This Day, July 4, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z’L
July 4
925: Moslems
raided Oria as part of their attacks on Italy. Ten rabbinical leaders were
killed and many others were taken into captivity, including 12 year old
Shabbetai Donnolo, who later achieved fame as a physician
1187: Guy de
Lusignan (King of Jerusalem) force-marched his troops through the dry, hot
Galilee against the advice of Raymond III of Tripoli and others. At a site
known as the Horns of Hittim near Lake Tiberius, the Moslems defeated him and
his Crusader army. The Moslems were led by the legendary Saladin. This defeat
lead to a string of Crusader defeats that culminated in the loss of Jerusalem
in October. These losses would result in the Third Crusade, led by Richard the
Lionhearted, which would fail to restore the gains of the Christians. There
would be several more Crusades, none of which would prove any more successful.
In the end, the Christians would be forced into retreat as Moslem rulers would
extend their rule into the across a large swath of Europe. Those who contend that
the today’s clashes between the West and certain groups of Moslems and Arabs
are rooted in the creation of the state of Israel would do well to read some
history. Obviously, today’s conflicts pre-date modern Zionism. Lest we lose
track of the events of the eleventh and twelfth century, the Crusades were not
a good period for the Jews
1348: Pope
Clement VI confirms the papal bull Sicut Judaeis("and thus to the
Jews," better known as the "Constitution for the Jews"), issued
in 1120 by Pope Calixtus II. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1349(9th
of Tammuz, 5109): Based on “evidence furnished by Judah’s testament and
epitaphs” 79 year old German Talmudist Judah Ben Asher, the son of Rabbenu
Asher and the brother of Joseph Ben Asher, who served as the rabbi at Toledo,
Spain passed away.
1453:
Forty-one Jews were burned at the stake in Breslau, Germany. The remainder of
the Jewish population was expelled
1546:
Birthdate of Murad III, future Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. During his reign
“the Jewish community was shaken by a decree ordering the killing of Jews,
which resulted from the appearance of men and women in the streets in rich
clothing and jewels. As a result of the intervention of the physician Solomon
Ashkenazi at court, the decree was mitigated, but Jews were forbidden to wear
such apparel. Subsequently, the rabbis of Istanbul and the community leaders
reached an agreement that ‘the women and the girls shall not go out in
grandiose apparel, golden jewelry, and precious stones.’” (As reported by the
Jewish Virtual Library)
During his
reign Esther Chiera “was executed along with one of her sons by the Sultan
Murad III's cavalry. Esther, the wife of a Jewish merchant, was known as a
Chiera or Kiera, the title given to the women in charge of all relations
(including commercial) between the wives in the sultan's royal harem and the
outside world. Esther was extremely influential with Safiyeh, the favorite wife
of the Sultan. Jealousy on the part of other ministers and the desire of the
Sultan for her assets led to their arrest (officially for interfering in a
military appointment) and execution, with all their possessions and property
going to the Sultan.”
1569: The King
of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus finally sign
the document of union between Poland and Lithuania, creating new country known
as Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was a haven for Jews and
the center of Ashkenazi Jewry. The Jews enjoyed a significant degree of
autonomy under the authority of Chief Rabbi of their own selection. All
of this would come to an end with the Cossack uprising in the 17th
century.
1584: An
expedition dispatched by Sir Walter Raleigh to explore the area of the Atlanta
Coast around Roanoke Island that probably included Joachim Gans, which made
“Gans the first recorded Jew in Colonial America” arrived at Roanoke Island
today
1632: Several
secret Jews in Spain were sentenced at an auto-de-fe for holding Jewish
services. They practiced in a house on a street known as Calle de
las Infantas. The house was later destroyed on orders of the
Inquisition and a Capuchin monastery was built on the site.
1632: In
Madrid, “the first auto was held for Judaizers in celebration of the delivery
of Elizabeth of Bourbon.”
1632(15th
of Tammuz, 5392): Isabel Nuñez Alvarez, of Viseu in Portugal, wife of Miguel
Rodriguez of Madrid, the owner of a synagogue, situated on the street "de
las Infantes" in Madrid died a martyr's death in the flames today. The
Inquisition ordered the synagogue to be torn down, and upon its site a Capuchin
monastery was subsequently erected
1636: City of
Providence, Rhode Island was created under the leadership of Roger Williams.
The first Jew did not settle permanently in the city until 1838 when a Dutch
merchant named Solomon Pareira settled there. In 1849, he founded a cemetery
which was the city’s first Jewish institution
1642: Marie de
Médicis, the Italian born Queen consort of France passed away. Marie ignored
the fact that Jews had been banned from France since she employed Elijah
Montalto, a Portuguese Marrano who returned to the faith of his fathers, as her
personal physician. His medical care cannot be blamed for her demise
since had passed away in 1616.
1672: Today, William
of Orange, who received a loan of two million guilders from Francisco Lopes
Suasso, second Baron d'Avernas le Gras “also known within the Sephardic Jewish
community as Abraham Israel Suasso” to support his invasion England to claim
the throne held by King James II, began his reign as Stadtholder of Holland,
Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel.
1753: Abraham
de Fonseca de Mattos graduated from Leyden University with a degree in
medicine.
1772(3rd
of Tammuz, 5532): Parashat Korach read as citizens of the UK and the 13
colonies deal with the Credit Crisis of 1772.
1776(17th
of Tammuz): Celebration of Independence Day. A copy was sent to Amsterdam via
the small Dutch Caribbean Island of St. Eustatius. The Declaration was
intercepted by the British at sea. An accompanying letter with the Declaration
of Independence was also intercepted and sent to London as being a secret code
about the document that needed to be deciphered - the letter was written in
Yiddish. In one of those strange twist of fate, when British Admiral Sir
George Rodney conquered the island which was a major source of supply for the
Americans in 1871, he singled out the Jews for the kind of harsh treatment
associated with anti-Semites. The treatment was so out of bounds, that
when Edmund Burke, no friend of the Jews hear about it he said, "If
Britons were so injured, Britons have armies and laws to fly to for the
protection and justice. But the Jews have no such power and no such friend to
depend upon. Humanity then must become their protector." (As described by
Louis Arthur Norton)
The
Declaration of Independence in the United States of America provided the basis
for religious tolerance in most other countries. During the Revolutionary war
there were fewer than 2,500 Jews in total within the colonies. More than six
hundred fought in the war including the great grandfather of Supreme Court
Justice Cardozo. One company in South Carolina had so many Jews that it was
called the Jews’ company. In 1776, July 4 corresponded to the 17th
of Tammuz, which is a fast day on the Jewish calendar tied to the events
leading up to the destruction of the Temple.
1776: Among
the Jews serving with Continental Army today is Francis Salvador who had just
rejoined his comrades on the South Carolina frontier after having ridden thirty
miles on July 1 to sound the alarm that the Cherokees have been attacking the
local settlements “massacring and scalping the colonial inhabitants.
1785: In
Baltimore, MD, Lean Nathan and Jacob Naphtali Hart who were married in 1778
gave birth to David Hart.
1787: In
Camden, SC, Samuel Levy and Sarah Moses Levy, the daughter of Henry and
Elizabeth Moses gave birth to South Carolina lawyer and state legislator
Chapman Levy, the Mississippi planter who was predeceased by both of his wives
– Flora and Rosina Levy -- who rose to
the rank of Colonel during the War of 1812/
1788: The Jews
of Philadelphia celebrate in a Federal Parade after hearing that the
Constitution was adopted by a majority of the states. The newspaper read,
"The rabbi of the Jews, locked in arms of two ministers of the gospel, was
a most delightful sight."
1788:
Benjamin Franklin was too sick and weak to get out of bed, but the Independence
Day parade in Philadelphia marched right under his window. And, as Franklin
himself had directed, ‘the clergy of different Christian denominations, with
the rabbi of the Jews, walked arm in arm.’
1788:
Today, “in a celebration of Pennsylvania 's ratification of the U.S.
Constitution, Jacob Raphael Cohen, the Hazan of Mikveh Israel walked arm-in-arm
with two ministers, one of whom was Reverend William White of Christ Church ,
dean of the clergy of Philadelphia ."
1794:
Catherine II of Russia restricted the area where Jews were permitted to trade.
1802:
The U.S. Military Academy opens its doors at West Point, N.Y. According
to Daniel Isaac Helmer, Cadet Sergeant, United States Military Academy--West
Point and the Hillel president at the United States Military Academy the Jewish
people have been associated with the Academy since its opening. The first
graduating class consisted of two cadets one of whom was a Jew named Simon
Levy. In the 1980s, the West Point Jewish Chapel, a beautiful $10
million facility, was opened. In 2002, in honor of 200 years of Jewish history
at the Military Academy, the Jewish Chapel began building a commemorative wall
to record and recognize all of the Jewish graduates of West Point. At that time
there were about 70 Jews at the Military Academy out of a student population of
approximately 4,000. An increasingly active Jewish population has begun to
sponsor numerous Jewish activities. Jewish students from other schools have
visited West Point for events including "Weekend of the Jewish
Warrior" and a Hanukkah party. The Military Academy also has a West Point
Jewish Chapel Choir, which has performed all over the East Coast.
1807:
Birthdate of Giuseppe Garibaldi one of a triumvirate of Italian patriots who
freed the peninsula from foreign rule and created the modern nation of
Italy. Garibaldi was a revolutionary and a guerilla fighter in the true
sense of the terms. His belief in equality extended to religion where he
made no distinction between the rights of Christians and the rights of
Jews. Numerous Jews served in his military unit known as “the Thousands”
which liberated southern Italy and Sicily.
1809: Today in
accordance with newly adopted law, Samuel Marx Levi, the son of Rabbi Samuel
Marx Levi became Samuel Marx when he adopted “the family name Marx for himself
and his siblings.
1817:
Birthdate of Charleston, SC native Mary Levy Florance, the wife of Henry
Florance who lived in New Orlean where she had three children – Sarah, Henry
and Alfred.
1819: In
Charleston, SC, David and Sarah Carvalho gave birth to Julia Carvalho.
1820: Driven
by the need for money, one day before his 56th birthday, Jewish
boxer Daniel Mendoza, who “had not fought in 14 years” “fought his last bout
day today which he lost after 12 rounds.
1821: Aaron
Cohen married Sophia Minden at the Great Synagogue.
1822:
Birthdate of Boston native Alfred T. Jones, the resident of Philadelphia who
was the secretary of the first Jewish Publications Society organized in 1845
and printer who in 1875 created “the Jewish Record, a newspaper which remained
in existence until 1886.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8778-jones-alfred-t
1825: A
privileged obtained by the Jews of Suriname from Queen Anne of England in the
17th century stipulating that Jews “should be exempt from
prosecutions during their high festivals” was abolished today “by Royal decree.”
1826: Meno
Berg who was one of the few career Jewish officers in the Prussian Army was
promoted to the rank of first lieutenant while teaching at the United Artillery
and Engineering School.
1833: In
Philadelphia, PA, “Joseph M. and Clara Ulman Asch” gave birth to their second
son and Jefferson Medical College trained physician Joseph Morris Asch who
served with the Union Army during the Civil War after which he pursued a career
as a laryngologist in New York City.
1834: In
London, David Davis and his wife gave birth New York and Montreal tobacco
merchant Samuel Davis, the husband of Minnie Falk who had been a member of both
Montreal’s Spanish and Portuguese Congregation and one of the founders New
York’s Temple Emanu-El.
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/davis_samuel_12E.html
1835:
Birthdate of Moritz Benedikt, the native of Eisenstadt who served with the
Austrian Army and became a leading Austro-Hungarian neurologist.
1839: In
London, Maurice Solomon, the Edmonton, London born “son of Moshe Eliezer
Lieberman Solomon and Betsy (Elizabeth) Solomon and his wife Louisa Solomon”
gave birth to Joseph Maurice Solomon “the husband of Adeline Solomon and Katie
Solomon and father of Ethel Solomon; Charles Sampson Solomon; Lawrence Solomon;
Maurice Solomon; Humphrey Joseph Solomon; Thomas Henry Solomon; Edmund John
Solomon and William Lewis Solomon.”
1840: Thirty-four-year-old
Moritz Moses Jacob von Goldschmidt and Anna Netti von Goldschmidt gave birth to
Hermann (Ritter) von Goldschmidt
1840: In
London, Henry Zvi Defries, the “son of Daniel (Gedalia) Defries and Charlotte
Defries” and his wife Mary Miriam Defries gave birth to John Defries, the “husband
of Julia Defries and father of Mary Isaacs; Amelia Lyons; Rachel Abrahams;
Kitty Defries; Fanny Mendoza; Sarah Emanuel; Golda (Gertie) Hanreck; Henry
Defries; Jane Defries; Marie Nickelsberg; Mrs. Isaacs; Julia Isaacs and Mrs.
