This Day, June 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
JUNE 19
325: Promulgation of the Nicene Creed. The
creed dealt with various splits among the various Christian groups and only
dealt in a tangential manner with matters pertaining to Jews. The creed altered
the method for selecting the date of Easter.
The change did not ban Easter from ever falling on the first day of
Passover. This change would be centuries
away from being adopted. But by adopting even this change, the early Christian
leaders showed the need to work very hard at separating their religion from
Judaism.
1269: Louis IX (Saint Louis) of France, needing
no urging from the Church, ordered all Jews found in public without a badge
(yellow or red) to be fined ten livres of silver. The badge in France was
usually a circle of red or yellow material and was known as a rouelle. The
original badge was actually Moslem in origin (Caliph Omar II (717-20)) who
decreed that both Jews and Christians wear a distinguishing mark. The
"badge" took on different shapes colors and even dress (i.e. a hat or
color of a dress) depending on the country.
1269: “King Louis IX of France …decrees that
Jews found in public without a special badge will be fined ten livres of
silver. Normally worn on the breast, the Jewish badge is either yellow or red
and is designed to warn Christians when they are dealing with or simply near a
Jew. Local officials around France repeat the requirement to better enforce the
public segregation of Jews in this manner. The badges themselves are sold by
the crown, so the government benefits financially two ways: first by selling
them, and second by the fines when they aren't worn. (As reported by Austin
Cline)
1286:Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg was imprisoned in
a castle in Alsace, Lombardy. At the
time of his imprisonment, Reb Meir and his followers were trying to leave
Germany following a new wave of persecution brought by Rudolph I. “Tradition has it that a large ransom of
23,000 marks (approximately 15,144,900 U.S dollars today) was raised for him
(by the ROSH), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the
imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. 14 years
after his death a ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Shlomo
(Susskind) Wimpen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam.” Reb Meir was also known by the term
Maharam. His erudition and piety earned
him the appellation, ‘Light of the Exile.’ Meir was a leading commentator on
Rashi’s explanations of the Talmud. Such
was his reputation that Ashkenazi communities in Italy, France and Germany
looked to him for guidance when questions of law and/or custom arose.
1320: John XXII issued “Cum sit absurdum” a
Papal Bull that stated that “Converted Jews need not be despoiled.”
1338: “In recognition of the good-will shown by
the citizens of Vienna in time of distress, and in anticipation of its
continuance, the Jews declared, in a document written in Hebrew and dated today
in Vienna that they would lend to the citizens of Vienna, rich as well as poor,
a pound of Vienna heller at a weekly interest of three heller.”
1565: Fifty-year-old Viennese cartographer
Wolfgang Lazius who “suggested that after Babel the earliest Hebrews had
migrated from Mesopotamia to German” and who found evidence of Hebrew in
European languages passed away today.
1566: Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second
husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley gave birth to James VI of Scotland, better
known as King James I the first ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland, best
known as the King James of King James Bible fame who insisted that
experts in Hebrew be employed as part of the project.
1623: Birthdate of French mathematician and
philosopher Blaise Pascal. Of the Jewish
people Pascal wrote, “It is certain that in certain parts of the world we can
see a peculiar people, separated from the other peoples of the world and this
is called the Jewish people…. This people is not only of remarkable antiquity
but has also lasted for a singularly long time… For where as the people of
Greece and Italy, of Sparta, Athens and Rome and others who came so much later
have perished so long ago, these still exist, despite the efforts of so many
powerful kings who have tried a hundred times to wipe them out, as their
historians testify, and as can easily be judged by the natural order of things
over such a long spell of years. They have always been preserved, however, and
their preservation was foretold… My encounter with this people amazes
me…."
1630: After having “issued the first letter of
safe passage to a Jew whose name was Albert Dionis in 1619, he granted general
amnesty “to all Jews permanently in residence in Glückstadt” which was then
part of Denmark as well as the “right to travel freely throughout the Kingdom
of Denmark which at that time included what is now Norway.
1747: Nāder Shāh Afshār, the founder of the
Afsharid dynasty, passed away. During his reign he reversed the anti-Jewish
policies and practices that had been put in place by the Safawid’s dynasty
which had ruled during the previous century.
1750: Moses Mendes, the son of stockbroker
James Mendes and the grandson of Fernando Mendes was created an M.A today at
Oxford.
1768: At Uman, the Haidamak Army under the
command of Maksym Zalizniak slaughtered thousands of Jews in the Gonta
Massacres. The slaughter came at the end
of the siege of Uman in which Ivan Gonta had betrayed the Polish garrison which
led to its defeat. The Polish
commandment had tried to “buy the lives” of the Poles by giving up the Jews; a
ploy that failed. Led by Leib
Shargorodoski and Moses Menaker, the Jews put up a valiant but futile
defense. The number of dead Jews which
totaled more than 2,000 was inflated by the number of refugees who had sought
refuge in the town.
1772: Birthdate of Salomon Oppehneim Jr. the
German Jewish banker from Bonn who at the age of 17 founded a “commissions and
exchange house” that became Sal. Oppenheim Company.
1778: R’ Asher Gunzburg and Gitlé Loëw gave
birth to Fogel Loew
1790: The
Gazette of the United States, a newspaper published in New York City
provides an account of correspondence between the Hebrew Congregation of
Savannah, Georgia and the newly elected President of the United States, George
Washington. Washington’s letter to the
Georgia Jews ends with the following sentiments. “May the same wonder-working
Deity, who long since delivered Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted
them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in
establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to
water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every
denomination participated in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that
people whose God is Jehovah.”
1790(7th of Tammuz, 5550): Saul Lowenstam “a
renowned Dutch rabbi and Talmudist” passed away. Born at Rzeszów in 1717 he was the son of
Rabbi Areyh Leib ben Saul, the son-in-law of Rabbi Abraham Kahana and the father
of Rabbi Jacob Moses Lowenstam. His writings included Binyan Ariel and a
Torah Commentary, HeChatzer HaChadasha.
1792(29th of Sivan, 5552): Eighteen-month-old
Heba bat Jacob Levi passed away today in the United Kingdom.
1796(13th of Sivan, 5556):
Fifty-one-year-old Lazard Elie Levy, the Metz born son of Elias Elie Nathan
Levy and Minkle Minelet Oppenheim, the husband of Sara Mayence and the father
of Aron and Pilte Levy passed away today in Metz, France.
1800: Abraham Michel married Leah Isaacs at the
Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1805: Joseph Hart married Lee Clara at the New
Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1810: Birthdate of Hamburg native Ferdinand
David, “the violin virtuoso and composer” who was born in the same house where
Felix Mendelssohn had been born a year earlier.
1811: In Philadelphia, John Moss and Rebecca
Lyons gave birth to Samuel Lyons the husband of Isabelle Moss with whom he had
seven children – Ernest, Edith, Ella, May, Alice, Walter and Harry.
1812: One day after Madison signed the
congressional resolution declaring war on Great Britain, the public learned
that the War of 1812 which resulted in Isaac Minis the son of Philip and Judith
Minis serving as a private in a company of artillery that was part of the 1st
Regiment of the Georgia Militia had begun.
1816: A year and a day after Wellington’s
victory at Waterloo, Abraham Henry married Emma Lyon at the Hambro Synagogue.
1822: Aaron Hart married Rosa Harris at the
Hambro Synagogue.
1826: Birthdate of Charles Loring Brace, author
of The Unknown God; Or Inspiration Among Pre-Christian Races in which
the author is impressed by the fact that there that are “so few evidences of
Egyptian influence are found in the Hebrew faith.” The thinkers and teachers of the Jews were
visited by those higher and purer inspirations which have made them the
greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history.
1829: Moses David Hyams, the Charleston born
son of Rebecca and David Hyams and his wife Susanna Hyams gave birth to
1832: Birthdate of Frédéric Emile Baron
d’Erlanger, the French banker whose family converted to Christianity. Despite the family’s conversion, the Baron is
often erroneously identified as being Jewish. Erlanger created one of the
earliest “junk bonds” based on the cotton trade during the Civil War. This has led to other incorrect reports that
Jews were responsible for financing the Confederacy’s war effort.
1829: Moses David Hyams, the Charleston, SC
born son of Rebecca and David Hyams and his wife Susanna Hyams gave birth to
Isaac S. Hyams.
1833(2nd of Tammuz, 5593): Henry
Solomon, the son Catherine Bush and Myer S. Solomon who had been married in
1778, passed away today in his mother’s hometown of Philadelphia, PA.
1843(21st of Sivan, 5603): Sixty-year-old
Austrian author and philosopher Ignaz Jeiteles who was working on a history of
literature when he passed away today in Vienna.
1844: “The Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick
“convoked by Levi Herzfeld and Ludwig Philippson” whose attendees included
Solomon Formstecher, Samuel Hirsch, Mendel Hess, and Samuel Holdheim came to an
end today.
1844: In Poland, Loebel and Henriette Grossman
Schottlander gave birth to Salo Schottlander, the brother of Julius and Bruno
Schottlander.
1844: Moses Botibol married Jessie Myers at the
Bevis Marks Synagogue.
1846: Adam Spielman, the London born son of
Michell and Lewin (Judah) Spielman and his wife Marian Spielman, the Liverpool
born daughter of Henrietta and Louis Samuel, gave birth to Lionel Adam
Spielman.
1846: In London, Elias Benjamin and Mary
Lazarus gave birth to Benjamin Raphael educated at Jews’ Free School in London
who earned a doctorate of Jewish Law for Australia in 1874 and served as the
rabbi at the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, Mound Street Temple in Cincinnati
and the Fifteenth Street Temple in New York City before becoming the Associate
Rabbi of Temple Beth Elohim at Brooklyn, NY in 1902.
1849: Bavarian born Louis Loew Leopold Affelder
and Regine Rosalia Affelder gave birth to Jette Affelder
1854: In Terre Haute, IN, Bernard Kuppeheimer
and his wife gave birth to Jonas Kuppenheimer whose family, including brothers
Louis and Albert moved to Chicago in 1870 where they established a clothing
store that became one of the major men’s clothing brands in the United
States.
1857: The correspondent for the New York
Times writes from London that the second reading of the Jew Bill has passed
by an immense majority. Furthermore, the opposition seems to be waning and
Rothschild is on his way to becoming “a Parliamentary saint” as opposed to an
“unparliamentarily martyr.”
1857: in Illingen, German Gottlied “Leopold
Barth and Pauline “Barbara’ Victor Barth gave birth to St. Louis resident
Gustav Barth who married Pauline Barth in 1889 and Hattie Barth in 1907.
1865: Birthdate of Hanover native Alfred
Hugenberg, the right-wing businessman and anti-Semite who thought he could use
Hitler but instead turned out to be a steppingstone to the Nazi rise to
legalized power.
https://www.goodreads.com/characters/986622-alfred-hugenberg
1867: In Mobile, AL, “Samuel and Fanny (Wolf)
Lyons” gave birth to University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College graduate
Rabbi Alexander Lyons, the holder of advanced degrees from NYU and Columbia and
husband of Ida Eisendrath who served congregations in Terre Haute and Albany
before coming to the Eighth Avenue Temple in Brooklyn which he served for 37
years while founding “the Consumptives Jewish Aide Society of Brooklyn” and
editing The Supplement, “a monthly
magazine.’
