#ourCOG This Day, June 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
This Day, June 10, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
JUNE 10
1190: During the Third Crusade Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the
Saleph River while leading an army to Jerusalem. The German emperor was one of three monarchs
leading the crusade. The other two were
Phillip Augustus of France and Richard the Lionhearted of England. From the Jewish point of view, the untimely
drowning was a great loss. “For German
Jewry, The Third Crusade could have raised havoc similar to the first.” That it didn’t was a result of the foresight
demonstrated by Frederick. “His timely order not to preach against the Jews,
directed to monks and priests, helped, and his warnings to the Diet (Parliament)
that anyone convicted of killing Jews would with his own life helped even
more. Local marshals dispersed surly mobs
hovering around Jewish districts, and Frederick let it be known that anyone who
inflicted injury on a Jew would have his hand chopped off. At the emperor’s urging, bishops in his realm
threatened people who attacked Jews with excommunication. A Jewish chronicler, Ephraim ben-Jacob of
Bonna, wrote, ‘Frederick defended us with all his might and enabled us to live
among our enemies, so that no one harmed the Jews.’”
1376: Wenceslaus IV who as Emperor failed to continue the Imperial
protection of the Jews of Luxembourg led to their expulsion in 1391 began his
reign as King of the Germans.
1493: In Nuremberg, “George Fugger and Regina Imhof” gave birth to their
“third and youngest son” Anton Fugger the German merchant who hired Hans
Dernschwam the German traveler who described the condition of the Jews in the
Ottoman Empire including those “in Constantinople” where “the Jews were thick
‘as ants’” and “there were forty-two or more synagogues divided by nationality”
serving a community that numbered “over Jewish men alone.”
1539: Pope Paul III sends out letters to his Bishops calling for a delay
in the start of the Council of Trent, which would turn out to be one of the
major conclaves in the history of the Catholic Church. Pope Paul III is the Pope who is credited
with starting a series of tribunals that became known as the Roman Inquisition
or, more simply, The Inquisition. While the Inquisition was aimed at a variety
of non-believers, over the centuries Jews, Marranos and Conversos suffered
disproportionately under this scourge.
1577: Pope Gregory XIII issued a warrant that “confirmed the statutes of
the (Roman) Jewish community and permitted the collection of taxes.”
1624: During the Dutch War for Independence France and the Netherlands
sign the Treaty of Compiegne which enabled France to supply the Dutch with
financial aid in their fight to gain independence from Spain. Since Protestant
Holland’s victory over Catholic Spain was in the best interest of the Jews
since the former had provided a safe haven and the latter followed a ruinous
policy of anti-Semitism.
1648: Start of the Cossacks ten-year war with the Poles also known as the
Chmielniki Uprising. The Jews were caught between the Russian Orthodox
Cossacks who hated the Roman Catholic Poles who had been occupying their
land. Jews had served as agents for the Polish nobles managing their
lands and collecting the taxes. For this, and the fact that they were
Jews, the Cossack hated them. At the same time, the Poles betrayed the
Jews, in many instances turning them over to the Cossacks thinking that this
would mollify the angry horde. It didn’t but from the Jews’ point of view
that really did not matter since they were killed regardless of what happened.
In the ten tumultuous years that followed, over seven hundred Jewish
communities were destroyed and between one hundred and five hundred thousand
Jews lost their lives. The ensuing sense of helplessness contributed to the
rise of the messianic movement which soon followed.
1729(13th of Sivan): Rabbi Abraham ben David Yizhaki, author of Zera
Abraham passed away
1749 (7th Sivan 5509): Count Valentine Potocki is burned at the stake in
Vilna. The count, along with his friend Zeremba, met an old Jew in a tavern and
promised to convert if he could convince them of the preeminence of Judaism.
Potoscki converted and eventually settled in Vilna. Zeremba hearing that his
friend converted did likewise and moved to Eretz- Israel. His presence became
known and he was put on trial for heresy when he refused to recant. His ashes
were collected and buried in Vilna where the inscription on tomb read Abraham
Ben Abraham Ger Zedek (a righteous proselyte). The Jews of Vilna would visit
his grave and say Kaddish.
1759: At Frankfurt an der Oder, Brandenburg, Germany, Naphtali (Herz)
Beer and Jente Enoch Beer gave birth to Jacob (Jehuda) Herz Beer, the father of
composer Giacomo Meyerbeer.
1760 (26th of Sivan 5520): On the secular calendar, of Israel
ben Eliezer passed away. Also known as the Baal Shem Tov he was the
“founder” of the Chassidic Movement. Born in 1700 in Lokop,
Podolia and orphaned at a young age, he was raised by the Jewish community and
spent much of his time alone in the nearby forests. After he married, he moved
to the Carpathian Mountains and then to a small town where his wife set up an
inn. At age thirty-six, he revealed himself to the community as a healer and a
comforter. He received the name ‘Baal Shem Tov‘ (Master of the Good
Name) and was simply called the ‘Besht’. His major philosophy consisted of
worshipping G-d with joy and believing that simple prayers when uttered in
earnest were more important that extreme intellectualization. The Besht
believed that Tzaddikim, or righteous ones, were sent by G-d to guide
the people. Though he left no writings of his own, he was immortalized by the
often miraculous and magnified stories of his life as told by his closest
followers.
1768: Birthdate of Lyon Israel Samuel the native Heidelsheim, Germany who
died in Paris in 1843.
1760: Canadian businessman and political leader, Aaron Hart, became a member of
the St. Paul’s Lodge of Freemasons today “making him one of the first Jews in
North America to become a Mason”
1783: In Baltimore, Phillip Russell and his wife
gave birth to Samuel Russell who settled in Savanah 1803 where he married Sarah
de Lyon in 1806.
1789 Birthdate of Eduard Israel Kley,
the native of Wartenberg who was one of the “founders of Reform Judaism.”
1797: “The Treaty of Tripoli” which had been
ratified unanimously by the U.S. Senate three days ago and which said that “the
Government of the United States is not any sense founded on the Christian
religion” took “effect as the law of the land” today.
1799(7th of Sivan, 5559):
Last observance of Shavuot in the 18th century
1802: David Moses Dyte married Hannah
Lazarus at the Great Synagogue in London today.
1805: Yusuf Karamanli signed a treaty
today marking the end of the “First Barbary War” which was part of the United
States early foray into the world of Islam and Middle East which is so well
documented in Power, Faith and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren.
1810: In Mlecice, Marcus and Maria Lobl
gave birth to Katherina Lobl
1812: Moses Haim Montefiore married
Judith Cohen today in the United Kingdom.
1815: “Prince Karl von Hardenberg, the
Prussian representative to the Congress of Vienna, wrote an urgent request to
the Senate of Lubeck to grant civil rights to its Jewish population.”
1816: One day after he had passed away,
78 year old Joseph Gompertz, the son of Barent Gompertz and Rachel Benjamin
Isaac, the husband of Esther Moses and the father of Lyon Gomperts, was buried
today at “Hoxton Old Jewish Burial Ground.”
1818(6th of Sivan 5578) Shavuot observed
on the same day that “The British Parliament was dissolved by Prime Minister
Jenkinson, and new elections were scheduled for August 4 for the House of
Commons
1819: Birthdate of Savannah native Eliza Ann Nelson Heidt,
the wife of William M. Heidt and the mother of William, Horace, Ameila, Ignatius,
Laura, Edwin oliver, Charles, Clifford and Franklin Heidt.
1825: Seven days after he had passed away in his
house at Bath, 51-year-old Lyon Joseph was buried today in the “Plymouth Hoe
Burial Ground
1826(5th of Sivan, 5586): Parashat
Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot; on the Jewish calendar yahrzeit of Rabbi Gershom of
Metz
1827: Birthdate of Thomas W. Ferry, U.S. Senator
from Michigan who would be the first President Pro Tempore of the United States
Senate to attend the consecration of an orthodox synagogue in Washington, D.C.
1829: Birthdate of Filosseno Luzzatto “an Italian
Jewish scholar” who was the son of Samuel David Luzzatto.
1829: In Bavaria Seligman Ben Schemmel Landauer and Zirle
(Cilli) Landauer gave birth to Hirsch Zwi Landauer, the husband of Fani
Landauer and Mina (Mindele) Mina Landauer and “father of Sarah Sternweiler.’
1831(29th of Siva, 5591): Sixty-six-year-old
Isaac Gomes Gomes Da Cost, the London born son of Aaron Gomes Da Costa and
Miriam De Solomon Gomes Da Costa and
the husband of Esther Gomes Da Costa passed away
today after which he was buried at the Novo Cemetery.
1834: John Levy married Mary Lazarus at the Great
Synagogue in London today.
1835: Jacob Ezekiel and Catherine de Castro, the parents
of Henry Clay Ezekiel were married today in Richmond, VA.
1837(7th of Sivan, 5597): Second Day of
Shavuot, Yizkor is recited for the second time during the Presidency of Martin
Van Buren.
1837(7th of Sivan): Rabbi Chaim Isaac Mussafia of
Jerusalm, author of Chaim va Chesed passed away
1845(5th of Sivan, 5605): Erev Shavuot
1845(5th of Sivan, 5605): Pressburg merchant
and author Yisakher-Dov Halevi whose works included religious pamphlets in
Judeo-German passed away today.
1846(16th of Sivan, 5606): Fifty-four-year-old
Heimann Joseph Michael, the native of Hamburg who became a leading Hebrew
bibliographer of the first half of the 19th century passed away. His
impact outlived his death as can be seen by the fact that his seminal work Or
ha-Hayyim which was edited by his son was published in Frankfort in 1891.
1849: In Poland, Rachel Lubin (Holtz) Weinstock and
Solomon Weinstock gave birth to David Lubin American merchant and
agriculturalist who became Director of the International Society for the
Colonization of Russian Jews in 1891.
1850(30th of Sivan, 5610): Rosh Chodesh
Tammuz
1850(30th of Sivan, 5610): Nine-month-old
Hervey Hall Moses the New York born son of Sara and Jacob Moses passed away
today.
1852: In New York, a Jewish peddler was arrested
today on charges of having stolen a watch valued at $30 from a resident of
Newton.
1853: In Bavaria, Therese Weil, the daughter of
Moses Bruell and Hanna (Hannka) Bruell and her husband Jacob Weil gave birth to
their daughter Fanny who lived for 13 months.
1856(7th of Sivan, 5616): Yizkor is
recited on the second day of Shavuot for the last time during the Presidency of
Franklin Pierce.
1856: Birthdate of Czech Republic native Marie
Lederer Pollak, the Cleveland resident who was the wife of William W. Pollak
with whom she had six children.
