#ourCOG This Day, May 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
This Day, May 6, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 6
1313
BCE (1 Iyar 2448): According to
tradition, this was the date of the first population survey of the Israelite
people taken by Moses.
124
CE: A Roman centurion named Valens stationed in the military camp which
bordered the date palm groves in En Gedi by the Dead Sea made an emergency
short-term loan to a Jew named Judah at an interest rate of twelve per cent per
annum.
973:
“Henry II, Duke of Bavaria and his wife Gisela of Burgundy gave birth to Henry
II, the Holy Roman Emperor whose expulsion of the Jews from Mayence was
lamented in dirges composed by the poet Simon ben Isaac and of which Gershom
ben Yehuda said, “Thou hast made those who despise They Law to have dominion
over Thy people…
1255:
The Vatican orders all copies of the Talmud to be destroyed by fire. Despite
this edict, King Jaime (King James of Aragon) ordered that the Spanish Jews
should remain unmolested. Unfortunately, the political pressure over successive
years would prove to be too great, and on August 29, 1263 he announced Jews had
three weeks to remove all blasphemy from their books.
1501:
Birthdate of Pope Marcellus II who expelled the Jews from Rome.
1527:
The Spanish-German army of Charles IV entered Rome marking the start of a three
week long period of pillage and butchery.
Among the victims was the library of Elijah ben Asher Levita the volumes
of which were used as fuels by the invaders.
1527:
Today’s Sack of Rome sent “Elia Levita “a Renaissance Hebrew grammarian,
scholar, and poet” who “was the author of the Bovo-Bukh (written in 1507–1508),
the most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish and who lived for a
decade in the house of Cardinal Giles of Viterb because “he was one of the
foremost teachers of Christian clergy, nobility, and intellectuals in Hebrew
and in Jewish mysticism during the Renaissance,” “into exile once more, back to
Venice, where he worked as a proofreader and taught Hebrew.”
1556:
Seventy-eight-year-old “German Protestant theologian” and Hebraist Konrad
Pellikan who translated a “vast amount” of rabbinical and Talmudic texts
including “Ben Asher’s commentary on the Torah” passed away today,
1574:
Birthdate Pope Innocent X, whom Graetz described as the first of the
reactionary popes. Among other things he
opposed the Peace of Westphalia which recognized the independence of the
Netherlands, the nation which provided a haven for Jews fleeing the
Inquisition.
1649:
The Massachusetts General Court ruled today that Solomon Franco was to be
expelled from the colony, and granted him “six shillings per week out of
the Treasury for ten weeks, for sustenance, till he can get his passage to
Holland. Franco, a Sephard, is “the
second Jew known to have lived in North America. He settle in Boston where he
was an “agent for Immanuel Perada, a Dutch merchant.” After Franco had
delivered supplies from Perada “to Edward Gibbons, a major general in the
Massachusetts militia” a dispute arose over who should pay the Jew for the
merchandize – Gibbons or Parada. The solution of the court was to expel Franco.
1691:
In Palma, Majorca, after one hundred and fifty years of freedom from the
Inquisition, an investigation led to the conviction of two hundred and nineteen
people. All agreed to be reconciled with the church. Thirty-seven were burned
to death when they tried to flee the island since it was considered a relapse
to heresy.
1747:Rabbi
Moshe Chaim Luzzato (RAMCHA”L), Kabbalist, poet, and author of Mesilat
Yesharim passed away. Born in Padua, Italy, in 1707, R. Moshe Chaim had a
thorough education in both religious and secular studies. His interest
in the Kabbalah and his influence on the youth of the community led to
accusations that he was a Sabbatean. In its day, this was as harsh an
accusation as you could make against a person. Luzzato left Italy and
settled in Amsterdam. At the age of 33 he published Mesillat Yesharim
(The Path of the Upright), a book about ethics that describes how Jews can
climb the ladder of purification to reach a level of holiness. In 1743,
he moved to Eretz Israel where he died during a plague in 1746. He is
buried at Tiberias. Throughout his life, Luzzato struggled
between his desire to study the Talmud and his need to the Kabbalah.
He is considered one of the fathers of Modern Hebrew literature, with his
greatest impact being in Hebrew poetry. His teachings earned the
admiration leaders from a variety of Jewish groups ranging the Vilna Gaon of
Vilna to the Maggid of Mezeritch.
1754(14th
of Iyar, 5514): Pesach Sheni as a British forces under George Washington are on
their way to fight a group of Canadiens in what will become the opening battle
of the French and Indian War.
1758:
In Nice, which at that time was part of the Kingdom of Sardinia “shopkeeper Jules Masséna (Giulio Massena) and Marguerite
Fabre” gave birth to André Masséna who
according to Andrew J. Schoenfeld, MD was “a scion of the Italian Jewish
community,” “an early volunteer in the French Revolutionary Army,” “the general
of the 32nd division personally responsible liberating the Jewish
communities of Northern Italy” and after the Battle of Mantua, “the commander
of the Roman territories and Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army.”
1758: Birthdate of future French Revolutionary
Maximilien Robespierre. During the Reign
of Terror in 1793 and 1794, Robespierre did close synagogues and allow Jewish
religious property to be vandalized.
However, this was not because he was an anti-Semite. Robespierre sought to stamp out all religions
and the churches were subjected to the same treatment as the shuls. In the early days of the revolution
Robespierre spoke eloquently on behalf of equal rights for the Jews. If Jews behaved “badly” it was the fault of
Christianity and the Christians who had treated them in a based manner for
centuries. The salvation of the Jews (as
opposed to Judaism) lay in granting them the full rights of citizenship.
1771:
Birthdate of Fanny Judah, the daughter of Samuel Judah.
1786:
At Frankfurt am Main, Jakob Baruch and his wife gave birth to German author and
“rebel” Karl Ludwig Börne who would be immortalized by a group of German
revolutionaries who named their new home in the Texas Hill Country “Borne” in
his honor
1787:
At Prostějov, Moravia, Rabbi Moses Sofer married Sarah, the daughter of the
deceased rabbi of Prostějov, Rabbi Moses Jerwitz who had passed away in 1785.
Sofer joined the Chevra Kadisha and served as head of the town’s yeshiva.
1788:
Today, Anglo-Jewish boxer Daniel Mendoza lost the first of three scheduled
fights with Richard Humphries but went to win the next two which led to a
popularity so great that in July of 1789, the London papers gave more cover to
Mendoza’s fight with Humphries “than they did to the storming of the Bastille”
in Paris.
1789:
Today, in his third bout against Humphries on in Stilton, Huntingdonshire, Jewish
boxer Daniel Mendoza ‘dominated and won on a foul in the 65th round when
Humphries was believed to have dropped to the ground without being hit” in a
bout fought in a specially built arena designed to hold three thousand fans.
1789:
Levi Sheftall, leader of the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia wrote to
the newly elected President of the United States, George Washington expressing
the fact that the members of the congregation were grateful for his “unexampled
liberality and extensive philanthropy which have expelled that cloud of bigotry
and superstition what has long, as a veil shaded religion.” Furthermore, the nation’s new constitution
“enfranchised American Jewry with all the privileges and immunities of free
citizens and initiated us into the grand mass of legislative mechanism.” While many know of the famous letter to the
Jews of Newport, the Savannah congregation was actually the first to write to
Washington following his election to the Presidency.
1792(14th
of Iyar, 5552): Pesach Sheni is observed on the same day that President George
Washington wrote to Thomas Paine thanking the author for sending him fifty
copies of the “Rights of Man.”
1803:
In Darmstadt, Schiele and David Kahn Germany gave birth to Bina Kahn who became
Bina Oppenheimer after marrying Lob Oppenheimer.
1804:
In The Hague, Branca Brendel Bernisse married Hirschel Kann.
1806(18th
of Iyar, 5566): Lag B’Omer
1896:Solomon
and Rachel Gratz Etting gave birth to Bernard Etting.
1806:
Angel Jones married Nancy Michel today at the Great Synagogue
1811:
In Poland, Pinkus Landau, the Silesian born son of Wolf and Estera Landau, and
his wife Rozla Landau gave birth to Icek Landau.
1818:
In Posen, Talmudic scholar Aaron Jacob Kaempf and his was wife gave birth to
Saul Isaac Kaempf the philologist who served as the rabbi at the Temple
Congregation in Prague from 1846 to 1890.
1818:
Mordecai Manuel Noah sent a copy of the Consecration Address he had delivered
at Shearith Israel and a letter in which he described the impact of his having
been removed from a diplomatic post because of his religion. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/loc/noah.html
1824: One day after he had passed away, 62 year old Moses
Polack was today buried at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1825(18th
of Iyar, 5585): Lag B’Omer
1830:
Birthdate of Abraham Jacobi “a pioneer of pediatrics” who opened “the first
children’s clinic in the United States and was the first foreign born president
of the American Medical Association.
1831:
Birthdate of Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky the Lithuanian born Jew who
would eventually become the Anglican Bishop of Shanghai.
1835(7th
of Iyar, 5595): Italian born Rabbi, Moses Shabbethai Beer, a native of Pesaro
passed away in Rome.
1835:
James Gordon Bennett, Sr. published the first edition of the New York Herald which became the New York Herald Tribune in 1924 one of the
nation’s most influential newspapers. Bennett owes his early success in
journalism in part to Jewish leader Mordechai M. Noah who hired him as a
reporter for the New York based publication the Enquirer. Noah agreed to
Bennett’s proposal for writing a column from Washington, DC, thus making him
the first columnist from a New York paper to cover the Nation’s Capital. This
experience was on of the elements tt led to Bennett’s success as a publisher in
his own right. Ruth Gruber who dedicated herself to saving Jews from the
Holocaust began her journalism career as a reporter with the Herald-Tribune in
1932. Two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Herald Tribune warned of the dangers of the Nazis, stating “the
Jews are merely the first to suffer under Hitlerism.”
1838(11th
of Iyar, 5598): Rabbi Samuel Judah Leib ben David Kauder, author of Olat Shmuel passed away today in Prague.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/kauders.html
1839:
Birthdate of , William Durst, the Austrian born “coal heaver” was serving
aboard the U.S.S Monitor when it scored a strategic victory over the C.S.S.
Merrimack in one of the most important naval engagements in the 19th century
and who was buried at the Mt. Carmel Jewish Cemetery in Philadelphia when he
passed away in 1916.
1841:
Birthdate of Enoch Heinrich Kisch, the native of Prague who became and M.D. in
1862 and an assistant professor at the Prague University in 1884.
1842(26th
of Iyar, 5602): Isaac Spitz who was the son-in-law of Eleazar Fleckeles and
grandfather of the poet Moritz Hartmann and had been the rabbi at Jung-Bunzlau
since 1824 passed away today.
1844:
At a time when Jews were worshipping at Congregation Mikveh Israel, The Philadelphia Nativist riots, led by some groups
of “Protestants and native-born Americans” began today in response the growing
number of Catholic immigrants settling in “the City of Brotherly Love.’
1848:
Birthdate of German Protestant theologian Herman L. Strack who “was the foremost Christian authority in
Germany on Talmudic and rabbinic literature who was a leading champion of the
Jews when the modern anti-Semitism began in Germany during the second half of
the 19th century.
1848:
Today “in the sixth number” of “journal called “Oesterreichisches
Central-Organ
für Glaubensfreiheit, Cultur, Geschichte und Literatur der Juden” published “Auf
Nach Amerika” “written by Leopold Kompert, the Ghetto novelist, who agitated in
favor of a
migration
to America so that the Jews of Austria-Hungary might there acquire true
political freedom.
1849(14th
of Iyar, 5609): Pesach Sheni
1849:
Birthdate of Louis Selibsgerg, the Bavaria born son of Nathan Seligsberg and
Rosin Rothschild and husband of Lillie Wolff who was a member of the Board of
Managers of the Coffee Exchange and Director of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian
Social.
1852:
After a personal plea from Pope Pius IX, Grand Duke of Tuscany Leopold II
abolishes his own statute of 1848 eliminating all discrimination against the
Jews. At the beginning of his papacy, Pius had shown a positive disposition
towards the Jews. He abolished laws that
forbade Jews to practice certain professions and that required Jews to listen
to sermons of conversion four times a year. All of that changed following the
Revolutions of 1848 when he became frightened by the rising tide of democracy,
nationalism and secularism.
