This Day, November 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
November 26
43 BCE: The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius
Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian", later "Caesar Augustus"),
Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony is formed. This power sharing
arrangement would fall apart. Octavian would defeat Mark Antony and remove
Lepidus leaving him as the sole ruler of the Roman
Empire. Initially, Antony’s defeat and Octavian’s victory did not
change the situation for the Jews living in Judea. Herod had made
the mistake of backing Antony. So if Antony had won, Herod would
have kept his kingdom. But Antony’s defeat did not cost Herod his
kingdom. In one of history’s greatest acts of political audacity,
Herod went to the island of Rhodes where he met with Octavian. He
admitted that he had supported Antony but convinced the young Caesar that this
was a good thing because he now he would give Augustus the same level of
support. Impressed by Herod’s audacity (and in need of allies) he
left Herod on his throne. So, the outcome for the Jews of Judea, in
the short term, was the same no matter what. In the long run, the
Jews probably did well with the victory of Augustus since he would follow the
same kind of comparatively benevolent policies followed by his uncle Julius
including exempting the Jews from emperor worship and respecting Jewish laws by
exempting Jews from appearing in court after dark on Friday or on Shabbat.
1346: Coronation of Charles IV whose decision in 1349 to
turn over the taxes paid by the Jews of Frankfurt to the citizens of that city
could not prevent the pogrom that followed his departure from the city, as King
of the Germans.
1504: Queen Isabella I of Castile, the first Queen of
united Spain passed away. Born in 1451, Isabella is one of history’s
more fascinating monarchs. She was every bit as wiley, clever and
effective as Queen Elizabeth of England, even though she does not get her share
of credit for these traits. Isabella did have Jewish advisors,
physicians and financiers. But in the end her devout Catholicism and
need for funds to finance “crusades” against Moslems proved the undoing of her
Jewish subjects.
1572: King Maximilian II expressed his intention “to expel
the Jews of Pressburg (Bratislava), stating that his edict would be recalled
only in case they accepted Christianity.”
1669: As events surrounding the blood libel that would lead
to the death of Raphael Levi unfolded, two swineherds found the head and the
neck of a child in the woods near Metz. Despite the fact that two
surgeons testified that the body parts came from a recently killed person,
officials decided that this was the body of the Christian child that had been
reported missing and killed more than a month ago. These body parts
would be used in the trial of Levi where he was found guilty. He was
buried alive, protesting his innocence to the end. This blood libel
was part of a series of persecutions aimed at the Jewish community of Metz and
would end with their expulsion from the city.
1645: Today, Scottish Calvinist minister and Cromwell
supporter John Dury who had met Manasseh ben Israel in 1644 and who favored
re-admitting Jews to England “gave a well-known sermon to Parliament styled
“Israel’s Call to March out of Babylon into Jerusalem.”
1696: In London, Richea Asher and Moses Raphael Levy gave
birth to Abigail Levy, the wife of Jacob Franks and the mother of Phila, David,
Naphtali, Rachel and Moses Franks.
1713: Birthdate of Barbados native Deborah de Leon, who
married Isaac Gomez in 1738.
1715(30th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Joseph ben Mordecai Ginzburg,
author of Leket Yosef passed away today.
1724(21st of Kislev, 5485): Portuguese born
physician and son of Maranos Moses (Fernando) Moses who settled in London to
serve as the physician for Portuguese noblewoman Catherine, the wife of King
Charles II of England and who along with his brothers Andreas and
Antonio openly defined themselves Jews while becoming the father-in-law of
Moses (Antonio) da Costa in 1698, passed away today.
1764: David Mendez Machado and his wife may have given
birth to Rebecca Machado, the husband of Jonas Phillips.
1768: In Trois-Rivières, Canada, Aaron Hart and Dorothea
Judah gave birth to shipping magnate and banker Moses Hart, the adopted father
of Alexander Thomas Hart and the Uncle of Craig Hart.
1775: The American Navy began using chaplains within
its regular service. However, Rabbis were not allowed to serve as
Chaplains until 1862 when President Lincoln sponsored legislation allowing
ordained Protestant, Catholic or Jewish ministers to serve as Chaplains.
1783: In Jamaica, Abraham Rodrigues De Leon and his wife
gave birth to Abigail De Leon, the wife of Joseph Henriques.
1788(26th of Cheshvan, 5549): Mrs. Joseph
Abrahams passed away today in Savannah, GA.
1789: Once the United States had been established as an
independent nation, President George Washington proclaimed a day of national
thanksgiving for November 26, 1789. Congregation Shearith Israel held a service
on that first Thanksgiving Day (and has continued to do so each year since), at
which time Rev. Gershom Mendes Seixas delivered an address. He noted that the
Jewish community had reason to rejoice "as we are made equal partakers of
every benefit that results from this good government; for which we cannot
sufficiently adore the God of our fathers who hath manifested his care over us
in this particular instance; neither can we demonstrate our sense of His benign
goodness, for His favourable interposition in behalf of the inhabitants of this
land."
1794: David and Elizabeth Levy were married today at the
Great Synagogue.
1796: Birthdate of Amsterdam native and resident of St.
Louis, Sidney Zadoc Aloe, the husband of Nancy Hart Aloe with whom he had five
children – Seline, Janet, Francie, Albert and Sarah.
1800: Salomon Rothschild married 18-year-old Caroline
Stern, the only daughter of Jacob Stern a wine seller. As can be
seen from the Ketubah (wedding contract) this was another beneficial marriage
arranged by A.M. Rothschild.
1802: As the Jews of Maryland seek full equality on
November 26, 1802, a petition "from the sect of people called Jews"
specifically stating their grievance, namely, "that they are deprived of
holding any office of profit and trust under the constitution and laws of this
state," was referred to the General Assembly, which read it and referred
it to a special committee of five delegates, including the two Baltimore
representatives, with instructions to consider and report upon the prayer of
the petitioners for relief. A month later the petition was refused by a vote of
thirty-eight to seventeen. The attempt to secure the desired relief was
repeated at the legislative session of 1803; again proving unsuccessful, it was
renewed in the following year.
1804(23rd of Kislev, 5565): According to the
date on her tombstone today marks the death of Elka Junghoff, daughter of Jehuda Leib Mulrat
of Kalisz who, if that date is correct was the first woman buried in the “Warsaw
Jewish Cemetery.’
1805: In London, Elizabeth Kahn and Samuel Gershon gave
birth to Isaac Gershon.
1807: In Philadelphia, Zalegman Phillips the son of Pvt.
Jonas Phillips and Rebecca Mendez Machado and his wife Arabella Phillips gave
birth to Rebecca Phillips who became Rebecca Cohen when she married Jacob Cohn,
Jr. with whom she had one son, Zalegman Cohen.
1822: Seventy-two-year-old Karl August von Hardenberg who
as Prime Minster of Prussia pursued many liberal policies including working to
guarantee equal rights for the Jews, passed away today.
1832: In Finsbury, Esther and Joseph Moses Levy gave birth
to Emily Levy.
1834: Birthdate of Isabella H. Polock, the wife Morris
Rosenbach and mother of literary collector Abraham Simon Wolf (A.S.W.)
Rosenbach.
1835: In Baja, Hungary, Baruch Asher Perles and his wife
gave birth to Rabbi Joseph Perles, whose works included essays on the lives of
Nachmanides, and Shlomo be Aderet, the Spanish sage known as the Rashba.
1837: Isaac Solomon married Mary Benjamin at the Great
Synagogue today.
1840(1st of Kislev, 5601): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1840: In Italy Marco and Giustina Luzzati gave birth to
Annetta Luzzati who became Annetta Foa when she married Giuseppe Foa, the Grand
Rabbi of Turino.
1840: Sixty-five-year-old anti-Semite Karl von Rotteck who
“wrote in 1828 that ‘the Jews had to be de-Jewified” and who “rejected Jewish
emancipation with the argument that their religion was…antisocial as well as
anti-national” passed away today.
1840: In Sebes, near Eperies, Hungary, Isaac Rubovits and
Salie Klein gave birth to Edward Rubovits, a teacher in Hungary and husband of
Mathilde Kiss who was in the “book, stationery and printing business in
Chicago” while also serving as “vice president of Zion Congregation and Isaiah
Temple.”
1841: The Voice of Jacob published
“Alleged Progress of London Jews Towards Christianity” which reported that “the
attempt of a few gentlemen, of the West End section of the town, to form a
synagogue there, with certain omissions from the established liturgy, and in
contravention of the regulations of one of the London congregations, of which
they have been and are yet members… These gentlemen are not known as a
congregation, but as an association, deeming itself qualified to abrogate the
customs which Israelites have observed for centuries… While the almost
universal feeling condemns this movement as the presumptuous attempt of a
handful of laymen, and while therefore there need be no apprehension of the
evil spreading, the only wise policy would be to treat the attempt as neither
formidable by numbers, by status (at least theological), nor otherwise
possessing a single element of union.” The Voice of Jacob was published
fortnightly and was the first publication that provided “real-time” reports on
events in the Jewish community. The article refers to attempts to
established London’s first Reform Congregation which became known as the West
London Synagogue of British Jews
1842: The University of Notre Dame is founded as private
Catholic University. Since 1992, Rabbi Dr. Michael Signer has filled the Abrams
Chair of Jewish Thought and Culture and has served as the Director of the Notre
Dame Holocaust Project. “The Notre Dame Holocaust Project promotes educational
opportunities about the destruction of European Jewry during World War II for
the university community.” http://www.nd.edu/~msigner/2005_spring/nd_holocaust_project.shtml.
For more information about opportunities offered to Jewish
students attending Notre Dame see http://campusministry.nd.edu/ecumenical-interfaith/jewish-resources
1843(3rd of Kislev, 5604): Seventy-one-year-old
Hertz Salomon Schwarzschild, the son of Salomon Jacob Schwarzschild and Ester
Maas passed away today.
1844: One day after she had passed away, “Simha Harris,”
the wife of Michael Harris with whom she had had six children was buried today
at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1847: In Poland, Gertrude and Israel Guraowsky gave birth
to Rabbi Abraham Guranowsky, the husband of Bertha Guranowsky who came to New
York where he was one of the founders of Beth Israel Synagogue.
https://kevarim.com/rabbi-avroham-guranowsky/
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/09/21/100376495.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1848: Birthdate of Odessa native and “Yiddish-language folk
poet and composer” who was encouraged in his work by Abraham Goldfaden and
Sholem Aleichem.
1849(11th of Kislev, 5610): Julius Eduard Hitzig a German
author and civil servant passed away. Born Isaac Elias Itzig) at Berlin in
1780, he was a member of the wealthy and influential Jewish Itzig family
Between 1799 and 1806 he was a a Prussian civil servant, after which
he became Criminal Counsel at the Berlin Supreme Court in 1815 and its director
in 1825. In 1808 he established a publishing house and later a bookstore. He
was very active in Berlin’s literary circles. Heinrich Heine, of all
people, reportedly made fun of his name change.
1852: At the Greene Street Synagogue, Rabbi Morris Raphall
preached a sermon based on the opening words of the 92nd Psalm,
“It is good to give thanks unto the Lord –to sing praise unto Thy name, O most
high!”
1855: Adam Mickiewizc, a noted Polish poet and ardent
nationalist died today in Constantinople while working with his friend Armand
Levy, to organize a Jewish legion, the Hussars of Israel, comprising Russian
and Palestinian Jews. The legion was supposed to join in the fight
against the Russians during the Crimean War. Polish nationalists
believed that a Russian defeat would help undermine the authority of the Czar
and help lead to the liberation of Poland. [Mickiewizc was not Jewish,
and I have not been able to find an explanation why he was organizing a Jews
for this fight.]
