June 3 In Jewish History
350: Roman usurper Nepotianus, of the Constantinian
dynasty, proclaims himself Roman Emperor, entering Rome at the head of a group
of gladiators. The Constantinian Dynasty took its name from its most famous
member, Constantine I, the Emperor who turned the Roman Empire into a Christian
entity; a policy followed by his successors much to the dismay of the Jewish
people.
1098: During the First Crusade, Antioch
falls to the crusaders after an eight-month siege. This would open the road to
Jerusalem, where, after another siege, the Christians would capture the City of
David and slaughter its Jewish inhabitants.
1361: In Spain orders are given
for the construction of a Juderia (Jewish Quarter) in Tarazona. The Jewish
Quarter is to be separated by walls from the Christian community. The
Christians living where the Juderia is to be built were given property of the
same value and relocated.1140: French scholar Peter Abelard is found guilty of heresy. Abelard may have been a heretic in the eyes of the Catholic Church, but when it came to the Jews, his views were classically Christian. He believed that the Jews were wicked and that God’s grace had passed from them to the Gentiles who had accepted Christ. The grace of God would return to the Jews in the end of time when the Jews will be converted to Jesus. Christ is spoken of as about to be crowned or about to be crucified it is said that He “went forth”; to signify that the Jews, who were guilty of so great wickedness against Him, were given over to reprobation, and that His grace would now pass to the vast extent of the Gentiles, where the salvation of the Cross and His own exaltation by the gain of many peoples, in the place of the one nation of the Jews, has extended itself. Whence, also, to-day we rightly go forth to adore the Cross in the open plain, showing mystically that both glory and salvation had departed from the Jews and had spread themselves among the Gentiles. But in that we afterward returned [in procession] to the place whence we had set forth, we signify that in the end of the world the grace of God will return to the Jews; namely, when, by the preaching of Enoch and Elijah, they shall be converted to Him.
1425: Pope Martin V issued “Sedes apostolica,” a Papal Bull that commanded Jews to wear “a distinctive badge.” [Editor’s note – this may have more to do with Pope Martin’s fight against slavery. The badge was intended as a way of deterring the sale of Christians as slaves. For a Pope, his views on the Jews was on the positive side of the scale as can be seen from his “Declaration on the Protection of the Jews” issued in 1419.]
1621: The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherlands, which would come to include New Amsterdam. A Jewish merchant named Joseph d’Acosta was one of the company’s shareholders. The fact that the Dutch West India Company had Jewish shareholders would prove to be of critical importance when Peter Stuyvesant would try to expel the Jews from New Amsterdam which was part of New Netherlands.
1658: Pope Alexander VII appointed François
de Laval vicar apostolic in New France. Alexander was the pope who seemed to
have a great deal of concern about the rights of tenancy in the ghetto since he
issued two bulls – Verbi Aeterni and Ad Ea Per Quae- on the subject.
1678(13th of Sivan): Rabbi Ephraim ben Jacob
Katz, author of Sha’ar Ephraim, passed away
1752: During the quarrel between Rabbi Jacob
Emden and Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz a
secular Danish court ruled in favor of Emden, severely censuring the three
communities of Altona, Hamburg and Wansbeck and ordering them pay a fine of one
hundred thalers. This enabled Emden to return to Altona where he regained
possession of his synagogue and his printing press.
1753(1st of Sivan, 5513): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1768: King William V, the Dutch ruler,
visited both the German and Portuguese synagogues today. This visit and his attendance at the weddings
of Jewish subjects was an acknowledgement by the Prince of Orange of the
loyalty Jewish community.
1782(21st of Sivan, 5542): Aaron
F. Goldsmid, the London merchant who was founder the famous British Goldsmid
family passed. A native of Amsterdam, he
“was the son of Benedict Goldsmid, a Hamburg merchant. In 1765 he left Holland
with his family to settle in London, where he founded the firm of Aaron
Goldsmid & Son, subsequently Goldsmid & Eliason. The firm of Aaron
Goldsmid & Son experienced serious reverses through the failure of Clifford
& Sayer, one of the principal houses in Holland. Hence only George, the
eldest son, entered into partnership with his father. The other sons founded
new businesses for themselves in which they amassed large fortunes. Goldsmid
left four sons and four daughters. The second son, Asher, was one of the
founders of the firm Mocatta & Goldsmid, bullion-brokers to the Bank of
England. Benjamin and Abraham were famous as financiers and philanthropists.”
