This Day, June 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

JUNE 20 In Jewish History

840: Louis the Pious, King of the Franks and the Holy Roman Emperor by virtue of being the son of Charlemagne. When it came to dealing with his Jewish subjects, Louis followed in the footsteps of his father. During his reign charters were issued giving “Jews permission ‘live according to their Law.’ They promised protection of body and property and permitted freedom of movement and trade including…the right to hire Christians to work in their homes.  Some Jews were also exempted from the laws of trial by ‘ordeal of fire and water.’”

1214:  University of Oxford received its charter. Jews were not always welcome at Oxford.  The Oxford University Reform Act passed in 1854 allowed Jews to take degrees at Oxford. Today, Oxford offers degrees in both Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

1338: Duke Otto and Duke Albert issued their “Jews’ Decree.”

1391 (17^th of Tammuz): “The Christian population of Toledo rose against the largest Jewish community in Spain.” Four thousand Jews were killed.

1567: Jews were expelled from Brazil by order of Regent Don Henrique

1652: During the reign of Mehemed IV, Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa was appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire.  During Pasa’s time of service, Mehmemed Jews fleeing the Chmielnitzki Uprising were encouraged to settle on the banks of the Danube in Morea, Kavala, Istanbul and Salonica.

1768: The third of the Haidamack uprisings called Koliyivschyna began. During the uprising an estimated 50,000 Ukrainian Jews were murdered by the Cossacks.  “The Haidmamaks were gangs of Cossacks, who along with their peasant allies robbed traveling merchants and plundered the towns and villages in the Ukraine. They saw themselves as heirs to Khmelnitski. The Khmelnitski were the Cossacks who slaughtered Jews and Poles in wholesale lots in the middle of the 17^th century.  Both of these murderous slaughters were part of the drift into degradation that became the lot of increasing numbers of Eastern European Jews.  This drift into degradation brought about numerous responses on the part of the Jews ranging from mysticism and messianicism to the Haskalah and immigration to Western Europe and eventually to the New World.  

1757: In Kameiek (Podolia), the Frankists, calling themselves Zoharists, decided to wage war against the Talmud. They contacted the local bishop, Dembovsky, and convinced him to arrange a disputation. Naturally, the Talmud was condemned and thousands of copies were burned. The Frankists then became practicing Christians. The Frankists were Jews who were followers of Jacob Frank who had proclaimed himself the Messiah.

1808:  Birthdate of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, leading founder of what some call Modern Orthodox Judaism.

1823: In Germany, the government issued a decree “ordaining that Jewish services should be conducted exclusively in the German language and that the reading in Hebrew of sections of the Bible should be followed by their translation into the vernacular.”

1837:  With the death of her uncle, King William IV, Queen Victoria assumes the throne.  Since the British monarch reigns but does not rule, her influence on the progress of Jews of Britain and Europe were primarily tangential. Her treatment of Jews was a mixed bag.  During the Damascus Blood Libel, the Queen put a British ship at the disposal of her friend and neighbor Moses Montefiore.  But in 1869, the Queen blocked Lionel Rothschild elevation to the House of Lords.  However, later she would agree to the elevation of Lionel’s son and would socialize with the French branch of the Rothschild family when she made trips across the channel.  The change was brought about by Jewish financial support for the Suez project and her relationship with Benjamin Disraeli. 

1854: Lieutenant Colonel Albert Goldsmid, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and the son of Benjamin Goldsmid was promoted to the rank of Colonel.

1858: Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal, the German born rabbi who had moved to Chicago “and accepted employment in the banking-house of Greenebaum Brothers” helped to found the Jüdische Reformverein today.

