This Day, January 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
January 19
570: Birthdate
of Mohammed. Mohammed thought the Jews of Arabia would join his new
religion. When they did not, he turned on them in much the same way
Luther would when the Jews rejected his overtures.
639: Dagobert
I, the first of the French kings to be buried in the royal tombs at Saint Denis
Basilica who had during his reign, he proposed driving all Jews who would not
accept Christianity from his domain passed away today.
973: Benedict
VI began his Papacy approximately three years after the death of Hasdai ibn
Shaprut while Jews were still enjoying what has since been referent to as the
“Golden Age in Spain.”
1180: In
France, Phillip August seized all of the Jews living on his estates and
imprisoned them. He freed them in exchange for a ransom of fifteen
hundred silver marks.
1419: During
the Hundred Years' War, Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his
reconquest of Normandy. This entry would appear to be loaded with irony from
both a secular and Jewish point of view. The successful re-conquest of
Normandy brought both the English Kings and the Jewish people back to a common
point of departure that had begun in 1066. From the secular point of
view, this is called a re-conquest because Henry traced his right to the throne
of England on the conquest of William the Conqueror who ruled Normandy in
1066.From the Jewish point of view there is a whole lot more. While reportedly
Jews had lived in the British Isles since the time of the Romans, the first
written records of Jewish settlement in England date from the time of the
Norman Conquest, mentioning Jews who arrived with William the Conqueror in
1066. Jews lived in England from the Norman Conquest until they were expelled
in 1290 by King Edward. Many of these Jews found refuge in what is modern
day France which would have included Normandy. At this period in history
Normandy was a separate kingdom. While we can only speculate as to when the
first Jew arrived in Normandy, we know Jews were living there in the 11th
century there are written records concerning the persecution of Jews in
Normandy in 1007. “At that time a Jewish notable from Rouen, Jacob bar
Jeqouthiel, who had initially been imprisoned by Duke Richard II, received
authorization to visit the Pope, leaving behind one of his sons as a hostage in
the hands of Richard. Pope John XVIII listened to his complaint and sent a
message to France requiring that the persecution should be ended. Jacob was not
to return to Normandy however. Instead he went to join his family in Lorraine,
and died a few years later in Arras. The reign of (Wiiliam) the Conqueror was a
period in which the Normandy Jews flourished; they were treated with respect by
the Duke, and after 1066, they were encouraged to settle in England and
especially in London. But the preparations for the 1st Crusade (1096) in Rouen,
as in many regions of Western Europe, were accompanied by veritable pogroms
which were violent, but also brief. William Rufus, who reigned in England from
1087 and administered Normandy in the absence of his elder brother Robert Curthose,
did not approve of the excesses involved, and was able, fairly quickly, to put
a stop to them. The members of the Jewish community of Rouen and their property
had, however, suffered cruelly. The construction of the house in Rouen
identified as a yeshiva (Talmudic academy) was, without doubt, part of the
programme of restoration of this community and its buildings in the year 1100.
Under the Plantagenets, the status of Jews in Normandy and in England was on
many occasions defined in favorable terms by Henry II, and subsequently by King
John. From before the end of the 12th century, written sources of Hebrew origin
give the names of many Doctors of Law who taught in Rouen. The importance of
Rouen as a centre of Jewish culture is also attested by the fact that a doctor
as eminent as Abraham ibn Ezra, at the height of his career, went there to work
from 1149 onwards and this is where he wrote, amongst other things, his great
commentary of Exodus, the very important text known by its name of Anciennes
Règles, (Ancient Rules) which pronounces on the teaching of the Torah. It could
have been composed, in its original version, on the occasion of a regional
synod that met in Rouen in the 11th century. At the beginning of the 13th
century, economic prosperity and cultural activity in the Jewish community had
reached a high level; this is the explanation for the effectiveness with which
the Jews of Rouen were able to stand up to the trials that were to beset them
during this century.” For more on this subject including how the Jews of
Normandy fared under rulers who had expelled the Jews from England, see The
Jews in Medieval Normandy: A Social and Intellectual History by Norman Golb
1567: Pope
Pius V issued “Cum nos nuper,” a bull that forbids Jews from owning real
estate. This would not be the last of the anti-Semitic Bulls issued by Pius V.
1616: In
Worms, under orders of the Bishop of Speyer and with the backing of Frederick's
troops, the Jews were readmitted to the city. 1616: The Jews were readmitted by
order of the elector palatine and bishop of Speyer.
1629:
The reign of Shah Abbas I who in his final years followed the demands of the
Shi’a clergy and required “Jews to wear a distinctive badge on clothing and
headgear” came to an end today.
1657: Thanks to the influence of Abraham Teixeira
de Mattos who had lent Frederick III “to fight his wars”, the Danish monarch
permitted “the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion” “to travel everywhere
within the kingdom and to trade and traffic within the limit of the law.
1764(15th
of Shevat, 5524): Tu B’Shevat
1764: John
Wilkes, the advocate for free speech and “religious tolerance” who said “I wish
to see rising in the neighborhood of a Christian cathedral, near its Gothic
towers, the minaret of a Turkish mosque, a Chinese pagoda, and a Jewish
synagogue” was expelled from the House of Commons today.
1733: Rabbi Isaac Ben Zalman Ben Moses Schulhof,
the Prague native who was the “rabbi of a small congregation in Ofen, whose
wife was murdered and whose “son died in prison at Raab” passed away today.
1795: The
Batavian Republic was proclaimed in the Netherlands bringing to an end the
Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. The Batavian Republic was a genuine
expression of Dutch nationalism but it was also a product of the French
Revolution. Following in the path of that revolution, the creation of the
Batavian Republic brought total emancipation for the Jews of the Netherlands.
1798:
Birthdate of Auguste Comte, the man who “coined the term sociology” a field
that Jews have populated from “A” (Raymond Aron) to “Z” (Eviatar Zerubavel)
1801:
Birthdate of Bavaria native Nahum Hirsch Leucht, the husband of Chana Rosenbaum
and the father of Henrietta Leucht.
1803(25th of
Tevet, 5563): Marcus (Markus) Herz, the native of Berlin who was a pupil of
philosopher Emmanuel Kant before becoming a prominent German physician and
lecturer who was appointed physician at the Jewish Hospital shortly after
earning his MD in 1774 passed away today.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/herz-marcus
1805: Wolf
Breidenbach succeeded in having the “Leibzoll” abolished in Raisbon and
Darmstadt. The Liebzoll was a “toll which Jews had to pay on entering
towns where they did not dwell or had no special privileges.”
1807:
Birthdate of Robert E. Lee who was a general in the CSA whose “one million
members” included approximately 2,000 Jews and who as the leading General of
the Army of Northern Virginia came close to destroying the United States of
America which has been a haven to Jews almost from its inception.
1808:
Birthdate of Moritz Rappaport, the native of Lemberg, a leading physician and
poet who wrote an epic lyric poem, “Moses” in 1842.
1808(19th of
Tevet, 5568): Eighty-three-year-old Bohemian born Austrian tobacco-manufacturer
Israel von Honigsberg, the first Austrian Jew to be “ennobled” passed away
today in Vienna.
1809(2nd
of Shevat, 5569): Austrian tobacco-manufacturer Israel Honig whose firm held a
contract to provision the Austrian Army during the Seven Years War, who found
favor with Empress Maria Theresa and who became the first Austrian to be
ennobled when in in 1789 Emperor Joseph II conferred upon him the patent of
hereditary nobility with the title "Edler von Hönigsberg" passed away
today in Vienna.
1813: In
London, Sarah and Abraham Joseph gave birth to Raphael Joseph, the husband of
Rosetta Benjamin and the father of Sarah, Mark and Elizabeth Joseph.
1813: Araon
Solomon married Ann Lazarus at the Hambro Synagogue.
1817: In
Hamburg, businessman Meyer Wolffson and his wife gave birth to Isaac Wolffson
the German Lawyer who was a member of the Hamburg Constituent Assembly, a
leader of the Jewish community and the father of Albert Wolffson.
1819:
Birthdate of Dutch native Hannah Joseph, the wife of Samuel Henry Gluckstein
whom she married at London’s Great Synagogue and with whom she had eleven
children.
1827: In
London, Maurice Solomon, the Edmonton, London, born son of Bets and Moshe
Eliezer Lieberman Solomon and his wife Louisa Solomon gave birth to Rachel
Essinger, the wife of Max Essine and the mother of Solomon Max Essinger.
1829: Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres. According to one critic,
Goethe may have disparaged Jews in “Faust,” but he also had no problem
ridiculing his fellow Christians. Goethe attributed his anti-Semitism to
the prevailing beliefs in the society in which he was raised. His view of
Jews changed for the better when he actually may and got to know some.
From that time forward he found it difficult to view the creators of the
Bible and the Song of Songs as some sort of sub-human race.
1832: In
Jamaica, Alexander Joseph Lindo was appointed to be a Quartermaster.
1839: The
British East India Company captures Aden. Jews had been living in Aden since
the third century. By the time the British arrived, the Jewish population must
have numbered in the thousands since 20 years later, they completed the Grand
Synagogue of Aden (the Shield of Avraham) which seated 2,000 and was one of
seven synagogues in the colony.
1839:
Birthdate of French post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. Relax;
Cezanne was not Jewish. But he did enjoy a connection to the Jewish
people which is illustrative of the state of French society in Pre-World War I
France. Cezanne grew up in Aix-en-Provence, where he was a childhood friend of
Emile Zola, the novelist who wrote “J’Accuse,” the widely read expose on the
framing of Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jewish army officer falsely convicted of
espionage. Cezanne was an ardent Dreyfusard and exulted, along with other
intellectuals and the French Jewish community, when Dreyfus was finally
exonerated. Later in life Cezanne Judaism developed a relationship with Camille
Pissarro, a Sephardic Jew and fellow Impressionist with whom he painted side by
side in Paris and in Aix-en-Provence.
1843: In
Venezuela, Abraham and Sarah Miriam Baiz gave birth to Jacob Biaz who after
being raised in Elizabethport, NJ, became a successful businessman in Latin
America, serving as Consul-General of the Government of Honduras and a member
of the Coffee Exchange as well as Vice President of the Hebrew Sheltering and
Guardian Society.
1845(11th
of Shevat, 5605): Fifty-two-year-old Mordecai Lyons, the Surinam born son of
Eleazar Lyons and the husband of May Bausman whom he married in Baltimore,
passe away today.
1848(14th
of Shevat, 5608): Eighty-one-year-old Isaac D’Israeli passed away in
Buckinghamshire. A leading literary figure of his time, D’Israeli’s real
claim to fame is that he was the father of Benjamin Disraeli. As a result
of a dispute with Bevis Marks Synagogue, the elder D’Israeli took the advice of
a friend and had his children baptized. Thanks to this, “Dizzy”
ultimately became Prime Minister.
