JUNE 18 In Jewish History
1291:
King Alfonso III of Aragon passed away.
Alfonso was supposed to marry Princess Eleanor of England but he died
before the marriage could take place. Eleanor was the daughter of Edward I, the
King of England who had expelled the Jews from his realm. One can only wonder if the marriage had been
consummated, would the son-in-law have followed the example of the
father-in-law and expelled the Jews from his domain which would have meant Jews
would have been expelled two centuries earlier than it actually happened.
1321
21 Sivan): In response to threats of expulsion from Rome instigated by Sangisa
a sister of Pope John XXII, the Jews instituted a day of fasting a prayer. At a
more practical level the Jews of Rome sent a messenger to Avignon Naples
1492:
A Sicilian version the Edict of Expulsion issued by the Spanish monarchs was
published today in Palermo.
1768:
The Haidamak Massacres (Ukraine
1778:
During the American Revolutionary War, today’s departure of British troops from
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania must have been met with mixed emotions by the Jewish
community. A minority, as represented by
David Franks and his daughter Rebecca were Tories would miss their British
patrons. The majority of the city’s Jews, including Colonel David Salisbury
Franks, the nephew of David Franks, supported the Revolutionary cause and took
heart at the departure of their British occupiers.
1812:
Beginning of the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. This
conflict is referred the Second War For American Independence, since the victory
in the War of 1812 meant that the United States would survive. If England Bunker Hill Monument New Orleans
1815:
Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. According to one account,
fifty-two French Jews lost their lives in the battle. This defeat marked a
return of the reactionaries to power in Europe .
The laws of emancipation that had benefited the Jews of Europe were rolled
back. It would take many decades for the Jews of Europe to win them back. On
the other hand, Nathan Rothschild, head of the London branch if the famous
family bank was, like all Englishman, pleased with the victory of his
country. According to some sources, he
had actually provided the funds for the army of the Iron Duke. There is an anti-Semitic legend that Nathan
manipulated the Stock Exchange and by deception, made a fortune as a result of
the victory.
1836:
Birthdate of Bavarian born French jurist and author Frederick Reitlinger, who
studied Talmud with Abraham Geiger and was named an Officer of the Legion of
Honor.
1843:
With Isaac Lesser serving as the Rabbi, Congregation Mikveh Israel Philadelphia
1852(1st
of Tammuz, 5612): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1877:
The friends of Joseph Seligman held an informal meeting to discuss recent
events at Saratoga Springs, NY. The meeting was chaired by Edward Lauterbach,
Mr. Seligman’s lawyer. Lauterbach provided a summary of the episode in which
Mr. Seligman was informed that the Grand Union Hotel would no longer rent rooms
to Jewish guest. The decision had been
made by the hotel owner, Judge Henry Hilton.
Lauterbach then read a letter that Seligman had written, but not sent,
to Judge Hilton. In the letter, Seligman
described the insult that had been done to the Jewish people and wondered if
Hilton would be sending a circular to Jews telling them not to shop at his
Broadway stores. Those in attendance applauded when Lauterbach finished reading
the letter. Lauterbach said that the
Jews of New York and the United States “could not afford to let the matter
rest.” At a time when laws prohibiting
Jewish involvement in society were being removed in many other countries it
would be wrong to let this happen here.
While there had been some anti-Jewish feeling expressed in the United
States, it had been limited “to ignorant people –to the small vipers…but now
the big snakes have attacked and it is time that” Jews “awaken and defend”
themselves. The attendees debated on how
best to respond. It was agreed that the
letter should be released to the newspapers, if Seligman agreed. It was also agreed that a “mass meeting of
the Jewish citizens” of New York should be held to protest Hilton’s ban. Furthermore, “leading citizens and clergyman
should be invited to attend and express their support for the Jewish population.
1877: Judge Henry Hilton offered a reporter a
series of seemingly contradictory explanations for the refusal of the
management of the Grand Union to rent rooms to Joseph Seligman. At various points in the interview Judge Hilton
said that Seligman was using the episode because he and other Jews were upset
with the widow of the late Alexander Stewart because she had failed to make
contributions to Jewish charities. At
another point, he said that Seligman was not a Hebrew because he had joined the
Reform Movement and was instead a Jew.
