February 1 In History
682: Visigoth King Erwig pressed for the
"utter extirpation of the pest of the Jews," and made it illegal to
practice any Jewish rites in an area that corresponds to much of modern day Spain
1605:
Birthdate of Aboab de Fonseca, the Portuguese born Dutch Rabbi and Mystic. In 1642, when Brazil was under Dutch control
the 600 Jews of Recife established a synagogue where they could worship in
public. They recruited de Fonseca, who
was living in Amsterdam, to come to Brazil and serve as their Hocham or
spiritual leader. This means that Aboab
de Fonseca was the first congregational rabbi in the New World. In 1654, when
the Portuguese defeated the Dutch and seized Recife, he joined a group of Jews
returning to the Netherlands and successfully said back to Amsterdam. Aboab was
held in high esteem by his former Amsterdam congregants, that he was
reappointed as hocham in the synagogue and made teacher in the city’s Talmud Torah,
principal of its yeshiva and member of the city’s bet din, or rabbinic court.
He died in 1693 at the age of 88, having served the Jewish community of Amsterdam Recife
1682(5442):
Asser Levy, the "founding
father" of North American Jewry passed away.. He was survived by his wife
Miriam (aka Maria). Though Levy and the "Levy" family of New York Holland Spain Recife , Brazil
1733:
King Augustus II of Poland passed away.
Born in 1670, Augustus II was the Elector of Saxony (Germany) before
gaining Augustus gained the Polish throne.
His rise to power was facilitated by his “court Jew” and financier Issachar Berend Lehmann. August II was a
contemporary of the Besht who was making his public personna known at about the
same time as the Polish King passed away.
1765(10th of Shevat, 5525): Rebecca
Mendez Furtado, the first wife of Benjamin D’Israeli, the grandfather of his
more famous namesake, passed away today.
1796: The capital of Upper Canada is moved from
Newark to York. Jews did not settle in Canada until the British defeated the French in
1760, at which time the French ban on Jewish settlement in the area became null
and void. By the time of this move, the
Jews had already built their first synagogue, The Spanish and Portuguese
Synagogue of Montreal also known as Shearith Israel which was established in
1768.
1799: The French army under Napoleon left for
Palestine to forestall a Turco-British invasion through the Palestinian
land-bridge.
1810(27 Shevat 5570): Rabbi Mechel
Scheuer passed away. He was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1739. His father was Rabbi David Tebele Scheuer and
he led his father's Yeshiva in Mainz as its Rosh Yeshiva during the years 1776
and 1777. In 1778 he became rabbi of Worms and in 1782 was appointed rabbi of
Manheim. At the time of his death, he was the rabbi of Coblence.
1827: Birthdate of Alphonse de Rothschild, French
banker, philanthropist and member of the French branch of the fabled Rothschild
family.
1836: Birthdate of Francis Lewis Cardozo, the
Charleston, SC native who was the son of Lydia Weston, a free black woman and
Isaac a Sephardic (Portuguese) Jews.
1856: Auburn
University East Alabama Male
College Auburn Auburn
1860: Rabbi Morris Raphall becomes the first Jewish
clergyman to open a session of the House of
Representatives. Raphall’s son-in-law would serve in the Union Army and after
he had committed some unspecified infraction, Lincoln
1861: Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise published an article in
The Israelite entitled “No Political Preaching” in which he explained why he
had refrained from preaching a sermon on January 4, 1861. President James Buchanan had designated that
date “ ‘as a day of feasting and prayer, that God might have mercy upon us and
save this Union.’” [This was just about the only action that Buchanan took to
preserve the Union!]
1862(1st of Adar I, 5622): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1862: The will of Samuel Samuels was admitted to
probate today. According to the terms of
the will, Samuels left $100 to the Jewish congregation, "Bnai
Jeshurun," on Greene-street, and $100 for the benefit of the Orphan Asylum
under the charge of the Hebrew Benevolent Society.
1868(8th of Shevat, 5628): Isaac Leeser passed away.
Born in 1806, he “was an American Jewish minister of religion, author,
translator, editor, and publisher; pioneer of the Jewish pulpit in the United
States, and founder of the Jewish press of America. He produced the first
Jewish translation of the Bible into English to be published in the United
States. He is considered one of the most important American Jewish
personalities of the nineteenth century America.”
1878: George Cruikshank the British illustrator who
created “Fagan” in his cell passed away.
1879: It was reported today that the Purim
Association of New York will resume hosting a masked ball after a hiatus of 10
years. The ball is scheduled to be held
on Purim night.
