This Day, August 2, In Jewish History

August 2 In Jewish History

338 BCE: A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean. Phillip was the father of Alexander Great. His victory paved the way for Alexander’s conquests which had a major impact on the Jewish people of which we are reminded each year when we celebrate Chanukah.

1222: Raymond VI , Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence passed away. “He was so sympathetic to the Jews that Pope Innocent III caused him to take an oath ‘that he would deprive the Jews of their offices and that he would never appoint any Jews or in any way favor them.’”

1389: Catholic Archdeacon and Jew hater Ferran Martinez is denied the right to act as a judge or to preach after refusing to follow an order of the Pope. The Archbishop of Seville issued this strong punishment because Martinez refused to issue permits for Jews to build new synagogues, in accordance with the wishes of the Pope.

1492: According to some sources this day marked the beginning of the final expulsion of the Jews from Spain. According to tradition it was Tisha B’Av on the Jewish calendar.

1589: King Henry III of France passed away. Before he was King of France, as Henry of Anjou he was elected as the first King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He owed this victory to a Jew named Solomon Ashkenazi who was the principle adviser to the Emperor of the Ottoman Empire.

1675: The "Great Synagogue" was inaugurated in Amsterdam on Rapenburgerstraat. This was a Sephardic synagogue, home to K.K. Talmud Torah, which was a union of Congregations Neveh Shalom founded in 1608 and Bet Yisrael found in 1618.

1696: Birthdate of Mahmud I, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In 1739, Mahmud signed the Treaty of Belgrade that gave citizenship rights to the Ottoman Jews. Austrian Jews were so impressed with the grant of rights that many of them applied for citizenship in Mahmud’s empire.

1790: The United States conducts its first census. Out of a population of four million people, there are approximately 2,000 Jews.

1819: An anti-Semitic riot breaks out in the city of Wurzberg. It will be the first in string of such violent actions to plague the Jews of Germany

1866: The New York Times quotes the Aroostook Pioneer as saying that a religious movement is forming in Maine with the intent of immigrating to Jerusalem. A ship is being fitted out at Jonesport which should be ready to sail by the middle of next month. Land has already been purchased near Jaffa where the immigrants plan on making their home. [Ed. Note - the article does not mention if any Jews were involved or note.]

1879: In New York, Detectives Fogarty and Handy arrested a Jew named Louis Pollard because he had some shoes in his possession that matched the description of shoes stolen last September. Pollard first claimed that he had bought the shoes at an auction but later said he got the shoes from a woman named Lena Bezona. She was arrested and Pollard was released.

1892: Birthdate of movie mogul Jack Warner. Born in Canada, Warner and his four brothers founded Warner Brothers, which became a giant in the film industry. Among other claims to fame Warner Brothers produced "The Jazz Singer," the first "talking" motion picture. Some of his stars included Bette Davis, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Warner was known fir his frugality and was not necessarily that well liked. At one point his son and namesake said of his dad, "At times he gloried in being a no-good sonofabitch. If his brothers hadn't hired him, he'd have been out of work."

1903: Opening of the Bank Leumi’s first branch in Turkish Jaffa.

1911: In Great Britain, Alderman Henry Hart completes his jubilee of service on the Canterbury Council.

1919: Birthdate of Nehmiah Persoff, the Jerusalem native who became famous as an American actor appearing in numerous films and television series.

1922: Birthdate of Eugene Hirsch Kummel, chairman and chief executive of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, McCann Erickson Worldwide. “Under Mr. Kummel’s leadership, McCann Erickson created memorable television commercials like Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ campaign in the 1970s and, several years later, the Miller Lite campaign, ‘Everything you always wanted in a beer, and less,’ with personalities like George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin arguing, ‘Tastes great, Less filling.’”

1922(8th of Av, 5682): Erev Tish'a B'Av

1922(8th of Av, 5682): Emil Ganz, a businessman and three-time mayor of Phoenix, Arizona., passed away. The son of German Jews, he was a self-professed atheist.