1858: James (Jacob) Seligman, the son of David and Fanny
Seligman and Rosa Seligman gave birth to Jefferson Seligman, the graduate of
Columbia who gave up to study of medicine to pursue a career in fiancé which
led to his become a senior partner in J & W Seligman who was the husband of
Julia Seligman and an avid equestrian.
1858: In London, Barnett Abrahams, the principal of Jews’
College, and his wife gave birth to Israel Abrahams, the Jewish scholar whose
works included A Companion to the Authorized Prayer Book and Jewish
Life in the Middle Ages.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Israel-Abrahams
https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/agents/people/7137
1858: It was reported today that Rabbi Isaac Leeser, head
of Beth El Emet has written a series of articles about the Mortara Affair that
have appeared in the Philadelphia Ledger and that “indignation
meetings in reference to the Mortara Affair" have been held. For more
about the Mortara Affair see:
1858: In New York, members of the Jewish community
expressed their indignation over the tactics used by the police when arresting
three of their co-religionists on charges of selling lottery tickets. Among
other things they were protesting the fact that the police had arrested a rabbi
who was leading his congregation in prayers. The three have posted $1,000 in
bail
1859: In Philadelphia, David Hays Solis and Elvira Nathan
Solis gave birth to Emily Grace Solis, who became Emily Grace Solis Solis-Cohen
when she married her cousin Dr. Solomon Solis-Cohen.
1861: During the Civil War, Samuel Alexander, who would
later be killed in fighting at Dranesville, VA, completed a ninety-day
enlistment as an Assistant Surgeon with the 44th Regiment, part
of the First Cavalry
1862: During the Civil War, Jonas H. Kaufman began his
service as Assistant Surgeon with 151st Regiment of the
Pennsylvania volunteers serving with the Union Army.
1862; Birthdate of German native Julius Tuteur, who in 1881
settled in Ohio where founded the Electric Vacuum Cleaner Company, which was
sold to General Electric in 1945 and served as chairman of the board of the
Central Brass Manufacturing Company and the Foundry Equipment Factory.
1862: Birthdate of Sir Marc Aurel Stein. Born in
Budapest, Stein was a Hungarian Jewish archaeologist who became a British
citizen. He was also a professor at various Indian universities. Stein was
inspired by Sven Hedin's work, Through Asia.His travels and
research in central Asia, particularly in Chinese Turkistan, revealed much
about its strategic role in history. In 1906, Stein uncovered a group of
mummified corpses near Loulan, in Central Asia. Their well-preserved bodies
were clad in woolen garments, and they wore tall felt hats decorated with
jaunty feathers. The men were bearded, and their facial features seemed
European. Stein dated them to c.100 BC. When the Dunhuang Caves, China, closed
for centuries, were reopened, he discovered 15,000 manuscripts (1907),
including the Diamond Sutra, reputed to be the first dated printed book (868
A.D.). He passed away on October 26, 1943.
1864: Corporal Benjamin L. Kauffman, transferred from
Company D of the 90th Regiment to Company H of the 11th Regiment
today.
1866: In Manhattan, Matilda and Leopold Weil gave birth to
Robert L. Weil
1867: Birthdate of French political leader Abraham
Schrameck who endured anti-Semitic attacks by the Action francaise starting at
the turn of the century was interred by the Vichy government which did not turn
him over to the Nazis thus making it possible for him to avoid the fate of most
French Jews.
1868: On Thanksgiving Day, Rabbi Marcus Jastrow delivered a
sermon at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1869: Birthdate of Alfred Eicholz, M.A., M.D. and B.Ch. the
graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and husband of Ruth Adler, the second
daughter of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire who, among other things
served as His Majesty’s Inspector of school for the Blind, Deaf and Mentally
and Physically Defective in England and Wales and the Council and Education
Committee of the Jews’ College while writing papers for the British
Medical Journal
1871: Five days after he had passed away, 67-year-old
Emanuel Mocatta, the son of Jacob and Rebecca Mocatta, was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1871: In Koenigsberg. Rachel Bogotty and Wolf Jerowitz gave
birth to University Medical College of Kansas City, MO trained surgeon Herman
D. Jerowitz, the professor of therapeutics and the University Medical College
and professor of clinical surgery at Woman’s Medical College in Kansas City who
was a member of Congregation B’nai Jehuda in Kansas City, MO>
1872: In St. Louis, MO, Ignatz and Anna (Kohn) Hartman gave
birth to Washington University Law School graduate Judge Moses Hartman the
husband of Carrie A. Scooler with whom he had three children and who was
President of Congregation B’nai El
1872: In Baltimore, MD, Helen Guggenheimrer and Herman H.
Cone, the brother-in-law of Jacob Adler and the co-owner of the dry goods store
Cone and Adler gave birth to Julius Washington Cone, the husband of Laura Cone
and the “founder of Proximity Manufacturing Company” which later became known
as Cone Mills.
1874: In New York City, Arnold and Ida (Lagowitz)
Tanzer gave birth to Ivy League (Harvard and Columbia) educated attorney
Laurence A. Tanzer, a founding member of the Citizens Union and “the senior
member of the law firm of Tanzer, Mullaney, Mitherz and Pratt and the husband
the husband of the Florence Keller Tanzer with whom he had two daughters.
1876: Birthdate of Isadore Bernstein, the New York native
who wrote scripts for 65 films from 1914 through 1938 and was the brother-in-law
of Carl Laemmie, the co-founder of Universal Pictures for him he worked as “West
Coast Studio Manager.
1876: It was reported today that the Hebrew Charities and
Purim Association plan to sponsor a Hebrew Charity Ball next month at the
Academy of Music.
1877: Birthdate of Sophie Verschleisser who as Sophie Schwartz
at the age of 66 was shipped to Auschwitz where she perished.
1879: In Germany, Jakob and Ida Edelchen Baruch gave birth
to Bertha Baruch who became Bertha Wallach when she married Joseph Wallach with
whom she had two children, Ernst and Herbert.
1879: “The Man With The Evil Eye” published today described
the exploits of “Albert Lavergene, alias Abraham Levy, an Alsatian Jew” who
confessed to having stolen $30,000 worth of diamonds while living in France two
years ago and who is known to his wife’s relatives as “the Jew” or “the man
with the evil eye” because of the way he used to beat her.
1880: Luther R. Marsh will deliver a lecture entitled “On
the Power of the Alphabet” at meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at
Lyric Hall. (Marsh was prominent New York lawyer who developed an interest in
Spiritualism. He was not Jewish)
1880: “Disraeli’s Latest Novel” published today provided a
detailed review of Endymion by the Right Honorable Earl of
Beaconsfield.
1881: It was reported today that the influx of immigrants
from Russia is overwhelming the resources of the United Hebrew
Charities. As many as 400 Jews have been arriving each week, most of
whom are “destitute and helpless.”
1882: “Monmouth and the Wye” published today provides a
brief history of medieval England that includes the reminder that “butchery of
the helpless Jews at York, when the despairing wretches hurled their children
from the battlements upon the howling murderers below and the slew each to the
last man” “cannot drop from the memory of mankind….”
1883: The Baltimore Sun reported that the
colony started for Russian Jewish immigrants in Middlesex County, Virginia has
been abandoned.
1883: It was reported today that the current issue of the
Nineteenth Century features Dr. Charles H.H. Wright’s Paper “The Jews and the
Malicious Charge of Human Sacrifice” which “goes over the whole history of the
recent outrages in Europe.”
1883: Robert Solomon, an Anglo-Jewish Cape Town diamond
dealer arrived in New York this evening aboard SS Servia of
the Cunard Line.
1883: It was reported today that “David Phillipson…who
graduated from Hebrew Union College” last July “has accepted a call from a
congregation in Baltimore, MD.
1884: It was reported today that three prizes – a diamond
ring, a bracelet and a face pin – were awarded to the ladies who had sold the
most tickets to this year’s grand ball, a charity event sponsored by the Hebrew
Orphan Asylum Society.
1884: In Michigan, Aron Kaufmann, the German born son of
Gutel and Salomon Kaufmann gave birth to Cora Meisner, the wife of Samuel Meisner.
1885: During Thanksgiving services, a large throng listened
to an address by Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler at Temple Beth-El that reviewed the
principles adopted by the Reform Rabbis at their meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.
1885: Birthdate of Heinrich Brüning, German Chancellor from 1930 to 1932
who, for whatever shortcomings he may have had, worked to keep Hitler from
coming to power a stance that led to his self-imposed exile to avoid
being arrested by the Nazis.
1886: In
Munich, Joseph Schülein, the of Joel (Julius) Schülein and Jeanette
Schülein, and his wife Ida gave birth to Elsa Haas, the wife of Dr. Alfred
Haas.
1886: The New York Times featured a review
of The Land the Book by William Thomson, a book that examines
the material in the scriptures with the information gained by explorations in
Palestine through 1880. While some of the information in the Old Testament is
“not borne out by facts…many more points” in the Scripture “have been
corroborated” that the results cannot have failed to find favor with Jews.
1887: In New York City, Michael and Rosalie (Berkowitz)
Goldbaum gave birth to University of Pennsylvania trained chemist, Jacob Samuel
Goldbaum, Ph.D., the instructor in electro-chemistry at his alma mater and
author of numerous works on the subject who was the husband of Virginia Laib, a
member of the board of trustees at Rodeph Shalom and a member of the board of
governors of Hebrew Union College.
1888: In New York City, Bernhard and Esther Kohn gave birth
to University of Maryland trained physician Louis Winfield the
gastroenterologist who did post-graduate work at Johns Hopkins, rose to become
the chief of the gastro-intestinal clinic at Lebanon Hospital in NYC and wrote
the two volume Practical treatise on diseases of the digestive system published
in 1920 and Your Digestive System published in 1944.
1888: As she went to visit her sister, eighteen-year-old
Yetta Reiner, a Jewish girl who has been in the United States for two weeks,
disappeared when she walked off with a Hebrew-speaking man on the corner of
Norfolk and Hester Street who had offered “to get her a situation.”
1888: Leo Bamberger the master of ceremonies, introduced
Moses May, the Chairman of the Fair Committee who introduced Brooklyn Mayor
Alfred C. Chapin who officially opened the charity fair on Clermont Avenue that
will raise funds of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1888: “The Hebrews’ Thanksgiving” published in the
Washington Post notes that the Jewish Feast of Lights, this year Falls on the
same date as Thanksgiving.
1888: It was reported today that the son of the “sexton who
dwells in the basement of the synagogue” on 8th Street in
Washington is suffering from typhoid fever.
1889: Police are expected to arrest Morris Kassofky who
gave “a terrible beating” to Jacob Levy when the latter mistakenly tried to
enter his apartment. They live in a building on Norfolk Street that is
inhabited by Jewish immigrants from Poland.
1889: In Newark, NJ, founding of the Plaut Memorial Hebrew
School which held classes daily from 4 to 7 p.m. and was led by Myer S. Hood,
the Principle and Superintendent Myer S. Hood.
1890: “Friends of the Exiles” described the rejection of request
made Jews to help their suffering co-religionists in Russia by the New York
Bureau of the Siberian Exile Petition Association because “the work of the
association…was done by petition” and “the work for the relief of the Jews
required a different kind of effort.”
