This Day, February 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
February 8
421:
Constantius III becomes co-Emperor of the Western Roman Empire serving as
co-Emperor with Honorius. Constantinius only reigned for 7 months, but during
his long tenure Honorius was no friend of the Jews as can be seen by his promulgation
of “a new law requiring any taxes collected by Jewish leaders from the Jewish
community to be sent to the imperial treasury.
1250:
During the seventh crusade, King Louis IX of France faces Ayyubid forces at the
3 day Battle of Al Mansurah. The entire crusading period was a debacle
for the Jewish people. As to Louis, Fordham University, the Jesuit
University of New York says, he “was an ideal medieval king: he was chivalrous,
religious, ascetic, and hostile to Jews.”
1265:
Hulagu Khan, whose invasion of Persia in 1255 led to the creation of the
Ilkhanate, a portion of the Mongol Empire where much to the relief of the Jews
“the rulers abolished the inequality of dhimmis, and all religions were deemed
equal,” passed away today.
1265:
Abaqa Khan succeeded Hulagu Kahn as the ruler of the Ilkhanate, a portion of
the Mongol Empire where much to the relief of the Jews “the rulers abolished
the inequality of dhimmis, and all religions were deemed equal.”
1291:
Birthdate of King Alfonso IV of Portugal who increased the taxes paid by the
Jews, load to “reinstituted the dormant requirement that Jews wear an
identifying yellow badge, and restricted their freedom to emigrate.”
1349:
In Worms, Bishop Frederick ordered that “the Jewish community should pay 20
florins each year on St. Martin’s Day when a new “Bishop of the Jews” – the
head of the 12 member council that governed the internal affairs of the Jewish
community – each year on St. Martin’s Day.
1577:
In Leicestershire, Dorothy Faunt and Ralph Burton gave birth to Robert Burton
the English author and Oxford University who “in Anatomy of Melancholy admitted
that the Jews were ‘very industrious whilst amon Englishmen the badge of gentry
is idleness, to be of no calling, not to labour…to be a mere spectator, a drone.’”
1596:
Despite being tortured today by the Inquisition Louis de Caraval said nothing
but later said that “he remembered that Jorge de Almeida and some others
‘believed in the law which God gave to Moses.’”
1640:
Murad IV, “during whose reign, the Jews of Jerusalem were persecuted by an Arab
who had purchased the governorship of that city from the governor of the
province,” passed away today.
1693:
The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a charter
by King William III and Queen Mary II. According to recent figures there
are approximately 385 Jewish students attending the school with a student
population of approximately 7,700. The school offers eight Jewish studies
courses and is home to William and Mary Balfour Hillel whose mission is “To
inspire every Jewish student to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life and
enrich the lives of Jewish undergraduate and graduate students so that they may
enrich the Jewish people and the world.”
1725:
Peter The Great, Russian Czar, passed away at the age of 52. Peter’s
determination to keep the Jews out of his realm and his treatment of Russian
Jews was not the picture of “enlightenment.” But his use of the Velesovsky
Brothers showed that he was not above using the services of Jews who converted.
From the point of Jewish history, he certainly was not the “Great”
1773:
“The
Grand Council of Poland meets in Warsaw, summoned by a circular letter from
King Stanisław August Poniatowski to respond to the Kingdom's threatened
partition between three foreign powers” --- Russia, Prussia and Austria – which
would have disastrous consequences for most of the large Jewish population
living in Poland.
1744:
Birthdate of Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, the “prince bishop”
sovereign of Frankfurt during whose reign Karl Ludwig Börne was appointed a
police actuary in 1811 and then forced to resign three years later because he
was Jewish.
1787:
In Easton, PA, Judith Hart and James Pettigrew gave birth to Hetty Pettigrew,
the wife of Adolph Anker with whom she had twelve children.
1792(15th
of Shevat, 5552): With France gripped in the turmoil of the effects of the
Revolution and Americans living under the leadership of their first President,
George Washington, Jews celebrated Tu B’Shevat.
1795:
In Baden Handel bat Gumbert and Joseph ben Ephriam Zimmern gave birth to Moses
I. Zimmerman, the husband of Sarah Jacob with whom he had eight children.
1795:
Birthdate of Hungarian-born journalist and author, Moritz G [Moses] Saphir who
moved to Bavaria to further his career. In 1832 he was expelled but was
permitted to return by the king later that year. Eighteen thirty-two was
also the same year that Saphir became a Lutheran.
1797(12th
of Shevat, 5557): Rachel Judah, the
daughter of Baruch Judah and the wife of Manuel Josephson whom she married in
1759 passed away today in Philadelphia.
1799:
In Easton PA, Sarah Hart and Isaac Nunez Cardozo gave birth to Rachel N.
Cardozo the wife of Simon Cauffman and the Joseph Phillips with whom she had
two children – Ellen and Isaac Cardozo Phillips.
1800(13th
of Shevat, 5560): Parashat Beshalah chanted for the first time in the 19th
century.
1806:
“In ‘Sur les Juifs’ published today in Mercure
de France Louis-Gabriel-Ambroise Bonald “repeated the usual anti-Semitic
accusations” including “that the Jews were at war with morality, that they
formed an "imperium in imperio," and that the majority of them were
parasites.”
1810:
Birthdate of Paris native Alphonse Louis Constant, the Roman Catholic who was
the great nineteenth century student of the Caballah who did his work as
Eliphas Levi, the Hebraized form of his given name.
1818:
Moses Moses married Sarah Friedberg today at the Great Synagogue.
1830(15th
of Shevat, 5590): Tu B’Shevat observed on the same day that Speaker Andrew Stevenson postponed the
discussion of the Cherokee nation’s protest over the state of Georgia to extend
its authority over tribal land .
1831:
Louis Philippe of France, successor to Charles X, ratified a motion putting
Judaism on a par with Christianity, granting State support to Synagogues and
their Minister of Religion. This meant that France extended financial support
to Jewish religious institutions on par with Christian institutions.
1832:
Birthdate of German native Babette Baum, the wife of Samuel Strauss.
1833:
Birthdate of Baron Horace Günzburg who was “one of the founders of the Society
for the Spread of Enlightenment among the Jews of Russia…”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6950-gunzburg-horace-baron
1833:
In England, Iganz Moscheles and Charlotte Emden, “the daughter of a Jewish Banker
and a cousin of Heinrich Heine who were married in 1825 in a Hamburg synagogue
“gave birth to their second son, painter and advocate for Esperanto Felix
Moscheles who appears to have been raised as a member of the Church of England.
1835: Thirty-one-year-old
Clara Kahn married Jacob Neumond, the thirty-two-year-old German born son of
Johanna and Louis Neumond.
1836(20th
of Shevat, 5597): Sixty-three-year-old Rachel Judah, the New York born daughter
of Samuel Judah passed away today.
1839: In
Germany, of Ludwig (Simche Laib) Zuckermann, and Johanna Zuckermann gave birth to Berlin
resident Henriette Berliner, the wife of Abraham Berliner and the mother of
Flora Jolenberg; Selma Berliner; Max Berliner and Paul Berliner.
1843:
Health officers in Frankfort-on-Main issued an order stating “Israelite
citizens and inhabitants, must employ the services of competent persons"
when having their sons circumcised.
1857: In Blair County, PA, Rebecca Goldschmidt and
Abraham Leopold Bechhoefer gave birth to Joseph B.G. Bechhoefer.
1858:
Birthdate of Pauline Koch, who as Pauline Einstein gave birth to physicist
Albert Einstein.
1860(15th
of Shevat, 5620): Tu B'Shevat
1860(15th
of Shevat, 5620): Sixty-seven-year-old Charlotte Aron, the wife of Alexandre
Aron and the daughter of Asser Lion and Gitlé Loëw passed away today in Alsace,
France.
1860:
“A Mistaken Philanthropist” published today describes the efforts of
"‘Captain’ Moses, a gentleman we presume of Abrahamic stock,” to raise
funds and outfit a ship that would provide relief for “the Christian and Jewish
refugees, who had been constrained to flee almost naked from Morocco to
Gibraltar ‘to escape the knife of the savage Bedouin of the desert.’”
Unfortunately for Captain Moses, he misrepresented his credentials when he went
to Philadelphia to continue his efforts and ended up being be jailed because
authorities saw him as a “swindler” and “imposter” rather than “an indiscreet
philanthropist.”
1863:
“Beauregard and the Jews” published today quoted a letter that the P.G.T.
Beauregard had written in 1861 when he was commanding the Confederate Army of
Northern Virginia in which he explained why could not grant leave to Jewish
soldiers to observe the High Holidays. He is sure that “the Hebrews” serving
with the army will understand that military necessity makes it impossible to
grant a request that he would otherwise comply with quite willingly.
1863:
Jeanetta Mallan and Joseph Davis gave birth to George Victor Davis.
1865:
In Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, Malke Landau and Jacob
Cohen gave birth to New Yorker Joseph H. Cohen, the president of Beth Israel
Hospital and the husband of Deborah Olenick.
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/gomberg-moses.pdf
1866:
At Tabor, Hungary, Judith Klemperer and Juda Markus Klemperer gave birth to
Karl Klemperer.
1867:
The Ausgleich results in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of
Austria-Hungary. The Ausgleich refers to the compromise document that
changed the Austrian Empire into the dual monarchy that put Hungary on level
playing field with the previously dominate Germanic (Austrian) element of the
Hapsburg Empire. The reform came about as a result of Austria’s defeat at
the hands of Prussia. (Yes this gets complicated; but if you want to understand
the fate of the Jews of Europe you have to understand European history.)
