This Day, January 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
January 18
360: In a move that demonstrated how Christianity was becoming the state
religion of the Roman Empire with all that meant to detriment of the Jews,
Roman Emperor Constantius II “decreed that only Catholic Churches will be
granted exemptions from state taxes.”
532: In
Constantinople, the Nika riots come to an end with Justinian still holding the
office of Emperor. Senators opposed to Justinian took advantage of these
riots, which had grown out of a dispute over chariot competition, to try and
bring an end to Justinian’s imperial rule. Justinian was ready to flee the city
and effectively give up his power. However, his wife refused to leave and
give him the courage to stay and defeat the mob and his enemies. History
does not record the views held by Justinian’s opponents concerning the Jewish
people and Judaism. But it does not seem possible that the Jews could
have been any worse off if they had won given Justinian’s anti-Jewish
policies. For example, “Justinian ruled that ‘Jews must never enjoy the
furits of office, but only its pains and penalties…They shall enjoy no
honors. Their status shall reflect the baseness which in their souls they
have elected and desired.’” Justinian firmly established the principle of servitus
Jadaeorum (servitude of the Jews) and “the hitherto uneven pattern of
persecution was systematized” as Christianity and state power became
synonymous.
746: Beginning
of a three-year period of major earthquakes in Palestine, the focus of which
were “in the Judean desert, the rift valley, Jordan Valley and Jerusalem.” (As
reported by Jewshihistory.org)
749:
According to Michael the Syrian, several ships were sunk off the coast of
Palestine and Lebanon as the result of an earthquake.
973: A year
after a fire raged through Baghdad “that contributed to the decline of the
city’s Jewish population and its importance in the Jewish world.”
1074: “Henry
IV granted the citizens and Jews of Worms, the ShUM-cities and other locations,
including Frankfurt, certain privileges relating to reductions in fees and
import duties.”
1174: Bernard,
the third child of Burgundian nobles Tescelin de Fontaine, lord of
Fontaine-lès-Dijon, and Alèthe de Montbard, who became the Abbot of Clairvaux
and was known as Bernard of Clairvaux, the Benedictine who “condemned violence
against Jewish people” was “canonized by Pope Alexander III” today.
1562:
The Council of Trent reconvenes after a ten-year break. The Council of
Trent adopted additional books for inclusion in the Old Testament. This meant
that the TaNaCh (the Hebrew Bible, or simply The Bible) and Old Testament of
the Christian Bible were no longer the same texts. A discussion of the
implications of this change is far beyond the scope of this daily
summary.
1606: The
Governor of Puerto Rico reported one-fifth of the white population of the
island was Portuguese. It was said these "white" Portuguese persons
were most likely conversos.
1689:
Birthdate of Charles de Montesquieu the French born political theorist who was
uncharacteristically critical of the Jews in Lettres Persanes when he
wrote “Know that wherever there is money, there are Jews. Thou inquires
what they do here? Just what they do in Persia; nothing can be more like
a Jew of Asia than a Jew of Europe.” In the same book he also wrote that “the
People of the Book” was “a mother that has brought forth two daughters who have
stabbed her with a thousand wounds.” (As reported by Elliot Rosenberg)
1701: At
Königsberg, Prussia, coronation of Fredrick I who in 1709 appointed Aaron ben
Benjamin Wolf “to the office of chief rabbi of Berlin with jurisdiction over
all the living in the mark.”
1724: Judah
Monis, the Italian born Rabbi who converted to obtain a teaching position at
Harvard married Abbigal Maret, the sister-in-law of Reverend John Martyn of
Northboro, MA, at the First Church in Cambridge
1724: Pope
Innocent XIII published Ex Injuncto Nobis a bull that “forbade Jews from
selling new objects” which “was similar to the bull published by Clement VIII
in 1592, and which was meant to put Jewish merchants at a disadvantage.”
1755: In
Amsterdam, of Samuel / Shabtay Abraham Cohen Kloot and Judith Grietje / Gitche
Hartog / Hirts gave birth to Abraham Salomon / Shabtay Cohen Kloot, the husband
of Marretje / Mata Mozes Tokie
1776:
Birthdate of Lazarus Magnus, the native of Zwolle, Holland, the husband of Sara
Moses with whom he had 13 children at they settled in Chatham, Kent, UK.
1777)10th
of Shevat, 5537): Parashat Bo
1777 (10th of
Shevat, 5537): Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, known by his name's acronym, the RaShaSH,
passed away. He was born in Yemen, and as a young man immigrated to Israel. He
was quickly recognized for his piety and scholarship, especially in the area of
Jewish mysticism, and was appointed to be dean of the famed Kabalistic learning
center in the Old City of Jerusalem, the Yeshivat ha-Mekubbalim. He
authored many works, mostly based on the teachings of the great kabbalist,
Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari. Rabbi Sharabi's most famous work is a commentary on
the prayer book, replete with kabalistic meditations. His mystical works are
studied by Kabbalists to this very day. He is also considered to be a foremost
authority on Yemenite Jewish traditions and customs.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_10.html
https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/2444216/jewish/Rabbi-Shalom-Sharabi-The-Rashash.htm
1782:
Birthdate of American political leader, statesmen and orator Daniel
Webster. In 1850, Webster was Secretary of State under President
Fillmore. He and his political opponent Senator Henry Clay joined forces to
defeat a treaty with the Swiss that would have discriminated against American
Jews. The issue was one of religious freedom, and not an attempt to
protect American Jews since the American government was working to remove
disabilities faced by Protestant Americans doing business with Catholic countries.
1783(15th
of Shevat, 5543): Parashat Beshalach, Shabbat Shirah; Tu B’Shevat
1784 Beile and
Moses Wolf Levy Heller gave birth to Meiline Heller, the wife of Akiva
Muhlhauser with whom she had had seven children.
1788: Leading
elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia
arrives at Botany Bay. According to Dr. Raymond Apple, Emeritus Rabbi of
The Great Synagogue in Sydney, “When New South Wales was founded as a penal
colony in 1788; among the 751 First Fleet convicts were at least 16 Jews.”
1790:
Birthdate of Caroline Lazarus, the daughter of Marks Lazarus and the wife of
Arron Phillips whom she married in 1808.
1794: In
Georgetown, SC, Belle Moses and Solomon Cohen gave birth to Isaac Cohen.
1794:
Birthdate of Daniel Lessman, the native of Soldin Neumark who interrupted his
medical studies so he could fight against Napoleon and gained fame as a German
historian and poet.
1795: In
Bavaria, Comednal Moses and Aaron Cohen gave birth to Deborah Cohen, the wife
of Solomon Stix with whom she had ten children.
1795: Historian
Sharon Turner, the friend of Isaac D’Israeli who advised him to have his
children, including Benjamin, baptized during the elder D’Isreali’s dispute
with Bevis Marks Synagogue married Mary Watts/
1796:
According to one source today, in Maryland Rachel Gratz and Solomon Etting gave
birth to Samuel Etting, the husband of Ellen Hays and the father of Josephine
and Solomon Etting.
1798: In
Devon, England, Annie Ezekiel and Benjamin Jonas gave birth to “Baruh Jonas,
the husband of Teresa Barbarin whom he married in New Orleans.
1798:
Birthdate of French native Esther Scheyen, the wife of Marc Levy and the mother
of Samuel Levy.
1800(21st
of Tevet, 5560): Parashat Shemot
1802(15th
of Shevat, 5562): Tu B’Shevat
1803(24th
of Tevet, 5563): Ninety-seven-year-old philanthropist and socialist Judith
Levy,
the daughter
of Prudence Heilbuth and the German Jewish merchant Moses Hart, who had
established the first Ashkenazic Jewish synagogue in London, Duke's Place
Synagogue the wife of a diamond merchant and military contractor, Elias Levy, and
the mother of a son Benjamin, who died at the age of 22, and daughter Isabella,
who would latter marry Lockhart Gordon, son of the Earl of Aboyne passed away
today “in the arms of one her cousins, David Wag” after which “her immense fortune of £30,000 (equivalent to £4,030,000 in
2021) went to a relative John Franks, who was also noted for his benevolence,
distributing relief to hundreds of needy people without distinction for their
religion.”
1804: Israel
B. Kursheedt “married Sarah Abigail (Sally) Seixas, the eldest daughter of”
Gershom Mendes Seixas, who was the cantor’s “favorite child: making Kursheedt
“his favorite son-in-law.” (As reported by Yitzchok Levine and M.J. Raphall)
http://personal.stevens.edu/~llevine/Israel%20Bear%20Kursheedt_v3.pdf
1815: In
Charleston, SC, Alexander Solomons officiated at the wedding of Elias Abrahams
to Catherine Cohen.
1815: Mordecai
Moses married Ann Davis at the Great Synagogue today.
1821:
Birthdate of Theodor Goldstücker, the native of Königsberg who became a leading
scholar in the field of Sanskrit and pursued a career in Great Britain after
being “asked to leave Berlin during the Revolutions of 1848.”
1823(6th
of Shevat, 5583): Parashat Bo
1823(6th
of Shevat, 5583): Sixty-year Estera Landau, the wife of Wolf Landau (not to be
confused with the German rabbi of the same name) and the mother Pinkus, Szymon,
Sura, Adolf and Rochla Landau passed away.
1824: Three
days after he had passed away, nine-year-old Joseph Gompertz, the son of
Benjamin Gompertz and Abigail Montefiore was buried today at the “Hoxton Old
Burial Ground.”
1824: In
Cincinnati, Ohio, Congregation B'nai Israel was formally organized; those in
attendance were Solomon Buckingham, David I. Johnson, Joseph Jonas, Samuel
Jonas, Jonas Levy, Morris Moses, Phineas Moses, Simeon Moses, Solomon Moses,
and Morris Symonds.
1826: Moss
Laurence married Rayner Andrade today at the Great Synagogues.
1831:
Birthdate of Salem, Massachusetts native and Louisville resident Joseph W.
Sprague whose art collection included “an Hebrew Scroll of the Law” which was
“written on leather, prepared according the directions of Maimonides, the
physician of Saladin and was used by the Yemen Jews in their synagogue in
Southern Arabia.”
1834: In
Middlesex, Elizabeth and Jacob Lyons gave birth to Abraham Lyons.
1834:
Birthdate of Jacob Egers, the native of Halberstadt who “was for more than
twenty years a master at the Training-School for Teachers
("Lehrerbildungsanstalt") in Berlin.”
1843: Birthdate
of Prague native and University of Vienna trained jurist Friedrich Duschnenes
who practiced law in Prague and “who took an active part in the councils of the
Jewish community and in the political life of Prague.”
