This Day, January 12, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

 

January 12

1349: A letter sent today “from the city of council of Cologne…to the leaders of Strasbroug” warned that pogroms (attacks on the Jews) had turned into general riots “by the common people” and “had led to much evil and devastation.”

1412: In Spain, the regent Donna Catalina acting in the name of the child-king Juan II issued an edict of twenty-four articles intended to impoverish and humiliate the Jews and to reduce them to the lowest grade in the social scale.

1492: After having met with Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand today to discuss financing his westward voyage, Columbus told Luis de Santangel that he was going to seek funding from France and England which may have been the impetus for the Converso to provide the funds to the Italian explorer.

1493:  After the expulsion of the Jews from Sicily had been postponed been twice after the payment of thousands of gulden, the Jews were scheduled to be expelled today from Sicily, which had become a province of Aragon in 1412.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/500-years-after-being-wiped-out-sicilian-jewish-life-is-reborn/

 

1517: María López denied all charges presented against her by the prosecutor of the Inquisition including observing the Sabbath and dressing in holiday garb. (As reported by Renee Levine Melammed)

1519:  Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor passed away.  Joseph ben Gershon Loans better known as Yosel von Rosheim an Alsatian Jew born in 1480, served as “shtadlen” or advocate for the Jews during Maximilian’s reign. In 1514, while living in Mittelbergheim Yosel and several other Jews were imprisoned on charges of “host desecration.” They were all freed several months later when their innocence was established. Between 1515 and 1516, Yosel personally presented the complaints of the Jews of Oberehnheim to the Maximilian himself and obtained a safe conduct pass for his co-religionists. Yosel outlived Maximilian and served as ‘shtadlen” until his death in 1554.  While Maximilian was capable of taking stands inimical to Jewish interests such as when he signed an edict allowing John Pfefferkorn to confiscate Hebrew books (an order he later modified, he was also capable of coming to their aide. He regarded the Jews as his property and opposed those who banish them from his empire.  For example in January of 1516, he sent a letter to the Elector Albert and his allies ordering them to hold any meetings that would result in the banishment of the Jews from Frankfort, Worms and Mayence.

 

1539: King Francis I of France and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Treaty of Toldeo.  The treaty ended the hostilities between the two monarchs.  Charles wore two hats (or crowns) – Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain.  As Holy Roman Emperor, he treated the Jews of central Europe comparatively well.  As King of Spain, he continued the policies of the Inquisition and hostility to the Jewish people.  Both monarchs were beneficiaries of business dealings with Dona Gracia Nasi one of the most powerful and unusual leaders of the Sephardic community.

 

1565(29th of Tevet, 5325): Meir ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen, the Meir of Padua, passed away.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_10865.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me%C3%AFr_Katzenellenbogen

1712: Moses Ben Mordecai Susskind Rothenburg the German rabbi who had served in Brest-Litvoks and Altona passed away today.

1723: Birthdate of Reverend Samuel Langdon, the President of Harvard who delivered a speech to the Legislature in New Hampshire entitled “The Republic of the Israelites an Example to the American States” in which he contends that Moses and the “Old Testament” provide a picture of proto-democratic government which stands in contrast to the monarchy of the English.

1726: Today, Meyer Low Schomberg became a fellow of the Royal Society after which in 1730: he was admitted to the Freemasons’ Lodge at the Swan and Rummer.”

 

1729:  Birthdate of Edmund Burke, Anglo-Irish statesman and political philosopher.  One of Burke’s most famous quotes is “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”  This line is found in many study programs about the Holocaust.

1735: At Frankfort-on-the-Main, Rabbi Jacob Kahana demanded that Moshe Chaim Luzzatto take an oath promising "to abandon his Kabbalistic illusions, and to refrain from writing on or instructing anyone in the doctrines of the Zohar."

1741: Birthdate of Dorsten, Germany native Nathan Baruch Eisendrath, the son of Baruch Eisendrath and the father of Rosetta, Samson, Moises, Else and Eva Eisendrath.

1747: Benjamin Levy, the son of Moses Levy, and his wife Judith gave birth to Jochebed Levy, who was married at Newport in 1770 to her cousin Moses, the son of Isaac Mendez Seixas and Rachel Levy.

1770: Charles Bonnett wrote a letter to Moses Mendelssohn saying that he regretted that Lavater had sent him a copy of his book as if it were an attack on the beliefs of the Jewish philosopher.

1773: The first museum in the American colonies is established in Charleston, South Carolina where Jews had been living since 1695 when records show that the governor employed a Jews “as interpreter.”

1780: In Savanah, GA, Leah Benjamin and David Nunez Cardoza gave birth to Sarah Cardozo.

1780: Birthdate of German theologian and biblical scholar Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette whom Julius Wellhausan described as "the epoch-making opener of the historical criticism of the Pentateuch."

1783: Rachel Franks and Chaim Solomon, the Jew who gave up his family funds to finance the American Revolution gave birth to Deborah Solomon who became Deborah Myers-Cohen when she married Simon Meyers Cohen with whom she had three children – Myer, Haymon and Ezekiel almost exactly two years before he passed away in Philadelphia.

1794(11th of Shevat, 5554): Elizabeth Gompertz, the daughter of Solomon Barent Gomperz and Martha Hyman and the wife of Abraham Benjamin Cohen with whom she had four children, passed away today in Amsterdam.

1797: Birthdate of Gideon Brecher, the “Austrian physician and writer” who “was also known as Gedaliah ben Eliezer” best known for his commentary “on the ‘Cuzari’ of Judah ha-Levi.”

https://www.jtsa.edu/prebuilt/archives/jtsarchives/brecher_gideon.shtml

https://disc.ceu.edu/node/26704

1802: Just fifteen days before their third wedding anniversary, Zipporah Levy and Newport, RI native Benjamin Mendes Seixas gave birth to Miriam Seixas.

1805(12th of Shevat, 5565): Polish born David bar Jacob passed away today in England.

1808: "Jerome...issued an edict declaring all Jews of his state without exception to be full citizens, abolishing Jew-taxes of every description, allowing foreign Jews to reside in the country under the same protection as that afforded to Christian immigrants and threatening with punishment the malicious who should derisively call a Jewish citizen of his state 'protection Jew' (Schutz-Jusde)." Jerome is Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest of Napoleon’s brothers who was King of Westphalia from 1807 to 1813.

1809: In Easton, PA, Isaac Nunez Cardozo, the London born son of Saran and Aaron Nunez Cardozo and wife Sarah Cardozo gave birth to Judith Nunez Cardozo

1811(15th of Tevet, 5572): Seventy-five-year-old Salomon Myers, the father of Judith Myers passed away today after which he was buried at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1813: Alexander Goldsmid married Eliza Israel today at the Great Synagogue.

1816: Today’s edition of The Aurora, published in Philadelphia described the activities of the Phillipson brothers -- Jacob, who had opened a general store in St. Louis, Joseph who along with Jacob had started that city’s firs brewery – which now included involvement in the highly lucrative fur trading business.

1818: Birthdate of Ludwig Traube, the son of a wine merchant in Silesia, “the German physician and co-founder of the experimental pathology in Germany.”

1821: Birthdate of Bohemian native and University of Prague graduate Bernard Fischer, the Austrian rabbi who served “various small congregations in the district of Eger from 1854 to 1863.

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6147-fischer-bernard

1823: Birthdate of Hermann Jellinek the Austrian author who was the brother of Adolf Jellinek.

1826(4th of Shevat, 5586): Forty-seven-year-old Aharon ben Moshe passed away today in England.

1823: Birthdate of Moravian native Hermann Jellinek, the rabbinic student turned agnostic who was executed at Vienna during the Revolution of 1848.

1824: At Nancy, Mosie Abraham, “a member of the Jewish consistory of Nancy and his wife gave birth “French brigadier-general of artillery Bernard Abraham.

1832: The Courier reported today that Solomon Benjamin had married Miss Catherine Woolfe the youngest of daughter of Charleston, SC resident Mrs. Rebecca Woolfe.

1833: Birthdate of Isabella Salomonsen, the wife of Isaac Zacharias, who was buried in Denmark’s Horsens Jewish Cemetery.

1833: Birthdate of Eugen Karl Dühring, the Berlin native who was one of the “fathers” of modern anti-Semitism.

1838: Rebecca Roxas, the daughter of Judith and Isaac Nunes Cardozo gave birth Julia Roxas,

1842: Seventy-one-year-old German philosopher and writer Wilhelm Traugott Krug who was an advocated for the emancipation of the Jews of Saxony passed away today.

1842: Alfred Benjamin Baumann married Priscilla Phineas Isaacs today at the New Synagogue.

1848: In Middleton, OH, Sophia Neumann Amberg and Moses Amberg who became a successful clothing merchant in Layfette, IN where he was on of the founders of Congregation of Ahavat Achim, gave birth to their third child and second son, David Moses Amberg. Who became “a prosperous liquor wholesale who in 1909 build house in Grand Rapids designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

https://www.loc.gov/item/mi0014/

1850: Birthdate of Wilhelm Bacher, the native of Liptó-Szent-Miklós, Hungary who gained fame as a scholar, rabbi, Orientalist, and linguist.

1851: Sarah Naar Cardozo, the New York born daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto and her husband Abraham Hart Cardozo gave Michael Hart Carodozo.

1853: In Baltimore, Sarah Miriam Carvalho the daughter of Jacob da Silva Solis and Charity Solis and Solomon Nunes Carvalho gave birth Charity Solis Marshuetz

1853: In Baltimore, MD Solomon Nunes Carvalho and Sarah Miriam Carvalho gave birth to Charity Solis Marshuetz

1853: The New York Times reported that William Gladstone has replaced Benjamin Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the new British government.  Gladstone and Disraeli would be political rivals for much of the rest of the century with one replacing the other as Prime Minister in future governments.

1855: Mr. Abraham Bensich, the native of Bohemia who had come to London in 1841 assumed the editorship of The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer.

1858: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Henry Jacobs officiated at the wedding of Adolph G. Haas and Hester Hyams, “the third daughter of M.D. Hyams.

1859: Articles I and Articles XI of The Anglo-Russian Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of January 12, 1859, were, much to the later disapproval by the British Jewish community, used by the Russian “to impose restrictions on British subjects of the Jewish faith.”

1860: In New York City, Barbetta Koenigsberger and David Levy gave birth to NYU trained attorney Samuel D. Levy, the husband of Millie Irene Berg and a Special Sessions Justice “assigned to Children’s Court for 10 years who a director of the United Hebrew Charities, president and vice president of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum and during World War, vice president of the Patriotic Service League. (Some sources show the dob as 1862)

1861(1st of Shevat, 5621): Rosh Chodesh Shevat; Parashat Vaera

1861: As Jews observe Shabbat, the country moves closer to Civil War when the Governor of South Carolina demanded that the U.S. government surrender Fort Sumter.

