This Day, November 29, In Jewish History

November 29 In Jewish History

800: Charlemagne arrives at Rome to investigate the alleged crimes of Pope Leo III. Leo and Charlemagne were allies. Charlemagne would exonerate Leo of the charges and Leo would crown Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. This was “good for the Jews” since Charlemagne was protective of his Jewish subjects at a time when many were using the sword of Constantine to advance the cause of the Cross of Christ.

1394: Massacre of the Jews of Augsburg Germany.

1655: The Brazilian/Dutch Jews of New Amsterdam make an application for a license to enter the fur trade. It was later denied

1777: San Jose, California, is founded as el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. Jews began to play an active role in the affairs of San Jose at the time of the Gold Rush in 1849.
http://www.sanjose.com/history/jews/ San Jose History - San Jose's Jewish Community

1806: Napoleon wrote to Minister of the Interior Champagny, “[It is necessary to] reduce, if not destroy, the tendency of Jewish people to practice a very great number of activities that are harmful to civilization and to public order in society in all the countries of the world. It is necessary to stop the harm by preventing it; to prevent it it is necessary to change the Jews. [...] Once part of their youth will take its place in our armies, they will cease to have Jewish interests and sentiments; their interests and sentiments will be French.”

1809(21st of Kislev, 5570): Moses Seixas passed away. Born in New York in 1744, the eldest son of Isaac Mendez Seixas was one of the founders (1795) of the Newport Bank of Rhode Island, of which he was cashier until his death. He addressed a letter of welcome in the name of the congregation to George Washington when the latter visited Newport, and it was to him that Washington's answer was addressed.

1812: Napoleon's Grand Army crossed the Berezina River in its retreat from Russia. The retreat marked the real end of Napoleon. It also marked the end of new found freedom that Jews had begun to experience in most of Germany, Italy and Russia as the French Armies marched across these lands bringing the message of “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” on the tips of their bayonets.

1820: In New York City, first publication of Israel Vindicated by an anonymous author who styled him or herself as “An Israelite.” “The work was ‘a refutation of the calumnies propagated respecting the Jewish nation; in which the objects and views of the American Society for Ameliorating the Condition of the Jews are investigated.’” The original subtitle also contained the additional words “‘and reasons assigned for rejecting the Christian religion.’” In his monograph entitled “The Freethinker, the Jews and the Missionaries,” Professor Jonathan Sarna contends that the book was the work of a freethinker named George Houston who was assisted by a Jewish printer named Abraham Collins.

1830: The November Uprising also known as the Cadet Uprising begins in Warsaw when a group of Polish non-commissioned officers began an unsuccessful attempt to throw off the yoke of Russian rule. Josef Berkowicz, whose father had commanded a Jewish legion in the 1794 Uprising and who had fought alongside his father in the Battle of Kock, was a leader in what would prove to be another failed attempt to gain Polish independence.

1845: On Shabbat Toldoth, Dr. M. Lilienthal delivered a sermon in German at the Henry Street Synagouge in New York City. Dr. Lilenthal, who had only recently arrived in the United States, had been invited to address the congregation.

1853: Reverend Francis N. Vinton, D. D delivered a lecture enititled "The Merchant, or the Progress and Influence of Commerce" during which he stated that the Jews had invented the first bills of exhange in 1160. This invention was so important that soon it would be impossible to transact business without using them. Furthermore, the Jews created one of the first banks, at Boscoe, but it was used merely as depository for Gold. (Boscoe was probably a city in Italy.)

1855: Most of the Jews of New York City celebrated Thanksgiving today by “eating hearty dinners” and giving thanks “in private.”

1855: During his Thanksgiving Day sermon, Rabbi Morris Raphael rebuked New York’s Governor Clarke for issuing a proclamation inviting “only patriots and Christians to keep Thanksgiving.” At the same time, he commended Mayor Wood for inviting “all the people” to join in observing the holiday.

1855: Rabbi S.M. Isaacs delivered the sermon during Thanksgiving Day services at Shaaray Tefillah, the synagogue on Wooster Street.

1856: A pro-Zionist meeting was held in Great Britain at the Great Assembly Hall of Miles End. There was a "great rush into the building" with most seats taken quickly. The meeting was presided over by Dr. M. Gaster, Chief Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation, and among those present were Sir Francis Montifore.

1858: It was reported from Boston that the Jews of that city have a held a meeting to express their outrage over what has happened in Bologna. “The theft of the child is an outrage of the worst kind and shows there are men in the old Church ready to go as far as did their predecessors of the old days, when the Inquisition was a great fact, and a very disagreeable one, too.” [This refers to the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara which had taken place in Bologna and became known as the Mortara Affair.]

1860: In San Francisco, “The Episcopalians, the Roman Catholics and the Jews, all opened their churches…” for the celebration of Thanksgiving. The Jewish Church is probably a reference to Congregation Sherith Israel and Congregation Emanu-El. Sherith Israel which was founded in 1849 had about 110 members and consecrated its first synagogue which was located on Stockton Street in September of 1852. Emanu-El which followed the Reform minchag had about 260 members and dedicated it sanctuary in 1854.