Following the Law of Unintended consequences, The Ausgleich had a
profound effect on the Jews living under the rule of the Habsburgs. “With the
“Ausgleich” between Austria and Hungary in 1867, Jews finally gained full
citizen rights. Vienna was now the city in the Habsburg Empire with the largest
Jewish community (40,000 or 6.6 percent). Most of the Viennese Jews were of
Bohemian, Moravian and Hungarian origin, while others were from the poor area
of Galicia. Jewish communities in other parts of the Empire developed, even in
cities that have not had any Jews for a long time, such as Salzburg (part of
Austria since 1816).” Today we seem to have forgotten the prominent role
that Vienna played in European and Jewish culture. Within a few decades
of each other, for example, Vienna was home to Herzl, Freud and Hitler.
Imagine what might have happened had Hitler been one of Freud’s patients.
1868(15th
of Shevat, 5628): Parashat Beshalach; Tu B’Shevat
1870:
Two days after she had passed away, Mina Davis, the wife of Woolf Davis and the
mother of Isaac, Ann, David and Leah Davis was buried today at the Deane Road
Jewish Cemetery in Liverpool.
1871:
During inquest being held today at Union Hill, NY, to determine the cause of
death for Charles Kraft, a Jew named Nathan Berg was identified as one of three
men who might have been involved in a fatal beating of the deceased.
1872:
Birthdate of Theodor Lessing, the “German Jewish philosopher… known for
opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his
classic on Jewish self-hatred (Der jüdische Selbsthaß)…in which he tried to
explain the phenomenon of Jewish self-hatred - Jewish intellectuals who incited
anti-Semitism against the Jewish people, and regarded Judaism as the source of
evil in the world. A Zionist, he moved to Czechoslovakia after Hitler came to
power. The move did not save him since he “was assassinated by Nazi agents in
the summer of 1933.”
1874: Sixty-six-year-old
German theologian and author David Friedrich Strauss who was a leader of those
studying Jesus as a historical figure, which would have included his Jewish
origins, passed away today
https://www.westarinstitute.org/resources/the-fourth-r/david-friedrich-strauss/
1874:
In Pittsburgh, Adolph and Rosalia Burkhart gave birth to Curry Institute and
University of Southern California alum Lillian Burkhart who married George
Goldsmith ad gained fame as Lillian Goldsmith, vaudeville performer turned
social reformer who was member of the national board of the Council of Jewish
Women and President of the Los Angles Section of the National Council of Jewish
Women. (Some sources show her birthdate as 1871)
1874:
In Baltimore, MD, Isabella Cohen and Moses Frank gave birth to Johns Hopkins
graduate and Cornell and University of Maryland trained attorney Eli Frank, the
husband of Rena Ambach who became a judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore
while serving as president of the Y.M.H.A. and the Association of Federated
Jewish Charities.
1876:
Birthdate of Russian- American violinist and “ concert master of the New York
Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Saslavsky, the husband of Bostonian Celeste Todd
who was assistant to conductor Walter Damrosch.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/08/04/104701331.html?pageNumber=1
1876:
Maximilian Morgenthau, the German born son of Lazarus and Seline Babbeette
Morgenthau gave birth to Alice Morgenthau who became Alice Straus when she
married Leon A. Strauss.
1878:
Birthdate of Martin Buber. Buber almost defies definition. He gained fame
as a theologian, philosopher, teacher and Zionist. His life and teachings
are too rich and complicated to be encapsulated in this brief item. Born in
Vienna, Buber spent his youth living with his grandfather who was a
distinguished rabbinic scholar. Buber returned to Vienna for his secular
education. He was attracted to Zionism in its earliest days but saw the
need to add a uniquely Jewish cultural and spiritual component to
Herzl’s political ideas. After dabbling with various forms of mysticism,
Buber began to study the works of the Chassidic Masters. Eventually he
developed a philosophy based on their lives and teaching which has been
described as Neo-Chasidism. Buber moved to Jerusalem in 1938 and joined
the faculty of Hebrew University. His most famous work I and Thou which
described the I-Thou and I-It relationships was published in 1923. Other
works available in English include, but are not limited to, Good and Evil,
On Judaism and The Legend of the Baal Shem. Buber
understood the relationship between Judaism and Christianity but knew the
difference between the two as well. His works and philosophy has had an
impact on people of many different beliefs. In the words of Buber: “The
God of history and the God of nature cannot be separated and the land of Israel
is a token of their unity.” “There is no opposition between the truth of
God and the salvation of Israel.” "To him who knows how to read the
legend, it conveys more truth than the chronicle.” “The Jew carries the
burden of an unredeemed world. He cannot concede that redemption is an
accomplished fact for he knows it is not.”
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/martin-buber/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/martin-buber
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0208.html
1878:
In the Pale of Settlement, a Hebrew scholar named Ezekiel Baevski and his wife,
Koona Dubrusha, née Shur gave birth to Simcha Myer Baevski who would gain fame
as Sidney Baevski Myer “the Jewish-Australian businessman and philanthropist,
best known for creating Myer, Australia's largest chain of department stores.”
1878:
Tonight, marked the final performance at the Opera Comique of “Dora’s Dream”
starring Giula Warwick.”
1878:
Birthdate of Hungarian native and Columbia trained New York physician Joseph
Bieber.
1879(15th
of Shevat, 5639): Shabbat and Tu B’Shevat
1880:
Rabbi De Sola Mendes officiated at the funeral of John D. Phillips which was
attended by several prominent Jewish leaders including Albert Cordozo, Jesse
Seligman and Emanuel B. Hart.
1880(26th
of Shevat, 5640): Choirmaster and composer Julius Mombach the German born son
of Cantor Lazarus Mombach passed away today in London.
https://www.jewishchoralmusic.com/composers-bios/2019/6/24/julius-mombach
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10938-mombach-julius-lazarus
1882:
According to one source, today in Kieff, Sophie Rogovi and Bernard Arnstein
gave birth to American composer and pianist Ira B. Arenstein, the composer of “A
Mother’s Prayer” and an opera “The Song of David” which was performed at
Aeolian Hall in 1925 as well as the musical score for the photoplay “Broken
Hearts.”
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/professional-victim-ira-b-arnstein/
1882(19th
of Shevat, 5642): Twenty days before his 70th birthday,
German-Jewish author Berthold Auerbach passed at Cannes, France.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2112-auerbach-berthold-baruch
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Auerbach,_Berthold
1883(1st
of Adar I, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1883:
Birthdate of “Walter Cowen Kom” the New York realtor and “trustee of the
Montefiore Hospital.”
1886:
Gabriel Lippman the son of a Jewish glove maker and who earned the Nobel Prize
in Physics became a member of the French Academy of Sciences which he served as
President in 1912.
1888:
In Buffalo, NY, Jeanette Brown and Sigmund Goldberg gave birth to University of
Buffalo trained physician and 1st lieutenant in the Medical Corps
Air Service during WW I Milton Harry Goldberg, the husband of Rose Feldman and
a member of the Temple Beth Zion in Buffalo.
1889(7th
of Adar, 5649): Eighty-three-year-old author and social work Anna Maria
Goldsmid who was the daughter of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, passed away
today. Born in London in 1805 she first gained fame for her work as the
translator of Dr. Gotthold Salomon’s sermons from German into English.
She helped from the Jews’ Infant-Schools and took an active role in the Jews’
Deaf and Dumb Home. (Some sources show her date of death as February 15)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldsmid-anna-maria
1889:
Achad ha-am organized the Zionist Order Benei Moshe
1890: In
New York City, Morris and Sarah and Miriam Goldstein gave birth to Columbia and
JTS graduate Herbert Samuel Goldstein, the husband of Rebecca Fischel and “the
only person in history to have been elected president of the Union of Orthodox
Jewish Congregations of America, the Rabbinical Council of America (first
presidium), and the Synagogue Council of America.”
1890:
While serving with the United States Army, twenty-five-year-old Sergeant Frank
Maximillian Steinhart, the Munich born son of Simon and Regina (Levinger)
Steinhart who would eventually go on to serve as the General Manager of the
Havana Electric Railways, Light and Power Company today married Alice Florene
Redden.
1890:
Birthdate of Lithuanian native and University of Chicago trained biochemist
Samuel Brody, a leading Professor of Dairy Science at the University of
Missouri.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/08/09/86670370.html?pageNumber=2
1890:
Birthdate of Isidore Kaufman, the native of Syracuse, NY who gained fame as
singer Irving Kaufman, who along with is brothers Phillip and Jack for the “The
Kaufman Brothers.”
http://www.gracyk.com/kaufman.shtml
1891(30th
of Shevat, 5651): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1891(30th
of Shevat, 5651): Fifty-eight-year-old Bavarian born Grand Rapids mayor and
Michigan congressman Julius Houseman passed way in his adopted home town.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000820
1891:
It was reported today that at the request of Baron Maurice de Hirsch and
several well-known leaders of the New York Jewish community have undertaken the
management of a philanthropic scheme of “great practical utility.” They have
consented to act under a deed of trust, by which Baron Hirsch places in their
control the sum of $2,400,000 to be used in improving the condition of the poor
Hebrew immigrants that are continually coming here from Russia and Romania.
1891:
It was reported today that funds provided by Baron Hirsch and his supporters in
the United States four new schools have been opened in New York City to help
provide training for the newly arrived immigrants from Russia. These
include a technical school, an evening school for girls who work during the day
and two schools that prepare youngsters for entering the public schools.
1891:
It was reported today that Joseph Klein, the President of Hebrew Cemetery
Association received a suspended sentence from a court in Union County, New
Jersey, after having been convicted of defrauding a co-religionist out of $60.
1891:
“Unleavened Bread,” published in today’s Atlanta Constitution reported that
“Cincinnati bakers have been busy for three months preparing for Passover.”