1862: Members of Congregation Beth Elohim laid the cornerstone for the first synagogue built on Long Island on two lots at the corner of State Street and Boerum Place in Boerum Hill.

1862: In Buffalo, NY, Clara Sommers and Emanuel Levi gave birth to St. Joseph’s College, Cornell University and University of Bottingen trained chemist Dr. Louis E. Levi, the husband of Clara Krayseki and Chief Chemist at Pfister and Vogel Lea Company in Milwaukee who was a contributor to “Hide and Leather” and the “Journal of American Leather Chemists.”

1863: Today, President Jefferson Davis issued his response to the Emancipation Proclamation which showed him to be a modern day “Pharaoh” since, among other things he said the U.S. officers captured would now be treated as “criminals exciting servile insurrection.”

http://www.awb.com/dailydose/?p=822

1864: As Americans prepare for their first war time Presidential elections, August “Belmont held a national committee meeting at his Fifth Avenue home, the first since the summer of 1860. Most of the twenty-three members attended.” Most of those who were absent were westeners only the weather accounted for the absence of some westerners," Belmont sided with those committee members who wanted a late Democratic national convention — in July.

1864: Dr. Jacob da Silva Solis who had served as an Assistant Surgeon in the Union Army and then transferred to the U.S. Navy where he served “as Acting Surgeon, serving under Rear Admiral DuPont” aboard the USS Florida, resigned his commission today.

1864: Esther Jacobs, the London born daughter of Benjamin Jacobs and the wife of Moses Phillips with whom she had had seven children was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1868: Approximately 200 people attended today’s annual meeting of the Jewish Hospital Association in Philadelphia where “the following officers were elected: President, Alfred T. Jones; Vice President, Abraham S. Wolf; Treasurer, Samuel Weil; Secretary, Mayer Sulzberger; Corresponding Secretary, Henry J. Hunt.”

1868: One day after she had passed away, 75-year-old Caroline Van Weerden, the wife of Edward Van Weerden, was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1870: Nathaniel Nathan married Clara Samuels today.

1871: Two days after he had passed away, Benjamin Emrick, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1871: In New York City, Julia Links and Dr. Adolph Huebsch, the Hungarian born rabbi and Talmudist, gave birth to CCN graduate and Jean University (Germany) trained psychoanalyst Dr. Daniel Adolph Huebsch, the husband of Nettie Hays and president of The Du Hold Company in Cleveland who was a member of the Council on Sociology in Cleveland, the author of such works as Pathways to the Field of Art and The Murder Complex and a member of the American Jewish Committee.

1872(2nd of Shevat, 5632): Seventy-six-year-old Island of Saint Christopher native and “descendant of Daniel Robles de Fonseca Aaron Wolff, the “president of the Bank of St. Thomas which he managed for thirty-two years while also serving as president of the local synagogue and as a member of the King’s Royal Council passed away today in London.

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14986-wolff-aaron

1873: Relying on information that first appeared in the London Daily Telegraph, “The Past” published today provides a summary of a paper by George Smith in which he summarizes his findings and hopes for the future surrounding the explorations of the ruins and mounds in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates which have shed light on the historical veracity of accounts in the Biblical Book of Kings and which should provide further information about the origins of the Semitic people of the area including the ancient Hebrews.  (Editor’s note –Smith was a noted 19th century Assyriologist who discovered and translated “The Epic of Gilgamesh.”)

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F04E5D71439EF34BC4A52DFB7668388669FDE

1874: Four days afther she had passed away, the former Mary Solomons, the wife of Joel Jewell with whom she had had seven children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1875: Birthdate of Max Naumann, the German WW I veteran and Berlin lawyer who advocated total assimilation and attempted to protect the position of German Jews in the 1930’s by disparaging the Polish Jews living in Germany.  (Editor’s note:  It didn’t work).

1875: In Grodna, Poland, Fannie Stuchinsky and Leon Kahan gave birth to NYU trained attorney Samuel Kahan, the husband of Ida Slutsky, the first vice president of the Kings Highway Board of Trade and a chairman of the board of trustees of Temple Ahavath Sholom.

1876: In London, Rachel Adler and Dr. Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi, to Solomon Alfred Adler, who served as the “visiting minister for the Reading Hebrew Congregation” and the Rabbi at the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation before becoming the Rabbi at the Hammersmith and West Kensington Synagogue in 1904.

1876: James Eustis began serving as U.S. Senator from Louisiana.  Eustis would later serve as U.S. Ambassador to France during the Dreyfus affair and apparently was sympathetic to the French Jewish officer.

1877: Today’s issue of the Jewish Chronicle published a review of “a sermon delivered by Dean Stanley” which protested “against his having declared that ‘in Judaism God was to be regarded as the God of Israel only’ and ‘that the Christian morality was superior to the Jewish.’”

1877: Birthdate of Kiev native Lazar Samoiloff, the European opera singer who eventually settled in San Francisco.

1878: In a case of Jews versus Jews, at Buffalo, NY, Jacob and Burnet Friedmann brought suit in chancery court against Henry Cone, Abraham Altman, Emanuel Levi and the Third National Banks charging them with fraud and other financial crimes.

1878: In Budapest, Dr. Mór Neumann, a prosperous and popular gastroenterologist, and Jozefa Wallfisch gave birth to Ferenc Molnár, the Hungarian attorney turned author and playwright who came to the United States to escape the Nazis.

1878(8th of Shevat, 5638): Joseph, Baron Günzburg passed away.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/249571/Joseph-Baron-Gunzburg

1879: It was reported today that “Liberty in Germany” an article about the Socialist movement, by Leonard Montefiore, will be published in the January issue of The Nineteenth Century. A graduate of Balliol College, Montefiore was the brother of Claude G. Montefiore and a fellow student of Arnold Toynbee.

1880: Birthdate of Lebovics Menyhért who gained fame as “Hungarian writer, dramatist and screenwriter” Melchior Lengyel.

1882: In Austria, Louis and Bessie Saphir gave birth Columbia University trained “physician and surgeon” Dr. Joseph F. Saphir, the former “chief of proctology at Manhattan State Hospital” and the husband of Elsa Saphir with whom he had had three daughters.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/11/27/80562443.pdf

1884: Birthdate of Wilhelm Herzog the German playwright and historian who wrote Die Affäre Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Affair) which “was adapted to English as the 1931 film Dreyfus and as a play by the theatre critic James Agate, having a short run in London as "I Accuse!", in 1937.”

1885: In Bialystok, Elka Kriviansky and Zebi Hirsh Goldberg gave birth to Rabbi Moses H. Goldberg, the husband of Miriam Rubin who began serving as the leader of Congregation Anshe Sfard in New Orleans in 1905.

1885(25th of Tevet, 5645): Russian native Joseph B. Isaac Rosen, who gave up a “commercial career” to serve as Jewish cleric and who served as the rabbi for Telz and Slonim passed away today.

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12832-rosen-joseph-b-isaac

1885: Three days after he had passed away, 75-year-old Isaac Sanguinetti, the husband of the former Harriett Nathan with whom he had had six children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1886: Birthdate of Norihiro Yasue “an Imperial Japanese Army colonel who played a crucial role in the so-called Fugu Plan, in which Jews were rescued from Europe and brought to Japanese-occupied territories during World War II” who after the war “was arrested by the Russians, sent to Siberia” and died “in 1950 in the labor camp at Khabarovsk.”

1886: Abraham Bernard, the French brigadier-general of artillery, retired from active service today.

1887: “Archaeologist Joseph Reinach and his wife Henriette-Clémentine Reinach gave birth to archaeologist Adolphe Reinach.

1887: In New York, leather merchant Julius Helburn and the former Hannah Peyeser gave birth Bryn Mawr College graduate and Radicliffe trained paywright Theresa Helbrun, the theatrical producer and co-founder of New York’s Theatre Guild.

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/helburn-theresa

1890: The Harmony Club, which housed a Jewish social organization, was among the buildings caught in the path of cyclone that struck St. Louis, MO this afternoon.

1890: President James H. Hoffman presided over today’s meeting of the members and patrons of the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York City.

1890: “Crowns” published today described the royal headgear of 19th century monarchs the purposed of which “remains as it was in the days of King Solomon…an article of display rather than of practical of utility. “The King of Romania is said to buy his crown from a Jewish dealer in Frankfort” Germany.

1891: It was reported today that the Hebrew Technical Institute which was formed eight years ago as manual training school for Jewish students has elected a officers for the new year including: James Hoffman – President; David L. Einstein – First Vice President; Otto A. Moses – Second Vice President; Leo Schlesinger – Treasurer; Joseph Metzler – Secretary.

1891: Professor Dr. Moritz Lazarus wrote in his foreword to Nahida Ruth Remy’s The Jewish Woman (Das jüdische Weib): “Writing about Jews is seldom without prejudice; writing by women is seldom thorough. But this book about the Jewish woman, written by a Christian woman, is both thorough and free of prejudice.” (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)

 

1892: First day of the ceremonies marking the opening of the Jewish Maternity Association's facility in Philadelphia, PA

1892: Based on information that first appeared in the Kreuz Zeitung it was reported today that a Jewish butcher who had been arrested in the town of Xanten on charges of murdering a Christian boy has been released.  The German paper maintains the release was in error and that the boy had been part of a Jewish practice “of killing Christian children for the purpose of using their blood in their peculiar religious rites.”

1893: It was reported today that the Fire Chief in Elizabeth, NJ said that the fire that burned down the house and saloon owned David Sampson, a Jewish citizen, was of mysterious origin. Sampson estimated the loss, which was covered by insurance, at four thousand dollars.  Neighbors claim that the fire was deliberate.

1893: Thirty-year-old Isaac H. Silverman, who has been in the “electric light and street railway business in Pittsburgh since 1887” and is the Pittsburgh born son of Henry and Babette (Frank) Silverman married Ida Hirsch today in Chicago after which he followed a path in the railway business hat let him serve as President of the Philadelphia Railways Company and a membership in Keneseth Israel Congregation in Philadelphia.

1894: Birthdate of Brooklyn native a NYU trained chemist and “All-American basketball star” Colonel Samuel N. Cummings the veteran of two world wars who “in civilian life was president of the Pylam Products Company,” a supporter of the Brooklyn Hebrew Home and Hospital for the Aged and the Union Temple of Brooklyn and the husband of Molly Cummings with whom he had two daughters – Joan and Roberta.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/10/01/84157116.html?pageNumber=19

1895: Birthdate of Henry Lipschitz, the native of Boston, who gained fame Philadelphia A’s infielder Harry Bostick.

