This Day, January 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

January 17 In Jewish History

1287: King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca, making Minorca a part of Spain, a status that has survived into the 21st century, despite a brief period of British rule in 18th century. Judah Bonsenyor, Notary-general of Aragon, whose language skill enabled him to serve as an interpreter, was among those who accompanied the king during the invasion. Minorca has had a large Jewish population The Letter on the Conversion of the Jews by a fifth century bishop named Severus tells of the conversion of the island's Jewish community in AD 418. A number of Jews, including Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high in the estimation of his coreligionists and of Christians alike, underwent baptism. An act of conversion brought about, in fact, within a previously peaceful coexisting community by means of the expulsion of the ruling Jewish elite into the bleak hinterlands, the burning of synagogues, and the gradual reinstatement of certain Jewish families after the coerced acceptance of Christianity and its supremacy and rule in order to allow survival for those who had not already perished. Many Jews remained within the Jewish faith while outwardly professing Christian faith. Some of these Jews form part of the Xueta community. When Minorca became an English possession in 1713, the English willingly proffered an asylum to thousands of Jews from African cities[citation needed]. A synagogue was soon erected in Mahon.

1377: Pope Gregory XI, the prelate who had ordered the burning of Jewish books a year earlier, ended the Avignon Papacy when he moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.

1466: King John of Sicily gave formal permission to Benjamin Romano to establish a Jewish University in medicine and law at Syracuse. The idea was not acted upon and 1492 the Jews were expelled by order of the Spanish crown including the 5000 Jews of Syracuse which was approximately 40% of the town’s population.

1565: “Æquum reputamus” (We consider it equal) was issued by Pius V, the Pope who restored all of the anti-Semitic bulls of his predecessors, persecuted the Jews throughout the Christian world under his influence and eventually banished them from the dominions under his direct control.

1658: Birthdate of Samson Wertheimer. Born at Worms he would become chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt. He would gain fame as an Austrian financier, court Jew and Shtadlan to Austrian Emperor Leopold I. He passed away in Vienna in 1724.

1670 In Metz, Burghers of the city decided that it was financially beneficial to expel the Jews, and so concocted a ritual murder libel. Raphael Levy, a respected member of the community, was arrested, tortured and burned alive. The Royal Council later called it "Judicial Murder" and the Jews were not expelled.

1747: Birthdate of Marcus Herz, the native of Berlin who was a pupil of philosopher Emmanuel Kant before becoming a prominent German physician and lecturer.

1763: Birthdate of John Jacob Astor, fur trader and one of early America’s most successful businessmen. There is some question as to whether or not Astor was Jewish or just of "Jewish stock.

1842: West London Synagogue of British Jews, the U.K.’s oldest Reform congregation, is opened.
1847: The board of Congregation Shangarai Chasset met at the Conti Hotel Street in New Orleans under the Presidency of L. A. Gunst. The board unanimously chose Dr. Hermann Kohlmeyer to serve as the congregation’s rabbi. Kohlmeyer would later give up his pulpit for a career in education, becoming professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane University). The congregation was founded in 1827 as an Orthodox synagogue. In 1881 it merged with Nefutzot Yehudah to form Touro Synagogue, one of the Crescent City’s leading Reform Congregations.

1851: In Cayuga County, NY, where Albert Baham is on trial for the murder of Nathan Adler, a popular Jewish peddler, the prosecution completed its summation. The judge delivered the charge to the jury which then adjourned to begin its deliberation. By six o’clock the jury had found the defendant guilty as charged.

1852: The New York Times reviewed Disraeli's Life of George Bentick. "It is amusing to see that Disraeli does not forget to do homage to the Hebrew race in his new book, albeit nobody can tell what it has to do with the biography...He still affirms...that the greatest men, past and present are and were Jews. To do him justice, he tries hard to prove it by living examples --whether they are valid or not let the readers of the book determine."

1863: Birthdate of David Lloyd George. Lloyd George was the British Prime Minister from 1916 through 1922. This meant that he led Britain to victory during World War I and was the leader of the peace negotiations. In this latter role he signed the Treaty of San Remo that officially ended the war with Turkey. Under the terms of the treaty “Palestine was declared a mandated territory” to be administered by Great Britain under the terms of the Balfour Declaration. Lloyd George agreed to this despite a great deal of anti-Zionist pressure some of which was generated by American missionary educators with interests in the Middle East.

1871: A Jewish peddler named Frank who has been plying his wares throughout Queens County was shot this evening while driving from Flushing to his home in Columbusville. The wounded Frank arrived at his home but nothing is known as to who might of shot him.

1876: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities, “an organization which embraces all the Hebrew charitable associations…and which cares exclusively for Hebrews” is the fifth leading charity in New York City. The association, with a central office at 238 East Fifth, provides money, medicines, medical treatment, clothing, shoes and coal to needy Jews.

1882: Aletta Jacobs the first Dutch female physician opened her office. Yes, Jacobs, who was also a champion for the rights of women, was Jewish.

1890: (20th of Tevet, 5650): Salomon Sulzer passed away at the age of 85. While his name is known to few today, in his time he was a famous cantor and composer. “Born in 1804 in Hohenems, Austria, to a family of rich manufacturers, he was appointed cantor at the main synagogue in his hometown when only 16. He studied music in Vienna where he was chief cantor of the new synagogue from 1825 to 1881. His baritone voice attracted non-Jewish as well as Jewish admirers, among them Schubert, Schumann, and Liszt. In 1868 he was appointed knight of the order of Franz Josef. Sulzer's synagogue compositions became the models upon which congregations based their services throughout the year. His Schir Zion appeared in two volumes and while his music and innovations won only limited acceptance in Eastern Europe, they became standard in central Europe.”

1893: President Rutherford B. Hayes passed away. Born in 1822, Rutherford Hays was the first President to designate a Jewish ambassador for the purpose of fighting anti-Semitism. In 1870, he named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General to Rumania. President Hays also was the first Chief Executive to assure a civil service employee her right to work for the Federal government and yet observe the Sabbath. (Not working on Friday nights and Saturday?)

1896: The first version of Herzl’s Judenstaat (The Jewish State) was published in the Anglo Jewish Newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle.

