This Day, July 8, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
July 8
1099: In a
move reminiscent of Joshua at Jericho, during the First Crusade 15,000 starving
Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as the Muslim
defenders look on. This seemingly desperate move is part of the preparations
for the final successful Crusader assault that will take place on July 15
following which the Moslem and Jewish citizenry would be slaughtered by those
who claim to fight in the name of the man who said, “love thine enemies.”
1153: Pope
Eugene III passed away. In an effort to gain support for the Second Crusade,
Eugene had “issued a bull announcing that all those who joined in the holy war
were absolved from the payment of interest on debts owed to Jews.” Regardless
of the level of participation, it gave Christians a chance to repudiate the
legitimate debts owed to Jews. (As reported by Graetz).
1187: Acre
surrendered to Saladin
1230: “Pope
Honorius III issued from San Rieti an order directing the Archbishop of Mayence
to compel the [Jewish] community to pay the sum of 1,620 marks before the
following Easter, threatening it with exclusion from all dealings with
Christians if it failed to raise the amount.”
1510: A
printed edition of Halikhot Olam, Talmudic dissertations by “Rabbi
Jeshua ben Joseph Ha-Levi was published at Constantinople
1497: Today,
with a fleet of four ships and a crew of 170 men Vasco da Gama began his first
voyage which take him around the Cape of Good Hope to India where in 1498
“while harboring his fleet in Anjediva, a small archipelago of five islands, he
was greeted by a Jewish man of about 40 who said he been born in Posen, Poland
and had been taken prisoner en route to Jerusalem and sold as a slave in India”
and whom da Gama baptized as Gaspar da Gama, the future “pilot of Vasco's fleet
in Indian waters” and a linguist for the King of Portugal “on other naval
expeditions.
1623: Pope
Gregory XV passed away. During his papacy Gregory appointed three expurgators
to approve, revise or otherwise deal with Jewish texts.
1654:
According to some sources, Jacob Barsimon left Holland aboard the Peartree
for New Amsterdam. He was the first Jewish resident of New Amsterdam (New
York). Other sources claim that the Peartree and Barsimon did not set
sail until July 17 and did not arrive until August 22, 1654. Regardless of
which dating one accepts, the origin of the Jewish Community is dated from
September 7, 1653 when 23 Sephardic Jewish refugees from Recife (Brazil) arrived
in New Amsterdam aboard the French ship, St. Charles.
1663: Jews
were already living in Rhode Island when The British Crown granted a charter
the colony founded by Roger Williams, which guarantees freedom of worship. The
Jews had arrived in Newport in 1658. Reportedly, these were Sephardic Jews who
had fled from Brazil to avoid another round of the Inquisition.
1690(2nd of
Av): After having been arrested and forced to ride a horse from which he fell
several times, Rabbi Aaron ben Moses Teomim of Worms, author of Mate Aharon
died while on his way to prison from a combination of “fright and
ill-treatment.”
1709: Peter
the Great defeated the Swedish Army led by Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava
after which “marano physician and diplomat” Daniel de Fonseco helped the
Swedish monarch in his attempts to get the Ottomans to support him in his fight
with the Russians and the Poles.
1721:
Elihu Yale passed away. While serving as the English governor of Madras Yale
had a romantic relationship with a Portuguese Jewess who was the wife Jacques
(Jaime) de Paiva (Pavia), a successful Jewish trader and businessman. The wife,
Hermonia de Paiva, went to live with him, causing quite a scandal within
Madras' colonial society. Hermonia and the son fathered by Yale both later died
in South Africa. [The next time you look at the Hebrew Letters in Yale’s seal,
you might remember Hermonia.]
1751:
Birthdate of Nathan Wolf Ben Abraham the native of Dessau who was praised for
his commentary on the Book of Job but who earned the ire of the Jewish when he
produced a book for young Jewish readers that had a preface which included his
“complaints again the Jewish nation.”
1755: This
evening during the Emden-Eybeschütz Controversy, Jacob Emden’s house was broken
into and his papers seized and turned over to the "Ober-Präsident,"
Von Kwalen. Six months later Von Kwalen appointed a commission of three
scholars, who, after a close examination, found nothing which could inculpate
Emden.
1768: Cossack
leader Maksym Zaliznyak and 73 rebels were imprisoned in Kyiv-Pechersk
Fortress. Zaliznyak had played a key role in the Massacre at Uman where 20,000
Jews and Poles were killed during the Koliivshchyna rebellion. Zaliznyak was
not imprisoned because of Russian government cared about the Jews who had been
betrayed by their countrymen. He was
imprisoned because the government feared his rebellion would spread and
undermine imperial authority.
1773(17th
of Tammuz, 5533): Tzom Tammuz observed as the citizens of Poland, including its
large Jewish population cope with the aftermath of the Second Partition.
1775: Four
days after he had passed away Judah Leib b Reuben was buried today at the
“Hoxton Old Jewish Burial Ground.
1776: The
Liberty Bell was rung to summon citizens of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the
reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. The
Liberty Bell takes its name from the inscription taken from Leviticus 25:10
that states, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the
inhabitants thereof."
1781: In New
York City, Betty Abrahams married Cauffman Cohen today.
1792(18th
of Tammuz, 5552): Tzom Tammuz observed on the same day that Secretary of the
Treasury Alexander Hamilton wrote to President George Washington concerning a
contract for the mooring chains and Beacon Boats to be used on the Delaware
River.
1798: As
Napoleon began the campaign against the British that would lead him to
Palestine and the making of promising concerning Jewish rights there, he
arrived at Demenhour where the army “gained scanty refreshments.”
1805: Simon
Mussina, merchant, newspaper editor, and attorney, was born to Zachariah and
Nancy Mussina in Philadelphia today,
1805:
Rothschild writes the Landgrave seeking the status of “Protected Jew” in Kassel
so that he could business there while still living in Frankfurt. The
request was rejected. The need for such a request was symptomatic of the
crazy quilt of regulations designed to limit the business opportunities for
Jews.
1807:
Rothschild wrote to his son Nathan telling him that that Czar Alexander and
Napoleon had met at Tilsit. He expressed the hope that peace would
prevail. In the end, his hopes proved to be unfounded.
1815: In
Charleston, SC, Esther and Major Myers Moses gave birth to Hortensia Moses, who
became Hortensia Seixas when she married Jacob Levy Seixas with whom she had
eight children.
1816: As the
Great Powers work to deal with the “rights of Jews” in a post-Napoleonic
Europe, Lord Castlereagh, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
wrote to the Earl of Clancarty saying, “My Lord: As it is probable that the
situation of the Jews may become subject of consideration to the Allied
Plenipotentiaries at Frankfort, I have received the commands of His Royal
Highness the Prince Regent to instruct your Excellency, in that event to
encourage the general adoption of a liberal system of toleration with respect
to the individuals of the Jewish persuasion throughout Germany, in order that
they may not be deprived of those indulgence that lately enjoyed.” (The prince
regent refers to the future George IV who had been serving as regent during the
final years of the reign of his father George III, of American Revolutionary
War fame. I do not know enough of the
nuances of English history to understand his interest in the rights of
continental Jews. Always more to learn.)
1822: Percy
Bysshe Shelley, the English poet whose work includes “The Wandering Jews
Soliloquy” passed away.
http://www.litgothic.com/Texts/wj_soliloquy.html
1824: Emanuel
Hyams married Rachel Lyon today at the Great Synagogue.
1824:
Birthdate of Kovno native and supporter of Jewish settlement in Palestine Kaloynymous Zeeb Wolf Wissotzky, who provided
most of the money for the establishment of the Be ha-Sefer school at Jaffa and
who funded “the “establishment of a Talmud Torah that included technical
classes in Bialystok” while leaving a million ruble bequest at his death to be
used for “Jewish national purposes.’
1825: In the
West Indies, Judge David Naar, the St. Thomas born of Sarah and Hazan Joshua
Naar and his wife Sarah Cohen Naar gave birth to Moses D’azevedo Naar.
1831:
Birthdate of Bohemian author Seligmann Heller whose works included the epic
poem "Ahasverus.”
1836:
Birthdate of British statesman Joseph Chamberlain. Regrettably, Joseph
Chamberlain’s greatest claim to fame was the fact that he was the father of
Neville Chamberlain, the great appeaser of the Hitler period. Jews should
remember him as a British political leader who was sympathetic to Herzl and his
cause. In 1903, Chamberlain was one of those who worked to offer Uganda
as a colony which European Jews could settle.
1838: A band
of Druze attacked the Jewish community of Tzfat. This incident is a far cry
from the relations today between the Druze and the Jews. Founded in the
early 11th century, the Druze faith was initially based on the doctrines of
Shi’a Islam. As with other such groups who deviated from Islam, the Druze have
been at odds with the dominant Moslem populations in the countries where they
live – Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. There is a Druze community in Israel and
Druze soldiers have served with honor and distinction in the IDF
1839:
Birthdate of John D. Rockefeller whom the world connects with petroleum,
Standard Oil and monopoly. For Jews he
was one of those who signed the Blackstone Memorial, a petition favoring “the
delivery of Palestine to Jews” that was presented to President Benjamin
Harrison.
1846: Henry
Woolf married Sarah Jane Asher at the Great Synagogue today.
1847(24th of
Tammuz, 5607): Rachel Lindo, the widow of the late David Lindo, and the oldest
member of the local congregation passed away at the age of 85 in Bridgetown,
Barbados.
1848: In
Germany, Fiecken and Abraham Bendix Weinberg gave birth to Bendix Abraham
Weinberg who survived for only one day.
1849: In New
York, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Schwab gave birth to Sophie Schafer, the wife of
Samuel Sacher.
1849: Formal
installation of Toechter Lodge No. 1 of the Free Sons of Israel. This lodge was unique because it was made up
of women, as can be imagined by the name which is the Yiddish word for
daughter.
1850:
Birthdate of Frederick de Sola Mendes the native of Montego Bay, Jamaica, West
Indies who gained fame as a rabbi, author, and editor. The son of Abraham
Pereira Mendes and Eliza de Sola, he was educated at Northwick College and at
University College School, London, and at the University of London where he
earned a B.A. in 1869. “Subsequently he went to Breslau, Germany, where he
entered the university and studied rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary
of Breslau. Mendes received the degree of Ph.D. from Jena University in 1871.
Returning to England, he was licensed to preach as rabbi by Haham Benjamin
Artom, in London, 1873; in the same year he was appointed preacher of the Great
St. Helen's Synagogue of that city, but in December removed to New York, where
he had accepted a call to the rabbinate of Shaaray Tefillah congregation (now
the West End Synagogue); he entered upon his duties there January 1, 1874.
