This Day, October 11, In Jewish History

OCTOBER 11 In Jewish History

1285: One hundred eighty Jews were killed in Munich.

1850: The University of Sydney, Australia’s oldest university, opened its doors. Percy Marks, described as “Jewish Renaissance Man” was one of its earliest and most famous Jewish graduates. The Australian Union of Jewish Students or AUJS is an on campus organization whose aim is to promote Jewish continuity. Today the University has a Department of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish studies whose website asks and answers the following: “Why enroll in Jewish Studies at the University of Sydney?? * Challenging: Where else would you find such a stimulating fusion of diverse ethnic and religious groups studying together? Learn about religion and politics in an open and fun environment.
* Educational: Further your knowledge and insights into Jewish Studies. Learn about the issues around assimilation and Jewish civilization and master classical or Modern Hebrew or Yiddish.* Practical: For undergraduate students, taking one of these courses will count towards qualifications in General Studies or part of your Arts, Arts/Law or Education degrees. It will also enable budding teachers to pursue a career in Modern Hebrew, Jewish Studies and Tanach.* Unique: Delve into Jewish philosophy, history and politics, delivered by expert lecturers in their fields. There is a Jewish club called AUJS (Australian Union of Jewish Students) which has many purposes, one of which is to promote Jewish continuity!

1852: Famed German mathematician Ferdinand Eisenstein passed away at the age of thirty. Eisenstein’s fate was typical of many Germans. His parents were Germans, but they converted to a Protestant domination before their son’s birth to gain full entrée into German society.

1864: Campina Grande was elevated to the status of city in Brazil. Campina Grande is in northeast Brazil. Based on a recent documentary many Catholics in that region follow various Jewish customs without being aware of their origin, In all likelihood, the region was originally settled by Marranos or Conversos. Their descendants continued practicing rituals such as not eating pork, circumcising new born males, reciting special prayers on the first day of the month and a variety of customs relating to dealing with the dead without being aware of their origins.
1884: Birthdate of Eleanor Roosevelt. Contrary to what the anti-Semites said, neither FDR nor his wife was Jewish. However, Mrs. Roosevelt certainly had numerous Jewish friends. As a champion of the downtrodden, she certainly enjoyed a certain kind of celebrity and popularity of Jews living during the middle of the twentieth century.

1906: Birthdate of Charles Revson, Canadian born founder of Revlon Cosmetics.

1918: Birthdate of film director Jerome Robbins. He is best known for directing Leonard
Bernstein’s musical version of Romeo and Juliet called West Side Story. He died in 198l.

1926: Birthdate of major league baseball player Myron Nathan “Joe” Ginsberg.

1937: Birthdate of actor Ron Leibman. Born in New York City, his portrayal of the union organizer in the film hit Norma Rae won him kudos even if Sally Fields got the Oscar.

1937: The Palestine Post published an extensive report on the deteriorating condition of Jews in Poland and German Upper Silesia. According to Alexander Kahn, the vice-chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee in Poland, entire Jewish communities in towns and villages were subjected to unspeakable brutalities of local nationalists, anti-Semites and hooligans. There were riots at the Vilna and Lvov universities where Jewish students were beaten and, when forced to seat on the left side, preferred to stand instead. The Polish administration welcomed an economic anti-Jewish boycott while trade organizations urged to create "a ghetto" for Jewish tradesmen in the markets. In the village of Mushlatova a Jewish merchant and his wife were murdered at night, the fifth such crime in that district. Note that these outbreaks took place two years before the Nazis occupied Poland. Anti-semitism was part of the European cultural landscape. It was this reality that helped to make the Final Solution possible. “They did not hear our cries, not because they were deaf, but because they did not want to hear them.” Anon

1939: President Franklin Roosevelt received a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging that the United States begin an urgent program to develop what would become the atomic bomb. It was Einstein’s support that garnered Roosevelt’s support for what would be known as the Manhattan Project – America’s program to build the Atomic Bomb. At the time, it was viewed as a race which, if won by the Germans, would have cost the Allies the war.

1941: A Jewish ghetto at Chernovtsy, Romania, is established.

1941: Thousands of Jews are murdered at Edineti, Romania.

1942: Over the next 48 hours eleven thousand Jews from Ostrowiec-Swietokrzyski, Poland, are killed at the Treblinka death camp

1943: An article in Time magazine entitled “Quality of Mercy” describes the rescue of the Danish Jews and their trip to Sweden. “Across the narrow waters of the Ore Sund word came to Sweden last week that 1,800 Gestapo men sent to Copenhagen specialty for the job had broken into Jewish homes and synagogues during Rosh Hashanah, arresting most of Denmark’s 10,000 Jews. The reports said the Germans planned to ship their prisoners to the charnel houses of Poland. Next day the Swedish government told the German Government that there was immediate, unconditional sanctuary for all Danish Jews in Sweden. The Germans ignored the offer. At the end of the week, end upwards of 1,000 wretched Jews from Denmark had found their way across the cold Ore Sund to merciful Sweden.

