JUNE 26 In Jewish History
363:
Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire.
General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield.
According to various sources, Julian was a true Roman pagan who sought to roll
back the inroads that Christianity had made among the ruling classes. He passed an edict of toleration. In the year
of his death, he ordered the Temple to be rebuilt on its historic location in
Jerusalem. The plan died with him and
the exile continued.
1409:
The Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is
crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in
Rome and Pope Benedict XIII in Avignon. While these various claimants to Papal
power were fighting amongst themeslves, they had time to bedevil the Jews. In 1409, Pope Alexander V ordered the
Inquisitor of Avignon, Dauphiné, Provence and Comtat Venaissin to proceed against
several categories of persons "including Jews who practiced magic,
invokers of demons, and augurs" Benedict initiated the year-long Disputation
of Tortosa in 1413, which became the most prominent Christian-Jewish
disputation of the Middle Ages. Benedict was well known for his oppressive laws
against the Jews
1523: The first printed edition of the Sefer ha-Chinuch (ספר
החינוך) appeared. The printing of this comparatively obscure volume within
seven decades of the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press demonstrates how
quickly “the people of the book” took to the printing of books. Sefer ha-Chinuch was not the first book to be
printed in Hebrew. That honor probably
goes to Tractate Berakhot of the Babylonian Talmud which was printed by Joshua
Solomon Soncino in 1483. .
According to the Hillel Website, "Sefer HaChinuch is a
unique work in many ways. It was published anonymously and scholars throughout
the ages have not succeeded in unearthing the humble author. The book dates to
13th century Spain
1541
(23 Sivan 5301): Rabbi Jacob Pollack passed away. Born in Poland Germany Germany Cracow Lublin
1629:
Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was imprisoned. Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was
born in 1579. He was the author of Tossafoth Yom Tov,a major
commentary on the Mishna. While he was serving as a Rabbi in Prague Vienna
1775(28th
of Sivan, 5535): Aryeh
Löb ben Mordecai Ha-Levi Epstein (Ba'al ha-Pardes)passed away. He was a Polish
rabbi born in Grodno in 1708. At first he refused to become a rabbi, preferring
to devote himself entirely to study, but in 1739 he was forced by poverty to
accept the rabbinate of Brestovech, Lithuania, and in 1745 he became rabbi of
Königsberg, where he remained until his death. He corresponded with Elijah,
Gaon of Vilna, and with Jonathan Eybeschütz, with whom he sided in the quarrel
about amulets (see Emden-Eybeschütz Controversy). He is the author of Or
ha-Shanim, on the 613 commandments (Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1754), Halakah Aḥaronah
and Ḳunṭres ha-Ra'yot (ib. 1754; Königsberg, 1759), Sefer ha-Pardes, in three
parts: (1) on the Shema and the observance of Sabbath, (2) sermons, (3) funeral
orations (ib. 1759). Several other cabalistic and halakic works from his pen
are mentioned in his own works or by his biographer. A prayer which he composed
on the occasion of the dedication of a new synagogue in Königsberg (ib. 1756)
is found in the Bodleian Library. Annotations by him and by his son Abraham
Meïr Epstein are published in some of the later editions of the Babylonian
Talmud. He is called "Levin Marcus" in Solowicz's Gesch. der Juden in
Königsberg, Posen, 1857.
1819:
“Emma di Resburgo,” an opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, was performed for
the first time in Venice.
1821:
Birthdate of Adolf Jellinek an Austrian born scholar who served as the rabbi of
The Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna.
1857:
The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London. The Victoria
Cross is the highest military award for valor granted within the British
military. It is the English version of
the Congressional Medal of Honor. Jewish
recipients include Frank Alexander de Pass who
received the award posthumously for requesting comrades trapped in No Man’s
Land on the Western Front in 1914 during World War I; Captain Robert Gee who earned it for heroism
on the Western Front in 1917; Corporal John Patrick Kenneally who it for
heroism in Tunisia in 1943; Corporal Issy Smith, an Austrialian soldier who
earned it during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915; Private Jack White who
earned it in 1917 while saving the lives on fellow soldiers during fighting in
Mesopotamia.
1865:
Birthdate of Bernard Berenson, described by The
New York Times as "an American art critic." In fact,
he had been born in Lithuania in a small village known as Butrimants in
Yiddish. His father’s name was Alter Valvrojenski, his mother’s Eudice
(Michliszanski). Berenson given name was Bernhard. As he sought the
safety of assimilation after coming to America
1870:
The wedding ceremony joining Miss Elizabeth Abraham of Washington, DC and Mr.
