January
25 In History
41:
Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. “Claudius rescinded Caligula’s provocative decrees affecting Judean and reaffirmed Jewish
rights throughout the rest of the Roman world.”
Claudius supported the cause of the Jews when they were attacked in
separate incidents by the Greeks of Alexandria and the Samaritans.
He maintained a life-long friendship with the Agrippa the last Jewish
king in Eretz Israel.
749: Birthdate Leo IV (the Khazar). He was Byzantine emperor from 775 through 780. He was known as “the Khazar” because his
mother was a Khazar Princess. If the
Khazars were Jewish, does this mean that at least one Byzantine emperor was
Jewish?
1138: Anacletus II passed away. Known as Pietro
Pierleone before his elevation to the Papacy in 1130, Anacletus II was referred
to as the Jewish anti-pope because he came from a family that had converted
from Judaism to Christianity. The appellation of anti-pope is one that is hung
on several popes who were elected under controversial circumstances.
1327:
Edward III becomes King of England. During his reign King Edward III would re-apply the Edict of
Expulsion of 1290 because there were reports of “secret Jews” or conversos who
had remained in England and were practicing “the faith of their fathers.”
1494:
Alfonso II became King of Naples. Alfonso continued to rely on the services of
Don Isaac Abravanal the refugee from the Spanish expulsion who had acted as an
advisor to his predecessor on the throne, King Ferdinand. Alfonso also
continued the policy of his predecessor of allowing Jews fleeing the
Inquisition to settle in his kingdom.
1533:
Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. Henry had
failed in his attempt to enlist the support of Italian rabbis in his futile
attempt to get the Pope to annul his first marriage. His marriage to Anne helped move England into
the Protestant camp which proved to be beneficial in the Jews’ attempt to
return to the British Isles.
1554:
Founding of São Paulo, Brazil. As was
the case in so many other parts of Latin America, the first Jews to inhabit Sao
Paulo were New Christians or Conversos. The first openly Jewish residents of the city arrived from
Alsace-Lorraine in the 19th century. Today São Paulo is home to the
largest Jewish community in Brazil with about 130,000 people,
1569: Phillip II of Spain
issued the order to set up an inquisition in the New
World . Mexico
would be the first five years later.
1648: The Khmelnytsky or
Chmielnicki Rebellion against the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania began in
earnest when Bohdan Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of 300-500 Cossacks to the
Zaporizhian Sich and quickly dispatched the guards assigned by the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to protect the entrance. His defeat of the
counterattacking Commonwealth forces coupled with is oratorical skills brought
thousands of rebels including the Ruthenians to join his uprising. Jews, who served as the middle-man and
administrators for the absentee Polish landlords were an easy target for the
rebels. The bloody uprising will mark the long, slow disintegration of the
Polish state. The slaughter of the Jews
was so great that it would not be surpassed until the time of the Nazis.
1844: Congregation
Shaarai Shomayim u-Maskil el Dol was chartered today in Mobile, Alabama. “Israel
I. Jones (1810–1877), a London Jew who arrived early in the 1830s, was
president of the congregation for most of his life; one of his daughters
married the well-known New Orleans rabbi, James Koppel Gutheim (1817–1886). An
auctioneer and tobacco merchant, Jones was active in politics, served as an
alderman, was president of the Mobile Musical Association, and introduced
streetcars to Mobile”
1849: The West End Synagogue of British which had
been formed by Jews who left Bevis Marks in 1841 dedicated its new facility in
Upper Berkeley Street.
1852: Achille Fould resigned as the French Minister
of Finance.
1852: French political leader Achille Fould was
appointed as a Senator and later rejoined the government as a Minister of
State.
