This Day, June 2, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

June 2 In Jewish History

876 BCE (28 Iyar 2884): This is the traditional date of death of Samuel, prophet and priest (born 2832).

455:  The Vandals entered Rome and plundered the city.  Among the treasures they took with them were the spoils of the Second Temple that had been brought to Rome by Titus.

1098: During the First Crusade, the first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city marking one more step on their rode to Jerusalem that would mean more death and destruction for the Jewish people

1453: In Breslau, John of Capistrano led a mock trial of alleged desecrations of the host. The Rabbi of the community hanged himself and urged other Jews to commit suicide. Forty-one Jews were burned, their property confiscated, and all children under seven were forcibly baptized.

1476: Printing of the first edition of Tur Orah Cahim in Mantua, Italy

1485: The Jews of Toledo plan an attack designed to kill the Inquisitors and then lock the city gates. The plan did not come to fruition after it was betrayed. The Jews of the city suffered later the following winter at the hands of the Inquisitors.

1495: In Leiria, Abraham d’Ortas completed the printing of Jacob ben Asher’s Tur Or Hayyim.

1816: Birthdate of Grace Aguilar, the British author whose Portuguese Marrano forbearers found a safe home in 18^th Englsih

1821: Birthdate of Frederick A. Johnson the first Jewish child born in Cincinnati. He was the son of David Israel and Eliza Johnson.

1830: Rabbi Isaac Lesser delivered his first sermon in English at Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia.

1835: Birthdate Pius X, who as Pope granted an audience to Theodore Herzl.  Herzl failed in his attempt to enlist the Pope’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Pope was polite but firm in his rejection.

1840: As the furor over the Damascus Affair increases, French Prime Minister Adolphe Thiers defended the behavior of Benoit Laurent-Francois, Count de Ratti-Merion, the French Consul in Damascus during a debate in the Chamber of Deputies.  Thiers attributed the uproar to the Jews whom he described as being “more powerful in the world than they have pretensions to be.”

1840: Birthdate of Thomas Hardy. The rest of the world the world may remember him as a British author, but for Jews he was a supporter of a homeland in Palestine as can be seen by the fact that in February of 1919, “he signed a declaration of sympathy with the Jews in support of a movement for ‘the reconstitution of Palestine as a National Home for the Jewish People.’”

1857: The body of Isaac Jackson was discovered on a farm near Westfield, MA and Charles Jones was arrested on charges of having murdered him. Jackson was Jewish.  Jones wasn’t.

1864: Moroccan Jews and Jews from Gibraltar residing in Haifa requested a written ruling from the British Consul for permission to pray. "The Turkish authorities here made no objection to our thus assembling for prayer till quite lately; when they declared that we cannot meet together without being possessed of a firman from Constantinople."

1870: “Religious Bigotry in Turkey – Massacre of Jews by Christians” published today described “a horrible massacre of Jews by Christians in the Turkish province of Romania.” On Sunday, May 29, the Christians attacked the Jews living in all of the “principle towns” butchering “without mercy” thousands of Jews without regard to age or sex.

1870: “Mr. Disraeli’s Health”, an article published today, reported that the British Prime Minister’s health had improved the extent that he could visit the Foreign Ministry and dine with two American diplomats.

1870: Based on dispatches received today in Washington, the Jews of Louisville, KY have sent telegrams to their co-religionists in cities throughout the West urging them to contact their Congressmen with a request that they do all they can to prevent further attacks on the Jews of Romania which have been described as a massacre.

1870: As American Jews respond to the worsening conditions of their co-religionists in Romania, in Washington, D.C., Simon Wolf receives the following telegram from M.S. Isaacs, Secretary of the Jewish Board of Delegates of the United States “Ask the President to instruct the Minister at Constantinople to help the Jews of Roumania.”

1870: As American Jews respond to the worsening conditions of their co-religionists in Romania, in Washington, D.C., Simon Wolf receives the following telegram from  Henry Greenbaum, a leading Chicago banker “Please ask my personal friends in Congress to cooperate with you in representations to the President or otherwise, that the persecution and butchery of our brethren in Roumania be stopped.”