(Editor’s note – The story is notable on 2 counts – it was published in a paper
in Atlanta, GA, hardly a bastion of Jewish settlement and the matzo was being
produced by Manischweitz, which continues to supply a wide variety of Jewish
products in the 21st century)
1894:
Birthdate of Ludwig Marcuse German-born author and philosopher.
1895:
In Philadelphia, Harry L. Cantor, the Lithuanian born son of Samuel Lewis
Cantor and his wife Rose Cantor gave birth to Harry Cantor, the husband of
Ethel Cantor.
1896:
At two o’clock, Henry Steinhal, an actor appearing in “The Russian Jew” who had
been accidently wounded when a blank pistol misfired, left the Adler Theatre
with a limp and with a question – would he get damages from management?
1896:
Benjamin and Rose Briskin gave birth to producer Samuel J. Briskin whose most
memorable accomplishments may have been co-founding Liberty Films which made
the classics “It’s A Wonderful Life and “State of the Union and serving the
U.S. Army’s Signal Corps during WW II for which he received a President
commendation.
https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=28189
1896:
The Berlin monthly "Zion" publishes a friendly review of Herzl's
London article.
1896:
Herzl discusses his Zionist ideas after a lecture by Chief Rabbi Güdemann in
the "Jüdische akademische Lesehalle" with some Jewish students.
1896:
The Jewish community in Vienna wants to prevent the publishing of Herzl's
"Der Judenstaat”
1897:
It was reported today that Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise will
co-officiate at the upcoming funeral of Morris Goodhart.
1898:
Newspapers in Paris published today provided an account of the way Maitre
Fernand Gustave Gaston Labori, Emile Zola’s senior defense council dealt with
the government witnesses during the first session of the Seine Assizes.
1898:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native Bella Finkel, the sister of director Abe
Finkel, who gained fame as actress Bella Finkel Muni, the wife of the famous
actor Paul Muni.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/10/04/90693586.pdf
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0612841/bio/
1898:
Two days after he had passed away, 78 year old Judah Cohen, the husband of the
former Caroline Davis with whom he had had eleven children was buried today at
the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1898:
It was reported today that firemen who arrived at the Hebrew Sheltering
Guardian Society’s orphanage were not dealing with a serious fire. Four
boys had secretly gathered to light a homemade lantern made from a cigar box
and a candle. When another boy saw the flame, he told Superintendent
Louis Fauerbach and he sounded the fire alarm. The boys involved are awaiting
disciplinary action.
1899:
During this evening’s meeting of the People’s Club, Reverend Walter Bentley
offered to let the group meet at the St. Mark’s Parish House. A young,
unnamed Jewish man said that “he was positive that no respectable Jew would
belong to a club which met in a building connected with a church.” Several Jews
said he was mistaken and Reverend Bentley’s offer was acceptable.
1899:
Birthdate of Ralph Steiner, the Cleveland native and Dartmouth graduate who
became a leading photographer and documentarian.
http://www.valley.net/~townsend/Steiner/Point.html
1900(9th
of Adar I, 5660): Sixty-six-year-old Jacob Mendes Chumaceiro who served
variously as the dayyan of the Sephardic synagogue, and acting chakam for the
Portuguese Jews of North and South Netherlands, inspector of the Jewish schools
of Amsterdam, head and librarian of the bet ha-midrash Ets Haim, and editor of Het
Israelietisch Weekblad passed away today.
1901:
In the Reichstag, where Konitz was made the subject of an interpellation), the
Prussian minister of justice Schönstedt limited himself to a defense of the
authorities against the charge of shielding the Jews; but he carefully
refrained from uttering one word in condemnation of the ritual-murder charge,
and even from stating that there was no reason for assuming such a motive in
the case of Ernst Winter.
1902(1st
of Adar I, 5662): Parashat Mishpatim; Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1902:
It was reported today that Professor Lyon of the Harvard Museum plans on
undertaking excavations in Palestine with hopes that they will provide
“revelations of immense value to historical and theological students.”
1903:
In Louisville, KY, Rabbi Enlow is scheduled to conduct the funeral services for
sixty-eight year old Alsace native and wholesale whiskey dealer, Simon Lehman,
the husband of the former Henrietta Bloom of Jackson, MS with whom he had two
daughter and two sons after which he will interred at the Adas Israel cemetery.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36840025/simon-lehman-obituary-1903/
1903:
Solomon Barnato Joel and Ellen (Nellie) Ridley gave birth to Stanhope Henry
Joel
1904:
During the annual meeting of the members of the Hebrew Technical Institute
which “was held at the Institute Building” today, Joseph B. Bloomingdale
delivered his report as President in which he “said that that the pupils who
had been graduated from the Institute had a combined earning capacity of over
one million dollars.”
1905:
New York State Commissioner of Labor John McMackin “today made public his
answer to the charges of the Child Labor Committee that he has failed to
enforce the child labor law” including “the charge that ‘six poor Jews of the
east side in New York City were the only persons prosecuted during 1902’ for
accidents due to unguarded machinery” to which he said that “we have recognized
neither race creed nor color in administering the duties of the office.”
1906:
Jewish financier Luigi Luzzati began serving his first term as Minister of the
Treasury in Italy.
1906:
Birthdate of Galicia native Henry Roth, author of Call It Sleep.
1906:
In London, Laurie and Dora Marian Magnus gave birth to Sir Philip Montefiore
Magnus-Allcroft, the husband of Jewell Magnus.
1906:
“A deputation of prominent citizens” including at least one rabbi were reported
today to have told General Orloff that they had seen “Cossacks and hooligans
shooting Jews and setting fire to their rooms” in Gomel.
1906:
Birthdate of Arthur Balsam, Polish born pianist, who was an accompanist for Yehudi Menhuin.
1907:
The Jewish community of Kingston, Jamaica issues an appeal for help in rebuilding
three synagogues laid in ruins by an earthquake. Many Jews were killed during
the disaster. The Jewish community in England responded with an offer of
assistance.
1908: In Buffalo, NY, Anna and Harry Prinzmetal gave birth to
their second son, Dr. Myron Prinzmetal the pioneering cardiologist and the
brother of attorney Isadore Prinzmetal.
http://www.prinzmetal.net/myron_prinzmetal.htm
1909:
In Pennsylvania, founding of the Canonsburg Hebrew Association the officers of
which are Joseph Levine, President; Maurice Levine, vice president; Benny Klee
(who along with his wife owned a grocery store that had previously been
operated by Markus Blaustein), treasurer; Samuel Rosenberg, trustee and Harry
Levine, trustee
1910:
The Hahambashi is formally asked if he has any recommendations for the Turkish
authorities over the subject of Ottoman Jews in Persia. At the time the Persian
ambassador to Turkey, Prince Mirza Riza Khan utilized the Hahambashi as the
final decider of Jewish law.
1911:
Franklin Pierce is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Ethical Practices in
the Conduct of the Law” part of a lecture series at the Educational Alliance
developled by a committee whose members included Benjamin Tuska and Louis
Marshall.
1911:
Supporters of Sigmund Freud attack Alfred Adler and his followers at a meeting
of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The Freudians believe “that sexual
feelings and sexual repression are the primary motivations of human behavior”
while “Adler insists that feelings of inferiority, mostly on the subconscious
level, combined with compensatory defense mechanisms (like overcompensation)
become the primary forces behind behavior - especially pathological behavior.”
1912:
“Hokey Pokey,” a “potpourri of Weber-Field reminiscences” opened tonight at the
Broadway Theatre. (Editor’s note: Weber-Field refers to Jewish vaudevillians
Joe Weber and Lew Fields)
1913(1st
of Adar I, 5673): Parashat Terumah and Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1913:
This evening, “the Baron Hirsch Co-Workers” are scheduled to host “their third
annual subscription dance in the Florentine Room of the Congress Hotel” under
the leadership of “Miss Rose Weinfeld.”
1913:
Boris Thomashefsky is scheduled to present “Dvorelle the MIcheses” at the
Haymarket in Chicago.
1914:
Jacob H. Schiff, Rabbi J.L. Magnes and Joseph Barondess, a Commissioner of the
Board of Education addressed the annual meeting of the “officers and directors
of Brownsville’s Hebrew Free School” today.
1915:
In New York, Meyer Barmett, the Polish born son of Harris and Gittel Baran and
his wife Sarah Barnett gave birth to Edna Barnett
1915:
It was reported today that a gala event at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel has raised
more than $7,000 for the Ladies’ Hebrew Fuel and Aid Society.
1915:
In Denver, CO, Harry Lutstig and Jeanette Schamus gave birth award winning
graphic designer Alvin Lustig, who studied at the Los Angeles City College and
the Art Center College of Design who also taught at Black Mountain College and
Yale.
http://www.designishistory.com/1940/alvin-lustig/
1915:
It was reported today that plans have been for “a Palestine Pageant and
Oriental Exposition” at the St. Luke’s Church in New York which will received
support from “fourteen neighboring churches of various denominations.”
(Editor’s Note - It would seem that the question of who “owns” Palestine is
more complicated than one might already think.)
1916:
“The American Jewish Relief Committee has issued a preliminary report of
distribution showing that so far $1,085,000 has been sent to Russia, $660,000
to Germany, $430,000 to Austria-Hungary and $109,243 Palestine.
1916:
“Alleging that the name of his family was being used to lure hundreds of poor
east side Jews into a real estate venture, Jesse I. Straus, the son of Isidor
Straus who lost on the Titantic, appeared at the District Attorney’s office”
today “and urged immediate investigation of the Chatsworth Industrial Company.”
1916:
“Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels notified Leon Sanders, President of the
Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society” today “that the 60,000 pounds of
matzoth which the organization is to send to Palestine would be taken on board
the collier Sterling which is scheduled to leave Norfolk, VA for Alexandria,
VA” in the next eight days.
