Thursday, January 4, 2024

This Day, January 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

January 5

1209: At Winchester Castle King John of England and his wife Isabella gave birth to Richard, Earl of Cromwell “to whom Abraham of Berkhampstead “was very dear” and on whose behalf he intervened to get him released after being charged with desecrating an image of the Virgin Mary.”

1355: Charles I of Bohemia was crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan. Charles I morphed into Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who at the beginning of his reign made an ineffectual attempt to protect his Jewish subjects by issuing “letter after letter forbidding the person of the His Jews, his ‘servi camerae,’ to be touched.”  His Christian subjects in Germany disregarded their Emperor and continued their persecution of the Jews.

1425: In Valladolid, Spain “John II of Castile and Maria of Aragon” gave birth to Henry IV during whose reign “the condition of the Spanish Jews was one of comparative peace and comfort.”

1548: Birthdate of Francisco Suarez the Jesuit theologian who “advocated the banning of the Talmud and the building of synagogues as well as forbidding ‘any familiarity with Jews.’” (As described by The History of the Jewish People)

1589:  Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, the wife of King Henry II passed away.  Along with several other French rulers and power brokers including Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV, she had a penchant for collecting Hebrew Manuscripts.

1642: King Charles I of England sent soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war. The Civil War would bring Oliver Cromwell to power.  Cromwell would champion the return of the Jews to England, leading to the creation of the modern Jewish committee in Great Britain, and by extension throughout the British Empire including the United States.

1759: Thirty-four-year-old Frankfort-on-Main who 1765 came to America where “he was a merchant and an Indian trader” married Shinah Solomon Blum today.

1760(16th of Tevet, 5520): Abraham Joseph was buried at the Hoxton Old Jewish Burial Ground today.

1772(29th of Tevet, 5532): Yaacov Ze'ev ben Yisrael passed away today in London.

1773(10th of Tevet, 5533): Four days after the appearance of “Amazing Grace” which was based on "1 Chronicles 17:16–17", refers to David's reaction to the prophet Nathan telling him that God intends to maintain his family line forever” Jews observe Asara B’Tevet

1786: One day after he had passed away, Moses Mendelsohn was buried today in the Jewish Cemetery in Berlin.

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/moses-mendelssohn/

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moses-mendelssohn

1792(10th of Tevet, 5551): Asara B’Tevet

1796: Birthdate of Joseph Salvador the native of Montpellier and French historian “who according to family traditions were descendants of the Maccabees” but whose mother Elizabeth Vincens was a Roman Catholic.

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13049-salvador-joseph

1797: Birthdate of German-Jewish banker and astronomer Wilhelm Wolff Beer, the half-brother of Giacomo Meyerbeer.

1799(28th of Tevet, 5559): Parashat Vaera

1799: On the same day that Jews read the Torah in New Jersey, Isabella (Brown) and Zebulon Pike gave birth to American explorer Zebulon Montgomery Pike, of Pike’s Peak fame who was killed leading American forces to victory at the Battle of York.

1805(5th of Shevat, 5565): Parashat Bo

1805(5th of Shevat, 5565): Isaac Cohen Azevedo the London born son of Haham Moses Cohen d'Azevedo and Sara de Abraham Cohen D'Azevedo, husband of Rachel de Abraham Cohen D'Azevedo and father of Sarah Motta who “had lived briefly in Newport” passed away today in Charleston, SC.

1807: Eliza Judah and New York native Moses Myers gave birth to Georgianna Myers.

1808: Judah Davis married Leah Mendosa at the Great Synagogue today.

1808: Birthdate of Mohammad Shah Qajar, whose son Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar brought Dr. Jacob Euard Polak to Persia to teach medicine and surgery to a whole generation of Persian physicians as part of an attempt to modernize the kingdom.

1814: Today Chief Rabbi Lehmans of The Hague organized a special thanksgiving service and implored God's protection for the allied armies.

1817: In Charleston, SC, Rebecca Phillips and Isaiah Moses gave birth to Aaron I Moses, the husband of Judith A Ottolengui and the father of Ottolengui Aaron Moses.

1817: In Bavaria, Sarah Floss and Feischel Bloch gave birth to Henrietta Bloch, the wife of Samuel Lehrberger and the mother of Sophia, Emma, Jacob, Bella and Timothy Lehrberger.

1826: Maryland put into effect the "Jew Bill", which allowed Jews to hold public office if they believed in Reward and Punishment in the Hereafter. Maryland had an interesting history when it came to questions of religious toleration.  Unlike other colonies, it was founded by Catholics and the Act of Toleration was one of its landmark pieces of colonial legislation.

1828: Rabbi Moss Myers of Ramsgate and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Jonas M. Myers, the husband of Sarah Benjamin who was a successful businessman in Australia where he founded the Adelaide Synagogue and the Brisbane Hebrew Congregation.

1830(10th of Tevet, 5590): Asara B’Tevet

1834: The Gazette Musicale de Paris, founded by Maurice Schlesinger, “first appeared” today.

1835: One day after he had passed away, Isaac Barnett was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1839: In Frankfort-on-Main Edward Werner and Rosalie Schlesinger gave birth to Adolph Werner a graduate of City College of New York, earned a Ph.D. from Rutgers and became a Professor of the German Language and Literature at City College City of New York.

1841: Birthdate of Shlomo Elyashiv, the son of Rabbi Chayim Chaiil Elisahoff and author of Leshem Shevo V’Achlama.

1844: Birthdate of Major General Sir Henry Trotter, who as the General Officer Commanding the Home District attended a “public display” in 1909 of the Jewish Lads Brigade, “the UK’s oldest Jewish youth movement founded by Colonel Albert E.W. Goldsmid” with a goal, in part of helping the children of poor immigrants assimilate into British society.

1845(26th of Tevet, 5605): Forty-four year old Henry S. Hart, the son of Michael and Esther Hart passed away in Easton, PA.

1846: In Slovakia, Samuel Bettelheim, the son of Eva and Dr. Leopold Bettelheim and his wife Chava Eva Bettelheim gave birth to Dr. Jozsef Bettelheim

1846: Birthdate of Arsène Darmesteter the French Philologist who “deciphered the difficult and beautiful French elegy, preserved in the Vatican, on the burning of the thirteen Jewish martyrs at Troyes in 1288.”

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Talmud.html?id=HRZQfUKlTYAC

1847: Birthdate of New York City native and CCNY graduate Ansel Oppenheim, who moved to St. Paul, MN where he was admitted to the Bar in 1878 and pursued a career as a railroad official starting in 1880 when his real estate firm bought the St. Paul City Railway.

1848: Birthdate of Celia Hofheimer Fleisher, the wife of Simon B. Fleisher and the mother of Samuel and Adler Fleisher.

1852: Samuel Samuels, the husband of Esther Benjamin and the father of Moses, David and Barnett Samuels was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1853: Israel Levy married Elizabeth Harris today at the Great Synagogue.

1856: Under the heading “We May Eat Pork Without Fear of the Tape Worm,” the New York Times published a letter to the editor written in response to a previously published article warning about the relationship between pork consumption and tape worm infestation.   Citing the statement  “that a Jew was never known to have a tape-worm,” the author warns  any “hypochondriac” who  “should be tempted to turn Jew from this statement and forswear pork”  need not do so since it is a “rare occurrence in this country” for anybody  to be infested by the worms  “notwithstanding we  are such universal pork-eaters.”

1859: Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who as a leader of united Romania “tried to prepare for the emancipation of the Jews” began his reign as Prince of Moldavia.

1859: Today, in Pilsen, the owners of the “match factory of Neuberger and Eckstein” examined the damage to their establishment which had caught on fire yesterday.

1859: Twenty-seven-year-old (Israel) Robert Weeks Nathan, the son of Sarah Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan married Annie Augusta Florance in Philadelphia today after which they had four children – Maud, Annie, Harold and Robert.

1860(10th of Tevet, 5620): Asara B’Tevet

1860: Two days after she had passed away, Jessey Marks, the daughter of Moses and Phoebe Davis and the husband of Emanuel Marks with whom he had had six children was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1861(23rd of Tevet, 5621): Parashat Shemot

1861: As Jews begin to read the second book of the Torah, General Winfield Scott moves ahead with plans to resupply Fort Sumter which is surrounded by Rebels in Charleston by selecting the “Star of the West” to carry provisions to the U.S. Army forces on the island.

1863: Lazarus Powell, the U.S. Senator from Kentucky called on Congress to adopt “a resolution condemning…General Orders No. 11 as ‘illegal, tyrannical, cruel and unjust.’”

1863: Philadelphian Abraham Casner completed his service with Company I of the 38th Regiment.

1865: Birthdate of New York City native Samuel A. Tuska, the 1884 graduate of CCNY and “member of Heller, Hirsh & Co” who was a trustee of both the Aguilar Free Library society and the Society for Ethical Culture.

1866: In Philadelphia Meyer and Bertha Cauffman Gans gave birth to Lean G. Gans Steppacher, the wife of Walter Meyer Steppacher and the motherof Walter, Lester, and George Steppacher.

1867: Birthdate of Julius Grünbaum, the native of Berlin who married Emma Karstein and gained fame as German movie producer Jules Greenbaum.

1868(10th of Tevet, 5628): Asara B’Tevet

1869: In Boston, Asher Bamber and Rosetta Stein gave birth Golde Bamber, the graduate of the Boston University School of Oratory, the Director of the Hebrew Women’s Sewing Society and the Superintendent of the Hebrew Industrial School of Boston who was a “delegate to the World’s Fair Congress of Religions at Chicago.”

https://jwa.org/people/bamber-golde

1871: In Montgomery Country, OH, Charles and Sophie Fries Axman gave birth to Jacob Axman, the husband of Anna Witendorf Axman.

1871: Springfield, IL clothing store owner Samuel Rosenwald the German-born son of Vogel and Bendix Rosenwald and his wife Augusta Rosenwald gave birth to Sophie Adler, the wife of Manasseh Max Adler with who she had four children – Cyrus, Robert, Lois and Rosebud.