1854(25th of Tevet, 5614): Filosseno Luzzatto passed away. Born at Trieste in 1829; he was an
Italian Jewish scholar; son of Samuel David Luzzatto. His name is the Italian
equivalent of the title of one of his father's principal works, "Oheb
Ger," which was written at the time of Filosseno's birth. “He showed from
childhood linguistic aptitude, and having mastered several European languages,
he devoted himself to the study of Semitic languages and Sanskrit.” At the age
of thirteen he deciphered some old inscriptions on the tombstones of Padua
which had puzzled older scholars. Two years later, happening to read
D'Abbadie's narrative of his travels in Abyssinia, he resolved to write a
history of the Falashas. In addition to writing several original works, he “translated
into Italian eighteen chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, adding a Hebrew
commentary. Luzzatto contributed to many periodicals, mostly on philological or
exegetical subjects.”
1854:
An article published today entitled “The Will of Judah Touro,” described the
terms of the late philanthopist and businessman’s final testamentary
document. The will was dated January 6,
1854, 7 days before his death. The will
appointed four executors, three of whom were to receive $10,000 and a four,
R.D. Shepperd who is the “residuary legatee.
Touro bequeathed approximately $450,000 to different Jewish and
non-Jewish institutions and charities.
Among them were $20,000 left to
the Jew’s Hospital Society of New York; $10,000 left to the New York Relief
Society for Indigent Jews in Palestine; $50,000 left for the agent of “a
society dedicated to ameliorating the condition of the Jews in the Holy Land
and the securing the enjoyment of their religion” as well as bequests left to Jewish
congregations throughout the United States including, but not limited to $5,000
to a Jewish congregation in Boston, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Hartford, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation
in New Haven, $5,000 to a Jewish
congregation in New York, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Charleston and
$5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Savannah
1858: The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen
1861:
Charles Dyte laid the foundation stone for the historic Ballarat Synagogue, the
oldest surviving synagogue on the Australian mainland.
1861: In a letter that an unidentified resident of New
Orleans, LA, wrote to a friend in Boston, he described the voting patterns of
various groups in the recent election. If you believe his description, most
groups voted for one of the Unionist or Compromise candidates. Only "The
Jews voted for secession."
1865: Dr. William H. Thomson read a paper entitled
"What we have to learn in the East" at tonight’s meeting of the
American Ethnological Society. A long
time resident of Syria, who traveled extensively in throughout the Middle East,
Dr. Thomson reported on “the importance of extensive investigations among the
innumerable mounds” found in the area.
Examination of similar mounds has provided information about early
inhabitants including the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans. [Ed. Note – What the doctor was describing
are the innumerable “tels” that would become the focal point of archaeological
interest in modern day Israel.]
1868(1st
of Shevat, 5628): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1872:
The United States Senate confirmed M.A. Shaffenburg as U.S. Marshall for the Territory
of Colorado.
1870:
The New York Times published an editorial defending itself against charges by
“a Jewish newspaper” that the paper is paying too much attention to the “Reform
party within the ancient sect.” The editorial cites the creation of Temple
Israel in Brooklyn as proof of that there is a significant segment of the Jews
that “are anxious to make great and fundamental changes in their doctrines and
faith.” The editorial finished by saying
that it would publish information about any sect within Judaism that are based
on “facts.” [Editor’s note: It is significant that a leading metropolitan daily
was publishing stories about Jewish culture and religion that were generally
informative at a time when the Jewish population was a rather infittesimal part
of the general population
1874:
“The second constitutional convention of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith”
opened today in Chicago, Illinois at the Kingsbury Music Hall. Simon Wolf of
Washington, D.C. was elected President.
During the afternoon session, a massive gold medal was presented in
memory of A.E. Frankland, the Memphis, TN, Jew who worked to ameliorate the
suffering in that city’s Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1874:
Reverend Samuel Alman was installed today as the pastor of the Second Mission
Baptist Church. Before converting, Alman had been a member of the Stanton
Street Jewish Congregation.
1879(1st
of Shevat, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1879: The Pioneers, a St. Louis literary club for Jewish women, meet for the
first time today. http://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/25/1879/rosa-sonneschein
1885:
Herman Ahlwardt wrote a letter today in which he said, "Antisemitism is illogical;
I have always condemned it, and shall continue to condemn religious intolerance
until my last breath." (Ahlwardt would change his views when he failed to
find political success among the Conservatives and become notorious
anti-Semitic pamphleteer, agitator and member of the Reichstag.