1844: In
London, Hanah Benjamin Leonino, the Marylebone, London born daughter of Justina
Sebag Cohen and Benjamin Barnet Cohen and her husband Ippolito Leonino gave
birth to Lucy Deborah Leonino, the wife of Adolfo Kogan.
1844: In
Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Leopold Hirsch, the son of Lea and Simon Seev
Hirsch andhis wife Therese Tolzele Hirsch gave birth to Rudolf Hirsch, the
future resident of California who was the husband of Pauline Hirsch and the
father of Julie Lina Moos.
1844: James
Buchanan, the U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania “introduces a resolution in the
United States Senate that the United States be declared a Christian Nation and
acknowledges Jesus Christ as America's Savior” which is rejected by “Upper
House.” (This is the same James Buchanan, who as 15th
President of the United States presided over the dissolution of the Union,
betraying his oath of office and making him, in the minds of many, the worst
President in history)
1845(10th
of Shevat, 5605): In London, 57-year-old Emanuel Aguilar who was suffering from
consumption died in the arms of his daughter, author Grace Aguilar:
1847: In
Bavaria, Sigmund Myers and he gave birth to Herman Myers, the Richmond, VA
educated Savannah banker and Mayor of Savannah, GA.
1850: Will of
London Jeweler Mordecai Myers the husband of Sarah Elizabeth with whom he had
five children was written today.
1851(15th of
Shevat, 5611): Tu B'Shvat
1851: In
Cayuga County, NY, Judge Johnson sentenced John Baham to be hung by the neck
until dead. Baham was one of three brothers charged with the murder of Nathan
Adler, a Jewish peddler from Syracuse.
1851: Alfred
Baham, one of three brothers charged with the murder of Nathan Adler entered a
plea of guilty to Manslaughter in the Second Degree and was sentenced to serve
5 years and 3 months in state prison. Baham’s plea followed the trials of his
two brothers, both of whom were senteneced to death for the same crime.
1854(18th of
Tevet, 5614): Judah Touro, the great American Jewish philanthropist passed
away. Born in 1775 in Newport, Rhode Island, Touro moved New Orleans at
the time of the Louisiana Purchase. He became a prosperous merchant and
leading citizen. He fought with Jackson’s Army in the famed Battle of New
Orleans where he was seriously wounded. “Touro contributed to numerous
Jewish and non-Jewish charities. Touro helped found congregation Nefuzoth
Yehuda in New Orleans, which followed the Sephardic rituals of his youth. He
subsequently built its synagogue and began to attend services regularly,
provided the land and funds for its religious school, bought land for its
cemetery and annually made up for any deficits incurred. He also founded the
city's Jewish hospital, the Touro Infirmary. In the last year of his life,
Touro wrote a will which set the standard of American Jewish philanthropy.
After modest bequests to family members and friends, Touro donated the bulk of
his fortune to strengthen Jewish life. He left $100,000 to the two leading
Jewish congregations and Jewish benevolent organizations in New Orleans.
Another $150,000 went to Jewish congregations and charitable institutions in 18
other cities around the United States. He directed that $60,000 be dispensed to
relieve poverty and provide freedom of worship to Jews in Palestine. He also
left bequests to non-Jewish institutions such as Massachusetts General
Hospital, which his brother had helped found.”
http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/images/Judah_Touro_-PDF.pdf
1857(22nd
of Tevet, 5617): One day after her 14th birthday Charity Ritterband
the daughter of Benvenda Solis and Leon Maness Ritterband passed away today.
1858:
Birthdate of Herman Benmosche, the native of Cairo, Egypt, who served as the
“Rabbi of Spital Square Synagogue in London” before taking up a similar post at
Congregation Beth-El in Norfolk, VA.
1859: At
Kalwarya, Russia, Aaron L Weinstein and his wife gave birth to Harris Weinstein
who in 1881 came to America where he began serving as the rabbi at Congregation
Shearith Israel in Goshen, IN.
1860: Julius
Ochs, the son of Nanette and Leser Lazarus Ochs and his wife Bertha Ochs gave
birth to Nannie Ochs, the younger sister of Adolph Ochs, of New York Times
fame.
1861:
Birthdate of German chemist Hans Goldschmidt.
1864: Two days
after he had passed away, 18 year old New Orleans native, the son of Daniel
Goodman and Amelia Harris was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.
1865:
Birthdate of Morris Polsky, the native of Kiev who became a successful realtor
in New York and a director of Keren Hayesod.
1867: In
Hartford, CT, Jacob Mandlebaum and Henrietta Waldman gave birth Bellevue
Hospital Medical College trained physician and pathologist Fred S. Mandelbaum.
1867: Two days
after she had passed away, Esther Davis, the wife of Joseph Davis with whom she
had had six children was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish
Cemetery.
1871: As the
Franco-Prussian war comes to an end with the Germans defeating the French, King
Wilhelm of Prussia becomes Wilhelm I of Germany as he is proclaimed the first
German Emperor in the 'Hall of Mirrors' of the Palace of Versailles. The empire
was known as The Second Reich to the Germans. The real power behind the German
throne was Otto von Bismarck who engineered the full emancipation of the Jews
two years earlier in 1869. Life for Jews in the empire would be a mixed bag
with the rise in anti-Semitism paralleling their involvement in all facets of
commerce and culture. The creation of the Second Reich is tied directly
to the events that led to World War I that led to World War II.
1875: Isaac
Botibol married Jane Angel at Bevis Marks today.
1877:
Birthdate of Brno native Arthur Biach.
1878: In
Meadville, PA, Melius and Sophia Ohlman gave birth to Squirrel Hill resident
Antoinette “Nettie” Ohlman Gallinger, the wife of Pittsburgh businessman Greely
Gallinger, the mother of Ruth and Marion Gallinger who was a member of
Pittsburgh’s Rodef Shalom Synagogue and the Greater Pittsburgh Section of the
Council of Jewish Women.
1878: Two days
after he had passed away, Barnett Joshua Simmons, the son of Joshua Simmons and
Ann Levy was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1884: Eight
days after she had passed away, the former Elizabeth Helena de Johngh, the wife
Edward Dentz was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1887: At
Albany, Samuel Gompers, President of the Federation of Labor, praised New York
Governor David Hill for the way he “aided in the passage of laws in the
interest of labor, signed and executed them in their spirit as well as their
letter and did all that a man in his position could do to advance the interests
of the workingmen and the workingwomen of” New York.
1888: In
Detroit, Henry and Gussie Robinson Freund gave birth to Detroit College trained
attorney Louis Starfield Cohane.
1888(5th
of Shevat, 5648): Fifty-two-year-old Edward Cohen, the Baltimore born son of
“Benjamin I and Kitty (Etting) Cohen who moved to Richmond during the Civil War
and went from being a stockbroker to President of the City Bank of Richmond and
the husband of Caroline Davis passed away today.
1889:
Birthdate of NYC native and Columbia trained architect and WW I veteran Herbert
Lippman.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/335128401831
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Fink%2C%20Reuben%2C%201889%2D1961
1890:
Birthdate of Kamila Fislova who was deported from Prague in 1942 after which
she was murdered at Ujazdow.
1890: In
Brooklyn, NY, Anna Lavine and Samuel Gabriel gave birth to Williams College
educated drama critic, novelist and playwright Gilbert Wolf Gabriel, the
husband of Ada Vorhaus and WW I and WW II Army veteran whose first novel, The
Seven Branched Candlestick, was published in 1917.
https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6dj63vs
1891: The
B’nai Zion Educational Society whose members included David A. Lourie, Charles,
Askwith and Louis Arkin was founded in Boston, MA.
1891(9th
of Shevat, 5651): Joseph Abenheim, the native of Worms the famed violinist and
orchestra leader who played with the royal orchestras at Stuttgart passed away
today.
1892:
Birthdate of Shevach Samuel Kalinowsky the native of the Ukraine who gained
fame as Samuel Kaylin the composer of 80 film scores including a “Mr. Motto”
film starring co-religionist Peter Lorre.
1893(1st
of Shevat, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1894: An
unknown thief stole the book which was the primary source for the upcoming
lecture to be delivered by Professor Knapp of Barnard at the Hebrew
Institute in New York.
1894: Dr.
Joseph Krauskopf, leading rabbi from Philadelphia, is scheduled to deliver a
lecture tonight entitled “Only A Jew” at Ahwath Chesed.
1894: The
United Hebrew Charities is one of the organizations that will share in the
proceeds from a fund-raising concert to be held this afternoon at the
Metropolitan Opera House.
1895: In
Neustadt, Max and Hedwig Pinkus gave birth to Klaus Valentin Pinkus
1895: The
officers and directors of what would become the Hebrew Infant Asylum met today
and “resolved to make strenuous efforts to obtain a charter.”
1895: It was
reported today that charitable institutions in New York City, including those
supported by the Jews, believe that the new rules for the disbursement of funds
are “too restrictive.”
1895: In
Denver, CO, Libby R; Lipchitz and Joseph Miller gave birth to University of
Colorado trained physician and surgeon Lewis Isaac Miller the Husband of Ethel
Bluestone, the senior surgeon at Beth Israel Hospital in Denare and a member of
the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society.
1895: It was
reported today that Dr. Michael L. Rodkinson has been soliciting funds and
assistance for creating the first English language translation of the
Talmud. (Editor’s note – Rodkinson was a Russian born American publisher
who lived between 1845 and 1904. He did accomplish his goal of creating
an English-Hebrew Talmud as well as the printing other works in English, Hebrew
and Yiddish.)
1897(15th
of Shevat, 5657): Tu B’Shevat
1897: Sir
Louis Jean Bols, who would serve “as Edmund Allenby's Third Army Chief of Staff
on the Western front and Sinai and Palestine campaigns of World War I” and “the
Chief Administrator of Palestine for the six months of 1920” was promoted to
the rank of Captain today.
1898: As
anti-Semitic mobs roam the streets of France during the Drefyus Affair, it was
reported that “the events of the past few days are beginning to produce a
feeling of panic in Jewish circles. Both the business and private houses of the
Rothschilds and other wealthy Jews are guarded by special detectives and
gendarmes
1898: The
funeral for Solomon Latz was held at his home on 49th Street in New
York City.
1898: It was
reported today that a crowd of 3,000 people demonstrated in front of the Army
Club in Marseilles expressing their support for the army and denouncing Zola
and Dreyfus.
1898: It was
reported today that Oscar S. Straus was so overcome with grief that he fainted
as his father’s coffin was being taken from Temple Beth-El for burial at the
cemetery.
1899: John T.