1874: It was reported today that when the noted author Léon Gozlan passed away, he was buried by a Catholic priest.  “He had the features of a Jew and lived like a Jew…but it was positively declared that he had been so baptized so the Rabbi gave way” and Gozlan was interred using the rites of the Church.

1874: In San Francisco, two Jewish immigrants from the Kingdom of Wurteemberg who had during the California Rush gave birth to Nobel Prize winning physiologist Joseph Erlanger who won the award in 1944. (Editor’s note – if his parents hadn’t left Germany, instead of winning the Nobel Prize he would probably have been a pile ashat Auschwitz)

erlanger-joseph.pdf (nasonline.org)

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Erlanger

1875(28th of Tevet, 5635): Seventy-four-year-old Émile Péreire one of the two Péreire brothers, 19th century Sephardic French financiers who were on a par with the Rothschilds passed away today.

1875: A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which includes several Jewish members, was held at their new offices on Broadway and 34th Street.

1876:  Birthdate of Konrad Adenauer.  Adenauer was the first post-war Chancellor of West Germany.  He took office in 1949.  Having been imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II, Adenauer sought to return Germany to the world community.  He sought to make amends with the Jewish community by offering war reparations to the government of Israel.  Under Adenauer, Germany recognized Israel and provided arms for her defense despite threats from the Arab governments.

1877: In San Francisco, Henry and Johanna Grunbaum gave birth to  Otto S. Grunbaum, the head of Grunbaum, Bros and “pioneer Seattle, WA furniture man” and husband Adaline Grunbaum

1877: The Supreme Court of Massachusetts upheld a lower court decision that Jews must observe the laws of the state regulating the observance of the Sabbath.  The case grew out of an attempt to keep a store open on Sunday.

1878(1st of Shevat, 5638): Rosh Chodesh Shevat

1878: In Schwienfurt, Germany, Philipp Salazar, the son of “Maier and Silah Malzer” and his wife Lina Fuchs gave birth to Isidor Salzer

1878: It was reported today that “a thrilling tale of a brave young Jew will appear in the New York Weekly on the morning of January 7.

1878: Rabbi Abram S. Isaacs will deliver lecture entitled “The Dance to Death” at tonight’s meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York’s Lyric Hall.

1879(10th of Tevet, 5639): Asara B’Tevet

1879: Effie Bertha Mocatta, the infant daughter of Abraham de Mattos Mocatta and Florence Justina Cohen was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemtery.”

1879: The Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Jews met this afternoon.  The Board limited itself to routine business and did not take up the matter of accepting or rejecting Judge Hilton’s recent offer to contribute $250 to the Home.  Judge Hilton is the New York businessman who banned Jews from his hotel at Saratoga Springs.

1879: An article profiling Otto von Bismarck published today reported that “mixed marriage in Germany” is “a source of horror to the orthodox Christians as well as to orthodox Jews.”  Bismarck coarsely described mixed marriage as “the crossing of a Jewish mare with a Christian stallion.”

1881: The price of l'Union Générale stock began an eleven-day crash, which the anti-Semites would later blame on a conspiracy of Jewish bankers.

1881: In Konigsberg, Germany, Max and Eva Schulman gave birth to CCNY and National Academy of Design graduate Abram Gustav Schulman, the painter and professor of art at CCNY and husband of Bertha Holman whom he married in 1910.

1882: Amherst College graduate and newspaper man Rudolph Max Kaufmann, the Zanesville, OH born son of Samuel Hay Kauffmann and Sarah Clark Fracker married Jessie R. Kennedy today in Washington, DC.

1883: Today, the American Israelite published a letter from the “24 Russian Jewish families that had established the Jewish community of Beersheba in Kansas” to “Moritz Loth, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregation” expressing their appreciation for the financial and material support provided for them.

1884(8th of Tevet, 5644): Fifty-four-year-old Eduard Lasker, “a German politician and jurist” who “promoted the unification of German” passed away today in New York City.

1885: Ludovic Trarieux, the future Minister of Justice who would become a defender of Alfred Dreyfus, was elected Senator from the Gironde.

1885: In Cincinnati, OH, Adolph Aria Berman and Mary Agnes Jacobs gave birth to Oscar A.Berman.

1886: Birthdate of Franz Kaufman, the German jurist who was baptized by his Jewish parents and helped Jews survive the Holocaust before he was arrested, taken to a concentration camp and murdered in 1944.

1886(28th of Tevet, 5646): Seventy-five-year-old Lazarus (Levi) Adler, the author of "Emancipation and Religion of the Jews, or the Jewish Race and its Adversaries" passed away while serving as the chief rabbinate of the electorate of Hesse, at Cassel, as successor to Philip Roman, who had died 1842.”

1886: Birthdate of Israeli scientist Markus Reiner.

1888(21st of Tevet, 5648): Henri Herz, the Austrian born French pianist and composer passed away.  Hertz owned his own piano factory, built a concert hall in Paris and still found time to teach write and perform.

1890: Birthdate of Sam Finkelstein, the native of White Russia who “arrived in Canada in 1911” and during WW I “enlisted in Jewish Legion” and served in Palestine.

1890: Birthdate of Sarah Aaronsohn, the native of the moshav Zikhron Ya’akov who became a leader of Nili during World War I. After being tortured by the Turks, she took her own life in 1917.

1891” It was reported today that “Solomon J. Solomons has been moved Russia’s persecution of the Jews to” create a painting that is an allegorical representation of the struggle.  In the picture, “the Russian Eagle falls with the beak and claw on a Jewish family while a Fury, masquerading as Justice, presented to defend the family from the monster’s attack.”

1892: Captain Strauss of the Seventh Precinct took five children, all Russian Jewish immigrants, from a hotel on 141 Madison Street.  They were suffering variously from varioloid, diphtheria and/or scarlet fever.

1892: In Dubno, Diana and Yehuda Bernstein gave birth to Samuel Joseph Bernstein, the husband of Jennie Charna Bernstein and the father of three children including celebrity musician Leonard Bernstein

1892: Birthdate of Louis Waldman, a native of the Ukraine who became an American labor leader and a leader of the Socialist Party.

https://spartacus-educational.com/Louis_Waldman.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/14/obituaries/louis-waldman-90-counsel-to-labor.html

1892: A review of the MacLean-Prescott company’s production of “The Merchant of Venice” described Marie Prescott’s portrayal of the Jewess Portia as “very bad, cold” and “stilted.”  R.D. MacLean’s portrayal of Shylock which appeared to be on par with Cruikshank’s drawing of Fagen was based on “a totally false idea.”

1894: Rabbi Gottheil officiated at a private funeral service for Adolph L. Sanger, the late President of the Board of Education after which a public ceremony was held at Temple Emanu-El followed by burial at Salem Field in Cypress Hills Cemetery.

1894: It was reported that “Marie,” a one act play by Charles D. Levin was performed at the Berkley Lyceum as part of a fundraiser for the Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School.

1894: It was reported today that during the current economic depression Nathan Straus has begun the sale of bread “at his sterilized milk depot” at reduced prices and will begin selling coal at reduced prices starting next week.

1894: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities had spent over $171,000 in aiding the needy. Due to the economic downturn in 1893, the organization had spent $200,000 through November of 1893.

1895: According to the will of the late multi-millionaire Eugene Kelly, which was filed in the Surrogate’s office today, $10,000 should “go to such Hebrew charitable institutions” as may be selected y by the executors.

1895: Colonel David S. Brown is scheduled to set sail today on the SS Normannia for a trip that will take him to Egypt and then to Palestine.

1895: Alfred Dreyfus was publicly degraded and sent to Devil's Island. Later, evidence was produced which proved that Major Esterhazy and Colonel Henry, Dreyfus' chief accusers, had forged the evidence. Yet, a new trial was not begun until 1899.  The Dreyfus Affair brought on a torrent of anti-Semitism that spawned the modern Zionist movement.  It tore at the fabric of French society and for decades later, there was still a political divide between those who supported Dreyfus and those who wanted to believe that he was a traitor.

1896: “Colonial New York City” published today provides a picture of “the Big Apple” in 1748 based on the writings of Peter Kalm who visited the city at that time which includes a description of “the Jews of New York at that time” who “formed a considerable portion of the population.  They had stores and fine houses and ships and a flouring synagogue and enjoyed all the privileges of the other citizens.  The young Jews, especially when away from home made no scruple about eating pork when” the opportunity presented itself.

1896: Julius Harburger, the Excise Commissioner of New York City, addressed a meeting of the Boston chapter of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel, of which he is a Grand Master.

1896: The will of Eugene Kelly which was filed for probate today included a bequest of “$10,000…to go to such Hebrew charitable institutions” of which the executors “may approve.”

1896: Dr. Joseph Silverman delivered his second lecture today entitled “Another Basis on Which Christians and Jews Can Unite” at Temple Emanu-El.

1896: It was reported today that the most recent census of the state of New Jersey shows that there are 16.413 people in the category of “other nationalities” which includes Jews as well as Italians and Hungarians.

1896: Detective Sargent Cuff was on his way to Chicago today where he was to take custody of Jacques Oschs, a Romanian born Jew and bring him back to New York to face charges of participating in swindling schemes many of which were aimed at his co-religionist which earned him over $50,000.

1896: “Effect of Hellenism on Judaism” which relied on information that first appeared in The Edinburgh Scotsman provided a summary of an address delivered by Claude G. Montefiore in Glasgow entitled “Some Reflections on Hellenistic Judaism.”  Montefiore used the term “Hellenic Judaism” to described “that Judaism which was touched an influenced by the Hellenism of the time of Alexander the Great and his immediate successors.

1896: It was reported today that Reverend C.H. Parkhurst publicly expressed his appreciation for the support the Jews have given to the City Vigilance League, the successor to the Society for the Prevention of Crime.

1896: It was reported today that 16-year-old Jennie Zellers saved the lives of her five siblings when a fire broke out in a tenement building in Philadelphia. A grocery store owned by Samuel Lipman occupied the first floor of the four-story building that suffered $5,000 in damages.

1897: Realtor Ephraim Rosenberg, the New Orleans born son of Rachel Wolff and Benjamin Rosenberg and supporter of Touro Synagogue married Jessie Hillborn today after which she gave birth to their daughter Lillie.

