Found Me (the basis of a
feature film opening in May) and, most recently, My Latest Grievance, at
the Dennis and Phillip Ratner Museum.
2008: The 12th New York Sephardic
Jewish Film Festival opens with a showing of “Got No Jeep and My Camel Died.”
2008: Right winger Michael Steven “Mike” Brown
who had scored his first NHL goal in December “was sent back down to the
Manitoba Moose” today.
2008: The Washington Post featured a
review of A Lost Letter, A Remarkable Discovery, and The First
Amendment in an Age of Terrorism by Alan Dershowitz
2009: An exhibition entitled Blue and White
Pages: Documenting the History of Israel has its final showing at the
Israel Museum.
2009: Suzane Adam’s tour of the United States
designed to promote her award winning new book Laundry comes to an end.
2009: Shabbat Shirah, 5769
2010: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including For The Soul Of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus by
Frederick Brown and Where The God Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom.
2010: While the Saints defeated the Colts in
Super Bowl XLIV their fans were able to enjoy kosher food. Kosher Sports Inc.
(KSI), a New York-based kosher concessions provider geared to the sports
industry has signed a contract to provide kosher food to this year's Super Bowl
games at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida. This is the first-time kosher fare
will be available at The Super Bowl. Kosher Sports is under the kosher
supervision of the Star-K Kosher Certification, based in Baltimore, Maryland.
2010: A Jewish former banker was elected the
vice president of Costa Rica today. Luis Lieberman will become vice president
after Costa Rican voters elected Laura Chinchilla as the Central American
country's first female president by a wide margin.
2010: The CSSO convened two emergency meetings
today and, in response to the upset, JTS’s provost, Alan Cooper, took the
unusual step of sending a letter on that same day to the cantorial faculty,
reassuring them of its commitment to the school
2010(23rd of Shevat, 5770):
Eighty-nine-year-old Phillip Klass the science fiction writer who used the
pseudonym “William Tenn” passed away today. (As reported by Gerald Jonas)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/books/14tenn.html
2011: The New Yorker published “The Wave” in
which Francisco Goldman “wrote about his wife’s death and their relationship.”
2011: Érik Izraelewicz was appointed director
of Le Monde.
2011: John Russ Tupper and Niki Russ Federman,
4th generation owners of Russ and Daughters are scheduled to
“demystify caviar in an evening that is educational and unpretentious at the
Astor Center in New York City. While most of us think of Russ and Daughters as
“the go to place” when you want the best in lox, it offers a whole more,
including some of the nicest people working behind the counter you would ever
want to meet. [This is not a commercial plug. It is based on real live
experience.]
2011: Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich and the
Jupiter musicians are scheduled to “perform works by American composers
including Aaron Copland at the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.
2011(3rd of Adar I, 5771): Eighty-year-old
Jerry James, a longtime contributor to the art of tap dance, and ‘a teacher and
choreographer ‘known for his airy, balletic style and eclectic approach’” who
had been born Jerome Howard Abrams, passed away today. (As reported by
Margalit Fox)
2011(3rd of Adar I, 5771): Maria V.
Altmann, a Jewish refugee who in her 80s waged a successful legal battle all
the way to the United States Supreme Court to force the Austrian government to
return paintings by Gustav Klimt that had been seized from her family by the
Nazis, passed away today at her home in Los Angeles at the age of 94.
2012: Iowa PTV is scheduled to broadcast “Lost
in History: Alexander Clark” which is produced by Marc Rosenwasser, the
son-in-law of Ellie and Ed Spector (and Nancy’s husband). The Spectors
have brought joy, delight and warmth to numerous Jewish communities including
Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2012: Nathan Englander’s “third book, What
We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, short story collection, was
released today. Born in 1970, Englander was raised in an Orthodox Jewish
community, lived in Israel for five years and graduated from the Iowa Writer’s
Workshop at the University of Iowa.
2012: In Columbus, Ohio, Tifereth Israel is
scheduled to host its HAZAK Tu B'Shevat Seder
2012: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is
scheduled to presents “The Jewish Antifascist Committee and Its Foreign
Delegation” a lecture by Gennady Estraikh
2012: “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey
of Ruth Gruber” is scheduled to be shown at the Golda Meir Chapter of Hadassah
in New York.
2012: Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
thanked US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today for the “very important
message” recent sanctions on Iran have sent.
2012: MK Zahava Gal-On was elected as Meretz
chairwoman today, winning 60% of the votes.
2013: Yiddish copy editor Louis Katz “left the
Forward today, half a century after joining the newspaper as a typesetter.” (As
reported by Paul Berger)
2013: Stefanie Fischer is scheduled to deliver
a talk entitled “Economic Trust and Anti-Semitic Violence at The Wiener Library
for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide in London.