(As reported by the JewishEnncylopedia)
1849: In Montgomery, Alabama, the
Chevra Mevaker Cholim, with the approval of 30 members, became Congregation
Kahl Montgomery which is now known as Temple Beth Or. The congregation built is
first sanctuary in 1862.
1850: The traditional founding date of Kansas
City, Missouri. Temple B’nai Jehudah, the first Jewish congregation in Kansas
City would be formed twenty years later in 1870. The
congregation built a temple in 1908. In 1909, United Jewish Social Services
opened the Alfred Benjamin Dispensary at 17th and Locust to provide
medical treatment to Jewish Immigrants.
This institution evolved into Menorah Hospital by 1931.
1853: An article
entitled “The Last Hartford Convention” described the activities of a
convention that began yesterday to discuss the Bible. In mocking tones the author assumes that by
now “the very existence of the Hebrew law-giver has been pronounced a myth; the
Creation a counterfeit; the Deluge a fable; the Exodus a forgery.” The author wonders what “stores of rabbinical
learning” including “Talmud, Targums and Commentators” as well as contemporary
historians who have corroborated the stories of the Israelites will be
discredited by these contemporary philosophers whom he compares to the infidels
going back to Roman times who have tried and failed to discredit “the first
five books.”
1870: The
London Standard denounced the review of Benjamin Disraeli’s Lothair
published in Blackwood. The Standard
did not take issue with Blackwood’s right to make negative comments about the
book. The complaint was that Blackwood
made the review “the vehicle for a coarse, violent and outrageously personal
attack” on Mr. Disraeli. “The critic has
used the book as opportunity for indulging his spleen against its distinguished
author.”
1870: It was reported today that Simon
Wolf delivered telegrams for all over the United States asking that the U.S.
intervene with the government of Romania on behalf of its Jewish citizens. The U.S. has decided to appoint Adolphe
Buchner, who is Jewish, to serve as Consul at Bucharest as a way of expressing
its desire that the Romanians stop mistreating their Jewish citizens. [The
President who was showing support for the Jews was U.S. Grant, who as Dr. Sarna
has pointed out in his marvelous book on the famous General and President, was
no anti-Semite.
1870:
The United States Senate spent an hour this morning discussing the recent
massacre of Jews in Romania during which Senator Morton of Indiana presented a
request that the President intervene to “save the Jews of” Romania “from
further persecutions.” The Senate
passed a motion offered by Senator Sumner of Massachusetts asking the President
to provide the Senate with any information in the possession of the State
Department concerning the violence. “Mr.
Sumner said that the interests of humanity demanded that the fullest
information should be had by the Senate on this subject.” According to Sumner, “the massacre was a most
terrible affair, the whole enormity of which was not yet made public.” Senator Sprague of Rhode Island said that
Jews owned most of the land in Romania and controlled all of the trade in the
Principality “while a vast population of Christians” were deprived of the means
of support” and that this was the cause of the violence. He said that these facts “furnished food for
profound reflection…to affairs here in our country, where the tendency” is
rapidly moving “in the same direction.
Senator Stewart of Nevada “said he hoped Mr. Sprauge did not mean to
imply that when a man gets rich he ought…to be killed.” Senator Sprague “smiled faintly” but made no
further reply. [Editor’s note – The
concern for the Jews of Romania was the first expression of support for the
plight of foreign Jews in the post-Civil War United States. Senator Sumner had been a leading
Abolitionist and was a major political power in the dominant Republican Party.
The President who would show support for the Jews was U.S. Grant. By the same token the views of Senator
Sprague, the son-in-law of Salmon P. Chase, another prominent Republican who
served as Sec. of Treasury and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, were the an example
of the genteel anti-Semitism which would manifest itself in everything from
exclusion at fancy hotels to quotas at the leading ivy league universities.]
1871:
“Rome: The Press in the Eternal City” published today reported in the newly
united Italy, Jews and Free-thinkers dominate the world of literary opinion. Among the Jews are: Giacomo Dina ‘the
patriarch of Italian journalism” and the editor of Florence Opinione;” Carlo Levi, editor of the Nuova Roma; Edward Arib, “the ablest representative of the liberal
press” and editor of Liberta; Alessandro
D’Acona of Pisa and Luigi Camerini of Milan, “accomplished critics of belles lettres. At the same time, the clerical press which is
an inferior journalistic product is filled with anti-Semitic comments. For example,
Buon Senso referred to Edward Arib as
a “shameless Jew…’following the example of the Jews in the days of Nero who
were the real instigators of the Roman Emperor’s persecution of the Christians.”