1890: Twenty-eight-year-old Leavenworth, KS native Eugene
S. Benjamin, the President and trustee of the Baron de Hirsch Fund and vice
president of the Allied Mutual Liability Insurance Company marred Miriam Gutman
today.
1890: Birthdate of Newark, NJ, native and New Jersey Law
School trained attorney, Judge William Unterman, “the chairman of the Ninth
Ward Democratic Club” and “President of the Third District of B’nai B’rith who
was the husband of Esther Untermann, the “first woman police judge in the City
of Newark,
1891 (25th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Mordecai Gimpel Jaffe passed
away.
1892: “In the Czar’s Family” published today described the
hope that by naming the Crown Prince as President of the Russian State Council
“the repression of Jews…will eventually be relaxed.” (Things were
always going to get better for Russian Jew – in the future!)
1892(7th of Kislev, 5653): Sixty-year-old
Mortiz Wahrman the first Jew chosen to be a member of the Hungarian delegation
and successful businessman who bequeathed 200,000 crowns to “benevolent
societies and “600,000 crowns for the erection of a Jewish gymnasium (school)
passed away today.
1892: In Baltimore, MD, “Simon and Jennie (Levy) Turk gave
birth to University of Pennsylvania trained attorney and WW I Army veteran
Mervyn Russell Turk, the author of Turk’s “Harvard Notes on Trusts” who was a
member of B’nai B’rith.
1893: “Seen in Ceylon” published today described the
commercial life of this island state including “the keen-faced Jews with long,
black ringlets” who “preside over stores of shining gems.”
1893: Professor Felix Adler “gave the second lecture in his
series on religious leaders” entitled “Moses and the Prophets” to an overflow
audience at the Music Hall in New York City.
1893: “Jews Expelled from Besieged Meililla” described the
decision of the Spanish General to order all Jews to leave the Moroccan city as
he battles against the Riffs -- a decision that is consistent with
the behavior of "military commanders in Europe” who “rightly or wrongly”
feel that the Jews are spies for their enemies.
1894: The will of Adolph
Bernheimer which names his widow, his brother Lehman and William Rothschild as
executors was filed for probate today.
1894: In Washington, DC,
Solomon “Sol” Peyser and Eva Dux gave birth to Theodore Dux “Ted” Peyser who
earned a law degree at the University of Virginia and served in WW I.
1894: Birthdate of
“Ukrainian-born American trade unionist” Jacob Samuel Potofsky who served as
president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America from 1946 until 1972.
1894: In Columbia, MO, Leo Wiener and Bertha
Kahn gave birth to child prodigy and famed mathematician Norbert
Wiener. Among his many accomplishments, Weiner is known as the
discoverer of cybernetics. President Johnson awarded him with the
National Medal of Science two months before his death in 1964.
1895: Today, “Judge Allison, in General Sessions…dismissed
an indictment against” delicatessen dealer Peter Peiser “who had been arrested
for selling sausage on Sunday.”
1895: Gittel and Rabbi Solomon Kruger gave birth to future Delaware
resident Phillip Samuel Kruger, the husband of Anna Goldstein Kruger with whom
he had two children – Evelyn and Zalmon.
1896: The University of Wisconsin football team led by
first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC played to
a six-six tie against Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.
1896(21st of Kislev, 5657): Joseph C. Wolf
who was elected the State Assembly from the 16th District in
1892 and the State Senate in 1893 passed away today. Born in 1849,
the native of Besancon, France and graduate of Columbia Law School enlisted in
the Second New York Light Cavalry at the start of the Civil War serving with the
Army of the Potomac.
1896: Temple Israel and the West End Synagogue will hold a
joint Thanksgiving Service starting at 3 p.m.
1896: Temple Emanu-El will hold a Thanksgiving Service at
11 a.m.
1896: As part of day long holiday observance, the Hebrew
Sheltering Guardian Society will hold a Thanksgiving Service at the synagogue
on 11th Avenue and 151st Street.
1896: William Matthew Flinders Petrie married Hilda Urlin
in London. This was the same year that he and his archaeological team were conducting excavations
at Luxor when they discovered the “Israel’ or Merneptah Stele
1897: During the Dreyfus Affair, today the French minister
of war “received the following anonymous letter: ‘Monsieur le Minstre: You will
find in a chamber on the sixth story interesting document concerning the
Dreyfus case’ signed “A Patriot”
1897: Through her lawyer Mr. Jullemier, Madame de Boulancy,
cousin and former mistress of Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, had decided to avenge
her lover and debtor and sent to Senator Auguste Scheurer-Kestner letters from
this officer, including the famous "letter of Uhlan".
Scheurer-Kestner showed the letter to Pellieux, military commander of Paris, in
charge of the administrative inquiry on Esterházy
1898: The Emperor and Empress of German arrive at Potsdam
this morning on their return from Palestine where the Kaiser met with Herzl.
1899: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a lecture this
morning at Temple Emanu-El on “Are We Children of the Ghetto, or Children of
the World?” which was a play on words using the name of the drama now appearing
at a New York theatre.
1899: In Roxbury, MA, founding of the Helping Hand
Temporary Home for Destitute Jewish Children at the corner of Fort Ave and
Beech Glen.
1899: “Rosebery On Cromwell” published today provided the
remarks made by Lord Rosebery at the ceremony celebrating the tercentenary of
Oliver Cromwell including his observation that Cromwell “was the first Prince
who reigned in England who welcomed and admitted Jews” a fact of which Jews and
Englishmen are equally proud of as can be attested to by the presence of Sir
Samuel Montagu, Lord Rothschild and Benjamin Cohen on the platform at the
banquet honoring his memory.
1899: In Roxbury, MA, founding today of Helping Hand
Temporary Home for Destitute Jewish Children located at Fort Avenue and Beech
Glen.
1900: Birthdate of Weston, West Virginia native decorated Naval
officer Leonard Kaplan the salutatorian of the 1922 U.S. Naval Academy graduate
class and the husband of Ethel E. Kaplan
with whom he had five children – Leonard II, Kristina, Elin, Millicent and Vikki
– who rose to the rank of Captain and who after 30 years of service retired and
became the “plant engineer for the Foster Wheeler Energy Corporation.
1900: “De Hirsch School Enlarged” published today described
the dedication ceremonies for the new dormitory of the Baron de Hirsch
Agricultural and Industrial School at Woodbine which “has a population of one
thousand and is the most successful of the De Hirsch colonies” in New Jersey.
1901: Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist at the
Hospital for the Mentally Ill and Epileptics in Frankfurt, who had “married a
Jewish widow, Cecilia Geisenheimer in 1894 after which they had three children,
had his first meeting with the patient who would become the first person to be
diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.
1902: “Before an audience which completely filled the
auditorium of the Educational Alliance Building the Rev. Dr. Emil G. Hirsch,
rabbi of the Sinai Congregation in Chicago and Professor of Rabbinical
Literature at the Chicago University, tonight delivered an address, the topic
of which was "The New York East Side Problem” during which he urged Jews
to leave the overcrowded East Side.
1903: On Thanksgiving Professor Richard Gottheil delivered
a lecture on Zionism at a Temple in New York City which “was accorded a most
cordial reception.
1903: Birthdate of Alice Herz-Sommer, also known as Alice
Sommer-Hertz and Alice Sommer, “a Czech pianist, music teacher and survivor of
the Theresienstadt concentration camp.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/life-and-laughter-from-oscar-nominated-film-about-survivor-110/
1904:Clarence Isaac de Sola, the “son of Cantor Abraham de
Sola and Esther de Sola, and his wife Belle Maud de Sola gave birth
to Jessica E. Mellor who was married to both Ronald David de Pass and Sir John
Mellor.
1905: The First Jewish Colony on Manhattan Island published
today described events that will be celebrated this Thanksgiving regarding “one
of the most important events in Israel’s History” – the growth of New York’s
Jewish population from 23 people to half a million.
1905: “The contributions to the fund for the relief of the
Jewish sufferers from Russian massacres took another upward bound” today “under
the impetus of additional collections from many cities, particularly Chicago,
which by sending $20,000 more now leads in contributions outside of New York
City, there have been forwarded from there in all $80,000.”
1905: It was reported today that the Jewish relief fund has
raised $827,579 to help those suffering from the anti-Semitic violence sweeping
Russia.
1905: When Blood Flowed Like Water at Odessa” published
today provided an eye-witness account “of the awful scenes of carnage” when
Russian gentiles attacked the Jews following the Czar’s proclamation granting
the people a constitution.
1906: Eighty-one-year-old Cracow native Jehuda Lejb,
the liberal political leader and author who gained fame as Julian Klackzo after
he became a Roman Catholics in 1856 while living in Paris passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9361-klaczko-julian-judah
1906: Birthdate of “Rabbi Henry Enoch Kagan” the graduate
of the University of Cincinnati and HUC who was “the first full-time rabbi to
be licensed by New York State as a consulting psychologist” and who was a
tireless worker for better relations between Christians and Jews which did not
deter him from raising two sons – Jonathan and Jeremy – with his wife “the
former Esther Miller.”
1907: Birthdate of Lemberg native and CCNY alum David Ewen,
the husband of Hannah Ewen and the father of Robert, who, starting in the
1930’s became the author of numerous books about music including biographies of
Franz Schubert, George Gershwin Leonard Bernstein and Irving Berlin.
https://atom.library.miami.edu/asm0069
1907: Fifty-nine-year Eernesto Nathan, the London born son
“Sara Levi, an Italian from Pesaro, and Mayer Moses Nathan” who “obtained
Italian citizenship in 1888” began serving as Mayor of Rome today, making him
the first Jew to hold this position.
1908: Birthdate of award-winning scriptwriter and
playwright Leonard Spigelgass, the brother-in-law of photographer Sanford Roth
and the brother Beulah Roth, a “speechwriter for FDR and Adlai Stevenson”
passed away today.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1985-02-17-8501060212-story.html
1909: Sigma Alpha Mu is founded in the City College of New
York by 8 Jewish young men.
1909: Birthdate of Moe Mizler the London born boxer who was
the brother of “British lightweight champion Harry Mizler.
1910(24th of Cheshvan, 5671): Parashat
Chayei Sara
1910: In what looked like a “Dress Rehearsal” for the
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, today “a fire at a building in Newark, New
Jersey, housing several factories, killed 24 women and girls employed by the
Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company” which “raised concerns about
whether a similar disaster could happen” since lack of exits and the existence
of fire hazards had led to this preventable tragedy.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=11209
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/07/nyregion/samuel-reshevsky-is-dead-chess-grandmaster-was-80.html
1912(16th of Kislev, 5673): Eighty-four-year-old Baron
George De Worms passed away.
1912: In Chicago, “the first regular meeting of the K.A.M.
Auxiliary is scheduled to be held this afternoon in the vestry rooms of the
Temple where attendees will hear speakers present “A Practical Symposium on the
High Cost of Living.”
1912: Simon Bloom was elected Mayor of Pine Bluff,
Arkansas.
1912: Birthdate of playwright Eugene Ionesco. There is
dispute about Ionesco’s Jewish origins. According to a sizeable body of
evidence, Ionesco’s mother was a Romanian of Sephardic Jewish origin.
1913: Birthdate of Josefina Grunfeldova, who in 1942 was
deported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.
1913: In a letter from the Chief Rabbi of Salonica to
Prince Nicholas of Greece, the rabbi denies truth of charges of excesses
committed by Greek soldiers and declares he has not sought protection of powers
for Jews of Salonica. Three months later the Greek Prime Minister, Venizelos,
assured the Chief Rabbi that the rights of the Jews would be continued.
