This Day, November 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
November 29
800: Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope
Leo III. Leo and Charlemagne were allies.
Charlemagne would exonerate Leo of the charges and Leo would crown
Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
This was “good for the Jews” since Charlemagne was protective of his
Jewish subjects at a time when many were using the sword of Constantine to
advance the cause of the Cross of Christ.
1226: At the Reims Cathedral, coronation of Louis IX who at the request of
the Pope Gregory burned “24 cartload of Jewish books in 1242, made plans to
expel the Jews after confiscating their property and ordered them to wear a
“Jew’s badge” and “to listen to missionary sermons”
1268: Pope Clement IV, who in 1264 “renewed the prohibition of the Talmud
promulgated by Gregory IX, who had it publicly burnt in France and in Italy”
and who “ordered that the Jews of Aragon submit their books to Dominican
censors for expurgation” passed away today
1314: Although he would not be officially crowned un 1315, Louis X, who
overturned the decision of his father, Phillip the Fair, to ban Jews from his
realm began his reign as King of France.
1378: Sixty-two-year-old Charles VI, “the first King of Bohemia to also
become Holy Roman Emperor” whose classification of the Jews in Frankfort as
“vassals of the emperor” was not enough to halt the 1349 Pogrom in that city
passed away today.
1378: Wenceslaus IV who as Emperor failed to continue the Imperial
protection of the Jews of Luxembourg which led to their expulsion in 1391 began
his reign as King of Bohemia today.
1394: Massacre of the Jews of Augsburg Germany.
1424: According to some sources, Anti-Pope Benedict XIII passed away. In an attempt to curry favor and consolidate
his position, Benedict conducted an aggressive program of forced conversion
among Jews that included the issuance of a Bull that prohibited study of the
Talmud, banned Jews from holding public office, practicing medicine, engaging
in crafts, trading or bathing with Christians, wear a red or yellow badge and
compelled them listen to at least three sermons a year during Advent.
1558: Miles Cloverdale, a translator of the Bible into English who relied on
Luther’s Bible and the Vulgate but who did have some knowledge of Hebrew as can
be seen by the fact that “the name of the Deity appears in Hebrew on the Title
Page” and that Hebrew characters are used to mark the divisions of the Book of
Lamentations” was godfather to John Knox's son today.
1630: The future King John IV of Portugal who was erroneously reported to
have employed the Jewish doctor Fernando Menes as his physician bean his reign
today as the Duke of Braganza.
1655: The Brazilian/Dutch Jews of New Amsterdam make an application for a
license to enter the fur trade. It was later denied.
1661: Anglican priest and scholar, Brian Walton, the editor of the London
Polyglot Bible, the first four volumes of which contained the text of the Old
Testament in Hebrew, passed away today.
1672(20th of Kislev, 5433): Moses Jacob Schiff-KaZ, z. Goldstein,
the of Jacob (Jakew-Jaakow) Schiff-KaZ, z Schiff and Gutlin (Gitle) Schiff-KaZ
and husband of Freidchen/Freudchen Schiff-KaZ passed away today at
Frankurt-am-Main
1755(25th of Kislev, 5516): Parashat Vayehsev; Shabbat Shel
Chanukah on the first day of the holiday.
1769: In Savannah, GA, Sara De La Motta and Levi Sheftall gave birth to
Sarah Sheftall, the wife of Abraham De Lyon with whom she had ten children.
1774(26th of Kislev, 5535): Second day of Channukah
1777: San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de
Guadalupe. Jews began to play an active role in the affairs of San Jose at
the time of the Gold Rush in 1849.
http://www.sanjose.com/history/jews/ San Jose History - San Jose's Jewish
Community
1790: The Jews of Hungary handed a petition, in which they presented their
claims to equality with other citizens, to King Leopold II at Vienna. Written in Latin, probably at the behest of
the Rosenthal family, “it read, in part ‘At long last, permit us to be citizens
useful taxpayers of the fatherland. In
the whole world, outside Hungary we have no fatherland, no other father than
the King…no other brothers than those with whom we live and die one society.’”
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rosenthal_Family
1790: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Lewis Silver, the husband of Leah
Abrahams.
1793(25th of Kislev, 5554): As the citizens of Philadelphia
recover from a yellow fever epidemic that took the lives of 5,000 and France
coped with the Reign of Terror and Jews experience life under two “Georges”
(George Washington and King George III) Jews on both sides of the Atlantic
celebrate Chanukah
1797: Seventy-four year old Reverend Samuel Langdon, the former President of
Harvard College passed away today. As can be seen by a sermon he preached in
the New Hampshire Legislature “The Republic of the Israelites an Example to the
American States” who believed that the Old Testament and the ancient Hebrews
provided the foundation of the democracy being championed in the newly formed
United States. He saw “Moses as a
destroyer of tyranny” and the seventy men appointed chosen to assist Moses as
the prototype for a “Senate.”
1803” Birthdate of Gottfried Semper who the German architect who designed a
synagogue built in Dresden between 1838 and 1840 known as the “Semper
Synagogue” that contained a “a silver lamp of eternal light” that caught the
“fancy” of Cosima and Richard Wagner who spent a lot of money “to have a copy”
of the lamp made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Semper#mediaviewer/File:Alte_Synagoge_Dresden_1860_2.png
1806: Napoleon wrote to Minister of the Interior Champagny, “[It is
necessary to] reduce, if not destroy, the tendency of Jewish people to practice
a very great number of activities that are harmful to civilization and to
public order in society in all the countries of the world. It is necessary to
stop the harm by preventing it; to prevent it it is necessary to change the
Jews. [...] Once part of their youth will take its place in our armies, they
will cease to have Jewish interests and sentiments; their interests and
sentiments will be French.”
1807: Birthdate of Jonas Warburg, the husband of Bernhardine Wetzlar.
1809(21st of Kislev, 5570): Sixty-five year old New York native Moses
Seixas, the eldest son of Isaac Mendez Seixas who was one of the founders
(1795) of the Newport Bank of Rhode Island, of which he was cashier until his
death and who addressed a letter of welcome in the name of the congregation to
George Washington when the latter visited Newport, and it was to him that
Washington's answer was addressed passed away today in Newport, RI.
1812: Isaac Isaacs married Elizabeth Davis at the Great Synagogue today.
1812: Napoleon's Grand
Army crossed the Berezina River in its retreat from Russia which marked the
beginning of the end for Napoleon and therefore also marked the beginning of
the end of new found freedom that Jews had begun to experience in most of
Germany, Italy and Russia when the French Armies marched across these lands
bringing the message of “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” on the tips of their bayonets.
1813: In Alsace, France, Isaac Dreyfus, the Alsace born son of Jacob
Dreyfus, and his wife Gertrude “Julie” Dreyfus gave birth to Gertrude Dreyfus
who became Gertrude Bernheim when she married Leopold Bernheim with whom she
had nine children.
1820: In New York City, first publication of
Israel Vindicated by an anonymous author who styled him or herself as “An
Israelite.” “The work was ‘a refutation
of the calumnies propagated respecting the Jewish nation; in which the objects
and views of the American Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews
are investigated.’” The original subtitle also contained the additional words
“‘and reasons assigned for rejecting the Christian religion.’” In his monograph
entitled “The Freethinker, the Jews and the Missionaries,” Professor Jonathan
Sarna contends that the book was the work of a freethinker named George Houston
who was assisted by a Jewish printer named Abraham Collins.
1830: The November Uprising also known as the Cadet Uprising begins in
Warsaw when a group of Polish non-commissioned officers began an unsuccessful
attempt to throw off the yoke of Russian rule. Josef Berkowicz, whose father
had commanded a Jewish legion in the 1794 Uprising and who had fought alongside
his father in the Battle of Kock, was a leader in what would prove to be
another failed attempt to gain Polish independence.
1831(24th of Kislev, 5592): In the evening, kindle the first
Chanukah light
1831(24th of Kislev, 5592): Poet Moshe Shmuel Neumann, the
Hungarian born son of “a poor cantor” who overcame numerous hardships to
develop “a master’s command of the Hebrew Language” and who also “compiled a
geography, a Biblical history for the young and an elementary arithmetic” while
raising a son, Asher Enshil Naiman the husband of Hadassah Naiman, passed away
today.
1832: In Camden, SC, Hayman Levy, the son of Solomon and Rebecca Eve Levy,
and his wife Almeria Levy gave birth to Rebecca Hendricks Samuel
1840: Two days after he had passed away, 70 year old Woolf Solomons was
buried at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery” today.
1840: In Plymouth England, Henry and Rose Cohen gave birth to Josiah Cohen,
“one of the founders along with Dr. Isaac M. Wise of the Union of American
Congregations and the husband of Carrie Naumburg, who became a successful
American lawyer and Republican Party leader who was “appointed judge of the
orphans’ court in Allegheny County (PA)” in 1901.
1842(26th Kislev, 5603): Second day of Chanukah
1843: Birthdate of London native, Deborah Aaron, the wife of Joseph
Hobinstock Woolf.
1845(29th of Cheshvan, 5606): Parashat Tolodot
1845: After having been invited to address the congregation, Dr. M.
Lilienthal, who had only recently arrived in the United States delivered a
sermon in German at the Henry Street Synagogue in New York City after having
been invited to address the congregation.
1846: Two days after she had passed away, 78 year old Hannah Abraham, the
wife of John Abraham, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish
Cemetery.”
1849: In “Kollin, Bohemia,” Rabbi Bernhard Illoway and Katherine Schiff gave
birth to Dr. Illoway, the Miami Medical College trained physician who was the
“professor of Diseases of Children at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and
Surger and the visiting physician at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati.”
1850(24th of Kislev, 5611): Kindle the first Chanukah light
1851(5th of Kislev, 5612): Parashat Toldot
1851(5th of Kislev, 5612): Jacob Lyon, the native of Poland who
came to Richmond, VA, at the 18th of century where he became a
successful merchant and whose third wife was Eliza White passed away today.
1853: Reverend Francis N. Vinton, D. D delivered a lecture entitled
"The Merchant, or the Progress and Influence of Commerce" during
which he stated that the Jews had invented the first bills of exchange in
1160. This invention was so important
that soon it would be impossible to transact business without using them. Furthermore, the Jews created one of the
first banks, at Boscoe, but it was used merely as depository for Gold. (Boscoe
was probably a city in Italy.)
1854: In Charleston, SC, at the Hasell Street Synagogue, Rabbi Mayer
officiated at the wedding of Israel Ottolengui to Rosalie C. Moise the youngest
daughter of Mrs. R.C. Moise.
1855:
Most of the Jews of New York City celebrated Thanksgiving today by “eating
hearty dinners” and giving thanks “in private.”
1855:
During his Thanksgiving Day sermon, Rabbi Morris Raphael rebuked New York’s
Governor Clarke for issuing a proclamation inviting “only patriots and
Christians to keep Thanksgiving.” At the same time, he commended Mayor Wood for
inviting “all the people” to join in observing the holiday.
1855:
Rabbi S.M. Isaacs delivered the sermon during Thanksgiving Day services at
Shaaray Tefillah, the synagogue on Wooster Street.
1856: A pro-Zionist meeting was held in Great Britain at the Great Assembly
Hall of Miles End. There was a "great rush into the building" with
most seats taken quickly. The meeting was presided over by Dr. M. Gaster, Chief
Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, and among those present were
Sir Francis Montefiore.
1857: Birthdate of Cincinnati native and businessman Louis S. Levi, an
“officer of the United Jewish Charities” and the member of the board of Hebrew
Union College.
1858: It was reported from Boston that the Jews of that city have a held a
meeting to express their outrage over what has happened in Bologna. “The theft
of the child is an outrage of the worst kind and shows there are men in the old
Church ready to go as far as did their predecessors of the old days, when the
Inquisition was a great fact, and a very disagreeable one, too.” [This refers to the kidnapping of Edgardo
Mortara which had taken place in Bologna and became known as the Mortara
Affair.]
1859: Lazarus Simon, the son of English coal merchant Simon Magnus accepted
a commission as a Captain in the newly formed 4th Corps of the 1st Brigade of
the Kent Voluntary Artillery
1859:
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Abraham Printz and Rose Wohlgemuth Printz gave
birth to Bert H. Prinz who came the United States in 1864 and opened several
stores in Pennsylvania and New York before opening "Printz Company Men's
Clothing and Furnishing in Youngstown, Ohio which became the headquarters of
his commercial enterprises.
1860(15th
of Kislev, 5621): In Belovar, Rumania, Joseph Hirsch and Feige Herman gave
birth to Bayonne, NJ manufacturer of cloth caps and hats Jacob Herman who in
1885 came to the United States where he founded Herman Brothers, helped to
found and/or organize Temple Emanu-El and the Roumanian Congregation of New
York and married Rebecca Leah Vickoron with whom he had three sons and seven
daughters.
1860:
In San Francisco, “The Episcopalians, the Roman Catholics and the Jews, all
opened their churches…” for the celebration of Thanksgiving. The Jewish Church is probably a reference to Congregation Sherith Israel and Congregation Emanu-El.
Sherith Israel which was founded in 1849 had about 110 members and consecrated
its first synagogue which was located on Stockton Street in September of 1852.
Emanu-El which followed the Reform minchag had about 260 members and dedicated
it sanctuary in 1854.
1861: In New York Leopold and Kate gave to attorney David Gerber
who became a partner of Judge A.J. Dittenhoefer.
1862: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Louis and Emma (Goodhart) Heinsheimer
gave birth to Stella Heinshier. In 1894
she married J. Walter Freiberg, a partner in Frieberg and Workum,
Distillers. As Stella Heinshier Frieberg
she pursued her two passions – “helping the arts flourish in her hometown of
Cincinnati, Ohio, and furthering the growth of Reform Judaism—and the role of
women in it—in the United States and Western Europe.” (As reported by Laura
Lieber)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/freiberg-stella-heinsheimer
1862: Phoebe Yates Levy Pember wrote a letter to her sister indicating that
she was “to take charge of one of the hospitals at Richmond.” In December 1862,
she reported for duty at Chimborazo, a hospital for the care of Confederate
soldiers in Richmond, Virginia, reputed to be the largest military hospital in
the world up to that time. Pember oversaw nursing services in one of the
hospital's five divisions. In this role, she was responsible for the medical
and dietary needs of over 15,000 men. Pember had grown up in a prosperous and
acculturated family in Charleston, South Carolina. Along with her siblings, she
was strongly identified with the Confederate cause and received the invitation
to serve as matron of Chimborazo Hospital from the wife of the Confederate
secretary of war. In A Southern
Woman's Story: Life in Confederate Richmond, published in 1879,
Pember described daily life at Chimborazo, detailing the poor state of the
Confederate medical facilities. Despite resistance to her authority, Pember's
spirit and determination overcame many obstacles. At the end of the war in
April 1865, Mrs. Pember stayed at her post so that her patients might be cared
for during the transition from Confederate to federal control. (As reported by
the Jewish Women’s Archives)
1863: In Cincinnati, OH, Emma Goodhart and Lewis Heinsheimer gave birth to
Stella Heinsheimer who became Stella Freiberg when she married J. Frieberg in
1884 and who was President of the National Federation of Sisterhoods, a member
of the Rockdale Avenue Temple and first vice president of the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra Association.
1864(30th of Cheshvan, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1864(30th of Cheshvan, 5625): Eighty-six-year Bordeaux born
“musician and composer” Isaac Francis DaCosta who was the “first cornet at the
opera in Paris and “vice-leader of the Musique des Gardes du Corps, under Louis
XVIII” passed away today.
1867: Future Medal of Honor winner George Geiger “reenlisted with Troop M,
of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, November 29, 1867 in St. Louis, Missouri.”
1872: George Gieger completed his enlistment and was discharged at
Unionville, SC
1869(25th of Kislev, 5630): First Day of Chanukah; for the first time Jews
celebrate the Festival of Lights under President Grant, who received a majority
of the Jewish vote.
1870: It was reported today that Governor Hoffman will deliver an opening
address at the upcoming Hebrew Fair designed to raise funds for Mount Sinai
Hospital and Hebrew Orphan Asylum
1870: In New York, Henry Hissig, a German-born Hebrew went on trial for
violating New York’s new seduction law.
He is accused of having seduced his cousin, Ida Schwab.
1872: In Odessa, Jacob Henry and Rachel (Avrick) Topkis gave birth to Louis
Topkis who in 1881 arrived where he settled in Wilmington, Delaware, became
President of Topkis Brothers Company and
active member of the Republican Party while serving as President of the
Wilmington Hebrew Charities Association while raising a family with the former
Esther Krigtstein.
1873: Major Alfred Mordecai, Jr. begins serving as a member of the New
Cavalry Outfit Board.
1873: Louis, duc Decazes, who used Bohemian born Franco-Jewish journalist to
expose German plans to invade France, began serving as Foreign Minister today.
1873: It was reported today that members of Adas Jeshrun and Anshi Chesed,
two Jewish Temples in Manhattan, have been meeting to discuss the possibility
of consolidation. Anshi Chesed has over 100 members while Adas Jeshrun has
approximately 300 members. Some of the sticking points revolve around finances
with Anshi Chesed being in $110,000 in debt from the construction of a new
sanctuary. The other points of contention revolve around ritual. Adas Jeshrun
is not in favor of many of the reforms adopted by other Temples. Prayer is in Hebrew and heads are covered
during services. Anshi Chesed favors
reform. Services are held in German and
there is a movement to begin using English.
And heads are uncovered during services.
1874: In “Influences of Judaism on Early Christianity” published today shows
that acknowledging the Jewish origins of Christianity becomes a negative in the
conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
“There is no question that the earliest Christian Church was a Hebrew
Church. There is also no question that it was an offshoot from this Hebrew
Church which planted itself with exceptional vigor at Rome; and that hence
Roman Christianity from that time to this, has been strongly tinctured with
Jewish elements, has blazed with Jewish intolerance, delighted in Jewish
gorgeousness, and fallen a victim to Jewish realism; while Pauline or
Augustinian or Protestant idealism has struggled manfully…to overcome the deep
weight of these lower ingredients…and to assert for intelligence and freedom
their true place in the Church.”
1874: The New York Times defended
itself charges leveled in the Jewish
Messenger that the paper’s use of the term “Jew” was one of derision or
insult. The Times contended that it was
merely using it as an identification of national origin or ancestry in the same
way that that it uses the term to American or Englishman. The Times identifies lawbreakers as Jewish
and does not do so with Christian lawbreakers, because absent the statement of
distinction, it is assumed the criminal is a Christian.
1877: In Rochester, NY, Amelia Meyer and Sol Wile gave birth to University
of Pennsylvania Medical School graduate Ira Solomon Wile, the husband of Saide
Rigby and director of health classes at Mount Sinai Hospital who
“practiced as a pediatrician at Mt. Sinai Hospital” in New York City.
1877: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native and Jefferson Medical College trained
physician and surgeon, Edwin Steiner, the father of three children – Edwin Jr,
Dr. Charles and Grace – who served as Lt. Col. in the United States Public
Health Service during World War II and practiced medicine for over half a
century in Essex County, NJ.
1878: It was reported today that government of Romania has continued to fail
to honor its pledges concerning the treatment of Jews given to the Great Powers
when they met in Berlin. “Unless the some of the treat power can be induced” to
take direct action “It is likely that the Romanian Jews will be no better off
in the immediate future they have been in the past.
1879(14th of Kislev, 5640): Mr. S.L. Lewis passed away today in the Sandwich
Islands. (This may be the first reported death of a Jew in what is now Hawaii).
1880: It was reported today that “a petition has been presented to Prince
Bismarck to restrict the civil rights of the Jews and repeal the absolute
equality enjoyed by them with German.” The petition sent to the Chancellor is
filled with complaints that Jews “are rapidly getting rich as merchants, landed
proprietors and capitalists” and that if left unchecked within a generation
Jews “will be lording it over the Teutons” i.e. the true Germans.
1880: In New York, Hyman Philip Lewi and Edith Rosalie Lewis gave birth to
Harold Lewis, the husband of Francis Wolff Lewis with whom he had three
children – Evelyn, Philip, and Harley.
1881: It was reported today that I. Albert Engelhart is the President of the
newly incorporated Hebrew Society for the Improvement of the Sanitary Condition
of the Poor. Uriah Hermann and Alfred
Steckler are the vice presidents of the society which is dedicated to improving
the living conditions of the immigrant and poor in New York. Among other things, the society will work for
the construction of “good tenements” that will be ahealthful home and to
“prevent the adulteration” of their food.
1883: Miss Lillie Bernheimer treated 170 children attending the Industrial
School of the United Hebrew Charities to turkey dinner in honor of
Thanksgiving.
1884: In Cleveland, OH, newspaperman Maurice Weidenthal, the Bohemian born
son “of Emanuel and Julie Weidenthal” and his wife Lida Weidenthal gave birth
to Edward Weidenthal
1884(11th of Kislev, 5645): Fifty-seven year old, Levi
Goldenberg A native of Frankfort, he
came to the Baltimore, MD in 1845 before eventually moving to New York where he
became a leading lace merchant, as one of the principles of Goldenberg Brothers
&Co. Goldenberg was a noted
philanthropist and was a founding member of Temple Beth-El
1885: It was reported today that there has been a clash between a band of
Austrian Gypsies and a Jes living in village in Bessarabia.
1885: A review of The Religion of Philosophy or The Unification of
Knowledge by Raymond S Perrin published today points out that the “Hebrew
Religion has a chapter to itself.”
1886: It was reported today that there are approximately 6,300,000 Jews in
the world today, two and a half million of whom live in the European part of
the Russian Empire. There are 63,000
Jews living in France while there are 562,000 Jews living in France. Ironically, 39,000 of them live in
Alsac-Lorraine which means the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War
reduced France’s Jewish population by about one third.
1887: It was reported today the Reverend E. D. Simons of Bloomfield, NJ,
will present a paper entitled “Why the Jews Crucified Christ” next week.
1887: A national meeting of Reform Rabbis came to a close in New York City
today.
1887: Seventy-eight year old Dr. Samuel Adler, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple
Emanu-El “gave a dissertation on the benedictions with which ritual is
interspersed “tracing them back “Ezra and the return from the Babylonian
Capitivty.”
1888(25th of Kislev, 5649): For Jews a double header – first day
of Chanukah and Thanksgiving
1888: At Temple Beth-El in New York, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler will deliver a
sermon entitled “What does America owe to the Jews and what the Jew to America
at today’s Thanksgiving Services
1888: It was reported today that the late Mrs. Jette Lissauer named the Home
for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum as two of her
beneficiaries in her will provided that the patients and students say Kaddish
on her Yahrzeit.
1888: It was reported today that Yetta Reiner, an 18-year-old Jewish girl
who arrived in the United States two weeks ago was last seen on November 26
talking to a man on the corner of Hester and Norfolk Streets who promised to
find her a job.
1888: It was reported today from Vienna, that “Baron Hirsch has made a
donation of $5,000,000 for schools for Jews in Galicia and Bukovina.”
1889: It was reported today that one of “little girls” under the care of the
United Hebrew Charities read a poem to Samuel D. Levy yesterday “congratulating
him on having his birthday on Thanksgiving Day, so that he could celebrate with
Turkey.”
1889: It was reported today that the new synagogue being built on 67th
Street between Lexington and Third avenue “will be known as the Ephraim
Memorial in honor of the late Ephraim Weil,” whose sons have contributed
heavily to the building fund. In Hebrew,
the congregation is called Zichron Ephraim.(The congregation lives on today as
Park East Synagogue. The orthodox congregation is led by Rabbi Bernard
Drachman.
1889: It was reported that the 600 children at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum “ate
about six hundred pounds of turkey at their Thanksgiving dinner” and consumed
“enough cake and ice cream and candy to freight a ship. (The reference to
Turkey and ice cream makes wonder about the Kashrut at this esteemed
institution supported by such Jewish luminaries as Jesse Seligman and Oscar
Straus)
1892: In France, during the investigation of the scandal surrounding the
failed attempt to build the Panama Canal the Chamber of Deputies heard
testimony that Charles de Lesseps had said that among those whom he paid to
influence the price of his company’s stock were the Jews who “offered to assist
when new issues were announced” because they were “able to praise or decry
according to the sums received.” (Frenchmen
were always willing to blame Jews every time one of their financial bubbles
burst and the public’s view of Jews as conniving manipulators was instrumental
in creating the environment that gave birth to the Dreyfus affair).
1893: Plans were published today for the upcoming Thanksgiving Dinner
sponsored by the United Hebrew Charities Society.
1894(1st of Kislev, 5655): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1894: Thanksgiving
1894: In Cleveland, OH, Marcus and Addie Fedder gave birth to Lloyd H.