1916:
The concerns of Dr. M.J. Lewis reported today included “the worries of the
older generation of Jews that so many of their offspring, in spite of the work
of the Educational Alliance, are mistaking liberty for license and feel that
their young are going astray. American
ideas and ideals are causing a great gulf to spring up between the older and
the younger. It is this gulf that is
giving them concern.”
1917:
Abraham Haim Weldberg, a native of Palestine was among those who applied for
their citizenship papers today at the “county Naturalization Bureau” in New
York.
1918:
In the East of London, garment manufacture Philip Rayne and his wife gave birth
to “property developer” and philanthropist Max Rayne whose good works led to
him being made a “life peer” known as Baron Rayne.
1918:
After completing three weeks of training. Solomon Landman was sent to Camp
Hancock in Augusta, GA where he performed many of the functions of a social
worker and a chaplain including visiting the sick in hospitals, setting up
entertainment for the troops and conducting religious services.
1918:
According to reports “from Zurich, in an interview with Rabbis Lipshitz,
Treistman and Cahano, the Polish Premier Kucharzewski promised to submit to the
Political Department, the rabbinical memorandum on anti-Semitic restrictions
still prevailing in Poland and to satisfy the Jewish demands.”
1919(8th
of Adar I, 5679): Parashat Terumah
1919:
Rabbi Gerson B Levi led Shabbat services at B’nai Shalom Temple Israel on
Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.
1919:
In statement made public today by the ZOA, “Jacob H. Schiff said he favored the
establishment of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine but found himself unable to
endorse some of the phases of Zionist propaganda in particular the emphasis on
Jewish nationalism at the expense of religion.
1919:
After World War, Hugo Guttman the Jewish officer who successfully lobbied for
Adolf Hitler to receive the Iron Cross First Class, “was demobilized from the
German Army but was still maintained on the Army rolls as a Reserve
Lieutenant.”
1920: The
Illustrated Sunday Herald, a popular British Sunday newspaper, published an
article by Winston Churchill urging the Jews of Russia and beyond to choose
Zionism over Bolshevism. In one sense, Churchill saw Zionism as anti-dote
for Jews who would otherwise be drawn the Communist cause.
1921:
Birthdate of Immanuel Jakobovits, the native of Konigsberg, Germany who became
the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
1922(10th
of Shevat, 5682): Eighty-three-year-old Rosanna Cecilia Moses, the Charleston,
SC born daughter of Adeline and Levy I. Moses passed away today in Montgomery,
AL.
1922:
An auction is being held in Lorimer Hall where Boston realtor and Zionist
Julius Nesson “is selling $3,000,000 worth of property” prior to his “departure
for Palestine.”
1923:
In Paddington, London “Italian actor Victor Rietti and Rachel Rosenay” gave
birth to Lucio Rietti who gained fame as English actor Robert Rietti.
1923:
The Völkischer Beobachter ("Völkisch Observer") the newspaper of the
National Socialist German Workers' Party or Nazi Party was published as daily
for the first time.
1924:
Memorial services for President Wilson were held this evening by the Society
for the Welfare of the Jewish Deaf at 40 West 115th Street.
1924:
At a memorial service at Temple Ansche Chesed, Dr. Jacob Kohn said, Woodrow
“Wilson was slain by the American people who abandoned him the hour of his need
and left him to the mercy of his enemies.”
1925:
Kaufman and Berlin's "Coconuts" premiered in New York City.
1926:
Today, the “national headquarters of the $15,000,000 United Jewish Campaign
announced ha A.W. Mclean, the Governor of North Carolina has issued a
proclamation urging all the leaders of public thought, non-Jews as well as
Jews, throughout the State to volunteer their services to help raise North
Carolina’s quota of $200,000.”
1927:
It was reported today that although “financial difficulties have beset the
American Zion Commonwealth, the organization responsible for the colonization
of Palestine by Jews” it is in no danger of declaring bankruptcy according
attorney Samuel J. Rosensohn.
1928(17th
of Shevat, 5688): Forty-seven-year-old Lynchburg, VA native and Columbia
trained attorney Norvin R. Lindheim, the husband of Hadassah President Irma
Levy passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/09/91471664.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1929
While addressing members of Congregation B’nai Israel and Sheerith Judah which
was celebrating its tenth anniversary, Mayor Walker “said Jewish philanthropy
was the most inspiring thing he had met in the city and praised the Jews for
their care of the young and the aged as well.”
1930:
"Happy Days Are Here Again" by Benny Mereoff hits #1.
1930:
A “conference on Jewish-Catholic Protestant relations under the auspices of the
Federal Council of Churches under the direction of Rev. Dr. Everett R. Clinch”
is scheduled to end today at the University of Alabama
1931:
In Cairo, King Faud opened the Museum of Modern Art which was located in a
mansion that had been purchased by Elie Mosseri and donated to the
government. Mosseri was a leading member of the Egyptian-Jewish
community.
1932:
“A resolution to set aside the first Sunday in February annually as Julius
Rosenwald Memorail Day was made public today by the committee by H.R. Crawford
of the Wabash Avenue Y.M.C.A.
1933:
More than six hundred people attended the fourth annual subscription luncheon
of Westchester chapters of Hadassah where speakers talked about how “the
establishment of Jewish national home in Palestine will perpetuate Jewish life
and customs…”
1934:
Birthdate of Louis Katz, the long serving Yiddish copy editor of the Forward.
(As reported by Paul Berger)
http://forward.com/articles/171250/the-forward-says-good-bye-to-mister-katz/?p=all
1935
(5th of Adar I, 5695): Max Liebermann leading German impressionist
painter and graphic artist, passed away at the age of 87. Some of his
works are on display at the Jewish Museum in New York. Once you
see a Liebermann you want to see more.
http://www.liebermann-villa.de/en/biografie-max-liebermann.html
1935:
“Rumba” a musical drama based on a story by Guy Endore was released in the
United States today.
1935:
In Wheeling, West Virginia, celebration of the 85th anniversary of
the Eoff Street Temple is scheduled to continue for a second day.
1936(15th
of Shevat, 5696): Parashat Beshalach, Shabbat Shirah, Tu B’Shevat
1936:
In honor of the “Sabbath of Jewish Song” (known as Shabbat Shirah) Temple
Emanu-El is scheduled to follow a special liturgy developed by the “Board of
American Hazan-Minsters” of which Walter A. Davidson is secretary.
1936:
“Three peasants were killed and several were wounded” when peasants ‘armed with
pitchforks and clubs fought with the police “who were searing for the
nationalist ringleaders who organized anti-Jewish riots in Zagorow, Poland.
1936:
In Minneapolis, MN, two pharmacists, “Max Sadoff and the former Rose Carroll,”
gave birth to pioneering forensic psychiatrist Dr. Robert L. Sadoff. (As
reported by Sam Roberts)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/us/robert-sadoff-dead-forensic-psychiatrist.html
http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/36/3/286.full.pdf
1936:
A national conference on Palestine at Washington D. C’s Willard Hotel which “is
intended to formulate a comprehensive program to link the efforts of the Jews
of” the United States “and of Europe in providing for the transportation”
German, Polish and other European Jews to Palestine opened today.
1936:
At Ann Arbor, MI, the celebration of the 70th birthday of Professor
Moses Gomberg, the chair of the Chemistry Department included a gift of five
thousand dollars by his “friends and students” in his honor to the school.
1936:
In Paris, Andre and Yvonne (Cremieux) Istel gave birth to Princeton educated
economist Yves-Andre Istel, who worked with Kuhn Loeb and Company, Lehman
Brothers and Rothschild, Inc. and who was the husband of the former Nancy
Lazarus.
1937:
“The plight of the Jews was forcibly brought to the attention of the world”
today with the startling report “that the Polish government planned the
immediate ‘evacuation” of all of the more than three million Jews in Poland,
“thereby confronting other nations with a migration problem of unprecedented
dimensions.”
1937:
“The Man Who Could Work Miracles” directed by Lothar Mendes, produced by
Alexander Korda, with music by Mischa Spoliansky and filmed by cinematographer
Harold Rosson was released today in the United Kingdom.
1937:
“Nationalism Casts Polish Jews Aside” published today described a “drive
similar to that in the Reich that aims to ‘Polonize’ towns and the country’s
businesses” which means the government
has thrown its political and economic might on the side of 22 million Poles and
to ignore the needs of the Jewish population which it considers to be
“surplus.”
1938:
In Rome, the Minister for Popular Culture issued an official statement today
denying “rumors published in various foreign newspapers” describing “measures
taken against the intellectual activity of the Jews” including a ban on Jews
speaking on the radio and a ban on all books and plays by Jewish authors.
1938:
Today, Tribuna, “one of Rome’s two principal Fascist dailies printed a
two-column review of In the Dawn of a World by Franz Werfel.
1939:
“Thirty people marched tonight from a wine cellar in downtown Vienna to a
near-by Nazi headquarters shouting ‘Down with Roosevelt, Down with Jews, Heil
Hitler.’”
1939:
“The contention that Palestine is the only country where Jews from Germany and
Central Europe can be received on a scale that will solve the refugee was
stressed tonight by Dr. Chaim Weizmann” as he started to present the Jewish
case at the opening of the hearings in London.
1940:
The first ghetto was set up by the Nazis in Lodz. The idea was to bring in all
Jews from the surrounding areas in order to make it easier to proceed with the
"Final Solution." By the first of May, 160,000 Jews would have been
herded into the Ghetto.
1940:
Edzia Abbe and her family were among the Jews forced to move into what would
become the Lodz ghetto.
1940:
Birthdate of Ted Koppel, ABC newsman and host of Nightline. Koppel was
born in England where his parents had fled to escape Hitler’s Germany.