1913: Jesse Laksy forms The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play
Company in partnership with his brother-in-law Samuel Goldfish (later known as
Sam Goldwyn) and his friend Cecil B. DeMille. The Squaw Man is
the company’s first film and it is an instant hit. It is also the
first movie filmed entirely in Hollywood, California.
1914: Harry Baff charged today that his father Barnett Baff
had been shot dead “at the instigation of a clique of retail poultry buyers”
referred to as the “kosher killers.”
1915: It was reported today that there were 300,000
starving Jews in Poland and that “5 cents a day would provide succor for one
war victim.”
1915: “Isadore Hershfield of New York” the official
representatives of Jewish relief societies of America arrived in Berlin today
“on a mission of relief for the Jews in the war areas of Poland and Galicia.”
1916(1st of Kislev, 5677): Rosh Chodesh
Kislev
1916: The list of contributions received by The Central
Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War published today
including $22 from the Congregation Sons of Israel in Frostburg, MD, and $76
from the Congregation Sons of Israel in Dallas, TX.
1916: In “Half of War-Stricken Poland’s Population
Destitute” published today, Dr. Judah L. Magnes reported that in Poland, “there
is no work that a Jew can do…and thousands are starving.”
1916: This afternoon, Harry H. Schlacht of the East Side
Protective Association announced “arrangements for a great peace meeting” which
will be held at Public School 4 and whose attendees will include Jacob H.
Schiff.
1916: According to an announcement made today the American
Jewish Committee “a Russian Jew named Gershenovitz…who was sentenced in 1914 to
six years of penal servitude because he was accused of have helped he Germans”
was acquitted by the Chief Military Court based “on evidence gathered by O.O.
Grusenberg, a lawyer.”
1916: During today’s meeting “of the Reichstag main
committee it was pointed out that large numbers of Jews in Poland” who are not
working “might be profitably employed in manufacturing” which help alleviate
the shortage of laborers but would also prove beneficial to the Jews as well.
1917: It was reported today that Adolph Lewisohn has
donated his home at 881 Fifth Avenue to house the bazaar which be hosted next
month by Temple Emanu-El to reduce expenses so that the maximum amount of money
can “go to the relief of Jewish war sufferers and for welfare work among
American soldiers and sailors.”
1917: Jan Kucharzewski who would tell an interviewer from
“the Jewish press” that he was not an anti-Semite became Prime minister of
Poland today.
1917: In Great Britain, the Manchester Guardian printed
the text of the Sykes-Picot Agreement – the secret document that determined how
the Ottoman Empire would be divided between the UK and France after World War.
1918: Dr. Solomon Oppenheimer, the Superintendent of the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum who has just returned from Palestine, gives a report on
the condition of the Jews in Eretz Israel.
1918: Rabbi Hyman Gerson Enelow, a member of the Overseas
Commission of the Jewish Welfare Board, wrote from France today, “There are so
few Jewish workers here I regard it a duty to remain here as long as
possible. It has not been possible to do much for” for those who
suffered from the tribulation of the War.
1919: “Madame DuBarry” a silent film biopic directed by
Ernst Lubitsch was released today in Denmark.
1920: Pauline Evelyn Lyons and Kenneth De Sola Joseph gave
birth to Enid Beryl Joseph, the sibling of Montefiore Lyons Joseph and the
grandchild of Annette Pinto and Montifiore Jpse[j/
1920: Two days after he had passed away, Robert Hodes, the
husband of Leah Hodes, with whom he had had three children, was buried today at
the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.”
1921: Twenty-nine-year-old Polytech Institute of Brooklyn
trained chemical engineer and holder of an Master’s degree from George
Washington University, William Maurice Wiesenberg the husband of Helen Anita
who was the Austrian born son of Jacob and Antonia Wiesenberg, who became the
“supervising and planning engineer in charge of civil and mechanical
engineering for the Army Ordinance and Construction and a member of the firm of
Lustig and Weil married Helen Anita Weiss today.
1921: The peace treaty between the United States and
Austria which ended World War I between these two nations was registered with
the League of Nations. The separate treaty was needed because the
U.S. Senate, in a further act of the isolationism that would indirectly lead to
WW II, had “refused to ratify the multilateral Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
of 1919.”
1922: In an article entitled “Palestine Industries Thriving
Capital and Settlers Needed” Dr. Arthur Ruppin notes the changes that have
taken place since Herzl called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland 25
years ago at the first Zionist Congress. While “towns of thousands
houses have grown up on neglected ground” the need to develop irrigation
projects and travel facilities represent the biggest challenge for future
development as well as creating investment opportunities for foreign financiers.
1923: “The Wanters” a drama from the silent film ear
directed by John M. Stahl, produced by Louis B. Mayer and co-starring Norma
Shearer was released in the United States today.
1924: Birthdate of George Segal, sculptor lifelike
mixed-media figures.
1924: Ted “Kid” Lewis (born Gershon Meneloff) lost both the
British and European Welterweight crowns.
1925: Birthdate of pianist Eugene Istomin. He was an
American pianist born in New York City of Russian-Jewish parents. He was famous
for his work in the trio, with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose, known as the
Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio, with whom he made many recordings, and particularly of
music by Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert. He also played with them in orchestral
music, with conductors such as Eugene Ormandy Bruno Walter and also as a
soloist. He passed away in 2003.
1926: In “Palestine Industry Thriving,” published today
Arthur Ruppin describes the social and economic progress that has been in Eretz
Israel in the 25 years following Herzl opened the founding Zionist conference
in Basel, Switzerland.
1926: Birthdate date of Albert Maysles, the native of
Boston, who teamed with his younger brother David to produce award-winning
documentary films.
1927(2nd of Kislev, 5688): Parashat Tolodot
1927: “Representatives of 25 Jewish young people’s
organizations in and around New York with a membership of 60,000 began the
second annual convention of the Metropolitan League of Jewish Community
Associations” tonight “at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at 92nd Street
and Lexington Avenue.
1928: In Moscow, “Andrei Navrozov, a writer, and the former
Dina Minz, a neuropathologist” gave birth to their only child “translator and
Soviet dissident” Lev Navrozov who in more than one publication claimed that
while serving as Israel’s Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Golda Meir “had given
Stalin a list of Russian Jews who would fight for Israel” and who then
“disappeared at the hands of Stalin’s organs of state security.”
1928: It was reported today that “Dr. Louis Finkelstein of
the Jewish Theological Seminary” said “the condition of present-day Judaism”
was like “a leaky ship” and that it was becoming apparent that the ship that
was built tin the ghetto must undergo reconstruction for” use in America.
1928: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that evidence
presented during the trial of a “communist named Teichman” the Druze Rebellion
against the French mandatory government in Syria received financial and moral
support from Communist groups in Palestine.
1929: “Plans for the intensification and extension of
Jewish charitable work throughout the city and the organization of an
all-inclusive fund supported by all coreligionists were discussed” today “by
leaders who hailed with satisfaction the impending, merger of the New York
Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies with the Brooklyn
Federation of Jewish Charities.”
1929: Tonight, “on the anniversary of his 70th birthday,
Alfred M. Cohen, Cincinnati banker and philanthropist long association in
endeavors for the advancement of Jewish learning, was the guest of honor at
banquet given by the board of governors of Hebrew Union College” which came as
a surprise to Mr. Cohen because he thought he was attending a simple “business
gathering of the board.
1930: “Men, women and children jostled their way through
the lobby of the Public Theatre” tonight “to welcome back, after an absence of
eight years, that veteran of the Yiddish theatre, Boris Thomashefsky, who was
appearing in an operetta called "Eretz Israel" ("Land of
Israel"), written by himself with the musical collaboration of Abe
Ellstein.”
1930: It was reported today that the subsidy granted by the
municipality of Brest-Litvosk to the local Yiddish School has been
countermanded by the governor of the district “despite the fact that the school
has government license.”
1931: Dr. Chaim Weizmann, Zionist leader, in a lecture
today before the Keren Hajessod for the Rhineland and Westphalia on the present
states of Jewry and Zionism, said the unhappy position of the Jews in Germany
was really no different from their position everywhere in the world.
1932(27th of Cheshvan, 5693): Parashat
Chayei Sarah
1932: “At a mass meeting in the auditorium of the City
School of Commerce,” more than a thousand people heard the Palestine delegates
to the eighth national convention for Jewish workers in Palestine reported on
“the successful development of a working organization to lead youth into
productivity” in agricultural endeavors.
1933: Funeral services were held today “at Temple Adath
Israel, in the Bronx” for seventy-three-year-old Russian born Rabbi Bernhard
Rabbino who served congregations in several small towns including Keokuk, IA
and Brunswick, GA, before becoming a lawyer and champion of the established of
the “Domestic Relations Courts in New York” and who was the husband of “the
former Anna Ladewig” with whom he had had four daughters.”
https://www.jta.org/1933/11/27/archive/funeral-services-held-for-rabbino-civic-worker
1933: In "Two Contrasting Views of Palestine"
published today Jacob Weinstein reviewed Modern Palestine: A Symposium edited
by Jessie Sampter and Beside Galilee: A First-hand Survey of Zionism
and Modern Palestine by Hector Bolitho.
1933: In an article entitled “Two Contrasting Views of
Palestine,” Jacob Weinstein reviews Modern Palestine edited by
Jessie Sampter with a foreword by Albert Einstein and Beside Galilee: A
First-hand Survey of Zionism and Modern Palestine by Hector Bolitho.
1934: The cinematic version of Fannie Hurst’s novel Imitation
of Life directed by John M. Stahl and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr.
was released today in the United States.
1935: The Nuremberg Laws which were aimed Jews “were
extended to ‘Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring.’”
1935: “First Lady,” with a script co-authored by George S.
Kaufman and produced by Sam Harris opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre.
1936: Birthdate of Yitzhak Yitzhaky, the native of
Tiberias, the founder of and director of “Idud, a village for intellectually
challenged children” who was an MK.
1936: Nathan D. Perlman was “appointed as a justice of the
Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York” today, a position to which
he was reappointed in 1945.
1936: For a second time, “the local rabbinical council
protested to the Governor, Marshall Italo Balbo over the order that all shops
in Tripoli are to remain open on all days of the week expect for Sunday which
will force the Jewish merchants to violate their Sabbath or leave the new part
of the city.
1937(22nd of Kislev, 5698): Fifty-eight
year old Yakov Ganetsky, the son of a Jewish factory owner, who joined the
Bolshevik movement and became a close associate of Vladimir Lenin “was executed
today” during Stalin’s Great Purge which was designed to consolidate the
Dictator’s power and which had a distinctly anti-Semitic tinge.
1937: The Palestine Post reported
that three Jews were wounded when Arab terrorists shot at a crowded bus,
traveling from Nesher to Haifa, and escaped.
1937: In another example of the anti-Semitism
that was endemic to European society, the Palestine Post reported
that a large number of Jews were again attacked and beaten in various towns in
Lithuania.
1938: In an article entitled “The Jews,” published in his
magazine Harijan today , Ghandi the activist leading the struggle for Indian
independence and who would write “to
Hitler that he didn’t believe him to be the “monster described by your
opponents, opined: “If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my
livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile
German may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would
refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lsquo-the-jews-rsquo-by-gandhi
1938: “Angels with Dirty Faces” a gangster film with a twist
directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Samuel Bischoff and with music by Max
Steiner was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.
1938: In Pittsburgh, during the annual convention of Junior
Hadassah, four speakers each agreed that “Jewish young people of American must
pool their energies in a ‘fight for democracy’ and promote Zionism.”