1923: After falling ill, Warren Harding the 29th President of the United States passes away. During his brief tenure, Harding’s record regarding Jews and Jewish issues was mixed. He signed an immigration bill that was based on national origin quotas which put greatly limited Jewish immigration to the United States. On the other hand, he appointed famous Chicago advertising man Albert Lasker as Chairman of the U.S. Shipping Board. Under his tenure, the U.S. Merchant Marine was reorganized and improved. In 1922, Harding signed a congressional Joint Resolution “favoring the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people.”

1923 (20 Av, 5683): Birthdate of Shimon Peres.

1924: The first issue of the Saturday Review of Literature appeared. This famous literary publication was formed by Amy Lovemean and three colleagues who had worked together on The New York Evening Post. Loveman was listed as an associate editor. She remained at the Saturday Review for three decades, becoming the magazine's poetry editor in 1950. In the first two decades alone, she wrote close to 800 items for the Review. These included editorials, reviews, and answers to readers' questions. Born in 1881, Amy Loveman shaped the literary choices of generations of readers through her work with two important institutions: The Saturday Review and the Book-of-the-Month Club. Educated at Barnard College, where she earned a B.A. in 1901, Loveman's first literary work was as an assistant to an uncle who was revising The New International Encyclopedia. From that job, she moved to the New York Evening Post, where she became a book reviewer and then associate editor of the newspaper's literary review. In addition to her work at the Saturday Review, Loveman played an important role in the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she joined the reading committee soon after its founding in 1926. In 1939, she became head of the Club's editorial department, a job she balanced with her ongoing work at the Review. In this role, she helped to select books for the Club as well as writing frequent reviews herself. In 1951, she joined the Club's editorial board. Loveman's compelling writing style and devotion to literature were recognized by several awards. In 1946, she received both the Columbia University Medal for Excellence and the Constance Lindsay Skinner Achievement Award of the Women's National Book Association. Loveman died in 1955.

1926: The American Jewish Congress cabled a message of condolence to Mrs. Israel Zangwill over the death of her husband. The cablegram was signed by Carl Sherman, Acting Chairman and Bernard G. Richards, Executive Secretary. Dr. Stephen Wise, the President of the AJC is England and is expected to represent the organization at the funeral.

1926: Birthdate of Betsy Bloomingdale of department store fame. Her husband was part of President Regan’s kitchen cabinet and she was a close friend of Nancy.

1931: Einstein urges all scientists to refuse military work.

1932: “Lillian Copeland set new world and Olympic records in discus, with a throw of 133 feet, 1 5/8 inches, winning a gold medal. It was not the first time Copeland had set new records; as one of the earliest female athletes to excel in track and field events, she had established a name for herself at several earlier competitions. Born in New York City in 1904, Copeland moved with her mother and stepfather to Los Angeles, where she attended high school. A consummate athlete, she held National Amateur Athletic Union titles in shot put, discus, and javelin by 1926. While a student at the University of Southern California, she won every women's track event that she entered. By the 1928 U.S. Olympic trials, Copeland was a four-time national champion in the shot put. However, shot put was not yet an Olympic event, so she entered the trials in discus, and set a new world record. She was also a member of the world-record-setting 400-meter-relay team at the trials. At the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the first at which women were allowed to compete in track and field events, Copeland won a silver medal in discus.Returning to college after the Olympics, Copeland earned a B.A. in political science in 1930, and then entered the U.S.C. Law School. In 1931, she won two more national championships, in shot put and in javelin. At the 1932 Olympics, where shot put was still not among the events, Copeland won her gold medal in discus. It was a crowning achievement for the woman who between 1925 and 1932 had set six world records each in shot put, discus, and javelin. Though she won the discus, shot put, and javelin titles at the 1935 World Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Copeland did not compete in the 1936 Olympics. Like many others, Copeland boycotted that year's Games, held in Berlin, to protest Nazi Germany's exclusion of Jewish athletes from German Olympic teams. She never competed again. In 1936, Copeland joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, where she worked until her retirement in 1960. She spent sixteen of those years in the Juvenile Bureau, and the rest at other assignments. Copeland died on July 7, 1964. She was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1994.

