This Day, July 5. In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

July 5 In Jewish History

1247: Pope Innocent IV, semi-retired by Emperor Frederick II, issued a Bull refuting blood libels and sent it throughout Germany and France.

1345: Pope Clement VI banned forced baptism of Jews. Subsequent Popes overturned this decree in 1597 and 1747.

1247: Today, Innocent IV dispatched a bull from Lyons to the Church dignitaries of France and Germany in which for the first time, the repeated baseless and fiendish imputations against the Jews were officially contradicted.  "Certain of the clergy and princes and nobles and great lords of your dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property and appropriating it themselves; they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy.  Christians believe that the Law of the Jews prescirbes this to them, whilst in their Law the very reverse is ordained.  In facet, ion their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to Jews.  And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions, without any formal accusation without confession and without legal trial and conviction.  Contrary  to the privileges  graciously granted to them from the Apostolic chair, and opposed to god and his justice, they oppress the Jews by starvation, imprisonment and by other tortures and sufferings; they afflict them with all kinds of punishments, and sometimes even condemn them to  death, so that the Jews, although living under Christian prices are in a worse plight than were their ancestors in Egypt under the Pharaohs...Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be distressed, we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner.  Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations."  Anti-Semitism and belief and in the blood libel were so much a part of European culture that the Pope's bull was ignored.

1687: Isaac Newton published “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” the ground breaking three volume work that included Newton’s Laws of motions and revolutionized the field of physics.  Based on documents from the Jewish National and University Library first shown to the general public in 2007, we know that we that Newton “found time to write on Jewish law”  and used the Book of Daniel “for clues about the” date for the end of the world. “In one manuscript from the early 1700s, Newton used the cryptic Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse, reaching the conclusion that the world would end no earlier than 2060. ‘It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner,’ Newton wrote. However, he added, ‘This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.’ In another document, Newton interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ends. The end of days will see ‘the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom,’ he posited.” Newton also wrote “treatises on daily practice in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In one document, Newton discussed the exact dimensions of the temple — its plans mirrored the arrangement of the cosmos, he believed — and sketched it. Another paper contains words in Hebrew, including a sentence taken from the Jewish prayerbook.  For more about Newton and the Jewish religion see Judaism in the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt Goldish

1719(14^th Tammuz, 5479): Rabbi Shmuel Schotten known as the Mharsheishoch, passed away. Born at Schotten in 1644, he was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva in Frankfurt am Main and Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1685.

1742: During “The War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain, Spanish troops landed on St. Simons Island as part of their Invasion of Georgia. Most of the Sephardi Jews abandoned Savannah, fearing that if captured they would be treated as apostates and burnt at the stake. The Minis and Sheftall families of Ashkenazi Jews were the only ones to remain”  This quaintly named conflict between the Spain and Great Britain would become part of a larger conflict that engulfed most of Europe – The War of the Austrian Succession – which would come to a close with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This would lead in turn to the French-Indian War which would lead to the American Revolution.

