December 18
1118: Alfonso
the Battler conquered Zaragoza.
1271: Kublai Khan renames his empire
"Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of China.
Reportedly,
Marco Polo found several influential Jews at the court of Kubla Khan. These
Jews would have been descendants of Persian Jews who probably came to China the
11th century as merchants. In the 13th
century, Marco Polo, traveling in China spoke of meeting Jews or hearing about
them during his travels in the Middle Kingdom. Polo recorded that Kublai Khan
himself celebrated the festivals of the Muslims, Christians and Jews alike. Historical sources also describe Jewish
communities at various cities, including Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Ningbo, and
Yangzhou. Only the community in Kaifeng (Henan Province) survived since its
founding around 240 BCE
1312:
Today, during the Council of Vienne which had already dealt with issue of
teaching Hebrew at the principle universities in Europe, Clement V issued Lice
Dudum, a bull dealing with the disposition of the property of the Templars.
1338:
Pierre Roger, the future Pope Clement VI who in 1342 would have a portion of Sefer
Milhamot Ha-Shem, ("The Wars of the Lord") by Levi ben Gershon
(Gersonides) containing “an elaborate survey of astronomy” translated into
Latin passed was created a Cardinal today.
1495:
King Alphonso II of Naples passed away.
Both Alphonso and his father employed Isaac Abravanel the biblical
scholar who was also a financial wizard.
1565:
Today, Francesco
I de’Medici, the 2nd grand duke of Tuscany who “invited Jewish
merchants to settle in Livorno, granting them free residence, unlimited access
to trade and extensive self-government in this new Medicean free-port on the
Mediterranean” married Johanna of Austria, youngest daughter
of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary.
1585:
Canon lawyer Ippolito Aldobrandini, who would become Clement VIII during whose
Papacy Jews were forced to attend “conversionist sermons,” prohibited from
“dealing in new articles of clothing” and forced to allow copies of the Talmud
to be burned in 1601, was named as a Cardinal today.
1621:
Today, the House of Commons affirmed the “Protestation of 1621,” a
“reaffirmation of the right to freedom of speech” was drafted by John Selden
““the first Talmudist in England since the expulsion of the Jews…who recognized
the humanness of Jewish marital law and found in Deuteronomy and the Talmud a
model for the proper relationship between the judicial and executive branches
of government” and who wrote The Jewish Wife, a work “on the theory and
practice of Jewish marriage and divorce law.”
1626:
Birthdate of Christina, Queen of Sweden who became a Catholic and moved to Rome
in December 1655 where she made Clement X prohibit the custom of chasing Jews
through the streets during the carnival. In 1686 she issued a declaration that
Roman Jews stood under her protection, signed la Regina – the queen.
1655:
Oliver Cromwell presided over the fourth, and what he hopes will be the final,
debate over allowing the Jewish people to return to England. Much to his chagrin, Cromwell cannot get a
majority to support the return of the Israelites despite his argument that “The
pure (Puritan) gospel must be preached to the Jews, to win them to church. ‘But
can we preach to them, if we will not tolerate them among us?’” Cromwell closed the meeting and announced
that he would decide the issue on his own.
1660: In
England, the House is scheduled to “take into consideration” today an Order
made by the Lords of His Majesty’s Privy Council…touching on protection for the
Jews.”
1725:
Birthdate of Johann Salomo Semler the biblical commentator and historian
who“was the first to take due note of and use for critical purposes the
opposition between the Judaic and anti-Judaic parties of the early church.”
1749: The
will of Moses Abbady, which named Solomon and Israel Abbady as executors, was
probated today.
1744: In Prague, Empress Maria Theresa banished
the Jews. A few weeks earlier, Frederick the Great took Prague in the Wars of
Succession and the populace ransacked the ghetto. He soon left and the Croats
returned. They accused the Jews of treason and again their quarters were
sacked. At this point and then again January 7, Empress Maria Theresa banished
all the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia. Due to the protests of the Jews and the
governments of England and Holland, the decree was dropped everywhere but in Prague.
1755: Birthdate of
Easthampton, LI native Elizabeth Isaacs, the daughter of Aaron Isaacs and the
wife of Elisha Jones.
1757: Rose
Bunn and Joseph Simon gave birth to Myer Simon who was buried in Philadelphia
when he passed away in 1825
1758(19th of
Kislev, 5519): Napthali Benjamin Franks, a/k/a “Henry Benjamin Franks” the son
of Rachel and Benjamin Franks reportedly passed away today.
1762(2nd of
Tevet, 5523): Parashat Miketz; 8th Day of Chanukah
1764(24th of
Kislev, 5525): In the evening, Kindle the first Chanukah candle.
1764: Birthdate of
Solomon Levy, the husband Rebecca Eve Hendricks and the father Hayman, Julia
and Augusta Levy, each of whom passed away in the United States.
1767(27th of
Kislev, 5528): Third Day of Chanukah
1767: As Jews get ready
to Kindle the Fourth Chanukah Candle “an agent of England’s Wedgwood potteries
finished extracting several tons of fine white clay from the mountains of North
Carolina.”
1773(4th of
Tevet, 5534): Parashat Miketz read as Boston absorbs the impact of the “Boston
Tea Party” which took place two days ago.
1775(25th
Kislev, 5535): As Americans spend the first winter in rebellion against King
George, Jews on both sides of the Atlantic celebrate Chanukah.
1776(2nd of
Tevet, 5637): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1776: Birthdate of
Bavaria native Beerle Gutman, the husband of Bluemle Levi and the father of
Mathilde and Hannele Gutman.
1778(29th of
Kislev, 5539): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1787: New
Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Like many of
the original thirteen colonies, New Jersey had religious restrictions for
holding office that were not removed until the 19th century. By the 1840’s Patterson, NJ, “launched a
congregation” and in 1857, the Jews of Elizabeth began meeting for regular
worship services. New Jersey’s Jewish experience would prove to be unique
because of the success of the agricultural movement that began in 1882 when
Michael Heilprin helped a group of European immigrants establish Carmel in
southern New Jersey.
1791: In
Andover, MA, Dorcas Faulkner and John Adams gave birth to Hannah Adams.
1794(26th
of Kislev, 5555): Second Day of Chanukah
1796: In
Spitalfields, London Moses Eleazer Solomon and Betsy (Elizabeth) Solomon gave
birth Henry Naphtali Solomon, the husband of Fanny Solomon who “was headmaster
of the Jews’ Free School from 1817 to 1822” and who “was one of the founders of
the Jews' and General Literary and Scientific Institution, and among the
pioneers in the Anglo-Jewish pulpit, preaching for some years in the St. Albans
Synagogue.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13861-solomon-henry-naphtali
1800(2nd
of Tevet, 5561): Seventh Day of Chanukah observed for the last time during the
Presidency of John Adams
1803: Fifty-nine Johann
Gottfried Herder, the German philosopher who “argued that Jews in Germany
should enjoy the full rights and obligations of Germans, and that the non-Jews
of the world owed a debt to Jews for centuries of abuse, and that this debt could
be discharged only by actively assisting those Jews who wished to do so to
regain political sovereignty in their ancient homeland of Israel.[5] Herder
refused to adhere to a rigid racial theory, writing that "notwithstanding
the varieties of the human form, there is but one and the same species of man
throughout the whole earth".
1804(17th of
Tevet, 5565): Rabbi Yaakov Wolf Krantz, zt"l, the Maggid (itinerant preacher) of Dubno,
particularly known for the parables (meshalim) he employed in his sermons and
writings passed away today.
1805(27th of
Kislev, 5566): Third Day of Chanukah
1805(27th of
Kislev, 5566): Seventy-two-year-old Machteld Mathilda Michela, the daughter of
Jochem Jochanan Mozes Hannover and Anna Hindche Joseph Salomon Hannover the
wife of of Liebman Liepman Elieser Arnsteiner and Meyer Samson Wolfenbuttel
passed away today in Amsterdam.
1808(29th of
Kislev,5569): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1813:
Birthdate of David Spangler Kaufman, the first Jew elected to the U.S. Congress
from the state of Texas.
1813(25th of
Kislev, 5574): Chanukah and Shabbat
1813(25th of
Kislev, 5574): Fifty-one-year-old “Bohemian Talmudist and Hebraist” Baruch ben
Jonah Benedict Jeiteles, eldest son of Jonas Jeiteles and father of Ignaz
Jeiteles passed away today in his native Prague.
1815: Birthdate of
David Judah Alberga, the husband of Henrietta Delgad and the father of Theresa
and Eugene Alberga.
1816: Andrew Asher and
Rosa Joseph were married today at the Great Synagogue.
1816(28th of
Kislev, 5577): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1816: John Lyon Pyke
and Dinah Joel were married today at the Great Synagogue.
1820(13th of
Tevet, 5581): Moseh Sofer, the Chief Rabbi of Pressburg and Sarel Sofer gave
birth to Rabbi Shimon Sofer
1821(24th of
Kislev, 5582) Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1824(27th of
Kislev, 5585): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of Chanukah
1824: Birthdate of
Austrian native Abraham Woolner, the husband of Magdelena Wollner with whom he
had five children – Sophie, Hannah, Maximillian, Isabella and Gisela.
1826: In New York, Amsterdam
native Daniel Levy Maduro and Rachel Mendes Seixas gave birth to Zipporah
Peixotto, the wife of Benjamin Hayman Seixas whom she married in 1848 in New
York City and the mother of Lewis, Rachel, Franklin, Jessic, Isaac, Harry and
Frederick Seixas.
1827(29th of
Kislev, 5588): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed for the first time while the F.J.
Robinson, the Earl of Ripon served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1832(26th of
Kislev, 5593): Second Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that 80 year-old
Philip Morin Freneau, known as the “Poet of the American Revolution” and who
like many of the generation of the founding fathers was a deist passed away
today.
1835(27th of
Kislev, 5596): Third Day of Chanukah
1835: Birthdate of
Hanover, Germany native Moritz Rothenstein, the husband of Bertha Rothenstein
and the father of Charles, Blanche, Emily, Louisa, William and Albert
Rothenstein, all of whom were born in Yorkshire, England.
1836(10th of
Tevet, 5597): Asara B’Tevet
1838: In Budapest,
Caspar Schoney and Golde Ehrentreu gave birth to Lazarus Schoney, the husband
of Theodosia Secor Fowler who trained as a rabbi and a doctor, served as
surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War after which he served for ten
years as a “professor of Pathology and Clinical Microscopy at New York Eclectic
Medical College.”
1839: Birthdate of
German physiologist Julius Bernstein, the son of Aron Bernstein, “a founder of
the Reform Judaism Congregation in Berlin “and the “father of mathematician
Felix Bernstein” (Some sources show his birthdate as December 8)
1842: In London, Hannah
Benjamin Leonino, the daughter of Justina Sebag Cohen and Benjamin Barnet Cohen
and her husband Ippolito Leonino gave birth to David Leonino.
1843(25th of
Kislev, 5604): Chanukah
1849: Birthdate of
Nahum Meir Schaikewitz, the Minsk born novelist and playwright who began by
writing short stories in Hebrew who eventually moved to New York in 1888 where
he wrote “over two hundred novels” in Yiddish.
1850(13th
of Tevet, 5611): Daniel Meijer’s sister, Eva, passed away. Daniel was the first Jewish lawyer in the
Netherlands and one of the youngest members of the bar in that nation’s
history.
1851(24th
of Kislev, 5612): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1852: The
New York Times described a recent major address by Chancellor of the
Exchequer Benjamin Disraeli before the House of Commons on the Budget and plans
to make major revisions in the tax code.
The speech and proposals are so well received that the Times concluded
by saying that “”The Chancellor evidently wins new laurels at every fresh
display of his truly remarkable ability.”
1854(27th
of Kislev, 5615): Third Day of Chanukah
1856: In Ireland, Elizabeth
Jane Somerville, the daughter William Somerville, 1st Baron Athlumney and Lady
Maria Harriet Conyngham married James Molyneux Caulfeild, 3rd Earl of
Charlemont, who, after being styled as the Countess of Claremont in 1863 began
attending synagogue services in Belfast leading to her eventual conversion to
Judaism.
1856: Birthdate of
Alfred Steckler, a graduate of Columbia Law School who served as a judge of the
Fourth District Court of New York City and before serving on the Supreme Court
of the First Judicial District of New York County.
1857(1st of
Tevet, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1857: The brother of
P.T. Barnum the owner of Iranistan a Moorish Revival mansion in Bridgeport,
Connecticut that was designed by Austrian born Jewish architect Leopold Eidlitz
sent word that the mansion had effectively burned to the ground.”
1860: Birthdate of
Salomon Linneweil, the Dutch born husband of Rebecca Van Biene
1861: During the Civil
War, 2nd Lt. Leo Charles, who was the regimental adjutant with the
27th Regiment began his service in the Union Army.
1861 In Iowa, Jacob
Jacobson who would rise to the rank of “commissary sergeant” enlisted in
Company B of the 16th Regiment.
1861(15th of
Tevet, 5622): Seventy-five-year-old Sarah Jacobs, the Charleston born daughter
of Abraham Jacobs passed away today in New York.
1861: In
Chicago it is reported that a young girl who had run away from her parents’
home in Maine to live with an uncle in Wisconsin now is in critical condition
in Chicago following an attempted suicide.
While making her way back to Main, the young girl allegedly met young
Jew named Laselle with whom she stayed at various hotels including the Tremont,
the Stewart House and Sollitt House where “he affected her ruin.” He then allegedly turned the girl over to
another Jew named Stein who brought her “to an assignation house.” Within half an hour the police “pounced” on
the house arresting Stein and several others at which time the girl tried to
kill herself. The investigation is at a
standstill until she recovers so that the authorities can question her.
1862(26th
of Kislev, 5623): Second Day of Chanukah
1862: At
St. Pancras, London, Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham and his wife
Harriette Georgiana Webster gave birth to Harry Lawson Webster Levy-Lawson, 1st
Viscount Burnham.
1862:
Birthdate of Bella Dinkelspiel, an early settler of Seattle, WA.
