This Day, January 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

January 29

904: Sergius III began his papacy during which Jews first began settling at Mayence, Germany in 906.

1258: “The Mongols under Chinese general Guo Kan laid siege to” Baghdad today as part of a successful invasion Persia which led to the abolishment of “the inequality of dhimmis” which meant that all religions, including that of the Jews “were declared equal.”

1421(17th of Shevat, 5181): The Jews of Sargossa, Spain were spared from slaughter at the hands of King Alfonso V, thanks to the fact that a handful of synagogues beadles had acted on the advice given to them by the Prophet Elijah in a dream shared by each of them.  The resulting salvation on the 17th of Shevat was celebrated by Saragossan Jews and dubbed "Purim Saragossa." A Hebrew Megillah (scroll) was penned, describing the details of the miraculous story. To this day, this scroll is read in certain communities on Purim Saragossa.

1478: “The Washington Haggadah,” the creation of Joel Ben Simeon was completed today. “In addition to the full text of the Passover night liturgy, the Washington Haggadah features stunningly intricate illuminated panels and a series of Passover illustrations that include depictions of "The Four Sons," "The Search for Leaven," and "The Messiah Heralded." The enduring popularity of Joel ben Simeon's miniatures is reflected in the many reproductions of his work that have appeared over the years in anthologies of Jewish art and manuscript painting. In 1991, the Library of Congress published a facsimile edition of the Washington Haggadah, accompanied by a companion volume with a detailed scholarly description, analysis, and assessment of the manuscript.”

1482: Pope Sixtus V addresses a “severe letter” to Ferdinand and Isabella censuring the conduct of the Inquisition.  “In this letter the pope admitted that he had issued the bull for the institution of the Inquisition without due consideration.”

1522: “German Catholic humanist and scholar of Greek and Hebrew languages Johann Reuchlin, who risked his career and his life in opposing Johannes Pfefferkorn, the German theologian and convert from Judaism who was one of the many who thought depriving Jews of their books was the first step to conversion.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_(1920)/Reuchlin,_Johann

https://sacred-texts.com/jud/t10/ht117.htm

1581: Baptism of Sir Rowland Cotton, the English MP who learned Hebrew from Hugh Broughton.

1621: Jacob Israel Belmonte, the Portuguese born son of Catrina Moniz and Andre Belmonte and his wife Simcha Israel Belmonte gave birth to Salomon Belmonte.

1676(OS): Tsar Alexis I of Russia passed away. “During his reign a considerable number of Jews lived in Moscow and the interior of Russia. In a work of travels, written at that time, but published later, and bearing the title, Reise nach dem Norden the author states that, owing to the influence of a certain Stephan von Gaden, the czar's Jewish physician, the number of Jews considerably increased in Moscow. The same information is contained in the work, The Present State of Russia by Samuel Collins, who was also a physician at the court of the czar. From the edicts issued by Alexis Mikhailovich, it appears that the czar often granted the Jews passports with red seals (gosudarevy zhalovannyya gramoty), without which no foreigners could be admitted to the interior; and that they traveled without restriction to Moscow, dealing in cloth and jewelry, and even received from his court commissions to procure various articles of merchandise. Thus, in 1672, the Jewish merchants Samuel Jakovlev and his companions were commissioned at Moscow to go abroad and buy Hungarian wine.” Another edict “instructed a party of Lithuanian Jews to proceed from Kaluga to Nijni-Novgorod, and as a protection they received an escort of twenty sharpshooters.” The Czar’s attitude towards the Jews was a mixed bag as can be seen from his expulsion of “the Jews from the newly acquired Lithuanian and Polish cities” – Mohilev, Wilna, and Kiev. Altogether, taking into consideration the hatred of foreigners among the Russian population of his time, it is evident that Alexis was kindly disposed toward the Jews.”

1689: The Convention Parliament adopted a resolution declaring England to be “a Protestant Kingdom” and that only a Protestant could be King.  This effectively removed James II from the throne and paved the way for William and Mary to come to the throne. The Jews had already returned to the British Isles, but the Protestant monarchs would prove to be sympathetic to their cause which helped with the peaceful growth of the nascent Anglo-Jewish community.

1723: “Today, “Moses Yefraimovich, an elder of the Grodno ḳahal, presented for entry in the municipal records of the city of Grodno the charter of privileges granted to the Jews of Vizhainy by King John III.”

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14721-vizhainy-vizhuny-vizan-vizany

 

1735: Sixty-eight-year-old George Granville, the British playwright adapted “The Merchant of Venice” into the “Jew of Venice” in 1701 passed away today.

1754: In St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Sara and Isaac de la Motta gave birth to Sarah de la Motta, the wife of Savanah, GA native Lei Shefattal whom she married in 1768 and with whom she had fourteen children.

1764: In Germany, Jettle Oppenheimer gave birth to Behle Ottenheimer, the wife of Mayer Loeb Kaufman with whom she had three children and Simon Kaufman with whom she had three children.

1777(21st Shevat, 5537): Long Island merchant and New York City shochet Aaron Hart, the husband of Richa Simson passed away today in New York City.

1779: Figlah Levy and Joseph Simons gave birth to Gershon Simons.

1780: Today, “Jonas Levi, an American Jew who had been capture by the English the previous year and sent back to France” and who had been given a passport by Benjamin Franklin so he could return to America along with “ninety-six livers” appeared before a notary today where he gave a deposition describing how three French soldiers had attacked him at inn at Trappes and stolen his money after which members of the Swiss Guard told him to go to Versailles and pursue his complaint.

http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1975_27_01_00_doc_roseman.pdf

1787: When there was a delay in his being appointed Purchaser and Inspector of Drugs Lyon Prager wrote to the Board of Trade today, asking that “if it should be the intention of the Hon. Board to confirm me in the said appointment, I should request that I might be made acquainted with their pleasure as soon as possible” after which he “even asked his family, the firm of Israel Levin Salomons in London to intervene on his behalf.”

1789: Rebecca Franks and English born Lucius Levy Solomons gave birth to Fanny Solomons

1790: "The Jews of Paris obtained a certificate, couched in most flattering terms, and testifying to their excellent reputation, from the inhabitants of the district of the Carmelites, where most Jews dwelt at this time.”

1791: During the French Revolution, a Jewish delegation dressed in their uniforms as National Guardsmen and bearing certificates of ‘good behavior’ from the Christian citizens of Paris appeared before the Commune seeking support for their demand to be granted full rights as citizens of France.

1794: Ezekiel Hart, one of the early leaders of the Canadian-Jewish community married Frances Lazarus. She was the niece of Frances Noah and her husband Ephraim Hart, a successful New York merchant.

1800: “In a joint patent issued today in Vienna, the Habsburg Emperor Franz II appoint Rothschild and Amschel his Imperial Crown Agents.”

106

1803(6th of Shevat, 5563): Jonas Phillips the German born son of Aaron Phillips gave birth to Jonas

the first of the Phillips family to settle in America who was a founder of Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, the father of twenty-two children and the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.

1803: In Frankfurt am Main, Germany to Baron Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his wife Caroline gave birth to Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, an Austrian banker and a member of the Vienna branch of the Rothschild family.

1808:  Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Canadian parliament but was prevented from taking his seat because as a Jew he could not take the oath "on the true faith of a Christian." Though reelected in May 1808, and in April 1809, he was again prevented from being seated. Only in 1832 was legislation passed allowing Jews to hold public office and giving them full civil rights. Born in 1767, Hart passed away in 1843.

1812(15th of Shevat, 5572): Tu B’Shevat celebrated for the last time before the outbreak of the War Of 1812, often referred to as “the second American Revolution.

1815(18th of Shevat, 5577): Benvenida de Isaac Solis, the daughter of Isaac Henriques Henriques Valentine and Simha Mandil and wife of Solomon da Silva Solis passed away today in London

1817(12th of Shevat, 5577): Sixty-year-old Abraham Furtado, the President of the Assemblee des Notables and assistant of the Mayor of Bordeaux passed away in Bordeaux.

1817: Israel Helbert married Adeline Cohen at the Hambro Synagogue.

1819: Sir Stamford Raffles establishes at a post at Singapore. By 1830, there at least 9 Jewish traders living at the British outpost and by 1840, the Sassoon family with all that that meant for the growth of the colony and the Jewish community.

1820: King George III, whose life had been saved by a Jew in 1800 and who had his first conversation with a Jew when he spoke to boxer Daniel Mendoza passed away

1821: In London, Hannah and Abraham Harris gave birth to Isaac Harris.

1830: The date for the congregation charter for Nidce Israel, in Baltimore which became the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation.

1832: In St. Petersburg, Maria Ivanovna Maltsova and Captain Pavel Nikolayevich Ignatyev gave birth to Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev who was appointed Minister of the Interior by Alexander III who fomented pogroms and who was the driving force behind the issuance of the infamous May Laws.

1835: Philadelphia natives Julia Levy and Joseph Lyons Moss who were married in New York City in 1828 gave birth to Rebecca Moss.

1839: Hannah Levy, the Philadelphia born daughter of Sarah and Daniel da Silva Solis and her husband Isaac Abraham Levy gave birth Abraham Isaac Levy in Richmond, VA.

1842: Rosa and Benjamin Valentine gave birth to Julia Valentine.

1843: In Niles, Ohio, William and Nancy (née Allison) McKinley gave birth to William McKinley, Jr. who appointed Oscar Straus to serve as United States Minister to the Ottoman Empire.

1847(12th of Shevat, 5607): Eight days after celebrating his sixty-second birthday Liverpool native Henry Solomon, the husband of Julia Levy and the father of Rachel, Simon, Louis and Isaac Solomon passed away today in Savanah, GA.

1848: In a speech at the annual Thomas Paine Dinner, suffragist and anti-slavery activist Ernestine Rose declared "superstition keeps women ignorant, dependent, and enslaved beings. Knowledge will make them free." http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/29/1848/ernestine-rose

1849: Isaac Noah Mannheimer delivered a speech in the Austrian Reichstag where he called for the abolition of capital punishment.

1849: Birthdate of Odessa native Adolph Zederbaum, the Berlin trained physician who served on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society headquartered in Denver, CO.

1851: In Charleston, SC, Leopold Cohen married Elizabeth Cohen, “the eldest daughter of Nathan A. Cohen.’

1852: Birthdate of Frederick Hyman Cohen, the native of Kingston Jamaica, who would gain fame as the Composer, Conductor, and Pianist, Sir Fredrick H. Cowen.

1856: Birthdate of Elisheba (Bathshebabai) Wargharkar, the wife of Moses Shalom Bapuji Israel Wargharkar with whom she had 11 children.

1856:  Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross. Frank de Pass was the first Jew to be awarded Britain’s highest award for valor.  He earned it for action on the Western Front on November 24, 1917.  The award was made posthumously since he was killed the next day.

1857(4th of Shevat, 5617): Forty-year-old Jane L. Theiss Sheftall, the wife of Emanuel Sheftall and mother of William, Hannah, Josephine, Caroline, Louisa, Jane, Edward James, Mary and Sarah Sheftall passed away today after which she was buried at the Laurel Grove Cemetery North in Savanah, GA.