According to one source, Koppel’s proudest possession is a family Torah Scroll.
https://www.biography.com/people/ted-koppel-9368366
1941:
Lord Moyne, the British leader who would be murdered by Lehi in 1944, began
serving as Secretary of State for the Colonies in the cabinet led by his friend
Winston Churchill. He also assumed the leadership position in the House of
Lords per the appointment of Churchill who as commoner served in the House of
Commons.
1942:
Herman Barron defeated Henry Picard by two strokes to win the Western Open in
Phoenix, AZ. This made him the first Jewish golfer to win a PGA Tour
event.
1942:
Birthdate of actor and comedian Robert Klein.
1942:
Fritz Todt, Hitler’s Minister of Armaments died in a plane crash today paving
the way for Albert Speer to assume all of his powerful positions in the Third
Reich – an assumption of power that should have led him to the gallows at
Nuremberg.
1942:
Author Hans Gunther Adler was deported along with his wife Gertrude Klepetar to
Theresienstadt where he would spend the next three years of his life and she
would die.
1942:
Much to the disappointment of the Nazis only 359 Jews (137 women) from the
Kovno ghetto arrived in Riga. The German Civil Administration in Lithuania had
originally requested 1,000 male Jews.
1943:
Sixty-seven-year-old Frederick Paul Keppel who Third Assistant Secretary of War
during World War I played a role in having “a double triangle placed above the
graves of the Jewish soldiers” who died in France “instead of the cross” passed
away today.
1944(14th
of Shevat, 5704): Seventy-four-year-old Bernhard Rothschild, the German born
son of Sibilla Rothschild and the “husband of Henriette (Jetta) Rothschild”
passed away today.
1944(14th
of Shevat, 5704): Fifty-three-year-old Newark, NJ, native and New Jersey Law
School trained attorney, Judge William Unterman, “the chairman of the Ninth
Ward Democratic Club” and “President of the Third District of B’nai B’rith who
was the husband of Esther Untermann passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/02/09/86846234.pdf
1944(14th
of Shevat, 5704): Seventy-seven-year-old “Sir Elly (Eleaszer Silas) Kadoorie,
Bagdad-born Jewish philanthropist, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese in
Hong Kong” passed away today. (As reported by JTA)
1944(14th
of Shevat, 5704): Eighty-six-year-old Bernard Sachs, the American neurologist
who is the Sachs in Tay-Sachs Disease an honor he earned because he “provided a
more comprehensive description of the disease, and in 1887 noted its higher
occurrence in Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe” passed away today.
https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/bernard-sachs-1858-1944
http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/403.html
1944:
The Nazis deported 1,000 Jews from Holland to Birkenau, including 268 hospital
patients.
1945:
The Alsos Mission, a sub-set of Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project which
was “established to investigate enemy scientific developments involving nuclear
weapons chemical and biological weapons, and the means to deliver them”
“reopened its forward headquarters in Strasbourg as Alsos Forward South (AFwdS0).
1945(23rd
of Tevet, 5705): Twenty days before his 99th birthday, Daniel Harris
who 1864 enlisted in the Navy where he served aboard the Saratoga as part of
the force blockading Confederate ports and was part of a detachment of five
thousand sailors who fought on land at Charleston, SC passed away today meaning
that were no more survivors of the “8,000 Jewish soldiers who fought on the
Union side during the Civil War.
1946(7th
of Adar, 5706): Fifty-eight-year-old Haifa born, and University of Odessa
trained journalist Abraham Revusky, the long-time contributing editor for The
Jewish Morning Journal, the author of Jews of Palestine and the husband
of Hannah Revusky with whom he had two children passed away today in Yonkers,
NY.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/revusky-abraham
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/02/09/91608991.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1946:
In Palestine, Jewish newspapers respond to an attack on a British military
installation followed by a British rampage aimed at the Jews of Cholon by publishing
editorials calling on the Jewish population to reject the tactics of terrorism
in their quest to create a Jewish homeland regardless of British or Arab
provocations. An editorial in the Palestine Post calls on the Jews
to “ferret out extremists” and to remember that “lawless violence will generate
lawless violence—from which the innocent invariably suffer more than the
guilty. In its editorial, Haaretz “declared these incidents had
given the Jewish people an ‘opportunity of reminding itself that forces are
being let loose that cannot after be controlled…We have to pursue the difficult
struggle against British policy and there many ways of doing it. Our
fight is against British policy, not against British soldiers.’”
1947:
It was reported today that
1947:
Birthdate of MIT grad Gerald Jay “Gerry” Sussman who became the Panasonic Professor of Electrical
Engineering at his alma mater where he developed a specialty in artificial
intelligence.
1948: Today, at the 19th
annual luncheon of the Jewish Teachers Association, M. Maldwin Fertig, the
“former Commissioner of Markets’ called for the “lifting of the embargo on arms
to Palestine” which would help to put an end to Arab defiance of the U.N.
partition plan.
1949:
Formation of Shabak or Shin Bet, the Israel security service
1949(10th
of Shevat, 5709): Fifty-nine-year-old Columbia graduate and New York Law School
trained attorney, Dr. Joseph C. Hyman, the husband of Lee Roven Hyman and “one
of the leading authorities on overseas relief” who have had retired “as
executive chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee after a quarter of
century of service suffered a fatal heart attack today in Los Angeles.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hyman-joseph-c
1951:
Birthdate of Deborah Lynn Friedman, who as Debbie Friedman would change the
face of Jewish music in the last half of the 20th century.
1952:
Rabbi Max Leader is scheduled to officiate at, funeral services for 86 year
Samuel Idelman, the Russian born son of Max Idelman and brother of Mrs. Belle
Weinberg, who was a successful businessman and member Mt. Sinai Congregation
1952(12th
of Shevat, 5712): Eighty-four-year-old Max W. Wallenstein, one of the four
children of Solomon and Esther Wallenstein a founder of the Hebrew Infant
Asylum passed away.
1952:
“Lambert the Sheepish Lion” an animated short film featuring the voices of Stan
Freberg and June Foray was released today in the United States.
1953(23rd
of Shevat, 5713): Sixty-seven-year-old Marie Klauber Streng, the Louisville, KY
born daughter of Morris and Ray Forst Kaluber and husband of Jesse F. Streng
passed away today after which she was buried in The Temple Cemetery in
Louisville.
1957(7th
of Adar I, 5717): Seventy-six-year-old “artist, lithographer and art teacher, Bernard
Gussow, the Russian born son of Rabbi Mordecai Gussow and husband of “the
former Miss Suzanne Cook” with whom he had one son, James passed away today in
the Harlem Hospital.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/02/10/93205849.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1957(7th
of Adar I, 5717): Maurice Finkelstein, the Syracuse, NY born son of Hannah and
Simon Isaac Finkelstein, the husband of Naomi Finkelstein and father of Helen
and James Finkelstein passed away today in New York City.
1958:
Birthdate of actor Barry Miller.
1959(30th
of Shevat, 5719): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1959(30th
of Shevat, 5719): Sixty-year-old “Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times
reporter and columnist” Meyer Berg, the husband of “Mrs. Mae Gamsu Berger”
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/02/09/80760429.pdf
1960:
“Tiger at the Gates” co-produced by Henry Weinstein, co-directed by Harold
Culman and featuring David Hurst as the “Poet Propagandist” was broadcast today
as “The Play of the Week.”
1961:
A three day meeting of “B’nai B’rith Youth leaders” during which Herman
Edelberg , the Washington Director of the ADL “pointed out that the 1960
Presidential election” in which America elected its first Catholic President
was “another evident that prejudice is declining in the United States.”
1962:
In Bnei Brak, Professor Yaakov Rand, a winner of the Israel Prize for his contribution
to special education who is also a chazzan and his wife gave birth Ophir Award
winning Israeli entertainer Shalom “Shuli” Rand who is also a Haredi Jews.
1962:
It was reported today that Carl Foreman “of the nation's most successful
writer-producers sees little hope that Hollywood can avert almost complete
destruction as a moviemaking center” and has 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.”
1964:
After 149 performances “Chips with Everything,” a play by Arnold Wexler
finished its Broadway run.
1965:
Julius C. Edelstein, an executive assistant to Mayor Wagner, was looking for
office space today for an office in Washington, DC which “the plans to open.”
1966(18th
of Shevat, 5726): Eighty-two-year-old Russian-born American mathematical
physicist Paul Sophus Epstein passed away today.
https://www.nap.edu/read/568/chapter/6
1967(28th
of Shevat, 5727): Seventy-three-year-old British publisher Sir Victor Gollancz
passed away today.
1967:
Falastin, a Jaffa based Palestinian newspaper founded in 1911 “that became one
the most influential newspapers in Ottoman and British Palestine” ceased
publication today.
1968(9th
of Shevat, 5728): Eighty-seven-year old Rabbi Eliezer Silver, the Lithuanian
born son of Rabbi Bunim Tzemach and Malka Silver who in 1907 came to the United
States where he “worked as a garment salesman” and sold life insurance before
returning to the pulpit during which he was part of the delegation that went to
see President Taft about voiding the treaty with Russia in an attempt to
improve the lot of Russian Jewry and who was founder and president of Agudath
Israel, passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/eliezer-silver
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/02/09/79933172.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1970:
“Israeli fighters shot down two Egyptian MIG-21s in an aerial dogfight over the
Nile delta this morning” during “a 50-minute raid on Egyptian artillery
emplacement and bunkers in the souther sector of the Suez Canal zone.” (JTA)
1970:
In an interview published today, Premier Golda Meier told James Reston and
James Feron that Israel “would return to the austerity conditions of the early
1950’s if necessary to pay for the additional Phantom jets and other weapons
requested from the United States.