1862: Phoebe Yates Levy Pember wrote a letter to her sister indicating that she was “to take charge of one of the hospitals at Richmond.” In December 1862, she reported for duty at Chimborazo, a hospital for the care of Confederate soldiers in Richmond, Virginia, reputed to be the largest military hospital in the world up to that time. Pember oversaw nursing services in one of the hospital's five divisions. In this role, she was responsible for the medical and dietary needs of over 15,000 men. Pember had grown up in a prosperous and acculturated family in Charleston, South Carolina. Along with her siblings, she was strongly identified with the Confederate cause and received the invitation to serve as matron of Chimborazo Hospital from the wife of the Confederate secretary of war. In A Southern Woman's Story: Life in Confederate Richmond, published in 1879, Pember described daily life at Chimborazo, detailing the poor state of the Confederate medical facilities. Despite resistance to her authority, Pember's spirit and determination overcame many obstacles. At the end of the war in April 1865, Mrs. Pember stayed at her post so that her patients might be cared for during the transition from Confederate to federal control.

1869(25th of Kislev, 5630): First Day of Chanukah; light the second candle in the evening

1870: It was reported today that Governor Hoffman will deliver an opening address at the upcoming Hebrew Fair designed to raise funds for Mount Sinai Hospital and Hebrew Orphan Asylum

1870: In New York, Henry Hissig, a German-born Hebrew went on trial for violating New York’s new seduction law. He is accused of having seduced his cousin, Ida Schwab.

1873: Major Alfred Mordecai, Jr. begins serving as a member of the U.S. Army's New Cavalry Outfit Board.

1873: It was reported today that members of Adas Jeshrun and Anshi Chesed, two Jewish Temples in Manhattan, have been meeting to discuss the possibility of consolidation. Anshi Chesed has over 100 members while Adas Jeshrun has approximately 300 members. Some of the sticking points revolve around finances with Anshi Chesed being in $110,000 in debt from the construction of a new sanctuary. The other points of contention revolve around ritual. Adas Jeshrun is not in favor of many of the reforms adopted by other Temples. Prayer is in Hebrew and heads are covered during services. Anshi Chesed favors reform. Services are held in German and there is a movement to begin using English. And heads are uncovered during services.

1874: An article published today entitled “Influences of Judaism on Early Christianity” shows that acknowledging the Jewish origins of Christianity becomes a negative in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. “There is no question that the earliest Christian Church was a Hebrew Church. There is also no question that it was an offshoot from this Hebrew Church which planted itself with exceptional vigor at Rome; and that hence Roman Christianity from that time to this, has been strongly tinctured with Jewish elements, has blazed with Jewish intolerance, delighted in Jewish gorgeousness, and fallen a victim to Jewish realism; while Pauline or Augustinian or Protestant idealism has struggled manfully…to overcome the deep weight of these lower ingredients…and to assert for intelligence and freedom their true place in the Church.”

1879(14th of Kislev, 5640): Mr. S.L. Lewis passed away today in the Sandwich Islands. (This may be the first reported death of a Jew in what is now Hawaii).

1894(1st of Kislev, 5655): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1894: “To Humanity,” the new Hamilton place wing of the Montifore Home was dedicated today in New York. The Montifore Home had been dedicated ten years earlier as part of the Centennial Celebration honoring Sir Moses Montifore.

1897: Herzl outlines his ideas for the "Jewish Colonial Bank" in a letter to Max Nordau.

1902: Birthdate of Italian painter and novelist Carlo Levi

1926: In responding to publication of the report of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who asserted that the movement to colonize Palestine with Jews is ""unfortunate and visionary," Congressman Emanuel Celler maintained that Dr. Pritchett went to Palestine to find a falure and was surprised to find success. He said that disparage Palestine now was ‘childish,’ that it has been sanctioned and encouraged by the League of Nations. ‘To call the Jews an egotistical nation without capacity of cooperation, with the rest of the world, is akin to insult and belies the history and tradition of the Jews.’ [Editor’s Note: An early version of anti-Zionism meets anti-Semitism.

1926: At tonight’s meeting of the Jewish National Fund at Cooper Union, Bernard A. Rosenblatt responded to “the adverse report of Dr. Henry S. Pritchett on Zionism in Palestine…declared that the fundamentals of economic prosperity exited in Palestine and they would be fully developed.”

1928: Birthdate of Shulamit Aloni an Israeli politician and left-wing activist. She is a prominent member of the Israeli peace camp, founded the Ratz party and was leader of the Meretz party and served as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993.

1930: This evening “a prominent member of the Revisionists’ Central Committee…said that Jabotinsky’s party would not agree to negotiate with the British Government on the basis of the present white paper. The Revisionists also will not negotiate with the Arabs as long as they continue to demand the abolition of the Balfour Declaration, revocation of the Palestine mandate and the denial of right Jews to repopulate Palestine as a national homeland.

1933: Birthdate of Dr. David Reuben author of Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex

1936: Germany's Minister of Agriculture, Walther Darré, declares that democracy and liberalism were invented by the Jews.