1851: In
Philadelphia, PA, Samuel Fernberger and Lotta Lowenberg gave birth to Henry
Fernberger, the husband of Julia Weiller who was a Treasurer of the Jewish
Publication Society, a member of the Board of Directors of Congregation Rodeph
Shalom and vice President of the Mercantile Club.
1857: In
Amsterdam, Jacob and Rebecca Mozes Gans gave birth to Mozes Gans the husband of
Sientje Gans.
1859: Lewis
Levy married Isabella Levin at the Great Synagogue today.
1859: The
“Personal” column published described the presentation by “the Hebrew
Benevolent Society of Charleston a handsome testimonial to Mrs. Elizabeth
Bonnell, for unobtrusive, but signally useful charity bestowed upon a poor
Jewish family heavily visited with the fever last summer. The Society
also remembered the action of John Drummond, Esq., the father of Mrs. Bonnell,
who was intimately associated with her in alleviating the sufferings of the
afflicted family.”
1861(8th
of Shevat, 5621): Parashat Bo
1861: As Jews
observe Shabbat, the United States hurtles towards Civil War with Tennessee
voting to hold an election that will decide the issue of secession.
1862: In
Grodno, Abraham and Sara Hoffman gave birth to “gastroenterologist and inventor
of surgical instruments” Dr. Max Einhorn, who had come “to the United States as
ship’s doctor in 1884 and served in the Army Medical Corps during WW I”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/09/26/84425674.pdf
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_735243
https://www.jta.org/1953/09/28/archive/dr-max-einhorn-noted-medical-authority-dies-in-new-york
1863: In
Prussia, wealthy liberal politician, industrialist, and estate-owner, Anton
Ludwig Sombart and his wife gave birth to Werner Sombart author of Die Juden
und das Wirtschaftsleben (The Jews and Modern Capitalism) in which he
documented “Jewish involvement in historic capitalist development” in which “he
argued that Jewish traders and manufacturers, excluded from the guilds
developed a distinctive antipathy to the fundamental of medieval commerce” and
Deutscher Sozialismus in which he
contended that “the antithesis of the German spirit is the Jewish spirit, which
is not a matter of being born Jewish or believing in Judaism but is a
capitalistic spirit” and the "chief task" of the German people and
National Socialism is to destroy the Jewish spirit.”
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-jews-and-modern-capitalism-by-werner-sombart/
1864: In
Little Rock, AR where Jacob, Hyman and Levi Mitchell had settled in the 1830’s
making them the first Jews to settle in Arkansas’ state capital, ordinances
were adopted that were designed to pave the way for Arkansas to re-enter the
Union.
1865: In St.
Petersburg, Russia, Alexander Serov and Valentina Bergman gave birth to
Valentin Alexandrovich Serov one of the leading portrait artists of the last
half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th
century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Levitan_older.jpg
1867: Achille
Fould, the son of a successful Jewish banker, was replaced by Émile Ollivier as
the chief advisor to Emperor Napoleon III.
1870: Le Petit
Journal, a conservative Parisian newspaper published by co-owner Moise Polidore
Milaud, the Jewish son of Felicity Bellon and Jassuda Millaud and the bestselling newspaper in France, more than doubled its
daily circulation, selling 594,000 copies today which was the day that
mass-murder Jean-Baptiste “was executed publicly by guillotine outside the
gates of La Roquette Prisons.”
1873: In
Pressburg, Moritz and Regina (Frey) Bettelheim gave birth to rabbinic student
turned businessman Samuel Bettelheim the husband of Natalie Lipschitz who was
an early leader of the Hungarian Zionist movement and “a leader of the
Pressburg Orthodox Jewish Community.” (Some sources show the birthdate as 1872)
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Bettelheim_Samuel
1873:
Birthdate of Baltimore resident Laura Oppenheimer Guttmacher, the wife of Rabbi
Adolf Guttmacher and mother of Dorothy and Dr. Alan Guttmacher, the “founder of
the American Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians “now known as the
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals.”
1874(1st of
Shevat, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1876: Moses
and Rose Harsch Fraley gave birth to Missouri resident Edward C. Fraley, the
brother of Sadie Fraley Stix and Jessie Fraley.
1877(5th
of Shevat, 5637): Sixty-nine-year-old Frank-am-Main born British banker David
Jacob de Stern, the husband of Sophia Goldsmith and the father of Sydney Stern
and Alice Theresa Lucas who with his brother Hermann co-found the financial
house Stern Brothers and who was created a viscount by King Luis I of Portugal
passed away today in London.
1878(15th
of Shevat, 5638): Tu B’Shevat
1880: Baron
Gustave de Rothschild and his wife Cecilie Anspach gave birth to their son
Robert who became a civil and mining engineer.
1881:
Birthdate of John Nathan “Dutch” Levine the Polish born American football
player who starred at Phillips Andover Academy, Colby College and Yale before
coaching at Davidson College, Auburn University and Transylvania College.
1882: Charles
VI, a French grand opera in five acts with music composed by Fromental Halevy
was performed for the first time today in Mexico.
1883: In New
York City, Sarah Metzger and Robert Reis gave birth to Columbia graduate Arthur
M. Reis, president of Robert Reis & Company, the men's clothing
manufacturer founded by his father, the husband of Claire Raphael Reis, the
recipient of New York City’s Handel Medallion or “her outstanding contributions
and dedicated efforts for cultural achievement” who was Director American
Arbitration Association and Chairman of the executive committee, New York State
Chamber of Commerce.
1883(11th
of Shevat, 5643): Fifty-five-year-old Benjamin Moses Verveer, the Dutch born son
of Mozes Abraham Verveer and Saartje Isaac van der Velden and husband of Clara
de Bok passed away today in Antwerp after which he was buried at Rotterdam.
1885: In the
Ukraine, “Simcha” and “Esther Handelman” gave birth to “Solomon/Samuel Max
Handelman” the husband of Mollie Handelman and the father of Fred and Seymour
Handelman.
1888:
Birthdate of Irving Wexler, who became known as the gangster Waxey Gordon
1888(6th
of Shevat, 5648): Rabbi Adolf Ehrentheil passed away today in Bohemia.
1889(17th
of Shevat, 5649): Parashat Yitro
1890: Two days
after she had passed away Blanche Rebecca Joseph, the daughter of Louis and
Bluma Joseph was buried today in the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1890: It was
reported today that of the 360 youths admitted to the House of Refuge on
Randall’s House this year, eleven of them were Jewish.
1890: It was
reported today that the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was one of the organizations that
received a yellow silk banner for its participation in the Washington
Centennial Parade last spring.
1890: The
Trustees of the Hebrew Technical Institute are scheduled to meet at 11 A.M. at
the Young Men’s Hebrew Association to elect officers to serve for the rest of
the year.
1890: “New
Publications” published today includes a review of The Unknown God: Or
Inspiration Among Pre-Christian Races by C. Loring Brace in which the
author expresses admiration for the fact “that so few evidences of Egyptian
influence are found in the Hebrew faith. The thinks and teachers of the
Jews ‘were visited by those higher and purer inspirations which made them the
greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history.’” Even though they
lived among tribes “of far greater wealth and refinement…the Hebrew leaders
preserved themselves from the contamination of polytheism and handed down the
faith in a pure religion.’ “The Jews of modern days ought to be forever
honored for such progenitors; a race which could produce such men deserves the
lasting respect of mankind.” (Brace was a 19th Protestant
minister whose work with downtrodden included the famous “Orphan Train” that
relocated parentless children from urban slums to the Midwest)
1891:
Birthdate of Albertina Rasch, the Viennese born American dancer and
choreographer who was also the wife of composer Dimitri Tiomkin.
1892: In
Vienna, “Rudolph Christians, a well-known German actor, and his wife, Bertha”
gave birth to actress Mady Christians, who had left her native Germany because
of the rise the Nazis and the treatment of the Jews and ended up being one of
the few non-Jews to be Blacklisted, in part for her friendship with such people
as Lillian Hellman.
1892: Augustus
Meyer, a Jew from St. Paul, MN, tried to kill himself this morning in New York
City.
1892:
Birthdate of Benjamin Percival Schulberg the pioneer film producer and movies
studio executive. B.P. Schulberg, as he was known, was the father of Bud
and Stuart Schulberg.
1892:
Birthdate of Isaac Don Levine, the Russian born American newspaper man who
provided testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee in the case
against Alger Hiss.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/17/obituaries/isaac-don-levine-89-foe-of-soviet.html
1893(2nd
of Shevat, 5653): Mrs. Charles Harris, a member of prominent Jewish family from
Cleveland, apparently took her own life at the Marlborough Hotel in New York
City.
1893(2nd
of Shevat, 5653): Sixty-eight-year-old German native “Julius Eichberg, one of
the greatest violin teachers” in the United States “and director of the Boston
Conservatory of Music” passed away today. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/01/20/106860123.pdf
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/5075926/julius_eichberg_obituary_in/
1894: It was
reported today that the United Hebrew Societies is one of three charities that
will benefit from an upcoming band competition at the Madison Square Garden.
1894(12th
of Shevat, 5654): Seventy-six-year-old Henriette Grossmann Schottländer, the
wife of Lobel Schottlander and the mother of Julius and Salo Schottlander passe
away after which she was buried at Wroclaw, Poland.
1894:
Birthdate of St. Louis native Gilbert Harris, the University of Missouri and
Washington University alum who was an executive director of the YMHA and YWHA.
1894: It was
reported today that in Macon, GA, Rabbi Farher has created “the greatest
sensation. By forging documents, he has stolen between one and two thousand
dollars from several prominent people including Sam Waxelbaum and Simon
Josephson. A recent he widower, he is now engaged to four women, two of
whom have acquired trousseaus in anticipation of marrying this father of two
children.
1895: Of the
Four hundred thousand “notices containing instructions to householders about
disposing ashes and garbage” that have been printed and are being distributed
in New York City, 10,000 are in Hebrew and none are in Yiddish.
1895: It was
reported today that representatives of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum
Society, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and the Sanitarium for Hebrew
Children were among the charitable organizations who met to discuss ways to
obtain public funds under the new rules adopted in New York.
1895: It
was reported today that Robert Olyphant is President of the Hebrew Sheltering
Guardian Society which is currently caring for 800 children referred to the
organization by the state.
1896: Dr.
Joseph Silverman delivered a lecture entitled “Social Ostracism” at Temple
Emanu-El in New York City.
1897: One day
after she had passed away, 28-year-old Fanny Cook, the wife of Barnett Cook,
was buried toay at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1896: The
Russian American Hebrew Association held its regular meeting today at the
Hebrew Institute.
1897(16th
of Shevat, 5657): Eighty-five-year-old Perla Sheftall Solomons, the daughter of
Elkali Bush Sheftall and Savannah born physician Mordecai Sheftall and the
husband of Georgetown, SC native Lizar Solomons whom she married in 1847 and
the mother of Cecilia Solomons Abrahams after she was buried in the Laurel
Grove Cemetery North in Savannah, GA.
1897: N.S.
