This Day, December 23, In Jewish History

December 23 In Jewish History

1420: The Pope banned conversion of Jewish children done without consent of their parents

1736: In Peru, the last inquisition took place. Dona Ana de Castro, a former lover of the viceroy (among others) was accused of Judaizing and burned at the stake. It is probably that her execution had more to do with official embarrassment than with any religious devotion on her part.

1777: Birthdate of the anti-Semitic Tsar Alexander I who promulgated a decree drafting Jewish 12 year olds into the Russian Army.

1791: Catherine II created the Pale of Settlement. Jews were squeezed out of the major cities and ports into the area known as White Russia. Even within the Pale, Jews were excluded from certain cities and Crown Lands. The driving force behind the creation of the pale was the merchants in Moscow who demanded protection against Jewish competition. The Russian government followed the path of bigotry to the detriment of the nation. Creating the Pale meant that the Jews would not be available to help create a vigorous middle class which was so critical to the success of other modern nation-states including the U.S., Britain and Germany. The Pale of Settlement was Russia's response to having acquired a large Jewish population as a result of the partition of Poland. This upset what had been the Russian policy of trying to create a Russia without Jews. The Pale was on Russia's western frontier. In event of an invasion by Prussia, Russia would have this buffer zone that would absorb the first shock and devastation while the Russian Army was being fully mobilized. In one sense, the Jews of the Pale were the human shields of the Russian Empire. What is the “Pale” in the Pale of Settlement? “Pale” is the term for the fence boards.

1812: "Jephtas Gelübde" ('The vow of Jephtha') the first opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, the German Jewish composer, had its first performance at the Hoftheater in Munich

1820: Birthdate of Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy “a Hungarian rabbi and academic who became the first Jewish Reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature at the University of Cambridge.

1850: Birthdate of Oscar Solomon Straus. One of the Straus brothers who were noted merchants, public servants, philanthropists and leaders of the Jewish community from the second half of the 19th century through the Roaring Twenties. Straus was ambassador to Turkey and the first American Jew to hold a cabinet post. He was appointed Secretary of Commerce and Labor by Teddy Roosevelt. He was active in the reform wing of the Republican party and became an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson. Straus was the found of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the American Jewish Committee. Among the books he authored was his autobiography Under Four Administrations. He passed away in 1926.

1851: The Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Association is hosting a benefit at the Broadway Theatre tonight. The entertainment includes a violin solo by Frederick Griebel and a performance of comedy, “All That Glitters Is Not Gold.”

1864(24th of Kislev, 5625): As night falls, the Jewish troops with General Sherman kindle the first light of Chanukah in Savannah, GA, the recently captured Confederate port which was the object of the famous "March to the Sea.:

1867: Emancipation of the Jews of Hungary. After the Prussians defeated the Austrians, the Austrians reformed certain aspects of their imperial system. They created the dual monarchy so that the Austrian Empire became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hapsburgs tried this and other cosmetic reforms in an attempt to maintain control over their polyglot empire.

1870: It was reported today that many of the women who had worked to make the Hebrew Fair such a success are now helping out at the fair being held to raise funds to support the orphans of soldiers and sailors.

1875: It was reported today that the Hebrew Charity Fair which was held at Gilmore’s Garden has come to a close. On the last evening the remaining items on hand were auctioned off for $542. The fair raised almost $135,000

1875(25th of Kislev, 5636): First Day of Chanukah

1876: A fair that is designed to raise funds for Hebrew Charities is scheduled to take place tonight at the Masonic Hall in New York City.

1877(17th of Tevet, 5638): Yehuda Abraham Covo passed away. Born in 1832, he was a Rabbinical Judge and head of the Asher Covo Yeshiva.

1878: It was reported today that the Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews did not hold its monthly meeting. While no official announcement was made about the reason for this, it was assumed that board did not meet because of disagreement over whether or not to accept the donation from Mrs. Stewart that would necessitate the Jews accepting the money from Judge Hilton.

1878: A fair for the benefit of Shaare Rachmim which opened in Tammany Hall on December 9 is scheduled to come to an end this evening.

1879: An association of rabbis and prominent Jewish laymen was formed today with the goal of promoting a stricter observance of the Sabbath as proscribed by the Torah and other Jewish laws.

1888; Laurence Oliphant, a British author diplomat and proto-Zionist passed away. Born in 1829, following a number of twists and turns, by 1879, Oliphant began working on a project to help Jews settle in Palestine. He raised money, vainly sought to obtain a lease on a portion of Palestine from authorities in the Ottoman capital and helped to settle one group of Jews in the Galilee. He hired Naftali Herz Imber, the author of Hatikvah, as his secretary.

