This Day, June 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
JUNE 11
1509: Marriage of King Henry VIII of England and
Katherine of Aragon. Before marrying Henry, the Spanish made him promise that
he would never permit Jews to live in his Kingdom. Henry agreed which was no big deal at the
time since Jews had been officially banished from the realm for centuries. In one of those ironic twists of history,
Henry would rely on the book of Leviticus when seeking to divorce
Katherine. He sought support from Rabbis
in Italy whose interpretation of the divine text might be different from the
prelates in England. The Italian Rabbis
did not jump at the opportunity to bail out the English monarch since they had
no desire of angering the “Bishop of Rome” who had power over their existence.
1557: The
reign of King John III of Portugal came to an end. During his reign, John brought the
Inquisition to Portugal and its colonies.
Since the Jews had been expelled from his realm the Inquisition was
aimed at Conversos. Oddly enough, John met with David Reubeni in November 1525
where the King promised to supply him with ships and cannons. The King recanted when he realize that it made
sense to arming Jews while his Inquisition was hunting backsliding marranos.
1590: The entire Jewish quarter of Posen which was built almost entirely
of wood burned while the gentile population watched and pillaged. Fifteen
people died and eighty scrolls were burned.
1616: Sir Henry Finch, author of a book that called “for the restoration
of the Jews to the promised land” “was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law”
today.
1634: After having been pilloried twice last month, William Prynne, an
opponent of Jews settling in England sent a letter to Archbishop Laud charging
him with “illegality and injustice.”
1673: In Paris Etienne Picart gave birth to “French designer and engraver
Bernard Picart book plates “all of which are faithfully and carefully prepared
and are among the earliest engravings on Jewish ecclesiastical and ceremonial
subjects.
1758(5th of Sivan, 5518): During the Seven Years War, Erev Shavuot observed as James Wolfe prepared
his men for the surprise attack on Lighthouse Point during the siege of Louisburg
1774: Jews in
Algeria escape the attacks of the Spanish army.
1776: In South
Moravia, Chaile/Caroline and Salomon Strakosch “the elder” gave birth to
Leopold "Löbl Jünger" Strakosch.
1776: Today,
Joseph Lyon married Mary Underwood at Newport, RI.
1777(6th
of Sivan, 5537): Shavuot observed on the first anniversary of Thomas Jefferson,
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston having
been appointed to a committee to draft a declaration of independence.
1788: In
Denmrk Moroccan
Jew Joseph Sumbal who claimed to have founded a new world religion, accompanied
his servants and soldiers to the backyard of a royal palace to preach to the
crowd about his «ground-breaking» religion.
https://en.yabiladi.com/articles/details/87401/joseph-sumbal-this-moroccan-claimed.html
1791: John
Charles Lucena, the descendant of a Portuguese Marrano clan that had moved from
Rhode Island to Georgia married Mary Anne Lancaster.
1796(5th
of Sivan, 5556): Parashat Bamibdar and Erev Shavuot observed for the last time
during the presidency of George Washington.
1798: Troops
from Napoleon’s Army that were on their way to fight the British in Egypt,
Palestine and Syria disembarked at Malta in defiance of the Grand Master of the
Knights, a reactionary opposed to the French Revolution.
1807(5th
of Sivan, 5567): Erev Shavuot’
1807(5th
of Sivan, 5567): Sashia, the wife of Reb Nachman of Bratslav and the daughter
of Rabbi Ephraim, died today from tuberculosis
1807: Curacao
businessman Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto landed in North America. He would not be able to return to Curacao and
settled in New York where he served as the Rabbi for Congregation Shearith
Israel
1813: In St.
Thomas gave, Jacob Baiz, a native of Bayonne, France, and his wife Leah birth
to Isaac Baiz
1826(6th
Shavuot 5586): Shavuot
1826: James
Abraham Cohen-Stuart, the London born son of Elisabeth Gompertz and Abraham
Benjamin Cohen gave birth to Johanna J.
Cohen Stuart
1829:
Birthdate of Alphonse Millaud, the nephew of French published and banker Moïse
Polydore Millaud
1832: The
original version Robert le diable
(Robert the Devil) an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer was
performed at the Haymarket Theatre in Great Britain.
1832: In
Brussels, Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim a founder of the National Bank of
Belgium married Henriette Goldschmidt with who had three children, Clair,
Ferdinand and Hortense.
1834: Lewin
Aron (`Libesch') Pinner, who served as a rabbi in Bombst and Wronke became a
naturalized citizen of Posen under the terms of the Emancipation Act of 1834.
1835:
Congregation B'nai Israel laid the cornerstone for the first synagogue to be
built in Cincinnati, Ohio. The congregation would hire Max Lilienthal as its
Rabbi in June of 1855.
1841: Twenty-year-old
Rabbi Haim Nathan Dembitzer married Doba Duetscher who employed horse trader
and Unterreissheim-on-the-Main native Karl Friedrich
Cerf, the convert to Christianity as his chief military agent passed away
today.
1842:
Solomon Jacob Levy, Aaron Goldsmid and Samuel Lyon De Symons were the executors
of the will of Hyman Hymans of Middlesex which was probated today.
1843:
In London, Moses Ascoli and Elizabeth Lee Levy gave birth to Esther Asoclli,
the wife of Jonas Vaz-Martines whom she married at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
in London and with whom she had fifteen children.
1845(6th
Sivan, 5605): Shavuot
1845: In
Pikeln, Russian Empire, Rabbi Benjamin Rabinowitz and his wife gave birth to
Elijah David Rabinowitz-Teomim, who served as Rosh Yeishiva of Mir before
emigrating to Jerusalem in 1901.
1846 In Tabor,
which is now part of the Czech Republic gave Rabbi Gutmann Klempere and his
wife Julie birth to Dr. Jur. Alois Klemperer
1847: The
Jewish Chronicle reported that Maurice S. Mawson of Pernambuco had married Rose
Phillips, the second daughter of Michael Phillips. The bride was from Jersey and the wedding
took place at St. Helier.
1849: At the
14th meeting of The Free Sons of Israel, Noah Lodge Number 1, a
constitution was adopted marking the real date from which the society began
working as an effective organization.
1850(1st
of Tammuz, 5610): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz observed on the same day the Daily
Morning News (Savannah, GA) advertises “Jew David’s Hebrew Plaster,” the
“great remedy” for many ailments including gout and the rheumatism.
https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82015886/1850-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/
1852:
“America’s Mail – Some Additional Items” published today included a copy of
Lionel Rothschild’s “address to the independent electors of London” in which he
thanked them for their twice electing him to the House of Commons even though
he has been denied his right to take his seat in Parliament and soliciting
their support in the upcoming election so that the will of the people will hold
sway and he will finally be seated.
1852: In
Hammerstein, Prussia, Marcus Hertzberg and his was wife gave birth to A.M.
Hertzberg, the Mayor of Roma, “J.P. for the Colony of Queensland, Australia,”
and husband of Miriam Cohen, “the third daughter of Samuel Cohen” who began
serving as President of the “Brisbane Hebrew Congregation” in 1894.
1853(5th
of Sivan, 5613): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1853: In St.
Louis, MO, “United Hebrew Congregation formed plans for the construction of a
new building.”
1857:
"Denominations in London," published today reports that according to
Mr. Low's Handbook to Places of Worship London has 11 synagogues with 8,642
seats.
1857: Today,
Kehillat Anshe Ma'arab, the first Jewish congregation closed its original
burial grounds which had been established by the now defunct Jewish Burial
Ground Society and had the first burial in its new cemetery.
1859: In
Beaufort, SC, cotton plant owner “Morris Pollitzer and Anna Kuh Pollitzer gave
birth to Columbia University alum Sigmund Pollitzer, the dermatologist who “who
served as a surgeon in the Serbian-Bulgarian War” and was President of the
American Dermatological Association.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/661088
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/11/02/94451130.pdf
1859: Prince
Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, who served as Austria’s foreign minister for
nearly forty years, passed away. Metternich’s dealings with Jews were as
devious and Machiavellian as were his dealings with anybody else. Metternich was careful not to pursue
anti-Jewish policies that would offend the powerful Salomon Rothschild. He did come to the defense of the Jews during
the Damascus Blood Libel. But Heinrich
Graetz, the Jewish historian who lived during the Metternich Era, viewed him
negatively saying that Metternich was prone to treat the Jews in a manner
consistent with Maria Theresa rather than with the benevolence shown by Emperor
Joseph II. During the Napoleonic era Metternich said of the Jews, “I fear that”
they “will believe Napoleon to be their promised Messiah.”
1859: A major
silver strike known as the Comstock Lode is discovered in Nevada. David H. Cohen was one of several who Jews
worked “as ordinary muckers and miners” where they earned four dollars for
spending 12 hours beneath the earth.
Adolph Sutro was a self-taught engineer who tried to bring modern
technology to the mining operations.
This included the building of the Sutro Tunnel which a “passageway”
designed to improve ventilation in the mines while providing an easier way to
haul the ore and drain excess water.
1859: Disraeli
was replaced by his arch-rival William Gladstone as Chancellor of the
Exchequer.
1860:
Today, Benjamin Disraeli stated,
in a letter to Sir William Miles, that he wished to help "because, from my
earliest years, my sympathies had been with the landed interest of
England".
1862: Solomon
Benedict De Worms and his wife Henrietta, the “eldest daughter of Samuel-Moses
Samuel gave birth to their second daughter Laura who would die before her first
birthday.
1863: Today, the
38th Iowa Infantry arrived in the vicinity of Vicksburg, where the Union Army
of The Tennessee under Major General Ulysses S. Grant was besieging the city.
1863: In
Frankfurt, Selig Meier Goldschmidt and his wife Clementine Fuld the daughter of
Herz Salomon Fuld and Caroline Schuster gave birth to Hedwig Goldschmidt
1864(7th
of Sivan, 5624): Second Day of Shavuot
1864: Ignaz
Israel Bondy and Ottilie Bondy gave birth to Alois Ernst Bondy.
1864: During
the Civil War, Philadelphian Emil Myer completed his three year enlistment in
the Union Army mustering out as a Captain in Company C of the 27th
Regiment.
1864: During
the Civil War, Philadelphian Jacob Luescher completed his three year enlistment
in the Union Army mustering out as Sergeant in Company A of the 27 Regiment.
1864: During
the Civil War, Philadelphian Henry Roengarten who had begun his service as a
Corporal with Company completed his three year enlistment mustering out as a
Sergeant in Company K of the 27th Regiment.
1864: During
the Civil War, Philadelphian Jacques Adelsheimer, who had risen from the rank
of private to Captain while serving with the 27th regiment and who
had been wounded at Chancellorsville in 1863 completed his three-year
enlistment.
1865(17th
of Sivan, 5625): Elias Chaim Lindo, the nephew of Moses Mocatta who moved from
St. Thomas to London in the 1830’s where he pursued a life of Jewish
scholarship that included writing The History of the Jews of Spain and
Portugal passed away today.
1865:
Frederick Knefler is mustered out of the Union Army with the rank of Brevet
Brigadier General. He had joined the army in 1861 with the rank of Lieutenant.
1867: In
Königsberg, which was then part of Germany, Pinkus and Ida Stern gave birth to
Georg Joseph Stern an electrical engineer who retired from AEG in 1930 and
“devoted himself to his musical compositions until he passed away in 1934.