1936: The National Council for Palestine adopted a resolution which was sent today to the British Royal Commission now meeting in Jerusalem ask that it “it embody in its findings the policies of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which pledged Great Britain to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.”

1937(25th of Kislev, 5698): First day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle the second light.

1937: Today’s edition of Time magazine describes the fate of Arnold Bernstein at the hands of his Nazi jailers.

Greying Arnold Bernstein, 47, son of an old-time Saxon shipper, served with distinction as a German artillery officer during the War, was decorated with the Iron Cross, First Class. Back in Germany after the War he evolved the scheme of fitting modern freighters with automobile elevators so that U. S. cars could be exported to Europe uncrated and unscratched. So successful was this that Bernstein "floating garages'' have long carried over 60% of all U. S. automobile exports, made enough money for sole Owner Arnold Bernstein to allow him to buy out the American-Belgian-British Red Star Line and incidentally bring into Nazi Germany thousands of dollars yearly in much needed foreign exchange. Bernstein passenger agents find their boats are "very popular with intellectuals who object to the snobbishness of Cabin Class." Partly because of his personal popularity and War record, Shipper Arnold Bernstein was left in control of his business much longer than most Jewish tycoons. Finally last January, Nazi extremists forced the Government's hand. Arnold Bernstein and four of his managers (three Jewish), were clapped into jail, charged with "economic sabotage" through infringing German foreign exchange regulations. While he sat in jail Bernstein's 21-month-old Palestine Shipping Co. went into receivership "because the Jews deserted me," says Prisoner Bernstein, and Japanese bought for $150,000 its auctioned steamer Tel Aviv. Last week in Hamburg the trial of Arnold Bernstein began. Of all the eight charges in a 88-page indictment against Shipper Bernstein the gravest was that several years ago he set aside in Manhattan banks a fund from the Arnold Bernstein & Red Star Lines' profits to be held for a rainy day of the two lines (whose two chief creditors are the Erie R. R. and Chemical Bank & Trust Co.). This entire sum was returned to Germany some months ago. Hamburg lawyers scoffed at news stories that Bernstein "faces death," expected him to get anything from a five-year jail sentence to pardon. Since the arrest of Arnold Bernstein, Herman Kollmar, the director of his Red Star Line and his executor, has been in amicable contact with Minister President & Economic Director Hermann Goring, seeking a pardon, showing Ford and Studebaker company letters urging clemency. Mr. Kollmar denied rumors that the German Government has taken or plans to take over the Bernstein Line, admitted these rumors have caused many cancellations.

1937: The Habima Hebrew Players open their third week of their season at London’s Savoy Theatre with a performance of “The Wandering Jews."

1937: The Palestine Post reported that a police tender was ambushed and a British constable was killed near Nazareth. A Jewish worker was wounded when a bus was shot at near Nahalal, at the same spot where two Jewish shepherds were murdered and their flocks stolen a year earlier.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that there were very favorable, frequently enthusiastic reports on the series of performances given by the Habimah theater troupe on its visit to London. In the midst of Arab terrorism the Jewish community to develop its artistic, social and political institutions.

1939: Heydrich commented on the first stages of the Final Solution declaring that "The factor determining the pace of the evacuation is the Evacuation Plan." Nothing would slow down the ultimate march to the Death Camps.

1939: SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the death penalty for German Jews who refuse to report for deportation.

1940: On his own initiative, Dutch Physicist Leonard Ornstein withdrew his membership of the Dutch Physical Society

1941: Kovno Massacre of the Ghetto. Estimated 10,600 people would be killed over the next few days.

1942: The Jewish Fighting Organization of the Warsaw Ghetto assassinated the economic head of the Jewish Council who was an active German collaborator

1942: Friedrich Rehmer, a member of the Red Orchestra, who was in the Brietz military hospital recovering from a severe war wound sustained on the Eastern Front was arrested today and taken from the hospital. Eventually, he would be killed for his role in the resistance.

1946: British Court in Palestine rejects a petition to prevent deportation of Jews to Cyprus

1947: In one of the most historic moments in Jewish history, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to accept the recommendation of the United Nations Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP). UNSCOP recommended the partition of Palestine into two states – one Jewish and one Arab with Jerusalem to governed by an international authority. The vote was thirty-three in favor, thirteen against and ten abstentions. In a rare moment of Cold War solidarity, both the United States and the Soviet Union supported the UNSCOP plan which guaranteed the creation of the state of Israel in May of 1948. One other recommendation of the UNSCOP plan was the opening of a port on February 1, 1948 to Jewish immigrants. Almost three years after the ovens of the Holocaust had cooled, boat loads of displaced persons would finally have a final destination. When news of the partition vote reached the public, “there were celebrations in New York, in Palestine, wherever Jews lived. Traffic stopped in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem as people danced in the streets until the early hours of the morning.” In the words of Rabbi Isaac Herzog, “After a darkness of two thousand years, the dawn of redemption has broken.” Arabs say they are not bound by decision and charge that U.S. and Soviet Union coerced smaller countries to vote for partition. Starting on the next day, the Arabs responded with violence that would continue until the end of the mandate.