Rosenau, a manager of the United Hebrew Charities, was among those attending
the second monthly conference of charity organizations being held today at the
United Charities Building.
1898: It
was reported today that in Nantes, the shops belonging to the Jews have been
stoned as violence sparked by the Dreyfus Affair and anti-Semitism sweep the
country.
1898: At
the home of the bride’s mother in Savannah, GA, Rabbi I.P. Mendes officiated at
the wedding of Jennie Einstein and Jacob Pinkussohn of Charleston, SC.
1898: Extra
policemen were guarding the homes of Emile Zola and Mathieu Dreyfus tonight as
anti-Semitic mobs ranged through Paris. Zola was the editor who had come
to Alfred Dreyfus’ defense and Mathieu was the French officer’s brother who
worked to free him.
1898: Copies
of Aurore, the newspaper published by Georges Clemenceau, a non-Jewish
supporter of Dreyfus and a critic of the military, were burned by the mob in
Bordeaux.
1898: The
Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society sponsored its 15th annual charity ball
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
1898: A
series of violent anti-Jewish demonstrations took place this evening in
Algiers.
1898: Isaac
Greenblatt, the owner of a shoemaker’s shop who is president of an Orthodox
congregation on East Broadway said that the matter concerning the expulsion of
Isaac Rabinowitz for being a gambler in violation of the organizations seventy
laws of governance has been referred to their lawyer after papers were served
by Louis A. Jaffter the attorney for Rabinowitz who is seeking $2,000 in
damages.
1898(25th of
Tevet, 5658): Seventy-five-year-old Abraham Schlesinger passed away
today. A native of Cassel, he came to the United States in 1848.
“Three years later he began” manufacturing “uniforms for the Police Department
and has been supplying the members of the force ever since as head of …A.
Schlesinger & Sons. He supported numerous Jewish organizations
including Mt Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Montefiore
Home. A widower, he leaves behind six sons to recite kaddish.
1899: Based on
reports published today on the number of tickets sold, approximately 1,500
attended the Hebrew Orphan Asylum’s annual charity ball.
1899:
Simon Wolf, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey now living in Washington, DC,
gave a speech to the Jewish Alliance in New York on the future of the Jews in
America.
1900(19th of
Shevat, 5660): Eighty-year-old Rabbi Moses Ehrenreich or Rome passed away today
in the same year (5660) that saw the death of “Rabbi Elie Benamozheg of
Leghorn,” known as “the Jewish Plato,” Senator Isaac Artom and 49-year-old
journalist Attilio Luzzatto
1901(28th
of Tevet, 5661): Parashat Vaera
1901: “The
Berbers” published today provided a review of Among the Berbers of Algeria by
Anthony Wilkins who wrote of the Jews they met in their travels that “for all
we know, may be thieves but it was obvious that whatever their commercial
morality, it was not worse than the Arabs and their commercial capacity was one
thousand times better.”
1902: Today,
“at the annual meeting of the supporters of the Hebrew Technical School for
Girls, President Nathaniel Myers read the annual report which showed the
school’s revenues had exceeded expenses by three thousand dollars and the
attendees debated whether or not to remove Hebrew from the school’s name as
part of a way to attract non-Jewish students.
1903: The
Times’s correspondent in Berlin says that “the Central Association of German
Citizens of the Jewish faith has been invited to protest against Framz
Delitzsch’s alleged attacks upon ‘the most sacred possession of the Jews, the
Scriptures.’”
1903(20th
of Tevet, 5663): Eighty-year-old “British banker, stockbroker and politician”
Sir Joseph Sebag-Montefiore the London born son of Solomon Sebag and Sarah
Montefiore and the husband of Adelaide Cohen whose “surname was supplemented
with royal permission with that of his mother’s family as Sebag-Montefiore.
1904: School
Superintendent Julia Richman brought eighteen boys to court to testify against
the organizer of the “Fagins” a gang of about 1,500 mostly Russian Jewish boys
who are coerced or conned into stealing for the benefit of Meyer Lewis, aka
“Cockeye.”
1905: Four
days after seventy-seventh birthday and three days after he had passed away,
Freiderick David Mocatta was buried to in the Ball Pond Cemetery in London.
1906:
“Mohammed el Torres has informed the delegates” to the Algeciras Conference
“that the Sultan is prepared to abolish the laws requiring Jews to prostrate
themselves before the mosques and engage in other humiliating practices, but
the delegates doubt the wisdom of their abolition as it is said the
non-performance of the traditional obeisances by Jews would excite an
anti-Jewish outbreak.”
1906: In
Rochester, NY, Rabbi Isaac Kaplin of Congregation B’nai David opened a package
he received this morning and “found it contained dynamite and gunpowder” which
was intended to be a bomb.
1906: The Allgemeine Zeitung Judt reported
that the Board of the Berlin congregation had discussed the question of
admitting proselytes
1906: In St.
Petersburg, at today’s meeting of the Constitutional Democratic Congress during
which the question of party participation in the Duma, “a Jewish delegate from
Vilna pleaded for participation” saying that “as regards the Jews…it was a
question of life and death to have a representative in Duma who should” be able
to “convey to the nation a presentment of the horrors of persecution the Jews
were enduring.
1907(4th
of Shevat, 5667) Parashat Bo
1907:
Twenty-six-year-old Russian born Solomon Linder, a veteran of the
Russian-Japanese War arrived today in the United States and began to buy and
sell junk in New Philadelphia where eight years later he helped to found the
Tuscarawas Iron and Metal Company, married Sarah Bitterman and joined
B’rith Abraham.
1907: Isidor
Straus, the President of the Educational Alliance and his wife are scheduled to
set sail today for Alexandria, Egypt which is the first leg on “an extended
trip to the East.”
1907: “The
Polish Jew” published today provides a detailed review of Beatrice C.
Baskerville’s, The Polish Jew: His Social and Economic Value.
1908: Today,
at the start of the annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls,
Chairman Nathaniel Myers announced that he had just received a letter from
author Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain, that he “was suffering from a bad cold”
and would not be able to address the meeting.
1908(16th
of Shevat, 5668): Bert H. Printz, Jr. the four-month-old son of Bert and
Mildred Hays Printz passed away today after which he was buried in Youngstown,
OH.
1909:
Twenty-year-old Sam Melitzer, the son of Austrian Jewish immigrants scored 20
points “to lead Columbia to…victory over Princeton.”
1909: At the
Mercantile Club, Samuel Grabfelder of Philadelphia is scheduled to call the
meeting of the Twenty-First Council of American Hebrew Congregations
1910: “Benefit
for National Jewish Hospital” published today described plans for the upcoming
“benefit performance that will be give at the Broadway Theatre for the National
Jewish Hospital for Consumptives at Denver which a non-sectarian and free
medical facility.
1910: It was
reported today that Nathan Straus has obtained a temporary injunction
“restraining Max Nathan, Alfred Nathan, the Lakewood Hotel Company and its
agents and attorneys from take steps to eject the Tuberculosis Preventorium
from the Cleveland cottage on the hotel grounds in Lakewood, NJ.”
1911: Rabbi
Samuel Schulman is scheduled to deliver on address on “The Russian Situation”
at reception this evening marking the end of meeting of the 22nd
council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in New York City.
1911:
Following its premiere at Vienna in 1908, Die geschiedene Frau (The Divorcée),
an operetta in three acts by Leo Fall, was performed in Rome for the first time
today.
1912:
Birthdate of Russian economist Leonid Kantorovich who won the Nobel Prize for
Economics in 1975 and passed away in 1986.
1912(29th
of Tevet, 5672): Civil War veteran Albert Cahn passed away today in Joplin, MO
1912: In New
York City publication of the first issue of the Yiddish weekly Die Yiddische Wochenschrift,
1913: At a
time when there was a concerted effort to replace Saturday with Sunday for
Sabbath services, Dr. Gerson Levi of the People’s Synagogue Association is
scheduled to preach at a service this afternoon at the Ziegfeld Theatre in
Chicago.
1913: The
fourteenth Sinai Orchestral Concert under the direction of conductor Arthur
Dunham and featuring tenor William Barlow Ross as the soloist is scheduled to
take place this evening at Sinai Temple in Chicago.
1914: Francis
de Pressensé a leading French journalist and politician who came from a
prominent Protestant family passed away. During the Dreyfus Affair, he
sided with the Jewish officer, supporting General Picquart and losing his
position in the “Legion of Honour” because he sided with Emile
Zola.
1915:
During WW I, first German zeppelin attack on England.
1915: In
Chicago, during today’s joint session of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations and the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods. Dr. Emil G.
Hirsch “assailed the low interest in religious affairs of the congregations
today,” advocated “extension of the Jewish faith into every community in the
United States where Jewish people reside” and appealed “for a return to the
sterner morality taught in the lessons of the prophets.
1916: It was
understood that most of the aliens who benefited from the bribery scheme for
which James Dallas of the Department the Home Office and Noi Yoachim Altans
were indicted today in London were “Turko-Spanish Jews” trying to escape from
Turkey by pretending to go to Holland but really planning on getting to Great
Britain.
1916: It was
reported today that “Mrs. Solomon Schechter,” the widow of the late President
of the Jewish Theological Seminary “has written to Louis Marshall, Chairman of
the Board of Directors, to offer, on behalf of herself and children, the Jewish
books and manuscripts, including a number Genizah texts, which the library of
the late Dr. Schechter, as well as a number of his own manuscripts” along with
the academic robes Doctor Schechter was as a member of the University at
Cambridge.
1917: Bernard
M. Baruch, Daniel Guggenheim, Murry Guggenheim, Isaac Guggenheim, Sol
Guggenheim, Simon Guggenheim, Adolph Lewisohn and David Hyman were each listed
as having contributed $5,000 to the fund for the support of the Hebrew Union
College in Cincinnati, while Adolph S. Ochs was shown to have contributed
$10,000.
1917: In two
speeches delivered today in Washington, DC at the National Geographical
Society, former President William Howard Taft “said that after the war, with
the financial burdens of the belligerent countries bound to be heave than ever
in the history of world, the Jewish banker would have be called in to help
solve the fiscal problems involved” while at the same, “one of the blessings
that would grow out of the American participation in a League to Enforce World
Peace would a constant influence for the betterment of the condition of the
Jews” -- “the only people who, for 1,800
years have had no country…yet have retained their religion, their cohesion,
their intellectual capacity, their loyalty to ther race and have, whenever
there was any pretense of equality of opportunity for them, forged their way
ahead into portions of prominence, influence and power in business, in
professions, in philosophy, in art, in literature and in government.’
1917: The
Zimmerman Telegram, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United
States, was received by the German Ambassador to Mexico today. This
ill-considered electronic missive helped pave the road for the U.S. to enter
World War I on the side of the Allies. The Zimmermann Telegram by Jewish
historian Barbara Tuchman provides a very readable account of this little-known
piece history where the policies of Germany, Mexico, Great Britain and the
United States came together on the world stage.
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/zimmermann
1917: The new
officers of the Temple Sisterhoods listed today were Mrs. Abram Simon,
President; Mrs. J. Walter Freiberg, Vice President; Mrs. Benjamin Lowenstein,
Secretary.
1917: It
was reported today that Rabbi Max Heller of New Orleans and Rabbi Martin
Zielonka of El Paso, TX are among the rabbis who have signed a resolution
asking that action be taken to obtain religious services for Jews in the United
States Army and Navy, including a request to appoint Jewish chaplains or if
that is not possible, “to place rabbis at points where soldiers are stationed
in the greatest numbers.”
1918: This
afternoon in Baltimore, Felix M. Warburg announced that it appeared the drive
for “membership in the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies had netted 36,400 new members bring the societies total membership to
56,400.
1919: At
today’s final session of the First Jewish Labor Congress which has been meeting
at the Yorkville Casino, “the delegates, representing 500,000 members of
organized labor throughout the country, adopted a resolution favoring a free
republic in Palestine where the Jews will have no more right than any other
people until, by immigration or otherwise, they become the majority.”
1920: The US
Senate voted against membership in League of Nations. With the rejection
of the Versailles Treaty and membership in the League of Nations, America
withdrew from the affairs of Europe. This withdrawal is seen by many
historians as one of the causes of World War II, with all the destruction and
tragedy that that meant for the Jewish people.
1920: Founding
of the American Civil Liberties Union.
1920(28th
of Tevet, 5680): Sixty-two-year-old Cincinnati born businessman Louis S. Levi,
an “officer of the United Jewish Charities” and the member of the board of
Hebrew Union College passed away today in Atlantic City, NJ,
1920: In
Providence, RI, Walter Irving Sundlun and Jennette "Jan" Zelda
(Colitz) Sundlun gave birth to Bruce Sundlun, the decorated war hero and
attorney who served as the 71st governor of Rhode Island, making him
the second Jew to hold this position.
1921: It was
reported today that Major James de Rothschild who fought with the Jewish during
World War One arrived in the United States yesterday where he was the guest of
honor at a reception attended by five hundred people at Hotel Astor that was
organized by the ZOA.
1921: It was
reported today that the Jewish National Council of Lithuania has “decided to
facilitate the return to that country of Lithuanian Jews living in America who
desire to come back.
1922: It was
reported today that the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities has elected new
leaders including President Aaron William Levy, Treasurer Elian Reiss and
Treasurer Walter N. Rothschild.
1923: Gregory
Ratoff, the Russian Jew who became a successful American actor and director
married actress Eugenie Leontovich in the United States today.
1923:
Birthdate of Markus Wolf the German born son of Jewish writer and physician
Friedrich Wolf who was regarded as one the “great spymasters of the Cold War”
for his leadership in Stasi.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/world/europe/10wolf.html
1924(13th
of Shevat, 5684): Parashat Beshalach
1924: While
visiting New York, Dr. Osias Thon, chief rabbi of Cracow and a member of the
World Zionist Organization, said today that “I am most hopeful for Jews in
Poland and for Poland as a nation.” Despite the continued manifestation of long
standing national friction and “internal discords” Thon expressed the hope
“that the time is not too far distant when the leading Polish statesmen will
recognize the justice of our demands and there will be a Polish-Jewish peace
founded on the basis of full rights for the Jews of Poland.
1925: In
Detroit, Morris Burros, the son of “Jewish immigrants from Russia” and “a
largely unsuccessful furrier and inventor” and “the former Clara Krellman” gave
birth to Marion Ann Burrow who gained as fame as Marian Javits, the wife of New
York Senator Jacob Javits, who was part of what was becoming a dying breed – a
liberal Republican. (As reported by Sam Roberts.)
1926(4th
of Shevat, 5686): Eighty-five-year-old Stella Rothschild, the German born
daughter of Sara Randegger and Leopold Schott, the Baden born Rabbi and wife of
Wilhelm Benjamin Rothschild, the Frankfurt-am-Main born son of Caroline Baum
and David Rothschild, passed away today.
1926: Israel
Rosenberg’s musical comedy “Mashka” with music by Sholom Secunda was performed
today at Oscar Green’s Hopkinson Theatre.
1927: In
Cleveland, OH, the Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American
Rabbis issued “an appeal to Christian leaders to refrain from missionary work
among the Jewish people” which is a violation of the “covenant of the Joint
Commission on Good Will” that was adopted in December of 1924.
1927: A
drought ending rainstorm fell on the Beersheba-Hebron region of Palestine
today.
1928: “Ludwig
Vogelstein, Chairman of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations gave a luncheon today at the Bankers Club to Presidents of Reform
Congregations in New York and members of the New York Executive Committee of
the union.
1928(26th
of Tevet, 5688): Seventy-one-year-old Julius Lewis Mayerberg, the son of Jacob
and Hannaah Lande Meyerberg and husband of Rachel Rae Israel Mayerberg with
whom he had five children – Florence, Israel, Sarah, Emil and Samuel – who
served as the Rabbi for Oheb Shalom in Goldsboro, NC for 34 years starting in
1890 passed away today.
1928: “Despite
inclement weather,” “attendance was
excellent” at the “first Birthday Ball” hosted by the Mother’s Club of Beth El
Congregation in Pittsburgh.
1929: The
New York Times today “paid tribute to the late Dr. Joseph Goldberger,
Jewish martyr to science who died in Washington, stricken during his research
work.” (JTA)
1930: The
Palestine Court of Appeals continues to be inundated by cases stemming from the
riots that took place in August of 1929. Appellants are seeking to have
their convictions overturned and/or have their sentences commuted.
1931: In a
Jewish triple-header, “You Said It, a musical by Harold Arlen (music) and Jack
Yellen (lyrics) that uses a musical book by Yellen and Sid Silvers “opened at
the Cahnin’s 46th Street Theatre in New York city where it ran for
192 performances.
1931: “Command
Performance,” featuring Mischa Auer as “Duke Charles” was released in the
United States today.
1932:
Birthdate of Philadelphian Richard Lester Liebman, the “child prodigy who
entered Penn at the age of fifteen and who gained fame as movie director
Richard Lester whose work include “Superman II.”
1935: Eight
days before his 19th birthday, Ed Kweller scored ten points to lead
Duquesne to victory over West Virginia.
1933: Benjamin
F. Levine, DDS leased office space in the Squibb Building on 5th
Avenue in New York City
1933: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this morning at the Riverside Memorial Chapel
for Annie Epstein, the wife David Epstein, the member of the board of directors
of the Central Jewish Institute,
1934: “The
Rev. Nathan Stern, the rabbi at the West End Synagogue eulogized Leo N. Levin
in his sermon at the regular weekly service tonight, commemorating the
thirtieth anniversary of the death of the co-author of the Kishineff petition
sent to Russia by Theodore Roosevelt protesting the persecution of Jews.
1935(15th
of Shevat, 5695): Parashat Behsalach; Tu B’Shevat
1935: “An ambitious
new medical Centre adjacent to and affiliated with the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem is now getting under way, the joint project of Hadassah, the Women's
Zionist Organization of America, and the American-Jewish Physicians Committee.”
1936:
Birthdate of composer Elliot Schwartz creator of "Tapestry," for
violin, cello and piano, emotionally charged piece of music. The work
commemorates the courageous efforts of Danes in saving Danish Jews from the
Nazis during World War II. Here, Schwartz works with melodic fragments
paraphrased or borrowed from Jewish composers who were imprisoned at
Theresienstadt, and also draws on a well-known Danish folk song that speaks of
innocence and serenity.
1936: “The
educators division of ORT met” today “at the Hotel Pennsylvania to draw up
plans for its participation in the organization’s drive to raise $500,000 in
this country to finance the work of rehabilitating and training Jews of Central
and Eastern Europe.”
1936: It was
reported today that approximately 100 rabbis attended the ceremony in which
“Rabbi Moshe Avigdor Amiel of Antwerp was…formally inducted as chief rabbi of
Tel Aviv and Jaffa.”
1936: Rabbi
Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Cry of the
Synagogue” at the Jewish Science Society.
1936: Rabbi
Milton Steinberg is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Fuehrers, Duces, Prophets
– What Makes the Great Human Leader?” at the Park Avenue Synagogue.
1936: James
Waterman Wise, the associate editor of “The People’s Press” and founder of
“Opinion” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “May Jews Be Communist?” at the
Free Synagogue meeting in Carnegie Hall.
1936: Anna
Louise Strong is scheduled to deliver an address on “Woman and the Family” at
Temple B’nai Jeshurun.
1936: In
Harrisburg, PA, “at the Ohev Sholem Temple,” Rabbi Philip Bookstaber officiated
at the wedding of Rose Vale Heims of New York City and Malcolm Henry Ulman, “a
graduate of Lehigh University and an assistant to the chief engineer of tests
of the Pennsylvania State Highway Department.”
1936: Rabbi
Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Health and Wealth: Can
Christian Science Bring Them to Jews?” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1937: Joseph
C. Hyman, the secretary and executive director of the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee announced today that “needy Jews in Berlin received
77,757 free meal and 21,806 food packages in 1936 from six kitchens” operated
by the committee.
1937: Speaking
at a membership tea of the Manhattan Chapter of the women’s division of the
American Jewish Congress “held at the Essex House in honor of Mrs. Sol
Rosenbloom” Rabbi Stephen S. Wise cited “the appeal last week of Foreign
Minister Josef Beck of Poland for he emigration of Jews and attacks on Jews in
the Polish Parliament” as “just reasons for all Americans to unite to help the
oppressed.”
1937: In
Berlin, the Central National Health Office issued a new appeal to all Germans
to boycott Jewish physicians in order “to prevent any slackening in the
anti-Jewish boycott.
1938: Dr.
Bernard Joseph, legal adviser to the Jewish Agency for Palestine arrived today
in New York today aboard the Cunard White Star liner Berengaria. He has come
from Jerusalem to attend the upcoming National Conference for Palestine to be
held in Washington, D.C.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that Jewish truck drivers repelled an Arab attack
on the Palestine Potash convoy, which was on its way to the Dead Sea, 10 km.
east of Jerusalem. One driver was severely wounded, but the convoy finally
reached its destination. The Iraq Petroleum Company pipeline was again set on
fire.
1939: The
final session of the Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations took
place today in Cincinnati where attendees discussed “the relation of the rabbi
and the layman in congregation and community and the relation between the
Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations.
1940: U.S.
premiere of “The Blue Bird” an American fantasy film with music by Alfred
Newman and featuring Al Shean as Grandpa Tyl.
1940(9th
of Shevat, 5700): Sixty-five-year-old Baltimore, MD merchant Louis Berney
passed away today.
1940: Senator
Ellison “Cotton Ed” Smith of South Carolina, who had opposed measures to ease
immigration restrictions for Russian Jews during WW I, became “dean of the
United States Senate” meaning he was the longest serving member of the Upper
Chamber.
1940: “You
Natzy Spy,” a film starring the Three Stooges premiered. Nine months before the
appearance of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” Moe (the Stooge whose name
was Moses Howard), portrayed a “Hitler –like dictator” in the fictional country
of Moronica.
1941 (20th of
Tevet, 5701): Six thousand Jews were killed in Bucharest riots.
1941(20th
of Tevet, 5701): Ber Goldberg passed away today and was buried in the Agudath
Achim nonagenarianCemetery in Woburn, MA.
1942:
Soviet forces recapture Mozhaisk, the closest that German troops had come to
Moscow. With this, the Soviet capital is saved from occupation.
1942: “An
escaped inmate from the Chelmno extermination camp, Jacob Grojanowski, reached
the Warsaw Ghetto, where he gave detailed information about the camp to the
Oneg Shabbat group,” “which became known as the Grojanowski Report that was
smuggled out of the ghetto through the channels of the Polish underground,
reached London and was published by June
1942: Titus
Brandsma, a Carmelite priest was arrested by German occupiers in Holland for
speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan."
Brandsma had been speaking out against the Nazis since the mid 1930’s.
After his arrest, he was shipped to Dachau in where he was the subject of
medical experiments. He died of a lethal injection in July, 1942.
Brandsma was declared “Blessed” by Pope John Paul, II in 1985. Since
then, the promotion of his cause for sainthood has been in progress.
1943: As
Nazis raid the Warsaw Ghetto for the second consecutive day, a crying child is
accidentally suffocated by his terrified mother.
1943:
Over the next three day six thousand Jews from Warsaw are murdered at the
Treblinka death camp.
1944:
Two weeks after its NYC premiere, “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek’ featuring
Julius Tannen as “Mr. Rafferty” was released throughout the United States
today.
1945: The
Death Marches began for the surviving Jews and Poles who were evacuated from
Labor Camps and Concentration Camps. Those who were too weak to march were shot
by the thousands. As they marched through the severity of winter to new
locations, tens of thousands more were shot for any infraction.
1945: Today, “
the camp at Fürstengrube was evacuated in the face of the advancing Red Army
and prisoners who were fit enough to move were, initially, marched to a
railhead at Gleiwitz” while “many of those who were not fit were shot by SS
guards led by SS-Oberscharführer Max Schmidt”
1945: Soviet
forces liberate ghetto of Łódź. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than
900 had survived Nazi occupation.
1946(17th
of Shevat, 5706): Parashat Beshalach
1946: “Seeks
Books for Russians” published today described an appeal by Dr. Albert Einstein
“to American Jews to build a bridge of books to the Soviet Union” which is one
of the goals of the Jewish Committee for Books for Russia.
1947:
Birthdate of David Bankier, the German born “Holocaust historian and head of
the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem”
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/about/institute/bankier.asp
1948: A
company of the 1st Battalion commanded by Assaf Simchoni
unsuccessfully attacked a building used by Arab gang in Shefaram.
1948: Today
during a battle next to the Arab village of Shfar'am while soldiers from the 1st
battalion were taking heavy casualties from a machine gun nest in one of the
houses, Yai Racheli “took five hand-grenades, crawled towards the house and
threw them into the house, thereby paralyzing the enemy and enabling the force
to retreat.” (Editor’s note – He earned the Medal of Valor for his act of
bravery)
1948: “The
Survivors” produced by Bernhard Hart opened on Broadway at the Playhouse
Theatre.
1948(8th
of Shevat, 5708): Morris Eisenman, president and one of the founders of the
Metropolitan News Company and a leader in Jewish philanthropic and cultural
organizations passed away at the age of 74. A native of Bialystock,
Poland, Eisenman was brought to the United States in 1888 where he would go to
work as a newsboy on the Lower East Side. “In the 1890’s, he was co-found
of the Abendblatt, a Yiddish newspaper and in 1897 assisted in
organizing the Jewish Daily Forward.” He was an active Zionist and
a close personal friend of Chaim Weizmann. “He helped organize and
finance the Dvir Publishing Company in Eretz Israel which was headed by Chaim
Nachman Bilak and Dr. Schmarya Levin and was formed to publish original and
translated works in Hebrew.”
1949: “Criss
Cross,” the film version of the book by the same title directed by Robert
Siodmak premiered today in Los Angeles.
1949:
Cuba recognized Israel.
1950(1st
of Shevat, 5710): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1950: Dr.
Jonas Salk is scheduled to be one of the speakers to address the dinner meeting
of trustees of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis being held at
the Pierre Hotel in New York City.
1951(12th
of Shevat, 5711): Ninety-nine-year-old Sidney Phillip Phillips, the London born
son of Barnett Phillips and physician who served as a Lt. Col. in the RAMC
during WW I passed away today.
1951: At the
Riverside Chapel, “Rabbi Zev Zahavy of Congregation Shari Zede” and “Rabbi
Israel Goldstein of Temple B’nai Jeshurun” officiated at the funeral services
for NJ, native Robert S. Marcus, the City College and Yeshiva University
trained rabbi and holder of a 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.
1953:
Birthdate of Troy, NY native Amy Laura Wax the Harvard trained doctor turned
Columbia University trained attorney who became “the Robert Mundheim Professor
of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the East German police searched Jewish homes
and offices, looking for "spies and saboteurs" in a move that placed
2,800 Jews in danger of an immediate arrest. Many East German Jews were
trekking to West Berlin fearing the oncoming persecution. In New York the
American Jewish Committee charged that in the Soviet Union some half a million
Jews, out of the community of two million, faced arrests, deportations and
Gulag concentration camps.
1954(15th of
Shevat, 5714): Tu B'Shevat
1954: In
Wilmington, DE, the board of directors adopted a resolution stating that
"The Chapel of the new Temple Beth Emeth shall be dedicated to the memory
of Milton Kutz and henceforth shall be known and appropriately designated as
the Milton Kutz Memorial Chapel of Temple Beth Emeth."
1954: In
Los Angeles, Boris Sagal, the Russian-Jewish immigrant whose directorial
credits included episodes of “The Twilight Zone” and Sara Zwilling gave birth
to actress Katey Sagal, best known for her role as Peg Bundy.
1956(6th
of Shevat, 5716): Latvian born Bundist, Russian Army veteran and German trained
doctor Refuel Gintsburg, who, after Hitler conquered France, “escaped to the
United States where he was active “in the Workmen’s Circle.”
1960: As the
crisis on the Golan heightens, President Nasser of Egypt sends troops across
the Suez Canal, into the Sinai Peninsula in direct violation of the agreements
reached at the end of fighting in 1956.
1961(2nd
of Shevat, 5721): Sixty-three-year-old Oscar Straus Caplan, the native of Kovno
who came to the United States in 1900 after which he became a lawyer, municipal
judge and member of such Jewish organizations as ZOA and the Federation of
Polish Jews and was the husband of Sarah Caplan with whom he had a son Mitchell
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/01/21/97650531.pdf
1962: “A View
From The Bridge” based on the Arthur Miller play of the same name directed by
Sidney Lumet featuring Harvey Lembeck was released today in France.
1962(14th
of Shevat, 5722): Seventy-two-year-old Cornell University trained civil
engineer Max Grossman, the “resort water engineer, banker, hotelman and
Atlantic City Civic leader” who was a “founder of the Miss America Pageant” and
served as “president of Community Synagogue” while raising three children –
Josef, Louis and Judith – with his wife, the former Shirley Rosenberg passed
away today in Atlantic City, NY.
1963:
Birthdate of John Simon Bercow, the first Jew to serve as Speaker of the House
of Commons
1965: In
Chicago Sue (née Sandel) and Donald Pritzker gave birth to billionaire
businessman Jay Robert (J.B.) Pritzker, the third Jewish person to serve as
Governor of Illinois
1965:
“Supposed day of the capture” Eli Cohen.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1vc954di
1966(27th
of Tevet, 5726): Eighty-year-old Hyman Batkin, the president of the Universal
Fold Box Company of Hoboken, NJ passed away today.
1966:
"Homeward Bound," ‘a song by American music duo Simon and Garfunkel
written by Paul Simon … was released as a single today by Columbia Records.
1970:
“Captain John Ferguson, the chairman of the Region I Air Safety Committee of
the Air Line Pilots’ Association” is scheduled to meeting with members of the
American Jewish Congress, including State Supreme Court Justice Edward J.
Greenfield “to discuss the continuing of air piracy” which includes the
hijacking of civilian aircraft by Arab terrorists.
1972 (3rd of
Shevat, 5732): Thirty-five-year-old American violinist Michael Rabin passes
away.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-rabin-mn0001203069
1977: Jack
Albertson is scheduled to co-host Inauguration eve entertainment gala at the
Kennedy Center which will include performances by Beverly Sills and Paul Simon.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt had broken off the Jerusalem talks and
that President Anwar Sadat threatened to recall his delegation. He was,
however, persuaded by US President Jimmy Carter to keep the door open. In
Jerusalem, Prime Minister Menachem Begin, at an emergency cabinet meeting,
announced at midnight that "As the proposal that the negotiations of the
joint military committee continue in Cairo, despite the suspension of the
negotiations in Jerusalem, the government will consider this proposal."
1979: Four
people were injured when terrorists shelled Qiriyat Shemona and Nahariya.
1980 (1st of
Shevat, 5740): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1980 (1st of
Shevat, 5740): Composer and band leader Richard Franko Goldman composer passed
away at the age of 69. Goldman had succeeded his father Edwin Franko Goldman as
conductor of the Goldman Band of New York City. He took a break from his
musical career during World War II when he served as a member of the OSS, the
predecessor to the CIA.
1980: Supreme
Court Justice William O. Douglas who ‘wrote that the nomination of Louis
Brandeis to the Supreme Court had “frightened the Establishment” because he was
a “militant crusader for social justice” passed away
1982 (24th of
Tevet, 5742): Leopold Trepper, famed World War II spy, passed away in Israel at
the age of 77. Born in Poland in 1904, Trepper supported the Bolsheviks
during the Russian Revolution. A committed Communist, Trepper
moved to Palestine after World War I, where he worked against British
occupation until he was expelled in 1928. With the outbreak of World War
II, Trepper organized the Red Orchestra, one of the of most storied and
successful spy networks in occupied Europe. The Red Orchestra operated in
Germany, France, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. One of its greatest
accomplishments was tapping the phone lines of the German military intelligence
units in occupied France. The Nazis broke the Red Orchestra in 1942 and Trepper
hid in Paris until liberation in 1944. Trepper made his way to Moscow
where Stalin had him arrested. He was finally freed from a Russian prison
in 1955. Trepper worked with the Jewish community in Poland before
finally getting permission to move to Israel. You can read more about this
Jewish James Bond in his autobiography, The Great Game.
1982: “Venom,”
a horror film produced by Martin Bregman with music by Michael Kamen was
released today in the United Kingdom.
1983:
Acclaimed author Cynthia Ozick received the Mildred and Harold Strauss Living
Award of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Carrying a
stipend of $35,000 per year for five years, the awards were among the largest
available to American writers. Though Ozick's first published work was a novel,
Trust, published in 1966, the Strauss award was primarily in recognition
of her achievement in the art of the short story. At the time of the award, her
story collections included The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories (1971),
Bloodshed and Three Novellas (1976), and Levitation: Five Fictions (1982).
In 1984, the editors of the annual Best American Short Stories called her one
of the three greatest living American short-story writers. Ozick's most
well-known story is probably The Shawl, published in 1989 and made into
a play in 1996. The Shawl depicts the Holocaust in horrific detail. Like
most of Ozick's work, The Shawl, deals directly with Jewish themes. In
other works, Ozick draws on Jewish texts and the Jewish-American experience to
write about Holocaust denial, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Yiddish, and the tension
between nature and civilization, among other themes. Ozick has been repeatedly
recognized as a master fiction writer. In addition to three O. Henry awards, a
Guggenheim fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Ozick
won the first Michael Rea Award for lifetime achievement in short fiction in
1986. Her work is frequently published in The New Yorker, The New
York Times Magazine, and The New York Times Book Review. Her latest
book is Heir to the Glimmering World: A Novel.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/19/1983/cynthia-ozick
1983:
Klaus Barbie, SS chief of Lyon in Nazi-France, was arrested in Bolivia.
1984(15th
of Shevat, 5744): Tu B'Shevat
1986:
Birthdate of Loren Galler-Rabinowitz, the Harvard graduate who won a Bronze
Medal for Ice Dancing in 2004 and competed for the title of Miss America in
2011 as Miss Massachusetts.
1986: Israeli premier Simon Peres visits Netherlands.
1986: Spain
recognizes Israel.
1987(18th
of Tevet, 5747): Seventy-six NYU trained criminal attorney Milton Adler, the
husband of “the former Miriam Josephs” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/01/24/obituaries/milton-adler.html
1987: Today,
“Carla Askew, an elementary school counselor,” and award winning “young
people’s novelist” Louis Sachar who had gotten married in 1985 gave birth to
their daughter Shere.
1987: The
police said four Israeli gunboats rocketed Palestinian guerrilla positions in
hills overlooking the southern Lebanese port of Sidon today, wounding at least
four guerrillas. The police said the gunboat attack on guerrilla positions
around Maghdusheh was believed to be in retaliation for the stabbings of two
Israeli Jews in the Arab sector of Jerusalem Saturday. The Israelis were
hospitalized. In Tel Aviv, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, ''In response
to several questions regarding these reports from Lebanon, we deny any shelling
took place today.''
1987
(18th of Tevet, 5747): Dr. Benjamin G. Levich, an internationally prominent
physical chemist who won a six-year effort to emigrate from the Soviet Union,
died of cardiac arrest today at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital at the age of 69. (As
reported by Thomas W. Ennis)
1988:
The Soviet Union said today that it had agreed to allow an official Israeli
delegation to visit Moscow. Western diplomats said the visit, for which no date
has been set, would be the first since the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic
relations with Israel during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The move seemed to be
in reciprocity for a prolonged visit to Israel by Soviet consular officials and
would allow both sides to have official representatives in each other's
capital, although at levels short of formal diplomatic relations.
1988: An
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ehud Gol, said in response to the Soviet
announcement, ''Israel welcomes the statement of the Government of the Soviet
Union by which it will permit an Israeli diplomatic delegation to visit
Moscow.'' The spokesman expressed regret that the announcement ''again sets
conditions on the renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries.''
The top political adviser to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Nimrod Novick, was
in Helsinki today to meet with Vladimir Terassov, deputy head of the Middle
East section in the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Israeli officials said.
1989: At the
same time that Chancellor Kohl was promising Shimon Peres that he would put an
end to the West German companies helping Libya building a chemical weapons
factory, “Defense Minister Yitzhak” was warning “Arab countries…that there will
be dire consequences if they dared to use chemical weapons against Israel.”
1989: “The
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued a
statement” today “urging the State Department to continue to deny a U.S. visa
to Yasir Arafat” because, in part, “granting Arafat a visa would reward him for
continuing to pursue a policy of terrorism.”
1990(22nd
of Tevet, 5750): Eighty-six author and scriptwriter Viña Delmar whose works
included the 1928 novel Bad Girl and the Academy Awarded nominated script for
“The Awful Truth” passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-01-28/news/mn-1265_1_awful-truth
1990(22nd
of Tevet, 5750): Fifty-seven year-old Penn State and Yeshiva University trained
psychoanalyst Doris Bernstein, the Pottstown, PA born daughter of Rae Leventhal
who was also President of the Institute For Psychoanalytic Training and
Research passed away today.
1991: Abner J.
Mikva began serving as the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Circuit.
1991: Iraq
launched a second missile attack against Tel Aviv this morning, military
officials said. The Israeli authorities said the missiles carried conventional
explosives, like the missiles that hit Tel Aviv and Haifa early yesterday. The
Mayor of Tel Aviv was reported on radio and television to have said that two
missiles landed in the city in the latest attack and that a few people were
slightly wounded.
1991: As Iraqi
missiles land in Israel, Topol, who stars as Tevye the milkman in the Broadway
revival of "Fiddler on the Roof," left today for his home in Tel
Aviv.
1991: Western
European governments have strongly condemned Iraq for attacking Israel with
missiles. But fearful that retaliation by Israel could weaken the anti-Iraqi
alliance, they also urged its government to show restraint in its response.
Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd of Britain called the initial Iraqi attack
yesterday "a reckless ploy" to widen the conflict. "Israel has a
right to self-defense and no one can take that decision from them," he
said. "But we believe restraint at this time would be interpreted as
strength, not weakness." France also condemned yesterday's attack but
suggested that Israel would be playing into Iraq's hands if it responded to the
provocation. Underlining the "overall goal" of driving Iraq from
Kuwait, a government spokesman said Israeli reprisals would "not
necessarily be opportune" at this stage. The foreign spokesmen made their
comments before a second round of Iraqi missiles struck Israel about 7:30 this
morning. Israeli spokesmen said that at least two landed in Tel Aviv.
1992: In
Beverly Hills, Lisa (née Goldman) and Larry Lerman gave birth to actor Larry
Wade Lerman.
1992:
"Israel: The Next Generation," a festival of performing arts opens
tonight at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with a "Salute to Freedom"
concert.
1992: “Three
bulky goons” came to the home of Richard Penzer allegedly to collect a debt
owed to Morris Talansky for the loss he suffered in a real estate deal.
1993:
Israel recognized PLO as no longer criminal.
1996:
Mark Twain’s granddaughter Nine, the daughter of Clara Clemens and Ossip
Gabrilowitsch, the Jewish pianist and conductor, passed away. She was the
last known lineal descendant of the great American humorist.
1997: Yasser
Arafat returned to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over
the handover of the last Israeli controlled West Bank city.
1997: “From
Court Jews to the Rothschilds: Art, Patronage and Power 1600-1800” is scheduled
to have its final showing at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
www.nytimes.com/1996/09/13/arts/from-the-court-jews-uneasy-heyday.html?searchResultPosition=1
1997: The
New York Times includes a review of Love Invents Us by Jewish author
Amy Bloom and The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable
Facsimiles by Hillel Schwartz.
1998(21st
of Tevet, 5758): Ninety-year-old super-cryptologist and mathematics professor
Abraham Sinkov, the Philadelphia born son of Jewish immigrants Morris and Ethel
Sinkov passed away today.
https://www.amazon.com/ELEMENTARY-CRYPTANALYSIS-Abraham-Sinkov/dp/B00B45AJO2
1998(21st
of Tevet, 5758): Ninety-six-year-old Ida
Rebecca Lubliner, the Pocahontas, VA born daughter of Hanna Bergman and
Alexander “Sanders” Lubliner and the wife of Isadore Leff with whom she had two
children passed away today in Houston, TX.
2000(12th
of Shevat, 5760): Eighty-six-year-old Hedy Lamarr, the raven-haired
Jewish-Viennese beauty who became one of the reigning temptresses in Hollywood
films in the 1930's and 40's, especially as Delilah vamping Victor Mature's
Samson, was found dead in her home in Orlando, Fla., today.
2001: Jack Lew
completed his service as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, a
position to which he had been appointed by President Bill Clinton.
2001: “Green
Dragon” a Vietnam War drama filed by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau was
released today in the United States.
2001: Marshall
Hall was rededicated to Louis Marshall and his son, Bob, by SUNY-ESF President
2001(24th
of Tevet, 5761): Sixty-eight-year-old real estate tycoon Alfred Koeppel passed
away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/04/business/alfred-koeppel-68-headed-real-estate-concern.html
2002(6th
of Shevat, 5762): Parashat Bo
2002:
Following a terrorist attack two days ago that killed 6 and wounded “more than
30” Israelis who were attending a family celebration in Hadera, today, after
clearing away occupants and onlookers, “Israeli troops blew up the Voice of
Palestine radio station.
2003: In an
article in The Observer, columnist Jay Rayner reported that the
quintessential British dish, Fish and Chips, was a Jewish creation. In
1860, Joseph Malin opened the first business in London’s East End selling fried
fish alongside chipped potatoes. The National Federation of Fish Fryers
presented a commemorative plaque to Malin’s of Bow in 1968 which attests to the
accuracy of this story.
2003(16th
of Shevat, 5763): Françoise Giroud, the Swiss born French journalist who
co-founded the political weekly L’Express passed away today at the age of 86.
She served as France's first minister of women's affairs. (As reported by Alan
Riding)
2004:
Today, Israel's prison chief said today that he would not permit Yigal Amir’s
request to get married. Amir, who is serving a life sentence for the
assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, is seeking to marry a
divorced mother of four.
2005 (9th of
Shevat, 5765): Jacob L. Trobe, who directed the care and resettlement of
thousands of Holocaust survivors left adrift after World War II, at his home in
Haverford, Pa. at the age of 93. (As reported by Jennifer Bayot)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/30/obituaries/30trobe.html
2006(19th
of Tevet, 5766): Ninety-one-year-old Sadie Reznick, the wife of Bernard Reznick
with whom she had three children – Barbara, Robert and Marvin—passed away
today.
2006: A bomber
blew himself up near the old central bus station in southern Tel Aviv at around
3:45 P.M. this afternoon. Thirty-one people were injured or
wounded. The bomber came from the town of Nablus. Islamic Jihad
took credit for the terrorist attack. Some Israeli leaders said there was
evidence that Iran had been involved in planning or financing the attack.
2007: JTA reported
that The Anti-Defamation League had honored an
Albanian Muslim family that saved 26 Jews from the Nazis. The ADL posthumously
awarded its Courage to Care award to Mefail and Njazi Bicaku, who sheltered
Jews in the mountains of central Albania while the Nazis searched the area. The
Bicakus already have been recognized by Israel and the Yad Vashem Holocaust
memorial in Jerusalem, which awarded them its highest honor, the Righteous
Among the Nations Award. “In the moral void that engulfed the world in those
nightmare days when the cruelty of the Nazis ran rampant, the Bicaku family was
among those few shining stars,” said Michael Salberg, the ADL’s director of
international affairs. Also on hand for the ceremony was the Albanian
ambassador to the United Nations and the president of the Albanian American
Women’s Organization. The Anti-Defamation League honored an Albanian Muslim
family that saved 26 Jews from the Nazis.
2007:
Waiting for the Barbarians, an opera in two acts composed by Philip Glass
premiered in America today at the Austin Lyric Opera in Austin, TX.
2007:
Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community,
celebrate the birth of their first grandchild - Lewis Isaac Silber.
2007:
“An American Crime” co-starring Ari Graynor was released in the United States
today.
2007:
“In Private,” the first major solo exhibition in the United States of
photographer J-F Levy opens at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia, PA.
2007:
The Washington Post published “Goodbye, My Friends” the last column of Art
Buchwald who passed away yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011900444.html
2008:
In a Washington, D.C. bookstore Jacob Heilbrunn discussed and signs
They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons.
2008:
In Nevada, Republicans and Democrat hold caucuses to choose presidential
delegates for their respective national conventions. Since the caucuses
are held on Saturday, observant Jews and others who observe the Sabbath on
Saturday such as Seven Day Adventists are excluded from the process.
There are somewhere between 65,000 and 80,000 Jews living in Nevada, most in
the Las Vegas area. South Carolina holds its presidential primary but
observant Jews do not have to worry about being excluded since they can vote by
absentee ballot.
2008:
“Holy Land Hardball,” a documentary about the start of the Israel Baseball
League, starring Ken Holtzman, Art Shamsky and Ron Blomberg was released today
in the United Sates.
2009:
An exhibition of the works of Afula native Yael Bartana on display at the P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center in New York comes to an end.
2009:
In Alexandria, VA, this is the second day of the Beth El Hebrew Congregation annual book
sale which also features a wide array of CDs, DVDs and tapes
2009:
Lewis Silber, the brilliant grandson of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber who are
pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community, is now only 11 years from his bar
mitzvah as he celebrates his second birthday.
2009:
“Why Israel Can’t Win” is the cover story for Time magazine.
2010: The 19th
annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the United States
premiere of “Leon Blum: For All Mankind,” the powerful documentary that tells
the story of a prominent French leader—a Jew who at different times was prime
minister of France and a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Blum
devoted his life to improving the well-being of French workers and was an early
champion of women’s rights. In 1936, he became prime minister; during his time
in office, he led the Popular Front. In 1940, his socialist views and Jewish
heritage placed him in jeopardy. The Vichy government sentenced him to five
years in Buchenwald. After the war, Blum was welcomed home by the French people
and was reelected prime minister.”
2010: The 10th
annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “Zrubavel,”
the first feature-length film ever created by Ethiopian Israelis” that tells
the story of a family of Ethiopian émigrés is torn between love for homeland
and assimilation with Israel.”
2010: In
Herndon, VA, Rabbi Steven Glazer is scheduled to discuss business ethics at a
meeting of The Hazak Active Retirees Chapter of Congregation Beth Emeth.
2010(4th
of Shevat, 5770):Ernst Cramer, a German Jewish journalist and chairman of the
Axel Springer Foundation who explored his country's relations to Israel and the
US, died today in Berlin, 10 days before his 97th birthday. Shortly before his
death from a heart attack, he established a German-Israeli journalism
scholarship program. A week before his death Cramer informed the Jerusalem
Foundation that Axel Springer was sponsoring a 10-year scholarship program for
German and Israeli journalists. "Such an exchange helps carry forward the
German-Israeli friendship into the next generation. That is first and foremost
of importance," Cramer wrote in his letter to the Jerusalem Foundation.
Cramer, a prolific journalist, played a decisive role in the journalistic
history of post-Nazi Germany. In 1938, the Nazis deported him to the Buchenwald
concentration camp. While his brother and parents were murdered in the camps,
Cramer was able to seek refuge in the United States. In 1944, he returned as an
American soldier and helped to rebuild a democratic press in West
Germany.
2011: “8
Stories That Haven’t Changed the World” a documentary on the childhood memories
of eight Polish Jews born before WWII, is scheduled to have its U.S. Premiere
at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2011: “Joan
Rivers: A Piece of Work” a film that follows one year in the life of legendary
actress/comedienne/ writer, Joan Rivers is scheduled to be shown at the 2011
Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival
2011: Gabe’s
in Iowa City is scheduled to show “Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad,” a “refreshing
mix of comedy, music, spoken-word and show-stopping burlesque, featuring the
gals who learned to smoke at Hebrew School, got drunk at their Bat-Mitzvahs and
would rather have more schtuppa than the chupah”
2011: Rabbi
Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham and Rabbi Elliot L. Stevens of
Temple Beth Or in Montgomery met with Alabama Governor Robert Bentley two days
after his inauguration. Bentley met with the two Rabbis to try and heal the
damage done by his statement that "Anybody here today who has not accepted
Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're
not my sister, and I want to be your brother " made while speaking at a
service honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at King's first church, Dexter Avenue
Baptist Church. One of the Jewish leaders who met with Bentley, Rabbi
Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, called the new governor's
remarks "a difficult misstep" at the beginning of his administration.
But he said he was pleased with the governor's apology and said, "I hope
and pray we can come together in the next four years." Another
rabbi, Elliot L. Stevens of Temple Beth Or in Montgomery, called the meeting
with Bentley a positive step. "We are all gathered here at the table
in the first days of his administration, and we are talking about
inter-religious dialogue," Stevens said.
2011: In
Massachusetts, Steven Grossman was sworn in today as the state’s 59th
treasurer. He recommitted himself to promises made on the campaign trail last
fall as he pledged to put the state’s “checkbook” online and move state money
out of large banks into smaller local and community banks willing to loan to
small businesses.
2011(14th
of Shevat, 5771): Nathan Batt, owner of a Jewish restaurant located in Al
Capone’s home in Chicago which counted celebrities and politicians among its
clientele for decades, died today at 93. "He had a great restaurant, but
he was a great man," said James "Jimmy" Lemons, a cook for Batt
who now owns Lem’s, a legendary barbecue restaurant on Chicago’s South Side.
"Me being black, and him being Jewish and white, made no difference. He
hired me for my skills - for what I could do and how I could cook. Got to the
point he'd say I cooked Jewish food better than most Jewish people!"
According to the Chicago Tribune the menu at Mama Batt's restaurant, which
closed in the late 1970s, included classic foods such as matzo balls, blintzes,
fried kreplach and kasha. Celebrities - including Jerry Lewis, Perry Como, and
Danny Thomas – reportedly stopped by, and the late Mayor Richard J. Daley was a
regular as well. "If the mayor got a cold, we'd send a big bowl of chicken
soup to his office - the Jewish penicillin," said Batt’s son, Harry. Batt
was born in Omaha, Neb., and his family opened a diner following a move to
Chicago. After graduating from high school in 1935, Batt worked at his father's
restaurant. Two years later, he married his childhood sweetheart, Rebecca, who
died in 2005 after 68 years of marriage. The location of Batt’s was itself a
part of the restaurant’s appeal. It was located in a crumbling hotel that
Capone had used as a headquarters, and in its later years was the subject of
many attempts at renovation, which eventually failed. Sports Illustrated
featured Batt’s in a 1969 feature article on the popularity of tabletop sports
games such as Strat-O-Matic Baseball in the era before video and computer
games. (As reported by the Eulogize
2011(14th
of Shevat, 5771): Joseph W. Samuels, publisher of Houston’s Jewish newspaper,
the Herald-Voice, and a major supporter of the city’s Holocaust Museum, died
today at 95. Samuels bought the Jewish Herald-Voice in 1973, when he was 57,
fulfilling his father’s dream, his wife, Jeanne, said. "It's a very
cohesive community, and we like to contribute to that fact," she said.
Samuels was “the epitome of what is good and honorable about journalism."
Indeed, the newspaper’s website was full of tributes from past and former
journalistic colleagues, as well as friends and family members: “Joe and
Jeanne, and now their children and grandchildren, have been the community’s
partners in conveying the news and interests of our organizations and
institutions,” said Lee Wunsch, president & CEO of Jewish Federation of
Greater Houston. Samuels was born in Dallas and was raised in the Jewish
Children's Home in New Orleans, after his father died. He attended Isidore
Newman School, which had been established to educate children in the home, and
which continues today as a college prep school. He worked several jobs as he
pursued a degree in communications at the University of Houston, where he met
his wife, Jeanne Franklin, whom he married in 1943. Samuels served in Italy and
Southwest Africa with the Army Air Corps during World War II. (As reported by
Eulogizer)
2011: Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced at the start of today's cabinet meeting
at the Knesset that a new Homeland Security Ministry would be created to be
headed by Independence faction MK Matan Vilna'i. Netanyahu said that such
ministries are prevalent around the world, including in the United States
2011: The
estate of Arthur Conan Doyle announced that Anthony Horowitz was to be the
writer of a new Sherlock Holmes novel, the first such effort to receive an
official endorsement from them and to be entitled The House of Silk.
2011: As
violence continues to erupt across Tunisia it was reported today that Roger
Bismuth and Khlifa Atoun, the leaders of the Tunisian Jewish community have
left the country
2012: In “He
Made Blood and Guts Familiar and Fabulous” published today Roberta Smith
described the exhibition of the works and the impact of Arthur Fellig, the
photographer known as Wegee.
2012: Israeli
hackers operating under the name of 'IDF Team' brought down the website of the
Arab Bank of Palestine this morning in retaliation for a web attack on Israel's
Anti-Drug Authority website
2012: Chief
Military Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz called on religious high school
seniors to enlist with the army today, saying that loyalty to the Jewish state
must be unconditional. Peretz's remarks came in response to a petition that was
put forth by yeshiva students urging the army to abandon policies of
"secular coercion."
2012: A
dialogue between Dr. David Ellenson and Dr. Daniel Gordis on the subject of
“The Jewish Core: What does it mean to be a Jew after modernity?” is scheduled
to take place at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple
Emanu-El
2012: “The
Queen of Versailles,” a documentary about David Siegel’s private residence
directed and co-produced by Lauren Greenfield premiered today at the Sundance
Film Festival
2012: “Making
Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women” is scheduled to be shown at
Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
2012: The
Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans is scheduled to hold the
Goldring-Woldenberg Major Donor Dinner. 2013
2012:” 100
Voices: A Journey Home,” a documentary that looks at Jewish culture in Poland,
past and present, through a unique focus—100 cantors from around the world who
came together for concerts at the Warsaw Opera House and the Nozyk Synagogue is
scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The
JCCNV Performing Arts series is scheduled to present “Can I Really Date A Guy
Who Wears a Yarmulke?”
2013:
“Barbara” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: In “The
Jekyll and Hyde Life of the Man Who Wrote ‘Saturday Night Fever’” published
today, Erica Wexler described her tumultuous relationship with her father
Norman Wexler.
2013: The
third annual winter version of the Red Sea Festival being held at Eilat is
scheduled to come to a close.
2013: The
Ensemble Millennium is scheduled to perform a string quintet by Mendelssohn and
a piano quintet by Schumann at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.
2014:
Twelve-year-old Montrealer Lea Glubochansky is scheduled to perform Fritz
Kreisler’s Rondo in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as a first-place winner
of a Crescendo International Music Competition. (As reported by David Lazarus)
2014: “Exodus”
and “For a Woman” are scheduled to be shown at the New York Jewish Film
Festival.
2014: “The
Afterlives of Edgar G. Ulmer,” a film roundtable featuring Arianné Ulmer Cipes,
the director’s daughter, Viennese film critic Stefan Grissemann, and New School
Professor and author Noah Isenberg is scheduled to take place at the Center for
Jewish History.
2014: In
Alexandria, VA, Beth El Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to begin its 12th
annual “Gigantic Used Book Sale.”
2014: Zaytoun
a “story of survival, reconciliation and friendship between an imprisoned
Israeli pilot and a 10-year-old Palestinian” is scheduled to be shown City
Playhouse under the auspices of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
2014: The
Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Painting Beyond Belief II” in which David
Jselit and Thomas Eggerer will explore “issues in contemporary painting since
the death of Marc Chagall in 1985.”
2014: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback
edition of Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti by Amy Wilenz and Simon
Winder’s Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe “where all
Habsburg legislation in relation to the Jews was carried out effectively
without reference to their needs or any real knowledge of their ideas” as well
as a “conversation” with E.L. Doctorow
2014: Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Israel this afternoon, marking his
first official trip to the Middle East and the first visit to the region by a
sitting prime minister from the North American country in over a decade
2014: Tonight,
Israel began transferring the remains of 36 Palestinian terrorists, who were
previously buried in a special cemetery for enemy casualties. The bodies were
transferred to the Palestinian Authority, which was to forward them to the
relatives.
2014: “Israel
plans to deploy a new missile shield known as "Iron Beam" next year
which would use a laser to blow up short-range rockets and mortar bombs, a
defense industry official said today. (As reported by NesMax)
2015: “Fires
on the Plain” and “I Was Nineteen” are scheduled to be shown at the New York
Jewish Film Festival.
2016: The
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a
“sneak preview” of “The Jewish Frontier” which “explores the history of
Oregon's Jewish pioneers who helped to build the businesses and civic
organizations that shaped the state.”
2016: “The
EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, which brings together European foreign ministers
is” scheduled “to approve” today “a proposal that is liable to levy new
sanctions against Israeli settlements and undermine their international
legitimacy.” (As reported by Itamar Eichner)
2016:
The Jewish Historical Society is scheduled “to co-present the documentary
Rosenwald” this evening.
http://www.rosenwaldfilm.org/?utm_source=Happy+New+Year&utm_campaign=new+year&utm_medium=email
2017(21st
Tevet, 5777): Ninety-two-year-old Hungarian born Holocaust survivor Paul
Ornstein who was reunited with his wife Anna with whom he joined in promoting
the theory of self-psychology passed away today.
2017:
The UKJW is scheduled to sponsor the final screening of “Time to Say Goodbye”
at JW3.
2017: “The Producers” and “Past Life” are scheduled to be
shown at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2017:
Downtown Jewish Life and the AJHS are scheduled to sponsor “What Do Jewish Look
Like To You U?”, “an evening of monologues highlighting Jewish racial and
ethnic diversity.”
2017:
“Members of the Women of the Wall were denied entry to the Western Wall” this
“morning after refusing to submit to body searches as a condition for entering
the site – searches that were conducted in violation of “a recent High Court
Justice ruling that prohibits them.”
2018:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Emanuel in Miami
Beach for 92-year-old Harold Rosen, the former mayor of Miami Beach.”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article195235979.html
2018(3rd
of Shevat, 5778): Fifty-four-year-old movie executive
“Allison’Alli’ Ivy Shearmur” the wife of film composer Edward Shearmur passed
away today.
2018:
“The Catcher Was a Spy” the movie version of the book by the same named
directed by Ben Lewin and starring Paul Rudd as Moe Berg premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival.
2018:
“President Sergio Mattarella’s office said” today “the he had chosen Liliana
Serge, “a woman who was one of the few Italian children to survive deportation
to Auschwitz” for the honor of being a senator-for-life “because she had made
the nation proud with her social commitment.”
2018:
Annie Polland is scheduled to present the final session of “Under the Tenement
Rooftops: Immigrant and Migrant Families in New York” at the YIVO Institute.
2018:
The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil
Society and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are scheduled to host a
screening of “Rosenwald: the Remarkable Story of a Jewish Partnership with
African American Communities” at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
2019(13th of Shevat, 5779): Parashat Beshalach –
Sabbath of the Song;
2019(13th of Shevat, 5779): Ninety-five-year-old CCNY
trained “urban sociologist” Nathan Glazer the New York City born son of Polish
immigrants Louis and Tilly Glazer who may be best remembered as the co-author
of The Lonely Crowd and Beyond the Melting Pot passed away today.
(As reported by Barry Gewen)
https://www.city-journal.org/html/nathan-glazer’s-warning-13398.html
2019: Yavilah McCoy – an anti-racism activist and Jewish woman
of color – addressed the third annual Women’s March in Washington, D.C.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/28/2019/yavilah-mccoy-addresses-womens-march-washington-dc
2019: Limmud Seattle is scheduled to begin today.
2019: “Life According to Agfa” is scheduled to be shown this
evening at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2019: The 8th Annual LaunchHouse Bootstrap Bash,
“Cleveland’s premiere party celebrating entrepreneurship” co-sponsored by the Cleveland Jewish News is scheduled to
take place this evening.
2020: “Incitement” and “Picture of His Life” are two of the
movies scheduled to be shown today at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2020: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County in Freehold,
NJ, is scheduled to host a screening of “Rosenwald.”
2020: As part of the program “Violins of Hope San Francisco Bay
Area,” today is scheduled to mark the world premiere of “Intonations: Songs
from the Violins of Hope,” a “song
cycle” “based on the book Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust –
Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hours.”
2020: The New York Times
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition and Compromise
in Putin’s Russia by Joshua Yaffa, A World Without Work: Technology,
Automation and How We Should Respond by Daniel Susskind and Abigail,
Magada Szabo novel in which “a statute protects students from the Nazis.”
2021: Contra Costa JCC is scheduled to co-present a talk by
author Talia Carner on her historical novel, The Third Daughter, “about
a young Jewish girl who escapes the Russian pogroms, becomes a sex-trafficking
victim in Argentina, then takes down the sex-trafficking network.”
2021: The East Bay International Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to present the first screening of “Ottolenghi and the Cakes of
Versailles.”
2021:
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to presents to present the
next session of the writers’ workshop “Tell Your Sephardi-Mizrahi Story” with
award-winning author Gila Green.
2021: Today’s scheduled celebration of National Popcorn Day
should bring to mind Samuel M. Rubin, who began selling popcorn in movie
theatres at the age of 12 and who earned the sobriquet “Sam the Popcorn Man”
for turning “the popping and consuming of popcorn in American movies theatres
into big business during the 1950’s.”
https://archive.jewishcurrents.org/february-5-the-popcorn-man/
2021: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host
“American Selfie” One Nation Divisible Through the Lens of Alexandra Pelosi,”
the daughter of the Speaker of the House of Reprsentative.
2021: Safekeeping Stories is scheduled to host the first in a
series of Holocaust Workshops designed to help children, grandchildren or other
family members with the techniques for preserving “the story for the next
generation.
2021:
Israel will require a negative COVID test for
anyone wishing to enter the country, mandatory isolation for returning
nationals will be expanded to include more countries and international travel
will be restricted under new steps approved expected to be approved by the
government today.
2021: As part of its “Celebrity Chef Virtual Class Series,” the
Jewish Community Center of Youngstown is scheduled with Einat Adomy, the wife
of Stefan Nafziger, and the veteran of the Israeli army, who is “of Iraqi,
Iranian and Yemenite descent” who “has opened 13 restaurants in her career.”
2022: The New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a
screening “Rose.”
2022: The New Museum Los Gatos is scheduled to host “a guided
tour for seniors, including information about George Dennison and Frank
Ingerson who created the Ark of the Covenant for Emanu-El in San Francisco in
the 1920’s and an exhibit about the unpaid labor of women.”
2022: The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host
screenings of “Jewish Luck” and “Valiant Hearts.”
2022: In Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to
host a Zoom discussion of Modern Girls by Jennifer Brown.
2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Jonathan
Greenblatt, author of It Could Happen Here, in conversation with Abigail
Pogrebin
2022: Based on previously published reports, the Health Ministry
is having difficulty reporting the number of new coronavirus cases because of
the “overload on its computer systems due to a high number of infections” at
the same time that Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman is calling for the
scrapping of the Green Pass because “the rapid spread of the elusive Omicron
coronavirus variant renders it obsolete.”
2023: In Brookline, MA, Congregation Kehillath Israel is
scheduled to present a “classical viola and piano duo concert featuring music
by Soviet-Polish Jewish composer Moisey/Moishe/Mieczyslaw Weinberg and his
great friend, Dimitri Shostakovich.”
2023: The Center for Hewish History with the American Sephardi
Federation is scheduled to present Citizen, Subject, National, Protégé, a talk
in which, Jessica Marglin (University of Southern California) will trace the
modern history of Jewish citizenship in North Africa and the Middle East,
including nationality legislation; the abolition of dhimmi status; the status
of Jews in European colonies; and their citizenship in independent
nation-states.”
2023: Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, in
association with MGM Television, SIPUR, Toluca Pictures, Alice Communications,
and Menemsha Films, is scheduled to host the North American premiere of The
Devil's Confession: The Lost Eichmann Tapes
2023: The Steicker Center is scheduled to host “Chicken Soup for
the Soul” an evening of wisdom, magic, music and inspiration that includes a
presentation by Joan Nathan.
2023: According to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellin,
as of today is scheduled to begin employing “extraordinary measures” to
continue paying the nation’s bills if lawmakers did not act to raise the
statutory debt limit.
2023: In Waltham, MA, at Brandeis University, the Schusterman
Center for Israel Studies is scheduled to present online the first Schusterman
Seminar of 2023, “Challenges of the Middle-Class Flight of the Arab Minority in
Israel,” with Dr. Manal Totry-Jubran.”
2024: Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host actor Lev Schreiber
and Bluecheck Ukraine co-founder Michael Goldfarb at Shabbat Services where the
theme will be “American Values, Jewish Values and Ukraine.”
2024: “The NFTY NAR and New England boards are scheduled to host
their Winter Kallah.
2024: The Jewish Agency for Israel is scheduled to host a
webinar which will explore the future of Israel “going forward after the
October 7 attacks by Hamas.
2024: As January 19th begins in Israel,
the Hamas held hostages begin day 105 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.)