1868(21st
of Sivan, 5628): Lazar Horowitz, the leading Orthodox Rabbi in Vienna who
defended the historian Heinrich Graetz against charges of heresy and whose most
famous work was “Yad Eleazar” passed away today.
1870: The
funeral of Mrs. D. Dinkelspiel, the wife of the Treasurer of the Hebrew Mutual
Benefit Society is scheduled to be held this morning at Number 7, West 53rd
St.
1871: In
Louisville, KY, Lazarus Selligman and Carrie Sabel gave birth to Alfred
Selligman the graduate of the University of Louisville law school, husband of
Jennie Katz, defeated Republican candidate for Commonwealth attorney who is a
trustee of the Jewish Free Hospital, director of the Young Men’s Hebrew
Association and leader of Congregation Adath Israel.
1871: It was
reported today that the Jewish Times has
taken issue with criticism published in some Connecticut newspapers of the fact
that a rabbi had been asked to lead the opening prayer at the state
legislature. The Times contended
Protestant, Catholic or Jew could call upon the Divine to provide support for
the legislators and that anybody who questioned that was neither a Christian
nor a gentleman.
1871: The
Notes and News column reported on the efforts of Polish authorities to enforce
the new Russian rules that require the Jews to give up their traditional garb
and hairstyle – including the requirement that they shave their beards, cut off
their side curls, give up their long coats and their short pants. The Jews are
resisting the changes and the authorities are resorting to trickery and force
to accomplish their goals.
1871: Hatzofeh B’Eretz HaChadashah (The New
Land Speculator) “the first Hebrew periodical in America published its first
issue today in New York.”
1872: On the
day after his death, “watchmaker Joseph bar Yitzhak, the husband of Fanny and
Sarah Joseph and the father of Julia, Louis and Rose Joseph was buried today at
the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1872: “Jews
versus Christians” published today described the efforts of various societies,
many of which are located in England, to convert Jews. These efforts have met
with “very limited success.” Most Jews
do not respond to these expensive attempts and the few that do “are of a sort
whose private life and reputation does not render them very valuable
acquisitions as citizens.” The article
continues with a repute of the attacks on the Jews of Smyrna and suggests that
the money might be better spent teaching the Christians of Smyrna to behave
like Christians. The article concludes
that considering the Christian violence in Smyrna, “people almost be excused
for thinking that a liberal-minded Jew may easily be a better man than a Smyrna
Christian.”
1873: In
Hobken, NJ, founding of the Hebrew Ladies’ Aid Society of Congregation Adath
Emuno which had been founded in 1871.
1876:
Birthdate of NYU and JTS alum Bernard Calonius Ehreneich, the Hungarian born
son of Henry Reuben and Hannah Ehrenreich, the husband of Irma Bock and the
father of Rosemarie and Louis Sigmund Ehrenreich who served as a rabbi at
Congregation Beth Israel in Atlantic City, Congregation Adath Jeshurun in
Philadelphia and Congregation Kahl Montgomery in Montgomery, AL.
1876:
“Consecration of a Synagogue” published today described the services
consecrating a new orthodox synagogue in Washington, DC which were attended by
U.S. Grant, the President of the United States and the Speaker Pro Tempore of
the U.S. Senate (Editor’s note: The article fails to name the Synagogue was
Adas Israel which is still located in Washington, DC.)
1876: Louis
Raminsky, a Jew living on Mott Street was assaulted by Irishman named George Richardson
who mistook him for a man named Rubenstein.
1877(30th of
Sivan, 5637): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1877: As part
of their on-going and rather unsuccessful attempt to convert Jews, the
Conference on Jewish Mission began today “under the Presidency of the Lord
Bishop of Bath and Wells.
1878: At
Rochester, NY, Rabbi Sigmund Mannheimer and his wife gave birth to University
of Cincinnati graduate and HUC trained cleric Rabbi Leo Mannheimer who began
serving as the spiritual leader of Mizpah Congregation in Chattanooga, TN in
1902.
1878: In
Landau, Germany, Jakob and Ida Baruch gave birth to Rosa Baruch.
1878(10th
of Sivan, 5638): Thirty-eight-year-old Lucien Levy passed away this
afternoon. Based on the note found with
the body, he had committed suicide by taking strychnine. Levy, a successful New
York businessman had been for a week prior to this death.
1879:
“American Israelites in Russia” published today described the attempts of the
U.S. House of Representatives to remedy an inequity when it came to Jews owing
landing in Russia. Under Russian law,
Jews, including Jews who are citizens of the United States are not allowed to
own land in Russia. British Jews are allowed to own land in Russia under a
treaty that exists between those two countries.
The House wants the situation remedied since it amounts to
discrimination again American citizens based on their religion; something which
the legislators feel is intolerable.
1881: Maruice
Lippmann and Marie-Alexandrine-Henriette Dumas gave birth to French gold medal
winning fencer Auguste-Alexandre Lippmann.
1881(14th
of Sivan, 5641): British painter and engraver Solomon Alexander Hart, the son
engraver and Hebrew teacher Samuel Hart passed away. An observant Jew, “he was the first Jewish
member of the Royal Academy in London.” “Among Hart's Jewish works are:
"Hannah, the Mother of Samuel"; and "The Conference Between
Manasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell," which was bought by F. D.
Mocatta, who subsequently presented it to Jews' College.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hart_Self_Portrait.jpg
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hart,_Solomon_Alexander_(DNB00)
1881: It was
reported today that there are 277,000 Jews living in Kiev; 155,000 in Kovno,
143,000 in Minsk; 119,000 in Vilna and 98,000 in Bessarabia. The total Jewish population of Poland is
reported to be 815,000. Large
communities of Jews can also be found in St. Petersburg and Moscow where they
have been settling since the ban instituted by Nicholas I was overturned by his
successors.
1882: The New York Times published a review
of Spinoza: A Novel by Berthold Auerbach which has been translated into
English from the original German.
1882: It was
reported today that a dispatch from St. Petersburg states appointing Jews as
Chief Surgeons in the Russian Army has been forbidden.
1882:
Birthdate of Cacilie Altmann who was transported from Hannover, to Terezin and
finally to Auschwitz where she was murdered in 1944.
1883(6th
of Sivan, 5643): Shavuot
1883: “Felix
Adler and Israelites” published today described the belief of some Jewish
leaders, including those who are friends of Felix Adler, that membership in his
Ethical Cultural Society means that Jews have joined a group that is beyond the
pale of the Jewish community. Dr.
Solomon H. Sonneschein a leading rabbi in St. Louis has written an open letter
published in the American Israelite that asks his friend Adler, “Are you still
an Israelite, a disciple of Moses and the prophets, a standard bearer of God’s
love and truth, as understood by reformed Judaism…or have you hopelessly
abandoned the faith in which you were born and bred?”
1884: Myer
Lipman Nathan and Esther Sarluis were married today at the Great Synagogue in
London.
1884:
Birthdate of Brooklyn native Grace Baer Bachrach, the schoolteacher and wife of
attorney Clarence G. Bachrach with whom she had two children who was so active
in various civic and cultural organizations including the “Brooklyn division of
the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” that was honored as “Brooklyn’s First
Lady of Philanthropy in 1956.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/06/19/82045594.pdf
1885: It was
reported today that a Jew named Solomon Ovitch has arrested for seditious
practices at Kharkoff.
1886(8th of
Sivan, 5646): James Koppel Gutheim, who has been serving as Rabbi at Temple
Sinai, the leading Reform congregation in New Orleans, passed away this evening
in the Crescent City
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9901E2DF1438E533A25751C1A9609C94679FD7CF
1886: In New
York City “Louis Kelvin and Eva (Scollard) Steinman gave birth today to CCNY
and Columbia educated award winning structural engineer David Barnard Steinman,
the husband of Irene Hoffman.
https://www.asce.org/templates/person-bio-detail.aspx?id=11213
1886: Louis
Stix, the Westphalia, Germany born son of Deborah and Solomon Stix and his wife
Yetta Stix gave birth to Caroline (Carrie) Stix who became Caroline Weiss when
she married Samuel Weiss with whom she had four children – William, Nina, Louis
and Carol
1887: Mrs.
Abraham Bernstein, the wife of Jewish peddler living at Port Chester, found
today that her husband was living in Glenville, Connecticut, with another
woman. The towns are only a couple of miles apart.
1887:
Birthdate of Max Sievers, the chairman of the German Freethinkers League whose
inability to get a visa while living in the United States in 1939 after having
fled the Nazis meant he had to return to Europe where he was evening beheaded
by the Germans.
1888: In New
York during trial being held in the Court of General Sessions, the defense
attorney “spoke to the Jury as Christians and became very indignant” when held
them that Jews do not believe “in the divinity or miracles of Christ.” He
apparently forgot that five the jurors were Jewish.
1889:
Birthdate of Joseph Lewis, the Montgomery, Alabama born Jew turned atheist who
as President of The Freethinkers of America” called on Jews to “renounce their
‘antiquated creed’” and denounced “Yom Kippur as the ‘most degrading and
humiliating day in all the superstitious annals of religion’.”
1890:
Birthdate of Pittsburgh native and University of Michigan trained attorney
Nathan J. Gould, the Milwaukee resident and editor and president of The
Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/10/28/105165682.html?pageNumber=22
1891(5th
of Sivan, 5651): Erev Shavuot
1891: In
Berlin, an Associated Press correspondent met today with Herr Goldberg a
prominent Jewish financer who is the Director of the International Bank in
Berlin and serves as Consul General for Belgium
1891: The
first vice president and second vice president of the New York Life Insurance
Company admitted today that Julio Merzbacher had not retired as the company’s
Spanish-American because of ill health as previously announced but that he had
left the company after his embezzlement of from $300,000 to $500,000 had been
discovered.
1893: The new
Jewish cemetery on Long Island was dedicated today by the Mount Zion
Association.
1893: Timothy
J. Campbell was among those who delivered a speech when “a granite monument was
unveiled today” in “memory of the late Moses Mehrbach” at Cypress Hills
Cemetery where Rabbi Hirsch “conducted the devotional services and made the
dedicatory address.”
1893: In
Atlantic City, N.J., dedication of the Jewish Seaside Home took place toay..
The home was the outgrowth of a project in which four cottages had been rented
to provide a refuge designed to help improve the health of invalid mothers and
their children. The cottages were purchased and converted into a thirty room
institution which would meet the needs of these women and their offspring.
1893: George
Kennan will the guest of honor at dinner in London in honor of Colonel Goldsmid
“who has just returned from organizing Hirsch colonies in Argentina
1894(7th of
Sivan, 5654): Second Day of Shavuot
1894:
“Movement to Christianize the Jews” published today described a speech given at
the meeting of the American Hebrew Christian Society in New York where Rev.
John Wilkinson, Director of Mildmay Mission to the Jews of London, England
“said that he had come to tell his American brethren how to establish mission
for Christianization of the Jews and to try to influence the Christian
Americans to take a more active part in reclaiming them.”
1894: In
Ligonier, Indiana, founding of the Little Helpers’ Club whose members include
Ruth Selig, Ruby Solomon, Hortense Goldsmith and Stella Baum.
1895: S.K.
Brown, the son of an Austrian rabbi was ordained as a Baptist minister in
Camden, NJ.
1897: Dental
surgeon and businessman Dr. Hugo and Minna Luise Ascher gave birth to
Maragarete Lilly (Grete) the younger sister German expressionist painter Fritz
Ascher.
1897: The
Jewish community in München protests against holding the Zionist congress in
the city.
1897: Texas
native Andrew Moses began serving as a 2nd Lt. in the 11th
Infantry, USA.
1898: “London
Literary Notes” published today includes a review of Jew, Gypsy and El Islam in
which the author, the late Sir Richard Burton expresses his admiration for
Mohammedanism but “abuses the Jews.”
1898: Today eighteen-year-old
Zionist Rebecca Schweitzer the Russian born daughter of Hannah Levine and Hirsch
Gabrowitsky married Peter J. Schweitzer who passed away in 1923 which led to her
assuming the Presidency of Peter J. Schweitzer, Inc “the largest importers and
exporters of cigarette paper in the Unite States” which maintained a factory in
Vanduss, France.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/schweitzer-rebecca
1898: “Mr. and
Mrs. Bierman’s Garden Party” published today described the soiree given for
more than 100 residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews who were served
refreshments after enjoying musical selections played by the band from the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum
1898: “New Rabbis To Be Ordained” published today described the upcoming
plans for the graduation exercises to be held at the Hebrew Union College in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
1899: “Dreyfus and Picquart” published today noted that Captain Dreyfus
“has done nothing, absolutely nothing to become the center of all this fury
except not have sold the military secrets of France.” The real hero of affair is Major George
Picquart, the Minister of War.
1899: The ninth version the French anti-Semitic publication of Anti-Juif du Midi was published at
Montpellier.
1899: “Aid Asked for a Worthy Family” published today described the
efforts of the United Hebrew Charities to raise $400 for a 35 year old man, his
wife and four children. “Through
overwork, both the man and the wife have become chronic invalids” and the money
would be used to help them open “a notion store” that would provide them with
income and allow the family to stay together.
1899: “In The Russian Capital” published today described the attack in
Nicolaieff in which an unknown number of Jews have been killed or wounded.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0711FA3F5414728DDDA80994DE405B8985F0D3
1900: Birthdate of journalist, producer and broadcaster Lawrence E
Spivak, one of the creators, first producers and first moderators of Meet the
Press the original television news interview show. It was unique for its time
because it put a major political or other such leader on live television facing
the unfiltered question of four members of the working press. In various
formats, this program has survived for almost six decades. Spivak died in 1994.
1900: In Saxony, Hesse, Germany native Hulda Schickler who was murdered
at Theresidenstadt and her husband Adolf Aron Schickler gave birth to Kaethe
Kate Wolff, the wife of Siegfried Isak Wolff,
1901: “The first annual meeting of the National Conference of Jewish
Charities” took place at Chicago,
1901: In London Herzl attends a banquet at the Maccabaeans with Israel
Zangwill and Sir Francis Montefiore and other influential and wealthy Jews. But
the successes in London are merely social.
1902(6th of Sivan, 5662): Shavuot
1903: Leo Wise wrote a letter to Rabbi Zadok Kahn, the Chief Rabbi of
France
1903: Rabbis Pereira Mendes and Rabinowitz address of joint meeting of
B’nai Zion Kadimah and Benoth Zion Kadmah at the First Romanian Synagogue on
Rivington Street.
1903: In Boston, the Hebrew National Association held a meeting today
during which new officers were installed and was then followed by concert that
raised $65.00 for the Kishinev Fund.
1904(28th of Sivan, 5664): Parashat Sh’lach
1904: On her 18th birthday, Yiddish and English-speaking
actress, Vera Gordon, the Russian born daughter of Teiga Nemirovsky and Boris
Pogrorelsky who had been performing on stage since she was eleven years old
married Nathan A. Gordon, twelve years before she began performing in
Vaudeville and on the legitimate stage in such works as “The Land of the Free”
and “The Gentile Wife.’
Vera Gordon | Jewish
Women's Archive (jwa.org)
1904: “Russia” published today provided a lengthy review of George
Drage’s Russian Affairs in which the author writes “Concerning the Jews”
that “from 1887 to 1890 all Jews resident districts were harried from the homes
and forced to living in the Pale” and that the Russian persecution stands apart
from other of the anti-Semitic movement on account of its unparalleled
magnitude and ferocity and also because it is the direct act of a government
deliberately, systematically, remorselessly seeking to reduce to utter misery
about four and a half million of its own subjects.\
1905: Samuel Shimansky “acted as master of ceremonies” today when “the
cornerstone of the new synagogue of the Congregation Beth Israel was laid this
afternoon” while ten policeman “were on guard fearing the possibility that the
ceremony would be disturbed.”
1906: As a prelude to the Bialystok Pogrom, “the Police Chief of
Białystok, Derkacz, was murdered, most likely on the orders of the Russian
commissar and fervent anti-Semite Szeremietiev. Derkacz, who was Polish, was
known for his liberal sympathies and opposition to anti-Semitism; for this he
was respected by both the Jewish Bund and the Polish Socialist Party. On a
previous occasion, when Russian soldiers attacked Jews in the marketplace,
Derkacz had sent in his policemen to put down the violence and had declared
that a pogrom against the Jews would occur “only over his dead body”.
1906: Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Wadsworth
District Sunday Bill which would have the effect of unduly penalizing Jewish
merchants in Washington, D.C. who would have to closed for both days of the
weekend.
1907: In Mulhouse, Constance Kenendel Lang and Baruch Kahn gave birth to
Arthur Kahn
1908: The Old Windsor Theatre on the Bowery “which in the last decade has
been given over to Jewish plays and players” is scheduled to be torn down “to
clear the way for the approaches of the new Manhattan East River Bridge.”
1908: “Word was received today from Albany of the incorporation of the
Educational Theatre for Children and Young People, which as has heretofore been
run as a department of the Educational Alliance of which Samuel L. Clemens will
serve as President, Minnie Hertz as Secretary and Otto Kahn as one of its
Directors.
1909: In New York, a two-day conference that has created Young Judaea
came to an end.
1909(22nd of Sivan, 5669): Jacob Michailovitch Gordin “a Russian-born
American playwright active in the early years of Yiddish theater” who “is known
for introducing realism and naturalism into Yiddish theater” passed away.
https://www.bartleby.com/228/0852.html
1910(4th of Sivan, 5670) Parashat Naso
1910: While sentencing Michael Lazarus and Maxy Mayer to the Workhouse
today “for attempting to pick pockets, Magistrate Cornell in the Essex Market
Court said, “It is perfectly appalling to me to see the number of young Hebrews
who come to this court these days” because “when I was first a Magistrate there
were few Hebrews that came before me for this offense.
1911: “Colonel Garrard Explains” published provided Fort Meyer Commandant
Colonel Joseph Garrard explanation “for expressing, in an official indorsement,
the sentiment that a Jew, the son of a tailor would be a desirable army” saying
that “the custom in the service requires officers to call on and receive calls
from brother officers and their families” and this would not be appropriate in
the case of a Jew and besides which he was sure that the papers explaining all
of this had been stolen and given to attorney Solomon Wolf who then gave them
to the President.
1912: Twenty-seven-year-old Lumzer native Charles Belsky, the Holyoke, MA
business who is a partner in Belsky and Goldberg married Esther Cohen today
after which they had three children and were members of “Rotve Sholam
Congregation.”
1912: The City of Sumter, South Carolina where Jews purchased land for a
cemetery in 1874 and is the home of Temple Sinai, adopted the council-manager
form of government, making it the first city in the United States to do so.
1912: As of today, there are four Jewish candidates seeking election to
the Duma from Odessa.
1912: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Benjamin R Epstein, the Pennsylvania
educated former director of the ADL and author who raised two children – Ellen
and David – with his wife Ethel.
1912(26th of Sivan, 5672): Arthur L. Welsh passed away. Born in Kiev in
1881, Leibl Welcher, came to the United States with his father Abraham and
mother Deborah at the age of 10 where he would become Arthur L. Welsh. After trying a variety of careers, including
a stint in the U.S. Navy, Welsh found his calling as test pilot with Orville
and Wilbur Wright. In 1912,
the Wrights had sent Welsh to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in College Park, MD,
to serve as a civilian test pilot for a new plane being developed for the War
Department. On June 11, 1912, Welsh, accompanied by Signal Corps Lt. Leighton
W. Hazelhurst, was attempting to complete final military tests of the Wright
Model C airplane when the airplane buckled under its 450- pound load. Both men
were killed instantly, the first-ever fatalities at College Park. Hap Arnold who gained fame as one of the most decorated leaders of the
U.S. Army Air Force during World War II was one of his most famous students.
http://www.earlyaviators.com/ewelsh.htm
http://www.jewishdayton.org/observer/the-first-jewish-aviator/
1913(6th of Sivan, 5673): Shavuot
1913: Cantor Millard conducted Shavuot services at the Chicago Hebrew
Institute.
1913: Rabbi Gerson B. Levi officiated at the Confirmation Services held
at B’nai Sholom-Temple Israel in Chicago.
1913: While fighting in the Philippine Islands against rebels resisting
the American occupation, Private Louis C. Mosher “risked his life” so that he
could “rescue a wounded soldier under enemy gunfire.” He was awarded the Medal
of Honor for this rescue.
1913: In the Bronx, Christian Steenberg, a Norwegian American and Sadie
Mechanic who was Jewish gave birth to Risë Gus Steenberg
who would gain fame as “Risë Stevens, the internationally renowned
mezzo-soprano who had a 23-year career with the Metropolitan Opera, where she
practically owned the role of Carmen during the 1940s and ’50s.” (As reported
by Margalit Fox)
1914: Birthdate of actor Gerald Mohr, who although not
Jewish joined Tony Curtis as a pallbearer at the funeral of fellow actor Jeff
Chandler (Ira Grossel)
1915: American ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, received an
honorary degree of LL.D. from University of Constantinople.
1915: In Youngstown, Ohio, dedication of Rodef Sholem Temple.
1915: In Chicago, the Executive Board of the Anti-Capital Punishment
Society of America is scheduled to host “conference for those active to save
Leo M. Frank from the gallows” at the Auditorium Hotel.
1915: Tonight “former State Tax Commissioner Joseph S. Schwab, Chairman
of the New York Committee on the Commutation of the Sentence of Leo M.
Frank…sent a telegram to Governor Slaton of Georgia asking clemency for Frank.”
1915: Several prominent men from Illinois including Governor Dunne,
Senator James Hamilton Lewis and Harlow N. Higinbotham “sent final pleas by
wire today” asking Governor Slaton to commute Leo Frank’s death sentence.
1915: Based on remarks he made to attorneys representing both sides of
the case, it was reported today that Governor Slaton does not want “to pass Leo
Frank’s application over to his successor, Governor-elect Nat E. Harris, but to
decide it himself.”
1915: In Copenhagen, at the second day of its meeting, The Action
Committee (Va;ad HaPoel HaZioni) rejected Jabotinsky’s “plan to establish a Jewish Legion”
resolving that "The Jewish Legion
project stands in deep contradiction to the principles of Zionist activity...
no Zionist will participate or support this activity." (Editor’s note –
“Jabotinsky refuses to heed them and despite objections by the majority of Zionist
leaders, moves to London where he continues to work towards the establishment
of a regiment.”)
1915: It was reported that “mass meetings are being held daily throughout
the state” of Georgia at which resolutions are being adopted protesting
against” the commutation of Leo Frank’s death sentence.
1916: Aaron Mann, the Kovno born son of Zelick Mann and the brother Harry
Mann, the owners of Mann Iron and Steele Company in Norristown, PA today
married “Miss Sadei Leftco of Philadelphia, PA with whom he had one daughter.
1916: Djemal Pasha, military governor of Palestine for Ottoman Turkey,
issued a warning to the Jewish settlers that the creation of future settlements
would become more difficult. (This may have been in reaction to fact that a lot
of the Zionists were Russians and the Turks assumed that they would make common
cause with the Czar whose army they were fighting.)
1916: Today, “the Board of Directors announced the purchase of the Hope
Chapel” on East Fourth Street in New York so that it could become “the new
location for a new Jewish school – Talmud Torah Ansche Zitomerer.”
1916: Eight hundred people attended the wedding of Jacob Scheiner, the
son of Rabbi Samuel Scheiner and Bella Schwartz, the daughter of Samuel
Schwartz in New York.
1916: In the seven months following today’s meeting of the Executive
Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Greensboro Hebrew
Congregation in Greensboro, NC, United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis, New
Synagogue in NYC and Temple Sinai in Lake Charles, LA have joined the Union.
1916: “Seven candidates received the degree of rabbi, Preacher and
Teacher in Israel and twenty-two young men and women” were “awarded diplomas
from the Teachers’ Institute during the graduating exercises of the Jewish
Theological Seminary this afternoon where attendees heard speeches from Dr.
Cyrus Adler, acting President of the Seminary and Professor Mordechai Kaplan
who said that “the fundamental duty of the Jewish home is to keep alive he
demand for religious training of the young” and that “Jewish education must
come to be regarded as the one constructive activity in Jewish life which is of
supreme important and to which every man, woman and child in Israel should in
duty bound to contribute something whether it be in means, energy or in
idealism.”
1916: The Federation of the Oriental Jews of America held its third
annual meeting in New York. Joseph
Gedalecia served as President and Albert J. Amateau served as secretary. The
1000 member organization's purpose was the "Americanization and betterment
of condition of Oriental Jews."
1917: “The Women’s Proclamation Committee, the national women’s
organization for Jewish War Relief began its Summer Campaign in behalf of the
Ten Million dollar Fund which has already received a contribution “from
prominent women in Kingston, Jamaica” which was sent to Mrs. Albert Lucas, the
committee’s executive secretary.
1917: The Executive Board of the Jewish Congress Association is scheduled
to hold the first of two days of meetings concerning the upcoming meeting of
the national organization.
1917: It was reported from New York today Judge Julian W. Mack of Chicago
and Dr. Horace M. Kallen of Madison, WI, will participate in “a summer course
of lectures on Zionism” sponsored by the Intercollegiate Zionist Association of
America.
1917(21st of Sivan, 5677): German banker Julius Rosenheim passed away
today in Berlin.
1917: “Scores of counters were employed all day” today at the
headquarters of the American Jewish Congress Committee in the Metropolitan
Building opening ballot boxes tallying the votes for delegates to the upcoming
meeting of the American Jewish Congress.
1918: In Stamford, CT, “Leila (née Hughes), an opera singer, and Alfred
E. Aarons, a Broadway theatrical producer gave birth to Table Tennis (Ping
Pong) Champion Ruth Hughes Aarons who went on to a career as theatrical
manager.
1918: In Odessa, Ukraine, Rabbi Joseph J. Kaplan and Chava Lerner Kaplan
gave birth to American philosopher Abraham Kaplan, author of The Conduct of
Inquiry.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/24/us/abraham-kaplan-75-author-and-teacher.html
1918: During World War I, at Bois de Belleau, France, “after all the
other members of his group had been killed or wounded by from an enemy machine
gun” Jean Mathias, a Private in the U.S. Marines, “charged the gun position
alone, killing three of the crew and capturing the gun” – an action for he
which he was “awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross and the
French Croix de Guerre.”
1919(13th of Sivan, 5679): Seventy-one year old German born
U.S. Naval Academy Graduate Adolph Marix who served aboard the battleship Maine
when she exploded before the Spanish American War and who was promoted to the
rank of Admiral in recognition of courageous conduct during the Battles of
Manzanillo during that conflict and who was the husband of Grace F. Marix
passed away today after which he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/adolph-marix.htm
1920: Birthdate of Irving Howe graduate of City College and a veteran of
World War II who was a professor at CUNY, Brandeis and Stanford. A noted
editor of Yiddish literature who discovered the author Isaac Bashevis Singer
for an English-speaking audience, his work includes A Treasury of Yiddish
Poetry. His greatest popular acclaim came with the writing of World of Our Fathers. He was a lifelong Socialist and was considered to be one of this
country's most influential literary critics until his death in 1993.
1920: It was reported today that “General Allenby has sent his
resignation to the government in London as a protest against the appointment of
Herbert Samuel as High Commissioner of Palestine.”
1920: It was reported today that “the head office of the Jewish National
Fund has received messages from all parts of the world to the effect that big
movements were being organized everywhere to raise the money the Jew National
Fund needs for carrying out the immediate tasks” of settling Palestine.
1921(5th of Sivan, 5681): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1921: In Manhattan, Joel Russ, the founder of Russ and Daughters and his
wife Bella gave birth to Ann Russ, the future Anne Russ Federman, one of the
“daughters” in Russ and Daughters. (As reported by Sam Roberts. (If you haven’t
been to Russ and Daughters, you haven’t lived, or at least that is what my wife
would say)
1921: Birthdate of London native Michael Leverson Meyerson the scion of
“a timber merchant family of Jewish origin” who “won the 1971 Whitbread Award
for Biography” and whose “autobiography Not Prince Hamlet was published
in 1989.
1921(5th of Sivan, 5681): Daniel Joseph Jaffé, the son of
Martin Jaffé and a nephew of Sir Otto Jaffé, passed away. A noted waterworks
consulting engineer, his most famous efforts were completed in China. Evidence of his fame can be seen Hong Kong’s
Jaffe Road which was named in his honor.
1922: Prominent New York merchant Louis Stern arrived in Paris having
crossed the Atlantic on board the SS Homeric.
1922: “The betrothal of Dora Harrison and Fred Sirsky of Camden was
solemnized today in Prosperity Hall.
1922: In Mannville, Alberta, Canada, Max Goffman and Anne Goffman (née
Averbach) gave birth to sociologist Erving Goffman, the 73rd president of the American
Sociological Association
1923: “An official statement of the Soviet Government says that all Jews
who wish to join relatives in America may do so by applying for emigration
passports.”
1924: In Brooklyn Morris and Pauline Faust gave birth to high school
guidance counselor and author Irvin Faust.
1924: Rabbi Samuel Schulman offered the invocation at the opening of the
second day of the 1924 Republican National Convention during which he spoke
with appreciation for "the Republican Party's precious heritage of the
championship of human rights" and he called for "every form of
prejudice and misunderstanding" to be "driven forever out of our
land." 1926: Louis Greenspan who had been arrested after the car he was
driving struck and killed Congressman London is scheduled to return to court
today when police believe they will have completed their investigation into the
fatal accident.
1925(19th of Sivan, 5685): Sixty-six-year-old Flora Jolenberg,
the daughter of Abraham and Henriette Berliner and the wife of Siegfried
Jolenberg with she has two daughters, Estelle and Yvonne, passed away today in
Berlin.
1926: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that “a concert hall will be
erected in Tel Aviv through the efforts of Palestinian Jewish musicians as a
commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the musical composer
Engel.”
1927(9th of Iyar, 5687): Fifty-seven-year-old Louis Samuel Montagu, 2nd
Baron Swaythling, “the first professing Jews to inherit a peerage and seat in
the House of Lords, the President of the Federation of Synagogues and
anti-Zionist who opposed the Balfour Declaration passed away today.
1928: It was reported today that “a resolution attacking the Soviet
Government of Russia for persecuting Jewish Zionist workers has been adopted at
a special conference of the American Jewish Congress at the Hotel Pennsylvania.”
1928: Following the death of Eliezer David Greenwald, “an election
committee established by the Orthodox community’s board chose Joel Teitelbaum”
as his replacement today.
1929: The British High Commissioner wrote to the Mufti defending the
right of the Jews to ‘conduct their worship’ (at the Western Wall) as in the
past.
1929: Manny Sinwell began serving as Financial Secretary to the War
Office.
1930: After an agreement was reached between the competing parties today,
Joel Teitelbaum “was invited to serve as Satmar’s chief rabbi.
1930: Theodore Lesser, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Lesser, and his
bride, the former Claire Sylvia Fankenstyne are scheduled to sail today aboard
the Leviathan for their honeymoon trip to Europel
1931: Seventy-five year old Franklin Giddings, the professor of Sociology
at Columbia who in 1907 had told a group attending a lecture at the People’s
Institute in Cooper Union that he favors “the recent movement by the Jews to
keep Christian ceremonies out of the public schools” and that while “he favored
the Zionist movement, he feared that could not be made attractive to the Jews
to be successful” passed away today.
1932(7th of
Sivan, 5692): Second Day of Shavuot and Yizkor are recited for the last time
during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover who appointed Justice Cardozo to the
Supreme Court.
1933: It was
reported today that the German government “is digging through the backgrounds
of over 350,000 civil servants to find out who is of ‘Jewish extraction’ and
thus ‘liable to dismissal.’”
1933:
“The Jewish organizations of Silesia hld a conference to discuss the
safeguarding of rights of German Jews.”
1933:
In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, William J. and Jeanne (Baer) Silberman gave birth to
Jerome Silberbman the University of Iowa graduate who gained fame as the
multi-dimensional creator of comedy Gene Wilder.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/movies/gene-wilder-dead.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/29/gene-wilder-obituary
1934: Birthdate of Murray Wolfe, successful businessman, playwright,
poet, Yiddishist, and, most important of all, a first-class mensch. If you did
not know that Murray was a real person, you would think his life story was one
of those big historic novels written by Leon Uris.
1934(28th of Sivan, 5694): Lev Semenovich Vygotsky a developmental
psychologist known for his socio-cultural perspective passed away. Born into a
middle-class Jewish family in Orsha, Russia in 1896, Vygotsky's faith and
social standing shaped many of his choices and views.
1935: In Oklahoma City, OK Sylvan N. Goldman and Margaret Katz Gold man
gave birth to real estate developer and philanthropist Monte H. Goldman.
1935: Birthdate of Gene Wilder. Born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee
Wisconsin, Wilder is known for his roles in “Young Frankenstein” and “Silver
Streak.”
1936: As the wave of Arab violence increased, The
Palestine Post
reported that many Arabs were injured and a number might have been killed in a
battle with police and British troops in the Ein Harod area and during a
demonstration in Hebron. Arab crowds were dispersed in Jaffa where a British
constable was stabbed. Arab terrorists cut telephone wires and set some forests
on fire. The Second Battalion of the Dorset Regiment arrived in Jerusalem from
Egypt. Over a thousand one-year-old citrus trees were uprooted in Kfar Yona and
the late Field-Marshal Allenby's statue was damaged in Beersheba
1936: As the
Arab uprising continued, arsonists set fire to the fields of Kfar Joshua and to
the forest at Ataroth which is located outside of Jerusalem. Guards at the
forest fired shots at the arsonists as they escaped.
1936: In New
York, a Grand Jury voted to indict anti-Semitic pamphlet Robert Edward
Edmondson on charges of libel Dean Virginia Gildersleeve of Barnard College,
U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and “the Jewish religion.”
1937: Marx Brothers' "A Day at the Races" released to popular
acclaim.
1937: Stalin moves forward with the Great Purge which was animated in
part by anti-Semitism as the Soviet Dictator went after those whom he claimed
were followers of Trostky and which denuded the general staff of many seasoned
officer which helps to explain the abysmal showing of the Russians when the
Germans invaded in 1941.
1938(12th of Sivan, 5698): Parashat Nasso
1938(12th of Sivan, 5698): Sixty-year-old Russian born
Shmaryohu Leib Hurwitz, since 1927 rabbi, principal and director of the
Tiphereth Hagro Talmud Torah in Brooklyn, who was the husband of the former
Sarah Kanewetzky, with whom he had two daughters and two sons, passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/06/12/99544728.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1938: “Mr. Moto Takes a Chance,” “the fourth in a series of eight films
starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto” and produced by Sol M. Wurtzel was released
in the United States today.
1939: “All business in the Jerusalem post office was suspended” today
except for telegraph and cable service following the explosion of a bomb that
killed “a British constable” and the discovery of “an unexploded bomb which was
found in the post office garage.”
1939: “Dr. Chaim Weizmann…sent a letter today to the Mandates Committee
of the League of Nations attacking Britain’s new policy on Palestine as ‘the
triumph of force over moderation.’”
1940(5th of Sivan, 5700): Erev Shavuot
1940: As the Nazis sweep across France, Eugène Tisserant, a French
Cardinal working at the Vatican writes to the Archbishop of Paris lamenting the
silence of the Pope when it comes to the evil of the Nazis.
1940: “As a result of internal pressure from citizens objecting to the
large number of “transient” refugees (many of whom were Jews fleeing Hitler’s
Europe) who had reached Ciudad Trujillo and were waiting there to procure entry
into other North and South American countries, the Dominican Congress passed a
bill barring all immigration except of persons intending to make the Republic
their permanent home.” (JA)
1940: Leon Blum, who was in London, “decided to return to Paris” today.
1941: Following the bombing of Haifa, which is an important naval base
for the British, by German planes, the Vichy government has condemned reports
by the British that the German war planes “returned” to the Aleppo airfield in
Northern Syria. The term “returned” implies that the planes had flown from
Aleppo to attack Haifa and the Vichy French claim that there are no German
aircraft in Syria. Syria is a French
colony which is supposedly governed by the Vichy government under the terms of
the surrender agreement signed with the Nazis.
1941: Hans and Margaret Rey try to buy two bikes so that they can leave
Paris. The search is fruitless.
1941: Hans Rey spent 1,600 francs for two unassembled bikes. He then spent the rest of the day putting
them in working order.
1942:
Major Liebmann and his hundred
surviving men (out of a company that had been 400 strong when the fight began
on June 2) linked up with the forces of General Marie Pierre Koenig of the 1st
Free French Division who was in charge of the fort at Bir Hakeim. The French
general had no idea that his unit had been supported by this group of Jewish
volunteers. In perfect French, Major Liebmann told him that his men were
fighters from Palestine, but that they could not serve under their flag because
of British rules. Koenig then told him to raise their Star of David flag, and
all Free French officers around him saluted it.
1942: One
thousand Jews were deported from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to the “East,” where
they are murdered.
1942(26th of Sivan, 5702): Ten thousand Jews from the ghetto at Tarnów,
Poland, were murdered at the Belzec extermination camp.
1942(26th
of Sivan, 5702): Thirty year old Herbert Baum a Jewish member of the anti-Nazi
resistance was tortured to death today at Moabit Prison.
1942: “They
All Kissed the Bride” starring Melvyn Douglas was released today in the United
States.
1943: Himmler ordered the liquidation of all Polish ghettos.
1943(8th of Sivan, 5703): Twenty-four-year-old Benjamin Gans,
the Amsterdam born son of Isaac Gans and Rachel Roet and the husband of Debora
Kleinkramer was murdered at Sobibor today.
1943: U.S. premiere of “Coney Island” produced by William Perlberg,
co-starring Phil Silvers, for which Alfred Newman received an Oscar nomination
“in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.”
1944: For the next seven days the Germans shipped an additional 50,805 Hungarian
Jews to Auschwitz.
1944: Joel Brand, who is being held by the British, and Moshe Sharett
continue their meetings where Brand continues to explain the “Jews for trucks”
deal that he hopes will save the Jews of Hungary.
1945(30th of Sivan, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1945(30th of Sivan, 5705): Fifty-two-year-old Eliyahu Golomb
who played a key role in the creation of the Haganah and the Palmach passed
away today. Born in Russia in 1893, he made Aliyah in 1909. After working at
the famed kibbutz Dagania Alef he served with the British in the Jewish Legion
during WW I. During the inter-war years he worked with the Revisionists to try
and form a unified Jewish military defense force. During the Arab Revolts in
the 1930’s he served with the FOSH.
1946:
“President Truman created today a
special Cabinet committee to assist him in formulating and implementing
"such policy with regard to Palestine and related problems as may be
adopted by this Government."
1946: “It was learned today” that Isaac Darwich has a given to letter to
the government of France form his uncle Haj amin el Husseini, thanking the
French their hospitality before he snuck out of the country headed for Damascus
and eventually Jerusalem. (Editor’s note – apparently the brave French had no
trouble in providing refuge for the Grand Mufti who had spent of the war with
Hitler in Berlin)
1947: “Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations and Francis J. Bloustein, acting chairman of the new Riverdale
Temple, in the Riverdale section of the Bronx announced” today “the election of
Rabbi Charles E. Shulman as rabbi of the temple”
1947: “Forty business and professional men attended a private dinner”
tonight “at the Hotel Astor sponsored the Men’s Committee of the American
League for a Free Palestine presided over by Paul O’Dwyer, chairman of the
Zionist organization working to raise $7,500,000.(Editor’s note – prior to
1948, Palestine was a Jewish expression)
1948: Jordan’s King Abdullah ordered a “hunda” or ceasefire.
1948: King Abdullah visited Jerusalem and promoted Abdullah el-Tell to
the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and gave him command of three Jordanian infantry
companies occupying the Old City. El-Tell would be the lead negotiator who met
with Jewish military leaders in matters regarding Jerusalem.
1948: The first truce between the
Israelis and the Arab invaders began. During four weeks the Israelis had not
only survived, they were in control of respectable amount of territory. This included the eastern and western
portions of the Galilee, the Jezreel Valley from Haifa on the Mediterranean to
the Jordan River, the coastal plain as far south as Ashdod, a major portion of
the Negev and the corridor that connected Jerusalem with the rest of the Jewish
controlled territory. The U.N.
sponsored truce was supposed to last four weeks.
1948: As the first truce between Arabs and Israelis went into effect,
Kfar Darom was completely surrounded by Egyptian forces laying siege to the
Negev Kibbutz. The Kibbutz had been
under attack since December. The Moslem
Brotherhood had tried to capture it in April and the Egyptians had begun their
assault in May. Although the Kibbutz would eventually have to evacuated, its
gutsy stand gave heart to the embattled Israelis and prevented the Arabs from
sweeping up the road to Tel Aviv.
1948: David Shaltiel the Haganah district commander in Jerusalem began
the first in a series of meetings with Abdullah el Tell the commander of the
Arab Legion under the auspices of the UN.
1948: As of today, 300 people have
been killed and 1,400 more have been wounded since the battle for Jerusalem
began on May 14. The Arab Legion had
lobbed more than 14,000 shells at the Jewish defenders since the British High
Commissioner flew off to Haifa.
1948 (4th of Sivan, 5708): As
night fell on the first night of the truce, tragedy struck. The Jewish commander of the Jerusalem Front,
Mickey Marcus aka Mickey Stone, was shot by an Israeli guard. Marcus was spending the night with a Palmach
battalion. When return from a trip to
the latrine, Marcus was challenged by a guard.
Marcus spoke no Hebrew and was unable to respond. The youngster fired a warning shot and called
again for the password. Marcus did not respond
but kept moving forward. The young guard
fired several more shots one of which hit Marcus, mortally wounding him. Marcus’ most famous accomplishment was the
construction of the “Burma Road” – the roadway to Jerusalem built under the
threat of Arab guns that guaranteed Jerusalem would be part of the Jewish
state. Marcus’ body was taken back to
the United States, escorted by several leading Israeli leaders. Marcus was buried at West Point, the military
academy that gave him the training to fight for his country during World War II
and to fight for his people during the War of Independence.
1948: Syrian forces captured Bnot Ya’akov Bridge which spans the Jordan
River. The Syrians will be forced to
withdraw as a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreement.
1948: Birthdate David Lehman, the son of Holocaust survivors the poet and
editor for “The Best American Poetry” series.”
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/076.html
1948: American Syd Antin and South African Lionel Bloch joined the
Israeli air force.
1949(14th of Sivan, 5709): Parashat Nasso
1949: “A message from President Truman was read tonight at the opening
session of the eleventh national convention of Pioneer Women, the woman’s
Zionist organization meeting in Philadelphia.
1950: “Israel notified Jordan that it was holding up the establishment of
mixed border patrols” that are intended “to check Arab infiltrations into
Israel” and thus limit the possibility of clash between the military forces of
the two neighbors. Israel said that its
action was in response to Jordan’s failure to return three soldiers who had
been captured six weeks ago. Israel
claims that three are survivors of a five-man patrol that had accidently
crossed the Armistice line with Jordan. The Jordanian killed two of the
Israelis and imprisoned the three survivors.
In the meantime, armed Arab gangs continue to infiltrate the Jewish
state from Jordan.
1950:
Plans to proceed with the construction
of what is to be the "Harry S. Truman" village (Kfar Truman) in
Israel were announced here tonight at the "Land for Israel" dinner of
the New England Jewish National Fund. “Vice President Alben W. Barkley who
addressed the 1,500 guest accepted honorary chairmanship of the project.” In a
letter addressed to Dr. Harris J. Levine, chairman of the JNF which was read at
the dinner President Truman wrote, “I am highly honored and appreciate very
much what you are proposing to do.
1950: It was reported today that Rosemary Sebag-Montefiore the daughter
of Colonel Thomas Henry Sebag-Montefiore and the late Mrs. Sebag-Montefiore
plans to be married in England this October to her fiancé, Dr. Joseph Richmond,
Levenson, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard who is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
Max Levenson of Massachusetts.
1951(7th of Sivan, 5711): Second Day of Shavuot.
1951: It was reported toda that sculptor Jo Davidson has flown to Israel
from Paris “with plans for reproducing in marble the history of the birth of
the new stated.
1951: Eleven days after having been released in the United Kingdom “Sirocco” a film based
on Coup de Grace written by Joseph Kessel, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and
co-starring Lee J. Cobb was released in the United States today.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
resumed the Hula drainage work with full UN authorization. Syria closed the
frontier with Lebanon as a protest against the expulsion of about 1,000 Syrian
laborers from Lebanon.
1952: The
Israeli Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry
“drawing attention to the ‘atmosphere of mystery’ surrounding the arrest of
Mardechai Oren, an Israeli citizen.
1953: Gunmen
attacked a young couple in their home in Kfar Hess and shot them to death.
