This Day, November 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
November 23
912: Birthdate of Otto the Great, founder of the Holy Roman Empire which was
neither holy nor Roman. During his reign Rabbis living in the Rhineland
addressed questions to the Rabbis in Palestine “concerning the reported
appearance of the Messiah.” This report was based on information supplied by 12
century Rabbi Isaac ben Dorolo.
1220: Frederick II who granted the Jews a privilege, and the existence of
community institutions such as a synagogue, hospital and slaughterhouse can be
proven from the 14th century onwards. Vienna’s city law empowered a special
Judenrichter (Judge of the Jews) to adjudicate in disputes between Christians
and Jews, but this judge was not empowered to rule in conflicts between two
Jewish parties, unless one party filed a complaint with him, began his reign
today as Holy Roman Emperor and King of Germany and Italy.
1221: Birthdate of King Alfonso X of Castile who had Yehudah ben Moshe
translate several texts on magic into the national vernacular.
1248: In the long war to unite Spain, King Ferdinand III of Castile takes
Seville from the Moors. Ferdinand is remembered as the king who refuses Pope’s
demand that Jews be forced to wear special badge and clothing. The reason given by the monarch is a fear
that Jews would flee to Muslim Granada, which would be disastrous for the
revenues of the kingdom. “The Jews have played a prominent part in Seville’s
history since the 4th Century and after the Christian Reconquest, their
community was concentrated in this part of the city and enjoyed a period of
great prosperity until the end of the 14th Century. Jews were prominent
bankers, tradesmen, doctors, writers, philosophers, and advisors to both Arab
and Christian rulers. It is no coincidence that the Jewish quarter of Santa
Cruz is located right next to the Royal Palace, the Alcázar. A street called
“El Callejón de La Judería” (“The Little Street of the Jewish Quarter”) leads
into the heart of the Santa Cruz neighborhood.”
1510: The Jews were expelled from Naples.
Fifteen years earlier, the Spanish had conquered the island, and within a year
had issued an order for the banishment of all Jews, which was never carried
out. Now the community, which had existed since Roman times, was forced out.
The only Jews remaining were the "New Christians" (who were to be
expelled 5 years later) and 200 wealthy families who paid a new annual tax for
such tolerance.
1584: Today, Giles Fletcher, the Eton and Cambridge educated “poet, diplomat
and MP” who while serving as the English “minister of Musovy claimed to have
discovered the Ten Lost Tribes among the Tartars” began serving as an MP “for
Winchelsea, one of the Cinque Ports.”
1584: The Sultan ordered an investigation into the number of
synagogues in Safed. In his letter to the local administration, he wrote,
"in the town of Safed there are only seven sacred mosques. But the Jews
who in olden times had three synagogues have now thirty-two synagogues, and
they have built their buildings very high."
1593: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Bucharest claiming the lives of many
Jews.
1648: Coronation of old Frederick III, who said of the Jews, they “have
stolen into Denmark contrary to long-standing custom, [since the days of the
Reformation, the Lutheran creed had, according to the laws of Denmark, been
compulsory throughout the kingdom], and have dared to traffic with jewels and
the like” which led him “to order that no Jew should enter Denmark without a
special passport ("Geleitsbrief"), and that those who were already in
the country should be heavily fined if they did not leave within fourteen days”
[Editors’ note: A few years later, Frederick III., being in need of funds for
his wars, borrowed money from the Jew Abraham (or Diego) Teixeira de Mattos of
Hamburg (known through his relations with the Swedish queen Christina), and gave
as security crownlands in Jutland. Teixeira thereupon made such good use of his
influence with the Danish king that, as early as Jan. 19, 1657, "the
Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion" were permitted to travel
everywhere within the kingdom, and to trade and traffic within the limit of the
law. Teixeira himself gained little by his transaction with the Danish monarch.
As his loan was not returned, he took instead the estates he held as security,
selling them later at a great loss. The king acted similarly in his dealings
with the De Lima family, who were in possession of the Hald estate from 1660 to
1703.”]
1700: Beginning of the Papacy of Clement XI who in 1704 issued a bull that
“dealt with the education of potential converts, encouraged forced preaching to
Jews, and emphasized the importance of providing financial assistance to Jews
who converted” and “asserted that new converts were to be fully accepted into
the Catholic community.”
1702(3rd of Kislev): Thirty six Jews were killed in an explosion in Lemberg,
Poland
1777(23rd of Cheshvan): Rabbi Aaron Katzenellenbogen of Brisk, author of
Minhat Aharon passed away.
1783(28th of Cheshvan, 5544): Isaac da Costa, who “came to
Charleston from London in 1750 and became
the first hazzan of Congregation Beth Elohim” after which as a supporter of the
American Revolution he left the city while it was occupied by the British
passed away today.
1783: At the end of the American Revolution the British left New York after
which silversmith Myer Myers, who had moved to Connecticut in 1777 when the
British took the city and his family returned where he practiced his craft
until his death in 1795.
https://www.incollect.com/articles/myer-myers-jewish-silversmith-in-colonial-new-york
1794: In Savannah, GA, Judith De Lyon and Joseph Abrahams gave birth to
Rachel Abrahams.
1800: In London, Dinah and Henry Henoch Myers and Michael Meir Myers.
1800: In Charleston SC, Sarah and Abraham Moise gave birth to Isaac Moise,
the husband of Hetty Lopez.
1801: In Philadelphia, Leon van Amringe, Isaiah
Nathan, Isaac Marks, Aaron Levi, Jr., Abraham Gumpert, and Abraham Moses took
title to a plot of ground to be used as a place of burial for members of the
newly formed Congregation Mickvé Israel.
1801: In Bridgetown, Barbados, Eliezer Montefiore and Judith Montefiore gave
birth to Jacob Barrow Montefiore who “entered into business with his brother
Moses, and when in the early thirties the movement for the financing of
Australian colonization from London was incepted Montefiore, who had been
connected with the Colonial produce trade, became active in the various public
schemes as a member of the South Australian Colonization Association, organized
to settle South Australia on the Wakefield system. He was also appointed member
of the first board of commissioners entrusted by the British government with
the administration of the colony. He visited the colony in the year 1843 and
again in 1854. His reception on his first visit by the governor, Sir George
Grey, and the people was enthusiastic. During his visit to South Australia in
1843 he acted as an agent for the Rothschilds, at the same time holding a
partnership with his brother Joseph Barrow in the firm of Montefiore Brothers
of London and Sydney. The township of Montefiore, at the confluence of the Bell
and MacQuarrie rivers, in Wellington Valley, was founded by the brothers, and
they contributed actively to the establishment there of places of worship for
all denominations. The organization of the Bank of Australasia was largely due
to their efforts. In Adelaide there is a hill named after them. In 1885, at the
request of the directors of the Art Union Gallery of Adelaide, Jacob sat for
the artist B. S. Marks, the portrait being hung in that gallery
1804: Birthdate of Franklin Pierce
fourteenth President of the United States. Pierce is part of the unmemorable
trio who served occupied the White House in the decade before the Civil War
including Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan.
Among his few claims to
fame is that he was the first and maybe the only President whose name appears
on the charter of a synagogue. Pierce signed the Act of Congress in 1857 that
amended the laws of the District of Columbia to enable the incorporation of the
city's first synagogue, the Washington Hebrew Congregation.
1809: Copper
manufacturer Harmon Hendricks, the son of Uriah Henricks, one of the founders
of Congregation Shearith Israel and his Frances Isaacs, the daughter of Joshua
and Brandy Isaacs gave birth to Justina Brandley Hendricks.
1812: Miriam Keyser and
London born Barent Solomon Gompertz gave birth to Charlotte Gompertz.
1817(14th of
Kislev, 5578): German born Eleazar Joseph, the husband of Gertrude Joseph
passed away today in Richmond, VA.
1825: Birthdate of Henriette
Goldschmidt who married Rabbi Abraham Meyer Goldschmidt and was a leading
educator, social worker and activists in the fight for the rights of German
women.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/goldschmidt-henriette
1831: Jonas Engel married
Sarah Louisa Barnett today.
1833: In Turek, near Kalish
in Russian, Poland, Wolf Rosenthal and Esther Kolskey gave birth to “painter,
engraver, etcher, lithographer and illustrator” and husband of Carolina
Rosenthal who came to Philadelphia in 1849 where he pursued a career that included
making illustrations of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War for the
United States Military Commission, producing a collection of five hundred
historical portraits and providing illustrations for “The Legend of Ben Levi.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Rosenthal#/media/File:New_Masonic_Hall_Interior_1855.jpg
1835: In Charleston, SC,
Catherine Oppenheim, the daughter of Rachel and Joseph Moses and her husband
Hertz Wolf Oppenheim gave birth to Julius Herz Oppenheim, the husband of Sarah
Ann Oppenheim.
1836(14th of Kislev, 5597):
Jacob Cohen Bakri, a wealthy French Jew who played a key role in the French
acquisition of Algeria passed away today.
1838(6th of
Kislev, 5599): Sixty-seven year old Bohemian native Samuel Hyman and the
husband of Elizabeth Hyman passed away today in Plymouth, England.
1840: Sixty-six year old
Louis Gabriel Ambroise Bonald, the anti-Semitic “French philosopher, politician
and author” who believed that most Jews were “parasites” and that before they
could be emancipated they must adopt Catholicism, passed away today.
1841: It was announced that
Albert Goldsmid had been promoted to the rank of Lt. Col. In the British Army.
1843: One day after he had
passed away, 31 year old Isaac Abrahams was buried at the “Brady Street Jewish
Cemetery.”
1844(12th of Kislev, 5605):
Fifty-three year old “Austrian financier and philanthropist Hermann Todesco
passed away at his native Pressburg, Hungary today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0020_0_19910.html
1845:
Paul Julius Reuter married Ida Maria Elizabeth Clementine Magnus in Berlin
completing a series of changes that had begun a month before when he arrived
had arrived in London. In that time he
changed his name to Joseph Josephat, converted to Christianity and then changed
his name again to Paul Julius Reuter.
1845: Forty-six year old
Michael Solomon Alexander, the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem passed
away. An ordained Rabbi, he converted to
Christianity in 1825.
1845: Forty-six year old Michael Solomon Alexander, a convert to
Christianity who became the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem passed away
today.
1847: The Ladies of the Society for the Religious Instruction in Charleston,
South Carolina passed a resolution of tribute at the passing of the British
author, Grace Aguilar. Aguilar had died on September 16, 1847 at the age of 32.
Aguilar's work had been championed by Philadelphia editor Isaac Leeser, who
published Aguilar's books in the United States and included her writings in his
monthly magazine, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate. As a
result, Aguilar was in many ways better known in the Jewish community of the
United States than in England. In addition to historical romances (e.g. The
Vale of Cedars) and reflections on Judaism (The Spirit of Judaism,
1842) Aguilar's influential book, The Women of Israel (1844), contested
the claims by numerous Christian authors that Judaism denigrated women. Aguilar
argued for Judaism's ancient and contemporary regard for women by detailing the
strong and admirable women who appear in Judaism's essential defining text, the
Bible. Aguilar returned the feeling of kinship that American Jewish women bore
her. She even responded to an 1843 request from Savannah to contribute to a
fair that local Jewish women were holding to raise funds to hire a rabbi.