1857: In Hungary, Marus Mueller and his wife gave
birth to HUC trained rabbi Ignatius Mueller who served congregations in Des
Moines and Kalamazoo where he also taught German and Hebrew at Kalamazoo
College before leading Congregation B’rith Shalom in Louisville, KY.
1859(8th of Sivan, 5619): Samuel Russell
died today aboard the HMS Colossus from injuries he suffered when he fell from
the main deck. A resident of Sheerness,
Russell was married to Yitta Russell.
Sun Street was renamed Russell Street in his honor.
1859: In St. Louis, MO, Morris Rosenheim and Matilda
Ottenheimer gave birth Alfred Faist Rosenheim the architect educated at
Washington University, Hassell’s Institute and MIT whose projects included the
Rosenberg Memorial Library in Galveston, TX.
1860: In New York, Congregation B’nai Israel
purchased additional land on the corner of Stanton and Forsyth Streets on which
they were building a sanctuary that was consecrated in August of the same year.
1861: In Prague, “Moses and Rosie (Fishl) Adler gave
birth to Savannah, GA businessman and philanthropist Leopold Adler, the husband
of “Hannah Gukenheimer” the founder of Leopold Adler Department Store (at one
time the largest in Georgia), the chairman of the board of Savannah Bank and
Trust Company, the President of Mikve Israel Congregation and the Chairman of
Jewish Relief Drives since World War I.
1863: James (Jacob) Seligman and Rosa Seligman gave
birth to Francis (Fanny) Nathan, the “wife of Robert Florance Nathan and mother
of Cyril James Nathan; Robert Florance Nathan, Jr. and May Rose Aymer.
1864(6th of Sivan, 5624) Shavuot observed
by soldiers on both sides of the line as Grant moved to begin the siege of
Petersburg in the aftermath of the blood battles in and around Cold Harbor
1865: In Winnsboro, SC, Sailing ad Sarah Wolfe Cohen
gave birth to Sara Wolfe DesPortes, the wife of Ulysee Genveur Des Portes, Sr.
1867(7th of Sivan, 5627): Second Day of
Shavuot and on the Jewish calendar yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Mussafia
of Jerusalem
1868: In Grebenstein, Germany, “Beer / Bär Vorenberg
and Taubchen (Henriette) Vorenberg” gave birth to Boston merchant and credit
union pioneer Felix Vorenberg, the Chairman of the Board of the Gilchrist
Company and with fellow merchant Edward A. Filene, the founder of the
Massachusetts Credit Union, “the first of its kind” in the United States who
was the husband of the former Rose Frankenstein the father Frank Vorenberg, the
President of the Gilchrist Company.
1869: In Louisville, KY, Louis and Helen Nemark
Marocsson gave birth to violinist Sol Marcosson, the “first violin of the
Cleveland Orchestra” starting in 1918, brother of author Isaac Marcosson and
husband of Dorothy Frew with whom he raised four children – “John, Fred, Ruth
and June.
https://case.edu/ech/articles/m/marcosson-sol
1870: The New York Times reported that the
fact that Sir Moses Montefiore has verified reports of the massacre of Jews in
Romania has discredited claims that these attacks did not take place.
1872: “The Russian Jews” published today described a
paper on the Jews of northwestern Russia that was presented at a recent meeting
of the Russian Geographical Society held at St. Petersburg. The author of the paper divides the Jews into
a variety of groups and sub-groups.
According to him the Jews belong to two major groupings which differ in
regard to “religion and language.” One
group believes in the Talmud and speaks a “corrupt German dialectic.” The second group, called the Karaites,
“rejects the Talmud, are not even absolute believers in the Bible… “have their
own traditions which have collected into a book” that “has the same authority
over them as the Talmud has over other Jews”
and speak a language that “is of Tartar Origin. The author goes on to divide the first group
into two subgroups – the Mitnagdim and the Chasidim who are called “Jumpers” by
the Russians because they leap from the ground when praying – and describes the
differences in their respective views and practices. Finally, the Jews are broken down into Four
Groups that include “the worldly Jews,” “the devout” Jews, “the Germans” who
are followers of Moses Mendelsohn and the “Epicureans” who reject all forms of
Jewish custom and ceremony as well as the Talmud.
1872: “The Romanian Jews and the Reichstag”
published today reported that in May of this year the German government has joined other
European powers in responding to requests to help the Jews of Romania. The
government announced that it could not interfere in the internal affairs of
another country especially since none of those affected were German citizens.
Germany reiterated the request of the other powers which had been made in
February that persecution of the Jews stop.
The government also took credit for the release of some of the
wrongfully convicted Jews. [Editor’s note- the issue of the
treatment of Romania’s Jews is one that would agitate the European Powers and
the United States during the last decades of the 19th century.]
1872: Birthdate of Keltz native Max Benstock who at the age
of 19 landed in the United States and eventually settled Buffalo, NY, where he
established a successful “wholesale iron and metal business” married Sophie
Kallnisky in 1896 after which they raised three children and he was an active
member of the Jewish community as can be seen by his membership in Temple
Beth-el, B’nai B’rith and the Hebrew Benovlent Loan Association.
1872: “The Israelites of Prussia” published today
reported that “the Jewish questions” (the treatment of the Jews of Romania) is
of special interest in Berlin because “trade and banking is mainly in the hands
of the elect people.” “The financial
heads of the dispersed nation have joined..to make their power felt to get the
other nations to act against Romania. “A Committee of the Alliance
Israelite Universelle has been formed” in Berlin “as a standing council of war”
that would destroy the value of Romanian bonds. “That is a strong measure, but
one for which the Jews have the power.” [Editor’s Note – The view of the Jew as
“the other” who is part of an international financial concern would grow along
with other European stereotypes: International Communist Conspirator and
impoverished shiftless vermin.]
1872: “Jewish University” published today reported
that a Jewish university was opened at Berlin in May. The Jewish community has been working on this
project for several years and its opening is another example of the great
strides made them in the Kaiser’s Empire.
The ceremony was attended only by Jewish officials, but this should not
be of any concern since there are plenty of Jews to attend the school.
1873: Simon Cook began serving as a Cadet and
Midshipman in the United States Navy.
1873: In Detroit, Michigan, Florence Rubinstein and
Solomon Cohen gave birth to University
of Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained cleric Rabbi Simon Raymond Cohen the
husband of Laura Levy and the spiritual leader of the newly formed Union Temple
in Brooklyn starting in 1921.
1875(7th of Sivan, 5635): Second Day of
Shavuot
1877: “A Jewish Suit For Divorce” published today
described the adjudication of cause of action in Great Britain filed by an
American Jew named Elias Isaacs naming his wife Deborah as respondent and her
lover, Bloc, as correspondent. The jury found that the respondent and
co-respondent were guilty of damages but declined to assess damages because the
petitioner had “conduced” (contributed to) his wife’s misconduct by separating
from her for an extended period of time and not given her the protection one
should expect in a marital relationship. [And people think that Jews are dull
and boring]
1877: “The Place of Wailing” published today
reported that the picture which Jerusalem presents that longest haunts the
memory is perhaps the spectacle of the Jews wailing before the ancient wall of
their city. There in full sunlight,
bowed in every attitude of grief, their faces set against those gigantic blocks
which reveal…their antiquity, a group of 30 to 40 Jews are seen, perhaps a
little too much as in an opera, by a long line of cold-faced Europeans. The two groups are in startling contrast.
Everything in the one speaks of the orderly life, the suppression of feel, the
formality of vesture, a colorless insipidity, the outcome of our modern
conventional existence; the other shows us figures, for the most part, which
might stepped froth from the pages of the Bible, some of the heads of such
grandeur that they might be the descendants of prophets; maidens whose contrite
aspect reminds one of Ruth and Esther, surrender themselves to a sorrow which
reverberates through the ages and is the one true bond which connect the grand
days of old with the present.
1879: In Cleveland, OH, Louis and Fannie Grossman
gave birth to Cleveland Law School trained attorney Mary Belle Grossman, the
municipal judge who was a member of Hadassah and the Temple Women’s
Association.
1879: Today, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed the point resolution reported by the Committee on Foreign Affairs in
relation to treaty negotiations with Russia as to American Israelites.
1880: Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont graduated from the
U.S. Naval Academy. Belmont was the son
of August Belmont the Hessian Jew who came to the United States as a
representative of the Rothschilds and built a fortune of his own. The naval career might have seemed strange
for the son of a Jews. But, his maternal grandfather Commodore Mathew Perry who
commanded the naval expedition that opened trade with Japan and a maternal grand-uncle
was Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, the hero of the War of 1812. 1880(1st of
Tammuz, 5640: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1882: Birthdate of John David Whiting, the native of
Jerusalem who grew up in the American Colony and served as the U.S. Vice
Counsul of Jerusalem from 1908 to 1910 and again from 1915 to 1917.
1883(5th of Sivan, 5643): Sixty-three-year-old
Baron Simon von Winterstein, Austrian businessman and member of the Imperial
Council who also served as President of the Viennese Jewish Community passed
away today.
1883: It was reported today that soprano Sophia
Neuberger will be accompanying violinist Camilla Urso on an extended concert
tour.
1884: Naphtali Hertz Cohn, the Hamburg, Germany born
son of Rabbi Ruben Simon Cohn and Doris Cohn gave birth to Recha Stein, the
wife of David Stein and sister of Ruben and Bernhard Cohn
1885: Birthdate of London native John Kroll who in
1886 came to the United States where he was a labor leader and an organizer of
the Amalgamated Clothing Workers.
1886(7th of Sivan, 5646): Second Day of
Shavuot
1886: For the second day in a row, final exams are
scheduled to be given on Shavuot at Philadelphia’s Central High School despite
the requests of the city’s rabbis to make other arrangements.
1888: The Baltimore Branch of the “Alliance
Israelite Universille” whose members included the father of Henrietta Szold was
formed today
1888: In Manhattan, Barbara and Jacob Henry Adler
gave birth to Abraham Adler
1889(11th of Sivan, 5649): Twenty-four-year-old
Thérèse Alice Montefiore, the Paris born daughter of Clara and Lazar
Schorstein, the first wife of Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore and the mother
of Leonard Montefiore passed away today after which her husband endowed a prize in her memory – the Therese Montefiore
Memorial Prize.
1890: It was reported today that the upcoming sixth
annual graduation exercises for the students at the Hebrew Technical Institute
will take place at the school which is located on Stuyvesant Street.
1891: Two days after she had passed away, Henrietta
(Delgado) Alberga, the wife of David Judah Alberga and the mother of Theresa
and Eugene Alberga, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1893: In Berkley, VA, founding of Congregation
Mickroh Kades which holds services three times a day and hold religious school
classes six days a week.