Solomon Caro of New York in the bonds of holy matrimony began this afternoon at
a synagogue on 18th street in the Nation’s Capitol but it did not
end there. The ceremony began with the
entrance of the bridal party followed by a preliminary service and discourse by
Rabbi Jacob S. Jacobson on the subject of marriage. But a commotion broke out when the Rabbi
began to perform the ceremony. At that
point, the groom’s father, Rabbi Caro of New York, began a heated discussion in
Hebrew with his son. At first people
thought he was objecting to the marriage.
Actually, he was objecting to the lack of a chupah. The synagogue had recently become a Reform
Congregation and had dispensed with many of the traditional customs and
ceremonies. The President of the
congregation had assured the bride that a wedding canopy would be provided, but
had failed to follow through. Once the
ceremony was stopped, the bridal party left the synagogue and went to the house
of the bride’s father on D Street where refreshments were served. Once the Chupah had been put up the wedding
went on with the groom’s father and Rabbi Bernard Illowy of Cincinnati
performing the ceremony. The service,
which was conducted in Hebrew and German, was followed by expressions of
congratulations for the newlyweds and an ample repast for the guests. [Bernard
Illowy was a distinguished 19th century Orthodox Rabbi who played a
prominent role in the fight to maintain traditional Judaism. Ironically, his last pulpit was in
Cincinnati, the home of Reform Judaism.]
1872:
In New York, a Coroner’s Jury rendered a verdict of accidental death in the case
of three year old Sarah Levy. She was with her father, Moses Levy, when she was
“run over and killed by a Fourth Avenue care in the Bowery.” A civil suit has been filed against the
transit company in which the plaintiff is seeking $30,000 in damages.
1875:
Birthdate of Carl Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis who learned from
and clashed with Freud. Jung was one of
the few non-Jews to be involved with this new field of science. His
relationship with Sabina Spielrein was the subject of popular film that
highlighted the clash between the giants and Jung’s apparent “fascination” with
Jewish women.
1878:
Twenty-nine year old Adolph Lewisohn, a successful American businessman who had
been born in Hamburg married Emma Cahn in Manhattan.
1881:
It was reported today The British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
Among the Jews condemned “the anti-Semitic agitation” that is currently taking
place in Europe.
1882:
The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society stated today the funds promised to care for the
8,000 refugees who have arrived since January have not been forthcoming. A member of the society claimed that the
London Committee that had collected seventeen thousand pounds which were to be
used to assist in the settlement of the refugees, has not forwarded the money
to New York.
1883:
It was reported today that Rabbi George Brandenstein of Beth Elohim Synagogue
was the first to speak at an event honoring Henry Ward Beecher. After saying a few words in praise of his
services “to men of all races,” he presented Beecher with a silver pitcher on
behalf of the members of his synagogue.
1883: “The Alleged Passover Murder” published today recounted events surrounding accusations that Moritz Scharf had murdered Esther Salomossy, a Christian girl in Nyreghhaza, Hungary. Jewish witnesses claimed they had been threatened before giving testimony and Moritz had been threatened with life imprisonment if he did not confess that the murder had been committed in the synagogue. As the blood libel charges unraveled it was discovered that the young girl had quarreled with her mistress before her disappearance and some of her friends thought she had committed suicide. [Looking at the date, you can see how strongly entrenched the Blood Libel was in gentile minds.]
1883:
Cornerstone laying ceremonies for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn will
begin at 2 pm today.
1887:
“Minister Straus Safe in Turkey” published today described the first month of
Oscar Straus service as U.S. Ambassador
to the Ottoman Empire. Straus who
arrived in May has already had his first audience with the Sultan. He has taken
up temporary resident in a hotel at Therapia until he can find a house for more
permanent quarters. He has recieved a
document of greeting written in Hebrew from the Grand Rabbi and the leaders of
the various Jewish communities throughout the empire as well as letters of
greetings from the America Baptist Society and the missionaries of western
Turkey who are meeting in Constantinople.
1887: Birthdate of Anthony G de Rothschild British philanthropist
1887: “Judaic Romance” published
today reviews The Yoke of the Torah by Sidney Luska
But according to Josh Lambert
Luska did not exist. He was the creation
of a young non-Jewish author named Henry Harland.
1891: Benjamin Cardozo was
admitted to the New York State Bar.
1901:
Bicentennial of the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest in England. Sephardic
Jews founded Bevis Marks in 1701. The congregation is known as the
Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation.
1902:
Birthdate of Gracie Allen, the wife and comedic partner of George Burns.