2013: The Center for Jewish History and the
Jewish Book Council is scheduled to present, “Emerging Writers/Contemporary
Literary Landscapes” that will examine the works of Nadia Kalman, Austin
Ratner, Francesca Segal and Adam Wilson.
2013: In Washington, DC, Dr. Peggy Pearlstein,
former Society President and Head of the Hebraic Section at Library of Congress
is scheduled to conduct a tour titled “Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of
Hebraica at the Library of Congress,1912-2012”
2013: “Ezekiel’s World” a play based on the
life of Abba Kovener, is scheduled to premiere in New York City.
2013: The Jerusalem District Attorney today
filed two indictments in the magistrate’s court against four Betar Jerusalem
fans for making racist statements against Arabs and Muslims, including new
players that had joined the team.
2013: Residents of the mixed religious/secular
neighborhood of Ramat Sharett in Jerusalem are furious over the municipality’s
approval of three yeshivas on the edge of their neighborhood at last week’s
city council meeting. Today, the residents will hold a planning meeting with
City Councilor Rachel Azaria (Yerushalmim) to try and submit a petition to the
city’s Administrative Court to stop the yeshiva’s creation.
2013: Tonight’s anti-Israel event sponsored and
endorsed by the Brooklyn College political science department will take place
on that school’s campus, but it now appears certain that the atmosphere of
intimidation and distrust generated by that academic department did not begin,
and will not end, with this event.
2013: Today Ben “Shapiro published an article
citing unspecified Senate sources who said that a group named "Friends of
Hamas" was among foreign contributors to the political campaign of Chuck
Hagel, a former U.S. Senator awaiting confirmation as Secretary of Defense as a
nominee of President Barack Obama” and in which he “criticized the Obama
administration for ignoring his questions about Hagel's foreign associations
and called for full disclosure of Hagel's foreign ties.”
2014: “The Monument’s Men,” based on book by
the same name that beings with the story of the Ettlingers, a Jewish family
from Karlsruhe and describes the work of tells the Monuments, Fine Arts and
Archives program is scheduled to be released to theatres today.
2014: Violinist Shmuel Ashkenasi is scheduled
to perform in the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
2014: “The Spanish government approved a draft
citizenship bill “that would offer citizenship to Sephardic Jews as a gesture
of conciliation for Spain’s expulsion of Jews during the Inquisition” (As
reported by Isabel Kershner and Raphael Minder)
2014: “The Sturgeon Queens” a movie that “tells
the story of four generations of the Russ family - and how they took their
business from a tiny storefront stocked with herring barrels to the famed
smoked fish emporium it is today” is scheduled to be shown at the San Diego
Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Hundreds of young worshipers flung rocks
at Israeli police on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount just after Muslim Friday prayers
concluded at the al-Aqsa mosque.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014: “Thirteen ultra-Orthodox protesters were
indicted today after their arrest during anti-draft riots yesterday in Ashdod.”
(As reported by Adiv Sterman and Stuart Winer)
2014: Centuries worth of Jewish documents are
at risk of vanishing into the vortex of Iraq’s chronic instability, but for
American Jewish groups advocating for their preservation, there was a moment of
optimism today after the US Senate approved a resolution calling for a
renegotiation of the archives’ status. (As reported by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil)
2015: In Coralville, IA, Landon Elkind is
scheduled to be called to the Torah as Bar Mitzvah at Aguadas Achim’s
Traditional Shabbat morning service.
2015: The Eden-Tamar Music Center is scheduled
to host “Sonata or Sontina – Sounds of Flue in Ein Kerem featuring Noam
Bhuchman on flute and Pazit Gal playing the piano.
2015: At Temple Beth El in Hollywood, FL, Rabbi
Romiel Daniel, the scholar in residence will discuss the similarities and
differences between Hinduism and Judaism after having delivered a sermon the
night before on the history of the Jews in India where according to him “Jews
have more freedom and few if any cases of discrimination than anywhere else in
the world.”
2015: In “A Month After Kosher Market Attack,
French Jews Plan An Exodus” published today Griff Witte described the reaction
to the terrorist attack in Paris.
2015: “Egypt: faith after the pharaohs” an
exhibition that includes “the Gaster Bible, a 9th-century Torah from Egypt
featuring one of the oldest Hebrew illuminated text” and “fragments of
documents from the Cairo Geniza containing Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic and
Arabic texts detailing Jewish life in Cairo during the Middle Ages” is
scheduled to open today at the British Museum.”
2016: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold
Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond by Robert D.
Kaplan and Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the
American Century by Daniel Oppenheimer.
2016: The Denver Broncos defeated the Carolina
Panthers in Super Bowl L.