1867: Ruthless beat out DeCourcey by a head
over the old Jerome Park Racetrack to win the inaugural running of the Belmont
Stakes and financed by August Belmont, Sr. for whom the race was named financed
the building of the track. The Belmont
Stakes would move to its current home, Belmont Park, in 1905.
1871(30th of Sivan, 5631): Rosh
Chodesh Tammuz
1871(30th of Sivan, 5631):
Twenty-five-year-old Cambridge trained Mathematician Numa Edward Hartog, the
son of Alfonse Hartog and Marion Moss whose denial to be admitted as a Senior
Wrangler “led to the passage of the Universities Tests Act of 1871, which
removed religious barriers to holding fellowships at Oxford and Cambridge”
passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7292-hartog-numa-edward
1871: In Nebraska, Edward Rosewater, a Jewish
immigrant who supported abolition and served as a telegrapher in the Union Army
published the first edition of the Omaha
Bee
1877(8th of Tammuz, 5637): Rebbe
Meir Horowitz of Dzhikov, the son of Rebbe Eliezer Horowitz of Dzhikov and the
grandson of Rebbe Nattaliz Tzvi passed away today.
1877: As word of Judge Hilton’s decision to bar
Joseph Seligman from the Grand Union Hotel because he was Jewish spread across
the United States, hotel proprietors in Philadelphia said that banning patrons
because they were Jewish was wrong.
Looking at it from strictly a financial point of view, they all agree
that the money of “an Israelite” is as good as that “of a full-fledged
American.” Both Mr. Kingsley of the
Continental and Mr. Ward of St. George, leading Philadelphia hotels, have had
Seligman as a guest and would gladly do so again. While Judge Hilton’s action
might have been permissible in New York, in Pennsylvania it would have been
illegal. Under that state’s law, hotel
owners have to obtain a license that allows them “keep a hotel, inn or tavern
and under the provisions of that license he cannot turn away any person from
his hotel, unless he knows that such persons will cause great loss to his house
and then he holds himself liable to a fine of $300 and three months
imprisonment” as well as a suit for damages from the people who were denied
rooms.
1877: At the popular resort of Long Branch, NJ,
several hotel owners expressed their surprise that Joseph Seligman had been
turned away from the Grand Union. Even
though he is Jewish, the hotel owners, some of whom had had him as a guest,
said that he was a desirable guest.
However, many of them expressed the opinion that they did not want Jews
staying at their hotels and were sympathetic with the stance taken by Judge
Hilton.
1877: According to Edward Lauterbach, the
attorney for Joseph Seligman, as of today hundreds of Jews have closed their
accounts at the two stores owned by A.T. Stewart & Co which are controlled
by Judge Hilton. This is but one example of Jewish support for Seligman whom
Lauterbach declared is the leading Jew in the United States and is proudly
acknowledged as such by his co-religionists.
Lauterbach said that Seligman might also pursue a case under the Civil
Rights Law which would leave Hilton open to fines and imprisonment.
1877: The arrival of today’s New York Times at
Saratoga Spring this afternoon has caused quite a stir with its report of the
dispute between Judge Hilton and Joseph Seligman over the latter’s claim that
he was not allowed to rent rooms at the Grand Union because he was Jewish.
1878: Birthdate of Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky,
the Bolshevik leader that some credit with overseeing the execution of the Czar
after the Russian Revolution.
1879: The London News published an
article describing the terms of the will of the late Baron Lionel de
Rothschild. The estate is valued to at
2,700,000 pounds. Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild and Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, the
late Baron’s two sons, have been named as executors.
1880: It was reported today that Sarah
Bernhardt has signed a contract to give 60 performances at Booth’s Theatre in
New York next winter. The contract calls for her to be paid 3,000 francs a
night, one-third of the gross receipts, traveling expenses for herself and
three companions and 3,000 francs a month for her hotel bill. According to the great actress, she has had
more lucrative offers but she accepted this because the 200,000 francs has been
deposited at the Banque de France as a security bond.
1881(22nd of Sivan, 5641):
Eighty-eight-year-old Richea Gratz Etting, the Pennsylvania born daughter of
Rachel Gratz and Solomon Etting who has been married in 1791, passed away today.
1882: It was reported today that the United
States manager for Sarah Bernhardt has signed a contract with Henry Irving the
actor/owner of London’s Lyceum Company to perform their full repertoire during
an American tour. Among other things,
American audiences will be treated to The Merchant of Venice featuring Ellen
Terry in her famed portrayal of Portia and Irving’s unique portrayal of
Shylock. His dignified portrayal of Shakespeare’s
most famous Jewish character is a departure from the norm of his time.
1882: “The Polish Jewish Colony” published
today provided a detailed sketch of life among the Jews living on New York’s
lower east side.
1883: In, “Smolian, Russia,” “Joseph and Anna
(Leuchtiger) Slobin gave birth to Clark University educated mathematician
Herman Lester Slobin, the husband of Alice Levy and the Professor serving as
the “head of the Mathematics Department at the University of New Hampshire in
Durham, NH.
1883: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society
was among the private institutions devoted to the care of children that
received a grant of funds from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in New
York City. The society received $1,810 out of a total of $30,255 in grants.
1884: Dr. Henry W. Schneeberger a Baltimore
Rabbi was one of four people who signed a letter today addressed “to Sir Moses
Montefiore, thanking him for his aid to the Russian Jews who had found a refuge
in Baltimore. The letter continued to advise Montefiore that the Russian Jewish
immigrants had established a school in honor of their benefactor. Dr.
Schneeberger was one of the teachers in this school - teaching the immigrants
in the daytime and also at night. Dr. Schneeberger also became their mentor in
advising the Russian Jewish immigrants to become good American citizens and he
cautioned against the radicalism of some in their midst.”
1884: After a rumor circulated through certain
parts of the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod that a Jew had kidnapped a
Christian child and taken it to a synagogue, a mob attacked the synagogue.
During the riot 9 Jews were killed, six houses were wrecked, and an untold
number were plundered.
1885: In Atkins, AR, Ephriam and Sallie Lasker
Epstein gave birth to Clarence Randal Epstein, the older brother of S. Lasker
Epstein and Harod Frederick Epstein.
1886: Birthdate of Michael (Mihály) Fekete the
Hungarian mathematician who made Aliyah in 1928 where he “was among the first
instructors in the Institute of Mathematics at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
1886: The
Manchester Guardian reported that the Visiting Committee of the Hebrew
Congregations of Manchester and Liverpool has affected a "closer union
between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic sections of the Jewish community."
1866: In Paducah, KY, Benjamin Bernnheim, the
German born son of Leopold Solomon and Fanny Weil Bernheim, who became a
wealthy Louisville distiller, and his wife Rosalie gave birth to Lynn Bernard
Bernheim
1888: In New York, Rabbi Joseph Ziesler, the
Hungarian born son of Josefine, and Eduard Ziesler and his wife Irma Ziesler
gave birth to Flora Zeisler
1889: William E. Annin, the associate editor of
the Omaha Bee wrote the following
description today of Edward Rosewater, the Czech born Jew who was “the
editor and publisher of the Omaha Bee.”
"Mr. Rosewater was par excellence the all-around man
of the [Bee] establishment. He seemed to have obtained the secret of two
of the attributes of Deity, he was omnipresent and apparently omniscient. He
wrote heavy editorials and pungent editorial paragraphs; contributed local
political news to the city page, clipped selections for the news columns,
selected items for those startling chestnuts dubbed 'Connubial Bliss,'
'Peppermint Drops' and 'Honey for the Ladies,' regulated the business office a
dozen times a day and took subscriptions on the streets and advertising contracts
from the merchants. I used to think his only sorrow was that he had not in
addition been born a steam engine so that he could run the presses. . .
"In addition to his ordinary duties above named, he constantly developed
strong interest in local politics, and always had a dozen fights and twice that
number of ward politicians on his hands. On city or county election days, The
Bee office was usually depopulated and every man, from editor down, after
rushing in copy, early took a whirl at the polls. After a hard day's work on
election day, followed by an all-night session in collecting returns, the
editor would bob up serenely at 9 o'clock the next morning with his arm full of
exchanges and his mouth full of suggestions about the paper, . . ."His
indomitable energy, his uncompromising persistency and his invincible pluck
were at once the wonder and admiration of the office. . . . Overworked himself,
he took his own high tension as the norm of work, and found it difficult to
understand why all of his employees could not endure cheerfully the same
racking. This made him often very unpleasant as an employer
1890: In Goniondz, Russia, “Isaac and Libby (Rahver)
Roback” gave birth McGill University alum Abraham Aaron Roback, the Harvard PhD
and psychologist, the contributor to Yiddish journals and faculty member at
several schools including Clark University, MIT, Radcliffe and Harvard.
1890: Police officers Oram and English waited in vain for
“a short, stout, red whiskered Polish Jew” named Marcus Goldstein to come to
the Gill Engraving printing where he was supposed to retrieve plates for making
lottery tickets that were thought to be part of counterfeiting scheme. (more
tomorrow)
1891: It was reported today that applications for the
summer session of The Hebrew Technical Institute under the direction of Henry
Leipziger may be made now at its building on Stuyvesant Street.
1891: Birthdate of Romania native and Sacramento, CA insurance man Simon Gartler, the husband of
Anna Gartler and father of Ruth Gartler
who served as President of the Federation of Rumanian Jews.
1891: Birthdate of New York City Mortimer Krause, the
attorney who when running for Congress as a Republican in 1930 came out in
support of anti-lynching legislation.
1891: The list of the graduates from Hebrew Technical
Institute published today included Coleman Borwn, Jacob Brown, Joseph Elias,
Morris Farkas, Joseph L. Gensler, Louis Gevertz, Arthur Gross, Philip Levenhal,
Michale L. Levy, Marks Lisk, Joseph Mayer, Max Mayer, Mortimer L Newman, Hyman
Rosensohn, Abraham Saruya, Rduolph Shack, August Schweitzer and Jacob Szabo.
1892: “Austrian Jew Baiters Thrashed” published today
described an episode at Vienna’s Prater Restaurant, witnessed by a
correspondent from the London Daily News during which three “Jew baiters” were
thrashed by “a beardless youth” after enduring their taunts in silence. It
turned out the young man was not Jewish but was in fact an English jockey who
had several races at Vienna.
1892: It was reported today that Sarah “Bernhardt
continues to play to big audiences in which is proving the most success of all
her London seasons.
1892: Birthdate of Ironwood, MI native and Northwestern
University attorney James Joseph Glassner who did post graduate work at Harvard
and practiced law in Chicago.
1892: “Rejected at the Theatre Francais” published today
includes a negative review of Le Prince d'Aurec, a satire on the nobility by
Henri Lavedan that features a Jewish banker named de Horn as the villain.
1893: Henry Gottgetreu, the attorney for the late Samuel
Adler, spoke of behalf of himself and the family when he denied any knowledge
of financial problems that Adler had been facing since they assumed that his
“fortune” was “at least a quarter of a million dollars.” Mr. Adler had been
active in a number of Jewish organizations including the Sons of Israel, the
Sons of Benjamin and B’nai B’rith.