1875: Congregation B'Nai Israel of Galveston voted to become one of the charter members of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

1877: Meyer Freeman who owns a butcher shop at 38 Ludlow Street was awakened by two men –later identified as David Milstein and Isaac Goldstein – who had broken into his bedroom and were trying to steal the contents of a bureau that contained jewelry and box with $35 in cash.  Freeman, clad only in his bed clothes, chased the robbers through the streets and captured Milstein whom he turned over to the policy.  Milstein is a well-known criminal having spent 21 of the last 28 years in jail

1877:  It was reported today that several other Jews who have been guests for several seasons at the Grand Union Hotel besides Joseph Seligman have been refused service at the Saratoga Springs Hotel.  These include Mr. Marcus Goldman, the broker, Mrs. Louis Josephthal, the wholesale manufacturer and Mr. Max Landman, “the well known tobacconist.”  Each of them lives in Manhattan.  Each of them wrote asking for rooms as they have done in the past.  And each was refused without any explanation.  The strangest case of rejection centered around Judge Joseph Koch, the distinguished jurist who had sat on the bench of the Fifth District Court.  Judge Koch met with Mr. Calire, one of the managers of the hotel, at A.T. Stewart’s store in Manhattan.  At that time Mr. Claire assured the Koch that he could have the same accommodations as he had in previous years.  When Koch asked if he could have “a more desirable suite of apartments” Claire said that he would see to it as soon as he arrived at the hotel.  However, Judge Koch has heard nothing more from Mr. Claire and assumes that he is as unwelcome as his coreligionists.

1877: It was reported today that the Jews of New York have had a mixed reaction to Mr. Seligman’s being banned from the Grand Union because he was Jewish.  Some view this as part of a conflict between Judge Hilton and Mr. Seligman which has more to do with business than with religion.  Others say that there is nothing new about such a ban.  Other hotel owners have tried it, suffered financially and rescinded the ban.  Yet others are bothered by the fact that Jews as a group were banned.  They could understand not renting to people who do not pay their bills or who present other problems, but singling out Jews as a group does not make any sense. There seems to be a general consensus that it is best to avoid making this a matter for public demonstrations.

1877: It was reported today that many hotel owners in Boston were surprised to hear about the Judge Hilton’s decision to ban Jews from the Grand Union.  Some of them know Mr. Seligman and hold him in the highest esteem.  From a business point of view, times are so hard that turning away any guests who can afford to stay at their hotels does not make any sense to these owners.  And if there is some grand plan afoot to ban Jews from hotels, they do not want to be a part of it.

1877: “The Position of New York Hotels” published today described the attitude of various hostelries in the Big Apple regarding Jewish guests.  The St. James and the Albemarle follow the same exclusionary policies as those practiced by the Grand Union in Saratoga. The Windsor does not have the slightest possible objection to having Jews as guest finding them “as a class the promptest paying customers.” The Grand Central management thought that the Grand Union had made a “great mistake.” The Grand Union in Manhattan, the Hotel Brunswick, the Rossmore Hotel, the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Sturtevant House all said they had no policy against Jewish guests and several of the hotels reported having some staying there at this very time.

1879_: In New York City, The Jewish Messenger reports that "A new congregation has been started on East 57th Street, called Orach Chaim.” Some of the members of the new congregation were disaffected members of Adas Israel, another congregation located on the same street.

1881: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society took two hundred children on an outing aboard the steam boat Bellevue. The boat stopped at Hart’s Island so the children could enjoy themselves. [These outings were part of a program to get slum children out of the city and into the fresh air of the country.]

1882: An assignment for the benefit of creditors by Abraham Samuels to Lester Cohn was filed in the county clerk’s office today.

1884: It was reported today that a serious outbreak of anti-Semitic violence has broken out in Krivoroge, Russia.

1886: “Clubs Without Number” published today described the variety of New York social clubs that cater to various segments of the city’s population including the Jews some of whom frequent the Harmonie Club on 42^nd Street while a greater number are found at the Hebrew Association at 317 Third Avenue.  Actually Jews can be found at most of the popular clubs except for the Union and Knickerbocker clubs.

1887: “Jews and Gentiles In London” published today provided a snapshot of Jewish economic conditions in the capital of the UK picturing them as being wealthier than the non-Jewish population. For example, the average annual Jewish income is 82 pounds as compared with 35 ponds for the non-Jews.  Jews with an income over 10,000 pounds are 20 times as numerous as the number found in the non-Jewish population. [Editor’s note – This report is totally misleading since it fails to capture the wealth of the gentry which would have reported in the counties and boroughs where there estates were located.]

1888: It was reported today that the executors of the Bernhard Stern’s will have paid out over $25,000 in bequests to variety of Jewish and secular institutions in New York City.  The largest bequest was $5,000 given to the United Hebrew Charities.