1895: As part of the Dreyfus Affair, the French military judges acquit Colonel Esterhazy of all charges while the high command stripped Colonel Picquart of his commission and pension for not letting the Dreyfus matter come to a quiet, if unjust end.

1895: Birthdate of Leo Aryeh Mayer, the native of Galicia who became “an Israeli scholar of Islamic art and rector of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The L.A. Mayer Institute for Islamic Art which was established in 1974 by Vera Bryce Salomons was named in his honor.

http://www.islamicart.co.il/en/

1895: Reports published today in the Baltimore Sun described the visit of Dr. Michael L. Rodkinson, a Russian Jew, to Maryland’s largest city where he has attempted to gain financial backing from the local rabbis for his proposed first of its kind translation of the Talmud into English

http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0C1EF83A5416738DDDA10994D9405B8585F0D3

1896: The National Council of Jewish sponsored a lecture given by Dr. Solis Cohen of Philadelphia, a Temple Beth-El in New York City.

1896: Birthdate of tennis player Uberto De Morpurgo, the native of Trieste who played on Italy’s Davis Cup from 1922 through 1933.

1896(26th of Tevet, 5656): Sixty-seven ear old Selig Meier Goldschmidt, the son of Meyer and Lea Goldschmidt and the husband of Clementine Goldschmidt passed away today in Frankfurt am Main.

1897:  Property valuations reported today included Temple Emanu-El, $700,000; Temple Beth-El, $400,000; Shearith Israel, $275,000; Mt. Sinai Hospital - $300,000.  All of this property is tax exempt.

1897: In Vilnius, Samuel and Celia Pores gave birth to Charles Pores, the husband of Adele Meltsner.

1899: Mr. Adler introduced a bill for consideration by the New York State Assembly “fixing the rate for infants received and cared for by the Hebrew Infant Asylum of New York City at 38 cents per day.”

1899: In Hüngheim, Germany, businessman Isaak Schorsch and his wife gave birth to Emil Schorsch a German born rabbi who survived Buchenwald who served a congregation in Pottstown, Pa from 1940 to 1964 before passing away in 1982.

http://access.cjh.org/home.php?type=extid&term=1309582#1

1900: Premiere of Herzl’s "I Love You" in the Vienna Burgtheater.

1900: One day after she had passed away, the former Yetta Cohen, the wife of Harris Goldstein, was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1901(21st of Tevet, 5661): Parashat Shemo

1901: Topics of the Times published today included a description of the Jews living in the town of “Kai-fung-too” who once “were the richest and most people of the place” but who now number only 140 souls, very poor” and whose “condition in society is not very high.”

1901: Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ millinery shop owner, Nathan Weinberg, the Cracow born son of Pincus Weinber, married Gussie Shoengut today in New York/

1902: Birthdate of New York native Joseph Klewan who gained fame as nightclub entertainer Joe E. Lewis.

http://www.lvstriphistory.com/ie/joelewis.htm

1903: Birthdate of Binyamin Mintz, the native of Lodz who made Aliyah in 1925 who was elected to the first Knesset and served as Minister of Postal Services.

1903: Harry Houdini performed at the Rembrandt Theater in Amsterdam.

1903: Herzl arrives in London in his continuing quest to gain governmental support for a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel.

1903: In Brooklyn at the home of the bride’s parents, Rabbi Leon Nelson officiated at the marriage of Alexander A. Hirsch, of Charleston, SC and Miriam Newman, the “daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Newman.”

1904: Birthdate of Ida S. Sittler Farber, the wife Joseph J. Farber with whom she had two children,
Donald and Nancee.

1904: The U.S. Supreme Court heard the re-argument of “State of South Dakota, Complainant versus the State of North Carolina, Charles Salters and Simon Rothschilds.

1905: German anti-Semitic agitator Count Walter Pückler-Muskau was “sentenced to six months imprisonment” for “inciting to violence.

1905: Emanuel Wallach, the son of Samson and Adelaide Wallach and the brother of the distinguished attorney Leopold Wallach was laid to rest today.

1906: Rabbi F.L. Cohen delivered an “address at the great synagogue” on “the spiritual significance of the kosher table.”

1906: Birthdate of Lithuanian born French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/27/world/emmanuel-levinas-90-french-ethical-philosopher.html

1906: Birthdate of German mathematician Kurt Hirsch, the name sake for the “Hirsch length and Hirsch-Plotkin Radical.”

1906: Churchill was elected a Liberal Member of Parliament for North-West Manchester following which he traveled to Europe where he stayed with three Jewish supporters Sir Ernest Cassel, Lionel Rothschild and Baron de Forest.

1906: Harry Marks defended his seat in Commons in the General Elections which began today.

1907: Isidor Straus was the guest of honor at a dinner at Sherry's tonight, “given by his fellow-Directors in the Educational Alliance, of which he is President, to celebrate his departure on an extended trip to the East which will begin on January 19.

1907(26th of Tevet, 5667) Parashat Vaera

1907(26th of Tevet): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Zevi Hirsch Deutsch of Brody,

1908(9th of Shevat, 5668): Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal, one of the world’s leading Jewish scholars who is considered to be the founder of the Reform Movement in Chicago, Illinois, passed away today at the age of 88.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0A16FC3D5D16738DDDAD0994D9405B888CF1D3

 1908: Today, Jefferson Seligman of J&W Seligman The Times a check for $50 to be turned over to be turned over to the widow of John Fallon of the Fire Patrol who died while fighting the fire at the Parker Building and another $100 to be divided amonth the the families the two other fireman who were killed.”

1909(19th of Tevet, 5669): Forty-four-year-old German mathematician Hermann Minkowski, who was the brother of Dr. Oskar Minkowski a key player in research on the pancreas that led to life saving treatment of diabetics passed away today.

1909: This afternoon at the Majestic Hotel in New York City, Rabbi Silverman officiated at the wedding of Irma Bronnolo, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bronnolo to Herbert George Einstien, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sol Einstein of New Rochelle, NY with Yattes Einstein, the grooms brother serving as best man.

1909: This evening, at Delmonico’s, Rabbi Samuel Schulman officiated at the wedding of L. Kelcey Posner and Jane Hillborn, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gustav Hilborn whose daughter Rosalie served as maid of honor.

1909(19th of Tevet, 5669): Eighty-nine-year-old Major General Sir Fredric John Goldsmid passed away today.

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/goldsmid

1910: In Dusseldorf, Heinrich and Emilie (née Königsberger) Rainer gave birth to Louise Ranier who won the Oscar for best actress in 1936 for her portrayal of “Anna Held.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30631088

1910: Birthdate of Detroit native and HUC ordained rabbi, Morton Jacob Cohn, the U.S. Navy WW II chaplain and longtime leader of Congreation Beth Israel and Temple Emanu-El in San Diego, CA, where he raised two children, Jane and Morton, Jr with his wife Sally.

https://scua2.sdsu.edu/archon/?p=collections/findingaid&id=448&q=&rootcontentid=136436

1911(12th of Tevet, 5671): Fifty-nine-year-old Austrian legal scholar and “legal positivist” George Jellink passed away.

1911(19th of Tevet, 5671): Seventy-eight-year-old Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling the son of a Liverpool watchmaker who founded the bank of Samuel Montagu & Co, sat in the House of Commons and was a leader of the Anglo-Jewish community passed away today.

1911: Birthdate of Robert Abshagen, the native of Hamburg who would be beheaded in 1944 for his role in the anti-Nazi resistance movement.

1912: In Philadelphia, “Lily Cartun Goodman and Philip Goodman, a playwright and a theatrical producer” gave birth to Ruth Goodman better known as Ruth Goetz, the playwright who collaborated with her husband Augustus Goetz on many of her efforts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/arts/ruth-goetz-93-who-co-wrote-the-heiress.html

1912: “Flashgraph pictures of the Balkan War” are scheduled to be shown at this afternoon’s meeting of the Zion Temple Auxiliary at the Zion Temple in Chicago.

1912: The Oregon Journal described a meeting of the Portland Equal Suffrage League (PESL) that was held at the home of Josephine Hirsch.

1913: “Taft To Meet B’nai B’rith” published today tells of plans for the Present to address members of that organization in New York when they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their organization on January 19,

1913(4th of Shevat, 5673): Fifty-five-year-old “communal worker” Samuel Schwartzberg passed away today in St. Louis, MO.

1913: The election of a Chief Rabbi for the United Kingdom will not take place today as planned because the Selection Committee of the Rabbinate Conference has not reached an agreement on which of the three candidates to nominate for the position.

1914: “Big Hebrew Ball Nets Poor $10,000” published today described the successful charity event in Chicago that raised funds for “the Orthodox Home for Jewish Aged, the Marks Nathan Jewish Home, the Maimonides Hospital, the Jewish Consumptive Relief Society, five Hebrew free schools and two Hebrew free burial societies.”

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/20552323/1914jan12_chicago_tribunechicago/

1914: “The formal opening of the first exhibition of Jewish arts and crafts” which including works by “craftsmen at the Bezalel School in Palestine” and “several important sculptures and by Professor Boris Schatz’ is scheduled to take place this evening “in the Concert Hall of Madison Square Gardens.”

1915: “Will Tell of Jews’ Hardships” published today described plans for a series of lectures that will be held to describe the suffering be endured by the Jews in Europe and Palestine as a result of the World War.

1915: Birthdate of Los Angeles native Israel Shapiro, the son of “a Russian Jewish immigrant, a lawyer, poet and socialist” and UCLA student who gained fame as screenwriter and producer Paul Jarrico, the victim of the blacklist and the husband of Sylvia Gussin,

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/30/arts/paul-jarrico-82-blacklisted-screenwriter.html

1915: The Tennessee, a cruiser in the U.S. Navy, set sail from Alexandria for Jaffa where it will try and evacuate 1,500 refugees.

1915: “Asks Loan To Save Jews” published today includes Dr. Shmaryahu Levin’s view of the desperate conditions of Jews in Europe saying that “the Jewish rich have ceased to be rich particularly in Poland and Galicia.”   After six months of war, “it is safe to estimate that at least 3,000,000 Jews have been ruined” and that another 5,000,000 Jews in Russia and Austria have also been “hard hit.”

1915:  Birthdate of Martin Agronsky a journalist and Peabody Award winning radio and television newsman and commentator.  He was also related to Gershon Agronsky.  Gershon changed his named to Agron and was the founder of the Palestine Post which became the Jerusalem Post after the birth of Israel.

