This Day, June 22, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

JUNE 22 In Jewish History

217 BCE: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III at the Battle of Raphia. The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was part of the ongoing power struggle between the Seleucids and the Ptolomies for the land mass that included Jerusalem and the land mass of Eretz Israel. Ptolemy's victory proved to be of short-term value.  Antiochus would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE.  This would ensure Seleucid rule over the Jewish population and set the stage for the Revolt of the Maccabees.

168 BCE: The Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured Macedonian King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna ending the Third Macedonian War and further diminishing the role of the Greeks. A year later, Judah Maccabee would start his revolt against the Selucids, another Greek Empire.  In the end, it would be the Romans who supplant these fractured remnants of Alexander’s Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people.  Yes, you can draw a line connecting Pydna, the Maccabees and the destruction of the Temple in 70.

1559: Jewish quarter of Prague was burned and looted.

1689: The Jewish quarter of Prague was destroyed by French troops who shelled the area. In one synagogue, the roof caved in killing the 100 people who had sought refuge there. Their Christian neighbors took in most of the population until new shelters were built.

1843: Birthdate of Mayer Sulzberger, an American judge and communal leader.” A native of Germany, he “went to Philadelphia with his parents in1848, and was educated at the Central High School of Philadelphia, and after graduating he studied law in the office of Moses A. Dropsie. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar, and attained eminence in the practice of his profession. He was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas on the Republican ticket in 1895, and was reelected as a nominee of both parties in 1904, becoming the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2.Sulzberger has throughout his career shown great interest in Jewish affairs. While studying for the bar he taught at the Hebrew Education Society's school.” For a time he served as the Secretary of Board of Maimonides College. “He was closely associated with Isaac Leeser, and assisted that scholar in editing "The Occident," contributing to it a partial translation of Maimonides' "Morch Nebukim." After Leeser's death Sulzberger edited vol. xxvi. of "The Occident." He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, which he served as president;” He was chosen to serve as vice president of  and the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia in 1880 and  has been…chairman of the publication committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America.” He was one of the original trustees of the Baron de Hirsch fund and has taken a great deal of interest in the establishment of agricultural colonies at Woodbine, N. J., and in Connecticut” Sulzberger had “one of the best private libraries in America; it contained a very large number of Hebraica and Judaica, together with many other early Hebrew printed books (including no less than forty-five Incunabula), and many manuscripts.”  He presented these to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, an institution which helped to reorganize. His younger brother, Jacob, is well known in Philadelphia literary circles both “for his verse and for is unusual knowledge of English literature.”

1850: Birthdate of Ignác (Yitzhaq Yehuda) Goldziher, the Hungarian born Jew who was the one of the first Europeans who developed an expertise in Islam and the culture of the Muslim world

1853: An article entitled “Medical News” published today reports on a lecture delivered by Professor Owen to the Royal College of Surgeons in which he said, “For 1800 years the Jewish race has been dispersed into different latitudes and climates and they have preserved themselves most distinct from any intermixture with other races of mankind.”  He went on to say that they though they may have taken on the racial characteristics of those among whom they lived (dark skinned Jews living in Syrian and Lebanon; light skinned blue-eyed Jews in northern Europe) they have still been able to maintain themselves as unique people.

1863: During the Polish uprising, in an attempt to gain the support Rabbis and Jewish religious leaders, The Insurgent National Government issued a proclamation, in which it promised to guarantee the equality of Jews, after gaining independence

1865: The Archbishop of York chaired today’s first meeting of The Palestine Exploration Fund, a society that “has been formed under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen.” The society chose Captain Charles Wilson to go out as the chief director of the explorations in Palestine that are to be made by the new society.  [Wilson gained fame as the author of Ordinance Survey of Jerusalem published in 1886.]

1871(3rd of Tammuz, 5631): Bernard (Yissochar Dov) Illowy, the great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Illowy passed away.  Born at Kolin, Bohemia in 1814, he moved to the United States after the failed revolutions in the Habsburg Empire where he filled pulpits for several Orthodox synagogues in St. Louis, New Orleans and Cincinnati.