1894(25th of Kislev, 5655): First Day of Chanukah

1900: Dr. Samuel Schulman, the associate rabbi of Temple Beth-El delivered a sermon this morning on the subject of “Judaism’s Message of Peace and Good-Will.”

1907: Birthdate of Avraham Stern. Stern was the leader of Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang a group of Zionist who lost their moral compass, to put it mildly. Others would say, that Zionists or not, the Stern Gang was a group of murderous thugs.

1909: Birthday of boxer Barney Ross. Born Barnet Rasofsky in Chicago, this son of Rabbi turned away from his Jewish studies at the age of 14. His father was killed in the family grocery store by robbers. Ross moved into the shadowy underworld of the street before emerging as welterweight boxer at the age of 18. Ross would become World Welterweight Champion of the Word during the 1930’s. After retiring he became a successful restauranteur. Although in his thirties at the outbreak of World War II, Ross enlisted in the Marines and earned the Silver Star during the campaign to take Guadalcanal. Ross’ successful battle with drug addiction provided the storyline for the film Monkey on My Back. He passed away in 1967.

1915: Birthdate of Sidney Shapiro, “an American author and translator who has lived in China since 1947.”

1916: During World War I, British Imperial forces (mostly ANZACs) captured the Turkish garrison during the Battle of Magdhaba on the Sinai Peninsula. This victory was part of the British plan to move west and eventually take Palestine from the Turks. Jewish forces would play a role in the final battles to liberate Palestine from Turkish rule.

1917: Having already met with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Colonel Storrs, the newly appointed British governor of Jerusalem, attended a gathering of Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbis. The rabbis hoped to enlist Storrs’ support in their conflict with local Zionists.

1920: As British support for the Balfour Declaration waned, the 17th Earl of Derby, a prominent Conservative politician wrote Winston Churchill expressing his opposition to the Palestine Mandate in general and the Zionist cause in particular.

1922: Four members of the Salonica Jewish community were elected to the Greek Assembly: Isaac Alhanati, Jonas Jamnelides, Joshua Laias and M. Levy.

1922: Birthdate of Leonard Stern. Stern was successful television writer and producers. Two of his better known shows were comedies – The Phil Silvers Show and Get Smart.

1923: Birthdate of pundit, commentator and editor, Bill Kristol

1928(10th of Tevet, 5689): Asara B'Tevet

1933: Governor Herbert H. Lehman spoke at the annual Maccabean Festival at Madison Square Garden where he denounced the treatment of the Jews of Germany “whose loyalty an love for their country has been betrayed. Dr. Albert Einstein was the guest of honor at the event which he described as a “demonstration of Jewish solidarity. Governor Lehman’s neice, Mrs. Benjamin J. Buttenweiser, was chairman of the event’s hostess committee. The evening’s entertainment included “a dramatic and musical panorama of modern Jewish life in Palestine entitled ‘Reunion in Tel Aviv.’”

1934: According to reports published today, “athletes throughout the country are training for the elimination finals which will be held here during February to choose the American Jewish team to complete in the second Maccabiah at Tel Aviv in April 1935. The National Sports Board, whose membership includes Irving Jaffee, Nat Holman Abel Kiviat, Joseph Alexander and Pincus Sober, is headed by Benny Leonard.

1935(27th of Kislev, 5696): Rabbi Joshua Joffe who had retired in 1917 from JTS after 24 years of teaching and then returned to Germany passed away in Freiburg, Germany. After his death, his wife and daughter returned to the United States.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the British government denied that it was deliberately postponing the establishment of a new Palestine Commission which was to submit a plan for the partitioning of the country, as authorized by the League of Nations. Another Arab leader, Isouk Ayash, was shot in cold blood by an Arab gang in the village of Beit Immar, near Hebron.

1937: The British army begins a three day effort to suppress Arab bands in the Galilee.

1937: In Mount Vernon, NY, Clara and Sol Trager gave birth to David Gershon Tagera, the federal judge in Brooklyn whose rulings were pivotal in a racially charged case in Crown Heights and in the first civil suit to challenge the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to countries that employ torture. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

1938: Birthdate of Robert Elliot “Bob” Kahn. Kahn is an American computer scientist who co-created the packet-switching protocols that enable computers to exchange information on the Internet. In the late 1960s Kahn realized that a packet-switching network could effectively transmit large amounts of data between computers. Along with fellow computer scientists Vinton Cerf, Lawrence Roberts, Paul Baran, and Leonard Kleinrock, Kahn built the ARPANET, the first network to successfully link computers around the country. Kahn and Cerf also developed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which together enable communication between different types of computers and networks; TCP/IP is the standard still in use today.