Therefore Seligman had no right to complain about discrimination based
on religion. Judge Hilton also said that
it was staying at the Grand Union was very expensive and that only a limited
number of people could afford to do so.
Therefore he had to cater to their desires and it was these wealthy
patrons who had complained about Jews staying at the hotel. Hilton predicted that other fancy hotels
would follow his lead in banning Jews; a ban which he earlier denied
existed.
1881:
It was reported today that 60,000 Jews are expected to immigrate to Spain
following a decision by the Madrid government to allow entrance by Jews
expelled from Russia.
1881:
It was reported that in light of decision by authorities to take a census of
the Jews of Kiev, a large number of them have left the area.
1882(1st
of Tammuz, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1882:
In Tisza- Eszlar, Hungary, during a blood-libel frenzy, a gamekeeper recovers
the body of a girl from the Nyiregyhaza River.
Although the body was probably not the body of the girl for whom the
authorities were looking, they would decide that this corpse was really part of
a Jewish conspiracy and would use it as an excuse to arrest three more Jews
from whom confessions would be obtained by force.
1886:
The Times of London reported today
that Flinders Petrie, the noted English Egyptologist, has discovered the
ancient ruins the Biblical “Tahpanhes” described in Chapter 43 in the Book of
Jeremiah as the site where Jews fleeing the Babylonians found refuge in 586
BCE. The Pharaoh welcomed them and
distributed tracts of land for them to settle and develop. [This is another
example of archeology supporting the stories in the Bible. The Pharaoh’s generosity stands in sharp
contrast to the Egyptians to fight with the Judeans against the Babylonians as
they had promised.]
1891:
Birthdate of Edward “Eddie” Jacobson, American businessman and friend of Harry
Truman who interceded with him to help gain his support for the creation of the
modern state of Israel
1899:
During a six day meeting in Paris
1901(1st
of Tammuz, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1901,
Gertrude Weil became the first North
Carolina Smith College
1904: Birthdate of French composer
Manuel Rosenthal
1911: Sarah Berhnhardt finishes a thirty-five week
theatrical tour of the U.S. Canada
1913:
Birthdate of Sammy Cahn. Born Samuel Cohen, Cahn played both the violin and the
piano. But his fame came as a musical composer. He passed away in 1993, one of
a long of Jews who provided the tunes for Broadway and Hollywood
1914:
Day school for adult Oriental Jews opened on the New York’s East Side.
1917:
During World War I, reports from London state that Zionist activity in Turkey
has been prohibited by the government.
1918:
Birthdate Franco Modigliani, Italian
born American winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 1985.
1919: The publication of Haaretz, a Hebrew daily newspaper,
begins in Jerusalem Palestine
1921: Winston
Churchill “informed his officials at the Colonial Office that he believed it
was impossible for Britain to grant any form of representation to the Arabs
that would give them the power to halt Jewish immigration.”
1923: In Baltimore, a report read at
tonight's session of the Zionist convention by Emanuel Newmann, General
Secretary of the Palestine Foundation states that six million dollars has been
raised In the past two years by Jewish organizations in the United States
devoted to the rebuilding of Palestine, and of this sum $4,250,000, amounting
to 70 per cent, of the total, has been raised by the Palestine Foundation Fund
(Keren Hayesod).
1923:
Checker Cab puts its first taxi on the streets.
Originally a Checker Cab was a taxicab built by the Checker Cab
Company. The Checker Cab Company had
been formed by Morris Markin a Russian Jewish immigrant. Markin was so poor when he arrived in the
United States that he had to borrow the $25 for the bond necessary for those
entering the country from a porter working at Ellis Island. Beginning as a tailor, Markin amassed enough
of a fortune to own his own garment business and to bring the rest of his family
from Russia to Chicago. After starting
the Checker Cab Company, he bought the Yellow Cab Company. He passed away in 1970.
1929:
Jacob Goldman a former student at New York University living in Tel Aviv writes
a letter on this date “telling of demonstrations by young Aras and the
circulation of songs calling Moslems to ‘take up the sword’ against the foreign
ruler and the Jews.’”
1929:
Birthdate of Tibor "Ted" Rubin “a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor
who immigrated to the United States in 1948 and received the Medal of Honor for
his actions in the Korean War by President George W. Bush in 2005.”
