#ourCOG This Day, May 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
This Day, May 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L
May 23
142 BCE (23rd
of Iyar): Simon the Hasmonean drove the Syrians and their allies out the
citadel which was their last stronghold in Jerusalem.
1052:
Birthdate of Philip I, King of France who passed away in 1108. Philip’s life overlapped that of Rashi
(1040-1105). In his day, Philip
certainly was more powerful than the wine merchant of Troyes. But how many
people study Philip today and how many Rashi read. Philip was the king during the First
Crusade. However, he was not allowed to
participate because Pope Urban II had excommunicated him. This may account, to
some extent, why the Jews of France did not suffer in the same as did their
Germanic co-religionist during what turned out to be the start of one of the
deadliest periods of Jewish history.
1275: King
Edward I of England ordered the cessation of persecution of Jews of Bordeaux,
France. This was at a time when English
kings still had holdings in France and dreams of sitting on the French throne.
This is the same Edward who will eventually banish the Jews from England after
draining them of all of their wealth.
1420: Albert V
(Austria) accused a rich Jew, Israel of Enns, of purchasing a wafer in order to
desecrate it. All the Jews in the territory were jailed, dispossessed of their
property, separated from their families and then subjected to attempts at
forced conversion.
1420: At the
behest of the Church, Duke Albrecht ordered the forcible conversion of the Jews
of Austria. Those that had not converted or escaped or been sent off in the
boats were burned at the stake on March 12, 1421, and their beautiful synagogue
destroyed.
1421: Those
Jews still remaining in Austria were imprisoned and/or expelled.
1423: Benedict
XIII, the Avignon-based “antipope” known for his relentless
persecution of the Jews died today.
1498: Girolamo
Savonarola, a Dominican monk who was a violent opponent of the comparatively
philo-Semitic Pope Alexander VI was convicted as a heretic and burned at the
stake on the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
1510: Emperor
Maximilian of Germany rescinded a previously issued order to burn all Hebrew
books.
1524: Ismail
I, Shah of Persia and founder of the Safavid dynasty passed away. Conditions
for the Jews of Persia declined under the Safavids when they adopted Shia Islam
as the state religion. “Shi’ism assigns importance to the issues of ritual
purity ― tahara. Non-Muslims, including Jews, are deemed to be ritually unclean
― najis. Any physical contact would require Shi’as to undertake ritual
purification before doing regular prayers. Thus, Persian rulers, and the
general populace, sought to limit physical contact between Muslims and Jews.
Jews were excluded from public baths used by Muslims. They were forbidden to go
outside during rain or snow, as an “impurity” could be washed from
them upon a Muslim.”
1533: The
marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
As a condition to their marriage, Henry’s father promised Catherine’s Spanish
parents that Jews would never be allowed to settle in England. When Henry decided to divorce Catherine he
claimed that the marriage had taken place in violation of biblical law. He sought the support of Italian rabbis in
making this claim. The Rabbis did not
support the English monarch, probably figuring that there was no reason to
antagonize the Pope (who was a lot closer) than a distant English monarch.
1536: In
Portugal, Pope Paul III acting
upon the petition of King John III,
issued a Bull providing for the establishment of the inquisition based on the
Spanish archetype. It lasted until September 1774 with the last auto da fe held
in October 1765.
1552:
Sebastian Munster, the first Christian to publish a complete edition of the
Bible in Hebrew passed away.
1555: Paul IV
began his Papacy during which he issued Dudum postquam, the papal bull that
expanded a 10-ducat tax on Jewish synagogues to help finance catechumen houses
in Rome and Cum Nimis Absurdum, the papal bull that “ordered the creation of a
Jewish ghetto in Rome.”
1568:
Netherlands declared independence from Spain. Protestant Dutch rebels led by
Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeat Jean de Ligne, Duke of
Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the
Eighty Years’ War. The conflict combined politics and religion as Protestant
Dutchmen rebelled against Catholic Spain.
Holland had provided a haven for Sepharidic Jews escaping the Spanish
Inquisition. A community of Portuguese
merchants had settled in Amsterdam prior to the outbreak of hostilities. The Protestant clergy were not exactly
thrilled about the Jews settling in the country and it took several decades for
the Jews of Holland to gain full acceptance.
1572 (18 Iyar
5332): On Lag B’Omer Moses Isserles, also known as the Rama passed away Born sometime between 1520 and 1525, he was
the son of Israel Isserles, “ a wealthy leader of the Cracow community who, in
1553, received royal dispensation to build a synagogue in memory of his wife
which is known as the Ream Synagogue.”
Moses Isserles served as Rosh (Head of the) Yeshiva in Krakow. His main
work was called Mappah Hashulchan (“The Tablecloth“) which
adapted Caro’s Shulchan Aruch to the needs and customs of Ashkenazi
Jewry, It was called the “The Tablecloth” because it “covered” the Shulchan
Aruch which is translated as “the prepared table.” In other words he
covered Caro’s Sephardic Table with an Ashkenazic Tablecloth. An earlier work, Darke Moshe Hakatzar (The
Ways of Moses Abridged) was written in response to Caro’s comprehensive
book on Jewish law called Beit Yoseph. He was known as well for the
almost 100 Responsa he published. Isserles tried to strengthen the stature of
many customs, elevating them almost to the level of Halachah (Jewish Law). On
the other hand he was very lenient when it came to cases of stress or financial
loss.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111847/jewish/Rabbi-Moshe-Isserles-The-Remo.htm
1578: The
Ottoman Sultan rescinded the order to deport the wealthy Jews of Safed to the
island of Cyprus. He did this because the Jews of Safed were said to be paying
taxes which were used to help maintain the Dome of the Rock.
1618: In
Prague, an assembly of Protestants threw three Catholic officials out of the
window after they had found them guilty of violating a law concerning religious
expression. This event precipitated the
Thirty Years War, so called because it lasted from 1618 to 1648. Much of the war was fought in the Germanic
principalities. During the war Jews
suffered at the hands of both sides with pogroms taking place in Frankfort,
Worms and Jena.
1633: The
French government issues an edict allowing only Catholics to settle in
Canada. The target of the ban was the
Huguenots but it applied to the Jews as well.
Jews would not be able to settle in Canada until after the British were
victorious in what Americans call the French-Indian War
1637(28th
of Iyar): Seven Jews, including Rabbi Abraham ben Isaac, were murdered today in
Cracow.
1638: Today,
in Hungary, “Sabbatarian believers were tortured and their writings confiscated
in Kolozsvár and Marosvásárhely”
1708(4th of
Sivan): Rabbi Solomon ben David de Oliveria, author of “Ez Hayyim” and the son
Portuguese scholar David Israel de Oliveyra passed away today at Amsterdam.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11688-oliveyra-solomon-de
1749(7th
of Sivan, 5509): Second Day of Shavuot
1749(7th
of Sivan, 5509): Abraham ben Abraham, who had been a Polish noble named Count
Valentine Potocki before he converted to
Judaism, was burned at the stake because he had renounced Catholicism and
becoming a practicing Jew.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12317-potocki-pototzki-count-valentine-abraham-b-abraham
1764: Esther
Etting and David Barrack Hays, the parents of Bedford, NY native Charity Hays
and the in-laws of Jacob da Silva Solis were married today.
1768(7th
of Sivan, 5528): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1769: Jonah
Phillips and Rebecca Machado Phillip gave birth to Philadelphia resident Sarah
Phillips, the great-granddaughter of Dr. Samuel Nunez
1773:
Distinctions between Old Christians and New Christians were banned in Portugal.
It was said this was because of a huge bribe from the Jews, but either way,
this ban became law.
1788: South
Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Thanks to
John Locke who wrote South Carolina’s original constitution Jews, along with
heathens and dissenters were guaranteed “freedom of conscience.” Jews began
voting in the colony’s elections in 1702.
By 1750, there were enough Jews in the colony to warrant the building of
the first synagogue in Charleston “which called itself “Beth Elohim” (House of
God). Francis Salvador was the most
prominent Jewish leader when the Revolution began in 1775. In 1790, South Carolina enacted legislation
that was intended to abolish religious discrimination.
1794:
Birthdate of Isaac Moscheles the native of Prague who gained fame as composer
and pianist Ignaz Moscheles, one of many of his era who found a trip to the
baptismal font to be a stepping stone on the ladder of upward social mobility.
1799(18th
of Iyar, 5559): Lag B’Omer
1799: Aaron
Worms married Rachel Lamart at the Great Synagogue in London delivered a speech
in favor Reform legislation “at the Westminster anniversary reform dinner.”
1806(6th
of Sivan, 5566): Shavuot observed as Lewis and Clark and the Corps of
Exploration continue to work their way towards the Pacific Ocean.
1814: In
Germany, Sophia “Sarah” Lowenstein gave birth to future Lancaster, Pennsylvania
resident Levi Rosenstein, the husband of Caroline “Carrie” Straus Rosentein
whom he married in 1825 and the father of Albert, Rosalie, Henrietta, Emma,
Morris and Isaac Rosenstein who was in the “shoe business” with a shop on
West King Street, a Democrat and “an early reader for Congregation Shaarai
Shomayi.
1822:
Influential 19th economist David Ricardo the son of Anglo-Sephardic
Jews who became a Unitarian when he married Priscilla Anne Wilkinson
1825(6th
of Sivan, 5585): First Day of Shavuot
1825:
Alexander Jacobs, the son of Israel Jacobs and the former Elizabeth Abrahams
was circumcised today in London.
1830: Moses
Nathan Levy, the Hamburg, Germany born son of Jette and Nathan Levy and his
wife Hannchen Levy gave birth to Roschen “Rosen” Levy who died when she was
eight months old.
1833(5th
of Sivan, 5593): Erev Shavuot
1834(14th
of Iyar, 5594): Pesach Sheni
1834:
Birthdate of Thalia Reicheubach
1835: In
Cincinnati, OH, Alexander Lewis, the Charleston born son of David and Rachel
Benjamin Lewis and his wife Rebecca Lewis gave birth to Sarah Essenheim the
mother of Joseph Essenheim.
1837(18th
of Iyar, 5597): Lag B’Omer celebrated 10 days after the New York banks
suspended specie payments which touched off the Panic of 1837, the worst
financial crisis the United States would face until the Great Depression of
1929
1838: In
Moravia, during what appeared to be an internal conflict in the Jewish
community, the government issued a decree canceling the chief rabbi’s
“privilege of proposing candidates’ to serve as rabbis at local congregations.
1838:
Birthdate of Emile Worms, the French jurist born in Luxemburg, “educated at the
University of Heidelberg” who earned his Dr. of Laws at the University of Paris
in 1864 before becoming an assistant professor of law at his alma mater and
professor of law at the University of Rennes.
1844(6th
of Sivan, 5604): Erev Shavuot observed on the same day that “the Báb announced
that He was a new divine Messenger sent to herald a new age for humanity and to
prepare the way for Bahá’u’lláh, the universal Messenger of God expected by
people of all religions.”
1845: Samuel
Henry Gluckstein and Hannah Joseph were today at the Great Synagogue in London.