Brandon Defries.
Husband of
Elizabeth Defries and Mary Miriam Defries
1841: London
native Benjamin Jacobs was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1842(26th
of Tammuz, 5602): Sixty-two-year-old Rabbi Nahum Trebitsch, the son of Selig
Trebitsch while on a trip to Carslbad.
1842: In New
York City, Rachel Hearst and merchant Herman Londoner who in 1856 moved his
business to Dubuque, IA gave birth to wholesale grocer Wolf Londoner the
Republican Mayor of Denver who was forced to leave office because of election
irregularities.
1842:
Birthdate of Hermann Cohen, a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of
the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably
the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century"
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/HermannCohen.html
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cohen/
1843: In
Cincinnati, OH, Wolf and Hannah Kahn Trost gave birth to Civil War veteran
Jacob Trost and husband of Carrie
Solomon Trost with whom he had two children – Belle and Jeanette.
1845: In New
York, Joseph Phillips, the son of Jonas Phillips and Rebecca Mendez Machado and
his wife Rachel Nunez Phillips gave birth Ellen Cardozo Phillips, the sister of
Isaac Cardoza Phillips.
1845: The
Egyptian Revival Hobart Synagogue was consecrated in Hobart a city on the
Australian island state of Tasmania.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/186472/the-convict-synagogue-at-the-end-of-the-world
1849:
Sigismund Schloss married Rebecca Mocatta at the West London Synagogue.
1849:
Birthdate of József Bánóczi, the native of Szt. Gál, Veszprém, Hungary, a
“privat-docent of philosophy at the University of Hungary” and a “professor at
the Budapest Jewish Theological Seminary” who “at the insistence of Dr. Beck,
the Bucharest rabbi, Bánóczi and Prof. Wilhelm Bacher took the necessary steps
to save from certain ruin the congregation and schools of the sect of Szekler
Sabbatarians in Transylvania.”
1849: In
Rhenish Palatinate, Germany Jacob Mohr and Mena Weil gave birth to Michael
Mohr, the husband of Mena Dreyfus who settled in Montgomery, Al where he was
active in B’nai B’rith and served as President, vice president and trustee of
Kahl Montgomery.
1850: In
Germany Ascher Freudenthaler and Hennele (Hanchen) Haber gave birth to Chicago
businessman Joseph Freudenthal, the husband of Jennie Liebenstein with whom he
had three children – Carrie, George and Leo.
1857:
Birthdate of Joseph Pennell the American artist and photographer who was
arrested and deported from Russia because he sketched and photographed the
wretched conditions under which the Jews of Kiev were living when he
visited there in 1891 which he described in The Jew At Home:
Impressions of a Summer and Autumn Spent With Him.
1858: Solomon
and “Rachel Lubin Weinstock” gave birth to Fanny Weinstock who became Fanny
Bonheim when she married Albert Bonnheim with whom she had one son, Joseph.
1860: In
Cincinnati, OH, Leopold Levy and his gave birth to Solomon W. Levi, the husband
of Anna Adler and vice-president of the National Jewish Hospital for
Consumptives in Denver, CO.
1861:
Philadelphian Joseph Davidson, who would be killed at the Battle of
Chancellorsville in 1863, began his service as a Private in Company I of the 28th
Regiment
1863(17th
of Tammuz, 5623): Parashat Balak
1863(17th
of Tammuz, 5623): In one of those quirks of the calendar, the 87th
Independence Day fall on the same day on both the Secular and the Jewish
calendars.
1863(17th
of Tammuz, 5623): Because it is Shabbat the Tzom Tammuz is not observed today
since it is a day of national celebration due to the victories at
Gettysburg and Vicksburg which for some makes it seem to be a foretaste of the
Messianic Era when fast days will become feast days.
1863:
Birthdate of Solomon Lipschütz who “was chess champion of the United States
from 1889 to 1890 and 1891 to 1894.
1863:
"Sarah, the Hebrew; or, the Dream of Destiny," will be one of the
attractions at Barnum's Museum during its Independence Day Celebration.
1863: In one
of the climactic moments of the Civil War, Confederate forces surrender
Vicksburg to Union forces under the command of General U.S. Grant. The victory
is both a major tactical and strategic success since it split the Confederacy
in half and gave control of the Mississippi River back to the Union. While
there were Jewish soldiers fighting on both sides, the real significance is
that the victory helped ensure that the United States of America would continue
to exist offering Jews a place of refuge from European anti-Semitism. The
victory would also be a major stepping stone in the career of General Grant
which would eventually lead him to victory over Lee and the Presidency.
Despite the unfortunate issuing of Order #11, Grant was not an anti-Semite as
can be seen from the fact that Jews voted for him for President, his friendship
with Joseph Seligman who refused Grant’s request to serve in his cabinet, his
meeting with Rabbi Hayim Tzvi Sneersohn, a great-grandson of Rabbi Shneur Zalman
of Liadi, the "Alter Rebbe" of Chabad Hasidim and his attendance at
the dedication of Adas Israel’s newly built house of worship.
1863: Among
the Jews serving at Vicksburg were Private David Orbansky of the 58th
Ohio Infantry and Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel of the 120th Ohio
Infantry. A native of Lautenburg, Prussia, Orbansky would receive a
Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Spiegel
would die before he could be promoted to the rank of Brigadier of General “for
his bravery at Vicksburg and Snaggy Point.”
1863: General
Frederick Charles Salomon, a native of Prussia who had settled in Wisconsin,
led the 1st Brigade of the Army of the Tennessee against the Rebels
at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.
1863: In
Philadelphia, as the possibility of a Rebel victory seemed possible Rabbi
Sabato Morais, “an avid abolitionist,” supporter of Abraham Lincoln and loyal
Unionist delivered a sermon today at Mikveh Israel in which he said, “the more
intently I gaze upon the bright past, the darker does the present appear to my
vision”
1867(1st
of Tammuz, 5627): Rosch Chodesh Tammuz
1867(1st
of Tammuz, 5627): Grace Judah, the daughter of Hillel Judah who married Henry
Markx after having been married to Judah Myers passed away today.
1869: In
Leipzig, the Synod attended by Elie-Aristide Astruc, the Chief Rabbi of Belgium
came to an end today.
1870: In
Sheffield, England, Bluma Wollman and Marks Lissman gave birth Rabbi Edward
LIssman, the husband of Hannah Meyers, who in 1889 came to the United States
where he founded the Hebrew Tabernacle in 1904, served as City Chaplain for the
Street Cleaning Department of Manhattan and founded the Riverside Synagogue.
1873:
Birthdate of dietician Frances Stern. The Frances Stern Nutrition Center a part
of Tufts-New England Medical Center was named in her honor.
1873: In
Wheeling, West Virgina, Meyer David Morris and Golderroscha Rose Meyer gave
birth to Dora Dora Shindeling, the ”wife of Moses Shindeling and mother of
Libby Shinedling; Isidore Jocelyn Or Joe Shinedling; Janie Libby Shinedling;
Abraham Isaac Shindeling; Julian Mark Shinedling; Helen Ray Genis; Archie
Edward Shinedling; Reba London and Elizabeth Shinedling.
1873: In the
UK, Rabbi A.E. Gordon and his wife gave birth to H.H. Gordon, the graduate of
London University and Cambridge, president of the Cambridge Hebrew Congregation
and honorary secretary of the Jews’ Temporary Shelter who served “four years on
the staff of the East Indian Railway and served as a member of the Stepeny
Borough Council.
1874:Birthdate
of Aaron Scheinker, the husband of Sarah Kravitz Scheinker with whom he had
three children – Ida, Joseph and Henry – who lived in Albany, NY and Schenectady,
NY.
1876: In
Rovno, Russia, Samuel and Mary Simon gave birth to Sophie Irene Simon who moved
to McKeesport, PA, at the age of six and gained fame as Sophie Simon Loeb, the wife of
Anselm Loeb who was known for her career as a journalist and advocate for social welfare
reform.
1877:
Birthdate of Manchester, England native Jacob Silverblatt who in 1897 came to
the United States where he was became a “merchant in Wilkes-Barre” PA while
being an active member of B’nai B’rith
1880: Rabbi
Adolph Huebsch of Temple Ahavath Chesed officiated at the funeral of Joseph I.
Stein who had served as Assemblyman of the 12th District. A
crowd of 2,000 spilled out from the home on East 52nd Street and one
hundred coaches were needed to carry all of those who went to the
cemetery. Stein was a victim of last month’s Seawanhaka ship disaster.
1880: In the
United States, Natha and Anna Rogen gave birth Harry Rogen, the husband of
Hattie Goldberg and the brother and Louis and Selig Rogen with whom he operates
Rogen Brothers and Company at 653-655 on
Broadway in New York City which is proof “strict observance of the Jewish
Sabbath is no way a handicap to business success…”
1880: In
“Berischoff, Russia,” “Charles and Dorothy (Vigdrochik) Benenson gave birth to
Benjamin Benenson the husband of Frances Shapiro who in 1899 arrived in New
York City where he went from being a carpenter, to being a general contractor
to being a bank vice president while joining serving as board member for the
Shield of Abraham, the Beth Abraham Home for Incurables and the Montefiore
Hospital
1880:
Birthdate of New York native Jacob Paul “Twister” Steinberg one of Teddy’s
Roosevelt’s Rough Riders who became one of the first, if not the first Jewish
professional football player.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=steinb002pau
http://probasketballencyclopedia.com/player/paul-steinberg/
1880: “The
Soldiers of Morocco” published today described the great strides made in
turning the Moroccan Army into an effective military unit. Credit for
this accomplishment goes to an English soldier known as Kaid Maclean (Sir Harry
Aubrey de MacLean). Kaid could not have accomplished his mission if it
had not been for a unnamed Jew. Kaid did not speak Arabic and the troops
did not understand English so Kaid “had to give his instructions through a
Jewish interpreter” who spoke both language but who nothing about military
drill.
1881:
Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov the Ukrainian born proponent of the labor Zionist
movement who was one of the founders of the Poale Zion.
1881: In
Lithuania, Harris Abelow and his wife gave birth to Samuel Abelow, the husband
of Jeanette Abelow who settled in New York.
1881: “Jewish
Ladies Whipped” published today described the whippings of Jewish men, women
and children, including “ladies of good position” who received 300 strokes, at
Smjela, a small town near Kiev. The attacks, which had been ordered by an
unnamed Colonel, ended when the governor of Kiev arrived.
1881: It was
reported today that “in some Russian districts, the peasants have offered to
pay for the damage done to the property of the Jews” including one district
where 800 rubles have been deposited for that purpose.
1882:
Birthdate of Benjamin Gruskin, the Lithuanian born son of Leon Gruskin and a
graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Rush Medical School who was “a
leader in experimental medicine” “credited with several medical discoveries”
including the discovery of the therapeutic value of chlorophyll, blood and
skins tests for cancer, a test for inactive tuberculosis and a pregnancy test”
passed away today in a hospital in Durham, NC after which he was buried at the
Beth Shalom Cemetery in Pittsburgh, PA.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/12/07/91122526.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1882:
Patrolman Edgar S. Slauson defended himself against accusations that he had
overreacted when dealing with a mob that had attacked workers who working in
place of the striking freight handlers. The replacement workers included large
numbers of recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia who did not know
about the strike. He admitted having to use his club on more than one of the
attackers but he had little choice since he was facing a throng of more than
2,000.
1882: It was
reported today that a mass meeting held to support the strike by the freight
handlers in New York cheers greeted the announcement that 150 Russian Jews who
had recently arrived in the United States and gone to work at the Erie Railway
pier refused to do any more work once they had heard about the strike.
1883: In San
Francisco, CA, Hannah Cohen and Max Goldberg, “a San Francisco police and fire commissioner”
gave birth to Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg, “better known as Rube Goldberg an
American Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and
inventor the husband of Irma Seman and the father two sons – Thomas and George –
whom he insisted should “change their surname because of antisemitic sentiment
toward him stemming from the political nature of his cartoons” who entertained
several generations with his drawings of simple activities that were turned
into multi-step complex functions and whose name became synonymous with
improvised temporary solutions to problems of major and minor magnitude.
https://www.rubegoldberg.org/all-about-rube/cartoon-gallery/
1883: It was
reported today that “The Art Magazine for July” published by Cassell and Co
features an article about the Russian sculptor, Mark Antokolsky. Born in
Wilno, this poor Jewish boy somehow managed to become a student at the Imperial
Academy in St. Petersburg. His first work “Jew Tailor” was created in
wood because Antokolsky could not afford marble. His career took off in
1870 when the Czar saw his statute “Ivan the Terrible.”