The Jewish Chronicle in London had a world scoop with a lengthy article on a “Solution of the Jewish Question” by Theodor Herzl. This was 2 days before Herzl finally secured a contract in Vienna for publication of the Judenstaat. Readers of the Jewish Chronicle were the first to have his ideas set out in print and they were cautioned by Herzl that “in this rapid account I run the risk of being misunderstood. My first and incomplete version will probably be scoffed at by Jews. ...I am introducing no new idea; on the contrary it is a very old one. It is a universal idea. …It is the restoration of the Jewish State.” Asher Myers, editor of The Jewish Chronicle had met Herzl a few weeks earlier at a dinner of the Maccabeans, a London club of Jewish professionals and establishment figures. He had been so impressed by Herzl’s views that he encouraged him to write them up for his newspaper. By the end of 1895, Herzl had completed his book and extracted a summary for The Jewish Chronicle. In an editorial entitled “A Dream of a Jewish State” Myers pointed at “the remarkable communication from Dr Herzl, adding that “we may safely assert that this is one of the most astounding pronouncements that have ever been put forward on the Jewish Question.” However, the editorial questioned whether the project would ever be realized. It concluded that Herzl had been prompted by a belief in the inevitability of spreading anti-Semitism. “Foreseeing coming storm all over the civilized world, there is in his view no possible escape from these catastrophes unless the Jews deliberately determine to remove themselves from the storm-laden atmosphere before the irresistible gloom breaks over them.” The Jewish Chronicle could not share Herzl’s thesis. Its Editor maintained that British Jewry did not see itself as victim of anti-Semitism and was convinced that it could insulate itself from its spread in continental Europe. “We find it hard to accept these gloomy prognostications (of universal anti-Semitism). We hardly anticipate a great future for a scheme which is the outcome of despair.” England consistently played a crucial role in Herzl’s efforts to mobilize support for the Jewish homeland. His success in winning the backing of Joseph Chamberlain, the Colonial Secretary, was of lasting significance. Arguably the British government’s decision to involve itself in the search for a Jewish homeland, even though nothing came of it in Herzl’s lifetime, was tantamount to endorsement of the right of Jews to be treated as a nation and was the first step in a sequence that eventually led to the Balfour Declaration. In stark contrast to Chamberlain as well as the then Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, Britain’s leading Jewish families remained deeply skeptical, even fearful of Herzl’s project. If anything the gulf in Britain was even larger than in Vienna between assimilated middle and upper class Jews and the poor, more recently arrived immigrants from Eastern Europe clustered in London’s East End and a couple of other cities. Again and again Herzl vainly looked for financial commitments from the British branch of the Rothschilds and their wealthy friends. In the expectation that he could somehow persuade them that the investment was worthwhile, he established the headquarters of the Jewish Colonial Trust in London. Herzl did not only focus on the Jewish establishment. In London he also turned to the East End Jews, addressing mass rallies and deriving strength from their enthusiasm for his project. By drawing attention to them he was also warning that a growing influx of Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe forming distinctly un-British enclaves was bound to provoke anti-Semitism in England. Herzl thought this would graphically reinforce his case for a Jewish homeland. Only by diverting the immigration flow elsewhere could Britain be kept more or less free of anti-Semitism. Herzl met and recruited some of his most loyal collaborators, including Leopold Greenberg and Colonel Goldsmid in England. He courted and was courted by the British aristocracy and he secured the interest of important political figures like Joseph Chamberlain, Lord Lansdowne and William Gladstone and David Lloyd George who would later become the Prime Minister under whose watch the Balfour Declaration was adopted. Herzl also had the rare privilege as a foreigner to give evidence at the 1902 Royal Commission on Alien Immigration. Above all, England became Herzl’s fall-back in the search for territory after the failure of his long drawn-out negotiations with Turkey to secure Jewish settlements in Palestine. The alternatives - Cyprus, El Arish, East Africa - were in the British Empire. Herzl liked England, was comfortable in English society, admired its commitment to liberty and had great respect for the country as a colonial power. At one point he was on the verge of a permanent move to London as correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse. Herzl’s first contact with England actually goes back to 1888, when he went to the Isle of Wight, to Brighton, to the Thames Valley and to London as part of an extended summer trip to write travel sketches for the Neue Freie Presse. Five of his articles about the English summer scene were published. He also improved his English and learned to smoke a pipe instead of the habitual cigars, which he found far too expensive. He felt so much at home in the country that he hoped “if today the ‘Neue Freie Presse’ needed a London correspondent, I believe they would think of me.” However he was not to return to England until 1895 and the question of a London posting for Herzl did not arise until 1901, when the Neue Freie Presse agreed to his request for a transfer. While his wife Julie for once was in agreement, Herzl’s parents refused to move and Herzl promptly changed his mind. Herzl’s stay in England in 1895 was an all-important staging post in his quest for a Jewish homeland and set the scene for much of his future activities in England. Thanks to his close friend, Max Nordau, he had an introduction to Israel Zangwill, a prominent member of London’s Jewish community. He in turn facilitated a meeting with Colonel Goldsmid, with Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi and with Sir Samuel Montague. He also secured an invitation for Herzl to speak at one of the Maccabean dinners. Herzl was fascinated by the Goldsmid, a well-connected serving British officer who was an instant convert to the Jewish state and became an ally and collaborator. On the other hand, the Chief Rabbi, though hospitable and prepared to listen to Herzl’s arguments, failed to offer support. Responding to long-lingering criticism that he had cold-shouldered Herzl, the Chief Rabbi insisted in a letter published in The Jewish Chronicle in 1899, that “we gave him (Herzl) a fair hearing, discussed his plan in fullest detail and came to the conclusion that the (Herzl’s) proposal was fraught with serious peril and that its execution was impracticable.” Hermann Adler never changed his mind. Sir Samuel Montague at his first meeting with Herzl was a little more forthcoming than the Chief Rabbi, but claimed old age as an excuse for keeping his distance from Herzl’s project. He also warned Herzl to abandon any thought of seeking Jewish settlements in Argentina. Only Palestine could serve as a Jewish homeland. Argentina was struck from Herzl’s agenda. At the Maccabean dinner, according to Zangwill, it seemed as if “an unknown Hungarian dropped from the skies and gave the world the first exposition of his scheme in an eloquent mixture of German, French and English”. His impact on this sophisticated group seems to have been spell-binding. Herzl’s awareness of his ability to move audiences probably stems from this London experience. In his diary, Herzl noted tersely: “Meine Rede hat Beifall. Sie beraten leise unter sich und ernennen mich einhellig zum Ehrenmitglied. Folgen die Einwendungen, die ich widerlege. Die wichtigste: der Englische Patriotismus”. These assimilated Jews wanted nothing to do with any scheme that risked their acceptance in Britain as loyal British citizens. Herzl’s diaries show that in spite of obvious language difficulties, he had no illusions about the wide gulf between his ideas and the attitudes and beliefs of his new Jewish acquaintances in England. Most of them were practicing orthodox Jews who had no difficulty in reconciling their religion with integration into English society. Herzl on the other hand conceived of Jews as a nation; not as a race or as a religious group and no longer believed that assimilation was a solution to anti-Semitism. Writing in his diary about his discussions with Zangwill, he said “Er steht auf dem Rassenstandpunkt, den ich schon nicht acceptieren kann, wenn ich ihn und mich ansehe. Ich meine nur wir sind eine historische Einheit, eine Nation mit anthropologischen Verschiedenheiten. Das genügt auch fur den Judenstaat. Keine Nation hat die Einheit der Rasse.” After his experience with the Maccabeans, Herzl rightly judged that these English Jews saw him as a trouble-maker capable of undermining the secure position they had carved out for themselves in Britain. This however did not deter him from trying again and again to convince them to look at the larger picture of impoverished and persecuted Jews elsewhere in Europe and in need of a safe haven. The Times and other London newspapers were beginning to take some note of Herzl. They asserted that British Jewry was either indifferent or even sneering at him. The Jewish Chronicle also complained. The Jewish establishment was too insular. They “give no thought to their worse-off brethren”. The Jewish Chronicle, argued that “many English Jews seem (wrongly) to assume that to countenance the idea of a Jewish state meant that every Jew in England would be expected to pick up his wallet and join the pilgrimage to Jerusalem” In reality, what is required from British Jewry is solidarity with other Jews and understanding for the wider horizons of Jewish problems. Interest in Herzl’s ideas came from an unexpected source: In May 1896, after reading Herzl’s newly published Jewish State, William Gladstone, no longer Prime Minister but still a voice that counted in British political life, sent a hand-written letter to Sir Samuel Montague, stressing that he had found Herzl’s ideas “most interesting. (It is) not easy for one outside to form an opinion on it; perhaps even impertinent if it (the state) were formed. I am surprised however to see the misery of the Jews so broadly stated. Of course I am strongly anti anti-Semitic.” A year later, in July 1897, Gladstone came out more strongly in support of Herzl, who at that time was still trying to persuade Sultan Abdul Hamid to permit Jewish settlements in Palestine. In a letter to the Jewish Chronicle the grand old man of British politics wrote that “my inclination would be to favour any reassembling of Jews in Palestine under Ottoman suzerainty and under conditions of absolute religious liberty and equality.” Herzl had just been in London in yet another – vain - attempt to raise money from British Jewry in support of his efforts to win the Sultan over to his cause. Sir Samuel Montague made it clear to him that as long as the Rothschilds – and especially the Paris-based head of the family, Edmond de Rothschild – withheld support, British Jews would remain in the sidelines. But Montague made further near-impossible conditions before any substantial financial commitments would be made: Herzl noted in his diary that he would also be expected to secure “Die Zustimmung der Machte” and “dass der Hirschfond (the foundation set up by Baron Maurice de Hirsch) die disponible Summe, also 10 Millionen Pfund, hergebe.” Montague and some of his friends also cautioned Herzl against addressing a rally of Jews in the East End. “Es sei verfrüht und bedeute eine Aufrührung der Massen.” Herzl was undeterred. “Ich sagte, dass ich keine demagogische Bewegung wolle; aber im schlimmsten Fall – wenn die Vornehmen zu vornehm sein sollten – auch die Massen in Bewegung zu setzen.” The meeting in London’s East End went ahead. The Workingmen’s Club was packed. Herzl spoke for over an hour. They cheered him as a new Moses and Christopher Columbus. “Grosser Jubel, Hutschwenken, Hurrahrufe bis auf die Gasse”, wrote Herzl, adding “es hängt wirklich nur von mir ab, der Führer der Menschen zu werden; aber ich will nicht wenn ich irgendwie die Rothschilds durch meinen Austritt aus der Bewegung erkaufen kann.” Herzl added with evident pleasure that : “Im East End bilden sich spontan Komitees fur die Agitation. Programm: der Judenstaat!” A year later, early in October 1898 Herzl was again in London. His main purpose was to incorporate the Jewish Colonial Bank, the instrument which he hoped would attract sufficient capital to launch the Jewish homeland. But he again ventured into the East End to an audience that included a great many new Jewish immigrants. “Today I tell you: the time is no longer distant when the Jewish people will set itself in motion…Do you believe the Jews will go if we get the land?” “Answer me, answer me” Herzl cried. “Yes, yes,” roared the great crowd. The Jewish Chronicle carried two long and enthusiastic descriptions of the East End rally, and both reporters admonished London’s West End Jews – the Jewish establishment – for staying away from the event and not experiencing “what Jewish enthusiasm can really rise to.” At least 7000 people had turned up, many of them foreign Jews. It was “ a concourse of impoverished aliens led by a modern journalist in evening dress … who spoke in the purest of pure German” to an audience that best understood Yiddish or English. Yet “from the first word to the last he held the audience” and at the end they all rose to cheer him and give “Dr Herzl such a reception as, it is safe to say, no Jew ever received before in this country from his co-religionists.” However the significance of the rally was as much marked by the absentees as by those who were present. It had been “a gathering of the Jewish proletariat; while the upper and middle classes…were scarcely represented at all. The great movement seemed hardly to have caused a ripple on the placid surface of their daily life. It was for them as though the (recent) Congress of Basle and Dr Herzl had not been. Official Judaism