1877: According to many of New York’s prominent Jewish merchants A.T. Stewart, the company controlled by Judge Hilton, could lose the business of the Jewish clothing merchants throughout the United States as a result of the Seligman Affair.  These merchants are offended by Hilton’s attempt to defend his actions by differentiating between Hebrews and Jews.  They contend that in the United States there are many variations among Jews just as there are among Christians.  They feel that Hilton has used Seligman as a way of attacking all Jews and they find this unacceptable.  They feel that Hilton is trying to create a clash between Americans and Jews while the real clash is between Hilton’s view of the Jews and the Jewish people.

1877: According to reports published today, Mr. Seligman, nor any other Jewish leader, has plans to call for a public meeting protesting the recent action of Judge Hilton regarding the banning of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel.  Mr. Seligman said that if Christian leaders wish to hold such a meeting they may feel free to so.  Several of them have expressed their negative view of Hilton’s behavior but the consensus appears to have developed to let the matter die down.  Apparently only the Jews are still upset by this as can be seen from the decision by such firms as Fescheimer, Goodkind & Co., the largest clothing store in New York, Fescheimer, Frankel & Co. of Cincinnati and Bierman, Heidelberg & Co of Pittsburg to end all business dealing with Hilton’s A.T. Stewart and Co.

1878: It was reported today that a young Jew named Louis Hood from Newark, NJ had won the De Forest Medal at an oratorical contest conducted at Yale University.  His topic was “The Ancient and Modern Jew.”

1879(1st of Tamuz, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tamuz

1879: The New York Times reviewed “The Lost Ten Tribes and 1882” by Reverend Joseph Wild. According to the Brooklyn minister “Queen Victoria is of ‘David’s Seed’ and the United States fulfills the role of the tribe of Manasseh.” In lampooning these and other such claims the review concludes, “No wonder the Jews are accused of arrogance; they such folly rampant in Christian pulpits that they must feel themselves wise men in comparison.”

1880: Detective Field arrested Ernest Fink, the former Treasurer of the Hebrew Benevolent Society Chebra B’nai Prasko on charges that he had embezzled $600 from the society.  He was arrested at his shoe shop on Catherine Street and confined to the Tombs.

1880: The Conference on Morocco resumed today in Madrid.  The conference is expected to adopt a proposal on religious freedom which will benefit both Christians and Jews living in the North African kingdom. [Editor’s note – the real issues revolved around colonial control and revenue.]

1882: Seventy Russian refugees arrived in New York from London by way of Boston and applied for assistance at the office of the Hebrew Emigrant Society. The group has been given permission to stay at Castle Garden until their permanent quarters are ready.

1882: The six orations given during today’s graduation ceremonies of the University of the City of New York included Charles Harris Gelston Jones speaking on the “Persecution of the Jews in Russia” as one of the anomalies of the 19^th century and Alden A. Freeman on “Benjamin Disraeli.”

1883: It was reported today that several political leaders and office holders will attend the upcoming cornerstone laying ceremony for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn.

1883: A number of Jewish were pillaged during anti-Jewish riots at St. Gall, Switzerland.  After police the police were stoned when they tried to stop the violence, authorizes summoned soldiers to bring things under control

1884: “From Across the Water” published today described how the “barbarity of Hungarian Jew-baiting has been brought to the attention of Londoners” with the arrival of Joseph Scharf, the emaciated sexton of the synagogue at Tisza-Ezler who was forced to flee for his life following accusations that the Jews kidnapped a Christian peasant girl to use in their religious rites.  While the charges were eventually disproved, Scharf’s health was “shattered, his business ruined and his property looted.” “Literally in danger of starvation he fled to London where his co-religionists are raising funds on his behalf.

1886: The Hebrew Technical Institute, under the leadership of its President, James H. Hoffman hosted a reception and exhibition highlighting the accomplishment of its 68 pupils. The visitors, including noted journalist and political leader Carl Schurz, were told that the only limit on the size of the student body is the size of the facility since there are plenty of Jewish students who want to take vocational training courses.

1887(30^th of Sivan, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1898: (19 Sivan 5658): Rabbi Samuel Mohilever passed away. Born in 1824 in Russia, Mohilever was a Talmudic scholar and one of the leading orthodox rabbis of Eastern Europe. A graduate from the famous Voloshin Yeshiva, he was conversant in math, engineering and a number of languages. Mohilever encouraged Baron Edmond de Rothschild to support the resettling of Russian families in Eretz-Israel and was a mediator between the settlers and Rothschild in various disagreements that arose. He was the founder of Mizrachi, a religious Zionist organization. In 1881, he was one of the founders of the Hovevei Zion, Lovers of Zion.