1903(26th
of Tammuz, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1904:
Birthdate of actor Peter Lorre. A refugee from Hitler’s Europe ,
Lorre gained fame in American films as what was called "a character
actor." Two of his more memorable appearances came in The Maltese Falcon
and Casablanca
1905:
The 20,000 Jewish residents of Lodz Poland
1911(30th
of Sivan, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1911:
Joseph L. Seligman, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Seligman of New York,
hosted his bachelor party tonight. The
fifty guests celebrated his upcoming marriage to Josephine Knowles.
1911:
Birthdate of Edward Levi, professor of law, President of the University of Chicago University of Chicago University of Chicago
1912: The
Board of Education paid tribute to the late District Superintendent Miss Julia
Richman, the energetic reform minded educator who passed away while vacationing
in France.
1913:
The American Zionists’ convention continues its meetings in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1918:
During World War I, Allied Forces including units of the AEF under General John
J. Pershing defeated units of the German Army under the command of Crown Prince
Wilhelm. Among the Americans who fought
in this critical battle was a Jewish Marine from Buffalo New York named
Lester Bergman. Born in 1889, “Bergman
was the first person from Buffalo, NY, to enlist in the Marine Corps during
World War I. He was wounded during extremely heavy fighting at the battle of
Belleau Wood in France, where he participated in the capture of a Maxim gun, 23
machine guns and 170 German soldiers.
Bergman was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the
French Croix de Guerre.” He passed away in 1958.
1919:
The first national conference of the Religious Zionist Organization, Mizrachi,
closes.
1925:
“The Gold Rush,” starring Charlie Chaplin premiered in Los Angeles
1928:
When the
Democratic National Committee convened, Belle Moskowitz was the only woman at
the table, but she was as influential as any man there. The networks she had
created in New York
1933: “The Akademie für Deutsches Recht
(Academy for German Law) is founded to rewrite the entire body of German law to
NSDAP specifications” The NSDAP is the Nazi Party.
1934:
The New York Times reported that the Tel Aviv “has issued notices to
holders of its external twenty-year sinking fund six and a half percent public
improvement sterling bonds…have been drawn for redemption at par, on the
current rate of exchange for sterling on the day of presentation”
1936:
In the aftermath of the The Przytyk Pogrom, the worst anti-Semitic violence
that occurred in pre-war Poland, the trial of those charged with taking part in
the violence came to an end. There were
43 Polish defendants and 14 Jewish defendants.
The Jews claimed that they had acted in self-defense. But the court sentenced eleven of the Jews to
prison terms ranging from 6 months to 8 years for demonstrating “aggressive
behavior toward Polish peasants.”
Thirty-nine of the Poles received sentences ranging from 6 to 12 months.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that circulars urging
Arab villagers to put an end to disorders were dropped by British Army planes.
The leaflets promised that the king would send a Royal Commission to inquire
into the Arab grievances, but only when a complete order was restored. Some 50
well-armed Arabs attacked a convoy made up of 10 buses and accompanied by two
armored cars close to Nablus Palestine
1937: Laurence A. Steinhardt completed his service as U.S.
Ambassador to Sweden
1938: Five more
bombs exploded today in the quarter between Jaffa and Tel Aviv wounding fifteen
Arabs. Soon after the first bomb exploded in the morning a mob of Arabs raided
a Jew's shop and stabbed the proprietor.
1939:
“Five hundred people attended a session of the convention of the National
Council of Young Israel which was held today in the Temple of Religion at the
World’s Fair. ‘The event was chaired by
Henry G. Fromberg. Cantor Aaron Caplow
and the Oscar Julius Choir provided the music for the event.
1940:
A split takes place among the leaders of Etzel, also known as the Irgun. They
cannot decide whether or not to cease attacks against the British for the
duration of the war. Abraham Stern, believing that the timing was ripe to
pressure the British by any means to allow full immigration sets up the LEHI
(Lohamei Herut Yisrael) Freedom Fighters of Israel. The group was also known as
the Stern Gang. This splinter terrorist group will eventually kill a UN peace envoy
during the War for Independence
1940: United States Assistant Secretary of
State Breckinridge Long determines to obstruct the granting of visas to Jews
seeking entry into the United
States
1941(1st of Tamuz, 5701: Hundreds of
Jews from Kovno, Lithuania, are executed at the fortified Ninth Fort on the
city's outskirts.
1941:
Lithuanian fascists massacred 2300 Jews in Kovno. The sad fact of the matter is
that the Nazis had many willing helpers among the population of various
European countries.
1941:
The invading Nazis seized hundreds of Jews in Kovno , USSR
1941:
The Germans reached Bialystok
1941:
In Jedwabne , Poland
1942:
For the first time British radio carried reports about the fate of the Polish
Jews. It said that 700,000 Jews had been killed in Poland Poland
1943:
Dr.Karl
Landsteiner the Austrian born American physician who the 1930 Nobel Prize for
Medicine for his work on differentiating the blood groups passed away in New
York. He had converted from Judaism to
Roman Catholicism when he was twenty one years old.