1938: Today “the National Republican Club adopted a
resolution condemning the ‘relapse into barbarianism of the present rulers in
Germany.’”
1939: The March of the Hundred, the “new
novel” by Manuel Komroff, the author of Coronet and Two Thieves is
on sale for $2.50.
1939: “Two Pioneers of Russian Music” published today
provides Howard Taubman’s review of “Free Artist: The story of Anton and
Nicholas Rubinstein by Catherine Drinken Bowen.
1939: Dr. Mordecai Soltes, Harry Grayer, Dr. Jacob I.
Steinberg, Herman Z. Quittman and Nathan Seidelman are scheduled this
afternoon’s meeting of the Order of Sons of Zion in Greater New York at the
Hotel Astor.
1939: Dr. Henry G. Knight, Dr. Gabriel Davidson, Professor
O.S. Morgan and Dr. Carl B. Woodward are scheduled to speak at the memorial
service for Dr. Jacob Goodale at Temple Emanu-El.
1939: At Congregation Emanu-El in New York, Rabbi B.
Benedict Glazer is scheduled to speak on “The Promise of American Life.
1939: At the Free Synagogue which holds services at
Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to speak on “Happiness and
Character: Do They Destroy Each Other?”
1939: At Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York, Rabbi
Israel Goldstein is scheduled to speak on “Information Please: A Jewish
Intelligence Test.”
1939: At Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York, Ludwig
Lewisohn is scheduled to speak on “The Answer to Israel’s Enemies.”
1939: At the West End Synagogue in New York, “Rabbi Hyman
Judah Schachtel will review John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath at
a lecture-forum service.”
1939: In New York at the Astor Hotel “a resolution”
introduced by Herman Z. Quittman, executive director of the Sons Zion, “calling
on the British Government to admit 50,000 Jewish refugee families from Eastern
and Central Europe into Palestine in the next twelve months was unanimously
adopted” this “afternoon by 200 delegates to the annual conference of Eastern
leaders of the Sons of Zion, a national Zionist group” described the desperate
plight of Jews living in Nazi Germany where there has been no organized
immigration for Jews since last year and where mothers and wives do not know
the fate of their sons and husbands. “Our people have been pushed
back and forth over the borders. Palestine is the only country in
the world where the arrival of Jewish refugees is greeted with rejoicing and
festivities.”
1939: “The third week of the 1939 merged appeal of the New
York and Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities was ushered in” tonight “with
a dinner in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel attended by 1,200 representatives of the
radio, music, refrigeration and allied industries including David
Sarnoff, Arthur Murray and Benjamin Abrams.
1939: “1,000 Refugees on Vulcania” published today
described the hopes of 1,000 German Jews fleeing the Nazis who have sailed from
Genoa to settle in the United States.
1939: In Baltimore, MD, Miss Gisela Warburg, the niece of
the late Felix Warburg, who has just returned from Europe where she helped with
Youth Aliyah, told those attending the sixteenth annual convention of Junior
Hadassah
1939: ‘More than a thousand members of the Jewish community
of Teschen, Germany” have been given two more weeks to prepare for their
deportation to Poland.
1939: In South Bend, Indiana, Gertrude and Herman Boorda, gave birth to Admiral
Jeremy Michael Boorda, “the 25th Chief of Naval Operations” and
“the first American sailor to have risen through the enlisted ranks to become
Chief of Naval Operations,” the top position in the United States Navy.
1939: “Death Decreed for Jews Who Fail to Wear Armbands or
Ignore Curfew” published today described the edict issued in German occupied
Poland that “any Jew leaving his home without a special permit between 5 pm and
8 am may be punished by death” and that Jews failing “to wear a broad yellow
arm band” will also face the death penalty.
1939: “Cantor Kusewitsky Is Safe” published today brought
word that Moijzez Kusewitsky, the chief cantor of Poland and the cousin of Mrs.
Isior Achron has not been by the German bombing of Warsaw but has escaped with
his family to Bucharest.
1939: “May Send Mail to Poland” published today described a
cablegram from Arnold M. Kaiser, secretary of the Polish Fund of London that
included the assertion that letters for those living in Upper Silesia and
Danzig maybe sent through the federation which will forward them to Geneva
before they reach their final destination in Poland.
1940: British Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord
Lloyd calls those who are working to save Jewish lives by illegally
transporting them to Palestine "foul people who had to be stamped
out."
1940: The Nazis forced 500,000 Warsaw Jews to live in
walled ghetto.
1940: “Nearly 600 people, including leaders from the
judiciary, education and Newark’s political and social life” attended a
dinner-dance at the Essex House which was a celebration of Judge William
Untermann’s fiftieth birthday.
1941: A fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by
Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo left Hitokapu Bay under strict radio
silence. On December 7th, the world would find out that their
destination was Pearl Harbor. The arrival of the fleet would usher
in America’s entrance into World War II and all that would flow from
that.
1941: The recapture of Rostov by Russian forces marked the
first major setback suffered by Germany in World War II, 1941. The
German blitz had moved unchecked across the Soviet Union since June of
1941. By stopping the Nazis at Rostov, the Soviets forced the German
Army to suffer through a Russian Winter from for which it was
ill-prepared. The Germans would resume their offensive in the Spring
of 1942, but the Wehrmacht would have been depleted just enough that it would fail
a year later at Stalingrad which would mark the beginning of the end for the
German military. Unfortunately, none of these military setbacks
would slow down the pace of the Final Solution.
1942: A ship called the Donau sailed from
Oslo’s Pier 1 carrying 532 Norwegian Jews, now classified as prisoners all of
whom would end up in Concentration Camps.
1942 Norwegian police forces under the direction of the
Gestapo handed 532 Jewish prisoners to the SS at Pier 1 in Oslo harbor. The
ship was under the command of Untersturmführer Klaus Grossmann and Oberleutnant
Manig. Men and women were put in separate holds on the ship, where they were
deprived of basic sanitary conditions and mistreated by the soldiers. Only 9 of
the prisoners survived the Second World War.
1942: At dawn, in Norway, the Quisling police returned to
the home of Isak Plesansky, the founder and proprietor of the Tonsberg Clothing
School and arrested his wife, daughter and son. All of them
would be gassed at Auschwitz within the month.
1942: ''Casablanca,'' starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid
Bergman, had its world premiere at the Hollywood Theater in New York. The
Jewish connections with this film classic are so numerous that this should only
be considered a partial list. Jewish actors included Peter Lorre,
S.Z."Cuddles" Sakall, and Leonid Kinskey. Conrad Veidt was
not Jewish but his wife was. Michael Curtiz, a Hungarian Jew, was
the director. The script was a product of Jewish writers Julius and Philip
Epstein. The inspiration for the movie came from a play by Murray
Bennett. Bennett got the idea after going to Vienna to help Jewish
relatives after the Aunschluss in 1938. The score was written by Max
Steiner…and that will have to do for now.
1942: Jews in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, who are
lured from hiding places by Nazi promises of no retribution, are taken to a
synagogue, locked inside, and subjected to random gunfire by Ukrainians.
1943: Birthdate of producer and director Bruce Paltrow, a
native of Brooklyn, a graduate of Tulane University where he is a member of
Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity and a producer who was responsible for two of
television’s best dramatic series - The White Shadow and St.
Elsewhere. He also directed several episodes of Homicide as
well as full length motion pictures. He died in 2002 after battling
cancer.
1944: In an interview given today on the eve of his 70th birthday,
Dr. Chaim Weizmann said that “any blueprint for the future of what is left of
the Jewish people should include allowing at least 100,000 refugees settle in
Palestine annually and that this “must be undertaken by the United Nations as a
measure of historic justice. He said that this is the least that is
owed to the Jewish people “whose agony in Hitler’s Europe during this war needs
no elaboration.” When he used the term “agony” Weizmann could have
included the loss of his son Michael who died while serving with the RAF.
1944: Government officials announced that “twelve more
arrests were made today in Tel Aviv and Haifa during continued police searches
for suspects connected with” what they described as underground political
terrorist groups.
1944: As World War II entered its last phase, the Germans
decided to hide all evidence of the mass murders. On orders from Himmler the
gas chambers and crematoria at Auschwitz and Birkenau were blown up.
1945: 21st of Kislev, 5706): Sixty-seven-year-old
Columbia trained civil engineer “and author of standard textbooks on the design
of bridges, Myron S. Flak who served as a Major during WW I and who was the
consulting engineer on the erection of Temple Emanu-El passed away today.
1945: In a personal letter bearing today’s date Nathan
Shilkret wrote to his wife about why he undertook the Genesis Project including
the insights that “it was never intended to be a work of musical art” but
rather a creation intended “to appeal to all record buyers.”
1945: Jewish underground blows up police headquarters and
several electric power stations.
1945: Mandatory government sends troops to search for arms
in Jewish settlements in Sharon and Samaria.
1945: Soviet Union proposes submission of the Arab-Jewish
problem to Big Five Conference.
1945: Polish Jews announce in Italy that they intend to
proceed to Palestine by any means.
1946(3rd of Kislev, 5707): Stephen Theodore Norman, the
only grandson of Theodor Herzl, plunged to his death off a Massachusetts Avenue
Bridge in Washington D.C. at the age of 28. During WWII, Norman had
served as a Captain in the British Army. He visited Palestine in
late 1945 and 1946. Severe depression brought on by the Holocaust
and the plight of the Jews after World War II ended led to severe depression
which led to his final moments.
1946: Birthdate of Roni Milo, future Mayor of Tel Aviv
1946(3rd of Kislev, 5707): Sixty-six year
old Dr. Elias Margolis, the Vilna born son of “Rabbi Isaac Margolis and Hinde
Bernstein Margolis who in 1885 came to the United States where he received
degrees from the University of Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College and Columbia,
led several congregations while leading the Rabbinical Assembly of JTS and the
Synagogue Council of America and raised five children with his wife Esther
Molly Jacobson Margolis passed away today.
1946: Jewish refugees in Haifa resist British attempts to
ship them Cyprus.
1947: Louis Bromfield, co-chairman of American League for
Free Palestine, charges that Arabs have obtained surplus U.S. arms.
1948: Bulgaria recognized Israel.
1948: Hans Möser: Ex SS-Obersturmführer and commander of
the Protective Custody Camp at Mittelbau-Dora who had been condemned to death
on 30 December 1947 for his involvement in the executions of camp inmates was
executed in Landsberg prison today.
1948: Sixteen more Spitfires in Czechoslovakia were
awaiting “an opportunity to fly to Israel.”
1948: Menachem Begin visited New York Mayor William O’Dwyer
1948: Abba Eban tells a meeting of the UN Truce Mission
that Israel will not let a large force of Egyptians surrounded by the Israelis
in the Negev retreat until the Arab’s accept the Armistice Resolution.
1949: Pasha el Mulbi says that the Jerusalem must be held
by the Arabs to protect the surrounding Arab sectors.
1949: Jordan rejected the plan for an internationalized
Jerusalem.
1949: Birthdate of Roni Milo, Israeli MK and cabinet
minister who served as Mayor of his hometown, Tel Aviv from 1993 to 1998.