1891: Birthdate of Zionist leader and native of Prague, Robert Weltsch, who died in Jerusalem a century later.

1892: Birthdate of Barnett Janner British politician and leader of the Jewish community. He was first elected to the House of Commons at the 1931 general election as a Liberal, for the Whitechapel and St George’s constituency in the East End of London. He lost his seat at the 1935 election. Janner returned to Parliament ten years later, when he as returned at the 1945 general election as Labour MP for Leicester West. When that constituency was abolished for he 1950 election, he was re-elected for the new Leicester North West. He held that seat until he retired from the Commons at the 1970 general election, when his seat was held for Labour by his son Greville. In June 1970, he was made a life peer as Baron Janner, of the City of Leicester. He held many positions in the Jewish community, including President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, 1955-64. He passed away on May 4, 1982.

1893: Philadelphia lawyer Charles Isaiah Hoffman married Fanny Binswanger in the City of Brotherly love. Seven years later he would enter the JTS, graduated and was ordained in 1904 and spent most of the rest of his life as the spiritual leader of Oheb Shalom in Newark, NJ. [Sort of a modern day version of “Rachel, the wife of Akiva.”]

1902: Herzl learns that Turkey accepted the Rouvier Project. Maruice Rouvier was one of those permanent political animals created by the revolving door governments in the days of France’s Third Republic. He was not Jewish.  Depending upon who formed the government Rouvier held different cabinet posts including finance and foreign affairs.  He was Prime Minister twice himself.  At this time, Rouvier was serving as the Minister of Finance.  At the same time, like most French politicians, he was always looking for ways to counter German influence.  The Turks were in need of financial assistance and Rouvier was willing to do what he could if it would keep the Kaiser out of the Mediterranean. 

1905: Birthdate of playwright Lillian Hellman.

1916: Birthdate of Zelda Berkowitz who as Zelda Kaplan became as an inimitable fixture on fashion’s front lines and an inveterate clubgoer in Manhattan. (As reported by Ruth La Ferla)

1917: Birthdate of Franklin Littell, a pioneer in the field of Holocaust scholarship, who was also president of Iowa Wesleyan College and a founding board member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington. His best-known book, The Crucifixion of the Jews, pressed his view that Christianity is essentially Jewish and that Jesus, Paul and Peter would have been executed at Auschwitz. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

1918: United States President Wilson sent Henry Morgenthau and Felix Frankfurter to Egypt to investigate how to best aid Jews in Palestine.

1921: Shortstop Reuben Ewing made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals.

1922: Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Vice President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, is scheduled to sail for Europe today aboard the SS Beregaria.  He is head of a committee appointed by the American Jewish Relief Commission that is visiting Jewish population centers in Austria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Russia in an effort to determine how best to spend th $18,000,000 that has been collected by American Jews for their coreligionists living in Eastern Europe.

1925(28^th of Sivan, 5685):Dr. Josef Bruer, the Austrian physician who worked with Freud to develop the modern field of psychoanalysis passed away in Vienna.

1928: A court in Tel Aviv “imposed short jail terms and sentences of deportation” on three Jews who resisted the police efforts to break up a demonstration protesting the flogging of prisoners in Palestine jails.”  The three were additionally accused of being “Communists.”  The demonstration was part of a larger protest by Jews against the propensity of the British immigration authorities for deporting Jews on the slightest pretext with little or no evidence of serious wrongdoing.

1931: A newspaper in Salonica called the Macedonia ran an article about a resident named Isaac D. Cohen. Cohen was sent as a representative to the meeting of the Maccabiah which was held in Sophia, Bulgaria. However the newspaper stated while away, he also attended a conference held by a revolutionary organization, which had come up with the decision to sue for the independence of Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia. This lie led to attacks on Jews who were said not to be patriotic.

1931: Birthdate of actor Martin Landau.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that according to the new Palestine Emergency Regulations a life sentence could be imposed on any person carrying arms, bombs or incendiary material. Arab attacks on Jewish settlements continued unabated. Police patrols were stoned in Arab villages and three British soldiers were injured in various shooting incidents throughout the country.