1884: In Grodno “Abram and Anna (Muniches)
Abrahams gave birth to “calligrapher, designer and artist Joseph B. Abrahams,
the husband of “the former Mrs. Lillian Manning” whose creations included “the
bronze doors of Temple Emanu-El” in New York and “the interior décor for
the Ziegfeld Follies” and whose communal efforts included serving as the “head
of the Overseas Depart of the Jewish Welfare Board” and “Secretary of the
Jewish Theological Seminary” starting in 1902.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/07/02/78354344.pdf
1884: Two days
after he drowned, Isidore Joseph, the son of Lewis and Bluma Joseph was buried
today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1884: It was
reported from Odessa that there has been “rapid increase” in the emigration of
Jews from southern Russia, to the United States.
1885: Birthdate
of Polish native and Pennsylvania businessman Samuel Eugene Bamer, the husband
of Edna Bramer and Beatrice Bramer, the father of Cecile Louise Bramer and
father-in-law of Rabbi Eugene Mihaly who operated a jewelry store in Braddock,
PA before assuming the presidency of Copperweld Steel Company in 1929.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-news-obituary-for-samuel-eugen/129887651/
1885(21st
of Tammuz, 5645): Parashat Pinchas
1885: At
Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler’s Shabbat sermon included “his last
discourse in the series in reference to sustaining the principles of Reform”
and the relationship of “Independence Day to the Jews” of the United States.
1885: The
congregants of Ahavath Chesed filled the sanctuary to hear the Shabbat sermon
Rabbi Alexander Kohut in which he defended the principles of Orthodoxy while
calling for unity among the Jewish people.
1886: “Jews To
Be Dismissed” published today relied on information from the St. Petersburg
Dispatch and the London Daily News to described the orders given by the
Minister of Justice to dismiss all Jewish secretaries and clerks employed
by the examining magistrates.
1886: David J.
Dean delivered an address entitled “The Golden Rule In Political Government”
during which he said that “race prejudice” had presented the greatest hurdle
for people to overcome in their quest for effective government. The folly
of this attitude could be seen in that “for centuries the Hebrew” had been “an
object of infamy and denunciation” but now Beaconsfield governed ‘the empire on
which the sun never sets’ i.e. Great Britain. [Despite his conversion,
Disraeli/Beaconsfield was regarded as a Jew; although the reference was usually
a derogatory one used by his political opponents.]
1886: In New
York City, Pera P. Lichtman and Isaac Goro gave birth to Cornell University
graduate and Long Island College Hospital and University of Heidelberg trained
medical doctor Murray Burnes Gordon, the husband of Harriet Engel and starting
in 1921 the attending pediatrist at the United Zion Hospital where he became
president o the Medical Staff om 1924.
1887: In his
69th year, Jonas Heller, a long serving member of the Board of
Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews passed away today.
1887: In
Woodville, Mississippi, Emily Harris and Morris Rothschild gave birth to
Columbia trained medical doctor and New York resident Marcus Adolphus
Rothschild the husband of Edna E. Liebman and U.S. Marine Corps Major who was a
member of the executive committee of the Health Service for Jews, and Temple
Beth-El.
https://translatingmichigan.org/yiddish-in-michigan/ezra-korman
1888: Jacob
Lissauer is reported to be contesting the will of his late wife, Yetta.
Her estate was worth $5,000. The will makes bequests for the benefit of the
Hebrew Home for the Aged and Infirm and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, but lives
nothing to the husband. He contends that the Yetta’s cousin, who drew up
the will never let her read the instrument so she signed it without knowing
this.
1889: “A Home
For Hebrew Societies” published today described plans for the construction of a
building that will be home to the Hebrew Free School Association, the Young
Men’s Hebrew Association and the Aquila Free Library located in the Tenth Ward.
The facility will contain classrooms, manual training facilities and “a hall
capable of holding 800” people.
1889 Birthdate
of Joseph Ruttenberg, the Russian born American photojournalist who became an award-winning
cinematographer who began in the silent film era and made the successful
transition to talkies.
1890: It was
reported today that Dr. Clifton Levy will deliver the sermon at Temple Gates of
Hope on Shabbat.
1890: Barney
Rosenberg, who is among the group of striking tailors and cloakmakers most of
whom are Russian and Polish Jews, was being treated at Gouverneur Hospital
for injuries he received from a policeman who broke up an attack that took
place on scabs yesterday.
1890: Henry
Simon, Welf Heiman, Harris Dienerstadt, Hyman Schmlovitz, Aaron Michael Knovic,
Isidor Kaufman, Jospeh Hyman are in police custody for their role in attacking
strike breakers at two clothing manufacturers who have locked the immigrant
Jewish tailors and cloakmakers.
1891: The SS PIckhuban which had left Antwerp
with a large party of Jews who had been expelled from Russia came upon the
burning wreck of the Octavia whose crew must have left in lifeboats since they
were nowhere to be seen.
1891: Twenty-six-year-old
Max Wilhelm Zach, the Ukrainian born son of Heinrich and Julia Zach and
conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra married “Blache Going” today in
Boston after which “they had three children – Leon, Phillip and Elanor.”
1891: A deed
was recorded today in Marlborough, Hartford County, CT “transferring a sizable
tract of land in that town near Marlborough mills on which buildings are to be
erected” for use by “poor Jews who are now being driven out of countries in
Europe.”
1892: At their
meeting today, the Board of Managers of the Baltimore Congregation “reported
that they thought it was inexpedient at present to abolish the old custom of
the men wearing their hats during services.”
1892: In
Beloit, KS, Charles B. Epstein and Minnie Newman gave birth to Esther Epstein
the wife of Arthur Marowitz and the mother of Harley Marowitz who was an
officer in the National Council of Jewish Women.
1892: As part
of Independence Day celebrations in New York, American flags flew in all
sections of the city including those “streets where all of the signs are
written in Hebrew characters.” (The letters may have been “Hebrew” but the
language may have been Yiddish”
1892:
Hostilities begin between France the African Kingdom of Dahomey in what was
called the Second Franco-Dahomean War in which Andre Cremeiu-Foa who had been a
victim of attacks by French anti-Semites including Edouard Drumont, served with
such distinction that he was cited in the orders for the day.
1893: “Pupils
of the Hirsch Schools” published today described the method by which these
institutions prepare the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania
for success in public school. In the past, these children had stayed away
from school because they did not speak English and did understand American
customs. In a three-month course that begins almost as soon as the
youngsters get off of the boat, the Hirsch Schools teach them English and
cultivate their understanding of “freedom of thought and action, together with
respect for law” which are the hallmark of the American experience.
1894: As part
of their Independence Day Celebration the young men at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum
were formed into two companies each with a brass band of 30 pieces so that
parade at the facility on Amsterdam Avenue. Following the parade, all of
the youngsters were treated to cake and ice cream followed by a fireworks show.
1894: As part
of the Independence Day celebration, “the cadets of the Hebrew Institute went
into camp near St. George, S.I. They then conducted a drill in the
presence of dignitaries including Isidor Straus and Alfred Hochstader
1894: Because
of the Independence Day holiday, the regularly scheduled lecture on the “Care
of Feeding of Infants and Children During the Warm Weather” will not take place
at the Hebrew Institute.
1895: “In the
Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Romanian Jewish
immigrant Morris Keiser, “the owner of a secondhand bookstore: and his wife
Sofie gave birth to Isidor Keiser, the brother of screenwriter Arthur Caesar,
who gained famed as award winning songwriter Irving Caeser who was responsible
for such all-time hits as “Sewanee” and “Tea for Two.”
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Irving_Caesar
1895: Governor
Levi P. Morton is considering the tenth application for a pardon submitted on
behalf of Phillip Kiven who is serving a six year term in Sing Sing Prison
after having been convicted, along with is wife of stealing $250 from two
Polish Jews who were staying at their resort. In a strange twist of events,
Kiven claims that he is the victim of a police persecution.
1895: It was
reported that the late Lewis Levy has left his estate in a trust for the
benefit of his wife Mary and his sister Julia. Upon their death the
residue will be used for bequests to several charities including the Hebrew
Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Home for Aged
and Infirm Hebrews , the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and the Hebrew
Technical Institute.
1896: “Doom of
the Tombs” published today provided a recap of those hung at the old New York
City jail including three men hung for the murder of Abraham Weisberg, a Jewish
peddler.
1896:
Birthdate of New York native John Alexander, the WW I veteran who was guided
during his career at Rutgers by theatrical legend Paul Robeson and who made
football history in 1922 when as a member of the Milwaukee Badgers played the
position of “outside linebacker” much to
the surprise of the Chicago Cardinals
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AlexJo20.htm
1897:
Jews came from all over the state to witness the laying of the cornerstone in
Elizabeth, NJ, of their new Educational Institute and Library at the
corner of Fourth and Streets.
1898: During
the Spanish American War, Captain Albert W. Lilienthal began serving as an
adjustant with the 7th U.S. Volunteer Infantry.
1898: The
first convention of the Federation of American Zionists opened at the B'nai
Zion Club on Henry Street in New York's lower East Side. One hundred
delegates, 20 from outside of New York, attended the convention which elected
Rabbi Guvstav Gottheil to serve as President.
1900: It was
reported today that The Central Realty Bond and Trust Company whose president
is Henry Morgenthau “showed a total surplus and undivided profits of $721, 871
as of June 30.”
1900: In Vilna Esther and Morris Jehiel Shubow gave
birth to pianist Rachel Shubow, the “sister of Dr. Abraham S. Shubow; Jacob
Shubow; Rabbi Joseph Shalom Shubow and Leo Shubow who in 1907 came to the
United States where she studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and who in 1933 came back from Germany after four years to study
there and warned about the threat to Jews posed by the Hitler regime.
https://www.jta.org/archive/nazi-terror-reports-true-says-jewish-pianist-on-arrival-here
1900:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Jacob Jacques Landesberg, the Columbia trained
Ophthalmologist and husband of Isabelle Goldberg Landesberg both of whom are
buried together at the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.
1901(17th
of Tammuz, 5661): New Yorker Jacob F. Cullman passed away in Wuerzburg and left
$15,000 to Mt. Sinai Hospital and $10,000 to both the Hebrew Benevolent and
Orphan Asylum and the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.
1901: In
Brooklyn Isidor and Malka Halpern Goldstein gave birth to Samuel Goldstein who
gained fame as novelist and screenwriter Samuel Guy Endore who also used the
named “Harry Relis.”
1902: Herzl
had his first meeting with Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild in London.
1902: The
Sultan asks Herzl top come to Constantinople immediately.
1902:
Birthdate of Meier Suchowlański the native of Grodno who gained fame or infamy
as gangster Myer Lansky.
1902: In
Mulhouse, Constance Kenendel Lang and Baruch Kahn gave birth to Felix Kahn
1902: Dr.
Joseph Heller who had served as surgeon “to a battalion of the 24th
U.S. Infantry” and had earned a Silver Star for his service during the Battle
of Naguilan was in the Philippines “when the civil government was established”
today.
1903: The
Sisters of Zion, which had been organized at Detroit in December of 1902 hosted
“their first annual ice cream festival” this evening at Winter’s Teutonic Hall.
1903:
Birthdate of New Yorker Isabelle Goldberg Landesberg, who was born two days to
the day after the birth of her husband, Dr. Jacques Landesberg.
1903(9th of
Tammuz, 5663) Albert F. Hochstadyer who had been a member of the firm of
Newburger and Hochstadter Brothers of Philadelphia until 1879 passed today at
his summer home in Elberon at the age of fifty-six. He was active in numerous
New York Jewish organizations including Temple Emanu-El where he was serving as
a Trustee and Honorary Secretary at the time of his death.
1903:
Following the Pogrom at Kishinev, Leo Napoleon Levi, a lawyer from Texas who
was President of the B'nai B'rith, wrote a letter to Czar Nicholas II calling
for an end to the mistreatment of the Jews living in Russia.
1903: Maurice
Arnold de Forest, one of the adopted sons of Baron Maurice de Hirsch and
Baroness Clara de Hirsch, “became a Second Lieutenant in the Staffordshire
Imperial Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment)” today
1903: Dorothy
Levitt (born Dorothy Levi) won her class at the Southport Speed Trials driving
a S.F.Edge's 12 hp Gladiator, shocking British society as she was the first
woman, a working secretary, to compete in a motor race. She became noted for
racing in a dust coat (a loose coverall coat reaching down to the ankles),
matching hat and veil.