1846: In
Fürth, Bavaria, Joel and Babette (Elsasser) Krakauer gave birth to Adolph
Krakauer who came to New York in 1865
and then to Texas where became a successful merchant and leading businessman in
San Antonio and El Paso, Texas before his death in 1914.
1847: Levy
Zachariah was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1848: Birthdate of Otto Lilienthal German born
aviation pioneer. He died in 1896 after
one of his gliders failed to work properly.
1849: In
London, Betsey Philips married 27 year old Montague “Myer” Gluckstein and
became Betsey Gluckstein.
1851: Richard
Lalor Sheil an Irish writer, orator, and Member of Parliament passed away. Jews
should remember Sheil as a supporter of measures to allow Jews to sit as
members of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Following the Rothschild’s
election to the House of Commons Sheil delivered a speech entitled “On
Disabilities of the Jews” that began included these words in the opening
paragraph, “A British subject ought in every regard to be considered a British
citizen; and inasmuch as the professors of the most ancient religion in the
world, which, as far as it goes, we not only admit to be true, but hold to be
the foundation of our own, are bound to the performance of every duty which
attaches to a British subject, to a full fruition of every right which belongs
to a British citizen, they have, I think, an irrefragable title. A Jew born in
England cannot transfer his allegiance from his sovereign and his country; if
he were to enter the service of a foreign power engaged in hostilities with
England and were taken in arms he would be accounted a traitor. Is a Jew an
Englishman for no other purposes than those of condemnation? I am not aware of
a single obligation to which other Englishmen are liable from which a Jew is
exempt; and if his religion confers on him no sort of immunity it ought not to
affect him with any kind of disqualification.”
1852(5th
of Sivan, 5612): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the presidency
of Millard Fillmore
1854: In NYC,
Henrietta Rosenbaum, and David Mayer gave birth to NYU trained laryngologist Eil
Mayer, the husband of Louise Blume and “medical veteran of WW I” who was a
surgeon in the throat department of the
New Yok Eye and Ear Infirmary and the chief of clinic throat and ear departments of the Mt. Sinai Hospital.
1855(6th
of Sivan, 5615): Shavuot observed on the same day that the Daily Ohio Statesman
reprinted a speech by Senator Henry Clay in which he defended the “American
System” and praised “the immigrants who daily arrived on America’s shores.” (Editor’s note – the defense of immigrants
(including Jews) by a prominent national leader when the Known-Nothing Party
mentality was on the rise was a an act of political bravery)
1855:
Birthdate of Jacob David Mamor, the Russian “son of Solomon Marmor, the Rabbi
of the Lieranten Schule” who one of the few Jews to hold a diploma from the St.
Petersburg Imperial Conservatory of Music and who began serving as the cantor
at the Baltimore (MD) Hebrew Congregation in 1899.
1856(18th
of Iyar, 5616): On the day after Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina
beat Senator Charles Sumner in the halls of Congress over the issue of slavery
and the day before Pottawatomie Massacre, which also tied to the fight over
slavery, the Jews observed Lag B’Omer
1856:
Birthdate of Congressman Henry Mayer Goldfogle who urged President Wilson to
“designate January 27, 1916 as the date for collecting funds for the relief of
suffering Jews in Europe.”
https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=G000260
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/henry-mayer-goldfogle
1856:
Birthdate of Cracow native Leopold Zinsler who came to the United States in
1883 where he served as the rabbi at “the Bohemian Congregation in Newark,”
“Congregation Shahre Zedek” and “Congregation Anshe Emeth.
1858:
Birthdate of Isaac Tuck, the native of New York’s Old Seventh Ward and “pioneer
in fruit trade journalism who “was one of the founders of the Fruit Trade Journal and Produce Record”
and the Fruit and Produce Trade Association of New York City as well as a
member “of the South Brooklyn Board of Trade and the Twelfth Assembly District
Democratic Club.”
1859: Two
Polish Jews, Philip Moses and Samuel Preiss filed a complaint today claiming
that a tailor name William Meyer had attacked Preiss and stolen his watch while
Preiss was in his store. The two plaintiffs gave such contradictory stories
that it led the Judge to believe that Meyer was actually the victim of
blackmail attempt. He charged Moses and
Preiss with attempted blackmail and filing a false police report. The two complaining witnesses are now
defendants and since they could make bail they are awaiting trial in the city
jail. [So, all of our ancestors weren’t Kohanim or psalmists, so what?]
1863(5th
of Sivan, 5623): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1863:
Ferdinand Lasalle formed the General German Workers ’Association (ADAV),
Germany’s first labor party today. He
also began serving as its President, a position he would hold until his death
in August of 1863.
1865: In
London’s East End, “Joel Joel (a London tavern keeper of the King of Prussia),
and Kate Isaacs, who was a sister of Barnett Isaacs (Barney Barnato) gave birth
to Solomon “Solly” Barnato Joel the brother of Jack and Woolf Joel with whom he
made a fortune in the South African diamond mining trade and the husband of
actress Ellen Nellie Ridley.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joel-solomon-barnato
1866:
Birthdate of Edgar James Banks, the oriental language professor and amateur
archeologist who climbed Mount Ararat “in search of Noah’s Ark” and who sold
the clay tablet that became known as Plimpton 322 which provided a window into
the world of Babylonian mathematics and linguistics passed away today.
1866:
Today in Brooklyn, twenty-seven-year-old New York banker Walther Luttgen, the
German born son of Carl and Johanne Luttgen and a valued member August Belmont
Company married Amelia Victoria Bremeyer with whom he had two daughter –
Florence and Gertrude.
1867(18th
of Iyar, 5672): Lag B’Omer observed on the same that Jesse James and his gang
“robbed a bank in Richmond, MO, killing two and getting away with four thousand
dollars.
1870: The
annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites was held this
evening at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City. The report of the Executive
Committee included a comprehensive look at conditions of Jews in a various
communities. The committee reported that the Governor of Syria had agreed to
allow the purchase of land for a Jewish agricultural school. Construction will begin as soon as the
government at Constantinople gives its approval. Romanian Jews, including those living in Bucharest,
Vacco and Salatz have been the victims of violent attacks. Jews continued to suffer in Russia and they
continue to subject to laws prohibiting them from living near the frontier.
Halevy has not begun his trip to China where he is to gain information on the
condition of the Jews living there. At its recent meeting in Paris, the
Universal Alliance reported that it had 12,000 members around the world. The
committee urged that other states adopt laws similar to the one in New York
that allows Jews who observe the Sabbath to work on Sunday, despite the
existence of “Blue Laws.” The committee urged the Jewish population to support
Maimonides College. The committee
credited “the good sense of the American public” that organizations attempting
to Christianitize the U.S. Constitution had meant with little success.
1871: An
Imperial Ukase (proclamation) has been issued order the Jews of Poland to
change their appearance by doing away with their long black coats and trimming
their beards and side-curls.
1873:
Birthdate of Rabbi Leo Baeck. His most famous work was The Essence of
Judaism. He believed in ethical monotheism as part of the core of Judaism.
Unlike contemporary rationalists, he also acknowledged that the mystery of God
was also essential to Jewish belief. He saw the need for the experiencing God
at the emotional level. This experience would lead to the ethical behavior.
Also, Baeck saw the need for ritual as an affirmation of the concept of people
hood. Baeck chose not to leave Germany. He was imprisoned at Terezienstadt. His
faith survived the experience. He passed away in 1956.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/baeck.html
1874(7th
of Sivan, 5634): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1874:
Birthdate of “Ephraim Moses Lilien an art nouveau illustrator and printmaker
particularly noted for his art on Jewish themes who is sometimes called the
“first Zionist artist” whose works included a photograph of Herzl taken
1901https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_Moses_Lilien#/media/File:Herzl_Basel_1901.jpg
and “The Queen of Sabbath” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_Moses_Lilien#/media/File:Juda_13.jpg
https://streetsofisrael.wordpress.com/2014/01/
1875: In Essen,
Germany, Isaac Simon Hirschland, the son of Son of Simon Hirschland and
Marianne Hirschland and his wife Henriette Hirschland gave birth to London
resident Agatha Gruenebaum, the wife of Ernest
Gruenebaum and mother of Ludwig Gruenebaum; Kaethe Weinberg; Erich Otto
Grunebaum; Kurt Hermann Gruenebaum and Charlotte Hackett
1875: “An
Interesting Jewish Ceremony” published today described the conversion ceremony
of Henrietta Held at which Rabbi Marx Cohn officiated.
1875: “Michel Levy: The Life of a Great French
Publisher” published today described the shock in Paris at the death of this 54
year old literary leader and provided a detailed account of his life and
accomplishments.
1877: In
Paterson, NJ, Judge Barkalow will begin to hear evidence in divorce case
involving Moses Fananholz (or Tananholz) originally from Chicago and his wife
the former Rachel Blumenthal from Montreal.
The wife claims that her husband only married her for her money; that
she that the ceremony was only for a betrothal under Jewish custom and not a
marriage ceremony; and that since she was under the age of 18 (the age of
consent) when the ceremony was performed the marriage was illegal.
1877: At
Buffalo, NY, in the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, architect Cyrus Lazelle
Warner Eidlitz the son of architect Leopold Eidlitz married Jennie Turner
Dudley.
1879: Proposed
Hebrew Convention” published today described the preparations that are being
made for the upcoming meeting in New York of delegates representing the
“various branches of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Agenda items will include a report on
charitable activities and a report on the activities at the college the Union
controls which trains young men to serve as rabbis. One major topic of discussion will be the
proposed to change Jewish Sabbath services from Saturday to Sunday.
1879(1st of
Sivan, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1879: In
Milwaukee, WI, Carrie Strauss and Isaac Friend gave birth to Harvard trained
attorney Arthur S. Friend, the husband of Fanny Hartz and “head of the A.S.
Friend Companies engaged in the construction and operation of a chain of
theatre located in New England” who had begun his “theatrical career as general
counsel to Jesee L Lasky Feature Play Company after which he produced several
motion pictures starring George Arliss.
1880: In
Jerusalem, Joseph Raphael, the chief justice of the Sephardi community of
Jerusalem and president of the community council and his wife gave birth to Ben-Zion
Meir Hai Uziel “the Sephardi chief rabbi of Mandatory Palestine from 1939 to
1948, and of Israel from 1948 until his death in 1953.”
1881:
Birthdate of Russian native and labor editor for The Jewish Morning Journal
William Post who in 1905 came to the United States where he was “a charter
member and vice president of the Jewish Writers Union and an author who used
the Nome de plume William Pohotsky as well as the husband of of Pauline Post
and the father of Nathan Post.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/08/02/88272179.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1882(5th
of Sivan, 5642): Erev Shavuot
1882: In
Cleveland, OH, 41-year-old Isaac Alsbacher and 31 year old Rebecca Klein gave
birth to Dr. David Darwin Alsbacher, the fourth of their sixth children.
1883: In
Denver, CO, 49-year-old Pennsylvania native Hezekiah Charles Ullman, the son of
German-Jewish immigrants Lazarus Ullman and Lydia Abrahams and Ella Adelaide
gave birth to Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman who gained fame as “swashbuckling”
movie star Douglas Fairbanks.