Feder, the husband of Jeanne Feder.
1894: “Three hundred and fifty little girls and boys pupils of the
Industrial School of the United Hebrew Charities were entertained today at a
Thanksgiving dinner at the schoolhouse on 85 St. Mark’s Place
1894: “To Humanity,” the new Hamilton place wing of the Montefiore Home was
dedicated today in New York. The
Montefiore Home had been dedicated ten years earlier as part of the Centennial
Celebration honoring Sir Moses Montefiore. Among the speakers were Jacob Schiff
and Charles S. Fairchild who noted “how appropriate it was to have the
celebration on Thanksgiving Day.”
1895: According to evidence presented today at the Harlem Court, Solomon
Riens a resident of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews right to vote was
challenged by Eugene Frayer because the institution received tax money which
meant he was a public charge and this not eligible to vote. The unanswered
question is why the other 12 residents of the Home were allowed to vote without
any challenge.
1895: Twenty-seven-year-old Daniel Ryan and 36-year-old Daniel Healy were
charged with “Jew baiting” in Essex Market Court after the police observed them
striking at every Jew they passed on East Broadway.
1895: It was reported today that attendance of the Girl’s Industrial School
of the United Hebrew Charities averages 250 students a day.
1896(24th of Kislev, 5657): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1896: Several trustees of the Baron de Hirsch Fund visited the agricultural
colony established by the fund at Woodbine, NJ for Jewish immigrants from
Russia.
1896: The Jewish settlers at Woodbine, NJ dedicated their new house of
worship this evening.
1896: James Loeb will deliver a lecture at the Hebrew Institute on “Civic
Life in Greece.”
1896: The funeral for former State Senator Joseph C. Wolff will take this
place this morning at Temple Ahawath Chesed at Lexington and 55th.
1897: Birthdate of Alfred K. Stern, the Fargo, ND, native who marred Martha
Dodd Stern, the daughter of William E. Dodd FDR’s first ambassador to Hitler’s
Germany. She became a foe of the Nazis and fascism and he joined her in her
efforts which led to them being named as suspected spies for the Soviet Union.
1897: Herzl outlines his ideas for the "Jewish Colonial Bank" in a
letter to Max Nordau.
1897: Birthdate of Troy, NY native Joseph Harris, who attended Rensselaer
Polytechnic
1897: “Jews In United States” published today included information in the
recently issued sixth publication of the American Jewish Historical Society
that featured an article by Philadelphian David Sulzberger entitled “Growth of
the of the Jewish Population in the United States.”
1898: The outbreak of measles among the children of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum
which began on November 5 “has been checked” according to Superintendent Baar.
1898: Birthdate of C.S. Lewis
http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2010/02/jrr-tolkien-cs-lewis-on-jews.html
1898: Birthdate of Kovno native
Louis Eliot Baker, the Massachusetts attorney who was active in the YMHA and
B’nai B’rith
1898: Twenty-seven-year-old
Wittenberg educated and Ohio State University trained physician Louis Syman, a
specialist in the practice of internal medicine and the Cleveland born son of
Ranks and Rebecca Syman who served as the “regimental surgeon of the 362nd
Infantry, U.S. Army during WWI, married Bertha Reinheimer today.
1898: Birthdate of Morris Dicker who
would be buried in the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City.
1898: In Camden, NJ, “Solomon Joseph
and Rosa (Zuckerman) Goldstein” gave birth to University of Pennsylvania
trained physician who specialized in obstetrics and gynecology and co-authored
“Paget’s Disease of the Bones” and served as President of Beth-El Synagogue in
Camden, NJ.
1900: Birthdate of Evansville, IN, native and newspaperman Arthur T. Weil,
the holder of bachelor’s in journalism from University Missouri who wrote
“Exploding the Myth of a Jewish Hierarchy which was published in the American
Hebrew and Jewish Tribune which published in May of 1934.
1901: The Reverend William F. McGinnis, the President of the International
Catholic Truth Society today received a letter from the Cardinal Secretary at
the Vatican denying that shortly after the assassination of President McKinley
“the Pope had advocated a crusade against anarchists, Jews, Christian
Scientists, Spirituals and an number of other believers in creeds that widely
differ from that of Rome.”
1901: It was reported today that Dr. A.L. Wolborst, “a well-known physician”
is President of New Era Club, an organization made up mostly of young Jewish
men from the East Side including A.H. Fromenson of the Jewish Way who is the
Vice President and A.S. Solomon of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
1902: In St. Louis, Morris and Eva
Ostrich Bearman gave birth to their youngest son Leo Berman, the Vanderbilt
trained attorney who practiced in Memphis where he was a pillar of the Jewish
community.
http://www.jhsmem.org/bio/LeoBearman.pdf
1902: In Turin, physician Ercole Levi and Annetta
Treves, gave Italian painter and novelist Carlo Levi and nephew of Claudio
Treves.
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/carlo-levi
1903: It was reported today that “in
the opinion of New York Butchers who kill cattle under rabbinical and State
supervision, the order of the State Humane Society of Colorado stopping
‘kosher’ killing in that State will act as a boomerang as it did in New York
and ultimately will result in the prohibition of cattle killing except by the
‘kosher’ method.’”
1904: In St. Louis, MO Rose and
Benjamin Agruss gave birth to Arthur Agruss, the husband of Goldie Agruss
1904: The Russian correspondent for
The Times of London said, “that Russian reservists continue to escae in large
numbers into Austrian Poland” and that “most of them, especially the Jews, are
provided with money and that their escape is facilitated by the Russian
frontier guards who freely take bribes” which are usually 15 rubles “for
passing the reservists across the frontier.”
1905(1st of Kislev,
5666): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1905: On its editorial page, the New
York Times published “the letter by a worthy Christian with a heart and soul
full of sympathy” for the “poor suffering Jews of Russia” signed simply
“W.H.S.”
1905: Jacob H. Schiff, the Treasurer
of “the National Relief Committee which is collecting funds for the sufferers
from Russian massacres” received a letter from Baron Horace Gunzberg which
provided “the first word” of how the funds will be distributed once they get to
Russia which he said will go to the Jews and those who have suffering by
helping to protect the Jews.
1905: The Koinigsberf Hartugnsche
Zeitung, a German newspaper that is “usually reliable” printed “dispatch from
Minsk” today saying that a planned massacre of the Jews had been “averted
through negotiations between the Jews and the priest who leads the anti-Semitic
element” but that in reality, “the massacre has merely been postponed until
next week.”
1905: Today, in Paris, “prices on
the Bourse were feeble at the opening, but strengthened on a report that the
Russian laws aimed against the Jews had been abrogated.”
1905: It was reported today that so
far $920,000 has been collected by the National Committee for the Relief of the
Sufferers from the Russian Massacres including $545 from Congregation Beth-El
in Alexandria, VA, $114 from Temple Emanu-El in Vancouver, British Columbia and
$43 from the “Jewish Community of Enid, Oklahoma.”
1905: “Russian Poles and Jews” who
are seeking employment in Canada and “who were captured by the Japanese
arrived” in Victoria, British Columbia aboard “the steam Iyo Maru” today.
1905: It was reported today that in
Russia “all train service has been stopped so there is no means for the Jews to
escape the slaughter” but “when the trains are running again the Jews will
emigrate by the thousands and come to America.”
1905: It was reported today that
four thousand Jews gathered at a mass meeting in Berlin where “strong
resolutions were adopted” protesting against the violence in Russia.
1905: The Altamont Culture Club,
whose members included Joseph Deane, Charles H. Schneer and Samuel Berman was
“organized” today in Norfolk, VA.
1905: It was reported today that a
committee consisting of Isidor Straus, Marcus M. Marks, Edward Lauterbach,
Arthur K. Kuhn, Abraham Erlanger, Albert Stiglitz and Gustav Lindenthal will
make an appeal to the public for additional funds on behalf of the Educational
Alliance which is facing an “increased demand” for its services in
“Americanizing the ignorant and destitute immigrants who are coming to” the
United States in ever increasing numbers because of the “persecution now going
on in Russia.
1906: Thirty-year-old Charles C.
Simons, the Detroit born son of David W. Simon and University of Michigan
trained attorney who was appointed by President Harding to serve as a U.S.
District Judge married Lillian Bernstein today in Chicago.
1906: In St. Louis, Washington
University graduate and journalist Oscar Leonard, the Jassy, Romania born son
of Samuel Leibowitz and Sarah Lieber who career included serving on the
editorial staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the “Der Vorsteher” married
Leah Wolf today.
https://www.amazon.com/AMERICANS-ALL-Making-Glorious-America/dp/B000JV2YTA
1906: Harvard trained attorney
Alfred A. Benesh, the Cleveland, OH born son of Bertha Federman and Isidore
Julius Benesch married Helen Newman today in Chicago, IL.
1906: Birthdate of photographer
Sterling Henry Nahum, the Clifton College and University of Manchester
decorated WW II veteran, known as the Baron, who began his career of
photographing the Royal Family thanks to having “earned the confidence of Lord
Mountbatten.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-jews-shot-their-way-into-britains-photographic-memory/
1907(23rd of Kislev,
5668): Sixty-four-year-old journalist, CSA veteran and three term mayor of
Baton Rouge, Leon Jastremski, the Soulon, France born son of “Vincent
Jastremski, a Polish Jewish emigre, where he had studied medicine” passed away
today.
https://www.lib.lsu.edu/sites/default/files/sc/findaid/2951.pdf
1907: Birthdate of Italian-born
British geneticist Guido Pontecorvo. who fled from his homeland to Great
Britain in 1938 to avoid growing anti-Semitism.
1908: Birthdate of Harry Wagreich,
the Professor of Chemistry at CCNY and brother of Dr. Samuel Wagreich and Dr.
Paul Wagreich.
1908: N.Y. College of
Dentistry trained dental surgeon Solomon Deutsch the Dubinow, Russia born son
of Leah Deutsch and David Fisher the Hebrew teacher in Memel, Germany who in
1908 arrived in the United States, married Ceilia Newman today and went on to
serve as a member of the national executive committee of the Z.O.A and Temple
Issac and “acting dental surgeon to the Soldiers Training Campy in Syracuse,
NY” during World War I.
1910: Birthdate of Austrian born Anglo-Jewish scholar Walter Ullman who
specialized in “medieval political thought and legal theory.”
1911(8th of Kislev, 5672): Cleveland rabbi, Max Lakman passed
away today.
1912: In Chicago Rabbi Katkoff and Cantor Millar are scheduled to lead
Friday night services at the Institute.
1912: Yiddish theatre stars Jacob P. Adler, Leon Blank and Francis Adler are
scheduled to perform tonight at the Haymarket in Chicago this evening.
1913(29th of Cheshvan, 5674): Parashat Tolodot
1913: The Daily Mail dispatch from Odessa said that Mayor of Kieff had said
that his failure to float a municipal loan of $7,885,000 in London was
attributable “to the evil repute into which Kieff had fallen on account of the
trial of Melvin Bellis on the charges of ritual murder.”
1914(11th of Kislev, 5675): Sixty-four-year-old Gittel “Catherine” Helvich
Schubert, the wife of the late David Schubert with whom she had six children
passed away today after which she was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery.
1914(11th of Kislev, 5675): Lewis Seasongood, the Bavarian born
son of “Mendel and Hannah Suessenguth, and the husband of Emma Seasongood with
whom he had two children, who “settled in Cincinnati in 1851 after which he was
appointed in 1873 “by President Grant Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition and
“in 1882 appointed by Governor Foster Quartermaster of the State with the rank
of General” passed away today in Atlantic City.
1914: Borough President Marcus M. Marks the delegates attending the sixth
annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America which is
meeting in the Education Alliance building “that they ought to avail themselves
of the free markets” thereby helping to reduce the cost of living among Jews
living on the Lower East Side.
1914: A committee of 100 formed at a meeting of the Educational Meeting is
scheduled to meet Solomon Rabinowitz who uses the pen name Sholom Aleichem when
he arrives in New York today aboard the Frederik VIII from Copenhagen where he
has staying “since his escape from Berlin.”
1914: The Day published an
editorial entitled “Russian Promises and Polish Pogroms” by Herman Bernstein.
1914: It was reported today that “in Janow and Krasmk the Jews were accused
of setting mines to destroy Russian soldiers” which was the justification for
destroying the two towns and hanging Jews including children from telephone
poles.
1914: “Poles Killing Jews” published today provides a summary of the attack
first published in The Day “by George Brandes, the Danish critic on the
anti-Jewish agitation in Poland.
1914: It was reported today that a brief will be presented to the Supreme
Court that will include a challenge to the conviction of Leo Frank by on a
suggestion “by Mr. Justice Homes that there was a denial of due process of law
through the presence of hostile mob.”
1915: Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, the commander of the Zion
Mule Corps fell ill and had to be evacuated to Alexandria and thence to London
“leaving Joseph Trumpeldor in command.”
(Jewish Virtual Library)
1915(22nd of Tevet, 5676): Meyer London a native of Wolkovishk,
Russia who came to the United States 47 years where he became so successful at
baking “unleavened bread” that he was known as the Matzah King passed away
today at this home on East Broadway.
1915: Mrs. Etta Fine the “President of the association of 1,200 mother who
support and manage” the Jewish Day Nursery facilities which serve “fatherless
children” was quoted today as saying that “it will take $25,000 to run the
branches on Henry Street and East 107th Street.”
1916: Fifteen hundred of the six thousand Jews in the United States who have
gone in for farming sent delegates” today “to the opening session of the eighth
annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America” where “they
were welcomed by Louis Marshall, the President of the American Jewish
Committee, eighty year old Simon Wolf of Washington, Rabbi Judah L. Magne and
Cyrus Sulzberger.
1916: Jacob H. Schiff is among those who have been asked to address the
“great peace meeting” scheduled to be held at P.S. 4 this evening whose
supporters included Harry Schalacht of the East Side Protective Association.
1916: In the Dominican Republic, 57-year-old Francisco Hilario y Carvajal
completed his service as President of the Council of Secretaries of State.
1917: Former University of Michigan halfback Joseph “Joe” Magidsohn, “the
first Jewish athlete to win a varsity ‘M’” who was the “first athlete known to
have refused to compete on the Jewish High Holy Days” and his wife Jennie
Magidsohn gave birth to their second child Dorothy Magidsohn today.
1917(14th of Kislev, 5678): Forty-one year old Dr. Sigmund
Deutsch, a member of the army medical reserve corps passed away today in New
York City.
1917: The Jewish National Workers Alliance of America which had been
organized in 1912 held its annual conference today in Trenton, NJ.
1917: As the British continued their offensive to take Jerusalem, a combined
force of the British and Australian Nos. 1 and 111 Squadrons, attacked the Tul Keram aerodrome in the morning
and again in the evening “after German planes bombed the Julis aerodrome and
hit No. 113 Squadron's orderly room.”
1917: Thanksgiving
1917: President Wilson received a
pledge of the support of the Jews of the United States in his prosecution of
the war at a Thanksgiving service of the Institutional Synagogue where
“Representative Isaac Siegel…said that the pacifist views attributed to certain
elements of the Jewish people did not represent the general attitude of the
Jews of this country” since “there are 62,000 loyal Hebrews in the Army,” four
thousand of whom “are already with General Pershing in France.”
1917: Standing on a platform at
Cooper Union draped with the Stars and Stripes and the flag of Zionism Baruch
Zuckerman, the General Secretary of the Peoples Relief Committee presided over
a meeting tonight “of Zionist who are Socialists” and are celebrating the
declaration of the British Government expressing support for “allowing the Jews
to establish their national home in Palestine
1918(25th of Kislev, 5679): First Day of Chanukah and the first
Chanukah celebrated after four years of World War.
1918: “Julian W. Mack, the President of the Zionist Organization of America
and Louis Marshall, the President of the American Jewish Committee, issued a
joint statement” today in which they said that the organizations they represent
have received from authoritative and unprejudiced sources in Copenhagen,
Amsterdam, London and the Hague explicit cablegrams substantiating reports of
pogroms in Galicia and various parts of Poland and Rumania.
1918: It was reported today that Dr. Stephen S. Wise will serve as chairman
of the delegation that the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is sending to
Europe to deal with “many questions concerning” the Zionist movement that have
arisen in Europe. The delegation
includes Mrs. Joseph Fels, Louis Robinson, Dr. Shmarya Levin and the Chicago
attorney Bernard Flexner. (This delegation was being sent as the world prepared
for the Peace Conference at Versailles which was intended to formally end the
World War and lay the groundwork for a new world order based on Wilson’s 14
Points. Among other things, the Jews wanted to make sure that the victors
honored the promises of the Balfour Declaration and took measures to protect
the Jews living in the former Austrian, German and Russian empires.
1919: In Montreal, Louis and Anna Weider gave birth to Josef Weider who
gained fame as bodybuilder Joe Weider the creator of “an empire of muscle
magazines, fitness equipment, doubtful dietary supplements and Olympic-style
contests featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1920: In New York City Richard Wolff, “a mechanical engineer” and the former
Estelle Cohn gave birth to Robert Alfred Wolff, the sportscaster whom I first
heard as the voice of one of the worst teams in baseball – the Washington
Senators – and whom none of my friends at the time knew was Jewish.
1921: “In the town of Soroke in Bessarabian Romania,” Rokhl and Elkhonen Gendler gave birth Arkady
Gendler who became the “icon and paragon of the Yiddish Revival Movement.:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/131547/91-year-old-yiddish-rock-star
1921: Twenty-six year old Thea
(Almerigotti) La Guardia, the first wife of
future Mayor Fiorello La Guardia whose father was a Catholic from Italy
and whose mother was Jew from Trieste and who chose to follow in the faith of
his father but dazzled New Yorkers with his ability to speak Yiddish on the
campaign trail.
1921: “Benny Leonard, world's lightweight champion”, is scheduled to “box
George Ward, Elizabeth welterweight, in a six-round exhibition, no-decision
bout tonight at Madison Square Garden for the benefit of the Bronx Jewish
Hospital Relief Committee.
1921: Eighty-five-year-old Augustus Hopkins Strong the author of Systematic
Theology: The Doctrine of of God which “which presented an alternative
explanation of all the alleged inaccuracies reflected in the Hebrew Bible”
passed away today.
1922: In the Village of Ashmore in Dorset, Edith Edinger and Geoffrey Howard
gave birth to Oxford historian Michael Elliot Howard the winner of the Wolfson
Prize, which was established by Sir Isaac Wolfson, in 1972 for The Grand
Strategy: August 1942 – September 1943
1923: John Hopkins graduate and JTS trained rabbi, Samuel Fredman, the
Russian born son of Cippy Kohen and Robert Fredman married Bessie Stashower in
Cleveland, OH.
1923: Charlie Phil Rosenberg, a product of the Jewish Lower East Side in New
York, met future Bantamweight World Champion Eddie Martin for the first of
their three bouts today.
1924: Birthdate of Jane Niederhoffer the Flatbush native who gained fame as
landscape artist Jane Freilicher.
1925: In Washington, DC, the Hebrew Home for the Aged dedicated a new 35 bed
facility.
1925: Two days after he had passed way, funeral services were held for 43-year-old
Horace Andrew Saks, co-founder of Saks Fifth Avenue followed by burial in
Brooklyn at Salem Fields.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/11/28/98842905.pdf
1925: “The $5,000,000 United Palestine Funds Appeal, representing the
greatest effort American Jews have ever undertaken for the restoration of the
Holy Land” is scheduled to launched today “at a National Palestine Conference”
meeting in Baltimore, MD.
1926: It was reported today that Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein had preached a
sermon at the Hotel Astor in which he said, “the home is the heart of then
nation” and that “the true education of a people is implanted in the home.”
1926: In responding to publication of the report of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett
of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who asserted that the
movement to colonize Palestine with Jews is ""unfortunate and
visionary," Congressman Emanuel Celler maintained that Dr. Pritchett went
to Palestine to find a flare and was surprised to find success. He said that disparage Palestine now was
‘childish,’ that it has been sanctioned and encouraged by the League of
Nations. ‘To call the Jews an egotistical nation without capacity of
cooperation, with the rest of the world, is akin to insult and belies the
history and tradition of the Jews.’ [Editor’s Note: An early version of anti-Zionism meets
anti-Semitism.
1926: At tonight’s meeting of the Jewish National Fund at Cooper Union,
Bernard A. Rosenblatt responded to “the adverse report of Dr. Henry S.
Pritchett on Zionism in Palestine…declared that the fundamentals of economic
prosperity exited in Palestine, and they would be fully developed.”
1927: “Executive officers of the American Jewish Congress protested at a
meeting’ today in Washington, D.C. “against the demonstrations and disturbances
in Hungary directed against Jewish” University students.
1927: “Persons of Jewish faith are Protestants inasmuch as they are not
Catholics, according to the substance of the main argument of Sir John Simon, a
leader of the British bar, in appearing before the Privy Council today as chief
counsel for the appellants in the Quebec school case, brought to the highest
court of the empire on appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada.”
1928: Thanksgiving
1928: “In a Thanksgiving address at Temple Ansche Chesed,” Senator Royal S.
Copeland “traced the origins of Thanksgiving Day to the Jews of Biblical times
saying: ‘I have no doubt that Elder Brewster and the Pilgrim Fathers consulted
the Book of Books in preparing for the first Thanksgiving Day.’”
1928: In Manhattan, Irving Kaufman, a CPA and the former Sophie Smith gave
birth to Charles Kaufman, the holder of a doctoral degree in musicology who
“saved” the Mannes College of Music. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1928: Birthdate of Shulamit Aloni an Israeli politician and left-wing
activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz
party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education
from 1992 to 1993.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-minister-shulamit-aloni-dies-at-85-2/
1929: ‘The Love Parade,” a musical comedy directed and produced by Ernst
Lubitsch and co-starring Lillian Roth was released today in the United States.
1929: In Chicago, Arthur Mordechai Rabinovitz, the Lithuanian born son of Sholem Moshe Rabinovitz and Chaya-Leah
Levy, and his wife Anna Dorothy Silverstone gave birth to Abba Silverstone
Rabinovitz
1930(9th of Kislev, 5691): Parashat Vayetzei
1930: In Randfontein, South Africa, Eli and Olga Goldblatt whose parents had fled European persecution gave
birth to photographer David Goldblatt.
https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/exhibitions/david-goldblatt/
1930: This evening “a prominent member of the Revisionists’ Central
Committee…said that Jabotinsky’s party would not agree to negotiate with the
British Government on the basis of the present white paper. The Revisionists
also will not negotiate with the Arabs as long as they continue to demand the
abolition of the Balfour Declaration, revocation of the Palestine mandate and
the denial of right Jews to repopulate Palestine as a national homeland.
1930: In Upper Clapton, London Jacob Edward "Jack" Cohen, the
founder and owner of Tesco, and Sarah "Cissie" (née Fox), the
daughter of a master tailor gave birth to Shirley Cohen who gained fame as Dame
Shirley Porter, a leader of the Conservative Party in the UK and who “helped established the Porter Centre for
Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University, which opened its iconic LEED
Platinum-graded building in 2014.”
1931: In Philadelphia, PA the former Rose Schwartz and Harry Rosenberg gave
birth to Allen Perry Rosenberg the Olympic rowing coach. (As reported by Bruce
Weber)
1932: Several Jews were injured in Lwow by Gentiles leaving the cemetery
where Jan Grotowski while four young Jews who had previously been arrested were
“tried in a summary court” as anti-Semitic outburst continued throughout the
country.1935
1932: Birthdate of Vienna native Paul Felix Halpern, one the Kindertransport
children who eventually settled in the United States.
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn42215
1933: Birthdate of Dr. David Reuben
author of Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex
1934: “While the rest of the team was playing in Omiya, Moe Berg “the
intellectual baseball player turned spy’ went to Saint Luke's Hospital in
Tsukiji, ostensibly to visit the daughter of American ambassador Joseph Grew
but instead sneaked onto the roof of the hospital, one of the tallest buildings
in Tokyo, and filmed the city and harbor with his movie camera. (These pictures
would later be used by the Doolittle Raiders when they attacked Tokyo in 1942.)
1934: “A delegation representing the
Vienna Jewish community was en route to Paris today to negotiate with leading
Jewish organizations” including the American Joint Distribution Committee “for
extensive loans to the community organizations” in Austria where the government
has instituted a program “ousting Jews from the country’s economic system.
1935: In Cleveland, OH, Rabbi
Barnett R. Brickner addressed the National Convention of Hadassah where he
urged “this generation of Jews to make Palestine the homeland for hundreds of
thousands of Jews who are being crowded out of many countries.
