March 17
796 BCE (1st
of Nisan, 2956): Based on computations using the Bible and archaeology,
possible date for the death of Jehoash, King of Judah.
45
180:
Antonius Marcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome passed away at the age of 58.
The author of Meditations was known as a wise philosopher-king.
However, he had little use for the Jews. While traveling in Judea, he
described the Jews as "Stinking and tumultuous." He reportedly
expressed a preference for the Teutonic barbarians whom he was fighting on the
border between Gaul and Germania.
455:
Petronius Maximus becomes emperor of the Western Roman Empire after murdering
Valentinian III and forcing the Empress Eudoxia to marry him. The Empress wrote to Genseric the Vandal
asking him to come to Rome to avenge her. According to Theophanes he came and
sacked the city and reportedly carried off the treasures from the Second Temple
that had been seized by Titus in 70.
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/imperialfora/vespasian/judaeacapta.html
461: The man who is known to history as St.
Patrick passed away today.
https://www.jewishla.org/do-jews-erin-go-bragh/
763: Birthdate of Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid
caliph who sent Jewish teachers to France at the request of Charlemagne.
1168: In one of the earliest blood libels in England,
Harold of
Gloucester who “was a supposed child martyr who was falsely claimed by
Benedictine monks to have been ritually murdered by Jews in Gloucester, England”
died toda.
1190: The Crusaders completed the massacre of
Jews of York England slaughtering 500 Jews on this particular day.
1398: Today “The city council of Worms enacted
an ordinance that every Jew or Jewess over twelve should pay one old tournois
in Leibzoll, but not one farthing more.”
1406: Seventy-three-year-old Tunisian born
Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun whose writing about the history of the Berbers
described the conversion of Kahina, the 7th century “warrior queen”
to Judaism.
1513:
Pope Leo X who relied on Bonet de Lates, a Jew from Provence, as his personal
physician and unofficial advisor and whose leniency
towards the Jews may have stemmed from an attitude summed up by his statement
that “It is well known how useful this fable of Christ has been to us and
ours!” was consecrated today.
1526:
After making “major concessions to Charles V” Francis I who had no Jewish
subjects but had a strange interest in the Hebrew language as can be seen by
his unsuccessful attempt get the Hebrew grammarian Elias Levita to move to his
realm, was freed today.
1616: In Holland, under the rule of Prince
Maurice of Orange, it is decided that each city could decide for itself whether
or not to admit Jews. In those towns where they were admitted they would not be
required to wear a badge of any sort identifying them as Jews.
1636: Urban VIII issued “Cum allias piae” a
Papal Bull that ordered the “Synagogues of the Duchies of Ferarri and Urban, to
pay a tax of 10 ecus.”
1654: Alexis Mikhailovich, the second Romanov
Czar, issued an edict today instructing “a party of Lithuanian Jews to proceed
from Kaluga to Nijni-Novgorod” under the protection of an “escort of twenty
sharpshooters.”
1678: Las Excelencias
y Calunias de los Hebreos, a defense of the Jewish people written by Isaac
(Fernando) Cardoso which was printed in 1679 was today dedicated to Jacob de
Pinto.
1733: “Deborah,” an oratorio by Handel based on
Chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Judges premiered at the King’s Theatre in
London.
1749: “Solomon,” an oratorio by Handel based on
the Biblical account of the Israelite King had its first performance at the
Theatre Royal in London.
1757: Following a dispute with other members of
the Bet Din in London, Isaac Nieto wrote a letter today resigning as ab bet
din. Nieto was the son David Nieto and
he had served as the Haham of Bevis Marks and as the first Rabbi of the Great
Synagogue in Gibraltar. He had been serving as the ab bet din since 1751.
1762: The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade is
held in New York City. The parade was
organized by Irish soldiers serving in the British Navy. “Corned beef and cabbage is the traditional
meal enjoyed by many on St. Patrick's Day, but only half of it is truly Irish.
Cabbage has long been a staple of the Irish diet, but it was traditionally
served with Irish bacon, not corned beef. The corned beef was substituted for
bacon by Irish immigrants who came to America and who could not afford the real
thing i.e. bacon. According to one version of this tale, the Irish immigrants
learned about the cheaper alternative, corned beef, from their Jewish neighbors.” Are we to
believe that traif bacon gave way to kosher Corned Beef? Only in America!
1764(13th of Adar II, 5524):
Parahsat Tzav; Shabbat Zachor; Erev Purim
1777: Birthdate of Baden native Bina Leone, the
wife of Elias Isaak Cahn with whom she had seven children.
1780: Rosine Wambacher and Abraham Hutzler gave
birth to David Hutzler.
1783(13th of Adar II, 5543): Ta’anit
Esther; erev Purim
1786: In German, Dreile Schweizer and Philip
Moses Faist Rosenheim gave birth to Samuel Faist Rosenheim, the husband of
Madel Rebensburger with whom he had six children.
1787: In Germany, Jentle Loeb and Moses Faist
Rosenheim gave birth to Samuel Moses Faist Rosenheim, the husband of Sarah
Bernheimer with whom he had seven children.
1791(11th of Adar II, 5551): Ta’anit
Esther
1795: Birthdate of Mary Harris, the wife London
native Zadoc Aaron Jessel whom she married in London’s Great Synagogue in 1819
and the mother of Henry, Edward, George and Amelia Jessel
1798: Birthdate of Jacob Ettlinger, the native
of Baden who became a leader of Orthodox Judaism and served as Chief Rabbi in
Altona from 1836 until his death in 1871
1789: Birthdate of Edmund Kean, the great 19th
century Shakespearian actor who first gained fame for his portrayal of
Shylock. The portrayal of the Jew from
Venice was a difficult role and a career-maker for those few who did it
successfully.
1801: In Galicia, Rabbi Shebah ha-Levi and his
wife gave birth to Orientalist Simchah Pinksker, the father of Leon Pinsker.
1802(13th of Adar II, 5562): Ta’anit
Esther; erev Purim
1805(14th of Adar II, 5565): Purim
Meshulash
1805: The Italian Republic, a creation of
Napoleon, was transformed in the Kingdom of Italy with the French emperor
serving as King. The Jews of Italy
benefited from the appearance of the French revolutionary armies. Between 1796
and 1798, they had liberated several ghettos, most notably the Rome Ghetto in
1798. The Jews will be forced to return
to their ghettos with the return of Italian reactionaries, but Napoleon would
have one last success when he freed the Jews of Florence from their Ghetto in
1808.
1807: Birthdate of Mendel Hess the Chief Rabbi
of the Grand Duchy of Weimar (Germany).
1808: Birthdate of Adolfo Eisenstadter who is
buried at the Marjan Hill Cemetery in Split, Croatia.
1808: Today an imperial edict was issued that
“divided the Jews living in French countries into consistories. Brussels
(Belgium) was included in the consistory of Crefeld. Since 1794, the French had
controlled Belgium. By the time of the
issuance of that edit, this meant Napoleon was the one issuing the orders. On
the overthrow of Napoleon, Belgium was united with Holland; and the Jewish
community of Brussels became the head of the fourteenth religious district of
Holland. After the revolution of 1830 Brussels became the head of the Belgian
consistories, and a chief rabbi was nominated.”
1808: The Infamous Decree (decret infame)
of Napoleon canceled all debts owed to Jews by those serving in the military or
by women if it was signed without the approval of their husbands or parents. It
also abolished freedom of trade of the Jews by forcing them to acquire permits
(which were almost never given) from the local prefects, and it prevented Jews
from settling in the area of the Upper and Lower Rhine.
1808: Establishment of the Central Consistory
of French Jews.
1811: Birthdate of Karl Gutzkow, the author
“Uriel Acosta” which was first performed in Yiddish in 1882 at the Mariinsky
Theatre in Odessa starring Abba Schoengold whom Jacob Adler described as
"the god of the Yiddish public, the god, indeed, of all who saw him on
stage... the handsomest man in the world. Tall. Blue eyes. Golden hair. An
Apollo."
1811: The Austrian Emperor denied Simon Edler
von Lämel permission to purchase a house in Vienna but “in the same year
elevated him to the hereditary nobility” as a reward for his assistance in
supplying the Army during the Napoleonic Wars.
1814: In Amsterdam, Alexander (Elkan) Rimini
and Juedith Abraham Messias gave birth to Sara Rimini, the wife of Abraham
Delmonte who was living in Whitechapel at the time of her death in 1884/
1815: In Darmstadt, Reina (Rachel) Oppenheimer
and Abraham Oppenheimer gave birth to Myer Oppenheimer.
1818: “A restrict measure, which Napoleon had
enacted in 1808, -- to continue in force for ten years only, on his assumption
that such a ten years’ term was necessary to enable the Jews to conform to the
conclusions of his Sanhedrin to become good citizens of the country of their
domicile and to be an alien nation expired” today “by its own limitation.”
1819: Abraham Solomon married Ellen Levy at the
New Synagogue today.
1825: In the Netherlands, James Abraham Cohen
Stuart, the London son of Elisabeth Gompertz and Abraham Benjamin Cohen and his
wife Petronella Wilhelmina Stuart gave birth to
Benjamin Cohen Stuart, the husband of Annetta Dorothea Rebecca de Leeuw.
1826(8th of Adar II, 5586): Hetty
Grace Levy, the daughter of Solomon Levy passed away today.
1829: Birthdate of Ephraim Menahhem Epstein the
Russian born Jewish convert to Christianity and College of Physicians and
Surgeons trained doctor who was “the first leader of the University of South
Dakota.”
https://libguides.usd.edu/ephraim
1832: Birthdate of Moncure Daniel Conway the
Unitarian clergyman and author whose works include The Wandering Jew and
Solomon and Solomonic Literature
1833(26th of Adar, 5593): Judith Levy, the daughter
of Chaim Levy passed away today.
1836: In Charleston, South Carolina, Isaac and
Babetta Dittenhoefer, gave birth to Abram Jess Dittenhoefer. His parents were
immigrants from Germany who lived in Baltimore and Charleston before settling
in New York where his father became a successful merchant. A graduate of Columbia Law, young
Dittenhoefer would become a practicing attorney and successful judge. Oddly
enough, this Jew who was born in the Cradle of the Confederacy would be one of
the electors from New York who would cast a vote for Abraham Lincoln in the
Electoral College.
1840: Henry Benjamin married Marian Alexander
at the Great Synagogue today.
1840: Birthdate of Henri Didon Louis Remy, the
Dominican friar who spoke “approvingly of Renan’s closing work, History of
the Jews which depicts “Christianity as the flower, masterpiece and glory
of Judaism.”
1841: Harris Barnett married Leah Levy at the
Great Synagogue today
1842: Birthdate of Dublin native Julie
Calisher, the husband of Birmingham, England native Julius Calisher.
1843(15th of Adar II, 5603): Shushan
Purim
1846: Mary Ann Talbot and Abdallah Ben Cassan
gave birth to Ali Adolphus Ben Cassan
1848: Eight years before the death of his
father Jacob Steinschenider, Moritz Steinschneider “after many difficulties
succeeded in becoming a Prussian citizen” in “the same year” that “he was
charged with preparation of the catalogue of Hebrew books in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford.”
1848: By the time the time that Carl Heinrich
Spitzer, a 17-year-old Moravian Jew studying at the Vienna Polytechnic who had
been the first one shot down by imperial troops two days ago was laid to rest
today, Emperor Ferdinand had “had acceded to the students’ demands for a
national guard, a freed press and the promise of a constitution.”
1849: William III of Netherlands who in 1855
appointed Aron Mendes Chumaceiro chief rabbi of the colony of Curaçao and
intervened on behalf of “the persecuted Dutch Jews of Coro, Venezuela” began is
reign today.
1851(13th of
Adar II, 5611): Erev Purim
1851: Rabbi Sabato
Morais arrived in Philadelphia with the expectation of becoming the spiritual
leader of Congregation Mikveh Israel.
1852: In Copenhagen, Amalia Monies and Charles
Kann gave birth to Albert Kann.
1852: In Germany, Lazarus Siegel and Zerlin
Koch gave birth to Henry Siegel, who married Marie Vaugh Wilde after his first
wife Julia Rosenbaum passed away and came to the United States in 1867 and
opened a series of progressively more successful department stores starting in
Parkersburg, West Virginia and climaxing with purchases of emporiums in Chicago
and New York.
1852:
In Eubigheim, Lazarus Siegel and Zerlina Koch gave birth to Henry Seigel, the
German immigrant who came to United States in 1852 where he established and/or
acquired a series of increasingly successful department store including Siegel,
Hartsfield & Co., the Siegel Cooper Company, Simpson Crawford Company in
New York, and the Schlesinger and Mayer Company in Chicago.
1854:
Mr. and Mrs. Moses Ley Maduro Peixotta gave birth to Daniel Levy Maduro
Peixotto, a leader in the New York State Militia who died because of fever
contracted during the Spanish-American War.
1857:
Paul Reuter, a Jew by birth who would become one of the first of the modern
Press Lords as the founder of Reuters legally became a British subject. Reuter had already shed the Jewish part of
his origins when he converted in November of 1845, a month after he had moved
to London.
1858(2nd
of Nisan, 5618): Seventy-six-year-old Samuel Lyons, the Baltimore born son of
Eleazar Lyons who married Dinah Levy in Surinam in 1810 and then Sarah Marks in
Philadelphia in 1821 passed away today in Philadelphia.
1858:
In Chicago, Elias and Rosine (Straus) Greenbaum gave birth to banker Moses E.
Greenbaum, the husband of Julia Friedman who was president of Greenbaum Sons
Bank and Trust Company and Greenbaum Sons Investment Company as well as
President of Chicago Sinai Congregation and a trustee of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, the National Jewish hospital for Consumptives in Denver
and the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York City.
1859:
In Frankfurt, Selig and Clementine Goldschmidt gave birth to their second child
Flora.
1860(23rd
of Adar, 5620): Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudi; Shabbat Parah
1861: In Wilmington, Delaware, Josiah and
Lisette (Frankel) Bochroch gave birth to Jefferson Medical College graduate Max
H. Bochroch, a Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases at Temple University
and a member of Rodeph Sholom Congregation in Philadelphia who married Jennie
M. Wolfe in 1887.
1861: The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed. The
ghetto walls came tumbling down and the Jews were fully emancipated. Jews played an active part in the creation of
the modern Italian state and they enjoyed a level of social and legal
acceptance that was second only to that enjoyed by the Jews of Great Britain.
1862(15th of Adar II, 5622): Shushan Purim
1862: A group of wealthy young men who formed
what would be known as the Purim Association held the first Purim Ball in New
York City.
1862(15th of Adar II, 5622): Composer Jacques
François Fromental Élie Halévy passed away.
Born in 1799, Halévy composed the tragic opera La Juive and the
comic opera L'Éclair. These works are his major claim to artistic fame.
1864: In New York City, Yetta Hackes and Louis
Stix who had been married since 1852 gave birth to Otto Louis Stix
1864(9th of Adar II, 5624): Abraham David
Meijer, the brother of Jonas Daniel Meijer (the first Jewish lawyer in the
Netherlands) passed away today.
1865(19th of Adar, 5625): Seventy-one-year-old
Rabbi Isaac Noah Mannheimer, the native of Copenhagen passed away today in
Vienna. Born in Copenhagen in 1793, he was “the son of a chazzan who began the
study of the Talmud at an early age, though not to the neglect of secular
studies. On completing the course of the cathedral school at Copenhagen, he
took up philosophy, Oriental languages, and theology at the university there,
at the same time continuing his studies in Talmud and Jewish science. When the
Jews of Denmark were emancipated in 1814, confirmation was made obligatory, and
the office of catechist was instituted by the state, Mannheimer being the first
incumbent (1816). The first confirmation took place May 1817. In 1821
Mannheimer went to Vienna, where there was then no congregation, the community
being divided into two opposing parties. Mannheimer, who was welcomed by both factions,
soon succeeded in organizing a congregation, drafting a program and ritual on
the traditional basis and harmonizing the views of the two parties. He returned
to Copenhagen in December of the same year. Failing in his attempt to secure a
new synagogue for Reform services, he accepted a call to the pulpit left vacant
by Zunz in Berlin. German services, however, were interdicted in that city; the
temple formerly under the ministry of B. Beer was closed, and the royal cabinet
order of 26 December 1823, obtained by the Orthodox party, frustrated the
attempt to adapt the old ritual to new forms by delivering German sermons in
the chief synagogue. Mannheimer therefore left Berlin and took temporary charge
of the pulpit of Hamburg, preaching also at Leipzig during the fairs. In 1824
he married Liseke Damier, and in November of the same year he was called to the
new synagogue of Vienna. As he could not receive the title of preacher or
rabbi, he was inducted, in June, 1825, as "Direktor der Wiener K. K. Genehmigten
Oeffentlichen Israelitischen Religionsschule"; he dedicated the new temple
in April, 1826, and officiated there until 1829. Mannheimer's success was due
in great measure to his oratorical gifts. His sermons were, for their time,
models (Geiger, Einleitung in das Studium der Jüdischen Theologie, in
Nachgelassene Schriften, ii. 31). His German translation of the prayerbook and
of the fast-day prayers, and his arrangement of the fast-day liturgy, are of
permanent importance for the ritual, the conservative spirit in which this work
was undertaken leading to its adoption by many communities. In 1848 Mannheimer
was returned by Brody to the Austrian Reichstag, where he delivered two
memorable speeches, one on the Jewish tax (5 October 1848) and the other on the
abolition of capital punishment (29 January 1849). On his seventieth birthday
the city of Vienna conferred honorary citizenship upon him. He devoted the
gifts bestowed by the community upon him on that occasion to a foundation for
the aid of rabbis, preachers, and teachers, which still bears his name.
Mannheimer published the following works: Prædikener Holdte ved det Mosaiske
Troes-Samfund's Andagts-Övelser i Modersmaalet i Sommerhalvaaret 1819
(Copenhagen, 1819); Gottesdienstliche Vorträge Gehalten im Israelitischen
Bethause zu Wien im Monate Tischri 5594 (Vienna, 1834); Gottesdienstliche
Vorträge für die Wochenabschnitte des Jahres, vol. i, Genesis and Exodus (ib.
1835; partly translated into Hebrew by E Kuttner, ib. 1865); a translation of
the prayer-book and of the fast-day prayers according to the ritual of the
Vienna Temple (1840; frequently reprinted). His polemics and responsa include:
Gutachten für das Gebetbuch des Hamburger Tempels (1841); Gutachten Gegen die
Reformpartei in Frankfurt-am-Main in Angelegenheit der Beschneidungsfrage
(1843); Einige Worte über Juden und Judenthum (supplement to the
Oesterreichische Medicinische Wochenschrift, 1842, No. 34), directed against
Professor Rosa's statements in reference to the Jewish Question (1848). http://jewish_bio.enacademic.com/2097/Mannheimer,_Isaac_Noah
1869: In Baghdad, Heskel Shalma Ezra
Shlomo-David, Hakham and Messouda/Massoda/Massouda Shlomo-David gave birth to
Sir Sassoon Eskel, who following WW I became Iraq’s finance minister and who
was the father of Rahel Cohen and Meir Eskel
1868: In the 8th arrondissement of Paris, Elie
Lazare II, the French born son of Elie ben Abraham Lazard and Esther Cahn –
Lazard and his wife Marie Lazard gave birth to Michel Lazard the husband of
Louise Lazard and banquier, chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.
1869: Louis and Bluma Joseph were married today
at Cavendish Square.
1870(14th of Adar II, 5630): Purim
1870(14th of Adar): Rabbi Dov Ber ben Isaac
Meisels of Cracow, author of Hiddushei Mahardam passed away
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Meisels_Dov_Berush
1870: Since the Purim balls in New York appear
to have lost their popularity, tonight’s Purim celebrations will not consist of
any “grand demonstration” but will be limited to some unpretentious
entertainments.
1873(18th
of Adar, 5633): Seventy-seven-year-old Joseph Salvador a member of a
distinguished French Sephardi family whose mother was Roman Catholic, the
author of Paris, Rome, Jerusalem ou la Question religieuse au XIX siècle who
was angered by the anti-Jewish riots in German and was considered a
‘proto-Zionist” passed away today,
1873:
Three days after she had passed away66 year old Catherine “Kate” Collins (nee
Isaacs) the wife of Solomon Collins and the mother of Adelaide and William
Collins was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1874: In Budapest, Dr. Aaron Wise, the future rabbi
of Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Emes in Brooklyn, New York and his wife
gave birth to Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise, the grandson of Rabbi Joseph Hirsch
Weiss and Móric Fischer de Farkasházy, the founder of the Herend Porcelain
Company.
Rabbi
Stephen Samuel Wise declined to accept the pulpit of New York's largest Reform
Congregation if it meant he could not speak out in favor of Zionism and he
became the President of the Zionist Organization of America. Wise was one
of several Jews who attended the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War
I. In 1922, Wise founded the Jewish Institute of Religion "in an
attempt at sectarian non-partisanship, so that its graduates might serve any
one of the [Jewish] religious groupings" in the United States.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007309
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/stephen-samuel-wise
1876:
Birthdate of New York City native Samuel Levy, the lawyer, the New York Board
of Education and Manhattan Borough President who married Sadie Vesell with whom
he had one daughter, Bernice and one son Lawrence, the husband of Betha
Rothafel, “the daughter of theatrical impresario and entrepreneur Samuel Roxy
Rothafel.
1877:
According to a report published today in The Times of London the “Jews’ Deaf
and Dumb Home” “was founded in 1863 by Baroness Mayer de Rothschild as a school
where resident Jewish children could learn to speak.”
1878:
“Ethical Culture” which was published today describes the growth of The Society
for Ethical Culture which was founded only two years before by Felix
Adler. The author gives due
consideration to Adler’s Jewish origins and the effect that has had in creating
the increasingly popular movement.
1878:
The Jewish owner of the coffee and cake saloon at number 7 Fulton Street failed
in his effort to get Justice Murray to find that his employee was not guilty of
violating the city’s ordinance against throwing oyster shells, after shucking
them, into the street.
1878:
The annual Purim reception at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews began this
morning at 11 o’clock. Due to the
inclement weather, the turnout was smaller than normal. The reception ended at 6 in the evening.
1878:
Cohen Davis, an elderly glazier, was tried for perjury today in the General
Sessions Court. The prosecutor charged
that he had lied under oath during the trial of Abraham Freeman and Charles
Freeman who have been convicted of arson in the first degree.
1879:
In Paris, Noémie and Adolphe Bloch gave birth to Jules André Albert Bloch.
1879:
In Uniontown, AL, Cornelia Pake and Moritz L. Ernst gave birth to CCNY graduate
and Columbia trained attorney Bernard M.L. Ernst, the husband of Roberta C.
Clans, the vice president of the Society of American Magicians who was a member
of Temple Israel and the Intercollegiate Menorah Association.
1880
In New York City, “Isaac Jacobs and Rachel Strauss gave birth to boxing
Promoter Michael “Uncle Mike” Jacobs whose career spanned an era the ran from
Jack Dempsey’s reign to the retirement of Joe Louis, two of the greatest
heavyweight champions of the world during boxing’s so-called golden age.
1880:
It was reported today that the annual ball sponsored by the Purim Association
had raised $18,585.80 for New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital.
1880:
It was reported today that George Kessler is among those selling tickets the
Concord Society’s first grand annual charity ball which is a benefit for the
Young Ladies’ Charitable which is an adjunct of the United Hebrew Charities.
1881:
Twenty-one-year-old Aizik Aronchic, the son of “Jewish traders from Gomel” was
arrested today for his role in the 1879 “attempt by Narodnaya Volya to kill the
Tsar by exploding a mine under the Moscow - Kursk railway as his train passed.”
1882:
In Chicago, “Abraham and Anna (Hinde) Shemerinsky” gave birth to Gertrude
Shemerinsky who married Jacob Kaplan and as Gertrude Kaplan gave birth to five
children.
1882:
“Justice Steckler Expelled” published today described the decision to expel
Alfred Steckler and some of his associates from the Tenth Assembly District
Republican Association. Steckler and his
associates were not expelled because they were Jewish but because they had
failed to support the Republican candidate.
1882:
Birthdate of Polish native Max Cline, who in 1885 came to the United States
where graduated from MIT and became “the chief chemist of the International
Paper Company’s research division.
1884:
Birthdate of Dr. Nahum Nir, the native of Warsaw who made Aliyah in 1925 and
was one of the signatories of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
1884(20th
of Adar, 5644): Benjamin Gratz passed away in Lexington, KY. Part of the famous Gratz family, he was born
in Philadelphia in 1792. After serving
in the Army during the War of 1812 he moved to Kentucky where he practiced law
and served as trustee of Transylvania University.
1884:
After moving to Kansas City, MO and working “at the law firm of Lathrop, Smith
and Marrow in 1884, today William J. Berkowitz “and his brother founded
Berkowitz and Company Printers the forerunner if what is now called the Tension
Corporation.
https://postalmuseum.si.edu/americasmailingindustry/Tension-Corporation.html
1885: Three days after she had passed away, 24-year-old
Constance Baumann, the daughter of “David and Sarah Baumann” was buried today
at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1886:
In Grodno, Cippy Kohen and Robert Fredman gave birth to John Hopkins graduate
and JTS ordained rabbi, Samuel Fredman, the husband of Bessie Stashower who
began serving as spiritual leader of Congregation Beth El in Philadelphia in
1913.
1886(10th
of Adar II, 5646): Ninety-one-year-old Leopold Zunz also known—"Yom Tov
Lipmann Tzuntz" passed away. Born in 1794, “he was a German Reform rabbi
and writer, the founder of what has been termed the "Science of
Judaism" (Wissenschaft des Judentums), the critical investigation of
Jewish literature, hymnology and ritual.”
1888:
In Bloomfield, NJ, Mr. and Mrs. Eli Harris gave birth to WW I veteran and
President of the Young Men’s Building and Loan Association Harvey E. Harris,
the Postmaster of Bloomfield who was the brother of Jerome, Irving and Hazel
Harris.
1888:
In Yemen, Bohemian born linguist Eduard Glaser began his third journey from
Sanaa to Ma’rib
1889(14th of Adar II, 5649): Purim
1890: Birthdate of Philadelphia native and Jefferson
Medical College trained dermatologist
Sigmund Samuel Greenbaum, the husband of Rae Shirley Refowich whom he
married in 1922 and author of Diseases of the Mouth and Their Treatment
who was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a
member of B’nai Brith and Keneseth Israel Congregation.
1890: Birthdate of Russia native and Kiev University
graduate Solomon Cutler who in 1913 came to the United States where he raised
two daughters with his wife while serving as the “director of the budget
department of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies
of New York.”
1891: Solomon Achillovich Joffe, the Russian born
son of Eugenia Tsirkin and Achilles Joffee the actuary with the Mutual Life
Insurance Company who had served in the Russian Army before coming to the
United States where he attened NYU and the University of Chicago married Rossia
M. Krasnopolskya today.
1891: Birthdate of New York native and CCNY graduate
Max Gewirtz, the holder of a Masters Degree from Teachers College at Columbia
and Doctorate from NYU who retired as an assistant superintended “of a district
in Queens in 1961 and became “head of a religious school at Temple Israel in
Lawrence, L.I.
1892(18th of Adar, 5652): Fifty-seven-year-old
Moravian native Max Srakosch, “an impresario and agent” who was the brother of
Maurice Strakosch passed away today in New York.
1892: It was reported today that Rabbi Stephen S.
Wise will be addressing the congregants at Temple Israel in Harlem.
1892: In Seattle, WA, founding of the Ladies’ Hebrew
Benevolent Society which met on the first Wednesday of each month and whose
members included Ida Davis who served as the society’s secretary.
1893: “Russia’s Securities May Suffer” published
today described an appeal made by the London Russo-Jewish Committee that has
been “sent to every Jewish banker, bank director, bank manager, stockbroker,
and “agent de change” in Europe calling on them” to boycott Russian loans and
Russian financial transactions in general. “The appeal is in retaliation” for
the continued severe treatment of the Russian Jews by the Czar
1894:
Moritz Kepes, a Jewish saloon owner, was beaten up today by John Fuchs and his
son who owned a nearby saloon.
1894:
A fire broke out today in a tenement house on Jefferson Street this morning
that is owned by Abraham Doworsky and is occupied by Russian Jews. Some of the tenants told Doworsky that they
would be starting a newspaper in the building’s basement, but the fire exposed
the fact that they were operating an illegal still.
1894:
“The Germans and their Fatherland” published today provides a detailed review
Germany and the Germans by William Harbutt in which the author devotes one
chapter to the anti-Semitic party and another chapter the criminal activities
in which Jews engage. The author does
raise and does not answer the question “What do the anti-Semites propose to do
with the Jews and what would do without them
1894:
The United Hebrew Charities reported today that between October 1, 1893, to
March 1, 1894 that they had over 18,000 applicants for assistance. During those five months, the charity had
spent over $103,000 for clothing, medicine burials, coal and operating the
industrial schools. For the same period
a year ago, they had spent a little more than $46,000 which is indicative of
the losses caused by the depression that began in 1893.
1895:
Three days after she had passed away, 58-year-old Esther Nyman, the wife of
Abraham Nyman was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: Contrary to what is listed in Wikipedia, today, in Brooklyn Solomon and
Jennie Horwitz gave birth to Samuel Horwitz who gained fame as Shemp Howard of
The Three Stooges.
http://www.shemphoward.com/biography.html
1896:
Today, German born Samuel Gutmann, the son of Hirsch Gutman and husband of
Hattie S. Stricker who had come to the United States in 1884 “became a
naturalized citizen before the District Court of Iowa, Polk Co at Des Moines,
Iowa.”
1897(13th
of Adar II, 5657): Ta’anit Esther; erev Purim
1897:
Birthdate of Charles Levine, the son of a Massachusetts scrap metal dealer, who
was a pioneer in the field of aviation.
A contemporary of Lindbergh, he was on the second plane that flew from
America across the Atlantic. Unlike Lindbergh
who was heading for Paris, Levine was trying to make Berlin. Although he had to land one hundred miles
short of his distance, he had actually outdistanced the Lone Eagle.
1897:
Samuel Simon Leibowitz arrived in
America with his parents from Romania.
Born in 1893, he would become a famous defense attorney and New York
Judge. He is best known as attorney who
took the lead in defending the Scottsboro Boys.
1898:” The Baron De Hirsch Fund” published today
described the efforts to build “model tenements” and erect “suburban homes” to
relieve the overcrowding on the Lower East Side. Some of the money had already been used to
purchase 12 lots across the Harlem River where “model tenements” will be
constructed. These efforts are not to be confused with other efforts financed
by the late Baron Hirsch and his widow to develop “agricultural colonies”
including the one at Woodbine, NJ.
1899: “Jewish Philanthropy” published today
described Simon Wolf’s view of Jewish generosity. According to him, “We take care of our people
and we help others.” “In the largest
cities in the United States” Jews have collected $64,000,000 for philanthropic
purposes, thanks in no small measure to the efforts of such mean as Oscar
Nathan, Isidor Straus and Adolphus S. Solomon.
1899: On Chicago’s South Side, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise
dedicated the sanctuary of The Reform Congregation of Isaiah Temple which had
been designed by Dankmar Adler.
1900:
Birthdate of American film composer Alfred Newman, a major Jewish-American
composer of music for films. He received 45 Academy Award nominations (a record
in the music categories, now shared with John Williams), winning 9 times; in
1940 he was nominated for 4 different films. He also composed the familiar
fanfare which accompanies the studio logo for 20th Century Fox, where he headed
the music department. He was active until the end of his life, scoring Airport
shortly before his death. Between 1930 and 1970, he wrote music for over 200
films of every imaginable type, including a score for the newsreel made from
the World War II footage of the Battle of Midway
1901:
In Philadelphia, PA, a federation of Jewish charities including the Jewish
Hospital Association, Jewish Foster Home, Society of United Hebrew Charities,
Hebrew Education Society, Orphans' Guardians, Jewish Maternity Association,
Jewish Immigration Society, Young Women's Union, and Hebrew Sunday-School
Society was formed today with Jacob Gimbel as President.
1902:
Gustav Ave Levy, the Navasota, Tx born son of Henrietta Hyman and Simon Levy
who moved to St. Louis in 1895 where he went to work for the Globe Shoe and
Clothing Company married Nellie Stuart today in St. Louis.
1902:
Two days after she had passed away, 76-year-old Louisa Levy, the husband of
Charles Levy with whom she had had eight children was buried today at the Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1902:
Herzl is authorized to obtain three letters of credit, each for a million
francs, from banks in Paris, Berlin and London. The funds are to be deposited
in Turkish banks. Several members of the
Actions Committee including Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin are opposed to
the plan. Ussishkin and Herzl were both fervent Zionists, but they had
different views as to the goal of establishing a Jewish home in Eretz Israel
could be accomplished. Born in 1863 in Russia, Ussishkin would become an early
Zionist leader and first President of the Jewish Nation Fund or JNF. In his youth, he became an
enthusiastic reader of the works of contemporary Hebrew writers in his teens,
and from then on the revival of the Hebrew language was one of the main goals
of his life work. Like many other early Hibbat Zion members, he was shocked by
the Russian pogroms of 1881, which emphasized to him the necessity for Jewish
emigration. Ussishkin then began working actively for several Zionist groups.
After graduating as a technical engineer from the Technological Institute in
Moscow, he became active in Hebrew educational work as well as in Zionist
propaganda and fund-raising in Russia. Ussishkin was a "practical"
Zionist who viewed agricultural settlement in Eretz Israel as the first and
most important step toward attaining a Jewish state. He was thus active in
recruiting youth for pioneer work and for agricultural settlement of the land.
He was a delegate to the First Zionist Congress held in Basle in 1893, and was
appointed Hebrew secretary of the Congress. At the Seventh Zionist Congress
(1905), he was among the leaders of those who forced the abandonment of the
Uganda Scheme, and he then proposed a program of Zionism which was later
adopted by the Zionist movement. Under his influence the Zionist movement
actively supported the establishment of agricultural settlements, educational
and cultural institutions, and a Hebrew university. In 1919 Ussishkin himself
settled in Eretz Israel, and in 1923 he was chosen to head the Jewish National
Fund, a position he held for nearly twenty years.
1902:
It was reported today that “during the month of February, 2,512 families and
individuals applied at the relief bureau of the United Hebrew Charities for
assistance” including 681 who were applying for aid for the first time.
1903:
NYU Law School graduate and trustee of the Union Temple of Brooklyn Leopold
Levy, the Brooklyn bon son of Jeannette Grabfelder and Ludwig Levy married Ada
Viola Lese today.
1903:
Based on reports from their co-religionists in Russia, today, it is evident to
the leading Jews in New York “that the exceptional laws to which the Russian
Jews are subjected – the so-called ‘May Laws’ --- will not be abolished by the
Czar’s recent decree “granting reforms throughout Russia.”
1904:
Birthdate of Alfred Henry “Truck” Miller the native of Boston who played who
played for Harvard before spending one year as a profession with the Boston
Bulldogs.
1904:
Birthdate of Chaim Gross an Austrian born American sculptor. Gross began
exhibiting both his sculpture and graphic art in 1935 and was one of 250
sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the
Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949. Gross was a practitioner of
the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from
wood. Gross was a professor of printmaking and sculpture at both the
Educational Alliance and the New School for Social Research in New York City,
as well as a member of Artists Equity, the Federation of Modern Painters and
Sculptors, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He served as
President of the Sculptors Guild of America.
He passed away in 1991 at the age of 84. (As reported by John T.
McQuiston)
1905:
In Chelsea, MA, Joseph A Strauss and Ida (Chayah) Kasriels of Russia gave birth
to Harry Strauss who married Cecile G Pofcher in 1931.
1906:
Adolf Kraus of Chicago, the President of the Executive Committee of B’nai
B’rith received a cablegram from the Russian Premier, Count Witte in response
to his letter inquiring what measures had been put in place to protect the
lives and property of Jews during a planned Easter massacre in which Witte said
his government does not approve of violence and that all measures will be taken
to protect “peaceable inhabitants without regard to nationality.”
1906:
It was reported today that “two high officials of the Ministry of the Interior,
one of whom has been arrested” were “the authors of the pamphlet inciting the
people to murder the Jews.”
1907(2nd
of Nisan, 5667): Gotlieb Schmelkes the husband of Henriette Schmelkes and the
father of Markus and Rachel Schmelkes passed away today
1907:
A new orchestra of 75 American musicians conducted by Manuel Klein, the English
born son of Jewish immigrants from Latvia is scheduled to perform for the first
time at the Hippodrome today.
1908(14th
of Adar II, 5668): Purim
1908:
The Council of Jewish Women held “their regular meeting” today in the West End Synagogue
during which they heard a lecture on the “Physical Welfare of Children” given
by Charles C. Burlingham, the ex-president of the Board of Education who “urged
that action be taken to prevent school children” many of whose mothers are
cleaning offices early in the morning from going to school without eating
breakfast. (The more things change, the more they stay the same)
1909:
Welterweight Joe Hirst fought “his first big fight today in Philadelphia which
was a six round bout that was a draw.
1909:
Sixty-four-year-old Mariam Myers was buried today at the Belfast Jewish
Cemetery in Northern Ireland.
1909:
It was reported today that the Jews said the decision of the Senate in Finland
to ban the “slaughter of cattle in accordance with Jewish ritual” was “evidence
of the anti-Jewish sentiment in that body” while members of the Senate claimed
the decision “was based purely on sanitary and humane grounds.”
1910:
Alma Gluck is scheduled to appear in a matinee performance of the opera
“Werther” at The New Theatre in New York.
1910:
Birthdate of David Abraham "Sonny" Werblin the Flatbush native who
gained national fame for his purchase of the New York Jets and the signing of
Joe Namath – an act which helped to force the NFL to merge with the AFL.
1911:
In Vienna “artisan Jakob Goldsand and his wife Helene” gave birth to American
classical pianist Robert Goldsand.
https://www.lib.umd.edu/ipam/collections/robert-goldsand
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/17/obituaries/robert-goldsand-80-pianist-and-teacher.html
1911:
Birthdate of Moshe Baram the native of Zdolbuniv who made Aliyah in 1931 and
after Independence served as an MK and cabinet minister.
1912:
This evening Rabbi Israel Odes presided over a meeting of the “many synagogues
on the east side” held “under the auspices of the sons and Daughters of Israel
which heard speeches by Justice Samuel Greenbaum and Congressman Henry
Goldfogle who urged the attendees “to keep alive the religious spirit of the
Jewish race.”
1913(8th
of Adar II, 5673): Forty-four-year-old glass manufacturer Jacob H. Werbelowsky
passed away today in Brooklyn, NY.
1914:
It was reported today that the colony based on the cooperative model desiged by
Dr. Franz Oppenheimer which now employees fifty workman has been more
successful than other settlement ventures and it is hoped will begin to “show a
decent profit” in the next two years.
1915:
Birthdate of Wolfgang Doblin the son of German author Bruno Alfred Döblin
1915:
The Russian official press bureau tonight issued a statement tonight denying
claims by the Austrians that Russian soldiers have “committed outrages on the
Jewish populations in Galicia, Bukowina and Russian Poland.”
1915:
“The American Jewish Relief Committee announced” today “that letters to person
in Russia should be written in either Russian, English or French” since owing
to the strict censorship in force in Russia…letters written in Yiddish or any
other language than those named had little or no chance of being delivered.”
1915:
As of today, the American Jewish Relief Committee has collected $573,267.00.
1915:
Today, Professor A.T. Fowler of the Biblical Department of” Brown “University
and a member of the Advisory Board of the” Menorah “Society spoke on ‘The Bible
as a Literary Document.’”
1915:
As of today it was reported that there are an estimated 50,000 Falsahas (Black
Jews) living in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and that Dr. Jacques Faitlovitch, a French
Jew is working on developing an educational program for them.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0006_0_06241.html
1915:
Tonight, in Washington, DC, “the Austro-Hungarian Embassy…made public a
dispatch from the Foreign Office in Vienna” that the “Commander-in-Chief of the
Russian Army under the pretext that populating sympathizing with Austrians and
Germans…has ordered that Jews are forbidden to remain in districts occupied by
the army and are forbidden to enter the country east of Jaroslau.” (Editor’s
Note – Jaroslau is a town in southeast Poland on the border with Russia where
Jews had lived since the 15th century and whose pre-WW I population
was 25% Jewish. On the Eastern Front all
warring parties accused the Jews of being spies or worse and used this as an
excuse for indiscriminate killing and expulsion.)
1916(12th
of Adar II, 5676): Julia Frankau, the Dublin born Jewish daughter of
photographer Hyman Davis and wife of Arthur Frankau who used the penname Frank
Danby during her writing career which began with the publication of a novel
that was a “social satire” of Anglo-Jewry passed away today.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2774960.Julia_Frankau
1916:
Birthdate of Dr. Albert M. Kligman, a dermatologist who invented the widely
used acne medication Retin-A but whose experiments involving prisoners raised
ethical questions that dogged his career.
1916:
During the expedition to capture Pancho Villa, a military action that involved
so many Jewish soldiers that Jewish chaplains were dispatched to the theatre of
operation and High Holiday services were held at several locations, General
Pershing established his main base at Colonia Dublan.
1917: One hundred and ninety Jews from
Palestine migrate to Cyprus on an Ottoman mail steamer.
1917: Birthdate of Karel Švenk, the native of
Prague and multi-talented entertainer – “cabaret artist, comedian, songwriter
and writer” – who was shipped to Terezin and then to Auschwitz before weeks
before the war ended on a transport to Mauthausen.
1917: Dorothy Cohen Schwartzman, Ida Bienstock
Landau, Minna Goldsmith Mahler, Eva Effron Robin, and Sylvia Steierman founded
Delta Phi Epsilon (ΔΦΕ or DPhiE) is an international sorority at New York
University Law School.
1918: It was reported today that “as a result
of their on Washington’s Birthday the 62,000 members of the International
Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union have contributed $140,000 to the American Jewish
Relief Committee.
1918: The British Army including the Jewish
battalion captured Amman.
1918(4th of Nisan, 5678):
Forty-eight year old San Francisco native Tessie (Goslinsky) Fleischner, the wife of Newton Fleishner, the
Albany, Oregon, born son Bohemian natives Jacob Fleischner and Fanny who was an
1878 graduate of St. Augustine’s College, a partner in Fleischner, Mayer &
Company, “the largest wholesale dry goods house on the Pacific coast” and
President of the local B’nai B’rith Lodge with whom she had two daughters,
passed away today after which she was buried in the Beth El Cemetery in Portland,
Oregon.
1918: It was reported today that the American
Jewish Relief Committee chaired by Louis Marshall continues to receive
contributions from committees across the country including $1,000 from
Nashville, TN and $174 from Richmond, Indiana.
1919: In Paris “President Wilson conferred
today with Bernard Baruch and others who are serving as economic experts with
the American mission and approved their proposals of no trade discrimination
against enemy countries after the war.”
1919(15th of Adar II, 5679): Shushan
Purim
1919: Today, “leaders of the Isaac M. Wise
Centenary Fund Campaign expressed themselves as highly pleased with the result
of the first day’s work in the campaign…which will endeavor to raise $100,000
among the Jews of New York for the furtherance of the work of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations and the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati,
Ohio.”
1920: St. Louis Rabbi, Goodman “George” Lipkind
wrote a one act comedy, “Wanted a Housekeeper.”
1921: Birthdate of Meir Slutzki who as Meir
Amit gained fame as an Israeli politician, general, and Director of the Mossad.
1921: The Constituent Assembly ratified the constitution
of the Polish Republic which granted equal rights to the Jews.
1921: Thirty-year-old Barney Sedran led the Trenton
Bengals to victory over the Wilkes-Barre Barons.
1921: At the Cairo Conference attended by
Winston Churchill and T.E. Lawrence (better known as “Lawrence of Arabia”) it
was agreed that Transjordan (an Arab State) should be separated from Palestine
“thus enabling Britain to fulfill its wartime pledges to both the Arabs and the
Jews.” The decision reinforced the right
for Jews to “be able to settle the land from the Mediterranean to the Jordan,
from the Galilee to the Negev.” (“This comprised the area of both Israel and
the West Bank today.”)
1922: As t he New York City Campaign for Jewish
relief for victims of war, famine and pogroms in Russia continues it was reported
today that the Shaaray Teifilah Sisterhood has raised $6,000 and the B’nai
Jeshurun Sister has raised $8,500.
1922: “Reports have reached the United States about
threatened disturbances in Palestine which may lead to new bloodshed, as a
result of agitation conducted by certain anti-Jewish Arabs and other
propagandists…”
1923: Dr. Leonard Blumgart, the Columbia
trained psychiatrist, the son of Sophie Hiller and David Blumgart married Jane
Loomis today.
1924: “The Federation for the Support of Jewish
Philanthropic Societies announced” today “that the Business Men’s Council of
that organization…will launch a campaign on March 19 for funds to support 91
charity institutions.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/03/18/104245502.html?pageNumber=11
1925: In Los Angeles, Lilian Rose Sokolow, the
New York born daughter of Frederick Fred Margareten and Regina Margareten and
her husband Moe Sokolow gave birth to Jerome David Sokolow, the father of Lora
Lynn Sokolwo.
1925:
Three days after he had passed away, funeral services were scheduled to be held
this morning at the Ethical Culture Meeting House in Manhattan for sixty-three
year old Harvard and Columbia Law School trained corporate attorney Alfred
Jaretzki, the New York born son of Gustave and Henrietta Jaretzki and the
father of Maud, Alice, Alfred Jaretzki, Jr. who was a member of Sullivan and
Cromwell, “trustee of the Mount Sinai Hospital, a director of the Baron de
Hirsch Fund and a director of the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Aid
Society” followed by burial at Mt.
Pleasant, NY.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/03/15/98818593.pdf
1926: Rodgers and Hart's musical "Girl Friend" premiered in New
York. This is but one example of a Jewish team providing a hit
musical comedy for Broadway.
1926:
Seventy-two-year-old Alexsei Brusilov, the Chief of Staff who approved the
appointment of Jewish Chaplains to serve in the Russian Army in 1917 passed
away today.
1926:
As of today, members the Women’s Division of the Harmonie Club which is helping
to raise six million dollars for the United Jewish Campaign include Mrs. Felix
M. Warburg, Mrs. Rebekah Kohut, Mrs. Ira Hill Bamberger and Mrs. Charles J.
Liebman.
1927(13th
of Adar II, 5687): Fast of Esther
1927:
A man identified as “Prince Michel Obolensky, scion of a noble but impoverished
Russian family celebrated by St. Patrick’s Day by” delivering “an oration”
attacking the Jews on the corner of 14th Street and Avenue which
touched off neighborhood brawl.
1927:
In New Rochelle, NY, Irma Ruskin and Jacob Ruskin, “a lawyer and Civil Court
Judge gave birth to New York Law School trained attorney Robert Kenneth Ruskin
“who as New York City’s investigation commissioner in the early 1970s probed
corruption among building inspectors, construction unions, police officers,
parking ticket officials and peep-show operators…” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1928:
In Manhattan “Benjamin Kaufman, the chairman of Kaufman Management, and the
former Stella Cohen, a fashion designer known as Brownie” gave birth to George
Stewart Kaufman, “the real estate magnate” who helped to make the Queens a
place for movie and television production. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1929:
In Brooklyn, taxi driver Samuel Rosenfeld and bookkeeper Frances Rosenfeld gave
birth to Florence Rosenfeld who gained fame as “Florence Howe, a key architect
of the women’s studies movement and a founder of the Feminist Press, a literary
nonprofit dedicated to promoting social justice and amplifying overlooked
voices…” As reported by Bonnie Wertheim)
1929:
The Flonzaley Quartet, which had played the String Quartet No. 1 by Erin
Schulhoff performed for the last time in a public concert at The Town Hall in
New York City.
1929:
On St. Patrick’s Day, flyweight Moe Mizler fought his 29th bought in
London.
1930:
The four-day dedication exercises “of the new Temple Rodeph” in Manhattan were
scheduled to come to an end today.
1930:
It was reported today that “King Alexander has accepted patronage over the
Jewish National Fund bazaar which the Jews of Zagreb are organizing” and that
“he is also making a personal donation to the King Peter Forest which the
Jewish National Fund is to plant in Palestine.”
1931:
According to an interview given today in Vienna by Charlie Chaplin, his
“parents on both sides were Jewish” with his mother being described “as a
ghetto beauty” and his father being “a fine jargon (Yiddish) comedian.” (JTA)
1932:
“The Rev. Dr. Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the Free Synagogue, 40 West
Sixty-eighth Street, which he founded, marked his fifty-eighth birthday” today.
1932:
Dr. Nathan Krass, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in New York City was reported to
be in satisfactory condition after having been admitted earlier today as a
patient at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.
1933:
Victor Klemperer writes in his
diary, “on Friday, unfortunately, Thiemes was here. It was frightful . . . such
enthusiastic conviction and support. The phraseology of unity. Progress piously
repeated. Grete (his wife) said, "Everything else failed, now we have to blow
this horn." He corrected her vehemently. "We didn't have to." In
really free elections he has voted for the right cause. This I can't forgive
him. The poor dog may be frightened for his job. He must howl with the wolves.
But why in front of me? . . . Naked violence, breach of law, terrible
hypocrisy, unmitigated barbarism poses as law.
1933:
The Chevrolet Program starring Jack Benny is broadcast for the first time on
NBC Radio.
1934(1st
of Nisan, 5694): Parashat Vayikra; Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1934:
Dr. Stephen F. Wise, the founder of the Free Synagogue “broadcast a message to
his friends over nation-wide hook-up of the National Broadcasting Company as
part of the celebration of his 60th birthday which fell on St.
Patrick’s Day.
1935(12th
of Adar II 5695): Mary Goldsmith Prag, the mother of “Florence Prag Khan, the
first Jewish congresswoman” passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mary-goldsmith-prag
https://www.geni.com/people/Florence-Prag-Kahn-US-Congress/6000000025154791974
1935:
The Palestine Maccabee Association announced that it would not participate in
the 1936 Olympics to be held in Germany because of that country’s treatment of
its Jewish citizens.
1936:
“Louis Lipsky, vice president of the American Jewish Congress and honorary
president of the Zionist Organization of America returned” today “on the Cunard
White Star line Berengaria from Paris and London where he attended several
conferences with Jewish leaders and foreign statesmen on the situation of the
Jews in many countries including Germany and Poland.”
1936:
“Resolutions condemning war as a means of settling international disputes and
calling upon the United States Government to ‘reiterate its renouncement of
war’ made in the Kellogg-Briand pact were adopted at the closing session today
of the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of America.”
1936:
“Wolf’s Clothing,” a British comeday co-starring Lilli Palmer, the daughter
“Dr. Alfred Peiser, a German Jewish surgeon” and his wife Rose, “an Austrian
Jewish stage actress” was released today the United Kingdom.
1936:
In response to the receipt of a copy of Victor Gallancz’s The Yellow Spot:
The Extermination of the Jews in Germany from Harold Laski, Churchill wrote
Laksi urging the Laborite to find a way to gain support from the Labor Party
for the re-armament program designed to thwart the threat of the Nazis.
1936: Following a series of Pogrom-like attack on
Jews in central Poland, a
mass demonstration of Polish Jews, left-wingers, and liberals was held to
protest anti-Semitism in Poland.
1937:
Three days after his 18th birthday, Brooklynite Bernard Abramofsky
arrived in Spain today and served with Abraham Lincoln Brigade until “he was
executed behind the lines in May, 1938.
1937:
“One Jewish policeman was seriously injured and sixteen other Jews were
slightly hurt tonight when a bomb was thrown in to a bus on Jaffa Road,
Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported that in
addition to five young Jews who were murdered by Arabs during the past few
days, there were two more victims: Samuel Gottfried, 26, of Rosh Pina and an
Arab villager who defended his flock from robbers.
1937:
“At about 10:30 P.M.,” Meyer Levin discovered two large swastikas painted in
black enamel on the door of Ahavath Chesed in Brooklyn and four smaller ones in
chalk on the side doors of the synagogue and then notified Abraham Beier, the
president of the synagogue “who then asked the police to place a guard on the
building.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported that The
Jewish Agency Executive in London submitted a memorandum to the British
government which claimed that the Arab disturbances which began on
1938(14th
of Adar II, 5698); Purim
1938(14th
of Adar II, 5698): Thirty-seven-year-old Canadian born sailor and “anti-fascist
Hyman Epstein was killed in action at Caspe during the Spanish Civil War.
1938:
“In a message read during the Purim Festival program sponsored by the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee” the national radio audience heard the
words of President Roosevelt who said “enteral vigilance is the price of
liberty” and “the defeat of Haman’s plot to destroy the Jews…is one of the
milestones in mankind’s long and bloody struggle to achieve freedom.”
1938:
Among the “Books Published Today” were An Open Letter to Jews and Christians: A
discussion of Jesus in relation to Jews today by John Cournos and the Selected
Works of Israel Zangwill including “Children of the Ghetto,” “Ghetto Comedies”
and “Ghetto Tragedies.
1939:
At a meeting in Tel Aviv today, “the National Council of Palestine Jews…decided
to a call a 24 hour strike” to start on Monday, March 20th “ “as the first step in its program of ‘drastic
political action’ against Great Britain’s plan” for Palestine. “The Council condemned the plan as ‘the
liquidation of the Jewish national home and strangulation of the Jewish
settlement.’”
1939:
“King of Chinatown,” a crime film based on a story by Herbert Biberman with a
script co-authored by Irving Reis was released today in the United States.
1939:
Erich Otto Sonnheim arrived in the United States from Germany.
http://tabletmag.com/scroll/166071/why-st-patricks-day-is-my-jewish-familys-favorite-holiday
1940:
Fritz Todt, who escaped being tried at Nuremberg because he died during WW II
was named Riech Minister for Armaments and Ammunition today.
1941:
According to a death certificate issued by the Soviet government and made
public in 1954 this is date of the death of Isaac Babel. It would not be until
the 1990’s that this would be exposed as a lie. Babel had actually been
executed by the Soviets on January 27, 1940.
1941:
Hans Frank, General Governor of Occupied Poland, had a meeting with Adolf
Hitler about the fate of Jews in Europe. Afterwards, Frank informs the General
Government's undersecretaries of state, police and SS chiefs, district
governors, and department directors that the Jews are to be eliminated.
1942: Dr. Max Lederer, whose last residence
before deportation was Pilsen, was transported today Terezin where he was
murdered.
1942:
The 60,000 Jews in Tunisia are restricted to publishing only one newspaper.
1942:
It was reported today that “despite the fact that Jews constitute about three
percent of the population in the United States, they total eight percent of the
75 recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross so far in this war, among
American forces.” (JTA)
1942: In eastern Poland, the Belzec Concentration Camp opened as 1,500 Jews
arrive from the Lviv Ghetto in the western Ukraine. At that time 30,000
Lublin Polish Jews were transported to this death camp.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/march/05.asp
1942:
The deportations which began in Lublin would not until 30,000 had been shipped
to Belzec by April where most of them were murdered.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/march/05.asp
1942: Birthdate of South African born educator
Meyer Feldberg the Dean of the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane
University and the Dean of the Columbia School of Business
1942(28th of Adar,
5702): In
Pochep, Russia, 1,816 Jewish villagers were massacred in an anti-tank ditch.
1943(10th
of Adar II, 5703): More than 1200 Jews from Lvov, Ukraine, were killed at
Piaski, Poland, as retribution for the March 16 murder of an SS trooper by a
Jewish man. Eleven Jewish policemen were hanged in the ghetto, 1000 Jewish
slave laborers were executed, and an additional 200 Jews were murdered.
1943:
Today,”the National Gallery of Art marked its second anniversary with the
announcement of an extraordinary gift from print collector and former Sears,
Roebuck and Company chairman Lessing J. Rosenwald: Rosenwald's print and
drawing collection, which ultimately numbered more than 22,000 works at the
time of his death.
1943:
Dimitur Peshev and 40 other members of the Sobranje, the Bulgarian parliament,
sign a petition demanding that deportations of Jews from Bulgaria to Occupied
Poland end. Archbishop Kiril of Plovdiv sends a telegram to Tsar Boris III
informing him of his intention to lie down on the tracks in front of any trains
transporting Bulgarian Jews.
1944:
Al Bummy Davis (Abraham Davidoff) lost a bout to the former lightweight
chamption today.
1945(3rd
of Nisan, 5705): After enduring six months of imprisonment at Buchenwald
sixty-one year old Henri Paul Gaston Maspero, the French sinologist died today
just weeks before the camp was liberated by Patton’s Third Army.
http://www.umass.edu/wsp/resources/profiles/maspero.html
1945:
Birthdate of mathematician Valery Senderov, the native of Moscow who risked his
life and career “in the struggle against state sponsored anti-Semitism.”
1946(14th
of Adar II, 5706): Purim
1946:
Some of the members of “Kibbutz Buchenwald” set sail for Palestine from France
today on the Maapilim boat the
“Tel-Chai”.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/march/14.asp
1947:
The Palestine police issued a “broadsheet” today “offering an unspecified
reward for information leading to the arrest of 18 wanted men” described as
“terrorist chiefs.” The list which
includes photos and physical descriptions is in alphabetical order beginning
with Menachem Begin of the Irgun. The
penultimate spot on the list goes to Nathan Friedman Yellin, Abrahm Stern’s
successor as head of the Stern Gang. The
last name on the list is Itshak Yexernitsky who has been captured by the
British but has escaped their custody.
1947:
Leaders of the Arab League are scheduled to meet in Cairo today where they will
map out their propaganda program to oppose the creation of a Jewish state and
how best to present their case at the upcoming meeting of the United Nations.
1947:
“Just before noon today an Army officer blew his whistle” in Jerusalem marking
the end of martial law in several areas including Mea Shearim.
1948:
In Jerusalem, the British abandoned their compound on the grounds of Schneller
Orphanage which the Etzioni Brigade would “use at its base of operations during
the Israeli War of Independence.
1948:
While speaking at a news conference of the American Fund for Palestinian
Institutions, Moshe Pomorok of the Palestine Maritime League said that “90 per
cnet of Palestine’s export and import trade went to foreign shipping companies”
which led him to call for the “establishment of Palestine’s sea power.”
1948:
Dr. Alexander Rosenfeld of the Hebrew World Union described “an underground
movement to teach Hebrew in Syria and Iraq where the language has been banned.”
1948:
The Naval Service, which became the Israeli Sea Corps, was formed today and the
members for the Plugat HaYam (the naval arm of the Palmach) were ordered to
join.
1949:
“Secretary General Trygve Lie said today that final Congressional approval of
an $8,000,000 advance fund for aid to Palestine refugees had gone a "long
way" to assure the success of the whole United Nations relief program.”
1949:
Eddie Jacobson, the former business partner of President Truman and his wife
Bluma left New York for Paris on what is the first leg of a trip that will take
to Israel where they plan to met with President Chaim Weizman.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/03/18/84200916.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1950:
The Jewish Agency for Palestine announced tonight that it was prepared to
receive 20,000 refugees from Iraq. This
issue has taken on a great deal of urgency for Iraq’s 150,000 Jews, since the
Baghdad government has given them a year to leave the country for Israel. As part of the price of departure, the Jews
must basically leave behind most of their possessions and wealth for use by the
Iraqi’s.
1950(28th
of Adar, 5710): Eighty-four-year-old Ellis Gimbel, Sr. the last surviving of
the Gimbel brothers who has served as Chairman of the Board of Gimbel Brothers,
Inc since 1936 passed away today
1951:
Birthdate of New York City native and Northwestern University trained
journalist David Israel who went from writing about sports the Washington Star,
Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Herald-Examiner to producing television shows
such as ABC’s Monday Night Football in 2000 and “A Comedy Salute to Baseball”
starring Billy Crystal while also playing a major role in organizing the Los
Angeles Olympics in 1984.
1953(1st
of Nisan, 5713): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1953:
Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held
for Columbia trained physician and former American Ambassador to the
Netherlands and Portugal Dr. Herman B. Baruch, the Camden, SC born son of Dr.
Simeon B. and Belle Wolfe Baruch, the brother of famous financier Bernard
Baruch and the husband of “the former Anna Maria, Baroness Mackay of the
Hague.”
1953:
Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held
today at Kehilath Jeshurun Temple for seventy-six-year-old Democratic Party
leader and “chairman of the board of trustees of Yeshiva University Samuel
Levy, the St Patrick Day born NYU trained lawyer and husband of Sadie Vesell
Levy with whom he raised two children – Bernice and Lawrence Levy.
1953:
The “Life Saver’s” luncheon of the Combined Jewish Appeal chaired by Mrs. Saul
Herman is scheduled to be held at the Saxony Hotel with Mme. Helene Benator, a
“heroine of the French underground, a lawyer and an authority on the Jews of
the Moslem world” delivering the featured talk.
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15401339/helene_benatar_1953/
1953:
With the help of Anna Sokolow, “Camino Real” starring Eli Wallach opened on
Broadway today.
1954(12th
of Adar II, 5714): Sixty-six year old Dr. Hyman I. Goldstein, the Baltimore
born son of Solomon and Rose Zuckerman Goldstein and University of Pennsylvania
and Vienna trained physician who discovered “Goldstein’s Toe Sign,” served in
the Medical Corps, USA, during WW II and was part of a family of doctors – Dr.
Leopold Z. Goldstein, Dr. Henry Z. Goldstein and David E. Cooper, the husband
of his sister who earned his DD.S from the University of Pennsylvania and who
was pre-deceased by his wife Joan and children – Joan, Alice and Louis – passed
away today in Philadelphia after which he was buried at the New Camden Cemetery
in Camden, NJ.
http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/1348.html
1954:
Following last night attack in the Negev, where an Israeli bus was ambushed by
“a group of Palestinian Arabs who had infiltrated into Israel from Jordan in
which the driver and ten passengers were killed “Israeli trackers assisted by
police dogs and accompanied by UN observers followed the attackers' tracks to a
point 6 miles west of the Jordanian border, where the tracks were lost”
1957(14th
of Adar II, 5717): Purim
1957:
“Great Philosophy in Small Packets” included a review of The Age of
Enlightenment: The Eighteenth-Century Philosophers, Selected with
introduction and commentary by Isaiah Berlin.
1960:
It was reported today that the Smith-Roosevelt Independent Democrats have
endorsed selections for State Assembly and State Senate as part of their
opposition to “the Tammany leadership of State Senator Joseph Zaretski,”
1962(11th
of Adar II, 5722): Shabbat Zachor
1962(11th
of Adar II, 5722): Ninety-four-year-old “Rabbi Clifton H. Levy, the oldest past
president of the New York Board of Rabbis and a leader of the Reform rabbinate”
passed away today. “Together with the late Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Rabbi Levy
was a founder in 1922 of the Association of Reform Rabbis of New York City and
Vicinity. Born in New Orleans, LA, Rabbi Levy received his ordination from the
Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. He was the author of a book, Judaism
Applied to Life, and of pamphlets and articles on Biblical archaeology and
art.” (As reported by JTA)
1965(13th
of Adar II, 5725): Ta’anit Esther; erev Purim
1967:
“Mourning Becomes Electra” a three-act opera composed by Marvin David Levy
premiered at the Met in New York City.
1968:
Israel defeated Ceylon today in the Olympic Games soccer qualifier thanks to
the play of Mordechai Spiegler.
1969:
Golda Meir became Prime Minister of Israel. A dedicated Zionist and
Socialist, Mrs. Meir devoted her entire life to creating a national homeland
for the Jewish people where we could flourish in peace and safety. Her
life reads more like a novel with all of its twists and turns ranging from
the gritty determination of the 1920's when she was a pioneer in primitive
Palestine, to the clandestine trips she made to meet the King of Jordan in an
attempt to avert war in 1948, to her fund raising in the United States so the
unborn state would have some weapons with which to face the invading Arab
Armies, to...well I think you get the idea. She certainly is worthy
successor to the memory of Miriam and Deborah and Moses and David as well.
1971:
The Barefoot Executive” with a screenplay co-authored by Bernie Kahn was
released today in the United States.
1972:
“The Time of Your Life” a revival of which in 1969 was directed by John Hirsch
was revived again today in Los Angeles co-starring Richard Dreyfus, Lewis J.
Stadlin
1973(13th
of Adar II, 5733): Parashat Vayikra; Shabbat Zachor; erev Purim
1973:
“Lost Horizon” a musical version of the pre-war movie and novel of the same
name produced by Ross Hunter, with a script by Larry Kramer and music by Burt
Bacharach and Hal David was released in the United States today.
1974(23rd
of Adar, 5734): Seventy-three-year-old architect Louis Kahn passed away.
http://en.nai.nl/content/1286439/biography
https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21829
https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/21829
1974:
“The Ford Foundation allocated $250,000 to help resettle Soviet émigré scholars
and writers in America.”
1974:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Albert H. Godwin, the
husband of Gertrude Godwin at the Riverside Chapel in the Bronx.
1977: The
Jerusalem Post
reported that Leah Rabin, wife of the prime minister, admitted that she had
closed her dollar account in Washington and transferred the money totaling
$2,000, as a donation to a charity for autistic children which she headed.
Events surrounding this bank account would lead to Prime Minster Rabin’s
political downfall, end the Labor Party’s domination of Israeli politics and
bring Menachem Begin and Likud to power for the first time since the founding
of the state in 1948.
1977:
“The Cadaver in the Clutter” the second episode of “Lanigan’s Rabbi” starring
Bruce Solomon as Rabbi David Small was broadcast tonight.
1978:
Reuven Schmeltzer, who had been orphaned at the age of 13 and was “one of the
1684 Jews who escaped Nazi-controlled Hungary on the Kastner train and spent
time in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp before being released in
Switzerland” and his wife gave back to their 11th child Lipa
Schmeltzer, the “singer, entertainer, and composer” who is popular among Hasdic
and “modern Jewish communities.”
1978:
Jack Klugman was roasted on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast on NBC.
1979(18th
of Adar, 5739): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Parah
1979(18th
of Adar, 5739): Ninety-one-year-old MIT trained civil engineer and second
lieutenant in the Air Service Construction Division of the American
Expeditionary Force Walter D. Binger, the
New York City born son of Frances Newgass and Gustav Binger and the husband of “Louisa Beatrice Bronson
Sorchan, with whom he had three children: Charlotte Binger Hasen, Frances
Binger Mitchell, and Bronson Binger, an architect and historic preservationist”
who in a case of Jew versus used his technical expertise to oppose Robert
Moses's sweeping plans to transform Lower Manhattan during the 1940’s passed
away today.
1980:
Funeral services are scheduled to take place for Louis S. Baker, the husband of
Bessie Baker today followed by interment at the New Montefiore Cemetery.
1980:
Funeral services are scheduled to be held today in West Palm Beach, FL for
Jacob M. Brock, the husband of Eva Brock “who was a past President of the
United Jewish Appeal for the Toy Industry” and was “one of the founders of
Technion.
1983:
In Jerusalem, the Third World Conference on Soviet Jewry came to an end.
1983:
Actor Dustin Hoffman and Lisa Hoffman give birth to their daughter Rebecca
Lillian Hoffman
1983:
The Third World Conference on Soviet Jewry which had been attended by over
1,000 delegates from 30 countries came to an end today in Jerusalem.
1984:
Billy Crystal hosted SNL for the first time tonight.
1984:
“Entertaining God” published today provided a complete review The Life and
Times of Cotton Mather by Pulitzer prize-winning historian Kenneth
Silverman
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/17/books/books-of-the-times-entertaining-god.html
1985:
Abraham Sutzkever, who “wrote poems as underground fighter crawling through the
sewers un the Vilna ghetto to elude the Nazis,” “while fighting the partisans
in the forest of Lithuania outside Vilna” and even “while hiding inside a
coffin” is scheduled to “read some of his poems at a YIVO gathering at the
Society for the Society for the Advancement of Judaism” this afternoon in
Manhattan.
1989:
The Broadway production of “Chu Chem,” a musical inspired by “a trip to Kaifeng
Fu (prefecture), China, the site of a major Jewish migration in the 10th
century” with music by Mitch Leigh opened at the Ritz Theatre.
1989: “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” a fantasy comedy with
music by Michael Kamen was released in the United States today.
1990(20th
of Adar, 5750): Parashat Ki Tisa;
Shabbat Parah
1990(20th
of Adar, 5750): Eighty-six-year-old “American opera singer (soprano), voice teacher
and recording entrepreneur who is best known for singing at the Metropolitan
Opera House from 1923 to 1932” Nanette Guilford, the wife of leading concert
violinist Max Rosen passed away today.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-24-mn-477-story.html
1991:
“The Substance of Fire” written by Jon Robin Baitz opened Off-Broadway at
Playwrights Horizons with a cast that included Ron Rifkin and Sarah Jessica
Parker
1992
(12th of Adar II, 5752): The Islamic Jihad used a truck bomb to attack the
Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires Argentina killing 29.
1994(5th
of Nisan, 5754): Ninety-five-year-old Keyport, NJ native and Syracuse
University trained attorney
“Sayra
Fischer Lebenthal, a Wall Street legend who was a co-founder in 1925 of the
investment-banking firm of Lebenthal & Company and remained active in it
for 67 years” passed away today. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
1994(5th
of Nisan, 5754): Ninety-four-year-old German born English zoologist and
geneticist Charlotte Auerbach, the daughter of Friedrich Auerbach and the
granddaughter of Leopold Auerbach passed away today.
http://www.nahste.ac.uk/isaar/GB_0237_NAHSTE_P1860.html
1995(15th
of Adar II, 5755): Shushan Purim
1995:
Premiere of “Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh” a horror film with music composed
by Philip Glass.
1995:
“Bye Bye, Love” directed by Brandeis grad Sam Weisman, co-authored and
co-produced by Gary David Goldberg and co-starring Paul Reiser and Rob Reiner
was released in the United States today.
1997:
Janet Rosenberg Jagan, the Chicago born Jewess, began serving as Prime Minster
of Guyana.
1997:
Eighty-one-year-old Joe J. Heydecker who as a German soldier created a secret
photographic record of the Warsaw Ghetto, which, after being published in 1981
provided “evidence of Nazi atrocities and inhumane living conditions in the
Ghetto passed away today.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/february/05.asp
1999:
HBO released the final episode of “Tracey Takes On…” starring Tracey Ullman
1999(29th
of Adar, 5759): Seventy-seven-year-old Ernest Gold the Austrian-born
Jewish-American Academy Award winning composer of the theme from the movie
Exodus, the creator of 100 film/television scores between 1945 and 1992,
including the Hawaii Five-O theme and the composer of a 1968 Broadway musical
"I'm Solomon" passed away today.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-ernest-gold-1083951.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/21/nyregion/ernest-gold-77-oscar-winning-composer.html
2000:
“Lebanon granted political asylum today to Kozo Okamoto, a 52-year-old Japanese
man who helped carry out a massacre in which 26 people died at an airport in
Israel in 1972.”
2000:
Sixty-nine-year-old Dr. Marcel Hellman-Mordechai, the father of Hadar Lily
passed away today.
2001(22nd
of Adar, 5761): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shabbat Parah observed for the first time
under President Bush.
2001:
“ Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile
at the Neve Dekalim industrial zone in the Gaza Strip.”
2002:
In “Poles and the Jews: How Deep the Guilt?” published today Adam Michnik
examines the groups differing view of the Holocaust following the published of Neighbors:
The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne by Jan T. Gross.
2002:
Barbra Streisand continued her Timeless tour with a concert at Melbourne’s
Colonial Stadium.
2002:
At the Jewish Museum in New York an exhibition entitled ''The Emergence of
Jewish Artists in 19th-Century Europe'' comes to a close.
2002:
Twenty-five people were injured in a terrorist bombing of Egged Bus 22 in
Jerusalem.
2003(13th
of Adar II, 5763): Ta’anit Esther; Erev Purim
2003(13th
of Adar II, 5763): Eight-seven-year-old historian Herbert Aptheker passed away.
(As reported by Christopher Lehman-Haupt)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/20/us/herbert-aptheker-87-dies-prolific-marxist-historian.html
2004:
As continues to respond to the murderous terrorist attacks on March 14, today,
for a second day in a row, attack helicopters fired on targets in Gaza while “Israeli
soldiers in armored vehicles waged gun battles throughout the day with
Palestinian terrorist in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.”
2005(6th
of Adar II, 5765): Seventy-eight-year-old college and professional basketball
player Norman Clifford "Norm" Mager who was involved in a point
shaving scandal passed away today.
2005:
“The Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces issued a military order
prohibiting Israeli citizens not living in the Gaza Strip settlements from
taking up residence there.”
2006:
The Forwards reported that the Aleph
Institute, an organization linked to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement was approved
by the Department of Defense to endorse chaplains
2006:
Premiere of “Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan” a documentary
directed and produced by Manfred Kirchheimer.
2006(17th
of Adar, 5766): Eighty-year-old Henry Thalsheimer, a relative of Nicaragua
native Maria T. Thalsheimer and Achille Thalsheimer passed away today after
which he was buried at Hebrew Rest Cemetery in New Orleans.
2007:
Shabbat Ha-Chodesh
2007: At the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, an
exhibition styled “Adi Nes: Bible Stories” opens to the general public. The
series contains fourteen works of staged photography created by Adi Nes between
2003 and 2006. The large-scale photographs are all anchored in the Bible
stories: Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, Joseph, David
and Jonathan, Saul and Samuel, Job, Elijah, Ruth and Naomi. Chosen as “actors”
and background for each shot were individuals and landscapes from here and now;
the emphasis is placed on godforsaken places and on figures on the fringe of
Israeli society: a woman beggar on a street corner, an old and barefoot
homeless person. The photographs are charged with enriching references to the
history of art and masterpieces, including Caravaggio’s “Abraham,” “Ivan the
Terrible Murdering His Son” by Ilya Repin, or the famous and impressive
portrait taken by Dorothea Lange – “Migrant Mother.”
2008: In “How Hamas Is Playing the Spoiler,”
published today U.S. News & World
Report describes how the latest Hamas rocket attacks on Ashkelon pose a new
strategic threat to Israel and the limited options available to the Israelis in
responding to this latest downward spiral in the Middle East.
2008: Today, David Gregory began hosting “a
show on MSNBC weekday evenings.”
2008(10 Adar II, 5768): Ronald E. Arnall,
French born American businessman who served as U.S. Ambassador to the
Netherlands and was a “friend” of Chabad-Lubavitch passed away.
2008: Sports
Illustrated describes the pending confrontation over allegations that
Patriots coach Bill Bilichick illegally videotaped his opponents. This could turn into a Jew versus Jew
situation since the probe into the matter is being spearheaded by Arlen
Specter, the Jewish Republican Senator from Pennsylvania and the Patriots are
owned by Jewish businessman and philanthropist Robert Kraft.
2008: Israel and Germany upgraded their ties
approving a host of joint projects and agreeing to hold annual government
consultations, in one of the highlights of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's
three-day visit.
2008: Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar announced that
Ethiopian immigrants should be able to convert to Judaism in their native land
and make Aliyah under the Law of Return.
2008: Haaretz
reported that Elie Wiesel has told the Prime Minister’s office that he will
not take part in the torch-lighting ceremony marking the 60th
anniversary of Israel’s Independence due to prior commitments.
2008: Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer
resigns after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute.
2009: “For the Love of Movies: The Story of
American Film Criticism” a 2009 documentary co-starring Stanley Kaufman and
featuring appearances by Manny Farber, Harland Jacobson, Leonard Matlin,
Pauline Kael and Gene Siskel.
2009: At The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Dr. Ellen Kellman of
Brandeis University delivers a lecture
entitled “Educating ‘Moyshe’ or Corrupting Him? Polemics around the Novel Sanin
in the American Yiddish Press ca. 1908” in which she discusses the role
of serialized fiction in the American Yiddish press which was the subject of
rancorous debate from its beginnings. Critics lambasted socialist-oriented
papers for printing romance novels instead of serious fiction in translation.
Yet some works, such as the Russian novel Sanin, proved to be even more
controversial than those originally written in Yiddish.
2009: Services are held at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield for Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson, a noted
philanthropist who was inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame last year and
passed away on March 13, 2009, at the age of 86. Among
the causes he funded were Hadassah University Medical Center, the Israel
Antiquities Authority, the Jerusalem
Archaeological Park, the Wexner Foundation and
the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish
Theological Seminary in New York.
2009: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said today
that her surgery for pancreatic cancer was successful and that she is scheduled
to undergo a precautionary round of chemotherapy starting later this month.
2010(2nd of Nisan, 5770): Ninety-one-year-old Albert J. Rosenthal who
had served as Dean of the Columbia Law School passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/education/21rosenthal.html
2010(2nd of Nisan, 5770): On the day
after his 90th birthday, award winning author Albert Sidney “Sid”
Fleischman passed away today in Santa Monica. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/books/25fleischman.html?_r=0
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/21/local/la-me-sid-fleischman21-2010mar21
2010: In Jerusalem, Hama'abada is scheduled to
present "Janana," by Yiftach Klein.
2010: Cookbook author
Judy Zeidler is scheduled to offer tips on prepping for your Seder and
mastering your grocery list, along with recipes for new and traditional Seder
dishes in a program entitled “Passover: Cooking with Judy” sponsored by the
American Jewish University.
2010: Some 3,000 officers were put on high alert on
today after Hamas called for anti-Israel protests. "We call on the
Palestinian people to regard yesterday as a day of rage against the
occupation's [Israel's] procedures in Jerusalem against Al-Aqsa Mosque,"
Hamas said in a statement. Earlier today Israel lifted its closure on the West
Bank and granted open access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, with police saying that
thousands of troops will remain on high alert but reported no disturbances.
2010: “Sin,” a play
by Mark Altman opened at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.
2010: Veteran IPO subscribers enjoy a memorable
evening as Itzhak Perlman performs with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
2011: Tamar Hirschl is scheduled to show a suite of
paintings and recent resin works “in the inaugural Artist Project in New York
City, a fair for independent artists.”
2011: The Hadassah Mahj Tournament, sponsored
by Hadassah of Greater Detroit, is scheduled to take place at Hadassah House in
West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2011(11th of Adar II): Ninety-year-old
Betty Sarah Wouk, “the wife and literary agent of bestselling writer Herman
Wouk” passed away.
http://www.hermanwouk.net/in-memoriam-sarah-wouk.html
2011(11th of Adar II): Ta’anit
Esther
2011(11th of Adar II): Eighty-one-year-old
Gabrial Laderman, a painter of figurative art, passed away today. (As reported
by William Grimes)
2011:
President Shimon Peres said today that the Navy's seizure of the cargo ship
Victoria earlier this week proves that Syria is providing weapons to Hamas in
Gaza and to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
2011:
Sacramento Kings and Israel National Basketball Team forward Omri Casspi may
temporarily sign to play with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the event of an NBA work
stoppage, he said in an interview with Army Radio today.
2011:
Alaska Airlines apologized today for the misunderstanding that occurred earlier
this week on board one of their flights, in which flight attendants issued a
security alert when three Mexican Jews began praying with Tefillin.
2011:
“Suzie’s Grill keeps Houston Jews Kosher Connected” published today described
and the culinary and business skills of Susan Goldstein who operates “one of
the only kosher-drive throughs in the country.”
2012:
Twentieth Anniversary of the Iranian bombing of the Israeli Embassy in
Argentina.
2012(23rd of Adar, 5772): Yahrzeit
of Yitzchak Meir Alter the first Rebbe of the Ger Chasidic Dynasty who was born
in 1799 and passed away on March 10, 1866.
2012:
“Grace Paley: Collected Shorts” is scheduled to be shown at the Schenectady JCC
Jewish Film Festival at Niskayuna, NY
2012(23rd of Adar, 5772):
Anniversary of the first assembling of the Mishkan on Adar 23 (1321 BCE)
2012: The Eilat Chamber Music Festival is
scheduled to come to an end.
2013: The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish
Learning at Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to present “Deconstructing Woody
Allen: Humor, Identity, Judaism” with Dr. Daniel Fainstein
2013: The Theatre at the 14th
Street Y is scheduled to present a puppet show “Lost & Found In Israel”
written and performed by Zvi Sahar and Leat Klingman.
2013: The Center for Jewish History is
scheduled to present “Yellow Sneaker and "The Matzah Time Crunch."
2013: “Samson and
Delilah,” sung in French (with English supertitles) will be presented today at
the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts in New Orleans featuring
Cantor Joel Coleman “as the Old Hebrew.”
2013: The Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to come to an end.
2013: Today, “Greek Prime Minister Antonis
Samaras vowed to crack down on neo-Nazi groups in a landmark speech marking the
70th anniversary of the first deportations of Thessaloniki’s Jews to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.” (As reported by JTA)
2013: Minutes released today by the Israel
State Archive revealed details of tense and nearly failed meetings between
then-prime minister Menachem Begin and former US president Jimmy Carter during
the latter’s visit to the country in 1979, as the two leaders tried to hammer
out the last details of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty.
2013:
Likud MKs met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office in Jerusalem
-today receive their marching orders for the next Cabinet and other government
roles.
2014:
Film critic Shlomo Schwartberg is scheduled to present the final lecture in the
series “Defining Greatness – Director Steven Speilberg at the Miles Nadal JCC.
2004:
Professor Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute of Science is scheduled to be
recognized for his work in bone marrow transplant therapy when he receives his
Rapport Prize today. (As reported by David Shamah)
2014:
Dr. Yaakov Nahmias of Hebrew University is scheduled to receive the Rapport
Prize today for identifying a grapefruit molecule that can block viruses. (As
reported by David Shamah)
2014:
“Brave Miss World” is scheduled to be shown at the Houston Jewish Film
Festival.
2014:
“Once Upon a Time at 55th and Hoover,” a documentary about the 300
Sephardic families from Rhodes who emigrated to Los Angeles (USA) and
established a Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) language neighborhood in the area around
55th St and Hoover, in South Central Los Angeles” is scheduled to be shown at
the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
Grammy-award winning performer Ron Levine is scheduled to share stories from
his fantastic career, including touring with nationally renowned recording
artists and his award-winning work on the motion picture Urban Cowboy, at Coe
College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa this evening.
2014:
During his visit to the White House today “US President Barack Obama urged
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make tough decisions and take risks for
peace with Israel, saying he hoped to see progress in US-brokered negotiations
in coming weeks.”
2014:
Today New York State Senator Lee “Zeldin voted against the New York Dream Act.
2014:
Today, Jordan condmenned what is call Israeli ‘escalation’ in the flashpoint
Temple Mount in Jerusalem after Housing Minster Uri Ariel “deputy leader of the
hardline national-rligious Bayit Yehudi party visited the Al-Aqsa compound in
Jerusalem’s Old City yesterday.
2015:
The Jewish Community Relations Council and The Jewish Federation of Greater
Washington are scheduled to host “a real time analysis of the results of the
Israeli elections as they unfold” in North Bethesda, MD.
2015:
“The Iranian Americans” and “Before the Revolution” are scheduled to be shown
at the 18th Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2015:
In San Diego, Jack Goldberg is scheduled to deliver a lecture on American
Dilemmas in the "New" Middle East: The Elusive search for Coherent
Strategies;”
2015:
A Vanderbilt University official said that the spray painting of three swastikas
on fraternity house belong to the Tau Chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi is being
investigated as a hate crime.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4638011,00.html
2015:
For those looking for a Jewish connection to St. Patrick’s Day consider “St.
Patrick’s Day, Kosher Style.”
2016:
“How to Win Enemies” and “Sabena Hijacking” are scheduled to be shown at the
Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2016(7th
of Adar II, 5776): Seventy-one-year-old Meir Dagan, the Director of Mossad from
2002 to 2011 passed away today, (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
2016:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host its
2016 Humanitarian Awards Dinner.
2016:
Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court visited
Capitol Hill today where he was warmly greeted by Democrats while facing the
opposition of Republicans who said they would not hold any hearings in a move
which was unprecedented in American history, calling into question the claims
of the GOP being the party of Conservatives i.e. those who protect the values
of the past.
2016:
New York premiere of “Iraqi Night” at the New York Sephardic Jewish Film
Festival.
2016:
Thirteen month after disclosed “that he had treatable prostate cancer” today
Arthur M. Blank, the co-founder of The Home Depot and the owner of the NFL
Atlanta Falcons “announced that he was
cancer-free following treatment.”
2017:
Thousands of runners took part in the 2017 Jerusalem Marathon today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/record-30000-take-part-in-jerusalem-marathon/
2017:
The “Ma’agan Michael II”, “a replica of a 2,500-year-old trading ship found off
the coast of Israel was christened this morning ahead of its first voyage…”
2017:
Charlemagne Palestine’s Bear Mitzvah in Meshugahland is scheduled to open at
the Jewish Museum in New York City.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/charlemagne-palestine-bear-mitzvah-in-meshugahland
2017:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to Kabbalat Shabbat followed
an hour later with a Shabbat Friday night dinner and hour later.
2017(19th
of Adar, 5777): Eighty-two-year-old Gershon Kekst, the founder of Kekst and
Company passed away.
http://www.jtsa.edu/the-gershon-kekst-graduate-school
2017:
“Rima Khalaf, a Jordanian who served as executive secretary of the Beirut-based
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia” resigned today “after the body
she led was ordered by the UN secretary-general to remove from its website a
controversial report that charged Israel has established an “apartheid regime”
guilty of “racial domination” over the Palestinians.
2017:
In honor of St. Patrick's Day, one national bagel chain has advertised
"green bagels" while supplies last.
2018(1st
of Nisan, 5778): Triple header Shabbat – Shabbat HaChodesh, Rosh Chodesh Nisan,
start reading the book of Vayikra.
2018:
As many Irish people and people who wish they were Irish celebrate St.
Patrick’s Day, Jews can contemplate their Irish connection including Yitzhak
HaLevi Herzog, the Chief Rabbi of Ireland and the second Ashekanzi Chief Rabbi
of Palestine and his sons Chaim Herzog, the sixth President of Israel and
Yaakov Herzog, the Haganah member and Israeli diplomat as well as the father
and son team of Robert and Ben Briscoe, both of whom were Lord Mayor Dublin,
author Julia Frankau who died on St. Patrick’s Day, 1916 and of course “Leopold Bloom,” the
protagonist in Ulysses by James Joyce.
2018:
“Humor Me” and “Love is Thicker Than Water” are scheduled to be shown at the
Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2018:
Temple Rodef Shalom's Rabbi Amy Schwartzman is scheduled to ashare her
experiences as a woman rabbi as part of “To the Bimah: Women's Activism Enters
the Synagogue.”
2018:
The “Cake Maker” is scheduled to be shown at the New Jersey Jewish Film
Festival.
2018:
Distant Cousins is scheduled to perform as part of LimmudFest Saturday Night in
New Orleans.
2019:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish readers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including I.M.: A Memoir by Isaac Mizrahi, Madame Fourcade’s Secret
War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler
by Lynne Olson and the recently released paperback edition of To End A
Presidency: The Power of Impeachment by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz.
2019:
The New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the New York
premiere of “Pepe’s Last Battle” and the international premiere of “Labor,
Rebellion, Upheaval from the Ancestral Sin Series.”
2019:
“From salt beef sandwiches and Rachel Riley, to making one’s own Jewish News
front page” there are plenty of reasons to visit The Big Family scheduled to
open this morning in Hendon.
2019:
In New Orleans, the JCC is scheduled to host the annual Community Purim
Carnival.
2019:
As the Irish and all those people who want to be Irish (which is just about
everybody) prepare to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, examine the connection
between Jewish and Irish cuisine. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-nosher/the-secret-jewish-history-of-corned-beef-and-cabbage/
2020(21st
of Adar, 5780): Yahrzeits of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhansk; Rabbi Isaac Elchanan
Spektor; Sir Moses Montefiore; Adolf Cremieux
2020:
In Palo Alto, today’s scheduled performance of “Beyond The Pale,” a one-person
show written and performed by Sherri Rose has been canceled.
2020:
In San Rafael, CA, today’s scheduled appearance by Yossi Beilin, the former
Knesset member and Oslo Accords architect speaking on “American Jews and
Israel: What’s Next?” has been canceled.
2020:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial in which he faces charges related to “bribery, fraud
and breach of trust” is scheduled to begin today. (As reported by AFP)
2020:
The 69th National Jewish Book Awards gathering sponsored by the
Jewish Book Council which was scheduled to take place this evening has been
postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
2020:
As the Irish and everybody who wishes they were Irish are going to have
celebrate St. Patrick’s Day without the traditional parades and festivities,
patrons of Russ and Daughters Kosher Café at the Jewish Museum are having to
learn how to cope without access to some of their favorite delights as the
Museum enters into its second day of being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020:
Based on yesterday’s announcement by President Reuvin Rivlin, today marks the
first day of the twenty-eight-day cycle that Blue and White Party chairman
Benny Gantz has to form a government.
2020:
Effective today,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines will be operating
remotely.”
2021:
The Open Circle Jewish Learning 20s and 30s is scheduled to present online
“Mensch Reimagined: How Masculine People Build a Culture of Nurturance.”
2021:
The Jewish Community Library is scheduled to host online “Jewish Contribution
to English-Language Versions of the Bible,” during which “Leonard Greenspoon,
Creighton U. Jewish civilization professor, talks about the history of Jews
translating the Hebrew Bible and their influences on non-Jewish versions.
2021:
Temple Emmanuel (Wakefield) is scheduled to present “Making Prayer Meaningful”
online with Rabbi Greg Hersh during which he “offers many new modalities for
understand and engaging in prayer and other Jewish traditions.”
2021:
Based on reports published yesterday, Israelis today may feel they are
beginning to win the health battle since “For the first time since the end of
December, the number of serious COVID-19 patients in Israel dropped under 600…”
(As reported by Yaron Druckman)
2021:
As of today, “57% of the adult population” in Israel “has received at least one
dose of vaccine while 47% have received both doses.” (As reported by Gad Lior
2021:
Geographer Benny Furst, Ph.D. is scheduled to lead a virtual tour “Seeing
Yourself as if You Left Egypt.” 2022
2021:
The Friends of Rabin Medical Center is scheduled to present “White Supremacy:
How Big a Threat and How to Counter It.”
https://globalconnections.splashthat.com/
2022(14th
of Adar II, 5782): Purim
2022:
Based on recent data on how well its vaccine protected against the Omicron
variant in the Israel, Moderna said late today “that it asked the Food and Drug
Administration for emergency authorization of a second booster of its
coronavirus vaccine for all adults, a significantly broader request than Pfizer
and BioNTech filed for their shot this week.”
2023:
The exhibition “Americans and the Holocaust” is scheduled to go on display at
Prairie State College Library in Chicago Heights.
2023:
Temple Judea is scheduled to host Shabbat Worship services are a family affair
with Rabbi Feivel and Cantor Abbie.
2023:
Limmud Fest is scheduled to begin today in New Orleans.
2023:
Locked Down University is scheduled to host a talk by Rabbi Shippel on the
Parsha of the Week.
2023:
Sinai Brookline is scheduled to host a Chai Celebration, celebrating 18 years
with Rabbi Andrew Vogel.
2023:
In San Francisco Congregation Beth Sholom is scheduled to a “Jacob’s Ladder
Shabbat” during which a Jewish bluegrass groups performs a musical Kabbalat
Shabbat.
2024:
In London the UK’s most important Aliyah event, is scheduled to take place, on
a Solidarity Day for Israel.
2024:
Screenings of "A Pocketful of Miracles: A Tale of Two Siblings" are
scheduled to take place today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC and the
New Plaza Cinema.
2024:
For one night only, Theatre Royal Haymarket is scheduled to present: “GOLDA. A
Musical Story of Love, Loss and Resilience,”
2024The
Mercaz Jewish Choir is scheduled to present "Jewish Music Through the
Centuries" at the JHMOMC.
2024:
“The Best of Israel” adult trip sponsored by the Streicker Cultural Center is
scheduled to begin today.
2024:
“Munich Displaced,” an exhibition at the Munich Jewish Museum that “portrays
the city when it was a hub for 200,000 displaced Jews who survived the war” is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2024:
In Marblehead, MA, Temple Sinai is scheduled to host its Purim Project, a
social action projected for make mishloach manot for the Jewish family table
Purim distribution.
2024:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a lecture Renée Carl, a
professional genealogist and advocate for historic preservation and records
access “Stuck: Immigration, Naturalization and Reparation in the WWI Era.”
2024:
St. Patrick’s Day; https://www.jewishnola.com/oy-such-a-st-patricks-day
https://www.npr.org/2013/03/17/174534358/erin-go-bragh-shalom-st-patricks-day-the-jewish-way
2024:
The Museum at Eldridge Streets is scheduled to host “Eldridge Arts and Learning”
even that will give those five and above a chance to learn about the museum’s
more than sixty stained glass windows.
2024: As March
17th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin
day 163 in captivity.
(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we
are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
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