1884: As the
May Laws took effect “Jews who had served in the army encountered difficulties,
at the expiration of their terms of service, in resettling in the villages in
which they had dwelt.”
1885(9th
of Sivan, 5645) Parashat Nasso
1885(9th
of Sivan, 5645): Marcus Simon Rosenbacher, the Sulzbach, Germany born son of
Simon Aron Rosenbacher and Libussa Rosenbacher, husband of Franziska (Fanni)
Anna Rosenbacher and Henriette Rosenbacher and father of Emanuel Rosenbacher;
Marie Lobethal; Therese Michael; Wilhelm Rosenbacher and Dr. Arnold Rosenbacher,
a leader of the Jewish community in Prague and “Hebrew scholar” who was the
president of the Union of Bohemian Jewish Congregation and vice-president of
the Union of Austrian Jews passed away today in Hamburg, Germany.
1886(18th
of Iyar, 5646): Lag B’Omer
1886:
Birthdate of Moshe David Drabkin known as David Remez the native of Belarus who
made Aliyah in 1913 with his wife Liba. At the end of his long, rich career he
was one of those who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1948 and served
as cabinet minister in Ben-Gurion’s first two governments.
1886: Rachel
Montefiore was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1886:
Ninety-year old German historian Leopold von Ranke who described Mosaic
monotheism and “its revolt against nature worship” as the “principle on which
is built a civil society which is alien to every abuse of power” in his
Universal History, passed away today.
1887: Oscar S.
Straus, the new United States Minister to Turkey and his family arrived in
Constantinople today. They had been
expected ten days earlier but were delayed when their daughter became ill in
Vienna.
1889:
Birthdate of New York native Louis brand who played basketball for CCNY from
1907 through 1909.
1890: It was
reported today Mrs. Charles Peterson claims an unnamed Jewish peddler had
pitched her nine month old daughter into a tub of water. The mother claims she “was absent at the
time” and has not offered a basis for the claim.
1890: All of
the children of the late Herman Frohman “applied for and secured from the Court
of Common Please a writ de lunatic” which will force their mother, Mary
Frohman, to answer charges that she is “a lunatic.” This is part of a dispute over the estate of
the deceased Jewish butcher.
1891: A fire
broke early today at tenement house at 38 Ludlow Street which is home to 18
Jewish families.
1892: In New
York City, “Selig and Goldie (Feigen) Peshkin gave birth to Dr. Morris Murray
Peshkin, the Fordham graduate and husband of Lillian Rapaport who served as the
clinical professor of medicine and pediatric allergies at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine and the national president of the Asthmatic Children’s
Foundation.
1892: “A
resolution of sympathy for the Jews of Russia was introduced and passed” at
today’s session of a conference of Methodist leaders being held in Omaha,
Nebraska. “The resolution declared that it was the sense of the conference that
the Jews in Russia were being unmercifully persecuted” and that “it was the
hope of the conference that Russian Jews would soon enjoy the same rights as
other people.”
1893: It was
reported today there are only two Jewish murderers imprisoned at Sing Sing
Prison in New York. Sixty year old Adolph Reich is serving a life sentence for
having killed his wife. He had been
sentenced to death, but the Governor commuted his sentence. Charles Lovitz was
found guilty of murder in the second degree after having shot his wife.
1894: On the
second day of the First American Conference of Hebrew and Christian Workers for
Israel, Reverend James Adler delivered a talk on “Dry Bones” which included a
recitation of his problems in trying to convert Jews.
1894:
“Congress of Liberal Religionists” published today described meetings being
held at Temple Sinai in Chicago, Illinois that include representatives of
Reform Movement and other denominations such as the Unitarians and the Ethical
Cultural Movement with the hope “of securing closer cooperation between the
denominations of liberal religious societies.”
The congress is an outgrowth of the Parliament of Religions which was
held in Chicago during the World’s Fair.
1895: It was
reported today that Max Casten, alias “Jew Sam” has been arrested in St. Louis,
MO, on charges of stealing $2,500 worth of diamonds
1895:Birthdate
of Maryland native Kate Markowitz who gained fame as Kate Weinberg the wife of
Baltimore clothing manufacturer Harry E. Weinberg, the mother of Selma Ruth
Weinberg and the daughter-in-law of Gittel and Shmul Yakov Weinberg
1898: Martin
Beir, the Rochester fire insurance agent, was in New York on business today
1898:
“Patriotism of the Jews” published today included a declaration by Rabbi
Rudolph Grossman that the United States war with Spain “was of Divine ordering”
and that Spain’s kingdom in the western hemisphere is “finished
1898: It was
reported today that there one thousand Jewish officers in the Austro-Hungary
Army, that one further of the officers in the French Army are Jews and that
there were 10,000 Jews in the Union Army.
1898: During
the Spanish-American War, Corporal Leo Witkovski of Tampa, FL serving in
Company M of the 1st Florida Volunteer Infantry was among those
mustered into federal service today.
1899: Charles
Latimer who has been accused of being one of the men who attacked Leopold Levy
is being held by police. Levy has died
of from the wounds that Latimer and his unknown compatriots inflicted on the 49
year old salesman.
1900: In Kiev,
Bella and Nachum D. Petchersky gave birth to New York real estate executive and
philanthropist Solomon N. Petchers, who served on the board of the American
Association for Jewish Education and helped to fund the Albert Einstein College
of Medicine and the Central Library for the Blind in Jerusalem.
1900:
Birthdate of Franz Leopold Neumann “a German-Jewish left-wing political
activist and labor lawyer, who …is considered to be among the founders of
modern political science in the Federal Republic of Germany.”
1900: Herzl
seeks support at a meeting with Ernest von Koerber, Austrian political leader
who served as Prime Minister from 1900 to 1904.
1901(5h of
Sivan, 5661): Erev Shavuot
1901:
According to the petition of Bushrod M. Watts of Baltimore City by Isaac Lobe
Straus, which today Watts “caused to be served by personal service upon
Republican Samuel Affelder, a Baltimore City Councilman, a notice of contest
for said seat in the First Branch of the City Council of Baltimore City from
the Fourteenth Ward…”
1902: In the
North, South and West Ends of Boston all of the Solomont kosher meat stores
were operating today after “disturbances occurred among the Hebrews yesterday”
in front the establishments.
1903: In
Buffalo, NY, a special committee submitted a resolution to the American Baptist
Missionary Union condemning “the recent massacre of the Jews in Russia.”
1903:
Following the Kishinev Pogrom Wenzel von Plehve, Russian Minister of the
Interior “rebuffed a Jewish delegation that asked for a condemnation of the
massacre and relaxation of anti-Jewish rules.”
1903: Herzl
writes to Wenzel von Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior and to Konstantin
Pobiedonostzev asking them to arrange an audience with the Czar. Herzl also
turned to Bertha von Suttner and asks for her assistance in this matter. Von
Sutter was an Austrian writer, pacifist and the first woman to win the Nobel
Prize for Peace.
1904: In
Cincinnati, 37-year-old “lawyer and stockbroker Alfred Holzman and 31 year old
Rachel Florence Workum Hlozman gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate
Elizabeth Lloyd Holzman the Blues singer and actress who gained fame as Libby
and who at her death was known as “Mrs. Libby Holman Reynolds Schanker, widow
of a Reynolds tobacco heir and the wife of artist Louis Shanker.
1905(18th
of Iyar, 5665): Lag B’Omer
1905: It is
believed that the speech Feodor Chaliapin gave today to workingman at Karkoff
“in which he urged the audience not to molest the Jews who after all he were
their brothers, prevented another Jewish massacre.
1906: New
Atlantic Hall was crowded” tonight “with pushcart peddlers who are members of
the East Side Pushcart Peddlers Association” who contend “that for two years
the Bureau of Licenses has refused to issue peddler’s licenses to Jews” and
“that every pushcart license held by a Jew on the east side represents ‘graft’
paid to someone whom they call a ‘politician.’”
1907: In
Albany, NY, State Senator Martin Saxe introduced a bill “which provides for
important amendments to the Civil Rights Act” which was prompted by the refusal
of the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel in Atlantic City to rent rooms Mrs. Bertha Rayner-Frank and her
nieces because they were Jewish.
1907: “Apology
to Mrs. Frank” published today described events surrounding the
Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel’s refusal of service to Mrs. Bertha Rayner Franks
and her two nieces because they were Jewish and the subsequent apology by
Josiah White & Sons, the Atlantic City hotel’s owner.
1908:
Birthdate of architect Max Abramovitz two of his most famous designs were
Lincoln Center and the UN building.
1909: New York
City native Dr. Bernard Drachman, a graduate of Columbia University and the
University of Heidelberg is scheduled to be installed today as the rabbi at
“Chab Zedek Congregation” on West 116th Street.
1908:
Birthdate of Linda Mathews Watkins, the wife Gabriel Lorie Hess and attorney
for Will Hays and the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America whom
he married divorcing his first wife Helen Baer Stamm and the mother of Adam
Hess.
1909(3rd of
Sivan, 5669): Elias Solomon, an Australian politician, passed away. Born in
1839, in London, England, he migrated to Australia as a child. He had no formal
education, but in 1868 became a clerk and auctioneer in Fremantle in Western
Australia. In 1877 he was elected to the Fremantle City Council. In 1892, he
was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly as the member for
South Fremantle, where he remained until 1901. In that year, he transferred to
federal politics, winning the Australian House of Representatives seat of
Fremantle for the Free Trade Party. He was defeated by Labor’s William
Carpenter in 1903.
1910(14th
of Iyar, 5670): Pesach Sheni
1910:
Celebration of the Geiger Centenary.
1910:
Birthdate Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York, who became a popular “big band” bandleader Artie Shaw whose hits included
“Come’on my House”.
1911:
Dedication ceremony of the New York Public Library. Over the next century, the library would
provide countless generations of Jews a variety of cultural and educational
opportunities. The library’s “Dorot
Jewish Division is one of the great collections of Judaica in the world and the
most accessible for both scholarly and personal use. While the collection
offers commentary on all aspects of Jewish life it also includes Hebrew and
Yiddish-language texts on general subjects.”
1912(7th
of Sivan, 5672): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1912: “The
remains of the late General Morris Horkheimer” who died yesterday at Atlantic
City “accompanied by his family” are scheduled to arrive in Wheeling, West
Virginia “at 9:30 this morning…and will be removed to the family home at 800
Main Street and arrangements for the funeral.
1912: Tonight,
at a meeting of the American Immigration and Distribution League at the Hotel
Manhattan, Montefiore G. Kahn, Acting Secretary of the organization, announced
that he would give the league 13,000 acres of farming and clay lands in New
Jersey, valued by the donor at more than $2,600,000. The land was to be
parceled out free to deserving immigrants who desire to become farmers.
1912: Today,
The Hamburg-American Line under the leadership of general director Albert
Ballin launched the SS Imperator, which at that time was reported to be “the
world’s largest Ship.
1913: In New
York founding of the American Society for the Control of Cancer, now known as
the American Cancer Society which helps in the fight against a disease with
Jews have a unique history.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15516840
1914:
Birthdate of actor and critic Leo Lerman, author and editor for style setting
magazines including Mademoiselle, Vogue and Vanity Fair.