1936(15th of Kislev, 5679):
Sixty-one-year-old Joseph Levor, the German born son of Jette and Moses Joseph
Levor and the husband of Rachel Levor passed away today at Eisench, Germany.
1936: Germany's Minister
of Agriculture, Walther Darré, declared that democracy and liberalism were
invented by the Jews and that “communism would not fail because of its theories
but solely because it was Jewish.”
1936: It was announced today that “Governor Herbert H. Lehman and leading
educators from parts of the country will participate in a series of meetings
designed to ‘honor and evaluation scholarship in the fields of religion and
Hebraic learning’ under the auspices of the Semi-Centennial Committee of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America.”
1936: “The British Royal Commission now in Jerusalem inquiring into the
administration of the Palestine mandate was asked today” through a “resolution
adopted by the National Council for Palestine” which is composed of Jewish”
leaders in the United States, “to embody in its findings the policies of the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 which pledged Great Britain to facilitate the
establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.”
1936: Tonight, in Moscow at the All-Union Congress of Soviets Premier
Molotoff attacked fascism, declared Soviet democracy was superior to bourgeois
democracy” and emphasized that equality of races was guaranteed in the Soviet
Union” where “active anti-Semitism was punished by death” while “Chancellor
Adolf Hitler used Jews as scapegoats for everything that went wrong in
Germany.”
1936: “Air Minister Herman Goering…declared that Germany was now a stronger
power than she was in 1914.” (See the above and the outlines of WW II become
obvious as to why there were Jews who supported the Soviet Union and the
Communist Party.)
1936: The National Council for Palestine adopted a resolution which was sent
today to the British Royal Commission now meeting in Jerusalem ask that it “it
embody in its findings the policies of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which
pledged Great Britain to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home
in Palestine.”
1937(25th of Kislev, 5698): First day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle the
second light.
1937: Birthdate of Zuzana Goldmannová who in 1942 was deported from Prague
to Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.
1937: Today’s edition of Time magazine describes the fate of Arnold
Bernstein at the hands of his Nazi jailers.
Greying Arnold Bernstein, 47, son of an old-time Saxon shipper, served with
distinction as a German artillery officer during the War, was decorated with
the Iron Cross, First Class. Back in Germany after the War he evolved the
scheme of fitting modern freighters with automobile elevators so that U. S.
cars could be exported to Europe uncrated and unscratched. So successful was
this that Bernstein "floating garages'' have long carried over 60% of all
U. S. automobile exports, made enough money for sole Owner Arnold Bernstein to
allow him to buy out the American-Belgian-British Red Star Line and
incidentally bring into Nazi Germany thousands of dollars yearly in much needed
foreign exchange. Bernstein passenger agents find their boats are "very
popular with intellectuals who object to the snobbishness of Cabin Class."
Partly because of his personal popularity and War record, Shipper Arnold
Bernstein was left in control of his business much longer than most Jewish
tycoons. Finally last January, Nazi extremists forced the Government's hand.
Arnold Bernstein and four of his managers (three Jewish), were clapped into
jail, charged with "economic sabotage" through infringing German
foreign exchange regulations. While he sat in jail Bernstein's 21-month-old
Palestine Shipping Co. went into receivership "because the Jews deserted
me," says Prisoner Bernstein, and Japanese bought for $150,000 its
auctioned steamer Tel Aviv. Last week in Hamburg the trial of Arnold Bernstein
began. Of all the eight charges in a 88-page indictment against Shipper
Bernstein the gravest was that several years ago he set aside in Manhattan
banks a fund from the Arnold Bernstein & Red Star Lines' profits to be held
for a rainy day of the two lines (whose two chief creditors are the Erie R. R.
and Chemical Bank & Trust Co.). This entire sum was returned to Germany
some months ago. Hamburg lawyers scoffed at news stories that Bernstein
"faces death," expected him to get anything from a five-year jail
sentence to pardon. Since the arrest of Arnold Bernstein, Herman Kollmar, the
director of his Red Star Line and his executor, has been in amicable contact
with Minister President & Economic Director Hermann Goring, seeking a
pardon, showing Ford and Studebaker company letters urging clemency. Mr.
Kollmar denied rumors that the German Government has taken or plans to take
over the Bernstein Line, admitted these rumors have caused many cancellations.
1937: The Habima Hebrew Players open their third week of their season at
London’s Savoy Theatre with a performance of “The Wandering Jews.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that a police tender was ambushed, and
a British constable was killed near Nazareth. A Jewish worker was wounded when
a bus was shot at near Nahalal, at the same spot where two Jewish shepherds
were murdered and their flocks stolen a year earlier.
1937: The Palestine Post reported
that there were very favorable, frequently enthusiastic reports on the series
of performances given by the Habimah theater troupe on its visit to London. In
the midst of Arab terrorism, the Jewish community to develop its artistic,
social and political institutions.
1938(6th of Kislev, 5699): Sixty-five-year-old schoolteacher
Isaac Plaut, the German born son of Simon and Lina Plaut and husband of Sophie
Plaut with whom he had had eight children was murdered today at Sachsenhausen.
1938: Establishment of the 29th “tower and stockade” kibbutz,
Mishmar Zevulun which would be moved to a new site in 1940 and renamed Kfar
Masaryk in honor of the first President of Czechoslovakia.
1939: “American numismatist,” Eric Pfeiffer Newman, the son of Samuel Elijah
Newman and Rose Pfeiffer Newman married Evelyn Edison who “had two children,
Linda N. Schapiro and Andrew E. Newman.”
1939: Heydrich commented on the first stages of the Final Solution declaring
that "The factor determining the pace of the evacuation is the Evacuation
Plan." Nothing would slow down the
ultimate march to the Death Camps.
1939: SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the death penalty for German Jews who
refuse to report for deportation.
1939: “Swinging The Dream,” a musical produced and directed by Erik Charell,
featuring the Benny Goodman Sextet opened on Broadway at the Center Theater.
1939: Thanks to the “intervention by the United States and British consul
execution of the order by the authorities in Kaunas that Maurycy Orezch, the
correspondent for the Daily Forward
returned to the German-occupied territory of Poland has been stayed and the
British consul said he was ready to grant Orzech a visa to England if Estonia,
Latvia and Sweden would grant transit visas.”
1939: “Premier Wladilas Sikorski of Poland issued a statement” in Paris
tonight “vigorously protesting Nazi ‘atrocities’ in the western part of Poland”
which have been incorporated into the German Reich.
1940: Levie (Louis) Hillesum, the
father of Esther (Etty) Hillesum was dismissed as classics teacher and deputy
headmaster of the gymnasium in Deventer “by the occupation government imposed
by Nazi German following the invasion of The Netherlands.”
1940: On his own initiative, Dutch Physicist Leonard Ornstein withdrew his
membership in the Dutch Physical Society
1940: “The Bank Dick” a comedy featuring Shemp Howard with music by Charles
Previn was released in the United States today.
1940:
Six months after having been released in the United Kingdom, “Contraband, “a spy film with a screenplay by Emeric
Pressburger was released in the United States today.
1941: Fredrich Jecekeln held a final planning session with is senior
commander where he told them that “the extermination of the Jews was their
patriotic duty” and that nobody would be excused from participating in the
upcoming liquation of the ghetto.
1941: Karl Heise met with the Protective Police and told them of their role
in tomorrows “resettlement of the Jews in the Riga Ghetto, a term they all knew
meant a mass killing.
1941: The Latvian militia and police received their final instructions as to
their role in the upcoming liquidation of the ghetto. (The Nazis could always
count on local accomplices during the Shoah)
1941: In Riga, as of this morning “the Nazis had finished segregating the
able-bodied men into the small ghetto.”
1941: In Riga, “while the columns of 1,000 were formed this morning, they
were later dispersed, causing relief among the inhabitants, who believed that
the entire evacuation had been cancelled
1941: “After returning from work
today, Max Kaufman and his 16-year-old son, did not return to the large ghetto,
but were housed instead in a ruined building on Vilanu Street in the small
ghetto
1941: The first transport of
German Jews from Berlin arrived in Riga today.
1941: Jan Peerce (b. Yakob Perelmuth) “made his much-acclaimed debut at the
Met” at the same time when his brother-in-law Richard Tucker was trying to
start a small business and working at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx.
1941: Kovno Massacre of the
Ghetto. Estimated 10,600 people would be killed over the next few days.
1942: The Jewish Fighting
Organization of the Warsaw Ghetto assassinated the economic head of the Jewish
Council who was an active German collaborator.
1942(20th of Kislev, 5703): Seventy-seven-year-old Simon Cohn,
the Frankfurt born sone of Rosa and Rabbi Moses Cohen and the husband of Sarah
Cohn died today at Theresienstadt.
1942: The U.S. Drum, a submarine serving in the Pacific, began its fourth
war patrol with future Admiral Maurice Rindskopf serving as Torpedo and Gunnery
Officer.
1942: Dr. Erich Blumenthal, a resident of Berlin who was born in 1883 was
deported today and finally murdered in Auschwitz. (As reported by YNet)
1942: Helen Blumenthal, a resident of Berlin who was born in 1888 was
deported today and finally murdered in Auschwitz. (As reported by YNet)
1942: Friedrich Rehmer, a member of the Red Orchestra, who was in the Brietz
military hospital recovering from a severe war wound sustained on the Eastern
Front was arrested today and taken from the hospital. Eventually, he would be
killed for his role in the resistance.
1943(2nd of Kislev. 5704): Today, New York native First Lieutenant Ralph Victor
Guinzburg, a member of the 334th Bombardment Squadron, 95th
Bomb Group, U.S.A.A.F. and a recipient of the Soldier’s medal, Air medal with
Oak Leaf clusters and the Purple Heart “was last seen during an air raid over
Bremen Germany.”
https://www.uwgoldstarhonorroll.org/service-member/435/ralph-victor-guinzburg
1943: “50,000 Kiev Jews Reported Killed” published today provides a
firsthand account of the slaughter at Babi Yar and the attempts to cover it up
by the Nazis. It is worth reading in its
entirety because it puts the lie to the notion that people did not know about
the slaughter of the Jews until after the war was over.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00B16FE3E5B167B93CBAB178AD95F478485F9
1944: Today, “four days after advancing into Holland,” Major Ronald Edmond
Balfour, the lecturer at King’s College, Cambridge who had been serving with
the British Army since 1940 and had joined the Monuments Men in 1944”
“fractured his ankle in a traffic accident” after which he “outmaneuvered the
medical staff at a hospital in Eindhoven” and thus avoided being ship back to
the UK.
1945(24th of Kislev, 5706): Kindle the first light of Chanukah
1945(24th of Kislev, 5706): Cleveland resident Joseph Feder, the
husband of Pearl Feder and editor of the Jewish Daily World who was an active
member of Poale Zion passed away today.
1945: “Carrying placards denouncing British treatment of the Palestine
problem and chanting ‘We are with you, Jews in Palestine,’ four hundred member
of youthful Zionist groups in” New York City today “paraded in an orderly
fashion in front of the British Consulate at 25 Broadway.
1946: British Court in Palestine rejects a petition to prevent deportation
of Jews to Cyprus.
1946(6th of Kislev, 5707): Seventy-three year old Lower East Side
native Joseph A. Levenson, the Republican party activist who never strayed from
his Chrystie Street roots and whose career included serving “as city marshal
during the administration of Mayor William J. Gaynor” and “one of the
Presidential electors for Theodore Roosevelt in 1904” while also serving as
Director of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and writing “several books”
including A History of the Lower East Side of Manhattan passed away today.
1946: Today, Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman delivered a tribute in memory of Dr.
Solly Baron, the rabbi who had fled Nazi Germany and who passed at the age of
72 two days earlier in St. Louis.
1946: Today, for the second time, NBC cancelled “The Guiding Light,” a soap
operated created by Irma Phillips which “was based on personal experiences.
1946: Szapsel (Shabtai) Rotholc, the Polish-Jewish boxer, “was expelled from
the Jewish community for a period of two years; his civil rights in the
community were rescinded for a further three years.” (As reported by Uri
Talshir)
1947: In one of the most historic moments in Jewish history, the General
Assembly of the United Nations voted to accept the recommendation of the United
Nations Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP).
UNSCOP recommended the partition of Palestine into two states – one
Jewish and one Arab with Jerusalem to governed by an international
authority. The vote was thirty-three in
favor, thirteen against and ten abstentions.
In a rare moment of Cold War solidarity, both the United States and the
Soviet Union supported the UNSCOP plan which guaranteed the creation of the
state of Israel in May of 1948. One
other recommendation of the UNSCOP plan was the opening of a port on February
1, 1948 to Jewish immigrants. Almost
three years after the ovens of the Holocaust had cooled, boatloads of displaced
persons would finally have a final destination.
When news of the partition vote reached the public, “there were
celebrations in New York, in Palestine, wherever Jews lived. Traffic stopped in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as
people danced in the streets until the early hours of the morning.” In the words of Rabbi Isaac Herzog, “After a
darkness of two thousand years, the dawn of redemption has broken.” Arabs say they are not bound by decision and
charge that U.S. and Soviet Union coerced smaller countries to vote for
partition.[ Starting on the next day, the Arabs responded with violence that
would continue until the end of the mandate and unfortunately has continued
literally to this day in the 21st century]
1947: Edis De Philippe mounted a
gala performance of selections from operas, which was soon followed by a full
production of Thaïs in which she performed the title role (As reported
by Jewish Women’s Archives)
1947: Despite having virtually no Jewish population or tie to the Yishuv,
Iceland is among nations voting for the Partition Plan creating a Jewish state.
1947: The annual convention of Junior Hadassah, the young women's Zionist
organization of America, at its concluding session today, received from Dr.
Chaim Weizmaiin, former president of the World Zionist Organization, a call for
young men and women, "who are nurtured in western methods and
standards" to "further the building of the (Jewish) state."
1948: Israel applied for admission to the United Nations.
1948: Stanton Griffis was appointed Director of the UNRPR.
1948: In Encino, CA, Bernard and Ferne Milken gave birth UCLA trained lawyer
and junk bond trader Lowell Jay Milken, the brother of crooked financier
Michael Milken
1949: In Chicago, Illinois, print shop owner Irving Shandling and his wife
pet store proprietor Muriel Estelle
(née Singer) Shandling gave birth to Garry Emmanuel Shandling who was raised in
Arizona and gained game as comedian Gary Shandling.
1949(8th of Kislev, 5710): Forty-seven year old Dallas native and
Goucher College graduate Reba Wadel, “a former chairman of the National Women’s
Division of the UJA” and the husband of Ernest G. Wadel was among the 28 people
who were killed in plane crash at the edge of Love Field in Dallas, TX.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/11/30/96483635.pdf
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/11/30/96483598.pdf
1949: Israelis pause to celebrate anniversary of the United Nations
partition resolution. Zipporah Porath, a
nurse working in Haifa, wrote to her parents living in the United States
describing the proud parade of Israel’s newly minted soldiers.
1950: Birthdate of Hideo Levy, the son of a Polish-American mother and a
Jewish father who “was honored with a Japan Foundation Special Prize in 2007
“for his contributions to the introduction of Japanese literature to foreign
readers.”
1950(20th of Kislev, 5711): Sixty-five-year-old Czernowitz native Frederick
Zelnik the prominent producer and director of silent movies in Germany who took
refuge in the United States with the rise of Hitler passed away today in
London.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/6403915417
1951(30th of Cheshvan, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1951(30th of Cheshvan, 5712): Sixty-four year old Latvian born
American expert on Russia Max Laserson, the husband of Mina A. Laserson and the
father of Eliazar Laserson passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/12/01/89819503.html?pageNumber=9
1952(11th of Kislev, 5713): Parashat Vayetzei
1952(11th of Kislev, 5713): Sixty-six year old Latvian born,
Cornell University trained neurologist, Dr. David M. Kaplan, the WW I Army
Medical Corps veteran who “wrote papers and a book on endocrine subjects”
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/12/01/84373185.pdf
1953(22nd of Kislev, 5714): Fifty-three-year-old, Joseph Burstyn,
a Polish born Jew who came to the United States in 1921 where he gained fame as
“the importer and distributor of foreign films” passed away today while flying
over the Atlantic in a TWA aircraft.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/11/30/83865466.pdf
1953: As the holiday season begins, which in America means a meshing of
Christmas and Chanukah, International Records has released “Holiday Time,” a
record combining music from both holidays. The record is designed “to promote
better human relations through an understanding of the general cultural
significance of Christmas and Chanukah” while avoiding mentioning the
theological differences between the two holidays.
1953: Birthdate of Moshe Igvy, the native of Casablanca, who has become one
of Israel’s leading directors and actors.
1953: It was reported today that Kinor Records has released “Chanukah Music
Box” just in time for the holiday season.
Designed as a participation record for children, it features music
written and sung by Shirley R. Cohen, with narration by Eli Gamliel and musical
accompaniment by Helen Schraeter.
1954: Birthdate of Joel Coen.
Joel and Ethan Coen, commonly called The Coen Brothers, are Jewish-American film director best known
for their quirky comedies such as Raising Arizona and The Big
Lebowski, as well as for darker film noir dramas such as Fargo and Blood
Simple. The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly,
alternating top billing for the screenplay. Until recently, Joel received sole
credit for directing the films, and Ethan for producing, but the two brothers
work so closely together and share such a strong vision of what their films are
to be that actors report that they can approach either brother with a question
and get the same answer. The brothers are known in the film business as
"the two-headed director."
1954: On this cold and rainy night Esther Borenstein was on duty when a
"mosquito" plane was hit by lightning and crashed while landing.
Esther ran towards the burning plane, rescuing the badly injured navigator.
Although ammunition on the plane began to explode, Esther did not hesitate and
ran in again to rescue the pilot, Ya'akov Shalmon. When they reached a hiding
spot, the entire plane blew up. Esther was awarded a Badge of Courage for this
operation by Moshe Dayan, then Highest in Command of the IDF. Esther was born
in Bulgaria, and during the Second World War, her family was ousted to Italy.
As early as her childhood, Esther always loved the Land of Israel, and at age
11, left her home in an attempt to come to Israel. At 16, she indeed arrived,
with her brother, and shortly afterwards, in spite of her early age, joined the
Israel Defense Forces. She joined the
Air Force, completed a medic's course, and viewed army service as an honor and
not a duty. After completing her army service, Esther continued to work as a
nurse with the Israeli Red Cross, and was the first female ambulance driver in
the country. Later, she looked for a job that would express her love for the
country and chose to be a tour guide. At that same time, the 6-Day War broke
out, and Esther joined the paratroopers, where under constant fire and
shelling, she tended to injured soldiers, receiving the nickname "Angel of
the Paratroopers". She volunteered during the Yom Kippur war as well, and
in 1973, she received the Medal of Honor for saving the pilot. In February
2003, she passed away during a trip to Italy, and was buried there at her
family's request. In February 2005, Bridges of Viewpoint was built in memory of
Esther Borenstein on a quiet corner on the banks of the Jordan River, opposite
the basalt arches of the 2,000 year old Roman-era bridge.
1956(25th of Kislev, 5717): Chanukah
1956: The original Broadway production “Bells Are Ringing” with music by
Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, produced by Jerome
Robbins and starring Jerome Robbins opened at the Shubert Theatre.
1956: Birthdate of actor and comedian
Howie Mandel
1957(6th of Kislev, 5718): Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold passed away.
Korngold was born in an assimilated Jewish home in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now
Czech Republic), the son of the music critic Julius Korngold, and studied music
under Alexander von Zemlinsky and Robert Fuchs. Gustav Mahler, upon meeting the
young Erich, called him a "musical genius." He had success in Europe
with his opera Die tote Stadt (1920) among other pieces before moving to
the United States in 1934, where he wrote a number of highly regarded film
scores. He continued to write concert music in a rich, Romantic style, with a
violin concerto among his notable later works. In 1943, Korngold became a
naturalized citizen of the United States. He died in Hollywood, California.
1957(6th of Kislev, 5718): Fifty-four-year-old
Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl “a rabbi and shtadlan” who worked “to save the
Jews of Slovakia” from extermination during the Shoah passed away at Mt. Kisco,
NY.
1957: The
three-day dedication program of the nation's largest Orthodox Jewish synagogue,
the Baron Hirsch Synagogue of Memphis, starts today.
1959: Birthdate of Rahm Emanuel the son of a former member of the Irgun and
civil rights activist who went on to represent the Fifth District of Illinois
in the U.S. House of Representatives and serve as White House Chief of Staff
under President Barak Obama before being
elected Mayor of Chicago.
1959: “Fiorello!” a Pulitzer Prize winning musical about the Yiddish
speaking New York Mayor with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, a
book by Jerome Weidman and co-starring Tom Bosley and Howard Da Silva opened on
Broadway today at the Broadhurst Theatre.
1960: Birthdate of Jaqueline Laura Hoffman, the native of Queens, NY who
gained fame as multi-talented comedian and actress Jackie Hoffman.
1962: Larry Blyden served as the director of “Harold” when it began its
Broadway run today.
1962: Forty three year old Lwow native Perec “Peter” Rachman who escaped
from the Nazis and the Soviets to serve with 2nd Polish Corps during
WW II and then became an “infamous” landlord whose last name gave rise to the
word “Rachmanism” which the Oxford English Dictionary describes “as a synonym
for the exploitation and intimidation of tenants” passed away today after which
he was “buried in the Jewish cemetery at Bushey, Hertfordshire.”
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/vmpeople/infamous/peterrachman.asp
https://julesbirch.com/2012/10/24/revealing-the-real-rachman/
1962(2nd of Kislev, 5723): Rav Aaron Kotler famed Orthodox
Talmudic scholar passed away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aharon_Kotler
1963: Today’s issue of Life
magazine “published about thirty frames of” Abraham Zapruder’s film of the
Kennedy Assassination “in black and white.”
1963(13th of Kislev, 5724: Fifty-seven-year-old Brest-Litvosk native and NYU graduate Frank
Leff, the “director of special projects for the American Jewish Committee” and
the husband of Johanna Leff with whom he had two children – Bernard and Naomi –
passed away today “while on his way to work.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/11/30/89979923.pdf
1963: Today’s “episode of Miss Peach” a comic strip created by Mell Lazarus
which had been prepared weeks ago “was pulled from syndication because one of
the characters fantasized about saving the President of the United States'
life—one week after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.”
1963: “Rabbi Silver Dies; A Leading Zionist” published today provides a
summary of the life Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, of blessed memory.
1965: “The Big T.N.T.” directed by Larry Peerce, the son of tenor Jan Peerce
was filed before a live audience today at the Moulin Rouge in Los Angeles.
1966: A funeral service is scheduled to be held at the Riverside for
Frankfurt, Germany native refugee from Nazi Europe rescued by Varian Frym Dr.
Siegfried Kracauer the social scientist “best known for his studies of the
motion picture as a powerful chronicle of the social scene and a medium of
symbolic imagery symptomatic of the ideas and attitudes of the time” and author
several works including Theory of Film published in 1960 and the husband
of “the former Elizabeth Ehrenrich.”
1968(8th of Kislev, 5729): Eighty-one-year successful
businesswoman and philanthropist Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the Hartford, CT born
daughter of Moses and Theresa Fox and wife of George Auberach who turned the
family owned G. Fox and Company into New England’s largest department and who
established the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation through which “she became a
leading philanthropist, particularly in helping college students” passed away
today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/auerbach-beatrice-fox
https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/beatrice-fox-auerbach
1969(19th of Kislev, 5730): Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer, a general in the
Soviet Army passed away today at the age of 64.
His promotion to the rank of general “apparently made him the highest-ranking
Jewish military figure in the Soviet Union since Leon Trotsky organized the Red
Army after the Bolshevik Revolution.”
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Kreizer took
command of the 1st Moscow Motorized Infantry and fought forces under
Heinz Guderian to a virtual stand-still giving other Soviet forces a chance to
regroup. He was designated a Hero of the Soviet Union for his efforts.
1969: In Massachusetts, the Marblehead School Department has banned all
religious reference to Christmas and Hanukah in the town’s public school. The
decision prohibits the exchange of gifts and any decorations in connection with
either holiday. The policy comes in
response to complaints by the American Civil Liberties Union about the
religious aspects of the Christmas activity and numerous complaints from Jewish
parents protesting their children’s involvement in school holiday activities.
1972: A Hallmark Hall of Fame production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner,”
the creation of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, was broadcast by NBC today.
1973(4th of Kislev, 5734): Eighty-nine year old Hungarian
producer Josef Somlo who escaped to Great Britain when the Nazis came to power
passed away today in Switzerland.