1894(6th of Sivan, 5654): Shavuot
1894: “No More New Plays To See” published today
described the theatre season which has just come to the end including the fact
that Sidney Grundy has blamed the
prejudice of the reviewers for the failure of his five act play, “An Old
Jew.” However, “anybody who reads the
play will be likely to decide that it failed because it is a very bad play with
a wildly improbable plot and superabundance of talk.
1894: As part of the increasingly aggressive
campaign to convert Jews living in the United States, Reverend John Wilkinson,
the English minister who leads the mission to convert English Jews, address the
meeting of the American Hebrew Christian Mission Society.
1894: Solomon Moses who has enjoyed a long
association with the United Hebrew Charities is among those serving on the
Tenement House Committee appointed the governor to examine conditions in this
kind of dwelling in New York City.
1895: It was reported today that there 475 girls
enrolled in the Louis Down Town Sabbath and Daily Technical Schools which were
founded by Mrs. A. H. Louis.
1895(18th of Sivan, 5655): Forty-forty-year-old
German born composer and conductor Martin Roder passed away in Boston where he
had been serving as chairman of the vocal department in the New England
Conservatory since 1892.
1895: Three days after he had passed away, 74-year-old
Michael Baber Isaacs, the husband of Barbad native Kate Isaacs and the father
of Sara Isaacs, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: Sarah Chapman was buried today at the “Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1896: In Windsor, MO, John Allen Canatsey and Stella
Belle Overshiner Canatsey gave birth to Audra Gertrude Canatsey, whose first husband
was Salomon Tarlowski, the Russian born tailor who worked for his brother-in-law
Sam Stolaroff, the owner of The Popular in Roswell, NM.
1897: Wisconsin native Louis C. Wolf was promoted to
2nd Lt. in the Engineers.
1897: Two days after he had passed away, Nathan
Rhenberg was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898: Rabbi H.P. Mendes of New York’s Spanish and
Portuguese has been elected of the newly formed Orthodox Jewish Congregational
Union of America which is made up of congregations from the United States and
Canada.
1898: “Minister Straus Honored” published today
described “an informal reception” given by The Judeans Oscar S. Straus
following his appointment as the U.S. Minister to Turkey.
1898: The Jewish Chronicle carried a vivid
account of an anti-Jewish riot in Jassy, Romania — a place that the paper
decided was no longer safe for Jews
1898:
One day after he had passed away Barnard Blumstein was buried in London today
at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898(20th
of Sivan, 5658): Seventy-four-year-old Rabbi Samuel Mohilewer who was an early
Zionist leader and proponent of the founding of the Jewish Colonial Bank passed
away today leaving a legacy that included his Joseph who was also a Zionist and
the rabbi at Bialystok.
1899:
Birthdate of Lemberg native Irma Weitsenkorn, who gained fame as the American
social reformer and humanitarian Irma May.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/may-irma
1899:
Louis Pearshall, Louis Stern, Isador Straus and Julia Richman are among the
directors named to oversee the operations of the reconfigured Education
Alliance.
1899:
Captain Alfred Dreyfus left French Guiana today on board the French cruiser
Sfax.
1899:
As part of his ongoing “Jew-baiting crusade” Count Walter Puckler-Muskau gave a
second lecture in Berlin today entitle “The Progressive Judaisation of Germany.
1899:
At Rodoph Shalom, Rabbi Rudolph Grossman delivered a sermon about the plight of
Captain Dreyfus entitled “Justice.”
1900:
In Detroit, Mina and Henry Schlafer gave birth to Nathan Henry Schlafer, the
husband of Adele Lehman Schlafer.
1900:
Anti-Semitic riots broke out at Tuchel, the West Prussian city that was the
home of the famed pharmacologist and toxicologist Louis Lewin
1900: Birthdate of Alfred Harding who was
transported from Prague to Ujazdow to Majdanek in 1942 where he was murdered at
the age of 42.
1901: Birthdate of New York City native and NYU,
CCNY and Columbia alum Maurice Wahl, the Republican Assistant District Attorney
who investigated corruption in the 1930’s.
1901: In
Berlin, Rosa Loewe and Edmond Loewe, “a noted Jewish operetta star who
performed throughout Europe and in North and South America including starring
as Count Danilo in the 1906 Berlin production of The Merry Widow” gave birth to
composer, Frederic Lowe who teamed with Alan Jay Lerner to create such
hits as Brigadoon,
Paint Your Wagon and My Fair Lady. (As reported by Stephen
Holden)
http://www.frederickloewe.org/fritz/bio.htm
1901: In Lithuania “Morris and Sarah (Notes) Flom”
gave birth to Lehigh University alum Samuel Louis Flom, the husband of Julia
Mittle Tampa, FL, businessman who “served as chairman of the board of Florida
Steel” from its founding in 1937 until his death in 1980 while serving as
President of Schaarai Zedek.
1901: Birthdate of the multi-talented Englishman
Eric Maschwitz.
http://spartacus-educational.com/SPYmaschwitz.htm
1902(5th of Sivan, 5662): Erev Shavuot
1902: Birthdate of Cincinnati native Dr. Maurice
Levine, the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at his undergraduate alma
mater the University of Cincinnati
http://ead.ohiolink.edu/xtf-ead/view?docId=ead/OhCiUWC0003.xml;query=;brand=default
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/abs/10.1176/ajp.128.5.652?journalCode=ajp
1903: In Pittsburgh, the sixth annual convention of
the Federation of American Zionist came to an end today.
1904: Theodor Kohn was forced to resign as an
archbishop because he was born Jewish.
(Is this a reminder of the Inquisition or a harbinger of Nazi rules on
race?)
1905(7th of Sivan, 5665): Second Day of
Shavuot
1905: Hans Kelsen, the Bohemian born Jewish jurist
was baptized as a Roman Catholic, the first of two religious conversions that
he would undergo.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kelsen-hans
1906: Sixty-three year old Mary Carinna Putnam
Jacobi, an American suffragette and physician who was the widow of Dr. Abraham
Jacobi, the pioneering Jewish pedestrian passed away.
1906: “Moorish Jews Grateful” published today
reported that “one of the last and strongest instructions given by Secretary
Root to the representatives of” the United States “at the Algeciras Conference
related to the protection of the Jews in Morocco and the obtaining for them of
equal privileges guaranteed by the signatory nations.”
1907: It was reported today that “strong protest
against the “insidious incursion” of proselyting Christian
missionaries into the faith of Jewish children, particularly on the lower east
side, was made at the fourth annual convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of the United States and Canada, which was held in the synagogue
of the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, in Eighty-fifth Street, near Lexington
Avenue.”
1907: The parents of Riva (Rebecca)
Hillesum-Bernstein who would be the maternal grandparents of Riva (Rebecca)
Hillesum-Bernstein arrived in Amsterdam where they were re-united with their
daughter and son.
1908: Birthdate of Omaha native Elmer Greenberg who
won All-American honors while playing “guard at the University of Nebraska from
1927-1930.”
1908: Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, the son of August
Belmont, who inherited a fortune large enough when his father died to marry a
Vanderbilt. In an era of matrilineal
Judaism, Belmont was not Jewish and he certainly was not considered to be one
as he moved through the high society of his time. But he was August’s son and
the enemies of August never let anybody forget about his Jewish antecedents.
1909: First day of a two day conference held in New
York that would create the youth organization known as Young Judaea.
1909: Sir Osmond d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, 1st Baronet and
his wife gave birth to his oldest son Major-General Sir Henry Joseph
“Harry” d’Avigdor-Goldsmid, 2nd Baronet
1910: Gustave Bauer, a banker from Madrid was
elected, to the Spanish Parliament as the deputy for Corogna. He was the first
Jew elected to public office since the expulsion in 1492.
1910: It was reported today that “east side Jews are
greatly interest in the news from Warsaw that Judah Loeb Perez, the Yiddish
writer and poet has finally been persuaded to make a trip to the United States
and to give a series of readings from his works in New York.
1911: Birthdate of Hans Herzl, son of Theodor Herzl.
1911: After 104 performances at the Winter Garden
Theatre, the curtain came down on Jerome Kern’s “La Belle Paree” the musical
revue “that launched Al Jolson’s career.”
1912: Today marked the second and final day of the
fourth annual convention of Russian Polish Jews where the President Samuel
Kanirch had announced at the opening session plans to erect a hospital on
Lexington Avenue to be known as Beth David, which was projected to cost
$150,000,
1913: “New Institution Opened for Foreigners Who
Work at Night” published today described adult newly founded adult education
run by the Federation of Oriental Mews of America under the leadership of Mrs.
Victor Schwartz, which according to Joseph Godalecia will soon be offering “new
classes to accommodate elderly men who want to learn” English.
1913(5th of Sivan, 5673): Erev Shavuot
1914: “One of Our Girls,” a silent film produced by
Adolph Zukor and Daniel Frohman was released in the United States today.
1914(16th of Sivan, 5674): Thirty-eight-year-old
William “Willie” Hammerstein the New York City born “son of Oscar Hammerstein,
the theater impresario, and his first wife, née Rose Blau” “the manager of
Victoria Theatre and Roof Garden” who had married Annie Nemo, the sister of his
first wife Helen Nimo with who had two sons, Reginald and Oscar, the award
winning “teammate of Jerome Kern and Richard Rogers, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/06/11/100319583.pdf
1915:
In Lachine, Quebec, Lescha (née Gordin) and Abraham Bellows gave birth to
Solomon Bellows who gained famed as author Sol Bellow whose famous works
include Herzog and Humboldt’s Gift and who won both the Pulitzer
and the Nobel prizes.
1915:
The comments of Reverend S. Edward Young, the pastor of the Bedford
Presbyterian Church following the yesterday’s decision by the Georgia Prison
Board not to commute Leo Frank’s death sentence published today said that “The
Georgia Prison Board evidently has been under the spell of Georgia prejudice
against Frank” and that ‘Now is the time for the whole nation express itself to
the governor” to have him grant Frank clemency.
1915:
Maurice B. Kovnat, the Secretary of the Anti-Capital Punishment Society of
America expressed his hope that Leo Frank’s life would be spared saying that
“We trust that the fervent prayers of thousands of people outside as well as in
Georgia will be heard and acted upon in like spirit.”
1915:
“After a conference today with attorneys representing Leo M. Frank and
Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey” scheduled the “hearing of arguments for and
against Frank’s application for a commutation of death sentence to life for
imprisonment” for June 15 at nine o’clock.
1915:
The Actions Committee (Va’ad HaPoel HaZioni) convenes in Copenhagen
1915:
Mrs. Helen Rothschild, the wife of a clothing manufacturer, was taken to
Flushing Hospital this morning after suffering what appeared to be an
accidental drug overdose.
1916:
In Chicago, Gilbert I. Stadeker, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Stadeker married
“Nannette Rosenthal, the daughter of Sarah Rosenthal.”