1859 (24th of Shevat, 5619): Passing of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Born in 1787, he was renowned Chassidic leader, and forerunner of the "Ger" Chassidic dynasty.

1860: German historian Ernst Moritz Arndt, who “played a crucial part in the development of German nationalism, with a corollary of hostility to, and fear of, the Jews” whom believed “had become ‘a depraved and degenerate people,…unfit to be full citizens of a Christian state’” passed away today.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/arndt-ernst-moritzdeg

1860: Birthdate of Russian author Anton Chekhov. Unlike other Russian literary lions, Chekhov fully opposed anti-Semitism.  He was a supporter of Dreyfus, publicly declaring his innocence and supporting Zola when he came to the defense of the French Colonel.  When Alexsi Suvorin, his longtime friend and literary colleague, attacked Zola as an agent of the Jews, Chekhov ended their professional and personal relationship.

1861: Kansas became the 34th state of the Union. One of the unique aspects of the history of the Jews of Kansas was the Jewish agricultural colonies that were established on the High Plains during the 1880’s. The Jewish Agriculturists' Aid Society of America seven Jewish agricultural colonies in places with such Biblical and or Jewish names as Beersheba, Montefiore, Lasker, Leeser, and Touro, Gilead and Hebron. For more about this interesting attempt to create what Zionist would come to call The New Jew in America’s heartland see "Jewish Farming Communities Enriched Kansas Cultural Heritage" at http://www.kshs.org/features/feat1201.htm. Today there is a thriving Jewish Community in Kansas, much of it centered in Overland, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb.

1865: Rosetta Moses, the daughter of Martha and Joseph Jonas and her husband Dr. Montefiore Moses gave birth to Mary Stanford Moses

1866: Philadelphian Aaron de Haan completed two years of service with Battery A of the 112th Regiment –Second Artillery.

1869: In Los Angeles, CA, Hannah Pessah Cohn and Rabbi Abraham Wolf Edelman gave birth to

NYU trained physician David William Edleman who became the “chief of staff of the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital” and “a member of the national committee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/08/07/99837292.pdf

1872(19th of Shevat, 5632) Fifty-four-year-old Jacob Israel passed away today after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.

1872: In Staunton, VA, Pauline Frank and Jonas Heller gave birth to Georgetown University trained physician and major and surgeon in the United States Volunteers Joseph Milton Heller the professor of Tropical Diseases at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

1872: Two days after she had had passed away 37-year-old Sara (Kosman) Lang, the wife of Jacques Lang and the mother of Judith, Alice and Charles Lang was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1873: In Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, Sophie and Nathan and Baruch Rothschild gave birth to “Ike” Rothschild who would only live for a week.

1874: In Elgin, Illinois, Charles and Leonora (Goldman Bachrach gave birth to Benjamin Charles Bachrach, the holder of an A.B. from Notre Dame and an LL. B from Kent College of Law in Chicago and the husband of Martha Hartman whose success as a criminal lawyer can be seen by his successful defense of accused murders Alderman Thomas O’Malley, Baron von Biedenfeld and David Rosenbaum as well as his representation of Heavyweight Champion Jack Jackson and “thrill killers” Leopold and Loeb.

1874: Two days after she had passed away, 49-year-old Leah Moses, the wife of Moses Moses with she had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1874: Birthdate of Arthur Lenz who would die in Nazi held Berlin in 1944.

1875: Two days after he had passed away, William Phillip De Jongh, a native of Amsterdam, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1876: In Patterson, NJ, Gustave Theodor Ernst Zittle and Bertha Morganthau Zittle gave birth to Carl Florian Zittle, the husband of the former Martha Beatrice Bernstein with whom he had two children – Madeline and Carl – who was known as Zit and who worked for a number of Hearst publications, “owned the Central Park Casino during the administration of Mayor Jimmy Walker” and published Zit’s Weekly, a show biz weekly, for over twenty years.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/01/31/88513430.pdf

1876: In St. Louis, Isaac and Anna (Loewenstein) Koperlick gave birth to Washington University train attorney Benjamin F. Koperlik, the husband of Hattie Levy who settled in Pueblo, CO, where served as City Attorney and president of Temple Emanu-El.

1877(15th of Shevat, 5637): Tu B’Shevat

1877: After studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary at Breslau, David Kaufmann was ordained as a Rabbi.  He had received his Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig 3 years before his ordinated.

1877: It was reported today that according to an unconfirmed rumor, the Ottoman government is so desperate for money that it has offered to sell the Pashaluk of the Holy Land, which is effectively Palestine, to any candidate acceptable to the Jews in return for a loan.  If the Jews are not interested, the Turks might make a similar offer to Brigham Young since agents of the Mormon have been reported making similar inquiries during the past year.

1878: Three days after he had passed away Stephen Joseph Spyer, the son of Joseph and Sophia Spyer who was the husband of Rosetta de Metz and Eliza Nathan was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1878: Birthdate of Dr. Alexander Marx, the native of Elberfield, Germany who became the director of libraries and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of History at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

1880: In Kiev, Sofia G. Munstein and Alexander S. Goldenweiser gave birth to Harvard and Columbia trained anthropologist Alexander Goldenweiser, the husband of Anna Hallow who was a lecturer on anthropology at Columbia and the New School for Social Research in New York City.

1880(16th of Shevat, 5640): Twenty-eight-year-old Elias Abendana passed away after which he was buried at the New Jewish Cemetery in London.

1882: Twenty-two year old Hart Blumenthal, the Philadelphia born son of David and Eva (Baum) Blumenthal, a trustee of the Jewish Publication Society, chairman of the Keneseth Israel Free Library and a noted collector of Lincolniana” married Ida Ratwich , the mother of author Walter Hart Blumenthal.

1882: Seventy-one-year-old General Alfred von Henikstein, “the youngest son of the Jewish banker Ritter Joseph von Henikstein, who was baptized as a child” and who was” chief of staff before the battle of Königgrätz in the Austro-Prussian War” passed away today.

1883: In Hoboken, NJ, Dora and Lilienthal gave birth to Felix Lilienthal, the founder of Felix Lienthal and Company and husband of Selma Goldstein with whom he raised WW II Navy veteran and Dartmouth graduate Felix Lilienthal, Jr.

1883: In Austria, Aron and Charlotte (Licht) Brandler gave birth to European trained diamond cutter Samuel Brandler, the husband of Sarah Gutwirth who in 1915 came to the United States where he founded a pearl and diamond importing business was active in numerous Jewish organizations including the ZOA and HIAS and “enjoyed” a bit of notoriety when three young men stole $100,000 worth of uncut diamonds from him while he was eating in Chicago restaurant in 1926.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/05/12/98376982.pdf

1884: Birthdate of Austrian native Dr. Samuel Barbash, a graduate of the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, the husband of the “former of Rae Alper” and “medical director of the Atlantic City Hospital.”

1885: NYU Law School graduate Max Altmayer, the New York born son of Babetta New and Israel Altmayer who was a Democratic Party activist and a member of Temple Israel married Rosa Sickles Toda.

1888: Two days after she had passed away Floretta Maria Ascher, the daughter of “Joseph Ascher and Maria Carter” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1888: In New York City, Isaac and Bertha (Jaros) Wise gave birth to Columbia trained chemist Louis Wise Elsberg, the university professor and researcher with a main interest “in organic chemistry as applied to cellulose and wood who worked in the science and research division of the Bureau of Aircraft Production during WW I and then briefly for DuPont while being married to the former Ethel Brand.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wise-louis-elsberg

1888: In New York City, Caroline “Carrie” Weiss, the New York born of Yetta and Louis Stix and her husband Samuel Weiss gave birth to William Stix Weiss.

1890: It was reported today that Professor Felix Adler officiated at the wedding of Gertrude Hiller and Gustave Leve in New York City.

1890: Forty-year-old Mrs. Basche Gersohnfeld a Russian Jewess and her four children ranging in age from eleven to two arrived at Castle Garden where she was met by her husband Moses who had come to American before her with their son Joseph and was working as butcher.

1890: Commissioner Stephenson denied Basche Gershonfeld and her young children the right to leave Castle Garden because even though her husband Moses was earning $12 a week as a butcher and her son Joseph was earning $9 a week, he was not sure that they would not become public charges.

1891: It was reported today that the 200-year-old Wells Mansion which is believed to be the oldest house still standing in Boston, MA, has been purchased by a Jewish millionaire named Ratchesky. (This may be Abraham “Cap” Rashesky who founded the A.C. Ratchesky Foundation.

1892: Two days after he had passed away, Solomon Isaacs, the son of Isaac Isaacs and Elizabeth Davis, and the husband of Esther Hart and then Jane Abrahams and then Esther Abrahams was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1892(29th of Tevet, 5652): Sixty-three-year-old Benjamin Russak, a partner in Harris and Russak, a “fur-manufacturing house” passed away today.  A native of Posen, he came to the United States in 1848 and opened a retail hat, cap and fur store with his brother-in-law, Henry Harris. The firm prospered and was one of the first to enter into the fur-seal trade.  Russak was active in several organizations including the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the United Hebrew Charities and the Hebrew Technical Institute.

1892(29th of Tevet, 5652): Eight-year-old Liebmann Adler, the native of Lengsfeld, Germany who came to the United States in 1854 to lead a congregation in Detroit, MI, before becoming the Rabbi at the Ḳehillath Anshe Ma'arabh ("Congregation of the Men of the West"), of Chicago in 1861 passed away today.

1892: Birthdate of German –born American director Ernst Lubitsch.

http://www.lubitsch.com/

1893(12th of Shevat, 5653): Seventy-five-year-old German native Sailing Wolfe, the husband of Sarah Cohen Wolfe, with whom he had seven children – Isabel, rose, Solomon, Debora, Henrietta, Sarah and Hartwig – passed away today in South Carolina, after which he was buried at the Hebrew Benevolent Society Cemetery in Columbia, SC

1894: Birthdate of Jaroslaw, Poland native Lionel S. Reiss, the Polish-American painter raised on the Lower East Side who “became known for his portraits of Jewish people and landmarks in Jewish history which he made during his trip to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in the early 1920s” and who in 1938 “published his book My Models Were Jews, in which he illustratively argued that there is no such thing as a "Jewish ethnicity", but the Jewish people are rather a cultural group, whereby there is significant diversity within Jewish communities and between different communities in different geographical regions.”

https://www.rogallery.com/artists/lionel-s-reiss/

1894: Twenty-two-year-old NYU trained attorney Simon Berg, the Kiev born son of Henry and Frieda (Uselow) Berg married Rose Berliner today in New York, five years before he was admitted he was admitted to the bar and six years before he established “the law firm of Simon Berg” which specialized “in all phases of real estate work.”