1974: “Ben-Gurion House,” “an historic house museum in Tel Aviv which served
as one of the residences of David Ben-Gurion between 1931 and 1968 was opened
to the public today where visitors can take guide tours and participate in
symposiums about the early days of Zionism.
1975(25th of Kislev, 5736): Ze’ev Beret was killed when his F-4E
Phantom II Jet spun out of control and crashed.
1975(25th of Kislev, 5736): First Day of Chanukah; light the
second candle in the evening
1976(7th of Kislev, 5737): Eighty-five-year-old Lithuanian born
Conservative rabbi, Phillip Reis Alstat who lived in a JTS dorm for 43 years
and who was a columnist for the Jewish Week while also serving as a chaplain at
the Manhattan house of corrections passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in
reply to President Anwar Sadat’s appeal, Israel named Eliahu Ben-Elissar and
Meir Rosenne as members of the Israeli negotiating team to the proposed Cairo
Conference, which was expected to prepare ground for the reconvened Geneva
Peace Conference. Israel joined the fervent Egyptian appeal to Syria, Jordan
and Lebanon for their participation, but they uniformly rejected Sadat’s
initiative. The US continued to study the Egyptian invitation.
1978(29th of Cheshvan, 5739): Seventy-five year old Newport News,
VA, native Mark Peyser Friedlander, the son of Charles Friedlander and Blanche
Peyesr passed away today after which he was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery in
Washington, D.C.
1979(9th of Kislev, 5740): Zeppo Marx, one of the Marx Brothers, passed
away.
1980: Twenty-five -year -old Simon Shnirman a refusenik from Zaporozhye, was
released after completing a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence on charges of
evading military conscription.
1981(3rd of Kislev, 5742): Fredric Wertham, German-born, American
psychologist passed away. During the
1950’s, in what seems like a laughable episode half a century later, many
Americans became convinced that comic books were the cause of juvenile
delinquency. “This anti-comic book
sentiment led in the spring of 1954 to the publication of The Seduction of the Innocent,
based on Jewish psychologist Frederic Wertham's seven-year-long study of the
effects of comic books on America's youth. Dr. Wertham condemned most of the
genre--especially crime and horror comics--for having contributed to juvenile
delinquency. As the outcry following the publication of Seduction of the Innocent grew,
so did the call for government intervention. The Hearings before the
Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the
Judiciary opened in Manhattan federal court on April 21, 1954.” (Ed. Note: I
must confess that my brother and I were eager consumers of comic books during
this period.)
1984: Gotthard Günther German born, American philosopher passed away. Günther was not Jewish but he was married to
the Jewish psychologist Dr. Marie Günther-Hendel. Together they made their way out Nazi Europe
before WWII and finally made their way to U.S.
1986: In Canada, CTV network began broadcasting “Sword of Giedon” a four
hour miniseries “about Mossad Agents hunting down terrorists associated with
the 1972 Munich Massacre based on the
book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George
Jonas,
1988(20th of Kislev, 5749): Seventy-eight-year-old Washington
“hostess with mostess” Gwendolyn Cafritz, the widow of realtor and
philanthropist Morris Cafritz passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/01/obituaries/gwendolyn-cafritz-78-washington-hostess.html
http://www.cafritzfoundation.org/about
https://www.silverspringdowntown.com/go/montgomery-college-morris-and-gwendolyn-cafritz-art-center
1989(1st of Kislev, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1989(1st of Kislev, 5750): Robert W. Schleck, a former foreign service
officer, teacher and research analyst who was second secretary at the United
States Embassy in Tel Aviv during the Suez crisis in 1956 passed away today.
1991(22nd of Kislev, 5752): Ninety-six year old Rabbi Louis
Eliezer Finkelstein, the Cincinnati born son of “Simon Isaac Finkelstein” and
“Hannah Basha Finkelstein, the husband of Carmel Finkelstein. (As reported by
Ari Goldman)
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/30/nyregion/louis-finkelstein-96-leader-of-conservative-jews.html
1991(22nd of Kislev 5752): Eighty-nine-year-old Neubrandenburg,
Germany, born British mathematician Theodor Estermann, the son of “Zionist who
named him in honor of Theodor Herzl” who was a Professor of Mathematics at the
University of London and the brother of nuclear physicist Immanuel Estermann passed
away today.
1993: At a press conference held today. Amos Schoken announced the closure
of Hadashot, a daily newspaper that he had begun in March of 1984.
1993: A revival production of “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” which had been
directed by Elmer Rice in its initial Broadway production opened at the Vivian
Beaumont Theatre.
1993: Richard Danzig began serving as Undersecretary of the Navy.
1994(26th of Kislev, 5744): Second Day of Chanukah
1994: The New York Times featured a review of A Chosen Few by
Mark Kurlansky.
1998: The New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest
including Isaiah Berlin: A Life
by Michael Ignatieff, The Crisis
of Global Capitalism Open Society Endangered by George Soros and Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in
Pursuit of Harmony by
Arnold Steinhardt
2000: At the New York Public Library, a
presentation by Marion
Kaplan entitled “Friendship on the Margins: Jewish Social Relations in Imperial
Germany” that asks the question, “With whom did the German Jews spend
their leisure time?” This lecture examines the spectrum of friendships
available to Jews in Imperial Germany (1871-1918), looking at extended
families, friendships among Jews, and relationships with non-Jews. Those
friendships could be intense or distant, intimate, or burdened by social and
political anti-Semitism. Marion Kaplan is a social and cultural historian, with
an emphasis on women’s history. Dr. Kaplan’s writings include Between
Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, which won the National
Jewish Book Award for 1998.
2001(14th of Kislev, 5762): Samuel Miloshevsky, 45, of Herzliya,
Yehiav Elshad, 28, of Tel Aviv and Yehiav Elshad, 28, of Tel Aviv were murdered
today and nine more people were injured this evening when a terrorist from
either Fatah or Islamic Jihand (they both claimed credit) set off a bomb aboard
an Egged bus traveling between Nazareth and Tel Aviv as it passed through the
town of Pardes Hanna-Kaurkur.
2001: “In Jenin, about 3,000 Palestinians marched and celebrated the bombing
an Egged bus.”
2002(24th of Kislev, 5763): In the evening, Kindle the first
Chanukah light
2002: “Mary Christmas” a drama starring Tom Bosley was
released in the United States today.
2003: Danny Elfman married Bridget Fonda. (He was Jewish,
she was not)
2004(16th of Kislev, 5765): All-Star catcher
Harry Danning, whose brother Ike played for the St. Louis Browns, passed away
today in Indiana.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/sports/baseball/harry-danning-baseball-star-in-30s-dies-at-93.html
2004: Victor Brailovsky completed his term as Deputy
Minister for Internal Affairs.
2004: Victor Brailovsky replaced Ilan Shalgi as Minister of
Science and Technology.
2004: “The Émigré:
The farewell broadcast of a voice from the past by Janet Malcolm
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/29/041129fa_fact3?currentPage=all
2005: “Havoc” a crime film directed by Barbara Kopple, filmed by
cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Robert
Shapiro was released in the United States today.
2005(27th of Cheshvan, 5766): Forty-seven year old Wendie Jo
Sperber lost her battle with Breast Cancer today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/movies/wendie-jo-sperber-actress-dies-at-46.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/dec/02/local/me-sperber2
2005: The Seattle Reconstructionist congregation Kadima which, according to
its Web site, “welcomes members from all backgrounds, including multicultural,
gay, and lesbian households,” now is welcoming Ariel Sharon's adoption of its
name.
2006(8th of Kislev, 5767): Seventy-seven-year-old “Leonard Freed,
a prominent photojournalist and member of the Magnum Photography Collective who
was known primarily for his in-depth coverage of African-Americans in the era
of the civil rights movement” passed away. (As reported by Philip Gefter)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/arts/design/04freed.html?_r=0
2006: A Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy “Company”
opened today at the Ethel Barrymore Theare
2006: In Jerusalem, The Schechter
Institute of Jewish Studies awards the 10th Liebhaber Prize for Religious
Tolerance to Deborah Goldman Golan, Director of the Bamidbar Center for
Pluralistic Jewish Studies in Yeroham.
2007: A tribute was held in New York City in anticipation of poet Philip
Levine's 80th birthday. Among those celebrating Levine's career by reading
Levine's work were Yusef Komunyakaa, Galway Kinnell, E. L. Doctorow, Charles
Wright, Jean Valentine, and Sharon Olds. Levine himself read several new and
interesting poems. He thanked his students and asked them to refrain from
asking for any more letters of recommendation.
2007: At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, television
star Sarah Silverman, headlines “Comedy without Borders” a fund-raiser for the
Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the ecological and coexistence
center located at Kibbutz Ketura, near Eilat.
2007(19th of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-three-year-old
“Victor Erlich, a path-breaking scholar of Russian literature, passed away
today (As reported by Marissa Brostoff)
http://forward.com/articles/12194/victor-erlich--scholar-of-russian-literature-/
2007: USCJ International Biennial Convention opens in Orlando, FL.
2007: The Jerusalem Post reported
that “Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni failed in attempts to set up meetings in
Annapolis or Washington with colleagues from the Arab world, even though the
summit was designed to show international support for Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations… Israeli officials interpreted this as evidence that the Arab
world had not changed its fundamental policy that there would be no warming of
relations with Israel until after a deal, and that normalization was one of the
Arab world's major bargaining chips.”
2007: Sixty-one years after he was buried at a wind hilltop cemetery in
southeast Washington, Stephen Theodore Norman, the only grandchild of Theodor
Herzl was exhumed as the first step of trip that will lead to his burial in
Israel.
2008: On this Shabbat when we recite “Av harachameem,” there will be special poignancy to the words as we mourn the passing
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the beloved directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of
Mumbai. “The Father of
mercy who dwells on high in His great mercy will remember with compassion the
pious, upright and blameless the holy communities, who laid down their lives
for the sanctification of His name. They
were loved and pleasant in their lives and in death they were not parted.They
were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions to carry out the will of their
Maker, and the desire of their steadfast God. May our Lord remember them for good together with the other righteous of
the world and may He redress the spilled blood of His servants as it is written
in the Torah of Moses the man of God: "O nations, make His people rejoice
for He will redress the blood of His servants. He will retaliate against His
enemies and appease His land and His people". And through Your servants,
the prophets it is written: "Though I forgive, their bloodshed I shall not
forgive When God dwells in Zion" And in the Holy Writings it says:
"Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?'"Let it be known
among the nations in our sight that You avenge the spilled blood of Your
servants. And it says: "For He who exacts retribution for spilled blood
remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble". And it says:
"He will execute judgement among the corpse-filled nations crushing the
rulers of the mighty land; from the brook by the wayside he will drink then he
will hold his head high".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwom17kFOb0
2008: This afternoon authorities announced that the family of one of Israeli
victims of the attack on the Mumbai Chabad House had identified her as being
Yocheved Orpaz, aged 60. Another woman was identified as a Jewish resident of
Mexico, whose name has not yet been released.
2008: U.N. Israel Partition Day – 61st anniversary of this
momentous moment in Jewish history. “Three minutes that changed two thousand
years of wandering.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGUPlhtMWQ
2009: In Jerusalem, the opening of Whiskey Month at the Mia Bar featuring
whiskey tastings and special winter dishes which go well with whiskey.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Googled: The End of
the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta, Justice: What’s the Right Thing
to Do? by Michael J. Sandel and the recently released paperback edition of Friendly
Fire: A Duet by A. B. Yehoshua.
2009: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Googled: The
End of the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta.
2009: Beachwood, Ohio declares today “Hudesa Gora Day” to mark the 100th
birth of this holocaust survivor who ran a successful fur business in Cleveland
for many years.
2010: Roz Chast, Al Jaffee and Robert Mankoff are scheduled to participate
in a program entitled “The Cartoonist Chronicles” at the 92nd Street
Y in New York City.
2010: Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Mossad veteran Tamir
Pardo as his choice as the new head of Israel's spy agency, to succeed Meir
Dagan.
2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771):
Sixty seven year old “Steven N. Posner, who with his father, Victor, was
caught up in a major corporate raiding case that led to the convictions of Ivan
F. Boesky and Michael R. Milken, died today in a high-speed boat collision on
Biscayne Bay, Fla. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/business/01posner.html?_r=0
2010: At the 92nd Street Y in New York, Deborah Solomon interviewed actor
Steve Martin about his new novel, An Object of Beauty, which is set in the art
world. In response to emails received in real-time by the Y staff from viewers
of the interview, a note was dispatched to Solomon on-stage, telling her to
shift the conversation from art to Steve Martin's film career
2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Ninety year old “Richard N. Goldman,
a San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist best known for co-founding the
Goldman Environmental Prize, which is given to six grass-roots environmental
activists every year, died today at his
home in San Francisco. (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05goldman.html
2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Seventy-year-old “Stephen J. Solarz,
a nine-term Democratic congressman whose concerns went beyond traffic lights
and beach erosion in his Brooklyn district to nuclear weapons, the Middle East
and his revelation that Imelda Marcos owned 3,000 pairs of shoes, died today in
Washington. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30solarz.html?pagewanted=all
2011:
David Kalender, the Senior Rabbi of Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, Virginia, is
scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures on The Book of Ruth.
2011:
In honor of the 10th anniversary of the JCC in Manhattan, the JCC is scheduled
to screen the audience’s favorite film.
2011:
“Sara Hurwitz, an Open Orthodox Jewish spiritual” from South Africa who was
raised in Boca Raton, FL and “who received ordination from Rabbi Avi Weiss” was
“featured in Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance's (JOFA) Mission Statement
YouTube video uploaded” today in which she said “JOFA is trying to shape the
young minds of children, to a gender sensitive curriculum that I worked on many
years ago.
2011:
The Tulane Hillel Board Meeting is scheduled to take place at Goldie &
Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life.
2011:
In New Orleans, Rabbi Alexis Berk is scheduled to lead the Touro Synagogue
Interfaith Chavurah Group in a discussion of “The December Dilemma.”
2011: Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said in a television interview today
that if Israel attacks Iran, it will be dragged into a regional war. According
to Dagan, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas will respond with massive rocket attacks on
Israel.
2011: It was announced earlier today that former Mossad chief Meir Dagan
will lead a group that will endeavor to immediately alter the system of
government in Israel. Maariv reported today that the group is operating without
much publicity, backed by a group of leaders in the fields of business, culture
and law that has already begun to raise funds.
2012: Yeruham Scharovsky is scheduled to conduct the Jerusalem Symphony
Orchestra in a gala concert featuring young piano artists. (In a tribute to the
courage and resiliency of the Jewish people, the flyer announcing this event
went out at the same time that rockets were being filed on the capital city of
Israel)
2012: Pianist Bill Charlap was the real piano player at the television
wedding of “Liz Lemon,” a leading character on “30 Rock.” He is a descendant of 16th century
Italian Talmudist of Gedaliah ibn Yahya
ben Joseph
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to
sponsor a screening of “Jew in the Warsaw Rising” followed by a Q & A with
the film’s director Anna Ferens. (This
is a film about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and not the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
of 1943)
2012: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present an
evening with Montreal writer Julija Šukys, the author of Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona
Šimaitė, “which beckons back to life this quiet and worldly heroine, a
giant of Holocaust history (one of Yad Vashem's honored Righteous Among the
Nations) and yet so little known.”
2012 Sixty-fifth Anniversary of the UN vote approving the creation of Jewish
state in Palestine with independence to come within six months. Am Yisrael
Chai.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGUPlhtMWQ
2012: Sixty-five years to the day after the UN voted for the partition of
mandatory Palestine – a move the Jews accepted and the Arabs rejected – the
same body overwhelmingly voted today to grant the Palestinian delegation the
upgraded status of non-member observer state.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294029
2012: Labor members went to the polls today to elect the party’s list for
the 19th Knesset, in a vote that will show how much influence party leader
Shelly Yacimovich has, as opposed to the growing opposition within Labor led by
MK Amir Peretz.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294015
2013(26th
of Kislev, 5774): Second Day of Chanukah
2013(26th
of Kislev, 5774): Seventy-seven-year-old Pulitzer Prize winning historian
Michael Kammen passed away today. (As reported by Matt Schudel)
2013:
“Moses Montefiore: The Man Behind the Windmill,” an international conference at
Mshkenot Sha’annaim is scheduled to come to a close.
http://www.mishkenot.org.il/English/files/events/pdf/MosesMontefioreEng.pdf
2013:
The Maccabees Festival near Modi’in, the site of the original Chanukah story,
is scheduled to open today.
2013:
“Closer to the Moon” a dark comedy based on the “exploits” of the Ioanid Gang
“had its world premiere at the Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema Festival at
the Lincoln Center” today
2013:
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon expressed outrage at the incident reported in
Israeli media that three Druze IDF soldiers were delayed entry to the Dimona
nuclear reactor while there Jewish fellow soldiers were admitted. (As reported
by JPost)
2013:
An editorial published by the Washington Post today claims that “the White
House is omitting key facts about the nuclear deal signed with Iran” (As
reported by JPost and Washington Post)
2014: In Melbourne, “The Last Mentsch” and “Zero Motivation” are scheduled
to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014(7th of Kislev, 5775): Sixty-year-old Hillel Oscar of Ashdod
died today at the hospital after being hit by the ball “while refereeing a
cricket matching in the Israeli coastal city.”
2014: A fire broke out this evening in Jerusalem’s Pat neighborhood on the
grounds of Hand in Hand a dual Hebrew and Arabic language school in southern
Jerusalem, sparking suspicion of politically motivated arson.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bilingual-jewish-arab-school-in-jerusalem-torched/
2014: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a performance by the
Amaya Trio.
2014: Shabbat Va-yaytzay
2015(17th of Kislev, 5776): Seventy-nine-year-old David Cohen,
former president of Common Cause and voice for ethics in government passed away
today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015: “Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case”
an “800 square foot exhibit that examines the historical context
surrounding 13-year old Mary Phagan's murder at the National Pencil Company as
well as Jewish superintendent Leo Frank's trial, appeals, and eventual lynching
that has been on display at the Southern Museum at Kennesaw, GA, is scheduled
to close today.
2015: Today, while playing Guard for the New York Giants, Mitchell Schwartz,
who had started all eleven games, sustained a broken leg during a loss to the
Washington Redskins.”
2015: The National Appeal for Tzedakah, the major fund raising campaign of
the Jewish Federation of France (FSJU) is scheduled to start today after having
been postponed because of the terrorist attacks in Paris.
2015:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Complete Works of Primo Levi, a 3 volume work edited by
Ann Goldstein and the recently released paperback editions of We Are Pirates
by Daniel Handler and Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public
Opinion by Harold Holzer
2016:
As part of the “Meet The Author Series” Alice Hoffman is scheduled to “discuss
her career, her novels and her latest book Faithful at the Skirball
Center
2016:
According to a report from Israel Radio. “a ceremony is scheduled to held
tonight in the British Parliament tonight to mark the 100th
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
2016:
According to the Anti-Defamation League, today “the Huffington Post’s
Arabic-language edition” contained “a blog post claiming a Jewish woman
poisoned the Prophet Muhammad with arsenic.”
2017:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host an “Intimate Concert with
Jam Band Mr. Blotto: paying “tribute to iconic rock and roll producer and
Holocaust survivor Bill Graham.”
2017:
Followed by “a meal of burgers and hot dogs” (who knew the English ate such
stuff) the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a screening of
“Love Actually” as part of the popular “Movie Night.”
2017:
Today, “in Norfolk, VA, the JWB Chaplains Council, a signature program of the
JCC Association of North America” is scheduled to dedicate a Torah in memory of
World War II” Army Air Corps “veteran Jacob Kamaras aboard the USS Gerald R.
Ford.
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening of
schmoozing with Joy Behar, Gretchen Carlson, Maureen Dowd and Jill Kargman.
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Howard M. Sachar
whose works included the classic “A History of the Jews in the Modern World”
and “A History of the Jews in America” which might be the single best piece of
Holocaust literature, continues today.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host
a lecture on “History Matters: Defining Holocaust Memory in Poland” moderated
by Northwest University Associate Professor Benjamin Frommer, Ph.D.
2018:
The Village East Cinema is scheduled to host the final screening of Ofir
Trainin’s “Family in Transition.”
2018(21st of Kislev, 5779): Fifty-five year old Lisa Miriam
Schwartz, the NYU trained physician “who with her husband devoted her life to
warning patients about the dangers of unnecessary medical tests and treatment
and excessive diagnoses” passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “Back to Berlin.”
2018:
The Hebrew University is scheduled to celebrated the “100 years since the
laying of its cornerstone” with a conference during which “the German
Literature Archive Marbach together with the Hebrew University will explore the
history of a century of German-Jewish culture and research.”
2018:
In Manhattan, the Quad City Cinema is scheduled to host the final screening of
Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah: Four Sisters – Ruth & Ada” and “Shoah: Four
Sisters – Hanna & Paula.”
2018:
Seventy-first anniversary of the UN General adoption of Resolution 181.
https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2017/11/who-saved-israel-in-1947/
2019:
The Friday night dinner sponsored by the Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to include a moment of mystery as diners get to “solve a confounding
murder case.”
2019:
Today Israel can look forward to an improvement in its international position
following yesterday’s announcement that Bolivia has renewed diplomatic
relations with Israel.
2019(1st of Kislev, 5780): Rosh Chodesh Kislev;
2020: The New York Times features
reviews of varying length of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the
Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel,. Big Dirty Money: The Shocking
Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime by Jennifer Taub and The
Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman.
2020: “King Bibi” and “Gold” are two of the films which are available for
viewing at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey’s Virtual Film
Festival.
2020: Piano Cleveland is scheduled to present Daniel Shapiro.
2020: Congregation Or Atid is scheduled to present online “Together and
Apart: The Future of Jewish Peoplehood.”
2020: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is schooled to host a “Hannukah
Special” which is episode four in “Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Helene,
Jawhara-Piner.
2021: “Kiss Me Kosher” is scheduled to be shown at the Channukah Film
Festival co-sponsored by The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth Country.
2021: On the second night of Chanukah there a public lighting of the
Chanukah menorah (Hanukkiah) organized by Rabbi Aron Schimmel of Chabad N.E.
Iowa is scheduled to take place at 5:30 pm in front of Ginsberg Jewelers, 4667
1st Avenue SE.
2021: A community candle lighting is scheduled to take place in the JCCSF
Atrium.
2021: The JCRC and CJP are scheduled to host a
community-wide menorah lighting at the New England Holocaust Memorial which
“will shine a light on antisemitism and raise the profile of this critical
issue.”
2021(25th of Kislev, 5782): First Day of Channukah
2022: The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is scheduled to present a
lecture by Bob Moore ,Emeritus Professor of European History at the University
of Sheffield, on “Forgotten Soldiers? Prisoners of War in Europe, 1939-1956.”
2022: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host the third study
group that is examining People Love Dead Jews on a chapter-by-chapter
basis.
2022: Dr. David E. Kaufman is scheduled to lecture on The Modern Jewish
Experience: An Historical Overview at the Streicker Center.
2022:Seventy-fifth anniversary of the UN vote to partition Palestine and create a “two state solution” with a
Jewish state and an Arab state and with Jerusalem as city under international
control
2022: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present Melanie
Meyers, Chair of Collections and Engagement, and Tamar Zeffren, Director of
Archival Partnerships, on Giving Tuesday, for an exploration of the history of
American Jewish philanthropy through the lens of relevant collections at the
American Jewish Historical Society.
2023: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “The Murders Next Door…and
the Scourge of Holocaust Distortion” with clips from the documentary
“J’Accuse.”
2023: The Jewish Book Council, the West End Museum, and the Boston Public
Library are scheduled to host a children’s book reading of “The Boston
Chocolate Party,” written by Tami Lehman-Wilzig and Rabbi Deborah Prinz and
illustrated by Fede Combi which follows a Sephardic Jewish family. Set against
the backdrop of Hanukkah and the American fight for independence, it is a story
of friendship, freedom, and a love of chocolate.
2023: Rabbi Daniel Epstein is scheduled to give the first in a series of
lectures on French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas at the Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem.
2023:
As November 29 begins in Israel, hopes dim that the Bibas family including
their ten-month-old baby which was taken hostage will be returned any time soon
since Hamas has transferred them “to another Palestinian terror faction” and based
on yesterday’s attack on the IDF that included the detonation of three
explosive devices, the Israelis can expect to sustain more casualties during
the truce while the rest of the Hamas held hostages
begin day 54 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
800: Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope
Leo III. Leo and Charlemagne were allies.
Charlemagne would exonerate Leo of the charges and Leo would crown
Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
This was “good for the Jews” since Charlemagne was protective of his
Jewish subjects at a time when many were using the sword of Constantine to
advance the cause of the Cross of Christ.