waved the invader away and most of the clergy including the Chief Rabbi, kept at a distance.” They would have been wiser to come and learn from Dr Herzl “the much needed lesson that we can do with a few real leaders and that there is an enormous power for all kinds of incalculable good to rise at their bidding when they are found.” Editorial comment endorsed these strictures on the absentee ‘West End’ Jewry: They wanted “all the privileges of Englishness… They are not ready to forfeit what they have gained.” But there were clear signs that leading British Jews were misreading the British establishment. Instead of judging him as a mischief-maker, there was a great deal more interest in Dr Herzl’s message than British Jewry appeared to realise. Leading Conservatives, including the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, were taking note. So were senior clerics in the Church of England. There was nothing altruistic about this. It was a matter of self-interest: A Jewish state might indeed be the best way to check a fresh spate of unwelcome poor Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Such a state, if it could be established in Palestine might curb Ottoman power and serve the strategic interests of Britain as a colonial power in the Middle East. British media interest in Dr Herzl had been growing steadily. Under the headline “Advent of the new Moses” The Pall Mall Gazette in July 1897 carried a lengthy interview with Dr Herzl. And in a prescient article, The Spectator speculated in September 1897, while the Basle Congress was in session, about the practicability of establishing a Jewish homeland: “We have no doubt the Jews desire it; so why should it not become a leading event of the next century? … It would be to the advantage of Europe by solving anti-Semitism.” But the paper also asked whether sufficient numbers of Jews would go, and whether wealthy Jews would find enough money to pay for the development of Palestine. The Times in one of its editorial comments asked: “If a Jewish state is to be founded, what is the guarantee of its national independence?” Herzl probably sensed the British mood more accurately than British Jewry. At any rate he decided to stage the 4th Zionist Congress in London with the obvious goal of using it to generate publicity and making Britain a firm ally for his cause. He was looking for British diplomatic intervention with Turkey, and if Palestine was unattainable for the time being, then perhaps Britain could be persuaded to offer Cyprus as a Jewish homeland. “England the great England, England the Free, England commanding all the sea – she will understand us and our purpose” Herzl told the 400 delegates. During his stay in London Herzl was warmly received in some of London’s great houses, and he made contacts in high places. This continued the following year in 1901, when he was treated as a celebrity both by the British and the Jewish establishment. “I am awfully dinnered” he wrote in his diary in English. “Society is curious about me. I am a sight not to be missed, a dish on the table; one comes to meet Dr Herzl.” There were no immediate dividends. He again failed to raise the millions of Pounds needed to underpin a Jewish state. But in 1902 events at last conspired both to put Herzl onto the national stage in Britain, and to bring about the meeting with the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain that led to substantive negotiations over Cyprus, El Arish and Uganda/East Africa, and, arguably, was the genesis of the Balfour Declaration. Reacting to growing hysteria over the influx of cheap labour, the majority of them impoverished Jews from Eastern Europe and from Russia, the British government, torn between the same kind of calls for restrictions on immigration that we hear today, and Britain’s traditional open door policy, set up a Royal Commission for Alien Immigration to study the question. Herzl’s British followers proposed him as an expert witness. Lord Rothschild, the only Jewish member of the Commission, tried but failed to prevent the invitation to a man he had openly described as a demagogue and windbag. Rothschild then attempted to instruct Herzl on what to say to the Royal Commission. He should say nothing that might cause the Commission to question the principle of assimilation. Herzl refused to be guided. He would use his appearance to warn Britain that hundreds of thousands of destitute Jews were on the move. Unless they could be found a safe haven, they would move westwards, including England. In spite of this clash, it seemed to Herzl that Lord Rothschild for the first time was taking him seriously. That gave Herzl new hope that Rothschild coffers might after all be opened. On July 7 1902, Herzl appeared before the Royal Commission. Conscious that his broken English was inadequate for the occasion, he told them that the reason why Jews flocked to England and America was “a desire for freedom of life and soul which the Jew under present conditions cannot know in Eastern Europe.” Yet on arriving in their place of exile, Jews often found themselves still as aliens, provoking the very anti-Semitism from which they had fled. Wherever Jewish refugees went, Herzl argued, they created anti-Semitism. The problem could only be solved by finding them a home which will be legally recognized as Jewish. “The solution of the Jewish difficulty is the recognition of the Jews as a people and the finding by them of a legally recognized home, to which Jews in those parts of the world where they are oppressed would naturally migrate…This would mean the diverting of the stream of emigration from this country and America, where so soon as they form a perceptible number they become a trouble and a burden”. Much better to take them “to a land where the true interest would be served by accommodating as many as possible” Once Jews secure “their rightful position as a people, I am convinced they would develop a distinct Jewish cult – national characteristics and national aspirations – which would make for the progress of mankind.” Pressed by the Commissioners whether a policy of assimilation would not be a better solution to the Jewish problem, Herzl described himself as an assimilated Jew. But he went on to argue as much for the benefit of British Jewry as to the Commissioners that history demonstrates that sooner or later every Jew is confronted with anti-Semitism. If immigration continued, it would manifest itself in England too. But were the Jews really a nation, asked one member of the Royal Commission. Herzl’s reply was succinct. A nation – and not only a Jewish nation – is “ a historical group of men of intelligible and visible cohesion held together by a common enemy.” In the case of Jews, “the common enemy is anti-Semitism.” Lord Rothschild, as ever intent on preserving his place in British society, challenged Herzl whether “the fact of a man being a Zionist precluded him from being a good citizen and rendered it imperative that he be excluded from the country (where he has settled)?” Herzl countered that this was a rhetorical question. Rothschild countered: “Therefore the Commission can take it that a Jew or a body of Jews may share your views about Zionism and still be devoted citizens?” Herzl: Yes, and far more so than those who are not Zionists.” British Jewry was not happy with Herzl’s testimony. They felt that he had fanned British fears about the impact of immigration by foreshadowing a mass invasion of destitute Jews. They feared that his remarks had only served to fan anti-Semitism in a country he only understood imperfectly. The Royal Commission led to Britain’s first anti-immigration legislation. More immediately Herzl’s argument that a Jewish homeland would reduce the pressure of immigration helped to persuade Joseph Chamberlain to arrange a meeting with Herzl in October 1902. By then Herzl had reluctantly recognised that the Sultan was unlikely to strike a deal with him over Palestine. Other locations would have to be considered. That first meeting with Chamberlain lasted an hour, and it took Herzl a while to break the ice. Chamberlain’s expression, at first “eine unbewegliche Maske” only lit up after an amusing account of negotiating techniques in Turkey. Then Herzl bluntly turned to territories where England had the power to help – specifically Cyprus, El Arish and Sinai. As Colonial Secretary, Chamberlain was only able to talk with Herzl about Cyprus. And there he expressed immediate reservations. Cyprus had a Greek and Muslim population. They could not be displaced. “Wenn nun die Griechen sich gegen die jüdischen Einwanderen wehrten, wäre die Schwierigkeit fertig” wrote Herzl in his account of the meeting with Chamberlain. “Er (Chamberlain) habe ja nichts gegen die Juden. Im Gegenteil. Und wenn er zufällig einen Tropfen jüdisches Blut in seinen Adern hatte, wäre er stolz darauf. Aber voila; er hatte keinen Tropfen.” Herzl countered naively: Jews, he said, should be invited to Cyprus. Meanwhile a Jewish Eastern Company with a capital of £5million would be established for Sinai and El Arish, and the Cypriots “werden die Lust bekommen, auch den Goldregen auf ihre Insel zu kriegen. Die Mohammedaner ziehen weg, die Griechen verkaufen ihre Landereien gerne und ziehen nach Athen oder Kreta.” Herzl then realized that Chamberlain did not even know where El Arish was located. The ‘Mask’ laughed as they proceeded to look at a map. “Jetzt erst verstand er mich ganz – meinen Wunsch, einen Versammlungsplatz fur das jüdische Volk in der Nähe Palestina zu gewinnen.” Herzl could not detect any warmth in Chamberlain; but nevertheless felt jubilant that he had scored an important goal “Es war wie in einem grossen Trodelgeschäft, dessen Führer nicht ganz genau weiss, ob irgendein absonderlicher Gegenstand in den Magazinen existiert. Ich brauche ein Versammlungsland für das jüdische Volk. Er will mal nachsehen, ob England so was am Lager hat.” “Die kolossale Sache die ich erzielt habe, ist das Joe Chamberlain den Gedanken einer self-governing Jewish colony in der Süd-Ostecke des Mittelmeer zu gründen, nicht a limine abweist.” However having closed the door on Cyprus, Chamberlain decided to pass Herzl on to the Foreign Office to discuss the El Arish option with the Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne. Herzl prepared a detailed memorandum for the encounter. But when they came face to face, Herzl’s English deserted him, and he continued in French. Lansdowne had no particular interest in the Jewish problem, and he made no commitments beyond asking for Herzl’s memorandum which he promised to pass on to Lord Cromer, Britain’s Consul-General – and virtual ruler – in Egypt. Lord Lansdowne wrote to Lord Cromer that he had been “favourably impressed by Herzl. His idea is to get hold of a tract near El Arish and there to establish a colony of carefully selected Hebrews. I suggested, but not with much effect, that they were unlikely to make good settlers and that El Arish was not exactly the spot upon which to dump Jews from the East End of London or from Odessa. He told me that he and his friends were sending out at once to Cairo a Mr Greenberg to collect information…. I think he should be civilly received by the authorities, although it is impossible for me to express any opinion on the merit of the scheme which seems to me very visionary.” A few days later Herzl received the invitation to dispatch a Commission to the Sinai. He described this as an “historic document”, but Cromer felt that Egyptian nationalism was becoming troublesome enough without injecting a fresh element of tension. Moreover experts warned that water supplies would be inadequate and that it would be far too expensive to divert the waters of the Nile to El Arish. Once Cromer set his face against it, the El Arish project faltered and in April 1903 Herzl was back in London to plead with Chamberlain. The Colonial Secretary, having just returned from an extended trip to Africa had a new idea: he had come across a country that would suit Herzl’s project. It was Uganda (the tract of land he had in mind was actually in Kenya). Herzl, writing an account of the meeting quoted Chamberlain: “An der Küste ist’s heiss; aber im Inneren wird das Klima vorzüglich fur Europäer. Sie können dort Zucker und Baumwolle pflanzen. Da habe ich gedacht, das ware ein Land fur Dr Herzl. Aber der will ja nur nach Palestina oder in die Nähe gehen!” Herzl’s first reaction was indeed negative. As a first priority Jews must have a national home in or near Palestine. “Später können wir auch Uganda besiedeln, denn wir haben Massen von Menschen, die zur Emigration bereit sind.” Further reflection of course convinced Herzl that it would be tactically wiser to explore the “Uganda” option as a way of keeping open the door to negotiations with Britain to secure a firmer commitment to the principle of a Jewish national home. But there was even a more pressing reason for considering the “Uganda” option: coinciding with the Kishinev massacre, Herzl felt the need for rescue was so pressing that any offer of a safe haven, even far from Palestine, had to be embraced. There is no need here to go into the bitter controversy that ensued within the Zionist movement. But it is worth noting that they could have spared themselves much grief, given that British settlers in Kenya were in any event so opposed to the prospect of Jewish immigrants that the Britain could not have imposed the scheme. Herzl’s death in 1904 prompted many eulogies in Britain as much as elsewhere. Here I will give The Jewish Chronicle the last word. “It is hard to believe that this imposing figure, who seemed to personify the romance as well as the travails of his people has passed into eternity… Dr Herzl with his great argument had stirred the race as no internal Jewish force had done for many a year…. He gave Jewish solidarity a new meaning. He made people of this earth realize that there is a Jewish question to be solved” His achievement was that “it has become a matter of practical politics which fills the reviews and opens the mouths of reticent statesmen and prompts offers of Jewish colonies. “Has the great movement run its course?” The organ of British Jewry was pessimistic. “Zionism without Herzl seems as illogical and unthinkable as Zionism without Zion, or a monarchy without a throne.” It turned out that they were wrong.