1895: It was reported today that the mid-year exams, including tests in Hebrew, will begin this week at Columbia College in New York,

1895: In Natchez, Mississippi, Moritz and Beulah Benjamin Hellman gave birth to Jess Lee Hellman who settled in Texas and who became Jessie Lee Alexander when she married Benjamin Mortimer Alexander.

1896: It was reported today that the American Jewish Historical Society will be holding its fourth annual meeting in Philadelphia.

1897: Captain Ferdinand Forzinetti, the commandant of military prison, who was “one of the first to be convinced of the innocent of Dreyfus” received a letter of commendation from the Ministry of War “for having taken part in a panel that reviewed the regulations concerning the serving of military justice.” Later in the year, he would be relieved of duty when his support for Dreyfus became a matter of public record.

1897: “Our Jewish Population” published today included a summary of paper presented by Philadelphian David Sulzberger at the annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society which described the growth of Jewish population in the United from 3,000 in 1812 to its present level of 500,000 “of whom 140,000” live in New York City. 

1897: Rabbis Kohler and Kleeberg will co-officiate today at the funeral of Dr. Solomon Deutsch, the author of Essays on the Talmud

1898: Lucien Millevoye delivered an anti-Dreyfus speech tonight in Bordeaux.

1898: Birthdate of NYC native and mortician Sanford Roscoe Gumpert who received his training at the Renouard Training School for Embalmers.

1898: “Fortunes in Antiquity” provided a review of The Art of Getting Rich in which Henry Hardwicke uses the story of Cain and Able as evidence that “the first occupations of mankind were sheep industry and tillage.”  Furthermore, as can be seen from the fact that “the wealth of the patriarchs…consisted principally in their flocks” the “pastoral life…seems to have been more…profitable among the Hebrews than tillage.” 

1899: Birthdate of Harold W. Carmely, the native of Wolkowysk, Poland, who came to the United States in 1922 where he served as the Superintendent of the Daughters of Israel Home in New York and Director of Keren Hayesod.

1899: “Homer and Jewish Rites” published today noted the similarity between the Jewish rituals concerning the washing of the hands and the prayer uttered in the Iliad, “Now pray to Jove what Greece demands: Pray in deep silence and with the purest hands.”

1899: The meeting of the Zionist Actions Committee in Vienna came to an end.

1899: Mr. Green introduced a bill in Albany today that would exempt “the real property of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of New York City from all taxes commonly known as ‘land taxes.’”

1899: It was reported today that Governor Theodore Roosevelt has chosen Jastrow Alexander to serve as State Inspector of Gas Meters.  “In Mr. Alexander, the Governor believed he had found another Maccabee – a Jews who had come to this country from Germany while a young man, had become thoroughly imbued with the American spirit, had enlisted when the civil war broke out, and by reason of conspicuous courage had been advanced to be an Adjutant General.”

1900: Birthdate Pryluky, Ukraine native Irving Chernev who in 1905 came to the United States where he became a national class chess champion and the prolific author of books on chess including Chessboard Magic!The Bright Side of ChessThe Fireside Book of Chess, The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played1000 Best Short Games of ChessPractical Chess EndingsCombinations: The Heart of Chess, and Capablanca's Best Chess Endings.

https://worldchesshof.org/hof-inductee/irving-chernev

1900: It was reported today that Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, was one of several clergymen who had attended the non-denominational memorial service for Father McGlynn of whom he said “that if all the world were made up of Father McGlynns there would be no persecution of the Jews such as prevails in Europe” and he also “told of how twenty years ago Father McGlynn from his own depleted purse furnished the wherewithal to complete a synagogue on East 29th Street that the Jews were building and found they could not finish for lack of funds.”

1901: “Nathan Strus had the famous trotter Cobwebs on the road and worked him out several times but did not enter him in any heats at the Speedway.

1902: In “Work for Able-Bodied Men” published today, Lee Frankel, the manager of the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York said, in response to efforts by Roumanian Jews to find working for their co-religionists, “the United Hebrew Charities is prepared to find work through its employment bureau for any able-bodied man who will apply” at their offices.

1903: Herzl and the Actions Committee in Vienna work out the outline of a Charter which is taken to Cairo by the expedition and delivered to Leopold Greenberg.

1903: In New York, Ike ("Charlie Hoey") and Jennie A. Guerin Croter gave birth to Alvina Croter who gained fame as Viña Delmar “the American playwright and screenwriter” who “was nominated for an Academy Award for 1937 for her screen adaptation of the Arthur Richman play, “The Awful Truth.”

1903: Birthdate of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the Riga born intellectual who made Aliyah in 1935 and whose career both in depth in breadth is beyond my ability to even begin to describe.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/19/obituaries/yeshayahu-leibowitz-91-iconoclastic-israeli-thinker.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/19/obituaries/yeshayahu-leibowitz-91-iconoclastic-israeli-thinker.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/yleib.html

1904: In Warsaw Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, the originator of Esperanto and his wife gave birth to their youngest daughter Lidia Zamenhof who died in Treblinka.

http://bahai-library.com/dale_lidia_zamenhof

1904: Two days after he had passed away, Abraham Bermon was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1905: Carl Jung made an entry in the records of the Burgholzli Hospital in which he described his treatment of Sabina Spielrein whom he described as “oriental” and “voluptuous.”  The young Jewess went from being a patient of Freud and Jung to being a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis. (As reported by Karen Hall)

1905: Three days after he had passed away, 64-year-old Isaac Gabriel, the husband of Sophia Morris and then Julia Gabriel was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1906: It was reported today that when “a deputation of the reactionary League of Russian Men” told the Czar, “We are convinced that the present sedition is the work of the Jews’ hands” and “therefore entreated the sovereign not to grant equality before the laws to the Jews” the Emperor replied “I shall think it over.”

1906: As of today, Louis S. Brush is President of the Choral Society for Ancient Hebrew Melodies and Mrs. Solomon Schechter, the wife of the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the founder of the society is the vice president.

1906: “A special international congress of Jews” meeting under the auspices of the Zionists which will discuss action to be taken to protect the Jews of Russia is scheduled to open today in Brussels and will be attended by a delegation selected by the Federation of American Zionists.

1907: It was reported today that Dr. Judah L. Magnes, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El and Secretary of the of the Federation of American Zionists” has said that there will probably be a public meeting in New York to protest the arrest of Jewish political leaders in Vilna.

1907: Today, George Washington Oakes, the University of Tennessee and Columbia educated editor and son of Bertha Levy and Julius Oakes married Bertie Gans who passed away in 1913.

1908: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities will need at least another forty-thousand dollars so that it can continue to perform its function until its fiscal year which ends in September.

1909(7th of Shevat, 5669): Sixty-year-old Sarah Nathan the New York born daughter of Canadian Rebecca Solomons and Simon Mendes Nathan passed away today in her hometown.

1910(19th of Shevat, 5670): Parashat Yitro

1910: It was reported today that “the enormous Jewish population of the east side asking for kosher meat
 which for the most part comes from the less expensive cuts such as chuck steak has introduced a whole element in the business of exporting meat because it means that the prime cuts are more available for sale in places such as England where prices are much lower than in the United States.

1910: The New York Section of the Council of Jewish Women acknowledged that contributions total $43, including one for $25 from “A Friend” have been received following an appeal made recently to help two unnamed girls.

1911: “Denouncing the American people for their patience with immoral leader, and declaring that an end to our "moral breakdown" can come only "through the determined leadership of the religious and moral forces of the nation," the Rev. Dr. Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue preached today before a congregation that filled every corner of Carnegie Hall.”

1912: It was reported today that Louis Marshall who was chairman of Governor Hughes’s State Immigration Commission, Abram Elkus, the president of the National Jewish Immigration Council, Dr. Herbert Friedenwald, the Secretary of the American Jewish Committee and Max K. Kolhler, representing the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Order of B’nai B’rith are working members of the Senate Immigration Committee including Senators O’Gorman, Penrose and Lodge to modify the Dillingham immigration bill especially as it pertains to literacy requirements and deportation.

1913: The British Consul in Jerusalem, P.J.C. McGregor wrote a dispatch assuring his government that he had talked to one of the leading Zionists in Palestine who denied reports in some British papers that the Palestinian Jews were pro Turk and pro German. This un-named leader assured the British diplomat that the Zionist sought the protection of the Union Jack since it was the only force that would support their goal of a Jewish home in Palestine.

1913: Birthdate of Daniel Taradash, the Louisville native and graduate of Harvard Law School before becoming a director and screenwriter who won the 1953 Oscar for writing the script for “From Here to Eternity.”

1913: Birthdate of Nina Zimet Schneider, anative of Antwerp, Belgium, who grew up in the United States where she combined forces with her Husband Herman to write dozens of books for children “that deftly explained the intricacies of stars, plants, the human body and even the networks of pipes and cables below the city streets…” 

1913: In Chicago, Samuel Kadish and his wife gave birth to American sculptor Reuben Kadish. (As reported by Roberta Smith)

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/22/obituaries/reuben-kadish-79-a-sculptor-of-works-evoking-the-ancient.html

1913(21st of Shevat, 5673): Ninety-one year old “communal worker” Louis Lewengood passed away in New York City.

1913: Churchill sends a letter to the Reform Club announcing his resignation because Baron de Forest, his Jewish friend and Member of Parliament had been blackballed in his bid for membership.

1914: Leading members of the AZK (the Anti-Zionist Committee which had been established by the Association for Liberal Judaism) including Bernhard Breslau, Hermann Coehn, Eugen Katz, James Simon and Hermann Veit Simon were asked to prepare a declaration “to be published in the most prestigious papers” on the “danger of Zionist activity in German

1915: “With the evidence of the negro Jim Conley, the principle witness against Leo M. Frank when the latter was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan and that of Herbert Hass, of counsel for Frank, Solicitor Hugh Dorsey, late this afternoon rested the case of the State against Dan S. Lehon, C.C. Fedler, and Attorney Arthur Thurman, representatives of the W.J. Burns Detective Agency, who are accused of subornation of perjury in the effort to get a new trial for Frank.”

1915: Following his death last week, Louis Sulzbach who “was the first continental American appointed as Associate Justice of the newly created Supreme Court of Puerto Rico” was honored by the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico in a Memorial Resolution” today.

1915: In Philadelphia, PA, Arthur Kaufman and Henrietta Berkowitz Stern gave birth to historian and rabbi, Malcolm H. Stern.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0626/ms0626.html

1916: Four years after having originally premiered in the United Kingdom, “The Miracle” a British silent film based on a play by Max Reinhardt premiered in Argentina.

1916: The opposition in the Senate yesterday to the nomination of Louis D. Brandeis of Boston to the Supreme Court of the United States appears to have been softened overnight. One Democratic Senator, who is especially well placed for knowing the drift of sentiment on the subject, said today that twenty-four hours ago he would have estimated that two-thirds of the Senate was against Mr. Brandeis.

1916: In Argentina, premiere of “The Miracle” a British silent film treatment of Max Reinhardt’s play of the same name.

1916: As of today, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War has “received $1,746.588 of which $1,104,966.24 was in cash and $641,621.76 in pledges.