Aguilar sent along 2 purses, 6 needle cases, and 12 pincushions on which she
had done the needlework, along with additional needlework pieces gathered from
some of her friends. In mourning Aguilar's passing, the Charleston women truly
felt they had lost one of their own. Aguilar's death at a young age evinced a
strong response. Leeser observed that “there has not arisen a single Jewish
female in modern times who has done so much for the illustration and adornment
of her faith as Grace Aguilar.” The Charleston women expressed their
appreciation for the “power and effect” of the “pen of this champion of our
faith, against that giant Prejudice, whose shadow blackens the earth.” Citing
her as the “moral governess of the Hebrew family,” the women of the Society
resolved that her death “must be regarded as a national calamity; and that no
demonstration of respect, however high, can convey an adequate sense of the
exalted estimation in which we hold her character or of the profound regret
with which we received the tidings of her dissolution.”
1848(27th of Cheshvan, 5609): Twenty-six year old Hermann Jellinek, the
younger brother of Rabbi Adolf Jellinek was executed today for his role in the
Vienna Uprising in October, 1848
1848 (27th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Meir Benjamin Danon, author of Be’er ba
Sadeh, passed away.
1850: Birthdate of Vienna native and award playwright Carl Karlweis the convert to Christianity who
was the father of Oskar Karlweis and the author of “The Little Man.”
1852: An article published today entitled “Trial for Arson In the First
Degree’ described the trial of Aaron Diamond on charges of arson. Mr. Morrison
appeared as counsel representing Aaron Diamond, a German Jew who does not speak
English in the case of the People vs. Aaron Diamond. The case revolved around an allegation that
Diamond and Joshua Feller had set fire to the dwelling of John Nally. Morrison demanded that Diamond be tried
separately. When several of the prosecution’s witnesses failed to show up, the
District Attorney said that it would “unsafe” to convict the defendant and the
Jury was directed by the court to render a verdict of not guilty.
1852: The discovery of Asteroid 21 Lutetia by Hermann Goldschmidt was
published today.
1853: Two days after he had passed away, 99 year old Levy Alexander, the
husband of Prussian born Fanny Alexander, was buried today at the “Exeter
Jewish Cemetery.
1853: The Hebrew Benevolent
Society celebrated its 32nd anniversary this evening with a dinner
attended by 350 gentlemen at the Chinese Assembly Rooms on Broadway.
1854(2nd of Kislev,
5615): Fifty year old Belarus native Meshulam Zalman Feiwel Friedland, of
Slutsk, the “son of Shmuel Zanvil (Zavel) Friedland and Itke Friedland” passed
away today in Latvia.
1855: Seventy-four year old French
statesman Louis-Mathieu Molé
the opponent of Jewish emancipation who was the official named by Napoleon to
bring together the Sanhedrin in 1806 and 1807 passed away today.
1856: Isaac and Julie Judith Josephine Mautner gave birth to Rosa
Perlhefter.
1862(1st of Kislev, 5623): Rosh
Chodesh Kislev
1862(1st of Kislev, 5623): Julia
Levy, the New York City born daughter of Simeon Levy and the wife of John
Solomons passed away today in Washington, D.C.
1863: Two days after she had passed away, Rachel
(Isaacs) Ansell, the wife of Jacob Ansell with whom she had had eleven
children, was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1867: Birthdate of Edgar D.
Peixotto, the native New Yorker and son of Raphael Peixotto who became a
successful lawyer in San Francisco, CA.
1868: In Chicago, Illinois, Julius
Rosenthal and Jette Wolfe gave birth to attorney Lessing Rosenthal the graduate
of Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern Law School and husband of Mrs.
Lillie Frank Myers who combined a distinguished legal career with service to
the Jewish community including serving as director of the Jewish Training
School in Chicago.
1870: It was reported today that
Thanksgiving Services will be held at the 44th Street Synagogue
after which children from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum will enjoy a holiday dinner
provided by the Trustees.
1870(29th of Cheshvan,
5631): Augusta Feuchtwanger nee Levy, the wife of Lewis Feuchtwanger, passed
away today in New York.
1870: Lewis Hart married Adelaide
Levy at the New Synagogue today.
1871: Birthdate of Morris Masskov,
the native of Odessa who gained fame American character actor Maurice
Moscovitch whose last film may have been his most famous – Charlie Chaplain’s
“The Great Dictator.”
1871: Ignatz Ratzsky was released
from Sing Sing Prison after having served nine years for the robbery-murder of
a German Jew named Sigismund Fellner.
Ratzsky had originally been sentenced to death, but Governor Fenton
commuted his sentence based his judgment that the conviction had been based on
circumstantial evidence.
1873: In New York, founding of the
Société Israélite Française de Secours Mutuels de New York which met on the
fourth Sunday of each month, provided money for sick, death and burial benefits
and owned burial grounds at Bayside, Long Island.
1874: Carl Schurz will deliver a
lecture this evening sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association on
“Educational Problems” at Steinway Hall in New York.
1875(25th of Cheshvan,
5636): Seventy-five year old Benjamin Lazarus, the son of Marks Lazarus who
married Cornelia Cohen in 1840 passed away today.
1876: In Washington, DC, “Zody and
Sarah (Ullman) Strasburger gave birth to Georgetown University trained attorney
Milton Stasburger, the husband of Elsa Coblenzer who “served in the office of
the Adjutant General during World War” and who was a member of Washington
Hebrew Congregation.
1877: It was reported today that two
men have been charged for their role in stealing furs from A.T. Stewart &
Co. Robert Kyle was charged with stealing the first while Seligman Hirsch, who
was described as a “Hebrew” fur dealer, was charged with receiving the stolen
firs. Why or how the reported knew that Hirsch was Jewish is not stated nor is
any reason given for not identifying any of the other characters by their
religious affiliation.
1880: It was reported today the
lower house of the Prussian Diet debated the proposals by the anti-Semitic
party to limit the activities of Jews in Germany. The anti-Semites reflected the views of
Reverend Stecker, the Court Chaplin who wants legislation adopted that will
“keep the Jews from any post of authority.”
The opponents including members of the Liberal Party defended the Jews
and “contended that it was breach of the Constitution to deny that Jews were
Germans.”
1881: In Pinsk, Yetta and Zvi Hirsch
Masliansky gave birth to Phillip
Maslinasky, who as Phillip Maslansky married Harriet Maslansky with whom he
raised two children Dorothy and Lawrence
while working as an import-export merchant and servig as a member of the
American Jewish Committee (Some sources show his birthdate as 1882)
1882: In New York, the Board of
Estimate and Apportionment distributed funds to a variety of charitable
institutions including $1,680 to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1882: In Pinsk, Talmudist and
Zionist leader Rev Zwi Hirsh Maslansky and Yetta (Rubinstein) Maslansky gave
birth import-export merchant Phillip Maslansky who in 1896 came to the United
States where he founded the New York Merchant Company and married Hattie
Hattenbach with whom he had one daughter, Dorothy and who was active in the
Jewish community as can be seen by his help in building the Washington Heights
Synagogue and his membership on the American Jewish Committee.
1882: In Mayfield, OH, Esther Goodman
and Michael Frankel gave birth to University of Minnesota trained attorney and long-time Assistant Attorney General of
Minnessota Hiram David Frankel, the husband of Irene Page Solomon and “active
Jewish layman who reached the rank of Major while serving with Minnesota
National Guard and who wrote United
States Army and wrote Company “C”, First Infantry, Minnesota National Guard.
1883: It was reported today that
Spanish in Morocco tried and convicted twelve Jews accused supplying guns to
the Berbers.
1883: Henry Irving will play
Shylock, one of his signature roles in tonight’s performance of “The Merchant
of Venice” at the Star Theatre.
1883: According to a report that
appeared in today’s edition of the Hebrew Standard, Hugh O’Neill is
quoted as telling a Jew in New York, “We don’t want any of your people in our
employ.”
1884: It was reported today that the
friends of Mrs. Max Rosenberg, the former Miss Jennie E. Lyman, were surprised
to hear that she has filed for divorce especially since most of them did not
she had gotten married several months while visiting New York. In her petition, Mrs. Rosenberg accused her
husband of “extreme cruelty.” Rosenberg
disputes his wife’s claims and says that the cause of the problem is her
father’s dislike for him because he was Jewish.
1885: Birthdate of Valerian
Dovgalevsky, the Ukrainian born “son of Zaiwel Dovgalevsky and Berta
Dovgalevsky, an “intimate of Lenin” and a participant in the October Revolution
who served as the Soviet Union’s Ambassador to France in the 1920’s.
1885: Birthdate of Alexander “Alex”
Trachtenberg the native of Odessa who was active in the Socialist Party of
America and the Communist Party USA.
1885: It was reported today that
this year’s Hebrew Ladies Benevolent Fair raised over $7,800.
1886: Warrants are expected to be
issued today for those who have violated Massachusetts “Sunday Closing
Laws.” Several Jews and their customers
are expected to be named since up until last week, it had been considered
permissible for the Jews to operate their businesses on Sunday since they were
closed on Saturday for their Sabbath observances.
1886(25th of Cheshvan, 5647):
Sixty-four year old author and historian Leopold Kompert, best known for his
role in the “Kompert Affair” in which he and Heinrich Graetz “were brought to
court in Vienna for publishing ideas that were heretical to Catholic faith, in
addition to contradicting Jewish tradition.”
1888: Birthdate of Harpo Marx, one of the
famous Marx Brothers.
1889: Jacob Levy arrived in New York City from Poland today and moved in
with his brother at 83 Norfolk Street in NYC.
1889: Sanitary officers “seized some unwholesome meat and vegetables in the
sidewalk markets in the Hebrew quarter in the Tenth Ward.”
1889: “The Red Hussar,” a comedy opera in three acts by Edward Solomon, with
a libretto by Henry Pottinger Stephens, which opened at the Lyric Theatre in
London tonight. Solomon was the prolific
Ango-Jewish composer and conductor who died prematurely at the age of 29.
1890: Seventy-three year old William III of Netherlands who in 1855
appointed Aron Mendes Chumaceiro chief rabbi of the colony of Curaçao and
intervened on behalf of “the persecuted Dutch Jews of Coro, Venezuela” passed
away today.
1890: Today’s New Publication List includes a review of a novel entitled The
Jew, translated from the Polish of Joseph Ignatius Kraszewski by Linda Da
Kowalewska
1890: “Catholic Spain” published today provided a detailed review of Chapters
From The Religious History Of Spain Connected With The Inquisition by Henry
Charles, a subject near and dear to the hearts of Jews in general and Sephardic
Jews in particular.
1891: In Savannah, GA, founding of the Daughters of Israel whose members
including Miss Maria Minis, Mrs. M.G. Ehrlich and Miss Maud Hendricks.
1891: Two days after he passed away, 73 year old Aaron Levy, the husband of
the former Marianne Hart and the father Alexander and John Arthur Levy, was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1892: In Romania, Rabbi Ezekiel Paneth, the son of R’ Moshe Paneth and Milka
Paneth and his wife Rivka Paneth gave birth to Giza Paneth who would tragically
pass away at the age of eight months.
1893: In Milikov, Karl and Rosa Low gave birth to Helene Low who became
Helene Neubauer when she married Karl Neubauer and who died at Treblinka.
1894: At today’s meeting of the Tenement House Committed that was held in
the Old Criminal Court Mr.Rice and Mr. Tuska of the United Hebrew Charity
expressed their agreement with Reverend John B. Devins that tenement residents
do not prefer filth, “that there should be public lavatories and that “every
saloon should have an outside drinking fountain. They also believe that tenements should be
better lit, have water on each floor and house kindergartens.
1895: This evening in Richmond, VA, the Paradise Lodge of B’nai B’rith
“began a movement for the Jews of the United States to give tangible evidence
of the debt they owe to the memory of Thomas Jefferson as father of religious
liberty” in the United States.