1947: Despite having virtually no Jewish population or tie to the Yishuv, Iceland is among nations voting for the Partition Plan creating a Jewish state.

1947: The annual convention of Junior Hadassah, the young women's Zionist organization of America, at its concluding session today, received from Dr. Chaim Weizmaiin, former president of the World Zionist Organization, a call for young men and women, "who are nurtured in western methods and standards" to "further the building of the (Jewish) state."

1948: Israel applied for admission to the United Nations.

1948: Stanton Griffis was appointed Director of the UNRPR.

1949: Birthdate of comedian Garry Shandling.

1949: Israelis pause to celebrate the first anniversary of the United Nations partition resolution. Zipporah Porath, a nurse working in Haifa, wrote to her parents living in the United States describing the proud parade of Israel’s newly minted soldiers.

1953: As the holiday season begins, which in America means a meshing of Christmas and Chanukah, International Records has released “Holiday Time,” a record combining music from both holidays. The record is designed “to promote better human relations through an understanding of the general cultural significance of Christmas and Chanukah” while avoiding mentioning the theological differences between the two holidays.

1953: It was reported today that Kinor Records has released “Chanukah Music Box” just in time for the holiday season. Designed as a participation record for children, it features music written and sung by Shirley R. Cohen, with narration by Eli Gamliel and musical accompaniment by Helen Schraeter.

1954: Birthdate of Joel Coen. Joel and Ethan Coen, commonly called The Coen Brothers, are Jewish-American film director best known for their quirky comedies such as Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski, as well as for darker film noir dramas such as Fargo and Blood Simple. The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, alternating top billing for the screenplay. Until recently, Joel received sole credit for directing the films, and Ethan for producing, but the two brothers work so closely together and share such a strong vision of what their films are to be that actors report that they can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer. The brothers are known in the film business as "the two-headed director."

1954: On this cold and rainy night Esther Borenstein was on duty when a "mosquito" plane was hit by lightening and crashed while landing. Esther ran towards the burning plane, rescuing the badly injured navigator. Although ammunition on the plane began to explode, Esther did not hesitate and ran in again to rescue the pilot, Ya'akov Shalmon. When they reached a hiding spot, the entire plane blew up. Esther was awarded a Badge of Courage for this operation by Moshe Dayan, then Highest in Command of the IDF. Esther was born in Bulgaria, and during the Second World War, her family was ousted to Italy. As early as her childhood, Esther always loved the Land of Israel, and at age 11, left her home in an attempt to come to Israel. At 16, she indeed arrived, with her brother, and shortly afterwards, in spite of her early age, joined the Israel Defense Forces. She joined the Air Force, completed a medic's course, and viewed army service as an honor and not a duty. After completing her army service, Esther continued to work as a nurse with the Israeli Red Cross, and was the first female ambulance driver in the country. Later, she looked for a job that would express her love for the country and chose to be a tour guide. At that same time, the 6-Day War broke out, and Esther joined the paratroopers, where under constant fire and shelling, she tended to injured soldiers, receiving the nickname "Angel of the Paratroopers". She volunteered during the Yom Kippur war as well, and in 1973, she received the Medal of Honor for saving the pilot. In February 2003, she passed away during a trip to Italy, and was buried there at her family's request. In February 2005, Bridges of Viewpoint was built in memory of Esther Borenstein on a quiet corner on the banks of the Jordan River, opposite the basalt arches of the 2,000 year old Roman-era bridge.

1956: Birthdate of actor and comedian Howie Mandel

1957(6th of Kislev, 5718): Composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold passed away. Korngold was born in an assimilated Jewish home in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic), the son of the music critic Julius Korngold, and studied music under Alexander von Zemlinsky and Robert Fuchs. Gustav Mahler, upon meeting the young Erich, called him a "musical genius." He had success in Europe with his opera Die tote Stadt (1920) among other pieces before moving to the United States in 1934, where he wrote a number of highly regarded film scores. He continued to write concert music in a rich, Romantic style, with a violin concerto among his notable later works. In 1943, Korngold became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He died in Hollywood, California.

1957: The three-day dedication program of the nation's largest Orthodox Jewish synagogue, the Baron Hirsch Synagogue of Memphis, starts today.

1959: Birthdate of Rahm Emanuel the son of a former member of the Irgun and civil rights activist who went on to represent the Fifth District of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives,be named White House Chief of Staff by President Barak Obama and Chicago's first Jewish mayor.

1962(2nd of Kislev, 5723): Rav Aaron Kotler famed Orthodox Talmudic scholar passed away.

1969(19th of Kislev, 5730): Yakov Grigorevich Kreizer, a general in the Soviet Army passed away today at the age of 64. His promotion to the rank of general “apparently made him the highest ranking Jewish military figure in the Soviet Union since Leon Trotsky organized the Red Army after the Bolshevik Revolution.” Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Kreizer took command of the 1st Moscow Motorized Infantry and fought forces under Heinz Guderian to a virtual stand-still giving other Soviet forces a chance to regroup. He was designated a Hero of the Soviet Union for his efforts.