2016: “Blind Hero, A: The Love of Otto Weidt”
is scheduled to be shown this afternoon at the 26th Annual San Diego
Jewish Film Festival
2016: Birkbeck University of London is
scheduled to host a screening of “Ida” followed by a round-table discussion
between Dr. François Guesnet, University College London and Dr. Małgorzata
Pakier, POLIN, Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw.
2016: A day after a 65-year-old grandmother was
stabbed by a terrorist, a Sudanese national who had entered Israel illegally in
2008, stabbed a 20 year old soldier near the central bus station in Ashkelon.
2017(11th of Shevat, 5777):
Forty-nine-year-old Yehuda Simes, known as the “Rolling Rabbi” passed away
today in Ottawa.
http://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/rabbi-yehuda-simes-quadriplegic-inspired-died
2017: “Sefaria, a website founded in 2013 that
aims to put the seemingly infinite Jewish canon on line for free” today “rolled
out 22 tractates of the Steinsaltz English edition.” (As reported by Ben Sales)
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is
scheduled to host an evening with author Judith Viorst.
2017: This evening, after dinner, The Oxford
University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a talk by Richard Verber from
World Jewish Relief on “Tales from a Refugee Camp.”
2018: JCC Manhattan is scheduled to host the
Ka’et Dance Ensemble, a Jerusalem based dance group composed of four Orthodox
men performing “Heroes,” a work originally “commissioned by JW3, Jewish
Community Centre for London.”
2018: At the University of Virginia, the Brody
Center is scheduled to host “Bagels on the Lawn” in the morning and a
presentation by Yavilah McCoy, the founder of Ayecha, in the evening.
2018: The Center for Jewish History is
scheduled to “Jewish Baroque” a program “featuring Dr. Michael Beckerman and
Dr. Simona Frankel” that “will study the introduction of art music into
European synagogues and explore mystical atonement rituals of Jews during the
Baroque era.”
2019: “The 51st Annual Four
Chaplains Day Banquet honoring the four chaplains and the crew of the USAT
Dorchester” is scheduled to take place in Philadelphia, PA.
2019: The Center for Jewish History is
scheduled to host another in its Short Talks on Big Subjects series in which
Michael S. Neiberg, author of The Treaty of Versailles: A Very Short
Introduction, discusses the watershed events of 1916-1919 and their
connection to the Jewish people today
2019: The Springfield Jewish Community Center
is scheduled to host “Author Talk with Jamie Bernstein” the author of Famous Father
Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein.
2019: The Infected Mushroom is scheduled to
perform in Tel Aviv for the first time in Tel Aviv at the Gnei Hataaruch.
2019: “Jill Abramson, the former executive
editor of The New York Times, responded today to accusations that her latest
book, “Merchants of Truth,” contains passages that were plagiarized or not
properly attributed to the original source material.
2019: The Jewish Museum in London is scheduled
to host “Capture Your World: Photography Late,” a workshop that will include an
exploration of the Roman Vishniac Rediscovered exhibition and instruction on
developing “your own photos in a pop-up darkroom: and “reflective talks from
social photographers.”)
2020: Start of “JeWitch Camp,” a “multiday
restorative camping trip for Jews, pagans and those interested in exploring the
eco-feminist, pre-patriarchal, pagan roots of Judaism acilitated by Rabbis
Arthur Waskow and Phyllis Berman.”
2020: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Temple Judah is
scheduled to host its Tu B’Shevat Seder on a night when it is not snowing in
Iowa.
2020: The Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to host “Parent’s Shabbat,” the “biggest and most popular event of
the year.”
2020: In the U.K., the National Army Museum is
scheduled to host “Jewish Women in the Armed Forces” during which “Kathrin
Pieren and Susan Gordon from the Jewish Museum London uncover the important
contribution of Jewish women in the First and Second World Wars.”
2021: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to
Transform Them by Ethan Zuckerman and The Ratline: The Exalted Life and
Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive by Phillipe Sand, the author of East
West Street, which “wove the story of his own Eastern European Jewish
family with those of two jurists who forged the legal framework for the
Nuremberg trials Hersch Lauterpacht, who put forth the concept of “crimes
against humanity,” and Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide.”
2021: Temple Sinai of Sharon is scheduled to
present an online screening of “Commandment 613” which “highlights the sacred work of sofer (Torah
scribe) Rabbi Kevin Hale as he restores Torah scrolls saved in Czechoslovakia
during the Holocaust.”
2021: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is
scheduled to present Part 2 of “Writing Between Tongues” which “will take a
deeper dive into the rich visual worlds of Arabic and Hebrew calligraphy” with
Ruben Shimonov.