O’Brien came to the offices of the United Hebrew Charities claiming to be an
unemployed veteran. He was sent to the Elite Hotel on 7th
Avenue where he was to be employed as a porter.
1899: The
sixteenth annual ball of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society of Brooklyn took
places tonight at the Academy of Music.
1899: The
Schribman – Needle nuptials took place in Charleston, SC
1900: In
Berlin, Robert Georg Alexander von Mendelssohn and Giulietta von Mendelssohn
gave birth to Eleonora von Mendelssohn.
1901: Cadet
Leo Samuelson of Texas and Cadet Samuel Frankenberg of West Virginia testified
at today’s session of Congressional committee which is investigating hazing at
the Military Academy they had never been “interfered with on account of “their
“religion.”
1902: In
Richmond, the Hebrew Free Loan Society whose members included Isaac Caplan was
organized today.
1902:
Birthdate of Massachusetts native David “Dave” Ziff who played end at Syracuse
in the 1920’s after which he took his pass catching skills to the nascent
National Football League for two years.
1903: A number
of Moses Lindo’s advertisements and items concerning him that had appeared in
the South Carolina which had been collected by Rabbi B.A. Elzas were reprinted
today in the Charleston News and Courier.
1903(19th of
Tevet, 5663): Sir Joseph
Sebag-Montefiore passed away today in London. Born in 1822 to Solomon
Sebag and Sarah, eldest sister of Sir Moses Montefiore he succeeded to the
estate of his maternal uncle, and he assumed the name of Montefiore by royal
license. He was one of the leading members of the London Stock Exchange, on
which he amassed a large fortune. He was a justice of the peace for Kent and
the Cinque Ports and lieutenant of the city of London; and in 1889 he served as
High Sheriff for Kent. He was for many years a leading member of the
Spanish-Portuguese congregation and was president of the elders of that body.
In 1895 he became president of the Board of Deputies, after having been
vice-president for many years; and in 1896 he was appointed by the King of
Italy Italian consul general in London. He was knighted in 1896
1903(19th
of Tevet, 5663): Seventy-seven-year-old Henri Blowitz, the Bohemian born French
journalist whose colorful career included obtaining “the text of the Treaty of
Berlin” and publishing “it at the very moment that the Congress of Berlin was
signing it” - an accomplishment for which “he was an Officer of the Légion
d'honneur.”
1903:
Birthdate of Berthold Goldschmidt. Born in Germany, Goldschmidt was
enjoying a successful career until the Nazis came to power. At that
point, he was forced to flee to Britain where he resumed his career.
Oddly enough, he is identified as a “German opera composer” even though the
Germans would have sent him to a concentration camp if he had stayed in the
Fatherland.
1904: Herzl
spends the day in Venice before continuing on to Rome via Florence. He
described the day as "a blue Monday" which, in the evening found him choosing
to dine at Bauer's Austrian Beer House so that he could the Englishmen at the
Grand Hotel.
1904(1st of
Shevat, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1905: The play
“The Scarlet Pimpernel” which producer Alexander Korda would turn into a
successful film with a script co-authored by S.N. Behrman and starring Leslie
Howard in the title role, began its second continued its third week of
performances at the New Theatre in London.
1906: It was
reported today that “Jacob H. Schiff, Treasurer of the National Committee for
the Relief of the Suffers by Russian Massacres has received from Lord
Rothschild a report made by Carl Stettauer” who had “recently journeyed through
Russia for the purpose of organizing the distribution of relief funds” which
included the conclusions that “there is not the slightest guarantee that
similar occurrences are impossible in the future” and “there is grave cause to
fear that the systematic incitement against the Jews” are possible at any
moment due to the participation of “Russian officials in the pogroms.”
1906: It was
reported today that “the Police Chief of Rostoff-on-Don has been indicted for
not preventing the massacre of Jews.”
1907:
Birthdate of New York City native C. Irving “Irv” Constantine, the graduate of
Curtis High School who played college football for Syracuse University before
spending one year with the professional Staten Island Stapletons.
https://www.profootballarchives.com/playerc/cons00200.html
1908(15th of
Shevat, 5668): Tu B'Shevat
1908: Samuel
Clemens whose pen-name is Mark Twin and Supreme Court Justice Greenbaum are
scheduled to address the annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical School for
girls this morning at 15th Street and Second Avenue in New
York. Clemens only daughter married a Jewish composer and orchestra
conductor.
1908:
Birthdate of Jacob Bronowsky the famed mathematician and cultural historian who
created the widely acclaimed television series “The Ascent of Man” in which he
said while standing at Auschwitz: “It is said that science will dehumanize
people and turn them into numbers. That is false, tragically false. Look for
yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is
where people were turned into numbers. Into this pond were flushed the ashes of
some four million people. And that was not done by gas. It was done by
arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance."
1908: In
Brooklyn, Anna Gleichenhaus and Isaac Goodman gave birth to Moe Goodman who
would gain fame as Martin Goodman the publisher who among other things, created
the company eventually known as Marvel Comics.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/11/obituaries/martin-goodman-84-began-marvel-comics.html
1909: It was
reported today that Dr. D.C. Potter, chief of the Department of Finance in the
Charitable Institutions Divisions of NYC, had told supporters of the Hebrew
Infant Asylum that there was a pressing need for funds to carry out the work of
the institution and to build a new home for the city’s Jewish orphans.
Work on this building at 192nd Street and Kingsbridge Road has
already begun.
1909: The
Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations is scheduled to meet
this afternoon at the Mercantile Club in Philadelphia.
1909:
Twenty-year-old Sam Melitzer, the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants scored 20
points “to lead Columbia to…victory over Princeton.”
1909: Members
of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and their
female invitees are scheduled to meet for dinner at 6:30 in Philadelphia
followed by a resumption of the business meeting begun earlier in the
afternoon.
1910: Robert
W. Hebberd, the former Charities Commissioner is scheduled to be one of the
speakers at tonight meeting of the Council of Jewish Women which is being held
“in the vestry room of Shearith Israel.”
1910: It was
reported today that Jefferson Seligman of the banking firm of J and W Seligman
and Company of New York has been made a member of the Legion of Honor by the
French Government.
1911: Tonight,
Theodore Roosevelt is scheduled to address a dinner hosted by the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations under the direction of toastmaster Jacob H.
Schiff.
1912: The
Jewish Chronicle published a letter from author and Zionist leader Max
Nordau in which he condemns President Taft’s role in “the abrogation of the
Russo-American Treaty.” Nordau ended his denunciation by writing, “The
situation for the Jews in Russia will be worse than before and the anti-Semites
in America will make the American Jews pay heavily for their manful
stand—that’s all.”
1912:
President Taft received a delegation representing the American Association of
Foreign Language Newspapers led by Louis N. Hammerling. Mr. Taft said he
favored admission of desirable immigrants, but immigration laws should be
strictly enforced. The issue of immigration is especially sensitive for
American Jews. Attempts to limit immigration from eastern and southern
Europe were seen, in part, as an attempt to keep Jews from Russia, Romania and
Poland from entering the United States. The term “desirable immigrants”
was often used as a code to describe those coming from Western Europe and
Scandinavia. To add to the complexity of the issue, Jews of Germanic origins
were concerned about the influx of Jews from Eastern Europe. They were afraid
that this onslaught of what they considered “the great unwashed” would bring on
a wave of anti-Semitism in the United States.
1913:
Birthdate of David Daniel Kaminski. Kaminski became Danny Kay, the Brooklyn
born comedian, actor and singer starred in several movies and his own
television variety program. But he was proudest of being the driving
force behind UNICEF.
1913: Nathan
Straus set sail for Palestine accompanied by two Hadassah nurses - Rachel
Kaplan and Rose Landy. Hadassah had raised $2,500 to cover the salaries
of the nurses for two years. Strauss paid their travel expenses and
agreed to fund a new clinic in Jerusalem.
1914: Bernard
A. Rosenblatt, the Honorary Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists,
issued a reply to the charges of Dr. Paul Nathan of Berlin that some of the
Zionists in Palestine were “stirring up discord.” Mr. Rosenblatt issued a
statement in which he traced the growth of the Jewish settlement in Palestine
over the last three decades; a growth that has been so successful that the
Zionist movement has attracted the support of such important as Louis Brandeis
and Nathan Strauss. He then reviewed the creation of a Jewish Institute
of Technology at Haifa; a project in which Dr. Nathan said he wanted to be an
active participant and which has funded by the Jewish National Fund and Zionist
throughout the world. Now, seven years after the project had begun,
Mr. Rosenblatt claims that Dr. Nathan held a clandestine meeting of the
Board of Trustees that was attended only by his German supporters during which
the attendees voted to make German and not Hebrew, the language of instruction
at the Institute. Mr. Rosenblatt said that American Zionists would
support the actions of Jewish students and teachers designed to make Hebrew the
language of the school as had been previously agreed. He expressed
nothing but scorn for his German counterparts who are determined to put a
Germanic stamp on the efforts to develop a home for Jews from all over the
world, regardless of their place of national origin.
1914: It was
reported today that David Belasco, the English born Sepharic Jew who used the
stage name David James left an estate valued at £41,594
1914: Joseph
Charlack, Secretary of the Poultry Workers’ Union, whose members are now on
strike for higher wages and a shorter workday and of the Kosher Butchers’
Union, whose members have gone on strike in sympathy with the
poultrymen, announced this evening that the rabbis who kill chickens for kosher
consumption have voted to go on strike. He said that this was decided up
at a meeting of the representatives of 900 rabbis in the house of Chief Rabbi
Margulies on East Broadway.
1915: In Upper
Hungary, Ernest Länyi, a wealthy landowner and his wife gave birth to György
Länyi who gained fame as George Henry Lane reached the rank of Colonel while
serving in the British Army as a member of the elite Commandos known as SOE
(Special Operations Executive).
1916: It was
reported today that Mr. Lewin-Epstein, a member of the Executive Committee of
the American Jewish Relief Committee has “found a shocking condition in the
war-stricken countries” and that many Jews “have died from exposure and
starvation.”
1916: “The
Jewish Theological Seminary reopened today with Dr. Cyrus Adler as temporary
President.”
1916: Herbert
Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, completed his service as Postmaster-General in the
Cabinet of Prime Minister Asquith.
1916: The American
Jewish Relief Committee “announced” today “that to date it has collected
$1,223,497.68 of which $981,816.46 is in cash and $241,681.22 in pledges.”
1917:
“The twenty-fifth council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the
second biennial meeting of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods
adjourned today after selecting Boston as the meeting place for 1919.”
1917:
Birthdate of English theatrical and film producer, Oscar Lewenstein. The
son of Russian immigrants, Lowenstein passed away at the age of 80. For
more about him read his autobiography, Kinking Against the Pricks.