1933: In Vilna, Ministry of Education announces that the Yiddish secondary school and the Hebrew gymnasium have been granted equality with the governmental high schools, and
will therefore have the right to issue university admission certificates to their students.

1933. The Ministry of Justice announces that Jewish students engaged in the study of law or economics will not be permitted to take the final examinations in Prussia, if they intend to become lawyers or university teachers.

1933: In a public address to foreign diplomats and journalists Dr. Anzesoria, Bolivian minister to Germany, indicates that his Government is prepared to open its doors to German emigrants, provided the German Government is ready to negotiate the transfer.

1933: Der Angriff, a newspaper owned by Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment, carries a story that Jews are organizing themselves into military units to "attack Germany at the first opportunity."

1933 The Breslauer Judengemeindeblatt is closed down by the Nazi state president "in the interest of public security."

1938(5th of Av, 5698): Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky, an old line Bolshevik best known as the man who organized the execution of Czar Nicholas II.

1939: Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. Einstein’s support was critical to getting Roosevelt’s support for what would become "The Manhattan Project." (What a difference eight years can make.)

1941: The Jews were ordered expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia.

1941(9th of Av, 5701): Over 200 Jews were shot in Kovno on Shabbat.

1942: After twelve days, approximately 75,000 Jews had been deported to the death camp at Treblinka.

1942: A large group of Jews who were trapped under Spanish and German rule in Morocco sent an eloquent appeal for help to the AJDC in New York. "Gentlemen, please excuse our daring attitude in addressing this pathetical letter to you, in our distressful hour; but it is written in the Talmud, 'when trouble comes upon Israel like a rushing stream, look for someone to help you.'."

1943: Led by a small group of prisoners using primitive weapons and pistols, inmates at Treblinka attacked the guards and burned down the barracks. Between 300 and 500 prisoners escaped although most of them were either captured or turned over by Polish peasants. Though the revolt did not stop all activities, the German government decided to liquidate the camp, which it did in October. [Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of those slaughtered at the camp.]

1944: A handful of Jewish survivors of the Kovno ghetto - including Rabbi Efrayim Oshri, author of Responsa from the Holocaust - emerged from hiding. Rabbi Oshri was one of several Rabbis who wrote answers to those with troubling ethical dilemmas growing out of life under the Nazis. To some, such behavior might seem ludicrous when you consider the conditions. To others, it is a tribute to the vitality of Judaism and even a form of resistance.

1945: The Potsdam Conference, the meeting of the leaders of the Big Three – U.S., U.K. and U.S.S.R. – comes to an end. Among other things the leaders agreed to the complete denazification of Germany and the prosecution of war criminals.

1951(29th of Tamuz, 5711): Heinrich Loewe a German born journalist, publicist, folklorist, linguist, philosopher, librarian and political figure passed away in Tel Aviv.

1945: Birthdate of Alan F. Segal, “a leading scholar known for his comparative studies of how religions view the afterlife.”

1948: Birthdate of Dennis Prager. While he is Jewish, this popular author and talk show host is a major proponent of a Judaeo- Christian culture and ethic.

1948: “The Israeli Government proclaimed the areas of Jerusalem under Israeli control to be Israeli-occupied territory and appointed Bernard Joseph as Military Governor.

1949: Under a plan of the new Israeli government, part of the old city of Beersheba will be flooded as a 500-acre water reservoir for the projected new Negev city on the heights overlooking Beersheba. The reservoir would be formed by damming the Wadi Saba, rocky watercourse through which 10,000,000 cubic meters of rainwater sweep into the Mediterranean every winter.