1863(8th
of Tevet, 5624): Jacob Miller, who had been serving with Company A of the 16th
Regiment – Third Cavalry died today as a result of the wounds he had sustained
while fighting at Mine Run, VA last month.
1864:
Birthdate of Shropshire native Samuel Parkes Cadman, an American clergyman
whose support of Jews can be measured by his appearance at a non-sectarian mass
meeting in 1916 to raise funds for the relief of Jews in the war zones of
Europe as well as by his calls to boycott the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
1863(8th
of Tevet, 5624): Thirty-eight-year-old Louis Schwarkopf, the husband of the
former Dora Block, the son-in law of Daniel Block and one of the founders of
Congregation B’nai B’rith in St. Louis.
1865(30th
of Kislev, 5626): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Sixth Day of Chanukah
1865:
Slavery ended in the United States as the 13th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution was declared in effect. Yes there were Jews who owned slaves and
yes there Jews who served with Confederacy.
But the majority of the Jews supported the Union and Jews played a role
in the movement to gain freedom for slaves. For example, a visit to the Lloyd
Street Synagogue in Baltimore includes a demonstration of its role in the
Underground Railroad. This role was
quite risky in a city in slaveholding Maryland.
1866: Birth
date of Alexander Protopopov who as Chairman of the Russian-American Chamber of
Commerce and Minister of the Interior, while working for the adoption of a new
commercial treaty between his country and the United States in 1916 told Joseph
Kruk in London that he did believe in “equal rights for Jews in Russia” and
said that “regarding the Jews, I can say this much, that it is a shame for one
to be a Russian if he is compelled through that to fear somebody.”
1867: In
Wilmington, Illinois, Henrietta Hart and Levi Abt gave birth Yale graduate Dr. Isaac A. Abt, an international authority
on children’s diseases” and a pioneer in the field of pediatrics and he husband
of Mildred Shire.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/498358
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1955/11/24/91379058.pdf
http://uncap.lib.uchicago.edu/view.php?eadid=inu-ead-nua-archon-309
1867: In Frankfurt, Selig Meier Goldschmidt and Clementine Fuld
gave birth to their youngest child Johanna Goldschmidt, the future wife of
Adolph Stern.
1868: Twenty-one-year-old Edward David Taussig was commissioned as
an Ensign in the United States Navy, one of the many steps up the ladder to
becoming an Admiral.
1869: Julie and Adolph Marx Oppenheimer gave birth to Eugen
Oppenheimer
1869(14th of Tevet, 5630): Forty-year-old Louis Moreau Gottschalk the son a Jewish
businessman from London and a white Creole Haitian in New Orleans who was an American composer and pianist, best known as a
virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano pieces passed away today in Rio de
Janeiro.
1870(24th of Kislev, 5631): Kindle the
first Chanukah candle
1870: “The Jews in America” published today traces
this people’s history with an special emphasis on religious practice starting
with the earliest settlers, to the arrival the Germans as well as the role of
such leaders as Rabbi Merzbacher and Rabbi Samuel Adler.
1872: George Geiger re-enlisted today
and was attached to Troop H of the 7th Cavalry, the military unit
that would be under the command of Custer at the Little Big Horn.
1872: In Cincinnati, OH, Adele Marx and
Marcus Marcuson gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC trained
rabbi, Isaac E. Marucson, the husband of Rose Throner who settled in Macon, GA.
1872: Two days after he had passed away,
23-year-old Michael Emanuel, the son of Lawrence Emanuel and Eve Braham, was
buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1872: In Cincinnati, Marcus and Adele
(Marx) Marcuson gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate HUC ordained
rabbi, Isaac E. Marcuson, the Secretary of the Central Conference of American
Rabbis and the husband of Rose Thorner.
1873(28th of Kislev, 5634):
Fourth Day of Chanukah
1874(10th of Tevet, 5635): Asara
B’Tevet
1875(20th of Kislev, 5636):
Parashat Vayeshev
1875(20th of Kislev, 5636):
Fifty-three-year-old Isaac Mordecai DeLyon,
the son Savannah native Judge Levi Sheftall D'Lyon and Rebecca DeLaMotta De
Lyon passed away today after which he was buried in the Hempstead Cemetery in
Hempstead, TX.
1876(2nd of Tevet, 5637):
Eighth Day of Chanukah
1876: The Hebrew Charity Fair which is a
fund-raiser for the Ladies’ Benevolent Society opened this evening at the
Masonic Hall in New York. Despite the
inclement weather, the event was well attended.
1877: Sergeant George Geiger, who earned
the Medal of Honor for his bravery at the Battle of the Little Big Horn was
discharged today “for medical reasons.
1878: Birthdate Joseph Stalin, leader of
the Soviet Union. Stalin recognized the state of Israel at the moment of its
birth, and he did allow the Czechs to sell fighter planes to the new-born
Israeli Air Force. But these measures
were a reflection of his fight against British Imperialism and not a reflection
of any love for the Jewish people. Stalin did employ Jews in his regime before
and during the war. But he also conducted bloody purges aimed at the Jews. Stalin did enjoy support among some Jews –
those who were loyal party members and those who regarded him as a savior
because the Soviet Army was the force that liberated much of Europe from
Nazis. The reality was that Stalin was
an anti-Semite who began a series of murderous purges aimed at the Jews of the
Soviet Union and that he died before he could carry out his own version of the
Final Solution.
1878: “The editor of a prominent Jewish newspaper
said this afternoon” that Jewish institutions including Mt. Sinai Hospital and
the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, have no choice but to reject donations from anybody
tied to Judge Hilton who has banned Jews from staying at his hotel.
1878: It was reported today that the
Jews of New York are planning on rejecting the donations made by Mrs. A.T.
Stewart through Judge Hilton. The gifts included $500 for Mount Sinai Hospital,
$250 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and $250 for the Hebrew Home for the Aged and
Infirmed. These Jewish organizations have received donations from Mrs. Stewart
in the past. However, this year the
notices of the donations were worded in such a way that it would have required
Jewish leaders to come to Judge Hilton’s office to get the money. Considering the fact that Judge Hilton has
banned Jews from his hotel in Saratoga Springs, such an arrangement is totally
unacceptable.
1878: In St. Louis, Dr. Washington E.
Fischel and “educator Martha Ellis Fishel” gave birth to Edna Fischel Gellhorn,
and the wife of Dr. George Gellhorn who is remembered by many as the mother of
photographer Martha Gellhorn, passed away today.
https://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/g/gellhorne/
1878: Randolph Herr, a New York lawyer
who was a partner of Judge Bloom, shot himself through the head today.
1879: Birthdate of Frieda Hesslein, who.
as Frieda Herzberg, was shipped from Berlin to Terezin where she was murdered
on October 19, 1942.
1880: Birthdate of Russian native and
veteran of the Russo-Japanese War Solomon Linder who in 1907 came to the United
States where he settled in Pittsburgh, where he became a partner in the
Tuscarawas Iron and Metal Company, married Sarah Bitterman with whom he had a
boy a girl and who was a member of B’nai Abraham.
1881(26th of Kislev, 5642):
Second Day of Chanukah
1881:
Anti-Juif ,a weekly, was published for the first time in Paris. This would be the first of four publications
with this name all of which had a common anti-Semitic theme.
1881: It was reported today that an
unnamed American who was performing in a circus at St. Petersburg received
orders from the Russian government to leave the capital city because he was
Jewish. (This is part of the pattern of
discriminating against American citizens because they were Jews that would be
protested by President Arthur in his message to Congress)
1882: It was reported today that Mount
Sinai Hospital is one of the “most imposing structures” in New York. It has a
capacity to serve 160 patients and has added to new units in the last year – an
eye and ear department and an “isolation house.” While the hospital is almost totally
dependent on the Jewish community for financial support, it provides services
to one and all regardless of religious affiliation.
1882: “A Hebrew Colony Broken Up”
published today described the demise of a colony that had been “established a
year ago on Sicily Island in Concordia Parish by several families” of Jewish
immigrants from Russia. According to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Association
representative in New Orleans, so many of the colonists were stricken with
swamp fever that they were unable to care for themselves let alone work at
building the settlement. After returning
to New Orleans, the immigrants have been sent to either Chicago or New York.
1882: “Value of the Bible” published
today provided some of the views of Reverend Richard Heber Newton, an
Episcopalian minister and theologians, on the ancient text. Among other things, that Bible did not include
“the whole of Hebrew literature” because “many of the Hebrew writings had been
lost.” But the Bible contains “the best
of the Hebrew writings” because it’s a sifted and winnowed library” that
represented “the literature of a race whose religion grew until it became a
universal religion for all men.”
1883: George Reeveys is in jail at
Freehold, NJ because he has been charged with an attack on a Jewish peddler
named Simon Holzman whom authorities fear may die from his wounds.
1883: In the Westchester County Court at
White Plains, NY, Judge Pratt sentenced Theodore Hoffman to be hanged after he
had been convicted of kill a Jewish peddler, Zife Marks.
1884(30th of Kislev, 5645):
Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1884: Birthdate of Russian native Clara
Stern Gilman, the wife of Nathan Gilman and mother of Pearl and Charles Gilman
who settled in New London, CT and was an officer of the National Council of
Jewish Women.
1885: The General Election in the United
Kingdom which saw Lionel Louis Cohen “returned to the House of Commons for the
Paddington North constituency” came to an end today.
1885: In New York, Rabbi Joseph Zeisler,
the Hungarian born son of Eduard and Josefine Zeisler and Irma Zeisler gave
birth to Cornelius Zeisler
1886: After two weeks, the fair that was
raising funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids came to a close
tonight. The successful event was held
in New York’s Central Park Garden.
1886: It was reported today that during
the year, the Hebrew Free School Association had provided services to 2,698
students as compared to 2,046 students in 1885.
1886: The Hebrew Free School Association
held its annual meeting today. During
the meeting it was announced that prominent educator Julia Richman has been
chosen to serve on its board of directors.
Ms. Richman along with Ms. Froelich are the first two women to serve on
the board.
1887(3rd of Tevet, 5684):
Eighth Day of Chanukah
1887: Al Hayman, the partner of Charles
Frohman, who managed the Baldwin and California Theatres in San Francisco left
to New York today to return to “the city by the Bay.”
1887: The Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and
Child’s Protectory held its Chanukah reception at 95 East Broadway. After the
children sang in Hebrew, Mrs. Deborah Alexander distributed fruit and candy to
the youngsters.
1887: Birthdate of Capt. Artur Carlos de
Barros Basto, “a decorated Portuguese military officer, a hero of Portugal's
1910 revolution and World War I and leader of the open return to Judaism of the
Crypto-Jews of Portugal. Barros Basto died in 1961, almost blind, a
disappointed man. He has never been exonerated by the Portuguese Army of the
decision of 1943 of the Minister of the War under the Fascist regime of Antonio
Salazar who stripped him from the Portuguese Army Officer Corp for the simple
fact of his being Jewish and being a defender of religious tolerance and of the
Portuguese Crypto-Jews in particular. The attempts and efforts to rehabilitate
him continue to this day. He was born in the Portuguese city of Amarante on
December 1887, and was given a Catholic education. When he was nine years old
his grandfather told him they were descendants of Jews forcibly converted in
1497. Raised by his mother in Porto, he attended the Portuguese Military
Academy and participated in 1910 in the founding of the Portuguese Republic. He
later commanded a battalion of the Portuguese Corps in World War I, as
lieutenant on the Western front. There he met a French rabbi who likely further
influenced him. Upon his return to Portugal from the war he began to study
Judaism and Hebrew. Rebuffed by the Israeli community of Lisbon, he went to
Tangier to formally return to normative Judaism, adopting the name of Abraham
Israel Ben-Rosh. He married the daughter of a prominent Lisbon Jewish family
and settled in Porto where in 1923 he created the Israeli community of Porto,
still active today, Barros Basto became
known as the "Apostle of the Marranos", the title of a short
biography by noted historian Cecil Roth who met Basto in 1930 and described him
as the most charismatic man that he had ever met. Basto had been recommended in
1926 by Lucien Wolf of the London Marranos Committee to be the recipient of
funds to establish a Jewish school and lead the return of thousands of
descendants of Jews forcibly baptized in 1497 (New Christian, Conversos, or
Marranos, more politically correct known as "Anusim", Hebrew for
"forced one"). Basto established "Rosh Pinah", described by
him as a "theological seminary", the first Jewish school in 500
years. In 1929 the first stone of a new synagogue was laid. A magnificent art
nouveau synagogue, Mekor Haim was inaugurated, in 1939, the year of
Kristallnacht. Basto had led a successful international fund-raising campaign
from Jewish communities with historical connection to Portugal such as
Amsterdam, London, New York, Hamburg and Paris. Paul Goodman, friend, and
president of the Portuguese Marranos Committee attended; so did Moses Amazalak,
president of the Lisbon Israeli community. Rabbi David de Sola Pool of New York
was an avid supporter and a room in the synagogue is named after him.
"Adonai (God) is with me and I will not fear"[5] was his motto, and
he was not afraid to canvas the interior of Portugal to make surveys, the
contacts, to defend the Jewish identity of the Crypto-Jews at the same time having
the goal of returning them to modern Judaism. Upon his return to the city of
Oporto, he established the Israelite Community in 1923, and was one of the
founders of the synagogue of the city of Oporto in 1938. Given the difficulties
that he found in Portugal, most of all financial, he left Portugal. In London
the Committee of Portuguese Marranos was created, that raised £10,000 for the
construction of a community centre with a synagogue and a reading room, and to
hire a resident rabbi.”
1888: Emanuel Moses, a department-store owner, and
Bella Silverman Moses members of family that was part of the well-to-do circle
of New York German Jews known as ''our crowd” gave birth to Robert Moses the
public works planner who re-shaped New York and its environs as can be seen by
two of his more famous works the Lincoln Center and Shea Stadium.
1888: Rabbi
Henry S. Jacobs read the opening prayer at the dedication ceremonies marking the official
opening of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids
were held today. Isaac Eppinger, Chairman of the Building Committee then
presented a ceremonial golden key to Jacob H. Schiff, President of the
Montefiore Home.