1226: At the Reims Cathedral, coronation of Louis IX who at the request of
the Pope Gregory burned “24 cartload of Jewish books in 1242, made plans to
expel the Jews after confiscating their property and ordered them to wear a
“Jew’s badge” and “to listen to missionary sermons”
1268: Pope Clement IV, who in 1264 “renewed the prohibition of the Talmud
promulgated by Gregory IX, who had it publicly burnt in France and in Italy”
and who “ordered that the Jews of Aragon submit their books to Dominican
censors for expurgation” passed away today
1314: Although he would not be officially crowned un 1315, Louis X, who
overturned the decision of his father, Phillip the Fair, to ban Jews from his
realm began his reign as King of France.
1378: Sixty-two-year-old Charles VI, “the first King of Bohemia to also
become Holy Roman Emperor” whose classification of the Jews in Frankfort as
“vassals of the emperor” was not enough to halt the 1349 Pogrom in that city
passed away today.
1378: Wenceslaus IV who as Emperor failed to continue the Imperial
protection of the Jews of Luxembourg which led to their expulsion in 1391 began
his reign as King of Bohemia today.
1394: Massacre of the Jews of Augsburg Germany.
1424: According to some sources, Anti-Pope Benedict XIII passed away. In an attempt to curry favor and consolidate
his position, Benedict conducted an aggressive program of forced conversion
among Jews that included the issuance of a Bull that prohibited study of the
Talmud, banned Jews from holding public office, practicing medicine, engaging
in crafts, trading or bathing with Christians, wear a red or yellow badge and
compelled them listen to at least three sermons a year during Advent.
1558: Miles Cloverdale, a translator of the Bible into English who relied on
Luther’s Bible and the Vulgate but who did have some knowledge of Hebrew as can
be seen by the fact that “the name of the Deity appears in Hebrew on the Title
Page” and that Hebrew characters are used to mark the divisions of the Book of
Lamentations” was godfather to John Knox's son today.
1630: The future King John IV of Portugal who was erroneously reported to
have employed the Jewish doctor Fernando Menes as his physician bean his reign
today as the Duke of Braganza.
1655: The Brazilian/Dutch Jews of New Amsterdam make an application for a
license to enter the fur trade. It was later denied.
1661: Anglican priest and scholar, Brian Walton, the editor of the London
Polyglot Bible, the first four volumes of which contained the text of the Old
Testament in Hebrew, passed away today.
1672(20th of Kislev, 5433): Moses Jacob Schiff-KaZ, z. Goldstein,
the of Jacob (Jakew-Jaakow) Schiff-KaZ, z Schiff and Gutlin (Gitle) Schiff-KaZ
and husband of Freidchen/Freudchen Schiff-KaZ passed away today at
Frankurt-am-Main
1755(25th of Kislev, 5516): Parashat Vayehsev; Shabbat Shel
Chanukah on the first day of the holiday.
1769: In Savannah, GA, Sara De La Motta and Levi Sheftall gave birth to
Sarah Sheftall, the wife of Abraham De Lyon with whom she had ten children.
1774(26th of Kislev, 5535): Second day of Channukah
1777: San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de
Guadalupe. Jews began to play an active role in the affairs of San Jose at
the time of the Gold Rush in 1849.
http://www.sanjose.com/history/jews/ San Jose History - San Jose's Jewish
Community
1790: The Jews of Hungary handed a petition, in which they presented their
claims to equality with other citizens, to King Leopold II at Vienna. Written in Latin, probably at the behest of
the Rosenthal family, “it read, in part ‘At long last, permit us to be citizens
useful taxpayers of the fatherland. In
the whole world, outside Hungary we have no fatherland, no other father than
the King…no other brothers than those with whom we live and die one society.’”
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Rosenthal_Family
1790: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Lewis Silver, the husband of Leah
Abrahams.
1793(25th of Kislev, 5554): As the citizens of Philadelphia
recover from a yellow fever epidemic that took the lives of 5,000 and France
coped with the Reign of Terror and Jews experience life under two “Georges”
(George Washington and King George III) Jews on both sides of the Atlantic
celebrate Chanukah
1797: Seventy-four year old Reverend Samuel Langdon, the former President of
Harvard College passed away today. As can be seen by a sermon he preached in
the New Hampshire Legislature “The Republic of the Israelites an Example to the
American States” who believed that the Old Testament and the ancient Hebrews
provided the foundation of the democracy being championed in the newly formed
United States. He saw “Moses as a
destroyer of tyranny” and the seventy men appointed chosen to assist Moses as
the prototype for a “Senate.”
1803” Birthdate of Gottfried Semper who the German architect who designed a
synagogue built in Dresden between 1838 and 1840 known as the “Semper
Synagogue” that contained a “a silver lamp of eternal light” that caught the
“fancy” of Cosima and Richard Wagner who spent a lot of money “to have a copy”
of the lamp made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottfried_Semper#mediaviewer/File:Alte_Synagoge_Dresden_1860_2.png
1806: Napoleon wrote to Minister of the Interior Champagny, “[It is
necessary to] reduce, if not destroy, the tendency of Jewish people to practice
a very great number of activities that are harmful to civilization and to
public order in society in all the countries of the world. It is necessary to
stop the harm by preventing it; to prevent it it is necessary to change the
Jews. [...] Once part of their youth will take its place in our armies, they
will cease to have Jewish interests and sentiments; their interests and
sentiments will be French.”
1807: Birthdate of Jonas Warburg, the husband of Bernhardine Wetzlar.
1809(21st of Kislev, 5570): Sixty-five year old New York native Moses
Seixas, the eldest son of Isaac Mendez Seixas who was one of the founders
(1795) of the Newport Bank of Rhode Island, of which he was cashier until his
death and who addressed a letter of welcome in the name of the congregation to
George Washington when the latter visited Newport, and it was to him that
Washington's answer was addressed passed away today in Newport, RI.
1812: Isaac Isaacs married Elizabeth Davis at the Great Synagogue today.
1812: Napoleon's Grand
Army crossed the Berezina River in its retreat from Russia which marked the
beginning of the end for Napoleon and therefore also marked the beginning of
the end of new found freedom that Jews had begun to experience in most of
Germany, Italy and Russia when the French Armies marched across these lands
bringing the message of “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” on the tips of their bayonets.
1813: In Alsace, France, Isaac Dreyfus, the Alsace born son of Jacob
Dreyfus, and his wife Gertrude “Julie” Dreyfus gave birth to Gertrude Dreyfus
who became Gertrude Bernheim when she married Leopold Bernheim with whom she
had nine children.
1820: In New York City, first publication of
Israel Vindicated by an anonymous author who styled him or herself as “An
Israelite.” “The work was ‘a refutation
of the calumnies propagated respecting the Jewish nation; in which the objects
and views of the American Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews
are investigated.’” The original subtitle also contained the additional words
“‘and reasons assigned for rejecting the Christian religion.’” In his monograph
entitled “The Freethinker, the Jews and the Missionaries,” Professor Jonathan
Sarna contends that the book was the work of a freethinker named George Houston
who was assisted by a Jewish printer named Abraham Collins.
1830: The November Uprising also known as the Cadet Uprising begins in
Warsaw when a group of Polish non-commissioned officers began an unsuccessful
attempt to throw off the yoke of Russian rule. Josef Berkowicz, whose father
had commanded a Jewish legion in the 1794 Uprising and who had fought alongside
his father in the Battle of Kock, was a leader in what would prove to be
another failed attempt to gain Polish independence.
1831(24th of Kislev, 5592): In the evening, kindle the first
Chanukah light
1831(24th of Kislev, 5592): Poet Moshe Shmuel Neumann, the
Hungarian born son of “a poor cantor” who overcame numerous hardships to
develop “a master’s command of the Hebrew Language” and who also “compiled a
geography, a Biblical history for the young and an elementary arithmetic” while
raising a son, Asher Enshil Naiman the husband of Hadassah Naiman, passed away
today.
1832: In Camden, SC, Hayman Levy, the son of Solomon and Rebecca Eve Levy,
and his wife Almeria Levy gave birth to Rebecca Hendricks Samuel
1840: Two days after he had passed away, 70 year old Woolf Solomons was
buried at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery” today.
1840: In Plymouth England, Henry and Rose Cohen gave birth to Josiah Cohen,
“one of the founders along with Dr. Isaac M. Wise of the Union of American
Congregations and the husband of Carrie Naumburg, who became a successful
American lawyer and Republican Party leader who was “appointed judge of the
orphans’ court in Allegheny County (PA)” in 1901.
1842(26th Kislev, 5603): Second day of Chanukah
1843: Birthdate of London native, Deborah Aaron, the wife of Joseph
Hobinstock Woolf.
1845(29th of Cheshvan, 5606): Parashat Tolodot
1845: After having been invited to address the congregation, Dr. M.
Lilienthal, who had only recently arrived in the United States delivered a
sermon in German at the Henry Street Synagogue in New York City after having
been invited to address the congregation.
1846: Two days after she had passed away, 78 year old Hannah Abraham, the
wife of John Abraham, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish
Cemetery.”
1849: In “Kollin, Bohemia,” Rabbi Bernhard Illoway and Katherine Schiff gave
birth to Dr. Illoway, the Miami Medical College trained physician who was the
“professor of Diseases of Children at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and
Surger and the visiting physician at the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati.”
1850(24th of Kislev, 5611): Kindle the first Chanukah light
1851(5th of Kislev, 5612): Parashat Toldot
1851(5th of Kislev, 5612): Jacob Lyon, the native of Poland who
came to Richmond, VA, at the 18th of century where he became a
successful merchant and whose third wife was Eliza White passed away today.
1853: Reverend Francis N. Vinton, D. D delivered a lecture entitled
"The Merchant, or the Progress and Influence of Commerce" during
which he stated that the Jews had invented the first bills of exchange in
1160. This invention was so important
that soon it would be impossible to transact business without using them. Furthermore, the Jews created one of the
first banks, at Boscoe, but it was used merely as depository for Gold. (Boscoe
was probably a city in Italy.)
1854: In Charleston, SC, at the Hasell Street Synagogue, Rabbi Mayer
officiated at the wedding of Israel Ottolengui to Rosalie C. Moise the youngest
daughter of Mrs. R.C. Moise.
1855:
Most of the Jews of New York City celebrated Thanksgiving today by “eating
hearty dinners” and giving thanks “in private.”
1855:
During his Thanksgiving Day sermon, Rabbi Morris Raphael rebuked New York’s
Governor Clarke for issuing a proclamation inviting “only patriots and
Christians to keep Thanksgiving.” At the same time, he commended Mayor Wood for
inviting “all the people” to join in observing the holiday.
1855:
Rabbi S.M. Isaacs delivered the sermon during Thanksgiving Day services at
Shaaray Tefillah, the synagogue on Wooster Street.
1856: A pro-Zionist meeting was held in Great Britain at the Great Assembly
Hall of Miles End. There was a "great rush into the building" with
most seats taken quickly. The meeting was presided over by Dr. M. Gaster, Chief
Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, and among those present were
Sir Francis Montefiore.
1857: Birthdate of Cincinnati native and businessman Louis S. Levi, an
“officer of the United Jewish Charities” and the member of the board of Hebrew
Union College.
1858: It was reported from Boston that the Jews of that city have a held a
meeting to express their outrage over what has happened in Bologna. “The theft
of the child is an outrage of the worst kind and shows there are men in the old
Church ready to go as far as did their predecessors of the old days, when the
Inquisition was a great fact, and a very disagreeable one, too.” [This refers to the kidnapping of Edgardo
Mortara which had taken place in Bologna and became known as the Mortara
Affair.]
1859: Lazarus Simon, the son of English coal merchant Simon Magnus accepted
a commission as a Captain in the newly formed 4th Corps of the 1st Brigade of
the Kent Voluntary Artillery
1859:
In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Abraham Printz and Rose Wohlgemuth Printz gave
birth to Bert H. Prinz who came the United States in 1864 and opened several
stores in Pennsylvania and New York before opening "Printz Company Men's
Clothing and Furnishing in Youngstown, Ohio which became the headquarters of
his commercial enterprises.
1860(15th
of Kislev, 5621): In Belovar, Rumania, Joseph Hirsch and Feige Herman gave
birth to Bayonne, NJ manufacturer of cloth caps and hats Jacob Herman who in
1885 came to the United States where he founded Herman Brothers, helped to
found and/or organize Temple Emanu-El and the Roumanian Congregation of New
York and married Rebecca Leah Vickoron with whom he had three sons and seven
daughters.
1860:
In San Francisco, “The Episcopalians, the Roman Catholics and the Jews, all
opened their churches…” for the celebration of Thanksgiving. The Jewish Church is probably a reference to Congregation Sherith Israel and Congregation Emanu-El.
Sherith Israel which was founded in 1849 had about 110 members and consecrated
its first synagogue which was located on Stockton Street in September of 1852.
Emanu-El which followed the Reform minchag had about 260 members and dedicated
it sanctuary in 1854.
1861: In New York Leopold and Kate gave to attorney David Gerber
who became a partner of Judge A.J. Dittenhoefer.
1862: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Louis and Emma (Goodhart) Heinsheimer
gave birth to Stella Heinshier. In 1894
she married J. Walter Freiberg, a partner in Frieberg and Workum,
Distillers. As Stella Heinshier Frieberg
she pursued her two passions – “helping the arts flourish in her hometown of
Cincinnati, Ohio, and furthering the growth of Reform Judaism—and the role of
women in it—in the United States and Western Europe.” (As reported by Laura
Lieber)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/freiberg-stella-heinsheimer
1862: Phoebe Yates Levy Pember wrote a letter to her sister indicating that
she was “to take charge of one of the hospitals at Richmond.” In December 1862,
she reported for duty at Chimborazo, a hospital for the care of Confederate
soldiers in Richmond, Virginia, reputed to be the largest military hospital in
the world up to that time. Pember oversaw nursing services in one of the
hospital's five divisions. In this role, she was responsible for the medical
and dietary needs of over 15,000 men. Pember had grown up in a prosperous and
acculturated family in Charleston, South Carolina. Along with her siblings, she
was strongly identified with the Confederate cause and received the invitation
to serve as matron of Chimborazo Hospital from the wife of the Confederate
secretary of war. In A Southern
Woman's Story: Life in Confederate Richmond, published in 1879,
Pember described daily life at Chimborazo, detailing the poor state of the
Confederate medical facilities. Despite resistance to her authority, Pember's
spirit and determination overcame many obstacles. At the end of the war in
April 1865, Mrs. Pember stayed at her post so that her patients might be cared
for during the transition from Confederate to federal control. (As reported by
the Jewish Women’s Archives)
1863: In Cincinnati, OH, Emma Goodhart and Lewis Heinsheimer gave birth to
Stella Heinsheimer who became Stella Freiberg when she married J. Frieberg in
1884 and who was President of the National Federation of Sisterhoods, a member
of the Rockdale Avenue Temple and first vice president of the Cincinnati
Symphony Orchestra Association.
1864(30th of Cheshvan, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1864(30th of Cheshvan, 5625): Eighty-six-year Bordeaux born
“musician and composer” Isaac Francis DaCosta who was the “first cornet at the
opera in Paris and “vice-leader of the Musique des Gardes du Corps, under Louis
XVIII” passed away today.
1867: Future Medal of Honor winner George Geiger “reenlisted with Troop M,
of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, November 29, 1867 in St. Louis, Missouri.”
1872: George Gieger completed his enlistment and was discharged at
Unionville, SC
1869(25th of Kislev, 5630): First Day of Chanukah; for the first time Jews
celebrate the Festival of Lights under President Grant, who received a majority
of the Jewish vote.
1870: It was reported today that Governor Hoffman will deliver an opening
address at the upcoming Hebrew Fair designed to raise funds for Mount Sinai
Hospital and Hebrew Orphan Asylum
1870: In New York, Henry Hissig, a German-born Hebrew went on trial for
violating New York’s new seduction law.
He is accused of having seduced his cousin, Ida Schwab.
1872: In Odessa, Jacob Henry and Rachel (Avrick) Topkis gave birth to Louis
Topkis who in 1881 arrived where he settled in Wilmington, Delaware, became
President of Topkis Brothers Company and
active member of the Republican Party while serving as President of the
Wilmington Hebrew Charities Association while raising a family with the former
Esther Krigtstein.
1873: Major Alfred Mordecai, Jr. begins serving as a member of the New
Cavalry Outfit Board.
1873: Louis, duc Decazes, who used Bohemian born Franco-Jewish journalist to
expose German plans to invade France, began serving as Foreign Minister today.
1873: It was reported today that members of Adas Jeshrun and Anshi Chesed,
two Jewish Temples in Manhattan, have been meeting to discuss the possibility
of consolidation. Anshi Chesed has over 100 members while Adas Jeshrun has
approximately 300 members. Some of the sticking points revolve around finances
with Anshi Chesed being in $110,000 in debt from the construction of a new
sanctuary. The other points of contention revolve around ritual. Adas Jeshrun
is not in favor of many of the reforms adopted by other Temples. Prayer is in Hebrew and heads are covered
during services. Anshi Chesed favors
reform. Services are held in German and
there is a movement to begin using English.
And heads are uncovered during services.
1874: In “Influences of Judaism on Early Christianity” published today shows
that acknowledging the Jewish origins of Christianity becomes a negative in the
conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
“There is no question that the earliest Christian Church was a Hebrew
Church. There is also no question that it was an offshoot from this Hebrew
Church which planted itself with exceptional vigor at Rome; and that hence
Roman Christianity from that time to this, has been strongly tinctured with
Jewish elements, has blazed with Jewish intolerance, delighted in Jewish
gorgeousness, and fallen a victim to Jewish realism; while Pauline or
Augustinian or Protestant idealism has struggled manfully…to overcome the deep
weight of these lower ingredients…and to assert for intelligence and freedom
their true place in the Church.”
1874: The New York Times defended
itself charges leveled in the Jewish
Messenger that the paper’s use of the term “Jew” was one of derision or
insult. The Times contended that it was
merely using it as an identification of national origin or ancestry in the same
way that that it uses the term to American or Englishman. The Times identifies lawbreakers as Jewish
and does not do so with Christian lawbreakers, because absent the statement of
distinction, it is assumed the criminal is a Christian.
1877: In Rochester, NY, Amelia Meyer and Sol Wile gave birth to University
of Pennsylvania Medical School graduate Ira Solomon Wile, the husband of Saide
Rigby and director of health classes at Mount Sinai Hospital who
“practiced as a pediatrician at Mt. Sinai Hospital” in New York City.
1877: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native and Jefferson Medical College trained
physician and surgeon, Edwin Steiner, the father of three children – Edwin Jr,
Dr. Charles and Grace – who served as Lt. Col. in the United States Public
Health Service during World War II and practiced medicine for over half a
century in Essex County, NJ.
1878: It was reported today that government of Romania has continued to fail
to honor its pledges concerning the treatment of Jews given to the Great Powers
when they met in Berlin. “Unless the some of the treat power can be induced” to
take direct action “It is likely that the Romanian Jews will be no better off
in the immediate future they have been in the past.
1879(14th of Kislev, 5640): Mr. S.L. Lewis passed away today in the Sandwich
Islands. (This may be the first reported death of a Jew in what is now Hawaii).
1880: It was reported today that “a petition has been presented to Prince
Bismarck to restrict the civil rights of the Jews and repeal the absolute
equality enjoyed by them with German.” The petition sent to the Chancellor is
filled with complaints that Jews “are rapidly getting rich as merchants, landed
proprietors and capitalists” and that if left unchecked within a generation
Jews “will be lording it over the Teutons” i.e. the true Germans.
1880: In New York, Hyman Philip Lewi and Edith Rosalie Lewis gave birth to
Harold Lewis, the husband of Francis Wolff Lewis with whom he had three
children – Evelyn, Philip, and Harley.
1881: It was reported today that I. Albert Engelhart is the President of the
newly incorporated Hebrew Society for the Improvement of the Sanitary Condition
of the Poor. Uriah Hermann and Alfred
Steckler are the vice presidents of the society which is dedicated to improving
the living conditions of the immigrant and poor in New York. Among other things, the society will work for
the construction of “good tenements” that will be ahealthful home and to
“prevent the adulteration” of their food.
1883: Miss Lillie Bernheimer treated 170 children attending the Industrial
School of the United Hebrew Charities to turkey dinner in honor of
Thanksgiving.
1884: In Cleveland, OH, newspaperman Maurice Weidenthal, the Bohemian born
son “of Emanuel and Julie Weidenthal” and his wife Lida Weidenthal gave birth
to Edward Weidenthal
1884(11th of Kislev, 5645): Fifty-seven year old, Levi
Goldenberg A native of Frankfort, he
came to the Baltimore, MD in 1845 before eventually moving to New York where he
became a leading lace merchant, as one of the principles of Goldenberg Brothers
&Co. Goldenberg was a noted
philanthropist and was a founding member of Temple Beth-El
1885: It was reported today that there has been a clash between a band of
Austrian Gypsies and a Jes living in village in Bessarabia.
1885: A review of The Religion of Philosophy or The Unification of
Knowledge by Raymond S Perrin published today points out that the “Hebrew
Religion has a chapter to itself.”
1886: It was reported today that there are approximately 6,300,000 Jews in
the world today, two and a half million of whom live in the European part of
the Russian Empire. There are 63,000
Jews living in France while there are 562,000 Jews living in France. Ironically, 39,000 of them live in
Alsac-Lorraine which means the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War
reduced France’s Jewish population by about one third.
1887: It was reported today the Reverend E. D. Simons of Bloomfield, NJ,
will present a paper entitled “Why the Jews Crucified Christ” next week.
1887: A national meeting of Reform Rabbis came to a close in New York City
today.
1887: Seventy-eight year old Dr. Samuel Adler, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple
Emanu-El “gave a dissertation on the benedictions with which ritual is
interspersed “tracing them back “Ezra and the return from the Babylonian
Capitivty.”
1888(25th of Kislev, 5649): For Jews a double header – first day
of Chanukah and Thanksgiving
1888: At Temple Beth-El in New York, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler will deliver a
sermon entitled “What does America owe to the Jews and what the Jew to America
at today’s Thanksgiving Services
1888: It was reported today that the late Mrs. Jette Lissauer named the Home
for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum as two of her
beneficiaries in her will provided that the patients and students say Kaddish
on her Yahrzeit.
1888: It was reported today that Yetta Reiner, an 18-year-old Jewish girl
who arrived in the United States two weeks ago was last seen on November 26
talking to a man on the corner of Hester and Norfolk Streets who promised to
find her a job.
1888: It was reported today from Vienna, that “Baron Hirsch has made a
donation of $5,000,000 for schools for Jews in Galicia and Bukovina.”
1889: It was reported today that one of “little girls” under the care of the
United Hebrew Charities read a poem to Samuel D. Levy yesterday “congratulating
him on having his birthday on Thanksgiving Day, so that he could celebrate with
Turkey.”
1889: It was reported today that the new synagogue being built on 67th
Street between Lexington and Third avenue “will be known as the Ephraim
Memorial in honor of the late Ephraim Weil,” whose sons have contributed
heavily to the building fund. In Hebrew,
the congregation is called Zichron Ephraim.(The congregation lives on today as
Park East Synagogue. The orthodox congregation is led by Rabbi Bernard
Drachman.
1889: It was reported that the 600 children at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum “ate
about six hundred pounds of turkey at their Thanksgiving dinner” and consumed
“enough cake and ice cream and candy to freight a ship. (The reference to
Turkey and ice cream makes wonder about the Kashrut at this esteemed
institution supported by such Jewish luminaries as Jesse Seligman and Oscar
Straus)
1892: In France, during the investigation of the scandal surrounding the
failed attempt to build the Panama Canal the Chamber of Deputies heard
testimony that Charles de Lesseps had said that among those whom he paid to
influence the price of his company’s stock were the Jews who “offered to assist
when new issues were announced” because they were “able to praise or decry
according to the sums received.” (Frenchmen
were always willing to blame Jews every time one of their financial bubbles
burst and the public’s view of Jews as conniving manipulators was instrumental
in creating the environment that gave birth to the Dreyfus affair).
1893: Plans were published today for the upcoming Thanksgiving Dinner
sponsored by the United Hebrew Charities Society.
1894(1st of Kislev, 5655): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1894: Thanksgiving
1894: In Cleveland, OH, Marcus and Addie Fedder gave birth to Lloyd H.
Feder, the husband of Jeanne Feder.