Mendes was one of the founders of the American Hebrew. In 1888 he took part in
the Field-Ingersoll controversy, writing for the North American Review an
article entitled "In Defense of Jehovah." In 1900 Mendes joined the
staff of the Jewish Encyclopedia as revising editor and chief of the
translation bureau, which positions he resigned in September 1902. Associated
with Dr. Marcus Jastrow and Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, he was one of the revisers of
the Jewish Publication Society of America Version of the Bible. He also
translated Jewish Family Papers: Letters of a Missionary, by "Gustav
Meinhardt" (Dr. William Herzberg). Of his publications the following may
be mentioned: Child's First Bible; Outlines of Bible History; Defense not
Defiance. He contributed also the article on the "Jews" to Johnson's
Encyclopedia. In 1903 he became for a time editor of The Menorah, a monthly
magazine. In conjunction with his brother Henry Pereira Mendes, and others, he
was one of the founders of The American Hebrew (1879), to whose columns, as to
those of the general press, he was a frequent contributor. He passed away in 1927.
1852:
Nineteen-year-old Zipporah Phillips, the daughter of Esther Seixas and Naphtali
Phillips married Lewis Benjamin today
1852(21st
of Tammuz, 5612): Moses Benedict the German banker and artist who was born at
Stuttgart in 1772 and who operated the
banking business of Benedict Brothers with his brother Seligman passed away
today.
1853:
Commodore Mathew Perry reached the entrance of Tokyo Bay, one of the climactic
moments in his move to “Open Japan to the West” which was the inspiration for
the Stephen Sondheim musical “Pacific Overtures” about “the westernization of
Japan.”
1854(12th
of Tammuz, 5614): Parashat Chukat-Balak
1854(12th
of Tammuz, 5614): Fifty-seven year old Solomon Isaacs Picard passed away this
morning in London.
1860(18th
of Tammuz, 5620): Tzom Tammuz observed on the same day that a series of fires
broke out in north Texas one of which led to the destruction of downtown Dallas,
and which led to unfounded claims that they conflagrations were part of
abolitionist plot to incite a slave uprising.
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2713&context=cwbr
1860:
Birthdate of German General Heinrich Adolf Wild von Hohenborn, the Prussian
Minister of War during WWI who “promulgated the anti-Semitic Judenzählung.”
1860: In
Ukraine, Anna Kramer and her husband gave birth to bakery store owner and
future Bostonian Victor Kramer.
1864: Birthdate
of Dymer, Ukraine, native Victor (Avigdor) Kramer, a bakery store owner in
Boston and the “husband of Rochel? Krasnoshchek and Anna (Elka) Kramer as well
as the father of Jacob (Yankel) Kramer; Isadore (Itzhak Leib) Louis Kramer;
Rose (Rochel) Snyder; Nathan (Nochem) Kramer and Abraham Albert Kramer.”
1868:
Birthdate of American journalist Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard, the founder
of the China Press, an English
language paper that supported the new government of Dr. Sun Yat-sen which he
sold to Edward Ezra, a leading Jewish businessman in China in 1918.
1870: In
Portchester, NY, Samuel Gottlieb and Julia Rothschild, gave birth to MIT and
Ecole des Beauz Arts trained architect the husband of Catherine Welch who
designed several buildings included Temple B’nai Jeshurun in New Jersey and the
“large country house of Jacob Rothschild at Deal, NJ.
1870: In
Dublin, Professor Alexander Macalister and his wife gave birth to Robert
Alexander Steward Alexander, the only professional archaeologist at the
excavation of Gezer which last from 1902 to 1902 and is best known for the
“Gezer calendar.”
1870:
Birthdate of Mark Peyser, the native of Washington, DC who practiced medicine
in Richmond while serving on the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia
before passing away in 1938.
1871: Isaac
Hyman who used to be a City Marshal in New York City was ordered to pay seven
dollars a week in support payments after he had been arrested today on charges
of abandoning his wife.
1871: In New
York City Leonard and Rosale Jacobs Lewisohn gave birth to “copper millionaire”
and horse racing aficionado Jesse Lewisohn and husband of Edna McCauley
Lewisohn.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/12/01/96286964.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1872:
Birthdate of Aaron Gumbinsky who gained fame as the songwriter Harry Von Tilzer
whose tunes included "A Bird in a Gilded Cage", "Cubanola
Glide", "Wait 'Til The Sun Shines Nellie", "Old King
Tut", "All Alone", "Mariutch", "I Love My Wife,
But Oh You Kid!", "They Always Pick On Me", "I Want A Girl
Just Like The Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad", And The Green Grass Grew All
Around and many others.
http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/harry-von-tilzer
1873: Union of
American Hebrew Congregations (Reform) was launched in Cincinnati under the
leadership of Dr. Isaac Meyer Wise.
1876: The
“Academy” published “a criticism” of “The Courses of Religious Thought”
published in the June edition of the “Contemporary Review” in which William
Gladstone found “fault with the Jews for giving p the belief in a personal
Messiah.
1877: In Warsaw, Feliks Rappaport and Justyna
Bauerertz gave birth to Emil Stanisław Rappaport the Jewish lawyer who served
as Judge in post-WW I Poland and was the author of several works on
international law.
1877:
Delegates representing American Hebrew congregations from the principal cities
in the United States are scheduled to hold the opening session of their
convention at Concordia Hall in Milwaukee. Approximately 150 delegates
are expected to attend. The primary aims of the meeting are to
consolidate all of the Reform congregations under one central body that will,
among other things, create a uniform service to be followed by all
members. “The convention will also discuss the feasibility of securing lands
in the West and South” for Jews who have not been able to “establish their own
homes and businesses.
1877:
“Prejudices,” a reprint of an article from Macmillan’s Magazine, published today
reported that “The past generation of Englishmen has been so generous to Jews
that” it would be “ungrateful” to accuse present day Englishmen “of being
consciously repelled by the idea of a poor Jew being worthy of
admiration. But 15 centuries of hatred” are not easily “wiped out” by the
passage of legislation. “A deep unconscious undercurrent of prejudice against
the Jew” still exists among Englishmen. This “unconscious Judaeophobia”
exists alongside “a tacit of assumption that modern Judaism is a lifeless code
of ritual instead of a living body of religious truth.”
1877:
According to a paper that Mr. E.G. Ravenstein presented to the Statistical
Society of London, the population of Russia has been increasing at the rate of
1.1 per cent per year with “the Jews being the most prolific” group in the
Czar’s Empire.
1877: It was
reported today that for several years the “American Hebrews” in New York “have
united to furnish poor Christian children in Industrial Schools with warm and
nourishing food.”
1877:
According to reports published today Judge Hilton’s decision to ban Joseph
Seligman (and all Jews) from his hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY has caused quite
a stir among Jews and Gentiles in San Francisco, CA. The Seligmans are
quite well known to Californians and are well thought of. A ban like the
one adopted in Saratoga Springs would not find any support on the west coast
since the Jews are viewed as being patriotic citizens who are always ready to
“extend their aid and assistance” whenever it is needed. The Jews are viewed
as being “valuable and…respectable” members of the community, “good neighbors
and …businessmen” whom the “hotels are very glad to have” as customers.
1878: William
Evarts, the U.S. Secretary of State in the administration of President
Rutherford B. Hayes, has complied with a request made by M.S. Isaacs of
New York, President of the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites and
Simon Wolf of Washington, DC, the Vice President of the Board of Delegates of
the American Israelites. He “has instructed” the U.S. “Consul at
Tangiers, Morocco to co-operate with the representatives of other governments
in using his good offices” on “behalf of the oppressed Israelites in the Empire
of Morocco. The instructions are similar to those given several years
to…the Consul at Bucharest which proved so beneficial for the relief and
protection of the Jews” in Romania who were being persecuted at that time.
1879: Moritz
Loth of Cincinnati presided over the opening session of The Sixth Council of
the Union of American and Hebrew Congregations at Standard Hall in New York
City. Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El offered the opening prayer
followed by Moritz Ellinger’s opening address.
1879(17th of
Tammuz, 5639): Tzom Tammuz
1880: An
untitled article published today credited the Jews with developing the first
principles of what we now call the insurance industry. The Babylonian
Talmud contained a systemized code that articulates “the principle of sharing
among a number the loss of a single individual.”
1880: In
Poland, “Harris and Gittle Baran” gave birth to Meyer Barnet, the husband of
Sarah Barnett with whom he had seven children.
1882:
Birthdate of Austrian native Harry “Baum a volunteer settlement worker on the
Lower East Side who became one of basketball's greatest coaches during the
early decades of the 20th Century and is considered the father of fundamental
basketball tactics”
1882: “A New
Socialistic Society” published today provided an insight into the divisions
within Jewish socialists when it reported that among the officers elected were
a Corresponding Secretary in German and a Corresponding Secretary in
Russian. Added to the mix was the fact that the first speaker of the
evening whose topic concerned the future of the Jewish race was named Allen
McGregor.
1883: It was
reported today that the outbreak of Cholera in Egypt is so serious that the
British are considering transferring their troops from the land of Nile to
Malta or Cyprus. If the plague reaches Cairo the Jewish population will
find itself at great risk since most of it is confined to a quarter that
consists of narrow streets without drainage or proper sanitation of any kind.
1883: “Notes
from Cincinnati” published today described “an important (upcoming) event…the
ordination of four young Rabbis from the graduating class of the Hebrew Union
College.” They are part of the school’s first graduating class.
1883: It was
reported today that Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler opened the exams given to the
rabbinical students at HUC by declaring that “Cincinnati had become the center
and heart of American Judaism” a fact “he attributed to the great and energetic
mind of” Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise.
1885 Birthdate
of Paul Josef Levi, the native of Stuttgart who as Paul Leni began working as a
theatrical set designer in pre-war Germany before becoming a filmmaker during
the Weimar Republic.
1885: It was
reported today that after the latest conscription deadline had passed nearly
16,000 Jewish draftees had failed to report for military service. This meant
that the Jews had missed their quota by more than 50% of the mandated
total. Jews were not the only ones who avoided serving in a military that
was meant to brutalize them and in which there was no opportunity to enter the
officer corps. Bashkirs, Tartars and Mennonites were among other groups
who sought to avoid service in the Czars army using such tricks as injuring
their fingers and lessening the measurement of their chest since a conscript is
rejected if his chest does not measure at least half the length of his stature.
1885: Birthdate
of Ernst Bloch, a German Marxist who fled Germany during the 1930’s. When he
returned he went to live in East (Communist) Germany. He broke with Communists
and defected to West Germany in 1960. Bloch had opposed Herzl and Zionism in the
1960’s he became an outspoken advocate of Israel’s right to exist. He passed
away in 1977.
1886:
Birthdate of Chicago native Edward G. Felsenthal, the attorney and real estate
executive who earned his undergraduate and law degrees at the University of
Chicago.