1915: Birthdate of Norman Rufus Colin whose father was Jewish and whose mother was Roman Catholic. The London born historian influenced a generation of historians and social scientists with his insight that totalitarian ideologies of the 20th century, chiefly Communism and Nazism, were propelled by mythologies associated with medieval apocalyptic movements. He was married to Vera Broido, “the daughter of two Russian Jewish revolutionaries whose autobiography began with her Russian childhood and following “her journey thought Europe to England.”

1915: U.S. premiere of “A Fool There Was” a five reel silent drama produced by William Fox (Wilhelm Fried).

1916: Birthdate of William Pleeth, the London born son of Jewish immigrants from Warsaw who became one of the most renowned cellists of the 20th Century.

1916: “At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith” held in Chicago today, “the status of the Armenian Christians and Russian and Rumanian Jews at the close of the European war was considered.”

1916: “In response to the Senate resolution requesting him to do so, President Wilson today issued a proclamation designating January 27 as a day upon which Americans may make contribution for the relief of suffering Jews” which according to Wilson number 3,000,000 “the great majority of” whom “are destitute of food, shelter and clothing” having “been driven from their homes.”

1916: “The Business Men’s League for the Relief of Jewish War Suffers, working in co-operation with the American Jewish Relief Committee, announced” today “that $64,000 had been paid and subscribed for the relief fund.”

1916: Herbert Samuel assumed the position of Home Secretary in the government of Prime Minister H.H. Asquith.

1916: “Many prominent women from Brooklyn” attended “the regular monthly meeting of the Civitas Club” today where they heard anarchist Emma Golden declare that “Society, as it exists today is rotten to the core” because “it is disintegrated in every phase of life and cannot be patched up.”

1916: Previously M.S. Lehman’s contribution to the American Jewish Relief Committee was reported to be $500 when in fact it was for $5,000.

1916: According to Dr. Henry Moskowitz a “Black Book” that will be published “within the next few days” by “the National Jewish Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights” “will contain authentic documentary evidence of the persecutions charged against Russian officials” including the commanding officers of the Russian Army.

1917: First provisional council of Palestinian Jewry was established. (The Jews were the Palestinians long before the name was usurped by the Arabs.)

1918: American violinist Max Rosen who has recently returned to the United States after studying in Europe for the past five years is scheduled to make his debut tonight at Carnegie Hall.

1918: Finland’s "Mosaic Confessors" law went into effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens.Under the Act, Jews could for the first time become Finnish nationals, and Jews not possessing Finnish nationality were henceforth in all respects to be treated as foreigners in general.”

1919: Birthdate of Seymour B. Sarason, “a leader in Community Psychology.”

1919: “Comes Home Blinded” published today described the homecoming of Regimental Sergeant-Major Michael Aaronsohn, “the first blinded Baltimore soldier to return from France” who had “lost his sight while trying to rescue a wounded comrade while fighting through the Argonne Forest” and who plans on returning to Cincinnati to resume his studies to become a rabbi which were interrupted when he enlisted in May of 1917.

1919: A general assembly met today to form a women’s Zionist organization in Great Britain.

1920(21st of Tevet, 5680): Thirty-two-year-old Rabbi Solomon T.H. Hurwitz, the descendant of an old rabbinical family who was a “lecturer on Semitic Languages at Columbia University, a founder and editor of the Jewish Forum and professor of Hebrew and Aramaic Philology at the Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary” passed away today “in the Beth Israel Hospital of paralysis.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/01/13/102738099.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

 

1920: Birthdate of Marion Andred the founding artistic director of The Saidy Bronfman Centre for the Arts named for Saidye Rosner Bronfman, “the matriarch of the Canadian-Jewish Bronfman family” who was married to Samuel Bronfman.

1920: In Cincinnati, Philip and Jennie (Fridman) Posner gave birth to Leah Frances Posner who as the wife of Arnold Meyer Spielberg gave birth to film maker Steven Spielberg.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=leah-frances-adler&pid=184237455

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/leah-adler-dead-mother-steven-spielberg-was-97-978312

1921: The position of Baseball Commissioner, which had been part of the Lasker Plan (named after its author Albert Lasker) was created.  Lasker would play a key role in having Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis serve as the frist commissioner.

1921: In a letter to Prime Minister Lloyd George and Foreign Secretary Lord Curzon, Churchill summarized the view of the French government toward the Middle East which was basically pro-Arab and anti-Zionist.

1921: Composer-pianist Harold Morris is scheduled to “make his New York debut at Aeolian Hall” this afternoon

1922: It was reported today that while speaking at the British embassy in Washington Arthur James Balfour said “that his belief in the success of the Zionist ideals was undiminished and that his sentiment in favor of a Jewish Palestine were the same as in November, 1917…”

1923: Following undercover work by federal agents Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith, injunctions were served today on several people restraining them from further violation of the Volstead Act including Harry Horovitz and Bernard Stein of 833 Sixth Avenue.

1924(6th of Shevat, 5684) Parashat Bo

1924: It was reported today that Federal Judge Know has heard  an argument “on a motion to vacate an attachment on $150,000 of Henry Ford that was obtained in an action instituted by Herman Bernstein , editor of the Jewish Tribune for $200,000 for the libel by Mr. Ford’s paper The Dearborn Independent which had charged among other things that “Mr. Bernstein was a spy for international bankers who were all said to be Jews

1924: In Warsaw, Pola Tenenbaum and Gustav Rosenberg gave birth to WW II British Army veteran and Oxford University graduate Shaul Ramati, the husband of Esther Dembowski and the father of Pnina and Shlomo Ramati who reached the rank of Lt. Colonel in the IDF while fighting in the War for Independence and who served the Israeli government in numerous positions including tours as Ambassador to Japan and Brazil.

1925: Forty-four-year-old Hyman Goldstein who had arrived in the United States in 1912 and settled in Chicago became a citizen of his adopted country today.

1926: Birthdate of composer Morton Feldman.

1926(26th of Tevet, 5686): Sixty-one-year-old Martin Behrman, who was serving his 5th terms as Mayor of New Orleans, passed away today. A native of New York, he came to the Crescent City as an infant and grew up in the Algiers section which was on the city’s West Bank.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30611FE395D13738DDDAA0994D9405B868EF1D3

1927: Middleweight Seymour ‘Cy” Schindel won his bought today by a knockout at the Manhattan Casino.

1927: Based on reports published today Lean Paul and her nine year old daughter Dorothy are destitute since her husband gamble Sam Paul “died penniless.

1927: Birthdate of Leslie Eleazer Orgel, the British chemist who created “Orgel Diagrams” which are correlation diagrams that show the relative energies of electronic terms in transition metal complexes.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/us/05orgel.html?_r=0

 

1928: Birthdate of Henry Pollak, the husband of Elain Pollak who was buried at Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery in Ladue

1928: In the UK, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Sharp gave birth to Major David Sharp, who was called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah Singer Hills Synagogue in Birmingham and who was captured while serving with a British military fighting behind the lines during the Korean War.

1929(1st of Shevat, 5689): Parashat Vaera; Rosh Chodesh Shevat

1929(1st of Shevat, 5689): Sixty-one year old Washington University graduate and Republican party member Louis P. Aloe, the “president of A .S. Aloe, Co, opticians” and the husband of Edith Rosenblatt with whom he had three daughter – Clara, Viola and Louise – and who was the  St. Louis, born of son  A.S. and Isabella Hill passed away today

1929: In El Paso, TX, Eleanor and Errold Baum Lapowski gave birth to future physical education teacher Emily Louise Lapowski the physical teacher known as Emily Louise Schapiro.

1930: “Harmony at Home,” a comedy produced by William Fox and with music by Samuel Kaylin was released in the United States today.

1930: According to dispatches from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published today, “Achduth Avodah, representing the industrial workers and Hapoel and Hazaif” joined together at a meeting in Tel Aviv last week to for the Palestine Jewish Labor Party.   Among those sending congratulatory telegrams to the new organization were Leon Blum, Chaim Wiexann and PIincus Rutenberg.

1931: Julius L. Meir, the son founders of the Meier and Frank Department Store began serving as the 20th Governor of Oregon,

1932: In the midst of dedicating the main building, Ada Maimon and 10 girls, accompanied by a Hebrew guard, started living in Ayanot.  They had to live in the cowshed for a short time, and they were later joined by more girls until there were 70 residents.

1932(4th of Shevat, 5692): Samuel Louis Lazaron the Atlanta, GA born husband of Zipporah Alice DeCastro Lazaron and father of Morris Samuel Lazaron passed away today after which he was buried in the Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery.

1932: In Stepney, London, “Henry O’Conner, an Irish dustman” and the former Maude Basset, “a Jewish cleaner gave birth to multi-talented entertainer Desmon Bernard “Des” O’Connor who joked that he was “the only O’Connor to have a Bar Mitzvah.

https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/tributes-paid-to-ultimate-entertainer-des-oconnor-who-dies-aged-88/

1933: The newly elected officers of the Jewish Conciliation Court of America for the year 1933 are “Dr. Israel Goldstein, President; Mrs. Rebekah Kohut, Hon. Jacob Panken, Dr. Moses Hyamson, Vice-Presidents; Jacob R. Schiff, Treasurer; Louis Richman, Executive Secretary.” (As reported by JTA)

1934: “Madame Bovary” the film version of the novel by the same name with music by Darius Milhaud was released in France today.

1935: “The eighty-eight anniversary of the birth of the late Jacob H. Schiff, banker and philanthropist, and the tenth anniversary of the dedication of the Jacob H. Schiff Center is scheduled to be observed with special services at the center” in the Bronx, “beginning this evening.”

1936: In Mary, Efraim and Yelizaveta Malayev, a Bukharian Jewish family, gave birth to Uzbekistani musician and poet Ilyas Malayev.

1936: It was reported today that while the White House announced that the recent brief meeting between President Roosevelt and Rabbi Stephen Wise “did not concern plight of the Jews in Germany” Wise was telling reported that “it would not be too wild a speculation to say” that they had “discussed…the plight of my people in some European countries.”  (Editor’s note: This was one more example of the balancing act that FDR engaged in while dealing with Isolationism and interventionism in the 30’s made all the more acute by the fact that 1936 was an election year.)

1936: “Testifying before the royal inquiry commission today, Haj Amin el Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem said Palestine Arabs’ demands were: Abandonment of the Jewish national home policy in Palestine; Complete stoppage of Jewish immigration; Prohibition of the sale of land to Jews; Termination of the period of mandatory rule; A treaty between Great Britain and Palestine: the establishment of an independent government constitutionally elected government.” (Editor’s Note – the last item is a farce since the Arab terms guaranteed an Arab majority and almost without exception there has never been a democratically elected Arab government.)

