This Day, July 31, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
July 31
904: Thessaloniki, which is also known as
Salonica, is sacked and looted by Saracens (an Arab group). The Jewish population of Thessaloniki dates
back at least to the first century of the Common Era. By the time Benjamin of Tudela visited the city
in the 11th century the Jewish population numbered a significant
“hundred souls.” Salonica’s Jewish
population would grow when the Ottomans made it a refuge for Sephardic Jews
following their expulsion in 1492.
1009: Pope Sergius IV becomes the
142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII. During the Papacy of Sergius, the
Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
in Jerusalem. There was a two-fold response in the West. Sergius issued a papal
bull calling for Islam to be driven from the Holy Land and the Jews were
attacked because rumors were circulated blaming them for inciting the Caliph to
destroy the church.
1255: An English boy who would become known as Little Saint Hugh of
Lincoln disappeared setting the stage for the one of the more notorious blood
libels in English history.
1305: In Barcelona it is decreed that anybody who reads works of science
and metaphysics before the age of 25 or who adheres to allegorical
interpretations which rject the notion of revelation will be excommunicated.
1390: Solomon Halevi converts and takes the name of Pablo de Santa
Maria. He became the Bishop of Burgos
and Chancellor to the King of Castille.
1391: Joshua Loki wrote to Pablo de Santa Maria, known as Solomon Halevi
before he converted, rejecting Pablo’s interpretation of the messianic role of
Jesus. Lorki would convert ten years
later and become a leading tormentor of the Jewish people.
1492: The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes
effect.
1527: Birthdate of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. “In his diary
entries, Maximilien described the Jews as a quarrelsome and deceitful people
who denounced one another, gave usurious loans to miners and artisans and
traded in inferior medals. Between 1567
and 1573 the emperor repeatedly issued mandates to expel Jews” from Lower
Austria.
1556: Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest and founder
of the Jesuits passed away. When accused of being crypto-Jew or having Jewish
ancestry he replied If only I did! What could be more glorious than to be of
the same blood as the Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, and our Lord Himself?"
Robert Maryks, “an expert on the history of early Jesuits details the
significant role of “conversos’’ — Jews and their descendants who were
pressured to convert to Catholicism before and during the Spanish Inquisition
in his recently published book, The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews:
Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry and Purity-of-Blood Laws in the Early Society of
Jesus
1570: The
ghetto in Florence, Italy was established by order of Duke Cosimo I.
1604: Today,
Richard Bancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was in charge of the
creation of what is known as The King James Bible wrote his fellow bishops
asking them to recommend scholars who could assist the Translators in their
task by sending their observations of improvements that might be made on the
basis of prior English translations to Edward Lively, the Regius Professor of
Hebrew at Cambridge who had learned his Hebrews language skills “from John
Durusius , the Dutch linguist and author.
1610: Paul V
issued “Apostolicae Servitutis ,” a papal bull concerning the need for monks to
learn Hebrew.
1725: During
the reign of Charles VI, an imperial order fixed the number of registered
Jewish families in Moravia at 5,106 and threatened any locality which accepted
Jews where they had not been previously settled with a fine of 1,000 ducats.
(As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1743(10th
of Av, 5503: In Jerusalem, Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar,Talmudist and Kabbalist
passed away. He was buried on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Born at Mequenez,
Morocco in 1696 he was one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco. In 1733 he
decided to leave his native country and settle in the Land of Israel, then
under the Ottoman Empire. En route he was detained in Livorno by the rich
members of the Jewish community who established a yeshiva for him. Many of his
pupils later became prominent and furnished him with funds to print his “Ohr
ha-Chaim” or “The Light of Life,” a commentary on the Pentateuch. He was
received with great honor wherever he traveled. This was due to his extensive
knowledge, keen intellect and extraordinary piety. In the middle of 1742, he
arrived in Jerusalem where he presided at the Beit Midrash Knesset Yisrael. One
of his disciples there was Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai, who wrote of his
master's greatness: "Attar's heart pulsated with Talmud; he uprooted
mountains like a resistless torrent; his holiness was that of an angel of the
Lord ... having severed all connection with the affairs of this world. A
prolific author, two of his other published works were “Hefetz Hashem or “God’s
Desire,” consisting of dissertations on four Talmudic treatises and “Peri Toar”
or “Beautiful Fruit,” a novella based on the Shulchan Aruch.
1755:
Birthdate of Abraham Jacobs, the son of Raphael Jacobs who lived in New York
City, Charleston and Savannah and was the husband of Shankey Hart whom he
married in 1785.
1770(9th
of Av, 5530): Tish’a B’Av
1772(1st
of Av, 5532): Rosh Chodesh Av
1776(15th
of Av, 5536): Francis Salvador, one of the most prominent Jews of the American
Revolutionary period, was shot and
scalped by Indians after riding 28 miles to raise a militia after attacks
occurred on settlers. His father (also named Francis Salvador) was a wealthy
London Jew who financed the earliest Jewish settlers of Savannah, Georgia
1781(9th
of Av, 5541): Tish’a B’Av
1781: Today,
General George Washington assigned Alexander “Hamilton as commander of a
battalion of light infantry companies of the 1st and 2nd New York Regiments and
two provisional companies from Connecticut.”
1787: The
Court of Directors sent a letter today to the Governor General restricting the
appointment of Lyon Prager, who had been sent by the merchant-house of Israel
Levin Solomons to Bengal in 1786, “to the purchase of Drugs only…and that on no
account can he make any purchases of the articles of opium, indigo and salt
peter.”
1796: In
London, George Isaacs and Kitty Levin suffered the tragedy of a stillborn
birth.
1797(8th
of Av, 5557): Erev Tish’a B’Av observed for the first time during the
presidency of John Q. Adams.
1800(9th
of Av, 5560): Tish’a B’av observed for the first time in the 19th
century.
1806: For a
second day, Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim a member of the
Assembly convened by Napoleon responded to the questions asked by the Imperial
Commissioner
1806: In
Baltimore, MD, Jacob Myers of Georgetown, SC, married Miriam Etting the
daughter of prominent Jewish merchant Solomon Etting.
1808(7th
of Av, 5668): Seventy-nine-year-old Solomon Barnet Gompertz, the husband Lydia
Cohen and father of Middlesex native Isaac Gompetrz, the Anglo-Jewish poet who married
Charlotte Florence Wattier in 1818, passed away today.
1809(18th
of Av, 5569): Exactly one year after her husband Solomon Barnet Gompertz had
passed away, sixty-one-year-old the former Lydia Cohen, the grandmother of Charles,
Richard and Frances Gompert, passe away today.
1814:
In Eisenbach, Germany, “Wilhelm Sältzer, a brickyard-owner, an architect, a
Grand Duke council of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, who also worked as the construction
manager in the reconstruction of the Wartburg” and his wife gave birth to German-American
architect Alexander Saeltzer who in February 1849 was engaged “to design the
synagogue at 172 Norfolk Street known as the Anshe Chesed Synagogue in an area
of New York known as kleine Deutschland (Little Germany). The synagogue's
Gothic Revival style was inspired by the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany,
and Friedrichwerdesche Kirche in Berlin.According to a 1987 report by the New
York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, while Gothic architecture is
closely associated with Christianity, it had also become popular with
synagogues as Jewish congregations had taken over old church buildings and
become accustomed to the style, and viewed it as just as appropriate as any
other architectural style.Debuted with celebration, the layout of the Ten
Commandments and the use of stained glass in the synagogue later caused some
controversy within the congregation.”
1817: As a
result of a dispute that Isaac Disreali had with the Jewish community, 12 year
old Benjamin Disraeli was baptized today, in a move that would make it possible
for him to eventually become Prime Minister.
1821: Lazarus
Magnus, the son of Simon Magnus and the husband of Sarah Moses, passed away
today in Chatham, Kent, England.
1833(15th
of Av, Tu B’Av
1838(9th of
Av, 5598): Tish’a B’Av
1840(1st of
Av, 5600): Rosh Chodesh Av
1840: In
Savannah, GA, Emanuel Sheftall, the Savannah born son of Emanuel Sheftall and
his wife Jane L. Sheftall gave birth to Louisa Ann Sheftall.
1840(1st of
Av, 5600): Nachman Kohen Krochmal, one of “the first Jewish historians to treat
Jewish history as an integral part of all human history” passed away. A native of Brody, Galicia, one of his most
famous works was Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman (Guide for the Perplexed of
the Time).
1841(13th
of Av, 5601): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
1841; The Ouse
Valley Viaduct which had been designed in part by David Mocatta, was opened and
in use.
1842: In
Rotterdam, Sara Wolf and Benjamin Spiers gave birth to Jane Spiers.
1844(15th
of Av, 5604): Tu B’Av
1845: In Great
Britain, Parliament passes the Act for the relief of Persons of the Jewish
Religion elected to Municipal Offices.
1846: Birthdate
of Polish native Anna Galewski Schottländer, the wife Julius Schottlander and
the mother of Dr. Paul Schottlander.
1847: Amelia
Joel and Solomon Marks gave birth to Joseph Marks today.
1854: In
Sulzburg, Leopold and Magadalean Madel Dukas gave birth to future San Francisco
citizen Bezalel Dukas, the husband of Emma Dukas.
1854:
Birthdate of Fritz Hommel author of Ancient Hebrew Tradition in which “he
attacked the Graf Wellhausen hypothesis” and “controverts the method deployed
by the higher critics of the Old Testament.”
1856: Christchurch New Zealand is chartered as a
city. According to Robert Case, the first Jews settled in Christchurch during
the 1850’s. By 1860, there were fewer than four hundred Jews living in all of
New Zealand. Although the Jewish
Community of Christchurch has always been a small one, it built a synagogue in
1890. Today the Christchurch’s
Canterburgy Hebrew Congregation consists of a synagogue, Temple Beth-El that offers regular Shabbat services as well as
cheder classes, Bar and Bat Mitzvah training, conversion support, holiday
services and a variety of social activities. It is also home to the South
Island chapter of Habonim Dror and the Christchurch Council of Jewish Women.
The community also has a Chevra Kedisha and Chabad House.
1858(20th of Av, 5618): Parashat Eikev chanted as the Pike’s
Peak Gold Rush begins.
1859(29th of Tammuz, 5619): Eighty-six-year-old Isaac
Katzenelnbogen, the husband of Fanny Neuburg, passed away at Furth today.
1861: Philadelphian David A. Barnett began serving with the 99th
Regiment who reached the rank Corporal in Company B before dying in 1863 from
wounds he suffered earlier at the Battle of Kelly’s Ford in Virginia.
1863(15th Av, 5623): Tu B’Av
1863: Today, in Winnsboro, SC, Saling and Sarah Cohen Wolfe gave birth to
Henrietta L. “Etta” Wolfe Nathan, the wife of Samuel Nathan whom she married in
1891 and the mother of S. Elsie Nathan
1863: Because of its growth in membership, Washington Hebrew Congregation
bought and refurbished a former Methodist Church which it dedicated today.
1867: Birthdate of Parisian native George Berr, “the French actor and
dramatist” and brother of Emile Berr
“won the first prize for comedy in a scene from "Les
Plaideurs," and joined the Comédie Française.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3157-berr-george
1867: Birthdate of Memphis native and Johns Hopkins trained attorney
Benjamin Tuska, the husband of the former Edna Mayer Rothschild, who took time
from his law practice to work with charities aimed at helping those on the
Lower East Side including the Educational Alliance.