1939: In commenting on wave of violence gripping Palestine including yesterday’s bombing in Haifa, Davar wrote, “”Who throws bombs?  Is it the same hand that is sowing blood and ruin in the Arab market in the Jewish suburb?  These are not the ways of the Jewish population in Palestine in their struggle…Ruin and paralysis of economic life will only hurt the Jews in Palestine.  Sacrifices may be necessary for our political struggle but every act paralyzing our life unnecessarily weakens the Jews here more than its sabotages the Palestine Government’s new policy and it only causes failure of Palestine Jewry’s struggle against the policy.” In a separate column, David Ben Gurion condemned the violence saying “The Jews must sacrifice everything for immigration, colonization, self-defense and independence but we must not sully our struggle with despicable acts of madness such as have been recently committed at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.   The murder of innocent Arabs and Jews and stupid sabotage are act that are only helping our most bitter enemies.  Such criminal acts soil our just struggle, undermine the efficiency of our work and play the game of our foes.”

1939: Final broadcast of Song School, a radio show featuring Jewish Jazzman Benny Goodman

1940: On the day when France surrendered to Germany Propper de Callejón was First Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Paris. In order to prevent the German army from plundering the art collection that his wife's family kept at the Chateau de Royaumont, he declared this castle to be his main residence, so it would be treated in the same privileged way as the accommodation of any other diplomat. Among the art works thus saved are a triptych of Van Eyck (one of Adolf Hitler´s favorite painters). In July 1940, , in co-operation with the Portuguese Consul Arístedes de Sousa Menendes, he would issue from the Spanish Consulate in Bordeaux more than thirty thousand transit visas to Jews, so that they could cross Spain to reach Portugal. When Spain's Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer learned that Propper de Callejón was issuing visas without the previous authorization of his Ministry, he had him transferred to the Consulate of Larache in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. Afterwards, he would be posted to Rabat, Zurich Washington, Ottawa and Oslo. Propper de Callejón's father, Max Propper, was a Bohemian Jew, and his mother, Juana Callejón, was a Spanish Catholic; they raised Eduardo and his brothers in the Catholic faith His wife, Hélène Fould-Springer was a socialite and painter. She was from a notable Jewish Austrian-French banking family, though she converted to Catholicism upon their marriage and is a sister of prominent Paris art patron and philanthropist Liliane de Rothschild (Baroness Élie de Rothschild,) 1916—2003). He never gained public recognition for his heroic acts before his death in 1972 in London.

1942: Grace Goodside married cinematographer Jess Paley meaning that she would gain fame as Grace Paley.

1942: Mass killings of Jews by the Nazis began at Auschwitz.

1942: From now until October 9^th, 13,776 Jews would be deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt

1943: Five thousand Jews from Amsterdam are deported to Auschwitz.

1943: The Ternopol (Ukraine) Ghetto is liquidated.

1943: Himmler sent 100 Jews to a concentration camp in Alsace called Natzweiler. They were killed there and their skeletons were sent to the Anatomical Museum in Strasbourg.

1943: Five thousand, five hundred Jews were rounded up in Amsterdam and deported.

1945(9th of Tamuz, 5705): German born author and playwright Bruno Frank passed away.  Frank left Germany after the Reichstag Fire and eventually made his way to the United States.

1945: Aware that “British hostility to the Zionist enterprise was often a mask for anti-Semitism,” Churchill cautioned his colleague Lord Croft to “not be drawn into any campaign that might be represented as anti-Semitism.”

1947: Following his announcement that he was leaving Beth El in Camden for a new position At Beth Abraham in Oakland, CA, Camden Mayor Brunner wrote a letter published in today’s “Voice” expression his admiration for Rabbi Philip Lipis saying “that Camden was privileged to enjoy his presence and leadership for twelve years.”