1897: It was reported today that the Trustees of Columbia tendered their thanks to Benjamin Stern and Charles A. Dana for their donation of Hebrew manuscripts to the school’s library.

1898: In the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, Justice Gaynor is scheduled to hear Mrs. Martha Reubel’s petition for an annulment based on a claim that he is a Christian.  Mrs. Reubel is an 18 year old Jewess and contends that her husband Siegfried mis-represented himself as being an Orthodox Jews.

1898: Herzl’s "The New Ghetto" was finally produced in the Carl-Theater in Vienna.
The play was also performed in Berlin and Prague.

1898: Birthdate of CCNY basketball player and coach Morris Holman, the younger brother of CCNY basketball star Nat Holman

1899: The will of David Marks, benefactor of Jewish organizations, was filed for probate today.

1899: It was reported today that a French civil court has fined Comtesse de Martel who writes under the nom de plume of “Gyp” five thousand francs for libeling Senator Ludovic Trarieux, the former Minister of Justice. The libel consisted of an unfounded accusation that the Senator had become a Protestant “in order to contract a rich marriage. 

1899: It was reported today that the Comtesse de Martel, who proclaimed herself to be an anti-Semite said the Jews should not only be driven out of Paris but out of the whole country. 

1899: “Alleged Outrages on Jews” published today summarized the “anti-Semitic prejudice existing in “the United States as described by Brooklyn resident Leopold Cohn, a former rabbi who had converted to Christianity

1900: “The French Conspirators” published today reported that has had been “foreseen, the French Senatorial High Court of Justice failed to establish the existence of a tripartite conspiracy promoted by the leaders of the Royalists, the Anti-Semites and the Nationalist”  because when one considers “the character of the personages in power at the time the charges were formulated “the failure to connect the propaganda of the Duc D’Orleans, with the Jew-baiter Guerin and the head of the patriotic league’s M. Deroulede does not come as any surprise.

1900: In New York City, Gerta Epstein and Abraham Frank gave birth to University of Buffalo trained attorney and HUC trained rabbi Solomon Frank who led Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg and the Spanish and Portuguese Synagouge of Montreal and became a leader of the Canadian Jewish community.

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54346575/obituary-for-rabbi-frank-aged-82/

1900: Birthdate of George E. Price, the vaudeville entertainer known as George who made “Bye Bye Blackbird” his theme song before buying a seat on the NYSE in 1934 after which he went to a successful career as a stockbroker.

1901(14th of Tevet, 5661): Parashat Vayechi

1901: Work continues on the erection of Harvard’s Semitic Museum whose origins can be traced to a gift ten thousand dollars given by Jacob H. Schiff in 1899.

1902: Birthdate of Haverhill, MA native and Boston University attorney Walter M Espovich, the husband of Helen Espovich and father of Sybil Espovich  whose clients included the Service Wood Heel Company.

1902: Two thousand Jews attended “a mass meeting of Zionist at the Medinah Temple Theatre” where many of them express their support for “the plan as determined at the Basle conference” the idea of which is “to create a legally assured home for the Jews and a refuge for Jews who could not be assimilated by the people among whom they had come to live.”   

1903: It was reported today that “during the reading of the annual report at the tenth annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Educational Alliance the announcement was made that $50,000 had been donated for the enlargement of the organization's building” and that “the men who gave the amount jointly report are Felix M. Warburg and Mortimer L. Schiff.

1904: Birthdate of Austrian violinist Erika Morini who began her studies under the guidance of her father, Oscar Morini, who directed his own school in Vienna.

1904: Birthdate of New York native Herman Silverberg, the bantamweight who fought under the name of Herman “Kid” Silvers.

1904: “Representative Goldfogle of New York to-day introduced a resolution, asking the President to take steps to secure fair treatment of American Jews by the Russian Government.”

1905: Solomon Pozner, a historian who “encouraged Jewish participation in Russian society, and his wife gave birth to Vladimir S. Pozner, the Parisian author and husband of painter and photographer Elisabeth Makovska who successfully escaped from occupied France to become an Oscar nominated screenplay writer in Hollywood.

1906: In London, biblical scholar Sir Frederic Kenyon and Amy Kenyon gave birth to archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon who worked on excavations at Jericho from 1952 until 1958 and at Jerusalem “concentrating on the ‘City of David’ from 1961 to 1967.”

1906: “According to” today’s “telegrams from London Mr. Gerald Balfour failed to obtain a vote of confidence from his constituents because his responsibility for England’s law…regulating the admission of undesirable immigrants” which is having “its effect in the exclusion of Russian Jews, who are numerous in Mr. Balfour’s constituency.”

1906: It was reported today that “a Jewish conference just held in St. Petersburg came to the conclusion that nothing could be expected from the Witte Ministry” in so far as quelling the anti-Semitic attacks or repealing anti-Semitic laws in Russia.

1906: Two Russian officials who have investigated the massacres at Odessa and Kieff gave almost identical statements concerning the slaughter of the Jew at Odessa and Kiev saying that the authorities were negligent in not taking action to avoid the bloodshed, but that evidence did not exist to prove that the authorities had planned the massacres.

1906: “The Russo-Jewish Relief Committee announced that the Russian Government’s order prohibiting the distribution of relief funds without official supervision has been rescinded.”

1907(19th of Tevet, 5667): Parashat Shemot

1907: It was reported today that “The Sigma Delta basketball team of the Young Men's Hebrew Association added another victory to its credit yesterday by defeating a picked five from the Monarch Athletic Club by the score of 34 to 9 on the courts of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, Ninety-second Street and Lexington Avenue.”

1908: Birthdate of American playwright, novelist and screenwriter Harry Kurnitz.

1908: Adas Israel dedicated its new sanctuary at Sixth and I NW in Washington, DC which replaced the original building at Sixth and G Streets, NW. The cornerstone for the building, which was designed by Louis Levi, the Baltimore Architect, was laid in 1906.

1908(2nd of Shevat, 5668): Sixty-seven-year-old Austro-Hungarian native Rabbi Alois Kaiser, the husband of Caroline Kaiser who in 1865 came to the United States where he began his long tenure as the Cantor of Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, MD during which he created “a transcription of Dr. Szold's prayer book into music passed away today.

https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/alois-kaiser/

https://jewishmuseummd.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Kaiser%2C+Alois+%28Cantor%29

1909: In Switzerland, Ernest Bloch and his wife gave birth to American artist Lucienne Bloch.

http://www.luciennebloch.com/

1910: French economist Leon Walrus, whose fame is due in part to the work of William Jaffe, the “historian of economic thought” who was recognized as the leading authority on Walrus, passed away today.

1910: In Richmond, Study Circle No.2 which is studying the Bible is scheduled to take place this afternoon “in the home of Mrs. William Joel.”

1911: In Paris actress Suzanne Cahen and Alexandre Salmons, the owner of La Maison du Blanc gave birth to French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont who earned the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre for his World War II military service.

1911: Twenty-four-year-old Yale University of Music trained violinist and conductor Nikolai Sokolff, the Kieff born son of Marie Sokoloff married Lyda Marix today.

1911: “Defeated in Court Weds Girl Lawyer” published in today’s Spokane Daily Chronicle described the events leading up to the marriage of New York attorneys Harris Koppelman and Esther Kunstler.

1912: Birthdate of Kalmen Kaplansky, the native of Bialystok who has been described as “the zaideh of the Canadian human rights movement.”

https://www.facebook.com/ottawajewisharchives/posts/kalmen-kaplansky-b-1912-poland-d-1997-ottawa-immigrated-to-canada-in-1929-and-so/1746467052061717/

1912: State organization formed in Boston, Mass. to encourage naturalization of Jews living in the Bay State.

1912: In Denver, CO, Samuel S. Schwartz, the Erie, PA born son of Jannah and Julius Schwartz and his wife Harriet Hattie Schwartz gave birth to Eleanor Lehman Soman, the wife of Robert Adolph Sloman

1912: The Philadelphia Jewish community requested leniency in the enforcement the Sunday Closing Law of 1794.

1912: The Boston Section withdrew from Council of Jewish Women.

1913: In Cincinnati, O, Eva and Eli F. Guggenheim gave birth WW II veteran, attorney and Democratic Party activist Richard E. Guggenheim, the husband of Carol Guggenheim.

https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/21014706/Richard-E-Guggenheim

 

1913: In Baltimore, MD, founding of “Moses Montefiore Emunatch Israel Synagogue and Talmud Torah.

1914: Mary Kursheedt and 24-year-old Albert Kursheedt, the son of Alexander E. Kursheedt and the nephew of Moses Montefiore Kursheedt were wed today.

1914(7th of Tevet, 5674): Sixty-nine-year-old French banker and horse breeder Michel Ephrussi, the Odessa born son of Henriette Halperson and Charles Joachim Ephrussi, a trader in wheat “who founded a bank, Ephrussi & Co” the half-brother of banker Ignace von Ephrussi, the older brother of banker Maurice Ephrussi and the husband of “Belgian-born Amélie Wilhelmine Liliane Beer, a niece of composer Jacob Liebmann Beer,” who “was a close business associate of the Rothschild in Paris” and was injured when he fought a duel with a French anti-Semite, passed away today.

1914: Birthdate of Heinz Berggruen a German art dealer and collector who founded the Berggruen Museum in Berlin Germany. Born in Berlin, he immigrated to the United States in 1936 and studied at Berkeley University. In 1939 he became an "Assistant director" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In preparing an exhibition about the Mexican painter Diego Rivera he met Frida Kahlo, too, and had a short love affair with her. After the Second World War he got acquainted with Pablo Picasso in Paris, who spontaneously had confidence in Berggruen and so he became Picasso's art dealer. In 1996, after 60 years in exile, he returned to Germany and opened an art museum in front of the Charlottenburg Palace. Berggruen left his precious art collection in a generous gesture of a low price to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. For this he was awarded the honorary citizenship of Berlin and the Federal Cross of Merit (Grand Cross 2nd Class) of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz, Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband). He died in Paris on February 23, 2007.