1887: Birthdate of Berl Katznelson the Russian
native who “ was one the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism, instrumental
to the establishment of the modern State of Israel, and the editor of Davar,
the first daily newspaper of the workers' movement.”
1891: Rabbi Gustav Gustav Gottheil delivered an
address entitled “An Earnest Word To Christians” at Temple Emanu-El in New
York.
1891: Based on information that first appeared in
the London Daily Telegraph it was
reported today that Baron Hirsch has donated £500,000 for education of “indigent
Jews” in various parts of Austria, including Lemberg and Czernowitz. Although intended to provide education for
Jewish children, “the Hirsch school will...be open to Christian children” as
well.
1892: It was reported today that the delegates from
the Hebrew Trades Union would join with others in calling for all labor
organizations in the United States “to send delegates to an international labor
congress” scheduled “to be held in Chicago in 1893.”
1895: The Young Ladies and
Gentlemen's League of the Montefiore Home hosted a ball at the Carnegie Music
Hall to raise fund for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.
1895:
The Monte Relief Society, a charitable and social organization founded by a
small group of Jewish women under the leadership of Mrs. Sofia Monte-Loebinger
two years ago, is scheduled to host a party at the Terrace Garden designed to
raise funds to relieve “distress among the Hebrew poor.”
1896:
A sub-committee of Board of Alderman in New York met today to discuss whether
or not to accept a fountain dedicated to the memory of Heinrich Heine.
1897:
Starting today, and lasting for the rest of the week Civil Service examinations
were administered in New York for the position of Court Interpreter. Hebrew was one of the six languages in which
applicants could be tested. (The test for Hebrew would seem to have been a
misguided attempt to cope with the large surge of Jewish immigrants from
eastern Europe. In reality, most of
these immigrants spoke Yiddish, not Hebrew.)
1898:
Cleveland, Ohio, liquor dealer Saul Jacobs was convicted of larceny in the
first degree for his part in a scheme to swindle Max Bernstein.
1898:
It was reported today that troops were called out to help the police respond to
anti-Jewish riots in St. Malo. (This was part of the on-going anti-Dreyfus
violence sweeping France)
1898:
It was reported today that in Algiers, “the Governor General narrowly escaped a
chair which was thrown at him” as he
tried to disperse anti-Jewish mobs. The
mob now included “a number of natives” whose only interest was looting and
pillaging.
1898: At least one hundred people went trial today for their part in the anti-Jewish riots in Algiers, the capital of Algeria which was a French colony. “Eighty of the rioters were condemned to terms of imprisonment varying from three months to year…One who was caught in the act of pillaging was sentenced to five years in prison.”
1899:
Birthdate of Goodman Ace. Born Goodman Aiskowitz, Kansas City , Missouri
1902: Herzl proposes to
Franz Oppenheimer the creation of a model cooperative colony in El Arish.
1904: Herzl met Pope Pius X and tried to convince
him to support the vision of Zionism without any success. The pope totally
rejected the idea that Jerusalem
would be in Jewish hands. (The papacy
still clings to this notion.) Herzl is received by Pope Pius X, who declares, he
cannot support the return of the infidel Jews to the Holy
Land . ("If you come to Palestine
and settle your people there, we want to have churches and priests ready to
baptize all of you.")
1909: German composer Richard Strauss' opera “Elektra” receives its debut
performance at the Dresden State Opera. Strauss was born in 1864 and passed
away in 1949 which means that his last years as an active composer coincided with
the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazis.
Many have been critical of his close association with the Third
Reich. His defenders claim that Strauss’
behavior was determined by his need to protect his son and daughter-in-law who
was Jewish, In fact, the couple was arrested in Vienna during the war and it
took all of Strauss’ best efforts to save them.
1912:
The Savannah Section withdraws from the Council of
Jewish Women.
1913(17th of Shevat, 5673): Wilhelm
Bacher, a Hungarian rabbi and scholar passed away in Budapest. Born in 1850, he was “a major contributor” to
the “Jewish Encyclopedia” as well as close friend of many Jewish intellectuals
notably Chaim Nachman Bialik
1919: Birthdate of NBC newsman Edwin Newman.
1919: Awni Abdul Hadi and Ahmad Qadri met with an
unnamed Zionist representative at the Hotel Meurice
1919:
The League of Nations was founded.
British control over Palestine would take its legal form from a Mandate
by the League of Nations. The failure of
the League to halt the aggression of Japan in China, Italy in Abyssinia and the fascists in
Spain is listed as one of the causes of World War II and therefore the
Shoah. The League failed as a peace
keeper, in part, because the United States refused to join, a mistake it would
not repeat at the end of WW II when it joined the United Nations.
1921:
In Brooklyn, Lazarus and Jenny Cohen gave birth to Samuel Theodore Cohen, the
Father of the Neutron Bomb.
1922:
A committee chaired by Rabbi Louis Feinberg of Cincinnati, Ohio, will deliver a
report to Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) on the
acceptability of using unfermented grape juice for sacramental purposes.
1922:
Temple Beth El held its 10th Annual Ball at the Elmwood Music Hall in Buffalo,
New York.
1925: The former Hahambashi of Turkey, Rabbi Haim
Nahoum was elected Chief Rabbi of Cairo, Egypt.
1925: Birthdate of John Livingston Weinberg,
American banker and businessman.
1928: Birthdate of Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder the
Birmingham Temple in suburban Detroit in 1963. He also was the driving force
behind the creation of the Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969. He died in auto accident at the age of 79 in
2007.
1940: Birthdate of Lt. Col. Avraham "Avi"
Lanir one of the most accomplished and bravest pilots in the IAF. On the first day of the Yom Kippur War, Lanir
joined with Colonel Oded Marom flew their Mirage jets to the Golan where they
engaged four MiGs, shooting down one a piece.
Tragically, Colonel Lanir would be shot down by the Syrians who tortured
him to death.
1940: The Nazi decreed the establishment of Jewish
ghetto in Lodz, Poland
1944: Hans Frank, governor-general of Occupied Poland, notes
in his diary that approximately 100,000 Jews remain in the region under his
control, down by 3,400,000 from the end of 1941.
1945: The Nazis begin the evacuation of the
Stutthof concentration camp. In yet another Death March prisoners are sent
westward in the middle of driving snow storm.. Many would die from freezing.
Others were shot or thrown into the icy Baltic Sea .
1949: Ben-Gurion's Mapai party was the top vote
getter in Israel ’s first election
after the creation of the Jewish state. However, the party only gained 35.7% of
the vote which translated into 46 seats in the Knesset leaving Ben-Gurion 15
seats short of the majority he would need in the parliament that has 120
seats. This would necessitate the
formation of a coalition. This would set the stage for a joining of strange
bedfellows which some see as detrimental to the long term stability of the
Jewish state.
1954: Birthdate of Israeli author David Grossman
whose work included Her Body Knows, a collection of two novellas.
1958: Birthdate of actress Dinah Manoff. She is the daughter of screenwriter Arnold
Manoff and Lee Grant
who was Lyova
Haskell Rosenthal before she began her acting career.
1959: Pope John XXIII proclaims Second Vatican
Council. This would lead to the greatest improvement in relations between the
Church and the Jewish People since the days of Constantine.
1959:
Contributions of $132 were received by the annual appeal of the New York Times
Neediest Cases Fund from the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.
1960: Yitzhak Rabin
flew to IDF Southern Headquarters to ascertain the military situation as
Egyptian forces stood on the border with Israel. The crisis would pass since neither side was
prepared for war. But the crisis of 1960
did help to set the stage for Israel’s response to Egypt’s next foray into the
Sinai in 1967.
1961
(8 Shevat 5721): Bar Mitzvah of
Yissachar Dov Rokeach. Born in 1948 he is the fifth and present Rebbe of the
Hasidic dynasty of Belz. He has led Belz since 1966.
1965:
Sheldon Cohen began serving as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
1966(4th
of Shevat, 5726): Dr. Saul Adler, the expert on parasites who translated Darwin’s
The Origin of Species into Hebrew, passed away today in Jerusalem.
1968:
Last transmission is received from the Israeli submarine, Dakar.
1971:
Idi Amin led a coup deposing Milton Obote and became Uganda's president. In his
younger days, Amin was favorably disposed towards the Israelis who trained him
as a paratrooper. However, in 1976, he
would prove himself to be a strong supporter of the PLO as he gave refuge to the
terrorists who landed their high jacked aircraft at Entebbe.
1975:
Birthdate of Canadian actress Mia Kirshner, granddaughter of Holocaust
survivors and the daughter of a Canadian Jewish journalist.
1983: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
1987: Neil Diamond sang the national anthem at Super
Bowl XXI.
1988: As the latest round of Arab terrorism
escalates, Yehuda Genyan, a tailor, seems to be expressing the frustration of
many Israelis when he said today of the terrorists, “They walk around here like
kings, but a Jew goes to pray at the wall and he gets stabbed.'' In the wake of
international criticism over Israel’s response to Palestine protesters, Prime
Minister Shamir seems to echoing Genyan when he states, ''We are not allowed to
kill, we are not allowed to expel, we are not allowed to beat,'' Prime Minister
Shamir said. What are Jews allowed to do - Only to be killed, only to be
wounded, only to be defeated.''
1992: Singer
Ofra Haza and the Amka Oshrat Yeminite Dance Troupe appear in concert as part
of “Israel: The Next Generation.”
1993: The New
York Times reported that a United States Senator from Hawaii , the Brooklyn-born chief rabbi of an Israeli
West Bank community, and an organization of disabled Israeli war veterans will
receive the 10th annual Defender of Jerusalem Awards. The $100,000 prize that
will be divided among the recipients will be presented by the Jabotinsky
Foundation Thursday at the Plaza Hotel. The foundation is named for Vladimir
Jabotinsky, a Zionist, philosopher and mentor of many Israeli leaders. Being
honored this year are Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, Rabbi
Shlomo Riskin, founder of the settlement of Efrat on the West Bank, where he is
described as a peace-keeper and arbitrator between Jews and Palestinians, and
the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization, which operates two sports,
rehabilitation and social centers in Tel Aviv and Haifa and is building a
facility in Jerusalem. The purpose of the prize, said Eryk Spektor, founder and
chairman of the Jabotinsky Foundation, "is to honor people who have stood
up in the defense of Jewish rights."
1998: The New
York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest
to Jewish readers including Hitler’s Banker: Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht by
John Weitz and Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis Singer; translated
by Joseph Sherman.
1999: Yitzhak Mordechai
completed his service as Minister of Defense.
2001: Israel's state-owned power utility said today
that it planned to buy more than half of its $3 billion supply of natural gas
over the next decade from Egypt, after receiving an offer that was 20 to 30
percent lower than domestic prices. Israel Electric said it would enter
detailed negotiations to buy the gas from Eastern Mediterranean Group, which
involves Israel's Merhav Group and Egypt's state-owned oil company. Other gas
will come from an Israeli supplier. The purchase could establish the strongest
economic tie between the two nations since they signed a peace treaty in 1978.
2001: After a 48-hour
hiatus, Israelis and Palestinians resumed their peace talks today still hoping
for a diplomatic breakthrough, though increasingly dubious about a full-fledged
agreement before the Feb. 6 election in Israel. Prime Minister Ehud Barak told
an Israeli business group today that he did not believe there would be an
agreement before the election, in which he is being challenged by the hawkish
Ariel Sharon. But Israeli and Palestinian negotiators greeted each other warmly
after a two-day suspension of talks and immediately began more intensive
bargaining.
