May 19
363:
For a second day in a row, a series of earthquakes that took place along a
fault-line stretching from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba shook the region
around the Galilee. According to some, this seismic event was part of the
reason the Temple in Jerusalem was not rebuilt despite Emperor Julian’s support
for the project.
614:
According to some date of the Christian led revolt in Jerusalem against the
Sassanids began today during which an untold number of Jews were killed
1103
(10 Iyar 4063): Isaac Alfasi passed away. Born in Fez in 1013, he is also known
as the "RIF". He compiled the first codification of Jewish law,
called Sefer Halachot. It still appears today in every volume of the
Talmud. Joseph Caro later used it as a basis for his work. Sefer Halachot was
the most important codex until Maimonides' Mishna Torah. Alfasi was 25
years old when Hai Gaon died. He was called Gaon by many authorities and his
death marked the very end of that (Gaonic) period. His students included Judah
Halevi and Josef ibn Migash.
1396:
John I of Aragon who assigned Abraham Cresques and his son Jehuda “to make a
set of nautical charts which would go beyond the normal geographic range of
contemporary portolan charts to cover the East and the West, and everything
that, from the Strait [of Gibraltar] leads to the West” for which “Cresques and
Jehuda were paid 150 Aragonese golden florins, and 60 Mallorcan pounds,
respectively, as it is stated in 14th-century documents from the Prince and his
father Peter IV of Aragon” passed away today.
1555:
Today, “in a document…Nahum Psakohovich, as representative of all the Jews in
the grand duchy of Lithuania, lodged a complaint with the king against the
magistrate and burghers of Kiev because, contrary to the old, established
custom, they had prohibited the Jews from coming to Kiev for trading in the
city stores and compelled them to stop at, and to their wares, in the city
market recently erected by the burghers.”
1581:
“The proclamation controlling usury was issued today” making the subject of
“Three Ladies of London,” an Elizabethan comedy about usury by Robert Wilson
which is unusual and noteworthy as a philo-Semitic response to the prevailing
anti-Semitism of Elizabethan drama and the larger contemporaneous English
society” quite topical since it was first performed in 1581.
1588:
The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon.
The Armada was the most massive fleet of its day including 130 ships and
30,000 soldiers and sailors. The Armada
was designed to take control of the English Channel and facilitate the invasion
of England from the Netherlands. The
English were at a great a disadvantage in terms of ships and manpower. The all-important question was when would the
Armada begin its trip north? Until the
English knew this they would not when or where to make their first move. Dr. Hector Nunes, a secret Jew living in
England provided the information about the Spanish departure. The Jews may have played a small part in one
of the great turning points in history, but it was a small part that made a big
difference.
1604:
The city of Montreal was founded today. Jews would not start arriving in
Montreal until the 18th century following the British defeat of the
French. Today Montreal boasts a vibrant
Jewish community number approximately 90,000 which some describe as the “most
Orthodox” in North America. However it
has lost its position as the leading Jewish community in Canada to Toronto
because of the rise of the French separatists and their political party, Parti
Quebecois.
1707(17th
of Iyar, 5647): Chief Rabbi Saul ben Joshua Heschel passed away today in Breslau
while on his to Amsterdam.
1753(15th
of Iyar, 5513): Parashat Behar
1753(15th
of Iyar, 5513): Philip Ferree, the son of Daniel Ferree and Mair Warrembre who
married Leah Dubois, the daughter New Paltz founder Louis Dubois, at Esopus NY
in 1711 passed away today in Paradise Township, PA.
1762:
Birthdate of German philosopher and anti-Semite Johann Gottlieb Fichte who “in
his defense of the ideals of the French Revolution in 1793, singled out Jews
and Judaism as constituting a ‘state-within-a-state’ that was ‘predicated on
the hatred of the entire human race’ and ‘spreading through almost all lands of
Europe and terribly oppressing its citizens.’”
1769:
Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, who as councilor to the Holy Office had
issued a memorandum declaring that the Jews were innocent of the “Blood Libel”,
was elected Pope Clement XIV today.
1771(6th
of Sivan, 5531): Shavuot
1771:
Birthdate of Rahel Levin, the prominent 19th century literary figure
who converted when she married and gained fame as Rahel Varnhagen who was the
subject of a biography by Hannah Arendt, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a
Jewess.
1790(6th
of Sivan,5550): Shavuot observed on the same day that Vice President John Adams
wrote to Benjamin Lincoln expressing his alarm about “the sickness of the
President” and expressing his appreciation to God for that the “he is better
and recovering fast.”
1792:
The Russian army entered Poland. Ultimately Poland would be partitioned
among its three imperial neighbors. Much to the dismay of the
Russians, the partition brought them a large mass of Jews, something they
found quite upsetting to say the least.
1794(19th
of Iyar, 5554): Fifty-four-year-old Hyam Simon passed away today in the UK.
1798:
As the French Army set sail from Toulon in campaign designed to weaken British
access to India by taking control of territory from Egypt to Syria that
included Palestine, Napoleon delivered one of those visionary speeches intended
to inspire the forces to perform beyond their capability.
1799(14th
of Iyar, 5559): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time in the 18th
century
1802:
The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte. Among the Jewish
recipients are Rabbi Langer of New York’s Congregation Orach Chaim, Rabbi David
Feuerwerker,a veteran of the French Army who served with the Marquis during
World War II, David Saul Marshall, political leader in Singapore and Victor
Attias and Henry Smadja who were members of the Jewish Resistance in Tunisia
during World War II.
1803:
Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, was beheaded by a Muslim mob in
Cairo, Egypt.
1813:
In Strasbourg, Babette Marx married Alexandre Blum and “moved with him to
Algiers.”
1818:
Eliza Frances (née Campbell) and Mr. Lionel Prager Goldsmid, an officer in the
19th Dragoons, and a scion of the well-known London family of that name whose
maternal grandmother's father was Revolutionary War aide-de-camp David Franks
gave birth to Sir John Goldsmid who would rise to the rank of Major General in
the British Army
1820(6th
of Sivan, 5599): Jews in the United States celebrate Shavuot in tranquility
since the nation has just avoided a potential breakup over the issue of slavery
with the adoption of the Missouri Compromise.
1825:
In Amsterdam, Moses Jacob Pereira Mendoza and Sara Pereira Mendoza gave birth
to Rebecca Mozes Gans the
wife
of Jacob Gans.
1832:
Birthdate of German native Abraham Hart who rose to the rank of Captain in the
73rd Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War and raised 6
children with his wife Bertha Swope Hart.
1837(14th
of Iyar, 5597): Pesach Sheni
1839(6th
of Sivan, 5599): As American Jews celebrate Shavuot, they are forced to contend
with an economic panic that will continue to cause ripples into the next
decade.
1842:
Birthdate of Max Guggenehimer, the husband of Bertha V. Rosenbaum Guggenheimer.
1852:
Isaak Ettinger and his wife Rebecca Schapiro gave birth to Shaye Ettinger.
1858(6th
of Sivan, 5618): Less than a month before Abraham Lincoln delivered his “House
Divided Speech” American Jews celebrate Shavuot
1860:
The New York Times reviewed The Throne of David by Rev. J.H.
Ingraham, which “illustrates the grandeur of the Hebrews at the height of their
power and splendor.”
1861:
In San Francisco, CA, J. P. Davis, the President of the Hebra Bikur Holim, (Society for Visiting
the Sick) presented a new Torah Scroll to Congregation of Sherith Israel.
http://www.theoccident.com/WildWest/san_francisco.html
1863(1st
of Sivan, 5623): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1863(1st
of Sivan, 5623): Jonas Ennery passed away. Born at Nancy, France, in 1801, he
worked at the Jewish School of Strasbourg for 26 years. In 1843 he published “Le Sentier d’Israel”
and he helped to edit "Prières d'un Cœur Israélite," (Prayers of a
Jewish Heart) which was published in 1848. Despite anti-Jewish rioting in
Alsace, Ennery was elected representative to the French National Assembly as a
representative for the department of the Lower Rhine. After the coup d'état
that brought Louis Napoleon to power Ennery was exiled forced into exile. He moved to Brussels, where he lived as a
teacher until his death. Ennery's brother, Marchand Ennery, was the chief rabbi
of Paris.
1886(5th
of Sivan, 5625): Parsashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1866(5th
of Sivan, 5626): Seventy-six-year-old Solomon Ludwig Steinheim the German
philosopher passed away. The Salomon
Ludwig Steinheim Institute was named in his honor.
1867(14th
of Iyar, 5627): Pesach Sheni
1867:
Vernon and Herman Ehrenthal gave birth to Karolina Lina Hubsch
1867:
According to reports published today, The Hebrew Educational Society of
Baltimore has adopted the Christian plan of Sabbath school instruction.
1869:
Miss Rebecca Fenster of Charleston, SC was married this evening.
1870:
In Kings County, NY, Solomon and Betty Loeb gave birth to Nina Jenny Loeb who
became Nina Warburg when she married Paul Mortiz Warburg.
1871(28th
of Iyar): Meir Halevi Letteris passed away.
1871:
In “the Czech Republic. David Low, the son of David Low and his wife Helene Low
gave birth to Reise Low
1872:
In Greenpoint, LI, Ernestine and Bernard Rosenthal gave birth to University of
Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained rabbi, Isadore Rosenthal, the husband of
Florence Roesentein who served as the Rabbi at Temple Shaari Shomaymim in
Lancaster, PA for 28 years before becoming the leadr of Temple B’nai Israel in
McKeesport, PA.
1873:
Sixty-two-year-old German psychiatrist Friedrich Karl Steel whose parents had
become Lutherans passed away today.
https://archive.org/stream/variety111-1933-09#page/n208/mode/1up
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FetPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=31QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2362%2C1534076
1873:
“The New Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews” published today described the
opening of this facility in New York City which was first envisioned by Mrs.
Henry Leo in 1870. She enlisted the
support of the Bnai Jeshurun Benevolent Society to help her make the home a
reality. Unfortunately, Mrs. Leon did
not live to see her dream come to
fruition.
1873:
Sixty-two-year-old German psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Stahl, whose parents had
become Lutherans while he a small child, passed away today.
1874:
Theodore Pincus and Sarah Hart were married today at the Great Portland Street
Synagogue in London.
1876:
Edward Elias Samuel was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1877:
Birthdate of London native Montague N. Cohen the graduate of Jews College who
while serving as a rabbi in Tacoma, WA, in 1928 supported “the creation of a
united Jewish Agency for the rebuilding of Palestine.”
1878(
16th of Iyar, 5638): Seventy-four-year-old Rabbi
Samuel Myer Isaacs, the Dutch born son of Rebecca and Meyer Isaacs, and the husband of Jane Symmons who was “a
professor of Hebrew in London before coming to the United States where he led
Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, founded Congregation Shaaray Tefila and was the
first rabbi to deliver sermons in English while also being a strong
abolitionist while raising Judge Myer S. Isaacs and Rabbi Abram S. Isaacs
passed away today.
1878:
According to todays “Home and Foreign Events” column “at the suggestion of the
Board of Delegates of American Israelites, the Alliance Israelita
Universelle will issue invitations for a conference of representatives of
the Jew Jewish organizations of Europe and America. The conference will be held in Paris and it
will be open to the discussion of all subjects affecting the interests of
Judaism.”