1868: Birthdate of “Liptószentmiklós, Kingdom of Hungary (now Liptovský
Mikuláš, Slovakia)” native Martin Beck, the husband of Louise Hines and an American “ vaudeville theatre owner and
manager, and theatrical booking agent, who founded the Orpheum Circuit, and
built the Palace and Martin Beck Theatres in New York City's Broadway Theatre
District” and was a booking agent for,
and e a close personal friend of the prominent magician, Harry Houdini.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/11/17/94848397.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1870:
In the wake of the reported massacre of Jews in Romania, letters have been
received in Washington, DC that states that Article 21 of the new constitution
guarantees freedom of conscience to all.
These letters claim that the 400,000 Jews in Romania have 176 synagogues
in which they “worship in the manner prescribed by their religion.” The letters conclude by asking if religious
persecution really existed why would the Jews be allowed to have so many
synagogues which they are free to use
1873: In
Bunde, Germany, Hermann Rosenwald, the son of Vogel and Bendix Rosenwald and
his wife Jeanette David gave birth to Gustave Rosenwald.
1874(17th
of Av, 5634): Forty-five-year-old Breslau native and physician Raphael
Finckstein who “in 1854 became at the universityprivat-docent in the history
and geography of medicine and in epidemiology” passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6117-finckenstein-raphael
1876:
“Jonathan Manly Emanuel,” a son of English born physician Manly Emanuel, who
had joined the U.S. Navy in 1862 during the Civil War began serving Tuscarora
which was “running a line of sounds for a submarine cable from San Francisco to
Yokomama.”
1875: In
Paris, Gustave Ollendorff, director of personnel and technical education at the
Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Colonies
who was the son “of Professor Hermann G. Ollendorff and Dorthea
Ollendorff and his wife Marie Virginie Josephine Ollendorff gave birth to Maria
Emilie Genevieve Ollendorff
1876: Baily
Gatzert completed his service as the 8th Mayor of Seattle
Washington.
1878(1st of
Av, 5638): Rosh Chodesh Av
1878(1st of
Av, 5638): Abraham Benisch, the native of Bohemia who was editor of The Jewish
Chronicle and helped to form the Anglo-Jewish Association who was a “Zionist”
before Herzl, passed away.
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2945-benisch-abraham
1878: In
Paris, Siegfried Propper and Bertha Propper, the daughter of Kalmus and Pauline
Levy gave birth to Michel Propper, the brother of Georges Propper.
1878: In New
York Sophie Walter and Julius Beer gave birth to philanthropist and
child-welfare activist Madeleine Borg. Borg, who lived her whole life in New
York City, was educated at Columbia University, where she studied the causes of
juvenile delinquency. Subsequently, she held leadership positions in more than
a dozen major child welfare organizations. Her roles included chair of the
executive committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians of New York, director of
the Child Welfare League, member of the executive committee of the Girls'
Service League of America, and trustee of the Training School for Jewish Social
Work. She also served on the executive boards of the American Jewish Committee
and the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New
York. Borg's largest contribution to child welfare was probably her role in
founding the Big Sister movement, beginning in 1912. Modeled on earlier Big
Brother programs targeted at troubled boys, Big Sister programs provide young
girls with role models and companions. In 1914, Borg was among the founders of
the Jewish Big Sisters, which sought to help poor and troubled girls by
providing them with role models from a similar ethnic and cultural background.
Today, Jewish Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs also match adults with
disabilities with non-disabled friends. Always interested in child welfare,
Borg was also active in promoting psychiatric clinics as part of the study of
child behavior. In 1954, the Jewish Board of Guardians renamed its Child
Guidance Institute in Borg's honor. Borg's public roles also extended beyond
child welfare and beyond the Jewish community. In 1929, then-Governor Franklin
Roosevelt appointed her to the New York State Old Age Pensions Committee; she
also served on the executive committee of the New York City Crime Prevention
Bureau. In 1939, she became a trustee of the New York World's Fair. Also in
1939, she became president of the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies,
the first woman to hold that post. Borg died on January 9, 1956.
1881: It was
reported today that the English publishers of the late Lord Beaconsfield’s
works are about to issue a new edition of his works called the “Hughenden
Edition.” Surprise has also been
expressed that so many of the Disraeli’s possessions have been sold instead of
being preserved as family mementoes.
1881: In
Buffalo, NY, Herman and Rosa Loeser gave birth to University of Toronto
graduate and Baldwin University trained attorney, Irwin N. Loeser, the Buffalo,
NY the husband of Bertha Wile who practiced law in Cleveland, OH where he was
chairman of the Cleveland Jewish Campaign and a member of the Euclid Avenue
Temple.
1881: It was
reported today after receiving payments from “wealthy Jewish capitalists,” the
Sultan has agreed to allow a Jewish colony to be established on 1,500 acre
tract in the districts of Gilead and Moab.
1881: “Jews In
Russia” published today said that Jews in Russia were not hated because they
are richer than their Christian counterparts.
The Jews are hated because they do not practice the vices of the gentile
counterparts. “If the Jews would only
get drunk and spend their money recklessly, there would be very little
temptation to persecute them.”
1882(15th
of Av, 5641): Tu B’Av
1882: “Russian
Persecutions” published today, relying on information that first appeared in
the London Telegraph described the conditions of the Jews in Kiev where the
“persecution by the population” has been replaced by “legal proceedings” that
are “less noisy” but even crueler and more effective in persecuting the Jews.
1882: Rishon
Lezion or First For Zion was founded by a group of 10 families in Eretz Israel.
The settlement marked the beginning of the first Aliyah (going up) to Eretz-
Israel, and the beginning of Rothschild’s deep involvement with settlement
activities. Later that year, Baron Edmund De Rothschild in response to the
Russian pogroms and a plea by Rabbi Samuel Mohilever agreed to help the new
Moshava
1882: Ten
members of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) led by Zalman David Levontin
founded Rishon LeZion (First to Zion) which has become the fourth largest city
in Israel.
http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il/eng/Pages/HistoryofRishonLeZion.aspx
http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il/eng/Pages/default.aspx
1882: Eliezer
Ben-Yedhuda, the “father of modern Hebrew” and his wife gave birth to Ben-Zion
Ben-Yehuda
1882: Today’s
review of National Religions and Universal Religions, a collection of
lectures by Dr. Abraham Kuenen the Dutch theologian teaching at the University
of Lyden, states that “the finest part of the lectures is the analysis of early
Jewish religion under the prophets.”
1883: Jewish
leaders met in Baltimore, MD, tonight in response to a request for funds to
support an agricultural colony of approximately 60 Russian Jewish immigrants at
Middlesex, Va. They were being asked to
raise $200 per month to meet the pressing needs of the colonists. (The settlement at Middlesex was part of an
effort to settle Jews away from the major eastern cities in the United
States. These colonies would be found in
South America and Canada as well as in the rural United States.)
1883: In Quebec,
Annette Joseph the London born daughter of Rosetta and Henry Pinto and her
husband Montefiore Joseph gave birth to Abraham Pinto Joseph, the husband of
Hortense Joseph and “the father of Horace and Edward Joseph.
1884: Samuel
Barnett, a Polish Jew, was arraigned before Justice Welde on multiple charges
of theft and burglary. Barnett
immediately pleaded guilty to at least one of the charges. His wife, who had been arrested as an
accomplice, was released. Many of the
victims of Barnett’s criminal activities came to the police station looking for
their possessions among the many items that had been seized at Barnett’s home
at 136 Orchard Street. This would have
put him in close proximity to 97 Orchard Street, the tenement made famous by
Jane Ziegleman in her book by that name.
1885: Memorial
services were held this evening B’nai Jeshurun in New York City to mark the
passing of Sir Moses Montefiore who had died in England on July 28. Rabbis Henry S. Jacobs and Alexander Kohut
delivered the eulogies. At the end of
his remarks, Rabbi Jacobs said, “He conquered prejudice not by yielding to it,
but by rising far superior to its pettiness, like the other hero whose loss
America is mourning today.” (This closing comment was in reference to President
U.S. Grant who had passed away on July 23.
This positive comparison between this larger-than-life Jewish leader and
Grant is further evidence that the Jews of his time did not consider him an
anti-Semite.)
1885: After a
house of worship, located on Chestnut Street near Pearl Street, was bought from
the Evangelical Church in 1884, and, after being rebuilt, today in Reading, PA,
Rabbi Isaac M. Wise officiated at the dedication of the new home of
Congetgation Oheb Shalom.
1887(10th of
Av, 5647): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9th fell on Shabbat.
1887:
“Diamonds and Vulgarity” published today describes the increasing presence of
Jewish families and their friends at the New Jersey resort city of Long Branch.
1888:
Birthdate of Baltimore native C. Irving Latz, “the president of the
Wolf-Dessauer Department Store in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
http://www.jani.org/images/docs/G._Irving_Latz.pdf
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/02/14/88755652.pdf
1889: The
Sanitarium for Hebrew Children’s fifth free excursion which was paid for
entirely by Isaac Stern is will from a pier at the foot of the 5th
Street and the East River.
1889: During
today’s session of the House Commons, Sir James Fergusson responded to reports
that the Russian government intends to enforce the anti-Jewish edicts of 1882.
According to the British Charge de Affaires at St. Petersburg, the government
is not considering any “fresh measures” aimed at denying the Jews “any of the
privileges they now enjoy.” (This begged the question since enforcing edicts
from 1882 might not be considered as “fresh measures)
1890:
“Persecuting the Jews” published today provided a summary of the edicts now being enforced which state that prohibit Jews from owning mining stocks
or working in mines; allow Jews to live in only 16 provinces; debar Jews from
government posts and serving as officers in the military; prohibits Jews from
practicing law, medicine or engineering and “entering any other professions.
1890: It was
reported today that Russian government hopes that enforcing the anti-Jewish
edicts promulgated in 1882 will force one million Jews to leave the country.
(This is a contemporary reference to the Czar’s “one third; one third; one
third” policy under which one third of the Jews would convert, one third would
leave and one third would die)
1891:
“Persecution of Jews” published today provided “harrowing stories…of the
extremely unjust laws in force against the Jews” and “the general atrocities
practiced upon” them “by the Russian soldiers.” “Any Russian Christian…, who
wishes to possess himself of the property of a Jewish neighbor, can obtain it
by paying one-tenth of its value to the Mayor or government representative.”
1891: In
Washington, DC, Acting Secretary of State William F. Wharton asserted that the
Department of State does not have any information regarding any new edicts
issued by the Russian government aimed at depriving the Jews of their rights.
1891: A
private letter received in Washington “from Moscow asserts that things are
worse than ever in Russia” for the Jews.
1891: “A
dispatch was received in Wall Street from London” today stating that Messrs. C. J. Hambro & Son of that City”
has “been appointed bankers to the Russian Government” replacing the
Rothschilds who have been their bankers for years.
1892: “Still
Persecuting The Jews In Russia” published today described the fate the Jews who
have been expelled from Moscow. Many of
these families “had resided in Moscow a long time” and had been given a year to
get out. In the end, they were not able
to sell their homes and businesses and they were “unable to get a penny of
compensation for their splendid synagogue…which while they were to sell at
once.”
1892: In the
period starting with June 28 and ending today, 93 mothers and children were
admitted for treatment at the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children. The sanitarium
cannot keep up with demand since “more applications for admission are being
received than can be accommodated.”