1894: “Three hundred and fifty little girls and boys pupils of the
Industrial School of the United Hebrew Charities were entertained today at a
Thanksgiving dinner at the schoolhouse on 85 St. Mark’s Place
1894: “To Humanity,” the new Hamilton place wing of the Montefiore Home was
dedicated today in New York. The
Montefiore Home had been dedicated ten years earlier as part of the Centennial
Celebration honoring Sir Moses Montefiore. Among the speakers were Jacob Schiff
and Charles S. Fairchild who noted “how appropriate it was to have the
celebration on Thanksgiving Day.”
1895: According to evidence presented today at the Harlem Court, Solomon
Riens a resident of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews right to vote was
challenged by Eugene Frayer because the institution received tax money which
meant he was a public charge and this not eligible to vote. The unanswered
question is why the other 12 residents of the Home were allowed to vote without
any challenge.
1895: Twenty-seven-year-old Daniel Ryan and 36-year-old Daniel Healy were
charged with “Jew baiting” in Essex Market Court after the police observed them
striking at every Jew they passed on East Broadway.
1895: It was reported today that attendance of the Girl’s Industrial School
of the United Hebrew Charities averages 250 students a day.
1896(24th of Kislev, 5657): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1896: Several trustees of the Baron de Hirsch Fund visited the agricultural
colony established by the fund at Woodbine, NJ for Jewish immigrants from
Russia.
1896: The Jewish settlers at Woodbine, NJ dedicated their new house of
worship this evening.
1896: James Loeb will deliver a lecture at the Hebrew Institute on “Civic
Life in Greece.”
1896: The funeral for former State Senator Joseph C. Wolff will take this
place this morning at Temple Ahawath Chesed at Lexington and 55th.
1897: Birthdate of Alfred K. Stern, the Fargo, ND, native who marred Martha
Dodd Stern, the daughter of William E. Dodd FDR’s first ambassador to Hitler’s
Germany. She became a foe of the Nazis and fascism and he joined her in her
efforts which led to them being named as suspected spies for the Soviet Union.
1897: Herzl outlines his ideas for the "Jewish Colonial Bank" in a
letter to Max Nordau.
1897: Birthdate of Troy, NY native Joseph Harris, who attended Rensselaer
Polytechnic
1897: “Jews In United States” published today included information in the
recently issued sixth publication of the American Jewish Historical Society
that featured an article by Philadelphian David Sulzberger entitled “Growth of
the of the Jewish Population in the United States.”
1898: The outbreak of measles among the children of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum
which began on November 5 “has been checked” according to Superintendent Baar.
1898: Birthdate of C.S. Lewis
http://blog.beliefnet.com/kingdomofpriests/2010/02/jrr-tolkien-cs-lewis-on-jews.html
1898: Birthdate of Kovno native
Louis Eliot Baker, the Massachusetts attorney who was active in the YMHA and
B’nai B’rith
1898: Twenty-seven-year-old
Wittenberg educated and Ohio State University trained physician Louis Syman, a
specialist in the practice of internal medicine and the Cleveland born son of
Ranks and Rebecca Syman who served as the “regimental surgeon of the 362nd
Infantry, U.S. Army during WWI, married Bertha Reinheimer today.
1898: Birthdate of Morris Dicker who
would be buried in the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City.
1898: In Camden, NJ, “Solomon Joseph
and Rosa (Zuckerman) Goldstein” gave birth to University of Pennsylvania
trained physician who specialized in obstetrics and gynecology and co-authored
“Paget’s Disease of the Bones” and served as President of Beth-El Synagogue in
Camden, NJ.
1900: Birthdate of Evansville, IN, native and newspaperman Arthur T. Weil,
the holder of bachelor’s in journalism from University Missouri who wrote
“Exploding the Myth of a Jewish Hierarchy which was published in the American
Hebrew and Jewish Tribune which published in May of 1934.
1901: The Reverend William F. McGinnis, the President of the International
Catholic Truth Society today received a letter from the Cardinal Secretary at
the Vatican denying that shortly after the assassination of President McKinley
“the Pope had advocated a crusade against anarchists, Jews, Christian
Scientists, Spirituals and an number of other believers in creeds that widely
differ from that of Rome.”
1901: It was reported today that Dr. A.L. Wolborst, “a well-known physician”
is President of New Era Club, an organization made up mostly of young Jewish
men from the East Side including A.H. Fromenson of the Jewish Way who is the
Vice President and A.S. Solomon of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
1902: In St. Louis, Morris and Eva
Ostrich Bearman gave birth to their youngest son Leo Berman, the Vanderbilt
trained attorney who practiced in Memphis where he was a pillar of the Jewish
community.
http://www.jhsmem.org/bio/LeoBearman.pdf
1902: In Turin, physician Ercole Levi and Annetta
Treves, gave Italian painter and novelist Carlo Levi and nephew of Claudio
Treves.
https://biography.yourdictionary.com/carlo-levi
1903: It was reported today that “in
the opinion of New York Butchers who kill cattle under rabbinical and State
supervision, the order of the State Humane Society of Colorado stopping
‘kosher’ killing in that State will act as a boomerang as it did in New York
and ultimately will result in the prohibition of cattle killing except by the
‘kosher’ method.’”
1904: In St. Louis, MO Rose and
Benjamin Agruss gave birth to Arthur Agruss, the husband of Goldie Agruss
1904: The Russian correspondent for
The Times of London said, “that Russian reservists continue to escae in large
numbers into Austrian Poland” and that “most of them, especially the Jews, are
provided with money and that their escape is facilitated by the Russian
frontier guards who freely take bribes” which are usually 15 rubles “for
passing the reservists across the frontier.”
1905(1st of Kislev,
5666): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1905: On its editorial page, the New
York Times published “the letter by a worthy Christian with a heart and soul
full of sympathy” for the “poor suffering Jews of Russia” signed simply
“W.H.S.”
1905: Jacob H. Schiff, the Treasurer
of “the National Relief Committee which is collecting funds for the sufferers
from Russian massacres” received a letter from Baron Horace Gunzberg which
provided “the first word” of how the funds will be distributed once they get to
Russia which he said will go to the Jews and those who have suffering by
helping to protect the Jews.
1905: The Koinigsberf Hartugnsche
Zeitung, a German newspaper that is “usually reliable” printed “dispatch from
Minsk” today saying that a planned massacre of the Jews had been “averted
through negotiations between the Jews and the priest who leads the anti-Semitic
element” but that in reality, “the massacre has merely been postponed until
next week.”
1905: Today, in Paris, “prices on
the Bourse were feeble at the opening, but strengthened on a report that the
Russian laws aimed against the Jews had been abrogated.”
1905: It was reported today that so
far $920,000 has been collected by the National Committee for the Relief of the
Sufferers from the Russian Massacres including $545 from Congregation Beth-El
in Alexandria, VA, $114 from Temple Emanu-El in Vancouver, British Columbia and
$43 from the “Jewish Community of Enid, Oklahoma.”
1905: “Russian Poles and Jews” who
are seeking employment in Canada and “who were captured by the Japanese
arrived” in Victoria, British Columbia aboard “the steam Iyo Maru” today.
1905: It was reported today that in
Russia “all train service has been stopped so there is no means for the Jews to
escape the slaughter” but “when the trains are running again the Jews will
emigrate by the thousands and come to America.”
1905: It was reported today that
four thousand Jews gathered at a mass meeting in Berlin where “strong
resolutions were adopted” protesting against the violence in Russia.
1905: The Altamont Culture Club,
whose members included Joseph Deane, Charles H. Schneer and Samuel Berman was
“organized” today in Norfolk, VA.
1905: It was reported today that a
committee consisting of Isidor Straus, Marcus M. Marks, Edward Lauterbach,
Arthur K. Kuhn, Abraham Erlanger, Albert Stiglitz and Gustav Lindenthal will
make an appeal to the public for additional funds on behalf of the Educational
Alliance which is facing an “increased demand” for its services in
“Americanizing the ignorant and destitute immigrants who are coming to” the
United States in ever increasing numbers because of the “persecution now going
on in Russia.
1906: Thirty-year-old Charles C.
Simons, the Detroit born son of David W. Simon and University of Michigan
trained attorney who was appointed by President Harding to serve as a U.S.
District Judge married Lillian Bernstein today in Chicago.
1906: In St. Louis, Washington
University graduate and journalist Oscar Leonard, the Jassy, Romania born son
of Samuel Leibowitz and Sarah Lieber who career included serving on the
editorial staff of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the “Der Vorsteher” married
Leah Wolf today.
https://www.amazon.com/AMERICANS-ALL-Making-Glorious-America/dp/B000JV2YTA
1906: Harvard trained attorney
Alfred A. Benesh, the Cleveland, OH born son of Bertha Federman and Isidore
Julius Benesch married Helen Newman today in Chicago, IL.
1906: Birthdate of photographer
Sterling Henry Nahum, the Clifton College and University of Manchester
decorated WW II veteran, known as the Baron, who began his career of
photographing the Royal Family thanks to having “earned the confidence of Lord
Mountbatten.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-jews-shot-their-way-into-britains-photographic-memory/
1907(23rd of Kislev,
5668): Sixty-four-year-old journalist, CSA veteran and three term mayor of
Baton Rouge, Leon Jastremski, the Soulon, France born son of “Vincent
Jastremski, a Polish Jewish emigre, where he had studied medicine” passed away
today.
https://www.lib.lsu.edu/sites/default/files/sc/findaid/2951.pdf
1907: Birthdate of Italian-born
British geneticist Guido Pontecorvo. who fled from his homeland to Great
Britain in 1938 to avoid growing anti-Semitism.
1908: Birthdate of Harry Wagreich,
the Professor of Chemistry at CCNY and brother of Dr. Samuel Wagreich and Dr.
Paul Wagreich.
1908: N.Y. College of
Dentistry trained dental surgeon Solomon Deutsch the Dubinow, Russia born son
of Leah Deutsch and David Fisher the Hebrew teacher in Memel, Germany who in
1908 arrived in the United States, married Ceilia Newman today and went on to
serve as a member of the national executive committee of the Z.O.A and Temple
Issac and “acting dental surgeon to the Soldiers Training Campy in Syracuse,
NY” during World War I.
1910: Birthdate of Austrian born Anglo-Jewish scholar Walter Ullman who
specialized in “medieval political thought and legal theory.”
1911(8th of Kislev, 5672): Cleveland rabbi, Max Lakman passed
away today.
1912: In Chicago Rabbi Katkoff and Cantor Millar are scheduled to lead
Friday night services at the Institute.
1912: Yiddish theatre stars Jacob P. Adler, Leon Blank and Francis Adler are
scheduled to perform tonight at the Haymarket in Chicago this evening.
1913(29th of Cheshvan, 5674): Parashat Tolodot
1913: The Daily Mail dispatch from Odessa said that Mayor of Kieff had said
that his failure to float a municipal loan of $7,885,000 in London was
attributable “to the evil repute into which Kieff had fallen on account of the
trial of Melvin Bellis on the charges of ritual murder.”
1914(11th of Kislev, 5675): Sixty-four-year-old Gittel “Catherine” Helvich
Schubert, the wife of the late David Schubert with whom she had six children
passed away today after which she was buried in Salem Fields Cemetery.
1914(11th of Kislev, 5675): Lewis Seasongood, the Bavarian born
son of “Mendel and Hannah Suessenguth, and the husband of Emma Seasongood with
whom he had two children, who “settled in Cincinnati in 1851 after which he was
appointed in 1873 “by President Grant Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition and
“in 1882 appointed by Governor Foster Quartermaster of the State with the rank
of General” passed away today in Atlantic City.
1914: Borough President Marcus M. Marks the delegates attending the sixth
annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America which is
meeting in the Education Alliance building “that they ought to avail themselves
of the free markets” thereby helping to reduce the cost of living among Jews
living on the Lower East Side.
1914: A committee of 100 formed at a meeting of the Educational Meeting is
scheduled to meet Solomon Rabinowitz who uses the pen name Sholom Aleichem when
he arrives in New York today aboard the Frederik VIII from Copenhagen where he
has staying “since his escape from Berlin.”
1914: The Day published an
editorial entitled “Russian Promises and Polish Pogroms” by Herman Bernstein.
1914: It was reported today that “in Janow and Krasmk the Jews were accused
of setting mines to destroy Russian soldiers” which was the justification for
destroying the two towns and hanging Jews including children from telephone
poles.
1914: “Poles Killing Jews” published today provides a summary of the attack
first published in The Day “by George Brandes, the Danish critic on the
anti-Jewish agitation in Poland.
1914: It was reported today that a brief will be presented to the Supreme
Court that will include a challenge to the conviction of Leo Frank by on a
suggestion “by Mr. Justice Homes that there was a denial of due process of law
through the presence of hostile mob.”
1915: Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson, the commander of the Zion
Mule Corps fell ill and had to be evacuated to Alexandria and thence to London
“leaving Joseph Trumpeldor in command.”
(Jewish Virtual Library)
1915(22nd of Tevet, 5676): Meyer London a native of Wolkovishk,
Russia who came to the United States 47 years where he became so successful at
baking “unleavened bread” that he was known as the Matzah King passed away
today at this home on East Broadway.
1915: Mrs. Etta Fine the “President of the association of 1,200 mother who
support and manage” the Jewish Day Nursery facilities which serve “fatherless
children” was quoted today as saying that “it will take $25,000 to run the
branches on Henry Street and East 107th Street.”
1916: Fifteen hundred of the six thousand Jews in the United States who have
gone in for farming sent delegates” today “to the opening session of the eighth
annual convention of the Federation of Jewish Farmers of America” where “they
were welcomed by Louis Marshall, the President of the American Jewish
Committee, eighty year old Simon Wolf of Washington, Rabbi Judah L. Magne and
Cyrus Sulzberger.
1916: Jacob H. Schiff is among those who have been asked to address the
“great peace meeting” scheduled to be held at P.S. 4 this evening whose
supporters included Harry Schalacht of the East Side Protective Association.
1916: In the Dominican Republic, 57-year-old Francisco Hilario y Carvajal
completed his service as President of the Council of Secretaries of State.
1917: Former University of Michigan halfback Joseph “Joe” Magidsohn, “the
first Jewish athlete to win a varsity ‘M’” who was the “first athlete known to
have refused to compete on the Jewish High Holy Days” and his wife Jennie
Magidsohn gave birth to their second child Dorothy Magidsohn today.
1917(14th of Kislev, 5678): Forty-one year old Dr. Sigmund
Deutsch, a member of the army medical reserve corps passed away today in New
York City.
1917: The Jewish National Workers Alliance of America which had been
organized in 1912 held its annual conference today in Trenton, NJ.
1917: As the British continued their offensive to take Jerusalem, a combined
force of the British and Australian Nos. 1 and 111 Squadrons, attacked the Tul Keram aerodrome in the morning
and again in the evening “after German planes bombed the Julis aerodrome and
hit No. 113 Squadron's orderly room.”
1917: Thanksgiving
1917: President Wilson received a
pledge of the support of the Jews of the United States in his prosecution of
the war at a Thanksgiving service of the Institutional Synagogue where
“Representative Isaac Siegel…said that the pacifist views attributed to certain
elements of the Jewish people did not represent the general attitude of the
Jews of this country” since “there are 62,000 loyal Hebrews in the Army,” four
thousand of whom “are already with General Pershing in France.”
1917: Standing on a platform at
Cooper Union draped with the Stars and Stripes and the flag of Zionism Baruch
Zuckerman, the General Secretary of the Peoples Relief Committee presided over
a meeting tonight “of Zionist who are Socialists” and are celebrating the
declaration of the British Government expressing support for “allowing the Jews
to establish their national home in Palestine
1918(25th of Kislev, 5679): First Day of Chanukah and the first
Chanukah celebrated after four years of World War.
1918: “Julian W. Mack, the President of the Zionist Organization of America
and Louis Marshall, the President of the American Jewish Committee, issued a
joint statement” today in which they said that the organizations they represent
have received from authoritative and unprejudiced sources in Copenhagen,
Amsterdam, London and the Hague explicit cablegrams substantiating reports of
pogroms in Galicia and various parts of Poland and Rumania.
1918: It was reported today that Dr. Stephen S. Wise will serve as chairman
of the delegation that the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is sending to
Europe to deal with “many questions concerning” the Zionist movement that have
arisen in Europe. The delegation
includes Mrs. Joseph Fels, Louis Robinson, Dr. Shmarya Levin and the Chicago
attorney Bernard Flexner. (This delegation was being sent as the world prepared
for the Peace Conference at Versailles which was intended to formally end the
World War and lay the groundwork for a new world order based on Wilson’s 14
Points. Among other things, the Jews wanted to make sure that the victors
honored the promises of the Balfour Declaration and took measures to protect
the Jews living in the former Austrian, German and Russian empires.
1919: In Montreal, Louis and Anna Weider gave birth to Josef Weider who
gained fame as bodybuilder Joe Weider the creator of “an empire of muscle
magazines, fitness equipment, doubtful dietary supplements and Olympic-style
contests featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1920: In New York City Richard Wolff, “a mechanical engineer” and the former
Estelle Cohn gave birth to Robert Alfred Wolff, the sportscaster whom I first
heard as the voice of one of the worst teams in baseball – the Washington
Senators – and whom none of my friends at the time knew was Jewish.
1921: “In the town of Soroke in Bessarabian Romania,” Rokhl and Elkhonen Gendler gave birth Arkady
Gendler who became the “icon and paragon of the Yiddish Revival Movement.:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/music/131547/91-year-old-yiddish-rock-star
1921: Twenty-six year old Thea
(Almerigotti) La Guardia, the first wife of
future Mayor Fiorello La Guardia whose father was a Catholic from Italy
and whose mother was Jew from Trieste and who chose to follow in the faith of
his father but dazzled New Yorkers with his ability to speak Yiddish on the
campaign trail.
1921: “Benny Leonard, world's lightweight champion”, is scheduled to “box
George Ward, Elizabeth welterweight, in a six-round exhibition, no-decision
bout tonight at Madison Square Garden for the benefit of the Bronx Jewish
Hospital Relief Committee.
1921: Eighty-five-year-old Augustus Hopkins Strong the author of Systematic
Theology: The Doctrine of of God which “which presented an alternative
explanation of all the alleged inaccuracies reflected in the Hebrew Bible”
passed away today.
1922: In the Village of Ashmore in Dorset, Edith Edinger and Geoffrey Howard
gave birth to Oxford historian Michael Elliot Howard the winner of the Wolfson
Prize, which was established by Sir Isaac Wolfson, in 1972 for The Grand
Strategy: August 1942 – September 1943
1923: John Hopkins graduate and JTS trained rabbi, Samuel Fredman, the
Russian born son of Cippy Kohen and Robert Fredman married Bessie Stashower in
Cleveland, OH.
1923: Charlie Phil Rosenberg, a product of the Jewish Lower East Side in New
York, met future Bantamweight World Champion Eddie Martin for the first of
their three bouts today.
1924: Birthdate of Jane Niederhoffer the Flatbush native who gained fame as
landscape artist Jane Freilicher.
1925: In Washington, DC, the Hebrew Home for the Aged dedicated a new 35 bed
facility.
1925: Two days after he had passed way, funeral services were held for 43-year-old
Horace Andrew Saks, co-founder of Saks Fifth Avenue followed by burial in
Brooklyn at Salem Fields.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/11/28/98842905.pdf
1925: “The $5,000,000 United Palestine Funds Appeal, representing the
greatest effort American Jews have ever undertaken for the restoration of the
Holy Land” is scheduled to launched today “at a National Palestine Conference”
meeting in Baltimore, MD.
1926: It was reported today that Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein had preached a
sermon at the Hotel Astor in which he said, “the home is the heart of then
nation” and that “the true education of a people is implanted in the home.”
1926: In responding to publication of the report of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett
of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who asserted that the
movement to colonize Palestine with Jews is ""unfortunate and
visionary," Congressman Emanuel Celler maintained that Dr. Pritchett went
to Palestine to find a flare and was surprised to find success. He said that disparage Palestine now was
‘childish,’ that it has been sanctioned and encouraged by the League of
Nations. ‘To call the Jews an egotistical nation without capacity of
cooperation, with the rest of the world, is akin to insult and belies the
history and tradition of the Jews.’ [Editor’s Note: An early version of anti-Zionism meets
anti-Semitism.
1926: At tonight’s meeting of the Jewish National Fund at Cooper Union,
Bernard A. Rosenblatt responded to “the adverse report of Dr. Henry S.
Pritchett on Zionism in Palestine…declared that the fundamentals of economic
prosperity exited in Palestine, and they would be fully developed.”
1927: “Executive officers of the American Jewish Congress protested at a
meeting’ today in Washington, D.C. “against the demonstrations and disturbances
in Hungary directed against Jewish” University students.
1927: “Persons of Jewish faith are Protestants inasmuch as they are not
Catholics, according to the substance of the main argument of Sir John Simon, a
leader of the British bar, in appearing before the Privy Council today as chief
counsel for the appellants in the Quebec school case, brought to the highest
court of the empire on appeal from the Supreme Court of Canada.”
1928: Thanksgiving
1928: “In a Thanksgiving address at Temple Ansche Chesed,” Senator Royal S.
Copeland “traced the origins of Thanksgiving Day to the Jews of Biblical times
saying: ‘I have no doubt that Elder Brewster and the Pilgrim Fathers consulted
the Book of Books in preparing for the first Thanksgiving Day.’”
1928: In Manhattan, Irving Kaufman, a CPA and the former Sophie Smith gave
birth to Charles Kaufman, the holder of a doctoral degree in musicology who
“saved” the Mannes College of Music. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1928: Birthdate of Shulamit Aloni an Israeli politician and left-wing
activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz
party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education
from 1992 to 1993.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-minister-shulamit-aloni-dies-at-85-2/
1929: ‘The Love Parade,” a musical comedy directed and produced by Ernst
Lubitsch and co-starring Lillian Roth was released today in the United States.
1929: In Chicago, Arthur Mordechai Rabinovitz, the Lithuanian born son of Sholem Moshe Rabinovitz and Chaya-Leah
Levy, and his wife Anna Dorothy Silverstone gave birth to Abba Silverstone
Rabinovitz
1930(9th of Kislev, 5691): Parashat Vayetzei
1930: In Randfontein, South Africa, Eli and Olga Goldblatt whose parents had fled European persecution gave
birth to photographer David Goldblatt.
https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/exhibitions/david-goldblatt/
1930: This evening “a prominent member of the Revisionists’ Central
Committee…said that Jabotinsky’s party would not agree to negotiate with the
British Government on the basis of the present white paper. The Revisionists
also will not negotiate with the Arabs as long as they continue to demand the
abolition of the Balfour Declaration, revocation of the Palestine mandate and
the denial of right Jews to repopulate Palestine as a national homeland.
1930: In Upper Clapton, London Jacob Edward "Jack" Cohen, the
founder and owner of Tesco, and Sarah "Cissie" (née Fox), the
daughter of a master tailor gave birth to Shirley Cohen who gained fame as Dame
Shirley Porter, a leader of the Conservative Party in the UK and who “helped established the Porter Centre for
Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University, which opened its iconic LEED
Platinum-graded building in 2014.”
1931: In Philadelphia, PA the former Rose Schwartz and Harry Rosenberg gave
birth to Allen Perry Rosenberg the Olympic rowing coach. (As reported by Bruce
Weber)
1932: Several Jews were injured in Lwow by Gentiles leaving the cemetery
where Jan Grotowski while four young Jews who had previously been arrested were
“tried in a summary court” as anti-Semitic outburst continued throughout the
country.1935
1932: Birthdate of Vienna native Paul Felix Halpern, one the Kindertransport
children who eventually settled in the United States.
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn42215
1933: Birthdate of Dr. David Reuben
author of Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex
1934: “While the rest of the team was playing in Omiya, Moe Berg “the
intellectual baseball player turned spy’ went to Saint Luke's Hospital in
Tsukiji, ostensibly to visit the daughter of American ambassador Joseph Grew
but instead sneaked onto the roof of the hospital, one of the tallest buildings
in Tokyo, and filmed the city and harbor with his movie camera. (These pictures
would later be used by the Doolittle Raiders when they attacked Tokyo in 1942.)
1934: “A delegation representing the
Vienna Jewish community was en route to Paris today to negotiate with leading
Jewish organizations” including the American Joint Distribution Committee “for
extensive loans to the community organizations” in Austria where the government
has instituted a program “ousting Jews from the country’s economic system.
1935: In Cleveland, OH, Rabbi
Barnett R. Brickner addressed the National Convention of Hadassah where he
urged “this generation of Jews to make Palestine the homeland for hundreds of
thousands of Jews who are being crowded out of many countries.
1936(15th of Kislev, 5679):
Sixty-one-year-old Joseph Levor, the German born son of Jette and Moses Joseph
Levor and the husband of Rachel Levor passed away today at Eisench, Germany.
1936: Germany's Minister
of Agriculture, Walther Darré, declared that democracy and liberalism were
invented by the Jews and that “communism would not fail because of its theories
but solely because it was Jewish.”
1936: It was announced today that “Governor Herbert H. Lehman and leading
educators from parts of the country will participate in a series of meetings
designed to ‘honor and evaluation scholarship in the fields of religion and
Hebraic learning’ under the auspices of the Semi-Centennial Committee of the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America.”
1936: “The British Royal Commission now in Jerusalem inquiring into the
administration of the Palestine mandate was asked today” through a “resolution
adopted by the National Council for Palestine” which is composed of Jewish”
leaders in the United States, “to embody in its findings the policies of the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 which pledged Great Britain to facilitate the
establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.”
1936: Tonight, in Moscow at the All-Union Congress of Soviets Premier
Molotoff attacked fascism, declared Soviet democracy was superior to bourgeois
democracy” and emphasized that equality of races was guaranteed in the Soviet
Union” where “active anti-Semitism was punished by death” while “Chancellor
Adolf Hitler used Jews as scapegoats for everything that went wrong in
Germany.”
1936: “Air Minister Herman Goering…declared that Germany was now a stronger
power than she was in 1914.” (See the above and the outlines of WW II become
obvious as to why there were Jews who supported the Soviet Union and the
Communist Party.)
1936: The National Council for Palestine adopted a resolution which was sent
today to the British Royal Commission now meeting in Jerusalem ask that it “it
embody in its findings the policies of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which
pledged Great Britain to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home
in Palestine.”
1937(25th of Kislev, 5698): First day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle the
second light.
1937: Birthdate of Zuzana Goldmannová who in 1942 was deported from Prague
to Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.
1937: Today’s edition of Time magazine describes the fate of Arnold
Bernstein at the hands of his Nazi jailers.
Greying Arnold Bernstein, 47, son of an old-time Saxon shipper, served with
distinction as a German artillery officer during the War, was decorated with
the Iron Cross, First Class. Back in Germany after the War he evolved the
scheme of fitting modern freighters with automobile elevators so that U. S.
cars could be exported to Europe uncrated and unscratched. So successful was
this that Bernstein "floating garages'' have long carried over 60% of all
U. S. automobile exports, made enough money for sole Owner Arnold Bernstein to
allow him to buy out the American-Belgian-British Red Star Line and
incidentally bring into Nazi Germany thousands of dollars yearly in much needed
foreign exchange. Bernstein passenger agents find their boats are "very
popular with intellectuals who object to the snobbishness of Cabin Class."
Partly because of his personal popularity and War record, Shipper Arnold
Bernstein was left in control of his business much longer than most Jewish
tycoons. Finally last January, Nazi extremists forced the Government's hand.
Arnold Bernstein and four of his managers (three Jewish), were clapped into
jail, charged with "economic sabotage" through infringing German
foreign exchange regulations. While he sat in jail Bernstein's 21-month-old
Palestine Shipping Co. went into receivership "because the Jews deserted
me," says Prisoner Bernstein, and Japanese bought for $150,000 its
auctioned steamer Tel Aviv. Last week in Hamburg the trial of Arnold Bernstein
began. Of all the eight charges in a 88-page indictment against Shipper
Bernstein the gravest was that several years ago he set aside in Manhattan
banks a fund from the Arnold Bernstein & Red Star Lines' profits to be held
for a rainy day of the two lines (whose two chief creditors are the Erie R. R.
and Chemical Bank & Trust Co.). This entire sum was returned to Germany
some months ago. Hamburg lawyers scoffed at news stories that Bernstein
"faces death," expected him to get anything from a five-year jail
sentence to pardon. Since the arrest of Arnold Bernstein, Herman Kollmar, the
director of his Red Star Line and his executor, has been in amicable contact
with Minister President & Economic Director Hermann Goring, seeking a
pardon, showing Ford and Studebaker company letters urging clemency. Mr.
Kollmar denied rumors that the German Government has taken or plans to take
over the Bernstein Line, admitted these rumors have caused many cancellations.
1937: The Habima Hebrew Players open their third week of their season at
London’s Savoy Theatre with a performance of “The Wandering Jews.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that a police tender was ambushed, and
a British constable was killed near Nazareth. A Jewish worker was wounded when
a bus was shot at near Nahalal, at the same spot where two Jewish shepherds
were murdered and their flocks stolen a year earlier.
1937: The Palestine Post reported
that there were very favorable, frequently enthusiastic reports on the series
of performances given by the Habimah theater troupe on its visit to London. In
the midst of Arab terrorism, the Jewish community to develop its artistic,
social and political institutions.
1938(6th of Kislev, 5699): Sixty-five-year-old schoolteacher
Isaac Plaut, the German born son of Simon and Lina Plaut and husband of Sophie
Plaut with whom he had had eight children was murdered today at Sachsenhausen.
1938: Establishment of the 29th “tower and stockade” kibbutz,
Mishmar Zevulun which would be moved to a new site in 1940 and renamed Kfar
Masaryk in honor of the first President of Czechoslovakia.
1939: “American numismatist,” Eric Pfeiffer Newman, the son of Samuel Elijah
Newman and Rose Pfeiffer Newman married Evelyn Edison who “had two children,
Linda N. Schapiro and Andrew E. Newman.”
1939: Heydrich commented on the first stages of the Final Solution declaring
that "The factor determining the pace of the evacuation is the Evacuation
Plan." Nothing would slow down the
ultimate march to the Death Camps.
1939: SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the death penalty for German Jews who
refuse to report for deportation.
1939: “Swinging The Dream,” a musical produced and directed by Erik Charell,
featuring the Benny Goodman Sextet opened on Broadway at the Center Theater.
1939: Thanks to the “intervention by the United States and British consul
execution of the order by the authorities in Kaunas that Maurycy Orezch, the
correspondent for the Daily Forward
returned to the German-occupied territory of Poland has been stayed and the
British consul said he was ready to grant Orzech a visa to England if Estonia,
Latvia and Sweden would grant transit visas.”
1939: “Premier Wladilas Sikorski of Poland issued a statement” in Paris
tonight “vigorously protesting Nazi ‘atrocities’ in the western part of Poland”
which have been incorporated into the German Reich.
1940: Levie (Louis) Hillesum, the
father of Esther (Etty) Hillesum was dismissed as classics teacher and deputy
headmaster of the gymnasium in Deventer “by the occupation government imposed
by Nazi German following the invasion of The Netherlands.”
1940: On his own initiative, Dutch Physicist Leonard Ornstein withdrew his
membership in the Dutch Physical Society
1940: “The Bank Dick” a comedy featuring Shemp Howard with music by Charles
Previn was released in the United States today.
1940:
Six months after having been released in the United Kingdom, “Contraband, “a spy film with a screenplay by Emeric
Pressburger was released in the United States today.
1941: Fredrich Jecekeln held a final planning session with is senior
commander where he told them that “the extermination of the Jews was their
patriotic duty” and that nobody would be excused from participating in the
upcoming liquation of the ghetto.
1941: Karl Heise met with the Protective Police and told them of their role
in tomorrows “resettlement of the Jews in the Riga Ghetto, a term they all knew
meant a mass killing.
1941: The Latvian militia and police received their final instructions as to
their role in the upcoming liquidation of the ghetto. (The Nazis could always
count on local accomplices during the Shoah)
1941: In Riga, as of this morning “the Nazis had finished segregating the
able-bodied men into the small ghetto.”
1941: In Riga, “while the columns of 1,000 were formed this morning, they
were later dispersed, causing relief among the inhabitants, who believed that
the entire evacuation had been cancelled
1941: “After returning from work
today, Max Kaufman and his 16-year-old son, did not return to the large ghetto,
but were housed instead in a ruined building on Vilanu Street in the small
ghetto
1941: The first transport of
German Jews from Berlin arrived in Riga today.
1941: Jan Peerce (b. Yakob Perelmuth) “made his much-acclaimed debut at the
Met” at the same time when his brother-in-law Richard Tucker was trying to
start a small business and working at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx.
1941: Kovno Massacre of the
Ghetto. Estimated 10,600 people would be killed over the next few days.
1942: The Jewish Fighting
Organization of the Warsaw Ghetto assassinated the economic head of the Jewish
Council who was an active German collaborator.
1942(20th of Kislev, 5703): Seventy-seven-year-old Simon Cohn,
the Frankfurt born sone of Rosa and Rabbi Moses Cohen and the husband of Sarah
Cohn died today at Theresienstadt.
1942: The U.S. Drum, a submarine serving in the Pacific, began its fourth
war patrol with future Admiral Maurice Rindskopf serving as Torpedo and Gunnery
Officer.
1942: Dr. Erich Blumenthal, a resident of Berlin who was born in 1883 was
deported today and finally murdered in Auschwitz. (As reported by YNet)
1942: Helen Blumenthal, a resident of Berlin who was born in 1888 was
deported today and finally murdered in Auschwitz. (As reported by YNet)
1942: Friedrich Rehmer, a member of the Red Orchestra, who was in the Brietz
military hospital recovering from a severe war wound sustained on the Eastern
Front was arrested today and taken from the hospital. Eventually, he would be
killed for his role in the resistance.
1943(2nd of Kislev. 5704): Today, New York native First Lieutenant Ralph Victor
Guinzburg, a member of the 334th Bombardment Squadron, 95th
Bomb Group, U.S.A.A.F. and a recipient of the Soldier’s medal, Air medal with
Oak Leaf clusters and the Purple Heart “was last seen during an air raid over
Bremen Germany.”
https://www.uwgoldstarhonorroll.org/service-member/435/ralph-victor-guinzburg
1943: “50,000 Kiev Jews Reported Killed” published today provides a
firsthand account of the slaughter at Babi Yar and the attempts to cover it up
by the Nazis. It is worth reading in its
entirety because it puts the lie to the notion that people did not know about
the slaughter of the Jews until after the war was over.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00B16FE3E5B167B93CBAB178AD95F478485F9
1944: Today, “four days after advancing into Holland,” Major Ronald Edmond
Balfour, the lecturer at King’s College, Cambridge who had been serving with
the British Army since 1940 and had joined the Monuments Men in 1944”
“fractured his ankle in a traffic accident” after which he “outmaneuvered the
medical staff at a hospital in Eindhoven” and thus avoided being ship back to
the UK.
1945(24th of Kislev, 5706): Kindle the first light of Chanukah
1945(24th of Kislev, 5706): Cleveland resident Joseph Feder, the
husband of Pearl Feder and editor of the Jewish Daily World who was an active
member of Poale Zion passed away today.
1945: “Carrying placards denouncing British treatment of the Palestine
problem and chanting ‘We are with you, Jews in Palestine,’ four hundred member
of youthful Zionist groups in” New York City today “paraded in an orderly
fashion in front of the British Consulate at 25 Broadway.
1946: British Court in Palestine rejects a petition to prevent deportation
of Jews to Cyprus.
1946(6th of Kislev, 5707): Seventy-three year old Lower East Side
native Joseph A. Levenson, the Republican party activist who never strayed from
his Chrystie Street roots and whose career included serving “as city marshal
during the administration of Mayor William J. Gaynor” and “one of the
Presidential electors for Theodore Roosevelt in 1904” while also serving as
Director of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and writing “several books”
including A History of the Lower East Side of Manhattan passed away today.
1946: Today, Rabbi Ferdinand Isserman delivered a tribute in memory of Dr.
Solly Baron, the rabbi who had fled Nazi Germany and who passed at the age of
72 two days earlier in St. Louis.
1946: Today, for the second time, NBC cancelled “The Guiding Light,” a soap
operated created by Irma Phillips which “was based on personal experiences.
1946: Szapsel (Shabtai) Rotholc, the Polish-Jewish boxer, “was expelled from
the Jewish community for a period of two years; his civil rights in the
community were rescinded for a further three years.” (As reported by Uri
Talshir)
1947: In one of the most historic moments in Jewish history, the General
Assembly of the United Nations voted to accept the recommendation of the United
Nations Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP).
UNSCOP recommended the partition of Palestine into two states – one
Jewish and one Arab with Jerusalem to governed by an international
authority. The vote was thirty-three in
favor, thirteen against and ten abstentions.
In a rare moment of Cold War solidarity, both the United States and the
Soviet Union supported the UNSCOP plan which guaranteed the creation of the
state of Israel in May of 1948. One
other recommendation of the UNSCOP plan was the opening of a port on February
1, 1948 to Jewish immigrants. Almost
three years after the ovens of the Holocaust had cooled, boatloads of displaced
persons would finally have a final destination.
When news of the partition vote reached the public, “there were
celebrations in New York, in Palestine, wherever Jews lived. Traffic stopped in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as
people danced in the streets until the early hours of the morning.” In the words of Rabbi Isaac Herzog, “After a
darkness of two thousand years, the dawn of redemption has broken.” Arabs say they are not bound by decision and
charge that U.S. and Soviet Union coerced smaller countries to vote for
partition.[ Starting on the next day, the Arabs responded with violence that
would continue until the end of the mandate and unfortunately has continued
literally to this day in the 21st century]
1947: Edis De Philippe mounted a
gala performance of selections from operas, which was soon followed by a full
production of Thaïs in which she performed the title role (As reported
by Jewish Women’s Archives)
1947: Despite having virtually no Jewish population or tie to the Yishuv,
Iceland is among nations voting for the Partition Plan creating a Jewish state.
1947: The annual convention of Junior Hadassah, the young women's Zionist
organization of America, at its concluding session today, received from Dr.
Chaim Weizmaiin, former president of the World Zionist Organization, a call for
young men and women, "who are nurtured in western methods and
standards" to "further the building of the (Jewish) state."
1948: Israel applied for admission to the United Nations.
1948: Stanton Griffis was appointed Director of the UNRPR.
1948: In Encino, CA, Bernard and Ferne Milken gave birth UCLA trained lawyer
and junk bond trader Lowell Jay Milken, the brother of crooked financier
Michael Milken
1949: In Chicago, Illinois, print shop owner Irving Shandling and his wife
pet store proprietor Muriel Estelle
(née Singer) Shandling gave birth to Garry Emmanuel Shandling who was raised in
Arizona and gained game as comedian Gary Shandling.
1949(8th of Kislev, 5710): Forty-seven year old Dallas native and
Goucher College graduate Reba Wadel, “a former chairman of the National Women’s
Division of the UJA” and the husband of Ernest G. Wadel was among the 28 people
who were killed in plane crash at the edge of Love Field in Dallas, TX.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/11/30/96483635.pdf
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/11/30/96483598.pdf
1949: Israelis pause to celebrate anniversary of the United Nations
partition resolution. Zipporah Porath, a
nurse working in Haifa, wrote to her parents living in the United States
describing the proud parade of Israel’s newly minted soldiers.
1950: Birthdate of Hideo Levy, the son of a Polish-American mother and a
Jewish father who “was honored with a Japan Foundation Special Prize in 2007
“for his contributions to the introduction of Japanese literature to foreign
readers.”
1950(20th of Kislev, 5711): Sixty-five-year-old Czernowitz native Frederick
Zelnik the prominent producer and director of silent movies in Germany who took
refuge in the United States with the rise of Hitler passed away today in
London.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/truusbobjantoo/6403915417
1951(30th of Cheshvan, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1951(30th of Cheshvan, 5712): Sixty-four year old Latvian born
American expert on Russia Max Laserson, the husband of Mina A. Laserson and the
father of Eliazar Laserson passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/12/01/89819503.html?pageNumber=9
1952(11th of Kislev, 5713): Parashat Vayetzei
1952(11th of Kislev, 5713): Sixty-six year old Latvian born,
Cornell University trained neurologist, Dr. David M. Kaplan, the WW I Army
Medical Corps veteran who “wrote papers and a book on endocrine subjects”
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/12/01/84373185.pdf
1953(22nd of Kislev, 5714): Fifty-three-year-old, Joseph Burstyn,
a Polish born Jew who came to the United States in 1921 where he gained fame as
“the importer and distributor of foreign films” passed away today while flying
over the Atlantic in a TWA aircraft.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/11/30/83865466.pdf
1953: As the holiday season begins, which in America means a meshing of
Christmas and Chanukah, International Records has released “Holiday Time,” a
record combining music from both holidays. The record is designed “to promote
better human relations through an understanding of the general cultural
significance of Christmas and Chanukah” while avoiding mentioning the
theological differences between the two holidays.
1953: Birthdate of Moshe Igvy, the native of Casablanca, who has become one
of Israel’s leading directors and actors.
1953: It was reported today that Kinor Records has released “Chanukah Music
Box” just in time for the holiday season.
Designed as a participation record for children, it features music
written and sung by Shirley R. Cohen, with narration by Eli Gamliel and musical
accompaniment by Helen Schraeter.
1954: Birthdate of Joel Coen.
Joel and Ethan Coen, commonly called The Coen Brothers, are Jewish-American film director best known
for their quirky comedies such as Raising Arizona and The Big
Lebowski, as well as for darker film noir dramas such as Fargo and Blood
Simple. The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly,
alternating top billing for the screenplay. Until recently, Joel received sole
credit for directing the films, and Ethan for producing, but the two brothers
work so closely together and share such a strong vision of what their films are
to be that actors report that they can approach either brother with a question
and get the same answer. The brothers are known in the film business as
"the two-headed director."
1954: On this cold and rainy night Esther Borenstein was on duty when a
"mosquito" plane was hit by lightning and crashed while landing.
Esther ran towards the burning plane, rescuing the badly injured navigator.
Although ammunition on the plane began to explode, Esther did not hesitate and
ran in again to rescue the pilot, Ya'akov Shalmon. When they reached a hiding
spot, the entire plane blew up. Esther was awarded a Badge of Courage for this
operation by Moshe Dayan, then Highest in Command of the IDF. Esther was born
in Bulgaria, and during the Second World War, her family was ousted to Italy.
As early as her childhood, Esther always loved the Land of Israel, and at age
11, left her home in an attempt to come to Israel. At 16, she indeed arrived,
with her brother, and shortly afterwards, in spite of her early age, joined the
Israel Defense Forces. She joined the
Air Force, completed a medic's course, and viewed army service as an honor and
not a duty. After completing her army service, Esther continued to work as a
nurse with the Israeli Red Cross, and was the first female ambulance driver in
the country. Later, she looked for a job that would express her love for the
country and chose to be a tour guide. At that same time, the 6-Day War broke
out, and Esther joined the paratroopers, where under constant fire and
shelling, she tended to injured soldiers, receiving the nickname "Angel of
the Paratroopers". She volunteered during the Yom Kippur war as well, and
in 1973, she received the Medal of Honor for saving the pilot. In February
2003, she passed away during a trip to Italy, and was buried there at her
family's request. In February 2005, Bridges of Viewpoint was built in memory of
Esther Borenstein on a quiet corner on the banks of the Jordan River, opposite
the basalt arches of the 2,000 year old Roman-era bridge.
1956(25th of Kislev, 5717): Chanukah
1956: The original Broadway production “Bells Are Ringing” with music by
Jule Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, produced by Jerome
Robbins and starring Jerome Robbins opened at the Shubert Theatre.
1956: Birthdate of actor and comedian
Howie Mandel
1957(6th of Kislev, 5718): Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold passed away.
Korngold was born in an assimilated Jewish home in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now
Czech Republic), the son of the music critic Julius Korngold, and studied music
under Alexander von Zemlinsky and Robert Fuchs. Gustav Mahler, upon meeting the
young Erich, called him a "musical genius." He had success in Europe
with his opera Die tote Stadt (1920) among other pieces before moving to
the United States in 1934, where he wrote a number of highly regarded film
scores. He continued to write concert music in a rich, Romantic style, with a
violin concerto among his notable later works. In 1943, Korngold became a
naturalized citizen of the United States. He died in Hollywood, California.
1957(6th of Kislev, 5718): Fifty-four-year-old
Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl “a rabbi and shtadlan” who worked “to save the
Jews of Slovakia” from extermination during the Shoah passed away at Mt. Kisco,
NY.
1957: The
three-day dedication program of the nation's largest Orthodox Jewish synagogue,
the Baron Hirsch Synagogue of Memphis, starts today.
1959: Birthdate of Rahm Emanuel the son of a former member of the Irgun and
civil rights activist who went on to represent the Fifth District of Illinois
in the U.S. House of Representatives and serve as White House Chief of Staff
under President Barak Obama before being
elected Mayor of Chicago.
1959: “Fiorello!” a Pulitzer Prize winning musical about the Yiddish
speaking New York Mayor with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, a
book by Jerome Weidman and co-starring Tom Bosley and Howard Da Silva opened on
Broadway today at the Broadhurst Theatre.
1960: Birthdate of Jaqueline Laura Hoffman, the native of Queens, NY who
gained fame as multi-talented comedian and actress Jackie Hoffman.
1962: Larry Blyden served as the director of “Harold” when it began its
Broadway run today.
1962: Forty three year old Lwow native Perec “Peter” Rachman who escaped
from the Nazis and the Soviets to serve with 2nd Polish Corps during
WW II and then became an “infamous” landlord whose last name gave rise to the
word “Rachmanism” which the Oxford English Dictionary describes “as a synonym
for the exploitation and intimidation of tenants” passed away today after which
he was “buried in the Jewish cemetery at Bushey, Hertfordshire.”
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/vmpeople/infamous/peterrachman.asp
https://julesbirch.com/2012/10/24/revealing-the-real-rachman/
1962(2nd of Kislev, 5723): Rav Aaron Kotler famed Orthodox
Talmudic scholar passed away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aharon_Kotler
1963: Today’s issue of Life
magazine “published about thirty frames of” Abraham Zapruder’s film of the
Kennedy Assassination “in black and white.”
1963(13th of Kislev, 5724: Fifty-seven-year-old Brest-Litvosk native and NYU graduate Frank
Leff, the “director of special projects for the American Jewish Committee” and
the husband of Johanna Leff with whom he had two children – Bernard and Naomi –
passed away today “while on his way to work.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/11/30/89979923.pdf
1963: Today’s “episode of Miss Peach” a comic strip created by Mell Lazarus
which had been prepared weeks ago “was pulled from syndication because one of
the characters fantasized about saving the President of the United States'
life—one week after John F. Kennedy was assassinated.”
1963: “Rabbi Silver Dies; A Leading Zionist” published today provides a
summary of the life Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, of blessed memory.
1965: “The Big T.N.T.” directed by Larry Peerce, the son of tenor Jan Peerce
was filed before a live audience today at the Moulin Rouge in Los Angeles.
1966: A funeral service is scheduled to be held at the Riverside for
Frankfurt, Germany native refugee from Nazi Europe rescued by Varian Frym Dr.
Siegfried Kracauer the social scientist “best known for his studies of the
motion picture as a powerful chronicle of the social scene and a medium of
symbolic imagery symptomatic of the ideas and attitudes of the time” and author
several works including Theory of Film published in 1960 and the husband
of “the former Elizabeth Ehrenrich.”
1968(8th of Kislev, 5729): Eighty-one-year successful
businesswoman and philanthropist Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the Hartford, CT born
daughter of Moses and Theresa Fox and wife of George Auberach who turned the
family owned G. Fox and Company into New England’s largest department and who
established the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation through which “she became a
leading philanthropist, particularly in helping college students” passed away
today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/auerbach-beatrice-fox
https://www.cwhf.org/inductees/beatrice-fox-auerbach
1969(19th of Kislev, 5730): Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer, a general in the
Soviet Army passed away today at the age of 64.
His promotion to the rank of general “apparently made him the highest-ranking
Jewish military figure in the Soviet Union since Leon Trotsky organized the Red
Army after the Bolshevik Revolution.”
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Kreizer took
command of the 1st Moscow Motorized Infantry and fought forces under
Heinz Guderian to a virtual stand-still giving other Soviet forces a chance to
regroup. He was designated a Hero of the Soviet Union for his efforts.
1969: In Massachusetts, the Marblehead School Department has banned all
religious reference to Christmas and Hanukah in the town’s public school. The
decision prohibits the exchange of gifts and any decorations in connection with
either holiday. The policy comes in
response to complaints by the American Civil Liberties Union about the
religious aspects of the Christmas activity and numerous complaints from Jewish
parents protesting their children’s involvement in school holiday activities.
1972: A Hallmark Hall of Fame production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner,”
the creation of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, was broadcast by NBC today.
1973(4th of Kislev, 5734): Eighty-nine year old Hungarian
producer Josef Somlo who escaped to Great Britain when the Nazis came to power
passed away today in Switzerland.