1914: “Many Protestant and Jewish pastors in New York City expressed approval of the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church in discountenancing the tango and similar dances after they had read articles describing the popularity which these dances have acquired in this country and Europe.”

1915: “From Leo M. Frank” published today contained a letter from Leo M. Frank expressing his appreciation for the stand the New York Times has taken for the cause of justice as it relates to his case, for “Mr. Marshall’s successful presentation of his appeal before Supreme Court Justice Lamar and wishing everybody on behalf of his wife and parents, a Happy New Year.

1915: The list published today of donors to the fund of the American Jewish Relief Community included the Montefiore Benefit Corporation of Boston, the Jewish Community of Attelboro, Mass., the New Bedford (CT) Jews, Meyer Cohen of Washington, DC, Jewish Women, Bedford, PA; Lover of Israel, Susquehanna, PA; Zion Lodge, Chicago, Ill; Phoenix Packing Company, San Francisco, CA; Jewish Community, Beaumont, TX; Jewish Community, Tyler, TX and Congregation Adath Israel, Douglas, Arizona.

1916: African-American actor Sam Lucas who in 1878 became the first black man to play the part of Uncle Tom when he appeared a production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin produced by Charles and Gustave Frohman “who financed a number of theatre productions featuring African American actors” – something quite unusual for its time passed away today.

1916: It was reported today that Dr. J.L. Magnes is scheduled to speak at the upcoming “mass meeting” in Kansas City where funds will be raised to aid the Jews suffering in the war zones of Europe and Palestine.

1916(29th of Tevet, 5676): Seventy-five-year-old Max Adler, who with his fellow Bavarian Jew Isaac Strouse, founded the Strouse, Adler Company 1862, a corset company that was employing 1,200 by 1889, passed away today in New Haven, CT.

1916: Simon Wolf wrote to President Woodrow Wilson for assistance in getting permission to ship “whole wheat” that “can be used to make unleavened bread” during the upcoming holiday of Passover to the war-torn zones of Europe where, without it, “thousands of Orthodox Jews would starve during the eight-day period.”

1916: In New York, $10,000 in cash and pledges was collected at luncheon attended by 40 clothing manufacturers which will be sent to the American Jewish Relief Committee to be used to meet the goal for raising five million dollars to aid the Jews suffering in the war zones of Europe and Palestine.

1916: The Knights of Zion Convention is scheduled to continue with an evening session in Chicago.

1917: According to reports published today, that while Kansas City has “a population of 12,000” the citizens have already pledged $100,000 toward the 1917 campaign” of Central Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Sufferers.

1918: Today, Adjutant General Sherill released a statement on behalf of Governor Whitman announcing “the removal of Samuel H. Cragg as a member of Local Exemption Board 24 in Brooklyn” because it had been verified that while speaking at patriotic exercise last December, Mr. Cragg whose “district is over 80 per cent Jewish delivered a speech in which he said “There are three epochs in the life of the Jewish boy” first at birth, circumcision; second at 13, confirmation; third at 21, exemption” and that while Cragg admitted making the statement he had refused to resign. (Editor’s Note: The false charges of draft dodging and lack of patriotism are ones that Jews have faced despite the facts to the contrary.  Ironically, the same charges were made in Germany.  A special census was conducted, but the results were held back after the numbers showed a disproportionate number of Jews fighting for the Kaiser.  Anti-Semitism – the common glue of civilization!)

1919: The National Socialist Party (Nazi) formed as German Farmers Party.  Hitler was not one of the party founders.

1919: Dr. Leopold Jaches, the Latvian born son of Minna Gelhaar and Philip Jaches, the NYU trained and Columbia trained radiologist who had enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War I began serving as the consultant in roentgenology for the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) today.

1919: Today, at a time when members of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization “believed that millions of potential immigrants, including were ready to overrun” the United States and Harvard Professor Robert Ward “had apprised that a well-organized Jewish mass immigration was imminent, Fredrick Wallis, the commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island, testified that unlimited numbers were “clamoring to come to this country” and that although there “only 311,000 passport applications were on filed in Poland, there was a rumor that 8,000,000 Jews were ready to come to the United States.”

1920: “Star Palestine Fund Campaign” published today described a meeting at the Washington Heights Synagogue where Judge Julian W. Mack, A.H. Fromenson and Dr. Max Drob kicked off the drive to raise ten million dollars for use in helping the Jewish community in Palestine.

1921: Having left Jaffa yesterday, Mendel Bellis, the victim of the so-called “Bellis Affair” is on board a ship today bound for the United States “where he expects to make his home.”

1922: “The Curse” direct by Felix Basch was released today in the United States.

1923: The Jewish Tribune published “Prison Reform Through Sculpture” by Marie Trommer, the Ukraine born daughter of Bertha Edlin and Bernard Trommer who attended the Woman’s Art School at Cooper Institute in New York.

1923: In Manhattan Alfred Bernstein and the former Sylvia Bloch gave birth to Harvard graduate and WWII Army Forces veteran Robert L. Bernstein, the chief executive of Random House who was the husband of the former Helen Walter and the father of Peter, Tom and William Bernstein. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/obituaries/robert-l-bernstein-publisher-and-champion-of-dissent-dies-at-96.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1923: Birthdate of Israel Prize-winning author and translator Aharon Amir. Amir, who was born in Lithuania, grew up in Tel Aviv and was a member of both the Irgun and the Lehi. He was one of the founders of the Canaanite movement, which saw geographical location rather than religious affiliation as the defining element of Hebrew or Israeli culture. He studied Arabic language and literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem but translated works of literature mainly from English and French. Authors whose work he rendered into Hebrew include Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, and Charles de Gaulle. Amir won the Tchernichovsky Prize for translation in 1951 and the Israel Prize for translation in 2003. He passed away on February 28, 2008 at the age of 85.

1924: Leon and Henrietta Shershevsky gave birth to George Leon Sherry, a United Nations official who helped calm crises around the world — a role that evolved from his time as the leading rapid-fire translator of speeches by Russian diplomats in the organization’s early days…(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1924(28th of Tevet, 5684): Parashat Vaera

1924: Dr. Samuel Schulman, who was “elected rabbi for life” in December, is scheduled to complete his 25th year today as Rabbi of Temple Beth-El.

1925: Birthdate of British actor Wolfe Morris whose “grandparents and escaped the Russian pogroms” arriving in London at the end of the 19th century.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-wolfe-morris-1362661.html

1926: In New Britain, CT, Louis Raphael, the owner of a department store chain, and the former Naomi Kaplan gave birth to Dana Louise Raphael “an apostle of breast-feeding and a catalyst for the movement to recruit nonmedical caregivers to assist mothers during and after childbirth — attendants she called doulas...” (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/nyregion/dana-raphael-proponent-of-breast-feeding-and-the-use-of-doulas-dies-at-90.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

1927: In Brooklyn, “Jacob Newman, a construction union organizer and the former Ida Levine” gave birth to criminal lawyer. Gustave Harold Newman.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/nyregion/gustave-newman-dead-defense-lawyer-in-major-cases.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

1928: Reports of a large number of unemployed workers in the non-agricultural sector of the economy are a cause of major concern for the Government and leaders of the Labor movement.  While approximately 21,000 people are employed non-farm jobs, there may be as many as 10,000 unemployed workers.  It is hope that the situation will be alleviated, in part, with the construction and operation of a variety of public works projects including the building of the Straus Health Clinic in Jerusalem.

1928(12th of Tevet, 5688): Laura Rosenstein Baer Ungerleider, the German born son of Daniel and Sophia Rosenstein who married Rabbi Morris Ungerleider in 1888 after the death of her first husband David Baer whom she had married in 1864 passed away today after which she was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

1929: Syracuse defeated Cornell 31-18 thanks in no small measure to the 17 points scored by Louis Hayman. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)

1930: “Hell’s Heroes” a western directed by William Wyler and produced by Carl Laemmle Jr. was released today in the United States.

1930: Birthdate of New York native and co-found of Vanguard Records Maynard Elliot Solomon the Phi Beta Kappa graduate Brooklyn College who “held visiting professorships at SUNY Stony Brook, Columbia University, Harvard University and Yale University, joining the graduate faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in 1998” and the younger brother of Seymour Solomon with whom he co-founded the record label known to anyone who was serious about folk music during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

1930: Mapia was founded today “by the merger of the Hapoel Hatzair founded by A. D. Gordon and the original Ahdut HaAvoda (founded in 1919 from the right, more moderate, wing of the Marxist Zionist socialist Poale Zion led by David Ben-Gurion

1931(16th of Tevet, 5691: Sixty-year-old Memphis born Martin Isaacs, the Lake Forest University trained lawyer who served as a Master in Chancery of the Superior Court of Cook County passed away today.

1931: Elections were held today to choose members for the Asefat Hanivcharim (The Jewish Elected Assembly). Only 35 to 40 per cent of those eligible are expected cast their ballots.  The sharpest contest is between the Labor Party and the Revisionists.  Labor is expected to win 23 seats and the Revisionists will end up with 18 seats, the same number expected to be won by the Party representing “Oriental Jews.”  There are a total of 71 seats at stake.  There has been no prediction about how many seats will be won by the United Women’s ticket head by Henrietta Szold. 

1932: The Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island announced today that he would hold a luncheon for “the consuls of twelve principle European countries” to acquaint them with the processes at the immigration facility which as greeted thousands upon thousands of Jewish immigrants since the turn of the century

1932: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Israel of Washington Heights for Charles D. Greenbaum, the husband of Rose Greenbaum and the father of Irving, Milton, Joseph and Gertrude Greenbaum.

1933: Construction of Golden Gate Bridge, one of whose three designers was Joseph Strauss, began today.

1933: Birthdate of Leonard Marsh, the New York born window washer, who along with his brother Hyman Golden and childhood friend Arnold Greenberg founded the Snapple Beverage Corporation. (As reported by Margalit Fox).

1934: It was reported today that a resolution introduced by Bernard S. Deutsch and Nathan Straus, Jr.” which calls “upon all Jews and non-Jews to ‘provide adequate resources to assist in the settlement of German-Jewish refugees and Jews of other countries in Palestine’” has been approved by the American Palestine campaign

1935(1st of Shevat, 5695): Parashat Vaera; Rosh Chodesh Shevat

1935:” Pipe Paid” with a script by Viola Brothers Shore closed today after 15 performances on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre.

1936(10th of Tevet, 5696): Asara B’tevet

1936: Birthdate of Steven Cojocaru, Canadian born American television personality and fashion critic.

1936(10th of Tevet, 5696): Seventy-four-year-old CCNY graduate Simon Frank Rothschild, the Efula, AL born son of the former Amanda Blun and Frank Rothschild and President and chairman of the board of Abraham and Strauss who was the husband of Lillian Isabelle Rothschild and the father of Walter and Howard Rothschild passed away today in Manhattan.

1937: Yale graduate and Stetson University Law School trained attorney David Sholtz, the Brooklyn born son of Annie Bloom and Michael Sholtz completed his terms of office as Governor of Florida.

1937: In the Beit She’an Valley, members of the Sadeh group from the Mikveh Israel agricultural school and immigrants from Austria, Germany and Poland Kibbutz HaSadeah, which was later re-named Sde Naum in honor of Zionist leader and author Nahum Sokolov

1937: Israel Rokach, Mayor of Tel Aviv, testified before the Peel Commission.  Rokach said that he was not opposed to a certain amount of governmental involvement with municipal affairs but that the real dispute centered on underfunding of the city government.  Members of the commission expressed positive interest in Rokach’s proposal to develop a port that would serve both Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

1937: At a pre-nuptial gala tonight for Crown Princess Juliana and Prince Bernhard, the band played the Nazi “Host Wessel Song” despite the refusal of Dr. Van Anrooy, to conduct the German marching song as well as “Duetschland uber Alles.”

1937: Today, Louis Lipsky, chairman of the board of the Palestine foundation, the fundraising organization in the United States of the Jewish Agency, announced today that “a total of $2,500,000 was expended by the Jewish Agency for Palestine on immigration, colonization, security and other activities including the settlement of German Jews during the year” that ended on October 1, 1936.

 1938: The Palestine Post reported that the British government was about to send to Palestine a new, largely technical commission, essentially a fact-finding body, which would plan how to implement Partition, according to the terms of the agreement reached with the Mandatory Commission of the League of Nations. The government, however, indicated that it was in no way committed to the actual execution of such a plan. Three Arabs out of a band of 40, apparently arms smugglers, were killed close to the Syrian border. Haskiel Joseph and Nathan Yairoff were shot and badly wounded by an Arab terrorist inside the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.

1938(3rd of Shevat, 5698): “While escorting a prisoner from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv in a bus,” “Jacob Kliger, a 35-year-old policeman” was mortally wounded in an attack by Arabs.

1938: Mrs. Andrew J. Noe, the president of the New York City Federation of Women’s Clubs is scheduled to preside over a meeting of The Women’s Committee of the National conference of Jews and Christians at the Hotel MaAlpin where the topic for discussion will be “The Future of Religion in America.”

1938(3rd of Shevat, 5698): Three passengers were wounded this evening when at 7 p.m. twenty shots were fired at a Jewish-owned bus traveling from Jerusalem to the suburb of Beit Vegan.”

1938: Today in Jerusalem, “the general feeling” among “both Arabs and Jews” is that “the British White Paper on Palestine” is “just another ambiguous British document saying nothing and solving nothing” that “is intended to keep both Jews and Arabs guessing” giving “both communities hope that their opposing wishes will be fulfilled.

1938(3rd of Shevat, 5698): Fifty-eight year old Laredo, TX banker Benjamin Mortimer Alexander, the son of Samuel and Rossa Aaron Alexander and husband of Jessie Lee Hellman Alexander passed away today after which he was buried in the “Jewish section” of the Laredo City Cemetery.

1939: The gathering of a group of young Jews in Riga is captured in a photograph which will later become the property of Yad Vashem.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/january/03.asp

1939: Sir Horace Rumbold, a member of the Peel Commission, attempts to explain away his description of the Jews of Palestine as an “alien race” by saying that he merely meant that the Jews were a race with different characteristics from the Arab race.

1939: Germany declared Karaite Jews exempt from enforcement of the Nuremberg Laws.

1939: President Roosevelt nominated Felix Frankfurter to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.  He was chosen for the position following the death of Benjamin N. Cardozo.  When Frankfurter was confirmed two weeks later, he became the third Jew to serve on the High Court. 

http://www.supremecourthistory.org/history-of-the-court/associate-justices/felix-frankfurter-1939-1962/

1940: Ninety-year-old Charles Nagel who succeeded Oscar Straus as United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor and who while serving in that position in 1910 “ruled that thirteen of the twenty Russian Jewish immigrants being held at Galveston, TX as likely to become public charges may be admitted to” the United States” and that “the other seven will receive further consideration” passed away today.

1940: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at Temple Bethel in Great Neck, NY for Fifty-seven-year-old Lester Francis Avnet, the oldest child of Celia Avnet and Russian born American businessman Charles Avnet and husband of the former Joan Grossman with whom head two daughters and a son, who helped to make “Avnet, Inc. into one of the country’s major electronic corporations” while serving as “a trustee of Brandeis University and of the Ameri can Federation of Arts, an overseer of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, a governor of the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion and a former general chairman for the Metropolitan New York area of the United Jewish Appeal”

1940: Jews were forbidden by the General Gouvernment be in the streets between 9:00PM and 5:00AM.

1941: “The Administrative Council of the Zionist Organization of America, the ruling Zionist body between annual conventions, met” in Philadelphia “this afternoon and unanimously endorsed the independent campaign by the United Palestine Appeal for $12,000,000 in 1941 to meet the growing and extraordinary war needs of immigration and colonization in Palestine.”

1942: Birthdate of Elzbieta Ficowska, nee Koppel, one of the 2,500 children smuggled out of the Warsaw Ghetto by Irena Sendler and her associate Stanislawa, a widowed Catholic mid-wife. (Shades of the story of the brave midwives found in the Book of Exodus.)

1942: The Jewish ghetto at Kharkov, Ukraine, is liquidated.

1943: The Vught, Holland, concentration camp is established

1943: In an orgy of killing that would last for the next two days the Nazis murdered thousands of Jews at Lvov, Ukraine.

1943: One day after she had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to take place today at the Toowong Cemetery for Mrs. Miriam Hertzberg, “the widow of the late A.M. Hertzberg” and the mother of Olga, Marcus and Ralph Herzberg

1943: In Kenton, OH, “Francis Stager, a farmer, and the former Marcella Mae Wilson gave birth to Larry Elwood Stager, who gained fame as Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard Semitic Museum” who since 1985 “has overseen the excavations of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/nyregion/lawrence-stager-creative-biblical-archaeologist-dies-at-74.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

 1944: Birthdate of Ed Rendell, Democratic Mayor of Philadelphia in the 1990’s before being elected Governor of the State of Pennsylvania in 2002.

1944: Twenty-nine-year-old Jean Tatlock, the woman whose “romantic relationship” with J. Robert Oppenheimer would help to lead to his loss of top security clearance, passed away today.

1945: In “American Boy’s Find Tel Aviv Like a Home Town” published today Anne O’Hare McCormick described conditions in Palestine’s major metropolis.  According to her, “40% of the Jewish population of Palestine lives in Tel Aviv.”  She describes Tel Aviv “as being one of the world’s youngest cities” and as being “better planned and more modernistic that the Florida boom towns it resembles.”  This very cosmopolitan city is suffering from a housing shortage brought on by an influx of refugees from Europe and North Africa.

1946: The long running Broadway revival of "Show Boat" opened at Ziegfeld Theater in New York City for the first of 417 performances. This was a musical adaption of a novel of the same name by Edna Ferber, Jewish author who remembered being taunted as a “sheeny” when walking the streets of home town in Michigan.  Ferber’s willingness to tackle the touchy subjects of race and miscegenation stood in stark contrast to the romanticized formula followed by Margaret Mitchell and others and is yet another example of Jews advancing the cause of social justice.  The creation of the musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II is a reminder that this unique culture phenomenon is in many ways, a Jewish creation.

1947: In a broadcast from its secret transmitter, Haganah, the Jewish defense organization denounced Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang as extremist organizations and blamed them for the latest outburst of violence in Eretz Israel.

1948: Benjamin Rabin begins serving on the New York Supreme Court.

1948: Warner Brothers offered the first color newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl Game. At that time, the company was still the property of the four brothers name Warner – Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack L. – Polish Jews who came to the United States via Canada.

1948: As the siege of Jerusalem continues, the Haganah launches an attack against Katamon, a suburb from which Arab gunmen have been firing non-stop into adjacent Jewish neighborhoods.

1949: As the War of Independence winds down, Israeli forces struggle to dislodge the Egyptians from Gaza.  A sandstorm hinders an IDF column attacking the town of Rafa.  At the same time the storm provides cover for an Egyptian armored column that launched a counter-attack aimed at keeping the Israelis from Rafa.

1950: Birthdate of guitarist Chris Stein, co-founder of “Blondie.”

1951: In Brooklyn, realtors Sol and Shirley (Kaslow) Goldman gave birth to University of Miami trained attorney Susan Goldman who gained fame as “Susan Rosenblatt, who with her husband and law partner, Stanley Rosenblatt, took on Big Tobacco in a Florida case that seemed an absurd mismatch for their small firm, but that resulted in a record $144.8 billion jury award in favor of people sickened by cigarettes…” (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

1951(27th of Tevet, 5711): Eighty-three-year-old Siegfried Reginald Wolf, the son of Josef and Julie Wolf and the husband of Ida Wolf passed away today in Haifa.

1953: Shlomo-Yisrael Ben-Meir was appointed Deputy Minister of Welfare.

1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that East Germany had launched a Zionist witch-hunt, accusing two Jewish Communist leaders of being Zionists, American agents, Titoists and Trotskyites. 

1955: Today, 60-minute version of ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ with Peter Lorre again playing the part of “Dr. Einstein” “aired on the CBS Television series The Best of Broadway.”

1955: Abraham Ribicoff began serving as the 80th Governor of Connecticut.