1893: “Hebrew Printers at Odds” published today described
conflict between Jewish workers including a declaration by the Central Labor
Federation that “the Hebrew Typographical Union was the only true Hebrew
printing union in New York” and a denunciation of the “Hebrew Typographical
Union No. 317 as shoemakers, tailors and cloakmakers organized to fight
Socialism.” (This small item gives a window into the internecine conflict of
the Jewish working class; a conflict that was even more intense than the one
with the businesses many of which were owned by Jews)
1893(5th of Tammuz, 5653): Fifty-year-old
Adolph S. Jaeger, a prosperous cigar manufacturer who was, with his brother
Morris S., co-owner of Jaeger Brothers, died today, apparently of a
self-inflicted gunshot wound.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F70717FF3D5A1A738DDDA90A94DE405B8385F0D3
1893: It was reported today that the brass band from the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum played at the reception marking the opening of the Lebanon
Hospital.
1894: In New York City, Bertha and Max Kleinfeld gave
birth to NYU trained attorney and New York State legislator Philip M.
Kleinfeld, a member of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities and
Congregation “Shomre Emuneh” in Boro Park.
https://history.nycourts.gov/biography/philip-m-kleinfeld/
1895: “Literary Notes” published today described the
upcoming publication by G.P. Putnam of Israel Among the Nations, “as
study of the Jews and anti-Semitism by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu which has been
translated into English by Frances Hellman
1895: In Vienna, Austria, Reuben Ben Mordechai Brainin
and Marie (Masha, Mussa) Brainin gave birth to Joseph Brainin, a Corporal in
the Jewish Legion who had enlisted while living in Montreal and after having
served in Palestine was mustered out after which he married Salomea Newark and
eventually served as executive Vice President of the American Committee for the
Weizmann Institute.
1896: “The Jews of Russia” published today describes the
restrictive laws under which the Israelites have lived in the land of the Czars
including the Ukase of 1727 that expelled the Jews from Russia, the Ukase of
1742 which did the same and the creation by Catherine II and Alexander I of
special zone to which the Jews were to confine themselves.
1897: “The Talmud Again” published today provides an
in-depth review of the two-volume New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud
formulated and punctuated by Michael L Rodkinson which includes the original
text and an English translation reviewed by Dr. Isaac W. Wise. Born in 1845,
Rodkinson was the grandson of Aaron ha-Levi ben Moses, the son of Alexander
Sender Frumkin and the half-brother of Israel Dov Bar Frumkin
1897: Among the gifts and contributions listed at the
meeting of the Board of Directors of the Hebrew Technical Institute were $250
from Julius Goldschmidt for tools and physical instruments; a band saw from
James Loeb; $500 from the late Bernard Cohen for lathes; $1,000 from the late
Leopold Boscowitz for general supplies. (The nature of the contributions is
consistent with vocational mission of the institute)
1897: “Articles of incorporation were filed” today “in
the County Clerk’s office by the Sons of Abraham, a Hebrew benevolent society.”
1897: Mrs. Jennie Cohen who had been recently widowed and
her four young children ranging in age from six years to four months arrived in
New York from New Haven, CT and since they were destitute spent the night at
the Hebrew Sheltering House Association at 210 Madison.
1897: Birthdate of comedian Moe Howard who gained
fame as one of the Three Stooges
1898: Two days after he had passed
away, 37-year-old Mordecai Park was buried today in London at the Plashet
Jewish Cemetery.
1899: In Baltimore, MD, Dr. Richard Gottheil
chaired the opening session of the second annual conference of the Federation
of American Zionists.
1899: Thirty-year-old Harvard trained attorney
Marcus Cauffman Sloss, the New York City born son of Louis and Saran
(Greenbaum) Sloss married Hattie L. Hecht today in Boston after which he went
to practice law in San Francisco where he also served a Judge of the Superior
Court.
1899: As of today, the Federation
of American Zionists has 10,000 members divided into “125 societies” with a
total of $415.92 in its treasurer.
1899: This evening Rabbi Gustave
Gottheil of New York’s Temple Emanu-El addressed a mass meeting in Baltimore in
which “he delivered a bitter” indictment “against the injustice done Dreyfus.
1899: In his recent announcement of
his resignation as pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church on West 116th
Street in Manhattan, Reverend James Chambers predicted that the congregation
would soon disband because of the changing nature of the neighborhood where
“well-to-do residents of the Jewish faith…have crowded out their Christian
neighbors.”
1900: “Russian Jewish immigrants
Mikhail (Michael) Zametkin and Adella Kean Zametki” Cornell University graduate
Laura Zametkin who gained fame novelist Laura Hobson, the author of Gentlemen’s
Agreement and wife of Thayer Hobson with whom she had two children Michael and
Christopher Hobson.
1900: Herzl and Wolffsohn settle
their differences about the Trust's affairs. And Herzl asks his good dear
"Daade" to address him by the familiar "Du" instead of the
formal "Sie".
1901: 1903: In
Halle, Germany, Irmgard (née Wüst) and Friedrich Litten who had converted to
Lutheranism gave birth to Hans Achim Litten, the attorney who defended
anti-Nazis during trials held in the last years of the Weimar Republic and
actually cross-examined Adolf Hitler – a cross-examination that led to his
imprisonment, torture and death at Dachau
1902: Henry Freeman, the Russian
born son of Rhoda and Abraham Simon Freeman was buried today at the Belfast
Jewish Cemetery in Northern Island.
1903: The British Foreign Office
sends the first of two letters to Herzl rejecting his proposal to establish a
Jewish colony in the Sinai.
1903: In Halle Irmgard (nee Wust)
and Fritz Litten, “a Jews who converted to Lutheranism in order to further his
career as a law professor” gave birth to Hans Litten, a lawyer who represented
opponents of the Nazis – a role that ended him in Dachau where he died.
1904: Birthdate of New Yorker
Lester Cole, the son of a union organizer in the garment district who was a
co-founder of the Writers Guild of America and whose membership in the
Communist Party led to his being blacklisted as a member of the “Hollywood
Ten.”
1905: “Stick to Palestine Plan”
published described the opening session of the 8th annual convention
of the Federation of American Zionists in Philadelphia during which the 230
delegates “adopted a resolution to the effect that that the International
Zionist Congress, to be held at Basel this Summer be asked to reaffirm the
Basel program of 1897.”
1906: In Berlin, Margarete (née Eisner) and Michael Chain gave birth to
German born and educated British chemist, Sir Ernst Boris Chain. Chain left Germany when the Nazis came to
power. As an English citizen this
leading biochemist won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for
his work on the effects of penicillin.
1907: Captain Johann Kock, the
former Finnish army officer turned revolutionary who has found refuge in the
United States was quoted today as saying the Czar “is an ordinary man” who
“cannot comprehend the situation and believes that at the bottom of all the
troubles as the Jews and nobody else.”
1908: After selecting William
Howard Taft, who would become the first sitting President to attend a Seder,
the Republican National Convention adjourned today in Chicago, Illinois.
1909: Birthdate of Maurice Zimring,
the native of Waterloo, Iowa who gained fame as “Maurice Zimm, an American radio, television and film writer, whose most
famous creation was the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/24/local/me-passings24.3
1910: Birthdate of Abe Fortas, Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court. Fortas was a close friend and advisor to Lyndon
Johnson. There are several stories about Fortas providing Johnson with what we
would call a "reality check." Fortas was reluctant to give up his
lucrative law practice and accept the position on the high court. He did tell
Johnson that the Jewish community would not consider him as the "Jewish
Justice" in the sense of a Brandies or Goldberg since he was not a part of
that community. In the end Fortas gave into Lyndon’s famed arm-twisting and the
rest is history. Fortas ended up resigning from the court in 1969 after
questions were raised about some of his business dealings. Fortas passed away
in 1982 at the age of 71.
1910:
New York Law School trained attorney Hyan J. Reit, the Koenigsberg,
Germany born son of Jenny Epstein and Jacob Reit married Rae Klausner today
after which he served as president of both Temple B’nai Israel and Sheerith
Judah and chairman of bot the Washington Heights Division of Keren Hayesod and
the United Palestine Appeal’s Washington Heights Division.
1911: Today, the police have informed another
one thousand Jews that they have eight days to leave by Kiev.
1911(23rd of
Sivan, 5671): Jacob Stanley Isaacs, the New York born son of Jane Symmons and
Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs and the “brother of Judge Myer Samuel Isaacs; Isaac
Samuel Isaacs; Marian Isaacs; Abram Samuel Isaacs; Rebecca Isaacs; Rachel
Isaacs and Sarah Isaacs” passed away today in Manhattan.
1912: The Republican National Convention to
which Samuel S. Koenig was a delegate opened today in Chicago.
1912: In Philadelphia, PA, Jewish immigrants
Ruth (née Herzog) and Israel Gabel, a jeweler, gave birth to actor, director
and producer Martin Gabel
1913: In Chicago, The Temple Emanuel Woman’s
Auxiliary is scheduled to hold its annual luncheon at the Bismarck Gardens this
afternoon.
1913: When the Austrian Parliament met today
Ignaz Kuranda, “a leader of the assimilations section of Austrian Jewry” spoke
out against the riots at Vienna University which “embitter not only the Jews
but every educated man” and through which “Austrian Nationalism will not gain
in power” but which “the Jews will learn to appreciate the fact that
anti-Semitism is growing in this country.”
1913: Abram I. Elkus addressed the graduates at
the City College commencement ceremony.
1914: Louis D. Brandeis, special counsel to the
Interstate Commerce Commission in the 5 per cent. advance rate case, to-day
appeared before the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce in opposition to
the Rayburn Stock and Bond bill, which proposes to confer authority upon the
commission to control and approve issues of securities by common carriers.
1914: In Palo Alto, CA, Carol (née Dixon) and
William MacGregor Cranston gave birth to Senator Alan Cranston who as “a
correspondent for INS before WW II thought a recently released “abridged
English-language translation of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, was sanitized
to exclude some of Hitler's anti-Semitism and militancy” published a different
translation (with annotations) which he believed more accurately reflected the
contents of the book and for which Hitler successfully sued him for “copyright
violation.”
1915: In
the Bronx, Romanian-Jewish immigrants “Joseph and Bertha Schwartz to cartoonist
Julius Schwartz who as an editor at DC Comics worked on Superman and Batman.
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Julius_Schwartz
1915: Friends and family of Leo Frank,
including his wife, father and mother visited him “in his cell in the Tower
today” as they awaited word as to whether or not Governor Slaton would commute
is sentence to life in prison.
1915: The Jews of Morocco suffered indignities
under the French regime that were unknown while under the rule of the old
sultans.
1916: The Adjutant General of the New York
National guard “ended the public hearings…in the investigation to determine
whether discrimination had shown against Jews in the National Guard” despite
objections by Maurice Simmons “who has been presenting the case for the Jews.”
1916: It was reported today that “a gift of
$165,000 to Mount Sinai Hospital has just been announced by the Guggenheim
brothers of the American Smelting and Refining Company” which “supplements
previous gifts of more than $500,000 already given by the Guggenheim brothers.”