1949: Birthdate of Shlomo Artzi an Israeli folk rock
singer-songwriter and composer. Born in Moshav Alonei Abba he has sold over 1.5
million albums, making him one of Israel's most successful male singers
matching the success of his sister Nava Semel the author of Kova
Zekhukhit (Hat of Glass) which was the first published work
in Israel that addressed topics of the children of Holocaust survivors
1950: Rabbi Theodore Friedman is scheduled to speak at a
Youth Aliyah Dinner-Dance at the Henry Hudson Hotel sponsored by The North
Hudson New Jersey chapter of Hadassah
1951: The Tales of Hoffmann “a British Technicolor film
adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann,” co-directed by
Emeric Pressburger was released today in the United Kingdom.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported
that in the Knesset Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion sharply attacked Mapam in
the debate on the Prague trial, accusing it of duplicity and inability to face
the truth about the Soviet regime. The Knesset, by an overwhelming majority,
adopted a resolution expressing “its sense of shock at the trial now proceeding
in Prague, which had struck at the Jewish people... and on the attempts to
bring into disrepute the good name of the State of Israel.”
1952: In Bonn, “entrepreneur and tobacco industrialist
Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma” and his wife gave birth to Jan Philipp Reemtsma
“who hired a researcher” at the start of the 21st century to
examine the art collection he inherited from his father to make sure that none
of it had been looted by the Nazis from its rightful owners, many of whom would
have been Jewish.
1952: “Time Out For Ginger” a comedy starring Melvyn
Douglas (Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg) opened on Broadway today at the Lyceum
Theatre.
1953: Mister Kelly’s a nightclub owned and operated by
Oscar and George Marienthal opened today on Rush Street in Chicago.
1953(19th of Kislev, 5714):
Seventy-nine-year-old Mary Grossmann Buxbaum, the daughter of Ignaz and Anna
Rosenbaum Grossman and the wife of Louis Buxbaum passed away today after which
she was buried in Mount Sinai Cemetery in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
1954(1st of Kislev, 5715): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1954: Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion, said that through the use of dense
settlement and exploitation of natural resources Israel's southern Negev desert
could be restored to its ancient prosperity.
1954: Birthdate of Rosalind "Roz" Chast, the
Flatbush native who became an award-winning cartoonist for The New Yorker.
http://jwa.org/people/chast-roz
1956: Sixteen-year-old Ellery Schempp refused
to listen or to participate in the mandatory Bible-reading exercise of his high
school in the Abington School District outside of Philadelphia. According to
one source, Schempp was disciplined for reading from the Koran during his high
school’s mandatory Bible reading time. After being severely disciplined by the
district administrators, Ellery and his family initiated a lawsuit that would
ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court of the United States. The defendants
were the authorities of the Abington School District. In the end, the Supreme
Court ruled that religious recitations and prayers of any kind were in
violation of the Constitution of the United States if practiced in public
schools. Schempp was raised as a Unitarian. “The minor rebellion led to a
landmark Supreme Court case that (much to the relief of many Jewish students)
outlawed school-sponsored prayer.
1956: The Weightlifting competition at the 16th Olympiad
during which Ike Berger won a gold medal came to an end today.
1958: Birthdate of David Asper, a Canadian businessman and
lawyer who as served as the Executive Vice President of the Canadian
media company CanWest Global Communications Corp and as Chairman of the
National Post newspaper and a Professor at the Robson Hall Faculty of Law at
the University of Manitoba. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Asper is the eldest son
of the late Izzy Asper, founder of CanWest Global. He is the brother of Leonard
Asper, current president of CanWest Global. In the mid-1980s, Asper represented
David Milgaard, who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1970. With Asper
arguing the case before the Supreme Court of Canada, Milgaard's conviction was
overturned in 1992.[1] Asper endorsed Toronto Conservative candidate and former
Global news anchor Peter Kent in the 2006 Canadian federal election. Asper is a
former trustee of the Fraser Institute. Asper is also one of the main
proponents behind building a new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. If his
stadium proposal is accepted Asper will spend $100,000,000 of his own money to
finance part of the stadium and build a shopping complex on the stadium
grounds. In exchange he would become owner of the team, who are currently
community owned. He is currently in negotiations with the football clubs board
of governors over his stadium proposal. Asper is married to Ruth Asper and has
2 sons and a daughter: Daniel, Rebecca, and Max.
1958(14th of Kislev, 5719):
Sixty-two-year-old Yale alum and WW I veteran William Loeb the New
York born son of Albert and Rose Guggenheim and the husband of Mary Frank Loeb
with whom he had two daughters who was “a stockbroker and leader in charitable
affairs” passed away today.
1959(25th of Cheshvan, 5720): Seventy-eight-year-old
Austrian born Columbia University trained “physician and surgeon” Dr. Joseph F.
Saphir, the former “chief of proctology at Manhattan State Hospital” and the
husband of Elsa Saphir with whom he had had three daughters passed away today.
1960(7th of Kislev, 5720): Parshat Vayetzei
1960: In Newark, Delaware Elaine "Leni", a social
worker, and William Markell, who taught accounting at the University of
Delaware gave birth to Jack Alan Markell, the 73rd Governor of
the state of Delaware.
1960: ITV network transmitted the last episode of “The
Strange World of Gurney Slade” starring Anthony Newley who “devised the British
comedy series.”
1960: Seventy-eight-year-old Mississippi Congressman John
Rankin “the equal opportunity bigot” and outspoken anti-Semite who called
Walter Winchell a kike while speaking on the floor of the House of
Representatives and who attacked Albert Einstein passed away today.
1961(18th of Kislev, 5722): Anglo-Jewish
Zionist leader Israel Cohen who “from 1909 to the beginning of World War II
Cohen directed the English department of the Zionist Central Office in Cologne
and later in Berlin” and whose exciting life was chronicled in A Jewish
Pilgrimage: The Autobiography of Israel Cohen passed away today.
https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Jewish_Pilgrimage.html?id=-JMaAAAAIAAJ
1963(10th of Kislev, 5724): Sixty-seven-year-old
Dr. Otto Saphir, the Viennese born “director of the Department of Pathology at
Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center” and husband of Ethel Saphir with
whom he had had two children passed away today.
1964(21st of Kislev, 5725):
Sixty-nine-year-old “Dr. Joseph L. Fink, the Springfield, OH born son of “Rabbi
Mendel and Tillie Kagen Fiinkelstein and husband of Janice Gutfruend and the
rabbi emeritus of Temple Beth Zion in Buffalo, NY passed away today.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0105/ms0105.html
1964(21st of Kislev, 5725): Sixty-one-year-old
Herbert Solow the editor of the Menorah Journal who went from
being a follower of Trotsky to an editor of Fortune passed
away today.
1965(2nd Kislev, 5726): Eighty-year-old Sam
Shapiro, the husband of Esther Shapiro and the father of Gustave and David
Shapiro passed away today.
1965: “My Ship Is Comin’ In” a song written by Joey Brooks
was released today in the United Kingdom.
1966(13th of Kislev, 5727): Parashat
Vayishlach
1966(13th of Kislev, 5727): Fifty-eight-year-old
Philadelphia bornFannie Turnoff Belsky, the wife of Abraham Belsky passed away
today after which she was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Trevose, PA.
1966(13th of Kislev, 5727): Seventy-six-year-old
Galician Poland native Dr. Morris Teller, the son of Samuel and Annie Teller
who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania after which he was ordained
at JTS where he also received advanced degrees before serving as rabbi of the
South Side Hebrew Congregation and who was the husband of “the former Nellie
Ruby and the father of Sheldon Teller passed away today.
1966: NBC broadcast “Fame Is the Name of the Game” a
mystery movie directed by Stuart Rosenberg.
1967(23rd of Cheshvan, 5728):
Eighty-three-year-old movie executive Albert Warner, the Polish born son of
Benjamin "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser," a shoemaker born in
Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum, who was one of the four Warner brothers
who co-founded Warner Brothers along with Jack, Harry and Sam and who married
his second wife Bessie Levy after the death of his first wife Bessie Kreiger
passed away today.
1968(5th of Kislev, 5729):
Eighty-one-year-old prize-winning novelist Arnold Zweig passed away today.
https://lccn.loc.gov/n50015933
1969: Rabbis Gunter Hirschberg and Louis I Newman are
scheduled to take part in the interdenominational Thanksgiving service at Congregation
Rodeph Sholom this evening.
1971(8th of Kislev, 5732): Eighty-two-year-old “painter,
printmaker, designer, and educator, Doris Patty Rosenthal the Riverside,
CA born daughter of Julius Rosenthal and Anna Jane Unruh, “who made solitary
explorations into remote areas of Mexico in search of indigenous peoples”
passed away today.
https://www.dwigmore.com/doris-rosenthal
1973: “Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget
It)” with Ellen Greene in the title role has its first pre-Broadway performance
tonight.
1975: An ABC show titled "Saturday Night Live with
Howard Cosell" was cancelled today.
1976(4th of Kislev, 5737):
Eighty-four-year-old Vanderbilt University Medical School graduate, Julius A.
Haiman, “an ear, nose and throat specialist” and adjunct professor at
Polyclinic Hospital passed away today.
1976: The Organizing Committee of the symposium on Jewish
culture appealed to a number of international organizations and public figures
with a call for support.
1977: “A passage featured in Nelson Algren's 1983
book The Devil's Stocking was broadcast during the Southern
Television hoax which generated international publicity when students
interrupted the regular broadcast through the Hannington transmitter of the
Independent Broadcasting Authority in England for six minutes” today.
1980: Two months are premiering in the United States,
“Without Warning” a sci-fi film co-starring Martin Landau was released in
France.
1981: Boris Chernobylskii, who had previously been
“detained on the street” and kept in the police station for two days “was
arrested in Moscow” today after which the Moscow Municipal Court sentenced him
to 12 months of imprisonment.
1982: The New York Times reported that the number of Jewish
day schools was “on the rise, especially among the Orthodox as they catered to
the growing number of Orthodox youths, including the children of Soviet,
Israeli and Iranian immigrants.”
1982: Howard Cossell called his last fight
after being disgusted by the Larry Holmes-Tex Cobb mismatch.
1986: The New Yorker Magazine published "The
Way We Live Now" a short story about AIDS written by Jewish author Susan
Sontag.
1986: “Solarbabies,” a sci-fi film co-starring Jamie Gertz
was released in the United States today.
1986: U.S. premiere of “The Mosquito Coast” produced by Jerome
Hellman and featuring Jason Alexander
who would gain fame as “George Constanza” on “Seinfeld.”
1986: The trial of John Demjanjuk opened in the Jerusalem
District Court today.
1986: “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” directed by Leonard
Nimoy who also co-starred in the film with William Shatner was released today
in North America
1987: Five people were injured in the bombing of a military
bus stop in Israel.
1988(17th of Kislev, 5749): Seventy-six-year-old
Werner Julius Seligmann, the son of Frantz Seligmann and Erna Seligmann and
husband of Irma Seligmann passed away today in Notevideo.
1989: The New York Times included a review
of The Jews In America: Four Centuries of an Uneasy Encounter by
Arthur Hertzberg.
1990(9th of Kislev, 5751): Ninety-three-year-old
Samuel Noah Kramer the Ukraine born husband of the former Mildred Tokarsky and
the award-winning authority on Sumerian literature and culture passed away
today. (As reported by John Noble Wilford)
1991(19th of Kislev, 5752:
Seventy-seven-year-old advertising man Norman B. Norman, “a founder and
longtime chief executive of Norman, Craig and Kummel” the WW II Navy veteran
and husband of the former Gail Snyder passed away today.
1992(1st of Kislev, 5753): Rosh
Chodesh Kislev
1992: FOX broadcast the final episode of “The Heights” a
short lived “musical drama series” created by Eric Roth.
1992(1st of Kislev, 5753): Ninety-year-old
Bernard M. Baruch, Jr., the son of the fame financier passed away today.