1959: In his introduction to A Matter of Taste: The Albert D. Lasker Collection: Renoir to Matisse that includes commentaries by Wallace Brockway, Alfred Frankfurter asks, “What was it that made an American businessman * * * train his eye and his energies so spectacularly as to produce this extraordinary array of art?"

1961: “Mister Ed,” a sitcom created by Martin Ransohoff’s Filmways production house was shown for the first time in syndication nine months before CBS began broadcasting it.

1963: After 873 performances, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” which was directed by Moss Hat.

1964: Pope Paul VI and President Zalman Shazar of Israel met today at Megiddo, the scene of ancient battles, and both voiced hope for a moral revival and for peace among men.

1964: Under the leadership of Head Coach Sid Gillman, the San Diego Chargers defeated the Boston Patriots for the AFL Championship.

1966(13th of Tevet, 5726): Franco-Jewish lawyer Henry Torees, the grandson of  Isaiah Levaillant, the founder of the League for the Defense of Human and Civil Rights during the Dreyfus Affair, who defended “Samuel Schwartzbard, a Jewish watchmaker who shot and killed in Paris Simon Petlura, the leader of the “Petlura Government” in the Ukraine during the notorious pogroms on Jews which took place there in 1919” and “Herschel Grynzpan, the young Jewish refugee from Poland who shot and killed Ernest von Rath, a member of the German Embassy in Paris, in 1938” passed away today.

1966: “7 Women” a drama set in China with music by Elmer Bernstein premiered in Los Angeles today.

1968: “Informed Jewish sources said today that Jacob Kaplan, the Chief Rabbi of France told President de Gaulle of his concern over the fact that” his statement calling the Jews “an elite people, people, sure of itself and domineering” “had been used by ‘real’ anti-Semites as an instrument against Jews.”

1970(27th of Tevet, 5730):  Max Born passed away at the age of 87.  A native of Germany, the famous physicist was forced to take refuge in Britain in 1933 when the Nazis came to power. Max Born won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954.

1970: Nine Egyptians soldiers crossed the Suez Canal and under covering fire from the west bank attacked Israeli positions.  All nine were killed.

1972(18th of Tevet, 5732): Seventy-nine-year-old Russian born Nathan Bryllion Fagan who at the turn of the century came to the United States where he earned undergraduate degrees at George Washington University and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins where he taught until 1957 while serving as “director of the Hopkins Playshop” and wrote “several books, including The Histrionic Mr. Poe” passed away today in Sarasota, FL.

http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6cz3vjj

1973(2nd of Shevat, 5733): Hyman Reznick who had founded the Halevi Choral Society with Harry Coopersmith, passed away today.

1976: Broadcast of the first episode “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” a satire of soap operas developed by Norman Lear and starring Louise Lasser in the title role.

1976: Claims were made to “that the Jackson Amendment which became law a year ago had led to a” reduction in the emigration of Soviet Jews.

1977: Russian born; Jewish human rights activist Alexander Podraninek initiated creating the Working Commission to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes

1978: Shmuel Katz who had been serving as “Adviser to the Prime Minister for Information Abroad” for Menachem Begin “quit” his position today “because of differences with the cabinet over peace proposals with Egypt.”

1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that at Aswan US President Jimmy Carter and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat declared jointly that any Middle East peace settlement required the recognition of the "legitimate rights of the Palestinians and their participation in deciding their own future." In Jerusalem Premier Menachem Begin declared his firm opposition to this self-determination principle.

1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Jewish National Fund started ground-breaking operations for eight new settlements in Sinai, between Yamit and El Arish.

1979(6th of Tevet, 5739): New York native and Northwestern University and University of Chicago trained professor of English and Linguistics and author of Fiction and the Shape of Belief passed away today.

1980(16th of Tevet, 5740): Parashat Vayechi

1980(16th of Tevet, 5740): Seventy-four-year-old Jersey City, NJ born St. Johns trained attorney Henry Jacob Lilienfeld, who served as a “foreign service officer” and worked “with the New York City Welfare Department” passed away today.

1980: Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” premiered today on Broadway at the Trafalgar Theatre.

1981: Yoram Aridor, a member of Likud, began serving as Communications Minister.

1982(10th of Tevet, 5742): Asara B’Tevet

1982(10th of Tevet, 5742): Fifty-eight-year-old Brooklyn born actor Harvey Lembeck, the sidekick of Sgt. Ernie Bilko on the “Phil Silvers Show” who memorably appeared in that film classic “Stalag 17 and who had married his dancing partner Caroline Dubs, with whom he raised two children – Michael and Helaine -- passed away today.

https://www.classicfilmtvcafe.com/2013/03/harvey-lembeck-stays-liked.html

1983:  Joe Lieberman ban serving as the 21st Attorney General of the state of Connecticut.

1985: In response to pressure from Arab countries, Sudan ended the airlift of Jews from Ethiopia after Israeli Shimon Peres held a press conference confirming reports of what would become known as Operation Moses. With help from the CIA, Israel would organize Operation Sheba, the last of the airlifts which had secretly brought over 14,000 Jews from Ethiopia from 1972 through 1985.

http://www.thejc.com/news/on-day/43249/on-day-operation-moses-suspended

1986: In Pittsburgh, the 49th Carnegie International Exhibition which included ''Large Interior W 11 (after Watteau)'' by sixty-three-year-old Lucian Freud, “the oldest contributor to the show” is scheduled to come a close today.

1988: Richard Mathew Stallman starts developing GNU. GNU is a free software operating system.

1988: The New York Times reviews Operation Babylon by Shlomo Hillel (Translated from the Hebrew by Ina Friedman) which relates the fascinating tale of the rescue of the Iraqi Jewish community.

1989: Under Law no. 7716 passed by the Brazilian Senate, anyone found violating the prohibition against “the manufacture, trade and distribution of swastikas for the purpose of disseminating Nazism” “is liable to serve a prison term from between two and five years.”

1989: Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that the reported death threat by Mr. Arafat against other Palestinians ran counter to a P.L.O. pledge to refrain from terrorism and had created a ''real problem'' for the United States. Mr. Arafat was reported to have said in the radio broadcast on Monday that ''any Palestinian leader who proposes an end to the intifada exposes himself to the bullets of his own people.'' Speaking to reporters on his way here for a conference on chemical weapons, Mr. Shultz said that the United States did not have direct information about Mr. Arafat's reported statement. He said: ''What we have is reports of what Arafat is alleged to have said. We have not seen any statement as such.'' But the Secretary then assailed the reported remark. ''It represents a real problem and an equivocation,'' he said.

1990: After premiering in Germany, “Last Exit to Brooklyn’ the movie version of the novel by the same name starring Stephan Lang and Jerry Orbach and with music by Mark Knopfler was released in the United Kingdom today.

1992: “Yeshivas Defy the Odds” published today described the growth of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/05/education/yeshivas-defy-the-odds.html

1993: Israel approved a $380 million grant today to support a major upgrading of the Jerusalem plant of the computer-chip manufacturer Intel Israel. The money, spread over seven years, was approved under a law authorizing state grants covering 38 percent of high-technology business ventures in the city. The cost of upgrading the silicon chip manufacturing plant is estimated at $1 billion. A Treasury spokeswoman said it was now up to Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., parent of Intel Israel, to give the plan final approval. Intel Israel, established in 1974, has operations in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

1993: Mark B. Cohen began serving as the “Democratic Whip of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives” today.

1994(22nd of Tevet, 5754): Seventy-eight-year-old historian and genealogist Rabbi Malcom Stern passed away. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/07/obituaries/rabbi-malcolm-stern-78-dies-historian-of-judaism-in-the-us.html

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0626/ms0626.html

1996: Yahya Ayyash, chief bomb maker for Hamas, was killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.

1996(13th of Tevet, 5756): Eight-eight-year-old multi-talented Harvard University graduate Lincoln Kirstein, a World War II Monuments Man and co-founder of the New York City Ballet passed away today.

https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/kirstein-pfc.-lincoln-e.

1997: In the Southern Ocean near 52°S 100°E, Tony Bullimore's boat, Exide Challenger capsized and the majority of press and media reports assumed that the 55 year old sailor was lost

1997: A revival production of "Show Boat" the famed musical that owes its music, lyrics and book to three American Jews closed at Gershwin Theater New York City. 

1997: The Sunday New York Times book section featured review of books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including My Teacher’s Secret Life by Stephen Krensky, A Journalist's Search for the Heart of His Country by Henry Grunwald which tells the story of how a Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany became editor in chief of all publications in the vast Time Inc. empire, before retiring at the end of 1987 and   Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay which “is essentially a memoir of Jewish life in the West Bronx in the 1920's and 30's, including the author's discomfort with her Eastern European immigrant family and her ''ordeal of civility,'' to use John Murray Cuddihy's phrase, in moving from ghetto culture to gentility.”

1998: To commemorate her 30 years on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Muriel Siebert rang the closing bell to mark the end of the trading day.  She was the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE “Known as the "First Woman of Finance," Muriel "Mickie" Siebert was a dentist's daughter from Cleveland, OH, Siebert never graduated from college. Still, by lying about her education, she was able to get a low-level job at a prominent Wall Street firm where she eventually became partner before striking out on her own. In 1967, after being rejected by nine of the first ten men she asked to sponsor her application, Siebert became the first woman to purchase a seat on the NYSE. A decade later, New York Governor Hugh Carey appointed Siebert the first woman New York State Superintendent of Banking, a post she held for five years. After an unsuccessful 1982 bid for a United States Senate seat, Siebert returned to Wall Street, where she became an outspoken critic of business and financial practices. Throughout her career, Siebert worked on behalf of women in business and politics, donating millions of dollars from her brokerage and securities underwriting business to help other women break into the world of business and high finance. She is a founding member and former president of the Women's Forum, an international women's leadership network, and a member of the Committee of 200, a group of over 445 leading American businesswomen. Siebert was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.” (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archive)

1998: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Judge Edward Rosenwald, the husband of the former Ruth Leshner and the father of Gayle Smith and Lawrence Rosenwald who served on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania.