1915: “The
Illinois Equal Suffrage Association, Political Equality League and Women’s
Club” are among the organizations supporting the gathering of “Chicago women…in
the big banquet hall of the Auditorium Hall” scheduled to take place this
afternoon to protest the execution of Leo M. Frank.
1915: In
response to questions about clemency for Leo Frank, the Governor-elect’s views
published today state that “You can just say for Nat Harris that if the matter
of dealing executive clemency to the condemned man is to be considered by him,
the entire outside world will not be taken into consideration one it. It is entirely a Georgia matter.”
1915: “A
report telling of the relief work for the benefit of war sufferers in Palestine
was issued today by the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist
Affairs” chaired by Louis D. Brandeis.
1915: In New
York, “the local Kehillah, or Jewish community meeting in the Concert Hall of
Madison Square Garden today, endorsed the idea of holding a conference of
delegates from Jewish organizations throughout the country to consider the
plight of European Jews and to determine what could be done for the
amelioration of their condition after the war.”
1915: “In
remarks preceding his sermon this morning,” Dr. Madison C. Peters of the North
Baptist Church on West Eleventh Street said, “I know the people of Georgia and
it is unfair to judge all by those who are clamoring for the life of a man who
by common consent I not innocent, has never had a fair trial. The outcries of the mob against the defendant
were not against Leo Frank – it was a cry against the Jew.”
1915: In New
York this afternoon “at a meeting of the Alliance Israelite Universelle…a
resolution was adopted after being seconded by Professor Richard Gottheil of
Columbia to prepare a protest in the name of the Jews of the United States
against the execution of Leo Frank” because those at “the meeting took the
stand that the Frank verdict was the result of race prejudice…”
1915: “A
letter from Leo Frank was received today by Harry A. Lipsky of the Daily Jewish
Courier” in which the condemned man expresses his appreciation for the support
of the Chicago community and stating “I am well and putting up as good a fight
as I know how.”
1915: It was
reported today that ex-Congressman William W. Howard of Augusta has been chosen
to argue the case to grant clemency in the case of Leo M. Frank before Governor
Slaton should the appeal to the State Prison Commission fail.
1916: Isidore
Hershfield an attorney “who went to the war zone last October to represent the
Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society,” “visited all of the battles
fronts and distributed relief to Jews in the war area” is expected to arrive in
New York today aboard the New Amsterdam.
1916: The last
in a series of notes were exchanged between the Russians, French and British
which finalized the terms of the Sykes-Picot Agreement which effectively
“divided” the Ottoman Empire among the Allies while the outcome of WW I was
still in doubt.
1916: Henry
Morgenthau, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey is scheduled to address the
Illinois Manufacturers Association at noon today after which he will leave for
St. Louis and Kansas City “where he will continue his pleas for aid for the war
sufferers.”
1916: A
resolution was unanimously adopted by 1,400 at the convention of the
Independent Order of B’rith Abraham requesting that the Governor of New York
institute a public investigation of “the charges made by Max J. Klein that,
because he was a Jews, he was barred from the Second Field Artillery, National
Guard of NY by Captain Howard E. Sullivan of Battery D.
1916: At the
concluding session of the 13th annual convention of the Independent
Order of B’rith Abraham at the Amsterdam Opera House the following officers
were elected: Grand Master – Leon Sanders; Deputy Grand Masters: Gustave
Hartman, Abraham Rosoff, Max H. Schoen, Emil Zuker, Dr. George Sulton, Phillip
P. Levy, Otto S. Hirsch, Hyman Winick, Jacob Zuckerman and Jacob Eaton; Grand
Secretary – Max Hollander; Grand Treasurer – David Goldberg; Grand Trustee –
Benjamin Eherenfeld and Counsel of the Order – Adolph Stern.
1916: “The
organization of the first Kehillah on Washington Heights was completed at a
meeting of of about 500 Jews” tonight in the Washington Heights Synagogue” on
161st Street where the speakers included Rabbi Judah L. Magnes,
Chairman of the Kehillah of New York, Emanuel Hertz, and Dr. Elias Margolies.
1917: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at Temple Jehosuah for fifty-eight-year-old
Fannie Schwager, the wife of Morris Schwager
1917: This
evening, “the workers of the Central Jewish Institute” hosted “a farewell
banquet to mark the departure of Rabbi Herbert S. Goldman” for his new venture
to improve life in the Jewish district centered on 116th Street
which he called the “hell” of the city of New York.
1917: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this afternoon for Mrs. Abe Siegel, the
mother of Lawrence Siegel at Free Son’s Cemetery in Chicago.
1917: The
annual meeting of the Jewish Home Finding Society of Chicago of which Mrs.
Adolph Kurz is Secretary is scheduled to take place this evening at the
Standard Club.
1917: The
joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the
Anglo-Jewish Association, “two of the most influential bodies of British Jewry”
issued a statement opposing “Jewish resettlement in Palestine, as planned by
the Zionist organizations.”
1918: White
Russia native Leon Cheifitz, a resident of “Canada at the age of 9” and a
member of “Poale Zion at the age of 15, left for camp after having joined the
Jewish Legion in which he would rise to the rank of Sergeant before being
demobilized in 1921.
1918: It was
reported today that “a dispatch from Paris states that the Jewish National
Council has issued a protest against the atrocities committed upon the Jewish
population in occupied Russia” while also charging “that pogroms have been
organized by the German authorities who have aroused the peasants against the
Jews.”
1919: Dr. Emil G. Hirsch and Julius Rosenwald are scheduled to be two of the
guests of honor at luncheon hosted this afternoon by The Council of Jewish
Women at the La Salle Hotel in Chicago.
1920(6th
of Sivan, 5680): Shavuot observed for the last time during the Presidency of
Woodrow Wilson
1921: “The
biennial Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Fourth
Assembly of the Federation of Temple Sisterhoods was formally convened tonight
with services in Temple Beth Zion” where Dr. A.L. Meyer of San Francisco gave
the council sermon and “the delegates were greeted by Rabbi Louis J. Kopald…”
1922: Premier
of “Abie’s Irish Rose.” This was the first of over 2,500
performances seen by an estimated fifty million attendees.
1922:
Birthdate of New York native, Julliard trained violinist and WW II veteran
Seymour Solomon, who with his brother Maynard founded Vangaurd Records, a must
label for folk music lovers in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/19/arts/seymour-solomon-80-record-label-founder.html
1923:
Birthdate of Bessarabia native Boris Dorfman who authored about 1000 articles
on Jewish issues in Yiddish, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish and German for
publications including Birobidzhaner Shtern, who was one of the founders of
Shofar, the first Jewish newspaper in the former USSR and the father of
American publicist Michael Dorfman.
1924: Police
in Chicago pursued the investigation into the murder of Bobby Franks, whom they
now knew was not being held for ransom since his corpse had been discovered.
1925:
Birthdate of photographer Henry Wolf, owner of Henry Wolf Productions and the
1976 recipient of the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal for Lifetime
Achievement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/16/business/media/16wolf.html
1925:
Esther Goldenbaum Schulman Lederberg and Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Lederberg gave birth
to Dr. Joshua Lederberg “an American molecular biologist who is known for his
work in genetics, artificial intelligence, and space exploration. He was
awarded half of the Nobel Prize in 1958 for his research in genetic structure
and function in microorganisms. The other half of that year’s prize was shared
by Edward Lawrie Tatum and George Wells Beadle. In addition to his
contributions to biology, Lederberg did extensive research in artificial
intelligence. This included work in the NASA experimental programs seeking life
on Mars and the chemistry expert system Dendral. Lederberg’s parents had moved
to the United States from Palestine in 1924.
His father was an Orthodox Rabbi. Fortunately for the world of science
when Lederberg was Bar Mitzvahed in 1938 he received a copy of Bodansky’s” Introduction
to Physiological Chemistry,” a book that he said had a tremendous impact on
his scientific development.
1926:
Birthdate of Amos Degani, the Tel Aviv native whose political career included
serving as an MK from 1957 to 1969.
1926:
Birthdate of Yossel Mashel Slovo, the native of Lithuania who as Joe Slovo
became a leader in the anti-Apartheid movement while serving as a leader of the
South African Communist Party and the African National Congress.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-joe-slovo-1566935.html
1926:
In Wilno Max Weinreich and Regina Szabad gave birth to linguist Uriel
Weinreich.
1926:
The United Jewish Campaign in New York is scheduled to come to an end today.
1927:
Birthdate of Dieter Hildebrandt, the German non-Jew who directed the Academy
Award nominated documentary “The Yellow Star – The Persecution of the Jews in
Europe 1933-45.”
1928:
Having delivered an address last night in which he called “upon the Zionist of
America to ‘refrain from fratricidal war’” Dr. Chaim Weizman is scheduled to
leave today for London
1928:
In speech given tonight at a meeting of the Samuel Tichner Society, Supreme
Court Justice Peter J. Schmuck “praised the society as one of the oldest of the
New York Jewish orders” having begun as “a boy’s social club on the lower east
side that began in 1875.
1929:
Birthdate of Marvin J. Chomsky who won Emmy Awards for his direction
“Holocaust” in `978 and “Inside the Third Reich” in 1982.
1929:
“The Crown,” a play by David Calderon premiere in Tel Aviv in a production
directed by Alesksei Dikiy.
1929: In
Palestine, the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel HaTzair, the
two major labor parties sign an agreement that will merge the two
parties into one. The merger is slated
to take place on July 25.
1930:
After having earned his LL.B in February and passed the New York State Bar
Exam, Chicago White Sox Catcher Moe Berg, who had injured his knee during an
exhibition game with the Little Rock Travelers, “returned to the starting
line-up” today.
1930:
“Westfront 1918,” a German movie about World War I featuring Wladimir Sokoloff
was released in Germany today.
1930:
In Brooklyn, David and Eva Kellman gave birth to Dr. Charles D. Kelman, the
clinical professor of ophthalmology and “father of phacoemulsification.”
1931(7th
of Sivan, 5691): Second Day of Shavuot and Shabbat.
1931:
“Albert Ottinger, chairman of the New York campaign for $1,000,000 for the aid
of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe, issued a statement today attacking Adolf
Hitler and his German Fascist followers for their alleged anti-Semitic
campaign” saying that “the Hitlerites have sponsored propaganda against the
Jews in forty magazines and sixty newspapers and have caused to be print
cartoons picturing the Jews as the enemies of Germany.”
1932(17th
of Iyar, 5692): Eighty-year-old textile manufacturer and philanthropist James
Simon who provided funding for several archaeological digs passed away today.
http://www.meaus.com/109-james-simon-memorial.htm
1932:
“The Tenderfoot,” a film based on George S. Kaufman’s play “The Butter and Egg
Man” as released today in the United States.
1933:
It was reported today that detectives who had questioned Waxy Gordon (born
Irving Wexler) about the murders of Max Hassel and Max Greenberg “got the
impression that he might welcome a jail sentence” for federal income evasion
“since rival gunmen are said to be out to murder him and his associates.”