1939: Thirty-five German refugees, victims first of German anti-Semitism and then of the war, arrived here this afternoon on the Italian liner Conte di Savoia, ending a voyage that began at Italian ports more than two months ago

1943: The Jewish community at Pinsk, Poland, is liquidated.

1943: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau is informed by his staff that, "when you get through with it, the [State Department's] attitude to date is no different from Hitler's attitude."

1943: Birthdate of actor Harry Shearer whose credits include work with “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.”

1944: Birthdate of General Wesley Clark, NATO chief and unsuccessful Presidential candidate. Late in life Clark learned the truth about his lineage. His father was a Jewish lawyer living in Chicago. He died when Clark was four. His mother moved to Little Rock where she married Viktor Clark. Clark adopted young Wesley and changed his name. Clark’s Methodist mother hid Clark’s Jewish heritage from him because she was concerned about the KKK which was active in Arkansas.

1945: Birthdate of Bernie Fine the long-term associate head basketball coach for Syracuse University who terminated following charges of sexual abuse.

1945: Sumner Welles, chairman of American Christian Palestine Committee, advises that UN Trusteeship Council should establish Jewish commonwealth in Palestine with armed force to give security.

1946(30th of Kislev, 5707): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1946(30th of Kislev, 5707): In the evening, kindle seven Chanukah lights

1946: It was reported today that “a group of Jewish children in the displaced-persons’ center in the French sector” of Berlin celebrated Chanukah “with a couple of doughnuts, a few pieces of candy and a cup of hot chocolate.”

1947(10th of Tevet, 5708): Asara B'Tevet

1947: The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories. The first three patents for the field-effect transistor principle were registered in Germany in 1928 by the Jewish physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld. At the time, they attracted little attention. It would take two more decades of work in Germany and the United States before the giant step in miniaturization could take place.

1947(10th of Tevet, 5708): Frances Stern, social worker, nutritionist, educator, and pioneering dietician passed away. Stern was a leading exponent of the idea that adequate nutrition was a crucial element of social welfare. Born in Boston on July 4, 1873, Stern, as a teenager, began working with children at The Industrial School in the North End and teaching Sunday School at Temple Israel. Working with Isabel Hyams and Marion Ratshesky Ehrlich, she organized the Louisa May Alcott Club to teach nutrition and homemaking to young girls in 1895. Seeking more education, Stern took a special course of study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Ellen Richards, who went on to found the American Home Economics Association. Stern's work developing visiting housekeeping programs for the Boston Association for the Relief and Control of Tuberculosis and the Boston Provident Association led to the publication of a book, Food for the Worker, in 1917. During World War I, Stern worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and for the American Red Cross in France. Upon her return from France, she founded the Food Clinic as part of the Boston Dispensary. The Food Clinic dispensed practical advice on diet and nutrition to its clients and studied the ways in which health intersected with nutrition, ethnicity, and economic status. Stern tried to mold her education efforts to the needs of her clients, presenting information in multiple languages and through visual aids. She also tailored her dietary recommendations to patients' incomes and encouraged them to prepare their own native foods.The Clinic became widely recognized for excellence in nutrition education and became a training center for dieticians from all over the world. In 1943, the Clinic was renamed in Frances Stern's honor. Today, the Frances Stern Nutrition Center is part of Tufts-New England Medical Center, and continues to train dieticians and educate patients, continuing Stern's holistic approach to diet and health.

1948: Efforts of UN Truce Committee to arrange Israel-Egypt armistice conference break down.

1948: Israel attacks Egyptian troops near Gaza, Nirim, Rafah, and Khan Yunis.

1949(3rd of Tevet, 5710): 8th day of Chanukah

1949(3rd of Tevet, 5710): Arthur Eichengrün, the German Jewish chemist who claimed that he invented aspirin passed away. Fifty years after his death, Walter Sneader of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow re-examined the case and came to the conclusion that indeed Eichengrün's account was convincing and correct and that Eichengrün deserved credit for the invention of Aspirin. Bayer continued to reject his claim. Born in 1867, Eichengrün was one of the few Jews to survive the war even though he lived in Berlin until 1944 when he was shipped to Theresienstadt.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that David Ben-Gurion introduced a new Mapai-General Zionists-Progressive government coalition to the Knesset. Hapoel Hamizrahi was still considering an option whether to join the coalition. During a heated debate, Ben-Gurion complained that the absurd fragmentation of political factions was the root of all Israeli parliamentary troubles.