1951: Birthdate of Andrew Gold, a musical wizard who played backup with Linda Ronstadt before embarking on career of his own that included recording hits like “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You for Being a Friend.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)

1957: British oil interests were warned today that they might forfeit ownership of their refinery plants in Haifa if they suspended operations in Israel.

1967: Birthdate of professional tennis star Aaron Krickstein

1972: Catcher Bob Yeager made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1979: “Gilda Radner Live From New York” opens on Broadway.

1980: Egypt has asked for at least a temporary postponement of the talks with Israel and the United States on autonomy for the occupied areas to give the two countries time to respond to President Anwar el-Sadat's protest...

1986(26th of Tamuz, 5746): Roy Cohn passed away. Born in 1927, Cohn gained fame (or notoriety) as the counsel for the McCarthy Hearings. He portrayed himself as a rabid anti-Communist. Ironically, it was his high jinks with David Schine that helped to lead to McCarthy’s downfall and his loss of power.

1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to conflict with coalition forces in the Gulf War.

1990(11th of Av, 5750): Lucy Goldschmidt Moses, a philanthropist, died at her home in Manhattan. She was 103 years old. Mrs. Moses's philanthropic interests largely reflected the activities of her husband, Henry L. Moses, whom she married in 1914. A lawyer and financier, he was president of Montefiore Hospital for many years. After his death in 1961 she established the Henry L. Moses Research Institute at the hospital. Mrs. Moses was born in New York. As a child she was accompanied by a governess when she went skating in Central Park or took walks. Later, as a young woman beginning a 40-year career as a volunteer in settlement-house work, she cared for the children of poor families. Beginning in the 20's, she also worked as a volunteer at Montefiore, first in the wards and later in the epilepsy clinic. She donated tens of millions of dollars to philanthropy, a major part going to the medical field. In addition to gifts to Montefiore, she established the Lucy G. Moses Cardiothoracic Center, an advanced research and training institution, at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, She also contributed to health programs in Burma, Israel and South Korea. After her husband's death, she became president of the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, which the couple established in 1942 to support education, music and the arts. Mrs. Moses contributed for projects like the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and providing a wheelchair lift and other equipment for the handicapped at Carnegie Hall. She donated to New York University for studies in Egyptian art. Columbia University also received gifts for its housing program and a study hall in the Law School. Mrs. Moses was a leading supporter of the opera and Lincoln Center. In 1983 she received the first Frederick Law Olmstead award for helping to restore the Bow Bridge over the Central Park Lake. ''They called me the Florence Nightingale of the trees,'' Mrs. Moses said at the time. ''I've also been called Mother of the Park. I've had such fun.''

1992: Birthdate of American actress Hallie Kate Eisenberg.

1992(3rd of Av, 5752): French singer and songwriter Michel Berger died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 44.

1998(10th of Av, 5758): Tish'a B'Av (The 9th of Av fell on Shabbat)

1998(10th of Av, 5758): Television puppeteer Shari Lewis passed away. Born Shari Hurwitz in 1933, Lewis is best remember for her creations – Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and the ever-popular Lamb chop.

1998: The New York Times featured a review of A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey From the Inner City to the Ivy League by Jewish author Ron Suskind

2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that an Israeli financial consortium announced that two Spanish companies were joining the group in preparing a bid for a massive desalinization project. The need for new supplies of fresh water is critical to the growth of the Israeli economy and the survival of the Jewish state.

2005: Haaretz reported that Tunisia is the new hotspot for Israeli tourists.

2006(8th of Av, 5766): Some 210 rockets and missiles were launched toward northern communities - the largest number since the beginning of the fighting. Dave Lalchuk, 52, of Kibbutz Sa'ar, was killed and 16 others were wounded, three moderately, in the attacks, as Jews begin to prepare for the observance of Tisha B’Av.