1870: A New York Times writer marvels at the fact that those who have most recently escaped from the effects of religious persecution are the most likely to persecute others for their religious beliefs.  The case in point is the persecution of the Jews by the Christians of Roumania, who have so recently been “released from the fear of oppression” by the Moslems. The atrocities are reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition and are a reminder that the “problems of the darkest ages” are still found in the 19^th century.

1877: Samuel Morais Hyneman was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia, PA.  Hyneman played an active role in Jewish communal affairs serving as the President of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Philadelphia and serving on the board of trustees of both the Jewish Theological Seminary and Gratz College.

1878: Eliza Miller and Ralph Cohen were the receptients of this year’s “Betty Bruhl Prizes” where where presented during “a gala event” that was held this evening at Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The event also marked the third anniversary of the distribution of the “Betty Bruhl Prizes.”  Four years ago, Moses Bruhl presented the asylum with $2,500.00 with the stipulation that the interest on the amount was to be presented annually to tow orphans – one boy and one girl – not older than 15 years of age.  The money (which now totals $50 per award) is to be invested with the principle and interest being given to the winner when the leave the asylum. The award is named after Mr. Bruhl’s late wife who “was a parton of the…asylum.” 

1879: The New York Times published a review of "The Historical Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews" translated and critically acclaimed by Michael Heilprin.  The reviewer attributed the content and style of the book to the possibility that Heilprin might be Jewish.  In fact Michael Heilprin was a Jewish supporter of Kossuth who came to the United States after the revolt failed. His father Phineas Mendel Heilprin was a noted Jewish scholar who had also supported Kossuth and had moved to the United States.  The younger Heilprin supported the Union and was opposed to slavery.  He was a Jewish scholar and supporter of Jewish causes.

1879: As a result of Russian mistreatment of Jewish American businessmen, the U.S. House of Representatives requested the President to have all international treaties which impair the rights of American citizens because of religion amended to secure equal rights.

1882: The Hebrew Children’s Sanitarium is appealing to the public to send funds which will be used to finance its annual summer excursions which are scheduled to start later this month.  Donations can be sent to the office of the Jewish Messenger on Grand Street.

1886: Rabbis in Philadelphia met today to discuss the refusal of the principal at Central High School to excuse the Jewish students from having to take final exams scheduled for Shavuot.  Principal Taylor was aware of the conflict when preparing the exam schedule and refused to make an allowance for alternative test dates. The Rabbis agreed to deliver a letter to Taylor requesting that he re-consider his decision. 

1888: It was reported today that Empress of Victoria has spoken out against anti-Semitic agitation and told listeners that she is expressing the views held by Emperor Frederick.  The Emperor’s defense of his Jewish subjects has met with strong outburst by some including the posting of placards in English reading “The Jew Emperor, Frederick Cohen.”

1889: It was reported today that the Semitic Department at Harvard will be offering three new courses for the upcoming academic year including on covering the history of Israel and one covering the history of the Hebrew religion.  The professors teaching the new classes were not Jewish.

1889: It was reported today that Isaac Benseken has hosted a tea party arranged by the American Consul at Tangiers. Two of the ladies at the party were dressed “in the traditional gala dress of the Hebrew women of Morocco…” Refreshments included green tea garnished with sprigs of mint in the Moroccan manner and “Moorish sweetmeats consisting of a thin shell of sugar filled with sweet almost paste…”

1895: French railroad tycoon and philanthropist Baron Moritz de Hirsch meets Theodore Herzl in Paris.  Herzl hopes to convince Hirsch to take the money he had been spending to settle Jews in agricultural communities in places like Argentina and spend it instead on the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel.

1895: “Hands and Mind Drilled” published today traced the history of the Hebrew Technical Institute, a vocational educational school begun over ten years ago to meet the needs of newly arriving Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe who lacked suitable job skills.

1896: The Neue Freie Presse mentions Herzl's Der Judenstaat for the first time.

1897(2nd of Sivan, 5657): Abraham Cohn, “an American Civil War Union Army Sergeant Major and recipient to the highest military decoration for valor in combat — the Medal of Honor — for having distinguished himself at the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia passed away in New York.

1901: Birthdate of producer Michael Todd producer who gained fame for the cinematic system called Todd A-O and for such film hits as Around the World in 80 Days.