1943:
On Shabbat, special
prayers were offered for the nation's leadership asking them to lead us toward
"a peace of righteousness and permanence" at a service in Temple
Emanu-El. The service was held today in conjunction with the annual convention
of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who represent the Reform
Rabbinate in the United States
1945:
The United
Nations Charter is signed in San
Francisco
1949:
Jewish golfer Herman Barron, the 1948 Goodall and 1947 Tam O’Shanter champion
teamed with William J. Cobb to win the annual pro-member tournatment at the
Bonnie Briar Country Club in Larchmont, NY.
1950:
“Admiral Sir John Edelsten, Commander in Chief of the British Mediterranean
Fleet arrived in Israel today” when HMS Surprise, his flagship, docked at
Haifa. It was the first such visit since
the British left the country two years ago.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that
contracts had been signed for the widening of the Kishon River Haifa
1952:
An Israeli army spokesman said that fourteen Arabs had been killed during the
last two weeks during operations designed to keep infiltrators from crossing
into the Jewish state. Two more were arrested and two were wounded.
1956:
Under President Nasser, Egypt seized control of the Suez Canal.
1960(1st
of Tammuz, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1963:
Birthdate of Mikhail Borisovich
Khodorkovsky one of Russia
1967:
Spain Spain
1968(30th
of Sivan, 5728): Rosh Chodesh Tamuz
1968:
Birthdate of Rich Eisen anchor on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”
1974(6th
of Tammuz, 5734): Eighty-seven year old Ernest Gruening, the long-time liberal
Democrat who served as Governor of Alaska before being elected Senator passed
away. Gruening had been trained as a
doctor at Harvard and Harvard Medical School although he never practice
medicine. He is best remembered as only
one of two Senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a move that
cost him his Senate seat. (As reported by John T. McQuiston)
1974;
Today, at 8:01 a.m., “a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum slid down a
conveyor belt and past an optical scanner. The scanner beeped, and the cash
register understood, faithfully ringing up 67 cents. That purchase, at a Marsh
Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, was the first anywhere to be rung up using a bar
code. A Jew did not invent the now
ubiquitous bar code, but Alan Haberman, of blessed memory, “led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders —
circles, bull’s-eyes and seemingly random agglomerations of dots — in 1973. By all accounts, he spent years afterward
cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new
symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. His efforts
helped cement the marriage between the age-old practice of commerce and the new
world of information technology. led the industry committee that chose the bar
code over other contenders — circles, bull’s-eyes and seemingly random
agglomerations of dots — in 1973. By all accounts, he spent years afterward
cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new
symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. His efforts
helped cement the marriage between the age-old practice of commerce and the new
world of information technology.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1976:
Maxwell Raab, a Wall Street lawyer who played a prominent role in the
Eisenhower presidency was inducted as a fellow of Brandeis University.
1979(1st of Tammuz, 5739): Rosh Chodesh
Tammuz
1980:
Birthdate of actor Jason Schwartzman
1982(5th
of Tamuz, 5742): André
Tchaikowsky, a Polish born composer and pianist who as a small child survived
the Warsaw Ghetto, passed away.