1917: The
national organization representing Reform Rabbis and their congregations
approved a resolution reaffirming “its opposition to the literacy test as a
condition for admitting immigrants into the United States as unwise and
contrary to the salutary American precedents, particularly as an educational
qualification already has been imposed by Congress where it belongs, as a
prerequisite for naturalization.”
1917: Jeanette
Salomon, the Brooklyn born daughter of Samuel and Minnie (Celler) Lederman and
a leader of the National Council of Jewish Women married Abraham H. Arons after
the death of her first husband Mark Salomon.
1918: In
Odessa, the faculty of the university rejected the three Jewish candidates “for
professional posts” and the municipal council adopted a resolution “condemning
the action and expressing sympathy with the rejected candidates.
1918: The
leaders of drive to add 50,000 new members to the Federation for the Support of
Jewish Philanthropic Societies are scheduled to meet at 2:30 so they can finish
their business before the start of Shabbat this evening.
1918: In
Vienna, accusations that Dr. Braunn was administering drugs to help young
Jewish men evand military duty were withdrawn.
1919: The
Paris Peace Conference opened in Versailles, France. Among other things,
negotiations at the conference would result in the creation of a mandatory
government for Palestine that incorporated the Balfour Declaration and was
controlled by the British. Jews serving in the American delegation pushed
for guarantees of full rights of citizenship for their co-religionist living in
the new countries that would be established by the Big Four.
1919:
Among those present at Paris when the conference began was Joseph Barondess,
who was a member of the delegation sent by the American Jewish Congress.
1920: “Because
the dollar pledged for philanthropy four years ago is worth but 48 cents, the
Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropic Charities will launch a campaign
today to make up a deficit of $1,700,000, according to an announcement made today
by Felix Warburg, chairman of the federation.”
1920: Sol
Wexler and Michael were two of the new members elected to serve as directors of
the State Bank/
1921: The
ninth annual convention of the United Synagogue of America and the fourth
annual convention of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue came to an end
today at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1921: “The
eleventh annual meeting of the Brooklyn Federation of Charities is scheduled to
be held this evening after the testimonial dinner honoring “Nathan S. Jonas,
the honorary secretary and founder of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish
Charities.”
1922:
Birthdate of Yehezkiel Braun. “From the age of two Yehezkel Braun was brought
up in Israel, in close contact with Jewish and East-Mediterranean traditional
music. The influence of this background is clearly felt in his compositions. He
is a graduate of the Israel Academy of Music and holds a Master's degree in
Classical Studies from Tel Aviv University. In 1975 he studied Gregorian chant
with Dom Jean Claire at the Benedictine monastery of Solesmes in France. His
main academic interests are traditional Jewish melodies and Gregorian chant. He
lectured on these and other subjects, at universities and congresses in
England, France, the United States and Germany. Yehezkel Braun is Professor
Emeritus at Tel Aviv University.”
1922:
Thirty-five-year-old Sanford Ullman, the son of Ansel and Magie Ullman and the
brother of Sadie and Abraham Ullman who passed away yesterday in Philadelphia was buried at Hebrew
Friendship Cemetery in Baltimore today.
1922: Samuel
Baskesef, the London born son of Sarah Bakesef and brother of Joseph and Israel
Bakesef and Harvey H. Epstein filed for a patent for a Collapsible Hammock
today
1923(1st
of Shevat, 5683): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1923: It was
reported today that Henry M. Goldfogle has predicted that 2,000 delegates will
attend the Golden Jubilee Convention of the Union of American Congregations
scheduled to be held in New York next week.
1924: The
centennial celebration of the founding of B’nai Israel began tnigh in
Cincinnati “at the Rockdale Avenue Temple.”
1925:
Birthdate of Solomon Yurick, the Manhattan native was “best-known for the 1965
novel The Warriors (As reported by William Yardley)
1926: “Dr.
Chaim Weizmann, in a statement issued today reviewed the Zionist situation from
the standpoint of Palestine and the relation of the Jewish communities to
Palestine” in which he said that “hundreds of thousands of our fellow Jews I
the United States have not yet contributed one dollar toward the rebuilding of
Palestine.”
1927(15th
of Shevat, 5687): Tu B’Shevat
1927(15th
of Shevat, 5687): “Samuel Jaszal, a former member of the Hungarian parliament
and secretary of the Hungarian Trade Unions” passed away today.
1927(15th
of Shevat, 5687): Simon Russek, the husband of Sarah Russek and brother of
Rachel Gelbart whose will provided for a $45,000 contribution to the Palestine
Endowment Funds passed away today.
1928: One day
after she had passed away, Leah Ruttenberg, the wife of Marks Ruttenberg, with
whom she had had five children was buried at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in
Northern Ireland.
1928: U.S.
premiere of “Gentlemen Prefer Blonds” a silent comedy produced by Adolph Zukor
and Jesse Lasky which would later become a hit Broadway play in the 1940’s and
was remade in the 1950’s with Marilyn Monroe as a co-star.
1929:
Fifty-two-year-old Sophie Irene Loeb passed away
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/loeb-sophie-irene-simon
1929:"New
York Daily Mirror" columnist Walter Winchell made his radio début.
1929:
Stalin proposed to ban Leon Trotsky from the Politburo. Trotsky was the
apostate who turned his back on Judaism to worship Marx and serve as Lenin’s
Joshua.
1929: Mrs.
Oscar Straus, the widow of the former Ambassador to Turkey began her expedition
to Nyasaland and British East Africa tonight when she set sail aboard the SS
Majestic. (JTA)
1930(18th
of Tevet, 5690): Parashat Vayechi
1930: A
delegation of Americans living in Tel Aviv, headed by Nathan Kaplan, an
attorney who had moved to Palestine from Chicago, met with Paul Knabenshue, the
American Counsel General, in an attempt to get him to help break the impasse
that has turned Tel Aviv into a “meatless city.” The British government
has resisted all efforts to establish a facility for the slaughter of animals
in Tel Aviv. The British have told butchers in Tel Aviv to return to
Jaffa where they can practice their trade. In Jaffa, the Jewish butchers
work in an area that is surrounded by Arabs and the Jews were not able to get
meat during the Arab riots that began in August of 1929
1930:
Birthdate of Shmuel “Sammy” Flatto the Polish born French-Israeli businessman,
politician and talk show host.
1931:
Dr. Judah L. Magnes, Dean of the Hebrew University, presided over the memorial
service held this evening at the Straus Health Center in honor Nathan Straus,
of blessed memory. Meir Dezingoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Dr. David Yellin
of the Vaad Leumi addressed the large throng praising Straus for his
“philanthropic and social contributions to Palestine.” The establishment
of the first soup kitchen in Jerusalem and the construction of a health center
in Hedera were cited as two examples of his generosity. During the
eulogy, Dr. Magnes revealed for the first time, that Straus had purchased land
in the Talpioth section of Jerusalem as a site for a university.
1932(10th
of Shevat, 5692): Seventy-year-old William Isaac Spiegelberg Sr., the Santa Fe,
NM born son of Bertha and Levi T. Spiegelberg, the husband of Beulah V. Barnard
Spiegelberg and father of Marjorie Bettie Spiegelberg and William Spiegelberg,
Jr. passed away today in Paris.
1932:
Featherweight Harry Blitman fought his 70th bout which he lost.
1933: New York
Mayo John P. O’Brien delivered an address tonight at the Samuel Tichner
Society, a Jewish fraternal organization in which he said his life will “be an
open book” as long as he holds that office.
1933: It was
reported today that “six months option for leasing 17,500 acres of land in
Transjordania for thirty-three years and renewable for two more similar periods
at an annual rental of u2,000 ($6,700 at present quotations) has just been
obtained from the Emir Abdullah, ruler of Transjordania, by the Jewish Agency
executive of Palestine.”
1933: New York
Mayo John P. O’Brien delivered an address tonight at the Samuel Tichner
Society, a Jewish fraternal organization in which he said his life will “be an
open book” as long as he holds that office.
1933: It was
reported today that “six months option for leasing 17,500 acres of land in
Transjordania for thirty-three years and renewable for two more similar periods
at an annual rental of u2,000 ($6,700 at present quotations) has just been
obtained from the Emir Abdullah, ruler of Transjordania, by the Jewish Agency
executive of Palestine.”
1934:
Just days before his 20th birthday Harry Mizler, the son of “East
End Jewish parents” won the British Board of Control (BBofC) lightweight title
at the end of a fifteen round bout at
Kensington's Royal Albert Hall
1935: “David
Copperfield” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed by George
Cukor and produced by David O. Selznick was released in the United States
today.
1935:
Birthdate of Gad Yaacobi, the native of Kfar Vitkin who served as an MK and
held several ministerial portfolios.
1936(23rd
of Tevet, 5696): Parshat Shemot; the start of the reading of the second book of
the Torah
1936: In
London, George H. Elvin, the organizing secretary for the British Olympic
effort “declared that the sports leader of the Berlin Storm Troops had
published a book, officially approved, reminding the German people that their
sport is ‘built on hatred’ and that ‘National Socialists can see no positive
value for our people in permitting Jews to travel through our country and
complete in athletics with our best.’”
1936: In
Far Rockaway, Queens Jacob Sniderman, an accountant and his wife, the former
Gertrude Langfur gave birth to Rhoda Carol Sniderman who gained fame as
novelist Rhoda Lerman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/arts/rhoda-lerman-writer-who-defied-labels-dies-at-79.html
1936: “A
movement for settling German Jews in South America has been launched with the
completion of plans for training the first 125 Jewish youths for colonization.”
1937: The
Royal Commission, popularly known as the Peel Commission, “ended its work in
Palestine” today.
1937: In New
Orleans, “the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Affiliated
National Temple Federations of Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods today went on
record as favoring a more extensive use of ancient, traditional symbols,
ceremonies and customs by reform Jewish congregations in their Sabbath
services” as well that use of a cantor…and “a choir composed wholly of Jewish
singers.” (Editor’s note – This would not be the last time that the Reform
movement called for a return to “tradition” as can be clearly seen from the
perspective of the last 80 years.)
1938: “The
expulsion of all alien Jews from Ecuador except those engaged in farming was
decreed today by the Provisional Military Government of Colonel Alberto
Enriquez” because as “the decree declared, hundreds of Jews” who were
“permitted to colonize in Ecuador to escape persecution in Central Europe had
entered business instead of agriculture as the Ecuadorian Government had
expected them to do.”