1974: “Ben-Gurion House,” “an historic house museum in Tel Aviv which served
as one of the residences of David Ben-Gurion between 1931 and 1968 was opened
to the public today where visitors can take guide tours and participate in
symposiums about the early days of Zionism.
1975(25th of Kislev, 5736): Ze’ev Beret was killed when his F-4E
Phantom II Jet spun out of control and crashed.
1975(25th of Kislev, 5736): First Day of Chanukah; light the
second candle in the evening
1976(7th of Kislev, 5737): Eighty-five-year-old Lithuanian born
Conservative rabbi, Phillip Reis Alstat who lived in a JTS dorm for 43 years
and who was a columnist for the Jewish Week while also serving as a chaplain at
the Manhattan house of corrections passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in
reply to President Anwar Sadat’s appeal, Israel named Eliahu Ben-Elissar and
Meir Rosenne as members of the Israeli negotiating team to the proposed Cairo
Conference, which was expected to prepare ground for the reconvened Geneva
Peace Conference. Israel joined the fervent Egyptian appeal to Syria, Jordan
and Lebanon for their participation, but they uniformly rejected Sadat’s
initiative. The US continued to study the Egyptian invitation.
1978(29th of Cheshvan, 5739): Seventy-five year old Newport News,
VA, native Mark Peyser Friedlander, the son of Charles Friedlander and Blanche
Peyesr passed away today after which he was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery in
Washington, D.C.
1979(9th of Kislev, 5740): Zeppo Marx, one of the Marx Brothers, passed
away.
1980: Twenty-five -year -old Simon Shnirman a refusenik from Zaporozhye, was
released after completing a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence on charges of
evading military conscription.
1981(3rd of Kislev, 5742): Fredric Wertham, German-born, American
psychologist passed away. During the
1950’s, in what seems like a laughable episode half a century later, many
Americans became convinced that comic books were the cause of juvenile
delinquency. “This anti-comic book
sentiment led in the spring of 1954 to the publication of The Seduction of the Innocent,
based on Jewish psychologist Frederic Wertham's seven-year-long study of the
effects of comic books on America's youth. Dr. Wertham condemned most of the
genre--especially crime and horror comics--for having contributed to juvenile
delinquency. As the outcry following the publication of Seduction of the Innocent grew,
so did the call for government intervention. The Hearings before the
Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the
Judiciary opened in Manhattan federal court on April 21, 1954.” (Ed. Note: I
must confess that my brother and I were eager consumers of comic books during
this period.)
1984: Gotthard Günther German born, American philosopher passed away. Günther was not Jewish but he was married to
the Jewish psychologist Dr. Marie Günther-Hendel. Together they made their way out Nazi Europe
before WWII and finally made their way to U.S.
1986: In Canada, CTV network began broadcasting “Sword of Giedon” a four
hour miniseries “about Mossad Agents hunting down terrorists associated with
the 1972 Munich Massacre based on the
book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George
Jonas,
1988(20th of Kislev, 5749): Seventy-eight-year-old Washington
“hostess with mostess” Gwendolyn Cafritz, the widow of realtor and
philanthropist Morris Cafritz passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/01/obituaries/gwendolyn-cafritz-78-washington-hostess.html
http://www.cafritzfoundation.org/about
https://www.silverspringdowntown.com/go/montgomery-college-morris-and-gwendolyn-cafritz-art-center
1989(1st of Kislev, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1989(1st of Kislev, 5750): Robert W. Schleck, a former foreign service
officer, teacher and research analyst who was second secretary at the United
States Embassy in Tel Aviv during the Suez crisis in 1956 passed away today.
1991(22nd of Kislev, 5752): Ninety-six year old Rabbi Louis
Eliezer Finkelstein, the Cincinnati born son of “Simon Isaac Finkelstein” and
“Hannah Basha Finkelstein, the husband of Carmel Finkelstein. (As reported by
Ari Goldman)
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/30/nyregion/louis-finkelstein-96-leader-of-conservative-jews.html
1991(22nd of Kislev 5752): Eighty-nine-year-old Neubrandenburg,
Germany, born British mathematician Theodor Estermann, the son of “Zionist who
named him in honor of Theodor Herzl” who was a Professor of Mathematics at the
University of London and the brother of nuclear physicist Immanuel Estermann passed
away today.
1993: At a press conference held today. Amos Schoken announced the closure
of Hadashot, a daily newspaper that he had begun in March of 1984.
1993: A revival production of “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” which had been
directed by Elmer Rice in its initial Broadway production opened at the Vivian
Beaumont Theatre.
1993: Richard Danzig began serving as Undersecretary of the Navy.
1994(26th of Kislev, 5744): Second Day of Chanukah
1994: The New York Times featured a review of A Chosen Few by
Mark Kurlansky.
1998: The New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest
including Isaiah Berlin: A Life
by Michael Ignatieff, The Crisis
of Global Capitalism Open Society Endangered by George Soros and Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in
Pursuit of Harmony by
Arnold Steinhardt
2000: At the New York Public Library, a
presentation by Marion
Kaplan entitled “Friendship on the Margins: Jewish Social Relations in Imperial
Germany” that asks the question, “With whom did the German Jews spend
their leisure time?” This lecture examines the spectrum of friendships
available to Jews in Imperial Germany (1871-1918), looking at extended
families, friendships among Jews, and relationships with non-Jews. Those
friendships could be intense or distant, intimate, or burdened by social and
political anti-Semitism. Marion Kaplan is a social and cultural historian, with
an emphasis on women’s history. Dr. Kaplan’s writings include Between
Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, which won the National
Jewish Book Award for 1998.
2001(14th of Kislev, 5762): Samuel Miloshevsky, 45, of Herzliya,
Yehiav Elshad, 28, of Tel Aviv and Yehiav Elshad, 28, of Tel Aviv were murdered
today and nine more people were injured this evening when a terrorist from
either Fatah or Islamic Jihand (they both claimed credit) set off a bomb aboard
an Egged bus traveling between Nazareth and Tel Aviv as it passed through the
town of Pardes Hanna-Kaurkur.
2001: “In Jenin, about 3,000 Palestinians marched and celebrated the bombing
an Egged bus.”
2002(24th of Kislev, 5763): In the evening, Kindle the first
Chanukah light
2002: “Mary Christmas” a drama starring Tom Bosley was
released in the United States today.
2003: Danny Elfman married Bridget Fonda. (He was Jewish,
she was not)
2004(16th of Kislev, 5765): All-Star catcher
Harry Danning, whose brother Ike played for the St. Louis Browns, passed away
today in Indiana.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/sports/baseball/harry-danning-baseball-star-in-30s-dies-at-93.html
2004: Victor Brailovsky completed his term as Deputy
Minister for Internal Affairs.
2004: Victor Brailovsky replaced Ilan Shalgi as Minister of
Science and Technology.
2004: “The Émigré:
The farewell broadcast of a voice from the past by Janet Malcolm
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/11/29/041129fa_fact3?currentPage=all
2005: “Havoc” a crime film directed by Barbara Kopple, filmed by
cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Robert
Shapiro was released in the United States today.
2005(27th of Cheshvan, 5766): Forty-seven year old Wendie Jo
Sperber lost her battle with Breast Cancer today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/movies/wendie-jo-sperber-actress-dies-at-46.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/dec/02/local/me-sperber2
2005: The Seattle Reconstructionist congregation Kadima which, according to
its Web site, “welcomes members from all backgrounds, including multicultural,
gay, and lesbian households,” now is welcoming Ariel Sharon's adoption of its
name.
2006(8th of Kislev, 5767): Seventy-seven-year-old “Leonard Freed,
a prominent photojournalist and member of the Magnum Photography Collective who
was known primarily for his in-depth coverage of African-Americans in the era
of the civil rights movement” passed away. (As reported by Philip Gefter)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/arts/design/04freed.html?_r=0
2006: A Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy “Company”
opened today at the Ethel Barrymore Theare
2006: In Jerusalem, The Schechter
Institute of Jewish Studies awards the 10th Liebhaber Prize for Religious
Tolerance to Deborah Goldman Golan, Director of the Bamidbar Center for
Pluralistic Jewish Studies in Yeroham.
2007: A tribute was held in New York City in anticipation of poet Philip
Levine's 80th birthday. Among those celebrating Levine's career by reading
Levine's work were Yusef Komunyakaa, Galway Kinnell, E. L. Doctorow, Charles
Wright, Jean Valentine, and Sharon Olds. Levine himself read several new and
interesting poems. He thanked his students and asked them to refrain from
asking for any more letters of recommendation.
2007: At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, television
star Sarah Silverman, headlines “Comedy without Borders” a fund-raiser for the
Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the ecological and coexistence
center located at Kibbutz Ketura, near Eilat.
2007(19th of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-three-year-old
“Victor Erlich, a path-breaking scholar of Russian literature, passed away
today (As reported by Marissa Brostoff)
http://forward.com/articles/12194/victor-erlich--scholar-of-russian-literature-/
2007: USCJ International Biennial Convention opens in Orlando, FL.
2007: The Jerusalem Post reported
that “Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni failed in attempts to set up meetings in
Annapolis or Washington with colleagues from the Arab world, even though the
summit was designed to show international support for Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations… Israeli officials interpreted this as evidence that the Arab
world had not changed its fundamental policy that there would be no warming of
relations with Israel until after a deal, and that normalization was one of the
Arab world's major bargaining chips.”
2007: Sixty-one years after he was buried at a wind hilltop cemetery in
southeast Washington, Stephen Theodore Norman, the only grandchild of Theodor
Herzl was exhumed as the first step of trip that will lead to his burial in
Israel.
2008: On this Shabbat when we recite “Av harachameem,” there will be special poignancy to the words as we mourn the passing
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the beloved directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of
Mumbai. “The Father of
mercy who dwells on high in His great mercy will remember with compassion the
pious, upright and blameless the holy communities, who laid down their lives
for the sanctification of His name. They
were loved and pleasant in their lives and in death they were not parted.They
were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions to carry out the will of their
Maker, and the desire of their steadfast God. May our Lord remember them for good together with the other righteous of
the world and may He redress the spilled blood of His servants as it is written
in the Torah of Moses the man of God: "O nations, make His people rejoice
for He will redress the blood of His servants. He will retaliate against His
enemies and appease His land and His people". And through Your servants,
the prophets it is written: "Though I forgive, their bloodshed I shall not
forgive When God dwells in Zion" And in the Holy Writings it says:
"Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?'"Let it be known
among the nations in our sight that You avenge the spilled blood of Your
servants. And it says: "For He who exacts retribution for spilled blood
remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble". And it says:
"He will execute judgement among the corpse-filled nations crushing the
rulers of the mighty land; from the brook by the wayside he will drink then he
will hold his head high".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwom17kFOb0
2008: This afternoon authorities announced that the family of one of Israeli
victims of the attack on the Mumbai Chabad House had identified her as being
Yocheved Orpaz, aged 60. Another woman was identified as a Jewish resident of
Mexico, whose name has not yet been released.
2008: U.N. Israel Partition Day – 61st anniversary of this
momentous moment in Jewish history. “Three minutes that changed two thousand
years of wandering.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGUPlhtMWQ
2009: In Jerusalem, the opening of Whiskey Month at the Mia Bar featuring
whiskey tastings and special winter dishes which go well with whiskey.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Googled: The End of
the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta, Justice: What’s the Right Thing
to Do? by Michael J. Sandel and the recently released paperback edition of Friendly
Fire: A Duet by A. B. Yehoshua.
2009: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Googled: The
End of the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta.
2009: Beachwood, Ohio declares today “Hudesa Gora Day” to mark the 100th
birth of this holocaust survivor who ran a successful fur business in Cleveland
for many years.
2010: Roz Chast, Al Jaffee and Robert Mankoff are scheduled to participate
in a program entitled “The Cartoonist Chronicles” at the 92nd Street
Y in New York City.
2010: Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Mossad veteran Tamir
Pardo as his choice as the new head of Israel's spy agency, to succeed Meir
Dagan.
2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771):
Sixty seven year old “Steven N. Posner, who with his father, Victor, was
caught up in a major corporate raiding case that led to the convictions of Ivan
F. Boesky and Michael R. Milken, died today in a high-speed boat collision on
Biscayne Bay, Fla. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/business/01posner.html?_r=0
2010: At the 92nd Street Y in New York, Deborah Solomon interviewed actor
Steve Martin about his new novel, An Object of Beauty, which is set in the art
world. In response to emails received in real-time by the Y staff from viewers
of the interview, a note was dispatched to Solomon on-stage, telling her to
shift the conversation from art to Steve Martin's film career
2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Ninety year old “Richard N. Goldman,
a San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist best known for co-founding the
Goldman Environmental Prize, which is given to six grass-roots environmental
activists every year, died today at his
home in San Francisco. (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05goldman.html
2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Seventy-year-old “Stephen J. Solarz,
a nine-term Democratic congressman whose concerns went beyond traffic lights
and beach erosion in his Brooklyn district to nuclear weapons, the Middle East
and his revelation that Imelda Marcos owned 3,000 pairs of shoes, died today in
Washington. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/nyregion/30solarz.html?pagewanted=all
2011:
David Kalender, the Senior Rabbi of Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, Virginia, is
scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures on The Book of Ruth.
2011:
In honor of the 10th anniversary of the JCC in Manhattan, the JCC is scheduled
to screen the audience’s favorite film.
2011:
“Sara Hurwitz, an Open Orthodox Jewish spiritual” from South Africa who was
raised in Boca Raton, FL and “who received ordination from Rabbi Avi Weiss” was
“featured in Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance's (JOFA) Mission Statement
YouTube video uploaded” today in which she said “JOFA is trying to shape the
young minds of children, to a gender sensitive curriculum that I worked on many
years ago.
2011:
The Tulane Hillel Board Meeting is scheduled to take place at Goldie &
Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life.
2011:
In New Orleans, Rabbi Alexis Berk is scheduled to lead the Touro Synagogue
Interfaith Chavurah Group in a discussion of “The December Dilemma.”
2011: Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said in a television interview today
that if Israel attacks Iran, it will be dragged into a regional war. According
to Dagan, Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas will respond with massive rocket attacks on
Israel.
2011: It was announced earlier today that former Mossad chief Meir Dagan
will lead a group that will endeavor to immediately alter the system of
government in Israel. Maariv reported today that the group is operating without
much publicity, backed by a group of leaders in the fields of business, culture
and law that has already begun to raise funds.
2012: Yeruham Scharovsky is scheduled to conduct the Jerusalem Symphony
Orchestra in a gala concert featuring young piano artists. (In a tribute to the
courage and resiliency of the Jewish people, the flyer announcing this event
went out at the same time that rockets were being filed on the capital city of
Israel)
2012: Pianist Bill Charlap was the real piano player at the television
wedding of “Liz Lemon,” a leading character on “30 Rock.” He is a descendant of 16th century
Italian Talmudist of Gedaliah ibn Yahya
ben Joseph
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to
sponsor a screening of “Jew in the Warsaw Rising” followed by a Q & A with
the film’s director Anna Ferens. (This
is a film about the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and not the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
of 1943)
2012: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present an
evening with Montreal writer Julija Šukys, the author of Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona
Šimaitė, “which beckons back to life this quiet and worldly heroine, a
giant of Holocaust history (one of Yad Vashem's honored Righteous Among the
Nations) and yet so little known.”
2012 Sixty-fifth Anniversary of the UN vote approving the creation of Jewish
state in Palestine with independence to come within six months. Am Yisrael
Chai.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGUPlhtMWQ
2012: Sixty-five years to the day after the UN voted for the partition of
mandatory Palestine – a move the Jews accepted and the Arabs rejected – the
same body overwhelmingly voted today to grant the Palestinian delegation the
upgraded status of non-member observer state.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294029
2012: Labor members went to the polls today to elect the party’s list for
the 19th Knesset, in a vote that will show how much influence party leader
Shelly Yacimovich has, as opposed to the growing opposition within Labor led by
MK Amir Peretz.
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=294015
2013(26th
of Kislev, 5774): Second Day of Chanukah
2013(26th
of Kislev, 5774): Seventy-seven-year-old Pulitzer Prize winning historian
Michael Kammen passed away today. (As reported by Matt Schudel)
2013:
“Moses Montefiore: The Man Behind the Windmill,” an international conference at
Mshkenot Sha’annaim is scheduled to come to a close.
http://www.mishkenot.org.il/English/files/events/pdf/MosesMontefioreEng.pdf
2013:
The Maccabees Festival near Modi’in, the site of the original Chanukah story,
is scheduled to open today.
2013:
“Closer to the Moon” a dark comedy based on the “exploits” of the Ioanid Gang
“had its world premiere at the Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema Festival at
the Lincoln Center” today
2013:
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon expressed outrage at the incident reported in
Israeli media that three Druze IDF soldiers were delayed entry to the Dimona
nuclear reactor while there Jewish fellow soldiers were admitted. (As reported
by JPost)
2013:
An editorial published by the Washington Post today claims that “the White
House is omitting key facts about the nuclear deal signed with Iran” (As
reported by JPost and Washington Post)
2014: In Melbourne, “The Last Mentsch” and “Zero Motivation” are scheduled
to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014(7th of Kislev, 5775): Sixty-year-old Hillel Oscar of Ashdod
died today at the hospital after being hit by the ball “while refereeing a
cricket matching in the Israeli coastal city.”
2014: A fire broke out this evening in Jerusalem’s Pat neighborhood on the
grounds of Hand in Hand a dual Hebrew and Arabic language school in southern
Jerusalem, sparking suspicion of politically motivated arson.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bilingual-jewish-arab-school-in-jerusalem-torched/
2014: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a performance by the
Amaya Trio.
2014: Shabbat Va-yaytzay
2015(17th of Kislev, 5776): Seventy-nine-year-old David Cohen,
former president of Common Cause and voice for ethics in government passed away
today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015: “Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case”
an “800 square foot exhibit that examines the historical context
surrounding 13-year old Mary Phagan's murder at the National Pencil Company as
well as Jewish superintendent Leo Frank's trial, appeals, and eventual lynching
that has been on display at the Southern Museum at Kennesaw, GA, is scheduled
to close today.
2015: Today, while playing Guard for the New York Giants, Mitchell Schwartz,
who had started all eleven games, sustained a broken leg during a loss to the
Washington Redskins.”
2015: The National Appeal for Tzedakah, the major fund raising campaign of
the Jewish Federation of France (FSJU) is scheduled to start today after having
been postponed because of the terrorist attacks in Paris.
2015:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Complete Works of Primo Levi, a 3 volume work edited by
Ann Goldstein and the recently released paperback editions of We Are Pirates
by Daniel Handler and Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public
Opinion by Harold Holzer
2016:
As part of the “Meet The Author Series” Alice Hoffman is scheduled to “discuss
her career, her novels and her latest book Faithful at the Skirball
Center
2016:
According to a report from Israel Radio. “a ceremony is scheduled to held
tonight in the British Parliament tonight to mark the 100th
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
2016:
According to the Anti-Defamation League, today “the Huffington Post’s
Arabic-language edition” contained “a blog post claiming a Jewish woman
poisoned the Prophet Muhammad with arsenic.”
2017:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host an “Intimate Concert with
Jam Band Mr. Blotto: paying “tribute to iconic rock and roll producer and
Holocaust survivor Bill Graham.”
2017:
Followed by “a meal of burgers and hot dogs” (who knew the English ate such
stuff) the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a screening of
“Love Actually” as part of the popular “Movie Night.”
2017:
Today, “in Norfolk, VA, the JWB Chaplains Council, a signature program of the
JCC Association of North America” is scheduled to dedicate a Torah in memory of
World War II” Army Air Corps “veteran Jacob Kamaras aboard the USS Gerald R.
Ford.
2017:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening of
schmoozing with Joy Behar, Gretchen Carlson, Maureen Dowd and Jill Kargman.
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Howard M. Sachar
whose works included the classic “A History of the Jews in the Modern World”
and “A History of the Jews in America” which might be the single best piece of
Holocaust literature, continues today.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host
a lecture on “History Matters: Defining Holocaust Memory in Poland” moderated
by Northwest University Associate Professor Benjamin Frommer, Ph.D.
2018:
The Village East Cinema is scheduled to host the final screening of Ofir
Trainin’s “Family in Transition.”
2018(21st of Kislev, 5779): Fifty-five year old Lisa Miriam
Schwartz, the NYU trained physician “who with her husband devoted her life to
warning patients about the dangers of unnecessary medical tests and treatment
and excessive diagnoses” passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “Back to Berlin.”
2018:
The Hebrew University is scheduled to celebrated the “100 years since the
laying of its cornerstone” with a conference during which “the German
Literature Archive Marbach together with the Hebrew University will explore the
history of a century of German-Jewish culture and research.”
2018:
In Manhattan, the Quad City Cinema is scheduled to host the final screening of
Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah: Four Sisters – Ruth & Ada” and “Shoah: Four
Sisters – Hanna & Paula.”
2018:
Seventy-first anniversary of the UN General adoption of Resolution 181.
https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/2017/11/who-saved-israel-in-1947/
2019:
The Friday night dinner sponsored by the Oxford University Jewish Society is
scheduled to include a moment of mystery as diners get to “solve a confounding
murder case.”
2019:
Today Israel can look forward to an improvement in its international position
following yesterday’s announcement that Bolivia has renewed diplomatic
relations with Israel.
2019(1st of Kislev, 5780): Rosh Chodesh Kislev;
2020: The New York Times features
reviews of varying length of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest
to Jewish readers including The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the
Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel,. Big Dirty Money: The Shocking
Injustice and Unseen Cost of White Collar Crime by Jennifer Taub and The
Silver Arrow by Lev Grossman.
2020: “King Bibi” and “Gold” are two of the films which are available for
viewing at the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey’s Virtual Film
Festival.
2020: Piano Cleveland is scheduled to present Daniel Shapiro.
2020: Congregation Or Atid is scheduled to present online “Together and
Apart: The Future of Jewish Peoplehood.”
2020: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is schooled to host a “Hannukah
Special” which is episode four in “Sephardic Culinary History with Chef Helene,
Jawhara-Piner.
2021: “Kiss Me Kosher” is scheduled to be shown at the Channukah Film
Festival co-sponsored by The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth Country.
2021: On the second night of Chanukah there a public lighting of the
Chanukah menorah (Hanukkiah) organized by Rabbi Aron Schimmel of Chabad N.E.
Iowa is scheduled to take place at 5:30 pm in front of Ginsberg Jewelers, 4667
1st Avenue SE.
2021: A community candle lighting is scheduled to take place in the JCCSF
Atrium.
2021: The JCRC and CJP are scheduled to host a
community-wide menorah lighting at the New England Holocaust Memorial which
“will shine a light on antisemitism and raise the profile of this critical
issue.”
2021(25th of Kislev, 5782): First Day of Channukah
2022: The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is scheduled to present a
lecture by Bob Moore ,Emeritus Professor of European History at the University
of Sheffield, on “Forgotten Soldiers? Prisoners of War in Europe, 1939-1956.”
2022: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host the third study
group that is examining People Love Dead Jews on a chapter-by-chapter
basis.
2022: Dr. David E. Kaufman is scheduled to lecture on The Modern Jewish
Experience: An Historical Overview at the Streicker Center.
2022:Seventy-fifth anniversary of the UN vote to partition Palestine and create a “two state solution” with a
Jewish state and an Arab state and with Jerusalem as city under international
control
2022: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present Melanie
Meyers, Chair of Collections and Engagement, and Tamar Zeffren, Director of
Archival Partnerships, on Giving Tuesday, for an exploration of the history of
American Jewish philanthropy through the lens of relevant collections at the
American Jewish Historical Society.
2023: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “The Murders Next Door…and
the Scourge of Holocaust Distortion” with clips from the documentary
“J’Accuse.”
2023: The Jewish Book Council, the West End Museum, and the Boston Public
Library are scheduled to host a children’s book reading of “The Boston
Chocolate Party,” written by Tami Lehman-Wilzig and Rabbi Deborah Prinz and
illustrated by Fede Combi which follows a Sephardic Jewish family. Set against
the backdrop of Hanukkah and the American fight for independence, it is a story
of friendship, freedom, and a love of chocolate.
2023: Rabbi Daniel Epstein is scheduled to give the first in a series of
lectures on French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas at the Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem.
2023:
As November 29 begins in Israel, hopes dim that the Bibas family including
their ten-month-old baby which was taken hostage will be returned any time soon
since Hamas has transferred them “to another Palestinian terror faction” and based
on yesterday’s attack on the IDF that included the detonation of three
explosive devices, the Israelis can expect to sustain more casualties during
the truce while the rest of the Hamas held hostages
begin day 54 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