1982(5th
of Tamuz, 5742): Chaim
Grade, a Yiddish poet and novelist whose work gained wide attention because of
its passion and intensity in dealing with Jewish life in Eastern Europe and
with the trauma of the Holocaust, died of a heart attack today in Montefiore
Hospital. He was 72 years old. Mr. Grade, whose writings have been increasingly
available in English translation only in recent years, wrote searing poems of
the loss of the Yiddish civilization he grew up with in his native Vilna, a
city often called ''the Jerusalem of Lithuania'' by reason of its pious and
intellectual Jewish life. In 1967, Elie Wiesel, the author whose own
contemplations of the extermination of the Jews at Nazi hands have brought him
fame, wrote in reviewing ''The Aguna,'' a Grade novel, ''The work of Chaim
Grade, by its vision and scope, establishes him at the age of 64 as one of the
great - if not the greatest - of Yiddish novelists. Surely, he is the most
authentic.'' Did Not Seek Translation Mr. Grade, short and hypnotically
articulate in word and gesture, had been reluctant to have his work translated
for fear that in English his words would not resonate with the particular sense
of East European Jewishness that he had dedicated himself to recording. In the
late 1970's, a two-volume novel, ''The Yeshiva,'' was published in English and
told the story of a religious man torn between adherence to an unrelenting,
even unkind faith and to his ties with his own feelings and other people. ''Rabbis
and Wives,'' three novellas, is scheduled for publication in November by Alfred
A. Knopf Inc., which also plans to publish Mr. Grade's ''My Mother's Sabbath
Days'' at a later date. Mr. Grade's poetry, which has also appeared in some
English translation, possessed a poignancy and power that singled him out as a
leading poet of the Holocaust, a poet who looked for meaning in an evil human
event that destroyed his people. A Sample of His Verse He could be
prophetically elegiac, as in the lines of a poem he had written at age 70, a
poem that observed his funeral would not be at the Old Synagogue of Vilna and
concluded: ''And only in the world of spirits great will be the grief,/ Because
the last memorial light for the old Vilna has burned out.'' In an interview,
Mr. Grade once said: ''For me, when I look at these poems I have written, it is
like looking at a strange thing. The writer knows some things about his poetry
better than anyone else does - but some things he will never know.'' Mr. Grade
received an Orthodox upbringing in Vilna, but in the early 1930's he turned to
the secular life and to writing. When the Nazis invaded in 1941, Mr. Grade left
his mother and first wife, at their insistence, and fled to Soviet regions. He
returned to Vilna after the war to find both of them dead along with his
ancestral civilization. At that point, the secular, questioning viewpoint he
had embraced gave way to the urgency of keeping alive the memory of what was
gone. He emigrated to France and in 1948 to the United States, where he settled
with his second wife in the Bronx and continued writing voluminously in Yiddish
for Yiddish newspapers, ultimately for The Jewish Daily Forward.
1984: Barbra Streisand records
"Here We Are at Last"
1989(23rd of Sivan, 5749): Trude
Weiss-Rosmarin passed away. Born in 1908, she was a German Jewish
writer, editor, scholar, and feminist activist. With her husband, she
co-founded the School of the Jewish Woman in New York in 1933, and in 1939
founded the Jewish Spectator, a quarterly magazine, which she edited for
50 years. She was the author of 12 books, including Judaism and Christianity: The differences (1943), Toward Jewish-Muslim Dialogue
(1967), and Freedom and Jewish
Women (1977).
1994(17th of Tamuz, 5754): Tzom Tammuz
2001: President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
to the White House.
2004(7th of Tamuz, 5764): Israel's renowned composer and songwriter
Naomi Shemer passed away at the age of 74. Shemer is known to many as the
composer of the famous song “Y'rushalayim Shel Zahav" or in English,
"Jerusalem of Gold." For those of you who saw "Shindler's
List" this was the song played at the end of the movie when the film
turned from black and white to color as the survivors were shown visiting the
Shindler's grave. The song was written at the request of Jerusalem
Mayor Teddy Kolek in 1967 several weeks before the outbreak of the Six Day
War. The song expresses the longing of a person for Jerusalem Old City
"Y'rushalayim
shel zahav, v'shel n'choshet v'shel or; Halo l'chold shi-rayich ani kinor
2005: Igo Feldblum writes a letter to historian Martin Gilbert
describing how young Jews in Palestine responded positively to the war time
slogan ‘Win We Will.’ ‘Confident in this
prophecy, many enlisted in the Jewish Brigade and fought alongside the
Allies.’ “Thirty thousand Palestinian
Jews fought in the British forces…and more than seven hundred were killed in
action.”
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including King
of the Jews by Nick Tosches and The Woman From Hamburg by Hanna
Krall.
2005 (19th of Sivan, 5765): Louis J. Sigel, a Teaneck, N.J.,
rabbi who was a prominent voice for integration of the township's public
schools in the early 1960's, passed away today at his home in Hackensack, N.J.
He was 81. Teaneck became the first town in America to vote to integrate its
schools voluntarily. Rabbi Sigel was the spiritual leader of Temple Emeth there
from 1960 to 1992, and when he arrived, after nine years at Temple Tifereth
Israel in Malden, Mass., Teaneck was embroiled in heated discussions over a
growing racial imbalance in the schools. In "Triumph in a White
Suburb" a book about the integration of Teaneck, the author, Reginald G.
Damerell, wrote that Rabbi Sigel - a Torah and Talmud scholar who primarily
considered himself a teacher - calmed a fractious community meeting. A law
professor who was a member of Temple Emeth stood and asked why the whole
community had to be "disturbed" by a problem that he said black
residents had created themselves by moving into one end of town. "The
temple's rabbi, Louis J. Sigel, rose," Mr. Damerell wrote. "His rich
voice carried throughout the auditorium" as he narrated a story from the
Talmud about a man who sees a fire in another part of town and asks, "What
have I to do with the needs of the community?" "Sigel's voice rose in
emphasis, 'Such a man destroys the world!' " Mr. Damerell wrote.