1896: Birthdate of Hugo Chaim Adler the Belgian-born American composer, cantor, and choir conductor who was the father of composer and conductor Samuel Adler.

1898: Funeral services were held this morning for Lazarus Straus, a New York merchant and philanthropist, at Temple Beth-El. Dr. Kaufman Kohler delivered the eulogy, and Dr. Silverman served as the cantor.

1899: Birthdate of Robert Maynard Hutchins no nonsense educator and civil libertarian. When asked about the role big time athletics on the college campus, Hutchins is reported to have replied, athletics is to a college education what bull fighting is to agriculture. Hutchins was not Jewish. But as a major intellectual figure of his time, he presents an interesting paradox in understanding Jewish relations with the non-Jewish world. On the one hand, Hutchins was praised in an article in the Chicago Jewish Historical Society’s publication “Chicago Jewish History” for his willingness to sponsor and hire German Jewish intellectuals fleeing Hitler in the 1930’s. At the same time he was an active member of the anti-war and anti-Semitic America First Movement. As a leader of America First, Hutchins was one of those who dismissed testimony about the savagery of the Germans as lies and Jewish propaganda.

1904: Herzl leaves for Italy where his travels will take him to Venice, Florence and Rome.

1909: Dr. Stephen S. Wise the Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, delivered a speech this morning advocating the acceptant of the million dollar bequest by the late Louis Heinsheimer. The bequest was conditional on the formation of a federation of Jewish charities, a move that Wise supported because he thought that it would improve the quality and quantity of services provided to those in need.

1909: New York State Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman addressed the annual meeting of the New York Hebrew Infant Asylum at Tuxedo Hall. Lehman called for additional support of the asylum which is caring for 153 Jewish orphans. Due to a lack of an adequate facility this means that 450 Jewish orphans under the age of 5 are being cared for by Catholic and Protestant institutions. Charles Dittman was re-elected as the President.

1911: Birthdate of Moshe Carmel, the native Minsk who made Aliyah in 1924, helped to establish Kibbutz Na’an and commanded the Carmeli Brigade during the War of Independence before pursuing a political career.

1917: Birthdate of Czech-born Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz.

1921: T.E. Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) told Winston Churchill that Emir Feisal ‘agreed to abandon all claims of his father to Palestine’ since the British had agreed to Arab sovereignty in Baghdad, Amman and Damascus.

1926: Birthdate of Yitzhak Moda'I, the native of Tel Aviv who graduated from the Technicion beforge starting a long political career.

1926: Nine year old violinist Yehudi Menuhin appeared in a recital in New York

1927(14th of Shevat, 5687): Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted passed away. Born in 1853, he was the founder of Shell Transport and Trading Company which later became Royal Dutch Shell.