1853:
In Marylebone, David Jacob de Stern, Viscount de Stern, “a German-born British
banker and senior partner of the firm of Stern Brothers” and his Sophia
Goldsmid, the daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid gave birth to Alice Theresa
Stern, who became Alice Lucas when in 1887 she married Colonel Francis Alfred
Lucas whose death in 1918 during the flu epidemic led to her being the first
woman to stand for a seat in the House of Common from the Conservative Party.
1853:
In an article published today, The New York Times correspondent in London,
wonders if the members of the House of Lords will be affected by the recent
passage of the bill removing Jewish disabilities that was passed by the House
of Commons. The correspondent thinks that when the bill comes before the Lords
for “the dozenth time,” they will not be “converted” to “popular view as to the
propriety of admitting Jews to the Legislature.”
1854:
In Ohio, Nathan Ecke, the German born son of Isaac Becker and Philippine
Liebenstein and his wife Henrietta Jette
Becker gave birth to Rahel Schaffner, the wife of Hemann Schaffner and the mother
of Robert C. Schaffner.
1855(18th
of Iyar, 5615): Lag B’Omer
1856(1st
of Iyar, 5616): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1856:
Birthdate of Dr. Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis. Born Sigismund
Schlomo Freud in Freiberg, in what is now part of the Czech Republic. He
abbreviated his name from Sigismund Schlomo Freud to Sigmund Freud
in1877. Little is known about Freud’s early life since he reportedly
twice destroyed his personal papers. This brief summary is no place to
discuss his treatment of the mentally or the development
of psychoanalysis. In 1938 following the Anschluss of Austria,
Freud escaped with his family to England where he died a
year later. Freud was a smoker of Churchill-style cigars
for most of his life; even after having his cancerous jaw removed, he continued
to smoke until his death. It is said that he would smoke an entire box of
cigars daily.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sigmund-freud
1858:According
to published reports, the property of the late Rachel Felix, the Jewish actress
and mistress of Alexandre Joseph Count Colonna-Walewski, the French Minister of
Foreign Affairs, has been put up for public sale. The Count and Mademoiselle had a son whom the
count publicly legitimatized which means that there is “Jewish blood” in the
House of Bonaparte.
1860(14th
of Iyar, 5620): Pesach Sheni
1860:
Society for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Jews, an organization
dedicated to converting Jews held its annual meeting at a Dutch Reform Church
in New York City during which the group reported that it had visited 1,382
(presumably Jewish) families.
1860:
The New York Times reported today that a “a brisk argument has sprung up over
the questions of whether Pious IX is or is not the descendant of a Jew.” The
pope is a member of the Mastia family which got its title of nobility from a
lady of “high rank” named Ferretti who had married a “baptized Jew named
Mastai. Supposedly “the Marquis
Consolina published a genealogical pamphlet proving this” twenty-four years
ago. The pamphlet was burned but the
claims have never been refuted.
1861: Colonel Ripley, the U.S. Army Chief of Ordinance,
forwarded Major Mordecai’s letter of resignation to Adjutant General.
1861:Dr.David
Camden De Leon known as the “Fighting Doctor,” was appointed as first
surgeon general of the Confederate Army. Born in South Carolina in 1822,
De Leon received his medical training at the University of Pennsylvania.
Following graduation, he joined the United States Army where he served with
distinction during the Mexican War. In 1861, he resigned his commission
and joined the Confederates. After the war, he moved to Santa Fe, New
Mexico where he practiced medicine until his death in 1872. His Union
counterpart was Dr. Jonathan Horowitz.
1863: At the battle of Chancellorsville, having marched from
the west bank of the Rappahannock River under fire and crossed at United States
Ford, Captain Charles E. Etting reached he front at 1 o’clock A.M., on
May 5 and there remained until withdrawn today.
1863: The Battle of Chancellorsville comes to an
end. During the battle, Lt. Col. Edward Solomon led the forces of the
82nd Illinois which contained an all Jewish company from Chicago. Solomon
would become one of the highest ranking Jewish officers to serve with Union
Army, ultimately rising to the rank of General. Sergeant Henry Hiller fought
with such distinction during the battle that earned the Congressional Medal of
Honr. Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman and Captain
Joseph B. Greenhut, who almost lost his arm as a result of wounds sustained at
Fort Donelson, were among the Jewish soldiers who fought with distinction on
that Virginia battlefield where the bravery of the Union troops was not matched
by the brains of the Union generals.
1863: At the Battle of Chancellorsville, the 59th
New York Volunteer Regiment which had recruited by Philip J. Joachimsen who
served as a Lt. Colonel, supported General Sedgwick’s line at Mayre’s Heights.
1863: Bernhard Henry Gotthelf, the rabbi of Adath Israel
Congregation of Louisville, received his appointment as a chaplain.
1864: During the Battle of the Wilderness, Sergeant-Major
Abraham Cohn rallied and formed, under heavy fire, disorganized and fleeing
troops of different regiments” thus enabling the Union Army to continue its
advance. This was one of the two heroic
deeds which would win him the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1864:
Leopold Karpeles Karpeles, a flag-bearer serving in the U.S. Army rallied
retreating Union troops, inducing them to check the enemy’s advance while under
heavy during the Battle of the Wilderness. Born in Prague in 1838, Karpeles
moved to Texas. When war broke out and Texas seceded, the young Jewish
immigrant did not identify with the slave-holding Southerners and he joined the
Union Army. He received a Congressional
Medal of Honor for his bravery during the Battle of the Wilderness, which was
the first battle in an eleven-month campaign which would result in the demise
of the Confederacy.
1866:
In Vilna, Mary Katz and Yeruchim Maryson gave birth to NYU trained “author and
physician” Jacob A. Maryson and the husband of fellow physician Katherine Evseroff
who in 1887 had come to the United
States where he first worked in a shirt factory and “taught English to
foreigners” and was a member of “The Pioneers of Liberty (Pionire der Frayhayt)
the first Jewish anarchist organization in the United States.”
the
Congress for Jewish Culture
1866:
Birthdate of Wilna native David Blaustein, the Prussian trained rabbi who in
1866 came to the United States where he first opened a private school in Boston
and then went on to aiding immigrant Jews as a leader of the Educational
Alliance in New York City.
http://www.milsteinjewisharchives.yivo.org/site/upload/The%20Educational%20Alliance-Libo%20essay.pdf
1868(14th
of Iyar, 5628): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time during the Presidency
of Andrew Johnson.
1869:
In Paris, Elie “Alexandre” Lazard, the
son
of Elie ben Abraham Lazard and Esther Cahn – Lazard and his wife Marie Lazard
gave birth to Holocaust victim Robert Goudchaux Lazard, the husband of
Charlotte “Marthe” Lazard and Suzanne Simone Lazard and father of
Jacques Michel Lazard.
1870:
It was reported today that the rumors about the possibility of Pope Pius IX
being of Jewish descent have resurfaced. According to the report “many early
Christians were themselves Jews and we should hardly supposed that His Holiness
would be particularly annoyed if it were proved that he was of the same race as
the Founder of Christianity.” A pamphlet published 24 years ago by the Marquis
Consolini claims that Matasi family of which the Pope is a member gained its
rank through marriage to a baptized Jew of that name. The pamphlet was burned but it was never
refuted.
1871:
In St. Louis, Mary Cuno and Joseph Taussig gave birth to Harvard graduate and
Washington University trained doctor Albert Ernst Taussig, the husband of Harriet
Palmer who was a professor of physiology and clinical medicine at Washington University
and a staff physician at the Jewish Hospital.
1871:
German born conductor Leopold Damrosch began his career in the United States
with an appearance at Steinway Hall where he was both a featured violinist and
orchestra conductor.
1873(9th
of Iyar, 5633): Montrose J. Moses, the six-year-old son Columbus, GA born son
of Dr. Montefiore Moses and Rosetta Moses passed away today in New York City.
1874:In
Lithuania, David-Shlomo and Zipa Epstein gave birth to Chaim Fishel Epstein, the husband of Ethel
Neuwidel who served as Chief Rabbi, St. Louis, Missouri for the Vaad Hoeir of
the United Orthodox Community for 12 years, from 1930 to 1942.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_06019.html
1874:
Philadelphia native Myer Asch, a Colonel of United States Volunteers during the
Civil War, became a member of the Loyal Legion of the United States today.
1875:
In a ceremony that some would say was as much a merger as it was a marriage,
Jacob Schiff married There Loeb, daughter of Solomon Loeb. Ten years later, in 1885, Schiff became head
of Kuhn, Loeb & Company.
1878:
In Hohokus Township, NJ. Anglo-Jewish author Benjamin Farejon and his wife
Margaret gave birth to British composer Harry Farjeon
1878:
Birthdate of Henry G. Schackno, the native of the Bronx who became a successful
lawyer and served as a New York state senator and judge.
1878:
“The Jews of Roumania” published today described the plight of the Jews of that
country based on information provided by the correspondent for the Pall Mall
Gazette. Juries in Roumania “have acquitted the rioters who wrecked Jewish
houses, who beats Jews and insulted their wives and daughters. They have found a Rabbi and other innocent
men guilty of stealing a pyx.” (Note – A pyx is a vessel that contains the
Eucharist. In other words, this has to
do with charges related to Host Desecration.)
‘ “The pyx was really stolen by” a man named “Silver, a converted Jew”
who was a deserter from the Russian Army.
Silber provided three different versions of the theft. First he claimed the Jewish tailor he worked
for was his accomplice. Then he claimed
the “President of the Jewish Congregation” was his accomplice. Finally, he exonerated the Jews and claimed
that he had done it on his own. The
acquittal of the rioters is sure to provide encouragement to those who would
repeat this behavior at the upcoming Passover and Easter seasons, which “have
always been dangerous for the Jews in the uncivilized parts of Christendom.”
1884:
Seventy-year-old Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, a Jew who became a Jesuit
missionary and worked to convert to Jews passed away in Jerusalem.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12659a.htm
1884(11th
of Iyar, 5644): Seventy-two-year-old Judah P. Benjamin passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Benjamin.html
1886:
Sir Marcus Samuel, the Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of London and Justice of
the Peace for Kent and his wife Fanny Elizabeth Samuel, the oldest daughter of
Benjamin gave birth to their third child and second son “Gerald George Samuel”
who attended Eton.
1887:
Birthdate of Berlin native and painter Adolf Hauptmann, not to be confused with
Polish native who in 1890 came to New York City where he was a successful
importer and a director of the Downtown Talmud Torah.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/paul-adolf-hauptmann-1887-194-7402-c-afd443bb48
1887:
Birthday of New York City native and NYU trained attorney David L. Cohn who
should not be confused with the Mississippi author of the same name before in
1894.
https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/david-l-cohn/
1888:
In Brooklyn, Josephine (née Müller) and Henry H. Celler gave birth to
Representative Emmanuel “Manny” Celler. In an era when
Jews are elected to both houses of Congress from both parties from all over the
country, it is hard to remember that there was a time when Jewish Congressmen
were a rare breed and a U.S. Senator could refer to one as “a Kike”
on the floor of the Senate. Born in Brooklyn, Celler was an orphan by the
time he finished high school and began attending Columbia. He worked his
way through school and graduated from Columbia Law with honors in 1912. A
large part of his early legal career was spent dealing with immigration issues,
a topic which would become a life-long passion. He was elected to the
House of Representatives where he served for 49 years and ten months, the
second longest record of service in history. Cellar became Chairman of
the House Judiciary Committee where he championed equitable immigration laws
and the cause of Civil Rights. He passed away in 1981.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=c000264
1889(5th
of Iyar, 5649): Seventy-four-year Chaim Zebi Lerner, the native of Dubno whose
“reputation among Hebrew grammarians was founded on his More ha-Lashon” first
published in 1859 passed away today.
1890:
Birthdate of Fritz Anselm Arnheim who was transported from Terezin to Auschwitz
where he was murdered.
1890:
It was reported today that the Marquis de Mores, the rabid anti-Semite who
blamed his business failures on a Jewish Plot, was one of the few colorful
figures to surface in the current round of French elections.
1890(16th
of Iyar, 5650): Sixty-nine-year-old Isidor Binswanger passed away. A native of Bavaria, he moved to the United
States where he enjoyed commercial success in the dry goods business. He lived in several towns and cities in
Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, including Richmond. But he is most frequently identified with
Philadelphia, where he played a leading role in developing Jewish educational,
charitable and cultural institutions.