1899: The City College of New York held its commencement exercises at Carnegie Hall. Among those honor students giving “senior orations” were Menahem Eichler, Henry Moskowitz and A.W. Levy.  This, along with a list of graduating seniors with names like Pinchas Israel, Henry Mendelsohn, Leon Schwartz, and Louis Jacob Cohen, attest to the extent to which Jewish youngsters availed themselves of this country’s educational opportunities which were their passport into mainstream America.

1903: Justice Scott is scheduled to deliver an oral opinion in the case of Isidor Wormser, Jr. versus Metropolitan Street Railway Company and Interurban Street Railway Company

1906: Birthdate of movie director Billy Wilder. Some of his hit movies were director Some Like It Hot, Apartment, and Stalag 17.

1909:  Birthdate of producer Michael Todd. In addition to his other accomplishment, Todd was the husband of Elizabeth Taylor. He died in accident at the age of 48.

1911: George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom, succeeding his father, Edward VII. Lord Balfour and his king, George V, are proudly commemorated all over Israel.

1917: In Wilmington, Delaware, Rabbi Samuel Rabinowitz delivered a sermon about thoughts that should be in people's minds during the coming summer months.

1921(16th of Sivan, 5681): “Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr.,” one of the world’s foremost authorities on Semitic languages and a “Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania since 1893 died suddenly today of heart disease at the home of his brother-in-law, F.H. Bachman, in Jenkintown, a suburb” of Philadelphia.  The sixty year old academic had not shown any signs of illness. A native of Warsaw, Jastow graduated from Penn in 1881 and earned a Ph.D. from Leipzig University in 1884.  Besides his work with Semitic languages, Jastrow had written extensively about “religion, education and Near Eastern politics.  He edited the Semitic department of the International Encyclopedia…and was a delegate to the last three European Congresses of Orientalists. Among “his more important works were ‘Religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians,’ ‘The Study of Religion,’ ‘Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions,’ and ‘Zionism and the Future of Palestine.’”

1921: Birthdate of producer/director Joseph Papp.  Born Joseph Papirofsky in Brooklyn, Papp is best known for his Shakespeare in the Park. “Aside from his incredible creative talents which forever revolutionized the Broadway theatre, he immersed himself in doing acts of good deeds especially when the care and welfare of children were concerned. During his trips to Russia he saw first hand the desperate conditions facing the handicapped, orphaned and neglected children in the Ukraine, which numbers in the thousands. It was then that he dedicated himself to do whatever he could to enhance the lives of these children caught in the midst of economic and political turmoil. His untimely passing came before he was able to fulfill his dream. Tzivos Hashem, with Gail Papp's blessing, has vowed to continue Joe's dream. Thanks to the successful Tzivos Hashem sponsored "Joseph Papp Children's Humanitarian Fund" Dinners, thousands of Ukrainian homeless, deprived and starving children are being given a second chance at life.”

1925(30^th of Sivan, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1933: The Jewish world continues to reel from the shock of the murder Hayim Arlosoff, a Zionist leader who was killed just outside of Tel Aviv. The Labor Zionist leaders contended that the killer was Abraham Stavsky, a member or the Revisionists. The victim’s widow who was walking with him on the beach at the time of his murder identified Stavsky. Stavsky was found guilty but his conviction was overturned on appeal because of a lack of corroborating testimony. The facts surrounding the case are murky to this day. But the episode help to further poison the relationship between the Labor Zionists and the Revisionists. Ironically, Stavsky was killed aboard the Altalena in 1948. The issue stills looms large in the memory of the early Zionists. Leah Rabin made reference to this episode when she talked about the causes of her husband’s death in 1995.

1933: The Social Democratic party was officially banned as Hitler consolidated his power.

1933: Birthdate of Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein was Mayor of San Francisco and is now a United States Senator from California.

1936: The Palestine Post reported a seven-hour battle fought near Tulkarm between Arab terrorists who ambushed a convoy and British troops. British infantry and police rounded another Arab gang near Nablus where they lost a sergeant and a private. Arab losses were not known, but might have been considerable.

1939: Birthdate of Ada E. Yonath “an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2009, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize out of nine Israeli Nobel laureates, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences,[citation needed] and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. However, she said herself that there was nothing special about a woman winning the Prize.”