1928: Birthdate of British born businessman Vidal Sassoon. Vidal Sassoon spent six years in a Jewish orphanage in London, after his father abandoned the family. When his mother remarried, the family re-united, and as Sassoon tells it, he had no interest in hair until he was 14, when his mother suggested he apply for a job sweeping floors at a salon. The rest, of course, is history.
After dropping out of high school, Sassoon worked under Mr Teasy-Weasy, aka Raymond of Mayfair, aka Raymond Bessone, who was the most famous celebrity hairstylist of the 1950s. When Sassoon started his own salon, it soon spawned the trendiest looks of the '60s. Sassoon invented the "bob" look in 1963, and pioneered geometric hairdos in 1966. He was paid $5,000 to fly across the Atlantic and create Mia Farrow's concentration camp coiffure for Rosemary's Baby. He was the official hairstylist of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and he hosted Your New Day, a stylish television show in the 1980s. He's the author of Cutting Hair the Vidal Sassoon Way. Peggy Moffitt, an early supermodel, said "Sassoon is to hair care what Picasso is to painting." Sassoon is involved in a messy lawsuit against Procter & Gamble, the conglomerate that owns the right to market Sassoon's products in America. Sassoon maintains that P&G has allowed his name brand to slip to almost a 'discount product' status. In 1998, the corporation spent $34-million advertising Sassoon products in America; in 2002 they spent just $90,000. Sassoon's daughter Catya died of an ecstasy overdose in 2002. The Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism was established at the University of Jerusalem in 1982.

1932: In Brooklyn, celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association

1934(1st of Sh'vat, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat

1934: Birthdate of Shari Lewis. Lewis would gain fame as a ventriloquist and puppeteer who created Lamb Chop.

1935: The American committee responsible for the selection of the United States teams that will compete in the Second Maccabiah announced the schedule for the trials which will be held in New York City and Newark, NJ next month. Pincus Sober chairs the committee selecting the track and field team. Charlotte Epstein chairs the committee selecting the swimming team. Ernest Koslan chairs the committee selecting the tennis team. Ben Levine chairs the committee selecting the boxing team. Nat Osk chairs the committee selecting the wrestling team.

1938(15th of Shevat, 5698): Tu B’Shevat

1938: The Palestine Post reported that a passerby was injured when a missile was hurled at the Workers' Cooperative restaurant on Jaffa Road, shattering all windows.

1938: The Palestine Post reported that the Soviet government ordered the immediate closing of the Meyerhold State Theater in Moscow as being an institution "alien to Soviet art." Vsevolod Meyerhold, the director, was accused of showing "alien mentality." Meyerhold’s family origins were German Jewish although Meyerhold himself was a Lutheran. In the world of Stalin, Meyerhold could have fallen out of favor because he was “German,” “Jewish” or “both.”

1939: Felix Frankfurter was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a voice vote of the U.S. Senate today.

1939: The Nazi government issued a decree regarding the expiration of permits for Jewish dentists, veterinarians and pharamicists.

1940: “A strong desire for economic cooperation between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine to overcome common difficulties was demonstrated today when Arab and Jewish citrus farmers and traders met in Petach Tikvaah. The meeting was the first of its kind since the start of the Arab uprising in 1936. The Jewish Farmers Federation sponsored the meeting which was attended by 700 Jews and over 100 Arabs “who represented orange-growing belt of Palestine.” The Arabs included a wide range of political views who were united in a willingness to work with the Jews in “presenting the citrus growers’ grievances to the” British government. “The conference elected a delegation of nine Jews and nine Arabs to meet the High Commissioner. The delegation will go to London if the local government meetings do not bring about meaningful improvement.

1941: When German planes were bombing Tel Aviv tonight, they dropped “a large projectile in an orange grove behind Tel Aviv where it caused a deep crater and other damage.”

1943: Berlin Bishop Konrad Graf von Preysing, the only top German Catholic prelate who consistently opposes the German government's Jewish policies, threatens Pope Pius XII, saying he will resign unless the collaborative behavior of the other German bishops comes to an end.

1945: The Red Army entered Budapest and the remaining 120,000 of the original 470,000 Jews would now be safe from any further disaster.

1945: Final roll call is taken at Auschwitz: 11,102 Jews remain at Birkenau; 10,381 women in the Birkenau women's camp; 10,030 at the Auschwitz main camp; 10,233 at the Monowitz satellite camp; and about 22,800 in the remaining factories in the surrounding region;

1945: The Soviets arrest Raoul Wallenberg, whom they cynically suspect is using his humanitarian efforts for the Jews to cover his collaboration with the Germans or the Western Allies (the War Refugee Board was sponsoring him);

1945: SS guards at the Chelmno, Poland, death camp play "William Tell" by shooting at bottles placed on the heads of Jewish inmates who have been engaged in demolishing the camp's crematoria. In the evening, the remaining Jews are led from their barracks in groups of five and shot. One of the prisoners, Mordechai Zurawski, stabs an SS guard and escapes despite suffering a gunshot wound to the foot. A second inmate, Shimon Srebnik, also survives after being shot through the neck and mouth and left for dead. Forty-seven other Jewish prisoners at Chelmno, aware that the SS will shoot them before fleeing west ahead of the Soviets, take refuge in a building that is then set afire by the SS. Jews who run from the blaze are machine-gunned; only one of the original 47 survives. The SS abandons the Chelmno camp later in the day.

1945: The Soviet Army entered Warsaw. Only 200 Jews of more than a half a million had survived

1945: SS began killing the special Commando group of Jews at Chelmno that was used to help dismantle the camp over the past three months. Forcing them to wear bottles on their heads, the SS took target practice.

1945: The Nazis began the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces approached. Elie Weisel describes this event in his first book Night.

1948: The British brought the mutilated bodies of the 35 Jews to the Etzion bloc where they were to be buried in a common grave. The dead were the members of a platoon of volunteers that had been sent from Jerusalem to reinforce the beleaguered Etzion fighters.

1949: The Goldbergs, starring Gertrude Beg as Molly Goldberg, moves from radio to television as it premiers on the CBS television network.

1949: Birthdate of Andy Kaufman. An actor and comedian, many would come to know him as Latka Gravas in the sitcom Taxi.

1950(28th of Tevet, 5710): Mrs. Aaron (Annie) Goldberg, the paternal grandmother of Sir Martin Gilbert passed away at the age of 78. Born in Poland when it was part of the Russian Empire, she arrived in Great Britain in the last decade of the 19th century.

1951 (10th of Shevat, 5711): At a gathering of Chassidim marking the first anniversary of the passing of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, the late Rebbe's son-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, delivered a Chassidic discourse (maamar) entitled Basi L'Gani ("I Came into My Garden"), signifying his formal acceptance of the leadership of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

1952: While serving his second term as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress during which he proudly reminds those in attendance of his long support of the Zionist cause and the creation of a Jewish state.

1955: Submarine USS Nautilus began the first nuclear-powered test voyage. This marked a major milestone in Admiral Hyman Rickover’s vision of a nuclear-powered Navy.

1959: Birthdate of Susanna Hoffs lead singer with “The Bangles.”

1962: Dancer Melissa Hayden premiered the role of Titania in Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a part created especially for her.

1963: It was reported today that “a Soviet newspaper has confirmed that Solomon Mikhoels, noted Yiddish actor and director was murdered by Soviet Secret Police. At the time of his death, it the Communist regime claimed that he had been killed in an automobile accident. In fact, his death was the precursor to a Stalinist ant-Jewish purge that claimed the life of several hundred Jewish writers including David Bergelson. At the time of his murder, Mikhoels was working on a production of “Prince Reubeini” a play by Bergelson that depicted the expulsion of the Jews by the Ferdinand and Isabella.

1966: Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence, on Columbia Records.

1966: Zvi Dinstein begins serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.

1970 (9th of Shevat, 5730): The writing of the "Sefer Torah for the Greeting of Moshiach," initiated at the behest of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, in 1942, was concluded 28 years later at a special gathering convened by the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Friday afternoon, the 9th of Shevat, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's passing.

1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who arrived in Jerusalem to participate in the deliberations of the Egyptian-Israeli political committee, had brought with him a jointly agreed agenda which included the declaration of principles which would govern the negotiations for a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. The agenda was to provide a guide for negotiations relating to the issues of the West Bank and Gaza (the Hebrew version read "Judea, Samaria and Gaza") and included the elements of peace treaties arrived at by Israel and its neighbors, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 242. Vance had also proposed a plan for a transitional period which would eventually lead to something more close to the "self-determination" of the Arabs in Palestine.

1987: Two Israeli helicopter gunships strafed Lebanese guerrillas today who had just overrun a position of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, the police said. Israeli gunners then showered the newly occupied post with about 70 mortar bombs, they said. A South Lebanon Army source in Tel Aviv said the army had repelled an attack by dozens of Party of God fighters near Taibe, which is close to Alman. But it was unclear if the militia source was referring to the same fighting. The reported capture of the post was the latest in a series of attacks by Shiite guerrillas against Israeli and Lebanese troops in Lebanon

1988: Birthdate of actress Nikki Reed.