1947(2nd of Tammuz, 5707): Ben "Bugsy" Siegel was gunned down by fellow mobsters over financial irregularities surrounding the building of the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

1948: During the Israeli War for Independence, the Etzel (Irgun) ship Altelena reached the coast of Tel Aviv carrying 800 new immigrants and weapons. The Etzel claimed they had an agreement that 20% of the arms on board would be used by its members in defending Jerusalem. David Ben Gurion, head of the new state of Israel, saw this as threat to the power of the new government. He believed that there could only be one army and that it had to be under the control of the national government. If the Irgun wanted to fight, then its members had to become part of the army just as the members of the Palmach and the Haganah had done. Ben Gurion refused to accept any compromise on this point. He ordered the ship to be fired upon. The incident almost caused a civil war and was only averted by an impassioned and at times incoherent speech made by Menachem Begin to his followers over the radio that night not to take up arms against fellow Jews. One only has to look at multiplicity of armed groups operating today on the West Bank and Gaza to see what would have happened if Ben Gurion had not reluctantly taken such bold action which was necessary if the new state of Israel was going to be a coherent nation.

Because of the controversy that still revolves around this event I have published a second version

1948: Just over a month after the State of Israel was established and shortly after the first cease fire in the War of Independence, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, gave one of the country's most controversial orders ever - to take the Altalena by force.Prior to the establishment of the state, several armed Jewish militias protected early Jewish settlers and fought against the British and hostile Arab forces. The largest of these groups were the Hagana and the Irgun Zva’I Leumi (Irgun or IZL). The Hagana, led by Ben-Gurion, became the Israeli Defense Forces once the state was declared in May 1948 and the Irgun was under the command of Menahem Begin.In mid-May 1948, during the War of Independence, Ben-Gurion ordered the various militias disbanded and integrated into the IDF in order to create one army under a unified command. While some of the militias willingly sent their fighters and weaponry to the IDF, others were unwilling to relinquish the established paramilitary organizations they had built. Notably, the Irgun, for both ideological and political reasons, was unwilling to put itself under Ben-Gurion’s command.Begin and other Irgun commanders were still attempting to ship significant amounts of weaponry and fresh immigrant fighters into Israel in the last days of the British Mandate. The Irgun organized a large ship carrying weaponry and fighters from France, scheduled to arrive on Israel’s shores in mid-May. Due to logistical and operational factors, however, the departure of the Altalena was delayed.By the time the ship was ready to sail, loaded with nearly 1,000 immigrant fighters and thousands of tons of materiel, the first ceasefire in the War of Independence had already been reached and importing weaponry would have constituted a violation of it. The Jewish state, however, was in need of weaponry and ammunition, so when Begin approached Ben-Gurion to inform him of the shipment, the two attempted to negotiate a deal that would see the ship’s cargo safely unloaded.In order to evade detection by United Nations observers overseeing the ceasefire, the Irgun and the newly anointed leaders of the state and its army decided that the Altalena should be offloaded at Kfar Vitkin, near Netanya.Negotiations between the Irgun and Ben-Gurion were complicated by Begin’s insistence on transferring most of the ship’s cargo to Irgun units operating within the newly established IDF, a condition to which Ben-Gurion could not agree. The new leader of Israel was already wary of having non-state controlled armed forces operating independently of the army and believed that directing the weaponry to IDF units from the Irgun would lead to an “army within an army.”As the ship began its final approach to Kfar Vitkin, IDF forces were ordered to surround the area in order to seize the payload. Following failed negotiations, the government decided to issue an ultimatum. The military commander on scene sent Begin a clear message: “I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order and to requisition the weapons which have reached shore and transfer them from private possession into the possession of the Israel government… You have ten minutes to give me your answer.” Small-scale fighting between the two sides broke out at Kfar Vitkin, but Begin and the Irgun, aware of their numerical and tactical disadvantage, decided to send the Altalena south to Tel Aviv where more fighters could be assembled and the army was not yet situated to intercept the ship. Irgun fighters who had already joined the IDF began defecting from their commands and headed to Tel Aviv to fight for their weaponry. As the two forces descended on Tel Aviv, fighting erupted along the shore and throughout the city, “mainly in the center and the south,” The Palestine Post reported in the aftermath of the clashes. The Israeli navy and artillery pieces on shore fired warning shots at the ship in a last-ditched attempt to force a surrender, but eventually hit the ship, setting it ablaze. Ultimately, over 20 Irgun fighters and more than a handful of IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting between the two Jewish forces. The Altalena was eventually brought out to sea and sunk.Ben-Gurion has been both praised and disdained for his decision to take the Altalena by force. Fearing a civil war and a lack of government legitimacy based on the concept of a monopoly of force, Ben-Gurion ultimately decided that he could not tolerate Begin’s brazen refusal to put himself, his fighters and weaponry under the state’s command. Following the Altalena incident, however, Irgun and other militia forces were integrated into the IDF and the non-democratic challenges to the state’s legitimacy came to an end. Nonetheless, the decision to order Jewish soldiers to act against fellow Jews – who too were fighting for the infant state’s survival – has never been forgiven by some who view it as a betrayal of the very purpose of a Jewish army. Until this day, the Altalena is invoked at times when state security forces are pitted against Jews, albeit not with the deadly consequences of June 1948.