1917: At Temple Emanu-El in New York, Dr. H. G. Enelow is scheduled to deliver a lecture today entitled “The Jewish Heritage of Jesus.”

1917: “A roof garden, built as a memorial to Mrs. Louis Marshall, for the use of children is scheduled to be dedicated this afternoon at the Lenox Hill Settlement.

1917: “Daniel Goldberg, Secretary of the Brooklyn Jewish Volunteer Relief Committee announced today that $5,000, mostly in $5 to $25 contribuitons had been added to the $50,000 subscribed and pledged at the meeting that had been held at the Academy of Music.

1917(6th of Shevat, 5677): Esther Kantrowitz, the mother of Meta Itskowitz, who raised her grandson Eddie Cantor from the time he was two because both of his parents had passed away died today.

1918: Hugo Guttman, a German-Jewish Lieutenant in the Kaiser’s Army began serving as “Adolf Hitler’s direct superior.”

1918: Birthdate of Morton Schindel, the Wharton School graduate who turned books into animated films.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/business/media/morton-schindel-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1918: A letter dated November 27, 1917, from David Fenik to Rabbi Jacob Bernstein of Newport, RI, excerpts of which were published today said that “the day before the British entered” one of the Jewish settlements in Palestine, “Turkish troops” armed with knouts “drove out most of the inhabitants and robbed and pillaged the homes of the refugees.”

1918: Two days before his death, Zionist leader Dr. Jechiel Tchlenow wrote a letter to the convention of the English Zionist Federation which was to take place four days later in which he stated that the convention was of the greatest historical importance; that Great Britain is the traditional friend of the small nations and that history would record in letters of gold the English promise to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national homeland in Palestine.

1919: It was announced today that that one million dollars has already been raised during the campaign of the ZOA whose goal is to raise three million dollars for aid to Palestine.

1920: “First Zion Ship Launched” published today described the launching, at Jaffa, of the first Jewish vessel in the Mediterranean, “owned by Jews, manned by Jews and flying the Jewish flag” during which the wife of Major John English, the commandant at Jaffa” raised the flag and expressed “the hope that next year the Jewish people might possess a large merchant marine on the Mediterranean.”

1921: Harold Brand was “appointed second lieutenant in the United States Army” today.

1921: Alexander Berkowitz was “appointed captain in the medical administrative corps of the United States Army” today.

1921: Ralph Eli Fleischer was “appointed lieutenant in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army” today.

1921: Sidney Ginsberg was “appointed a second lieutenant” serving in the infantry of the United States Army today.

1921: Benjamin Lester Jacobson was “appointed major in the finance department of the United States Army” today.

1921: Simon Jacobson was “appointed lieutenant in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army” today.

1921(20th of Shevat, 5681): Parashat Yitro

1921(20th of Shevat, 5681: Seventy-three-year-old U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Rear Admiral U.S.N. Edward David Taussig the St. Louis born son of Austrian Jewish immigrants Anna Abeles and “wool broker” Charles Taussig who was raised as a Unitarian and who was the first in a four generational family that graduated from Annapolis and who played an active role in the Pacific Theatre during the Spanish American War passed away today.

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-people/t/taussig-edward-d.html

1921: In Philadelphia, the new Stanley Theatre which cost $2 million dollars (“equal to $26 million today”) opened today.

1921: Robert Scott Israel was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army today.

1921: Arthur Louis Koch was “appointed captain in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army” today.’

1921: Louis Lehman Korn was appointed major in the Judge Advocate-General’s Department of the United Sates Army” today.

1921: Samuel Marcus was “appointed captain the medical administrative corps of the United States Army” today.

1921: Today, Herbert Block Mayer was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.

1921: Alfred Mordecai was “appointed lieutenant in the medical corps of the United States Army” today.

1921: Today, Eustace Maduro Peixotto was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Harvey Israel Rice was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Harry Isaac Rosen was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Frederick Buchanan Rosenbaum was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Nathan Rosenberg was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the medical corps of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Louis Bernard Saxe was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Philip Schneeberger was appointed to the rank of lieutenant while serving in the air service of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Charles Eugene Schwartz was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Max Weinberg was appointed to the rank of captain while serving in the medical administrative corps of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Arthur Henry Wolf was appointed to the rank of second lieutenant while serving in the infantry of the United States Army.

1921: Today, Samuel Israel Zeidner was appointed to the rank of captain while serving in the quartermaster corps of the United States Army.

1921: Birthdate of Eugene V. Klein the American businessman, supporter of candidates as varied as Pierre Salinger and Richard Nixon whose sport’s endeavors include ownership of the Seattle Supersonics and San Diego Chargers.

http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-13/sports/sp-260_1_san-diego-chargers

1922: In Newcastle, UK, Henry Morris Cohen and Eva Sussman Cohen gave birth to Gabrielle Cohen who became Gabrielle Blake when she married Leonard Blake.

1922: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at the West End Synagogue in Baltimore for Baltimore native Moses Crystal, the President of the Fabian Construction Company and a trustee of the West End Synagogue who had passed away two days ago.

1923: In the Bronx, Russian-Jewish immigrants Harry and Gussie (Stuchevsky) Chayefsky gave birth to Sidney Aaron Chayefsky who gained fame as three-time Oscar winning   playwright, novelist and screenwriter “Paddy” Chayefsky who was an opponent of McCarthyism, a worker in the cause of allowing Jews to leave the Soviet and a supporter of Israel who early on said that the term “Anti-Zionism” was a polite code for being anti-Semitic.

https://www.google.com/search?q=paddy+chayefsky&source=hp&ei=abPRY7LUN6ejptQPqpWLiAk&iflsig=AK50M_UAAAAAY9HBedzv_A7PyjMMkufSbOPmA-OBByyS&gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwrDIrTDdg9OIvSExJqVRIzkisTE0rzq4EAHntCUs&oq=paddy+ch&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAEYADILCC4QgAQQsQMQgwEyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIICC4QgAQQ1AIyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCC4QgAQ6BQguEJECOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToOCC4QgAQQsQMQxwEQ0QM6CAguELEDEIMBOggIABCABBCxAzoECAAQQzoFCAAQkQI6CAguELEDEIAEOggILhCABBCxAzoLCC4Q1AIQsQMQgAQ6BAguEEM6CgguENQCELEDEEM6EQguEIAEELEDEMcBENEDENQCOgsILhCABBCxAxDUAjoHCAAQgAQQClAAWPcTYOYvaABwAHgAgAFtiAGLBpIBAzYuMpgBAKABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz

1924(23rd of Shevat, 5684): Seventy-nine-year-old Frederick Salomon van Nierop a Dutch lawyer who was Chairman of the Supervisor Board of the Amsterdam Bank, a member of the Amsterdam Main Synagogue and President of the Committee of the General Affairs (a Jewish communal organization) passed away today.

1925: Funeral services were held today for 56-year-old Jewish philanthropist Joseph Smolenksy, the founder of the Jewish Court of Arbitration and the father of Dr. Morris Smolensky.

1925: Dr. Israel Goldstein, the rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jershurun was installed today “as President of the New York Board of Jewish Ministers.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/01/30/98815539.html?pageNumber=16

1925: Today “after a meeting of the Jewish Probation Society in the Criminal Courts Building it was announced that a drive had been started for contributions so that the work of the organization could be expanded to equal the wider efforts of the Catholic Probation Society” and “Magistrate Moses R. Ryttenberg. President of the Society said that Felix M Warburg had contributed $2,500 and” Jonah Goldstein had made a smaller gift.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/01/29/101636582.html?pageNumber=21

1926:” The Great Duchess” directed by Willi Wolff, starring Ellen Richter and produced by the husband-and-wife team of Ellen Richter and Willi Wolf was released today in Germany.

1927: Today, President Coolidge appointed twenty-eight-year-old Nathan Cayton to serve as a Judge of the Municipal Court in the District of Columbia, making him, after his unanimous approval the Senta, the “youngest man ever to be appointed to a judicial post in the Nation’s Capital.”

1928: The New York Times reported on improving economic conditions in Palestine.  For example, at Petakh Tikvah, an additional fifty Jewish workers have been hired and “the Arab lessees of local orange groves have promised to take on 200 more Jews within the next few days.”

1928: When asked by an interviewer in an article published two days before his 80th birthday “When should one commence giving?” Nathan Straus replied, “As soon as one has a little more than he actually needs.  At first it is hard.  But afterwards it grows into a pleasure and there is nothing more satisfying, nothing to make one happier than to give in order to relieve the distress of others.” By “others” Mr. Straus means “men women and children of all races and creeds.”  He has “the deep seated feeling that all humanity is one blood whatever the accident of birth or the circumstances of religious faith.  We are all brothers and should help each other to the full extent of the opportunities that the one God of all mankind gives to each of us.

1929: U.S. premiere of “The Case of Lena Smith” directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, filmed by cinematographer Harold Rosson based on a story by Samuel Ortiz.

1929: Birthdate of Richard Lawrence Ottinger who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York before he went on to pursue a career as a law school professor.

1929The London production “Funny Face” a George and Ira Gerswin musical which ad  opened at Princes Theatre on November 8, 1928 came to an end today.

1929: “The Case of Lena Smith” directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by Jesse L. Lasky, with a story by Samuel Ornitz was released in the United States today.

1930(29th of Tevet, 5690): Seventy-two-year-old Louisville native and graduate the University of Louisville Law School Moses N. Sale who moved to St. Louis in 1881 and where he served as Judge of the Circuit Court passed away today.

https://www.jta.org/1930/02/02/archive/judge-moses-sale-of-st-louis-dead-at-72

 1931: “The effect of the current economic situation” which became known as the Great Depression, “is reflected in the recent admissions to the National Jewish Hospital at Denver, said to be the old non-sectarian institution for tuberculosis in the country according to Dr. William S. Friedman of Denver who has arrived” in New York “to attend a meeting of the local committee at the Harmonie Club today

1931: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Hyman “Hy” Cohen the Chicago Cubs pitcher who was also a coach for the Birmingham Braves.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cohenhy01.shtml

1932: In New York City, the Julien Levy Gallery owned by Julien Levy hosted “the landmark multi-media Surrealist exhibition of the work of Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, and the introduction of Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory owned by Levy who “also championed the surrealist work of Leon Kelly.”

1932: French premiere of “Comradeship” the Franco (La Tragédie de la mine)-German (Kameradschaft) film starring Alexander Granach as “Kasper.”

1932: The American Hebrew appeared for the last time. It would merge with the New York Jewish Tribune and re-appear as American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune

1932: In London, England, celebration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of famed composer, conductor and pianist Sir Frederic H. Cowen.

1933: Paul von Hindenburg, President of Germany appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.  The Nazis did not come to power through a coup or putsch.  They came to power legally, using the German political and electoral processes.

1934: Pierre Van Passen is scheduled to deliver a lecture this evening at the Brooklyn Jewish Center on “European Dictatorships and the Jew.”