1953: Dr. Robert Oppenheimer was notified that his security clearance had been suspended. (He had directed the Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bombs used during WW II). There were allegations questioning his trustworthiness for association with Communists. By telegram dated 29 Jan 1954, he requested a hearing. On 4 Mar 1954, he submitted his answer to the original notification. Within two weeks, the Commission informed him who would conduct the hearing, to be led by Gordon Gray. The hearing before the Gray Board began 12 Apr 1954. It returned a result on 29 Jun 1954 that by a vote of 4 to1, it had made a decision against reinstating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information

1954: The State of Israel Bond Drive sponsored the 3rd annual Chanukah festival which was held at Madison Square Garden tonight.


1968: Pinchas Rosen resigned from the Knesset.

1968(2nd of Tevet, 5729): 8th day of Chanukah

1969: As part of the Cherbourg Project retired Israeli Admiral Mordecai Limon, Martin Siemm and Amiot met again to secretly sign contracts undoing everything they had signed the day before.

1971: Birthdate of actor Corey Haim whose father was Canadian and mother was Israeli.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet approved the peace plan as prepared by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. This scheme, which was to be presented to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Ismailia, was prematurely leaked to the press. It reportedly contained, among other suggestions, a proposal for municipal autonomy for the Arab part of Jerusalem.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in Cairo Egyptian officials described the Israeli security proposals, presented by Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann, as "extremely disappointing." The Egyptian view was that only very minor changes of the pre-1967 borders could ever be considered.

1977: It was reported today that the Chanukah holidays have spurred contributions from Jewish citizens to the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Among other donations, the fund has received a gift of $100 from the Henry and Nell Feder Foundation Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund. A note accompanying the donation said that the “Jewish Communal Fund is dedicated to the support of the voluntary system of philanthropy and is happy to be of help to you in achieving your goals.”

1979(3rd of Tevet, 5740): Art collector Peggy Guggenheim passed away.

1979(3rd of Tevet, 5740): Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz passed away. Born in 1902, “he was a member of the faculty of the Mirrer Yeshiva for more than 40 years, in Poland, Shanghai and Jerusalem, serving as Rosh yeshiva during its sojourn in Shanghai from 1941 to 1947, and again in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem from 1965 to 1979.”

1985: It was reported today that Biederman & Company has become the first ad agency for Tower Air, which flies its 747 aircraft primarily out of Kennedy International Airport and has regular service to Brussels and Tel Aviv. It also does charter work as well as worldwide ferrying of military personnel under a Defense Department contract. The agency says that the three-year-old carrier will be spending more than $1 million for advertising.

1985: Time magazine describes the recently concluded UNESCO Conference held in Paris to honor the memory of the Rambam. “Maimonides was one of the few Jewish thinkers whose teachings also influenced the non-Jewish world; much of his philosophical writings in the Guide were about God and other theological issues of general, not exclusively Jewish, interest. Thomas Aquinas refers in his writings to “Rabbi Moses,” and shows considerable familiarity with the Guide. In 1985, on the 850th anniversary of Maimonides's birth, Pakistan and Cuba — which do not recognize Israel — were among the co­sponsors of a UNESCO conference in Paris on Maimonides. Vitali Naumkin, a Soviet scholar, observed on this occasion: “Maimonides is perhaps the only philosopher in the Middle Ages, perhaps even now, who symbolizes a confluence of four cultures: Greco-Roman, Arab, Jewish, and Western.” More remarkably, Abderrahmane Badawi, a Muslim professor from Kuwait University, declared: “I regard him first and foremost as an Arab thinker.” This sentiment was echoed by Saudi Arabian professor Huseyin Atay, who claimed that “if you didn't know he was Jewish, you might easily make the mistake of saying that a Muslim was writing.” That is, if you didn't read any of his Jewish writings. Maimonides scholar Shlomo Pines delivered perhaps the most accurate assessment at the conference: “Maimonides is the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, and quite possibly of all time” As a popular Jewish expression of the Middle Ages declares: “From Moses [of the Torah] to Moses [Maimonides] there was none like Moses.”

1987(2nd of Tevet, 5748): 8th and final day of Chanukah

1988: Shimon Peres completed his service as the Foreign Affairs Minister.

1988: Moshe Arens began serving as the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel.

1993(9th of Tevet, 5754): Two Israeli men were killed in the West Bank by Palestinian gunmen today in a drive-by shooting that ended a 10-day lull in attacks by opponents of the peace talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The two Israelis, Meir Mendelevitch and Eliyahu Levine, both rigorously Orthodox men in their 20's, were said to have been driving home to Bnei Brak, outside Tel Aviv, when they were overtaken by a car of Palestinians and riddled with bullets. They had reportedly visited the West Bank settlement of Ofra, and were killed as they drove through Beituniya, an Arab village. Two Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the attack -- the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, based in Syria, and the Islamic Resistance Movement, known by its acronym Hamas. Israeli officials said they presumed that it was a Hamas assault, a suspicion reinforced by a telephone call to a foreign news agency saying it was in retaliation for the killing of a Hamas commander by Israeli soldiers last month.