1901: Commencement exercises were held today at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum on Amsterdam Avenue.  Prizes consisting of engraved certificates and $50 in cash were awarded to the outstanding boy and girl at the institution.  The prizes were created by the late Moses Bruhl as a way to honor the memory of his wife, Bettie Bruhl.

1903(7th of Sivan, 5663): Second Day of Shavuot

1909: Alfred Deakin became Prime Minister of Australia for the third time. At one time, Deakin had been a political ally of the Jewish Australian politician Isaac Isaacs who he appointed to the position of Attorney General in 1906.

1909: Birthdate of Benzion Netanyahu an Israeli historian and Zionist activist who is also known for being secretary to the father of the Revisionist Zionism movement Ze'ev Jabotinsky as well as the father of Yonatan Netanyahu, former commander of Sayeret Matkal, who was killed in Operation Entebbe and Israeli politician Benjamin Netanyahu

1911: The Sultan of Turkey conferred th Order of Medjidie, Fourth Class, on Isaac Jessua Bey of Salonica. He was the secretary to the Inspector General of the Gendarmerie of the vilayet.

1919: Birthdate of American painter Nat Mayer Shapiro

1920: Birthdate of Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-born German critic.

1921: Birthdate of Sir Sigmund Sternberg, the Hungarian native who came to the UK in 1939 where he went on to become a “philanthropist, businessman and Labour Party donor.”

1922: New Yorker Bernard A. Rosenblatt who is a member of the Zionists Executive left New York to arrange for the underwriting of the first Jewish municipal bond issue in history.

1922:  In Camden, NJ, Congregation Beth-El held Confirmation Services which were led by Cantor Jacob Mickelman.

1926: Birthdate of Dr. Raul Hilberg, the Austrian born American Holocaust scholar.

1932: Ruth Barroway, Miriam Morris, Sidney Kantor, Leona Pinksy, Robert Kaplan and Edward Gallob were confirmed today at Congregation Beth-El in Camden, NJ.

1932(27th of Iyar, 5692): Simcha Gutman a Hebrew poet and novelist who wrote under the pen name Ben Zion passed away at the age of 62

1936: During the Arab Riots, the Irgun defied the Jewish Agency’s call for restraint by killing nine Arabs with an explosion at the Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate.

1936: Forty-three Polish and fourteen Jewish defendants went on trial today in the aftermath of the Przytyk Pogrom.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the Arab Higher Committee denounced the anticipated Royal (Peel) Commission's proposal for the partition of Palestine.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the new Central Railway Station opened in Haifa.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the an Arab who for £10 attempted to smuggle a Baghdadi Jew, Maji Shlomo Jarjana, from Syria to Palestine was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment. Jarjana got a two weeks jail sentence and deportation.

1937: The Palestine Post reported that the in the Polish town of Bransk Jews were beaten and injured, their stalls demolished, windows were smashed in their homes and at the synagogue.

1937: Information published from Venezuela indicated there is an Ashkenazi community of 100 members, most from Romania, and an indigenous Sephardic community between 700 and 800 members, who have "no relations" whatsoever with the Ashkenazim.

1939: The Christian Science Church attacks Jewish refugees as causing their own troubles, a position reportedly taken by many important Protestant journals of the time.

1940: The concentration camp at Neuengamme, Germany, is upgraded to primary-camp status

1941: Second and final day of the Farhud Pogrom during which approximately 200 Jews were murdered in Baghdad and more than 2,000 were injured.  Property damage exceeded 3 million dollars.

1941: French law called for ‘administrative arrest' for all Jews.

1942: Four hundred volunteers from the Jewish Brigade under the command of Major Liiebmann fought at the Battle of Bir-el Harmat in Libya which began today and lasted until June 11.

1942: Three thousand, four hundred Jews from Hurbieszow were sent to Sobibor, where eventually all but 12 were gassed.

1942: Fred Traum’s parents, Elias Israel Traum and Gitel Sara Traum left Vienna by train and reportedly were murdered by the Nazis three to five days later when the train reached Minsk.

1942: Viennese Jews are deported to the Minsk (Byelorussia) Ghetto. One woman, Elsa Speigel, decides to leave her 51/2-month-old son, Jona, behind. The baby will eventually be sent to the camp/ghetto at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, where he will survive the war.

1942: The BBC reports that 700,000 Jews have been exterminated. Its information comes from a report smuggled out of Poland by the Jewish Bund in Warsaw.

1942:  Birthdate of producer Berry Levinson.

1944: Itzhak Gruenbaum, the chairman of the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency, requests the bombing of rail lines that lead to Auschwitz.

1944: The Allies begin a bombing operation (Operation Frantic) in the Balkans, the goal of which is to distract the Germans from upcoming Allied landings in France. Bombing routes overfly the railway lines leading from Hungary to Auschwitz. The operation lasts for four months, during the deportation of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. The railway lines carrying the Jews are never targeted

1944: Birthdate of composer and pianist Marvin Hamlisch.

1947: Bernard M. Baruch, former United States member of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, said today that it would be "sheer suicide and sheer madness if we didn't adopt the compulsory military training plan just recommended by the Advisory Commission on Universal Training."

1947: The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) elected its Chairman, Emil Sandstrom, a Swedish Supreme Court Judge and set sail for Palestine.

1948: Viktor Brack, who was Hitler's supervisor of the installation of gas chambers in Poland, was executed.

1948: An Israeli attack on Egyptian positions at Ashdod marked the turning point in the war between Israel and Egypt.

1948: The Golani and Carmeli brigades attacked Jenin today

1949: The Kingdom of Transjordan was renamed The Kingdome of Jordan.  The kingdom had been named Transjordan because it was across (trans) the Jordan river.  In 1948, Jordan's army crossed the Jordan River and seized the eastern portion of Jerusalem and the territory now called the West Bank.  Since the country was now on both sides of the Jordan River, it was no called Jordan.  This name change proved that the government of Jordan planned to remain permanently on the west bank of the Jordan River and there was no intention to create a Palestinian State.

 1948: Birthdate of Roni Bar-On, the Tel Aviv native who served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF before pursuing a political career that included service as an MK and cabinet minister..

 1949: Birthdate of New York Times Columnist Mark Rich

1950: Plans to build a village in Israel bearing the name of President Truman to be called Kfar Truman were announced at the White House.

1950: Violinist Jascha Heifetz, who is on a concert tour in Israel, said today that he founded Israeli audiences to be “a little too sophisticated but quite wonderful.” In the 12 performances to date, he has enjoyed enthusiastic audience response.

1952: Birthdate of Elan Steinberg, the native of Rishon LeZion, “who brought what he called a new, “American style” assertiveness to the World Jewish Congress as its top executive, winning more than $1 billion from Swiss banks for Holocaust victims and challenging Kurt Waldheim, the former United Nations secretary general, over his Nazi past…” (As reported by Douglas Martin)

1952: Birthdate of Gary Bruce Bettman, the commissioner of the National Hockey League.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that according to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and contrary to persistent rumors, no definite reparation offer had yet been received from Western Germany.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that an Israeli mother, who drowned her sick and handicapped five-year-old child in the sea, received a one year prison sentence. The judge pointed out that there was a waiting list of more than 300 handicapped children waiting for proper treatment.

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that prospective emigrants were ordered to give up their ration books before leaving Israel.

1959: Allen Ginsberg wrote his poem "Lysergic Acid," in San Francisco.

1961(18th of Sivan, 5721):  Famed playwright George S. Kaufman passed away.

1961: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, “accompanied by his Private Secretary, Yitzhak Navon (later President of Israel) and the Israeli Ambassador to London, Aruthur Lourie” meet with Winston Churchill in London.  During their conversation, Ben-Gurion outlines his views on the situation in Iraq, the stability of the Jordanian monarchy and the threat posed by Egypt which now possessed twenty or more MIG-19 air craft which were better than anything the Israelis possessed.

1962: On Shabbat, during his sermon today, Rabbi Bernard J. Bamberger told congregants at Shaaray Tefila in New York, “that the current discussion of medical care for the aged had been confused by warnings of ‘the danger of socialized medicine.’”

1962: Dr. Kurt Klappholz, the Rabbi at Congregation and Talmud Torah Tifereth Israel, an Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn delivered a sermon today in which he was highly critical of the Central Conference of American Rabbis for urging the government of Israel to spare Eichmann’s life four hours before he was to be hung.  The Klappholz family was wiped out by the Nazis.