1764: Birthdate of Daniel Mendoza ((often known as Dan Mendoza) an English prizefighter, who was boxing champion of England 1792-95. He is sometimes called the father of scientific boxing. Mendoza's style consisted of more than simply battering opponents into submission; his "scientific style" included much movement. His ability to overcome much heavier adversaries was a consequence of this. In 1789 he published The Art of Boxing. Mendoza was so popular that the London press reported news of one of his bouts ahead of the storming of the Bastille which marked the start of the French Revolution. He transformed the English stereotype of a Jew from a weak, indefensible person into someone deserving of respect. He is said to have been the first Jew to talk to the King, George III. His early boxing career was defined by three bouts with his former mentor Richard Humphries between 1788 and 1790. The first of these was lost due to Humphries’s second (the former Champion, Tom Johnson) blocking a blow. The second two bouts were won by Mendoza. The third bout was the first time spectators were charged an entry payment to a sporting event. The fights were hyped by a series of combative letters in the press between Humphries and Mendoza. Mendoza's "Memoirs" report that he got involved in three fights whilst on his way to watch a boxing match. The reasons were: (a) someone's cart cut in; (b) he felt a shopkeeper was trying to cheat him; (c) he didn't like how a man was looking at him. In 1795 Mendoza fought "Gentleman" John Jackson for the Championship at Hornchurch in Essex. Jackson was five years younger, 4 inches taller, and 42 lbs. heavier. The bigger man won in nine rounds, paving the way to victory by seizing Mendoza by his long hair and holding him with one hand while he pounded his head with the other. Mendoza was pummeled into submission in around ten minutes. Since this date boxers have worn their hair short. After 1795 Mendoza began to seek other sources of income, becoming the landlord of the "Admiral Nelson" pub in Whitechapel. He turned down a number of offers for re-matches and in 1807 wrote a letter to The Times in which he said he was devoting himself chiefly to teaching the art. In 1809 he and some associates were hired by the theatre manager Kemble in an attempt to suppress the OP Riots; the resulting poor publicity probably cost Mendoza much of his popular support, as he was seen to be fighting on the side of the privileged. Mendoza made and spent a fortune. His Memoirs (written in 1808 but not published until 1816) report that he tried a number of ventures, including touring the British Isles giving boxing demonstrations; appeared in a pantomime entitled Robinson Crusoe or Friday Turned Boxer; opening a boxing academy at the Lyceum in the Strand; working as a recruiting sergeant for the army; printing his own paper money; and being a pub landlord. Mendoza made his last public appearance as a boxer in 1820 at Banstead Downs in a grudge match against Tom Owen; he was defeated after 12 rounds. Intelligent, charismatic but chaotic, he died leaving his family in poverty. In 1954 Mendoza was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1990 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Mendoza, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. The actor Peter Sellers was a descendant of Dan Mendoza. Prints of the boxer can be seen on Inspector Clouseau’s wall in the Pink Panther films.

1811: Venezuela declares its independence from Spain. According to the “Virtual Jewish History Tour,” Simon Bolivar, considered Venezuela's liberator, found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as Mordejai Ricardo, Ricardo Meza and his brother Abraham Meza offered hospitality to Bolivar as he fought against the Spanish, thus establishing brotherly relations between Jews and the newly independent Venezuelan republic. Several Jews even fought in the ranks of Bolivar's army during the war.”

 1838: The Jews of the city of Safed came under attack from the Druze, who also had sacked an Ottoman caravan capturing 300 fully loaded camels of the Sultan. "While it was still night, the entire city was suddenly and terrified because unknown men were seen walking around the streets, and there were signs of malice on their faces." The attack on the Jews was by a group men armed with rifles, knives, axes and clubs.

1861: Armed only with hunting-whip Sir Lawrence Oliphant fought off a Japanese attacker who was trying to kill them. If Oliphant the attack had succeeded, Oliphant would not have lived to promote his project for colonizing the northern section of Palestine with Jewish settlers; a plan that he did not begin to pursue until the 1870’s

1870: The New York Times published a summary of reviews from English publication of Disraeli’s “Loathair.”

1872: Today’s Foreign News Notes column cited a report by the Jewish Chronicle that the Jews of Smyrna are being persecuted by the Greeks as a way to gain the release of a group of “Greek ruffians now in prison.”  The Greek mob has threatened to burn the city and massacre the Jews if their demands are not met.

1873:   “Cosas D’Austria”  published today provides a potpourris of information about various aspects of life in the Hapsburg Empire including a disparaging portrait of the Jews.  According to the author, “the Jews have not invented anything” but they exploit in the inventions of others to their own advantage.  For example, the Jews did not invent the telegraph, but Reuters profits from it by supplying all the news to British newspapers and the Wolff Agency, founded by Berhnard Wolff does the same by supplying news to the newspapers of Central Europe. The Agence Havas which is not owned by Jews but is indebted to them because they control the money, does the same in France.  The article contend that there are more Jews of Vienna are more numerous in number than the band that crossed the Jordan with Joshua and that there as many Jews in the Austrian Empire today as there Jews in Judea at the time of Titus’ victory.  The Jews own the best of everything.  But their wealth comes not from leading in combat but from being “gleaners who gather the fruits of victory.  [This article demonstrates how anti-Semitism rose at the same time as Jewish  Emancipation became more of a reality. ]

