January
9 In History
1180: Philip Augustus (the
new king of France ) arrested large
numbers of Jews while his father, Louis VII ,
who tried to protect the Jews (though not always successfully) was still alive.
All the Jews found in synagogue on the Sabbath were arrested. Philip agreed to
free them for 15,000 silver marks.
1324: Explorer Marco Polo
passed away. Marco Polo told of meeting Chinese Jews in his 1286 journey to China
1349: On an island in the Rhine River Basel Switzerland were burned alive in houses especially
constructed for that purpose. Their children were spared from the burning but
were forcibly baptized instead. The first Swiss persecution of the Jews took
place in Bern , where the Jewish
community was accused of having murdered a Christian boy named Rudolf (Ruff).
They were expelled from Bern but
then allowed to return shortly after.
1554: Birthdate of Pope Gregory XV. Gregory strongly supported the censorship of Hebrew books by the Catholic Church. During his papacy, the Roman Inquisition appointed three different men to serve as “expurgators of Hebrew books.
1570: The Inquisition was established in Peru.
1779: During the American Revolution, Lewis Bush, a Jewish
Philadelphia, became a 1st Lieutenant of the 6th Pennsylvania
Battalion.
1788: Connecticut
became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Jews have been a part
of Connecticut since colonial
times. The Pinto family was one of the
most prominent during the Revolutionary War.
Solomon Pinto was one of four brothers who fought in the war. The
wounded veteran was one of the original members of the Society of the
Cincinnati, a Revolutionary War veterans’ organization. Today Jews make up about 3 per cent of the
state’s population and is home to the Hebrew High School of New England. Many
people know the name of Joe Lieberman, the first Jew to run for Vice President
on the ticket of a major national party.
To an earlier generation, the name Abe Ribbicoff was of equal importance. At a time when Jewish national political
leaders were still rare, Ribbicoff was by turn, governor, Senator and Secretary
of H.E.W. under John Kennedy.
1810 (4th of Shevat, 5570): Rabbi Abraham of Kalisk passed away.
Born in 1741, he was a controversial figure in the 3rd generation of Chassidic
leaders. In his youth, he was a study partner of Rabbi Elijah "the Gaon of
Vilna", who led the initial opposition against Chassidism; but later Rabbi
Abraham himself joined the forbidden kat ("sect", as the
Chassidic movement was derisively called by its opponents) and became a
disciple of Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezeritch, the successor to
Chassidism's founder, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. After Rabbi DovBer's passing
in 1772, much of the opposition to Chassidism was directed against Rabbi
Abraham's disciples, who, more than any other group within the movement, mocked
the intellectual elitism of the establishment's scholars and communal leaders;
even Rabbi Abraham's own colleagues were dismayed by the "antics" of
some of his disciples. In 1777, Rabbi Abraham joined the first Chassidic
"aliyah", in which a group of more than 300 Chassidim led by Rabbi
Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk
immigrated to the Holy Land . Rabbi
Abraham passed away in Tiberias on the 4th of Shevat of the year 5570 from
creation (1810 CE).
1821: Birthdate of Senator William Sharon who left $5,000 to the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum in San Francisco when he passed away.
1843: Birthdate of Elizabeth
Rose Cohen, oldest sister of famed musician Frederic Hymen Cowen.
1851: In Cayuga County, New York,
District Attorney Theodore M. Pomeroy began presenting the state’s case in the
trial of John Baham who is accused of murdering Nathan Adler, a Jewish peddler
from Syracuse.
1863(18th of Tevet, 5623): Julius Lettman, died today of wounds suffered while fighting for
the Union at the Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro. He was buried at the
Temple Cemetery in Nashville, TN the nine acres of which remain the primary
place of interment for the Temple Congregation Ohabai Sholom—the city’s oldest.
1870: Birthdate of Joseph Strauss.
The Cincinnati born and
educated engineer was the Chief Engineer for the construction of San Francisco ’s Golden Gate Bridge
1870: It was reported today that The Jewish Messenger is
now in its fourteenth year of publication.
1873: Emperor Napoleon III of France passed away. Jews played an
open role in French society during the time dominated by Napoleon. Achille
Fould served as minister and political advisor to the nephew of Napoleon
Bonaparte. During the debate about the
nature of the monetary system that took place during Napoleon’s reign the
Pireire brothers (Sephardic Jews) favored paper money while Alphonse de
Rothschild defended preservation of France's bimetallism system. In 1870,
Napoleon’s French government granted the Jews of Algeria French citizenship. Among his mistresses was Elisa Rachel Felix, better known
as Mademoiselle Rachel, the young Jewess who was one of the most prominent
performers of her time. But Napoleon’s greatest impact on the Jewish
people would be indirect. His foolish
war with Prussia resulted in the emergence of the German Empire, created the
anger that would lead to World War I that then led to World War II.
1873: At the request of the Grant Administration, Abraham de
Sola delivered opening prayer at the House of Representatives. [For some strange reason we remember Grant’s
unfortunate Order #10 while overlooking items like this.]
1873: Birthdate of Chaim Nachman Bialik. Born in a Ukrainian
village, fatherless at the age of seven, raised by a strict Orthodox
grandfather, Bialik became the father of Modern Hebrew poetry. While
Herzl, Ben-Gurion and others were busy creating Zionism in the political sphere,
Bialik was one of those giving birth to the Zionist dream in the field of
culture. When he began writing his poetry in Hebrew, it was still a
language of the Bible - the holy tongue not to be used in modern
parlance. Bialik used Hebrew to express modern feelings and emotions, yet
always tied back to his Jewish roots. He is variously described as the
"poet laureate of the Jewish national movement" and "Israel 's National Poet." He
gained early fame for his two poems written after the Kishinev Pogrom in
1903 - The City of Slaughter and On the Slaughter. In his poems he
attacked the mobs who had slaughtered the Jews. But he also called upon
the Jews to resist future attackers. So powerful were his words, that
they helped the modern Zionist movement develop its ethic of self-defense.
According to some critics, two of his greatest poems are "Metei Midbar
Bialik in
his own words:
"Reading a poem in translation is like kissing a woman
through a veil."
"Each people has as much heaven over its head as it has land
under its feet."
"Say this when you mourn for me:
There was man -- and look, he is no more.
He died before his time.
The music of his life suddenly stopped.
A pity! There was another song in him.
Now it is lost forever."
1886:
Birthdate of Ida Kaganovich the native of Russia who as Ida Cohen Rosenthal
became a co-founder of Maiden Form, the first company to make modern bras.
1887:
President Hoffman presided over the annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical
Institute which was held today at Temple Emanuel.
1889:
Approximately 300 children from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum are scheduled to see a
performance of “Little Lord Fauntleroy” thanks to the generosity of Mr. Sanger
who manages the Broadway Theatre.
1891:
It was reported today that annual meeting of those supporting the Hebrew
Technical Institute will be held in New York City next week.
1893:
It was reported today that 88.61% of the 3,159 patients who were admitted to
Mt. Sinai Hospital last year were “treated gratuitously” meaning that only
11.39% were “pay patients.” The hospital
has treated 43,674 patients since its founding.
1893:
It was reported that the Boy’s Yorkville Charitable Society, an organization
started by a group of Jewish boys ranging in age from 11 to 15 had raised $160
through their various activities in 1892 which they had divided among various groups
dedicated to helping the needy.
1894:
It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities is one of the agencies
that will share in the proceeds from an upcoming benefit concert to be held at
the Metropolitan Opera House.
1894:
The Hebrew Technical Institute was incorporated today in New York.
1895:
It was reported today that claims that the Pale of Settlement has been abolished are
“premature.”
1896:
It was reported today that the Young Folk’s League of the Hebrew Asylum will
hold its first social activity of the season next week.
1898:
It was reported today that a corner lot on First Avenue in New York has been
purchased for the use of an unidentified Jewish charitable institution.
1898:
The band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum is scheduled to perform at ball
sponsored by the Ladies Aid Society at Congregation Ansche Chesed.
1898:
It was reported today that J. Earnest G. Yalden, the Superintendent of the Bard
de Hirsch Trade School in New York City presented diplomas to forty graduates
of the school
1899:
It was reported today that “the Court of Cassation” which is the court of last
resort in France, “is convinced that Dreyfus was justly condemned.”
1899:
Mrs. Esther Wallenstein, President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum filed a
complaint at the Morrisania Police Court charging John Buchanan and Paul
Beneson with trespass and disorderly conduct at the asylum’s building one 162nd
Street and Eagle Avenue
1899:
It was reported today Professor Richard Gottheil of Columbia University
delivered a lecture entitled “Palestine” at a recent function hosted by the
Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society
1899:
It was reported today that supporters of the Hebrew Technical Institute had
raised $50,501.87 during the past year to support the institution. Jacob H. Schiff made a special contribution
of $5,000 which will help to meet the needs of boys who would have had to leave
the school because of their impoverished circumstances.
1902: Birthdate of Rudolph Bing manger of the New
York Metropolitan Opera.
1903(10th
of Tevet, 5663): Asara B'Tevet
1903(10th
of Tevet, 5663): Baron
Henry de Worms (Lord Pirbright) passed away today. Born in London in 1840, he was “third son of
Solomon Benedict de Worms, a baron of the Austrian empire. He was educated at
King's College, London, and became a barrister in 1863. As Baron Henry de Worms
he sat in the House of Commons as Conservative member for Greenwich from 1880
to 1885, and for the East Toxteth division of Liverpool from 1885 to 1895, when
he was created a peer. He was parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade in
1885 and 1886 and from 1886 to 1888, and under-secretary of state for the
colonies from 1888 to 1892. In 1888 he was president of the International
Conference on Sugar Bounties, and as plenipotentiary signed the abolition
treaty for Great Britain. He became a member of the Privy Council in the same
year. He was a royal commissioner of the Patriotic Fund, and one of the royal
commissioners of the French Exhibition of 1900. His works include:
"England's Policy in the East" (London, 1876), "Handbook to the
Eastern Question" (5th ed., London, 1877), "The Austro-Hungarian Empire"
(2d ed., London, 1877), "Memoirs of Count Beust" (ib. 1887).In 1864
he married Fanny, daughter of Baron von Tedesco of Vienna, and in 1887, after
her death, Sarah, daughter of Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips.” (As reported by
the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1904: The New York Times featured a review of
Zionism and Anti-Semitism by Max Nordau, Officer d' Academie, France,
and Gustav Gotthell, Ph.D.
1908(5th of Sh'vat, 5668): Abraham Goldfaden died at the age of 67. Born in 1840 in what was then part of the Russian Empire,
Golfaden was a driving force in the Yiddish theatre during its golden period of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was an author, composer (yes,
there were musicals), director and producer. He worked in several
countries in Europe before
settling in the United States for
the last time in 1903. He was the author of sixty theatrical works, some
of which are enjoying renewed interest with the current renaissance of Yiddish
Literature. One of his early comedies was called Shmendrik "whose
title-hero was the proverbial gullible, good-natured schlemiel. The play
was so popular, that the word Shmendrik became part of the Yiddish language and
survives today in American slang. The music for the famous Yiddish
lullaby "Rozhinkes mit Mandlen," (Raisin and Almonds) is a
product of one of Goldfaden's musicals. Goldfaden was so famous at the time of
his death that he rated an obituary in the New York times that referred to him
as "the Yiddish Shakespeare," who was "both a poet and
prophet." Furthermore, wrote the Times,
"…there is more evidence of genuine sympathy with and admiration for the
man and his work than is likely to be manifested at the funeral of any poet now
writing in the English language in this country." We may not
recognize his name today, but 75,000 people "attended his funeral
procession that went from the People's Theater in the Bowery to Washington Cemetery Brooklyn ."
1908: In Little
Rock , Arkansas Louisiana .
This was the first official home of Agudath Achim Synagogue.
1913: Birthdate of Richard M.
Nixon. As the leader of the Right Wing
of the Republican Party, Nixon was not popular with most Jewish voters. While he did have Jews working for him
(William Safire, Leonard Garment and Henry Kissinger) Nixon’s anti-Semitic
comments are a matter of public record.
From the point of view of many of his Jewish opponents Nixon’s saving
grace came when he came to the aid of Israel
during the darkest days of the Yom Kippur War.
Without his efforts, the IDF would not have received the material and
supplies that were critical in defeating the Egyptian and Syrian sneak attack.
(“No man is all good or all bad. But
sometimes you have to look real hard.”)
1916: Eighty-two year old Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham, a
British press lord whose power stemmed from his ownership of the Daily
Telegraph, a paper bought by his father Joseph Moses Levy, passed away today.
1917: British forces defeated the Turks at the Battle of Rafa on
the border between Egypt and
Ottoman Palestine. The British victory
was a prelude to the move of British forces into Palestine
and other parts of the Ottoman Empire . The British forces fighting in Palestine would include Jewish regiments. The British victories would be critical to
eventual implementation of the Balfour Declaration and the realization of
Herzl’s dream.
1918: “ Behind Walls” by Henri Nathansen had its first performance in the United States at the German Irving Place Theatre in New York City. The drama which was originally walled “Hinter Mauren” revolves around the marriage between a Jew and a Gentile. Nathansen is a Dane.
1921: Birthdate of composer, pianist and cellist Seymour Barab.
1922: Sir Edgar Speyer issued a statement responding to the report and
rebutting the Home Office's Certificates of Naturalization (Revocation)
Committee’s interpretation of the facts. He stated that he had been advised of
the committee's investigation in 1919 and, after considerable delay by the Home
Office, had persuaded it to carry out an investigation in America into
allegations made against his conduct there. These investigations, he stated,
had demonstrated that the allegations were false, but, after he returned to
Britain for the formal hearing in 1921, a further series of allegations were
presented regarding his business transactions. Speyer stated that the issues
involved were of a trivial nature and were similar to those encountered by
other British banks which had traded without censure. He stated that "the
whole thing is neither more nor less than the culmination of years of political
persecution. The Home Secretary simply dared not give me the vindication to
which I was entitled." He challenged the government to publish the
evidence presented, and "to point to a strip of material evidence that
would induce any fair-minded man to support the monstrous conclusions of this
report.
1925: Birthdate of Gurion Joseph Hyman, a “Canadian Jewish
Anthropologist, Linguist, Pharmacist, Composer, Artist, and Translator. Primary
contributions have been (a) liturgical compositions for the Passover Haggadah
and Sabbath prayer service, (b) translations into English as well as the
setting to music of several internationally acclaimed Yiddish poets, (c) an
(ongoing) project to write an etymological dictionary of Yiddish, and (d)
proprietor of the second branch of Hyman's Book and Art Shoppe.”
1927:
1928: Birthdate of Judith Krantz. Born in New York, she is the author of Scruples, I'll Take Manhattan, Princess Daisy and Dazzle.
1938: The Palestine
Post reported on various shooting incidents in Jerusalem ,
Kalkilya and Nablus . A delegation
of Polish Jews met the British ambassador in Warsaw
and expressed their anxiety over the reports that a permanent minority status
for the Jews in Palestine was
under consideration. Similar fears were expressed in a telegram sent by the
French section of the Jewish Agency to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
1938: In article entitled “Palestine Modernized” George Brandt
describes Tel Aviv as being the “most spectacular of the modern achievements in
Palestine.” With a population of well over 100,000 “the world’s newest city is
also its most modern.” As Brandt “rode
through Tel Aviv’s well-paved streets” he “felt as though” he “were in the
world of Well’s ‘Things To Come.’” He
concludes that “the greatest enemy of young reborn Palestine is the
desert. Will be be pushed back by the
new forces or will it in years to come be the eventual victor.
1940: A throng of 2,500 people attended the funeral of State
Supreme Court Justice Alfred Fankenthaler which was held this afternoon at
Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Rabbi
Samuel H. Goldenson and Cantor Moshe Rudinow officiated at the service. Senator Robert Wagener delivered the eulogy. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia
and former Governor Al Smith, who were honorary pallbearers, were among the
many dignitaries who attended the service.
1941(10th of Tevet, 5701): Asara B'Tevet
1941: The Jews of Warsaw were forbidden to greet a German in
public.
1941:
Six thousand Jews exterminated in a pogrom in Bucharest , Romania
1941: Nazi police break into a house in the Warsaw Ghetto, force
the women inside to undress, and prod their breasts and genitals with pistols.