1916: The delegates to the eighth annual
convention of the Federation of Russian-Polish Jews of America are scheduled to
meet for a second session tonight at seven o’clock at the Harlem Hebrew
Educational Institute.
1916: It was reported today that Louis D.
Brandies, Louis Edward Levy of Philadelphia and Dr. Harry Friedenwald are
scheduled to be among the speakers at next week’s annual convention of the
Federation of American Zionists which will be held at the Metropolitan Opera
House in Philadelphia.
1917: In Alexandria, Egypt, Nelly Grün and
Leopold Percy Hobsbaum gave birth to “Eric J. Hobsbawm, whose three-volume
economic history of the rise of industrial capitalism established him as
Britain’s pre-eminent Marxist historian.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1917: In Chicago, The Baron Hirsch Workers are
scheduled “to hold a directors’ meeting this after at the Lincoln Park.
1917: Dr. Bernard Revel, President of the
Faculty of the Rabbinical College of America opened “the first annual meeting
of the Society of Jewish Academicians” in New York by delivering “an address on
‘The Place of Jewish Scholarship in America.’”
1917: Based on information from the American
minister to Sweden, Abram I. Ilkus, the American Ambassador to Turkey has left
Constantinople and is scheduled to arrive in Berne today.
1917: “The cornerstone of the new synagogue to
be erected at 257-265 West Eighty-Eighth Street for the Congregation B’nai
Jeshurun” one of the oldest congregations in New York “was set in place”
1917: Twenty-six-year-old Richmond, VA born
dentist Harry Bear married Betty Gellman
1918: In Fitzgerald, GA, gave birth to “Sam
Abram, a harness maker and storekeeper born in Romania, and the former Irene
Cohen, the daughter of a doctor and a granddaughter of Rabbi Elias Eppstein,
one of the first Reform rabbis in the United States gave birth to Morris
Berthold Abram, the advocate for Civil Rights and President of Brandeis
University. (As reported by William Honan)
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/17/us/morris-abram-is-dead-at-81-rights-advocate-led-brandeis.html
https://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/honoring-the-legacy-of-a-small-town-jewish-boy1/
1918: Today
Leopold and Johanna Bluethenthal received the kind of wartime telegram
confirming the news that their son, Arthur, had died fighting for the Allied
cause in Europe making him the first resident of Wilmington, NC, to die in
combat during the First World War.
1919: Birthdate of movie critic Pauline Kael. As movie critic for the New York Times, Kael was one of the most influential influences in
the world of cinema criticism. With her
high quality of writing and edgy style, she was a trend setter in an era when
women were too often consigned to the style section and gossip columns.
1920: The first anti-Semitic
article appeared in the Dearborn Independent, owned by Henry Ford who was a Jew
hater part excellence.
1920: M.I.T. educated architect
Albert Samuel Gottlieb, the Portchester, NY born son of Julia Rothschild and
Samuel Gottlieb who specialized in designing in synagogues and temples included
Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Newark, NJ married Catherine M. Welch today.
1921: “The Eighth Annual Flower Day
of the Jewish National Fund” is scheduled to be observed today in Jewish
communities throughout the United States.
1922: The National Association of
Jewish Community Center Secretaries, whose goal “is to develop a scientific
body of information for Jewish Community workers” is scheduled to continue its
fourth annual conference today in Providence, RI.
1923: The 18th annual
convention of the Independent Order of Brith Sholom which was founded in 1905
and has over 35,000 members came to an end today in Atlantic City, NJ.
1923: Today, “at a luncheon of the
Business Men’s Council held at the Hostel Pennsylvania,” the organization’s
president, Arthur Lehman announced plans to half a million dollars during the
remainder of “1923 to wipe out the deficit in the current budget of the
Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies.
1924: Dr. Joseph Silverman, Rabbi
Emeritus of Temple Emanuel, “has returned from a tour of the holy land.”
1925: In Detroit, Michigan, Morris
Burros, “an unsuccessful furrier and inventor” and the former Clara Krellman
gave birth to Marion Ann Burrow who gained fame as Marian Javits, the wife of
Jacob Javits, the U.S. Senator from New York and a leader of the Republican
Party’s liberal wing.
1925: In a cave at Tabgha, near Jerusalem,
archaeologists discover a primitive human skull that bears a close resemblance
to the Neanderthal man previously discovered in Europe.
1926: Birthdate of New Jersey native Dr. Erna
Schneider Hoover “an American mathematician notable for inventing a
computerized telephone switching method which "revolutionized modern
communication" according to several reports.”
1926: “Footloose Widows” a comedy filmed by
cinematographer David Abel was released in the United States today.
1926: Birthdate of Luxembourg native Arno
Joseph Mayer whose family fled to the United States after the Nazi invasion
which led to his successful career that culminated in being named
“Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University.”
https://history.princeton.edu/people/arno-mayer
1927(19th of Sivan, 5687):
Sixty-eight-year-old Zippporah Alice DeCastro Lazaron, the New Orleans born
daughter of Jacob Osoro DeCastro and Hannah Haim DeSola DeCastro , the husband
of Atlanta, GA native Samuel Louis Lazaron and the mother of Savannah, GA
native Rabbi Samuel Lazaron passed away today in Baltimore.
1928(1st of Tammuz, 5688): Rosh
Chodesh Tammuz
1928: “A cross-fire of conflicting court orders
obtain by Louis Lowenstein, President of the Nassau Smelting Company…and by his
wife Ralphina…complicated the hearing on the husband’s merit directing his wife
to show cause why she should not return their three children which was
scheduled for this afternoon before Supreme Court Justice Valente.”
1928(1st of Tammuz, 5688): Just
weeks short of his 61st birthday labor leader Joseph Baroness known
as “the King of the Cloakmakers” passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1928/06/22/archive/15000-pay-last-tribute-to-joseph-barondess-at-funeral-services
1929: Funeral services are scheduled to be held
this morning for sixty-nine year old Columbia Unversity trained attorney Edgar
J. Nathan, the New York City born son of Gershom and Rosalie Gomez, the scion
of several the city’s oldest Sephardic families, and partner of Justice
Benjamin N. Cardoza who was the husband of Sara N. Solis and the father of
Edgar J. Nathan, Jr the Manhattan Borough President.
1929: “At a joint meeting of the Prague Chevra
Kadisha…and the Kehillah board” “went on record as opposing the burial of the
ashes of cremated bodies in the Jewish cemeteries” because that was a violation
of “Jewish religious traditions.”
1930: Mrs. Samuel Halprin wrote to “American
attorney, social worker, and philanthropist” Joseph C. Hyman.
1931: “A rabbi may legally issue a permit to
consumers of sacramental wine if the latter are Orthodox Jews, even if the
consumers are not members of the rabbi's congregation, Federal Judge Frank J.
Coleman ruled today, ordering the government to return 500 gallons of
sacramental wine seized on April 13
during a raid on a branch store of the Fruit Industries, Ltd.”
1932(15th of Sivan, 5692):
Ninety-one Myrtilla Eduora Mitchell, the Philadelphia born daughter Abraham
Hart and Rebecca Cohen Hart and husband of Lewis Allen Mitchell with whom she
had four children – Estelle, Irving, Percival and Clarence Mitchell passed away
today Philadelphia.
1933(25th of Sivan, 5693):
Fifty-one-year-old Ukrainian born chazzan Jose “Yossele” Rosenblatt passed away
today in Jerusalem.
1933: On a day when he received an honorary
degree from Brown University Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo of the United States
Supreme Court delivered an address to the alumni of that Rhode Island
institution of higher education in which he declared, “The day is past when
problems of public law can be solved by pulling down the law books and marking
without other aids the "signposts on the road,"
1933: Cardinal Pacelli issued a concordant
known as the Hitler Concordant. Hitler described it as "unrestricted
acceptance of National Socialism by the Vatican." Cardinal Pacelli later
became Pope Pious XII.
1933:
“The annual convention of the Council of Young Israel Organizations”
which was attended by “delegates from the United States, Canada, Great Britain,
France and Poland” and is being held at “the Hotel Clarendon-Brunswick” in
Asbury, NJ.is scheduled to come to an end today.
1934: American author Nathaniel West, the son
of Litvak immigrants to the United States, published A Cool Million, the
second of the three novels he created during his career which was cut short by
an untimely death in an automobile accident.
1934(6th of Tammuz, 5694): Seventy-six German
businessman Max Pinkus passed away at Neustadt, Germany.
1934:Tonight, in the ballroom of the Plaza
Hotel, Dr. Bernard Revel, dean of Yeshivah College, Dr. Moses Hyamson of the
faculty of JTS, Rabbi Mitchell S. Eskolsky and Cantor Aaron J. Caplow
officiated at the wedding of Leah Friedman and Jacob Neustadter.
1934: It was reported today that the newly
elected officers of the Central Conference of American Rabbis are Rabbi Samuel
Goldenson of Temple Emanu-El in New York, President; Rabbi Felix A. Levy of
Chicago, Vice President; Rabbi Samuel Gup of Columbus, OH and Rabbi Isaac E.
Marcuson of Macon, GA, Secretaries; Rabbi Harry S. Margolis of St. Paul, MN,
Treasurer.
1934: Hundreds of kosher butcher shops owners
are scheduled to attend a meeting at Webster Hall sponsored by The Federation
of Kosher Shop Owners in Greater New York, led by President Charles Cohen where
they will decide whether or not to close their shops as a protest “against the
high prices packers are forcing them to pay for their meats.”
1935: In Palestine, the German consulate
advised Jews not to travel to Germany, not even if they are citizens and not
even for short trips. According to the consul, Jews entering Germany are likely
to be apprehended by the Gestapo and placed in a concentration camp.
1936: “Great Britain is determined to restore
order in Palestine, ‘even if it means using inevitably harsh measures,’
Colonial Secretary William G.A. Ormsby-Gore told the House of Commons today at
the end of a full-length debate on recent disturbances in the Holy Land.”
1936: Rabbi B.A. Tinner delivered the Friday
night sermon at the Temple of the Covenant on West 180th Street in
New York.
1936: “We Went to College” a comedy produced by
Harry Rapf who co-authored the script along with Richard Maibaum was released
in the United States today.
1936: Leopold S. Amery, the former Colonial
Secretary told the House of Commons, “nothing could be more cruel than the
position in which the German Jews are placed today.”
1936: This evening in New York Georg Bernhard,
the German editor-in-chief of the Pariser Tageseitung who has been living in
exile in Paris since Hitler came to power “gave a farewell address on “A World
Jewish Question” in which he said that world was no longer interested in the
persecution of the Jews by the Nazis” and that “consequently, the entire German
Jewry is now exposed to torture and slavery.”
1936: Earl Winterton, former Under-Secretary
for India told the House of Commons that he “thought the Jews had ‘behaved
admirably on the whole’ and complimented them for what they had done in
Palestine” adding that he loathed “the manner in which they have been treated
in a certain country of Europe.”
1936: As Arab violence continues to
sweep across Palestine, The
Palestine Post reported that one Jew was killed and several deafened and injured
by a primitive bomb which was thrown into a bus in Tel Aviv. Avraham
Ben-Yehuda, one of the original founders of Atarot, died of injuries sustained
when Arab snipers opened fire on a bus in Jerusalem. Trees were cut down and
the aerodrome damaged at Lydda. The Jerusalem water pipe was damaged by a
dynamite charge. Two Arabs injured themselves seriously while trying to blow up
a road culvert near Nablus.