1888: American
political leader Carl Schurz delivered a lecture at today’s dedication of the
Montefiore Home in NYC>
1888: In
Philadelphia, PA, the murder trial of Jewish businessman Mat Goldberger entered
its second day. He is accused of
murdering Annie Schuleberg who fell to her death while trying to escape a fire
that Goldberger had set to collect the insurance for his business which was on
the ground floor of the building where Mrs. Schuleberg lived with her husband
and eight children.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30E10FF3D5F15738DDDA10994DA415B8884F0D3
1889(25th
of Kislev, 5650): Chanukah
1889:
Birthdate of Margareta Hellerová who in 1942 was deported from Prague to
Ujazdow where she was murdered by the Nazis.
1889: Three
Russian Jewish shoemakers – Harris Elias, Solomon Elias and Abraham – are being
treated for burns and smoke inhalation following a fire at their tenement on
Eldridge Street. The three were the only
ones injured when the five story building went up in smoke, (Fires like these were all too common and
were run of the reasons that some Uptown Jews formed committees to look into
conditions in these buildings that dominated the Lower East Side)
1889(25th
of Kislev, 5650): Mrs. Martin M. Lewis ( nee Lizzie Lazarus) passed away
unexpectedly this evening. Her husband
is a prominent importer of woolen goods.
She was the daughter of Alfred Lazarus, the Secretary of the Third
Avenue Railroad Company. She is survived
by her seven year old son and seven month old son and a sister-in-law, Mrs.
Charles Lewis.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00F1EF83F5E1A738DDDA90A94DA415B8984F0D3
1889: Anna
Braum and Jacob Goldman gave birth to University of Minnesota trained attorney Benjamin
M. Goldman, a member of the Los Angeles law firm of Goldman and Lieberman and
husband of Clara Winthrop who was a member of the executive committee of the
United Jewish Campaign of California and a member of the executive committee of
the United Palestine Appeal in California.
1890:
Birthdate of Neville Jonas Laski, the younger brother of Harold Laski, who was
a jurist and leader of the Anglo-Jewish community.
1890:
Colonel George P. Clark will give a lecture this evening at 55th
Street and Lexington sponsored by the Young Men’s Association of Congregation
Ahawath Chesed.
1891: The
body of a well-dressed man, thought to be a Russian Jewish immigrant was found
in flour mill today at Petersburg, PA.
1892(29th
of Kislev, 5653): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1892:
Almost 1,500 people attended the third and final day of the celebration of
Rodeph Shalom’s 50th anniversary which featured the 300 children
attending the religious school under the direction of Benjamin Blumenthal.
1892: Rabbi H.
Rosenberg was expelled from Temple Beth Jacob in Brooklyn, for eating pork.
1892: The
United Hebrew Charities Society has reportedly refused to give any more support
to the striking cloakmakers because the
society “received a good deal of support from the cloak manufacturers and these
men refused to give any more money to support the persons who were fighting
against them.
1892: As
gold leaves Europe for America and America moves to restrict the exportation of
the precious metal, the Austrian government has reportedly “concluded a gold
loan of 50,000,000 florins from a Rothschild Syndicate” in an attempt to
stabilize its economy.
1892: Three
hundred religious school schools under the direction of Benjamin Blumenthal
were the center of attraction at today’s third and final day of celebrations
marking the jubilee year of Congregation Rodeph Shalom at 63rd and
Lexington in Manhattan.
1892: “The
admissions by [Isidor] Loewe, the Jewish small arms manufacturer the offered to
supply France with the machinery necessary for the manufacture of Lebel rilfles
has caused renewed viruluence in the Judenhetze.” [German anti-Semites] They
overlook the “open fact” that the Krupp, the great German arms manufacturer has
continued to supply Russia with guns and ammunition, even when the two nations
seemed to be on the verge of war.
1892: The
Cologne Gazette attacked Loew’s offer to supply France “as strengthen the
assertions of the anti-Semites that the Jews have no national feeling, that
they never amalgamate with any people and that they are dominated by the idea
that they are a privileged nation that may prey upon but be absorbed by other
nationalities. (These sentiments
expressed by a prominent German paper pre-date Hitler by forty years providing
more proof that German anti-Semitism was not a Nazi aberration but a part of
the German social fabric)
1893:
Twelve Jews were held at the Essex Mark Police Court “on charges of violating
the law by keeping their places of business on Essex, Hester, Ludlow, Orchard,
Rivington and Canal Streets open on Sunday.
1893: Must
Have No State Aid published today described Rabbi Joseph Silverman’s views on
public funds being used to support parochial schools.
1894: In
Manchester, UK, David Rodker and his wife gave birth to John Rodker one of the
“Whitechapel Boys” and a leading figure in the world of British literature.
1894: In
defending a “closed court” in the trial of Captain Dreyfus Le Petit Journal wrote that the closed court is our impregnable
refuge against Germany" and La Croix
wrote that it must be "the most absolute closed court.”
1895:
Antonio Cappel is being held by authorities today on charges that he assaulted
a Jew named Max Shindler when Jewish and Italian pushcart peddlers clashed on
Essex Street yesterday.
1895: Today
is “Fraternity Day” at the two-week long charity fair which is raising funds
for the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Institute. Music was
supplied by the band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Victor Herbert
Orchestra.
1896: In
Frankfurt am Main Ida and Karl Ferdinand Mortiz Flesch who held a Dr. of
Jurisprudence degree gave birth to Hans Flesch
1896: Two
days after he had passed away, 72-year-old Michael Abrams, the son of Samuel
and Catherine Abrahams and the husband of Fanny Levy with whom he had five
children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1897: Emmanuel
Célestin Suhard, who would speak out against the treatment of the Jews by the
Vichy government, was ordained as a priest today.
1898(5th of
Tevet, 5659):
Baron Ferdinand James de Rothschild, M. P., passed
away on his 59th birthday.
1898: Funeral
services were held today for seventy-six-year-old Bavarian native Abraham
Leopold Bechoefer, who in 1848 came to the United States where he married
Rebecca Goldsmith with whom he had eight children and owned a successful
“mercantile business in Woodbury” before he retired and settled in Altoona, PA who
was buried in the Mount Sinai Cemetery.
1898:
William Morris, the founder of the William Morris Talent Agency married
twenty-six-year-old Emma Berlinghoff Morris who was the mother of Ruth and
William Morris, Jr. and the co-founder of the Shamus Club which provided milk
and cookies for the children at Saranac Lake and which was renamed the Emma
Morris Milk Fund in her memory.
1898:
Seventy-six-year-old Bavarian native Abraham Leopold Bechoefer, who in 1848
came to the United States where he married Rebecca Goldsmith with whom he had
eight children and owned a successful “mercantile business in Woodbury” before
he retired and settled in Altoona, PA was today buried in the Mount Sinai
Cemetery.
1899: The
McKinley administration submitted an agreement to Congress that had been
negotiated by Oscar Straus, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, in which Sultan
Abudul Hamid II promised to tell the Moros (Moslems living in the Philippines)
not resist U.S. rule of the islands.
1899: Fanny
Barnard, the daughter of David Michaelson and Anne Davies and the husband of
Daniel Barnard with whom she had had two daughters – Annie and Rosie – was
buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1899: In
Philadelphia, Harry and Ethel Daroff gave birth to clothing manufacturer Joseph
Alfred Daroff, the husband of Sylvia Daroff and father of Marilyn Daroff.
1900(26th
of Kislev, 5661): Second Day of Chanukah
1900:
Speaking from his residence, Oscar S. Straus, who had resigned as U.S. Minister
to Turkey said, “The President while desiring very much that I should return to
Constantinople, was willing to respect my wishes to resign.”
1901:
Samuel Gompers and Oscar Straus were chosen to serve as Vice Chairmen of the
newly created committed that “shall be known as the Industrial Department of
the National Civic Association” which was created “to avert strikes and to
settle labor troubles when called upon.”
1902: After
Alexander Lvovich Parvus, (Israel Lazarevich Gelfand) had “struck a deal with
Maxim to produce his play “The Lower Depths” it premiered today in Moscow.
1902: “But
for the tact of Prof. Richard Gottheil and the repeated raps of Chairman N.
Taylor Phillips's gavel this evening, the Zionist demonstration in the Temple
Emanu-El was in a fair way to be carried away by listeners who took exception
to the speech of Jacob De Haas, Secretary of the Federation of American
Zionists.
1902: Great
Britain expressed support for the sending of a small commission to the Sinai
Peninsula to report on conditions and prospects. This was part of plan to start
a Jewish settlement in the Sinai which could eventually lead to a Jewish home
in Palestine itself.
1902: In
Bremen, Julius Biebow, “an insurance company director” and his wife gave birth
to Hans Biebow the murderous chief administrator of the Lodz Ghetto whose
attempt to escape punishment for his crime ended with his hanging in 1947.
1902: N.
Taylor Phillips chaired a contentious meeting of Zionists and those opposed to
Zionism at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1903:
Arnold Schonberg began composing “Natur” (Nature) op.8, No.1 today, a work
which he would finish in March, 1904.
1903: In
Łanowce, Podolia, Khanina Auerbakh and his wife Mania (nee Kimelman), gave
birth to Rokhl Auerbach who “was one of the three surviving members of the
covert Oyneg Shabes group led by Emanuel Ringelblum that chronicled daily life
in the Warsaw Ghetto, and who initiated the excavation of the group's buried
manuscripts after the war” passed away.
(Editor’s Note: For more on this see Who Will Write Our History)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/auerbakh-rokhl
1904(10th
of Tevet, 5665): Asara B’Tevet
1904: The New York Times reports that Lionel
de Rothschild is building a 250 Horse Power auto boat as an entry for the
Harmsworth Cup race to be held in July of 1905.
1904:
Birthdate of New York City native Benjamin Hanft, a “prominent public relations
executive for a number of national Jewish organizations” and the husband of
Esther Haft, with whom he had three children including actress Helen Haft.
https://www.jta.org/1985/11/14/archive/benjamin-hanft-dead-at-80
1904: “The
annual Charity Ball of the United Hebrew Charities Association is scheduled to
be held at Arlington Hall at 20 St. Mark’s Place” today.
1905: Sarah
Bernhardt and Mark Twain were among those who entertained today at the benefit
matinee for the Jewish suffers in Russia which was held at the Casino in New
York City.
1905: In
New York, the Federation of American Zionists received official word that “the
central organization of the Zionists in Europe has decided to hold a special
international congress of Jews” which will “take action on the situation in
Russia.”
1905: Based
on letters from written from Russia in November that are now in the hands of
those raising funds for the victims of the Russian massacres, “it appears that
in many localities funds were at once raised locally to meet” the initial
emergency which according to Jacob Schiff is a good signed because “it shows
that there is recuperative power in the people in spite of their sore
affliction.”
1906(1st
of Tevet, 5667): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1906: The
Czar approved a bill presented to him by the Russian Council of Ministers which
purported to give greater liberties to Jews living in the 15 provinces of
western Russia known as the Pale of Settlement.
1906:
Twenty-five-year-old University of Toronto graduate and Baldwin University
trained attorney, Irwin N. Loeser, the Buffalo, NY born son of Rosa and Herman
N. Loeser married Bertha Wile today after which he practiced law in Cleveland,
OH where he was chairman of the Cleveland Jewish Campaign and a member of the
Euclid Avenue Temple.
1907:
Today, Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa who as Pope Benedict XV
denounced anti-Semitism in response to a petition by American Jews and who gave
Nahum Sokolov an extended audience where he presented the case for a Jewish
state in Palestine to the Pontiff “received the episcopal consecration from
Pope Pius X.”
1907: It
was reported that the initial meeting of group interested in forming a Society
of Jewish Art met at Temple Beth-El
where they heard a lecture by Sir Purdon Clarke on ancient Jewish art, a
lecture by Leo Mielziner on Jewish art of today and a lecture by Louis Lipski
on drama.
1907: A
dispatch received in St. Petersburg “from Vladivostok states that the Jews have
been order to depart within four days” and that “Jewish property holders have
eighteen day in which to liquidate.”
1908(24th
of Kislev, 5669): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light.
1908:
Thirty-two-year-old Schije Kuperstein, 19-year-old Miriam Wolfe, 15-year-old
Blumah Wolf and 11-year-old Michel Wolfe, all of whom had died aboard ship
while making their way from Russia to England were buried today at “Nunsthorpe
Jewish Cemetery,” near Grimsby.
1908(24th
of Kislev, 5669): Fifty-seven-year-old Benjamin Levy, the native of New South
Wales, Australia who was the husband Zara Levy passed away today in London.
1908: Rabbi
Panigel was forced to surrender his seals of the office of Hahambashi of
Jerusalem. Rabbi Hiskia Shabbatai filled the office temporarily.
1909(6th
of Tevet, 5670): Parashat Vayigash
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10372-mannheimer-sigmund
1909:
University of Pennsylvania trained dentist and physician Theodore Blum, the
Vienna born son of Max and Elsie Blum married his first wife, Bertha Roth whom
he would later divorce.
1909: “Isaac
N. Seligman, the banker, told an audience at the Young Men's Hebrew Association
tonight how the late President Baldwin of the Long Island Railroad had been
threatened by members of this city's Board of Aldermen several years ago, at
the time that the Long Island Railroad was attempting to get permission to
build the tunnels under the East River.”
1910: Birthdate of Abe
Burrows. Born in Brooklyn, this
successful composer won a Tony in 1951 for the Broadway hit, “Guys and Dolls.”
1910: It
was reported today that “forty Jewish families will be expelled from Moscow on
January 14, 1911” since “they do not come within the provisions of the law
recently approved by the Czar permitting Jewish merchants of the first guild
and their families to reside in the Province of Moscow.
1910:
Birthdate of Leon Greenman, the native of White Chapel, London, who ended up in
Auschwitz and wrote about his experiences in An Englishman In Auschwitz.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/10/secondworldwar
1910: It
was reported today that “beginning on Wednesday, January 4, and continuing for
some weeks a series of lectures and addressed on the ‘Ethical Aspects of the
Various Branches of Law’ will be delivered in the building of the Educational
Alliance.”
