This Day, July 7, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. Levin

July 7 In Jewish History

1274: Pope Gregory X confirmed a bull issued in 1272 banning charges of blood ritual.

1307: King Edward I, the monarch who expelled the Jews from England, died.

1320: In Pastoureaux (Southern France), an unnamed shepherd started a crusade against the Jews. It spread throughout most of southern France and northern Spain destroying one hundred and twenty communities. At Verdun, 500 Jews defended themselves from within a stone tower. When they were about to be overrun they killed themselves.

1358: Hundreds of Jews in Catalonia were murdered

1520: Cortes defeats a force of Aztecs who had chased him out of Mexico City.  It would be more than a year before Cortes would be able to conquer the capital city.  Among those with Cortes was a converso or crypto-Jew named Hernando Alonso who worked as a blacksmith.

1572: King Sigismund II Augustus, one of the monarchs who invited Jews to settle in Poland, passed away.

1690(1st of Av): Rabbi Hillel ben Naphta Zevi of Altona, author Bet Hillel, novella on the code passed away
1733: Forty-one Jews settled in the colony of Georgia. Among them were Spanish, Portuguese, German and English Jews.

1743(23^rd of Tammuz): Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar also known as the Ohr ha-Chaim after his popular commentary on the Pentateuch. Born at Meknes, Morocco in 1696, he became a leading rabbi in his native land before leaving for Eretz Israel in 1733. He finally arrived in Jerusalem in 1742 “where he presided at the Beit Midrash Knesset Yisrael.”  He is buried on the Mount of Olives where his gravestone may still be seen.

1836: Joseph II of Galicia, in an alleged effort to improve the educational status of Rabbis, decreed that no Rabbis be appointed if they did not attend a University. Little came of his decree.

1860: Birthdate of composer Gustav Mahler. Mahler converted to Catholicism to further his career, a move that earned him derision from his critics and no relief from the anti-Semites. Mahler passed away in 1911.
1860:  Birthdate of Abraham Cahan. From 1903 until his death in 1951, Cahan was the editor of the "Jewish Daily Forward", the most popular and most enduring of all Yiddish newspapers.

1862: John Wood, Drummer, of Company A, Thirty-sixth Regiment N.Y.V., died in the Jews' Hospital.  The Jew’s Hospital (later known as Mt. Sinai) had been built in the 1850’s to meet the health needs of New York’s burgeoning Jewish population.  Its role changed during the Civil War as it became a major health care facility for treating the sick and wounded of the Union Army.
1871: Daniel Joseph, the father of Sir Otto Jaffe established the Belfast Hebrew Congregation “which worshipped at the Great Victoria Street synagogue.

1879: The Executive Board of the Council of the Union of American and Hebrew Congregations met this morning with Moritz Loth presiding and Lipman Levy acting as secretary.  The board met to prepare for the upcoming meeting of the Council which was scheduled to begin on the following day.
1881: In Kentucky, Governor Blackburn has declared today to be a day of public fasting and prayer where all business is suspended so that citizens can go to churches “or other places of worship”  to pray for the recovery of President Garfield who has been shot by an assassin. [For Jews, the importance of this is that the governor has acknowledged that there are other houses of worship than those used by Christians.]

1882: As the Freight Handler’s strike in New York continues cargo fails to leave the port despite the availability of large numbers of foreign born workers including Russian Jews to work the docks.  According to critics, they lack the skill and knowledge to work effectively.  As the strikers become more desperate, incidence of violence increase as can be seen by the stone-throwing attack on Jews at the 30^th Street Yards.
1882: The current labor strife between the freight handlers and the railroad companies is described as battle between Teutonic and Celtic Races on the one hand and Russian-Semitic and Latin volunteers on the other hand.  In a tactic that would become quite common during labor disputes, the owners and their supporters would try and pit worker against worker; in this case Germans and Irish against Russian Jews and Italians.
1882: It was reported today that in Russia, Count Tolstoi, the Minister of the Interior has ordered the authorities at the frontier “to do all this is possible to facilitate the return of the Jews.” 
1882: The newly formed Propaganda Verein, most of whose members were Jewish, met tonight at the Golden Rule Hall on Rivington Street.  The evening’s theme was “The Jewish Question” – the future of the Jewish race and the anomaly of the persecution of Jews.
1883: “The Alleged Passover Murder” published today described recent event in the trial of Jews accused of ritual murder of a Christian girl, Esther Salomossy, at Nyreghaza, Hungary.  Two of the accused claimed that their confessions had been obtained by force and coercion.  The defense counsel told the court that the people of Tisza-Eglar, where the alleged murder had taken place have “been taught that it was not wrong to testify falsely against the Jews” if the interests of the country required a conviction .
1884: In Boston, Isaac Jacobs, a Polish Jew who is the prime suspect in the murder of Etta G. Carleston, is expected to make his next court appearance on charges of having stolen a watch a chain.

