Monday, December 25, 2023

This Day, December 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

December 27

175 BCE (Tevet 3585): This day marked the completion of the Septuagint translation of the Bible into the Greek language. According to a letter from Aristeas to Philocrates, 72 sages, (six from each Israelite tribe) were brought to by Ptolemy II Alexandria to translate the Bible into Greek. Based on the legend, each sage was isolated and wrote a separate translation, but when all 72 were compared, they were all identical.  The text of the Septuagint and the Tanach are not the same.  Some viewed this translation as a positive event because it showed an interest of Greek intellectuals in Jewish thought and philosophy.  Others contend that this translation was necessary because the Jews of Alexandria had such limited knowledge of Hebrew that they could no longer read the text in the original. 

795: Leo III who “introduced public disputations between Jews and Christians, resulting in forced conversions to Christianity” began his papacy today.

1350: Birthdate of King Juan I of Aragon.  In 1392, Juan granted amnesty to those who had attacked the Jews of Majorca and the Christians who sheltered them in 1391. At least 300 Jews were murdered. Juan granted the amnestybecause they had done it for the welfare of king and state; and he further declared all debts of the Christians to the Jews to be null and void.”

1459: Birthdate of John I Albert the Polish monarch also known as King Jan I Olbracht. In 1495, he transferred the Jews Cracow to the nearby royal city of Kazimierz, which helped to create a major European center for Diaspora Jewry. “With time it turned into a virtually separate and self-governed 34-acre Jewish Town, a model of every East European shtetl, within the limits of the gentile city of Kazimierz. As it developed into a safe haven for European Jewry, its population increased reaching a total of 4,500 Jews by 1630.

1480: In Spain, a second royal decree was issued directing the Mayor and other officials of Seville to assist the inquisitors in their work since they had shown an inclination to protect the converted Jews with to whom they were drawn either because of reasons of kinships or friendship.

1503: Followers of Zechariah of Kiev were burned in Moscow, on charges of Judaizing. This term refers to helping non-Jews convert to Judaism.

1504: "Proselytizing" Jews in Moscow and Kiev were expelled after a few high officials converted to Judaism.

1587: Coronation of Sigismund III Vasa as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania under whose reign the rollback of religious granted to non-Catholics, including the Jews began at the behest of the Jesuits and others involved in the “counterreformation.”

1657: Three years after the first Jews arrived in New Amsterdam and dealt with the bigotry of Peter Stuyvesant, a group Englishman living in the Dutch colony submitted a petition to the Governor-General requesting the lifting of the ban on Quaker worship.  Known as the Flushing Remonstrance, they were greeted with even greater hostility by “Peg-leg Pete” than he had shown to the Jews.

1747: In London, Sarah Nunes Navaro and Aaron Nunez Cardozo gave birth to Judith Nunez Cardozo

1753(2nd of Tevet, 5514): Seventh Day of Chanukah

1760: Rebecca Mears and New York native Jacob Isaacks gave birth to Samson H. Isaacks.

1764(14th of Tevet, 5525): Wealthy shop keeper and merchant Aaron Louzada, the son of Jacob Louzada and the husband of Blume Michaels passed away today in Bound Brook, NJ.

1769(28th of Kislev, 5530): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1771: In Curacao, Leah Cohen Peixotto y Campos Perera and Samuel Levy Maduro Peixotto gave birth to Grace Peixotto.

1772(1st of Tevet, 5533): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah

1775: Merchant Aron Hart, one of the earliest leaders the Canadian Jewish community wrote to Colonel Livingston expressing best wishes for his safety and health while reviewing the money owed by the military to him for delivery of goods to the military including £121.14.10 for the Colonel’s regiment.

1777(27th of Kislev, 5538): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of Chanukah.

1777: Despite the promise of French aid that was supposed to come to the Continentals after the victory at Saratoga in October, prospects of the American Revolution are not bright as the Jews prepare to kindle the Fourth Chanukah candle.

1779: Birthdate of Samson Mears Isaacs, the New York born son of Jacob Isaacs who would die before he reached the first month of life.

1786: Esther Levy married Isaac Simons today in Easton.

1780(30th of Kislev, 5541): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1780: As Jews prepare to light the Seventh Chanukah Candle, the British strategy to shift fighting to the southern colonies the Americans raid Hammond’s Store on Williamson’s Plantation in South Carolina.

1783(2nd of Tevet, 5544): Parashat Miketz and the Eight Day of Chanukah observed two days after “General George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army” and began the trip back to his home in Mt. Vernon

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-05-02-0157

https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17831227aa

1788(28th of Kislev, 5549): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz

1786: In Easton, PA, Esther Levy married Isaac Simons.

1790: In Curacao, Rachel Sasportas and Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto gave birth to Leah Peixotto, the wife of Moses Jessurun

1791(1st of Tevet, 5552): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah

1792(12th of Tevet, 5553): After passing away today, six and a half year old “Reizcha bat Jacob ben Zvi” was buried at the “Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1793(24th of Tevet, 5554): Sixteen-year-old Moses ben Elijah Gubitz passed away today after which he was buried after which he was buried at the Globe Road Jewish Cemetery.

1796(27th of Kislev, 5557): Third Day of Chanukah

1796: “The government deprived” Rabbi Wolf Boskovitz “of his office today and ordered the community to elect” a replacement but said the replacement could not be Rabbi Moses Munz.

1797: Joel Benjamin married Rachel Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1797: In New York, 34-year-old Richa (Rachel) Hendricks, the daughter of Uriah Hendricks, married Abraham Gomez.

1798: In Lorraine, France, of Jonas Alexandre Aron and Sara Zerlé Simon Aron gave birth to Esther Cahn the wife of Elie ben Abraham Lazard and Moïse Cahn

1799(29th of Kislev, 5560): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1799: As Jews prepared to light the Sixth Chanukah candle, citizens of the United States observed “a Day of Public Mourning for the Universally Lamented, General Washington, the late President of the United States.

1801: In London, Zipporah Isaacs and Hyman Cohen gave birth to Henry Hyman Cohen

1805: David Cromelien and Adeline (or Amelia) Cromelien gave birth to Moses (Monroe) Cromelien, the husband of Phoebe Cromelien and the father of Pauline Cromelien; Chapman Cromelien; Hester Cromelien and Charles Cromelien

1807(26th of Kislev, 5568): Second Day of Chanukah

1810(30th of Kislev, 5571): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1810: Birthdate of Levi Herzfeld the native of Ellrich who became a leading German rabbi and historian who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1836.

1812(24th of Tevet, 5573):  Shneur Zalman of Liadi founder of Chabad Hasidism passed away (date based on adjusted secular calendar).  Born in 1745, Shneur Zalman of Liadi was a descendant of the mystic and philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew (known as the "Maharal of Prague"). He was a prominent disciple of Rabbi Dovber of Mezeritch, the "Great Maggid" who was in turn a major disciple of the founder of Hasidism Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer known as the Baal Shem Tov ("Master [of the] Good Name"). After the death of Rabbi Dovber of Mezeritch, his students dispersed over Europe. Rabbi Shneur Zalman became the leader of Hasidism in Lithuania and is accepted as one of the great Hasidic leaders. The movement he founded was moved to the town of Lubavitch in present-day Belarus by his son and successor Rabbi Dovber Schneersohn. In 1940 the Chabad Lubavitch movement moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, New York in the United States with branches all over the world staffed by its own Lubavitch-trained, and ordained, rabbis with their wives and children. He involved himself in opposing Napoleon's advance on Russia and supporting the Jewish settlements in the Land of Israel, then under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Due to false charges from his Misnagdim opponents in Vilna, he was imprisoned by the Czar on charges of supporting the Ottoman Empire, since he advocated sending charity to the Ottoman territory of Palestine. The day of his acquittal and release, the 19th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, is celebrated as the "Hasidic New Year" by Lubavitch Hasidim, who have a festive meal and communal pledges to learn the whole of the Talmud known as "Chalukat Ha'Shas." Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi is well known for his systematic exposition of Hasidic Jewish philosophy, entitled Likkutei Amarim, and more popularly known as the Tanya, first published in 1797. (The fuller and more authoritative version of this work dates from 1814) Due to the popularity of this book, Hasidic Jews often refer to Shneur Zalman as the Baal HaTanya.He is also well known for his work Shulchan Aruch HaRav, his version of the classic Shulkhan Arukh, an authoritative code of Jewish law and custom. The work states the decided halakha, as well as the underlying reasoning. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav is used by Lubavitch Hasidism. However, citations to this work are sometimes found in non-Lubavitch sources such as the Mishnah Berurah and the Ben Ish Chai. Rabbi Zalman is one of three authorities on whom Shlomo Ganzfried based his Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh. Descendants of Rabbi Shneur Zalman adopted the names Schneersohn or Schneerson to accommodate Napoleonic edicts that required all subjects to take permanent surnames. (Prior to Napoleon's conquests and the winds of Enlightenment he brought in his wake, Jews only had their traditional names such as Shneur ben (son of) Boruch.) The last two Rebbes of Chabad Lubavitch, Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneersohn (1880-1950) and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), adhered strictly to their family surnames.

1815(25th of Kislev, 5576): First Day of Chanukah

1815: Divinah Cohen and Isaac Cohen, who were married in 1803 gave birth to Emily Minis.

1818: Don Judah Benoliel, the president of the Jewish community on Gibraltar and the consul for Morocco and Austria and son of Judith and Solomon Benoliel and his wife Esther Ben-Oliel gave birth to Gibraltar native Moses Benoliel.

1819: Karoline and Maier Mendel Einhorn gave birth to Sigmund Max Einhorn whose wife was also named Karoline with whom he had four children – Pauline, Fanni, Rosa and Max.

1820(22nd of Tevet, 5581): Abraham ben Gedaliah Tiktin, the native of Posen who “became chief rabbi at Breslau”: passed away today.

1828(21st of Tevet,5589): Parashat Shemot

1828(21st of Tevet, 5589): Meyer Hayman passed away today and would be buried tomorrow at the Brompton Jewish Cemetery.

1827: Lewis Phillips married Sarah Jonas today at the Great Synagogue.

1830: In the U.K., Rachel Mocatta and Lewis Raphael gave birth to Edward Louis Raphael,

1834(25th of Kislev, 5595): Parashat Vayeshev; First Day of Chanukah

1834: Fifty-nine year old English author and poet Charles Lamb who used anti-Semitic tropes in his attacks on tenor John Braham while mocking him for having married a gentile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Braham_(tenor)

1837(29 of Kislev, 5598): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1838(10th of Tevet, 5599) Asara B’Tevet observed on the same day that the rebellion known as “the Great Jamaican Slave Revolt exploded with slaves setting fire to the Kensington Estate “in the hills above Montego Bay.

1842: Birthdate of Dr. Sigmund Mayer, the native of Bechtheim in Rhenish Hesse who became a physiologist and histologist who is the Mayer in “Traube-Herring-Mayer “a phenomenon that deals with rhythmic variations in arterial blood pressure.”