1999: Stanford University trained attorney and “active member of the Jewish community” Eric Fingerhut, the son of Alice and Samuel Fingerhut, the husband of Amy Fingerhut and the father of Sam and Charlies Fingerhut began serving as a Member of the Ohio State Senate from the 25th District.

1999: It was reported today that yesterday’s attack on a van transporting Jewish settlers in Hebron during which two women were wound was “the first successful terrorist attack on Israelis since early November.”

2000: “Israel will transfer another chunk of the West Bank to the Palestinians by tomorrow after negotiators resolved a lingering dispute over the land today, ending a stalemate that had dispirited both sides.”

2001: In response to demands by Israel’s chief rabbis, that Israel must maintain control over the Temple Mount, it was reported today Prime Minister Barak’s spokeswoman said that “He does not intent to sign any document that will transfer sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians.”

2002: In the wake of shoe-bomber Richard Reid’s attempt to blow up a plane last December, airlines and government officials are looking at additional security measures. As food service deliveries and food cars used on planes are coming under scrutiny the stringent procedures followed by El Al, the Israeli airline is considered the gold standard for aviation security. At its catering center, several miles from Tel Aviv's airport, security guards monitor every step of food packaging, from items being ladled onto trays and sealed with plastic wrap, said Isaac Zeffet, a former chief of El Al security who now runs a consulting concern in Cliffside Park, N.J. Mr. Zeffet, the former El Al security chief, said banning food carts would be only a patch on a security system that requires a complete overhaul, including tighter controls on everyone and everything that comes in contact with planes before takeoff.

2003: Deborah “Solomon made her debut as the New York Times Magazine's "Questions For" columnist.”

2003(2nd of Shevat, 5763): In the deadliest attack against Israel in 10 months a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up just seconds apart today in the Neve Sha’anan neighborhood of Tel Aviv, an area crowded with foreign laborers, killing 23 other people and injuring 100 more.

2004: The Center Art Gallery at Calvin College presents “Talmud: in the Art of Ben-Zion and Marc Chagall,” an exhibit that brings together the Biblical work of two of the most important Jewish artists of the 20th Century.

 

2004: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was showered with catcalls on today from his own right-wing party during a speech in which he said he would take down some Jewish settlements and permit the formation of a Palestinian state if the two sides reached a peace agreement.

2005 Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of 4 that included David L. Rabinowitz.

2005(24th of Tevet, 5765): Seventy-year-old German Jewish “billionaire and banker” passed away today.

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/08/local/me-passings8.1

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/localities.ceeurope.germany.Nordrhein-20-Westfalen.general/3400/mb.ashx

2005: The 10th Pan American Maccabi Games came to an end in Santiago, Chile.

2006: The owner of the Buffalo Bill, “enlisted 80 year old Marv Levy to act” as the team’s “General Manager and Vice President of Football Operations.”

2007: Haaretz reported that The Amsterdam house where Anne Frank wrote her diaries in hiding before dying in a Nazi concentration camp drew almost a million visitors during 2006. The total of 982,000 was 16,000 higher than in 2005. Most of the visitors were young tourists, primarily from the United States and Britain, the Anne Frank House said.

2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, The traditional Shabbat Morning minyan at Temple Judah enters into its seventh year.

2008: The Israeli Army wound up a large-scale, three-day operation in the northern West Bank city of Nablus. 

2009: Rabbi Ari Solomon, a native of Boston, has been named director of the Yeshiva University S. Daniel Abraham Israel Program.

2009: “For Women Only,” a drama, song and dance review showcasing the Jewish women and girls of Baltimore was presented at Goucher College.

2009: Lawmakers are scheduled to take their first close look at financier Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion fraud and why the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to discover the scandal. Critics say the SEC missed warning signs and failed to uncover the scandal until Madoff's sons went to the authorities and told them he confessed to the fraud.

2009: The Washington Post reviewed Old Flame, a Jackson Steeg novel, by Ira Berkowitz.

2009: The Minnesota State Canvassing Board certified results today showing Al Franken, a Democrat, winning the Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, who is expected to challenge the result. Earlier today, the state Supreme Court rejected the Coleman campaign’s petition to count several hundred additional absentee ballots.

2009: The disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff tried to hide at least $1 million in watches and jewelry from government investigators and should have his bail revoked and sent to jail immediately, federal prosecutors told a judge this afternoon.

2009:  In France, a car containing Molotov cocktails rammed into the door of a French synagogue and burst into flames. A rabbi and about 10 of his adult students in the Toulouse synagogue during the attack tonight fled unharmed. A second car containing Molotov cocktails was found near the synagogue, according to police.

2009 (9 Tevet 5769): Four soldiers were killed in friendly-fire incidents that took place during fighting on Monday night. Three soldiers were killed when a tank mistakenly opened fire on a home in Saja'iya occupied by officers and soldiers from the Golani Brigade. Another tank accidentally fired on a home in al-Atatra, killing an officer in the 202nd Battalion of the Paratroop Brigade. The soldiers were Cpl. Yousef Moadi, 19, who lived recently in Haifa, but was originally from the Druse village of Yirka; Maj. Dagan Wertman, 32, from Ma'aleh Michmash in the Binyamin region; St.-Sgt. Nitai Stern, 21, from Jerusalem; and Capt. Yonatan Netanel, 27, from Kedumim.

2010: In Jerusalem, Hama'abada presents a Double Feature show featuring Uri Dror a Jerusalemite singer-songwriter gaining recognition in the Israeli rock music scene in advance of his upcoming debut album and missFlag, the four-piece band from Jerusalem that will soon begin a tour in the United States.

2010: The Yellow Submarine's Zik Gallery presents Diyukan (Portrait), a group photography exhibit of the Third Year Students at the Musrara School of Photography and Media

2010: Defense Minister Ehud Barak held a phone conversation today with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and asked him to assist in renewing peace talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Barak also updated the UN chief regarding Israeli efforts meet the humanitarian needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

2010: Pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in New Zealand against Israel’s top-ranked women's tennis player amid a bomb scare in the arena. Shahar Pe'er, 22, was delayed from entering the arena for her opening match in the ASB Tennis Classic in Auckland for about 20 minutes today after an unattended bag in the ASB Tennis Centre prompted the bomb scare.

2010(19th of Tevet, 5770): Murray Saltzman a Reform Rabbi and civil rights leader passed away. Born in 1929 to a Russian-immigrant family, he was the youngest of three sons. He led congregations in Maryland, Indianapolis, and Florida, among them Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. Saltzman was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, after marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. and leading in various civil action projects.

2010: Rabbi Shira Stutman is scheduled to lead an interactive conversation about Rosh Chodesh, traditionally considered a “woman’s holiday” for reasons including perceived connections between the moon and the female cycles answering the question ‘How does the monthly reminder of womanhood shape our identity as women and as Jews?’ at the Historic 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.

2011: After Senators returned Amy Totenberg’s nomination to the President at the end of the 111th Congress, he re-submitted the nomination today.

2011: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to feature a screening of “Coming to America: The History of the Syrian Jewish Community 1900-1919.” This documentary is envisioned as part of a series on Syrian Jewish History and includes interviews with Syrian Jews living in the New York metropolitan area talking about their own families' experiences, histories, customs and traditions. 

2011: Terrorists from the Hamas-controlled Gaza region struck the western Negev with another mortar attack this morning.

2011: The following is a list of the 39 Jewish members — 12 senators and 27 representatives — who are expected to serve in the 112th U.S. Congress, which is set to convene today.

 

U.S. SENATE

 

Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)

 

Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)

 

Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.)

 

Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)

 

Al Franken (D-Minn.)

 

Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)

 

Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)

 

Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.)

 

Carl Levin (D-Mich.)

 

Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.)

 

Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)

 

Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)**

 

(Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) does not identify a religion, but notes that his mother is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor.)

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 

Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.)

 

Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.)

 

Howard Berman (D-Calif.)

 

Eric Cantor (R-Va.)

 

David Cicilline (D-R.I.)*

 

Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.)

 

Susan Davis (D-Calif.)

 

Ted Deutch (D-Fla.)

 

Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)

 

Bob Filner (D-Calif.)

 

Barney Frank (D-Mass.)

 

Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)

 

Jane Harman (D-Calif.)

 

Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)

 

Sander Levin (D-Mich.)

 

Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)

 

Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)

 

Jared Polis (D-Colo.)

 

Steve Rothman (D-N.J.)

 

Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)

 

Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.)

 

Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)

 

Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)

 

Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)

 

Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)

 

Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)

 

John Yarmuth (D-Ky.

 

2011: Relatives and friends of those killed in the devastating Carmel fire last month refused to let Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak today as he stood at the podium of the official state memorial ceremony to deliver a eulogy to the victims.

2011: According to an email sent today from the West Coast branch of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Songwriter Debbie Friedman is sedated and on a respirator at a hospital in Orange County, Calif. 

2011(29th of Tevet, 5771): Seventy-three-year-old “David G. Trager, a federal judge in Brooklyn whose rulings were pivotal in a racially charged case in Crown Heights and in the first civil suit to challenge the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to countries that employ torture, died today at his home in Brooklyn.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/nyregion/07trager.html?_r=0

2012: The Red Sea Classical Music Festival is scheduled to open this evening at Eilat.

2012(10th of Tevet, 5772): Asara B’Tevet

2012(10th of Tevet, 5772): Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin), a true woman of valor who will always be missed.

2012: Israel Police has been unsuccessful in running its agents in the West Bank, a senior police officer said today, adding that officers have been struggling to gather evidence on crimes committed by right-wing activists.

2012: Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister of Israel in 2008 amid corruption charges, was indicted today for allegedly taking bribes in the construction of a huge residential complex while he was mayor of Jerusalem. 

2013: “Les Troyens,” a cinematic presentation of Berlio’s epic is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival

2013: Ms. Erica Strauss, a soprano making a guest appearance with the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre is scheduled to present a one-hour program of live opera and Jewish music this evening at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2013(23rd of Tevet, 5773): Eddie Goldstein, who lived in Boyle Heights for almost 8 decades, possibly making him “the last Jewish resident from the original Boyle Heights Jewish community” passed away today.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/obituaries/article/eddie_goldstein_last_jew_of_boyle_heights_dies_at_79

2013: Israeli documentary "The Gatekeepers" was awarded the nonfiction or documentary prize by the National Society of Film Critics in the U.S. today

2013: The traditional minyan at Temple Judah starts its 12th year of Saturday morning services.