1884: “Case of Pauper Immigrants” published today, described evidence gathered by the Emigration Commissioner that the clerks at Castle Garden were not be vigilant in seeing to it that immigrants who lacked funds or financial sponsors were kept from entering the country.  Among those metntioned were Henry Brolsky, his wife and six children had arrived aboard the SS Assyrian Monarch.  According to Brolsky, the Hebrew Society of London had paid for their passage.  He said he had family in St. Louis, but had no funds to make the trip. Another example was an un-named family from Poland who had arrived on the SS Australia.  Their passage had been paid for by the Hebrew Society of London. The immigrants claimed they had been told that the Commissioners of Emigration would provide them with funds once they had arrived. [The report cited examples of non-Jews as well.  The issue of “pauper immigrants” would bedevil the immigration debate among Jews as well as the general society until World War I staunch the human flood tide.]
1884: Birthdate of Lion Feuchtwanger, German -born dramatist and narrator who escaped to the United States at the outbreak of World War II.  He passed away in his California home in 1958.
1887: It was reported today that Albert Weinschenk, a young German Jew who shot himself after his non-Jewish mother-in-law claimed that he was a bigamist is not expected to survive his self-inflicted wound.  [The facts will never all be known but apparently inter-marriage was not always a case of “Abie’s Irish Rose.”

1887: The trustees of Gates of Hope suspended Rabbi E.B.M. Browne from his position as leader of the congregation after a special committee of investigation found that guilty of charges of “conduct unbecoming a minister.”
1887: J.E. Phillips presided over tonight’s meeting at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue where the Jewish citizens discussed plans for a possible celebration of the 400^th anniversary of the expulsion from Spain and Columbus’ first voyage to the New World.

1887: Birthdate of artist Marc Chagall. Born Moishe Zakharovich Shagalov (Moishe Segal) in Belarus (then part of the Russian Empire), Chagall‘s life lasted almost one hundred years. He developed his art against a backdrop of World War I, the Russian Revolution and its Stalinist aftermath, Paris during the thirties, the Holocaust and the birth of the state of Israel. One can only appreciate Chagall by seeing Chagall. There are numerous websites where his art may be viewed. The “Praying Jew” is my personal favorite. http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/marc-chagall/the-praying-jew-rabbi-of-vitebsk-1914

http://www.abcgallery.com/C/chagall/chagall81.html

1888: Rabbi Jacob Charif (Jacob Sharp) arrived early this morning at Hoboken aboard the North German Lloyd steamer. Chariff, from Wilna Russia, has been brought to the United states by the United Society to serve the needs of New York’s “orthodox down-town Jews.” Charif refused to leave the boat or meet with the welcoming committee until Saturday evening, after the end of Shabbat.

1889: It was reported today that some social scientists, many of whom live in Germany, are impatiently awaiting the establishment of Jewish state in Palestine as a way of proving their theories about governance and nationalism. Since there are those who contend that the recent success of Jews has taken place in a Christian society and that Jews would not be nearly as successful living in a society where they were both the governed and the governor.

1899: Birthdate of movie director George Cukor. Cukor had a long and distinguished career that included two Catherine Hepburn – Spencer Tracy classics. But he may be most famous for the movie that he did not direct. Cukor was the first director for "Gone With the Wind" but he was fired before he could complete the project. He passed away in 1983
1901:  Birthdate of producer Sam Katzman.  Katzman’s work includes a series of Superman serials and early Elvis Presley films.
1901: The New York Times reports on the popularity of Montefiore Isaacs, the Union Club Member who is a nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore.  The popular bachelor is known for his skill as magician which he freely shares for charitable events as well as his knowledge of Shakespeare.

1902: Herzl appears before the Royal Commission.
1903: The funeral of Albert F Hochstadter, prominent businessman and a Trustee of Temple Emanu-El  is scheduled to take place today at this famous New York Jewish house of worship.
1904: Theodor Herzl is laid to rest at the Döblinger Friedhof. Thousands of Jews took part in the funeral procession. In his will Herzl asked that his body be buried next to his father, "to remain there until the Jewish people will carry my remains to Palestine."

1904: As a sign of the political right’s loss of power in the wake of the Dreyfus Affair, the government banned the religious orders from teaching in France.  When Pope Pius X strenuously objected, the French broke diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
1907: Birthdate of Abraham "Abe" Ellstein (Yiddish: אַבֿרהם "אײב" עלשטײן, Avrom Ellstein, July 7, 1907, New York - 1963) was an American composer for Yiddish entertainments. Along with Shalom Secunda, Joseph Rumshinsky, and Alexander Olshanetsky, Ellstein was one of the "big four" composers of his era in New York City's Second Avenue (Manhattan) Yiddish theatre scene.[1] His musical Yidl Mitn Fidl became one of the greatest hits of Yiddish-language cinema. He was born on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, at that time an Eastern European Jewish immigrant area.

1920: In London, Rebecca Sieff, Dr. Vera Weizmann (wife of Israel's first president, Dr. Chaim Weizmann), Edith Eder, Romana Goodman and Henrietta Irwell  founded Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO)

1920: Arthur Meighen, who was pro-Zionist, begins his first term as Prime Minister of Canada.
1933: Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Ginsburg of 21 Bialik Street in Tel Aviv are the proud parents of a newly born son.  Mrs. Ginsberg is the former Ella Bach.