2007(18th of Av, 5767): Frank Rosenfelt, a top movie executive at studios including MGM passed away at the age of 85. One of his proudest moments was the acquisition of the movie rights for “Dr. Zhivago.” One of his biggest disappointments was the failure of the 1976 film “Network” to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

2008: In Cedar Rapids, at Temple Judah Triple Header Shabbat Morning Service
1. Rosh Chodesh Av
2. Completion of Bamidbar
3. Observance of Raoul Wallenberg Day (actual date is August 4, 2008 by proclamation of the Governor of the State of Iowa

2009: Cantor Jacob Chomsky of Tifereth Israel sings the National Anthem as part of Jewish Community Day during a Columbus Clippers’ home game.

2009: The Los Angeles Times features books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, the Brazilian-Jewish author, by Benjamin Moser

2009: Two Arab families were evicted from Jewish-owned homes in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood of Jerusalem this morning. The evictions took place following a Supreme Court ruling in which the court found in favor of Jewish families who claimed ownership of homes in the area. The evictions took place without unusual disturbances; police said. The Arab families claimed that they owned the houses in which they lived. Jewish families argued that they were the legal owners of the homes, and that the Arabs had squatted there illegally in an attempt to wrest control of the property from its rightful owners. The Arab families presented documents that appeared to show Arab ownership of the homes dating back to the Ottoman period. However, the court found that the documents had been forged, and that the documents presented by the Jewish plaintiffs were legitimate. The neighborhood in question is located near the 2,000-year-old gravesite of the sage Shimon HaTzaddik. The neighborhood was founded in the first half of the 20th century by Jewish families, but fell under Jordanian rule following the 1948 War of Independence and was quickly populated by Jordanian Arabs. Since the reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule in 1967, a number of Jewish families have moved back into the area. Their arrival has been greeted with hostility from local Arabs and from the Palestinian Authority, which has demanded control over the neighborhood as part of a future Arab capital city in Jerusalem. Jewish activists have fought several legal battles in recent years regarding properties in Jerusalem and in Shimon HaTzaddik in particular. Activists say they are undeterred by the difficulties of regaining control of Jewish property, and plan to continue their efforts to reestablish a Jewish presence in historic Jerusalem neighborhoods.

2009: The Times of London features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Judas by Susan Gubar.

2009(12th of Av, 5769): Michael A. Wiener, a founder of the Infinity Broadcasting chain of radio stations who in retirement focused more on philanthropic work supporting the performing arts and research on heart disease, died today at the age of 71. Mr. Wiener and his business partner Gerald Carrus sold their 44 radio stations to the Westinghouse Corporation in 1996 for about $4 billion, but the path to that sale began decades earlier when Mr. Wiener, who had spent many years selling advertising time on radio, joined with Mr. Carrus to buy KOME in San Francisco. To raise money to buy his first station in 1972, Mr. Wiener sold his father’s stamp collection for $5,000 and got help from his wife and others. The company grew quickly, and in 1979, Mr. Wiener and Mr. Carrus quit their regular jobs to run their network of stations. At the time, Mr. Wiener was selling advertising time for the radio stations owned by Metromedia. In 1981, the partners hired Mel Karmazin to run the company as president. Mr. Karmazin would lead a recruiting and buying spree over the next 15 years that included the fiery radio personality Howard Stern.“He was a very innovative guy who took a big risk in life,” Mr. Stern said of Mr. Wiener on Sunday. “They started in medium markets and worked their way into larger markets. People may say that is no big deal, but you can’t believe the number of radio stations that go under.” He went on: “And they were smart enough to hire Mel and give him the freedom to do his thing. There were not a lot of people who would take a risk on me.” Mr. Wiener had his greatest business success in 1996 with the sale of his company, just a year later he suffered his greatest tragedy when his only son, Gabe, a producer of classical music, died of a brain aneurysm at age 26. Even before that loss, Mr. Wiener had been active in philanthropy. Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart, said Mr. Wiener had been an early supporter of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai. ,“The issue was to give patients access to cardiovascular care in an integrated way and to integrate the research on the different aspects of cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Fuster recalled. “He did not have a heart condition, but he really connected to the issue.” The Wieners became fascinated by the pervasiveness of heart disease and became supporters of Dr. Fuster’s work. mThe death of their son prompted the couple to make a series of contributions to artistic causes, including the dedication of a pipe organ to the Central Synagogue in Manhattan. The organ, with 4,345 pipes, bears their son’s name, as does the Gabe Wiener Music and Arts Library at Columbia University. In an interview with The New York Times in 2005, Mr. Wiener recalled that as a salesman, he had problems with some advertisers who “didn’t want any part of music that was associated with the drug culture and the peace movement,” he said. So he stopped using the term “rock ’n’ roll” to describe his stations’ music format, referring to it instead as “American music.” (As reported by Geraldine Fabrikant)