1896: “A Radical Chicago Rabbi” published today summarized the view of Dr.
Emil G. Hirsh, the rabbi Temple Sinai on the Windy City’s south-side, including
his beliefs that observing Shabbat on Saturday “and the hope of the return to
the Holy Land” are “relics of an attractive tradition but entirely out of
keeping with advance and progress of modern ideas.
1896: In Philadelphia, the local chapter of the National Council of Jewish
Women hosted a reception for the National Board at the Mercantile Club.
1896(18th of Kislev, 5657): Forty-one year old Ella Heyman, the
native of Wheeling, West Virginia, passed away today in St. Louis.
1896: Birthdate of Polish native Rabbi
Moses Meyer Yoshor, who in 1921 came to the United States where he
attended CCNY and Reits Yeshiva before going to serve as President of the Vaad
Harabonim and as a member of the executive committee of the Union and Orthodox
Rabbis and who was the author of The
Chafetz Chaim : The Life and Works of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan of Radin
https://www.gettextbooks.com/author/Moses_M_Yoshor
1897: The Ladies Committee of the Home and Hospital for Jewish Incurables
met this afternoon in London.
1897: The Apprenticing Committee of the Jews’ Hospital and Orphan Asylum met
at Hamilton House this morning.
1897: Charles Schapiro was being held in the Tombs today after having killed
Louis Lieberman and wounded his girlfriend Yetta Gordon yesterday. Gordon whose wounded eye was bandaged is
being held in the House of Detention as a material. She had rejected Schapiro because he did not
earn enough money. And he was angry
because she would not return the twenty-five dollar ring he had “bought for her
with money she had lent him.”
1898: Today “Marcus Aaron who worked for his
father at the Louis I. Aaron Company and in 1911 would succeed his father at
the Homer Laughlin China Company married Stella Hamburger with whom he had two
children – “Marcus Lester and Fannie Hamburger Aaron.
1898: In Pécs, Hungary, the local cantor and his wife gave birth to opera
singer Dezső Ernster who survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to
perform at the Metropolitan Opera.
1899: Birthdate of Parisian Israel Moshe Blauschild, the son of Romanian
immigrants who as Marcel Dailo the movie actor who spent WWII in Hollywood
before returning to his native country to pursue his career.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/23/obituaries/marcel-dalio-83-film-actor-dead.html
1900(1st of Kislev, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1900: “The anti-Semites and a number of Conservatives have introduced a bill
in the Reichstag against the immigration of Jews.”
1900: Birthdate of Columbia Law School trained attorney George J. Hirsch, “a
leading trial lawyer who also specialized in corporate reorganization and the
husband of the former Sylvia Epstein and the father of Mrs. Samuel P. Grinder,
Jr. and George A. Hirsch, the publisher of New York Magazine.
1901: In Chicago, Edward Morris, the Jewish born son of Sarah and Nelson
Morris and the President of the Morris and Company (Meatpackers) and the former
Helen Swifts gave birth Wellesley College graduate and leading psychoanalyst
Muriel Gardiner Buttinger and wife of Joseph Buttinger whom she met while
studying medicine at the University of Vienna.
1902: Birthdate of New York native Aaron Bank, the U.S. Army Colonel
considered by some to be father of what eventually became “the Green Berets.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/06/business/col-aaron-bank-101-dies-was-father-of-special-forces.html
http://www.cedu-diver.com/aaron.htm
1903: Forty-five year director of the Educational Alliance and future
Manhattan Borough President Marcus M. Marks wrote a letter today to President
Roosevelt in which he “discusses the Republican situation for the 1904
presidential campaign,” the potential for an “industrial depression,” “the
economic impact of labor strikes, and the liberalization of liquor laws in New
York.””
1904: The names of some of the prominent victims of the recent riots at
Warsaw that have just been made known included “Baroness Hirsch who was shot
while she was driving by in a carriage.”
1905(25th of Cheshvan, 5666): Sixty-eight year old German born
American actor Daniel Edward Bandmann, the son of Solomon and Rebecca Bandmann
turned Montana rancher passed away today after which he was buried in Missoula.
https://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentCenter/View/739/Bandmann-Daniel?bidId=
1905: As of today, it was reported that the committee which is collecting
funds for the relief of Jews suffering from the Russian massacres has raised
$660, 756 including $51from the Orthodox Congregation of Erie, PA, $15 from the
New London (CT) Ladies’ Aid Society and $720 from the citizens of Wheeling,
West Virginia.
1905: “In view of the very great demand made upon the Jews of America to
relieve the sufferings of the victims of the Russian savagery, the Committee on
the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Settlement of Jews
in the United States has resolved to abandon the project of a commemorative
monument and will return to the donors to the monument fund all contributions
thus far received” with the hope that the money will then be donated to help
the Jews of Russia.
1905: In New York, “not a seat was to be had” during the matinee showing of
“The Riots of Kishneff” (Kishinev) which raised $1,506.06 for the relief fund
aid the Jews of Russia.
1905: Tonight, Jacob P. Adler oversaw a production of “King Lear” which
raised $1,500 for the Jews of Russia.
Adler gave a speech at the end of the third act in which he asked how
they could go with the play “when our minds are upon the atrocities committed
our countrymen? Will we leave out the
fourth act?” to which the audience responded with cheers and cries of “yes,
yes!”
1905: A “procession arranged by Joseph Barondess, Abram Wattman and Dr.
Simonoff organized “what was probably the most remarkable demonstration that
has ever been known on the east side…when fully one hundred thousand Jews
turned out” today “to join a procession…formed to mourn the dead slain in the
Russian anti-Semitic riots.”
1905: It was reported today that as the violence against the Jews has
continued Percival Menken said “There is far more in this massacre of our race
in Russia than is apparent on the surface.
Not until the Jews are restored to their native land and have their own
armies and battleships will these persecutions cease. (This is nine years after
the First Zionist Congress met and forty years before the Shoah came to an
end.)
1905: It was reported from St. Petersburg, that “dispatches from
Southwestern Russia indicate that the Zionist movement has obtained a powerful
impetus from the anti-Jewish disorders.”
1906: The St. Petersburg correspondent of The Times of London
reported that “the Reactionary threats of pogroms if concessions are granted to
the Jews are treated by the Government with contempt” while “Premier Stolypin
has forbidden the police to expel Jewish students from St. Petersburg.”
1907(17th of Kislev, 5668): Parashat Vayishlach
1907: “Rider Haggard In Mighty Deeds” published today provides a detailed
reviews of Margaret, H.R. Rider Haggards set in the London of Henry VII and
Spain that features a heroine who “is the daughter of John Castell, a London
merchant of immense wealth whose father was Marano who concealed “his Jewish
origin” and the Marquis of Morella whose main mission is “to ferret out wealthy
and secretly faithful Jews so they can be turned over to the Inquisition.
1908: It was reported today that the “new annex to the Home of the Daughters
of Jacob” cost $200,000.
1908: It was reported today that Max Stern and Johanna Posin were two of the
speakers at the 20th anniversary celebration of the Kaiserin
Elizabeth Lodge of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham whose “400 women
members” are led by their President Mrs. Samuel Sommers.
1909: The annual meeting of the Civic Federation which features a discussion
of old age pensions by a panel including Samuel Gompers came to a close in New
York City.
1910: Twenty-three year old Adelphi Academy trained painter and engraver
Edmund Weill, the New York born son of Marx and Caroline married Carolyn
Weinstock.
https://www.askart.com/artist/Edmond_Edmund_Weill/110161/Edmond_Edmund_Weill.aspx
1911(2nd of Kislev, 5672): Eighty-five year old Rabbi Jacob
Hamburger, “the sole author and editor of the first explicitly Jewish
Encyclopedia” passed away today.
1911(2nd of Kislev, 5672): Seventy year old Imperial Councilor
and Chief Cantor Josef Singer passed away today.
1912(13th of Kislev, 5673): Parashat Vayishlach
1912(13th of Kislev, 5673): Seventy year old Wolfe Londoner, the
New York City born son of Rachel Hearts and Herman Londoner and Republican
Mayor Denver who was forced to leave
office because of election irregularities passed away today.
1912: It was reported in today’s edition of The Reform Advocate that
Congressman Jefferson M Levy has announced that will combat the efforts now
being made to acquire Monticello… which he owns, for the United States
government and he will not and cannot be forced to part with is property.
1912: “This evening a memorial meeting for the late David Blaustein is
scheduled to take placed at the Educational Alliance under the auspices of the
Society of Jewish Social workers of Greater New York.
1912: The British Consul in Jerusalem
continued to complain to the British Ambassador in Constantinople about the
British born Jews arriving in his city.
Of the latest batch of 20, only six had means to support themselves
while twelve of them were living off of contributions supplied by local Jewish
charities.
1912(2nd of Kislev, 5672): Ninety one year old General Sir
Charles D’Aguilar, the son of Lieut. Gen. Sir George D’Aguilar who had “held
high office at Bevis Marks” passed away today leaving an estate valued at £200,000 to be shared by
his two daughters.
1913: Albany Law School trained attorney Isadore Bookstein, the Albany, NY born son of Lillian Gallop and
Hyman Bookstein and member of the law firm of Dugan and Bookstein who was also
a trustee of the Albany Jewish Home Society, married Edith Friedman today
1913: Birthdate of Hanna Ellenbogen, the Polish born daughter of a produce
daughter in Rozwadow and the wife of Zygmunt Gozdinski, a young man who had
fled to Lvov from German-occupied Kielce, who was never from again after she “was
taken in a German roundup of Jews in Kielce.”
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/id-card/hanna-ellenbogen
1913: Supreme Court Justice Seabury has ordered the sale
in foreclosure of the Bijou theatre property on Broadway in a suit brought by
Felix M. Warburg, Isaac N. Seligman, Paul M. Warburg and Mortimer L. Schiff as
trustees under the will of Alfred M. Heinsheimer against the Bijou Real Estate
Company.
1914: During WW I “A Reuter dispatch from Constantinople
by way of Sofia” says that the Porte (Turkish government) has decided to permit
Russian Jews resident in Turkey to become Ottoman subjects provided that they
do not revert to their former nationality at the end of the war.” (This had special meaning for the Jews living
in Palestine, since a large number of them had come from Russia and were viewed
suspiciously by the Turks)
1914: Birthdate of actress Ellen Drew, the second wife of
Ukrainian born author and screenwriter Sy Barlett, co-author of Twelve
O”Clock High.
https://www.dustjackets.com/pages/books/6913/beirne-lay-jr-sy-bartlett/twelve-oclock-high
1914: In New York, The Evening Telegram reported that
when German troops “reached the neighborhood of Pabiantze” they appeared to
feel already at home” since it “is large people German colonists” and “the rest
of the inhabitants are exclusively Jews.”
1914: Otto Bauer who had saved his company from being
wiped out at the battle of Szysaki, for which he was awarded the Military Cross
of Merit 3rd Class was taken prisoner of war by the Russians.
1914: The Petrograd (Russia) correspondent of the Morning
Post wired London today about friction between the Germans and their Austrian
Allies as could be seen by “a stormy council” presided over by the Kaiser
during which after “mutual ruminations” had been exchanged the Germans
“demanded that Austria should give up every man in defense of East Prussia”
while the Austrians demanded “that the Germans should make a serious attempt to
save Cracow.” (Most people think about
WW I as being fought in the trenches of the Western Front. Here is a reminder
of the fighting on the Eastern Front – fighting which took an unbelievable toll
on the Jewish populations of Russia and Austria since the combat was waged in
the lands where they were living.)