1892:
In Goldsboro, NC, Rabbi Julius Lewis Mayerberg and Rachel Mayerberg gave birth
to Rabbi Samuel S. Mayerberg who battled corruption in Kansas City, MO, and led
Temple B’nai Jehudah “for 32 years.
1892: In
Hungary, “Jakab Ábrahám, merchant and banker from Apatin, and Flóra Blau gave
birth to Pál Ábrahám who gained fame as conductor and composer Paul Abraham who
found sanctuary in Cuba after the rise of the Nazis before coming to the United
States where he ended up being hospitalized after suffering “a mental
breakdown.”
1894:
For the fiscal year ending today, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews had “a
clear balance on hand of $22, 675.79 which it is using to care for 163
residents who have an average age of 72.
1894:
The Young Men’s Hebrew Association will hold its annual election between 2 and
4 pm at 721 Lexington Avenue.
1894:
“Jews and Christians” published today provides a review of A Fair Jewess
by B. L. Farjeon
1894:
“The Obituary Record” published today described the life of the late Leopold
Sacher-Masoch who, among other things was the author of several works including
Jews and Russians. “He faithfully described the manners of the Polish Jews, but
he feared that his affection for them might the impression that he was an
Israelite…”
1895:
It was reported today that “Russia’s tender regard for those principles on
which rests the concert of civilized nations and her agonized fear lest Japan
by violating them should imperil the progress of civilization in the East,
almost make one forget …her more recent treatment of the Jews.”
1895:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native and Wharton graduate Charles Kamsler who
served with the military in World War I.
1897:
Twenty-eight year old Augustus Koopman, painter and etcher, the Charlotte born
son Bernard and Johanna Koopman. married
Louise Lovett Osgood of Cohasset, MA today.
1898(14th
of Iyar, 5658): Pesach Sheni
1898(14th
of Iyar, 5658): Eighty-year-old Swedish businessman and patron of the arts
August Abrahamson passed away today.
1898:
In Kiev Marie Ettinger and Abraham Horenstein gave birth to conductor Jascha
Horenstein who conducted symphony orchestras in Vienna and Berlin before being
forced to flee to the United States where he was able to continue his career.
1898:
Today, “The Hungarian Academy of Science elected” Jewish Hungarian “mathematician
and physicist” “corresponding member.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6027-farkas-gyula-julius
1899:
A children’s service is scheduled to be held this afternoon at the Hebrew
Institute in memory of the late Baroness Hirsch.
1899:
“Oliver Cromwell” is “the subject of” this morning’s sermon by Dr. M.H. Harris
this morning at Temple Israel in Harlem
1899:
It was reported today that Dr. Felix Adler will be delivering a talk entitled
“More Light” at the Music Hall tomorrow.
1899:
It was reported that Rabbi Samuel Schulman will be delivering a sermon on
“Youth” at the next and final Sunday morning service be held at Temple Beth-El.
1899:
“Notes and News” published today described plans by F. Tennyson Neely to
publish Justice to the Jews: The Story of What He Has Done for the World
by Reverend Madison C. Peters which “is said to be the first instance in modern
times that a Christian author has treated the subject in such an elaborate and
comprehensive way.”
1899:
“Church Notes” published today described plans for the Bloomingdale Church on
Broadway to host a series of “three lectures on ‘What Christendom Owes to the
Jew.’”
1899:
“Plans to Better Jewish Conditions in Tenement Districts” published today
described the work of the New York Jewish Union which was formed a year ago by
“some influential Jewish people…for the permanent improvement of the Jewish
population west of Eighth Avenue and between Thirtieth and Fiftieth Stress, and
east of the Bower, below Ninth Street.
1900:
Birthdate of Russian native and NYU trained cardiologist Harry Halprin, who in
1910 came to the U.S. where graduated from CCNY and Columbia.
1900:
Birthdate of Lower East Side native, WW I veteran and Brooklyn Law School
trained attorney Bernard Botein, the New York Court of Appeals Judge who
was the husband of Marian Berman Botein and the father of Michael Botein,
1901:
“Young Men’s Hebrew Society” published today describe the meeting of The Young
Men’s Hebrew Association where the following new Directors were elected: Meyer
Auberbach, Lawrence W. Mack, Levi Hirschfield, Percival S. Menken, Isidor Kahn,
Dr. Louis Rosenthal and Falk Younker.
1902:
Lionel Walter Rothschild, Member of Parliament, and eldest son of Lord
Rothschild is reported to suffering from a serious bout of pneumonia.
1902:
“In the shtetl Mikulintsy, Ukraine, then part of Austria-Hungary,” Leib
Goldhirsch and his wife gave birth to Herschel Goldhirsch, the ex-con who
gained fame as journalist and humor writer Harry Golden, the publisher of The Carolina Israelite and the author of
two best sellers, 2¢ Plain and Only in America.
1902:
Birthdate of writer and director Max Ophüls.
Born Max Oppenheimer, he changed his last name when he went from being a
journalist to a life as an actor and director.
He did not want to embarrass his father with his choice of
professions. “Letters From an Unknown Woman” is one of his better known efforts.
1903:
According to today’s report from the St. Petersburg correspondent of The Times,
the chief responsibility for the anit-Semitic outbreak at Kishineff rests with
the local newspaper, the Bessarabyetz, although it partly falls on the Novoe
Vremya and other newspapers which have so much to promote anti-Semitism among a
people which naturally the most tolerant in the world.”
1903:
“Anti-Semitism In Russia” published today described how “the Russian law
imposing all kinds of restrictions on the Jews…makes people regard them as
pariahs, almost outlaws, and therefore have some influence in causing such
outbreaks.
1904:
In Boston, MA,
Sarah (née Klayman), who was born in Russia, and
Charles Einstein, a pawnbroker from Austria gave birth to comedian Harry
Einstein who was the father to two other comedians – Albert Brooks and Bob
Einstein.
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cCxQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=HVYDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6968,2437293&dq
1904:
In Wandsworth, London, Marguerite (née Duvivier) and Frederick Mallowan gave
birth to archeologist Max Mallowan who worked several sites in Mesopotamia
including Ur, reputed to be the Biblical home of Abraham.
1904:
Birthdate of the multi-talented Moshe Feldenkrais, founder of the Feldenkrais
method. He
was an Israeli physicist and judo practitioner of Eastern European descent.
Among his many published books was “Awareness Through Movement” where he
presented a view that good health is a matter of positive functioning. Although
many don’t consider this a radical idea, it is in opposition to the standard
medical definition of health that states good
health is an absence of illness.
Feldenkrais asserted his method of bodywork exploration resulted in better
functioning bodies and minds and created healthier
people. He was more interested in the goal of holistic functioning rather than
merely physical treatment “The Feldenkrais
Method is an educational system intended to give individuals a greater
functional awareness of the self. The method uses body movement as the primary
vehicle for learning in the human organism. It is perhaps due to this focus on
body movements that the Feldenkrais Method is often classified as a
complementary and alternative medicine. People interested in the Feldenkrais
Method are predominantly individuals who either want to improve their movement
repertoire (as dancers, musicians, artists), individuals who want to reduce
their pain or limitations in movement, or individuals who want to use the
method as a way to improve their well-being and personal development. Advocates
claim the Feldenkrais Method is a very successful approach in cases of movement
related pain (e.g. pain in backs, knees, hips, shoulders), and learning better
functioning in cases of stroke or cerebral palsy. A central tenet of the method
is that improving ability to move can improve one’s overall well-being; and
practitioners of the Method generally refrain from referring to conceptions of
illness, diagnosis or therapy.”
1904:
Herzl writes to David Wolffsohn. His letter ends with the words: “Don’t do
anything foolish while I am dead” – “Machet keine Dummheiten, während
ich tot bin.” “Die Welt” informs the public that Herzl has to
take a longer holiday for health reasons.
1905(1st
of Iyar, 5665): Parashat Kedoshim; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1905:
Birthdate of New York restaurateur and saloon-keeper to the stars, Bernard
“Toots” Shor.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/dimaggio-bernard-toots-shor/
1905:
“The May New Era” published today reported that in The New Era Magazine
for May, Max writes on “Schiller and the
Jews,” H.P Mendes writes on “The Sesquicentennial of the Jews of New York,” Max
J. Kohler write about “Lorenzo da Pointe,” Dr. A.S. Isaacs writes about “The
Rip van Winkle of the Talmud” and George A. Kohut writes on “Jefferson and the
Jews.”
1905:
Birthdate of French auto racer Rene Dreyfus.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/19/obituaries/rene-dreyfus-auto-racer-88.html
1906:
Birthdate of Romanian-born French film producer Émile Natan, “the brother of
Bernard Natan, the head of Pathé-Natan.”
1906:
In Paris, Salomea “Selma” Reinherz and Dr. Bernard Bernhard Weil gave birth to
mathematician André Abraham Weil.
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Weil.html
1907:
In Pisa, Italy, Umberto and Linda Cassuto Abenaim gave birth to Wanda Abenaim,
the wife of Rabbi Riccardo Reuven Pacifici who would be murdered at Auschwitz
in December of 1943.
1908:
Irving Randolph Saal ,the Petersburg, VA born son of Rachel Rosenbaum and Moses
Randolph Saal and Tulane University trained attorney married Gertrude Goldsmith
today in New Orleans.
1908:
Madeline Phillips Rubenstein gave birth to Janice Rubenstein Sachese, the wife
of L.S.U. trained attorney Victor Alphones Saches, the mother attorney and
Korean War Veteran Victor Alphonse Sachse III and the sister of Doris
Rubenstein Kantrow.
1909:
Three days after he had passed away, 97-year-old David Woolf Marks, the son of
merchant Woolf Marks and Polly Isaacs, the husband of Cecilia Sarah Wolf with
whom he had had 12 children and longtime rabbi of the West London Synagogue
which was considered to be the first “liberal” or “reform” congregation in the
UK was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1910:
Today, New York City Police Commissioner William F. Baker contacted Klaw and Erlanger,
the Jewish theatrical agents and threatened to close down their theatre if they
would not halt performances of “The Girl with the Whooping Cough,” “a risqué farce
that the Mayor of New Yor had condemned as indecent.”
1910:
Birthdate of Jeremy Noah Morris “a British epidemiologist whose comparison of
heart-attack rates among double-decker bus drivers and conductors in London in
the late 1940s and early ’50s laid the scientific groundwork for the modern
aerobics movement.” He was born in Liverpool into a family of Jewish immigrants
who had fled pogroms in eastern Poland. His father, Nathan, was a Hebrew
scholar. After arriving in England, the family took the last name of the
captain of the ship that had brought them to Liverpool. Jeremy was born within
weeks of the arrival. The family then moved to Glasgow. Jeremy
began to exercise early in childhood. His father would take him on four-mile
walks, then reward him with ice cream.”
1910: George V becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his
father, Edward VII. English Jews were probably very sad to hear of the death of
Edward since he had made numerous Jewish friends when he was Prince of Wales,
including Nathaniel Rothschild. He
maintained these friendships once he came to the throne. King George was the
reigning monarch when Lord Balfour sent his famous letter known as the Balfour
Declaration. King George Street רחוב המלך ג’ורג) is a street in central Jerusalem, Israel was named for
King George V. The naming was done to
mark the anniversary of the issuing of the Balfour Declaration.
1911(8th of Iyar, 5761): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim
1911: Nineteen Esther Friedman, a braidworker whose father was killed three
months by a trolley car and whose “mother has been dead for eight months” said
she was “tired of trying live” as can be seen from today’s two failed at
attempts at suicide – first by trying to be run over by a streetcar and second
by swallowing “three tablets of bio chloride of mercury.
1912: The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Lord Roberts, Lord Cromer and
Arthur James Balfour, the Speaker of the House of Commons were among the
“prominent statesmen, clergymen and scientists” who signed a protest against an
attempt being made in Kiev to turn the death of Andrei Yushchinsky into a case
of ritual murder.
1913: Samuel Gompers and Henry Moskowitz were among the delegates attending
today’s Convention of International Association of Factory Inspectors in
Chicago, Illinois.
1913: Abram Elkus was appointed to serve as a delegate to the convention of
the International Association of Factory Inspectors to be held in Chicago,
Illinois.
1913: Following his appointment by the governor, New Yorker Alexander
Rosenthal attended the convention of the International Association of Factory
Inspectors meeting today in Chicago, Illinois.