1892: In
Russia, Rebecca and Joseph David Mandel gave birth to Abraham Mandel the
younger borth of Louis Mandel.
1893: During
the Panic of 1893, there was a run on several New York financial institutions
including the Dry Dock Savings Bank on the Bowery, most of whose depositors are
Russian Jews. Today $41,000 was
withdrawn and only $14,000 was deposited.
1893:
Birthdate of Ali Levin, the native of Russia who migrated to the United States
in 1911, joined the Jewish Legion in Toronto, served with 38th Royal
Fusiliers in Palestine and eventually made Aliyah in 1955 joining his two
daughters – one who lived at Gesher Haziv and the other who lived at Urim.
1893: During a
stop in New York, Dionysius Latas, a leading Greek archbishop told reporters
“he intends to oppose the persecution of Jews” in his homeland.
1893: In
Derby, CT, “Herman G. and Ida (Pragon) Bellin gave birth to NYU trained
attorney Jacob H. Bellin, the President of the American Plating Works, director
of the Old Colony Tobacco Company and Jewish activist who belong the B’nai
B’rith, the ZOA and Congregation B’nai Israel.
1894: Abraham
Levy is the lawyer for Jeremiah J. Levy, the Jewish policeman whose case is
being heard by a jury, some of whose members are also Jewish.
1894:
“Seventy-five little sewing school children held their closing celebration at
the roof garden of the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street
where they enjoyed a generous supply of ice cream.
1895: Colonel
George Waring, Jr. a leading sanitary engineer and civic reformer met with
2,000 children at the Hebrew Institute, most of whom were poor and spoke little
English. Waring “told them what children
had done and could do for the cleanliness of the city.
1895: In
Brownsville, the striking tailors issued a manifesto countering the one issued
by the contractors written in Hebrew asking the landlords “to have no mercy on
the strikers” who cannot pay their rent.
1895: Tobacco
magnate, Sir Albert Levy, the founder of Adrath Tobacco Co. “registered the
trademark Adrath in Ireland” today.
1897:
“Rabbinical Excommunication” published today relied on information that first
appeared in The American Hebrew described a response by rabbis in Jerusalem to
aggressive Christian attempts to gain converts among the city’s Jews. Any Jew supplying their institutions with
Kosher meat will have to deal with the threat of “cherem.”
1897: Victor
Joze has dedicated “his new book entitled La Tribu d’Isidore, “the first volume of a series of historical
novels about a Jewish family to Emile Zola, the defender of Dreyfus.
1898(12th
of Av, 5658): Fifty-three year old New York realtor and clothing merchant who
came to the United States from Germany at the age of 22 passed away at his
country home in Forest, PA.
1898(12th
of Av, 5658): Fifty-five year old Samuel Firuski, who had spent 22 years as an
auctioneer in Brooklyn and was a member of Temple Israel in Brooklyn, passed
away today at Pavilion Hotel in Sharon Spring
1898: Samuel
Gompers arrived in Springfield, Illinois where he planned to attend the
upcoming state convention of the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Gompers spoke out against the condition
of workers in the territories recently annexed after the Spanish American War;
specifically he demanded that slave labor be stamped out there in and in
Hawaii.
1899:
Birthdate of New York native and “advertising executive Lawrence Valenstein”
who on the day after his 18th birthday founded Grey Advertising
Agency and who married Alice Starr with whom he had two children – John and
Linda.
1899:” What
Paris Talks About” published today described the French reaction “to the sudden
death from apoplexy of Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild…the sister of Baron
Alphonse de Rothschild, head of the French branch of the family and the first
cousin of…Lord Rothschild,” head of the English branch of the family. The loss
was felt even more by the artistic community than the financial community. In her younger days she “showed real talent
as a watercolorist.” Later in life she
bought the paintings of many “modern painters” before they gained fame as an
act of generosity.
1900: Herzl
leaves Altaussee and travels to Luzern, Paris and London. The trip will take a toll on his health, and
he will be ill by the he gets to London on August 7.
1900: By a
margin of 44,800 to 19,691 voters in the colony of Western Australia approved
the Constitution of Australia, clearing the way for their admission as a state
in the Commonwealth of Australia which was home to almost 15,00 Jews.
1901(15th
of Av, 5661): Tu B’Av
1901: “An
extraordinarily rare ceremony, based by the Jews directly upon the teachings of
the Old Testament, was performed today in New York when a young woman, Mrs.
Golda, Lacs, who had traveled 10,000 miles was released from the obligation of
marrying her deceased husband's brother.
1902: “Riot
Mars Funeral of Rabbi Joseph” published today descried the outbreak of violence
that occurred when the procession of mourners for the Grand Rabbi passed by the
R. Hoe & Co. The workers who were at lunch began jeering, threw buckets of water and finally bombarded
the Jews with “paper saturated with oil, bits of iron, small blocks of wood and
other missiles” which caused a violent reaction.
1902: It was
reported today Julius Weber had not been clubbed to death by police as
originally claimed but was in fact being cared for by friends living on Suffolk
Street after having been seriously injured during the near riot that had broken
out during the funeral procession carrying Rabbi Joseph to his final resting
place.
1902(26th of
Tammuz, 5662): Seventy-two-year-old Benjamin Szold passed away. Born in Hungary in 1829, he came to the
United States in 1859 to serve as the first rabbi at Temple Oheb Shalom in
Baltimore. While he accomplished a great
deal serving in this capacity, his greatest claim to fame may be that he was
the father of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah.
1903: It was
reported today that those attending the Hebrew-Christian Conference at Mountain
Lake Park had heard an address on “The Extension of and Influence of Jewish
Missions” and another address on “
What Can Be Done to Elevate Hebrew Christianity in the Estimation of the Jews.”
1904: In New
York City, “Anna Edith Behrens and Manfred Ivan Behrens, Sr. gave birth to
Harvard educated management consultant Manfred I. Behrens, the husband of the
former Marjorie Wortman” with whom he had two children – Jill and Manfred III
-- and a trustee of the Jewish Board of Guardians an “the Emanu-El League of
Temple Emanu-El.
1904: The
Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society is scheduled to end today in Atlantic
City, NJ.
1905: Today the
first pogrom outside the Pale of Settlement, took place in the town of Makariev
(near Nizhni Novgorod), where a patriotic procession led by the mayor turned
violent.
1905: Today, “at
a pogrom in Kerch in Crimea the mayor ordered the police to fire at the
self-defence group, and two fighters were killed (one of them, P. Kirilenko,
was a Ukrainian who joined the Jewish defence group). The pogrom was conducted
by the port workers apparently brought in for the purpose.”
1905: Sir
Herbert Stern was created a Baronet, of Strawberry Hill in the Parish of
Twickenham and County of Middlesex, in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
today.
1906(9th of
Av, 5666):Tish'a B'Av
1906:
Birthdate of British national Esther Pauline Lloyd was a “resident in Jersey
for three years.
1906: Today,
in St. Paul, MN, Irene Page Solomon, the daughter of N.E. Solomon is scheduled
to marry Hiram David Frankel, the city editor of the St. Paul Daily News.
1906: In
Austria, thirty-eight-year-old Siegfried Reginald Wolf and his wife Ida gave
birth to Franz Karl Wolf.
1907: Arthur
Levy was arrested today on an order signed by a Supreme Court Justice “in a
suit brought against him by Solomon Teitler to recover $2,000 damages for the
alienation of Mrs. Celestine Teitler’s affections with whom Levy had run off
with and set up housekeeping at 180 West Broadway.
1908:
Birthdate of New York City native Jack H. Fields, the “President of Garden
State Prints” and the “founder of the Free Sons of Israel’s scholarship fund.”
1909(13th
of Av, 5669): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu observed for the first time
during the Presidency of William Howard Taft.
1910: In New
Jersey, the first issue of the Newark
Wochenblatt, a Yiddish weekly, was published today.
1911: Today,
at a time when Persian Jews were fleeing Iran because of persecution that had
included on attack a year on the Jews of Shiraz because of an alleged blood
ritual murder, Russia demanded the resignation of W. Morgan Shuster, the
American businessman who was serving as a Treasurer General
1912:
Birthdate of newspaper and Chicago literary institution Irv Kupcinet.
https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKkupcinet.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/14/us/for-chicago-s-town-crier-the-stories-linger.html
1912: “The
Jewish Socialist Federation came into formal existence” today.
1912(17th
of Av, 5672): Fifty-one-year-old Alphonse Weiner who had been appointed a
school commissioner in 1910 passed away today in New York
1912: In
Brooklyn, “Sára Ethel (née Landau) and Jenő Saul Friedman,Jewish immigrants
from Beregszász in Carpathian Ruthenia, Kingdom of Hungary (now Berehove in
Ukraine)” who “worked as dry goods merchants gave birth to Nobel Prize winning
economist and Federal Reserve Chairman Milton Friedman.
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1976/friedman-bio.html
1913:
Birthdate of Austrian actress Rose Stradner, a protégé of producer and director
Max Reinhardt who made her American film debut with Edward G. Robinson in 1937
and was married to director Joseph Mankiewicz at the time of her death in 1958.
1913: It was
reported today the late Jacob Wolfgang Mack, President of the Raritan Woolen
Mills had left several bequests to Jewish organizations including $10,000 to
Mount Sinai Hospital, and $2,500 “each to the Jewish Hospital, the Jewish
Orphans Asylum, the Montefiore Home, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.”
1914:
Fifty-four year old Jean Jaurès who was “one of the most energetic defenders of
Alfred Dreyfus” was assassinated today by a French nationalist today.
1914: In
Vesoul, Haute-Saône, France Albert Samuel and Hélène
Falk gave birth to Raymond Samuel who would gain fame as French Resistance
leader Raymond Aubrac.
1914: German
Jewish industrialist Walter Rathenau published an article in the Berliner
Tageblatt protesting Germany’s blind loyalty to Austria; a loyalty which he
felt was leading to a great European war.
1915(20th
of Av, 5675): Parashat Eikev
1915: In
Brooklyn, Benjamin Aptheker, a successful manufacturer of women's underwear,
and Rebecca Komar Aptheker gave birth to their fifth and youngest child Herbert
Aptheker the Marxist historian and husband “Fay Philippa Aptheker, his first
cousin.” (As reported by Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/us/herbert-aptheker-87-dies-prolific-marxist-historian.html
1916: The
Flanders Fields Museum holds a copy of today’s issue of the Wipers Times whose contributors included
Artilleryman Gilbert Frankau, the Jewish born Anglican convert who became a
noted author after the war.
1916: In the
Dominican Republic, 57-year-old Francisco Hilario y Carvajal began serving as
President of the Council of Secretaries of State.
1916: In
Hackney, London, Eva (née Kosky) and Mark Tafler gave birth to character actor
Sydney Tafler best known may for his performances in “The Lavendar Hill Mob”
and the James Bond thrill “The Spy Who Loved Me” who was the husband of actress
Joy Shelton with whom he had three children – Jeremy, Jonathan and Jennifer.
1917: The
Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres where Monty
Moss, a buyer for Moss Bros. which had been founded by his grandfather Moses
and was now being run by his father George was killed and Canadian Myer Tutzer
Cohen, “a lieutenant in the Black Watch” would win the Military Cross for
Bravery, began today.
1917: Today,
in Camden, NJ, “the vocal group, Shannon Four, recorded a version of Break
the News to Mother” a Spanish-American War-era tune written Jewish songwriter
Charles K. Harris.