1933:
Birthdate of Alvin Ira Malnik, the St. Louis born businessman “with
long-lasting business and personal relationships with members of the Rat Pack”
who “purchased and remodeled The Forge restaurant in Miami Beach” with the late
Jay Weiss.
1933:
Birthdate of Paris native Rabbi Aharon Lictenstein who uniquely received
semicha from Yeshiva University after
which he earned “a PhD in English Literature from Harvard” where he met his
future wife Tova, the daughter of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik.
https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2014/04/who-is-aharon-lichtenstein/
http://www.timesofisrael.com/renowned-rabbi-aharon-lichtenstein-dies-at-81/
1933:
The all-Jewish Platoon of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps was expanded to an
all-Jewish company under the command of Captain Noel S. Jacobs. While the
unit’s chaplain was Rabbi Mendel Brown, the leader of the Sephardic community,
most of the members were Russian Jews
1934:
The Palestine Jewish National Assembly orchestrated a general strike against
the immigration ban that was scheduled to last from noon until 7 p.m. this
evening. During the strike, fifty Jewish strikers in Tel Aviv were wounded in
clashes with the police. Twenty of the wounded were described as being in
serious condition.
1934(9th
of Sivan, 5694): Sixty-six-year-old Harvard trained lawyer Simon Louis Adler a judge
of the United States court for the western district of New York, died of a
heart attack today after which he was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in
Rochester, NY.
1934(9th
of Sivan, 5694): Fifty-seven-year-old composer and arranger Gustave Salzer who
served as the musical director for several Broadway shows including “Animal
Crackers,” “Sweet Adeline” and “The Dubarry” passed away today.
1935:
Joseph “Yosky” Toblinsky participated in the hijacking of a truck
while driving through Sullivan County today escaping with $8,000 worth of
pharmaceutical drugs. He also kidnapped
the driver and his assistant. Born in
1879, Toblinsky “was a New York City racketeer who, as head of an independent
gang on East Side Manhattan, was involved in extortion and poisoning horses
with the Yiddish Black Hand during the early 1900s. He was… sent to Sing Sing
Prison for cruelty to animals in 1902.”
1936:
As Arab violence continued, “on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road, just outside of
Jerusalem, two light tanks and two trucks carrying troops were fired upon from
the Arab Village of Ainkarem.”
1936:
Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes is scheduled to deliver an address
which will broadcast this evening from the Astor Hotel where the New York
United Palestine Appeal is hosting a dinner to mark the start of it drive to
raise $1,500,000 for the aide of European Jews seeking settlement in Palestine.
1936:
“Night riders of the Black Legion, a terroristic secret society” whose
“prospective members are asked if they will take arms against Jews, Negroes and
Catholics” are the leading suspects in the murder of a 32 year old Works
Project Administration (WPA) worker in Detroit.
1936:
Declaring that German refugees in France, Holland, Czechoslovakia and other
European countries were in a ‘precarious’ condition the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee announced” today “emergency appropriations were being
made to meet the needs of the victims” over and above the five thousand dollars
sent monthly to Holland, the ten thousand dollars sent to Czechoslovakia and
the more than twelve thousand dollars sent to Austria.
1937(13th
of Sivan, 5697): Sixty-eight-year-old
German born, and University of Bonn trained medical doctor, Gustave
Lippman the husband of Alice Drey Lippmann and son-in-law of Albert and Marie
Drey who in 1894 moved to St. Louis where he practiced pediatrics and served on
the faculty of St. Louis University passed away today.
1937:
Birthdate of Jerome Rosenberg who would hold the dubious distinction of being
the longest serving prisoner in New York State when he died.
1937:
“In accordance with the proclamation of Dr. Stephen S. Wise declaring today as
National Shekel Day, 10,000 volunteers” conducted “a house-to-house canvass
seeking 250,000 members for the 1937 enrollment of American Zionists.
1937:
Ninety-seven-year-old John D. Rockefeller passed away. To the world at large, he was the founder of Standard
Oil, one of the robber barons, etc. But
he was also the founder of the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/rockmuseum.html
1938(22nd
of Iyar, 5698): Fifty-three-year-old Richmond physician and vice president of
the ZOA Dr. Lazarus Karp the Latvian born son of decorated war hero Israel
Joseph Karp and father of Columbia University graduate Mina Karp passed away
today.
1938:
As Arab violence continued unabated, The
Palestine Post reported that Yitzhak Yitzhaki, 55, was attacked and stabbed
to death by two Arabs near the Beit Vegan quarter of Jerusalem. Ezekiel Muncik,
25, a supernumerary constable from Kfar Yona was shot and killed during one of
the Arab attacks on Hanita. Another young settler, Abraham Katz was severely
wounded only one hour later and it was impossible to Ctake him to hospital. A
police sergeant, injured in an earlier attack, died of his wounds in the Haifa
hospital. Two Arabs were injured by a bomb explosion in Tiberias.
1939(5th
of Sivan, 5699): Erev Shavuot
1939: Following the adoption of the infamous MacDonald
White Paper which all but put an end to Jewish immigration in Palestine,
Winston Churchill, who was still a political outcast, spoke in favor of
Jewish immigration telling the House of Commons, “So far from being
persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till
their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the
Jewish population. Now are being asked to decree that all this is to come
to an end. We are now asked to submit, and this is what rankles most with
me, to an agitation which fed with foreign money and ceaselessly inflamed by
Nazi and by Fascist propaganda.” (According to Martin Gilbert,
Churchill was right. “Between 1922 and 1939 more Arabs had entered
Palestine than Jews.” Many of these immigrants were drawn to
Palestine by the improving economic conditions which were often a product
of Jewish settlement. Ironically, these Moslems who came from a variety
of North African and Middle Eastern countries would be counted among the
“Palestinian refugees” that are with us to this date.)
1939:
During a debate on the Peel Commission’s White Paper, Winston Churchill defends
the Balfour Declaration and criticizes Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for
betraying the Zionists and turning his back on a document he had so ardently supported
twenty years before. “They (the Jewish
settlers) have fulfilled his (Chamberlain) hopes. How can he find it in his heart to strike
them this mortal blow?” Upon hearing of the speech, Weizmann telegraphed
Churchill” “Your magnificent speech may yet destroy this policy. Words fail me to express thanks.”
1939:
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Long, criticized the McDonald White Paper
in a speech in the House of Lords.
1939:
In Palestine, on the eve of the Shavuot holiday, seven new settlements are
established simultaneously. In all, twelve new settlements are established in
May, expressing the faith that even in the grim new circumstances of the White
Paper, settlement was one of the essential means of fighting for the Zionist
aim.
1939:
Isaac Nachman Steinberg a Russian born Zionist who was a leader of the
“Territorialist Movement” arrived in Perth, Australia and began trying to gain
support for the “Kimberly Scheme” – a plan in which “75,000” Jews fleeing
Europe would be settled in the western part of Australia.
1940:
In what may be one of the strangest meetings in the history of the Roosevelt
White House, FDR met with Louis E. Krstein, Chairman of Feline’ Department
Store.
1940:
Archibald Henry Maule Ramsay the anti-Semitic, pro-fascist Member of Parliament
was arrested and lodged in Brixton Prison on an order under Defence Regulation
18B
1940:
As French forces fled from the attacking German Army, Margaret and Hans Rey
returned to Paris from Normandy.
1940:
The Broadway production of “Keep Off the Grass,” “a musical revue produced by
Lee Shubert and J.J. Shubert” opened today at the Broadhurst Theatre where it
“ran for a total of 44 performances.
1940:
Frustrated by “illegal” immigration into Palestine, British
High Commissioner for Palestine Sir Harold MacMichael insists that Hungary
accept the return of two Jews who had left Hungary and settled in Palestine in
1934 on tourist visas. The Hungarian government replies that there are an
“excessive” number of Jews in their country and the government’s aim
is “that as many as possible should be encouraged to emigrate.”
1940:
Lord Lloyd, the Secretary of State for Colonies expressed his opposition to
Prime Minister Churchill’s plan to arm the Jews of Palestine so that he could
bring the 20,000 British troops stationed in Palestine home to defend against a
possible German invasion. Lloyd feared
the reaction of the Arabs to what Churchill saw as a way of providing for
self-defense while meeting the Nazi menace.
1941:
Birthdate of Zalman King Lefkowitz who
as Zalman King gained fame as “a filmmaker who mixed artistic aspiration, a
professed empathy for female sexuality and gauzy photography to bring soft-core
pornography to cable television — particularly with his Showtime series “Red
Shoe Diaries” in the 1990s…´(As reported by Douglas Martin)
1942(7th
of Sivan, 5702): Second Day of Shavuot
1942(7th
of Sivan, 5702): After having been tortured by the Nazis for at least two
months, George Politzer was murdered by a firing squad.
1942:
The Nazis deported the Jews from Stopkov, Slovakia, including the Findling
family today and sent them to Auschwitz
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/08.asp
1942:
“Grand Central Murder” produced by B.F. Zeidman and featuring Same Levene “as
Inspector Gunther” was released in the United States today.
1943(18th
of Iyar, 5703): Lag BaOmer
1943: Nazi
Aktionen kill thousands of Ukrainian
Jews at Przemyslany and Lvov.
1943: U.S.
premiere of “Mission to Moscow” a film treatment of the memoir of the former
U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union directed by Michael Curitz, with a script
by Howard Koch and a musical score by Max Steiner.
1944(1st of
Sivan, 5704): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1944: In New
York, Rabbi Samuel Belkin was inaugurated as President of the Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary and Yeshiva College. An honorary degree of Doctor
of Law was conferred upon Supreme Court Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone and an
honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Rabbi Isaac Rubinstein,
former Chief Rabi of Vilna and a twenty-six-year member of the Sejm (the Polish
Senate.)
1944: In
Peekskill, NY, June and David Polis gave birth to Susan Polis who gained fame
as Susan Polis Schultz an American poet, producer of greeting cards founder of
Blue Mountains Art and the mother of Colorado Congressman Jared Polis.
1945: Gestapo
Chief Heinrich Himmler committed suicide.
1945: “Acting
on SHAEF’s orders and with the approval of the Soviets, American Major General
Rooks summoned Dönitz aboard the Patria and communicated to him that he and all
the members of his Government were under arrest, and that their Government was
dissolved.”
1945: Two
weeks after the German surrender, Chaim Weizmann writes to Prime Minister
Winston Churchill appealing for an end to the White Paper and restrictions on
Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel. The
appeal would fall on deaf ears.
1946: In
“Harrow, north London…Jewish hairdressers” gave birth to Stephen Anthony
Solomon Marks who gained game as Stephen Marks, “a British fashion retailer and
founder, chairman and chief executive of the French Connection brand.”
1946: “The
Devil’s Mask” directed by Henry Levin, with music by Irving Getz and featuring
Ludwig Donath as “Dr. Karger” was released in the United States today.
1946: James
Work was elected president of the National Farm School, after having served “as
Acting President for many months during the illness of President Louis Nusbaum.
The school was the creation Joseph Krauskoph, a leading American Reform Rabbi.
