May
22 In Jewish History
334
BCE: The Macedonian army of Alexander
the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus. This was
the first step of a “journey” that would lead to the turning Egypt and Asia
Minor (a territory that included Jerusalem and Judea) into bastions of
Hellenistic culture. This would create a
collision course with Jewish values that would lead to the Maccabee Revolt followed
by decades of internicine fighting that would really not come to an end until
the Second Temple was destroyed.
124 BCE (23rd of Iyar, 3618): Simon the Hasmonean, drove the “Greeks” – the Syrians and their Hellenized Jewish allies– out of the citadel which was their last stronghold in Jerusalem. While Jews celebrate Chanukah, it is this victory, 40 years later, under Judah’s youngest brother that marks the defeat of the Syrians that led to an independent Jewish state under the Hasmonean dynasty.
337: Birthdate of Constantine, known as the first
Christian Emperor of the Roman Emperor for legalizing the practice of
Christianity in the Roman Empire. As the following entry shows, Constantine Constantine
1176: Murder attempt by the Hashshashin (Assassins)
on Saladin near Aleppo. This attempt on the Muslim Warrior-King was part of the
on-going clash between sects of Islam.
From the Jewish point of view, Saladin’s survival is good news. After capturing Jerusalem from the Crusaders,
Saladin allowed the Jews to return to the City of David during a century long
ban imposed by the Christians. The event
was eloquently described by the Jewish poet Al-harizi in 1190. Saladin reportedly hired Moses Maimonides to
serve as his personal physician.
1370: After
killing a rich Jew in Brussels, Belgium, the perpetrators tried to cover their
tracks by accusing the Jews of host desecration. The perpetrators escaped in
the ensuing confusion. A few hundred Jews were killed and the rest banished
from the country. A holiday was declared by the local churches.
1377:
Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English
theologian John Wycliffe. Wycliffe’s doctrines were part of the heresies
threatening Papal authority through out northern Europe. This is the same Pope
Gregory who had ordered the burning of Jewish books a year earlier in 1376, an
act that might be seen more as a way of enforcing Papal authority and the
primacy of the Roman Catholic Church.
1760(7th
of Sivan, 5520): Second Day of Shavuot
1760(7th
of Sivan, 5520): Rabbi Israel (Yisroel) ben Eliezer (רבי ישראל בן אליעזר
better known as the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chasidic Judaism, passed away. [Hopefully this
brief entry will spur readers to find out more about a person who had such an
impact on the Jewish people.]
1793(17th
of Iyar 5553): Rabbi Ezekeil Landau passed away. Born in 1713, in Prague Prague
1799:
In Paris, Le Moniteur Universal published a short statement sent from the
French forces besieging Acre that: "Buonaparte a fait publier une
proclamation, dans laquelle il invite les juifs de l'Asie et de l'Afrique à
venir se ranger sous ses drapeaux, pour rétablir l'ancienne Jérusalem; il en a
déjà armé un grand nombre, et leurs bataillons menacent Alep." This has
been translated in English as: "Bonaparte has published a proclamation in
which he invites all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in
order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem. He has already given arms to a
great number, and their battalions threaten Aleppo.” Unbeknownst to the newspaper, Napoleon had
already abandoned the siege of the Acre, leaving it in the hands of the
Ottomans and surrendering his designs to create a French empire in the Orient.
1809(7th
of Sivan, 5569): Second Day of Shavuot
1820:
Birthdate of Isidor Binswanger, a leader of the Philadelphia Jewish community
who served as President of Maimonides College, the first Jewish institution of
higher learning in the United States and the father of Fanny Binswanger Hoffman.
1843:
“The first major wagon train” heading for that part of the Northwest Territory
now known as Oregon…”departs from Elm Grove, Missouri traveling along the
Oregon Trail. According to Scott Cline,
author of Community Structure on the Urban Frontier: The Jews of Portland,
Oregon Jacob Goldsmith and Lewis May who arrived in Portland, Oregon in
1849. They were the first Jewish settlers in Portland and possibly in all of
Oregon.
1846:
A wagon train owned by Albert Speyer left Independence, MO today headed for
Santa Fe New Mexico. A native of
Prussia, Speyer had been operating wagon trains since 1843. Two of the 25 wagons making this trip were
reportedly filled with Yager rifles and ammunition that had been ordered by
Angel Trias, the governor of Chihuahua, Mexico.