1930:
A discharged Arab policeman has been arrested in Jaffa as a suspect in the
attempted murder of Police Captain F.M. Scott of Tel Aviv. “It is believed that the former policeman
swore vengeance against Scott because he had dissmissed him from the force.
1933: Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, the 34 year old Zionist leader
gunned down by two unknown assassins was buried this
afternoon. About 70,000 persons marched in the funeral procession, with
delegations attending from all parts of the country. Beryl Katzenellenson,
editor of Davar, Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Menachem Ussishkin, head
of the Jewish National Fund all delivered eulogies.
1933: Birthdate of Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born American author. During the Holocaust, Kosinski was hidden by
a Polish family using a false Baptismal certificate. After the war, he was reunited with his
parents. He came to the United States in
1957. The Painted Bird and Being
There are two of his most famous efforts.
He passed away in 1991.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that a commission had
been appointed by the government to replace the Haifa's Municipal Council which
since the beginning of the Arab boycott was no longer able to discharge its
duties. The government began to demolish the condemned buildings in the Old
City of Jaffa. The quarter looked like a nightmare with furniture, bedding and
odds and ends being dragged out of condemned houses.
1936: In New York City Sidney and Frances Wimmer gave birth to
Richard Samuel Wimmer who would finally achieve his goal of being a published
author with the appearance of Irish Wine in 1989. (As reported by Dennis
Hevesi)
1936 (28th of Sivan, 5696): “Two more Jews died today as a result
of Arab terrorism…Abraham Benyehuda died from wounds received in a recent
ambush of a bus belonging to the Jewish colony of Ataroth, north of Jerusalem…Joseph
Shefter, proprietor of the Leviathan tannery located on the outskirts of Tel
Aviv, died as a result of an attack this afternoon on a bus which he and nine
of his employees were returning to Tel Aviv.
1938: Winston Churchill wrote to Sir Alexander Maxwell, the
Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office asking him for assistance
in making Vic Oliver’s wish to become a naturalized British subject a
reality. Vic Oliver was an Austrian born
Jewish actor, radio comedian and pianist who had married Churchill’s daughter
Sarah. Churchill had opposed the marriage
at first because Oliver was sixteen years old than his daughter and
twice-divorced. Later, he came to “like
and esteem him greatly.”
1940:
Members of the Etzel command who were imprisoned in the summer 1of
939 are released.
1940: Charles De Gaulle issued L'Appel
du 18 Juin (the Appeal of 18 June) over the BBC radio service in which he
called upon the French to resist the Vichy regime and to fight on against the
Nazis despite the signing of the armistice.
This is considered to the start of the French Resistance. While many Frenchmen heeded his call, a large
number actually supported Vichy and collaborated with the Nazis. The Myth of the Resistance grew in proportion
to Allied successes following Normandy.
1944: Rabbi Philip Lipis, who was serving as a Chaplain in the
United States Navy, spoke at the installation service at Congregation Beth El
in Camden, NJ where Morris LIebman began his fourth term as President of the
Congregation and Mrs. Max PIncus became Sisterhood President. Lipis had taken leave from his position as
the congregation’s rabbi to serve during World War II.
1947: Ben-Gurion published a long memorandum addressed to the
Haganah command. He outlined a
three-fold structure for the organization: an excellent attack force for
special purposes; a driving force in the form of a regular army; and a
territorial defense force. The most
urgent goal: training commanders up through the battalion level; establishing a
high school for commanders to prepare battalion commanders and staff
officers. This was necessary because up
until this time, the Haganah’s platoon commander’s course was the highest level
of training.
1947: John Henry Patterson, who attained the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel in the Essex Yeomanry before retiring passed away today. Many know Patterson as the British officer
portrayed by Val Kilmer in “The Ghost and the Darkness,” a film based on
Patterson’s building of a bridge in Kenya before WW I. Jews remember him as the commander of the
Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which
was popularly known as the Jewish Legion of the British Army. Patterson sacrificed his own career to fight
the anti-Semitism that was so rife among many British officers of that
time. He wrote two books about his
experiences – With the Zionists at Gallipoli and With the Judeans in
Palestine. Patterson’s close relationship with Zionist leaders can be seen
in the fact that he was the Godfather of Benzion Netanyahu’s oldest son, Yonatan
“Yoni” Netanyahu, the hero of Entebbe and the brother of the current Prime
Minister of Israel.