1993(12th of Kislev, 5754): Seventy-six-year-old
Adele Korff Gass, the daughter of Rabbi Yaakov Yisroel “Zviller Rebbe” Korff
and Gittel Goldman Korff, the wife of Max H. Gass and the mother of Jay
Marshall Gass passed away today after which she was buried in the Netzah Israel
Cemetery in Everett, MA.
1993(12th of Kislev, 5754):
Eighty-two-year-old Brazilian born American composer Bernardo Segall, the
nephew of painter Lasar Segall passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-01/local/me-62674_1_bernardo-segall
1994: CTV broadcast the last episode of “Robo Cop” the
television series produced by Jay Firestone, the son of Esther Firestone, the
first female cantor in Canada.
1995: Showtime broadcast “Red Wind,” the final episode of
“Fallen Angels” an anthology series developed by Steve Golin with theme music
by Elmer Bernstein.
1996: Publication of The Book of Jewish Food: An
Odyssey from Samarkand to New York by Claudia Roden.
1997: “Alien: Resurrection” a sci-fi horror film
co-starring Winona Ryder and Ron Perlman was released in the United States
today.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest
including Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply
District by Ben Katchor
2001(11th of Kislev, 5762): A Palestinian suicide bomber
killed himself and lightly wounded two Border Policemen at the Erez crossing
point in the Gaza Strip.
2001: Eric Moonman “appeared at an ‘Executive Luncheon”
hosted by the Centre for Counter Studies during which he said he thought the
media had been, "highly responsible and supportive of U.S. and
international efforts to root out terrorism" and that when it came to
fighting terrorism “we can’t afford to abide by the Queensbury rules of war in
the face of such a dangerous and unscrupulous threat."
2002: “Ala Sabaar, a commander of the Aksa Martyrs Brigade,
an armed wing of the Fatah movement of Yasir Arafat, and Aimad Nasharta, an
area leader of the militant group Hamas” were killed tonight when the house
they were staying in exploded because according to the Palestinians who offered
no evidence it had been attacked by an Apache helicopter or an IAF fighter
plane.
2003(1st of Kislev, 5764): Rosh Chodesh
Kislev
2003(1st of Kislev, 5764):
Seventy-seven-year-old composer Myer Kupferman passed away today. (As reported
by Allan Kozinn)
http://www.meyerkupferman.com/
2004: In “Nazi Defendants Venting” published today, William
Grimes provides a lengthy review of The Nuremberg Interviews An
American Psychiatrist's Conversations With the Defendants and Witnesses
Conducted by Leon Goldensohn. Edited and introduced by Robert Gellately.
2005: Start of Jewish Book Month sponsored by the Jewish
Book Council. According to its website, “The mission of the Jewish
Book Council is to promote the reading, writing and publishing of quality
English language books of Jewish content in North America. To carry out its
mission, the Jewish Book Council sponsors a variety of activities and programs.
The most widely known are the National Jewish Book Awards, established in
1948/9, and the Jewish Book Month. Its publications include Jewish Book
Annual and Jewish Book World.”
2005: Sharon Fichman defeated Pemra Özgen to win the tennis
tournament at Ashkelon.
2005(3rd of Kislev, 5707): Children’s author and
illustrator Stan Berenstain passed away. He and his wife Jan are
best known for creating the children’s book series, “The Berenstein Bears.”
2006: Juilliard instructor Samuel Zyman praises the talent
of Jay “Bluejay” Greenberg during an interview on tonight’s broadcast of CBS
News 60 Minutes.
2006: Just in time for Jewish Book Month, The
Sunday Washington Post book section featured a review of Somewhere:
The Life of Jerome Robbins by Amdanda Vail.
2006: The Sunday New York Times list of
“100 Notable Books of the Year” includes the following volumes by Jewish
authors or about Jewish topics: Everyman by Philip Roth, Golden
Country by Jennifer Gilmore, Intuition by
Allegra Goodman, A Woman in Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua, Courtier
and The Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the
Modern World by Matthew Stewart. Greatest
Story Ever Told: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina by
Frank Rich, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, by
Daniel Mendelsohn, Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew Across the
Middle East Divide by Jeffrey Goldberg and Sweet and
Low: A Family Story, by Rich Cohen.
2006: In Auckland, New Zealand, The
Governor-General of New Zealand, gives a speech at event celebrating one
hundred years of the Auckland Chevra Kadisha and Benevolent Society attended by
Hon Judith Tizard; President of the Auckland Chevra Kadisha and Benevolent
Society, Sonny Beder; President of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation, Rabbi
Jack Engel and former President, Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence.
2006(5th of Kislev, 5767): Eighty-eight-year-old Jeanne
Lesser who had been married to Louis Lesser for more than 70 years passed away
today.
2007: Holocaust denier David Irving and Nick Griffin
anti-Semitic leader of the British National party are scheduled to speak at the
Free Speech Forum sponsored by the Oxford Union. Britain’s defense
secretary Des Browne, three British lawmakers and Labour Party leader Denis
MacShane have all refused to appear before the group because of Irving and
Griffin.
2007: In Jerusalem the Uganda Pub hosts an Ethiopian
evening – music, films, food, lectures and even Ethiopian beer - followed by DJ
and dancing.
2007: Premiere of “Boy A” starring Andrew Garfield as “Eric
Wilson / Jack Burridge.
2007(16th of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-four-year-old
comedy writer Mel Tolkin, “the man who made Sid Caser funny” passed away today.
2008: The OU Bicentennial Convention opens in Jerusalem.
2008: Premiere of “The Joy of Singing” a French film
directed by Ilan Duran Cohen.
2008: The 92nd Street Y hosts an Israeli
Folk Dance Thanksgiving Marathon.
2008: After months of delay, the Supreme Court is due to
hear a petition regarding the 20,000 Subbotnik Jews of Russia, many of whom
have found it increasingly difficult in recent years to get permission to make
Aliyah
2008: Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz notified Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday that he planned to indict him on several
criminal charges relating to the Rishon Tours affair.
2008(28th of Cheshvan, 5769): Bentzion Chroman, who
survived an earthquake in China earlier this year, was killed when a terrorist
invaded the Mumbai Chabad House where he had stopped briefly today for the
afternoon minhah prayer. Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, who helped
supervise kashrut was also killed in the attack. Other victims of the terrorist
attack on the Mumbai Chabad House included Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his
pregnant wife Rivka and Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich.
2008: “Saul Steinberg: Illuminations,” a travelling
exhibition, which will displayed original Steinberg works opened in London.
2008: “Milk” a biopic about Harvey Milk, the son of
Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, produced by Bruce Cohen with music by Danny
Elfman was released in the United States today.
2009: At the Sixth & I Lunch & Learn Rabbi Ethan
Seidel leads a class studying unsettling stories containing elements of
relativism, confusion, acknowledgment of chaos, and distrust of authority.
2009: Tikvat Israel Synagogue in Rockville, MD, features an
evening of Israeli folk dancing.
2009: Hamshushalayim, a three-weekend-long festival, opens
in Jerusalem.
2009: Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat told Likud
activists this evening that “I do not envy the prime minister because I know he
is in distress. It isn’t easy to face an American President.”
2009: This evening, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired
five mortar shells toward the western Negev. The shells landed in an open field
in the Eshkol region, causing no casualties or damage.
2009: Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks gave his
first speech in the House of Lords during which he “apid homage to Britan an
said it was a sense of indebtedness to the country that drives Jews to make the
vast contribution they make to society.”
2009: Belgian attorney and politician Mischaël Modrikamen,
the son of Marcel Modrikamen whose father was “a Jewish immigrant from Poland
who had fled anti-Semitism” launched the People's Party (PP,) which, he
claimed, was based on the values of justice, responsibility and solidarity.
2010: The New York Times Reviews Nora Ephron’s Last Book
http://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/26/2010/nora-ephron
2010: The National Museum of American Jewish History opens
in Philadelphia, PA
2010: In Brussels, opening of Party Like a Jew a fun-filled
weekend organized by the European Centre for Jewish Students (ECJS), the
largest European organization for young adults in Europe.
2010(19th of Kislev, 5771): “Rosh Hashanah
of Chassidism.” The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is
celebrated as the "the New Year of Chassidus (Hasidism)." “It was on
this date, in the year 1798 that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi
Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812), was freed from his imprisonment in czarist
Russia. More than a personal liberation, this was a watershed event in the
history of Chassidism, heralding a new era in the revelation of the “inner
soul” of Torah. The public dissemination of the teachings of Chassidism had in
fact begun two generations earlier. The founder of the chassidic movement,
Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698–1760), revealed to his disciples gleanings
from the mystical soul of Torah which had previously been the sole province of
select kabbalists in each generation. This work was continued by the Baal Shem
Tov’s disciple, Rabbi DovBer, the “Maggid of Mezeritch”—who is also deeply
connected with the date of “19 Kislev”: on this day in 1772, 26 years before Rabbi
Schneur Zalman’s release from prison, the Maggid returned his soul to his
Maker. Before his passing, he said to his disciple, Rabbi Schneur Zalman: “This
day is our yom tov (festival).” Rabbi Schneur Zalman went much farther than his
predecessors, bringing these teachings to broader segments of the Jewish
population of Eastern Europe. More significantly, Rabbi Schneur Zalman founded
the “Chabad” approach—a philosophy and system of study, meditation, and
character refinement that made these abstract concepts rationally
comprehensible and practically applicable in daily life. In its formative
years, the chassidic movement was the object of strong, and often venomous,
opposition from establishment rabbis and laymen. Even within the chassidic
community, a number of Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s contemporaries and colleagues
felt that he had “gone too far” in tangibilizing and popularizing the hitherto
hidden soul of Torah. In the fall of 1798, Rabbi Schneur Zalman was arrested on
charges that his teachings and activities threatened the imperial authority of
the czar, and was imprisoned in an island fortress in the Neva River in
Petersburg. In his interrogations, he was compelled to present to the czar’s
ministers the basic tenets of Judaism and explain various points of chassidic
philosophy and practice. After 53 days, he was exonerated of all charges and
released. Rabbi Schneur Zalman saw these events as a reflection of what was
transpiring Above. He regarded his arrest as but the earthly echo of a Heavenly
indictment against his revelation of the most intimate secrets of the Torah.
And he saw his release as signifying his vindication in the Heavenly court.
Following his liberation on 19 Kislev, he redoubled his efforts, disseminating
his teachings on a far broader scale, and with more detailed and
“down-to-earth” explanations, than before. The nineteenth of Kislev therefore
marks the “birth” of Chassidism: the point at which it was allowed to emerge
from the womb of “mysticism” into the light of day, to grow and develop as an
integral part of Torah and Jewish life.”
2010(19th of Kislev, 5711): Yahrtzeit of
the Maggid of Mezritch, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov
2010: Alice Herz-Sommer turned 107 today and is the world’s
oldest known Holocaust survivor, as well as being the second oldest resident of
London, England.
http://www.nickreedent.com/index.htm
2011: Pianist Taiyuan Stepanov and clarinetists Alex &
Daniel Gurfinkel are scheduled to perform “Clarient with a French Flavor at the
Eden Tamir Music Center in Ein Kerem-Jerusalem.
2011: Penultimate performance of Arthur Miller’s “After the
Fall” sponsored by Theatre J (an arm of the DC Jewish Community Center) is
scheduled to take place tonight in Washington, DC.
2011: A Kassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into
southern Israel exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council area early today.