[Editor’s Note – Italy, after the reunification, was one of the best places for
Jews to live in Europe. At the same time, there was an undercurrent of
anti-Semitism tied to the Papal parties that would flower when Mussolini would
become Hitler’s partner.]
1873: Birthdate of German born and educated
American pharmacologist Otto Loewi recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine. He passed away in 1961.
1877: “The Return of the Jews” an article
published today reports that the long dreamed of “rehabilitation of Judea” by
the Jews might be realized in the not too distant future. While there are only a small number of Jews living
in Jerusalem thanks to the advances in modern transportation there has been
increasing stream of Jews coming to visit from Poland, Morocco and Russia. Captain Charles Warren, who is best known for
the maps he has made of Jerusalem, thinks that that the Jews of Morocco would
be the best candidates for restoring Judea to its former glory. They are the only significant Jewish
population with agricultural skills. Unlike the Jews of Jerusalem whom Warren
described as being “incompetent to revive the glories of the past” because of
long years of “indolence and degeneracy” the Jews of Morocco are
“patient…and less fanatical than many of their brethren” as well as
having a proven track record of being able to use irrigation to raise crops.
[The vision of Captain Warren “the agent of the English exploration fund in
Pale tine pre-dates Herzl by thirty years.]
1877: It was reported today that there are
152 synagogues in the United States with 33 in New York, 23 in Maine, 14 in
Pennsylvania, 9 in Illinois and 7 each in California, Ohio and Vermont.1877: The Board of Jewish Delegates reported that 174 out of 341 congregations and 99 other organization have responded to its questionnaire. According these responses there are 189,576 Jews in the United States. Based on this admittedly incomplete response, the board estimated that there are 250,000 Jews living in the United States with 60,000 living in New York City.
1879(12th of Sivan, 5639): Lionel Nathan de
Rothschild the son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Hanna Barent Cohen passed
away. Lionel’s was the first Jew to serve as an MP in the House of
Commons. First elected in 1847, he was
not able to assume his seat until 1858 following a decade long fight to change
the rules about the oath of office.
Queen Victoria refused to appoint him to the House of Lords. She would later recant and elevate Lionel’s
son to the Lords.
1880: As unrest continues to grow in Russia,
it was reported that several Jews have been arrested near St. Petersburg on
charges that they are connected with the Nihilst (an all-purpose term used by
the authorities for revolutionaries seeking to over-thrown the Cazr)
1882: As conditions worsen for Jews in the
Ukraine, it was reported that Russian Jews who lack passports are being denied
the right to immigrate.
1885 (OS May 22): Birthdate of Yakov
Mikhaylovich Sverdlov, a leader of the Bolsheviks who also was a leader of the
infant Soviet Union. He passed away in
1919, before the Revolution turned sour and anti-Semitism reared its ugly head.
1885: The Board of Directors of the
Sanitarium for Hebrew Children appealed for contributions to support its
upcoming summer program of excursions.
Donations should be sent to Nathan Lewis, President of the Board, John
J. Davis or any of the other directors. [Editor’s Note – This was the Jewish
version of the popular movement to provide trips to the country for children
living in the tenements of major cities.]
1885: It was reported today that in Vienna,
the Liberals had elected 8 candidates, the Democrats had elected three
candidates and the anti-Semites had elected one candidate. It was their poor showing at the polls that
caused the anti-Semites to begin rioting in the Austrian capital.
1887: Witnesses continued to testify today in the
trial of Adolph Reich who has been charged with murdering his wife last April.
A former landlady testified that Reich had hit his wife and pulled her hair out
while another testified that Reich thought his wife was having an affair with
him. The witnesses denied the
accusations saying he visited her to pick up the coats which made for his shop.
Proceedings were delayed because a Hebrew Bible had to be brought to the
courtroom for use by some of the witness.
1888: A convention was held today
in Philadelphia that incorporated the American Jewish Publication Society. In a telegram sent to the meeting from Berlin
by Jacob H. Schiff, the prominent businessman and philanthropist offered to
donate five thousand dollars to an endowment named in honor of Michael Heilprin
if the society can raise an additional fifty thousand dollars in the next year. The purpose of JPS was and is to publish in English books
of Jewish interest. Among its hundreds of publications are Graetz's, Dubnov's
and Baron's History's of the Jews, and Ginsburg's Legends of the Jews.