1971:
The NASDAQ stock market index, which Bernie Madoff helped to create, makes its
debut. According to some, the confidence that Madoff built up in his role with
NASDAQ, would become a tool in the creation of the largest Ponzi scheme in
history.
1971:
French historian Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet whose family “belong to the
Sephardic Jewish community” and whose father Lucien was a lawyer of “Dreyfusard
temperament” signed the manifesto of the Groupe d'informations sur les prisons…”
1972(23rd
of Shevat): Seventy-eight-year-old Samuel Pinanski, the President of the
American Theatres Corporation and the Hebrew Free Loan Society passed away
today.
1973(6th
of Adar I, 5733): Max Yasgur, the owner of the farm where Woodstock took
place, passed away.
1974:
“Many leading figures in British show business appealed to Soviet authorities
to allow Panov to emigrate to Israel with his wife.”
1974:
Birthdate of Tel Aviv actor and director Yehezkel Lazarov who is best known for
his work on The Dybbuk of the Holy Apple Field and The Debt.
1975:
Opening session of the Second National Conference in Solidarity with Chile
co-sponsored by Herbert Aptheker, the youngest child of wealthy Jewish family
from Brooklyn who became a leading Marxist.
1976:
The first recorded meeting of what would become the Women's Rabbinic Network
took place.
1976:
“The Taxi Driver” produced by Julia and Michael Phillips, co-starring Albert
Brooks and Harvey Keitel and with music by Bernard Hermann was released in the
United States today.
1978(1st
of Adar I, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1978(1st
of Adar I, 5738): Fifty-one German born Arnulf M. Pins the “director for the
Middle East Region of the Joint Distribution Committee, and associate director
of JDC-Israel” passed away today in Jerusalem.
http://en.sw.huji.ac.il/book/dr-arnulf-m-pins-%E2%80%93-memoriam
1980:
“American Gigolo” an oddly plotted crime movie produced by Jerry Bruckheimer
was released in the United States today.
1981:
In a case of Jew on Jew, the curtain came down on a revival of The Five O’Clock
Girl, a Harry Ruby and Bert Kalamar musical which Times critic Frank Rich
described as "amiably silly" saying it "is not without
passing interest as an arcane footnote to theatrical history, but as
entertainment in 1981 it's a pretty slim affair,” adding that "the show's
book is tiresomely long, and its gags are unshucked corn” meaning that “we're
living just for the songs, and very few of them prove to be worth living for."
1982(15th
of Shevat, 5742): Tu B’Shevat
1982(15th
of Shevat, 5742): Just two days before his 65th birthday, Edward
Lawrence “Eddie” Turchin, an infielder for the 1943 Cleveland Indians passed
away today in Brookhaven, NY.
1983(25th
of Shevat, 5743): Eighty-four-year-old “Alfred Wallenstein, the conductor,
cellist, classical music pioneer on radio and former music director of the Los
Angeles Philharmonic” passed away today. (As reported by Allen Hughes)
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/10/obituaries/alfred-wallenstein-the-conductor-dies-at-84.html
1983:
The Kahan Commission released its report today.
1983:
Florence Lacaze Gould, the daughter of Maximin and Berthe Lacaze, the wife of
Frank Jay Gould and the daughter-in-law of the infamous Jay Gould whose role as
a Nazi collaborator was described in Susan Ronald’s A Dangerous Woman
passed away today.
1984(5th
of Adar I, 5744): Eight-one year old Mordechai Shapira, the son of Avraham and
Liba Rochel Shapira and the husband of Batya Shapira, passed away today in
Petah Tikva.
1985:
“Jane Ramsey, then Executive Director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs
(JCUA) in Chicago, was arrested for protesting apartheid in South Africa with
three other protestors at the South African consulate in Chicago.”
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/08/1985/jane-ramsey-arrested-south-african-consulate
1988:
A commission of historians charged by the Austrian Government to look into
President Kurt Waldheim's wartime record reported today that he must have been
aware of atrocities committed around him and did nothing about them, and that
he tried to conceal his military past.
1990:
“All Dogs Go To Heaven,” a Disney animated film with a script by David N. Weiss
was released today in the United Kingdom.
1990:
Herb Gray, a member of the Liberal Party, began serving as Leader of the
Opposition in the Canadian Parliament today.
1991:
Victor Erlich, the grandson of Henryk Erlich was informed that according to a
decree passed under Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Victor Alter, together
with Erlich had been "rehabilitated" and the repressions against them
had been declared unlawful. Victor Alter had been a Jewish leader of the Bund
who was arrested by the NKVD and eventually executed by Stalin as part of his
plan to murder any of those who might work for a non-Communist Poland after the
end of the War.
1991:
Israeli media reported that three soldiers had been wounded when Jordanian
gunmen sneaked across the border and threw a hand grenade at a military bus. A
few hours later, an Israeli guard in Jerusalem shot and wounded a Palestinian
who attacked him with an ax.
1991(24th
of Shevat, 5751): Ninety-five-year-old Irving Maidman, the Ukrainian born son
of Jacob and Rose Maidman and the “husband of Byrdie Maidman” passed away today
in Queens, NY. (He is not to be confused with the New York realtor of the same
name)
1991(24th
of Shevat, 5751): Eighty-five-year-old photographer Aaron Siskind passed away
today. (As reported by Andy Gundberg)
http://m.theartstory.org/artist-siskind-aaron.htm
1992(4th
of Adar I, 5752): Ninety-three-year-old Yiddish Art Theatre actor Baruch Lumet
the father of Sidney Lumet the filmmaker responsible for such hits as Serpico
and Network passed away today.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2199p8q5/
1996(18th
of Shevat, 5756): Seventy-three-year-old Chicago born and Northwestern University
and Hebrew Theological College trained rabbi, Marvin Fox, the wife of Dr. June
Trachtenberg Fox with whom he had three children – Avron, Daniel and Sherry --
and a scholar of Jewish thought and former director of the Department of Near
Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, passed away
today.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/fox-marvin
https://blogs.bu.edu/mzank/homage/marvin-fox-1923-1996/
1997(1st
of Adar I, 5757): Parashat Mishpatim; Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1997:
Tonight at a dinner party attended by “some of the most loyal Clinton
enthusiasts” when Frank Rich “raised the question of Madeline Albright’s sudden
discovery of her Jewish roots” his query was greeted with “eye-rolling and
sarcasm” which included “one prominent Jewish friend of both the Clintons and
the Secretary of State” not hesitating “to characterize Ms. Albright's
professed ignorance about her past: ''She didn't want to know from Jewish.''
1998: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Commanding Heights: The
Battle Between Government and the Marketplace That Is Remaking the Modern World
by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw and the newly released paperback edition
of Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger by Elizabeth Ettinger
1998(12th
of Shevat, 5758): Ninety-five-year-old Joseph Baruch (J.B.) Salsberg who “was a
Labor-Progressive member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to
1955” passed away today.
2000:
“The conflict in Lebanon continued to heat up today as Shiite Muslim guerrillas
killed another Israeli soldier, the sixth in two weeks, and Israeli warplanes
retaliated less than 24 hours after their first bombardment shut down civilian
life in Lebanon.”
2001(15th
of Shevat, 5761): Tu B’Shevat
2001:
“A Brazilian production of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Company’ opened today at the Teatro
Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro.”
2001:
Hamas claimed responsibility for today’s Beit Yisrael Bombing in which two
people were injured in Jerusalem.
2001(15th
of Shevat, 5761): Eighty-eight-year-old pioneering dancer and choreographer
Pauline Koner passed away today. (As reported by Jack Anderson and Lewis
Segal)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/09/arts/pauline-koner-dies-at-88-dancer-and-choreographer.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/feb/10/local/me-23770
2002:
The XIX Olympic Winter Games, during which 16 year old Sarah Hughes won a gold
medal, opened today in Salt Lake City.
2002:
“Jewish involvement of Patriots' owner extends to Israel” by Jacob Horowitz,
reported today that Robert Kraft may or may not have said the Shehechiyanu when
his New England Patriots scored the game-winning field goal in Sunday's Super
Bowl, but there was no mistaking the elation of this Jewish businessman and
philanthropist. The team owner nearly leapt through the glass window of his sky
box at the Superdome in New Orleans as the clock ticked down and the 20-17
victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams brought the team its first
Super Bowl title. Kraft's passion, evident throughout this week's celebratory
events, is not limited to football. Indeed, his presence -- and philanthropic
endeavors -- has resonated far beyond the Patriots' front office. Along with
his wife, Myra, Kraft has been heavily involved in Jewish and non-Jewish
projects throughout the area. And the Krafts' Jewish involvement extends beyond
Boston to New York and Israel, where they have invested in study programs,
absorption of Ethiopian Jews, and a football stadium. "Bob and Myra are
truly an amazing combination," said Barry Shrage, president of Boston's
Combined Jewish Philanthropies and a longtime friend of the family. "They
are two folks who are committed to all of the citizens of Greater Boston and
the world, but they also have a strong connection and commitment to Israel and
the Jewish people." In 1989 the Krafts, in collaboration with Combined
Jewish Philanthropies, introduced the Myra and Robert Kraft Passport to Israel
Fund. The fund helps children involved in Jewish studies take an educational
trip to Israel sometime between their sophomore and senior years of high
school. To date, thousands of students have taken advantage of the trips to
Israel that the Krafts help provide. In addition, the Krafts have been active
in developing the sister-city relationship between Boston and Haifa. In 1998
they participated in the renovation of an afterschool enrichment center that
assists in the absorption, education and integration of Haifa's Ethiopian
community. Aside from the Krafts' their work with the Ethiopian Jewish
community, their impact and presence can be felt across the state of Israel.
Kraft is the primary shareholder of Carmel Container Systems, Israel's largest
packaging plant. In 1997, he invested $40 million in a plant in Caesarea in
order to provide his company, which employs 700 people, with the most advanced
technology available. In 1999, Kraft brought his love of football to Israel in
the form of a new stadium, Israel's first American football stadium. Kraft
Stadium, at the northern end of Sacher Park in Jerusalem, is used to
accommodate the Jerusalem-based American Touch Football in Israel league.
Currently in 13th year, the league runs a 33-team, 500-player league in
Israel's capital. At the time of the groundbreaking, the league president,
Steve Leibowitz, commented that "this will be the start of an American
sports revolution in Jerusalem." Closer to home, the Krafts have worked to
promote interfaith relations. Among other things, they created the Kraft-Hiatt
Fund, a joint endowment fund through which gifts to College of the Holy Cross
in Worcester, Mass., and Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., are used to
encourage a greater understanding between Christians and Jews. In referring to
his friend, Shrage said, "Robert always says that his investment in Israel
and his commitment to the Jewish people is a result of his upbringing."
Kraft's father, Harry Kraft, was a highly respected leader in the Jewish community
of Brookline, a Boston suburb. Myra Kraft, a 1964 Brandeis graduate and the
daughter of Boston philanthropist Jacob Hiatt, has been a trustee at Brandeis
since 1988. She also sits on the board of directors of Combined Jewish
Philanthropies and is a member of its overseas committee, and is chairwoman of
the Israel program committee. In April 2000, Kraft gave an $11.5 million gift
to Columbia University, his alma mater, for the establishment of the Robert K.
Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life. At the time, Kraft said the basement
facility for Jewish students had not changed from the time he began Columbia in
1963 to when his son David entered in 1991. "For a school like Columbia
University in New York City, with the number of Jewish students, it is very important
that there would be this kind of facility. I just thought it was time to
help." Said Richard Joel, president and international director of
Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, "You only have to listen to
what Mr. Kraft said when he accepted the Super Bowl trophy to understand what
matters to him -- faith, family and country. "It is no wonder that he and
Myra are deeply committed to a values agenda. We are delighted to count them
among our leadership." Kraft's Jewish identity has even occasionally
trickled into his position as owner of the Patriots. On Sept. 22, 1996, he
asked that the kickoff of a game between the Patriots and the Jacksonville
Jaguars be changed to avoid a conflict with Yom Kippur, which started at
sundown that evening. Kraft requested the change so Jews, including himself and
his family, could see the entire game before the start of Kol Nidre services
that night.
2003:
“With his re-election campaign behind him and the task of forming a new
governing coalition still incomplete, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has resumed
direct contacts with senior Palestinian officials, Israeli and Palestinian
aides said today.”
2004(16th
of Shevat, 5764): Julius "Julie" Schwartz American comic book
and science fiction editor passed away. He is best known as a longtime editor
at DC Comics, where at various times he was primary editor over the company's
flagship superheroes, Superman and Batman.
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Julius_Schwartz
2004:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including An End to Evil: How to Win the
War on Terror
by David Frum and Richard Perle and Someone To Run With by David
Grossman; translated by Vered Almog and Maya Gurantz.
2005:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt.
2005:
“Fateless,” a Hungarian “based on the semi-autobiographical novel Fatelessness
by the Nobel Prize-winner Imre Kertész, who also wrote the screenplay” which “tells
the story of a teenage boy who is sent to concentration camps at Auschwitz,
Buchenwald and Zeitz” was released today in Hungary, Germany and the United
Kingdom.
2006: Haaretz
reported that IDF confiscated a stolen seventh-century synagogue mosaic. An
archaeologist said the mosaic seized from Palestinian antiquities thieves
appears to have been cut from the floor of a previously unknown synagogue that
dates back to the 7th century.
2006:
In Hebron international observers end their decade-long presence following
attacks by Palestinians.
2007(20th
of Shevat, 5767): Ninety-five-year-old Florence Melton “an inventor of the foam
soled washable slipper and the mother of Gordon Zacks and Barry Zacks passed
away today.
http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/florence-zack-melton-95-invented-foam-slippers/48510/
2007:
The 11th annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival closed after a week
long run.
2008:
At the Folger Library in Washington, D.C. Daniel Mendelssohn, author of The
Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million participates in a PEN/Faulkner event
entitled "Imagination as Subversion: The Role of Imagination in Memoir
& Nonfiction."
2009: The
Sunday New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Jerusalem File “Joel
Stone’s adamantly anti-heroic novel about a former Israeli security officer who
has lost his will to live,” The Samaritan’s Secret, Matt Beynon
Rees’ latest thriller which “finds the protagonist Omar Yussef in Nablus,
helping his friend Sami Jaffari, a lieutenant with the national police,
investigate the theft of a priceless Torah scroll (said to be the oldest book
in the world) from a Samaritan sect’s synagogue” and the recently released
paperback version of The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman.
2009: The
Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Random Acts of Heroic Love
by Danny Scheinmann, the English author who is the son of two Jewish immigrants
and Is God A Mathematician by Mario Livio a Romanian born Jewish
astrophysicists who was educated in Israel, served with IDF and is currently
the senior astrophysicist at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in
Baltimore
2009:
This evening, Hila Plitmann, the 36-year-old Israeli operatic soprano, won her
Grammy for Best Classical Performance as vocalist on a recording of Mr.
Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan (2000), an original composition for
full orchestra and amplified soprano by John Corigliano using the lyrics of
Dylan and performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by JoAnne
Falletta.
2010:
The New York premiere of “Salvador: The Ship of Shattered Hopes” is scheduled
to take place tonight at the 14th New York Sephardic Film Festival
is schedule.
2010:
In Washington, the DCJCC is scheduled to present a program entitled “Sanctuary
in Israel: The Plight of African Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Israel Today.”
2010:
Eleven people were arrested as Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael
Oren was repeatedly interrupted while trying to deliver an address tonight at
the University of California, Irvine.
2010:
Unknown assailants torched a building housing a Conservative synagogue in Arad
tonight, a year after a failed attempt to burn the shul.
2010:
Chancellor Arnodl Eisen and JTS Provost Alan Cooper met with about 100
students, faculty and alumni to discuss the recent announcement that the
position of deal of the JTS cantorial school has been eliminated.
2010(25
Shevat, 5770): Ninety-four-year-old Rabbi Bernard Lander, founder and president
of Touro College, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/nyregion/15lander.html?_r=0
2011:
Members of Maryland’s Jewish community are scheduled to meet with the Governor,
Lt. Governor and state legislators as part of The Maryland Jewish Community
2011 Annapolis Advocacy Day.
2011:
Opening night of the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
2011:
Two Kassam rockets slammed into a field and a parking lot in a kibbutz in the
Sha'ar Hanegev regional council at around 11 a.m.
2012(15th
of Shevat, 5772): Tu B’Shevat
2012: Based on a previous announcement by Ofer Eini, chairman of
Histadrut, a general strike in support of contract workers is scheduled to
begin today shutting down banks, the Bank of Israel, the Tel Aviv Stock
Exchange (TASE), buses, railways, the courts, national parks, local
authorities, and government ministries
2012: Lilith
Editor in Chief Susan Weidman Schneider and Michelle Brafman, a writer and
fiction teacher at GWU and the Johns Hopkins MA in writing program, are
scheduled to facilitate an evening devoted to discussing the influences of
naming practices on the identities of Jewish women.
2012:
Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan kicked off a new movement calling for changes in
the political system today by warning that the current system could result in
faulty decision-making on key issues like Iran.
2012:
Gilad Schalit, the IDF soldier held in Hamas captivity for five years before
being released in October, was welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to
the Élysée Palace in Paris on today. 2013: “Excellence” a concert featuring the
Young Piano Masters of the Aldwell Institute of the Jerusalem Conservatory of
Music and Dance is scheduled to take place at the Eden-Tamir Music Center
2013:
An IISHJ (International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism) Seminar,
“Matzah Without Dogma: Four Centuries of Secular and Humanistic Judaism,”
featuring Rabbi Adam Chalom is scheduled to begin at Silver Spring, MD.
2013:
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today condemned an arson attack at Betar
Jerusalem soccer club's offices overnight, calling it "disgraceful."
2013:
As snow began falling across the Northeastern US today, ushering in what was
predicted to be a huge, possibly historic blizzard — and sending residents
scurrying to stock up on food, and gas up their cars — some synagogues
announced they would be canceling weekend services. At least two synagogues in
Providence, R.I., called off Shabbat services this weekend in light of the
expected severe weather. More than two feet of snow were expected in
Providence, one of the highest predicted snowfalls on the East Coast this
weekend.
2013:
A British judge ordered Google to help identify people who may have defamed a
London rabbi accused of inappropriate conduct toward women.
2014:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host the “Ninth Annual Comedy”
night featuring Monica Piper
2014:
“The Attack” is scheduled to be shown at The David Posnack JCC’s 14th
annual Jewish Film Festival
2014:
“The Girl on the Train” is scheduled to be shown at the 24th annual
San Diego Jewish Film Festival
2014:
For its Joyce Theatre debut, the company created by talented Israeli
choreographers Lee Sher and Saar Harari is scheduled to perform the New York
premiere of Grass and Jackals, a dance piece and light spectacle.
2014:
“An Israeli activist from the leftist Ta'ayush organization says he was
attacked today in the West Bank by a group of masked settlers who beat him with
clubs.” (As reported by Eilor Levy)
2014:
Former CIA Director James Woolsey told Israeli Channel 10 TV today that
“anti-Semitism could be a factor in the US refusal to release” Jonathan
Pollard.