1916:
The National Republican Convention which nominated Supreme Court Justice
Charles Evans Hughes, who would often vote with Brandeis and Cardozo during his
second stint on the court, for President and which Samuel S. Koenig attended as
a delegate from New York came to a close today.
1916:
In Boston, “Nathan Rosenberg, a grocery owner, and Phoebe Rosenberg née Swart,
Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe” gave birth to William Rosenberg, founder
of Dunkin Donuts. Rosenberg opened his
first Dunkin Donut shop in his native New England in 1950. Not only was he a pioneer in this particular
food genre, he was a pioneer in the franchise industry. Rosenberg was an equine enthusiast and
philanthropist. By the time he died at
the age of 86 he had given millions to several causes including Harvard Medical
School where a chair was endowed in his honor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/23/business/william-rosenberg-86-founder-of-dunkin-donuts.html
1916:
“Degree of D.D., honoris causa” was conferred on Gotthard Deutsch by Hebrew
Union College.
1917:
Louse S. Posner the attorney for Max Holtz president of the Associated Blue Book Publications who had
disappeared on June 9 “said tonight that Captain Barrett Andrews, one of his
business partners plans to go to Europe added to Mr. Holtz’s disturbance over
war conditions which had obsessed him for some time.”
1917:
A column styled “Latest Publication” published today reported that
copies of “The Russian Revolution” by Isaac Don Levine and the “The Holy
Scriptures,” a new English translation published by the Jewish Publication
Society were available in New York City.
1917:
The Confirmation Exercises at the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans are scheduled
to held today at 628 Drexel Avenue where fifteen boys and ten girls will be
honored.
1917:
Reverend Herbert S. Goldstein, the leader of “the new Institutional Synagogue”
held “second Jewish religious revival meeting this morning in center of the
Jewish district of Harlem.”
1917:
The Executive Board of the Jewish Congress Association is scheduled to open a
three day meeting today where it will discuss “all matters pertain to the
upcoming election of delegates.”
1917: In the United States, three hundred and
thirty-five thousand people chose representatives for the first American Jewish
Congress. The Congress would meet for the first time in 1918 under the
leadership of Rabbi Stephen Wise. Founded to ameliorate the suffering from WW
I, the Congress became an advocate for civil rights and civil liberties as well
as seeing to it that the Jewish point of view was taken into consideration on
the national political scene. The organization
is a staunch defender of the doctrine of separation of church and state and an
ardent advocate for the state of Israel.
1917: The Hebrew Institute on W. Taylor Street and
the Hebrew Literary Society on South Ashland are two of the special polling
places for the election sponsored by the Jewish Congress Association of
Chicago.
1917: It was estimated that in New York, “about
150,000 Jewish men and women” voted today “for delegates to the American Jewish
Congress” which is scheduled to meet in Washington on September 2 “to consider
means of bringing political equality and relief to Jews in any part of the
world where they may be burdened by oppression and suffering.
1918: Two days after she had passed away, 37-year-old
Betsy Goldberg, the wife of Barnett Goldberg was buried today in London at the
“Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1918: “Jewish sentiment toward the meeting demanding
recognition of the Soviet Government was expressed” today “by William Edlin,
editor of The Day in an article in which he appealed to Russian Jews of the
city to ‘boycott the mass meeting’ by remaining away, or, if they do attend, to
‘make it clearly known that their sympathies are not with the Bolsheviki, but
clearly against them.’”
1919: British economist William Cunningham passed
away. Cunningham was the author of The Growth of English Industry and
Commerce in which he described the status of Jews in medieval England. “The Jews had no rights or status of their
own; they were the mere chattles of the King; all that they had was his. In this lay their security from popular
violence: but it was a security for which they had to pay dearly. Their transactions were all registered in the
Exchequer.” This meant that the debts
due to Jewish money lenders were really due to the king. And since Christians could not lend money
interest, the English king “had indirectly a monopoly on moneylending” in his
realm.
https://www.asianstudies.org/grants-awards/book-prizes/levenson-prize/
http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb629006wb&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00025&toc.depth=1&toc.id=
1920: The Friends of Jewish Music are scheduled to
sponsor a program at the Y.W.H.A. featuring the works of Solomon Golub who will
perform his own compositions.
1921: Birthdate of Lower Saxony native Oskar Gröning
the SS officer “known as the bookkeeper of Auschwitz.”
1921(3rd of Sivan, 5681): Fifty-two year
old Julius Benjamin “Julie” Freeman a pitcher with the St. Louis Browns passed
away today who may or may not have been Jewish.
1922(14th of Sivan, 5682): Parashat Nasso
1922: It was reported today that in Massachusettes,
the state Senate has followed the lead of the House and voted to remove “John
Singer Sargent’s painting ‘The Synagogue’ from the Boston Public Library after
Jews led by Representative Coleman Silbert had objected to the painting.
1923: In Slatinské Doly, Mechel Hoch and Hannah
Slomowitz gave birth to Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch who gained fame as
British media mogul Ian Robert Maxwell.
1923: Cornerstone laying ceremony for the New Hebrew
Home for the aged at 1125 Spring Road, NW in Washington, DC.
1923: Birthdate of French actress Marie Madeleine
Berthe Lebeau who gained fame as the female French guitar player in
“Casablanca” who is real life had been forced to flee from the Nazis with her
Jewish husband, actor Marcel Dalio.
1923: Twenty-eight year old WWI U.S. Army veteran
and editor of Jewish publications including the Maccabean Meyer W. Weisgal, the
Polish born son of Solomon and Lea Weisgal married Shirley Hirshfeld today.
1924: “Dangerous Clues” a crime film with a script
co-authored by Adolf Lantz was released today in Germany.
1924: The Republican National Convention which
Samuel S. Koenig attended as a delegate from New York opened in Cleveland, Ohio
with President Calvin Coolidge a shoo-in to be nominated for the top spot.
1925: In Boston, MA, Lena (Katzenberg) and Simon
Hentoff, a traveling salesman” gave birth to historian and author Nat Hentoff.
https://www.cato.org/people/nat-hentoff
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/opinions/hentoff.htm
1925: In Passaic, NJ, Mildred Scheff and George
Horowitz, a real estate broker and businessman gave birth to James Arnold
Horowitz who gained fame as author James Salter.
1926:
Rabbi Maurice Maser became Director of the Hebrew Home for the Aged in
Washington, DC.
1926:
Socialist Congressman and champion of the underdog Meyer London was buried
today at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Queens following a funeral that included a
procession of 50,000 mourners and half a million on-lookers. London may have the distinction of being the
only Socialist who was condemned as an anti-American radical to have a United
States naval vessel named in his honor. The U.S.S. Meyer London, one the famed
fleet of Liberty ships, was launched in 1943 and was sunk by an enemy torpedo
off the coast of Libya in 1944.
1927:
It was reported today that “Rabbis of all synagogues were requested to speak on
the 150th anniversary of the adoption of the flag, in a resolution passed by
the Synagogue Council of America” this Shabbat which falls three days before
the officially designated date (June 14) of a holiday championed by Ben
Altheimer, a leader of the Jewish community from Arkansas.
1928:
At a dinner given tonight on the Astor Roof, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Miller announced
the engagement of their daughter Etta Miller to Dr. Louis Lahn, Jr.
1928:
In Philadelphia, Betty and Rabbi Simon Greenberg, the future vice chancellor of
JTS gave birth to Moshe Greenberg, “one of the most influential Jewish biblical
scholars of the 20th century.”
1928:
In Brooklyn, Polish Jewish immigrants Sadie (née Schindler) and Philip Sendak,
a dressmaker gave birth to Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things
Are.
1929:
Today, Pope Pius XI, who in 1933 would order his papal nuncio in Berlin to look
into ways to help the Jews and who in 1938 condemned Kristallnacht and
delivered a speech denying the Nazi doctrines on race, “promulgated 21 articles
laying out the basic laws of Vatican City.”
1930:
According to a statement issued today by Hadassah, “American preventive methods
introduced into Palestine by American women have lowered the death rate of
Jewish infants from 131.3 per 1,000 births in 1925 to 90 in 1929.”
1931(25th
of Sivan, 5691): In Bobowa, Poland, Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, the Grand Rebbe of
Bobov and his wife (who died in the Holocaust along with two of her children
gave birth to “Naftali Tzvi Halberstam, the husband of Rebbetzin Hesa” who
succeeded his father as Grand Rebbe after the latter’s death in 2000.
1932:
In Brooklyn, Morris and Evelyn (Bayer) Ginsburg gave birth to Martin David
Ginsberg Georgetown University Law Professor and famed tax attorney.
1932(6th
of Sivan, 5692): First Day of Shavuot
1933:
President Roosevelt submitted the name of Dr. William E. Dodd to serve as
Ambassador to Germany and the Senate voted to confirm the nomination. Dodd served with distinction, but much to his
dismay was unable to convince the State Department and others of the dangers
presented by the rise of the Nazis.
1933:
Joe T. Robinson of Arkansas, the Democratic majority leader, gave a speech on
the floor the U.S. Senate strongly condemning the persecution of the Jews in
Germany. He described what was going on
in Germany as “sickening and terrifying.”
As the Senate’s leading Democrat, Senator Robinson often serves as the
unofficial spokesman for the administration.
Jesse Metcalf, the Republican Senator from Rhode Island joined in the
condemnation saying that “a violation of religious freedom in any part of the
world is a blow at” American ideals. Senator Robert Wagner of New York
expressed his “horror at the resorts of intolerance “[rp,I[, discrimination and
violence.” Wagner’s condemnation carried
additional weight since he was born in Germany and grew up there. Senator Royal
Copeland spoke approvingly of Jews as a group, endorsed the comments of Senator
Robinson but expressed the view that the German people were not responsible but
rather they were “under a power over which they have no control.” [An early
version of “the Germans are not Nazis” argument]
1934(27th
of Sivan, 5694): Eighty year old Samuel Lewis, the native of Maitland, New
South Wales and husband of Annette Cohen passed away today in Kensington
Middlesex England.
1934(27th of Sivan, 5694): Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky,
a Soviet
developmental psychologist whose work received widespread recognition in the
Western world around the 1960s passed away today. According to Vygotsky, the
intellectual development of children is a function of human communities, rather
than of individuals.”
1935:
It was reported today that in Germany, the Ministry of Eduction has outlawed
the teaching of Esperanto because it “was conceived and evolved by the Oriental
Jewish occultist Lazarus Zamenhof”
1936:
“Robert Edward Edmondson, the anti-Semitic publisher failed to appear in the
Tombs Court” this morning “to answer the summons issued by Mayor La Guardia
charging him with criminal libel.”
1936: The Palestine Post reported that two
Arabs died and 26 Arabs and Armenians were injured by a bomb which exploded
inside the Jaffa Gate on June 8.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that Mr.