1940: The French Government led by 84 year-old Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany. This would mark the start of one of the most shameful periods in French history.  The fascists at Vichy would not only do the bidding of the Germans when it came to the Jews, they would actually move more quickly than expected in round up after round up of Jewish refugees and native born French Jews.

1940: General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed leader of the so-called “Free French” broadcast an appeal to the French people to continue the fight against the Nazis.  He assured them that the Americans and the British would support them in the effort.  Winston Churchill gave permission for the French brigadier to give the address over the BBC.  At a secular level, there is real irony in this since de Gaulle would become “the cross of Lorraine” that Churchill would have to carry throughout the war.  Several Jews would rally to de Gaulle, the Resistance and the Free French.  As to Frenchmen in general, to put it politely, Drancy and Vichy were exemplars of their true feelings for an extended period of time.

1941: Operation Barbarossa begins. Germany began its surprise attack on the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the two nations had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. Stalin had ignored a myriad of warnings that the attack was coming. For days after the attack, Stalin still refused to believe that Hitler had struck since the Russians had been supplying the Nazis with vital material. This day would see the start of systematic destruction of Jewish towns and communities. German killing squads, the Einsatgruppen would begin to organize local collaborators in Lithuania, Latvia and the Ukrainian states. Thousands of Jews would be killed within the next few days. Within a few weeks millions more of the Jews of the Soviet Union would fall under Nazi rule.

1941: Special mobile killing squads--Einsatzgruppen --each assigned to a particular area of the Occupied Soviet Union began killing Jews on the spot wherever they are found; often with the help of local anti-Semites recruited to help.

1941: Twenty-six year old American author and historian Milton Meltzer married Hilda "Hildy" Balinky

1941(27th of Sivan, 5701): In the Soviet village of Virbalis, Einsatzgruppen machine-gunned all adult Jews and cover the corpses with lime. Local children are seized by the ankles, and their heads are smashed against walls and roads. Many of these children are buried alive.

1942: The Jewish Brigade was formed was formed as part of the British military. The Jewish Brigade fought in Italy and after the war helped many Jewish refugees escape to Palestine, despite the British Blockade. Veterans of the brigade would use their skills in the War For Independence.

1944: The SS closes the concentration camp at Riga-Kaiserwald, Latvia.

1944:  FDR signs the GI Bill of Rights.  Viewed as part of the war effort, this modestly named law was one of the most far-reaching pieces social legislation ever enacted.  It gave a whole group of Americans a chance at homeownership and college education that would not have otherwise occurred.  Among Jews, it sent people as disparate in temperament as Art Buchwald and Henry Kissinger on to the college campus.  Along with the automobile, the G.I. Bill of Rights created suburbia which destroyed many old Jewish neighborhoods and provided new challenges for Jews seeking to maintain their ethnic identity and religious customs in what would become a culture of rootlessness.   

1944: One thousand Jews were transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to work in the factories of Dachau. They were "lucky" if you can call being at Dachau lucky. Ninety-eight percent of the Jews sent to Birkenau were gassed there. One thousand, five hundred pairs of twins were tortured by Dr. Joseph Mengele in during his "medical experiments".

1944: Sir Nicholas George Winton the Englishman “who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport” “was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on probation” today.

1944: Birthdate of Pierre Goldman, (Lyon, June 22, 1944 – September 20, 1979 in Paris) the Lyon native who “was a French left-wing intellectual who was convicted of several robberies.”

1947: Albert Einstein withdraws his support for the Albert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc

1948: Szapsel (Shabtai ) Rotholc, the boxer who had been expelled from the Jewish community for two years because he worked as a member of the Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto, “was reinstated as a member of the Jewish Sports Federation.

1950: A Government spokesman disclosed today that Israel had asked the United Nations to take all necessary steps to insure implementation of the armistice agreement between her and Jordan.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel spent IL50m. during 1950 on housing and work for more than 100,000 immigrants. The UN allocated a yearly sum of $100m. for a plan to resettle the Arab refugees. Mr. Blanford, the newly appointed head of UNRWA, hoped that he would thus be able to resettle some 30,000 Arab refugee families.