1965: The United Synagogue which was established for charitable purposes by the Jewish United Synagogues Act of 1870 was formally registered as a charity today in the United Kingdom.

1973: Birthdate of David Bezmozgis, Latvian born Canadian author

1974: Abba Eban completes his service Foreign Minister.

 1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that the US and Israel fundamentally disagreed over the Arab willingness to live in peace with a secure Israel. US officials believed that Arabs were ready to accept Israel within the pre-1967 borders, but Israeli leaders doubted Arab moderation.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Kennan Moss, a new immigrant from South Africa, was held for allegedly crossing into Jordan where he betrayed important Israeli security secrets.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Shippers’ Council sued the Marine Officers Union for losses caused by the recent, prolonged marine strike.

1979(7th of Sivan, 5739): Second Day of Shavuot

1982: Yad Vashem recognized Jan Karski as Righteous Among the Nations. A tree bearing a memorial plaque in his name was planted at Yad Vashem's Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem

1988: The New York Review of Books publishes the letter signed from Natan Zach and Nissim Calderon in which they resign as members of the advisory committee of the International Poetry Festival due to take place in Israel as part of the country’s 40^th anniversary celebration.

1989: Israeli journalist Eric Silver wrote an article in the London Jewish Chronicle describing life in Jerusalem for Arabs and Jews; a life marred by violence and suspicion.  Responding to Arab claims that “Jews are afraid’ Silver writes, “The Jews say it is not so much fear as prudence. Why risk a knife in the back, a rock through the windscreen? Who needs it?”

1991: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Chutzpah by Alan Dershowitz.

1996(15th of Sivan, 5756): Amos Tversky, Israeli psychologist passed away.

2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Sunday Jews': Proudly Half and Half by Emily Barton and Firehouse by David Halberstam.

2003: The National Foundation for Jewish Culture, the leading advocate for Jewish cultural creativity and preservation in America, hosts a gala ceremony at the Plaza Hotel in New York where it presents today the honorees for the fourteenth annual Jewish Cultural Achievement Awards. The event is chaired by Morris W. Offit and Merryl H. Tisch, and hosted by Tony Award-winning actor Ron Leibman. The awards seek to recognize artists or cultural institutions who demonstrate a significant body of work or consistent achievement, excellence on the highest standards of the discipline as well as significant contributions to Jewish life and culture in America. This year, the awards are distributed in five categories: Patron of the Arts, Media Arts, Performing Arts, Literary Arts and Visual Arts.  The honorees include:- Lynn Korda Kroll, philanthropist and chairman of the board of the NFJC (Patron of the Arts); David Isay, radio producer (Media Arts); Leonard Nimoy, actor, author and photographer (Performing Arts); Adrienne Rich, author, poet and educator (Literary Arts) and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, conceptual and installation artist (Visual Arts).

2005:  The San Diego Jewish Times, published the following article by Donald H. Harrison entitled “Yossi Harel tells Exodus Story From the Commander's Perspective.”

I was surprised after Yossi Harel finished speaking that the 40-50 people invited by the Tel Aviv Foundation to hear him May 15 at Reina and David Shteremberg’s home in La Jolla didn’t jump to their feet as one to give him a standing ovation. Harel’s stirring story is the kind that makes your heart swell with gratitude that God made you a Jew. Perhaps the more restrained response was because Harel, today an octogenarian, seems so shy, and so modest about himself that people didn’t want to embarrass him by their effusions. The simplicity of the man—measured against his deeds—reminded me of the time I toured the historic home of Paula and David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv. To pass between their kitchen table and the cabinets, one practically had to turn sideways.  Such an unassuming home for someone as important to the Jewish people as Ben Gurion!  But he was not a man of large possessions, rather he was a man of big deeds.  So too might it be said about Harel. Harel was a youngster in the pre-Israel Independence Haganah underground forces when he was directed to study coastal navigation—study that led to him being named the post World War II commander of the effort to smuggle immigrants past the British blockade and into Palestine. Most people of my generation know his story very well; as it was fictionalized in the movie Exodus starring Paul Newman. The real Exodus was among the ships under Harel’s command. The captain of that ship, Ike Arianne, coincidentally is coming to San Diego to speak June 5 to the Alpine Jewish Connection and June 8 to Congregation Beth Israel about his experiences.  In describing the journey of the Exodus and other immigrant ships, Harel emphasized three major points: the awesome sense of responsibility he felt trying to ferry people from the camps of Europe, especially for the youth who had survived the Holocaust, and the dangers that the clandestine ships faced along the way. Harel remembers the children the most vividly.  On one ship, he remembers a boy who used to dig tunnels from a nazi-guarded ghetto to the city outside.  His father wanted him to sneak his sister out, but the sister wouldn’t leave the parents.  So the boy’s father told the boy to leave the ghetto on his own, and not to come back.  The father knew the nazis eventually would take them all away.  The boy did as he was told, later telling Harel “I never again saw my father, my mother, my sister; they went to heaven through the chimneys of Auschwitz.” To his La Jolla listeners, Harel reflected; “You listen to this story and you begin to understand what is the command you got.” On that particular ship, there were 4,000 passengers, and “everyone had an equivalent story.”  It gave rise to the determination that while the British might be successful in stopping some ships from disembarking its passengers in Palestine, it couldn’t stop all of them. At one of the Displaced Persons camp from which Exodus passengers were chosen, he remembered a girl who held a little boy’s hand tight.  Was she the older sister, he wondered?  No, he learned from the camp’s Haganah commander. She had been sent by her Jewish parents to a monastery where she posed as a Catholic.  The little boy came later, but was too young to understand what was required of him.  At night, he cried in Yiddish for his mother—dangerous because the Gestapo would yank such children from the monastery and execute them.  The girl hushed him, taught him how to make the sign of the cross and other prayers, and remained his protector to that very day. The immigrant ships navigated waters that under normal circumstances were treacherous; let alone when the ships sat deep in the water because they were overloaded with passengers. They were short on food, fuel and water, often having to cut rations as they neared their destination. On one ship, a Greek captain and senior crew member began making the sign of the cross on their chests as they looked at the rocks of Peloponese.  “When you see the captain and the chief do that, you know something is wrong,” Harel recalled, his understatement prompting laughter from his La Jolla listeners. The strong waves were driving the 50-year-old ship toward the rocks, and the heavy-in-the-water vessel had insufficient power to counteract their force.  Six miles from the rocks, than five miles, then four miles… “I could see that the ship was going to wreck,” he said.  “We didn’t have a single lifeboat, what can we do?  So you sit on the bridge, and you watch, and all of a sudden you see the waves parallel to the coast beginning to change direction.  The winds changed!  Slowly we passed by maybe 200-300 yards offshore.  We had 4,000 people aboard.  Maybe the supplication of the captain helped!” On another occasion, a ship had to be navigated through the Bosporus—but to get to the straits, it needed to first sail through waters that the Russians had mined during World War II.  A Russian pilot refused to sail at night, so a Haganah member was assigned to read the charts and get the ship through.  “It was the longest night of my life,” said Harel.
“Overall,” Harel said, “we brought 100,000 people but this was the bloodiest war we ever had.  In the War for Independence, we had 600,000 Jews, and we lost 6,000 – one percent.”  Running the blockade, he said, “we lost over 3,000 people drowned in the Black Sea—three percent…
“With all these casualties, they kept coming, they didn’t stop,” he marveled. “A nation destroyed was coming back to life.”

2006(6th of Sivan, 5766): First day of Shavuot

2006(6th of Sivan, 5766): Sol W. Cantor, an early proponent of discount retailing featuring warehouse style stores passed away at the age of 95.  He was a major philanthropist who supported the UJA, ADL and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

2007: In Cedar Rapids, Melanie Abzug becomes a Bat Mitzvah at Temple Judah.

2007: The Cedar Rapids Gazette features an article entitled “Mitzvahs Swell in Summer” by Molly Rossiter describing the Bar and Bat Mitzvah Ceremonies and the way they are practiced at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids and Agudas Achim in Iowa City.

2007(16th of Sivan, 5767): Martin Meyerson, former president of the University of Pennsylvania who briefly led the University of California at Berkley during the tumultuous 1960’s passed away at the age of 84. “He was the first Jewish head of a major research university, and he and John Kemeny of Dartmouth College were the first Jewish presidents in the Ivy League. A reporter once called Mr. Meyerson ‘the Jackie Robinson of Jewish academia.’”

2008: AIPAC Policy Conference opens in Washington, D.C.

2008 ((28th of Iyar, 5768): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day.  This marks the celebration of the 41^st anniversary of the re-establishment of Jewish control over the entire “City of David.”

2008: At the Spertus in Chicago, the fourth and final session of “A Short History of Anti-Semitism.” Taught by historian Dr. Dean Bell, the course covers anti-Judaism in the classical world, the Crusades and expulsions in the Middle Ages, tolerance and restrictions in the early modern period, and racial anti-Semitism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Dean Bell is Dean and Chief Academic Officer at Spertus. He earned his BA at the University of Chicago and MA and PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at Berkeley, DePaul University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Hebrew Theological College.

2008: Brian “Horwitz hit his first major league home run on June 2, 2008, off New York Mets starting pitcher Óliver Pérez.”

2008: In an article entitled “Holocaust survivors passing memories to young people,” The Chicago Tribune describes the “Generation to Generation” program sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie which is designed to enable Holocaust survivors to tell their story with a young recipient to ensure that the personal memories are not lost.

 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-holocaust-survivorsjun02,0,11987.story

2009: The National Capital Mikvah offered a class on "The Fourth Trimester: Childbirth and Beyond." During an interactive lecture Rebbetzin Sharon Freundel led a discussion on childbirth and post-childbirth issues for Orthodox women including niddah after childbirth and when to return to the mikvah, how to schedule a brit for both term and pre-term boys, and other laws and customs.

2009(10th of Sivan, 5769): A gunman killed one person, seriously wounded a second and said he tried to hit a third in an apparent shooting spree in central Jerusalem early this morning, police said. Yoel Almog Dazhinishvilli shot and killed Amjad Abu Hadar, 33, and seriously wounded a Jewish yeshiva student who passed by moments later. Police say Danishvilli also tried to wound a third man, but failed. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators thought Dazhinishvilli had psychological problems and did not think his attacks had a political motivation. Rosenfeld said he did not know if Dazhinishvilli had a history of psychological problems. Both men were shot at close range. Danishvilli, 48, had a permit to carry the weapon for his job as a security guard. He was arrested shortly after a man was found with bullet wounds to the chest on Hanevi'im Street in central Jerusalem at around 3 A.M. Rosenfeld said the gunman told police he had been meditating in the square at around 3:30 A.M. when the Arab man approached him. The gunman told police that he had opened fire when he felt threatened, and had shot the second man he asked him for a cigarette.

2009: A rising and falling siren sounded this morning at 11 A.M. for a minute and a half as part of this year's Home Front Command national exercise, with all citizens encouraged to practice entering their protected rooms. The exercise was meant to raise the public's preparedness for possible missile attacks on the country. The drill, named Turning Point 3, was run by the Home Front Command and the National Emergency Authority. It was the largest ever emergency exercise the nation has undertaken. Today's siren and secure room drill tested the national system of 2,300 sirens. In addition to the Home Front Command's request for all citizens to enter their secure rooms for 10 minutes, all educational institutions also participated in the drill. All students were instructed to enter their schools' designated secure rooms, shelters or other protected spaces, and afterward the students were shown a special broadcast prepared by the command specifically for them. In addition, all Israel Defense Forces soldiers practiced the protected space drill, and all workplaces were requested to prepare protected areas for all employees to participate in the drill, if possible. Israelis were asked to prepare a secure room, shelter or other protected space in advance of the drill. Essential services continued to function despite the exercise. The Home Front Command's instructions stated, "If there is an unreasonable disruption to your routine, you may continue with your regular activity. In any case, the location of the protected space must be known and clearly marked." Vehicular traffic, including public transportation and private cars, continued as usual even during the sounding of the siren. Today's drill is only one part of the national exercise, which started Sunday and will continue through Thursday. During the first two days government offices, rescue services and emergency authorities were primarily tested. Tuesday, local authorities are joining the exercise. In particular, many municipalities in the center of the country will practice putting thousands of emergency volunteers to work in their neighborhoods, and a number of schools will practice hosting those who would need to be evacuated from their homes. The Home Front's rescue battalions will also take part in the exercise, practicing rescuing victims from a building that was demolished especially for the event. In Eilat, emergency forces will simulate a mass disaster caused by a chemical weapons attack on a school. Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, who is responsible for the exercise, said Monday, "Every citizen in Israel should know that in every place in the country, at any time, an emergency can happen."

2010: The YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture entitled “Empire of Charity: American Jews and the Rebuilding of Polish Lithuania, 1919-1939” which “focuses on the role Jewish émigrés and their philanthropy played in reshaping political, social, and economic life in Brisk and Vilna, the two historic intellectual centers of Lithuanian Jewry.”

2010: In an article published today entitled “A Viennese District Is Reborn” Kimberly Bradley described the rebirth of the Karmeliterviertel, or Carmelite Quarter as a center for Jewish culture. “Over the last decade or so the area has become one of the few places in the world outside of Brooklyn and Tel Aviv where bohemians stroll alongside groups of Orthodox Jews — the former buying chutney from Slow Food Vienna’s booth at the market, the latter munching on matzo and hummus from Kosherland.”

2011: The Masada Opera Festival is scheduled to “kick off with a celebratory opera evening featuring works by Verdi, Puccini and Rossini performed by Svetla Vasileva and the orchestra of Arena di Verona”.

2011: The 92^nd Street Y is scheduled to present “Israeli Wines: Talk and Tasting”  a program offering a virtual tour of several vineyards as well as a look at the unique Israeli wine-making process facilitated by Udi Kadim, CEO of Yarden, one of the nation's leading importers of quality wines.

2011:  Israel has deployed an Iron Dome rocket interceptor outside Sderot, a Gaza border town that has borne the brunt of Palestinian shelling attacks, posing a new test for the fledgling system underwritten by Washington. Rolled out in March in an accelerated production schedule, Iron Dome won plaudits from US National Security Adviser Tom Donilon for downing eight out of nine Katyusha-style rockets fired at two southern Israeli cities from Gaza in one day. The movement this week of an Iron Dome unit to Sderot, within four kilometres (two miles) of the Gaza Strip, signaled readiness to deal with short-range rocket and mortar barrages in the face of skepticism from some independent experts about its capabilities. "Iron Dome has passed field trials for threats with ranges of between four kilometres to 40 kilometres, so this deployment tests the lower-most end of that spectrum," said Uzi Rubin, a missile designer who consults for Israel's Defense Ministry. Noting the recent ebbing in violence along the Gaza frontier, Rubin said: "Let's hope action by Iron Dome is not required. But as a rule, Israel does not bring systems that are not operational into a war zone." Disclosing the deployment today a military source said it was part of a "rotation" of Israel's two Iron Domes while more of the $50 million batteries are prepared. Israel wants between 10 and 15 units to defend its Palestinian and Lebanese fronts. The United States said last week it planned to help Israel buy four new Iron Domes after budgeting $203.8 million in congressional funding assistance for the system in fiscal 2011. Seeing Iron Dome sent first in March and April to Beersheba and Ashkelon, residents of Sderot had accused the government of neglecting their defenses in favor of the two industrial cities whose inland locations were harder to hit from Gaza.

2011: Five people were arrested this afternoon in connection with an incident earlier in the day, in which a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Binyamin Police commander's car, setting it ablaze. Also, this afternoon, Border Police and Civil Administration authorities demolished the Ga'on Yarden settlement outpost in the Binyamin region of the West Bank, in which several buildings were illegally built. It was the second demolition carried out in one day.

2011: “Footnote” is scheduled to open throughout Israel today.

2011: It was announced today that Jill “that Abramson would become the executive editor of the Times in September 2011…”

2012: In Atlanta, The Temple is scheduled to sponsor a concert featuring The Return which will be both a fundraiser and celebration of the birthday of Rabbi Alvin Sugarman

2012: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Jessica Heeren is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah

2012: Seven historic synagogues in Krakow that are closed for most of the year are scheduled to be open tonight as part of the second annual 7@nite-Synagogues By Night, an evening of exhibitions, music concerts and fashion shows by young artists from Poland and around the world. The free event is sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JCC Krakow and the Krakow Jewish community. (As reported by the JTA)

 Copyright; June, 2012; Mitchell A. Levin  melech3@mchsi.com