2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed willingness to form a broad-based coalition with center-left parties but claimed they have negated the possibility in advance.

2013: Vienna's Jewish Museum holds hundreds of books and works of art that may have been stolen by Nazis, a newspaper reported today.

2014: “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage” an exhibition that had opened at the National Archives in October is scheduled to come to a close today.

http://www.archives.gov/press/press-kits/iraqi-jewish-archive/images.html?utm_source=Gear+Up&utm_campaign=Winter+Programs&utm_medium=email

2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart and The Downfall of Money by Frederick Taylor in which he described Germany’s hyperinflation during the 1920’s which some contend helped bring Hitler to power.

2014: When Aaron Liberman of Northwestern checked in for the final minute of action against Michigan he made history by being the first basketball player to wear a kippa in Big Ten Conference history. (As reported by Adam Soclof)

2014: “Behind the Candelabra” and “Happy Happy” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2014: Thousands of African asylum seekers in Israel and their supporters held a silent march and then a rally in Tel Aviv today in an escalation of their protest against measures restricting their movement and ability to work.

2014: New York government officials publicly condemned the New York Post today, hours after the paper published a front-page picture of a slain Hasidic businessman and the headline “Who didn’t want him dead?”

2014: Pope Francis today announced long-awaited plans to travel to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan this May.

2014: “Radical Transformation: Magnum Photos into the Digital Age” is scheduled to have its final showing at the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center in Austin, TX.

http://forward.com/articles/186539/the-jewish-inspiration-that-guided-photographers-o/

2015: At the Center for Jewish History David is scheduled to “tell, for the first time, the dramatic story of how Yiddish poets Abraham Sutzkever and Shmerke Kaczerginski rescued hundreds of treasures from YIVO’s archives following WWII and brought them to YIVO’s new headquarters in New York.”

2015: “Border Patrol forces setting up a barricade near their base arrested a knife-carrying terrorist Monday night who intended to stab them.” (As reported by Yishai Karov and Cynthia Blank)

2015: Eighty-five-year-old Al Bendich who defended the right to free speech in cases involving Allen Ginsberg and Lenny Bruce passed away today.  (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/07/obituaries/rabbi-malcolm-stern-78-dies-historian-of-judaism-in-the-us.html

2015: In Poland, the University of Wroclaw said “it will restore doctorate degrees to 262 people, most of them Jewish, decades after Nazi Germany annulled them in the run-up to World War II.”

2015(14th of Tevet, 5775:): Seventy-eight year old Joan Peters, the author of From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine passed away today. (As reported by Daniel E. Slotnik)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/world/middleeast/joan-peters-journalist-who-wrote-on-israeli-palestinian-conflict-dies-at-78.html?_r=0

2015(14th of Tevet, 5776): Ninety-seven-year-old New York City sculptor, known best for his bronze works, passed away today in California.

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-milton-hebald-20150108-story.html#page=1

https://www.askart.com/artist_bio/artist/19889/artist.aspx

2015: “Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky presented a check for more than $100,000 to the family of Har Nof terror attack victim Howie (Chaim) Rothman in Jerusalem” today. (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)

2015: An exhibition “Batsheva Dance Company at 50: American Concepts and the Israeli Spirit” is scheduled to come to an end at the New York Library for the Performing Arts.

2016: Today’s American Airlines flight from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia is scheduled to be the last flight to or from the United States by this U.S. company which is going through a cost-cutting retrenchment.

2016: Rabbi Yaron David, a rabbi for the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, eulogized first sergeant Yishai Rozales today after he was killed in a training accident at the Tze'elim Base in the Negev.

2016(24th of Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler.

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_24.html

2017: “Through the Wall” is scheduled to be shown for a final time at JW3 in London.2017: In Jerusalem, Menachem Gottlieb is scheduled to lead a shiur that deals with the questions of

* Do the Jewish People Have an Obligation to Prevent Holocausts?

* When Does "Darkei Shalom" Apply?

* What is Wrong With a Prayer?

* Does It Make A Difference if Syria Murdered 42 Israeli POWs & Thousands of Jews in the Wars?

2018: Today, “Senior US officials denied reports that $125 million in aid to the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency had been frozen over Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to enter US-led peace talks with Israel.” (As reported by Eric Cortellessa)

2018: In Jerusalem, the Kakadu Art and Design Gallery is scheduled to host a “Friday Family Workshop.”

2018: A high school classmate of 19-year-old college student Blaze Bernstein was taken into custody and charged with murdering the U. of Pennsylvania student who was home on break.

2018: In Memphis, Temple Israel is scheduled to host its first Tot Shabbat of the year “followed by a Shabbat Dinner.”

2018(18th of Tevet, 5778): Seventy-four-year Carole Hart, a co-creator of “Sesame Street” passed away today. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/obituaries/carole-hart-childrens-tv-producer-dies-at-74.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2018: “Israelis awoke to a morning of harsh weather conditions today as heavy rains and furious storms lashed the country from north to south, inflicting floods on various areas and causing trees to come crashing down on parked cars in Tel Aviv.”

2018: Today, Robert Siegel who had been one of the co-hosts for “All Things Considered” since 1987 broadcast his last show.

2019(28th of Tevet, 5779): Parashat Va-ayrah; \

2019(28th of Tevet, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, “Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chizkiyah Da Silva.”

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_28.html

2019(28th of Tevet, 5770): Ninety-year-old Bernice Resnick who gained fame as Bernice Sandler the holder of a D.Ed. from the University of Maryland who was the driving force behind the implementation of Title IX passed away today. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/obituaries/bernice-sandler-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

http://www.bernicesandler.com/

2019: In JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “RBG”.

2019: The Joyce Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of “Riff this/Riff that” featuring the work of award-winning choreographer Ephrat Asherie and jazz pianist Ehud Asherie

2019: The “Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre 7th Annual Temple Judah Opera Winter Preview Concert” is scheduled to take place this evening.

2020: In Brookline, MA, the Temple Sinai Adult Jewish Learning and Rainbow Committees are scheduled to host Mimi Lemary as she reads from her book What We Will Become: A Mother, a Son and a Journey of Transformation, “a mother’s memoir of her transgender child’s odyssey.”

2020: The ADL, AJC, JCRC, NYBR and the UJA Federation of New York are scheduled to sponsor the “No Hate, No Fear” March, a response to the latest wave of violent anti-Semitic attacks.

2020: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman’s Harrowing Escape from the Nazis by Francoise Frenkel.

2020: The Albany, CA, Community Center is scheduled to host “Ethiopians and Civil Rights in Israel during which “author and photographer Irene Fertik chronicles 25 years of Ethiopian Jewish immigration to Israel, in a presentation of photos and text from her book From Tesfa to Tikva.”

https://www.bkwrks.com/irene-fertik

2021: Judaism Your Way in Colorado which is offering virtual cooking classes to make Jewish comfort foods is scheduled to provide a hands-on lesson in how to prepare two all-time favorite  “Jewish Foods,” Noodle and Potato Kugel.

2021: Brandeis University’s Hebrew Program, The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, The Jewish Studies Program at Colby College, Middlebury College School of Hebrew, Hebrew College and Northeastern University Hillel are scheduled to co-host Gilv Hovav, lecturing on “My Great-Grandfather, the Prophet, the first in four-part series “How to Revive a Dead Language in 100 Years” presented online by the Consulate General of Israel to New England.

2021: In spite of the Pandemic and the after-effects of the worst weather disaster in Cedar Rapids, Confirmation Class is scheduled to begin this evening at Temple Judah.

2021: ADF is scheduled to present the world premiere of +972 by Dana Ruttenberg, featuring Netta Yerushalmy and Dana, followed by a conversation moderated by Jesse Zaritt. Photo: Uriel Sinay.

2021: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to presents to present the first session of the writers’ workshop “Tell Your Sephardi-Mizrahi Story” with award-winning author Gila Green.

2021: “Following an announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the government was scheduled to convene today in order to discuss tightening coronavirus restrictions during the country's third lockdown since the start of the pandemic.” (As reported by Itamar Eichner)

2022: Beth David Women is scheduled to present, online, “Zack Bodner, president and CEO of Oshman Family JCC, discusses his new book, Why Do Jewish?, subtitled “A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood,” on making Jewish identity a meaningful and relevant part of everyday life.

2022: The Washington Square Minyan is scheduled to present online “Torah Reading Class for Beginners, the first of a three session Zoom series that will teach participants “how to turn the synbols in the traditional tune used to chant the Torah in public.” (Editor’s Note – consider the connection with the item above.)

2022: Based on earlier reports Israelis can take comfort today that “a fourth dose of COVID-19 boosts antibodies five-fold a week after the shot is administered” while worry about prediction by the International Crisis Group that Israel could face two conflicts in 2022 -- one with the terrorists in the Palestinian territories and one involving both the Iran and the United States.

2022: YIVO is scheduled to host a lecture by Timothy Snyder, the Richard C. Levin Professor of History at Yale on “How We Should Think About Freedom?”

2023: In Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to discuss The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff.

2023: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Trudy Gold, via zoom, on “Rescue and Resistance in France, Both Jewish and Non-Jewish.”

2023: Based on action taken yesterday by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the Knesset is scheduled to deal with a number of bills designed to reform Israel’s judicial system including one that would allow the legislature to override Supreme Court rulings with a 61-vote majority in the 120-seat Knesset which

opponents say would be the end of an independent judiciary in Israel. (As reported by Tova Zimuki)

2024: Deadline for teens to apply directly for the “Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards.

2024: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host a Friday Night Shabbat complete with a Community Dinner.

2024: In Berkley, CA, Urban Adamah and the Shomer Collective are scheduled to “present retreat rooted in Jewish spirituality for adults ages 20-39 who’ve experienced loss of a parent, sibling, partner or friend.”

2024: In Sharon, MA, is scheduled to present a musical evening “Raise Your Spirits at Spirit Rising Shabbat.”

2024: As January 5th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 91 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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