At this time, Santa Fe was still a part of Mexico and Speyer had no way
of knowing the United States was about to go to war with its neighbor to the
south.
1850:
The following article published today entitled “Paris—Foundation of a Jewish Hospital”
described work being done to establish a Jewish hospital in Paris and provided
a snapshot of the French Jewish community.
The
editor of the “Archives Israelites,” in his May number, says: “Among the
establishments, the most imperiously demanded is a Jewish hospital. Let the
individual opinions of each of us concerning our ceremonies, especially those
which concern dietetic laws, be more or less rigid, it is nevertheless the duty
of an Israelitish administration to take care of those under their charge, who
would sooner die than enter an hospital, where the observance of their
religious rules is impossible. Moreover, when we think of the interference of
the clergy, who seek to fish for souls, and who often find auxiliaries against
the tolerant wishes of the directors of hospitals, in the sisters (of charity)
who attend on the sick, no one can deny that a Jewish hospital is
necessary.”—After some farther remarks he continues: “Thanks to Mr. James
Rothschild, Paris will have a Jewish hospital. He has just purchased a piece of
ground in Rue Picpus, Nos. 62, 64, and 66, measuring 7,500 metres, of which 800
are occupied by buildings, and the other 6,700 are laid out in gardens, walks,
&c. The buildings consist of three houses contiguous to each other. The
price of the purchase, with the expenses and building, will reach nearly
120,000 francs, about $22,800. A large portion of the land can be taken,
independently of the hospital, for the use of the poor class.” The consistory
of Paris very properly called on Mr. Rothschild, on the 22d of May, to thank
him for his generosity. Dr. Cahen, in a few, well-chosen words, expressed the
gratitude felt by the whole community, and used this remarkable phrase: “God
has given you wealth, but He has also given you a heart to make, so charitable
a use of it as this is.” Mr. R. was greatly moved by the act, and the words
addressed to him; and made a suitable reply. His wife was present, and active as
she is in all that is charitable, she took part in the conversation which
afterwards sprang up between them and the deputation, and Mr. R. made
particular inquiries after many matters of interest to the congregation, and
showed himself ready to continue them his kindness.—It is not often, our
readers will confess, that we praise the rich; but such an act of true
benevolence as this just exhibited by Mr. Rothschild of Paris richly deserves
to be recorded in our magazine; and we hope to hear that he has found imitators
in this country; for though we have none who control such ample resources,
there is no lack of means among us, if their possessors could once be persuaded
that they could devote a considerable portion of their wealth to worthy objects
of charity without robbing their families, the usual
1851(20th
of Iyar, 5611): Mordecai Manuel Noah, author, diplomat and one of the most
influential Jewish leaders in the first half of the 19th century
passed away. Born in 1785, he was a diplomatic representative for the U.S.in
North Africa when the new nation was making its foray into the Moslem
world. In a later episode he gained the
support of Adams, Jefferson and Madison (all founding fathers and U.S.
Presidents) in reiterating the American belief in the separation of church and
state. He may best be remembered for his
attempt to create a utopian refuge for displaced European Jewry on an island on
the Niagara River called Ararat. [Editor’s
note: this blog does not have a enough space to do justify to the life of this
fascinating Jewish American leader who set the tone for American Jewry – proud
to be both Jewish and a citizen of the United States.]
1859(18th
of Iyar, 5619): Lag B’Omer
1871:
Reverend Howard Crosby chaired a meeting at New York’s Fourth Avenue
Presbyterian Church where plans were discussed to explore the area along the
Jordan River this October. The explorers
hoped to find tombs of the Israelite Kings, the Ark of the Covenant and/or the
tablets of stone. Crosby pointed out
that a previous expedition had found a large Moabite stone with letters that
were more like English than ancient Hebrew.
1875:
Henrietta Held joined the people of Israel in conversion ceremony held
following afternoon services at a the synagogue located on Sixth Street near
Second avenue in New York City
1878:
The funeral of Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs took place this morning at Shaari Tephila
on West 44th Street in New York City.
Rabbis A.S. Solomon, Menes and Morais of Philadelphia participated in
the service. Burial took place at
Cypress Hill Cemetery
1899:
The Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls opened its doors on New York's East
63rd Street.