1914: According to reports published today the American
Jewish Committee contends that 5,000 Jews in Jaffa had applied for permission
to become naturalized Turkish subjects out of a total of 25,000 Russian Jews
living in the region of Palestine.
1915: In London, a French delegation led by
François-Georges Picot, a professional diplomat with extensive experience in
the Levant, and a British delegation led by Sir Arthur Nicolson met to discuss
plans for the post-war partition of the Ottoman Empire which would eventually
result in the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
(Editor’s Note – You cannot understand what is going on in the Middle
East today if you do not understand the origins and nature of this agreement)
1915: In Patterson, NJ Edith Stern Levine and Jules C.
Levine, a “business manager of The News,”
gave birth to Robert Haines Levine, the longtime news editor of The Patterson News and husband of “the
former Shirley Stapleton” with who had had five children - Robert, John,
Marjorie, Elizabeth and Marianne.
1915: “Praise Sisterhood’s Work” published today included
the positive comments made by Chief Magistrate McAdoo about the work done by
Sisterhood of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue under the leadership of Mrs.
Mortimer Menken “to help wayward Jewish girls in the police courts” as well as
to aid neighborhood settlement houses in their activities.
1915: Twenty-four year old chemist turned violinist and
orchestra leader Ben Bernie, the New York born son of Julius an Anna Bernie
married Rose Harris today in New York City.
1915: It was reported today that based on information
provided by Jacob H. Schiff and Dr. J.L. Magnes American Jews must raise at
least thirty million dollars to aid the approximately five million Jews in who
are suffering from the effects of the World War in Russia, Poland, Galicia and
Palestine.
1915: In the manner of a Shiva Minyan, a memorial service
will be held again this morning and this evening in honor of Professor
Schechter of blessed memory which will be led by the students and faculty of
JTS.
1915: Birthdate of Olmütz native Anton Hare, a passenger
on board the St. Louis who survived because he was allowed to disembark in
England.
1916: A wireless message of sympathy was sent by the
executive committee of the American Federation of Galician and Bukowinian Jews
and the American Federation of Hungarian Jews to the Austrian imperial family
following the death this week of Emperor Franz Josef.
1916: “At a meeting this evening of the executive
committee of the American Federation of Galician and Bukowinian Jews and the
American Federation of Hungarian Jews it was decided to issue a proclamation
calling upon all Jewish congregations and federated bodies to set aside the day
of the burial of Emperor Francis Joes for the observation of appropriate
services and exercise.”
1916: Birthdate of Rose Vessel, the daughter of Jewish
immigrants from Poland who gained fame as Rose Mattus who along with her
husband Reuben founded Häagen-Dazs ice cream business.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/obituaries/01mattus.html
1917: As Imperial forces struggle with the weather and
the Ottoman forces in the Judean Hills, the “60th (London) Division
commanded by Major General John Shea arrived at Latrun to provide relief for
the units that have been worn down by the elements and combat.
1917: In Roslavi, Russia eight Jews were killed and
twenty were wounded during an anti-Semitic riot when the mob looted Jewish
opened shops.
1917: Kozlov and Tiraspol, Russia were the site of “grave
anti-Jewish riots.
1917: A pogrom in Tambov “leads to the total ruin of
businesses established by Jewish refugees from the war zone led the Jewish
leaders to ask authorities to give official sanction to a plant to arm a Jewish
self-defense corps.”
1917: Izvestia and Pravda published the full text of
Sykes-Picot Agreement which exposed the plans of the French and British to
carve up the Ottoman Empire after the World War ended.
1917: It was reported today that the recipients of the
funds raised by the Federation of Jewish Charites included Mount Sinai
Hospital, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Hebrew Technical Institute, the Jewish
Big Brothers, the Motefiore Home, the Educational Alliance and many sisterhoods
associated with local synagogues and temples.
1918: In New York Rose Gussin, a shopkeeper and her
husband, gave birth to Zelma Gussin who gained fame as California architect
Zelma Wilson
http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-14/local/me-4057_1_michael-wilson
1918: Kurt Eisner “leaked documents from the Bavarian
plenipotentiary in Berlin during July and August 1914 that he thought proved
that the war was caused by "a small horde of mad Prussian military"
men as well as "allied" industrialists, capitalists, politicians, and
princes.”
1918: After three days, the Lemberg Pogrom came to an end
with 50 to 150 Jewish dead, hundreds more injured and untold loss of property
thanks to looting carried out by Polish soldiers and local civilians.
1918: Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of the
American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers, announced that organization's decision
to hold its New York City campaign designed to raise $5,000,000 to aid Jewish
war sufferers during the week starting on December 8 and ending on December 15.
1919: In Durham, NC, Fredrick and Loretta Koch gave birth to University of
North Carolina and Princeton graduate and the holder of two Master of Fine Arts
Degree Robert Alan Koch who was one of the “Monuments Men.”
https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/koch-lt-robert-a
1919: Twenty-three year old Rabbi Edward L. Israel, the Cincinnati, OH born
son of Charles and Emma (Linz) Israel, the graduate of the University of
Cincinnati and Hebrew College who served “overseas as a worker for the Jewish
Welfare Board during World War I and who began serving as the spiritual leader
of Har Sinai Congregation in Baltimore in 1923 married Amelia Dryer today.
1920: The New York section of the National Council Women is scheduled to
meet today.
1920: Birthdate of poet and Holocaust survivor Paul Celan who used the
pseudonym of Paul Antschel.
Death is a gang-boss aus
Deutchland his eye is blue
he hits you with leaden bullets his aim is true
there's a man in this house your golden hair Margareta
he sets his dogs on our trail he gives us a grave in the sky
he cultivates snakes he dreams Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland
(from 'A Death Fugue')
1920: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver “an address on ‘Henry
Ford’s Challenge and a Jew’s Reply’” today at “the regular monthly meeting of
the New York Section council of Jewish Women” being held at Temple B’nai
Jeshurun.
1920: “Mrs. Frederick Wakeham, the historian of the Society for Political
Study” is scheduled to deliver the first of a series of lectures to the New
York Section of the Council of Jewish Women that will help them understand
their role in voting.
1921: Churchill offers to send a warship to help Herbert Samuel, the High
Commissioner, collect the fines levied against the Arabs in Jaffa who had
rioted and attacked Jews in villages surrounding the ancient port.
1922: The silent movie, Hungry Hearts
produced by the Goldwyn Company and based on a book of the same name
written by Anzia Yezierska opened
in New York City on Thanksgiving.
1922: At today’s session of the Conference of Lausanne which was supposed to
modify the Treaty Sevres which dismembered the Ottoman Empire, Lord Curzon, the
British Foreign Secretary clashed with Ismet Pasha a member of the Turkish
delegation that included Chief Rabbi Nahum.
1923: Birthdate of Jerrold Lewis "Jerry" Bock, an American musical
theatre composer. He received the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama with Sheldon Harnick for their 1959 musical Fiorello! and the
Tony Award for Best Composer and Lyricist for the 1965 musical Fiddler on the
Roof with Harnick.
1924: The Price of a Party featuring Dagmar Gadowsky the daughter of Leopold
Godowsky.
1924: Herzliya was founded as a moshav. It has since become a flourishing
town on the Mediterranean coast.
1924: In Irvington, NJ, Fannie and Harry Yablonsky gave birth to sociologist
Lewis Yablonsky.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/us/lewis-yablonsky-provocative-sociologist-dies-at-89.html
1925: In New York, opera singer Hannah Mandel and garment manufacturer
Albert Mandel gave birth to award winning composer and arranger Johnny Mandel
whose work include the theme for M*A*S*H ---“Suicide Is Painless”
1925: Birthdate of Griffin, GA, native Doris Middlebrooks, the Southern
Bapitst who converted to Judaism and became Doris Massell when she married Sam
Massell, the first Jewish mayor of Atlanta.
1926: At Kibbutz Ein Harod, “Noach Hantman, a farmer and poet and Yehudit
Volwelsky, a social activist” gave birth to Rafi Eitan, the leader of the
Mossad operation that led to the arrest and trial of Adolf Eichman.
https://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/aboutisrael/state/personalities/pages/rafi%20eitan.aspx
1926: Sophie Tuckers hit song “Some of These Days” began a five week stink
at the top of the pop charts today.
1927: It was reported today that “the American School of Archeology has
resumed its sounding at Beth-EL and has struck a massive city wall resembling
the one discovered in April at Tel Elnasbieh on the reputed site of Mizpah.”
1927: “ A report charging racial animosity at King’s County Hospital was
presented by a special investigating committee to the New York Board of Jewish
Ministers at a meeting” today at Temple Beth El.
1927: “Charles A. Levine was presented with two golden tablets bearing the
Ten Commandments in Hebrew by the Brooklyn Jewish Centre at a dinner tonight
given in honor of his transatlantic flight” where the speakers included
Clarence D. Chamberlin “who said he was writing a book on his flight with
Levine.”
1927: While Budapest is quite and the universities have opened as usual, in
other town including Szegedin and Pec a few more student demonstrations were
reported today with several Jews having been beating and “one university
student was injured.”
1928: In New Haven, CT, George Bock and the former Peggy Alpert gave birth
to Jerrold Lewis Bock, the man who composed such Broadway hits as “Fiddler on
the Roof,” “Fiorello!” and “She Loves Me.”
1929: In Berlin, Hungarian born bookkeeper Serena Roney and Austrian born mechanical
engineer Max Roney who fled Nazi Germany gave birth to “Marianne Mantell, who in her
early 20s helped start the audiobook revolution by co-founding a record company
that turned recordings of countless literary giants, including Ernest
Hemingway, James Joyce and Dylan Thomas, into mass-market entertainment…” (As
reported by Alex Williams)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/arts/marianne-mantell-dead.html
1929: After 407 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadway
production of “Whoopee!” a musical with lyrics by Gus Kahn and starring Eddie
Cantor as “Henry Williams.”
1930(3rd of Kislev, 5691): Eighty-three year old Russian born American
“Hebrew Poet” Israel Fine who was “an intimate friend of President Roosevelt”
and the author of “Ode to America” which was “written in Hebrew on the occasion
of the centennial celebration of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ in 1914” passed
away today.
https://www.jta.org/1930/11/26/archive/israel-fine-poet-zionist-friend-of-roosevelt-dead
1931: Today “The problem of helping
Jewish institutions in Palestine through the world depression held attention of
the semi-annual meeting of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis” which is meeting in
Cincinnati, OH.
1931: “A plea on behalf of blind men and women in Palestine was made today
by Miss Helen Keller before nearly 200 Jewish women at Temple Emanu-El, Fifth
Avenue and Sixty Fifth Street.”
1932: “Dr. Finley Honored As Friend of Jews” published today described
banquet in which Dr. John H. Finely, the associate editor of the New York Times
was awarded the American Hebrew Medal which goes to the American who has done
most to promote better understanding between Christians and Jews in the United
States during 1932.
1932: In Paris, Berthe Haardt and Pierre David Weil a partner in the family
firm, Lazard Frères & Company, part of what later became Lazard Ltd gave birth to Michel David-Weill, who at the
age of 8 left Paris to escape the Nazis which going into hiding the south of
France and converting to Catholicism and went to be an investment banker and
scion of the Lazard banking dynasty who helped shape Lazard into a powerful
global banking institution. (As reported by Lora Kelly)
1932: “The Wonderful Day” a comedy film produced by the brothers of Bernard
Natan and Emile Natan was released today in France.
1932(24th of Cheshvan, 5693): Fifty-seven year old CCNY and
Columbia trained Electrical Engineer Solomon David Benoliel, the New York Born
son of Pauline-Berthe Wassermann and David Jacob Enoliel and father of David,
Jean and Louis Benoliel passed away today in Philadelphia.