1993(9th of Tevet, 5754): Anatoly Kolisnikov, an Ashdod resident employed as a relief watchman at a construction site there, was stabbed to death by terrorists while on duty.

1994: It was reported today that Lucy Kroll an agent for writers, playwrights and performers for more than 50 years, has given the Library of Congress a big gift: 110 boxes full of letters, manuscripts, albums, contracts and other memorabilia. Her clients have included Carl Sandburg, Ben Hecht, William Schuman, Martha Graham, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, James Earl Jones, Jerry Garcia and Barney Clark, the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. Ms. Kroll, an octogenarian who sold her New York agency in October to Barbara Hogenson, who had worked for her, said: "For Christmas, I am divesting myself. Possessions are heavy, so instead of buying gifts, I am giving things that belong to me -- jewelry, books, clothes. I am also donating my 1940's couturier clothes to a university in Tel Aviv to train students how to design."
1995(30th of Kislev, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1995: Prime Minister Shimon Peres said today that Israel would be prepared to close its nuclear program if there was a regional peace in the Middle East, though he stopped short of confirming that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. Mr. Peres made his comments at a lunch with Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv, after one of them asked whether his new priorities include a change in nuclear policy. Yes," he said. "Give me peace and we'll give up the nuclear program. That's the whole story."

1997(24th of Kislev, 5758): Kindle the first light of Chanukah in the evening

1997: Woody Allen aged 62 married Soon-Yi Previn aged 27. The bride was the adopted daughter of Woody Allen’s long time paramour, Mia Farrow. For all of those who point to Woody as a Jewish man of letters, they must assume that he skipped that day in Sunday School when they talked about forbidden marriages.

1997: Andrew Tobias publishes the “Jewish Parrot” Joke:

Meyer, a lonely widower, was walking home one night when he passed a pet store and heard a squawking voice shouting out in Yiddish, "Quawwwwk ... vus machst du ... yeah, du ... outside, standing like a schlemiel ... eh?"
Meyer rubbed his eyes and ears. He couldn’t believe it. The proprietor sprang out of the door and grabbed Meyer by the sleeve. "Come in here, fella, and check out this parrot."
Meyer stood in front of an African Grey that cocked his little head and said, "Vus? Ir kent reddin Yiddish?"
Meyer turned excitedly to the store owner. "He speaks Yiddish?"
In a matter of moments, Meyer had placed five hundred dollars down on the counter and carried the parrot in his cage away with him. All night he talked with the parrot in Yiddish. He told the parrot about his father’s adventures coming to America, about how beautiful his mother was when she was a young bride, about his family, about his years of working in the garment center, about Florida. The parrot listened and commented. They shared some walnuts. The parrot told him of living in the pet store, how he hated the weekends. Finally, they both went to sleep.
Next morning, Meyer began to put on his tefillin, all the while saying his prayers. The parrot demanded to know what he was doing, and when Meyer explained, the parrot wanted to do it too. Meyer went out and handmade a miniature set of tefillin for the parrot. The parrot wanted to learn to daven, so Meyer taught him how read Hebrew, and taught him every prayer in the Siddur with the appropriate nussach for the daily services. Meyer spent weeks and months sitting and teaching the parrot the Torah, Mishnah and Gemara. In time, Meyer came to love and count on the parrot as a friend and a Jew.
On the morning of Rosh Hashanah, Meyer rose, got dressed and was about to leave when the parrot demanded to go with him. Meyer explained that Shul was not a place for a bird, but the parrot made a terrific argument and was carried to Shul on Meyer’s shoulder. Needless to say, they made quite a sight when they arrived at the Shul, and Meyer was questioned by everyone, including the Rabbi and Cantor, who refused to allow a bird into the building on the High Holy Days. However, Meyer convinced them to let him in this one time, swearing that the parrot could daven.
Wagers were made with Meyer. Thousands of dollars were bet (even money) that the parrot could NOT daven, could not speak Yiddish or Hebrew, etc. All eyes were on the African Grey during services. The parrot perched on Meyer’s shoulder as one prayer and song passed - Meyer heard not a peep from the bird. He began to become annoyed, slapping at his shoulder and mumbling under his breath, "Daven!"
Nothing.
"Daven ... feigelleh, please! You can daven, so daven ... come on, everybody’s looking at you!"
Nothing.
After Rosh Hashanah services were concluded, Meyer found that he owed his Shul buddies and the Rabbi over four thousand dollars. He marched home quite upset, saying nothing. Finally several blocks from the Shul, the bird, happy as a lark, began to sing an old Yiddish song. Meyer stopped and looked at him. "You miserable bird, you cost me over four thousand dollars. Why? After I made your tefillin, taught you the morning prayers, and taught you to read Hebrew and the Torah. And after you begged me to bring you to Shul on Rosh Hashanah, why? Why did you do this to me?" "Don’t be a schlemiel," the parrot replied. "You know what odds we’ll get at Yom Kippur?!"

