July 1 In Jewish History
69:
Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear
allegiance to Vespasian as emperor. This consolidate of Vespasian’s imperial
power helped to seal the fate of Jerusalem since the destruction of the Jewish
capital was his way of proving that law and order would prevail in the empire.
70
C.E.: Titus set up battering rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem.
985:
In Barcelona,
several Jewish residents were killed by the Moslem leader Al-Mansur. Many of
them were land owners who left no heirs. According to the law, all their lands
were given over to the Count of Barcelona. In Spain at this time it was not
uncommon for Jews to own vineyards and other lands.
1388: Jews of Lithuania received a Charter of Privilege.
1490: Twenty year old Yucef Franco, a Jewish cobbler from Tembleque and his 80 year old father Ça Franco were arrested by the Inquistion.
1581: Gregory XIII issued “Antiqua judaeorum improbitas,” a Papal Bull that “authorized the Inquisition directly to handle cases involving Jews, especially those concerning blasphemies against Jesus or Mary, incitement to heresy or assistance to heretics, possession of forbidden books, or the employment of Christian wet nurses.” (Jewish Virtual Library shows the date as June 1, 1581)
1569: The Union of Lublin joins The Kingdom of Poland and the Great Duchy of Lithuania into a united country called the
1651:
1776: First Jew lost his life in the American Revolution.
1798: In
1805(4th of Tammuz, 5565): Pinchas Horowitz, a rabbi and Talmudist who was born at Chortkiv in 1731 died today at Frankfort-on-the-Main
1810: The reign of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, as King of Holland, came to an end. Bonaparte sought to improve the condition of the Jews. Among other things he abolished the “Oath More Judaico” and opened military service to Jews by creating two battalions made up exclusively of Jewish soldiers and officers.
1845: David Levy Yulee began serving as the United States from Florida. This was in the days before the direct election of Senators. After Florida joined the Union, the state legislature chose Yulee to fill the position. This made him the first Jew to be elected to the United States. Yulee would desert the Union and join the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War. Yulee would ‘desert’ the faith of his fathers wen he married a Christian and raised his children in her faith.
1857: According to the New York Times, there are 1,500,000 Jews living in Russia out of a population estimated at 63,000,000.
1858: The House of Lords took up the question of admitting Jews into Parliament. Lord Derby expressed a willingness to end his opposition to the measure as a way of avoiding a major collision with the House of Commons. [Editor’s note – The issue of Jewish emancipation was not strictly a “Jewish issue.” It may also be seen as part of a larger power struggle between the Establishment as represented by the Lords and the changing economic and social milieu as represented by the Commons. The issue of Jewish Emancipation was but one of many issues over which this battle was fought with the Commons ultimately emerging victorious.]
1862: Russian Jews were granted permission to print Jewish books
1863: First day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Just as the war pitted brother against brother, so it pitted Jew against Jew. At Gettysburg, Prussian born Major Adolph Proskauer of Mobile led the 12th Alabama against the Army of the Potomac which included Lieutenant Abraham Cohn, a native of East Prussia, who fought with the 6th New Hampshire Volunteers. Cohn fought in 11 battles and won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Proskauer did not survive his service with the Rebel Army.
1863: Lieutenant Colonel Israel Moses was among those who arrived with Sickle’s brigade as it tried to stem the Confederate tide on the first day of fighting at Gettysburg.
1867: With the passage of the British North America Act, Great Britain officially recognizes the Dominion of Canada as an independent country. Jews had been living in Canada since the British took it from France in the 17th century. There were enough Jews living in Montreal to allow for the creation of a synagogue called Shearith Israel. While most members of the small Jewish community lived in various towns in the eastern part of the country enough Jews arrived in British Columbia during the Gold Rush that a synagogue was constructed in Victoria in 1862. At the time that Britain recognized the independence of Canada there were about 1,000 Jews living in “our neighbor to the North.” This number would explode shortly thereafter with the beginning of the immigration of Russian Jews.
1873: Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation. Apparently, Jews did not start settling in Prince Edward Island until the first decade of the 20th century with the arrival of Louis, Israel and Abie Block. The three brothers were from Riga and may have been the Jews who were described in 1908 newspaper article as having celebrated Passover in this part of Canada.
1874: “Ivanhoe or, Rebecca, the Jewess,” a “dramatization” of Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel opened tonight at Niblo’s Theatre in New York City. The play, which presents a sympathetic depiction of Isaac of York and his daughter was well received by the audience. [Editor’s Note – The positive response of the audience to Jewish characters stands at odds at with the outbreak of genteel anti-Semitism that is soon about to infect polite society in New York and elsewhere.]
1877: It was reported today that people in Bucharest were quite surprised to learn that Jewish citizens in the United States had presented a petition to Secretary of State William Evarts asking him to intervene on behalf of their co-religionists in Romania and Turkey. According to the reports, the Jews of the region were even more surprised than the gentiles to hear of this request for intervention by the government of President Rutherford B. Hays.
1877: Wilhelm Bacher “was appointed by the Hungarian government to the professorship of the newly created Landesrabbinerschule of Budapest.”
1878: At the insistence of Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck the Congress of Berlin incorporated into the Treaty of Berlin an article intended to provide the Jews of Romania with the opportunity for full citizenship. Unfortunately, the Romanians evaded the article and only a hand full of Jews would gain citizenship.
1880: (12th of Tammuz): Birthdate of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok who would become the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rebbe would overcome a terrifying imprisonment at the hands of Stalin’s henchmen in the 1920’s. Later, he would escape the clutches of the Nazis and settle in
1881: “Scenes in Parisian Life” published today reported that “Fashionable Paris kept its word loyally” by keeping its promise not to leave the city until after the concert which was to raise funds for the Jews of Russian had been held. The Gaulois sponsored a concert that included performances by Faure and Mme. Alder-Devries the proceeds of which were to go to the “evicted and demolished Israelite of Southern Russia.”