1917: “A large
party of American Consuls and missionaries from Turkey, Asia Minor and
Palestine” arrived in Berne, Switzerland including H.H. Dick and Ottis A.
Glazebook, the Counsel at Jerusalem who said “that about sixty American
missionaries and ninety American Jews started for the West” at the same time he
had and were “well treated by the Turkish and Austrian authorities during the
journey.”
1917: “The
East Side Business Men’s Association gave a dinner” tonight in honor of
“Borough President Marcus Marks…which was attended by 500 members and their
guests” among whom Rabbi Alexander Lyons of Brooklyn and Samuel Goldstein,
President of the Federation of Rumanian Jews – both of whom addressed the
attendees.
1918: Joseph
Schlossberg, General Secretary Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and
Abraham Epstein, President Workmen's Circle were among the leaders of a meeting
of a Conference of Trade Unions, Branches of the Workmen's Circle, and other
Progressive Labor Organizations of Greater New York scheduled to be held be
held in Webster Hall, 119 East 11th Street, for the purpose of organizing the
workers into a permanent central body for aiding all persons prosecuted who are
in need of help, and of arousing public opinion against the further suppression
of constitutional rights and liberties.
The Conference will be held under the auspices of the Liberty Defense
Union, and has been endorsed by the United Hebrews Trades and the National
Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle.
1918: A
Russian wireless message received in London today announced that “the Soviet
Government at Moscow has issued a decree against anti-Semitism.”
1919: In
Manhattan, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the son of
Ambassador Henry Morgenthau, Sr. and Helen (Fatman) Morgenthau, “a niece of
governor and U.S. Herbert H. Lehman gave birth to “Robert M.
Morgenthau…Manhattan’s longest serving district attorney.” (As reported by
Robert D. McFadden)
1919:
Birthdate of the Italian-Jewish writer and chemist Primo Levi. Levi spent time
fighting with Partisans during the war and survived Auschwitz. These
experiences provided much of the material for his writings. He passed away in
1987. (We do not have the space to do his work justice and you are urged to
read any of his several works which are available in English.)
1920(16th of
Av, 5680): Parsashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu observed for the last time
during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the President who braved a wave of
Anti-Semitism to appoint Justice Brandeis to the Supreme Court, thus, whether
who it not, paving the way for all future “non-traditional” jurists to serve on
the High Court.
1920: It was
reported today that Miss Harriet Lowenstein, “a lawyer and the first woman to
obtain the degree of certified public accountant” in New York who had left New
York on June 1st “at the head of a staff of accountants for the
purpose of establishing uniform accounting systems for American Jewish relief
activities in Europe” will be arriving in New York aboard the Nieuw
Amsterdman with her new husband attorney Jonah Goldstein whom she married
while in London in a ceremony performed by Rabbi Moses Hyamson of New York’s
Congregation Orach Chaim.
1921: In
London, “British-born Harold Solomon and Russian-born Flora Beneson gave birth
to Peter James Henry Solomon who gained fame as Peter Benenson the founder of
Amnesty International.
https://www.benensonsociety.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=4
1922: “Nearly
2,000 Jews gathered at the Town Hall, in West Forty-third Street, tonight to
celebrate the ratification by the Supreme Council of the League of Nations on
July 24 of the mandate for a Jewish home in Palestine.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/08/01/99047950.html?pageNumber=16
1922: The
movie version of the novel The Prison of Zenda, with a score by William Axt
was released in the United States today.
1923:
Birthdate of Boston native Maurice Cerier who rose to serve as the “United
Jewish Appeal’s assistant vice president for major gifts” before his death in
1985 at the age of 62.
1923:
Birthdate of Richard Schifter, a native of Vienna who served as Assistant
Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1985 to
1992. Schifter was a member of a unique
WW II intelligence unit known as the Ritchie Boys.
1923: In
Montreal, Alton Goldbloom and Annie Ballon gave birth to Victor Charles
Goldbloom who served as Minster of the Environment and CEO of the Canadian
Council of Christians and Jews.
1923: A Hebrew
version of Verdi’s “Traviata” was performed in Jerusalem this evening. The performance was described as
“brilliant.” The Hebrew version of the
opera had previously been performed in Tel Aviv.
1924: Columbia
Law School trained attorney and Republican Party member Julius Mayer completed
his service as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit.
1924: Today,
Francisco Guillermo Acevedo, an engineer and the former Maria Louisa Contreras
Limantur gave birth to Anthony Acevdo, the Army medic whose diary was one of
the few descriptions of Nazi atrocities. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
1924: In
Jerusalem, Benaya Abba Shaul and Iranian born shoemaker and Torah scholar
Eliyahu Shaul gave birth to Ben Zion Abba Shaul, “the rosh yeshiva of Porat
Yosef Yeshiva.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20080704052058/http://www.torahcenter.com/bios/bension.htm
1925: NYU
trained attorney Jacob H. Bellin, the President of the American Plating Works,
director of the Old Colony Tobacco Company and Jewish activist who belong the
B’nai B’rith, the ZOA and Congregation B’nai Israel married the former Augusta
Dolgen today on his 32nd birthday.
1926: In
Chicago, IL, Frances and Samuel J. Goldfarb gave birth to Gene Stanley
Goldfarb, the chairman of the board of House of Perfection, a manufacturer of
children’s, junior women’s’ clothing whose philanthropies included the U.J.A,
Ben-Gurion University, the Technion, the ADL and the United Negro College Fund
and who raised two daughters, Lauren and Ellen, with his wife Judith Ellen
Goldfarb
1926:
Birthdate of Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, the self-described Jewish atheist who
converted to Roman Catholicism.
Nathanson was “a campaigner for abortion rights who, after experiencing
a change of heart in the 1970s became a prominent opponent of abortion and the
on-screen narrator of the anti-abortion film “The Silent Scream.” (As reported
by William Grimes)
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/us/22nathanson.html
1926: It was
reported today that Albert Kruger who had died on August 12, 1926, he left
$15,511 to the Home of the Daughters of Jacob and he left $2,585 to the Hebrew
University of Palestine.
1926: In
Strasbourg, journalist Bernard Klieger and his wife gave birth to Noah Klieger,
the Auschwitz survivor, agent for Mossad LeAliyah Bet and “the doyen of Israeli
sports journalism” who also used his literary skills to tell the tale of the
Shoah.
1927: “The
Maccabees soccer team of Palestine suffered defeat by the Hispano club by the
score of 3 goals to 2 in the tenth game of its American tour before a crowd of
3,000 at Hawthorne Field in Brooklyn this afternoon.”
1928:
Birthdate of Kurt Leon Herschmann who in 1942 was transported from Prague to
Ujazdow where he was murdered
1928: When MGM
introduces its first “talkie,” “White Shadows on the South Seas” the famed Lion
Logo makes its first appearance. With so
many Jews involved in MGM, including Harry Rapf, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer
and Nicholas Schenck one might wonder if the choice of the Lion was subtle
reference to the Lion of Judah.
1928: Bobbie
Rosenfeld won the silver medal in the 100-meter race, though many spectators
thought she had actually finished first.
http//jwa.org/thisweek/jul/31/1928/bobbie-rosenfeld
1929: In London,
James Banks, a Scottish doctor and Muriel Reid, an Irish actress known as Pat
gave birth to Lynne Reid Banks, “the British author best known for her
children’s book “The Indian in the Cupboard” and the early feminist novel “The
L-Shaped Room,” wasn’t Jewish. But in the early 1960s she traveled to Israel on
assignment, met the Jewish sculptor Chaim Stephenson, and moved with him to a
kibbutz, where they lived until 1971. She recalled it as a “relatively quiet
era in the Middle East,” although Reid Banks was pregnant with their third son
when Stephenson was called up for service in the Six-Day War. She later wrote
“One More River,” a coming-of-age novel about a Canadian Jewish girl who moves
to a kibbutz. In her 1980 book “Letters to My Israeli Sons: The Story of Jewish
Survival” — a history of Zionism — she wrote that “even more important to me
than you three coming to love Israel as I do, is that you shall not love it
blindly, but as wisely, as bravely and as perceptively as possible.”
1929: It was
reported that at the sixteenth Zionist
Congress, Vladimir Jabotinsky criticized the British administration of
Palestine, making specific reference to “incidents at the Wailing Wall where
the British police were alleged to have interfered with Jewish worshippers on
the Day of Atonement.”
1930: On the
eve of Tish’a B’Av which begins tomorrow night “the customary notice
prohibiting assembling in the streets and carrying weapons was posted today by
the government in connection with the fast day from which last year indirectly
arose the serious Arab-Jewish riots.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/08/01/98308539.html?pageNumber=6
1931(18th
of Av, 5683): “Israel Alexander Symmons,” the son of Samuel Symmons, “who was
appointed a Metropolitan Police Magistrate in 1911” making him “the first and
only Jewish magistrate in London” passed away today.
1932: National
elections were held in Germany and the Nazi Party won 230 seats in the
Reichstag.
1933: By now, approximately
30,000 people are interned in Nazi concentration camps.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Chronology_1933.html
1933: In the
Boston neighborhood of Dorchester Alexander Bluestein, “a kitchen equipment
salesman” and his wife Edith Gropman Bluestein gave birth to Janice Bluestein
who after graduating from college “married her
childhood sweetheart, Daniel T. (Dan) Longone” and became Jan Langone the 2000 winner of the “Food Arts Silver
Spoon Award for her work in uncovering and preserving American culinary
history.”
http://forward.com/culture/213166/cookbook-collector-savors-recipes-for-living-in-mi/?p=all
1934 Today,:
Jesse I. Straus, who had already given one fourth of his Macy’s stock because
of the increase in federal estate taxes, “revised his 1933 will to remove list
of gifs to 18 educational and charitable institutions because “the present
Federal and State estate tax laws impose substantially increased tax burdens
upon the estates of decedents and may under certain conditions cause undue
hardship and financial sacrifice and loss resulting from untimely sale and
liquidation of assets of estates to provide for the payment of such taxes.”
1934(19th
of Av, 5694): Sixty-four-year-old Katie Schradsky, the wife of William
Schradsky and the mother of Annie Schradsky and Max Schradsky, a member “of the Cotopaxi Colony in southern Colorado”
who went to become “a policeman and Democratic Party captain” in Denver.
1934:
Birthdate of Stanley Edwin “Stan” Daniels, the native of Toronto who “won eight
Emmy Awards for his work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and “Taxi.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/obituaries/14daniels.html?_r=0
1935: It was
reported from Warsaw today that “a total of 16,772 Jews emigrated from Poland
in the first six months of 1935, 12,372 went to Palestine
1935: “The
municipal press and propaganda office today warned Jews not to come to Berlin.”
1935(1st
of Av, 5695): Rosh Chodesh Av
1935(1st
of Av, 5695): Seventy-three-year-old Edwin Schiele, the son of Sigmund and
Fanny Shulman Shiel and the husband of Mynne Kramer Schiele passed away today
after which he was buried in the New Mount Sinai Cemetery at Affton, MO.
1936:
Birthdate of Uzi Yari, the Ramat Gan native who rose to be a “brigade commander
during the Yom Kippur War” and was killed while leading “the elite Israeli army
commando unit Sayeret Matkal” as freed hostages taken by terrorists at Tel
Aviv’s Savoy Hotel.
1936(12th of
Av, 5696): Rabbi Moses Simon Sivitz, renowned Jewish historian died in
Montefiore Hospital ... He also wrote five books on Moses after years of
research.
1936: “An
abortive plot to put typhoid germs in milk delivered to Jews was charged to the
Black Legion today” in Detroit, Michigan.
1936: The Palestine Post reported from London
that the newly-appointed Royal Commission was expected to arrive in Palestine
in October. Meanwhile a new wave of Arab rioting spread towards Tiberias where
many Jews were compelled to leave the Old City. There were assaults, arson, and
stone-throwing. The Arab police and the British authorities dealt with the
rioters in a diffident and condoning manner.
1937: A fight
broke out between Gentiles and Jews on the beach at Coney Island “when an
unidentified man wearing a lumber-jacket began parading along the beach carry a
placed in red which read: ‘No Jews or Dogs Allowed on Beach.’”
1938(3rd of
Av, 5698): Seventy-year-old Vilna native Leon Zolotkoff, the “former editor of
the Jewish Daily News of New York, one time assistant district of Cook County
and founder of the Chicago Jewish Courier” who was an early and ardent Zionist
and the husband of the late Fannie Zolotkoff with whom he had four children,
“Julia, Sydney, Hyman and Albert – passed away today in Amityville, L.I.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/08/01/98172085.pdf
1938: “There
were 120 civil marriages at Vienna City Hall” today including many brides “who
have had to leave their Jewish employment with a compulsory gratuity”
consisting of at least a month’s wages, “which with their savings make for an
attractive dowry” but will not do anything to find them new jobs.
1938: Joseph
Buerckel, the Commissioner for Austria, issued an order today stating “that the
principles of the Nuremberg laws are to exclusively be applied to all dealings
with Jews…”
1939(15th of Av, 5699): Tu B’Av
1939: Isadore Breslau, the
Zionist leadership's chief representative in Washington, writes a
letter showing that former Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
actively supported Aliyah in defiance of British policy as outlined in the May
1939 White Paper that severely limited the immigration of Jews to then
British-run Palestine. The letter reveals that the widely respected jurist, who
had just retired after nearly a quarter century on the court, held views on
Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel that were in direct opposition to
those of the British government, the Roosevelt administration and mainstream
American Jewish groups and leaders."Speaking on the question of the
immigration he [Brandeis] said that Jews would continue to immigrate regardless
of the White Paper," the letter written by Isadore Breslau reads.
"When someone suggested that it was illegal, he said that the Jewish
people considered it legal in view of the fact that any attempt to curtail
immigration was in violation of the terms of the Mandate; that it may be
considered illegal by Great Britain, but that we Jews considered it to be
legal."
1940: According to The
Olkusz Memorial book “a German police unit arrived in Olkusz” today and
gathered all the Jewish men in the main square. There the Jews were forced to
lie on the ground while the policemen and members of the SD “registered them”.
During this process, the Germans brutally beat the Jews, shooting one of them.
In order to further humiliate them, Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Hagerman was forced to
don his tallith (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries) that had been
defiled, and to stand barefoot and pray next to the prostrate men of the Jewish
community. At the end of the day, the Jews were permitted to return home, and
the Germans left. Due to the beatings suffered by the Jews, the event was
subsequently referred to as ‘Bloody Wednesday’”.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/04.asp )
1940(25th of
Tammuz, 5700): Fifty-seven-year-old Austrian born Cornell University Medical
School trained gynecologist and obstetrician Dr. Maurice O Magid, the husband
of “Mrs. Ray Magid” with whom he raised two children passed away today.
1940: “The
Japanese Consul-General began issuing travel visas to Japan through Russia so
that Jews could get to Curacao and Dutch Guiana where one would not need
entrance visas. Despite the Japanese official policy to deny any such visa to
Jews, Chiune and his wife Yukiko, sat for many hours writing and signing visas
by hand. They issued 300 visas a day which would normally take one month's
worth of work for the consul. After the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania he was
forced to move on to Germany. It is estimated that he saved well over 3,000
lives. Both were later honored by the Israeli government at Yad Vashem as
righteous gentiles.rnrn
1941: The
Nazis officially undertook The Final Solution. Hermann Goring instructs SS
Reich Security Service chief Reinhardt Heydrich by letter "to carry out
all the necessary preparations with regard to organizational and financial
matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the
German sphere of influence." - That influence now covered a dozen
countries. - "I further charge you with submitting to me promptly an
overall plan... for the execution of the intended FINAL SOLUTION of the Jewish
question."
1942: Governor
Wilhelm Kube reports to Hinrich Lohse, Reichskommissar of the Baltic
regions and Belorussia, that "Jewry has been completely eliminated"
in the Minsk area. According to Kube
‘16,000 Jews were liquidated in Lida, 8,000 in Slonim.’ In the previous ten weeks, 55,000 Jews have
been liquidated.
1942 (17th of Av, 5702): Bluma Rozenfeld, 19, leaps to her death from a
fifth-floor window in the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto.
1942: In the
Minsk Ghetto, “Moshe Jaffe the leader of the Judenrat refused to hand over list
s of Jews to the Germans They forced him together all the Jews in the town
square, but when he saw the entrance of gas trucks he called out. "Jews
the bloody murderers have deceived you – flee for your lives!” He was shot
together with the ghetto police chief. His predecessor Eliyahu Myshkin had also
refused to cooperate with the Germans and had been hanged.
1942: Israel
Lichtenstein writes from the Warsaw Ghetto: "At present, together with me,
both of us get ready to meet and receive death. I wish my little daughter to be
remembered. Margalith, twenty months old today....I don't lament my own life
nor that of my wife. I pity only the so little, nice and talented girl. She
deserves to be remembered."
1942 (17th of Av, 5702): German SS troops gassed 1,000 Jews in Minsk,
Belorussia
1942: In what was the first reference to Dan
Schoor in FBI files, on this date FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "asked the
chief of the Special War Policies Unit for more information on Schoor's status
as a 'representative of a foreign principal' because he was employed as a
correspondent for the Netherland Indies News Agency. During the Red Scare of the 1950's
"Hoover told the CIA director that the bureau had looked over Schoor's
background and had kept information on his travels to 'Iron Curtain
Countries.'" Is it possible that
Hoover did not know that Schoor was the Moscow correspondent for CBS news which
would have meant he traveled for Iron Curtain countries? Ironically, the Soviets expelled him because
they did not approve of his news gathering work.
1942: Harry James and his Orchestra recorded “I
Heard That Song Before” with music by Jules Styne and lyrics by Sammy Cahn
which lost out to Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” when it came to choosing
the Oscar for Best Original Song.
1943(28th of Tammuz, 5703): Parashat
Matot-Masei
1943: “The Royal Air Force in the Middle East
opened it ranks to volunteers three years ago today” and “now, according to a
statement issued by RAF headquarters Palestinians ‘represent a significant part
of the empire’s air power’” including ‘many Jewish refugees from a half dozen
countries” one of whom is now a motor mechanic but in WW I was a pilot in the
Richtofen Flying Circus.
1943: Twenty-five-year-old Charles Aikenbaum
was convoyed to Auschwitz today.
1944: The hull
of the Liberty ship "Benjamin Peixotto" was laid down today. The ship is named for the 19th
century Jewish leader.
1944: “Christmas
Holiday,” directed by Robert Siodmark, with a screenplay Herman J. Mankiewicz
and music by Hans Salter was released today in the United States.
1944(11th of
Av, 5704): Eighteen-year-old Leendert Kleerekoper died at Auschwitz today. He was the son of Gerrit Kleerekoper, the
coach of the of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastics team, which won the Olympic title
in Amsterdam in 1928. The coach, his
wife and his 14-year-old daughter had already been gassed.
1944: Among
1300 Jews deported from Drancy, France (northwest of Paris), to Auschwitz are
258 Jewish orphans seized in and around Paris on July 24. Upon arrival at the
camp, all 500 children and 300 adults are gassed. This is the last transport of
Jews from the Drancy camp to Auschwitz. In total, 73,853 Jews have been shipped
from Drancy to their deaths at Auschwitz and Sobibór.
1944: As Western troops moved forward to Paris,
a last train departed with over 300 deported Jewish children.
1944:
After having been transferred to the Special Operations Branch of the OSS,
today, Aaron E. Bank “led the Jedburgh Team PACKARD, parachuting into Lozère
Department of France and linking up with French Resistance.”
1944: Three thousand Jews were transported from
the labor camp at Blizyn to Birkenau where over 500 are gassed to death upon
their arrival
1944: By the end of July, French Jew Maurice Löwenberg, founder of the National
Liberation Movement resistance group, is tortured to death by the Gestapo.
1944: By the end of July 46,000 Jewish inmates are gassed and cremated at
Auschwitz.
1944: Ships carrying the Jewish population of Rhodes arrived at the port
of Piraeus and the Jews were immediately shipped to the concentration camp at
Haidari in suburban Athens where the Red Cross would not be allowed to supply
them food and water.
1944: By the end of July SS General Richard Baer had become the new Auschwitz
commandant.
1945: French
collaborationist politician Pierre Laval is arrested in Austria. Laval was the driving force behind the Vichy
Government which was so supportive of the Final Solution that it often
delivered Jews “ahead of schedule.”
1945: Birthdate of Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, the
native of Newark, NJ, who has served as Deputy Director of the President's
Commission on the Holocaust, Project Director of the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum and Director of the USHMM's Holocaust Research Institute and
whose books included The World Must Know, Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death
Camp
1946: An Anglo-American committee jointly
chaired by Henry Grady, an assistant secretary of state and Herbert Morrison, a
British Labor Party leader published the Morrison-Grady plan which proposed a
British dominated trusteeship that would “supervise separate Jewish and Arab
provinces.” The British loved it because
it kept them in power. The Arabs and the
Jews rejected it for the same reason.
1946: In Los Angeles, CA, Patti Lewis (née
Esther Calonico) and Jerry Lewis gave birth to Gary Harold Lee Levitch who was
the leader of a pop/rock band “Gary Lewis and the Playboys” and who appeared in
a couple of his father’s films.
1947: In reprisal for the execution of Avshalom
Haviv, Yaakov Weisss and Meir Nakar, the Irgun killed two British sergeants
whom they were holding captive.
“Following the death of the two sergeants and the publicity surrounding
it, the British public demanded that the troops be brought home. In Palestine, several Jews were murdered by
British soldiers as a counter-reprisal.
1947(14th of Ave, 5707): Sixty-seven-year-old
art historian and collector Léonce Rosenberg who was a leading figure in the
world of Modern Art before WW II passed away today.
http://www.moma.org/learn/resources/archives/EAD/Rosenbergf
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/collectors/rosenberg-leonce.htm
1948: Harry Dexter White, “the youngest child
of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants” was accused today before the House Committee
on Un-American Activities of having “been involved in espionage activities on
behalf of the Soviet Union during World War II and had passed sensitive
Treasury documents to Soviet agents.”
1948: Leo Nomis reported to Modi Alon at
Herzliya preparatory to flying with 101 Squadron.
1950: In New Rochelle, NY, Sydney Mitchell, the
chief executive officer and partial owner of a furniture manufacturing company
in Manhattan and for forty years the president of Beth El Synagogue in New
Rochelle” and Cecile Mitchell, “an administrator at the New York Institute of
Technology gave birth to Arthur Mitchell a “Canadian politician, a member of
the Legislative Assembly of Yukon” and brother of newscaster Andrea Mitchell.
1951(27th of Tammuz, 5711):
Sixty-two year old Emanuel Julius, the Philadelphia born son of bookbinder
David Julius who adopted the last name of his first wife Marcet Haldeman to
become Emanuel Haldeman-Julius “the nationally known publisher of the ‘Little
Blue Books’” and who had been found guilty of tax evasion was found drowned
today in his swimming pool by his wife Sue.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/08/01/88438961.html?pageNumber=24
1951: The
Jerusalem Post reported on most orderly elections to the Second Knesset.
According to this newspaper's fifth successive edition which appeared at 6 a.m.
Mapai won 42.23 per cent of the vote, Mapam 19.18, General Zionists 13.47,
Hapoel Hamizrahi 7.37, Progressives 5.33, Herut 4.22, Poalei Aguda 1.49,
Communists 1.36, Mizrahi 1.11, Aguda 1.07. The rest was split among smaller
parties, which couldn't get even 1 percent of the vote to be eligible for a
Knesset seat. [Editor's note: The Israelis use a system of proportional
representation which works a strong two-party electoral system. This
system encourages all kinds of splintering, factionalism and gives
disproportionate power to minor, but cohesive, groups. This concept was
so entrenched the Israeli psyche that not even David Ben Gurion could overcome
it.]
1951(27th of Tammuz, 5711):
Sixty-year-old University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained Rabbi, Samuel
Joshua Abrams, the Vilna born son of Rabbi David and Sarah Abrams and the
husband of Sarah R. Friedman who served several congregations starting with
B’nai Israel in Kalamazoo before finally settling in at Temple Ohabei Shalom in
Boston in 1920 which led to him being a member of the Board of Jewish Education
In Boston and being a member of the executive committee of the Boston Zionist
Organization passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/08/01/88438942.html?pageNumber=23
1952(9th of Av, 5712): Tish’a B”av
1952: Birthdate of Faye Kellerman the St. Louis
native who trained to be a dentist but fortunately for us became one of the
finest mystery writers of the 20th century.
1952: It was reported today that Yiddish
actress Weintraub, the widow of Sigmund Weintraub, is survived by her son
Milton Weintraub and her daughters Pearl Weintraub and Mrs. Frances Weintraub
Lax.
1952: “Ivanhoe” a cinematic treatment of the
novel that includes the tale of Isaac York and his daughter Rebecca produced by
Pandro S. Berman was released in the United States today by MGM.
1953: Today, the Jewish Chronicle “said there
were 4,000 Jewish servicemen and women serving in the Allied Forces in Korea,”
most of whom were Americans.
1954: Mary Clawson, an American living in
Jerusalem, watches as Arabs began “shooting over to this (the Jewish) side and
after waiting a brief time to investigate to be sure the shooting was not just
a trigger-happy Legionnaire, the Jewish side returned the fire.”
1954: A raid led by Meir Har-Zion that takes
the unit to the area around Jenin begins.
1955: NYU trained attorney and WW I veteran
Samuel Hamilton who had been serving as
a Judge for the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York
“assumed senior status due to certified disability” today.
1956: “Storm Center” a film that took on the
twin topics of Communism and censorship at the height of the McCarthy period
directed by Daniel Taradash who wrote the script and with film tile sequences
created by Saul Bass was released in the United States today.
1960(7th of Av, 5720): Seventy-year
old Philip B. Perlman who “became the first Jewish U.S Solicitor General” when
Harry Truman appointed him to the position in 1947 passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/08/01/119109575.pdf
1960(7th of Av, 5720): Fifty-three
year old Helen Misener the Greenwich (UK) daughter of a Polish born Jew whose
acting career included appearing in “A Night to Remember” and starring in a
1939 staging of “Night Must Fall” which produced “for the benefit of deportees
on the German-Polish border” passed away today.
1960(7th of Av, 5720): Seventy-two
year old Ette Levy passed away today after which she was buried in the
“cemetery donated by Samuel Myers Hyams to the Society of Israelites in
Natchitoches, LA.”
1960: Gary Lewis, the son of comedian Jerry
Lewis, turned fourteen today and received a set of drums which would be his
instrument of choice when he formed his band “Gary Lewis & the Playboys.”
1961(18th of Av, 5721): Forty-nine-year-old
Croatian opera star and Holocaust survivor Zdenka Rubinstein, the wife of
Bartold Rubinstein died today succumbing to the effects of Parkinson disease.
1961: The one millionth Oleh since the
establishment of the Jewish State arrived in Israel.
1963: United Kingdom premiere of “Cleopatra,”
co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Martin Landau, produced by Walter Wagner,
directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and with a screenplay co-authored by Ben Hecht
and Joseph L. Mankeiwicz.
1965(2nd of Av, 5725): Parashat
Matot-Masei
1965(2nd of AV, 5725):
Eighty-one-year-old attorney and chairman of the Board of Reliable Stores, a
chain of fur and jewelry stores Israel B. Brodie the husband of national Hadassah leader
Florence Robinson and lifelong Zionist
who was “one of the founders and a director of the Palestine Economic
Corporation.
1967: In New York, Lynne Winters and Donald
Wurtzel gave birth to Harvard grad and Yale University trained attorney
Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel author of Prozac Nation.
1968: “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” starring
Alan Arkin was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.
1968(6th of Av, 5728): Eighty-two-year-old
retired furniture company president Isidor Teitlebaum, “an honorary vice
president of the American Jewish Congress” and “former trustee of Temple Adath
Israel in the Bronx” who was married to “the former Seiler” with whom he had
one son – J. Lloyd Teitelbam -- passed away today.
1968: “5 Card Stud” a western film featuring
Yaphet Kotto as Little George was released in the United States today Paramount
Pictures.
1968(6th of Av, 5728): Seventy-two
year old Moselle “Molly” Elias, the Rangoon born daughter of Rachel and Sassoon
Ezekiel” and wife of Harry Moses Elias passed away today in Sydney, Australia.
1969(15th of Av, 5729): Tu B’Av
celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of Richard Nixon.
1970: In Finland, premiere of “Getting
Straight” a comedy starring Elliot Gould, featuring Jeannie Berlin and John
Rubinstein, the son of concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
1970: Norwegian General Odd Bull completes his
term as Chief of Staff United Nations
Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).
His thirteen year term included the Six Day War.
1970: “Move” a comedy
directed by Stuart Rosenberg, produced by Pandro S. Berman, starring Elliot
Gould, with music by Marvin Hamlisch was released today in the United States by
20th Century Fox.
1971(9th
of Av, 5731): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; No fast because it is Shabbat.
1971(9th
of Av, 5731): Sixty-nine-year-old anthropologist Melville Jacobs a long-time
member of the faculty of the University of Washington and the husband of fellow
anthropologist Elizabeth Jacobs, passed away today.
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jacobs_melville_1902_1971_/#.Wzrrn_ZFx9A
1972: Premiere of
“Greaser’s Palace,” starring Allan Arbus
1975: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today in Valhalla, NY for
seventy-four-year-old Boston born and Harvard and Columbia educated University
of Oklahoma professor Dr.
Benjamin Albert Botkin, the husband of the former Gertrude with whom he had two
children – Daniel and Dorothy – who was “one of the country’s foremost
folklorists,” best known for the seminal work Stories, Ballads, and
Traditions of the People. (As reported by Murray Illson)
1975: In Los Angeles,
Judy Kapler, “an early childhood educator at a Jewish preschool who is
originally from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn” and Michael Kapler “a classical pianist
originally from Brooklyn, New York who also wrote music and taught piano” gave
birth to Major League Baseball
outfielder, manager and executive Gabe Kapler.
https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=kaplega01
https://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/kaplega01.shtml
1977: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today at the International Synagogue for Nachman
Kanri a retired IDF Colonel after which his remains will taken flown to Israel
for burial.
1978: Funeral service
are scheduled this afternoon at Schwartz Brothers in Queens for Abraham
Kaminsky, the husband of Fay Kaminsky with whom he had two daughters and one
son, Alfred Kemen.
1981: The New York
Times reported that Israelis were stunned and startled by U.S. anger
following an Israeli air attack on Beirut.
Government officials in Jerusalem are hoping that their adherence to the
Lebanon cease-fire arrangement will be seen in Washington as a gesture of good
will to American interests.
1981: Morton I.
Abramowitz completed these three years of service as U.S. Ambassador to
Thailand
1982(11th
of Av, 5742): Shabbat Nachamu
1983: Jewish golfer
Corey Pavin won the Lufthansa German Open.
1985: Three people
were injured in a terrorist bombing at Haifa.
1986: Eighty-six year
old Chiune Sugihara passed away. While
servicing as Vice Council for Japan in Lithuania he defied his government and
issued transit visas to thousands of Jews allowing them to escape the clutches
of the Holocaust.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sugihara.html
1987: ''Portraits of an Era: Photographs by Irv Kline,''
an exhibition that is part of the Jewish East End Celebration is scheduled to
come to a close today.
1987: “The Lost Boys”
a comedic horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard
and starring Corey Feldman, Jami Getz and Corey Haim was released today in the
United States.
1987(5th
of Av, 5747): Eighty-four-year-old Justine Wise Polier, the Portland, OR,
daughter of Rabbi Stephen Wise a co-founder of the American Jewish Congress and
the NAACP, the graduate of Radcliffe and Yale Law School who served as Judge on
New York’s family Court, passed away today.
http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00238
1987(5th
of Av, 5747): Eighty-one-year-old movie producer Joseph E. Levine who had a
hand in bringing over 500 films to the American screen passed away today. (As
reported by Nan Robertson)
1987(5th
of Av, 5747): Eighty-four-year-old New York City Family Court Judge Justine
Wise Polier, Yale trained attorney and daughter of Rabbi Stephen Wise who
married Shad Polier after her first husband Professor Leon A. Tullin passed
away died today leaving behind two son “Stephen Wise Tulin” and “Jonathan Wise
Polier.”
1987: The third
congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies organized by Professor
Peter Schafter under the Presidency of Professor Arnold Goldberg came to an end
at Scholoss Glienicke, Germany.
1988: Dr. Joanna Lisa Fine, a child psychiatrist,
and Stephen Michael Harnik, a lawyer, who graduated together from the Dalton
School in 1971 were married today at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park. Jerome
Raik, the president of Ansche Chesed Congregation in Manhattan, officiated.
1989(28th
of Tammuz, 5749): Seventy –two year old Oregon State University forestry
professor and two term Mayor of Corvallis, OR, Alan B. Berg, the husband of
“statistician Helen Berg,” the city first “female Mayor” passed away today.
1989(28th
of Tammuz, 5749): Eighty-four-year-old Polish born, Fordham trained attorney,
Hyman Hirsch, the founder of “the Institute for Retired Professionals” who
“taught econcomics and history for 30 years in New York high schools” while
raise his son Fred with “the former Edna Levy,” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/08/03/obituaries/hyman-hirsch-institute-founder-84-dies.html
1990(9th of Av,
5750):Tish'a B'Av
1991: “Hot Shots” a
comedy directed by Jim Abrahams who co-authored the script was released in the
United States today.
1992(1st of Av,
5752): Rosh Chodesh Av
1994(23rd of Av,
5754): Ninety-four-year-old Karola Bloch, the anti-Stalinist communist
and wife Ernst Bloch passed away today.
1996(15th
of Av, 5756): Tu B’Av
1996: Perth Amboy, NJ
native and Harvard Law School trained attorney H. Lee Sorkin completed his
serves as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
1996: “Israeli search
teams have bound the remains” of Private Ilan Saadon, who was kidnapped and
murdered by Hamas on May 3, 1989.
1998: One person was
injured today when a terrorist threw a bomb at a truck in North Jerusalem.
1998: BASEketball a comedy directed by David
Zucker who co-produced and co-wrote the script and co-starring Matt Stone and
featuring Al Michaels was released today in the United States by Universal
Pictures.
2000: In a vote of 63
to 57, the Knesset chose Moshe Katsav to serve as President of Israel in a race
against the favorite, Shimon Peres.
2001: David G.
Littman “organized a Parallel NGO Conference during the 53rd session of the UN
Sub-Commission (Sponsor: AWE) on the subject of: Racism: Antisemitism /
anti-Zionism and Genocidal Hate” which stood in stark contact to the
anti-Semitic Conference in Durban.
2002(22nd of
Av, 5762): A bomb exploded inside a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, killing nine people, including five Americans.
2002: Nine
people were killed and 85 wounded, 14 of them seriously, when a bomb exploded
in the Frank Sinatra student center cafeteria on the Hebrew University’s Mt.
Scopus campus. The explosive device was planted inside the cafeteria, which was
gutted by the explosion. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
2003: The Israeli Knesset
enacted the Nationality and Entry Into Israel Law, prohibiting any residency or
citizenship status to Palestinians who live in the territories and are married
to Israeli citizens. The law was initiated in the midst of the second
intifada by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as an anti-terrorist measure. The
law would become the subject matter of 2008 documentary "Just
Married."
2004(13th of
Av, 5764): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
2004: “The Warsaw
Uprising, Told Vividly by a Welshman” published today provided what was in
effect a reviews of Rising ‘44”: The Battle for Warsaw by former
University of London professor Norman Davies.
2005: “Hundreds of Jewish
New Yorkers who thought they had escaped city life for the summer found that
the city, in the form of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's re-election campaign, had
followed them to their Catskill retreat yesterday.” (As reported Mike McIntire)
2006: As of today, Kenny G
(Kenneth Bruce Gorelick) had sold 48 million albums in the United States.
2006: Funeral
services are held at Temple B’nai Torah for Pamela Waechter,
58, who was killed in Friday's shooting at the Seattle offices of the Jewish
Federation by an American Muslim.
2007: In
Jerusalem, the Israeli Wine-Tasting Festival, a celebration of wine tasting
from the best vineyards in Israel takes place at the Israel Museum.
2007(16th
of Av, 5767): Ninety-two-year-old British historian Norman Cohn whose works
included Warrant for Genocide and
who was the husband of Verio Broido, the daughter of Russian Jews and the
father of writer Nik Cohn passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/world/europe/27cohn.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_for_Genocide
2007: Today,
Jack Lebewohl announced that the Second Avenue Deli, home of the world’s
greatest kosher meat knishes and tongue sandwiches, would reopen at a new
location in the fall of 2007. http://www.2ndavedeli.com/
2008(28th
of Tammuz, 5768): Eighty-nine-year-old Harold Rosen, the graduate of University
College in London, U.S. Army veteran and “academic” at London University’s
Institute of Education who was the husband of Connie Isakofsky with whom he had
three children – Brian, Alan and Michael – passed away today.
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/1802/The%20real%20lives%20of%20Eastenders
2008: Four
days after he had passed away, funeral services were held today for eighty-three year old WW II veteran and
“former Sr. Vice President of Industrial Relations at MGM Benjamin B. Kahan,
the husband of Lorelle Kahan at the Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries..
2008: Solomon
"Momy" Levy began serving as Mayor of Gibraltar.
2008: At the
Boston Public Library, the photographic exhibit, “Kids with Cameras: Beyond the
Walls” sponsored by the Zionist House/Israel Cultural Central and the Consulate
General of Israel to New England, comes to a close.
Kidswithcameras-jerusalem.com
2009: Opening
of The National Parks and Nature Authority’s fifth annual Outdoor Acoustic
Music Festival in Ein Hemed, a beautiful nature reserve just 10 minutes from
Jerusalem. Each performer at this year’s festival will dedicate at least one
song to the Earth, in order to promote environmental awareness.
2009: In Jerusalem, Ohad Chitman takes the
stage at Hama'abada, playing an acoustic show featuring the best hits from his
two albums and from the third album on the way.
2009: In
Brooklyn, as part of Bargemusic at Fulton’s Landing Yoed Nir is the featured
performer in “World of Cello” The Six Bach Suites for Solo Cello and Beyond,
Part 1
2009: U.S. President
Barack Obama has decided to extend sanctions against Syria, despite positive
signs of progress in the relationship between the two nations, a White House
statement said today. The decision to maintain current sanctions against the Syrian
government, the statement said, comes as a result of continuing attempts to
maintain instability in neighboring Lebanon. "In the past six months, the
United States has used dialogue with the Syrian government to address concerns
and identify areas of mutual interest, including support for Lebanese
sovereignty," the statement said.
2009: Two
brothers were arrested early this morning in connection with the shooting
attack on disgraced soccer star Felix Halfon, who was seriously wounded when he
was shot outside a Tel Aviv night club hours earlier.
2009: Mark
Polansky, “the commander of the STS-127 mission” “returned to Earth with his
crew” today.
2009: Dr.
Jerome Karle, the winner in 1985 the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and his wife and
colleague Dr. Isabella Karle, who worked together on the Manhattan Project
“retired from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory” today “after a combined 127
years of serviced to the United States Government.
2010: A
screening of Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story is scheduled to take
place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010: Ryan
“Kalish was promoted to the Red Sox from the minor league team in Pawtucket.”
2010: This
morning the IDF confirmed that the Air Force hit several Hamas-linked targets
in Gaza overnight on Friday, One of the targets hit was believed to be in the
Tel al-Hawa neighborhood; another was reportedly the site of smuggling tunnels
on the Egyptian border. The IAF's strike followed yesterday morning's Grad
missile attack in Ashkelon, for which the Aza Din al-Kassem Gazan terror group
claimed responsibility.
2010: The
ninth congress of the European Association of Jewish Studies under the
presidency of Professor Mauro Perania came to a close at Ravenna.
2010(20th
of Av, 5770): Ninety-nine-year-old Mitch Miller, the son of Russian Jewish
immigrants who played a major role in the world of popular music and was best
known for his “Sing A Long With Mitch” television show, passed away today. (As
reported by Richard Severo)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
2011: Standing
Silent and An Encounter with Simone Weil ,Julia Haslett’s documentary that
looks at the life of French philosopher
Simone Weil, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, who was raised by a
secular Jewish family and lived during the rise of Fascism in Europe, are scheduled to be shown at the San
Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Members
of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community are scheduled to celebrate “Faith and
Family Day At The Ballpark” as they watch the Cedar Rapids Kernels play the
Beloit Snappers
2011: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly
by Lee Siegel and Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of
Germany by Frederick Taylor.
2011: The government will absorb the higher
cost of gasoline in August, after Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz bowed to
pressure from National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau today and signed a
directive cutting the excise tax by an amount equal to the price rise. The
price of self-service 95 octane gasoline was due to rise at midnight by NIS
0.31 per liter to NIS 7.53, just short of the record of NIS 7.62 set in May.
Instead, it will remain at NIS 7.22, effective until the end of August.
2011: Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
and US ambassador designate Dan Shapiro tried their hands at outreach today,
with Netanyahu broadcasting a Ramadan message to Israeli Arabs and Muslims
around the world, and Shapiro launching a Facebook page to interact with the
Israeli public.
2012: “Mazel Tov! A Celebration of Jewish
Weddings” is scheduled to come to a close at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee.
2012: As it prepares to move to its new
location, Agudas Achim is scheduled to officially vacate its downtown Iowa City
location.
2012” “God’s Fiddler” is scheduled to be shown
at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Robin B.
Jacobson, Director of Library Services, Adas Israel Congregation is scheduled
to lead a discussion of Nemesis by Philip Roth sponsored by the Jewish
Historical Society of Greater Washington.
2012: Egypt's
President Mohammed Morsi sent a missive to President Shimon Peres, wishing
stability and security for all of the region's nations, including Israel
2012: Israel's
Alice Schlesinger lost in the finals of the under 63kg Judo competition at the
London Olympics today, falling to France's Gevrise Emane after losing to
Slovenia's Urska Zolnir in the quarterfinals. Earlier on today, Schlesinger had
defeated Austria's Hilde Drexler to advance to the quarterfinals.
http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Article.aspx?id=279525
2012: Aly
Raisman, a Jewish American, won the floor exercise in helping the U.S. women's
team to the gold medal in the gymnastics competition at the London Olympics.
The Americans today won their first team gold medal in women's gymnastics since
the Atlanta Games in 1996, finishing with 183.596 points to defeat Russia
(178.530) and Romania (176.414).
2013: “American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making
of San Francisco” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film
Festival.
2013: President Barack Obama announced that he
would nominate Sarah Raskin to the second-in-command position of Deputy
Secretary at the United States Department of the Treasury
2013: The President of the United States
“formally nominated Noah Mamet” a Spanish speaking member of the National
Jewish Democratic Council to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina.
2013: “When Comedy Went To School” is scheduled
to open at the JCC in Manhattan.
2013: Leslie Cohen Berlowitz is scheduled to
resign as President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences today after
she was accused of embellishing her resume with a spurious doctoral degree.(As
reported by Todd Wallack in the Boston
Globe)
2013: Two controversial bills aimed at enabling
the government to function better cleared a hurdle when they passed their first
reading tonight in a stormy session of the parliament.(As reported by Gil
Hoffman)
2013: HUC
announced the decision to have Rabbi Aaron Panken succed Rabbi David Ellison as
president of The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform
movement’s rabbinical school. Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/31/news-opinion/hebrew-union-college-names-new-president#ixzz2ag0Q1whk
2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host “Coen Brothers Trivia Night.”
2014; “Ten days after her husband was killed in
battle by Hamas gunmen inside the Israeli border with Gaza, Galaitu Kshaun, the
widow of Warrant Officer Bayhesain Kshaun, 39, gave birth to a baby girl early
today. (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)
2014: As Ilia Salita became tne new CEO of
Genesis Philanthropy Group Michael Fridman,
co-founder of Genesis Philanthropy Group released a statement today that said
“We are confident that Genesis Philanthropy Group’s management team under the
leadership of Ilia Salita will expand and deepen the organization’s impact on
Russian-speaking Jewish communities around the world,” (As reported by JTA and
Times of Israel)
2014: As anti-Semitic tensions
mount a demonstration called by the Representative Council of Jewish
Institutions took place in front of synagogue in Lyon, France.
2014: This evening U.N. Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry jointly announced that an
unconditional 72 hour cease fire between Israel and Hamas is scheduled to go
into effect tomorrow morning. (As reported by JTA)
2015: Michael Slive is scheduled to retire as
Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
2015: Today, the Associated Press “published a
follow-up story reporting that Germany had ‘shelved’ their Nazi war crimes
investigation citing that” “a former Nazi commander named Michael Karkoc who
led SS units that had been at the scene of “burning villages filled with men
and women” as well as “the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, in which the Nazis brutally
suppressed a Polish rebellion against German occupation” was not fit for
trial.”
2015(15th of Av, 5775): Seventy-five-year-old
author and critic Alan Cheuse passed away today in San Jose, CA. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015(15th of Av, 5775): The 15th Day
of Av, is both an ancient and modern holiday. Originally a post-biblical day of
joy, it served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the second Temple
period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.). Tu B'Av was almost unnoticed
in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent
decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it
is gradually becoming a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine's
Day in English-speaking countries. There is no way to know exactly how early Tu
B'Av began. The first mention of this date is in the Mishnah (compiled and
edited in the end of the second century), where Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel is
quoted saying, "There were no better (i.e. happier) days for the people of
Israel than the Fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur, since on these days the
daughters of Israel/Jerusalem go out dressed in white and dance in the
vineyards. What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose (to be
your wife)…"( Taanit, Chapter 4). The Gemara (the later, interpretive
layer of the Talmud) attempts to find the origin of this date as a special
joyous day, and offers several explanations. One of them is that on this day
the Biblical "tribes of Israel were permitted to mingle with each
other," namely: to marry women from other tribes (Talmud, Taanit 30b).
This explanation is somewhat surprising, since nowhere in the Bible is there a
prohibition on "intermarriage" among the 12 tribes of Israel. This
Talmudic source probably is alluding to a story in the book of Judges (chapter
21): After a civil war between the tribe of Benjamin and other Israelite
tribes, the tribes vowed not to intermarry with men of the tribe of Benjamin.
It should be noted that Tu B'Av, like several Jewish holidays (Passover,
Sukkot, Tu Bishvat) begins on the night between the 14th and 15th day of the
Hebrew month, since this is the night of a full moon in our lunar calendar.
Linking the night of a full moon with romance, love, and fertility is not
uncommon in ancient cultures. For almost 19 centuries--between the destruction
of Jerusalem and the re-establishment of Jewish independence in the state
of Israel in 1948--the only commemoration of Tu B'Av was that the Morning
Prayer service did not include the penitence prayer (Tahanun). In recent
decades Israeli civil culture promotes festivals of singing and dancing on the
night of Tu B'Av. The entertainment and beauty industries work overtime on this
date. It has no formal legal status as a holiday-- it is a regular workday--nor
has the Israeli rabbinate initiated any addition to the liturgy or called for
the introduction of any ancient religious practices. The cultural gap between
Israeli secular society and the Orthodox rabbinate makes it unlikely that these
two will find a common denominator in the celebration of this ancient/modern
holiday in the foreseeable future.
2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at
the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, VT.
2015: The Museum of Jewish Heritage are
scheduled to host SLOW/DOWN/TOWN, “a pre-Shabbat party.”
2016: “Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming
American,” a pop-up exhibition from Philadelphia’s National Museum of American
Jewish History (NMAJH) “that weaves together America’s favorite pastime and
national identity with the story of American Jewish immigration and
integration” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2016: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special
interest to Jewish readers including The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Save
Israel by Uri Bar-Joseph and City of Secrets by Stewart O’Nan, “a
thriller set in Post-World War II Jerusalem.”
2016: An exhibition which is a companion to New
York’s Yiddish Theatre: From Bowery to Broadway by Professor Edna Nahshon
at the Museum of the City of New York presented by “the YIVO Institute for
Jewish Research, the National Yiddish Book Center and the National Yiddish
Theater Folksbiene, in association with the Museum of Jewish Heritage” is scheduled
to come to a close today.
2016: The final performance of “Redder Blood”
co-produced by The Hub Theatre and the Jewish Community Center of Northern
Virginias billed as the “Best New Jewish Play of 2016” is scheduled to take
place tonight
2016: “IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot landed
in the United States today to meet with members of the American military and
Department of Defense, as Jerusalem and Washington hammer out the final details
of an aid package for the coming years.”
2016: The second “weeklong exploration of
literature and culture for high school students where they will “read, discuss,
argue about and fall in love with modern Jewish literature” sponsored by the
Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA is scheduled to begin today. (As reported by
Judah Ari Gross)
2017: At a meeting in Milwaukee, WI, in a
testament to ensuring Jewish survival through sharing resources, the Spertus
Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership in Chicago is scheduled to provide
information about the MA in Jewish Professional Studies, a Milwaukee-area
cohort of which is scheduled to being early next year.
2017: “Prof. Asa Kasher told Israel Radio today
that Ezor Azaria’s 18-month sentence would have a chilling effect on the Israel
Defense Forces’ “purity of arms” doctrine. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2017: In Fox Point, Wisconsin, Rabbi Ronald M.
Shapiro is scheduled to present “Great and Esteemed Jews Who Contributed Beauty
to the World.”
2017: “Marc Chagall, Flowers and the French
Riviera: The Color of Dreams” is scheduled to come a close today in Sarasota,
FL.
http://selby.org/events/event/marc-chagall-flowers-french-riviera-color-dreams/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/lofty-artist-marc-chagalls-more-down-to-earth-fixation-on-display/
2018: “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” and a
biopic “Mademoiselle Pardis” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Film
Festival.
2018: “Ziggy Marley, the son of legendary Bob
Marley” is scheduled to perform at the Barby Club in Tel Aviv.
2018: Zachary Truboff’s resignation as senior
rabbi of Oheb-Zedek-Cedar Sinai Congregation in Lyndhurst is effective today
following which he will “return to Jerusalem.”
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of
“Tracking Edith” in London.
2019: Rabbi Ezra Schwartz is scheduled to give
a shiur this evening at the Mount Sinai Jewish Center in Washington Heights.
2019: Today, in Budapest, “athletes
participating in the Maccabi Europe Games are scheduled to unveil a new
commemorative headstone at the grave of the first Jewish Olympic champion,
Alfred Hajós” during a ceremony at the Hungarian capital’s Kozma Street Jewish
Cemetery. (JTA)
2019: Pozez Jewish Community Center of Northern
Virginia is scheduled to host “Leonard Bernstein: Up Close and Personal” during
which “composer, conductor and pianist Christopher Johnson,” who worked with
and learned “from Bernstein while they were both at Indiana University’s School
Music” will unique insights to this “American musical icon.”
2019(28th of Tammuz, 5779): Seventy-seven-year-old
attorney and writer Marcel Berlins, the Marseille born son of French resistance
fighter Jacques Berlins and his Pearl Berlines and the husband of attorney and
director Lisa Forrell with whom he wrote “Best of Motives” passed away today
after suffering a brain hemorrhage.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/marcel-berlins-obituary-0rxqb3vdd
2019: Kathy Russell who was part of Seagram
heiress Clare Bronfman’s “pyramid scheme that involved sex trafficking and
racketeering” is scheduled to be sentenced today, six days after Bronfman was
sentenced.
2019: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to host screenings of “Henri Dauman: Looking Up” and “Dolce Fine
Giornata.”
2019: YIVO is scheduled to ‘present another of
its Treasures from the Archives: a rehearsed reading of Leon Kobrin’s 1912 play
‘Breach of Promise’—a tragicomic slice of tenement life in New York City.”
https://yiddishkayt.org/view/kobrin/
2020: Chabad Center of Natick is scheduled to
present “Pre-Shabbat Bubbles and Challah.”
2020: In an attempt to get a job on Tu B’Av
celebrations, the Addison-Peznak JCC is scheduled to host a virtual
presentation by “Ketubah maker Anna Abramzon as she talks about the many
aspects of the Jewish marriage contract.”
2020: In an attempt to provide something for
the whole family on Facebook in the morning B’nai Jeshurun is scheduled to host
“Virtual Kinder Shabbat” and in the evening via Zoom Kabbalat Shabbat Services.
2020: A Day of mixed emotions, as Dr. Bob
Silber is scheduled to retire today marking the end of a long, distinguished
medical career. Bob was the epitome of
the knowledgeable, caring practitioner who always had time for each of his
patients and their families. Although he
is retiring in Memphis, for decades he was a pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish
community who enriched it in so many ways.
He has earned a life with some leisure with his loving, supportive wife
and when the pandemic lifts, time to play Zeda with his tribe of grandchildren.
This is one of those times when a little goes a long way. Suffice it to say, Bob is a mensch and proof
that Leo Durocher was wrong --- good guys don’t finish last, they finish at the
head of the pack.
2021: The Temple Nightclub is scheduled to host
Tel Aviv–born and New York City–based Reem Taoz, known professionally as
Gattüso, as he plays electronic and dance music in a flashy club with a
thumping sound system.
2021: The Sousa Mendes Foundation is scheduled
to host a screening of “Partisans of Vilna.”
2021: Rabbi Elyssa Austerklein and her husband,
Hazzan Matt Austerklein, are scheduled to leave Beth El Congregation in Akron,
OH today.
2021: Penultimate night of the San Francisco
Jewish Film Festival.
2021:
The Eden-Tamir Music is Center is scheduled to host violinist Vera
Vaidman, cellist Linor Katz and pianist Emanuel Krsovsky as they perform
Shostakovich - Piano Trio No. 2 in e minor, op. 67 and Beethoven - Violin
Sonata No.9 in A major, Op.47.
2021 (22nd of Av, 5781): Parashat Ekev:
2022 Cheryl Dorchinsky, who is also founder of
the Atlanta Israel Coalition is scheduled to organize an event at Temple Beth
Tikvah as well as at Temple Emanu-El
that same day where she will be hosting
author Lana Melman, an American actress, former entertainment lawyer and a TV
executive. She is coming to promote her new book, “Artists Under Fire: The BDS
War Against Celebrities, Jews and Israel.”
2022: The National Library of Israel is
scheduled to host Dr Bea Lewkowicz is a social anthropologist and oral
historian delivering a lecture on Sephardi Voices UK: Sharing the Stories of
Sephardi Jews in Britain which is part of the series: In Her Majesty's Kingdom
- Celebrating the Rich History of Anglo-Jewry.
2022: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Hangman and His Wife: The Life and Death of Reinhard Heydrich by Nancy
Dougherty.
2022: The Jewish Federation of Quad Cities is
scheduled to host a screening of “Asia”
as part of the “Israeli Film Series 2022.
2022: The Macher Lab sponsored by AJT is
scheduled to meet today with sessions led by Macher Lab Director Illana Stein
and Macher Lab Literary Director Alix Rosenfeld.
2022: Today, Israelis are scheduled to be able
to see global superstars Lionel Messi and Neymar, when French team Paris
Saint-Germain take on Nantes at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv.
2023: In Massachusetts, the Chabad Center of
Cape Ann is scheduled to host a “Women’s Challah Bake.”
2023: The JCC of Boston is scheduled to host
the 19th Annual Golf Benefit a fundraiser honoring Paul Fireman.
2023: Lockdown University is scheduled to host
a webinar with Avi Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of the Jerusalem Post who “Unpacks
the Recent Political Developments in Israel.”
2024: “A new series of JWI's Life$avings:
Financial Empowerment for Survivors of Abuse facilitator training” is scheduled
to end today.
2024:A new course of study, “The Rambam
Revolution” sponsored by Chabad is scheduled to begin today with lesson number
one “From Moses to Moses, Discovering the Rambam.”
2024: In New Orleans, the Jewish Federations
Center for Interfaith Families is scheduled to host “a discussion led by Rabbi
David Gerber on the shared experience of being a grandparent to interfaith
children.”
2024: The Museum of the Southern Jewish
Experience is scheduled to host “A Southern Jew Boycotts Hitler’s Olympics: The
Herman Neugass Story.”
https://jewishnola.com/calendar/
2024: As of today, “111, of the 251 hostages
seized by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, , including the bodies of 39
confirmed dead by the IDF.” (As reported by Emanuel Fabian)
2024: As July 31st begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of
anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist passengers
on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the United States and the
Hamas held hostages begin day 299 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