2000(26th of Kislev, 5761): Victor Borge, Danish born film actor and comedic pianist passed away.

2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections on Germany, 1938-2001 by Gitta Sereny and Indelible by Rachel Hadas

2003: New York Gov. George Pataki pardoned the late comedian Lenny Bruce for his 1964 obscenity conviction.

2005: Jewish leaders in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria have called for tougher laws against incitement and racial hatred following the riots that swept Australia about 10 days ago. The community's security group has also warned that members of the white supremacist groups may attempt to take advantage of the lawlessness and attack Jewish property. Older members of the Australian Jewish community still vividly remember some of the pogroms suffered by Eastern European communities and the scenes of unrest in Sydney vividly reminded them of the riots in which Jews were attacked and killed and Jewish property set alight. These memories, in turn, have dictated the response of the Jewish community. Mobile phone text messages which called on Anglo Australian youth to gather in the thousands to reclaim Cronulla beach from what they described as Lebanese gangs led to riots. A week before, a life guard was attacked after he came to the aid of a harassed young lady at the beach. The leader of the NSW Opposition Peter Debnam has said that those who instigated the weekend riots were also responsible for daubing anti-Semitic graffiti in the suburb of Vaucluse, the main center of the Jewish community in NSW. The Australian Jewish News quoted B'nai B'rith Anti Defamation Commission Chairman Dr. Paul Gardener who said that under current laws it would be difficult to convict the perpetrators of the riots. "What they're doing is just on the verge of incitement to hatred," Gardener said. Jewish leaders have also expressed sympathy with the victims of the violence especially the Lebanese community that has been targeted in the attacks. Gardener was also quoted as saying that Jewish history shows how mob violence can develop into wider expressions of violence, and that is why this type of behavior has to be stopped at a very early stage

2005(22nd of Kislev, 5766): Selma Jeanne Cohen, publisher of the six volume International Encyclopedia of Dance passed away today at the age of 85. . “It is the entire field of dance history scholarship that will remain her legacy.”Selma Jeanne Cohen was a dance historian, editor, and teacher who devoted her career to advocating dance as an art worthy of the same scholarly respect traditionally awarded to painting, music, and literature. She completed editing the six-volume International Encyclopedia of Dance in 1998. Born in Chicago, Illinois, she was a dance critic for the New York Times and the Saturday Review. She also wrote and edited several books and taught at many colleges, including the University of Chicago. The Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) established the Selma Jeanne Cohen Award for exemplary student dance scholarship in her honor in 1995.

2006(2nd of Tevet, 5767): Eighth Day of Chanukah.

2006: The Jerusalem Post reported on the preparation for Christmas Eve pilgrims coming to Bethlehem. Israel plans to ease security restrictions to make it easier for the expected 20,000 pilgrims to enter the city. These pilgrims include residents of Gaza. Lt.-Col. Aviv Feigel, head of the District Coordination Liaison (DCL) office, acknowledged the risk but expressed confidence that the Palestinians will cooperate since Bethlehem is the biggest tourist attraction and hence source of tourist revenue they have.

2007: In Jerusalem, a screening of “Tehillim.” Set in present-day Jerusalem, in a religious neighborhood bordering a Haredi zone and a non-religious area it tells the story of sixteen-year-old Menahem Frenkel who would like to pave his future independently. His father, Eli, wishes to shape his son into a serious and faithful young man. When Eli disappears, Menachem discovers his true identity. “Tehillim” is a film of personal journeys, portraying the search for one’s self and one’s roots.

2007: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Henry James: The Mature Master by Sheldon M. Novick.

2008: Closing session of the AJS (Association for Jewish Studies) 40th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.

