Wednesday, August 21, 2024

This Day, August 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

August 23

634: Umar began his reign as the second Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate. Umar overturned the ban on Jews worshipping in Jerusalem. Not only did he clean the Temple Mount of Filth, he encouraged the formation of Sanhedrin when he invited “70 Jewish families to live on the southern end of the Temple Mount”.

686:  Birthdate of Charles Martel, hero of the Battle of Tours and grandfather of Charlemagne.  The Battle of Tours took place in 732.  Martel led the Christian forces against invading Moslem forces coming up from Spain.  This victory ended the Moslem threat to Western Europe and led to the demarcation of Christian and Moslem Europe at the Pyrenees.  The life of the Jewish people varied depending upon which side of the mountains they lived.  Charlemagne, Martel’s grandson, would prove to be a benign ruler where his Jewish subjects were concerned.

1179: The Battle of Jacob’s Ford opened with the arrival of Saladin at the river crossing. Jacob’s Ford was a key Jordan River crossing on the road that ran between Damascus and Acre on the Mediterranean. The area would become hotly contested in the 20th century in combat including WW I, the War for Independence and the Six Day War.

1217: During the Fifth Crusade, another futile attempt by Christians to re-take Jerusalem that brought misery to the Jews, King Andrew II of Hungary boarded Venetian ships at Spalato on their first leg of their journey to “the Holy Land.”

1305: Fifteen years after ordering the expulsion of the Jews from England, King Edward executed William Wallace in the cruel manner reserved for rebels as punishment for the Scots trying to keep their kingdom separate from Edward’s rule.  The Scots never expelled the Jews the way Edward had, and it is probable that some English Jews found refuge in “lowland or the highlands.” Whatever else, the Jews and the Scots shared the enmity of this avaricious monarch.

1349: Start of pogrom in Cologne known as the “Slaughter of the Jews” when “an enraged mob entered the Jewish quarter” and began killing the Jews in response to the fears over the Black Death.

1542: Joseph Caro completed his commentary on the Tur.

1555:  Calvinists are granted rights in the Netherlands. John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism was seen at least from a comparative point of view as being a philo-Semite. Some Jews felt that there was some sort of bond between them and the Calvinists because both groups were intense attack from the Catholic Church.  The willingness of the Dutch to allow the Calvinists to settle in the Netherlands was an example of their religious toleration which is what made the "land of windmills and tulips" a hospitable place for the Jews of Europe.

1567: The Polish king, Sigismund II Augustus, issued an edict, granting the Jews permission to open a yeshiva at Lublin. "As a result of the efforts of our advisors and in keeping with the request of the Jews of Lublin we do hereby grant permission to erect a yeshiva and to outfit said yeshiva with all that is required to advance learning. All the learned men and rabbis of Lublin shall come together for among their number they shall choose one to serve as the head of the yeshiva. Let their choice be a man who will magnify Torah and bring it glory."(Edict dated August 21, 1567)

1572: In Paris, Catholics slaughter Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.  There were no Jews living in France at the time but for more about these French Protestants and the Jews see: The Huguenots, the Jews and Me by Armand Laferee, http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/791/features/the-huguenot-connection/  and

http://www.ppkaltenbach.org/news/the-huguenots-the-jews-and-me

1614: Today, a day after Vincent Fettmilch of Frankfurt, a former pastry cook and leader of the Guilds, calling himself the "new Haman of the Jews"  had attacked the synagogue while the community was at prayer, “1,380 Jews, glad to have saved even their lives, left the city and went to Offenbach, Hanau, and Höchst” after which the synagogue as well as the Torah-scrolls was destroyed, and the cemetery was desecrated.

1675(1st of Elul, 5435): Issachar Bärmann, the son of the Talmudic scholar Isaac Cohen of Borkum and father of Leffmann Behrends, the “German financial agent” whose “daughter Genendel became the wife of the chief rabbi of Prague, David Oppenheim” passed away today.

1686: Birthdate of Groningen native and University of Leiden trained Dutch Orientalist and theologian Albert Shulten “who has been called the father of modern Hebrew grammar” whose chief works of interest to Hebrew students were editions of Job and Proverbs.”

1698: Carpenter Jacobus Isaacs “became a freeman in New York City” today.

1723: Eighty-four-year-old Increase Mather a member of a famous family of Puritan ministers and leaders that included his father Richard Mather and his son Cotton Mather passed away.  Unlike their European counterparts, the Mathers did not see themselves as anti-Semites who believed in forced conversion. Increase Mather thought the future conversion of the Jews to be both possible and not far distant in time.  He opposed John Lightfoot’s argument that a general conversion of the Jews was impossible, and he also attacked Baxter’s thesis that the Jews were converted once and for all after Christ, and that those who did not convert at the time were condemned to remain in the Jewish faith for all time. According to Mather, the “national conversion” of the Jews was a “glorious truth.” (From The John Carter Brown Library)

1754: At the Palace of Versailles, the future Louis XV and Maia Josepha of Saxony gave birth to Louis-Auguste who as Louis XVI included among his ministers “Turgot, Choiseul, and Malesherbes , who were favorably inclined toward the Jews” and who took “the first important step toward improvement of the status of the Jews was the abolition of the body tax in 1784” but whose real impact on the Jews of France were the excesses of his regime which brought on the French Revolution.

1765(23rd of Elul, 5525): Elkaleh Cohen Myers, the daughter of Rachel Michaels Cohen and Samuel Myers, the wife of Myer Myers with whom she had five children – Solomon, Samuel, Joseph Rachel and Judy – passed away today in New York.

1773: Birthdate of German philosopher Jakob Friedrich Fries, whose philosophy included ant-Semitism as can be seen by his 1816 work On the Danger Posed by the Jews to German Well-Being and Character in which he advocated distinct dress for Jews and “encouragement” for Jews to emigrate while calling “for Judaism to extirpated root and branch from German Society.”  

1775: In Curacao, Joshua Cohen Peixotto, the “son of Daniel Cohen Cohen Peixotto and Gracia Peixotto” gave birth to Gracia Cohen Peixotto, the “wife of Mordechay de David de Mordechai Abinun de Lima and mother of Clara Abinun de Lima; David Cohen Peixotto; Jeosuah Abinun de Lima and Rachel Abinun de Lima.”

1787: One day after she had passed away, Sarah Barrow, the wife of Lazarus Barrow and mother of “Aaron and Benjamin Barrow” was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”

1792(5th of Elul, 5552): Twenty-eight-month-old  Moses Leib ben Eisak Fuerth passed away today and was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”

1799:  Napoleon left Egypt for France en route to seize power. Bonaparte’s position in the Middle East had become untenable because Lord Nelson had destroyed the French fleet. Napoleon’s departure put an end to the promises he had made about establishing a Jewish home in Palestine when he was fighting at Gaza and Acre.

1799: Mrs. Philip Hartvig Ree, the widow of Philip Hartvig Ree and the mother of Hartvig Phillip Ree obtained special permission from the king “to remain in joint possession” of her husband’s business.

1805: Birthdate of Austrian political leader and anti-Semite Anton von Schmerling who “urged the necessity of instruction in German in schools in order to overcome the advantageous position of the Jewish soldiers in the regiments of Galicia, who, owing to their knowledge of the German language, had better chances of promotion to the position of non-commissioned officers” adding the view "Personally, I am not in sympathy with the Jews

1806: Napoleon “proposes” that the Assembly of Notables be superseded by a Great Sanhedrin patterned after the ancient Jewish tribunal.

1815: Abraham Joseph Elias Montefiore, the London born Son of Joseph Elias Montefiore and Rachel Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos (Mocatta) Montefiore married Henritte Rothschild Montefiore.

1819: In Nagy-Kanizsa, Hungary, Rabbi Meïr Szanto and his wife gave birth to journalist Simon Szanto.

1824(29th of  Av, 5584) Thirty-six-year-old Abraham Joseph Elias Montefiore passed away on his 9th wedding anniversary.

1824: In London, Emanuel Aguilar and Sarah (nee Dias Fernandes) Aguilar gave birth to composer Emanuel Abraham Aguilar the brother of Grace Aguilar.

http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php?topic=4174.0

1829: In Savannah, GA, Rebecca Benjamin Sheftall and Isaac Cohen who were married in 1816 gave birth to Frances Sheftall Cohen, the wife of Edwin Eger Hertz and the mother of Isaac, Rebecca, Edwina, Harriet and Jessie Hertz.

1829: Birthdate of German born historian and mathematician, Moritz Cantor whose works included Mathematical Contributions to the Cultural Life of the People and the multi-volume Lectures on the History of Mathematics.

1835: In Amsterdam, Hester “Esther” Goudsmit, the daughter of Levie Emanuel Goudsmit and Magdalena Hartog Goudsmit and her husband  Salomon Abraham van Raalte gave birth to future London resident Lion van Raatle, the husband of Santje van Ralte.

1837: Alsey Harris and Abraham Ellis gave Sarah Ellis, the wife of Israel Levy.

1837: Samuel Cohen and Rachel Nathan were married today in Sydney, Australia.

1838: Joseph and Nanny Rosenheim gave birth to Adelheid Rosenheim

1840: Two days after she had passed away, 82 year old Sarah Casper, the wife of Angel Casper (Asher b Yehuda) with whom she had eight children was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1840: Birthdate of Hungarian native Leopold Schenk, “the Austrian Embryologist.”

http://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/ishm/vesalius/VESx2004x10x01x037x037.pdf

1845: The Gardener’s Chronicle and Horticultural Gazette reported that “a fearful malady has broken out among the potato crop” which would lead to the Great Famine known in Ireland as the Potato Famine which the Jews would help to raise funds to aid the victims.

1853(19th of Av, 5613): Fifty-three-year-old Rachel Levi, the daughter of “Leah and Jacob Baiz” and the wife Joseph Levi passed away today in her native St. Thomas

1854: Birthdate of Moritz Moszkowski, Polish born Jewish composer, pianist and teacher.

1855: A child of Mr. Louis Levinson of Providence was circumcised today.

1855: Birthdate of Cincinnati native Jacob Ottenheimer who served on the board of Hebrew Union College and was an active member of B’nai B’rith.

1856: Today twenty-eight-year-old Prussian born Baltimore clothing store owner Samuel Rosenwald married Augusta Hamamerslough  after which he operated clothing stores in Talledega, AL, Peoria, IL and Evansville, IN before final setting in Springfield, IL “where he ran one of the largest nd most complete clothing houses in that city.