2021: In Columbus, OH, the Tifereth Israel
Men’s Club is scheduled to participate in the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs
annual World Wide Wrap, a world-wide minyan that will include a presentation
entitle “Tefillin: A New Look at an Old Ritual.”
2021: Jewish LearningWorks is scheduled to
present Ph.D. candidate Jillian Hinderliter talking about how Jewish women
shaped the movement as early activists on birth-control and breast-cancer
issues.
2021: The Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to
present “The Untold Story of Bukharin Jews” during which “Manashe Khaimov of
Queens College will talk about the culture and heritage of this once-sizable
Jewish community in Central Asia.”
2021: The Harvard University Hillel is
scheduled to present online “The Israel Summit” which is par of “an
international movement dedicated to shifting the conversation surrounding
Israel on college campuses across the globe.”
2021: “Israel has extended its third
coronavirus lockdown until 7am today, hoping that its rapid vaccination
campaign helps to contain an outbreak accelerated by new variants.”
2021: Temple Isaiah is scheduled to present
online Ambassador Michael Oren talking about his third work of fiction The
Night Archer and Other Stories.
2022: The Jewish Community Relations Council of
Greater Boston is scheduled to present, online, “a conversation with Chanan
Weissman, White House liaison to the American Jewish community, moderated by
Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of
Greater Boston.”
2022: Based on statements made yesterday by
Prof. Dror Mevorach, who heads a COVID ward at the Hadassah Medical Center in
Jerusalem, “there appears to be no
end to pandemic in sight since a new coronavirus variant can emerge at any
moment.”
2022: “The number of patients hospitalized in
Israel in serious condition as a result of COVID-19 continued to rise as an be
seen by yesterday’s rise to 1,263, “the highest number since the onsest of the
pandemic.”
2022: As part of "Virtual Tours of Jewish
Heritage" series the National Library of Israel is scheduled to present
“Promised Land: Jews in Barcelona in the 20th Century” with “tour guide”
Dominique Tomasov Blinder.
2022: Starting
today, “Israelis will no longer have to flash their Green Passes, which show
proof of vaccination, or a recent negative COVID-19 test at restaurants, movie
theaters, gyms and hotels.”
2022: The American
Society for Jewish Music is scheduled to present Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas
lecturing on “Performing the Homeland” Contesting Boundaries of Moroccan Jewish
Identity.”
2022: The Raoul Wallenberg Jewish Democratic
Club, JCRC, JPAC, JFCS, American Jewish Committee, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav,
Congregation Emanu-El and Congregation Sherith Israel are scheduled to present
an “informational forum with state Assembly special election candidates David
Campos, Matt Haney, Bilal Mahmood and Thea Shelby in moderated Q&A.
2022: Two hundred tenth anniversary of the
birth of Charles Dickens who gave us both “Fagen” and “Mr.Riah.”
https://www.charlesdickenspage.com/from-fagin-to-riah.html
2023: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host
a conversation with author Christina Baker Kline and Pam Jenoff, author of Code
Name Sapphire.
2023: The 2nd annual Jewish Heritage Night is
scheduled to take place at the Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse, in
partnership with Tulane Men's Basketball, as the Green Wave takes on
Cincinnati.
2023: The God Squad: An Honest Conversation
About Religion, Co-taught by: Rabbi Yaron Kapitulnik, Pastor Samuel St. Fleur
and Reverend James Cook is scheduled to take place today at FAU.
2023: The Temple Emanuel Culture Center is
scheduled to host a discussion of those responsible to creating the “Parade on
Broadway.
2023: As Israel copes with winter storm
Barbara, by tonight “high elevations in the north and center may also see snow
flurries.”
2023: An advanced team of Israeli personnel is
already on the on ground helping in Turkey helping that country cope with the
effects of 7.8 earthquake that struck the country yesterday. (As reported by Yoav
Zitun, Itamar Eichner)
2023: According to previously published
reports, despite the fact that Israel considers Syria a “hostile state,” it is
sending “medication, tents and other supplies” to help that country cope with
the effects of the devastating earthquake that has struck the country.
2024: The Museum at Eldridge Street is
scheduled to host a “Book Talk and Signing with Daniel Schulman author of The
Money Kings on “Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street.”
2024: The Leo Baeck Institute and the American
Society for Jewish Music are scheduled to host “a night of live music with
Wolfgang Holzmair and Thérèse Lindquist the Center for Jewish History.”
2024: IAC New England is scheduled to present “The
War of the Free World,” a lecture by “Ben-Dror Yemini, a jurist and senior
journalist at Yediot Aharonot, is renowned for his decade-long research on
anti-Israeli propaganda, encapsulated in his widely translated bestseller, Industry
of Lies.”
2024: As February 7th, begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 124 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.)