1943: One day after rescuing three Jews from the Riga (Latvia) Ghetto by asking guards for Jews to labor on his property, Yanis Lipke rescues additional Jews with the same ruse.

1943: The trains kept rolling to Sobibor. According to Alexander Pechersky - "that day the crematorium burned longer than usual. Helpless and distressed, we looked at the bodies of our brothers and sisters." New arrivals panic and run toward barbed wire, only to be machine-gunned by guards.

1948: At 5 p.m., former Gov. Herbert H. Lehman and Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, speak in a pre-Yom Kippur broadcast of the American Jewish Committee carried by WCBS and the Columbia Broadcasting System.

1961: One of the Marx Brothers, Leonard "Chico" Marx passed away at the age of 74.

1962: Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II. The Council marked a turning point in improving relations between the Catholic Church and the Jewish People.

1963: Popular French singer Edith Piaf passed away. The popular Piaf was accused by some of collaborating with the Nazis while they occupied Paris during the war. In her defense, Piaf’s supporters pointed that she helped the Jewish composer Michael Emer escape from occupied France. More to the point during the war she carried on an affair with the Jewish pianist Norbert Glanzberg, Okay, so it’s not Schindler’s List or Raoul Wallenberg; but saving Jews is saving Jews.

1973: During the Yom Kippur War, after pushing Syrian troops from the Golan Heights, Israeli troops under General Raful Eitan counterattacked into Syrian territory. During the battle for the Golan, the Syrian army lost approximately 1,100 tanks. Some 3,500 Syrians were been killed, and 370 prisoners taken. At the end of the battle “a special paratroop unit led by a young officer called Yoni, made its way through Syrian-occupied territory, and in a dramatic rescue operation,” evacuated Lieutenant-Colonel Naty Yossi, who had led a gallant tank attack. The Yoni mentioned here is none other than Yoni Netenyahu, the man who lose his life three years later on the rescue mission at Entebbe. His second in command described the scene, “Yoni attacking, shooting and his leading his men into battle, leading them, not giving orders from behind.” By nightfall, the Israelis were ten kilometers inside Syria and literally on the road to Damascus. Despite this moment of victory, the fate of the Jewish state still hung in the balance and the situation was quite precarious to say the least.

1975: Debut of Saturday Night Live, produced by Lorne Michaels, or, as he was known when growing up in Canada, Lorne Michael Lipowitz

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan told the UN General Assembly that for the past 10 years, 1967-1977, Israel was committed, but to no avail, to territorial concessions on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in return for a genuine peace.

There was no sign that Arabs were ready for a settlement. And the same can still be said today.
1985: Birthdate of actress Michelle Trachtenberg.

1993: A month after the signing of the Declaration of Principles had taken place in Washington, D.C. between Israel and the PLO, the Israeli Foreign Minister “sent a letter to the Norwegian Foreign Minister in which he confirmed that ‘the Palestinian institutions of East Jerusalem and well-being of the Palestinians of East Jerusalem are great importance and will be preserved.’”

1998: The New York Times book section featured a review of Phillip Roth’s novel, I Married A Communist.

2001: The Polaroid Corporation filed for bankruptcy marking the end of a company founded on the dream and the genius of Edwin Land and his instant photography.

2005: Israeli mathematician Robert J. Aumann and Thomas C. Schelling won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for their work in game theory, which explains the choices that competitors make in situations that require strategic thinking. Aumann was born in Frankfurt in 1930. The family came to the United States where Aumann earned a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in 1955. He joined the faculty of Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1957. Hebrew University Professor of Mathematics Robert J. Aumann, who on Monday won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on using game theory to understand conflict resolution, says he sees no end to the Middle East conflict that claimed the life of his eldest son 23 years ago. “This conflict has been going on for 80 years and to my sorrow I believe it will last for at least another 80,” Aumann said in a press conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Givat Ram campus, where he resides as a professor emeritus in the Institute of Mathematics and as a member of Center for Rationality. Aumann, who made aliya from the United States in 1956, shares the prize with Thomas C. Schelling of the University of Maryland. The two were rewarded for “establishing interactive decision [game] theory as the dominant approach to understanding conflict and cooperation between countries, individuals and organizations,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement. Aumann and Schelling will receive the prize on December 10 from Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav and will share the 10 million Swedish kronor prize money, which translates to nearly NIS 6m. Aumann is the fifth Nobel laureate connected to the Hebrew University and is the first active faculty member to receive the award. He has been working at the university for 49 years, since his arrival in the country. Aumann said the award was a tribute to the many achievements of Israeli science and economics and recognition of the importance of game theory as a field of study. “I feel great and am very glad I got the prize, but it’s not just a personal achievement,” he said. “My work is closely tied to those of others, both in Israel and abroad.” In this regard, Aumann added that he felt a third recipient, “the high priest of game theory” Lloyd Chapley, a Professor at UCLA with whom he worked very closely, should have been included in the award. Aumann’s daughter Miriam Aumann Baris told The Jerusalem Post that the family knew he had been a candidate for the award in the past but had not expected it to come this year. Hebrew University President Menachem Magidor, a former student of Aumann’s, said that Aumann’s work was deserving of the prize many years ago. The announcement marked the first time since 1994 that the Royal Academy has awarded the prize to academics who were instrumental in developing game theory. In 1994, the academy passed over Aumann and Schelling in awarding the prize to John C. Harsanyi, Reinhard Selten and John F. Nash, Jr. for their game theory work. Nash’s life and his difficulties with schizophrenia were documented in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind. Aumann’s and Schelling’s work was “essential” in developing game theory further, the academy said Monday. The award recognized work the two men did in the 1960s and 1970s that had helped defense analysts use models to map out options available to an adversary and to predict what the other side might do in a confrontation. Their work also had economic applications in such areas as pricing and labor negotiations, the academy said. “Robert Aumann was the first to conduct a full-fledged formal analysis of so-called infinitely repeated games. His research identified exactly what outcomes can be upheld over time in longrun relations,” it said. Aumann stressed that, while he received the award for his work on repeated-game theory, this was just one aspect of the broader subjects of game theory in which he was involved. Aumann, 75, was born in Frankfurt, where he lived until his family fled Nazi Germany to the US in 1938. With the establishment of Israel in 1948, he and his brother made a firm commitment to settle here, a dream which he realized a year after receiving his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1955 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Aumann has five children and lost his eldest son Shlomo in 1982 in Operation Peace for the Galilee. He is expecting his 19th grandchild to be born by the end of the week and has two great-grandchildren. In attendance at the press conference was Swedish Ambassador to Israel Robert Rydberg, who gave congratulations on behalf of the Swedish government and king. President Katzav phoned in his blessings to the professor and Science and Technology Minister Matan Vilna’i sent his congratulations. The minister described Aumann as “a world leader in game theory, one of the most gifted mathematicians in the world who developed new theories in basic science with practical applications.” He is “one of the most talented minds to emerge in Israeli science,” Vilna’i added. Aumann’s prize “proves that the State of Israel continues to stand at the forefront of science and that we must continue to preserve this status. Investment in scientific infrastructure is the basis for development and, from it, new discoveries will emerge. Alfred Nobel, the inventor dynamite, established the awards for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, peace and literature in his will in 1896. The economics prize was set up by Sweden’s central bank in 1968. Aumann is the second Israeli to win the prize after Daniel Kahneman, who also has US and Israeli citizenship, was one of the winners in 2002.

2005: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage opened in suburban Cleveland. It is named for Milton Maltz and his wife, Tamar. The museum describes the heritage of the Jewish community through sound, visuals and interactive displays. The museum shares a campus with The Temple-Tifereth Israel. Founded in 1850, it's one of the oldest reform congregations in the United States.

2007: In Washington, D.C. the DCJCC as part of the Hyman S. and Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival a noon time discussion of Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community, a fascinating and authoritative chronicle of the history and heritage of Washington's vibrant Jewish community. “The story of Washington's Jewish community is often told only as a one-dimensional timeline: Jews came "late" to the city and followed the usual immigration patterns of opening small shops that grew into large stores; organizing Jewish communal organizations; and eventually moving out to the suburbs. This book, which began as a landmark exhibition at the National Building Museum, adds depth and dimension to that story, and honors the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in America. A wealth of images of historic documents, artifacts and photographs—many never before seen by the public—alongside brief essays and a historic overview, depict a Washington that is both the nation's capital and hometown to the sixth largest Jewish community in the United States.”

2007: The Oxford Union debating society raised ire among student groups and activists on Thursday after its president announced that he had invited Holocaust denier David Irving to come speak at the university.

2008: At the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a screening of the short film “So We Said Goodbye” ( “נפרדנו כך”) in which “65-year-old Yaakov is saying goodbye to his sons and grandchildren, who are leaving Israel and recalls the moment when as a child he bid farewell to his family in 1937 Poland. The film was the winner of the 1990 Aliza Shagrir Award.”