1936(17th of Tamuz, 5696): Tzom Tammuz

1937: The Peel Commission Report describing the investigation of the 1936 Arab Riots was published. The Commission recommended the partition of Mandatory Palestine into two states. The Zionist Congress would, while rejecting the actual borders, agree to consider the proposal. The Arabs rejected it out of hand.
1938: British troops clash with an armed band of Arabs trying to cross in Palestine from Trans-Jordan. This did not stop other Arab infiltrators from joining their brethren in the fight against the British and the Jewish citizens of Palestine.

1940: In an article entitled “Palestine Season Closes,” Dr. Peter Gradenwitz describes the recently ended musical season of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.  The season included thirteen concert series in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem as well as additional performances at various agricultural colonies that brought the total of performances to 80.
1940(1st of Tammuz, 5700): Five thousand Jews of Kovno executed by Nazis.
1941 (12th of Tammuz, 5701): Thirty-two Jews are killed in Mariampole, Lithuania.

1941: In France, a collaborationist military force, Légion des Volontaires Français (French Volunteer Legion), is established.

1941 (12th of Tammuz, 5701): Two thousand Jews are murdered at Khotin, Ukraine

1942(22nd of Tammuz, 5702): One thousand Jews from Rzeszów, Poland, are killed at the Rudna Forest. Fourteen thousand are deported to the Belzec death camp.

1942: Himmler held a meeting in Berlin with three high ranking men. It was decided that medical experiments would commence on the Jews. Emphasis would be placed on Jewish women in Auschwitz. Himmler pledged his coconspirators to secrecy.
1943: Birthdate of Joel Siegel who would become a household icon while serving as Entertainment Editor on GMA from 1981 through 2007.

1943(4th of Tammuz, 5703): Saul Kozlowski, an 18 year old Communist was arrested by the Gestapo in Vilna, Lithuania.  The Gestapo wanted to the known the identity of leader of the underground known as “The Lion.”  After hours of torture, Kozlowski identifies Isaac Wittenberg, a Jew living in the ghetto, as being “the Lion.”  As the Germans turned away to discuss their next step, Kozlowski grabbed a knife and slit his own throat.
1944: Approximately 437,000 have been deported from Hungary to Auschwitz since May 18.
1944: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill informs Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden that he is in favor of the Royal Air Force bombing Auschwitz. From July 7, 1944, to January 19, 1945, the Allies will bomb industrial targets near Auschwitz at least four times, including one resulting in the accidental bombing of Auschwitz.  But they will never bomb the death camps or the railroad leading to them.  To some people, Eden takes on the role of the scapegoat regarding the Jews.  Churchill always wants to help but somehow his number two thwarts him. 
1944: In Lithuania, partisan forces, including the Jewish Brigade led by Abba Kovner, join the Soviets in the attack on Vilna.

1948:  The settlers who were defending Kfar Darom against Egyptian attacks agreed to be evacuated.  Kfar Darom had been cut off from direct military help since the end of June.  Air drops of supplies failed to reach the embattled settlement because of Egyptian anti-aircraft.  Their stubborn resistance helped to slow the Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv and bought time for the Israelis defending the approaches to the major Jewish population centers. The successful evacuation took place during the night of July 7-8.
1947: Harriet Shapiro married Fred Rochlin in a “small living room…packed to capacity with relatives and friends” at the house on Sentinel Avenue in Los Angeles, California.
1948: During the War for Independence, with the truce period about to expire the Security Council asked each side if they would extend it for ten days.   The Jews accepted the proposal.  The Arabs rejected it. 
1956(28th of Tammuz, 5716): Isa Kremer Born in Beltz, Bessarabia. 21 October 1887. Died Cordoba, Argentia, 7 July 1956. Possibly the first women to bring Yiddish song to the concert stage in Russia, was known as an international balladist. Married Israel Heifetz and had one daughter, Toussia, 1917. Yiddish singer and opera star. She studied in Italy, and came to US. Operatic debut in La Boheme in 1902. Joined a group of intellectuals in Odessa with her husand and began to sing Yiddish songs. Due to the Russian revolution, escaped to Poland and then to America. Represented by Sol Hurok for her American debut at Carnegie Hall 29 October, 1922. Sang also in vaudeville Palace Theatre debut in 1927. "Mein Shtetle Belz" was written for her by Olshanetsky and Jacobs for the show "Song of the Ghetto." Traveled throughout Canada and US on concert tours. In a tour of Argentina in late 1930s met Gregorio Bermann. In 1938, moved to Argentina. Isa Kremer sang on the stage in many languages, including Yiddish. She was widely covered by the press; both English and Yiddish reviews of her concerts appeared all over the US, Europe and South America. Her papers are held in Buenos Aires Jewish Center. To read a more complete essay on the life and work of Isa Kremer, open this pdf file.