1953: In
response to a request made in March by Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier, the
Archbishop of Lyon, Germaine Ribière reported that the Finlay children being
held Basque priests. She was a Catholic
member of the French Resistance who had rescued Jews during the war. The Finlay children were Jewish orphans who
had been baptized and were being kept from the surviving members of their
family.
1954:
Archeologist Yigael Yadin sent a telegram to Teddy Kollek stating that four
Dead Sea Scrolls, including the Book of Isaiah, had been brought to the
United States and were being offered for sale.
Yadin said they could be purchased for $250,000, what he considered a
paltry sum for so great a treasure. He
said that he could raise the money from private sources but that it would take
a year. He pleaded with Kollek to get
the Israeli government to provide the funds immediately. Prime Minister Sharett agreed and authorized
the Minister of Finance to provide the funds.
Thanks to the quick action, this national treasure was secured for
Israel.
1955(21st
of Sivan, 5715): Parashat Beha’aloctcha
1955: Mr. and
Mrs. Eugene Lewis Lewin announced the engagement of Hope-Jane Lewin to Gerald
I. Benson who will be married on October 16 in New Rochelle at Temple Israel.
1956: In Great
Neck, NY, “a dress manufacturer in Manhattan's garment district and a part-time
piano teacher” gave birth to Steven A. Cohen, one of the richest hedge fund
managers in America who beat charges of insider trading.
1956:
Recording began of the LP, “Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings” produced by Buddy
Bregman and featuring songs by Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome
Kern.
1957: “Philip
Klutznick, president of B’nai B’rith and Moshe Feinstein, president of the
Hebrew P. E. N. Club of America. Dr. Moshe Davis, Provost of the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America and chairman of the Hadoar executive committee
were the speakers at a dinner celebrating the 35th anniversary of Hador, “the only Hebrew language weekly
published in the United States.” (JTA)
1958: In
Camden, NJ, the Beth El Choral Group conducted by Cantor Louis J. Herman and
accompanied by pianist Rose Solomon performed today at the installation of the
congregation’s board of directors.
1958: Two
months after premiering in the United Kingdom, “The Camp on Blood Island”
featuring Lee Montague and Wolfe Morris was released in the United States
today.
1959(5th
of Sivan, 5719): Erev Shavuot
1959(5th
of Sivan, 5719): Yiddish author Chaim Pett who had been born in Russia in May
of 1902 passed away today in New York City.
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32818&top=1
1960(16th
of Sivan, 5720): Parashat Beha’alotcha
1960(16th
of Sivan, 5720): Seventy-one-year-old Romanian born Milwaukee, WI furniture salesman
Joseph Joshua Hirsch the husband of Rebecca Hirsch and father of Edith and Anne
Hirsch who “ served one term as a Socialist member of the Wisconsin State
Senate suffered a fatal heart attack at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee
1961:Funeral
services were held today for Ida Perlman, a member of the Sisterhood of Ohav
Sholom and the New York Chapter of the Mizrachi Women’s Section of America.
1961: After
three months, the curtain came down on a production “Hamlet” at the Phoenix
Theatre for which Karl Bernstein served as publicity dicrectory.
1962: CBS
broadcast “Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hal” a “musical showcase” written by
Mike Nichols for which Irwin Kostal was the musical director that included the
introduction of “Meantime,” a song with lyrics by Al Stillman.
1963:
Twenty-year-old Barbra Streisand “made her debut at Mr. Kelly’s” today.
1964: “Do Wah
Diddy Diddy” “a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich” was recorded
today for the first time.
1965(11th
of Sivan, 5725): Sixty-five-year-old Morris Raskin, the son “of Louis Raskin
and Pia Reza Rose Pauline Raskin” and husband of Marjory Raskin passed away
today in Michigan
1965: In the
UK, premiere of “Repulsion” directed by Roman Polanski who also co-authored the
screenplay.
1967:
Eighty-year-old Estonian born, and University of Bonn trained Gestalt
psychologist Wolfgang Köhler who risked his carrier if not his life by
protesting against the dismissal of Jewish professors and the requirement to
start class with the Nazi salute passed away today.
1967: During a
meeting at David Ben-Gurion’s home, “Defense Minister Moshe Dayan proposed
autonomy for the West Bank, the transfer of Gazan refugees to Jordan, and a
united Jerusalem serving as Israel's capital. Ben-Gurion agreed with him but
foresaw problems in transferring Palestinian refugees from Gaza to Jordan, and
recommended that Israel insist on direct talks with Egypt, favoring withdrawal
from the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace and free navigation through the
Straits of Tiran.”
1967: “A
delegation of former residents of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem asked the
municipality for permission to rebuild their old homes.
1967: Teddy
Kollek arranged for 20,000 bottles of milk for infants to be taken into the
Muslim, Christian and Armenian Quarters of the Old City.
1967: David
Ben Gurion visited the Western Wall today.
http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2017/05/Kotel-Ben-Gurion.jpg
1968:
Birthdate of Michelle Levin, mother and daughter-in-law par excellence
1969: Pierre
Goldman, the son of Alter Mojze Goldman, robbed the Royal Bank of Canada in
Puerto La Cruz, taking 2.6 million bolívars (the biggest hold-up of that year).
1969: U.S.
premiere of “Heaven With A Gun” starring Barbara Hershey as “Leelopa.”
1970(7th
of Sivan, 5730): Second Day of Shavuot
1970: Two days
after he had passed away funeral services were scheduled to be held today for
ninety-eight-year-old Buffalo, NY born textile manufacturer Herman W. Block,
“an officer of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society” and an organizer of the
Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau.
1970: Two days
after he had passed away the funeral was held today for seventy-four year old
Irving A Mancher, who was brought to the United States from his native Minsk at
the age, lost his eyesight at the age of 15, at still went on to run “two of
the largest independent coal and fuel-oil distributing concerns” while
supporting numerous causes including “the Jewish Institute for Religion” and
raising two sons, Jay and Horace, with his wife, passed away today.
1971(18th
of Sivan, 5731): Seventy-year-old “television producer and writer Louis
Solomon, the husband of “the writer Wilma Shore” with whom he had two
daughters, Hilary and Dinah, passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/17/obituaries/louis-solomon.html
1972: In East
Brunswick, NJ, psychiatrist Stanley Gottlieb and his wife Marsha gave birth
Mount Sinai Medical Center trained physician Scott Gottlieb, 23rd
Commissioner of Food and Drugs who was nominated for the position by President
Trump.
1973: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held in Manhattan for 89-year-old Harry A. Hatry
the former vice president of Bloomingdales and long-time president of
Jay-Thorpe, Inc, the women’s specialty store, the husband of the former Mildred
E. Eiseman with whom he had four daughters – Louise, Margaret, Helen and
Sydney.
1975: “Lepke”
a movie based on the life of gangster Louis “Lepke” Buchalter starring Tony
Curtis in the total role and featuring Warren Berlinger and Milton Berle which
was directed and produced by Menahem Golan.
1976: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at Congregation Oheb Shalom in
South Orange, NJ. ninety-year-old, NYU trained attorney Milton M. Unger, a
Newark lawyer who once arrested the Graf Zeppelin on behalf of a client
1976(13th
of Sivan, 5736): Eighty-six-year-old Rose L. Lipshultz Guzik, the wife of the
notorious gangster Jake Guzik passed away today.
1976: The
album “A Kind of Hush” featuring “You” by Randy Edelman was released today.
1976: The
Jerusalem Post reported that in view of the voices emanating from Arab
organizations "inviting Jews to return to Iraq and Morocco," Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that Israel would not act under threats and
would deal with this issue "in fundamental fashion." Syrian troops
were reported to be moving east to face the Iraqi Army which expressed
readiness to man the Golan front. Both the US and Israel were concerned that
both Algeria and Libya might participate in the Arab League's "Peacemaking
Force" aimed to patrol a proposed Lebanese cease-fire.
1978(6th of
Sivan, 5738): First Day of Shavuot
1978(6th of
Sivan, 5738: Herman Barron, the first Jewish golfer to win a PGA Tour event
passed away.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30D17F83B5513728DDDAB0994DE405B888BF1D3
1978: In
Italy, Premier Giulio Andreotti's government scheduled a national referendum
for today despite the fact that it had been told that it was a Jewish holiday
and observant Jews would not be able to participate in the vote.
1979(16th
of Sivan, 5739): Seventy-year-old Jesse Abramson, whose sport’s writing career
spanned fifty-six years passed away today
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/JesseAbramson.htm
1980:
Today, “Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft making him Microsoft's 30th employee and
the first business manager hired by Gates”
1981: Alan
Joseph Shatter began representing Dublin South in the Teachta Dala.
1982: The
Jerusalem Post published a front page photograph of 21 year old Yoav Blum
an IDF soldier pictured holding a portrait of Yasser Arafat taken from the
PLO’s headquarters in southern Lebanon.
1982: Israel and Syria stopped fighting in Lebanon. Israel has since
withdrawn from Lebanon. Syria finally
withdrew its armed forces from Lebanon which the late President Assad liked to
consider was a province of Greater Syria. Syria continues to “meddle” in
Lebanon’s internal politics. At the same
time, Lebanon continues to be a battleground for a variety of political and
ideological groups that have interests beyond Lebanon including the destruction
of the state of Israel. Israeli casualties so far: 214 killed, 23 missing in
action, one prisoner of war and 1,114 wounded.
1982: Today, “the Moscow refusenik and Hebrew teacher Pavel Abramovich
was summoned to the KGB for the fourth time in the course of a month.”
1983: Mayor Ed Koch and Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon are
scheduled to a gathering that will celebrate the 10th anniversary of
Lambert Houses, the award low-rising public housing buildings in the South
Bronx.
1983: Nigel Lawson completed his service as Secretary of State for Energy
under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
1983: Nigel Lawson began serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1985: Seventy-year old Sir Charles Myer Abrahams who “served a
flight-lieutenant in the RAFVR” in WW II and was the Vice President of the
Nightingale House of the Home for the Jewish Aged and Vice President of the
British Paraplegic Sports Federation passed away today.
1986: In Los Angeles, Shayna (née Saide) La Beouf who was Jewish and
Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf gave birth to actor Shia LaBeouf.
1987: Leo Abse completed his service as a Member of Parliament from
Torfaen
1988: Dire Straits, the rock group co-founded by Mark and David Knoplfer
regrouped today for Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley
Stadium, in which they were the headline act,\.
1989: “Hotel Monterey” “a silent documentary” directed, produced and
written by Chantal Akerman, the Brussels born daughter of Polish-Jewish
Holocaust survivor.
1989: After 153 performances at the 46th Street Theatre, the
curtain came down on a revival of Garson Kanin’s “Born Yesterday” with a cast
that included Tony Award nominee Madeline Kahn
1990(18th of Sivan, 5750): Seventy-four-year-old
philanthropist Beatrice Coleman, the widow of Dr. Joseph Coleman and head of
Maidenform since 1968 passed away today.
http://www.thecolemanfoundation.org/
1990: Ariel Sharon succeeded David Levy as Minister of Housing and
Construction.
1990: Avner Shaki succeeded Zevulen Hammer as Minister of Religious
Services.
1990: Yuval Ne’eman began serving as Energy and Water Resources Minister.
1990: Roni Milo began serving as Minister of Public Security.