Other important authors included Israel Zangwill, Leo Baeck, Cecil Roth, Jacob
R. Marcus, and Louis Finkelstein. JPS began publishing the
American Jewish Yearbook in 1889
1892(8th of Sivan, 5652): Isidore
Loeb, a French-Jewish scholar passed away. Born at Sulzmatt (Soultzmatt), Upper Alsace in
1839, he was “the son of Rabbi Seligmann Loeb of Sulzmatt” and “was educated in
Bible and Talmud by his father. After having followed the usual course in the
public school of his native town, Loeb studied at the college of Rufach and at
the lycée of Colmar, in which city he at the same time attended classes in
Hebrew and Talmud at the preparatory rabbinical school founded by Chief Rabbi
Solomon Klein. In 1856 he entered the Central Rabbinical School (Ecole Centrale
Rabbinique) at Metz, where he soon ranked high through his knowledge of Hebrew,
his literary ability, and his proficiency in mathematics. In 1862 he was
graduated, and received his rabbinical diploma from the Séminaire Israélite de
France at Paris, which had replaced (1859) the Metz Ecole Centrale Rabbinique. Loeb
did not immediately enter upon a rabbinical career, but tutored for some years,
first at Bayonne, France and then at Paris. In 1865 he was called to the
rabbinate of St. Etienne (Loire). His installation sermon, on the duties of the
smaller congregations (Les Devoirs des Petites Communautés), is one of the best
examples of French pulpit rhetoric. Soon, however, he felt a desire to extend
the field of his activity. He went to Paris, where he was appointed secretary
of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, which position he held until his death.
It was largely due to Loeb's labors that this association became an important
factor in the progress of Oriental Judaism; and he created the library of the
Alliance, which is one of the most valuable Jewish libraries in existence.
Meanwhile he continued his historical and philological researches, and
developed an extensive literary activity. The chair of Jewish history in the
Rabbinical Seminary of Paris having become vacant through the death of Albert
Cohn (1877), Loeb was appointed his successor. He held this position for 12
years. His main activity, however, was devoted to the Société des Etudes
Juives, which was organized in Paris in 1880. Beginning with the first number,
he successfully edited the Revue des Études Juives, the organ of that society,
and was, moreover, a voluminous and brilliant contributor thereto.
1900: The International Ladies’
Garment Workers Union (ILGW) is founded.
In its early days, the union was dominated by Jews who made up a
disproportionate number of the workers in an industry known for its sweatshop
conditions. At the close of the 20th
century, the
1904: Herzl leaves for
Edlach, Austria accompanied by his wife and his fellow Zionist Yona
Kremenetzky.
1904: Birthdate Jacob Pincus
Perelmuth who gained fame as Jan Peerce, the Cantor and a tenor performing at
the New York Metropolitan Opera.1906: In Louisville, Adath Israel Temple dedicated its third congregational home. The building was designed by architects Kenneth McDonald and J.F. Sheblessy and was commonly known as the “Third Street Synagogue.” Following it merger with Brith Sholom in 1976, the congregation took the name Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom
1911: Birthdate of Marion Levy
who gained fame as the actress Paulette Goddard known for playing opposite
Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator." 1912: Aviation pioneer and Adas
Israel congregant, Arthur Welsh prepares for a two-hour test of the Wright
military planes.
1913: In Manhattan, Abraham and
Ida Krim gave birth to Norman Bernard Krim “an electronics visionary who played
a pivotal role in the industry’s transition from the bulky electron vacuum
tube, which once lined the innards of radios and televisions, to the tiny, far
more powerful transistor…He , did not invent the transistor…but he saw the
device’s potential and persuaded his company to begin manufacturing it on a
mass scale…” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1916: The British and French
declare a state of siege in Salonica and remove all Greeks from official posts
due to the possibility they were pro-German.
1917: Following reports of a
German bombing raid conducted for the first time by bombers instead of Zeppelin
that killed 95 and injured 192, “Albert Einstein wrote a friend in Holland,
‘The ancient Jehovah is still abroad.
Alas he slays the innocent along with the guilty, whom he strikes so
fearsomely blind that they can feel no sense of guilt.’”
1917: The Young Men's and Young
Women's Hebrew Association of Camden, New Jersey purchased 572 and 574 Walnut
Street from Smith C. Moore and his wife Elizabeth, for the sum of $4,000 as
recorded in Camden County's real estate records, Book 418, pages 296 and 297.
On the same the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association of Camden, New
Jersey purchased 570 Walnut Street from Joseph F. and Mary C. Marck for $2100,
as recorded in Camden County's real estate records, Book 418, pages 297 and
298.
1921: On the King’s Birthday, Sir
Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner for Palestinemade the first official
interpretation of the Balfour Declaration, assuring the Arabs that immigration
would be controlled according to the "economic absorptive capacity"
of the country - and in fact suspended immigration, though only temporarily. In describing the impact of the speech to
Winston Churchill at the end of the month, Samuel said the Jewish population
viewed the speech as a “severe set-back” to their aspirations and that it made
them feel “very nervous and apprehensive.
1921(26th of Iyar, 5681): German
born New York physician Simon Baruch, father of Bernard Baruch, passed away
1924(1st of Sivan, 5684): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1924(1st of Sivan, 5684): Franz Kafka, author of The Trial and Metamorphosis,
passed away at the age of 40.
1925: Birthdate of Tony Curtis.
Born Bernard Schwartz, this actor's most famous performance probably was in the
film "Some Like It Hot," where he co-starred with Marilyn Monroe and
Jack Lemon.
1926: Birthdate of poet and
beatnik, Allen Ginsberg.
1928 (14th of Sivan): Samuel Chaim
Landau founder of Torah va-Avo-dah, the religious Zionist movement, passed
away 1929: Birthdate of Chuck Barris. This
1932: Birthdate of Fischel
Lebowitz the native of Transylvania, Romania, who survived the Holocaust, and
as Fred Lebow became a successful American businessman, an avid distance runner
and the founder of the New York City Marathon.
1936: As the Arab uprising
continues, David Vardi, a 27 year old owner of an orange packing house near…
Rishon Litzion and Israel Arger, a 31 year old workman, were seriously wounded
today when two Arabs who were old friends of theirs shot them in the packing
house. Both were shot in the head and there is little hope for their recovery.
In Haifa, a bomb was thrown at a Jewish owned bus, wounding three riders. 1937: The Palestine Post reported that the Polish General Consul in Jerusalem told the Va’ad Leumi (The National Council of Palestine Jews) that he was deeply distressed at the recent anti-Jewish disturbances in Poland. He promised to forward, without delay, the Va’ad protest to his government. The
1941: Author Irving Wallace
married writer Sylvia Kahn.
1942: The German military
commander of occupied France ordered all Jews to wear a yellow Star of David
with the inscription "Juif" on it.
1942(18th of Sivan, 5702): In
Warsaw, 110 Jews were shot in the prison on Gesia Street. Ten Jewish
policemen are among the victims.
1942: Jews
revolt in Breslau, Germany.
1943(29th
of Iyyar, 5703): German troops in the Warsaw Ghetto destroy a bunker on
Walowa Street that conceals 150 Jews. It
was one of the last remaining bunkers in the ghetto. By September, all that
were remaining would be flushed out and destroyed.
1943: Near
Michalowice, Poland, Germans kill two Polish farmers who have rescued and
hidden three Jewish escapees in a barn.
1944: In response to Rudolf
Kastner's plea to let some of the Hungarian Jews remain in Budapest, Eichmann
said, "I have to clean up the provincial towns of the Jewish garbage. I
must take this Jewish muck out of the provinces. I cannot play the role of the
savior of the Jews.”
1944: A train from Lyon arrived
in Birkenau. One survivor, Freda Silberberg, stated how it was the French that
arrested her, not the Germans. Dr. Mengele selected Freda for his experiment pool.
1948: Four Egyptian aircraft flew
over Tel Aviv on what would be the 16th bombing raid over the Jewish
city. Numerous civilian casualties had been sustained in the previous attacks
and the residents expected more of the same.
1948: In a modern version of
David versus Goliath, Modi Alon flew Israel’s one serviceable fighter aircraft
across the Tel Aviv skies attack four Egyptian aircraft that were set to bomb
the city. Alon shot down the two bombers
and forced their fighter escorts to flee.
These were the first aerial combat victories scored by the IAF. In one of those strange moments of the war,
the people of Tel Aviv actually watched the performance of a combat air arm
that they had not known even existed.
1948(25th of Iyyar, 5708):
Avraham
Mordechai Alter passed away. He was also known as the Imrei Emes after the
works he authored, was the third Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger a position
he held from 1905 until his death in 1948. He was one of the founders of the
Agudas Israel in Poland and was influential in establishing a network of Jewish
schools there. It is claimed that at one stage he led over 200,000 Hasidim.
1953: Professor Otto Loewi,
winner in 1936 of the Noble in medicine for the discovery of the chemical
transmission of nervous impulses who is now the Research Professor of
Pharmacology in the New York University College of Medicine celebrated his 80th
birthday today.
1957: Howard Cosell's television
show appeared for the first time.
1960: Four newly deciphered
letters of Bar Kochba describing organizational challenges faced by the leader
of the revolt against the Roman Empire (132-135 CE) were presented in a lecture
given today by Professor Yigal Yadin today at Hebrew University. The letters
revealed that the supply route for Bar Kochba’s
soldiers was via Ein Gedi and Tekoa.
This is the same Tekoa which was home to the prophet Amos. Yigal Yadin was head of the Israeli military
during the War for
1963: Pope John XXIII passed away. Born Angelo
Roncalli, in 1935 he was made Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece. Roncalli
used this office to help the Jewish underground in saving thousands of refugees
in Europe, leading some to consider him to be a Righteous Gentile
1967: Shabbat was not a day of
rest as the Arab vise squeezed around the state Israel. The people were beginning to feel the
psychological pain of being surrounded.
The Israeli economy was unraveling under the pressure of continuous
mobilization. Dyan continued to review
the plans of the General Staff.
1971: German born mathematician
Heinz Hopf passed away. His father was
Jewish but his mother was not. For the
Nazis, this made him Jewish and he sought refuge in Swiss citizenship during
the Hitler period.
1972: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Sally
J. Priesand, 25, became the first woman in Reform Judaism to be ordained as a
Rabbi.
1974: Aharon Uzan completed his
term as Communications Minister.
1974: Yitzhak Rabin, the first
native-born Israeli (Sabra) to become prime minister of Israel, assumed office.
1974: Yosef Burg completed his
term as Interior Minister
1974: Shlomo Hillel began his
term as Interior Minister
1974: Yigal Allon began his term
as Foreign Minister
1974: Avraham Ofer, replaced
Yehoshua Rabinovitz as Communications Minster
1974: Gad Yaacobi replaced Aharon
Yariv as Transportation Minister
1974: Hairm Yosef Zadok replaced
Yitzhak Rafael as Minister of Religious Services.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported
that Israel would not take any steps against Syria until more was known about
the extent and purpose of their incursion into Lebanon. Meanwhile, Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin reported that Syrian soldiers were clashing with and
killing terrorists.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Yigael Yadin, the
leader of the new political party, the Democratic Movement for Change, which
won 13 seats in the Knesset elections, was offered the deputy premiership in
the Menachem Begin's new Likud cabinet.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Kfir
multi-mission combat aircraft was one of the leading stars at the Le Bourget
aircraft mart in Paris.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that an annual prize in
the field of the coverage of Israel's foreign relations was established in
memory of Ted Lurie, the second editor of the Post.
1982:
The Israeli ambassador to Britain, Shlomo Argov, was shot on a London street.
The failed assassination attempt was under the command of Fatah leader Abu
Nidal. Argov survived but was permanently paralyzed.
1982:
Israeli planes attack Palestinian camps in Lebanon after Fatah attempted to
murder Ambassador Argov in London.
1983(22nd of Sivan, 5743):
Harry Lieberman, a primitive-style painter who began his career as an artist in
his 70's, died today in North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset,
L.I., after suffering a cardiac arrest. Mr. Lieberman was 106 years old and
lived in Great Neck, L.I. Throughout his 26 years as a painter, Mr. Lieberman
completed hundreds of pieces and his work was shown in museums and galleries in
Great Neck, in New York and in the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington. His work has
also been on display in Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, La Jolla, Calif., and
Rotterdam, Holland. It was the boredom of his retirement after selling his
confectioner business at the age of 74 that prompted Mr. Lieberman to try his
hand at sketching at an art class at the Great Neck Golden Age Club. Mr.
Lieberman soon moved on to watercolors and oil painting, using the
two-dimensional primitive style. As a young man Mr. Lieberman studied the
Talmud, and stories from that religious work as well as the Bible served as the
subject matter for most of his paintings. He once told an interviewer that a
man of his age - he was 100 at the time - needed a reason to get out of bed in
the morning and that the older he got the better that reason needed to be. Mr.
Lieberman was born Naftulo Hertzke Liebhaber in Gnieveshev, Poland, in November
1876. In 1906 at the age of 29 he emigrated to the United States, sending for
his wife two years later. The Liebermans, who worked first as cloth cutters,
bought a candy store that soon prospered into a wholesale confectioner
business.
2002: Ariel Sharon
completes his term as Interior Minister.
2002: Eli Yishai begins his term as Minister of Internal Affairs.
2005(25th
of Iyar, 5765): Leon Askin passed away today in Vienna at the age
of 97. Born in 1907 as Leo Aschkenasy
into a Jewish family in Vienna, Askin already wanted to be an actor as a child.
His dream came true, and in the 1930s he worked as a cabaret artist and
director at the "ABC Theatre" in Vienna: in this position he also
helped the career of the writer Jura Soyfer get off the ground in 1935. Persecuted
by the Nazis, Askin escaped to the United States via France, arriving in New
York in 1940 with no money and less than a basic knowledge of English. When the
U.S. entered the Second World War Askin joined the U.S. Army. While serving in
the military he learned that his parents had been killed at Treblinka
extermination camp. After the war, Askin went to Hollywood, invariably
portraying foreign characters who speak English with a strong accent. He gained
wide popularity by appearing as Gen. Albert Burkhalter in the sitcom Hogan's
Heroes in the late 1960s.As opposed to other exiled Austrians, Askin never
refused to work again in his home country. In 1994 he permanently took up
residence in Vienna, where he remained active until his death in cabaret, as well
as the Volksoper and Festwochen. He was awarded Vienna's Gold Medal of Honor.
2006(7th of Sivan, 5766): Second
Day of Shavuot
2006: A group of neo-Nazis
assaulted Croatia's Chief Rabbi Eliezer Aloni on a Zagreb street in front of
his synagogue on Shabbat.
2007: In London, the ZF presents
Portraits of Israel “a photographic journey through the history of Israel as
seen through the lens of Rudi Weissenstein.
He dedicated his life to documenting Israel’s growth from 1936 until his
death in 1992. He was the official
photographer at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1948.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of two
tomes about Jewish comedians, It’s
Good to be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks by James Parish
and Rickles’ Book by Don Rickles with David Ritz; The Big Question
by Jewish game show host Chuck Barris, Summer Reading by Hilma Wolitzer,
A Day at the Beach by Helen Schulman, From A Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter With the
American City by
Nathan Glazer, The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, Opening Day: The Story of
Jackie Robinson’s First Season by Jonathan Eig and Jewish
author Joseph Finder’s review of April in Paris by Michael Wallner.
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section features a review of The
Gravediggers Daughter, a novel about a Jewish immigrant who struggles to
blot out her past, by Joyce Carol Oates, who discovered late in life her own family's Jewish history. Her grandmother,
who immigrated to the
2007: In an article entitled “Lower East Side
Is Under a Groove,” the New York Times
reports on the role played by Sion Misrahi, the son of Jewish immigrant from
Greece, in the rejuvenation of New York’s Lower East Side.
2008: In Cedar Rapids, at Temple Judah, funeral
services are held for Abbott Lipsky followed by the internment at Eben Israel
Cemetery. Those who knew Abbott B. Lipsky remembered him t as the kind of person
you wanted to befriend. Lipsky, well-known in
2008: As the race of Grand Rabbi of France heats up
with weeks of sniping from both sides, the two main Jewish communal
organizations in France — the CRIF and the Unified Jewish Social Fund, or FSJU
— issued an unusual joint statement urging both sides to calm down.“It appears
that a series of verbal, written and visual slips is hurting the dignity of the
campaign and risks giving a negative image of our community as a whole. This is
why CRIF and FSJU believe it is their duty to exhort the friends and supporters
of the candidates to show restraint and keep in mind that beyond the democratic
battle, the general interest of the community should prevail over any other
considerations.”
2008: the Ville-Marie council unanimously
voted to demolish the building that had been home to Bens De Luxe Delicatessen
on condition that the developer must commemorate the deli in the new building.
2009: The Brooklyn International Film
Festival, which will feature two Israeli movies, hosts a Kick-Off Party at
Delancy restaurant.
2010: A series of programs Jewish including “Identity
through Music” in which percussionists and composer David Freeman demonstrates
how contemporary musicians incorporate and reinterpret traditional Jewish texts
and “A One-Pot Seminar” in which Gabe Goldstein, Associate Director for
Exhibitions and Programs at the Yeshiva University Museum discusses what we can
learn about an individual's identity and community from a cholent pot are
scheduled to be presented at Yeshiva University Museum as part of Limmud NY
2010(21st of Sivan, 5770): Steve Averbach, the
former Monmouth County resident who was paralyzed in an attempt to thwart a
suicide bomber in Jerusalem in 2003, died suddenly today at his home in Tel
Aviv “Averbach was 44. He leaves his wife, Julia;
four sons, ages 10 to 20, and his parents, Dr. David and Maida Averbach of West
Long Branch. Averbach immigrated to Israel in 1982 at age 16, and went on to
serve in the elite Sayeret Golani, or Special Forces, unit of the Israeli army.
Following his service, he joined the police, where he worked for 10 years,
including five in an anti-terror unit, and three-and-a-half years as the
Jerusalem police force’s top weapons instructor. On May 18, 2003, he was on a
bus heading to work when a Palestinian terrorist dressed as a fervently
Orthodox Jew got on board. Averbach realized immediately that he was a suicide
bomber. As he reached for his handgun, the terrorist blew himself up, killing
seven people and seriously injuring 20, including Averbach. Israel’s internal
security ministry later wrote Averbach a letter saying, “An investigation of
the incident revealed that you were courageous, brave, and selfless in
attempting to prevent a mortal attack.” It said the bomber had planned to blow
himself up in the crowded center of town or in the bus station, where the death
toll would have been far higher. After a 14-month recovery process at the
Hadassah University Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem and the Sheba Tel Hashomer
Hospital, a rehabilitation facility in Tel Aviv, Averbach returned home. Like
the film star Christopher Reeve, whom he met in 2003, Averbach committed
himself to helping others with spinal cord injuries, and also strove to help
other victims of terrorism. Maida and David, who are members of Congregation
Brothers of Israel, Elberon, together with family members and friends,
established the “Heroes Fund for Victims of Terror” through the Jewish
Community Foundation of Monmouth County, to assist affected individuals in
Israel from Monmouth County and the organizations that serve them. At an August
2005 tribute to Averbach organized by the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County
at the Ruth Hyman JCC in Deal, former New York City mayor Ed Koch said his
story inspired him both as a Jew and as a public figure deeply concerned about
the threat of terrorism. “Steve Averbach gives every person, whatever their
religion, something to be proud of,” Koch told NJJN at the time. “He’s an
extraordinary man.”From early in 2006, Averbach also served as a spokesman and
fund-raiser for Project Tikvah, an Israeli nonprofit that uses sports activities
to rehabilitate children and their family members who have been victims of
terror. Later that year, in New Jersey to receive two $10,000 donations to the
project, he told NJJN, “Project Tikvah brings those who have been victims of
terror back to life physically and emotionally. It also helps me to continue
being a useful person and a better father to my children.”
2011(1st of Sivan, 5771): Rosh
Chodesh Sivan2011(1st of Sivan, 5771): Eighty-nine year old Israeli businessman Sammy Ofer passed away this morning in Tel Aviv (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/world/middleeast/05ofer.html
2011(1st of Sivan, 5771):
Fifty-nine year old pop music icon Andrew Gold passed away today. (As reported
by Paul Vitello)
2011(1st of Sivan, 5771): Gus
Tyler, who had been associated with the Forwards since 1932 passed away today.
2011: The final Musical Shabbat of the year
is scheduled to take place at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA. This marks the fourth year that the community
has participated in this most popular way of experiencing the Joy of Shabbat.
2011: The Historic 6th & I
Synagogue plans on meeting a variety of spiritual needs as it hosts two Shabbat
services – the laid back, lay led 6th Street Minyan and Friday Night
Shabbat Services with MesorahDC followed by a traditional Shabbat dinner.
2011: Labapalooza is scheduled to present “Planet
Egg” by Zvi Saharis, an Israeli who studied directing at the University of
Haifa, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY.
2012:
JCCNV is scheduled to sponsor the Israel Street Festival in Fairfax, VA
2012: Temple Emanuel in Kensington, MD is
scheduled to host “Tango Comes to the Land of Milk & Honey, Kolot Halev’s
annual concert with Hazzan Ayelet Piatigorsky and featuring Emmanuel Trifilio
on the original tango folk instrument, the bandoneón performing selections that
range from Sephardic ballads to Yiddish songs to Moroccan and Mexican melodies.
2012: The National Museum of American Jewish
Military is scheduled to host “Family Stories: Sons, Fathers and Zaydes,” an afternoon long event that will enable
participants “to create a lasting tribute to that special male relative or
friend through a skit, a scrapbook, a video, a song and dance routine, or
whatever the imagination conjures.”
2012: “The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso,
and the Parisan Avant-Garde,” an exhibit of works collect by Gertrude, Leo,
Michael and Sarah Stein is scheduled to come an end at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art.
2012: “Celebrate Israel,” complete with an 8
o’clock fun run through Central Park and a five hour parade is scheduled to
take place today in the Big Apple.Copyright; June, 2012; Mitchell A. Levin melech3@mchsi.com
No comments:
Post a Comment