1948(13th of Sivan, 5708): Twenty Jews were killed in a bombing in the Jewish Quarter of Cairo.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that legislation empowered the minister of finance to underwrite up to 50 percent of mortgage loans for the construction of low-cost housing.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Britain had promised to press Egypt to open the Suez Canal for oil tankers bound for the Haifa refineries. Contrary to earlier news, General William Riley, chief UN representative in the Middle East, reported to the UN Security Council on June 13 that Egyptian interference with Israel-bound shipping in the Suez Canal was an "aggressive, hostile action, undertaken in the spirit of blockade and having partial effects of a blockade."

1952: In address to the Commercial and Industrial Club, Schmuel Elyashiv, Israel’s Ambassador in Moscow “said there were prospects of expanding Israel’s trade relations with Russia.  This year Israel shipped oranges and bananas to Russia.”  The Soviets would have bought more if the Israelis had produced a larger crop.

1954:  Birthdate of Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut.

1965(20th of Sivan, 5725): Bernard Baruch passed away.

1965: The New York Times reports on the challenge facing Jack Benny as he faces the first summer in 33 years when he “does not find himself in the midst of hectic preparations for a new season on radio or television.”

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US administration informed Israel that it would receive $200m. in transitional aid, much less than it was expected. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Labor Party symposium "Israeli Arab citizens are entitled to full and equal rights, but with the knowledge that not all the duties of equal citizens are demanded of them, nor can all rights be granted to them as long as the enmity of the surrounding Arab world to Israel persists."

1977: Yitzhak Moda'I began serving as Minster of Energy and Water.

1977: Gideon Patt succeeds Shlomo Rosen as Minister of Housing and Construction

1977: Aharon Abuhatzira succeeds Haim Yosef Zadok as Minister of Religious Services

1977: Meir Amit succeeds Aharon Uzan as Communications Minister.

1977: Yosef Burg succeeds Shlomo Hillel as Interior Minister

1979(25th of Sivan, 5739): Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi passed away.  Born in Yemen in 1908, he made Aliyah in 1929.  He served as an MK, cabinet minister and fifth Speaker of the Knesset

1980(6th of Tammuz, 5740): David Feuerwerker, French born Canadian Rabbi and Historian, passed away.

1982: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in Washington.

1985: In Dublin, the Irish Jewish Museum is opened by the Irish born former President of Israel Dr. Chaim Herzog during his State visit to Ireland.

1989: Birthdate of Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse “an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.”

1990: Actress Ina Balin died at the age of 52 from pulmonary hypertension.

1990: “Rabbi With Tefillin” by Jan Styka goes on sale at Christie’s Auction House. The painting completed in 1892 was the product of a Polish artist.  Can such a painting be described as Jewish Art?  Look at the canvas and you decide.

1993: The first of four scheduled tours sponsored by the American Jewish Congress which include an opportunity to be a bar or bat Mitzvah at the Kotel or the in Masada begins today.

1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed History by William Ryan and Walter Pitman.

2004(1st of Tamuz, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Tamuz

2004: In an article styled “Remembering Anne Frank, now 75,” The Cedar Rapids Gazette notes events around the world intended to celebrate the life and writings of one of the most famous victims of the Shoah.

2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including War, Evil, and the End of History by Bernard-Henri Lévy; translated by Charlotte Mandell.