2008: A celebrity disc jockey who survived a fiery Learjet crash in South Carolina has sued several companies and the estates of the plane’s pilots. Adam Goldstein, known as DJ AM, has filed his complaint for negligence and breach of contract in Los Angeles Superior Court. Goldstein and punk rocker Travis Barker, who has also sued the companies, were the sole survivors of the Sept. 19 crash. Barker sued on behalf of the family of his bodyguard, Charles Still, and the widow of Barker’s assistant, Chris Baker, filed her own lawsuit earlier this month. Goldstein and Barker were seriously burned escaping the plane. The pair plan to perform together again for the first time since the crash at an event in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. They perform under the name TRVSDJAM. Goldstein’s lawsuit seeks a jury trial, but doesn’t specify how much money he hopes to receive for loss of earnings, medi cal expenses, pain and suffering.

2008: President Bush pardoned Charles Winters. Charlie Winters was an unlikely soldier in the fight for a Jewish state 60 years ago. An Irish Protestant from Boston, he took up the clandestine cause from his perch in Miami and helped ferry military planes to Israeli fighters, even flying a B-17 bomber across the Atlantic Ocean himself in 1948. The Israelis have long considered him a hero; Prime Minister Golda Meir hailed his efforts. Yet in the United States, he was a criminal, imprisoned for 18 months for violating the 1939 Neutrality Act and breaking an embargo on weapons to Israel. But on Tuesday, President Bush pardoned Mr. Winters nearly a quarter-century after his death. In recent months, prominent Jews including Steven Spielberg and members of Congress mounted a campaign for clemency in Mr. Winters’s memory. “This is a present for my father,” said Jim Winters, 44, a Miami businessman who knew nothing about his father’s imprisonment until after his death. “This was a monumental challenge, but my dad’s favorite saying was ‘Keep the faith,’ and we did,” Mr. Winters said. For Mr. Winters’s survivors and supporters, the unexpected appearance of his name on the pardon list loomed large. “This is a very good day,” said Reginald Brown, a Washington lawyer who represented the Winters family in the clemency petition to the Justice Department. “He did a heroic thing, and, at the time, the law didn’t reflect our values. The pardon allows the law to catch up with history.” Mr. Winters, who died in 1984 at the age of 71, becomes only the second person on record to be granted a pardon posthumously, administration officials said. In 1999, President Bill Clinton issued a pardon to Lt. Henry O. Flipper, who was the first black graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1877 and then was convicted of thievery four years later on charges that appeared racially fueled. Mr. Winters was among a group of several hundred Americans and Canadians referred to by the Israelis by the Hebrew acronym of “machal,” or “volunteers from outside Israel.” They secretly helped in Israel’s war of independence in 1948, a year after its creation as a Jewish state. The United States banned the sale of weapons to Israel and to other countries in the Middle East, and Israel found itself isolated militarily as it struggled to hold on to its fledgling independence. Mr. Winters was rejected by the American military because of a limp left by polio, but he worked during World War II as a government purchasing agent — a trade he would put to use in helping the Israelis in 1948. Mr. Winters, then 38, was recruited to the cause apparently by Al Schwimmer, a flight engineer who led American efforts to aid Israel’s military. Mr. Winters sold three B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombers to Mr. Schwimmer’s group to help fortify Israel’s air defenses, and he was credited with personally flying one of the planes to Czechoslovakia. His motives remain something of a mystery, even to his family and friends. In Mr. Winters’s obituary in The Miami Herald in 1984 — under the headline “Charles Winters, 71, Aided Birth of Israel” — one friend and fellow bomber pilot, Sy Cohen, said: “To the Jewish people in Palestine, this deed that he did was phenomenal. Why should an Irishman from Boston do such a thing?”Whatever his motives, the Israelis recognized Mr. Winters’s efforts with a formal letter of appreciation from Meir, and they buried his ashes in the ancient Templars Cemetery in Jerusalem. The United States was less appreciative. Mr. Winters, Mr. Schwimmer and a third American, Hank Greenspun, were prosecuted and convicted for violating the Neutrality Act in their support of Israel. Mr. Winters was the only one of the three to be imprisoned for his crime and, until Tuesday, he was the only who had not received a pardon. (Mr. Schwimmer went on to lead Israeli’s biggest aviation company; Mr. Greenspun became a crusading Las Vegas newspaper publisher.) Jim Winters said his father never said anything about his time in prison or his work for the Israelis, and he would never explain to his son why he was not allowed to own a gun. Only after his father died — and Jim Winters noticed the blue-and-white flowers sent to the funeral by the Israeli government — did the younger Mr. Winters begin to learn of his past.“I think the whole prison sentence turned him off from talking about it,” Jim Winters said. “But he did what he did because he thought it was right.” William C. Daroff, director of the Washington office of the United Jewish Communities, called Mr. Winters “a righteous gentile, a non-Jew who was looking to help out the state of Israel and was one of the unsung heroes of Israel’s war of independence.” His pardon, Mr. Daroff added, should serve “to wipe away the stain of his conviction.”

