This Day, June 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
JUNE 6
1191: As the
Christians seek to retake Jerusalem King Richard the Lionhearted arrived at
Tyre.
1142: Today,
during the second Siege of Coria, Emperor Alonso VII of Leon and Castille
“granted the village of Fradejas to the Diocese of Zamora” the home of Alfonso
de Zamora “known in particular as one of the three main organizers and editors
of the Complutensian Bible Polygot
https://zeramim.org/past-issues/vol-v-issue-2-spring2021-5781/alfonso-de-zamora-a-crypto-jew/
Diocese of Zamora and
the Jewish people - Google Search
1242: Two
dozen wagonloads of Talmudic volumes and 200 other rabbinic manuscripts were
burned at Paris.
1247: Pope
Innocent IV contacts the king of Navarre. In a dispatch he requested the king
compel Christian debtors to pay off their debt to Jewish lenders.
1249: King
Louis IX, the French King who made great effort to convert Jews, occupied Damietta
Egypt during the 7th Crusade.
1391: Ferrand
Martiniz of Seville incited a mob to attack the Jewish quarter. It soon spread
to all of Spain except for Granada. Over 10,000 Jews were killed; many others
chose conversion and became New Christians. Of these, many continued to
practice Judaism in secret, while paying lip service to the Church. This
eventually led to the Inquisitions. In Barcelona, the Jewish quarter, located
for over 400 years near the castle, was totally destroyed.
1391: “In the
aftermath of the great massacres of Jews” in Spain “which began” today, Paul of
Burgos who “was original names as Solomon ha-Levi’ “converted to Christianity,
and became an archbishop, lord chancellor, and exegete known as Pablo de Santa Maria.
1487: In
Soncino, Italy, Joshua Solomon Soncino completed the printing of a Pentateuch
with a commentary by Rashi.
1490: After
being interrogated by the Vicar-general of the Bishopric of Astorga, Benitor
Garicia confessed to having secretly returned to practicing Judaism five years
ago and that he had encouraged two other conversos – a man named Franco from
Tembleque and Juan Juan de Ocaña, from La Guardia – to return to Judaism. Eventually all three would be put to death on
charges of having participated in ritual murder of one who came to be known as
the Holy Child of La Guardia.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/la-guardia-holy-child-of
1506: Birthdate
of King John III of Portugal.
Persecution of Marranos and Conversos intensified during his reign with
the arrival of the Inquisition. On the
other hand he met with David Reubeini in 1525 and the two negotiated over the
possibility of the King supplying this adventurer with as many as eight ships
to use in a fight against the Moslem leader, Selim I. Since much of the life of Reubeni is shrouded
in myth and half-truths, we cannot be sure as to the reason the negotiations
failed.
1536: The
Inquisition was introduced into Mexico.
Convsersos, Sephardic Jews who had been forcibly converted to
Catholicism arrived in Mexico with Cortes and the Conquistadores. Among these first arrivals was Hernando
Alonzo who built the boats used by Cortes during his conquest of Mexico. The most famous of these early arrivals was a
Luis de Carvajal, the noble who established the New Kingdom of Leon in what
today is part of northern Mexico. The
arrival of the Inquisition had an inimical effect on the Conversos, many of whom
secretly practiced Judaism. The
descendants of these people may be found among the crypto-Jews of New Mexico
who began trying to reconnect with their Jewish roots in the last decades of
the 20th century
1629 (14th of
Sivan): Rabbi Joseph ben Benjamin Samegah author of Mikrae Kodesh passed
away.
1716: The SS Restoration arrived in Massachusetts
carrying several Jewish merchants who would help to form the core of the Jewish
community in the Bay Colony.
1762: In York,
PA, Shinah Solomon and Elijah Etting gave birth to Reuben Etting the husband
for Frances Gratz whom he married in 1794 and with whom he had nine children
and who was commissioned as first captain of the Independent Blues and was
appointed U.S. Marshal for Maryland by President Jefferson.
1764(6th
of Sivan, 5524): Shavuot observed as General Gage seeks to end the uprising
known as “Pontiac’s Uprising.”
1767: New
Yorker Hayman M. Levy, the Hanover, Germany born son of Moses and Reyna Levy
and his wife Sloe Levy gave birth to Abraham Levy.
1771: Isaac
Lindo presented the synagogue in Barbados with a Sefer Torah.
1772(5th
of Sivan, 5532): Parshat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1774: On of
two possible birthdates of Naphtali Judah, the New York born son of Samuel
Judah, the husband of Esther Hendricks who served as president of Congregation
Shearith Israel in New York City.
1775(28th of
Iyar): Leib Epsitein, author of Or ha-Shanim passed away.
1782: Two days
after he had passed away, “Moses Asher of Shulda” was buried today at the
“Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.
1799: Lyon
Samuel and Kitty Solomons were marred at the Great Synagogue in London today.
1802:
Birthdate of Rabbi Aaron II of Klarlin the Chasid who was the grandson of Aaron
ben Jacob.
1808:
Birthdate of Jacob Raphael De Cordova, Texas land agent and colonizer. A native
of Jamaica, he settled in Philadelphia in the 1820’s with his father before
moving to Texas in 1839. Jacob and his
brother Phineas De Cordova operated one of the largest land agencies in Texas.
Jacob was one of three men who helped lay out Waco in 1848. He passed away in 1868.
1818:
Birthdate of I.M Rabinowitz
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/gorodets/gor094.html
1819: Joseph
Myers married Rebecca Cohen today in the United Kingdom.
1821(6th
of Sivan, 5581): Shavuot
1821:
Birthdate of Moses Isaac Tedeschi, the native of Triest whose knowledge of the
Bible and Italian enabled him to lecture “in the Talmud Torah in his native
city.”
1821:
Birthdate of Leone Levi, the native of Ancona, Italy who immigrated to London
where he became a successful jurist, statistician and Presbyterian.
1821: Abraham
Durlacher, the son of Lewis Durlacher and Susannah Levy was circumcised today
in London.
1821:
Influential 19th economist David Ricardo the son of Anglo-Sephardic Jews who
became a Unitarian when he married Priscilla Anne Wilkinson voted in Parliament
today “for an inquiry into the administration of justice in Tobago.”
1826:
Birthdate of Léon Say “a former employee of the Rothschild's Northern
Railway Company who became the Minister of Finance in 1872’ who supported
Alphonse de Rothschild’s attempt to preserve France’s bimetallism system.
1827: Phineas Nathan and Rachel Barnett were married
today at the Great Synagogue in London.
1829(5th of Sivan, 5589): Parashat Bamidbar;
erev Shavuot observed on the birthdate of Allan Octavian Hume, the British
civil servant who was so appalled by his country’s policies in India that he
helped to found the Indian National Congress.
1832: English
philosopher Jeremy Bentham “who spoke out many times on behalf of the Jews as
an oppressed minority who were victims of popular prejudices” passed away, For
a detailed account of Bentham’s complex view of the Jewish people see “Jerry
Bentham: Critical Assessments, Volume 4” starting on page 319.
http://books.google.com/books?id=DKh7r2zkyKUC&pg=PA325&lpg=PA325&dq=Jeremy+Bentham+and+the+Jewish+people&source=bl&ots=fV1N23EByW&sig=6ojynoT6yaRSb7fb0F67G9QquNE&hl=en&ei=e8_qTdiCPeHx0gHIie2qAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
1838(13th
of Sivan, 5598): In Vienna, Judah Jeiteles, the son of Jonas Jeiteles, the
author of “Mebo Lashon Aramitm” the first Hebrew language grammar of Biblical
Aramaic passed away today.
1838: Samuel
Magnus married Miriam Isaacs at Chatham today.
1839: The
first train of the Nordbahn, or Kaiser Ferdinands-Nordbahn, Austria's first
steam railway company which was financed by Salomon Mayer von Rothschild which
had come from Vienna arrived at Břeclav
1840(5th
of Sivan, 5600): Parashat Bamidbard; erev Shavuot
1841: In
Silesia, Gustavus Mosler, a lithographer, cigar maker and tobacconist and his
wife gave birth Henry Mosler, who was raised in Cincinnati, Ohio where he began
his career as a wood engraver, sketch artist and illustrator.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940CE4D9133FE432A25751C2A9629C946195D6CF
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Mosler#/media/File:Confederate_Bowling_Green_lithograph.jpg
1841: Raphael
Picard and Sarah Levy were married at the New Synagogue in London.
1841: In
Hungary, Hannah Heller Steiner gave birth to Cecilia Steiner who because
Cecilia Steiner Weiss when she married Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss in 1860, after
which they had seven children including Erich Weiss, better known as Harry
Houdini.
1844: In
London, George Williams founded the first YMCA which was the model for the YMHA
and in America, the site of the creation of basketball which was for a time
“the Jewish sport.”
1846:
Birthdate of Colonel Nicolas Jean Robert Conrad Auguste Sandherr who while
serving in the Statistical Section (Counterintelligence) gather a secret
commission of inquiry to investigate the origin of documents that showed French
military secrets were being sold to the Germans which concluded the Captain
Dreyfus was the culprit.
1848(5th
of Sivan, 5608): Erev Shavuot observed as The Party of Order sought to reverse
the changes brought about by the Revolutions of 1848 in France.
1851(6th
of Sivan, 5611): Shavuot
1855: Isaac
Kaatz, Gottlieb Milhelm and Anton First were arrested today on charges of
having been involved in the theft of eight cows from a farm belong to Colonel
Lewis Morris. The three carcasses found
in the possession of the accused all bore a mark indicating that they were
Kosher.
1855:
Birthdate of Lunéville, France, native Emile Berr the businessman turned
journalist who began writing for Fiagro in July of 1888.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3156-berr-emile
1858: In
Greater London, Nathaniel Mayer Montefiore, the Brighton born son of Henriette
and Sir Abraham Montefiore and his wife Emma Montefiore gave birth to Claude
Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore.
1859: In
Australia, Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales.
By 1865, there were enough Jews living in the Queensland city of Brisbane that
a congregation was formed that held services in a local Masonic hall until 1886
when a sanctuary with a seating capacity of 400. In 1879, the Jews of
Toowoomba, Queensland, built a synagogue which, as the community shrunk in
size, was only used on the High Holidays.
1859: In
Budapest, Dr. Lowinger Ignatius Salzer and his wife Berti gave birth to Donát
Bánki “the Hungarian mechanical engineer” whose invention included “the
carburetor for the stationary engine.”
1861: Fifty
year old Count Cavour, a leader in the movement to create a unified Italy in
which all people, including the Jews, would enjoy full civil liberties, passed
away. While Cavour complained about
Baron James Rothschild because of his banking practices, he used him to finance
the cause and counted among his closest advisors Isaac Atrom who was dissuaded
from resigning his position when Cavour passed away.
1863: The 38th
Iowa Infantry left New Madrid and Pemiscot counties in Missouri for Vicksburg,
Mississippi to join forces under General Grant.
1865:
Birthdate of Dr. Max Rosenthal, the son of Herman Rosenthal, the gynecologist
who served as House surgeon at St. Mark’s Hospital and the Montefiore Home in
New York City. His young brother George became the manager of the Edison
General Electric Company at St. Louis.
1866: In the
United Kingdom, Judah P. Benjamin, the former Confederate cabinet member and
unrepentant rebel “was called to the bar” today.
1867(6th
of Sivan, 5657): Shavuot
1867: In
Cincinnati, Ohio, George Seeman, a cotton factor who was business with the
Lehmann brothers and Caroline (Carrie) Goodhart gave birth to Julia Seeman who
married Felix Drefyous at New Orleans’ Temple Sinai in 1891.
1870(7th of
Sivan, 5630): Second Day of Shavuot
1870: A
meeting is scheduled to be held a Temple Israel in Brooklyn “to consider the
distressed condition” of the Jews in Romania.