1969: In Massachusetts, the Marblehead School Department has banned all religious reference to Christmas and Hanukah in the town’s public school. The decision prohibits the exchange of gifts and any decorations in connection with either holiday. The policy comes in response to complaints by the American Civil Liberties Union about the religious aspects of the Christmas activity and numerous complaints from Jewish parents protesting their children’s involvement in school holiday activities.

1975(25th of Kislev, 5736): Ze’ev Beret was killed when his F-4E Phantom II Jet spun out of control and crashed.

1975(25th of Kislev, 5736): First Day of Chanukah; light the second candle in the evening

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in reply to President Anwar Sadat’s appeal, Israel named Eliahu Ben-Elissar and Meir Rosenne as members of the Israeli negotiating team to the proposed Cairo Conference, which was expected to prepare ground for the reconvened Geneva Peace Conference. Israel joined the fervent Egyptian appeal to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon for their participation, but they uniformly rejected Sadat’s initiative. The US continued to study the Egyptian invitation.

1979(9th of Kislev, 5740): Zeppo Marx, one of the Marx Brothers, passed away.

1981(3rd of Kislev, 5742): Fredric Wertham, German-born, American psychologist passed away. During the 1950’s, in what seems like a laughable episode half a century later, many Americans became convinced that comic books were the cause of juvenile delinquency. “This anti-comic book sentiment led in the spring of 1954 to the publication of The Seduction of the Innocent, based on Jewish psychologist Frederic Wertham's seven-year-long study of the effects of comic books on America's youth. Dr. Wertham condemned most of the genre--especially crime and horror comics--for having contributed to juvenile delinquency. As the outcry following the publication of Seduction of the Innocent grew, so did the call for government intervention. The Hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary opened in Manhattan federal court on April 21, 1954.” (Ed. Note: I must confess that my brother and I were eager consumers of comic books during this period.)

1984: Gotthard Günther German born, American philosopher passed away. Günther was not Jewish but he was married to the Jewish psychologist Dr. Marie Günther-Hendel. Together they made their way out Nazi Europe before WWII and finally made their way to U.S.

1989(1st of Kislev, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Kislev

1989(1st of Kislev, 5750): Robert W. Schleck, a former foreign service officer, teacher and research analyst who was second secretary at the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv during the Suez crisis in 1956 passed away today.

1994: The New York Times featured a review of A Chosen Few by Mark Kurlansky.

1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Isaiah Berlin: A Life by Michael Ignatieff, The Crisis of Global Capitalism Open Society Endangered by George Soros and Indivisible by Four: A String Quartet in Pursuit of Harmony by Arnold Steinhardt

2000: At the New York Public Library, a presentation by Marion Kaplan entitled “Friendship on the Margins: Jewish Social Relations in Imperial Germany” that asks the question, “With whom did the German Jews spend their leisure time?” This lecture examines the spectrum of friendships available to Jews in Imperial Germany (1871-1918), looking at extended families, friendships among Jews, and relationships with non-Jews. Those friendships could be intense or distant, intimate, or burdened by social and political anti-Semitism. Marion Kaplan is a social and cultural historian, with an emphasis on women’s history. Dr. Kaplan’s writings include Between Dignity and Despair: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany, which won the National Jewish Book Award for 1998.

2002(24th of Kislev, 5763): In the evening, Kindle the first Chanukah light

2004: Ilan Shalgi completes his term as Minister of Science and Technology.

2004: Victor Brailovsky became Minister of Science and Technology.

2005: The Seattle Reconstructionist congregation Kadima which, according to its Web site, “welcomes members from all backgrounds, including multicultural, gay, and lesbian households,” now is welcoming Ariel Sharon's adoption of its name. "[We] wish Prime Minister Sharon the very best with his new party name," Kadima Executive Director Susan Davis told The Jerusalem Post via email. "It is a huge responsibility to use a name as progressive as Kadima." Kadima means "forward" in Hebrew. Two other entities using the name Kadima were not nearly as accepting. The city fathers of Kadima, a town in the Sharon section of Israel, expressed their displeasure with the name chosen for Sharon’s new party. Kadima is also the name of a left-wing political party with headquarters in Beersheba. Party leaders are petitioning the government to force Sharon to use a different name since they feel that they own it for purposes of political party nomenclature.

2006: In Jerusalem, The Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies awards the 10th Liebhaber Prize for Religious Tolerance to Deborah Goldman Golan, Director of the Bamidbar Center for Pluralistic Jewish Studies in Yeroham.

2007: A tribute was held in New York City in anticipation of poet Philip Levine's 80th birthday. Among those celebrating Levine's career by reading Levine's work were Yusef Komunyakaa, Galway Kinnell, E. L. Doctorow, Charles Wright, Jean Valentine, and Sharon Olds. Levine himself read several new and interesting poems. He thanked his students and asked them to refrain from asking for any more letters of recommendation.

2007: At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, television star Sarah Silverman, headlines “Comedy without Borders” a fund-raiser for the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, the ecological and coexistence center located at Kibbutz Ketura, near Eilat.