 1951: In a statement made to the Sephardic Community of Salisbury in Rhodesia Haham Solomon Gaon said, "The lack of spiritual leadership is unfortunately evident today even in the highest places. A Sephardic institution for the provision of teachers, ministers and rabbinic authorities is one of the most pressing needs of the present age…We, Sephardim, if properly organized, could give a lead to the Jewish world generally."

1952: A small home-made bomb exploded at 1:30 A.M. today on the doorstep of the apartment of Minister of Communications David Z. Pinkas. The bombing was seen as part of protest against restrictions on driving which are to go into effect next week.  Israelis will not be allowed to drive their car for two days of each week.  One of the days that on which one cannot drive is Shabbat.  Opponents of the ban claim that the action has more to with attempts by Orthodox Jews to ban driving on the Sabbath than it does with gasoline conservation.  Pinkas is a leader of the Mizrachi Party and thought to be a leader of those supporting the Shabbat driving ban.

1952: Journalist Ames Keinan and Shaltiel Ben Yair a reserve army officer who has no civilian occupation were arrested today for their alleged role in the bombing of the apartment building housing David Z. Pinkas.

1952: In Israel, Scott George, the United States Vice Consul, said that because of upcoming changes in Israeli laws regarding citizenship, immigrants from the United States arriving in Israel after July 14 would lose their American citizenship unless they “opt out” of receiving Israeli citizenship.

1960: Birthdate of Representative Adam Schiff, Congressman for California’s 29^th District.

1965(22nd of Sivan, 5725): Movie producer David O Selznick passed away. His most famous film was “Gone With the Wind.”

1965: Dr. Milton D. Glick who would eventually serve as the 15th president of the University of Nevada Reno, married Peggy Porter today.

1973: Former U.S. New York Senator Kenneth B. Keating was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the prices of foodstuffs (bread, milk, cooking oil, sugar etc.) would increase by about 30 percent due to another IL150m. subsidy cut.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US State Department had announced that a public expression of thanks by President Gerald Ford to the Palestine Liberation Organization for its assistance in evacuating Americans from Beirut did not represent any change of policy towards this terrorist organization.

1978: Neo-Nazis called off plans to march in the Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois. 

1980: The New York Times featured a review of Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler.

1989(19th of Sivan, 5749): In Jerusalem Professor Menachem Stern, a Hebrew University Scholar and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities was stabbed to death by two teenage Arabs as he walked home.

1992: Gil Stein was announced as the new president of the National Hockey League and formally took the position, succeeding John Ziegler

1994 (3 Tammuz on the Jewish calendar):  The Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, passed away.  Rabbi Schneerson, or simply "The Rebbe" as he was known by his followers and admirers, was the leader of the Lubavitch movement for decades.  He is most famous for the outreach program that he began which reached Jews throughout the world.  Thanks to his effort, it is almost impossible to go any place and not find a Chabad House.  He sent "lamplighters" out into to the world to bring the light of Torah to Jews who were in darkness whether they were in Moscow, Morocco or Little Rock, Arkansas.  One did not have to accept all of tenets of Lubavitch to be welcome.  For more about this remarkable man see the followinghttp://www.chabad.org/article.asp?AID=142232

1996: Pitcher Al Levine made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.

1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Look, Listen, Read” by Claude Levi-Strauss, “Nazi Gold: The Full Story of the Fifty-Year Swiss-Nazi Conspiracy to Steal Billions From Europe's Jews and Holocaust Survivors” by Tom Bower

2001: Daniel Charles Kurtzer left his post as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt. [Yes, an American Jew represented the U.S. in Cairo.] Born in 1949, he earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and served as dean of his alma mater Yeshiva University.  President Clinton had appointed him to the position in Egypt.  President Bush would appoint him as Ambassador to Israel in 2001; a post he would hold until 2005.

2002(12th of Tamuz, 5762): Fred Rochlin, architect, artist, photographer and collector of Western Jewish Americana passed away. This blog cannot do justice to his contributions to Jewish culture.  Pioneer Jews, which he co-authored with his wife was a major attempt to break the stereotype of early American Jewry as an east coast, big city  phenomenon.

2002(12th of Tamuz, 5762): Ann Landers passed away. Esther Pauline Friedman was born in Iowa on July 4, 1918. She began writing an advice column in the 1950’s. Her sister wrote an equally famous column under the name of Dear Abbey.

2002: Actress Embeth Davidtz married entertainment attorney Jason Sloane in a Jewish wedding in Los Angeles.