1880: In St. Louis, the Young Men's Hebrew
Association was organized.
1883: Theodore Hoffman was arrested this evening and
charged with the murder of Zife Marks, a Jewish peddler whose body had been on
the road outside of Port Chester, NY.
(Hoffman would eventually be found guilty and executed for the murder.)
1885(16th of Shevat, 5645): Peretz
Smolenskin, the Russian born Jewish novelist whose works in Hebrew including A
Wander (Ha-toeh be-darkhe ha-Hayyim, התועה בדרכי החיים) on the Path of Life
passed away today.
1887: Birthdate of Harry Scherman, American
economist, author and co-founder of the Book of the Month Club.
1897: As of this date, the officers of the United
Hebrew Charities of the City of New York say they will no long be able to
respond to all of the demands of the needy without additional funds. They received 250 applications a day, many of
which come from people who have never applied before and they need at least $15,000
just to provide minimal aid.
1890: “Castle Garden’s Autocrat” published today
described Commissioner Edmund Stephenson’s capricious and semi-dictatorial control
over the lives of immigrants, including Jews escaping the Czar’s tyranny, to
whom he showed distinct hostility.
1891: It was reported today that Mr. Rheinherz an
agent of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who testified before the
Congressional Committee investigating the operation of the Barge Office which
was the main immigrant processing center in New York City.
1892: It was reported today that Moritz Cohn, Morris
Hertz, Max Jacob, Ignatz Boskowitz, Henry Rice and Simon L. Duetsch had served
as pall bearers at the funeral of Benjamin Russak.
1893(15th of Shevat, 5653): Tu B’Shevat
1895: It was reported today that the Federation of
East Side Workers “consisting of the pastors, priests and rabbis of the
churches and congregations in New York south of 14th Street and east
of Broadax…expresses its grateful appreciation to the chairman and members of
the Tenement House Committee…” (Compare the active , positive role played by
Rabbis in the United States with the anti-Semitism found at the same time in
Russia, Germany and France).
1897: “The Future of Palestine” published today
provided the views of Professor Richard J.H. Gottheil’s views on the Jewish
settlement in this part of the Ottoman Empire.
Gottheil contended the Jews could again become “agriculturists” and that
Palestine could “support a large agricultural and industrial population.”
1897: “Harm Done By Alarmists” published today
includes the views of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil who expressed his sympathy for the
working man, opposition to Socialism and defense of the expendiures of the
wealthy as exemplified by the upcoming Bradley Martin-Ball
1897: It was reported today that Dr. Emil G. Hirsch said
the work of the Jewish charities in
Chicago has been complicated by the problems created by the influx of Jews flee
the Czar who have taken “refuge in the larger cities of America.”
1897: It was reported today the delegates attending
the Jewish Socialists Convention had voted to start a newspaper of their own
after the managers of the Abendblatt,
a Jewish socialist paper that had been founded in 1894, had made known their
decision not relinquish control of the paper.
1899: It was reported today that Professor Richard
J.H. Gottheil of Columbia University read a “paper by Albert Ulmann on the Jews
in New York during the Dutch colonial period. Mr. Ulmann gave as the earliest
date when Jews this city as 1652, when some Jewish farmers were sent over from
Holland to serve a year’s time a soldiers…”
He also “described the fight the Jews had to make against the religious bigotry
of Stuyvesant.”
1899: “Dr. Gottheheil’s Successor” published today
relied on information that first appeared in the New York Tribune to report
that Dr. Gustav Gottheil is preparing to retire after serving as Rabbi at
Temple Emanu-El for the past 25 years and that went to provide a brief history
of the Reform movement in the United States.
1901: A Memorial Service for Queen Victoria was held
at the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Samuel Salant
officiated at the service which was so well attended that local police were
called to control the crowd.
1904:
Birthdate of Sidney Joseph Perelman. Better known as S. J. Perelman, he
was a humorist, author, and screenwriter. He is primarily known for his
humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker magazine.
His most famous cinematic venture was writing the script for the Academy
Award-winning screenplay Around the World in Eighty Days starring David Niven.
1905: Birthdate of Emilio Segre. The Italian born physicist worked on the
Manhattan Project and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959.
1915: A dispatch from the London Daily News
datelined Cairo, based, in part on reports from “Vladimir Jabotinsky, a
well-known Moscow journalist” describes the deteriorating conditions faced by
the Jews living under Ottoman rule in Eretz Israel. Mr. Jabotinksy “entertains the graves fears
for the safety of the 15,000 colonists in Galilee, Judea and Samaria should the
Turkish army in Syria” suffer a defeat since the Turkish government will blame
it on the Jews. The government “is doing
its utmost to stir up feelings against the Zionists. The Turks have declared Zionism to a be a
revolutionary, anti-Turkish movement “which must be stamped out.” The Anglo-Palestine bank has been liquidated
which will lead to ruin for many of the Jewish settlers. A large number of Jewish refugees have fled
to Alexandria among them “1,000 young men who have have declared their
eagerness to join the British army.” The
report closes with expression of concern for the 5,000 Jews and 12,000
Christians living in Jerusalem who are trying to survive on American relief
supplies described as “insufficient to maintain life.”
1918: Russia adopted the Gregorian Calendar.
Russia’s comparatively late adoption of the calendar used by most of the
western world makes precise dating of certain events all the more difficult.
1919: The First Congress of Muslim-Christian
Assocations began its deliberations in Jersualem.
1923: Birthdate of
Canadian businessman Benjamin Weider who “was the co-founder of the
International Federation of BodyBuilding & Fitness (IFBB).”
1925: Today, Sophie Udin and six other women who had
been active in the labor Zionist organization Poale Zion, created the Pioneer
Women’s Organization of America The organization was renamed Pioneer Women in
1947 and Na'amat (a Hebrew acronym for "Movement of Working Women and
Volunteers") USA in 1981.
1928: Birthdate of Representative Tom Lantos. This California Democrat took his seat in
Congress in 1981. He is the only
survivor of the Holocaust serving in Congress.
1930: Birthdate of Ping
Pong or Table Tennis Champion, Marty Reisman.
1932: Birthdate of Batsheva Esther Eliashiv, the
Jerusalem native who was the daughter of Rabbi Shalom Elisahiv and who became
Rebbetzin Batsheva Esther Kanievskey when she married Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky.
1935: At the annual
convention of the Palestine Jewish Farmers Federation, Moshe Smilansky, veteran
farmer economist, poet, writer and journalist, shocked the assembled gathering
when in his opening address as president he announced that in the present
circumstances in Palestine Jewish farmers and colonists should employ Jewish
labor only
1941: Prime Minister Churchill instructed his
Foreign Minister, Anthony Eden, to send a warning to Romanian dictator Ion
Antonescu telling him “that we will hold him and immediate circle personally
responsible in life and limb” if the Iron Cross did not stop their murderous
attacks on the Jews.
1943: Most of the 1,500 Jews remaining in Buczacz
who had not been sent to Belzac were murdered. One survivor, Netka Goldberg,
lost three sisters, two brothers and her mother. Her father would be killed
seven months later.
1946:
Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of
the United Nations. Lie was head of the U.N. when Israel
1947: Birthdate of American television journalist
Jessica Savitch.
1948: The Arabs bombed the Palestine Post (a.k.a. Jerusalem
Post) building in Jerusalem
1950(14th of Shevat, 5710): French sociologist. Marcel Mauss passed away.
1951: During the Presidency of Harry Truman, Monnett
B. Davis was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1952: SN (Samuel Nathaniel) Behrman's
"Jane" premiered in New York City.
Behrman, was a popular and prolific dramatist
who tackled a number of topics in his works including what it was like to grow
up Jewish in a small town as the 19th gave way to the 20th
century.
1955: Lord Rothschild wrote to Churchill “thanking
him for the fact that in Jerusalem Palestine Israel
1958: Egypt Syria United Arab Republic . This was one of those failed attempts at
pan-Arabism that was really a military alliance designed to destroy Israel
1959(23rd of Shevat, 5719): Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise passed away. He “was an American Rabbi and leader
of the Reform Judaism movement, who served for over thirty years as rabbi of
the Central Synagogue in Manhattan and was a founder of the United Jewish
Appeal, serving as its chairman from its creation in 1939 until 1958.”
1968:
Birthdate of comedic actor Pauly Shore best known for his role in
“Encino Man.”
1969:
Birthdate of jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman son of a legendary jazz
musician and Jewish dancer from Russia
1967: As part of their confrontation with the
unionized bagel bakers, owners shut the doors to their bakeries claiming “that
they did not have enough work.”
1970: The New
York Times includes a review of Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul Bellow.
1976: "Rich Man, Poor Man" mini-series
based on the work of Irwin Shaw, premieres on ABC
TV.
1978: Director Roman Polanski skipped bail and fled
to France Poland
1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran Iran Israel
1984: Daniel Stern became NBA commissioner. Jews
seem to gravitate to the position since at one point the commissioners of most
major sports were Jewish: Commissioner of Major League Baseball: Bud Selig, Commissioner of the
National Basketball Association: David
Stern and Commissioner of the National Hockey League: Gary Bettman. According to one Urban Legend,
there was a move to get Commissioner of the National Football League: Paul Tagliabue to convert to Judaism so that
it would be four for four!
1985: Morton I.
Abramowitz began serving as President Reagan’s Director of the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research.
1985: In Leadville, CO, The Harvey/Martin
Construction Company convey the Temple Israel property to William H. Copper
whose family trust would convey it to the Temple Israel Foundation
1988: Two Palestinians were shot dead today near
Anabta in a fracas on the Nablus road north of Jerusalem that involved
demonstrators and settlers. Military authorities said settlers were trapped at
roadblocks by stone throwers and drew their guns and opened fire. Soldiers also
shot at the demonstrators. Another account said a convoy of 75 settlers
returned when the trouble subsided and vandalized a score of Arab cars.
1989(26th
of Shevat,5749): Eighty-nine
year old Marie Syrkin, an author, editor and teacher who was active in the
Zionist cause for many decades, died of cancer today at St. John's Hospital in
Santa Monica, Calif. (As reported by Glenn Fowler)
1992(27th of Shevat, 5752): U.S. District Court Judge Irving R Kaufman, who presided at the Rosenberg Spy Case, passed
away at the age of 81.
1993: Gary Bettman becomes the NHL's first
commissioner
1998:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time by Gershom
Scholem and Selected Poems by Harvey Shapiro
2002(19th
of Shevat, 5762): Daniel Pearl, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal was
beheaded today.
2003(25th of Tevet, 5771): The Space Shuttle Columbia
burned up on re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere killing the crew of six
including Israel’s first man in space, Ilan Ramon. Ilan Ramon was born in
1954. He was a combat pilot in the
Israeli Air Force. He was a graduate of Tel Aviv University and held the rank
of Colonel at the time of his death. Ramon was a veteran of the Yom Kippur War,
one of the first Israeli pilots to fly the then new F-16 jet and was part of
the group that destroyed the Iraqi nueclar reactor before it could go on line.
2004: Jonathan Andrew Kaye won the FBR Open
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Liberated Bride by A.B. Yehoshua; translated by Hillel Halkin and The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the
White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind.
2005: One of the highlights of the completion of the
most recent Talmud cyle of study was the Siyum HaShas celebration at Madison
Square Garden. At Madison Square Garden this evening, “a handful of the 25,000
people there taking part in the 11th Siyum HaShas Daf Yomi celebration recalled
some of the more unusual settings in which they have demonstrated their
commitment to the daily study of Talmud, which was completed — and renewed for
a new seven-and-a-half-year cycle — this week. Daf Yomi, or daily
page, was introduced in 1923 at the First International Congress of Agudath
Israel in Vienna by a young Polish rabbi, Meir Shapiro, as a way to bring
uniformity to the worldwide study of Shas, an acronym for the names of the six
orders of the Mishna, on which the Talmudic sages recorded their commentaries
around 200 C.E. Agudah said 120,000 North American Jews were taking part in the
celebration this year.”
2006: Despite
violent protests, Israel successfully completed the evacuation of the West Bank
outpost of Amona. This is in line with
the policy of the Sharon government provide security for the state of Israel
and ensuring that Israel remains both a democratic nation and a Jewish
homeland. The withdrawal policy has the
support of the majority of Israelis.
2007: The Sarah Silverman Program premiered on
Comedy Central
2007: The first exhibition of female architects in
the history of Israeli architecture entitled "The feminine presence in Israeli
architecture," opened at the gallery of the Union of Architects in Jaffa.
Twenty-two female architects participated and
displayed works they have planned in the past few years and which have since
been built.
2007: As part of a kosher cooking contest, New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a proclamation naming this date as Simply
Manischewitz Cook-off Day. Candace
McMenamin, a non-Jew from Lexington, S.C. won with her sweet potato encrusted
chicken. Only in America
2008: Six gunmen opened
fire on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania early this morning, trading fire with
guards before fleeing screaming "Allah Akbar," witnesses said. The
six men arrived by car and regrouped in front of a discotheque that is just
beside the embassy, said Hamza Ould Bilal, a taxi driver who was parked outside
the club, called the VIP . He saw
them pull out their automatic weapons and scream "God is Great!" in
Arabic, before assailing the embassy, he said.
2008: “Praying With Lior,” a new documentary about a
Philadelphia Cinema Village New York
2009: At Yale University America
2009: The New
York Times and the Washington Post
each featured a review of Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American
Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East by Martin Indyk, the assistant
secretary of state for near east affairs during the Clinton Administration and
the first Jewish American to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
2010: The Center for Jewish History and the
Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation is scheduled to present “Diplomacy
and Genocide: Challenges for the Future” .
2010: Two barrels of
explosives were discovered on Israeli beaches today, which were dispatched into
the sea as part of a large-scale Palestinian terror attack against Israeli navy
ships.
2010: Seven American and
European scientists were named winners of Israel's prestigious $100,000 Wolf
Prize today. The Wolf Foundation said its prize in medicine went to Axel
Ullrich of Germany for groundbreaking cancer research that has led to
development of new drugs. Sir David Baulcombe of Cambridge University was
awarded Wolf Prize for agriculture research in defending plants against
viruses. The physics prize was shared by US professor John F. Clauser, Alain
Aspect of France and Anton Zeilinger of Austria for their work in quantum
physics. The mathematics prize was shared by two US-based professors:
Shing-Tung Yau for geometric analysis, and Dennis Sullivan for contributions to
algebraic topology and conformal dynamics.
2010(17th of Shevat): Ninety-two year old
Selma G. Hirsh, a humanitarian and an author who was associated with the
American Jewish Committee for many years, passed away today at her home in Stamford, Conn. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/25/nyregion/25hirsh.html?pagewanted=print
2011: Virginia Jewish Advocacy Day is scheduled to
take placed in Richmond, VA.
2011: The Leo Baeck Institute and American Council
on Germany are scheduled to present a lecture by Joschka Fischer and Norbert
Frei entitled "The German Foreign Office and the Nazi Past"
2011: At Tulane University, Dean Carole Haber
announced that Prof. Ronna Burger, Chair of the Department of Philosophy, has
been appointed at the Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Chair in Judeo-Christian
Studies.
2011: Six Senate Democrats rejected a deficit-driven
proposal by a new Republican senator to cut United States aid to Israel. In a
letter sent today to the top House Republicans on the Appropriations and Budget
committees, the Democrats said aid to Israel, the only democratic nation in the
Middle East, is imperative. They backed the $3 billion in foreign military
assistance that the U.S. provides annually to Israel. Republican Sen. Rand Paul
said last week that the nation faces a fiscal crisis and argued that the U.S.
cannot give money away, even to allies, as the debt grows.
2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense
Minister Ehud Barak informed Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant today that they have
cancelled his upcoming appointment to the post of Israel Defense Forces chief.
2011: A Tunisian Jewish
leader said today that the burning of a building that served as a synagogue in
the South of the country was not an attack on the local Jewish community. Roger
Bismuth, the president of the Jewish community in Tunisia, told The Jerusalem Post
that the fire that broke out at a makeshift Jewish place of worship in the town
of Ghabes was probably not an act of anti-Semitism, but one of vandalism. “
2011(27th of Shevat, 5771): Seventeen
year old Mitchell Perlmeter, the son of rabbi Rex Perlmeter and Rabbi Rachel
Hertzman, passed away today in his home at Montclair, NJ.
2012: “Mamele” is scheduled to be shown at
Congregation Etz Chaim in Toledo, Ohio.
2012: “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be
shown at temple Jeremiah in Northfield, Illinois.
2012: Liel Leibovitz is scheduled to moderate a
presentation by New York Times columnist David Brooks at the 92nd
Street Y.
2012: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told
President Shimon Peres today he was worried about the possible military aspects
of Iran's nuclear program, laid out in a recent IAEA report, and called on Iran
to prove that the program is peaceful.
2012: Israelis are in danger of waking up one morning to a different Israel,
Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni said at the Herzliya Conference today. Livni
asserted that Israelis today are not debating the true issue - that the state's
minority will impose its will on the Zionist majority.
2012(8th
of Shevat, 5772): Eighty-six year old Robert B. Cohen, the president of the
Hudson County News Company passed away today.
(As reported by Denis Hevesi)
2013: Students
and members of the Jewish community are scheduled to present poems by Jewish
poets including works by Yehuda Acmichai following a Friday night Shabbat
dinner at the Hillel at the University of Iowa.
2013: Tenth anniversary of the Columbia Shuttle
disaster which claimed the lives of all on board including Israeli Astronaut Ilan
Ramon. The event is the subject of a
special documentary entitled "Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope"
which is scheduled to be aired today on Iowa Public Television.
2013: “Not By Bread Alone” is scheduled to be
performed at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
2013: On the secular calendar, 11th
anniversary of the beheading of Daniel Pearl.
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