1991: “Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has added a new and potentially
difficult qualification to the list of conditions that the Israeli Government
has attached to its participation in any American-sponsored regional peace
conference.”
1992: “A Federal appeals court in Ohio ordered the reopening of a case
involving the extradition of John Demjanjuk, the retired Cleveland auto worker
who has been sentenced to hang in Israel as a Nazi war criminal, after the
Justice Department failed to reply to two letters inquiring about its handling
of the case.”
1993: In Boston, MA, Israeli Wendy Buchanan and her husband gave birth to
“American-Israeli” figure skater Aimee Buchanan “was not able to enter the
Olympics single women’s qualifier competition in Germany in 2017, because the
qualifier was scheduled to take place on Yom Kippur.”
http://www.isuresults.com/bios/isufs00054107.htm
1993(22nd of Sivan, 5753): Fifty-nine-year-old English actor
Bernard Bresslaw who appeared in 15 of the “Carry On Films” passed away today.
1994(2nd of Tammuz, 5754): Parsaht Sh’lach
1994: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the umbrella
organization of the Reform Movement is scheduled to vote tonight on the
application for membership by Congregation Beth Adam, a congregation whose
“liturgy does not explicitly acknowledge…God”
1995: “ISRAEL, Jordan and Egypt have begun plans to tap the tourism
potential of the Sinai and the Red Sea, with its pristine reefs, vast stretches
of desert and gleaming white beaches.”
1996: “Shiite Muslim guerrillas killed five Israeli soldiers and wounded
eight early today in an ambush in southern Lebanon. The attack brought to nine
the Israeli death toll in southern Lebanon since the Israeli election.”
1997: Herb Gray began serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.
1997(6th of Sivan, 5757): Shavuot
1997: “All the Rage” directed and written by Roland Tec, the “son of Jewish-Polish
and Holocaust-survivor parents Leon and Nechama Tec” was released today in the
United States.
1997(6th of Sivan, 5757): Benjamin
(Ben) Dunkelman passed away. Born in 1913 to Polish-Jewish parents who had
settled in Toronto, he had a distinguished military career in the Canadian Army
during WW II followed by service with the IDF during the 1948 War for
Independence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Dunkelman
1998: In “Turf; The Neighbors Rally Around the Mayor of Bedford Street,
William Hamilton described Lawrence Selman’s fight to spend the rest of his
life at his Greenwich Village home.
1998(17th of Sivan, 5758): The former Libby Polachcek, “the widow of the
eminent Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz; daughter of Rabbi Solomon Polachek, renowned
head of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Rabbinical Academy of Yeshiva University
(''the Meitchiter Illui''); sister to Dr. Harry Polachek of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.
and Dr. Abraham Polachek of Jerusalem; mother of Sylvia Orenstein (wife of
Rabbi Jehiel Orenstein) of South Orange, N.J. and Dr. Solomon Mowshowitz
(husband of Dr. Deborah Mowshowitz, of New York, N.Y.” passed away today.
1999: Polo Ralph Lauren became a public company traded on the New York
Stock Exchange under the symbol RL.
2000: The
New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Ordinary
Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope by Jonathan Kozol and
the recently released paperback edition of Another Life: A Memoir of Other
People by Michael Korda.
2001:
The Right Honourable Barbara Roche
completed her term as Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration under Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
2001: Five-month-old Yehuda Shoham was stoned to death by an unknown
terrorist at Shilo.
2001: “Fear Factor” a game show that Jeff Zucker used to keep NBC on
top of the ratings game premiered this evening.
2002: The BBC broadcast “The Empire of Good Intentions” the 14th
episode of “A History of Britain a documentary series written and presented by
Simon Schama” which is now in its third season.
2003(11th of Sivan, 5763): In Jerusalem, seventeen people - 11 women and
six men - were killed and over 100 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus
#14A outside the Klal building on Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem.
2003: Seventeen people were killed and over 100 wounded in a suicide
bombing on Egged bus #14A outside the Klal building on Jaffa Road in the center
of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Sgt.
Tamar Ben-Eliahu, 20, of Moshav Paran; Alan Beer, 47, of Jerusalem; Eugenia
Berman, 50, of Jerusalem; Elsa Cohen, 70, of Jerusalem; Zvi Cohen, 39, of
Jerusalem; Roi Eliraz, 22, of Mevaseret Zion; Alexander Kazaris, 77, of
Jerusalem; Yaffa Mualem, 65, of Jerusalem; Yaniv Obayed, 22, of Herzliya;
>Bat-El Ohana, 21, of Kiryat Ata; Anna Orgal, 55, of Jerusalem; Zippora
Pesahovitch;, 54, of Zur Hadassah; Bianca Shahrur, 62, of Jerusalem; Malka
Sultan, 67, of Jerusalem; Bertine Tita, 75, of Jerusalem. Miriam Levy, 74, of
Jerusalem died of her wounds on June 12. The 17th victim, male, who has not yet
been positively identified, is believed to be a foreign worker from Eritrea.
2003:
President and Mrs. Bush host 70 members
of the Jewish community at the White House for a Kosher dinner to honor of the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 10th anniversary.
2004:After having premiered at the Palm Beach International Film
Festival, “Broadway: The Golden Age” featuring interviews with Beatrice Arthur,
Tom Bosley, Kitty Carlisle, Betty Comden, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman,,
Martin Landau, Hal Linden and Arthur Laurents, among others was released today
in the United States.
2004: In “Hebrew National Certified Kosher – But Not Kosher Enough for
Some” Miriam Colton and Steven I Weiss discuss the fate of this iconic brand
that has been the source of salamis and hot dogs for Jews across the decades
and all across America.
https://forward.com/news/5806/hebrew-national-certified-kosher-e2-80-94-but-not-koshe/
2004: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 94-year-old
Elaine Lippman, the widow of Samuel Lippman.
2005: The Queen’s Birthday Honors List published today awarded a
knighthood (Knight Bachelor) to Michael Kadoorie.
2005(4th of Sivan, 5765): Eighty-six-year-old veteran Yiddish
actress Lillian Lux passed away today.
http://forward.com/articles/3681/lillian-lux-burstein--yiddish-theater-giant/
http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/lillian-lux-86-international-star-of-yiddish-stage/15411/
2006:
Shalshelet’s Second International
Festival took place today at Ohr Kodesh Congregation, Chevy Chase, Maryland
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including Mohr by Frederick Reuss and The Good
Fight: Why Liberals — and
Only Liberals — Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again by Peter Beinart
2007: Nobel Laureate Dr. Elie Wiesel delivered the 2nd Annual
Gershon Jacobson Memorial Lecture at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
2007(25th
of Sivan, 5767): Ninety-three-year-old Isadore Weinstock, the Denver born son
of Harry and Sarah Wilner Weinstock and the husband of “Helen A. Karsh
Weinstock” passed away today in his home after which he was buried at the Rose
Hill Cemetery in Commerce City, CO.
2007: On the
40th anniversary of the Six Day War, U.S. News & World Report magazine features three articles on
the subject including “A Changing Mind-Set Among Jerusalem's Palestinians,” “A
Look Back at the Six-Day War” and “Marking the 40th Anniversary of the 1967
Six-Day War.” This last article was written by Fouad Ajami, a Lebanese born
American professor who states that “at the heart of the war lay the willful
Arab refusal to accept Israel’s Legitimacy and statehood.”
2008: In Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah combines the Annual Congregation Meeting with a BBQ
Dinner.
2008: In
“Tulchinsky’s History of Canada’s Jewish In An Impressive Work” published today
Bill Gladssone reviews the “magnus opus” by “Gerald Tulchinsky, professor
emeritus of history a Queen’s University that examines almost 250 years of
Canada and her Jewish population.
https://www.cjnews.com/culture/books-and-authors/tulchinskys-history-canadas-jews-impressive-work
2008: The
Croatia Jewish Film Festival opened in Zagreb.
2008: The New York Times includes a review of Travel
Pictures by Heinrich Heine. Of
Judaism, he writes, “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It gives you nothing but scorn and shame, I
tell you, it’s no religion at all, just a lot of hard luck.” “Heine refers only once, bitingly, to German
anti-Semitism. Pointing out a hunting
area, he concedes the sport’s pleasure for some. ‘My ancestors, however, did
not belong to the hunters, but rather to the hunted.’”
2009: “Saulie
Zajdel Leaves Politics” published today provided a description of the career of
the Canadian political leader.
http://www.lesactualites.ca/01_anciensite/?site=CDN§ion=page&1=C090610&2=C090610_ZajdelENG
2009:
President Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright again sought to tamp down
controversy in the wake comments blaming "them Jews" for keeping him
away from the president. He had meant to refer to "Zionists" and not
all Jews, he said in an interview on SIRIUS Satellite Radio's "Make it
Plain" with Mark Thompson."Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke,"
Wright said. "Let me just say: Zionists."
2009: In
Washington, D.C. the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is closed for the day in
honor of the memory of Stephen T. Johns who died from the wounds inflicted by
an anti-Semitic white supremacist who attempted to shoot his way into the
building on Wednesday
2009(19th
of Sivan, 5769): Eighty-seven-year-old Irving Schulman, MD who helped to found
the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital passed away today.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/june17/med-obitschulman-061709.html
2009: In
Washington, D.C., David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy, signs copies of his new book, which he coauthored with Ambassador
Dennis Ross, special advisor to the secretary of state for the Gulf and
Southwest Asia, entitled Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New
Direction for America in the Middle East
2010:
Men’s Club Shabbat, completed with the installation of next year’s Board of
Directors is scheduled to take place Congregation Olam Tikvah
2010: “Called up to life- Legends of the Baal Shem Tov” is
scheduled to open in Gaithersburg, MD.
2010: “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” comes out today.
2010: Two Border Police officers were lightly wounded in Wadi
Joz this afternoon when a pickup truck rammed into them as they entered the
east Jerusalem neighborhood amidst reports of potential rioting in the area.
2011: Shelby Zukin is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah in
Iowa City, IA at Agudas Achim.
2011: In New York City the duet "Heroes" is scheduled
to be performed by Israeli based Yossi Berg and Oded Graf on the 4th
night of the Contemporary Israeli Dance Week
2011: Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer has decided to
become a candidate for head of the International Monetary Fund, Israel's
Channel Two News reported today.
2011:
Representative Anthony D. Weiner planned to check himself into a treatment
center today after House Democratic leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, called on
him to resign and suggested he needed psychiatric counseling.
2012:
The Carmen at Masada Opera Festival is scheduled to come to a close.
http://www.carmen-at-masada.com/
2012:
Dr. Paris Chronakis is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Greeks and Jews
in the 20th Century Salonika: History Through the Kaleidoscope,” at UCLA.
http://usa.greekreporter.com/2012/05/21/lecture-on-greeks-and-jews-in-20th-century-salonica/
2012:
The Vatican is about to "indirectly recognize" Israel's annexation of
East Jerusalem, according to a report
published today. This would be done if the draft of an economic agreement
between the Jewish state and the Holy See, containing no distinction between
sovereign Israel and the territories occupied by it in 1967, is approved by the
two sides, Ha'aretz online reported.
2012:
Forty-year-old Scream star David Arquette, whose mother was Jewish, celebrated
his Bar Mitzvah today at the Wall.