Ormsby Gore, the colonial secretary, told the House of Commons in London that
the Palestine government was taking all possible action to protect life,
property and communications in the country. The Palestine government was
granted further emergency powers under the Palestine (Defense) Order in Council
of 1931.
1936:
“Five Arabs were seriously wounded today in as part of a round of disorder such
as have become typical of the Arab anti-Jewish campaign In Palestine.” As the Arab uprising continued, “Jerusalem
was again cut off from the rest of Palestine and the world in general when
telephone and telegraph lines were severed” supposedly by Arab vandals.
1937:
Birthdate of Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi, the third wife of Jewish
businessman and philanthropist Michael Jay Solomon.
1937:
“The Wesdeutsched Beobachter, the Nazi party organ for the Rhineland, declared
today that German firms should be represented abroad by Jewish agents” which is
rumored to be a prelude to an order being issued that would compel German
businesses to dismiss their Jewish representatives working abroad.
1937:
Dr. Julien Weil, Chief Rabbi of Paris, and Dr. Eisenstadt, former Chief Rabbi
of St. Petersburg, Russia, officiated at the funeral services for Dr. Henry
Siolosberg the 74 year old “former president of the Jewish Community of St.
Petersburg and former President of the Russian Community in Paris.
1938:
L’Osservatore Romano, the official
Vatican newspaper, publishes an article by Jesuit priest Father Enrico Rosa on
the violent anti-Semitism in Germany
1939: As of today, as a resulted of “emigration,
legal or illegal and death, natural or unnatural” the number of Jews in “Great
Germany” has been reduced from a pre-Nazi “population of 700,000” to
550,000” not counting the additional
number of Jews acquired by the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia.
1939: After having been refused entry into Canada
yesterday eight year old Ronnie Breslow and her mother were among the
passengers confronted with the real possibility of being returned to Europe.
1940:A.J. Liebling, who had been in Europe since
October of 1939 working as a war correspondent left Paris today and would not
return to France until June 6, 1944 when he landed on Omaha Beach aboard “a
U.S. Coast Guard-staffed landing craft which he wrote about in his 1944 book
The Road Back to Paris.
1940: As the Nazi Blitz of the Low Countries and
France was reaching a successful climax Italy under Mussolini,
entered World War II on the side of the Germans. Italy’s attack on
France was described by Churchill as the hand that has held the dagger has
now struck it in the back. This move by Mussolini would ultimately imperil the
Italian Jewish Community, resulting in deportation and death later in the war.
1940: The French government departed Paris as
the German armies swept forward. Soon an Armistice would be signed
dividing control of France between Nazi occupation and the pro-Nazi Vichy
Government. Jews would be at peril in both places.
1940: As two million Parisians flee the City of
Light, Hans and Margaret Rey find themselves trapped in a city that the French
government has declared “an open city.”
This declaration means that unlike Warsaw, London, etc. Paris will be
the one major city not bombed by the Nazis. This marks the beginning of
strangely cordial relationship between the Nazis and the French which bodes ill
for the Jews trapped in France including Hans Rey, the creator of Curious
George and his wife Margaret.
1941: It was reported to that “just north of El
Metulla, near the Biblical site of Dan, Vichy led French forces put up a
spirited fight against Australian forces seeking to clear Syria of pro-Nazi
forces.
1941: Robert Serebrenik, the chief rabbi of
Luxembourg and his wife ‘left Lisbon” with “61 other refugees from Luxembourg”
on a ship bound for New York City.
1941: The Luftwaffe bombed the British naval-air
base at Haifa today which is part of Nazi plan to attack the supply
installations of the British fleet in the eastern Mediterranian.
1942: Polish actor and director August Kowalczyk
escaped from Auschwitz.
1942: Today sixty-year-old Jaques Hanak was
transported from Prague to Ujazdow where he was murdered.
1942: Today, fifty-nine-year Hansel Hugo Klein was
transported from Prague to Ujazdow where he was murdered.
1942: Today, fifty-year-old Frantisek Klein was
transported from Prague to Ujazdow where he was murdered.
1942: Today,
during the siege of Bir Hakeim, part of the battle being fought against Rommel
in North Africa, the British campaign headquarters of the British 8th Army
issued an order to retreat. By then The Jewish Company, a volunteer unit that
had consisted of 400 men at the start of the fight, had lost 75% of its men as
they fought to delay Rommel’s offensive for 10 days.
1942: Thousands of Jews were sent from Prague to ‘an
unknown destination in the East’ in cattle cars. The destination was Belzec,
the site of their murder. The Jews of Biala Podlaska were sent to Sobibor.
1942: Jews
gathered on the west bank of the Dniestr River before their deportation to
Transnistria on the east bank of the river
1943:
Birthdate of television news personality Jeff Greenfield.
1943(7th
of Sivan, 5703): Second Day of Shavuot
1943:
“The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” a British romance with a script
co-authored by Ermeric Pressburger who also co-directed and co-produced the
film that co-starred Anton Walbrook was released today in the United Kingdom.
1943(7th
of Sivan, 5703): Fifty-two-year-old Louis Bookman the native of Lithuania who
gained fame as a cricketer and footballer for his adopted home – Ireland –
passed away today.
1944(19th of Sivan, 5704): In the French
village of Oradour-sur-Glane, Germans kill 642 residents as revenge for the
killing of an SS officer by a Resistance sniper. Women and children are burned
alive in a church and the men are machine-gunned. Of the 642 victims, seven are
Jewish refugees who had escaped deportation to Auschwitz by living with
sympathetic Oradour-sur-Glane villagers. Included among the dead is
eight-year-old Serge Bergman.
1944:
Violette Szabo, an agent with the British Special Operations Executive was
captured in Normandy following a gun battle in which she provided covering fire
her companion, a leader with the Maquis, could escape.
1944:
Reszoe (Rudolf) Kasztner, head of the Aid and Rescue Committee known as Va’adah
chose “388 members of his own extended family, as well as groups of family
friends” to serve as a selected groups of Jews that will be allowed to leave
Hungary as a token of German “good faith” during the negotiations with Eichmann
and Himmler that are being conducted by Joel Brand.
1944:
Joel Brand who was being held by the British was allowed to speak with Moshe
Shertok the head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department about the deal the
Nazis were offering “trade Jews for trucks.”
1945:
Today, on his 24th birthday Oskar
Gröning the SS officer “known as the bookkeeper of Auschwitz” was captured by
the British from whom he withheld the details of his service at the infamous
death camp.
1945:
In Italy, refugees in the Bericah Movement were photographed with soldiers from
Palestine.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/june/11.asp
1946: The trade union division of the National Labor
Committee for Palestine tonight made “an appeal to the Trade Union Congress and
Labor Party of Great Britain for help in forcing the British Government to
implement the recommendation of the Anglo-American Committee for the immediate
admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine.”
1947: In Paterson, NJ, “a first-grade teacher and an
accountant gave birth to Randy Edelman the composer of movie theme and
television epic music themes including one of my favorites “Gettysburg” and the
husband of Jackie DeShannon with whom he is raising their son Noah D. Edelman.
1947: “Living in a Big Way,” a musical comedy
produced by Pandro S. Berman and a script by Irving Ravetch was released in the
United States today.
1948(3rd of Sivan, 5708): “Three friends
from England, all Kindertransport boys who had served in the Jewish Brigade
during WWII, died together in a last ditch stand near Beit Daras today after
the rest of their company had withdrawn.’
1948: Syrian forces over-ran Mishmar Ha-Yarden a
Jewish settlement on the west bank of the Jordan River. The Syrians had every advantage including
control of the air, tanks and a full array of artillery. Realizing the desperate nature of their
situation, the Jewish settlers sent the women and children away. The few surviving defenders were taken to
Damascus. The Syrians called the victory
Faith-Allah (the Capture of God). After
the war, the Jews rebuilt Mishmar Ha-Yarden a mile from the original kibbutz. The ruins of the original settlement were
left as a memorial to those who fought and fell in the fight to create a Jewish
home. This was one of the last military actions before the first truce between
the Israelis and the Arabs which was slated to start on June 11.
1948: The Negev Brigade attacked the Egyptian-held
police fort of Iraq Suwaydan but were driven off in defeat.
1949: While in Paris, after having completed a tour
of Israel, New York Congressman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. the son of the late
President “today urged the revision of United States immigration laws to permit
additional Jewish displaced persons to enter the country.”
1949: Today on the first anniversary of the death of
Colonel David “Mickey” Marcus, Brigadier General Yakov Dori, the Army Chief of
Staff eulogized the West Point graduate as “my closest adviser on many
occasions” and praised him for his “outstanding contributions to the
development of Israel’s war machine” and “in Tel Aviv former officers of World
War II dedicated a housing section and name it Neve Michael in memory of Marcus
who used the non de guerre Michael Stone.”
1951(6th of Sivan, 5711): Shavuot
1951(6th of Sivan,5711): Eighty-two-year-old
Victor Farkas Cukor, the Hungarian born son of Joseph and Victoria Cukor, the
husband of Helen Ilona Cukor and the father of Elisa and George Dewey Cukor,
the director of such classics as “The Philadelphia Story,” “Gaslight” and the
“My Fair Lady” for which won the Oscar.
1951: “Sculptor Jo Davidson flew to Israel tonight
with plans for reproducing in marble the history of the birth of the new
state.”
1953: “Attackers infiltrating from Jordan destroyed
a house in the farming village of Mishmar Ayalon.”
1954: The 169th New York State which Stanley
Steingut attended as a representative rom the 18th Brooklyn district
came to an end toda.
1955: Following its New York City premiere last
month, “Love Me or Leave Me” directed by Charles Vidor and produced by Joe
Pasternak was released in theatres across the United States today.
1956(1st of Tammuz, 5716): Rosh Chodesh
Tammuz
1956: Twenty-four-year-old Yale Undergraduate and
Harvard trained physician “L(awrence) J(erome) Schneiderman married pianist
Barbara Goldman with whom he had four children – Rob, Claudia, Heidi and Tanya.
1959:
In the Bronx Anne (née Goldhaber), an English literature professor, and Bernard
Spitzer, a real estate mogul gave birth to Eliot Spitzer New York State’s
Attorney General, Governor and talking television head for cable news.
1960(15th
of Sivan, 5720): Charles Joseph Singer, distinguished “British historian of
science, technology and medicine passed away.
He was the son of Simeon Singer, the Rabbi of London’s West End
Synagogue who translated the Authorized Daily Prayer Book into English. He was
the husband of Dorothea Waley Cohen, who in a manner unusual for her time was a
leading historian of the Medieval Period.
There is no way that this blog can do justice to Singer’s long and
distinguished career.
1960:
The last episode of “You Bet Your Life” Groucho Marx’s signature quiz show “was
aired in its radio broadcast format.”