1858: Four days after she had passed away, Rose Wolfe was buried at the “Wolverhampton Old Jewish Burial Ground.”

1862:"Escape of Mr. W.H. Hurlbert from Richmond" published today described the Yankee journalist’s visit to Richmond and Charleston.  Hulbert made the trip at the request of Judah P. Benjamin. Both men shared roots in South Carolina, but after talking matters over, he “soon found that he disagreed with that eminent Jew.”

1863(8th of Elul, 5623): Sixty-two-year-old historian Joseph Levin Hall, the first Jew to earn a doctorate in philosophy from the Albertus University of Konigsberg passed away today.

1863: In Richmond, VA, Rebecca Levy and Naphtali Judah Ezekiel gave birth to journalist Herbert Tobias Ezekiel, the husband of Rachel Ezekiel.

1865(1st of Elul, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Elul observed for the first time during the Presidency of Andrew Johnson and for the first time since the end of the Civil War.

1866:  The Treaty of Prague ends the Austro-Prussian War. In approximately seven weeks, Prussia had defeated Austria. This little-known war between the two leading Germanic states changed the course of victory.  With Prussia the victor, Austria was removed from Germanic affairs.  The other Germanic states would be forced to ally themselves with Prussia with King of Prussia as the Emperor of a united Germany.  This German Empire would emerge as the strongest nation in Europe.  This burgeoning strength would lead to World War I, World War II and the Holocaust. 

1867: In New York City, Levi T Spiegelberg, the German born “son of Jacob Spiegelberg and Betty Spiegelberg and his wife Bertha Spiegelberg” gave birth to Rosetta Spiegelberg who passed away in New York at the age of 75.

1867: In London, Phoebe Joseph and Abraham Van Nierop gave birth to Fanny Van Nierop, the wife of Solomon Sassoon Benjamin and the mother of Claude Benjamin.

1868: In Dover, England, “Rabbi Isidore Barnstein” and Eve Mendelson gave birth to Jew’s College educated Henry Barnstein, who received his “Rabbinical Diploma from Chaham Moses Gaster of London” after which he became the leader of Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, TX while serving as the “Jewish Chautauqua lecturer at Tulane University” and L.S.U.

1869:  Birthdate of Lucie Hadamard, future wife of Alfred Dreyfus.

1872(19th of Av, 5632): A German Jew named Isaac Shwagar died in as a result of sunstroke  at Butler’s Pottery Yard in New Brunswick, NJ.

1872: Birthdate of Elsa Neumann “the first woman to receive a PhD in physics from the University of Berlin.”http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/23/1902/this-week-in-history-death-of-elsa-neumann-first-female-doctoral-graduate-of

1873: In Chicago, Henry B. Franklin and the former Hannah Mayer, both of whom were immigrants from Germany gave birth to Jennie Franklin, the wife of Moses L. Purvin, who as Jennie Franklin Purvin was a leader in her native city’s civic and Jewish communities.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/purvin-jennie-franklin

1874: In Treves, Germany, “Solomon and Johanna (Blatt) Levy gave birth to Chicago produce merchant and Republican Party member David Levy, the husband of Blanche Greenfelder and father of Robert Charles Levy.

1876: Victor Benjamin Hart married Clara Simmons today at the Great Synagogue.

1876: In New York’s Supreme Court, Judge Donohue heard a motion by the Corporation Counsel in a case brought by the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society and other charitable institutions to have assessments removed from their property. 

1877: Birthdate of Samuel Armin Schlesinger, who gained fame as “Hungarian social scientist, librarian and anarcho-syndicalist revolutionary, Ervin Szabó.”

1877: It was reported today that the Department of State has received a report from the U.S. Minister to Turkey on the conditions of the Jews living in the Ottoman Empire.  There are 500,000 Jews living under the rule of the Ottomans and in fairness to the Turks, “the Israelites have been better treated by the Ottoman than by many of the Western powers…They are recognized as an independent religious community” led by their own Chief Rabbi or Chacham. The only case of “maltreatment of the Israelites which has been brought to the notice of the United States Legation at Constantinople during the tenure of Horace Maynard, the current U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire involved an American Jew who was attacked by his co-religionist while visiting Tiberias. In the meantime, the U.S. Minister at Constantinople has requested that consular offices of the U.S. government serving in the various part of the empire pay close attention to the condition of the Jews and report any mistreatment.

1878: The Jews of Petersburg, VA, telegraphed $50 to New Orleans to help relieve the suffering of those impacted by the Yellow Fever Epidemic.

1878: A dispatch from Bucharest published today reported that Mihail Kogălniceanu (Cogalniceano) the Foreign Affairs Minister of Romania is seeking a modification of those portions of the Treaty of Berlin that deal with the treatment of the Jews.  The terms of the treaty would require the calling of a Constituent Assembly to amend the constitution, and the Foreign Minister is afraid that the changes would be rejected. This would be followed by a period of persecution of the Jews.  The Romanian government believes that a gradual granting of civil and political rights to the Jews would be less of a problem because the people find the Jews to be so “obnoxious.”

1879: It was reported today that Emma Lazarus and W.C. Bonaparte Wyse have published sonnets on the death of the ex-Prince Imperial of France. The efforts of the Jewish Lazarus were deemed to be the better of the efforts.

1879: Birthdate of Ukraine native Samuel Wolf Kapitanoff, the husband of Minnie Balaban Kapitanoff and father of Arthur Wolf Kapitanoff.

1880: Birthdate of Josefine Bernfelld who was murdered during the Holocaust in 1942.

1881: The Athletic Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem is scheduled to sponsor an excursion today.

1881(28th of Av, 5641): Babetta Scheild the 55-year-old widow of Julius Schield was found dead in her New York apartment. Her throat had been cut.  Notes written in Hebrew were given to her children who had discovered the body.  While authorities assume that this was a suicide, the children would not reveal the contents of the notes.

1882: “The founding meeting for the Reform congregation, later to be known as Temple Emanuel, was held” today “in Lindsay Hall, St. Catherine Street West” Quebec.

1883: “The Jews In Russia” published today said the prohibition against Jews living in St. Petersburg and Moscow is based more on economics than on religion.  There are thousands of Jews living in the two Russian Jews but that is because they are belong to “the privileged class” or are “skillfully” evading “compliance with the law.”

1883: In London, Jacob Nunes Nabarro and Hannah Israel Ricardo gave birth to Joseph Nunes Nabarro.

1883: As the controversy continues to swirl around the attempt of Moses Shapira to sell a copy of the Deuteronomy scroll, “Shapira wrote a desperate letter to” Christian David Ginsburg who had said it was forgery saying “you have made a fool of me by publishing and exhibiting the fragments that you believe to be false.  I do not think that I will be able to survive this shame.

1883: In Piemonte, Italy, Vittorio Della Torre and his wife Emilia Lattes Torre gave birth to Leila Orsola, the wife of Ernesto Ettore Foa and the mother of Vittorio and Joseph Foa.

1883: “A Swindler Captured in Chicago” published today described the arrest of F. Simon Hahn a middle-aged Jew from the East Coast at the Sherman House who had falsely claimed to represent Lieberman & Co of Philadelphia and who had forged at least one check for $100.00

1885: A review of Mrs. Keith’s Crime by Lucy Clifford published today contends that the Jews are the “novel characters” in this work of fiction.  They include quick witted, generous Fred Cohen and Mr. Josephs, the Jewish MP.” (Like the reviewer, I am at a loss to explain the authoress’ “familiarity with Jews.”)

1886: “A Man With Six Wives” published today relied on information that originally appeared in the London Daily New to describe the exploits of a Polish Jew named Feinstein who has been arrested and tried on charges of having six wives. His criminal behavior began in Russia in 1870 where he married and then deserted his first wife (and their four children) before moving on to Paris, where he acquired and swindled several other wives before taking his last spouse in Nancy. This “Lothario” who was described as “small, ill-made and ugly” was sentenced to six years in prison for his crimes.

1887: It was reported today that the among the bequests in the will of Levi Rosenfeld, the Chicago millionaire were two thousand dollars to the United Hebrew Relief Association of Chicago and five hundred dollars for the Hebrew Union College.  The bulk of the estate went to his widow who was wealthy in her own right having received one and half million dollars from the estate of Michael Reese.

1887: Congregation Or Zion of Peru, Indiana made a dues payment of $21.00 to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

1887: Congregation Keneseth Israel of Zanesville, Ohio made a dues payment of $7.00 to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

1888: In Darjeeling, India, Michael Krisch, the “head of the Indian Postal Service” and his wife gave birth to Frederick Herman Kisch, the Sandhurst graduate who served in WW I, reached the rank of Briagdeir during WW which made him “the highest ranking Jew to serve in the British Army

https://www.jta.org/1943/04/16/archive/palestine-jews-mourn-death-in-action-of-brigadier-frederick-kisch

1888: Seventy-eight-year-old English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse the author of The History of the Jews from the Christian Era to the Dawn of the Reformation passed away today.

1889: In Hampstead, Ida and Michel Schwabcher gave birth to Gertrude Doris Schwabacher, the husband of George B. Veit.

1889: The Marion County Patriot reported on the recent death of Lewis Arnheim who represented rural Dougherty County in the Georgia State Legislature.  Arnehim, who came to Georgia from Germany is in 1868 was the son-in-law of David Mayer of Atlanta, GA.

1890: In West End, NJ, Florence Shloss and Daniel Guggenheim  gave birth to Cambridge (UK) graduate and WW I naval aviator Harry F. Guggenheim the copper mining member of Guggenheim brothers and husband of Caroline Morton.

1890: “Mr. Mackay Maligned” published today described “annoyance caused to the friends of John W. Mackay” by reports that he “dislikes Englishmen and despises Jews.” Mackay was an Irish born American industrialist who made his fortune out of the Comstock Lode. As proof of his feelings for Jews, his friends pointed out that he sold his bank to “a Jewish syndicate” while retaining a large enough interest that he continues to have regular contact with those who bought.  Also, Jews are among the biggest users of his three cable companies which respectively span the Atlantic, the United States and the Pacific.

1891: The Times of London and The New York Times described the two positive results of Mr. Arnold White's recent mission to Russia on behalf of Baron Hirsch. The trip was designed to improve the conditions of the suffering Russian Jewish population. First, the Czar’s government agreed to the practical abolition of the expensive passport system which has kept Jews, especially the large number of poor Jews, from leaving the country.  Second, “is the authority given for the formation of emigration committees throughout Russia and for the promotion of emigration schemes in connection with the Central Berlin Committee.”  Up until this point, the work had to be conducted in secret, hindering the process of Jews leaving a country dripping with anti-Semitism.  The report ended with a cautionary note, that large increases of Jewish immigrants to England might result in restrictive legislation similar to that which was being adopted in the United States.

1892(30th of Av, 5652): Rosh Chodesh Elul

1893: Moses William Shapira, the Jerusalemite who deals in antiquities and ancient manuscripts wrote his last letter to David Ginsburg the Christian biblical and Masoretic scholar saying that he would be leaving London for Berlin in a day or two.

1893: At today’s session of the Fourth Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Ritual Committee delivered its report which included the plan “to arrange the second part of the Union Prayer-book containing services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur according to the same principles used” to arrange the first part of the prayer-book submitted at the Third Annual Convention

1893: “Tried To Capture A Meeting” published today described an attempt by anarchist to take over a meeting of the United Hebrew Trades which was thwarted by the police.

1894: During his arraignment, Joseph Goldwasser, a Jewish carpenter, “did not deny that he had beaten” his son Benjamin.  But he did not do it because his son was deaf and a mute, but because he “had stolen and he was trying to him” to behave better.

1894: Charles Wilfred Mowbray, the English anarchist who had worked with Jewish tailors in London during their strike and who had addressed a mass meeting praising Emma Goldman left the United States for his home country aboard the White Star steamship Teutonic today.

1895: “Hebrew Boys at Coney Island” published today described the generosity of the businessman at the local resort showed towards the students from the Hebrew Technical Institute  which enabled them to enjoy such amusements as the toboggan slides and carrousels.

1896: “Henry Klein married Mamie [Matilda] Norton, the daughter of Simon F. Norton, the son of a Polish Jewish immigrant merchant who had settled in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, where she was born in October 1870.”

1896: Herzl meets with Johann Kremenetzky in Baden. Yona (Johann) Kremenetzky’ was an industrialist and electrical engineer.  In 1901, Krementzky would become the first chairman of the newly created Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – the Jewish National Fund which many know today simply as the JNF.  Krementzky created a wide variety of tools to educate the Jewish people about Eretz Israel and to raise funds for the purchase and reclamation of the land.  He created the first Golden Book of Contributors and began the Zion Stamp series.  But his most famous innovation was the “Blue Box” which has survived to this day.

1897: In Bohemia, “an order has been issued forbidding public meetings of any” and a 7 p.m. curfew following yesterday’s outbreak of anti-Semitic violence at Pilsen.

1898(5th of Elul, 5658): Thirty-five-year-old Herman Rosenthal kissed his four-year-old daughter Rachel and said good-bye to his wife before going to his room where he hung himself.

1898: In Washington, D.C. Mr. Roginksey and Mr. Levy expressed their displeasure with Adas Israel having a Rabbi and with the hiring of Morris Mandel to fill the post. “Mr. Lewis wished to know what functions Mr. Mandel was to perform, whether Rabbi or Teacher? The President answered that he was Rabbi and teacher both. Mr. M. Roginsky and Mr. Isaac Levy . . . objected to having a rabbi.”

1899: Private Nathan Levy who had taken part in the Battle of Manila, completed his service with Company F of the 18th Infantry.

1899: During today’s session of the court-martial of Alfred Dreyfus Major General Charles-Arthur Gonse, who had served as Deputy Chief of Staff, took the stand “with a quick step and apparently light heart.” By the time Dreyfus’ lawyers had finished examining him “his defiant bearing had changed into the abashed air of a schoolboy caught telling a lie.”

1900: Birthdate of Houston native and Rice graduate Louis Ehrenfeld, the chemist who was the author of The Story of Common Things.

1901: In Somerset, KY, John Sherman and Helen Gertrude (Tartar) Cooper gave birth to John Sherman Cooper who as U.S. Senator from Kentucky took part in the annual memorial services honoring Jewish American War Veterans which were held at Adas Israel on May 24, 1957.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt6/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1957-pt6-12-2.pdf

1902(20th of Ave, 5662): Parashat Eikev

1903: The Sixth Zionist Congress convenes in Basel. It is the site of confrontations between Herzl and his supporters and the Zionists of Zion, who reject the plan for settlement in Uganda out of hand. Herzl brings the Uganda scheme is a temporary measure, emphasizing that Palestine remains Zionism's final object. Herzl is supported by Max Nordau who terms the Uganda scheme a "Nachtasyl" (refuge for the night), and is opposed by Russian Zionists. “The English Jews are deeply interested in the announcement made by Dr. Theodore Herzl, President of the sixth Zionist Congress, at its opening yesterday at Basel, that Great Britain, in view of the collapse of the project to establish Jews on the Sinai Peninsula, had offered the Zionists a large tract of territory in East Africa for colonization by the Jews, who would have autonomous government under British suzerainty.”

1903: In Denver, Colorado, Dr. A.M. Radin of New York delivered a speech during “Congress Day” sponsored by the B’nai Zion Association.

1903: In Elmira, NY, H.M. Lasker of Troy, NY and S.E. Solomons of Syracuse, NY addressed the mass meeting held by the Sons of Zion.

1903: Birthdate of Manhattan native and jeweler Henry Lewis Lambert, the head of Lambert Brothers Jewelers which had been “founded by his father and uncle in 1877,” and co-creator of the Lambert Trophy who was President of the New York Board of Trade and the husband of “the former Marrion Lissberger with whom he had two son – Henry and Benjamin.”

1904: In Readville, MA, the Grand Circuit meeting where Nathan Straus was racing his horses continued for a second day.

1905: St. Louis native, twenty-six-year-old Victor Hugo Gottschalk married twenty-four-year-old Rolla, MO native Katherine Cox.

1905: Founding of Beth Israel congregation in Malden, MA.

1905: The New York Times publishes a letter from Ralph Jonas praising “the Sanitarium for Hebrew ‘children of the City of New York” which “has been doing excellent work…” So far this summer 13,400 mothers and children have enjoyed the benefit of the Sanitarium’s boat excursions and with another seven trips scheduled for the rest of the summer, more than 20,000 people will enjoy the benefits of free medical help and nutritious meals.

1906(2nd of Elul, 5666): “Seven Jews and one Christian” were killed by Russian troops who attacked the Jewish quarter at Seidlce under the “pretense” that they were “suppressing revolutionary activity” which was their excuse for arresting an additional 33 Jews.

1907: Funeral services are scheduled to take place at Temple Emanu-El in New York for Arthur A. Housman, the son of Sigmund Housman, the husband of the former “Mrs. A.C. Hamilton and the head of the highly influential brokerage firm of A.A. Houseman and Company whose senior partners  included Sailing Baruch, the brother of Bernard Baruch.

1907:  In a letter to President Solomon Schechter of the Jewish Theological Seminary, published to-day in The American Hebrew, “Jacob H. Schiff, the Jewish banker and philanthropist, who does not believe that a Jew can be a true American and a good Zionist at the same time” “outlines his views of Zionism.”

1908: Today author and educator Elijah Avin, the Divinsk born son of Isaac and Deborah Avin who moved to Minnesota  in 1911 where “he developed the Talmud Torah of Minneapolis” married Chayah Missulowin 

1908: Birthdate of Emil Berger who was living in Prague before he was taken to Majdanek where he was murdered in 1942.

1908: In Glasgow, Scotland optical instrument maker Charles Frank and his wife Miriam gave birth to artist and sculptor Hannah Frank.

http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk/pages/about_hannah.htm

1909: As the strike at Mckees Rocks continues, the United States District Attorney refused to arrest Samuel Cohen, a labor organizer for the Pressed Steel Car Company on charges of peonage “under the provisions of the Federal laws.

1910: In his 42nd birthday, Rabbi Henry Barnston, the Dover, England born of Isadore and Eve (Mendelson) Barnston, who became the Rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston Texas and a lecturer at Tulane University married Ethel Kennard who passed away in 1917.

1911: “Savage Anti-Jewish Rioting In Wales,” published today describes outbreaks of violence in New South Wales, Great Britain, which were so severe that the Riot Act had to be read and troops used to stop the mobs.  Even more troubling was the mounting evidence that the attacks were premeditated.

1912(10th of Elul, 5672): Sixty-seven-year-old philanthropist Nathan Hermann passed away today in New York City.

1913(20th of Av, 5673): Parashat Ekev

1913: Gunzburg Stores Company, Inc of Buffalo a clothing firm belonging to Herbert Gunzberg, George Amaram and Herman Levi was incorporated today in the state of New York.

1913: The U.S. Shoe Polishing Manufacturing Company of Brooklyn  which was owned by Adolph Lipschitz, Leon Lipschitz and Robert H. Archbald was incorporated in the state of New York today.

1914: On the same that Japan declared war on Germany (a move that Americans would come to feel during WW II) Austria-Hungary invaded Galicia, the home to a large Jewish population that would suffer for the next four years.

1914:  In column published in the Boston Globe, dietician Frances Stern connected nutrition to social welfare. She opened the column with a lament that "There is meager knowledge of the comparative nutritive value of various kinds of food The column went on to explain the importance of protein in the diet, and to compare the nutritional value of various foods, along with their cost. Stern particularly emphasized the importance of education in nutrition as a way of helping poor women make the most of their food budgets. A social worker, nutritionist, educator, and pioneering dietician, Stern was a leading exponent of the idea that adequate nutrition was crucial to social welfare.

1915(13th of Elul, 5675): Emanuel Saul, a successful attorney in Essen and Duisburg (Germany) passed away today.

1915: After having found been found guilty of bribery, San Francisco political boss Abe Ruef was released today after having served four and a half years of the original 14-year sentence.

1915(13th of Elul, 5675): Seventy-year-old merchant David Eiseman passed away in St. Louis, MO.

1915: It was reported today that according to Dr. Bertram Post of Robert College in Constantinople, “Henry Morgenthau, the United States Ambassador” to Turkey who is Jewish “has made himself very popular by his daily visits to the hospital” in the Turkish capital “and his willingness to aid all those in trouble irrespective of nationality or religion.”

1915: “It was reported today that “a French warship bombarded the petroleum plant” at Beirut causing so much trouble that the medical college was closed and all the Jews in Syria were ordered to leave including Victor Jacobsen who left aboard the cruiser Des Moines which took him to Rhodes.

1916: “Oscar S. Straus received a letter from the French Ambassador to the United States” today, in which he “informed Mr. Straus that the French Government would permit an $18,000 shipment of drugs and medical supplies to reach Jewish hospitals in Jaffa and Jerusalem.”

1916: “Alexis Aladin, one of the best-known members of the Duma who is now in London said today that not only was the present report” that a departmental order permitting Jews to live outside of the Pale would be acted upon favorably by the Duma and that the Minister of Education was planning to abolish the rules limiting the number of Jews entering Russian secondary schools true and that “two very prominent members of the Russian Government visiting London” said the Duma would act speedily to enact legislation “giving the Jews equal advantages with all Russians.”

1916: It was reported today that “after Count Witte’s visit to America where he acquainted himself with what the Russian Jewish immigrants have accomplished” in the United States “upon terms of equality the only way of solving the Jewish question” in his country “was by granting them equal rights with the people of Russia.”

1916: In New York, Netti Kinsbruner, the daughter of Shmuel and Rachel Stettner and David Kinsbruner gave birth to William Kinsbrunner

1916: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native Samuel Adelman the Newport News, VA and Denver rabbi whose death was mourned by “clergymen and laymen” of all faiths.

https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/adelman.pdf

https://www.jta.org/1966/11/09/archive/clergymen-of-all-faiths-pay-tribute-to-rabbi-adelman-died-in-denver

1917: In New York, Louis and Henrietta Peck gave birth to long-time New York Times editor Seymour Peck whose conviction for failing to answer questions of a Congressional committee about associates who were accused of being Communist was overturned.

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/02/arts/seymour-peck-times-editor-for-32-years-killed-in-crash.html

1917: The Jewish Legion of the British Army was established. It was long championed by Zev Jabotinsky, and was based on the Zion Mule Corps. The 38th Battalion was commanded by Colonel Henry Patterson. A second battalion commanded by Colonel Eleazar Margolin was also formed. Although initially against the idea, most of the leadership of the Yishuv including Ben Gurion and Ben Zvi joined after the Balfour Declaration. Over 2,700 men volunteered for the Legion. Many of them saw action in Transjordan in the fall of 1918. The group was officially known as the Royal Fusilier.  Officially, the units were not designated as Jewish fighting units and were not supposed to wear Jewish insignias.  Recruits came from the United States as well as England and Palestine. One of the most famous non-recruits was Golda Meir.  When recruiters came to Milwaukee she wanted enlist.  She was disappointed to find out that it was for men only.

1918: It was reported today that the Secretaries of War and Navy have issued orders allowing soldiers and sailors to take furloughs “for the observance of the high holidays.”

1918: It was reported today that Temple B’nai Israel, which is “affiliated with the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Washington Heights, has made arrangements to conduct” High Holy Day services at the Y.M.H.A. building which is a sign of the growth of Jewish community in Washington Heights.

1918(15th of Elul, 5678): Twenty-year-old rifleman Joseph Cohen, the London born son of Milly Diamond and Michael Cohn died of his would today in France while serving with the 13th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade after which he was buried in the Bagneux British Cemetery,

1918(15th of Elul, 5678): During WW I, Lt Frederick Adolphus Aron, South Lancashire Regiment who had been at Shrewsbury passed away today.

1919: Birthdate of Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin one of the leading mathematicians of the USSR.

1920(9th of Elul, 5680): Bethold Bendheim the brother of Betty Bendheim of Hamburg, Germany and Clark Bendheim of St. Louis passed away today leaving bequests to numerous “Jewish and non-Jewish Institutions” incuding The Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Mount Sinai Hospital and Tuskegee Institute.

1920: In Paris, The Committee of Jewish Delegations, “which represents the Jews of nearly every country in the world” announced today “that it will wage a campaign to obtain a seat in the League of Nations for representatives of the Jewish people/”

1921: Faisal I bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashimi, who in 1919 had “signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement for Arab-Jewish Cooperation” became King of the newly created nation of Iraq following being thrown off his Syrian throne by the French.

1921: In New York City, the former Lilian Greenberg and Harry Arrow both of whom were Jewish immigrants from Romania gave birth “Kenneth Joseph ‘Ken’ Arrow, the joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.”

https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economics/1972/arrow/auto-biography/

1922: It was reported today that in Silesia “crowds have looted food shops owned by Jews are beating them in the street because they believe “reports that the Jews were responsible for the high price of food.”

1923: In New York City Gilbert Seldes and Alice “Amanda” Wadhams gave birth to Miriam Hall Seldes an actress whose career spanned six decades and earned her entrance in the American Theatre Hall of Fame.  Her mother was a WASP; her father was the son of Russian Jewish immigrants.

1923: Birthdate of the Roman Catholic native of Cracow Zofia Posmysz, “who endured three years of imprisonment in concentration camps for associating with the Polish resistance to Nazi occupation in World War II, then gained acclaim for her works on the Holocaust as a journalist, novelist, playwright and screenwriter…” (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/14/world/zofia-posmysz-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1924: In Brooklyn Hannah Sarney and Milton Solow gave birth to economist Robert Solow who has been “awarded the John Bates Clark Medal (in 1961), Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (in 1987) and the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1987/solow-bio.html

1924: Birthdate of Ephraim Kishon, Israeli satirist, dramatist, screenwriter and film director. Born in Budapest, as Ferenc Hoffmann, he studied sculpture and painting, and then began publishing humourous essays and writing for the stage. After 1945 he changed his surname from Hoffmann to Kishont. He immigrated to Israel in 1949, where an immigration officer gave him the name Ephraim Kishon. Starting in 1952, he wrote a column of political and social satire call “Had Gadya” for the daily newspaper Ma’ariv.  Several of his works have been translated into English including two books on the Six Day War – So Sorry We Won and Woe To the Victors.

1925: Thirty-eight-year-old Louis Brave the son of Isaac Hannah (Rocker) Brav who attended Columbia, JTS and HUC and who served as the Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Lake Charles, LA married Viola Gernsbacher today in Weatherford, TX.

1926: In Boston, MA, Maurice and Lallie (Rothenberg) Troobnick gave birth to American actor, Eugene Troobnick.

1927(25th of Av, 5687): In Jersey (UK), Sarah Cohen passed away as the result of an accident.

1927: Birthdate of Atlantic City, NJ native and Columbia and NYU educated “performance artist Allan Kaprow.

http://www.allankaprow.com/

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/10/arts/design/allan-kaprow-creator-of-artistic-happenings-dies-at-78.html

1927:  The execution of Sacco and Vanzetti ignites protests around the world.  The case against the two Italian immigrants was one of the great causes of the political left during the 1920’s.  Numerous Jews were associated with their cause including the writer Dorothy Parker and Felix Frankfurter.

1928(7th of Elul, 5688): Ninety-two-year-old Theobald Epstein “a professor at the Philanthropin Secondary School, the largest and longest-existing Jewish school in Germany, and an astronomer and Head of the Frankfurt Observatory” passed away today.

1928: In Manhattan, socialite Alice Wadhams Hall and Gilbert Seldes, “a descendant of Jewish immigrants from Russia” gave birth to Marian Hall Seldes the Broadway actress who was the niece of journalist George Seldes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/theater/marian-seldes-regal-presence-of-broadway-dies-at-86.html

1929: Today, which is Friday, thousands of Arab villagers streamed into Jerusalem from the surrounding countryside to pray on the Temple Mount, many armed with sticks and knives. Harry Luke, the acting High Commissioner of Palestine requested reinforcements from Amman. Previously, Luke had ignored warnings from Jewish leaders about the potential for violence Towards 9:30 am Jewish storekeepers began closing shop, and at 11:00 20-30 gunshots were heard on the Temple Mount, apparently to work up the crowd. Luke telephoned the Mufti to come and calm a mob that had gathered under his window near the Damascus Gate, but the commissioner's impression was that the religious leader's presence was having the opposite effect. Inflamed by rumors that two Arabs had been killed by Jews, Arabs started an attack on Jews in Jerusalem's Old City. The violence quickly spread to other parts of Palestine. British authorities had fewer than 100 soldiers, six armored cars, and five or six aircraft in country; Palestine Police had 1,500 men, but the majority was Arab, with a small number of Jews and 175 British officers. While awaiting reinforcements, many untrained administration officials were required to attach themselves to the police, though the Jews among them were sent back to their offices. Several English theology students visiting from the University of Oxford were deputized. While a number of Jews were being killed at the Jaffa Gate, British policemen did not open fire. They reasoned that if they had shot into the Arab crowd, the crowd would have turned their anger on the police. Yemin Moshe was one of the few Jewish neighborhoods to return fire, but most of Jerusalem's Jews did not defend themselves. At the outbreak of the violence and again in the following days, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi demanded that weapons be handed to the Jews, but was both times refused

1929: After the Mufti of Jerusalem made slanderous and enraging attacks against the Jews, what eyewitnesses described as “severe riots” broke out. The Arabs were told by the Mufti, "Remember that the Jew is your strong enemy, and the enemy of your ancestors since olden times…for it is he who tortured Christ…and poisoned Mohammed…." Rioting and death broke out in towns throughout Palestine with a total of 130 Jews being murdered by the Muslims.

1929: An Arab rioter pointed his rifle at a Jewish policeman named Schneryson, who was on traffic duty, with the apparent intention of shooting him. Just before he pulled the trigger, an Arab policeman appeared on the scene and the two police officers apprehended the would-be killer.  He was part of a group of hundreds of Arabs who were attacking the Jews of Mea Shearim who in turn were being protected by the Jewish Self-defense force as they awaited British reinforcements.

1929: Birthdate of El Paso, TX native Jaqueline Augusta Krtazthor, the UTEP alum who gained “fame” as Jackie Maisel, the wife of Albuquerque, NM businessman Seymour L. “Bud” Maisel.

https://obittree.com/obituary/us/new-mexico/albuquerque/french-funerals--cremations/jackie-maisel/2256331/

1929: In the evening, “a band of Arabs armed with rifles attacked the Jewish garden suburb of Talpiot.  The Jewish defenders gathered in one of the houses and, armed with a single rifle and a few pistols drove off the attackers.

1929: The British appointed Deputy District Commissioner of the Jerusalem Division issued a three part order intended to halt the Arab rioting.  The order had no immediate effect as the Arab attacks persisted.

1929: First day of the two-day event known as the Hebron Massacre.  While the numbers vary, according to one report 67 Jews were killed and Jewish homes and synagogues were ransacked; nineteen local Arab families saved 435 Jews by hiding them in their houses even under their own life risk.

1930: “The duty of American Jews is to oppose uncompromisingly and with all their might the philosophy of Jewish nationalism and the Zionistic ideal, Rabbi Samuel Schulman declared this morning in his sermon at temple Emanu-El.”

1931: “Although the police authorities report ‘all quiet’ throughout the country today on the occasion of the Arab general strike against the government’s granting of sealed armories to outlying Jewish colonies, six Arabs were seriously wound…when the police fired on a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators at Nablus late this afternoon.”

1932(21st of Av, 5692): Seventy-five-year-old Lithuanian born department store owner Morris Lurie, the founder  and President of M. Lurie & Company and a benefactor of the Jewish Theological Seminary who had five  children with his wife passed away tonight.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/08/25/100844723.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1933: Despite the stormy protests of the Revisionist faction, the World Zionist Congress elected Professor Leo Motzkin of Paris president of the eighteenth annual meeting today.

1933: The Palestine Bureau of the German Zionist Federation officially announces that an agreement has been reached between the Anglo-Palestine Bank and the Reich Minister of Economics under which German-Jewish immigrants to Palestine will be permitted to place their capital in a special account in the Anglo-Palestine Bank, to aggregate not more than three million marks, against which German goods to that value will be shipped to Palestine.

1934In Paris, Pierre Leon Dreyfus, the son of the famous Alfred Dreyfus and Lucie Egenie Hadmard and his wife Marie Apollonie Dreyfus gave birth to Aline Dreyfus

1935: “Going Highbrow” a musical comedy produced by Samuel Bischoff was released in the United States today by Warner Brothers.

1935: Catcher Bill Starr made is major league debut with the Washington Senators.

1935: Barnett Janner, a member of the British House of Commons, told the World Zionist Congress today that "Palestine stands as a complete vindication of the Jewish race."

1936: The Palestine Government revealed tonight it had deported fifteen Jewish Communists and one Armenian and was prepared to send a second group from the country next Wednesday in an effort to end disorders now in their nineteenth week.  The government did not explain how deporting Jews would end violence which the government itself admitted was started by the Arabs

1936(5th of Elul, 5696): Seventeen year old Shoshana Laznicki succumbed to wounds she had suffered at the hands of Arab gunman who had shot at her and a group of friends riding in a car near Tel Aviv on the previous Friday.  She was the 76th victim of the latest Arab wave of violence.

1936: Today, thirty-five-year-old Romanian born American bootlegger Isadore “Kid Cann” Blumenfeld married Lillian Lee.

1937: “The Mandates Commission of the League of Nations in its report on Palestine approves in principle attempting to solve the problem by partition, but insists that the Jewish and Arab States should continue under mandate until ripe for statehood, according to the official summary of the report issued today.”

1938: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon in Manhattan for Jacob Adelman, the husband of Estella Adelman
1938: Anti-Jewish riots began today in Bransk, Poland.

1938: Premier of “You Can't Take It With You,” the screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, two of the Jewish giants of Broadway with a screenplay by Robert Riskin and music by Dimitri Tiomkin.

1939: “A resolution challenging the moral and legal validity of Britain’s new Palestine policy and rejecting it as a violation of Jewish rights was drafted today by the political commission of the 21st biennial world Congress”

1939: Germany and the Soviet signed a Union Non-Aggression pact. If Germany were to invade Poland, then the Soviet Union would not interfere. The pact would lead to the Soviets and Germany dividing Poland. Britain reacted with a call for the mobilization of its civil and military forces. This agreement gave Hitler his “green light” for the invasion of Poland, which marked the start of World War II and the end of European Jewry as we knew it.

1940: Junior Hadassah, the young women's Zionist organization, established at its annual convention today a war emergency fund for youth needs in Palestine

1940: “From Nurse to Worse” a comedy starring The Three Stooges – Moe Howard, Larry Fine & Curly Howard – and featuring Ned Glass and Cy Schindell was released today in the United States.

1941(30th of Av, 5701) Parashat Re’eh: Rosh Chodesh Elul

1941: German troops move to complete the encirclement of Kiev, the Ukrainian city with a large and storied Jewish community

1941: In Berlin, Himmler, gave notice of a new Nazi policy.  Henceforth, Jews would no longer be permitted to leave German occupied Europe.

1942: Birthdate of Lawrence Ira Brezner, the Brooklyn born movie producer who “made” the movie career of Robin Williams and Billy Crystal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/larry-brezner-manager-who-helped-shape-the-careers-of-robin-williams-and-billy-crystal-dies-at-73/2015/10/12/2f1b3b26-70fc-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/movies/larry-brezner-hollywood-manager-of-star-comics-is-dead-at-73.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1942: The USS Blue, a destroyer that had survived Pearl Harbor thanks to Ensigns Nathan Asher and Milton Moldane was scuttled today in “Iron Bottom Sound” after having been “damaged beyond repair” yesterday in fighting off the coast of Guadalcanal.

1942: Birthdate of Bronx native Larry Brezner the producer who played a major role in the successful careers of Robin Williams and Billy Crystal passed away today.  (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/12/movies/larry-brezner-hollywood-manager-of-star-comics-is-dead-at-73.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/larry-brezner-manager-who-helped-shape-the-careers-of-robin-williams-and-billy-crystal-dies-at-73/2015/10/12/2f1b3b26-70fc-11e5-8d93-0af317ed58c9_story.html?utm_term=.6ea16c80b0f4

1942: Cardinal Jules Saliège of Toulouse issued a pastoral letter today condemning the persecution of the Jews.

1942: Fifty-eight-year-old Grete (Seligmann) Adelsheimer was transported from Stuttgart to Terezin today after which she would be sent to Auschwitz where she was murdered in 1944.

1942: The O.S.E. (a Jewish humanitarian organization formed in 1912) and the Eclaireurs Israélites de France joined forces with other groups to begin to work on saving Jews who have been arrested in and around Lyons.

1943: Birthdate of Rhodesian native Norman Geras, the Oxford educated “political theorist,” University of Manchester Professor and author of works about Karl Marx.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/oct/20/norman-geras

1944: In Queens, New York, the cornerstone was laid for the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking which was designed to train disabled war veterans and provide them with a useful trade.  Stanley Simon Bulova’s industrial relations director shepherded the school into being. Long before the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 made such amenities familiar, he oversaw the construction of a building specifically tailored to the needs of disabled people. (As reported, in part by Margalit Fox)

1944:  Rumania surrenders to the Allies – in this case to the advancing Soviet Army.  Hope of survival comes to the Jews of this Axis nation where half of the pre-war population survived thanks to King Michael’s decision to capitulate.

1945: “All of the Jewish children found in German concentration camps by the British and American Armies already have been removed to France, Sweden, Switzerland and England, Arthur D. Greenleigh, assistant executive head of the Joint Distribution Committee in Europe, disclosed here day.”

1946: “The Big Sleep” co-starring Lauren Bacall, with music by Max Steiner and featuring Ben Welden was released today in the United States by Warner Brothers.

1947(7th of Elul, 5707) Parashat Shoftim

1947: Leon D. Fiser, the director the activities of HIAS in Italy, stated to that “since January 1 of this year HIAS has sent 1,803 Jewish displaced persons out of Italy and resettled them in 38 countries throughout the world.”

1948: Birthdate of Atlanta, GA native Ronald Mark Blomberg, the American League first baseman and designated hitter nicknamed “Boomer” who went to be a minor league manager and a manager in the Israel Baseball League.

1949: “Sirens will wail throughout Jerusalem” today “to herald the blast of the three tons of explosives that will be detonated near the Old City wall where they had been placed by the Israelis last year to stem any Arab advance” but which are no longer now needed.

1950(10th of Elul, 5710): Seventy-two-year-old former New York State Senator and City Judge Henry G. Schackno passed away today in the Bronx.

1951: In Brooklyn pianist Ruth Katz and Seymour Solomon, a co-founder of Vanguard Records gave birth to Rutgers trained attorney Susan Lynn Solomon, “a co-founder of the New York Stell Foundation” who married architect Paul Goldberger after divorcing her first husband drummer Gary Hirsh.

1952: Formation of the Arab League.  The League’s charter did not call for the destruction of the state of Israel.  It did not have to since the organizing members had invaded the Jewish state in 1948 with just that intent.  The league did expel Egypt when Sadat signed the treaty with Begin.  Years later Egypt was readmitted, but not forgiven.  In the early part of the decade, the league did agree to consider “normalizing relations with Israel” after she withdrew to the pre-1967 borders including the surrender of Jerusalem.

1953(12th of Elul, 5713): Seventy-nine-year-old Louis M. Cahn, a native of Ashland, Ohio, graduate of Harvard Law School and the Secretary of the Maxwell Street Settlement House in Chicago  passed away today.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9B01E0D6173DE23BBC4C51DFBE668388649EDE

1955: Mr. and Mrs. Justin Simon announced the engagement of their daughter Miss Elizabeth Simon, the niece of State Supreme Court Justice Goodman Sarachan to Yale Law School graduate Richard B. Dannenberg.

1957(26th of Av, 5717): “Two guards of the Israeli Mekorot water company were killed near Kibbutz Beit Govrin.”

1957(26th of Av, 5717): Seventy-six-year-old Parisian Eugene Paul Louis Schueller, the founder of the cosmetic and beauty company L’Oreal and employer of Efrayim Khahneman, whom he rescued from the Nazis which meant that Efrayim and his wife Rachel could give birth to Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman passed away today.

1958(7th of Elul, 5718): Parashat Shoftim

1958(7th of Elul, 5718): Seventy-one-year-old Russian born Marine Corps General Moses Joseph Gould who had been “awarded the Navy Cross for conduct in action against bandit forces in Nicaragua in 1927, passed away today.

https://billiongraves.com/grave/Moses-Joseph-Gould/10479494

https://prabook.com/web/moses_joseph.gould/1093438

1959: Birthdate of Eitan Cabal, the native of Rosh HaAyin who served in the Knesset as a member of the Labor Party.

1959: In “Landowska: Romantic Scholar” published today Harold C. Schonberg provides a biography of harpsichordist Wanda Landowska who had recently passed away.

1959: In Philadelphia, Mary Louise (née Beatty) and John Herbert Adler gave birth to future New Jersey Congressman John Herbert Adler.

1960(30th of Av, 5720): Sixty-five-year-old Oscar Hammerstein II Broadway librettist passed away. The Jewish team of Rogers and Hammerstein almost singled handedly defined that uniquely American entertainment medium – the Broadway Musical.  Two of their seminal works were “Oklahoma” and “Carousel.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60C1FFE345A1A7A93C1AB1783D85F448685F9

1960(30th of Av, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Elul

1961: Premiere of “The Young Doctors” co-starring George Segal in his first movie and Ina Ballin as “Cathy Hunt” with music by Elmer Bernstein and filmed by cinematographer Arthur J. Ornitz.

1961: “The Honeymoon Machine” a computer comedy produced by Lawrence Weingarten, featuring Marcel Hillaire was released in the United States today by MGM.

1962(23rd of Av, 5722): While serving as Minister of Housing and Construction, 50-year-old Dr Giora Yoseftal passed away.  Born in Germany in 1912, he made Aliyah in 1938, fought with the British Army in WW II before working in the Jewish Agency’s Aliyah Department.

http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=190

1963: Israel’s permanent representative, Michael Comay, is scheduled to deliver an address to the U.N. Security Council in he will include a list of 98 separate aggression by Syria against Israel in the last nine months. (JTA)

1964(15th of Elul, 5724): Sixty-year-old Louis Pollock, the native of Liverpool who gave up a career in advertising to become a Hollywood screenwriter passed away today.

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8f76fxq/entire_text/

1965(25th of Av, 5725): Sixty-nine-year-old “graphic artist Asa Cheffetz” the husband of Alice Cheffets and  who “in 1944 designed and engraved the official bookplate for the Library of Congress” passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/08/25/101564508.pdf

http://rogallery.com/Cheffetz_Asa/cheffetz-biography.html

https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.3742.html

1965: Birthdate of Tabriz, Iran native Anna Monahemi, who as Anna Kaplan received her J.D. from Cardozo Law School and was elected to the New York State Senate, making her the first Iranian-American to serve in the New York State Legislature and the first “former political refugee to serve in the New York State Senate.

1965: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol opened the Maccabiah Grames at Ramat Gan Stadium in Tel Aviv.

1966: Today Goldsmith’s a department store founded in Memphis by Jacob and Isaac Goldsmith “continued to branch out with the construction of its 130,000 sq ft (12,000 m2) Southland Mall location, which opened” today.

1966: Three days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held today for eighty-two-year-old New York native and graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University Dr. David John Kaliski, the husband of Kate Mountjoy Kaliski

1968: It was reported today that The American Jewish Theater at the 92d Street Y will open its new season of five plays on Sept. 19 with a revival of Heinar Kipphardt's ''In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,'' directed by Robert Brink.

 

1969: Two Jordanian students try to blow up the Israeli Commercial Fair at Izmir, Turkey.

1971(2nd of Elul, 5731): Ninety-two-year-old Rabbi Charles Eliezer Hillel Kauvar, the Lithuanian born son of Solomon (Zolkin) Salkind Kauvar and Rose de Waltoff, the JTS graduate who served Beth HaMedrosh Hagadol Congregation in Denver, CO for a total of 69 years passed away today after which he was buried in Jerusalem.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kauvar-charles-eliezer-hillel

1972: Final broadcast of “The Super” a comedy series created by Rob Reiner, Phil Mishkin and Garry Isenberg.

1973: Oral History Interview with business executive, philanthropist and Zionist Abraham Feinberg.

https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/feinberg

1973(25th of Av, 5733): Sixty-eight-year-old forensic psychiatrist and author Dr. Henry A. Davidson, the Newark, NJ born son of physician and husband of “the former Adelaide Heyman with whom he had two children – Laurence and Ellen – passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/24/archives/dr-henry-a-davidson-is-dead-a-psychiatrist-and-author-68.html?_r=0

1973:  In response to threats from Moshe Dayan that he either be made head of the government or he would bolt the Labor party, Israel Galili, at the behest of Prime Minister Meir, circulated a document intended to create a compromise between the competing forces within the Labor Party.  Dayan led those who sought to aggressively expand Jewish Settlements in the West Bank.  He was opposed by Abba Eban and Pinchas Sapir.  The compromise called for the creation of 30 new West Bank settlements over the next four years. The settlements were not to be built in areas with a high density of Arab population.  But at Dayan’s insistence all these 30 additional settlements along with 46 that had already been built would be within the borders of Israel at the end of any future peace negotiations with the Arabs.

1975(16th of Elul, 5735): Seventy-three-year-old screenwriter Sidney Robert Buchman, the native of Duluth, Minnesota and Columbia University graduate who served as President of the Screen Writers Guild of America who ended up on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist passed away today.

http://zenithcity.com/thisday/august-23-1975-death-of-duluth-screenwriter-sidney-buchman/

https://dplreference.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/sidney-buchman-1902-1975-film-producer-writer/

1977(9th of Elul, 5737): Seventy-year-old “grain dealer” Fritz Richard Rosenwald, the Bunde, Germany born son of Emma and Bendix Rosenwald and the husband of Gertrude and Eva Rosenwald passed away today in Chicago.

1980(11th of Elul, 5740): Parashat Ki Teitzei

1980: The curtain came down today on a Broadway revival of Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, which had opened in July

1980: The original Australian production of “They’re Playing Our Song,” “a musical with a book by Neil Simon, lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager, and music by Marvin Hamlisch” opened today at the Royal Theatre in Sydney.

1980: Jewish dissident Iosif Begun went on trial today as the Soviet Union pursued its “anti-Zionist campaign.”

1981: It was reported today that “The American Jewish Theater at the 92d Street Y will open its new season of five plays on Sept. 19 with a revival of Heinar Kipphardt's ''In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer,'' directed by Robert Brink.”

1981(23rd of Av, 5741): Seventy-six-year-old Elias Picheny, the native of Fostov, Ukraine, the  American social worker and husband of Ukrainian born Dora Wortham Pichney with whom he had two children – Jacob and Joel.

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/29/obituaries/elias-picheny-is-dead-at-76-former-jewish-welfare-official.html

https://www.jta.org/1981/09/01/archive/elias-picheny-dead-at-76

1981: It was reported today that “Nathan Teitel's ''The Keymaker,'' described as the story of a Jewish Paul Bunyan in New York City in 1910, will have its premiere March 6.”

1982(4th of Elul, 5742): Sixty-six-year-old Alfred S. Bloomingdale, the son of Hiram Bloomingdale and the heir to fortune connected with the department store chain that bears his family’s name passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/24/obituaries/alfred-bloomingdale-diners-club-developer-dies.html

http://www.jta.org/1981/09/01/archive/elias-picheny-dead-at-76

1984(25th of Av, 5744): Eighty-six-year-old Henry Robert Samstag, the New York City born son of Belle and Henry Frederick Samstag and the husband of “Renee Wilcox Samstag” passed away today in his hometown.

1985: A month after opening in Hong Kong, “The Protector” directed and written by James Glickenhaus was released today in the United States.

1985: In Santa Monica, CA, “Michael D. Miller, a real estate investor, and Miriam (Glosser) Miller” to Stephen Miller, the Duke University graduate who began serving “as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy” in the Trump administration on January 20, 2017.

1990(2nd of Elul, 5750): David Rose, British born American songwriter, composer and conductor passed away.  The four- time Emmy winner is known for his work such television hits as Bonanza as well as musical creations including The Stripper and Calypso Melody.

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/26/obituaries/david-rose-composer-dies-at-80-wrote-for-television-and-movies.html

1991: After two days of riots in Crown Heights, the police shifted tactics, and the violence began to subside.

1992(24th of Av, 5752): Eighty-seven-year-old defense lawyer Abraham Brodsky passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/27/obituaries/abraham-brodsky-87-defense-lawyer-dies.html

1993(6th of Elul, 5753): Sixty-nine-year-old Boston bakery store owner Victor (Avigdor ) Karmer, the twice married son Ukrainian born son of Anna Kramer passed away today after having been “run over by an automobile.” (He is not to be confused with Philadelphia born Israeli scholar Avigdor (Victor) Hurowitz.

https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/VictorHurowitz-English.pdf

1995: “Drunks” a film set at an AA meeting co-starring Richard Lewis premiered at the Boston Film Festival.

1995(27th of Av, 5755): Ninety-six-year-old Alfred Eisenstaedt, one of the greatest photojournalists of all time passed away.  You may not know his name, but you know his work.  For once, a picture is indeed worth a thousand words so here are several places to look. (Editor’s Note – For all of us put film in a camera, people like Eisenstaedt were like the gods on Olympus, or in my case Canon)

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1206.html

http://www.cctvcamerapros.com/Alfred-Eisenstaedt-Camera-Photography-s/392.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sailor-who-kissed-a-nurse-in-famous-wwii-photograph-dies-aged-86-9193528.html

http://art-now-and-then.blogspot.com/2013/10/alfred-eisenstaedt.html

http://losarciniegas.blogspot.com/2014/06/sophia-loren-by-alfred-eisenstaedt.html

http://www.taringa.net/post/imagenes/17149175/Alfred-Eisenstaedt-Fotografia.html

http://www.all-about-photo.com/photographer.php?name=alfred-eisenstaedt&id=497

1996: “Foxfire” a film co-produced by Jeffrey Lurie the Boston born Jewish of Nancy Smith and Morris John Lurie and the grandson of Philip Smith, “the founder of the General Cinema movie theatre chain.”

1998: The New York Times book section featured  reviews of the memoir of an alcoholic who grew up in an observant Jewish household in an affluent New Jersey suburb and who changed her life after a car crash involving her parent entitled Slow Motion: A True Story by Dani Shapiro and  Living the Bill of Rights: How to Be an Authentic American in which Jewish historian, writer and civil libertarian Nat Hentoff offers “profiles of Americans who, Hentoff believes, embody the constitutional ideals expressed in the Bill of Rights.”

1998(1st of Elul, 5758): Rosh Chodesh Elul

1998: Broadcast of the first episode of “That ‘70’s Show” a sit-com co-starring Mila Kunis.

1999(11th of Elul, 5759): Hollywood screenwriter Norman Wexler whose works included "Saturday Night Fever”, and "Mandingo" passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/25/arts/norman-wexler-73-writer-of-saturday-night-fever.html

2000(22nd of Av, 5760): Seventy-eight-year-old Herman Clurman, the son of Lena Shimshak and Morris J. Clurman and the husband of Gloria A. (Glick) Clurman passed away today and was buried at the Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.

2000: “The Art of War” co-starring Maury Chaykin as “Frank Capella” was released in the United States today by Warner Brothers.

2002(15th of Elul, 5762): Ninety-four-year-old Louise Rosenfield Noun “a Grinnell College graduate for whom the college's program in women's studies is named, died today, at the Iowa Jewish Senior Life Center in Des Moines.

http://iagenweb.org/boards/poweshiek/obituaries/index.cgi?read=412744

2003(25th of Av, 5763): Seventy-three-year-old Fruma Rahel Wiezt of Jerusalem died today from the wounds she suffered during the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing on August 19.

2003(25th of Av, 5763): Seventy-nine-year-old “Yiddish speaking actor” Hy Anzell passed away today.

http://goldenthroats.wikia.com/wiki/Hy_Anzell

2005:  Haaretz reported that Dalia Rabikovitch had passed away at the age of 69. Rabikovitch was born in Ramat Gan in 1936.  Her name and her works may not be known to many in America.  But in Israel she was described as“one of the main pillars of Hebrew poetry." She also wrote poetry for children and translated American and English poetic works into Hebrew. She had won both the Bialik Prize and the Israel Prize. Ms. Rabikovitch was a vociferous critic of Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

2006: Peter “Falk’s memoir Just One More Thing was published by Carroll & Graf” today.

2006: The Wall Street Journal announced that Rite Aid which was founded by Alex Grass “would be buying the Eckerd Pharmacy and Brooks Pharmacy chains.”

2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has bought two new submarines from Germany. The new submarines - called the U212 - will be fitted with a new German technology in which the propulsion system combines a conventional diesel lead-acid battery system and an air-independent propulsion system used for slow, silent cruising, with a fuel cell equipped with oxygen and hydrogen storage. Yes the Jewish state is litterally getting “U-boats” the name given to Nazi Scourge of the North Atlantic in World War II. 

 2006(29th of Av, 5766): St.-Sgt. Alex Assaf, 21, from Karmiel, was killed and three others were injured when a company of soldiers of the Givati Brigade accidentally walked into a minefield in southern Lebanon near Mount Dov, also known as the Shaba Farms. A platoon commander was listed in serious condition, the battalion commander Lt.-Col. Bassam sustained moderate wounds, and another soldier was lightly wounded. The Jerusalem Post published the following link listing all who had lost their lives before the cease fire. In Memoriam - JPost.com special project

2007: Representatives of the Kabbalah Center confirmed that pop star Madonna, actress Demi Moore, actor Ashton Kutcher and fashion designer Donna Karan are among the famous faces scheduled to arrive as part of a Kabbalah Center tour being organized for the High Holidays.

2008: An exhibition entitled "From Distant Places to Dubuque's Shores: 175 Years of Jewish Life" opens at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. Alexander Levi blazed many trails in Dubuque. According to an article in the Telegraph-Herald, Dubuque's first Jewish settler, Levi became the state's first naturalized citizen, spent 50 years as a Mason and served as Dubuque Justice of the Peace. A successful miner and mine provisioner, Levi's dry-goods establishment became one of the largest and best-known retail stores of its time. Now, Levi's story and Dubuque's Jewish history are featured in the latest exhibit at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. "From Distant Places to Dubuque's Shores: 175 Years of Jewish Life" premieres at the museum Saturday, Aug. 23, and runs through the end of the year. "We are so thrilled," said Karin Pritikin, a lead exhibit organizer with the Alexander Levi Heritage Project, a volunteer initiative of Dubuque's Temple Beth El. Project organizers used a $5,000 competitive award from the city of Dubuque and a $3,000 "mini grant" from Humanities Iowa/The National Endowment for the Humanities to create a multimedia exhibit. "This is a unique exploration of Jewish history that is long overdue," said Jerry Enzler, the river museum's executive director. "It shows how diverse Dubuque was in its very founding." Levi emigrated from France in 1833 and was followed by other French Jews. By the end of the 19th century, most of Dubuque's Jewish population came from Russia or Poland. Over the decades, as their numbers ebbed and swelled, Dubuque's Jewish community founded several congregations, a Jewish cemetery, a political club, a ladies aid society and Hebrew schools. "Levi founded Dubuque's first Jewish congregation," Pritikin said. One of the exhibit's recurring themes is Dubuque's historic climate of religious tolerance:

* Levi was an early donor to Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, as the pioneering clergyman built Dubuque's first Catholic Church, St. Raphael's.

* Jews and non-Jews entered into successful and enduring business partnerships beginning in the early 19th century.

* Jewish citizens were elected and appointed to government posts at the local and state level.

* The dedication of Temple Beth El in 1939 was presided over by a Catholic judge, attended by Dubuque residents of many faiths and included an ecumenical service with participation from Methodist clergy.”

2008: Police discovered that Vandals had painted 11 swastikas on some of the 2,700 gray slabs of Berlin's Holocaust memorial today. A police statement said the red and black Nazi symbols were discovered by a guard at the monument and were immediately wiped off the seven slabs affected.

2008: Two wooden boats carrying dozens of human rights activists reached the Gaza Strip on this afternoon after the Israeli navy decided not to hinder the challenge to Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

2008: Galit Chait “a former Israeli competitive ice dancer” “married former Italian military policeman Francesco Moracci in New Jersey” today.

2009: In New York City the Le Poisson Rouge Art Gallery’s third exhibition of the works of Itamar Jobani, the renowned Israeli installation artist, comes to an end.

2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City by Anthony Flint.

2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector by Benjamin Moser.

2009(3rd of Elul, 5769): Ninety-year old Stanley Kaplan, a pathfinder in the fields of test preparation and for-profit education passed away today. (As reported by Karen W. Arneson)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/education/25kaplan.html?pagewanted=print

2010: As part of its Hints of Elul series, Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present “Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God; and Renew a Right Spirit within Me. (Psalm 51:12)”

2010: Norway's Ministry of Finance announced that the Norway Oil Fund divested from Africa-Israel Investments and Danya Cebus Ltd. Today. The reason given is the companies' construction in the West Bank.

2010: The monumental chestnut tree that cheered Anne Frank while she was in hiding from the Nazis was toppled by wind and heavy rain today.  The once mighty tree, now diseased and rotted through the trunk, snapped about 3 feet (1 meter) above ground and crashed across several gardens. It damaged a brick wall and several sheds, but nearby buildings — including the Anne Frank House museum — escaped unscathed. No one was injured, a museum spokeswoman said.

2010: The 14 Israeli police officers who will leave for earthquake ravaged Haiti as part of the U.N. multinational force, attended a ceremony at the Western Wall today ahead of their scheduled departure on early next week.  The delegation constitutes the first-ever Israeli group to serve in active duty under the command of the United Nations. The police officers will remain in Haiti for an extended period of time

2010(13th of Elul, 5770): Seventy-two-year-old Vienna, Austria native and “noted civil right and criminal defense lawyer Tom Adler, the grandson of Guido Adler, who worked “to recover family assets stolen by the Nazis” passed away today.

2010(13th of Elul, 5770): Eighty-nine-year-old song writer George David Weiss passed away (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/arts/music/24weiss.html?pagewanted=print

2011: The Board of Trustees of Tifereth Israel Dinner and Meeting is scheduled to take place this evening Columbus, Ohio.

2011: Open Mic Night is scheduled tonight at the Off The Wall Comedy Empire in Jerusalem.

2011: Roni Ish-Ran, a musician and payytan from Nahla’ot and the Beit Abba band are scheduled to perform this evening in Jerusalem.

2011: The Israeli intelligence community is in disagreement regarding Hamas’s involvement in the recent round of violence between Israel and terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.

2011: Officially, Hamas has claimed it was not involved in the attacks near Eilat on August 18, which Israel attributed to the Popular Resistance Committees, or in the firing of more than 150 rockets and mortars into Israel, which came to a tentative end on yesterday with the institution of a tense ceasefire.

2011: Australia today joined the growing ranks of Western nations that have decided to boycott the so-called Durban III conference set to take place at the United Nations headquarters next month.Canberra announced it would not take part in the tenth anniversary commemoration of the Durban World Conference on Racism citing concern it would be exploited by Israel's foes and focus unfairly on the Jewish State.

2011: "Jewish centers and synagogues were evacuated by the earthquake that was felt up and down the east coast. Staffers at synagogues in Washington D.C. and Richmond, Va., the city closest to the epicenter, tried to calm one another’s jangled nerves as they checked their buildings for structural damage. At Adas Israel, the largest Conservative synagogue in Washington, Executive Director Glenn Easton ordered the building evacuated after the quake ended. A lunch for seniors was stopped midway, and 100 people filed out of the building." (As reported by Naomi Zeveloff)

2012: Dr. Peggy Pearlstein, the head of the Hebraic Section at the Library of Congress is scheduled to lead a noontime discussion of People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.

2012: President Shimon Peres called on German President Joachim Gauck today to resolve the German legal issues around circumcision, Army Radio reported. "Circumcision has constituted a central aspect of our nation's Jewish identity over thousands of years. The value of religious freedom for the Jewish community must be preserved," Peres wrote Gacuk in a letter. Peres hosted Gauck at the Presidential Residence in May.

2012: Hezbollah should be placed on the European Union’s terror list, Philipp Missfelder, Bundestag foreign policy spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, wrote The Jerusalem Post today.

 2012: A man in Melbourne accused of taunting his neighbors with anti-Semitic abuse was evicted from his apartment. Adam Schipkie, 28, was ordered by a government tribunal from his local council flat today after residents, including some Holocaust survivors, complained.

2012: Temple Shalom of Auburn, ME is scheduled to sponsor a field trip to the Maine Jewish Museum at Congregation Etz Chaim in Portland, Maine.

2012: Publication of “The Forgotten Refugees” a film about the one million Jews driven from their homes in Arab and Moslem countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH8RL2XRr48

2013: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah is scheduled to host a Musical Shabbat followed by the installation of new congregational officers.

2013: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to be shown at several theatres in New England include the Roxy in Burlington, VT, the Colonial in Keene, NH and the Strand in Rockland, ME

2013: San Diego mayor Bob Filner is expected to resign today.

2013: Israeli fighter jets bombed targets south of Beirut early this morning in what the IDF spokesperson said was retaliation for rocket attacks against northern Israel the day before. . (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion)

2013: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the rocket fire from Lebanon that landed in northern Israel yesterday

2013(17th of Elul, 5773): Eighty-eight year old psychiatrist and author William Glasser passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)

http://www.hannahfrank.org.uk/pages/about_hannah.htm

2014: At the Chabad House in Iowa City. Moishie Blesofsky, the son of Rabbi Avremel and Chaya Blesofsky is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah.

2014(27th of Av, 5774): Eighty-year-old Philippine de Rothschild passed away today.(As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/27/world/philippine-de-rothschild-wine-nobility-dies-at-80.html

2014(27th of Av, 5774): Seventy-five-year-old historian Michael Katz passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/us/michael-b-katz-historian-who-challenged-views-on-poverty-dies-at-75.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

2014: In Tel Aviv, The Titanic Exhibition that includes “hundreds of artifacts” from the unsinkable ship is scheduled to come to an end.

2014: The Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center is scheduled to host a “Tribute to Ofra  Haza” as part of its  August Concert Series.

2014: Over 100 rockets were fired on Israel from Gaza today with one hitting the dining hall at the kibbutz where a four year had been killed the day before and another injuring two people in parkinglot in Beersheva.

2014: Two children were injured by shrapnel when five rockets were fired from Syria at the northern Golan Heights tonight, after a rocket fired from Lebanon hit an empty house in the Western Galilee earlier.

2014: “A long list of Hollywood heavyweights” including Mayim Bialik, Minnie Driver, Kelsey Grammer, Seth Rogen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sarah Silverman, and Sylvester Stallone have put their names to a letter slamming Hamas over the “devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza” and condemning the “ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas’ charter, Article 7 of which reads, ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!’”

2015:  The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish writers and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine – A Tale of Two Narratives by Padraig O’Malley, The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools? by Dale Russakoff, Machines of Love Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots by John Markoff and Faith ED. – Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance by Linda K. Wertheimer.

2015: In London, The UK Jewish Film which “is dedicated to developing an environment in which Jewish film entertains, educates and enlightens diverse audiences in the UK and internationally is scheduled to host a showing of “The Cobbler” starring Adam Sandler.

2015: In Atlanta, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to the “Girls Lead Theatre Workshop.”

2015: In Baltimore, Dr. Greg Metcalf is scheduled to lecture on “From the Jazz Singer to Alvy Singer: The Depiction of Jews in Hollywood Film from Al Jolson to Woody Allen.”

2015: The Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host a screening of “Gentlemen’s Agreement.”

2015: Bob Geminder, a native of Wroclaw, Poland who survived the Shoah is scheduled to speak at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust.

2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host “Bagel On!” “a Jewishly Fun Fair.”

2015: Shai Tsabari, the Jaffa born Yemenite singer-song writer, and the Middle East Groove Stars are scheduled to open at Joe’s Pub

2016(19th of Av, 5776): Eighty-five-year-old Nobel Prize winner Reinhard Selten, “who was expelled from school in Germany because he was half Jewish” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/business/economy/reinhard-selten-whose-strides-in-game-theory-led-to-a-nobel-dies-at-85.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=obituaries&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Obituaries&pgtype=article

2016(19th of Av, 5776): Ninety-four-year-old actor Steven Hill passed away today.

http://forward.com/culture/348316/how-steven-hill-law-order-actor-chose-orthodox-faith-over-stardom/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_MostPopular_Position-2&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Daily%202016-08-27&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday

2016: “Better Late Than Never” co-starring William Shatner and Henry Winkler is scheduled to premiere on NBC.

2017(1st of, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Elul – Begin sounding the shofar.

2017: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Sochi, Russia, today that "Iran is increasing its efforts to establish its military foothold in Syria which is dangerous for Israel, the Middle East and the whole world.”

2017: Today “US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman appeared to critique US President Donald Trump’s response to the racially motivated violence in Charlottesville earlier this month.” (As reported by Raoul Wootliff)

2017: Four female students from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, including two Americans, who were among a group of 15 rabbinical, cantorial and Jewish education students from North America and Australia who joined about 200 men and women in an egalitarian service held this morning on the plaza behind the men’s and women’s sections were asked to lift their shirts and skirts for security before being allowed to enter the Western Wall plaza.

2017: The Israel Foreign Ministry said today that “six tons of food aid were distributed to residents of a village in a drought-stricken area of South Sudan.”

2017: Bat Yam is scheduled to open “its streets and boardwalk for a theatre festival” that lasts three days.

2017: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host “Hidden in Plain Sight: Forgotten Jewish Architects and their Famous Creations” that will explore Jewish architectural efforts including the “first grand, modern market in the heart of Cairo NS a majestic and storied hotel in Isfahan.”

2017: UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host a screening of “Natasha,” a coming-of age film about Jewish-Russian Immigrants in Glasgow, Scotland.

2017: Gary Cohn, President Trump’s director of the National Economic Council “complained loudly about Trump while dining with friends at a Long Island restaurant”…saying “in a loud voice overheard by others how he had to be careful not to give Trump too much lead time about some new ideas because the president could disclose the information prematurely and upend the planning process.”

2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host two screening of “Vitch,” a bopic about Eddie Vitch, the Polish born “mime and cartoonist” who survived the Holocaust.

2018: As part of its Summer Festival, the Jerusalem Centre for the Performing Arts is scheduled to host its Swing Dancing Class.

2018: Based on statements made in the last thirty-six hours Israelis and their supporters are left to ponder if President Trump’s remarks this week that Israel will have to make a major concession because he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem were tied to Ambassador Bolton’s later comments indicating that the U.S. government has not changed (and apparently would not change) its position on recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights

2019: The McGill/Klezkanada Academic Seminar is scheduled to being the day with “Yiddish Art Music” followed by “The Contemporary Revitalization of Yiddish Music.”

2019: Klezkanada is scheduled to host the launch of Zach Mayer’s album, “Modeh Ani,” followed by a full evening of Shabbat activities including services, and “The Singing Table.”

2019: In San Francisco, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host Jack Hirshman as talking about “Kabbalah Poetry.”

2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Peenzack is scheduled to offer a pre-Shabbat lunch followed by a screening of the Emmy Award winning documentary “A Yiddish World Remembered.”

2019: In Brooklyn, the exhibition “The Weight of the Temporary” is scheduled to come to a close.

https://aicf.org/event/the-weight-of-the-temporary-2/

2020: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Israel today and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

2021: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a tour of “Mandela: Struggle for Freedom,” an exhibition that traces the history of the fight against apartheid in South Africa, with Nelson Mandela as one of its central figures

2021: Exhibitions at the Center for Jewish History are scheduled to be open to the public starting today.

2021: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host Aviya Kushner the author of Wolf Lamb Bomb (Orison Books) and The Grammar of God as she lectures on “Isaiah in Poetry: Comfort O Comfort.”

2021: Licensed tour guide and food researcher Joel Haber is scheduled to lead a virtual tour of Jerusalem’s Shuk.

2021: Based on reports published yesterday, Israeli’s may be confronted with yet another government crisis since Ra'am chief Mansour Abbas is supposedly threatening to “resign from Bennett's government if tensions between Israel and Gaza continue to escalate” and “Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked has warned that her Yamina party will quit the government if coalition co-leader Yair Lapid works toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Wonder Woman” starring Israeli Gal Gadot.

2022: The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is scheduled to host a talk on “Spotlighting Innovators in Jewish Theatre.

2022: Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney are scheduled to face off in rare incumbent versus incumbent Democratic Party primary in New York today.

2022: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host a screening of “Born in Jerusalem.”

2022: The Hunt by Faye Kellerman is scheduled to go on sale.

2022: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host the book launch of Saving Freud by Andrew Nagorski.

 https://mjhnyc.org/events/saving-freud-book-launch/

2023: The Sisterhood Summer Social at Temple Judea is scheduled to feature a bagel brunch with Rabbi Rose Durbin speaking about “David’s Divas: Analyzing the significant political influence of King David’s named wives: Michal, Bathsheba, and Abigail."

2023: In Palo Alto, the Oshman JCC is scheduled to host

“The Art of Repentance: A Journey into the Hebrew Month of Elul” during which Israeli community leader Mor Shimonie will discuss various Selichot (forgiveness prayers) traditions and explores themes of repentance. With vegetarian, kosher-style lunch.

2023: the Jewish Federation of New Orleans is scheduled to host a “Golda Movie Event” at the AMC Elmwood in Harahan, LA.

2023: Today, based on yesterday’s unveiling of drone yesterday by Iran that can reach Israel and this past weekend’s terror attacks which the Prime Minister said were financed by Iran, the threat to Israel from Iran would seem to have heightened.

2024: In honor of the 111th anniversary of the birth of Menachem Begin, today Tikvah offers the podcast “Menachem Begin: His Life, Legacy, & Uniquely Jewish Statesmanship.”

https://tikvahfund.org/begin-podcast/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=soloveichik_email&utm_campaign=menachem-begin-podcast&_kx=6aVy6vfqHiaznLQQBfcG7HtP65rZ8SUp-UOON1XBi5E.LFdrfw

2024: In Washington, DC, the Sixth and I Synagogue is scheduled to host a pre-Labor Day Shabbat service “that weaves together labor issues, social justice, and Judaism.” 

2024: In Louisiana, Shir Chadash is schedule to a Kabbalat Shabbat service and a special Shabbat Dinner featuring traditional Jewish-Italian dishes, followed by an engaging lecture on the fascinating history of Jews in Italy and their impact in local cuisine by the author of Jewish Flavors of Italy, Silvia Nacamulli.

2024: In Palm Beach Gardens, FL Temple Judea is scheduled to host an 11:00 a.m. Shabbat Worship and Lunch for those over the age of 85 and above and a 5:30 p.m. Shabatt service led by Rabbi Yaron and Cantor Abbie Strauss.

2024: The Friday Family Shabbat is scheduled to take place at the JCC New Albany followed by a dinner in Northeast Columbus, OH.

2024: “Between the Temples,” a film by Nathan Silver is scheduled to open in theatres today.

2024: In London, the exhibition “Creating Connections: Make Your Own Museum Display” is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum.

2024: As August 23rd begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 322 in captivity.  (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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