2003: Jonathan Andrew Kaye won the Buick Classic, a major PGA tournament.

2005: Opening session of Security Israel - The 19^th annual International Homeland Security Exhibition .

2006: The Red Cross humanitarian movement overcame Muslim objections and cleared away the last obstacle to full Israeli membership setting up formal admission after nearly six decades of exclusion, Israel's ambassador to international organizations in Geneva said. The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent approved a resolution that enables Israel's Magen David Adom society to join while retaining its Red Star of David instead of having to adopt the Red Cross or Crescent used by other societies, Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said.

2007: In Jerusalem, the Center Stage Theater presents a matinee performance of Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing," followed by special party after the show.

2008: A new government strategy to redefine ties with the Diaspora designed to be less patronizing and more humble which was developed jointly by Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel and Alan Hoffman, director-general of the Jewish Agency’s Education Department is unveiled.

2008: In New York City, The Yeshiva University Museum presents the 2^nd annual Family Puppet Festival.

2008: In New York City, Logan Joseph Kleinwaksv presents “Searching Online Historical Directories - and - A New Tool for Shoah Research” at the Center for Jewish Studies.

2008: In an election to select France’s next Chief Rabbi three hundred rabbis and communal leaders choose  between the incumbent, Joseph Sitruk, a 63-year-old Sephardic rabbi known for his common touch, and the challenger, Gilles Bernheim, a 56-year-old Ashkenazic philosopher who is the rabbi of Paris’s largest synagogue.

2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics With an 18th-Century Brain” by Jewish linguist George Lakoff.

2008: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Darin Smith’s “More Than It Hurts You” “a polarizing novel in which a black doctor accuses a Jewish mother of child abuse” and “My Five Years in Iraq” by Richard Engel, the Middle East correspondent who when he was interviewing the President was asked by Mr. Bush if he was Jewish; a question which he answered in the affirmative.

2008: The New York Times reported on the downbeat emotional and political attitudes of Israelis as the “truce” with Hamas begins in an article entitled “Israel in the Season of Dread.”

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/weekinreview/index.html?8dpc

2009: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5769 (first day of a two day Rosh Chodesh)

2009: An article entitled “Dead Sea Peril” published today described the growing impact and causes of sinkholes on this unique Middle Eastern body of water.

Eli Raz was peering into a narrow hole in the Dead Sea shore when the earth opened up and swallowed him. Fearing he would never be found alive, he scribbled his will on an old postcard.
 After 14 hours a search party pulled him from the 30-foot-deep hole unhurt, and five years later the 69-year-old geologist is working to save others from a similar fate, leading an effort to map the sinkholes that are spreading on the banks of the fabled saltwater lake. These underground craters can open up in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above and leaving the surrounding area looking like an earthquake zone. The phenomenon, Raz said, stems from a dire water shortage, compounded in recent years by tourism and chemical industries as well as a growing population. “This is the most remarkable evidence of the brutal interference of humans in the Dead Sea,” he said.
The parched moonscape, famous as the site of biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, is the lowest point on Earth and runs more than 60 miles through Israel and the West Bank. Large sections of the coast are fenced off and signposted in Hebrew and English: “danger, open pits” and “sinkhole area ahead.” But it’s too expensive to inspect every place for danger. Just two months ago an Israeli hiker wandered into an area that had no warning signs and was critically injured when he fell into a sinkhole. While such accidents are rare, Raz says there are up to 3,000 open sinkholes along the coast and likely just as many that haven’t burst open yet. The holes, also found on the Jordanian side of the sea, are the result of the Dead Sea having shrunk by a third since the 1960s, when Israel and Jordan built plants to divert water flowing through its main tributary, the Jordan River. The holes form when a subterranean salt layer that once bordered the sea is dissolved by underground fresh water that follows the receding Dead Sea waters.

2009: In the United Kingdom, John Simon Bercow is elected Speaker of the House of Commons making him the first Jew to hold that position.

2010: The Jewish Community Research Council is scheduled to hold its final session of the season by hosting a luncheon meeting with Virginia House Speaker William Howell and Virginia State Senate Chairman of Education & Health Committee Ed Houck.

2011: The Art Show that began on June 13 is scheduled to come a close at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.