1962:
In “Novelists Have Made 1966 the Year of the Novel” published today, David
Boroff singles out Notes from a Dark Street, a novel by Edward Adler.
1962:
In Los Angeles, Mickey Gershon (née Koppel) an interior decorator, and
importer/exporter Stan Gershon, gave birth to actress Gina Gershon, the younger
sister of Dan Gershon and Tracy Gershon.
1964:
“Bedtime Story,” a comedy produced and written by Stanley Shapiro was released
today in the United States.
1966:
Simon and Garfunkel recorded “Cloudy” today as the third song for “Parsley,
Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.”
1966:
Birthdate of Gina Bellman, “a New Zealand-born British actress.”
1967:
As of today, Syria had lost approximately 100 combat aircraft.
1967: At 6:30 p.m. a cease-fire went into effect on
the Golan Heights effectively ending the Six Day War. There was no Arab
military force that could have kept the Israelis from taking Cairo, Damascus or
Amman. But as Yitzchak Rabin pointed out, the Israelis had not gone to war to
cease territory. They had gone to war only after all diplomatic efforts had
failed and they were faced with the choice of fighting or facing extinction. In
a week’s time they had changed the map of the Middle East. The forces facing
them were not “tin men.” Contrary to some of the comments made by the
ill-informed, the Arabs had fought hard and the IDF had suffered the casualties
to prove it. The fact was that in a week Israel had gone from a nation with a
noose around its neck to being victors who had reclaimed Jerusalem, seized the
Golan Heights from which the Syrians had shelled Israeli farmers for almost two
decades and occupied a swath of land from the Jordan River to the Suez Canal. In the weeks prior to
the war, Israel had been subjected to constant shelling from the Golan Heights
and blockading by Egypt of the Straits of Tiran (Israel’s only southern sea
outlet). Once the UN observer forces left the Sinai at Egypt’s behest the stage
was set for war. Within a few days, the entire Sinai was in Israel’s hands, and
despite being warned not to interfere, Jordan shelled Jerusalem opening that
front as well. This battle led to the capture of the West Bank and the
unification of Jerusalem. On the Syrian front, Israel succeeded in pushing the
Syrians back to Kunetra and taking part of the Hermon range. In fewer than six
days, Israel had routed all three of its neighbors losing over 700 men and
having over 2,500 wounded. More than 400 Arab planes and 500 tanks were
destroyed. The UN Security Council rejected a Soviet call for an unconditional
pullback to the “green line“.
1968:
‘’ Petulia” a drama directed by Richard
Lester with a story by Barbara Turner was released today.
1969(24th
of Sivan, 5729): Sixty-four-year-old NYU educated author and attorney Dr.
Isidor Margolis, the executive director of the World Council on Jewish
Education, associate professor Jewish education at Yeshiva University and the
husband of Edna Heffler Margolis passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/06/14/78384556.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1970(6th of Sivan, 5730): Shavuot
1973: Two days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to
be held today in Manhattan for eighty-nine-year-old Harry A Hatry, the former
vice president with Bloomingdales and later long time president of Jay-Thorpe,
Inc who was “an ardent support of schools for costume design” and who was the
husband the former Mildred E. Eiseman with whom he had four daughters – Louise,
Margaret, Helen and Sydney.
1974: Mark B. Cohen began representing District 202 in the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Knesset approved the Ben-Gurion Memorial Bill on its first reading. The
memorial covered Ben-Gurion’s home in Tel Aviv, the Institute for the Legacy of
Ben-Gurion at Kibbutz Sde Boker and the Desert Institute in the Negev. There
was a threat that Egged buses would grind to a halt as the cooperative was
unable to pay its fuel suppliers to whom it owed IL 4m., in addition to
millions it owed to suppliers of other equipment. The Ministry of Transport
insisted that if the cooperative wished to obtain the IL
200m.government-guaranteed loan, it would have to deduct IL 300 per month from
its members’ salaries. But following the ministry’s order to carry soldiers
free, Egged reneged on this agreement.
1976(12th
of Sivan 5736): Seventy-five-year-old Austrian born “restaurateur” Simon Adler,
who in 1913 came to the United States where he ” became the operator of such well‐known
restaurants as the Steuben Tavern chain, the Crossroads Restaurant in Time
Square and Keebler’s Restaurant in Albany” while raising two sons – Horace and Seldon – with
“his wife, the former Rose Denbaum,” passe away today.
1976(12th of
Sivan, 5736): Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount Studios and one Hollywood’s
early movie moguls passed away at the age of 103.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0107.html
1977: “Ford
Honored” published today described President Gerald Ford’s speech condemning
terrorism which he deliver at a dinner that was “raising funds for
scholarships” for those attending Hebrew University.
1978(5th
of Sivan, 5738): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1979: Birthdate
of Holon native and Israeli television host and screenwriter Assi Azar who ‘is
the creator of the romantic comedy TV series Beauty and the Baker (2013 – 2021)
and co-creator of the new TV series, Metukim (2024 – present).
1979: “Paul
Newman, the blue-eyed movie star-turned-race car driver, accomplishes the
greatest feat of his racing career today roaring into second place in the 47th
24 Hours of Le Mans, the famous endurance race held annually in Le Mans,
France.”
1981(8th
of Sivan, 5741): Eighty-two-year-old Harry Halpern who served as the Rabbi at
the East Midwood Jewish Center for forty nine years and “professor of pastoral
psychiatry at JTS” while fighting for Civil and Human Rights passed away today.
(As reported by Walter Waggoner)
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/12/obituaries/harry-halpern-82-jewish-leader-dies.html
1981: It was
reported today that President Yitzhak Navon, acting on “the recommendation of
Justice Minister Moshe Nissim” has decided to release “Michael Tzur, Israel’s
most prominent criminal” in August, “ten months before his prison term had been
scheduled to end.
1982: “After
eight previews the Broadway production of “The Torch Song Trilogy” by Harvey
Fierstein opened “at the Little Theatre where it ran for 1,222 performances”
and for which Fierstein won two Tony Awards.
1982: Units of
the Golani Brigad and the Barak Armored Brigade finished the fighting that
resulted in the capture of two villages on the outskirts of Beirut.
1983: In New
York City, producer and screenwriter Elizabeth Sobieski (née Salomon) and
French born painter Jean Sobieski gave birth to Liliane Rudabet Gloria Elsveta
Sobieski, the actress known as Leelee Sobieski.
1985: “Flesh
and Blood” starring Jennifer Jason Leigh “as Agnes, virgin daughter of an
aristocrat” had its first public screening at the Seattle International Film
Festival.
1985: A day
after leaving the federal bench, Abraham David Sofaer began serving as Legal
Adviser of the Department of State.
1986: Khaled
Ahmed Nazal, Secretary-General of the PLO’s DFLP faction, was gunned down
outside a hotel in Athens, Greece
1987: The
off-Broadway production of “Bar Mitzvah Boy,”
“a musical with a book by Jack Rosenthal, lyrics by Don Black, and music
by Jule Styne” opened “at the American Jewish Theatre of the 92nd
Street Y.
1988: “Big
Business,” a comedy directed by Jim Abrahams, co-starring Bette Midler and
featuring Seth Green as “Jason” was released today in the United States.
1989(7th
of Sivan, 5749): Second Day of Shavuot and Shabbat observed for the first time
during the Presidency of George Bush.
1990: “The
Lunch Date,” directed by Adam Davidson was “selected as “Dramatic
Achievement” in the Student Academy Awards competition” today.
1991(28th
of Sivan, 5751): Ninety-two-year-old Lena Goldman Wilentz, the wife of David
Wilentz who the Attorney General of New Jersey who prosecuted Bruno Haumptmann
passed away today.
1993(21st
of Sivan, 5753): Ninety-one-year-old Madeline Samuel, the daughter of Julious
Juda Dukas and the wife of Jacob Samuel passed away today.
1994(1st of
Tammuz, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1995(12th
of Sivan, 5755): Parashat Nasso
1995(12th
of Sivan, 5755): Ninety-two-year-old painter and patron of the arts Hazel
Guggenheim King-Farlow McKinley, the daughter Fluerette Seligman and Benjamin
Guggenheim whose career was somewhat overshadowed by her sister Peggy
Guggenheim passed away today.
https://hazelguggenheimmckinley.wordpress.com/
1996(23rd of
Sivan, 5756): Eighty-nine-year-old Austrian born English painter Marie-Louise
von Motesiczky passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-marie-louise-von-motesiczky-1337146.html
1996:
Publication of Tim Janof’s “Conversation with Janos Starker.”
http://www.cello.org/Newsletter/Articles/starker.html
1997(5th
of Sivan, 5757): Erev Shavuot
1997(5th
of Sivan, 5757): Eight-four year old Leo Fuld, the Dutch born son of merchant
Louis Fuld, the known for his knack for making Yiddish songs came alive passed
away today.
http://www.hipporecords.nl/fuld.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jul/26/worldmusic1
1998: In “King
of Simon Says Is Up to His Old Games,” Joyce Walder described the career of 77-year-old
tumbler Allan Tresser.
1999: In
Baltimore, Maryland, Anshe-Emunah-Aitz Chaim-Tifereth Israel voted to merge
with Moses Montifore Emunath Israel-Woodmoor Hebrew Congregation.
2000(7th
of Sivan, 5760): Second Day of Shavuot and Shabbat observed together for the
first time in the 21st century.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Skeptical
Music: Essays on Modern Poetry by David Bromwich and Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins by Greg Lawrence.
2002:
President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the White House.
2003(10th
of Sivan, 5763): Seventy-six year old Gene Stanley Goldfarb, the Chicago born
son of Frances and Samuel J. Goldfarb and chairman of the board of House of
Perfection, a manufacturer of children’s, junior women’s’ clothing whose
philanthropies included the U.J.A, Ben-Gurion University, the Technion, the ADL
and the United Negro College Fund and who raised two daughters, Lauren and
Ellen, with his wife Judith Ellen Goldfarb, passed away today.
2003:
“Wicked,” a Stephen Schwartz musical began its pre-Broadway run at the Curran
Theatre in San Francisco.
2004(21st
of Sivan, 5764): Ninety-two year old Margit Raizel Wolf, the wife of Franz Karl
Wolf and, passed away today in Israel.
2004:
Ambassador Earle I. Mack presented his credentials to the President of Finland,
2004: Javier
Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP),
stated today, “I welcome the Israeli Prime Minister’s proposals for
disengagement from Gaza. This represents an opportunity to restart the
implementation of the Road Map, as endorsed by the UN Security Council.”
2004: Effi
Eitam and Yitzhak Levy quit the government to protest the plan to leave Gaza.
2004: Tzipi
Livini succeeded Effit Eitam as Minister of Housing and Construction.
2005: Major General
Yiftach Ron-Tal took command of Modash, the Field Intelligence Corps.
2005: In a
letter to the editor of Haaretz published today, “Avraham Cykiert of Mulgrave,
Australia claimed to have ghost written” Caged, the memoirs of Warsaw Ghetto
warrior David Landau “and said that Landau’s daughter had “doctored”
his manuscript.
2006: Bat Mitzvah of Gail Barnum, daughter of Amy
and Joel Barnum.
2007: In
“Adjusted Income” published today, Daniel Handler described what it is like to
have lots of money made by writing children’s books.
2007: At Temple Judah, In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dr.
Howard Lenhoff describes a real and modern exodus–the rescue of Ethiopian Jews
and their deliverance to Israel. Dr. Lenhoff, a graduate of Coe College and a
distinguished biologist at the University of California (Irvine), was
instrumental in this rescue. He is the author of author of, Black Jews, Jews, and Other Heroes. How
Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews
2007: Annual
Temple Judah Congregational Meeting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section
featured a review of Sylvia and The Collected Stories two works
by the late Jewish author Leonard Michaels.
2007: Norman
Finkelstein, who gained famed for his controversial comments about the
Holocaust, has been denied tenure by De Paul University
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section
featured a review of 1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the
Middle East by Tom Segev.
2007: The
Sunday Chicago Tribune featured an article entitled “Facing a grim reality
in Austrian Town” which tells of how beneath the quiet homes and neat hedges of
Gusen, lie the remains of a Nazi concentration camp. Ironically, Mauthausen is
only four miles away and it is preserved as a monument the victims of the
Holocaust. At Gusen, the citizens
actually live in buildings left from the camp.
Christopher Mayer, a 32 year old artist has designed an audio tour for
visitors to hear the recollections of survivors. www.chicagotribune.com/nazicamp
2007: Today, the Great Synagogue’s emeritus Rabbi,
Raymond Apple, was confirmed as the keynote speaker for the International
Council of Christians and Jews’ (ICCJ’s) 2007 conference in Sydney to be held
in July.
2007: Ronald
Lauder was elected President of the World Jewish Congress today defeating the
South African businessman Mendel Kaplan and Einat Wilf of Israel
2008(7th of Sivan, 5768): Second Day Shavuot
2008(7th
of Sivan, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Swarthmore grad, WW II Army veteran and
minor league baseball player Eliot Asinof whose most famous book was Eight Men
Out which told the story of the 1919 “Black Sox” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/sports/baseball/11asinof.html?_r=0
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/26/culture.obituaries
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061103678.html
2008:
Ninety percent of the Israeli public thinks that the country is tainted with
corruption and over half say that corruptibility is a necessary to prerequisite
to success in the political sphere, according to the Israeli Democracy
Institute’s (IDI) annual Democracy Index which was submitted to President
Shimon Peres.
2008:
Samuel Israel III’s GMC Envoy was found abandoned on the Bear Mountain Bridge
today a day after he failed to report to prison.
2009:
Release date for “Jaffa” the film whose Hebrew name is Kalat Hayam (The Bride
of the Sea)
2009: Simon Schama, a professor of art history at Columbia
University and a cultural critic for the New Yorker magazine, discusses
and signs his new book, The American Future: A History at Politics and
Prose in Washington, D.C.
2009:
The Hebrew Book Fair opens at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. As part of the Book Fair events, the Centennial Year
Administration will launch 4 new books dedicated to Tel Aviv – Yafo. These four
volumes, selected from 50 candidates include: A Crane Points to the Sea
– A poetry book by Gilad Cahane, The Sarona Templar Colony at Times of
Struggle by Nir Mann, A City with a Concept: 100 Years of Urban Planning
in Tel Aviv by Natty Marom and The Lost Children: Mandatory Tel Aviv’s
Back Yard by Dr. Tami Razi
2009:
The RSX European Open Windsurfing Championship begins at Tel Aviv’s Gordon
Beach.
2009:
Ken “Feinberg was appointed by the U.S. Treasury Department to oversee the
compensation of top executives at companies which have received federal bailout
assistance.”
2009: An American white supremacist opened fire at the US
Holocaust Memorial Museum today killing a security guard before being shot
himself, according to initial reports. The shooter was named as James Von Brunn
by a law enforcement official, pending confirmation and speaking on condition
of anonymity, who noted that his car had been found near the museum.
2010(28th
of Sivan, 5770): Ninety year old Ruth Kaufman Heckerling the Union City, TN,
daughter Rebecca and Morris Kaufman, the
Miami Beach High School and Pratt Institute trained interior designer and
cartoon colorist who married Philip E. Heckerling with whom she had two
children Stephanie and Dale.
2010:
Grammy Award-winners Susan McKeown and Lorin Sklamberg are scheduled to present
Saints & Tzadiks, a project celebrating Yiddish and Irish song at the
Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2010: Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak Dance Company is scheduled
to perform “Oyster at Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina.
2010:
Alan D; Solomont began servings as United States Ambassador to Andorra.
2010:
Israeli writer and peace activist David Grossman has been named winner of the
2010 Peace Prize by the German association of publishers and booksellers
2010:
In More Money Than God” Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite, which
was published today, the author “dedicated a chapter to Michael Steinhardt”
whom “he described as a ‘lover of botany and a collector of exotic fauna,’
living in his retirement ‘on his country estate an hour’s drive north of New
York City.
2011:
The CSI Milwaukee Directors Seminar sponsored by the Coalition for Jewish
Learning is scheduled to take place at the CJL in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “The
Coalition for Jewish Learning (CJL), the education program of the Milwaukee
Jewish Federation, promotes and advances Jewish education in the greater
Milwaukee community, provides a support system for the community’s institutions
of Jewish learning, and forges coalitions to ensure excellence in Jewish
education.”
2011: An award-winning solo piece by Israeli based Idan Cohen –
“My Sweet Little Fur” is scheduled to be performed by Ran Ben-Dror on
the third night of Contemporary Israeli Dance Week.
2011: Police entered a sensitive Jerusalem holy site to disperse
Palestinian protesters who were hurling stones today.
2011(8th
of Sivan, 5771): Eighty-five-year-old Norman Redlich, a leading member of the
New York bar and the Dean of New York University Law School passed away. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/11/education/11redlich.html?_r=1
2011(8th
of Sivan, 5771):
Adolph William (“Al”) Schwimmer, founder of Israel Aircraft
Industries and winner of the Israel Prize died today at Tel Hashomer hospital
on his 94th birthday. Schwimmer, an American citizen born in New York, was
convicted in 1950 of violating the Neutrality Act for smuggling planes to
Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. He was stripped of his civil
rights, but not imprisoned. The American Jew was able to covertly bring the
aircrafts to Israel by establishing false companies, one of which was
purportedly the official airline of Panama. Schwimmer was in the Air Transport
Command in World War II, providing him with many contacts that were pilots and
in the airplane industry. He was able to use his contacts to transport the planes
to Israel. Schwimmer was pardoned in 2001 by then outgoing U.S. President Bill
Clinton. The pardon was awarded without any formal request from Schwimmer. In
an interview with the Jerusalem Report in 2001, Schwimmer said he never applied
for a pardon, calling it is a “complicated process”. The expatriate
added that “you have to express regret for what you did, and I didn’t feel
that way.” However, the eldest son of Hank Greenspun, a close friend of
Schwimmer’s who worked with him when he was smuggling arms into Israel during
the Independence War, is an attorney and a friend of Clinton. The younger
Greenspun sent all the paperwork to the Justice Department and told Schwimmer,
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you, I sent in your application for a
pardon.” After the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Schwimmer
joined the nascent Israel Air Force, after which he established an aircraft
company that evolved to become the Israel Aircraft Industries during the 50’s.
Schwimmer ran the aircraft company for over 20 years, during which he became
close with current President Shimon Peres. After disagreements with former
Defense Ministers Moshe Dayan and Ezer Weizman, Schwimmer left Israel Aircradt
Industries, becoming a “special adviser” for the Israeli government
for which he was paid a symbolic one shekel a year. Schwimmer was awarded the
Israel Prize for his contributions to Israeli society in 2006.
2011: Congressman Anthony Weiner acknowledged he had exchanged at least
five private messages on Twitter with a 17-year-old Delaware girl, but
indicated that the messages were “neither explicit nor indecent.”
2012: 45th anniversary of the end of the “Six Days War.” The Jews of the world gave a collective sigh
of relief. David had defeated a really
big Goliath. On June 5 when the war
started the deck was stacked against Israel’s survival. Not only were they facing an Arab alliance
with a massive military, they were, in effect, facing the Soviets who were
dedicated to the victory of their Moslem client states. When the first reports of Arab claims about
having inflicted heavy losses on the Israelis, people were really scared. Remember, this was in the days before the
internet, etc. so communication from the battlefield was a dicey thing at
best. By the time the war was over,
there were plenty of American Jews who had been ambivalent about Israel who
know took great pride in the Jewish state and became active supporters. Despite what the revisionists might write
today, that victory not only saved Israel, it created a whole new positive
feeling that many Jews (and non-Jews) had about being Jewish.
2012: As Temple Judah continues to celebrate the 90th
anniversary of its founding the co-presidents of the congregation are scheduled
to cook BBQ before tonight’s annual congregational meeting.
2012: David Broza is scheduled to perform at
Israeli-American Night part of the Music Under the Stars program at Eisenhower
Park.
2012: The New York
Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life
and Times of Lillian Hellman by Alice Kessler-Harris
2012: Greater Chicago Jewish Festival is scheduled to take
place at St. Paul Woods in Morton Grove, Il
2012: With
his mind clearly on the dangers of a violent confrontation with settlers over
the looming evacuation of the Ulpana outpost, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
spoke at the annual Altalena memorial today about two principles enshrined by
Menachem Begin: the supremacy of the rule of law and no civil war under any
circumstance. (As reported by Herb Keinon)
2012(20th of Sivan, 5772): Eight-two-year-old beach volleyball
player and pioneer Gene Sleznick passed away today. (As reported by Baxter
Holmes)
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-gene-selznick-20120612,0,2222597.story
2013: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host
Yaacov Fisher who will speak on “The State of Israel’s Economy: Challenges
Amidst Growth.”
2013: The U.S. government has recovered 400 pages from the long-lost diary
of Alfred Rosenberg, a confidant of Adolf Hitler who played a central role in
the extermination of millions of Jews and others during World War Two. (As
reported by Haaretz and Reuters)
2013: As the fighting in Syria intensifies, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar President Bashar Assad has
issued a strong warning to Israel saying that he is completely serious in
opening up the Golan front against Israel (As reported by Ariel Ben Solomon)
2013: Today Knesset Economics Committee Chairman Avishai Braverman…threw
his support behind Bank of Israel Deputy Governor Karnit Flug to replace her
boss, outgoing governor Stanley Fishcher (As reported by Niv Elis)
2014: A
“dialogue between Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz and the Honorable Antonin
Scalia is scheduled to take place at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.”