2007(19th of Kislev, 5768): Victor Erlich, a path-breaking scholar of Russian literature, died today He was 93. Erlich was born in Petrograd, Russia, in 1914, the scion of a scholarly Jewish family. His maternal grandfather was renowned Jewish historian Simon Dubnov and his father was Henryk Erlich, a leader of the Jewish labor union known as the Bund. In 2006, Erlich published a memoir of his early years, “Child of a Turbulent Century.” In a review for the Forward, Winston Churchill biographer Martin Gilbert wrote, “Victor Erlich has added magnificently to our sense of what once was, and will never be again.” Erlich was 3 when his family moved to Poland and took refuge from the upheavals of the Russian Revolution. He grew up around the artistic and intellectual luminaries of Eastern Europe, including Marc Chagall and Bundist leader Victor Alter. When the Nazis invaded Poland, the family fled again, this time to Lithuania. Most of Erlich’s relatives were killed, but Erlich made his way to New York in 1942, going through Moscow, Japan and Montreal. He joined the U.S. Army and was sent back to Europe as a soldier. After narrowly surviving the war again, he attended graduate school at Columbia University, studying Slavic languages under Roman Jakobson, an influential Slavic linguist. Erlich became recognized as a major scholar of modern Russian literature with his 1955 study, “Russian Formalism: History, Doctrine,” which remains a classic in the field. His other subjects included Gogol and Russian modernism. In 1961, Erlich became chair of the Russian department at Yale University, where he remained until his retirement. “He encompassed a great deal of culture — Russian, Polish, Jewish, European — so he was like a walking, talking resource for those of us who were younger,” said Greta Slobin, a professor of Slavic literature who studied under Erlich and maintained a friendship with him. “He was a representative of the cosmopolitan Jewish culture that had been destroyed in the Holocaust.” (As reported by Marissa Brostoff)

2007: USCJ International Biennial Convention opens in Orlando, FL.

2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that “Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni failed in attempts to set up meetings in Annapolis or Washington with colleagues from the Arab world, even though the summit was designed to show international support for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations… Israeli officials interpreted this as evidence that the Arab world had not changed its fundamental policy that there would be no warming of relations with Israel until after a deal, and that normalization was one of the Arab world's major bargaining chips.”

2007: Sixty one years after he was buried at a wind hilltop cemetery in southeast Washington, Stephen Theodore Norman, the only grandchild of Theodor Herzl was exhumed as the first step of trip that will lead to his burial in Israel.

2008: On this Shabbat when we recite “Av harachameem,” there will be special poignancy to the words as we mourn the passing Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the beloved directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai. “The Father of mercy who dwells on high in His great mercy will remember with compassion the pious, upright and blameless the holy communities, who laid down their lives for the sanctification of His name. They were loved and pleasant in their lives and in death they were not parted.They were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions to carry out the will of their Maker, and the desire of their steadfast God. May our Lord remember them for good together with the other righteous of the world and may He redress the spilled blood of His servants as it is written in the Torah of Moses the man of God: "O nations, make His people rejoice for He will redress the blood of His servants. He will retaliate against His enemies and appease His land and His people". And through Your servants, the prophets it is written: "Though I forgive, their bloodshed I shall not forgive When God dwells in Zion" And in the Holy Writings it says: "Why should the nations say, 'Where is their God?'"Let it be known among the nations in our sight that You avenge the spilled blood of Your servants. And it says: "For He who exacts retribution for spilled blood remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble". And it says: "He will execute judgement among the corpse-filled nations crushing the rulers of the mighty land; from the brook by the wayside he will drink then he will hold his head high".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwom17kFOb0

2008: This afternoon authorities announced that the family of one of Israeli victims of the attack on the Mumbai Chabad House had identified her as being Yocheved Orpaz, aged 60. Another woman was identified as a Jewish resident of Mexico, whose name has not yet been released.
2008: U.N. Israel Partition Day – 61st anniversary of this momentous moment in Jewish history. “Three minutes that changed two thousand years of wandering.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEGUPlhtMWQ

2009: In Jerusalem, the opening of Whiskey Month at the Mia Bar featuring whiskey tastings and special winter dishes which go well with whiskey.

2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Googled: The End of the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel and the recently released paperback edition of Friendly Fire: A Duet by A. B. Yehoshua.

2009: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Googled: The End of the World as We Know It by Ken Auletta.

2009: Beachwood, Ohio declares today “Hudesa Gora Day” to mark the 100th birth of this holocaust survivor who ran a successful fur business in Cleveland for many years.

2010: Roz Chast, Al Jaffee and Robert Mankoff are scheduled to participate in a program entitled “The Cartoonist Chronicles” at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.