1937(10th of Tammuz, 5697): Parashat Chukat
1937: David Robert Altman, the twenty-four-year-old Milwaukee born
son of Jeanette and Robert D. Atlman arrived in Spain where he would fight with
the International Brigade.
1937: “Member of the National Democratic Party asked the Polish
Government today to prevent Jews of Brzesc from receiving financial aid from
American Jewry for reopening shops destroyed in anti-Semitic riots” because
“Brzesc was an important military center should not be inhabited by Jews.”
1938: On the 22nd anniversary of the Battle of Verdun,
“1,000 Jewish and non-Jewish veterans including General Andre Weller,”
attending the “unveiling of a monument at Doumont”, honoring “6,500 French Jews
and 2,000 Americans and British Jews of the Foreign Legion who fell in the war”
heard “Deputy Caesar Campinchi, speaking on behalf of the French Government”
condemning persecution and advising “Jews to remember history, to be patient
and not to despair.
1939: The Mizrachi Women's Organization opened its first
independent meeting in Atlantic City. Although it was the group's fourteenth
annual meeting, it was the first conducted separately from a men's
organization. Now the largest religious Zionist organization in the United
States (under the name AMIT), the organization owes its creation to Freda
Resnikoff.
1939: Governor Lehman addressed the delegates attending the
convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham in Convention Hall at
Saratoga Springs, NY.
1939:
In Palestine, eighteen Arabs--nine men, six women and
three children-- were killed and twenty-four wounded by the explosion of a time
bomb. In replying to accusations by the British that Jews were responsible for
the violence, “Jewish communal leaders condemned the ‘dastardly murder of
innocent Arabs, women and children.’”
1940(13th of Sivan, 5700): Zalman David
Levontin passed away. Born in 1856, he was one of the first of the Hovevei Zion
group and one of the founders of Rishon LeZion and Yesod Hamaaleh. In 1903,
Levontin founded the Anglo Palestine Bank in Jaffa and acted as its manager
until 1924.
1940: Leonard Canter, Edwin Newman and Nathan Segal are three of
the “four members of the City College that is graduated tonight who will
receive their degrees summa cum laude.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/06/19/113093224.html?pageNumber=18
1941: Today, the residents of Metulla, “a Jewish agricultural
community” were recovering from the destruction from the French artillery
attacks launched from Merdjayoun.” (It is assumed that these French forces were
under the control of Vichy which shows to what extent the Petain, et al would
go to serve their fellow fascists.”
1941: Rabbi Leo Jung, a Professor of Ethics, presided over
“special services” marking the “150th anniversary of the
ratification of the Bill Rights” which were held today prior to the 10th
annual Commencement Exercises at Yeshiva University.
1942: Today, after being held in three different prisons, Titus
Brandsma, a Carmelite priest who been arrested by German occupiers in Holland
for speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan” “arrived”
at Dachau today where he was later murdered by lethal injection.
1942; The US Army activated the Military Intelligence Training
Center (MITC) today, and trained 19,600 intelligence troops, including the
Ritchie Boys, approximately 15,200 servicemen, most with high fluency in
multiple European languages, for frontlines interrogation, battle-field
intelligence, investigation, counter-intelligence, and related work. Approximately
14%, or 2,200, of them were Jewish refugees born in Germany and Austria,
alongside American Jewish servicemen, among others. The 'Ritchie Boys' were
later involved in the Nuremberg trials as prosecutors and translators.
1942(4th of Tammuz,
5702): Jews
revolt at Glebokie, Belorussia; 2500 are murdered in the Borek Forest.
1942: The family of famed historian Moses
Schorr including his wife, his daughter Felicia and his grandchildren were
“interned at Warsaw’s Pawiak Prison as citizens of a neutral state.”
1942: Birthdate of Jack Edward Oliver author of
the “Swan Esther,” a 1982 musical based on the Megalith Esther.
1943: Today, while stationed at Camp Croft in
Spartanburg, SC, twenty year old Private Henry Kissinger “became a naturalized
citizen.”
1943: Joseph Goebbels announces that Berlin is
free of Jews.
1944(28th of Sivan, 5704):
Forty-four-year-old Lilli Jahn “a German-Jewish doctor and victim of the Nazism
in Germany who gained international fame posthumously following the publication
of her letters to her five children which she wrote during her imprisonment in
the labor camp Breitenau after which she was deported to the concentration camp
Auschwitz where she was murdered today.
https://www.amazon.com/My-Wounded-Heart-Lilli-1900-1944/dp/B008SMX8W4
1944: Five hundred Jews were transferred from
the death camp of Birkenau to the work camp at Dachau.
1945: Judge Irving Lehman, the brother of
former Governor Herman Lehman, delivered the address of welcome at New York
City's reception honoring General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who has returned from
leading the Allies to victory over the Nazis.
1945: In Birmingham, Alabama, Rosemary (Loftus)
and Arthur Samuels Wolff, an aeronautical engineer “from a Jewish background”
gave birth to author Tobias Wolff who did not find out his “Jewish connection”
until he was an adult.
1946: Today, in a memorandum to the State
Department, the American Jewish Committee urged the “United States to recommend
to the British government the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine
and indicated willing to assist in transferring these refugees.
1947: It was reported today that “The memory of
6,000,000 European Jews, including those who fell in the Battle of the Warsaw
Ghetto and those who died by Nazi gas and guns in concentration camps, will be
kept alive by a monument being designed by Jo Davidson, the sculptor, for
Riverside Park at Eighty-fourth Street…”
1948: Panama and Costa Rica (recognized Israel.
1949: “Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Acting United
Nations Mediator on Palestine said tonight that he did not know of any recent
sniping by Israeli soldiers of any Israeli preparations for an armed attack
against the Laturun area.
1949: In Queens, NY, “Shirley and Arthur
Canton, who worked in the film industry on marketing and publicity, e.g., for
Lawrence of Arabia” gave birth to movie producer and Hollywood executive Mark
Canton
1950: In Toronto, Ruth (née Burstyn), an
interior designer, and comedian Frank Shuster gave birth to comedy writer, who
during the 1970’s was the wife of Saturday Night Live’s creator Lorne MIchaels
1950: Israel apologized to the Swedish
Government today for the assassination of Count Bernadotte, United Nations
Mediator for Palestine, by terrorists on Sept. 17, 1948.
1951: For the first time, a Soviet citizen
(Jewish) was issued an immigrant visa to Israel. The hoped-for easing of the
Russian policy of not letting its citizens out would not materialize for
decades to come.
1951(15th of Sivan, 5711):
Fifty-nine-year-old Polish born “painter and printmaker” Joseph Hecht passed a
away today.
https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/984/Hecht/Joseph
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset passed
the first reading of a bill empowering the government to sign an agreement with
Bank Leumi Le'Israel, nominating the bank as the currency issue bank of Israel.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the secretary of the
Iraqi Jewish Community Council, Dr. Habasi, was detained by police in Baghdad
together with seven other Jews, on charges of hiding "huge quantities of
arms." All of the detained previously renounced their Iraqi citizenship
and were waiting for emigration to Israel.
1952: CBS broadcast the first episode of the original version of
“I've Got a Secret” created by Allan Sherman and produced by Mark Goodson and
Bill Todman
1952:
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion expressed
satisfaction today that the Zionist Organization of America at its convention
in New York this week had cleared up the misunderstanding about the right of
foreign Zionists to participate in the shaping of Israel's policies.
1952: Birthdate of actress Carol Kane who
played Simka on the television show Taxi.
1953(6th of Tammuz, 5713): Execution
of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who had been convicted of conspiracy to commit
espionage, relating to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet
Union.
1954: In Flushing, NY, “Hy Pearlman, who ran a
dry cleaning business, and Reenie Pearlman, a school lunchroom aide” gave birth
to “music executive” Louis Jay "Lou" Pearlman, “the first cousin of
Art Garfunkel. (As reported by Liam Stack)
1954: François Mitterrand, the future President
of France, was named to serve as Minister of the Interior in the first
government head by prime Minister Pierre Mendes France who served as his own
Minister of Foreign Affairs.
1954: “Them!” a highly forgettable sci-fic flic
whose only claim to fame was that it featured one of the first screen
appearances by Leonard Nimoy was released in the United States today.
1957: Saul Rogovin pitched his last major
league baseball game.
1959: The
U.S. Senate rejected Ike's appointment of Lewis Strauss for Secretary
of Commerce. At a time when most Jews
were Democrats, Strauss was a Republican. He was part of the liberal,
internationalist wing of the party. He
had worked with Herbert Hoover on war relief during World War I. Strauss made special efforts to see to that
aid from the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee got to the Jews of Europe who
were in dire straits. He served in the
Navy during World War II and became involved in atomic energy. He was rejected because of his role in
dealing with Robert J. Oppenheimer.
1962: In
San Fernando, CA, Harry Abdul, a Syrian Jew raised in Brazil and the concert
pianist Lorraine M. (née Rykiss), who grew up in one of the two Jewish families
in Minnedosa, Manitoba in Canada gave birth to pop star Paula Abdul.
1962(17th of Sivan, 5722):
Seventy-nine-year-old Arnold K. Israeeli the St. Petersburg born and educated
lawyer who pursued a career in journalism and business that included serving as
“advertising manager for General Motors in South American for five Years and
the “director of information for the American Zionist Council” passed away
today in Brooklyn.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/06/20/82046859.pdf
1963: After 304 performances at the Sheridan
Square Playhouse, the curtain came down “The Days and Nights of BeeBee
Fenstermaker” directed by Ulu Grosbard.
1963: “PT 109” a war movie about JFK’s days in
the South Pacific featuring Norman Fell was released in the United States
today.
1963: Today, at Kiamesha Lake, NY, on the final
day of its four-day convention, Brith Abraham, the national Jewish fraternal
order elected Irving L. Hodes, a layer from Newark one time candidate for
Congress as grand master succeeding “Samuel Goldstein, the former Assistant
District Attorney of Brooklyn.”
1964: The United States Senate passed The Civil
Rights Bill that would eventually become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This
landmark legislation outlawed a variety of forms of discrimination including
that based on religion. The bill, which was primarily aimed at ending racial
segregation, had support from Jewish groups and Jewish legislators. In the
House, the bill was managed by Congressman Cellar who helped bring it to
victory in that body.
1965: A novella entitled "Hapworth 16,
1924", the last published work of J.D. Salinger appeared today in The New Yorker magazine
1966(1st of Tammuz, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1966(1st of Tammuz, 5726): Comedian Ed Wynn
passed away. Born Isaiah Edwin Leopold in 1886 in Philadelphia, Wynn’s father
was a successful milliner. He did not want his son to go into show business.
When the son would not yield, his father asked him to at least change his name
so as not to disgrace the family. He decided to split his first name
"Edwin" into Ed Wynn. Wynn was a successful comic in vaudeville and
the early days of show business. He had his own show, which won an Emmy. He
would appear in baggy pants suits pedaling a tricycle fitted with a piano. When
his brand of clown-like comedy lost its popular appeal, Wynn followed the
advice of his son and turned to acting. He appeared in a wide variety of hits
including Marjorie Morningstar, The Diary of Anne Frank and Mary Poppins
attesting to his real skill as an actor.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0021_0_21135.html
1967: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol announced that
"as an interim stage, a military situation will remain in the West
Bank."