"Applause exploded through the auditorium." That set the stage for a
resolution from the floor commending the Board of Education "for studying
possible ways to prevent de-facto segregation," the author said. It
passed, thus providing the integration side with a victory in its first
skirmish. Because of his pro-integration stand, some temple members wanted to
oust him, his family later acknowledged, but a large majority supported him.
Born in Derby, Conn., the son of an Orthodox rabbi, he chose Reform Judaism
instead and attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, where he was ordained
in 1951. He also held bachelor's and master's degrees from Yale. He and a
Catholic priest and a Protestant minister founded the Teaneck Clergy Council in
1972. He served as its first president until 1974.
2005: Wild Desert, a horse owned
by several businesspeople including former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre,
gave Robert J. Frankel his first victory in the $1 million Queen's Plate, the
first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Woodbine Racetrack.
2005: The Rubashkin Education Center in Postville is
scheduled to hold its grand opening this afternoon
2006: Twenty-four hours after attacking an IDF checkpoint
Palestinians fire Kassam Rockets into Israel.
2007: At the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles
2007: The General Assembly of the European Jewish Congress elects
a new president for the EJC for a two year term.
2007: The President of Poland and Jewish leaders break ground for
the Museum of the History of Polish Jews on a site next to Warsaw’s monument to
Jews who resisted the Nazis during the 1943 ghetto uprising.
2007(10th
of Tamuz, 5767): Belgian born American fashion designer, Liz Claiborne passed
away at the age of 78.
2008:
In New York City Astor
Center New York New York
2008: A rocket fired from Gaza
2009(4th
of Tammuz, 5769): Jo
Amar, a Moroccan-born Jewish singer whose melding of Andalusian and Israeli
musical influences made him a star in Israel and a popular performer in Jewish
communities around the world, died today at the home of his son Ouri in
Woodmere, N.Y. He was 79 and lived in Jerusalem. The cause was complications of
Parkinson’s disease, his son David said. Mr. Amar had been in failing health
for several months, and he came to the United States in February to be with his
children and grandchildren, all of whom live in the New York metropolitan area.
Mr. Amar’s music was a hybrid, fusing Sephardic and North African-Arab songs,
Jewish liturgical vocal styles and even Western-style harmonies into a kind of
Middle Eastern pop. He sang in a bright, engaging tenor, recording about 20
albums, and with his crowd-pleasing manner, he performed not only in large
performance halls with full orchestras but also in cabarets and at weddings and
other private functions. He was often asked to be the guest cantor on Jewish
High Holy Days, invitations he accepted selectively, in cities including Paris
and Casablanca. A composer of songs as
well, he performed for Jewish audiences throughout the diaspora, in places like
Brazil and South Africa; in 1963 he even toured in Iran, performing before
mixed Jewish and Muslim audiences and appearing on Iranian television. Yosef
Amar, who was known as Jo from an early age, was born on June 1, 1930, in
Settat, Morocco, where his grandfather had been the chief rabbi. He studied at
a yeshiva in Meknes, Morocco, and planned to become a Hebrew language teacher,
but his affinity for music directed his life. During a visit to Israel, before
moving there in 1956, he persuaded a radio station to listen to his music by
gathering an impromptu choir on the street outside to perform one of his songs.
He became popular in Israel, especially among immigrants from northern Africa
and the Middle East, his hybrid music helping to open European Jewish ears to
new, exotic sounds. Mr. Amar came to the United States in 1965 to perform at
Carnegie Hall, in a well-received concert that eventually persuaded him to move
to New York with his family in 1970. “In a variety of Oriental-flavored popular
songs he displayed a broad range of feeling, a penetrating projection,
regionally nasalized intonation and strong rhythmic sense that communicated
warmly with the audience,” the music critic Robert Shelton wrote in The New
York Times. In the late 1980s Mr. Amar returned to Israel with his wife,
Raymonde. She died in 1997. “Jo Amar’s
greatness was in his ability to perform such a wide range of musical styles —
from North African and Sephardic to Mediterranean, Eastern European and even
Hasidic tunes,” said Amy Horowitz, who teaches in the international studies
program at Ohio State University and is the author of “Mediterranean Israeli
Music and the Politics of the Aesthetic,” to be published by Wayne State
University Press. “He was an inspiration for a new generation of North African
and Middle Eastern Israeli musicians, who developed a pan-ethnic popular music
genre in the 1970s.”
