December 1
500: (Kislev 4428): This is
the traditional date of the closing of the Talmudic era and the beginning of the Saboraic era. Saboraim is
“the title applied to the principals and scholars of the Babylonian academies
in the period immediately following that of the Amoraim. The Saboraic Era lasted for approximately 200
years.
800: Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in
the Vatican. Fourteen years later, with the crown firmly on his head
Charlemagne would issue his Capitulary for the Jews. During his papacy, Leo III
“introduced public disputations between Jews and Christians, resulting in
forced conversions to Christianity.”
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/814capitul-jews.asp
1081: Birthdate of Louis VI of France. “During his reign
jurisdiction over the Jews (and their revenues) gradually passed from royal
control to the hands of the Church. The Abbey of Saint-Denis, in 1112, obtained
from the king judicial control over the Jews in the town. In 1119 Louis ceded
half his income from the Jews of *Tours to the Abbey of Saint-Martin there; and
in 1122 he granted five houses belonging to Jews to Abbot Suger of
Saint-Denis.” (As reported by Bernhard Blumenkranz)
1135: Henry I of England passed away. During Henry's reign
(1100–1135) a royal charter was granted to Joseph, the chief rabbi of London,
and all his followers. Under this charter, Jews were permitted to move about
the country without paying tolls, to buy and sell goods and property, to sell
their pledges after holding them a year and a day, to be tried by their peers,
and to be sworn on the Torah rather than on a Christian Bible. Special weight
was attributed to a Jew's oath, which was valid against that of 12 Christians,
because they represented the King of England in financial matters. The sixth
clause of the charter was especially important: it granted to the Jews the
right of movement throughout the kingdom, as if they were the king's own
property (sicut res propriæ nostræ).
Henry died without a direct male heir.
The result was civil strife that was bad for England in general and the
Jews in particular. Peace would only
come when Henry’s grandson, Henry II, took the throne.
1145: Pope Eugenius III issued “Quantum praedecessores” a papal
bull calling for the Second Crusade – another disaster for the Jews of Europe
and Palestine.
1145: Pope Eugene
1291: Eight-year-old Infanta Isabella of Castile, the eldest
daughter of Sancho IV, the ruler of Castile “who treated the story of the
affair between Rahel la Fermosa, a Jewish woman from Toledo, and King Alfonso
VIII as fact and not fable” married James II of Aragon.
1516: Jerusalem surrendered to Selim I, the Ottoman Sultan
1521: Forty-five-year-old Pope Leo X, one of those Italian Popes
whose pursuit of other interests left him “no time to think of torturing Jews”
passed away today. Bonet de Lates, a Jew from Provence served as Leo’s
physician and unofficial advisor. He was
more of an aristocrat than man of the cloth who was more concerned about
navigating among the competing temporal powers than matters of religion. His
leniency towards the Jews may have stemmed from an attitude summed up by his
statement that “It is well known how useful this fable of Christ has been to us
and ours!”
1652: Manuel Fernando de Villa-Real, a distinguished
Marrano who "conducted the consular affairs of the Portuguese court at
Paris" was seized in Lisbon, gagged and executed.
1573(5334): This date marks the death
of Solomon Luria who was born in
1510 at Brest-Litovsk. Luria is known as
the "Rashal" or the Maharshal. A contemporary of Salomon Shakna, he
represented an opposing view in Talmudic study, believing in plain but lucid methods.
He was also the author of the Yam Shel Shlomo (Sea of Solomon), a
commentary on several volumes of the Talmud, and Chokmat Shlomo (Wisdom
of Solomon) in which he corrected many faulty readings in the Talmud, Rashi
and the Tosophot.
1626: Ibn Farukh (Governor of Jerusalem) was
deposed after harshly persecuting the Jews.
1640: Today, “following the Portuguese
Restoration War, King John IV, the father of Catherine whose dowry was managed
by the brother Duarte and Fracisco de
Sylva, the Marrano Portuguese bankers of
Amsterdam when she married King Charles II, began his reign of King of Portugal
today.
1652(Tevet, 5413): Portuguese Jewish statesman Manuel Fernando de Villarreal was
executed by the Inquisition.
1676: Aaron
Samuel Kaidanover the Chief Rabbi of Cracow, who lost two of his two daughters
and had all his possession stolen during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, passed away
today “while attending the Vadd HaGalil of Krakow.”
1735:
Starting in December Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquie d’Argens began publishing
in “serial form” what came to be known as “The Jewish Letters; or,
Philosophical, Historical and Critical Correspondence Between a Jew Traveler in
Paris and His Correspondents in Various Place” which “consist of a
correspondence of two hundred letters between Aaron Monceca, visiting France,
Jacob Brito, Jewish Genoese and Isaac Onis, rabbi of Constantinople. Most of
the letters are sent by Aaron Monceca to Isaac Onis.
1742: The
Jews living in “Great Russia” were expelled by order of Empress Elizabeth, the
daughter of Peter the Great and Catherin I.
1742:
Suleiman Pasha of Damascus ended the siege of Tiberias
1762: Lob
Kann’s son, Moses Kann, the chief rabbi of Hesse-Darmstadat, passed away today.
http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/11767774
1771(24th
of Kislev, 5532): The first candle of Chanukah is kindled for the last time in
a unified, undivided Poland.
1785: In
Germany, Frommet Hajim and Aron Abraham Arnold gave birth to Mayer Arnold, the
husband of Fannie Wolf with whom he 16 children.
1790(24th
of Kislev, 5551): Kindling of the first Chanukah Candle on the same day that
Corn Planter, Half-town and the Great-Tree chiefs of the Seneca Nation wrote to
George Washington.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-07-02-0005
1793(27th
of Kislev, 5554): Third Day of Chanukah
1793: The
day after he had passed away, “Abraham ben Jacob” was buried at the “Alderney
Road (Globe Rd.) Jewish Cemetery” today.
1820(25th
of Kislev, 5581): Chanukah
1820(25th
of Kislev, 5581): Charlotte Jane Emanuel, the daughter of Michael Emanuel and
the sister of Sarah Joseph and Nathan Emanuel passed away today in Georgetown,
SC
1820:
Hayman and Almeria Levy gave birth to their oldest child, George Levy
1825: Czar
Alexander I passed away. This
anti-Semitic Russian monarch’s death coincided with a temporary cessation of
the forced re-settlement of Jews in the Pale of Settlement. The cruel re-settlement policy would be
quickly reinstituted by his son and successor, Nicholas I. Prayer for the Czar:
May the Lord keep the Czar…far away from the Jews.
1825: Nicholas I, the incompetent, reactionary Czar who led his
nation to defeat in the Crimean War and promulgated a series of anti-Semitic
decrees that included drafting under-age Jewish boys for 25 years of military
service, the banning of Yiddish and the banning of Jews from several cities
including Kiev.
1826(1st
of Kislev, 5587): In calendar coincidence, the first day of Kislev coincides
with the first day of December
1828(25th
of Kislev, 5589): Channukah is observed for the last time during the Presidency
of John Q. Adams.
1831: Simon
Baruch Scheffel, the Prussian born son of Roeschen and Alexander Baruch
Scheffel and his wife Henriette (Gitel) Scheffel gave birth to Rosalie Pereles, the wife of
Rabbi Joseph Pereles and the Mother of Dr. Max Perles and R. Felix Felix Perles.
1833: The
music journal, Le Ménestrel which was
a competitor with Maurice Schlesinger’s Gazette Musicale de Paris, first appeared today.
1834: In
Munich, Rebecca and Lawrence Blumenthal gave birth to Joseph Blumenthal, who at
the age of five came to the United States where he became a successful New York businessman who
served in the State Assembly and was instrumental in bringing down the Tweed
Ring.
1835: In
Germany, Deborah Cohen and Solomon Stix who were married in 1815 gave birth to
Nathan Stix, the husband of Ricka Iglauer Stix and the father of Alice,
Aurelia, Louis, Solomon Charles and Albert Stix.
1837: In
southern Germany Emma Miriam and Veit Hirsch Weyl gave birth to Max Weyl who in
1853 moved to Williamsport, PA where he learned to repair watches and clocks
before moving to Washington, D.C. where he became a jeweler and landscape
painter.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14882-weyl-max
1839: In
Breslau, Prussia, Simon Baruch Shefftel, the Breslau born son of Alexander
Baruch Schefftel and Roeschen Schefftel, and his wife Henriette (Gitel)
Schefftel gave birth to Rosalie Schefftel who became Rosalie Perles when she
married Rabbi Joseph Perles.
1840: In
Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Abraham Cohen of Sydney and his wife gave
birth to merchant turned barrister and judge, Henry Emanuel Cohen, the twin
brother of George Cohen, the brother of Lady Bemjamin and the brother-in-law of
Sir Benjamin Bemjamin, the mayor of Melbourne.
1841: In
Charleston, SC,
Emanuel Nunes Carvalho married Caroline A. (Woolf)
Carvalho.
1843:
Birthdate of Leopold Lowenstein a German rabbi born from Gailingen, Baden. The
son of a rabbi, he would eventually serve as the Rabbi for three districts
located in his native Baden.
1844: In an
election for Chief Rabbi of the British Empire Jacob Adler received 121
votes, Hirsch Hirschfeld 12, and Samson Raphael Hirsch 2.
1848: Birthdate of
Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld, or Sonnenfeld, who was the Chief Rabbi and co-founder
of the Edah HaChareidis, Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem, during the years
of the British Mandate of Palestine.
1848: In Cornwall, UK,
Amelia Jacob and Henry Joseph gave birth to Bessie Joseph.
1850(26th of
Kislev, 5611): Second Day of Chanukah
1850: Birthdate of
Hermann M. Kisch, the thirty-yearlong member of the Indian Civil Service
diplomat who had earned an M.A. from Cambridge in 1879 and was called to the
Bar in 1883 and was President of the Bristol Branch of the Anglo-Jewish
Association.
1852(20th of
Kislev, 5613): Sixty-seven year old Nanette Wexler, the wife of Leser Lazarus
Ochsenhorn with she had eight children passed away today in Louisville, KY.
1852: A British ship, the Fitzjames
arrived at the Quarantine area in New York tonight. Among the passengers were two Jews – a man
named Drestner from Poland and Augustine Behr from Germany. Apparently when the ship was about thirty
miles from Sandy Hook (off the coast of New York) the two Jews had a discussion
about religion that became so heated that Behr stabbed Drestner with his
knife. Drestner was taken to the
hospital on Staten Island. While the
police are holding Behr in jail, U.S. authorities say they have authority in
the case since the attack took place on British vessel in international
waters. The British Counsel has been
notified and may send Behr back to England for a hearing.
1853(30th of
Cheshvan, 5614): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1855: The U.S.S. Minnesota,
on which Adolph Marix would serve in 1880, was launched today.
1859: In New York City
Simon and Rosa Marx (the future Rosa Bloom) gave birth to Samuel Marx
1860: The New York
Times correspondent wrote from Jamaica that “an Anti-Jewish feeling is
brewing in the community, and I am very much afraid that, politically -- that
is, speaking daggers, but using none, for we can never come to that -- a war of
races will have to be fought. The colored classes who constitute the education,
the planters who represent the wealth, and the blacks who have the force of
numbers, are not going to rest satisfied while the Government and the patronage
of Government are given up to the Jews, who are clannish enough to employ them
to their own use, and to the detriment of all other classes. This is the state
of things at present; but the difficulty is far from being settled, and I am
afraid the Governor will, at the long run, be forced to retire.”
1861: E. Delafield Smith, the U.S. District
Attorney, wrote a letter of introduction to President Lincoln on behalf of
Rabbi Fischell “who has been appointed by the Board of Delegates of the
Israelites of the U.S. to urge the modification of the laws in relation to
chaplains, so far as they affect the practice, though I doubt not unintended
exclusion of clergymen of the Jewish faith from acting in that capacity, even
in regiments composed of persons of that faith. This class of our citizens has
evinced loyalty to the Government, and I need not say is entitled to at least a
hearing on this subject. Dr. Fischell is a gentleman of great worth and
intelligence.”
1863: Birthdate of Dunedin, NZ native and attorney
Matthew Lewis Moss, the grandson of Matthew Moss, the “choirmaster at the Great
Synagogue of London” and husband of Katherine Lyson who served as a “member of
the legislative Assembly of Western Australia” before moving to London in 1914
where he continued his legal career until his death in 1946.
1866: In St. Louis, “William Harris Sr., a founder
of the Theatrical Syndicate in the 1890s and Rachel Harris (née) Freefield”
gave birth to Henry B. Harris “who
assumed the general direction of the benefit for the Hebrew Infant Asylum of
New York” which took place on July 25, 1903 which included performance by Sally
Cohen and Minnie Seligman
1867: Birthdate of Ignacy Mościcki who in 1935 as
President of Poland and despite the growing anti-Semitism in the country
appointed Biblical scholar, historian and Jewish community leader Moses Schorr
to serve in the Senate.
1868: Disraeli
completed his first term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and became the
leader of the Opposition.
1870: It was reported
today that the Hebrew Charity Fair under the chairmanship of E.B. opened to a
full house with a program that included a speech by the Governor of New York.
1870: Attendance at the second day of the Hebrew
Fair for the benefit of Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was
less than on opening night, but was robust enough to raise an additional
$7,000. When this total is added to the
over $51,000 raised the first night, it means that in only two days the fair
has already raise almost $60,000.
1870: Professor
Singler’s Orchestra provided the music at tonight’s second annual ball of the
Hebrew Young Men’s Literary Association which was held at the Apollo Hall in
New York.
1871: The Hebrew Young
Men’s Literary and Benevolent Association is scheduled to host an evening of
entertainment at the Irving Hall.
1871: Adolph Loeb, the
German born son of Ester and Jakob Loeb and his wife Johanna Loeb gave birth NN
Petek.
1871: It was reported
today that children at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum enjoyed a “splendid”
Thanksgiving meal filled with “holiday pleasure.”
1871: It was reported
today that in Brooklyn all businesses were closed for Thanksgiving except for
“saloons and Jew clothing-stores.”
1874: In Simbirsk,
Russian Empire, Eugenia Berliner and Gabriel Zon gave birth to Raphael Zon, the
husband of Anna Puziriskaya, who in 1898 came to the U.S. where he pursued a 43
year career as a forest researcher.
https://www.wisaf.org/wisconsin-forestry-hall-of-fame/1988-raphael-zon/
1875: In Chicago,
founding of Congregation Moses Montefiore which offered religious school
classes on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and whose members included Rabbi
Isaiah Agat.
1876: It was reported
today that the Hebrew Charity Ball will be held on December 21 at the Academy
of Music.
1876: It was reported
that Rabbi George Jacobs delivered the invocation at yesterday’s ceremony in
Philadelphia, PA during which a monument dedicated to Religious Liberty
financed by the B’nai Brith was presented to the Centennial Committee chaired
by A.L. Singer.
1877(25th of
Kislev, 1877): Parashat Vayeshev; first day of Channukah
1877: The Hebrew Free
School Association in New York is providing services to 701 students.
1878: The annual
meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association was held today at the schoolhouse
located at Number 96 Bowery. As of this date, the association operates five
schools, employs 17 teachers and serves 1,045 students.
1879: The Paula Markham
troupe including Josephine Sarah Marcus, the future wife of Wyatt Earp arrived
by stagecoach in Tombstone, supposedly on the same day that Wyatt and his
brother arrived in the Arizona town
1880: Birthdate of
Bucharest native and New York Eclectic College trained eye specialist Dr. David
H. Alperin, the holder of a Ph.D.in biochemistry from Columbia and an
“associate professor of ophthalmology at the New York Post-Graduate Hospital
Medical School” who the husband of Esther Wexler Alperin with whom he had one
daughter and a son, Dr. Benjamin J. Alperin.
1880: Today at Turn
Hall Buffalo, at least four hundred people attended the wedding of Benjamin
Desbecker, the son of Samuel Desbecker, Esq. and Mollie Loeser, the daughter of
Moses Loeser, Esq.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/buffalo-courier-express-wedding-desbecke/91085486/
1882: In Manhattan,
Samuel and Minnie Carl Untermeyer gave birth to Princeton graduate and NYU
trained attorney Alvin Untermeyer, the husband of Nina Rhoades Chisolm whom he
married in 1913 and Kate Gordon Willis Untermeyer whom he married in 1923 who
was a senior partner in the firm of Guggenheimer and Untermeyer, an avid polo
player and a veteran of WW I where he served as a Captain in the Field
Artillery.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/09/21/121665773.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/MNPY-TTH/leonard-alvin-untermyer-1882-1963
1883: In Rushville,
Indiana, Jewish merchant Jacob Block is suffering from the aftereffects of
having been slashed with a razor by the son of his competitor Eli Frank while
his is son is under arrest for fatally shooting Eli Frank.
1883: In the early
morning hours, just after midnight, a troop of peasants from Budas armed with
guns and axes attacked Jews living at Zala Lovo in southwestern Hungary.
1885: The new home of
Congregation B’nai Jershurun on Madison between 64th and 65th
Streets is scheduled to be dedicated today.
1885: In Baltimore,
Katie Boettigheimer and Isidor Merfeld gave birth to University of South
Carolina graduate and University of Maryland Law School trained attorney Harry
Abram Merfeld the husband of Amy Haas who began his rabbi at B’nai Sholom
Congregation in New Bern, NC and after holding several pulpits began serving
Temple Beth-El in-Fort Worth, TX in 1922 where he was also the editor of the Jewish
Monitor.
1885: Two days after he
had passed away, John Hadkins, the husband of Maria Woolf with whom he had had
five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1886: The Wife and
daughter of a Polish Jew named Milkowski who has lived in West Carroll Parish
came to Lake Providence, LA to report that a mob made of people who owed him
money had destroyed the family home and outbuildings at Caledonia.
1887: D. Burkmann, a
Polish Jew arrived in New York aboard the Steamship State of Indiana along with
Perl Cajesky who had promised him that her husband would repay him for her
ticket as soon as they arrived.
1887: In Russia, Bessie
Golub and Abraham L. Bosniak, gave birth to Jacob Bosniak the Isaac Elchanan
Theological Seminary ordained rabbi and holder of degrees of NYU, Columbia and
JTS and the husband of Susana Halpin whose rabbinic career began in Dallas
where he led Congregation Shaerith Israel while serving as the rabbi for the
military installations at Love Field and Camp Dick
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/bosniak-jacob
1888: Augusta Victoria,
later Auguste Victoria, which had been commissioned in 1887 by Albert Ballin, the
Jewish direction of the American-Hamburg Line was launched today
1888: Mr. Harpman said
today that $500 has been turned over to the committee for the benefit of
destitute Jews in Dakota and “there is no longer any need for the money among
the Jews” because “they are abundantly supplied” and he feels compelled “to
request that nothing further be shipped.”
1889: Birthdate of
Posen native Frederick M. Stem the author who settled in the United States in
1937.
1890: In Latvia, Isaac
and Ida Gelfand gave birth to Maurice Hirsh Gelfand, the Cleveland lawyer and
WW I veteran who was the husband of Rachel Shapiro Gelfand and the father of
Lawrence Emerson Gelfand.
1891: “Benjamin
Berensen Disappears” published today described how Berensen, a Boston Jewish
“dry-goods jobber” defrauded his co-religionist out cash and goods valued at
$10,000 to $15,000 by using an elaborate check-kiting scheme before skipping
town.
1892: Officials of the
New York Health department were alarmed yesterday at the reappearance of typhus
five months after dealing with the last epidemic which had begun with a group
of infected Russian and Polish Jews who had arrived on the SS Massila,
1892: In St. Paul, MN,
Annie Cohen and Cain Calmenson gave birth to St. Paul College of Law trained
attorney Jesse B. Calmenson, the husband of Bertha Sloan, the “secretary of the
campaign for all Zionist drives since 1914 and B’nai B’rith leader who was
admitted to practice before he U.S. Supreme Court in 1921 and the U.S. Board of
Tax Appeals in 1924.
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/15519
1893: In Posen,
Prussia, “Ida (Kohn) and Max Toller, a pharmacist” gave birth to Ernst Toller,
a German-Jewish playwright and active anti-fascist, who fought for the Kaiser
in World War I and whose sister and brother were to a concentration camp after
which he hung himself at the Mayflower Hotel.
W.H. Auden memorialized him with a poem entitled “In Memory of Ernst
Toller” published in 1940 in an anthology called Another Time.
1893: It was reported today that among the
dignitaries who had served Thanksgiving Dinner to the children at the United
Hebrew Charities’ Industrial School were H.S. Allen, Dr. H.P. Mendes and Mrs.
Louis Mendes.
1893: In Rockport, IN,
Mathilde Schoenfeld and Ferdinand Weil gave birth Purdue University student
Berthe Born, the wife of Isaac Born who settled in Indianapolis where she
served as State President of the Temple Sister of Indiana, president of the
Jewish Council of Women and as a member off the executive committee of the
National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.
1894: New Yorker A. M.
Huntington has purchased University of Chicago Professor William I. Knapp’s
6,000 volume library that included the Ferrara Bible of 1443 which is known as
the “Jews Bible.
1895: It was reported
today that the Harmonie clubhouse at 42nd Street between Fifth and
Sixth Avenues “has already been the scene of some excellent affairs” and that
“the club is deeply interested in the success of the Hebrew fair” which means
the club “will not give any of its larger affairs until late December.”
1895: It was reported
today “that mint sauce, the accompaniment of roast lamb is a survival of the
Jewish custom of eating the Passover lamb with bitter herbs.”
1895: “Dr. Silverman On
Armenia” published today provided a summary of the views of Rabbi Joseph
Silverman of Temple Emanu-El on “the
Turkish persecution directed against the Armenians” as well the Turkish persecution against Christian
missionaries, and against those Americans residing in the Ottoman Empire.
Silverman believes that Jews, given their own history of persecution, have an
obligation to speak out when others persecuted.
1895: Despite the
dismissal of an indictment against Peter Peiser, a delicatessen dealer, who had
been arrested for selling sausage on Sunday, today the police will follow the
instruction of Acting Police Chief Conlin and arrest today any violators of the
Sunday law prohibiting sales after ten o’clock in the morning.
1896: The Fifteenth
Biennial Council of the American Hebrew Congregations opened today in
Louisville, KY, with a business meeting in the gymnasium of the Yong Men’s
Hebrew Associations and ending with a “musicale” at Liederkranz Hall.
1897: Moritz Rosenthal
is scheduled to “give his first piano recital…at the Academy of Music.”
1897: Le Figaro
published a letter from Zola entitled “Le Syndicat” “in which the novelist
defended the position of the Dreyfus faction.”
1897: In Brooklyn,
Bertha and Leib Lurie gave birth Pratt Institute trained architect and
president of the Lurie Mortgage Corporation Irving H. Lurie, the architectural
consultant to the United Synagogues of American a founder of the Temple Israel
in Great Neck, NY, who was the husband of “the former Miriam Kamaiky” with whom
he had two sons and a daughter.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/01/03/89313465.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1897: In Baltimore,
Rose Weiller and Joseph Leopold gave birth to Johns Hopkins trained medical
doctor Eugene Joseph Leopold, the husband of Sadie H. Frank and instructor in
clinical medicine at Johns Hopkins ho was a member of the executive committee
of the Hebrew Benevolent Society in Baltimore and president of the medical
board of the Hebrew Hospital in Baltimore.
1898: The United States
Consul at Beirut wrote a report today “The Jews in Palestine” which opened by
saying “In view of the impetus given the Zionist movement by the second Zionist
congress held at Basel in September and also by the Palestine journey of
Emperor Wilhelm II, the present status of Jews in Palestine becomes a matter of
general interest.”
1899: Forty-six-year-old
Vaiben Louis began serving as the 21st Premier of South Australia.
1899: “People’s
Synagogue Beth El Conservative congregation, led by M. G. Solomon, rabbi. Rabbi
Sigmund Hecht (1849-1927) came to Los Angeles as Congregation B’nai B’rith’s
new Reform rabbi. Beth Israel (Olive St. Shul), the oldest Orthodox
congregation, was founded” today
1900(9th of
Kislev, 5661): Parashat Veyetzei
1900(9th of
Kislev, 5661): Joshua Ḥayyim ben Mordecai ha-Levi Epstein also known as
"Reb Joshua Ḥayyim the Sarsur" who authored a “novella on the Midrah
Rabbot” passed away today in his native Wilna.
1901: Birthdate of
Budapest native and world class violinist Ilona Fehér who escaped a
concentration with her daughter, fought with the partisans and made Aliyah in
1949 where she resumed and expanded her career which is forever memorialized by
the foundation created in her name.
1901: The St. Louis
World’s Fair which included a display of Conrad Schick’s final model, in four
sections, each representing the Temple Mount as it appeared in a particular
era, came to a close today.
1901: The St. Louis
World’s Fair which included nine of the works of Moshe Maimon which were on
display at the Russian Exhibition came to a close today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Maimon#/media/File:Maimon-Marrans.jpg
1902 It was reported
today the Mrs. Moses Goldenberg and Rabbi William Rosenau are scheduled to
deliver the opening address at the Convention of the National Council of Jewish
Women in Baltimore.
1903: In Russia, Nathan
Bassok and his wife gave birth to Bessie Bassok who became Bessie Bassok
Warshawsky when she married Samuel Warshawsky in 1923.
1903: Twenty-five-year-old
Max Weinstein, the Russian born son of Samuel and Gertrud (Lipkind) Weinstein,
the president of “Weinstein Brothers Coat House and a director of Beth Israel
Hospital married Bertha Arbus today in New York City.
1904: It was reported
today that Rabbi Joseph Silverman, Edward Mandel, Algernon S. Schaffer and
Mayer L. Halff were among those who had attended “the first anniversary
celebration of the Emanuel Brotherhood at Temple Emanu-EL
1905: A review of The
White Terror and The Red: A Novel of Revolutionary Russia by Abraham Cahan said
that “he revolutionary outbreaks in Russia, and particularly the rioting and
massacre of Jews in Odessa seem to have been foretold in Abraham Cahan’s dramatic
novel of revolutionary Russia in which the vivid pictures of the mob looting
houses and assailing men, women and children while the gutters ran with liquor
and the streets were strewn with household goods, affords a realistic idea of
actual present conditions in the present centers of disturbance in Russia.”
http://www.amazon.com/The-White-Terror-And-Revolutionary/dp/0548965617
http://www.amazon.com/The-White-Terror-And-Revolutionary/dp/0548965617#reader_0548965617
1905: As of today, it
was reported that the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York is caring for over 1,030
children.
1905: As of today, the
national committee collecting funds for the relief of the Jews being attacked
in Russia totaled $970,130 included contributions of $217 from the Community of
Baton Rouge, LA, $510 from the “Israelites and friends of Augusta, GA and $158
from Congregation Mt. Zion in Jersey City, NJ.
1906(14th of
Kislev, 5667): Parashat Vayishlach
1906: It was reported
today that Mayor McClellan will be one of those attending the laying of the
cornerstone of the new building of the Uptown Talmud Torah Association.
1906: Bernhard
Rothschild, the German born son Sibilla Rothschild and his wife Henriette
(Jetta) Rothschild gave birth to Elsa Rothschild Kindman
1907(25th of
Kislev, 5668): Chanukah
1907: On his 70th
birthday, in Washington, the Corcoran Gallery held a retrospective exhibit of
the paintings of Max Weyl.
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/max-weyl-5344
1907: In Alpena,
Michigan, the community’s Jewish women formed the Hebrew Ladies Benevolent
Society.
1908: It was reported
today that Congressman William S. Bennet is scheduled to deliver an address in
the auditorium of the Educational Alliance on “Immigration with particular
reference to the South and West.”
1908: According to the
report of the Board of County Canvassers made public today, William Jennings
Bryan’s official plurality in New York County was 6,318, which “is the
difference between the vote for Nathan Straus who head the column for the
Democratic electors” and the vote for his opponent who headed the Republican
column.”
1909: This month,
Columbia educated diplomat Lewis Einstein, the New York born son of Caroline
and David L. Einstein and the husband of the form Helen Ralli who had been 1st
secretary an Charge d’Affairs was appointed to serve as the secretary to the
American Legation in Peking.
1909: The first Kibbutz, Degania,
was established in pre-state Israel. Aaron David Gordon (1856-1922), one of its
founders, was considered the "Apostle" of the kibbutz movement. Each
colony was independent and democratically governed. Membership was voluntary
and all earnings and expenses were shared.
1910: While
“speaking at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at meeting called by the
Educational Committee of the Jewish Community of New York City Jacob H.
Schiff “deprecated” “a recent occasion
when Jews and Christians met in common worship” in New York City, “on the
ground that it was likely to give false ideas of the t rue relations of
different religions and expressed the opinion that while part of Christendom
treats Jews with injustice and cruelty, it useless to declare that the kingdom
of God has come.
1910:
Birthdate of NYU grad and Brooklyn Law School trained attorney, Arthur A.
Klotz, a judge of the New York Civil Court, who was the husband of the former
Rose Cohen and the father of Dr. Richard, Howard and Susan Klotz.
1911: Peter
Bercovitch, of Montreal was appoint “King’s Consul” today.
1911: The
Queen of Holland appointed T.M.C. Asser as a “member of the committee
formulating the Government’s proposals to the International Committee making
arrangements for the third Peace Conference at the Hague.
1911: In
Montreal, during a meeting of the Baron de Hirsch Institute, attendees
expressed their opposition to “the forcible teaching of Christians Scriptures
in schools largely attended by Jewish children.”
1912: Miss
Kate Block is scheduled to perform as the soloist at the Seventh Sunday
afternoon concert hosted by the Institute in Chicago.
1912:
Yiddish theatre stars Jacob P. Adler, Leon Blank and Francis Adler are
scheduled to perform for the last time tonight at the Haymarket in Chicago this
evening.
1912: The
People’s Synagogue Association held services this afternoon at the Ziegfeld
Theatre on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
1913:
Birthdate of Hilda Hammerschlagova, who in 1942 was deported from Prague to
Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.
1913: Crete, having obtained self-rule from Turkey after the First
Balkan War, is annexed by Greece. “The Jews of Crete are first mentioned in 2
Maccabees and appear to have had a community at Gortys.” “Toward the end of the 19th century, Crete
was made into an independent republic under a Greek prince regent. A parliament
was established, with several Jewish representatives, who managed to claim
their constitutionally guaranteed seats with great difficulty. After Crete was
formally annexed to Greece in 1913, Jewish emigration continued until, by 1941,
there were only 364 Jews in Hania, 1 in Rethymnon, and 7 in Herakleion.”
1913(2nd of Kislev, 5674): Sixty-seven-year-old Rosa
(Kahn) Hirschel, the daughter of Samuel and Henriette Kahn passed away today in
Schopfen.
1913: Children of Today written by Clara Lipman opened in
Broadway.
1914: It was reported today
that the “lack of adequate schools in the rural” areas of the United States
“was given as the chief reason why more Jews did not take up farming” – a
reality that is being overcome by some daring individuals including “Isaac
Neleber the 25-year-old owner of a 120 acre in Connecticut.”
1914: A
list of contributors to the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews suffering
through the war published today included I.L. Greenblatt, San Francisco;
Congregation Augdas Achim, Little Rock, AR; Congregation Agudas Achim,
Bessemer, Alabama; Congregation Agudas Achim, Braddock, PA; Congregation B’nai
Zion, Farrell, PA and Congregation Eitz Chaim in Ellwood City, PA
1914: In
Hlinski. Otto Taussig and Frederike, née Federer Taussig gave birth to Czech
journalist Josef Taussig and “amateur trombonist” who used his musical skills
to survive for almost two years at Theresienstadt before being shipped to
Auschwitz and ultimately dying at Flossenburg.
1914:
“Frank Appeals to Highest Court” published today provides a complete of the
pleadings made by the attorneys representing Leo Frank before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
1915: First
night of a “fete” held for the benefit of the Spanish and Portuguese Sisterhood
which is chaired by Mrs. Mortimer M. Meken.
1915: “The
Joint Distribution Committee which represents the three largest of the American
Jewish committees for the relief of Jewish sufferers in the European war zones
voted” today to send those in need an additional $229,000 of aid.
1915: “The
Spanish and Portuguese Congregation gave a series of historical tableaus in its
synagogue” tonight “as part of a fair held by the Sisterhood to raise funds to
aid Oriental Jews” who have been forced to come to the United States to seek
refuge from the World War.
1916; “The
Executive Committee of the Federation of Jewish Farmers was instructed by a
resolution adopted” today “at the Convention of the organization held in the
Education to petition President Wilson and Congress asking that no restriction
be placed upon immigration” because “there is a dearth of farm labor at present
which is a decided handicap to those who are operating farms.”
1916:
Italian government declares an Italian, and not a native, be appointed as
rabbinate in Tripoli. Arabs are in charge of local courts of justice and deal
unjustly against Jews.
1916: While
serving with the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front, Leonard
Maurice Keysor was promoted to the rank of Sergeant today.
1916: In
Illinois, Betram Joseph Can and Irma B. Cahn gave birth to Bertram Joseph Cahn,
Jr.
1917: In
furious fighting at Nebi Samwill, Imperial forces repulsed numerous
counterattacks by the Ottoman Seventh Army.
1917: As
the British fought the Turks in and around Jerusalem, it was reported today
that one Turkish airplane “was driven down out of control and one was damaged”
when five enemy planes attacked three Allied aircraft.
1917(16th
of Kislev, 5678): Just 28 days before his 63rd birthday Dr. Henry M.
Leipzieger, whose twenty-five year career in New York City education culminated
with his service as Supervisor of Lectures of the Board of Education passed
away today.
1917: A fund-raising
campaign led by Jacob Schiff is scheduled to begin today in New York City.
1917: The Bolshevik Armistice Commission, with two
Jews, Adolf Jofee and Leo Kamenev (Trotsky’s brother-in-law) as chief
negotiators left Petrograd for peace talks with the Germans at Brest-Litovsk.
1917:
It was reported today that the “Turko-German artillery again made its objective
the mosque erected on the traditional sit of the tomb of the Prophet Samuel”
resulting in the destruction of the minaret “by this bombardment.”
1918:
“The French expelled Harry Besslau from Stasbourg because he was a
‘militant-pan Germanist.’”
1918:
Following the incorporation of Bessarabia and Bukovina, Transylvania united
with Romania to form what will become known as Greater Romania. Greater Romania
gained its legitimacy as a result of the Versailles Peace Conference that end
World War I, during which 882 Jewish soldiers died defending Romania (and 825
were decorated). This enlarged state had an increased Jewish population. Based
on treaties signed after the war, the government of Romania agreed to change
its policy towards the Jews, promising to award them both citizenship and
minority rights, the effective emancipation of Jews.
1918: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
The redrawing of the map of Europe by the Allied Powers following WW I
was intended to break up the old European imperial system recognizing the
aspirations of a variety of nationalities throughout central and eastern
Europe. The process may have looked very
tidy in the drawing rooms of London and Paris.
But it was quite messy for those having to live it out and this very
true for the Jews of the Balkans. For a
primer on the early days of the Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities in the
political invention called Yugoslavia read the following: http://www.ceu.hu/jewishstudies/pdf/02_goldstein.pdf
1918:
Iceland becomes a sovereign state yet remains a part
of the Danish kingdom. Jews were not officially allowed to reside in Iceland
until 1855 when the parliament complied with the request of the Danish king to
allow Jews to enter the little island and trade under the same terms as had
been adopted in Denmark. By the end of 19th there were a small
number of trading agents which represented firms owned by Danish Jews but there
is no record as to how many of them, if any were Jewish. A Jewish Danish merchant named Fritz Heyman
Nathan moved to Iceland and pursued a successful business career in Reykjavik
in the first two decades of the twentieth century. He moved returned to Copenhagen to pursue his
business interest, having found that Iceland was a hard place to follow a
Jewish way of life. Today, the Jewish
population of Iceland is miniscule.
1919:
Tonight, Rabbi Nathan Krass told the delegates at a meeting of the National of
Federation Temple Sisterhoods from the ten societies in New York that “There is
a need now for a great Jewish renaissance and it is up to the women of America
who have done so much philanthropic work to band together on a national scale
and carry on the work that is their duty to do.”
1920: In the House of Lords, Lord Crawford declared that “in the
application of the Balfour Declaration the revival of Hebrew is legitimately
considered to play an important part…and that the percentage of the Jewish
population in Palestine speaking” classical Hebrew with such modifications as
modern conditions require “is probably between 60 and 70” per cent.
1921: In South Philadelphia, Morris Wolinsky and the former Sadie
Pincus gave birth to Sylvia Wolinsky who gained game as actress Sylvia Kauders.
(As reported by Sam Roberts)
1921(30th of Cheshvan, 5682): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1921: The additional recovery of the German mark on the London
exchange “was assisted by optimism regarding the negotiations led by Walter
Rathenau, the former German Minister of Reconstruction, regarding “Germany’s
forthcoming reparations payment and the possibility of a moratorium. (Rathenau
was the German industrialist who played a key role in putting the Kaiser’s
economy on war-time footing which did nothing to ameliorate the Kaiser’s
anti-Semitism and the victim of German assassin who murdered him as the
“stabbed in the back” myth took hold in the 1920’s)
1921:
Following an investigation into Sir Edgar Speyer's
wartime conduct held in camera by the Home Office's Certificates of
Naturalization (Revocation) Committee, his naturalization was revoked by an
order issued today.
1921: It was reported today that Sam Harris is producing “Face to
Face.”
1922: Rabbi Joseph Stolz delivered the sermon at the Isiah Temple
at Hyde Park Blvd and Greenwood Avenue.
1922(11th of Kislev, 5683): Thirty-four-year-old Dr.
Moses Feinberg, the son of Barnett and Dora Kriss Feinberg passed away at which
he was buried at Bayside Cemetery.
1923:Today, Frederick William Spiegel, the grandson of Joseph
Spiegel, founder of a local home furnishing business and the son of Modie
Joseph Spiegel, director of the successful, huge mail-order company, Spiegel's
Home Furnishing Company married his first wife Clara Elizabeth Gatzert with
whom he had two children.
1923:
Constitution of Romania sanctioned these requirements, meeting opposition from
Cuza's National-Christian Defense League and rioting by right-wing students
1922: Rabbi S. Felix Mendelsohn led services at Temple Beth Israel
on North Kedzie Blvd.
1924: “Lady, Be Good” a George and Ira Gershwin musical “premiered
on Broadway at the Liberty Theatre tonight.”
1924: In Indianapolis, funeral services are scheduled to be held
for 14 year old William Hayes Block, the grandson of William H. Block,
president of the William H. Block, after which he will be interred in the
Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation Cemetery.
1925: “The Love Trap,” a silent movie filmed by cinematographer
Heinrich Garnter who would be forced to flee Germany when the Nazis came to
power because of his Jewish descent and featuring Johannes Reimann who became
“a member of the Nazi party.”
1925: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 60-year-old
Julius M. Mayer, the New York born son of “ of J. Daniel and Fannie (Marshuetz)
Mayer and Columbia Law School Graduate who had served as a Judge of the United
States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Southern District of New York.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/12/01/100033339.pdf
1925: Mr. and Mrs. Abraham J. Cahan arrived in New York today
aboard the SS Majestic. Mr. Cahan
is editor of the Forwards. They were returning from a month long visit
to Palestine where Mr. Cahan had spent most of his time investigating the
growth and development of the newly created city of Tel Aviv
1925:
Birthdate of Dr. Martin Rodbell. American biochemist who was awarded the 1994
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery in the 1960s of
natural signal transducers called G-proteins that help cells in the body
communicate with each other. He shared the prize with Alfred G. Gilman, who
later proved Rodbell's hypothesis, by isolating the G-protein, which is so
named because it binds to nucleotides called guanosine diphosphate and
guanosine triphosphate, or
1926: “The Third
Degree” the first American movie directed by Michael Curtiz which was based on
the play by Charles Klein was released today in the United States.
1927: Today “Spider,”
co-staring Anton Ascher as “Dick” was performed on Broadway at Chanin’s 46th
Street Theatre for the last time.
1927 Final performance
of “People Don’t Do Such Things” produced by Morris Green on Broadway at the
48th Street Theatre.
1927(7th of
Kislev, 5688): Sixty-eight-year-old Isaac N. Fleischner, the son of Jacob and
Fanny Fleischner and the husband of Tessie Golinsky of San Francisco whose
business activities led him to spend “five years in Europe and Africa” and who
“the first President of the Portland Lodge of the International Order of B’nai
B’rith passed away today after which he was buried at Beth Israel Cemetery in
Portland Oregon.
1927: Birthdate of
Mordkhe Schaechter, a leading Yiddish linguist who spent a lifetime studying,
standardizing and teaching the language.
1927: Birthdate Abraham Goodman, the native of
Philadelphia who grew up in East Pittsburg and went to become American film
writer and producer Abby Mann best known for his work on controversial subjects
and social drama. His most famous work is the drama Judgment at Nuremberg,
which was initially a television drama aired in 1959. Stanley Kramer directed
the 1961 film adaptation, for which Mann received the Academy Award for Best
Adapted Screenplay. In his acceptance speech, he said: "A writer worth his
salt at all has an obligation not only to entertain but to comment on the world
in which he lives." Mann later adapted the play for a 2001 production on
Broadway, which featured Maximilian Schell from the 1961 film in a different
role. Working on television, he most notably created the television series Kojak,
starring Telly Savalas. Mann was executive producer, but was credited as a
writer also on many episodes. His other writing credits include the screenplays
for the television films The Marcus-Nelson Murders, The Atlanta Child
Murders Teamster Boss: The Jackie Presser Story, and Indictment:
The McMartin Trial, as well as the film War and Love. He passed away
in 2008 at the age of 80
1927(7th of Kislev, 5688):
Sixty-eight year old Newton Fleishner, the Albany, Oregon, born son
Bohemian natives Jacob Fleischner and Fanny who was an 1878 graduate of St.
Augustine’s College, a partner in Fleischner, Mayer & Company, “the largest
wholesale dry goods house on the Pacific coast” and President of the local
B’nai B’rith Lodge and the husband Tessie Goslinsky with whom he had two
daughter passed away today after which he was buried in the Beth El Cemetery in
Portland, Oregon.
1927: “The False Prince” a film set in
post-World War I Germany produced by Lothar Stark was released in the Weimar
Republic.
1928: “A London reported received today by the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency” said that the “Fascist press” in Italy had “taken
exception to the terminology employed by the Italian Zionists during their
recent convention.”
1928: “Dream of Love,” a silent film featuring
Carmel Myers as “The Countess” was released in the United States today by MGM
1928: In New York, “Austro-Hungarian Jews,
Samuel and Rebecca Thorne gave birth to Malachi Throne.
1929: Eleven months after premiering in
Germany, “Pandora’s Box” featuring Siegfried “Sig” Arno opened today in New
York City.
1929(28th of Cheshvan, 5690): Seventy-nine-year-old
German pharmacologist Louis Lewin who in 1886 “published the first methodical
analysis of the Peyote cactus, a variant of which was named Anhalonium lewinii
in his honor” passed away today in Berlin.
1929: Journalist Emil Ludwig (born Emil Cohn)
interviewed Mustafa Kemel Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.
1930: Birthdate of Joachim Hoffmann, the German
military historian, who contended that the number of Jews killed during the
Holocaust, was in the thousands and not the millions and who testified on
behalf of Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf.
1930: The “so-called matzoh trust trial” where
“the question to be answered was whether or not Horowitz Brothers &
Margareten, Inc. of New York and B. Manishewitz Company of Ohio constituted a
combination in restraint as charged by Rabbi Moses Winberger, Inc.” opened
today,
1931: Twenty-five-year-old Eduard Strauch who
would convicted as War Criminal for his role in the mass murder of the Jews of
Riga became a member of the SS.
1931: Birthdate of Mervyn Taylor, the native of
Dublin who became a solicitor and leader of the Irish Labour Party.
1931: “Mistigri,” directed by Harry Lachman was
released in France today.
1932: “Fight Kosher Food Racket” published
today described plans for the Kashruth Association of Greater New York to issue
a new emblem to aid in combatting “racketeering in the production and sale of
Kosher food.
1933:
In Australia, Hyman and David Wolfensohn gave birth to Sir James David
Wolfensohn the Australian who was the ninth president of the World Bank Group.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/archive/history/past-presidents/james-david-wolfensohn
1934(24th
of Kislev, 5695): Parashat Vayeshev; in the evening kindle the first light of
Chanukah
1934:
Rabbi Joshua L. Goldberg led services as the Astoria Center of Israel in
Queens.
1934:
In the Soviet Union, Leonid Nioleav murdered Sergei Kirov, the head of the
Communist Party in Leningrad providing Stalin with an excuse to start the five
year long purge known as The Great Terror the first victims of which were two
Jewish leaders, Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev.
1935: Birthdate of Woody Allen
1935: In
Cleveland, OH, “checks and pledges for $75,000 for the Rothschild Hadassah
University Hospital to be built in Palestine” which will cost nearly $700,000,
“were given today at the final meeting of Hadassah.”
1936: “Dr.
Isaac Herzog, the chief rabbi of Dublin, Ireland, was elected chief rabbi of
Palestine today by a council of seventy elders, which is the modern equivalent
of the Hebrew Sanhedrin.
1936: “At
today’s session of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Palestine, Moshe Shertok,
head of the political department of the Jewish Agency told of the work being
done in European countries to prepare prospective immigrants for pioneer tasks
in Palestine” the aim of which is to “forge both muscles and spirit so as to
change university students and shopkeepers in farmers, artisans and manual
laborers.”
1936: On
behalf of “the Brooklyn lodge of B’nai B’rith, the largest Jewish fraternal
organization in the United States” Postmaster Albert Goldman “presented an
award” tonight “to the Brooklyn Daily
Eagle as the metropolitan New York City newspaper that had done most this
year to promote ‘inter-racial amity and comity as well as good-will among the
people of the United States.”
1937:
This date marks the seventh anniversary of the Palestine Post, which would later become the Jerusalem Post.
1937(27th
of Kislev, 5698): Third Day of Chanukah
1937(27th
of Kislev, 5698): Seventy-nine-year-old attorney Eli Benjamin Felsenthal, the
son of former school board member Herman Felsenthal and Gertrude Felsenthal and husband of Nettie
Goldsmith Felsenthal with whom he had five children who was “the last surviving
of the charter members of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago”
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/12/03/94469455.pdf
1937:
“Courage of the West” a “B” movie of the singing cowboy genre, which marked the
directorial debut of Joseph H. Lewis was released today in the United States.
1937:
“The original Broadway production of ‘Hooray for What!’ with music by Harold
Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg opened at the Winter Garden Theatre.
1937:
The Palestine Post reported that two
members of a police patrol, a British sergeant and an Arab constable were
killed by an Arab terrorist gang at Wadi Malak, near Haifa. A Public Works
Department store was sabotaged and burnt out at Tulkarm.
1938:
Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Haining, the General Officer Commanding British
Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan, reported secretly to the Cabinet that
"practically every village in the country harbors and supports the rebels
and will assist in concealing their identity from the Government Forces."
1938: Reichsbank President Hjalmar
Schacht travels to London to propose to George Rublee, of the Intergovernmental
Committee for Political Refugees, an extortionate scheme: German Jews could
emigrate if they put up cash assets that would be transferred to the Reich upon
emigration. This Schacht-Rublee plan will be abandoned in January 1939, when
Schacht will be dismissed by Hitler after Schacht objects to the high cost of
Germany's rearmament.
1938:
The British Cabinet allows 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children into Britain in
an action called the Kindertransport. (Britain, however, refuses to
allow 21,000 more Jewish children into Palestine.) The rescued children come
from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia with the help of British, Jewish, and
Quaker welfare organizations. Because of the Holocaust, most of the children
will never see their parents again, and many of the Jewish children will be
converted to Christianity.
1938:
Today, with the support of Cyrus Adler (who had presided over his ordination
less than a decade before), Rabbi Alexander Burnstein “became the executive
secretary of the Advisory Committee on Refugee Jewish Ministers>
1939:
This date marked the final deportation of Jews from Poland to the Soviet
Union. The Jews had been marched from Chelm to Hrubieszow, Poland. Then 1800 Jews set off marching from
Hrubieszow, Poland to the Soviet border. More than 1,400 were killed on
December 4 on or near the Russian border.
1939: German Field Marshal Johannes
Blaskowitz, commander-in-chief of the German Army Group East, reports that many
Jewish children in transport trains are arriving at their destinations frozen
to death.
1939: The Lipowa camp at Lipowa Street in
Lublin, Poland, is established. It is initially an assembly point for
Polish-Jewish POWs, and it will later be a Jewish work camp.
1939:
Lódz (Poland) Ghetto administrator Friedrich Übelhör notes that ghettoization
of Jews is only temporary. The final goal is to clean Jews out of Lódz, to
"utterly destroy this bubonic plague."
1939:
Publication date of Desert Democracy by Roy L. Smith, “the story of ancient
Jews and how their struggles for freedom contributed to modern democracy.”
1940: Inside the Warsaw (Poland)
Ghetto, Polish-Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum begins work on a secret
diary of ghetto life.
1940: “Veteran song writer, actor and
movie director Gus Edward” who “discovered Eddie Cantor, George Jessel and
Groucho Marx” and Lillian Boulanger celebrated their 35th wedding
anniversary today.
1940: “ Anne's father, Otto Frank, moved
the offices of the spice and gelling companies he worked for, Opekta and
Pectacon, from an address on Singel canal to Prinsengracht 263.”
1941: Lew Zickman left Japan today
aboard the Tatsuma Maru which was
bound for the United States.
1941: The German Ministry of
Occupied Eastern Territories decrees that the destruction of Jews shall
continue irrespective of economic considerations; i.e., the allure of unpaid
Jewish labor will be ignored.
1941:
During the murder of 5000 Jews at Novogrudok, Belorussia, 200 Jews resist and
kill 20 Nazis before being gunned down.
1941:
“Himmler issued strict instructions to Frederich Jeckelin that no mass murder
of Jews shipped from Germany to the ghetto in Riga were take place without his
express orders”
1941: Ten thousand Jews deported
from Odessa, Ukraine, are murdered at camps at Acmecetka, Bogdanovka, and
Domanevka, Romania.
1941: Mass murders of Jews in the
Ukraine and Volhynia region of Poland are slowed when the frozen ground
prevents the digging of execution pits.
1941: Fur coats belonging to Jews
in eastern Germany are confiscated by the Nazis. They'll be used by German
soldiers on the Eastern Front.
1941: The Jesuit journal Civiltà
Cattolica, published in Rome under strict Vatican supervision, reminds
Catholics that the Jews are supposedly those primarily responsible for
murdering God and that the Jews repeat this crime by means of ritual murder
"in every generation."
1941: For the next three days and
nights, seven thousand Jews from Novogrudok, Belorussia, are forced to stand
all day and night in frigid temperatures outside the municipal courthouse. Five
thousand are taken away to their deaths on the 6th; the remaining 2000 are
impressed into forced labor at suburban Pereshike
1941: According to an Einsatzkomando Report only 15% of Lithuanian Jews
were left alive less than six months after the Nazis had invaded the Soviet
Union.
1941: The German established a ghetto in Losice forcing all the Jews from
surrounding areas to move there.
1941: Himmler issued “strict instructions that no mass murders of
deported German Jews were to occur without his express orders.
1942: Birthdate of Israeli-American businessman Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter,
who owned Remington and Mavel Toys before become CEO of Marvel Entertainment.
1942: Birthdate of New Yorker world shotput champion Gary Gubner who
switched to weightlifting and finished fourth at the 1964 Olympic Games.
1942: Ayn
Rand, novelist and creator of Objectivism, delivered the completed manuscript
of her novel The Fountainhead to
her publisher
1942: Four hundred laborers were killed at Karczew a town near Warsaw
1942: Members of the Siemiatycze (Poland) Group
of Jewish resisters kill a Polish peasant and his entire family as retribution
for the peasant's capture and betrayal to the Nazis of three Jews.
1942: Nazis lock 1000 Gypsies in a Lithuanian
synagogue until the prisoners starve to death.
1942 Ghetto resistance is organized at Czestochowa and
Kielce, Poland.
1942: At Brody, Ukraine, Jewish resistance is
led by Solomon Halberszstadt, Jakub Linder, and Samuel Weiler.
1942: Jewish resistance at Chortkov, Ukraine,
is led by Heniek Nusbaum, Mundek Nusbaum, Reuven Rosenberg, and Meir Wasserman.
1942: Jewish Resistance leader Dr. Yeheskel
Atlas, a young Polish physician, is mortally wounded by Nazi troops in a battle
at Wielka Wola, Poland.
1942: The Jewish ghetto at Lvov, Ukraine, is
liquidated.
1942: The SS shuts down extermination
activities at Belzec.
1942: A Sonderkommando plan to escape
from Auschwitz is discovered, and the inmates are gassed.
1942: A forced-labor camp is established at
Plaszów, Poland.
1942(22nd of Kislev, 5703): Partisan leader Hirsch Kaplinski,
survivor of an August 1942 massacre of Jews at Diatlovo, Belorussia, is killed
in combat during a German attack on the Lipiczany Forest.
1942: Roosevelt and
Churchill issued a joint public statement revealing the dire facts of the Nazi
extermination program aimed at the Jews and issuing a solemn warning that
individuals engaged in it would ultimately would be tried as war criminals.
1943: Mussolini ordered the arrest of "all Jews
living on the national territory." As a result Italian police and
carabinieri arrested thousands, who were promptly delivered to the Germans and
deported to Auschwitz. Within Italy, 200 Jews were murdered by German Nazis and
their Italian Fascist collaborators. “However, by now, many Italians did not
follow Il Duce's bidding and 40,000 Italian Jews survived the war while another
8,000 died.
1943: United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau
instructs assistants Randolph Paul and John W. Pehle to investigate the State
Department's handling of the Jewish refugee issue.
1943: The Daman Yankee, a B-17 piloted by Bruce Sundlun was damaged by
flack during a bombing run over Solingen, Germany. The plane was so badly damaged that crew was
forced to bail out over Jabbeke, Belgium.
Before bailing out, Sundlun turned the plane to make sure it crashed
harmlessly into a turnip field instead of landing in the town, an act of
derring-do that earned him the designation of honorary citizen in 2009. (Sundlun
would serve the war and eventually served as the second Jewish governor of Rhode
Island)
1944: After three months' work at Lieberose, Germany, Nazis suspend
slave labor on a vacation complex for German officers. They instead evacuate
the Jewish workers 100 miles on foot northwest to the concentration camp at
Sachsenhausen, Germany. Of the 3,500 who began the march, only 900 arrived at
the destination. Several hundred sick inmates who were unable to begin the
march were shot in their beds.
1944: Birthdate of Eric Bloom of “Blue Oyster” fame.
1944: American pollster Elmo Roper warns that anti-Semitism has
infected the U.S., most strongly in and around cities.
1945: Anti-Semitic Poles murder 11 Jews in the town of Kosow-Lacki,
Poland, which is located less than six miles from the site of the Treblinka
extermination camp.
1945: Oliver Cox, an American sociologist, concludes that Christians
in the United States regard the Jew as "our irreconcilable enemy within
the gates, the antithesis of our God, the disturber of our way of life and of
our social aspirations."
1945: After having been “convicted and sentenced to by an American
military tribune, a photographer was taken of German General Anton Dostler
being “tied to a stake before his execution by a firing squad.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-171.jpg
1945: In Honolulu, Ruth (née Schindel), a seamstress and housewife, Fred
Midler who worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and was also a
housepainter gave birth to University of Hawaii graduate Bette Middler the
singer, actress and comedian who got her start singing in the Continental
Bathhouse and is known as “The Divine Miss M.”
1946: Birthdate of the multi-talented Jonathan Paul Katz.
http://www.jonathankatz.com/homepage.html
1946: Anglo-Jewish teacher Esther Cailingold, who would die while
defending the Old City from the Arab Legion in 1948, arrived in Jerusalem where
she would teach English at the Evelina de Rothschild School.
1947: In response to the partition vote, the Arab High Committee declared
that November 29 was henceforth to be “a day of mourning” and that it marked
the beginning of the struggle against the Partition.
1947: Birthdate of University of Rochester alum and Stanford Ph.D. Alan
Ira Abramowitz the political scientist and author, who was awarded the Alben W.
Barkley Distinguished Chair in Political Science at Emory University in 1993.
1947: The Arab League plans to meet and discuss ways to resist the
partition of Palestine into two states.
1947: Emanuel Neuman, President of the Zionist Organization of America,
sought formal recognition of the Jewish volunteer defense units as being the
Jewish militia in Palestine.
1947: In Cluj in Transylvania, Romania, Shmuel Grunzweig and his wife
Olga who was a survivor of Auschwitz gave birth to Emil Grunzweig who made
Aliyah in 1963 and after serving in several wars with the IDF became a teach
and “a peace activist affiliated with ‘Peace Now.’”
1948: U.S. premiere of the “Adventures of Don Juan” a swashbuckler
directed by Vincent Sherman and produced by Jerry Wald with music by Max
Steiner.
1948: The Arab Congress names Abdullah of Trans Jordan, King of
Palestine. Abdullah earned this title
because the Jordanian Army (known as the Arab Legion) had successfully crossed
the Jordan River and seized what is now called the West Bank and the eastern
section of Jerusalem. Under the partition plan, the area of the West Bank
should have been part of an Arab State.
Apparently the Arabs saw things differently since they awarded it to
Abdullah as “spoil” for his part in the war against the Jewish state. Since it now held land on both sides of the
Jordan, Trans-Jordan would officially change its name to Jordan. Please note, there was no attempt to create
an independent Palestinian state on this land for the almost twenty years it
was occupied by the Jordanian Army.
1948: Riots break out in Damascus in response to King Abdullah of
Transjordan being proclaimed king of Palestine at a meeting of central
Palestinian Arabs in Jericho and Syrian premier Jamil Mardam Bey and his
cabinet resign.
1949: The
UN General Assembly's Political Subcommittee
recommends an international Jerusalem despite objections of Israel and Jordan.
1949: “The Spider and The Fly” co-starring Nadia Gray born Nadia Kujnir to
a Jewish family in Bucharest was released today in the United Kingdom.
1950: Ten boxes containing thousands of documents describing life in the
Warsaw Ghetto collected by Oyneg Shabbos which was part of what we call the
Ringelblum Archive, name in honor of historian Emanuel Ringelbum who gave a
whole new depth of meaning to the Biblical command “Zachor… Remember let you
forget” was unearthed today. (For more see Who Wil Write Our History by
Samuel D. Kassow)
1950: Today, during the Korean War, U.S. Army Corporal Morris Meshulam was
captured in the Gaunlet near Kunu-ri and taken as a Prisoner of War.
1951(2nd of Kislev, 5712): Parashat Toldot
1951: “Julian
Freeman, president of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds,
reported tonight that American Jewish community organizations had raised more
than $1,000,000,000 in the last ten years to meet philanthropic needs in
Israel, overseas and in the United States.”
1953(24th of Kislev, 5714): First Chanukah Candle kindled for
the first time during the Presidency of Ike Eisenhower.
1955: CCNY alum and Columbia trained physician Dr. Morris Green was
appointed deputy chief surgeon of the Police Department today.
1956(27th of Kislev, 5717): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of
Chanukah.
1956: It was reported today that 13-year-old violinist “a deadpan bundle of
talent” has made his debut at Carnegie Halll where he “went through a difficult
program without turning a hair or moving a facial muscle.”
1956: Today movie goers in New York can see “The Ten Commandments,” “Giant”
based on the novel of the same name by Edna Ferber, “Lust for Life,” starring
Kirk Doughlas or “The Solid Gold Cadillac,” starring Judy Holiday.
1956: The Dutch Kingdom officially recognized the Jewish community of
Aruba.
1958: “The Buccaneer” a biopic about Jean Lafitte that made no reference
to rumors of his Jewish origins co-starring Clare Bloom, written by Jesse
Lasky, Jr. and with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United
States.
1959(30th of Cheshvan, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1959(30th of Cheshvan, 5720): Zlata Zershtein Harkavy, the
Grodno, Poland born daughter of R' Shimshon Zershtein and Sarah Rifkind
Zershtein and the wife of Elchanan Harkavy passed away today in Hadera.
1958: Rogers and Hammerstein’s 8th musical, “Flower Drum Song”
opened on Broadway today at the St. James Theatre with Larry Blyden playing the
role of “Sammy Fong” which would gain him a Tony Award nomination for Best
Actor in a Musical.
1959: NBC broadcast “Something Special: starring Red Buttons which was
the 9th episode of “Ford Startime.”
1959: Publication today of The Mystery of the Chinese Junk a Hardy
Boys mystery novel which was the basis for a 1967 film directed by Larry Peerce.
1959: U.S. Premiere of “The Fugitive Kind” directed by Sidney Lumet,
produced by Richard Shepherd and filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufman.
1960: In “Simon Dubnow-A Revaluation” published today, Saul Goodman
re-examines the life and the work of this Jewish historian as we mark the 100th
anniversary of his birth.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/simon-dubnow-a-revaluation/
1960: “Cimarron” the film version of Edna’s 1929 novel with a screenplay
by Arnold Schulman and music Franz Waxman
1961: Birthdate of Tel Aviv native, South African trained photographer
Nadav Kandar who “began taking pictures when he was 13 on a Pentax camera,
which he bought with his Bar Mitzvah money” and who gained a certain amount of
additional fame (or notoriety) for his photograph of the 2016 TIME Person of
the Year cover.
1961: “The Jungle,” episode 77 of the “The Twilight Zone” featuring Jay
Adler was broadcast today.
1961: Jean-Marie Gaétan Déry began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to
Israel.
1961: It was reported today that the late dress manufacturer Louis
Parnes, chairman of the board of the Paul Parnes Corporation was survived by
his daughter Mrs. Rose Ptechesky and his sons Paul, Samuel and Edward Parnes.
1962(4th of Kislev, 5723): Parashat Toldot
1962(4th of Kislev, 5723): Sixty-nine-year-old Jona von
Ustinov, the native of Jaffa “who worked for MI5 during the time of the Nazi
regime” passed away today.
http://www.statesecrets.co.uk/klop.html
1962: Ninety-two-year-old William Stiles Bennet, the member of the House
of Representatives who in 1915 worked to help Jews raise funds to aid their
brethren in war torn Europe passed away today.
1965: Although he lost his seat in the November elections, Fritja Zoaretz
“returned to the Knesset as a replacement for Shabtai Daniel.”
1966: In response to competition from W & S an automated bagel
factory that had begun operating in metropolitan New York, “the bagel bosses”
presented baker’s union with a list of “radical demands,” including a 40% pay
cut, a decrease in the number of paid holidays and a 50% cut in the number of
bakers on each shift.
1966: Yad Vashem officially recognized Father Père Marie-Benoît as a
Righteous Among the Nations for helping thousands of Jews to reach Switzerland
and Spain from the South of France and continuing his work after escaping to
Rome where he was pursued by the Gestapo.
1968: Near Amman, Jordan, Israeli commandos destroy four bridges.
1968(10th of Kislev, 5729): While on his way to the airport in
Istanbul forty-seven year old musician and actor Darío Moreno who began his career by singing
at Bar Mitzvah in the Turkish Sephardic community suffered a heart attack and
passed away.
1968: “Promises, Promises” a Burt Bacharach musical with lyrics by Hal
David and a book by Neil Simon produced by David Merrick premiered today on
Broadway at the Schubert Theatre.
1968: It was reported today that “Tel Aviv is building a huge five-level
bus terminal with local and out-of-town platforms, shops and movie theatres.
The terminal will be the world’s largest surpassing even the Port Authority
Terminal in New York City.”
1969: NBC broadcast the 12th episode of “My World and Welcome
to it” created by Melville Shavelson, produced by Sheldon Leonard and Danny
Arnold and co-starring Harold J. Stone.
1970: In Manchester, NH, Beth Ann O'Hara and Donald Silverman gave birth
to Sarah Kate Silverman of SNL fame.
1970(3rd of Kislev, 5731): Ninety-five-year-old David de Sola
Pool the native of London who served as the rabbi of New York’s Congregation
Shearith Israel — often called the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue which is
the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/02/archives/rev-dr-david-de-sola-pool-dies-at-85.html
https://www.jewishideas.org/article/rabbi-dr-david-de-sola-pool-sephardic-visionary-and-activist
1971: Jeff Goldblum was part of the chorus when “the Broadway production
of Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by Mel Shapiro opened at the St. James
Theatre, where it ran for 614 performances and won two Tony Awards.”
1971: Birthdate of Berkley, CA native and Peabody Award winning write
Akiva Schaffer, “a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island.
1972(25th
of Kislev, 5733): Chanukah
1973: Today, Rachael Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It), a
musical featuring Ellen Greene is her “first starring role on Broadway” which
had begun it Broadway previews on November 26 closed tonight “prior to it its
official opening” earning it a place on the list of all-time Broadway flops.
1973(6th of
Kislev, 5734): David Ben-Gurion, First
Prime Minister of Israel, passed away.
There is no way that a short blurb can do justice to one of the greatest
Jewish leaders in modern times.
Regardless of what one might think of his flaws, and he did have them,
without Ben-Gurion there would have not been a modern state of Israel. He was a walking contradiction: an idealist and a pragmatist; a secular Jew
who was an expert on the Bible and biblical history; a man whose hands were
hardened from manual labor on a kibbutz who taught himself English and
classical Greek; a seemingly autocratic political figure who believed in
democracy even when the process when against him. No matter how the revisionists work at it,
nobody can take away his most monumental achievement – the Jewish
homeland. To paraphrase what was said
about Maimonides, from David (the king) to David (Ben-Gurion) there was none
like David.
1973: “A small notice in the local newspapers announced Rachael
Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It) starring Ellen Greene would be
closing tonight, prior to its official opening.”
1974(17th
of Kislev, 5735): Eighty year old Cooper Union School of Engineering alum and
Fordham University trained attorney Henry J. Harkavy, the husband of “the
former Fannie Gottlieb” with whom he had two daughters – Judith and Louis –
passed away today.
1974: “In
the Guidelines and Suggestions for Implementing the Conciliar Declaration
Nostra Aetate, published today, the Holy See's Commission recalled that
"the step taken by the Council finds its historical setting in
circumstances deeply affected by the memory of the persecution and massacre of
Jews which took place in Europe just before and during the Second World
War". Yet, as the Guidelines pointed out, "the problem of Jewish-
Christian relations concerns the Church as such, since it is when
"pondering her own mystery" that she encounters the mystery of
Israel. Therefore, even in areas where no Jewish communities exist, this
remains an important problem".
1975: Over 300 British doctors appealed for the release Dr. M.
Stern who was sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment by the Soviets.
1975:
“Felix Dektor, co-editor of samizdat magazine “The Jews in the USSR”, was
expelled from the Writers’ Union” today.
1975:
Harold H. Saunders began servicing as 6th Assistant Secretary of
State for Intelligence and Research today.
https://scrc.gmu.edu/finding_aids/saunders.html
1976: NBC
broadcast the first episode of “C.P.O. Sharkey,” a sitcom starring Don Rickles,
with music by Peter Matz that was created by Aaron Ruben.
1976:
“Funeral services” are scheduled to “be held for 85 year old Philip R. Alstat,
a leading Conservative Rabbi, “columnist for the Jewish Week and former
chaplain of the Manhattan House of Correction.”
1977:
Birthdate of guitarist Bard Delson.
1977: Three
weeks into the Sadat peace initiative, the Carter administration had offered
only the faintest approval for the Egyptian president’s visit to Jerusalem and
had not yet abandoned its support for Geneva in favor of the bilateral
Egyptian-Israeli process that Sadat, Begin and Dayan were actively proposing.
1978: In
Elmsford, NY, the Greenburgh Public Library is scheduled to host “Faces and
Places in Israel,” featuring the photography of Robert Krisky and the paintings
of Elaine and Ivy Gaines.
1979(11th
of Kislev, 5740): Parashat Vayetzei
1979(11th
of Kislev, 5740): Eighty-two-year-old Jacob Samuel, the husband of Madeline
Samuel passed away today.
1980: Yosef
Mendelevich, the last of the Jewish prisoners form the First Leningrad trial
who is still in prison, begins a hunger strike.
1980(5th
of Kislev, 5742): During November 1980, 789 Jews had left the Soviet Union.
1981:
Today, Constantinople born French screenwriter Jacques Remy, “the father of
film director and critic Olivier Assayas and writer Michka Assaya” passed away
in Paris.
1982(15th
of Kislev, 5743): Sixty-seven-year-old Chicago born realtor and University of
Michigan graduate R.J. Adelman passed away today
1983(25th
of Kislev, 5744): Chanukah
1983:
“Scarface” a crime film produced by Martin Bergman, with a screenplay by Oliver
Stone whose father was Jewish and featuring Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfieffer,
Richard Belzer and Mark Margolis premiered in New York City today.
1984: Three
people were injured when grenade throwing terrorists attacked a bus in
Jerusalem.
1985: In
“First A State, Then A Nation,” published today Paul Johnson reviews Israel
The Partitioned State: A Political History Since 1900 by Amos Perlmutter.
1985: In
“Quarrying History In Jerusalem” published today Thomas Friedman described the
impact of the excavations at Zedekiah’s Cave.
1985: Zvi Kanar, an internationally known mime who survived six
concentration camps “drew upon his experiences of the Holocaust in ‘Run Jacob,
Run’ an autobiographical mimetic drama” while performing this afternoon at the
Dramatis Personae Theatre at 25 East Fourth Street in New York.
1986: Ivan
“Boesky was on the cover of Time magazine today
1987: One
Israeli soldier was injured by a terrorist crossing into Israel from Egypt.
1988(22nd
of Kislev, 5749): Seventy-eight-year-old Gwendolyn Cafritz a leading Washington
hostess often referred to as “the Jewish Pearl Mesta) and the widow of real
estate magnate Morris Cafritz passed away today. (As reported by Susan Heller
Anderson)
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/01/obituaries/gwendolyn-cafritz-78-washington-hostess.html
1988: Lisa
Bonet and Lenny Kravitz gave birth to Zoe Kravitz.
1988: As Israeli politicians struggle to form a new government after the
elections which were held on November 1, Shimon Peres signed a coalition agree
with Agudat Israel even though his Labor Party and this Orthodox political
party held different views on attempts to redefine who is Jewish under the Law
of Return.
1988: Israeli and American women joined together and attempted to
pray as a group at the Western Wall for the first time today.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/01/1988/western-wall
1988:
Israeli and American women joined together and attempted to pray as a group at
the Western Wall for the first time. More than 70 women attended the women’s
service, which included a Torah reading, at the remnant of the ancient Temple
in Jerusalem often called the Western Wall and sometimes referred to as the
Wailing Wall. These women had gathered for the first International Congress for
the Empowerment of Jewish Women and decided to go pray as a group at the Wall.
Bonna Haberman, one of the women present on that day, suggested that a women’s
prayer group meet at the Wall every Rosh Chodesh (the Jewish new moon
observance). Local Congress attendees followed through, and the group Women of
the Wall was born. Since that first service, Women of the Wall has gathered to
pray at the Western Wall every Rosh Chodesh. From the very first gathering, the
group has confronted hostile responses including physical assaults and thrown
stones, chairs, and dirty diapers. Assertion of their right to pray together as
women out loud and to conduct a public Torah service has led not only to
physical struggles but also to a protracted legal confrontation. While members
of the ultra-orthodox community attempted to pass laws that would entail a
seven-year prison sentence for women who conducted Torah services at the Wall,
the Israeli Supreme Court mandated in April 2003 that authorities needed to
make some provision for women to conduct services in the Wall area. In the
summer of 2004, the government opened an alternative prayer space adjacent to
the ancient Temple wall uncovered by archaeologists, but far removed from the
area called the Wailing Wall. Although Women of the Wall has reluctantly moved
its Torah service to this space, the women continue to use the traditional prayer
plaza for the rest of their Rosh Chodesh worship.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/01/1988/western-wall
1989:
“Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge,” a horror film starring Jonathan
Goldsmith and Pauly Shore was released in the United States today.
1989:
Birthdate of Tijuana, Mexico native Jorg Sotelo, known as Sotelúm “a modernist
and independent music artist, listed by UABC Radio and other local press media
as an elemental post-nortec visionary in the Mexican avant garde of electronic
music.”
1991: Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of
Memory by Lawrence L. Langer, Maus:
A Survivor's Tale II. And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
and Wartime Lies by
Louis Begley are among the ten books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the
country during the preceding year
1991: After
469 performances at the Booth Theatre, the curtain came down on the original
Broadway production of “Once on This Island,” a “musical with a book and lyrics
by Lynn Ahrens.
1992(6th
of Kislev, 5753): Eighty-three-year-old Rabbi Eli A. Bohnen passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/02/obituaries/eli-a-bohnen-rabbi-83.html
1993(17th
of Kislev, 5754):
Shalva Ozana, age 23, and Yitzhak Weinstock, age 19,
were shot to death by terrorists from a moving vehicle, while parked on the
side of the road to Ramallah because of engine trouble. Weinstock died of his
wounds the following morning. Iz a-Din al Kassam claimed responsibility for the
attack, stating that it was carried out in retaliation for the killing by
Israeli forces of Imad Akel, a wanted HAMAS leader in Gaza.
1994: “A
Christmas Carol” the musical version of the Dickens’ classic with music by Alan
Menken, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens who co-authored the book was performed for the
first time at the Paramount Theatre
1994(28th
of Kislev, 5755): Fourth Day of Channukah
1994(28th of Kislev, 5755): An ax-wielding
Islamic militant killed an Israeli soldier in a northern Israeli town today,
officials said. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, vowing that his peace efforts
with the Palestinians would continue despite a surge of guerrilla attacks, said
the killer belonged to the Islamic resistance movement Hamas. The Prime
Minister said no responsibility for the attack could be attached to Palestinian
self-rule authorities because the guerrilla had come from a part of the West
Bank still under Israeli control. "He did not have an entry permit into
Israel," Rabin said. "We have to investigate how he managed to get to
Afula." "We shall continue on our road to peace and to fight those
who oppose it," Rabin said. The army identified the soldier as Liat Gabai,
19, an Afula resident. The police identified the attacker as Wahib Abu Alrub,
25, from the occupied West Bank, and said he was in custody. The police
commander in Afula, Rami Rahav, said the guerrilla, from a village near the
West Bank town of Jenin, attacked the soldier near a police station, striking
her on the head with an ax. Speaking at Tel Aviv airport, where he welcomed the
two-millionth tourist to visit the Jewish state this year, Mr. Rabin told
reporters that Mr. Alrub was a Hamas member who had been detained several times
by Israel in the past.
1995:
Yigal Amir, the confessed assassin of Yitzhak Rabin,
today denied suggestions that he had acted with the approval of a rabbi and
insisted that he had decided on the killing alone after careful deliberation
1995: It was reported today that Alfred Lerner, the son
Russian-Jewish immigrants and one of America's wealthiest men, with a net worth
of $1 billion gained in real estate and banking has donated 25 million dollars
to Columbia University in New York City.
1995: “Wil Bill” a biopic about the 19th century lawman
co-starring Ellen Barkin as “Calamity Jane” was released in the United States
today.
1996: In “Schulberg Tackling Fitzgerald Play Anew” published today.
Meryl Spiegel described his interview with Budd Schulberg in this last of “the
living links to F. Scott Fitzgerald, talked about ''The Disenchanted,'' his
fictional tale of their cataclysmic collaboration on a film script. Having lost favor with the literary world of the 1930's,
the ''laureate of the Jazz Age'' was a shadow of his former self, Mr. Schulberg
recalled. Deeply in debt, physically ill and desperately trying to stay sober,
Fitzgerald grabbed the screenwriting job just to pay his bills and finance a
return to his own work. The film, called ''Winter Carnival,'' was written in
1939, two years before the writer died nearly penniless at the age of 44. ''The
Disenchanted'' was first written as a novel, published in 1950, and was later
transformed into a play that opened on Broadway in 1958. Mr. Schulberg, 82, is
probably most famous today for writing the screenplay for ''On The
Waterfront,'' starring Marlon Brando, and for his first novel, ''What Makes
Sammy Run?'' He has published many other novels, however, several works of
nonfiction, and has seen his plays produced on Broadway.”
1996: Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw who converted to Judaism
gave birth to Destry Allyn Spielberg.
1998(12th of Kislev, 5759): Forty-four-year-old
Cleveland born “Yosef Y. Kazen, a Hasidic rabbi who pioneered the use of the
Internet as a powerful recruiting and educational tool for the Lubavitch
movement” passed away today.
1999:
Amidst reports of NYPD bias, Eliot Spitzer is scheduled to release his 170-page
report auditing and analyzing the methods of the NYPD from January 1, 1998 to
March, 1999.
1999: The
Outlaw Bible of American Literature edited by Alan Kaufman was released
today.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alan-kaufman/the-outlaw-bible-of-american-poetry/
https://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/38444
2000: Jews
were cautious and quiet as Vicente Fox, Mexico’s first openly Roman Catholic
president in more than a century” took the oath of office today.
https://www.jweekly.com/2000/12/01/mexico-s-jews-cautiously-eye-first-religious-president/
2000(4th of Kislev, 5761): Eighty-eight-year-old
Brooklyn born and Harvard trained economic Moses Abramovitz the holder of
doctorate from Columbia, the husband of painter and sculptor Carrie Glasser and
a founding member of the Department of Economics at Stanford passed away today.
https://news.stanford.edu/pr/00/abramovitz1213.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20070609121742/http://www-econ.stanford.edu/abramovitz/abramovitzm.html
2001(28th
of Kislev, 5755): Two suicide bombers blew themselves up in back-to-back
explosions at a downtown Jerusalem pedestrian mall, killing 11 bystanders.
2001(28th
of Kislev, 5755): Eleven people including Assaf Avitan, 15; Michael Moshe
Dahan, 21; Ya'akov Danino, 17; Yosef El-Ezra, 18; Sgt. Nir Haftzadi, 19; Yuri
(Yoni) Korganov, 20; Golan Turgeman, 15; Guy Vaknin, 19; Adam Weinstein, 14;
and Moshe Yedid-Levy, 19 were killed and
about 180 injured when explosive devices were detonated by two suicide bombers
close to 11:30 P.M. Saturday night on Ben Yehuda Street, the pedestrian mall in
the center of Jerusalem. A car bomb exploded nearby 20 minutes later. Hamas
claimed responsibility for the attack.
2002: In
“Monsters in Fine Detail” published today Steven Heller reviewed Steven
Luckert’s The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk.
2002: The New York Times featured books by
Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including One World: The Ethics of Globalization by Peter Singer, The
Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany,
1941-1945 by Michael Beschloss and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan. The last two may seem like general history
texts but they deal with events that had a unique impact on the Jewish people
2002: Maxine Frank Singer, a leading biochemistry
researcher and advocate of science education, stepped down, after 15 years as
the president of the Carnegie Institution, a major national scientific research
center.
2002(26th of Kislev, 5763): Ninety-three-year-old British
bridge grandmaster Boris Schapiro passed away.
http://www.175heroes.org.uk/boris_schapiro.html
2003: Another GI was killed in Baghdad during the American war in Iraq
which removed Hussein but left the Middle East much less stable and therefore
threatening to Israel’s well-being.
2004: “Or” a film directed by Keren Yedaya was released to theatres in
RAnce.
2004(18th of Kislev, 5765): Dr. Jonathan A. Goldstein,
former professor at the University of Iowa passed away. Among his
scholarly works were his translations and commentaries on the Books of
the Maccabees as part of the Anchor Bible. He will be
missed by all those who knew him.
2005: A new defense system designed for civilian planes passed i
its final test. The new anti-missile
protection system is designed to
defend passenger jets from shoulder-held missile attacks. El Al will
begin installing the systems as early as next week. The development of the systems came as a
result of attacks on Israeli civilian airliners flying in Africa by terrorists
armed with shoulder held missiles.
2005: The Maryland/Israel Development Center and The Trendlines
Group co-sponsored a conference in Tel Aviv on raising money for Israeli
homeland security companies
2005: In France, Jean-François Copé began serving as Mayor of
Meaux.
2006: “The Jews Among Arabs Conference” at Vanderbilt University
in Nashville, TN sponsored by the Program in Jewish Studies comes to an end. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/lectures/2006/12/1/lecture-sasson-somekh-speaks-at-jews-among-arabs-conference-nov-30
2006(10th of Kislev, 5767): Songwriter and journalist Eli Mohar
passed away at the age of 58, of cancer. Mohar, considered one of Israel's best
songwriters, was best known as the veteran columnist in the Tel Aviv weekly Ha'ir, which published his weekly column
"Goings on Around Town."
2006(10th of Kislev, 5767): Character actor Sid Raymond passed
away at the age of 97. The NYU dropout was famous for being the face people
remembered but did not connect with any given character he portrayed. He was
also “known” for being the voice of the cartoon character Baby Huey
2007(21st of Kislev, 5768): Ninety-five-year-old “Moses M. Weinstein, a Queens Democrat
who served in the State Assembly, with stints as majority leader and acting
speaker in the 1960s, and nearly two decades as a trial and appellate judge of
the State Supreme Court, died on today at Memorial Hospital in Pembroke Pines,
Fla. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/nyregion/03weinstein.html
2007: The Ninth Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival opens at the
Jerusalem Cinematheque with the showing of Etz
O Palestine, The Tribe, The Powder and the Glory, Toots, O Jerusalem and Song of David.
2008: The 92nd Street Y presents
"Radical Islam and the Nuclear Bomb: Understanding Contemporary
Genocidal Anti-Semitism" - A conversation featuring Dr.
Charles Small, founder and director of the Yale University Initiative for the
Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism, and Bret Stephens, a writer and
editor for the Wall Street Journal
2008 CSI star Marg Helgenberger has separated from her husband of
nearly 20 years, actor Alan Rosenberg who is Jewish.
2008: Archbishop of Lublin, Josef Zycinski participates in a
symposium entitled "Confronting a New Reality: The Polish Catholic Church,
the Jews, and Israel." The symposium is being sponsored by The
Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel (
2008 (4 Kislev 5769): Ninety-eight-year-old “Emanuel Rackman, the
spiritual leader of the prominent Fifth Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan and an
outspoken advocate of a more inclusive, intellectually open Orthodox Judaism
passed away at his home in Manhattan (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/nyregion/05rackman.html
2009: Michael Rosen reads from What Else But Home, “a
strikingly honest portrait of his unusual (Jewish) identity” at Prairie Lights
Books in Iowa City, IA.
2009:
Journalist Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor
of Time magazine and currently CEO of the Aspen Institute, discusses and
signs his new book, American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and
Heroes of a Hurricane, at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.
2009:
At Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, former Israeli Ambassador Asher Naim
delivers a speech entitled “Ethiopian Jews then and
now-from Operation Solomon-1991 to Israel 2009.”
Asher Naim has been the Israeli ambassador to Japan, Finland and
Korea, is multilingual and has been active in working with Arab-Israeli
relations.
2009:
Knesset Member Ayoub Kara (Likud), who also is Deputy
Minister for Development of the Galilee and Negev is scheduled to tour the Dead
Sea area this morning, accompanied by representatives of the Megilot Regional
Council. He is promoting the Dead Sea as one of the 28 finalists in the contest
for the New Seven Wonders of Nature, sponsored by the New Seven Wonders Fund.
2010:
Dalia Tsuk Mitchell, a Professor of Law and History
at The George Washington University, and author of a biography of Felix Cohen
is scheduled to present a program entitled “Felix Cohen, Father of Federal
Indian Law” at the Interior Department in Washington, DC. Felix Solomon Cohen's experiences as a Jewish
American deeply influenced his career and legal philosophy, helping shape his
reworking of federal Indian law in the 1930s. Come learn about this influential
legal scholar in the beautiful New Deal-era auditorium at the Department of the
Interior, where Cohen worked in the Solicitor's office.
2010: Editor and writer Robert Gottlieb and New Yorker writer
Judith Thurman are scheduled to speak at the 92nd Y in a program
entitled “The Life of Sarah Bernhardt”
2010(24th of Kislev, 5771): This evening Jews all over the world will be
lighting the first Chanukah candle.
2010(24th
of Kislev, 5771): Eighty-one-year-old Harold Elkins, the producer best known
for “Oh! Calcutta!” passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-hillard-elkins-20101204-story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/theater/07elkins.html
2010:
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) is scheduled to light the first Chanukah candle at the Cave of the Patriarchs in
Hebron this evening.
2010:
In a world where the inmates seem to be running the asylum, today is the final
day for students at Princeton to cast their ballot on a referendum that would
allow brands of hummus other than Sabra to be sold in university stores.
2010:
“Comedian Conversation Falls Flat at 92nd Street Y” published today
provides Felicia R. Lee’s description of Deborah Solomon’s interview with Steve
Martin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/nyregion/02refund.html?_r=0
2010:Today,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu defended his policies against opposition
claims that he had not kept his promises in regard to the peace process.
Netanyahu's comments came at a special discussion of the Knesset initiated by
Kadima, after the opposition party gathered 40 MKs' signatures, therefore
obligating the prime minister to listen to their complaints. Opposition leader
Tzipi Livni responded to Netanyahu, asking him, "When is the last time you
told the truth in public? When was the last time that you told the truth to
your ministers?"
2010:
Today, British Prime Minister David Cameron wished "Hanukkah Sameach"
to the millions of Jews around the world who prepared to light the first candle
of the Jewish festival of lights.
2010:
Still Hilfe, or Silent Aid, an organization which provides help for Third Reich
fugitives of justice, is funding the defense of Klass Faber, a Dutch Nazi
living in Germany, the Daily Mirror reported today. According to the report, Gudrun Burwitz, the
81-year-old daughter of Gestapo head Heinrich Heimler is a leading member of
the organization, which began operating in 1946.
2010:
At Princeton University, the referendum on whether to ask the university's
dining services to provide an alternative brand of hummus came to an end. The referendum is anti-Israel championed by
The Princeton Committee on Palestine, which is led by Yoel Bitran, an
American-born Jewish student in attempt to dislodge Sabra brand hummus from the
campus.
2010:
In an article entitled “Small-City Congregations Try to Preserve Rituals of
Jewish Life” Jane Levere described the effort of the Jewish Community Legacy
Project to help cities like Laredo, Texas; Sumter, SC; and Marion, Indiana deal
with “an economic and social decline, shrinking synagogue membership and the
eventual end of cemetery oversight.” http://jclproject.org/
2011:
After about three months of operation Jerusalem’s light rail is scheduled to
begin charging passengers today
2011:
The 22nd Washington Jewish Film is scheduled to open with a
screening of “Mabul” and a reception at the Avalon Theatre.
2011:
The seventh annual Hamshoushalayim event begins today in Jerusalem
2011:
Israel's Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch today condemned the recent
"delegitimization campaign" carried out against the Supreme Court,
saying Israeli politicians are responsible.
2011:
“al-Qaeda claimed to be holding Warren Weinstein” a contractor who had been
kidnapped while working in Pakistan.
2012:
Clarinetists Alex and Daniel Gurfinkel are scheduled to perform at The Best of
Chamber Music concert in Jerusalem
2012:
The JCCNV is scheduled to host its 32nd Annual Fundraising Gala.
2012:
Today, Amram “Mitzna joined Tzipi Livni's new centrist party, Hatnuah.”
2012:
In Cedar Rapids, the traditional minyan observes Solidarity Shabbat, marking
the 65th anniversary of the passage of UN Resolution 181,
celebrating 65 years of American support for the Jewish state and memorializing
those who were killed during the recent attacks on Israel
2012:
Representatives of Jewish communities in Spanish-speaking countries are today
and tomorrow in Miami to discuss the effects of recent political shifts on
Jewish life in the Americas and Iberia.
2012:
Today, Tzipi Livni’s newly founded Hatnua (The Movement) party began filling
its ranks, ahead of next week’s deadline for submitting Knesset lists.
2013:
The New York Times list of “100
Notable Books of 2013” includes the following books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers: Dissident Gardens by Jonathan
Lethem, The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner, Half the Kingdom by
Lore Segal, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, Love, Dishonor, Marry,
Die Cherish, Perish by David Rakoff, The Two Hotel Francforts by
David Leavitt. Woke Up Lonely by Fiona Maazel, After the Music
Stopped by Alan S. Blinder, The American Way of Poverty by Sasha
Abramsky, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary
J. Bass, The Boy Detective by Roger Rosenblatt, Miss Anne In Harlem
by Carla Kaplan, My Promised Land by Ari Shavit, The Riddle of the
Labyrinth by Margalit Fox, The Town by Mark Leibovich, and Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb and
American Strategy by Kenneth M. Pollack
2013:
In Little Rock, Chabad Lubavitch is scheduled to present “Latkes and Laughter”
with Mike Niehaus (and if the Latkes are prepared by Mrs. Ciment, everybody is
in for a real treat)
2013:
“The Magic Flute” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film
Festival.
2013:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host an evening of Sephardic
songs set to tango entitled “SepharTango.”
2013:
“LOX & VODKA the Washington, DC based Klezmer band” is scheduled to perform
in Alexandria, VA.
http://www.loxvodka.com/index.html
2013:
“The Temple Mount was closed to Jews today after a fight between Jews and
Muslim worshippers broke out on the plaza. According to police, the scuffle
began after Muslims took exception to a group of Jews at the site singing
Hanukkah songs, Israel Radio reported.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2013(28th
of Kislev, 5774): Seventy-eight-year-old “French-born American author,
publisher and socialist passed away today in Paris. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2013:
Israel’s Prime Minister took part in the candle-lighting ceremony at the Great
Synagogue in Rome.
2013:
The water bill for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upscale Caesarea house
amounted to some NIS 72,000 (about $20,435) in 2012, and the cost of gardening
services reached NIS 22,000 ($6,245), according to a report published by a
government watchdog group today
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pms-houses-water-bill-sky-high-report-finds/
2014:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening of “Commissar”
followed by a discussion led by Dr Jonathan Brent, Executive Director, YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research
2014:
The Crescent City Jewish news is scheduled to co-host Walter Issacson’s reading
from his latest book – The Innovators – at the New Orleans Jewish Community
Center on St. Charles Avenue.
2014:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to announce his decision on
whether or not to “call for early elections” today.
2014:
Gaithersburg, MD department store owner Sidney A, Katz, the grandson of Jacob
and Rose Wolfson and the husband of Sally Katz began serving as a member of the
Montgomery County Council from District 3.
2014:
Rudy Wax is scheduled to perform at the UK Jewish Comedy Festival.
2014:
Israeli television broadcast a documentary featuring Rafi Etian who covered a
wide range of topics of which he had first had knowledge including Adolf
Eichman and Jonathan Pollard. (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)
2014:
Labor MK Hilik Bar has proposed the adoption of “the Declaration of
Independence with its call for equality for all citizens as part of Israel’s
quasi- constitutional Basic Laws.” (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)
2014:
Yehoshua Lorch, an Israeli woman, was stabbed south of Jerusalem by 22-year-old
Amal Taqatqa an “affiliate” with the Fatah movement who “tried to staba soldier
at the same location” in 2011. (As
reported by Lazar Berman)
2014:
“Sendak’s Estate: Debating Where the Things Go” published today.
2015:
Nolan Altman, Vice President for Data Acquisition and Coordinator of the Online
Worldwide Burial Registry project for Jewish Gen. is scheduled to talk about
“JewishGen's Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) and the Importance of
Jewish Burial Records.”
2015:
An exhibition of new works by Michal Nachmany is scheduled to go on display at
the gallery on 14th Street in New York.
http://www.michalnachmanyart.com/#!events/cmr3
2015:
After breaking his leg in a game against the Redskins, Geoff “Schwartz was
placed on season-ending injured-reserve” today.
2015(19th
of Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar
birthday of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov
2015(19th
of Kislev): On the Hebrew calendar “Yahrzeit of the Maggid of Mezrech, the
successor of the Baal Shem Tov,
2015(19th
of Kislev): The "New Year" of Chassidism
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/335659/jewish/19-Kislev-The-New-Year-of-Chassidism.htm
http://www.jewishcontent.org/cgi-bin/calendar?holiday=chanuka34
2016(1st
of Kislev, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
2016:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble
which ”will perform Beethoven’s "Ghost" Trio in D Major, Op. 70,
No.1, Schubert’s Fantasie for violin and piano D934, and Brahms’ Piano Quartet
in C minor.”
2016:
“Philip Sutton, reference librarian at the Schwarzman Building’s Irma and Paul
Milstein Division of United States History, Local History, and Genealogy, is
scheduled to provide an orientation to family history source materials in the
various research divisions of the Schwarzman Building sponsored by the Center
for Jewish History.
2016:
In “Biography of Moses, the Man,” published today Clémence Boulouque reviewed Moses:
A Human Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
2016:
In New York, “Harmonia” is scheduled to be shown on the opening night of the 10th
Annual Other Israeli Film Festival.
2016:
“British and German tax investigators conducted a search of Ivanov's Fabergé
Museum in Baden-Baden” in what appears to be a raid connected to a tax dispute
involving the Rothschild egg
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education is scheduled to host a screening
of “the Emmy Award winning documentary ‘A Walk To Beautiful.’”
2016:
Haim Levy was “appointed coach of Maccabi Kiryat Gat From Liga Alef South.”
2016:
The morning news shows are scheduled to continue discussing Donald Trump’s
cabinet nominees including Steven Mnuchin is slated to become Secretary of the
Treasury in the new administration.
2017:
Rabbi Neil Blumofe and Cantor Magda Fishman are scheduled to lead Kabbalat
Shabbat and Maariv as the Conservative Movement begins its Biennial Convention.
2017:
As part of Human Rights Shabbat, Stav Shaffir, “the youngest-ever female MK” is
scheduled to speak from the bimah” tonight followed by “an extra celebratory
oneg.”
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the last Friday Night
Dinner of the term.
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Anita Shapira whose
works included the must-read Israel: A History and Ben Gurion: Father
of Modern Israel continues today.
2018(23rd
of Kislev, 5778): Parashat Va-yayshev
2018:
The College Band Winter Concert under the direction of Temple Judah’s own
“music man” William S. Carson is scheduled to take place tonight and will
include musical tributes to the 100th anniversary of the War to End
All Wars.
2018:
The Christine Park Gallery is scheduled to continue displaying the “first New
York solo exhibition by Tel-Aviv based artist Yuval Shaul.
https://www.christinepark.net/yuval-shaul
2019:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Becoming RBG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Journey to Justice by
Debbie Levy and Whitney Gardner and Believers: Faith In Human Nature by
Melvin Konner.
2019:
The Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a “card embossing” workshop
“with artists from the Painted Tongue Press.
2019:
In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host a workshop offering
“photography tips for taking fabulous photos” which considering the large
number of famous Jewish photographers is a totally appropriate offering.
2019:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to participate in “Museum Store
Sunday, “an international event with more than 1,000 museum stores
participating across all 50 states, 15 countries, and four continents”
2019:
The online auction sponsored by the Straus Historical Society is scheduled to
begin today.
2019:
Jason Alexander, the actor from“Seinfeld” is scheduled to discuss “stories of
his life, career and social activism as part of the Jewish Luminaries Series”
at the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, CA.
2019:
Participants of the Historic Jewish Tours series are scheduled to visit “The
Temple, Atlanta’s oldest Jewish house of worship which was founded in 1867.
2020:
The Sydney Jewish Writers Festival is scheduled to a live interview with Dani
Shapiro conducted by Juliet Rierden.
2020:
The FIDF is scheduled to host Ambassador David Friedman as talks about “Stories
from the Secret UAE Peace Treaty Negotiations.”
2020:
The Jewish National Fund is scheduled to present a “Virtual Breakfast for
Israel in New England” that includes “a hilarious conversation between TV
comedy writer and producer Phil Rosenthal and Steven Shalowitz, the host of the
“IsraelCast” podcast…”
2020:
The Seventh Annual Algemeiner Jewish 100 Virtual Gala featuring Jesse
Eisenberg, Garry Kasparov, Yousef Al Ataiba, Masih Alinejad and Dana Arschin is
scheduled to begin this evening at 7:00 PM EDT.
2020:
The Consulate General of Israel in New York is scheduled to co-sponsor the
webinar Artists and Writers Respond to Domestic Violence which is part of its
“She’s Gone programming on domestic violence.
2020:
Israelis will wake up to find that there has been a reduction to the capacity
at malls because yesterday “ministers passed an amendment to a pilot for the
opening of malls which will reduce maximum capacity from one person per 7
square meters (75 square feet) to one person per 15 square meters (160 square
feet).” (As reported by Adir Yanko and Moran Azulay)
2020:
Via ZOOM, in Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to Host “a
conversation about the history and meaning of the Torah service with Rabbi Alex
Braver.”
2020:
The Center for Jewish History in partnership with the National Museum of
American Jewish History is scheduled to present a discussion The Great
Kosher Meat War of 1902: Immigrant Housewives and the Riots That Shook New York
City by historian Scott D. Seligman
2020:
The S.F. Jewish Community is scheduled to co-present “SFSU Jewish studies
professor Marc Dollinger talking about a new understanding of American Jewish
participation in racial justice work.”
2020:
The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present A Virtual
Tour of the Bukharian Community Center/Synagogue in Queens, NY
2021:
Congregation Beth Sholom and the Jewish Community Library are scheduled to
co-present via Zoom, “In the Beginning: The Early Years of CBS and the Pivotal
Rabbinate of Rabbi Saul E. White” the first event in the centennial celebration
of this San Francisco congregation.
2021:
In Des Moines, IA, The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines, Temple B’nai
Jeshurun and Tifereth Israel Synagogue are scheduled to host “A Community
Hanukkah Celebration featuring mentalist Sidney Friedman.
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled both online and in-person a performance of
Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus.
2021:
In London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a virtual tour “8 Lamps of
Hannukah.”
2021:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a webinar with Rabbi Jeremy Rosen,
lecturing on “Study the Bible: Know What is in it and What is not.”
2021:
In partnership with Menemsha Films, the Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth is
scheduled to present a screening of “Latter Day Jew” as part of the Hanukkah
Film Festival.
2021(27th
of Kislev, 5782): Third Day of Chanukah
2022:
The American Society for Jewish Music, JTS, YIVO and Hebrew Union College
Jewish Institute of Religion are scheduled to present “Break Forth Into Joy,” a
choral festival that “celebrate 400 years of Jewish Music - from Salamone Rossi
to the present day, and feast on the glorious tapestry of Jewish Choral music
featuring compositions by Yehezkel Braun, Josh Ehrlich, Natasha Hirschhorn,
Flory Jaboda, David Nowakowsky, Nick Page, Stephen Richards, Benjie Ellen
Schiller, and Robert Starer.”
2022:
In New Orleans, The Cathy & Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series is
scheduled to invite the public to watch a “documentary feature film following
H. Alan Scott, a gay, former Mormon/converted Jew/cancer
survivor/writer-comedian, as he finds his spiritual path and prepares for his
Bar Mitzvah.”
2022: Last day to submit nominations for the best
kosher shawarma to be considered for a British Kebab Award, “the Oscars of the
kebab world.”
2022:
The JWA Book Talks series is scheduled to continue with Alicia Jo Rabins,
author of Even God Had Bad Parenting Days.
2023:
The Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference for Israel which is now dedicated
to standing with Israel is scheduled to continue for a second day.
2023:
In Lexington, MA, Temple Emunah is scheduled to host lecture by Rabbi Mike
Moskowitz who will share what inspired him to combat homophobia and transphobia
in religious communities publicly and what he has learned along the way that
helps in advancing this holy cause.
2023:
At Temple Emanu-El in New York City, former Israeli
Consul General in New York, Asaf Zamir, is scheduled to join us on the bima during
services to speak about the devastating Hamas attack and the amazing spirit of
the Israeli people.
2023: The
Boston Synagogue is scheduled to present a “Pre-Chanukah Friday Night Shabbat
with Community Dinner.”
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a Walking Tour of the
Synagogues of the Lower East Side, a neighborhood that 100 years ago was home
to more than 500 synagogues.
2023:
As December 1 begins in Israel, the so-called truce takes on a surrealistic
quality followed by the murders yesterday
of Livia Dikman, 24, Ashdod rabbinical judge Elimelech Wasserman, 73,
Hannah Ifergan, who was in her 60s and unnamed fourth victim, in his 40s, “in a
terror shooting attack claimed by Hamas at the entrance to Jerusalem,” while
the rest of the Hamas held hostages begin day 56 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)
2024(30th
of Cheshvan, 5785): In one of those calendar coincidence, Rosh Chodesh
coincides with the first day of December; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:
City Screen York is scheduled to host a screening of “Iron Ladies.”
2024:
The Weitzman National Museum of Jewish History is scheduled to host a “Nosh and
Shop,” a “Museum Store Even” and a celebration of the launch of Humans of
Judaism book and The Weitzman's exclusive gallery of inspiring images
curated from the book!
2024:
The Jewish Agency for Israel is scheduled to host an online presentation by Gabi
Cohen – Deputy Commander of the Rosh HaAyin Emergency Squad
2024:
As December 1st begins in Israel,
an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas
supporters calling for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their
hands, demonstrations at a high school production of “The Diary of Anne Frank”
and the beating of a college student in Chicago sweeps the United States and
the Hamas held hostages begin day 422 in captivity while Israelis brace for
more rocket attacks by Hezbollah, Iran and terrorists based in
Iraq (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)