1914: In Cleveland, OH, “Harry Fleishman Affelder and Rhoda Affelder” gave
birth to Lewis Jacob Affelder, the husband of “Ruth Steinbach Affelder.”
1914: Birthdate of Irving J. Shulman, the Russian Jewish immigrant
“who founded the Daffy’s clothing store chain and brought discount fashion to
Fifth Avenue through quirky marketing and a promise of “clothing bargains for
millionaires..” (As reported by Christine Hauser)
1915: In
Dorchester, MA, attorney David White and his wife gave birth to Theodore
White who attended Harvard where he discovered the language and
culture of China. This led to an exciting stint as the
Time-Life correspondent in China during World War II. White
lost his job because Henry Luce, the publisher supported
the Nationalist forces and White insisted on reporting the facts i.e.
the strength of the Communists and the corruption of the Nationalists. He
also risked his life to photograph the famine that racked China – a horror that
nobody wanted to come to grips with. White became a best-selling author
with the publication of the Pulitzer Prize winning political science
tome, Making of the President. The book provided a unique,
behind the scenes look at the Presidential campaign of 1960. It was the
first in a series of these books that White wrote every four years. It
also established a whole new genre of political writing.
“Teddy” White, as he was known, passed away in May, 1986
1915: At a
dinner honoring Robert F. Wagner, the New York state senate minority leader,
Abraham Elkus said “that it was a high compliment that such a demonstration
should be made so long after Wagner had begun his services in the Senate’ since
“usually dinners had to be given soon after the honored one’s election.
1915: H.A.
Alexander, Leo Frank’s attorney came to the courthouse in Atlanta today to
“obtain the record of the extraordinary motion for a new trial for Frank”
indicating “that some of the evidence introduced at the hearing might be used
before the prison commission.”
1915: During
the Gallipoli Campaign, French, British, Australian and New Zealander troops
began their assault at Helles where the Zion Mule Corps had landed the week
before.
1916: John
Wallace Riddle, who reportedly had been named Ambassador to Russia by President
Roosevelt because “of his skillful handling of the presentation of the petition
of the Jews of the United States to the Russian Foreign Office in regard to
the” pogrom at Kishinev was married today.
1916: In
Sheffield, UK, Harry and Gertrude Blake gave birth to Leonard Blake, the
husband of Gabrielle Blake.
1916: At the
request of local authorities, a meeting to mark the one year anniversary of the
sinking of the Lusitania whose victims included Edgar Gorer and Charles Frohman
was called off today.
1917: Pope
Benedict XV met with Nahum Soklov “who had come to Rome to gain support for the
plan of a Jewish state in Palestine” for 45 minutes which was an unusually
lengthy Papal audience.
1917: “A
quarter of a million dollars was raised for Jewish war sufferers” tonight “at
the Hippodrome where Josef Rosenblatt, the Russian cantor gave his first
concert in New York under the auspices of the Central Committee for the Relief
of Jews Suffering the War.”
1917: In St.
Louis, a mass meeting attended by 20,000 people honoring the visiting members
of France’s War Mission, come to a “dramatic climax when Rabbi Bernstein of St.
Joseph declared in his speech: ‘I am thankful that the time has come when I and
my brothers as Jews may enter this war, even as an ally of Russia.’”
1917: In New
York City, the Jewish Morning Journal received a cable from Viscount James
Bryce, the former British Ambassador to the United States” announcing “himself
as being strongly in favor of the establishment of a Jewish nation in
Palestine.”
1918: It was
announced today that Felix Warburg had resigned as a member of the Advisory
Board of the United States Junior Naval Reserve, an organization which
advertises itself as an organization dedicated to the training of American boys
for sea service.
1919: In
Roswell, NM, “Solomon Tarlow” and “Audra Gertrude Canatsey Brown” gave birth to
Mildred Elizabeth Tarlow who became Mildred Wooldridge when she married Walter
Olan Woolridge.
1919: In
Chicago, the Temple Judea Woman’s Club is scheduled to meet this afternoon at
the Community Center.
1919: The 10th
annual exhibition of the Athletic Department of the Chicago Hebrew Institute
which showcased the skills of “over 100 boys” who have returned from military
service, continued for second day
1920(18th
of Iyar, 5680): Lag B’Omer observed for the last time during the Presidency of
Woodrow Wilson.
1920 “A new
play, “Naomi,” by a new playwright, Mark Arnstein, and introducing a
new star, Henrietta Schnitzer, was presented tonight at the Jewish Art Theatre,
as the last of the season’s new offerings.”
1921: In Palestine, riots
that began on May 1 come to an end according to official reports. Outbreaks of
Arab riots had taken place in Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and various Jewish settlements.
Writer Yosef Chaim Brenner was among the victims in Jaffa. A total of 47 Jews
(45 alone in a hostel for new immigrants in Jaffa) and 48 Arabs were killed in
the disturbances. The wounded numbered 146 Jews and 73 Arabs. The government
appointed a commission of inquiry, headed by Chief Justice of Palestine Sir W.
Haycraft to investigate the causes of the riots.
1922(8th
of Iyar, 5682): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim
1922: Rabbi
Joseph Stoltz conducted Shabbat morning services to at Isaiah Temple in
Chicago.
1923: In New
Canaan, CT, clothing store owner Morris Yudain and the former Berta Jaffa gave
birth to Sidney Lawrence Yudain, “who created what he called a community
newspaper — Roll Call — for what he
called “the most important community in the world, probably” — Congress.” (As
reported Bruce Weber)
1923: The 31st
annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to come
to an end today in Washington, DC.
1924: Dr.
Chaim Weismann, President of the World Zionist Organization issued a statement
today saying “that the Jewish homeland movement had made great strides in
American in recent months and had enlisted the interest of influential American
Jews who can speed up the rebuilding of Palestine to an precedented pace.”
1925:
Birthdate of Chicago native Lois Porges who gained fame as Lois Weisberg the
wife of Leonard Solomon and then Judge Bernard Weisberg who served as the first Commissioner of Cultural Affairs
for the City of Chicago while raising four children – Jerilyn, Kiki, Jacob and
Joseph.
1926:
Birthdate of Heinrich Theodor Hirsch, the native of Berlin who escaped to
England in 1938 with the Kindertansport where he developed the talent that made
him the actor David Hurst.
1926:
Birthdate of Martin Terry Fuss, the native of Cleveland, Ohio, who gained fame
as “matinee idol” and movie producer Ross Hunter whose film credits included
“Pillow Talk,” “Magnificent Obsession” and “Back Street.”
1927: In Los
Angeles, first screening of “7th Heaven” a silent film with a
screenplay by Irish born Jew Benjamin Glazer and produced by William Fox.
1928:
Birthdate of Montreal native Moses “Moe” Laufer “a pioneer of adolescent
psychoanalysis and the founder of one of the long-standing institutions for
young people in England, the Brent Centre for Young People, in north-west
London.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/nov/15/obituaries.guardianobituaries
1928: The 92nd
Street Y.M.H.A. soccer team defeated the Hebrew Americans 4 to 1 in the final
game of the third division of the Empire State League at Starlight Park.
1929: Mrs.
Nathan Straus was the toastmistress of today’s annual meeting and luncheon of
the New York section of the National Council Jewish Women where “Mayor Jimmy
Walker declared that most of the benevolent acts performed in this city came
from groups of Jewish women and Jewish men.”
1930:
Birthdate of Mordechai “Motta” Gur the Jerusalem native who rose to
the rank of Lt. General in the IDF and became the 10th Chief of Staff of the
IDF.
1931: “Albert
Ottinger, chairman of the New York Campaign for Relief of Jews in Europe, which
is conducting a $1,000,000 drive, announced today the receipt of a $50,000
contribution from Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee.”
1932: This
morning, Dr. Jonah B. Wise, the rabbi at Central Synagogue in Manhattan is
scheduled to officiate at the funeral service for sixty-five year old Lee
Kamioner, the native of Germany, Colorado silver miner and Denver clothing
merchant and Democratic Alderman who at the age of thirty came to New York
where he founded the Hub Clothing Company, became a real estate owner and a
philanthropist supporting the Convalescent Homer for Hebrew Children.
1933(10th
of Iyar, 5693): Parashat Achrei Mot – Kedoshim
1933: “The
Rumanian anti-Semitic organization, the Iron Guard, was dissolved by police
order today after a riot as Jassy University in which four Jewish students were
beaten.”
1933: “A
movement to compel international consideration and relief of the problems
facing the persecuted Jews in Germany received impetus tonight when the
American branch of the Jewish Agency for Palestine adopted a resolution calling
for the creation of a commission of the League of Nations to finance and
execute a plan for the colonization of Palestine by expatriated Jews.”
1933: “The possibility
that the 1936 Olympic games, which are scheduled to be held in Berlin, will be transferred
to another city because of the anti-Semitic policy of the Nazi government was
held out today in a statement by Avery Brundage of Chicago, president of the
American Olympic Committee.”
1933: After 232
performances on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre the curtain came down on “Dinner
at Eight” a play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber and produced by Sam Harris.
1934: Under
the leadership of executive secretary Dave White “the Maccabi organization in
New York city” is scheduled to host a track and field meet today.
1935: Twelve-year-old
Yehudit Ya’avetz, who had left Germany for Palestine 18 months ago wrote a
letter to the British Monarch, King George V.
1936(14th
of Iyar, 5696): Pesach Sheni
1936: In
Frankfort, Germany, “a young Jewish salesman was sentenced to one year of
imprisonment for having accosted an ‘Aryan’ woman” even though “the court held
that although no intimate relations had occurred, the Jew had ‘insulted’ the
German nation by his aggressive attitude in attempting to make the woman’s
acquaintance.”
1936: In
France, the second of two rounds of elections produced a solid triumph for the
Populist Front which meant that Leon Blum would become France’s first
“authentically Socialist prime minister” and the first Jewish Prime Minister as
well. This would lead to the fusing of
“anti-Semitism with paramilitary fascism” which would see its final fruits in
the quick fall of France to the Germans and the rise of Vichy.
1936: Sir
Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, the High Commissioner, left for a three day visit to
the Sinai which he cut short so that he could return to Jerusalem to deal with
the on-going Arab rebellion.
1937(25th of
Iyyar, 5697): Mrs. Effie Wise Ochs, widow of Adolph S. Ochs, late publisher of The New York Times, died shortly after 9 o’clock this morning at her home,
“Hillandale,” on North Street, White Plains. Her death followed a
heart attack.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the
British Army started a widespread search for Arab terrorists, their arms and
ammunition in the so-called “Triangle of the Arab Terror,” including
Kalkilya, Taibe, Tulkarm, Azzun, Umm el Fahm and Jenin.
1938:
Birthdate of Abraham David Sofaer, the native of Bombay, India, the New York
University graduate whose distinguished career included serving for six years
“a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District
of New York.
http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=2238&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na
1938: The Palestine Post reported that in
Jerusalem a bomb was thrown at a Jewish bus near Lifta and there was an
exchange of fire at Beit Hakerem.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that A wide prominence was given to the proposed
alterations in the original Palestine Partition plan, as suggested and
accompanied by extensive explanations by James A. Macdonald, British member of
the Parliament.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Charles
Weiss, an anti-Nazi journalist, was badly beaten and injured by Nazis in his
New York office.
1939: In
Philadelphia Paulie Shantzer and David Levin, who ran “A. Levin Butter and Eggs”
gave birth to Haverford graduate Gerald Manuel Levin “, a “visionary” media
executive, as he was often described, who ran the world’s largest media
company, Time Warner, and who became an architect of its merger with America
Online, widely considered the worst corporate marriage in American history…”
(As reported by Chris Kornelis)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/obituaries/gerald-m-levin-dead.html
1939:
“Confessions of a Nazi Spy” a movie whose title describes the plot line,
directed by Anatole Litvak, produced by Hal Wallis and Jack L. Warner, starring
Edward G. Robinson and Francis Ledere with music by Max Steiner, was released
in the United States today.
1940:
Birthdate of Murray Sidlin, the Baltimore, Maryland native who was the
conductor the National Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 1977.
1940:
Birthdate of Harvey Jerome Goldschmid, the Bronx native and Columbia Law School
Graduate who was named to the Security and Exchange Commission by George Bush.
1940: Today, Private Charles Abelson of
Montreal enlisted in the Canadian Army where he served in the “Dental Corps.
1941:
“Armed Iraqi rioters attacked one of the main Jewish hospitals in Baghdad,
the Meir Elias Hospital. The building
was looted; the pharmacist shot dead, the hospital accountant gravely wounded,
and the doctors and administrative staff taken to prison. After the President of the Jewish community,
Chief Rabbi Sasson Khedouri, intervened, the Inspector-General of Police
ordered the Jews released and the rioters arrested.” (In Ishmael’s House
by Martin Gilbert)
1942:
Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrendered forces under his command at
Corregidor in the Philippines. Among those who surrendered was Second
Lieutenant Samuel Abraham Goldblith, the MIT graduate who survived the cruelty
of Japanese imprisonment and went on to became a famous food scientist.
1942:
In Buenos Aires, “Adolf Dorfman, who was born in Odessa (then Russian Empire)
to a well-to-do Jewish family, and became a prominent Argentine professor of
economics and the author of Historia de la Industria Argentina, and Fanny
Zelicovich Dorfman, who was born in Kishinev of Bessarabian to author and human
rights activist Ariel Dorman
1942:
Six hundred delegates from 18 countries met today at the New York Biltmore
Hotel for the opening session of the Biltmore Conference, one of the pivotal
meetings in the history Zionism which would produce the Biltmore Program.
1943(1st
of Iyar, 5703): Seventy-eight-year-old Chaim Zhitlowsk, author, socialist,
Jewish nationalist and advocate for Yiddish & Yiddish culture, passed away.
http://www.yiddishkayt.org/zhitlosky/
1943: Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead was
published.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/06/1943/ayn-rand
1943:
Hajj Amin al-Husseini, grand mufti of Jerusalem, suggested to the Bulgarian
foreign minister that Bulgarian-Jewish children should be sent to Poland rather
than to Palestine. The Grand Mufti spent much of World War II in Berlin as a
guest of the Nazis.
1944:
“The Adventures of Mark Twain” a biopic directed by Irving Rapper, produced by
Jesse L. Lasky and with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United
States.
1945: A
death march from Schwarzheide, Germany, to Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, that
began on April 18 halts at Leitmeritz, Czechoslovakia.
1945:
Nazi leader and Hitler’s second-in-command, Hermann Göring, surrendered to Carl
Andrew Spaatz who was the commander of the operational United States Air Forces
in Europe, along with his wife and daughter at the Germany-Austria border
1945:
General Hermann Niehoff, the commandant of Breslau, a ‘fortress’ city
surrounded and besieged for months, surrendered to the Soviets
1945:
At the newly liberated Dachau Concentration Camp “several hundred Greek,
Serbian and Russian prisoners” celebrated Pascha, Orthodox Easter, as free
people.
1946:
In his speech tonight at a dinner of the Committee on Unity for Palestine of
the Zionist Organization of America, Nathan Straus III “expressed confidence
that Arab obstacles could be overcome through the continued improvement of
education and living standards that Jewish immigration will bring.”
1947:
David Ben-Gurion completes a five week round of meeting with dozens of Jewish
military commanders which will later be described as a “systematic
investigation” of the Yishuv’s ability to withstand the military onslaught it
could expect from the surrounding Arab nations if the British decided to leave.
1947:
David Ben Gurion meets with Professor Yochana Ratner of the Technion in an
attempt to further evaluate the readiness of the Haganah and the Palmach to
fight a conventional war against invading Arab armies.
1947: In New
York City Betty Warren and George Craven gave birth to philosopher Martha
Nussbaum. Martha Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor
of Law and Ethics. She received her B.A. (1969) from NYU and her M.A. (1971)
and Ph.D. (1975) from Harvard. She has taught at Harvard, Brown, and Oxford
Universities.
1947: Sixteen-year-old
Alexander Rubowitz, a member of Lehi was arrested by members of the British
counter-terrorism unit while he was in the process of distributing Lehi flyers
in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood. Roy Farran, a member of the British unit,
reportedly beat the Jewish youth to death with a rock as he was being driven
towards Jericho. Farran was court-martialed but acquitted and always denied
killing the boy.
1948: An
emergency meeting was convened to deal with reports of a typhoid epidemic in
Acre
1948: The 12th
Battalion of the Golani Brigade captured the village of Shajara.
1948: Modi
Alon left Sde Dov, the airport that was home to the fledgling IAF, for
Czechoslovakia where he learned to fly the Avia, a Czech version of the ME-109,
the pride of the Luftwaffe.
1948: The main
Palmach assault to secure the town of Safed began. The Arab Liberation Army
responded by bringing up artillery pieces (the Jews had none) with which they
shelled the ancient Jewish quarter of the town.
The British offered to negotiate a truce that would have allowed the
Jewish women and children to leave and effectively paved the way for Arab
victory. The Jews rejected the offer and
the fighting would begin again in four days.
1949: “The
Rothschild Hospital and the Arzberg school, the only available Jewish center in
Vienna were filled to overflowing” today, because of the arrival of two
thousand Jews who had “fled from Hungary and Czechoslovakia…”
1949:
Birthdate pf Tel Aviv native Tsvi Piran an Israeli theoretical physicist and
astrophysicist, best known for his work on Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) and on
numerical relativity who was the recipient of the 2019 EMET prize award in
Physics and Space Research and is married to Dalia S. Goldworth.
1950(19th
of Iyar, 5710): Parashat Emor
1950(19th
of Iyar, 5710): Sixty-eight-year-old Moscow native and American modernists
painter Abraham Solomon Baylinson who in 1892 came to the United States where
he studied “at the Art Students League of New York the National Academy of
Design and the New York School of Art” passed away today.
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Abraham-S–Baylinson/ABFFB3C6A7039A0C
1952: Abba
Khoushy, Mayor of Haifa was greeted at New York’s Idlewild Airport by New York
City official Grover Whalen. Khoushy is
beginning a five-week long speaking tour designed to raise $500,000,000 in
Bonds for Israel.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
Treasury introduced a new system of granting eighty per cent export premiums
for some industries.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
U.S. President Eisenhower’s Administration announced that while $194m. were
earmarked for the economic help to the Middle East, the aid depended on the
peace in the area. Israel was promised “off the record” to receive a
fair share of this allocation.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
North African Immigrants’ Association accused the Jewish Agency of preventing
over one million and a half of North African Jews from reaching Israel.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
and Argentina had raised their missions to the rank of Embassies and exchanged
Ambassadors.
1953: At today’s meeting HUAC, Lionel Stander
“pretended that he was going to cooperate, but mocked the witch hunters
instead.”
1954(3rd of Iyar, 5714): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1954: Birthdate of Russian volleyball player and Olympic
medalist Natalia Kushnir
1954: “Executive Suite” a must-see movie for anybody who
wants to understand some of the driving forces behind Corporate America in the
middle of the 20th century or who wants a deeper understanding of
how to lead, and not lead, people” with a brilliant script by Ernest Lehman and
featuring Shelly Winters as “Eva Bardeman” was released today in the United
States by MGM.
1955(14th of Iyar, 5715): Pesach Sheni
1955:
President Eisenhower attended the dedication of the Washington Hebrew
Congregation. (Ike was late for the
ceremony.)
1955: “The
Prodigal” written by Maurice Zimm, featuring Joseph Wiseman as “Carmish and
filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released today in the United
States.
1956(25th
of Iyar, 5716): Fifty-nine-year-old New York native and NYU Law School Nathan
S. Sachs, the president of the retail furniture chain Sachs Quality Stores and
Jewish philanthropist who was active in the Jewish Conciliation Board of
America and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/07/86573968.pdf
1956(25th
of Iyar, 5716): Fifty-nine year old New York born and NYU trained attorney,
Nathan S. Sachs who followed in his father’s footsteps to become “president of
Sachs Quality Stores, Inc.” while being an active member of the Jewish
community as could be seen by his work with “the Jewish Conciliation Board” and
“distribution committee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” while
raising four children – Charles, Martin, Sylvia and Rosalie” with his wife
Lillian, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/07/86573968.pdf
1957(5th
of Iyar, 5717): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1960(9th
of Iyar, 5720): Sixty-seven-year-old Pál Ábrahám, the Hungarian born son of Jakab
Ábrahám, merchant and banker from Apatin, and Flóra Blau who gained fame as
conductor and composer Paul Abraham and who found sanctuary in Cuba after the
rise of the Nazis before coming to the United States where he ended up being
hospitalized after suffering “a mental breakdown passed away today.
1961(20th
of Iyar, 5721): Parashat Emor
1961: This
evening in New Orleans, Dr. Julian Feibelman, the rabbi at Temple Sinai officed
at the wedding of Sophie Newcomb College graduate Suzanne A. Pailet and
University of Connecticut graduate Harvey Schulman.
1962(2nd
of Iyar, 5722): Twenty-three-year-old Lieutenant Yakir Naveh went missing when
the plane he was flying “broke up over the sea of Galilee.” Although progress has been made, his body has
never been recovered. (As reported by Tova Dvorin)
1962(2nd
of Iyar, 5722): Two days before Yom HaZikaron IAF cadet Oded Koton died when
the plane in which he was flying “broke up over the Sea of Galilee.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/down-in-hell-israeli-divers-search-for-a-long-lost-airman/
1962(2nd
of Iyar, 5722): Margalit Sharon, the wife of Ariel Sharon is killed in a
highway accident when driving from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
1963:
The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Barbara Tuchman for The Guns of
August, a history of the event surrounding the summer of 1914 and the start
of World War I. Briskly written and well-researched, Ms. Tuchman provided
an insight into how Europe stumbled into catastrophe. At the height of
the Cold War, President Kennedy insisted that his advisors read this
volume. He saw it as a cautionary tale whose lessons could help America
from stumbling into World War III.
Tuchman was born in New York in 1912. She was the granddaughter of Henry
Morgenthau, Sr., Woodrow Wilson’s Ambassador to Turkey. Educated at
Radcliffe College, Tuchman began writing as a magazine correspondent for the
Nation, a publication owned by her father. Tuchman’s skills as a
historian led her to a second Pulitzer Prize when she wrote about General
Stillwell and the American Experience in China.
1964:
Birthdate of David Nirenberg Deborah R. and Edgar
D. Jannotta Distinguished Service Professor of Medieval History and Committee
on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and author of Anti-Judaism:
The Western Tradition
http://www.davidnirenberg.com/about-1-1/
https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/david-nirenberg
https://www.amazon.com/Anti-Judaism-Western-Tradition-David-Nirenberg/dp/0393347915
1965(4th
of Iyar, 5725): Israeli Independence Day.
1965(4th
of Iyar, 5725): Martin Anenberg, the husband of Violet Anenberg who was a
member of Temple Beth El in Cedarhurst, passed away.
1965:
The Homestead Independent reported
that Jewish “financier Arthur Courshon had joined hands with Juanita Castro,
Fidel Castro’s sister, in the formation of the Marta Abreu Foundation, designed
to aid Cuban refugees and particularly Cuban refugee children. Courshon,
chairman of the Board of the Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association,
will be a director of the Foundation.” Courson is better known as the Jewish
developer who conceived the concept of condominium apartments in Florida.
1967(26th
of Nisan, 5727): Parashat Kedoshim
1967(26th
of Nisan, 5727): Eighty-five year old Sarah Miller Fishbein the daughter of
Polish natives “Harry (Hillel) and Raizel (Ruth) Miller passed away today in
Providence, RI after which she was buried in the Lincoln Park Cemetery at
Warwick, RI.
1968(8th
of Iyar, 5728): Seventy-nine-year-old Austrian born Charles Katz who in 1907
came to the United States where he joined A. Hollander and Son, the fur process
firm for which he became the manager of the Persian lamb division wile raising
three children – Stanley, Leonard and Dorothy – with is wife the “former
Therese Reif” passed away today “in a nursing home in Livingston, N.J.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/05/07/79938856.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1968:
In Paris, the march of the national student union marked the start of a series
of protests during which Bernard Kouchner “ran the medical faculty strike
committee at the Sorbonne.”
1969(18th
of Iyar, 5729): Lag B’Omer was observed for the first time of the Presidency of
Richard Nixon.
1972(22nd
of Iyar, 5732): Thirty-nine-year-old Donald Pritzker, a scion of the Pritker
family, the husband of ‘Sue Sandal and the father of Penny, Anthony and Jay
Robert Pritzker died of a heart attack “while playing tennis at a Hyatt Hotel
(a Pritzker property) in Honolulu.
https://www.hbs.edu/leadership/20th-century-leaders/details?profile=donald_n_pritzker
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/09/archives/donald-n-pritzker.html
1974(14th
of Iyar, 5734): Pesach Sheini
1975(25th
of Iyar, 5735): Ninety-one old Sefton Louis Cullen the son Rebecca and George
Judah Cohen and the husband of Nancy Cullen, passed away today in his native
New South Wales, Australia.
1975:
“Larry Blyden left the production of ‘Absurd Person Singular’ after he was
hired to host a new game show” just three weeks before he was in an automobile
accident that would eventually result in his death.
1976(6th
of Iyar, 5736): Seventy-seven-seven- year-old Ukrainian born Rabbi Bernard
Heller who was educated at Columbia, Hebrew Union College, the University of
Michigan and the Jewish Theological Seminary and who combined leading
congregations in places as varied as Scranton, PA and Bombay, India while also
serving as a Hillel leader passed away today.
1977(18th
of Iyar, 5737): Lag B’Omer
1977(18th
of Iyar, 5737): Sixty-three New York native Walter Zand, the son of Morris and
Bessie Zand and the husband of Estelle Zand who served on the faculty of the
University of Miami and was active in the B’nai B’rith and the American Jewish
committee passed away today in Miami.
1978(29th
of Nisan, 5738): Parashat Achrei Mot
1978(29th
of Nisan, 5738): Louis B. Friedlander, who served as the rabbi at Agudas Achim
Anshe Sphard Congregation from 1926 to 1941 before moving to Shaarei Tzedek
Congregation passed away today.
1979:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today in Miami Beach for attprmeu
Henry Edward Shultz, the husband of Rose Jane Schultz with whom he had two
children – Michael and Jane Ellen – was the Honorary National Chairman of the
ADL.
1979(8th
of Iyar, 5739): Eighty-five-year-old composer Milton Anger passed away today in
California.
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C205?exhibitId=205
1980(20th
of Iyar, 5740: Seventy-nine-year-old Arthur Levitt, passed away. He was the New
York State comptroller from 1955 to 1978, whose nonpartisan dedication, thrift
with public funds and relentless criticism of fiscal chicanery endeared him to
voters, who returned him to office five times with huge majorities; in New York
City. A Brooklyn lawyer and nominal Democrat, Levitt served under four
Governors, tightening the state’s auditing procedures, including
“performance audits” of state agencies, and eventually giving his
office prestige and power virtually beyond politics. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924120,00.html#ixzz2SNp5SgKm
1981(2nd
of Iyar, 5741): Yom HaZikaron
1982:
ABC broadcast the final episode of the fourth season of “Taxi” starring Judd
Hirsch.
1983:
Pitcher Bob Tufts, who had originally been drafted by the San Francisco Giants,
played his last major league baseball game as a member of the Kansas Royals. He
converted to Judaism while playing baseball.
1983:
The Hitler diaries are revealed as a hoax after examination by experts.
1983:
“The Sandglass,” based on the story ”The Sanatorium Under the Sign of the
Hourglass,” opened at the Thalia in New York City.
1984(4th
of Iyar, 5744): Yom HaZikaron
1984:
In describing Chablis, France, “the land beyond the label,” Frank Lewis and
Paul Prial remind us the Jewish connection with this part of France and the
making of fine wines. “The well-preserved medieval wine merchants’ houses on
the Rue des Juifs, just before the towers of the Porte No”el, show how
widely spread the Jewish community was in those days. And the 11th-century
Talmudic scholar Rashi lived only 20 miles away at Troyes.”
1986(27th
of Nisan, 5746): Yom HaShoah
1986(27th
of Nisan, 5746): Eighty-six-year-old Louis Pappenheimer the Cincinnati born son of Alexander T. Pappenheimer and Pauline
Pappenheimer and husband of Margaret Camille Pappenheimer passed away today in
his hometown.
1987:
In “Jerusalem Journal: A Reverent Monument or a Monumental Error,” Thomas
Friedman described the controversy surrounding a Holocaust memorial that has
been built on top of a yeshiva next to the Wailing Wall under the direction of
former Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren.
1988:
“Shakedown” an action film directed and written by James Glickenhaus, the son
of financier Seth Glickenhaus who founded Glickenhaus & Co was released
today in the United States.
1988:
Sophie Masloff completed her service as the President of the Pittsburgh City
Council.
1988:
Sophie Masloff began serving as the 56th Mayor of Pittsburgh, PA.
1988(19th
of Iyar, 5748): Eighty-four-year-old Viennese born American pathologist and
hepatologist Hans Popper passed away today.
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/popper-hans.pdf
1989(1st
of Iyar, 5749) Parashat Kedoshim; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1989(1st
of Iyar, 5749): Ninety-two-year-old “patent lawyer, inventor and author”
Emanuel R. Posnack, the husband of the former Ann Bok and father of Alan Posnak “who wrote three books on economics and world
affairs, including ”World Without Barriers,” published in 1956 by William
Morrow” and who “perfected the Posnack recuperator, a device for reusing
exhaust heat from industrial furnaces, and the autoclench stapler, which made
it possible to close staples on a box without inserting a metal plate inside”
passed away at his home in Great Neck, NY.
1990(11th
of Iyar, 5750): Ninety-three-year-old photographer Johanna Alexandra “Lotte”
Jacobi passed away in Deering, New Hampshire.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/jacobi-lotte
http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/LotteJacobi
1990:
“Once on This Island a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
opened today at Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizon.
1992:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season three of “Seinfeld.”
1993(15th
of Iyar, 5753): Eighty-four-year-old socialist, Zionist and longtime member of
the House of Commons passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/11/obituaries/ian-mikardo-84-dies-led-british-labor-party.html
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-ian-mikardo-2321404.html
http://spartacus-educational.com/TUmikardo.htm
1994(25th
of Iyar, 5754): Sixty-seven-year-old Brooklyn born actor Frederick Edward
“Fred” Sadoff passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/07/obituaries/fred-sadoff-actor-and-director-68.html
1994(25th
of Iyar, 5754): Eighty-six-year-old English painter and “director of the Beaux
Arts Gallery in London” passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-helen-lessore-1434653.html
1944:
Jeffrey Lurie bought the Philadelphia Eagles today.
1994(25th
of Iyar, 5754): Eighty-one-year Rabbi Moshe David Rosen Romania’s chief rabbi
who became a rabbi in 1939 and was named Chief Rabbi in 1948 passed away today.
He served in the Romanian Parliament and was the undisputed leader of the
Jewish community. He worked diligently to enable the Jews of Romania to
immigrate to Israel while also making considerable effort to improve their lot
under the Communist government. It should be remember, that Romania was
the only Eastern Bloc country that did not break relations with Israel after
the Six Day War
1999:
NBC broadcast the final episode for season two of “Veronica’s Closes” a sitcom
created by Marta Kauffman, featuring Ron Silver “as Alec Bilson, Veronica’s
business partner and rival.”
2000(1st
of Iyar, 5760): Parashat Kedoshm; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2000:
It was reported today that “Representatives of Swiss commercial banks and
Holocaust survivors are expected to present the final details of a $1.25
billion restitution settlement to a federal judge next week after two of the
largest banks agreed to give the survivors’ lawyers access to databases
containing information on 2.1 million Nazi-era accounts, the lead lawyer for
the survivors said”.
2000:
“Jewish comedian, actor, and writer Maya Rudolph appeared for the first time on
Saturday Night Live, where she remained as a cast member until 2007.”
https://jwa.org/thisweek/maya-rudolph-joins-cast-saturday-night-live
2001:
Bruce Fleisher won the Home Depot Invitational for the second time in two
years.
2001:
The Santorini set sail from northern Beirut carrying weapons for terrorists in
Gaza.
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/05/07/mideast.boat/index.html
2001:
Dr. Robert Levy calls D.C. police from his home in Modesto, California, to
report that his daughter Chandra has not been heard from in five days.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Staying
Tuned: A Life in Journalism by Daniel Schorr and Displaced Persons:
Growing Up American After the Holocaust by Joseph Berger.
2002:
“Yiddish, once on the verge of oblivion, is passing a 21st-century milestone
today” when “as a result of a four-year digitization project and
print-on-demand technology, a literature that thrived from 1864 to 1939 will
suddenly become proportionally the most in-print literature on the planet” mean
that “readers will be able to go to a Web site (www.yiddishbooks.org) and order
any of 12,000 titles in Yiddish.
2003(4th
of Iyar, 5763): Yom HaZikaron
2003:
US soldiers from the Army’s Mobile Exploration Team Alpha, along with members
of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), descended into the flooded basement of
the bombed-out Department of General Intelligence in Baghdad. Although the
team’s job was to search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, that day the
soldiers were acting on a tip provided to the INC by a former Iraqi
intelligence official that an old Jewish Talmud lay deep within the building.
The Americans decided that finding such a valuable cultural artifact merited
diverting the army team from its normal task. Although they did not find the
Talmud, they did discover something else: a Torah scroll along with thousands
of manuscripts, documents and books dealing with Iraq’s Jewish community. What
they had found were the archives of two offices within the General Intelligence
Department: the Israel-Palestine and Jewish Sections. The waterlogged documents
consisted largely of items that were confiscated from synagogues and libraries
after the mass exodus of the Iraqi Jewish community in the 1950s. With the
permission of the interim Iraqi Ministry of Culture, the Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) had the damaged documents frozen and shipped to Texas,
whereupon they were freeze-dried and sent to the National Archives in College
Park, Maryland for restoration and preservation. Archivists originally
estimated that it would cost between $1,525,000 and $3,000,000 to restore the
materials.[ As they were not official government documents, the National
Archives solicited private funds to aid in the process. Donors were hesitant to
commit, however, because of the uncertain future of the manuscripts. The future
of these religious artifacts thus remains in limbo. Doris Hamburg, the National
Archives official who was overseeing their restoration, stated in late 2007
that the American government had taken the documents with “the expectation of
the return of the materials to Iraq,” but final arrangements for their
repatriation have yet to be made. However legitimate WOJI’s campaign may be,
making a public claim to Jewish communal assets is certain to stir up
considerable opposition in Iraq. The fact that Israelis play a major role in
WOJI will only add fuel to that fire. In fact, the prospect of Jewish property
compensation and Jews buying up land in Iraq already has engendered a hostile
reaction. Rumors of “foreign Jews” (presumably former Iraqi citizens) seeking
to buy land were rife in Iraq in mid-2003. Sunni Muslim clerics in Mosul issued
a fatwa in July 2003 forbidding the sale of real estate to non-Iraqis for fear
it might end up in Jewish hands.[18] Exiled Shi‘i cleric Ayatollah Kazim
al-Husayni al-Ha’iri issued a fatwa in June 2003 from Qom, Iran demanding death
for any Jew seeking to buy land in Iraq. And in late 2003 and early 2004, the
Iraqi Turkmen Front claimed that Kurdish Jews in Israel were repurchasing their
former properties with the help of the Kurdish Credit Bank. The veracity of
these reports aside, they indicate the depth of hostility to Jews seeking the
restitution of properties abandoned long ago.
2004:
The body of twenty-year old Marine Corporal Dustin Schrage was found today
after the soldier disappeared with his team May 3 while swimming across the
Euphrates River in the Al Anbar province. (As reported by Jane Eisner)
2004(15th
of Iyar, 5764): Barney Kessel, be-bop guitarist passed away at the age of 60.
2004:
“Malpopita” a Walter Goehr opera that was supposed to have been broadcast in
the 1930’s was performed today for the first time in Berlin.
2004:
After ten seasons, NBC broadcast the final episode of “Friends” the sitcom
created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and starring Lisa Kudrow and David
Schwimmer.
2004:
Lea Fastow a former Enron assistant treasurer and the wife of Andy Fastow,
“pled guilty to a misdemeanor tax charge and was sentenced to one year in a
federal prison in Houston, and an additional year of supervised release.”
2004:
In entitled “Meanwhile: The
Jewish Ghosts of Salonika” published today Ari L. Goldman examines modern Greek
attitudes towards Jews and Israel against a backdrop of this once thriving
Jewish community that disappeared in the Holocaust.
A century ago this
beautiful port city on the Aegean Sea was bristling with Jewish life. There
were synagogues, Jewish social clubs, a vibrant Hebrew language press and
institutions of Jewish learning. The city was a world center of Sephardic
Jewry. Half the city was Jewish and for many years the port was even closed to
commerce on Saturdays in observance of the Jewish Sabbath. But that rich Jewish
life came to an abrupt end when Nazi Germany rolled into Salonika in 1943 and
carried 50,000 Jews away to death camps. Ninety-seven percent were killed.
Barely a word of protest was heard from fellow Greek citizens. I thought of the ghosts of that
decimated community while visiting Greece on a lecture tour. I came to talk
about the subjects I know best — religion and journalism — but the subject of
Jews kept coming up. As an American Jewish academic traveling in Europe, I
expected that I would get angry questions about U.S. foreign policy, especially
the war in Iraq and President George W. Bush’s support for the Israeli
government of Ariel Sharon. But I didn’t expect the anger would be directed
toward Jews. “Don’t you think that American Jews have too much
power?” one well-dressed man challenged me at a university-sponsored
dinner in Athens. “They control everything. They control Bush. They
control America. It’s got to be stopped.” The next night I spoke at the
University of Athens. One professor grilled me on what he called the
“strange” alliance between Jews and Evangelical Christians in support
of Israel. The following day here in Salonika, another professor called the
Christian Zionists hypocrites for their support of Israeli policies. “How
can they profess a religion of love and at the same time support ‘targeted
killings’ of Palestinians?” he asked. “There is also Jewish
love,” I told the professor. “But this isn’t about love or hate, it’s
about survival.” The Jewish Museum of Salonika tells the story of a
community that did not survive. It is a small but impressive place. On the
first floor there are the remnants of the Jewish cemetery, complete with
headstones with Hebrew writing and photographs of Jewish women visiting the
graves. On the second level a timeline shows that the community’s roots goes
back to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Jews found refuge in this
city by the sea. Over the next 400 years they thrived here. Most of the museum
is dedicated to the glory that was Jewish Salonika. There are photographs and
religious artifacts. The humiliation and destruction of the Jews is limited to
one room, which includes documents of expulsion, the uniform of the death camp
inmates and objects of everyday life taken from the dead: shoes, combs and
glasses. At the museum entrance there is an armed guard, a steel gate and a
buzzer system. The museum director said the museum gets few visitors these
days, especially after the bomb attacks on two synagogues in Istanbul in 2003
in which 20 people were killed. “People are afraid,” she said. What a pity. After all the hatred
I’ve heard from European academics, I would love to bring a few here to
Salonika to show them what Jews without political power look like.
2005(27th of Nisan, 5765): Yom Hashoah
2005: Ruth Laredo gave “her last ‘Concert with
Commentary’” today.
2005: Malcolm Rifkind began serving as the Shadow
Secretary of State for Work and Pensins.
2006: The
body of 20-year-old Cpl. Dustin H. Schrage’s was found today. He had disappeared three days earlier while
swimming across the Euphrates River in Iraq’s Al Anbar Provine. “Dustin Schrage
was so funny, he could have been a standup comic, his mother told The
Associated Press. Schrage, a native of Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., loved to
play video games and listen to punk rock music, and was always making everyone
laugh. “He was the comedian of the family. He was a ham. He was very well
respected and well liked,” Nina Schrage said, describing her son. “Dustin
always seems to be able to squeeze laugh out of his teachers and his parents,”
Rabbi Zvi Konikov told AP reporters. “His laughter and confidence made him a
leader.” Schrage joined the Marines after graduating from Satellite High
School, a step toward his ultimate career goal of becoming a police SWAT
member. (As reported in Forward)
2006:
Israeli pilots and planes participate in The Volcanex 2006 exercise which is
held in cooperation with the European Air Group as part of the Italian Air
Force exercise Spring Flag begins in Decimomannu, Italy. The EAG was established to further develop the
collaboration between British and French air forces in the first Gulf War. It
now has seven member nations. Sweden had
withdrawn from the event to protest the participation of the Israelis.
2007
(18th of Iyar, 5767): Lag B’Omer
2007:
At the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland an exhibition styled The Mikvah Project opens. The Mikvah Project
documents the resurgence and expanded practice of the ancient and private
Jewish ritual bath. This haunting exhibition creates a multi-faceted picture of
contemporary mikvah practice as told by the women themselves. The Mikvah Project is a traveling
exhibition created by photographer Janice Rubin and writer Leah Lax. According
to the Houston Chronicle,” The clarity of the water, the delicate toning of the
photographs, and the crisp (but unrevealing) definition of the feminine bodies
conspire to soothe the eye. This show is not to be missed.”
2007: “Howard Katz” Patrick Marber’s “tense new drama” about a
failed secular Jewish showbiz agent closes its run at the Laura Pels Theatre in
New York.
2007: The Sunday Washington
Post book section featured a review of The Americanist, a memoir by
Harvard professor Daniel Aaron.
2007: The New York Times
featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry From Muslim
and Christian Spain, 950-1492 translated, edited and introduced by Peter
Cole and the recently released paperback edition of Everyman by Philip
Roth.
2007: Temple Judah in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, sponsors the annual Big Dinner, a major fund raising and
gastronomic event for the entire community.
2007: Liilian “Wald, the so-called “Jewish Florence Nightingale,”
will be inducted into the Jewish-American Hall of Fame today on the kickoff of
National Nurses Week.
2007
(18th of Iyyar, 5767): Theodore Maiman, the physicist
who built the first working laser in the United States passed away at the age
of 79.
2008(1st of Iyyar, 5768: Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2008: In Washington, D.C., Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tony
Horwitz discusses and signs his new book, A Voyage Long and Strange:
Rediscovering the New World.
2008: The Lauder School of Government at the Interdisciplinary
Center (IDC) Herzliya hosts a
special roundtable entitled “The Energy Challenges of the 21st
Century.” The panel, which will convene on the IDC
Herzliya campus, consists of top energy experts from Israel and the United
States. The roundtable is followed by a signing ceremony establishing a joint
cooperation agreement between the Lauder School of Government and the US
Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.
2008: Prior to Israel’s 60th Independence Day, the International
Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at the Interdisciplinary Center,
Herzliya, in cooperation with the Remembering Organization, will conduct a
symposium on the subject of “Bereavement, Terrorism and Decision Making in
Israel.”
2008: Israel pauses tonight to mourn its fallen soldiers, as the
nation marks Remembrance Day and honors the memory of those who have lost their
lives in defense of the state. A
one-minute air-raid siren wailed across the country at 8 p.m.to night, followed
by ceremonies in memory of fallen soldiers and the victims of terror attacks
across the country. The official state ceremony marking the start of Israel’s
Memorial Day were held immediately after the siren at Jerusalem’s Western Wall
Plaza, in the presence of President Shimon Peres, Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi
Ashkenazi, and bereaved families. The ceremony was broadcast live on Tuesday
night on all Israeli television channels and radio stations. All places of
entertainment will be closed night and will remain closed until sunset
tomorrow.
2008:
The Saul Steinberg: Illuminations travelling
exhibition, which displays original Steinberg works at various museum and
galleries around the world opens today at the Foundation Cartier-Bresson in
Paris. Steinberg was a Romanian born cartoonists best known for his work in the
New Yorker magazine.
2009:
Heshey Friedman, the president of Montreal-based
Polystar Plastics, Daniel Hirsch and Mitch Kirschner incorporated SHF,
apparently for the sole purpose of buying Agrprocessors.
2009: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Hadassah Book Club meets to
discuss “People of the Book” by Geraldine Brooks.
2009:
The second annual Richard and Elizabeth Dubin
Lecture, presented by the Joseph B. and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel
Studies features David Ignatius, journalist and Washington Post
columnist in a discussion with Philip Merrill of the University of Maryland’s
School Of Journalism entitled “The Middle East: Is Peace Imaginable?”
2009:
Ayalet Waldman, author of the novel Daughter’s
Keeper as well as the “Mommy-Track mystery series,” discusses and signs her
new memoir, Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities,
and Occasional Moments of Grace at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.
2009:
Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said today that
The Tourism Ministry will begin marketing the grave
site of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai as a tourist attraction to the haredi
community.
2009(12 of Iyar, 5769): Seventy-nine-year-old talent broker Sam
Cohn passed away today (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/arts/07cohn.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print
2010: Frank Zacharias “Zach” Robin Goldsmith began serving as a
Member of Parliament for Richmond Park following the General Election held
today.
2010: Rabbi Ben Mintz is scheduled to teach a course entitled
“Women in the Apocrypha” featuring an Esther much different than the Esther we
know from the Book of Esther; Hannah, mother of the seven martyred sons;
Judith, seducer and slayer of Holofernes, enemy of the Jewish people; and
Susanna, object of the gaze of the Elders at the Historic 6th &
I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2010:
Israeli singers, Pini Hadad & Nati Levi, are
scheduled to perform at Club Passion in Brooklyn.
2010:
Israel Police Inspector-General David Cohen and FBI
Director Robert Mueller met today in Jerusalem.
2011:
Hazon’s 2nd Annual California Bike Ride which raises
money for cutting-edge Jewish environmental projects in the U.S. and Israel is
scheduled to begin at 2 pm today at Westminster Woods in California.
2011: The Jewish Historical Society is schedule to present
“Historic Eastern Market of Detroit with a Jewish Twist” where attendees will
learn about the Market’s Jewish past, listen to stories about the Purple Gang
and sample some of the foods unique to this Detroit institution.
2011: It was announced today that Filmmaker Ethan Coen, who with
his brother Joel is responsible for the films “No Country for Old
Men,” “Fargo” and “The Big Lebowski,” among others,
will publish a book of poetry next year with Crown. The poetry collection,
according to Publishers Weekly, will be called “The Day the World
Ends.” It is scheduled for publication in spring 2012. This is Coen’s
second collection of poetry, after 2009’s
“The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way.” He is also the
author of “Gates of Eden,” a short story collection, and co-author of
two Oscar-winning screenplays.
2011: In keeping with Broadway tradition, the lights of the
theatres on Broadway were dimmed for one minute tonight in memory of Arthur
Laurents who passed away yesterday. The Tony Award winner’s body of work
includes “West Side Story,” “Gypsy,” “La Cage aux Folles”
and “Hallelujah, Baby!”
2011: It was not clear when a fuel crisis that has disrupted
flights at Ben-Gurion International Airport would end, the airport’s chief
official said today, adding, however, that takeoffs and landings are resuming
thanks to an emergency supply of fuel.
2012: The Omri Mor Trio featuring Jerusalem-based jazz pianist
Omri Mor is scheduled to perform at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC.
2012: Guitarist, singer and songwriter Bob Rank is scheduled to
perform a solo concert exploring contributions of
Jewish performers and songwriters who have influenced the great American
musical traditions of blues, folk and rock at the Maltz Museum of Jewish
Heritage in Beachwood, Ohio.
2012: Tulane Graduate and Brandies University Professor, Dr.
Stephen Whitfield is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Coming to
America: The Jewish Impact & The Jewish Response” at the Jewish Museum of
Florida.
2012: Dr. Sidney Katz, known for his work with the Index of
Independence of Activities for Daily was buried today in his native Cleveland.
http://obits.cleveland.com/obituaries/cleveland/obituary.aspx?pid=157486571
2012: In Olney, Maryland, Shaare Tefilla Congregation is scheduled
to sponsor “Plant the Seeds of Song: A Community-Wide Erev Shira in Celebration
of Yom Ha’Atzmout.”
2012: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is
scheduled to sponsor a Walking Tour of the Jewish Sites in Arlington National
Cemetery that will include visits to memorial by or for Jews and headstones on
prominent Jewish leaders buried at the oldest cemetery of its kind in the
United States.
2012; Ron Arons is scheduled to address The Genealogy of Society
of Greater Washington at Congregation Har Shalom in Potomac, MD
2012: The New York Times
featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson
by Robert Caro and Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer
by Susan Gubar who is part of the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies
Program at Indiana University.
2013: The American Jewish Historical Society and Yeshiva
University Museum are scheduled to present “Jewish Women and the Civil War”
2013: “Defiant Requiem” is scheduled to be shown at the Washington
DCJCC.
http://thejdc.convio.net/site/Calendar/973846288?view=Detail&id=138722
2013: The Canadian Friends of Hebrew University are scheduled to
present the Key of Knowledge to actor Morgan Freemen “for his dedication to
combating racism and ‘promoting knowledge and education worldwide.’”
2013: The Israel Defense Forces scaled back a drill in the north
and the Northern Command head calmed fears today that the weekend airstrikes
against Syria have brought the country to the brink of war.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/northern-commander-dispels-winds-of-war/
2013: “Jew Bashing: The New Anti-Semitism,” a new, investigative
documentary premieres tonight on Canadian television.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-gateways-to-old-hatreds/
2013:
Two rockets fired from Syrian territory exploded on
the Golan Heights today, without causing casualties or damage, an IDF
spokesperson said
2014: (6th of Iyar) Yom HaAtzma’ut (Israeli Independence Day)
2014:
Rav Aharon Lichtenstein “was awarded the Israel Prize
for Jewish Literature on Israeli Independence Day”
2014: “Next Year in Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown at the 16th
annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival
2014: Publication of All the Light We Cannot See the
Pulitzer Prize winning novel “set in occupied France during WW II that centers
on a blind French girl and a German boy.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/wwii-novel-on-nazi-soldier-scoops-pulitzer-prize/
2014: “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker” is scheduled to premiere at
the 22nd Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “The Wonders” is scheduled to be shown at The National
Center for Jewish Film’s 17th annual film festival
2014: “The Life of the Jews in Palestine: 1913/Operation
Sunflower” is scheduled to be shown at The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival
2014:
“Cupcakes” directed by Israeli Eytan Fox is scheduled to be shown at the UK
Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
“Chasing Death Camp Guards With New Tools,” published today described renewed
efforts by German prosecutors to bring Nazi concentration camp workers to
justice.
2014:
“Millions of Israelis crowded parks, nature sites, museums and army bases to
celebrate the country’s 66th Independence Day today, forcing authorities to
turn visitors away as some sites exceeded capacity.
2014:
“Israel’s political and military leaders gathered in Jerusalem today morning to
toast outstanding soldiers for Israel’s 66th Independence Day, with President
Shimon Peres telling troops they will face challenges further afield than
generations before them.
2014:
Cornelius Gurlitt, “the German recluse who captured the art world’s attention
last fall after it was revealed that he had kept hidden for decades a
collection of 19th- and 20th-century European masterworks amassed by his
father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, under the Nazis in his Munich apartment, died
today.
2014:
“Etian Amos, a Jewish teenager from Canada was this year’s winner of the
International Bible Quiz which was held today as in every year at the Jerusalem
Theatre on Israel’s Independence Day.
2015:
Joshua Muravchik is scheduled to discuss his most recent book Making David
Into Goliath at the Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center.
2015:
Or Asraf, the Israeli backpacker who was killed in an earthquake in Nepal last
month, is scheduled to be buried today “at the cemetery in his hometown of
Lehavim.”
2015:
“Forbidden Films” is scheduled to be shown at the 18th annual film
festival sponsored by the National Center for Jewish Films.
2015:
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to converge on the village of
Meron on the slopes of a Galilee mountain this evening where the tomb of Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai is located and light bonfires “to mark the death of the
second century rabbi” as part of the celebration of Lag B’Omer which begins
tonight.
2015:
Rabbi Lance J. Sussman is scheduled to present “Second Thoughts: American Jews
and the Separation of Church and State Since 1976” at the National Museum of
American Jewish History.
2015:
In Washington, DC Theatre J is scheduled to host the opening night production
of “The Call.”
2015:
Funeral services for Susan “Suki” Cell, the widow of Dr. Donald Cell of Cornell
College, are scheduled to be held this morning at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,
Iowa.
2016:
A production of Wendy Kesselman’s adaptation of The Diary of Anne Franks
directed by Mary Sullivan is scheduled to open tonight at The Giving Tree
Theatre in Marion, Iowa
2016:
“Using Walls, Floors, and Ceilings: Beatriz Milhazes” is scheduled to open at
the Jewish Museum.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/using-walls-floors-and-ceilings-beatriz-milhazes
2016:
An exhibition featuring the works of Roberto Burle Marx is scheduled to open at
the Jewish Museum.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/roberto-burle-marx-brazilian-modernist
2017(10th
of Iyar, 5777): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim; Chapter 3 of Pirke Avot for more
see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2017:
The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “Sabba Saturday” which is
“filled traditional and non-traditional music, creative prayer, art, movement
and more” as a way of providing a meaningful Shbbat experience for the whole
family.
2017:
As America prepares for today’s Kentucky Derby they are reminded of the 1936
Kentucky Derby which was a Jewish affair since the winner Bold Venture was
owned by Morton Schwartz, trained by Max Hirsch and ridden by Ira Hanford.
2018:
“The Legend of King Solomon” and “Assumed Identity” are scheduled to be shown
at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2018:
“Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema” is scheduled to be shown
at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival
2018:
In Iowa, the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host a
screening of “Remember Baghdad” in which “Iraq’s last Jews tell the story of
their country.”
2018:
The New York Times included reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution
by Todd S. Purdum and The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote
by Elaine Weiss
2018:
In New Orleans, Temple Sinai is scheduled to host its annual Blood Drive.
2018:
In Washington, DC, 20 minutes of MOE BERG: ALL-STAR ESPIONAGE? a
work-in-progress film is scheduled to be shown, followed by a discussion with
director Aviva Kempner, intelligence analyst Richard Willing, and Henry
“Hank” Thomas, biographer of Walter Johnson (and his grandson).
2019:
The Chabad Jewish Center in Metairie, LA is scheduled to host the Rosh Chodesh
Society, “a monthly night out where “women of all walks of life” can “enjoy an
evening of camaraderie.””
2019:
The “UJA-Federation of New York and The Jewish Week with Natan, and Park Avenue
Synagogue” are scheduled to host an evening with Matti Friedman, “author of the
award winning book Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel,
Journalist, and contributor to The
New York Times op-ed section and Dr. Mijal Bitton, a Fellow in Residence at
the Shalom Hartman Institute and the Rosh Kehilla of the Downtown Minyan.”
2019”
The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center is scheduled to host Rabbi David Wolpe as
he speaks on “Punishment and Death Penalty” offering insights into the issue
“from Jewish sages, Jewish text and Jewish history.”
2019:
In Walnut Creek, CA, Congregation B’nai Tikvah is scheduled to present
“Prosecuting Evil,” “a documentary about the youngest prosecutor at the
Nuremberg Trials” followed by a discussion led by “law professor Amos Guiora.
2019:
Today, former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen began serving his three-year
prison term today.
2019:
In New York, Ali Kourani, a “sleeper agent” for Hezbollah, the organization
responsible for “the 1983 truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beiruit,” the
“torture and murder of Beirut CIA station chief William Buckley, the deaths of
“19 U.S. Air Force personnel during the Kohbar Towers bombing” and the killing
of several hundred Israelis” among other things, is scheduled to go on trial
today.
2019(1st
of Iyar, 5779): Rosh Chodesh Iyar; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2019: As Jews
mark Rosh Chodesh Iyar, we, and all decent people, mourn those killed this
weekend by terrorist rockets fired from Gaza – Pinchas Menachem Prezuazman, 21
from Ashdod; Moshe Feder, 68, from Kfar Saba; Moshe Agadi, 58, from Ashkelon
and Ziad Alhamamda.
2020:
Via Zoom, from Pepper Pike, OH, B’nai Jeshurun is scheduled to present
“Mishnah: The New Scripture” during which Rabbi Alan Lettofsky offers new
insights into this “core text of our Jewish foundations.
2020:As
Israelis arise this morning they will be confronted with the reality that at
least 238 patients have died from coronavirus even as the country continues to
“open up.”
2020:
Live on Zoom, The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Historians
of the Jews and the Making of Plague Memory.”
2020:
The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to a host a
virtual presentation of Jewish Meditation and Movement
2020:
The Hadassah Brandeis Institute is scheduled to host a virtual conversation
with Rachel Barenbaum author of A Bend in the Stars.
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to present on-line Rabbi Joseph Skloot as he
lectures on “Alienation and Connection-Turning to Martin Buber at a Time of
Crisis,” a novel that follows an ambitious young doctor and her scientist
brother in a race against Einstein to solve one of the greatest mysteries of
the universe while the forces of antisemitism close in around them.”
2020:
“At 7 PM eastern, Jewish Currents is
scheduled to host a livestreamed discussion of the recent efforts at
unionization in Amazon warehouses and the implications for the wider labor
movement in the Covid-19 era, moderated by contributing writer Rachel Cohen.”
https://jewishcurrents.org/conversation/
2021:
A host of Jewish organizations, including the New Israel Fund and The Kitchen
S.F., are scheduled to present a program on the power of art in social change,
with photojournalist Oren Ziv, musician and DJ Ellyott Ben Ezer and
Jerusalem-based DJ Ramzi.
2021:
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston is scheduled to
present, online,
“COVID’s
Impact on Under-Resourced Communities in Israel” with Times of Israel
correspondent Nathan Jeffay/
2021Shalom
Bayit, a Jewish domestic violence prevention/awareness organization, is
scheduled to present a virtual gala with Rep. Jackie Speier and Ms. founding
editor Letty Cottin Pogrebin,
2021:
In a sign of the slow process to return to more normal times, in Columbus, OH,
today is the last day to sign up for Shabbat morning services to be held
in-person on May 8 at Tifereth Israel.
2021:
In Iowa, the Jewish Federation of the Corridor is scheduled to host “a panel
discussion about Israel and peace with the Palestinians and Arab nations in a
changing world.”
2021:
The Ninth International Writers Festival in Jerusalem is scheduled to come to
an end today.
2021:
As “part of Rewind, a series on Jewish women filmmakers from the Stanford Taube
Center for Jewish Studies, Adam Nayman, the author of It Doesn’t Suck:
Showgirls is scheduled to reappraise “flops” by acclaimed filmmakers Elaine
May (“Ishtar”) and Nora Ephron (“This Is My Life”). Part of Rewind, a series on
Jewish women filmmakers from Stanford Taube Center for Jewish Studies.
2022:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to “A Mother’s Love:
Sacrifices in Times of War with Holocaust Survivor Halina Litman Yasharoff
Peabody.
https://www.ushmm.org/online-calendar/event/vefbmthrlve0522
2022:
Temple of Israel of the City of New York is scheduled to host “The Spirit of
Israel at 74” a special shabbat service “sponsored by the Tisch family.”
2022:
The Hamuiska Kol Live broadcast on Kan will feature a Young Artist Concert with
pianist Alona Milner, cellist Oria Ron and violinists Noam Yaffe and Ari
Vilhajalmsson.
2022:
As Jews prepare to observe Shabbat, they along with decent people everywhere
mourn the victims of those killed yesterday in a terrorist attack in Jerusalem
which was praised by Hamas.
2023:
Oils from Mount of Olives are scheduled to be used to anoint Charles when he
and his wife Camilla are crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey today, in what
is considered the most sacred part of the solemn ceremony
2023(15th
of Iyar, 5783): Parashat Emor (Say or
Speak): Pirke Avot – Chapter 4;
2023:
With his family looking on with pride, in Athens, OH, Jacob Levin is scheduled
to graduate with honors from Ohio University.
2023:
In a special lecture dedicated to the poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg, is scheduled
to read together with Prof. Tamar
Wolf-Monzon in the cycle “Poems on the Edge of Heaven”, from the book
“Streets of the River”.
2024:
Qesher is scheduled to present “Jewish Italy: Two People, One Womb,” during which
attendees “will explore the history of Jews during the Roman Empire, the Middle
Ages, the ghettos of Venice, Mantua and Rome through emancipation, the World
Wars, and the present day.”
2024
(28th of Nisan, 5784): Observance of Yom HaZikaron laShoah
ve-laG’vurah; Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day.
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance-day/overview.asp
https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/remembrance-day/index.asp
2024:
JCC, The National WWII Museum, Hold On To Your Music Foundation, ADL, USC Shoah
Foundation, Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana, MSJE, Jefferson Parish
Schools, Goldring Family Foundation and Woldenberg Foundation are scheduled to
host “An Evening of Reflection,” the “JCC Holocaust Committee memorial service
and special performance of The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek.
2024:
YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture by Noa Tsuashu on “the visual and
plastic works, as well as writings, of Jewish Ukrainian artist Issachar Ber
Ryback.”
2024:
As May 6th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day
213 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 