1872: The
New York Times reported that “the Greeks in the Levant have hit on a new
mode of converting Jews.” After hearing
the “stale old fable…that a Christian child had been killed…by the Jews so as
to mix its blood with their bread at Passover” the Greeks have been
“inflamed…with a fine spirit of proselytism” that began with the seizure of
Polish Jew whose hair and beard they smeared with tar before setting it on
fire. After enough Jews were tortured in
a similar fashion, they sought shelter with the local Moslems.
1873: Today’s
Minor Topics column described the progress that Jews of England have made
during the 19th century. Thirty years ago a Jew could not sit in Parliament.
And now Sir George Jessel, who was appointed Solicitor General last year, is
about to named Master of the Rolls, a position so prestigious that is just
below the post of Lord High Chancellor.
1874: In New
York City, “Isaac and Delphine (Wertheimer) Steinthal gave birth to New York
City high school graduate Albert E. Steinthal who went from working for
Sweetser, Pembrook and Company to forming “L. Steinthal and Bro.) with his
sister Lena while being an active member of the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropic Societies, the Free Synagogue and Temple Emanu-El
1874:
Birthdate of Posen, Germany native, Simon Peiser who in 1892 came to the United
States where he graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1896, was
ordained as a Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College and married Amelia Buchman in
194, “two months after becoming Superintendent” of the Cleveland Jewish Orphan
Asylum.
1875:
Birthdate of Novelist Thomas Mann. Mann was not Jewish but in 1905 he married
Katia Pringsheim, daughter of prominent family of Jewish intellectuals. They had six children. Mann left Nazi German in 1933, four years
after having won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He lived in the United States for many
years. He died in Switzerland in 1955,
never having lived in his native land again.
1876: Alois
Schicklgruber changes his name to Hiedler which morphs into Hitler. In this case a name change may have helped to
change history because as one comic said, can you imagine people saying Heil
Schiclgruber with a straight face?
1877:
Anglo-Jewish author Benjamin Leopold Farjeon married Margaret Jane “Maggie”
Jefferson, the daughter of Joseph Jefferson, a member of a distinguished
American acting family.
1877: In
Philadelphia, Sarah Behrend and her husband gave birth to Jefferson Medical
College trained physician Moses Behrend, the husband of Clara Rosenbaum
https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(30)90197-4/abstract
1878(5th of
Sivan, 5638): Erev Shavuot
1878: In “The
Pentecost Festival” published today, the New York Times reported that “The Festival
of Pentecost, which will be celebrated this evening at sunset by all the Jewish
congregations in the world, is the second of the three great feasts which mark
the calendar of the Hebrew Church. These are the Passover Festival, or Feast of
Unleavened Bread; the Pentecost Festival, or Feast of Weeks, and the
Tabernacles.” The article traces the history of the holiday from its origins as
an agricultural festival to a celebration of the giving of the Decalogue to its
modern observance which includes the ceremony of Confirmation.
1879: It was reported that problems of the
Jews in Romania are not a matter of religion but a matter of money. Supposedly until 1864 the Jews and the
Romanians lived peacefully side by side. The Jews would lend money to the Romanians
at exorbitant rates of interest which the Romanians gladly paid since they had
no intention of paying off the loan.
Furthermore, the loans were secured by mortgages; mortgages on which the
Jews could never collect because they were not classified as citizens and only
citizens could own real estate. That all
changed when Napoleon III demanded that the Jews be made citizens. Reportedly, the Jews began foreclosing on the
mortgages, expelling the Romanians from lands their families had held for centuries.
This forced the Romanians to begin shooting and hanging the Jews or driving
them from the country. The Jews were being persecuted but not for reasons of
religion. At the same time, the Romanian
government contended that it was not violating the edict of the Berlin Congress
regarding the treatment of Romanian Jews because the Jews living in Romania
were “foreigners” and not citizens of the country. [Editor’s note – people may
run out of money but they never run out of rationalizations for cheating and
killing Jews.]
1880: In “Man
Before Adam” the reviewer of Preadmites: The Existence of Man Before Adam
points that Dr. Alexander Winchell challenges several Biblical based
conventions including that creation took place 4,000 before our era, that Adam
was created on the 6th, that Eve was from Adam’s Rib, that Adam
lived for 930 years, that 1,656 after creation there was a great a flood that
destroy everybody except Noah, his family and the animals on the ark and that
the origin of the human species took place in Western Central Asia. [Winchell
was a Protestant minister. His book is
an example of the challenges to the literal reading of the Bible taking place
in the 19th century among many denominations. For Jews, this was a dominant motif of the
Reform movement and many German-Jewish biblical critics.]
1880: It was
reported today that The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem will be
hosting a strawberry festival later this month to raise funds for the
organization.
1880: It was
reported today that the last religious census in France showed that there were
almost 36 million Roman Catholics in the country but only 50,000 Jews.
1880: Rabbi
Meisner of the Rivington Street Synagogue officiated at the wedding of Miss
Essie Pakulski and Louis Mendelson, the son of the synagogue’s president The ceremony took place at Irving Hall and
followed the Reform ritual.
1882: Samuel
Obrieght, a young Jewish man who was a partner in his family’s liquor business,
suddenly married a Christian woman. This
fact became part of the public record during Obreight’s sanity hearing.
1882: A
festival to raise funds for Russian Jewish immigrants is scheduled to be held
this afternoon in the 23rd Ward Park in NYC. Speakers will include Algernon S. Sullivan
and Steward L. Woodford. The Philharmonic Society under the direction of Max
Maretzek will provide the musical entertainment.
1883: It was
reported today that the cornerstone laying ceremony for the Hebrew Orphan
Asylum in Brooklyn will take place later this month.
1884: In
Palestine, Sarah Chafetz and Abraham Alpern gave birth to the NYU trained Isaac
Alpern, the Perth Amboy, NJ businessmen who successfully worked in real estate,
insurance and banking and was instrumental in the construction of new building
for the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and husband of Lena Pauline Coble.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/07/14/101470687.pdf
1885(23rd
of Sivan, 5645)Bernard L. Jaworower, the agent of the United Hebrew Charities
serving at Castle Garden fell overboard while leaving the steamer George Starr at the Castle Garden
dock.
1885: In
Wilkes-Barre, PA, a fist fight broke during Shabbat services between two Polish
Jews – Abraham Rosenthal and Abraham Zubunsky – after “Rosenthal accused
Zubunsky of being more of a Christian than a Jew.” Both men left the synagogue and went to
Justices of the Peace and charged each other with assault and battery. Not much shalom in their Shabbat.
1886:
In Detroit the former Jeanette Marx and Aron Kaufmann gave birth to Edmund I
Kaufman the husband of Gertrude Dryfoos whom he married after the death of
Lillian Swope, the mother of his three sons – Joel, Robert and Aron – who was
the founder of Kay Jewelers and President of the ZOA
1887:
Testimony resumed today in the trial of Adolph Reich, the Hungarian Jew who has
been charged with murdering his wife.
1887:
Birthdate of Yale Sokolsky
1888:
Birthdate of Louis Freeman, the native of Glasgow who gained fame as artist
Scottie Wilson.
1888: Albert
Levy sent a letter from San Francisco to his wife Katie in New York saying the
he had filed for a divorce and was going to Australia. [This correspondence came to light during an
alienation of affection suit that was brought by the Roman Catholic Katie Levy
against her Jewish mother-in-law, Pauline Levy.]
1889(7th
of Sivan, 5649): Second Day of Shavuot
1889: A group
of Jews met at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue to begin making plans for
observing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by
Columbus and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
1890: In New
York City, Isidor and Eugenia (Ascher) Kopeloff gave birth to Columbia alum and
Rutgers University trained research bacteriologist, Nicholas Kopeloof, the
author of Why Infections in Teeth, Tonsils and Other Organs who was the husband
of Laura M. Gretsch.
1890: It was
reported today that the managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children has
received $3, 688.50 in contributions which will be used to finance outings for
underprivileged children and their mothers.
1892: It was
reported today that Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs delivered an historical poem entitled
“The Genius of Hebrew History” to those attending graduation of Congregational
B’nai Jeshurun’s religious school. The poem recounted the history of the Jewish
people which he subdivided into a series of epochs, each with its own set of
verses.
1892: A group
of prominent Jews met this afternoon at the Jewish Theological Seminary and
formed The American Jewish Historical Society.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Cyrus Adler who “explained that the
object was to collect, preserve and publish data having reference to the
settlement and history of Jews in America.
1893: The
funeral for Joshua Hendricks, the fourth generation head of Hendricks Brothers,
is scheduled to be held at his home on Cliff Street followed by interment at
Cypress Hill.
1894: Governor
Davis H. Waite ordered the Colorado state militia to protect and support the
miners engaged in the Cripple Creek miners' strike. Famed financier Bernard
Baruch was one of those who got his start in the “strike it rich” world of
Cripple Creek. Arriving from the east,
Baruch bought shares of stock in the San Francisco mine. During the day he worked as a “mucker” and at
night he played at the roulette wheel in a local gambling joint where he was so
successful that he was barred by the owners.
Baruch took his winnings and headed back to New York where he gained
fame and fortune. Sam Butcher, a
Hungarian Jew, was one of the few Jews who actually made money in industrial
mining in Cripple Creek. Because many of
his fellow miners were blatant anti-Semites, Butcher “took pains to conceal his
identity” until he had gained financial success. Sam and Bertha Flax were one of the first,
if not the first Jewish couple to marry in Cripple Creek. They tied the knot in 1909. Sam was not much of a miner but he would
prove be a successful restaurant owner in Denver, Colorado.
1895(14th of
Sivan, 5655): Fifty-six year old Henry Phillips the Philadelphia born
archaeologist and numismatist passed away today.
1896:
“Reverend Herman P. Faust of the Forsyth Street Hebrew-Christian Mission called
on Mayor Strong to see if something could be done” to help two Jewish peddlers
who had been driven from the streets by the police. The crackdown on street vendors is depriving
many Jewish immigrants of their means of livelihood a matter into which Mayor
Strong said he would look into.
1897(6th of
Sivan, 5657): For the first time during the Presidency of William McKinley,
observance of Shavuot.
1897: In
Chicago, Jews and Christians prayed together as members of Emmanuel
Congregation led by Rabbi Julius Newman joined members of the Belden Avenue
Baptist Church led by Pastor Haynes at the latter’s house of worship for a
service where both ministers preached to the congregation.
1897: Eleven
youngsters participated in the Confirmation Service led by Rabbi Julius Newman
of Emanuel Congregation.
1897: “In
Williamsburg special services were held in Temple Beth Elohim on Keap Street
near Broadway which is the wealthiest congregation in this section of the city”
where 19 boys and girls participated in Confirmation services led by Rabbi
Greenfield.
1898: “Hebrew
Free Schools” published today described the Confirmation Services for the
Hebrew Free School during which Esther Krosovitch recited a prayer followed by
the singing of “The Heavens Declare” and “My God” by her fellow confirmants.
1898: It was
announced today’s meeting of the Trustees Columbia University that Jacob H.
Schiff has donated $15,000 “to establish a fellowship in political science.”
1899:
“Increase In Death Rate” published today described the efforts of the Board of
Health to contain the diphtheria outbreak which has included children from the
Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society who go to the public grammar school “at the
corner of St. Nichols Avenue and 166th Street” forcing quarantines
to be put in place at both institutions.