1874(20th of Tammuz, 5634): Rabbi Julius Eckman passed away.  Born in Rawicz, which was then part of Prussia, in 1805, he studied at Berlin before moving to the United States where held pulpits in a variety of cities including in New Orleans, Charleston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon and then back to San Francisco.  During his first stay in San Francisco Eckman was the first rabbi employed by Temple Emanu-El and the published of a new Jewish weekly, The Gleaner, which merged into the Hebrew Messenger.  When he returned to San Francisco from Portland, Eckman served as the Superintendent of the Sabbath School at Congregation Shearith.

1875: Marcus Jastrow, the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom and Lewis Abrahams addressed the members of B’nai Brith who had gathered in Philadelphia for ground breaking ceremonies that marked the start of the building of a statute to religious liberty.  The statue should be ready for next year’s centennial observance.  Rabbi George Jacobs presided over the ceremonies and Moses Elbrigh of New York assisted him.

1877: Birthdate of Rabbi Judah Leib Magnes. Born in San Francisco and educated at Hebrew Union College, Magnes was a life-long maverick. He was an early and ardent Zionist, which was unusual among the Reform movement since it was largely anti-Zionist at the time. He was named Rabbi at New York’s prestigious Temple Emanu-el in 1906 but left four years later because he found it "too assimilationist", another unusual stance for a Reform Rabbi. He was an outspoken pacifist during World War I. (He would change his views during World War II.) In 1925, he became the first Chancellor of the brand new Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He held the post for ten years. He was ousted as Chancellor as a result of an academic squabble and "kicked upstairs to the Presidency. . Although he was a Zionist, Magnes believed in a binational Arab-Jewish state. While there were other Jews including the famous philosopher Martin Buber who supported Magnes, none of the "Moderate" Arabs would join his efforts. This did not stop Magnes from pursuing what became his Quixotic Quest. He passed away in 1948.

1877: It was reported today that the war between the Turks and the Russian has caused an “appalling” amount of misery as can be seen by the way Jews in Romania have been beaten, stabbed and “outraged in various ways.”

1878: It was reported today that the leaders of the Romanian government are holding secret meetings to determine how they will respond to the Congress of Berlin’s demands that the Romanians improve the treatment of their Jewish countryman.  The Congress wants the Jews to be grant full emancipation making them citizens in the true sense of the word.

1879: Birthdate of Wanda Landowska whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century.

1880: It was reported today that “Alfred Simpson, alia ‘Jew Al,’ a German, and a notorious …bank thief…was arrested” in Boston.  [Was Simpson really Jewish or was this a case of a tendency of some journalists and others to deal in catchy stereotypes]

1880: “A Rush to Long Branch” published today described the great popularity enjoyed by the New Jersey resort.  All of the hotels and cottages are filled with a cross section of the nation’s “high society” including W.W.(William Waldorf) Astor and family, the Hartman Kuhn family of Philadelphia and former New Jersey Governor J.D. Bedle and family. The fact that Joseph Seligman occupied one of the private cottages attested to the fact that the innkeepers in Long Branch had not succumbed to the anti-Semitic policies being followed in Saratoga and this fact had not harmed business.

1882: At the Pennsylvania Railroad’s piers No. 35 and 38, Hungarian and Austrian Jewish freight handlers were fired because the company could hire German workers. This took place during the Freight Handler’s Strike which was an example of how companies pitted native-born workers against immigrants and then immigrants against immigrants to keep wages low and working conditions miserable.

1882: “A Spanish Novel” published today provided a review of Gloria, a novel by Perez Galdos that incorporates themes of modern day anti-Jewish attitudes with the harsh reality of the persecution of the Jews completed with auto-de-fes and the Expulsion of 1492. [This was an unusual topic for its time and even more unusual one for a Spanish author to tackle.]