2010: “Ahead of Time,” a documentary about author, journalist and photographer Ruth Gerber is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.

2010: The “First Jewish Women's Music Festival” is scheduled to begin at Falls Village, CT.

2010: A huge explosion destroyed the home of a senior Hamas commander and injured 24, Palestinians reported today. Palestinians said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike, but this has been denied by the IDF. The explosion early today wrecked the house of Ala Adnaf, a commander of the Hamas military wing, Palestinian security officials said. At least 24 people were rushed to a hospital, and unconfirmed reports said two people were killed. Rescue teams were digging through the rubble.The security officials said a missile fired by an Israeli warplane hit the house. The Israeli military said there was no airstrike or any other Israeli activity in the area. The officials spoke on customary condition of anonymity.

2010: Palestinian militants fired five rockets into the Israeli port city of Eilat with one of them landing in nearby Jordanian city of Aqaba, flaring up tensions in the Middle East anew. Though there were no immediate reports of casualties from the beach resort of Eilat, five persons were injured, four of them seriously, when one of the rockets strayed off course and hit the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Israeli officials said that they were investigating where the rockets were fired from, Eilat police chief, Mr Moshe Cohen, said initial reports suggested that they had been fired from the South, an apparent reference to Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. "It's a little early to say, but it is reasonable to assume that it came from the southern area," Cohen said. Two of the fired rockets apparently struck the Red Sea, another exploded in an open area near Eilat, and the other two hit the hotel district in Aqaba. There were no reports of injury or damage in Eilat, Cohen said. Jordanian authorities said a Grad rocket landed near vehicles parked at the entrance to the InterContinental Hotel in Aqaba. Security Sources here believe that the rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula by Global Jihad terrorists. Residents of Eilat reported hearing loud explosions on Monday morning. "There was a series of booms. The building shook a little. There is a lot of complacency in the city at the moment, but if rockets fired from Sinai start exploding here, this is liable to ruin the tourist economy during the best month of the year. We mustn't forget that the French are on their way," Eilat Resident, Mr Avi Cohen, told local media expressing concern that the development may badly hit the coastal city dependent on tourism. Eilat, the Jordanian port of Aqaba and nearby Egyptian Red Sea resorts have in the past seen violence perpetrated at the hands of militants. At least one rocket struck Aqaba on April 22, causing no casualties. Amman said the rocket had been fired from outside Jordan and Israeli media spoke of the Egyptian Sinai as a possible launch point

2011: “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” “a riveting portrait of the man who transformed Yiddish from a vernacular language into a literary one” and “The Hangman,” a fascinating and complex portrait of Shalom Nagar, a Yemeni Jew, who as a young man worked as prison guard and was the execution of Adolf Eichmann.

2011: The 2011 Security Briefing for Jewish Institutions is scheduled to take place at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Scheduled presenters included local police commanders and senior FBI security personnel.

Created and Edited by Mitchell Levin Cedar Rapids, IA melech3@mchsi.com

Copyright; August, 2011; Mitchell A. Levin