1899: The list
officers of the newly reformed Educational Alliance published today include
Benjamin Altman, Henry Morgenthau and Isidor Straus
1900: “Mayer
Sakel and Judith Golde (Friedman) Sakel gave birth to Manfred Joshua Sakel ,a
Polish born neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who introduced insulin-shock
therapy for schizophrenics and other mental patients in 1927, while a young
doctor in Vienna. Insulin-induced coma and convulsions, due to the low level of
glucose attained in the blood (hypoglicemic crisis) improved the mental state
of drug addicts and psychotics, sometimes dramatically. His findings indicated
that up to 88% of his patients improved with insulin shock therapy. His method
became widely applied for many years in mental institutions worldwide. He
immigrated to the U.S. ahead of WW II. in 1936. "Sakel's Therapy" is
still used in Europe, but in the U.S. it has been superseded by
electroconvulsive therapy and other means of treatment.
1900:
Birthdate of Hunter College alum and philanthropist Sophie Spector Udell, the
wife of Jerome Udell with whom she had two daughters – Helen and Edith.
1901: Bella
Weretnikow, who became the first Jewish woman lawyer in Washington State, was
admitted to the Bar of Washington State.
1902: Pierre
Marie René Waldeck-Rousseau, “the initiator of Alfred Dreyfus's 1899 pardon, as
well as the law that, in 1900, offered amnesty for "all crimes and
misdemeanors related to the Dreyfus Affair, or that have been included in a
proceeding relative to one of these deeds” completed three years of service as
Prime Minister.
1903: Dr.
Kaufmann Kohler, for twenty-four years rabbi of Temple Beth-EI, delivered his
farewell sermon this morning before going to his new duties as the head of the
Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati. At the conclusion of the service the
congregation individually bade farewell and Godspeed to the retiring rabbi.
1903: “Mr.
L.S. Levine, the Assistant City Solicitor of Pittsburgh” represented the city’s
mayor at the opening session of the Sixth Annual Convention of the Federation
of American Zionist which was being “held at the Central Turners’ Hall.”
1904: “The
Seventh Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists” which was
attended by 188 authorized delegates continued to meet for a fourth day at
Germania Hall in Cleveland, OH.
1905:
Birthdate of Laszlo Halaz, the native of Hungary who “was appointed he first
director of the New York City Opera” a position from which he mounted the first
performance of “The Dybbuk,” an opera by David Tamkin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/31/arts/laszlo-halasz-first-director-of-city-opera-is-dead-at-96.html
1906: Three
days after he had passed away, eighty-year old Leopold Schloss, the husband of
Annie Horatia Montefiore, passed away today
1906:
Birthdate of Pretoria native, David Kessler, the son of mining engineer and
Zionist Leopold Kessler and grandson of
Johanna Feig and Jacob Kessler, the man who would play the leading role in
making the Jewish Chronicle one of the most respected Jewish weeklies in
the world.
1907: Dropsie
College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, a graduate school for biblical and
rabbinical studies, was chartered in Philadelphia.
1907: “In
Chicago’s West Side Lawndale neighborhood Harry and Rebecca Beatrice Korshak
gave birth to Sidney R. Korshak, the labor lawyer with alleged connections to the
Chicago mob and Hollywood insider whose career was the opposite of that of his
younger brother Marshall Korshak and who raised three children – Stuart,
Katherine and Harry – with his wife Bernice Steward..
https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/22/us/sidney-korshak-88-dies-fabled-fixer-for-the-chicago-mob.html
1908(7th
of Sivan, 5668): Second Day of Shavuot
1908: In
Switzerland, Isidor and Alice Nordman gave birth to Jean Nordman, the “husband
of Bluette Nordmann” and the “brother of Pierre Nordmann and Denise Levy who
rose to the rank of Colonel in the Swiss Army.
1909:
Birthdate of David Kessler, the man most responsible for making the Jewish Chronicle one of the most
respected Jewish weeklies in the world.
1909: In Riga,
“Mendel Berlin, a timber industrialist and direct descendant of Shneur Zalman
(founder of Chabad Hasidism), and his wife Marie, née Volshonok” gave birth to
Sir Isaiah Berlin who most popular essay may be “The Hedgehog and the Fox.”
1910: “Mystic
Aid Religion” published today reported on a speech given by Claude G.
Montefiore of London, the President of the Anglo-Jewish Association and he
President of the Religious Union for the Advancement of Liberal Judaism” in
which he said “No great religion can get on, or can it thoroughly healthy
without mysticism or mystics” because “for a religion to be at its best some
mysticism is imperatively required.”
1911: Bruno
Walter “wrote to his sister that he was to conduct the premiere of Mahler's Das
Lied von der Erde”
1911(15th
of Sivan, 5671): Seventy-two year old Alsace native Charles Weill, the husband
of Emilie Kahn Weil with whom he had had ten children passed away today after
which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery in his native Alsace.
1911:
Sixty-six year old American playwright and producer Edward “Ned” Harrigan the
author and producer of “Mordecai Lyons” an 1882 drama which unlike some “Jew
plays” is “serious and valuable” when it comes to portraying its Jewish
characters passed away today.
1912: Julia
Richman, superintendent of New York City Public Schools set sail for France
where she hoped to rest and improve her French language skills.
1913: The
First American Conference on Social Insurance to which Lee K. Frankel was a
delegate opened today in Chicago.
1913: In
Galveston, TX, Congregation B’nai Israel marked the twenty-fifth anniversary
Henry Cohen’s service as the Congregation’s rabbi during which he had married
Mollie Levy with whom he had two children.
1914(12th
of Sivan, 5674): Parashat Nasso
1914(12th
of Sivan, 5674): Seventy-seven year old Austrian born chemist Adolf Lieben “who
death he held the chair of general and pharmacological chemistry at the
University of Vienna” passed away today.
1914: It was
reported today that due to “the hostile attitude of the immigration officers at
Galveston,” “the movement to diver a part of the Jewish immigration from New
York to Galveston, TX, started through the Jewish Immigrants’ Information in
1907 with funds set apart for that purpose by Jacob Schiff will be discontinued”
starting in October.
1915:
Dedication of the Hebrew Institute at McKeesport, PA.
1915: The
reasons for the opposition to commuting the sentence of Leo Frank offered by
Reverend A.C Hendley, the pastor an Atlanta Baptist Church published today included
his belief that “outside influences were attempt to dictate to Georgians how
they should administer justice” and that “Leo M. Frank was fairly tried and
convicted and the United States Supreme Court…has affirmed the findings of the
Georgia courts.
1915: At its
annual meeting, the Federation of Oriental Jews of America “pledged its support
to President Wilson for upholding the rights and honor of the United States.”
1915:
“Speaking at the graduation exercises of the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America at Aeolian Hall this afternoon Dr. Solomon Schechter, President of the
Seminary, attributed the catastrophe of the present world war to over-emphasis
on unreligious secular nationalism and declared that the regeneration of
humanity that would result out of the present struggle and chaos would take
place not in the direct of the religion of valor but in a return to the
religion of Israel with ideals no longer of strength, force and astuteness but
of gentleness, humility and loving kindness.”
1915: In Atlantic
City, NJ. “1,237 delegates representing 200,000 members cheered wildly as”
“Louis Brandeis of Boston” “sound a call for a United Judaism” at the 29th
annual convention of the United States Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of
B’rith Abraham.
1915: “In the
presence of 200 men, women and child…more than half of whom were blind, the
roof garden on top of the new Bank of the United States Building at 77 Delancey
Street was formally opened this afternoon as a recreation and social center for
the Hebrew Association for the Blind.
1915: Based on
letter that Hugh M. Dorsey has sent to Governor Slaton “it became practically
certain today that when the case of Leo M. Frank…comes before the Governor for
consideration of the prisoner’s appeal for commutation to life imprisonment,
Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey will appear to oppose any change in the
sentence.”
1916(5th
of Sivan, 5676): Erev Shavuot
1916: “Among
those receiving degrees at the 99th Convocation of the University of
Chicago held” today were Leo Mordecai Goldsmith of Aurora, Isadore Michael
Levin of Chicago and Harry Cohn of Collinsville
1916: It was
reported today that “British censors have confiscated almost 10,000 checks
amounting in all to 800,000 marks (about $200,000) sent by Americans through the
Hebrew Sheltering and Immigration Aid Society of American to dependent
relatives in Russian Poland.”
1916: Among
the Planks of the Republican Platform that were agreed on today by Senators
Lodge, Borah and Sutherland was one on “Americanism” that recognized “the need
of a treaty of commerce with Russia that will give full equality to American
citizens of Jewish birth traveling in Russia.”
1917: At
today’s “annual meeting of the East London Fund for the Jewish, the Bishop of
London expressed the hope that a Christian Power would control Palestine and
characterized as folly” the belief “of some unthinking Christians that the
coming of the Kingdom of god in the east would hastened by filling Palestine
with unconverted Jews because that would result in the establishment of an
outpost against the spread of Christianity.”
1917: The last
regular meeting of the Sisters of Fidelity is scheduled to be held this
afternoon at the Masonic Temple.
1917:
Birthdate of Selma Goldstone, who as Selma Goldstone Hirsch would become a
noted humanitarian and an author who would enjoy a long association with the
American Jewish Committee.
1917: In
Pittsburg, Max Senior of Citizen is scheduled to chair this morning’s session
of the National Association of Jewish Social Workers where the topic of
“Americanization and Citizenship” will be discussed.
1917:
Birthdate of George Kidd, the native of Glasgow, who was the first Canadian
Ambassador to Israel.
1918:
Birthdate of Budapest native Pereszlényi Gyula Márton who gained gave fame as
Martin Julius Esslin, the “British producer, dramatist, journalist, adaptor and
translator, critic, academic scholar and professor of drama, known for coining
the term "theatre of the absurd" in his 1961 book The Theatre of the
Absurd.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/05/arts/martin-esslin-drama-theorist-dies-at-83.html
1918: Three
hundred delegates from the United States and Canada attended the opening
session of the Jewish Labor Congress at the Central Opera House in New York
City.
1919: Kiev
native Elias Elvove, the son of Joseph and Etta Elvove, and his wife Elka Elvov
gave birth to Faiga Rose Elvove.
1920: Rabbi
Herbert Levintahl is scheduled “to deliver the baccalaureate sermon” at the
“commencement exercises of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and the
Teacher’s Institute” this afternoon at Aeolian Hall.
1921: In
Frankfurt-am-Main, R' Dr. Joseph Breuer, the son of “Rabbi Salomon Zalman
Breuer and Sophie Tzipoorah Breuer” and his wife, Rika Breuer, gave birth to
Samson Breuer.
1921: “It was
stated tonight on high authority that President Harding” is planning on naming
Jewish advertising mogul Albert D. Lakser, President of the Lord and Thomas
Advertising Company of Chicago to be Chairman of the Shipping Board.
1922: American
actress and singer Lillian Russell who had been married to the Anglo-Jewish
composer Edward “Teddy” Solomon passed away.
1922: In
Baltimore, MD, on the day before his 28th birthday, University of
Michigan trained actuary and WW I veteran Stanford Z. Rothschild, the Richmond
born son of Solomon and Hannah Rothschild married Marie Lowenstein today.
1923(22nd
of Sivan, 5683): Tzvo Yosef Goldberg whose daughter Fraida married Rabbi Tzvi
Hirsch Ferber passed away.
1923:
Birthdate of Cambridge, Massachusetts native and Harvard educated Hollywood
columnist Joseph Hyams, the decorated WW II veterans and biographer whose works
included tomes on Humphrey Board and James Dean.
https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-hyams12-2008nov12-story.html
https://www.fightology.com/joe-hyams
1924(4th
of Sivan, 5684): Eighty-seven-year-old painter Frank Moss, the Philadelphia
born son of Julia Levy and Joseph Lyons who were wed in 1828 and the husband of
Annie Bathurst Harrison passed away today in Wilmington, DE.
https://www.askart.com/artist/Frank_R_Moss/10038232/Frank_R_Moss.aspx
1925:
Birthdate of Philadelphia poet Maxine Winkour who gained as poet and novelist
Maxine Kumin who published her first collection of poetry, Halfway in
1961. Influenced by the confessional style of poetry, it was followed in 1965
by The Privilege and in 1970 by The Nightmare Factory, both of which explore
her Jewish identity and family. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1973.