2011: The Israel Air Force struck two centers of terrorist
activity in the southern and central Gaza Strip tonight in response to rocket
fire into southern Israel, according to the IDF Spokesman's office.
2012: David Siegel, the Consul General of Israel in Los
Angeles is scheduled to speak at Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills.
2012: A scheduled screening of “Killing Kasztner, The Jews
that Dealt with the Nazis” at the Upper East Side Chabad will be followed by a
discussion led by the film’s director and Dr. Joseph Berger, Holocaust survivor
saved by Kasztner.
2012: Ehud Barak, who over a half-century career became
Israel’s most decorated soldier and held the nation’s trifecta of top positions
— chief of staff of the military, prime minister and, since 2007, defense
minister — announced today that he would soon “leave political life,”
withdrawing from elections scheduled for Jan. 22.
2012: The French Consulate in Jerusalem recently hosted as
a guest of honor a Palestinian terrorist, Salah Hamouri, who was convicted of
plotting to kill Ovadia Yosef, a former chief rabbi of Israel and the spiritual
leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, an Israeli newspaper reported today.
2013: Jewish Book is scheduled to come to an end today.
2013: Robert Levinson, “if he is still alive” today “become
the longest held hostage in American history.”
2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present
“The Reconquest of Jewishness in Post-War America: Will Herberg and Irving Howe
2013: Rabbi Jonah Layman is scheduled to lead the Greater
Olney Interfaith Thanksgiving Service at Shaare Tefila.
2013: Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest living Holocaust
survivor who is the subject of “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” is
scheduled to celebrate her 110th birthday
http://www.timesofisrael.com/109-year-old-survivor-may-be-headed-to-the-oscars/
2013: Fifth anniversary of the Mumbai Massacre a terrorist
attack on Westerner and Hindus and institutions that they used
including the Naiman House, the Chabad Center where Jews, regardless of their
affiliation could always find comfort and a meal. The victims included Rabbi
Gavriel Holtzberg, his pregnant wife Rivka, Israelis Bentzion Kruman and
Yoheved Orpaz, Brooklyn Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum and Mexican Jewess Norma
Rabinovich.
2013(23rd of Kislev, 5774):
Sixty-six-year-old Guiora Esrubilsky, “a prominent Argentinian businessman bas
in Florida” who “presided over last summer’s Maccabiah Games” passed away
today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/guiora-esrubilsky-maccabi-world-union-head-dies/
2013(23rd of Kislev): Seventy-four-year-old
legendary Israeli performer Arik Einstein passed away today. (As reported by
Elad Benari)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/174509#.UpUsIZuA2po
2013(23rd of Kislev): Ninety-year-old
Israel Prize Winner Bracha Kapach passed away one day before the 96th anniversary
of the birth of husband Rabbi Yosef Kapach.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bracha-kapach-israel-prize-winning-charity-organizer-dies-at-90/
2013(23rd of Kislev, 5774):
Eight-nine-year-old photographer Saul Leiter passed away today. (As reported by
Margalit Fox)
http://www.gallery51.com/index.php?navigatieid=9&fotograafid=15
2014: In the UK The Wiener Library for the Study of the
Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host “The Crooked Mirror: A Memoir of
Polish-Jewish Reconciliation?”
2014: In Melbourne, “The Israeli Code” and “Shtisel” are
scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014: “Interior Minister Gilad Erdan canceled the residency
permit of the widow of one of the Har Nof synagogue killers today, effectively
deporting her out of Israeli territory and stripping her of any financial or
social benefits.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: “Torrential rains continued to sweep across much of
Israel rasing the levels of the Sea of Galilee by 3.5 centimeters (1.37 inches)
marking the highest one-day rise of the so for the the lake that is one of
Israel’s key water sources. (As reported by Spence Ho)
2015: ”Less than two weeks since the bride’s father Rabbi
Yaakov Litman, and her 18-year-old brother Netanel were shot dead in a
terrorist attack as they drove on Route 60 in the southern West Bank on
November 13” Sarah Techiya Litman and Ariel Biegel were married this evening at
the elevated plaza in front of Jerusalem’s International Convention Center. (As
reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)
2015(14th Kislev, 5776): Sixty-five-year-old
“Amir D. Aczel, a science writer who took readers on a mathematical mystery
tour in “Fermat’s Last Theorem,” his account of how a famous 300-year-old
problem in number theory was finally solved in the 1990s, and went on to write
more than a dozen popular books on intriguing scientific ideas and discoveries”
passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2015: The Chaplains of the Oxford University Jewish Society
are scheduled to host Thanksgiving Dinner in their home with a traditional
Turkey dinner, pumpkin pie “and all of the trimmings.”
2015: In London, Professor Roger Luckhurst, Birkbeck,
University of London is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Blood Fractions: The
Octoroon and Other Fantasies” at the Jewish Museum.
2016(25th of Cheshvan, 5777): Parashat
Chayei Sara
2016: “Two Palestinians were arrested” this “morning on
suspicion of starting a fire” that devastated the settlement of Halamish” but
were later released.
2016: Standing amidst the ruins of their restaurant Rama’s
Kitchen which had been by raging wildfire, Rama Ben Zvi and Maya Ben Zvi said
they would re-build “but that it take time” in part because they were “still
coming to terms with the loss.”
2016: “Monsieur Mayonnaise” and “Dark Diamond” are
scheduled to be shown in Melbourne as part of the Jewish International Film
Festival.
2017: The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Wine Lover’s Daughter: A Memoir by Anne Fadiman
and In Deadly Cure by Lawrence Goldstone.
2017: Marc “Trestman won his third Grey Cup with the
Argonauts defeated the Stampeders, 27-24.”
2017: Rhe Studio of the Jerusalem Conservatory “Hassadna”
is scheduled to host “Hineh ma Tov!” the annual concert of works by Israeli
composer Emanuel Vahl.
2017: “The Calcalist business daily reported” today that
“US e-commerce behemoth Amazon is preparing to launch retail sales activities
in Israel and is in talks to rent 25,000 sq. meters (260,000 sq. ft.) of
storage space in central Israel to provide the local market with products.”
2017: The 21st UK International Jewish Film
Festival is scheduled to come to an end today.
2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us
with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as
Bernard Lewis whose works included Semites and Anti-Semites and The
Muslim Discovery of Europe continues today.
2018: Tobi Kahn, Rabbi Dianne Cohler-Esses and Rabbi Esther
Azar are scheduled to lecture on “Artist’s Beit Midrash: Re-Reading Torah.”
2018: Tenth anniversary of terrorist attack on Hariman
House in Mumbai.
2018: Biet Avi Chai is scheduled to host Professor Daniel
R. Schwartz of Hebrew University lecturing on “Two Views of the Maccabean
Revolt”
2018: In Israel businesses are scheduled to take part in
Cyber Monday as can be seen by “Hazorfim’s Cyber Monday Sale” https://hazorfim.com/en/sale.html and
El Al’s Cyber Monday sales https://hazorfim.com/en/sale.html
2019: In Metairie, LA, the Slater Torah Academy is
scheduled to host its Thanksgiving Dinner.
2019: As part of the UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled
to a host a screening “It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story” at the City Screen
Picturehouse at York.
2019: In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled
to host Rina Z. Neiman as she discusses Born Under Fire, “her debut
novel based on the story of her mother, a child prodigy pianist in 1940’s
pre-state Israel.”
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/rina-z-neiman
https://www.bornunderfire.com/
2020: Virtual Tour with Josh Hartuv is scheduled to host
“Sea to Sea Hike” an hour long version of the three day trek from the
Mediterranean to Kinneret
2020: ““The Soul Experience” with Rabbi Baruch HaLevi
(Rabbi B) and Ariela HaLevi (formerly of Congregation Shirat Hayam), a virtual,
spiritual and healing service incorporating Jewish-inspired prayer, meditation,
mindfulness practice, chanting, singing, yoga, mystical text study, guided
visualization and more” is scheduled to take place today.
2020: In Palm Beach Gardens, Temple Judea is scheduled to
host a virtual Thanksgiving Minyan with Cantorial Soloist.
2020: Israelis today will see continued rainfall mostly in
central and northern Israel, along with some thunderstorms in some areas.
Southern Israel that so far this season has not seen a lot of rainfall, will
see mostly local showers.
2020: Congregation B’nai Torah is scheduled to present “a
festive family Thanksgiving day service”
2020: Thanksgiving
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/do-jews-celebrate-thanksgiving
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/is-thanksgiving-kosher
https://www.jewishboston.com/why-jews-love-thanksgiving/
2021: Based on reports published yesterday, as of
today said Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and the United Arab
Emirates are among countries are barred from importing Israeli cyber tech as
the list of countries licensed to buy it has been cut to just 37 states, down
from 102. (As reported by YNET)
2021: As Jews prepare to observe Shabbat, they can take
some measure of “joy” in the report that Pope Francis will canonize Titus
Brandsma, a Dutch priest, academic and journalist who was murdered in the
Dachau concentration camp in 1942 for preaching against the Nazis, Pope
Francis will canonize Titus Brandsma, a Dutch priest, academic and journalist
who spoke out against anti-Jewish laws during the occupation of his country and
who was murdered in the Dachau concentration camp in 1942 for preaching against
the Nazis.
2021: Black Friday falls two days before the kindle of the
first light of Channukah giving some a chance to complain about commercialism
in general and the commercialization of Channukah in general which leaves
readers to wonder how many of them will be in the synagogue each day for the
Torah readings during the festival of lights.
2021: The Sixth and Synagogue provides “Shabbat at Home
Resources,” a website designed to provide the materials in a user friendly
manner to make for a more meaningful Erev Shabbat experience.
https://www.sixthandi.org/event/shabbat-at-home-resources-19/
2022: The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to present
“Ensemble Millennium/Toscanini Quartet, Ensemble in Residence and Friends.”
2022: The Tel Aviv Arts Council is scheduled to present
“Sigdiada Ethiopian Music Festival.”
2022: Based on previously published information, Itamar
Ben-Gvir the leader of “the far-right Otzma Yehudit party” is scheduled to
become the Minister for National Security in the government of prime
minister-designate Netanyahu.( YNET)
2022: In Tel Aviv, the Nigun Quarter is scheduled “to the
fabulous Shablul – one of Tel Aviv’s most prolific jazz clubs.”
2022(2nd of Kislev, 5783): Parashat Toldot;
2023: The S.Y. Agnon house is scheduled to host
a new series of lectures starting today with author and psychologist Esther
Peled.
2023: As November 26 begins anti-Semitism from the Left and
the Right continues to increase as the rest of the Hamas held hostages
begin day 51 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)
2024: The Phoenix Picturehouse in Oxford is scheduled to
host “an evening of poignant and entertaining short films exploring
British-Jewish life including Our Neighbour's Ass starring Maureen
Lipman as the owner of a pet donkey who terrorizes the residents of the
cul-de-sac where it lives
2024: In New Orleans the Executive Committee of the
National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to meet today.
2024: The Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Authors’ Series,
honoring Theodore and Caroline Newhouse and Susan Newhouse is scheduled to
sponsor another session of “Women on the Move” with best-selling author Joyce
Manard.
2024: Central Synagogue is schedule another of its organ
recital which this time features musicians from the Julliard School
2024: As November 26th begins in Israel, an unprecedented
wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist
passengers on a New York subway to raise their hands, demonstrations at a high
school production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” and the beating of a college
student in Chicago sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin
day 417 in captivity while Israelis brace for more rocket attacks by Hezbollah,
Iran and terrorists based in Iraq (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)