1843: Montague Hyam married Rachel Nathaniel Levy today at the Great Synagogue.

1845(28th of Kislev, 5606): Shabbat shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz

1846: In Whitechapel, London, Phoebe Levy and Aaron Samuel gave birth to Lawrence Samuel.

1847: Birthdate of Hungarian native and humorist Carl Hauser, a resident of the United States for over forty years who was “editor of Puck when it was a German publication, author of Fun for the Millions, published and known as the “German Mark Twain.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/04/16/100150402.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1848: In Charleston, SC, Jacob Ottolengui married Eliza Emma Jacobs, the daughter of Colonel Jacobs.

1851: Birthdate of Max Judd, the Polish native, who founded the St. Louis Chess Club and served as U.S. Counsul to Austria during the 2nd administration of President Grover Cleveland.

1853(26th of Kislev, 5614): Second Day of Chanukah

1853: One day he had passed away, Joseph Phillips, the son of Lyon and Elizabeth Phillips and the husband of Sarah Elizabeth Phillips with whom he had had one son – Lewis – was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1854: “Coming Events” published today reported on the prominent role that Benjamin Disraeli will be playing in the upcoming session of Parliament as the lead of “the loyal opposition.”  Among other things, he is expected to join with Lord Derby in support Parliamentary reform along the lines of the Chartist Movement.  This will set him on a collision course with Lord John Russell who talks more about reform than he delivers.  “Disraeli will probably propose that every householder shall have the elective franchise and that representation shall be based upon population.  If he he goes to this extent Russell will be ‘nowhere’ in the race and Disraeli will become champion of popular rights.”  [Did Disraeli’s Jewish roots explain the fact that a leader of the Conservative Party was a leading proponent for this most liberal reform?  Is there a connection between social justice and Judaism that a trip to the baptismal font cannot wash away?]

1855: “Do You Eat Pork?” published today reported that “physicians have just discovered that the tape worm only troubles those who eat pork” According to The Gazette Medicale  “ the Hebrews are never troubled with it” while pork butchers are “peculiarly liable to it and dogs that are fed Pork “are universally so afflicted.”

1857(10th of Tevet, 5618): Asara B’Tevet observed for the first time during the Presidency of James Buchanan.

1859(1st of Tevet, 5620): Seventh Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1860(14th of Tevet, 5621): Eighty-seven-year-old Elizabeth Etting, the daughter of Elijah Etting and wife of Robert Micle passed away today in Emmitsburg, MO.

1861(24th of Tevet, 5622): Sixty-five-year-old Jacob Eiechenbaum, the native of Galicia who became “one of the pioneers of modern education among the Russian Jews” passed away in Kiev.

1861: Rabbi Abraham Fischel wrote a letter to Henry I. Hart describing the conditions of the troops encamped around Washington, DC which he has visited while waiting to hear from Congressional leaders about his efforts to get the law changed so that Jews can serve as Chaplains in the Union Army.

http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/af122761.html

1862(5th of Tevet, 5623): Sixty-five-year-old Michel Goudchaux the French banker who served as Minister of Finance during the Second Republic who was a fierce opponent of Louis Napoleon and his imperialism passed away today.

1863: Five days after she had passed away, 62 year old Jane Jones, the wife of Alexander Jones with whom she had had five children was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1863: In Holland, Abraham de Pinto was appointed “Landsadvocaat” (Land’s Advocate) today.

1864(28th of Kislev, 5625): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1864: Birthdate of Boston native Max H. Aronson, the husband of Rebecca Kantorowicz Aronson with whom he had ten children.

1865(9th of Tevet, 5626): Sixty-five-year-old Samson Samson Genese, the sone of Esther Abraham Bernal and Samson Isaac Genese who was the husband of Hannah Isaac Simons whom he married at Bevis Marks in 1851 and with whom he had six children passed away today.

1865: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Sara Teresea Ameringen, the wife of Moses Alvares Vega and the mother of Abraham Moses Alvares Vega.

1868: Rumanian Jews were excluded from the medical profession.

1868(13th of Tevet, 5629): Thirty-four-year-old Dr. Louis Man Emanuel who had earned an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1860 and served as surgeon with the Union Army from 1861 to 1864 seeing action at numerous battles including Fredericksburg and Gettysburg died today in Linwood, Pennsylvania from “an attack of diabetes mellitus brought on by exposure” while serving his country.

1868: In Plock, Anna and Ludwick Flatau gave birth to Polish neurologist and psychiatrist Edward Flatau.

1869: Carl Theodor Liebermann and Antonie (Toni) Amalia Liebermann gave birth to their daughter Else who became Else Preuß when she married Dr. Hugo Preuß (Editor’s note: ß is a letter in the German alphabet for which there is no equivalent in the alphabet of the English language, although the proper pronunciation approximates the letter “s”)

1869: Forty-three-year-old Isabella Seixas, the New York born daughter of Dr. Daniel Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto and Rachel Lopes Mendes Peixotto and her husband of Benjamin Hayman Seixas gave birth to Frederic Benjamin Seixas.

1869: In Cincinnati, OH, “Herman S. and Jennie (Wolf) Mack gave birth to Harvard trained, attorney Edwin S. Mack, the member of the Wisconsin bar and faculty member of the University of Wisconsin Law School faculty and husband of the former Della Adler with whom he had three daughters – Theresa, Elizabeth and Jean."

https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=XMgiXILGAof2swWTq5WQDw&q=Edwin+S.+Mack&btnK=Google+Search&oq=Edwin+S.+Mack&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0i22i30.1474.8305..8884...3.0..0.145.1222.15j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0j0i131j0i10j0i30j0i10i30j0i22i10i30.dlibLe9Gtls

1870: “The Jews In Rome” published today provides “an interesting summary of the peculiar legal status of the Jews” living in the Italian capital courtesy of the Florence correspondent of the London Daily News who reported that “the 4,800 Jews huddled together in the Ghetto were until a very few years ago forcibly penned up there, the huge iron gates being closed at nightfall and neither ingress nor egress permitted by the guards until the following morning.”

1871: Rabbi J.J. Lyons officiated at the wedding of Nathan S. Hart and Ada F. Samuel, the daughter of Morris L. Samuel

1871: Birthdate of Russian native Edward Cohen who settled in Cambridge, MA where her was member of the committee working on revising the City Charter and an officer of the Zionist Organization of America.

1872: In Giessen, Germany, Dora and Mayer Livingston gave birth to Sigmund G. Livingston, the Illinois lawyer who “was the founder and first president of the Anti-Defamation League.

https://www.jta.org/1946/06/16/archive/sigmund-livingston-founder-of-bnai-brith-anti-defamation-league-dies-in-chicago

1874: It was reported today that Rabbi Moses Dimant who had been jailed for failing to provide the four dollars in court ordered support for his wife Liebe was released today on a writ of habeas corpus.  The writ was obtained by the wife who said she no desire to see her husband in jail.

1874(19th of Tevet, 5635): Asher Jacob Covo, Chief Rabbi of Salonica who was born in 1797, passed away.

1875(29th of Kislev, 5636): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1875: Birthdate of Kovno native and successful Chelsea, MA coal merchant Barney Portnoy, the husband of Ida Portnoy with whom he had two daughters.

1878(1st of Tevet, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1879: In New York City, as part of Hospital Saturday, Jewish congregations collected pledges estimated to total more than $20,000.  In years gone by, this money would have gone exclusively to Mt. Sinai Hospital.  This year the money will go to a city-wide fundraising effort for all participating hospitals.  The total raised yesterday does not count contributions by individual Jewish donors or donations made by businesses owned by Jews.

1880: Birthdate of Emil Kiesler, the father of Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler who gained fame as film star Heddy Lamar.

1880: It was reported today that Lawrence Oliphant’s new book, The Land of Gilead, includes a plan for “colonizing on of the rich and unoccupied districts in Turkey with Jews, to whom the Ottoman authorities can have no possible objection on political grounds.”

1881(5th of Tevet, 5642): The Warsaw Pogrom which had begun on Christmas Day in an area nearer the Holy Cross Church came to an end today leaving in its wake damaged shops, homes, and two dead Jews as well as another 24 injured Jews.

1882: It was reported today that “Grand Master Julius Harburger” has delivered $606 to the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society which was collected by the lodges of the Independent Order of the Sons of Israel. This brings the total collected for aid to the Jewish refugees from Russia to $3, 836.15

1882: Birthdate of Jacob B. “Jack” Findling, the former resident of New York City and Chicago who settled in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1908 where he became President of the Boston Store, founder and President of “the Salt Lake Jewish Community Center Association” and President of “District No. 4 of B’nai B’rith.”

https://www.jta.org/1933/04/19/archive/jewish-leader-in-west-found-dead-in-his-auto

1883(28th of Kislev,5644): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1883(28th of Kislev, 5644): Eighty-one-year-old Moravia native Hirsch Bar Fassel who gave up a career in business for the rabbinate, eventually leading the congregation at Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary while contributing to various Jewish publications in the Orient passed away today.

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6032-fassel-hirsch-bar

1883: In Russia, Paul Geller and David Bookstaver, gave birth to CCNY alum and insurance agent with New York Life and Traveler’s Joseph D. Bookstaver, the husband of Nettie Beofsky and The Treasurer of the Jewish Probation Society who was “active Jewish communal and national affairs.’

1883: In Russia, Jacob and Anna Lasky Grosberg gave birth to Joseph E. Grosberg, the business partner of Lewis Golub with whom he created Central Markets, one of the first supermarket chains who was the husband of Rachel (Rae) Kadisky Greenberg with whom he “had three daughters: Mildred Grosberg Bellin, a food writer best known for her influential works Modern Jewish Meals and The Jewish Cookbook; Rosalind Cohen; and Marian Champagne, an attorney and author” and who was “one of the founders of the YMHA in Schenectady” and chairman of the UJA.

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/27/archives/joseph-grosberg.html?searchResultPosition=1

1884(9th of Tevet, 5645): Parashat Vayigash

1884: Birthdate of Ukraine native Benjamin Rosenberg who gained fame as the American modern painter Ben Benn.

https://rogallery.com/Benn_ben/Benn-bio.htm

 

1884(9th of Tevet, 5645): Forty-one-year-old Mortiz Wottiz, the son of David and Karoline Wottitz and husband of Eugene Wartski Wottitz passed away today in Vienna.

1884: It was reported today that the Jews living in the western Russian province of Volhynia are refusing to serve in the army.

1885: It was reported today that Rabbi S.M. Morais and Rabbi Henry P. Mendes are among those calling for the establishment of a new seminary in the East to train rabbis.  This is a reflection of the dissatisfaction with the changes being advocated by the Reform Movement lead by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise and being taught at Hebrew Union College.

1885: It was reported today that there 2,064 students attending the schools supported by the Hebrew Free School Association in New York City.

1886(30th of Kislev, 5647): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet

1887: The Ladies’ Bikur Cholim Society hosted a fundraiser tonight “for the benefit of the Industrial School for Poor Girls.”