1926(24th
of Sivan 5686): Thirty-four year old Blanche Adler, the daughter of Morris and
Julia Weslosky and the wife of Ben Adler with whom she had – Morris and Frances
– passed away today in her native Albany, GA.
1926: Second
baseman Andy Cohen makes his major league debut with the New York Giants.
1926(24th of
Sivan, 5686): As he was crossing Second Avenue at 15th Street, Meyer London,
one of only two members of the Socialist Party elected to Congress was caught
in the middle of heavy automobile traffic passing in both directions. London
became confused and when he halted in the middle of the road he was struck by a
car, suffering internal injuries. The driver rushed him to Bellevue Hospital,
where London’s daughter was an intern. When she saw her father London’s only
concern was that the driver not be punished. "It’s not his fault",
said London "and he is a poor man." London died at 10 o'clock that
night at the age of 56, after physicians had labored for 11 hours to save him.
1927(6th
of Sivan, 5687): Shavuot
1927: In New
York City, “Eugene and Ruth (Clark) Sterne gave birth to Navy Veteran Richard
Clarke Sterne, the holder of an A.B. from Columbia and Ph.D. from Harvard who
pursued an academic career at several universities while writing literary
criticism and Dark Mirror: The Sense of Injustice in Modern European and
American Literature and raising three children – Lawrence, Samuel and
Daniel – with his wife Ruth Cecile Winer.
https://www.thenation.com/article/memoriam-richard-clark-sterne-historian-nation/
1927: In
Amsterdam, Jo Spier, “a newspaper illustrator and cartoonist, and the former
Albertine van Raalte, a homemaker,” gave birth to “Peter Spier, an
award-winning children’s-book author and illustrator who depicted Noah’s biblical
journey…” (As received by Richard Sandomir)
1928: In
Camden, NJ, the Sisterhood of Beth El Congregation is scheduled to hold its
final luncheon which has been arranged by Mrs. Herman Odlen.
1928: “The
final elimination contest for the Manhattan-Bronx region of the Young Judea
National Oratorical Contest” is scheduled to take place tonight at the
Montefiore Synagogue Auditorium after
which the winner will take part in the national finals the winner of which will
win “a free trip to Palestine.”
1929: Today,
while meeting in Hamburg, the Jewish Women’s Congress “proclaimed the foundation
a world federation of Jewish women with headquarter in New York” and appointed
Mrs. Rebeca Kohut of New York to serve as president for the first four years.
1930: “So This
is London,” the movie version of the play with the same name with a screenplay written
by Sonya Levien was released today in the United States.
1930: Martin
Silverman of De Witt Clinton High School “received a watch fob” the second
prize in the sixth annual Inter-High School French Contest, “organized by the
Society of French Teachers of America” which was held today at Hunter College.
1931: After
272 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of
“Girl Crazy” a musical with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and music by George
Gershwin.
1932(2nd of
Sivan, 5692): Dr. A.S. Waldstein who helped to found Paole Zion in the United
States in 1904 passed away in Tel Aviv at the age of 58.
1932(2nd
of Sivan, 5692): Fifty-five year old Benjamin Schlesinger, who served two terms
as President of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union who suffered
from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma passed away.
1933:
“Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein, President George J. Ryan of the Board of
Education; Deputy Superintendent Harold G. Campbell; Dr. Eugene Colligan,
president of Hunter College; Miss Adele Bildersee, dean of women at Brooklyn
College, and Dr. A. Broderick Cohen, dean of the evening session at Hunter
College” were the speakers at this evening’s dinner at the Hotel St.
George where the one thousand attendees
were beginning “a campaign to enroll
25,000 new members in the Brooklyn Committee of the Jewish Education
Association and to increase attendance at the Jewish religious schools” in
Brooklyn. (JTA)
1933: Governor
Herbert Lehman was scheduled to receive an honorary degree today the NYU commencement
ceremonies.
1933: The
Council of the League of Nations conducted a second day of hearings on “the
persecution of the Jews in Germany” in official response to the Bernheim
Petition. “Many of the speakers severely censured Germany for the treatment of
its Jews and demanded that they be accorded minimum human rights.” At the end
of the hearing, the Council took the “bold step” of requesting Germany to
provide “information on further developments.”
1933: In the
Bronx, a Lithuanian Jewish “house painter” and an Jewish immigrant “dressmaker
gave birth to Michigan State University alum Eli Broad, the businessman and
philanthropist who at one time was ranked as “the 65th wealthiest person in the
world, with an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion.”
https://www.forbes.com/profile/eli-broad/
1934: In New
York City, “Nina (née Peltzman) and Nathan Katz, who was a dress manufacturer
gave birth to Gilbert Katz who gained fame as director and producer Gilbert
“Gil” Cates. (As reported by Michael Cieply)
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/movies/gilbert-cates-producer-of-oscar-shows-dies-at-77.html
1934: Today,
Judge Julian W. Mack is scheduled “to be the guest of honor at a garden party
given on behalf of the UJS by Mrs. Joseph Stroock at her home on 5th
Avenue.
1934:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Securities Act of 1933 into law,
establishing the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) as part of the
fabled New Deal. One of the purposes of
the S.E.C. was to create a level playing field for all investors. The regulatory agency was created to end the
kind of stock fraud and manipulation that had been rampant in the 1920’s and
helped cause the Great Depression. Like
many other New Deal agencies, the S.E.C. provided employment for the college
educated offspring of Jewish immigrants who had come to the United States prior
to World War I. In the case of the
S.E.C., it gave several Jewish lawyers a chance to practice securities law, a
branch of the law to which they had limited access because of the WASP
dominated culture of the financial industry. Among those who worked for the SEC
was Joseph B Levin an attorney who rose through the ranks to become Assistant
General Counsel.
1935: In
London, premiere of “39 Steps” a murder mystery produced by Michael Balcon,
co-starring Lucie Mannheim and with music by Louis Levy.
1936: The
American Jewish Committee issued a statement reiterating it opposition to the
world Jewish Congress scheduled to be held in Geneva in August which Dr.
Stephen S. Wise, head of the American Jewish Congress is a leading proponent.
1936: In
Paris, “by the enormous majority of 384 to 219 the new Chamber of Deputies this
evening voted confidence in Premier Leon Blum’s Cabinet to carry through the
program of reforms for which the country voted when it returned the Popular
Front to power a month ago.”
1936: The
British military commander of the Southern District published an order
prohibiting all Jewish motor traffic from entering or leaving Tel Aviv. This “blockade” of Tel Aviv was in response
to the murder of an Arab kerosene vender who was shot while riding on a highway
between Tel Aviv and Petach Tikvah.
1937: The Palestine Post military
correspondent reported that according to reliable sources, the number of
British battalions present in the country depended entirely on the security
situation and the attitudes of the various sections of the population. Britain
had resolved not to take any more risks by reducing the defense force of the
land to a mere police force, as the situation existed before the organized Arab
troubles of 1936, which left such a bloody aftermath.
1937: “The
Jewish Theological Seminary of America held its 50th anniversary
convocation exercises” this afternoon during which “eight graduates of the
Seminary Rabbinical College were ordained as rabbis Dr. Cyrus Adler, the
president of the seminary.”
1937: Today
“two hundred delegates from 27 organizations” throughout the United States”
heard “former Justice Jeremiah T. Mahoey and other speakers” protest “against
discrimination against Jews in Rumania and urge action on their behalf by
American Jews at the 28th annual convention of the United Rumanian
Jews of America at the Hotel Astor.”
1937: The
Palestine Post reported that a mass meeting was held at the Tel Aviv's Mograbi
building during which the participants vowed active support for the beleaguered
Polish Jewry.
1938: Thanks
to the intervention of influential friends Sigmund Freud, his wife Martha and
his daughter Anna arrived in London from Vienna via Paris.
1938(7th
of Sivan, 5698): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1938(7th
of Sivan, 5698): Seventy-five-year-old
Minnie Thalhimer, the Hungarian born daughter of Rabbi Dr. Aaron Albert
Siegfried Bettelheim and Anna Henrietta (Yetta) Bettelheim and the wife of
Jacob E. Thalhimer with whom she had three children – William, Etta and Albert
– passed away today in New York City.
1939: Because
he felt that his terms were not being met, President Bru ended negotiations
concerning the landing of the passengers from the SS St. Louis which would
force the ship to begin the return trip to Europe.
1939: It was
reported today that the Valedictorian at Columbia College was Abraham Genecin,
the Minneapolis born son of a Russian immigrant who went on to earn a Medical
Degree from Johns Hopkins, and serve with the U.S. Army medical career after
which he worked as “a cardiologist, internist and associate professor at Johns
Hopkins Medical School
1939: Among
the passengers aboard the SS St. Louis who were filled with dread today as the
ship prepared to return to Germany were 15 year old Arno Motulsky, who would
survive to “become a founder of medical genetics,” his mother “the former Rena
Sass” and “his younger siblings,” – Leah and Lothar (As reported by Denise
Grady)
1939: The
Jewish city of Tel Aviv was virtually cut off from the outside world today
when, by order of the British military commander of the Southern District, all
Jewish motor traffic into or out of the city was prohibited until tomorrow
night. Only medical and milk transportation is permitted.
1940: The New York Times reported that the
Nazis had moved “through Amsterdam with ready-made lists of enemies and Jews,
rounding them and having them shot en masse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Fb4BzHHfD4Y
1941: It was
reported today that another 47 “foreign Jews” have been arrested in or near
Marseilles “under orders of Admiral Francois Darlan, the Minister of the
Interior, for the French government at Vichy.
1941: “More
than one-third of the 15,000,000 Jews in the world are now in countries under
German domination, subject to discriminatory antiJewish regulations that make
sound economic and social existence impossible, Joseph A. Schwartz, vice
chairman of the European field of the Joint Distribution Committee, reported in
an address before the national conference of Jewish Social Welfare here today.
“
1942:
Following a failed attempt in 1940, the Nazis succeed in ordering Belgian Jews
to wear the Yellow Star.
1942: During
his sermon today, Rabbi Israel Goldstein told the congregants of New York’s
Temple B’Nai Jeshurun that Japan's air raid on Dutch Harbor, Alaska, was the
"final shattering blow to the illusion of those who until recently coddled
themselves with the thought that oceans can protect us from air attacks."
1942: In his
sermon today, Rabbi Jacob Katz of the Montefiore Synagogue “advised parents to
have their children trained in mechanical skills as well as in cultural
subjects.”
1942: During
his sermon today, Rabbi Hyman J. Schachtel urged the congregants of the West
End Synagogue to do their part in the war effort by signing up with the
civilian protective services.
1942: During
his sermon at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Rabbi David de Sola Pool
said, “The first great challenge to the fuehrer concept was thrown down by
Moses…It is not without reason that the Fuehrer has singled out the people and
the religion of Moses for his most venomed hostility.”
1942: In
Cracow, Poland, thousands of Jews were rounded up for the second day in a row
for deportation. Eichmann, worried about appearances asks that the words
‘deportation to the East’ not be used, but instead, that ‘people are emigrated
elsewhere.'
1942: Adolf Eichmann insists via a telegram sent to
Gestapo officials that residents of a mental institution must be included in a
planned mass deportation of Jews from Coblenz, Germany, to Lublin, Poland.
1942: The Jewish ghetto at Kraków, Poland, is
liquidated; 6000 Jews from the city are murdered at Belzec.