1877(7th
of Sivan, 5637): Shabbat; Second Day of Shavuot observed for the first time
during the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, “the first President to designate
an ambassador for the designated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism.”
1877:
In London, Eugene Cohen and his wife gave birth to Jew’s College graduate
Montague N.A. Cohen, who served as the Assistant Chaplain at Wormwood Scrubbs
Prison in London and the Rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Victoria, BC before becoming
the leadr of Temple Beth Israel in Tacoma, WA in 1903.
1878(16th
of Iyar, 5638): Seventy-four-year-old Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs the Dutch born
son of Rebecca and Myer Isaacs who was the rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun and the
husband of Jane Symmons passed away today in Manhattan.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8233-isaacs-samuel-myer
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/6427
1879:
The Rothschild Family: The Greatest Financiers of the Age,” published today purports
to provide “an authentic history of the Rothschilds in Frankfort, London, Paris
and Vienna” including how the founder of the family acquired his wealth and
anecdotes about “family peculiarities
1879:
Joseph H. De Meza “a young Cuban Jew” was arrested today for stealing clothing
from Mrs. Charles A. Lillie in New York City. De Meza came to Mrs. Lillie’s
home and asked for “an outfit of her husband’s clothing” claiming that the
husband had fallen into the East River at the Fulton Ferry and that he had sent
De Meza to get a dry outfit.
1879:
“Sunday Services for Hebrews” published today described reaction among various
Jewish leaders to the recently announced plans by Temple Emanuel to start
holding “Sabbath” services on Sunday.
1880:
Birthdate of Leopold Einstein who at the age of 62 was deported from Nuremberg
to Terezin where he was murdered at the age of 63. (Editor’s note – the next time somebody
refers to people who carry Nazi flags or utter Nazi chants as “good” people
think of this 62-year-old man being loaded into a box car.)
1880:
Eighteen-year-old Matthew Nathan, the son of Jonah Nathan joined the Royal
Engineers
1880:
It was reported today that Joseph Seligman’s will names his widow, Babet, as
executrix of his estate, and his brothers James and Jesse and his son David as
executors. The will provides that they may use $25,000 for contributions to the
charities of their choice and sets up the terms for the disbursement of his
estate so that it will provide for his wife and his children.
1881:
In Paris, Adelaide and Baron Edmond de Rothschild gave birth to their second
child Maurice de Rothschild, the husband of Noémie de Rothschild and father of
Edmond de Rothschild who was noted for his vineyards and who was able to escape
the Holocaust thanks to Aristides de Sousa, the Portuguese diplomat who defied
his government and risked his career by issuing visas to an untold number of
Jews fleeing the Nazis.
1881:
In Alsace, France, Charles and Emilie Kahn Weill gave birth to Felix Weill who
was buried at “Hebrew Rest Cemetery” in the rural town of Opelousas, LA when he
passed away at the age of 18.
1882(1st
of Sivan, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1882:
The Leadville, CO Jewish community suffered a financial loss when a building
owned by New Yorkers Caesar J. Kaskel and Jacob Michaels burned. The building was the home to a clothing store
managed by Julius W. Kaskel.
1882:
As part of a blood libel investigation an entourage of mounted policemen
arrived in Tisza-Eszlar, a small Hungarian village. The investigation revolved
around the disappearance of a fourteen-year-old Catholic housemaid named Esther
Solymossy.
1882:
In Tisza-EszlarJoszef Sharf, custodian of the local synagogue and his wife were
arrested in connection with the disappearance of Esther Solymosi, a Christian
peasant girl fourteen years old whom the locals claim was the victim of a
Jewish blood lust.
1883:
Yiddish actor Sigmund Mogulesko and his wife actress Amalia “Molly” Finkelstein
gave birth Dr. Julius Lawrence “Mortimer” Mogulesko the graduate of Columbia
Medical School who specialized in Bacteriology.
1885(5th
of Sivan, 5645): Erev Shavuot
1886(14th
of Iyar, 5646): Pesach Sheni
1886:
The future Sir Mathew Nathan was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Royal
Engineers
1887:
In New York City Sarah and Henry Friedman gave birth to MIT trained engineer
Ferdinand J. Friedman who served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during WW I.
1887:
Birthdate of Lemberg native and University of Vienna trained physician Dorian
Feigenbam, the psychoanalyst and pupil of Freud, who in 1924 came to the United
States where he became an “instructor in neurology” at Columbia and co-founded
the Psychoanalytic Quarterly while raising two children – Daniel and Lou
Esther – with his wife Yaffa Feigenbaum.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/01/03/506511422.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21674086.1937.11925305
1887:
Fifty-five-year-old Otto Stobbe, the gentile German historian who is best known
for “a scholarly work on Jews in Germany during the Middle Ages called Die Juden in Deutschland während des
Mittelalters
1889(18th
of Iyar, 5649): Lag B'Omer
1889:
In Mogileff, Russia, Louis and Rose Rabinoff gave birth Sophie Rabinoff the
American “pediatrician and professor of medicine.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rabinoff-sophia
1890:
Samuel Hutch, a Jewish peddler was seen alive for the last time near
Wurtsborough, NY.
1890:
“New Publications” published today includes a review of A Visit of Japheth
to Shem and Ham
1891:
Barney Greenman, a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy came to the Barge Office in New
York and asked the immigration officials to send him back to Rotterdam.
1891:
Three days after she had passed away, 76-year-old Julia Myers, the daughter of
Hyman Collins and Mary Davis and the wife of Lionel Alman Myers was buried
today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1891:
The Czar has issued a new proclamation or “ukase” ordering the expulsion of the
Jews from the Asiatic provinces of the Russian Empire.
1894:
Birthdate of Lothar Mendes, the German born British director whose works
included “The Man Who Could Work Miracles” and “International Squadron” which
chronicled the role of Americans serving as pilots in the RAF.
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Lothar%20Mendes&item_type=topic&sr=50
1894:
“Literary Notes” published today described the upcoming publication of Christopher
Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese
Discoveries by Dr. Meyer Kayserling, the German born rabbi and historian.
1895:
“Hebrew Home to be Mortgaged” published today described plans by the managers
of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York City to build a new
facility with funds gained from taking out a mortgage on the property at 106th
Street and Columbus Avenue.
1895:
Most of the 4,000 “uptown people” who had been invited to a tea at the Hebrew
Institute attended this event which gave them a chance to observe the various
activities of the educational organization.
1895:
“In A Wide Labor Field” published today provided a detailed description of the
work of the Educational Alliance which was formed in 1892 under the direction
of the Hebrew Free School Association, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and
the Aguillar Free Library Society
1895:
In Cincinnati, OH, Carrie and Samuel Auer gave birth to University of
Cincinnati graduate James Samuel Auer, a member of the Board of National
Federation of Temples and the husband of Goldie E. Auer.
1896(7th
of Sivan, 5656): Second Day of Shavuot
1896:
Twenty-three-year-old architect David J. Varon, the Serbian born son of Isaac
and Rachel Varon married Henriette Behar in Jerusalem today.
1898:
In Baltimore, University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained Rabbi Adolf
Guttmacher, the Polish born son of Dorthea and Manheim Guttmacher and his wife
Laura Guttmacher gave birth to Manfred Schanfarten Guttmacher and Alan Frank
Guttmacher, the husband of Leonore Guttmacher.
1899:
Today, David J. Varon, the Siberian born son of Isaac
and Rachel (Mevorach Varon,”, the employee of the Edmond de Rothschild colonies
in Palestine who came to the United States in 1905 where he was a “Professor of
Architectural Design at Syracuse University” and later lived in New York City
where he wrote Indication in Architectural Design, lectured on architecture at
Cooper Institute and became a member of the Association of Staten Island
Architects married Henriette Behar.
1896:
The village of Metula was founded with funds supplied by Baron
Rothschild. Metula was the northern most town in Palestine and would
become the northern most town in Israel. Metula is close to the border
with Lebanon.
1896:
In Birmingham, England, Jewish immigrants Laura (nee Greenberg) and Louis
Balcon gave birth to movie producer Sir Michael Elias Balcan
1896:
Herzl is received by Agliardi, the Papal Nuncio in Vienna.
1897: Oscar Wilde is released from Reading
Gaol. In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,”
Wilde created a Jewish theatre manager named Isaacs whom he describes as “A
hideous Jew, in the most amazing waistcoat I ever beheld in my life, was
standing at the entrance, smoking a vile cigar. He had greasy ringlets, and an
enormous diamond blazed in the centre of a soiled shirt…He was such a monster.”
This does not mean he was an anti-Semite.
After all, Ada Leverson, the English Jewess, invited Wilde to her Salon
after he had been arrested.
1897:
Birthdate ‘Polish-Jewish librarian and Bundist activist” Herman Kruk and chronicler
of his personal experiences during the Holocaust who was brutally murder at the
Klooga concentration and whose “diary was first published posthumously in 1961
by YIVO in original Yiddish” followed by publication 2002 of an expanded
English translation, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles
from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps 1939-1944.
1897:
“Shearith Israel congregation consecrated its new edifice at Central Park West
and 70th street” today.
1897:
Birthdate of Israel Schultz Becker who had held a series of more responsible
positions at CBS culminating as the “vice president in charge of business
affairs while raising his son Arnold with his wife Celia passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/06/05/89533497.pdf
1898:
Birthdate of Langley, SC native Benet Polikoff, the graduate of the University
of South Carolina and WW I veteran who was “a partner in the New York law firm
of Polikoff and Clareman” and Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/18/archives/benet-polikoff-sr-counsel-to-actors.html
1898:
During the Spanish American War, Privates Samuel Cowen, Michael G. Greenberg
and Arthur S. Loeb were part of Battery A, 1st Regiment Connecticut
Volunteer Artillery which was mustered into federal service today.
1898:
“Gladstone’s Career” published today contained a summary of the late English
political leader’s life including his rivalry with Disraeli which began with a
battle over the budget when Gladstone was made Chancellor of the Exchequer and
continued even after Disraeli took his seats in the House of Lords.
1899:
The new Hebrew Charities Building that was dedicated yesterday “will provide
accommodation for the relief work of the United Hebrew Charities, afford
convenient offices and meeting rooms for…various Jewish charitable and
philanthropic enterprises” and to provide a meeting place large enough to
accommodate gatherings of those supporting various Jewish agencies and
institutions.
1899:
“At Grenoble, a hostile crowd” followed “notorious Jew baiter Max Regis” as he
made his way to the railway station following his acquittal “on the charge of
inciting murder and incendiarism.”
1899:
At Grenoble “a mob marched to the Officers’ Club cheering for Dreyfus” which
touched off a riot.
1899:
In Algiers, fifty anti-Semitic rioters were arrested when a mob marched on the
Jewish quarter.
1900(20th
of Iyar, 5660): Parshat Behar
1900:
Lawrence Nadler, a recent arrival from Hungary was swindled for a second time
in as many days which will probably hasten his return to his native land since
he cannot locate the aunt with whom he was supposed to stay.
1901(1st
of Sivan, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1901:
In New Jersey, Benjamin Bacharach and Harriette "Hattie" Bacharach
gave birth to Florence May Quinn, the
wife of James Joseph Quinn.
1901:
Herzl sends a letter to the Sultan and asks for a final audience before his
departure.