1906: Birthdate of comic Harry Ritz of
the Ritz Brothers. Born Harry Joachim, Harry was the 'middleman' of the Ritz Brothers, and was an
inspiration for Danny Kaye and Sid Caesar. In 1934, The Ritz Brothers appeared in their first film, "Hotel Anchovy". The team
worked for Fox and later Universal. He died of cancer in 1986
1912: Birthdate of Herbert C. Brown. Born in England Ukraine United States University of Chicago
1914:
The Becker-Rosenthal trial in which Charles Becker and members of the Lenox
Avenue Gang faced charges for having murdered bookmaker Herman Rosenthal came
to a close.
1916:
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary
today distributed a letter from Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of
Harvard University, endorsing Louis D. Brandeis of Boston for Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court. Dr. Lowell, President of Harvard, has signed a memorial
opposing Mr. Brandeis's confirmation on the ground that he was unfit for the
Supreme bench. The confirmation process for Brandeis was a bruising affair
laced with anti-Semitism.
1919:
The Rumanian government granted citizenship to all native-born Jews.
1920: The
Dearborn Independent, owned by Henry Ford, began publishing the “Protocols of
the Elders of Zion.”
1920: Birthdate of astrophysicist Thomas Gold. Gold
was bron in Austria and educated in Switzerland and Great Britain, In early
1959, when Cornell University offered him the opportunity to set up an
interdisciplinary unit for radio-physics and space research, and take charge of the Department of
Astronomy, he accepted the appointment. He remained at Cornell until his death.
1922: Birthdate of Quinn Martin, head of Quinn
Martin Productions
1924:
Cornerstone laying ceremony for the construction of the building housing the
Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva began today.
1924:
In Romania Aleppo ,
Syria
1924:
In Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and killed
Robert Franks. All of the parties in this "Crime of the
Century" were Jewish except for the lawyer who would defend Leopold Loeb -
Clarence Darrow. The story provided the basis for the novel (and
film by the same name) called Compulsion.
1926: It was announced today that Mrs. Bertha
V. Guggenheimer of Lynchburg, Va., has a established a $50,000 trust fund that
will build playgrounds in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv, as well as other
cities and farming settlements in Palestine. The playgrounds will operate on a
non-sectarian basis meaning they are open to Christian, Moslem and Jewish
children.
1930: The
Jewish community in Palestine begins a general strike to protest the blocking
of immigration
1930:
Birthdate of Harvey Milk, San
Francisco
1931:
Confirmation Services were held today at Congregation Beth-El in Camden, NJ.
1932: The Hakoah All-Stars rallied in the
second half to gain a tie with the German All-Stars in what was billed as
goodwill soccer game at the Polo Grounds. The contest was sponsored by leading
Jewish and German citizens as a means of promoting interracial understanding.
Mayor Walker, honorary chairman of the sponsoring committee kicked off the ball
at the start of play. At half time, Carol Sherman, former Attorney General of
New York Stated presented medal to the Americans who had competed in the
International Jewish Olympics recently held in Tel Aviv.
1932:
Birthdate of Yosef Haim Yerushalmi, a groundbreaking and wide-ranging scholar
of Jewish history whose meditation on the tension between collective memory of
a people and the more prosaic factual record of the past influenced a
generation of thinkers.
1934:
Birthdate of Ya'acov Ra'anan, the native of Vienna who made Aliyah in 1939, who
served as the commander of the INS Dakar on its last voyage.
1935(19th
of Iyar, 5695): Max Hans Kohn, a Jewish student died in Dachau. Reportedly he
was the first Jew to die there in 10 months.
1936: Jewish-operated buses were again fired at today on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, but there were no casualties and the curfew in Jerusalem was extended starting a half hour earlier (6:30 p.m.) in response to escalating Arab violence.
1938: Birthdate
of actor/ director Richard Benjamin whose work includes Goodbye Columbus and He&
She.
1938: As Arab terrorism escalated, The Palestine Post reported that the Government forces practically
occupied Arab villages in Galilee in an effort to check the increasing terror
and lawlessness. Jewish settlements of Ein Hazorea and Mishmar Haemek came
under a concentrated Arab terrorist fire. The Iraq Petroleum Company pipeline
was cut once more and set on fire near Nazareth
1938: The Palestine Post
published a special, 20-page Palestine-British supplement to mark the Empire
Day.