1934: The “Conference of the Women’s division of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights” sic scheduled to meet this after the Hotel Plaza.

1935: “For the first time since the Nazis came to power the Central Committee of Jewish Associatios in Germany today protested formally in its organ, the Judische Rundschau, against Julius Streicher’s anti-Semitic propaganda.”

1935: Motion picture director Ernst Lubitsch who “was one of 207 person affected by an order” in Germany “revoking the nationality of Eastern Jews” said today that the “losing of his German citizenship as reported from Berlin was of little importance to him because he was preparing for United States Citizenship.”

1936: Today’s decision by the Hungarian Ministry of Justice “refusing permission to Hungarian Jew to marry a German girl in Hungary” was seen as evidence that Hungary is applying the Nuremberg Laws as a sign of friendship for Germany.

1936: Rabbi B. Leon Hurwitz represented the Jewish community at memorial service honoring the late King George V held at the Hotel New Yorker.

1936: When Hans Frank told the German Academy’s economic council “We do not care what the wolrd says about our Jewish legislation” it was Germany’s way of serving “notice that she would continue her unrelenting drive against Jews” in what was part of a “strong restatement of Nazi principles on the third anniversary of Hitler’s assumption of power.

1937: “You Only Live Once,” produced by Walter Wagner, with music by Alfred Newman and starring Sylvia Sidney (Sophia Kosow) was released today in the United States.

1937: “The Good Earth” the cinematic treatment of the novel of the same name produced by Irving Thalberg and Albert Lewin, filmed by Karl Freund winner of the Oscar for Best Cinematography and starring Paul Muni and Luise Rainer winner of the Oscar for Best Actress was released in the United States today.

1937: In Geneva, Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck told reported Clarence K. Streit that the pressure from his country to force Jews to emigrate was not based on anti-Semitism but on the changing nature of the Polish economy.

1938(27th of Shevat, 5698) Parashat Mishpatim

1938: Rabbi Benedict Glazer is scheduled to deliver the sermon this morning at Temple Emanu-El

1938: Rabbi Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Organized Foreign Born and Democracy” this morning at the Central Synagogue.

1938: Rabbi Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Shall We Teach Our Children?” this morning at the West End Synagogue.

1938: Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Laws of God and the Ordinances of Man” at Temple Israel.

1938: Rabbi Wendell A. Phillips is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Slaves to Convention” at Temple Rodeph Sholom.

1938: Rabbi Alexander Segal is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Value of Freedom” at Fort Washington where services will be followed by a meeting of the congregations Junior League.

1938(27th of Shevat, 5698): Sixty-seven-year-old Eugene Hugo Paul, who worked with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. for 48 years and was active in several Jewish organizations including the Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=950DE6D61E3EE03ABC4850DFB7668383629EDE

1938: Speaking at re-union dinner at the Hotel Astor tonight, Morris R. Cohen, the retiring Professor of Philosophy at City College said that there was a real danger in the fact that “the proportion of non-Jews at the college was becoming negligible” because the friendships formed when the student body contained significant numbers of Catholics and Protestants’ would cease to exist and this could lead to a form of “segregation” in New York City.

1939(9th of Shevat, 5699): Sixty-six-year-old Sir Laurie Hammond, “who was a member of the Peel Royal Commission which in 1937 recommended tri-partition of Palestine as the only solution of the Arab-Jewish conflict” passed away today.

(EDITOR’S NOTE- THE FOLLOWING LISTINGS SERVE AS A REMINDER OF A TIME WHEN SOME WISHED TO OBSERVE SHABBAT ON SUNDAY)

1939: Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How Men Enslave Themselves” at Temple Emanu-El.

1939: Sir Ronald Storrs who began serving as Governor of Jerusalem in 1917 as soon as Allenby had taken the city is scheduled to deliver talk on “The Problem of Palestine: England, Arab, Jew” at the service of the Free Synagogue being held in Carnegie Hall.

1939: The West End Synagogue is scheduled to host a “lecture forum” where Rabbi Hyman Judah Shacthel will deliver “an address on ‘A Way of Life.’”

1939: At Rodeph Sholom, Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver “an address” on “Hitler’s Six Years: What Have They Cost Jews, Germans and the World?”

1940(19th of Shevat, 5700): Forty-two-year-old Havre, France born consulting engineer Martin Popkin who “received his education in the Kansas City, MO public schools, the Baron Rothschild Academy at Port Said and the University of Turin” and who had written “several textbooks including Manufacture of Men’s Clothes and Personnel Management passed away today in New York City.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/01/30/92854392.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1941: Harold Levin, Albert Levin Isidor Silverman and Samuel Gold, “an attorney in the Department of Justice” are among the Democrats mentioned to fill the vacancy for the seat in Congress in the Seventeenth District.

1941: Mrs. Tehilla Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver an address on “A Formula For Courage” at the Jewish Science Society on West 85th Street,

1941(1st of Shevat, 5701): Rosh Chodesh Shevat

1941(1st of Shevat, 5701): At the Lodz Ghetto, Bluma Lichtensztajn committed suicide and painter Maurycy Trebacz died of hunger. (He was one of five thousand Jews who will die of hunger over the next six months.)

1942: This week’s issue of the Sentinel, Chicago’s Jewish Weekly was published today

http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16614coll14/id/68555

1942(11th of Shevat, 5702): Seventy-four-year-old Matilda “Tillie” Isaacs, the London born daughter of Albert and Adelaide Hart and wife of Julius Isaacs with she had four children passed away today after which she was buried in Sheffield, England.

1942: It was reported today that “Nathaniel Phillips, president of the Natioal League for American Citizenship” has “amplified is statement that an enemy alien may become naturalize if at the tie of declaration of intention issued at least two years previously, or if, as the spouse of an American citizen, he was exempt from obtaining a declaration of intention, or if on Dec. 11, 1941, his petition for final papers was pending.”

1943: Germans execute 15 Poles at the village of Wierzbica for aiding three Jews. One of the victims is a two-year-old girl.

1943: The “Nazis ordered all Gypsies arrested and sent to extermination camps.”

1944: In London, unwed Australian Jewess named Oldham gave birth to Andrew Oldham, the “manager and producer of the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1967.”

 

1944: In Trieste, the Nazis conduct a roundup of Jews aimed the old and sick people including those living in facilities for the aged. 

1944: A Nazi court in Kraków, Poland, sentences five Poles to death for aiding Jews. One of the accused, Kazimierz Jozefek, is hanged in the public square.

1944: In Lithuania, Soviet led partisans including Jews from the Kovno and Vilnius ghettos attacked Koniuchy which was later described a pro-Nazi town from which Germans launched attacks against partisans.  According to various reports several civilians were killed in the action which has led to it being described as a “massacre.”

1945(15th of Shevat, 5705): Tu B’Shevat

1945(15th of Shevat, 5705): Seventy-year-old Olympic Gymnast Gustav Felix Flatow died of starvation today at Theresienstadt.

http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/GustavFlatow.htm

1945(15th of Shevat, 5705): Less than a month before his 80th birthday Pittsburgh, PA native Albert M. Hanauer, a partner and Secretary-Treasurer of the Hamburger Distillery passed away today.

1945: Today, President Roosevelt nominated Herman B. Baruch who “had been working with the Foreign Economic Administration in Latin America” and who is the brother of Bernard Baruch to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Portugal.

1945: Birthdate of Paysach J. Krohn, rabbi, mohel and author of the “Maggid” series of books for ArtScroll.

1946(27th of Shevat, 5706): Seventy-seven-year-old Yale graduate, corset manufacturer and bank director Frederick Max Adler, the New Haven born son of Max Adler, “a manufacturer who commanded Connecticut during the Civil War” and Esther Myers Adler and husband of “the former Sophie Greenspecht with whom he raised two daughters passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/01/30/93022532.html?pageNumber=22

1946: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the well-being of the peoples now living therein” which had been meeting in Washington, D.C. continued its meetings today in London

1947: Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" premiered in New York City.

1948: “A Woman’s Vengeance” produced and directed by Zoltan Korda which arrived at the Winter Garden “is this morning’s lone film newcomer.”

1948: Birthdate of Canadian Gerald Barry Falovtich who gained fame as singer-songwriter Yank Berry, “the philanthropist who along with his friend and partner Muhammad Ali has fed over 954,000,000 documented meals to the needy around the world over the last twenty years.”

1948: The colleagues and friends of Dr. Alexander Marx will hold a reception in the reading room of the JTS Library so that they can celebrate his 70th birthday and congratulate him on his 45 years of service to the academic institution which is the flagship of Conservative Judaism.

1948: At its annual meeting in the Commodore Hotel, the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College approved an $8,000,000 "Blueprint for the Future."

1948: “A Woman's Vengeance,”  “a 1948 American film noir drama mystery film directed and produced by Zoltán Korda was released in the United States today.

1949(28th of Tevet, 5709) Parashat Vaera

1949(28th of Tevet, 5709): Sixty-five-year-old “Jakub Karol Parnas, a prominent Jewish-Polish–Soviet biochemist who contributed to the discovery of the Embden–Meyerhof–Parnas pathway, together with Otto Fritz Meyerhof and Gustav Georg Embden and who was arrested during the Stalinist Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee affair in 1949 and died today in the prison, reportedly of heart attack.”

1950: Birthdate of South African native Jody David Scheckter, “the 1979 Formula One World Drivers' Champion.”

1951: “Where’s Charley?” featuring music and lyrics by Frank Loesser began a second Broadway run today when it opened at The Broadway Theatre.

1953: “Dreaming Lips” with a script by Paul Czinner and Carl Mayer was released in Germany today.

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Mapam, by a vote of 228 to 22, expelled from the party one of its veteran Zionist leaders, Dr. Moshe Sneh. According to the Post's leading article there was no room in Mapam for two groups which justified the new Soviet anti-Semitic policy and this explained why Sneh, and his more extreme "Left Faction," were expelled. They were expected to join the Communists.  

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that President Juan Peron said that the gates of Argentina stood wide open to any Soviet Jew who wished to find shelter there. The offer was also valid for Jews from other Soviet-dominated countries.

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Ministry of Interior closed the Communist daily Kol Ha'am for 10 days for publishing articles threatening the public peace.

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that arson damaged the Russian bookshop in Jerusalem.

1954: Dr. Robert Oppenheimer sent a telegram requesting a hearing before the Atomic Energy Commission which had suspended his security clearance in response to charges that he was untrustworthy because of associations with Communists.

1954: After premiering in Los Angeles three weeks ago, “The Great Diamond Robbery” directed by Robert Z. Leonard and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released today throughout the United States.

1954: CBS broadcast the final episode of “Action in the Afternoon” directed by U. of Penn graduate Richard Lester.