2013:
Friends and family gather to celebrate the birthday of Michelle Levin an
ashyish chayil of the first order who has done a wonderful job of creating a
Jewish home for Jacob and Rachel Levin
2013:
“Life in Stills” (Ha-Tzalmania) is
scheduled to be shown at The JCC in Manhattan
http://embassies.gov.il/new-york/events/cultural_calendar/film/Pages/Life-in-Stills-1.aspx
2013(3rd
of Tammuz): Yahartzeit the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous
memory who passed away 19 years ago.
2013(3rd
of Tammuz, 5773): Eight-six-year-old Nobel prize winning economist Robert W.
Fogel passed away. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/business/robert-w-fogel-nobel-winning-economist-dies-at-86.html
2013:
Chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child Likud Beiteinu
MK Orly Levy-Abecasis called for “real and substantial integration” of
Ethiopian pupils into the education system with their native-Israeli classmates
at a meeting of the Committee on the subject held today. (As reported by
Danielle Ziri)
2013(3rd
of Tammuz, 5773): Evelyn Kozak, who at age 113 is reputed to be the oldest Jew
in the world, passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/evelyn-kozak-worlds-oldest-jew-dies-at-113/
2013:
Professor Deborah Dash Moore, co-editor of Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia,
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, film producer Scott Berrie,
musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein, and Russ & Daughters, New York’s
century-old purveyor of appetizers were presented with the Jewish Cultural
Achievement Award from the Foundation for Jewish Culture today.
2013:
A bill to reserve four places on the rabbinical judges’ appointments committee
for women was successfully passed into law in this morning, but not before
haredi MKs repeatedly stalled the legislative process due to their vehement
opposition to the terms of the new law. (As reported by Jeremy Sharon)
2014:
Despite opposition from 22 Arab nations, "People, Book, Land, The 3,500
Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land" is scheduled to
open today under the auspices of UNESCO.
2014:
The Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a reception marking the opening
the exhibition “Vida Sefaradi: A Century of Sephardic Life In Portland.”
2014:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, DC is scheduled to host its annual
meeting.
2014:
The IDF said that today’s attack on a terror target in Sudaniya in the northern
Gaza Strip tonight by the IAF was a joint operation with Shin Bet that targeted
“global jihad-affiliated terrorists” who were planning an attack on Israel. (As
reported by Roi Kais and Yoav Zitun)
2014:
A day after being defeated by a Tea Party Challenger in the Republican Primary
Eric Cantor — looking composed and even unusually at ease — went before the
press this afternoon and announced he’s stepping down as majority leader,
ending an 11-year run in Republican leadership. Cantor is the only Jewish
Republican in the House of Representatives and the only Republican to have been
defeated so far this year in a primary challenge.
2015(24th
of Sivan, 5775): Ninety-one-year-old Anglo-Jewish actor Ron Moody, who
ironically is best known for his portrayal of “Fagin” passed away today.
2015:
In “Texarkana Synagogue Shuts Doors For Good” published today Ben Tinsley
described the fate Mt. Sinai Temple Congregation” – a fate which is being
endured by many small town Jewish congregations.
http://tjpnews.com/texarkana-synagogue-shuts-doors-for-good/
2015:
“Zero Motivation” is scheduled to be shown on the final day The Israel Center
Film Festival
2015:
“Every Time We Say Goodbye” is scheduled to be shown today at the Cinema South
Film Festival today in Sderot.
2016(5th
of Nisan, 5776): Shabbat Bamidbar – begin reading the fourth book of the
Torah.
2016:
As Jews observe Shabbat today they will mourn the victims of the Tel Aviv
terror attack – 42 year old Ido Ben Ari from Ramat Gan, 39 year old Ilana Naveh
from Tel Aviv, 58 year old Micahel Feige from Ramat Gan and 32 year old Mila
Mishayev from Rishon Lezion.
2016:
Sara Shalva, Director of Jewish Innovation at the Edlavitch JCC is scheduled to
lead “a musical exploration of the Book of Ruth using a brand new curriculum by
Alicia Jo Rabins’s indie-folk project Girls in Trouble” at the 17th
Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2016:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a J.S. Bach Concerti Series
featuring soloist: Tom Zalmanov, piano, soloist: Yevgenia Pikovsky, violin,
soloist: Alon Mamo, piano and the Millennium Ensemble.
2017: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Al
Franken, Giant of the Senate by Al Franken and Swell, a novel by
Jill Eisenstadt.
2017(17th
of Sivan, 5777): Eighty-four-year-old U. of Chicago grad and history professor
David Fromkin author of the must-read A Peace to End All Peace passed
away today.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/fromkin-peace.html?_r=2
2017(17th
of Sivan, 5777): Eighty-four-year-old historian Norman Pollack passed away
today. (As reported by Jesse Lemisch)
https://www.facebook.com/jesse.lemisch/posts/10213150328693549?pnref=story.unseen-section
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/16/farewell-dr-norman-pollack-1933-2017/
2017:
Israeli Alon “Day won the NASCAR Whelen Euro race in England at Brands Hatch”
which led to him joining “BK Racing for his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
debut in Sonoma Raceway's Toyota/Save Mart 350, driving the No. 23 Toyota
Camry” later in the month.
2017:
Among those with a Jewish connection being considered for an award at tonight’s
Tony presentation are “Oslo,” J.T. Rogers’ play about the 1993 Oslo Accords,
Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” which recounts the bumpy journey to Broadway of
Shalom Asch’s controversial Yiddish play “God of Vengeance,” “Falsettos,” a
musical about neurotic Jews (are there any Jews who aren’t), “Hello Dolly,” Ben
Platt in “Dear Evan Hansen and Patti LuPone who is not Jewish for her role in
“War Paint” a musical about the two Jewish cosmetic queens. (As reported by
Linda Buchwald)
2017:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host a family
styled BBQ followed by its annual meeting.
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Dudu Fisher In
Concert.”
2017:
The Jewish Genealogical Society is scheduled to hold its monthly meeting where
Dr. Andrew Zallewski will speak on “Galician Portraits: The Story of Jews,
Gentiles and Emperors.”
2018:
In Atlanta, GA, The Breman Museum is scheduled to the “2018 Summer Institute on
Teaching the Holocaust.”
2018:
JW3 is scheduled to host three different screenings of “The Boy Downstairs”
starring Zosia Mamet and Matthew Shear in London.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to offer two choices for the
Monday meal – Shawarma or Vegetarian Shawarma -- both of which are Kosher, of
course!
2019:
Shavuot may have ended yesterday, but the simcha continues for another day as
friends and family are scheduled to celebrate the natal day of the woman
extraordinaire, Michelle Levin, an Eishet Chayil in the truest sense of that
term.
2019:
The American Jewish Historical Society and The Village Temple are scheduled to
present “An Innocent Bystander: The Killing of Leon Klinghoffer” during which
author Julie Salamon and Warren Bass, Senior Editor at The Wall Street Journal, revisits the 1985 hijacking of the Achille
Lauro and the brutal murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer” by Palestinian
terrorists.
2019:
The Skirball Center is scheduled to host “Behind the scenes of the Unorthodox
Drama, Shtisel” during which attendees “watch clips from the series” and get to
meet the cast of this successful Israeli television show.
2019:
Hadassah of the Upper Midwest is scheduled to host an informative evening where
Stephanie Perelstein, St. Paul Hadassah President, will talk about her Hadassah
Israel Mission Trip, Sara Lynn Newburger will speak about Hadassah’s
involvement with the Hineni Summer Learning Series and Leslie Strohm will give
an update on the “It’s Your Legacy” Program in the Twin Cities”
2020:
S.F. JFCS Holocaust Center’s book club is scheduled to host a virtual
discussion of Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz
Ghetto.
2020:
Kerem Shalom is scheduled to host “Fun with Yiddish Online Class.
2020:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host the opening of
Orchestra of St. Luke's four-week (online) festival, Bach at Home 2020…”
2020:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a discussion The Choice:
Embrace the Possible, a memoir by Holocaust Survivor and internationally
acclaimed psychologist Dr. Edith Eva Eger.
2020:
The Israel Film Center Film Festival is scheduled a screening of “Chained”
followed by a Q and A.
2020:
As part of the “Leading through Crisis and Change: Jewish Women at the Turn of
the 20th Century” is scheduled to feature Karla Goldman. the Sol
Drachler Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan and director of
the Jewish Communal Leadership Program as she talks about Henrietta Szold.
2021:
The Consulate General of Israel to New England is scheduled to present
“Israel’s Yemen Blues Concert in Northampton.”
2021:
Federation-JPNOLA Pride Shabbat Service is scheduled to take place this evening
at Temple Sinai in New Orleans, LA.
2021:
The North Shore Chamber Music Festival which features chamber music concerts
directed by violinist Vadim Gluzman and concert Angela Yoffe is scheduled to
come to an end today.
2021:
In Colorado, Farmside Shabbat is scheduled to return in person under the tent
at Milk & Honey Farm” where participants will sing Shabbat songs, explore
the farm, read a story, and welcome Shabbat with the blessings on the candles,
challah and grape juice.
2021:
JCC East Bay and One Table are scheduled to present “Experts: A Queer Comedy
Shabbat” during which Jess Lehrman and Emily Lubomirsky, dubbed the “Bay Area
Jewish Babes,” answers relationship questions, play silly games and celebrate
queer community, followed by breakout rooms for shmoozing about queer life and
allyship.”
2021(1st
of Tammuz, 5781): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz;
2022:
A double simcha as Shabbat coincides with the natal day of Michelle Levin, an
ashis chayil in the truest sense of the word.
2022:
Al Gross, a physician who was raised in the Last Frontier’s close-knit Jewish
community, is one of 50 candidates who will be vying for the state’s lone House
seat in the first round of a special
election scheduled to held today in Alaska.
2022:
The Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to host “The Glorious Sound of the Piano”
with pianist Oxana Yablonskaya
2022
(12th of Sivan, 5782): Parashat Naso
2023:
The New York Times on-line reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Anatoly Kuznetsov’s documentary
novel Babi Yar that relives the
Nazis’ execution of tens of thousands of Jews in 1941 and The Only Daughter
by A.B. Yehoshua | Translated by Stuart Schoffman.
2023:
The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host an online lecture by Dr.
Aleksandra Jakubczak on “Jewish Women Migrating Within and From Eastern Europe
Between the 1880s and 1930s.”
2023:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County a summer concert
Irving Berlin Retrospective.”
2023:
Jewish Care Family Fun Day complete with a kosher food court is scheduled to
take place at Aldenham Country Park
Event Field, Aldenham Road, Elstree WD6 3BD
2023:
The Jewish Genealogical Society is scheduled to host a captivating program about the Civil War from
a Jewish perspective that is designed to educate and entertain presented by Bruce
Form and Mira Form who are Civil War historians, re-enactors and living
historians.
2023:
Israel U-20 is scheduled to play South Korea U-20 for 3rd place in
the U-20 World Cup.
2023:
From near and far, friends and family celebrate the birthday of that epitome of
the “woman of valor,” Michelle Levin.
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Trudy Gold on “Different
Strands in the Zionist Movement.”
2024(5th
of Sivan, 5784): A double simcha with the birthday of Michelle Levin coinciding
with Erev Shavuot
2024:
The Chabad of Cleveland is scheduled to hold a late-night event to celebrate
the holiday of Shavuot on June 11 at the Waxman Chabad Center that will include
“a midnight barbecue.”
2024:
As June 11th begins in Israel, an unprecedented
wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 249 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.)