1938:
Birthdate of actress Susan Strasberg whose work includes “In Praise of Older
Women” and “Manitou”
1938(21st
of Iyyar, 5698): Rabbi
Simon Glazer passed away. Born in 1878
at Kovno Russia, Glazer the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogues in Montreal
(1907-1918); Chief Rabbi of Kansas City (1920-1923); Rabbi of Beth Hamidrash
Hagadol in NYC (1923-1927); Temple Beth-El in Brooklyn (1927-1930); Maimonides
Synagogue of NYC starting in 1930.
Glazer had also served as President of the Central Council of Rabbis of
America and Chairman of its Executive Committee. He wrote or translated 26 books including a
“History of Israel” and translations of the works of Maimonides and the High
Holiday prayer books.
1939:
Germany signs a "Pact of Steel" with Italy. This is one more step on the road to World
War II.
1939(4th
of Sivan, 5699): Ernst Toller, a German-Jewish playwright and active
anti-fascist, who had fought for the Kaiser in World War I and whose sister and
brother had been taken to a concentration camp, hung himself at the Mayflower
Hotel. W.H. Auden memorialized him with
a poem entitled “In Memory of Ernst Toller” published in 1940 in an anthology
called Another Time.
1941:
Jews in Croatia are forced to wear yellow badges.
1941:
Germans stole a 16th century Torah scroll from the Sephardic community at
Salonica. This Torah was said to have come from Spain
1942(6th
of Sivan, 5702): First Day of Shavuot
1942(6th
of Sivan, 5702): In an exercise conducted in a forest outside Mielec,
Poland, Gestapo agents "cast" Jews as partisans, beat and mutilate
them, and then kill them.
1942(6th
of Sivan, 5702): Three hundred children are taken away and sent to Chelmno
where they were gassed to death.
1944(29th
of Iyyar, 5704): For five days Jews readied for rail transport from
Munkács, Ukraine, and from the Hungarian town of Sátoraljaújhely resist being
loaded. Some are shot. Resistance began
on May 22 and ended on May 27.
1945(10th
of Sivan, 5705): Polish freebooters stop a train in the Bialystok region of
Poland and beat and abduct a Jew named Mejer Sznajder. This took place after
V.E. Day and the end of Holocaust.
1946: Karl
Frank, Nazi protector of Bohemia-Moravia, was executed in Prague.
1946(21st
of Iyar, 5706): Two
Jews were killed and another fifteen were injured in pogrom begun because a
crowd of Hungarians in Kunmadras believed the Jews had made sausage out of
Christian children.
1948: David Ben-Gurion ordered Yigal Yadin, the Chief of Staff, to launch an attack on the police fort at Laturun “without delay.” Ben-Gurion wanted Yadin to use the Seventh Brigade for the attack. Yadin was opposed to the attack. The brigade was composed of 2,000 troops several hundred of whom were Holocaust survivors who had just gotten off the boat from the
1948:
Troops from the Carmeli Brigade took up positions at Masada and Sha'ar HaGolan
in expectation of a counter-attack from the Arabs that did not come. After a week, despite their edge in armor and
artillery, apparently, they had had enough.
1948:
The fighting that had begun on May 15 known collectively as the Battles of the
Kinarot Valley came to an end. The most memorable fighting took place between
the Israelis and the Syrians at Dagania Alef and Degania Bet. Words cannot
describe the heroism of the Jewish fighters who stood their ground against
overwhelming odds.
1950(6th
of Sivan, 5710): First Day of Shavuot
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that
according to the Jordanian complaint, Israel occupied three Arab villages in
the Jordanian-occupied Latrun area and two in the Tulkarm District. Israel
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Mr.
Shimon Peres, the Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, claimed at an
exhibition of the locally-manufactured products, that few countries in the
world produced as wide a variety of armaments as Israel.
1954:
Bar Mitzvah of Robert Zimmerman who gained famed as Bob Dylan.
1955:
Final broadcast of the “Jack Benny Program” on CBS radio. Benny, whose real
name was Benjamin Kubelsky, would continue to broadcast on television until
1965.
1967:
In violation of international agreements, Egypt Middle East . In Israel
1969(5th
of Sivan, 5729): Erev of Shavuot
1969:
Mayor John V. Lindsay greeted his
Jewish constituency today on the eve of Shavuot, which begins tomorrow.
Speaking of the Jewish people's receiving of the Torah, which the holiday
celebrates, the Mayor said: "From that hallowed event on Mount Sinai,
through the ages, from the days of ancient Palestine, and up to our times and
the rebirth of the State of Israel, the Torah has been at the very heart of the
Jewish experience. Moses...stands as a towering figure not only in the life of
the Jewish people but in the life of our civilization."
1970(16th
of Iyyar, 5730): Arab terrorists killed 9 children and 3 adults on a
school bus
1972: Time published “Israel: Battle of
Flight 517”
Sabena Flight 517 from Brussels to Tel Aviv was 20
minutes out of Vienna last week when two Arabs waving pistols rushed the
cockpit. "As you can see," Captain Reginald Levy calmly informed his
90 passengers, "we have friends aboard." The friends—the men and two
women, who produced explosives from under their skirts—were members of a
Palestinian guerrilla organization called Black September.* Their audacious
plan: to land the Boeing 707 at Tel Aviv and embarrass Israel by threatening to
blow up the plane on a Lod Airport runway unless 317 imprisoned fedayeen were
released. Levy's radioed alert that his
plane had been commandeered rang top-level alarms in Israel. Defense Minister
Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff General David Elazar hurried to the airport to
supervise the troops mustered to meet the jet. As soon as Levy touched down in
the Tel Aviv dusk and rolled to an isolated runway, mechanics at Dayan's orders
immobilized the plane by deflating its tires and draining the hydraulic system.
After presenting their demands for the
prisoners' release to Lod's control tower, the skyjackers were alarmed to
discover that they could not take off again. Emotionally, they kissed one
another goodbye and prepared to detonate the explosives. Levy started a
conversation to calm them down, and kept on chatting through the night. "I
talked about everything under the sun," he said later, "from
navigation to sex." Next morning,
in response to Levy's plea, Dayan promised to prepare the plane for takeoff and
produce the fedayeen. A group of bogus prisoners were shown to the skyjackers
from a distance and Dayan had an airplane taken out to a runway, supposedly to
fly the released fedayeen to Cairo. From the control tower, one of the
"prisoners"—actually an Arabic-speaking Israeli soldier—lulled the
skyjackers: "They tell me I'm being sent to Cairo. Is that true? Praised
be Allah." Meanwhile, out of sight, commandos were practicing assault
tactics on a 707. When they were able to force the doors, swing aboard and
start shooting in 90 seconds, Elazar deemed them ready. His "ground
crew" approached the jet, allowed themselves to be frisked by Red Cross
negotiators who had been called in at Arab request. No pistols turned up in the
search; they had been hidden in boots or tool boxes. Suddenly the
"mechanics" burst into the plane with guns blazing. The two male
skyjackers died from bullets in the head and one of the two women was wounded.
In all, the action took precisely 90 seconds. Israelis hailed the jet's recapture as a
military victory—and as an example of how other nations ought to handle
skyjacking. Dayan himself was host at a dinner for Levy, a British citizen with
a Jewish father and a Christian mother who was celebrating his 50th birthday.
Prime Minister Golda Meir later threw a second dinner for all the participants.
She kissed Levy and cried, "We love you." Publicly, Mrs. Meir justified
the recapture, citing "the terrible significance of submission" to
terrorism. Elsewhere the response was
less enthusiastic. The International Air Line Pilots Association protested the
danger to passengers in such go-for-broke shootouts. As it happened, three
aboard Flight 517 had been wounded. One 22-year-old Israeli was in critical
condition; she had leaped up in panic when the firing started and was shot in
the head by a commando who mistook her for one of the Arabs. The International
Red Cross angrily cried that it had been duped by the Israelis. Arabs
nevertheless accused the agency of complicity. In Beirut, where Red Cross week
was in progress, volunteers soliciting donations were attacked on the street by
Black September supporters. The leader of the group, who called himself Captain
Rafat, was later identified as Ali Tasha, 34, a onetime Jerusalem tour guide
and seasoned skyjacker. In 1968 he
helped divert an El Al jet to Algeria.
1977(5th
of Sivan, 5737): Erev of Shavuot
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that Israel empowered the Minister of Defense and
the Chief of Staff to discuss with U.N. and UNIFIL the arrangements aimed to
prevent the terrorists in South Lebanon from attacking Israel and harming local
inhabitants. The UNIFIL assured the Christian leader, Major Saad Haddad, that
it is prepared to recognize his 600-men strong force and that the humanitarian
"Good Fence", which allowed Lebanese villagers to receive aid and
work in Israel
1981(18th
of Iyyar, 5741): Lag B’Omer
1981:
Antatole Boyard reviewed Where the Jackals Howl and Other Stories by
Israeli author Amos Oz.
1983: The New York Times featured a review of Art
& Ardor by Cynthia Ozick.
1988(6th of Sivan, 5748): First Day of Shavuot
1990:
In The Los Angeles Times, Sheldon Teitelbuam reviewed A Miracle, A
Universe: Settling Accounts With Torturers by Lawrence Weschler, the grandson of
Viennese-Jewish émigré composer and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ernst Toch.
1998: The Times of London included a review of
Israel by Martin Gilbert which like all of his work is historically
accurate while having the flow of a well written novel. If you read no other book about the history
of the Jewish state, this is the one you must read.
1998(26th
of Iyar, 5758): Seventy-two year old Yitzhak Moda’I passed away. Born in Tel
Aviv in 1926, he became an Israeli political leader who served in the Knesset
and who held several cabinet positions including Minister of Justice and
Minister of Economics which is fitting for a man who studied both at the London
School of Economics.
2005: The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Good, The Bad, And Me In My Anecdotage by Eli Wallach and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman, an appealing and inventive novel about Peter van Daan, one of Anne Frank’s companions in the secret annex that imagines what his life might have been like if he'd survived to take on a new identity as a gentile in postwar America.
2006: Haaretz reported that the Dan David
Prizes went to cellist Yo-Yo Ma, four journalist and two medical
researchers. The Dan David Prizes are
distributed annually to people who embody realms of human achievement related
to the past, present and future. They
are endowed by the Dan David Foundation headquartered at Tel Aviv University
2007: Nineteen tombstones were toppled in the Jewish cemetery in Chernigov, an eastern Ukraine city.
2007:
As part of Jewish Heritage Month, the National Archives presents a lecture entitled
“Einstein:
His Life and Universe” during which Walter Isaacson will discuss his latest work, Einstein: His Life and
Universe.
Albert Einstein was the most influential scientist of the 20th century, and
Isaacson’s book is the first full biography of this great icon of our age since
all of his papers have become available. Isaacson looks at Einstein’s science,
personal life, and politics and explains how his mind worked, what he was
really like, and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered. Isaacson,
the CEO of the Aspen Institute,
has been chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine.
2007(5th
of Sivan, 5767): Erev of Shavuot – Confirmation Ceremony at Temple Judah in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Those reaching this milestone are Zach Burstain, son of
Jennifer and Todd Burstain; Nathan Cooper, son of Mary and Bob Cooper; Kelsey
Fisher, daughter of Ann Hagie; Joel Gasway, son of Julie and Scott Gasway;
Cassy Novick, daughter of Denise Novick and Don Novick of blessed memory; Josh Siegel, son of Kris and Ken
Siegel. This is an impressive number for
a “small community” on the banks of the Cedar River . Am Yisroail Chai – The Jewish People Lives!
2007: A rare Torah scroll fragment from the
Book of Exodus dating back to the 7th century that includes the famous
“Song of the Sea” is put on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, The
manuscript, which is a fragment of a Torah scroll from the Book of Exodus
(13:19-16:1), comes from the six-hundred year period from the 3rd through 8th
centuries known as the "silent era," from which almost no Hebrew
manuscripts have survived.
2008:
The JCC Manhattan and The Museum
of Biblical Art in New York presents “The History and Legacy of Greek Jews”
during which Steve Bowman, Professor of Judaic Studies, University of
Cincinnati Professor Bowman looks at the history of Jews in Greece - their
ancient origins, their contribution to Jewish culture, and fate within the
larger Christian community.
2008:
As part of the celebrations of Israel Science Academy Jerusalem
2008:
In Israel's answer to the Woodstock
Festival, nearly half a million people gather on a Galilee mountaintop, where
they pitch tents and engage in 24 hours of feasting, singing and ecstatic
dancing. They are taking part in the annual celebrations
held on the Yahrzeit of second-century sage Rabbi Shimon
bar Yohai at his burial place on Mount Meron, near the northern Israeli city of
Safed. The Yahrzeit coincides with the minor festival of
Lag B’Omer. The celebrations are widely viewed as
a resounding display of Jewish unity. "All shades of the rainbow come.
There are Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Hasidim and knitted kippah-wearers,
religious and secular," said Shlomo Shalvash, head of the Sephardic trust
for the upkeep of the site. What makes bar Yohai such a crowd pleaser is the
fact that he did not merely rule on matters of Jewish law. He is believed to
have left the answers to life, the universe and everything, making him a figure
of fascination for all these people. Bar Yohai is the purported author of the “Zohar,” the central text of Kabbalah.
2008:
The Cedar Rapids Washington
High School
2009(28th
of Iyyar, 5769): Yom
Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day
2009:
Opening of Conference 2009 hosted by The Philadelphia Kehila for Secular Jews
2009(28th
of Iyyar, 5769: Funeral services are held at Temple B’nai Israel in Little
Rock, AR, for Mrs. Joyce Ehrenberg, “dear and loving wife of Mr. Harry L. Ehrenberg, Sr. of blessed memory,
and deeply proud mother of Harry L. Jr., and his sisters Linda and Terry. A
consummate promoter in helping those that were less fortunate, Mrs.
Ehrenberg lived a richly meaningful life.”
2009: IDF forces killed two armed terrorists who
approached a security fence in southern Gaza before dawn today. The
terrorists intended to plant bombs, which were to be detonated as IDF
troops passed through on patrol. A desert patrol identified the
two in southern Gaza, near Kerem Shalom. The patrol commander immediately
crossed the fence and opened fire. The terrorists returned fire. The two
terrorists were subsequently killed. The IDF troops were unharmed. The
terrorists were wearing bulletproof vests. They were heavily armed with
grenades and AK-47 submachine guns. Lying near their bodies were explosive
devices, which the terrorists apparently wanted to plant on a
path nearby.The IDF states that the fact that the terrorists were found a
few feet away from the fence indicates their intentions to plant explosive
devices as close as possible to the IDF troops, in order to harm them while
patrolling. The attempted infiltration was the first reported this
month. In April, an IDF patrol spotted and apprehended a cell of Arabs
that approached the Gaza security fence in southern Gaza. The suspects were
carrying knives in their bags and were subsequently interrogated. It is
forbidden for Arabs to walk near the security fence, and anyone spotted there
is treated as a suspected infiltrator.
2010(9th of Sivan, 5770): At Temple Judah in
Cedar Rapids, IA, Shannon Williams is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2010: “Jacob’s
House” August Schulenburg’s play based on the life of the Biblical character is
scheduled to have its final performance the Access Theater in New York.
2011: To avoid desecration of Shabbat, the
traditional Sephardi bonfire in Meron marking Lag B’Omer will be lit tonight
instead of last night.
2011: The AIPAC Policy Conference is
scheduled to open today in Washington, D.C.
2011; The Jewish community of metropolitan
Washington, DC, is scheduled to celebrate Israel’s birthday at Israel@63.
2011: In
Cincinnati, Ohio, Rabbi David Ellenson, president of HUC-JIR, is scheduled to speak
about the important place of the Jewish seminary in American life and
scholarship in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month and the 100th
anniversary of the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion.
2011: Chabad Lubavitch of Iowa City is
scheduled to hold the grand opening of Iowa City’s Kosher Co-op, the first such
emporium in the Iowa City – Cedar Rapids Corridor.
2011(18th of Iyar, 5771): Lag
B’Omer
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life” by Harold Bloom, “2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America” by Albert Brooks and “The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism” by Deborah Baker which tells the story of “how a Jewish girl from Larchmont became an Islamic polemicist.”
2011: President Obama addressed American Israel Public Affairs Committee this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/world/middleeast/23aipac.html?_r=1&hp
2012: The annual meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan featuring a speech by Arthur Horwitz, President of Renaissance Media and former publisher of the Detroit Jewish News and presentation of the Leonard N. Simons History Award is scheduled to take place this evening at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, MI.
2012: In recognition of the contributions of Jewish Americans to literature, poet Jody Bolz, editor of Poet Lore, America's oldest poetry magazine, is scheduled to read her work in Washington, DC.
2012: Professor Lawrence Rose the Director of the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at The Pennsylvania State University, is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled 'Wagner - Antisemitism and Music' at the Weiner Library in London.
2012: Shulamit Volkov will discuss her new book, Walther Rathenau: The Life of Weimar’s Fallen Statesman in a lecture sponsored by the Center for Jewish History.
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