1901:
Today, Bernard M. Maltz, the Lithuanian born son of “Abraham and Sarah Malz”
gave birth to Bernard M. Maltz who in 1890 came to the United States where he
worked as a salesman for “National Biscuit Company and Standard Oil” before
going into real estate development and the construction in Brooklyn while also
serving as a director with numerous organizations including the Federation of
Jewish Charities in Brooklyn, the Pride of Judea and Yeshiva College married
Lena Sherry.
1902:
As violent attacks were taking place, Mrs. Caroline Schitzberg presided over a
meeting of the Ladies’ Ant-Beef Trust Association which was attended by
approximately six hundred men and women at the little Grand Street Hall.
1902:
It was reported that 250 delegates from all across the United States had
attended “the Qin-Quintal Convention of the Free Sons of Israel” in Atlantic
City.
1903:
Menachem Ussishkin arrives in Vienna to prepare for his visit to Palestine to
make land purchases for the Geulah Committee and to organize the Yishuv.
1904(5th
of Sivan, 5664): Erev Shavuot
1904:
Birthdate of Byelorussia native and starting in 1930 resident of Montevideo
Benyomen Skuditski, the linotypist who was honored on his 50th
birthday with “the jubilee publication of A zester baym yidishn
tsaytung-vezn, a shrayber in der yidisher literatur, tsum 50 yorikn geboyrntog
fun benyomen skuditski (A typesetter at a Yiddish newspaper, a writer of
Yiddish literature, on the fiftieth birthday of Benyomen Skuditski), published
by honorary committee, with articles dedicated to Skuditski’s service on behalf
of Yiddish and for the Yiddish press in Montevideo.”
1905:
The Bagatela Theatre, a Yiddish theatre
where Mark Arnstein worked as a director opened today in Warsaw.
1905
Birthdate of Vienna native Paul Phillip Gelles, who “came to the United States
in 1920,” graduated from NYU after which he pursued a career in business that
led him to serve as Chairman of the Board at “B.V.D.” a company best known for
manufacturing men’s underwear and who was the husband “of the former Jeanne
Peterzell with whom he had two children – Harry and Leda.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/09/25/89647267.pdf
1906:
Birthdate of Gerd Bucerius, the German journalist and lawyer whose Jewish wife
took refuge in the United Kingdom when the Nazis came to power. He remained behind and defended numerous
Jewish clients facing charges from the German authorities.
1906(24th
of Iyar, 5666): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1906(24th
of Iyar, 5666): Nine days after celebrating his 47th birthday,
Isidore Bien, the Washington, DC born son of Amila Technor and Samuel Bien and
the husband of Pauline Jacobs Bien, with whom he had two sons – Morris and
Walter – passed away after which he was buried in the Adath Jeshurun Cemetery
in Philadelphia.
1906:
In Providence, R.I., “Adolph and Sophie (Himowitz) Bask” gave birth to Harvard
trained physician and WW II veteran Henry Jacob Bakst, the husband of Ruth
Elene Miller and father of David Allan Bakst who rose from serving as an
instructor of medicine at Boston University to dean of the School of Medicine
at Boston University.
1907(6th
of Sivan, 5667): Shavuot
1907(6th
of Sivan, 5667): Forty-five-year-old paleographer and “the first chair of
Medieval Latin at the University of Munich”, the Berlin born son of Cora Marckwald
and Dr. Ludwig Traube and the nephew of chemist Moritz Traube passed away
today.
1907:
It was reported today that following allegations that the Jews of Odessa have
formed a self-defense league and that other Jewish communities were following
their example Count Konofonia wants to ask the Czar “authorize the Societies of
True Russian Men to disarm these enemies of the autocracy.”
1908(18th
of Iyar, 5668): Lag B'Omer
1908:
Dr. Jacob Haas who was supposed to marry his niece Fannie Thaller next month,
despite the objections of her family and who had “three life insurance policies
in Jewish societies aggregating to $3,000” attempted to commit suicide today by
slashing his wrists and taking ten grains of cocaine.
1908:
Three days after had passed away, 57 year old Hyam Hart, the Australian born
son of Ashe Hart and Rachel Joseph was buried today at the “Willesden Jewish
Cemetery.”
1908:
Birthdate of Sylvan N. Friedman, the native of Natchez, LA, the father of Sam
Friedman and the nephew of Leon and J. Isaac Friedman who served in both the
Louisiana State House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate
1909: Birthdate of composer Shlomo Yoffe or Schlomo
Joffe. Born in Warsaw he studied piano
theory in Samara, Russia from 1918 until 1921 and, in 1924 in Warsaw joined the
Zionist movement Hashomer Hatza'ir, playing the mandolin, tuba, baritone and
clarinet in its folk orchestras. He graduated from the Teachers' Seminarium in
Poznan (Poland) in 1928, and in 1930, following agricultural studies in Brno
(Czechoslovakia), moved to Palestine, helping to establish a kibbutz in 1932.
Only after 1940 did he begin to be involved with music again, at first teaching
and arranging music at the kibbutz Beit Alpha. After a period of concentrated
study (1947-53), with Prof. J. Tal and Prof. O. Partos at the New Jerusalem
Academy of Music, and privately with A.A. Boskovich, he devoted himself to
composition and teaching at the district conservatory for kibbutzim at
Beth-She'an Valley, where he was director until 1973. In the 1950s, under
Boskovitch's influence, he used elements of Near Eastern Jewish song, maqam,
heterophony and a form of chromatic modality, often in the expression of
biblical and Israeli dramas, for example in the cantata "Tales of Mount
Gilboa" (953), but also in his Prokofiev-like neo-classical symphonic
works. These features remained evident in later works, despite the influence of
Schoenbrg in the compositions of the 1960s and the influences that followed a
visit to Darmstadt in 1962 and meetings with Lutoslawski and Penderecki. His
cantata "Rising Night after Night" (1978), for example, exhibits many
contemporary aspects, including extended vocal techniques, clusters and a
deformed folk melody, but despite these developments, Joffe always remained,
through his teaching, association and biblical roots, a 'kibbutz composer'.
1909:
Birthdate of Sir Nicholas George Winton, MBE a Briton who organized the rescue
of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of
the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport.
Winton found homes for them and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. The
UK press has dubbed him the "British Schindler".
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007780
1910:
The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in
the United States came to a close today in St. Louis, MO.
1910:
Birthdate of Italian author Sion Segre Amar, the president of the Jewish
Community of Turin in the 1960’s who “survived the holocaust when he fled to
mandatory Palestine in 1939.
1911:
The Turkish government instructs its Minister at Teheran to protest the Persian
government attacks against lives and property of Ottoman Jews at Kermanshah.
1911: The King of Italy confers Knighthood of Order of Crown on Rabbi Abraham
Elbgen, Chief Rabbi of Crete.
1911: Jews of Constantinople take a prominent
part in the celebrations of the anniversary of the Sultan's accession to the
throne.
1911: Plans are made in Cairo to form a Federation of Synagogues.
1912:
Alterations in the ritual used at the New West End Synagogue was “agreed to at
a meeting of seatholders” today in London.
1913(12th
of Iyar, 5673): Fifty-four-year-old Rabbi and Editor Isaac Suwalsky passed away
today in London.
1913:
Three days after she had passed away, 78 year old Phoebe (nee Neuberger) Duis,
the husband of Levy Duis, was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish
Cemetery.”
1914
“Harry Rapf, an executive and film producer at MGM” and his wife gave birth to
Dartmouth alum and second-generation movie maker Maurice Rapf, “a founder of
the Writers Guild of America.”
1914: Birthdate of Max Perutz, Austrian-born
British molecular biologist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962.
1915(6th
of Sivan, 5675): Shavuot observed for the first-time during WW I.
1915:
Birthdate of Irving Gertz, the native of Providence RI and graduate of the
Providence College of Music who gained fame for creating the scores for dozens
of horror and sci-fi films.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/movies/21gertz.html
1915:
Twenty-year-old Boston native Henry Landers Bostick the University of Denver
student and right-handed infielder played his last major league baseball game
with the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland A’s)
1915:
“Petitions bearing 50,000 signatures have been obtained” in Buffalo, NY “in the
effort to save Leo M. Frank from execution.”
1915:
“Mas Meeting to Aid Frank” published today described for a meeting to be held
by the League of Foreign Born Citizens that will “appeal for justice for Leo M.
Frank” who has been “sentenced to die next month for the murder of Mary
Phagan.”
1915:
The text of a telegram to J.H. Slaton, the Governor of Georgia signed by
several prominent leaders from Paterson, NJ, including Samuel Goldstein, Morris
A. Goldstein, Arnold Levy, Nathan Levine, Herman Orbach, David Gordon, Harry
Dunn, Benjamin Lowenthal, Solomon D. Stern and Isadore F. Rosenthal begging “to
intercede with your Excellency to bestow clemency upon Leo Frank” was published
today.
1915:
While the State Prison Commission has not set a date for “the hearing of Leo M.
Frank’s petition for a commutation of his sentence” today is the first possible
date on which the Commission might take such action.
1916:
Birthdate of Victor Lucas, the son of a London drapery shop owner who “was
appointed inaugural President of the British Property Federation” in 1974 and
“was one of the first Jews of Eastern European parentage” to play a major role
in “the Anglo-Jewish communal leadership” as can be seen by election to the
vice presidency of the Board of Deputies and the presidency of Anglo-Jewish
Association.”
1917:
The Central Committee of the Jewish Committee for the Care of the Fugitives for
the Galilee was elected today.
1917:
It was reported today that the Turks have driven the Jews away from the coast
forcing them to leave behind their property which is unprotected from looters
and to “suffer great destitution” as they tried to make their way to Jerusalem
where conditions are not much better.
1917:
“Further confirmation that the Turkish military authorities in Palestine” and
the civilian Turkish population “are committing terrible atrocities against
Jews in Palestine reached Washington today in official reports”
1917(27th
of Iyar, 5677): Fifty-year-old Adolph J. Meyers, the brother of Mrs. Abe Adler
and Mrs. H.M. Marks passed away today at North Chicago Hospital.
1917:
“The Petrograd correspondent of the Jewish Daily Forward cabled” today that in
Russia and Romania, “efforts were being made to provide equal rights for Jews.”
1918:
Birthdate of Louis Sachwald, who was among the brave American soldiers who
battled the Japanese during the dark days of WW II at Corregidor and survived a
brutal imprisonment to become a successful businessman in Maryland
1918:
Benjamin Bernstein, the President of the Hebrew Association for the Blind and
Leo Woolfson were among the speakers at “a patriotic meeting” sponsored by the
association where attendees were urged to contribute to the $25,000 fund be
raised to help care for blind Jewish soldiers returning from France who want to
be employed even though they have lost their sight in service of their country.
1918:
Birthdate of Abraham (Bram) Pais a Dutch-born American physicist and science
historian.
1918:
Bainbridge Colby, the United States Shipping Commissioner spoke tonight “at the
joint memorial service of the Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the Hebrew
Veterans of the Spanish War…at Temple Beth El” where he assured attendees that
the navy is on the verge of mastering the threat of the German submarines and
that at least “fifty ships of major size” would be commissioned in June.
1919:
In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a few
followers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to the
Turkish War of Independence and the creation of the modern Turkish state. As
part of his reform programs Ataturk made religious faith a matter of individual
conscience. He created a truly secular system in Turkey, where the vast Moslem
majority and the small Christian and Jewish minorities are free to practice
their faith. As a result of Atatürk's reforms, Turkey -unlike scores of other
countries- has fully secular institutions.