1988: An article entitled “Retracing Jewish History In Austria,” by Paul Hoffman is published on the 330th anniversary of the birth of Samson Wertheimer. The excerpt below provides an interesting summary of the history of the Jews of Austria as well as attempts to preserve that history.

Almost three centuries ago, Emperor Leopold I called a money expert, Samson Wertheimer, from Worms on the Rhine to Vienna to help him replenish his treasury, which had been exhausted by the Emperor's Turkish wars. Wertheimer served the Hapsburgs for several years as financial adviser and was named chief rabbi of the Hapsburgs' Jewish subjects in Hungary and Bohemia. Because of his influence in high places, Wertheimer came to be called the Jewish emperor. Wertheimer retired in Eisenstadt, near the border between Austria and Hungary, and built himself a mansion with a private synagogue. Today the restored Wertheimer House, with its intimate synagogue, provides an impressive setting for the Austrian Jewish Museum. “A visit to the Jewish Museum will stir deep emotions, particularly at a time when recent events are confronting the Austrians with the history of anti-Semitism in their country. The five-year-old museum retraces the fortunes and fate of Jews in Austria from the Roman Empire to Hitler. Archeological finds from long-vanished Jewish cemeteries and houses, documents, pictures and other material are displayed in a total of 11,000 feet of floor space on three levels. Today, only two Jewish families live in Eisenstadt, a town of 10,500 population 31 miles southeast of Vienna. Set amid vineyards and forests on a hillside overlooking the Hungarian lowlands, Eisenstadt is the smallest of Austria's nine regional capitals. The area that is administered from Eisenstadt is the Burgenland (Castle Country), which in 1921 was transferred from Hungary to Austria. The town was once one of the historic Seven Communes of Jewish settlement in Western Hungary. There were 8,000 Jewish residents in the Burgenland in the middle of the 19th century, and there were still 3,400 in 1934. A 1951 census showed that only 39 Jews were still residing in the Burgenland. Today there are hardly more. When you walk a few hundred feet to the left of the Eisenstadt Castel, you are entering the former ghetto known as Unterberg-Eisenstadt, which from 1732 to 1938 formed a separate municipality with its own mayor. Nazi mobs ravaged the neighborhood after Hitler's takeover of Austria in 1938. After World War II, the Burgenland authorities had the ghetto restored, built a museum devoted to the region's archeology, natural history and folklore there and gave support to a project for a Jewish Museum. A plastic-bound visitor's book in the reception area of the Jewish Museum makes fascinating reading. The first page bears the signatures of Rudolf Kirchschlager, the respected predecessor to President Kurt Waldheim, and of Richard von Weizsacker, President of West Germany. There are many entries in Hebrew, and signatures with addresses from New York to Los Angeles and from Rio de Janeiro to Jerusalem. A message in bold handwriting, dated April 29, 1987, is by Waldheim, who has been accused of involvement in Nazi war crimes when he was an officer in the German Army in World War II. He wrote that he was ''very impressed by what I saw,'' and expressed ''all good wishes for the future, in peace.'' The Eisenstadt museum is the only collection devoted to the entirety of Austrian Jewish matters, according to its organizers, who compare it with the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv. Exhibits cover the Jewish presence in the Danubian lands in antiquity, medieval synagogues and ritual slaughterhouses and the history of Jewish settlements in the area. There are several headstones from old Jewish cemeteries in Austria. One display is devoted to the first Jewish Viennese whom records identify by name. He was one Schlom, a jeweler who toward the end of the 12th century melted down the silver ingots received by Duke Leopold V (The Virtuous) of Austria that were given as ransom for King Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) of England. The two had been rivals in the Holy Land during the third crusade, and the Austrian duke had the English sovereign imprisoned when the king, in disguise on his way home, was recognized in a suburb of Vienna. The Austrian capital then had a flourishing Jewish community, which was later wiped out by pogroms. Archeological finds, old documents and maps on display in the museum relate that Jewish settlements also existed throughout the Austrian provinces during the Middle Ages. A somber note is struck by facsimiles of imperial decrees whereby the Jews were expelled from Styria in 1496 and other Hapsburg domains, and by a display called ''The Yellow Badge in Austria,'' which tells of the identifying badge that Jews were forced to wear in the Middle Ages as well as in modern times. One panel display focuses on the Tolerance Edict, which Emperor Joseph II, a son of the Enlightenment, issued in 1782. He extended civil liberties to Jews, prohibited all outward signs of discrimination, and opened all schools and professions to the Jews. However, the Emperor also compelled Jews to adopt German-sounding surnames and did not allow them to organize themselves into religious communities. The flourishing of Jewish intellectual life in the Austria-Hungary of Emperor Francis Joseph, especially in turn-of-the-century Vienna, is amply documented; so is the simultaneous surge of anti-Semitism. One section shows the development of Zionism from its beginnings in Eastern Europe to the pioneer work of Theodor Herzl, who, though born in Hungary, considered Vienna his home, and to the foundation of the State of Israel. Newspaper clippings, books, pictures and other materials recall the great Jewish Viennese writers and scientists, from the playwright Arthur Schnitzler to Sigmund Freud. The entire third floor of the Wertheimer House, not yet completely organized, is devoted to a wealth of documentation regarding the Nazi horrors. German passports with the red letter J (for Jude, or Jew) stamped into it, the yellow stars that Jews were forced by the Nazis to wear, concentration camp money and other items, together with many grisly photos, are reminders of the brutalities committed by the Hitler regime and of the Holocaust. The small synagogue in the Wertheimer House, an architectural gem in late-Renaissance style, with marble columns, a gilt chandelier and a wooden floor, is at present being used for both liturgical and informational purposes. Jewish visitors sometimes hold services in it. The synagogue serves also as a repository for ritual objects recovered in various parts of Austria. In the northwestern part of the former ghetto, a Jewish cemetery (actually, a reconstruction of two cemeteries used by Eisenstadt Jews at different periods) can be visited. The Nazis devastated the gravestones in 1938 and eventually used many headstones to build antitank defenses when the Soviet forces were advancing from the east at the end of World War II. After the war, recovered headstones were put back in place. Rows of stones, some carrying the Star of David over their Hebrew inscriptions, huddle under elm trees in which finches and thrushes warble.

1990: Simon & Garfunkel were inducted into Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

1990: The United States criticized Yitzchak Shamir today for his call for a ''big Israel'' to absorb a flood of immigrants from the Soviet Union. ''We have now seen the text of the Prime Minister's comments, and our characterization of them is that frankly, they were not helpful,'' said Margaret D. Tutwiler, the State Department spokeswoman. We do not think that building settlements or putting even more settlers in the territories promotes the cause of peace. We do not provide U.S. Government resources for settlement of new immigrants in the occupied territories.

1991: Israel declared a state of emergency early this morning, minutes after word reached here of the American attack on Iraq. The authorities advised all Israelis to stay in their homes, open their chemical warfare kits and make their gas masks ready for immediate use. Iraq has said that it would retaliate against Israel for any allied attack on Iraq.

1991: Iraq fired 8 SCUD missiles on Israel. Israel had agreed that it would not respond and leave the destruction of the SCUD launchers to the Coalition Forces fighting Iraq. This marked the first time in Israel’s history that it relied on others for its defense.

1992: In a “Festival of New Voices From A Changing Israel,” published today, Jennifer Dunning waxes poetic over “Israel: The Next Generation” which she describes as “a festival with a difference.”

1993: The Dance Library of Israel will present its annual Documents of Dance Award to Dame Alicia Markova, the English prima ballerina, today at Tavern on the Green. The late Gower Champion will also be honored, with his son Gregg accepting the award. The event, including a reception, followed by a dinner and entertainment, will benefit archival and educational projects of the library in Tel Aviv.

1997: Israel handed over its military headquarters in Hebron to the Palestinians as part of the peace process that began with the Oslo Accords. The entire Jewish population had been forced to abandon its homes in Hebron in 1936 because of Arab violence. In 1968, the Jews returned to this ancestral city. While the Israeli government may have surrendered sovereignty, the Jewish settlers remained.

1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Language and Solitude: Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma by Ernest Gellner, Ben Shan: An Artist's Life by Howard Greenfeld, The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-first Century by David Fromkin and Snow written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz.

2000: Syrian-Israeli negotiations that had been scheduled to resume on January 19, in the United States were canceled today. Apparently the cancellation was the result of conflict between Syrian President Asad and PLO leader Yassar Arafat.