 

1936: “More than 1,000 delegates from the eight states comprising the Northeast Region of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” met today at the Community House of Temple Emanu-El for their day long annual convention during which the topic of discussion was “If the Synagogue Could Speak.”

1936: Heinz Liepmann, the German author who spent time in a Nazi concentration told “the congregation of the Free Synagogue worshipping in Carnegie Hall” this morning that “America, the only country that Hitler respect should have refused to send its athletes to the Olympic Games in Berline.

1936: Dr. Jacob Isaac Niemerower, the chief rabbi Rumania who also serves as a Senator was recovering from the wounds he suffered yesterday when he was shot by Aurel Jonescu.

1936: According to a report of Otto D. Tolishchus, the Pulitzer Prize winning Berlin correspondent, published today, “because the hope for any other solution of the Jewish question except the ultimate elimination of Jews from Germany has disappeared there is a growing interest in moderate German quarters in the project for a Jewish mass exodus…” (Editor’s note – this is a neutral party writing 3 years before the killing squads began making their way across Europe with the Nazi Army.)

1936: “Reich Scientists Uphold Freedom” published today descried the hostility showed by the National Socialists (Nazis) for the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science which “has refused to introduce the ‘Aryan clause’” which would require it to “expel Jewish members.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00815FA3455147B93C0A8178AD85F428385F9

more 2016

1937: Solomon Blatt, Sr. the Blackville, SC born of son Russian Jewish immigrants Nathan and Molly Blatt began serving his first term as Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives.

1937: When the Mufti expressed a belief that Jews intended, when they became a majority in Palestine, to destroy Moslem holy places” “Earl Peel, Chairman of the Royal Inquiry Commission reminded the Mufti that responsible Jewish bodies had given assurance in regard to the” protection of Moslem holy places.

1937: Judge Jonah J. Goldstein is scheduled to be installed as the president the Grand Street Boys Association on West 55th Street tonight.

1937: Louis K. Anspacher is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Discipline of Education” this moring at the League for Political Education meeting at the Town Hall.

1938: The Palestine Post reported that John Llewellyn Starkey, 50, one of the most distinguished archaeologists conducting excavations in Palestine, was shot and killed by a gang of Arab terrorists on the Beit Guvrin track, northwest of Hebron. Starkey was returning to Jerusalem from Tell el-Duweir, the site of the ancient Lachish, where he discovered inscribed tablets from the period of Jeremiah. Starkey was buried in Jerusalem.

1938: In Bucharest, “American Minster Franklin Mott Gunther told Premier Octavian Goga today that the United States was deeply concerned over evidences of anti-Semitism in Rumania.

1938: The Palestine Post reported that The Court of Honor of the Zionist Congress found Mr. Meir Grossman of the Jewish State Party guilty of revealing details of the secret conversation between Dr. Chaim Weizmann and the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, on the subject of Partition. Grossman was fined to cover the costs of the trial and deprived from participation in the Zionist General Council for two years.

1939: “Long-distance shots reportedly fired at a German consular official’s private home and a legation secretary’s workroom in The Netherlands caused an outburst of fury today in German papers which unanimously assumed the culprits must be Jewish.”  (Editor’s note – Looking for another Kristallnacht)

1939(21st of Tevet, 5699): Forty-year-old Grodno native Irving Pojanskywho played for varsity basketball for three years at CCNY under the name of Projan passed away today.

 

1940: The Nazis murdered 300 patients at Hordyszcze, a Polish mental health facility.

 

1940: “The Shop Around The Corner,” a comedy directed and produced by Ernst Lubitsch and with a screenplay by Samson Raphaelson and Ben Hecht was released in the United Sates today.

 

1940: Ferenc Molnár, the Hungarian born novelist and playwright who fled the Nazis, arrived in the United States today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0F1FF63F5415738DDDAB0994D9405B8888F1D3

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/04/03/84247680.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

 

1941: The New Friends of Music is scheduled to honor the late pianist Mischa Levitzki with a chamber music concert at Town Hall.

1941: Birthdate of Rabat, Morocco native Nessim Max Cohen who boxed in France under the name of Max Cohen.

1941: In the UK, “the Poale-Zion and the Zionist Federation are scheduled to hold a joint memorial meeting” to mark the recent death of Tel Aviv’s Deputy Mayor Dov Hos.

1942: China joins 9 European nations in adopting a resolution calling for the trial of Axis Leaders on charges of War Crimes.

1942: Seventy-five of the best works of art belonging to the National Gallery “arrived at the Biltmore, the great Vanderbilt estate in the mountains of North Carolina where they would remain hidden until 1944.”

1942: A message was sent to Gussie Schwebel by one Mrs. Roosevelt’s personal secretaries acknowledging her letter of January 6 and saying that the First Lady “wants you to know how much she appreciates your kind offer to send her a sample of your knishes.”

1942: The first of 19,582 Odessa Jews were transported in cattle trucks to Berezovka and then onto two concentration camps elsewhere. Most would die within the year of starvation, cold, untreated disease, or executions. The Jews of Odessa were no longer.

1942: While working as part of burial duty at Chelmno, Michael Podklebnik found the remains of his wife, daughter and son.  He buried them amongst the other corpses of those just gassed.

1943: Over the next eight days, twenty thousand Jews are deported from Zambrow, Poland, to Auschwitz.

1943: Mrs. Louis Popkin, the former Zelda Feinberg and her two sons Roy and Richard were reported to be the immediate surviving family members of the deceased public relations executive.

1944: It was reported today that while visiting “American soldiers in India, the Persian Gulf and the Middle East” Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner has “been particularly impressed by good care taken of American soldiers.

1945: M. Metz Cohn, a member of the Board of Review of the State Unemployment Commission and his wife announced the engagement of their daughter Bernard Schwartz, the manager of the Colgate University varsity basketball team.

1945: Shalom Scopas, a Jewish soldier serving with the Soviet Army, went behind the lines of the Nazis "for what would be his last retrieval mission.”

1945:  The Soviets began a major winter offensive against the Nazis in Eastern Europe.  This final push would help to liberate the remnant of the Jews who had escaped the final solution including the more than 100,000 Jews clinging to life in Budapest.

1946: This morning a gang of seventy robbers took part in a daring train hold-up that resulted in the robbery of 35,000 pounds [about $140,000] in cash, representing the railway staff payroll. According to officials, the robbers were Jews armed with rifles and automatic weapons.

1946: Birthdate of Hazel Josephine Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, CBE (née Aronson) the Glasgow born lawyer who was the first woman to be appointed a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of Scotland's Supreme Courts.

1947: Members of Lehi blew up a police station in Haifa.

1947(20th of Tevet, 5707): Jonas Cohn passed away at the age of 77 in Birmingham.  The German born professor of philosophy was forced to flee Germany in 1933 with the rise of the Nazis.  He settled in England where he continued his work.

1948: Ferenec Molnar planned to spend his 70th birthday by “working, because it’s an old habit of mine.” He is currently working on two plays, “Wax Works and “Games of Hearts.”  While some Americans may not be acquainted with his more than 40 dramatic works, many know the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel” which was inspired by his play “Liliom.”

1949: “The Smile of the World” written by Garson Kanin opened at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City.

1949: U.S. premiere of “CrissCross” directed by Robert Siodmak with a script by Daniel Fuchs which featured “the screen debut of Tony Curtis.”

1949: Gabriel Haritos, as the Mayor of Rhodes, was the local partner for the proceedings for the initial talks between Israel, Egypt and Jordan, under the auspices of United Nations, at the Grande Albergo delle Rose (Hotel of Roses) in Rhodes which began today.

 

1950: Birthdate of Dorit Moussaieff, “an Israeli-born British jewelry designer, editor and businesswoman” who was the great granddaughter of Shlomo Moussaieff “one of the founders of the Bukharim neighborhood in Jerusalem

1950(23rd of Tevet, 5710): Producer and director John M. Stahl, a Jewish immigrant from Baku who was one of the founding members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), passed away today.

http://www.filmdirectorssite.com/stahl-john-m

1952 The U.N. Genocide Pact went into effect

1952(14th of Tevet, 5712): Parashat Vayechi

1952(14th of Tevet, 5712): Ninety-three Fanny Bonheim, the daughter of Solomon and Rachel Lubin Weinstock, wife of Albert Bonnheim and the mother of Joseph Bonnheim passed away today.

1952: In Los Angeles, CA, Leroy Mosely and Ella Slatkin whose family was Jewish immigrants from Russia, gave birth to mystery writer Walter Ellis Mosley. “In 2010, there was a debate in academic literary circles as to whether Mosley's work should be considered Jewish literature.”

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that despite Cairo's vigorous campaign against the British occupation of the Suez Canal zone and disregarding Israeli protests that such action might bring a new war, Britain delivered 25 new jet fighters to Egypt.

 1953: Nine "Jewish" physicians were arrested for "terrorist activities" in Moscow.  This was part of the so-called “Doctors’ Plot” that existed only in the twisted minded of Joseph Stalin.  Stalin planned to use the plot as a springboard for creating a wave of virulent anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.  Stalin died before he could bring his plans to fruition.

 1954:  Birthdate of Howard Stern.  Hey, they all can’t be Nobel Prize Winners!

1954: Harry Shulman an immigrant Jew who came to the United States in 1912 “was named next Dean of the Yale Law School” today

1954(8th of Shevat, 5714): Bernard "Barney" Samuel passed away.  Born in 1880, he was a Republican Pennsylvania politician who served as mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1941 to 1952. Samuel first won election to City Council in 1923. When in 1939 George Connell, then president of City Council, became acting mayor upon the death of S. Davis Wilson, Samuel succeeded to the position of president pro tempore. Upon the death in August, 1941, of Mayor Robert Eneas Lamberton, however, Samuel assumed the mayoralty for the remainder of Lamberton's term. Samuel won re-election to the mayor's office in 1943 and 1947, defeating Democrats William C. Bullitt and Richardson Dilworth respectively, to become the first multi-term mayor since William S. Stokley (1872–81). To date, Bernard Samuel's mayoralty was the longest in Philadelphia's history. In defending the political machine, he served, Mayor Samuel ironically prepared the city for reform by endorsing creation of Philadelphia's highly-touted City Planning Commission and supporting 1947's Better Philadelphia Exhibition, which subjected the failures of a "corrupt and contented" Republican political machine to harsh scrutiny and made the elections of 1949 and 1951 for city controller and mayor, respectively, landmarks in the city's political history. Samuel was succeeded by reformist mayors Joseph Sill Clark, later Democratic United States Senator, and Richardson Dilworth, later a Democratic candidate for governor of Pennsylvania who was also mentioned as a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 1960.] Samuel remains the last Republican elected mayor of Philadelphia. Mayor Samuel is buried at Arlington Cemetery in suburban Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania.

1954: Harry A. Shulman the Russian born of Simon Shulman and Tillie Klebanoff, was named Dean of the Yale Law School today.

1955(18th of Tevet, 5715): Sixty-seven-year-old Pinsk born artist and Jewish Daily Forwards cartoonist Leon Israel, who in 1905 came to the United States where he “worked on Kundes, a comic weekly and on the Jewish Morning Journal while raising two daughters with his wife Rose and who signed many of his cartoons “Lola” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/01/13/92842381.html?pageNumber=27

1958: Birthdate of Haifa native Eytan, a veteran of the IAF, successful businessman “a space tourist” described as “the second Israeli in space.”

1960: Birthdate of Boston native Kenneth Scott “Ken” Kaplan the University of New Hampshire alum who played Tackle for Tampa Bay and New Orleans.

1960: “Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first NBA player to surpass 15,000 career points, scoring 34 points in 127-120 victory over the Boston Celtics.” (As reported by Bob Wechsler)

1964: Mrs. Manuel Hollander, the widow of Manuel Hollander announced the engage of her daughter Penny to Harvard doctoral candidate Roy E. Feldman, the future father of legal scholar Noah R. Feldman

1966: The 6th Knesset “started with Levi Eshkol’s Alignment forming the 13th government today.

1966: Golda Meir completed her service as Foreign Minister.  She was the second person to hold that post and the first women to hold it.  It would be forty years before another woman would hold this post.

1966: Abba Eban completed his service as Deputy Prime Minister.

1966: Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir completed his service as Deputy Minister of Health.

1971: Norman Lear’s "All in the Family" premiered on CBS featuring.  Once again we find a Jew creating an American cultural icon.

1971: A Federal grand jury indicted Reverend Philip Berrigan and 5 others, including a nun and 2 priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap Henry Kissinger.  They were not kidnapping Kissinger because he was Jewish.  They were looking for a dramatic way to protest the Vietnam War and Kissinger was Nixon’s leading foreign policy advisor.

1971(15th of Tevet, 5731): Sixty-three-year-old Philadelphian Cyrus Sol “Cy” Malis whose major career consisted of one appearance on the mound for the hometown Phillies passed away today.

defeated Minnesota in Super Bowl IX at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, LA.

1973(9th of Shevat, 5733): Sixty-nine-year-old Harry Issadore Silverman, the Polish born son of Rachel and Jacob Silverman and the husband of Mae Silverman Eplan with whom he had three children, passed away today in Baltimore, MD.

1977: Anti-French demonstrations took place in Israel after Paris released Abu Daoud, responsible 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes

1978(3rd of Shevat, 5738): Seventy-six-year-old Arthur Sheekman the Chicago born son of Jewish immigrants from Russia who was such a successful writer that “Groucho Marx called him ‘The Fastest Wit in the West’” passed away today in Santa Monica.

1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli-Egyptian negotiations started somewhat inauspiciously after Israel stated that it wished to preserve the Jewish settlements in Sinai. There were severe differences over the agenda, and the Egyptians did not permit the Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann to give the speech he had prepared for the opening. In Cairo, however, President Anwar Sadat assured Rabbi Alexander Schindler "that Egypt guarantees the security of Israel."

1982(17th of Tevet, 5742): Sixty-three-year-old Eva Schocken Glaser, the president of Schocken Books which published the works of Kafka and Buber, among other and who had married Julius Glaser after the death of her first husband Theodore Herzl Rom passed away. (Editor’s note: JWA reported her age as 64 but we have used the age given by the NYT)

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/13/obituaries/eva-s-glaser-63-headed-book-house-founded-by-father.html

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/schocken-eva

1985(19th of Tevet, 5745): Parashat Shemot

1985: Michael Armand Hammer, the son of Julian Armand Hammer and the grandson of Armand Hammer of Occidental Petroleum fame married Dru Ann Mobley in Tulsa after having converted to Christianity.

1985(19th of Tevet, 5745): Ninety-seven-year-old Joshua Hensel Altfeld, the husband Goldie Altfeld and older brother of to Emanuel Milton Altfeld, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1914 to 1916 and a member of the Maryland State Senate from 1930 to 1934 who was the author The Jew’s Struggle for Religious and Civil Liberty in Maryland passed away today in Owings Mills, MD and was later interred in the B’nai Israel Congregational Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.

1986(2nd of Shevat, 5746): Hinko Bauer, the Croatian-Jewish architect who fought with the Partisans in WW II and survived Dachau passed away today.

1988: Eighty-four-year-old Hiram Bingham, the American diplomat who worked with Varian Fry to save over 2,500 Jews in France from falling into the hands of the Nazis.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Binghams-List.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Binghams-List.html

1989(6th of Shevat, 5749): Ninety-five year old Paula Ackerman passed away today in Thomaston, GA

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00358.html

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ackerman-paula

1989: In “Soviet-Israeli Diplomacy Is Winner in a Court Test,” published today, Esther B. Fein describes the significance of the fact that an Israeli basketball team was playing on a court in the Soviet Union for the first time 21 years.  The game represents a major step in the normalization of relations between the Soviet Union and Israel. Even more amazing than the game itself was the scene at courtside where “blue-and-white Israeli flags, large ones draped from poles, small paper ones, homemade ones painted on sheets were being waved to Hebrew chants of ''Am Yisrael chai!'' - The people of Israel lives! - and ''Hevenu shalom aleichem!'' - We bring you peace! -and to loud cries of Mac-CA-bee! Tonight's game seemed less a sports event than an occasion for Soviet Jews to flaunt their pride in Israel. Stars of David and medallions with the word ''chai,'' Hebrew for life, were worn proudly. Heads bared of fur hats were covered with yarmulkes. Hebrew folk songs rang out spontaneously. People greeted one another by saying ''shalom.'' Soviet officials said 175 Israeli fans had been issued visas to attend the game, but the loudest Hebrew cheers in the audience appeared to come from Soviet Jews.

1990: In “Mencken Just Plain Antisemitism” published today Doris Grumbach examines the bigotry of author H.L Mencken.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1990/01/12/mencken-just-plain-antisemitism/2e4272e6-dadd-411b-aa3d-0c601c165023/?utm_term=.3b471cbbdc19

1990: Richard Shepard reviewed ‘‘The Return,'' Frederic Glover's play at the Jewish Repertory Theater about conflict between two leading Zionists – Chaim Weismann and David Ben-Gurion.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/12/theater/review-theater-a-new-view-of-israel-s-history-in-the-return.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

1993(19th of Tevet, 5753): Eighty-six-year-old Yehezkel Streichman, the Kovno native who became an award winning Israeli artist passed away today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehezkel_Streichman#mediaviewer/File:Streichman_001.jpg

http://books.google.com/books?id=JZhrcgAACAAJ&dq=Yehezkel+Streichman&hl=en&ei=48Q4TtqIGajm0QHgpvXdAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA

http://books.google.com/books?id=42pXcgAACAAJ&dq=Yehezkel+Streichman&hl=en&ei=48Q4TtqIGajm0QHgpvXdAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ

1993: Mervyn Taylor began serving as Minister for Labour in Ireland.

1993: “Paul William Mozer an American former Treasury bond trader for Salomon Brothers who was represented by attorney Stanley Arkin was indicted by a federal grand jury, that was the first step in a legal process that led to him being sentenced to four months in prison and fined thirty thousand dollars.

1994(29th of Tevet, 5754): Moshe Becker of Rishon Le-Zion was stabbed to death by three Palestinian terrorist employees while working in his orchard. The Popular Front claimed responsibility for the murder.

1994(29th of Tevet, 5754): Eighty-five-year-old producer and director Samuel Bronstein, the nephew of Leon Trotsky passed away today.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-samuel-bronston-1408086.html

1995: Harry Schwarz whose family fled Germany in 1934 and who was an active opponent of Apartheid completed his service as South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States.

1996: “Bio-Dome,” a comedy starring Pauly Shore and featuring Jack Black was released today in the United States.

1996: On the 80th birthday of cellist William Pleeth, “a celebration concert was given for him by friends and students in the Wigmore Hall.”

1997: The New York Times book section features a review of Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood by Binjamin Wilkomirski, a Holocaust survivor who was born to a Jewish family in Latvia in 1941 and was rescued from Auschwitz at the age of five.

1998(14th of Tevet, 5758): American born poet and Professor of English Lit at Hebrew University passed away today.

http://robert_friend.tripod.com/id1.html

2000: “The William Pleeth Memorail Concert was held in London” featuring performances by his son Anthony and his granddaughters Tatty Teho and Lucy Theo.

2001: The University of Pennsylvania Law School announces that during the spring semester Harry Reicher, a University of Pennsylvania adjunct law professor, will teach "Law and the Holocaust," a course which has been termed a world first. Reicher, an Australian expert in the study of international law, was born in Prague.

2002(28th of Tevet, 5672) Parashat Vaera

2002: By the end of this week “a new trial had been ordered for two black men convicted in the fatal stabbing of a Hasidic Jew in 1991 in racial rioting in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. A federal appeals court ruled that the judge at the trial of Lemrick Nelson Jr. and Charles Price had improperly manipulated jury selection so that there would not be too many African-American jurors and two few Jews.

2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Lucy by Ellen Feldman

2003(9th of Shevat, 5763): Vic Zimet, “the captain of the boxing team at CCNY and “a teacher and administrator in the New York public school system “who “in 1986 named Coach of the Year by the National Amateur Boxing Federation” passed away today.

https://www.worldcat.org/title/papers-and-memorabilia-of-vic-zimet-192-200-196-199/oclc/422624009

2004: “Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, issued an invitation today to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to come to Jerusalem, but Syria rebuffed the offer as a stunt.”

2005: It was reported today that the United Nations “would hold a special session of the General Assembly on Jan. 24 to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, the first time it has officially commemorated the event.’

2005: Jean-Marie Le Pen was quoted today “as saying that the Nazi occupation of France "was not particularly inhuman, even if there were blunders…”

2006: Jewish political leader Steve Rothman was featured on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, in Stephen Colbert's part nine of the "Better Know A District" segment, which highlighted Rothman and New Jersey's 9th District.

2007: Theo Epstein married Marie Whitney today but not at Nathan’s Hot Dog Stand as erronolsy reported by the Boston Globe which apparently fell “for a prank by Theo’s father Leslie.”

2007: Kassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel, as IDF troops operating in Gaza and the West Bank discovered and safely detonated two bombs.

2007: “Alpha Dog” a crime thriller starring Anton Yelchin was released in the United States today.