1910: In
New York City, Katie and Joseph Goodman gave birth to Thelma Goodman who gained
fame as singer and actress Thelma Leeds who was the wife of comedian Harry
Einstein and the mother of Albert Brooks, Bob Einstein and Clifford Einstein.
1911(27th
of Kislev, 5672): Third Day of Chanukah
1911: It
was reported today “the semi-official Rossia has printed a signed article by
the editor that says “pro-government Russians cannot confine themselves to
attacks upon and blind hatred for the Jews nor senselessly repeat the saying
‘the Jews will ruin Russia’” and “the Jews have not ruined Polish or Little
Russian cities and they won’t Russian ones.”
1911: Three
days after he had passed away Alexander Isaac, “the son of the late Alexander
Isaac” and Sophie Ley was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1911:
Birthdate of Cleveland, Ohio native and cartoon animator David Hilberman.
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/21/local/me-hilberman21
1911: In
Middletown, CT, Berthe Vogel and Samuel Dassin gave birth to director and
victim of the Hollywood blacklist, Julius “Jules” Dassin.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/movies/01dassin.html
1912: “Miss
Henrietta Weber” is schedule to a “lecture on Faust, Lohengrin and ‘The Cricket
on the Hearth’ this evening at the Chicago Hebrew Institute.
1912: La sorcière, an opera composed by
Camille Erlanger, premiered in Paris.
1912:
Founding of Temple Beth El in Muncie, Indiana.
1913: In
London, Henry Green, the organizer of the Jewish American Rumanian Committee is
scheduled to attend an informal meeting of the delegates who will be attending
the International Conference to be held at Berlin in January.
1914(1st
of Tevet, 5675): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1914: Jacob
Furth’s conviction on charges of financial irregularities related to a bank in
La Conner, Washington, was over-turned today.
Furth was an Austrian born American businessman and banker who played a
prominent role in the development of Seattle, Washington. The removal of this blemish on his record was
bittersweet since it came six months after he had passed away.
1914: Those
listed today as contributors to the fund for “the relief of Jews through the
war included the Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Association of Kansas City, The Dallas
Texas Committee, the Salem Mass. Hebrew Ladies’ Association and Katz Rosenthal
Company of Columbus, Ohio.
1914: “With
the consent of the military censor,” today’s “Russkoe Znamen published the
observation that ‘treason runs in the blood of the Jew, and no Jew can be
trusted not betray the army even though the ranks may be full of volunteers”
while also declaring “that being easily susceptible to fear and panic, the Jews
by their flight create holes in the ranks of which the Germans are quick to
take advantage.” (Editor’s note: This
represents an official, on-going policy of anti-Semitic attack on Russian Jewish
soldiers fighting for the Czar’s empire)
1914: As of
today, it was reported that an additional $42,147.53 has been collected to aid
the Jews of Europe suffering the effects of the war.
1914:
“Poles In Need of Help” published today described plans to provide aid to those
caught on what has become a battleground between German and Russian armies
including a joint effort by the American-Polish Relief Committee and the
committee that Felix Warburg had formed to aid Jews in Poland.
1915: It
was reported today that “Israel Cohen, Secretary of the International Zionist
organization and a British subject, who was interred in a detention camp at
Ruhleben near Berlin” at the start of the war and was finally released at the
start of this month, is planning on coming to the United where he plans on
giving a series of lectures on “Jewish Suffering of the War.”
1915: It
was reported today that Samuel Gompers has sent a series of resolutions adopted
by A F of L including one that states “that the American Federation of Labor
requests the Government of the United States to urge upon the governments of
the nations of other countries to cease discriminations wherever they exist and
now practiced against the Jewish people” to the National Workmen’s Committee of
Jewish Rights.
1916: After
ten months, the Battle of Verdun which claimed a total of 800,000 casualties on
both sides came to an end with neither the Germans or the French having
anything to show for what has been described as “the longest, and possibly the
deadliest, battle in history” which “could be judged the unnecessary battle in
an unnecessary war.” (Editor’s Note –
the gruesome blood bath elevated Marshall Petain, the man who would lead Vichy,
to a position of almost mythic proportion.
The monumental casualties would help to account for the failure of
France to respond to the rise of Hitler in the 1930’s and the quick fall of
France in 1940 which had such dire consequences for the Jewish population.)
1916: It
was reported today that in the view of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, “since 1880 Jews
had been steadily migrating from New York to Brooklyn and the poverty problem
which once confronted the Manhattan organization had now crossed the East
River.”
1916: “A
motion endorsing the desire for peace and appointing a committee to draft
appropriate resolutions was adopted” this morning “at the Fall of Assembly of
the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis” being held at Temple Emanu-El.
1916: At a
dinner given tonight at the Hotel Biltmore, the guest of honor Felix M.
Warburg, the Chairman of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies call for “a non-denominational, non-racial merger of activities for
war relief based on a plan to raise one hundred million dollars for Europe’s
stricken people.”
1916: Leon
L. Waters presided over a dinner at the Hotel Astor at which Simon Bamberger,
the Governor-elect of Utah, who was “the first Jew and non-Mormon to be
selected as the executive of that State.”
1916:
Tonight, “at the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple
Emanu-El…Louis Marshall was elected president of the board, M.H. Moses was
elected vice president” and Irving Lehman, Henry Fidenberg and Henry M. Toch
were elected to the Board of Trustees.
1917: Major
General, Charles-Arthur Gonse who refused to admit that Dreyfus was innocent
and continue to work to keep him in prison even after being shown conclusive
evidence of his innocence passed away today.
1917: Mrs.
Samuel Barkin’s “appeal to Governor Whitman today won a commutation of
sentence” for her husband “Samuel Barkin of Brooklyn, proprietor of the Diamond
Candy Factory which burned in November1914, killing twelve young girl
employees.
1917:
Hermann Frenkel a partner of the Jacquier and Securius Bank was one of the
founders of Universum Film which was established today in Germany as a direct
response to foreign competition in the realm of film and propaganda.
1917: As
British forces prepared for an assault across the Auju River which would make
it possible to use the Port of Jaffa tonight “the 161st (Essex) Brigade from
the 54th (East Anglian) Division and the Auckland and Wellington Mounted Rifles
Regiments, from the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, moved into the front
line replacing the 52nd (Lowland) Division.”
1917:
During World War I, the American Joint Distribution Committee issues $50,000
for the Jews of Salonica, $25,000 for the Jews of Turkey living outside of
Palestine and $3,500 for the Jews of Alexandria. These funds are to purchase
wheat for the baking of Matzah for the upcoming Passover.
1917: It
was reported today that British artillery did not respond to heavy shelling
from the Turks during the battle for Jerusalem because the generals were afraid
that shelling would damage the city.
1918: Birthdate
of Daniel Mazia, an American cell biologist who was notable for his work in
nuclear and cellular physiology. His research centered on the broad question of
cell reproduction, especially the division and regulation mechanisms involved
in mitosis (the process by which the chromosomes within the nucleus of a cell
double and divide prior to cell division). Mazia is best known for his
isolation (1951, with Japanese biologist Katsuma Dan) of the mitotic apparatus,
the structure responsible for cell division. This brought understanding of the
mechanisms of cell division and intracellular motility. A study in the early
'60s on centrosomal reproduction, until recently an unappreciated structure,
led to Mazia's interest in this cell organelle and the publication of a seminal
paper. He passed away in 1996.
1918: Nine
days before his 46th birthday, “German born American Jewish lawyer,
the founder and first president of ADL married Hilda Valerie Freiler today.
1918:
Birthdate of Savannah, GA, native Hal Kanter, an Emmy Award-winning comedy
writer, and a director and producer whose career included writing for Bob Hope
and Bing Crosby, directing Elvis Presley and creating a landmark 1960s TV
series starring Diahann Carroll. (As reported by Dennis McLellan)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/08/local/la-me-hal-kanter-20111108
1919(26th
of Kislev, 5680): Second Day of Chanukah
1919(26th
of Kislev, 5680): Seventy-six-year-old Samuel Sanger, the son of Babette
Mandelbuam Sanger and the husband of Hannah Heller Sanger whom he married in
1867 and with whom he had five children – Charles, Asher, Alex, Eli and Carrie
– passed away today after which he was buried at the Hebrew Rest Cemetery in
Waco, TX.
1919: “Takes
Steps to Curb German Anti-Semites published today that in response to the
government “taking measures to prevent any violent outbreak of anti-Semitism,”
“the Pan German Press” has declared “that these measures are a violation of the
political rights of citizens, since it asserts the anti-Semitic movement is
merely political.”
1920: In a
letter written today Gertrude Bell said loved Sir Sassoon Eskell, the Baghdad
born member of a distinguished Jewish family “also known as Sassoon Effendin
because “he is by far the ablest member of the Council” and although “a little
rigid, he takes the point of view of the constitutional lawyer and doesn't make
quite enough allowance for the primitive conditions of the 'Iraq, but he is
genuine and disinterested to the core.”
1920:
Jerusalem celebrated the third anniversary of its liberation by General Allenby
during which “Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner for Palestine and all
the leaders of the various faiths participated in a review and service held in
St. George’s Cathedral.
1921: “Several
hundred Jews from four States and the District of Columbia met today at the
Jewish Relief Conference in the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel for the inauguration
of a $14,000,000 nation-wide campaign for the relief of Jews in Eastern Europe.”
1922(28th
of Kislev, 5683):Fourth of Chanukah
1922: In
the Bronx, David Zimmer and Pauline Geller Zimmer gave birth to Esther Miriam
Zimmer who gained fame as microbiologist Esther Lederberg who was ‘a pioneer in
the field of bacterial genetics.”
http://www.estherlederberg.com/Anecdotes.html
1923(10th
of Tevet, 5684): Asara B'Tevet
1923:
Today, Federal Judge Julian W. Mack scored the police and the prohibition
forces for spending so much time rounding up petty offenders of the Volstead
act and failing to concentrate attention on the big offenders.”
1924: “Prater,”
a silent film filmed by Mutz Greenbaum was released in Berlin today.
1924(20th
of Kislev, 5685) California Republican Congressman Julius Kahn, Chairman of the
Military Affairs Committee dies paving the way for his widow Florence Kahn to
begin her active political career in the same legislative body.
1924:
Birthdate of San Francisco native Herbert Allen “Herb” Gorman the WW II Coast
Guard veteran and minor league star whose only major league appearance was as a
pinch-hitter for the Cards in 1952.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Herb_Gorman
1924: “A
protest again the attitude of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League
of nations with regard to Jewish immigration into Palestine was adopted today
the conference of the representatives of the Jewish settlements and communities
which is in session in Tel Aviv for the purpose of creating better facilities
for the arriving immigrants.” The conference also adopted resolutions
“demanding immediate abolition of restrictions on Jewish immigration into
Palestine” and the assignment funds to building inexpensive housing to
accommodate those making Aliyah.
1925: In
Budapest, “stormy parliamentary debates in the past two days over ‘numerous
clauses’ of the law restricting the number of Jewish university students reached
a climax this afternoon when the Minister of Education challenged opposition
Deputy Sandor to a duel.”
1926:
Birthdate of actor Walter Lassally, the native of Berlin who was not Jewish but
whose Jewish ancestry forced his family to flee to England just before the
outbreak of WW II.
1926:
Eighty-four-year-old Civil War veteran and Congressman John B. Weber who was
motivated to serve “as one of the general agents of the Hirsch Fund” and to
help straighten “out the kinks and snarls” at the Woodbine Colony which is the
home to 500 people” after having visited Russia and seen the conditions under
which the Jews live, passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B07E0DA1031E033A25750C0A9609C94629ED7CF
1927(24th
of Kislev, 5688): In the evening, Kindle the first Chanukah candle.
1927:
According to today’s New York Times, “The organization of two Jewish
Fascist groups in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is reported in recent dispatches from
Palestine to German newspapers. It is
averred that the self-assumed task of the new organizations consists in
fighting Socialist and Communist ideas and the Yiddish jargon brought to
Palestine by immigrants from Poland and Russia.
The Jewish Fascists insist that the use of Yiddish handicaps the
establishment of Hebrew as the common language of Palestine Jews.”
1928: In
Brooklyn, “homemaker Frances (Goldberg) Gitler” and furrier Samuel Gitler gave
birth to “Ira Gitler, who was one of the most respected and prolific jazz
writers of the postwar era and an early champion of bebop.” (As reported by
Richard Sandomir_
1928: It
was reported today “that Jews in South Africa had contributed $100,000 towards”
supporting the efforts of ORT to supply training and supplies for the Jews in
Russia.
1929:
Following yesterday’s fire at Temple Beth-El in Pensacola on-lookers “saw that
the structure was almost completely destroyed, with the scrolls so ruined that
they had to be buried and the only salvageable items were the organ, “the
memorial table” and “the Ten Commandment Tablet above the Ark.”
1930(28th
of Kislev, 5691): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1930: It
was reported today that “Arab clashes with Jewish settlers have been reported
from the south and north of Palestine, necessitating the immediate dispatch of
British police reinforcements from Jerusalem.”
1930: Two
leaders of the Revisionists predicted “a split among the Zionist Labor
adherents as a protest against the present policy of Labor leaders in Palestine
who are support Dr. Chaim Weizmann and his policies.”
1931:
Birthdate of record producer and manager Allen Klein whose clients included Sam
Cooke and the Rolling Stones. (As reported by Ben Sisario)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/arts/music/05klein.html
1931: In
Manhattan, “fashion designer Jo Copeland and cigar manufacturer Edward J.
Regensburg Jr. gave birth to novel Lois Gould the wife of psychiatrist Robert
E. Gould and the mother of Anthony and Roger V. Gould.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/31/arts/lois-gould-a-writer-on-women-s-inner-lives-dies-at-70.html
1931: “My
Leopold” a comedy starring Camilla Spira was released today in Germany.
1932(19th
of Kislev, 5693): “Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism.”
1932: “A
new Palestine film depicting Jewish life and activities in Palestine is
scheduled to be presented at the reception given to Zionist leaders from all
parts of” Ohio this evening at the ballroom of the Chittenden Hotel in
Columbus, OH. (JTS)
1932: “A
reception and tea in honor of Dr. Lion Feuchtwanger” is scheduled to “to be
given by the editors of the Menorah Journal and Menorah Graduate Society” this
afternoon London Terrace” where “it is expected that over 400 members and
friend will attend.