2014:
Adam Phillips, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Freud, is scheduled
to join novelist and critic Daphne Merkin for a discussion of Phillips’ new
biography of the father of psychoanalysis at the 92nd Street Y.
2014:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “My Father’s Paradise: A
Son’s Search for His Family’s Past” by Ariel Sabar.
2014:
Rabbi Marc Schneier, founder and president of the Foundation for Ethnic
Understanding and founding rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue and Imam Shamsi Ali,
the spiritual leader of two Muslim congregations, the Jamaica Muslim Center,
New York City’s largest Islamic center and Al-Hikmah Mosque are scheduled to
participate in “Sons of Abraham: A candid conversation about the issues that
divide and unite Jews and Muslims” at the Skirball Center.
2014:
Today, the Knesset chose year 74 year old Reuven Rivlin, a sabra born in
Jerusalem whose career included three years as speaker of the Knesset to succeed Shimon Peres as President of
Israel.
2014:
Twenty-five-year-old Alexandre Stern who worked in the communication department
of the Brussels Jewish Museum and who was murdered during a shooting at the
Museum on May 24 will be buried in a Muslim cemetery in Morocco this afternoon
per the agreement of his father who is Jewish and his mother who is a Muslim.
2014:
A Jewish teen wearing a yarmulke and tzitzit is attacked with a Taser by group
of teens at Paris’ Place de la République square. In Sarcelles, two Jewish
teens wearing yarmulkes are sprayed with tear gas. (As reported by Stephanie
Butnick)
2015:
“Anderswo” (Anywhere Else) and “Next to Her” are scheduled to be shown at the
Israel Film Center Festival hosted by the JCC Manhattan
2015:“The
Taglit-Birthright Israel program, which sends young Jews on free trips to
Israel, celebrated its milestone 500,000th participant this week” in a ceremony
today “when 24-year-old Molly Dodd from New Jersey presented Birthright
cofounders Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman with framed letters from
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from 1998, in which he gave his blessing for
the program to begin.”
2015:
“Madame Rosa, La Vie Devant Soi: which won the 1977 Oscar for Best Foreign
Language Film is scheduled to be shown at the Cinema South Film Festival in
Sderot.
2015:
Art Garfunkel “is scheduled to play in Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium” (As
reported by Stuart Winer)
2016:
“Suddenly, A Knock at the Door” by Robin Goldfin which is based on the stories
by Israeli author Etgar Keret is scheduled to be performed this evening at the
Theatre for the New City.
2016:
In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a dinner and serving
honoring Jerry Sorokin for his 17 years of service as Executive Director of the
University of Iowa Hillel.
2016:
The Edent-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “The Symphonic Piano Series”
featuring Michael Zartsekel, Dror Semmel and Ron Trachtman.
2016:
As Jews begin to observe Shabbat this evening they will mourn the victims of
the Tel Aviv terror attack – 42 year old Ido Ben Ari from Ramat Gan, 39 year
old Ilana Naveh from Tel Aviv, 58 year old Micahel Feige from Ramat Gan and 32
year old Mila Mishayev from Rishon Lezion.
2017(16th
of Sivan, 5777: Parashat Beha’alotcha
2017:
In Los Angeles “the University Synagogue in Brentwood, and both campuses of the
Wilshire Boulevard Temple – the Erika J. Glazer Family Campus in Wilshire
Center/Koreatown or the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus in West Los Angeles”
“were temporarily closed after receiving bomb threats” today which is Shabbat.
2017:
At Oxford, Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield from the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies is
scheduled to speak at the Seudah Shlisit on ‘Maimonides and Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi: The Great debate about Jewish
Particularism.’
2017: As part of Israel Festival, the Eden Tamir
Music Center in Ein Kerem, is scheduled to host a classical musical concert
this morning.
2018: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includes How
to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About
Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael
Pollan, President Carter: The White House Years by Stuart E. Eizenstat
and There Are No Grown-Ups: A Midlife Coming of Age Story by Pamela
Druckerman
2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational
Center is scheduled to host a Pride Month event this afternoon.
2018: Doris Fogel is scheduled to speak on how she
survived the Holocaust at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center.
2018: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to
host “a day-long conference that will features academics, artists, writers, and
diplomats in discussion about Israeli society and politics as well as relations
between Israel, America, and the Jewish diaspora.”
2018: In a testament to the vitality of non-coastal
American Judaism, The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, IA, is scheduled
to hold it “annual meeting.”
2018: IAC
Cinematec in collaboration with New York Israel Film Center Film Festival is
scheduled to host a screening of ‘The Testament’ by Director Amichai Greenberg.
2018: “The shimmering musical “The Band’s Visit,”
based on Israeli film of the same name, was the big winner at the Tony Awards
today, capturing the best musical award and nine other prizes.”
2019(7th of Sivan): On the Jewish
calendar, “ yahrzeit of Avraham Ben Avraham, who was burned at the stake in
5509 (1749)” and was known as Count Valentine Potocki before his conversion
from Roman Catholicism.
https://www.aish.com/dijh/Sivan_7.html
2019: As the United States is preparing to release
the economic portion of the peace plan touted by President Trump and his
son-in-law, it was reported today that Germany’s foreign minister has “reaffirmed
Berlin’s support for a two-state solution…”
2019: Like so many other Jewish institutions, the
Center for Jewish History is closed for Shavuot
2019(7th of Sivan, 5779): Second Day of
Shavuot; Yizkor
2020: The Combined Jewish Philanthropies are scheduled to
present Global Jewish Citizenship During 21st Century Pandemic.
2020: Seth Brysk, S.F.-based regional director of ADL, is
scheduled to talk about new strands of bigotry, from Zoombombing to attacks on
the Asian community as part of the virtual presentation of “Anti-Semitism and
Hate in the Age of Covid-19
2020: In a virtual environment the Israel Film Center
Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “The Art of Waiting” followed by a
Q and A session
2020: The ASF institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled
to host “Imagining the Jew in
Early Modern England: A Presentation on Two Sephardim: Rodrigo Lopez &
Menasseh Ben Israel” with Leonard Stein.
2020: Vice President of Illinois Holocaust Museum Board of
Directors Rick Salomon is scheduled to introduce a commemoration of
Juneteenth with an evening of reflections from noted civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill, President &
Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
2021:
The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to present, online Menachem Begin’s Legacy:
A Roadmap for Building Jewish Identity,” “a discussion based on the new feature
film “Upheaval: The Journey of Menachem Begin.”
2021:
Central Synagogue and JWA are scheduled to present a lecture by Rabbi Sarah
Berman on Stella Heinsheimer Freiberg.
2021:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host
“Mandela and Anne Frank,” “a special presentation by Marlene Bethlehem, the
first woman to be elected as National Chairperson of the South African Board of
Deputies,” wjp served as chair of the Anne Frank in the World Exhibition and
traveled with Mandela to Israel on his visit to Yad Vashem”
2021:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled “to welcome Shira Haas, Alena
Yiv (who plays her mother) and writer/director Ruthy Pribar for a screening of
scenes from Asia and a discussion of the film’s depiction of the tense
relationship between a woman to whom motherhood didn’t come easily and a daughter
who barely interacted with her — and how their awkward estrangement flowered
into unconditional love.”
2021:
Live on Zoom, the YIVO Institute is scheduled to present “Jewish Anarchist
Women – 1920-1950: The Politics of Sexuality.”
2021:
At the Convention of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs, Chaim Katz, a Jewish
basketball fixture across the globe and for many years coached Tamir Goodman,
the “Jewish Jordan” is scheduled to “share his story and what it means to
live in the world of Yeshiva and basketball at the same time.”
2021:
USF is scheduled to present “One Family’s Legal Quest to Recover their Stolen
Past, during which “Lawyer Peter Toren talks about how he and his father
recovered their family’s art that was stolen by the Nazis” and “USF law
professor Karren Shorofsky discusses legal cases for reclaiming the stolen art.”
2021(30th
of Sivan, 5781): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz.
2022:
Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present a “Small Group Tour
of the Vilna” with executive director Dalit Ballen Horn who provide a look at
the Vilna’s “renovated space and historic sanctuary.”
2022:
Jewish Baby Network is scheduled to co-present
“Shavuot Shabbat Shindig,” an
event for babies and tots with crafts, music and Shabbat blessings.
2022:
In Framingham, MA, Temple Beth Shalom is scheduled to a Shabbat Picnic and Book
Signing with Haley Neil, author of Once More With Chutzpah.
2023:
UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host a screening of “Babi Yar Context,” a
documentary which “reconstructs the historical context of the massacre which took
place on 29–30 September 1941, when Sonderkommando 4a of the Einsatzgruppe C,
assisted by two battalions of the Police Regiment South and Ukrainian Auxiliary
Police, shot dead 33,771 Jews in the Babi Yar ravine.”
2023:
The Lighthouse International Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of
“America Pot Story,” “the most important documentary about the legalization of
marijuana by Israeli filmmaking couple Dan Katzir and Ravit Markus followed by
a Q&A with Ravit and an after party.”
2023:
In Cambridge, MA, A Besere Velt is scheduled to join forces with Yiddish
rock/folk star Daniel Kahn to present “Freedom Is a Verb,” a concert that is
sure to inspire and sustain the Boston Workers Circle work for collective
freedom.
2023:
UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host a screening of “The Kiev Trial,” a
documentary about the 1946 Kiev Trial also called the “Kiev Nuremberg” because
it “was one of the first post-war trials convicting German Nazis and their
collaborators.”
2023:
In Andover, MA, Temple Emanuel is
scheduled to present a “Coffee House Concert with Sue Horowitz.”
2023(21st
of Sivan, 5783): Parashat Beha’alotcha;
2024:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by William Tyle on “English
Arabists and Zionists.”
2024:
The 12th Annual Israel Film Festival at the Marlene Meyerson JCC is scheduled to come to an end in Manhattan.
2024:
The Phoenix Cinema is scheduled to host a preview screening of “Freud’s Last
Session.”
2024;
In Michigan, the prosecution is scheduled to begin its case against Michael
Jackson-Bolanos, 28, who is charged with the first-degree murder of 40-year-old
Samantha Woll, “a well-known Jewish community leader in Michigan.’
2024:
In another lecture in the online lecture series “The Legend of the
Writers: Agnon and Kafka”, Prof. Michal Arbel is scheduled to read the story “A
Fasting Artist” and discuss the act of art and the connections between
Kafka and Agnon.
2024:
As June 10th begins in Israel, an
unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 248 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.)
ourcog 