1947: Ben-Gurion appointed
Yaakov Dori as the chief of staff and Yisrael Galili as the new national
command head as part of his plan to revamp the Yishuv’s military forces.
1950: Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett asked Israeli newspaper editors
today to go slow in attacking Eastern bloc Governments and particularly their
representatives. His plea followed protests by diplomatic representatives to
the Government against press attacks.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Negev rejoiced when water spurted several meters high in
the yellow wilderness when Avraham Hartzfeld, the gray-haired patron of the
settlers, turned the tap of the new pipeline and pumping station.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's first
steel-pipe factory was opened south of Acre by the Middle East Tube Co. Ltd.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the new freighter
Eilat called at Haifa with a cargo of 9,000 tons of wheat and 2,000 tons of
machinery.
1952: Eight days after the Israeli government imposed a forced
loan of 10 percent on currency holdings and bank accounts, the deflationary
effect has been so sharp “that Government officials are uncertain whether to be jubilant or worried. Newspapers have experience an unexpected
decline in revenue due to a loss of circulation at time when they had just
negotiated a new labor contract increasing wages of workers. A round trip ticket from Tel Aviv to Paris
has jumped in the past year from 175 Israeli pounds to 500 Israeli pounds.
Shops of all kind are doing less business and nightclubs report that their
earnings on Saturday night (their busiest time) are less now than they were for
an average week night a year ago.
1954:
Pierre Mendes-France became Premier of France. Born in 1907 in Paris Fourth Republic Dien Bien Phu , and negotiated the end to the French
Indo-China War. Several Catholic political leaders attacked him for this and
the attack quickly became anti-Semitic. Mendes-France also began the
negotiations that would lead to independence for the French colonies in North Africa . Mendes-France political signature was a
glass of milk. After the war, some French leaders were concerned that French
people were drinking too much wine and starting to drink at too early an age.
When Mendes-France would appear in public, there invariably was a glass of milk
on the lectern, which he made a point of sipping some time during the
presentation. Mendes-France passed away in 1982.
1956:
Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister. Sharett had held the position since the
creation of the state, even when he was serving as Prime Minister. Meir’s colorful career had already included
clandestine negotiations with the King of Jordan and a stint as the first
Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
Eventually she would rise to the position of Prime Minister.
1959:
A federal court overturned Arkansas state laws that allowed schools faced with
integration to be closed. Harry
Ehrenberg, Sr., of blessed memory, was one of those unsung heroes who literally
risked his as he carried a petition seeking support to keep the Little Rock
schools open despite the race baiting efforts of Governor Faubus to defy school
integration.
1966(30th
of Sivan, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Treasury and
the Histadrut had jointly decided that Value Added Tax would be levied at 8
percent, as of July 1.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that two Israeli
missile boats sailed for the US to take part in the July 4 Bicentennial salute
on the Hudson River.
1984(18th
of Sivan, 5744): Murder of Alan Berg, Denver-based radio talk show host. Berg
was shot by Christian White Supremacists.
1987:
Daniel
Barenboim began 9 days of conducting the
IPO in a series of partially staged operas - ''Don Giovanni,'' ''The Marriage
of Figaro'' and ''Cosi Fan Tutte'' – that included performers from the Paris
Opera.
1992(17th
of Sivan, 5752): Famed Israeli painter, Mordecai Ardon, passed away His works
included an effort from 1944 entitled “Ein Karem.” In English Ein Karem means “Spring of the
Vineyard.” It is located on the
southwest edge of Jerusalem
1996(1st
of Tammuz, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1996(1st
of Tammuz, 5756): Kesari Yisrael passed away.
Born in Yemen in 1933, he came to Palestine at the age of two. After studying at Hebrew University and Tel
Aviv University he became a leader of Histadrut before being elected to the
Knesset and serving as a cabinet minister.
1996:
Limor Livnat succeeds Shulamit Aloni as Minister of Communications
1996:
Benny Begin begins serving as The Science and Technology Minister of Israel
1996:
Eli Suissa succeeds Haim Ramon as Internal Affairs Minister
1996:
Israel Kessar completes his term as Minister of Transport, National
Infrastructure and Road Safety.
1996:
David Levy succeeds Ehud Barak as foreign minister.
1996:
Binyamin Ben-Eliezer completes his term as Minister of Housing and Construction
1996:
Binyamin
Netanyahu succeeds Shimon Sheetrit as Minister of Religious Services
1996:
Gonen Segev completed his service as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1997(13th
of Sivan, 5757): Lev Kopelev passed
away. The Russian born Kopelev was an
idealist and a committed Bolshevik. Over
time, he would become a dissident and ended up having to live out his days in Cologne , Germany
1999:
The Times of London reviewed “Israel and the Bomb” by Avner Cohen.
2000: The
New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Groucho: The Life
and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer,
Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers: Groucho, Chico, Harpo,
Zeppo With Added Gummo by Simon Louvish, The
Essential Groucho: Writings by, for, and About Groucho Marx Edited by Stefan Kanfer, How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, King
David: A Biography by Steven L. McKenzie and The Jewish State: The
Struggle for Israel's Soul by Yoram Hazony
2003(18th
of Sivan, 5763): A Palestinian terrorist killed 19 passengers when he detonated
a bomb on a bus in Jerusalem.
2004:
Bernard J. Wohl, Executive Director of the Goddard Riverside
Community Center Neighborhood Centers Toronto
2006:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Betraying Spinoza
by Rebecca Goldstein and recently released paperback editions of 109 East
Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos by Jennet
Coant, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
by Kai Bird and Martin Sherman and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen
Feldman
2006:
Student groups at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee rallied today calling
for the prosecution of a local man who claims to be a former Waffen-SS officer
and announced last week that he planned to set up a public shrine in his
backyard to commemorate the life of Adolf Hitler.
2006: Ronald S. Lauder purchased the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
by Gustav Klimt for $135 million from Maria Altman.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Adele_Bloch-Bauer_I
2007:
Funeral services were held at Am Shalom, in Glencoe,
Illinois for Shirlee Mages, of blessed memory.
2007:
Newsweek magazine features an article by Robert W. Morgenthau and Frank
Tuerkheimer entitled “From Midway to the Mideast :
How a victory in the Pacific 65 years ago helped defeat Hitler and found Israel Palestine
2007:
In the “Verbatim” section Time magazine
featured the following quote by Rutka Laskier, “'If only I could say, It's
over, you only die once ... but I can't, because despite all these atrocities,
I want to live, and wait for the following day.'” Rutka Laskier has been
described as the Polish Anne Frank. Like Frank, she wrote a Holocaust-era
diary, at the age of 14. Like Frank, Laskier perished during the Holocaust.
Apparently, the Nazis killed her at Auschwitz .
2007:
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz squares off in a friendly dispute with Michael Steinhardt
at the annual dinner of the Aleph Society in New York City
2007:
On the secular calendar, the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Mordecai
Ardon. It happens to fall on the 2nd
of Tammuz which is appropriate since one of his works was called “Tammuz.”
2008:
As the waters recede from the 500 Year Flood of 2008, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that Smulekoff's, one of the
oldest businesses in downtown Cedar Rapids, said it will be opening in
temporary quarters and plans to rebuild its landmark store at 97 Third Ave. SE.
Ann Lipsky, president of Smulekoff's Home Store, told managers that the
119-year-old business will be reopening in the near term at its warehouse, 411
Sixth Ave. SE. The warehouse received a small amount of water in the basement
where no merchandise was stored. Smulekoff's has been in downtown Cedar Rapids Island .
The store moved to the current location of Wells Fargo Bank on Third Avenue SW 97 Third Ave. SE
2008:
UNICEF met with officials of Adalah, a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups to
inform them that the agency would no longer have any relationship with Lev
Leviev, an Orthodox Jewish diamond mogul who has financed construction projects
in the West Bank .
2008:
The Jewish Film Festival of Croatia host a first time one day event in Belgrade
2009:
In Deal New Jersey, Avi Hoffman opens a three night run of "Too
Jewish?", "Too Jewish, Too" and “Still Jewish After All These
Years: A Life in the Theater” at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center.
2009: David Adjmi makes his professional
New York theater debut when his play “Stunning” opens at the Duke on 42nd
Street today. “Stunning” is set in the Syrian-Jewish enclave where Mr. Adjmi
grew up, has been rewritten many times during previews this month. “Stunning” is a three-act play about the
relationship between a Syrian-Jewish couple in present-day Midwood and their
black housekeeper. Lily and Ike Schwecky (Cristin Milioti and Danny
Mastrogiorgio) are married, though Lily is 16, and Ike is much older and
coarser. They have a complicated relationship with Blanche Nesbitt (Charlayne
Woodard), their seemingly overqualified live-in housekeeper. “Stunning” is the
second production of the Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 programming initiative,
which is intended to bring new artists and new audiences to Lincoln Center.
Paige Evans, director of LCT3, said she was struck by the intensity and
ambition of Mr. Adjmi’s voice, and said Lincoln Center hoped to have “an
ongoing relationship” with Mr. Adjmi.
2009: Espousing a dream of harmony that
may stretch credibility among even the most fervent believers in dialogue among
the great religions, clerics in Jerusalem launched a project today aimed at
finding a way to share the city's holiest, and most fought over, site. Even the
Jewish religious scholar promoting it acknowledges it might need divine
intervention before a peaceful remapping of the area where Muslims built the
7th century Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the biblical
Jewish Temple. "We offer this vision for a long and deep discussion, and
of course want to continue with a parallel research from other religions,"
said Yoav Frankel, director of the project promoting a vision of "God's
Holy Mountain" (www.godsholymountain.org). Invitations to Thursday's
launch conference depict a sunlit imagined future for the area Jews call Temple
Mount. Happy Muslims and harp-playing Jews mingle between the Dome of the Rock
and a new Temple, as Christians walk over from the nearby Sepulchre Church,
traditional site of Jesus's resurrection. The project, headed by Jewish members
of the Interfaith Encounter Association (www.interfaith-encounter.org)
encourages all three faiths to re-examine the complex and perhaps foster a new
theological outlook, making room for all to worship there. But Frankel conceded
it may take more than debate of Jewish law, or halacha, to alter centuries of
tradition in favor of a compromise by which Jews would agree to build a temple
nearby, not in the spot traditionally regarded as the correct site -- right
where the Dome has stood since the 7th century. "Regular halachic
discussion will not be powerful enough," Frankel said, referring to the
need for a "holy revelation" to make such a shift possible in Jewish
tradition. Known to Arabs as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and also
respected by Christians and Jews who believe that the Dome covers a rock where
Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son to God, the compound in Jerusalem's Old
City has been the cause of bloodshed, from ancient times to today. It still
lies at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and sovereignty over the holy
sites remains a sticking point in international efforts to draft a final peace
settlement. Not even all members of the interfaith group, which is dedicated to
religious coexistence, favor the new project, which does not address political
issues of whether Israel or Palestinians -- or both, or neither -- should
control the city. Muslim cleric Abdullah Darweesh, who was to speak at the
official project launch on Thursday, said all "holy Christian and Islamic
sites should be under Arab sovereignty." Islam teaches that Mohammad rose
to heaven from the rock under the Dome. Muslim clerics who run the compound
have been wary of Jewish encroachment into the site since Israel captured the
Old City and the rest of Arab East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. Since the Second
Temple was destroyed under Roman rule in AD 70, Jews have prayed at the Western
Wall, part of the ruins. Many Orthodox Jews believe they must not set foot on
the Temple Mount itself for fear of treading on the now unknown site of the
inner sanctum. Some groups, however, call for Israel to seize the site and
rebuild the temple, a step some believe would then herald the return of the
Messiah and a time of world peace.
2010: The Elvis and 50's Rock'n'Roll Concert is scheduled
to take place at midrechov Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem.
2010: Abbie Silber the
lovely and multi-talented daughter of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber provided a
special musical interlude for Shabbat Services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,
IA. http://abbiesilber.com/default.aspx
2010(5th of
Tamuz, 5770): George Brown, who survived the horrors of the Holocaust to become
an eloquent voice sharing his family's tragedy with a new generation, suffered
a heart attack and passed away at the age of 81. “He spent several years
volunteering with the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles to retell his family's
harrowing experience. His parents, two brothers and sister all died in the
Holocaust. As World War II neared its end, Brown's father made him promise to
tell people what had happened. "The story of horror that he told, the
endless grief and pain that never left him for half a second did not prevent
him from seeing good in people and giving hope to others," said Liebe
Geft, Museum of Tolerance director. Brown spoke to schools and religious groups
and traveled to several states, his daughter said. Holocaust survivors
volunteer at the Museum of Tolerance to share their memories, and video
conferencing is used with non-local groups. He was born Gyorgy Braun on Feb.