1964: Tens of thousands of Israelis paid honor tonight to Zeev Jabotinsky, whose remains were flown to Tel Aviv from the United States for reburial.
1965(7th of Tammuz, 5725): Moshe Sharett, second Prime Minister of Israel, passed away.  Born Moshe Shertok in Russia in 1894, Sharett grew up in an Arab village near Jerusalem. He graduated from high school in Tel Aviv and then went to Constantinople to study law. At this time Palestine was part of the Turkish Empire and Sharett enlisted in the Turkish Army during World War I. Sharett rose to prominence in the Zionist movement during the 1930’s although he found himself at odds with David Ben Gurion. Sharett was Israel’s first Foreign Minister. When Ben Gurion retired for the first time, Sharett became Prime Minister. Ben Gurion and Sharett continued to clash. When Ben Gurion returned to power in 1955, Sharett returned to the Foreign Ministry. Sharett resigned because he was opposed to the coming Sinai War in 1956. Sharret suffered from "John Adams Disease." Just as John Adams was doomed because he was following George Washington, so Sharrett was doomed because he labored in the shadow of Ben Gurion.
1973(7th of Tammuz, 5733):  Seventy-eight year old Max Horkheimer, the German born philosopher and sociologist who sought refuge in the U.S. during the Nazi after his academic credentials were revoked and his institute was closed.  [When you read the NY Times obit, see below, you will be hard pressed to find the simple statement that he was Jewish.]
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F50E12FB385C1A7A93CBA9178CD85F478785F9

1980(23rd of Tammuz, 5740): Famed writer Dore Schary passed away. Born Isadore Schary in 1905, Schary dropped the "Isa" from Isadore to create his first name. Like so many other Jews of his era, Shary helped create the cinematic version of the American Myth. He won an Oscar for the screenplay "Boys Town." He produced the canine classic "Lassie Come Home." But his greatest work came when he returned to Broadway and wrote the script for "Sunrise At Campobello." Shcary did not hide his Judaism. He was active in numerous Jewish organizations and served as the head of the Anti-Defamation League.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00A1FFB385C11728DDDA10894DF405B8084F1D3

1986(30^th of Sivan, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1986: The United States Supreme Court struck down Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law.  Senator Warren Rudman was an apparent anomaly on two counts.  First he was elected from New Hampshire, not exactly a state with a large Jewish population and second he was a conservative Republican.
1992:  The comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 rashes into the planet Jupiter.  According to David Levy, one of the trio who discovered the comet, it was the widely watched such phenomena in history.  Canadian born David Levy was an English major in college.  His career in astronomy began as an amateur.  He sees a definite connection between his Jewish heritage and astronomy. For example, Pesach always comes at the full moon, the night sky on Yom Kippur is always the same and Shabbat does not end until three stars can be seen in the sky.  His Judaism and his astronomy are so intertwined that he and his bride decided they wanted to be married under the night sky.
1998: In the following articled entitled “Claims for Art Collection Pose a Challenge to Hungary,” Judith Dobrzynski describes the efforts by the Nierenberg family to retrieve a portion of the art collection that was successively seized by the fascists and the communists.
Martha Nierenberg was one of the lucky ones. When the Nazis invaded her native Hungary on March 19, 1944, ''the whole family went into hiding with a friend in Budapest,'' she recalled. ''By noon, they were looking for my father.'' Unlike others with Jewish backgrounds, she and most of her relatives soon escaped, including her father, Alfonz Weiss. The Weisses were so important economically -- employing 30,000 workers to make everything from airplanes and tanks to tin cans and needles -- that they bartered a 25-year lease on their factory for freedom. When they fled, they were escorted by police cars. But Mrs. Nierenberg, now 74, also remembers what they left behind -- especially the mansion of her maternal grandfather, Baron Maurice Herzog, on Andrassy Boulevard, Budapest's Champs-Elysees. ''It was like a museum, like the Frick,'' she said. Many of those works, widely known as the Herzog Collection, now hang in Hungarian museums, where they were left for safekeeping during the war or placed after being stolen by the Nazis and later returned to Hungary. She wants them back. But Hungary, the latest in a string of countries whose national collections have been hit by individuals' claims for wartime plunder, seems torn. As a fledgling democracy just starting to make its way in the West, and as a country that itself is trying to reclaim looted art in Canada and Russia, including many other paintings from the Herzog Collection, it might be sympathetic. But its national politics and cultural aspirations are tugging in the opposite direction. Negotiations between the Nierenbergs' lawyers and Hungarian officials, which began in mid-1996 and went smoothly at first, broke down last winter, just as Hungary was gearing up for a national election in May. Mrs. Nierenberg and her husband, Ted, who live in Armonk, N.Y., thought they had an agreement last fall on 21 of the 30 works they had so far claimed, including paintings by or attributed to El Greco, Cranach, Zurbaran and van Dyke. A team of experts from Sotheby's had valued the batch at $8 million to $14.5 million. ''We were slightly conservative,'' said George Wachter, the director of Sotheby's Old Master paintings department, partly because the works were viewed on museum walls and could not be studied closely. Mr. Wachter called the Cranach and Zurbaran paintings ''fantastic pictures,'' but said that the El Greco was best labeled ''workshop of El Greco with the possible assistance of El Greco himself,'' and that a Velazquez was also probably misattributed. ''It is a very beautiful, high-quality picture, and if we did more research, we might be able to go further,'' he said. ''But we said it should be attributed to Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo.'' The Nierenbergs were willing to take back 60 percent of this group, and to forgo the rest in lieu of Hungarian taxes. But, they said, Hungarian officials soon reneged, proposing instead to study the case further. The two sides have had no contact for months, and neither agrees with the other's version of what happened. ''They're stalling,'' Mr. Nierenberg said. ''I'm 75, and they think I'll lose interest, and it will go away.'' (The couple's four children have not focused on the quest.) The Hungarians, however, differ. ''They do have some claims, but we don't know how much,'' said Ivan Ronai, the director of the department of cultural heritage in the Culture Ministry. ''Some paintings were clearly deposited at the museum for safekeeping. Some are less clear. We don't know how they got there.'' The Nierenbergs have no contracts proving anything, he said. ''The whole collection in Hungary should be handled as a package,'' he added. ''But until we know the exact status of each painting, we are not in a position to bargain. That is why we suggested arbitration. We're waiting for them to come back, but they just refused.'' Mr. Nierenberg said he and his wife would agree to international binding arbitration, but not the kind the Hungarians had in mind. ''They said, 'We'll go to arbitration, but we pick three Hungarians and you pick three Hungarians,' '' he said. ''It was utterly ridiculous.'' Instead, the Nierenbergs have decided to apply public pressure, despite an early agreement not to talk about the dispute. ''The Hungarians said they wanted to get into NATO, and they didn't want any bad publicity,'' Mr. Nierenberg said. ''And then the Government felt it would lose the election if it gave away national treasures.'' But with Hungary's entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization seemingly assured, and with a new Hungarian Government in place, the Nierenbergs said going public was their best recourse, even though diplomats say the new regime is more nationalistic, less internationally minded than its predecessor. The designated Minister for Preserving National Cultural Heritage, Jozsef Hamori, just learned of the issue. Donald Blinken, a former United States Ambassador to Hungary who remains interested in the case, raised it with him on a trip to Budapest in late June. Reminding Mr. Hamori that Hungary was the first former East bloc country to allocate funds to pay Holocaust survivors a monthly stipend, ''I told him Hungary did it right once and ought to come to grips with this issue of art right away,'' Mr. Blinken said. The new Government may also have a hard time taking a tough stance in light of Hungary's activities with Canada. A year ago, the Hungarian Culture Ministry quietly asked the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to return ''The Marriage Feast at Cana,'' by Giorgio Vasari, which was stolen from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts during the war. The Montreal museum, which said the painting had been sold in 1961 by a state-owned store in Budapest and acquired later by the museum in good faith, responded that it had no obligation to return the painting. It proposed ''co-ownership.'' Hungary declined, and a lawyer for the Culture Ministry recently gave letters outlining the dispute to the press. One, to the museum's lawyers, dated Oct. 9, 1997, noted that when war losses were discovered in North American museums, ''it has not been the practice to hide behind national laws,'' but that ''a higher moral and ethical standard has systematically been applied.'' The Nierenberg case is also complicated by the looted art held by the Russians. They intercepted many paintings stolen by the Nazis in Hungary as the works, including many from the Herzog Collection, were being shipped to Germany. Over the years, Baron Herzog had donated some paintings to the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, but he retained the bulk of the collection. When he died in 1935, followed by his wife in 1941, the collection was left mainly to his three children, one of whom was Martha Nierenberg's mother, Elizabeth. Elizabeth (who married Alfonz Weiss) later inherited the one-third share of her brother Steven, who died in 1966. The other third was inherited by a brother who died in a labor camp during the war and whose share fell to his Italian ex-wife and their two daughters. Martha Nierenberg, as the oldest surviving heir of Elizabeth Weiss, said that she; her sister, Mary, and brother, John, were entitled to two-thirds of the Herzog Collection. For years, no one in the family did anything about reclaiming the art. Much of the Herzog Collection, whose 1,500 to 2,500 pieces included decorative objects as well as paintings by Italian, Spanish and Dutch Old Masters and French Impressionists, has simply vanished. Besides, when the family sought compensation for its industrial losses right after the war, what it got was bunch of virtually worthless Hungarian coupons, Mrs. Nierenberg said. ''This precedent dampened the family's whole desire,'' Mr. Nierenberg said. ''Why do anything for the art? We got bupkis for the real estate and the factory,'' he added, using a Yiddish term for nothing. The family did not know where the art was because of the Iron Curtain, and Mrs. Nierenberg said her mother downplayed the loss: ''Her feeling always was, 'We were out, and it was fine.' '' But a few years ago, the Russians acknowledged that they held ''trophy art'' from the war in their museums and vaults. When they started to exhibit it, some pictures were even labeled ''Herzog Collection.'' The Pushkin Museum in Moscow, for example, displayed ''a big picture of El Greco's that was my mother's,'' Mrs. Nierenberg said. That changed the Nierenbergs' minds. They set their sights on Hungary because Russia has refused to give anything back. That decision has not helped their cause with the Hungarians, who have been trying since 1991 to retrieve works from Russia. Minutes of the negotiating meetings with the Nierenbergs' lawyers show that the Hungarian officials have tried several times to shift the conversation to the works in Russia. ''The Hungarians said we should help them get the Herzog Collection back from Russia,'' Mr. Nierenberg said. ''They think it belongs to them. If we get this settled, we might do something with the Russians.'' But already, the Nierenbergs said, they have spent more than $50,000 on legal fees and on a curator they hired to prepare an inventory of the art they lost and to substantiate their claims that the paintings were left for safekeeping, not donated. Mr. Nierenberg, who with his wife founded Dansk Design, the upscale house-wares maker, in 1954 and sold it in 1985 for about $20 million to Brown-Forman, said he was willing to spend another $100,000 on the claim. Previously, ''all these paintings in the museum in Budapest were identified as 'Herzog Collection,' '' Mr. Nierenberg said. Now, Mr. Blinken and other witnesses said, those labels simply give the date of acquisition.

2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “New York: Capital of Photography” by Max Kozloff.

2003(7th of Tamuz, 5763): Izhak Graziani, Bulgarian-born conductor, passed away. Izhak "Ziko" Graziani studied music in his native Bulgaria before moving to Israel where he became conductor of the IDF Symphony Orchestra in 1948.

2005: Outfielder Adam Greenberg made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs.

2005: Outfielder Adam Stern made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.

2007: At the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum in New York, an exhibition called “Cinema Judaica: The War Years” comes to an end. This unprecedented exhibition of iconic Hollywood film posters from 1939 to 1949 illustrates how the motion picture industry countered America's isolationism, advocated going to war against the Nazis, influenced post-war perceptions of the Jewish people and the founding of the State of Israel, and shaped the face of contemporary Jewish life. The exhibition begins with the Hollywood studios' compliance with the Nazis' control of the motion picture industry in Germany, the ban on Jews from employment within it, and their restrictions on the American distribution of films shown in Germany and throughout Europe. All but two of America's eight largest American studios, facing the loss of 30%-40% of their revenues from Europe, complied with the Nazis' restrictions. United Artists closed down its German exchanges rather than fire its Jewish employees, but accepted German content restrictions and arranged for its films to be shown in Germany through another distributor. Only one studio, Warner Brothers, refused to comply with any of Goebbel's demands and withdrew from the German market. As Jewish characters disappeared from American films, Harry Warner and his brothers committed themselves to making anti-Nazi movies to alert the nation to the Nazi threat. Lacking First Amendment protection, according to a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which allowed any state, city, or town board who objected to its content to censor a film, the Hollywood studios set up the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA) and established a Production Code of Administration (PCA) that prohibited causing affront to foreign states, including Germany. Thereafter, films required a seal of approval from the MPPDA. At the same time, the PCA worked with the U.S. State Department to ensure that American movies did not violate a series of Neutrality Laws enacted by the Roosevelt administration to keep American citizens safe in European and other war zones. Thus, anti-Nazi screenplays and clearly defined Jewish roles, which would not pass the certification process, were transformed through allegory, character name changes, and other disguises and glosses by Warner Brothers and other like-minded independent producers. By July 1938, the discovery of a Nazi spy ring that had been operating in the Northeast under the order of the German government in addition to the Nazis' annexation of Austria, the appeasement agreement in Munich signed by England's Prime Minister Chamberlain, the take-over of Czechoslovakia, and the anti-Semitic Kristalnacht pogrom throughout German-occupied Europe led to the PCA approval of the first openly anti-Nazi shooting script, "Confessions of a Nazi Spy." This exhibition chronicles the period of the "Great Debate" films of 1939-1941 during three years of vigorous public argument in the media, in open forums sponsored by political organizations, and in Congress about American intervention against the Nazis in Europe. When it began, 60% of Americans believed it had been a mistake for the U.S. to enter World War I. The exhibition reveals the role of the first anti-Nazi films within the context of the battle between Charles Lindbergh and America First Committee isolationists and the Fight for Freedom interventionists, the attempt by Ambassador Joseph Kennedy to block anti-Nazi films, and threats from isolationist Senators to regulate the motion picture industry. In addition to "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," featured films include "Sons of Liberty," "Pastor Hall," and "The Great Dictator," among others.
By August 1941, a Senate sub-committee investigated Hollywood's violation of Neutrality Laws by warmongering in such films as "Sergeant York," about a noted World War I pacifist who later became a leading advocate for intervention against the Nazis. Included in the exhibition are the documents relating to a "Freedom Rally" at Madison Square Garden, protesting the hearing, whose program cover art was contributed by Walt Disney and included anti-Nazi declarations by Roosevelt. With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and America's declaration of war, Hollywood produced patriotic movies, in the guise of "platoon" films, which reflected on the melting pot tradition of American ethnic diversity and helped instill a unified fighting spirit. Included are posters for World War II espionage and concentration camp escape melodramas set in Germany or another Nazi-occupied country such as "To Be or Not To Be," plus films about Nazi Germany's accountability such as "Address Unknown," "Tomorrow the World," and "Hotel Berlin." Following the war, were the "Exodus" films addressing the attempt by European war refugees to rebuild their lives and cultures after the Holocaust include "My Father's House," "The Illegals," "The Search," and "Sword in the Desert." Post-war Hollywood films also addressed anti-Semitism on the home front on the part of the Christian Front and its notorious founder, Father Coughlin, and the Christian Mobilizers, who blamed the Jews for the war, called for the defeat of England, and attacked Jewish citizens, stores, and synagogues in major northeast cities. These films, in which an Italian American or Irish American authority figure condemns anti-Semitism, stops an assault, or solves a racist murder, include "The House I Live In," "Crossfire," "Open Secret," while "Gentleman's Agreement," addresses the related subject of White Anglo Saxon Protestant anti-Semitism. , NY