2007: Author E.L. Doctrow spoke at Washington D.C.’s Cardozo High School.  A Jewish author spoke at a high school named for a Jewish Supreme Court Justice where he was questioned by an avid audience of African American, Latino and Asian American students.  “Only in America.”

2008: “Four days before her 103rd birthday,” Jackson, KY native Rosalie Friedman Birnbaum who converted to Christianity at the age of 16, married Professor Solomon Birnbaum in 1927 and became the director of Bethel, “a children’s home in Haifa” in 1959 passed away today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/21/AR2008012102077.html

2008: In a tribute to the vitality of small community Judaism, Shecharya Flatte celebrates his Bar Mitzvah at Agudas Achim Congregation in Iowa City, Iowa.

2008: "Yud Shevat" Yahrtzeit observances begin. The Hebrew letter has the numerical value of “10.” Since the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe passed away on the tenth day of the month of Shevat the anniversary of his passing is called “Yud Shevat.  Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim observe the special customs of the Shabbat prior to the yahrzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880-1950), which occurs next week, on the 10th of Shevat, January 17, 2008. The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the son-in-law of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe wrote the following instructions for how this Yahrzeit should be observed.  For those who know Lubavitch only through elements of its outreach program including the Mitzvah Mobiles and the public Chanukah Menorah lightings, the instructions provide an interesting view of the wondrous and wonderful rituals and philosophy that are part of Chabad.  On the Shabbat before the yahrzeit, each should try to be called up to the Torah for an aliyah. If there are not enough aliyot, the Torah should be read a number of times in different rooms. However, no additions should be made to the number of aliyot per reading. The one who is honored with Maftir should be the most respected congregant, as determined by the majority; alternatively, the choice may be determined by lot. The congregation should choose someone to lead the prayers on the day of the yahrzeit. It is proper to divide the honor, choosing one person to lead the evening service (Ma’ariv), a second to lead the morning service (Shacharit), and a third – the afternoon service (Mincha). In this way a greater number of community members will have the privilege. A yahrzeit candle should be lit that will burn for the entire twenty-four hours. If possible, the candle should be of beeswax. Five candles should be lit throughout the prayer services. After each prayer service (in the morning service—following the reading of Psalms), the one leading the prayers should study (or at least conclude the study of) the following selections from the Mishnah: Chapter 24 of Keilim and chapter 7 of Mikvaot. He should then recite the Mishnah "Rabbi Chananyah ben Akashya...," followed silently by a few lines of Tanya and Kaddish de Rabbanan. After Ma’ariv, part of the discourse (maamar) entitled Basi LeGani, which the Rebbe released for the day of his passing, should be recited from memory. If there is no one to do this from memory, it should be studied from the text. This should be continued after Shacharit, and the discourse should be concluded after Mincha. Before Shacharit, a chapter of Tanya should be studied. This should also be done after Mincha. In the morning, before prayer, charity should be given to causes associated with our Nasi, my revered father-in-law, of sainted memory. Donations should be made on behalf of oneself and on behalf of each member of one's family. The same should be done before Mincha. After Shacharit and the recitation of the maamar, each individual should read a pidyon nefesh. (It goes without saying that a gartl should be worn during the reading.) Those who have had the privilege of being received by the Rebbe in yechidut, or at least of seeing his face, should—while reading the pidyon nefesh—envision themselves as standing before him. The pidyon nefesh should then be placed between the pages of a discourse maamar or other pamphlet of the Rebbe's teachings, and sent, if possible on the same day, to be read at his graveside. In the course of the day one should study chapters of Mishnah that begin with the letters of the Rebbe's name. In the course of the day one should participate in a Chassidic gathering (farbrengen). In the course of the day one should set aside a time during which to tell one's family about the Rebbe, and about the spiritual tasks at which he toiled throughout his life. In the course of the day, people (to whom this task is appropriate) should speak at synagogues and houses of study in their cities and cite a saying or an adage from the Rebbe's teachings. They should explain how he loved every Jew. They should make known and explain the practice that he instituted of reciting Psalms every day, studying the daily portion of Chumash with the commentary of Rashi, and (to appropriate audiences) studying the Tanya as he divided it into daily readings throughout the year. If possible this should all be done in the course of a farbrengen. In the course of the day, people (who are fit for the task) should visit centers of observant youth — and, in a neighborly spirit, should make every endeavor to also visit centers for the young people who are not yet observant — in order to explain to them the great love that the Rebbe had for them. It should be explained to these people what the Rebbe expected from them, his hope for them and the trust that he placed in them that they would ultimately fulfill their task of strengthening Judaism and disseminating the study of Torah with all the energy, warmth and vitality that characterize youth.”

2009: The American Jewish Historical Society, the Center for Jewish History and Jewish Heritage present: “The Lifecycles of New York Jews: Little Disturbances and Enormous Changes.” This is the first in a series of staged literary evenings that will depict the complex and ever-surprising lives of New York Jewish families.  Stage and screen star Kathleen Chalfant will be joined by Matt Rauch, Jerry Matz and Robert Zukerman to pay tribute to authors Grace Paley and J. D. Salinger.  Gabriel Brownstein will read from his Hemingway/PEN Award-winning fiction.  A sample of a work-in-progress documentary film portrait of Grace Paley by Lilly Rivlin will be shown.

2009: The Canadian dance troupe La La La Human Steps takes part in the Dance at the Mishkan series by performing Edouard Lock's newest piece, Amjad, a marriage and contemporary reinvention of two of Tchaikovsky's most famous works, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty at The Performing Arts Center in Tel Aviv.

2009: Edward Kritzler discusses, and signs copies of his latest book entitled Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.

2009: Haaretz reported on demonstrations around the world that have been held in support of Israel’s cross-border military action. According to the paper, nearly 1,000 people in Mexico City demonstrated over the weekend in favor of Israel and its war effort.

2009 (16 Tevet): Rabbi Alan Lew, who was known for his efforts to bridge Judaism and Buddhist teachings, died unexpectedly. Lew, the retired spiritual leader of San Francisco’s Congregation Beth Sholom, died Monday while jogging, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. He was 65. Synagogue officials told JTA that he was in Baltimore teaching at the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinic training institute. Lew was the author of “One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi.” Before joining the Conservative rabbinate he spent 10 years studying Zen Buddhism, and later pioneered the use of meditation to enhance Jewish spirituality. The rabbi also was a social justice activist who protested executions at San Quentin penitentiary and argued for the homeless and poor at City Hall, according to Rabbi Micah Hyman, the current spiritual leader at Beth Sholom.

2009: Several news outlets reported that Julius Genachowski would be President-Elect Obama's choice to head the FCC. His father's cousin, Menachem Genack, is the CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division.     

2009: Jason Kander began serving as a Member of the Missouri House of Representatives from the 44th District” today.

2010: Father Patrick Desbois who has spent a lifetime documenting the Holocaust was honored today by Alan Solow Chairman of the President's Conference and by Malcolm Hoenlein, the group’s executive vice chairman who presented him with an etching of a dove.

2010: The first class of a four-part series entitled “Why Be Jewish” is scheduled to be taught tonight by Dr. Erica Brown at The Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. This four-part series will explore modern Jewish identity in America through self-reflection, an exploration of stereotyping, case studies, and classic Jewish texts. The four classes include: “You as a Jew,” “Stereotypes Make Life Easy,” “Jewish Foods, Jewish Moods,” and “Jewish Values: Seeking and Finding.”What do Barbie and Borat have in common?

2010:  Steve Luxenberg, a senior editor at The Washington Post, is scheduled to discuss and sign his memoir "Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret" at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville, MD.

2010: The Hebrew Language Table of the Library of Congress presents a lecture by Dr. Maurice Roumani entitled “North African Jewry during WWII: The Holocaust and its Impact.”

2010(26th of Tevet, 5770): Shirley Bell Cole passed away.  From 1930 to 1940, she was the primary radio voice for Little Orphan Annie. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/arts/30cole.html

2010: Pope Benedict XVI should be welcomed when he visits Rome's main synagogue, but he should halt moves to beatify wartime pontiff Pius XII, criticized for not doing enough to stop the Holocaust, a former chief rabbi of Israel said today. Israel Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor and now chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, said Benedict's synagogue visit Sunday would be "appreciated and blessed." But in an interview with Italy's Sky TG24 television, he said he was "surprised" by Benedict's decision last month to move the controversial World War II-era pope closer to sainthood.

2011: The New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin tonight, marking the 20th year of the event.

2011: Rami Kleinstein & ISRAMERICA are scheduled to perform at The City Winery in New York City.

2011: CMJ UK is scheduled to hold a memorial service for Kristine Lukenin today at Southwell, north of Nottingham. Lukenin was one of two women who were stabbed as they took a Shabbat walk near Beit Shemesh. Her friend, Givat Ze’ev resident Kay Wilson was seriously wounded. CMJ is the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People, which promotes Messianic Judaism.

2011: The New York Times featured a review of Dueling Writers Take on Each Other and the World  co-authored by Bernard-Henri Lévy.

2011: The Knesset approved a preliminary reading of the "Jerusalem Law" proposed by MK Uri Ariel (National Union). The bill, which was supported by the government, determines that Jerusalem will become a priority area, and that the grants will be awarded to young couples in the city. In addition, the city will receive a special bonus

2011: “Mahler on the Couch,” a lush fictionalization of a 1910 meeting between composer Gustav Mahler and psychologist Sigmund Freud, opened the New York Jewish Film Festival

2012: Eric Garcetti completed his terms as the 22nd President of the Los Angeles City Council.

2012: “His Wife’s Lover” is scheduled to shown at the Yiddish Film Series in Santander, Spain.

2012: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present “Poetics of Place – Readings with Drunken Boat, Tin House and Conjunctions.”

2012: Donna Karan is scheduled to join Fern Mallis at 92Y for a coffee klatch today, where the two fashion industry powerhouses will talk shop–and, of course, shopping

2012: The Israeli Defense Forces demolished the illegal West Bank outpost Mitzpe Avichai near Kiryat Arba, in the early hours of this morning.

2012: IDF tanks opened fire on a terror cell operating east of the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza late tonight, Palestinian sources said..

2012: "We, the State of Israel, should say thank you to immigrants from Ethiopia and not vice versa," President Shimon Peres said today during a visit to a school in Jerusalem

2012: “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” opened tonight at the Richard Rogers Theatre in New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/theater/reviews/audra-mcdonald-in-the-gershwins-porgy-and-bess-review.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1371088896-8WqzqcjuxnmUfRoTudNZkQ&_r=0&pagewanted=print

2013(1st of Shevat, 5733): Rosh Chodesh Shevat

2013: Eighty-three-year-old “Leon Leyson, the youngest Holocaust survivor on Schindler’s list passed away today in Los Angeles.

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Youngest-Schindlers-list-survivor-dies-at-83

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/14/local/la-me-leon-leyson-20130114

2013: Magen David Sephardic Congregation is scheduled to host “Path to Jerusalem” which will let attendees “visit Israel in the heart of Rockville, MD” with music, coffee and pasties.

2013: “How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire” is scheduled to be shown at The New York Jewish Film Festival.

2013: The Minneapolis (MN) Jewish Humor Festival is schedule to open for the 4th year in a row tonight.

2013: “The Best of Chamber Music” featuring a performance of Dvorak Piano Quintet of opus 81 in  A major is scheduled to be performed at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.

2013: Avraham Heffner’s “The Winchell Affair” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef suffered a mild stroke this morning during the Sabbath-morning prayer service

2013: Jan Fischer lost in his bid to become the first Jew to be elected President of the Czech Republic.

http://forward.com/articles/169174/jewish-candidate-loses-czech-presidential-race/

2014: At Agudas Achim, Nancee Blum is scheduled to present “To Buy or Not to Buy” a program about compulsive shopping.

2014: In Ashburn, VA, Beth Schafter is scheduled to perform at Beth Chaverim.

2014: JCCNV is scheduled to present the final performance of “Mister Benny.”

2014: “Mamele” and “The Zigzag Kid” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.

2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Andrew’s Brain by E.L. Doctorow and The Exiles Return by Elisabeth de Waal

2014: “The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved today a bill forbidding the use of Nazi symbols and labels.”

2014: In Burlington, VT, Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Temple Israel in Omaha officiated at the funeral services for Vermont State Senator Sally G. Fox at Temple Sinai.

2014: Israel is scheduled to bid farewell to former prime minister and one of the most prominent commanders of all times today. The casket of Israel's 11th prime minister Ariel Sharon will be placed in the Knesset Plaza from 12:00 noon until 18:00 so the public can pay its last respects. (As reported by Moran Azulay)

2014: A steady stream of people walked up the hill to the Israeli parliament, through metal detectors and along the path that led to the coffin of one of Israel’s most controversial and iconic Prime Ministers. The coffin was draped in an Israeli flag, surrounded by wreaths, and attended by an honor guard. A rabbi read psalms quietly as the crowd walked by.

2014: European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called on Israel today to halt all construction in the West Bank immediately and said the building of settlements was detrimental to the ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

2015: The Grammy-winning band The Klezmatics is scheduled to perform from the original score they composed for the exhibition Letters to Afar in the MCNY gallery.

2015: JTA European Bureau Chief Cnaan Liphshiz (reporting from France) and Senior Correspondent Uriel Heilman (in New York) are scheduled to participate in telephone call-in presentation where they will “discuss the situation in France and Europe.”

2015: Mitchell Bard, the Executive Director of the American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitle “The Global Jihad” sponsored by the Tulane University Jewish Studies Department.

2015: Professor Abe Lavendar is scheduled to deliver a lecture “Descendants of the Secret Jews of Iberia: Their Current Return to Judaism” as the Jewish Museum of Florida.

2015: Professor Anita Shapira, author of Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Jewish Community Center in Washington, DC.

2015: The French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said France will deploy nearly 5,000 security forces and police to protect 700 Jewish schools following last week’s terrorist attacks on HyperCacher, the Paris kosher market.

2015: “Faina Kirshenbaum stepped down as a member of Knesset today in light of a corruption scandal that has rocked her Yisrael Beytenu party in the past few weeks.” (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)

2015: Three days after an attack on HyperCacher kosher mart in Porte de Vincennes, the owner, Patrice Walid, who was wounded in the attack made known his intentions to take his five kids and immigrate to Israel as soon as he is discharged from the hospital. (As reported by Avi Lewis)

2016: The Cornelia Street Café is scheduled to host the third and final day of the Israeli Jazz Fest featuring “Dida” and the “Ziv Ravitz Trio.”

2016: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to tour of “the exhibition ‘Esther Bubley Up Front’ featuring the works by the famous Jewish photographer Esther Bubley.”

2016: “Strange Fruit” is scheduled to be shown at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

2017(14th of Tevet, 5777): Fifty-five-year-old Israeli musician “died from cancer” today “in Hemed.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/meir-banai-55-led-israeli-music-into-a-more-soulful-space/

2017: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host the NYC premiere of “There Are Jews” the Brach Lichtenstein film that “tells the stories of once thriving Jewish American towns that now can barely hold a minyan, focusing on the residents lamenting the gradual disappearance of their communities, and critically examining issues of class, family, and identity.”

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society hosted its “Extraordinary General Meeting.”

2017: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “No Man’s Land: Jewish Refugees on the Borders of East-Central Europe in 1938” in which Michal Frankl “will speak on expulsions of Jews in 1938 and offer perspectives on the implications of the East-Central European No Man's Land.”

2017: “Aida’s Secrets” and “Mr. Gaga” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.

2017: Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis said today, “that the United States should continue treating Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital” thus “breaking with the Republic members of Congress and Donald Trump” who pledged to move the US embassy to Jerusalem during last falls elections.

2018: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host Musical Shabbat.

2018: “Residents of Nablus threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli troops searching for “the perpetrators of a lethal terror attack in which an Israeli father of six was gunned down” while driving down a nearby highway two nights ago.

2018: As students return for Hilary, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Kabbalat Shabbat followed by Shabbat Dinner.

2018: Four of men were arrested today “in connection a firebomb attack on a historic synagogue in Tunisia.”

2018: In Memphis, TN, is scheduled to host a special Musical Shabbat as part of the observance MLK Day.

2019(6th of Shevat, 5779): Pararshat Bo;

2019: Despite the “government shutdown,” the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to be open today “from 10 a.m. to 5:20 p.m.”

2019: In Coralville, IA, Mya Witt is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Agudas Achim.

2019: The New York City premiere of “Echo,” starring Yael Abecassis and Yoram Toledano is scheduled to take place this evening at the Walter Reade Theatre.

2020: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Supreme Ambition: Brett Kavanagh and the Conservative Takeover by Ruth Marcus

2020: As winter snow grips Iowa, in Des Moines the Engman Camp is scheduled to host its “Shalom Pre-Summer Party.”

2020: In San Francisco, the Jewish Community Library is scheduled to host “How Old is the Bible?! During which Ron Hendel of UC Berkeley Jewish studies talks about dating the Bible and understanding aspects of its historical and contemporary significance.”

2020: In Atlanta, as part of its Bearing Witness program, the Bremen Museum is scheduled to host a talk by Auschwitz survivor Helen Weingart.

2020: The American Sephardi Association is scheduled to celebrate International Ladino Day with Prof. Gloria Ascher, who has taught courses in Ladino at Tufts University for 17 years; Prof. Dina Danon, whose Stanford University Press book brings Izmir’s Ottoman Jewish community to life; two scenes from a New York Ladino play; a panel of Generation Y and Z Ladino enthusiasts; The Elias Ladino Ensemble and Sarah Aroeste.

2020: At the Illinois Holocaust Museum, the exhibition “Memory Unearthed which offers a rare glimpse of resistance inside the Lodz Ghetto during World War II through the lens of Polish Jewish photojournalist Henryk Ross” is scheduled to come to a close.

2020: In Natick, MA, Temple Israel is scheduled to host “” Chloe Valdary, a leading voice among pro-Israel activists, will speak on “Zionism: Jewish Empowerment.”

2021: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present the second session of the writers’ workshop “Tell Your Sephardi-Mizrahi Story” with award-winning author Gila Green.

2021: In Palm Beach Gardens, FL Temple Judea, is scheduled to host via ZOOM “Cuba – History, Culture and Jewish Life.”

2021: The Temple Eamnu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Dr. Sanjay Gupta as he discusses his new book Keep Shart.

2021: Judaism Your Way in Colorado is scheduled to host “Charoset from around the world – Sephardic and others,” part of its series of virtual cooking classes on how to make Jewish comfort food.

2021: The choices facing Israeli voters today would seem to be more confused than ever following yesterday’s call by “Blue and White leader Benny Grant” for “center-left parties to unite in a bid to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu” which Avigdor Liberman dismissed saying that Gantz had missed his opportunity be prime minister and that “the only thing he can now for the country is to announce he is not running for Knesset.

2022: The American Friends of the Rabin Medical Center is scheduled Global to presents panelists David Ignatius (Washington Post), Michael Oren (former Israeli ambassador), Roya Hakakian (Iran Human Rights Documentation Center founder) and David Horovitz (Times of Israel) as they discuss online “Iran: What To Do Next?”

2022: “The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center are scheduled to present the opening of the 31st annual New York Jewish Film Festival.

2022: Based on previously published reports starting today Israel will cut the compulsory quarantine period for individuals diagnosed with coronavirus who no longer display symptoms from ten to just seven days.

2022: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present Dr. Shir Klein “who will be discussing her new book, Italy’s Jews from Emancipation to Fascism.

2022: In California, Congregation Ner Shalom is scheduled to host class led by rabbinic pastor Judith Goleman that examines Jewish prayer language, teachings from the Baal Shem Tov and other Kabbalistic/Hasidic sources to support a process of deepening self-love and self-acceptance.

2023: LBI and the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present Andrew Meier will discuss his book Morgenthau new family biography  that chronicles how the Morgenthaus amassed a fortune in Manhattan real estate, advised presidents, advanced the New Deal, exposed the Armenian genocide, rescued victims of the Holocaust, waged war in the Mediterranean and Pacific, and, from a foundation of private wealth, built a dynasty of public service. with journalist Kati Marton.

2023: In New Orleans, the Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host two screening of “The Levy's of Monticello, a documentary film that tells the little-known story of the Levy family, which owned and carefully preserved Monticello for nearly a century, far longer than Jefferson or his descendants.

2023: After announcements made yesterday, today, the Knesset will be considering draft bills that will remake Israel’s judicial system and strictly limit the High Court of Justice’s authority of judicial review over Knesset legislation and executive action and “a triage plan to combat the high cost of living designed to freeze or reduce price hikes affecting core utilities, fuel and municipal property taxes.”

2024: In Metairie, LA, Chabad is scheduled to host a Shabbat Dinner for Israelis and “Hebrew speakers.”

2024: Kan Kol Hamuska is scheduled to broadcast live a Young Artists Concert with cellist Nahar Eliaz and pianist Amir Ron.

2024: The staff of the Center for Jewish History’s Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute are scheduled to host the first session of a 10-week online genealogy course, suitable for beginners and anyone interested in reviewing the basics

2024: As January 12th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 98 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.)