12, 1929, in Mateszalka, Hungary, the youngest of four children to Moritz and
Matild Braun. He was 15 when Germany
invaded his country in March 1944, and his family was forever changed. That
May, they were given 30 minutes to pack before being sent with other Jews to a
ghetto, where they had to share one bedroom with two other families. In June,
they were shipped to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in
Poland."Auschwitz didn't have sunshine. The sky was full of ashes,"
he told the Wenatchee (Wash.) World in 1995. "There were no birds, no
butterflies. Only death." In his speeches, Brown recounted in chilling
detail what happened to his family. His mother and his sister, Lili, were
separated from the rest of the family. His mother died at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
His sister was killed in Poland. Brown, his father and brothers were sent to a
labor camp in Wolsberg, Poland. After a hospital stay because of frostbite, his
brothers were sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Bela
died in a British bombing raid. Erno was freed but captured by Russians because
soldiers thought he was a German prisoner. He did not survive. In early 1945,
with Russian troops closing in, the labor camp was evacuated. Brown, his father
and the others there were forced to walk miles to reach trains taking them to
the Ebensee concentration camp in Austria. His father started sharing his
meager food with his son, hoping to keep him alive. In March 1945, his father was
sent to the camp's hospital. He died later that month. Brown was freed in May
by American soldiers he called "my angels." After the war, Brown
lived briefly in a camp for displaced people before going to Canada. He was
working in Toronto in 1950 when he met Joan Ellison, who lived in Buffalo, N.Y.
They married in 1951 and settled first in Buffalo, moving to Southern
California in the early 1950s, his daughter said. Brown built a career first in
the clothing industry and later with real estate investments, she said. His
emotional talks about the Holocaust were "a way of honoring his father
each and every time he had the opportunity to speak," Geft said. He also
took part in the museum's Tools for Tolerance program for law enforcement and
criminal justice professionals. Brown wrote about his family in "I
Survived the Nazis Hell." In 2004, he told the Detroit News: "I tell
[students] to be color blind and don't have hate .... Hate is what created the
Holocaust." In addition to his daughter, Brown is survived by his wife,
Joan; his son, Mark; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Services have
been held.”
2011: Naama Shafir, an Israeli point guard and a player on the University of Toledo's
women's basketball team who normally wears a T-shirt under her jersey for
modesty reasons, will not be playing in a European basketball tournament
scheduled to start today because FIBA Europe-- the Munich-based organization
that governs basketball in Europe -- decided to stick with its usual policy:
All players must wear the same uniform.
.
2011: Erika Brooks Adickman is scheduled to host “Troop Beverly Hills: The
Experience” at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2011: A wildfire raging
in the Golan today was under control by late afternoon. The fire erupted this morning near Moshav Had Nes in the
southern Golan Heights. Route 888, which had been closed while workers battled
the blazed, was reopened to traffic and hikers were told they could return to
the area.. Fifteen fire-fighting trucks and two fire-extinguishing planes
arrived on scene Saturday morning to battle the blaze. Route 888 was closed to
traffic, and hikers and visitors in the area were ordered to evacuate
immediately. As an added precaution, several dozen visitors were also asked to
evacuate from the nearby area of the Hexagon Pool.
2011(16th of Sivan, 5771): Morris
Pollard, the 95 year old father of Jonathan Pollard, passed away today. Pollard
was an internationally recognized prostate cancer researcher who was professor
emeritus of biological sciences at Notre Dame University
2011(16th of
Sivan, 5771): Eighty-eight year old Elena Boner, the Soviet dissident and human-rights
campaigner who endured banishment and exile along with her husband, the
dissident nuclear physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, passed away today. Her father
was an Armenia. Her mother, Ruth Bonner
was a Jewess born in Siberia who disappeared into the Gulag in 1938.(As
reported by Alessandra Stanley and Michael Schwirtz)
2012:
The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning is scheduled to have its annual
meeting at Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD.
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled
to appear with Judy Collins at the Metropolitan Museum of Art-PBS Show.
2012: On the Civil Calendar, 20th
anniversary of the death of Michael Ardon.
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