1882: The Memphis (TN) Avalanche reported that during the commencement address delivered by George Cable at the University of Mississippi, the distinguished author call for embracing the future included the challenge - “Let us search provincialism out the land as the Hebrew housewife purged her house of leaven on the eve of the Passover.” (Apparently this custom of the Jews was so well known that the New Orleans author felt that it would be easily understood by those attending an event in rural Oxford, MS.
1883: It was reported today that ten new rabbis will be ordained later this month at the first graduation ceremony of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1883: “A Middle Age Trial” published today described the Christian community of Hungary as being dense an dark in light of the trial being conducted Nyreghhaza where Jews are charged with having killed a Christian girl “in order to use her blood in ceremonies of the Passover;” a charge that “reads like a chapter from the history of the Middle Ages…What is taking place in Hungary is what was a common occurrence a few hundred years along. It only within the present century that the cruel and causeless prejudice against Jews has disappeared in civilized communities…Hungary is only about four hundred years behind the age.” [Note – The same article contained the oddly prophetic statement “In Germany the cry is raised that a few Jew have, by their talents and industry, made themselves the ruling class.”
1884: Isaac Jacobs, a middle aged Jew, is being held in Boston, MA on charges that he murdered Mrs. Etta Carlton of Watertown in 1883. Jacobs had been extradited from New York where he had been arrested on an outstanding larceny warrant.
1884: It was reported today that anti-Semitic riots have broken out in Algiers. Order was restored by troops who put an end to the pillaging of the Jewish the city’s Jewish quarter.
1884: It was reported today that in St. Petersburg, Russia The New Times has declared its opposition to granting Jews equal rights with Christians saying that this “would be a greater misfortune for Russia” than when it had been ruled by the Mongols. [Statements like this should help readers understand the depth of anti-Semitism in Russia which propelled the massive migration to the West, primarily to the United States.]
1886: The first edition of the Menorah, a monthly magazine published by the B’nai Brith is scheduled to appear for the first time today.
1886: Birthdate of Ithak Katzenelson, a native of Karleichy who became a teacher, poet and dramatist. Like so many of his generation, he was caught in the web of the Holocaust. He took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising before being murdered in May of 1944. He wrote Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk( "Song of the Murdered Jewish People") which was retrieved from its hiding place after the war and taken to Israel.
1888: A summer term instituted by the trustees of the Jewish Theological Seminary will begin today. Among the instructors will be Dr. Cyrus Adler who will lecture on “Assyriology.”
1889: Manuel of Oriental Antiquities by Enest Babelon which was reviewed today devotes one chapter to the Jews. Information on Jewish art and architecture is based on The Recovery of Jerusalem by Wilson and Warren and the works of Eugène-Melchior, vicomte de Vogüé
1898: In the Spanish-American War Teddy Roosevelt & his Rough Riders charged up
1899: The Conference of the English Zionist Federation comes to an end.
1900: Herzl turns to Prime Minister Koerber and asks him to use his influence with the Sultan to permit the Rumanian Jews to immigrate into
1902: Birthdate of Oscar winning director Billy Wyler. Wyler directed many classics including the World War II tear-jerker Mrs. Miniver. Ironically, his greatest hit was The Best Years of Our Lives, a film that described the return of four veterans to civilian life after World War II. Once again, the Jews played a major role in crafting the cultural myths of Middle American Culture.
1906: In Queens, NY, Rose Schotz Rosenthal, and Max Mentzer gave birth to Josephine Esther Mentzer who became famous as Estée Laude, a woman who took her place in the world of business in a manner that marked her as a trailblazer. She was the co-founder, along with her husband, Joseph Lauder, of Estée Lauder Companies and the mother of Jewish leader Ronald Lauder.
1907: Birthdate of famed sportscaster Bill Stern.
1907: The SS Cassel entered the port of Galveston, Texas with 87 Russian Jews aboard, heralding the start of the Galveston Movement - an organized attempt to bring Jews to less populated parts of the US.
1908: Birthdate of Estee Lauder. Lauder was born Josephine Esther Mentzer, the daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. She married Joseph Lauter who changed the family named to Lauder in the late 1930’s. Mrs. Lauder was
1909: Birthdate of Antonina Pirozhkova, the common-law widow of Russian literary giant Isaac Babel who wrote a well-received memoir that provided a rare glimpse of the persecuted writer's final years in the 1930s.
1916: Birthdate of landscape architect
Lawrence Halprin who died in October of 2009
1920: Sir Herbert Samuel, a British statesman was appointed High Commissioner of Eretz-Israel. His first official act was to grant amnesty to political prisoners including Jabotinsky. He governed the British Mandate for five years. Sir Herbert governed as a British official, not as a Jew and there were clashes between him and some Zionist leaders.
1921: Dr. Thomas G. Allen, Secretary of the Oriental Institute announced today that the thanks to a $60,000 grant by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. the University of Chicago will excavate the site of Armageddon or Megiddo.
1923: Fast of the 17th of Tammuz
1927: (12th of Tammuz): Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok is liberated from his death sentence and imprisonment in the Soviet Union. With the outbreak of World War II, the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe would make his way to
1930: At the morning session of the International Wailing Wall Commission, Rabbi Ben Zion Meyer Uziel, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, described Jewish prayer rituals conducted at the Wall declaring that the High Commissioner’s recent ban on the use of the Torah Scroll, Lulav, tefillin and tallit was unacceptable. While questioning Rabbi Uziel, Arab leader Abdul Auni implied that the Zionists were using bogus claims of the right to worship at the Wall as a form of propaganda to recruit Jews to settle in Palestine. At this afternoon's meeting of the International Wailing Wall Commission, the three commissioners watched a movie filmed in 1911 showing Jewish men and women praying at the wall, Jewish worshippers sitting on benches and Jewish women kissing the stones of the Wall. The commissioners pronounced the film as authentic and thus it became further evidence of the long standing connection of the Jewish people to the Wall. The International Wailing Wall Commission was established by the League of Nations after Arab rioters violently denied Jews access to the Western Wall
1930: Birthdate of Carol Doris Schatz, the Philadelphia native who would marry Noam Chomsky in 1949 and gain fame in her own right as a linguist and educator. Mrs. Chomsky passed away at the age of 78 in December of 2008.
1932: Over the next 11 months (June 1, 1933), the ZOA will clear the cases of 1,622 people wishing to settle in Palestine.
1932: Birthdate of Ze’ev Schiff, the French born Jew who gained fame as an Israeli journalist and military correspondent for Haaretz.
1933: With a message of "cordial greetings and best wishes" from President Roosevelt and a declaration that "the calamity that has overtaken the 600.000 Jews in Germany has cast a shadow over everything else in Jewish life," the Zionist Organization of America opened its convention today in Chicago. Five thousand delegates and observers attended this meeting which was described as being the largest in the history of the ZOA. At this evening’s opening session at the Palmer House, Moriss Rothenberg, President of the ZOA reported that 20,000 Jews had entered the National Home in the last 18 months and that during 1932 12 million dollars in new investments had been made in Palestine. While Rothenberg had words of praise for the British High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfeel Wauchope, he was highly critical of the Mandatory Government (the British) for not increasing the allotment of immigration certificates in light of the events in Germany.
1933 The German government states that "Reich Chancellor Hitler still belongs to the Catholic Church and has no intention of leaving it."
1934: Birthdate of director Sydney Pollack. His hits have included Tootsie and Presumed Innocent.
1934: Erich Gans was murdered in
1934: The New York Times reviews From Nebuchadnezzar to Hitler by Danish author Peter Hemmer Gudme. In this sympathetic study of the Zionist movement which the reviewer is sure will be translated in English, the non-Jewish Gudme traces the ancient connection of the Jewish people with their homeland before describing modern efforts beginning with Pinsker, Hess and Herzl to create a modern Jewish home in Palestine. Gudme will die at the hands of the Nazis in Copenhagen in 1945.
1934(18th of Tamuz, 5694):Tzom Tammuz
1935( 30th of Sivan, 5695):Rosh Chodesh Tamuz
1935(30th of Sivan, 5695):In London, Sir Francis Abraham Montefiore passed away. Montefiore was the head of the London Portuguese community and was a great philanthropist
1936: The Palestine Post reported from
1936: As Arab violence continued to intensify, The Palestine Post reported that the Christian communities of Beit Jala and Kafr Kana were warned by Arab terrorists that they must deliver 60 young men as volunteers for their ranks, or face the consequences. There were sporadic shootings, bombs thrown and trees uprooted throughout the country. Two British soldiers were hurt by flying debris during the demolition of houses in the old quarter of
1937: The Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of "unacceptable" artwork by Jews and others opens in
1937: Pastor Martin Niemöller's anti-Semitism does not prevent the Nazis from arresting him because of his opposition to Hitler
1938: Birthdate of Diane Silvers Ravitch, a historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and former United States Assistant Secretary of Education who became a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.
1938: Under a proposal called the Sosua Project, the
1939: Fourteen year old Rudolf Wessely arrives in London from Prague. Wessely was the son of Charles Wessely, a successful Czech businessman and civil servant. The British could find room for the son but not his 43 year old father or 38 year old mother.
1940: A war emergency program to aid in the defense of the 500,000 Jews in Palestine was adopted unanimously by the convention of the Zionist Organization of America meeting today in Pittsburgh, PA.
1940: The America First Committee is formed. It is the most significant American isolationist group, and it is also infiltrated by Nazis, who are working to prevent American intervention in
1940: Bloody anti-Jewish riots erupt in cities throughout
1940: In a letter to German Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Bishop Theophil Wurm, head of the provincial
1940: In
1940: A Jewish ghetto is established at
1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): The first day of a three day killing spree in Drohobych, during which Ukrainians, assisted by Whermacht soldiers killed three hundred Jews.
1941: A Pogrom in Jassy, the cradle of Rumanian anti-Semitism claimed 5000 Jewish lives.
1941: Birthdate of Dr. Alfred G. Gilman recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1941: British code breakers monitoring radio traffic coming from German troops in the
1941: Two thousand members of
1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): More than 2500 Jews are slaughtered at Zhitomir, Ukraine.
1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): During an Einsatzkommando Aktion (murder operation) at Mielnica, Ukraine, a Jew named Abraham Weintraub hurls himself on a German officer and shatters the officer's teeth. Weintraub is immediately shot.
1941: In the
1941: German killing squads begin to murder Jews remaining in
1941: The Hungarian government undertakes a mass roundup of almost 18,000 Jewish refugees for deportation to
1941: Twenty-two-year-old Jew Haya Dzienciolski finds a pistol, leaves
1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): One hundred Jews are murdered at Lyakhovichi, Belorussia.
1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): Hundreds of Jews are killed at Plunge, Lithuania.
1941 In the Ukrainian town of
1941: Members of the Einsatzgruppen, the Wehrmacht, and Esalon Special, a Romanian unit, begin murdering the Jews of Bessarabia in eastern Romania. By August 31st, they will have killed more than 150,000 Jews.
1942: Hundreds of German Jews are deported to the ghetto/camp at
1942: In the Netherlands, the Westerbork “deportation” Camp became operational. The camp had originally been established by the Dutch government as a place to house German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. The term deportation camp is a bit mis-leading since it was the last stop before arriving Auschwitz,, Bergen-Belsen or the other death camps.
1942: Seven trains of Jewish deportees leave Westerbork,
1942: At
1942 (16th of Tammuz, 5702): The Jewish community at Gorodenka, Ukraine, is wiped out.
1942: Extermination activities at the Sobibór death camp are temporarily halted for railway construction and enlargement of the camp's gas chambers.
1943: In an American radio broadcast, U.S. Congressman Emanuel Celler excoriates the U.S. government for its continuing silence on Nazi treatment of European Jews. This is the same Congressman Celler whom Senator Bilbo of Mississippi will refer to as a “kike” while giving a speech in the Upper Chamber; a reference that brings no response from those who hear it and who will guide the 1964 Civil Rights Act to a successful in the House of Representatives.
1943: The American Women's International League for Peace and Freedom estimates that millions of Jews have already been murdered by the Germans in
1944: During the month of July, Jewish-Soviet
partisans from Poland Lithuania Lublin ,
Poland Siauliai ,
Lithuania
1944: The Red Army liberates Lvov , Ukraine
1944: The SS completes the evacuation of the death camp at Majdanek
1944: The SS evacuates the concentration camp at
1944: Neutral
1944: Lieutenant Colonel Murray
1944: As the war put additional strains on the German labor force, 1,000 Jews were taken from Birkenau and put to work within
1944: “There were still 185 Jews living in Magdeburg, mainly partners of mixed marriages, who managed to survive the war.” The Magdeburg Jewish community was one of the oldest in Germany dating back to 965.
1946: The Haganah officially withdrew from its alliance with Irgun and Lehi. The Haganah did not renounce its role in defending the Yishuv against the British and Arab attacks.
1946: It was reported today that "Palestine Jews
were considering a campaign of passive resistance" aimed at the British
while the Irgun was threatening to kill three British hostages.
1946: As
American businessmen, labor leaders, and consumers adjusted to the first day
without the existence of the OPA, "Israel Sachs, president of Sachs
Quality Stores, announced that" his stores "would raise
prices." "At the same time he
"appealed to Congress to enact immediately 'intelligent, workable price
legislation.'" At the same time,
"Victor A. Fishcell, vice president and general sales manager of
Seagram-Distillers Corporaton announced that Seagram was continuing its
shipments at regular OPA ceiling prices."
1946: During an interview given today at the New York office of the United Jewish Appeal, Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus that "Jews returning from concentration camps owned nothing but cast-off army clothing and were living under 'infinitely worse considitons' than the Germans. Rabbi Neuhuas, the "former Chief Rabbi of Hessen and liaison officer with the American Military Government in Germany" said that "the situation of the Jews in Europe is growing more critical, with displaced persons embittered by their 'no-man's land' status and the renewal of anti-Semitic outbursts in many countries."
1946: "Dr. Nahum Goldman, a member of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, said at a press conference today that Great Britain's latest program was a provocation to war, not only to the Palestinian Jews but to those all over the world. Dr. Goldman described as a 'breach of faith'...the arrest of 2,000 Jews in Palestine. 'If Britain persists in her present aggressive policy against the Jewish population in Palestine and its officially recognized leaders and bodies, she will create a state of permanent hostility against Britain on the part of Jews everywhere.' Dr. Goldman denied statements that the" British "government had informed" the United States government of its plans to crack down on the Jews of Palestine, including a massive round-up of Jewish leaders.
1946: "Three hundred persons attended a funeral service today at the Free Synagogue, 40 West Sixtyeighth Street, for Dr. Emanuel Libman, noted diagnostician, who died on Friday at the age of 73." During the service, Dr. Stephen S. Wise praised his friend of sixty years, Dr. Libman, for his efforts to train medical professionals and for his work on behalf of Mt. Sinai Hospital and the medical facilities at "the Jewish University of Jerusalem."
1946: The Fair Employment Practices Commission issued a final report as it was forced to close down due to Congress' failure to enact legislation that it would have extended its existence. The report warned that "Wartime gains of Negro, Mexican-American and Jewish workers are being los through an 'unchecked revival' of discriminatory practices." The report also said that "a survey of job seeking by Jews since V-J Day conducted in fifteen cities, showed a marked rise of discrimination against all Jewish applicants and that 'Jews who had fought for their country fared no better than those who had not.'"
1946: The Mayor’s Committee on Unity headed by Charles Evans Hughes, Jr. recommend to that the Board of Regents conduct an investigation “into racial and religious discrimination in the admission of students to intuitions of higher learning…” The committee contended that “there could not long be any reasonable doubt that racial and religious discrimination was practiced by” colleges and universities “in New York and elsewhere” usually through the employment of some kind of quota system. According to the committee’s findings, this discrimination is directed at “Jewish, Negro, Catholic and Italian students.” While Medical Schools seem to be the prime practitioners of this discriminatory behavior, “it exists in other graduate and undergraduate schools as well.”
1948: In Jerusalem Yehudith and Yaacov gave birth to Michael (Mickey) Gal (Hepner) who would be among the crewman lost when the Dakar sank in 1968
1948:
On the night of July 1 - 2, the first shipment of arms to be used by the Jewish
forces arrived from Czechoslovakia Jerusalem Jerusalem
1949:
Funeral services were held in Cincinnati, Ohio for Dr. David Philipson who
served as Rabbi of Rockdale Temple for 61 years and who was the last surviving
member of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College.
1950: Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, the 75 year old conduct emeritus conductor of the Boston Symphony is scheduled to conduct at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the Berkshire Hills.
1951: Six Arab terrorists were killed in two engagements with security forces in Emek Hefer, Israel. A number of other infiltrators fled into the Jordanian-occupied territory across the border.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that six Arab terrorists were killed in two engagements with security forces in Emek Hefer. A number of other infiltrators fled into the Jordanian-occupied territory across the border.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel presented to the US State Department a detailed aide-memoire urging the settlement of Israel's $1.5 billion restitution claim against Germany. The police had so far examined 150 war-crimes cases since the Knesset passed the War Crimes Law, directed at persons who cooperated with the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. The experience of the first few cases had raised some doubts as to the possibility of obtaining convincing evidence against the accused.
1958: Birthdate of Brooklynite Nancy Lieberman.
1958: Yosef Burg completed his term as Minister of Communications
1971: In one of those ironies of “progress,” while bagel production and consumption soared to new heights, Local 338, the fabled bagel bakers local, ceased to exist and Local 3 acquired a Bagel Division.
1973(1st of Tamuz, 5733): Rosh Chodesh Tamuz
1973(1st of Tammuz, 5733): A few minutes before 1 A.M. Col.Yosef (Joe ) Alon and his wife Dvora returned to their home in a quiet Washington, D.C., suburb. Alon, the air attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, had been at a farewell party for an Israeli diplomat. They parked the car. Dvora went into the house and then heard five gunshots. She rushed outside, saw her husband lying in a pool of blood, and glimpsed a white car driving away. She and her daughter Dalia, then 17, tried to help him. The other two girls, 14-year-old Yael and 6-year-old Rachel woke up. Joe tried to mumble something. An ambulance rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. (The murder remains unsolved. As reported by Yossi Melman)
1976: Terrorists in
1984(1st of Tammuz, 5744): Moshe Feldenkrais passed away. Born in the Ukraine in 1901, Feldenkrais moved to Palestine in 1918 where he continued his education. After living in France before World War II and serving with the British Navy in World War II he returned to Israel. He was a renowned physicist and judo expert, who developed a method of education and self-awareness training called The Feldenkrais method.
1987: ''Portraits of an Era: Photographs by Irv Kline'' opens Bishopsgate Institute Foyer as part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration.
1991(19th of Tammuz, 5751): Michael Landon, born Eugene Horowitz, passed away at the age of 54. Landon gained fame for his portrayal of Little Joe on the television western, Bonanza. He gained additional fame for his work in front and behind the camera in another television hit, Little House on the Prairie.
1993: Anne Lapidus Lerner became Vice Chancellor of the Seminary, the first woman to hold that post. As Vice Chancellor, Lerner was one of the highest-ranking women in all of American Jewish institutional life. In that role, she devoted her energy to adult education, working to bring Jewish education to the lay community. After earning bachelor’s, master's, and doctoral degrees from Harvard, Anne Lapidus Lerner joined the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in 1969, becoming the first American-born woman to hold a full-time position there. JTS trains rabbis and cantors for the Conservative movement and offers a range of masters and doctoral degree programs. Today, Lerner is an assistant professor in the Department of Jewish Literature at JTS, where she teaches courses in Hebrew and American Jewish poetry, modern Jewish literature, and the portrayal of women in Jewish literature. In addition, she is the director of the JTS Jewish Women's Studies Program, which she also founded, and Director of the Jewish Feminist Research Group. In 2001-02, she was a visiting lecturer at the
1993 (12th of Tammuz, 5753): Olga Khaikov a Jewish immigrant from Russia and the mother of an 11 year old daughter was killed when terrorists tried to seize a bus near French Hill in Jerusalem.
1993: Gil Stein’s term as President of the NHL came to an end. the duties of the president were given to the commissioner. Stein then served as advisor to the commissioner for over three months, retiring from the league in October.
1994: PLO chairman Yasser Arafat drove from Egypt into Gaza, returning to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile.
1995: Sir James David Wolfensohn began serving as the 9th President of the World Bank.
1997(26th of Sivan, 5757): Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan, GBE, KCMG, LVO, QC passed away. Born in 1915, he “was a Gibraltarian politician, and first Mayor and Chief Minister of Gibraltar, serving two terms as Chief Minister for a total of 17 years. He is seen as the key figure in the civil rights movement in Gibraltar, and played a key role in the creation of the territory's institutions of self-government.”
1998: First Lady Hillary Clinton, her daughter Chelsea and Secretary of State Madeline Albright visited the Ohel Rachel Synagogue in
2000(28th of Sivan, 5760): Actor Walter Mattheau passed away. Born Walter Matthow in 1920, Mattheau began work at the age of 11 selling candy and playing bit parts in a Yiddish theatre on the
2000: Publication of Haviva Ner-David's book, Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination,. The book, which is part memoir and part halakhic commentary, tells the story of Ner-David's integration of feminism and Orthodox Judaism over a lifetime and argues for the ordination of women as Orthodox rabbis. Haviva Ner-David was born and raised in a modern Orthodox family in the
2000: The judge in the
2001:
Caesarea-Pardes
Hanna Railway Station was opened today “as a suburban station on the newly
inaugurated Tel Aviv – Binyamina Suburban Service. The station was constructed
to provide a railway link for the area's growing population as well as
encourage rail commuting to the industrial zone in the vicinity.”
2003(1st of Tammuz, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2003(1st of Tammuz, 5763): Seventy three year old Jazz legend Herbie Mann, born Herbert Jay Solomon passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/03/arts/herbie-mann-73-musician-who-gave-flute-a-jazz-sound.html
2005: The New York Times reported that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had moved decisively to deal with killing of a African-American man by two white males in Howard Beach. The Times favorably compared Bloomberg’s swift action with the city’s reaction to a racially inspired killing in the same neighborhood in 1986.
2005: The New York Times reported that Time’s editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine made the decision to follow a court order and turn over a reporter’s documents to a grand jury investigating a leak of a
2005: The New York Times reported that Bank of America had agreed to buy MBNA. MBNA was founded by Alfred Lerner who passed away in 2002. Learner supported numerous philanthropies including the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. The JFR seeks out to fulfill the age old injunction to seek out and recognize righteousness. In particular, the JFR works to help aged and indigent righteous gentiles who helped save Jews during the Shoah.
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Din In the Head: Essays by Cynthia Ozick.
2006(5th of Tamuz, 5766): Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs, who founded the British branch of the Conservative Movement and was voted the greatest Jew in the history of Britain's Jewish community last year, passed away at the age of 86 after fighting a losing battle with cancer. Rabbi Louis Jacobs, an internationally renowned scholar of Judaism whose seemingly clear path to the post of chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth was blocked by the Orthodox establishment more than 40 years ago. The controversy over his blocked appointment is still alive among British Jewry and Orthodox scholarly circles worldwide. The Jewish Chronicle, a London-based weekly, often called Rabbi Jacobs "the greatest chief rabbi we never had." In a survey conducted by the paper last year, readers selected Rabbi Jacobs as the "greatest British Jew of all time," beating out all the chief rabbis as well as two formidable 19th-century figures, Benjamin Disraeli and Moses Montefiore. Rabbi Jacobs wrote more than 50 books on a wide range of subjects, including theology, the Talmud, kabbalah, ethics, Hasidism and holidays. Although they often dealt with complicated subjects, the books were praised for their clarity and accessibility. It was one of the rabbi's books that first got him into trouble with arbiters of Orthodoxy. In 1957, Rabbi Jacobs wrote a work of theology, "We Have Reason to Believe," in which he challenged the traditional view that the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, were dictated by God, word by word, to Moses on Mount Sinai. Rabbi Jacobs argued that in light of 19th-century scholarship and archaeology such a belief was no longer tenable. Instead, he argued, the Torah was revealed over time to divinely inspired human beings. He often pointed out that his thesis was well known among scholars; what he was doing was bringing it to public attention. The book seemed to have no effect on his early career. He had impeccable Orthodox credentials, having been a star student at Britain's rabbinical seminaries, and he rose to be the rabbi of the large and prestigious New West End Synagogue in London. In 1961, Rabbi Jacobs was nominated to be principal of Jews' College, which trained rabbis and teachers for British Jews. The position was also regarded as a way station for Britain's future chief rabbis. The appointment, however, was blocked by the chief rabbi at the time, Israel Brodie, who announced that Rabbi Jacobs was unfit for the post, citing "his published views." Rabbi Brodie then prohibited Rabbi Jacobs from returning to his post at the New West End Synagogue or from preaching at any congregations affiliated with the chief rabbinate's organization, the United Synagogue. The incident became widely known as the Jacobs Affair, and it continues to reverberate, rating a significant mention in the entry for England in The Encyclopedia Judaica. In a retrospective in The Guardian in 2004, Simon Rocker wrote: "For some, the Jacobs Affair marked the Orthodox establishment's descent into religious intolerance. For others, the sacrifice of Jacobs was the price the United Synagogue had to pay to remain part of Orthodoxy." Louis Jacobs was born on July 17, 1920, in Manchester to a working-class Jewish family. At 14 he was apprenticed to a printer, but he pleaded with his parents to let him return to school. He finished Manchester Central High School, then went to the Manchester Talmudical College, where he received his rabbinic ordination. It was not until he was working as a rabbi that he attended a university, eventually getting a Ph.D. in history from University College London. After Rabbi Jacobs was barred from the Orthodox rabbinate, several members of the New West End Synagogue established a new congregation, the New London Synagogue, which was unaffiliated with United Synagogue. Rabbi Jacobs served there until he retired in 2000. Rabbi Jacobs, with his beard and modest dress, was committed to Orthodox religious practice, including observance of the Sabbath and the kosher laws. He said he never intended to start a religious movement, but one grew up around him. It is known as Masorti, Hebrew for traditional, and it is similar to the Conservative branch of Judaism in the United States, but much smaller. In addition to being a widely read author, Rabbi Jacobs was a popular lecturer who laced his talks with anecdotes, erudition and wit. He was as comfortable with Maimonides and the Baal Shem Tov as he was with Shakespeare and Shaw. He was a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School from 1985 to 1986 and was a visiting professor at Lancaster University beginning in 1987.
2006: Arnie Eisen assumed the office of Chancellor-elect of the Jewish Theological Seminary
2007: Arnie Eisen, who took office as Chancellor-elect of the Jewish Theological Seminary on July 1, 2006, assumed the position full time.
2007: The Opening Day game of the Israel Baseball League is broadcast on a delayed basis on PBS in major US markets.
2007: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Lévy and The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Alter.
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured a review of a collection of here-to-for unpublished stories by Primo Levi entitled A Tranquil Star. According to the review, those who think of Levi only in terms of being a “Holocaust writer” will be pleasantly surprised by the wide ranging topics and unique style displayed in this posthumously published tome.
2007: Avraham Hirschson resigned as Israel’s Minister of Finance following an investigation of an alleged embezzlement in which he was allegedly involved.
2007: Moseh Katzav resigned as President of Israel.
2007: Dalia Itzik, who had been serving as Speaker of the Knesset became action President of the state of Israel.
2008: Lauren Weisberger, author of the bestselling novel The Devil Wears Prada, reads from and signs her new book, Chasing Harry Winston, at a Borders Books in suburban
2009: In Cedar Rapids, IA, meeting of the Hadassah book club discusses Courtesan, a novel by Dora Levy Mossanen.
2009: After 29 years of serving as supporting character alongside Marvel greats like the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men, Sabra, the alias of Ruth-Bat Seprah, mutant superhero and former agent, makes her first headlining print appearance in the Marvel anthology Astonishing Tales #6. Sabra's first solo appearance is the work of Matt Yocum, who by day serves as the US Air Force's representative to the Israeli government and by night writes comic books. Yocum, who is not Jewish, has long been involved with the State of Israel. His first visit to the country was in 1992 with the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and he spent four weeks living on Kibbutz Beit Ha'emek, close to the coastal city of Nahariya. In 2002 he found himself in Israel again, this time as an exchange officer doing engineering for the Israeli government. Based on his previous experience in the country, Yocum was selected to come for a third time in 2006 to work in the attaché office for the US Air Force. Using three elements unique to his life in Israel, Yocum created a story about a member of the Air Force at a diplomatic reception in Israel, which sums up his existence here. "I wanted to take the experience I had in Israel and bring it to the people who don't live here," he explains. "The vast majority of the people who read the story will not have been to the country, and they will not realize that there are things we take for granted here - one being that everyone has to serve in the army. In the US, less than one percent of the population serves, and here it's part of a natural dialogue with a high-schooler." "At the end of the day, I don't think it's going to change any ideas about Israel," he says. "It shows a piece of what it's like to live in the country and what it's like to serve here."
2009: Today President Shimon Peres invited Saudi King Abdullah to come to Jerusalem, or meet him in Riyadh, to initiate discussions that would enable the implementation of a comprehensive peace between Israel and all the Arab states. Peres spoke at an interfaith conference in Kazakhstan, addressing some 150 religious leaders from around the world, including a large delegation of imams, calling on King Abdullah to meet with him in Jerusalem, in Riyadh or in any other place "in order to fulfill his prayer for peace between all people, without differences of religion." He praised a 2002 Arab peace initiative, which offers Israel full normalization in return for a withdrawal from territory conquered in the 1967 Six Day War, a Palestinian state and an equitable solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. Peres quoted Jordanian King Abdullah II as calling the plan "a readiness for peace between the State of Israel and 57 Arab and Muslim states." The president also spoke about Islamist terrorism. "Thousands, if not millions of Muslims, have lost their lives at the hands of extremists that call the name of Allah," Peres said. "In the Twin Towers of New-York, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and atheists, all lost their lives as one." Meanwhile, Iranian delegates stormed out of the opening session of the interfaith conference as Peres began to deliver his address to the forum. The delegates returned to the conference hall after Peres finished speaking. One said the president was a repulsive Zionist figure whose "place was not here in a religious meeting." "[Peres] plunders land and occupies, and we are not willing to hear him," an Iranian delegate added. The move recalled a similar scene at a United Nations-sponsored conference in Geneva in April, when dozens of Western representatives walked out in protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's address to the forum. The diplomats rose from their chairs and quit the hall as Ahmadinejad launched a tirade against Israel, which he called a racist entity. About 80 delegations participated in the summit, representing different faiths and sects from 35 countries. Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, also attended the conference, during which he urged Hamas to let a cleric visit abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. "I'm holding in my hands a picture of my brother, a son of my country who was kidnapped. We don't know anything about him; his father and mother aren't receiving any information on him," Metzger said. He urged the religious leaders present "to call for a representative of the abductee's faith to be able to visit him and give him sustenance."
2009: A Chabad-sponsored Women's Empowerment Rally is held at Tel Aviv's Nokia Stadium.
2009: Romanian Jewish leaders met in Bucharest today to address allegations that medical students have been using the remains of Holocaust victims for research.
2010: Yeshiva University Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art are scheduled to present “As it is Written: Lectures on the Art of Hebrew Manuscripts and Books” in New York City.
2010: The Wall Street Journal reported today that Tehran has equipped Damascus with a sophisticated radar system to help thwart a surprise Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. The move would also help bolster the defenses of Syria and Hezbollah against Israel, the newspapers quoted U.S. and Israeli officials as saying. According to both the Israeli and U.S. officials, the weapons transfer occurred sometime in mid-2009 as part of increased military coordination between Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah. The transfers is in violation of UN resolutions.
2011: Cantor Joel Caplan, son of Richard and Ellen Caplan, and father Ilan Caplan is scheduled to lead a Shabbat evening program called “Shabbat Spirit” that includes guitar, keyboard and PowerPoint projections of all the songs that will be sung.
2011: At Shabbat Eve Services at Temple Judah a baby naming is to take place for Natanel, the son of Chavah and Stephen Rosenbaum of Jerusalem and the grandson of Kathe & Gary Goldstein of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2011: Abbie Silber, daughter of Laurie and Dr. Bob Silver (pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community) and Rabbi Feivel Strauss are scheduled to receive a blessing at Shabbat Eve services as they prepare for their upcoming nuptials.
2011: This Day In…In Jewish History makes its first appearance on http://shtetl.ca/ a must read website for anybody interested in the comings and goings of the Canadian Jewish community.
2011: Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest today as the sexual assault case against him moved one step closer to dismissal after prosecutors told a Manhattan judge that they had serious problems with the case. Prosecutors acknowledged that there were significant credibility issues with the hotel housekeeper who accused Mr. Strauss-Kahn of trying to rape her in May. In a brief hearing at State Supreme Court in Manhattan, prosecutors did not oppose his release; the judge then freed Mr. Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance. The development represented a stunning reversal in a case that reshaped the French political landscape and sparked debate about morals, the treatment of women and the American justice system. Prosecutors said they still believed Mr. Strauss-Kahn had forced the woman into sex, but that inconsistencies in her past and account of the moments following the incident could make it hard for jurors to believe her. Outside the courthouse, lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn praised the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., for “doing what is appropriate”; Kenneth Thompson, a lawyer for the housekeeper, accused Mr. Vance of being “too afraid” of trying the case; and Mr. Vance himself held a brief news conference to defend how his office has handled the case, by far the most high-profile of his year-and-a-half tenure. In a letter sent to Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers and filed with Justice Michael J. Obus on Friday, prosecutors outlined some of what they had discovered about Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, poking holes in her account and her background. The housekeeper admitted to prosecutors that she lied about what happened after the episode on the 28th floor of the hotel. She had initially said that after being attacked, she had waited in a hallway until Mr. Strauss-Kahn left the room; she now admits that after the episode, she cleaned a nearby room, then returned to Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s suite to clean there. Only after that did she report to her supervisor that she had been attacked. Prosecutors disclosed that the woman had admitted lying in her application for asylum from Guinea; according to the letter, she “fabricated the statement with the assistance of a male who provided her with a cassette recording” that she memorized. She also said that her claim that she had been the victim of a gang rape in Guinea was also a lie. The woman also acknowledged that she had misrepresented her income to qualify for her housing, and had declared a friend’s child — in addition to her own daughter — as a dependent on tax returns to increase her tax refund. Mr. Thompson, the woman’s lawyer, gave a lengthy retort outside the courtroom in which he conceded problems with her credibility, but insisted that she was still the victim of an attack, saying that her version of events has never wavered. He said some evidence, like bruising she had sustained, was consistent with a nonconsensual encounter. And he said her decision to clean a room was consistent with someone who was confused and upset in the wake of an attack. “Our concern is that the Manhattan district attorney is too afraid to try this case,” Mr. Thompson said. “We believe he’s afraid he’s going to lose this high-profile case.” Questions are sure to be raised about how swiftly and vigorously prosecutors proceeded with the case, as many in France questioned whether there was a rush to judgment. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, was considered a strong contender for the French presidency before his arrest; he subsequently resigned his position as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. From Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s first court appearance on May 16, Mr. Vance’s office expressed extreme confidence in its case. At that hearing, an assistant district attorney said that “the victim provided very powerful details consistent with violent sexual assault committed by the defendant.” Outside the courthouse today, Mr. Vance, who was facing his most highly publicized case to date, stressed that his office did what they were required to do. “We believe we have done nothing but to support her,” Mr. Vance said outside the courthouse. “Our duty is to do what is right in every case. Our office’s commitment is to the truth and the facts.” Mr. Strauss-Kahn will now be able to move about the country more freely; although prosecutors will retain his passport, most of his restrictive bail conditions have been lifted. Under those conditions, he was required to stay in a Lower Manhattan town house under armed guard and wearing an ankle monitor. He could only leave for certain reasons and had to notify prosecutors when he left. The prosecutors’ letter did not include all of what their investigators had learned about the woman. According to two law enforcement officials familiar with the prosecutors’ inquiry, the woman had a phone conversation with an incarcerated man within a day of her encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn in which she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing the charges against him. The conversation was recorded. That man, the investigators learned, had been arrested on charges of possessing 400 pounds of marijuana. He is among a number of individuals who made multiple cash deposits, totaling around $100,000, into the woman’s bank account over the last two years. The deposits were made in Arizona, Georgia, New York and Pennsylvania. The investigators also learned that she was paying hundreds of dollars every month in phone charges to five companies. The woman had insisted she had only one phone and said she knew nothing about the deposits except that they were made by a man she described as her fiancé and his friends. Outside the main criminal courts building in Manhattan, the crowds started to gather in the early-morning hours today preparing for the latest twists in this legal saga. Mr. Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, arrived shortly before 11 a.m., about a half-hour before his scheduled court appearance. They had left the brick town house at 153 Franklin Street, where he has been under 24-hour confinement, paying $50,000 a month in rent and much more for required security measures. They got into a black Lexus RX350 sport-utility vehicle. After his hearing, Mr. Strauss-Kahn re-emerged from court, smiling at the assembled crowds, the expression growing with each step.
2011: The Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection issued a statement today saying that the Minister, C. Papoutsis, decided to prohibit the departure of ships flying either Greek or foreign flags "to the maritime area" of Gaza. "By orders of the Hellenic Coast Guard Head Quarters to all local Hellenic Coast Guard Authorities, all appropriate measures are taken for the implementation of the said decision,"| the statement said The statement said that the "broader maritime area of eastern Mediterranean will be continuously monitored by electronic means for tracking, where applicable, the movements of the ships allegedly participating" in the Gaza flotilla. While Cyprus had already banned ships headed for Gaza from leaving their ports, the Greeks had not taken this measure until today. The Greek Coast Guard intercepted a boat carrying US activists soon after they set sail from Greece on Friday to join a pro-Palestinian flotilla to Gaza, one of the activists said. Late this evening, the US boat slated to participate in the Gaza flotilla, The Audacity of Hope, turned back to a Greek port after it was intercepted by Greek commandos, organizers said through their Twitter feed. The boat was brought under Coast Guard escort to a closed Coast Guard base in Greece. The boat had just left Perama port, near Piraeus, for the open seas, a Reuters witness said. Minutes before initially being intercepted, organizers said that the ship's passengers were preparing to "non-violently resist any efforts to stop the boat," saying moments later that the boat "is about to set sail," followed by a message saying that the ship had departed. Through the boat's twitter feed, organizers said that a Greek Coast Guard vessel approached The Audacity of Hope as it was pulling away from the dock but then sped away. A flotilla of boats planning to challenge Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is expected to sail next week, after repeated delays that activists blame on Israeli sabotage. Israel has denied the accusations. "We are just here, two miles off Piraeus. We've been stopped by the coastguard, their ship maneuvered in front of us and they are now talking to the captain, they want us to turn around," Ann Wright, one of the activists, told Reuters. "We are non-violent, we pose no threat," she added, saying that the group was informed of the sailing ban just as it was setting off. It was not immediately clear how the boat's departure would affect the overall flotilla plans.
2012: A revival of “On Second Avenue,” “a musical journey through Yiddish Theatre” is scheduled to have its final performance at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. (As reported by Mike Cohen)
2012: The Labor Party is scheduled to hold its convention today in Tel Aviv.
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including the recently released paperback edition of Bloom of Darkness, Aharon Applefeld’s novel about “a Jewish child is hidden in a brothel in a Ukrainian village during the Holocaust.
2012: Mario Balotelli, a black Italian soccer start who was by a Jewish Italian foster mother from the age of three is scheduled to lead his team into the final of the Euro 2012 soccer championships. (As reported by the Times of Israel)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/the-improbable-jewish-heritage-of-italys-ghana-born-goal-scoring-eccentric/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=21205cff11-2012_06_30_edition&utm_medium=email