2011: The Sixth Street Community Synagogue and John Zorn's Tzadik Records are scheduled to present “Masada Guitars Revisited + Edom,” one of six concerts by some of the best and brightest musicians on New York's Downtown Jewish Music scene.

2011: Today Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren defended the blockade of Gaza as a “matter of life and death” and said that it fully comports with international law, as a flotilla prepares to attempt to reach Gaza. Oren said that Israel is pleased that the Turkish government is opposing the expedition and that Turkish group IHH has withdrawn its participation in the flotilla, which is set to mark the anniversary of the attempt last year to breach the blockade which left nine activists aboard the IHH’s ship dead after a confrontation with the IDF. Oren said that the blockade was necessary to prevent rockets from reaching Gaza and then threatening Israel, and that under the terms of international maritime law, all ships must be prevented from reaching shore under a legal blockade so that no exception could be made for the anticipated flotilla. Of the 11 ships expected to set sail, an American vessel is likely to be the largest one. However, a former US Justice Department official and executive director of AIPAC has written to US Attorney-General Eric Holder urging him to take strong steps to prevent American participation. Sher argued that participants would be breaking US law by giving material support to terrorists and called on Holder to make it clear that “if they still choose to go forward, the department should investigate and take appropriate action.” Oren, who was speaking on a conference call with the newly formed Israel Action Network, a joint effort between the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, noted that the threat of another flotilla is just one of a multitude of regional challenges that Israel faces. On the call, he pushed back against the notion that Israel prefers to see Bashar Assad stay as the leader rather than face a Syria taken over by unknown elements. That notion is “categorically untrue,” he stressed, saying that Israel couldn’t imagine anyone “more devilish” than Assad. Oren also spoke of the danger posed by Iran, pointing out that the technical difficulties their nuclear program suffered last year had been overcome and that the country continues to enrich uranium at a rapid rate.

2011: The number of millionaires in Israel rose in 2010 by more than 20.6 percent to 10,153, according to the latest annual Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report released today. The report found that the gross amount of capital of Israeli millionaires in 2010 came to $ 52 billion, relative to $ 43 billion from the previous year. The climb was in line with the global trend, which rose by 8.3 percent, hitting an all-time high of 10.9 million people in the world who are considered to be millionaires by the report's standards. A millionaire according to Merrill Lynch-Capgemini is one who owns at least one million dollars in liquid funds, excluding their primary residence. The firm considers a multi-millionaire one who owns capital of at least $ 30 million.

2011: Israel Defense Forces history was made today when a woman was officially promoted to the rank of Major General for the first time. Major General Orna Barbivay, 49, replaced Major General Avi Zamir as commander of the IDF's Manpower Branch in an official ceremony today, which was attended by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF chief Benny Gantz, and other senior army officials. During the ceremony, Barbivay said that her appointment is a "clear statement of equal opportunity" in the army. Gantz praised Barbivay, saying she "receives this position thanks to her successful work and professional qualifications and the way she carried out her different positions over the years." He pointed out that Barbivay was not given her ranking "out of charity." Barak called Barbivay's appointment "a very exiting moment for all of Israeli society." "The appointment first of all came from her record as an officer in the IDF," Barak said. He added that he was "certain" of her ability to lead the Manpower Branch. Barbivay, who is married with three children, enlisted in the army in 1981, joining the Adjutant Corps. She served in a variety of posts in the Corps, eventually commanding it, and also served as chief manpower officer in the Ground Corps Command. The rank of major general is the second-highest in the IDF, and is the highest a soldier can reach unless appointed chief-of-staff, who is always the only serving officer with the rank of lieutenant-general.

2011(20^th of Sivan, 5771): Eighty-seven year old screenwriter David Rayfiel whose work included “Three Days of the Condor,” “Out of Africa” and “The Way We Were” passed away.  (As reported by William Grimes)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/movies/david-rayfiel-screenwriter-with-sydney-pollack-dies-at-87.html?_r=1

2012: Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to celebrate “Shabbat Under the Stars” in Springfield, VA.

2012: Cantor Larry Paul and musician Robyn Helzner are scheduled to a lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Historic 6^th & I Syngagogue.

2012: The Go North & Northern Communities of Nefesh B’Nefesh are scheduled to offer a guided tour at Tzippori Park so Olim can see “amazing mosaics, a crusader fortress, an ancient reconstructed synagogue and the first century underground water system.