2014:
For the fourth time this week, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired a rocket
this evening in southern Israel. (As reported by Matan Tsuri)
2014:
In “At Look at a Real Man Portrayed in Monuments Men” Jamie Stengle profiles
the character portrayed by Matt Damon -- James Rorimer the museum curator and
director of the Metropolitan Museum who Cleveland born Jew, a fact not
mentioned in the movie for some strange reason.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/2014-02-08/look-real-man-portrayed-monuments-men
2015:
The Jewish National Fund of Canada - 2015 Tu Bi'Shevat Telethon is scheduled to
take place today.
2015:
“At the dedication of the Zelikow School” today Richard Siegel stated, “Now
more than ever, Jewish organizations, whether start-ups or legacy institutions,
need business-savvy, Jewishly educated, and visionary professional leaders to
help them address both the enormous challenges and significant opportunities
facing the Jewish world and the broader society.”
2015: Four
ultra-Orthodox protesters were arrested today during a Jerusalem protest
against IDF enlistment, that featured vandalism including setting fire to trash
dumpsters.
2015:
“Comedian
Joan Rivers won a posthumous Grammy Award” tonight in the category of Best
Spoken Word Album for the audio version of her 2014 memoir “Diary of a Mad
Diva.” (As reported by Lior Zaltzman)
2015:
In Coralville, IA the children of Agudas Achim are scheduled to celebrate Tu
B’Shevat by planting herb and vegetable seeds which they will transplant in the
Spring.
2015:
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to “mark the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide with a powerful symposium that examines
the United States' response to the genocide through the lens of the Near East
Relief, the first non-governmental, non-sectarian, ecumenical of its kind.”
2015:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and Adas Israel are
scheduled to co-host “Voices of the Vigil – A Movement in Music” during which
Robyn Helzner “shares her experiences as an activist in the Soviet Jewry
movement.”
2015:
The Eyal Vilner Big Band is scheduled to bring the timeless sounds of the Swing
Era to Smalls Jazz Club.
2015:
Today, “the all-female Jewish pop-rock group, HAIM was nominated for the Grammy
Award for Best New Artist.”
2015:
The “Los Angeles' Musical Theatre Guild performed a one-night engagement of”
James Moross’ “‘The Golden Apple’ with full orchestra at the Moss Theatre in
Santa Monica.”
2015: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Test: Why Our Schools Are
Obsessed With Standardized Testing — But You Don’t Have to Be by Anya
Kamenetz and the recently released paperback edition of Operation Paperclip:
The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America by
Annie Jacobsen.
2016:
“For You Were Once Strangers” is scheduled to be shown at the Bow Tie Cinemas.
2016:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host an “Insider's
Talk with Chief Curator Hetty Berg of Amsterdam's Jewish Historical Museum.”
2016:
An unidentified Arab stabbed and wounded an eleven-year-old boy in Ramle today.
2016:
With the memory of last week’s fatal stabbing of border policewoman Hadar Cohen
fresh in their minds. “Jerusalem police guarding the Damascus Gate…arrested an
Arab woman carrying a large knife.”
2016:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host an evening exploring the
life of Hungarian Jewry based on How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of
Hungarian Jews, 1867-1940 by Andras Koerner.
2017:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel’s Barbara K. Lipman Early Learning Center is
scheduled to host a carnival style celebration of Tu B’Shevat.
2017:
In a testament to the vitality of small-town Jewry, the Agudas Achim book club
in Coralville, IA is scheduled to discuss Moonglow by Michael Chabon.
2017:
Suzanne Schnieder is scheduled to present the second class on “Separation
Anxiety: Religion and the Modern State” which explores the role of separation
of church and state in democratic states.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Commission is scheduled to co-host “If Not Now, When!” a
panel discussion on the ‘impact and response to the Rohingya Genocide.
2018:
The 28th Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open
today.
2018: In
London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “Menashe” which is a
rarity since it is a full length feature film in Yiddish.
2018: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a pub crawl starting at
Turf Tavern during the 4th week of Hilary Term.
2018: The New York Times reported today that
“insufficient rains in India have led to several years of a reduced chickpea
harvest” which could drive up the price of hummus. (Editor’s note – this would
be a real problem for Sabra which at one time was the official dip of the National
Football League.)
2018: “The
Foreign Ministry today appointed a new ambassador to Jordan, Amir Weissbrod, weeks
after Jerusalem and Amman agreed to end a diplomatic standoff over the shooting
deaths of two Jordanians by an Israeli security guard who Israel said opened
fire in self-defense when under attack.” (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2018:
The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host an evening with Brandeis
University art historian Peter R. Kalb and artist Ben Schachter as they discuss
issued raised in Schacter’s latest book, Image, Action and Idea in
Contemporary Jewish Art.
2018:
As part of Black History Month, Albion College is scheduled to host a screening
and discussion of “Rosenwald: The Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with
African-American Communities.”
2019:
Limmud Baltics is scheduled to begin today.
2019(3rd
of Adar I, 5779): Ninety-two-year-old Kreminologist and survivor of both the
Lodz ghetto Seweryn Bailer, the husband of Joan Afferica passed away today. (As
reported by Neil Genzlinger)
2019:
The annual conference co-sponsored by the Dubnow Institute at the Leibniz
Institute for Jewish History and Culture that took “a fresh look at the work of
Else Lasker-Schuler” on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of her
birth is scheduled to come to an end today.
2019:
Valerie Hansen is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the “De-Centering
the Global Middle Ages” a two-day symposium co-sponsored by The Jean and Samuel
Frankel for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.
2020:
In Winthrop, MA, Temple Tifereth Israel is schedule to “celebrate Tu B’Shvat
with an Israeli style wine party.”
2020:
In Corte Madera, CA, Book Passage Marin is scheduled to host Andy Winberger
talking of about An Old Man’s Game, his book about a retired Jewish
private eye hired by a temple to investigate a situation.
2020:
In San Francisco is scheduled to host an “Émigré Community Gala” during which
the S.F.-based Jewish Family and Children’s Services hosts fundraiser honoring
community members.”
2020:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a “Walking Tour of
Jewish Oxford Past and Present.”
2020:
In Cambridge, the Royal Sonesta Boston is scheduled to host “Chai in the Hub
2020.”
2020(13th
of Shevat, 5780): Shabbat Shirah; Parashat Beshalach;
2021:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to begin its online
auction.
2021:
The Lappin Foundation is schedule to present online “Space Torah” which billed
as “a thrilling journey into space with NASA astronaut Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman.
2021:
Sha’ar Zahav is scheduled to present Theologian Jonathon Thunderword who will
talk about his soon-to-be-published book about his journey from Christianity to
Judaism and Eastern traditions, and subtitled “Journey-Making with a Black
Transgender Elder.”
2021:
The Chabad Center of Natick is scheduled to present “Code to Joy: The World’s
Happiest Kept Secret” that “explores a simple premise: Happiness isn’t just
something that happens to you; it’s an approach, an attitude, an understanding
of the world and your place in it.”
2021:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Mike Solomonov, the
award-winning chef and restaurateur behind Philadelphia’s Zahav, during the
first session of “Bringing Israel Home.”
2021: Founding Director of the Clalit Research
Institute, and senior advisor to the coronavirus cabinet, Prof. Ran Balicer,
warned the ministerial coronavirus Cabinet that lifting the nationwide closure
in the midst of an infection surge could lead to rising mortality among the
country's younger population” while “Israel's vaccine deniers have noticeably
stepped up their efforts in the last few days, both online and on the streets.”
2022:
The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to host the first session of
“Rashi’s Rebellious Grandson – Rashbam”
2022:
The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore is scheduled to present, online,
a discussion with
Ken Krimstein, New Yorker cartoonist and author of “When I Grow Up: The Lost
Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers,” a stunning graphic narrative based
on hundreds of newly discovered, never-before-published autobiographies of
Eastern European Jewish teens on the brink of World War II.
2022:
Based on an order issued on February 4 by the Jerusalem District court state
prosecutors in Benjamin Netanyahu’s graft trial have to answer questions today
from the defense about police use of spyware in the investigation into the
former premier today.
2022:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a lecture by Ruben
Shimonov on “Kavkazi, Georgian, and Bukharian Jews: At the Crossroads of
Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Russian Speaking Worlds.”
2022:
Based on previously published reports of statements by Professor Salman Zarka
as of today “Israeli hospitals are not on the verge of collapse
despite surging daily coronavirus cases and the discovery of a new strain
within the country.”
2023: The Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host a screening of “The Levys of Monticello.”
2023: The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to begin today.
2023: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a
lecture by Dr. Richard Kogan on “The Mind and Music of George Gershwin.”
2023: Bernard Cherkasov is scheduled to begin
serving as the Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Chief Executive Officer.
2023: The New Orleans Jewish Community Center is
scheduled to hold its annual meeting.
2023: As Israelis cope with winter storm Barbara,
they are scheduled to have to deal with cold and rainy conditions as the storm
weakens throughout the day. (As reported by Danny Roup and Elsiha Ben-Kimon)
2024: As part of the Mardi Gras festivities, Oscar
J. Tolmas Charitable Trust and the Goldring Center for Jewish Multi-Cultural
Affairs are scheduled to sponsor a “JNOLA Parade Watch” at Touro Synagogue.
2024: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled
to host “Echoes of History: Is This the Holocaust?”
2024: The JWI Film Club is scheduled to host a
screening of “The Women’s Balcony,” a 2016 Israeli comedy in which “an accident
during a bar mitzvah celebration leads to a gender rift in a Mizrahi Orthodox
community in Jerusalem.”
2024: The dynamic Straus duo, Rabbi Feivel and
Cantor Abbie, are scheduled to lead the morning minyan at Temple Judea.
2024: Celebration of National Iowa Day which
recognizes the Hawkeye State, home of This Day…In Jewish History and the
birthplace of Jacob Levin the world’s best grandson.
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-iowa-day-february-8/
https://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
2024: As February
8th, begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin
day 125 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.)