1942: The
Nazis burned the village of Lidice Bohemia, as reprisal for killing Heydrich.
1943: Helga
Deen saw 1,300 children leave Vught, a Dutch internment camp, for Sobibor and
Auschwitz. In her diary she wrote, “Transport.
It’s too much. I’m destroyed and
tomorrow again.” Deen would later be shipped to Sobibor where she was murdered
by the Nazis.
1943: Jacob Gens, the leader of the Jewish Council
in Vilna, argued that Vilna's Jews will have an improved chance of survival if
they demonstrate their usefulness as workers.
1943: “We Will
Never Die” was performed at the Boston Garden, with guest stars Ralph Bellamy,
Lionel Atwill, Howard Da Silva, Berry Kroger, and Jacob Ben-Ami in prominent
roles. The Boston Jewish Advocate reported: “This spectacle must have impressed
and stirred the imagination of the many who saw it to a degree impossible to
achieve through the printed word.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/pageant.html
1943(3rd of
Sivan, 5703): Germans execute all 1000 Jews still remaining in the Rohatyn
(Poland) Ghetto after German authorities discover a plot of local Jewish
policemen to purchase weapons.
1944: “Despite
having no parachute training”, Mickey Marcus who had Ranger training “traded on
being a West Point classmate of General Maxwell Taylor to parachute into
Normandy with the first wave of the “Screaming Eagles
1944: Allied
forces led by the United States land on the beaches of Normandy. While no exact figures exist for the number
of Jews who took part in “The Longest Day” the graves marked by Stars of David
attest to the fact that Jews were not only present but paid the last full
measure. According to one source 550,000
Jews served in World War II in the U.S. military. Of those, 11,000 were killed,
40,000 were wounded, and 52,000 were decorated for gallantry. Jews made up some
3.5 percent of the U.S. military during the war.
1944: Among
the units landing at Normandy today were a contingent of the Ritchie Boys. The Ritchie Boys was a special U.S. Army
intelligence unit of approximately 10,000 German speaking soldiers most of whom
were Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. Trained at Fort Richie,
Maryland, they were able to use their special language skills and intimate
knowledge of the culture to infiltrate behind German lines, capture and
interrogate prisoners and conduct disinformation campaigns. Among those making
the land was Stefan Heym who would confound people by moving back to Europe
after the war and taking up residence in the German Democratic Republic
(Communist East Germany)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPlUMe_nKO0
1944: Maria
Madi, a native of Budapest wrote in her diary today “B.B.C. announces at 9:30
am that allied invasion has begun on the Normandy peninsula, between Cherbourg
and Le Havre. I almost gave up hope these days, am trembling all over from
excitement. If only it would be a success.
“This
afternoon, very few G[erman] soldiers can be seen on the streets, they are shut
up in their quarters, I suppose, in order not to hear the news. Here the noon
papers brought the news, without any trace of G[erman] measures taken against
the invasion…”
1944: Lester
Milton Bronstein, the father of Ambassador Michael Oren, was among those who
took part in the D-Day Invasion.
1944: Robert
Capa is part of the first wave of troops to land at Omaha Beach. He goes in with Company E armed with a Contax
camera. After ninety minutes of
shooting, he heads back to London with ten rolls of films that capture the
first moments of the invasion. Due to
mistakes made by the lab technician employed by Life Magazine, only 11 of the
106 pictures survive the development process.
http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html
1944: Lt. Bert
Katz led a unit that hit Easy Red Sector of Omaha Beach at “H plus seven minutes”
which means that his platoon hit the beach seven minutes after the start of the
“Longest Day. In a testament to the withering fire faced his unit, “within the
first ten minutes” he lost 23 men and while he himself was wounded he stayed
with his men as they fought their way across Europe during the next 11 months
until VE Day. This is the same Bert Katz who returned to Cedar Rapids, Iowa
where he became a successful businessman, philanthropist and leader of Temple
Judah and the Jewish community.
1944: Major
Benjamin “Ben” Dunkelman, who had enlisted as private in The Queen’s Own Rifles
of Canada in 1939 landed at Juno, the beach assigned to the Canadians during
the Normandy Invasion.
1944:
Lieutenant Mortimer Caplin (the future Commissioner of the IRS) “was commander
of a Naval Beach Master Group on Omaha Beach” who used his wits and imagination
to force a reluctant Liberty ship skipper to run his ship aground so that its
cargo of ammunition could distributed among the tankers and artillerymen
heading inland and was award the French Legion of Honor for being part ‘of the
initial landing force.”
1944: Private
Max Fuchs, “a rifleman in the First Infantry Division” came ashore today at
Normandy having no idea that in October he would be leading “an open-air service”
at Aachen, “the first Germany city to fall to the Allies” complete with all of
“the traditional Sabbath hymns.”
1944: Louis
Rabinowitz who had been appointed Senior Jewish Chaplain of the British Army
followed up his service with Allied forces in the Middle East by taking part in
the Normandy invasion.
1944: Captain
Charles Stein, “an Austrian Jewish refugee” landed on Omaha Beach today.
1944: Sarah
Levnedeal, the wife of Max Levendal and the mother of Isaac Levndel was
arrested today and sent to Drancy
1944: SS-Obergruppenführer and Nazi Party leader
Carl Rudolf Werner Best was told today of the refusal of the Danish police to
protect “57 enterprises the Germans deemed at risk of sabotage by the Danish
resistance movement.”
1944: When
German authorities become aware that news of the Allied invasion is circulating
through the Jewish ghetto at Lódz, Poland, a search is mounted for illegal
radios. Six Jews are arrested. On the same day the Germans rounded up all 1,795
Jews on the Greek Island of Corfu and deported them to Birkenau death camp
where 1,500 were murdered by gas upon arrival. The Germans also captured 260
Jews this day on the Island of Crete.
1944(15th of
Sivan, 5704): A German deportation ship with approximately 260 Canean Jews
aboard is sunk off the coast of Crete. Latter-day accounts conflict as to the
details: In one version, the ship carried the corpses of Jews murdered by
Nazis, who set the ship afloat and sank it to destroy evidence of the crime. In
another, the ship was bound for Auschwitz but was torpedoed and sunk by a
British submarine. Besides Jewish people, the ship may have carried 300 Italian
POWs and 400 Greek civilians.
1944(15th of
Sivan, 5704): In Poland, 150 police, all of whom were Nazi sympathizers
ambushed Jacob Allweiss and his two sons Zygie and Sol. Jacob is murdered. The two sons escape.
1944: Two more
Auschwitz inmates, Arnost Rosin and Czeslaw Mordowicz, arrived in Zilina. They
reported that trainloads of Hungarian Jews were being massacred.
1944: In
Corfu, Greece, the Germans rounded up 1,795 Jews. One thousand, five hundred of
them were then gassed at Birkenau.
1944:
Birthdate of Rene Rivkin, Australian entrepreneur, investor, investment
adviser, and stockbroker. He was a well-known stockbroker in Australia for many
years until his conviction for insider trading.
1944: As Joel
Brand sought to help save the Jews of Hungary Anthony Eden expressed his
sympathy regarding the decision to block the negotiations with Eichmann, but
said he had to act in unison with the United States and Soviet Union.
1945: The Lady
and the Monster” based on a novel by Curt Siodmak with a script by Frederick
Kohner co-starring Erich von Stroheim was released in Sweden today.
1945: Robert
Capa met Ingrid Bergman for the first time.
The meeting marked the beginning of passionate love affair between the
Jewish was photographers and the Scandinavian cinema star. Their relationship will be part of the plot
for the Alfred Hitchcock thriller “Rear Window.”
1945: The Fort
Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter also known as "Safe Haven," located
in Oswego, New York the first and only refugee center established in the United
States during World War II which housed almost 1000 European refugees, most of
whom were Jewish was closed today.
1946(7th
of Sivan, 5706): Second Day of Shavuot
1946: While already
serving as president of the American Hockey League, Maurice Podoloff was appointed president of the newly formed
Basketball Association of America (BAA), becoming the first person to lead two
professional leagues simultaneously
1946:
Birthdate of Tony Levin, bassist for King Crimson.
1947: “The
World Jewish Congress announced here” tonight “that Austrian authorities had
granted permission to 250 Rumanian Jewish refugees to enter the United States
zone in Austria after their train had been stranded for several days on a
railway bridge…”
1947: Four
days after his burial at Willesden Cemetery, the obituary of Myer Jack Landa
was published today.
1948: The IAF
completed its move to a new base in Herzliya.
1948: In New
York City, literary critic Alfred Kazin and his wife gave birth to Georgetown
University history professor Michael Kazin who earned his Ph.D at Stanford,
became the co-editor of Dissent, “a left-wing intellectual magazine founded in
1954 whose previous editors have included Irving Howe, Mitchell and Cohen and
Michael Walzer and “married physician Beth Horowitz” with whom he had two
children.
https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/faculty-profile?netid=mk8%2F
1949: In
Jerusalem “A group of religious zealots knows the guardian of the City has
declared war against the ‘pagan’ Jews and by methods often as violent as those
of terrorist organizations is attempting to impose upon them its religious
practices especially the strict observance of the Sabbath
1950:
Birthdate of director Chantal Anne Akerman, the native of Brussels whose mother
Natalia (Nelly) had survived Auschwitz “where her own parents had died”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/arts/chantal-akerman-belgian-filmmaker-dies-65.html?_r=0
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/08/chantal-akerman
1950:
“Odette,” a biopic about British agent who was not executed at Ravesnbruck
filmed by cinematographer Mutz Greenbaum was released today in the United
Kingdom.
1950: Mrs.
Martha Sharp left New York tonight by plane to visit “her 20,000 children” in
Israel. “These thousands of Israeli boys and girls are Mrs. Sharp’s charges by
long-range adoption since she is a founder and national vice chairman of
Children to Palestine, Inc., an American organization that is bringing them out
of starved and fear-ridden backgrounds to a new life in a new land.” Mrs. Sharp
is the wife of a Unitarian minister in Chicago. In the next month she will help
some of them move into the only real homes they have ever known and watch
others learn to play children's games for the first time.
1951(2nd
of Sivan, 5711): Hilda Aaron passed away today after which she was interred at
the Adath Jeshurun Cemetery in Hampton Township, PA.
1952: “In
every case where one member of a pair of identical twins suffered from
manic-depressive psychosis, the other twin also showed a tendency toward the
same mental illness, Dr. Franz Kallmann of Columbia University reported” today.
1952: The
Jerusalem Post reported on the ground- breaking ceremony for the projected $10
million Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School on the bare Judean hills,
west of Ein Kerem. Speakers declared that this construction did not mean the
abandonment of Hadassah facilities on Mount Scopus which were effectively under
Arab control in violation of existing U.N. guarantees.
1953(23rd
of Sivan, 5713): Parashat Sh’lach
1953(23rd
of Sivan, 5713): Sixty-eight-year-old
NYU trained neuropsychiatrist Dr. Emanuel David Friedan, the New York
City born son of Louis and Miriam Deborah Friedman and the husband of Rose
Borgenicht passed away today,
1954(5th
of Sivan, 5714): Erev Shavuot
1954: In
Brooklyn Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a
handkerchief manufacturer gave birth to actor Harvey Fierstein
1954:Funeral
services are scheduled to held today for eighty-two
year old Montgomery, AL native and University of Virginia trained
physician Joseph Henry Abraham, the laryngologist and member of the faculty of
New York Polytechnic and husband Eleanor B. Abraham
1955: In
Flint, Michigan Jeanette and Jerome Bernhard, a proctologist, gave birth to
comedienne Sandra Bernhard whose humor can be heard on “I’m Still Here…Damn
It,” her 1998 comedy album.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Still_Here..._Damn_It!#/media/File:Sandrabernharddamnit.jpg
1955: Birthdate of Samuel Michael “Sam” Simon, the
“co-creator of the ‘The Simpsons.’”
1955(16th
of Sivan, 5715): Seventy two year old British author Joseph Jefferson Farjeon,
the son of Benjamin Leopold Farjeon passed away.
1956: David
Marshall, Singapore's first Chief Minister resigns. David Saul Marshall was
born in Singapore in 1908 to a Jewish family that had originally come from
Iraq. He became a lawyer and a leading
leader of the left wing. In later years
he would serve in several diplomatic postiions before retiring after a dispute
with the Prime Minister of Singapore.
1957(7th of
Sivan, 5717): Second Day of Shavuot
1957: “The
Delicate Delinquent” produced, written and starring Jerry Lewis was released in
the United States today.
1957: The
Soviet government informed the Jewish community that it would permit the
opening of a yeshiva in Moscow for the training of rabbis. The announcement was
made on Shavuot, probably to "impress" world Jewry that the USSR was
doing a wonderful thing for Jews and Judaism. It turns out that this was mostly
"smoke". The laymen's council of the yeshiva was dissolved in 1961.
The bulk of the students had come from Georgia. After Pesach of 1962, these
students were denied permits by the local government to return to Moscow. Thus
the yeshiva, reduced to a handful of students, could no longer hope to provide
rabbis for Russian Jewry.
1958(18th
of Sivan, 5718): Eighty-three-year old University of
Vienna trained psychiatrist Dr. Benzion Liber, the professor of psychiatry at
the New York Polyclinic Medical School and “a director of the Mental Hygiene
Clinic of New York Polyclinic Hospital who was the Romanian born son of
Yitskhok Libresko, the cofounder of Yiddish theater the husband of Rosa Liber
and the father of Dr. Amour F. Liber suffered a fatal heart attack today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2017/03/ben-tsien-benzion-liber.html
1959: In Palo
Alto, CA, Dorothy Jean St. Germain (née Rich) and Phillip Gary Schultz gave
birth to American Olympic wrestler, David Leslie "Dave" Schultz
1959: Ruth R.
Wisse “arranged a rendezvous for the Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever, who was then
on his maiden visit to North America.”
1960(13th
of Sivan, 5750): Sevent-three year old Sigismund Lieberman, the Polish born son
of Natalia and Adolph Lieberman, “the husband of Mary S. Lieberman and the
father of George and Norma Lieberman” passed a way today in the Bronx, NYC
1960: “The
Damaged Eye” co-starring Herschel Bernardi and filmed by cinematographers Helen
Levitt and Haskell Wexler was released in the United States today.
1961:
“Hadassah-Ein Kerem opens with a moving day. Supervised by HMO senior staff,
the Israeli Army meticulously and efficiently transports every patient in each
of Hadassah's five temporary hospitals to a preassigned bed at the new medical
center.”
1961: Carl
Jung, the man Freud called "his adopted eldest son, his crown prince and
successor" but who later broke with his mentor, passed away today.
1962: In New
York, Enid (Rodman) and Harold Flender, a writer and screenwriter gave birth to
actor, writer, director and producer Rodman Flender.
1963: In
Richmond, VA, realtor Eddie Cantor and Mary Lee (nee Hudes), a schoolteacher
gave birth to Eric Cantor who represented Virginia’s Seventh District and
served as House Majority Whip before being defeated in his bid for re-election.
1963:
Birthdate of British actor Jason Isaacs.
1965(6th of
Sivan, 5725): First Day Shavuot
1965(6th
of Sivan, 5725): Sixty-eight year old New York native Dr. John Henry Garlock a
member of the faculties at Columbia and Cornell passed away today.
1965(6th
of Sivan, 5725): Sixty-nine-year-old Philadelphia native Myer Feinstein, the
“president of the Penn Federal Savings and Loan Association and chairman of the
board of the Central Mortgage Company who was past president of the UJH and the
“first American to receive the Shield of Award” and the husband of the former
Rosaline Berman with whom he raised a son and a daughter passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/06/07/97208191.html?pageNumber=37
https://www.jta.org/archive/myer-feinstein-noted-jewish-leader-dies-in-phildelphia-was-69
1966: It was reported
today that seventy-year-old New York native Sol Luckman who “was among the top
leadership of the UJA and the Israel Bond organization as well as numerous
Cincinnati philanthropic endeavors” passed way “over the weekend.” (JTA)
1967: This
marked the second day of Israel's Six Day War. Now that the Israelis had
control of the skies, their armor and infantry could begin advancing against
the numerically larger Arab armies. As accounts of the fighting will attest,
this was no cakewalk. The fighting in
Sinai involved some of the largest clashes between tanks since World War
II. And the Jordanians fought
tenaciously along the Green Line around east Jerusalem.
1967: At six o’clock in the morning the Supreme
Command of the Arab armed forces began broadcasting on the great lies that is
still believed to this day. Repeating a
report that Nasser had made to King Hussein the night before, the Arab military
leaders claimed that the Egyptian and Jordanian air forces had been demolished
on the first day of the war by U.S. planes attached to the Sixth Fleet and by
British warplanes flying from unspecified bases. This tale had not no basis in fact. It gave Nasser a chance to save face with the
Arab masses and to provide his Soviet patrons with an excuse for intervening. The Cold War is already becoming a distant
memory to those living in the 21st century.
However, the conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was very
real in 1967. The Soviets were actively
looking for a way to gain control in the Middle East and the Communist Bloc was
Nasser’s patron, a factor that was part of the military and political equation
facing the Israelis.
1967: Defense
Minister Moshe Dyan still refused to allow any military action to be taken
along the Golan Heights. With fighting
raging in the Sinai to the South, he did not need additional military
worries. What did worry Dyan was that
the U.N. might impose a cease fire before Israeli forces could seize Sharm
el-Sheik, the choke-point held by the Egyptians that made it possible for them
to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. Dyan ordered Chief of Staff Rabin to move
with all speed to seize Sharm. Rabin
completed planes for a combined assault that was to be carried out the next
evening.
1967: “The
Egyptian armored forces collapse. Ariel Sharon's division later joins an
armored brigade making its way to the Egyptian posts at Tamed and Nakhl. When
they arrive there, Sharon quickly reads the battlefield and successfully
ambushes an Egyptian armored brigade. The Egyptian tanks column goes straight
into Sharon's trap and there they it is systematically destroyed. At the end of
the day, what's left is a 20 mile long column of twisted and burned Egyptian
tanks and vehicles, and hundreds of dead bodies beside them.”
1967: Egyptian troops are ordered to fall back to
the Suez Canal. In the evening,
unbeknownst to the Israelis, Egypt evacuated the strategically important
position of Sharm el-Sheik.
1967:
According to transcripts released in 2017, “what to do with the Old City was a
hot topic conversation in” today’s meeting of “the security cabinet.”
1969: Two days
after she had passed away, funeral services were held today for eighty-two year
old Lillian Schifrin, the Cincinnati born daughter of “Adolph Aira Berman and Mary
Agnes Jacobs and the “ex-wife of Isidor Schifrin.
1970: Peggy
and Dr. Milton D. Glick, who would eventually become President of the
University of Nevada, Reno, gave birth to their son David.
1970(2nd
of Sivan, 5730): Twenty three year old Josh (Eli Joshua) Bay the son of Charles
and Canadian born actress Frances Bay passed away today.
1971(13th
of Sivan, 5731): Seventy-six year old Polish native, violinist and professor
emeritus of bio-chemistry at the University of California Lila Berlin Hassid,
the wife of Professor William Zen Hassid who was famous for her Yiddish
language skills passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/07/archives/mr-la-b-ha-yiddish-trator.html?searchResultPosition=1
1972(24th
of Sivan, 5732): Eleanor Joan Clara Nathan, the wife of Baron and Major Louis
Nathan Nathan and mother of Captain Roger Carol Michael Nathan passed away today.
1973(6th
of Sivan,5733): First Day of Shavuot
1974: “In
anticipation of President Nixon’s visit, telephones of Moscow Jewish activists
were cut off and many of them received conscription orders particularly those
organizing scientific seminar
1974: The
Syrians returned the body of Avraham “Avi” Lanir. The Syrians captured him during the Yom
Kippur War and tortured him to death in an attempt to extract information from
him about Israel’s nuclear program.
1975: “One
hundred activists send an appeal to the United States and House of
Representatives in defense of Anatolii Malkin.”
1975: The USSR
Supreme Soviet adopted a decree imposing a new tax of 30% on money sent to
Soviet citizens from abroad i.e. money sent to aid reufsniks.
1975(27th
of Sivan, 5737): Forty-nine year Larry Blyden, a Jewish actor from Houston, TX
passed away today.
1976(8th
of Sivan, 5736): Seventy-eight-year-old Brooklyn born Georgetown University
trained attorney Jacob Ark, a “sergeant first class in the Army’s air service
in WW I” and who served as New York State Supreme Court Judge from 1961 to 1968
passed away today.
1976: “The
Omen” a horror film directed by Richard Donner, produced by Henry Bernhard,
written by David Seltzer and with music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the
United Kingdom today.
1977:
Birthdate of Jerusalem native and popular singer Alma Zohar whose debut album
was Dabri which was released in July
of 2008 and who is the half-sister of electronic musician Matan Zohar (a.k.a.
Mat Zo).
1979(11th
of Sivan, 5739): Seventy one year old Sidney Bernard Finn, the Freedom, PA born
son of Abel and Rebecca (Gordon) Finn the Ohio St. Aluma and award winning
Harvard trained dentist who was the husband of Irma Harriet Rubens with whom he
had two children – Catherine and Andrew – passed away today.
1979: Premiere
of “Escape to Athena” a movie set in Nazi occupied Greek Island produced by Lew
Grade and co-starring Elliot Gould
1979(11th
of Sivan, 5739): Ninety-year old Rabbi Morris Samuel Lazaron Sr, the Savanah,
GA born son of Samuel Louis Lazaron and Zipporah Alice DeCastro Lazron, and the
husband of Pauline Lazaron with whom he had had three children – Morris, Harold
and Clementine – passed away today after which he was buried in Maryland at the
Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery.
1980: U.S.
premiere of “Up the Academy” a comedy co-starring Ron Leibman and Barbara Bach
whose father was Jewish but whose mother was not.
1981: Final
plans were completed for “Operation Opera” the Israel attack on an Iraqi
nuclear reactor that Iran had tried and failed to destroy.
1982: Israeli
troops enter Lebanon to drive out PLO. The PLO had established itself as
a "state within a state." The government of Lebanon was
incapable or unwilling to put an end to this source of terror, so the Israelis
acted accordingly. The triggering event was the attempted assassination of
Shlomo Argov the Israeli ambassador in London. The invasion would become
a divisive and corrosive event for the Israelis that, to put it mildly, was not
one of their shining moments.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/feb/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon
1982: Members
of the famous Golani Brigade attacked Beaufort Castle which was held by the
PLO.
1983: In
“Orthodox Jewish Women Push Role In Prayer” published today, Charles Austin
described attempts to harmonize traditional roles with change social mores.
1984(6th
of Shavuot, 5744): Shavuot
1985: The
grave of "Wolfgang Gerhard" is exhumed in Embu, Brazil; the remains
found are later proven to be those of Josef Mengele, Auschwitz' "Angel of
Death". Mengele is thought to have drowned while swimming in February
1979.
1986(28th
of Iyar, 5746) Yom Yerushalayim
1986: U.S.
premiere of “Raw Deal” written by Norman Wexler and co-starring Steven Hill and
Sam Wanamaker.
1987: “Poet,
essayist and critic” Katha Pollitt “married Randy Cohen, author of the New York Times Magazine column ‘The
Ethicist’” today.
1988(21st
of Sivan, 5748): Twelve days before his 87th birthday Wellesley
(Pinchas) Aron the London born graduate of Cambridge, founder of Habonim who as
a Major in the British Army “assumed commanded of a Jewish Palestinian unit,
later absorbed into the Jewish Infantry Brigade passed away today.
http://wasns.org/in-memory-of-wellesley-aron
1988: Pitcher
Steve Rosenberg makes his debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1990(13th
of Sivan, 5750): Sixty-five year old Regina Elfenbein, the Chelm born daughter
of Chaim and Chana Nankin and the wife of Cecil Donald Elfenbein passed away
today in Dallas, TX. (Editor’s note – so
the Chelmites were not just tales told to children)
1991: David John
Pleat began serving as the manager for Luton Town football team.
1991(24th
of Sivan, 5751): Stan Getz passed away.
Born Stanley Gayetzky in 1927, Getz was the leading tenor sax player of his
time. Even people who did not like jazz
enjoyed listening to the smooth sound of Stan Getz.
1992(5th
of Sivan, 5752): Eighty-four year old Marvel comic founder Martin Goodman
passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/11/obituaries/martin-goodman-84-began-marvel-comics.html
1994(27th
of Tammuz, 5754): Sixty-nine year old Yohai Ben-Nun, the sixth commander of the
Israeli navy passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/10/obituaries/yohai-bin-nun-69-ex-israel-navy-chief.html
1996: The
chapel of Temple Emanu‐El was the setting this evening for the wedding
of Miss Barbara Joy Welt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard David Welt of
Buffalo, to Charles Alexander Bernheim, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Henry
Bernheim of 930 Park Avenue.
1997: “Crash”
a thriller directed and produced by David Cronenberg who also wrote the script
and with music by Howard Shore was released today in the United Kingdom.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
the recently released paperback editions of Confederates in the Attic:
Dispatches From the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz, Damascus Gate
by Robert Stone and Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth
Reichl.
1999: Deb and
Mitchell Levin marry at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He moved up in class and she got an adult
child to try and housebreak. For those
of you who have not figured it out, she is the one who makes this daily work
possible. On top of being an Ayshish
Chayel in the truest sense of the word, she is also is great at everything from
creating blogs to making homemade Kosher pizza, to creating memorable siddurim
to hosting the visiting chazzan who is a kosher vegetarian.
2000:
“Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright arrived in Israel today for her first
visit in six months, seeking to inject a sense of urgency into the long-running
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and to lay the foundation for a three-way
retreat-style summit meeting.” (As reported by Deborah Sontag)
2001: An Arab
suicide bomber massacred 21 young Jewish teenagers and injured a hundred more
outside a Tel Aviv discotheque.
2001: Joe
Lieberman began serving as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland
Security.
2002: Today,
in retaliation for a suicide bombing carried out by an Islamic Jihad
terrorist, “the IDF executed a new siege
of the “Ramallah Muquata’a after having attacked the headquarters with tanks,
bulldozers and armored vehicles” leaving Arafat's office building and other
parts of his compound partly destroyed.
2003(6th
of Sivan, 5763): Shavuot
2003: Today,
“Yasir Arafat implicitly criticized Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas for having
failed to win any concessions from Israel” during talks designed to stop
attacks on that country.
2004: First
day of a Birthright trip to Israel - Towards a Sustainable Future for Israel:
An Environmental Leadership Seminar for Students and Young Professionals –
focused on the environment sponsored as a joint project of COEJL, the Heschel
Center for Environmental Leadership and Learning, the Jewish Agency for Israel,
and Hillel.
2004: 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 “Sloan-Kettering: Poems” the Israeli
poet and famed partisan Abba Kovner’s poetic chronicle of his losing battle
with cancer which he describes with ruthless honesty, even as he celebrates his
tenacious grip on the world he is leaving.
2004: Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon’s government approved an amended plan for disengagement
form Gaza.
2004: Avigdor
Lieberman completed his term as Minister of Transport, National Infrastructure
and Road Safety
2005: Majdi
Halabi was officially listed as M.I.A. (missing in action).
2005 (28th of
Iyar): Observance of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day). Jerusalem Reunification
Day celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem on June 7, 1967 which was the
28th day of the month of Iyar. The
observance follows the Jewish calendar, so it seems to “float” on the secular
calendar. On the 28th of Iyar, soldiers
of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) reunited the Old City of Jerusalem which had
been illegally occupied by the Jordanian Army since 1948 with what was then
referred to as the New City of Jerusalem.
(Please note, there never was a city called “East Jerusalem.” The term
east Jerusalem is strictly geographic as in the southeast side of Cedar
Rapids.) This was the first time that all of Jerusalem was under Jewish
sovereignty since the days of the Second Temple.
2006: The New York Times and The Washington Post reported that “the
C.I.A. knew where Eichman was hiding” and made no attempts to inform the
government of Israel, which was actively looking for him and other Nazi war
criminals. This revelation came to light
as large quantities of government documents describing U.S. relationships with
ex-Nazis after World War II were declassified.
2006: British
author Naomi Alderman has won the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers with her
debut novel Disobedience. The novel is
set in the Orthodox Jewish community of Hendon, London where Alderman grew up.
2006(10th
of Sivan, 5766): Eighty-eight year old Arnold Newman, a portrait photographer
and so much more who is part of that seemingly unending line of Jews with a
camera passed away today in Manhattan. (As reported by Andy Grundberg)
https://jmof.fiu.edu/exhibits/traveling-exhibits/newman/
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/arts/07newman.html
2007:
Professor Norman Finkelstein is a guest on daily global affairs program
produced by Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ (91.5) where he presents a
“revisionist view of the Six Day War.”
2007: Jack
Markell officially launched his candidacy for Governor of Delaware
2007: An
exhibition styled “Image of His Soul" Max Liebermann – Works on Paper
opens at the Hecht Museum in Haifa.
2007: The Sir
Zelman Cowen Prize in medical research is awarded to Prof. Nir Friedman at the
Hebrew University's Board of Governors' meeting by fund trustee Michael Dunkel,
a member of the Board of Governors.
2008: At the
JCC in Washington, D.C. cantor, composer, arranger, choral conductor, and
director of the ensemble Vocolot, Linda Hirschhorn will co-lead a musical Erev
Shabbat service with Rabbi Robert Saks of Congregation Bet Mishpachah, the
event’s co-sponsor. Linda Hirschhorn will play the guitar during the service.
2008: Opening
of “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” starring Adam Sandler playing an Israeli
assassin turned hairdresser.
2008: Today,
Frank Stella, the non-Jewish “artist who turned destroyed Polish shuls into
great art co- published an Op-Ed for The Art Newspaper decrying a proposed U.S.
Orphan Works law which "remove[s] the penalty for copyright infringement
if the creator of a work, after a diligent search, cannot be located."
2009: Alysa
Stanton the first African-American female rabbi is ordained at Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. Stanton, a convert and
mother to an adopted 14-year-old daughter, is a trained psychotherapist who
specializes in trauma and grief. In August, she will become the spiritual
leader of Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville.
2009: At
Temple Judah, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sophie Shiffman, daughter of Howard
Shiffman of Toronto, Ontario and Peggy and Don Aungst of Independence, IA is
called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2009: The
Vatican says it has "taken action" to track down Jewish children who
were hidden by the Church and Catholic families during the Holocaust and later
disappeared.
2010: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Alone With You by Marissa
Silver
2010: I wish
the American Jews who feel misrepresented by the lobby would stand up by Philip
Weiss
2010: Members
of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington are scheduled to lead a
special tour of Jewish sites in Old Town Alexandria that will include visits to
the sites of two former synagogues and several Jewish businesses.
2010: The
Washington Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to open with a screening of the
Jazz Baroness and a performance by Danny Sanderson.
2010(24th of
Sivan, 5770): Rabbi Jacob Milgrom passed away today in Jerusalem at the age of
87. He was “considered by many the worlds’ foremost authority on the biblical
Book of Leviticus. Milgrom’s three-volume series on Leviticus,
interpreting Jewish dietary and purification rituals and the Bible’s position
on homosexuality, concluded that the ban on homosexuality applies only to
Jewish men.”
2011: “Music
and Healing” a program designed to acquaint attendees with “contemporary, folk
and traditional songs that can help them through times of need and comfort is
scheduled to take place at Tefereth Israel in Washington, DC.
2011: The
Children of Israel Journeyed: Selections from the Chagall Bible Series, an
exhibit at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee, “showcasing twenty-one hand-painted
etchings by Marc Chagall” and The Haggerty Museum’s massive Chagall Tapestry is
schedule to come to a close. The Haggerty
is part of Marquette University.
2011: Israeli
military officials disputed today the casualty figures announced by Syria a day
earlier, after Israeli forces fired on protesters who had tried to breach the
Syrian frontier with the Israeli-held Golan Heights, the discrepancy in numbers
underlining the messages being conveyed by both sides.
2011:
Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleaded not guilty today in a New York court appearance.
2011: New York
Congressman Anthony Weiner admitted that his twitter account had not been
hacked and that he had been sending pictures of himself to at least six female
followers.
2011:
Eighty-five year old Zev Birger, the concentration camp survivor who
reinvigorated the Jerusalem International Book Fair passed away today. (As reported
by Isabel Kershner)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/world/middleeast/13birger.html?_r=1
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=224206&R=R2
2012: A Young
Leadership Concert featuring Itamar Zora and the Salome Chamber Orchestra is
scheduled to take place at Congregation Shearith Israel (The Spanish &
Portuguese Synagogue)
2012: The Los
Angeles dance company BODYTRAFFIC is scheduled to perform the world premiere of
the latest work by Israeli choreographer Barak Marshall with guest artist
Margalit Oved at the Joyce in New York City.
2012: In Chevy
Chase, MD, Ohr Kodesh is scheduled to host a concert presented by Zemer Chai.
2012: The
Wiener Library in the UK is scheduled to present ‘Target Heydrich: Laurent
Binet on HHhH’ in which the author will talk about her historical novel about
the two men who killed the man known as “Himmler’s Brain.”
2012: In an
interview today Robert Levine “discusses moving to Saint Louis Park, Minnesota
in the early 1950s and Jewish life there.”
2012: In an
interview today Avis Held “discusses moving to Saint Louis Park, Minnesota in
the early 1950s and Jewish life there.”
2012: It is
lucky 13 for me as we celebrate our anniversary. And it is lucky for anybody
who reads this because if it weren’t for Deb none of this would exist!
2012: Israel's
Knesset voted down a bill that aimed at legalizing homes on the Ulpana Hill
neighborhood in the West Bank settlement of Beit El, which were built on
privately owned Palestinian land. (As reported by Jonathan Lis and Oz
Rosenberg)
2012: Defense
Minister Ehud Barak acknowledged Israel's offensive cyberspace operations for
the first time. (As reported by Gili Cohen and Oded Yaron)
2012: Opening
of National Hebrew Book Week
2012: “Adam
Richman's Best Sandwich in America,” an American food reality television series
premiered today on the Travel Channel
2013(28th
of Sivan, 5773): Ninety four year old Nobel laureate Jerome Karle passed away
today. (As reported by Kenneth Chang)
2013: The
Associates of AFIPO are scheduled to present “Vintage Thursday,” a winetasting
and silent auction evening to benefit the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra,
2013: In
London, the Weiner Library is scheduled to present “Film Talk” ‘Kosher Nostra’
– Screening the Memory of the Jewish-American Gangster in ‘The Godfather Part
II’”
2013: Israel’s
Gesher Theater is scheduled to perform “Enemies, A Love Story” by Isaac
Bashevis Singer at New York’s Lincoln Center.
2013: Syrian
opposition and government forces today were engaged in hours of fierce battles
at and around the Quneitra border crossing, the only crossing between Israel
and Syria.
2013(28th
of Sivan, 5773): Ninety-two year old Berlin born physicist Eugen Merzbacher who
fled Nazi Germany passed away today.
http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?merzbachere
2013: “Spertus
Institute screens Hava Nagila (The Movie), the definitive, glorious, musical
story of how a traditional melody from Ukraine became a Jewish staple and
worldwide hit.”
2013: US
military aircraft and an Israeli passenger plane nearly collided over Eilat
today.
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/US-Army-aircraft-passenger-plane-have-near-miss-over-Eilat-315771
2014:
The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “Edward Henkel's
MovementTalks: The Power of Women Minding the Dance with Christine Dakin, Dawn
Paap and Catherine Peila”
2014:
Rabbi Shira, Rabbi Laurie Green of Bet Mishpachah, and members of GLOE are
scheduled to lead an inclusive service celebrating the diversity of our
community at the Historic 6th & I Synagogue.
2014:
On the 70th anniversary of the Normandy invasion as special homage
is paid to the dwindling number of veterans who hit the beach on D-Day,
residents of Cedar Rapids in general and members of the Jewish community in
particular an honor Bert Katz. As a
young captain, Katz led his unit on to Easy Red sector of Omaha Beach seven
minutes after the start of the invasion.
Despite the fact he was wounded and lost 23 of his men to murderous
enemy fire, Katz saw to it that his unit performed their vital mission on “The
Longest Day” and the many days and months that would follow until the war’s
end.
2014:
Today, “Spain’s cabinet approved a bill
allowing descendants of Jews forced into exile centuries ago the right to dual
citizenship, but said applicants will have to take a Spanish culture test in
addition to having their ancient ties to the nation vetted by experts.
2014:
“Labor Party MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer’s bid for the presidency seemed to have
gone up in smoke today after police questioned him for nearly five hours on
suspicion that he illegally received millions of shekels from various sources,
using some of the money to purchase a luxury apartment home in Jaffa. (As
reported by Advi Sterman)
2015:
“Is That You?” is scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Center Festival at
the JCC Manhattan.
2015:
In Cedar Rapids, the traditional minyan observes D-Day Shabbat followed by “a
special Kiddush celebrating the 81st birthday of Murray Wolf
“complete with his favorite homemade delicacies” prepared by his wife
Charlene.”
2015:
“Gender, Memory and Genocide” an international conference marking the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide co-sponsored the Pears Institute of the
Study of Ant-Semitism is scheduled to come to an end today.
2015:
“American Pharaoh” owned by Ahmed Zayat won the Belmont Stakes today which made
him the winner of racing’s Triple Crown.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/american-pharoah-gives-zayat-the-biggest-prize-in-racing/
2015:
As we contemplate the miracles of Shabbat, on this Shabbat I cannot help but be
overwhelmed by the miracle that Deb Levin married me 16 years ago today!
2016:
Ori Ronen, whose newest single is “I Have a Friend” is scheduled to perform at
the Cinema South Festival is Sderot.
2016:
The 25th Annual Summer on Teaching the Holocaust is scheduled to
begin at The Lillian and A.J. Weinberg Center for Holocaust Education.
2016:
Yemen Blues is scheduled to present their new show “Insaniya” (Humanity) at
Joe’s Pub.
2016:
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today reiterated his rejection of the
allegation that he received €1 million in campaign funding from Arnaud Mimran,
but acknowledged for the first time that he had received a smaller sum from the
accused French fraudster.”
2016:
The 17th Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to
host “Musical Soundscapes of Morocco: From Africa to America” and the New York
Andalus Ensemble which “performs in Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish and Ladino.”
2016(29th
of Iyar, 5776): Ninety year old Tony award winning playwright Peter Shaffer
passed away today.
2016(29th
of Iyar, 5776): Ninety-eight year old children’s author Rhoda Blumberg passed
away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016:
“Fire Birds” and “Afterthought” are scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film
Center Festival.
2016:
Dan Margalit, the Tel Aviv native who in 1977, while working as a Washington
correspondent revealed that Leah Rabin, wife of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin,
had a United States bank account, illegal in Israel at the time” which “led to
Rabin's resignation and the nomination of Shimon Peres as the Alignment's
candidate for prime minister” “informed the public via his Twitter account that
he had been fired from Israel Hayom.”
2017:
Today, Dan “Margalit informed the public via his Twitter account that he had
been fired from Israel Hayom”
2017: “Haim Naggar, who was 20 at the time of the
Six-Day War” and Dr. Joseph Shinar who “was wounded during the Six-Day War” are
among those scheduled to address those attending “50 Years – Remembering The
Six Day War” sponsored by Iowans Supporting Israel.
2017: “A special screening of ‘Denial’ is scheduled
to take place at the Imperial War Museum in London” which includes a special
“Holocaust exhibition.”
2017: A preview screening of “Norman: The Moderate
Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer” which is Joseph Cedar’s first English
speaking film” and co-stars Lior Ashekenazi.
2018:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host an After Party event
following the opening of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with David Serero in the title
role.
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to demonstrate a commitment to
scholarship with a learn over lunch on “Great Jewish Renegades” as well as a
commitment to social justice with an evening of MIFA Mitzvah Opportunity
preparing means for “low-income” senior citizens.
2018:
In Jerusalem Mercaz Hatarbuyot is scheduled to host a “Unique Trio Concert”
featuring concert pianist Eliahou Zabaly, violinist Gabriel Chouraki and
cellist Azure Kline.
2018:
The Aleph Society is scheduled to host a dinner celebrating “the worldwide
release of the remarkable new Steinsaltz Humash” hosted by Senator Joe
Lieberman where Francis Klagsburn and John Podhoretz will discuss “Jews and
Power.”
2018:
While most of the world are scheduled to celebrate the victories at Midway in
1942 and Normandy in 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Deb and Mitchell Levin celebrate
another wedding anniversary, which never ceases to amaze Mitchell because he
cannot believe Deb has put up with him for so long!
2019:
The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a discussion of
This
Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto Hardcover with author Suketu
Mehta and Nancy Foner.
2019:
At Oxford, “Interfaith Dialogues” are scheduled to take place “In Jesus
College’s Harold Wilson Room where attendees can enjoy the “usual kosher/halal
lunch.”
2019:
On the 75th anniversary of the D-D invasion Cedar Rapidians have a
unique opportunity to offer thanks Bert Katz, a veteran of the Longest Day who
is still with us. Katz hit the beach with minutes after H-hour and despite
being wounded and losing almost two dozen of his minute, went to work
fulfilling their responsibilities in what would be their first step on the march
to free Europe from Hitler’s grip (As reported by Kim Ketelsen)
2019:
As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day Invasion we
remember many individuals (see entries above for 1944) who were there on that
day including A.J. Liebling, the forty year old war correspondent for the New Yorker who went ashore at Omaha
Beach in an LCI; Dr. Samuel Fieler, “a regimental dental officer” with the 82nd
Airborne “who had escaped Berlin in 1938” and who had volunteered to jump with
“assault echelon” in a night action that was predicted to have a 70 per cent
casualty rate; 19 year old Private Harold Baumgarten of Company B, 116th
Regiment, 29th Division, the first infantry unit on Omaha who
had “drawn a Star of David on the back
of his field jacket” and who survived being wounded five times which may have
accounted for his decision to go to medical school and become a practicing
physician after the war; and Corporal Peter Masters and Harry Nomberg two
members of “3 Troop of No.10 Commandos” a unit made up of “European Jews who
had escaped to England” and who needed no extra encouragement to carry out
whatever plans their leader Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten had in store for
them. (As reported by Stephen Ambrose)
2020:
D-Day Anniversary: June 6 marks the 76th Anniversary of the
landing at Normandy. Sadly, it is the first time we mark this anniversary
without Temple Judah’s Bert Katz who stormed ashore that day and who passed
away earlier this year after leading a full life as a husband, father,
grandfather, businessman, philanthropist and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish
Community
2020:
The Maine Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “The Spy Behind Home Plate” online today.
2020:
The Asiyah Jewish Community is scheduled to present on-line Tai Chi &
Torah: “The Lord of the Rings” Edition”
2020:
Dorshei Tzedek is scheduled to host its weekly Zoom Shabbat experience
2020(14th
of Sivan, 5780): Parashat Naso;
2021:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Letter to Comondo by Edmund de Waal, Plunder Napoleon’s
Theft of Veronese’s Feast by Cynthia Saltzman, Hollywood Eden: Electric
Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise by Joel Selvin,
Proof of Life Twenty Days on the Hunt for a Missing Person in the Middle
East by Daniel Levin and Spooked: The Trump Dossier, Black Cube, and the
Rise of Private Spies by Barry Meier.
2021:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, Temple Judah is scheduled to hold it annual meeting via
zoom which means no barbecue but it will include the a highlight film created
by the master of the camera, Steve Eckert, the maven of movie-making.
2021:
Choreographer Ohad Naharin, the developer of Gaga language and author Nicole Krauss are scheduled to take part in
an online lecture-demonstration and conversation about Gaga’s evolution during
the pandemic.
2021:
Exhibition curator Tony Casadonte is scheduled to be at The Breman this
afternoon, when he will talk about photographer Herb Snitzer, the son of Jewish
immigrants who were forced to leave Ukraine and tell stories about the images
on display in “A Jazz Memoir.”
2021:
In Arlington, MA, The Regent Theatre is scheduled to host preview of “The Mom Show,” “written and performed by New
York Times bestselling author and Tanglewood Festival Chorus tenor Michael
Levin,” in what “is a warm, emotional rollercoaster with original songs written
and performed as a tribute to Michael’s mother and immigrant mothers of all
background.”
2021:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County, NJ is scheduled to host Zoom Presentation by Michael Craig Palmer on “Eric
Mendelsohn: Synagogue Architect with a Vision.”
2021: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host “Stowed
Away Portfolios of Award-Winning Advertising Campaigns for Jewish Life” with an
introduction by Matan Barzilai, Head of Archives, National Library of
Israel and a presentation by the creator of the archive, Gary Wexler,
Communications and Advertising Expert.
2021: The Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs (FJMC) International
Convention is scheduled to begin today.
2021: The exhibition “Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the
Written Word” is scheduled to come to a close today at the British Library.
https://www.bl.uk/events/hebrew-manuscripts#
2022(7th
of Sivan, 5782):Second Day of Shavuot
2022: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host a
lecture by Nadia Ufimtseva on “Ukraine's Jewish Printed Books and Its People.”
2022:
The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host its “Virtual Teachers CPD that
explores what it really means to be Jewish and how best to teach an authentic
and inclusive Judaism in your classrooms.”
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to present the first session of the
virtual program “Who is a Jew? A Historical Overview.”
2023:
In London, Rosebery’s is scheduled to host an auction of “Modern British, 20th
and 21st Century Art” that includes works by Rena Behrman.
https://www.thejc.com/news/news/obituary-rena-behrman-1.436448
2023:
Temple Emanuel of Newton, MA is scheduled to present a lecture by Ruth Zakarin,
the executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, who
will frame the work that is being done at the state level and how citizens can
be involved.
2023:
The East Bay International Jewish Film Festival, Under One Tent and Independent
Jewish World Cinema are scheduled to present a screening of “Speer Goes to
Hollywood,” a 97-minute 2020 documentary on the story of how former Nazi Albert
Speer, a good friend of Hitler, tried to whitewash his past by writing a
Hollywood screenplay based on his bestselling wartime memoir.
2023:
ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present Anne Albert as she
discusses her book Jewish Politics Spinoza’s Amsterdam as part of its
“exclusive author series.”