2003: According to reports published today the Toronto Raptors terminated the contract of the rookie center Nate Huffman, saying he had failed to inform the team of a history of knee problems. The 7-foot-1 Huffman signed a three-year, $5.1 million contract with the Raptors over the summer after playing for the Israeli League champion Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv last season.

2003: Two Palestinian gunmen attacked an isolated Jewish settlement near the embattled city of Hebron tonight, killing one Israeli and wounding three others. One of the attackers was killed while the other escaped. In the attack tonight, the two gunmen knocked on the door of what was described by Israeli radio as a trailer home on an isolated hilltop in the Givat Harsina settlement just north of the settlement of Qiryat Arba, known for its strongly Zionist views. An Israeli military spokesman said nine people were inside at their Sabbath dinner around 7:30 p.m. The man who answered the door shot and killed one of the the assailants, but fell dead in the exchange of gunfire. The family's 4-year-old daughter and two other people were wounded. The army said a second assailant escaped and apparently managed to flee into the nearby Palestinian city of Hebron.

2004: “This Day In Jewish History” which was started as a supplement to the Jewish History Class at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, first appeared on this date with this single, solitary, entry. “1945: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody on January 17, 1945. As we will learn when we study about the Jews and World War II, nobody really knows what the Soviets did with Wallenberg or why they did it. What we do know that he was a Righteous Gentile. We know that he was a Swedish diplomat who went to Hungary during the closing months of World War II who used everything from bribes, to threats, to old fashioned Chutzpah to keep boxcar after boxcar filled with Jews from reaching Auschwitz. It is ironic that he should have survived the Nazis and their Hungarian allies only to perish at the hands of the Soviets who were part of the Anti-Nazi coalition. Regardless of why he did what he did and the fate he suffered, he is living that people could have at least slowed down the German killing machine. He is also living proof that one person can make a difference. Because of what he did for the Jews, we must do as he did and stand up for those whom known one else will stand up for. As we will see, studying Jewish history is not just about the dead past, it can be call to action for present and future generations”

2005: In London, survivors of the Lodz Ghetto gathered in London to view the unpublished photographs that Henry Ross had taken of the ghetto. Ross was the official of the photographer of the Jewish Council. Ross hid over three thousand negatives when the Germans liquidated the ghetto and shipped the survivors to Auschwitz. Ross survived the war and moved to Israel where he died in 1991. His son gave the collection of photos to the Archive of Modern conflict in London in 1997. One hundred of the images were published in 2004 in the Lodz Ghetto Album.

2006: Haaretz reported that this year will mark the first time in history that there will be as many Jews living in Israel as in the United States, according to statistics presented at a Jewish Policy Planning Institute conference. “The greater Tel Aviv area has already replaced New York as the city with the most Jews. The change is part of a larger trend showing that while the number of Jews living in Israel between 1970 and 2005 increased, the number of Jews in the Diaspora shrunk by about a quarter in that time. Overall, the world Jewish population has increased slightly in the last 35 years - but its percentage of the overall world population has decreased by about a third since 1970, Hebrew University Prof. Sergio Della Pergola said Sunday at the conference in Jerusalem. The Jewish population increased from 12.65 million in 1970 to nearly 13 million in 2005, but in the same period, the world population grew by more than 70 percent. As a result, the Jewish people now comprise 0.21 percent of the world population, down from 0.35 percent 35 years ago. The statistics also show that the number of Jews in the Diaspora has decreased from slightly more than 10 million to 7.75 million in 2005. The increase in the world Jewish population, then, is due to a significant rise in the number of Jews living in Israel since 1970.The number of Jews in the Diaspora has decreased as a result of low birthrates, assimilation and the mass immigration of Soviet Jewry to Israel during the 1990s, said Della Pergola. The migration has led to a drop of nearly 90 percent in the Jewish population of the former Soviet Union. Accompanied by a positive natural growth rate, it has also caused the number of Jews living in Israel to multiply in the last three decades. Jews from the former Soviet Union have also moved to countries other than Israel. The Jewish population of Germany jumped by 236 percent after some 100,000 Jews decided to move there, and immigration was the main cause of growth in the Jewish communities of Canada and Australia. In the United States, the number of Jews has remained stable even though hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union and from Israel have moved there. The mass immigration to Israel in the last few years has drastically reduced the number of Jews living in countries in distress. Some 90 percent of world’s Jews live in countries with a quality of life that is at least as high as in Israel. Della Pergola said he expects the size of Jewish communities to continue to decrease; citing demographic trends - particularly low birth rates - in Jewish communities around the world. In 2000, 613 Jewish babies were born in Russia, while 8,218 Jewish people died there. In Britain, 2,665 Jewish babies were born in 2002, compared to 3,670 deaths. Intermarriage also plays a role in lowering the world Jewish population, said Della Pergola. He said the average intermarriage rate in the Diaspora is 48 percent. Seventy percent of Jewish women in Russia and 80 percent of Jewish men had non-Jewish spouses in 2000. The intermarriage rate in the U.S. is about 50 percent, and it ranges between 35 percent and 44 percent in South America and Western Europe. Intermarriage leads to a reduction of the number of children raised as Jews - only about a third of children born into mixed marriages choose to define themselves as Jews, said Della Pergola. On the other hand, he said, intermarriage leads to a significant increase in what he calls the "extended Jewish population," which includes anyone with a close family member who is Jewish.”

2007: As part of its “Jewish Season” The Theater for a New Audience in New York City presents The Jew of Malta.

2008: In Jerusalem at Sergey`s Courtyard in the Metunah Auditorium, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) presents a World Music concert, a combination of original elements with the traditions of different cultures. This is a musical journey that takes you from the Balkans along the coast of the Mediterranean all the way to Spain.

2008: Today, the mayor of Berlin and the head of Germany's Jewish Council denounced an attack on five Jewish teenagers by a group of punks. The teenagers, aged between 15 and 17, were on Wednesday subjected to anti-Semitic abuse by four punks near the Juedische Oberschule, the Berlin school they attend, police said.

2008: Today, militants in the Gaza Strip fired more than 40 Qassam rockets and two mortar shells at southern Israel, wounding four people. Two Israelis were lightly hurt when a rocket slammed into an intersection in Sderot, damaging cars. The injured were both taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment. Five other people were treated for shock. Later today, two women were lightly wounded in additional rocket strikes on Sderot. One of the women was hurt when she fell down the stairs while running for cover. Earlier, a rocket hit the Sapir College campus in Sderot. One woman was treated for shock. One of the rockets hit the Negev town of Sderot, causing damage to a house but no injuries. Another rocket hit a factory, damaging cars. Five rockets struck in the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council and in open fields the area. A rocket also hit near the Kibbutz Nir Am cafeteria. According to the IDF, 118 Qassam rockets and 62 mortar shells have been fired at Israel since fighting escalated Tuesday.

2008: “November” a play about a sitting president by Jewish playwright David Mamet opened at the Barrymore Theater in Manhattan.

2009: Initial screening of “Zion and His Brother,” a family drama set in Tel Aviv, at the Sundance Film Festival.

2009 (5769): Jews all over the world begin reading Shemot, the second book of the Torah.

2009: Fifth Anniversary of what would become known as “This Day In…Jewish History.”

2010: A memorial service is held for Sylvia Kalnitsky, of blessed memory, at Agudas Achim in Iowa, City. Sylvia Kalnitsky, of blessed memory, is the mother Kathe Goldstein a pillar the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community.

2010: Robert M. Edsel discusses "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History" (written with Bret Witter) at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

2010: The Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and the Department of Scandinavian Studies at Augustana College is scheduled to host a screening of “Good Evening, Herr Wallenberg” in Rock Island, Il. January 17th marks the 65th anniversary of the arrest and disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with saving as many as 100,000 Jews during a remarkable mission to Budapest near the end of World War II.

2010: Sixth Anniversary of what would become known as “This Day In…Jewish History.”

2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime co-authored by Mark Halperin.

2010: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including '36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction' by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.

2010: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime co-authored by Mark Halperin.

2010: The 10th annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “The Wedding Song,” a film about “two teenage girlfriends, a Muslim and a Jew, who bond intensely during the Nazi occupation of the North African nation of Tunis.”

2010: The 139h annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York premier of “The Axe of Wandsbek,” a film that was “adapted from the 1947 novel by Arnold Zweig.” Set in 1934, the movie “follows a man who is paid by the Nazis to serve as a public executioner and goes on to be rejected by his community” and forces the viewer to consider “the role that common citizens played in Nazi crimes.”