2010: Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named Mossad veteran Tamir Pardo as his choice as the new head of Israel's spy agency, to succeed Meir Dagan. Pardo served in senior positions in the Mossad for many years, as well as in various operative units. He left the agency in 2009, before which he served as deputy Mossad chief. Pardo's appointment is still pending the approval of the committee which okays appointments to senior positions in the public service

2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Steven N. Posner, who with his father, Victor, was caught up in a major corporate raiding case that led to the convictions of Ivan F. Boesky and Michael R. Milken, died today in a high-speed boat collision on Biscayne Bay, Fla. He was 67 and lived in Miami. Mr. Posner’s 44-foot catamaran was racing with a friend’s boat when they somehow collided, The Miami Herald said. A passenger on Mr. Posner’s boat was also killed, and his cousin Stuart Posner was seriously injured, as was a passenger on the other boat. Mr. Posner (pronounced PAHZ-ner) worked for many years with his father, who became known as a master of the hostile takeover, intentionally mismanaging companies into bankruptcy while enriching himself as they foundered. In 1987, the elder Mr. Posner — who died in 2002 — pleaded no contest to a charge of tax evasion and was ordered to give $3 million to the homeless and perform 5,000 hours of community service. A year later, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Victor and Steven Posner of conspiring with Mr. Boesky and Mr. Milken in 1984 to gain control of the Fischbach Corporation, an electrical contracting company in New York. In its civil complaint, the S.E.C. contended that with Mr. Milken’s help, the Posners had secretly arranged to “park” Fischbach stock, or place it with Mr. Boesky, to conceal their intention to seize control of the company. Mr. Boesky and Mr. Milken pleaded guilty to felony charges stemming from the transaction. The Posners did not face criminal charges in the case, but in December 1993 Judge Milton Pollack of Federal District Court in New York banned them from any further involvement with public companies. The judge also ordered them to give up control of their remaining public companies and to repay about $4 million they had received from Fischbach. Father and son were later involved in their own legal fight. In 1995 Steven sued his father, contending that he had plundered a real estate company by paying himself a “ridiculously excessive” salary, thereby jeopardizing Steven’s 25 percent stake in company. It was one of several lawsuits brought by Steven against his father. A settlement of the suits was reached the year before Victor died; the terms were not made public. Steven Posner eventually became the owner of vast real estate holdings.

2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Richard N. Goldman, a San Francisco civic leader and philanthropist best known for co-founding the Goldman Environmental Prize, which is given to six grass-roots environmental activists every year, died today at his home in San Francisco. He was 90. Mr. Goldman and his wife, Rhoda, an heiress to the Levi Strauss fortune, first awarded the prize in 1990 as a way to finance and publicize efforts to protect the environment. Each winner of the prize, which has increased over the years, today receives $150,000. To date, 139 recipients from 79 countries have received a total of $13.2 million. Recipients include Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Belt Movement to fight African deforestation and meet rural women’s needs in Kenya by planting trees and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004; and Ken Saro-Wiwa, who founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People to protest environmental damage by oil companies and government attacks against his tribe in Nigeria. He was executed by the Nigerian government in 1995. Mr. Goldman supported other charities, including ones devoted to Jewish causes, reproductive rights and ecological efforts like reintroducing endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep to Yosemite National Park, through the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. He and Mrs. Goldman founded the fund in 1951. It has distributed more than $680 million to nonprofit organizations and causes around the world. Richard Nathaniel Goldman was born in San Francisco on April 16, 1920. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1941 and spent a year at the Boalt Hall School of Law before serving in the Army from 1942 to 1946. Mr. Goldman founded Goldman Insurance Services in 1949 and was the company’s chairman until it was sold to Willis Group Holdings in 2001.