1883(30^th of Sivan, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1884: It was reported today that in the matter of the Parisian court found in favor of the author and ordered the painter not display a picture that depicted Dumas as a “Baghdad Jew.” The ruling was based on the fact that the painter had not gotten the consent of the author to use his visage and that portraying him in this manner (as a Jew) was “very uncomplimentary.”

1884: It was reported today that last month in southern Russia, the Cossacks had to intervene in a conflict between the Armenians and Jews in Titlis. [Attacks against Russian Jews were not unusual.  But all too often the Cossacks (part of the government’s “police authority” sat by and let the Jews be brutalized.]

1887: Grace (Colbert) Weinschenk, the wife of Albert Weischenk gave birth to a baby boy today in New York.  The father is a young German Jew whose Christian in-laws had originally opposed the marriage.  But they became reconciled to the fact and the couple was living with their in-laws at the time of the birth. [ Why does this matter  You will have to come back and the next installment]

1888: Birthdate of Herbert Spencer Gasser, the Wisconsin born doctor who won the 1944 Noble Prize In Medicine and became the director of the Rockefeller Institue.

1891: The New York Times published a review of Dr. Mendlesonn’s Hebrew Jurisprudence: The Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews.

1891: A meeting was held in St. Louis, MO to address the needs of the increasing number of Russian Jews arriving in the city.  The attendees decided to establish a school with daytime and night sessions that would make the new immigrants “thorough American citizens.”  They would first be taught the English langue which the key to learning about government, politics and the “social economy” of their new home.  Over one hundred of the attendees signed up to support such an endeavor and each paid three dollars in dues to support the project. 

1896: Herzl met with Claude Montefiore and Frederic Mocotta of the Anglo-Jewish Association who are anti-Zionist.

1897: Birthdate of Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, “he trained at the Munich Academy of Arts from 1915 to 1920. He was assistant conductor in Walter and Knappersbusch, 1920 to 1924, and then conductor at Augsburg from 1924 until 1931. He then abandoned conducting and devoted himself to teaching and composition. In 1933, he emigrated to Tel Aviv and changed his name to Paul Ben-Haim. Some of his works include the Concerto Grosso (1931), Symphony No. 1 (1940) and Symphony No. 2 (1945). In 1953, he won the Israeli State Prize for the composition Sweet Psalmist of Israel, scored for harp, harpsichord and orchestra. According to the critics, Ben-Haim’s music can best be described as late romantic with an Oriental/Mediterranean overtone. He embodies the general tendencies of this group of composers who were trained in the classic late romanticism of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ben-Haim died in 1984.”

1898: The first convention of the FAZ came to a close.

1901: The Conference of American Rabbis opened its annual meeting today in Philadelphia.  The major business of the day was resolving the question “Whether or not the religion of Jesus should be taught in the Jewish theological Schools.”  The conference unanimously adopted the conclusions of a report prepared by Rabbis Philipson, Deutsch,  Krauskopf that stated that while some of Jesus’ message contained “beautiful more teachings”  they “cannot form part of, nor be incorporated in any official statement of declaration of Jewish belief.”  This was defining moment for setting boundaries of the Reform Movement.

1913: Since today was Shabbat, the Conference of American Rabbis which had begun meeting in Atlantic City yesterday, did not have any business sessions today.

1914: Birthdate of Yitzhak Rafael, a native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935 and eventually becoming a an Israeli political leader who served in the Knesset and as Minister of Religons.

1923: Third baseman Joe Bennett made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1932: Birthdate of Victor Saul Navasky “a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism” who held a variety of positions at the Nation from 1978 to 2005 when “he became the publisher emeritus.”

1933: An agricultural settlement, Kadima, was founded on the initiative of Yehoshua Hankin.  In 2003, it merged with Tzoran to become Tzoran-Kadima

1934: In Vienna, The body of Chaim Nachman Biliak, the great Hebrew poet who died last night of a heart attack lay in state in the ceremonial hall of the Central Jewish Cemetery surrounded by an honor guard of Jewish students from the University of Vienna.