2009:
Jews in the Washington Metropolitan Area have a wide panoply of choices when it
comes to welcoming the Sabbath Queen ranging from the Carlebach Minyan at
Kesher Israel to Congregation Adat Reyim's unique folk service lead by their
folk group that group uses musical instruments and a variety of melodies from
Debbie Friedman, Craig Taubman, and others to add a wonderful musical aspect to
their Shabbat services
2009:
Russia told a
U.S. court today that American judges have no authority to tell the country how
to handle sacred Jewish documents held in its state library, which had been
seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies. The case is being handled by the chief
judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, Royce Lamberth, who in January
ordered Russia to preserve the documents following Chabad's fears they are not
being properly cared for and could be sold on the black market. Russia said in
its filing Friday that even though it respects the U.S. court, it would not
participate in the litigation in order to protect its sovereignty. According to
the filing, "This [U.S.] court has no authority to enter orders with
respect to the property owned by the Russian Federation and in its possession,
and [we] will not consider any such orders to be binding." Lamberth agreed
to hear the case because he said both the Nazi seizure and the Russian
government's appropriation of the collection, which Chabad says totals 12,000
books and 50,000 rare documents, violated international law. The collection was
formerly held by Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn, a leader of Chabad-Lubavitch
born in Russia but forced to leave in 1927. He took the documents to Latvia and
later Poland, but left them behind when the Nazis invaded and he fled to the
United States. The collection was seized and taken to Germany, then recovered
by the Soviet Army in 1945. Attorneys representing Chabad at the firm Bingham
McCutchen said after five years of litigation, Russia is now acting like a
child who has lost a game and wants to start over on its home court. The
plundering of religious texts during war is contrary to the Hague convention
and the norms of any civilized society. The documents are at the center of a
lawsuit brought by members of Chabad-Lubavitch, which follows the teachings of
Eastern European rabbis. The group is suing Russia in an effort to recover
manuscripts, prayers, lectures and philosophical discourses by leading rabbis
dating back to the 18th century.
2010:
Ginsberg Jewelers, a main stay of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, business community
battles back from the Floods of 2008 and hosts an Open House in its new,
location. Ginsberg Jewelers owned by
Herman Ginsberg, a pillar of the Jewish community and a mensch of the first
order.
2010:
The Jewish community of Cedar Rapids is scheduled to gather this evening for
“Havdalah Under The Stars.”
2010:
Prize winning ice skater Loren Galler-Rabinowitz won the Miss Massachusetts
title.
2011:
Israel
continued repositioning part of its contested barrier in the West Bank today,
four years after a court ruled it should be re-routed to give Palestinians
greater access to farmland. Israeli tractors tore down a section of the
barrier, a metal fence, as a clutch of journalists watched. A new concrete
barrier has been erected some 600 meters from the old route near the Jewish
settlement of Modiin Illit. The Israeli military tore down a watchtower
overlooking Bilin earlier in the week.
2011:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “The Druggist of Auschwitz: A
Documentary Novela” by Dieter Schlesak. Translated by John Hargraves
2011:
The Jewish
Museum Milwaukee is scheduled to participate in a WWII Encampment Reenactment
program being staged by the Milwaukee County Historical Society at Trimborn
Farm. Local student and actor, Shane Skinner, is scheduled to present a dynamic
portrayal of the lives of Jewish servicemen during the war, drawing on
collections from the archives of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
2011: “The Washington Haggadah: Medieval Jewish Art
in Context” is scheduled to come to an end today at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York City. The Washington Haggadah, an illuminated medieval
manuscript and, since 1916, a principal treasure in the Library of Congress, is
spending Passover in New York City on a snug reading stand in a display case at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Haggadah, the collection of prayers and
songs that tells the story of exodus that is the Passover Seder, lies open to
the Dayenu (“If He had given us Shabbat and not led us to Mount Sinai, it would
have been enough . . .”), a thousand-year-old song that’s unusually sprightly
for its age, perhaps because it can function as a cue to cooks and celebrants
that it’s nearly time to serve the meal. The scribe reinforces that cue with a
drawing at the bottom of the page: A man, apparently a beggar invited to help
with the feast, turns a rack of lamb while two women, well dressed in the
Italian style, stir soup and offer him a cup.You could easily miss “The
Washington Haggadah: Medieval Jewish Art in Context,” an exhibition that
consists of just two vitrines and a wall display in a hallway in the Met’s
department of medieval art. But the modest display fits the artifact — the mix
of homey scenes and exquisite items was a trademark of the scribe and
illustrator, Joel ben Simeon (approximately 1420-95), and suited the taste of