2007: In Jerusalem, a classical music concert entitled "Music in All the Shades" presents "Bel Canto in Ein Kerem," featuring soprano, Maria Yofa, flautist, Antoli Kogan, and pianist, Alexander Sneiderman.

2007: In an article entitled “Beyond The Myth, Art Endures,” The New York Times reports on Mexico’s celebration of the centenary of the birth of painter Frida Kahlo, the daughter of a Jewish businessman whose work has been overshadowed by her husband, Diego Rivera.

2008:   U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles ruled during a detention hearing for Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43 that the two Agriprocessors Inc. supervisors arrested last week for aiding and abetting illegal workers at the Postville meat processing plant to possess and use fraudulent identity documents will remain in federal custody until their trials. The men are upper-level supervisors at the plant. Scoles’ decision was based on several considerations, including the weight of evidence and criminal history. Both men had a history of illegal conduct, including entering the United States illegally. Guerrera-Espinoza acquired legal residency in 2002, and De La Rosa-Loera became a naturalized citizen in 2006. Another factor in his decision was the number of witnesses who will testify that both men knew of their illegal status and told them to get new identification cards and Social Security cards. Guerrero-Espinoza, a supervisor in the Beef Kill department, told a group of employees a few days before the May 12 raid they needed new identification and Social Security numbers to continue working at the company, according to the criminal complaint.  Four witnesses told Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that Guerrero-Espinoza told them to provide him with a photo and $200 or $220 for the new documents. He is charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identity documents, aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft, and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the United States. De La Rosa-Loera, a supervisor in the Poultry Kill department, told some illegal workers about 15 days before the May 12 raid they couldn’t continue to work at the plant because their Social Security numbers were bad and they needed new documents, according to the complaint. He is charged with aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identity documents and encouraging aliens to illegally reside in the United States. Trial dates haven’t been set.
2008: The Washington Post reports on the arrival of Jewish pilgrims in Safi, Morroco.
It's an uncommon sight for an Arab country: hundreds of joyous Jewish pilgrims gathering without fear around a rabbi's tomb, greeted by local Muslim officials who share a prayer with them at a synagogue.  Yet most of the 400 Jews who converged on the Moroccan coastal town of Safi _ some from nearby cities, others from as far as France or Israel _ at a weekend pilgrimage said they felt welcome here. While religious tensions flare in Jerusalem and beyond, in Morocco, Jews and Muslims say they nurture a legacy of tolerance and maintain common sanctuaries where adherents of both religions pray. Decades of emigration to Israel by Morocco's Jews and terrorist bombings in Casablanca that targeted Jewish sites haven't diminished the draw of these annual pilgrimages. During the festival that began Friday, visitors prayed and feasted around the shrine of Abraham Ben Zmirro, a rabbi reputed to have fled persecution in Spain in the 15th century and then lived in Safi, where he is buried with six siblings. A half-Jewish, half-Muslim band played local tunes during a banquet, including a song in French, Arabic and Hebrew with the line: "There is only one God, you worship Him sitting down and I while standing up." The pilgrims were joined Sunday by Aaron Monsenego, the great rabbi of Morocco, who prayed alongside the regional governor and several other Muslim officials at the shrine's synagogue for the good health of Morocco's King Mohammed VI and his family. "It's very important for us to pray altogether," Monsenego told The Associated Press. Regional governor Larbi Hassan Sebbari said, "We're also very proud of it: it gives a lesson to other countries of what we do together without any taboo." While several Arab states refuse to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist, reject Israeli visitors and ignore the remnants of their local Jewish heritage, Moroccans insist it is not the case in this moderate Muslim nation and U.S. ally. Once home to some 300,000 Jews, Morocco hosts the Arab world's only Jewish museum, funds Jewish institutions and frequently holds events to celebrate Judeo-Moroccan heritage. Still, the Jewish population here has dwindled to about 4,000 _ most in Casablanca. Economics, fears of living in an Arab state and sporadic discrimination drove hundreds of thousands of Moroccan Jews to Israel, Europe or America over the past few decades. Many left in 1948 when the state of Israel was created, or in 1956 when Morocco won independence from France. Other waves followed after the Israeli-Arab conflicts of 1967 and 1973 caused riots in some Moroccan towns. Jewish leaders who stayed say they practice their religion freely and that synagogues are well protected by police, especially since the 2003 bombings in Casablanca. And despite the bombings, Casablanca _ Morocco's commercial capital _ still boasts 32 active synagogues. "There was never any racism in Safi," said Haim Ohana, one of only 10 Jewish people remaining in a town where 6,000 Jews once lived. "People left from here because they were poor," said Ohana, who helped organize the pilgrimage and runs several businesses. The pilgrimage rituals are called Moussem in Arabic and Hilloula in Hebrew. Many of the pilgrims, including ultra-Orthodox Jews from Israel and French and Canadian businessmen, are émigrés who say they come to pray in Safi because of their emotional ties to Morocco. Therese Elisha, an Israeli, said she makes the pilgrimage every other year. "This is the town where I grew up, the synagogue where I prayed," she said. "I feel at home." "We're maintaining a bridge over the divide of the exodus," said Simone Merra, a human resources manager in Paris. Some of Morocco's Jews wonder how long their community will remain. Nadia Bensimon, who runs a fashion boutique in a coastal town, said she had no plans to leave. "But that could change if the Islamists become too powerful," she said. Morocco's main Islamist opposition party _ Adl wal Ihsan _ enjoys broad support, but it is banned from politics; secular parties dominate parliament. Though most of his relatives now live abroad, Ohana said his family traces its arrival in Morocco to 2,076 years ago. "As for Safi, we've been here for nine centuries," he said. "It's my town; I'd see no reason to leave."