1955(6th of Shevat, 5715): Parashat Bo

1955(6th of Shevat, 5715): Fifty-two-year-old New York born, Columbia educated Dr. Michael Alper who was ordained by the Jewish Institute of Religion and served as “a director of Jewish Education of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” while editing several Jewish magazines and authoring “several textbooks” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/01/31/92844715.pdf

1956: Seventy-five-year-old Louis Mencken, better known as sharp tongued journalist H.L. Mencken whose diaries revealed a streak of anti-Semitism which did not keep him being “close friends” with Alfred Knopf and Ben Hecht, praising the work of Ayn Rand or that asserted that “books such as Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street  by Eddie Cantor (ghost-written by David Freedman) did more to pull America out of the Great Depression than all government measures combined” passed away today.

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-12-05/news/mn-198_1_h-l-mencken

1958(8th of Shevat, 5718): Joya Garger, the wife of Albert Abraham Garger, passed away today after which she was buried at the Spanish-Hebrew Sephardic Beth Shalom Cemetery in Price Hill, Ohio.

1958: It was reported today that Bernie Sarachek, Yeshiva University’s basketball coach urged a change in the college basketball rule requiring a team to play with fewer than five men when the rest of its players have fouled out” recommending instead the adoption of the rule used in the National Basketball Association that say “when a club has been reduced to five players, any player who commits a normally disqualifying personal foul would be permitted to continue in the game.

1959: Marian Winters began playing the role of “Myra Solomon” in the stage production of “Tall Story.”

1961: “Look in Any Window” co-starring Ruth Roman, the daughter of Mary and Abraham Roman, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, was released today in the United States.

1962:  Violinist Fritz Kreisler passed away.  According to at least one source, Kreisler’s father was Jewish, but he was not.  Reportedly Kreisler’s wife was an Austrian anti-Semite whose reactions to Kreisler’s ethnic origins have helped to cloud the issue.  At least one of Kreisler’s brothers is reported to have said that he was Jewish but the same could not be said of Fritz.

1962: It was reported today that the Herzliah Hebrew Teachers Training Institute will receive $750,000 to “develop an accredited degree-training college for Hebrew studies.” (As reported by JTA)

1964(15th of Shevat, 5724): Tu B'Shevat

1964: Birthdate of Ruhama Avraham, the Sephardi native of Rishon LeZion who was first elected to the Knesset in 2003.

1964: Premiere of Stanley Kubrick's anti-war dark comedy, "Dr. Strangelove"

1966: “Sweet Charity” a musical with a book by Neil Simon opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre.

1967: The album Casino Royale Soundtrack featuring “The Look of Love” composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David was released today.

1967 "Let's Sing Yiddish" closed at Brooks Atkinson in New York City NY after 107 performances.

1968: “How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life” a comedy produced and written by Stanley Shapiro and co-starring Eli Wallach was released today in the United States.

1968(28th of Tevet, 5728): Eighty-five year old J. B. S. Hardman, born Jacob Benjamin Salutsky who was a leader of the Jewish Socialist Federation of the Socialist Party and who married “the former Virginia Mishnun in 1964” after his first wife, “the former Hanna Goldstein died in 1953”  passed away today.

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_050/

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/31/79932536.pdf

1968: Two days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held today for sixty-three-year-old Norman Gerstenfeld, the British born long-time rabbi at Washington Hebrew Congregation and husband of the former Louise Mundheim with whom he had four children

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/28/89318887.pdf

1969: Birthdate of Dov Charney CEO of the garment company American Apparel.

1969(10th of Shevat): Max Weinrich a founder of the Yiddish Institute (YIVO) and author of History of the Yiddish Language passed away

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Weinreich_Max

1970(22nd of Shevat, 5730): Areyh Ben-Eliezer, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, a member of several pre-state organizations including Hebrew Committee for National Liberation, The American League for a Free Palestine and the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, passed away

1970: Gideon Patt, a sabra born in Jerusalem during the British Mandate, began serving in the Knesset following the death of Areyh Ben-Eliezer.

1971: It was reported today that “although some Jewish leaders, particularly among the Orthodox, favored some sort of state aid, most Jewish groups opposed any such monetary help saying that it ‘posed a grave threated to the independence of religion and the stability of government.’”

1973(26th of Shevat, 5733): Eighty-nine-year-old Ludwig Stössel one of many Jewish actors and actresses who were forced to flee Europe when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and who played supporting roles in such famous films as “Kings Row,” “Pride of the Yankees” and “Casablanca” passed away today.

1974: Today, in an interview at his Leningrad apartment, Valery Panov disclosed the “rumors that the authorities plan to jail him to stop his campaign to emigrate to Israel with his wife.

1975: In Israel, Boris Chait, the president of the Israeli Ice Skating Federation and his wife gave birth to Galit Chait, the bronze medal winning ice dancer and head coach of the Israeli figure skating team who is he wife of Francesco Moracci with whom she has had two children – Raffaella and Gabriella.

1975: Alan King hosted the First Annual Comedy Awards of the Year.  Considering the number of Jewish comedians going back to the early days of vaudeville, the choice of the Jewish King is doubly appropriate.

1975: In Santa Monica, CA, Barbara Crane (née Cowan) and Harold Abeles gave birth to Sara Rebeca Abeles who gained fame as Sara Gilbert, the younger sister of Melissa Gilbert who starred in “Little House on the Prairie” and whose career included starring in the sitcom “Roseanne” a twentieth century version of the family unit which provides an interesting counterpoint to the 19th version of the family shown on Little House on the Prairie.

1976(27th of Shevat, 5736): Sixty-nine-year-old Milton “Milt” Galatzer the Chicago native who played outfield and first base for the Cleveland Indians and the Cincinnati Reds passed away today.

1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin had reversed his earlier decision and recommended to the cabinet that the Israeli military delegation return to Cairo to resume negotiations. He hoped that the joint Egyptian-Israeli Political Committee would eventually resume its meetings in Jerusalem. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made a direct appeal to US Jewry and complained "that the behavior of the Israeli government had been negative and disappointing." Egypt, according to its Foreign Ministry statements, would never bargain over its territory and will always defend the rights of the Palestinians.

1978: Eighty-three yea old Harold Lionel Zellerbach, “a topic executive for fifty years at Crown Zellerbach, a paper company started by his grandfather in 1870” and the husband of Doris Zellerbach passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1978/01/31/110785618.pdf

https://books.google.com/books?id=QUIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=harold+zellerbach&source=bl&ots=5gqXDq4G2n&sig=-q54LR5fSjSyiubWBoocpJEJCDw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSw8vYx_nYAhVI5oMKHRt9AV04ChDoAQhGMAo#v=onepage&q=harold%20zellerbach&f=false

1981(24th of Shevat, 5741): Less than a month before his 38th birthday, Detroit native and Wayne State alum Barry David Kramer, the owner Full Circle, a Detroit record shop and Mixed Media, “a head shop” who founded the music magazine Creem passed away today.

1982: After having been released in Japan and the United Kingdom, “Venom” a horror film produced by Martin Bregman with music by Michael Kamen was released in the United States today.

1982: “An appeal court upheld Samuel Rombe’s suspended sentence” today.

1983(15th of Shevat, 5743): Tu B’Shevat

1983: Birthdate of Ethiopian born Israeli fashion model Esti Mamo.

1983: Today German-born British jurist and author Sir Michael Robert Emanuel Kerr, “son of German drama critic Alfred Kerr and the brother of author Judith Kerr” married Diana Sneezum with whom he had two children – Lucy and Alexander.

1986(19th of Shevat, 5746): Two soldiers were killed and two more were wounded when a terrorist attacked any Army patrol today.

1986: Today Jerry Reinsdorf acquired an additional seven per cent of the stock of the Chicago Bulls, bring his ownership percentage to 63% and setting the stage for his ouster of Rod Thorn as general manager and moving Jerry Krause into the “top slot.”

1989: It was reported today that a Holocaust museum is to be built on the National Mall in Washington, DC has received thousands of artifacts, including letters, diaries, arm bands and secret coded communications between inmates.

1989: It was reported today that a Jewish institute plans to donate $100,000 for training black South African medical workers. The grant will be presented to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

1990: Yuli M. Vorontsov, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, met with the head of Israel's consular delegation in Moscow, Aryeh Levin. Mr. Vorontsov was quoted as saying, ''We oppose any use of citizens' leaving the Soviet Union, at great risk to them, to push Palestinians off land belonging to them.'' Soviet displeasure over the settlement debate is also threatening an agreement reached between El Al and Aeroflot for direct flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv. The head of the Soviet consular mission in Israel, Georgi Martirosov, told reporters on Monday that ''recent Israeli statements have hindered any possibility of moving this process forward.''

1991: After several days of growing frustration over the slow pace of allied efforts to eliminate Iraq's Scud missile launchers, Israeli officials warned today that Israel may not wait much longer before it attacks. An Israeli television interviewer offered a sentiment common among Israelis when he told Defense Minister Moshe Arens this evening: "The Americans keep bombing launchers but haven't been terribly effective. Meanwhile, Americans are watching the Super Bowl, and Israelis are sitting in shelters and sealed rooms." Mr. Arens responded: "The situation you described isn't going to continue -- not two months, and not a month. I simply estimate that a situation in which we'll be neutral or not active, and their ability to launch missiles against us isn't eliminated, it won't continue for a long time."

1991: In a meeting with a visiting French politician today, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir is reported to have said that Israel wants to play an active role in the battle against Iraq but is constrained by limits imposed by the United States. Mr. Shamir said he hoped the limits would be lifted soon. Iraq has fired 26 missiles at Haifa or Tel Aviv on seven occasions over the last 12 days, killing four people and wounding nearly 200. More than 2,000 apartments have been seriously damaged or destroyed. Elementary schools remain closed because there are too few teachers to help children put on gas masks quickly when the missile alert sounds. Productivity in business and industry is off. Much of the nation is traumatized. For the first time, Israel is under attack and unable to respond.

1991: Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman will share a stage in New York today when they team up to honor Zubin Mehta. The three violinists will appear at the annual lunch that benefits the orchestra. Last week, Mr. Mehta turned around en route to New York from Europe and flew to Tel Aviv on the eve of the war in the Persian Gulf as a show of support for Israel, where he is musical director of the national orchestra.

1992: Gila Almajor, performed a one-woman play entitled “The Summer of Aviya” which she wrote as part of “Israel: The Next Generation.”

1992: The daughter of Abie Nathan the Israeli philanthropist and peace campaigner, Sharona Nathan El Saieh, accepted the Abraham Joshua Heschel Peace Award from the Jewish Peace Fellowship today on behalf of her father because Mr. Nathan is in prison in Israel

1993: Feeling bolstered by a seal of approval from the country's High Court of Justice, Israel renewed its diplomatic offensive today to stave off United Nations sanctions over its deportation of more than 400 Palestinians to Lebanon.

1996: PBS broadcast “The Battle Over Citizen Kane,” a documentary film directed and produced by Michael Epstein and narrated by Richard Ben Cramer who also co-wrote the script.

1999: “Shakespeare In Love” co-produced by Harvey Weinsten and Edward Zwick co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow premiered in the U.K. today.

2000(22nd of Shevat, 5760): Harold H. Greene a federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia who was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 passed away.