2008 (26 Kislev 5769): Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, a nationally prominent Reform rabbi known for his progressive, sometimes provocative public stances, including opposition to the Vietnam War, a speech at Yale accusing the university of a history of anti-Semitism and early political support for his neighbor Barack Obama, passed away in Chicago at the age of 84.

2009: “Heroes” featuring the work of sculptor Ann Forman sponsored by The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and Casa Argentina en Israel - Tierra Santa comes to a close at the IRWF in New York.

2009: The Wednesday evening lecture series at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem presents a Guest Lecture: "Women and the book of Psalms," by Prof. Marc Z. Brettler of Brandeis University.

2009: Mishkenot Sha'ananim presents the first in a seven-part lecture series entitled "My Jerusalem." The series includes seven encounters in which key Jerusalemite personalities from various fields talk about Jerusalem from a personal angle. The first lecture, entitled “Stones Weep in Jerusalem” presented is a collection of experience and memories presented by author Dan Benaya. “Mishkenot Sha'ananim is a vibrant international cultural and conference center established by the Jerusalem Foundation located on the cusp of the Valley of Hinnom and is housed in a famous historical building dating from 1860; it was the first residential building that Sir Moses Montefiore built for Jews outside the Old City walls.

2009: According to today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette “Tootsie Rolls are officially kosher.”
The Orthodox Union has added Chicago made Tootsie Rolls to the compendium of kosher confections that children can consume. “For years, consumers have been banging down the doors of the Orthodox Union asking when will Tootsie Rolls become certified,” says Rabbi Eliyahu Safran of the Orthodox Union, the world’s largest kosher certification agency.The certification covers Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Fruit Rolls, Frooties and DOTS. Ellen Gordon, president of Tootsie Roll Industries, said the only thing that changes is the packaging, which will carry the stamp of approval in 2010. No announcement has been made about the status of Gatorade, which is always purportedly attempting to gain the Hechsher.

2009: As of today, Temple Sinai in Oakland, CA, had raised almost $12 million for its new building. Officially known as the First Hebrew Congregation of Oakland, this Reform temple was found in 1875 and “is the oldest Jewish congregation in the East San Francisco Bay region.”

2010: David Broza a musician who “personifies Israel at its finest,” is scheduled to perform at the 92nd Street Y.

2010: A planned Seattle bus advertising campaign that accused Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip was rejected by King County Executive Dow Constantine on Thursday.
A planned Seattle bus advertising campaign that accused Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip was rejected by King County Executive Dow Constantine today. Constantine said that the escalation of the issue from an advertisement to "a widespread and often vitriolic international debate introduces new and significant security concerns that compel reassessment," in a statement. Saying that the proposed ads may have been a potential source of disruption to local public transit, the King County executive implemented an interim policy that bans the Seattle transit service from accepting any new advertising that is non-commercial. On the same day, officials from Seattle Metro Transit rejected the anti-Israel ad from the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign as well as response ads from two other groups.
"Metro's existing policy restricts advertising that can be reasonably foreseen to result in harm to, disruption of, or interference with the transportation system," Constantine said. "Given the dramatic escalation of debate in the past few days over these proposed ads, and the submission of inflammatory response ads, there is now an unacceptable risk of harm to or disruption of service to our customers should these ads run," the statement added. The county executive said that he had consulted with "federal and local law enforcement authorities who have expressed concern, in the context of this international debate, that our public transportation system could be vulnerable to disruption." Addressing the possible free speech implications of such a move, Constantine said, "We cannot and would not favor one point of view over another, so the entire category of non-commercial advertising will be eliminated until a permanent policy can be completed." He added that in the coming weeks, the local government will attempt to "determine what constitutionally-valid policy is best" for the public, transportation system and the Seattle-area community at large. The planned advertising campaign was to feature various images of destruction in the Gaza Strip headlined, "Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work." The decision to cancel the anti-Israel campaign followed a meeting yesterday between Seattle Jewish community leaders and officials from the King County Executive office, as well as widespread protest from US Jewish groups and communities.

2010: A memorial service was held today for Kristine Luken, the American stabbed to death by a terrorist, at Christ Church in Jerusalem.

2011: The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.

2011: The Gateways Chanukah Retreat is scheduled to begin at Somerset, NJ

2011: Jazz For All, featuring Eyal Sela & The Orel Oshrat Trio, is scheduled to take place the Eden-Tamir Music Center.


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