1932(19th of
Kislev, 5693): Eighty-two-year-old Eduard Bernstein a German social democratic
political theorist and politician passed away today.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/bernstein/index.htm
http://spartacus-educational.com/GERbernstein.htm
1933: In
New York,
“Sophie A. Udin, a feminist leader and
activist who sought equality between the sexes, including equal pay for equal
work and equal representation for women” and “Pinhas Ginguld, a Poale Zion
officer and head of the network of secular Yiddish Folk Schools and Teacher’s Seminary,
in New York” gave birth to their second child and first daughter Marcia Ginguld
Ford who moved to Israel to raise her family.
1934:
Birthdate of Marcell David Reich, the Antwerp born commodity trader Marc Rich,
the fugitive financier who purchased a Presidential Pardon from Bill Clinton.
1934: Scott
Wood and his Six Wingers recorded Al Jolson’s “Avalon.”
1935: It
was reported today that “plans for a campaign to raise $500,000 to aid Polish,
German and other non-Russian Jews to settle in the recently created autonomous
territory of Birobidjan in the Soviet Union were announced on December 17th
at a luncheon in the Bankers Club of the American committee for the settlement
project.”
1935: In
Berlin, “the year's last Cabinet session has come and gone without producing
the long-heralded general law for new economic restrictions on Jews, designed
to complete their segregation from the German people.”
1936: It
was reported today that the Honorable Mrs. Sebag-Montefiore had donated five
thousand English pounds to University College, Exeter.
1936: In
Warsaw, Foreign Minister Josef delivered a speech to the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the Senate talked about the need to find an “outlet for Poland’s
surplus population, especially the Jews” declaring “that Jewish problem in the
whole of Eastern Europe presented great difficulties now because of the fact
that a very large number of Jews who have been making their livelihood as
middle-men and traders are now losing their means of support and have no
possibilities of assuring work for the younger generation in view of changes in
the economic structure of various countries.”
1936(3rd of
Tevet, 5697): Dr. Henry Moskowitz, a leader in civil, political and labors
circles” passed away at the age of 57 in his New York Home. A native of Romania, Moskowitz graduated from
NYC public schools and City College before moving to Germany where he earned
his Doctorate. Moskowitz was active in the settlement house movement, an ally
of Governor Al Smith and served as chairman of the Civil Service Commission and
Commissioner of Public Markets. Moskowitz was active in Jewish affairs He was
on the board of directors of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and
the Jewish Social Service. His most notable achievement may have been being one
of the founders of the National Association of Colored People (NAACP).
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40814FA3959167B93CAA81789D95F428385F9
1937(14th
of Tevet, 5698): Parashat Vayehci
1937(14th
of Tevet, 5689): Forty-nine year Viennese native “Dr. Richard Hermann Jaffe,
chief pathologist at the Cook County Hospital who has resided in Chicago since
1922 and taught at both the University of Illinois and University of Chicago
Medical Schools while raising his son Ernst with his wife passed away this
evening at a time when “he had played a leading role in the investigation into
the death of 13 infants stricken with an unusual form of dysentery at St.
Elizabeth’s Hospital, passed away this evening.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/12/19/94475732.pdf
1937:
“Every Day’s a Holiday” a comedy produced by Emanuel Cohen was released today
in the United States.
1937: Ella
Fitzgerald recorded “I Want to Be Happy” the popular tune with lyrics by Irving
Caesar, the son of Jewish immigrants from Romania.
1937: On
Shabbat (Saturday), Temple Shaaray Tefila continued with the dedication of its
new facilities in New York City.
1937: After
289 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadway performance of
“Babes in Arms” a “musical comedy with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by
Lorenz Hart and book by Rodgers and Hart.”
1938(25th
of Kislev, 5699): First Day of Chanukah; kindle the second light in the evening
1938:
“Sheik Said el Khatib, who was a leader at the Mosque of Omar was shot dead by
Arabs in the Old City of Jerusalem this morning… The killing eliminates another important Arab
from the opponents of the exile Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini.”
1938(25th
of Kislev, 5699): Chanukah
1938(25th
of Kislev, 5699): “One Jew was killed and two were wounded when a Jewish-owned
bus, traveling on the new coastal road between Haifa and Tel Aviv was fired on
by “unidentified assailants” while an Arab woman was shot dead by another Arab
in the Old City of Jerusalem.
1938:
Birthdate of Bronx-born, Oscar winning song writer, Joel Hirschhorn. He and his
partner Al Kasha won in 1972 for “The Morning After” from The Poseidon
Adventure and We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.
1938:
Thousands of Father Charles Coughlin's followers take to the streets of New
York City, chanting, "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky
boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" Many Christian
policemen are sympathetic to the Coughlinites. The protests will last until
April 1939. They are opposed by other Catholic organizations and by leftists
and liberals.
1939:
Birthdate of Hartford, CT, native David Margolis ‘a brash and revered
prosecutor who in more than 50 years at the Justice Department helped it
navigate through some of its most difficult chapters…” (As reported by Eric
Lichtblau)
1939: Birthdate of Harold Varmus, an American
virologist and co-winner (with J. Michael Bishop) of the Nobel Prize for
Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for their work on the origins of cancer - that
cancer genes (oncogenes) can arise from normal cellular genes, called
proto-oncogenes. Oncogenes are normal genes that control growth in every living
cell, but, which, under certain conditions can turn renegade and cancerous.
They believed that the growth of cancerous cells is not the result of an
invasion from outside the cell, but rather a misuse of a normal gene by a
retrovirus, as a result of exposure to some aggravating carcinogen, such as
radiation or smoke. Their research in the mid '70s has led to great strides in
the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of a variety of cancers.
1940:
Birthdate of Hadera native Eli Cohen the award-winning Israeli actor and movie
director.
1940: The
South Shore Group of the Women’s League for Palestine is selling tickets for
today’s matinee performance of “The Corn is Green” at the National Theatre as
part of their efforts to raise funds for refugee relief. Proceeds of the sale will “augment a $25,000
Emergency Refugee Relief Fund for young women refugees living the two homes of
the Women’s League in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
1940:
Hitler prepared his directive for war with Russia. He changed the name from
Fritz to "Operation Barbarossa." Barbarossa was the mythic Emperor of
Medieval Germany, destined to rise again and lead Germany in glory and victory.
Hitler fixed
1941(28th
of Kislev, 5702): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1941(28th
of Kislev, 5702): Fifty-five-year-old Cincinnati native and University of
Cincinnati and Harvard trained attorney Dr. Nathan Isaacs, a professor of
business law at Harvard and “an American delegated at the first World Jewish
Congress in Vienna in 1936 passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/12/19/99329432.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1941: Three months before the deportations of the
Jews in France began in earnest, Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party’s chief
ideologue and its leading plunderer, requested Hitler’s personal authorization
to seize all the household effects and personal possessions belonging to Jews
and to distributed parts of them among party members and the Wehrmacht staff.
1941: In
Brooklyn, “high school teacher Sam Wallach” and the former Lottie Tannenbaum
gave birth to historian Joan Wallach, the Brandies and University of Wisconsin
trained historian whose intellectual breadth included French history and gender
history who became Joan Wallach Scott when she married Donald Scott.
https://www.ias.edu/scholars/scott
1941: “H.
M. Pulham, Esq” a movie version of the novel by the same name starring Hedy
Lamarr was released today in the United States.
1941: An
entry in Heinrich Himmler’s diary today read “What to do with the Jews of
Russia” to which he later wrote was “exterminate them as partisans.”
1942(10th
of Tevet, 5703): Asara B’Tevet
1942(10th
of Tevet, 5703): Seventy-nine-year-old Henry W. Unger, the Tammany Hall
political leader, assistant district attorney and B’nai B’rith activist who was
the husband of Isabella Peyser Unger and father of Albert and Herbert Unger
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/12/19/85620145.pdf
1942: When Jewish forced laborers at Kruszyna, Poland, refuse to
board trucks, more than 100 of them are shot.
1942: British Ambassador to the Vatican Francis d'Arcy Osborne
asserts that Pope Pius XII "does not see that his silence is highly
damning to the Holy See." He had provided the Vatican with detailed
information on the killings of Jews and pleaded for a clear denunciation of
this horror in the Pope’s Christmas Eve broadcast to the world.
1943(21st
of Kislev, 5704): Parashat Vayeshev
1943: Today’s
issue of “the usually authoritative Army and Navy Register” will say that “Gen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied Commander of the Mediterranean theatre, will go to
London to become supreme commander of Allied cross-Channel invasion forces and
Gen. George C. Marshall will remain United States Army Chief of Staff.”
1943: In
Neve Sha’anan, Malka and Israel Levin gave birth to Israeli dramatist Hanoch
Levin
1944: “The
annual bazaar conducted by the Women’s League for Palestine opened today with
the proceeds going to “the building of a third story on its Jerusalem
rehabilitation center now under construction.
1945(18th
of Tevet, 5706): Fifty-six-year-old Russian born and Columbia trained physician
Dr. Jacob Lattman who specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis and who
raised one son Laurence and two daughters Frances and Joy with his wife Yetta
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/12/19/88323726.pdf
1945:
Birthdate of Cantor Marsha Fensin.
1945: The
father of Aryeh ben Eliezer, a former member of the American Committee to Save
the Jews of Europe who was deported from Palestine to Eritrea in October of
1944, failed in his attempt gain his son’s freedom in suit brought before the
high court in Jerusalem.
1946: Sir William Fitzgerald, chief justice of Palestine, says
Jerusalem will be divided into Jewish and Arab boroughs.
1946: An
Arab landowner is assassinated because he sold land to Jews.
1947:
Birthdate of “Eddie Antar, the Brooklyn-born man who created the chain of Crazy
Eddie electronics stores only to watch it collapse when an underlying fraud was
exposed.” (As reported by Niraj Chokshi)
1947: Arab
guerilla forces that have been recruited in Damascus and Beirut gathered in the
Syrian capital as they prepare to invade Palestine.
1947:
Birthdate of Shabtai Kalmanovich
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3799688,00.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3o-AAZxMWE
1947: Birthdate of Steven
Spielberg. Born in Cincinnati, this
famous director has given us everything from “ET”, to “Close Encounters,” to
“Jaws” to fictional and documentary cinema about the Shoah.
1947:
“Miracle on 34th Street” produced by William Perlberg and featuring
Jack Albertson as postal service employee that begins at the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade and tells the tale of Santa Claus who among other
things brings peace between Macy’s and Gimbel’s department stores was released
today in Australia.
1948:
During the “Operation Velvetta,” which was part of the clandestine movement to
provide the new Jewish state with modern aircraft, a flight of Spitfires left
Czechoslovakia for Israel but was forced to turn back because of “poor weather
conditions.”
1948: UN mediator Ralph Bunche announces that a final solution to
Palestine conflict is well on its way.
1949: New
York City “education authorities received citations” tonight “ from the
Histadruth Ivrith of America in recognition of the fact that New York was the
first municipality to offer Hebrew as an accredited subject in its public
schools.”
1949: The Palestine Post reported thirty-five
men and women from 12 countries signed up for a three month class to become
first-aid workers for the Magen David Adom, the Israeli ambulance service.
Instruction was in French, Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish.
1950: In New York,
singer Jacqueline (née Gould) and Aaron Isaac Maltin, a lawyer and immigration
judge’ gave birth to film critic Leonard Maltin, the creator of Leonard
Maltin’s Movie Guide which appeared from 1969 until 2014.
1952(30th of
Kislev, 5713): Sixth Day of Channukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1952(30th of
Kislev, 5713): Sixty-year-old Zlatopil native and “Polish Jewish singer, actor
and director in Polish, Russian, and Yiddish theatre” Władysław Godik, the father
of Giora Godik “a Polish-born Jewish Israeli theater producer and impresario,
famous for bringing musical comedies to Israel” and veteran of the Red Army who
was wounded in combat during WW II and who is “best-known film role is the
tailor Liberman in Border Street directed by Aleksander Ford” passed away today
after which he “was buried in the Avenue of the Meritorious at the Powązki
Military Cemetery in Warsaw.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported from Sofia
that the new Israeli Chargé d'Affaires, Gershon Avner, who presented his
credentials, was assured that Bulgaria would not restrict Jewish emigration to
Israel.
1953: Israel's first
paper mills were dedicated today at Hadera, midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa.
The enterprise, sponsored by investors from the United States, Brazil,
Australia and Israel, is expected to meet most of Israel's current paper needs.
1953: Two
Unit 101 squads let by Meir Har-Zion began an attack along the road e to
Hebron.
1954(23rd
of Kislev, 5715): Parashat Vayeshev
1954(23rd
of Kislev, 5715): Eighty-year-old Abraham Ottenberg, the Washington, DC born
son of Regina and Isaac Ottenberg passed away today in Los Angeles.
1955:
Release in Asia today of sci-fi thriller “Lost Continent” co-starring Sid
Melton.
1955: In Detroit, “ground-breaking ceremonies for the erection of an
Activities Building for Temple Israel are scheduled to take place” this
morning.
1955: Cantor Liebel Waldman is scheduled to present a concert of Jewish
music this evening “ in the new synagogue of Congregation Ahavas Achim in
Detorit.
1956: The IDF hoisted the Israeli flag on the purported site
of Mount Sinai. Actually, there are at
least three places on the Sinai Peninsula that lay claim to being the location
for the giving of the Ten Commandments.
1956: New
York premiere of “This is Baby Doll” a dark comedy starring Carroll Baker and
Eli Wallach filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufman .
1957(25th
of Kislev, 5718): Chanukah
1957: In
New York, Edith Appelbaum, a teacher and Gabrie; Weingarten, an electrical
engineer gave birth to Cornell graduate and Yeshiva University JD Rhonda
"Randi" Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of
Teachers.
https://forward.com/news/127978/the-leading-jew-in-labor-wears-pearls/
1958:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native and Phi Betta Kappa graduate of the University
of Michigan Julia Wolfe “an American composer and professor of music at NYU”
who married fellow composer Michael Gordon in 1984.
1958: “Some Came
Running” produced by Sol Siegel with music by Elmer Bernstein and a script
co-authored by Arthur Sheekman was released in the United States today.
1961(11th of
Tevet, 5722): Sixty-four-year-old Leo F. Reisman, the popular 1920’s and 1930’s
bandleader whose orchestra launched the careers of co-religionists Eddy Duchin
and Mitch Miller passed away today.
1961: Santa Monica, CA,
Ronald and Clare (née Spark) Loeb gave birth to Columbia grad and founder and
chief executive of Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund Daniel Seth Loeb,
the husband of Margaret Davidson Munzer and the great-nephew of Ruth Handler,
the creator Barbie doll.
1962(21st of
Kislev, 5723): Seventy-seven-year Dr. Siegfried Josen Thannhauser, the Munich
orn son of Josef Salomon Thannhauser and husband of the former Charlotte
Langermann who lost his license under the Nazis after which he was able to come
to the United States and begin working in Boston, passed away today.
1962: Judge Herman
Weinkrantz of Brooklyn Court “reserved decision today until January 3 on a
motion to dismiss the prosecution again against Charles Pam, an Orthodox Jewish
grocer in Brooklyn charge with selling a can of tuna and a jar of baby food on
a Sunday during hours prohibited by the New York State Sunday closing laws.”
(JTA)
1963(2nd of
Tevet, 5724): 8th Day of Chanukah
1963: U.S premiere of
“4 for Texas” that included an uncredited appearance by Yaphet Kotto as well as
one of the final appearances of the Three Stooges including Larry Fine and Moe
Howard.
1965(24th of
Kislev, 5726): Parashat Vayeshev; kindle the first Chanukah candle
1965(24th
of Kislev, 5726) Eighty-three-year-old Florence Eliau Bamberg, the Baltimore
born daughter of the former Hannah Eilau and Ansel Bamberger and holder of a
B.S., M.A. and PhD from Columbia Teachers College, the advocate of progressive
education as advocated by John Dewey and the first woman to become a full
professor at Johns Hopkins University passed a way today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bamberger-florence
1966(5th of
Tevet, 5727): Seventy-five-year-old “Dr. Albert Salomon, Berlin native and refugee from Hitler’s Germany Albert
Salomon who became a Professor of Sociology at the New School for Social
Research passed away today.
1967(16th of
Kislev, 5728: Sixty-four-year-old Boston native and Boston University grad
Harold Sherman Gold, a member of the American Jewish Committee and Temple
Israel passed away today.
1967(16th of
Kislev, 5728): Morris Reuben Charrick, the rabbi at Keser Torah Congregation
from 1945 to 1967 passed away today.
1967: Violinist Paul
Zukofsky played the music of Mozart, Brahms, Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt
tonight at a recital in Carnegie Hall
1968(27th of
Kislev, 5729): Third Day of Chanukah
1968: “The Night They
Raided Minksky’s” a musical comedy directed by William Friedkin with a script
co-authored by Norman Lear was released today in the United States.
1968: Seventy-six-year-old
Dorothy Garrod who “was the pioneer excavator of the famous Mount Carmel caves,
where a long sequence of prehistoric cultures and human fossils was discovered”
passed away today.
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830905691.html
http://www.timesofisrael.com/finding-man-israels-prehistoric-caves/
1969: Today
marked the historic move of the original home of Adas Israel to its current
location at Third and G Streets, NW. With help from the District, the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development, and an Act of Congress, the
Society relocated the building, now the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish
Museum. The first floor was too weak to survive a move, so the structure was
severed horizontally and only the second and third floors (Sanctuary and
Balcony levels) made the journey by flatbed truck.
1969:
“Coco,” with music by Andre Previn and Lyrics and a Book by Alan Jay Lerner
opened on Broadway today at the Mark Hellinger Theatre which is owned and
operated by Max and Stanley Stahl.
1969:
Funeral services are scheduled to take place at the Riverside on Amsterdam
Avenue for the son William and Gussie (Goldenberg) Feuer of Columbia Law School
trained attorney Mortimer Feuer, a “partner firm Hays, Feuer, Porter &
Spanier” and the first vice president of the Amsterdam Democratic who married
Louis Younker Gottschall with whom he had two sons – Thomas and Richard.
1970: Eighty-nine-year-old Pastor Marc Boegner, the French
resistance leader who in 1942 wrote to Marsh Petain protesting against the
deportation of Jews and the inhuman manner in which orders for these
deportations were being carried out” passed away today.
1970: “El
Topo,” a “Mexican acid Western film written, scored, directed by and starring
Alejandro Jodorowsky,” the Chilean born son of “Jewish-Ukrainian parents” was
released today in New York City.
1971(30th of Kislev, 5732): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh
Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1971(30th of Kislev, 5732): Sixty-five-year-old Samuel
Katcher, the son of Louis and Rebecca Katz Katcher and the husband of Bessie
Starlor Katcher passed away today after which he was buried at Beth El Memorial
Park Cemetery in Livonia, Michigan,
1972(13th of Tevet, 5733): Seventy-seven-year-old Brooklyn
native and Rutgers University trained attorney Jules Tepper, the decorated WW I
veteran and leader of the Essex County (NJ) Republican Club who raised three
children – Shirlee, Rita and Leonard – with “his wife the former Lillian M.
Schoenbrun passed away today.
1972: Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys” produced
by Emanuel Azenberg, directed by Alan Arkin, with Sam Levene as Lewis and Jack
Albertson as Clark, premiered on
Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.
1973: “Cinderella Liberty” the cinematic treatment of the novel by the
same name directed and produced by Mark Rydell and starring James Caan, Eli
Wallach and Allan Arbus was released in the United States today.
1974(4th of Tevet, 5735): Sixty-two-year-old Rabbi Samuel
Isaac Korf, the son of Gittel Godman Korff and Jacob Israel Korff, the husband
of Anna Twersky and the son-in-law of Rabbi Nachum and Malcha Twersky, who was
the spiritual leader of Congregation Kehillath Jacob in Newton” and “a founder
of the Associated Synagogues of New England” passed away today in Boston.
1975: Today marked the beginning of the “active law career” of Los Angeles
native and University of Chicago Law School graduate Harvy Robert Levin, the “American
television producer, legal analyst and journalist.”
1975(14th of Tevet, 5736): Five days before his 93rd
birthday, Ulm born Rabbi Georg Salzberger, the recipient of the Iron Cross
during World War I and survivor of Dachau who escaped to England with his wife
Natalie in 1939 and became “the first rabbi of the Belsize Synagogue” passed
away today.
1976(26th of Kislev, 5737): Parashat Vayeshev; Second Day
1976: "A Star is Born," with Barbra Streisand, premieres
1977:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
Prime Minister Menachem Begin, upon his return from the US, prepared himself to
leave for Egypt, in response to the direct invitation by President Anwar Sadat.
Begin, who presented a new Middle Eastern peace proposal to Washington, was now
expected to bring it with him to Cairo.
1977:
In Boston, “Jacqueline (née Jordan) and Sidney Blumenthal, a writer and former
aide to President Bill Clinton and aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton”
gave birth to author and journalist Max Blumenthal whose works include Goliath:
Life and Loathing in Greater Israel and The 51 Day War: Ruin and
Resistance in Gaza.
1977: The Post described in great detail the
emotional moments for Israelis who spent their first Shabbat in Cairo. There
was riotous, joyful welcome for the Israeli negotiating team outside the Cairo
synagogue. In his address in Tel Aviv, President Ephraim Katzir, revealed a
$100m. oil deal with Mexico.
1977: “The World’s
Greatest Lover” directed, produced and written by Gene Wilder who also starred
in the comedy that featured Elya Baskin was released in the United States
today.
1978: “Funeral services
are scheduled to be held this afternoon at the West Side Institutional
Synagogue for seventy-one year old Austrian born Stephen who in 1939 arrived in
the United States as a refugee from Nazi Europe where he founded the Barton’s
Candy Corporation while raising four children – George, Fred, Simcha and
Jeanette- with his wife Regina.
1979: Amy Sheridan, who
would go on to be “the first American Jewish
woman to gain aviator status in any branch of the Armed Services” earned her bars as a
Warrant Officer One at the United States Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker,
Alabama (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archives)
1980(11th of
Tevet, 5741): Ninety-eight-year-old Fanny G. “Henka” Pofcher, the husband of
Elias Harry Pofcher passed away today after which she was interred at the
Imas-Roxbury Lodge Cemetery in West Roxbury, MA.
1980(11th of
Tevet, 5741): Fifty-seven-year-old Mazkeret Batya native and Palmach officer
Moshe Kelman whose military record including commanding the third battalion
during Operation Yiftach and Operation Danny and who “worked as an investment
consultant and in the design and construction of factories and industrial
zones” in Israel after earning a B.A. from Columbia University passed away
today
1981(22nd of
Kislev, 5742): Seventy-two-year-old Chicago native and Northwestern trained
surgeon, Dr. Leon Judah Aries, the husband of Marie L. Aries with whom he had
three daughters – Jane, Elizabeth and Nancy – passed away today.
1981: “Absence of
Malice” a legal melodrama directed and produced by Sydney Pollack and starring
Paul Newman and Bob Balaban was released in the United States today.
1981: “Ghost Story,” a
cinema version of the novel co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released today in
the United States.
1982: “The King of
Comedy” co-starring Jerry Lewis and Sandra Bernhard was released today in
Iceland.
1982: At Ohev Shalom
Talmud Torah Congregation in Washington, rabbi Hillel Klavan officiated at the
wedding of Barbara Eileen Cohen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jay J. Cohen of
Bethesda, MD and Andrew Mark Hutter, son of Dr. and Mrs. Robert V.P. Hutter of
Livingston, N.J.
1982: Rabbi Israel
Mowshowitz officiated at the wedding of Linda Rachel Nass, daughter of Edna
Kadin Nass of New York and the late Samuel Nass and Dr. Brian Lloyd Tell, son
of Frieda Tell of Jamaica Estates, Queens, and Lake Worth, Fla., and the late
Dr. Meyer Tell.
1984(24th of
Kislev, 5745): Kindle the first Chanukah light in the evening.
1984(24th of
Kislev, 5745): Eighty-six-year-old Minnie Alpher Bogdonoff, the Brooklyn born
daughter of Rebecca Kaufman and David Alpher, the wife of Meyer Myron Bogdonoff
and mother of Morton David Bogdonoff passed away today in Durham, NC after
which she was buried in Mt. Sinai Memorial Park in Miami, FL.
1984: Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt reviewed Albert Speer: The End of a Myth by Matthias
Schmidt
1985: “Out of Africa”
the cinematic treatment of the novel of the same name (and a must see movie)
directed and produced by Sydney Pollack was released in the United States
today.
1986: “Allan Quatermain
and the Lost City of Gold,” a movie version of the novel produced by Yoram
Globus and Menahem Golan was released today in West Germany.
1987: The Jewish
National Fund New Leadership of Greater New York is sponsoring ''A New York
Chanukah'' at the Crystal Pavilion, 805 Third Avenue near 49th Street.
1987: A federal judge sentenced Ivan F
Boesky to 3 years in jail for insider trading.
1987:
“Ironweed” the movie version of the novel of the same named directed by Héctor
Babenco and co-starring Carroll Baker was released in the United States today.
1987:
Israeli troops kept a tight lid on the occupied Gaza Strip today, but scattered
demonstrations broke out in Palestinian refugee districts and towns in the West
Bank and the Arab sector of East Jerusalem. A Palestinian shot as he stabbed an
Israeli soldier in the Gaza border town of Rafa died today, bringing the death
toll to at least 14 Palestinians shot by the army in the current round of
violence.
1988: Israel's political leaders continued to flounder today in
their nearly seven-week effort to form a new government. Prime Minister Yitzhak
Shamir's hard-line Likud supporters said he was ready to abandon efforts to
form another government with his Labor Party rivals.
1988: In “American-Jewish Writers: On Edge Once More,” published today, Ted Solotaroff, author of A
Few Good Voices In My Head examines the changes in American Jewish
literature over the last quarter of a century
1989: Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin said today that his ministry
authorized and paid for meetings between relatives of Israeli soldiers captured
during the invasion of Lebanon and representatives of the Palestine Liberation
Organization.
1989: A
Congress of Jewish Organizations and Communities in the U.S.S.R. opened today
in the Moscow Cinema Center.
1989: The “first
staged reading of Assassins a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim”
took placed today at Plywrights Horizons under the direction of Jerry Zaks, the
son of Holocaust survivors.
1990(1st
of Tevet, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1990: Today,
Assassins, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, “opened Off-Broadway
at Playwrights Horizons.
1990: The
former New York City Mayor, Edward I. Koch, was hit in the head and slightly
hurt today when a stone was thrown at him as he strolled through the Arab
Quarter of the Old City. Mr. Koch and Jerusalem's Mayor, Teddy Kollek, were
walking to the Western Wall without a police escort when the stone was thrown.
Mr. Koch was in Jerusalem as a guest of the city government, which was trying
to use his visit to promote tourism. However, because of the three-year
uprising by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories, few Israelis or
tourists walk or shop in the Arab marketplaces. "I would hope that the
Jews and Christians in New York and in the United States would say, 'You're not
going to keep us out of Jerusalem,' " Mr. Koch said after the incident
today. " 'You're not going to prevent us by stoning innocent people from
supporting the people of Israel."
1991(11th
of Tevet, 5752): Seventy-year-old Samuel “Sam” Deitchman who “played guard,
forward, and center at CCNY from 1940 to 1942 when the team made repeat
appearances at the NIT, the premier college basketball tournament of that
period, passed away today.
1992(23rd
of Kislev, 5753): Seventy-seven-year-old
television producer and game show creator Mark Goodson passed away. Born in
1915, his stable of creations included Beat the Clock, The Price Is Right, To
Tell the Truth and that Sunday favorite, What’s My Line? (As reported by Bill
Carter)
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/19/arts/mark-goodson-game-show-inventor-dies-at-77.html
https://www.biography.com/people/mark-goodson-9542303
1993(4th
of Tevet, 5754): Parashat Vayigash
1993(4th
of Tevet, 5754): Seventy-four-year-old actor, director and WW II veteran Samuel
“Sam” Wanamker, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants who was a victim of
the infamous “blacklist” passed away
today.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1993/12/19/sam-wanamaker-actor-and-director-dies-at-74/04d13a69-54d7-4495-a25c-facb42485296/?utm_term=.c19c9b285d0c
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sam-wanamaker-1468601.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/19/obituaries/sam-wanamaker-actor-74-who-led-new-globe-theater.html
1994(15th
of Tevet, 5755): Seventy-year-old Heinz Bernard, the German born British actor,
director and theatre manager passed away today.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-heinz-bernard-1568974.html
1995(25th
of Kislev, 5756): Chanukah
1995(25th
of Kislev, 5756): Seventy-three-year-old Eliezer “Danny” Armon the Hungarian
Jew who made Aliyah and who served with Naval Company of the Palmach where he
skippered several ships that ran the British blockade passed away today. (James
Bond, et al had nothing on this guy)
http://www.palyam.org/English/IS/Armon_Eliezer_Danny
1995 (25th
of Kislev, 5756): Rabbi Chaim Pearl
passed away. Born in England in 1919,
Rabbi Pearl’s first pulpit was in Birmingham England. He came to the United States after World War
II and officiated at a Conservative Synagogue in New York. He retired in the 1980’s and moved to
Jerusalem where he lived at the time of his death. Rabbi Pearl published
numerous articles in the Anglo-Jewish press. He also authored a number of
books, including a translation of Sefer
Ha-Aggadah, A Guide to Jewish
Knowledge, and The
Medieval Jewish Mind: Studies in the Religious Philosophy of Isaac Arama,
as well as two volumes on Rashi. In addition, he edited the sermons of Rabbi
Abraham Cohen, who was his predecessor in Birmingham; produced a number of
pamphlets; and served as associate editor of The Jewish Bible Quarterly.
1995 (25th
of Kislev, 5756): Eighty-six-year-old physicist Nathan Rosen passed away. Born
in 1909, he was a U.S.-born Israeli theoretical physicist who in 1935
collaborated with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky on a much-debated
refutation of the theory of quantum mechanics; he later came to accept the
theory. The famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen critique of quantum mechanics was
published in the 1935 Physical Review. (A New
York Times obituary described The Physical Review as "one of the most
impenetrable periodicals in the English language.") Rosen founded the
Institute of Physics at Technion in Haifa Rosen was also the father of Dr. Joe
Rosen a noted-physicist in his own right, a Renaissance Man in the truest sense
of the word and a real mensch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGYWFJDL2s4
1996:
“Marvin’s Room” the movie version of the play with the same name directed by
Jerry Zaks, featuring Bitty Schram as “Janine” and music by Rachel Portman was
released in the United States today.
1996(8th
of Tevet, 5757): One-hundred-one-year old Irving Caeser,, the Henry Settlement
born son of Romanian Jewish immigrants Sofie and Morris Keiser, “the owner of a secondhand bookstore
the brother of screenwriter Arthur
Caesar, who gained famed as award winning songwriter Irving Caeser who was
responsible for such all-time hits as “Sewanee” and “Tea for Two” passed away
today.
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Irving_Caesar
1998:
Release date for “You’ve Got Mail,” a comedy produced and directed by Nora
Ephron with a script by Nora and Delia Ephron.
1996(8th
of Tevet, 5757): Theatrical composer and Tin Pan Alley lyricist, Irving Caesar,
the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants who was responsible for such classics
(which nobody knows today) as “Tea for Two” and “Swanee” passed away today at
the age of 101.
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Irving_Caesar
1998(29th
of Kislev, 5759): Fifth day of Chanukah
1998:
“You’ve Got Mail,” a comedy produced and directed by Nora Ephron with a script
by Nora and Delia Ephron was released today in the United States.
1998: The
Chesed-El Synagogue which dates back to 1905 was designated as “national
monument of Singapore” today.
1999(9th
of Tevet, 5760): Parashat Vayigash
1999(9th
of Tevet, 5760): Seventy-seven-year-old “master jeweler,” Aaron Ziselis Blumas,
the Kovno born “son of Leizer Bliumas and Alte (Anna) Leie Gan and the husband Rosa
Berta Zejani with whom he had two children including Al Blumas passed away to
in Albuquerque, NM.
2000: Three
days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held at
Temple Israel in New Rochelle NY, for Irving J. Pastarnack, the husband of
Irene (Stern) Pastarnack and father of Bruce and Mark Pastarnack.
2001: In Tampa, Florida, the funeral is held for Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner singer, songwriter, rhythm and lead guitarist of the band Death. 2002: “Two Week’s Notice” a comedy co-starring Kevin Klein but not Mark Feuerstein because his scenes were deleted was released today in the United States.2002: In “Art Institute looks at houses of David Adler” published today Blair Kamin examines the life and career of the Jewish architect who “passed himself off as Protestant and designed in a thoroughly eclectic manner that was catholic with a small ‘c’”.http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2002-12-18/features/0212180077_1_art-institute-international-style-modernism-houses
2003: “Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel is scheduled to speak at a conference in the seaside
town of Herzliya today, and it seems that all of Israel, certainly all of the
Israeli press, is speculating as to what he will say.”
2004: As
Prime Minster Sharon forms his coalition government “ “in an interview with Le
Figaro that will appear today, Shimon Peres said: "Even if I'm not
entirely in agreement with Sharon, I prefer a mediocre plan supported by a
majority of the people to a brilliant plan without the majority to implement
it” and “that's a difference between me and some of my colleagues."
2005: Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon was rushed to hospital in Jerusalem after suffering a
minor stroke and briefly losing consciousness. His doctors later said that the
prime minister was in a stable condition and was undergoing tests. Sharon's
long-time personal physician, Dr. Boleslav Goldman, said several hours later
that the "prime minister is fully conscious. He is talking freely, moving
and joking. He underwent a mild stroke."
2005:
Israeli Holocaust survivor Lea Fuchs Chayen sends her e-mail address to Iowan
David Cmelik so that they could communicate in a more direct, personal
manner. Cmelik is the son of Frank
Cmelik who was a rifleman in the 84th Division of the Ninth
Army. The 84th Divisions was
recognized a a liberating unit by the United States Holocaust Museum and the
United States Army. Cmelik had been
searching for Chayen because she was one of the girls his father had mentioned
that he had helped to liberate when his unit entered the Salzwedel Labor Camp
in the spring of 1945. His father was
finally being awarded the Bronze Star that he had earned as part of the
liberation effort. In her e-mail and
subsequent correspondence, Chayen described the details of her liberation and
her gratitude for what Frank Cmelik and his fellow soldiers had one.
2006: The
"Local Testimony" photography exhibition opens in Dizengoff Center in
Tel Aviv, in commemoration of Lior Ziv, an IDF Spokesman photographer who was
killed during an Israel Defense Forces operation in 2003. The exhibition, held
for the fourth consecutive year, shows Israeli photographic journalism of the
past year. The dozens of photographs on display have been chosen from some
4,500 entries to the Local Testimony competition. This year's winners include
the following Haaretz photographers: Uriel Sinai came first in the category of
series of photographs documenting the results of Katyusha rocket landings in
Haifa; David Bachar came third in the category of series of portraits; Nir
Keidar came second in the category of series of sports photographs and Nir
Kafri came first in the culture and art category.
2007:
Internet voting, sponsored by The Philatelic Service of the Israel Postal
Company, designed to choose the stamp to be used to mark Israeli’s 60th
Independence Day, comes to an end.
2007:
Today, Marc “Trestman was named head coach for the CFL Montreal Alouettes whom
he led to the Gray Cup in 2008.
2007(9th
of Tevet, 5768): Eighty-three-year-old mathematician Samuel Karlin passed away.
(As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/us/21karlin.html
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/january16/karlin-011608.html
2007: David
Rubenstein purchased the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta at
Sotheby's auction house in New York for $21.3 million
2007: Naftali Tzi
Weisz, the 59-year-old Grand Rabbi of Spinka, and Gabbai Moshe E. Zigelman, 60,
both of Brooklyn, N.Y., were named in a federal grand jury's 37-count
indictment in Los Angeles. The indictment claims that Weisz and Zigelman
promised to secretly refund up to 95 percent of millions of dollars of
contributions to several Spinka charities. The contributors could claim the
full amount for tax deductions, even though they gave as little as five percent
of the amount declared on federal income tax returns, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office.
2008: In
its final evening, the 10th Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival features a screening
of the 1920 classic, “The Golem” produced during the short years when
expressionist film, which used artificial sets, exaggerated lighting and
intentionally distorted film angles to portray terror and madness, was in full
swing in Germany.
2008: In New York, as part of the “18 Nights of Inspiration lecture series “Dov
Waxman, professor of political science at Baruch College, discusses the main
issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the prospects for peace in a
talk entitled "Is Peace
Possible?"
2008: The largest and most hi-tech movie theater in the South is opening in
Beersheba's
2008: Members of an Australian trade union that accused Israel of “ethnic
cleansing” joined Jewish officials at a Chanukah celebration.
2008:
Hamas officially declared
this evening that it would not extend the six-month-old truce between Gaza
factions and Israel. The announcement appeared to be anti-climactic since 11
Kassam rockets and five mortar shells had already pounded southern Israel by
mid-afternoon.
2008(21st of Kislev, 5769): Centenarian Scottish sculptor
Hannah Frank the daughter of immigrants from the Pale of Settlement passed away
today in Glasgow.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12378258.Hannah_Frank/
2008: Today “the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia
University in New York announced it had acquired Norman Jaffe's architectural
archives” which include architectural drawings, presentations and photographs
from Jaffe's professional practice and covers more than 80 projects from the
1960s to the 1990s.
2009: In New York, as part of the Concert Masters Series, the Baruch
Performing Arts Center presents as an evening with Roman Spitzer, Principal
Violist of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
2009(1st of Tevet, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2009: In the evening, light the eighth Chanukah candle, 5770
2009:
A Las Vegas teacher has
been told to stay home while district officials investigate a claim that she
denied in class the Holocaust happened, a newspaper reported today. Clark
County school’s spokesman Michael Rodriguez said Northwest Career and Technical
Academy teacher Lori Sublette was assigned to remain home, and appropriate
action would follow an investigation. Student Katie Piranio told the Las Vegas
Review-Journal that Sublette said during a Nov. 25 class that history books
were inaccurate and Nazis in World War II lacked the technology to kill
millions of Jews. Sublette did not immediately return a message left by The
Associated Press seeking comment. The Review-Journal said she did not answer
when a reporter reached her Thursday and asked if she had denied the Holocaust
happened. Sublette said she was not in a position to respond and would have to
talk to her principal. Sublette is a full-time gym teacher. The district says
she was teaching a 30-minute weekly class designed to prepare students for life
after high school.
2009: Amjal Kasab, a Pakistani man standing trial for his role in the
terrorist attack on Mumbai last year that included the murder of Jews at the
Chabad House, recanted his earlier confession in court today saying he been
framed by the Indian police.
2009: According to police reports, the infamous iron sign over the gate
to the Auschwitz memorial site with the cynical phrase “Arbeit Macht Frei” –
German for “Work Sets You Free” was stolen this morning between 3:30 a.m. and 5
a.m. when museum guards noticed that it was missing and alerted police.
2009: U.S. release date for “Avatar” the epic sci-fi thrill co-produced
by Jon Landau
2010: In Israel, Channel Two broadcast the first episode of “Yellow
Peppers,” a show that tells the tale of a family raising an autistic child.
2010: Hazak Shabbat -The United Synagogue has designated this Shabbat as
HaZaK Shabbat, to recognize the older adults' groups of Conservative
congregations.
2010: “Shabbat Chazak” – Finished reading Bereshit or Genesis. This is
“one of the four Shabbats when we complete one of the books of the Torah (the
fifth time is on Simchat Torah); just as we complete the weekly Torah reading
Shabbat morning, the entire congregation rises and together calls out “Chazak,
Chazak, V’nitchazaik” –“Be strong. Be strong. Let us strengthen ourselves!”
Just as we have completed one of the books of the Torah, God will help us be
strong and complete all of the loose end of our lives, physically and
spiritually. The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that there is a superiority to the
“chazak of Parashat Vayechi in that it is the first one. (The Rhinebeck Jewish Center)
2010: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present “Wiesel in
Concert: Memories & Melodies of My Childhood” during which the “renowned
scholar, teacher and advocate, with orchestra and choir, is scheduled to sing
songs from his youth for a new generation—a review of Jewish melodies from the
shtetl to today.
2010:
Oy Vey in a Manger is
scheduled to open at Theatre J in Washington, DC.
2010:
“Jerusalem Rejuvenates C.R. Native” published today, describes the spiritual and professional journey made by Abbie Silber, the daughter of
Dr. Robert and Laurie Silber, from
growing up in Cedar Rapids to studying and performing in Jerusalem. http://easterniowalife.com/2010/12/16/cedar-rapids-native-studies-finds-a-home-in-jerusalem/
2010:
On Saturday, two women were stabbed in a forest near Beit Shemesh. Kay Wilson,
an olah from Great Britain, and her American friend Kristine Luken were hiking
in the wooded hills west of Jerusalem.
2010(11th
of Tevet, 5771): French scholar Jacqueline de Romilly, a specialist on ancient
Greece, a prolific writer and one of the first women to join the prestigious
Academie Francaise, died today at the age of 97. (As reported by Cecile Roux)
http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=112149344
2010(11th
of Tevet, 5771):
Eighty-three-year-old “Morris L. Cohen, a book lover who shunned the
practice of law because it was too contentious and became one of the nation’s
most influential legal librarians, bringing both the Harvard and Yale law
libraries into the digital age, died today at his home in New Haven.” (As
reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/us/26mcohen.html?_r=0
2011:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “In The King’s Arms,” Sonia
Taitz’s first novel about a Yeshiva-schooled and Vassar-scrubbed, 21-year-old
New Yorker named Lily Taub and “Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough
Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World” by Richard
Rhodes. Unbeknownst to most of her fans, Hedy Lamar a Viennese born Jewess
whose birth-name was Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler.
2011:
The Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to come to an end.
2011:
London’s Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a family-friendly
Chanukah Party this afternoon.
2011:”Yoo-Hoo,
Mrs. Goldberg” is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Cinema Mississippi
Chanukah Event in Jackson, MS.
2011:
The Jewish Community Center Wide Chanukah Concert with Craig Taubman is
scheduled to take place at the Uptown JCC in New Orleans, LA.
2011: Viewers of ION-TV are
in for a musical treat as Meaghan Reider, daughter of Sue and
Ronald Reider, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community is scheduled to
perform a cantorial role this morning.
2011(22nd
of Kislev): Yahrzeit of Dulcina, the
wife of Eleazar Rokeach and his son Jacob and his daughters, Belat and Hannah.
They were killed in 1196 by two crusaders who broke into Eleazar’s home while
he was working on a commentary on “Bereshit.” Born in 1176, this native of
Mainz (Germany) was also known as Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus. A leading
Talmudist and author his works included “Ha-Rokeah” (Perfumer) “a halachic
guide to ethics and Jewish Law for the common reader. The title derives from
the numerical value of the word הרקח, which corresponds to
that of אלעזר. The book is divided into 497 paragraphs
containing halachot and ethics; first published at Fano, 1505.” The title of
the book probably was the source of his “last name.” He played a critical role in devising legislation
that helped the Jews of the Rhineland survive the devastation of the
Crusades. He passed away in 1238.
2011: Today,
the Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved a bill that would allow
Jewish couples to register for marriage with any rabbinate bureau in the
country, irrespective of where they live.
2011: Ashkenazi
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger criticized the segregation of men and women on public
transportation, in an interview with Army Radio.
According to Metzger, the haredi community does not have the right to impose
its practices on public bus lines.
2011: An Egyptian pipeline carrying gas to
Israel and Jordan was bombed today, the 10th such attack this year, but no fire
erupted because the line that runs through North Sinai was already disabled, a
security source said.
2012:
“Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film
Festival.
2012: Mitchell Davis of the James
Beard Foundation is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion with Julia Moskin
of The New York Times, Stephanie Pierson – author of Brisket Book, Daniel
Delaney of Brisket Town, Noah Bernamoff of Mile End and butcher Jake Dickson
entitled “Let’s Brisket” in which they will discuss what was once considered to
be the quintessential Jewish cut of beef.
2012: Thousands of fragments of the
Dead Sea Scrolls went online today with the launch of a new website by Google
and the Israel Antiquities Authority, part of a move to make the famed
manuscripts easily available to scholars and casual web surfers.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/dead-sea-scrolls-go-digital/?ref=review
2013:
Rev. Canon Jack E. Lindquist is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “The
Holocaust and Churches in Nazi Germany: Examples of Complicity and Resistance”
at the Coronado Library.
2013:
The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present “Don’t Tell Santa You’re
Jewish” and “David” by Director Joel Fendelman.
2013:
“Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival,
weather permitting.
2013:
It was reported today that Israeli fashion model Esti Ginzburg's f”ather was
suing her for allegedly failing to pay him money owed for a house he sold her
and her husband.”
2013:
A 22-year-old man was killed and six more were injured when the IDF exchanged
fire with Palestinians during an operation in the West Bank city of Jenin
tonight.
2013:
The Justice Ministry unveiled the draft of a proposed bill today that will
ultimately completely restructure the legal regime and sovereignty principles
governing the country’s coastal waters. (As reported by Sharon Udasin and Yonah
Jeremy Bob)
2013:
In contrasting decisions handed down today Germany says it won’t return two
paintings once owned by a Jewish businessman who fled the Nazis, even as the
western city of Cologne agreed to hand back almost a dozen other valuable
drawings to heirs in two separate cases.
2013:
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court today sentenced Rabbi Mordechai Elon to six
months of community service, as well as a 15-month suspended jail term,
rejecting the prosecution’s demand that he be sent to prison for fondling a
minor. Elon, once a celebrated mentor of Israel’s religious Zionist movement,
was also ordered to pay the victim NIS 10,000 ($2,850) in compensation. (As
reported by Spencer Ho)
2014:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host its annual Festival of
Lights this evening at the Center for Jewish History.
2014:
The Washington, DC Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host “Authors Out
Loud” featuring Boris Fishman whose latest work is A Replacement Life: A
Novel.
2014(26th
of Kislev, 5775): 2nd day of Chanukah
2014(26th
of Kislev, 5775): Eighty-nine-year-old Harold Schulweis, the long term rabbi at
the Valley Beth Shalom synagogue in Encino, CA passed away today.
2014(26th
of Kislev, 5775): Seventy-year-old Mandy Rice-Davies “the showgirl” who played
a key role in the Profumo Affair that brought down the government of Prime
Minister Harold Macmillan, and who later converted to Judaism and made Aliyah,
passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/mandy-rice-davies-key-figure-in-1963-british-sex-scandal-dies-aged-70/
2014:
In Iowa, Chabad led by Rabbi Avrohom Blesofsky is scheduled to light the
menorah this evening at Coral Ridge Mall.
2014:
Israeli pianist Daniel Gortler is scheduled to perform at the Jewish Museum.
2014:
“In the decision released today the Supreme Court ruled against a motion from
lawyers representing Yonit Erez, whose conversion to Judaism in 2000 was
revoked by Israel’s rabbinical courts. The rabbis took the radical step after
concluding that Erez had misled them in promising to lead an Orthodox life.”
(As reported by Amanda Borschel-Dan)
2014:
“President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and generations of
Mossad chiefs participated in a ceremony today held at the president's
residence in Jerusalem, where citations of excellence were awarded to
outstanding Mossad agents.”
2014:
Of the four Hamas terrorists who reportedly were taking part in a military
exercise near the Egyptian Border one was killed and three were injured following
an explosion near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
2014:
A memorial service for Rabbi Isaac Neuman is scheduled to be held this evening
at Sinai Temple in Champagne, Illinois.
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2014-11-18/life-remembered-neuman-messenger-hope.html
2015:
Rabbi Jennie Rosenn is scheduled to speak at Temple Emanu-El as part of Human
Rights Shabbat.
2015:
“Son of Saul” an “acclaimed Hungarian drama set in Auschwitz” and the “winner
of the Grand Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival” is scheduled open at The
Film Forum in Manhattan.
2016: The New
York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including Thanks You For Being Late: An
Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L.
Friedman and The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by
Michael Lewis that examines the research of Hebrew University professors Amos
Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.
2016: WQXR is scheduled to host “a family Chanukah
celebration in The Greene Space’ featuring “Parent’s Choice Award winners “The
Bossy Frog Band” playing Chanukah favorites.”
2016: The Ethiopian Jewish Community’s seventh
annual Sigd celebration is scheduled to come to an end today.
2016(18th of Kislev, 5777): In Antwerp,
“a diamond dealer for De Beers” and his wife gave birth to Jack Valdmonna
Lunzer, the husband of Ruth Zippel and the industrial diamond merchant who was
the “custodian of the Valmadonna Trust Library” a collection of more than
13,000 books and manuscripts that included a handwritten Hebrew Bible from
England dating back to 1189, “a Franco-German Pentateuch from the 10th
or 11th century” and a Haggadah “printed in Prague in 1526.”
2017: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled
to present an “interfaith conversation” between Ahmed Omar the Deputy Director
of MALA who is a Somalilander American of Muslim heritage and Richard Sassoon,
an Iraqi-American of Jewish heritage who graduated from Georgetown University's
School of Foreign Service and studied at the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center
for Muslim-Christian Understanding on the subject of “overcoming extremism.”
2017: In Newark, NJ, the Maccabeats are scheduled to
perform at the Prudential Central following the NJ Devils NBA game.
2017(30th
of Kislev, 5778): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2018(10th
of Tevet, 5778): David Levin is scheduled to say Kaddish today at the Tel Aviv
International Synagogue on the Yahrzeit of his sister Judy Rosenstein (nee
Levin) the wife of Larry Rosenstein of blessed memory, the mother of Danny,
David Asher and Joel Rosenstein and the sister of Mitchell Levin all of whom
miss her and remember her with love and affection
2018(10th
of Tevet, 5779): The Fast of the 10th of Tevet; Asarah b’Tevet, is a
minor fast day that commemorates the date “when, according to the Tanach (II
Kings 25:1-4), the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem.”
2018:
For the second and last time, today in London, “Artist-in-residence Tommy
Berry” is scheduled to work in the gallery space creating works based on the
survival story of Kindertransport survivor, Bea Green and her son Paul Green”
at the Jewish Museum.
2018:
“Moshe Bonen and special guests are scheduled to celebrated the musical talent
and pay tribute to Arik Einstein” this evening at the Loft City Winery.
2018:
Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to host “Lunar Legends: Magical Soup, a play for the
month of Tevet.”
2019:
In Boca Raton, FL, B’nai Torah Congregation is scheduled to host Angela King, Brendan
Murphy and Dr. Steven Luckert, the Senior Program Curator of United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum as they present “Hate and Its Impact: Sowing the
Seeds of Global Antisemitism.”
2019:
“Jewtopia” featuring Michael Alpert and Pete Rushefsky is scheduled to begin
tonight at the Stanton Street Shul.
2019:
In Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts is scheduled to host the “Hanukkah Festival
of Lights.”
2019:
“Maim” featuring Israeli dancer Zvi Gotheiner, which is an attempt to raise
awareness about the diminishing of the world’s supply of potable water is
scheduled to open in New York.
2020:
In another session examining UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection, curators
Francesco Spagnolo and Shir Kochavi are scheduled to present a 1940s menorah in
a talk subtitled “A Workshop for ‘Displaced Persons’ in Germany, 1945.”
2020:
OneTable and Riverway Project are scheduled to present online Ladino Hanuká with
artist, writer, singer and Jewish educator Sarah Aroeste
2020:
The Bexley, Ohio, Public Library is scheduled to host local Bexley author and
illustrator Benny Zelkowicz, of The “Books of Ore” trilogy, as he talks about
his career as an animator on projects like “The LEGO Movie” and “The Simpsons”,
his love of monster movies, and his new book, The Golem's Gift, including the
sand painting technique used to illustrate the book!
2020(3rd
of Tevet, 5781): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2021:
Congregation Beth Sholom is scheduled to host “Deathbed Stories: A Ritual of
Transgenerational Communication,” “an event that meshes performance art and
Jewish ritual.”
2021:
Today, according to Michael “Mikey’ Weinstein, the president of the Military
Religious Freedom Foundation and graduate of the United States Air Force
Academy today “the graves of all veterans in our country’s 155 national
cemeteries and numerous other locations where American veterans are buried,
will be indiscriminately decorated with Christmas wreaths by the organization
Wreaths Across America”
2021(14th
of Tevet 5782):Parashat Vayechi;
2022:
Dr. Maya Soifer Irish an Associate Professor of History at Rice University is
scheduled to deliver a virtual lecture on “Jewish Women in the Medieval World,
500-1500 CE,” with Sarah Ifft Decker
2022:
JDC is scheduled to host for “A Great Miracle Happened Here,” a global Chanukah
journey to Jewish communities in Ukraine, India, Argentina, and beyond.
2022:
In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to Chanukah Cazarei,
a Chazak gather at Block’s Bagels to celebrate Chanukah.
2022:
YIVO, the Leo Baeck Institute and the Center for Jewish History are scheduled
to present the American Society for Jewish Music’s Annual Hanukkah concert.
2022:
In Cedar Rapids, IA Temple Judah is scheduled to host the Chanukah Pot Luck
dinner complete with Latkes made by Brian Cohen.
2022:
Chabad of Northeast Iowa is scheduled to host a Public Chanukah Menorah
Lighting celebration at Overman Park in Cedar Falls, IA.
2022:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to sponsor a Walking Tour of the
Lower East Side.
2022:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to present a showing
of Congregation B’nai Israel’s film documentary entitled “100 Years: Past,
Present and Future.”
2022:
Jewish Book Month is scheduled to come to an end.
2022(24th
of Kislev, 5783): Kindle the first Chanukah candle.
2023:
Moving Traditions is scheduled to present online “Rethinking Your College Game
Plan” during which Moving Tradition’s VP of education Rabbi Daniel Brenner will
sit down with Deborah Heller, director of college counseling at the Beacon
School in New York and the founder of Impact College Consulting, and Maiya
Edelson, vice president of organizational learning and development at Hillel
International take a look at what’s happening at college campuses nationwide
2023:
Yiddish New York is scheduled to host a pre-partner program in Crown Heights
highlighting “
The Unity Club at the Crossroads: A Forgotten Chapter of Jewish Crown Heights.”
2023:
As December 18 begins in Israel the Hamas held
hostages begin day 73 in captivity.
(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover)
2024:
Today, “the Agnon Prize ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Confederation
House in Jerusalem (12 Emil Bota Street) during which Bilha Ben-Eliyahu and
Shira Haddad will talk about Tzruya Shalev's work and the author's daughter,
Marva Shalev Marom, will perform an excerpt she composed from the book of Job
together with singer Avia Farkash after which Dina Zilber will read the judges'
reasoning and Nava Ben-Or and Liora Bing-Heidecker will congratulate, and the
author will take the stage and talk about her connection to S.Y. Agnon.
2024:
NYC’s New Jewish Theatre is scheduled to present a “staged reading” of “The Labor of Life” by Hanoch Levin.
2024:
ANU, the Museum of the Jewish people is scheduled to host a screening of “Los
Angeles South – A Musical Documentary.”
2024:
YNY in partnership with Repair the World & Brooklyn Jewish Historical
Initiative is scheduled to host “Yiddish: For Unity or Division” featuring “Chana
Pollack (The Forward) and historian/activist Dylan Yeats in a discussion
moderated by Raul Rothblatt with a performance by the Rothblatt Family Klezmer
Band.”
2024:
In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is schedule to host “Zup in Shul.”
2024:
As December 18th 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 439 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)
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