1919:
In Galilee, Haifa and Zichron Jacob, “the Jewish Committee for the Care of the
Fugitives made a survey of position of fugitives.”
1919:
The Sinai Choral Club is scheduled to provide the closing program this evening
at the meeting of the Sinai Open Forum in Chicago.
1919:
The twenty-sixth biennial council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations
begins in Boston.
1919:
Today, Russian born and Columbia and NYU trained biochemist William Marias
Malisoff, married Sally Juster with she raised three children – Marias, Eda and
Vera Malifsoff.
1920:
Following Britain’s refusal to allow an American prospector to look for oil in
Palestine, U.S. Ambassador Davis “pointed out that the American as not asking
for any concession and suggested that the British authorities might well make a
distinction between concession-hunters and individuals who were merely
conducting investigations.”
1920:
It was reported today that “seventy-five delegates and alternates to the
All-Russian Zionist Congress, which met here late in April, have been arrested.”
1921:
The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas
on immigration. Because of the convoluted quota system established by this law,
immigration from southern and eastern Europe effectively came to an end. This had the effect of closing the American
Door for the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia.
The strict enforcement of this law would also mean that European Jews
would have no place to go when Hitler came to power.
1921:
Today “the congress of Jews from the Old Kingdom met in Bucharest and elected
J. Niemirover as chief rabbi.”
1922:
A new department of the Keren Hayesod has been established “to mobilize the
Jewish workingmen for the Palestine Foundation Fund.”
1922:
It was reported today that S. Stanwood Menken, the Memphis born Jewish convert
to Christianity had “criticized Premier Lloyd George for what he termed bargaining
in the interests of British trade and said the economic breakdown of Europe
vitally affected America.
1923(4th
of Sivan, 5683): Parasaht Bamibar
1923:
Abraham Cahan, the editor of Jewish Daily Forward addressed the Convention of
the Socialist Party of America today denouncing the Soviet regime and
describing Lenin and Trotsky as “failures.”
1924:
“Research working covering ten years and costing $40,000 was dedicated tonight
when “The History of the Jews of Chicago” was presented to the Chicago
Historical Society.
1925:
“More than 500 delegates to the National Child Welfare Conference at the Hotel
Biltmore brought their dinner to an end tonight with a tribute to Miss Sophie
Irene Loeb of The Evening World as the pioneer of the movement to provide
"a home for every child" in the United States.
1925:
“The Vienna Technical College closed today on account of the unruliness of the
students who decided to shut out the Jewish students for one day in order to
avenge a German professor” whom they claimed “was attacked in the Jewish
papers.
1925:
The Joint Distribution Committee which announced on May 17 that was planning
another nationwide campaign to continue its relief activities abroad said today
“that the appeal would be made in the Fall and the amount sought would be
$15,000,000.”
1926(6th
of Sivan, 5686): Shavuot
1926:
“As part of the observance of the Shavuot holiday, appeals will be made today
in Jewish temples and synagogues throughout the city on behalf of the United
Jewish Campaign for $15,000,000 to aid the needy Jews of Eastern Europe.”
1927:”The
fourth of the series of Watson Clair Foundation lectures on "British and
American Rivalries in the American Revolution" was delivered by Professor
Van Tyne at the Arts School at Cambridge today” during which he said that “in
the patriot ranks could be found most Western European Races” including the
“Jews.”
1928:
In the Bronx, Romanian Jewish immigrants “Tina (née Michel), a homemaker, and
Carl Schayes, a truck driver for Consolidated Laundries” gave birth to NBA
great Adolph "Dolph" Schayes.
1929:
“The Valiant” starring Paul Muni is his film debut and produced by William Fox
was released today in the United States.
1930:
In Frankfurt am Main, Yerachmiel and Chana Kranzler of Würzburg gave birth to
Dr. David H. Kranzler the holder of Ph.D from Yeshiva University and professor
of library science at Queensborough Community who authored numerous books on
the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.
https://books.google.com/books?id=s4Cx3yenDCQC
1930:
The world executive of the Mizrachi (Orthodox Zionists) sent a telegram to Dr.
Chaim Weizmann today calling for an immediate meeting of Zionist congress that
would address the announcement by the British High Commissioner to suspend
immigration to Palestine. The appeal
stated that “the new immigration ban reveals a new British government tendency
to disregard the principles of the mandate.”
This “tendency endangers the Zionist work.” Protests against the new British policy are
already taking place in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Emek Valley. The Jewish
Agency and the Vaad Leumi are meeting in a joint session to deal with this
issue.
1931:
Announcement was made today by former Attorney General Albert L. Ottinger,
chairman of the New York Campaign for the Relief of Jews in Europe, of receipt
of a cablegram from Poland saying that forty-eight Jewish hospitals there…might
be compelled to closed unless financial aid was obtained for them.”
1931(3rd
of Sivan, 5691): Sixty-eight-year-old Russian born American newspaperwoman and
socialist Mrs. Adella Kean Zametkin, the author of A Woman’s Handbook and the
wife of Michael Zametkin, the first editor of The Jewish Daily Forward passed away today in NYC.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/05/20/96200629.pdf
1931:
Birthdate of Jerome Kurtz, the native of Philadelphia who became a successful
tax lawyer and Commissioner of the IRS.
1932:
“Adolf Hitler told National Socialist members of the new Prussian Diet today
that his party would not participate in the formation of a new government.”
1933:
“Leaders of American Jewry in a statement tonight, on the eve of the convening
here tomorrow of an emergency session of the American Jewish Congress, asserted
that efforts to arouse public opinion against Adolf Hitler would be continued
until Jews were restored "to complete equality with all other inhabitants
of Germany."
1934:
In Brooklyn Rabbi Isaac Landman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Two
Sets of Commandments” at Congregation Beth Elohim.
1934:
Rabbi I. Mortimer Bloom is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “The Reign of
Law” at Temple Oheb Shalom.
1934:
Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled,
"Goebbels' Speech and the Madison Square Garden Meeting-What Do They
Conceal?" at Congregation Rodeph Sholom
1934:
Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Who is
Who-With Respect to Life's Values" at New York’s Temple Emanu-El.
1934(5th
of Sivan, 5694): Erev Shavuot
1934:
Rabbi Milton Steinberg is scheduled to lead Shavuot Services at Park Avenue Synagogue
at 6 p.m. this evening.
1935:
Representative Manny Celler spoke at the annual memorial service of the Jewish
War Veterans which was held today at Temple Emanuel
1935: T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of
Arabia, died from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. Lawrence is
connected in the popular mind with his role in providing British support for
the Arab Revolt during World War I. But
Lawrence was not one of those British Arabists who were, at best, disdainful of
the Jewish people. As can be seen from the following, Lawrence welcomed the
settlement of the Jewish community in Palestine. “In 1919 Lawrence drafted a
letter for Emir Feisal for a meeting with Felix Frankfurter, a leader of
American Zionists. In his letter Feisal wished “the Jews a hearty welcome home”
and asserted “our two movements complete one another.” “There is room in Syria
for both of us” he concluded. The letter was published in the New York Times on
1936(27th of Iyar, 5696): “A 43-year-old Jew
named, Feivil Schnitzer, was shot and killed early this morning by an Arab in
the Armenian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was the twenty- sixth
murder of a Jew by Arabs since the present disturbances began, and in every
case the assassins are still at large.”
1936: “Love in Exile” produced by Max Schach,
with a script co-authored by Herman J. Mankiewicz and music by Benjamin Frankel
was released today in the United Kingdom.
1936: Carl J. Austrian, chairman of the Greater
New York campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to act as
the toastmaster for the this evening’s testimonial dinner at the
Waldorf-Astoria honoring merchant Edwin Goodman, the President of
Bergdorf-Goodman who is also chairman of the dress industry division of the
Joint’s fundraising campaign.
1936: It was reported today that the
“publication of the periodical Judenkenner (Observe of Jews) the organ of the
Anti-Jewish World Alliance has been discontinued until after the Olympic Games”
but that it is understood that publication will resume “after the Olympic Games
are over and competitors and visitors have gone home.”
1936: “Tel Aviv celebrated the inauguration of
its new port today. Tens of thousands
gathered around a provisional jetty to watch the arrival and unloading of two
steamers with cargoes of cement.” Tel Aviv’s aged and ailing Mayor, Meir
Dizengoff, left his sick bed to watch the Jewish porters unloading bags of
cement. “Now that my eyes have sevenths, I am ready to die.”
1936: Today “The Stuermer, Julius Steicher’s
anti-Semitic weekly published a list of thirty two Jews who had been arrested
or punished on charge of ‘race defilement’ under the Nuremberg racial laws”
including one who had committed suicide after arrest” and nineteen who had been
“sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to two years.”
1937: Today George wrote on his last letters to
his mother in which he asked. "How is brother Arthur these days? I am glad
to hear that he is writing a lot of tunes and I hope that he can find a market
for some of them."
1937: Premiere of “Room Service” a play featuring
Sam Levene as “Gordon Miller” which was “the basis of the Marx Brothers film of
the same title.”
1937(9th of Sivan, 5697): Eighty-three-year-old
Emilie Badt, the daughter of Fanny and Rabbi Wolf Landau passed away today in
her hometown of Dresden, Germany
1937(9th of Sivan, 5697): Eighty-two-year-old
Samuel Sale who had served as the Rabbi for Congregation Shaare Emeth in St.
Louis from 1887 to 1919 passed away today.
1938: Simon W. Gerson, an aide to Manhattan
Borough President Stanley M. Isaacs spent three hours testifying before the
Joint Legislative Committee on Law Administration and Enforcement chaired by
state senator John J. McNaboe. The
committee spent very little time questioning Gerson about the alteration of his
name on Municipal Court records in the a rent case which was supposed to be the
focus of the hearing and a lot of time questioning Gerson about his political
views. Gerson, who was Jewish, was a
self-described Communist who, along with his wife, has been very critical of
the American political and economic system. His boss, Borough President Isaacs
was also Jewish but he was a leading member of the Republican Party.
1939(1st of Sivan, 5699): Rosh
Chodesh Sivan
1939(1st of Sivan 5699): Fifty-three-year-old
Karl Radek, the Lemberg born Communist who “was sentenced to years of penal
labor” after being convicted in a show trial during Stalin’s great purge
reportedly was killed today by a fellow inmate/
http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSradek.htm
1939: Services marking the installation of
Norman Gerstenfeld as the Rabbi of Washington Hebrew Congregation were held
today in the District of Columbia.
1939: In defiance of the White Paper, 309
“illegal Jewish immigrants” landed on the “shores of Southern Palestine.” Before they were discovered by British
troops, the group, including 74 women and 14 children were attacked by an armed
mob of Arab villagers.
1940: One thousand peoples, paying $50 a couple
attended “the seventeenth annual of the Beth-El Hospital held tonight at the
Hotel Waldorf-Astoria for the purposed of reducing the $74,000 deficit incurred
by the Brooklyn institution during the last year.”
1940: Today is the last day on which Hans Rey
would paint his illustrations on French soil.
1941:
In New York, “noted playwrights and screenwriters Henry and Phoebe (née
Wolkind) Ephrom” gave birth award winning novelist, screenwriter and director
Nora Ephron whose second marriage to award winning journalist Carl Bernstein
provided the fodder for the novel and movie Heartburn.
https://www.biography.com/writer/nora-ephron
1941:
The Palmach ("peluggot mahaz" - "assault companies")
commando units were established by Yitzhak Sade as a defense from any Axis
(Germany and Italy) attack on Eretz Israel. Later they assisted in planning and
executing the dropping of Parachutists in occupied Europe. At its peak
(November 1947) it had approximately 5000 members which were mainly responsible
for capturing Safed and Tiberias as well helping to open the road to Jerusalem.
1942:
In the Bronx, “homemaker Dorothy (Serating) Shopsin” and “Kenneth Henry
Shopsin, the owner of a paper manufacturing company” gave birth to Kenneth
Henry Shopsin, who with is wife created the restaurant Shopsin’s General Store. (AS reported by Neil Genzlinger)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/obituaries/kenny-shopsin-dead.html
1943(14th
of Iyar, 5703): Pesach Sheni
1943:
Liberal Judaism, a new illustrated
monthly journal of opinion and letters, has been issued by The Union of Hebrew
Congregations, it was announced today. The cover of the first, or May, issue,
published last Saturday, is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise,
founder of Reform Judaism in the United States.
1943:
Berlin was declared "Judenrein", Jew Free.
1943: In
the House of Commons, the courageous Eleanor Rathbone attacked the British
government for the defeatist attitudes expressed at the Bermuda Conference and
noted that the Allies are responsible for the deaths of any Jews if they refuse
to help.
1943:
Ben Hecht’s “We Will Never Die” was performed at the Chicago Stadium, with
guest stars John Garfield and Burgess Meredith in the lead roles. An estimated
20,000 people attended as the stadium, “scene of many a hectic convention and
gaudy circus, was turned into a house of worship,” as the Chicago Daily News
put it.[Jewish Virtual Library]
1944(26th
of Iyar, 5704):
Jews deported from Paris to Kovno, Lithuania, are machine-gunned by guards in a
fenced enclosure after some of the prisoners attack SS troops.
1944:
George Henry Lane, a Hungarian born English Jew serving with the British
commandos was captured on a pre-D-Day raid on the French coast but was able to
avoid being executed under Hitler’s Commando Order by hiding his Jewish origins
and fooling no less an authority than Field Marshall Rommel that he was Welsh
which led to his being imprisoned instead of executed.
1944: The
Germans transported Hungarian Jew Joel Brand to Turkey so he could deliver a
proposal from Adolf Eichmann that would have required the Western Allies to
exchange 10,000 trucks for one million Eastern European Jews. Eichmann called
it "blood for trucks." Arrested by the British, Brand was sent to
Lord Moyne (resident minister of state in the Middle East), who comments:
"What shall I do with those million Jews?"
1944: Mel Mermelstein the man who would
defeat the Institute for Historical Review in an American court and had the
occurrence of gassings in Auschwitz during
the Holocaust declared a legally incontestable fact was deported to Auschwitz
along with the rest of the Jewish community of Munkacs, which was part of Czechoslovakia at that time.
1945(7th
of Sivan, 5705): For the first time since VE Day, Yizkor is recited on the 2nd
day of Shavuot.
1945:
It was reported today that French government has forbidden Jews in Algeria to
hold “a meeting to discuss the future of Palestine” which was to be addressed
by David Ben Gurion because such a meeting “might lead to a clash with the
Algerian Arabs”
1946(18th
of Iyar, 5706): Lag BaOmer
1946:
Seventy-six-year-old Pulitzer Prize winning author Boot Tarkington, whom some
would say engaged socially acceptable genteel anti-Semitism, passed away today.
http://dramatic-insights.org/tarkington/index.php/2012/tarkington-antisemite/
1947:
Italy which had been on both sides during the war and at one time emulated the
race laws of their German ally, applied for membership in the United Nations
today.
1948:
Israeli forces abandoned Bet ha-Aravah and the potash works on the northern end
of the Dead Sea.
1948:
The provisional government of Israel declared a state of emergency.
1948:
As the undermanned and outgunned Israeli units sought to keep the Syrians and
Iraqis from taking the Jordan Valley, a second raid, by a Yiftach company,
crossed the Jordan and struck the Syrian camp at the Customs House, near the
main Bnot Yaakov Bridge After a short battle, the Syrian defenders (one or two
companies) fled. The Palmachniks destroyed the camp and several vehicles,
including two armored cars, without losses.”
1948:
In Jerusalem, “the Arabs recaptured the Sheikh Jarrah area”
1948:
The Iraqis, who were about to drive west through Nablus toward Tulkarm, “asked
the Syrians to make a diversion in the Degania area to protect their right
flank. The Syrians complied, their main objective being to seize the bridge
across the river north of Degania Alef, thus blocking any Israeli attack from
Tiberias against the Iraqi line of communications.”
1948:
During the War for Independence two civilian leaders from Kibbutz Deganya
arrive at Ben Gurion’s offices begging for help in fighting off the attacking
Syrian armored column. Ben Gurion
responded candidly “We don’t have enough artillery, enough airplanes. Every
front needs reinforcements. The
situation is extremely grave in the Negev, in the Jerusalem area and in the
Upper Galilee.” And if anything, Ben
Gurion was understating the desperate situation. So far the only help he had to send to
Deganya was Moshe Dayan who had little more than his eye-patch with which to
face the Syrians, Iraqis and Jordanians.
Ben Gurion sent the two leaders to Yigal Yadin, his Chief of Staff. Yadin listens to the report and then advises
them to let the Syrian tanks breach the kibbutz so that the defenders can
disable them with Molotov cocktails.
Their angry response shocks Yadin into action. If Daganya is lost the North is lost. With the Egyptians advancing from the Negev
and the Arab Legion besieging Jerusalem, Yadin’s position seems more like
Custer than King David. Yadin meets with
Ben Gurion. In a table-pounding dispute, Yadin attempts to convince the Old Man
to send four 65 millimeter artillery pieces that had been intended for
Jerusalem north to Deganya. This is the
sum total of the Israeli artillery reserve and the weapons lack sights (you
know, the things you aim the gun with).
Ben Gurion agrees to send two of the canon North with Dayan under the
condition that they be returned promptly to help with the fighting around
Jerusalem.
1948:
The provisional government council of Israel proclaimed a state of emergency.
1948:
The Scotsman quoted a report by
Thomas Wasson Consul General for the United States in Jerusalem “saying the
British Consul had a “narrow escape” when the Consulate came under gunfire.”
1948:
"A tiny force of the Palmach took Mount Zion and broke through to the
Jewish Quarter." The unit was
forced to withdraw several hours later when reinforcements could not come to
their aid.
1949:
“Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, called on American Jews tonight for greater support of the
organization's religious and cultural institutions.”
1950(3rd
of Sivan, 5710): Eighty-year-old “German-born rabbi, Jewish theologian, and
philosopher of religion” Julius Guttman, the son of Rabbi Jakob Guttman who was
serving Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University passed away today.
1950(3rd
of Sivan, 5710): The Aliyah of Iraqi
Jews began. The first deportation of Eretz Yisrael Jews to Babylonia took place
in 597 B.C.E. The bulk of Eretz Yisrael Jewry followed them to Babylonia 11
years later, in 568 B.C.E. The first return of some Babylonian Jews to Eretz
Yisrael took place in 539 B.C.E. The majority, however, remained in Babylonia,
where they were destined eventually to make a major contribution to Judaism
through the creation of the “Babylonian Talmud” and the “Geonic Responsa.” It
was not until 1951, 2,548 years after the arrival of the first Jewish deportees
in Babylonia, that this ancient Jewish community began its own liquidation
through an Aliyah to Israel.
1951(13th
of Iyar, 5711): David Remez passed away.
Born David Drabkin in Russia in May of 1886, he made Aliyah in 191. Trained as a lawyer and teacher, he worked as
field hand on several agricultural settlements. A founding member of Mapai and
a leader of Histadrut, he was a true founding father as one of the signatories
to Israel’s Declaration of Independence.
He was the first Minister of Transportation and was serving as Minister
of Education at the time of his death.
1951:
Menachem Cohen became an MK replacing the deceased David Remez.
1952:
Moshe Keren, Israel’s Charge d’affairs in London is scheduled to be one of the
Israeli and Jewish observers attending “the conference on Germany’s pre-war
external debts which opens today in London
1952:
In South Africa, “the Minister of Justice, served two notices on Emil Solomon
Sachs in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. The first was an
order to resign as an official of the GWU within 30 days. It also prohibited
him from participating in the activities of various organizations. The second
restricted his movements to the Transvaal and prohibited him from attending any
meetings other than religious, recreational and social gatherings.”
1953(5th
of Sivan, 5713): Erev Shavuot
1953: A call went to 3,750
Jewish communities throughout the country, to assure the successful financing
this summer of the most important agricultural development program to be
launched in Israel since the establishment of the state, was issued here today
by the United Jewish Appeal on the eve of Shavuos, the Festival of Pentecost,
which in the ancient days celebrated the appearance of the first fruits of
summer.The appeal was made by Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, a national chairman of the
UJA. "There can be no greater observance of this ancient festival
commemorating Jewish attachment to the soil than support of the United Jewish
Appeals current special effort to help Israel achieve agricultural
self-sufficiency and maturity." he said.Rabbi Wise called specific
attention to a special emergency drive for $25,000,000 in cash launched by the
UJA for a five-week period beginning May 1. The cash fund is being sought for
establishment in Israel by the end of June of 36 new agricultural settlements,
for the immediate channeling to the new colonies of large, recently discovered
water sources, and for speeding a rise in the productivity both of the soil and
those newly placed on it as immigrant farmers.
1954:
Nicholas Winton, a Briton who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish
children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War
relinquished his commission of “flying officer” in the RAF while retaining the
rank of “flight lieutenant.”
1955(27th
of Iyar, 5715): Eighty-one-year-old Max Heller, the chairman of the board of
the Dover (NJ) Trust Company and former president of the American Food Company
and father four passed away today.
1956:
“The Killing,” a crime film directed by Stanley Kubrick who also wrote the
screenplay and featuring Jay Adler, the son of Jacob and Sarah Adler, was
released today in the United States.
1957(18th of Iyar, 5717): Lag B’Omer
1957: Colonel Robert Henriques, the author of
100 Hours to Suez which described and analyzed Israel’s victory in the recent
Sinai Campaign is scheduled to the principal speaker at the Israel bond dinner
today.
1957:
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Greenberg of Brooklyn announced the engagement of their
daughter Marilyn Greenberg, the Brooklyn College graduate to Maurice J.
Gerstein, the holders of a B.S. from Long Island University and an M.S. from
Southern Illinois University.
1959:
As reported in today’s New York Times, Richard Tucker was among those who
appeared at the “Puccini Night” open air concert at Lewisohn Stadium in New
York City. The stadium was named in honor of Adolph Lewisohn, the German-Jewish
banker who donated the money to pay for its construction.
1962:
Birthdate of French journalist and musician Ariel Wizman the Sephardic Jew from
Casablanca, Morocco.
1962: “Bravo Giovanni,” directed by Stanley
Prager opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.
1962:
In Minneapolis, MN, Jack and Bette Kozlen gave birth to Amy Kozlen who became
Amy Barnum when she married her college Joel Barnum with whom she settled in
Cedar Rapids, where they raised three wonderful children – Emma, Sasha and Gail
– and she became a pillar of the Jewish community which she infused with her own
unique brand of kindness, warmth and joy.
1964:
In Manhattan, “Beverly and Peter Panken” gave birth to Aaron David Panken, a
graduate “from Johns Hopkins University electrical engineering program” who
became “Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, the president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion.”
1966:
It was reported today that 75 year old Lazarus Joseph who served as New York
City Comptroller from 1946 to 1953 had fallen ill.
1966:
The emblem for the Israeli town of Arad, a square with a hill and a flame, was
adopted today.
1969:
Palestinian terrorists from Jordan bombard the Musa Alami School near Jericho.
1969:
Today, in the Klingstein Pavilion, the former Laurie Jean Katcher and Stephen J
.Kornreich, a partner in the law firm of Klotz and Gould gave birth to Robert James
Kornreich.
1970:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for seventy-five-year-old
psychoanalyst and author, Dr. Hein Hartmann, the Vienna born historian and
diplomat Ludo M Hartman and husband psychoanalyst Dr. Dora Karplus with whom he
raised to sown, Dr. Ernst Hartmann and Dr. Lawrence Hartmann both of whom work
in the field of psychiatry.
1972(6th
of Sivan, 5732): Shavuot
1972:
The Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York scheduled
final exams today. It was the only
college in the system to do so. (The
exams would be moved to May 30 after a major protest led by Hillel, the ADL and
other major Jewish organizations.)
1974(27th
of Iyar, 5734): Sandy Sasso was ordained as the first female Reconstructionist
rabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/19/1974/sandy-sasso
1975:
The New Yorker published “The New
York Review of Gossip” by Marshall Brickman.
1976(19th
of Iyar, 5736): Eighty-eight-year-old Jeanette Wolf, “one of the best-known
German Jewish women in post-war Germany” passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wolff-jeanette
1977:
Bella Abzug received 5 out of 231 votes for Mayor at the convention of the
Liberal Party held today.
1977:
A bi-national foundation, designed to promote joint industrial research and
development between the United States and Israel was established in Washington
today at a formal ceremony between Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for
International Affairs C. Fred Bergsten and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz.
The move to establish the Bi-national Industrial Research and Development
Foundation, followed President Carter's signing into law Congressional
legislation which stipulated that Israel and the U.S. would each contribute $30
million to create an endowment to promote activities of mutual interest and
benefit to both countries. An agreement for the project was signed in Jerusalem
March 3, 1976. The Joint Israel-American Committee for Investment and Trade,
whose objective is to foster economic ties, initiated the project which is
expected to provide direct mutual economic gains such as the development and
participation in new external markets and increase the flow of materials and
services between the two countries. According to a spokesman for the Government
of Israel Investment Authority, which is headquartered in New York, the
Foundation "is the first of its kind established between the United States
and another country." For a project to be supported by the Foundation it
must show promise of tangible direct benefits to the national economies of both
countries, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Treasury Department. The
Foundation will be governed by a board consisting of three officials of each
government (JTA)
1978:
Leonard B. Sand began serving as Judge of United States District Court for the Southern
District of New York.
1978:
“The Committee of Concerned Scientists said today that it had sent a telegram
signed by 15 Nobel laureates expressing “our grave concern” over the trial of,
Yuri F. Orlov, the Russian physicist who was sentenced on Thursday to seven
years in prison and five years in exile for “anti‐Soviet agitation.”
1987:
“Thank God It’s Friday,” a musical comedy co-produced by Rob Cohen, co-starring
Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger and featuring Valerie Landsburg was released in
the United States today.
1980:
Time magazine reported today that “Died: Arthur Levitt, 79, New York State
comptroller from 1955 to 1978, whose nonpartisan dedication, thrift with public
funds and relentless criticism of fiscal chicanery endeared him to voters, who
returned him to office five times with huge majorities; in New York City. A
Brooklyn lawyer and nominal Democrat, Levitt served under four Governors,
tightening the state's auditing procedures, including "performance
audits" of state agencies, and eventually giving his office prestige and
power virtually beyond politics.”
1981:
Former Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz joins Moshe Dayan's Telem party.
1983(7th
of Sivan, 5743): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1983:
“President Reagan said today that he would notify Congress ''in a day or two''
that he wants to go ahead with the sale to Israel of 75 F-16 fighter jets that
he held up after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last June.”
1985(28th
of Iyar, 5745): Yom Yerushalayim
1985:
Two famous Jewish men of letters are joined together in Harold Bloom’s review
of Zuckerman Bound by Philip Roth
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/19/books/his-long-ordeal-by-laughter.html?pagewanted=all
1987:
The Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production of “Kiss Me, Kate” with a
book by Samuel and Bella Spewack at London's Old Vic Theatre, which opened
today.
1988:
Shimon Peres is scheduled to address commencement ceremonies at the Jewish
Theological Seminary this afternoon.
1989(14th
of Iyar, 5749): Pesach Sheni
1989(14th
of Iyar, 5749): Dr. Abel J Herzberg passed away. Dr. Abel J. Herzberg was a lawyer in
Amsterdam when he was arrested in 1943, along with his wife, and taken to the
Dutch transit camp at Westerbork. He was sent to Bergen-Belsen in January 1944
and, as a Zionist, he was put on the list of 1300 Jews who were available to be
sent to Palestine in exchange for German citizens held as prisoners by the
Allies. He was on the list of 272 Jews who were selected in April 1944 to go to
Palestine, but at the last minute 50 names were crossed off the list and Dr.
Herzberg had to go back into the Star Camp with the other Dutch Jews. Dr.
Herzberg survived and after the war, he went back to being a lawyer in
Amsterdam. He published the diary that he kept in Bergen-Belsen. It
appeared in English under the title, “Between Two Streams: A Diary From
Bergen-Belsen.”
1989:
Morton Isaac Abramowitz completed his term as Director of the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research which left him free to accept appointment as U.S.
Ambassador to Turkey.
1989:
After having first been seen at the Toronto Film Festival, “The Miracle Mile”
featuring Alan Rosenburg was released today in the United States.
1991(6th
of Sivan, 5751): First Day of Shavuot
1992:
Broadcast of the second and final installment the miniseries “Cruel Doubt”
co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow
1993:
“Fiorile” an Italian drama co-starring Michael Vartan that premiered at the
Cannes Film Festival was released in several European countries today
1993(28th
of Iyar, 5763): Yom Yerushalayim
1994:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season five of “Seinfeld.”
1996(1st
of Sivan, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1996:
Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, “the first American sailor to have risen through
the enlisted ranks to become the Chief of Naval Operations, the highest-ranking
billet in the U.S. Navy” “was interred at Arlington National Cemetery” today
“with a tombstone marked with the Star of David.”
1997:
David Blaine's first television special, David Blaine: Street Magic aired on NBC
1999:
Conductor Yakov Kreizberg made his debut appearance with the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra.
1999:
Members of the of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to attend
a “Special Tribute commemorating the 10th anniversary of the passing
of Dina Haplern and honoring Danny Newman for his contribution to Yiddish
culture today at the Harold Washington Library Centrer.
1999:
U.S. premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace starring Natalie
Portman as Queen Padmé Amidala and Frank Oz as the voices of “Yoda.”
2000:
“One Day in September,” a documentary that examined the murder of the Israeli
athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics was released today in the UK
2000:
“Shanghai Noon” the first in series of buddy films produced by Roger Birnbaum,
Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman and with music by Randy Edelman was released
today in Malaysia.
2001(26th
of Iyar 5761): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
2001(26th
of Iyar, 5761): It was reported that “a Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 5
Israelis and wounded more than 100” and Israeli army officer was killed on a
West Bank Road, which led to Israeli retaliating by sending aircraft to attack
“the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the first time since the 1967 war.
2002:
In The Observer Michael Sfard the lawyer representing Israeli conscripts
who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines explains why a growing
number of soldiers are disobeying orders, in order to protect the basic values
on which Israel was founded.
2002(8th
of Sivan, 5762): Yosef Haviv, 70, Victor Tatrinov, 63, and Arkady Vieselman,
40, all of Netanya, were killed and 59 people were injured - 10 seriously -
when a suicide bomber, disguised as a soldier, blew himself up in the market in
Netanya. Both Hamas and the PFLP took responsibility for the attack. “Viselman,
a chef at the Park Hotel had survived the Passover bombing” that had taken
place in March.
2003:
Forensic experts said today that the second terrorist who had participated in
the bombing of Mike’s Place had met death by drowning. Hamas
and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who had claimed joint responsibility for the
murderous attack identified the terrorist and his compatriot as being Muslims
from Great Britain.
2003(17th of Iyar, 5763): Avi Zerihan, 36, of
Beit Shean, Hassan Ismail Tawatha, 41, of Jisr a-Zarqa[2]
Kiryl Shremko, 22, of Afula were murdered today and
seventy others were injured by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a mall in Afula
– an act of terror for which at least two Arab organizations took credit.
2003: A Palestinian suicide bomber riding a bike failed
to blow up a jeep near Kfar Darom when he detonated his explosives.
2003: Broadcast of the final episode of season five of
The King of Queens” co-starring Jerry Stillar
2004(28th of Iyar, 5764): Yom Yerushalyim
2004: In response to a request from the online science
magazine “Seed,” psychologist Steven Pinker “engaged in a four dialogue with
novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.”
2004(28th of Iyar, 5764): Yom Yerushalayim -
Jerusalem Day - is the anniversary of the liberation and unification of
Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty that occurred during the Six Day War. Yom
Yerushalayim is celebrated on the 28th of the month of Iyar (one week before Shavuot). In 2004 Iyar 28
corresponds to May 19 on the secular calendar.
2004:
Broadcast of the final episode of season 6 of The King of Queens co-starring
Jerry Stillar.
2005(10th
of Iyar, 5765): Steven Budeysky, a member of the U.S. Army’s 105th Military
Intelligence Battalion was killed today while serving in Iraq. “Budeysky was born in Moldova in the former
Soviet Union and went on to learn English as part of a singing group that
toured Europe. When Budeysky was 12 years old, he and his family immigrated to
the United States, settling in Chicago, where he attended Ida Crown Jewish
Academy. He was also known as Baruch or Boris to his friends. A 2001 graduate
of Northwestern University with a degree in economics and history, Budeysky was
pursuing a graduate degree in political science from Troy University when he
enlisted in the Army in 2002.”
2005:
“Free Zone,” a film about relations between Arabs and Jews directed by Amos
Gitai and co-starring Natalie Portman “made its debut today at the 200t Cannes
Film Festival.”
2005:
North American premiere of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith starring
Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala and Frank Oz as the voice of Yoda.
2006:
The Jewish Chronicle revealed that
the Claims Conference highest-paid official, executive vice-president Gideon
Taylor was awarded $437,811 (£240,000) in salary and pension (2004
numbers). An advisor to British
survivors in compensation claims in the 1990s, Dr Pinto-Duschinsky, commented:
"It is wrong for the executive vice-president to earn annually the same as
the compensation for several hundred former slave laborers. The moral authority
of the leading Jewish organizations is gravely weakened by excessively high
salaries for top officials."
2006:
In “Long, long ago, when basketball was kosher” published today Haaretz reported on a gathering of about
125 Yeshiva University (YU) alumni and friends at the school's Jerusalem
campus for a nostalgic evening with
"The YU Dream Team of the 1950s" - six former basketball players from
New York City who later immigrated to Israel.
2006:
Two days after being shown at Cannes, The Davinci Code with a script by Akiva
Goldsman was released today in the United States.
2006(21st
of Iyar, 5766): Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, the last founding giant of Israel’s left
wing, died two months short of his 100th birthday. A controversial figure on
the Israeli political scene, he was one of the first to call for the return of
all territories occupied by Israel in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and
reached the peak of his career as secretary-general of the Histadrut, Israel’s
trade union federation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/world/middleeast/19aharon.html?_r=0
2007:
After a two-month tryout at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, a
London revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” opened today at the Savoy Theatre starring Henry Goodman
as Tevye, Beverley Klein as Golde, Alexandra Silber as Hodel, Damian Humbley as
Perchik and Victor McGuire as Lazar Wolf. The production was directed by
Lindsay Posner. Robbins' choreography was recreated by Sammy Dallas Bayes (who
did the same for the 1990 Broadway revival), with additional choreography by
Kate Flatt.
2007:
After 13 performances at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Felicja Blumental
International Music Festival comes to a close.
2008:
At the Israel Museum opening of an exhibition entitled “Swords into Plowshares
the Isaiah Scroll and Its Message of Peace.
2008: At the Stephen
Wise Free Synagogue in New York, an evening of Israeli music entitled “The
Sharett Sisters in Concert.”
2008 (5768): Pesach Sheini
2008: Today “it was reported that Haim Saban had "offered $1
million to the Young Democrats of America during a phone conversation in which
he also pressed for the organization's two uncommitted superdelegates to
endorse Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president.”
2008: Laura Weisberger’s 3rd novel, Chasing Harry
Winston, was released today in the United Kingdom.
2009: Time magazine reports on
the recent passing of “Jewish boxer Salamo Arouch” at the age of 86. Arouch survived the Holocaust by winning
boxing matches staged by the guards at Auschwitz. “He was the subject of the film ‘Triumph of
the Spirit’ starring Willem Dafoe.”
2009: At Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington,
D.C., children's author Amy
Krouse Rosenthal reads from and discusses her new picture book, “Duck! Rabbit!”
2009: Rivka Galchen discusses her debut novel, “Atmospheric Disturbances,” in
conversation with Ron Charles, Book World's deputy editor, as part of the
Nextbook series at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.
2009: Today the Edinburgh International Film Festival returned a 300-pound
grant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director Ken
Loach. The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali
Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate.
Ezer's film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference to
war or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women's
film festival in Israel.
2009: This evening, Israel Air Force (IAF) jets attacked targets throughout
Gaza after a woman was lightly injured from a rocket explosion in Sderot.
During the attack, the IAF succeeded in hitting two weapons factories and four
smuggling tunnels, used by Hamas terrorists to restock their supply of
armaments.
2009(15th of Iyar, 5769):
Shlomo Shamir whose life reads like something out a James Bond novel, passed
away. Born Shlomo Rabinowitch in Russia in 1915, he made aliyah ten years
later. He was an active member of the
Haganah from 1929 until 1940 when he joined the RAF and rose to the rank of
major before his discharge in 1946. During the War of Independence he played a
key role in the fighting around Latrun and the creation of the Burma Road.
After the war, he served as the 3rd commander of the Israeli Navy and
the 3rd commander of the Israeli Air Force. After leaving the
military he graduated from Tel Aviv University and Harvard. He was an entrepreneur who developed several
successful businesses.
2009(15th of Iyar, 5769):
Ninety-two year old Noble Prize winning bio-chemist Robert Francis Furchgott
passed away today.
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1998/furchgott-bio.html
2009: Ninety year old Sheikh Jabr Muadi,
a Druze Israeli politician who served in the Knesset from 1951 to 1981 passed
away today.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770):
First day of Shavuot
2010: Tulane alum Martin Leach-Cross
Feldman assumed the position of Judige of the United States Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770): At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,
IA, Melanie Abzug, Miriam Maikon and Sam Sarasin are scheduled to Confirmed
during Evening Shavuot Services.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770):
Martin Cohan, 77, who co-created the ABC sitcom "Who's the Boss?" and
was a prolific TV writer and producer, died today at his home in Pacific
Palisades after a two-year battle with large-cell lymphoma, his family
announced."
2010: The Washington Post
reviewed Jules Feiffer's account of his multifaceted career which will delight
that generation of readers for whom his whimsical, sardonic and often
politically barbed Village Voice cartoons were a cultural touchstone.
Those whose understanding of Feiffer's achievements is not enhanced by the warm
glow of nostalgia, however, may have less patience with this shambling, highly
episodic book. “Backing Into Forward” starts with the author's account of
growing up urban and Jewish, complete with a domineering mother and raging
adolescent hormones. This back story has the ill fortune of sounding remarkably
similar to that of Feiffer's friend Philip Roth: not a face-off that Feiffer --
or anyone else -- is likely to win. Feiffer is an energetic storyteller, but
structurally the book is so haphazard that it's often hard to keep track of
where we are in the arc of the artist's career. Feiffer wins points, though,
for the acuity of his insights on the craft of cartooning. He's also remarkably
modest. He repeatedly speaks of encounters with Marlene Dietrich, Lauren
Bacall, George Plimpton and many others with a fan's sense of awe and good
fortune
2010:
“The Frozen Rabbi” by Steve Stern is among the books briefly reviewed in
today’s “Newly Released” Column.
2011:
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is scheduled to
honor Dennis Berman, The Kramer Family and Esther B. Newman at tonight’s annual
fundraising dinner in Potomac, MD.
2011:
Ed Goldberg and the Odessa Klezmer Band are scheduled to perform at the
Marlboro branch of the Monmouth County (NJ) Library.
2011:
The Second Annual Atlanta Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to take place at
Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA.
2011:
“A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-65” a “colorful new
exhibition that celebrates the many Jewish composers of the American Songbook
and their great contribution to American popular culture including Jerome Kern,
Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein is
scheduled to open today at The
Bainbridge Library in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
2011:
The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to present
“Follow the Fugue” a concert featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble.
2011:
Prosecutors announced today that a grand jury had indicted Mr. Dominique
Strauss-Kahn on charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a hotel housekeeper
at the Sofitel New York.
2011:
A judge granted Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail today, allowing the former managing
director of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island to
stay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending.
2011:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today Israel would object to any
withdrawal to "indefensible" borders, adding he expected Washington
to allow it to keep major settlement blocs in any peace deal. In a statement after President Barack Obama's
speech outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said before heading to
Washington that "the viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense
of Israel's existence".
2011:
Lars von Trier was expelled from the Cannes Film Festival today, a day after
joking at a news conference that he was a Nazi and expressing sympathy for
Hitler. The Danish director’s film “Melancholia” is in competition at the
festival and seen as a contender for the top prize. (As reported by Melena Ryzik)
2011:
Swiss producer Arthur Cohn, a six-time Oscar winner, was honored for his body
of work by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Cohn’s grandfather
the chief rabbi of Basel. He invited Theodor Herzl to hold the first Zionist
Congress there after rabbis elsewhere objected.
2012:
Mendy Cahan is scheduled to at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York
City.
2012:
In Springfield, VA, Congregation Ada Reyim is scheduled to present “A Night of
Magic and More.”
2012:
As part of the Ahavat Yisrael Weekend, Moshav is scheduled to perform at Adas
Israel in Washington, DC.
2012:
In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the family and many friends of Amy Barnum have a chance
to celebrate her birthday. An ayshish
chayil she has raised three marvelous daughters, provided leadership for Temple
Judah and Hadassah and is the glue for the annual traditional High Holiday
services. “Her children (and everybody else) call her blessed.”
2012:
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to
"married" today.
2013:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker and the recently
released paperback edition of The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
2013:
The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform for the Jewish Community
Association at Riderwood Village in Silver Spring, MD.
2013:
David Senesh, the nephew Hannah Senesh is scheduled to Dr. Louis D. Levine in a
talk about the brave young Jewish poet and paratrooper and whose life and work
are being honored at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie with an exhibition
“Fire In My Heart.”
http://www.mjhnyc.org/hannah/poetry.html
2013:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a
walking tour of Downtown Jewish Washington which will give participants a
chance to experience the neighborhood along Seventh Street, NW as it was from
1850 to 1950.
2013:
In Little Rock, AR, the friends and family of Rabbi PInchus and Estie Ciment
are scheduled to gather to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter
Zissie. The Ciments are the
quintessential “lamplighters” who have brought the light of Chabad Lubavtich to
the Arkansas Jewish Community.
2013:
Israel will go ahead with its candidacy for an unprecedented seat on the UN
Security Council in 2019 despite Germany’s determination to run against it,
diplomatic officials told The Jerusalem Post today
2013:
Iran’s state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spying
for Israel’s Mossad and the American CIA spy agency. Today’s report says
Mohammad Heidari, who was accused of providing Mossad with classified
information in return of money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, who allegedly gave the CIA
intelligence on Iran, were hanged.
2013:
“With Wheelchair and Lively Baton, Levine Commands Carnegie Hall” published
today described the return of the famous conductor.
2013:
Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, “The Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature and
History at the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion in Los Angeles” “was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion” toda.
2013:
Damascus has put a number of advanced weapons on standby to strike Israel,
should Jerusalem hit targets inside Syria again, the UK’s Sunday Times
reported. According to the report, satellite images show Syria has readied its
stock of Tishreen missiles for use against Tel Aviv
2014:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to “host a special preview screening
of Watchers of the Sky, the Sundance
Film Festival award-winning documentary that uncovers the forgotten life of
Raphael Lemkin who coined the term “genocide” and campaigned for international
laws that would prevent and punish this crime against humanity.”
2014:
On the second day of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival Ayelet
Waldman and Lihi Lapid are scheduled to participant in discussion entitled “Bad
Mother-Good Mother.” (As reported by David B. Green)
2014:
On Nicholas Winton's 105th birthday, it was announced he was to receive the
Czech Republic’s highest honour, for giving Czech children "the greatest
possible gift: the chance to live and to be free
2014:
“In Honor of Jewish American History Month,” Marvin Kalb is scheduled to
moderate a panel discussion with Martin Goldsmith and Dr. Diane Afoumado
“Voyage of the St. Louis” marking the 75th anniversary of “of the
sailing of the SS St. Louis, ‘the saddest ship afloat.’”
2014:
A survey released today by the Paris based Siona organization of Sephardic
French Jews showed that 75% of the participants are considering making Aliyah.
(As reported by JTA and Times of Israel.)
2014:
“Warning that the army was operating under unprecedented financial constraints,
IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that he had cancelled reserve
training for the rest of the year because of cuts to the defense budget.” (As
reported by Times of Israel)
2014:
At the Library of Congress, Sanford Sternlicht, Emeritus English Professor at
Syracuse University, is scheduled to discuss his book, The Tenement Saga:
The Lower East Side and Early Jewish-American Writers.
2014:
A poll of 3,833 French Jews reveals 74 percent have considered emigrating.
(Tablet)
2015:
Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, Davis Professor of Jewish Studies, University of
Georgia, and Rabbi David S. Sperling, Professor of Bible, Hebrew Union College
are schedule to discuss “Exodus: What Really Happened” at the Skirball Center.
2015:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Sara Levy’s World” Music,
Gender and Judaism in Enlightenment Berlin.”
2015:
At Beth Shalom in Columbia, MD, Rabbi Susan Grossman is scheduled to discuss
Heroines and Harlots: Women in the Book with Rabbi Susan Grossman
2015:
Philadelphia’s PBS station, WHYY, is scheduled to host a free screening of “A
Wing and A Prayer” open to the public at 6:30 p.m.
https://www.aptonline.org/catalog.nsf/vLinkTitle/WING+AND+A+PRAYER+A
http://aboveandbeyondthemovie.com/
2015(1st
of Sivan, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2015(1st
of Sivan, 5775): Seventy-year-old Robert S. Wistrich, the Hebrew University
Professor whose expertise in the field of anti-Semitism can be seen the 29
volumes he wrote on the topic passed away today. (A reported by Sam Roberts)
2016(11th
of Iyar, 5776): Eighty-four year old Morley Safer, the Toronto born son of
Austrian Jewish immigrants Anna (nee Cohn) and Max Safer, the award winning CBS
journalist passed away today in Manhattan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/business/media/morley-safer-dies.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-morley-safer-dies-at-84/
2016:
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a session of
the First Person 2016 Series featuring a “conversation with Holocaust survivor
Irene Weiss.”
2017:
For the second day in a row, “farmers, vintners and cheesemakers from the
Modiin region are scheduled to bring their crops, goods and crafts to the Tel
Aviv port at Hangar 2.”
2017:
“Open House Tel Aviv, or Batim Mibifnim, an urban festival of architecture and
design…showcasing the city’s chic style” is scheduled to continue for a second
day.
2017: “A food and literature festival at The
Banquet as Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim” where visitors can “hear chef Eyal
Shani and musician Asaf Roth debate the poetics of food and recipes, or listen
to author Meir Shalev and chef Haim Cohen discuss food motifs in Shalev’s
books” is scheduled to come to a close today.
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinner
during “Interfaith Week.”
2017(23rd
of Iyar, 5777): Seventy-seven-year-old poet and Hebrew translator Chana Bloch
passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2017:
In announcing that “Jesse Eisenberg will play Marcel Marceau in ‘Resistance,’ a
film…that focuses on the legendary mime’s involvement in the French resistance
during World War II,” writer and
director Jonathan Jakubowicz today “told
the Associated Press” that “the story of Marceau and the resistance is one of
the most striking secrets of World War II.”
2018:
Stacy Hart offered a cheesecake recipe fit for today’s Royal Wedding and this
evening erev Shavuot celebrations.
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/bake-off-star-stacey-harts-cheesecake-fit-for-the-royal-wedding/
2018:
Forty-ninth Day of the Omer
2018:
Bernard Lewis, the historian and prolific author who specialized in the world
of Islam, long before there was any real interest in the subject passed away
today at the age of 101. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/obituaries/bernard-lewis-islam-scholar-dies.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/06/bernard-lewis-obituary
https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Lewis/e/B000AP9JRK
2018(5th
of Sivan, 5778): Parasahat Bamidbar – begin the Book of Numbers;
2018(5th
of Sivan, 5778: Seventy-nine-year-old music publicist turn newspaper publisher
Michael Goldstein, the husband of Nancy (Arnold) Goldstein and father of
Jocelyn, Marissa and Gillian Goldstein passed away today. (As reported by Vincent M. Mallozzi)
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Shavuot Celebration and
Havdalah Concert with Dan Nichols.
2019(14th
of Iyar, 5779): Pesach Sheni
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pesach-sheni
2019:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Rabbits For Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum and the recently
released paperback edition of Robin by Dave Kitzkoff.
2019:
The Loft at City Winery is scheduled to host a performance by award winning
Jerusalem born singer and musician Tamar Eisenman.
2019:
Starting this morning, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host
“Legacies of Violence: The Pogroms of the Russian Civil War at 100.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/legacies-of-violence-2019-05-19
2019:
The Jewish Genealogical Society and American Sephardi Federation are scheduled
to host “What's in a Name? A Case Study of (Re)Discovering Jewish Identity on
(and off) an Unlikely African Archipelag”
2019:
The Jewish Review of Books is scheduled to host a presentation by Professor
Jack Wertheimer, author of The New American Judaism at its 4th
annual conference
2019:
The Guy Mintus Trio, led by Israeli pianist and composer Guy Mintus is
scheduled to perform tonight at a “New York release party.”
2019:
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is scheduled to host the “fifth
annual Greek Jewish Festival.”
2020:
The Breman museum is scheduled to host “a live virtual show from local musician
and Executive Director of the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, Joe Alterman.”
2020:
Via Zoom, the Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Judith Viorst, author of
the New York Times bestseller Necessary
Losses, who “will talk about her new book, Nearing 90, which tackles
the complicated joys and everyday tribulations of becoming a nonagenarian with
signature savvy and humor.”
2020:
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is scheduled to host “Livestream: The
Global Resurgence of Anti-Semitism.”
2020:
In San Rafael, CA, Congregation Rodef Shlom is scheduled to host, via Facebook,
“Chasidic Tales and Melodies with Rabbi Elana Rosen-Brown,:
2020:
Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a “discussion
via Zoom with Dr. Jordan Kassalow, founder of VisionSpring.”
2020:
Via Zoom The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to host Debbie Meyer
as she lectures on “The Trials of King David: Hands of Blood.”
2020:
“The inaugural Great Big Jewish Food Fest featuring Jewish culinary talents
like Michael Solomonov, Joan Nathan and Michael Twitty” is scheduled to begin
today. (As reported by Joe Bauer)
2021:
Hebrew College is scheduled to present online “Faith – Here and Now: An
Interreligious Exploration.
2021:
As part of GTU’s Madrassa-Midrasha program, U. of Toronto professor Naomi
Seidman, formerly of GTU, is scheduled to talk about Jewish languages in
Freud’s dreams and UC Davis professor Omnia El Shakry's is scheduled to explore
psychoanalysis’ intersections with Islamic mysticism.
2021:
Congregation Beth Elohim is scheduled to present online “Modern-Day Refugees
with Emma Tobin” talking about the impact of the Refugee Act of 1980 that
created the Federal Refugee Program.
2021:
S.F.-based JIMENA and U.K.-based Hari are scheduled to present Diplomat Efrat Sopher as she talks “about
her late grandfather, Meir Ezri, who, as Israel’s ambassador to Iran
(1958-1973) assisted fleeing Jews and marshaling aid for earthquake survivors.”
2021: The Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to open tonight “with two documentaries: “Aulcie” (with English
subtitles), plus taped Q&A with former Israel basketball star Aulcie Perry
and director Dani Menkin; and “Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words,” plus
Q&A with daughter Jane Ginsberg and judge Abe Sofaer.”
2021: Live on Zoom, the YIVO Institute is
scheduled to present “Embodying Liberty: American Jewish Attorneys and the Case
for Humanizing Public Charge.”
2021: Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate
General of Israel in New York, in partnership with the National Arts Club in
New York is scheduled to host a performance of the Vertigo Dance Company.
2021: Based on reports published yesterday, while
Hamas has allegedly agreed to cease fire for tomorrow, as of today Israel may
be facing a multi-pronged conflict that includes assaults from Jordan, Lebanon
and the various terrorist groups operating in Gaza.
2022(18th of Iyar, 5782) Traditional
date on the Hebrew calendar for ending the annual pilgrimages to the tomb of
Joseph Saragossi which had begun on the 22nd of Nisan.
2022: The Streicker Center Israel Culinary Trip
is scheduled to begin today.
2022: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled
to host a gala evening honoring Professor Saul Friedlander and Sid Lapidus.
2022: The Weiner Holocaust Library, Yale
University and Institute of Historical Research are scheduled to present “a
hybrid event” which examines “the future of Holocaust History and celebrates
the 100th anniversary of the IHR.
2022: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled
to host a virtual discussion with Philippe Sands, Baillie Gifford Prize-winning
author of The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi
Fugitive which is based on Sands’ successful BBC Radio Podcast and delves
into the life and mysterious death of Otto von Wächter – a devoted Nazi turned
man on the run.
2022: The JWA book club is scheduled to host Cindy
Rizzo, author of The Papercutter (The Split, #1), a blend of fantasy, romance,
and Jewish imagination that imagines a world where a deeply polarized and
ungovernable United States of America has separated into two nations—the God
Fearing States and the United Progressive Regions.
2022: Chabad of Iowa City is scheduled to host a
Lag BaOmer BBQ this evening at City Park.
2022: In Akron, OH, Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin is
scheduled to lead a drum band through the streets as
Anshe Safard-Revere Synagogue holds “A Day of
Jewish Unity” in celebration of Lag b’Omer.
2022: In Postville, IA, Chabad in honor of Lab
BaOmer is scheduled to host a Jewish Pride Parade followed by a BBQ.
2022: In response to violent attacks on medics
such as the one that occurred at a Jerusalem hospital when members of the
family of a patient who had died
attacked the medical staff “and caused significant damage to the ICU, “staff at
public hospitals and clinics” are scheduled to go on strike today.
2022(18th of Iyar, 5782): Lag BaOmer
2023(28th of Iyar, 5783): Yom
Yerushalayim
2023: Emmy Award-winning television host and
producer Andy Cohen is scheduled to discuss his new memoir, “The Daddy Diaries:
The Year I Grew Up,” which details his experience as a glamorous but
all-too-human father at the Sydney Goldstein Theatre.
2023: In Brookline, MA, Congregation Mshkan
Tefila is scheduled to celebrate the
dedication of new Torah covers donated by by Florence Kaitz Greenberg z”l.
2023: Israeli DJ and music producer Guy Judah,
known as Guy J, is scheduled to perform Israeli progressive house, techno and
electronic dance music in San Francisco.
2023: Once again Shabbat at Temple Judea ia
a “family affair” as the Strausses
–Rabbi Feivel and Canto Abbie – are scheduled to lead services.
2023: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host a
“Community Klezmer Concert and Dance Party.”
2024: The Jewish Community Legacy Projects’
Regional Small Congregation Cohorts is scheduled to take part in “a Zoom tour
of the National Library of Israel.”
2024: The exhibition Kindertransport - Rescuing
Children on the Brink of War is scheduled to open today at the Illinois
Holocaust Museum.
2024: Arno Rosenfeld, Forward enterprise reporter
is scheduled to chronicle the Jewish American response to rising fears of
antisemitism and Jewish college students confronting hostile political climates
on campus.
2024: “A festive Night at the Museum” a benefit
for Hebrew Free Loan which will honor Laura Lauder is scheduled to take place
this evening at the California Academy of Sciences.
2024: JHMOMC is scheduled to host “My Family's
Life in Wartime Germany with Joseph McCloskey” who “
will share a captivating story about how his grandparents were matched together
in Nazi-occupied Germany.”
2024: Today the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
which opened in Los Angeles in September 2021, and “drew criticism for failing
to feature Jews, who played essential roles developing the film industry in Hollywood’
is scheduled “to open the exhibit “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and the
Making of a Movie Capital,” which “traces the history of filmmaking in Los
Angeles back to its roots at the beginning of the 20th century, illustrating
how and why the city became a global epicenter of cinema.”
https://www.academymuseum.org/en/exhibitions/hollywoodland
2024: Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum are
scheduled to present a “Greek Jewish Festival.”
2024: JNF’s “Women
for Israel Volunteer Mission” is scheduled to begin today.
2024: Alliance for Jewish Theatre is schedule to host a day-long “Bake
Off” for actors and directors/
2024:
As May 19th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day
226 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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