2002: A Palestinian
suicide bomber wounded more than two dozen people when he blew himself up today
in a pedestrian mall in a Tel Aviv neighborhood of populated largely by
immigrant workers.
2003: On the first day of
his trial, an Israeli Arab student denied that he had tried to hijack an El Al
jetliner and force it to slam into a skyscraper in Tel Aviv. Tawfiq Foqara, 23,
told the court that during the November 17 flight from Tel Aviv to Istanbul he
had a dispute with a flight attendant who yelled at him. He said he had been
humiliated by the flight attendant who he said picked on him because he was an
Arab. He testified that he pulled a penknife out of his pocket and grabbed her
arm when the plane approached Istanbul, but was immediately overpowered by
passengers. Mr. Foqara faces up to five years in prison if convicted of
attempted hijacking.
2003: The Guardian published an article entitled “Solzhenitsyn breaks last taboo of the
revolution; Nobel laureate under fire for new book on the role of Jews in
Soviet-era,” in which Nick Paton reviews Two Hundred Years Together by
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
2004:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including
The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting
the Misuse of American Power by George Soros, Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates,
Collect Poems by Paul Auster and a newly released paperback edition of A Saint, More or Less by Henry Grunwald.
2004:
Today Israel's high court suspended for
30 days the state's efforts to expel the Palestinian father of an Israeli soldier,
pending a hearing on granting him the right to remain in Israel.
2005(15th
of Shevat, 5765): Tu B'Shevat
2006: The Tenafly Jewish community has won a six-year battle with local
officials over the right to place symbolic plastic strips on utility poles to
create an enclosure that would allow them to perform certain restricted
activities on the Sabbath. By a 5-0
vote, the Borough Council of Tenafly agreed to allow the strips to be
used to create an enclosure known as an eruv. Local officials also agreed to pay $325,000 to cover
court costs incurred by the group which sued over the ban. The courts had
already rejected the council's efforts to ban the strips.
2007(6th of Shevat, 5767): Sydney Simon Shulemson, DFC, died today in Florida. Born in 1915, he “was
a Canadian fighter pilot, and Canada's highest decorated Jewish soldier, during
World War II .Growing up in Montreal, Shulemson attended McGill University. He
enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 10, 1939, and graduated
from flight school in 1942. He joined RCAF 404 Squadron in Wick in Scotland,
flying a Bristol Beaufighter. Shulemson downed a German flying boat on his
first sortie. He pioneered techniques for rocket attacks on Axis ships in the
North Atlantic. After the war, Shulemson located aircraft and recruited pilots
for Israel's growing Israeli Air Force.”
2007: In Derby , UK
2007: Speaker of the Knesset Dalia Itzik became
acting President of Israel when President Moshe Katzav took a three month long
leave of absence.
2008: In Iowa City
funeral is held for orthopedic surgeon Dr. Webster B. Gelman, recipient of the
1985 University
of Iowa Alumnae Association
2008: First Musical Shabbat Service at Temple Judah Cedar Rapids , Iowa
2008: Rami Zuari, a 20 year old Border Police
officer killed during a terrorist attack at an East
Jerusalem checkpoint was buried in the military cemetery at
Be’er Sheva, his home town.
2008: In Great Britain
at Friday Prayers
the community of Ahmadi Muslims in the UK
say the following prayer in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day.
"Sunday 27 January is Holocaust Memorial Day in UK. We pray that people
learn to recognize, accept and respect their differences. People of all races and
faiths are God’s people. May everyone accept this truth so that the world can
look forward to a peaceful future. May God enable people to remain close to
their Creator, follow His teachings of peace, and avoid repeating the mistakes
of the past. Amen."
2009: Politics and Prose Bookstore hosts a reading
from Words that Burn Within Me:
Faith, Values, Survival, a collection of notebooks by Hilda Stern Cohen containing poetry
and recollections of life in 1930s Germany ,
which was discovered by her husband, Werner
Cohen, after her death in 1997.
2009: The 5th annual Brooklyn Israel
Film Festival closes this evening with a showing of “Children of the Sun,”
written and directed by Ran Tal and the winner of Israel 's
Academy Award for Best Documentary. This eye-opening look at the kibbutz
movement includes rare historic footage and personal interviews.
2009: The New York Times
includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to
Jewish readers including Benjamin Disraeli by Adam Kirsch and Ballet’s Magic: Selected Writings on Dance in
Russia, 1911-1925 by Akim Volynsky; edited and translated by
Stanley J. Rabinowitz. Akim Volynsky was the pen name of Chaim Leib Flekser who
was born in 1861 into an Orthodox Jewish family of booksellers in Ukraine .
2009: The New York Times
reports that the kosher symbol, intended to show consumers that the contents
adhere to Jewish dietary laws, was mistakenly left off 14 million boxes of Thin
Mints, the variety that accounts for roughly 25 percent of Girl Scout cookie
sales, said Raymond Baxter, president and chief executive of Interbake Foods,
the parent company of ABC Bakers
of Richmond, Va., one of two approved manufacturers of the cookies.
2009 (29 Tevet 5769): Rabbi Leon Klenicki, a pioneer in
interfaith relations passed away today according to an announcement from the
Anti-Defamation League, where he served as director emeritus of interfaith
affairs.
2010:
The 19th annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to
present the New York premiere “Leap of Faith,” a documentary about the difficulties that
four families face when they abandons their traditions and embrace Judaism.
2010:
The Brooklyn Israel Film Festival is scheduled to close this evening with a
screening of the 2008 Israel Academy Award for Best Documentary, ‘Children of
the Sun.”
2010 (10th of Tevet): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchok
Schneersohn, sixth Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement who was also known as
the Friediker Rebbe or "Previous Rebbe."One year later, to the day, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Rebbe assumed
the leadership position of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
2010: At the Sundance Festival the first screening of “A Film
Unfinished.”
2010: The week after Miep Gies, passed away, Elie Wiesel wrote the
following about her in Time magazine.
Miep Gies
entered history without wanting to. She did what many others were too afraid to
do: she risked her freedom, her life, in her determination to save Jews from
deportation and death.From 1942 to '44, Gies, who died Jan. 11 at 100, helped
shelter and feed Anne Frank and her family in an attic in Amsterdam, where at
that time Jews were being branded, humiliated and condemned just because they
were Jews. Her life remains a moral example for millions to follow. I met Gies
much later and was impressed by her sincerity, the simplicity of her comments
and the moving quality of her smile. Calm, soft and reserved, she radiated
nobility and strength of character. She talked little and quietly, reflecting
on the significance of every word. When speaking of the past, she seemed to
relive it. Naturally, I knew much about her life. Anne's immortal diary, which
Gies found and gave to Otto Frank after the war, was filled with praise for her
devotion and sacrifice.I asked her where she had found the courage to defy the
Gestapo during the dark days of the occupation, and she protested. "I did
nothing heroic or extraordinary," she said. "Human beings were in
peril, and I had to care for them." But for the Franks, she represented
all that is good and generous. She was the incarnation of hope.
2011: The New York Premiere of Black Bus, which “tells story
of two young women who chose to leave their close-knit Haredi communities in
Israel and are, as a consequence, estranged from their families” is scheduled
to take place at The New York Jewish Film Festival.
2011: David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari with Jane Eisner are scheduled
to lead a discussion entitled “Israelis and Palestinians: Poised Between Crisis
and Opportunity” at the 92nd Street Y.
2011: To mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2011, the Wiener Library is
scheduled to hold a special lecture by Prof Clare Ungerson on The Kitchener
Camp, a largely forgotten camp established in 1939 for 4000 male Jewish
refugees situated near Sandwich in East Kent.
2011: Police Commissioner David Cohen said today
that he was concerned by the possibility of ideology-based murders against
public officials in Israel.
2011: The international department of the
prosecution services failed to obtain the extradition from Peru of former judge
Dan Cohen, wanted in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and
obstruction of justice, the government informed the department today
2011:
After a preliminary hearing today
determined that the issue should be handled in the courts, the Jerusalem Labor
Court will be deciding over the next few months whether rabbinic ordination
should be recognized as equivalent to a bachelor’s degree, vis-à-vis the Civil
Service Commission’s prerequisites for the position of a supervisor in the
haredi educational system.
2011: Nominations
for the 83rd annual Academy Awards, announced this morning, were good for the
Jews. Shoo-ins Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) and Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social
Network”) got Best Actress and Actor nods, respectively. James Franco, whose
mother is Jewish, also scored a Best Actor nod for his role in “127 Hours.” “Black
Swan” director Darren Aronofsky earned a Best Director nomination, along with
“True Grit” helmers Joel and Ethan Coen. “The Fighter” director David O.
Russell, son of a Jewish father and Italian-American mother, also got a Best
Director nomination. Jews also ruled the screenwriting categories. Debra Granik
scored a nod in the Best Adapted Screenplay category for the brutal “Winter’s
Bone,” while Hollywood vet Aaron Sorkin earned his for Facebook docudrama “The
Social Network,” as did fellow A-lister Scott Silver for scrappy Boston epic
“The Fighter.” In the same category, the Coen Brothers won the Academy’s
attention for their highly acclaimed adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel
“True Grit.” British improv-drama icon Mike Leigh was nominated in the Best
Original Screenplay category for “Another Year,” his sobering look at happiness
— and the lack thereof — among the British chattering classes. And
British-born, Long Island-raised David Seidler got his first Oscar nomination —
in the Original Screenplay slot — for “The King’s Speech”. Semites didn’t fare
as well in the Best Supporting Actor or Actress categories, though 14-year-old
Hailee Steinfeld — reportedly the daughter of a Jewish dad and black/Filipino
mom — got a nod for her widely lauded turn as vengeful tween Mattie Ross in
“True Grit.”
2011: A Jewish
hockey player has sued the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks for religious
discrimination and harassment based on religion. Jason Bailey, 23, in a lawsuit
filed today in California's Orange County Superior Court, accused the coaches
of one of the Ducks' affiliate teams of making anti-Semitic remarks and
harassment. (As reported by JTA)
2011(20th of Shevat, 5771): Ninety-one
year old Daniel Bell, the writer, editor, sociologist and teacher who over
seven decades came to epitomize the engaged intellectual as he struggled to
reveal the past, comprehend the present and anticipate the future, died today
at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 91. (As reported by Michael T. Kaufman)
2012: At the New York Jewish Film Festival
“The Silent Historian” is scheduled to have its U.S. Premiere and “Joann Sfar
Draws From Memory” is scheduled to have its World Premiere.
2012(1st of Shevat, 5772): Rosh
Chodesh Shevat
2012: Palestinian
Authority officials said today that a fifth meeting between Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators in Amman scheduled for later in the day would be the
final meeting, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported. The PA has come under
heavy pressure from the Quartet to continue the talks but will not agree to do
so, Ma'an cited unnamed Palestinian sources as saying
2012: Hackers attacked the websites of two
Israeli hospitals today, managing to bring down the sites for several hours in
the latest round of the ongoing cyber war between pro-Israeli and
pro-Palestinian hackers. According to the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer,
the Mossad identified multiple attempts to break into the hospital’s website,
similar to previous cyber attacks on websites of important Israeli
institutions.
2012: Representative “Gabby” Giffords
officially resigned from the House of Representatives.
2013: “Yossi,” a sequel to Eytan Fox’s “Yossi
and Jagger” is scheduled to open in New York City.
2013: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled
to perform at Old Town Hall in Fairfax, VA.
2013: As an indication of the vitality of
Yiddishkeit in the Heartland, the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Hadassah
Chapter is scheduled to sponsor a Tu B’Shevat
Seder and Soup Supper preceding Shabbat Services at Temple Judah. 
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