2010: Pope Benedict XVI said church authorities played an active role in saving Jews during the Holocaust, though "often hidden and discreet." Today, Italian Jewish leaders welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Rome's main synagogue for a visit they said would help strengthen relations between Jews and Catholics."Despite a dramatic history, the unresolved problems, and the misunderstandings, it is our shared visions and common goals that should be given pride of place," Rome's chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni said today speaking to a packed sanctuary from in front of the ornate Ark. "The image of respect and friendship that emanates from this encounter must be an example for all those who are watching," he said. In the weeks before the visit, Jewish-Catholic relations were strained by the pope's decision to move World War II-era Pope Pius XII closer to sainthood. Critics accuse Pius of having turned a blind eye to Jewish suffering in the Shoah.The president of the Italian Rabbinical assembly boycotted the papal synagogue visit in protest. In his speech, Rome Jewish community President Riccardo Pacifici renewed calls for the Vatican to open its secret wartime archives to clarify the Pius issue. The pope did not mention Pius by name, but, recalling the horrors of the Holocaust, he praised Catholic individuals for saving Jewish lives. The pope was repeatedly applauded during his speech. Today’s visit was only the second time a pope had visited the synagogue -- Pope John Paul II's visit in 1986 was a milestone in Catholic-Jewish dialogue.

2011: Limmud NY which has been meeting at Hudson Valley Resort, Kerhonkson, NY is scheduled to come to a close.

2011: “Strangers No More”, a documentary about students at an “exceptional school” in Tel Aviv is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.

2011: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced today that he was leaving the Labor Party — dividing the movement that dominated Israeli politics for decades and setting off a chain reaction that cast new doubts over already troubled peace efforts with the Palestinians. The split in the iconic party that led Israel to independence did not appear to threaten the majority of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. Barak, a former prime minister and military chief, will stay in the ruling coalition with four followers who joined him.

2011: Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog and Minorities Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman all submitted their resignation letters to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today, ending speculation about whether any of the eight remaining Labor MKs would remain in the coalition. In three separate press conferences in Labor’s faction room in the Knesset, all three ministers said party chairman Ehud Barak’s decision to break off from Labor with four allies took them completely by surprise.

2011(12th of Shevat, 5771) Don Kirshner, the music publisher of Brill Building hits like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin,’ ” who later served as a deadpan Ed Sullivan for Kiss, the Ramones and others with his 1970s television show, “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” died today in Boca Raton, Fla., where he lived. He was 76. The Brill Building age of pop, named after the Manhattan building where many of its songwriters labored, lasted from the mid-1950s to the mid-’60s and is celebrated for the people behind its innocently aching music: producers like Phil Spector, writing teams like Carole King and Gerry Goffin (“The Loco-Motion”). But the guiding force behind many of those people was Mr. Kirshner, whose hustle, hit-trained ear and good timing helped shape pop in the days when Tin Pan Alley’s song-craft traditions were being mingled with the rhythms of rock. As a pioneering musical matchmaker, Mr. Kirshner discovered many of the era’s best songwriters, prodded them for hits and shopped the results to top artists. Later in the 1960s he married bubblegum to television with two manufactured, semifictitious bands: the Monkees and the cartoon Archies. “He had a great sense of commerciality and song, the ability to hear a song and know it’s a hit,” said Charles Koppelman, a veteran music executive who began his career in Mr. Kirshner’s company, Aldon. Yet to music fans who came of age in the 1970s and ’80s, Mr. Kirshner is best known as the leisure-suited, monotonous host of the syndicated “Rock Concert,” which from 1973 to 1982 presented live performances by Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Sex Pistols, David Bowie and Ted Nugent, among many others. Unlike “American Bandstand” and other early TV rock shows, on which performers lip-synched their music or played a song or two in a sterile studio, “Rock Concert” featured full, loud performances in an arena or club setting. In his spoken introductions, however, Mr. Kirshner often seemed strangely out of place, as if he barely knew the acts he was introducing — which was sometimes the case. “Someone once told me I had to put on Alice Cooper,” he recalled in a 2004 interview with The Washington Post. “I said, ‘Well, is she any good?’ ” Donald Kirshner was born in the Bronx on April 17, 1934, the son of a tailor. He had hopes of being a songwriter, and got his start in the music business when he met a brash young singer named Robert Cassotto at a candy store in Washington Heights. They became partners, working on jingles and pop ditties (their first: “Bubblegum Pop”), but their collaboration ended after Mr. Cassotto — under his new stage name, Bobby Darin — scored a hit in 1958 with “Splish Splash,” which he wrote without Mr. Kirshner. That year Mr. Kirshner founded Aldon with Al Nevins, who had played in a successful instrumental group, the Three Suns. Mr. Kirshner and Mr. Nevins opened an office at 1650 Broadway — a block away from 1619 Broadway, the Brill Building — and soon signed two struggling songwriters, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. By 1962 they had 18 writers on staff. The list of Aldon alumni includes Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Neil Diamond, Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. To some degree the company operated as an assembly line: teams of writers in piano cubicles churned out songs that would be recorded immediately, as demos or sometimes as finished productions. In 1963 Mr. Kirshner and Mr. Nevins sold Aldon to Screen Gems, a Columbia Pictures subsidiary, for more than $2 million, and moved to a luxe new office on Fifth Avenue. Meanwhile, with the arrival of the Beatles, the American pop landscape was shifting toward bands that wrote their own material. Mr. Nevins died in 1965. Yet one of Mr. Kirshner’s biggest achievements was in some ways an adaptation to the Beatles era. In 1966 he was hired to put together the music for the Monkees, a Beatles-y group assembled by television executives. Mr. Kirshner commissioned songs from many of the best Aldon songwriters, like Mr. Diamond (“I’m a Believer”) and the Goffin-King team (“Pleasant Valley Sunday”). When tensions arose with the band, Mr. Kirshner moved on to the Archies, an animated version of the clean-cut comic strip. “I want a band that won’t talk back,” Mr. Kirshner later said. The Archies’ music, performed by uncredited studio musicians, brought bubblegum to the pinnacle of its success: its still-ubiquitous “Sugar, Sugar” was the best-selling song of 1969. In 1972 Mr. Kirshner began to work with ABC on a live performance show, “In Concert”; he left that show the next year to begin “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert,” which had its premiere in September 1973 with the Rolling Stones. In the 1970s Mr. Kirshner also continued his work as a music executive, signing the band Kansas (“Carry On Wayward Son,” “Dust in the Wind”) to his CBS-affiliated Kirshner label, but by the early 1980s he had retired. Though he began his career as a songwriter, Mr. Kirshner said he realized early that he was better at recognizing talent in others than at creating the work itself. “My idols were people like Walt Disney, and I feel that what he did with Pinocchio and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse I had the ability to do in my own right — build the stars as a star maker,” he told The New Yorker in 1993. “And maybe it’s because, you know, I don’t read or write music — and I guess I live vicariously through these people, ’cause I don’t have the talent myself — but, you know, I’m the man with the golden ear.” (As reported by Ben Sisario)

2011: Primary Stages, an Off Broadway theatre company announced today that its 2011-2012 season will open with “Olive and the Bitter Herbs,” a work by Charles Busch in which “the title character, Olive, finds herself reluctantly hosting a seder for the neighbors in her apartment building while contending with what she thinks is a ghost that she sees in her mirror.”

2011: Seventh anniversary of what is now known as This Day…In Jewish History

2012: Martin Menelsohn, the former counsel to Simon Wiesenthal and the Counsel to Holocaust Survivors in the Trial of John Demjanjuk is scheduled to deliver a noon-time address entitled “Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals in 21st Century Germany” in Washington, D.C.

2012: “Three Promises,” a documentary that uses the family photographs of sisters Breda and Matilda Kalef take viewers into the world of Sephardic pre-World War II Serbia and the dramatic story of their flight to safety is scheduled to have its world premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.

2012: Frank Lautenberg & Thane Rosenbaum as scheduled to appear “In Conversation” at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan

2012: Eighth Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” [Special thanks to Deb Levin, a real ayshish chaenyel, who created the technological architecture that made it possible to take this from an e-mail driven distribution to a part of the world-wide net.]

Created and Edited by Mitchell Levin Cedar Rapids, IA melech3@mchsi.com
Copyright; January, 2012; Mitchell A. Levin