1939(27th
of Tevet, 5699): David J. Gallert the Harvard trained attorney and former
associate of Elihu Root who had been practicing law since 1898 and who was both
an “authority on small loan legislation” and the “counsel to the child adoption
committed of the Free synagogue passed away today at the Columbia-Presbyterian
Medical Center.
1939: Jakob
Moses Cohen, the German born son of Moses Jakob Cohen and Minkel Minka Minna
Cohen and his wife Hanna Cohen gave birth to Zilla Cohen.
1940: In
German occupied Cracow “about 500 workers” most whom are Jewish “have ben
requestioned to help clear off debris” including the huge mounds of dirt and
slush that were caused by the “sudden thaw following heavy snowfalls.”
1940: As a
result of a new ordered issued by the Captain of the Port of Constanta in
Rumania forbidding Rumanian sales from serving “on ships carrying Jewish
emigrants bound for Palestine” all Jewish refugees from Rumanians “will be
obliged to find crews in Bulgaria and Turkey” but not in Greece where a similar
ban is already in force.
1941: The
Royal Air Force Middle East Command issued a communiqué today reporting that
Italian planes had attacked British airfields near Tel Aviv.
1941(19th
of Tevet, 5701): Parashat Shemot
1941(19th
of Tevet, 5701): Seventy-one year old Marion Louis Simon Misch, the Allentown,
PA born daughter of Rachel and Lois Simon and the wife of New England
department store owner Caesar Misch with whom she had two children, Walter and
Louise and who “became the only female owner of a department store in
Providence, RI following the death of her husband while serving at the
President of the National Council Jewish Women, passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/misch-marion-simon
1941: It was
reported today that “Dr. Joseph Sarachek, the rabbi of Sheiras Israel Synagogue
in Brooklyn was elected a president of the New York Board of Jewish Minister,
Inc.” succeeding “Rabbi J.X. Cohen of the Free Synagogue who had held the
presidency for two terms.”
1941: Herman
Kruk, who had been active in Yiddish cultural activities in Warsaw and Vilna,
recoiled from efforts to stage cultural activities in the ghetto stating, “You
don’t make theatre in a graveyard.”
1942: The
Nazis arrested Frans Goedhart and Wiardi Beckman, both of whom were journalists
who took part in the resistance movement after the German conquest of the
Netherlands. Tragically, in a manner of the fate of Anne Frank, Beckman
died of typhus in Dachau, on March 15, 1945 when the war was almost over.
1942:
Fifty-six-year-old Dr. Max Leder was transported from Pilsen to Terezin on the
first leg of a journey that would lead to his murder at Izbica.
1942: After
two weeks of constant burial duty of thousands of gassed Jews at Chelmno, Yakov
Grojanowski escapes. His diary tells of cruelty, murders, tragedy and suicides.
His two weeks were only 14 days of the last 44 days of continual murder via
gas-trucks.
1942: Daniel
Mahler was buried today in the Jewish cemetery of Kleinsteinach making him the
last person to be interred in a burial ground that had been in use since the 15th
century.
1943: A train
from Belgium arrives at Auschwitz; 387 men and 81 women are sent to the
barracks while 1,558 people were sent to the gas chamber.
1943: In
Warsaw, after 4 months of no transports, the Germans enter the ghetto and begin
deportation again to Treblinka. In rounding up people, the Germans went through
the homes killing people, throwing them out of windows, and looting whatever
they could. 5,000 Jews were rounded up, including 150 doctors. One, Dr. Izrael
Milejkowski, commits suicide during the train ride.
1943(12 of
Shevat, 5703): Yitzhak Gitterman that native of Horonstopol born in 1889 who
“was a director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in
Poland, and a member of the underground Jewish Combat Organization” was killed
today while fighting today in the Warsaw Ghetto.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188
1943: Jewish
deportees from Belgium arrive at Auschwitz, where 1087 are gassed.
1943:
After a four-month break, Germans resume deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Warsaw Jews react edwith their first acts of overt resistance, expressed in
brutal street fighting. 1000 Jews are executed in the streets and 6000 are
deported to the Treblinka death camp. An elderly, blind Jewish man is shot by
an SS man because he is unable to walk without a guide.
1943: The Jews
in the Warsaw Ghetto began their armed resistance to the Nazis which would
culminate in April of 1943 with the famous Warsaw Ghetto.
1943:
Nobel-prize winning Polish émigré poet Czeslaw Milosz--a righteous
Christian--condemns anti-Semitism and nationalism as "ills that like
cancer were consuming Poland." In his poem, "Campo dei
Fiori," Milosz laments from Warsaw in 1943--and he's being literal,
not figurative--that the carousel's carnival tunes and the laughing crowds in
the Catholic area of Warsaw drown out the sounds of the Germans shooting Jews
in the Warsaw Ghetto.
1943: The
Second Senate of the Reich Military Tribunal sentenced Lian Berkowitz and
Friedrich Rehmer, along with 16 other people from the Red Orchestra, to death
today for abetting a conspiracy to commit high treason and furthering the
enemy's cause. [For once the Nazis had it right; these were really Germans who
had worked against the Third Reich almost from its inception. For more
about these true heroes read Red Orchestra by Ann Nelson.
1944:
Birthdate of Roger Richman, the son of Washington, DC area rabbi who founded
the Roger Richman Agency, that dealt with licensing clients, some of whom were
deceased.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/14/local/la-me-roger-richman-20131015
1944: For the
first time in its history, The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts
a jazz concert. Among the performers are two Jewish pop music legends –
Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.
1944: German
armored forces surrounded the forest near Buczac, Poland. They killed
three hundred Jews who had been hiding in the forest for the past nine
months. Some of the Jews of Buczaz had taken part in armed resistance
against the Nazis. This remnant had taken to the woods after the final
roundup of Jews in the town. During their time in hiding, they attacked
Nazis as well as members of the local populations who had betrayed the Jews to
the Germans.
1945: As
Russian troops approached Auschwitz, Ernest Michel who would cover the
Nuremberg war crime trials for a German news agency was evacuated from that
death camp today.
1945: “Miklós
Nyiszli, along with an estimated 66,000 other prisoners, was forced on a death
march that took the prisoners into various parts of the Third Reich’s
territories including: German occupied Poland (which was part of Greater
Germany), Czechoslovakia, Germany proper, present-day Austria and further into
various smaller concentration camps in Germany” events that he would later
record in Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account
1945:
Kazimierz Smolen left Auschwitz today on the last transport of prisoners
evacuated by the Germans, nine days before its liberation. “Smolen was a Polish
Catholic involved in the anti-Nazi resistance when the Germans arrested him in
April 1941 and took him to Auschwitz.”
1945: A count
was made of remaining prisoners in the assorted labor and concentration camps:
- Birkenau; 15,058 Jews remained.
- Auschwitz: 16,226 People remained, mostly
Poles.
- Monowitz; 10,233 Jews, Poles and assorted
prisoners remained.
- Factories of Auschwitz: Another 16,000
Jews, Poles and prisoners.
1945: Acting
on orders from Berlin, the SS begins a massive, on-foot evacuation of all
prisoners and slave laborers at the Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz camps and
from the Auschwitz region (Upper Silesia, Poland). Of the thousands of
marchers, most die from exposure, exhaustion, and abuse on their way to their
destinations. Boys evacuated from Birkenau march toward Mauthausen, Austria.
Many of the boys are on "cart commando" duty, i.e., harnessed to
enormous carts in groups of 20.
1945: “A
Song to Remember” a Hollywood version of the life of Chopin directed by Charles
Vidor, produced by B.F. Zeidman, written by Sidney Buchman and starring Paul
Muni was released in the United States today.
1946: In
accord with President Truman’s “Christmas executive order “ a delegation of
American officials: is scheduled to sail on the Queen Elizabeth today so that
that they can “expedite the admission of refugees from Central Europe, many of
whom were Jewish, to the United States.
1947:
The Detroit Tigers sold Hank Greenberg to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
1948: After
embarking from Marseille, France today, a ship named the Alexandria reached
Israel carrying a group of Youth Aliyah children. This group included a young
girl listed on rosters as Nuta Bolestet; in Haifa, she was transferred with a
few other children to the Youth Aliyah camp in Ra'anana. Moshe Ya'ari, a Youth
Aliyah official, recorded the few available details about the girl.
1949: In
Orange, NJ, Erika (Ratzer) and Oscar Michael Stemberg gave birth to Thomas
George “Tom” Stemberg who founded, along with Leo Kahn, Staples, Inc.
1949: In an
attempt to improve relations with new Jewish state, the British ordered the
immediate release of the remaining Jews who were detained in Cyprus during
those years when His Majesty’s government was determined to keep Jews from
settling in Palestine. Within a month all them, many of whom were
Holocaust survivors, had reached Haifa.
1949:
“Chicken Every Sunday” a comedy produced by William Perlberg, based on the 1944
play by Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein with music by Alfred Newman was
released in the United States today.
1951(4th
of Shevat, 5711): Forty-one year old Jersey City, NJ, native Robert S. Marcus,
the City College and Yeshiva University trained rabbi and hold of doctorate of
Jurisprudence from NYU Law School who led congregations in Lawrence and
Newburgh, NY before serving overseas as a chaplain with the Ninth Tactical Air
Force where he worked with concentration camp survivors and returning to the
United States where among other things, he served as the Director of the
Department of World Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress while
raising two children with his wife Fay passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/01/20/87087942.pdf
1950: Harvey
L. Schwamm was elected president of Pan American Trust Company today.
1951: Today,
“it was revealed that several members of the adored double-championship CCNY
team had been doing business with gamblers i.e. shaving points and “further
investigations revealed that a total of thirty-two players, many of whom were
Jewish, at LIU, NYU, Toledo, Bradley, Manhattan and Kentucky had also been in
league with the gamblers – a fact which was known to such coaches as Nat Holman
and Bobby Sand.
1952(20th of
Tevet, 5712): Curly Howard, actor, comedian and member of the Three
Stooges passed away.
1954: Mose M. Feld wrote to Galveston
businessman I.H. Kempner today wishing him a happy birthday and informing him
that he had made a contribution to Kempner’s Jewish house of worship.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1495993/
1959(9th
of Shevat, 5719): Seventy-two-year-old CCNY trained Chemical Engineer Jerome
Alexander, the New York born “son of Isaac and Annie Josephine Lewis (Jackson)
Alexander, who “was mostly known for his research in the field of colloidal
chemistry” and who was the husband of Gertrude Eleanor Hammerslough with whom
he had one child, Alexander, passed away today.
1960: This
week’s Play of the Week featured the broadcast of “Lullaby” produced by David
Susskin with Eli Wallach playing “Johnny Horton” and his wife Anne Jackson as
“Eadie Horton.”
1961: The
Chaplain’s Medal for Heroism was awarded to the family members of Reverend
George Fox (Methodist), Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode, Reverend Clark Poling
(Dutch Reformed) and Father John Washington (Roman Catholic). These were
the famous Four Chaplains who acted with such grace and courage when the United
States Army Transport Dorchester was sunk by a Nazi U-Boat in 1943.
Because of the strict requirements for awarding the Congressional Medal of
Honor, this award was created to honor their heroism.
1962:
Eighty-one-year-old Sir Boyd Merriman, who served as “counsel for the Jewish
case before the British Commission of Inquiry in 1929” passed away today.
1963: Al
Davis began serving as the head coach and general manager of the Oakland
Raiders, a date described by his biographer as “probably one of the three or
four most important date in AFL history.
1964(4th
of Shevat, 5724): Eighty at year old Edith Julia Morley, the daughter of a
London dental surgeon who was raised as an Orthodox Jews and became “the first
woman to be appointed professor at any British University” when she was
appointed “Professor of English Languate at University College, Reading” in
1908 passed away today.
1965(15th
of Shevat, 5725): Tu B’Shevat
1965: Two days
after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held today for
eighty-four-year-old Moscow born NYU trained physician Arthur Albert Einstein
who had been affiliated with Beth Israel Hospital since 1931.
1966: Today
the Henry Settlement buildings at 263-267 Henry Street in Manhattan which had
been purchased by Jacob Schiff for the organization in 1895 was designated as a
New York City Landmark,
1966: Today,
Israel Moses Sieff “was created a life peer as Baron Sieff, of Brimpton in the
Royal County of Berkshire.:
1967(7th of
Shevat, 5727): Barney Ross Welterweight Boxing Champ in 1934 passed away at the
age of 57. One little known fact about Ross is that he enlisted in
Marines during World War II and at the age of 33 won a Silver Star for his
actions on Guadalcanal.
1968: “The
Happy Time,” a musical produced by David Merrick with lighting design by Jean
Rosenthal opened on Broadway at The Broadway Theatre time.
1969(28th
of Tevet, 5729): Parashat Bo
1969(28th
of Tevet, 5729): Ninety-three-year-old Columbia trained architect William
Gabriel Tachau whose firm of Pilcher and Tachau designed the structures at
Gratz College, Dropsie College and Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/01/19/90040073.pdf
1970: As part
of it “Play of the Month series” the BBC broadcast “The Three Sisters”
featuring Janet Suzman as “Masha.”
1970: Arab
attacks on Israeli positions continued today when “two Israeli patrols in the
Beisan Valley were attacked from Jordan” and Israeli positions in the Golan
were shelled with bazooka fire rockets.
1971(21st of
Tevet, 5731): Eighty-five-year-old industrial chemist Leonard A. Levy, the
great-grandson of Solomon Bennet, the “Demonstrator in Chemistry at the
University of Cambridge and Major in the Royal Engineers who co-authored Radium
and other Radioactive Elements and Gas Recorders passed away today.
1972(2nd
of Shevat, 5732): Ten days after his 55th birthday, actor, director
and producer Stanley Prager who returned to the Broadway stage after having
been place on infamous Hollywood Blacklist” and made his directorial debut with
Neil Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn” passed away after which he “enjoyed the
dubious honor of having the NYT obituary erroneously report his age.
1973(15th
of Shevat, 5733): Tu B’Shevat
1974: Israel
and Egypt signed an agreement for the disengagement of forces in the aftermath
of the Yom Kippur war. Israel agreed to withdraw from the Suez Canal.
1974: “Soviet
Jewish refusenik-scientists Alexander Lerner, Alexander Voronel, Mark Azbel,
David Azbel, Venyamin Levich, Alexander Lunts, Victor Polsky, and Victor
Brailovsky in open letter to scientific societies and scientists of the world
detail persecution of Soviet scientists wishing to emigrate to Israel.”
1976(16th
of Shevat, 5736): Seventy-nine-year-old Friedrich Hollaender, the London born
German- American film composer and author passed away today
1976: Joseph
Papp “one of the most influential men in the American theatre” and the father
of New York’s famous Shakespeare Festival married Gail Bovard Merrifield, his
“fourth wife” today.
1976: Terry
Bradshaw threw a crucial touchdown pass to Tight End Randy Grossman as the
Steelers defeated the Cowboys in Super Bowl X. Grossman was Jewish;
Bradshaw wasn’t.
1978: It was
reported today that Jules Jeffroykin, the President of the Federation of Jewish
Societies has lodged an official protest with police” calling “on the
authorities to their utmost to identify the men or the organization
responsible” for bombing their offices yesterday.
1979:
Twenty-one people were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in a Jerusalem
market.
1980:
Seventy-six-year-old multi-talented award winning Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton
who, in 1938, publisher Conde Nast had the courage to fire because of “a
drawing contributed by Mr. Beaton to the February 1 issue of Vogue” in which
“there appeared comments that were critical of the Jewish race” passed away
today. (Editor – while the rest of the world turned a blind eye to Hitler and
many Englishman flirted with fascism, Nast gets high marks for doing his bit to
“change the world.”)
1980: In Los
Angeles, Jillian (Jordan) and Alvin Segel gave birth to Jason Jordan “an
American actor, screenwriter, producer, and author, best known for his role as
Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.”
1981: Funeral
services were held today for Rabbi Solomon Levy, the native of Tosh Hungary and
the former Grand Rabbi of Hust, Czechoslovakia who died yesterday while
conducting Shabbat services in Boro Park.
1983: Eighty-seven-year-old
Walter Ulman Austrian born historian who specialized in the Middle Ages and who
left Austria for England in 1939 because his grandparents were Jewish passed
away today.
1984(14th
of Shevat, 5744): Seventy-nine-year-old author and
playwright Albert Halper, the Chicago born son of Vilna immigrant and small
grocery store owner Isaac Halper, whose “first major novel was Union Square,
the husband of painter Lorna Halper and the father of Thomas Halper passed away
today.
1985: The government
of Menachem Begin announced that elections would be held in six months.
1985: “Blood
Simple” a crime file “written, edited, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan
Coen which was the directorial debut of the Coens and the first major film of
cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld” was screened today at the New York Film
Festival.
1987: Defense
Minister Yitzhak Rabin, speaking to high school students in Nazareth today,
reaffirmed Israel's commitment to keeping control of its ''security zone'' in
southern Lebanon. ''It has been 20 months since the Israel Defense Force have
been stationed'' in the strip, he said. ''During those 20 months not one
Israeli - Jew, Arab or Druze - has been murdered as a result of terrorist
action from inside Lebanon,'' he said, referring to an absence of civilian
deaths in cross-border attacks. However, he added, ''the price was high,'' in
that 12 Israeli soldiers have been killed.
1987: Israeli
troops killed four armed guerrillas tonight after the guerrillas infiltrated
into the enclave that Israel calls its ''security zone'' in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli authorities did not say to what group the guerrillas might have
belonged. The incident took place about 8 P.M., the spokesman said, when
Israeli forces found the guerrillas near Baraachit, a village about six miles
north of the Israeli border, and opened fire.
1989(12th
of Shevat, 5749): Eighty-two-year-old broadcasting executive Louis Hausman who
was a vice president at both CBS and NBC and who was the husband of Theodora
Hausman passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/21/obituaries/louis-hausman-82-executive-at-networks.html
1989:
President Reagan awarded Max Kampelman the Presidential Citizens Medal.
1990: In
article published today, Joel Brinkley reported that “as Soviet Jewish
immigrants arrive in Israel at a rate now exceeding 1,000 a week, Israeli
officials acknowledge that they have still not devised a plan for handling the
mass immigration, and construction of even the first new apartment to house the
immigrants is months away. Still, Israelis at all levels can hardly hide their
delight at the wave of new immigrants, which many people here see as an
affirmation that Zionism has not died. ''This is the best thing that could
happen to Israel,'' Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said, smiling broadly in an
interview this week. ''I am happy every minute.'' And as to the lack of
preparations for the new arrivals, he added: ''Israel does not excel in planning.
But it does in improvising.''
1991(3rd of
Sh'vat, 5751): Leo Hurwitz, social activist and documentary film producer
passes away
1991: Within
24 hours of the outbreak of the Gulf War, the first Scud missiles landed near
Tel Aviv. At least seven Iraqi missiles carrying conventional warheads fell on
Israel early this morning in an area running from Tel Aviv to Haifa. The army
said that seven people had been slightly injured "from a number of
different hits in different parts of the country." "It was
mostly from broken glass and hysteria," a senior Government official said
of the injuries. The army said the most serious injuries had been a result of
shock.
1991(3rd
of Shevat, 5751): Eighty-one-year-old award-winning documentary film maker Leo
Hurwitz who fell victim to the infamous blacklist passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/19/obituaries/leo-hurwitz-81-blacklisted-maker-of-documentaries.html
1992:
Holocaust survivor Laura Gruenbaum was interviewed by Anthony Young today.
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn509133
1994: In Santa
Monica, CA Carrie and Jonathan Fried gave birth to Atlanta Braves southpaw Max
Fried who “was named the 2011 Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame
Male High School Athlete of the Year” and who “pitched for the 2009 Maccabiah
Games Team USA Juniors baseball team that won a gold medal in Israel.”
1994(6th of
Shevat, 5754): Arthur Altman, the songwriter whose work includes “All or
Nothing At All” passed away at the age of 83.
1995(17th
of Shevat, 5755): Seventy-nine year old Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan, the
Lithuanian born son Miriam Kagan and Benjamin Kagan, “a successful textile
businessman” and survivor of the Kaunas
Ghetto who along with his wife Margaret escaped to England where he founded
Kagan Textiles, Ltd. Passed away today after having served time in prison for
tax evasion.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-lord-kagan-1568684.html
1995:
Federated announced the merger of Abraham & Straus with the Macys,
Bloomingdales and Sterns chains which means that after 130 years the name
Abraham & Straus will pass into mercantile history
1998: Mathew
Drudge exposed what come to known as the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal on his
website.
1998:
“Ragtime,” a musical based on the E. L. Doctorow novel of the same name opened
on Broadway at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts.
1998: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of unique
interest to Jewish readers including The Old Religion by David Mamet and
Impressionism: Reflections and Perceptions by Meyer Schapiro.
1999(1st
of Shevat, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1999(1st
of Shevat, 5759): Ninety-two year old Frances Godowsky, a prolific painter and
sometime singer better known as George, Arthur and Ira's little sister passed
away today.(As reported by Robert McG. Thomas, Jr.)
2000: Arrow
Electronics, Inc. the world's largest electronics distributor, agreed to buy a
majority stake in the distribution business of Tel Aviv’s Rapac Electronics
Ltd.
2000: An
unsophisticated bomb exploded in a garbage can in the northern Israeli town of
Hadera today, and the Israeli police suspect that it was aimed at disrupting
peace talks. The Israeli police suspect that Palestinian militant members of
the Islamic Holy War group carried out the bombing.
2001(23rd
of Tevet, 5761): Eighty-five-year-old Mordechai Gifter the Virginian born rosh
yeshiva of Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland passed away to
2001(23rd
of Tevet, 5761): Architect Morris Lapidus passed away today at the age of
98. Born in Russia, his parents fled a year later when a pogrom swept
Odessa. Lapidus gained fame for designing three icons of American culture
- the Fontainebleau, Americana and Eden Roc hotels. They dominated Miami Beach
during the 1950’s when this strip of sand was one of America’s leading resort
and vacation sites.
2001(23rd
of Tevet, 5761): Sixty-five-year-old Canadian born actor Al Waxman who was a
founding member of the Canadian Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and
whom many Americans saw as Lt. Bert Samuels “Cagney and Lacey” passed away
today.
2002:
Worldwide release of “Blackhawk Dawn” the movie version of a book with the same
name produced by Jerry Bruckeimer with music by Hans Zimmer and featuring Jason
Isaacs took place today.
2003 (15th of
Shevat, 5763): Tu B’Shvat
2003: In New
York, premiere of “Divine Intervention” the work of Palestinian filmmaker Elia
Suleiman which is set on the West Bank and in Israel
2004: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Fools Rush In: Steve Case,
Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner by Nina Munk, There
Must Be A Pony In Here Somewhere: The AOL Time Warner Debacle
and the Quest for a Digital Future by Kara Swisher with Lisa Dickey and After
Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust by Eva
Hoffman
2005: In
“Trouble in a One-Synagogue Town,” published today Patrick Healy describes the
conflict between Congregation Tifereth Israel, which has been the only
synagogue in Greenport, NY, for more than 100 years and its former rabbi, Gary
Moskowitz, who is busy setting up a new congregation called the East Coast
Jewish Center in this old whaling village at the edge of Long Island. The
article is an example of the fact that while some think Jews are “a
stiff-necked people” they might be equally well described as “a very fractious
people.”
2006: Yaakov
Edri “was appointed Minister of Health and the Minister for the Development of
the Negev and the Galilee.
2006(18th
of Tevet, 5766): Ninety-four-year-old Sylvia Abrams, the mother of Leonard
Abrams, passed away today.
2006: While
serving his second stint as member of the Knesset, Avraham Hirschon was
appointed Minister of Communications while retaining the Tourism ministry.
2006: Roni
Bar-On began serving as Science and Technology Minister
2006: Tzupi
Livini began serving as Foreign Affairs Minister. She was the second
woman to hold this position. Her female predecessor, Gold Meir had left
the position almost 40 years to the day before Livini’s appointment.
2006: Ze’ev
Boim completed his term as Deputy Defense Minister and began serving as
Minister of Housing and Construction.
2006: In
an example of how much the Papacy has changed since its silence during the
Holocaust, the Jerusalem Post reported that Pope Benedict XVI, meeting
with Rome's chief rabbi Monday, expressed pain and worry over fresh outbreaks
of anti-Semitism, and called on Jews and Christians to wage a united battle
against hate. Waves of anti-Semitic violence and vandalism have hit Europe in
the past few years as can be seen by last week, attack on worshippers in a
Moscow synagogue by a man with a knife.
2007: At the
Panthéon, in Paris, on the occasion of the national ceremony in honor of the
Righteous of France, the President of the French Republic, Jacques Chirac
declared: "What a courage, what a generosity of spirit they needed!".
He learns from it a lesson: "You, Righteous of France, you have
transmitted to the Nation an essential message, for today and tomorrow: the
refusal of indifference, of blindness."
2007: At the
national ceremony in honor of the Righteous of France, Simone Veil, President
of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah declared: "The
Righteous of France thought simply having gone through History. In reality,
they wrote it".
2007: The
Seventh Annual British Film Festival, organized by the British Council, opens
at move houses in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nazareth and Jerusalem.
2007: Jeff
Marx co-wrote four songs for a musical episode of the NBC sitcom “Scrubs” that
appeared tonight.
2007: In
Canada, Liberal political leader, Irwin Cotler was appointed Critic for Human
Rights.
2007(28th of
Tevet, 5767): Columnist, humorist and social commentator Art Buchwald passed
away at the age of 81. (As reported by Richard Severo)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/obituaries/19buchwald.html?_r=0
2008: At the
Goethe Institute in Tel-Aviv a screening of “Secret Courage: The Walter
Suskind Story.”
2008: As
another ten rockets slammed into southern Israel from Gaza, one damaging a day
care center in the town of Sderot and another hitting Ashkelon, a town of
120,000 people.
2009: At
Theater J, at the D.C. Jewish Community Center, the final performance of
“Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears, written and performed by Theodore
Bikel.”
2009: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics
of special interest to Jewish readers including Restoring the Balance: A
Middle East Strategy for the Next President by Richard N. Haass, Martin
Indyk et al, Nothing to Fear FDR’s Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That
Created Modern America by Adam Cohen and FDR V. The Constitution
The Court-Packing Fight and the Triumph of Democracy by Burt Solomon
2009: IDF
troops are scheduled to begin observing a unilateral truce at 2 A.M. following
a vote by the Israeli Cabinet to accept an Egyptian-backed, unilateral 10-day
cease-fire, ending Operation Cast Lead three weeks after it began.
2009: Nadav
Kandar had 52 full color portraits which were pictures of the people
surrounding US President Barack Obama, from Joe Biden (Vice President) to
Eugene Kang (Special Assistant to The President) published in one issue of the
New York Times Magazine “in what was the largest portfolio of work by the same
photographer The New York Times Magazine has showcased in one single issue.”
2009: The
Jerusalem Post reported that a historic natural gas reservoir found
offshore from Haifa is poised to meet Israel's natural gas demand for about 15
years and reduce the country's dependence on gas imports from Egypt and
offshore from Gaza.
2010: In
Tel Aviv, world premiere of “The Child of Dreams” an “opera by Gil Shohat,
based on the play of the same name by Hanoch Levin “commissioned by the Israeli
Opera for its 25th century’ which is based on the events related to
the MS St. Louis.
2010: The 19th
annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York
premiere of “Forgotten Transports: To Poland,” Lukás Pribyl’s “documentary on
Czech Jews deported by the Nazis to camps and ghettos in Eastern Poland’s
Lublin region.
2010: The 10th
annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “Mary and
Max,” a “pleasingly demented and darkly comic, bittersweet, decidedly adult
claymation fable of an improbable pen pal relationship between an unloved
eight-year-old Australian girl and a middle-aged, morbidly obese Jewish New
Yorker with Asperger's syndrome.
2010: In Chevy
Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh Congregation is scheduled to present “Dreams of Freedom:
An Evening with Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz Honoring the Legacy of Martin Luther King
Jr.” World famous author and Talmudist, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, is scheduled to
discuss the biblical dimensions of MLK's "Letter from the Birmingham
Jail."
2010: More
than 100 Israeli security police forcibly entered Od Yosef Chai and arrested 10
Jewish settlers.’”
2011: Matan
Vilnai completed his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.
2011: The
World Premiere of “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to take place
at The New York Jewish Film Festival.
2011: The
Knesset's Law Committee, headed by MK David Rotem, is scheduled to debate a
bill on conversation the bill today ahead of a possible vote on it, much to the
fury of Shas.
2011 (13th
of Shevat, 5711): Edgar Tafel, the last surviving member of storied architect
Frank Lloyd Wright's original Taliesin Fellowship that began in 1932 at
Wright’s home and school in Wisconsin, died today at 98. As reported by Alan D.
Abbey, the Eulogizer for JTA)
http://www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.aspx?pid=148086833
2011(13th
of Shevat, 5711): Milton Rogovin, an optometrist and persecuted leftist who
took up photography as a way to champion the underprivileged and went on to
become one of America’s most dedicated social documentarians, passed away today
at the age of 101. (As reported by Benjamin Genocchio)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/arts/design/19rogovin.html
2012:
“The Footnote” an Israeli Hebrew language film centering on feuding Talmudic
scholars was named as one of the nine shortlisted entries for the Oscars
2012:
Publication today of “What makes a Jewish photographer Jewish?
https://philjason.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/what-makes-a-jewish-photographer-jewish/
2012: “ Iraq
‘n’ Roll” a musical documentary that describes Israeli rock musician Dudu
Tassa’s mission to revive his grandfather’s traditional Iraqi songs by
remixing the tunes for contemporary listeners, is scheduled to have its New
York premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2012: The
Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is scheduled to
sponsor a Middle East Forum featuring Ambassador Dennis Ross
2012: Defense
Minister Ehud Barak said today that Israel was "very far off" from a
decision about an attack on Iran over its nuclear program..
2013: The
Jacky Terrasson Trio is scheduled at the Red Sea Jazz Festival.
2013: In Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah is scheduled to host another “Shabbat Alive!”
service featuring Rich Recht.
2013(7th
of Shevat, 5773): Ariel mayor and former MK Ron Nachman died on Friday at
Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, after a prolonged struggle with cancer. He
was 70 years old.
2013: After a
long, tumultuous journey, Hans Sachs’ multimillion-dollar poster collection has
been rescued from Germany — and will be sold to the highest bidder beginning
toay at an auction house in New York.
2014: Sarah
Aronson is scheduled to read from one of her three books for children include Believe
at the Iowa City Public Library this afternoon.
2014:”Ana
Arabia” and “The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich” are scheduled to be shown at
the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2014: If
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks fail, Israel will be subjected to international
isolation similar to that which brought about the collapse of the Apartheid
regime in South Africa, Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who is leading
Israel’s negotiations with the Palestinians, warned today.
2014: Hundreds
of people are protesting in the Tel Aviv Rabin Square, urging "social
justice." (As reported by Gilad Morag)
2014: A rocket
hit an open area between two communities in Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. No
injuries were reported. The rocket was most likely launched from the center of
the Gaza Strip. A color red alert sounded in the area of Sdot Negev and Sha'ar
Hanegev regional councils prior to the hits. (As reported by Matan Tzuri)
2015: AMIA
prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was investigating the 1994 attack on the Buenos
Aires Jewish center “was found shot and killed in the bathroom of his
apartment” today. (JTA)
2015: “Three
Women” and “The Dune” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film
Festival.
2015: The
Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host a screening of “Abram Games:
Maximum Meaning, Minimum Means.”
2015: The
Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU is scheduled to host “When Should I Stop Laughing?
Reflections on Jewish Humor” a lecture by Ruth Wisse of Harvard University.
2015: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including A Voice Still Heard: Selected
Essays of Irving Howe edited by Nina How and When The Facts Change:
Essays, 1995-2010 by Tony Judt.
2016:
Employees of Israel’s Mega retail chain are scheduled to go on strike today.
2016:
In Tekoa, nineteen-year-old Othman Muhammad Sha’alan stabbed Michal Froman, the
pregnant “daughter-in-law of the late Rabbi Menachem Froman, a former rabbi of
the community who was known as a peace activist.”
2016:
Today, “US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro responded to criticism of his
charge last week that Israel appears to institute “two standards of adherence
to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians” in the West
Bank.”
2016:
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day the Illinois Holocaust Museum is
scheduled to offer half-price admission and “a public tour of the Karkomi
Holocaust Exhibition.”
2016:
Violinist Israel Gatterer and pianist Eliah Zabaly are scheduled to perform in
the “Classic-Rock” Concert at Migdalei haYam haTichon.
2016:
Thirty-eight-year-old Dafna Meir, nurse in the neurosurgery department of
Soroka Medical Center, Beesheba who was stabbed to death by a terrorist in her
home as she fought to protect her children is scheduled to “be laid to rest”
this morning “at the Harmenuhot Cemetery in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem.
2016:
Music video for "Shed a Little Light" produced in collaboration with
Naturally 7 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Video by Uri Westrich Grab this
track on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/…/shed-a-little-light…/id1072769793...
2017(20th
of Tevet, 5777): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrtzeit of Maimonides
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_20.html
2017(20th
of Tevet, 5777: “Border policeman Erez Levi was killed early this morning after
being run over by a car driven by Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an
2017:
“Khen Elmaleh, a DJ on the Galgalatz Army Radio popular music channel” “was
fired today after express support for Yaqoub Mousa Abu al-Qia’an who killed
border policeman Erez Levi.
2017:
An unidentified man used a hammer to smash “a window at the Aleph library in
Villeurbanne near Lyon in eastern France.” (JTA)
2017:
“Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Networks — an affiliate of
the Jewish federations of North America, which advises Jewish groups and
institutions on security — said 30 threats were called in today to Jewish
community centers. Media reported additional threats called into schools and
other Jewish institutions.” (JTA)
2017:
Eric Paslay is scheduled to give a concert in Chicago, the proceeds of which
will go the Illinois Holocaust and Education Center.
2017(20th
of Tevet, 5777): Eighty-six year old “coloratura soprano” Roberta Peters the
only daughter of Jewish couple from the Bronx passed away today.
2017:
“Peshmerga” and “Scarred Hearts” are scheduled to be shown at the New York
Jewish Film Festival.
2017:
Today Joel “Meyerowitz was honored for his lifelong work with a place at the
Leica Hall of Fame and was described as a "magician using colour" and
being able to "both capture and framing the decisive moment".
2017:
Bonni –Dara Michael is scheduled to lead a tour of Yeshiva University Museum’s
collection of clothing and textiles that includes “a gold bracelet that
belonged to the wife of the Hatam Sofer, a pearl and silver embroidered lectern
cover of a Chief Rabbi of Izmir, a custom-made 1950 Hattie Carnegie wedding
gown, and a 1969 Ark curtain made by Ina Golub for Temple Beth Ahm in New
Jersey.”
2017:
Today, Israel’s National Library announced the acquisition of thousands of
Hebrew manuscripts and books from the Valmadonna Trust Library which holds a
“13,000 book assemblage of Hebrew texts from Amsterdam to Shanghai and a host
of historic Jewish communities in between, spanning a millennium, was assembled
by the late Jack V. Lunzer, a Jewish British industrialist” who died in
December of 2016 at the age of 92. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)
2017:
Peter Hayes a “professor of history and German and Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust
Educational Foundation Professor of Holocaust Studies (emeritus) at
Northwestern University” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on his new book Why?, in which eight questions including: “Why were
Jews the primary victims? Why were Germans the instigators? Why did murder become
the "Final Solution"? And, why didn’t the international community do
more to help?
2018:
Peter G. Weintraub is scheduled to teach the next edition of “Introduction to
Judaism” at the Streicker Center.
2018:
“Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School announced the termination of Rabbi Shmuel
Krawatsky’s employment today, following the publication by The Jewish Week of
an article featuring allegations against him” concerning charges of child
molestation.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to offer a Gemara shiur on
mesechet Megillah.
2018:
In an act of Tikkun Olom, the Oxford University Jewish Society will be leading
Homeless People Outreach where participants will be
making up and delivering on the streets Oxford small care packages with
sandwiches, fruit and water to those “who are sleeping rough night after night
in this cold weather.”
2019: Hadassah is scheduled to host its annual Tu B’Shevat Seder
this evening in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2019: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host
a Shabbat dinner after Friday evening services.
2019: The New York Jewish Film Festival is dark tonight with
plans to continue tomorrow evening.
2020: Despite forecast of snow and near record wind chills in
Milwaukee, WI, Lewis Isaac Silber, the son of Rebecca and David Silber, and
grandson of Laurie and Bob Silber and Shelley and Steve Goldstein, is scheduled
to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah.
2020: This evening, “Leona” and “An Irrepressible Woman” are
scheduled to be screened at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2020(21st of Tevet, 5780 Parashat Shemot;
2021: The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to present online “a
special book discussion of Say the Name: A Survivor’s Tale in Prose and
Poetry by Judith H. Sherman” which is her “first-person account of life as
a ten before and during the Holocaust.
2021: Samia from jHUB and Pete Saudek from Repair the World
Cleveland are scheduled to lead, on Zoom, “a lunch and learn conversation about
racial and ethnic diversity in the Jewish community.”
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host artist Tobi Kahn and Rabba Wendy
Amsellem for a second time as they “explore Rabbi Yehuda haNasi’s story in both
the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds” which is part of “The Barbara C. Freedman
Artists’ Beit Midrash” lectures
2021: In Nahariya, residents face having to deal with the
aftermath of yesterday’s flooding of the Ga’aton River “which passes through
the city.
2022: LSJS is scheduled to host a new course with Debbie Meyer -
'Joshua: Realizing the dream'.
2022: Lockdown University is scheduled to present a lecture by
Trudy Gold on “The Empress Maria Theresa and the Jews.”
2022: The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host
screenings of “Hungry Hearts” and “The Replacement.”
2022: JTA is scheduled to host via “The Year Ahead in Jewish
News” with the editors of several 70 Faces Media publications — Philissa Cramer
of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Molly Tolsky of Alma and Kveller, and Andrew
Silow-Carroll of the New York Jewish Week — who will discuss the year ahead in
terms of “Jewish News.”
2022: YIVO is scheduled to present a discussion of the Russian
government to shut down “Memorial” which was founded in 1989 “to document and
publish the crimes of the Soviet regime. ”
2022: The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is scheduled to
host Dr. Jaclyn Granick “as she presents the history of American Jews who went
abroad in solidarity to rescue and rebuild Jewish lives.”
2022: The Vilna Shula, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is
scheduled to present a virtual Jazz Series featuring Berklee College of Music
Students and Alumni.
2022:
As part of Conversations on Zionism series from JNF-USA, “businessman, thought
leader and author Scott Shay is scheduled to hold a conversation with Jewish
National Fund-USA CEO Russell F. Robinson about diverse facets of modern
Zionism.
2022:
Based on previously published reports, as of today “Israel will have shortened
the quarantine for asymptomatic coronavirus patients to five days.”
2022:
The heavy rains and consequent floods that swept across Israel in recent days
gave way yesterday to strikingly cold temperatures which are expected to drop
even lower throughout the night.
2023:
The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore is scheduled to present Oleksandra
Kovalchuk, Acting Director of the Odesa Fine Arts Museum, who will discuss
Ukrainian art history and culture from the 19th century to modern times and how
Jewish art and artists played an important role in museums and education in
Ukraine.
2023:
Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to help with the launch of Christine
Jordan’s latest book Sacrifice, the first instalment in her Hebraica
trilogy, published by Bloodhound Books.
2023:
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley presents West Coast premiere of “In Every
Generation,” a play that follows one family through past, present and future
Passover seders.
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to the New York Premier of “Fauda” , along
with the series co-creator Avi Issacharoff and star Lior Raz (Doron Kavillio),
to watch the undercover unit operating on the West Bank and to hear from the
people behind the most-watched show in the history of Israel’s yes Studios. The
Chai Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet for the first time in 2023.
2023:
The Walnut Street Synagogue is scheduled to present “Chulent and Hamin: The
Stew with a Thousand Flavors” “an online exploration of Jewish food traditions
and the historical connections between Jews and food with Jewish food
researcher Joel Haber in our eight-part series, The Taste of Jewish Culture.”
2023:
In New Orleans, the Hillel at Tulane University is scheduled to hold its board
meeting.
2024: Hadassah Magazine executive editor
Lisa Hostein is schedule to “convene a virtual roundtable about the
antisemitic, anti-Israel abuse Jewish university students are experiencing and
what can be done to protect them.”
2024: The Miami Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host screenings of “A Pocketful of Miracles” and “Rabbi on the
Block.”
2024: Today, the JWA Book Talks series is
scheduled to host “Julia Watts Belser, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom
and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole, in conversation
with Judith Plaskow.”
2024: Drawing on the values of the
holiday Tu B’Shvat, “Jewish Arbor Day,” this Nights at the Round Table is
scheduled to explore environmental justice at the Capital Jewish Museum in
Washington, DC.
2024: Julie Salamon (Author and
Journalist) is scheduled to sit down with Emily Bowen Cohen author of the
graphic novel Two Tribes in an event presented by AJHS.
2024: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is
scheduled to host an on-site program “Towards Solidarity: An Interfaith
Conversation About Allyship & Advocacy.”
2024: The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is
scheduled to host a remote Community Conversation with Jesse Green, the chief
theatre critic for the New York Times during which participants will discuss
his article 'Here We Are: How Jewish People Built the American Theater As We
Know It'.
2024: A day to eat falafel in memory of
Holocaust survivor David (Dugo) Leitner who marked his survival by eating
falafel each year on January 18, the day of the Auschwitz Death March,
symbolizing the triumph of life and who passed away in 2023 at the Hadassah
Medical Center.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bjgrbggo2
2024: As January 18th begins in Israel,
the Hamas held hostages begin day 104 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.)