2010(22nd of Kislev, 5771): Stephen J. Solarz, a nine-term Democratic congressman whose concerns went beyond traffic lights and beach erosion in his Brooklyn district to nuclear weapons, the Middle East and his revelation that Imelda Marcos owned 3,000 pairs of shoes, died today in Washington. He was 70 and lived in McLean, Va. When he was elected to the House in 1974, Mr. Solarz finagled a seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee with the idea that he could appeal to his largely Jewish district by attending to the needs of Israel. He immediately threw himself into foreign policy issues, visiting leaders of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Syria in his first month on the job. He soon became a leading voice in the House on foreign affairs. Mr. Solarz was defeated in a Democratic primary in 1992 after being caught up in a scandal involving the bank operated for House members and after his district had been redrawn to facilitate the election of a Hispanic candidate. But his arrival in 1975 was a moment of triumph, both for himself and for his party. Mr. Solarz was part of a huge class of 75 freshman Democrats who forced changes in the seniority system, giving newer representatives much more influence. The public’s interest in global affairs had been heightened by the Vietnam War, and the abuses of presidential power in the Watergate affair had given new steam to Congress. “I was elected to Congress at precisely the moment in American history when Congress decided it would no longer abdicate its constitutional authority for foreign policy to an executive branch that had lost its claim to presidential infallibility,” Mr. Solarz wrote in his preface to “Journeys to War and Peace: A Congressional Memoir,” to be published in 2011. Mr. Solarz would go on to be the first congressman to visit North Korea in 30 years; have a nine-hour conversation with Fidel Castro; introduce a nuclear freeze resolution; help alter Reagan administration policies in Central America and Lebanon; and battle many in his own party when he supported the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Mr. Solarz visited more than 100 countries, more than earning his nickname, the Marco Polo of Congress. He once got a standing ovation on the floor of the Indian Parliament. Mr. Solarz was a torrent of activity during his first six months in Congress. According to his office, he made 12 speeches on the House floor, co-sponsored 370 bills, held 11 news conferences, made 24 trips to his district and attended 99 events there, visited 23 subway stations, sent constituents 513,720 pieces of mail and took an 18-day tour of the Middle East. And he became adept at winning the support of House colleagues. “You don’t just win on the merits,” Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts said after Mr. Solarz’s death. “He understood legislating.” Mr. Solarz’s early battles included an unsuccessful effort to stop the Carter administration’s sale of F-15 jets to Saudi Arabia in 1978. The next year, Mr. Solarz was named chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s African subcommittee and worked with President Jimmy Carter to thwart the lifting of sanctions against Rhodesia for its racist policies. In 1981, he gave up his post on the African subcommittee to take over the subcommittee on Asian and Pacific affairs. There he developed a peace plan that helped end the genocide in Cambodia. He returned from his 1980 visit to North Korea with the news that the country’s dictator, Kim Il-sung, was interested in improving relations with the United States. In his 1986 hearings on the Philippines, Mr. Solarz provided irrefutable evidence that President Ferdinand Marcos was misusing foreign aid, leading to the uncovering of the vast United States real estate empire he shared with his wife, Imelda — not to mention Mr. Solarz’s blockbuster disclosure about her shoes. In an interview, Robert Dallek, the presidential historian, praised Mr. Solarz’s commitment to building democracy in places like the Philippines, South Korea, Lebanon and Taiwan. “He struck idealistic notes with a lot of his colleagues,” Mr. Dallek said.
But he was also pragmatic, said Paul D. Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary and World Bank president, who worked with Mr. Solarz on Asian issues during the Reagan administration. Mr. Solarz, he said, showed that allying with forces fighting repression could be good policy. “Solarz understood that idealism and realism actually go together,” he said. Stephen Joshua Solarz was born on Sept. 12, 1940, in Manhattan. His parents, Sanford Solarz and the former Ruth Fertig, divorced soon after his birth, and his mother vanished from his life. He was raised first by his father and a stepmother, then by a widowed aunt in Brooklyn after his father divorced again. His political career began when he was elected president of his sixth-grade class; he was later elected president of the student government at Midwood High School in Brooklyn. After graduating from Brandeis University, where he edited the school newspaper, he entered Columbia Law School. But he quickly became bored by the law and switched his studies, earning a master’s degree in public law and government from Columbia. While at Columbia he joined the ranks of reform Democrats in Brooklyn, and at 25 he helped run the primary campaign of Melvin Dubin, an antiwar candidate for Congress. Mr. Dubin lost, but while working for the campaign Mr. Solarz met Nina Koldin, whom he later married. She survives him, as do his mother, Ruth Robin; his brothers, Avrom and Seth Robin; his stepson, Randy Glantz; his stepdaughter, Lisa Prickett; and four grandchildren. Mrs. Solarz had persuaded her husband to run for the State Assembly in 1968 and, using her inheritance, had bankrolled his early campaigns, including his first race for Congress in 1974. She pleaded guilty in 1995 to two criminal charges of writing bad checks against their account at the House bank. Mr. Solarz, despite 743 overdrafts, was not charged. Before running for Congress, Mr. Solarz served three terms in the Assembly. He lost a race for Brooklyn borough president in 1973 but generally won elections by high margins. He lost his district, however, when the state’s Congressional delegation shrunk to 31 from 34 because of population loss. Choosing to run in a district that had been reconfigured to include parts of Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn to help a Hispanic candidate win, he faced five Hispanic opponents in the Democratic primary and lost to Nydia M. Velázquez, who went on to win the general election and remains the district’s representative. After his political career Mr. Solarz worked as a consultant and volunteer for nonprofit international organizations. He was a leader of the International Crisis Group, which works with governments and global organizations to quell deadly conflicts. As a congressman Mr. Solarz was always mindful of local issues, calling himself “Representative Pothole.” In 1990, he introduced a bill denying a sports team that leaves a city the right to sue for trademark infringement. The bill grew out of a suit filed by the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Brooklyn Dodgers Sports Bar and Restaurant in Brooklyn. Mr. Solarz wanted to get in one last lick at the team that had fled to the West Coast and broken his borough’s heart. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

2011: David Kalender, the Senior Rabbi of Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, Virginia, is scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures on The Book of Ruth.

2011: In honor of the 10th anniversary of the JCC in Manhattan, the JCC is scheduled to screen the audience’s favorite film.

2011: The Tulane Hillel Board Meeting is scheduled to take place at Goldie & Morris Mintz Center for Jewish Life.

2011: In New Orleans, Rabbi Alexis Berk is scheduled to lead the Touro Synagogue Interfaith Chavurah Group in a discussion of “The December Dilemma.”

Created and Edited by Mitchell Levin Cedar Rapids, IA melech3@mchsi.com
Copyright; November, 2011; Mitchell A. Levin