his wealthy Ashkenazi clientele in Germany and Italy. Although this exhibition
does not display the manuscript’s individual pages — as the Met did
successfully last summer with the utterly bloodthirsty and not-safe-for-work
exhibition of the Book of Hours of Jean de Berry — the museum’s medievalists
have vividly conjured the world of medieval European Jewry, surrounding the
small manuscript with luxurious objects similar to those in the drawings. A
pale yellow glass with a decorative band is a close match for the one the woman
offers the man turning the lamb. A brass ewer from Germany is practically
identical to the one in the hands of the red-hatted man filling cups, who is
beside instructions to pour the service’s second glass of wine. “The Washington
Haggadah,” on view through June 26, is the first installment in a three-year
series devoted to Hebrew manuscripts and their contemporary context, a clever
strategy that pairs valuables from the Met’s stronger collections with loan
items in one of its weakest areas (illuminated Hebrew manuscripts).“Our
colleagues in the textile department are thrilled,” said curator Barbara Boehm,
standing beside a silk-velvet swatch that looked like it could have been cut
from the skirt of a fashionable woman who shows up later in the Haggadah. “I don’t
think these have ever been shown. They’re not great big pieces, but they’re
exquisite and such a nice match.” Scribes are typically anonymous artisans, but
ben Simeon signed and dated this illuminated Haggadah. It was an unusual move,
but some 20 years before, German publisher Johannes Gutenberg had printed his
first Bible, and illuminators were scrambling to come up with marketing
strategies to compete with the burgeoning book trade. Ben Simeon created this
work not on commission but as a salable stock item that could appeal to the
broadest possible tastes. He left the last few pages and many of the margins
blank, in case the buyer, most likely a wealthy banker, doctor or merchant, had
any special requests. Ben Simeon specialized in Haggadot, a sensible business
plan for a Jewish scribe, but the exodus story at the heart of the service
almost certainly had personal resonance, too. Soon after he was born in
Cologne, Jews were expelled from that city. His family moved to Bonn, and 20
years later that city expelled the Jews. He seems to have adapted by spending
most of his life in transit, moving back and forth across the Alps between
Italy and Germany. As a result, he drew with a mixture of national styles: His
figures are flat and stubby in the German woodcut style, but his faces are
delicate and individual, and his representations modern and realistic, in the
manner of the Italians — the wicked son is drawn like a knight (for an effect
similar to drawing him in Nazi get-up today), and the beggar turning the lamb
has goiter (a then-common affliction in landlocked areas such as the Alps). On
the page with the Curse Upon the Gentiles — a prayer added to the Seder after
the Crusades — ben Simeon seems to have captured a moment of changing
traditions. A man stands at the door to his house, as was the habit, checking
to see that there are no Gentiles within earshot during the recitation: “Pour
out thy wrath upon the nations that do not know You,” as ben Simeon faithfully
copied in a passage that begins in large gold-leaf letters and his most
elaborate filigree. But he also depicted the tradition that has come down to
Jews today: As the door is opened, Elijah appears, riding on an ass,
accompanied by what appears to be his entire family. Near the tail end, a fashionable
lass in a silk-velvet dress raises a wineglass. No one knows who first bought
the Haggadah from ben Simeon — an Ashkenazi in Italy or Germany, judging by the
handwriting on some of the blank pages. But the Haggadah, too, had its years of
wandering: from Germany in the 1700s, over to Italy by the late 1800s and into
the hands of the Provencali family of Mantua, where in 1879 one Ettore Finzi
added a note in German (“Guten Appetit”) during a Passover celebration.
Twenty-three years later, Ephraim Deinard — an American book dealer and a
preeminent figure in the development of many great institutional collections of
Judaica and Hebraica — bought the copy and persuaded New York financier Jacob
Schiff to donate it, along with nearly 20,000 other books in Deinard’s
collection, to the Library of Congress as part of a vast “gift to the
Nation.”After 500 years, the Haggadah had found its permanent home
2011: Mordechay Lewy,
the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, “who caused a storm in the Jewish world
by praising Pope Pius XII for saving Jews during World War Two backtracked
today, saying his judgment was "historically premature." The comments
made by, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, were some of the warmest ever
made by a Jewish official about Pius but were very upsetting to Holocaust
survivors and others who know the history of the man some call “Hitler’s Pope.”
2011(24th of
Sivan, 5771): Seventy-seven year old Joseph Hochstein passed away today in Tel
Aviv. In 1965, Hochstein and his father Phillip started the Jewish Week, a
Washington, DC publication that was the successor the National Jewish
Ledger. It was renamed The Washington
Jewish Week after Hochstein sold the paper in 1980’s and made Aliyah.
2012: Eating and drinking must be on the
minds of those at the 92nd Street Y which is scheduled to offer
programs on “Wines of the Southern Hemisphere” and “Picnics Through the Ages.”
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