Wednesday, April 10, 2024

This Day, April 11, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

April 11

145: Birthdate of Septimius Severus, the “Roman emperor, who according to the Virtual Jewish Library Lucious Septimus Severus treated “Jews relatively well, allowing them to participate in public offices and be exempt from formalities contrary to Judaism. However, he did not allow the Jews to convert anyone.”  [According to one source, this had to do with the fact that Severus was not really a Roman, but of Syrian-Phoenician stock, but I could find no further corroboration of this.]

399:  In the Roman Empire, a law is promulgated prohibiting sending emissaries to collect donations on behalf of the nasi.  "That the Jews should know that we have delivered them from this iniquitous tribute."

491: Anastasius I begins his reign as the Byzantine Emperor. The reign of Anastasius marked the renewal of warfare with the Sassanid Empire.  The Sassanid Empire was the name given to the Persian Empire of the day.  This renewal of warfare would have a negative impact on the Jews who ruled the island of Yotabe also known as Tiran, which is in the straits of Tiran.  The Jews of Yotabe played an instrumental role in the trade along the Red Sea and when the Byzantines sought to move East to take control of this trade and defeat the Sassanids, they would replace the Jewish leaders with their own people.

1241: The Mongol army under the command Batu Khan defeated King Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Muhi.  The defeat was a disaster for Christian forces in general and the Hungarians in particular.  Bela looked favorably on his Jewish subjects, seeing them as a force that could raise his kingdom from the impoverishment resulting from the defeat. Bela adopted measures that protected his Jewish subjects from mob violence and church control and allowed them to use their own legal system for settling communal disputes. In exchange for this protection, the Jews were to pay their taxes directly to the royal treasury.  Needless to say, Bela’s behavior did not meet with the approval of the clergy and they would move to overturn his rulings under his successor.  

1302: A decree was issued ordering the Jews of Barcelona to kneel when meeting a priest with the sacraments.

1571: Today, Richard Curteys, who had Joachim Gans, the Hebrew speaking first Jew to settle in that part of North America controlled by the English brought before the officials of Bristol to face charges of blasphemy was presented by Queen Elizabeth to the vicarage of Ryhall, as the Bishop of Chichester.

1576: Baptiste Bassano, a Venetian-born musician at the court of Elizabeth, who may have been of Jewish descent and who was the father of Aemilia Bassano, who as Emilia Lanier wrote Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (Hail, God, King of the Jews) which was published in 1611, passed away today.

1632: “French Protestant theologian Nicolas Antoine” who had been arrested on charges of heresy after proclaiming that he was a Jew went on trial today where he “repeated constantly, ‘I am a Jew, and all I ask of God’s grace is to die for Judaism.

1649: The largest Auto De Fe in the New World was held with 109 victims in Mexico. All but one of them was accused of Judaizing. Thirteen were burned alive and 57 in effigy. This for the most part ended the prominence of crypto-Jews in Mexico.

1657: “The Council of New Amsterdam denied a petition by Jacob Cohen (Henriques) for a license to bake and sell bread.” (As reported by Abraham P. Bloch).

1713: Following today’s signing of the Peace Utrecth which marked the end of Spanish domination over Belgium Jews began to reappear in Brussels after an absence that dated back to 1370.

1715: Birthdate of Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, the Portuguese native, who gained fame as Jacob Rodrigue Péreire, who devoted his life to teaching and working with “deaf-mutes.”  Péreire who came from a family crypto-Jews, officially rejoined the faith of his fathers and was a leader in the French Jewish Community. His grandsons were two famous 19th century French financiers -, Emile and Isaac Péreire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Rodrigue_P%C3%A9reire.JPG

1717(30th of Nisan, 5477): Talmudist Abraham ben Saul Broda, the son of Saul Broda and a student of Rabbi Isaac ben Ze’eb Harif, passed away today in Frankfort on Main.

1755(30th of Nisan, 5515): Rosh Chodesh Iyar observed as British and French fleets raced across the Atlantic during the French and Indian War.

1762(18th of Nisan, 5522): Fourth Day of Pesach

1765: Founding of the Patriotic Society in Hamburg which would appoint Salomon Heine as an honorary member in 1843

1766: Virginia native Elizabeth Whitlock and Phildelphian Moses Mordecai gave birth to Isaac Mordecai, the husband of Zipplorah Russell and the father of John, Samuel and Isaac Mordecai.

1767(12tn of Nisan, 5527): Parsahat Achrei Mot; Shabbat HaGadol observed as Benjamin Franklin, who advocated including an image of the Israelites crossing the Sea of Reeds as an image for the Great Seal of America, wrote to the British warning them of the negative impact the Townshend Acts would have on relations with the 13 colonies in America.

1772(8th of Nisan, 5532): Parasha Metzora; Shabbat HaGadol

1773: In Savannah, GA, Sarah De La Motta and Levi Sheftall gave birth to Hannah Seftall, the wife of Abraham De Lyon whom she married in her hometown in 1827.

1778(14th of Nisan, 5538): Shabbat HaGadol; erev Pesach observed on the same day that “emissions totaling $25,000,000 payable in Spanish milled dollars, or the equivalent in gold or silver, was authorized by Continental Congress resolutions passed at Yorktown.

1789(15th of Nisan, 5549): Pesach is observed as the letter from Congress telling George Washington that he has been elected President of the United States makes its way to his home at Mt. Vernon, VA.

1792(19th of Nisan, 5552): Fifth Day of Pesach

1792: In Germany, Jentle Loeb and Moses Faist Rosenheim gave birth to Abraham Moses Faist Rosenheim, the husband of Voegele Ottenheimer with whom he had six children

1795: Birthdate of Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Umbreit, the German Protestant minister who authored works on the books of the Hebrew Bible while serving as a Professor of Old Testament Studies at the University of Heidelberg.

1792(19th of Nisan, 5552): Fifth Day of Pesach

1792: As Jews munched on their Matzoth, In Meriden, Ct. Joel and Esther Clark Yale gave birth to Levi Yale, a member of the State House of Representatives. (They are not Jewish, but the names remind us of the strong Biblical connection that New England settlers had with the “Old Testament.”

1797(15th of Nisan, 5557): Pesach celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of John Adams.

1800(16th of Nisan, 5560): Second Day of Pesach; Counting of the Omer begun for the last time during the Presidency of John Adams.

1801(28th of Nisan, 5561): Parashat Shmini

1801: Birthdate of Harburg native and future Brooklynite Sara Selz, the daughter of Elkan Selz, the daughter of Samuel Baer Liebmann1 with whom she had ten children.

1802: Today, Philadelphia merchant Solomon Lyons married Rebecca Abraham toda.

1803(19th of Nisan, 5563): Fifth Day of Pesach is celebrated on the same day that “1803, just days before James Monroe's arrival, Barbé-Marbois offered Livingston all of Louisiana for $15 million.”

1805(12th of Nisan, 5565): Ta’anit Bechorot observed because the 14th of Nisan fell on Shabbat

1807: “Ezekiel Hart was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada over three other candidates, obtaining 59 out of the 116 votes cast.”  Since the election took place on Shabbat, Hart refused to take the office on that date.  He would cause a further uproar when he did take the oath because he insisted on using a Hebrew Bible instead of the Christian Bible normally used for such events.

1808(14th of Nisan, 5568): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach

1808(14th of Nisan, 5568): Fifty-three-year-old Benjamin Goldsmid, the husband of Jesse and father of Israel-Levier. Solomons passed away today.

1808: In Arnhem, a larger tract, adjacent to a lot forty feet by one hundred that had been assigned to Samuel Levie and Solomon Cohen Jacobs in 1755 was added to what had become the Jewish city’s burial ground.

1809: In New York, Amsterdam native David Cromelien and Adeline (or Amelia) Cromelien gave birth to Hannah Cromelien who became Hannah Spiro when she married Philip Jacob Spiro with whom she had ten children.

1811(17th of Nisan, 5571): Third Day of Pesach

1814: “1814, Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France, abdicated the throne, and, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau, is banished to the Mediterranean island of Elba

1822: In Posen Prussia, “Sabbathi Fischel Huth and Handel Chajah Schreier” gave birth to Myer S. Hood, the student of “Rabbis Isaac Leahs and Lippman Goldstaub” and graduate of the Teacher’s Seminary in Breslaum who after coming to the United States was the “head teacher and reader” two congregations in New Jersey and the “Superintendent of the Plaut Memorial Hebrew Free School” while being married to Ernestine Baruch.

1825: Birthdate of Ferdinand Lassalle, the native of Breslau who became a prominent German jurist and political leader.

http://spartacus-educational.com/GERlasselle.htm

1827(14th of Nisan, 5587): One day after the birth of Lew Wallace, the Civil War General who wrote Ben Hur, the title character who is one of the most famous fictional Jews, the real Jews observed the Fast of the First Born and sat down for their first Seder in the evening.

1830(18th of Nisan, 5590): Fourth Day of Pesach

1831: In Brno, Löbl Strakosch and Julia Schwarz gave birth to their 8th child Sophia.

1831: “The Society for the Education of Poor Children and Relief of Indigent of the Jewish Persuasion in the City of New York was incorporated today.

1833(22nd of Nisan, 5593): Eight Day of Pesach

1833: In Bunde Germany, Bendix Rosenwald and Vogel Rosenwald gave birth to Hermann (Isaac) Rosenwald, the husband of Jeanette David and the father of Bendix Rosenwald; Gustav Rosenwald and Ida Bach.

1833: As Jews munched Matzoth for the last time Connecticut voters chose all six of their Congressman who were elected at-large instead of district by district.

1835: Solomon Benoliel, the Gibraltar born son of Don Judah Benoliel and Esther Benoliel and his wife Judith Benolie gave birth of Abraham Benoliel

1838(16th of Nisan, 5598): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer

1842: John Davis married Amelia Friedberg at the Great Synagogue today.

1844(22nd of Nisan, 5604): Eighth Day of Pesach

1844: On the same day that Jews munched their Matzoth for the ls time, Mormon Joseph “was "chosen as our Prophet, Priest, and King by Hosannas," two months before he was murdered.

1845: Isaac and Rachel Pereira Baiz gave birth to Jacob Baiz the “husband of Rebecca Baiz” and “father of Angela Baiz.

1846(15th of Nisan, 5606): The Jews of Texas observe their first Pesach as citizens of the United States.

1848: Jeanetta Malan and Kent, UK native Joseph Davis gave birth to Miriam Davis.

1850: In Henderson, KY, Sarah Ochs and Samuel Bissinger who had been married in Louisville in 1848 gave birth to Benjamin Bissinger, the husband of Helena Bach whom he married in 1872 and the father of Nora, Bernard, Jacob, Louis and Lawrence Bissinger.

1850: Birthdate of Isidor Rayner, the native of Baltimore who represented the Fourth Congressional District in the House of Representatives and represented Maryland in the United States Senate.

1852: In the “Czech Republic,” Rabbi Benjamin Ullmann, the son of Marks and Dewora Ullmann and Theresa Ester Ullmann gave birth to Ignaz Ullmann.

1852: Birthdate of John Stephany, the native of London who was one of the founders of Congregation Emanu-El, the first Jewish congregation in Statesville, NC.

1856: In Baltimore, Caroline and Rabbi Aaron Guinzburg gave birth to Henry Aaron Guinzburg, the Colonel of Cavalry, aide-de-camp and chief of staff of Governor Stone of Missouri and the husband of Leonie B. Guinzburg with whom he had three children – Leonore, Harold and Herminia.

https://www.nytimes.com/1928/11/17/archives/col-ha-guinzburg-72-dies-suddenly-philanthropist-and-treasurer-of.html

1860: The State Assembly passed a bill to amend the charter of the Hebrew Benevolent Society of New York

1860: In Bielitz, Austria, Anna Kanner and Ignatz Zeisler gave birth to Chicago attorney Sigmund Zeisler who represented the defendants in Illinois vs. August Spies, et al – the criminal litigation that grew out of the Haymarket Square labor demonstration or riot, depending on your point of view and who was the husband of the famed pianist Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler.

1860: The State Assembly passed a bill to amend the charter of the Hebrew Cemetery Association of New York.

1861(1st of Iyar, 5621): Rosh Chodesh Iyar – Confederate General Beauregard sent two officers to Fort Sumter with an ultimatum for Major Anderson, the commander of the U.S. forces.  Either he can evacuate or face bombardment and attack from the surrounding Rebel forces.  Today is the last day of peace for four years in the United States.

1862: Corporal Henry Wertheim, a native of Germany who was living in Mecklenburg County (NC) enlisted in the Confederate Army.

1863(22nd of Nisan, 5623): Eighth Day of Pesach; Shabbat Shel Pesach

1863: Israel Cohen, “the son of Kitty and Benjamin I. Cohen” and Cecilia Eliza Cohen gave birth to Anna Maria Cohen who became Anna Maria Minis when she married Abram Minis.

1864(5th of Nisan, 5624): Merchant and Hebrew scholar, Elijah Bardach, who was born at Lemberg in 1794 and whose works included Akedat Yizhak written in 1833, passed away today in Vienna.

1865(15th of Nisan, 5625): Pesach observed for the first time without the firing of guns from the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia.

1868(18th of Nisan, 5628): Fourth Day of Pesach

1870: In “Aid for the Hebrews of West Russia” published today, the Executive Committee of the Hebrew Board of Delegates reported receipt of the following donations:

Simeon Lodge of Titusville, PA, $13.50; Israelites of Leavenworth, Kansas, $127.10; Purim Association of Leavenworth Kansa, $202.10; Maimonides Lodge of Nashville, TN, $10.00; Congregation B’nai Brith, Wilkes-Barre, PA, $30.00.  [For those who think of American Jewish History only in terms of a few major metropolitan areas, this list might give you pause to consider another view of Jewish settlement of the United States.]

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F01EEDE133BE63BBC4952DFB266838B669FDE

1873(14th of Nisan, 5633): Fast of the first born; erev  Pesach

1873(14th of Nissan): This afternoon, Congregation Shaare Rachmim, officially began using the Norfolk Street Synagogue with services led by the rabbi of Ahamath Chesed, the congregation that formerly used the Norfolk Street Synagogue.  Ahamath Chesed has moved to a new location on Lexington Avenue. 

1875: Four days, after he had passed away, Louis Samson Diespecker, the husband of the former Christian Warmington with whom he had had six children was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1875: Birthdate of Kovno born “wood engraver and painter Henry Bock, the husband of Dora Block and the father of Adolph and Martin Block whose “colored wood engravings are on permanent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress in Washington” passed away today in Plainfield, NJ

101019438.pdf (nytimes.com)

1875: In Presov, Hungary, Lena Lefkowitz and her husband gave birth to CCNY graduate and HUC ordained rabbi, David Lefkowiz, the leader of Dayton’s Temple B’nai Jeshurun and Dallas’ Temple Emanu-El where he opposed the rising Ku Klux Klan and husband of Sadie Braham with whom he had four children including David, Jr. who followed his father into the rabbinate.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0195/ms0195.html

1876(16th of Nisan, 5636): Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer

1876(16th of Nisan, 5636): Fifty-eight-year-old “German physician and co-founder of experimental pathology in Germany” Ludwig Traube passed away today in Berlin.

1877: In Pittsburgh, PA, Sarah Weiler and Samuel Silverman gave birth to MIT trained electrical engineer, the husband of Fannie M. Schloss and technical assistant to the chairman of the executive committee of the Boston and Main Railroad who was a member of Temple Israel in Boston.

1878(8th of Nisan, 5638): Thirty-six-year-old Montefiore Jacob Moses, the Charleston born so of Jacob I Moses and Rinah Jacobs Moses, the husband of Rosetta Moses and the father of Belle Moses; Mary Stanford Moses; Montrose J. Moses; Walter Jonas Moses; Eva May Moses; Edwin E. Moses and Montrose Jonas Moses passed away today in New York City.

1879(18th of Nisan, 5639): Fourth Day of Pesach

1880(30th of Nisan, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Iyar

1880(30th of Nisan, 5640): Twenty-year old Fanny Adler, the wife of Moses Adler and the sister of Selig Selbiger, a Jewish peddler from Prussia, passed away today.

1880: In New York City, Joseph and Mathilde (Riegelman) Haberman gave birth to Columbia trained psychiatrist and neurologist J. Victor Haberman, the WW I veteran who enhanced his knowledge base by earning a doctorate from the University of Berlin.

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fh0070291

1880: “York Minister,” published today recounts the history of this English city includes an account of the attacks made on the Jews during the reign of Richard the Lionhearted. The recounting includes a graphic description of the suffering and death of 500 Jewish citizens at the hands of mob more concerned with not paying their debts and stealing from the Children of Israel than anything else.

1881: Isabella Benjamin and David Moses Dyte gave birth to Henry Charles Dyte.

1881: It was reported today that in Paris, the old customs for observing Shrove Tuesday are dying out.  For example, “the traditional promenade of the Boeuf Gras” did not stop in front of the hotel of Baron de Rothschild so that the revelers might “drink to the health of the great banker” as they used to.”

1882(22nd of Nisan, 5642): Eighth Day of Pesach; 7th day of the Omer

1882(22nd of Nisan, 5642): Sixty-eight-year-old “German banker and philanthropist” Jacob Nachod, the son of Naftali and Bertha Nachod who served as President of the German Federation of Jewish Communities which he founded passed away today.

1883: Attorney A. Leo Weil, the Keysville, VA born son of Minna and Isaac L. Weil, the senior partner in the law firm of Weil, Christy and Weil and member of Temple Rodef Shalom in Pittsburgh married Cassie Ritter today.

1884(16th of Nisan, 5644) Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer counted for the last time during the Presidency of Chester Alan Arthur who had gained office because of the assassination of James Garfield.

1885(26th of Nisan, 5645): Parsahat Shmini

1885: In New Orleans, LA, Emma Schornstein, the daughter of Bertha and Hertzel Ber Bonart and her husband Samuel Zigmund Schordnstein gave birth to Moise Schornstein, Sr, the husband of Blanche Block and father of Beatrice and Moise Schorenstein, Jr.

1886: In London, Maria Carter and Joseph Ascher gave birth to Floretta Maria Ascher who died before reaching the age of two.

1886: In St. Louis, Louis and Clementine Lange Hellman gave birth to Milton Alfred Hellman who married Alice Stix Eiseman 1917 and with whom he had three children.

1887(17th of Nisan, 5647): Third Day of Pesach

1888(30th of Nisan, 5648): Rosh Chodesh Iyar

1888: In Jacksonville, FL, Rabbi David Levy of Charleston, SC officiated at the marriage of “Mose J. Ullman of Evansville, Indiana and Susie Jacoby of Charleston.”

1888: Henry Ford, the anti-Semitic auto maker married Clara Jane Bryant today.

1889(10th of Nisan, 5649): A young Jewish boy, Tobias Hipper, died today in New York, the apparent victim of an assault by to other boys living in his neighborhood. The police have launched an investigation into the matter.

1890:  Ellis Island was designated as an immigration station.  Ellis Island would be the first stop for millions of European Jews coming to America.

1890:  In Trenton, NJ, Herman Gross, an unemployed German Jewish grocery clerk tried to kill himself for a second time while in jail where he had been taken after his failed attempt to drown himself in the creek near the Pennsylvania Train Station.

1891: An eight-year-old Jewish tailor's daughter disappeared on the island of Corfu, Greece.   Rumor spread that she was a Christian girl ritually killed and these charges resulted in a pogrom.   Unfortunately, at this time of the year, no Jewish community would be exempt from the possibility of charges like this and the subsequent public uprising.

1891: Lieutenant Charles A. L. Totten, the military instructor at Yale University” and the author of publications about the “Hebrew race” has reportedly discovered the exact date of the “long day” described in the Book of Joshua.

1892(14th of Nisan, 5652): Fast of the First Born observed for the last time during the Presidency of Grover Cleveland.

1893: The New York Times reported that “The stock market was not active today, a large speculative element being absent, owing to the Passover holiday.” [Editor’s Note: The italics are mine.  The description of the Jews is pure New York Times.]

1893(25th of Nisan, 5653): Eighty-one-year-old Adolphe Franck who “became a chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1844” and who was an “active defender of Judaism” who continued to the "Archives Israêlites" for fifty years passed away today.

1895: Ecaterina Gaster Revici, the daughter of Phina Judith Gaster and Abraham Emauel Gaster and her husband Tulius gave birth to Teofil “Teo” Revici

1895: The will of the late Michael Stachelberg, the well-known New York cigar manufacturer was filed for probate today.

1895: The Board of Estimate and Appropriation met today in New York and disturbed the proceeds from the theatrical and concert fund to several charitable organizations including the United Hebrew Charities ($750), the Montefiore Home ($500) and Beth Israel Hospital ($100)

1896: “The Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum gave its first entertainment at the Lexington Avenue Opera House” tonight.

1896: In New York City, Pesach (Philip) Luria, a silverware dealer, and Rebecca (Isaacson) Luria gave birth to Rose Luria Halprin one of the foremost American Zionist leaders of the twentieth century who served twice as the national president of Hadassah and held key posts within the Jewish Agency at critical periods in the history of the Yishuv and the subsequent State of Israel and who was the wife of Samuel W. Halprin.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/halprin-rose-luria

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0008_0_08276.html

1896: It was reported today that David Finkelstein of Bridgeport, CT, has not lived with his Ida since they were married in March when his wife discovered that he had an artificial nose, a fact that he had not shared with her before their wedding.

1896: Convicted jewel thief Ben Ouni who had been as a Turk but claimed he really was a Jew named Benjamin Dreyer is on his way to serving a four year and six-month term in the New York state penitentiary.

1897: “Jews, Anthropologically Considered” published today takes issue with the contention that the “Israelitish race” …is “the most homogenous races” describing the differences between the Sephardim, Ashkenazim as well as the “nomadic Jews” of North Africa, the Falashas, the Jews of Cochin and Bombay as well as the Jews of China.

1898(19th of Nisan, 5658): Fifth Day of Pesach

1898: Two days after she had passed away, 45-year-old Bloomah Jacobs, the daughter of Isaac Henry Jacobs and Matilda Levy was buried today in London’s “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”

1899: The First Jewish congregation was formed in Caracas, Venezuela.

1899: Birthdate of Philadelphia native and Temple University trained attorney A. Alfred Wasserman, a member pf the State House of Representatives from 1933 to 1937 and husband of Esther B. Wasserman with whom he had two children – Ethel and Joseph.

1899: “Citizen Pierre,” with Rose Eytinge playing the role of Madam Tison opened on Broadway.

1900: “Le Juif Polonais” (The Polish Jew), “an opera in three acts by Camille Erlanger composed to a libretto by Henri Cain” was first performed today in Paris at the Opéra Comique.  The opera was adapted from a play by Erckmann-Chatrian  of the same name.  In 1871, Leopold Lewis had translated the play into English under the title of “The Bells” which provide Henry Irving with one of his most successful acting vehicles.

1901(22nd of Nisan, 5561): Eighth Day of Peach

1901: The Ohavei Zion (Friends of Zion) are scheduled to hold a Passover celebration and concert at Cooper Union this evening to raise money for the “suffering Jewish farm laborers of Palestine.” 

1902: Birthdate of Michael Rothstein who gained fame as media magnate Michael Redstone.

1903(14th of Nisan, 5663): Parashat Tzav; Shabbat HaGadol; erev Pesach

1903: Thirty-four-year-old German-Jewish poetess Else Lasker-Schuler and Berthold Lasker were divorced today.

1904: Conference of the Greater Actions Committee meets in Vienna. In the spirit of the Sixth Congress it is decided to send an expedition to East Africa. The reconciliation conference was Herzl's last great achievement.

1905: Today, in Warsaw, a Polish language version of Sholem Aleichem's play "Tsezayt un tseshprayt" which had been translated by Mark Arnstein was staged in a Polish theatre under the direction Arnstein.

1905: Einstein reveals his Theory of Relativity

1905: Colonel Nicolas Pike, author, naturalist and a relative of the famous explorer Zebulon Pike, passed away.  Among his possession was camp chest presented to the explorer Dr. David Livingston by Jewish philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore

1906: Congressman Allen L. McDermott delivered a speech in the House of Representatives in which he defended the Jewish people.  McDermott, “who represents a district in New Jersey, a state in which is published the only avowed anti-Semitic publication” produced in the United States, spoke out “against the ‘Christ Killing’ charge and the ritual murder charge.”

1907: A newspaper story entitled “More Rumors of Pogroms” describes the revival in Russia of “the old stories about the disappearance of Christian children for use in sacrifices at the time of the Jewish Passover.”  There are rumors that outbreaks of violence will take place during Russian Easter on April 2.

1907(27th of Nisan, 5667): Eighty-six-year-old Nathan Becker, the German born son of Isaac Becker and Philippine Liebenstein, the husband of Henrietta Jette Becker and father of Ida D Becker; Rachel Schaffner; Viola Henrietta Stern; Abraham Gamliel Becker and H. E. Becker passed away today in Chicago.

1908(10th of Nisan, 5668): Parashat Metzora; Shabbat HaGadol

1908: Tonight, the East Side Businessmen’s Protective Association gave away matzoth, flour, potatoes tea and eggs to over 2,000 poor Jews living on the Lower East Side.

1908: Birthdate of Leo Rosten.  Educated at the University of Chicago and the London School of Economics, Leo Rosten spent sixty years acquainting his readers with different aspects of Jewish culture and the Yiddish language.  Some of his better known works included Captain Newman, M.D., The Joys of Yiddish and Hooray For Yiddish.  He passed away in 1997.

1909(20th of Nisan, 5669): Sixth Day of Pesach

1909(20th of Nisan, 5669): In one of the great moments of modern Jewish History, Tel Aviv (Hill of Spring), the first modern Jewish city, was founded on the sand dunes north of Jaffa with the building of 60 houses. The actual name Tel Aviv was given only the next year (Hill of Spring) and was taken from a Babylonian city (Ezekiel 3:15) and used by Nahum Sokolow as the title for his translation of Herzl's book Altneuland.  Today Tel Aviv is a thriving modern metropolis, popular and favorite Mediterranean vacation spot for Europeans seeking warmth in the wintertime.

1909: Miss Judith Hirsch the “head worker of the Harlem Federation of Jewish Communal Work” is reported to be one of those supporting The Central Park Protection Association in its fight against legislation “authorizing the erection of a gallery in Central Park by the National Academy of Design.

1910: Members of the Hebrew Retail Kosher Butchers' Protective Association are scheduled to meet this morning, at which time they will decide whether or not to make the boycott of the slaughter houses permanent until prices are reduced at least to nine cents, as it was four months ago.

1911: Today marked the third and final day for distribution of free Matzoth by the United Hebrew Community.

1911: Birthdate of DeWitt Clinton High School child prodigy Benjamin Kaplan the Columbia Law School graduate who helped prosecute war criminals after WW II and whose Harvard Law School students included two future Supreme Court Justices – Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

1912: The RMS Titanic left Cork for the United States carrying a wide variety of famous from Cherbourg passengers including Edith Russell who had written her secretary that “this is the most wonderful boat you can think of” and that “it is a monster,” more like a “big hotel than a cozy ship.”

1912: Birthdate of Elinor Sophia Coleman who became famous as Elinor Guggenheimer an advocate for children, women and the elderly. Mrs. Guggenheimer became the first woman to serve on the New York City Planning Commission and she was the city’s commissioner of consumer affairs in the 1970, where in one of her more lighthearted moments she went after a store in Queens for selling fake lox.  She passed away in 2008. Regardless of how she may have felt about Kashrut she left us with this little rhyme, “Oysters that could once delight us, now just give us hepatitis.”

1912: A campaign began today to raise $200,000 for a new facility to be used by the Young Women’s Hebrew Association in New York City.

1912: The Technikum, later to be known as the Techinion (Israel's M.I.T.) was founded in Haifa, Israel. Later that year the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden, which established the Haifa Technion, faced a strike by both teachers and students when they tried to institute German as the school's language instead of Hebrew. The American co-trustees agreed with the strikers and the Society left Eretz-Israel after the First World War.  There was a lively debate as to whether Yiddish, Hebrew or German would be the language of the embryonic Jewish state.  There was a strong sentiment for Hebrew since the other two were languages of the Diaspora and Hebrew was "the language of the land." 

1913: In Chicago, at Temple Sholom, Rabbi Abram Hirschberg is scheduled to “deliver his 15th anniversary sermon” this evening on the subject of “Fifteen Years in the Jewish Ministry.

1913: The President of Panama attended the dedication of the first synagogue in Colon

1914(15th of Nisan, 5674): Last Pesach before the start of World War I which begin a long series of cataclysms for the Jews of Europe.

1914(15th of Nisan, 5674): A special Passover luncheon is scheduled to be served to military personnel at Tuxedo Hall in New York City.

1914(15th of Nisan, 5674): On the second night of Pesach, The Jewish Sailors and Soldiers’ Passover Committee hosted a seder for U.S. soldiers, sailors and marines at Tuxedo Hall.

1914(15th of Nisan, 5674): Tonight, Rabbi Maurice H. Harris is scheduled to lead a Seder at Temple Israel of Harlem.

1914: Two days before Harry Horowitz was scheduled to be executed for his role in the shooting of gambler Herman Rosenthal, New York State Justice Goff said the new witnesses that came forward claiming that he was innocent were not credible and that he would not grant the motion for a new trial.

1915: Charlie Chaplin releases The Tramp.

1915: ‘In his sermon” this “morning in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of Temple Eamnu-El, Dr. Joseph Silverman” the congregation’s rabbi “called for greater extension of social service and wider consideration of problems of public welfare and personal conduct as the proper course for the congregation whose founding was one of the greatest impulses in the development of reformed Judaism” in the United States.

1915(27th of Nisan, 5675): Four days before his 62nd birthday Manhattan born Dr. Louis Waldstein Walston, the son of Henry and Sophie Schriesheimer Waldstein passed away to day in England.

1916: Based on today’s reports from the Relief Committee for Indigent Jews in Berlin “nearly $2,000,000 has been spent in relief work” to aid the Jews in occupied Poland much of which has come from Jews in America.

1916: “Bundle Day timed to the seasonal change of raiment” today “brought 2,000 packages to the Industrial Department of the United Hebrew Charities at 37 Greene Street to be utilized for the poor.”

1917: The first of the “Breaking Down the Barrier Meetings” sponsored by the Gramercy Neighborhood Association which the Jews of the area have been asked to attend is scheduled to take place tonight at the Washington Irving High School.

1917: In Manhattan, Russian immigrant Louis Sobell, “a pharmacist who opened a drugstore in the Bronx” and his wife Rose gave birth to Morton Sobell who was found guilty along with the Rosenbergs but who, unlike them only served an 18 year prison sentence instead of being electrocuted.

1917: It was reported today that Utah Governor Simon Bamberger, the first Jew to hold that position, has said that “by feeding and saving three million starving Jews” in Russia “we help the new Government as well as our own people, and in making Russian democracy strong to withstand German autocracy we serve America.”  (Editor’s note: At this time it was seen as critical to keep Russia in the war fighting the Germans and to do everything possible to keep them from making a separate peace with the Kaiser whom the Americans had just declared war on a week ago.)

1917: It was reported today, that before adjourning those attending the first ever Zionist convention ever held in Russia, “sent greetings to the American Provisional Zionist Committee, to the Inner Actions Committee, to Dr. Max Nordau and to all the Zionist federations throughout the world.”

1918: “The Liberty Loan drive among the Jews of the east side was launched” tonight” at two meetings held in the Bank of United States Building at 77 Delancey Street.

1918: Fritz Beckhardt, the WW I German Ace who had transferred from the infantry “scored his first victory, over a Royal Aircraft Factory RE.8.”

1919: As Bavaria is engulfed in violence during an attempt to create a Socialist Republic, “Max Cohen, Chairman of the Central Committee and one of the Socialist leaders spoke against the terms of the Armistice and “advocated the formation of a continental bloc as an offset to the ‘Anglo-American alliance.’”

1920: Tonight, at a dinner at the Astor Hotel where “more than $1,600,000 was subscribed at the launch of the campaign knowns the New York Appeal for Jewish War Sufferers” the approximately one thousand attendees hear Herbert Hoover warned that substantial amounts of equipment is need “if typhus is not to spread eastward and westward across the whole of Europe” while Judge Arbam Elkus “described the ravages of typhus as he witnessed it when Ambassador at Constantinople.”

1920: “More than 40,000 destitute Jews fleeing from persecution and economic destruction Eastern Europe are now stranded in German cities according to a cablegram received by Felix M. Warburg at the headquarters of the Joint Distribution Committee for Jewish War Suffers.”

1921: The British created The Emirate of Transjordan.  The British partitioned the land of the Palestine Mandate to create this Arab kingdom.  There are those who claim that Palestine has already been partitioned.  Since the Arabs got the land east of the Jordan, the Jews should get the remaining sliver west of the Jordan River. During the 1930’s Winston Churchill opposed the partition of the land west of the Jordan River for this very reason.  Churchill knew whereof he spoke since he was the one who really created the Emirate in the first place.

1922: Thirty year old Philadelphia College of Osteopathy and Columbia University physician Karl Benjamin Bretzfelder, the New Haven, CT. born son of Benjamin and Bessie (Mendoza) Bretzfielder” who was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army’s Medical Corps, a surgeon for the New Have Police Department and physician for both the Jewish Home for the Aged and the Jewish Orphans while serving as an active member of the Horeb Lodge of B’nai Brith and Congregation Mishkan Israel gave birth to Ameilia Kafka today.

1923: Birthdate of Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin the husband of Eleanor Katz and past President of the American Institute for Psychoanalysis whose story “Lisa and David” provided the inspiration for the 1962 film of the same name.

1924: “Resorting to a new subterfuge,” Prohibition Agency Izzy Einstein and his partner raided a crowded restaurant “and seized $25, 000 worth of contraband goods.”

1925(17th of Nisan, 5685): Third Day of Pesach; Shabbat Chol Hamoed

1925: It was reported today that “the rebuilding of Palestine as a Jewish national home and the spreading of ethical ideas based on the teachings of the Bible, will be furthered to a great extent by a new foundation, which has the support of the fortune left by Joseph Fels, single tax reformer, through an institution established by his widow. Mrs. Mary Fels of New York…”

1926: Tonight, “speaking from the pulpit of the West End Presbyterian Church, Dr. H.G. Enelow, the rabbi of Temple Emanu-El…called up on Jews and Christians to join together”…in “the religion of fellowship with God and fellowship with man.”

1926: The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of America is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. at the Broadway Central Hotel to develop plans for participating in the United Jewish Campaign’s to raise $500,000 “for the relief and rehabilitation of Jews in Eastern Europe.

1927: Today, New York philanthropist Nathan Straus arrived back in the United States after visiting Palestine and “said that he found steady progress there in spite of the crisis of Tel Aviv which he said was temporary.”

1928: Rookie Second Baseman Andy Cohen who had been the captain of the baseball team at the University of Alabama where he belonged to a Jewish fraternity, led the Giants to a stunning opening day victory over the Boston Braves at the Polo Grounds at the end of which he was carried off the field on the shoulder of adoring fans.

1929: Tonight “Joseph V. McKee, the president of the Board of Alderman formally opened the exhibition of ORT, the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural and Technical Trades among the Jews of Eastern Europe” which was attended by five hundred people included “Howard S. Cullman the commission of the Port Authority” and the National Chairman of ORT.

1930: “The new play put on at the Downtown National Theatre tonight was a musical comedy called ‘Motke from Slobodke’ which is “comparatively plotless” which is unusual for a Jewish play and which lacks the “sob-stuff” that is usually connected with “every good Jewish popular play.”

1930: It was reported today that in response to Nebi Musa, the Moslem pilgrimage to the supposed site of the tomb of Moses near Jericho” which coincides with observance of Pesach, “Jerusalem has reassumed the military aspect it had in August and September 1929 when steel helmeted British soldiers, British police armed with rifles and mounted Palestine constables with rifles slung over their shoulders paraded through the streets.

1931(24th of Nisan, 5691): Parashat Shmini

1931: Dorothy Parker, the daughter of Jacob Henry Rothschild and the granddaughter of Prussia born Jews Mary Greissman and Sampson Jacob Rothschild resigned “her job as drama critic for The New Yorker magazine.”

1931: Birthdate of Buenos Aires native and University of Buenos Aires alum Nelly Kelly, “the family rebel “whose witty, satire-tinged French films about female empowerment and revenge made her a distinctive voice in a male-dominated era.” (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/movies/nelly-kaplan-whose-films-explored-female-strength-dies-at-89.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1931: While speaking at a dinner given in his honor at London’s Savoy Hotel, David Lloyd George “assured the leaders of world Zionism that his faith in the Jewish national home was stronger than it was eleven years ago when his Government took over the British mandate in Palestine….The Mandate must not be administered nervously and apologetically, but firmly and fearlessly’ since Christians and Arabs under the mandate can only benefit from the success of the Zionist experiment.

1932: Time magazine published the following description of the Macabbiah.

 Three thousand Jewish athletes from 27 countries last week paraded through Tel Aviv (''Hill of Spring") in Palestine, for the opening of the first Maccabiad. Wrongly described as the "Jewish Olympics," the Maccabean Games were organized by the World Maccabee Union, named for the Israelite hero, Judas Maccabaeus. The games began when 120 pigeons in flocks of ten—messengers to the Twelve Tribes of Israel—were allowed to fly to their homes in various parts of Palestine. Led by Tel Aviv's Mayor Dizengoff riding on a white horse, the 3,000 athletes, aged 5 to 60, marched to a huge new stadium that was crowded beyond capacity (25.000). The Maccabiad lasted four days. No supremely able Jewish athletes were entered; no world's records were broken. No official team score was compiled.

1932: Birthdate of actor Joel Grey.  Born Joel Katz, he is best known as one of the stars in “Cabaret.”

1933(15th of Nisan, 5693): First Day of Pesach

1933: Mickey Cohen lost a fight with Chalky Wright in Los Angeles.

1933: “Nazis issued a Decree defining a non-Aryan as "anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish, parents or grandparents. One parent or grandparent classifies the descendant as non-Aryan...especially if one parent or grandparent was of the Jewish faith."

1933: The German government began employment and economic sanctions against Jews that are widely perceived as being racially based which were opposed by The Lutheran Church.

1934: “The national executive of the Pioneer Women’s Organization to with the New York branch” is scheduled to hold a reception this evening at the Central Plaza for Goldie Meyerson, the organization’s national secretary who has “returned after a six month’s country-wide tour during which she visited many clubs” and delivered numerous speeches. (Editor’s note – this is the future Golda Meir)

1935: Ada Goldberg and Mathew L. Gelernter gave birth to right-wing columnist Judith Ann Reisman, the wife of Arnold Reisman “best known for her criticism and condemnation of Alfred Kinsey” and who reportedly “believes that a homosexual movement in Germany gave rise to the Nazi Party and the Holocaust.”

1935: Following “recent anti-Semitic riots” in Romania, “two German Nazis are reported to be among those arrested” and will be expelled from the country for “acting as agitators.”

1936(19th of Nisan, 5696): Shabbat shel Pesach

1936: Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical "On Your Toes", premiered in New York City.

1936: “In a message read to 2,000 persons attending the annual dinner of the National Labor Committee for Jewish Workers in Palestine at the Hotel Commodore” tonight, Professor Albert Einstein expressed the opinion that a public protest would prevent the British Government from approving additional restrictions in Palestine which are now being considered.”

1936: Joseph C. Hyman, Secretary of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced today that if the committee succeeds in reaching its goal of raising $3,500,000, “it would allocate $1,115,000 to Jews in Eastern Europe of which 60 to 70 percent would go to aid Jewish communities and organizations in Poland.”

1936: Birthdate of Carla Furstenberg, who as Carla Cohen, became co-owner of a unique Washington, DC institution, Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore that proved too successful in spite of chain bookstores and internet shopping.

1937: At the Pierre Hotel, Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan officiated at the wedding of Norma Rubenstein, a graduate of Smith College and Benedict I. Lubell of Tulsa, OK and “an alumnus of Columbia College and Columbia Law School

1937: Tonight, in the Starlight Roof of the Waldorf-Astoria, Rabbi Stephen Wise officiated at the wedding Hilda Friedman ad Alexander Weinig.

1937: It was reported today that “six American museums have acquired works by Elias Newman a Palestinian artist of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.  Mr. Newman has been in the United States collecting works of modern American artists for Tel Aviv’s new Museum of Art. Newman was a Polish born artist best known for his watercolors. 

1938: Forty-six days after The British High Commissioner had declared Tel Aviv Harbor open Eliezer Steinlauf, a resident of Tel Aviv who had been born in Austria, disembarked from his ship at Tel Aviv making him the first passenger to disembark at the world’s first “Jewish port.” 

1938: The Palestine Post reported that since the advent of the Nazi regime in Austria, the British Consulate in Vienna had handed out more than 12,000 applications for immigration to Australia. Immigration to New Zealand had been stopped "temporarily." South Africa demanded £250 for every immigrant.

1938: The Palestine Post published a special, copyrighted story, written by Ernest Hemingway, on the activities of the American and British volunteer battalions, fighting General Franco's insurgents in Catalonia.

1938: The Palestine Post reported that Aryans said "Ja" or "Nein" (Yes or No) in Austrian Anschluss (incorporation into Germany) plebiscite. Special trains brought more than 12,000 Nazi volunteers from Czechoslovakia for this purpose.

1938: The Palestine Post reported that the new "Eden" hotel opened in Jerusalem - a valuable addition to Jerusalem's hotel amenities.

1939(22nd of Nisan, 5699): 8th day of Pesach; unbeknownst to them, for millions of European Jews this would be their last celebration of the liberation from Egypt.

1939: Birthdate of Louise Lasser, the actress who gained fame on “Mary Hartman! Mary Hartman!”

1940:  Soviet forces complete the slaughter of 26,000 Polish army officers in the Katyn Forest.  When the slaughter is discovered, the Soviets will try and blame it on the Nazis.

1940: The Nazi occupiers of Lodz,renamed the city Litzmannstadt (after the German general Karl Litzmann, who had conquered it in World War I); most of the German documents concerning the Lodz Ghetto refer to it as the "Litzmannstadt Ghetto."

1941(14th of Nisan, 5701): In Washington, D.C, Deb and Joe Levin celebrate their first Seder – a tradition begins!

1941: Erev Pesach the ghetto at Kielce, Poland “was sealed off from the outside world” following “a  Judenrat was appointed, chaired by Moshe Pelc, who was eventually arrested and deported to Auschwitz for resisting German orders.”

1941: Nazi occupiers in Netherlands confiscated Jewish assets.

1941: On Good Friday, Reverend Conrad Gröber “gave a sermon whose vocabulary came very close to the anti-Semitic vocabulary of the Nazi rulers: "As a driving force behind the Jewish legal power stood the aggressive toadyism and malevolent perfidy of the Pharisees. They unmasked themselves more than ever as Christ's arch-enemies, deadly enemies.... Their eyes were blindfolded by their prejudice and blinded by their Jewish lust for worldly dominion." As for the "people" or, in his words, the "wavering crowd of Jews", the archbishop said, "The Pharisees' secret service had awakened the animal in it through lies and slander, and it was eager for grisly excitement and blood."

1941: Jewish Weekly newspaper taken control by Nazi's.

1941: Work was begun today to open the Jadovno contraction camp in Croatia. 

1941: Birthdate of Ellen Goodman, the popular syndicated columnist for the Boston Globe.  She is yet another in a long line of Jewish journalists who have won the Pulitzer Prize.  In her case it was for Commentary.  In addition to her journalism, she is a popular author and speaker.

1942: Three thousand Jews from Zamosc, Poland, were deported to the Belzec death camp

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/april/08.asp

1942: A German proclamation issued in Lvov, Ukraine, excoriated Polish civilians who assisted Jews.

1942: The USS Blue, which had not been sunk or damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor thanks to the efforts of Ensign Nathan Asher, a graduate of the Naval Academy who took command U.S.S. Blue since the skipper was ashore” was at the Mare Island Navy Yard today.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/05/pix1/0538711.jpg

1943: “The Jewish Forum, a publication devoted to "uniting Jew and non-Jew in safeguarding democracy," celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary with a dinner at the Hotel Commodore today.”

1943: “Jews in 6 Weeks of Mourning” published today described “a six week period of mourning and intercession” proclaimed by the Synagogue Council of America “during which Jews of America are to mourn the loss of two million European Jews exterminated by Hitler and are to plead for governmental action to rescue as many as possible of those remaining in Nazi-held Europe” which will start on “start on the closing day of Passover.

1943: The diary being kept by 19-year-old Julus Feldman that recorded events at the Plaszow Concentration ended at mid-sentence today after which on an unknown he was murdered.

https://www.holocaust.org.uk/diary-of-julius-feldman

1944; Anne Frank diary insert - ‘Who has made us Jews different to all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again.

1944: The trains filled with Jews from Ioannina, Arta, Volvos, Preveza, Chalkis, Patras, Trikala, Larissa, Kastoria and other Greek cities arrived at Auschwitz

1944: Shlomo Venezia saw his mother and his two little sisters – Marcia and Marta – for the last time today as he climbed out of a freight car at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1945: American soldiers liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany. Thousands of Jewish prisoners had been marched from other camps to Buchenwald in early 1945.  As the Americans approached, the Nazis tried to another Death March costing the lives of 25,000 mostly Jewish prisoners.  However, 21,000 prisoners were liberated including 4,000 Jews, 1000 of whom were teenagers and children.  Thirty-one members of the camp staff were later found guilty with two of them condemned to death and four getting life sentences James Hoyt, of Oxford, Iowa, was the radio operator and driver for a four-man reconnaissance team when two Buchenwald escapees flagged them down. The team went to the camp, which was hidden in a forested area. According to his eyewitness account,  “When the people saw our vehicle with the American markings on it, they really went wild. They tore a part of the fence down. They threw us up in the air,” Hoyt told The Gazette 10 years ago.  “It was a very sorry sight all the way. They were skin and bones, the living ones. Of course, there were all kinds of dead ones there.” In all, about 238,500 prisoners were held at the camp.

http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/april/14.asp

1945: Meir Binem (Beniek) Wrzonski the son of Noah Wrzonski and was Rajzel Maroko was among those who were found alive when Buchenwald was liberated today.

https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/liberation-of-dora-mittelbau

1945: The The 3rd Armored Division discovered the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp.”

1945: The Palestine Post reported medical relief units were going to be heading to Greece. Almost one-third of the team which was first heading to Cairo and then would be off to Greece was made up of Palestinians (Jews). The team was made up of doctors, nurses, sanitary officers, laboratory technicians and drivers. Some of the Palestinians were fluent in Judeo-Spanish and Greek.

1945: Based on accounts from members of the 102nd Division, United States Army, members of the SS burned to death over one thousand prisoners at Gardelgen.  The prisoners were slave laborers from several concentration camps that were being moved east to keep them away from advancing Allied soldiers.  When the SS could no longer move them by train, they herded them into a barn, soaked them with gasoline and burned them to death.  The SS soldiers killed in this manner to conserve ammunition.  Most of the dead were Jews, a large number of whom appeared to be between the ages of fourteen and sixteen.

1945: Henry Oster, a native of Cologne who “was taken to the Lodz ghetto in 1941 and later to Auschwitz” was among those left alive when Buchenwald was liberated today.

1946: “More than 400 women members of Protestants churches were guests” today “at Temple Emanu-El, at an institute on Judaism held under the auspices of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods with the cooperation of the New York Council of Church Women” where “they heard addresses by three rabbis” who “explained the beliefs of Judaism, synagogue ritual and traditions and ceremonies of the Jewish religion.

1947(21st of Nisan, 5707): Seventh Day of Pesach

1947: Today E.F. Hutton and Company founding partner, Gerald Martin Loeb, the San Franciso born of Dahlia H. Lev and Solomon E. Loeb married Rose Lobree Benjamin the widow of Shanghai real estate developer Maurice Benjamin and the Brentwood, CA born daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A.E. Lobree.

1947: In the Bronx, “Milton Riegert a food wholesaler” and his wife Lucille, “a piano teacher gave birth to Academy Award nominate producer Peter Riegert who also was an actor and screenwriter.

1947: Birthdate of Israeli political leader Charlie-Shalom Biton.  A native of Morocco, he made Aliyah in

1948: “The first westbound convoy in almost three weeks fought its way through” to Jerusalem today from Tel Aviv having fought its way “along the 40-mile hazardous route” where it faced at least 2,000 Arab fighters.

1949: “President Truman said today that he was firmly convinced of the need for a speedy peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors, and he pledged this country's assistance to attain that objective.

1949: Today, Israel accepted the United Nations Conciliation Commission’s invitation to attend an ‘exchange of views’ with Arab states in Europe” which “might take place in Switzerland on May 1.”

1950(24th of Nisan, 5710): Sixty-eight year old Warsaw Polytechnic Institute trained mechanical engineer Alphonse Illitch Lipetz, the husband of Basile Carp Lipetz and the father of Rena Niles who was  the “chief of the locomotive department for the Ministry of Railways in Russia for three years during the last years of the Czars and who became a consulting engineer for the American Locomotive Company at Schenectady, NY in 1925 before becoming a Professor at Purdue University passed away today in New York City.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/04/12/86424425.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1951: President Harry Truman, who courageously recognized the state of Israel at its moment of birth, showed his courage again today when he relieved General Douglas MacArthur of his command.

1952(16th of Nisan, 5712): 2nd day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer

1952: After having premiered at Radio City Music Hall in March, “Singing in the Rain,” directed by Stanley Donen, produced by Arthur Freed, with a script by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, was released to theatres across the United States today.

1953(26th of Nisan, 5713): Parashat Shimini

1953(26th of Nisan, 5713): Ninety-five-year-old David Bach, the German born son of Abraham and Henrietta Jette Bach, the husband of Ida Bach and the father of Alfred Bach passed away today in the Bronx.

1953: This morning, NBC radio broadcast the final episode of “The Buster Brown Program” featuring June Foray as “the voices of Midnight the Cat and Old Grandie the Piano.”

1955(19th of Nisan, 5715): Fifth Day of Pesach

1955: “Marty”, the Oscar winning film with a script by Paddy Chayefsky was released today in the United States.

1955: Birthdate of Ethiopian native Ayele Seteng, the internationally acclaimed Israeli cross-country runner and record holding “marathon man.”

https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/sa/haile-satayin-1.html

1955(19th of Nisan): Rabbi Jekuthiel Judah Greenwald, author of “Ach laZarah” passed away

1956(30th of Nisan, 5716): Terrorists opened fire on a synagogue full of children and teenagers, in the farming community of Shafir killing three children and a youth worker while wounding five more, three seriously including Albert Edery, 14, of Lod, Kamus Amos Uzan, 15, of Shafrir, Yaakov Harari, 13, of Shafrir, Simcha Silberstrom, 25, a teacher from Shafrir, Shlomo Mizrahi, 16, of Shafrir abd Nisim Assis, 13, of Jerusalem.

1956: Funeral services are scheduled to be held at the “Riverside” for Oscar E. Herbnstadt  who raised two sons – George and Richard – with his wife Helen who was a member of Temple Sinai of Long Island in Lawrence, NY.

1956: In the Chancery Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey, a decision was rendered “In Re Katz Estate” today.

https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/appellate-division-published/1956/40-n-j-super-103-0.html

1958(21st of Nisan, 5718): Seventh Day of Pesach

1958(21st of Nisan, 5718): Ninety-year-old Laura Louise Hart, the Charleston, SC born daughter of Laura Louis Levy and Charles Ferdinand Levy and the wife of David Lopez Hart passed away today in her hometown.

1959: After 558 performances at the Imperial Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Jamaica,” a musical with a book and lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Harold Arlen and lighting design by Jean Rosenthal

1959: “Davey Jones’ Locker” with music by Mary Rogers was performed for the last time at the Morosco Theatre.

1960(14th of Nisan, 5720): Fast of the First Born

1960(14th of Nisan): Rabbi Chaim Heller, author LeHikre ha-Halakhot passed away

1961: Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, makes his singing début in New York City.

1961: The trial of Adolph Eichman on charges of genocide opened in Jerusalem.  The capture of Eichman in Argentina is the stuff of James Bond.  His trial marked a turning point as Jews and non-Jews alike began to talk openly about what happened in Europe.  Eichman would be the only person ever executed by the state of Israel. “Justice Moshe Landau read the 15-count indictment aloud in Hebrew, pausing as each charge was translated into German. The charges included “causing the killing of millions of Jews,” “torture” and placing “many millions of Jews in living conditions that were calculated to bring about their physical destruction.”

1963(17th of Nisan, 5723): Third Day of Pesach

1963(17th of Nisan, 5723): Eighty-year old Latvian born leader of the Mensheviks and life-long opponent of Stalin Raphael R. Abramovich, a co-founder of the Union for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, “the editor of the Yiddish encyclopedia Jewish People, Past and Present” and a feature writer for The Jewish Daily Forward who was the husband of “the former Rosa Segal” and the father of Dr. Lia Andler and Mark Abramovich, “an electrical engineer” who “disappeared without a trace” while fighting with the International Brigade against Franco after he had reportedly been kidnapped by Bolshevists who were the political enemies of his father, passed away today.

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Abramovich_Rafail

1963: Pitcher Conrad Cardinal appeared in his first major league game, taking the mound for the Houston Colt 45’s, now known as the Houston Astros.

1965(9th of Nisan, 5725): Eighty-seven-year-old Louise Kahn Hirschman passed away today after which she was buried at Temple Beth-El Cemetery in Pensacola, FL.

1965(9th of Nisan, 5725): Seventy-four-year-old Princeton graduate (1911) and New York Stock Exchange member James Bernhimer Seligamn, the son of De Witt J. (David) Seligman and Addie Seligman, passed away today.

1968: The “I’m Solomon” a musical with music by Ernest Gold had its first Broadway preview today.

1968:  Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in the sale, rental, and financing of housing.  It took the political skill and acumen of LBJ to insure that being Jewish was no longer a disability when it came to renting or buying a home. (This is not to be confused with more famous Civil Rights of 1964, the first piece of groundbreaking legislations signed into law by President Johnson who proved to be as strong voice for the underdog and disposed including the Jewish people and the state of Israel.)

1970: Civil rights attorney Martin Garbus and writer, therapist, and social worker Ruth Meitin Garbus gave birth to Elizabeth Fraya Garbus the Brown University graduate who gained fame as Liz Garbus, documentary film maker.

1971(16th of Nisan, 5731): Second Day of Pesach

1971: Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, who had been trained as a paratrooper by the Israelis and who was complicit in the hijacking of plane by terrorists that led to the rescue at Entebbe, was forced to flee today marking the end of his “reign.”

1971: A revival of Kurt Weill’s “Johnny Johnson,” a musical version of The Good Soldier Švejk opened today at the Edison Theatre

1972(27th of Nisan, 5732): Yom HaShoah

1972(27th of Nisan, 5732): Eleven days before his 54th birthday, Solomon Aaron Berson the physician who was the research partner of Rosalyn Yalow passed away.

http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/87/5/1925.full

1973: In the wake of the Munich Olympic Massacre, Zaiad Muchasi, the replacement for Hussein Al Bashir in Cyprus, was killed by a bomb in his Athens hotel room today.

1973: New York premiere of “Scarecrow” directed by Jerry Schatzberg.

1974(19th of Nisan, 5734): Fifth day of Pesach

1974(19th of Nisan, 5734): Eighty-seven-year-old Jerusalem native Israel Porath, the husband of Miriam Titktin with whom he “had 7 children - Shoshana, Samuel, Tzve, Benjamin, Ben Zion, Joseph, and David – and “for almost five decades,” “the ‘dean’ of Cleveland, Ohio’s Orthodox rabbis” passed away today.

https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/porath-israel

1974: In a case of “Jew versus Jew” it was reported today that Lorence A. Silverberg, chairman and president of the Kenton Corporation, is expected to become president and chief executive officer of Interstate Stores, Inc., when its pending purchases of more than 1,100 McCrory stores is completed” instead of Samuel Neaman.

1974: It was reported today that Samuel Neaman who had resigned as McCrory's chairman and chief executive Feb. 15 to negotiate for a post as Interstate's top man” and his wife Celia had left for a trip to England and Israel, countries where Mr. Neaman has relaties.

1974(19th of Nisan, 5734): Eighteen Israelis, including 8 children were murdered today and 15 more Israelis were injured today when three terrorists belong to of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command crossed the Israeli border from Lebanon and attacked the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

1974(19th of Nisan, 5734): Fifty-five-year-old German born, American mathematician Abraham Robinson passed away today in New Haven, CT.

http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/robinson-abraham.pdf

1974(19th of Nisan, 5734): Polish born American actress Lilian Satz, “a member of the Adler Yiddish Theatrical dynasty” and the wife of Yiddish actor Ludwig Satz passed away today at Mamaroneck, NY.

1974: Golda Meir resigned as Prime Minister “after the Agranat Commission had published its interim report on the Yom Kippur War.

1974: “Music! Music!” a “cavalcade of American Musice with footnotes by Alan Jay Lerner” opened today at the Theatre Center 55th Street Theatre.

1977: Seventy-seven-year-old French poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert who teamed with hid Josef Kozma, the Budapest born Jewish composer he had worked with during the 1930’s from Vichy and the Nazis at great person risk to his own life passed away today.

1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had started to dismantle its outposts in South Lebanon in preparation for the expected pullback. But Lebanese Christian leaders and many Israelis expressed concern that the pullback was premature. The world's greatest battleship, the US atom-powered "Nimitz," completed its Israeli visit and sailed away from Haifa.

1978: 1978: Harold H. Saunders, who played a key role in the creation of the Camp David Accords, began serving as the 12th Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs.

1979(14th of Nisan, 5739): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach

1979(14th of Nisan, 5739): Eighty-six-year-old Wharton graduate and WW I Army veteran Sam Gukenheimer Adler, the former CEO of Leopold Adler Company and husband of Elinor Gunsfeld Adler with whom he had two sons, Leopold and Sam, passed away today in Savannah.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/04/12/111091623.pdf

1979(14th of Nisan, 5739): New York City born social worker Maxwell W. Luchs, a director of the welfare funds for the American Jewish Congress who had joined the American Jewish in 1949 after having served as an overseas personnel director for the Joint Distribution Committee and as field secretary of the Michigan State Resettlement Service for Refugees passed away today.

Maxwell M. Lochs, Former Aide Of American Jewish Congress - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

1979(14th of Nisan, 5739): Eighty-two-year-old Detroit businessman Shmuel-Ber Leykin passed away today.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2017/04/shmuel-ber-leykin.html

1983(28th of Nisan, 5743): General Avraham Yoffe passed away.  A sabra born at Yavne;el in 1913 Yoffe served with Orde Wingate, fought with British Army during World War II before beginning a distinguished career with the IDF that included command of the 9th Brigade during the Suez Campaign and the capture of several significant positions in the Sinai during the Six Day War.

1983: In “How Punchy Was Slapsie Maxie?” published today, Jeff Wheelwright examined the life and demise of the Jewish boxer.

http://www.si.com/vault/1983/04/11/619345/how-punchy-was-slapsie-maxie

1983: Twenty-second and final episode of the first season of “Family Ties” sit-com created by Gary David Goldberg was broadcast today.

1983: In “This Week’s Citation Classic” published today Theodore Lowi discussed his latest work, The End of Liberalism: Ideology, Policy and the Crisis of Public Authority.

http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1983/A1983QH93700001.pdf

1983(28th of Nisan, 5743): Yom HaShoah

1983: Poland's Roman Catholic Primate, Jozef Cardinal Glemp, officiated today at a mass honoring the Jewish fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The mass was one of a series of events over the next week and a half commemorating the 40th anniversary of the resistance to the Nazis.

1984: CBS broadcast the final episode of the miniseries “George Washington” co-starring Stephen Macht as “General Benedict Arnold.”

1985(20th of Nisan, 5745): Sixth Day of Pesach

1986: “Band of the Hand” a crime movie directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Stephen Lang and James Remard was released today in the United States.

1986(2nd of Nisan, 5746): Eighty-nine-year-old Israel Goldstein the long-serving Rabbi at congregation B’nai Jerhurun and an ardent Zionist who was also the founder of both the National Conference of Christians and Jews and Brandeis University passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/04/13/obituaries/rabbi-israel-goldstein-a-founder-of-brandeis.html

1987(12th of Nisan, 5747): An Israeli woman was killed by a firebomb thrown into her car in the occupied West Bank today, and in response hundreds of Jewish settlers rampaged in the West Bank town of Kalkilya overnight, breaking windows and setting cars ablaze. The Israeli woman was killed near Alfe Menashe, a Jewish settlement on the West Bank about 25 miles north of here. Her husband and two of her children, who were also in the car, were reported in serious condition. Her third child and a young family friend were treated for light burns. The army imposed a curfew on Kalkilya, located 17 miles from Tel Aviv, but security sources said they were unable to stop an estimated 600 angry Jewish settlers from entering the town.

 

1987: Following secret talks held in London, Shimon Peres and King Hussein of Jordan reached an agreement outlining the method whereby a peace treaty could be negotiated between Israel and Jordan.  In a tragic turn of events, Yitzchak Shamir, the Prime Minister of Israel, scuttled the talks and for once it was the Israelis who may have “never missed a chance to miss a chance.”

1987(12th of Nisan, 5747): Primo Levi passed away. Primo Levi survived the Holocaust and bore witness to it through an amazing collection of literature.  Born in Turin, Italy in 1919, Levi was trained as a chemist.  He was deported to Auschwitz as a Jew and a member of the anti-Fascist Resistance.  His experiences in the camps and his grueling efforts to return to Italy after the war are the subject of two of his books, Survival in Auschwitz and The Reawakening.  He is also the author of Moments of Reprove, The Periodic Table and If Not Now When?  Levi did not make a career of being a Holocaust Survivor.  He worked as a chemist after the war and did not retire to devote full time to his writing until 1977.  He died under tragic circumstances at the age of 67.

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0731.html

1988(24th of Nisan, 5748): Seventy-year-old screenwriter and author Jesse Lasky, Jr who wrote the scripts for two Biblical “pot-boilers” – “Ten Commandments” and “Samson and Delilah” – passed away today.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0489679/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

1990(16th of Nisan, 5750): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer

1991: Today, at 06:55:29 PDT, Atlantis whose crew including Jerome Apt, landed on runway 33 at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The rollout distance was 1,940 m (6,360 ft), and the rollout time was 56 seconds.

1995(10th of Nisan, 5755): Jacob Weingreen the professor of Hebrew in Trinity College, Dublin who excavated Samaria and who is the namesake for The Weingreen Museum of Biblical Antiquities passed away today.

1996(22nd of Nisan, 5756): Eighth Day of Pesach

1997: “Grosse Pointe Blank” the funniest high school reunion movie ever made featuring Alan Arkin and Jeremy Piven was released in the United States today.

1997(4th of Nisan, 5757): Terrorist killed a member of the IDF after having kidnaped him near Moshav Zanoah.

1998(15th of Nisan, 5758): First Day of Pesach

1998: In the evening, Mitchell Levin and Harvey Luber, of blessed memory, celebrated their last seder together.

1999: Matt Bloom debuted on the WWF episode of Sunday Night Heat.

1999: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including “Reading the Holocaust” by Inga Clendinnen and recently published paperback editions of “The Unexpected Salami” by Laurie Gwen Shapiro and “The Children” by David Halberstam

2000: A British court resolved David Irving's libel case against Deborah Lipstadt by affirming Lipstadt's portrayal of Irving as an anti-Semitic Holocaust denier.

https://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/11/2000/deborah-lipstadt

2000: “An Israeli judge ruled that” Daniel Weiz “a 19-year-old soldier can be extradited to Canada to face murder charges, “charges which Wiez has denied.

2000: “Germany has started an Internet Web site’ www.lostart.de listing thousands of works of art plundered by the Nazis from museums and individuals in World War II

2001(18th of Nisan, 5761): Fourth Day of Pesach

2001: “Plotting a Pardon; Rich Cashed In a World of Chits to Win Pardon” published today described how Avner Azulay and Rich’s former wife worked with the Clintons to obtain a midnight pardon for the billionaire fugitive from justice.

2002: Palestinian terrorists begin to surrender at Jenin.

2002(29th of Nisan, 5762): In Tunisia, the El Ghriba synagogue was bombed by Al Qaeda killing 21. El Ghriba is an ancient synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba. It is located close to Hara Seghira, several kilometers southwest of Houmt Souk, the capital of Djerba. The history of the synagogue is reported to go back about 2000 years, making it the oldest synagogue in Africa and one of the oldest ones in the world. According to an oral tradition, it was built by Jews who had immigrated after the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue is the destination of an annual pilgrimage of many Tunisian Jews after the celebration of Passover.

2002: Manhattan Ensemble Theater presented the world premiere of a new English version of the Yiddish classic, The Golem. “Drenched in magic and mystery, the play reworks an ancient Talmudic legend about a 17th century Rabbi in Prague who molds and animates a huge clay figure to fight for the Jewish community, which has been threatened by accusations of spilling the blood of Christian children.”

2003: In New York, a federal judged began hearing arguments in a case where it is contended that Fritz and Guenther Werthiem had been swindled and that their heirs should be allowed to sue one of Europe's largest retailers, KarstadtQuelle AG” which “llater absorbed the Jewish-owned Wertheim department store chain and the land it once held in the heart of Berlin.”

2004(20th of Nisan, 5764): Sixth Day of Pesach

2004(20th of Nisan, 5674): Eighty-three-year-old Austrian-born British “Paul Philip Hamburger, pianist, accompanist, vocal coach and teacher” passed away today.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1460602/Paul-Hamburger.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/paul-hamburger-549794.html

2004: “Focus on the Soul: The Photographs of Lotte Jacobi” came to a close.

http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/focus-on-the-soul-the-photographs-of-lotte-jacobi

2004: An exhibition entitled “Elijah Chair: Art, Ritual, and Social Action” comes to a close at the Jewish Museum in New York.  Elijah Chair,” a video sculpture was created for the Times Square Seder, a public art and social action project which took place in New York in 2002.

2005: The New York Times publishes an article entitled “Acts of Quiet Courage” by Bob Herbert. It describes the role that Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas, the wartime Brazilian ambassador to France played in providing the visas that saved young Felix Rohatyn and his relatives during World War II.

2005: At joint press conference with Ariel Sharon, President George W. Bush endorsed the Prime Minister’s plan to withdraw from Gaza and plans for a final peace treaty with the Palestinians that will acknowledge the new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, which make it unrealistic that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949.

2007(23rd of Nisan, 5767): Sixty-three-year-old Tina Susan Rieger, the wife of United Jewish Communities’ president and CEO Howard Rieger, lost her battle with pancreatic cancer and passed away today.

http://www.jta.org/2007/04/12/archive/tina-susan-rieger-the-wife-of-united-jewish

2007: As part of the L.A. Theatre Works program, The Skirball Cultural Center features a performance of Jewish playwright Arthur Miller’s, “The Man Who Had All The Luck.”

2007: In an article entitled “A Youthful Chronicle of Wartime in Prague,” the New York Times reviewed The Diary of Petr Ginz: 1941-1942.

2008(6th of Nisan, 5768): Songwriter and musician Donald Kahn, the son of German born American lyricist Gus Kahn, passed away today.

2008: Jason Hutt’s documentary film “Orthodox Stance” about the pugilistic career of Dmitriy Salita which combines boxing with Orthodox Judaism opens in Los Angeles.

2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah hosts the Dan Nichols Musical Shabbat Service!

2009(17th of Nisan, 5769): Shabbat Chol Hamoed

2010: “Sin,” a play by Mark Altman based on “The Unseen” by Isaac Beshevis Singer is scheduled to have its final performance at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.

2010: Aaron Posner’s “My Name is Asher Lev” a dramatic adaption from the Chaim Potok novel is scheduled to completed its premiere run at the Round House Theatre in Bethsda, MD.

2010: Laura Cohen Applebaum The executive director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to discuss the new book "Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln's City at Barnes & Noble in Rockville MD.

2010: Public Broadcasting System is scheduled began a four-day series of new programs about the Holocaust. In its first effort, PBS and Masterpiece Classic premiered a new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank.

2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems by Charles Bernstein and A Ticket to the Circus: A Memoir by Norris Church Mailer who was the wife of Norman Mailer.

2010(27th of Nisan, 5770): Yom HaShoah

2011: Yeshiva University Museum and Stern College are scheduled to present a performance by The Momenta String Quartet

2011: Rabbi Jill Jacobs is scheduled to begin serving, as the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America on this date.

2011: Dr. Brian Horowitz of Tulane University, author of “Empire Jews,” is scheduled to speak at a conference on Jewish Emigration to be held at Temple University.

2011(7th of Nisan, 5771): Eighty-seven-year-old poet Stanley Siegleman passed away.

http://forward.com/articles/137150/a-poet-passes-stanley-siegelman-/

2011: Itzhak Perlman and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra are scheduled to perform at Lincoln Center in NYC.

2011: The New York Times included a review of The Free World, “David Bezmozgis’s intimate portrait of the Krasnanskys, a Jewish family from Latvia immigrating to the West in 1978.

2011: A 42-year-old man who participated in Friday's Tel Aviv marathon died today after being hospitalized for severe dehydration. The man collapsed of dehydration during the marathon on Friday and was brought to the emergency room in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. His condition continued to deteriorate and this morning he died due to liver damage as a result of dehydration.

2011: Center for Jewish History presents “The Library that Never Was: The Attempt to Build a Center for Jewish Books and Learning in Post-Holocaust Europe.”

2011: Assembled in Haifa and Nazareth for the third event held in Israel under the EUREKA Chairmanship year, EUREKA's national delegates today approved a series of promising cooperative R&D projects in a variety of areas, including renewable energy, agrofood technology, biotechnology, physical and exact sciences, IT and electronics, industrial manufacturing, and more.

2011: A joint Chinese-Israeli conference opens today at Tel Aviv University, entitled "Replanning Tilanqiao, Formerly the Jewish Ghetto in Shanghai."

2011: In “How Do You Say ‘Good to the Last Drop’ in Hebrew?” published today Stuart Elliot traces the relationship between Maxwell House, American Jewry and Jacobs Advertising.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/business/media/11adnewsletter1.html?_r=0

2011(7th of Nisan, 5771): Forty-nine-year-old Cambridge educated Sir Simon Milton, whose father came to England on the Kindertansport and later founded Sharaton and whose government service led to serving as Deputy Mayor of London passed away today.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8446352/Sir-Simon-Milton.html

2012: As part of the East Village Klezmer Series, Michael Winograd is scheduled to Klezmer Music with Strings in NYC.

2012(19th of Nisan): Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Menachem Zemba who was shot dead by the Nazis during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

http://www.chabad.org/calendar/view/day.asp?tDate=4/11/2012

2013: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, MD

2013: As part of Holocaust memorial program, the University of Utah is scheduled to host a Candlelight Vigil followed by Peter Black’s speech entitled “70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising.”

2013: “The Law In These Parts” which was selected as Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film Festival is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.

2013: “Hitler’s Children” is scheduled to be shown at the Hartford Jewish Film Fest.

2013: Dr. Astrith Baltsan is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Hatikvah: Hope Reborn”

2013: Gilles Uriel Bernheim resigned as chief rabbi of France.

2013: “The flag representing the 30th Infantry Division assumed a place of honor during the National Days of Remembrance ceremony, an annual event commemorating the Holocaust at the U.S. Capitol’s Rotunda. It was added to the 35 others after the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the U.S. Army Center for Military History determined in late 2012 that members of the division had liberated Holocaust survivors.” (As reported by Hillel Kuttler)

2013: Two days after rejecting calls to do so, French Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim announced that he was stepping down from his post amid two scandals, a French newspaper reported today.

2013: Police arrested five women this morning for wearing tallitot (prayer shawls) traditionally worn by men, while participating in a Rosh Hodesh prayer service at the Western Wall attended by some 200 women.

2014: “Under the Skin” is scheduled to be shown at the Jacob Burns Film Festival.

2014: “General Jack Weinstein was responsible for the firing of nine Air Force commanders in Malmstrom AFB, Montana.”

http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140709/NEWS/307090064/Air-Force-releases-info-Malmstrom-cheating-punishments

2014: Israeli artist Tirtzah Bassel’s solo exhibition is scheduled to open at the Slag Gallery.

2014: In “Laemmle’s List: A Mogul’s Heroism” published today Neal Gabler described the life and times of “Carl Laemmle, a founder of Universal Pictures” who “unlike his peers…saved Jews from the Nazis.”

2014: Education and Sharing Day as established by the United States Congress in honor of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson

2014: Cesare Frustaci, a 77-year-old Holocaust survivor who has been speaking in Cedar Rapids this week under the sponsorship of the Thaler Holocaust Committee is scheduled to speak during Shabbat Evening Services at Temple Judah.

2014(11th of Nisan, 5774: Eighty-five year old Darrell Zwerling the character who was the son of Austrian and Romanian Jewish immigrants and was one of those faces you recognize but a name you do not know passed away today.

2014(11th of Nisan, 5774): Centenarian Myer S. Kripke, the Omaha rabbi who was both a scholar and a philanthropist who relied on investment advice from his friend Warren Buffett passed away today.

http://www.omaha.com/news/longtime-leader-of-omaha-synagogue-championed-interfaith-dialogue/article_7cd35fca-3184-51ae-a030-85ba083a3042.html

2015: “David Orlowski, the son of Miriam Winter” is scheduled to be signing copies of his mother memoir Trains at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

2015: “The Farewell Party,” “Rue Madar,” “Victor ‘Young’ Perez” and “Belle and Sebastian” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.

2015: In New York City Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center is scheduled to host a Havdalah ceremony marking the end of Shabbat and Pesach featuring Idan Raichel.

2015: The family of Bernice Tannenbaum, of blessed memory, the former President of Hadassah will sit shiva this evening at her apartment.

2015(22nd of Nisan, 5775): Eight Day of Pesach, a holiday made great again in Cedar Rapids, Iowa thanks to all of the work of Deb Levin whose skills include everything from making a great Seder to provide all of the tech help to make it possible to publish two blogs.

2015: “An unseasonal recurrence of wintry weather across Israel today forced the cancellation and rescheduling of many traditional Moroccan Mimouna celebrations signifying the end of the Passover holiday.

2015: “The Zabinskis’ remarkable wartime actions — which included hiding Jews in indoor animal enclosures —  and are the subject of ‘Zookeeper’s Wife’ seem certain to gain even more renown with the inauguration today of a permanent exhibition in the villa, an attractive two-story Bauhaus home from the 1930s still on the grounds of the Warsaw Zoo.” (As reported by Vanessa Gera)

2015: “During an interview in Warsaw” today, seventy-eight-year-old Moshe Tirosh recalled “hiding in a villa on the grounds of the Warsaw zoo for three weeks during World War II.”

2016: “A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National of Academy Sciences” that combined archaeology, Jewish history and applied mathematics, and involved computerized image processing” provided new information on “when the Bible was written.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/12/world/middleeast/new-evidence-onwhen-bible-was-written-ancient-shopping-lists.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=Moth-Visible&moduleDetail=inside-nyt-region-2&module=inside-nyt-region&region=inside-nyt-region&WT.nav=inside-nyt-region

2016: “Rosenwald” is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.

2016: In Jerusalem Migdalei haYm haTichon is scheduled to present Journey through Jazz and French Chanson" with the Blues star Deborah Benasouli

2016: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present Jews on First (aka The Right Pitch): an adaptation from Larry Ruttman’s award winning book American Jews & America’s Game - an exploration of Jewish assimilation, identity, and guts viewed through the lens of America’s favorite pastime.

2016: Following a screening of “Rosenwald” the Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host “LaNitra M. Berger, PhD, a historian of African and African-American art talking about Julius Rosenwald’s impact on the African-American art during the Harlem Renaissance.”

2017(15th of Nisan, 5777): Seventy-one-year-old Dr. Mark Wainberg, the microbiologist specializing in HIV research passed away today. (As Richard Sanomir)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/world/americas/dr-mark-wainberg-microbiologist-aids-awareness-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2017(15th of Nisan, 5777): First Day of Pesach; in the evening count the Omer. 

15th of Nisan, 5650 (1890): An untold number of poor New Yorkers enjoyed eating meat at their Seder tonight thanks to the generosity of Mrs. Paulina Rosendorff who had provided the funding that enabled butchers to distribute their product free of charge.

15th of Nisan, 5675(1915): The 300 Jewish soldiers and sailors who attended last night’s Seder sponsored by the Army and Navy Y.M.H.A. which also provided a night’s lodging at the Hotel Roland are scheduled to worship at Temple Beth Israel at Lexington and 72nd Street today while the Secretary of War, the Governor of New York and the Mayor of New York City have been invited to attend tonight’s Seder sponsored by the Army and Navy Young Men’s Hebrew Association for the benefit of 300 of the 8,000 Jews serving in the military which is being held at Vienna Hall on Lexington and 58th Street.

15th of Nisan, 5677 (1917): One day after U.S. declared War on Germany, Jews gather in the synagogue to observe Pesach and Shabbat

15th of Nisan, 5705(1945): At least 58 Jews were murdered in a forest near the Austrian village of Deutsch Shuetzen, in what would come to be called the Deutsch Shuetzen Massacre while in the evening, members of the Jewish Infantry Brigade of the British 8th Army serving in Italy took part in a Seder at Faenza.

15th of Nisan, 5725(1965):  While Jews in the Soviet struggled to deal with a shortage of Matzah created by the government refusal to let state bakeries prepare adequate supplies of unleavened bread Rabbis in America were encouraged to deliver sermons that related the themes of Pesach with fight for Civil Rights complete with references to the recent voting rights march in Selma.

15th of Nisan, 5728(1968): For the first time, Pesach is observed in a unified Jerusalem

2018: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host “Unsilencing Sephardic Women Writer” Jewish Voices from North Africa” during while “French literary scholar Nina B. Lichtenstein will “illuminate the shrouded histories and complicated… identities” of a multiply marginalized minority: Magrebi (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian) Sephardic women writers.”

2018: “CXX Proof, the Bernice Diener Ensemble-in-Residence at Stern College for Women, Yeshiva University, is scheduled to perform the work of Jewish composers and featuring the world premiere of Proof Positive for violin, clarinet and piano by YU faculty composer David Glaser. Musicians: Christopher Grymes, clarinet; Xiao-dong Wang, violin; Xak Bjerken, piano” at the Center for Jewish History.

2018: “The American Jewish Historical Society” is scheduled to host “We Spoke Out: Comic Books and the Holocaust” which demonstrates that “long before the Holocaust was taught in schools, the youth of America was learning about the Nazi genocide from Batman, the X-Men, Captain America, and Sgt. Rock.”

2018: One day after she had passed away, Rabbis Steven Silberman and Dana Evan Kaplan are scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Harriet Scheuer Kahn at the Springhill Avenue Temple Cemetery.

http://obits.al.com/obituaries/mobile/obituary.aspx?n=harriet-scheuer-kahn&pid=188704597&fhid=5490

2018(26th of Nisan, 5778): Eighty-seven-year-old Green Bay, WI, native Mitzi Shore, the owner of The Comedy Store and the mother of comedian Paul Shore passed away today. (As reported by Daniel E. Slotnik)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/obituaries/mitzi-shore-whose-comedy-store-fostered-rising-stars-dies-at-87.html

2018: Violinist David Lisker and Northwestern Theatre Professor Rives Collins are scheduled to appear the Yom HaShoah Commemoration sponsored by the Illinois Museum and Education Center that will include “a candle lighting by Holocaust Survivors and their descendants, accompanied by prayer and song by Hazzan Benjamin A. Tisser of North Suburban Synagogue Beth El.

2018: Following this morning’s detonation of a Palestinian device “near an Israeli construction vehicle” this evening IAF struck “a military site belonging to Hamas. (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)

2019: The Cabaret at Café Sabarsky in the Neue Galerie is scheduled to host Yael Rasooly’s debut performance that tells “the stories of the backstreets and alleys, as well as the glamour and exuberance, in the final years of the Weimar Republic.”

2019: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a presentation by Holocaust survivor Sam Ponczak as part of its “First Person” series.

2019: “At around 3 pm EST” today, Beresheet is expected to land on the Moon, making Israel “only the fourth country to ever accomplish this feat.”

https://www.fromthegrapevine.com/innovation/israel-moon-landing-watch-parties-spaceil-beresheet?fbclid=IwAR26hSKmQU84qQYmg-jAbxysTBwxWsFyY95_-6l6gIGUorbPj1MXk3THkH4&utm_source=Jewish+Federation+of+Greater+Des+Moines+Master+List&utm_campaign=44f154e952-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_10_05_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9b761bc8fc-44f154e952-35840663

2020(17th of Nisan, 5780): Shabbat Chol Hamoed Pesach

2020: As Jews recite the special prayers that combine Pesach and Shabbat, we offer special prayers for the health and well-being of Alan Smason and all the other people at the Crescent City Jewish News and the friends and family of Dr. Brian Horowitz, Chair of the Tulane University Jewish Studies Department who are living in New Orleans, the latest “hot spot” during the coronavirus epidemic.

2020: The Tri-Valley Cultural Jews in the East Bay are schedule to lead a “Secular Seder” on Zoom staring this evening at 5 p.m.

2020: Today, Eric Greitens, the former Republican governor of Missouri and Sheena Greitens would soon accept a job as an associate professor of political science at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs announced they were ending their marriage

2020; The Seder Squad is scheduled to present, via Zoom “Crafting our Liberation” during which attendees can “reflect on Passover through art and the religious ceremony of Havdalah” while “marking the separation between Shabbat and the rest of the week.”

2020: In what has to be one of the most imaginative responses to the Pandemic Quarantine, the Riverway Project is scheduled to present the Seder Squad’s on-line version of “The Great Passover Bake Off.”

2020: Idina Menzel, Ilana Glazer, Ben Platt and many more celebs are scheduled to lead a ‘Saturday Night Seder’ to raise money for “a Center for Disease Control fund for first responders working during the coronavirus outbreak.” (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News, the voice for everything Jewish in the land of the Bayou)

2021: In Coralville, IA. Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to present via Zoom, Kathy Jacobs who will hold an Adult Ed Mussar Talk about a New Mussar Course “Gates of Everyday Holiness.”

2021: Eternal Life-Hemshech, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, and the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta are scheduled to co-sponsor, online, Atlanta’s 56th Annual Community-wide Yom HaShoah (Day of Holocaust Remembrance) Commemoration.”

2021: Yiddishkayt is scheduled to host live-streamed Culinary + Culture Salon: The Rye Edition, in which attendees learn about the history and significance of rye bread, from the one-of-a-kind Stanley Ginsberg, The Rye Baker.

2021: Hadar and Sheldon are scheduled to host the Yom Ha’Atzmaut Across America virtual concert with Sheldon Low.

2021: Based on the proclamation issued by President Biden on April 2, today marks the end “of a week of observance of the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust…”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/04/04/a-proclamation-on-days-of-remembrance-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-2021/

2021: As part of the Women of Sefarad Series, the Jewish Heritage Alliance is scheduled to host lecture by Professor Abraham Gross on the life and times of Doña Gracia Nasi

2021: Friends of Bezalel and AICF are scheduled to present an event featuring Bezalel graduates and AICF grant recipients Zohar Dvir (London) and Dan Azoulay (Tel Aviv).

https://events.aicf.org/events/discover-animation/

2021: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Cynthia Ozick’s review of the biography of Philip Roth by Blake Baily and Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser.

2021: The JCRS, an organization that really does provide meaningful support for the Jewish community is scheduled to present “Jews Roots,’ a remote celebration online of the modern era of the Jewish Children’s Regional Services which is marking its 75th anniversary.

2021: At a time when most Israelis are hoping to avoid a fifth election, Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas is reportedly considering making a political speech in which he will stress his commitment to Israel, in order to ease the path toward his acceptance by right-wing parties, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett have been wrangling over a potential agreement to rotate the prime ministership between them

2021: “A power failure that appeared to have been caused by a deliberately planned explosion struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment site on today, in what Iranian officials called an act of sabotage that they suggested had been carried out by Israel.”

2021Fiddler at 50: A Reunion Celebration of Fiddler on the Roof” is scheduled to take place in London.

https://www.jw3.org.uk/whats-on/fiddler-50-reunion-celebration-fiddler-roof

https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-hit-film-fiddler-on-the-roof-turns-50-celebrate-with-the-original-cast/

2022: Seventy-one year old author, public speaker and sometimes thespian Fran Lebowitz is scheduled to bring her one-person show “An Evening With Fran Lebowitz” to Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace in Cleveland today.

2022: Stephanie Butnick, host of “Tablet’s Unorthodox Podcast” is scheduled to moderate conversation with Lisa Barr and James McAuley as they talk about stolen Jew­ish art dur­ing the Holo­caust, anti­semitism and dis­place­ment after the war, and the recla­ma­tion of the art and the nar­ra­tive.

2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a conversation with journalist Bari Weiss, author of How to Fight Anti-Semitism and The New Seven Words and the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, director, author and screenwriter David Mamet, the author of Recessional, who issues “warnings about the liberal Visigoths at our gates whose “cultural thuggery” is killing not only free thought and expression but democracy itself.”

2022: Israel appears to be facing a governmental crisis today following yesterday’s clarification by Yamina party MK Idit Silman “that she has no intention of walking back her dramatic decision from last week to exit the coalition, a move that ended the government’s razor-thin majority in the Knesset, paralyzed its ability to pass legislation and left it near potential collapse. (As reported by TOI)

2022: Members of the staff from the Schottenstein Chabad House at Ohio State University is scheduled to “meet with OSU’s president, Kristina Johnson, Monday, to discuss the administration’s response” to the vote by the OSU student senate to adopt a Boycott Divest and Sanctions resolution which is aimed at Israel.

https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/news/local_news/jewish-community-condemns-osu-student-divestment-resolution/article_ccca2772-b76f-11ec-a0c8-afe5031cb066.html

2022: Today the HUC board of governors is scheduled to meet today and vote on a “plan to stop training rabbinical students full time in Cincinnati, OH.

https://www.jta.org/2022/04/07/united-states/ohios-attorney-general-and-synagogues-across-the-country-fiercely-debate-hebrew-union-colleges-downsizing-plan?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-42701-574930

2023(20th of Nisan, 5783): Sixth Day of Pesach; in the evening light candles

2023: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a webinar in which Trudy Gold lectures on “Nazis and Jews: 1933-1939.”

2023: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a “Festival Evening service.”

2023: Bank Hapoalim is scheduled to sponsore free entrance to 170 museums, national parks, and heritage sites in Israel, including ANU - Museum of the Jewish People for the last time during this holiday season.

2023: YIVO is scheduled to present a lecture by Bozena Keff based on “The Guardians of Fate,” her collection of essays on Polish language literature the Holocaust.

2023: Funeral services are scheduled to be held at Kfar Etzion today for  48 year old Lucy (Lucianne) Dee, who succumbed to her wounds suffered in a terrorist attack that claimed the life of two of her daughters as the family, including her husband rabbi Leo Dee were on a trip to Tiberias. (As reported by Emanuel Fabian)

2024: World Jewish Congress - North America and the American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to present the Exhibit Inauguration of “The Golden Age of the Jews of Alandalus” | "La Edad de Oro de los judíos de Alandalús"

2024: As part of the Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series, is scheduled to present Tulane professor and New York Times contributor, Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz as she lectures on God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion's Unexpected Influence on Academic Success,

2024: Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Professor Marc Dollinger on “Jews and Whiteness” and a webinar on “Christian Views of Jews, Part 2: The Church Fathers” facilitated by Dr. Helen Fry.

2024: In Marblehead, MA, Temple Sinai is scheduled to host “A Modern “Song of Songs”: Exploring Jewish cultural themes thru Israeli Rock & Roll.”

2024: The Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “a conversation between James S. Snyder, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, and contemporary artist Michal Rovner as part of the Museum’s continuing series of talks that reflect on the role of art and culture in today's complex times” during which “the speakers will discuss Rovner’s career and work, which explores questions of nature, identity, dislocation, and the fragility of human existence.
2024: At an online lunch and learn “filmmaker Adam Fried to discuss his film, “Everything’s Koshe, a t documentary that spans countries, generations, and cultures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6CWE0sU_2Q

2024: In its Main Sanctuary, The Museum at Eldrige is scheduled “to celebrate the release of best-selling and award-winning author Joan Nathan's new cookbook, My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories (Knopf 2024), with cookbook author and TikTok star Jake Cohen, moderated by four-time James Beard award-winning chef and author Rozanne Gold.

2024: The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum to host “Nights at the Seder Table”

2024: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by Carl Kaplan and Vasily Zaitsau, TTP’s Archive Services Caseworker in Boston and Archive Services Coordinator in Minsk, who “will explain how to initiate a genealogy research request with TTP, what their research process entails, and what kinds of results you may expect to receive from them, with examples of discoveries made for previous clients.”

2024: As April 11th begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day 188 in captivity.  (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)

 

 

 

 

 

No comments: