February 1
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. This put further pressure on the Jews
to convert or emigrate
1119(18th
of Shevat, 4879): On February, Callixtus II who during his 25
year-reign “provided a considerable amount of protection for Roman Jews was
named Pope. In 1120, Calixtus II issued the first of the bulls called “Sicut
Judaeis” (As the Jews) which in his case was intended to protect Jews from the
consequences of the First Crusade “during which over five thousand Jews were
slaughtered in Europe.”
1225: Today “a
papal order was issued granting certain commercial privileges to a Jewish
merchant named Sabbatinus Museus Salaman, who is mentioned as the business
associate of several Romans in the Papal States and in Sicily.”
1327:
Coronation of English King Edward III who borrowed 140,000 florins “on the eve
of the Hundred Years’ War” from a consortium led by Vivelin of Strasbourg, “an
Alsatian Jewish financier” who was thought to be “one of the richest people
living in the Holy Roman Empire.”
1552:
Birthdate of Sir Edward Coke, who in a case that involved whether Jews were
protected by English law, ruled that “All infidels are in law…perpetual enemies
(for law presumes not that they will be converted, that being a remote
possibility, for between them, as with the devils, whose subjects they be, and
the Christian there is a perpetual hostility and can be no peace.”
1593: For the 17th time since 1592, Lord Strange’s Men
performed “The Jew of Malta.”
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 for 50 years
after his return from Recife. While Aboab spent his final years as a man of
letters, engaged in teaching and spiritual contemplation, “the adventuresome
Isaac Aboab de Fonseca had been, from 1642 to 1654, America’s first rabbi,
first Hebrew poet and a man who risked his life for Jewish religious freedom.”
(One can only wonder what would have happened if Aboab had joined the group of
Jews who left Recife in 1654 and ended up in New Amsterdam. Would he have
been the first rabbi in New York?)
1627: Rodrigo
de Castro, the Lisbon born physician who escaped the Inquisition by moving to
Antwerp with his family and the moving on to Hamburg when the Spanish re-took
the Netherlands passed away today after which he was “buried in the cemetery of
the Jewish-Portuguese congregation of Altona.”
1682(3rd
of Adar I, er5442): 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 are thought of as
Sephardic with roots in Holland and even further roots in Spain, he might have
been the son of Benjamin Levy, an Ashkenazi shochet from 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.
1746: Sarah
Simosn and Raphael Jacobs gave birth to Joseph Jacobs, the husband Bilhah
Polock and the father of American born Abigail, Raphael, Isaac, Frances and
Benjamin Jacobs.
1756: “English
author and bookseller” Henry Lemoine who supplied David Levi “with materials”
during his rebuttal of Joseph Priestly’s “Letters to the Jews” which called for
the Jews to convert to Christianity was baptized today in the French church De
La Patente in Brown's Lane, Spitalfields.
1764: Jacob
Jacobs, the husband of Caty Hays arrived in Savannah, GA today.
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.
1779(15th
of Shevat, 5539): Tu B’Shevat
1780: Gabriel
Joseph Israel Brandon and Lea Jeosua Israel wee married today at Bevis Marks in
Londo.
1790: The U.S.
Supreme Court, which would not have its first Jewish Justice until 1916 when
Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis Brandeis, “convened for the first time today.
1791: In
Darmstadt, Germany, Guetel and Huna Mormelstein gave birth to Salomon
Mormelstein, the husband of Giedel Rodsenbaum and the father of Aron, Michael
and Jentel Mormelstein.
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(15th
of Shevat, 5558): Tu B’Shevat
1799: In
Denmark, Isaac Levy and his wife gave birth to Zacharias Levy, the husband of
Bolette Salomonsen with whom he had three children – Isaac, Arnold and Herman.
1799: The
French army under Napoleon left for Palestine to forestall a Turco-British
invasion through the Palestinian land-bridge.
1800(6th
of Shevat, 5560): Parashat Bo
1804:
Philadelphia nave Mary Levy married Judah Eleazar Lyons today in New York City.
1809(15th
of Shevat, 5569): Tu B’Shevat
1809: Moshe
ben Michael Kopf married Sarah bat Yehuda Leib HaLevi at the Great Synagogue.
1809: This
evening, in Charleston, SC, Mary Joseph married Levi Moses.
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.
1813The Common
Council of New York City passed an ordinance restricting the right to sell
kosher meat to butchers licensed by Congregation Shearith Israel.
1817(15th
of Shevat, 5577): Shabbat Shirah; Tu B’Shevat
1818: In
Reading, Abigail Lindo and Moses Mocatta gave birth to Isaac Lindo Mocatta, the
husband of Abigail Mocatta and the father of Grace Mocatta.
1822(10th
of Shevat, 5582): Simeon Cantor, the son of Simeon Cantor and the husband of
Catherine Cantor passed away today in London.
1823:
Birthdate date of Simon Bacher, a descendant of Jair Hayyim Bacharach the 17th
century rabbi at worms and the Maharal of Prague, the “Hungarian Neo-Hebraic
Poet” who served as treasurer of the Jewish community of Budapest from 1876
until his death in 1891.
1823: Keila
and Michael Myers gave birth to Joseph Myers.
1826:
Philadelphian Joseph Cohen began serving as a Midshipman today.
1827: Two days
after he had passed away, Simon Levy, the husband of Hannah Levy, was buried
today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1827: In Paris
James Mayer de Rothschild and Betty de Rothschild, the daughter of Salomon
Mayer von Rothschild (Austrian Branch) gave birth to Alphonse de Rothschild,
French banker, philanthropist and member of the French branch of the fabled
Rothschild family whose wife Leonora was from the English House of Rothschild.
1828: In
Lengnau, Switzerland, Simon Meyer Guggenheim and Schafeli (née Levinger)
Guggenheim gave birth to Meyer Guggenheim the patriarch of the Guggenheim
family who came to the United States in 1847.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meyer-Guggenheim
1832: David
Haes married Sarah Samuel at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1833: In
London, Frances Cohen and Joel Benjamin gave birth to Priscilla Benjamin.
1834: Kitty
Etting and Richmond native Benjamin I. Cohen gave birth to Georgiana Cohen.
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.
1839:
Birthdate of James A. Herne who staged the first American production of Israel
Zangwill’s “The Children of the Ghetto.
1839: Sarah
Ann Hays and Warrenton, NC native Alfred Mordecai, the West Point graduate and
the commander of the arsenal at Washington, DC during the war with Mexico, gave
birth to Rosa Mordecai, the sister of General Alfred Mordecai, Jr.
1840: In what
would be the opening of the Damascus Blood Libel, “Father Thomas, a Roman
Catholic priest and a” long-time resident of Damascus “suddenly disappeared
today.
1842: In
Bavaria, Rav Yitzchak Dov Halevi Bamberger ZT"L the Würzburger Rav and
Kela Bamberger gave birth to Rabbi Nathan Bamberger of Würzburg
1844:
Birthdate of Ernst Immanuel Cohen Brandes, the Danish economist.
1847(15th
of Shevat, 5607): Tu B’Shevat
1848:
Birthdate of British author Arnold Henry White who went from blaming the Jews
for the problems in East End from a “virulent anti-Semite” who opposed Jewish
immigration to the United Kingdom.
https://archive.org/details/modernjew01whitgoog
1852: “The
Hebrew Benevolent Society of the City of Richmond was organized today” and “its
officers were: President, Isaac Schriver; Vice President, Ellis Morris;
Treasurer, Augustus Mailert; Secretary, Max Wilzinski’ Trustees, Jacob Ezekiel,
Henry J. Calisher and Abraham Levy, Jr.”
1854: In
Posen, Prussia, Dr. Marcus Mosse, a German born physician and his wife Ulrike
Mosse gave birth to Emil Mosse
1856: Auburn
University is chartered as the East Alabama Male College. Today Auburn has 60
Jewish students out of an undergraduate population of 19,000 students.
Auburn does not offer Jewish studies classes but does have a Hillel
Chapter.
1859: In
Cleveland, OH, Hannah and Benjamin Franklin Peixotto gave birth to George da
Madouro Peixotto.
1860: John
Pesman Capua married Sarah Andrade at Bevis Marks today.
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 pardoned
him. Raphall’s letter thanking Lincoln is still in existence today.
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!]
1861:
Birthdate of Lasberney, Hungary native and sculptor Jozsef Rona whose best
known wood carving, Joseph and Potiphar's Wife,won him the Gold Prize and whose
other “noteworthy works are: the statue commemorative of the War of
Independence, at Ofen; the busts on the Lustspieltheater, Budapest; the
mausoleum of Gen. Klapka; the equestrian statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy, in
front of the castle of Ofen; and the statues of Louis Kossuth at Miskolcz, and
Nikolaus Zrinyi at Budapest.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12820-rona-joseph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3zsef_R%C3%B3na
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.
1863:
Birthdate of Ida Rothschild, the husband of Bernhard Rothschild, who was buried
in Ft. Wayne, IN, after she passed away.
1863: The
first issue of Le Peit Journal” a Parisian daily owned and published by Moise
Polydore Millaud “appeared today with a printing of 83,000 copies.
1864:
Quartermaster Sergeant Alan Weinbach began his service with Company A of the
113th Regiment that served as the 12th Cavalry.
1864:
Philadelphian Aaron de Hann who had been born in February of 1844 began a two
year enlistment with the 112 Regiment – 2nd Artillery.
1865: “A new
law abolished the compulsion for Jews to enroll with one of Hamburg's two
statutory Jewish congregations, so the members of the New Israelite Temple
Society were free to found their own Jewish congregation.
1865: In
Newark, NJ, founding of Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society whose
members included Bernard Strauss, Reuben Trier, Joseph Goetz and G. J. Kempe
which held its meetings on the first Thursday of each month.
1866:
Birthdate of Columbia trained attorney Abram C. Bernheim of the firm of Shekan
& Bernheim who was a member of Temple Emanu-El.
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.”
1869: In
Mississippi, Melanie Mayer and Henry Frank gave birth to Caroline “Carrie”
Frank, their oldest daughter who died of diphtheria at the age of eleven.
1871: In
Philadelphia, Pauline and David Allman gave birth to Balanche A. Allman Steppacher
, the wife of Emanuel Meyer Steppacher.
1872(22nd
of Shevat, 5632): Fifty-three-year-old Polish born German actor Bogumil Dawison
whose signature roles included Mark Antony, Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear,
passed away in Dresden.
1873: In
Tarnow, Isak Hermann {Hersch] Elsholz and Dorothea Elsholz gave birth to Adele
Ettinger
the wife of
Dr. jur. Marcus Ettinger and mother of Klara [Klary] Duschnitz; Karl Egmont
Ettinger; Curtis Thomas Marie Erich Ettinger; Fritz [Fred] Ettinger and Kurt
Ettinger who was murdered at the age of seventy in Bergen-Belsen.
1873:
Birthdate of historian Israel Zinberg “best known for his nine-volume History
of the Literature of the Jews which was published in Vilnus starting in
1929.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Tsinberg_Yisroel
1874: In
Vienna Anna Maria Josefa Fohleutner and an Austrian–Italian bank manager, Hugo
August Peter Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal gave birth to Austrian “man of
letters” Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal, the great-grandson of Isaak
Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal, “a Jewish merchant ennobled by the
Austrian emperor.”
1874: In
Camden, SC, Dr. Simon Baruch and Isabelle Barcuh gave birth Sailing Wolfe
Baruch the husband of Leonora M. Baruch, the brother of famous financier and
advisor to Presidents, Bernard Barcuh.
1875: In Kiev,
John and Asna (Drubitsky) Levitt gave birth to Russian-America artist Joel J.
Levitt, who studied at the School of Fine Arts in Petrograd whose works
included the 1904 painting “Kishinev Pogrom.”
http://www.artnet.com/artists/joel-j-levitt/kishinev-pogrom-xDSaQAliDQCQyOmb9_HROw2
1875: In
California, Isaac Spiro and his wife gave birth to pharmacist and Stanford
Medical School graduate Harry Sprio, the husband of Ada Joel Cofee who who
served as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at his alma mater and as
Captain in the U.S. Army during WW I.
1878: George
Cruikshank the British illustrator who created “Fagan” in his cell passed away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cruikshank_fagin_cell.jpg
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.
1879: Wilhelm
Marr, the man who popularized the term “anti-Semitism” published his pamphlet “Der
Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum” (The Way to Victory of
Germanicism over Judaism. Toward the end of his life he would publish
“Testament of an Antisemite” in which he would renounce the view that the Jews
were the corrupters of German and European civilization.
1880: In St.
Louis, the Young Men's Hebrew Association was organized.
1880: Jorge
Isaacs Ferrer, the son of “George Henry Isaacs, an English Jew originally from
Jamaica” and whom Isaac Goldberg described as “a half-Jew” “who is “Spanish
America’s most famous novelist” became President of the “Sovereign State of
Antioquia.”
1881: Today
the New York Court of Appeals founder for the respondent in a case that had
been brought against The Noah Widows and Orphans’ Benevolent Society, a
fraternal organization that had been formed by German Jews who had fled to the
United States after the failed revolutions of 1848 and which was first led by
Mordecai Noah, a former Sheriff of New York.
1882: “The
French Catholic newspaper La Croix publishes an article by Father Francois
Picard, head of the Assumptionist order behind the journal, declaring that
Jewish bankers and that they are behind all of Europe’s problems,”
1882: “Early
in the course of the Russian persecutions a mass-meeting of New York's most
representative citizens was held at Chickering Hall” today.
1882: In
London, a meeting was held at Mansion House which resulted in the creation of a
fund of more than “£108,000 for the relief of Russo-Jewish refugees” in the
United Kingdom
1883: In
London, Solomon Marks, the London born son of Elizabeth and George Joel Marks
and his wife Benvenida Marks gave birth to Moss Albert Marks
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: In
Corpus Christi, TX, Olivia Benedict and David Hirsch gave birth to University
of Texas and University of Wisconsin educated chemist and inventor Alcan Hirsch,
the husband of Muriel Polakoff and founder the Rector Chemical Company and
Molybdenum Corporation of America who “had introduced the pyrophoric allow
industry” to the United States in 1915.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/11/25/98212476.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hirsch-alcan
1885(16th
of Shevat, 5645): Peretz Smolenskin, the Russian born Jewish novelist whose
works in Hebrew including A Wander on the Path of Life (Ha-toeh
be-darkhe ha-Hayyim, התועה בדרכי החיים) passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0018_0_18751.html
1886: Dr.
Solomon Eppinger retired from Hebrew Union College and was succeeded by David
Davidson.
1886: H.U.C.
conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on Aaron Hahn.
1887: In
Montreal, Katherine Harris and Jacob Scherman gave birth to Harry Scherman,
American economist, author and co-founder of the Book of the Month Club.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/archival/collections/ldpd_4079308/
1887: Claude
Marks married Caroline “Carrie) Hoffnung today at the West London Synagogue.
1890:
Birthdate of Sadie Plutzik, the wife of Samuel Plutzik, both of whom are buried
under a common headstoe at the Old Montefiore Cemetry
1890: Mrs.
Moses Gersohnfeldt and her four young children ranging in age from two to
eleven continue to languish in the custody of the immigration authorities
because the Immigration Commissioner has decided that they might become public
charges despite the fact that her husband and oldest son have come forth and
shown that they are employed and earning enough money to see to it that they
are properly cared for.
1890: In
Toledo, OH, Mosses and Bluma (Arndt) Srere gave birth to Detroit College of Law
trained attorney and Acme Mills executive Abraham Spere, the husband of Anna
Katz and life-Zionist who was president of the ZOA in Detroit and the chairman
of the Detroit Keren Hyesod campaign and leader in the local Jewish community
as could be seen by his serving as a director of the United Hebrew Schools and
the United Jewish Charities and President of Shaarey Zedek where he chanted
“Jonah” on Yom Kippur.
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: Jacob A.
Brenner, the son of an Orthodox Rabbi and William J.G. Bearns “opened their own
law offices on Court Street under the name of Bearns & Brenner, specializing
in civil and real estate law” today.
1891:
Birthdate of Kishinev native and CCNY educated reporter Milton S. Harris who
was the advertising director worth Fox and Lowes theatres.
1891: In
Brooklyn, Philip Schmalheiser and the former Rose Lewin gave birth to Edward
Schmalheiser who as Edward Small carved out a fifty-year career producing
movies and television shows that ranged in quality from such classics as “The
Count of Monte Cristo” to the highly forgettable “Ramar of the Jungle.”
http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/edward_small.htm
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
1893:
“Theatrical Gossip” published today described the success of “The Girl I Left
Behind Me” which is being produced by Charles Frohman at the Standard Theatre.
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).
1895:
Birthdate of St. Louis native and Brown University graduate Dr. Edward Sievers,
the WW I veteran who practiced medicine in his hometown.
1896: Thirty-five-year-old
Bertha Lazarus, the New Haven, CT born daughter of Herman Levy and Henrietta
Newman, the wife of Paul Lazarus began serving as a Matron at the Brooklyn
Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1896:
Forty-six-year-old Paul Lazarus, the Wittenberg born son of Nathan Lazarus and
Rebecca Ruben and husband of Bertha Levy began serving as Superintendent of the
Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum today.
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: As of
this date, the officers of the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York
say they will no longer 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.
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 to not relinquish control of the paper.
1898: Twenty-eight-year-old
Joseph Gutman, the German born son of Hirsch and Jette (Schloss) Gutman who in
1884 arrived in New York where he founded the Pacific Novelty Company in 1891
married Emma A. Haas today in San Francisco.
1899: The USS
Bennington commanded by Edward Tausig fired a 21-gun salute as the United
States flag was raised over Guam marking the end of almost 300 years of Spanish
rule and Commander Tausig becoming the first American to control the islands
“governmental and administrative affairs.”
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.
Gottheil’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.
1900(2nd
of Adar I, 5660): Bavarian born Abraham Michelbacher, “the last surviving
charter member of Temple Emanu-El who in 1839 came to New York where he went
into the dry goods business and was “a patron of every Jewish organization” In
New York including the Zion Lodge of B’nai B’rith of which he was a charter
member passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1900/02/03/101048566.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1900: Twenty-one-year-old
Bernard Semel, the Galicia born son of Abraham L. and Goldie (Horowitz) Semel,
the Comptroller of the Federation of Galician and Bucovinean Jews of America
and a co-founder of The Jewish Day married Sadie Miller today in New
York
1900: In
Austria, Fannie and Morris Rothenberg gave birth to Bronx resident Joseph
“Jack” Rothenberg, who married Ann Bodner Rothenberg after the death of Bertha
“Betty” Drube Rothenberg
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.
1902:
Birthdate of Polish native Benjamin Zemach, the graduate of Moscow’s Institute
of Engineering who came to the United States in 1927 where he blazed new trails
in choreography and modern dance.
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/30/arts/benjamin-zemach-95-dancer-worked-in-theater-and-films.html
1902(24th
of Shevat, 5662): Seventy-year-old Salomon Jadassohn, the German pianist and
composer whose career suffered because he would not convert which meant he
could not get many church related commissions and because of the rising tide of
anti-Semitism in the second half of the 19th century passed away[ML1] today.
1903: It was
reported today that Moritz Kaufman, Moremo Haravor and Minschen Aleas was among
the three Spanish speaking families who arrived at Ellis Island and claimed
that they were descendants of Jews who had successively living in Turkey,
Bulgaria and Roumania after have been expelled from Spain in 1492 and who
claimed that they have been speaking only Spanish and following Spanish customs
for the last five hundred years.
1903: It was
reported today that the Grand, “the first theatre in New York ever erected
expressly and exclusively for the foreign speaking Jewish patronage of the
better class, that has three balconies seating 1,700 people is scheduled to
open on February 5th.
1904(15th
of Shevat, 5664): Tu B’Shevat
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: In
Tivoli, Italy, Giuseppe Segrè, a businessman who owned a paper mill, and Amelia
Susanna Treves, Emilio Segre, the Italian born physicist who worked on the
Manhattan Project and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959.
1906: It was
reported today that five persons have been executed in the Citadel at Warsaw,
“bringing the number shot in the past fortnight to sixteen” fifteen of whom
“were Jews.”
1906: Stella
Bowman the Richmond, VA born daughter of Jacob and Louise Olshofsky and her
husband gave birth to Louis O. Bowman.
1906:
Birthdate of Keystone, W. VA native, Frederick W. Frank, a graduate of the
University of Cincinnati and HUC ordained rabbi who served a congregation in
Raliegh, NC;
1907: Today
there was a run on the Mechanics’ Trusty Company in Bayonne, many of whose
depositors are Jewish immigrants following yesterday’s “baseless rumors” about
the solvency of the bank “that has resources of $4,500,000.
1908(29th
of Shevat, 5668): Parashat Mishpatim
1908: “Joseph
Barondess, for many years a leader and organizer of labor among the Jews on the
east side, announced today that he may now be counted as unalterably opposed to
Socialism, which he considers is a dwindling cause.”
1909: It was
reported today that the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Trenton has decline
to be chairman of a meeting at which the friends of organized labor will
protest against the sentences imposed on Samuel Gompers and other officers of
the American Federation of Labor” because while “these sentenced gentlemen have
the sympathy of every true friend of labor, they have not lost their case”
because “the Court Appeals” has not rendered its decision.
1910(22nd
of Shevat, 5670): Schlome Katz passed away today after which he was buried in
the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery.
1910:
Birthdate of Michael Kanin, the native of Rochester, NY who shared an Oscar
with Ring Lardner Jr for writing the script for Woman of the Year” and was
nominated along with his wife Fay for an Oscar for the script for “Teacher’s
Pet.”
1911: Today,
in a response to a question as to whether the settlement houses “could persuade
girls to leave poorly paid factory work and go into well-paid housework,” Jane
Addams, the founder of Hull House told members of the Women’s University Club that present immigration is now largely
Italian, Jewish and Greeks” and that Jewish girls, if they are orthodox, wish
to stay with their own people” meaning they are not candidates for “household
service.”
1912: Peter H.
James of Jersey City, NJ, was “promoted to the staff of the Quartermaster
General of the State of New Jersey with the rank of Major.”
1913(24th
of Shevat, 5673): Parashat Mishpatim
1913: In New
Leipzig, ND, Louis and Rebecca Katz Katcher gave birth to Irving Simon Katcher,
the husband of Nettie Kathcer.
1913(24th
of Shevat, 5673): Sixty-two-year-old newspaper correspondent Leon Strauss
passed away at Turin, Italy.
1913: It was
reported today the “two trained nurse who have been to Palestine by” New York
“women Zionists” are “the vanguard of an entire corps of nurses” who “will work
among the women and children of the Holy Land.
1913: This
evening, Armand J. Lande and Miss Jessie Plotke are scheduled to lead the grand
march at the Informal Dancing Party sponsored by the Ladies’ Auxiliary of
Temple Sholom in the Lincoln Park Casino
1913:
“According to information received by the Federation of American Zionist,
Nachum Sokolow should have arrived today to begin a two-month tour of the
United States
1914: It was
reported today that “Dr. Paul Nathan, the distinguished German Jewish leader”
had sent a letter to “the German press” in which he denied “accusations leveled
against him by Zionists, including certainly well known Jews recently quoted in
The New York Times” and in which he denied “emphatically that the lion’s share
of the capital for the new Haifa Technical College and other institutions in
Palestine has been contributed by Americans” since “this money was supplied in
almost equal sums by Russians, Germans and Americans” with $160,000 coming from
Americans and $100,000 coming from the Germans and another $100,000 coming from
the Russians.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/02/01/100081766.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1914(5th
of Shevat, 5674): Mrs. H. Bertha Myers, the widow of “49er” Harris Meyers, who
was “vice President of the Oregon Chapter of the Council for Jewish Women and
President of the Judith Montefiore Society passed away today in Portland,
Oregon.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/02/03/100298138.pdf
1915: British
soldiers braced for an attack from an Ottoman force that was determined to
seize the Suez Canal – a seizure that would have short-circuited the later
British campaign that led them to Jerusalem with all that that would mean for
the Jewish people.
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 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.”
1915: William
Fox (born Wilhelm Fuchs) founded the Fox Film Corporation today.
1915: In
response to a petition from the counsel of Leo M Frank who is under sentence of
death for the murder of a factory girl in Atlanta, in 1913, The United States
Supreme Court advanced the on his case to February 23; an action to which the
state of Georgia has assented.
1915: “Plan to
Pursue Frank” published today described the plans of the prosecution to indict
Leo Frank on one or two other unspecified charges if he his appeal to the
Supreme Court overturn the murder conviction thus granting him his freedom.”
1915: A Chinese
Eastern Railway civil document bearing today’s date “mentions that on 15
December 1914 the Hailar Jewish Spiritual Community (Хайларской Еврейского
Духовного Общества) was approved by the Chief of the CER.”
1916: “Dr.
Joseph Jacobs” published today bemoaned the fact that New York “city and the
world of letters as a whole has lost a brilliant and versatile writer.”
1916: As of
today, the American Jewish Relief” is reported to nearing its goal of two
million dollars having collected $1,815,737.33 in cash and pledges.
1916: Dotty
Hammer who had “volunteered her services for Jewish Relief Day” wrote from
Newark, NJ today to express her “heartfelt respect as well as admiration for
all those who gave because they felt that in a time of grief and dire need
religion was no barrier.”
1917: Supreme
Court Justice Cohalan granted the “right of incorporation” “o the Association
for the Promotion of Sabbath Observance which works “to develop among its
members and others a clear conception and understanding of Orthodox Jewry”
including observing the Sabbath on Saturday. (Editor’s Note: This came at a
time when the Reform movement was trying to shift observance of Shabbat to
Sunday)
1917: Today
“Karl Klein, a Jewish accountant from Vienna was recruited to serve in the
Austro-Hungarian Army.
1917: In the
wake of Germany’s announcement of unrestricted submarine Felix Warburg,
Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee expressed the concern that
worsening relations with Germany would impede the war relief work in eastern
Europe which is under the control of Germany and that contributions to aid
those suffering from the war would fall off just when the need was greatest.
1917: “At
Warren Street, in the Portobello area of Dublin, Jewish immigrants from eastern
Europe Henry Levitas and Leah Rick who had been married in the Camden Street
Synagogue gave birth to Maurice “Morry” Leviatis the political activist who
took part in the “Battle of Cable Street” and who “became a senior lecturer in
the sociology of education at Durham University.
1918: The
Jewish Congress decided to “raise money to repatriate Galician Jews stranded in
or around the city” of Berdichev.
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.
1918: “The
Jewish National Fund received a check for 250,000 crowns from an anonymous
woman” which was “to be cashed after peace” ended the World War.
1918: “As a
result of a series of conferences, Dutch Jewish leaders formulate” a list of
demands “to be presented at the peace conference including emancipation of the
Jews; recognition of national rights in nation states; national concentration
of Jewish people in Palestine; the cessation of contemptuous and oppressive
treatment of Jews.”
1918: Today,
French Foreign Minister Pichon is a statement to the press in which the
government “gave its endorsement to the British declaration” on Palestine.
1918: In
Edinburgh, Sarah Elizabeth Maud (née Uezzell) and Bernard Camberg, an engineer
gave birth to Muriel Sarah Camberg who gained as award-winning Scottish
novelist Dame Muriel Spark.
1918(19th
of Shevat, 5678): Gaston Lelouch, the recipient of the War Cross died today.
1918(19th
of Shevat, 5678)
1918: In
Berdichev, “the Jewish Congress decided to raise money to repatriate Galician
Jews stranded in or around the city.
1919: In
Chicago, Eva Lawton, the Chicago born daughter of Johanna and Adolph Loeb and
her husband Samuel Tilden Lawton gave birth to Samuel Tilden Lawton
1919: Harvey
E. Wessel completed a seven-month assignment with the Jewish Welfare Board
during which time he performed the services usually done by a Jewish chaplain
and a social worker while being stationed at the Naval Training Camp at Pelham
Bay Park in New York City.
1919: The
First Congress of the Muslim-Christian Association began its deliberations in
Jerusalem.
1920:
Thirty-nine “Turkish elders of the Sephardi Community formed the Sephardic
Community of Los Angeles” today which became known as the Sephardic Temple
Tifereth Israel.
1920: Adolphe
Danziger De Castro “was one of the thirty-nine founders of the Sephardic
Community of Los Angeles (La Comunidad Sefardi) and was elected the first
president of the congregation.”
1920: It was
reported today that “the American Zionist Medical Unit at Jerusalem” will be
establishing a school for chauffeurs in Palestine that aims “to rain men as
capable motor drivers and mechanics in an effort to eliminate the acute
shortage of chauffeurs” which has been brought about by the lack of railroads
thus necessitating an increase in the use of automobiles.
1920:
Thirty-six-year-old Illinois College of Law trained attorney Henry S. Blum, the
Hungary born son of Morris and Fannie (Roth) Blum, who specialized in “corporate
and commercial law” and was a member of both Temple Shalom and B’nai B’rith
married Dorothy Herman today in Chicago.
1921:
Birthdate of Brooklyn College graduate Joseph Dames, “the director of special
gifts of the American Jewish Committee’s Appeal for Human Relations and the
husband of Lucille Dames with whom he had two children – Tamar and Lisa.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/19/archives/joseph-dames-dies-jewish-appeal-aide.html
1921: Felix M.
Warburg, the President of the Federation for Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies is scheduled to deliver a report describing the “critical conditions
that face organized Jewish philanthropy in the coming year” this evening at
annual meeting of the Federation being held at the Hotel Pennsylvania.
1921 First
German translation of The International Jew
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/ford.html
1922:
Westmorland Davis, who in 1919 had urged “citizens,
irrespective of race or creed, to contribute liberally” to the Jewish relief
campaign” completed his four-year term of service as Governor of Virginia
today.
1922(27th of Shevat, 5752): Parashat Mishpatim
1922(27th of Shevat, 5752): Seventy-year-old University
of Zurich educated banker and stockbroker Alred Samuel Heidelbach, the Cincinnati
born son of Max Heidelbach and husband of Julie Picard who had been a member of
Heidelbach, Seasongood and Co., a dry goods firm and a partner in Heidelbach, Ickelheimer & Co, an
investment bank founded in the 1850’s passed away today.
1923: Forty year old Hebrew Union College
trained Rabbi David Rosenbaum, the Bialystok born son of Jacob and Guthe
Rosenbaum and holder of a Ph.D from the University of Chicago who served
congregations in Waco, Austin, Amsterdam and Chicago married Ida Adelman.
1923:
Birthdate of Canadian businessman Benjamin Weider who “was the co-founder of
the International Federation of Body Building and Fitness (IFBB).”
1923: “A Glass
of Water,” a “German silent historical film” with a script co-authored by Adolf
Lantz was released today.
1924: “Nanon,”
silent film based on the operetta of the same name directed by Hanns Schwartz
was released today in Germany
1924:
Automobile magnet Henry Ford who bankrolled the anti-Semitic Dearborn
Independent which published the Protocols of the Elders of Zion entertained
Nazi Kurt Ludecke at his Michigan home.
1924:
Frederick Salomon van Nierop, the son of A.S. Nierop and Rachel Salvador, who
was a director of the Amsterdam Bank and was a member of both the Amsterdam
City Council and the Provincial Council of North Holland was buried today in
the Jewish cemetery in Muiderberg.
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 which was renamed Pioneer Women in 1947 and Na'amat (a Hebrew
acronym for "Movement of Working Women and Volunteers") USA in 1981.
1925: Tonight,
Eddie Cantor was the toastmaster at “the first annual dinner and entertainment of the Jewish Theatrical Guild which was attended by nearly two thousand people
including a bevy of Jewish and non-Jewish notables such as Irving Berlin, Father
Martin Fahy, the chaplain of the Catholic Actor’s Guild and Will Rodgers who “delivered
a ten-minute address in Yiddish…”
1925: WMCA
which Peter Straus took over in the late 1950’s began regular transmissions
today.
1926: In New
York City, Maria Jaussaud Justin, and Charles Maier gave birth to photographer
Vivian Maier.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/113385/vivian-maier-jewish-chicago
1926: “The
Mill at Sanssouci,” produced by Karel Freund premiered today in Germany.
1927(29th of
Shevat, 5687): Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Nathan Zevi Finkel) the native of
Lithuania known as the Alter of Slabodka passed away in Jerusalem
1928:
Birthdate of Representative Tom Lantos, the California Democrat who took his
seat in Congress in 1981 and is the only survivor of the Holocaust serving in
Congress.
1928: “The
Prince of Rogues,” a silent film directed by Curtis Bernhardt who co-authored
the script was released today in Germany.
1928: Brooklyn
Supreme Court Judge Mitchell May, a Jewish Democratic Party leader and friend
of movie mogul Harry Cohn officiated at the wedding of movie director Frank
Capra and Lucille Warner, the daughter of Myron Warner.
1929: “The
Broadway Melody,” “the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best
Picture produced by Irving Thalberg and Lawrence Weingarten premiered at
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
1930(3rd
of Shevat, 5690): Parashat Vaera
1930(3rd
of Shevat, 5690): Forty-nine-year-old Police informant Julius Rosenheim was
gunned down today allegedly by members of the “Capone Gang.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/02/02/96018329.pdf
1930:
Birthdate of Ping Pong or Table Tennis Champion, Marty Reisman.
1932(24th
of Shevat, 5692): Twenty-three-year-old Hyman Hirsch, Jr, the son of Hyman and
Miriam Phillips Hirsch passed today after which he was buried at the Dispersed
of Judah Cemetery, “the second oldest Jewish cemetery to be built in New
Orleans” which was located on land “donated by Judah P. Touro.”
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.
1934: “The
Official Gazette of the government of Baden today announced that pensions
granted to rabbis had been withdrawn” but said nothing about the pensions given
to other retired clergymen.
1934: In
Cairo, “the Chief Rabbi, a representative of King Faud, the Premier, members of
the cabinet, two ex-Premiers, ten former cabinet members, the Italian
Ambassador and leading Egyptian banks and industrialists” were among those who
attended the funeral services today for sixty-four-year-old banker Joseph /bey
Mosseri, “a member of one of the oldest Egyptian Jewish families.”
1934: Hyman G.
Enelow became rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El on New York.
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 only
Jewish labor.
1936(8th
of Shevat, 5695): Parashat Bo
1936: In
Washington, DC, “celebration of the 75th of the anniversary of the
birth philanthropist Isaac Gans” at which “time representatives of the
Protestant, Episcopal, Catholic and Jewish faiths outdid themselves in paying
tribute” to him including Episcopal Bishop James E. Freeman who said to him “When
sunset comes you well may know you have left behind a reputation and record
which will be your just reward.”
1936: Rabbi
Jacob Tarshish is scheduled to deliver a sermon “How Can We Find Happiness?” at
Temple B’nai Jeshurun
1936: English
historian Dr. Cecil Roth is scheduled to lecture on “Will Hitlerism Spread?”
this morning at Temple Rodeph Sholom.
1936: Rabbi
Milton Sternberg is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Does Morality Require
Religion?” at Park Avenue Synagogue.
1936: “Rudolf
Saudek, a well-known Leipzig Jewish sculptor and a Czechoslovak citizen
protested through the Czechoslovak Legation in Berlin against a ruling by the
Reich Chamber of Culture forbidding him to make tombstone for Jewish graves” –
a business he went into after the Reich government had ended his career
sculpting busts, many of which had been placed in the local university and
libraries.
1937: In
Washington, DC Secretary of State Cordell Hull met with a delegation
representing the Arab National League which expressed the hope that the United
States “will turn a sympathetic ear to the voice of the Arabs of Palestine.”
1937: It was
reported that the junior division of the United Palestine Appeal has adopted a
resolution urging Great Britain to permit Jews from Germany, Poland and other
parts to Europe to immigrate to Palestine without any interruption.
1937: “Many
luncheons” are scheduled to be given today “at the Pierre after the lecture on
‘Democracy and Irresponsibility’ which Louis K. Anspacher will give in the
ballroom.”
1938: U.S.
premiere of “Mad About Music” directed by Norman Rae Taurog and produced by Joe
Pasternak.
1938: In
Rumania, the Finance Ministry’s Alcohol Department has demanded that the
licenses of Jewish innkeepers be restored following an investigation into the
unfounded claims of Prime Minster Goga that the Jewish innkeepers were
“poisoning the nation.”
1938: In
Berlin, the Ministry of the Interior published a new law today empowering
“German courts to revoke previous rulings permitting Jews to changes their
names” which means that “a Jew who changed his name years ago can be compelled
to resume his original names.
1938: The
German government published a decree officially notifying banks “that any
company that has one Jewish director” or in which Jews have a 25 per cent
ownership stake “must be classified as a Jewish concern.”
1938: A court
in Westphalia issued a decision “denying a license to sell intoxicating liquor
to a café proprietor whose family had social relations with a Jewish family.”
1938: The
funeral for “Eugene H. Paul who was for forty-eight years connected with Kuhn,
Loeb” and “a leader in Jewish philanthropic circles” in New York City is
scheduled to “be held at Temple Home” this morning followed by burial in Mount
Neboh City.
1939: In
Hamilton, Bermuda tonight, the Governor, General Sir Reginald Hildyard told the
English-Speaking Union that Hitler “has drawn America and Great Britain even
closer than they were before” in part because “our hatred of what he has done
our hatred of the way he has treated the Jews, has made us very close.”
1939(12th
of Shevat, 5699): Pinsk born American Yiddish author Saul Joseph Janovsky
passed away today.
https://congressforjewishculture.org/lexicon/t/3940
1940: “A group
of 2,300 Jewish immigrants from Austria and Czechoslovakia including “lawyers,
artists, actors and doctors” set sail from Rumania today “aboard the Turkish
freighter Vakaria” bound for Palestine even though they lacked “entry permits.”
1940: “A
delegation of Jewish leaders” has asked for a meeting with the Interior
Minister following the announcement of his ban on all Zionists activities and
organizations.
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 his immediate circle personally responsible in life and limb” if the Iron
Cross did not stop their murderous attacks on the Jews.
1942: Vidkun
Quisling, the Norwegian whose last name become a synonym for traitor “took
office as Minister President of Norway,” much of whose comparatively small
Jewish population would be literally “shipped” off to the death camps.
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.
1943: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held at the Riverside Memorial for Carl Florian
Zittle, the Patterson, NJ born son of Gustave and Bertha Zittle and the husband
of the former Martha Beatrice Bernstein with whom he had two children –
Madeline and Carl – who was known as Zit and who worked for a number of Hearst
publications, “owned the Central Park Casino during the administration of Mayor
Jimmy Walker” and published Zit’s Weekly, a show biz weekly, for over
twenty years.
1944: Today, the Irgun proclaimed a revolt against the
British mandatory government.
1944: Kay Kamen Ltd. And Kay Kamen of Canada, Ltd which is
owned by the sone of Russian-Jewish immigrants received $93, 751 from Walt
Disney Productions “as representatives with respect to licensing.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/02/02/issue.html
1945: “Germans responsible for crimes within the Reich,
including those against Jews and others, beyond any question will be punished,
Joseph C. Grew, acting Secretary of State, announced today.”
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 was created and was
supportive of creating the Jewish state.
1947(11th
of Shevat, 5707): Parashat Beshalach
1947(11th
of Shevat, 5707): Sixty-two-year-old Russian born American attorney David Louis
Podell, the husband of “the former Sarah Falk of Savannah and father of
Margaret Ann and David L. Podell, Jr. whose clients included Eddie Cantor and
who drafted major New Deal legislation whose clients included Eddie Cantor and
who drafted major New Deal legislation while also serving as vice president of
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and a trustee of the Education Alliance, passed
away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9C0DE0D91E3EE53ABC4A53DFB466838C659EDE
1947: In
Kennett Square, PA, “Florence Goldberger, a navy nurse and David Savitch , who
ran a clothing store gave birth to American television journalist Jessica
Savitch.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/25/obituaries/jessica-savitch-of-nbc-tv-killed-in-car-accident.html
http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/the-legacy-of-jessica-savitch/200320
1947: In
Nicosia, Cyprus Bronia Rosenberg, originally from Łódź, and a survivor of the
Auschwitz concentration camp and Fishel Brand, from Biłgoraj, who had been a
resistance fighter during World War II gave birth to Moshé Michaël Brand who
gained fame as Israeli “pop star” Mike Brant.
1948: The
Arabs bombed the Palestine Post (a.k.a. Jerusalem Post)
building in Jerusalem.
1949: “An
exhibition of radios, machine tools, clothing, jewelry and artwork -- all
produced by Jewish war victims in twenty-six countries -- was opened tonight at
318 West Fifty-seventh Street to an invited audience by the Organization for
Rehabilitation Through Training.”
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.
1951(25th
of Shevat, 5711): Seventy-four-year-old Annie Morris, the wife of Hyman Morris,
the first Jewish Lord May of Leeds, passed away today.
1952: Three
years after being released in the United Kingdom, “The Small Room” which Emeric
Pressburger co-directed, co-produced and co-wrote opened in New York City
today.
1952:
“Invitation” based on “the short story ‘R.S.V.P.’ by Jerome Weidman, directed
by Gottfried Reinhardt, produced by Lawrence Weingarten and featuring Ruth
Roman and Michael Checkhov was released in the United States today.
1952: The day
after he had passed away funeral services were held for seventy-eight-year-old
Herbert Loeb, Sr., “the son of Rosa and Adolph Loeb” and husband of Rose
Regenstein Loeb.
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.
1953: CBS
broadcast the first television episode of “You Are There” which had originally
been created for radio by Goodman Ace and whose directors included Sidney
Lumet.
1953: Today,
The Three Pillars was inaugurated as the official organ of the Junior Sisterhod
after which “it quickly became the official bulletin of the Heights Jews
Center” in Cleveland.
1955: Lord
Rothschild wrote to Churchill “thanking him for the fact that in Jerusalem in
1921 ‘you laid the foundation of the Jewish State by separating Abdullah’s
Kingdom from the rest of Palestine. Without this much-opposed prophetic
foresight there would not have been an Israel today.’”
1955:
“Abdullah the Great,” a comedy directed and produced by Gregory Ratoff and
co-starring Gregory Rafotff was released in France today.
1956: In the
UK, ITV broadcast the first episode of “Colonel March of Scotland Yard”
produced by Hannah Weinstein.
1958: Egypt
and Syria announced plans to merge into United Arab Republic. This was
one of those failed attempts at pan-Arabism that was really a military alliance
designed to destroy Israel. The U.A.R. was neither united or a real
republic. The Syrians pulled out in 1961, but the name lingered on for
many years after.
1959: Helen T.
Goldstein, the holder of a doctorate in Smeitic Languaages and History from
Radcliff married Dr. Jonathan Goldstein today in Philadelphia after which in
1962 “he jointed the History and Classics departments at the University of
Iowa.
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.”
1959(23rd
of Shevat, 5719): “Three civilians were killed by a landmine near Moshav
Zavdiel”
1961(15th
of Shevat, 5721): Tu B’Shevat
1961: “The
Misfits,” “based on an original screenplay by Arthur Miller” and co-starring
Marilyn Monroe and Eli Wallach, among others, opened today at the Capitol
Theatre in Manhattan.
1961: Director
Otto Preminger, who will make the film version of Advise and Consent in
September, “has agreed to make unspecified films for Columbia in addition to
“Bunny Lake Is Miss” and “The Other Side of the Coin.”
1963:
Publication of the first issue of The New York Review which Barbara
Epstein helped to found with the encouragement of her husband, “Jason Epstein,
a vice president at Random House.”
1964: Red
Auerbach of the Boston Celtics won his “800th game as an NBA coach”
today. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)
1964: Lesley
Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” Climbs Billboard Charts
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/01/1964/lesley-gore-s-you-don-t-own-me-climbs-billboard-charts
1965:
Birthdate of Israeli actor Sharone Meir best known for his work on Whiplash
(2014), Coach Carter (2005) and Mean Creek (2004).
1965: “Kelly”
a musical with songs by Mark Charlap “began previews at the Broadhurst Theatre
today.
1966(11th
of Shevat, 5726): Seventy-six-year-old Louisville, KY, native Louis Leopold
Mann the HUC ordained Rabbi with a Ph.D. from Yale who was an active member of
the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Jewish Chautauqua Society
and the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed away today in Chicago.
https://www.jta.org/1966/02/03/archive/dr-louis-mann-leading-reform-rabbi-dies-in-chicago-was-76
1966: In “The
Trefa Banquet” published today John J. Appel described the 19th
century Cincinnati affair where shellfish were part of the menu.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-trefa-banquet/
1966(11th
of Shevat, 5726): Eighty-eight-year-old Philadelphia born and NYU trained
attorney Herbert Louis May, the former counsel to the High Commissioner for
Refugees from Germany passed away today.
1968: In
Hollywood, CA, Mitzi Shore (née Saidel), who founded The Comedy Store, and
Sammy Shore, a comedian gave birth to Paul Montgomery Shore who gained fame as 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.
1969:
Birthdate of publisher Andrew Breitbart, the adopted “of son of Gerald and
Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively” whose Jewish
upbringing included a Bar Mitzvah and a life-long identity with the Jewish
people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/business/media/the-life-and-death-of-andrew-breitbart.html
1967: In New
York, 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: Elie
Abel, who has most recently been working as a correspondent for NBC, is
scheduled to become the new Dean of Journalism at Columbia University effective
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/12/20/78549813.pdf
1970(25th
of Shevat, 5730): Dorothy Horowitz Germber, the wife of the late Newcomb Gerber
passed away today in Clifton, NJ.
1970: Oil was
pumped for the first time in the newly completed 42-inch Eilat-Ashkelon
pipeline
1970: The
New York Times includes a review of Mr. Sammler’s Planet by Saul
Bellow.
1971(6th
of Shevat, 5731): Fifty-three-year-old New York born lyricist Bob Hillard who
gave us the words to such well-known hits as “Our Day Will Come,” “My Little
Corner of the World” and “Dear Hearts and Gentle People” passed away today.
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Bob_Hilliard
1974: For the
third time “University College, Oxford, elected Professor Venyamin Levich, the
eminent Soviet Jewish scientist, as a visiting fellow.
1974(9th
of Shevat, 5734): Ninety-three-year-old Dr. Lazar Schonfeld, the husband of
“the former Helen Samish” who served as “chief rabbi of Hungary before coming
to the United States in 1925” where he served “as the rabbi of Beth David
Agudath Achim Synagogue in the Bronx” and as a “broadcaster for the Voice of
America” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/03/archives/dr-lazar-schonfeld-dead-former-rabbi-of-hungary-93.html
1976(30th
of Shevat, 5736): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
1976(30th
of Shevat, 5736): Sixty-three-year-old New York born social psychologist Dr.
Sidney Axelrad, the holder of doctorate from the New School and the husband of
the former Sylvia Brody passed away today while serving as the dean of graduate
studies and professor of sociology at Queens College.
1976: Four
days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this
afternoon for seventy-one-year-old Shreveport native and Harvard School trained
attorney, Joseph Harrison, the former lecturer at Rutgers University Law School
and Republican political leader who served as a “judge of the Essex County
Court” and who married “former Francis Boehm Ginsberg” after the death of his
first wife “the former Amy Harvey.”
1976:
"Rich Man, Poor Man" mini-series based on the work of Irwin Shaw,
premieres on ABC TV.
1977(13th
of Shevat, 5737): Seventy-four-year-old Warsaw native Samuel Arthur “Sammy”
Weiss the first Jew to be named captain of the Duquesne University football
team who went on “to represent Pennsylvania's 30th, 31st, and 33rd Districts in
the United States House of Representatives” before serving as a Common Pleas
Court Judge passed away today after which he was buried at B’nai Israel
Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
http://history.house.gov/People/Detail/23526
1978: Director
Roman Polanski skipped bail and fled to France after pleading guilty to charges
of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl. The father of the Polish born
director was Jewish. His mother died in a concentration camp.
Polanski avoided being trapped in the ghetto and spent the war wandering the
woods of Poland.
1979: The
first staging of “Fugue in a Nursery” by Harvey Fierstein opened at LaMama
today.
1979:
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile. This
marked a major turning point in the Islamic world as religious fundamentalists
began coming to power. There are those who would say that there is a
direct line between the success of Khomeini and the victory of Hamas in the
Palestinian elections in 2006. After 28 years, Iran boasts a leader who denies
the Holocaust happened and calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.
1980: “Fatso”
a comedy featuring Estelle Reiner as “Mrs. Goodman” was released in the United
States today.
1980: NBC
broadcast “Animalympics” written by and directed by Steven Lisberger and
featuring the voices of Gilda Radner, Billy Crystal and Harry Shearer.
1980: The last
public interview given by Sir Cecil Beaton, who had been fired by Conde Nast in
the 1930’s for slipping an anti-Semitic message into one of his drawings, was
broadcast by the BBC today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/03/obituaries/mischa-mischakoff.html
1981: The BBC
broadcast the first episode of seven-part mini-series based on Jane Austen’s
Sense and Sensibility with a script written by Alexander Baron, the son of Jewish
immigrants from Poland who had settled in the East End of London.
1981: Meryl
Hiat, a member of the New York State Board of Regents[6] and the chairwoman of
the board of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and James S. Tisch, the
CEO of Loews Corporation gave birth to Harvard educated, Commissioner of the
New York City Department of Sanitation Jessica Tisch, the wife of Danial
Zachary Levine and the granddaughter of Rabbi Philip Hiat.
1982: It was
reported today that during the month of January 290 Jews left the Soviet Union.
1984: In
Wayne, PA, “Susan Komm, an artist, and Alan Jacobson, a graphic designer” gave
birth to Abbi Jacobson, the “co-creator and co-star of the Comedy Central
series ‘Broad City.’
1983: Today,
Soviet authorities put Refusnik Iosif Begun “on a punishment regimen” that
involved “a reduced food ration of 900 calories a day and further restrictions
on mail and visits.”
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
1987(2nd
of Shevat, 5747): Sixty-one-year-old Sala Burton, the widow of Congressman
Philip Burton and a “member of the U.S. House of Representatives from
California’s 5th district” passed away today.
1988: Two
Palestinians were shot dead today near Anabta in a confrontation 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: In Del
Mar, CA, Jerri-Ann and philanthropist Gary E. Jacobs gave birth to Columbia
graduate and Democratic party member Sara Josephine Jacobs, the member of the
House of Representatives from California’s 51st congressional
district who is the granddaughter of businessman and Qualcomm founder Irwin M.
Jacobs and the niece of Paul E. Jacobs, the former CEO of Qualco.
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)
1991(17th
of Shevat, 5751): Eighty-two-year-old Herzl Rosenblum who served as editor of
Yedioth Ahronoth for 35 years and who signed Israel’s declaration of
independence as Herzl Vardi passed away today.
1991: “Vandals
attacked the Lomita, CA home of Dr. Shlomo Elspas, the executive governor of
Chabad South Bay today “spray-painting a swastika and the slogan ‘white power’
on it.”
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.
1995: Today,
the 175th anniversary of issue of the American Journal of the Medical Sciences featured a 1908 article by
Leo Buerger, the Austrian born American “pathologist, surgeon and urologist who
passed away in 1943.
1996: “A Fair
County” written by Jon Robin Baitz “premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center
Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater” today.
1998: “A
Daughter Seeks Her Olympian Father” published today described the tortured
relationship between clinical psychologist Julie Jaffe Nagel and her father
Irving Jaffee, the Gold Medal Olympian speed-skating champion.
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
1999(15th
of Shevat, 5759): Last celebration of Tu B’Shevat in the 20th
century.
1999(15th
of Shevat, 5759): Eight-four-year-old Benjamin Elazari Volcani the native of
Ben-Shamen, who discovered life in the Dead Sea and pioneered biological
silicon research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of
California, San Diego” passed away today.
2000: It was
reported today that Israel had responded to attacks by Iranian-back guerillas
that killed three soldiers “with artillery attacks and air strikes on Hezbollah
guerrilla targets in Lebanon.”
2001: “The
deadline for political parties to change candidates expired quietly at midnight
today, and Prime Minister Ehud Barak finally put to rest the speculation that
he would step aside and let former Prime Minister Shimon Peres run in his place
in” in next week’s election.
2002(19th
of Shevat, 5762): Daniel Pearl, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal was
beheaded today.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,212284,00.html
2002: After
having premiered in London two months ago “Gosford Park,” a clever who-done-it
that was the brain-child of Bob Balaban who co-produced and co-starred in the
film was released in the rest of the UK 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 nuclear reactor before it could go on line.
2004: Jonathan
Andrew Kaye won the FBR Open
2004: The New
England Patriots, owned by Robert Kraft, the Jewish philanthropist defeated the
Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl XXXVIII
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: 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
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/01/2007/debut-of-sarah-silverman-program
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(25th
of Shevat, 5768): Eighty-eight-year-old Holocaust survivor Rubin Partel, the
father-in-law of New York born neurologist Leonard S. Schleifer, “the founder
and chief executive of the biotechnology company Regeneron.,
2008: In New
Jersey, Barnet Hospital which had been founded in 1908 by Nathan Barnet
announced that it would closing due to a lack of funding
2008: “Things
We Lost In The Fire” directed by Susanne Bier with a script by Allan Loeb was
released today in the United Kingdom.
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: After
having premiered at Cannes last May, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”
directed by Julian Schnabel was released today in the United States.
2008: “Praying
With Lior,” a new documentary about a Philadelphia boy with Down syndrome
preparing for his bar mitzvah opens at the Cinema Village in New York.
2009: At
Yale University, CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in
America presents “Palestinian Issues in Israeli Journalism: A conversation with
Khalid Abu Toameh, a journalist who writes for the Jerusalem Post”
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” during which a distinguished panel of policy makers, diplomats, and
scholars discuss the issues and opportunities in diplomatic approaches to the
prevention of genocide in the contemporary international community.
2010: Yehuda
Weinstein replaced Menachem Mazuz as Attorney General of Israel.
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. The Wolf Foundation was founded by
the late German-born Dr. Ricardo Wolf, an inventor, philanthropist and former
Cuban ambassador to Israel. The private nonprofit foundation's council is
chaired by Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar.
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. This chair was endowed through of
generous gift of Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman..
2011: Six
Senate Democrats rejected a deficit-driven proposal by a new Republican senator
to cut United States aid to Israel.
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
religiousminority 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.
2013(22nd
of Shevat, 2013): Eighty-eight-year-old Edward Koch, three-time mayor of New
York passed away today on the same day that a documentary of his life opened in
New York City theatres.(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ed-koch-remembered-by-israeli-envoy-as-one-of-us/
2013: “The
Gatekeepers” opened in U.S. movie theatres
2014: In
Rockville, MD, Tikvat Israel is scheduled to show “Lost Islands” as part of its
Israeli Film Festival.
2014: In
Olney, MD, Shaare Tefila, is scheduled to host its Third Annual Comedy night of
“Sweet Laughter.”
2014(1st
of Adar 1, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
2014(1st
of Adar 1, 5774): Eighty-year-old Gordon Zacks, the Ohio businessman who was
active in the Republican Party and “served as an adviser to President George
H.W. Bush (Bush I) passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/republican-jewish-coalition-founder-gordon-zacks-dies/
2014: An
Egyptian jihadist group said today that it fired a rocket at the Red Sea resort
of Eilat which was intercepted by Israeli air defenses, its second in a
fortnight
2014: Finance
Minister Yair Lapid ordered a halt on all money transfers to the settlements
pending the clarification regarding their specific use, a statement on his
behalf said this evening.
2014: “Three
Molotov cocktails were thrown this evening towards a private home in
Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood. No injuries were reported and light
damage was caused to furniture in the house.”
2014: At the
Writers Guild of America Awards ceremony, Mel Brooks presented Pau Mazursky
with the Screen Laurel Award, which is the lifetime achievement award of the WGA.
2015: The
New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Girl From Human Street:
Ghosts of Memory in a Jewish Family by Roger Cohen and the recently
published paperback edition of A Replacement of Life, Boris Fishman’s
first novel about the forgery of Holocaust restitution claims.
2015: In
London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host an exhibition “From Generation
to Generation” featuring the word of Gideon Summerfield.
2015: The New
England Patriots, owned by Robert Kraft, the Jewish philanthropist defeated the
Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX.
2015: Gary
Bettman is scheduled to “mark his 22nd year as National Hockey
League Commissioner” today.
2015(12th
of Shevat, 5775): Eighty-nine-year-old M.I.T. professor Irving Singer passed
away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015:
“Renewal,” film that “profiles a group of dancers—the Vertigo Dance Company—in
their pioneering eco-arts village on the outskirts of Jerusalem” is scheduled
to be shown at Lincoln Center in New York.
2015: In New
Orleans, funeral services are scheduled to held at the Old Beth Israel Cemetery
on Frenchmen Street for Irvin Samuel Smith “who was a member of the CCJN’s
close-knit family.”
http://www.crescentcityjewishnews.com/irvin-smith-retired-record-store-owner-promoter-dies-at-92/
2016: Some of
the 6,000 Jews in Iowa are scheduled to join their fellow Hawkeyes in the
first-in-the nation caucuses where the candidates include Bernie Sanders, the
son of Jewish immigrants from Poland, Hillary Clinton whose son-in-law is
Jewish and Donald Trump whose daughter Ivanka is Jewish.
2016: The
award-winning exhibition, “Voices of the Vigil” is scheduled to move from
Rockville, MD. to Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, VA.
2016(22nd
of Shevat): On the Jewish calendar “yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka
Schneerson, wife of the Rebbe.”
2017:
Physicist Persis S. Drell, the daughter of Sidney Drell, who has been serving
as Dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering since 2014 is scheduled
to begin serving the Provost of Stanford University today.
2017: Today the
Senate Finance Committee approved Steven Mnuchin’s nomination to serve as
Treasury Secretary by a vote of 11-0 with all Democrats boycotting the vote,
sending the nomination to the Senate floor
2017: David
Shulkin testified before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs during
hearings on his nomination to serve as U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
2017 (5th
of Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Alter,
“the leader of the Ger Chassidic dynasty, author of Sfas Emes.
2017: In
Memphis, TN, Temple Israel Cantorial Soloist Abbie Strauss is scheduled to lead
“Musically Speaking” with sessions for both youngsters and adults.
2017: In New
York, the Batsheva Dance Company is scheduled to perform Israeli choreographer
Ohad Naharin’s “Last Work.”
2017: The
Yeshiva Museum is scheduled to host a special tour focused on the work of Hugh
Mesibov.
2018:
On a day when it is offering students a meal of “sweet chili beef and chicken
noodles”,The Oxford University Society is scheduled to host a Gemara Shiur.
2018:
Comedian Judy Gold is scheduled to perform at the West Hollywood Library.
2018:
The Quad Cinema is scheduled to host the final screening of Amos Gitai’s “West
of the Jordan River.”
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “An Act of
Defiance.”
2018:
In Des Moines, IA, the grand opening of the Hillel House at Drake University is
scheduled to take place.
2019(26th
of Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi David HaLevi Segal
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_26.html
2019:
In Jerusalem, Nirit Loftus, senior guide at the Bible Lands Museum, is
scheduled to host a tour of “the museum’s exhibits that tell stories of the
ingenuity, shrewdness and daring of queens, goddesses, and ordinary women who
once lived and worked in the ancient Near East.
2019:
In a rare musical treat, Cantor Joel Caplan, the son of Dick and Ellen Caplan,
pillars of the “corridor Jewish community” and the father of another sweet
singer of Jewish Song, Ilan Caplan, is scheduled to lead Friday evening
services at Agudas Achim in Coralville, IA.
https://www.agudath.org/cantors-corner.html
2020(6th
of Shevat, 5780): Parashat Bo.
2020:
In Sand Leandro, CA, Temple Beth Sholom is scheduled to host a screening of
“Leaving Memel – Refugees from the Reich” followed by a question-and-answer
session with producer and director Fred Finkelstein.
2020:
Terrace painted by Israeli artist David Reeb was sold at auction today.
http://www.artnet.com/artists/david-reeb/terrace-dxpAiZQMRPeylDqAvY564Q2
2020:
In Boston, “A Far Cry” the Grammy nominated self-conducted chamber orchestra is
scheduled to present “Berlin” which highlights the music of three composers
whose music “would be considered as degenerate by the Nazis.”
2020:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Saturday Lunch and
Seudah that “will begin an hour before Shabbat ends.”
2021:
Ninety-three-year-old Holocaust survivor Cornelia Vertenstein “gave her last
piano lesson” today “at 6:30 a.m.” after which “she arranged a ride to the
hospital” because “she was not feeling well.” (As reported by John Branch)
2021:
As part of “This Is What Jewish Looks Like series”, the Streicker Center is
scheduled to host a conversation Rebecca Walker, the author of Black, White
and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, her account of growing up as
the only child of Jewish civil rights lawyer Mel Leventhal and Black writer
Alice Walker.
2021: In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea Book
Club is scheduled to discuss The Song of the Jade Lily “a gripping
historical novel that tells the little-known story of Jewish refugees in
Shanghai by Kristy Manning that will include a screening of “Harbor from the
Holocaust,” a documentary that examines the Pittsburgh connections to the Jews
who found in Shanghai during the Holocaust.
2022:
After having been forced to close because of near record snowfall, the Jewish
Heritage Museum of Monmouth County, NJ is scheduled to re-open today.
2022(30th
of Shevat, 5782)): Rosh Chodesh Adar I
2022:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present Dr. Shira Klein,
lecturing on “The Jews of Italy and the African Empire.”
2022:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a live virtual discussion
with Dan Grunfeld, former two-time Academic All American as a member of
Stanford University’s men’s basketball team and 8-year professional basketball
player, as he presents his debut novel, By the Grace of the Game: The
Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream.
2022:
Rabbi Sharon Marcus is scheduled to offer a talk on “Torah Study Through a
Woman’s Lens” virtually as part of Park Synagogue’s sisterhood programming.
2022:
Ohio University Chabad is scheduled to host “An Oasis in Time: The Gift of
Shabbat,” the fourth in the Sinai Scholars series.
2022:
Deadline for submitting manuscripts that might be published in “The Paper
Brigade,” “the Jewish Book Council’s Annual Literary Journal” “named in honor
of the group of writers and intellectuals in the Vilna Ghetto who rescued
thousands of Jewish books and documents from destruction by the Nazis.”
2022:
JW3 is scheduled to host the first screening of Argentinian comedy drama
'Shalom Taiwan’
2022(30th
of Shevat, 5782): Celebration of Yom HaMishpacha or Family Day which is
observed on the day on the Hebrew calendar marking the death of Henrietta
Szold.
https://israelforever.org/events/yom_hamishpacha
2023: In Palm Beach Gardens, Temple Judea is
scheduled to post the Tikkun Olam Series
with Rabbi Rose Durbin where attendees will discuss “Jewish Environmentalism –
Is believing in climate changes Jewish?”
2023:
Laureen Lipsky, the CEO and founder of Taking Back the Narrative is scheduled
to teach the first session of “Israel Explained: Through the Lens of History.”
2023:
In New Orleans, the Windsor Court and Darryl and Louellen Berger are scheduled
to host the “Federation-Goldring-Woldenberg Major Donor Dinner.”
2023:
In Israel, the winter weather, including “thunderstorms, sleet, strong winds
and cold temperatures” which began on January 30 is scheduled to continue
today. (As reported by Danny Roup, Israel Moskovitz, Eitan Glickman, Raanan
Ben-Zur, Gilad Carmeli)
2024:
Temple Judea is scheduled to host “Candid Conversations for Women with Marcia
Grobman, LCSW.”
2024:
The JWI Film Club is scheduled to host a screening of “Under G-d, with Elly C,”
a short documentary, directed by Paula Eiselt, that explores the experiences of
Jewish women affected by the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, as
well as the lawsuits launched by rabbis, Jewish organizations, and interfaith
leaders challenging Dobbs on the basis of religious liberty.
2024:
In New Orleans, the Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Art Series is scheduled
to host an author talk with Matt Haines, author of The Big Book of King
Cakes and The Little Book of King Cake.
2024:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to present “Some Things Old, Some Things Nu,”
with singer Dudu Fisher.
2024:
The Museum of Southern Jewish Experience in partnership with SerenaBakesBread
and Young Adults at Shir Chadash, are scheduled to allow participants to use
edible glitter, icing, and sanding sugar to create the most deliciously
decadent King Cake Challahs while sipping batch cocktails, wine, beer and soft
drinks.
2024:
As February 1st begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 118 in captivity.
(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we
are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