1946: A mob of
rioting Poles attacked Zypora Frank and her family today which was Zypora’s
birthday. According to Mrs. Frank, ”They threw stones, they were yelling, ‘You
take our coal and give us the Jews,’ and somebody threw a grenade.” Two people
were killed, one right next to the 11-year-old girl, spattering her birthday
dress with blood. Following another
pogrom in July, Mrs. Frank’s parents would decide to send their children to
Palestine. They were sure that the Poles would finish what the Germans had
begun.
1946(22nd
of Iyar, 5706): Lithuanian born anarchist and translator William Wess aka Woolf
Wess passed away today in London.
1946(22nd of
Iyar, 5706): Sixty-three-year-old New Jersey State Highway Commissioner Abraham
Jellin, the Russian born son of Reichel Levine and Max Jellin, the husband of
Bessie Ida Slonimsky Jellin and father of Jerome Kalman Jellin who in 1889 came
to the United States with his parents where he was “a road and bridge
contractor” before serving as Street Commissioner and Tax Assessor in New
Brunswick, NJ passed away today.
1947: The
British intercepted a three-masted Italian schooner today off the shore of
Palestine containing 1,457 Jews who were trying to enter the country. The Jews, most of whom were Polish, Russian
or Hungarian, had been on the ship for over two weeks. They had named the vessel Mordei Hagetaoth
(Ghetto Fighters) and placed a sign on the deck, written in English proclaiming
“From the ruins of the ghetto to our own country – our only refuge – Open the
gates.
1947: It was
reported today the “Zwi Brik, the former director of the Palestine Office in
Lithuania” “the first Jewish refugee to be given a visa for Cyprus” “where more
than 13,000 visaless Jews are confined” has set sail from Naples bound for the
British controlled Island.
1948(14th
of Iyar, 5708): Pesach Sheni
1948: Thomas
C. Wasson, the Consul General for the United States in Jerusalem, died today
after having been shot in an alley “by a .30 caliber rifle.”
1948: Today
“New York Times reported that Thomas Wasson “on his death bed stated that
Arabs had shot him,” but two weeks later retracted this statement.’
1948:
Independent producer Harry Popkin disclosed he had “purchased two new stories
for his program of ten pictures for United Artists”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/05/24/86901739.html?pageNumber=23
1948: The only
advance of the Arab Legion beyond the Old City walls into “Jewish
Jerusalem” was halted in front of Notre Dame. The commander of the Arab
Legion, Sir John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha), considered that battle to be the
worst defeat suffered by the legion throughout the war.
1948: Israeli
forces take control of Ramat Rahel
1948(14th
of Iyar, 5708): Rabbi Yitzchak Avigdor Orenstein, the Western Wall’s first
rabbi and his wife were killed today during the shelling of Jerusalem by the
Jordanian forces trying to seize the entire city for its King.
1948(14th
of Iyar, 5708): “An Air Transport Command C-46 Curtiss Commando aircraft which
flew from Czechoslovakia to Israel with the fuselage and engine of the first
S-199 to be assembled in Israel, crashed as a result of heavy fog which covered
Tel Nof and Sde Dov airfields. The navigator Moshe (Moses Aaron) Rosenbaum was
killed. Ed Styrack the radio operator was badly injured, and both the aircraft
and its cargo were destroyed.”
1948: The
settlement of Allonei Abba was established by Holocaust survivors from
Czechoslovakia, Romania and Germany. Even as the war with the Arabs was heating
up, Jewish settlements were being started.
When you consider the conditions in Israel at the time, this hast to
make the Jews “the eternal optimists” in the truest sense of the term. The name of the settlement came from two
Hebrew words. Allonei is a form of the
Hebrew word Allon, meaning Oak which served as a reminder of the Tabor Oaks
that grew nearby. Abba was the first
name of Abba Berdichev. Berdichev had
parachuted into Czechoslovakia in 1943 with orders to assist British
clandestine forces and aid Jews trapped in Hitler’s death trap. Like so many of the others sent on such
missions, Abba Berdichev was captured and killed.
1948: Egyptian
forces began its attack on the Jewish settlement of Negba with an artillery
barrage. The Egyptian force consisted of 2,000 well-armed troops as well as
support from the Egyptians Air Force.
The Jewish force at Negba consisted of 70 soldiers from the Haganah and
75 members of the settlement. They
lacked artillery, air cover and pretty much anything else that a modern might
need. Negba had to be held to keep the
Egyptians from reaching Tel Aviv. The
fight would last for nine days.
1949: The
Federal Republic of Germany (also known as West Germany) is established. There was a great deal of apprehension among
Jews around the world to see an independent German nation rise four years after
Hitler’s defeat. During the 1950’s West
Germany would pay reparations to the Jews and the state of Israel. Additionally, Germany would provide military
and economic support to the Jewish state despite pressure from a wide array of
Arab states.
1949: In the
UK, release date for “The Perfect Woman,” featuring David Hurst in his first
film role as “Wolfgang Winkel.
1950(7th
of Sivan, 5710): Second Day of Shavuot
1950(7th
of Sivan, 5710: Six-eight-year-old author and journalist Joseph Gollomb, the Columbia graduate and St. Petersburg born
son of Julius and Rachel Gollomb who was the uncle of actress Judy Holiday
suffered a fatal heart attack today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/05/24/132818552.html?pageNumber=29
1951:Twenty-year-old
Hyman “Hy’ Cohen who would make to the Majors for seven games in 1955, pitched
a shutout while playing for the Des Moines (IA) Cubs.
1952:
Birthdate of Tehran native and B.A. Pace University graduate Fred Ohebshalom
who in 1964 where he became a real estate mogul and philanthropist sitting on
the boards of the Iranian American Jewish Committee and of the Bet Hadassah
Iranian Jewish Center while raising four children, two of whom work in their
father’s real estate empire, with his wife Yovonee.
1954:
“Patriot and President” published today provided a review of John Adams:
Independence Forever illustrated by Jacob Landau.
1958:
Birthdate of Mitch Albom
1960(26th
of Iyar): Rabbi Joshua Chaim Kasovsky, editor of “Mishnah Concordance” passed
away.
1960: Prime Minister David Ben Gurion announces in
the Knesset that Adolf Eichmann, an Nazi SS officer, was abducted from Buenos
Aires, Argentina, by Israeli agents and flown to Israel to stand trial for
crimes against the Jewish people.
1960: In an
article published in Life magazine,
cartoonist Al Capp wrote “The secret of how to live without resentment or
embarrassment in a world in which I was different from everyone else was to be
indifferent to that difference.
1964: The
former Betsy Eichler and Arthur Milliman gave birth to Judith Jay Millman who
is named in honor of maternal grandmother Julian Jay Eichler.
1965: In New
York, filmmaker Hava Kohav Beller gave birth to author and editor Thomas
Beller.
http://www.therestlessconscience.com/interview.html
1966(4th
of Sivan, 5726): Seventy-five-year-old Lazarus Joseph the NYU basketball
player, New York State Senator, New York City comptroller and active champion
for the “rehabilitation of Jewish survivors of Nazism” whose son Jacob, a U.S.
Marine died during the Battle of Guadalcanal, passed away today.
1966(4th
of Sivan, 5726: Eighty-three-year-old, patron of the arts Minnie Guggenheimer
the New York born daughter Samuel Shafer, “a member of Shafer Brothers, a
banking firm that was founded in 1860 and granddaughter of man who made a fortune in the
California gold rush which made it possible to set up his sons in business and
the wife of attorney Charles S. Guggenheimer whom she married in 1903 and whose
father was at one time the president of the N.Y.C. Board of Alderman and acting
mayor.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/minnie-guggenheimer
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/05/24/82441700.html?pageNumber=1
1967: Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and
blockades the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli
shipping, laying the foundations for the Six Day War. A blockade like this is an act of war under
international law. In addition to which,
it was a violation of the U.N. agreements that had ended the Suez Crisis in
1956-57. After the Six Day War, there
was a lot of nit-picking about whose planes attacked first i.e. who fired the
first shot. The fact of the matter is
that this blockade was an act of war and anything the Israelis did afterwards
was an act of self-defense.
1968:
Birthdate of Los Angeles native Laura Allison Wasser, the Loyola Law School
trained attorney who is called by some the “Queen of Divorce Lawyers.”
https://www.kveller.com/jewish-divorce-lawyer-laura-wasser-is-the-queen-of-celeb-splits/
https://forward.com/schmooze/350455/8-things-about-angelina-jolies-a-list-jewish-divorce-lawyer/
1968(25th
of Iyar, 5728): Eighty-two-year-old Morris Haft, the Russian born son of Jennie
and Max H. Haft and “a major figure in the garment industry” whose ladies coat
and suit company, “Morris W. Haft and Bros. was known for many years on Seventh
Avenue as ‘the General Motors’ of the industry because of its size” and who was
active in New York politics, a major art collector and such a supporter of
Israel that the city of Herzliya named a street in his honor passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/05/24/77102682.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1969(6th of
Sivan, 5729): Shavuot is celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of
Richard M. Nixon.
1969: As
Israelis were celebrating Shavuot, Israeli security forces arrested numerous
terrorists as they foiled attacks in on both sides of what had been the Green
Line.
1970:
Birthdate of Yigal Amir, the coward who murdered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
1971(28th
of Iyar, 5731): Yom Yerushalayim
1971(28th
of Iyar, 5731): Sarah Alpert Kolko, the daughter of Isaac S. Alpert and the
wife of Nathan Kolko passed away today after she was buried at the Britton Road
Cemetery in Monroe County, NY.
1972: Thomas
Paul Malone began serving as Canadian Ambassador to Israel.
1973: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this morning for 89-year-old NYU law school
trained attorney and former senior officer of the C. I. T. Financial
Corporation Edwin C. Vogel the law partner of his brother Martin Vogel, a
trustee of Mount Sinai Hospital and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.
1976: Twenty-year-old
Amy Alcott won the LPGA Classic in Jamesburg, NY.
1977(6th of
Sivan, 5737): First Day of Shavuot
1977(6th
of Sivan, 5737): Eighty-year-old former major leaguer Sam Bohne, the San
Francisco born son of Louis Coen who named his Samuel Arthur Cohen who played
second from 1916 to 1926 for the Cardinals, Reds and Brooklyn Robins passed
away today.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the Army Ombudsman, Rav-Aluf (Res.) Haim
Laskov, complained that the cruel harassment of recruits by their
non-commissioned officers and officers was still a recurrent phenomenon in
Israel Defense Forces.
1979(26th
of Iyar, 5739): Three people were killed and thirteen more were injured when a
bomb was detonated at a bus stop in Petach Tikva.
1979: Joseph
Brodsky Russian born Jewish poet and essayist who would go on to win the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1987 and would be chosen Poet Laureate of the United
States (1991-1992) was inducted as a member of the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters.
1980: “Die
Laughing,” a comedy co-produced, co-written and co-starring Robby Benson was
released today in the United States.
1981(19th of
Iyar, 5741): Entertainer George Jessel passed away.
1981(19th of
Iyar, 5741): Russian-born Canadian lawyer and political leader David Lewis
passed away. His son is an official with the UN dealing with AIDS in Africa and
his grandson Avi Lewis is a broadcast journalist.
1981: Syria
claimed that it had shot two Israeli drones while Israel admitted the loss of
only one pilotless plane. The aircraft
which were flying a recon mission over eastern Lebanon fell victim to Syrian
missile batteries stationed in the Syrian occupied portion of that country.
1981: U.S.
Presidential envoy Philip Habib arrived in Beirut on a mission designed to keep
the situation on the Syrian-Lebanon –Israel border from exploding into war.
1981: Rabbi
Ronald B. Sobel, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El officiated at the wedding of
Sheryl E. Israel and Barry J. Spiegel. The bride’s father is Kenneth M. Israel,
president of Cinema Shares International Television Ltd., and chairman and
chief executive officer of the Excel Video International Corporation,
1982(1st of
Sivan, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1982: The New
York Times featured a review of Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a
Childhood by Kate Simon who “grew up Jewish in the Tremont Avenue section
of the Bronx, having been brought there by her young immigrant parents direct
from the Warsaw Ghetto, with only a brief stopover on the Lower East Side.”
1982:
At Cannes, premiere of “Pink Floyd – The Wall” starring Bob Geldoff, the
grandson of “Amelia Falk, an English Jew from London and with music by Bob
Ezrin and Michael Kamen
1983:
“One Day At A Time” starring Bonnie Franklin completed its 8th
season.
1984:
At the Cannes Film Festival, premiere of “Once Upon a Time in America” the
crime film based on The Hoods the novel by Harry Grey (born Herschel Goldberg)
the tells the tale of Jewish boys from the Lower East Side who grow up to be
big time hoods.
1985:
Ronald Reagan awarded Sydney Hook the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1987:
As part of the IPO’s 50th anniversary celebration, James Levine
conducts the orchestra for a second time.
1988(7th
of Sivan, 5748): Second Day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1988(7th
of Sivan, 5748): Seventy-three-year-old former French speaking CBS Paris
correspondent David Schoenbrun, one of “Murrow’s Boys” who brought us the news
in the golden age of foreign reporting passed away today.
1989(18th
of Iyar, 5749): Lag B’omer celebrated for the first time during the Presidency
of George Bush.
1990(28th
of Iyar, 5750): Yom Yerushalayim
1990:
Today “Eusébio da Silva Ferreira — considered by many to be one of the greatest
soccer players of all time — took a short trip to the Jewish section of
Vienna’s central cemetery to pray by the grave of the late Béla Guttmann, a
Hungarian Jew and soccer legend, buried there in 1981.” (As reported by JP
O’Malley)
1993:
In “Remembering Irving Howe” published today Leon Wieseltier examined the life
of his co-religionist and author known to many for his seminal work World of
Our Fathers was published today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/23/books/remembering-irving-howe-1920-1993.html
1994:
In “Richard Avedon” published today, Paula Chin examined the career of the
famous photographer who “as the only son of Jacob Israel Avedon, a
Russian-Jewish immigrant who started a successful retail dress business on
Fifth Avenue.”
https://people.com/archive/richard-avedon-vol-41-no-19/
1995(23rd
of Iyar, 5755): Rabbi Yehuda N. Mandelbaum of the Torah Institute of Baltimore
passed away today.
1995:
ABC broadcast the final episode of “Full House” a sitcom starring Bob Sage
1996(5th
of Sivan, 5756): Erev Shavuot
1999:
“Michael Landon, the Father I Knew,” a biopic written and directed by Michael
Landon, Jr. the son of the actor best known as the father on “Little House on
the Prairie” was broadcast for the first time on CBS.
1999:
The Chicago Jewish Historical Society is scheduled host “Preserve Your Family
and Community History” an Oral History Workshop at the Spertus Institute.
1999(8th
of Sivan, 5759): Eighty-eight-year-old “Edith Lewin, who with her husband,
Bernard, amassed the largest privately owned collection of Mexican modernist
art and then gave it away” passed away today.
1999:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Another Life: A Memoir
of Other People by Michael Korda.
2000(18th
of Iyar, 5760): Lag B’Omer
2000:
“Proof” the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning drama starring Ben Shenkman
as “Ben” premiered off-Broadway today.
2001(1st
of Sivan, 5761): Rosh Chodesh
2001(1st
of Sivan, 5761): “Asher Iluz, 33, of Modi’in was killed outside Ariel en route
to supervise a road paving in the area, when Palestinian gunmen opened fire in
an ambush.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
2001:
Broadcast of the final show of series three of “Felicity” created by J.J.
Abrams, starring Greg Grunberg as ‘Sean Blumberg.”
2002:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon replaced Eli Yishai as Minister of Internal
Affairs.
2002:
David Azulai completed his services as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
2002:
An Hamas detonated bomb at the Pi Glilot gas depot north of Tel Aviv failed to
set off a catastrophic explosion.
2003:
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, “Manic” starring Joseph
Gordon-Levitt was released today in the United States.
2004:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including ”Still Life With Bombers: Israel in the Age of Terrorism” by David
Horovitz and ”How Israel Lost: The Four Questions” by Richard Ben Cramer.
2004:
“Regarding the Torture of Others” by Susan Sontag was published today in the New York Times Magazine.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/23/2004/susan-sontag
2004(3rd
of Sivan, 5764): Eighty-nine year old historian, sociologist and orientalist
Maxime Rodinson, whose parents were murdered at Auschwitz, passed away today.
2005: Today,
“President George W. Bush nominated Rod Rosenstein to serve as United States
Attorney for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
2006: “In
Israel, New Reflections on Holocaust” published today, The New York Times reported on evolving Jewish methods of
remembering the Shoah. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/23/world/middleeast/23holocaust.html?_r=0
2006: Release
date of “Blue Alert,” an album co-written by Leonard Cohen.
2007(6th of
Sivan, 5767): First Day of Shavuot.
2007: The two
day Tel Aviv Poetry Festival comes to an end.
2007: Amy
Barrett and novelist Jonathan Lethem whose mother was Jewish gave birth to
Everett Barrett Latham.
2007: Today
tennis player Jesse Levine “lost his first college match in the quarter-finals
in the NCAA Men’s Singles.”
2008: Norman
Finkelstein was denied entry to Israel today “because, according to unnamed
Israeli security officials, of suspicions that ‘he had contact with elements
‘hostile’ to Israel” including’ a top Hezbollah commander in Lebanon.”
Finkelstein “visited south Lebanon and met with Lebanese families during the
2006 Lebanon War.” While ther he said: “Hizbullah represents the hope. They are
fighting to defend their homeland, they are fighting to defend the independence
of their country, they are defending themselves against foreign marauders,
vandals and murderers and I consider it to be genuinely to be an honor to be in
their presence.”
2008(18th of
Iyar, 5768): Lag B’Omer.
2008: Bradlee
Birchansky leads Friday Night Services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as
part of his Bar Mitzvah weekend.
2008: In Plymouth (UK), police detained two men linked to
the bombing of a Giraffe’s restaurant that had taken police yesterday.
According to authorities, 22-year-old Nicky Reilly, a recent convert to Islam
who police said had a history of mental illness, was wounded when a bomb went
off in the Giraffe restaurant at a shopping center in Exeter, Devon. Giraffe, which has 25 restaurants around the UK, is
owned by Jewish partners.
2008:
“Synechdoche, New York,” directed, written and co-produced by Charlie Kaufman
premiered today at Cannes.
2008: In a
story entitled “Public allowed rare chance to view Dead Scrolls,” The Columbia Dispatch reports on the
public display of the 2,100 year old 24 foot scroll with the text of the
bible’s book of Isaiah at the Israel Museum. Israel put the Dead Sea scroll
containing the Book of Isaiah on display for the first time since 1967. The
calfskin parchment was locked away because of deterioration. It will be
available to the public for three months as part of the 60th anniversary of the
founding of the Jewish state.
2009(29th of
Iyar, 5769): On Shabbat, start reading the Bamidbar, Book of Numbers.
2009: Day 2 of
“Conference 2009” hosted by the Philadelphia Kehilla For Jews at Aracadia
University in Glenside, PA.
2009: A
24-year-old man was diagnosed with the swine flu on today, becoming the eighth
person in the Jewish State to come down with the virus. He had recently
returned from the United States and was presumed to have contracted the illness
there. A second man had also been hospitalized due to concerns that he may have
the virus as well.
2009: Franklin
H. Littell, a father of Holocaust studies who traced his engagement with the
subject to the revulsion he felt as a young Methodist minister while witnessing
a big Nazi rally in Nuremberg in 1939, died today at his home in Merion
Station, Pa., outside Philadelphia today at the age of 91. Dr. Littell also
became an enthusiastic supporter of Israel, in part because he believed that
its very existence refuted theologies that foresaw or favored the withering
away of the Jewish people. He rejected the theology of some Christian backers
of Israel that Jews must ultimately become Christian…” (NYT)
2010: “Dancing
Alfonso” and “Ida’s Dance Club” are scheduled to be shown at the Israeli Film
Night sponsored by Magen David Sephardic Congregation in Rockville, MD.
2010(10th
of Sivan, 5770): Irwin Rosten, an award-winning documentary filmmaker
perhaps best known for “The Incredible Machine,” which took PBS
viewers on a revolutionary voyage inside the human body in 1975, passed away
today at the age of 85.,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/04/arts/04rosten.html
2010(10th
of Sivan, 5770): David Ginsburg, a liberal lawyer and longtime Washington
insider who helped found the Americans for Democratic Action and led the
presidential commission on race relations whose report, in 1968, warned that
the United States was “moving toward two societies — one black, one white,
separate and unequal,” died today at his home in Alexandria, VA at the age of
98 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/us/25ginsburg.html
2010: Despite
gray skies that threatened rain, tens of thousands of people turned out for a
massive celebration of Israel today, at the annual Salute to Israel Parade on
Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.
2011: The Ellis Island Old World Folk Band is scheduled to
perform at the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living in Danville, CA
2011: Phyllis Newman, who was married to Adolph Green for over
four decades is scheduled to take part in program entitled “Carried Away: Being
Comden and Green” that highlights the work of the team of Adloph Green and
Betty Comden that created such hits as “On the Town,” “ Wonderful Town,” “
Bells are Ringing” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”
2011: For the first time HBO broadcast “To Big to Fail,”
a cinematic treatment of “Andrew Ross Sorkin’s non-fiction book Too Big to
Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the
Financial System—and Themselves”, co-starring Edward Asner and featuring
Evan Handler.
2011: El Al flight 027 carrying 279 passengers landed safely at
Ben Gurion Airport this morning after it was forced to make an emergency
landing when a technical fault was found in one of its left wheels. The plane
took off en route to New York late last night but was forced to turn back and
perform an emergency landing when the pilots noticed that one of the left
wheels had become jammed.
2012: Dr. Leo Hershkowitz, Adjunct Professor of History
at New York University and CUNY Queens College (ret.) is scheduled to deliver a
lecture about the early history of Jews in New York City at the NYC Department
of Small Business Services
2012: In London, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host
a screening of “SS-3: The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich,” a film about the
British inspired plan to kill the ruthless ruler of Bohemia, person favorite of
Hitler and a key planner of the Final Solution
2012: Film critic Aviva Kempner who was the founder of
the Washington DC Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to deliver a lecture on a
documentary film on which she is working that traces the life of Jules
Rosenwald, the man who led Sears, Robebuck & Co during its glory days and
was one of the nation’s leading philanthropists.
2012: Filming began for “Iron Man 3” a film based on
characters created by Stan Lee and co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
2012: Nancy Margulies, the daughter of Joan Thaler – the
doyen of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community- is scheduled to perform her
one-woman show “Deaf Poets Society” at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her most recent book, a spook entitled
Klassic Koalas: The Koala Museum of Modern Art Catalogue is on sale at the
Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
2013: Nineteen-year-old Corporal Roi Alphi was killed
when a landmine exploded in the Golan Heights laid to rest tonight
in the military section of the cemetery of his hometown, Gan Yavne.
2013: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled
to present ‘Jews, You Should Fight to the Bitter End:’ Bogoraz’s Literary
Response to the Gomel’ Pogrom
2013: The Israel Festival, an annual showing drama,
theatre, dance and music is scheduled to open in Jerusalem.
2013(14th of Sivan, 5773): Seventy-nine-year-old
singer/songwriter Giuseppe Mustacchi the son of Sephardic Jews from Corfu,
passed away today
2013: A sketched map of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s
land-for-peace offer to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2008 —
hurriedly drawn up by Abbas after a meeting with Olmert that December, and made
public for the first time today — suggests that Israel was prepared to withdraw
to borders very similar to the pre-1967 lines and swap areas of northern and
southern Israel in return for maintaining the larger settlement blocs.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hand-drawn-map-shows-what-olmert-offered-for-peace/
2013: The Louvre Museum in Paris opened its first-ever
Israeli exhibit today, displaying a 1,700-year-old mosaic floor that was
recovered from a garbage dump near Lod in central Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/from-lod-to-the-louvre/
2014: “Jewtopia” is scheduled to be shown at noon-time in
Mason, Ohio, as part of Jewish American Heritage Month.
2014: “Donald Sterling has agreed to surrender his stake
in the Los Angeles Clippers to his estranged wife, and she is moving ahead with
selling the team, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The
Associated Press today.
2014: A revised version of Assi Dayan’s “The 92 Minutes of
Mr. Baum” is scheduled to open today in the United States.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/an-israeli-remake-heads-to-hollywood/
2014: On the final morning of the 4th
International Writers’ Festival, Etgar Keret and musician Shlomi Saban are
scheduled to sing, read and chat in a one-off event. (As reported by Jessica
Steinberg)
2014: “With the words of the Kaddish and a sprinkle of
earth over his remains, Avner Less, the Israeli official who interrogated Adolf
Eichmann was reburied today in Berlin’s Wannsee neighborhood, not far from the
house where the senior Nazi who helped organize the Holocaust outlined his
genocidal plans in 1942.” (As reported by David Rising)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/eichmanns-interrogator-reburied-in-germany/
2015: Parsha Bamidbar
2015(5th of Sivan, 5775): In the evening, Erev Shavuot
2015: The JCC Manhattan is scheduled to host “The Paul
Fieg Tikkun Leil Shavuot.”
2015: Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked
President Barak Obama for blocking a UN moved at forcing Israel to come clean
on its nuclear capabilities en route to a Middle East zone free of nuclear
weapons.” (As reported by Times of Israel)
2015: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Temple Judah is scheduled to
celebrate Shavuot and the Confirmation of Jessica Heeren, Ben Sarasin and
Gabrielle Thalblum
2015: According to an article published today in Rai
al-Youm, “a London-based Arab newspaper,” “Saudi Arabia recently rejected an
Israeli offer to provide it with Iron Dome rocket defense technology.”
2016: Professor Todd Endelman of the University of
Michigan is scheduled to speak on “The Emotional Toll of Antisemitism and its
Consequences” at Birbeck, University of London, Bloomsbury.
2016: In Des Moines, IA, Congregation Beth El Jacob is
scheduled to offer “Chevra Kadisha Training.”
2017: According to information supplied “by Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s office,” President Trump is scheduled to “arrive at Yad
Vashem at 1 p.m.” and to begin his speech at the Israel Museum at 2:00 p.m.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to
host “a delicious 3 course meal and a group discussion.”
2017: At sundown events marking a Jerusalem Day that is
special because it marks the 50th anniversary of the reunification
of the Jew are scheduled to begin.
2017: The Vancouver Jewish Film Centre is scheduled to
host a screening “The History of Love.”
2017: ELI Talks, “a nonprofit organization devoted to
nurturing and transmitting inspired Jewish ideas is scheduled to host an
evening Beth Huppin, a Jewish Education from Seattle, Macy B. Hart, President
and Founder, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL) and
Sam Novy a “social entrepreneur” from Baltimore, MD.
2018: In Lyndurst, Ohio, Oheb Zedek-Cedar Sinai Synagogue
is scheduled to host a screening of “Big Sonia.”
2018: A “Drop-In Tour” of Temple Tifereth Israel Gallery
at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to take place this
afternoon.
2018: A photographic exhibition “Elderly Jews and
Holocaust Survivors in Dimona” is scheduled to come to an end today at the
Streicker Center.
2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled
to a book launch of Hasidism: A New History by David Biale and Samuel Heilman
2018: “The Labor of Life” by Hanoch Levin is scheduled to
open to a sold-out house at the 14th Street Y
2019: In Alberta, Canada, the Edmonton Jewish Film
Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “Tel Aviv on Fire.”
2019: The Center for Jewish History and the American
Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host “A Dad’s Mission After
Parkland” in ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Guttman talks to Fred
Guttenberg whose “14 year old daughter Jamie was one of 17 people killed by a
gunman at Marjory Stoneman Dough High School” about his crusade “for stricter
gun control and public safety laws.”
2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final two
screenings ‘The Testament.”
2019: As part of the “Music of Remembrance” program, the
San Francisco Conservatory is scheduled to host the world premiere of “The
Parting” and “chamber works by three Hungarian Jewish composers whose lives
were cut short by Nazi persecution.”
2019: As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the
National Archives is scheduled to host an evening author Dr. Pamela Nadella she
talks a variety of American Jewish women including “Justice Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Barbie inventor Ruth Handler, poet Emma Lazarus, labor organizer
Bessie Hillman, and convicted spy Ethel Rosenberg.”
2019(18th of Iyar, 5779): Lag B’Omer
2019(18th of Iyar, 5779): The former Edith
Graff, the mother of “Iris Morse and Ellen Graff” and the wife of Columbia
University Historian Henry F. Graff whose translation of intercepted messages
provided key information for the Allies before D-Day and the imminent surrender
of Japan after the dropping of the Atomic Bomb.
2020(29th of Iyar, 5779): Parashat Bamidbar.
For more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2020: On line, Temple Israel of Boston is scheduled to
present “Clergy Havdalah, Cocktails and Mocktails”
2020 Rodef Sholom@Home is scheduled
to fill Shabbat with the look and feel of the real thing with Torah Study,
followed by Shabbat Services and a Havdalah experience designed to “enrich
our souls and lift us as we begin a new week.”
2020: Aliya Institute in Crown
Heights which had shut down voluntarily on March 10 and which held a daily
minyan yesterday is scheduled to have services this morning.
2021: Writer-filmmaker Rebecca
Pierce is scheduled to talk “about how racism and antisemitism are linked, how
the system pits minorities against one another and other related issues.”
2021: Kerem Shalom of Concord is
scheduled to present online, “Shtetl to Ellis: The Untold Story”
2021: The Jewish Heritage Museum
of Monmouth Count (NJ) is scheduled to present via Zoom, Rabbi Michael Klein
lecturing on “Famous Jews You Never Heard of” including Shabbetai Tzvi and Ada
Yonath.
2021: 2LIFE COMMUNITIES is
scheduled to present online “L’Chaim, 2Life: Enjoy “Fiddler on the Roof” in
Yiddish.”
2021: The New York Times
reviews books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Love Like Water, Love Like Fire by Mikhail Iossel and An
Apprenticeship Or The Book of Pleasures by Clarice Lispector
2021: Author Anna Solomon is
scheduled to talk about her novel, The
Book of V, which retells the Book of Esther via three characters’ stories in different
time periods that overlap
2021: The Contemporary Jewish
Museum series “Sunday Stories” is scheduled to travel back to the first half of
the 20th century, when Old Country Jewish immigrants raised chickens in a
progressive community at Petaluma.
2021: Jews around the world brace
for more anti-Semitic attacks as groups as varied as thugs in NYC engage in
anti-Semitic violence and an official of the Pakistan government talks about a
Jewish cabal controlling the media, a classic anti-Semitic trope.
2021: The Jewish Federation of
the Corridor is scheduled to present via Zoom “an introduction to Genealogy.”
2021: Live from Jerusalem, Torah
scholar Avivah Zornberg is scheduled “to delve into her 2016 book Moses A
Human Life which analyzes Moses’ vexing personality, uncertain origins,
struggles with speaking and turbulent relations with his own people.
2022: the 34th annual
William and Irene Weinberg Baltimore Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host
the initial screenings of “The Conductor” and “A Radiant Girl.”
2022: Based on an announcement
made last week by Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, the mandate obliging
travelers to wear a mask on international flights will not be extended by
today.
2023: YIVO is scheduled, live and
via Zoom, a lecture by Roy Ginsberg on “POETICS OF ARRIVAL OR RETURN?: LAYING
THE PATH TOWARD INDUSTRIAL UTOPIA IN PERETZ MARKISH’S, ‘DER FERTSIKYERIKER MAN’.”
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the final session of Naomi Miller
Beginners’ Yiddish: Shopping, Cooking Inviting and Easting for the Jewish
Holidays.”
2023: The JDC Archives is
scheduled present a webinar “Yiddishkeit and JDC’s support for Jewish Education
in Communist Poland,” featuring Dr. Anna Sommer Schneider which will be the fifth program in the JDC series “Young
Lives in Turmoil and Transformation: JDC’s Work with Children in the Twentieth
Century.”
2023: The Center for Jewish
History is scheduled to present Marian B. Wood, the experienced speaker, blogger, and author on
genealogical methods, who will teach teach workshop attendees how to organize and store their genealogical
materials, curate their collection, write a “genealogical will,” and
share their family history.
2023: Having agreed “to boost funding for ultra-Orthodox
yeshiva students and their families by up to NIS 250” Prime Minister Netanyahu
is scheduled to figure out a way of meeting the Otzma Yehudit’s demands for
“more funder for tis priorities” in his
quest to gain the necessary votes to pass his budget.
2024: Tickets are available at
ANU (Museum of the Jewish People) for those wishing to view “The Codex Sassoon”
– the earliest, most complete edition of the TaNaCh.
2024: As part of Jewish American
Heritage Month, the National Museum of America Jewish History is scheduled to
host “Antisemitism, USA: A Conversation with Zev Eleff, Kristen Fermaglich,
Sarah Ihoff, Lincoln Mullen, Mark Oppenheimer, Britt Tevis and John Turner.”
2024:
As May 23rd begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism
sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages
begin day 230 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 