2001: Eric Edelman completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Finland.2001: Prime Minister Ehud Barak campaigned inside the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, where he spoke to a small group of disabled Israelis and some youth advocates.

2002: In the battered center of Jerusalem, beefed-up police squads guarded sidewalks and street corners today as weary shopkeepers opened for business and workers repaired the stores damaged by a bomb set off yesterday by a Palestinian woman. Along the main street, Jaffa Road, where two terrorist attacks in six days have killed three Israelis and wounded dozens, the routines of daily life became a test of bravery.

2003(26th of Shevat, 5763): Eighty-five-year-old University Wisconsin educated award winning author and critic Leslie Aaron Fiedler, the Newark born son Lillian and Jacob Fiedler and husband of Margaret Shipley passed away today in Buffalo.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1420884/Leslie-Fiedler.html

2004(6th of Shevat, 5764): “Eleven people were killed and more than 50 wounded, 13 of them seriously, in a suicide bombing of an Egged bus #19 at the corner of Gaza and Arlozorov streets in Jerusalem. Both the Fatah-related Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, naming the bomber as Ali Yusuf Jaara, a 24-year-old Palestinian policeman from Bethlehem. The victims: Avraham (Albert) Balhasan, 28, of Jerusalem; Rose Boneh, 39, of Jerusalem; Hava Hannah (Anya) Bonder, 38, of Jerusalem; Anat Darom, 23, of Netanya; Viorel Octavian Florescu, 42, of Jerusalem; Natalia Gamril, 53, of Jerusalem; Yechezkel Isser Goldberg, 41, of Betar Illit; Baruch (Roman) Hondiashvili, 38, of Jerusalem; Dana Itach, 24, of Jerusalem; Mehbere Kifile, 35, of Ethiopia; and Eli Zfira, 48, of Jerusalem.”

2004: As she was returning to her home in Rehavia after having left her child at kindergarten, award winning-Israeli author Zeruya Shalev was severely injured when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew up a near-by bus.  Shalev is the daughter-in-law of Israeli playwright Aharon Megged and the cousin of award-winning author Meir Shalev. [Meir Shalev’s latest literary effort is “Beginnings,” a must read for anybody interested in the TaNaCh and Jewish philosophy and history]

2004: Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah carried through with their deal to exchange prisoners and war dead today, in a trade greeted in Israel by a spare ceremony for three fallen soldiers and in Lebanon by a day of national celebration. Besides the soldiers -- Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Sawayed -- Hezbollah also freed an Israeli businessman, Elhanan Tannenbaum, kidnapped by Hezbollah in October 2000. Unlike the returning Lebanese, Mr. Tannenbaum, who said he had been treated well in captivity, did not receive a hero's welcome. He was permitted a brief reunion with his family at the airport and was then taken away for a medical check and questioning by the Israeli authorities about possible illegal activities, Israeli officials said.

2004: The Thirteenth Annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to an end.

2005(19th of Shevat, 5765): Eighty-year-old Ephraim Kishon passed away

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/feb/01/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

http://www.ephraimkishon.com/

2006:  A day after International Holocaust Memorial Day, the new Chancellor of Germany met with the acting Prime Minister of Israel.  In one of those amazing turnabouts in history German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would have no contact with Hamas until it disavowed terrorism and recognized Israel and all agreements signed with it. This declaration comes in the face of the recent electoral victory by Hamas, an organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel and death to the Jewish people.

2006: Ted Koppel signed up as an opposite editorial-contributing columnist, effective today, for The New York Times

2006: “An estimated 300,000 people took part in Yitzchak Kaduri’s funeral procession today which started from the Nachalat Yitzchak Yeshivah and wound its way through the streets of Jerusalem to the Givat Shaul cemetery near the entrance to the city of Jerusalem.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitzhak_Kaduri#mediaviewer/File:Kaduri_funeral.JPG

2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Lévy

2007: Haaretz reported that according to the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism this past year saw a substantial rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Germany, Austria and the Scandinavian countries. In an annual press conference, the forum explained that 2006 was characterized by escalation in the number and violent nature of attacks on Jews, proliferation of Holocaust denial and increased comparison of Israel to the Nazi regime.

2007(10th of Shevat): A Palestinian from the Gaza Strip blew himself up today inside a bakery in the Israeli resort city of Eilat, killing all three people inside. The two owners of the bakery, Amil Elimelech, 32, and Michael Ben Sa'adon, 27 were killed in the attack as well as one of their employees, Israel Samolia, 26. Elimelech was married with two children while Ben Sa'adon was married with one child. Samolia was an immigrant from Peru. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, each took credit for the bombing.

2008: In New York City, the 92nd St Y hosts “Commando Krva Maga: Israeli Self Defense” where attendees learn defense skills developed by the Israeli military, now popular with civilians.

2008: In Iowa City, the funeral is held for Dr. Michael Balch, Associate Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Iowa and a longtime member of the Jewish community. Michael earned a BS in Engineering Science from Pratt Institute in 1960 an MS from New York University in 1962 and a PhD in Mathematics from New York University in1965.  His areas of expertise were Economic behavior under uncertainty and Theories of deterrence, arms control, and war.  He passed away on January 28, 2008 (21 Shevat, 5768).

2008: Barnard College named as its next president Debora L. Spar, a Harvard Business School professor who has written about the economics of the human fertility industry and the evolution of the Internet but has not previously been affiliated with a women’s college. Professor Spar, 44, whose appointment is effective July 1, will succeed Judith R. Shapiro, president since 1994, the college announced on Tuesday morning. “We never expected to have anybody until March or April or May, but she was too good to pass up,” said Helene L. Kaplan, a Barnard trustee and one of two leaders of its presidential search committee. “She’s bright, she’s lively, she’s young and she’s very energetic.”

2009: Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, the former (now emeritus) president of George Washington University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville, Md.

2009: An exhibition, "Erfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz," which had been on display at the Yeshiva University Museum of the Center for Jewish History in New York City since September of 2008 and which drew on “a hoard of coins, goldsmiths' work and jewelry that is assumed to have belonged to Jews who hid them in 1349 at the time of the Black Death pogroms” came to a close today.

2009: An American appeals court today dismissed a lawsuit by Holocaust survivors who alleged the Vatican bank accepted millions of dollars of their valuables stolen by Nazi sympathizers. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court ruling that said the Vatican bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts2009: “The Wedding Song,” Karin Albou’s story of a friendship between a Muslim man and a Jewish woman, set in Tunisia during the Nazi occupation is featured tonight at the New York Jewish Film Festival.

2009: James Braidy "Jim" Steinberg began serving as the 16th United States Deputy Secretary of State.

2010: An exhibition entitled Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Benjamin is scheduled to have its final showing at the JCC in Washington, D.C.  Siona Benjamin is a painter originally from the Bombay Jewish (Bene Israel) community now living in the United States.

2010: The Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to celebrate Tu Bishvat from a bit of a different angle, with parents and children and having a chance to learn about the connection between planting trees and global warming.

2010: The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Chapter of Hadassah is scheduled to sponsor a Tu B'Shevat Seder and Shabbat Services at Temple Judah.

2010: US President Barack Obama's national security adviser cited a heightened risk that Iran will respond to growing pressure over its nuclear program by stoking violence against Israel. The adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, said today that history shows that when regimes are feeling pressure they can lash out through surrogates. He said that in Iran's case that would mean facilitating attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas

2010: Pei Xiong provides a description of the academic efforts of Jane Eisner in “Jane Eisner ’77 Teaching a New Generation of Writers.”

http://wesleyanargus.com/2010/01/29/jane-eisner-%E2%80%9977-teaching-a-new-generation-of-writers/

2011: A screening of The Matchmaker directed by Avi Nesher is scheduled to take place at the Seventh Annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.

2011: Internationally recognized rising star, Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to join Orpheus for the first time in a performance of Prokofiev’s hauntingly beautiful second violin concerto at Carnegie Hall.

2011: “A Musical Mitzvah Evening” the Mitzvah Day fundraiser for Agudas Achim is scheduled to take place in Iowa City, IA.

2011: Israel watched fearfully today as anti-government unrest roiled Egypt, one of its most important allies and a bridge to the wider Arab world. The Israeli prime minister ordered government spokesmen to keep silent. Officials speaking anonymously nonethless expressed concern violence could threaten ties with Egypt and spread to the Palestinian Authority. 2011: An official at Cairo International Airport said today that El Al was trying to arrange a special flight Saturday to take roughly 200 Israeli tourists out of Egypt. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the media.

2011: At Coe College in Cedar Rapids, the final performance of “Copenhagen” in which Barb Feller played Margrethe Bohr and her husband Steve played Niels Bohr

2011: Mark Zuckerberg made a surprise guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

2012(5th of Shevat, 5772): Eighty-eight year old Savannah, GA native Lee Adler, the grandson of Leopold Adler who, in an oft told tale, “came to Savannah in the 19th Century and founded Adler’s Department Store” passed away today.

http://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Leopold-Adler-93202081

2012: “The Religion Thing” is scheduled to have its final performance at Theatre J in Washington, D.C.

2012: A display featuring a selection of 32 Chanukah lamps selected by Maurice Sendak is scheduled to come to a close today at the Jewish Museum in New York.

2012: “Jewish Soldiers in Blue and Gray” is scheduled to be shown at the Boulder JCC in Boulder, CO.

2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Ida” by Gertrude Stein, “Stanzas in Meditation: The Corrected Edition” by Gertrude Stein, “Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition” by Marni Davis, “The Street Sweeper” by Elliot Perlman and “God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World.”

2012: An Israel Defense Forces Heron-class drone crashed in central Israel, Army Radio reported today, with no injuries reported.

2012: Anger and despair gripped many residents of the town of Harish today, the day after a local synagogue was found completely gutted by a fire that broke out early yesterday morning on Shabbat. While police said today, they are sure the fire was caused by an electrical short, some residents say they believe it was intentionally set by unknown assailants looking to threaten the Breslov hassidic community that worships at the synagogue.

2013: In London, The Wiener Library’s Young Volunteers are scheduled to host a special interactive discussion workshop for 16-25 years during which they will discuss the advantages and disadvantages in using Social Media to raise awareness and promote learning about the Holocaust and Genocide.

2013: “Numbered,” a film directed by Urial Sinai and Doan Doron is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan

2013(18th of Shevat, 5773): Ninety-six-year-old Louis Lesser, chairman of Louis Lesser Enterprises passed away today.

http://www.spokeo.com/Louis+Lesser+1

2013: Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today that he will step down as Israel's central banker on June 30, two years before the end of his second five-year term.

2014: “The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill that would enhance the already close U.S.-Israel defense relationship. The bill initiated by U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (D-Fla.) and Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), the top two members on the committee’s Middle East subcommittee, passed unanimously today. (As reported by JTA)

2014(28th of Shevat, 5774): Eighty-nine-year-old sociologist Lewis Yablonsky passed away today.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-lewis-yablonsky-20140219-story.html#axzz2uObFsmt0

2014(28th of Shevat, 5774): Eighty-five year old psychologist Theodore Millon passed away today, (As reported by Benedict Carey)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/us/theodore-millon-a-student-of-personality-dies-at-85.html?rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article&_r=0

2014: “The head of Israel’s most powerful intelligence agency depicted today a changing battlefield in which offensive cyber capabilities will, in the near future, represent the greatest shift in combat doctrine in over 1,000 years.

2015: In Switzerland fifty-nine-year-old Israel Yinon had a heart attack while conducting the Lucerne University Orchestra and passed away after being taken to a local hospital.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11379995/Israel-Yinon-composer-obituary.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2932877/Israeli-conductor-collapses-Swiss-concert-dies.html

2015: “Felix and Meira” and “The Go-Go Boys: The Inside story of Cannon Films” are scheduled to be shown on the final day of the New York Jewish Film Festival.

2015: In New York City, the 16th Street Book Club is scheduled to discuss Hope: A Tragedy, a novel by Shalom Auslander

2015: The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Programming Committee chaired by Dr. Bob Silber is scheduled to meet today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2015: Today “B'nai Brith Canada announced that it was suspending publication of eleven year old Jewish Tribune’s print edition for 13 weeks, and possibly permanently

2016: “Rabin, The Last Day” is scheduled to open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema.

2016: The San Diego Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host the final session “Art, Stories, and Movements: Jewish Art Through the Ages.”

2016: In Cedar Rapids, just days before the first in the nation Caucuses, Temple Judah is scheduled to host another of its ever popular Musical Shabbats.

2016: “Israel, Mired on Ideological Battles, Fights on Cultural Fronts” published today described internal tensions sparked, to some extent, by Miri Regev, the country’s new minister of culture and sport.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/world/middleeast/israel-mired-in-ideological-battles-fights-on-cultural-fronts.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

2017(2nd of Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of King Alexander Yannai (Jannaeus), a Hasmonian king of Judea from 103 BCE to 76 BCE whose unpopularity led him to, according to at least one source, led him to murder thousands of Jews on more than one occasion. 

2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Patriots by Sana Krasikov, The Signal Flame by Andrew Krivak author of “At the New Jewish Cemetery in Prague” and Lara: The Untold Love Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago by Anna Pasternak.

2017: '21 Rue de la Boetie,' an exhibition on legendary French art dealer Paul Rosenberg (1881-1959) is scheduled to have it last showing today at the Musee de la Boverie in Liege, Belgium.

2017: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, Iowa is scheduled to host a screening of “Raise the Roof.

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to play some 5-a-side football with an Oxfordshire-based charity called Streets Revolution, who aim to promote sports and leisure as a tool for engaging adults and young people from marginalized sections of the community, particularly those with mental illnesses.”

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Defiant Requiem” – “Maestro Murry Sidlin's inspiring documentary that spotlights conductor Rafael Schächter, a Theresienstadt prisoner who taught Verdi's Requiem to 150 prisoners in 1942.”

2017: The National Yiddish Theatre Flksbiene co-presented a five hour reading of Night in the Edmond J. Safra Hall of the Museum of Jewish Heritage in event honoring the memory the late Elie Wiesel.

2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of “The Band’s Visit” followed by a discussion with director Eran Kolirin, actor Tony Salhous, playwright Itamar Moses and theatre reporter Michael Paulson.

2018: “Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History, Brown University, a leading scholar of the Holocaust,” is scheduled to discuss his new book Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

 

2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a screening of “The Room.”

2018: At a time when Poland, which is “largely Roman Catholic” is considering legislation that would outlaw mention of Polish complicity in the crimes of the Holocaust as well as the use of the term ‘Polish death camps’” Pope Francis said today that “countries have a responsibility to fight anti-Semitism and the ‘virus of indifference’ threatening to erase the memory of the Holocaust.”

2018: “Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage” an exhibition of some of the 2,700 Jewish books and tens of thousands of documents discovered by U.S. Army soldiers discovered in the Mukhabarat that provide a “written record of Iraqi Jewish life provides an unexpected opportunity to better understand this community” is scheduled to open to the general public at the Breman Museum in Atlanta.

2018: Moriah Amit, the Center for Jewish History’s Senior Genealogy Reference Librarian, is scheduled to deliver a lecture covering major resources and strategies for locating the living descendants of deceased individuals on your family tree.

2018: University of Western Ontario Professor Alain Goldschlager, who was once president of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, is a recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques award and has authored many books, the most recent of which is Les témoignages écrits de la Shoah (Written Testimonies of the Shoah), is scheduled to deliver a lecture on Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg

2019: Today, Democrats raised ethical concerns about connections between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuuchin and Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the Russian born Anglo-Jewish billionaire and major Republican donor “who stands to benefit financially from the Trump administration’s decision to lift sanctions on the Russian oligarch Oleg V. Deripaska’s companies.”

2019: Coe College, the intellectual home of award winning-physicist Steve Feller is scheduled to host an evening with Dr. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, his friend and college who was finally credited with being the first to detect pulsars which is considered to be “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century.”

2019: Tulane University is scheduled to host Dimitry Shumsky, the Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew University who will lecture on “Beyond the Nation-State: The Idea of National Self- Determination in Zionism before 1948.”

2019: The University of Michigan is scheduled to Claude Stuczynski of Bar-Ilan University on "Taxing Identities": The Impact of 'Pardon Taxes' on Converso Identity.

https://lsa.umich.edu/judaic/news-events/all-events.detail.html/57440-14193512.html

2019: In Boca Raton, FL, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to “honor survivors of the Holocaust with the Elie Wiesel Award at the annual South Florida Dinner.

2019: “The Jewish Conference: Past, Present and Future,” presented by the American Sephardi Federation and Association Mimouna is scheduled to come to an end today.

2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Jill Abramson, the former executive of the New York Times as she discusses issues raised in her new book, Merchants of Trust.

2020: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Quiz Night” complete with dinner and the Jewuniversity Challenge.”

2020: In San Francisco, Congregation Sherith Israel is scheduled to host “Shtisel Uncovered: The New Haredim” during which “haredi social activist and self-described feminist Pnina Pfeuffer talks to screenwriter and co-creator of “Shtisel” Yehonatan Indursky discusses the inspirations for the show and the haredi movement.”

2020: In Berkley, the Friends Meeting House is scheduled to host Rabbi Jonathan Seidel and “AstroloJew” Lorelai Kude as they “talk about the month of Shevat, why sages thought Aquarius was the sign of the Jewish people and how the Aquarian Minyan got its name.”

2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to a screening of “Incitement” followed by a discussion of the film Dalia Rabin and Ambassador Ido Ahroni.

2020: Following yesterday’s warning that “all options are open” in expressing its rejection of President Trumps Middle East Plan Israelis wonder today what kind of violence they can expect from the terrorist group.

2021(16th of Shevat, 5781):  Ninety-seven year old Flory Jagoda, the Sarajevo born daughter of Rosa and Samuel Papo and the wife of  Harry Jagoda, who survived the Nazi occupation and settled in the United States where she used her skill as a musician, “composer and singer-songwriter” to connect her Sephardic origins and the ladino music of her Balkan homeland with the post-Holocaust world.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/14/arts/music/flory-jagoda-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jagoda-flory

2021: The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to host online a special Tu B’Shevat puppet show with Anna Sobel.

2021: This evening via Zoom “The Jewish Secular Community of Cleveland is scheduled to host Sunny Simon, Cuyahoga Councilwoman, whose topic is "Cuyahoga County's Ban on Single Use Plastic Bags."

2021: In Pepper Pike, OH, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, is scheduled to host “A Historical Introduction to the Laws of Purim” during which Rabbi Noah Bickart “will trace the ways the laws of Purim have developed from the test of the Biblical Megillah of Esther through Modern Codes.”

2021: The Israeli American Council of Boston is scheduled to present and online Community Tu B’Shevat Seder.

2022(27th of Shevat, 5782): Parashat Mishpatim;

2022: The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to host the “Best of Chamber Music” with pianist Oxana Yablonskaya and cellist Dimtry Yablonsky.

2022: As a snowstorm appears to be headed for Massachusetts, Kesher News space-themed Havdalah, featuring the award-winning short film “Space Torah” scheduled to for this evening has been cancelled. 

https://spacetorahproject.com/

2022: The Amtrak railroad service is reportedly conducting an investigation aimed at find the “vandals” who drew swastikas on the outer walls of Washington, DC’s Union Station yesterday.

2023: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941 by Robert Kagan the son of historian Donald Kagan…who was of Lithuanian Jewish descent.

2023: Congregation Beth El in Sudbury is scheduled to host a huge used Jewish book sale fundraiser!

2023: KlezCalifornia, New Lehrhaus and Jewish Community Library are scheduled to present former Jewish Music Festival director Ellie Shapiro giving an online talk about the vibrant, Jewish cosmopolitanism that existed in 1920s and ’30s Warsaw

2023: Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is schedule to host an afternoon of reflection at the New England Holocaust Memorial.

2023: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host a lecture by Devin E. Naar the Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies and associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Washington in Seattle on “From the Ottoman Empire to Auschwitz.”

2023: In New Orleans, attendees at the Federation-JNOLA Costume Workshop attendees are scheduled to be making Mardi Gras/Purim headpieces and masks.

2023: The American Sephardi Federation, the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, the Sephardic Foundation on Aging, and Shearith Israel League Foundation are scheduled to present: “Kontar i Kantar:

The 6th Annual New York Ladino Day.”

2023: In San Francisco, at the Jewish Community Library S.F.-raised Alina Adams talks about her new book, My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region about an 18-year-old girl who flees Stalin’s Russia out of fear and ends up in the Jewish state of Birobidzhan on the Russia-China border.

2023: In the wake of the Erev Shabbat and Shabbat attacks in Jerusalem, and the celebration of these events by residents of Gaza and the West Bank, Israelis brace for more violence.

2024: On Zoom and its Facebook page, Agnon House is scheduled the first in a series of lectures in which Prof. Hanna Nave will talk about the story of"The Blind" Yaakov Steinberg, while recognizing its complexity as an exemplary short story and emphasizing the dramatic and decisive conceptual role of the contrast between light and darkness.”

2024: “Annie Leibovitz at Work,” a show of about 300 photographs at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas is scheduled to come to an end today.

https://crystalbridges.org/calendar/annie-leibovitz/

2024: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center is scheduled to welcome Chef Alon Shaya in conversation with June Hersh and Naama Shefi as they talk about the “Rescued Recipes initiative, which will help acquire, preserve and make accessible the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Collection.”

2024: JWA is scheduled to present “Judith Rosenbaum, together with colleagues Idit Klein, CEO of Keshet, and Rabbi Claudia Kreiman of Temple Beth Zion, as they share their experiences and reflections on their trip to Israel earlier this month.”

2024: YIVO is scheduled to present “What Do We Know?”, “a concert centered on exploring the human experience through Jewish texts and music.”

2024: As January 29th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 115 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.)