2006: Haaretz reported that Israel's ambassador to Germany presented medals of honor on Monday to relatives of five members of the first "European Union" - an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews during World War Two. This European Union, which had the same name but nothing to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground, Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a protocol prepared by Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

2007: In Jerusalem “legendary Israeli composer/singer Shlomo Gronich presents his newest compositions of biblical sources on a wide spectrum of themes: justice, righteousness, integrity, man and his identity, love songs & prayers. The performance includes Gronich on piano & shofar, the Jerusalem String Quartet and percussion.”

2007: The Jerusalem Post carried a page one report stating that Shin Bet had foiled a bombing of the synagogue in Modin known as the “pizza shul” or Zichron L’Avraham.

2008: Australian businessman Richard J. Pratt was charged with lying about his knowledge of a price-fixing scandal. 

2008: In Washington, D.C. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, the former president of George Washington University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education at Politics and Prose Bookstore.

2008: The Spertus Museum announced that it was shutting down an exhibition entitled “Imaginary Coordinates” in the wake of an outcry from Chicago –area Jews that it expressed an anti-Israel basis.

2008: In Sarajevo, at The Jewish Film Festival of Croatia, a member of the Jewish community speaks about filming the documentary “Sarayevo Mi Seudad de Oro,” (“Sarajevo My God City”) which tells the story of the Jewish community’s role in helping people escape the last war in Bosnia.

2009: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sarah Maikon, daughter of Renee Maikon and Marc Maikon, and granddaughter of Sandy and Sol Maikon, is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.

2009: G'day Shalom Salaam Israel, presented by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange opens in Israel. As part of the G'day Shalom Salaam Israel event Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will participate in the first Australian Israel Leadership Forum organized by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE). The forum will provide an opportunity for both nations to build stronger ties as well as build important people-to-people links."Joining Gillard at the leadership forum will be a number of her parliamentary colleagues from both sides of the house, including former treasurer Peter Costello, Jewish MP Mark Dreyfus and Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne. They are expected to meet with their Israeli Knesset counterparts. Alongside the high-profile leadership forum, the week-long AICE event is expected to showcase some of Australia's best talent to Israeli audiences. Legendary pianist David Helfgott will perform in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, acclaimed Australian-based chef Guillaume Brahimi will whip up a meal at the King David Hotel and jazz great Paul Grabowsky will perform for the first time in Israel. The week will also see the annual Australian Film Festival in Israel, which made headlines last year when it opened in the besieged southern town of Sderot. AICE is a relatively new organisation that promotes ties, particularly cultural ties, between Australia and Israel. It was launched in 2002 in simultaneous ceremonies: one at Australia's Parliament House in Canberra and the other at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

2010: The Los Angeles Times features a “Sunday Conversation With Daniel Handler” who is perhaps better known for his pen name, Lemony Snicket, and his bestselling volumes of children's books, A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story.

2010: Memorabilia and Memory: Hitler's Hat and other shorts by local filmmaker Jeff Krulik is scheduled to be shown as part of the Jewish Study Center Film Festival in Washington, D.C.

2010: Bowing to worldwide pressure and condemnation, Israel formally announced an eased blockade of Gaza that could significantly expand the flow of goods overland into the impoverished coastal Palestinian enclave, isolated by the Israelis for three years. The White House said it “welcomes the new policy towards Gaza announced by the government of Israel, which responds to the calls of many in the international community.”

2011: Bob Dylan performed at Ramat Gan Stadium tonight.

2011: The Hillel Annual Milwaukee Meeting is scheduled to take place this evening in Wisconsin’s largest city.

2011: The funeral for Morris Pollard, 95, a prominent U.S. researcher on viral diseases who died June 18 of complications from a bladder infection was held today.

2011: Israel has returned nuclear waste from its Sorek nuclear reactor to the U.S., the head of Israel's Nuclear Energy Commission Dr Shaul Horev revealed today.

2012: Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) Employment and Career Services is scheduled to present “Smart is Not Enough! Hidden Key to Career Success” featuring JSSA Life and Career Coach Phyllis Levinson.

2012: Mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital is scheduled to perform Le Poisson Rouge in NYC

2012: In a novel attempt to bring Judaism to the people, Rabbi Dan Ain is scheduled to be available to answering about God or whatever at Tribeca Café in NYC. 

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