2009: Starting tonight and continuing on each successive Tuesday night during July the amphitheatre in Liberty Bell Park offers a different Jerusalem performing artist each week. This Jerusalem Municipality project is made possible through cooperation with The Jerusalem Foundation and the International Cultural Center for youth.

2009: The funeral for Anita Rabinowtiz, the wife of Rabbi Stanely Rabinwoitz is scheduled to take place at Adas Israel in Washington, DC followed by interment at the congregation’s cemetery in southeast Washington.

2009: “In Bruges” is the first film shown at the film festival, Summer Movies at the Merkaz. The Merkaz describes itself as “a unique combination of an absorption center, community center and activism center located in the heart of the German Colony, one of the most beautiful, peaceful and dynamic neighborhoods in Jerusalem.”
2010: The 7th AICE Australian Film Festival is scheduled to show tense political thriller, Balibo, in Tel Aviv.

2010: Thia evening at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel, the Israeli prime minister addressed a roomful of more than 300 Jews on the subjects of Iran, his government’s eagerness for direct peace talks with the Palestinians and the swell meeting he had just had with President Obama at the White House. But then, in an off-the-cuff remark to a question on Jerusalem from the audience, Benjamin Netanyahu dropped a hint that his government’s insistence on Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem might not be ironclad. “Everybody knows that there are Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem that under any peace plan will remain where they are,” Netanyahu said in response to the question read by the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein. The implication of Netanyahu’s remark -- that other neighborhoods of Jerusalem may not remain “where they are,” becoming part of an eventual Palestinian state -- was the first hint that the Israeli leader may be flexible on the subject of Jerusalem. Until now, Netanyahu has insisted that Jerusalem is not up for negotiation.

2011: “Rothschild Fine Art,” an exhibition featuring objects’ des art from Rothschild Fine Art, a premier gallery in the cultural center of Tel Aviv, is scheduled to open today at ARTHamptons Art Fair in Bridgehampton.
2011: D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells is scheduled to take part in the Jewish Community Relations Council’s noontime series at the Lillian and Albert Small Museum.

2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to fly to Sofia today for meetings with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and President Georgi Parvanov. Netanyahu will be accompanied on the trip to Bulgaria by some eight ministers who will take part in a joint government meeting. He is slated to return to Israel this evening.

2011: An Israel Defense Forces soldier was wounded lightly by an explosive device planted near his tank in the southern Gaza Strip this morning. The soldier was mildly hurt from shrapnel in the device and the tank was unharmed. This is the first significant incident in the strip after a few months of relative calm in the area, and it appears as though tensions are on the rise. Earlier this week Israel Air Force planes attacked a Palestinian cell that planned to fire rockets from Gaza to Israel. There have been at least three incidents in which militants have shot rockets from Gaza toward the Negev in Israel, and several attempts to shoot at Israeli vehicles near the strip.

2011: The Environmental Protection Ministry ordered the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Co. (EAPC) to cease their work in the Nahal Zin and surrounding nature reserve following last week's devastating jet-fuel oil spill after the ministry found that the company was not effectively carrying out the cleanup but rather exacerbating the environmental damage. EAPC responded to the ministry's order, saying that fault lies with the digging contractor, which had failed to follow instructions from environmental authorities and had ruptured the pipeline in the course of its work, Israel Radio reported.

2012: The egalitarian-traditional minyan at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids is scheduled to celebrate “Red White and Blue Shabbat” while beating Iowa’s unprecedented heat wave with “Sundaes on Saturday” where congregants will build their own Cool Kosher Concoctions.

2012: One of Israel's top contemporary troupes, Vertigo Dance Company, is scheduled to perform Mana at Jacob’s Pillow in Beckett, Maine.

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Super Bock Rock Festival in Lisbon, Portugal

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