1904: In New
York “the convention of orthodox rabbis of the United States and Canada
reassembled this morning where they continued to discuss a letter from Rabbi H.
Pereira Mendes which included a request “by Judge Newburger to bring to the
notice of the rabbis that certain marriages that are legal in Jewish law” such
as that between an uncle and his niece “are illegal according to the state of
New York” and a reminder that it was not too late for them to support the”
Jewish Theological “seminary which was established to be a bulwark against
reform Judaism as taught by the Cincinnati College.” (Editor’s note – he was referring to Hebrew
Union College, not the University of Cincinnati.)
1905(1st
of Tammuz, 5665): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1905: “in
Queens, New York, Fannie (née Cohen), who was from London, and David Trilling,
a tailor from Bialystok in Poland gave birth to literary critic and
intellectual Lionel Mordecai Trilling.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/07/the-last-great-critic/378281/
1905:
Independence Day was commemorated in Jerusalem with a display of American and
Swedish flags.
1906: “The
Jewish Territorial Organizathion of which Israel Zangwill of London is the
President was officially condemned today at the convention of the Federation of
American Zionists when “a resolution was introduced prohibiting any person
known to be a member of the Territorial Organization from being an officer or
member of the Executive Committee of the American Federation.”
1906: In St.
Petersburg, the Ministry of the Interior, the War Office and the Duma’s
investigating committee issued their reports today which included “the
Government’s version that attributes the responsibility entirely to the Jews”
and the Duma’s version that “expressly declared that no race hatred existed in
Bialystok and that the ‘pogrom’ was the result of a deliberate plot.”
1907: At
today’s session of the 18th annual convention of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis a message from Judge Louis Sloss of San Francisco
to Judge Julian W. Mack regarding the rehabilitation of the synagogues
destroyed by the earthquake was received and referred to the appropriate
committee and Rabbi Isaac Landman read his paper on “Moses Hayyim Luzzato in
Honor of His Bicentenary.”
1907: After
noting that “the Detroit News of July 2, 1907 records another attack of Bitlis
and Van,” today, the Rabbis of the Central Conference in convention assembled
adopted a resolution recording their “utter abhorrence of persecution in any
form of any people” and stating that it was their “patriotic duty to extend”
their “warmest sympathy with the Armenian victims of this most recent epidemic
of cruelty and fanaticism.”
1908(5th
of Tammuz, 5668): Parashat Korach
1908: In
Brooklyn Joseph Zeitland, the Polish born “general collector for a large firm
that led him to travel through Poland and Russia” who came to the United States
at the age of 85 celebrated his one hundredth birthday today along with the 103rd
anniversary of the “birth of Uncle Sam.”
1909: Rabbi Morris Goldberg of Camden, NJ “was
elected head of the Brothers of Israel Congregation” today.
1909: Columbia
University trained Civil Engineer Benjamin J. Sigmund the Polish born son of
Selig and Leonore Sigmund married Leah Astrakhan today after which he became
the manager of the Philadelhia Office of Truscon Steel Company and a member of
Temple Keneseth Israel.
1910: Melville
Weston Fuller, the eighth Chief Justice of the United States passed away. While
some may remember him for reactionary rulings including Plessy v Ferguson, he
was the one of the signatories of the Blackstone Memorial, a petition
expressing support for the Jews settling in Palestine that was presented to
President Benjamin Harrison in 1891. The memorial was the first expression of
support to come from leading non-Jewish Americans.
1910: The
Educational League for the Higher Education of Orphans which was organized in
1896 held its 15th annual meeting today in Cleveland, Ohio.
1910: In Santa
Monica, Frank Stewart and his wife gave birth Gloria Stewart who as Gloria
Stuart married Arthur Sheekman, the script writer for Eddie Cantor and Groucho
Marx with whom she took a trip around the world in 1939 and then joined him in
an attempt to work on Broadway.
1911: In
Rochester, NY, “Hinda Rosenblum Miller, a former seamstress, and Abram Calmen
Miller, a Russian-Jewish immigrant wrought-iron worker gave birth to Mitchell
William Miller who gained fame a Mitch Miller who was connected with hit
recordings of “Tzena, Tzena,Tzena “ and "The Yellow Rose of Texas"
and for his television show, "Sing Along With Mitch."
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html
1911(8th
of Tammuz, 5671): Eighty-eight-year-old Esther Herrmann, the widow of cloth
importer Henry Herrmann whom she married in 1843 and philanthropist whose
support went to such organizations as Barnard College of which she was one of
the founders, the Hebrew Technical Institute for Boys, the American Museum of
Natural History and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/07/06/104870632.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1911: “A farce
by Abraham Reuf” who has served less than half of his fourteen sentence for
bribery” and who has donated a concert grand piano to the prison is scheduled
to be “the main feature of the program” celebrating the Fourth of July at San
Quentin Prison.
1912(19th
of Tammuz, 5672): Eighty year old Greenville, Mississippi native and Confederate War veteran Jacob
Moses passed away today in New Orleans, LA.
1912: At
Marburg University, “celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the birth of Hermann
Cohen, a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School
of Neo-Kantianism, who he is often held to be "probably the most important
Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century"
1913: Abe
Attell the boxer known as “the Little Hebrew” accidentally hit the referee on
the face during a win against Willie Beecher.
1913: In
Atlantic City, at the Conference of American Rabbis Sabbath eve services were
held at Temple Beth Israel under the leadership of Rabbi William Lowenburg of
Union Town, PA who served as the Cantor while the sermon was delivered by Rabbi
Charles S. Levin of Milwaukee, WI.
1913:
Independence Day is scheduled to be celebrated this afternoon with “a large
children’s festival to be held on the grounds of the Chicago Hebrew Institute.”
1914(10th
of Tammuz, 4674): Chukat
1914: Today,
after almost three years, “the Paris Yiddish-language labor movement journal The Jewish Worker published its last
issue, after its pacifist stance led to a break away from the rest of the
French labor movement.
1914: “New York fruit merchant” Joseph Kozinsky
and his wife gave birth to Herman Kozinksky who would change his name to Herman
King and along with his brothers Maury and Frank formed King Productions, the
film company that had the courage to hire blacklisted writers during the
McCarthy Era.
1914: Sydney
Grundy, the English dramatist whose works included “An Old Jew” a play produced
in London in 1894, five years before Israel Zangwill's watershed play, Children
of the Ghetto was done. Zangwill. (As reported by Edna Nahsohn)
Contemporary accounts said the play was panned by critics in London and New
York because it was “a very bad play with a wildly improbable plot.”
1915: It was
reported today that the recently deceased Rabbi Julius Kaletzky, the author of The
History of the Jews in the Ancient East is survived by “his widow, a son
and two daughters on of whom is Mrs. Louis Isaacs whose husband is prominent in
the real east business.”
1915: “Forty
Years’ Work On One Book” published today described how Dr. Elieser Ben Jehuda
“is giving his life to complete a Hebrew Dictionary.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=980DE1D6123FE233A25757C0A9619C946496D6CF
1915: In the
area east of the Bowery where Grand Street, Gouverneur Street and Sheriff
Street cross and criss-cross, where the signs are in Hebrew characters and the
conversations are nearly always in Yiddish” and where “little children who have
been hurried across the ocean y parents in fear of pogroms” the people are “all
celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”
1916: Rabbi
Morris Nathan Taxon, the Lomze, Poland born son of Gruna Haileperin and Abraham
Solomon Taxon married Edyth Irene Schottenstein in Columbus OH today while he
was attending Ohio State and who became the spiritual leader of Shaareth Israel
in Dallas starting in 1922.
1916:
Birthdate of Martin E. Segal, the native of Vitebsk, Russia, who would become
“one of New York’s leading cultural figures” “known as the elder statesman of
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.” (As reported by Robin Pogrebin)
1916: “A
resolution urging the President and lawmaking bodies of” the United States “to
exert every possible effort to avoid war with Mexico” was presented to today’s
session of the Central Conference of American Rabbis by Rabbis David
Phillipson, Joseph Krauskopf and Julian Morgenstern and then “was adopted by a
rising vote.”
1916: In
Philadelphia, the Federation of American Zionists adopted “resolutions
approving the plan of self-taxation of Zionists throughout the United States to
create an emergency fund to further the work of the Zionists and Palestine and
thanking the State Department for its co-operation in relieving suffering Jews
abroad.”
1916: In Troy,
NY, George and Margaret Toon gave birth to Malcom Toon who was “named
ambassador to Israel in the spring of 1975 by President Ford.”
1917: Former Ambassador
Abram I. Elkus arrived in New York City aboard a French steamer, a day after he
had been originally scheduled to land.
1917: The
Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of
Trenton, NJ, has elected new officers including President Harry Greenburg, Vice
President Meyer Wessel and Financial Secretary Phillip Wenkes
1917: In
Asbury Park, NJ, the final day of the Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea
is scheduled to include “a patriotic gathering and sightseeing
1917: In New
York City, the Mayor is scheduled to speak at “a patriotic rally” sponsored by
“the local Young Men’s Hebrew Association.”
1917: “Here
and There in Camden” published today described listed the newly elected
officers of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in that New Jersey city
including Harry Greenburg, President; Meyer Wessel, Vice President; Dr. Philip
Wenkos, Financial Secretary and Trustees Abe Fuhurman, Samuel Mackler, Isaac
Frisch, Jack Weinberg, Jacob L. Furer and Arnold Weiss.
1918: At
the Battle of Hamel John Monash applied his doctrine of "peaceful
penetration", and led Australian Divisions, along with a small detachment
of US troops, to win a decisive victory for the Allies. A native of Australia,
Monash was the son of Prussian born Jews and had risen to the rank of Major
General in 1917.
1918: In Sioux
City, Iowa Russian Jewish emigrants Rebecca Friedman (née Rushall) and Abraham
B. Friedman gave birth to twin sisters born within 17 minutes of each other --
Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer and Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips. Esther, known as Eppie Lederer became advice columnist Ann
Landers. Pauline, nicknamed Popo became Abigail Van Burn or “Dear Abby.”
The fact that the two leading advice columnists of the second half of the 20th
century were Jewish was one of the best kept media secrets.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/04/1918/ann-landers-and-abigail-van-buren
1918: In
Chicago, Illinois, the 29th Annual Convention of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis came to an end today after having chosen new
officers including Louis Grossman of Cincinnati as President.
1918: Ottoman
sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne. Mehmed had the unenviable challenge of
salvaging what he could of Ottoman glory as World War I came to the end and the
Allies were poised to turn most of the Ottoman Empire into European Colonies.
Jews continued to play an active part in the governing of the Empire and the
emerging Republic. These included the minister of telegraph Yusuf Franko
Pasa and Professor Avram Galante who served as “translator of the foreign press
news for the Ankara government.”
1918: In
Jerusalem, General Edmund Allenby, the British general who had liberated the
ancient Jewish capital from the Ottomans was the guest of honor at the American
Colony’s Independence Day Celebration
1919: Today,
Goldsboro, NC native Gertrude Weil “an active leader at Temple Oheb Shalom” and
“the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League wrote a letter to attorney J.O. Carr
explaining why women should be granted the vote – something he opposed.
1920(18th
of Tammuz, 5680): Tzom Tammuz observed since the 17th of Tammuz fell
on Shabbat
1920: In
Connecticut, “Jewish Farmers’ Field Day” which “was sponsored by the I.O.B.B.
Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Society, Federation of Jews Farmers, the
council of Jewish Women and the Fairfield County Farm Bureau” was held today at
the “farm of Paul Swersky.”
1920: Today’s
final session of the Central Conference of American Rabbis “was devoted to
receiving the reports of the committees” and hearing a paper by Professor
Gotthard Duetsch on “The Jew in Economic Life.”
1920:
Birthdate of Nany Mars, the native of Evanston who gained fame as novelist
Nancy Freedman, the wife of Benedict Freedman
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/22/local/la-me-nancy-freedman-20100822
1920: More
than fifty delegates Mizrachi delegates are expected to attend the London
Zionist Conference opening today where they would “take up the immediate
problems necessary to re-establish the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine.
1920: The
American delegation to the London Zionist Conference starting today whose
members included “Hebrew scholar Reuben Rainin,” “A.H. Fromenson, publicity
direction of the ZOA,” Professor Aaron Ember of Johns Hopkins and Mrs. Caroline
Greenfield of Atlanta” “will attempt to have the conference approve their
Pittsburgh Program for the governing principles of the Holy Land including
equal rights for all irrespective of sex, race or religion…”
1920: The 35th
annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to
come to an end today in Rochester, NY.
1921:
Birthdate of Philip Rosenberg, who gained fame as Philip Rose, “the producer of
Broadway shows like “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Purlie Victorious” who
advanced the cause of black playwrights and actors and helped widen the scope
of American theater to include stories of blacks and other minorities…’ (As
reported by Bruce Weber)
1921: Rabbi
Joseph Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, began a six-week tour “that
took him across Western Canada with stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,
Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg delivering eleven sermons and speaking at
thirteen meetings as well as receptions with four Lieutenant-Governors,
received by seven Mayors and visiting three provincial Premiers.”
1921: The
funeral of Jacob A. Cantor was held at his home in New York City today. Rabbi
M. H. Harris of Temple Israel delivered the eulogy. Cantor, an attorney by
training, had been active in the New York Democratic Party for several decades
holding a variety of positions including U.S. Congressman. The service
was attended by numerous prominent government officials.
1922: Twenty-three-year-old
NYU alum and JTS trained rabbi Herman Hailperin who led Tree of Life
Congregation in Pittsburg for over forty years, married his first wife Harriet
Silverman.
1923: As a
wave of bigotry swept over America’s heartland, today “in a creekside park in
Kokomo, Ind., families celebrated Independence Day with flags and bunting,
watermelon and pie, patriotic songs, a parade which was viewed by many
thousands, wearing the white hoods and robes of the Ku Klux Klan. Banners
insisted that “America is for Americans”
1923: It was
reported today that “because of an error in the attestation of Simon Wolf’s
will,” it is void and his widow Amy L. Wolf will administer the estate as if no
such document existed.
1923: A movie
made by Delaware native William Topkis at the urging of the Keren Kayemeth
LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund “to encourage American tourism and Aliya” which
had been filmed in Palestine was shown for the first time at the Zion Cinema in
Jerusalem. (As reported by David Geffen)
1924: “The
bath director at Borkum, the well-known German island bathing resort, has been
dismissed from his post because he permitted the playing by a Borkum orchestra
of the anti-semitic "Borkum song" despite police prohibition and
protests from Jewish associations and individuals
1925(12th
of Tammuz, 5685): Parashat Chukat and Balak are read on Independence Day.
1925: “The
Jewish Palestine Exploration Society is continuing excavations along the
so-called Third Wall of Jerusalem” which has resulted in the uncovering of 196.
1926:
Birthdate of Viennese native Amos Elon, who in 1933 made Aliyah to Palestine
where he studied law and history, became “a journalist and author and married
“New York-born literary agent Beth Elon,” with whom he had one child –
“filmmaker Danae Elon.”
1926: The
Nazis inaugurate their youth movement which is known as the Hitler Yout1927: In
the Bronx, “Irving Simon, a garment salesman” and “Mamie (Levy) Simon gave
birth to playwright Neil Simon some of whose hits included The Odd Couple,
Plaza Suite and Biloxi Blues.
https://www.biography.com/people/neil-simon-9484352
1927(4th
of Tammuz, 5687): Forty-six year old Julius Daniels, the son of Bernhard and
Julia Kaatz Daniels and the brother of Max, Minnie, Samuel and Hattie Daniels
passed away today in Chicago.
1927:
Nathaniel Phillips, the Chairman of Mayor’s Committee on Independence Day
Receptions to First Voters was among those who addressed the 7,500 men and
women who attended a Fourth of July celebration to in City Hall Park urging
“the new voters to use their franchises earnestly and intelligently, to
associate themselves with a political organization and to forget all lines of
race, creed and color.”
1927: Five
thousand KKK members whose credo includes anti-Semitism, their wives and
children celebrated Independence Cay on a ten acre field at Babylon, Long
Island
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/07/05/101504707.html?pageNumber=4
1928: “One
thousand children from Jewish schools of New York joined the same number from
Philadelphia today in a pilgrimage to Independence Square, where they saw the
Liberty Bell and sang The Star Spangled Banner.”
1928: Rabbi
S.S. Wise, Adolph Zukor, Felix M. Warburg, Abram Elkus and Paul M. Warburg are
among the members of the Mayor’s Committee on Citizenship formed by New York
Mayor Walker whose first function is to host a reception this evening for
first-time voters “which will follow the plan of last year’s reception wen
13,000 new voters gathered at the City Hall Plaza…”
1928: Thirty-six-year-old
Max M. Levand, the Cincinnati, OH born son of Lena Bardenstein Levand, and his
brothers “Louis, Max and John purchased the Beacon newspaper today.
1929: Eighty-six-year-old
Sarah Bancroft Foster Leavitt, who gave President Theodore Roosevelt two
seven-branch menorahs that he kept at “Sagamore Hill, his 95-acre estate on the
North Shore of Long Island, New York.”
1929: In
Brocton, Massachusetts, Rose and Louis Davis gave birth to Allen “Al” Davis a
driving force behind the creation of the American Football League who was the
‘legendary owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sports/football/al-davis-owner-of-raiders-dies-at-82.html
1929: “44
Union Square, also known as 100 East 17th Street and the Tammany Hall Building”
designed by Charles B. Meyers opened today.
1929: When the
“Ah-Say-Fah Ha’Nivcharim” (Assembly of the Chosen) resumes its meeting
Jaobtinsky loses the vote to ignore the organization’s’ agenda and leads the
eleven revisionist delegates out of the meeting after reading a speech
attacking the Jewish Agency.
1930: It was
stated in a bulletin issued by Hadassah today, that “school children in
Palestine who attended the schools of the Jewish Agency in Palestine during the
past year showed a rate of only 7 per cent suffering from trachoma as compared
with a rate of 62 percent among those attending government schools/”
1931:
According to a report by the Labor Department of the Jewish Agency made public
today by the American Palestine Campaign, “few countries in the world afford
women such equality of opportunity as is enjoyed by Jewish women in
Palestine.” Out of work force of 23,830 most of which is located in
Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Petach Tikvah 18,067 are men and 5,754 are
women. While the largest number of women works in agricultural endeavors,
they are also represented in manufacturing, the professions and government
work.
1932:
Birthdate of Martin Cohan, the TV writer and producer who co-created 'Who's the
Boss?'
1933:
Birthdate of David Gerald Littman, the London born human rights activist whose
efforts including rescuing Moroccan and Russian Jews who is the brother of Lewis Littman, the
founder of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization and the husband of Gisèle
Orebi, the author known as Bat Ye’or.
http://www.dhimmitude.org/littman-biography.html
1933: Elyakum Heinrich Loewe
and his family immigrated to Palestine where he became a librarian.
1934: An
Inspectorate of Concentration Camps is established, headed by Theodor Eicke.
1934:
Rebbetzin Renee Schick, who founded the Schick's Bakery in Boro Park in 1941
and her husband gave birth to political science Professor Allen Shick fifteen
minutes after having given birth to Marvin Schick.
1934(21st of
Tammuz, 5694): Zionist poet Chaim Nachman Bialik passed away. Born in
Russia in 1873, Bialik had a traditional Talmudic education. However, at an
early age he was attracted to Zionism and became a member of the Lovers of
Zion. He fell under the influence of the author Achad Ha’am. His Hebrew poetry
reflected the idea that Zionism was as much a cultural as it was a political
movement. One of his famous early poems was "City of Slaughter"
written in response to the pogrom at Kishnev. Bialik made Aliyah in 1924. Such
was his influence that during his lifetime, he was called the "national
poet," a title that has remained to this day. For those interested in
reading his works in translation, consider looking at a copy of “Songs from
Bialik: Selected Poems of Hayim Nachman Bialik.”
1934: Leo
Szilard, the Hungarian born Jew who would take refuge in the United States and
become part of the Manhattan Project, patents the chain-reaction design for the
atomic bomb.
1935: “The
anti-Jewish campaign continues with renewed virulence throughout Germany.”
1935: It was
reported today that “the windows of a confectionary in a suburb of Berlin were
plastered with anti-Jewish signs” and that “customers were threatened for
patronizing a Jews..
1936: In
Napoli, Italy Margit and Pasquale Frustaci gave birth to Cesare Frustaci, the
Holocaust survivor who now lives at Port Charlotte who has dedicated himself to
overcoming the lies told by the Holocaust Deniers.
1936: The 39th
annual meeting of the Zionist Organization of America opened tonight in
Providence, RI.
1936:
“American Jews in Palestine celebrated Independence Day without Fires” and the
traditional baseball game sponsored by the United States Consul General did not
take place “because of the gravity of the situation” i.e. Arab violence
1937: Today,
in Palestine “both Arabs and Jews” are “impatiently awaiting the royal inquiry
commission’s report and recommendation for a solution of the nationalities
problem” with the Jews fearful of an outbreak of Arab violence.
1938: The
Manshieh quarter on the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border was again the scene of violence
early this morning as Jews reportedly attacked Arabs apparently in retaliation
for the Arab campaign of violence that began in 1937. Major Hebrew
language dailies condemned the attacks, regardless of the reasons for which
they launched.
1938:
Birthdate of Robert Abrams the New York State Attorney General and Bronx
Borough President.
1939: Esther
"Etty" Hillesum took the second and final part of master’s exams in
Dutch Law.
1939: A
Judenrate called The Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland (Reich's
Association of the Jews in Germany which
had jurisdiction over all of Germany was established today.
1939: Fifty-nine-year-old
NYU Law School Graduate and former Republican Congressman Isaac Siegel “was
appointed as a magistrate of New York City,” today.
1939: Today,
“The Nazi regime passed the tenth supplementary decree to the Reich Citizenship
Law and established a new central Jewish organization, the Reichsvereinigung
der Juden in Deutschland directly subordinated to the Reich minister of the
interior” which had as it is purpose “the promotion of Jewish emigration” and
which reinforced the decision that converts, called “Christian non-Aryans” were
to be treated as Jews.
1940: “All
This And Heaven Too” a movie version of the novel by the same name directed and
produced by Anatole Litvak and with music by Max Steiner was released today in
the United States.
1940: Leon
Blum went to Vichy to voice his opposition to the proposed constitutional
reform granting all power to Marshall Pétain.”
1940: “All
This, and Heaven Too” a film adaptation of the novel of the same name produced
by David Lewis and Anatole Litvak who also served as director and with music by
Max Steiner was released in the United States today.
1940: As part
of its deal with Hitler which made it possible for him to start WW II, the
Soviet Union completed its occupation and annexation of Bessarabia, Northern
Bukovina and the Hertza Region of Romania.
1941:
Birthdate of Cannes native Pierre Brochand who served as French Ambassador to
Israel from 1993 to 1995.
1941: In
Liepāja, the roundup of Jews by SS-Obersturmbannführer Reichert’s EK 1a men
begun last night came to an end this morning hundreds being slaughtered in
Rainis Park.
1941: The
Nazis murdered scientists and writers in the captured city of Lvov.
1941(9th of
Tammuz, 5701): Lithuanian militiamen murdered 416 Jewish men, 47 Jewish women
in Kovno at the Seventh Fort.
1941: Two
thousand Jews from Lutsk, Ukraine, are transported to the Lubard Fortress and
killed.
1941(9th of
Tammuz, 5701): Fifty-four Jews are killed at Vilna, Lithuania.
1941: Between
July 4 and July 11 five thousand Jews are killed in Ternopol, Ukraine.
1942: “The
first Army Air Forces bomber mission over Western Europe was flown by US crews
of the 15th Bomb Squadron operating British Bostons IIIs (the Royal Air Force's
name for most of their Havocs) against airfields in the Netherlands.” (Editor note – for all of those who are
critical of the U.S. failure to bomb the concentration camps, please note that
the first U.S. attack took place seven months after Pearl Harbor and the planes
used were twin-engine bombers of limited range and no significant
armament. In other words, the planes did
not exist for the attack that modern revisionists like to call for.)
1943: In
Manhattan, Lillian (née Friedman) and Cruz "Allen" Rivera gave birth
to Gerald Michael Rivera who gained fame as Geraldo Rivera.
1944(13th of
Tammuz, 5704): Corporal David H. Rubenstein was killed in action in France. He
was the 19th Milford, Massachusetts man to lose his life in World War II.
“Milford’s Fallen Family” of that war would come to total 55.
1944: Sarah Levendal, the mother of Isaac
Levendal, “arrived at Auschwitz today, where she became victim number 23925.”
1944: One
thousand Jewish women are sent from Auschwitz to Hamburg, Germany, to pull down
the remains of structures damaged during Allied bombing raids.
1944: In
one of the tragedies of WW II, 250 inmates, most of them French Jews, from the
Alderney camp on the Occupied Channel Islands are killed by fire from British
warships while being transported to the mainland.
1944: The Milice,
the anti-Semitic French militia working for the Vichy Government and the Nazis
captured Jewish journalist and Resistance leader Georges Mandel.
1944: Between
July 4 and July 5, 2565 Jews from Pápa, Hungary, are sent to Auschwitz just as
the Hungarian government is poised to defy Germany and halt the deportation.
Only 30 of Pápa's 2800 Jews will survive the war.
1945: In
Manhattan, Woodhaven department store own Larry Lewis and the former Frances
Distler gave birth to Barry Stephen Lewis
who gained fame as “an erudite and wisecracking architectural historian
whose lectures and walking tours of New York City neighborhoods made him a
local celebrity…” (As reported by Penelope Green)
1945: In
Tripoli, Libya and in other Libyan towns, Muslims began anti- Jewish riots.
1946: A Pogrom
took place in Kielce, Poland. The date is correct –1946. One year after the end
of the World War II and the Holocaust and a Polish mob attacked a house in
Kielce in Poland where almost all of the town's surviving Jews were living (200
of the original 25,000). Forty-two Jews were brutally murdered, another 50
injured. This was followed by a chaotic mass exodus of around 150,000 Jews from
across Poland to DP camps in Germany
1946:
Following todays pogrom in Kielce, Poland “more than 100,000 Jews” fled to
the American Zone of Occupation in Germany putting an unbelievable strain on
the DP resources that had been allocated by the U.S. Government.
1946: “The
Unknown,” a mystery directed by Henry Levin, was released in the United States
today.
1946:
Birthdate of financier Michael Milken, a wizard of Wall Street, whose name
became synonymous with greed and the Junk Bond Scandal and who eventually ended
up going to prison for his part in the financial fraud that was rampant in the
1980’s but later became known as a “philanthropist” when he co-founded the
Milken Family Foundation.
1947(16th of
Tammuz, 5707): Fifty-three-year-old Chicago native and WW I Navy veteran Salem
N. Baskin, the advertising executive and one-time head of the Baskin Clothing
Store who raised two daughters and one son, Mark, with his wife Bess Baskin,
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/07/05/87775983.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1947: David
Ben-Gurion appeared before the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
(UNSCOP). During his testimony which covered the history of the Jewish
people and the reasons for creating a Jewish state in Palestine Ben Gurion
tells the UN officials that “What happened to our people in this war is merely
a climax to the uninterrupted persecution to which we have been subjected for
centuries by almost all the Christian and Moslem peoples in the world.’
1948: Pitcher
Marv Rotblatt made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1949: “City
Across the River,” a film based on The Amboy Dukes by Irving Shulman with a
task that included Tony Curtis as “Mitch” was released today in the United
States after premiering in New York in April.
1949: In
describing the progress of the nation's so-called austerity program today Dr.
Bernard Joseph, Minister of Supply and Rationing, disclosed that Israeli
importers functioning in collateral fields have been requested by the
Government to pool their efforts with a view to obtaining the lowest possible
prices in world markets.
1951: The
Jerusalem Post reported that an accidental blast in a quarry of Even V’Sid
Company on Castel Hill killed eight workers and injured six others. The
holiday-with-pay principle was legally established in Israel following the
final reading of the Annual Leave Bill in the Knesset. Employees were entitled
to a minimum of 14 days' paid vacation as of October 1, 1951. The employee must
have worked 200 days out of year's contract or must have worked 240 single days
for the same employer in any one 12-month period to be entitled to such paid
leave.
1951(30th
of Sivan, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz coincides with Independence Day in the
United States.
1951: In what
would be known in the West as the “Doctor’s Plot” escalated when the Politburo
set up an investigatory commission headed by Lavrentiy Beria head of the
dreaded secret police which at that time was called the NKVD.
1954: In
Hutchinson, Kansas, Julius E. and Ruth (Gottfried) Kaplan gave birth to Fred M.
Kaplan the Oberlin graduate and Slate contributor who “was a member of a team
that won a 1983 Pulitzer Prize for a special Sunday Boston Globe Magazine
article, "War and Peace in the Nuclear Age", on the U.S.-Soviet
nuclear arms race.
1955(14th
of Tammuz, 5715: On Independence Day, 51-year-old Boston born and Harvard
trained attorney Milton A Kramer, a partner in the law firm of Kramer, Marx,
Greenlee and Backus and the husband of Enid Saper with whom he raised two
children, John and Alison, passed away today at his home in New York.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/07/05/83362384.html?pageNumber=29
1956: Today,
Foreign Minister Golda Myers told the Knesset that “there has been no decision
by the government of Israel to enter into negotiations for a diplomatic
exchange with the West German Government” led by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.
1957: In New
Yor, State Senator Joseph Zaretsk accused two Republican Assembly leaders “of
conducting the Legislature's watchdog committee as a "political propaganda
machine."
1959(28th
of Sivan, 5719): Parashat Sh’lach
1959(28th
of Sivan, 5719): Seventy-seven-year-old financier and Democratic Party lead Frederick Lewisohn, the Manhattan born son of Rosalie
Jacobs Lewisohn and Leonard Lewisohn, “the founder of Lewisohn Brothers which
became the largest copper sales agency in the world and the husband of Rhoda
Seligman Prudhome whom he married in 1907 who served as the president of The
Tennessee Copper Company, and who was the founder of The South American and Platinum
Company as well as the Lewisohn Copper Corporation that developed copper
holdings in Arizona suffered a fatal heart attack today in Monte Carlo after
which he was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/07/05/83684971.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1959: Alaska
becomes the 49th state to join the Union. Jewish involvement with
Alaska dates back to January, 1868 when the Alaska Commercial Company was
formed in by a group of Jewish businessman in San Francisco including Louis
Sloss (President), Lewis Gerstle (Vice President), Simon Greenwald, William
Kohl and A. Wasserman. Jews were included in those went “North to Alaska”
during the Gold Rush of the 1890’s. There was actually an attempt made
before World War II to turn the Alaska Territory into a refuge for Jews fleeing
Hitler. The plan failed. Ernest Gruening, a Jew from New York, was
one of Alaska’s most prominent early political leaders. A supporter of
statehood, he served as territorial governor and then was elected as one of the
state’s first two United States Senators. Gruening joined Wayne Morris as
one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
The vote cost him his seat. But it made him one of the first to see the
folly of the Viet Nam War.
1960: Thanks
to the intervention of Mayor Wagner American Nazi did hold a rally in New
York’s Union Square because the city’s chief executive said that his appearance
was an “invitation to riot and disorder.”
1960: George
Lincoln Rockwell and eight of his American Nazi Party members were arrested at
the Washington National Mall when a riot broke out during one his political
demonstrations.
1960:
“Franklin Letter Proves Puzzler” published today traces the history
“surrounding a letter in which Benjamin wrote in 1787 of the ‘enthusiastic joy
wit which the Day of the Declaration of Independence is everywhere annually celebrated’”
which was bought at auction two years ago by “Nathaniel E. Stein, manager of
Newburger, Loeb and Company, stockbrokers and a collector of historical manuscripts.”
1963: U.S.
premiere of “The Great Escape” with music by Elmer Bernstein.
1965: in
Montville, NJ, Dr. Lawrence Yorn, a dentist and captain in the Army, and Joan
Yorn gave birth to Tulane University “attorney and investor” Kevin Brett Yorn
who went from working in the D.A.’s
office for five years in the Hardcore Gang Investigations Unit to cofounding “Yorn
Barnes Levine Entertainment Law Firm where he is managing partner.”
1965: The 68th
annual convention of the Z.O.A. which has been meeting at the Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria is scheduled to come to an end today,
1967: In the
General Assembly of the UN Chile gave its full support to the resolution
of the Latin American Bloc in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.
1967: Just a
month after the “Six Day War” a MiG-17 was shot down when Egyptian warplanes
attacked Israelis in the Sinai Peninsula.
1968:
Birthdate of Ronni Ancona “a Scottish actress, impressionist and author” who
“won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her
work in Big Impression.”
1969(18th
of Tammuz, 5729): German-born Erwin Blumenfeld who escaped Nazi-occupied Paris
and eventually made his way to NYC to pursue the American Dream and whose photographs
were featured on the covers of renowned fashion brands such as Vogue and
Harper's Bazaar passed away today.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hypu405fn
1970(30th of
Sivan, 5730): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1970(30th of
Sivan, 5730): American painter Barnett Newman passed away.
http://www.artnet.com/artists/barnett-newman/
1971(11th
of Tammuz, 5731): Eighty-one year old Albert Matarasso, a retired insurance
broker and a leader in the Sephardic Jewish community, who translated books
from Ladino while two children – Daniel and Alice – with his wife Dora passed a
way today.
1972: Eighty-eight-year-old
Communist party leader Max Bedacht who was raised as a Catholic and is
sometimes misidentified as being Jewish because when he was a member of the
Central Committee he was one of only two members the other eight being “foreign
born Jews” passed away today.
1974: Seventy-one-year-old
novelist Georgette Heyer, author of the 1950 Regency Roman, The Grand Sophy
which featured a “villainous moneylender named Goldhanger, who is described as
a “swarthy individual, with long, greasy curls, a semitic nose, and an
ingratiating leer” in a scene which has come to be seen as anti-Semitic and which
was, “sanitized” in a posthumously revised edition much to the chagrin of those
who think an author’s work should not be “modified” to comply with 21st
century sensitivity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/30/books/georgette-heyer-romance-novel-antisemitism.html
1974: Avital
Sharansky (Natasha Stiglitz) emigrated from Moscow to Israel
1975(25th of
Tammuz, 5735): In Jerusalem’s Zion Square, members of the PLO detonate a bomb
hidden in a refrigerator which killed fourteen and wounded seventy.
Victims included Arabs as well as Jews.
1976: The
Jerusalem Post reported that there was extensive violence in the West Bank
towns in protest against the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Arab youth during
clashes with security forces during the weekend.
1976: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the giant American Bicentennial National Park
in the Jerusalem hills was officially opened to the public.
1976:
Operation Thunderbolt came to a successful conclusion as aircraft carrying 102
rescued hostages and the IDF units that had rescued them land in Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/19-years-after-entebbe-idf-archive-releases-operation-log/
1976: Today,
Peter “Max began his Statue of Liberty series leading to his efforts with
Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca to help in the restoration of the statue.”
1976(6th
of Tammuz, 5736): Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and author, passed away.
Slonimski spent the war years in exile in Britain. He returned to Poland
in 1951 where he was a staunch anti-Stalinist.
1976(6th
of Tammuz, 5736): The Entebbe Rescue – Over 100 Jewish and Israeli hostages
from an Air France plane being held prisoner by Palestinian terrorists and
Ugandan soldiers who were threatening to murder them if their demands were not
met were rescued by Israeli commandos in a brilliant ruse under the command of
Yonatan Netanyahu who was shot in the back during the rescue. Netanyahu was one of four Israeli soldiers killed in the
rescue mission. Tragically, 19-year-old Jean-Jacues Maimoni, 52-year-old
Pasco Cohen and 56 year old Ida Borochovitch were killed in the cross fire . Seventy-five-year-old
Dora Bloch, who was undergoing treatment at Mulago Hospital, was murdered by
the Ugandans as revenge for the raid.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/books/review/operation-thunderbolt-by-saul-david.html
_-_Rescued_Air_France_Passengers.jpg){kind=link}
1977(18th
of Tammuz, 5737): Sixty-eight-year-old Odessa native and City College and
Columbia alum Maurice Chernowitz, the professor of fine arts at Yeshiva
University and the husband of the “former Rose Fineman” with whom he raised two
daughters – Tamara and Rena – passed
away today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/07/06/75090029.html?pageNumber=22
1978: The
exhibit “A Treasury of Modern Drawing: The Joan and Lester Avnet Collection”
which had been exhibited starting on April 27 at the Museum of Modern Art came
to a close today.
https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2355
1979: Simon
Veil completed her term as French Minister of Health.
1979(9th
of Tammuz, 5739): Fifty-three-year-old legendary basketball referee Marvin
“Mendy” Rudolph” passed away today.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070930181653/http://www.hoophall.com/ot/rudolph-induction-article.html
1979: “The
Wanderers” directed by Philip Kaufman who co-authored the script with his wife
Rose Kaufman and featuring Alan Rosenberg as “Turkey” was released in the
United States today.
1980:
Birthdate of Michael “Maxy” Klinger, the Australian born cricketer.
1981: The
American premiere of “Halil” took place at Tanglewood today “with Doriot
Anthony Dwyer as the soloist and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.”
‘Halil’ is a work for flute and chamber orchestra composed by Leonard Bernstein
composed in 1981. The work is sixteen minutes in length. Bernstein composed
Halil in honor of a young Israeli flutist Yadin Tanenbaum who was killed at the
Suez Canal in during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.”
1983:
Birthdate of Los Angeles native and major league baseball coach Ethan Russell
Katz, the minor league pitcher who spent one season as the pitching coach for
the San Francisco Giants before taking a similar position with the Chicago
White Sox in 2021.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/players/13091-ethan-katz/
1985: Today,
Admiral Hyman Rickover, the Jewish father of the modern nuclear U.S. Navy “suffered what was described as a "serious" stroke,
and was admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital, thereafter dealing with partial
paralysis in his right arm.”
1986(27th of
Sivan, 5746): Eighty-seven-year-old Russian born, American mathematician Oscar
Zariski passed away.
https://www.usna.edu/Users/math/meh/zariski.html
1987: Nazi
Klaus Barbie, "Butcher of Lyon" is convicted by a French court.
1988: The bulk
of the Furth family summer estate at Yarrow Point on the east shore of Lake
Washington, which traces its origins back to Jacob Furth “was deeded to the
towns of Yarrow Point and Hunts Point as the Wetherill Nature Preserve” today.
1988: Fifty-five-year-old
Ben Briscoe followed in the footsteps of his father Robert Briscoe when he
became Lord Mayor of Dublin after defeating the incumbent by 6 votes in an
election held by members of the city council.
1992(3rd of
Tammuz, 5752): Ninety-eight year old painter and printmaker Harry Gottlieb
passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/08/arts/harry-gottlieb-is-dead-wpa-artist-was-98.html
http://keithsheridan.com/gottlieb.html
1993: The
first round of family tours of Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Congress
come to an end.
1996(17th
of Tammuz, 5756): Tzom Tammuz
1998: Sandra
Bernhard gave birth to daughter Cicely Yasin Bernhard
1999: The
New York Times reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including The Story Begins: Essays on Literature by
Amos Oz and The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity by
Daniel Mendelsohn.
2000(1st
of Tammuz, 5760): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2000: “A court
called an indefinite halt to the country's first Nazi-era war crimes trial,
citing the poor health of 93-year-old defendant, Aleksandras Lileikis, a former
American citizen stripped of his passport who has denied charges that he turned
over Jews to Nazi executioners during the German occupation of Lithuania”
2000: “Leaders
of the Palestine Liberation Organization decided late tonight in Gaza City that
a Palestinian state should be declared by mid-September, whether or not a
permanent peace deal has been reached with the Israelis.”
2001(13th
of Tammuz, 5761): Thirty-two-year-old Eliahu Na’aman was shot today at Sueika.
2001(13th
of Tammuz, 5761): Ninety-year-old Leonard Pines, the man who Hebrew National
the “gold standard in cold cuts” for generations of Jews and expanded the
product to the non-Jewish world, passed away today. (As reported by David Cay
Johnson)
https://www.hebrewnational.com/
2002: Jewish
National Fund officials announced that retired Tel Aviv District Court Judge
Arye Segelson will head the organization's investigation into allegations of
misconduct in JNF's 'Plant a Tree With Your Own Hands' program for tourists.
2002 (24th of
Tammuz, 5762): A gunman opened fire at Israel's El Al airline ticket counter at
Los Angeles International Airport; three people were killed, including the
gunman
2002(24th
of Tammuz, 5762): Eighty-seven-year-old French mathematician Laurent Schwartz
who won the Fields Medal in 1950 passed away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/aug/07/guardianobituaries.obituaries
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1404336/Laurent-Schwartz.html
2003: “Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi of Italy apologized to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany for
likening a German member of the European Parliament to a bullying guard in a
Nazi concentration camp.”
2003: In
“Europe’s Jewish Space at Center Stage” published today Ruth Ellen Gruber how
“Jewish stage and screen professionals” see the manner in which “Jewish themes
are addressed in contemporary European theatre.”
2004: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Conspirators by Michael
André Bernstein and Politics: Observations & Arguments by
Hendrik Hertzberg
2004: At the
Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, Rabbi Sholom Tendler is scheduled to officiate
at the wedding of 23 year old Gabriella Sarah Rosen, “a founder of the Women’s
Resource Center at Boston Medical Center and 25 year old Jesse Oren Kellerman,
the writer and playwright who is the son of two mystery writers – Faye
Kellerman and Jonathan Kellerman.
2004: Tzipi
Livni began serving as Minister of Construction and Housing
2004(15th of
Tammuz, 5764): Victor Kreiderman, 49, was killed by terrorists in Israel.
2005: Today
marks the 160th anniversary since Judah Solomon and the entire
Jewish community of Hobart Town turned out for” for the opening of what is now
Hobart Hebrew Congregation in Tasmania.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080801021416/http:/ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=143
2006: “During
a joint operation conducted by the IDF and the Israel Security Authorities, the
three Tanzim militants whom murdered Eliyahu Asheri and whom were hiding in the
a Palestinian Police headquarters building in Ramallah, were apprehended after
a three-hour standoff”
2007: Meir
Sheerit succeeded Roni Bar-On as Minister of the Interior.
2007: Ze’ev
Boim succeded Meir Sheerit as Minister of Construction and Housing
2007: Yaakov
Edri began serving as Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee.
2007: In an interview broadcast on Channel 10 Abu Mutfana
- a leader in the Army of Islam – said that the kidnappers of Cpl. Gilad
Schalit have transferred him to the custody of Hamas,
2008(1st
of Tammuz, 5768): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2008: The
Washington Post features a review of Undiscovered by Jewish actress,
Debra Winger
2008: American
legal scholar Cass Sunstein married Ambassador Samantha Power.
2008: As part
of its 4th of July cookout themed advertising, Wal Mart touts the
availability of “100% all kosher Hebrew National Hot Dogs.” The Red,
White and Blue meets OU!
2008: “Kabluey”
a comedy starring Lisa Kudrow that had premiered in Los Angeles was released in
the United States today.
2008:
Following two days each punctuated by a rocket attack on Israel, Hamas today announced that it was suspending all
negotiations with Israel over the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad
Schalit.
2008: Despite
the seemingly endless rounds of adversity that would break the spirits of
lesser people, the Jews of Tel Aviv showed their true mettle by hosting the
fourth annual mass water fight in Rabin Square which drew hundreds of children,
teens and adults.
2008(1st
of Tammuz, 5768): 1st Lt. Daniel Farkas was killed today, at Camp Phoenix in
Kabul, Afghanistan. He was 42 years old. “Daniel Farkas, a 20-year-veteran of
the New York City Police Department and a dedicated athlete, had been a member
of the National Guard since 1992. He lived in Brooklyn with his mother, two
sisters and two nieces, the New York Daily News reported. Farkas was honored
with the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary
Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal and the National Defense Service Medal,
among others. (As reported by The Forwards)
2009: In
Alexandria, VA, Jews of the Old Dominion celebrate Independence Day with a
"Red, White & Blue Tot Shabbat" in the chapel at Beth El Hebrew
Congregation.
2009: There is
no Independence Day Celebration at the U.S. Embassy in Israel on July 4 because
the official celebration took place on July 1. The celebration included remarks
by the Ambassador on the 233rd anniversary of U.S. Independence, Shiri Maimon
singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hatikva” and fireworks lighting up the
night sky above the cliffs of the Mediterranean.
2009(12th
of Tammuz, 5769): Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn was killed today, when insurgents
attacked his base in eastern Afghanistan. He was 20 years old. “Aaron Fairbairn
was born nearly two months premature and had to be fed from a Barbie bottle
until he was big enough to move into the regular natal facility. A happy and
friendly child, Fairbairn overcame the health problems he faced as a baby and
became fiercely devoted to his family. He showed a dedication to hard work at
an early age, quitting sports in the seventh grade to work four different
newspaper routes to buy his first car by the time he was 14 years old. His
family told the Forward there was nothing Fairbairn enjoyed more than working
on his cars. He owned seven trucks by the time he was 20. Born Aaron Eli
Ben-Neth, Fairbairn took his mother’s surname when he was 18 years old.
Grandson and son of Vietnam War veterans, Fairbairn decided early on he wanted
to enlist and establish a career for himself in the army. Always a slight man,
Fairbairn was only 115 pounds when he went into the army and worked incredibly
hard to reach 145 pounds. Fairbairn was so proud that he was serving that he
wore his uniform around town in Aberdeen, Wash., when he was home on leave.
When news of a kidnapped soldier in Afghanistan coincided with no communication
from her son for a week, Shelly Fairbairn told the Forward she envisioned the
worst case scenario. “But then he called [and] we breathed a sigh of relief…the
next morning when the soldiers showed up at my door I thought maybe they were
here because it’s Fourth of July… [I thought,] it can’t be, we just spoke to
him yesterday.” (As reported in The Forwards)
2009(12th
of Tammuz, 5769): Sixty-three-year-old French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus
passed away today in Zurich.
2009(12th
of Tammuz, 5769): Sixty-two year old Drake Levin, the lead guitarist for Paul
Revere and the Raiders passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/music/10levin.html?_r=0
2009: Julius
Shulman's last exhibit at Craig Krull Gallery (his Los Angeles gallery since
1991) opened today.
2009(12th
of Tammuz, 5769): Seventy-seven-year-old Allen Klein, the business manager for
Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/arts/music/05klein.html
2009: On the
Billboard Hot 100 chart, both “Best I Ever Had” and “Every Girl” featuring
Canadian Rapper Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham) {entered the top ten at positions 3
and 10 respectively” making him “only the second artist to have his first two
top ten hits in the same week.”
2010: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Rough Justice: The Rise and
Fall of Eliot Spitzer by Peter Elkind, Journal of the Plague
Year: An Insider’s Chronicle of Eliot Spitzer’s Short and Tragic Reign by
Lloyd Constantine and The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern.
2011:
Thirty-fifth anniversary of the Raid on Entebbe. Joy is still tempered by
the sadness at the loss of Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the thirty-year-old
officer who was the only IDF casualty during this act of derring-do.
Herman Wouk, the famous author, offered these words about Netanyahu. "He
was a taciturn philosopher-soldier of terrific endurance, a hard-fibered,
charismatic young leader, a magnificent fighting man. On the Golan Heights, in
the Yom Kippur War, the unit he led was part of the force that held back a sea
of Soviet tanks manned by Syrians, in a celebrated stand; and after Entebbe,
"Yoni" became in Israel almost a symbol of the nation itself. Today
his name is spoken there with somber reverence."
2011: The
Association of Americans of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) are
scheduled to celebrate 4th of July and Canada Day at Kraft Stadium
in Jerusalem
2011: As
Americans celebrate Independence, Jews can take pride in their active support
of the patriot cause. Besides the famous Hyam Solomon, “there were hundreds of
Jewish soldiers and sailors who fought in the Revolution and patriots who
supported it. There was Phillip Russell, a surgeon at Valley Forge; Col. David
Franks an aide to George Washington; a “Jew Company, " which fought in
South Carolina; Moses Myers, who fought in Virginia; the Sheftall family, which
fought and were captured in Savannah. In Manhattan's Chatham Square cemetery,
22 Revolutionary Jewish soldiers lie. Many had sacrificed their lives for their
new country. Just like the approximately 500 Americans who were killed or
wounded during the three British assaults at Bunker Hill in 1775. (New evidence
has surfaced that a Jewish soldier, Abraham Solomon, participated in the Battle
of Bunker Hill as a member of Colonel John Glover's 21st Regiment from
Gloucester.)”
2011: The
Canadian ship "Tahrir", participating in the flotilla to Gaza,
attempted to depart from the Greek port of Agios Nikolaos today, but was
intercepted by the Greek coast guard shortly after departure.
2011: Defense
Minister Ehud Barak ordered a stop to the transfer of the bodies of 84
Palestinian terrorists to the Palestinian Authority at the last minute today,
despite earlier confirmation from the IDF Spokesperson's Office that the
transfer would go through. Barak made his decision to hold off on the transfer
after a Haaretz report revealed that two of the bodies to be returned to the PA
were the Awadallah brothers, former leaders of the Hamas military wing, who
were killed by Israeli soldiers near Hebron in September 1998.
2012: The
Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host an Independence Day
Celebration featuring including live Americana music and free flags for the
youngsters
2012: In honor
of Independence Day, the Jewish Community Alliance of Jacksonville, FL, is
scheduled to sponsor a Family Fun Day completed with hot dog, games, prizes and
a DJ
2012: In honor
Independence Day, the National Museum of American Jewish History, will be open
free to the public today.
2012: The
Jewish Women’s Archives celebrates Independence Day by sponsoring an contest
where readers can honor the FIJW (Fiercely Independent Jewish Woman) in their
lives with a brief tribute.
2012: Israeli
cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at The Apollo Theatre in Manchester,
UK
2012: 36th
Anniversary of the Raid on Entebbe, a moment of great pride for Jews and all
who value the best in Western Civilization. Of course, we will never
forget that this gift was paid for with Jewish blood – in this case the life of
Yonatan Netanyahu. If a person’s name defines them, then this is just
such a case since the brave Israeli bears the name of the noblest of all
biblical characters – the son of Saul and comrade of David.
2012: Today
Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz asserted that the implementation of the
Plesner Report is a condition for his party staying in the government.
"The ball is in Prime Minister [Binyamin Netanyahu's] hands and he has a
matter of days," Mofaz added, declaring that "the Plesner plan is the
only plan."
2012: Yigal
Amir, assassin of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is set to leave solitary
confinement in the coming days, the Prisons Service confirmed today. Amir has
spent 17 years in solitary detention, in line with repeated court extensions of
his prison terms.
2013: American
superstar Alicia Keys, one of the leading musical artists of the last 10 years,
is scheduled to arrive in Israel for the first time today.” (As reported by
David Brinn)
2013:
Independence Day – Even before the “shot heard around the world” was fired Jews
were active in the military units that would eventually fight the
British. In 1769, Captain Richard Lushington formed a volunteer company
at Charleston, SC “composed chiefly of Hebrews. They would later be
referred to as “the Jews company” and include Marks Lazarus, Emanuel Abrahams,
Jacob Moses Joseph Solomon and Abraham Spidel among its members. Among others
who served on the battlefield were Mordecai Sheftall of Georgia who was twice
captured by the British; Francis Salvador of South Carolina who was the first
Jewish soldier to die during the war; Colonel Isaac Franks, aide de camp to
General Washington, Major Benjamin Moses who served on the staffs of George
Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette; Colonel David S. Franks the loyal
patriot who served as aid de camp to Benedict Arnold; Philip Moses Russell
“whom Washington commended for his assiduous attentions to the sick and
wounded: and Colonel Jacob De La Motta. While we all know about the
contribution of Haym Solomon who bankrupted himself to provide funds for the
Revolution we should also take note of Benjamin Levy and Benjamin Jacobs of
Philadelphia and Samuel Lyon of New York who signed Bills of Credit for the Continental
Congress for which they were never reimbursed. This list is not complete, but
it should give a sense of the small Jewish community’s support for the
Revolutionary cause. The most important contribution made by the Jews was
intellectual and spiritual. From portraying King George as modern day Pharaoh
and themselves as Israelites escaping bondage, to the inscription on the
Liberty Bell to the concept that All Men Are Created Equal, the Patriots drew
from the well of Jewish tradition and Jewish books.
2014: The U.S.
Embassy in Israel is scheduled to host a July 4th Celebration
starting at 5:45.
2014: Some
celebrate Independence Day, while others remember the Battle of the Horns of
Hittin. If you do not understand their impact on today’s world then to
paraphrase Burke and Santayana, those who do not know and learn from history
are up the creek without a paddle. "
2015: The
Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “Bach and Mozart with a touch of
the Present”
2015(17th
of Tammuz, 5775): Parsha Balak; Fast of Tammuz not observed because it is
Shabbat.
2015(17th
of Tammuz, 5775): Ninety-two-year-old Charles Winick, a controversial professor
of anthropology and sociology passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/us/charles-winick-professor-and-author-who-challenged-social-norms-dies-at-92.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1
2015(17th of Tammuz): A “Calendar
Coincidence” makes this a special Independence Day. In 1776, Independence Day
was observed on July 4 which was the 17th of Tammuz on the Jewish
calendar. In a rare calendar
convergence, in 2015 we will celebrate Independence Day on July 4 which is also
the 17th of Tammuz. In
another Jewish connection to the Revolution, the Haftarah for July 4th comes
from Micah who wrote “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his
fig-tree; And none shall make them afraid.” later, in 1790, President George
Washington wrote to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, in part to reassure the
Jews of their acceptance in the new republic.
Echoing the words of the Jewish prophet he wrote: “May the children of the stock of Abraham who
dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other
inhabitants - while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig
tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Whether he meant to or not,
Washington was telling the Jewish population that the messianic vision of peace
and justice could be realized in the United States of America under its newly
adopted constitutional form of government.
2016(28th of Sivan, 5776): Former
Congressman and federal judge Abner Mikva passed away today at the age of 90.
http://www.mikvachallenge.org/about/about-abner-and-zoe-mikva/
2016: Prime Minister Netanyahu is schedule to
participate in a ceremony at Entebbe marking the 40th anniversary of
Operation Thunderbolt, the famous recuse mission which claimed the life of his
brother Yoni.
2016: In a fitting tribute to the memory of
Elie Weisel who passed away two days ago, Independence Day provides a chance to
discover “more about the role of American soldiers in the liberation of the
concentrations and the mission of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in keeping “this history alive.
2017: 830th Anniversary of the
Battle of the Horns of Hittin
2017: Scheduled observance of Independence Day
could include a visit to one or more these landmarks
http://www.jta.org/2016/07/01/life-religion/9-iconic-sites-that-celebrate-american-jewish-history
2017: Today, Narendra Modi is scheduled to
arrive in Jerusalem for the “first-ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister”
which is a sign of the deepening relationship between two countries who gained
their independence from British rule after WW II.
2017: In Israel, the Labor Party is scheduled
to hold the first round of elections that would lead to choosing a new leader.
2017: “A committee of the United Nations
Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) convened in Krakow today
where it approved the wording of a proposed resolution denying that Israel is
the sovereign power over Jerusalem and condemning it for conducting
archeological excavations in the Old City."
2017: In Philadelphia, the National Museum of
American Jewish History is scheduled to host a special Independence Day program
including talking “with a costumed impersonator portraying a young Jewish woman
who came to Philadelphia in 1913.”
2017: The Maccabiah Games opened in Israel
today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/teen-cricket-girl-banned-from-maccabiah-goes-to-court/
2018: “Batsheva
– The Young Ensemble is scheduled to perform Ohad Naharin's Bessie
Award-winning dance, Naharin's Virus, inspired by the great Austrian writer
Peter Handke's play” at Jacobs Pillow today for the first time.
2018: 155th
anniversary of the Confederate surrender to Union forces under the command of
U.S. Grant who authored the brilliant campaign that brought about the victory
and who was the first President to attend synagogue services and make a
contribution to Adas Israel. (For more about Grant and the Jewish people see
the writing s of Jonathan Sarna.
2018: Based on a list previously
published by JTA, Independence Day would be a good day to “celebrate the
history of the Jewish people” in the United States by visiting the Lower East
Side Tenement; Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI; Temple Beth Sholom in Elkins
Park, PA; Gomez Mill House, Newburgh, NY; Beth Jacob Cemetery, Galveston, TX;
Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles; Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia; Bob
Dylan’s childhood home, Hibbing, MN; and Congregation Sherith Israel in San
Francisco
2019: Aviva Kempner’s “The Spy
Behind Home Plate” which tells the tale of Moe Berg is scheduled to open in
Hudson, NY.
2019: Gregory Michenaud’s “photo
of Orthodox Jewish pilgrims praying at the tomb of a Chassic rabbi in Poland”
is among the finalist for “the 2019 British Journal of Photography’s Open Walls
Competition” the winner of which is scheduled “to be announced” today “at a
ceremony in a 17th century mansion and gallery in the French town of
Arles.”
https://static.timesofisrael.com/jewishndev/uploads/2019/05/gregory_michenaud_yibbum-39.jpg
2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled
to host a special preview screening of “Never Look Away,” “an intergenerational
tale of love, sorrow, art and politics spanning three decades of 20th century
German history, from Nazism through much of the Cold War.”
2019(1st of Tammuz,
5779): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz;
2020: The Eden Tamar Music Center
is scheduled to host “Flute Sounds in Ein Kerem” with “Noam Buchman and
Friend.”
2020: In New Orleans, Touro
Synagogue is scheduled to host via Zoom a community wide lay-led Torah Study
session
2020: Esther, Lady Gilbert, the
widow historian Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston
Churchill will join the rest of the
Anglo-Jewish community innnnn celebrating Shabbat while looking to see if today
is Independence Day in the UK when “key sectors of the economy including
tourism and hospitality are scheduled to reopen for the first time since March.
2020: In New Orleans, via live
stream Temple Sinai is scheduled to host Summer Union Shabbat keeping alive a
long time tradition of the Reform community where all of the congregations
combine for one Shabbat service despite the reality of the Pandemic.
2020(12th of Tammuz):
On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit for the massacred Jews of Wiener Neustadt,
Austria in 5058/1298 (As reported by Abraham P Bloch)
2020: For Jews celebration of a
double simcha – Shabbat and Independence Day
http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1975_27_02_00.pdf
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-revolutionary-war-and-the-jews/
2020(12th of Tammuz,
5780): Parashat Chukat and Balak;
2021: The New York Times
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including From Sarah to Sydney: The Woman Behind
All-of-a-Kind Family by June Cummins with Alexandra Dunietz
2021: Following yet another
attack on Shabbat of incendiary balloons, Israelis brace for more such terror
attacks from Hamas.
2021: In Israel, “Health Ministry
officials are scheduled to meet today to “consider offering third doses of the
Pfizer vaccine to individuals with weakened immune system.”
2021: As Americans celebrate
Independence, Jews can take pride in their active support of the patriot cause.
Besides the famous Hyam Solomon, “there were hundreds of Jewish soldiers and
sailors who fought in the Revolution and patriots who supported it. There was
Phillip Russell, a surgeon at Valley Forge; Col. David Franks an aide to George
Washington; a “Jew Company, " which fought in South Carolina; Moses Myers,
who fought in Virginia; the Sheftall family, which fought and were captured in
Savannah. In Manhattan's Chatham Square cemetery, 22 Revolutionary Jewish
soldiers lie. Many had sacrificed their lives for their new country. Just like
the approximately 500 Americans who were killed or wounded during the three
British assaults at Bunker Hill in 1775. (New evidence has surfaced that a
Jewish soldier, Abraham Solomon, participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a
member of Colonel John Glover's 21st Regiment from Gloucester.)”
2021: The London School of Jewish
Studies is scheduled to host “The Jews of Ancient Tour,” a virtual event with
Dr. Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz.
https://www.lsjs.ac.uk/the-jews-of-ancient-rome-tour-1370.php
2022: Grammy-winning U.S. rapper
50 Cent is scheduled to arrive in Israel for a single show at Tel Aviv's Menora
Mivtachim Arena today as part of his with ticket prices starting at NIS 349.
(As reported by Ron Boker)
2022: Rachel Levin, the world’s
best granddaughter is scheduled to march in today’s Bexley Parade for the
Fourth of July which members of Congregation Tifereth Israel can which from the
home of Rabbi Skolnik whose home is along the parade route.
2022: The London School of Jewish
Studies is scheduled host Rabbi Michael Harris as presents the first lecture in
the series on “A Tale of Two Trucks: The Problem of Moral Luck.
2022: The Pardes Learning Seminar
which brings together community leaders, professionals and lifelong learners,
who wish to study classical Jewish sources either online or within the
landscape of Israel and this year will focus on the topics of Shabbat and
Shmittah is scheduled to continue for a second day in Jerusalem.
2022: As Israelis celebrate the
triumph over terrorism known as the Raid on Entebbe, based on previously published information
they are bracing for another wave of terrorism tied to the upcoming visit of
President Biden.
2023: In the United States
celebration of Independence Day
https://forward.com/life/450090/four-jewish-facts-for-the-4th-of-july/
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/fitting-in-fourth-july-jewish-immigrants
https://aish.com/jews-and-july-4th/
2023: Based on previously
published reports, the IDF plans more raids as the Jenin offensive continues.
2023: Even though many places are
closed today due to Independence Day, the Museum at Eldridge Street is
scheduled to be open to visitors.
2024: Parliamentary elections,
where anti-Semitism has become an issued are scheduled to be held today in the
United Kingdom.
2024: The National Library of
Israel is scheduled to host a concert with Barry Sakharof, “one of Israel’s
best rock musicians.”
2024: In Philadelphia, the
Weitzman Museum is scheduled to a host an “indoor parade watch party, make
crafts, enjoy sensory-friendly play with Adoughma, sing and dance with Khalil
Munir and Two of a Kind.
2024: Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik is
scheduled to present a podcast on how Jewish ideas and the Hebrew Bible
inspired the Founding Fathers and America's fight for independence
2024: The Lillian and Albert
Small Capital Jewish Museum is scheduled to host an Independence Day Summer
Party Family Day Program
2024: As July 4th 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 272 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.)