1967(11th of Sivan, 5727): Sixty-nine-year-old
Charles Gilman, Sr. the Chairman of the board of the Gilman Paper Company, the
New York born son of Isaac Gilman, the founder of the company and the husband of “the former Sylvia
Phillips” with whom he had two sons – Howard and Charles, Jr. – passed away
today “aboard the Michelangelo on his way home from Rome.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/06/21/83611833.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1967: “In a secret decision, the government of
Levi Eshkol offered Syria ‘full peace on the basis of the international
border,’ with adjustments for Israeli security needs.”
1967: “The Thomas Crown Affair” an elegant
crime movie featuring Jack Weston and Yaphet Kotto and filmed by
cinematographer Haskell Wexler was released today in the United States.
1970(15th of Sivan, 5730):
Fifty-three-year-old Cornell grad, Yale trained attorney and WWII Navy veteran
Henry Hofheimer, Jr. a member of the Jewish Guild for the Blind, passed away
today in a bicycle accident.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/21/archives/henry-hofheimer-scarsdale-lawyer.html
1970: Two days after he had passed away funeral
services were scheduled to held for seventy-eight-year-old Herbert Brutus
Ehrmann, the Louisville, KY born son of “Hilmar ‘Hillel’ Ehrmann and Erna
Ehrmann” and Harvard trained attorney best known for his role in the defense of
Sacco and Vanzettia who raised two sons Rabbi H. Bruce Ehrmann and Dr. Robert
L. Ehrmann with “his wife, the former Sara Rosenfeld”
1972(7th of Tammuz, 5732):
Sixty-nine-year-old Long Island College Hospital trained pathologist Dr.
William Antopol, the husband of “the former Bella Scholer” and father of
Michael and Stephen Antopol who was serving as “director of laboratories and
research at Beth Israel Medical Center” when he passed away today in San
Francisco.
1972 New York City native Susan Stamberg
co-hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) All Things Considered for the first
time.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/jun/19/1972/susan-stamberg-breaks-sound-barrier
1972: “One Is a Lonely Number” directed by Mel
Stuart, produced by Stan Margulies, with a script by David Seltzer and
co-starring Melvyn Douglas and Jonathan Lippe was released today in the United
States.
1973: An attack on the El Al office in Athens
was thwarted and the Palestinian terrorist was able to gain his freedom as part
of a hostage negotiation conducted by local police.
1974: Seventy-three-year-old American molecular
biologist Alfred Mirsky passed away.
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/mirsky-alfred.pdf
1974: Vladimir Slepak, Anatoly Sharansky, Lev
Kogan, Alexander Lunts, Yuli Kosharovsky and Zahar Tesker were among those
arrested today in an attempt to silence an Jewish protest that might be planned
for the upcoming visit to the Soviet Union by President Nixon.
1975(10th of Tammuz, 5735):
Eighty-nine-year-old Russian born and trained artist Abbo Ostrowsky who was a founder of the Educational Alliance
Art School in 1917 and was its director from then until he retired in 1955, who
paintings and etchings are found hanging at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/06/22/archives/abbo-ostrowsky.html?searchResultPosition=7
https://www.invaluable.com/artist/ostrowsky-abbo-q70j76fc7u/sold-at-auction-prices/
1977: Funeral services are scheduled to be held
today in New York for David Kulock, “the Past President of the Insurance Fund
of the Free Sons of Israel.
1977: “A monument to the memory of the late
Bella Hoffman” is scheduled to be unveiled today.
1979: Today, Robert M. Morgenthau, the
Manhattan District Attorney announced that fifteen Manhattan residents
including Julius Berkowitz and Albert H. Berntstein, had been “indicted on
charges that they had paid bribes…to avoid jury duty.”
1979: Birthdate of Daniel Jonathan Sieradski “a
Jewish American writer and activist” who was “the founding publisher and
editor-in-chief of Jewschool, a popular left-wing Jewish weblog, as well as the
weblogs Radical Torah and Orthodox Anarchist. He is also the creator of the
synagogue listings and reviews website ShulShopper.”
1980: In Charleston, SC, the Greek Revival
building housing Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue was designated as a
National Historic Landmark. For those who think of American Jewry as being a
New York or eastern creation, it comes as a surprise that this is the second
oldest synagogue building in continuous operation in the United States. Also, when this congregation adopted the
Reform minhag in 1824 it became one of the founding forces of the Reform
Movement in the United States – something most people connect with Cincinnati,
Ohio.
1980: “Rough Cut” directed by Don Siegel,
produced by David Merrick and with a screenplay by Larry Gelbart was released
in the United States today.
1981: The United States Security Council
adopted a resolution condemning Israel’s attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor
being built near Baghdad.
1983(8th of Tammuz, 5743): Simcha Erlich, the
native of Poland who made Aliyah in 1938 where he became a political ally of
Menachem Begin under whom he served as Deputy Prime Minister passed away today.
1984(19th of Sivan, 5744):
Seventy-five-year-old Lena Krasner, the Brooklyn born daughter of “Russian Jewish immigrants “Chane (nee Weiss)
and Joseph Krasner,who gained fame as abstract expression painter Lenore “Lee”
Krasner, the wife and helpmate in the truest sense of that word, of Jackson
Pollock passed away today.
1984(19th of Sivan, 5744)
Sixty-three-year-old, Egyptian anesthesiologist Jack Chalon, the son of William
and Helen (Hirsch) Chalon and the husband of Barbara Elizabeth Coombs with whom
he had two children – Mary and Jonathan – passed away today.
1987: Ben &
Jerry Ice Cream founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield announce a new ice
cream flavor, “Cherry Garcia.”
1988(4th of Tammuz,
5748): Seventy-four-year-old Ralph Lazarus, the Columbus, OH born son of Meta
and Fred Lazarus, husband of Gladys Lazarus and “Chairman of Federated
Department Stores, whose many divisions included such prominent chains as
Abraham & Straus, Bloomingdale's, Bullock's, Filene's and Foley' passed
away today in Cincinnati after which he was buried in his hometown.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-23-mn-7004-story.html
1989(16th
of Sivan, 5749): Writer and social critic I(sidor) F(einstein) Stone passes
away at the age of 81.
1992: In Palermo, the Fifth
International Convention of Studies of "Italia Judaica" came to a
close.
1993: Philosopher and movie star
Bernard-Henri Levy married actress Arielle Bombasle.
1993(30th of Tammuz,
5753): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1993(30th of Tammuz,
5753): Seventy-five-year-old philosopher Abraham Kaplan passed away in Haifa
where he had been living since 1972.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/24/us/abraham-kaplan-75-author-and-teacher.html
1994(10th of Tammuz, 5754): Sheina Chaya, the wife Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and the
daughter of Rabbi Aryeh Levin passed away.
1994: The BBC broadcast the final
episode of “That’s Life!” a mixture of news and satire featuring Esther Rantzen
as Presenter.
1994: The New York Times published a review of History of Resistance:
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Israel Gutman. "They refused to
surrender, preferring instead to fight to the death and thus preserve their
honor," Israel Gutman writes in Resistance, his account of the band
of starving Jews who fought the Nazis in Poland in April 1943. Mr. Gutman, a
Holocaust survivor who teaches modern Jewish history at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem and is the director of the research center at Israel's national Holocaust
memorial, Yad Vashem, intelligently outlines the elements that weakened the
Jewish resistance movement in Warsaw. These included not only Nazi air attacks
and arson, food and water shortages and the neglect of the Polish underground
resistance movement, but also the abandonment of the ghetto by its most prominent
political leaders and arguments among the many rival Jewish organizations over
a course of action. One wishes that Mr. Gutman had recorded events
chronologically rather than switching back and forth in time. One longs for
more information about heroes like Mordecai Anielewicz, the brave underground
leader who escaped Warsaw but returned to command the uprising, and Yitzhak
Zuckerman, the uprising's deputy commander, who survived to write about it.
Still, Resistance, which is published in association with the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, lucidly illustrates how a few hundred Jewish
fighters with Molotov cocktails, homemade grenades and no military training
twice forced the Germans to retreat from the ghetto and refused to go like
lambs to the slaughter.
1995: The cartoon
strip Rhymes With Orange appeared in
syndication for the first time. With its debut, twenty-five-year-old cartoonist
Hilary Price became the youngest woman ever to have a nationally syndicated
cartoon strip. (JWA)
1995: David Libai
begins his term as Minister of Internal Affairs.
1995: Jean-François Copé began his
first term as Mayor Meaux.
1996(2nd of Tammuz, 5756): G. David Shine
passed away. Roy Cohn, the Chief Counsel, named Shine as investigator for the
McCarthy Committee, which was supposedly exposing the Communist Conspiracy
during the 1950’s. Shine was drafted and McCarthy claimed the drafting of his
investigator was part of the Communist Conspiracy to thwart his efforts. He
attacked the U.S. Army for being involved in the Communist Conspiracy. These
charges led to the famous Army-McCarthy Hearings, which led to his downfall.
1996(2nd of Tammuz, 5756): Bessie Margolin the
Russian born labor attorney who grew up at the Jewish Children’s Home in New
Orleans before graduating from Sophie Newcomb College and Tulane Law School
passed away today.
http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/bessie-margolin-1909-1996.html
http://www.marlenetrestman.com/Home_Page.html
1996: The Eldridge Street Synagogue was
designated as a National Historic Landmark. Located at 12 Eldridge Street on
New York’s lower east side, it was built in 1887 to meet the needs of the
growing population of eastern European Jews. As demographics changed, the
synagogue fell on hard times in the 1950’s.
In the 1980’s restoration projects began which reinvigorate and
physically restore the synagogue.
1997: Funeral services are scheduled to be held
at the Bernheim-Apter-Goldsticker Suburban Funeral Chapel in Maplewood, N.J.
for Julius Szepsei, the husband of Etelka Stankowitz Z”L followed by internment
in the Mt. Moriah Cemetery
1998(25th of Sivan, 5768): Rabbi
Joseph Levi Braver, a member of the Baltimore Board of Jewish Education passed
away today.
1998(25th of Sivan, 5758): Eighty-nine-year-old
New York native Dora Goldwater, the daughter of Pauline Meltsner and Joseph
Goldwater passed away today in Florida.
1999(5th of Tammuz, 5759): Parashat
Korach is chanted for the last time in twentieth century.
2000: Debut of “The Passenger,” a fictional
offering by Marisa Silver.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/06/19/debut-fiction-the-passenger
2001(28th of Sivan, 5761): Fifteen year old
Yevgeniya Dorfman from Bat Yam died today from the injuries she suffered during
the Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.
2001(28th of Sivan, 5761):
Seventy-nine-year-old Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, president from 1966 to 1971 of
the Jewish Theological Seminary, the academic and spiritual center of
Conservative Judaism, passed away today (As reported by Ari L. Goldman)
2002(9th of Tammuz, 5762): Seven people were
killed and 50 injured, three of them critically, when a suicide bomber blew
himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill
intersection in northern Jerusalem shortly after 7:00 P.M., as people were
returning home from work. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed
responsibility for the attack. The victims: Noa Alon, 60, of Ofra; Gal
Eisenman, 5, of Ma’ale Adumim; Michal Franklin, 22, of Jerusalem; Tatiana
Igelski, 43, of Moldova; Hadassah Jungreis, 20, of Migdal Haemek; Gila Sara
Kessler, 19, of Eli; and Shmuel Yerushalmi, 17, of Shilo
2003: In New York, The Israel Fest Foundation
proudly presented Academy Award winning director Milos Forman with the 19th
Israel Film Festival 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award and Israeli
director Dina Zvi Riklis with
the 2003 IFF Cinematic Award.
The Award Ceremony is followed by the premiere of the hit romantic comedy Wisdom
of the Pretzel directed by Ilan
Heitner, starring Guy Loel,
Osnat Hakim & Yoram Sachs.
2003: Rudy Giuliani led the U.S. delegation to
the first Organization for Security and Cooperation conference on anti-Semitism
being held in Vienna. The conference
came about, in part, because of the strong support from the Bush
Administration.
2003(19th of Sivan, 5763): Avner Mordechai, 58,
of Moshav Sde Trumot, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up in his grocery
on Sde Trumot, south of Beit Shean. The suicide bomber was killed. The Islamic
Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
2004(30th of Sivan, 5764): Parashat
Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2004: Thousands of additional Jews, including
Lubavitchers and non-Lubavitchers are observing Shabbat in Crown Heights today
in anticipation of the 10 anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the
seventh grand rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement which will begin on
Monday evening according to Jewish law.
2005: Seventy-five year old foreign
correspondent James Feron, who covered the Six Days War for the New York Times
passed away today.
2005: Eric Edelman completes his service as
United States Ambassador to Trukey.
2005: The
Washington Post reported that meetings had been held over the weekend at
Yifat, Israel in which Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced that he
would seek the top spot in Israel’s government.
Despite the fact that he is now 81 and that he has failed to accomplish
the goal in four previous attempts. Peres thinks that now is the time for him
to finally reach his goal.
2005: The
Washington Post reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared
from Jerusalem, “that her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders
convinced her that both sides share a commitment to ensuring Israel’s
withdrawal from Gaza takes place smoothly and peacefully.” At the end of the same article the Post
reported that “Coinciding with Rice’s visit Sunday, Palestinians…attacked
Israelis…in the southern Gaza Strip killing one Israeli and wounding two
others…The attack was the second major assault on Israeli targets in recent
days.” Islamic Jihad and a group
affiliated with Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement took credit for the attack. As head of the PLA, Abbas is one of those
Palestinian leaders whom Secretary Rice said was committed to a smooth and
peaceful Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the
recently release paperback editions of Letters to a Young Lawyer by Alan
Dershowitz and Sweet Land Stories by E.L. Doctorow.
2006: Haaretz
reported on the Sderot's municipal council decision to seal off the city's
entrance for a 24-hour period in protest of continuing Qassam rocket attacks by
Palestinians against the western Negev city. “Sderot is going on strike and no
one will enter or leave it," Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said. Kassam attacks
have left five dead and dozens wounded over the past months.
2006: In Romania and France, premiere of “Them”
a Franco-Romanian horror film starring Michaël Cohen as “Lucas.”
2006: Jerusalem
Finding 'Oxygen' In Revival of Creative Arts, published todaydescribes the renaissance of the arts taking
place in Jerusalem. The artistic
renaissance covers a full spectrum of endeavors and is having a positive
influence on the spiritual rejuvenation of the City of David. [Editor’s Note - What is even more amazing,
this is article is devoid of the usual “stuff” that permeates almost all
reporting on Israel and Jewish culture in the Middle East.]
2006: Israel's ambassador to Germany presented
medals of honor on to relatives of five members of the first "European
Union" - an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews
during World War Two. This European Union, which had the same name but nothing
to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground,
Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a
protocol prepared by Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
2006: Carol Vogel described the history of Gustav Klimt’s Adele
Bloch-Bauer I in “Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/arts/design/19klim.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Maria%20Altmann&st=cse
2007(3rd of Tammuz, 5767): Seventy-four-year-old Zeev Schiff, the dean of Israeli military correspondents, defense editor
of the newspaper Haaretz and author of numerous books, died today in Tel Aviv.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/world/middleeast/21schiff.html?_r=0
2007: The second annual Jerusalem Jazz Festival opens in Israel’s capital
city.
2007(3rd of Tammuz, 5767): Yahrzeit for the Rebbe, Rabbi
Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.
2007: Rachel Elizabeth Levin, daughter of Michelle Levin and sister of
Jacob Levin, arrives in Lubbock, Texas.
2008: Hazak Week of Study comes to an end.
2008: At Temple Chai in Long Grove, Illinois, Israeli author Eva Etzioni-Halevy
speaks about her latest biblical novel, “The Triumph of Deborah.”
2008: More than 100 Israeli political and cultural leaders
from across the political spectrum have signed a petition to Yad Vashem that
they present to Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev urging the Holocaust Museum to
add material about the Holocaust rescue activists known as the Bergson Group to
its exhibits..”
2008:
The agreement for a cease-fire between
Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is to go into effect at 6A.M.
2008: The United Nations’ Children Fund (UNICEF) swore off any
relationship with Israeli diamond mogul,Lev Leviev because of his construction
of settlements on the West Bank.
2009:
Police officers, Holocaust survivors
and employees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum gathered at the Ebenezer
AME Church on Allentown Road in Fort Washington today for the funeral services
for security officer Stephen T. Johns who was slain last week in an attack at
the popular Washington museum. 20024. Contributions can also be made by calling
877-918-7466.
2009: The funeral for Seymour “Sy” Brody author of Jewish Heroes of
America and Jewish Heroes andHeroines in America is scheduled to take place
today at Morris Plains, NJ.
2009: As her Bat Mitzvah weekend begins, Rachel Maikon helps to lead
Friday evening services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2010: The Jewish National Fund is scheduled to host
Shabbat in the Park at New York’s Central Park Zoo.
2010: In a unique way to say farewell to Shabbat, a pre-camp
Havdallah and swim party for campers and their families is scheduled to be held
at the 14th Street Y in New York City.
2011: “The People in the Picture” by Iris Rainer Dart has
its final showing at the Round About Theatre.
2011: In San Diego, CA, The Used Book Sale to benefit the
Samuel & Rebecca Astor Judaica Library is scheduled to come to a close.
2011: The New York
Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including “The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of
American Culture” by David Mamet and “House of Exile: The Lives and Times of
Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann” by Evelyn Juers
2011: Elbit, with
headquarters in Haifa, announced that its subsidiary Elisra Electronic Systems
Ltd. was awarded a contract valued at approximately €5 million to supply
hundreds of units of its AN/PRC-684 Personal Locator Beacon to the French
Ministry of Defense, equipping the French Air Force, Army, Navy and DGA
(Direction Générale de l'Armement).
2011(17th of
Sivan, 5771): Centenarian plus 2, Charlotte Bloomberg, the mother of New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg passed away.
2011(17th of
Sivan, 5771): Ninety-year-old Don Diamond passed away. For those who watched television in the
1950’s and 1960’s, they saw him in many episodes of F-Troop and Zorro as well
as later series as “Newhart,” “L.A.
Law,” “MacGyver,” “Dallas” and “Dynasty,” “Lou Grant,” “Chico and the Man” and
“The Streets of San Francisco”
2011(17th of
Sivan, 5771): Ninety-year-old Holocaust survivor Samuil Manski passed away.
Manski credited his survival to a transit visa issued to him by a Japanese
diplomat name Chiune Sughira who risked his career by acting against the orders
of his country. At the time of his
death, Manski was working to Sughira recognized as a Righteous Gentile.
2012: “When Israel Went
Out,” a film that retraces the danger-filled route traveled by the Falasha
during the 1980’s is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan.
2012: Dr. Anthony
Grenville, author of ‘Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in Britain’ and
film director Dr. Bea Lewkowicz are scheduled to take part in a Q&A
following a screening of “Double Exposure” at the Wiener Library in London.
2012: The National
Endowment for the Arts announced that Andy Statman would be awarded a National
Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional
arts
2012: Hamas
has launched a barrage of rockets toward southern Israel this afternoon, after
months of restraint on behalf of the Gaza rulers. Seven rockets exploded in
open areas in Eshkol Regional Council this afternoon, after four rockets were
fired at Hof Ashkelon and Sha'ar Hanegev regional councils overnight Monday.
More rockets were subsequently fired, but caused no casualties or damage.
2012: “As part of his
plans to expand on hardware, today, Steve Ballmer revealed Microsoft's first
ever computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface at an event held in
Hollywood.”
2012: Ta'al
MK Ahmed Tibi condemned plans to name a new space center in his north-central
Arab village Taybeh after Israel's first and only astronaut, the late Ilan
Ramon. In a letter to the Science and Technology Ministy, Tibi said Ramon
served in the IAF as a fighter pilot, which could offend the Arab community.
Calling the decision "distasteful" and "unjustified," Tibi
noted that during Ramon's military service, he attacked civilian targets in
Lebanon and participated in the attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor.
2012(29th of
Sivan, 5772): Eight-one year old futurist Anthony Weiner passed away today. (As
reported by Douglas Martin)
2013: In London, the Pears
Institute for the study of Antisemitism scheduled to host the International
Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and Racism.
2013: Leo Baeck Institute
and Chelsea Music Festival are scheduled to present “From Pompeii to Fingal's
Cave - A Mendelssohn Perspective”
2013: “The New Catch
Herring Season” is scheduled to begin Russ & Daughters.
2013: Ian Paul Livingston,
Baron Livingston of Parkhead, “the fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian
Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago” “announced that he is leaving BT
Group to become the Minister for Trade and Investment in the UK Government.
2013: Friends and family
of Rachel Levin celebrate the birthday of the world’s greatest granddaughter.
2013: Four Jewish Israelis
were arrested at the Temple Mount today after praying in the Jerusalem
compound, considered Judaism’s holiest site.
2013: This morning
Palestinians fired a rocket from the Gaza strip toward southern Israel, setting
off alarms in the coastal city of Ashkelon and its environs.
2014: The Wiener Library for the Study of the
Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host “a special creative writing
workshop exploring the lives and contributions of refugees in their new country
of residence led by facilitator Lynette Craig
2014: “Luis Moses Gomez: Pioneer Merchant in
Colonial America” is scheduled to open at the Center for Jewish History
2014: “Magic Men” is scheduled to be shown at
the JCC in Manhattan on the last night of the Israel Film Center Festival.
2014: “Charlotte Salomon: Life? Or Theatre?” an
exhibition of the works of the 23 year old Jewish from Berlin who ended up in
Auschwitz is scheduled to open today at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and
Education Center.
2014: All eyes are on Columbus Ohio for the
celebration of the birthday of the amazing Rachel Levin.
2014: “The IDF arrested 30 Hamas men across the
West Bank early today, as part of its ongoing large-scale operation to find the
three Israeli teenagers – Naftali Frankel, Gil-ad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach — who
were kidnapped last week.
2014: U.S. Ambassador to Israel today visited
the family of Naftali Frankel, one of three Yeshiva students kidnapped last
week to offer the support of the U.S government as well as his own strong
personal support.
2014: John Rubinstein, the original Pippin in
1972, replaced Terrence Mann in the role of Charles in Stephen Schwartz’s Tony
Award-winning musical “Pippin.”
2014: “Former Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski
was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment today and fined half a million shekels
($145,000) for accepting bribes in the Holyland affair.”
2014(21st of Sivan, 5774):
Seventy-five-year-old songwriter Gerry Goffin passed away today. (As reported
by William Yardley and Peter Keepnews)
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jun/20/gerry-goffin
2014(21st of Sivan, 5774):
Eighty-six-year-old Avraham Shalom, the former director of Shin Bet, passed
away today
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Former-Shin-Bet-chief-Avraham-Shalom-dies-at-86-359903
2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to host “Leavers’ Friday Night Dinner.”
2015(2nd of Tammuz, 5775): “A Palestinian group
claiming affiliation with Hamas took responsibility for a cold-blooded
terrorist attack” today in which a 25 year old electrical engineering student
from Lod Israeli man was killed and a second Israeli was injured.
2015:” WJC President Ronald S. Lauder presented
the Helen Mirren with the WJC Recognition Award for her work in the film “Woman
in Gold” in which she portrayed Maria Altmann, who fought the Austrian
government for years to secure the return of five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen
from her Jewish family during World War II.”
2015(2nd of Tammuz, 5775):
Ninety-year-old author James Salter passed away today. (As reported by Helen T.
Verongos)
2015: In Columbia, MD, Beth Shalom Congregation
is scheduled to host “From Dust to Dust? Shiva and Cremations” in which Rabbi
Susan Grossman and Ira Levinson, of Sol Levinson and Brothers Funeral Home
tackle such questions as “Why does Judaism prohibit cremation and what do we do
when a loved one requests cremation? Can their ashes be buried in a Jewish
cemetery? Can we sit shiva?”
2015: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is
scheduled to host its annual Father’s Day Shabbat “that will include participation
of fathers and their sons/daughters in the service, readings about fathers, and
an Oneg Shabbat that will have a slide show of fathers…”
2015: “The Jewish Theological Seminary plans to
sell a 1455 edition of the Book of Esther from a rare Gutenberg Bible at
auction today, the latest sign that the school is grappling with a long-running
financial crisis.” (As reported by Josh Nathan-Kazis)
2016(13th of Sivan, 5776):
Twenty-seven-year-old Anton Viktorovich Yelchin, the Russian born American
actor best for his playing “Pavel Chekov” in “three Star Trek films” died today
in a freak automobile accident.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/19/entertainment/actor-anton-yelchin-killed/index.html
2016: “The Kind Words” and “Time to Say
Goodbye” are scheduled to be shown at the Portland Jewish Film Festival.
2016: Final performance of “Camp David” at the
Old Globe in San Diego, CA.
2016: “Wounded Land” is scheduled to be shown
at the 13th annual Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.
2016: “Inheritance is a 2006 documentary film
about Monika Hertwig a.k.a. Monika Christiane Knauss, the daughter of Ruth
Irene Kalder and Amon Goeth, Commandant of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp”
is scheduled to be shown at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
today.
2016: “Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist” an
exhibition at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is
scheduled to come to an end today.
http://www.ojmche.org/experience/exhibit-2016-03-10-ruth-gruber-photojournalist
2016: Final performance of “Suddenly, A Knock
at the Door” based on stories by Israeli author and filmmaker Etgar Keret at
the Theatre for the New City is scheduled to take place this evening.
2016: The
New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and or of special interest
to Jewish readers including The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity and the
Unmaking of the American Dream by Chris Lehmann and an interview with A.B.
Yehosua.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/books/review/a-b-yehoshua-by-the-book.html?ref=headline&nl=bookreview&emc=edit_bk_201606172017: In London, JW3 is
scheduled to host a screening of “Dough.”
2017(25th of Sivan, 5777):
Twenty-two-year-old Otto F. Warmbier, “the University of Virginia honors
student” who was released in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean
prison passed away today.
2017(25th of Sivan, 5777):
Ninety-four-year-old Robert (Bob) Sonné Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
and Physics at Boston University and cofounder of the BU Center for Philosophy
& History of Science passed away at his home in Watertown, MA today.
https://www.bu.edu/cphs/about/robert-cohen/
2017: Steve Eisenberg is scheduled to discuss
the weekly Torah Portion followed by an informal “conversation” with Rabbi Mark
Wildes in Manhattan.
2018: The Jerusalem Municipality sports
department is scheduled to host a class in Kickboxing at the First Station
complex
2018(6th of Tammuz, 5778):
Ninety-one-year-old Harvard PhD Stanley Cavell, a descendant of a prominent
Jewish and long-time professor at his alma mater passed away today. (As
reported by Neil Genzlinger)
2018: “Numerous incendiary kites and balloons
were flown by Palestinians” in Gaza “into Israel throughout the day” today.
2018: Dr. Dovid Gottlieb, the rabbi who was a
Professor of Philosophy at John Hopkins University is scheduled to lecture on
“Reason to Believe” this evening at the OU Israel Center in Jerusalem.
2018: In Manchester, UK, JW3 is scheduled to
host a screening of “Zuzana: Music is Life” that tells the story of “90-year-old Zuzana Ruzickova survived three concentration
camps, including Auschwitz, and decades-long oppression and harassment under
the totalitarian regime in her native Czech Republic to become a world-famous
harpsichordist and the only musician to ever record all the keyboard works of
Bach.”
2018: Steve “Levitan, along with Seth
MacFarlane and Judd Apatow, announced he was considering leaving 20th Century
Fox as protest of Fox News's reporting of Donald Trump's family separation
policy which is at odds with Modern Family's programming.”
2018: “Israeli poet Amir Or” is
scheduled to visit Bryant Park Reading Room for a celebration of “the
publication of his latest collection, Wings, in an English translation by Seth
Michelson.”
2018: From Ohio, to Oklahoma, to
Iowa friends and family prepare to celebrate Rachel Levin’s natal day.
2019: In London. JW3 is scheduled
to host a screening of “The Samuel Project” co-starring Hal Linden.
2019: Uncommon Commonalities:
Jews and Muslims” “a three-day scholarly cultural conference dedicated to
exploring the uncommon commonalities shared by Moroccan Jews and Muslims”
co-sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish
Experience is scheduled to come to an end this evening.
2019: Three presentations – “Tax
Issues and Solution for All Olim”; “The Alef, Bet of Making Aliyah”;
“Intelligent Investing for Olim” -- designed to for those making Aliyah in the
next twenty-four months are scheduled to be held this evening in Hendon, London.
2020, Rabbis Sandra Lawson and
Isaama Goldstein-Stoll celebrated Juneteenth with a Kabbalat Shabbat service
attended virtually by over 7,000 people around the world.
2020: In a pre-pandemic world,
The Israel Culinary Trip sponsored by The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center was
scheduled to begin today.
2020: In Cedar Rapids, Temple
Judah is scheduled to live-stream Kabbalah Shabbat Service on Zoom while taking
special note of the tragic passing of Andrew Nelson, the husband of Melissa
Gasway Nelson
2020: Havurah on the Hill is
scheduled to present “Kabbalat Shabbat With Author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg.”
2020: The Eden Tamir Music Center
is scheduled to host on Facebook, the next in its Pianists, Pedagogues and
Young Artists Concerts series.
2020: Online Kehilla Community
Synagogue is scheduled to host a 30-minute Shabbat ritual and sharing time,
followed by movement, music, exploring themes of embodiment, Juneteenth and
liberation.”
2020: A double Simcha as Jew
prepare to celebrate Shabbat this evening friends and family celebrate the 13th
birthday of Rachel Levin, the Bexley, OH daughter of Michelle Levin and brother
of Jacob Levin who is a poised, talented young woman who would not be dissuaded
by the pandemic from chanting her haftarah.
2021(9th of Tammuz,
5781): Parashat Chukat
2021: A Triple Simcha – the
fourteenth birthday of Rachel Levin the poised and talented young lady who is
the delight of her mother Michelle Levin and all the rest of her clan, Shabbat
and the anniversary of the natal day of Stephen Levin.
2021 Temple Emanuel of Newton is
scheduled to present, in person, “Tot Shabbat on the Lawn.”
2021: Emmy Blotnick is scheduled
to perform for the last time at the DC Improve in Washington, D.C.
2022: UK Jewish Film is scheduled
to host a premiere screening of “Where is Anne Frank” at the Phoenix Theatre in
London.
2022: The ASF Institute of Jewish
Experience is scheduled to present “Bringing Jewish Law to the People: The
Moroccan Approach.”
2022: The National Library of
Israel is scheduled to host a conversation with Noa Yedlin an Israeli author, a
recipient of the Sapir Prize and the Prime Minister's Prize for Hebrew Literary
Works and author of the bestselling House Arrest, Stockholm, People
Like Us and The Wrong Book.
2022: The New York Times
featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Shape:
The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything
Else by Jordan Ellenberg.
2022: Most important event of the
day – celebration of Rachel Levin’s birthday.
Go get ‘em gal (Editor’s note – excuse the grandfatherly exuberance)
2022: As Israelis begin the work
week, they may be wondering if they will be dealing with more security problems
following Friday’s attack on soldiers in Jenin and Saturday’s rocket attack
from Gaza.
2023: UK Jewish Film is
scheduled to host a final screening of “A Sense of Belonging, “ “plus a
recorded discussion with director Paul Morrison, writer Howard Cooper,
screenwriter David Schneider, and Professor Nathan Abrams.”
2023: Agnon House is scheduled
to host a Joint reading of the story "Tzipori", an “online lecture
with Bilha Ben-Eliyahu and Assaf Ofek.”
2023: The National
Library of Israel is scheduled to present a lecture by Dr. Zvi
Leshem & Baruch Weiss on “Lessons and Lineage: A Life of Learning.”
2023: A Triple Simcha – the
birthday of Quinn Levin the poised and talented young lady who is the delight
of her mother Michelle Levin and all the rest of her clan, Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
and the anniversary of the natal day of Stephen Levin.
2023(30th of
Sivan, 5783): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2024: The Sir Martin Gilbert
Learning Center is scheduled to host “Black and Jewish Lives in a Nazi
Internment Camp: The Art of Josef Nassy and Max Brandel” and the awarding of
the Sir Martin Gilbert History Prizes.
2024; JW3 is scheduled to host “a
slickly funny stand-up show with BBC star Ashley Blaker.’’
2024: In Cedar Rapids, the
Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss Florence Adler Swims Forever by
Rachel Beanland.
2024: Lockdown University
is scheduled to host a lecture by Jeremy Rosen on “Making Sense of the Bible:
Can its Ancient Text be Relevant Today? Deuteronomy 1, Recapitulation!”
2024: Going forward, June
19th, the birthday of Quinn Levin, is a federal holiday.
2024: As June 19th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of
anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist passengers
on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the United States and the
Hamas held hostages begin day 257 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.)