1941: Adolf Hitler officially abandoned the planned invasion of
Great Britain. This meant that the Jews
of Great Britain would be spared the horrors of the Holocaust. Unfortunately for the Jews of the Soviet
Union, this meant that the Nazis would turn their time and attention to the
invasion of that country which would take place in June of 1941.
1942: The Nazis deported 1,000 Jews from
Theresienstadt and sent them to Riga .
Only 102 would survive the war.
1942:
The Nazis took 1,000 Jews from Klodaw to Chelmno and gassed them to
death.
1943: Jews in the Netherlands are no longer allowed to have bank
accounts. Instead, all Jewish money is put into a central account.
1943:
Germans apprehend, torture, and kill 20-year-old Jewish partisan Emma Radova.
1943:
The British magazine New Statesman urges that Jewish refugees be allowed
at least temporarily into all nations, including 40,000 more into Palestine .
1943: In Germany ,
clothing taken off of the dead Jews were given to the German People's Winter
Aid Campaign. The group complained that the clothes were soiled and stained
with blood. Furthermore, the Jewish stars had not been removed.
1948: As the siege of Jerusalem continues, a British police driver was
killed when his armored car hit an Irgun roadblock.
1950: The government of Israel recognizes the People's Republic of China
1951 In the Negev, founding of Kfar
Yeruham which became the modern town of Yerhum in 1962. “Yeruham is the site of
Tel Rahma, dating back to the 10th century BCE. On the outskirts of Yeruham is
an ancient well, Be'er Rahma (באר רחמה).
Some archeologists have identified it as the well where the biblical Hagar drew
water for her son Ishmael.”
1951: Shlomo Zalaman Shragai, a member
of the National Religious Party was chosen as Mayor of Jerusalem. This marked the end of the public career of
Daniel Auster, “who was known as the ‘first Hebrew mayor of Jerusalem .’”
1953: The Jerusalem Post
reported extensively on the bitter dispute raging between the Mapai and Mapam
factions at Kibbutz Ein Harod. Members of the respective parties came to blows
and only police arrival saved the kibbutz, already suffering from economic
demise, from extensive damage. Henry Byroade, of the U.S. State Department, invited
all Arab states to join the newly created Anglo-American Mediterranean Defense
Alliance.
1956: Abigail Van Buren's "Dear
Abby" column appeared for the first time
1957: Jacob K. Javits completed his term as New York State
Attorney General.
1957: In case of Jew follows Jew, Jacob K. Javits begins serving
as U.S. Senator filling the seat that had been held by Herbert H. Lehman. Javits was a Republican. Lehman was a
Democrat.
1957: British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, citing health
reasons. The real reason Eden resigned was because of the failure of his
policy in the Middle East . He had sought to unseat President Nasser of Egypt by joining with the French and Israelis in
the Suez Campaign of 1956. During the
1930’s, Eden had been one of the
few English politicians who saw the threat that Hitler posed to the peace of Europe . At
the same time, according to some, Eden
was one of those who opposed any attempts to rescue the Jews of Europe once the
war had begun.
1961: Emily Greene Balch passed away. Balch was the first Quaker to win the Noble
Prize for Peace. She won in 1946. One of those who nominated her was Judah
Magnes of Hebrew University in Jerusalem . “During the 1930s she aided Jewish refugees
fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. Initially she opposed WWII because she
opposed all war in general, but she supported US
entry into the war in 1941. Balch saw Nazism as the personification of evil and
a threat to humanity that had to be stopped.”
1974: The National Council of Jewish Women pledged to work
to help Syrian Jewry, calling Syria 's
acts against the Jews as "…degradation and inhuman restrictions."
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime
Minister Menachem Begin warned Egypt
that Israel might rescind the
peace proposals giving all the Sinai back to Egypt
if Cairo did not permit Israeli
settlements to remain there. In that case, Begin added, Israel
could demand territorial changes in 1967 borders. The cabinet, however,
declared that there would be no more any new settlement activity in Sinai.
1990 (12th
of Tevet, 5750): Shlomo Pines passed away. Born in 1908, he was a scholar of Jewish
and Islamic philosophy, best known for his English translation of Maimonides' Guide
to the Perplexed.
1991:
Egyptian newspapers reported today that President Hosni Mubarak warned Israel
this week to stay out of the conflict with Iraq, saying he would revise his policies on
the crisis if Israel became embroiled. Mr. Mubarak's comments reflected
worries in many Arab countries that Israeli military involvement could
transform the crisis into an Arab-Israeli dispute, splintering the anti-Iraqi
Arab coalition. Egypt is the only Arab country formally at peace with Israel.
"We will not permit an Israeli involvement, or a military involvement in
the gulf crisis," the Egyptian leader told a gathering of writers and
intellectuals, according to newspaper reports and people at the gathering.
"I do not think Israel would get involved, but if it did, Egypt would take
a different position."
1992: The
French weekly Paris Match reported today that the second and final
autopsy on the body of Robert Maxwell showed numerous bruises, indicating that
the British publisher was probably beaten before his death. But that conclusion
was disputed by one of the pathologists who conducted the autopsy in Israel.
1992: In
an article entitled “For Young Readers, Picasso Not Bunnies” published today, Trish
Hall describes the wacky, wonderful world of Maira Kalman, the Tel Aviv native
who has become a popular children's book
author and illustrator whose fans include a growing number of adults.
1992:
Conservative columnist William Safire’s wrote a column entitled “Strongly
Condemn” in which he took issue with the increasingly hostile policy the Bush
is administration is pursuing towards the state of Israel.
1995:
Gonen Segev replaced Moshe Shahal as Minister for Energy and Water Resources.
1996:Tony
Bullimore, who was clinging to “a rigid-hulled inflatable boat” from the
capsized Exide Challenger was rescued by crew members of the HMAS Adelaide. Bullimore was a
Sephardic-Jewish yachtsman born at Bristol before the start of WW II.
1997:
Opening
day of the Red Sea International Music Festival. In what the sponsors call a move to foster
peace in the Middle East, the Festival, for the first time will take place, in
both Israel and Jordan.
2003:
Amid
reports of illegal activity by Prime Minister Sharon coming on the eve of
Israeli election Haaretz is scheduled to publish a report today stating that Likud,
which had once been projected to win 40 of the 120 seats in the election for
Parliament on Jan. 28, now seems likely to win only 27, while the Labor Party
could get 24.
2003:
Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has rebuffed Prime Minister Tony Blair's
personal appeal to reconsider Israel's decision to keep Palestinian negotiators
from attending a British-sponsored conference in London next week, officials
said today. The Israeli decision was the result of terrorists attack in Tel
Aviv on Sunday that has claimed the life of at least 22 Israelis. Groups allied with Chairman Arafat have taken
credit for the attack.
2003:
Tonight Prime Minister Sharon held a nationally televised news conference to
assert that he was a victim of an ''attempt to seize power through lies.''
About 10 minutes into his speech, the chairman of the Central Elections
Committee, Mishael Cheshin, ordered Israel's three television channels and two
radio stations to halt their broadcasts. Seventy-nine year old
2004(15th
of Tevet, 5764): Seventy-nine year old Nissim Ezekiel, an Indian born “Jewish poet,
playwright, editor and art critic” who was a major cultural force in post-colonial
India passed away today.
2005: 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
And the Dead Shall Rise: The
Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Steve
Oney.
2006:
The Wolf Foundation announced today that
an American, an Israeli and an Italian will receive prestigious Wolf Prizes
this year. The prize which is to be awarded in a Jerusalem ceremony in May will
be shared by Ada Yonath, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in
Rehovot, and George Feher, a professor at the University of California, San
Diego, the foundation said in a statement. Also, Italian artist Michelangelo
Pistoletto will receive the 2007 Wolf Prize in the arts. Each prize is worth
$100,000. Yonath, 67, was awarded the prize for her work in understanding the
production of proteins. "Her work paves the way to dealing with the
crucial issue of drug activity and resistance mechanisms," the statement
said. Feher, 82, is to receive the award for his research on photosynthesis,
"revealing the basic principles of light energy conversion in
biology." Pistoletto, 73, will be honored for "his ability to come up
with new possibilities and to encourage the application of imagination to
artistic and social change." His work with various media establishes
"a system for communication between art and every other human
activity." The Israel-based foundation was established by Ricardo Wolf, a
German-born inventor, diplomat and philanthropist who spent the last years of
his life as Cuba 's representative
in Israel , where he died in 1981.
The statement said prizes are awarded "for achievements in the interest of
mankind and friendly relations among peoples." Since 1978, 232 scientists
and artists have received prizes.
2006
(9 Tevet): Yahrzeit
of Ezra Hasofer and Nechemia.
2006
(9 Tevet): Yahrzeit
of Rabbi Ezra HaNavi, Tosafist, Kabbalist, Teacher of the Ramban,.
2008:
George W. Bush made his first trip to Israel
as President of the United States . Arabs responded with a series of rocket
attacks from Gaza .
2008: The
first episode “The Jewish Americans” airs on PBS. The three episode series traces the history
of the Jews in America starts with the arrival of the first 23 Sephardic Jews
in New Amsterdam in 1654 and “ends with Maisyahu, the Chasidic hip-hop star,
one of about six million Jews in America today.”
2009:
Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” opens at the Shattered Globe Theatre.
2009:
Dutch Jews are scheduled to hold a rally at The
Hague in support of Israel .
2009:
After
a relatively quiet night, Palestinians in Gaza resumed rocket fire on the
western Negev this morning. Four Palestinian rockets struck the city of Ashkelon , according to Israel Radio. Three Israelis
were injured lightly, and 19 were treated for shock. One of the injured
sustained shrapnel wounds while the other two were wounded by the impact of the
rocket explosions. One rocket directly struck a four-story home while another
hit near a residential building, Israel Radio reported. Magen David Adom
ambulances evacuated the wounded to Barzilai Medical
Center Ashkelon . Earlier in the day, six Qassam rockets
struck open fields, resulting in no injuries or damage.
2010:
Jews all over the world begin reading Shemot, the Book of Exodus.
2010:
Adas
Israel hosts the Winter Swing Dance featuring Swing Speak and a free dance
lesson with Tom and Debra of www.gottaswing.com, Washington, DC's most popular
swing dance instruction & Promotion Company.
2010:
“The Kosher Cheerleader” starring Sandy Wolshin, the former Oakland Raider
Cheerleader who converted to Orthodox Judaism, in an autobiographical one woman
show opens in Phoenix, AZ.
2011: The
Greater Washington Forum on Israeli Arab Issues is scheduled to present a
program entitled “Arab Citizens of Israel -- Challenges and Opportunities: A
Community Education Day” at the Washington DCJCC.
2011: In
Iowa City, the Sisterhood of Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a Wine and Tapas
Party complete with an auction and door prize.
2011: Israeli choreographer Deganit Shemy is scheduled to bring together
a group of colleagues for an afternoon of solos and an excerpt of Shemy's
recent work at the 92nd Street Y in NYC.
2011(4th of Shevat, 5771): Fifty-nine year old “Debbie Friedman, a
singer and songwriter whose work — which married traditional Jewish texts to
contemporary folk-infused melodies — is credited with helping give ancient
liturgy broad appeal to late-20th-century worshippers, died on today in Mission
Viejo, Calif.”(As reported by Margalit Fox)
2011: Israeli bulldozers demolished the Shepherd Hotel today. It
had originally been built in the 1930s as a villa for Haj Amin al-Husseini,
then the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who notoriously aligned himself with Hitler.
The building, which has sentimental value to some Arabs, was removed as plans
were being carried out to building a new housing project in the eastern section
of Jerusalem.
2011: According to reports published today, “Rabbi
Stephanie Aaron, who in 2007 officiated at the wedding of Ms. Giffords and
Capt. Mark E. Kelly and who leads Congregation Chaverim in Tucson, said the
congresswoman had never expressed any concern about her safety.”
2011: Prosecutors accused Jared Lee Loughner…of five serious
federal charges today including the attempted assassination of a member of
Congress, for his role in a shooting incident that left 20 people wounded, six
of them fatally, yesterday morning. According
to court documents filed in the United States District Court in Phoenix, the
authorities seized evidence from Mr. Loughner’s home showing that he had
planned to kill Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona’s only Jewish member
of the House of Representatives. Ms. Giffords, a Democrat, remained in critical
condition at University Medical Center in Tucson today. Her doctors said she
was able to respond to simple commands, and they described themselves as
“cautiously optimistic.”
2011: More than 100 people crowded into a special healing service for Representative Gabrielle Giffords at Congregation Chaverim, where
she was married three years ago, for a tearful ceremony. Ms. Giffords’s rabbi,
friends and admirers gathered to pray for a swift recovery and to honor a woman
many described as an inspiration.
2011: A US Department of Homeland Security memorandum reportedly notes
the fact that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is a Jew may have a factor in
the motives of the Arizona congresswoman's alleged assailant. FOX News,
reporting on the memorandum it obtained tonight, said that “strong suspicion is
being direceted (sic) at American Renaissance,” an organization the shooter
Jared Loughner referenced on the Internet, and said that federal law
enforcement authorities are investigating Loughner’s possible links to American
Renaissance.According to the memorandum, American Renaissance is “anti
government, anti immigration, anti ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti
Semitic." The memo notes that Giffords is the first Jewish woman elected
to high office in Arizona. Investigators are also pursuing Loughner's alleged
anti-Semitism. American Renaissance leaders said in a posting on their website
Sunday that Loughner had never subscribed to their magazine, registered for any
of the group's conferences or visited their Internet site. Giffords was first
elected to Congress in 2006, and made her Jewish identity part of her campaign.
“If you want something done, your best bet is to ask a Jewish woman to do it,”
Giffords, a former state senator, said at the time, the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency reported. “Jewish women -- by our tradition and by the way we were
raised -- have an ability to cut through all the reasons why something should,
shouldn’t or can’t be done, and pull people together to be successful.”
2011(4th of Shevat, 5771): Benny
Hesse, 67, director of a chevra kadisha (communal burial society) in Haifa for
more than 20 years, was shot to death outside his home today by several
attackers in a killing that some have speculated may have been related to
internal disputes among burial groups over allocation of burial plots. Burial
society organizations throughout Israel held a brief strike two days later in
protest of the shooting. Hesse managed Haifa's Ashkenazi burial society, taking
over the position from his father. Hesse had been commander of an Israei army
burial unit and had retired as a lieutenant colonel. Science and Technology
Minister Daniel Hershkowitz, a Haifa resident and friend of Hesse, described
him as "level-headed, humorous and kind." Friends told Israeli media
that Hesse was accepted by different religious groups in Haifa, but he lost an
eye in an acid attack in 2006 and his house was set on fire. Rabbi Yisrael
Rosenthal, chairman of burial groups in Haifa, said Hesse had cleaned up
corruption in Haifa, which angered some."The problem is that all is
lawless in this country," Rosenthal said. This is what he tried to
prevent, and maybe that's the reason this all happened."
2012:
The Ronen
Shmueli Jazz Quintet is scheduled to perform at Beit Avi Chai.
2012:
Cecile Kuznitz is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “The History of YIVO”
that “will consider YIVO’s educational initiatives such as the Aspirantur,
Pro-aspirantur, and teacher training courses in Vilna, as well as efforts to
transplant them to New York in the wake of the Holocaust.”
2012:
MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) poured a cup of water on her
colleague MK Raleb Majadele (Labor) during an argument at a heated Knesset
Education Committee debate this morning. The argument erupted after MK Danny
Danon (Likud) called for the dismissal of the principal of a school in the
Negev town of Arara, who took students on a human rights march held in Tel Aviv
last month.
2012:
Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew who currently serves as director of the Office of
Management and Budget has been named White House Chief of Staff by President
Obama, replacing William Daley.
2013:
In Los Angeles, Temple Beth Am is scheduled to host “Israel Elections
2013” which will examine the “parties
and the players” as well as the “issues and opinions” surrounding Israel’s
general upcoming Knesset elections.
2013: The New York Jewish Film Festival.is scheduled to open this evening.
2013:
A signing ceremony creating a brain research center under the auspices of the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Max Planck Society is scheduled to take
place today the Giva Ram campus in Jerusalem.
2013:“Lies in the Closet” is scheduled to shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Festival.
2013:“Lies in the Closet” is scheduled to shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment