November 27
8 BCE: Horace, the Roman poet who created “The Jew Apella” passed away
today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1629-apella
176: Emperor Marcus Aurelius grant his son Commodus the rank of Imperator
and makes him Supreme Commander of the Roman legions. To the world at large
Marcus Aurelius was “the philosopher-king” or “philosophical but impractical”
ruler, but to the Jews he was just Roman emperor who held them in contempt
describing them as “’Stinking and tumultuous!’” to his companions as he
traveled through Judea. The dissolute nature of Commodus has become well known
to all through the film “Gladiator.” Commodus showed his ineptitude in his
failed attempt to defeat the Parthians, Rome’s eastern enemy whose empire
reached to the borders of Palestine.
Unable to defeat an armed enemy in the field, Commodus began fresh
persecutions of the Jews living there denying them, among other things, the
right to use their courts of justice.
602:
Maurice, the Emperor of the Byzantine Emperor who in 592 punished “the entire
Jewish community of Antioch after a Jew violated one his laws” passed away
today
1095: First Crusade proclaimed by the Council of Clermont. By now everybody
should be aware of the fact that the Crusades ushered in a period of death and
destruction for the Jews of Europe and Eretz Israel.
1096: Following the Battle of Alcoraz in which the Zaragozan forces were
defeated, Peter I conquered Huesca.
1198(26th of Kislev, 4959): Rabbeinu Abraham ben David known by
the abberviation RABaD (for Rabbeinu Abraham ben David) passed away. Born in Provence, France in 1125, he was a
Provençal rabbi, a great commentator on the Talmud, Sefer Halachot of Rabbi
Yitzhak Alfasi and Mishne Torah of Maimonides, and is regarded as a father of
Kabbalah and one of the key and important links in the chain of Jewish mystics
1308: Henry VII who “was presented with a scroll of the Law by a delegation
of Jews from Rome which had gone to meet him began” began his reign as King of
the Romans
1614: In Frankfurt, Vincenz Fettmilch, the ringleader of the Fettmilch
Rising during which the Judengasse was attacked looted, was arrested along with
38 of his followers and “charged for their persecution of the Jews.” (They would eventually be executed. The authorities really were not upset about
his attack on the Jews. What got him
into trouble was when he was perceived as a threat to the emperor and the
ruling order.
1688 (4th of Kislev): Rabbi Elijah Kovo of Salonika, author of Aderet
Eliyahu, passed away
1703: In New York City, Etienne de Lancy, the Caen born son of Marguerite
and Jacques de Lancy, and his wife Anna de Lancy gave birth to Colonel James de
Lancy , the acting Governor of New York.
1710: Birthdate of Robert Lowth, the Bishop of the Church of England who
1754 was awarded a Doctorate in Divinity by Oxford University, for his treatise
on Hebrew poetry entitled Praelectiones
Academicae de Sacra Poesi Hebraeorum (On the Sacred Poetry of the
Hebrews) which derives from a series of lectures that were published by
George Gregory in 1787 as "Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the
Hebrews".
1744: The plundering of the Prague Ghetto and the “Tandelmarkt” began today.
1755: An English merchant named
Joseph Salvador bought 10,000 acres near Fort Ninety-Six, in the southern part
of the Carolina Colony. In 1773, Joseph Salvador would send his nephew Francis
Salvador to South Carolina to develop the land as an indigo plantation. At the outbreak of the American Revolution
the wealthy young aristocrat joined the fight for independence. He died of wounds in August of 1776 while
fighting the Cherokee allies of the British.
The following words were etched on his tombstone: Born an aristocrat he
became a democrat, An Englishman he cast his lot with America; True to his
ancient faith, he gave his life for new hopes of liberty and human
understanding.”
1757: Birthdate of William Blake,
English poet, painter and printmaker. Controversy surrounds Blake’s grasp of Jewish mysticism. It seems pretty
clear that Blake’s art and writing invoke Kabbalah, but scholars debate how
Blake accessed the Jewish mystical concepts he quoted. Some argue that the
dozen or so Hebrew inscriptions in Blake’s etchings and watercolors show that
Blake was fluent in Hebrew. But close analysis of the works, some of which are
on exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum, reveals that Blake had not even
mastered the letter alef. Reading Kabbalah in Hebrew without knowing the first
letter of the alef-bet would be as implausible as tackling “Finnegans Wake”
with barely a grasp of the English alphabet. Arguments that Blake knew Hebrew
date back to Frederick Tatham, who cared for Catherine after Blake’s death in
1827. In a letter to bookseller Frances Harvey, Tatham said that Blake’s
library included “well thumbed” books in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French and
Italian, as well as works by Swedenborg and Christian mystic Jacob Boehme. “His
knowledge was immense, his industry beyond parallel,” Tatham wrote. Modern
scholars echo Tatham’s claim. Writing in the journal Modern Philology in 1951,
David V. Erdman ascribed “some Hebrew” to Blake, particularly the knowledge
that beth-lehem means “house of bread.” “We know that Blake knew a little
Hebrew,” Anthony Blunt agreed, writing in the Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes in 1943, “for he wrote to his brother in 1803 that he was
learning the Hebrew alphabet, and his etching of the Laocoön [a copy of the
sculpture “Laocoön and His Sons”] bears a few words in Hebrew script.” In his
book “The New Apocalypse: The Radical Christian Vision of William Blake (The
Davies Group, Publishers, 2000), Thomas J. J. Altizer suggests not only that
Blake knew Hebrew, but also that he was self-taught.But the work that Blunt
cites as proof of Blake’s proficiency in Hebrew, “Laocoön” — a circa 1820 print
depicting snakes strangling the famous Trojan priest and his two sons — is one
of the best pieces of evidence that Blake did not know Hebrew. Writing “malakh
Jehovah,” which he translated as “The Angel of the Divine Presence,” Blake
inadvertently rotated the alef 90 degrees on its y-axis. He spelled “Lilit”
(Lilith) correctly, but he miswrote “Jeshua” (Jesus) with another rotated
letter, this time an ayin (the 16th letter). “Laocoön” does not appear in the
Morgan show, but an etching from Blake’s Job series does. In an etching from
Blake’s Job series, the artist again wrote “The Angel of the Divine Presence,”
but this time he wrote the Hebrew “melekh Jehovah,” which means King Jehovah,
rather than malakh (with an alef), the Angel of Jehovah. In “William Blake’s
Illustrations of the Book of Job,” S. Foster Damon says that Blake
intentionally removed the alef to show that Job was worshipping a false God —
mistaking an angel for the king. But could Blake really have known enough
Hebrew to distinguish between “melekh” and “malakh,” when he revealed in
“Laocoön” that he didn’t even know how to form the letter properly? “Job’s Evil Dreams,” features a bearded
figure with hooves encircled by a snake. The figure hovers above a reclining
man and points with its right index finger to the Ten Commandments. Though
Blake wrote out only two of the commandments in full, the inscriptions contain
more than a dozen mistakes. One line contains a properly and an improperly
formed alef, a further inconsistency suggesting that Blake was copying a language
he did not understand. “Blake did study Hebrew with his one-time patron,
William Hayley, but scholars are not agreed about his proficiency in the
language,” explained Leslie Tannenbaum, associate professor of English at Ohio
State University and author of “Biblical Tradition in William Blake’s Early
Prophecies: The Great Code of Art” (Princeton University Press, 1982).
According to Tannenbaum, the late Gerald Bentley, a Blake scholar who taught at
Princeton University, implied in a biography that Blake was “fairly fluent” in
Hebrew. But Tannenbaum also notes that Sheila A. Spector, whom he describes as
“an extremely meticulous scholar and expert on Blake and the Kabbalah,” writes
that Blake did not know the biblical language.In Blake’s preface to the chapter
“To the Jews,” from the poem “Jerusalem,” Tannenbaum sees references to the
kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon (the primordial man). Blake learned Kabbalah
from Swedenborg’s writings on Boehme, who seems to have been influenced by
Balthasar Walther, Tannenbaum adds, and Blake also identified with the Avignon
Society, which sought science and reason “in such unlikely places as alchemical
lore, cabbalistic numerology, mesmerist séances, Swedenborgian spiritualism,
and (perhaps most surprising of all) the Scriptures.” In “Wonders Divine: The Development
of Blake’s Kabbalistic Myth” (Bucknell University Press, 2001) Spector, an
adjunct associate professor at New York University, agrees that Blake’s
kabbalistic sources were Christian rather than Jewish, and English rather than
Hebrew. Further, Blake was “unfortunately” influenced by his contemporary
Anglo-Israelites, who thought that English derived from Hebrew “and that the
language of the Jews was a spurious version in which the rabbis obscured the
‘true Christian’ message to be found in the Bible,” Spector said.“Under the
circumstances, the question of whether or not Blake was fluent in Hebrew misses
the point,” she added. “He rejected normative Hebrew in favor of the linguistic
gymnastics that re-interpreted words to conform with some eccentric – to be
charitable – interpretations that coordinated Hebrew and English, as well as
Greek, etymologies to proffer a new interpretation of Scripture.” (As reported
by Menachem Wecker)
1774(24th of Kislev,
5535): Kindle the first light of Channukah
1780: Birthdate of Bavaria native
“Leser Lazarus Oschsenhorn,” the husband of Nanette Wexler with whom he had six
children, several of whom shortened the family name to Ochs when the settled
variously in Chattanooga, Brooklyn, Louisville and San Francisco.
1785(25th of Kislev,
5546): Channukah
1791(1st of Kislev,
5552): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1798 (19th of Kislev, 5559): Rabbi
Shneur Zalman founder of Chabad Lubavitch was released from a St Petersburg
jail. He had been arrested on charges of high treason for allegedly sending
money to the Czar’s enemy, the Sultan of Turkey. In reality he was sending
money to Jews living in Eretz Israel which was part of Turkey at the time. Shneur Zalman is the author of two works
Tanya and Likkute Torah which describe the philosophy of the Chabad
movement. Chabad is an acronym for the
Hebrew words Chokhmah (wisdom), Binah (understanding) and Da’at (Wisdom). Lubavitch is the name of the town in which
the Descendants of Dov Baer, the Maggid of Mezhirech, Shneur Zalman’s “teacher”
settled. In 1798, November 27
corresponded to the 19th day of Kislev. Ever since then Chabad Lubavitchers mark YUD-TET
KISLEV (19th of Kislev) as day of joy and celebration.
1798: Rabbi Dovber Schneuri, the second Rebbe of the Chabad Hasidic dynasty
and wife gave birth to Rebbetzin Menucha Rochel Slonim, the granddaughter of
Rabbi Shneur Zalmin of Liado.
1804: Birthdate of Sir Julius Benedict, the German born highly successful
English composer and conductor who was knighted in 1871.
1804(24th of Kislev, 5565): Kinlde the first Channukah light
1804: While serving in the United States Navy, today, Gershom R. Jacques was
promoted from “Surgeon’s Mate” to “Surgeon.”
1814: Judah Elias Piza and Rachel Piza, the parents of David and Elias Piza
were married today.
1815: Birthdate of Simon Hock, the Prague born businessman who created a
history of the Jews of Bohemia.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hock_Simon
1819: Leopold Zuns and Eduard
Gans founded the Verein fuer Cultur und
Wissenschaft der Juden, (The Society for Culture and Science of
Judaism). It delved into Jewish history, culture and literature using
scientific methods of criticism and assessment. The Society lasted less than
five years. Gans and many others converted to Christianity.
1823(24th of Kislev, 5584): Kindle the first Channukah light.
1830: Joseph Mérilhou, the French official who successfully got the Deputies
to adopt legislation treating Judaism on equal footing with Christianity when
it came to public financial support for synagogues and rabbis completed his
term as Minister of Public Education.
1834: Birthdate of Michael Bernays, the Hamburg born lawyer who displayed an
expertise in matters pertaining to Shakespeare and Beethoven and who unlike his
brother Jakob, converted to Christianity.
1836: Birthdate of Silesia native and 1859 graduate of University of Berlin Wilhelm
Ebstein, M.D.. the physician at Allerheiligen Hospital in Breslau and the professor
at Gottingen University as well as the director of the university hospital and
dispensary whose “specialties were malassimilation and defective nutrition.
1837: Birthdate of Ludwig Loewe, who began as manufacturer of sewing
machines and then became major arms maker whose employees included Georg Luger,
the inventor of the famous “Luger” pistol.
1839: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Poznanski officiated at the marriage of Jacob
Suares and Isabella Nathans.
1839: In New Orleans, Samuel Lyons Moss, the Philadelpelphia born son of
Rebeca Lyons and John Moss and his wife Isabelle Moss gave birth to Ernest
Goodman Moss.
1840: Birthdate of Clara Jolles, the wife of Lazar Schorstein and the mother
of Gustave Isidore Schorstein; Thérèse Alice Montefiore and Bertha Victoria
Shorstone.
1841(14th of Kislev, 5602): Parshat Vayishlach
1841(14th of Kislev, 5602): Sixty-one-year-old Esther Isaacs, the
daughter of Moses Isaacs and the wife of Isaac Moses passed away today in New
York.
1842(24th of Kislev, 5603): Kindle the first Chanukah light.
1844: Five days after she had passed away in Paris, 32-year-old Mary
(Montefiore) Mocatta, the wife of Benjamin Mocatta, was buried today “Balls
Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1846: A wagon train owned and commanded by Albert Speyer, a Prussian born
Jew, arrived at San Juan de los Lagos,
Mexico, in time for the pre-Christmas fair where he sold his merchandize,
“reloaded the wagons with Mexican goods – mainly silver curios and sugar – and
returned to Chihuahua” Mexico.
1847: In Poland Israel and Gertrude Zloto “Yetta” Friedman Guranowsky gave birth
to future Rabbi Abraham Guranowsky, the husband of Bertha Guranowsky became the
leader of Congregation Emunath Israel starting in 1878. (Some sources show December
21)
1853: In London, Catherine Barnett and David Jonas gave birth to Elizabeth
Jonas, the wife of Edward Joseph.
1853: An editorial entitled “The Arrest of Rabbi Asche” published today
questioned the methods used by the authorities when they arrested Rabbi Asche
and two other Jews on charges of selling lottery tickets. The editorial supported the concept of law
and order but thought the police could have used better judgment in exercising
their authority.
1855(17th of Kislev, 5616): Fifty-year-old University of Pennsylvania
trained medical doctor and assistant surgeon in the United States Army, Philip
Minis, the Savannah, GA born son of Dinah Cohen and Isaac Minis and the husband
of Sarah Augusta Livingston with whom he had eight children – Alice, Leila,
Charles, Annie, May, Philip, John and Augusta – who shot James Stark in a duel
in 1832 after Stark had made anti-Semitic remarks including calling Minis a “damned
Jew” who “ought to be pissed on” passed away today in Baltimore after which he
was “interred in Savannah's Laurel Grove Cemetery.”
1856; In London, Judah Cohen and Caroline Davis gave birth to Robert I.
Cohen, a product of Westminster Jew’s School and husband of Agnes Lord who
settled in Galveston, TX where he was a director of the Chamber of Commerce and
President of Congregation B’nai Israel.
1856:
Proof of the role of Jews played in settling the American Frontier can be found
in the letters Thomas Gladstone sent to the London Times excerpts of
which were published today. In
describing those traveling up the Missouri River Gladstone reports that his
fellow passengers included “Border Ruffians, Abolitionists…Jews” and others who
“completely” represent “the various classes of the population in Kansas.”
1858:
It was reported today that two New York Rabbis have been arrested on charges of
selling lottery tickets based on the charges brought by one of their
co-religionists.
1860: In Paris, there are reports of a serious rift between Achille Fould,
the Jewish financier who is a close advisor to Emperor Napoleon, and the
Empress.
1861(24th of Kislev, 5622): Kindle the first Chanukah light.
1861: Seventy-seven-year-old Jeanette Wohl the confidant of Ludwig Borne,
the German Jewish writer who like so many of his contemporaries became a
Lutheran but was not above characterizing his rival Heine as “a yeshiva
student” whom he accused of “the Jewish trait of employing witticisms for their
own sake,”
1863: Jacob Miller was wounded at Mine Run, VA, while serving at the 60th
Regiment of the Third Cavalry.
1863: At the Wooster-street Synagogue,
Thanksgiving Day services were held at 3 o'clock, embracing the usual afternoon
prayers, conducted by Rabbi S.M. Isaacs the Prayer for the Government and
appropriate hymns, after which an address was delivered by Meyer S. Isaacs, the
Rabbi’s son He commenced with a reference to the peculiar significance of the
present day of thanksgiving, observed as it was by all Americans, wherever
resident, in response to the recommendation of the Executive. It was a grand
spectacle, an entire nation united in offering up incense on an altar of a
religion all alike profess -- thanksgiving and praise to the Supreme Being.
Divesting themselves of social, political and religious distinctions, superior
to the division of sentiment engendered by sectional ideas and antagonistic
theories, they assembled in their respective places of worship, to pour forth
praises to Him enthroned on hish. Actuated by these considerations, his
audience had gathered together in their house of God, that they too might join
in the grand anthem swelling upward to celestial heights. Israelite and
Christian grasped each other's hand in cordial confidence, working together,
fighting together the battles of the Union, pouring their blood on the
battle-field in friendly rivalry for country's sake. There was no trace of
religious intolerance or sectional feeling in the proclamation of the day; we
were called upon to observe it as Americans, acknowledging special obligations
to Heaven for the providences so graciously displayed in the progress of our
struggle for national existence, and not unmindful of His divine favor in the
daily blessings unintermittingly showered upon us, whose value we often fail to
diiscern until we are deprived of them. He then took his text from Psalm c.,
verses 4 and 5, discussing it from its various points of view, and earnestly
directing attention to the necessity of sincerity in this observance of
National Thanksgiving. The stake was too mighty a one to permit even the
semblance of insincerity in the history we were making, in our protestations of
patriotism. It is understood now, that our love of country is not purely
romantic, but that we were in earnest in our expressions of determination to
reestablish the national supremacy, to permit no armed assemblage, however
formidable, however desperate, to maintain an eternal antagonism to the
constituted authorities. Were we equally
sincere in our observance of Thanksgiving, in our expressions of dependence
upon God, of our own unworthiness and His eternal goodness and truth? This was
to be the lesson of the day. He then illustrated his text by a reference to the
peculiar benefits the Israelites of America enjoy in this land of thorough
civil and religious liberty. We should enter His gates with thanksgiving, His
courts with praise, "for here there was no distinction recognized between
Jew and Gentile in the guaranty by the Constitution of protection in the
enjoyment of the sacred rights of man.
Returning to the broader view of the subject, as Americans, we should
signalize the sincerity of this observance by an amendment in those respects
where we acknowledge national faults. Although we have demonstrated a stauncher
patriotism than we ourselves believed to be inherent in American character,
there may be more sacrifices to make, more selfish considerations to combat,
more errors of administration to deplore and divest of their apparent danger to
the State by a confirmed determination to strengthen the hand of those we have
chosen to preside over our national destinies. In conclusion, he spoke of the
favorable prospect before us, as contrasted with the gloom, astonishment and
despondency at the culmination of the preparation for the war upon our flag.
The ship of state, madly tossed upon an unknown sea, exposed to the dangers of
the warring elements, her pilots surrendered to the guilt of the hour or sadly
inexperienced, was now sailing majestically into a safe harbor, a clear head
and a steady hand at the helm; but God be thanked for this great salvation --
no human wisdom or power hath accomplished this. He closed with a fervent prayer for the
continuance of Divine favor to the land, and its speedy restoration to peace
and prosperity.
1864: In Berdychiv, Berdychiv Raion,
Zhytomyrskа, Ukraine, Yaakov Dov Esterson and Rachel Bracha Buchalter Esterson
gave birth to Baltimore resident Joseph Esterson, the husband of Rebecca
Fantich Esterson and the father of Jacob, Albert, Maurice, Martin, Julius Rose,
Louis, Dr. Sidney, Bessie and Sarah Esterson
1867(29th of Cheshvan, 5628): Forty-five-year-old
August Abraham Josephson, the Stockholm born son of Salomon Josephson and Beata
Levin and Husband of Augusta Hortensia Jacobsson with whom he had three
children passed away today in his home town.
1867: In New York, the former Maria
Phillips and David Davis the owner of the Washington Rubber Company gave birth
to real estate mogul J. Clarence Davis, vice president of the West End
Synagogue, director of the Bronx YMHA and patron of the arts who donated his
collection the Museum of the City of New York
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23135026?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://collections.mcny.org/Gallery/24UAKVNRBJ
1868: The Philadelphia “Press” published
an abstract of the Thanksgiving Day Sermon delivered by Rabbi Jastrow at
Congregation Rodef Shalom.
1870: Birthdate of Emil Corckin, the
husband of Sadie Jacobs Crockin and the “father of Mrs. Irving Goldstein.
1871: “A Tolerant City” published today
quotes the Jewish Chronicle as saying that “Ireland is the only country where
Jews were never persecuted.” As proof of
Irish tolerance, the Chronicle cites the case of a young Jewess named Miss
Samuel, who, when she was on her death bed was the object of prayers of
recovery offered both in Jewish synagogues and Christian Chapels. Her funeral included thirty carriages that
were filled with citizens of both faiths.
1872: Two days after he had passed away,
62-year-old Hyam Levy, the husband of the former Frances Naphtali with whom he
had had six children was buried today at “West Ham Jewish Cemetery” on
Buckingham Road.”
1873: The Charity Committee of the Hebrew
Benevolent and Orphan Asylum has asked that an appeal be made during today’s
Thanksgiving Day services for contributions of money, clothing and other items
that can be used to aid Jews who are economically distressed due to the current
depressed economy.
1874: Solomon and Babette Levy Kern gave birth to Spanish American War
veteran Joseph Kern, the Louisiana resident and husband of Clara Bloch Kern
with whom he had two children – Nathan and Joseph.
1874: In Motal, Belarus, timber merchant Ozier Weizmann and Rachel Czemerinsky gave birth to Zionist leader and
Israel’s first President Chaim Weizmann who first gained fame as the
Russian-British chemist who used bacteria for the synthesis of organic
chemicals. During WW I, a recent immigrant into Great Britain, he discovered a
way to use a bacterium to synthesize acetone during the fermentation of grain.
Acetone was important in the manufacture of cordite for explosives. Postwar, he
modified the fermentation to produce butyl alcohol, suitable for uses such as
lacquers. This was the forerunner of the deliberate use of microorganisms for a
wide variety of syntheses. A generation later, penicillin and vitamin B12 were
produced in this way.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/chaim-weizmann
1876:
Birthdate of Harvard alum Simon J. Lubin the Sacramento, CA born son of David
Lubin and the nephew of Harris Weinstock who founded Lubin and Weinstock “the
largest department store” in that city and the husband of Rebecca Cohen with
whom he had three children – David, Ruth and Miriam.
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;titlesAZ=s;idT=UCb183294993
1876:
In New York City “Isidor and Ida (Blun) Straus gave birth to the Harvard
educated R.H. Macy and Co vice president Percy Selden, the husband of Edith
Abraham who was active in several civic and philanthropic organizations as can
be seen by his service as President of the Jewish Agricultural Society and
Chairman of the Business Men’s Council of the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropic Societies of New York City.
http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7815
1877: In Hungary, Eliyahu Menachem Goitein, the son of Zvi (Armin) Hirsch
Goitein and Szali (Sara) Sarolta Goitein and his wife Amalia Mahala Goitein gave birth to Joseph
Salomon Goitein
1878: In Sumter, SC, Rabbi E.S. Levy officiated at the wedding of A. De Leon
Moses of Burke Country, GA and Eliza Cohen, the daughter daughter of Max Cohen
who used to live in Charleston, SC.
1879: Dr. Henry W. Bellows, a prominent Unitarian Minister, delivered the
Thanksgiving Day Sermon at Temple Emanu-El, the New York Jewish house of
worship led by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil
1880(24th of Kislev, 5641): In the evening kindle the first light
of Chanukah.
1880: The New York Times reported today that “the celebration of the Jewish
feast of ‘Chanuka’ will be commenced this evening by the Children of Israel
throughout the world.” The Times goes on to provide an accurate description of
the origins of the holiday and its modern observance including the fact that
the events celebrated began “on the 25th day of the month of
Kislev.” (This was written 15 years before the Ochs family acquired the paper)
1880: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association hosted its “fourth entertainment”
of the season tonight at Lyric Hall.
1881: On day after she had passed away, 72-year-old Sophia Ford, the wife
Amsterdam native Charles Ford and more of Henry and Rose Ford was buried today
at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1881: At Rostov-on –Don Isaiah and Feodosia Chatzman gave birth to their
daughter Vera, the future wife of Chaim Wiezmann, who was a leading Zionist in
her own right. (As reported by Esther Carmel-Hakim)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/weizmann-vera
1881: A meeting was held this morning at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum to discuss
additional measures to be taken to meet the growing influx of Jewish immigrants
from Russia which is overwhelming the resources of the United Hebrew
Charities. One solution is to establish
“farming colonies” which will provide a livelihood for the impoverished new
arrivals and avoid population congestion in a few east coast cities.
1882: A review of Natural Religion by Sir John Robert Seeley, the author of
Ecce Homo, cites the author’s contention that “the Hebrew Scriptures express in
poetic form and in language suited another age the spirit of modern science. Notably the Book of Job contrasts the
conventional and, as it were, orthodox view of the universe with the view which
those obtain who are prepared to face it awfulness directly.” (Editor’s note –
this comes at a time when there was a clash between science and religion so it
is intriguing that an English author would find a harmony between the two in
the Jewish section of his Bible.)
1882(16th of Kislev, 5643): Sixty-two-year-old Moses Soave,
Italian “Hebraist” who “supported himself as tutor for Venetian Jewish
families” while writing biographies of several Italian Jews including Sara
Copia Sullam, Amatus Lusitanus, Abraham de Balmes, Shabbethai Donnolo and Leon
de Modena passed awat today.
1883: “Clothing merchant” Simon Mandel, a resident of Merrill, Wisconsin and
Carrie Mandel gave birth to Milton Simon Mandel who settled in New York where
he registered for the Draft during WW I, married his wife Helen and became
wholesale fur merchant as a partner in Mandel and Weinblatt located on West 27th
Street.
1883: “Hen” Rice, who had been a Deputy Sherriff is New York is being held
on charges that he won $2,700 from Robert Solomon, an Anglo-Jewish diamond
dealer, by cheating at card games they played while crossing from England to
the United States aboard the SS Servia.
1883: “Russian-Hebrew Colony Broken Up” published today provided a brief
history of an agricultural colony that had been established for Jewish
immigrants from Russia in Middlesex County, Va.
Despite the contribution of several thousands of dollars from the Jewish
community in Baltimore, MD, the experiment failed. One family has asked to be sent back to
Russia while the remaining men have been provide with jobs and several of the
women are being taught to use sewing machines.
The Torah used by the colonists will be returned to the Hebrew Hospital
Association which had lent it the newcomers.
1883: It was reported today that Herr Haumann one of the lawyers who
represented the Jews unfairly charged with the ritual murder of Christian girl
in Hungary, fought a duel with Herr Vay, the Police Commissioner. The sword fight, during which Vay was
“severely wounded in the chest,” resulted from the attorney’s accusation that
the Police Commissioner had tortured the Jewish prisoners.
1885: “Judaism of the Future” published today provided a summary of Rabbi
Kaufmann Kohler’s view of the principles adopted by Reform rabbis at their
meeting in Pittsburgh. He described it
as a “Jewish Declaration of Independence” which no longer looks to the memories
of ancient Israel, rejects tradition “but recognizes in Christianity and
Islamism valuable helpers and co-workers in the direction of the fruition of
the kingdom of virtue and truth.”
(Editor’s note – one cannot help but wonder what Rabbi Kohler would have
to say about the Reform movement in the 21st century)
1885: In Austro-Hungary, Gertrude
Segal and Rabbi Moses Reichle gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate
and HUC trained rabbi, Max Reichler, the husband of Edith Maisner and author of
such works as Jewish Eugenics and The Jewish Conception of Justice who began
his rabbi career at Temple Beth-El in Helena, AR and eventually “sent to New
York by the Union of American Hebrew Congregation to organize a reform
congregation in the Bronx which led to the founding of Sinai Congregation in
the Bronx.
1887: In Bialystok, Leah Zuro and
Louis Zuro “a Russian immigrant who became a producer of opera” gave birth to
Josiah Zuro the American “music director for the Pathe Motion Picture Studio”
who conducted numerous symphony orchestras and “organized his own opera company
known as the Zuro Opera Company.”
1887: In Great Britain, “Isaac Asher
Isaacs and Hannah Zylberlast Isaacs” gave birth to Estelle Stella Isaacs who
became Estelle Stella Jacobs when she married “Alexander Susman Susman Jacobs.”
1888: Today marks the second day of
the fair sponsored by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum which is an annual fundraiser
for this Jewish organization.
1888: The will of Moss Abadee, the
husband of Kate Abadee was probated today.
1888: It was reported today that a
new congregation “Zichron Osher” has been established on the west side of New
York. Joseph Arthur Levy was the founder of the synagogue whose services will
include congregational singing and the use of English for some of the
prayers. Rabbi H. Veld will lead the new
congregation assisted by Rabbi J.I. De Young.
1889: It was reported today the United Hebrew Charities will be hosting a
Thanksgiving Dinner this week
1890: At 3 p.m. the boys of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum held their annual
parade” today, marching through the streets of Harlem.
1890(15th of Kislev, 5651): Seventy-two-year-old Louis Berkowitz,
the husband of Henrietta Jaruslawski Berkowitz and father of Sarah, Benjamin,
Albert, Henry, Rose, William and Maurice Berkowitz passed away today after
which he was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City, MO.
1890: Birthdate of New York City native and Boston University trained
attorney Samuel Barnett who was a county court judge in Massachusetts and an
active Zionist
1891: In New York, Sarah Bernhardt appeared in the opening performance of
“Pauline Blanchard” at the Standard Theatre.
1892: The Maccabeans, An Aggressive Club” published today described the
formation of this club by London’s Jews in the wake of the Russian persecution
of their co-religionists. “The meetings of the Maccabeans afford something
quite novel to English Judaism – an arena in which all the social, ethical and
theological questions which are bubbling so vehemently in the Jewish mind can
be thrashed out freely and without prejudice.”
1892: The members of Shaary Zedek voted not to remove the bodies from the
congregation’s old cemetery on 88th Street between Park and Madison
and reinter them in the new Bay Side Cemetery on Long Island
1892: It was reported today that
Herman Ahlwardt, who is in jail because he was convicted of libeling a Jewish
gun-making firm and is such “a shameless rogue” that he has been publicly
disowned by “the anti-Semitic Party won a seat in the Reichstag by-election
running three thousand votes ahead of his nearest opponent with campaign cry of
“Down with the Jews.!”
1893: Twenty-year-old Yiddish author and playwright Leon Kobrin, the Russian
born son of Raphael an Rachel Lea Kobrin who came to the United States in 1892
married Pauline Segal today in Philadelphia.
http://yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32758&top=1
1893: Seventy-eight-year-old Sebastian Brunner, the Austrian Catholic writer
who was part of a group 19th authors whose “anti-Jewish propaganda
had no equal…either for quantity or virulence and who was part of the infamous
libel charges brought against Ignaz Kuranda and Heinrich Graetz passed away
today.
1894: In Paris, the Grand Rabbi
preached a lengthy sermon at a well-attended service during which he “lauded
Alexander III’s peace and exhorted all to pray for his soul as well as for his
successor Czar Nicholas, his wife and all their relatives.”
1894: In Philadelphia, Clara Landman
and Albert Berkowitz gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC
trained rabbi Henry Joseph Berkowitz who served as U.S. Navy chaplain in WW II
and as the rabbi for Temple Beth Israel in Portland, OR from 1928 until his
death in 1949.
1894: The bequests of the late
Adolph Bernheimer published today included “$10,000 in 3 per cent bonds” to the
Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum and Mount Sinai Hospital.
1895: In St. Louis, Caroline and
Joseph Lazarus Kranson gave birth to Julius Kranson
1895: In a change of policy, it was
reported today that “a recent Ministerial order in Russia, Jews living in the
interior who have been members of a first-class guild for five years are
permitted to retain a permanent domicile in the place of their present
habitation and this privilege will extend to their children.”
1895 Alfred Nobel established Nobel
Prize. “At least 167 Jews and persons of half-Jewish
ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize, accounting for 22% of all
individual recipients worldwide between 1901 and 2004, and constituting 37% of
all US recipients during the same period. In the scientific research
fields of Chemistry, Economics, Medicine, and Physics, the corresponding world
and U.S. percentages are 26% and 39%, respectively. (Jews currently make
up approximately 0.25% of the world's population and 2% of the US population.)
·
Chemistry (28 prize winners, 19% of world total, 28% of US total)
·
Economics (21 prize winners, 38% of world total, 53% of US total)
·
Literature (12 prize winners, 12% of world total, 27% of US total)
·
Physiology or Medicine (52 prize winners, 29% of world total, 42% of US total)
·
Peace (9 prize winners, 10% of world total, 11% of US total)
·
Physics (45 prize winners, 26% of world total, 38% of US total)
1896: Frank Rorschach who served aboard the Puritan during the Spanish
American War was appointed from Kansas today.
1896: Birthdate of Alexader Ubushone, the native of “the Ukrainian shtetl of
Talne, who gained fame as “leader Charles S. Zimmerman.” (As reported by Joseph
B. Treaster)
1896(22nd of Kislev, 5657): Rav Israel Jaffe passed away today
1897: The Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum will host a dance
tonight at Terrace Garden.
1897: Following an anonymous tip, a Commissaire of Police “made of thorough
search” at 3 Rue Yvon-Villareau in Paris where he was told to look for
“interesting documents concerning the Dreyfus case. The apartments were
occupied by Lt. Col. Picquart and what he found was not revealed to the public.
1897: Authorities searched for Madame de Boulancy, the cousin and former
mistress of Ferdinand Esterhazy.
1897: Kosher food producer Frederick “Fred” Margareten, the Hungarian born
son of Julia Yetta and Rabbi Yoel Margarten and his wife Regina Margareten gave
birth to Selma Margareten.
1898: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi B.A. Elzas officiated at the marriage of
Louis Flanders and Jeannette Wetherhorn.
1898: In Chicago, $10,230 was raised during the auction of the boxes for the
charity ball being held by the Young Men’s Hebrew Charity Association.
1898: Birthdate of Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, the native of Odessa who
became an American economist and Soviet spy.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9A07E7DC1E3FEE32A25756C1A9669D946591D6CF
1898: “The Week At The Theatres” published today provided a detailed review
“The Merchant of Venice” at Daly’s Theatre
starring Sidney Herbert as
Shylock and Ada Rehan as Portia which is described as being filled with “a few
keen disappointments.”
1899(25th of Kislev, 5660): First day of Chanukah
1899: “Dr. Silverman On The Jew” published today provided the views of Rabbi
Joseph Silverman on the survival of his co-religionist over the many centuries
of mistreatment only to emerge triumphant in the 19th century where
he “always feels himself a citizen of the in which he lives” but where “his
religion is cosmopolitan.”
1900: Birthdate of Sarajevo native Morris Muster who in 1909 came to the
United States her served as the “secretary of the Home Furniture Association of
New York” while being actively involved with Histadrut Ivrith, B’nai B’rith and
the UJA.
1900: Four days after he had passed away, “Nahum Salaman,” the husband of
the former Amelia Bertram with whom he had had six children was buried today at
the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1901: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi B.A. Elzas officiated at the marriage of
William Rosenbaum and Rosalie Levy.
1901: It was reported today that “during the past few days the building of
the Hebrew Sheltering and Guardian Society of which Samuel D. Levy is President
has been increased by $6,700 bringing” the total raised to about $56,000 which
is one third of the amount needed to build a new facility since “the present
build is inadequate to the meet the demands of the more than 300 children and
to house a much need library.
1902: Today, twenty-six-year-old Harvard educated R.H. Macy and Co vice
president Percy Selden, the New York City born son Isidor and Ida (Blum)
Straus, who was active in several civic and philanthropic organizations as can
be seen by his service as President of the Jewish Agricultural Society and
Chairman of the Business Men’s Council of the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropic Societies of New York City married Edith Abraham.
1903: The trial of the rioters who attacked the Jews at Kishineff continued
today.
1903: In a speech tonight, Lord Balfour, of Balfour Declaration fame,
“expressed in pointed language the universal British apprehension of Russian
aggression, especially in relation to India.”
1904: It was reported today that “the Jews of Kishineff and other parts of
Bessarabia tendered a reception in the synagogue” at Kishineff “to Prince
Ursoff and gave him a Bible as left to “assume the Governorship of Tver.”
1904: Birthdate of Vilna native Hyman Bezprozvany, who in 1922 came to the
United States where he gained fame as Hyman B. Bass the Yiddish teacher and
author who worked tithe Joint Distribution Committee and served as “national
officer with the Workmen’s Circle.”
1905: David Kosse, the President of the Temporary Odessa Societies
Organization and Joseph Sanders were the marshals for today’s parade on the
Lower East Side held in honor of the victims of the Odessa massacres which led
by three men carrying flags – the American flag, the flag of Zion and a black
flag edged in white.
1905: Samuel Simon wrote today, “I note with profound regret the fact that
one of my co-religionists advances the theory that it would be wise to petition
the Pope with a view toward his intervention with Russia in” behalf of the Jews
“and with the idea of bringing to a cessation the terrible atrocities that have
befallen our brethren that country” because he maintains “that it has already
be demonstrated that our salvation lies in our own hands.”
1905: Simon Rasch presided over a mass meeting held by the First Odessa
Benevolent Association at the Great Central Palace attended by over 2,000
people who raised “several hundreds of dollars” to fund to aid those suffering
in Russia.
1905: At an executive meeting of the national committee collecting funds for
the Russian Jews held in Jacob Schiff’s office it was “decided to use its
utmost endeavors to inspire the country with the idea that there must be no
let-up in contributions” since conditions are far worse now than they were when
it was decided to raise $1,000,000.
1905: “Rabbi Adolph S. H. Radin of the People’s Synagogue, Congressman Henry
M. Goldfogle and actor Jacob P. Adler” are scheduled to address a mass meeting
on Clinton Street.
1905: A mass meeting is scheduled to be held tonight “in the open square
made by the judge of Sheriff, Grand and East Broadway, in the vicinity of the
Young Men’s Benevolent Association” to protest against the treatment of the
Jews of Russia.
1905: As conditions of the Jews in Russia continued to worsen, it was reported
that today that the United States Government is being urged “to enact a more
liberal immigration law which would allow many of the Jewish people who are
barred from entering this country at the present time to come to America where
they could be protected by the Jewish people.”
1905: As of today, it was reported that $878,511 has been raised by the
national committee collecting funds to aid the suffering Jews of Russia.
1905: “According to a private telegram from an eminently trustworthy source”
the violence in Sevastopol continues forcing the inhabitants, “especially the
Jews” to flee the city.
1905: “Consular advices by cable received” in Washington report that fifteen
Jews were killed at Rostoff during the recent riots in Russia.
1906: It was reported today that the Educational Alliance, which “has
demonstrated great efficieny in looing after the welfare of the Russian Jewish
immigrants” is in need of additional funds and contributions can be send to
Isidor Straus, at 34th Street and Broadway.
1907: Birthdate of Syracuse native Phoebe Brand, the daughter of the “chief
mechanical engineer for Remington typewriters, the actress and acting teacher
who was the wife of actor Morris Carnovsky and the mother of Stephen Carnovsky.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/theater/phoebe-brand-96-actress-and-group-theater-co-founder.html
1907: In Boston, Louis and Muriel Fisher gave birth to Golda Walters the
wife of Charles H. Walters and Boston University lawyer who while serving as a
“Massachusetts judge” lost out on a chance for a federal judgeship in 1941 when
President Roosevelt decided to fill the two vacancies with two men and who was
described as the “prettiest judge” in the January 31, 1939 of Look magazine.
1907: In Hesse, Germany, Isaac and Sophie Plaut gave birth to Alfred Plaut,
the husband of Fanny K. Kasper.
1907: Sixty-four-year-old Cyril Flower, 1st Baron Battersea, the
husband of Constance, the daughter of Sir Anthony de Rothschild passed away
today.
1908: “Nathan Straus conferred” today “with Health Commissioner Darlington
on the dangers to which he fears children are subject by reason of a confusion
in the public mind as to what pasteurized milk really is” since the public may
not be able “to distinguish between real pasteurized milk and substitutes known
as ‘commercially pasteurize’ milk.”
1908: It was reported to that the
“Zionistischen Ortsgruppe Hamburg-Altona” [Zionist chapter Hamburg-Altona] had hosted
a lecture: Pastor Otto Eberhard, who was presented as “one of the leading
experts on the modern cultural state of Palestine,”
1909(14th of Kislev, 5670): Parashat Vayishlach
1909(14th of Kislev, 5670): Noachm Schapiro passed away today.
1909: Birthdate of Alfred Lionel Piser, the native of Chicago and graduate
of the University of Illinois who served in WW II and became a successful
Ophthalmologist.
1910: “The Work of the Tax Department” published today described a lecture
given on the subject of “Taxation” by Commissioner Lawson L. Purdy, before the
Real Estate Class of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, Lexington Avenue and
Ninety-second Street.
1910: “The memorial services for Rev. Dr. Abraham H. Ershler, the deceased
rabbi of Congregation Ahabath Hesed Anshei Shavel in Philadelphia were
conducted” tonight “at Chizuk Amunah synagogue.”
1910: “Rabbi Denounces Union Services” published today, described Dr. Samuel
Schulman’s “attacks on the union services of worship instituted by Rabbi
Stephen Wise of the Free Synagogue, Reverend Frank Oliver hall of the
Universalist Church and Reverend Dr. John Hayes Holmes which appeared in the
current issues of The American Hebrew in which the Rabbi of Temple Beth-El “denounces the movement as undesirable from
the standpoint of Jew and Christian alike, referring to it as a ‘sensation
move’ and a ‘water away of Judaism.’”
1911: Birthdate of Newark, NJ native Jack Chernck, the Rutgers and U. of
Chicago trained physicist who wrote The Nuclear Reactor Comes of Age.
https://www.amazon.com/nuclear-reactor-comes-age/dp/B000ORALVW
1912: In Chicago, Mrs. Hamburger is scheduled to give German readings after
which Mrs. G.B. Levi will lead the singing of German songs at this afternoon’s
meeting of The Willing Workers.
1912: A troupe of Yiddish language actors including Jacob P. Adler will
begin performing this evening at the Haymarket Theatre.
1912: Professor Percy Homes Boynton of the University of Chicago is
scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Chicago Hebrew Institute on “The Trend of
American Fiction.”
1912: In St. Louis, MO, Samuel Margulois, “a
hand-to-mouth salesman and his wife Celia” gave birth to David Lee Margulois,
the Washington University graduate and lawyer who gained fame as David Merrick,
the theatrical producer best known for his production of “Hello Dolly.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/27/theater/david-merrick-88-showman-who-ruled-broadway-dies.html
1912: In Pueblo, CO, Romanian Jewish immigrants
Samuel Cohen and Dora Inger who had been living in Denver gave birth to Rose
Cohen who gained fame as actress Connie Sawyer.
1912: Leopold Godowsky’s piano recital at
Carnegie Hall today included a half dozen of Listz’s most difficult etudes.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E4DF103CE633A2575BC2A9679D946396D6CF
1913: Anglo-Jewish
featherweight/bantam weight Matt Wells defeated Owen Moran in Sydney, Australia
1913: Columbia trained Mechanical
Engineer, the New York born son of Meinhard and Bertha (Baruch) Alsberg married
Ellsie Kessler Fraenkel today in the same year that he went from working for
the Colgate Company to F.M. Peters where he worked on the re-organization of
American Cotton Oil Companies.
1914: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
was established by combining several separate organizations. Its original name
was the Joint Distribution Committee of American Funds for the Relief of Jewish
War Sufferers and was chaired by Felix M. Warburg. It campaigned and
distributed funds wherever Jews were in need, especially in Eastern Europe. It
is popularly known as the "Joint" or "JDC." During the
First World War they spent almost 15,000,000 on relief efforts.
1914(9th of Kislev, 5675): Lt Frank Alexander de Pass of 34 Poona
Horse, part of the Indian Expeditionary Force which arrived in France soon
after the war began” and who first Jew to be awarded the Victoria Cross
(posthumously) was killed today.
1914: In Brooklyn, Rabbi Alexander Lyons preached a sermon entitled
“Prejudice in American Life” at Friday night services “in which he referred to
the prejudice again Leo M. Frank that existed in Atlanta during the trial of
Frank which resulted in a verdict convicting him of the murder of Mary Phagan.
1914: If the Supreme Court of the United States denies the application of
Leo Frank for a writ of error, Georgia Governor John M Slaton told reporters at
the Waldorf today that he will review all of the evidence and if Frank “is not
guilty then he ought to be saved from the (death) penalty and shall not a
victim of injustice because he is a Jew.”
As to his feelings towards Jews, the governor pointed out that Mr.
Philips, his law partner for nineteen years is a Jew and that Jews have been an
integral part of Georgia since the days of the Crown when the Minis family
settled in the colony.
1914: “Following the second reversal at the hands of a Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States” Leo Franks has issued a public statement
“calling attention to several phases” of his case including the fact that the
members of their jury feared for their lives because of “the dangerous…crowd
which surrounded the jail” and that the “Supreme Court has never reviewed the
question of his guilt or innocence” but has only responded to questions of
procedural technicalities related to his appeal.
1915: The American Embassy in Berlin is working with the German government
to get permission for Isadore Hershfield to go to Poland where, among other
things he will try to make contact with Jews whose families in America would
like to send them financial assistance.
1915: On Shabbat, at Temple Israel on the corner of Lenox Avenue and 120th
Street, Rabbi M.H. Harris delivered a sermon on “Thanksgiving in Tribulation”
in which he made “an appeal to the Jews of America to give aid to their
starving brethren in Galicia and Poland.”
1916: It was reported today that a Russian officer had made speech to the
peasants the District of Lutsk in which “he said the Jews were enemies of the
State and traitors and they must be expelled” and told them that they must come
forward and testify as to how the Jews had welcomed and supported the
Austrians.
1916: “Plain clothes men who arrest women on the streets were defended”
tonight “by Justice Henry Herbert of Special Sessions at the annual meeting of
the Sisterhood of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue – an organization which
spends a considerable amount of time and money working among the “Jewish girls
whom into the magistrate’s courts” with the intent of leading them away from
criminal activity.
1916: It was pointed out at today’s session of the Reichstag that “the
Jewish population of former Russian Poland amounts to 14 percent” of the work
force and that this “large number of Jews in Poland might be profitably
employed by” German manufacturers “to relieve the dearth of labor.”
1917: As revolution spreads across Ukraine and nationalist forces tried to
take control of what had once been part of the Russian empire, it was reported
today that that Jews in Skivira have been attacked in a pogrom.
1917: Turkish forces began four days of attacks against Allenby’s troops in
futile attempt to keep the British forces from Jerusalem.
1917: At Petrograd, “a delegation of Jews appeared at the British Embassy
today to express its gratitude for the action of the Entente Allies with
reference to Palestine.”
1917: Birthdate of Yhyah Qafih, the native of Sana’a Yemin who was the son
of Rabbi David Qafiḥ and the
grandson of Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ, making him the third generation of leaders of
the Yemenite Jewish community, first in Yemen and then in Israel.
1918: Birthdate of New Yorker
Elliott Pershing Stitzel who gained fame as actor Stephen Elliott.
1918: Felix M. Warburg, the
Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds for Jewish
War Suffers issued a statement tonight explaining why it was necessary “to
raise $5,000,000 for Jewish relief” that began “The Jewish civilian populations
throughout the war zones have been deprived of the opportunity to be
self-supporting” and “the end of the war has not altered their state but has
actually accentuated their misery” as can be seen by the fact that “in many
countries the Jews will not receive the bread distributed by the government”
unless it is done by the Jews themselves.
1918: Birthdate of Victor
Elmaleh, the native of Mogador, who imported the first Volkswagens to the
United States and “developed $7 billion worth of real estate.” (As reported by
Douglas Martin)
1919: Following the end of WW I, Bulgaria signed The Treaty of
Neuilly-sur-Seine which included guarantees of the rights of that country’s
Jewish population.
1920(16th of Kislev, 5681): Parashat Vayishlach
1920: In Buffalo, NY, tonight, Rabbi Stephen S. Wised delivered a speech of
the opening session of a meeting of the ZOA during which he “denied that the
American Zionists were drifting away from the World Zionist Organization.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/11/28/107005150.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1921 Charles Rechct, counsel in New York for the Russian Socialist Federated
Soviet Republic issued a warning not send assistance to relatives in Russia
through unauthorized agencies which meant clothing parcels \could continue to be shipped by All Russian
Jewish Public Administration which was on the list of authorized agencies.
1922: It was reported today that “a committee on local arrangements,
composed of the presidents of important synagogues in New York and Brooklyn
under the chairmanship of Daniel P. Hays” is already making preparations for
the meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations which will be held on
January 20, 1923.
1922: It was reported today that last week during the dedication of a
memorial tabled to the men of Harlem who died in the World War, President
Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia and Congressman Isaac Siegel spoke out
against the Ku Klux Klan – an organization which a large section of the
population of New York led by the Catholics and Jews has declared “open warfare
against.”
1922: It was reported today that President Harding has not yet appointed
Congressman Isaac Siegel who did not seek re-election to the House of
Representatives “to one of the vacant judgeships in the local United States
District Court.”
1923: “The American-Jewish Relief Committee issued an appeal” today “through
its 1,500 local chairmen in the United States for the aid in the war-stricken
areas of Europe.”
1923: “An official protest against the mistreatment and the plundering which
Jewish citizens of Poland, together with other Jews, suffered during the recent
disorders in Berlin has been lodged by the Polish Ambassador” with the
Chancellor in Berlin.
1924: Journalist, playwright, and screen writer Rita Weiman, the
Philadelphia born daughter of Jennie Bash and Charles Weisman whose play “The
Stage Door” was the basis for the Jesse L Lasky film “After the Show” married advertising man Maurice Marks today
1924: In New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was
held. Macey’s was not founded by Jews,
but it was two Jews, Isidor and Nathan Straus, who took control of the store in
1896 who turned into what was then “biggest department store in the world.”
1924: “Comedians of Life,” a silent film featuring Martin Herzberg was
released today in German.
1925: Birthdate of Ernest Wiseman, the English
comedian who changed his name to Ernie Wise to further his career as an actor
and singer in English music halls. He
was best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, which
became an institution on British television, especially for their Christmas
specials. He passed away in 1999. Just as in American, English entertainers
changed their names to get ahead and like Irving Berlin helped add luster to
the Christian’s Christmas.
1925: In Paris Paulette (née Grobermann) and Armand Lanzmann gave birth to
Claude Lanzemann, the French filmmaker who joined the Resistance at the age of
18 and fought the Nazis and later became “chief editor of the journal Les Temps Modernes, which was founded by
Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.” Lanzmann's most renowned work is the
nine-and-a-half hour documentary film Shoah (1985), which is an oral history of
the Holocaust, and is broadly considered to be the foremost film on the subject.”
1925(10th of Kislev, 5686): Forty-three-year-old Horace Andrew
Saks, the son of Andrew and Jennie Sakes and the husband of Dorothy Isabel
Sakes passed away today, who along with Bernard Gimbel had created Saks Fifth
Avenue in 1924.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1925/11/28/98842905.pdf
1926: “The Miraculous Mandarin” “a one act pantomime ballet…based on the
story by Melchior Lengyel” premiered today in Cologne, Germany where “it caused
a scandal and was subsequently banned on moral grounds,”
1926: In the Bronx, Abraham Handleman, the Ukrainian born son of Joseph
Yussel Handelman and Dobrish (Dora) Handelman, and his wife Anna (Boorstein)
Handelman gave birth to Arnold Handleman the husband of the former Greta
Goldman with whom he had two children.
1927: “Asserting that only 29 percent of the school of the Jewish faith in
New York receive religious education, Israel Unterberg, President of the Jewish
Education Association, issued an appeal today for $500,000 to “enable the
association to extend religious education to 10,000 additional Jewish children
in the upcoming year.”
1928: “Blame for the recent riots at the wailing wall in Jerusalem was
placed squarely on the Jewish community in a White paper issued today by the
Colonial Office, containing a memorandum on the subject by L.C.M.S. Amery,
Secretary of State for the Colonies” that “stated that officials intervened at
the wailing wall only after the Jewish worshippers had violated the existing
agreement by bringing chairs and benches or screens to the street pavement.”
1929: “Under the direction of Max Gabel, there was staged in the Public
Theatre, with Jennie Goldstein in the title role, R.'s operetta, "Di
galitsianer rebetsin, lyrics by the author, music by Herman Wohl."
1930: Thanksgiving
1930(7th of Kislev, 5691): Sixty-two-year-old Annie Siskin, the
wife of Robert Hyman Siskin and the mother of Sarah, Aaron and Garrison Siskin
passed away today after she was buried at the B’nai Zion Cemetery in
Chattanooga, TN.
1930: The Free Synagogue, Temple Israel, Temple Rodeph Sholom are among the
congregations participating in the annual community Thanksgiving service being
held at Carnegie Hall.
1931: President Hoover and Tytus Filipowicz, Polish Ambassador to the United
States were asked today by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis who are holding their
semi-annual convention in Cincinnati, “to use their influence to stop the
persecution of Jews in Poland.”
1932: In New York Miriam Goshen and Edward Schechter gave birth to
University of Wisconsin graduate and award-winning journalist Jerrold Schecter,
the husband of Leona Protas.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/schecter-jerrold-l-1932
1932: Today, three Jews were arrested in Lwow following the fatal stabbing
of Jat Grotowski who was reported one of “sever youths” who having seen “a
group of Jews in a café tried to eject them.”
1933: In Brooklyn, restaurant workers “Al Saperstein and Doris Bergman” gave
birth to Burton Saperstein who gained fame as bibliophile Burt Britton. (As
reported by James Barron)
1933: Birthdate of William G. Dever, the native of Louisville, KY who became
“an archaeologist specializing in the
history of Israel and the Near East in Biblical times” whose works included What
Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?
http://www.centuries.co.uk/dever-review.pdf
1933: As Hitler moves to consolidate his control over German society Kraft
durch Freude (KdF; Strength through Joy) is established to tie leisure
activities of the German Volk (people) to the aims of the Nazi Party.
1933: A transfer company was established today in Tel Aviv to facilitate the
immigration of German Jews along with whatever property they are able to bring
with them. (Jewish Virtual Library)
1934: “For the first time since the Nazis' unsuccessful putsch in July
shouts of "Heil Hitler!" and "Perish the Jews!" and the
words of "Deutschland ueber Alles" resounded today in the main
streets of Vienna.”
1935(1st of Kislev, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1935(1st of Kislev, 5696): Sixty-seven-year-old Louisville, KY
native Benjamin Edward Bensinger, the husband of Rose Frank Bensinger, father of Yale graduate Benjamin Edward
Bensinger, Jr. and Benjamin Edward Bensinger III passed away today in Chicago.
1935: “Boy Meets Girl,” “a comedy in three acts” written by Bell and Sam
Spewack opened on Broadway today at the Cort Theatre.
1936: Nazi Minister of
Propaganda Joseph Goebbels declares that film criticism is henceforth banned,
freeing the Nazi-controlled German film industry to pursue its own agenda,
which includes blatantly anti-Semitic films. During the same period in the
United States, Hollywood is self-censored in that it fears dealing with Jewish
issues because of the high level of anti-Semitism existing at the time in the
United States.
1936: “Born to Dance,” a musical with a script co-authored by Sid Silvers
who also played the role of “Gunny” Sacks was released in the United States
today.
1936: In a letter-to-the editor
published today, Hendrik Willem Van Loon expressed his appreciation to the New
York Times for printing a previous letter in which he “suggested that we do
a little cosmic pinch-hitting and erect a statue of Felix Mendelssohn and keep
it here until our German friends shall be able to once more to listen to his
charming music without getting Aryan jitters. (This was a reference to the Nazi
ban on the music of Mendelssohn whose Jewish origins did not spare him from a
posthumous form of anti-Semitism)
1937(23rd of Kislev, 5698): Parashat Vayeshev
1937(23rd of Kislev, 5698):Today forty-four-year-old Atlanta, GA
motion picture theatre owner Louis S. Bach, the Lauderdale County, TN born son
of Joseph and Rebecca Greenblatt Bach and the husband of Pearl Williams Bach “died
of uremic poisoning following a brief illness” after which he was buried at the
Greenwood Cemetery in Atlanta, GA.
1937: Opening performance of
"Pins & Needles" a pro-labor musical revue produced by ILGWU
1938: Speaking before the National
Council of Teachers of English in St. Louis, “Professor Clyde R. Miller of New
York, the director of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis said today that
America may expect increasing Nazi propaganda to justify the persecution of
Jews, Catholics and Protestants in Germany” and that “the object of the Nazi
propaganda was to break Americans up into dissenting groups – getting
Christians hating Jews, Catholics hating Protestants, natives hating foreign
born.”
1938: “Erich Rix, the president of
the San Francisco unit of the German American League for Culture announced
today that the group had adopted a declaration condemning the Hitler government
for a regular pogrom against the Jews.”
1939: In New York, at the Hotel
Astor, Dr. Kurt Blumenfeld, president of the German-Jewish Settlers Association
in Palestine, Dr. Georg Landauer, head of the Central Bureau for the Settlement
of German Jews in Palestine, Louis Lipsky, chairman of the Palestine Foundation
Fund, Charles Ress and Dr. Ludwig Lewisohn addressed tonight’s meeting of the
Palestine Foundation, the fiscal arm of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
1939: It was reported today that the
rise in the price of stocks in Berlin is due “partly to the continued sales of
stocks formerly owned by Jews for the Reich’s accounts” which “were taken in
payment from former holders at prices considerably below their present values”
and partly in anticipation of the next payment of 200,000,000 marks which the
Jews must make in December.
1939: As of today, the new national
officers of Junior Hadassah were President Nell Ziff, Vice Presidents Goldie
Brenner of Newport News, VA; Sylvia Brody of Akron, Ohio; Claire Gottfried
Jacobson of New York; Esther Brody, Brooklyn, NY; Secretary Ernestine Kirschner
of New York and Treasurer Dorothy Hines of New York.
1939: George Z Medalie was reported
to have “announced that during the upcoming week twenty-seven luncheons,
dinners and group meetings” would be held as “part of the program to enlist
support for” the 1939 Appeal of the New York and Brooklyn Federation of Jewish
Charities.
1939(15th of Kislev,
5700): Seventy-six-year-old Alexander Harkavy, Jewish lexicographer, author and
publisher of newspapers in Montreal and Baltimore passed away today at the
Broadway Central Hotel in New York City.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9500E3D7143EE432A2575BC2A9679D946894D6CF
http://www.bjpa.org/publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=19362
1939: It was reported today “that the German plan
for the deportation of all Jews within the confines of the Greater Reich
foresees the transportation of 150,000 Jews from the Protectorate, 60,000 from
Austria, 30,000 from the conquered provinces of Posen and Western Prussia and
approximately 200,000 from the old Reich territory to Eastern Poland.”
1940: The family of Abraham Gevirtz
returned to their home in Scarsdale this evening and found that it had been
burglarized.
1941: The Jews were deported from
Wuerzburg, Germany.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/november/09.asp
1941: Friedrich Jeckeln met with the leaders of Protective Police, “a branch
of the German Order Police” who would be participating in the upcoming massacre
of the Jews in Riga.
1941: The first of 19 trains leaves Germany to resettle thousands of Jews in
Riga and Kovno. Yet, 1000 newly resettled German Jews were taken and killed at
the same time.
1941: “The Palestine Symphony Orchestra has just announced the results of a
competition open to composers in Palestine and the neighboring countries.” Because of the volume and quality of the
entries, four “winners” instead of just one were announced including, a
Divertimento for Orchestra by Joseph Huttel, director of European Music at the
Egyptian State Broadcasting, Cairo, Overture to a cantata by A. Daus of Tel
Aviv, a Symphony of Variations for Soloists and Orchestra by Peter Gradenwitz
of Tel Aviv and Fatum, a symphonic poem by J. Wohl of Haifa.
1942: From this date through August
1943 more than 110,000 Poles are expelled from their homes in the
fertile Zamosc province so that the area can be resettled by ethnic Germans, SS
troops, and Ukrainians. More than 300 villages are affected. Thousands of
Polish children are deported from the area to Belzec and other death camps.
1942: Birthdate of poet Marilyn Hacker
1942: On Friday night, Rabbi Harold Saperstein delivered a sermon entitled
“What Have We Jews to Be Thankful For?” on the day following Thanksgiving when
the condition of American Jewry stood in stark contrast to the news “the papers
have given the general public information about what is happening to the Jews
of Nazi-occupied Europe.”
1943: U.S. premiere of “Old Acquaintance” a comedy-drama directed by Vincent
Sherman with music by Franz Waxman.
1943(29th of Cheshvan, 5704): Parashat Toldot
1943(29th of Cheshvan, 5704): Fifty-four-year-old Ukrainian born
revolutionary Jacob Golos, a founding member of the CPUSA and spy for the
Soviet Union suffered a fatal heart attack today.
http://documentstalk.com/wp/golos-jacob/
1944: In the weekly internal report of the War Refugee Board, it reported
that the United States embassy had received from the Spanish Foreign Office:
"Official confirmation that appropriate instructions have been sent to the
Spanish Legation in Bern to seek the collaboration of the Swiss government in
the efforts of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin to obtain the release and transfer
to Swiss territory of the group of 155 Sephardic Jews at Camp Bergen
Belson."
1944: "The Trial
and Punishment of European War Criminals," a report by U.S. Secretary of
War Henry Stimson and Secretary of State Cordell Hull, is submitted to
President Franklin Roosevelt.
1944(11th of Kislev, 5705): Leonid Isaakovich Mandelshtam, Russian
physicist, passed away.
1944(11th of Kislev, 5705): Albert Isaac Myers, “the proprietor
of Myers & Co.” a bookstore specializing in “rare books, fine prints and
choice early maps” who was described by Harold Laski as being “one of the most
learned and helpful of booksellers” and whose activities in the Jewish
community included serving on the Board of Management of the Dalston Synagogue
and the committees for the Jewish Free Reading Room and the Home for Jewish
Incurables.
1945: The American League for a Free Palestine, chaired by former Iowa
Senator Guy Gillette, sent a telegram to President Harry Truman protesting
recent beatings of Jewish displaced persons housed at the former Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp by British military police.
According to the League, an unnamed German had told the British that the
Jews planned to protest Ernest Bevin’s recent hostile comments about Palestine.
British forces arrested the leader of the Jewish “prisoners’ and reportedly
beat several of the women.
1945: In London, former U.S. Senator Guy Gillette, head of the American
League for a Free Palestine, held a press conference after meeting with Foreign
Minister Ernest Bevin in which he declared “that the United States was
‘thoroughly worked up’ over Palestine” and regarded the situational there as a
testing ground for all the principles of Atlantic Charter.
1945: The American League for a Free Palestine submitted a memorandum to the
British government calling for action by the Big Five Powers to deal with any
violence that the British claim will occur if 100,000 Jews are allowed to
immigrate to Palestine.
1946(4th of Kislev, 5707): Seventy –two year old Rabbi Solly
Baron, who escaped to Germany in 1939 and arrived in Halifax in 1945 passed
away today in St. Louis.
1947: Thanksgiving in the United States
1947: On Thanksgiving, “the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society fed
turkey dinners to fifty children and to 200 newly arrived immigrants” to whom
“the significance of Thanksgiving Day in the United States was carefully
explained.”
1947: “The Palestine Government’s intention to sell Government land on the
Haifa waterfront, which has aroused a storm of protest from the Jewish
community” and which Mrs. Golda Myerson has described as “incomprehensible”
“was confirmed today in the official Palestine Gazette.
1947: In Prague, Czechoslovakia Franci and Kurt Epstein gave birth to
American author Helen Epstein.
1948:
Goldblatt’s a chain of discount stores owned by Nate and Maurice Goldbatt which
operated in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, closed its store in
Buffalo, NY which had opened in 1941 and had failed to perform at an acceptable
level.
1949(6th
of Kislev,5710): Fifty-two-year-old Leeds, Yorkshire native and Victoria
Recipient Jack White who earned this distrinction while serving “as a Private
in the 6th Battalion, King’s Own Regiment” in Mesopotamia in 1917
passed away today after which he was buried at the Blackley Jewish Cemetery in
Manchester, England.
1949:
Eighty-six-year-old William H. King, the Senator from Utah who in 1927
“declared…that he favored the United States severing diplomatic relations with
any country which failed because of anti-Semitism to protect its Jewish
nationals” and “expressed the belief that eventually Palestine would be able to
support a population of a million Jews” passed away today.
1950: A rummage sale sponsored by the Jordan Metropolis Chapter of the B’nai
B’rith is scheduled to begin today in New York City.
1950: Mrs. Jack Kesselman is scheduled to address today’s meeting of the
Jersey City, NJ chapter of Hadassah at the Jersey City Jewish Community Center.
1950: Films of Europe and Israel are
scheduled to be shown at tonight’s meeting of the Kinnereth Business and
Professional Group of Hadassah meeting at the Henry Hudson Hotel.
1951: Today thirty year old produer/director
Jospeh Papp married Salt Lake City, Utah native, Peggy Marie Bennion who earned
an MSW from the Hunter College School of Social Work.
https://www.scribd.com/document/315097496/Family-Therapy-Pioneers-Peggy-Papp
1952(9th of Kislev, 5713): Seventy-five-year-old Cambridge graduate
and director of Royal Dutch Oil Company Sir Robert Waley Cohen, the son of Julia
Matilda Waley and stockbroker Nathaniel Louis Cohen, the husband of Alice Violet
Beddington whom he married in 1904 and the brother Liberal party leader Charles
Waley Cohen and Paleographer Dorthea Waley Singer who was a leader the
Anglo-English community, an opponent of Zionist, the creator of the Palestine
Corporation and one of those named in “The Black Book” – which contained a list
of Jews to be arrested once the Nazis had conquered Great Britain -- passed away toda.
1953(20th of Kislev, 5714): Seventy-seven-year-old French
playwright Henri-Léon-Gustave-Charles Bernstein the victim of an anti-Semitic
riot in 1911 whose play “Dreaming Lips” was made into a movie in 1932 and who
spent WW II living at the Waldorf-Astoria passed away today after which he was buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.
1954(2nd of Kislev, 5715): Parashat Toldot
1954: It was reported today that “Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, has asserted that through the use
of dense settlement and exploitation of natural resources Israel's southern
Negev desert could be restored to its ancient prosperity.”
1955: During border attacks by Arabs one Israeli soldier was injured when “a
weapon carrier traveling near Magen was blown up by anti-vehicle mines” and another
Israeli soldier was “hurt” when “in the Jerusalem corrido infiltrators from Jordan
territory opened fire upon another weapon carrier near Beit Jibrin.
1955: Major General Moshe Dayan, the Chief of Staff of the IDF said “the
real cause of border tension between Israel and her Arab neighbors is what is
happening in Alexandria” which was a reference to the arms from Soviet proxy
Czechoslovakia being unloaded at the Egyptian seaport.
1956: Senator John F. Kennedy addresses the Annual Banquet of Histadrut
Zionist Organization, Baltimore, Maryland.
1956: In Amsterdam, Queen Juliana attended the opening performance of
Goodrich and Hackett's “The Diary of Anne Frank.”
1956(18th of Kislev, 5654): Seventy-seven-year-old muralist Hugo
Ballin whose works included a mural at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple that
“encircles the main Sanctuary” that tell the story of the Jewish people from
Bereshit until the time of its commissioning in 1929.
1956: The Jerusalem Post reported that Jews
arriving by plane in Paris 'confirmed that expulsion orders were being issued
to Jews in Egypt by the thousands.'
1956: Golda Meir, the Israeli Foreign Minister,
"wrote the first of two letters to the UN Secretary General, protesting
the 'action taken by the Egyptian Government against the Jewish Community in
Egypt.'"
1957(4th of Kislev, 5718):
Seventy-one-year-old Titanic survivor Leilia Ranger, the Baltimore born
daughter of Andrew and Jennie R. Saks, the wife of Louis E Ranger and Edgar Joseph
Meyer and the mother of Jane Stern passed away in Manhattan today after which
she buried at the Salem Fields Cemetery in NY.
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/leila-meyer.html
1957: “The Sad Sack” a comedy produced by Hal B. Wallis,
starring Jerry Lewis and featuring Peter Lorre was released today in the United
States.
1958: Polish born conductor Artur Rodziński passed away. Rodzinski was not
Jewish but under the law of unintended consequences, he had major impact on the
career of a Jew who was one of the musical icons of the 20th
century, Leonard Bernstein. “Rodzinski
said that God told him to hire 24 year old Leonard Bernstein,
to be his assistant conductor. In the fall of 1943 Rodzinski decided to take a
vacation, spend a little time with his goats, and called in Bruno Walter to conduct seven concerts
in ten days. Only hours before one of those concerts (in the program, works by
Schumann, Rosza, Strauss and Wagner) Walter
fell ill. Rodzinski was only four hours away, in his farm. But he
declined to come back to Carnegie Hall: "Call Bernstein. That's why we
hired him." The concert was broadcast over radio and a review appeared on page 1 of The New York
Times the next day: "Young Aide Leads Philharmonic; Steps in When Bruno
Walter is Ill’" And the rest, as they say, is history.
1958(15th of Kislev,
5719): Seventy-five-year-old “artist, critic, author” and college professor
Walter Pach passed away today at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/26746018@N03/3234018815/in/photostream/
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/walter-pach-papers-suppressed-old-digitized-microfilm-9852/more
1958: In Tel Aviv, “theatre actor
Shmulik Atzmon” and his wife gave birth to actress and singer Anat Atzmon.
1959: CBS broadcast “Perchance to
Dream,” the ninth episode of Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” co-starring John
Larch, the Salem, MA born son of Jewish immigrants from Poland Rose Larch and Mitchell Aronin, “a cutter in
shoemaking factories” who named him Harold Aronin
1960: Two days after he had passed
away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today in Manhattan for seventy-three-year-old
Lester J. Alexander the former president of the Alexander Shirt Company and the
United Shirt Manufacturers Association who “entered the brokerage business in
1933 as a partner in Engel and Company” and who raised three children, Lester,
Jr. Edgar and Louise, with his wife Mildred.
1960: Following the merger of Ohev
Sholom and Talmud in 1958, the congregation’s “newly built synagogue building
on upper Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC, was dedicated” today.
1961: In New York, “Nathan M.
Ohrbach, board chairman of Ohrbach’s, Inc. received the insignia of Officer of
the French Legion of Honor from the French Consul General.
1962(30th of Cheshvan, 5723): Rosh
Chodesh Kislev
1962(30th of Cheshvan
5723): Fifty-one-year-old photographer Florence Meyer Homolka, the daughter of
Eugene Meyer and actor Oskar Homolka, passed away today.
1963: Birthdate of three-time Ophir
Award winner Ronit Elkabetz.
1963: Seventy-one-year-old Dr. Manuel Samuel Simon the
husband Agnes Beatrice Barasch was buried today at the Temple Israel Cemetery
in Memphis, TN one day after he passed away at Baptist Hospital where he was be
being treated for “uremia due to prostatic obstruction.”
1963(11th of Kislev,
5724): Seventy-eight-year-old “a
dermatologist and an authority on industrial skin disease Dr. Louis Tulipan who
was the husband of Kitty Tulipan and the father of Ira and Dr. Alan Tulipan passed away today.
1964(22nd of Kislev,
5725): Seventy-one-year-old WW I Field Artillery veteran Abram Efroymson, the Indianapolis
born son Harry and Hannah (Schiff) Efroymson who was President of the Terminal
and Refrigeration Corporation, a leader of the Cleveland Jewish community and
the husband of Sylvia Spira with whom he had two children – Alan and John –
passed away today.
1964: In Montreal, Dr. Gina
Shochat-Rakoff and Dr. Vivian Rakooff gave birth to “prize-winning humorist”
David Benjamin Rakoff (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1964: Birthdate of Ophir award
winning Israeli actress and filmmaker Ronit Elkabetz, the native of Beersheba
who oldest four children born “to a religious Moroccan Jewish family originally
from Esaaouira.
1965: “Gamera: The Giant Monster” a
horror film featuring Alan Oppenheimer as “Dr. Ctonrare” was released today in
Japan.
1966: Funeral services are scheduled
to be held at Great Neck, NY for seventy-two year old Romanian born, Brooklyn
Polytechnic Institute trained chemist, Samuel M. Abrams, the WW I veteran and
developer of a unique process for manufacturing shoe polish which was marketed
under the Esquire Brand who supported numerous Jewish philanthropies included
the UJA, the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the Hillel foundation and the
Long Island Jewish Hospital and who raised two children – Ira and Iris – with his
wife Tillie Abras.
1966: Birthdate of jazz guitarist
Adam Levy, the Encino, CA native and grandson of composer George Wyle, born
Bernard Weissman, who “was a member of the group Killer Joey with
co-religionist drummer Joey Baron.
1967: At news conference today President
Charles de Gaulle called Jews “elite people, sure of itself and domineering.”
1968: In Boulogne-Billancourt,
Hauts-de-Seine, France, “Eddie
Vartan, a Bulgarian-born musician, and Doris (née Pucher) Vartan, a painter and
artist gave birth to Franco-American actor Michael Vartan, the nephew of singer
Sylvie Vartan.
1969(17th of Kislev,
5730): In Athens, one Greek child was killed and 13 others were wounded when
two Jordanian terrorists attacked the El Al offices with hand grenades.
1972: Release of Free to Be You and Me,
the album of non-sexist stories and songs that helped shape the
self-understanding and worldview of a generation of children. Letty Cottin
Pogrebin was the editorial project consultant for the album as well as the book
and television special associated with the project, all of which were created
by feminist and actress Marlo Thomas. Free to Be You and Me, which
features such songs as “Parents are People” and “It's All Right to Cry,” is
still enjoyed by children today. In addition to her work on Free to Be You
and Me, Pogrebin was a founding editor of Ms. Magazine. She was a
co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, as well as the Ms.
Foundation for Women and the International Center for Peace in the Middle East.
She wrote the best-selling parenting guide to raising non-sexist children, Growing
Up Free: Raising Your Children in the 80s (1980), as well as Deborah,
Golda, and Me: Being Female and Jewish in America (1991), Family
Politics: Love and Power on an Intimate Frontier (1983), and Getting
Over Getting Older: An Intimate Journey (1996). Pogrebin recently published
her first novel, Three Daughters (2003).
https://jwa.org/thisweek/nov/27/1972/free-to-be-you-and-me
1973: At the funeral for mezzo-soprano Jennie
Tourel Leonard Bernstein paid her tribute in a eulogy at her saying, ‘when
Jennie opened her mouth, God spoke.’”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/09/1967/jennie-tourel
1973: In Kyiv, Ukraine future residents of Brooklyn
Larisa Portnoy and taxicab driver Alex Zelenko gave birth to Dr. Vladimir “Zev”
Zelenko, the husband of Rinat Zelenko and the holder of a “medical degree from
the State University of New York at Buffalo” who was “a self-described
“simple country doctor” from New York State who rocketed to prominence in the
early days of the Covid-19 pandemic when his controversial treatment for the
coronavirus gained White House support…” (As reported by Clay Risen)
1973: Neil
Simon's "Good Doctor," premieres in New York City.
1974(13th of Kislev, 5735):
Seventy-four-year-old CCNY graduate and Harvard trained attorney Edward Solomon
Moses Silver, the New York born son of David and Sarah Feigel Silver and the
husband of Regine Silver with whom he had three children – David, Sarah and Jonathan
– passed away today.
1976: “Network” the Paddy Chayefsky written
classic directed by Sidney Lumet. Lumet was nominated for an Oscar and
Chayefsky won one for his screenplay was released today in the United States.
1978(27th of Cheshvan, 5739): In San Francisco, California, city mayor
George Moscone and openly gay city supervisor Harvey Milk are assassinated by
former supervisor Dan White. Milk was Jewish.
Moscone was succeeded by Jewish the head of the Board of Supervisors,
Diane Feinstein. Feinstein would go on to be elected to the U.S. Senate where
she and fellow Californian Barbara Boxer would become the first Jewish female
duo to represent a state in the nation’s Upper Chamber.
1980: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Bosom
Buddies,” a sitcom co-starring Wendie Jo Sperber today.
1981: “Ten Out of 10,” “the eighth studio album
by 10cc” which marked the first involvement with the band by American
singer-songwriter Andrew Gold and was co-produced by Graham Gouldman was
released today.
1981: Eighty-three-year-old singer and actress
Lotte Lenyam, the widow of Kurt Weil who although not Jewish herself, left
Germany when the Nazis came to power passed away today.
1987(6th of Kislev, 5748): In
Israel, two “internal security agents” were killed today.
1989: Today “The Baker's Wife,” a musical with
music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and the book by Joseph Stein transferred from
the Wolsey Theater to the West End, Phoenix Theatre.
1989: “The A. M. Rothschild & Company
Store, also known as the Goldblatt's Building, is a historic department store
building located at 333 South State Street in the Loop neighborhood of Chicago,
Illinois” was added to the National Register of Historic Places TODAY
1990(10th of Kislev, 5751):
Seventy-eight-year-old Gladys Devera Tepper, the Washington D.C. born daughter
of Mary Pearl Collegeman and Georgetown trained attorney and member of the
executive committee of the American Jewish Congress Joseph L. Tepper and the
wife of Jackson Feldman passed away today after which she was buried at the
Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens.
1991: The
New York Times published a review of Benevolence and Betrayal Five
Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism by Alexander Stille.
1993(13th of Kislev, 5754): Marvin H. Bernstein, a businessman and
philanthropist in New York for many years passed away today at the Miami Heart
Institute. He was 66 and lived in Miami. Mr. Bernstein was the founder and for
34 years the president of the Variety Knit Corporation of Manhattan, which
makes women's clothing and T-shirts. He also founded the Marvin Bernstein Oil
Company, a petroleum exploration company with headquarters in Miami. Mr.
Bernstein was a fund-raiser for and a contributor to the Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies, the Simon Weisenthal Center, Israel Bonds, the Weitzman
Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University and other medical and religious
groups.
1993: Birthdate of Argentine cyclist Gonzalo Joaquin Najar,
1994(24th of Kislev, 5755): In the evening, kindle the first
Chanukah light
1995: Salah Tarif begins serving as the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs
1995: Uri Or began serving as the Deputy Minister of Defense.
1998: “The Slums of Beverly Hills” a comedy about “a teenage girl struggling
to grow up in the late 1970s in a lower-middle-class nomadic Jewish family that
moves every few months” starring Natasha Lyonne and Alan Arkin and featuring
Carl Reiner and Eli Marienthal was released in the United Kingdom today, three
months after premiering in the United States.
1999:
The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government
with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New
Zealand's history. In 2005, she opposed a visit by Israeli President Moshe
Ktsav because of a dispute surrounding alleged Mossad agents and the issuing of
fraudulent passports.
2000:
Illusionist Dave Blaine began a stunt called “Frozen In Time” at New York’s
Times Square
2001(12th of Kislev, 5762): Etty
Fahima, 45, of Netzer Hazani was killed three others were injured when a
Palestinian terrorist threw grenades and opened fire at a convoy on the road
between the Kissufim crossing and Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday
evening. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
2001(12th of Kislev, 5762): Noam
Gozovsky, 23, of Moshav Ramat Zvi, and Michal Mor, 25, of Afula were killed
when two Palestinian terrorists from the Jenin area opened fire with
Kalashnikov assault rifles on a crowd of people near the central bus station in
Afula. Police officers and a reserve soldier confronted them, killing the
terrorists in the ensuing firefight. Another 50 people were injured, 10 of them
moderately to seriously. Fatah and the Islamic Jihad claimed joint
responsibility.
2002(22nd of Kislev, 5763): Eighty-nine-year-old
Stanley Black, the conductor and composer born Solomon Schwartz passed away
today in London
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/dec/03/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries
2003: “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel
warned Palestinians today to become more conciliatory or risk losing
permanently some of the land they want for a state.”
2004: In “A Rhythmic Soundscape of Lives Caught
in Conflict,” published today Margo Jefferson reviews Yuri Lane’s “From Tel
Aviv to Ramallah” during which “alone on the small stage of the
Makor/Steinhardt Center on West 67th Street, Mr. Lane gave us the sounds of
life on both sides of the checkpoint.”
2005:
In the topsy-turvy world of Israeli politics, Shimon Peres is seriously
considering leaving the Labor Party and joining Ariel Sharon’s new Kadima
Party. This would mean the old lion of
labor and the old lion of Likud could end their careers under a common
political banner. In yet an even
stranger twist of fate, Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak injected himself into the upcoming electoral campaign by declaring that
Ariel Sharon was the only Israeli leader capable of making peace with the
Palestinians.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine by Harold Bloom and The Education of a
Coach by David Halberstam.
2006: The Times of London reported
Alexander Litvinenko, the poisoned former KGB agent had just returned from a
trip to Israel. A dossier drawn up by Alexander Litvinenko on the
Kremlin’s takeover of Yukos, the world’s richest energy giant was turned over
to Scotland Yard as police investigate the former KGB spy’s secret dealings
with some of Russia’s richest men. It emerged yesterday that Mr. Litvinenko
traveled to Israel just weeks before he died to hand over evidence to a Russian
billionaire of how agents working for President Putin dealt with his enemies
running the Yukos oil company. He passed this information to Leonid Nevzlin,
the former second-in-command of Yukos, who fled to Tel Aviv in fear for his
life after the Kremlin seized and then sold off the $40 billion (£21 billion)
company. Mr. Nevzlin told The Times that it was his “duty” to pass on
the file. “Alexander had information on crimes committed with the Russian
Government’s direct participation,” he said. There has been more than a whiff
of anti-Semitism in Putin’s drive to gain control of Russia.
2006: In New Zealand, John Key became the parliamentary leader of the
National Party.
2006: Cartoonist Jules Feiffer began a stint “at the Arizona State
University Barret Honors College” today.
2006: Seth Rudetsky starred in “Off-Off-Broadway production of “Torch Song
Trilogy” which opened today.
2007: Batsheva Dance choreographer Ohad Naharin premiers his latest work,
“Kamuyot” in Stockholm. The premier will
be followed by 100 performances before 20,000 students all over Sweden. “Kamuyot” can be translated as “numbers of”
or “characteristics.”
2007: The scheduled U.S. sponsored meeting of Israelis and Arabs at
Annapolis, MD, comes to an end.
2007: YIVO Institute presents The
Klezmatics: Up Close in downtown Manhattan.
The Klezmatics perform music drawn from their 2007 Grammy award-winning
CD Wonder Wheel – Lyrics by Woody Guthrie, YIVO’s Max and Frieda Weinstein
Sound Archives and their vast repertoire.
2007: "Operation: Last Chance” which is targeted to find and bring to
justice at least some of the thousands of Nazis still hiding in South America
62 years after the end of World War IIwill be formally launched at a press
conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2007: At the end of the Annapolis Conference, Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni spoke of the relevance to any future Israeli-Palestinian
agreement of the plight of Jewish refugees from Arab countries after 1948.
2008: As Thanksgiving weekend begins, Secrets
directed by Avi Nesher premiers
theatrically in commercial movie theatres. In the 'Secrets', director
Avi Nesher skillfully presents the quandaries facing Naomi (Ania Bukstein) the
studious, devoutly religious daughter of prominent rabbi, who convinces her
father to postpone her marriage for a year so that she might study at a Jewish
seminary for women in the ancient Kabalistic seat of Safed. Naomi's quest for
individuality takes a defiant turn when she befriends Michelle, a free spirited
and equally headstrong fellow student.
2008: During the Mumbai Terrorist Attacks, Indian army reported that it had
secured the Jewish outreach center at Nariman House and liberated 60 people in
the building.
2008: Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona
Metzger and Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar are calling for a mass prayer
rally today in the hope that heavenly intervention will stem the global
financial crisis.
2008: Final showing at the Jacob Burns Film Center of “One Day You’ll
Understand” a film that portrays the reaction of French businessman’s reaction
to the televised trial of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in 1987.
2008: Israeli sculptor Gideon Gechtman, a native of Alexandria, whose family
made Aliyah in 1945, passed away today.
http://www.imj.org.il/artcenter/default.asp?artist=272639
2008: Idina Menzel performed "I Stand" on the M&M Candies
float as part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
2009: Eighty-eight-year old Heinrich Boere a man accused of murdering Dutch
civilians as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad said at his trial today that he
was proud about being chosen to fight for the Nazis.
2009: A Palestinian terrorist was killed this morning when the IAF struck a
Gaza terror cell preparing to fire rockets into Israel, according to the IDF.
In a statement, the army said that the terrorist belonged to the Jaljalatt
terror organization, a Salafist movement operating in the Gaza Strip and
influenced by al-Qaida. The IDF said that the rocket launching pad was also hit
in the air raid near northern Gaza's Jabalya refugee camp. Gaza emergency
services said three others were wounded, one of them seriously. In a statement,
the IDF said that it viewed Hamas as being fully responsible for maintaining
quiet in the South and that the army would continue to respond severely to any
attempt to shatter the calm. The statement added that some 770 Kassam rockets,
mortar shells and Grad missiles had been fired at Israel since the beginning of
2009.
2009: The Israeli Black Panthers host a special tour of the Musara
neighbored in Jerusalem. The Israeli
Black Panthers “is a popular movement of Arab Jews “first established during
the 1970’s. The historic ‘Seam Line’
neighborhood was right on the Israeli-Jordanian border” until the war in June,
1967 resulted in the reunification of the city. The purpose of the tour is to
acquaint visitors with “the place, its peoples and the relevance of its history
and struggle in the Israeli-Arab conflict.
2009: Performance of “Lost in Yonkers” at the DC JCC.
2009: Paul “Godfrey was announced as the chair of the Ontario Lottery and
Gaming Corporation” today,
2009: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa Noah Thalblum helps to lead Friday Night
services as part of his Bar Mitzvah weekend.
2009: Abe Pollin’s funeral service is held at Washington Hebrew
Congregation.
2010(20th
of Kislev, 5771) Eighty-seven-year-old Irvin Kershner - who directed the Star
Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, the James Bond film Never Say Never Again
and Robocop 2 – passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/movies/30kershner.html
2010(20th of Kislev, 5752): Vilém Flusser a Czech-born Brazilian Jewish
philosopher, writer and journalist passed away.
2010: In Michigan, the Young Adult Division of Jewish Federation is
scheduled to sponsor the sixth annual Latke Vodka donor thank you event.
2010: A rock was thrown through the back window of the Helene G. Simon
Hillel Center, which is located on campus, today. Earlier in the week, a rock
was thrown through the back window of the Chabad Jewish student center located
just outside the campus. Bloomington city police and campus police are
investigating whether the attacks are related. Glass from the broken window of
the Chabad house did damage to the building’s worship center, the group’s
president, Alex Groysman, told the Indiana Daily Student newspaper. “We believe
it was an act of anti-Semitism because the window shattered was less than a
yard away from a sign that says Jewish Student Center,” Groysman told the
paper. “After everything the center does to build understanding and friendly
relations in the community, there are people out there that just want to
destroy. By throwing that stone, that person was sending a message that they do
not want us here, and that is something that is not OK.”Chabad plans to display
a 12-foot menorah for Chanukah, according to the report.
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Something Urgent I Have
to Say to You: The Life and Works of William Carlos Williams” by Herbert
Leibowitz
2011: Ministerial Committee on Legislation decided today not to back a bill that would limit
public access to High Court petitions, sponsored by MKs Danny Danon and Yariv
Levin from the Likud.
2011: Prominent Israeli singer Margalit Tzan'ani pleaded guilty on today to
extorting her manager,and is expected to be sentenced to several months of
community service.
2011: The New York Times list of 100
Notable Books of 2011 includes the following books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers: “The Free World” in which David Bezmozgis
overturns clichéd expectations of immigrant idealism in his first novel, which
follows a Soviet Jewish family awaiting visas in Rome in 1978; “The Grief of
Others” by Leah Hager Cohen; “Say Her
Name” by Francisco Goldman, “Scenes From Village Life” by Amos Oz; “The
Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World” by Haifa-born
physicist David Deutsch; “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With
India” by Joseph Lelyveld; “In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an
American Family Hitler’s Berlin,” Erik Larson’s account of the experiences of
William Dodd, F.D.R.’s first ambassador in Nazi Germany; “Jerusalem: The
Biography” by Simon Sebag Montefiore;
“The Memory Chalet” by Tony Judt; “Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid
That Sparked the Civil War” by Tony Horwitz; “Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark”
by Brian Kellow; “The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern
World” by Jewish Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin; “The Swerve: How the
World Became Modern” by Stephen Greenblatt; “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by
Israeli born Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman; “A Train Winter: An Extraordinary
Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France” by Caroline
Moorehead
2011(1st of Kislev, 5772): Rosh Chodesh
Kislev
2012: In Rmallah, the tomb of Yasser Arafat
is schedule to be opened as the first step in process intended to determine if
he was poisoned.
2012: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
is scheduled to present a program that will examine ”the Rothschild Baba Kama,
an ornate and richly decorated manuscript written in 1721-22 by Anshel Moses
Rothschild, the founder of the Rothschild dynasty.”
2012: The JCC of Northern Virginia is
scheduled to present a program that will “explore how the image of a typical
Israeli has been depicted in Israeli films from the 1960’s until today.
2012: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, members of the
Jewish community are scheduled to meet to discuss ways to further the cause of
Israel in the Hawkeye State.
2012: “The National Library of Israel signed
contract with Pri-Or to preserve its archive of more than one million images.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/tel-aviv-photo-shop-freezes-a-changing-israel-in-its-frames/
2012(13th of Kislev, 5773): Fifty-eight-year-old
French journalist Érik Izraelewicz “who was the director and editorial
executive of Le Monde” passed away today.
2012(13th of Kislev, 5773): Ninety-five-year-old
“Marvin Miller, an economist and labor leader who became one of the most
important figures in baseball history by building the major league players
union into a force that revolutionized the game, died on Tuesday at his home in
Manhattan.” (As reported by Richard Goldstein)
2012: The Taub Center released its annual
State of the Nation Report for 2011-2012 this morning, which according to the
organization, paints “a troubling picture of the way Israeli governments have
thus far dealt with Israel’s primary socioeconomic problems.”
2013:
In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle.
2013:
Chabad of Talbiya is scheduled to host its third annual Chanukah Menorah
Lighting Festival at the entrance to the Mamilla Mall.
2013:
The City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa in
collaboration with Heritage Fund for Israel in Tel Aviv are scheduled to host
two candle lighting ceremonies – at Culture Square and Rabin Square.
2013:
Former State Department official and ambassador Elliott Abrams argued in his
Council for Foreign Relations blog today that the language used by the White
House to discuss the Iran interim deal was largely “aspirational,” suggesting
that much of the touted P5+1 deal with Iran had yet to be hammered out, a
contention that appeared to be born out the statements of State Department
spokeswoman Jen Psaki.(As reported by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil)
2013:
Five teenagers from the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya in East Jerusalem were
brought before the Jerusalem District Court today and charged with throwing
Molotov cocktails at an IDF base in the capital. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2013:
The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Netivei Israel Company “invited the
public to visit the excavation site Eshtaol” which “includes a
six-millennia-old cultic temple and a 10,000 year old house” today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/archaeological-dig-uncovers-10000-year-old-building/
2013: “
In
Israel, a Push to Screen for Cancer Gene Leaves Many Conflicted”
2014:
In England, the chaplains (rabbis) of the Oxford University Jewish Society are
scheduled to host “a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner” at their home for which
there is a minimal £3 charge.
2014: In Melbourne, “Night Will Fall” and
“Above and Beyond” are scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International
Festival.
2014: In an address marking the
anniversary of the death of David Ben-Gurion, former President Shimon Peres bitterly
criticized the “Jewish state” bill today, arguing that the legislation is
designed for political gain and damages Israel’s democratic principles (As
reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: An IDF fired back at Palestian
gunmen inside the Gaza Strip who had opened fire on an IDF patrol operating on
the Israeli side of the border fence. (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2014: “Members of a Hamas terror ring in
the West Bank, run from the organization’s headquarters in Turkey, sought to
carry out an array of major attacks, including on Jerusalem’s main soccer
stadium and its light rail line, the Shin Bet security service said today.”
2014(5th of Kislev, 5775): Seventy-nine-year-old
Paramount Pictures President, Frank Yablans, “who oversaw the release of “The
Godfather” and its first sequel and whose writing skills were responsible for
bringing one of my favorite sports novels, North Dallas Forty, to the
screen passed away today. (As reported by Michael Cieply)
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/29/business/media/frank-yablans-film-executive-dies-at-79.html
2014(5th of Kislev, 5775): Ninety-four-year-old
Newsweek editor and NBC television executive Lester Bernstein passed away
today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/28/nyregion/lester-bernstein-former-newsweek-editor-dies-at-94.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lester-bernstein-wide-ranging-journalist-who-led-newsweek-dies-at-94/2014/12/02/533361ac-7984-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html
2015: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum offers
exhibitions on The Story of Jewish Atlanta, “featuring a collection of 18
carefully selected objects, the Holocaust styled “Absence of Humanity” and for
the children “Where the Wild Things Are: Maurice Sendak In His Own Words &
Pictures.”
2015: According to reports published today
Israeli diplomate Rami Hatan is preparing to leave for Abu Dhabi where he will
open Israel’s first diplomatic mission to the Arab country which will be part
of IRENA, the UN’s International Renewable Energy Agency.
2015:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host another concert in its
“Excellence of the Future Generation Series.”
2015:
Six months after premiering at Cannes and one week after having been released
in the United States, “Carol” featuring Carrie Brownstein as “Genevieve
Cantrell” was released today in the United Kingdom.
2015(15th
of Kislev): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi (135 -
ca. 220 CE), also known as Rabbi Judah the Prince.
2016(26th
of Cheshvan, 5777): Ninety-three-year-old MIT professor Bruce Mazlish, the
author of In Search of Nixon: A Psychological Inquiry, passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/books/bruce-mazlish-richard-nixon.html?_r=1
http://toynbeeprize.org/blog/bruce-mazlish-a-tribute/
2016: Today “the Annual Report of the Executive
Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) on antisemitism in Australia, reported that
in the 12-month period ending 30 September 2016 there was a 10% increase in
antisemitic incidents in Australia involving threats or acts of violence over
the previous year.”
2016:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Where Memory Leads: My Life by Saul Friedländer, An Iron
Wind: Europe Under Hitler by Peter Fritzsche, The Hostage’s Daughter: A
Story of Family, Madness and the Middle East by Sulome Anderson and the
recently release paperback edition of As Close To Us As Breathing by
Elizabeth Poliner as well as an interview with Amos Oz “whose most recent novel
is Judas” and Calvin Trillin “on the Scariest Word” in the English
language.
2016:
“Alone in Berlin” is scheduled to be shown in Canberra as part of the Jewish
International Film Festival.
2016:
In Venice, the Biennale Architettura which has featured an Israeli pavilion
since 1952 is scheduled to come to an end today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-venice-biennale-israeli-pavilion-merges-art-and-science/
2017:
Dr. Diane M. Sharon is scheduled to present the final session of “Demagogues,
Madmen and Cowards: The Failure of Leaders in the Book of Judges”’
2017:
Martin Kaufman is scheduled to present the final session of “Judaism’s Ethics Committee”
in which he examines “the role of ethics in Judaism through the lens of three
highly influential thinkers whose work spans the 16th through 20th centuries:
the Maharal of Prague, a towering theologian; Nachman of Breslov, a dynamic
Chasidic master; and Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, perhaps the greatest
philosopher of Halacha of the Modern Era.”
2017:
In the United Kingdom, the Chief Rabbi is scheduled to visit Oxford where he
will speak to a student only audience, followed by the meal sponsored by the
Oxford University Jewish Society and concluding with a session that is open to
the entire community.
2017:
Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to
contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Bernard Lewis whose
works included “Semites and Anti-Semites” and “The Muslim Discovery
of Europe” continues today.
2018:
Barbara Feller, a pillar of the Jewish community, is scheduled to read from her
new publication Road to Waubeek at the Marion Public Library.
2018:
In keeping with the Jewish tradition of “lifetime learning,” Yaffe Kaye is
scheduled to offer another class in “Beginning Hebrew.”
2018:
After week, an International Jewish Festival for Contemporary Culture that has
featured such performers “Erez Lev-Ari and The Suits doing Ari San” is
scheduled to come to an end today in Jerusalem
2018:
As Americans are preparing to take part in Giving Tuesday, United Synagogue
Youth has set up its fundraiser, #IAmUSY.
2018(19th
of Kislev, 5779): Sixty-five-year-old Harold O. Levy, “son of Jewish refugees
from Germany” and the husband of Pat Sapinsley, who chancellor of New York
City’s public system from 2000 to 2002 passed away today. (As reported by
Robert D. McFadden)
2018:
In Cedar Rapids, IA, the History Center, as part of its “Oral Histories Live!”
series, is scheduled to host an evening with “almost centenarian” Herman
Ginsberg whose family has been the jewelry business for almost one hundred
while also being pillars of the Jewish community.
2018(19th
of Kislev, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, “yahrtzeit of the Maggid of Mezrech
(1710-1772), the successor of the Baal Shem Tov, who consolidated chassidic
teachings into a structured, cohesive movement.” (As reported by aish.com)
2018(19th
of Kislev, 5779): Chasidim and “friends of Chasidim” celebrated “Yud-Tet Kislev
– Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism that commemorates the release of Rabbi Schneur
Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe and founder of Chabad-Lubavitch from his 53 days of imprisonment “in the
Peter-Paul fortress in St. Petersburg.”
2019:
The Saatchi Synagogue in St. John’s Wood, London, is scheduled to host “an
international panel awareness event on” “Mental Health in the Jewish Community:
Facing the Challenge Together.”
2019:
Israelis brace for another rocket barrage from Gaza and more demonstrations
held in response to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call for his supporters to take
to the streets.
2020:
Temple Etz Chaim is scheduled to host online a “Virtual Erev Shabbat Service”
2020: In Philadelphia, The Museum Store of the
National Museum of American Jewish History for which Mitchell Levin is “an
official content provider, is scheduled to be open today on Black Friday with
curbside pickup available.
2020:
In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host “Welcoming Shabbat
Mindfulness,” a virtual exploration of “meditation techniques from a Jewish
perspective.”
2020:
Suburban Temple-Kol Ami is scheduled to host a virtual Shabbat service with
Rabbi Allison Vann and Musical Director Deb Rogers.
2020:
Kan Kol Hamusika is scheduled to broadcast “Songs of Love and Madness” with
soprano Daniela Skorka and harpsichordist David Shemer.
2020:
As Israelis deal with winter storms, forecasters predict “local rain,
especially along the coast” today.
2020:
In the words of “crack office administrator” Carolyn Simon, Jews in Cedar
Rapids can find relief from “Black Friday” by attending the virtual Friday
night services at Temple Judah.
2021:
The Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to host the Israel Haydn String Quartet as
it plays “The Best of Chamber Music” featuring string quartets by Haydn, Mozart
and Beethoven.
2021:
The Joy of Shabbat is tempered by reports that “a new highly mutated COVID-19
variant that was first detected in South Africa and has been raising concerns
among scientists has been identified in Israel” and “Prime Minister Naftali
Bennett warnings that Israel may be facing a potential emergency as he met with
health experts to discuss how best to respond to a new variant of the
coronavirus that has been detected in
South Africa which he described as more contagious than the Delta strain.”
(Based on reports by Attila Somfalvi and Adir Yanko)
2021
(23rd of Kislev, 5782) Parshat Va-yayshev;
2022:
Hebrew University is scheduled to host a “Digital Open Day.”
2022:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Magic To Do: “Pippin”’s
Fantastic, Fraught Journey to Broadway and Beyond, by Elysa Gardner which
tells the story of the creation of “Pippin,” the musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz” the New York born
son of Sheila Seigel and Stanley Schwartz.
2022: The UK online Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2022: The National Library of Israel is
scheduled to host a lecture by Maksym Martyn,a Ukrainian historian from Lviv,
on The “Khazarian Myth": The National
Identity of the Crimean Karaites which is part of the Ukrainian-Jewish Voices
series
2022: DOCNYC “which bills itself as America’s
largest documentary film” and has featured the screening of “Closed Circuit” Israeli
documentary that tracks the harrowing 2016 terror attack in Sarona Market in
Tel Aviv” is scheduled to come to a closed today.
2022: All decent people mourn the passing of
fifty-year-old Tadese Tashume Ben Ma’ada who was critically injured in an
explosion on November 23 at a bus stop
at the main entrance to Jerusalem, one of two bombings that rattled the capital
and who succumbed to his wounds yesterday (Shabbat) leaving behind a wife and
two children.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/second-person-dies-of-injuries-days-after-jerusalem-bombing-attack/
2023: The American Sephardi Federation is
scheduled to present “Maimonides in Times of Crisis” with rabbis Marc Angel and
Yamin Levy.
2023: My Jewish Learning is scheduled to host
the first in a four part class “on Talmudic storytelling with Jewish literature
professor Ruby Namdar.”
2023: The on-line UK Jewish Film Festival is
scheduled to come to an end today.
2023: In New Orleans, the National Council of
Jewish Women is scheduled to host its Executive Committee today.
2023: The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is
scheduled to present a lecture by Rebekka Grossman on “Circulating Zion: Global
Photojournalism and the Making of a Jewish Nation.”
2023:
As November 27 begins in Israel the four day truce that Hamas bought with a
handful of frightened children and aging citizens may be coming to an end while
the rest of the Hamas held hostages begin day 52 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)
2024:
“The End of the Season of Love,” the first part of “Many Faces – Documentary Cinema
on Jewish and Israeli Identity” is scheduled to be held in Mishkan Raanana.
2024:
In Metairie, LA Shir Chadash is scheduled “Women of Valor: Exploring Biblical
Heroines, ” “ an enlightening journey through the lives of remarkable
women in the Bible, led by Rabbi David Cohen-Henriquez.”
2024:
“In a special online event in honor of the publication of Wars of passions
in the human psyche and in the soul of literary heroes, the author and psychoanalyst
Professor Merav Roth is scheduled to “talk with Haim Be'er about writing, the
human psyche and the psychology hidden behind great works.”
2024:
Central Synagogue is scheduled to host “David Wander – Jewish Tales” that
showcases the work of the “New York-based artist, known for his striking visual
interpretations of Jewish sacred texts and folktales in which he seamlessly
weaves a visual style equal parts Vincent van Gogh or James Ensor and Marvel or
DC comics.”
2024:
According to a televised address delivered on November 26, a cease-fire is
scheduled to go into effect today 4 a.m. in Israel and Lebanon
2024:
In Brighton, Duke’s at Komedia is scheduled to host “an evening of poignant and
entertaining short films exploring British-Jewish life including Our
Neighbour's Ass starring Maureen Lipman as the owner of a pet donkey who
terrorizes the residents of the cul-de-sac where it lives screening
2024:
As November 27th begins in Israel,
an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism that has included Hamas
supporters calling for Zionist passengers on a New York subway to raise their
hands, demonstrations at a high school production of “The Diary of Anne Frank”
and the beating of a college student in Chicago sweeps the United States and
the Hamas held hostages begin day 418 in captivity while Israelis brace for
more rocket attacks by Hezbollah, Iran and terrorists based in
Iraq (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to
cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli
time)
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