1933: Morris Rothenberg, announced that “the administrative committee of the
ZOA has voted to contribute $40,000 to make possible the establishment of the
first colony in Palestine to be inhabited exclusively by American members of
the Jewish Legion,” the British united that “fought under General Allenby and
aided in capturing Palestine from the Turks.”
1933: Last night, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, internationally known suffragist
and peace advocate, received the American Hebrew Medal for 1933 for the
promotion of better understanding between Christians and Jews in the United
States.
1934: It was reported today that “in an effort to curb excessive rentals”
the Municipal Council of Tel Aviv “passed a regulation for the fixing of a
maximum rate of rent for all business and residential property in the
community.”
1934: “Nothing More Than a Woman” starring Berta Singerman was released in
the United States today.
1934: Today “while the rest of the team was playing in Omiya, Moe Berg went
to Saint Luke's Hospital in Tsukiji, ostensibly to visit the daughter of
American Ambassador Joseph Grew. Instead, Berg went up to the roof of the
hospital, one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, and filmed the city and harbor
with his movie camera. This provided American intelligence with rare photos of
the city.
1935: In New York City, Milton and Abby Goldsmith gave birth to “critic and
classical pianist” Harris Goldsmith.
1935: “Stars Over Broadway,” a musical produced by Samuel Bischoff, with a
screenplay co-written by Jerry Wald and Julius Epstein was released in the
United States by Warner Brothers.
1936(9th of Kislev, 5697): Sixty-two year old Samuel Jacob
Jatzkan, the Lithuanian born rabbi turned publisher who was an early support of
Herzl passed away today after suffering a heart attack in Paris.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E06E5DC173EEE3BBC4C51DFB767838D629EDE
1936: Life, the photojournalism
magazine, created by Henry R. Luce, was first published. In the days before
television, webcams, the internet and the myriad of other ways we have a
recording and sending pictures, Life,
with it large splash, creative or
documentary like images was the major window on the world for millions of
Americans. It was the photographers who
made Life the magazine it was and some of the most famous were Jewish including
Alfred Eisenstaedt who shot “The Kiss,” Robert Capa who shot “Death of a
Loyalist Soldier” as well as the first still photos of first wave at Omaha
Beach, Cornell Capa who photographed Grandma Moses and Margaret Bourke-White
who snapped “Working Atop the Chrysler Building.”
1937: In the tenth day of the Arnold Bernstein’s trial before the Hamburg
Emergency Court, the German-Jewish shipping magnate is charged by the the
prosecution with “exchange irregularities in connection with 2,000,000 marks
loaned by the Chemical National Bank of New York. The trial was part of a ploy by the Nazi
government to assume control of Arnold Bernstein & Red Star Line.
1938: In a memorandum to Winston Churchill correspondents in Europe quote
Hitler as saying, “he wanted eliminate from German life the Jews, the Churches
and suppress private industry. After
that, he would turn to foreign policy again.”
1938: It was reported today that, “The movement started only a week ago by
Palestine Jewry to adopt children from Germany is spreading with amazing
rapidity. Following a suggestion made by
Israel Rokach, Mayor of Tel Aviv…to members of the Jewish Women’s Labor
Federation” have already “volunteered to adopt refugee children.” The National council of Palestine Jewry had
set a goal of adopting 5,000 children but given the quick positive response the
goal will be met and exceeded.
1938: Violinist Mischa Elman played “Larghetto Lamentoso” during Leopold
Godowsky’s funeral which was held in Manhattan today. Godowsky was the composer of this piece of
music. Music critic Leonard Liebling described the late composer as “a citizen
of the world” and “a great and patient teacher of music…” (Godowsky, Elman and
Liebling were all Jewish.)
1938: In a column published today Leopold Godowsky was described as “a
unique figure among al his contemporaries: a phenomenal pianist and a musician
of the most exceptional attributes.”
1939: At 2:30 pm WEVD is scheduled to present a program of “Jewish
Melodies.”
1939: “Measure Meets Strong Opposition in Upper House” published today
described the split in Hungary with House of Deputies approving the
government’s Land Reform Bill which would first be felt by non-resident Jews
whose estates would be the first to be broken up and those in the Upper House
who oppose the bill that “would allot 1,500,000 acres to small tenants.”
1939: In Baltimore, at the annual convention of the Junior Hadassah, Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise told his audience “that American Jews who really believed in
democracy had no choice but to support the establishment of a Jewish
commonwealth in Palestine.”
1939: “Jung Denies Link to Nazi Organizations” published today described
testimony by Harry A. Jung, an American anti-Semite before the House Committee
on un-American Activities in which he claimed never to have corresponded with
Oscar C. Pfaus and Anna Bogenholm who wanted to start a paper called The
National American Patriot that would play a key role “in recovering our country
from control of the Jews..”
1939: “The National Catholic Welfare Council said today” that during the two
years since January, 1937 the Episcopal Committee from Refugees from Germany
has handled the cases of 2,756 refugees “the majority of whom “are of Jewish
extraction.”
1939: In Nazi-occupied Poland, Frank ordered that “All Jews and Jewesses
within the Government-General who are over ten years of age are required to
wear . . . the Star of David.
1940: All Jewish professors of the Utrecht University were dismissed, among
them the Dutch mathematician Julius Wolff.
1940: “Horse Fever,” produced by Alexander Yokel opened on Broadway today at
the Mansfield Theatre.
1940: Newspaper people visited Abu Sinan, a village north of Nazareth, where
they investigated reports that Helen Yussef Nicola, an 8 year old Arab girl
whose parents are devout Greek Orthodox, has been responsible for miraculous
healings including cures “of a crippled Arab boy and a crippled Jewish boy from
Tel Aviv.” Over the last two weeks,
“hundreds of Christians, Moslems and Jews have visited Helen and come away
allegedly convince of her curative capacities.”
1941: Cherna Berkowitz describes the
arrival of refugees at Dorohoi at Transnistria. "The deportations resumed.
Women, elderly people and so many children in the freezing cold. With each
passing day their numbers dwindle as more of them die.” Dorohoi, people say,
“We send the children to give the newcomers some warm tea. They return with
horror stories. The men were all at work when they deported the women and
children. We have one woman with three small children, one of whom is not yet
weaned. All she has are rags and a few pennies in her pocket. The soldiers
round up the arrivals and order them to march on."
1941: Thirty thousand
Jews are killed at Odessa, Ukraine. "
1942(14th of Kislev, 5703): Seventy-eight year old the
Netherlands native Louis Sachs, the son of Jacques Löehman Sachs and Rebekka de
Jonge and husband of Emma Sachs was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz
1942: After having been extracted at Port Miou during Operation Watchman,
Captain Isidore Newman reached Britian today.
1942: Hitler: Man of Strife by Ludwig Wagner the first full-length
biography about the Nazi dictator to appear in the United States since the
publication of “Hitler” by Konrad Heiden in 1936 was published today.
1942(14th of Kislev, 5703): Two weeks after she had been
transported from Berlin to Terezin, seventy-six year old Bertha Gottschalk was
murder today at Terezin.
1942: “My Sister
Eileen,” a comedy written by Joseph A. Field and Jerome Chodorov and produced
by George S. Kaufman which had opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre,
transferred to the Ritz Theatre where it opened tonight.
1943: One hundred and
fifty Jewish partisans escape from Occupied Kovno, Lithuania, and head eastward
into the Rudninkai Forest.
1943: In one of the most bizarre moments in WW II the following a British
bombing raid on Berlin, the damage report of the police commissioner of the
Nazi capital recorded a strike on the New Synagogue.
1943: Birthdate of Andrew
Goodman. Goodman worked as a volunteer
in the voter right’s registration movement in Mississippi in the summer of
1964. He and two of his fellow volunteers would be murdered that summer in
Neshoba County. It would take years to
finally bring their killers to justice.
This brutal murder was one of the many events that helped bring about
the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. That fall, Mississippi would show its
displeasure with this change in events by voting for Barry Goldwater, the
Republican candidate for President who opposed the Civil Rights Act. This election would mark a turning point in
American history providing the Republican Party with its political base.
1944: “Three Is a Family” a comedy based on a play by Henry and Phoebe
Ephron was released in the United States today.
1944: In New York City, “Selma Judith (née Levy), a president of The League
of Women Voters and a moderator of political debates on NBC and Irwin Lionel Toback, a stockbroker and former
vice president of Dreyfus & Company” gave birth to “screenwriter, director
and author” James Lee Tobck
1944: Over the next four
days, Swiss consulate officials Leopold Breszlauer and Ladislaus
Kluger issue about 300 protective documents to Hungarian Jews gathered at the
Hungarian-Austrian border.
1944: Birthdate of Joe Eszterhas, the Hungarian-American author, who cut his
father out his life entirely what at age 45 he learned “his father had
concealed his collaboration in the Hungarian Nazi government and that he had
"organized book burnings and had cranked out the vilest anti-Semitic
propaganda imaginable."
1945:
Ruth and Moshe Dayan give birth to Asaf "Assi" Dayan, an Israeli film
director, actor, screenwriter and producer.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-remake-heads-to-hollywood/
1945: Birthdate of comedian Steve Landesberg. Born in the Bronx, Landesberg is best known
for his portrayal of Dietrich, the cerebral detective on in the television
sitcom, Barney Miller.
1946(29th of Cheshvan,
5707): Parashat Toldot
1946: Fawi Husseini, cousin of Arab
Higher Committee chairman, is killed by Arabs for selling land to Jews.
1947(1st of Cheshvan, 5770): Rosh
Chodesh Cheshvan
1947: Der Tog (The Day) began
publishing a serialized version of Oyf
Fremde Vegn (On Foreign Roads), a novel of Jewish life in
America, today
1947: U.S. Army chaplain, Rabbi Mayer Abramowitz married Holocaust survivor Rachel
Abramowitz married at Berlin. They had
first met at one of the DP camps General Eisenhower had established for Jewish
survivors of the Shoah following clashes in camps shared between survivors and
those they recognized as murderers. To Eisenhower’s credit, he found that “The
situation was unbearable” and moved to remedy it.
1947: Eliezer Sukenik an outstanding
archaeologist and text expert on the faculty of Jerusalem's Hebrew University
first received word of the existence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The documents,
dating between 200 BC and AD 70, had been accidentally discovered earlier that
winter by two Bedouin shepherds in the vicinity of Qumran. Sukenik was able to purchase three of the
scrolls they had found, the War Scroll, the Thanksgiving Scroll and a small
Scroll of Isaiah. The Great Scroll of
Isaiah had already been purchased the Metropolitan Stephen, of St. Mark’s
Church. In one of the strange twists of
fate, Yigal Yadin, Sukenik’s son, would arrange for the purchase of the Scroll
of Isaiah and three other scrolls in 1954.
The purchase began with a simple newspaper ad in the Wall Street
Journal, “Miscellaneous For Sale…Four Dead Sea Scrolls.” Yadin knew the
importance of the items and arranged for a loan of a quarter of a million
dollars (a large sum in those days, especially for the infant state of Israel)
to bring them back to their ancestral home.
The secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls are still being unlocked by scholars
to this day. Considering that the
acquisition of the scrolls began against the backdrop of the Partition of
Palestine and the Israeli War for Independence, there is enough adventure here
for an Indiana Jones style movie.
1948: In today’s session of the UN General Assembly's Political and Security
Committee, Dr. Philip C. Jessup suggests that both Bernadotte and UN partition
plans be considered in fixing Israeli boundaries. Israel would keep Galilee and
pan: of Negev.
1948:
Sharp tongued journalist H.L. Mencken whose diaries revealed a streak of
anti-Semitism which did not keep him being “close friends” with Alfred Knopf
and Ben Hecht, praising the work of Ayn Rand or that asserted that “books such
as Caught Short! A Saga of Wailing Wall Street by Eddie Cantor
(ghost-written by David Freedman) did more to pull America out of the Great
Depression than all government measures combined” “suffered a stroke, which
left him aware and fully conscious but nearly unable to read or write and able
to speak only with difficulty.”
1948: During the War for Independence, Israeli forces launched Operation Lot
in the “eastern Negev and Arava.”
1948: Aubrey S. Eban (Abba Eban) defended Jewish claims to both the Galilee
and Negev.
1948: Israel forms a reserve forced made up of men aged 40 to 45.
1949: One day after he had passed away funeral services were for Dr. Nathan
Krass, the rabbi emeritus at Temple-Emanuel, a congregation he had served for
nine years.
1949: Israeli forces made their way through the Negev Desert to the isolated
outpost at Sodom (the Biblical Sodom) on the Dead Sea which had been cut off
from any overland contact for more than six months. Their success in reaching Sodom extended the
boundaries of the new state of Israel 20 miles further south and east.
1950: As of this date 80,000 Jews were reported to be
waiting to leave Iraq.
1950: In Brooklyn, exterminator Abraham Schumer and the former Selma Rosen
gave birth to Charles Ellis Schumer better known as New York Senator Chuck
Schumer.
1950: Gloria Gerson married Stanley Scholem,
the son of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Scholem today at the Hamilton Hotel in
Paterson, NJ.
1951: In London Diana, née Schneiderman and Mark Rapport, “a taxi driver”
gave birth to David Stephen Rapport.
http://davidrappaport.co.uk/index.html
1951: “Superman and the Mole Men” a film directed by Lee Sholem and based on
characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster was released in the United
States today.
1952(5th of Kislev, 5713): Sixty-three year old Polish born
Yiddish writer “Ber (Berl) Lapin” who split his adult life between the United
States and Argentina passed away today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2017/02/ber-berl-lapin.html
1953: “Three Sailors and a Girl,” a musical film based on George S.
Kaufman’s “The Butter and Egg Man” produced by Sammy Cahn who created the music
along with Sammy Fain and with a script co-authored by Devery Freeman was
released today in the United States.
1954: Today David Winters (the London born of Sadie and Samuel Weizer) performed
on Broadway in “Sandhog.”
1954(27th of Cheshvan, 5715): Seventy-two year old Harry
Affelder, the New York born son of Leopold and Rebecca Kahn Affelder, the
brother of Jeanette, William and Minnie B. Affelder passed away today after
which he was buried at Mount Neboh Cemetery in Glendale, NY.
1955(8th of Kislev, 5716): Today, on his way home from a boxing
match sixty year old Shemp Howard
suffered a fatal heart attack and/or cerebral hemorrhage.
http://www.shemphoward.com/biography.html
1955: A campaign to save the building where Anne Frank and her family had
been hidden and to list it as a
protected monument was started by the Dutch paper Het Vrije
Volk today in an attempt to save the edifice from demolished so a factory
could built on the site.
1956 (19th of Kislev): Birthdate of Elliot R. Wolfson,
author of Open Secret: Postmessianic Messianism and the Mystical Revision of
Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
1956: The weightlifting competition at the 1956 Summer
Olympics during which Isaac Berger won a gold medal, opened today.
1956(19th of Kislev):On Friday night, Rabbi Schneerson,
"The Rebbe," delivers "a learned discourse on kabbalistic themes
to mark the 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev...the Lubavitch 'Day of
Redemption.'"
1956: "An inflammatory proclamation was read in all
mosques in Egypt declaring 'All Jews are Zionists and enemies of the
State.'"
1957: “I Was A Teenage Frankenstein,” a “cult classic”
co-produced by Herman Cohen and Iowa native Samuel Z. Arkoff was released today
in the United States.
1958: Birthdate of Jerusalem native Izhar Ashdot, the
singer-songwriter and co-founder of the rock bank T-Slam.
1958(11th of Kislev, 5719): Fifty-four year old comedian
Harry Einstein, who had begun his career writing for Eddie Cantor died from a
heart attack at a Friars Club of Beverly Hills Roast of Lucille Ball and Desi
Arnaz today in Los Angeles, California.
1958: “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” a biopic for which
Mark Robson “received an Academy Award for Best Director nomination” was
released today in the United States.
1959: “Fiorello!” a musical about New York City Mayor
Fiorello La Guardia whose mother was Jewish and who spoke Yiddish when he
campaigned for Congress with music by Jerry Brock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick,
and a book by co-authored by Jerome Weidman opened on Broadway today at the
Broadhurst Theatre.
1959: David Susskind produced The White Stage, this
week’s selection for “The Play of the Week.”
1961: At the Corydon, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein
officiated at the wedding of Ellen Carole Price to George Gluck.
1963: Congregants of Agudas Achim in Austin, TX who had
been planning to dedicated their new building today – an event that was to
include a visiting from Vice President Lyndon Johnson – “gathered to mourn the
death of John F. Kennedy and pray for their old friend Lyndon Johnson;”
1963: Birthdate of
George Washington University graduate and magazine editor Deborah Needleman,
the wife of political journalist and former editor of Slate Jacob Weisberg, the
sister-in-law of Joe Weisberg and the daughter-in-law of Judge Bernard Weisberg
and Lois Weisberg, “the first Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of
Chicago.”
1964(12th of Kislev, 5681): Eighty-year-old Fannye
Kramer Kempner, the daughter of Henry and Rahel Kornfield Kramer and the sister
of Helen, Sarah and Israel Kamer passe away today after which she was buried at
the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
1964: “Bajour” a musical featuring Herschel Bernardi and
Herbert Edelman opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre.
1964(12th of Kislev, 5681): Abraham Lieber,
the father of Ronald and Dr. Leon Lieber passed away today in Ponca City, OK.
1967: Edward and Peter Bronfman made the opening
statements at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim when the Library Museum, which was
a gift in honor of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Allan Bronfman was formally
opened today.
1965: In London, Eve Smith and American film producer Carl
Foreman gave birth to a son tonight.
1968: After 1, 234 performances, the curtain came down on
the Broadway production of “Cactus Flower” a farce written by Abe Burrows.
1969(13th of Kislev, 5730):Fifty-seven-year-old
Saul Winstein, an award winning Canadian born chemist and professor at UCLA who discovered the “Winstein
reaction,” suffered a fatal heart attack while swimming in his pool at his Bel Air
home.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8q2nc88n/
https://www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/tribute-professor-saul-winstein/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/11/26/79439057.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1970: Birthdate of Oded Feher. Born
in Tel Aviv he lived there until he was age 18 when he joined the Israel Navy
for 3 years. At the completion of his National Service duty, he went to Europe
to pursue a business career but instead of business, he discovered acting. He
went to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England. Oded appeared as Don
Juan in a production of Don Juan Comes
Back From War at the Courtyard Theatre in London. He has also
appeared in both The Knock and Killer Net on British Television.
In his Breakout Role, Fehr played the role of Ardeth Bay in his first major
screen role, The Mummy, a 1999
Universal release.
1972: Birthdate of Christopher James Adler,an American drummer, best known
as a member of the metal band Lamb of God. He is the older brother to bandmate
and guitarist Willie Adler.
1973(28th of Cheshvan, 5734): Mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel passed away.
Leonard Bernstein paid her tribute in a eulogy at her funeral, saying, ‘when
Jennie opened her mouth, God spoke.’”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/09/1967/jennie-tourel
1973: Following a cerebral hemorrhage that he suffered on November 18, David
Ben Gurion stopped improving and his condition began to deteriorate today.
1974(9th of Kislev, 5735): Parashat Toldot
1974(9th of Kisev, 5735): Eighty-six-year-old New York native, Yale graduate and Johns
Hopkins trained cardiologist Dr. Robert L. Levy, the husband of Beatrice Straus
with whom he had three children – Gerald, Barbar and Jessic – who as “a Captain
in the Medical Corps during World War I” touring Army camps in France during
the influenza epidemic and who received the Selective Service Medal for his
work as a consultant in cardiology for the Secretary of War during WW II passed
away today.
1974: During the height of the Cold War and the fight to “free Russian
Jews,” “at a meeting in Vladivostok, USSR, U.S. President Ford and Soviet
leader Brezhnev negotiated arms control.”
1975: Dr. Mikhail Stern was reported to be seriously ill in prison.
1976: Soviet authorities searched the apartments of “the organizers of the
symposium on Jewish culture including Benjamin Fain, Vladimir Prestin, Pavel
Abramovich, Vladimir Lazaris, Iosif Begun and Eliyahu Essas.
1978(23rd of Cheshvan, 5739): Ninety-year-old Lithuanian born “Dr.
Harry S. Linfield, an ordained rabbi and the executive director of the Jewish
Statistical Bureau for more than half a century, and the husband of the former
Sadie Laporte died in his sleep today at the Hebrew Home for the Aged at
Riverdale.”
https://archives.cjh.org//repositories/3/resources/2751
1982(7th of Kislev, 5743): Forty-four year old Chicago born and
Northwestern trained violist Ascher Mark Temkin, the music director of the
Brockport Symphony passed away today.
1983: Seventy-nine year old Ukrainian poet Mykola Bazhan whose 1943 poem
“Babi Yar” “explicitly depicted the infamous massacre in the ravine” but does
not mention the fact that the victims were Jews passed away today.
http://polyhymnion.org/lit/bazhan/
1986: Birthdate of Hod HaSharon native Adi Altschuler, the founder of the
“Krembo Wings’ youth movement who has been described as a leader of the next
generation by Time magazine
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-is-time-next-generation-leader/
https://www.schusterman.org/users/adi-altschuler
1987: About 100 Soviet Jews, united by their inability to emigrate, crowded
into a two-room apartment today to discuss state secrets: the secrets that keep
them from leaving the Soviet Union, the secret process by which the holders of
secrets are identified, and the reason the secrets themselves are secret. The
gathering, the culmination of months of research by would-be emigrants from the
ranks of Soviet scientific and technological professions, was an attempt to
collate bitter individual experiences, an attempt by people whose professional
lives were once permeated with logic to explain a fate they find irrational.
''State secrets have been a skeleton in a closet,'' Tatyana Ziman, one of the
organizers, said in an interview after the meeting. ''We want to break the
spell that hangs over this word 'secret.' We were thinking of the thousands of
people who are hanging between earth and sky not knowing what will happen to
them.'' Security considerations have been cited in the cases of the vast
majority of Soviet Jews who have been denied exit visas this year. Estimate of
Visa Denials It is not known how many Soviet Jews have been told they are
security risks by visa authorities, who almost never provide written
verification of what they say. Conference organizers put the number between
2,000 and 10,000. The Soviet authorities appear to have taken a more liberal
attitude toward Jewish emigration this year, allowing more than 6,000 Jews to
go so far in 1987, more than six times the total for all of 1986, and have announced
creation of a high-level commission to review contested visa decisions.
However, some Soviet Jews say they feel that ''state security'' is still being
invoked to deny exit visas in many cases in order to justify an official
approach that remains intentionally capricious. Many Soviet citizens seeking to
emigrate have said in the past that the practice of keeping would-be emigrants
in limbo for years, while taking away their jobs and sometimes hindering their
children's education, serves to strongly discourage those toying with the idea
of applying. Few Written Explanations Also, in the absence of written
explanations for administrative decisions, which are almost never offered by
visa authorities when they turn down an application, a would-be emigrant has
great difficulty knowing exactly what knowledge in his possession is considered
secret by authorities. ''I wish I knew what it is I know, so I could tell,''
Ida Nudel said several months ago, before she was granted the long-sought
permission to emigrate to Israel in October. In an interview with French
television in 1985, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet leader, said that the
maximum term during which state security could be cited as a reason to deny
permission for emigration would be 10 years. But in a news conference at the
Foreign Ministry some months later, a leading Soviet spokesman, Gennadi I.
Gerasimov, clarified Mr. Gorbachev's remarks saying that in some cases -he
cited the case of Naum S. Meiman, a mathematician, in particular - the duration
of the secrecy rule might have no limit. Classified Work in 1950's Mr. Meiman
did classified calculations while working at the Soviet Academy of Sciences in
the early 1950's. Many of those barred from emigration argue that virtually any
kind of work can make a person a ''security risk.'' During the seminar today,
Mrs. Ziman read a paper drafted by her husband, Yuri, examining the differences
between United States and Soviet emigration policies. To leave the Soviet
Union, specific permission is needed, the difficulty of obtaining permission
depends on the country of destination, and the decision-making process is done
on an administrative basis with severely limited opportunities for appeal. In
addition, Yuri Ziman's paper said, the Soviet Government claims a right to
control the movements of its citizens overseas, including where they go and how
long they stay. Leaving the country without permission is a crime, and attempts
to do so are viewed as serious crimes, for which the death penalty can be
invoked. According to one seminar organizer, Pavel Abramovich, the group wanted
to analyze various aspects of the state security system that has kept them in
limbo for 10, 13, or even 17 years. But the first question put to Mr.
Abramovich after he finished his preamble reflected the group's success in
gaining both attention and participants. ''Could someone open a window?'' asked
a spectator from the middle of the rush-hour like crush in the two rooms.
1988: “Cocoon – The Return” a sequel co-starring Jack Gilford and Steve
Guttenberg was released in the United States today.
1988: “Scrooged” a comedic version “The Christmas Carol” directed and
co-produced by Richard Donner with a screenplay co-authored by Mitch Glazer and
music by Danny Elfman was released in the United States today.
1989(25th of Cheshvan, 5750): Ninety-three year old art dealer Sidney Janis
passed away today. (As reported by Grace Glueck)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9806E5DB153AF93BA35753C1A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=
1990: “Mr. and Mrs. Bridge” a film version of the novel with the same name
starring Paul Newman and featuring Melissa Newman was released in the United
States today.
1991: “Israel Has Its Nuclear Demons” published today provides a review of The
Samson Option by Seymour Hersh.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13217965.400-review-israel-has-its-nuclear-demons-/
1994(20th of Kislev, 5755): Eighty three year old Oscar winning
orchestrator and conductor Irwin Kostal passed away today.
1994: “The Pagemaster” an animated horror film co-starring Leonard Nimoy and
with music by James Horner was released in the United States today.
1994: “Angels in America: Perestroika” written by Tony Kushner opened on
Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre with Benjamin Mordecai as executive
producer.
1997: The New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest
including Tuesday’s With Morrie: An
Old Man, a Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson by Mitch Albom, Banjo Eyes: Eddie
Cantor and the Birth of Modern Stardom by Herbert G. Goldman and A History of the Twentieth Century Volume 1:
1900-1933 by Martin
Gilbert
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/23/reviews/971123.23gavint.html
2000(25th of Cheshvan, 5761): A powerful car bomb killed two Israelis and
wounded scores during rush hour in the coastal city of Hadera this evening..
2000(25th of Cheshvan, 5761):Sgt. Samar Hussein, 19, of Hurfeish,
was killed when Palestinian snipers opened fire at soldiers patrolling the
border fence near the Erez crossing.
2000(25th of Cheshvan, 5761): Lt. Edward Matchnik, 21, of
Beersheba, was killed in an explosion at the District Coordination Office near
Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip.
2000(25th of Cheshvan, 5761): Sixty-nine year old Clarence Yale
Palitz, Jr. the Chairman of the Board of
Financial Federal Corporation and patron of the arts who is survived by his
wife Anka passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/26/classified/paid-notice-deaths-palitz-clarence-yale-jr.html
2001(8th of Kislev, 5762): Sixty-four year old major league
pitcher Robert “Bo” Belinsky, whose mother was Jewish passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/27/sports/bo-belinsky-64-the-playboy-pitcher-dies.html
2001: An Israeli helicopter fired two missiles at a van in the West Bank,
killing Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, a leading member of Hamas, the Islamic terror
organization.
2002: “At least four people were killed today, including a United Nations
official, in violence that flared in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” while “grieving
Israelis buried the victims of a suicide attack on” November 20th.
2003: The Al Hirschfeld Theatre which had been renamed in honor of his
talents and long career reopened on with a revival of the musical Wonderful
Town. Hirschfeld was also honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of
Fame.
2003: The New York Times
features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish
interest In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History by Adam Bellow
and The Media and The War co-edited by Marvin Kalb
2004(10th of Kislev, 5765):
Seventy-five-year-old Rafael Eitan, a former Israeli Army chief of
staff and government minister who was reprimanded after Lebanese Christian
allies of Israel massacred Palestinian refugees in 1982, drowned today after
being swept into stormy seas.. (As reported by Steven Erlanger)
2005: Labor Party MK Ophir Pines-Paz
completed his service as Minister of Internal Affairs.
2005: Major General (Ret) Matan
Vilnai completed his term as Science, Technology and Space Minister
2005: Ariel Sharon began his second
term as Minister of Internal Affairs.
2005: Shimon Peres completes his
term in office as Vice Prime Minister.
2005: Dalia Itzik, who will become
the first women to serve as Speaker of the Knesset, completed her term as
Communications Minister of Israel.
2005: Isaac Herzog completed his
term as Minister of Housing and Construction.
2005: Eli Ben-Menachem completed his
term as Deputy Minister of Housing and Construction
2005: After playing in the first ten
games of the season, today, offensive lineman Lennie Friedman was placed on
waivers by the Washington Redskins today.
2005: A decision by a federal
appeals court opens the way for settlement payouts for Austrian Jews.
2005: The IDF unveiled the
tombstones of five soldiers including two American volunteers, who fell in a
battle for Latrun in the War of Independence at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl
military cemetery after positively identifying their remains which had been resting
in a mass grave. The five soldiers being honored were Pvt. Menachem “Mendel’
Math, Cpl. Shlomo Berber, Pvt. Yehuda "Jerry" Kaplan, Pvt. Ya'akov
Shnawiss (who changed his name to Sheleg Lavan), and Pvt. Moshe Hessman. Math
and Kaplan were members of MACHAL
2006: Americans gather together to
celebrate Thanksgiving. The holiday is based on two traditions: the English
Harvest Home and the Biblical Sukkoth.
The Pilgrims were a deeply religious people who saw themselves as modern
Israelites fleeing their own Pharaoh so they could worship their One true
God. The New World was synonymous with
the Promised Land. So it was only to be
expected that when looking for a way of expressing thanks for a bountiful
harvest, they would turn to the Bible and fashion a week long holiday in the
manner of Sukkoth.
2006(2nd of Kislev, 5767): Betty
Comden passed away at the age of 89. She
was a writer, who with longtime collaborator Adloph Green created the lyrics
and the librettos for some of the most celebrated musicals of stage and screen
https://web.archive.org/web/20101023061431/http://songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C59
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/betty-comden
2006: “Nagasaki, an oratorio
composed by Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke” the son of Frankfurt born Jewish
journalist Harry Viktorovich Schnittke premiered in Cape Town, eight years
after the composer had passed away.
2007: In Jerusalem, as part of the International Oud Festival, violinist and
singer Sameer Makhoul performs with French double bassist Joelle Leandre.
2008: In a visit sponsored by Alive Productions, Randy Newman performs in
Tel Aviv's Hamishkan Leomanuyot Habama (performing arts house).
2008: At Temple Judah in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, following a dinner, Rabbi Lane Steinger, Regional
Director, Union for Reform Judaism, Midwest Council, facilitates a discussion will concerning
interfaith families and the challenges they may face with the upcoming winter
holiday season.
2008: In Chicago, on the 500th anniversary of the birth of John
Calvin, the Spertus presents a lecture entitled “Calvin and the Jews” in which
Dr. Dean Bell, Chief Academic University at Spertus, explores Calvin’s and his
impact on Christian/Jewish Relations.
2008: At the Shirlington Branch Public Library, journalist Michaele Weissman discusses and signs
her new book, God in a Cup: The
Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee.
2008: The New York Times featured
a the review of a biography of the Jewish born creator of the Follies entitled Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business
by Ethan Mordden.
2008: The Washington Post book section included reviews of the latest
addition to the Holocaust Literature genre, The Journal of Hélène Berr, translated from the French by David Bellos and two books that recount
“the making of modern Hebrew”: Resurrecting Hebrew by Ilan
Stavans and Yehuda Amichai” The Making of Israel's National Poet by Nili
Scharf Gold.
2009 Lord Nigel Lawson became
chairman of a new think tank, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a
registered education charity
2009: The Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and the Moline Public Library
sponsor an address by Israeli Ambassador Asher Naim who will speak on “The
Behind the Scenes Story of Operation Solomon: The Exodus of Ethiopian Jews to
Israel”.
2009 (6 Kislev, 5770): Eighty-year old Fred Silberstein, a survivor of
Auschwitz who gave evidence at the Nuremberg Trials passed away today in New
Zealand. Silberstein, who was 14 when he was taken to Auschwitz in 1943, spent
much of his life educating people in New Zealand about the horrors of the
Holocaust and the subsequent dangers of racism. The president of the New
Zealand Jewish Council, Stephen Goodman, described him as a righteous person.
“For 60 years he worked tirelessly bearing witness to the horrors of the
Holocaust,” Goodman said. “He was a modest and humble man.” Silberstein
survived operations by Nazi “doctor” Josef Mengele, called the “Angel of
Death,” and avoided near-certain death by telling camp guards he was 15 and
able to do manual labor. His evidence at the Nuremburg Trials in 1946 helped to
convict Nazi leaders such as Hermann Göring and Rudolf Heß. He moved to New
Zealand in 1948.
2009 (6 Kislev, 5770): Ninety-one year old Max Eisen, a Broadway press agent
from the days when feeding tidbits of gossip to columnists like Walter Winchell
and staging stunts were standard practice for stirring up a bit more box-office
appeal, passed away today. (As reported
by Dennis Hevesi)
http://theater.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/theater/01eisen.html
2009: Israeli author Naomi Frenkel is to
be laid to rest on Kibbutz Beit Alfa at 2 p.m. today three days after dying at
Sheba Medical Center on her 91st birthday.
2010: Kathleen Straus is scheduled
to be honored with the Jewish Community Lifetime Achievement Award by the
Detroit American Jewish Committee.
2010: Dwight Garner’s list of the “Top 10 Books of 2010” included books
written by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including “ Simon Wiesentahl: The Life and Legends” by Tom Segev, “Letters” by Saul Bellow;
edited by Benjamin Taylor, “Cleopatra: A Life” by Stacy Schiff, Crisis
Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance” co-authored by Nouriel
Roubini, “Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, “Operation Mincemeat:
How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied
Victory” by Ben Macintyre, one of the most successful disinformation operations
of the 20th century which was masterminded by Ewen Montagu, a
leading member of the UK’s Jewish community.
2010: This afternoon at JFK airport in New York City, a Holocaust survivor
was reunited with the Polish man who rescued her from the Nazis, after not
having seen one another for 65 years. Wladyslaw Misiuna, 85, from Poland, and
Sara Marmurek, 88, from Canada had not seen each other since the war.
2010(16th of Kislev, 5771): Seventy three year old Ingrid
Pitt, long
celebrated as the first lady of British horror cinema, who starred in
sanguinary classics of the 1970s like “The Vampire Lovers,” “Countess Dracula”
and “The House That Dripped Blood,” died today in London. (As reported by
Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/arts/25pitt.html
2011: The Israeli Folk Dance Thanksgiving Marathon is
scheduled to begin at 9 pm at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan.
2011: Rabbi Nava Hefetz, Educational Director at Rabbis for
Human Rights is scheduled to be the
guest speaker at the first session of the Adult Education series at the
West London Synagogue.
2011: The IDF identified Beduin smugglers on the southern
border trying to infiltrate Israel from Egypt, and a firefight erupted between
the two sides tonight.
2011: Recent archeological excavations in Jerusalem show
that, contrary to popular understanding, King Herod was not solely responsible
for constructing the Western Wall."
2011: The threat of another political murder exists in Israel,
Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told the Knesset today
2012: “Oy Vey! The Play” a comedy about a wealthy widow,
her three daughters, her son, her Rabbi is scheduled to be performed at The
Lion Theatre in New York City.
2012(9th of Kislev, 5773): Seventy-four year
old Devorah Krinsky “ the wife of Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, secretary to the late
Lubavitcher rebbe Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson” whom she married in 1957
passed away. (As reported by JTA)
2012: "Seeds of Resiliency," a new film
directed and produced by Susan Polis Schutz, the granddaughter of Russian
Jewish immigrants is scheduled to open tonight at the Quad Cinema in NYC.
2012: Memorial services were held for Art Ginsburg, the
American television chef known as Mr. Food, “were held at B'nai Aviv Synagogue
in Weston” after which he was buried at Beth David Memorial Gardens in
Hollywood, Florida
2012: National Yiddish Theater Presents "The Golden
Land" at the Baruch Performing Arts Center
2012: Rain fell from the North to the Negev today morning
with scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms forecasted to continue
throughout the day.
2012: Hamas Islamists enforced a fragile two-day-old
truce on today by evacuating Palestinians from a "no-go" border zone
after IDF gunfire across the Gaza border killed one Palestinian and wounded
several others.
2013:
The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a performance of the Klezmer
Nutcracker Holiday Concert.
2013:
As part of the Murra Blackman Memoril Weekend, Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman delivers
a Shabbat sermon “What is the Most Important Verse in the Torah?” followed by
an afternoon talk “The Two Happiest Days in Judaism – What are they? A Taste of
Talmud” (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News)
2013:
Israeli soldiers “fired rubber bullets at a group of Palestinians who were
throwing stones at them during a day in which three Arabs were arrested by
Israeli forces near the security barrier separating the Jewish state from the
Gaza after they had snuck across the border near Kibbutz Be'eri. (As reported
by Gil Roen)
2013(20th
of Kislev, 5774): Seventy-seven year old philanthropist and businessman Dov
Lautman lost his battle with ALS today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/philanthropist-industrialist-dov-lautman-dies-aged-77/
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4456867,00.html
2013(20th
of Kislev, 5774): Eight year old Peter B. Lewis, the former Chairman of
Progressive Insurance Company passed away.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/longtime-progressive-ceo-peter-lewis-dies-at-80/
2014:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including the recently released paperback editions of An Officer and a Spy,
Robert Harris’ “novelization of the Dreyfus affair” and Memories of a
Marriage by Louis Begley.
2014:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
present “Poetry & Prose Workshop” with Willa Schneberg.
2014:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “No One Remembers Alone:
Memory, Migration, and the Making of an American Family.”
2014:
Eighteenth annual UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2014:
The Chabad Partners Conference is scheduled to be held at the Brooklyn Marriott
Hotel
http://kinus.com/media/pdf/843/FiTl8434492.pdf
2014:
A live broadcast from the Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, a group
that includes Rabbi Pinchas Ciment who has been a lamplighter par excellence in
Arkansas for over two decades, is scheduled to take place this afternoon.
2014(1st
of Kislev, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
2014(1st
of Kislev, 5775): Sixty-five year old Allan Kornblum, the founder of Coffee
House Press passed away today.
2014:
By a vote of 14 to 6 “the cabinet approved a controversial proposal today to
define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people in a constitutional
Basic Law.” (As reported by Spencer Ho)
2014:
“Riots follow Sakhnin’s 1:0 victory over Beitar in soccer match.
2015: In Potomac, MD, Congregation Har Shalom is scheduled
to host a lecture by Rabbi Reuven Hammer on “Akiva: Living and Dying for Love.”
2015: The New England Patriots football team observed a
minute of silence before its game tonight in memory of 18 year old Sharon, MA
native Ezra Schwartz who was murder by a terrorist while distributing food
packages soldiers to Israeli soldiers. (As reported by Raoul Wootliff and
Marissa Newman)
2015: “Thanksgiving – A Holiday of Family and Foods
2015: In London, The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a
talk by curator Joanne Rosenthal on the exhibition “Blood” which “draws
together manuscripts, prints, Jewish ritual and ceremonial objects, art, film,
literature and cultural ephemera to present a rich exploration of how blood can
unite and divide, reflecting on over 2,000 years of history.”
2016(22nd of Cheshvan, 5777): Eighty-six year
old British comedy start Andrew Sachs passed away today.
2016: “The Tenth Man” and “The Last Laugh” are scheduled
to be shown in Melbourne, Australia as part of the Jewish International Film
Festival.
2016(22nd of Cheshvan, 5777): Ninety-year old
Brooklyn Dodger pitcher Ralph Branca, the son of an Italian born trolley car
conductor and the former Kati Berger, a Jewish immigrant from what was then
Hungary and Slovakia whose “uncle Jozsef Berger was killed at the Majdanek
concentration camp, and his maternal aunt Irma died at the Auschwitz
concentration camp in 1942” who was raised as a Roman Catholic and who is best
known for serving up the pitch to Bobby Thompson as the “shot heard round the
world” which cost the Dodgers the pennant passed away today.
2016: “The Settlers” and “Alone in Berlin” are scheduled
to be shown in Sydney, Australia as part of the Jewish International Film
Festival.
2017: “The Heir” and “A Quiet Heart” are scheduled to be
shown at the 21st UK International Jewish Film Festival.
2017: In the spirit of having something for everything,
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Chinese Night” for
the hungry preceded by a continuation of a discussion of Masechet Megilla as part of the in depth
study Gemara study program
2017: In the United States – Thanksgiving
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do-jews-celebrate-thanksgiving
https://reformjudaism.org/blog/2014/11/21/whats-jewish-about-thanksgiving
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/is-thanksgiving-kosher/
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Jonathan Sarna whose
works included American Judaism: A History and When General Grant
Expelled The Jews continues today.
2018:
Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” a play which “recounts the controversy surrounding the
play God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch, which was produced on Broadway in 1923”
is scheduled to open at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC.
2018:
“Professor Avigdor Shinan and invited guests” are scheduled to “join Israel
Museum curators to bring the weekly haftarah to light.”
2018:
The Village East Cinema is scheduled to host a screening of “Family in
Transition” which tells “the story of a family in Nahariya…whose lives change
after their parent comes out as a transgender woman.”
2018:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host the opening of the “9th
Annual Sigid Celebration” where attendees will enjoy a traditional Kosher
Ethiopian Shabbat Dinner.”
2018:
While Israelis may not officially celebrate Thanksgiving, they are scheduled to
hit the shops for “Black Friday.”
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Black-Friday-seems-to-be-a-thing-now-in-Israel-572391
2019:
The UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host a screening of “Solomon and Gaenor” in
Newcastle (no need to bring coals)
2019:
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the untimely death of noted scientist UCLA
Chemistry & Biochemistry professor Saul Winstein at age 57.
https://www.chemistry.ucla.edu/news/tribute-professor-saul-winstein/
2019:
The Peninsula Jewish Community is scheduled to host “Rabbi Lavey’s Joyous
Learning Table,” a tisch filled with stories and song.
2019:
As part of “Reconstructing Judasim Shabbatton, Or Zarua is scheduled to host a Shabbat
Service with D'var Torah and Conversation with Rabbi Deborah Waxman.
2019:
In Berkley, CA, St. John’s Presbyterian Church is scheduled to host “Roses and
Almonds” with Tres Hermanicas and Aquila which includes a mix of “centuries-old
Sephardic music
2019(25th
of Cheshvan, 5780): Parashat Chayei Sarah
2020:
Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies is scheduled to host a
virtual Israel Studies Colloquium with Ben-Gurion U. professor Ayelet
Harel-Shalev talking about her interviews with women in the IDF and her
conclusions.
2020:
Jewish Family Services of Columbus, OH is scheduled to host Zoom Movie where
attendees will discuss Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
2020:
Live on Zoom, the YIVO institute is scheduled to host “Avrom Sutzkever: Ten
Poems” during which a three person panel discusses the work of this giant of
Yiddish poetry.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the penultimate session “The Banality
of Evil: Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem.”
2020:
The Jewish Museum in London is scheduled to host “Stories from the Stores” a
tour via Zoom that provide a chance for a behind the scenes look at everything
“from photographs of early 20th century lessons at the Jews’ Free School to
unique items of Judaica.”
2021:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled present Manashe Khaimov lecturing
on “A Bukharian Jew in Uzbekistan.”
2021:
Congregation Beth Elohim is scheduled to present online Rabbi Mike Rothbuam
lecturing on “Into the Water on Dry Land: Navigating the Sea of Social Just
(Without Drowning.”
2021:
The YIVO Institute is scheduled to present Ken Krimstein and Jeffrey Shanlder
as they discuss, When I Grow Up , “a new graphic nonfiction book, based
on six of the hundreds of autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish teens
collected by YIVO on the brink of WWII, including those discovered in 2017
which had been hidden in a Lithuanian church cellar.”
2021:
Temple Emanu-El’s Stettenheim Library is scheduled to present its fourth
edition of Women on the Move, a series that welcomes female authors to discuss
their latest work probing the intricacies of our lives, this time featuring a
talk by novelist Naomi Ragen.
2022:
The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Where Life
Begins.”
2022:
Starting today, “The Fabelmans,” a semi-autobiographical film directed by
Stephen Spielberg, which had enjoyed a limited release on November 11 is
scheduled to be available for viewing in theatres throughout the United States
today.
2022:
Jazz pianist and composer, Uriel Herman is scheduled to perform at the
Jerusalem Theatre on David Marcus Street.
2022:
In Tel Aviv, Jeremy Feldhamer is scheduled to present the “English Comedy
Showcase.”
2022(29th
of Cheshvan, 5783): Sixteen year old Givat Shaul was murdered today and at
least thirteen others were injured in a bombing at bus stop in Jerusalem.
2023:
Thanksgiving, which some say is modeled after the Jewish holiday of Sukkoth is observed
in the United States today
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/is-thanksgiving-kosher/
https://aish.com/6-ways-jews-shaped-thanksgiving/
2023:
No lox or caviar today since Russ and Daughters is closed for Thanksgiving.
2023:
As November 23 begins in Israel, fifty “abducted women and children” are
scheduled to be released today in exchange for a “four-day pause in fighting”
that came too late for Captain Liron Snir and Sgt. Eitan Dov Rosenzweig who are
the latest casualties in the ground war and the rest of the Hamas held hostages begin day 48 in captivity.
(Editor’s
note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just
providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)