1934: In announcing plans for U.S. memorial services honoring the late Chaim Nachman Bialik, Morris Rothenberg, President of the ZOA, described him “the foremost Hebrew Poet of the last 500 years.

1935: The Bialik Institute invited authors throughout the world to compete for eight prizes with a total value of 900 pounds which will be awarded in January, 1936. The winners will be determined based on their contributions to Hebrew literature.  Submission may include original Hebrew works as well as efforts translated from the original into Hebrew.

1936: A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that in spite of the six-week-long general Arab strike, work was still going on the Jaffa Port improvement. A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night. Four cars belonging to Jews were set on fire in Jerusalem. The shooting, bomb throwing and tree uprooting by Arab terrorists continued throughout the country.

1937: During the Spanish Civil, New Yorker Moe Fishman, a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was wounded while fighting in a battle west of Madrid.

1938:  Herb Caen's first column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Caen’s father was Jewish, but his mother was not.

1941: After 54 Jews were shot the prior day, 93 more were killed in Vilna by members of the Einsatzkommando unit. The Einsatzkommando were the SS killing squads that followed the Nazi Army into eastern Poland, the Baltic States and the Soviet Union. They were to round up the Jews and other undesirables and kill them. But special emphasis was placed on the Jews in this next phase of the Final Solution.

1941: In Lvov, the local Ukrainians continued to take Jews from their homes and murder them. Among the victims were a 49-year-old ophthalmologist, Kornelia Graf-Weisenberg, and her daughter.

1941: The Nuremberg Race Law was extended to include Czech citizens.

1941: In the Ukraine, 3000 Jews are murdered at Chernovtsy; 600 are killed at Skalat.

1942: Margot Frank, the sister of Anne Frank, received a notice to report to a labor camp

1943: Heinrich Himmler orders that Sobibór, a death camp, be made a concentration camp.

1945: Great Britain holds its first general election since 1935.  The election pits Churchill and his Conservative Party against Atlee and the Laborites.  Churchill and the Conservatives will go down to defeat.  Unfortunately for the Jews, the new Laborite government will enforce the White Paper and support the Arab cause with even more tenacity than the Churchill government had.

1950: The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, passed a law granting every Jew the absolute right to settle in Israel. This is the famous Law of Return.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that registration began of all the Israeli-occupied houses in Jerusalem's no-man's-land by the joint subcommittee of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission. It was hoped that the registration would eliminate the neutral areas and all the trouble spots in which many lives were lost during the past three years. Israeli seamen demanded a large share in their foreign currency earnings.

1959: Birthdate of Daniel Gordis, a rabbi ordained at JTS who is the President of the Shalem Foundation and the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School

1960: The then 50-year old Jewish community of the Belgian Congo, consisting of 2500 Jews fled in the wake of riots that followed independence of that former Belgian colony.

1970: Amos Zamir and Amos Levitov were captured when their FE4 Phantom was shot down by Egyptian SAM’s during the War of Attrition.

1975(25th of Tammuz, 5735): In Jerusalem, a refrigerator that had five kilograms of explosives packed into its sides exploded on Zion Square, a main square leading to Ben Yehuda Street and to Jaffa Street. Fifteen people were killed and 77 were injured. After the attack, Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, said: "The murder serves as a warning not to get caught up in illusions about the intentions of the terror organizations ... Therefore we must follow a strict policy of not negotiating with them. We must speak to them only in the language they understand, the language of the sword." Ahmad El-Sukar, the terrorist responsible for placing the bomb, was released from Israeli prison in 2003 as a gesture to Arafat.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported on the successful completion of the Entebbe rescue operation, the joy at the freeing of hostages who arrived home to a jubilant Israel. Four Israelis - the commander of the rescue team, Yonatan Netanyahu, and three other soldiers - were killed during the operation. A number of wounded Israelis were still under treatment in Nairobi hospital. Idi Amin, Uganda's ruler was working together with Palestinian gunmen, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Knesset.

1976: The Associated Press published an interview with “Muki” Betser, one of the organizers of the Entebbe Rescue Operation.  According to the interview, the raid was so successful, in part, because of information supplied to the Israelis by the hostages who had been released by the terrorists.

1979: Sixty-seven year old Edis De Philippe, who founded the Israel National Opera Company in 1947 passed away today. (As reported by Shabtai Benaroyo)
1989: An exhibition entitled ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' appearing at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan comes to a close. The following review entitled “Slices of Time, Preserved in Deft Images” describes the exhibition and its importance.

A photograph, whether intended to or not, speaks of the time in which it was made. This is obvious in the case of images taken years ago -pictures from the first days of Israel's independence, for example, or from the tumultuous decade of the 1960's. But it is also true of contemporary art photographs of the sort one finds displayed in SoHo galleries. This weekend affords an unusually rich opportunity to look at photographs of the past and present, and to assess how much the world has changed in the last 40 years. Robert Capa's photographs of the first years of the State of Israel were taken at a time - 1948 to 1950 - when photojournalism was in full flower. Not only was this genre the most visible and provocative manifestation of photography, but it was also the primary means by which the events of the world were conveyed. Capa, considered by many the quintessential photojournalist, made a considerable reputation by photographing the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His images of those conflicts have become so well known that they could be considered among the lasting monuments of war. With relatively few exceptions, however, Capa's pictures of Israel did not achieve wide currency during his lifetime (he died, the victim of a land mine in Vietnam, in 1954). Curiously, given the potential interest in their subject matter, they have rarely been published or seen in exhibitions. Thus the show ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' which has opened this week at the Jewish Museum has an unusual fascination. The 107 black-and-white images in the exhibition, which was organized by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from the archives of the Capa estate, depict an Israel in the throes of self-definition. There are pictures of immigrants in transient camps, of politicians electioneering, of soldiers mobilizing. We see the first meeting of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as well as the unloading of mattresses beside rows of tents pitched in the desert. There are pictures of combat as well, but they do not seem as vivid or vital as Capa's earlier war work. Perhaps that is because Capa, a Jew born in Hungary, had his heart elsewhere. The most affecting images in the show are filled with human interest, not action. For a picture called ''Funeral,'' 1949, Capa framed a grieving elderly woman in the foreground, but the camera focuses behind her, on the beautiful and stoic face of a young girl. In his pictures of the transient camps, Capa concentrated on faces that bespeak optimism and pride. Children, especially, seemed to catch his eye. In addition to depicting farmers, construction workers, soldiers and shopkeepers, he photographed a couple dancing to the music of an accordion, a painter, several musicians - with the apparent aim of bearing witness to the perseverance of the nobler aspects of the human spirit. In appreciating these images as historical artifacts, however, one might also wonder why it is that they have lain in such desuetude all these years. Is it that once their news value had faded, they became no more than relics? That doesn't seem likely, since none of Capa's other work has remained unseen for so long. A more reasonable speculation would be that Capa's attempt to put a good face on what was happening in Israel was not sufficiently convincing to the editorial tastes of his day, and that consequently the pictures never acquired the aura of news. One could also wonder whether the photographs' focus on human interest, rather than on combat or other action, made them seem dispensable. But human interest is one of photojournalism's perennial staples, as can be gleaned from ''Life: Through the 60's,'' an exhibition at the International Center of Photography (1130 Fifth Avenue, at 94th Street, through May 21). The show consists of more than 100 photographers' pictures taken between 1956 and 1972 and culled from the archive of Life magazine. ''Life: Through the 60's'' has its fair share of bedrock photojournalism, including such ''hard news'' specimens as a view of James Meredith being shot during a civil-rights march, a frame from the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination, and a score of examples of first-rate war photography from Vietnam. But Life's editors, and Doris C. O'Neil, who selected the images in the exhibition, were savvy enough to know that the 60's could not be encapsulated solely by cataclysmic events. So the show also includes pictures of women in mini-skirts, communal-living hippies, sports figures and, of course, movie, television and rock stars like the Beatles. Compared with Capa's view of Israel at the end of the 40's, Life's retrospective of the 60's seems well balanced to a point close to blandness. But the period itself gives the show a flavor that is even more pronounced than the magazine's two previous forays into the past, ''Life: The First Decade'' and ''Life: The Second Decade.'' Any review of the 60's comes complete with a hearty helping of nostalgia to enrich its already complex, confounding texture, and the images here are no exception.

1989: The sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its first episode.  Much to everybody’s surprise, this sitcom built around the life of a New York Jewish comedian becomes a smash hit.

1983: Menachem Begin appointed Sarah Doron Minster without Portfolio.

1998(11th of Tammuz, 5758): Football great Sid Luckman passed away. Luckman gained fame as quarterback with Columbia and then with the Chicago Bear. His success earned him a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.

1993: Opening of the 14^th Maccabiah

1991(23rd of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-one year old Pulitzer Prize winning, poet laureate of the United States Howard Nemerov passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/obituaries/howard-nemerov-poet-laureate-and-pulitzer-recipient-dies-at-71.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

 1997(30th of Sivan, 5757): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Nineteen to the Dozens: Monologues and Bits and Bobs of Other Things by Sholem Aleichem.

2005: Two undercover police officers in Torrance, California, noticed a car nosing slowly past a Chevron station. Two men wearing ski masks jumped from the car, one brandished a shotgun, and they stole $252 from the night clerk. Police arrested the two men without incident, but a search of their shared apartment yielded jihadist literature and plans to bomb synagogues in Los Angeles.

2007:  The 24th Jerusalem International Film Festival opens. This is one of the world’s premier film festivals, featuring dozens of films from Israel and around the world. The 2007 festival will inaugurate the renovated Jerusalem Cinematheque.

2007: It was announced that Ken Feinberg would work pro bono as the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund (HSMF) which was set up by the Virginia Tech Foundation in the aftermath of the massacre of students and faculty by a lone gun man on the Virginia Tech Campus

2007(19th of Tamuz, 5767): Sylvan R. Shemitz, whose lighting designs warmed the facade of Grand Central Terminal and flooded the Jefferson Memorial, passed away at the age of 82.

2008: At the Joyce Theatre in New York City, the Pilobolus Dance Theater, in collaboration with Inbal Pinto Dance Theater, performs “Rushes.” The Inbal Pinto Dance Company was founded by Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak in 1992. “Together, they have been involved in a variety of artistic endeavors - mainly the creation, direction, choreography and design of unique and award winning, dance performances for their Company. The Israeli company consists of 12 dancer/actors working together and motivated by the collective wish to make connections among various artistic disciplines to convey new stage creations informed by memories, longings, ideas and imagination.”

2009(13^th of Tammuz, 5769): Anita “Nita” Rabinowitz, who for 65 years was the wife or Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, Rabbi Emeritus of Adas Israel Congregation, and woman of unique style and charm, passed away today. She is survived by two daughters, Dr. Sharon Chard Yaron of San Diego, CA and Judi Argaman of Herzlia, Israel; four grandchildren, Maiya Chard Yaron of San Diego, Omri, Elad and Noa Argaman of Herzlia,Israel  and her brother a brother, Kalman Lifson of Rydal, PA.

Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing

2009: The Sixth Australian Israel Film Festival, sponsored by AICE, the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange comes to an end today.

2009: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Radical: The Life and Times of I. F. Stone by D. D. Guttenplan.

2009: The Washington Post featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Sweet Science and Other Writings: The Sweet Science, The Earl of Louisiana, The Jollity Building, Between Meals, The Press by A.J. Liebling and The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works by Henry Waxman and Joshua Green.

2010: Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present "Truly Very Strange People!": The heroes of the Second Aliyah

2010: Firefighters succeeded in bringing a fire in the Yehudiah nature reserve in the Golan Heights under control this afternoon. Firefighters on the ground and in the air were still trying to control the giant fire burning out of control in the Bar'am forest north of Tzfat and the Meitzar stream. Additional crews are fighting a blaze that broke out in the area of Alonei Habashan in the Golan Heights. Firefighters are also at work on a brush fire in the city of Nesher near Haifa.

2011(3^rd of Tammuz): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Illoway, a leader of American Orthodox Judaism, who passed away in Cincinnati on 3rd of Tamuz, 5631 (June 22, 1871).

2011(3^rd of Tammuz): Yahrzeit of The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who passed away on 3rd of Tammuz, 5754 from creation (June 12,1994)

2011: The Milwaukee Jewish Community Chorale Board of Directors is scheduled to meet at Fox Point, Wisconsin.

2011: Two bills aimed at alleviating the woes of women whose husbands refuse them divorces passed the Knesset Law Committee today, ahead of votes in the plenum. The proposed law put forth by MK Othniel Schneller of Kadima, initiated by the Mavoi Satum (Dead End) NGO, determines that rabbinic courts will have to hold a hearing on a recalcitrant husband within maximum 45 days from when the court ordered he afford his wife with a Jewish divorce (get). At that hearing, the rabbinic judges will debate issuing sanctions on the husband. The original proposal as composed by attorney Batya Kahana-Dror, director of Mavoi Satum, would have sanctions immediately applied if the husband refuses the court order to give the get. MK Zevulun Orlev's bill would establish a mechanism to oversee the implementation of sanctions against recalcitrant husbands, issued by the rabbinic courts. The Habayit Heyehudi lawmaker's bill would increase the efficiency of hearings on recalcitrant husbands and prevent women from being “chained” to them for years. Orlev's bill was initiated by the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women. Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kadari, director of the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women at Bar-Ilan University and an expert in family law said that the concept was to give the rabbinical courts a system that will automatically convene a hearing when spouses are ordered to grant a divorce but the divorce has not yet happened. These two bills together will now make the rabbinic courts obligated to set a date for a divorce and if that does not happened it will pave the way for imposing sanctions on recalcitrant spouses. In 1995 a law was passed that allowed the rabbinic courts to impose sanctions but research undertaken by the Rackman Center noted that only in one or two percent of the cases are such sanctions imposed but a report by the State Comptroller’s Office found that when sanctions are imposed on the spouse, the results are successful.n “It is an effective tool but it is not being used,” said Halperin-Kadari, adding that one of the reasons that the law is not being used is because the wives are not appealing to the rabbinate to impose the sanctions against their husbands. This law will remedy that because the rabbis will now be forced to call a hearing and follow up on what is happening with the divorce cases. Kahana-Dror called the bills “a significant step in the right direction,” but stressed that in their current form, which doesn't actually order the issue of sanctions, rather set frameworks and dates for a debate on them, the bills “are entirely inadequate. This is a real compromise for us.” According to Kahana-Dror, one in every five women seeking a divorce could be considered “chained.” She said that between 1995-2008 40,000 divorce files were opened, that were not ruled upon.

2011: The Israel Air Force targeted a terror cell in Gaza today, after it was identified as attempting to fire projectiles at Israel. The pilots reported hitting their mark. Military sources told Ynet that the cell was comprised of five individuals who were preparing to launch a rocket at Israel. This was the third such event over the past two weeks, which the defense establishment believes indicated Hamas is allowing them. The IDF said any rocket fire on Israel or terror attack on Israeli targets would be met with a harsh response. The IDF strike comes two days after a rocket was launched from Gaza landed in Israel.

 2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Trianon in Paris

2012: Funeral services  for Lauren Reece Flaum (z"l) conducted by Rabbi Jeff Portman, are scheduled to be held this morning  at Agudas Achim Congregation with the burial at the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City. Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing

 2012: Woody Allen's romantic comedy, "To Rome With Love," is scheduled to open the 29th Jerusalem Film Festival..

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