1886: In the
District of Columbia, Regina and Isaac Ottenberg gave birth to Georgetown
University trained attorney Louis Ottenberg, the husband of Nettie Ottenberg
with whom he had three children –Regina, Miriam and Louis, Jr. – who was a
national board member of the ADL>
1887: One day
after he had passed away, 54 year old Louis Kyezor, the husband of Julia Joseph
was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Cemetery.
1888: In New
York City, Abraham Fabricant and his wife gave birth to Louis Fabricant, the
NYU Law School Graduate, “a former partner in the law firm of Rosenberg,
Goldmark and Colin and former assistant district attorney whose passion for
providing legal assistance for those who could not afford it led him to become
“the attorney-in-chief of the Legal Aid Society of New York.”
1888: In Los
Angeles, CA, Chicago native Jacob S. Saleky “who became the treasurer of the
Irwin Garment Company of St. Louis” and his wife gave birth to J. Sydney
Salkey, who, after earning a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an LL.B
from Washington University School of Law pursued a career in corporate law with
a specialization “in federal taxation”
1888: The
Executive Board of the Union of Hebrew Congregations held its annual meeting
today in Cleveland Ohio simultaneously with the annual meetings of the Board of
Trustees and Managers of the Jewish Orphan Asylum and the Montefiore Home for
Aged and Infirm Israelites. Eight Governors of Hebrew Union College in
Cincinnati were elected by the board including Solomon Simon of New York City.
1888: An
“informal reception” was held to honor Rabbi Jacob Charif (Sharp) at his home
at 179 Henry Street. Charif has been to
New York from Wilna to serve as the leader for the Orthodox synagogues on the
Lower East Side
1889: “Hebrew
in Convention” published today described plans for the upcoming meeting of the
Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations which will be held in
Detroit, Michigan. The council is made up of lay and rabbinical delegates
representing organizations with an aggregate membership of almost 600,000
members.
1890(20th of
Tammuz, 5650): Fifty-two-year-old Ludwig Chronegk, the stage-manager and
"Intendanzrath" of the famous Meininger troupe established at Weimar
by Duke George of Meiningen” passed away today at Meiningen.
1890:
Birthdate of Vilna native Leon Pines who came to the United States in 1908
where he became a successful businessman active in Jewish causes including the
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies before passing away at Miami Beach in 1969.
1891: It was
reported today that “nine hundred Jews left Lithuania (Russian Poland) last
after refusing…to embrace” the Russian Orthodox religion “as ordered.”
1891: It was
officially announced today that the Porte (the government of the Ottoman
Empire) will only allow Jews to enter Jerusalem as pilgrims and will not allow
them to emigrate there as settlers.
1892:
Birthdate of Wilmington, Delaware native Samuel Isaiah Sacks the WW I veteran
and graduate of Temple Law School who also pursued a career in engineering who
was elected “as an Associate Member” of the American Society of Civil Engineers
in 1918 and who, in 1918, was a candidate for membership of the Engineers’ Club
of Philadelphia
1893: Only 120
of the 800 steerage passengers aboard the tramp steamer Red Sea which is due to
arrive in New York tomorrow are Russian Jews.
1893: Asher
Weinstein, a New York real estate man was on board the Cunard steamship Umbria
when it left today bound for Liverpool.
1893:
Birthdate of Fritz Perls
father of Gestalt therapy. He developed his therapy during the
1940’s. It should not be confused with Gestalt psychology developed
during the 19th century.
1894: Solomon
Schechter worked “in the library at what was known as the Old Schools” sorting
fragments of Hebrew manuscripts that had been found in the Cairo Geniza.
1894: Seventy-one-year-old
German biblical scholar August Dillman who was one of the foremost Old
Testament exegetes” passed away
1894: In
Chillicothe, OH, E.I. and Carrie (Weiler) Bergman gave birth to Ohio State
University graduate Bernard A. Bergman, the husband of Suzanne Weledinger who
served “served 14 months overseas with the 37th Division” during
World War I and was the editor of The Jewish Tribune before going on to do
“publicity work” for many national organizations including the ZOA and the
United Palestine Foundation Fund.
1895: It was
reported today that the stepped up enforcement of the Sunday Closing Laws has
forced various immigrant groups to take added precautions when selling their
wares including the Jewish merchants on the lower east side who operate
“sidewalk stands” that sell cigars, cigarettes, crullers, pretzels and candy
and who on Sunday “will not sell a stranger a soda water unless he speaks
Yiddish.”
1895: It was
reported today that 20 year old Alma Mayer who passed away yesterday had taken
her own life for reasons unknown after visiting her brother-in-law Carl
Sternberg, a New York Broker. The young Jewish girl had been the United States
for about a year, living most of that time with an aunt in Nyack, NY.
1895: Lazarus
Shapiro presided over a mass meeting of Jews living in the Tenth Ward during
which the attendees protested “the failure of the Board of Education to appoint
a” Jew “as a School Trustee for the Tenth Ward even though nearly 95 percent of
the children attending the schools in that ward” are Jewish.
1895: In New
York City, during a public meeting in Irving Hall, Jewish residents of the
Tenth Ward protested against the failure of the Board of Education to appoint
one of their co-religionists as a School Trustee. The demand was based on the
fact that 95 per cent of the students in the ward are Jewish.
1896:
Birthdate of Buffalo, NY native Sidney Janis, the “wealthy clothing manufacture
and art collector” and husband of Harriet Grossman who founded the Sidney Janis
Art Gallery.
1896: Seventy-seven-year-old
Isaac Bramfield who lives at the Hebrew Home on West 105th Street
was wounded in thigh by William Johnson who was trying to shoot William H.
Sutton.
1897: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for “Mayer Gottlieb, a flour merchant
and member of the Produce Exchange whose place of business was on 267 East
Houston Street.”
1898: During
the Spanish-American War, the 6th Massachusetts Regiment whose
members included “Philip Tworoger of Boston, John Hamberg of Adams, Jacob
Ostreicher of Lowell, Benjamin Baker of Lowell and Alfred J. Hermanson of
Boston which had “left Charleston, SC, on board the Yale” arrived at Santiago
today.
1899: The will
of David Krakauer was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s today.
1899: The
Heine Lorelei Fountain, a monument
dedicated to the memory of Heinrich Heine which is located at the
entrance to the Grand Concourse and the Boulevard was dedicated today.
1899:
Birthdate of lawyer and public servant, David Lilienthal. A lawyer by
profession, Lilienthal's twin passions were improving the human condition and
converting natural resources. He was able to further both of these when
he became the first Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in
1933. This major power producing, and flood control project was the most
important thing to improve the lot of a mass of Southerners since the end of
the Civil War. Lilienthal later served as the first chair of the Atomic
Energy Commission. He passed away in 1981.
1899:
“Nuremberg” published today provides a review of The Story of Nuremberg
by Cecil Headlam which described the changing fortunes of the city’s Jews for
whom “medicine was originally their chief possession.” “When the Christians
were no longer allowed to take interest for money” which had been “the business
of the monasteries” the Jews stepped in because they were not prohibited by
their laws to engage in such a practice.
As their wealth increased, their neighbors persecuted them, destroyed
their houses and “burned” them at the stake.
“In 1499 they were driven from the city” and not allowed to return again
until 1850.
1900: It was
reported today that attorney and Jewish philanthropist Randolph Guggenheimer,
the President of the Council of the City Greater New York and Chairman of the
committee planning the celebrating honoring Admiral Dewey was one of those who
sent a letter of condolence to “Mrs. J.W. Philip on the death of her husband,
Rear Admiral John W. Philip
1901: In
Atlantic City, on the second day of the meeting Jewish Chautauqua Professor Max
Margolis of the University of California delivered a paper that contended that
“Job was not a Jewish which led to “a lively discussion” led by Dr. Berkowitz
of Philadelphia.
1902(3rd
of Tammuz, 5662): Eighty-four-year old
Bavaria born Caroline Myers, the wife of Joseph Myers passed away today
in Richmond, VA.
1902:
Birthdate of Philip Hickman, the native of Spitalfields, London, who won
several bantamweight titles as “Johnny Brown” and who was the “older brother”
another English fighter who boxed as “Young Johnny Brown.”
1902: Herzl
visits Lord James in his quest to gain great power support for a Jewish home in
Palestine.
1902: “In
Lipovitz, Vinnitsa Region, Russia,” Bella and Nachum Petchersky gave birth to
American “real estate investor” Louis Leibish Petchers, the husband of Dolly
Pechters.
1903(13th
of Tammuz, 5663): Fifty-seven-year-old Esther Hellman Wallenstein the native of
Bavaria who was the founding president of the Hebrew Infant Asylum passed away
today in New York City.
1903: Herzl
writes to Polish author Pauline Korvin-Piatrovska and asks her to intervene for
him with the Russians. In the meantime, Wenzel von Plehve, the Russian Minister
of the Interior, and an anti-Semite calls for the suppression of the Zionist
Organization in Russia
1904: In
Plaquemine, LA, Hippolyte and Dora Kahn Urhry gave birth “furniture designer
and artist” Ralphy Urhry, the husband of Alene Fox Uhry and “the father of Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright Alfred Uhry and author Ann Uhry Abrams.”
1904(25th of
Tammuz, 5664): In Georgia, 64-year-old Charles Wessolowsky passed away today.
1905(5th
of Tammuz, 5665): Parashat Korach
1905: The
Ninth Summer Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society opened today in Atlantic
City, NJ.
1905(5th
of Tammuz, 5665):Eighty-four-year-old Philadelphia born watchmaker turned
attorney Moses Aaron Dropise, a strong opponent of slavery before the Civil War
and Jewish philanthropist who was president of Gratz College passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5331-dropsie-moses-aaron
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43059613?seq=1
1906: It was
reported today that killing of Jewish boy by a policeman in Ostrog was
accidental and that “the policeman would be tried” which was enough to prevent
any demonstrations by thousands of Jews who had attended his funeral.
1907: Florenz
Ziegfeld staged his first Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New
York City.
1907: Rabbi
Joseph H. Stotlz offered the opening prayer at the final session of the 18th
annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis at Frankfort,
Michigan.
1907: Rabbi
David Lefkowitz presented a paper by Rabbi Simon Peiser on “Religious Work for
Dependents and Defectives in Jewish Institutions” at the afternoon session of
the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis followed by
a Round Table on “The Institutional Synagogue” led by Rabbi Julius Rapport.
1907: In
Palestine, TX, Hyman and Mable Roxanne Pearlstone gave birth to Henry Ash
Pearlsteon, the husband of Marie Juliette Pearlstone with whom he had two
children.
1908:
“Financier and philanthropist John Davison Rockefeller Jr. and philanthropist
and socialite Abigail Greene "Abby" Aldrich” gave birth to Nelson
Rockefeller, the Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States
whose humanitarian work and liberal policies earned him the Universal
Brotherhood Medal of the JTS in 1961 and the Charles Evans Hughes Medal
presented by the National Conference of Jews in 1965.
1909: “Leaders
Not Anxious to Choose Bingham” published today described the reluctance of New
York political leaders to support an anti-Tammany ticket led by ex-Police
Commissioner Bingham based, in part, on the hostility of the city’s Jewish
voters who were upset by his “statement that 60 per cent of the criminals
convicted in New York City were Jews.”
1910: The
Queen of Holland appoints Joseph Carasso, Inspector of the Bank of Salonica, to
be Consul for Netherlands at Salonica.
1911: In
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the 15th annual summer assembly of the Jewish
Chautauqua Society led by Chancellor Henry Berkowitz continued for a second
day.
1912:
Birthdate of Moses M. Weinstein “a Queens Democrat who served in the State
Assembly, with stints as majority leader and acting speaker in the 1960s, and
nearly two decades as a trial and appellate judge of the State Supreme Court.”
1912: The body
of Julia Richman, the prominent New York educator who died unexpectedly while
in France arrives in New York aboard the S.S. Lapland and is taken to Temple
Ahawath Chesed
on Lexington Avenue.
1913: In
Seattle, WA, the National Conference of Charities and Correction, which Hermann
Wollenberger of Chicago is attending as
a delegate continued for a fourth day.
1914: John D.
Rockefeller, the oil tycoon who was one of those who signed the Blackstone
Memorial, a petition favoring “the delivery of Palestine to Jews” that was
presented to President Benjamin Harrison celebrated his 75th
birthday today by playing a round of golf.
1914: Today,
in the wake of the assassination of the heir to the throne of the
Autro-Hungarian Empire, The Council of Ministers for Austria-Hungary sent two
recommended options to Emperor Franz Joseph on how to handle its crisis with
Serbia including suggestion that “a surprise attack against the Balkan country”
or a suggestion to place demands on Serbia before mobilization to provide a
proper "juridical basis for a declaration of war"
1914:
Birthdate of New York City native and CCNY grad Sol Rafel, “the executive
director of Bronx House, the largest Jewish community center the borough” who
had two daughters – Judy and Ellen – with his wife Ruth.
1914:
Birthdate of Jacques Torczyner the native of Antwerpt who emigrated to the
United States in 1940 before the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries who became
a leading member of Zionist Organization of America.
1914:
Birthdate of Elisabeth Dorothea Bing (née Koenigsberger) “a German physical
therapist, co-founder of Lamaze International, and proponent of natural
childbirth” whose parents convert to Christianity a year before her birth – a
change which that did not keep the family from fleeing when the Nazis came to
power since under the laws she was Jewish.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/17/natural-childbirth-pioneer-elisabeth-bing-dies-at-100
1915(26th
of Tammuz, 5675): Emma Hyam, the daughter of London Jews Lawrence Hyam and
Caroline Elias, passed away today in Hamburg, Germany.
1915: “On his
return to London tonight after a fortnight’s visit to the firing line in
France, Chief Rabbi Hertz of the United Hebrew Congregation of the British
Empire said “that the spirit of the British and French soldiers was superbly
heroic” and that the courageous troops were “inspired by the conviction that
the Allies in the end would utterly crush their German and Austrian
adversaries.”
1916: “A
report from the Jewish Committee for Relief of the Victims of War in Petrograd
and made public” today said “there are now registered with the committee
185,596 Jewish refugees, 25,000 more than were on the register last November.”
1916: The
Young Judea Convention opened tonight in Long Branch, NJ where the 100
delegates heard speech from prominent local Jews and “members of the Zionist
movement.
1917: In New
York City, the Socialist Convention nominated Morris Hillquit to run for mayor.
1917: The 22nd
annual meeting of the Educational League for the Higher Education of Orphans
was held today in Cleveland Ohio.
1917: A
meeting of the executive committee of the Jewish Congress was held in New York
City today.
1917: The
funeral for 68 year old William Simmonds, the husband of Mary Simmonds and
brother of Johanna Simmonds is scheduled to be held this morning in Chicago.
1918:
Birthdate of economist and Federal Reserve governor Sherman Joseph Maisel, the
Buffalo, NY native and Harvard graduate “whose research on housing markets
shaped decades of federal policy on mortgages.’
1918:
Birthdate of Irwin Hasen, the Manhattan native best known for creating the
comic strip “Dondi.”
1919: Today,
in the House of Commons, “Cecil B. Harmsworth, Under Secretary for Foreign
Affairs said “that many Jews have lost their lives in the course of the
operations between the Russian Soviet forces and those of General Gregorieff,
the commander of the Ukrainian ant-Bolshevist army” who has been described as
“strongly anti-Jewish in his sympathies.”
(Editor’s note – a polite way of saying an anti-Semite who kills Jews)
1919: Harry
Reubin, the husband of the former Anna Rosenman with whom he had raised five
children was interred today at the “Free Sons’ Cemetery” in Chicago.
1920: In
London, on the second day of Zionist Conference, “in response to the clamor for
a more detailed report on Palestine, Dr. Weizmann consented to open the general
debated with a survey of the work done by the Zionist Commission.”
1920(22nd
of Tammuz, 5680): Sixty-two-year British author and biographer Elizabeth Lee,
the older sister of Sir Sidney Lee and “secretary of the English Association
whose works included Wives of the Prime Ministers passed away today.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wives_of_the_prime_ministers,_1844-1906
1921: Today,
“after a Harlem Municipal Court had returned a verdict in favor of Matilda
Pfeiffer dismissing ejectment proceedings brought by her landlord Police
Lieutenant John Becker, the owner of the property,” Justice Panken directed the
woman’s attorney to” file a complaint with the Mayor and the Police
Commissioner because Becker, who had run an ad saying that “Jews need not
apply” had apparently used police powers to oust Jewish tenants which led the
judge to ask “What chance has a good citizen belonging to a race that this
police Lieutenant doesn’t like when the citizen falls in his clutches?”
1921: In
response to a subpoena from the Meyer Legislative Investigating Committee, Mrs.
Mary Gordon “was said to have been asked to tell what Dr. Samuel Buchler,
Deputy Commissioner of Markets and former Jewish chaplain of Sing Sing Prison
had done in connection an unsuccessful application for a pardon for her brother
Hyman Berger” who is still in prison.
1922: The
Directors of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association of Camden, NJ
chose Dr. M. H. Spare to be directors of the two associations.
1922: Edwin
Herbert Samuel, 2nd Viscount Samuel and Hadassah Samuel gave birth to David
Herbert Samuel, 3rd Viscount Samuel
1923:
Birthdate of Fred Kort, who survived Treblinka to become the founder/CEO of
Imperial Toy Corporation and a noted philanthropist who “gave millions to
dozens of Jewish causes, including Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Bar-Ilan
University, the Anti-Defamation League and Israel Bonds.”
1924: In
Budapest Polish-Jewish tailor Sándor Starker and his Ukrainian wife, Margit
gave birth to cellist János Starker. (The NYT shows his birthdate as July 5)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10025887/Janos-Starker.html
1925: Forty-year-old
Rabbi William Rosenau, the German born son of Rabbi and Johana Rosenua,who
earned a PhD from Johns Hopkins today married Myra Kraus after the death of his
first wife, Mabel Hellman.
1925: It was
reported today that “The Judea Industrial Corporation, of which Judge Jacob S.
Strahl is President, has wired $50,000 to Jerusalem to be used as loans on
first mortgages on Palestine property.”
1926: “Alumni
Will Assist in $15,000,000 Campaign for National Farm School” published today
described plans to raise funds for the school as part of a five year plan
outline by Hebert D. Allman, acting president of the institution. (As reported
by JTA)
1927: Four
days after he had passed away, forty-six-year-old Julius Daniels, the son of
Bernhard and Julia Kaatz Daniels and the brother of Max, Minnie, Samuel and
Hattie Daniels was interred today at the Jewish Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
1927: “A
public apology” was released today on a nationwide basis that “avoided
humiliating Henry Ford” in which he asked for forgiveness for the ant-Semitism
expressed in the Dearborn Independent which gave Louis Marshall a chance
that this would be accepted because “the spirit of forgiveness is a Jewish
trait.”
1927: Birthdate
of Esther Frances Masserman, who as the author E.M. Broner “explored the double
marginalization of being Jewish and female, producing a body of fiction and
nonfiction that placed her in the vanguard of Jewish feminist letters.” (As
reported by Margalit Fox)
https://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/08/1927/birth-of-esther-broner-co-creator-of-women-s-haggadah
1928(20th
of Tammuz, 5688): Fifty-one-old Russian born “Rabbi Solomon Polyacheck, a
Professor of Talmud at the Elchanan Theological Seminary passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/07/10/91690485.html?pageNumber=23
1929(30th
of Sivan, 5689): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1929: Samuel
Ansell, the son of Simon Ansell and Henrietta Posner both of whom had emigrated
from Russia to London, passed away today in Auckland, NZ.
1930: Members
of Congregation Shearith Israel are scheduled to meet today to ratify the decision
of the board of directors to have Rabbi Jacob Weinstein of Austin, TX “to
succeed the late Rabbi Jacob Nieto.
1930(12th of
Tammuz, 5690): Composer Leo Zeitlin, the native of Pinsk whose birth name was
Lev Mordukhov Tseitlin passed away today in the United States.
http://promusicahebraica.org/the-musical-tradition/composers/leo-zeitlin/
https://toccataclassics.com/the-re-emergence-of-leo-zeitlin/
https://toccataclassics.com/the-re-emergence-of-leo-zeitlin/
1930: It was
reported today that the murder of Julius Rosenheim by gangsters five months ago
will be investigated by the grand jury since it has been revealed that he was a
paid informant for the Chicago Daily
News.
1930(12th
of Tammuz, 5690): Sixty-eight-year-old Columbia trained attorney New York State
Supreme Court Justice Nathan Bijur, the New York born son of Asher and Pauline
Sondheim Bijur and husband of Texan Lilly Pronich who was “a trustee of the
Baron de Hirsch Fund and of the Hebrew Free Trade School and a member of
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun passed away today.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bijur-nathan
1931: “Maxim
Gorki’s charge in Isveztia that Boris Pilnyak, one of Soviet Russia’s leading
novelists, and who is now in the United States, had manifested anti-Semitism in
some of his writing was catergorial denied by M. Pilnyak in a statement to the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
1932: It was
reported today that fourteen educational, religious and charitable institutions
will receive the income from trust funds totaling $40,000 under the will of
Benjamin Altschul, who died May 27, after the testament was offered for probate
in Surrogate's Court.
1933: Today, James
C. O’Leary of the Boston Globe reported that the Boston Braves which were owned
by Judge Emil Fuchs, the German born son of Orthodox Jews, Henrietta Wollenberg
and Hemann Fuchs “were in financial turmoil and a shakeup in ownership was
inevitable.”
1933: Diego
von Bergen, the German Ambassador to the Vatican, sends a telegram to Berlin
saying that Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen and Cardinal Secretary of State
Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, have initialed the Concordat between
Nazi Germany and the Vatican. The official signing will not come for another 12
days. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1934: The
National Convention of Young Judaea and the annual meeting of the Central
Tri-State Region of Young Judaea are scheduled are scheduled to continue for a
third day in Cincinnati.
1934:
Birthdate of Marvin Levin, the Chicago native who became a successful developer
in Sacramento, CA, where he “alerted the FBI to corruption in the California
Legislature in the 1980s and played a pivotal role in the ensuing sting
operation.”
1934: In the
East End of London, Cecilia (née Crook) and Myer Feldman, a gown manufacturer,
who were Jewish immigrants from Kiev, Ukraine gave birth to award winning
English comedic figure Martin Alan “Marty” Feldman best known for his role in
“Young Frankenstein.”
1935: “The
Raven” with a screenplay co-authored by Dore Schary was released in the United
States today.
1935: In
Brooklyn Anna Gelb and Max Liebowitz, “a cantor and house painter gave birth to
Sidney Leibowitz, the entertainer known as Steve Lawrence who teamed with his
wife Edyie Gorme as a popular song and dance team. They were regulars on
television variety shows in the 1950’s including Steve Allen and The Tonight
Show.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/arts/music/steve-lawrence-dead.html
1936: The
Palestine Post reported that the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, in
his personal, special radio broadcast, condemned all recent crime and violence.
Eliahu Said was shot dead on his way to his small tile factory on the outskirts
of Tel Aviv. A bomb was thrown at the Neveh Shalom police station. One British
officer, a soldier and six policemen were injured in an Arab-set ambush between
Tulkarm and Nablus.
1936: The
second international conference on Jewish Social Work opens in London.
1936(18th
of Tammuz, 5696): Artist and WW I veteran Arthur J. Luchs passed away today in
Washington, D.C.
https://www.askart.com/artist/Arthur_J_Luchs/10033554/Arthur_J_Luchs.aspx
1936: In
Pennsylvania, “Bucknell University today conferred honored degrees upon Roger
Williams Straus of New York and Newton D. Baker of Cleveland, co-chairman of
the national conference of Jews and Christians, for their promotion of
religious liberty.”
1937: The
Polish press criticized the partition plan for Palestine proposed by the
British government because this smaller version of a Jewish state will not
provide a large enough state to entice the majority of Polish Jews to emigrate
and the Poles are adamant in being willing to do anything to rid their country
of its ancient Jewish population.
1937:
“Premiere Benito Mussolini today removed one of the British Government’s many
anxieties over Palestine by announcing that he had forbidden any further
anti-British broadcasts in Arabic or other attempts by Italy to stir up Arab
hostility against the British Empire.”
1938:
Birthdate of Jerry Belson the scriptwriter who won three Emmy Awards for the
“Tracy Ullman Show.”
1938: U.S.
premiere of “Marie Antoinette” the cinema version of Marie Antoinette: The
Portrait of an Average Woman by Stefan Zweig starring Norma Shearer and
Joseph Schildkraut which was “the last project of Irving Thalberg for whom
Shearer converted so that they could get married.
1938: U.S.
premiere of “Fast Company” a cinematic treatment of a Harry Kuritz’s novel of
the same name starring Melvyn Douglas.
1938: Based on
a direct order from Hitler the Great Synagogue in Munich was scheduled to be
destroyed today which was German Art Day.
“A few hours before the order was carried out, the heads of the Jewish
community were officially given notice of the plans. Many members of the Jewish
community worked throughout the night in order to remove the Torah scrolls and
ritual objects from the synagogue. The municipality only reimbursed the Jewish
community for approximately one seventh of the value of the synagogue and the
neighboring Jewish community building.” (As recorded by Yad Vashem)
1938: British
Marines patrol the streets of Haifa where more than a hundred people have been
killed in clashes between Arabs and Jews in the central part of the port city.
1938: La
Civilta Cattolica, an official Jesuit publication founded by Pope Pius IX and
published under the direct control of the papacy, prints a study on the
"question of the Jews in Hungary." The author defends Hungary as
"the most solid and indestructible fortress of Christianity" but
laments how "disastrous" the presence of Jews has been for "the
religious, moral, and social life of the Hungarian people." (As reported
by Austin Cline)
1939(21st
of Tammuz, 5699): Parashat Pinchas
1939(21st
of Tammuz, 5699:) Mrs. Rose Lee Wind, a public school teacher in the Bronx, the
wife of Rabb Solomon Wind and the daughter of Rabbi Azriel Flax passed away
today.
1939(21st
of Tammuz, 5699): Seventy-eight-year-old Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman the son
of banker Joseph Seligman, the Columbia University professor who was a
proponent of the graduated income tax and a founder of both the American
Economic Association and the American Association of University Professors
passed away today.
1940: Lester
Baum, a film technician at Technicolor, and his wife, Nelda, a seamstress at
Columbia Pictures gave birth to Richard Baum “who confessed to having no
inkling as a Jewish American kid growing up in West Los Angeles that he would
become a Sinologist.”
1940(2nd of
Tammuz, 5700): David Benvenisti, Sephardic representative of the Tel Aviv
Municipal Council, passed away the age of 48. Benvenisti was born in Turkey and
had made aliyah from Egypt over 20 years prior. Thousands attended the funeral
of this modest man who dedicated his life to public service.
1940:
Birthdate of Baruch Arnon, the Yugoslav born American pianist and music teach
who taught at the Israel Academy of Music before joining the faculty of the
Juilliard School.
1941: As the
Wehrmacht conquered the town of Lachwa, a Polish town that had been in the
Soviet Occupation Zone, many Jews tried to escape with the retreating Red
Army. Those left behind included Zionist
leader Dov Lopatyn and Rabbi Hayyim Zalman Osherowitz who was arrested by the
Germans.
1941(13th of
Tammuz, 5701): Moses Schorr, Rabbi, Polish historian, politician, Bible
scholar, Assyriologist and orientalist died at the NKVD's 5th concentration
camp in Posty, Uzbekistan. Rabbi Schorr had fled east to the Soviet Zone to
avoid capture by the Nazis. Instead of freedom, he found himself in the
clutches of the Soviet security apparatus. While his life was a testament
to scholarship and community service, his death serves as a reminder that the
Jews of Europe died because they really had no place to go.
1941: Today, twenty-eight-year-old
Dartmouth College graduate and NYSE seat holder Orvil Dryoos married Marian
Sulzberger, daughter of publisher Arthur Hays Sulzberg, whose shoes he would
fill starting in 1961.
1941(13th of
Tammuz, 5701): The Ponary Executions begin. Hundreds of Jews were taken to the
resort of Ponary, stripped of all belongings, marched to the edge of a fire pit
and then shot into the pit. Ponary was near Vilna, Lithuania. Over 100,000 Jews
were murdered there and buried in pits. In 1943, the SS dug up the pits and
burned the bodies in an attempt to hide their crime.
1941: Jews
in the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) are forced to wear a
distinguishing Jewish badge. Within months the Germans and local anti-Semites
will murder most of the Baltic countries' Jewish population of one-quarter
million.
1941: At
Liepāja, Latvia, Werner Hartman, a German war correspondent “was present at the
killing site from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and saw about 200 people killed. The
procedure was for the Latvian "freedom fighters" (as they were called
by Hartman) to drive the victims ten at a time into a long ditch that ended in
a pit. There they would be aligned in a double row, and shot, generally by
Germans, but possibly by Latvians. The area around the execution site was
guarded by Germans and Latvians, the latter distinguishable by their
red-white-red armbands.”
1941(13th of
Tammuz, 5701): Hundreds of Jews are killed at Noua Sulita, Romania
1942: Today’s
entry in the diary of Adam Czerniakow, the head of the Judenrate in Warsaw,
reflected his understanding of the impending doom facing the Jewish People.
1942: Seven
thousand Lvov, Ukraine, Jews are murdered at the labor and extermination camp
called Janówska (Ukraine)
1942: Iconic
America author Ernest Hemingway wrote to his publisher Maxwell Perkins,
describing Nelson Algren’s second novel Never Come Morning saying “I think it
very, very good. It is as fine and good stuff to come out of Chicago...."
1942: Jewish
partisan Vitka Kempner and two others leave the Jewish ghetto at Vilna,
Lithuania, carrying a land mine with which they hope to disable a German
military train on tracks five miles to the southeast.
1943: During
World War II when the Red Army was doing most of the fighting against the
Wehrmacht “the largest pro-Soviet rally ever in the United States was held
today at the Polo Grounds, where 50,000 people listened to Solomon Mikhoels,
Itzik Fefer, Fiorello La Guardia, Sholem Asch, and Chairman of World Jewish
Congress Rabbi Stephen Wise.
1943: “Bruno
Kittel, an Oberscharfuhrer in the German Security Police, drove into the Vilna
ghetto and summoned Jacob Gens, the chief of the Jewish Police and the de facto
head of the ghetto and demanded the immediate surrender of Itzik Wittenberg,
the Communist commander of the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye (FPO), the
United Partisans Organization, the ghetto’s underground resistance movement.”
(As reported by Menachem Kaiser)
1943(5th
of Tammuz, 5703): Sixty-nine-year-old Vienna native and child piano prodigy
Professor Jullius Preuever, the conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
from 1924 to 1933 and a “member of the New York College of Music since 1940”
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/07/09/85109560.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1943: Today, patent
attorney and consulting engineer Emanuel R. Posnack, the Brooklyn born son of
Sarah Lourie and Aaron Posnack wrote to Margaret Batemen thanking her for her
helping in obtaining a copy of Democracy versus Socialism by Max Hirsch.
1944:
Between July 8 and July 13, Red Army troops and Jewish partisans kill
about 8000 German soldiers at Vilna. The Soviet forces were commanded by
Colonel General I.D. Cherniakhovsky, reportedly the youngest of the leading
Russian generals. When “asked if he was a Jew, Cherniakhovsky said, ‘My
parents were.’”
1944: “Johnny
Doesn’t Live Here Any More” the last film direct by Joe May and starring Simone
Simon, “the daughter of Henri Louis Firmin Champmoynat, a French Jewish
engineer, airplane pilot in World War II, who died in a concentration camp” was
released in the United States today.
1944(17th
of Tammuz, 5704): Parashat Balak
1944(17th
of Tammuz, 5704): At Auschwitz, today, Mirjam Braun scratched her name, today’s
date and a Star of David into a brick for reasons that remain a mystery seven
decades later.
1944(17th of
Tammuz, 5704): In France, Marianne Cohn was killed along with five non-Jewish
resistance fighters who were trying to escort a group of Jewish children to
safety.
1944(17th
of Tammuz, 5704): Seventy-year old Arthur Lenz died today in Berlin.
1944:
Liquidation of the Kovno Ghetto
1944: In San
Francisco, “Eileen (née Salzberg), a housewife, and Michael Bernard
"Mike" Tambor, a flooring contractor” gave birth to Jeffrey Michael
Tambor who won the “Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series –
Musical or Comedy in 2015” for his portrayal of Maura Pfefferman on the
television series “Transparent.”
1944: There
was a temporary halt to the deportation of the Hungarian Jews. By now some
437,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported. Another 170,000 still remained.
Adolph Eichmann had other plans for them
1945:
“Skorzeny Directed Terror” published today described how “Jews…were shot in
droves in October, 1944 after the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Forces…had overthrown
the Hungarian government of Admiral Nicholas Horthy” in a “revolt inspired by
Otto Skorzeny” the SS officer responsible for rescuing Mussolini.
1946: “The
Years Between” a film version of the novel of the same name with music by
Benjamin Frankel was released today in the United Kingdom.
1947: Doctor
Chaim Weizmann appeared before the United Nations Special committee on
Palestine. In answering the question as to why the Jewish home had to be
in Eretz-Israel, Weizmann. He attributed the responsibility to Moses,
“who acted from divine inspiration. He might have brought us to the
United States, and instead of the Jordan we might have had the
Mississippi. It would have been an easier task. He chose to stop
here. We are an ancient people with an old history, and you cannot deny
your history and begin afresh.
1948: With the
reluctant approval of the General Staff, the order was given to abandon Kfar
Darom. The Israelis conducted the evacuation under the cover of darkness
carrying their weapons and two Torah Scrolls after having destroyed the
supplies and equipment they could not carry
1948: During
the War of Independence, the First Truce comes to an end a day earlier than
planned when Egyptian forces begin their attacks in the Negev.
1948:
Operation Dekel began today with the 7th Armored Brigade under the
command of Canadian volunteer Ben Dunkelman in the lead.
1948: Today
marks the first day in the Battles of Ten Days during which the Golani Brigade
“managed to repel the Arab Liberation Army attack on Sejera from Lubya, and
helped capture Nazareth and eventually Lubya in Operation Dekel.”
1948: Funeral
services for Bernard D. Rubin, the president of the Sweets Company of America
which manufactures Tootsie Rolls are scheduled to be hold this morning at
Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1948: For the
fifth time, Israeli forces attacked the Egyptian-held police fort of Iraq
Suwaydan
1948: Today, “the Arab League decided to set up a
temporary civil administration in Palestine, to be directly responsible to the
Arab League” but King Abdullah of Jordan was opposed to the plan since he
annexed eastern Jerusalem and the “west bank” to his kingdom and the Egyptian’s
eventually established their own High Commissioner as a replace for the still
born “civil administration.
1949: After the delegates from Syria and Israel met today at
Mishmar Hay Yarden, “Israeli Lt. Col. Mordekahi Mekleff said an armistice would
be signed with Syria “next week” thanks in no small measure to the efforts of
Brig. General William Riley of the United States Marine Corps who is serving as
the UN representative.
1950: In Tel
Aviv, Jaffa and Haifa, Leftists, including Communists and members of Mapam
marched in protest against the government’s policy regarding fighting in Korea.
1951:
Journalist Anthony Lewis married dancer Linda J. Rannells.
1951, The
Jerusalem Post reported that the Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett made his
first official visit to Nazareth. The State of Israel, Sharett told some 5,000
Arabs at an outdoor assembly, first in Hebrew and then in Arabic, considered
Nazareth a valuable trust. He blamed the Arab states for failing to negotiate a
final peace with Israel.
1952: The
Republican National Convention which Walter A Hass, the President of Levi
Strauss attended as an alternate, continued for a second day in Chicago.
1954(7th
of Tammuz, 5714): Fifty-eight-year-old Russian born NYU trained physician arthritis researcher Dr. Joseph Jay Bunim who
in 1910 came to the United States where his work led him to become “clinical
director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases in Bethesda,
MD while raising a son, Michael and two daughters with his wife Miriam Schild
Bunim passed away today.
https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/23/6/510.full.pdf
1954: In
London, Lavender and Sam Aronovitch gave birth to David Aaronovitch a regular
columnist for The Times, and author of Paddling to Jerusalem: An
Aquatic Tour of Our Small Country and Voodoo Histories: the role of
Conspiracy Theory in Modern History He won the George Orwell Prize for
political journalism in 2001, and the What the Papers Say "Columnist of
the Year" award for 2003.
1956: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for seventy-nine-year-old Lithuanian
native Kalman Marmor who in 1906 came to the United States where he pursued a
career in journalism with such publications as “the Jewish daily Morning
Freiheit” and the Daily Forward.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/marmor-kalman
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32584
1957(9th
of Tammuz, 5717): Eighty-year-old Russian born professor of account at St.
Louis who in 1905 came to the United States where “he was a life-long work for
the Jewish National Fund” passed away today in Los Angeles.”
1959: “Four
hundred delegates and accredited visitors including 140 from the U.S. and
Canada are attending the week-long “eleventh international biennial conference
of the World Union for Progressive Judaism” that began today in London
1963(16th
of Tammuz, 5723): Ninety-one-year-old Columbia Law School trained attorney and
realtor Benjamin Jonas Weil, the husband of “the former, Juliana Pollock” with
whom he raised two daughter and the brother of L. Victor Weil with whom he
expanded their father’s real estate business into B.J .and L.V. Weil Company”
while serving as “a trustee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and
President of Congregation Zichron Ephraim, passed away today.
1964(28th
of Tammuz, 5724): Fifty-eight-year-old New York University Medical School trained
physician and the “clinical director of the National Institute of Arthritis and
Metabolic Diseases in Bethesda” Dr. Joseph Bunim, the husband of Miriam Schild Bunim
with whom he had one son, Michael and two daughters and “a former president of
the American Rheumatism Association” whose “studies related to tbe pathology
and biochemistry of arthritis, and its bacteriology and immunology; to the
pathology of rheumatic heart disease, and to special investigations on adrenal
cortical steroids in rheumatic diseases” suffered a fatal heart attack today.
1966(20th
of Tammuz, 5726): Eighty-six-year-old “Samuel L. Lubell, a founder of Lubell
Brothers, makers of boys shirts and a founder of the Bell Oil and Gas Company”
and “an organizer of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism” passed away
today in Manhattan.
https://chapman.utulsa.edu/donor/jeanette-and-samuel-lubell-foundation/
1966:
Birthdate of Haifa native Hagai Shaham the Israeli violinist who gained fame
bringing the works of another Jewish violinist, Joseph Achron of blessed
memory, to the attention of classical music lovers and is the musical “partner”
of Arnon Erez.
1967: During
what became the War of Attrition, “an Egyptian Air Force MiG-21 is shot down by
Israeli air defenses while on a reconnaissance mission over el-Qanatra. Two
Su-7s equipped with cameras are then sent out to carry out the mission and
manage to complete several turns over Sinai without any opposition. Two other
Su-7s are sent for another reconnaissance mission hours later, but are attacked
by Israeli Air Force fighter jets. One Su-7 is shot down”
1968(12 of
Tammuz, 5728): Seventy-eight year old Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, Jr. the son
of Dr. Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen and Miriam Binswanger Solis-Cohen who “was
President of Mastbaum Brothers and Fleisher and of Albert M. Greenfield and
Company” and held the “Presidencies of the Jewish Publication Society of
America and the Philadelphia Branch of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America” passed away today.
1969(22nd
of Tammuz, 5729): Leo Translateur, the husband of Kate Translateur passed away
today in New York City.
1969: Israeli
defense officials reported that today, the IAF had “downed seven Syrian
MIG-21’s in a series of” “spectacular dogfights that took place in midafternoon
between Damascus…and El Quneitra” while losing no planes, a claim that the
Syrians disputed because they reported that the Israelis had lost four aircraft
to three for the Syrians.
1973(8th of
Tammuz, 5733): Ben-Zion Dinur, a Russian born Zionist activist, educator,
historian and Israeli politician who had made Aliyah in 1921 passed away.
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=363
1974(18th
of Tammuz, 5734): Forty-five year old Mark “Moose” Charlap, the native
Philadelphian who composed the music for several Broadway hits, most notably
“Peter Pan”, passed away today.
1976: Chaim
Herzog, Israel’s chief delegate to the UN met with Secretary Kurt Waldheim
today after Waldheim issued a statement calling on the world community “to act
urgently against ‘increasingly pervasive and pernicious practice of
terrorism.’” The statement was only issued after Waldheim had been
criticized by the United States for describing the raid on Entebbe as a
“serious violation of the sovereignty of Uganda” without making reference to
the hostages facing death at the hands of their captors who had been welcomed
by the Ugandans.
1976: Kurt
Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations, issued a statement today
“immediately after his return from Africa in which he gave a detailed account
of the role he had played in efforts to secure the release of the hostages at
Entebbe.”
1976: The
Jerusalem Post reported that for the sixth successive month this year,
Israel's exports exceeded the official target by 20 percent. Israel's foreign
currency reserves increased by $11m., reaching $1,034m., a sign of the positive
trend in Israel's trade.
1976: The
Jerusalem Post reported that a facsimile edition of the Aleppo Codex - the
oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible - was unveiled to the press in
Jerusalem. The Aleppo-Codex was written in Palestine in the early tenth
century. It is the earliest known Hebrew manuscript comprising the full text of
the Tanach. The Codex was taken to Egypt in the eleventh century and then to
the Syrian city of Aleppo (hence its name) in the fourteenth century. The Codex
was moved to its final, permanent home in Jerusalem in 1958.
1976(10th
of Tammuz, 5736): Ninety-year-old Hunter College graduate Blanche Gutter, the
New York City born daughter of Frederick and Matilda (Ottenreuter) Gilman
Gutter, who became President of the National Jewish Women’s Organization of
Greater New York while married to her first husband, David Goldfarb , the
father of Stanley Goldfarb and who became Blanche Gilman after she married
paper manufacturer Isaac Gilman after which she continued her works with “the
New York chapter of the American Red Cross, the Federation of Jewish Women's
Organizations, the Federation of Jewish, Philanthropies, the Federation of
Temple Sisterhoods and the Women's Board of Temple Emanu‐El while serving as
chairman of the New York State Commission for the Blind passed away today.(Editor’s
Note: Gilman, VT which was named after her husband was the home of George
L. Fox, the Methodist minister of “Four Chaplains” fame.)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gilman-blanche
1977: “The Bad
News Bears in Breaking Training” produced by Leonard Goldberg and written by
Paul Brickman was released in the United States.
1980: A
revival of Lerner and Loewe’s musical “Camelot” opened at the New York State
Theater at Lincoln Center.
1980: The
Eldridge Street Synagogue was designated as a New York City Landmark.
1981: The 11th
Maccabiah Games in which “3,500 athletes from 35 countries are participating”
continued for a third day.
1981(6th
of Tammuz, 5741): Seventy-nine-year-old American artist Isaac Soyer, the
younger brother of Moses and Raphael Soyer passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/16/obituaries/isaac-soyer-a-painter-of-the-american-scene.html
1982(17th
of Tammuz, 5742): Tzom Tammuz
1982:
“O’Hara’s Wife” starring Edward Asner and featuring Tom Bosley and Nehemiah
Persoff was released in the United States today.
1983: “Deadly
Force,” a mindless action film featuring Estelle Getty and Ned Eisenberg was
released today in the United States.
1983(27th
of Tammuz, 5743): Seventy-two-year-old biochemist David Ezra Green passed away
today.
http://www.nap.edu/read/10992/chapter/8
1985(19th
of Tammuz, 5745): Seventy-two-year-old “comedian and character actor” and WW II
veteran Phil Foster, born Fivel Feldman, who was best known for playing the
role of the Pizza making father of Laverne in the sit-com “Laverne and Shirley”
passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1985-07-09/news/mn-8149_1_phil-foster
1985:
Twenty-six years after its premiere on Broadway, a production of “Sweet Bird of
Youth” directed by Harold Pinter and starring Lauren Bacall opened in London’s
West End at the Haymarket Theatre.
1986: Kurt
Waldheim was inaugurated as President of Austria despite controversy over his
service in the Nazi Army during World War II. Waldheim had already served
as Secretary-General of the U.N. His Nazi past increased a growing antipathy
among some Jews for the international body.
1986(1st
of Tammuz, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1986(1st
of Tammuz, 5746): Eighty-six-year-old Naval Academy graduate and “father of the
modern nuclear” Admiral Navy Hyman G. Rickover who “was born Chaim Gdala
Rykower to Abraham and Rachel/Ruchla Lea (nee Unger) Rykower, a Polish Jewish
family from Maków Mazowiecki in Vistula Land” passed away today.
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/profile/hyman-g-rickover/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hyman-G-Rickover
1988(23rd
of Tammuz, 5748): Seventy-six-year-old Atara Tzofar, the Bavarian born daughter
of Bertha and Max Neuberg and the husband of Ze’ev Tzofar passed away today in
Israel.
1990: HBO
broadcast the first episode of “Dream On” a sitcom created by Marta Kauffman
and David Crane.
1996: Ariel
Sharon succeeded Yitzhak Levy as Minister of National Infrastructure.
1997(3rd of
Tammuz, 5757): Eighty-four-year-old Max Youngstein, the “head of production and
marketing for United Artists from 1951 to 1962” passed away today. (As reported
by Milt Freudenheim)
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/11/business/max-youngstein-84-helped-run-united-artists.html
1997: Sivan
Shalom began serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1999: The
Israeli Supreme Court ruled 2-1 that Israeli citizens can choose either secular
or religious dates for their tombstones, thus limiting the power of Orthodox
rabbis. Chief Justice Aharon Barak writes: “If, in this non-theocratic state,
the court fails to set the limits of religious freedom, we will be totally
neglecting the feelings of the population" (As reported by Austin Cline)
2000(5th
of Tammuz, 5760): Parsahat Korach
2000(5th
of Tammuz, 5760): Eighty-five-year-old Ronne Wohl Wulwick, the widow of Joseph
S. Wohl , the wife of Sam Wulwick and founder of the outreach program of Hineni
passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/13/nyregion/ronne-wohl-wulwick-85-jewish-advocate.html
2001(17th
of Tammuz, 5761): Tzom Tammuz
2001: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held today for ninety-year-old Leonard Pines, the
son of Isidore Pinkowitz, the second-generation head of Hebrew National Kosher
Foods who shortened the family name and transformed the family business, making
it synonymous with kosher foods for several generations of Americans.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2001-07-06-0107060076-story.html
2001:
“Barenboim plays Wagner Some Israeli listeners protest; most applaud” published
today described the reaction to conductor Daniel Barneboim’s decision to play
music by Wagner at the Israel Festival
for which he received “a standing ovation from most of the audience, but
angry shouts from a vocal minority.”
2002: After
returning from his vacation in Maine, today President Bush said that “he was
comfortable with Israel’s current position” but that as the situation on the
West Bank changes he “will call upon the Israelis to allow for more freedom of
movement by the Palestinian people” as they develop the institutions necessary
for the emergence of a Palestinian state.
2003: Judith
Miller met with I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, “the Vice President’s chief of staff”
after which Valery Plame’s identity as a C.I.A. agent was “publicly divulged.”
2003(8th of
Tammuz, 5763): Eighty-four-year-old journalist and “anti-apartheid activist”
Colin Legum passed away today.
http://spartacus-educational.com/JOUlegum.htm
2003: Today,
Wikipedia, the informational website, introduced its Hebrew language version.
2004(19th of
Tammuz, 5764): Seventy-seven-year-old Rabbi Albert Hoschander Friedlander
passed away. Born in Germany his family escaped to Cuba before finally settling
in Vicksburg, MS. After graduating from the University of Chicago and the
Hebrew Union College he carved out a career as a leader of the Reform Movement
who championed Civil Rights and inter-faith activities that would improve
relations between Christians and Jews.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jul/13/guardianobituaries.germany
2005: Lea
Fastow a former Enron assistant treasurer and the wife of Enron executive
Andrew Fastow, who “pled guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge and was sentenced
to one year in a federal prison in Houston, and an additional year of
supervised release” was transferred to a halfway house today.
2006: Andy Ram
became the first Israeli to win a grand slam tennis title when he partnered
Russia's Vera Zvonareva to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles crown.
2007: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including More Sex Is Safer Sex: The
Unconventional Wisdom of Economics by Steven E. Landsburg, the Jewish
economics professor who also wrote Why Jews Don’t Farm and The Last
Novel by David Markson which In rhythm and tonality, if not in content,
hints at the incantations of the Kaddish.
2007:
TheMarker newspaper won the Platinum Award for the most effective
advertising or marketing campaign at the 2007 Effie Awards in Israel.
2008: In
Israel, an International Conference on the Dead Scrolls comes to an end.
2008: Ryan
“Braun hit his 56th home run in his 200th game, the third-highest total ever in
a major leaguer's initial 200 games.”
2008: Albert
Louis “was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) degree by the University of
Ulster in recognition of his contribution to human rights and justice
globally.”
2008: The
New York Times describes the release of the DVD version “Hill 24 Doesn’t
Answer.”
Among the
first features produced in the State of Israel, “Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer” was
also the last film to be directed by Thorold Dickinson, a British director best
known for the gothic thrillers “Gaslight” (1940) and “The Queen of Spades”
(1949). “Hill 24,” released in 1955, has no obvious gothic elements but manages
to be just as claustrophobic and doom-laden as Dickinson’s more famous films.
Dickinson begins with a series of shots of bodies face down in the dust,
suggesting that all will not turn out well. Then he shifts into a complex
flashback structure, as three members of a small Israeli unit trying to claim a
hill overlooking Jerusalem in the last days of the 1947 conflict recount how
they came to be there. A former British officer (Edward Mulhare) is drawn to
the Israeli cause by his infatuation with a beautiful student (Haya Harareet);
an American tourist (Michael Wager) becomes obsessed with visiting the Old City
of Jerusalem; an Israeli officer (Arich Lavi) finds himself face to face with a
former German soldier fighting on the Palestinian side. If the film was meant
as propaganda, it’s of a particularly perverse kind: there are no calls to
glory, no heroic exploits to invite imitation, only the spectacle of a few
individuals acting on a sense of personal obligation with little expectation of
success. Dickinson stages much of the action at night, and the Israeli raid on
the Old City becomes a study in combat noir, exploring all the expressionist
possibilities of Jerusalem’s narrow streets and vertiginous drop-offs.
2009: In
Jerusalem, The Sala Manca Group presents a program entitled “Köken Ergun : 3
Films, Projects and Talk” in which the Istanbul born video artist shows three
of his works “I, Soldier,” "Tanklove,” and "Wedding” and then talks
about his research and project at Betselem archives, and how those materials
relate to his own work.
2009: Richard
Ravitch began serving as Lieutenant Governor of New York.
2010: Samuel
Estreicher is scheduled to discuss an amicus brief he filed on behalf of the
American Jewish Committee, et al., in the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez
Supreme Court case, involving competing values of non-discrimination and
freedom of association and the international law aspects of the Gaza blockade
at noon time meeting sponsored by The DC Hadassah Attorneys' Council
2010: Brandeis University today named Frederick
M. Lawrence, dean of George Washington Law School and a former Boston
University law professor, as its eighth president. Lawrence, a prominent civil
rights scholar who once headed the national legal affairs committee of the
Anti-Defamation League, will succeed long-time president Jehuda Reinharz in
January when he steps down after 16 years to lead a Jewish foundation focused
on leadership education.
2011: Massada
College, which was founded in Adelaide in 1975, and is the only Jewish school
in South Australia, is scheduled to cease operating today.
2011: Dan
Shapiro was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to Israel by Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton today. (As reported by Jewish Virtual Library)
2011: Jennifer
Chaddick and her family are scheduled to participate in Shabbat Eve services at
Temple Judah as part of her Bat Mitzvah weekend.
2011: The
Israeli trade office in Taiwan said today that it had accepted Taiwan's apology
for photos on a government website showing students in Nazi uniforms.
2011: Police
diverted two passenger aircraft that landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport
today and detained at least 250 suspected pro-Palestinian activists that landed
at the airport for questioning
2012: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Superman,
Larry Tye’s definitive work about the comic book creation of Cleveland Jews
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and the recently released paperback edition
of Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption
Created the Worst Financial Crisis of Our Time by Gretchen Morgenson and
Joshua Rosner
2012: “This
History of Invulnerability” by David Bar Katz is scheduled to have its final
performance at Theatre J-DCJC.
2012: The
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center and the Chicago Yivo Society are
scheduled to co-host the Second Annual Sarah Lazarus Memorial Concert.
2012: The
State Attorney’s Office will reportedly close the case against former Military
Intelligence chief Eli Zeira, who was accused of revealing the identity of
Mossad agent Ashraf Marwan during the Yom Kippur War, Channel 2 reported today.
2012: Hamas
continues to believe in armed resistance against Israel, a movement spokesman
said today, contradicting a statement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
over the weekend that the Islamic organization prefers non-violent means to
combat
2013: “Wild
West Hebron” is among the films scheduled to be shown today at the 30th
Jerusalem Film Festival.
2013: The
government's haredi enlistment bill will be enacted as early as August, Finance
Minister Yair Lapid announced today, but more experienced coalition sources
doubted he will be able to keep his promise.
2013: An
incident of vandalism carried out by a Muslim student at the University of
Duisburg-Essen triggered sharp criticism today over the lack of public and
university opprobrium toward the apparent criminal act
2014: The 92nd
Street Y is scheduled to host a lecture by Ruth Feldstein entitled “Black Women
Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement.”
2014: The
Historic 6th & I Synagogue is scheduled to host Jewish
Meditation Sangha.
2014: Israel
launched Operation Protective Edge today.
2014: As
sirens went on the Sharon plains and Caesarea a total of 117 rockets were fired
from Gaza at targets in Israel including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
2014: “Five
armed terrorists attempted to infiltrate Israel this evening when they entered
kibbutz Zikim through the sea. Troops from the Israeli Navy, the Givati Brigade
and the Armored Corps exchanged fire with the terrorists and killed all of
them.”
2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for
Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a “Tailgate Party” marking the
official opening of its “Auto/Biography” exhibit.
2015: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater
Washington celebrated the 10th anniversary of Special Project
Manager Clair Uziel and the 15th anniversary of Director of
Collections Wendy Turman,
2015: In Philadelphia, the National Museum of
American Jewish History is scheduled to show “Shampoo” as parts of ‘70s Summer
Cinema Program.
2015: “Beyond Fear,” “a controversial film
based on the life of Yigal Amir” the man who murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin “was screened in Jerusalem” this evening.
2015: The National Museum of American Jewish
History is scheduled to host the first in its Summer Teen Mobile Photography
Workshops.
2016(2nd of Tammuz, 5776): “Jewish Russian
American supercentenarian Goldie Michelson” passed away today at the age of 113
years and 335 days in Worcester, Massachusetts.
2016(2nd of Tammuz, 5776): Ninety-two year old
economics professor and mathematician Howard Raiffa, “a co-founder of the John
F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard” passed away today. (As reported by
Sam Roberts)
2016: “Scantily dressed women took to the
streets of Tel Aviv today for the annual “SlutWalk” protest, which highlights a
woman’s right to wear whatever she chooses want without facing sexual
harassment”
2016: Following a screening of “Pulp Fiction”
American filmmaker Quentin Tanantino is scheduled to engage in a Q & A with
the audience at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
2016: The Hub Theatre and the Jewish Community
Center of Northern Virginia are scheduled to present the world premiere of
“Redder Blood” a new play Helen Pafumi which was named “Best New Jewish Play of
2016.”
2016: The Dallas
Holocaust Museum Center for Education and Tolerance, which is located near
where the shootings” that claimed he lives of five police officers occurred,
had to close today so authorities could continue their investigation while at
the same time “Roberta Clark, director of ADL’s Dallas regional office and the
Jewish Council for Public Affairs condemned the attacks.
2017(14th of Tammuz, 5777): Parashat
Balak
2017: Because of Shabbat, the Maccabiah Games
will resume tomorrow.
2017(14th of Tammuz, 5777): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi
Joseph Ben Moses Trani of Safed.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/trani-joseph-ben-moses
2017:
This evening, “as dusk embraces the stones of the citadel, the story of
Jerusalem comes to life with breathtaking images and sounds projected on the
ancient walls of the Tower of David in the renowned Sound and Light show, The
Night Spectacular.”
2018: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Tailspin:
The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall --- and Those Fighting
to Reverse It by Steven Brill and Basic Black With Pearls by Helen
Weinzweig
2018: The 9th Annual AXELROD Israel Jewish Film
Festival is scheduled to being tonight in Deal, NJ.
2018: As part of the Illinois Holocaust Museum
and Education Center’s “Survivor Talks” series, Budapest native Vera Burstyn is
scheduled to describe a tale that includes “living in a Red Cross orphanage”
and staying with “an aunt with Swedish papers” during the Nazi Occupation.
(Editor’s note – were those “Swedish papers some of those documents created by
Raoul Wallenberg?)
2018: “The Maimonides Scholars Program, a
two-week immersive summer institute for advanced high school students hosted at
Yale University” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2019(5th of Tammuz, 5779):
Sixty-four year old Michael Seidenberg, the Brooklyn born son of bookkeeper
Dorthoy Hara and garment worker Sam Seidenberg and husband of Nicky Roe who was
the owner of Brazenhead Books, “the clandestine
bookshop and literary salon’ passed away today. (As reported by Neil
Genzlinger)
2019: Sixty-six-year-old “Jeffrey E. Epstein, a
billionaire New York financier long accused of molesting dozens of girls, who
was arrested on July 6 and charged with sex trafficking by federal prosecutors
and whose previous plea agreement had been negotiated a federal prosecutor now
serving as Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor, “is expected to appear before a
federal magistrate” today.
2019: The Lior Milliger Free Improvisation
Trio, led by Lior who “received his Bachelor Degree in Jazz Performance,
Composition and Music Education from The Jerusalem Academy of Music” and who
while Israel “established himself as a leading figure in the jazz education and
saxophone instructing fields” is scheduled to perform tonight at the Bushwick
Public House in Brooklyn.
2019: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is
scheduled to host “The Folklore of Ashkenaz,” a talk delivered in Yiddish that
“will examine how Jewish folklore, and Ashkenazic (Yiddish) Jewish folklore in
particular is different from other folklores around the world, while at the
same time, discussing how it shares many of the same characteristics.
2019: Rabbi
Dr. Raphael Zarum, the Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled
to lecture on “The Moon Landing and the Torah: Reflections on the 50th
anniversary of the first humans landing on the Moon.”
2019: This afternoon, the Jewish Museum in
London is scheduled to host The Haggadah from Ihringen: A “Budget” Illuminated
Manuscript during which Dr. Zvi Orgad will explore the evolution of the work of
Abraham of Ihringen “though an analysis of the illustrations and letters in one
of his Haggadot that are “on permanent display at the museum.
https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/event/the-haggadah-from-ihringen/
2020: Via Zoom, Touro Synagogue in New Orleans
is scheduled to host Dr. Jason Gaines, the Director of Undergraduate Studies
for the Dept. of Jewish Studies at Tulane University, where he teaches Hebrew
Bible and Early Judaism as he lectures on “Sickness,
Disease, and Disability in Biblical Texts.”
2020: The Addison Penzak JCC Los Gatos is scheduled to host via Zoon “Shuk and
Cook” during which attendees “will learn, talk, and cook together Sabich Salad,
Cheese and spinach phyllo burekas, Halva Mousse and mint lime margarita.”
2020: ME’AH is scheduled to
present online “O People of the Book”: The Relationship Between Islam and
Judaism.”
2020: Jewish Genealogy Society of
Cleveland is scheduled to host a virtual program on “Problem with ‘Grave’
Errors in our Cemeteries” will be led by Rabbi Akiva Feinstein on Zoom.”
2020: As the Pandemic worsens,
Israelis scheduled for “many outpatient services such as surgeries tests” may
experience a delay due to yesterday’s order by health officials that hospitals
“reduce activity in some outpatient clinics and surgical departments in order
to redirect all staff and resources into fighting coronavirus.
2021: Dr. Alexandra Dunietz
is scheduled to discuss her longtime collaboration with Professor June Cummins,
researching author Sydney Taylor's family, LES childhood, work with Lee
Strasberg and Martha Graham, decades of work at Cejwin Camps, and literary success
at the Museum at Eldridge Street.
2021: The ADL and the National
Constitution Center are scheduled to partner together for their annual Supreme
Court Review.
2021: In Cedar Rapids, the
Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meeet in-person and over Zoom to discuss the
book, The Middlesteins by Jamie Attenberg.
2021: The Jewish Community
Library is scheduled to host a
discussion of Isabel Wilkerson’s book, subtitled “The Origin of Our
Discontents,” about anti-Black racism in U.S. history, the caste system in
India and Nazi Germany.
2021: The London School of Jewish
Studies is scheduled to host Joanne Greenaway for the final stand-alone session
on honoring parents in difficulties situations of abuse and dementia as part of
the "Fifth commandment and parent-child dynamics today" course.
2021: Hamquom is scheduled to
host the final session of “The Last Days of Pompeii: A Jewish Perspective.”
2021: The YIVO Institute is
scheduled to present “Yiddish Ethnography and An-Ski.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/yiddish-ethnography-2021-07-08
2022: In Lockdown University is
scheduled to a webinar with Rabbi Shippel lecturing on the Parsha of the Week –
Chukat.
2022: In Cedar Rapids, IA,
Shabbat Evening Services are scheduled to feature the baby naming for Lydia
Pennington, the granddaughter of music man Bill Carson which will included an
Oneg sponsored by the Carson and Pennington Families.
2022: The Bloomfield Science
Museum in Jerusalem is scheduled to host an “Israeli Shabbat.”
2022: Based on the latest
published reports, so far seven people have died as a result of the Fourth of
July attack in Highland Park, Il and of them four are Jewish.
2023: In Berkley, CA, A
Laboratory for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present a drop-in Kabbalah course
taught by LABA Bay faculty and GTU professor Sam Shonkoff followed by group-led
Havdalah ceremony with tea, wine and potluck food.
2023: In Jerusalem, the Eden
Tamir music center is scheduled to host Hadas Fabrikant, violin; Yoni Etzion,
cello and Einat Fabrikant, piano as they perform “The Best of Chamber Musick
2023(19th of Tammuz,
5783): Parashat Pinchas
2024: The first program in a new
JDC Archives webinar series on Exploring the Jewish Experience in Poland from
WWI to the Holocaust: Insights from the JDC Archives is schedule to take place today
when Professor Sarah Ellen Zarrow delivers
a lecture on “The Joint and Women’s Vocational Education: A Case Study of the
Handicrafts Workshops for Jewish Girls in Lwów in the 1920s.”
2024: Agnon House is scheduled to
present another lecture in the online lecture series "The Legend of the
Writers: Kafka and Agnon", during which psychologist Ruth Netzerwill
discuss the figures of doctors in Kafka and Agnon's works and examine their
relationship to physicality, sexuality and femininity.
2024: Lockdown University is
scheduled to host a lecture by William Tyler on the “World War II in the Middle
East.”
2024: As July 8th 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 276 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.)