1887: In South Carolina, Rabi Levy officiated at the marriage of Henry Rashbaum and Emma (Brown) Baum.

1887: Birthdate of Paris native and Sorbonne trained investment banker Andre Istel whose role on the international financial stage including negotiating the Franco-British financial agreement in 1939 and who served as a limited partner of Kuhn, Loeb and Company while raising two sons and a daughter with his wife, ‘the former Yvonee Cremieux.

1888: In New York, the City Court Judges heard an appeal by representatives of the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and Orphan Asylum ask that they overturn their decision to allow only the Police Justices to hear applications for the commitment of children to charitable institutions.

1888: In Tokyo, 42-year Dr. of Jurisprudence Albert Mosse and his wife Caroline (Lina) Mosse old gave birth to Hans Mosse

1888:  Birthdate of attorney Meyer Jacobs, the clerk of the New York Surrogates Courts and President of the Beth Din of America.

1888: A piano solo and a presentation by Elliot F. Shepard were part of the entertainment at this evening’s program presented by the Young Men’s Association of Temple Beth-El.

1889(4th of Tevet, 5650): Seventy-eight-year-old German portrait artist and painter Eduard Julius Friedrich Bendemann passed away today in Dusseldorf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Bendemann#mediaviewer/File:Eduard_Bendemann_1811_-_1889_Selbstbildnis_1859.jpg

1889: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler of Temple Beth-El is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Valentine Koon, a native  Stuttgart, German in 1810, who came to the United States where he found success in the manufacture of shoes for the army and New York real estate and as an elector in the national election, voted for Abraham Lincoln while serving as one of the founders of the New York chapter of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith.

1890: Birthdate of Hungarian Communist Tibor Szamuely who would help form the short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic formed by Bela Kun in 1919.

1890: In New York City, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment presented the budget for 1891 which included an allocation of $60,000 for the Hebrew Benevolent Society and $70,000 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.

1891(26th of Kislev, 5652): Second day of Chanukah; in the evening kindle three candles

1891: The Hebrew Free School Association of Brooklyn held its fourth annual examinations at Weber’s Washington where the students were tested “and showed great proficiency in translating Hebrew into English” as well as demonstrating “an accurate knowledge of Jewish History. Following the distribution of prizes and recitations by the students, three candles were lit as part of the celebration of Chanukah.

1891: Based on information that first appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette it was reported today that “Notes of a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land” in which F.R. Oliphant describes his visit to Palestine has recently been published in Great Britain.  Oliphant recorded the final years of Laurence Oliphant which included a variety of anecdotes involving Germans, Druses and Romanian Jews whom the older Oliphant had rescued from economic distress when he found living on the streets of Haifa.

1891: In Tupelo, MS, Moses Plough and his wife gave birth Abe Plough the Chairman Schering-Plough.

https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1064

1891: It was reported today that “Galician newspapers are filled with articles advocating the renewed enforcement of repressive measures against the Jews of Russia and Poland”

1891: It was reported today that the arrest of large numbers of Jews in and around Russia has been done in complete secrecy “with people suddenly disappearing.”

1892: Plans were published today for the upcoming dedication of the new Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Brooklyn.

1893: The American Jewish Historical Society opens its second annual meeting at the Columbia College Library Building in New York City.

1893: Birthdate of Leopold Pick, the resident of Vienna who was shipped to Terezin and then to Auschwitz where he was murdered at the age of 50.

1894: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Emil Pollak and Carrie (Caroline) (Carolyn) Pollak (born Benjamin) gave birth to Julian Albert Pollack who served on the City Council and was an executive with the Community Chest.

1894: The third annual convention of the American Jewish Society which began yesterday came to an end today, having heard numerous papers including “The Jewish Soldier” presented by Simon Wolf and having decided to hold next year’s meeting in Philadelphia.

1894: The final budget figures for 1895 presented today at the meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment included $80,000 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, $90,000 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and $5,000 for the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children

1894: In Minsk, “Rabbi Jona and Debosha (Hochtein) Churgin gave birth to Pinkhos Churgin the holder of a Ph.D from Yale , an Assistant Professor of Hebrew Literature and editor of “Our Voice who as the husband of Rosetta Seligson.

1894: “Irritation About Dreyfus” published today described start of a “Jew-baiting campaign” by the revolutionary and anti-Semitic newspapers.”  “La Parole predicts that the Jews by presuming to consider themselves equals with Frenchmen and competing with them are preparing the most fearful disaster that ever marked the tragic history of the race.” (The first steps on the road to Drancy?)

1895: “The Brooklyn Hebrew Aid Society has officially been incorporated.”

1895: “Raphael Tuck & Sons “a business started by Raphael Tuck and his wife in Bishopsgate in the City of London in October 1866,selling pictures and greeting cards, and eventually selling postcards, which was their most successful line” was incorporated as a limited company, with a registered office at 72 Coleman Street, London, E.C., “in the same year, that the company  opened a new branch in New York and during which  Raphael's wife Ernestine died…”

1895: Birthdate of Siegfried Aron, the native of Hamburg, Germany who gained fame as actor Siegfried Arno whose successful career in Germany was cut short by the rise of the Nazis which forced him to leave and eventually continuing his career in the United States starting in 1939.

1895: At least 23 people died today in Baltimore when a fire broke out at the Front Street Theatre where a 2,500 people most of whom were Jewish had gathered to see the “Jewish opera, Alexander.”

1896: Birthdate of German writer and playwright Carl Zuckmayer who did not think of himself as being Jewish until the rise of Hitler.  His mother was the daughter of a Protestant church councilor who had converted from Judaism.  This made him Jewish in the eyes of the Nazis and no doubt accounted for his fleeing to the United States where he spent World War II.

1896: The San Francisco Call reported that word has been received regarding the engagement of New York State Senator and prominent New York attorney Jacob A. Cantor to Loie Fuller “the famous and fascinating danseuse and artist in feminine draperies.”

1897(2nd of Tevet, 5658): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1897: It was reported today that “fully one-third of the delegates” attending the Hebrew Socialists Convention at Liberty Hall “were females.

1897: Birthdate of Haverhill, MA, native William Cantor the Harvard alum who graduated in three and half years while serving on the University Dining Council and being a member of the “Menorah Society Zionist Club” who went to become an “insurance executive” and “officer in B’nai B’rith.”

1898: In Stolin, Russia, “Samuel and Eva (Goberman) Sandweiss gave birth to University of Michigan trained physician David Jacob Sandweiss, “the chief section gastroenterology and attending physician division of internal medicine at Detroit’s Sinai Hospital and a member of the Board of Directors the Hebrew Benevolent Society who raised four children – Samuel, Flora, Donald and Sandra – with his wife Sandra Gail.

1898: Birthdate of Russian born David Jacob Sandweiss, who came to the U.S. in 1909, earned a Medical Degree from the University of Michigan, practiced in Detroit where he raised his son Samuel with his wife Frieda.

1899: In New York, Moses Shindeling, the Lithuanian born son of Isiah J. Schoneling and Rachel Schoneling and his wife Dora Dora Shindeling gave birth to Julian Mark Shindeling.

1899(25th of Tevet, 5660): Moses Levi Ehrenreich, the native of Brody who became the chief rabbi of Rome whose “chief literary work consisted of the part he took the translation of the Bible into Italian under the direction of Luzzatto, for which he translated Hosea, Micah, Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah” passed away today.

1900: It was reported today that “the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York has issued an appeal funds” which it hopes will the $350,000 need to feed, clothe and educate the 950 children that are living at the institution “located on the block bounded by 11th Avenue, Grand Boulevard, 150th and 151st Streets” which is led by Samuel D. Levy, the President of the Board of Management.

1901: The Zionist Congress which opened yesterday in Basel with a speech by Dr. Theodore Herzl of Vienna which was heard by the 1,000 delegates continued for a second day with a speech by Max Nordau.

1901: In Syracuse, NY, Fannie Shubert Weissager and her first husband businessman Isaac Isaacs give birth to Morris Isaacs who gained fame as Milton Isaacs Shubert.

1902(27th of Kislev, 5663): Parashat Miketz; Third Day of Chanukah

1902: In Bucharest, “at today’s session of the Senate during a discussion of the question of the naturalization of the Jews, the Minister of the Public Instruction referred “to the calumnies against Roumania so widely disseminated’ in connection with the Jewish question” which was an obvious reference to the note written by Secretary of State John Hay “to the signatories of the Treaty of Berlin” in which he addressed the pitiful conditions of the 400,000 Jews living in Rumania.

1903: In the United Kingdom, Samuel B. Hamburger the Latvian born son of Joseph and Kiva Hamburger, and his wife Annie H. Hambruger gave birth to Sarah Sallie Hambruger, who became Sarah Sallie Knott when she married John F. Knott and later became the other of Joseph Knott.”

1904: Charles Frohman produced “Peter Pan or the Boy Wouldn’t Grow Up” which debuted today at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.

1905(29th of Kislev, 5666): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1905: It was reported today that the Russian government claims “that the leaders of the revolutionary at Moscow are mostly students from Kiev, Kharkoff and Odessa, among whom are many Jews.

1906(10th of Tevet, 5667): Asara B’Tevet

1906:  In Pittsburgh, PA, Max and Annie Radin Levant gave birth to composer and pianist Oscar Levant.

http://www.touchoftonga.com/DavidMulliss/oscar-levant.html

1906: In Paris, “Julia Berg, a German Jew” and “American painter Lyonel Feininger gave birth to photographer Andreas Bernhard Lyonel Feininger who was fortunate enough to get out of Europe before WW II and augmented his life as a free-lacer by working with Life, the premiere photo magazine of its day

https://www.biography.com/people/andreas-feininger-39329

1906: In Brooklyn, Edward and Martha Esther Cahn gave birth to Alma Bionion Cahn, who gained fame as Alma Binion Schapiro, the painter, the wife of investment banker and chess master Morris A. Schapiro and the mother of Daniel and Linda Schapiro.

1907: Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) granted letters of protection to Rabbi Haim Nahoum and his team who were sent by the Alliance Israelite Universelle to study the condition of the Falashim (Ethiopian Jews).

1908: Twenty-six-year-old Galicia native Samuel Schimmel the founder of Schimmel Electrical Supply in Philadelphia, PA married Anne Feigenbaum with whom he had “five children – Herbert, Ruth, Leonard, Bernard and Nathaniel.”

1908: Dr. Herbert Friedenwald, Secretary of the American Jewish Committee said today that the  Russian newspapers he had just received showed that Czarist state had resumed the persecution of its Jewish citizens. 

1908: Based on a letter whose contents were made public today in London, Israel Zangwill has denied reports coming from the United States that he is planning on turning his play “The Melting Pot” into a novel which would be dedicated to President Theodore Roosevelt.

1909 Birthdate of Benjamin Morris Jebaltowsky the middleweight who fought under the name Ben Jeby

1910(26th of Kislev, 5671): Second Day of Chanukah observed on the same day the Great Northern Bank, a large financial institution was closed due to the financial shenanigans of its chairman.

1911: Thirty-year old Rush Medical College trained physician Walter Wile Hamburger, the son of Annette and Max Hamburger who would serve as a Major in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army during War and who was a member of Chicago Sinai Congregation married Edna Levis today in St. Louis, MO.

1912(17th of Tevet, 5673):,Fifty –five year old Russian-born Berry Dantzig, the husband of Anna Kasor Dantzig passed away today passed away in Kansas City, MO after which he was buried in the Sheffield Cemetery. (Another source shows December 12)

1912(17th of Tevet, 5673): In Berlin, Judicial Councilor Erich Lello passed away today.

1913(28th of Kislev, 5674): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah

1913(28th of Kislev, 5674): Seventy-one-year-old Bertha Spiegelberg, the native of Borgholz, Germany and wife of Levi Spiegelberg passed away today in New York City.

1913: The Sisterhood of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue will hold its annual Chanukah celebration at the Astor Hotel.

1914(10th of Tevet, 5675): Asara B’Tevet

1914: Eugene V. Debs, the former Socialist candidate for President of the United States wrote from Terre Haute, Indiana, that “I have followed the Leon Frank case in the press on account of its extraordinary nature, and the conviction was forced upon me so long ago that Frank’s trial was a farce and that the prejudice against him on account of this races was so intense that, however innocent he might be, he had not a ghost of a chance for his life.”

1914: In Brooklyn Cecile Klevinsky married Samuel Nathan today.

1914: Today, the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Relief Committee appropriated $100,000 “for the relief of Jews of Russia, Poland and Galicia” which is “in addition to $75,000 appropriated for the same purpose at a prior meeting” and the $50,000 “sent to the Jewish Colonization Association at Petrograd.”

1914: In Rochester, NY, “the usual Sunday morning services of Berith Kodesh Temple were incorporated into the activities of the Jewish Chautauqua Convention which was addressed by Dr. William Rosenqau of Baltimore, MD, the organization Vice Chancellor.

1914: “Zabara” published today provides a review Sepher Shaashchim by Joseph ben Meir Ibn Zabara translated by Professor Israel Davidson.

1914: It was reported today that the USS Tennessee and her sister ship the USS North Carolina which had taken gold raised by American Jews to Jaffa where it was to be sent to aid those in Jerusalem are now believed to have sailed north to Beirut.

1915: It was reported today that Dr. Christian F. Reisner delivered a sermon at the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in “which he praised the Jews for the large contribution they have made to sufferers of their race in Europe” saying that their “wonderful exhibition of giving” is attributed to the fact that “the Jew has suffered so much that he sympathy for others that suffer.”

1915: Ex-Judge Leon Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society is scheduled to address a meeting sponsored by the Society in the auditorium of the Bank of the United States at a list of “Jewish war sufferers who anxious to communicate with their relatives and friends in the United States” will be read for the first time.

1915: “The Foreign Relations Bureau of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society opened tonight in the building of the Bank of the United States at 77 Delancy Street” in NYC.

1915: It was reported today that “efforts to care for the Jews in the neighborhood of Constantinople were being made through Ambassador Morgenthau to whom $5,000 is being sent every three months for distribution.”

1915: the American Jewish Relief Committee for the Jews suffering from the war planned to have raised another million dollars by today.

1915: “Cash contributions to the $5,000,000 fund to be raised by the American Jewish Relief Committee for the Jews suffering from the war continued to pour into the offices of the Treasurer, Felix M. Warburg at 52 William Street.

 

1915: At the afternoon meeting of the National Association of Young Judea, it was decided to continue with the establishment of Young Judea Center “in which member can participate in literary work and other activities.”

 

1915: In St. Louis, MO, the national meeting of the Jewish Chautauqua Society continued for a fourth day.

1916(2nd of Tevet, 5677): 8th & final day of Chanukah

1916: The 26th Annual Assembly of the 5,000 member Jewish Chautauqua Society whose officers include Jeanette Miriam Goldberg of Jefferson, TX is scheduled to come to an end today in New Orleans.

1916: It was reported today that The Daily Jewish Wahreit will begin printing the story of Sergius Michallow Trufanoof better known as “Illiodor, the Mad Monk of Russia” which were not published in “a recent issue of the Metropolitan Magazine.

1916: In New York City, the packing companies which slaughter cattle in accord with the laws of Kashrut met with representatives of the Federation of Retail Kosher Butchers and agreed to sell them kosher meat for 15 cents a pound.  Last week, they had been charging 18 cents a pound which led to a boycott by the kosher butchers. The packing companies further promised that before they raised prices again, they would meet with the butchers and explain the reason for the increase.

1917: During WW I, the first British train arrived in Jerusalem after the Ottomans left.

1917: Colonel Ronald Storrs, the newly appointed British Military Governor of Jerusalem, viewed the distant mountains of Moab in the glow of the sunset.  For the first time since the Crusades, 600 hundred years ago, a Christian power controls Jerusalem.  From the Jewish point of view, the Christian power was Great Britain which, under the terms of the Balfour Declaration, was committed to the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine.

1917: The Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs announced today that “the Turkish army that surrendered Jerusalem to General Allenby executed thirty Jewish men and women of that city” including “the father and a sister of Aaron Aaronsohn, head of the Palestine Agricultural Experiment Station which is subsidized by the American Agricultural Department.

1917: At a meeting of naturalized American of Rumanian birth held tonight at Cooper Union several speakers including John Trowbridge, Chairman of the Rumanian Red Cross in America “said that Rumanian Jews could be assured that the United States would see to it that they would obtain freedom after the war”

1917: Three days after he had passed away, 45-year-old Solomon Vitofsky, the husband of Vella Vitofsky with whom he had had four children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1917: More than $2,500 dollars was contributed by Rumanian Jews living in the United States for the Jewish Relief Fund.

1917: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Herbert (Lefty) Karpel, the southpaw who pitched in two games with the New York Yankees.

1917(12th of Tevet, 5678): Seventy-one-year-old antiquarian Joel Koopman passed away today in Brookline, MA.

1918: Dispatches from Warsaw today report that Ukrainian General Symon Petliura “has promised protection to the Jews from pogroms” – a promise he was either unwilling or unable to keep as can be seen from the death of approximately Jews during Pogroms in the Ukraine.

1918: Harry James Lehman, the Bradford PA born son of Marian Greentree and Maurice Lehman and President of the Wildroot Company and a member of the governors of the Jewish Hospital Association in Buffalo, NY married Mildred Pickard today.

1919(5th of Tevet, 5680): Sir Charles Solomon Henry passed away. Born in 1860, he “was an Australian merchant and businessman who lived mostly in Britain and sat as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons from 1906-1918.”

1920: “The 29th annual assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society” is scheduled to meet for a second day today in Cleveland.

1920: In the Bavarian village of Leutershausen, Nathan Jochsberger, “a cattle dealer…and the former Sofie Enslein” gave birth to Hilda Jocbsberger the musically talented refugee from Nazi Germany who founded New York’s Hebrew Arts School for Music and Dance.( As reported by Richard Sandomir)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/obituaries/tzipora-jochsberger-founder-of-a-jewish-arts-school-dies-at-96.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=thumb&module=region&region=region&WT.nav=region&_r=1

1921(26th of Kislev, 5682): Second Day of Chanukah

1921: Birthdate of Judith Hannah Saretsky who gained fame as “Judith S. Wallerstein, a psychologist who touched off a national debate about the consequences of divorce by reporting that it hurt children more than previously thought, with the pain continuing well into adulthood…” (As reported by Denise Grady)

1921: In Atlanta, GA, Alan and Edith Gavronski Lipshutz, gave birth to Robert J. Lipshutz, the White House Counsel for President Jimmy Carter “who played an important behind-the-scenes role in negotiations leading to the Camp David peace accords.”

1922: It was reported today that “a crowd of students at Galatz on the Danube” had attacked a group of young Jews returning from a meeting in the Maccabee Club” and that a mob later went into to the commercial district and looted several shops owned by Jews.

1923: Arthur Hays and Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger gave birth to their third child, Judith Peixotto Sulzberger, who gained fame as “Dr. Judith P. Sulzberger, a physician whose philanthropy led to the creation of a center for genome studies in her name at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)

1924(30th of Kislev, 5685): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah

1924: Myer L. Brown addressed the opening of the 15th annual convention of the Jewish Socialist Labor Party of America being held at the Town Hall in New York.

1925: Birthdate of New York native and NYU graduate Alvin Lewis Erlich, the husband of Patricia Erlich, with whom he had two daughters – Betsy and Merry and an active worker with the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York who went from being a sales manger with Chunky Corporation to serving as the president and chief executive of Ward Foods.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/12/29/75705909.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1925: Birthdate of Moshe Arens, the native Kaunas who made Aliyah in 1939 and whose career has included service as Minister of Defense, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador to the US.

1926: Latkin Square in the Bronx was named for the first US Jewish soldier to die in WWI

1927: At the behest of Joseph Stalin, Leon Trotsky, born Lev Davidovich Bronstein, is expelled from the Communist Party. 

1927: Today, “The New York Board of Jewish Ministers, representing more than 100 congregations adopted a report of its executive committee asserting that conditions in the Kings County Hospital where ‘anti-Jewish prejudice and intolerance’ was to have prevailed have prevailed, ‘materially prevailed’.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/01/06/118335128.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1927: Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern’s “Show Boat" premiered at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City.  If you need more of a Jewish connection than Kern and Hammerstein, this Broadway hit was based on the novel of the same name written by Edna Ferber. When Edna Ferber published Show Boat in 1926, she was already an established writer, with eleven books, two stage plays, and a Pulitzer Prize (for So Big, 1925) to her credit. But when the musical adaptation of the novel opened on Broadway with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Jerome Kern, it was unlike any earlier production. Combining music and dance with fully formed characters and serious themes, “Show Boat” departed from both operetta and the musical comedy revue, establishing a new style of American musical. Ferber's work in Show Boat and in later novels grew from a keen eye and a gift for observation of the world around her. Raised in often precarious economic circumstances in small towns in Iowa and Wisconsin, Ferber always identified with the lives of ordinary working people. She believed that they had "a kind of primary American freshness and assertiveness." She tried to communicate those qualities and do justice to the lives of working folks in all of her writing. Ferber's work also drew on the oppression she felt she had experienced as both a woman and a Jew. Subjected to anti-Semitism as a child, she felt she had gained strength from facing her tormentors. Similarly, she believed that women's experience of social limitations led them to develop special strengths. Many of her early works featured strong women overcoming social obstacles to professional success. Show Boat, which tackled the theme of interracial marriage, also addressed the issue of social constraints. After its successful Broadway debut, “Show Boat” ran for 572 performances, and was later made into a film twice. Revival performances continue to entertain audiences across the country.

1928: In Tel Aviv, “a seamstress and a carpenter” gave birth Israel political leader and winner of the 200 Israel Prize Shulamit Aloni and husband of Reuven Aloni who went from being a schoolteacher to being the founder of the Ratz Pary and a leader of the Meretz Party.

1928: It was announced today that Harris L. Selig, the executive director of the Yeshiva College Building fund who has raised “more than three million dollars” the school “has resigned from the building campaign committee” and will be leaving “for a trip to Europe and Palestine in January

1929(25th of Kislev, 5690): Jews observe Chanukah, in what will be the first winter of the Great Depression.

1929: “Their Own Desire” a movie version of the novel starring Norma Shearer who was nominated for a best actress Oscar was released today in the United States.

1930: In Philadelphia, “Harold M. Saunders, an architect and the former Marian Weihenmayer, a jewelry designer, gave birth Harold Henry Saunders, the American diplomat who worked with Henry Kissinger to gain interim agreements after the Yom Kippur War and “was credit as one of the Camp David accords.”

1930(7th of Tevet, 5691): Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett, son of German born Anglo-Jewish chemist Ludwig Mund and Frieda, née Löwenthal Mund passed away.

1930: “The Right to Love” a movie version of the novel starring Paul Lukas and featuring Irving Pichel was released today in the United States.

1931: “In Bible Lands Before the Macedonian Conquest” published today provided a complete review of History of Palestine and Syria by A.T. Olmstead.

1932(28th of Kislev, 5693): Fourth Day of Chanukah

1932(28th of Kislev, 5693): Fifty-nine-year-old Arthur S. Bandler, the Austrian born son of Bernard and Pauline Bandler, the husband of Edna Bandler and the President of Leslie-Mott, Inc. passed away today.

https://books.google.com/books?id=QmZYAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA5-PA155&lpg=RA5-PA155&dq=Arthur+S.+Bandler&source=bl&ots=BqUKhFDv5N&sig=ACfU3U2WC5l0eqOTG5DZ_uKm2o-nkB4Jiw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjx7MCMr9LmAhVBCc0KHbVfB10Q6AEwA3oECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Arthur%20S.%20Bandler&f=false

1932: Civil War veteran Charles De Young, who should not be confused with the famous newspaper publisher, passed away today in Philadelphia.

1932: Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City. This American cultural landmark was a project produced by three people – multi-millionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and two Jews, Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who previously opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927 and RCA chairman David Sarnoff.

1933: It was reported today that “the American Economic Committee for Palestine has received 1,379 inquiries from potential settlers in Palestine since its organization in July 1932…”

1934: “Broadway Bill” a comedy: written by Robert Riskin and based on the short story "Strictly Confidential" by Mark Hellinger” was released in the United States today.

1934: Starting today “Columbia concentration camp (also known as Columbia-Haus) a Nazi concentration camp situated in the Tempelhof area of Berlin…was administrated by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate.

1935:  Birthdate of Rabbi Raymond Apple who served as the Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Sydney between 1972 and 2005]. In this role, he was one of Australia's highest profile rabbis and the leading spokesman for Judaism in Australia

1935: Regina Jonas received her semicha and was ordained by the liberal Rabbi Max Dienemann, who was the head of the Liberal Rabbis' Association, in Offenbach am Main

1935: Birthdate of Dr. Victor Brailovsky a native of Moscow, a computer scientist and MK who served as Minister of Science and Technology. Bailovsky was a refusnik who spent three years in a Soviet prison because he wanted to make Aliyah.  He finally was allowed to leave for Israel in 1987.

1936: In New York, “Daniel Bonn Salk and Dora Press Salk gave birth to child psychologist Lee Salk, the husband of Kerstin Salk.

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/04/nyregion/dr-lee-salk-child-psychologist-and-popular-author-dies-at-65.html

1936: Today, the National Advisory Council of the Jewish National Fund voted to provide the financial support for a project that will reclaim swampland in the vicinity of Lake Huleh which “will create an area of 14,000 acres on which 2,500 homesteads may be established” and which be “developed for agricultural uses for the benefit of Jews and Arabs beginning in 1937.”

1936: Today, “at its annual meeting in the Commodore Hotel, the Greater New York Council of Jewish Organizations” which represents “about 250 Jewish communal and fraternal organizations with an aggregate membership” “urged Jews in the United States to contribute their share of the $5,000,000 fund for “rebuilding Palestine” which takes on an added urgency because of “the need for the rehabilitation of distressed Jews in Germany, Poland” and other countries in Europe.

1936: In Washington, DC, delegates to the convention of Junior Hadassah “adopted a budget of $75,000 for the Junior Hadassah Palestinian Projects and for the Jewish National Fund” following which they attended a dinner featured speaker Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Baltimore said that “the difference between communism and Zionism is the difference between dictatorship and democracy.”

1937: The Palestine Post reported two British army casualties: an officer and a private, both of whom fell while searching for arms in Arab villages in Galilee. Rafael Yavneh, 26, was shot and badly wounded at km. 16 of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road in the fourth Arab attack on Jewish transport within a week. The Arab Defense Party met at the house of Bisharra Debbas, a Christian and the former governor of Acre, and appealed to stop terror and to consider a new Arab representative body - an Arab Higher Council - as the alternative to the radical Husseini Arab Higher Committee.

1937: The Haganah decides to establish Field Companies under the command of Itzhak Sadeh.

1938: Jewish organizations provided “food and clothing” for “five hundred refugees from Germany, Austria and Hungary who left Varna for “an undisclosed destination” today.

1938: Following a year-long survey that had been conducted by J.X Cohen, using information from “classified advertising columns of newspapers and confirmed by an investigation of the leading employment agencies in New York City and of the personnel records various industries including public utilities, quasi-government agencies, banks, insurance companies, hotels and department stores,”  “the American Jewish Congress reported today that the employment of Jews in the United States had increased since Hitler’s rise to pwer and was now at a record high mark.”

1938(5th of Tevet, 5699: Poet Osip Mandelstam died in one of the labor camps of Stalin’s Gulag.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/698

1939: At Riverdale Memorial Chapel in New York City, Dr. Elias Solomon officiated at the funeral of eighty-year-old Jacob Leo Markel, the President of the Merchants Bank of New York who was described as “a loyal American self-revealing Jew.”

1939: “Persecution of Jews, a subject that has been taboo since the signing of the signing of the Soviet-German pact, was rediscovered today by the army organ, Red Star.”

1940: In a speech given while was “accepting the Inter-Faith award conferred on him by the National Conference of Christians and Jews,” Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes denounced “rancor, bigotry, racial animosities and intolerance” saying that these “deadly enemies of true democracy are more deadly than any external force because they undermine the very foundation of the democratic effort.

1941(7th of Tevet, 5702): Parashat Vayigash

1941: At Shaare Zedek Synagogue, during his sermon on the meeting between President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Church, Rabbi Elias Simon said, “Like Joseph of old, they seem to have been chosen to preserve life and liberty for all men and nations.”

1941: For all his professional emphasis on glitz and glamour, Stanley Marcus, one of the co-founders of Neiman Marcus, made another, very different mark on the American fashion industry when he was asked to join the War Production Board in Washington.today.

1941: At the Montefiore Synagogue, Rabbi Jacob Katz delivered a sermon in which he said, “Conscious of the privilege bestowed upon us by American citizenship and courageous as Jews who will yet win their rights, as an historic people, we find ourselves consecrated to the cause symbolized by Roosevelt and Churchhill.”

1942(19th of Tevet, 5703): Sixty-three-year-old Dora Blumenthal, the Dresden born daughter of Gustav and Amalie Pinthus and the wife of Oskar Michael Blumenthal died today at Theresiendstadt.

1942: In Worcester, MA, Frances and Jacob Hiatt, a highly successful businessman and leader in he Jewish community gave birth Myra Nathalie Hiatt who became Myra Kraft when she married Robert Kraft best known as the owner of the New England Patriots who was a powerhouse in her own right as can be seen by the fact that her philanthropy led to her being chosen as “one of the 20 Most Powerful Women in Boston.”

1943: Sam “Pivnik was admitted to the prisoner infirmary in the Quarantine area KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B IIa, Block 9, with suspected typhus.”

1943: The keel of the SS Meyer London, a “liberty ship” was laid today.  The ship was named in honor of Meyer London, a Jewish political leader and reformer who was one of only two Socialists to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.  Ironically, London had voted against the declaration of war that led to American involvement in World War I.

1944: Dr. Rudolf Kastner left Switzerland for Budapest but could get only as far as Vienna because “the Red Army had encircled “the Hungarian capital.

1944(11th of Tevet, 5705): Seventy-five-year-old Ludwig Behr Bernstein, the husband of Ethel Bernstein and the father “of Stanley Burnshaw; Evelyn Krohn; Pauline Oseroff and Marie Nemer” passed away today in Los Angeles, CA

1944: Arrow Cross members came to the shelter run by Sister Sara Salkahazi's.  The Hungarian nun was active in hiding Jews from the Arrow Cross and the Nazis. Salkahazi and four Jewish women who did not manage to either hide or flee were taken to the bank of the Danube, where the Arrow Cross men stripped them, shot them and threw their bodies into the river. At the site where Salkahazi and those who shared her fate were executed, not far from the tourist mecca of Budapest's main market, a modest memorial has been erected. Her name and memory also grace a tree on the Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. And now, the Catholic Church has also recognized the importance of her deeds.

1945: The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations. Among Jews associated with the bank were Eugene Meyer, the first president, James Wolfensohn and Paul Wolfowitz, both of whom served as Presidents between 1995 and 2007 and Stanley Fischer, Lawrence Summers and Joseph E. Stiglitz who served as Chief Economist from 1988 to 2000.

1945: The British authorities in Palestine blame the Haganah for bomb blasts and gun battles in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Tel Aviv, including an attack on a Tel Aviv arms depot.

1945: “Terrorists struck tonight in the heart of Jerusalem, blowing up the Civil Investigation Department building in the Russian compound near the main post office. At least three policemen are dead and six injured.”  Other attacks were reported on a police station in Jaffa and installation of the Royal Engineers Workshops in Tel Aviv.

1945(23rd of Tevet, 5706): Seventy-six-year-old Philadelphia native Simon Walter, “the head of the paper firm S. Walter, Inc. and former member of the City Council passed away today in his home town.

1945: “In the greatest mass arrests in the history of Palestine more than 1,500 people were taken into custody tonight” after unidentified people blew up the British police station in the center of Jerusalem.

1946: “After refitting in Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal, USS Cythera (PK-31), renamed SS Abril, sailed from New York City for Southern France and Port-de-Bouc., with a 21-man crew, mostly American volunteers, seven of whom were from Brooklyn.”

1947: It was reported today that the British police in policed had revealed that the headmaster of the government school in Ramallah had received a warned that the Irgun would blow up the school.

1947(14th of Tevet, 5708): A convoy that counted Gold Meir (future Prime Minister of Israel) as one of its passengers came under attack.  Seven Jews were killed by the Arab attackers.

1947: Sherut Avir was formed today, “with the few light aircraft at the Jew’s disposal” with “responsibilities that included liaison, recon, transport, and convoy escort.”

1947(14th of Tevet, 5708): Eighty-three-year-old old Julia H. Kohlman, the wife of Sigmnund Kolhman passed away today after which she was buried in “Springhill Avenue Temple Cemetery” in Mobile, Alabama.

1947(14th of Tevet, 5708): Hans Beyth, a central figure in welcoming newly arrived immigrant children to Eretz Israel, was one of seven Jews killed by Arab snipers as they traveled in convey coming from the coast up to Jerusalem. Beyth had just completed arrangements for the care of 20,000 young survivors of the Holocaust and other youngsters from Europe.

1947: Houses belonging to Jews and Arabs were set on fire today in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv region.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30D10F93B58147B93CAAB1789D95F438485F9

1947: As communal strife continued to intensify, troops had to be used to end a six hour between Jews and Arabs near Tulkarm.

1947: A private source in Haifa said tonight that in the last 48 hours the verified deaths included nine Jews, eight Arab and two Britons.  Forty-three people were reported to have been wounded during the same period.

1948(25th of Kislev, 5709): Chanukah

1948: Members of the Moslem Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian Prime Minister Fahmy Norashy Pashy because of Egypt’s failure to win the war in Palestine.

1948: Israel bombs Arab forces in Gaza.

1948: Fighting between Israeli and Egyptians in Fallujah.

1948: During Operation Horev, an Israeli armored brigade attacked al-Auja. The successful attack led to the surrender of Egyptian forces in the area.

1948:  Birthdate of actress Tovah Feldshuh

1949: “Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz, the president of Agudath Israel Youth” arrived today in New York…with plans for a three month-tour of the United States to recruit Jewish youths for settlement in ‘the strategic agricultural areas of Israel.’”

1950(18th of Tevet, 5711): Max Beckmann German-born painter/graphic artist passed away at the age of 66.

1951: Birthdate of Henryk Halkowski historian, journalist, essayist and translator of Jewish origin, scholar of Hasidism and the history of Krakow's Kazimierz.

1952: In New York, attorney Sidney Feldshuh and the former Lillian Kaplan gave birth to Tony Award and Emmy Award nominated actress Terri Sue “Tovah” Feldshuh, the sister of playwright David Feldshuh who may be best known for her performance in “Golda’s Balcony, “the longest-running one-woman play in Broadway history.”

1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel Rokach, mayor of Tel Aviv for the past 17 years, had relinquished his post to Haim Levanon, the Deputy Mayor.

1952(9th of Tevet, 5713): Jesse Hieman, the son of Max Heiman who “developed Gus Blass Company into the largest department store” in Arkansas and the husband of Adele Blumenthal Heiman, passed away today.

1952: Today, “the American Legion announced that it disapproved of the “Moulin Rouge” the movie based on the life of artist Toulouse-Lautrec featuring Theodore Bikel.

1952: Birthdate of David Knopfler Scottish-born guitarist, singer and songwriter who along with his brother Mark was part of Dire Straits.

1953(21st of Tevet, 5714) Poet Julian Tuwim passed away. Born in 1894 in Łódź, “he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University. In 1919 Tuwim co-founded the Skamander group of experimental poets with Antoni Słonimski and Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. He was a major figure in Polish literature and was also known for his contribution to children's literature.”

1953: “His Study Was Man” published today provided a complete review of Franz Boas: The Science in the Making by Melville J. Herskovtiz.

1954(2nd of Tevet, 5715): Eighth Day of Chanukah on the same day that Walt Disney was the cover story for TIME.

http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19541227,00.html

1953: In Detroit, Michigan, Reva (nee Kolodney) Taubman and shopping mall developer Adolph Alfred Taubman gave birth to Robert S. Taubman, the husband of Julia Reyes Taubman who followed in his father’s footsteps to become CEO of Taubman Centers.

1956(21st of Tevet, 5717): Fifty-six year old University of Chicago professor Dr. Ralph Marcus, “an authority on the Dead Scrolls passed away tonight after suffering a heart attack.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0363/ms0363.html

https://www.jstor.org/stable/542757?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

1957: In New York, funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Temple Emanu-El for H.U.C. trained Rabbi Ephraim Frisch, the founder in 1915 of the New Synagogue and since 1948, the Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, TX.

1958(16th of Tevet, 5719): Parashat Veyechi

1958: Today Max Raskin, Marquette University trained attorney who specialized primarily in labor law announced the formation of the “law firm of Raskin, Zubrensky and Padden” with Padden being his 29-year-old son in law Phillip Padden, the De Paul University trained attorney

1959(26th of Kislev, 5720): Second Day of Chanukah

1959: ABC broadcast “Gun City” an episode of “The Rebel” directed by Irvin Kershner with a script co-authored by Richard Levinson.

1960(6th of Tevet, 5721): The former Meta Pollak, who had married Paul Joseph Sachs with whom she had had three children passed away today.

1961(20th of Tevet, 5722): Eighty-year old Romanian born American author Konrad Bercovici, the husband of Naomi Librescu whose varied life included living in Paris during the Dreyfus Affair , being “one the regulars at the Algonquin Club and successfully winning a lawsuit in which he charged Charlie Chaplin with creating the film “The Great Dictator”  with ideas stolen from him passed away today.

1964: Elinor Bluemnthal married John Muir Gold.

1964: Art Modell’s Cleveland Browns defeated the Baltimore Colts in the NFL Championship Game at Cleveland Stadium.

1964(22nd of Tevet, 5725): Sixty-eight-year-old Minsk born and Brooklyn Law School trained attorney Louis J. Gribetz, a leader of the Jewish community as well as the author of The Case for the Jews and Jimmie Walker: The Story of a Personality who was the husband of “the former Bessie Lexin” and the father of Grace Glasser passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1964/12/28/louis-j-gribetz-lawyer-dies.html?searchResultPosition=2

https://www.antichay.com/pages/books/634/louis-j-gribetz/the-case-for-the-jews

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13900542.Louis_J_Gribetz

1965: It was reported today that Dr. Salon Baron “professor emeritus of history at Columbia University’ has been elected President of the American Academy for Jewish Research, succeeding Professor Saul Lieberman.

1965: “Marat/Sade” by Peter Weiss opened at the Martin Beck Theatre starting a Broadway run that would last for 145 performances.

1965(4th of Tevet, 5726): Seventy-five-year-old Austrian-American architect and designer Frederick John Kiesler passed away today in NYC.

http://www.askart.com/artist/Frederick_John_Kiesler/81029/Frederick_John_Kiesler.aspx

1966: Birthdate of former professional football player and wrestler, Bill Goldberg.  In 1998, Goldberg did a Koufax when he refused to wrestle on Rosh Hashanah.

1967(25th of Kislev, 5768) Chanukah

1968: In the Bronx, David Rubinstein, a psychiatrist and his wife aerospace engineer Diane Rubinstein gave birth to Emory and Columbia graduate Julian Rubinstein, the journalist best known for his work of non-fiction, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber.

http://www.julianrubinstein.com/

http://www.whiskeyrobber.com/index.html

1969(18th of Tevet, 5730): Parashat Vayechi

1969(18th of Tevet, 5730: One American was “killed in a shooting attack on a bus near Hebron.

1969: By 2 a.m., during Operation Rooster 53, when the paratroops had taken apart the radar station and prepared the various parts for the CH-53's, the two helicopters were called in from across the Red Sea. One CH-53 carried the communications caravan and the radar antenna, while the other took the heavier, four-ton radar itself. The two helicopters made their way back across the Red Sea to Israeli controlled territory.

1970(29th of Kislev, 5731): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1970: After 2,844 performances at the St. James Theatre, David Merrick’s “Holly Dolly” came to a close.

1970: The Golani Brigade took part in a retaliatory strike came against the village Yatar, a major guerrilla base.

1972: After two previews, a Broadway revival of “Purlie” with lyrics by Peter Udell, music by Gary Geld and directed by Philip Rose opened today at the Billy Rose Theatre, where it ran for fourteen performances.

1973(2nd of Tevet, 5734): Eighth Day of Chanukah

1973: Bora Laskin completed her service as Pusine Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and took office as the 14th Chief Justice of Canada

1974: The Dear Abby Show ended its run on CBS radio after 11 years.  Dear Abby is the pen name for a Jewess from Iowa, who along with her sister became the twin queens of advice during the last half of the 20th century.

1974: Human rights activist Sergei Kovalev was arrested today in the Soviet Union.

1975(23rd of Tevet, 5736): Parashat Shemot

1975(23rd of Tevet, 5736: Just days before his 74th birthday, Polish born Yiddish poet Yankev Parnas passed away today.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/08/yankev-parnas.html

1976: Malcom Toon left his post as U.S Ambassador to Israel.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Ismailia that the Begin-Sadat summit meeting made definite progress, despite the apparent Egyptian disappointment over the lack of an anticipated joint declaration of principles. While the US proposed a timely Israeli-Egyptian mediation, settlers at Ofra declared war on Begin's possible "occupied territories" concessions.

1978(27th of Kislev, 5739): Third Day of Chanukah

1978 (27th of Kislev, 5739): Seventy-seven-year-old Phil Meyers, chairman and founder of Standard Wine & Liquor Company of Woodside, Queens,” “the city's oldest licensed wholesale distributor of wines and spirits” and a leader “in the United Jewish Appeal and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” who raised two daughters – Renee and Adrienne – with his wife Mae, passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/28/archives/phil-meyers-founded-and-led-the-standard-wine-liquor-co.html

 

1979: CBS broadcast the first episode of “Knots Landing” a prime time television soap opera created by Baltimore native David Jacobs.

1980(20th of Tevet, 5741): Parashat Shemot

1980(20th of Tevet, 5741): Eighty-three-year-old Herman Levin, the lawyer turned Broadway producer who gave us such hits as “My Fair Lady” and “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/28/obituaries/herman-levin-83-producer-dies-his-hits-included-my-fair-lady.html?searchResultPosition=2

1981(1st of Tevet, 5742): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh of Day of Chanukah

1981(1st of Tevet, 5742): Eighty-two-year-old movie producer Edwin Knopf passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/29/obituaries/edwin-h-knopf-82-producer-for-m-g-m-who-made-23-films.html

1981: In this excerpt from his “Travel Advisory,” Robert J. Dunphy describes the “dig” at Bet Shean and provides historic perspective for what is being unearthed in modern day Israel.

The trumpets sound as the gladiator enters the arena. The crowd roars and cries for blood as the man-eating beasts are unleashed and the contest is about to begin. The scene is easy to envision in Bet Shean, Israel, where a Roman amphitheater is being unearthed. Built around 200 A.D., the arena served as the site for gladiatorial combat, circuses and sports contests for more than two centuries. The first-century historian Josephus, whose writings also detailed the dramatic story of Masada, also in present-day Israel, mentioned the existence of several amphitheaters in the area but that in Bet Shean is the only one that has been found to date. The elliptical structure is 120 yards long and 73 yards wide. The arena floor was below ground level, and a high wall protected spectators from the wild animals in the gladiatorial contests. The three front rows of seats were hewn from white limestone and above them were wooden seats. The outer wall was made of black basalt. The dig is situated several hundred yards from a Roman theater, which for years has been one of Israel's most impressive tourist attractions. With the discovery of the amphitheater, the entire area will be converted into a giant antiquities park. Bet Shean, about two hours by car from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, was the site of a Roman garrison and the principal city in the north of the country.

1982(11th of Tevet, 5743): Ninety-six-year-old Bavarian born Elsa Haas, the daughter of Joseph Schülein and Ida Schülein and the wife of Dr. Alfred Hass with whom she had two children -- Charlotte 'Lotti' Schüller and Gerhard Julius Haas – passed away today in New York City.

1982: Frank Lautenberg was sworn in as a U.S Senator representing the state of New Jersey.

1983(21st of Tevet, 5744): Fifty-seven-year-old Baltimore native and active member of the World Zionist Organization Harold Hill passed away today in Tarrytown, NY.

1985: Abu Nida, the Palestinian terrorist organization, kill eighteen people during attacks inside the airports in Rome and Vienna. According to some, the attack was a fallback.  The terrorists had really wanted to hijack El Al planes and destroy them over Tel Aviv (this is 16 years before 9/11).

1987: Three Palestinian guerrillas infiltrated a short distance into Israel from Jordan Friday night and were captured alive by Israeli troops after a shootout, the Israeli Army spokesman announced today. One of the guerrillas was wounded during the clash in a wheat field of an Israeli border settlement, but no Israeli soldiers or civilians were hurt, said the army spokesman, who released the account this afternoon.

1987: ''Furniture Making in East London: 1830 to 1980 '' an exhibition which is part of a celebration of London’s East End’s Jewish heritage comes to a close at Geffrey Museum

1988: Yossi Ahimeir, an aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, said today that the Prime Minister may ask the United States and the Soviet Union to sponsor Middle East peace talks. Mr. Ahimeir said in a telephone interview that Mr. Shamir would make Moscow's renewal of diplomatic relations a condition of his proposal. The Soviet Union broke ties with Israel during the 1967 Middle East war.

1989(29th of Kislev, 5750): Fifth Day of Chanukah

1990(10th of Tevet, 5751): Asara B’Tevet

1990: The Israel Philharmonic played two Wagner overtures under the direction of Daniel Barnboim.

1991(20th of Tevet, 5752): Seventy-two-year-old Eitan Livini, a member of the Irgun, member of the Knesset and father of Tzipi Livini passed away today.

1991: U.S. premiere of the “Naked Lunch” directed by David Cronenberg who also wrote the script, filmed by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky with music by Howard Shore.

1992(3rd of Tevet, 5753): 8th and final day of Chanukah

1992: The standoff between Lebanon and Israel over the fate of 415 Palestinian deportees trapped in a snow-covered valley in southern Lebanon, continued today as both sides again rejected appeals to allow relief agencies to deliver food or medicine. Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose Government has blocked relief assistance from reaching the group since Monday, asked Washington to intervene with Israel to allow aid to reach the Palestinians. But at the same time, his Government turned down a request by the deportees to give the ill and injured treatment in Lebanese hospitals. An envoy of Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said he supported the Lebanese Government's decision to refuse entrance to the men. He said that if the deportees were accepted by the Lebanese, Israel might carry out new mass deportations across the border. Israel expelled the Palestinians last week, saying they had links to to two Islamic fundamentalist groups that Israel contends are behind attacks on soldiers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The expulsion came after five Israeli servicemen were killed in attacks for which the militant group Hamas took responsibility.

1993: “The ultranationalist Russian politician Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky, who has recently made anti-Semitic remarks, sought an application to immigrate to Israel 10 years ago, Israeli officials said today.

1995(4th of Tevet, 5756): Eighty-four-year-old Shura Cherkassky passed away.  Born in the Ukraine in 1909, his family found refuge in the United States during the Russian Revolution.  The brilliant classical pianist performed almost until the end of his life.  

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1995/12/29/issue.html

1997(28th of Kislev, 5758): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah

1997: Harvard graduate and American businessman Alan John Bliken, the New York born son of Maurice and Ethel (Horowitz) Blinken completed his three and half years of service as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium.

1997: Final broadcast of “Hee Haw” a long running rural based comedy and music television program whose producers included Bernie Brillstein was broadcast for the last time today.

1998: The New York Times Book Section includes a review of On Sunset Boulevard: The Life and Times of Billy Wilder by Ed Sikov which tells the story of how a Jew born in a town south of Kracow became one Hollywood’s leading writers and directors.

1999(18th of Tevet, 5760): Ninety-four-year Leonard Goldstein passed away.  Born in 1905, he became President of ABC. He orchestrated the merger of his United Paramount Theatres with ABC in 1953 and he headed the merged company called American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres. The company was renamed American Broadcasting Companies in 1968. In 1974, Mr. Goldenson received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." The Leonard H. Goldenson Theater at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences building in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.

1999: Belizean rapper Shyne who adopted the name Moses Michael Lev when converted to Judaism and his girl were involved in a shooting at a Manhattan club which left three people injured and found him facing criminal charges that resulted in his being sentenced to prison for ten years.

2000: Release date for “Confusion of Genders” directed by Ilan Duran Cohen, the French born author who studied at the New York Film School

2000: “Tamir Goodman of Towson University recorded 9 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds in 34 minutes in the Tigers’ 73-71 loss to the Wolverines.”

2001: Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer “appeared his morning to have won an election to the Labor Party” thus “extending the life of the broad coalition government.”

2002(22nd of Tevet, 5763): Terrorists broke into a dining hall at a yeshiva in Otneil, south of Hebron, and killed 4 students who were working in the yeshiva kitchen, and injured ten others. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

2003: The musical version of “A Christmas Carol with lyrics and a book by Lynn Ahrens and music by Alan Menken was performed for the last time at the Paramount Theatre in Madison Square Garden.

 

2004: A fire broke tonight in the “Commercial Block” of Cheyenne, Wyoming that began to consume the Idelman Building which had been built in 1884 by two brothers, Max and Abe Idelman” who used for their “wholesale liquor business.”

2005: “A Wounded Poet Who Sang the Crucible of a Generation” published today provided a review of Max Egremont’s Signified Sassoon: A Life that tells the tale of son of father from the wealthy Sephardic Sassoon clan and a mother who raised her son as a member of the Church England.

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/books/a-wounded-poet-who-sang-the-crucible-of-a-generation.htm

2005: “Quantum Trickery: Testing Einstein’s Strangest Theory,” published today described the impact of the paper published seventy years ago by Einstein, Boris Podlosky and Nathan Rosen that provided the cornerstone for the new field of quantum information.

2006: The exhibition of Jerusalem painter Maureen Fain at the Artura Studio in Jaffa comes to an end.

2006: Heavy snow fell on Jerusalem forcing the Egged bus company to shut down its routes “citing dangerous road conditions.  Snow began falling on the Golan Heights in the early morning hours and by evening reach as far south as Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev.  Although it was technically too late, many Israelis began humming that old standard “I’m Dreaming of Chanukah Ch-e-vair.” (The last sentence is mean to be funny.)

2006(6th of Tevet, 5767): One hundred two-year-old “Itche Goldberg, a champion of Yiddish who wrote and edited and taught his beloved language in the face of all those who said keeping Yiddish alive was a lost cause “passed away today. (As reported by Ari Goldman)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/obituaries/03goldberg.html

2007: In Anaheim, California, the USY International Convention comes to an end.

2008: In a ritual rarity, three Torah scrolls are used because of Shabbat, Chanukah and Rosh Chodesh Tevet.  The Prophetic readings are equally unusual due to Shabbat Chanukah, Machor Chodesh and Rosh Chodesh.

2008: Just days after the cabinet gave the military final approval to counter ongoing Palestinian rocket fire against communities in the western Negev; the IDF launched a massive operation, striking Hamas installations throughout the Gaza Strip.

2008: The publisher of a disputed Holocaust memoir has canceled the book, adding the name Herman Rosenblat to an increasingly long line of literary fakers and bringing down with a crash his story - embraced by Oprah Winfrey, among others - of meeting his future wife at a Nazi concentration camp.

2008 (30 Kislev 5769) Beber Vaknin, aged 57, was killed by missile in his hometown Netivot when he other literary and political figures, including those associated with her father’s generation, as well.

2009(10th of Tevet, 5770: Fast of the Tenth of Tevet

2009(10th of Tevet, 5770:  Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)

2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacci, Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth, and Power — A Dispatch From the Beach by Gerald Posner and Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell.

2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns and Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne Heller

2009: Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz is expected to deliver his recommendations to the Supreme Court about "mehadrin" bus lines - which designate separate seating for men and women - some residents of the capital plan to make their voices heard on the subject.

2009: The Yerushalmim movement, along with members of the New Israel Fund and Meretz, is scheduled to lead a demonstration against the continued existence of the “hehadrin” bus lines.

2009: The United Synagogue Youth (USY) International Convention opens in Chicago, IL.

2009: In “Sigmund Freud saved by Nazi admirer,” published today Richard Woods reviews The Escape of Sigmund Freud by David Cohen.

2010: The USY International Convention is scheduled to open today in Orlando, FL.

2010: Today marks the second anniversary of the beginning of Operation Cast Lead, the IDF’s operation in Gaza which was aimed at stopping the daily rocket attacks by Gaza-based terrorists towards southern Israel.

2010: In King County (Seattle), twelve buses were scheduled to hit the streets carrying an ad reading “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work” with an image of a group of children next to it, showing one little boy staring out at the viewer while the others gawk at a demolished building. The ads were paid for by the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign. The ads did not run because King County Executive Dow Constantine said that the proposed ads may be a potential source of disruption to local public transit and implemented an interim policy that bans the Seattle transit service from accepting any new advertising that is non-commercial.

2010: An Israeli activist was sentenced to three months in jail today for his part in a 2008 protest by Tel Aviv cyclists opposed to the blockade of Gaza.

2010: Israeli archaeologists said today they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans.

2010: “Disaster Relief Group Still Finding A Need” published in today’s Cedar Rapids Gazette described the efforts to help the needy residents of Cedar Rapids who were displaced by the Floods of 2008.  Jeff Schneider, a member of Temple Judah, has played a leading role in the effort which has “delivered 10 semi-trailer loads of furniture” to people who literally lost everything.  Jeff started Temple Judah Disaster Relief which after two years of work is now faced with meeting the challenge as sources of funding in the community have dried up.  While Jeff and three of the volunteers who inspired him – Tom Hill, Marie Hill and Rob Hill – continue to look for in-kind donations of old furniture, etc. they have not made any appeal for funds although volunteer contributions would be greatly appreciated. 

2010: A two-day symposium on the history of the Jews in Indonesia being held at the University of Haifa came to an end to today. “The gathering included many firsthand accounts by former community members…who spoke about what it was like being part of a tiny Jewish minority in what is now the most populous Muslim country in the world.”

2010(27th of Tevet, 5771): Ninety-three-year-old “Alfred E. Kahn, a Cornell University economist best known as the chief architect and promoter of deregulating the nation’s airlines, despite opposition from industry executives and unions alike” passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/business/29kahn.html

2010(27th of Tevet, 5771): Joan Rodker, a longtime left-wing activist in Great Britain who had contact over decades with writers such as Doris Lessing, Jessica Mitford and others passed away today http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/feb/09/joan-rodker-obituary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/8277253/Joan-Rodker.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00170/hrc-00170.html

2011(1st of Tevet, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tevet

2011(1st of Tevet, 5772): Eighty-three-year-old “Helen Frankenthaler the lyrically abstract painter whose technique of staining pigment into raw canvas helped shape an influential art movement in the mid-20th century and who became one of the most admired artists of her generation” passed away today. (As reported by Grace Glueck)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/arts/helen-frankenthaler-abstract-painter-dies-at-83.html?pagewanted=all

2011: In “Honoring All Who Saved Jews” published today Eva Weisel described her Holocaust experience and the courage of  Khaled Abdul Wahab, an Arab Muslim who was “rescuer.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/opinion/honoring-all-who-saved-jews.html?login=email&_r=2

http://www.timesofisrael.com/why-hasnt-yad-vashem-honored-more-arabs-for-saving-jews/

2011: In Iowa City. Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual Chanukah party this evening.

2011: The Sephardic Music Festival in NYC is scheduled to come to an end.

2011: “Women Unchained” is scheduled to be shown at the Limmud Conference in London, UK

2011: Today, President Shimon Peres called on Israelis to attend a demonstration against religious fanaticism, after two days of rioting by ultra-Orthodox extremists in Beit Shemesh., threw rocks at them and set dumpsters on fire. Officers detained three suspects for questioning.

2011: Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that the Israeli army will not excuse religious soldiers from official army events that feature female soldiers singing.

2012: “Babylon Blues” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2012: The JCC in Manhattan is scheduled to host “Israeli Dance with Tamar.”

2012: In a whirlwind of legal arguments, wrestling and threats to change the law to make it easier to disqualify Knesset candidates, the High Court of Justice heard Balad MK Haneen Zoabi’s petition to be reinstated for the current campaign.

2012: In a fierce excoriation that brought Israel’s subterranean racial tension to the surface for the first time in this election season, Aryeh Deri of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party today lashed out at the Yisrael Beytenu party’s chief, Avigdor Liberman, claiming that he and his Likud-Yisrael Beytenu list were on a crusade against Sephardi politicians.

2012: Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who replaces the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden at 2:36pm ET. 

2013: “Hunting Elephants” and “The Killing of Sister George” are scheduled to be shown today at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from hospital late tonight after being treated for sinus problems

2013: Gaza's only power plant ground to a halt again on today, only 12 days after being brought back online following a 7 week shutdown due to fuel shortages which officials blamed on the Israelis but which were really a result of Egyptians shutting down the tunnels through which fuel has been brought into the Hamas controlled territory.

2014(5th of Tevet, 5775): Parashat Vayigash

2014(5th of Tevet, 5775): Three days after his 89th birthday, American pianist Claude Frank passed away today. (As reported by Anthony Tommasini)

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/29/arts/music/claude-frank-pianist-admired-for-performances-of-beethoven-is-dead-at-89.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014(5th of Tevet, 5775): Ninety-one-year-old Chanoch (Hans) Seligman, a native of Chomutov, a town which had been part of the Sudentenland, and the son of Emil and Irma Seligman passed away today in Kefar Sava

2014: The Jerusalem Opera is scheduled to perform “Figaro” by Mozart at Ashdod with the Ashdod Symphony conducted by Omeri Arieli.

2014: “The Smurfs” and “The Chaos Within” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.

2014: “An apartment in a Jerusalem neighborhood was firebombed this evening, causing some damage to part of the home. The attack follows a firebombing that injured an 11 year old girl who was riding in a car with her father.

2014: A Palestinian baby collapsed while crossing the border between the West Bank and Jordan, prompting the IDF to send a helicopter to evacuate the child to a Jerusalem hospital, effectively saving his life.” (As reported by Itay Blumentahl)

2015(15th of Tevet, 5776): Ninety-three-year-old Oscar winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler passed away today. (As reported by John Anderson)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/28/movies/haskell-wexler-oscar-winning-cinematographer-dies-at-93.html?_r=1

2015: The New York Times features books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including Emblems of the Passing World: Poems After Photographs By August Sander by Adam Kirschand the recently released paperback publication of Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits — to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life by Gretchen Rubin.

 

2015: “Orchestra of Exiles” a documentary about Polish violinist Bronislaw Humberman “whose extraordinary efforts saved hundreds of Jews from the approaching Holocaust” is scheduled to be shown at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.

2015: Israeli artist “one of the pioneers of middle eastern music in the Arabic and Turkish genres” is scheduled to perform at BB King Blues Club.

2015(14th of Tevet, 5776): Yahrzeit of Pinchas Rutenberg founder of the Israel Electric Corporation.

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_14.html

2016(27th of Kislev, 5777): Third Day of Chanukah

2016(27th of Kislev, 5777): Ninety-two-year-old “Joel Sollender a World War II POW who appeared in television ads for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign” passed away today.

https://www.jta.org/2016/12/30/news-opinion/united-states/ex-pow-featured-in-hillary-clinton-campaign-dies

https://www.jta.org/2016/12/30/news-opinion/united-states/ex-pow-featured-in-hillary-clinton-campaign-dies

2016: The funeral for Libby Bucksbaum, the wife of Arnold Bucksbaum, is scheduled to take place in Cedar Rapids, IA, followed by burial at Eben Israel Cemetery.

2016: “Chanukah at the Riverwalk” the biggest community event sponsored by Chabad Lubavitch of Louisiana is scheduled to take place this evening including lighting of the region’s largest Chanukiah built by Isak Borenstein of blessed memory. (For more see the Crescent Jewish News, the leading source of Jewish news in the Crescent City and along the Bayous of the Gulf Coast)

2016: At a “Vodka and Latkes Party” YNY is scheduled to  “present the Ternovka Ensemble, a new collaboration between renowned Yiddish singer Zhenya Lopatnik (who recently relocated to New York from Kharkiv, Ukraine) and tsimblist (hammered dulcimer) player Pete Rushefsky.”

2016:  Its official – This Day in Jewish History is one of the “Top Jewish Blogs and Websites on the Web” as chosen by Feedspot Blog Reader for 2016

https://www.facebook.com/This-Day-in-Jewish-History-146451285535179/notifications/?section=activity_feed&subsection=mention&target_story=S%3A_I100136786801077%3A727082424106507

2017: Today, “The Jewish Music Research Centre joined with the National Sound Archive of the National Library of Israel in celebrating the life of Dr. Tzipora H. Jochsberger, the pioneering German-Israeli musicologist who passed away at the age of 96 in October.”

http://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/content/tzipora-jochsberger

2017: Mona’s is scheduled to host a “Late-Night Kelzmer Jam Session” as part of Yiddish New York.

2017: Yiddish New York is scheduled to host “an evening of song and music to celebrate the legacy of late, visionary singer-scholar, Adrienne Cooper.”

2017(9th of Tevet, 5778): According to Tradition, ninth of Tevet is the Yahrzeit of Ezra.

http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_9.html

2017: “A year-end report” conducted by the Taub Center which was “released today found that the cost of living in Israel is among the highest of developed nations.”

2018: Award winning concert pianist Eliah Zabaly is scheduled to perform this evening in “Mal’ha, Jerusalem” this evening.

2018: Yiddish New York is scheduled to host a series of lectures and teen and youth programs culminating in “the final student concert” this afternoon.

2018: “The Squirrel Hill JCC Kaufman Dance Studio” is scheduled to an evening of Israeli dancing this evening.

2018: In an example of “tikkun olam” in Memphis, TN, members of the Sisterhood of Temple Israel are scheduled to gather this afternoon to “knit bears for children infected/affected with HIV/AIDS in emerging nations.”

2019(29th of Kislev, 5780): Fifth Day of Chanukah

2019: Israel coped with aftermath of its first snowfall of the season and the flooding in north that resulted from “torrential rains.”

2019: In Natick, MA, the Bacon Free Library is scheduled to host “PJ Library Chanukah Mitzvah Meetup and Story Time.”

2019: In San Francisco, Sherith Israel is scheduled to host “Hanukkah Klezmer and Comedy,” a “community dinner with musician Peter Bonos and stand-up comedian Alicia Dattner.”

2020: YNY is scheduled to host lunchtime concert with Cookie Segelstein and Josh Horowitz and in the evening the “Ninth Annual Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish Concert and Award” followed by a “Yiddish Karaoke Bar.”

2020: In partnership with the American Israel Friendship League, Israel’s Office of Cultural Affairs in North American is scheduled to present a program that “will include a conversation between Vertigo’s Artistic Director and Co-Founder, Noa Wertheim and Joan Finkelstein, Executive Director for the Harkness Foundation for Dance in New York, moderated by Wayne L. Firestone, Executive Director of America-Israel Friendship League.”

2020: NFTY Northeast is scheduled to present its three-day December Institute which begins this moring with a “Kesher Brunch.”

2021: Temple Emanuel of Newton is scheduled to present “Music and Movement with Little Beats” which is a “45-minute class that promotes early childhood learning through song, dance, instrument and prop play.” (As reported by Reuters)

2021: Sheba Medical Center, a major Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv, is scheduled to “begin administering a four COVID-19 vaccine shot to 150 staffers” today “in a trail aimed at gauging whether a second booster is necessary nationwide.”

2021: The Limmud Festival is scheduled to continue for a third day.

https://limmud.org/festival/

2022: Yiddish New York is scheduled to continue today with several events including an online lecture by Gleason Freidberg on “Yiddish in Mexico after the Revolution.”

2022: Filmmaker Aviva Kempner is scheduled to introduce the first screening of “The Spy Behind Home Plate” as the ANU-Museum of the Jewish People.

2022: “More than 1,000 former senior Israel Air Force officers including former chief of staff Dan Halutz, warned in a letter to the country’s top jurists that Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming right-wing and religious government would “destroy” the democratic country they had fought for.”(As reported by Emanuel Fabian)

2022: The Executive Committee of the National Council is scheduled to meet in New Orleans.

2023: Yiddish New York is scheduled to continue for a fifth day.

2023: YUM’s Director Gabriel Goldstein is scheduled to lead a guided tour of The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries, illuminating the life and impact of the multifaceted luminary and great Jewish sage across continents and cultures through rare manuscripts and books.

 

2023: Another lecture in the series "Emmanuel Levinas with Beloved Poets and Writers", is scheduled to t take place at Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem, Rabbi Daniel Epsteinabout will talk about the concept of others through reading Proust's book "Albertine is Gone".

2023: Virginia Tech is scheduled to play Tulane University, the home of Brian Horowitz, the holder of the Sizeler Family Chair of Jewish Studies at the Tulane Department of Jewish Studies, in the Military Bowl.

2023: As December 27 begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 82 in captivity.  (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No comments: