November 7
305 B.C.E.: Ptolemy, a Macedonian general who
had fought by the side of Alexander the Great, became King of Egypt. Alexander’s empire broke into three parts
after his death. Jerusalem and Judea
came under the sway of the Ptolemy’s who left the Jews to practice their
religion in comparative freedom. Things
would change when the Ptolemy’s would lose control of Judea to the Seleucids
setting the stage for what we know as the story of Chanukah.
994: Birthdate of Cordoba, native Ibn Hazm, “a
Muslim scholar, “a strong opponent of Judaism and Christianity during the early
Islamic period and was likely the most well-informed Muslim critic of the Bible
and who in response to his views, “Solomon ibn Adret, a prominent Rabbi in the
Iberian peninsula, wrote a treatise that refuted Ibn Hazm's arguments. Some say
that Jews could use arguments from Ibn Adret's tract in discussions with
Christians.”
1180(4941): Maimonides completed the Mishneh
Torah.
1193: Hubert Walter, the son of Sir Hervey
Walter and Matilda de Valognes, who had gone on the Third Crusade with
Richard the Lionheart where they failed to liberate Jerusalem and who “also
oversaw the establishment of a new system that supervised, recorded and
regulated moneylending by England's Jews” as part of the efforts to meet
Richard’s seemingly insatiable demand for funds to prosecute his foreign
adventures, was installed today as Archbishop of Canterbury.
1532(29th Cheshvan, 5293): Solomon
Molcho, Marrano Kabbalist and mystic, was burned at the stake. Solomon Molcho’s life is too fascinating for
this small snippet. Born Diogo Pires in
1500 to Portuguese Marranos, Molcho fell under the spell of a mysterious Jewish
visitor name David Reuveni. Molcho
circumcised himself and adopted his Jewish name. He traveled back and forth across the lands
surrounding the Mediterranean. In the
end he saw himself as a Messiah, a role that did sit with Charles V, the Holy Roman
Emperor. He was having enough problems
with the Lutherans and finally had Molocho put to death for trying to convert
people to Judaism.
1573(6th
of Cheshvan, 5384): Solomon Luria, known as the Maharshal, passed away.
A famed Talmudic scholar, he believed in a plain, lucid approach to study. Two of his commentaries were Yam Shel
Shlomo (The Sea of Solomon) and Chokmat Shel Shomo (The
Wisdom of Solomon). He was the
son-in-law of Kalonymus Haberkasten, having married the Rosh Yeshiva’s daughter
Lipka.
http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/luria.htm
1611(1st of Kislev,): Joseph Siegel Ish Lito,
published Givat ha-Moreh, the first critical discussion of the philosophy of
Maimonides written in Lithuania
1612: “Jewish residence in Hamburg, Germany,
was officially authorized but the Jews were denied he right of publish worship
and circumcision” which led to a demand by “frustrated Lutheran clergy” to
demand “that a ‘Christian rabbi’ be appointed to preach at Jewish services.”
1687(12th of Kislev, 5448):
Philosopher and poet Isaac (Balthazar) Orobio de Castro passed away.
http://www.amazon.com/From-Christianity-Judaism-Orobio-Castro/dp/1904113141
1707(12th of Cheshvan): Rabbi Israel ben Aaron
Jaffe of Shklov, leading kabbalist and author of Or Yisrael, passed away today.
1719: It was reported today that a marriage is
planned between Isaac Franks, the son of Abraham Franks and Simcha (Frances)
Hart the daughter Moses Hart.
1736(3rd of Kislev): Rabbi Joseph David of
Salonika, author of Bet David, passed away today.
1745: In London Frederick, Prince of Wales and
Augusta of Saxe-Gotha gave birth to Prince Henry, Duke of Cumberland and
Strathearn the patron of Jacob Philadelphia, the magician, physicist, mechanic,
juggler, astrologer, alchemist, and Kabbalist whose name was Jacob Meyer before
he converted.
1752: New York City native Joseph Levy, the son
of Moses Levy and husband of Esther of Levy “became a freeman of New York City”
today at the age of 24.
1765: David Franks, a prominent Philadelphia
merchant and Jewish leader signed the Non-Importation Resolution. This was the
Colonial response to the Stamp Act and was one of the acts of defiance that
eventually led to the American Revolution.
In one of those strange twists of fate, when war came, Franks became a
Loyalist, the party that supported Great Britain and opposed the move for the
colonies to gain their independence.
1796: Abigail Dias, the daughter of Haham Moses Cohen d'Azevedo and Sara de
Haham Moses Cohen D'Azevedo and her husband Isaac Haim de Abraham de Jacob Dias
gave birth to Moses Dias.
1800: In Easton, PA, Sarah Hart and Isaac Nunez
Cardozo gave birth to Michael Hart Cardozo, the husband of Ellen Hart and the
father of Abraham, Isaac, Shara, Albert, Adeline, Iavinia and Augustus
1815(4th of Cheshvan, 5576):
Shopkeeper Isaac Rodrigues who may have converted to Christianity in 1783
passed away today in Philadelphia.
1820(1st of Kislev, 5581): Rosh
Chodesh Kislev
1820(1st of Kislev, 5581): Thirty-five-year-old
Rachel Nones, the Philadelphia born daughter of Miriam Marks and Benjamin Nones
who were married in 1782 passed away today in her home town.
1825(26th of Cheshvan, 5586):
Charlotte Dacre, the daughter John King (born Jacob Rey) “a moneylender and
radical writer and Sara Lara, “the English author of Gothic novels” the best
known of which is Zofloya passed away today
1826: Twenty-seven-year-old Baltimore born
American naval officer Henry Etting who began his career as a midshipman in
1818 was promoted to the rank of purser today.
1827: Isaac Levy Miers married Elsey Jacobs at
the Great Synagogue.
1828(1st of Kislev, 5589): Rosh
Chodesh Kislev
1828: At Nakel, in the province of Posen, Levin
Leyser Baerwald and Frommet Baerwald gave birth to University of Berlin trained
educator Hermann Baerwald, the husband of Emma and Selma Baerwald who taught at
the Jewish Teachers Seminary in Berlin before taking up his life’s work in 1868
as director of Frankfort’s
realschule for boys and girls known under the name of the
"Philanthropin."
1830: Thirty-one-year-old Baltimore born
American naval officer Henry Etting who began his career as a midshipman in
1818 was “appointed paymaster with the rank of commander” today.
1832: Birthdate of Jacob Gottstein, the native
of Lissa, Austria, who graduated as an MD from the University of Breslau in
1856 and returned to as a faculty member in 1872.
1832: John Allen married Ann Myers today.
1834: Birthdate of Bavarian native Herman
Rosenheim, the naturalized British subject and husband of Laura Rosehnhiem with
whom he had six children – Ida, Leopold, Emily, Gertrude, William and Joseph.
1835: Brigitte Simon and Hartvig Abraham Von
Essen gave birth to Ferdinand Von Essen who was buried in Denmark at the
Horsens Jewish Cemetery.
1839: Birthdate of Hermann Levi the son of a
German rabbi who was music director at Saarbrücken, chief conductor of the
German opera in Rotterdam, and “a longtime friend of Richard Wagner” of whom he said "Wagner is the best and noblest of men ... I thank God
daily for the privilege to be close to such a man. It is the most beautiful
experience of my life"
1839: Moses Asher Goldsmid married Sarah
Montefiore at the Great Synagogue today.
1841: Nineteen slaves led by Madison Washington
seized control of the brig Creole from the slave traders marking the beginning
of an international incident that would result in litigation in which Judah P.
Benjamin “represented insurance companies being sued.”
1842: Birthdate of anti-Semitic Hungarian
politician and lawyer Győző Istóczy who during the Tiszaeszlár blood libel in
1882 “proposed the expulsion of the Jews in the House of Representatives.”
1843: In Melbourne, Australia, Michael
Cashmore, the London born son of Joseph and Alice Cashmore who was a merchant
and the ‘first Jewish settler of Melbourne, and his wife Elizabeth Cashmore
gave birth to Joseph Michael Cashmore
1844: In
Canterbury, Fanny Nathan and Joel Abrahams gave birth to Henry Abrahams.
1845: Ephraim Avnet (Avnetvajnt) and
Sima Avnet (Avnetvajnt) gave birth to Yossel Avnet, the “husband of Toibe Leah
Fainsod and father of Chaim Shema Avnet; Jean Jennie "Czarne" M.
Sapper Sapir and Charles (Guedale) Avnet” who died on his 82nd
birthday in Petah Tikvah, Israel
1846: In Moravia, Katharina Schreiber and
Siegmund Brüll gave birth to their eldest son pianist and composer Ignaz Brüll.
1847: In Hungary, the session of the Diet that
opened today refused to take favorable action on the emancipation of the Jews.
1848: Birthdate of Prague born, Austrian writer
Alfred Klaar who earned degrees at the Universities of Vienna and Prague and who was made dramatic and art critic of
the "Bohemia" at Prague, in which city he settled. In 1885 before he
became private-docent in German literature at the German technical high school
at Prague.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9360-klaar-alfred
1848:
Zachary Taylor was elected President of the United States. While
President, Taylor appointed Joseph Jonas as Postmaster of Quincy, Illinois in
1849. According to some, Jonas was the
first Jew to settle in the area west of the Allegheny Mountains. Taylor died in 1850 and was followed in
office by his Vice President, Millard Fillmore.
Fillmore is the President who opposed a treaty with Switzerland that
would have allowed the Swiss to discriminate against American citizens who were
Jewish.
1849: August Belmont married Caroline Slidell
Perry, niece of John Slidell, a Senator from Louisiana who would gain fame as a
minor representative of the Confederate Government during the Civil War. The marriage would produce three sons
prominent in the affairs of 19th century America but they were lost
to the Jewish community. This would not be the last Jewish connection for
Slidell. His daughter would marry a
French Jewish banker while he was serving the Confederacy in Paris.
1849: Abraham Lewis married Rachel Solomon at
the Great Synagogue today.
1850 James Finn future British Consul to
Jerusalem and Palestine, visited the village of Majdal Yaba and found it and the castle in a
very dilapidated condition
1853: Dr. Raphall, Rabbi of the Greene-street Synagogue, tonight delivered
the first of a series of lectures on the “Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews.
1857: The New York Times published a letter today that was highly
critical of Judge Osborne for declaring “Now, you’ll hearing some hard
swearing” when the case of Henry Myers was called followed by the statement
“They’re a parcel of Jews.” The writer
wonders if the term “hard swearers” refer to the invalidity of the oaths i.e.
they would lie on the stand. The letter
continues “Doubtless many of your readers will agree with me that, taking as examples
the respectable class of our Jewish residents, we have none more peaceable and
respected and law-obeying citizens in our metropolis – men…whose friendship
once gained is esteemed without prejudice to their religious opinion. Does Judge Osborn forget that not many years
since ‘a Jew’ faithfully performed, upon the bench of the Court of Sessions,
similar duties to those now devoling upon himself and at who whose decease
thousands of the citizens of New York marked their respect by attendance at his
funeral? Does he know that even now in
our Senate and our House of Representatives as well as many public offices of
this City, we have several able members of these same religion, whose ‘hard
swearing’ has never yet been called in questions. If not, it is well they should inform
himself…” the letter ends with a reminder that the citizens elect people based
on their ability to act with dignity as well as their ability.
1857: In Kozmin, Prussia, Ernestine Lissner and Raphael Tuck gave birth to
Gustave Tuck who along with is brothers Herman and Gustave helped to make
Raphael Tuck and Sons, a leading purveyor of pictures and postcards whose main
offices were destroyed during the Blitz.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777847?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
1858: In Cincinnati, Leopold Pappenheimer, the Aldingen, Freiburg,
Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany born of Son of Salomon Pappenheimer and Zerla
Pappenheimer (Wormser) and his wife Marie Pappenheimer gave birth to Rae
Pappenheimer.
1860: In Nashville, TN, Samuel and Caroline (Schiff) Cohn gave birth to
Cincinnati University trained attorney Nathan Cohn, a member of the board of
trustees of the National Federated Jewish Charities, a “Special Chancellor of
the Chancery Court” and the husband of Rose Lowenstein.
1860(22nd of Cheshvan, 5621): Jacob Joseph Ottinger, the native
of Glogau who was appointed acting rabbi at Berlin in 1825 following the death
of Meyer Simon Weyl passed away today.
1860: Twenty-two-year-old Florian Hart Florance, the New Orleans born son of
Hannah Levy and Jacob Levy Florance married Sarah Hendricks today in New York
City.
1862: During the Civil War, Corporal Alexander Jacobs began his term of
service with Company F of the 165th Regiment.
1864(8th
of Cheshvan, 5625): Seventy-two-year-old David Sassoon passed away. Born in October 1792, he was the treasurer of
Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the Jewish community in
Bombay (now Mumbai) after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there. Most important of all,
he was the founding Patriarch of the Sassoon clan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sassoon
https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13218-sassoon
1864: During the American Civil War, Major Alfred Mordecai, Jr., completed
his service as Chief of Ordinance for the Department of the Army of Ohio.
1864: Alfred Mordecai, Jr. a Major serving in the Union Army was appointed
Senior and Supervising Ordinance of the Army of the Cumberland under the
command of Major General George Thomas.
Mordecai was a second-generation Army officer. Both he and his father distinguished
themselves in the field of ordinance which essentially was the artillery arm of
the army.
1866: “Griffith Gaunt,” starring Rose Eytinge opened tonight at the New York
Theatre.
1868: In San Francsico, Seixus and Hannah Marks Solomons gave birth to Adele
Solomons, who “received an M.D. in homeopathy from Hahnemann Medical College of
the Pacific” and who married Myer Edward Jaffa “who was born in Sydney
Australia in 1857.”
1868: Birthdate of Royal S. Copeland, a Republican U.S. Senator from New
York, who “crossed the aisles to support Senator Joe T. Robinson, the
Democratic Majority Leader, in his remarks condemning the attacks by the new
Nazi government on its Jewish citizens in 1933.
1868: Birthdate of Julius Benjamin “Julie” Freeman the right hander who
pitched one game for the St. Louis and who was identified as being Jewish until
“Jesse Silver” corrected the error.
1869: Theobald Epstein and Auguste Seligmann gave birth to Cäcilie Epstein,
the older sister of mathematician Paul Epstein and Tilly Epstein who was born
in 1873.
1871: Birthdate of Hyman Hirsch, the wife of Miriam Phillips Hirsch and
father of Hyman Hirsch, Jr.
1871: Rosa and Adolphus Rich gave birth to Mortimer Sidney Rich a resident
of the Wilbur Family School in Kalamazoo, MI and the brother of Hermine, Harry
Clara, Victoria and Madeline Rich.
1871: “Chatham Street” published today described the variety of experiences
that would greet visitors to this New York thoroughfare including an encounter
with a Jewish clothes vendor who would try and sell them “a nice pair of pants
dirt cheap for seven dollars” or “a jolly Jewess whose black-eyed
daughters…have beguiled many a young Gentile into purchasing paper collars and
ten cent butterflies.”
1876: U.S. Presidential were held today which pitted Republican Rutherford
B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden.
Until 2000, it was the only Presidential election that was not settled
at the ballot box. Hayes would
eventually be declared the winner thanks to a grand compromise. Hayes “was the
first president to designate a Jewish ambassador for the stated purpose of
fighting anti-Semitism. In 1870, he named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General to
Rumania. Hayes also was the first president to assure a civil service employee
her right to work for the Federal government and yet observe the Sabbath.”
1876: At the Tombs Police Court in New York City, Judge Duffy heard a case
concerning alleged vote buying. A Jew named Morris Isaacs testified that a
co-religionist named Mark Cohn gave him a dollar if he would vote the
Republican ticket. Cohn denied the
charge claiming that the dollar was partial payment for the $1.50 he owed
Isaacs. Although he denied giving Isaacs
a Republican ticket and Isaacs could not produce a copy of the Republican
ticket, the judge still remanded the accused.
1877(1st of Kislev, 5638): Rosh
Chodesh Kislev
1877(1st of Kislev, 5638): Thirty-eight-year-old
Eleanor Mack, the Cincinnati born daughter of Henrietta and Abraham Wolf, the
wife of Max J. Mack and the mother of Harry, Walter and Alfred Mack, passed
away today in her hometown.
1878: Birthdate of physicist Lise Meitner.
1878: In Brooklyn, Jacob and Bella (Mayer)
Jonas gave birth to attorney and civic leader Ralph Jonas, a “member of the
firm of Jonas and Neuberger” and director of the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn
who championed the establishment of “a city maintained college in Brooklyn” and
who “founded Long Island University with a give $500,000.”
1879: Sixty-nine-year-old Daniel Lowenthal was
buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1879: It was reported today that the citizens
of Elmira plan on erecting a monument to Adam, of biblical fame. According to the report, if they are able to
raise the funds a personage fluent in Hebrew will remind them that Adam means
red and that according to tradition the first man was made from red clay. This means that the proposed granite monument
will have to be made from red granite.
1879: Birthdate of Lev Davidovich Bronstein known to history of Leon Trotsky, leader of the
Bolshevik Revolution and due to his work with the Red Army, savior of the
Communist cause.
1879:
Birthdate Latvian Markus Nurock who gained fame as Mordechai Nurock, an
ordained Rabbi and Doctor of Philosophy who served as member of the Lativian
Parliament and the Knesset.
1880:
Three days after he had passed away, Moses Isaacs was buried today at the “West
Ham Jewish Cemetery on Buckingham Road.”
1880:
It was reported today that the rulers of Persia continue to follow the practice
of appointing foreigners to positions of influence that can be traced back to
the Middle Ages when, for example Shah Arghim appointed his Jewish physician
Matthias to the position of Minister of Finance.
1880:
“Married Jewess Cutting Their Hair” published today traces this custom which
“is universally followed in Poland, southern Spain and Northern Africa” as well
as modern day London. “The act of
removal of the hair is regarded as an important ceremony and takes place on the
evening of the day previous to the wedding…in the presence of…relatives of both
families.”
1880:
Birthdate of Joseph Otto Mandel, the native of Vienna who gained fame as
director and producer Joe May.
1880:
Birthdate of multitalented author and director Peretz Hirschbein, the Grodno
native who moved to the United States during WW I where he remained until his
death in 1948 and was the husband of Yiddish poet Esther Hirschbein and the
father of Omus Hirschbein.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Hirshbeyn_Perets
http://yiddishkayt.org/view/peretz-hirshbein/
1881:
“Palestine Exploration” published today provided a detailed review of East
of the Jordan: A Record of Travel and Observations by Selah Merrill an
archaeologist with the American Palestine Exploration Society.
1881:
Two days after she had passed away, 59-year-old Julia Braun, the daughter of
Joseph and Fanny Joseph and wife of Louis Braun with whom he had eight children
was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1882:
In an example of how important the “Jewish vote” has become, it was reported
today that in an attempt to get that vote, the opponents of Emmons Clark, the
reform candidate of for Sheriff, have issued claims that Clark has kept Jews
from serving in his New York militia regiment and Clark has issued a strong
denial of the claim.
1882: “Useful Opposition In Politics” published
cited the claim that Edward Salomon “was unfriendly to followers of the Hebrew
faith” as evidence of the appeals to religious prejudice that permeated the
campaign in New York City.
1883: Birthdate of Grigory Isaakovich Broydo “a
Soviet politician who served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of
Tajikistan from 23 December 1933 to 3 January 1935.”
1883: Sir Henry Irving played the role of
Shylock and Ellen Terry played the role of his daughter Portia in tonight’s
performance of “The Merchant of Venice” at the Star Theatre of New York
1885: In Rostov-on don Naphtul Arkadjevitch Spielrein, a merchant,
and, Emilia (Eva) Marcovna Lujublinskaja, a dentist gave birth to “Sabina
Spielrein, a pioneer active in the early stages of the birth of psychoanalysis
who made significant contributions to the field, was the first person to
propose the thesis about instinctual life, which Freud later adapted.” (As
reported by Karen Hall)
1886: “Gold Thread Embroidery” published
refutes the claim that the Jewish use gold embroidery as described in Exodus 39
was an art form learned from the Egyptians. “No stuff wove with gold have been
found in Egyptian tombs.”
1886: It was reported today that the German
term “Suso-Oppenheimer” does not mean “a wine the reverse of dry” but refers to
“a shrewd Jew of Heidelberg who in 1733 became financial agent of Duke Karl
Alexander of Württemberg.
1886: In a review published today of Arnold
White’s The Problems of a Great City quotes the author as writing
“dispassionately of the London Jews and…their own religious leaders” of early
marriages among the poorer classes” which “is declared to a source of
unmitigated evil.” Russian and Polish Jews
come to England and New York “where the parents are not more than 20 and they
have three children. In order ‘to sterilize the unfit’ Mr. White believes that
the legal age of marriage should be raised” so “that reckless marriages should
be prevented.”
1886:
Birthdate of Aron Nimzowitch, the Riga, Latvia and world class chess
master known for his innovative strategies who passed away in Denmark in 1935.
1886: Birthdate of Reinhold Schünzel, the
native St. Pauli, Hamburg who began his film career in 1915 who spent WW II
making movies in the United States before returning to Germany where he passed
away in 1954.
1887: In San Francisco, founding of the Mount
Zion Hospital Association whose members including William Haas, Emanuel Raas,
Jacob B. Levison and Meyer H. Levy.
1888: The funeral was held today for Maggie Ullman, the wife of
Ansel Ullman and the mother of Sadie, Abraham and Sanfor Ullman which she was
buried at Hebrew Friendship Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.
1888: Today, “Rev. Mark L. Harris of Kimberley
laid the cornerstone and the work on Johannesburg's first synagogue officially
began.”
1889(13th of Cheshvan, 5650): German
native Aaron Collenberger, the husband of Rieka Ikelheimer Collenberger with
whom he had two children – Amanda and Hattie -
passed away today after which he was buried at the Salem Fields Cemetery
in Brooklyn.
1889: In New York City, Eva Lifflander and Max
Langman gave birth to CCNY and Columbia educated chemist, Dr. Harry Langman,
the chief statistician of the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation.
1890: Birthdate of Tetiiv, Russian Empire native and “American
musician, music critic, composer, and bandleader heard often on radio during
the 1930s and 1940s” Phil Spitalny “ who led orchestras under the name Phil
Spitalny and His All-Girl Orchestra, beginning with Hour of Charm Orchestra on
his radio program The Hour of Charm in 1934.’
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-californian-phil-spitalny-1890-1970/103667506/
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/phil-spitalny-mn0001008311#biography
1892: In Brockville, Ontario, Jacob Phillips
and Mary Rosenbloom gave birth to Nathan Phillips, the 52nd Mayor of
Toronto.
1892: In New York, Mr. and Mrs. Max Dalgin gave
birth to Ben Dalgrin who worked for the New York Times for 38 years in
which time he rose from “advertising production type expert” to “director of
art, photography and reproduction.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/05/17/77088555.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1892: The day before the Presidential elections
a letter from President Grover Cleveland addressed to Jews living in New York
was published which said in part, “It has always been a matter of pride and
pleasure to me to feel that I have always enjoyed the good will of the Hebrews
of this our common country.”
1893: Birthdate of Mobile native and HUC ordained rabbi, Samuel Marcus Gup who
led a congregation in Columbus, OH while serving as an officer in the Central
Conference of American Rabbis.
1893: “Hebrews For Law and Justice” published
today provides Rabbi Kaufman Kohler’s reluctant endorsement of the Republican
candidate for Court of Appeals, Bartlett, over his Democratic opponent,
Maynard, the latter having been endorsed
by “Jewish journals represent the less liberal element of New York
Judaism.”
1895: Birthdate of Jacob Kaplan who served as
the Chief Rabbi of Paris from 1950 until 1955 when he began serving as Chief
Rabbi of Paris.
1895: The first issue of Le Journal de
Salonique , a bi-weekly newspaper was founded by Sadi Levy in Thessaloniki
today
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Journal_de_Salonique
1896: The University of Wisconsin football team
led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC
defeated the University of Chicago today.
1897: Two days after she had passed away, 40-year-old
Esther Jonas, the wife of Samuel Jonas was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish
Cemetery” in London.
1897: In New York City, Franz Mankiewicz and
Johanna Blumenau gave birth to screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewizc whose film
credits include a variety of works among which are Citizen Kane, Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes and Pride of the
Yankees. He won an Oscar for Citizen
Kane. He died in 1953.
1897: “The New York Hebrew Mutual Benefit
Association held its twenty-fifth annual banquet and ball” tonight at “Terrace
Garden on Lexington Avenue and 58th Street.”
1897: At Temple Emanu-El on 5th
Avenue and 43rd Street a service was held to honor the memory of
Lewis May, the congregation’s late president who passed away last July.
1897: Today, in the United Kingdom, The Jewish World published a letter from “Don’t Cringe” on the
subject of Zionism that concluded with the wish that publication provide “us a
full and rational discussion on the Zionist movement.”
1897: The Anglo-Jewish Association Council Meet
is scheduled to meet this morning at the Great Western Hotel in Paddington.
1897: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Manuel are scheduled
to give out the prizes at the South East London Synagogue Hebrew and Religion
Classes.
1897: “The Concert Season” is scheduled to open
at the Jewish Workingmen’s Club this evening with Bernard Cohen directing the
first event.
1897: Israel Zangwill is scheduled to address
the “members of the West Central Jewish Girls Club” today.
1898(22nd of Cheshvan, 5659): Sixty-two-year-old
Isaiah Luzzatto passed away in his native Padua, Italy. The son of S.D. Luzzatto he trained as a
lawyer and served as a notary. He wrote
a variety books including one “on the battle of Legnano.”
1898(22nd of Cheshvan, 5659): Medal
of Honor winner Jacob Trautman, the native of Hamburg who served as a First
Sergeant with the 7th U.S. Calvary passed away today in
Philadelphia.
1898: At the auction of Reverend William
Makellar of Edinburgh’ library which included a wide selection of Biblical
literature in several languages the following were sold: The Gutenberg Bible
(£2,950); Tyndale’s Pentateuch (£270 and £60) and “The Bokes of Solomon:
printed by Edwarde Whytchurh (£20).
1899: Herzl writes to Nouri Bey, General
Secretary of the Turkish Foreign Office, seeking to arrange a meeting with the
Sultan.
1899(5th of Kislev, 5660): Julia Elkus, the
widow of Isaac Elkhus, who was a Director of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian
Society, passed away today.
1900:
Birthdate of Efrem the native of St Petersburg Russia, who was one of
many world-renowned conductors of Russian Jewish origins. At one point after
World War II, he was the conductor of the Houston (Texas) Symphony Orchestra. He passed away in 1995.
1901: Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler attended
Zuckerkandl's salon where she began a flirtation with Gustav Mahler whom she
married in 1902.
1901: In St. Louis, 100 people met at the
Columbian Club and formed the Jewish Charitable and Educational Union with
Moses Fraley serving as the first president.
1902: It was reported today that Jacob H.
Schiff has said “the recent high rates on interest for money seemed to be
evidence of he needed reorganization of the country’s financial policy…”
1903: In Vienna, Dr. Lucian Mayer Langbank and
Ernestine Langbank gave birth to Alexander Langbank.
1903: “Synagogue for Camden Hebrews” published
today described plans by Camden, New Jersey Jews led by Abe Fuhrman, J.G.
Blank, E.J. Weinstein, William Fox and Harry Pinksky for the erection of Adath Israel Synagogue
and a Jewish school on the corner of Fifth and Spruce Streets at cost of
$10,000.
1904: “Little Johnny Jones” a musical which in
1923 would be made into a “talkie” by Mervyn LeRoy opened today at the Liberty
Theatre which was operated by Klaw and Erlanger.
1904:
It was reported today the Jacob H. Schiff had presided over the recent meeting
of the Directors of the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids which during the
year had treated and cared for 552 men and 337 women, “all but 32 of whom were
free patients.”
1905:
It was reported today that “a telephone message from Moscow says the Jews are
terror stricken with fear of a massacre there” and that “many of them have
abandoned their lodgings and are sleeping in the houses of friends”
1905:
“Killing of Jews Continues” published today described a three day attack on the
Jews of Bachmut, Bessarabia that had begun on November 2nd in which “Jewish
students were beaten, the Jewish stores were sacked” and their homes were
pillaged “before the eyes of the soldiers and police” who would do nothing to
stop the attacks but did keep the Jews from fighting the fires when “the torch
was applied to stores and houses.”
1905:
It was reported today that “in view of the devastation of almost all the Jewish
mills, shops and factories, the trade of Odessa is threatened with ruin and
wholesale bankruptcies feared” which will put the international credit of
Russia at risk. (Ant-Semitism is not good for business)
1905:
“The Rioting In Russia” published today were directed against the Jews shows
how deeply rooted is the spirit of persecution under autocratic rule” and warns
that if the attacks do not end “revolution will seek to finish the work which
the Czar’s proclamation has failed to accomplish.
1905:
This afternoon at New York’s Temple Emanu-El Jacob H. Schiff chaired a meeting
of Jews from all section of the where plans were devised to put an end “to the
massacre of Jews in Russia and to raise funds to aid the survivors.” Those
chosen to lead the effort which in one afternoon has raised $56,800 were Oscar
S. Straus, Chairman; Cyrus Sulzberger, Secretary; Jacob H. Schiff.
1905:
Abraham Kahn described “ a plan of the Hebrew Defenders…to send 7,000 delegates
to march to the White House for the purpose of appealing to the President to
bring the Russian government to its senses” and end the violence aimed at the
Jews.
1905:
The Bucharest correspondent of the Daily Mail reports today that “Famine reigns
throughout Bessarabia and the Jews are taking refuge in the cellars where they
are dying wholesale. A mob of a thousand
rioters engaged in a massacre of Jews in Ismaili.”
1906: Birthdate of Viola Spolin, the Chicago native who “is considered the
godmother of improvisation for her development of Theater Games, a series of
techniques to stimulate creativity in children that became popular with comedy,
theater and film artists and were later developed for people of all ages and
walks of life.” (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
1907: Attorney Joseph J. Harris stated today that under the articles of
agreement between Henry C. Miner and Boris and Max Thomashefsky they will
building “a big new theatres somewhere south of Fourteenth Street and east of
Third Avenue” that will seat up to three thousand people “and will serve as
sort of parent theatre the” string of Yiddish theatres they are planning to
build in cities throughout the United States.
1907: Statistician and economist Morris L. Jacobson, the Riga born son of
Ida Cohn and Lazar B. Jacobson who was a member of the American Economic
Association and the American Association for Labor Legislation married Cora
Langworthy today in Los Angeles.
1908(13th of Cheshvan 5669): Parashat Lech-Lecha
1908: Today Scribner’s published Out of Doors in the Holy Land by Dr.
Henry Van Dyke which treated Palestine “from the point of view of the summer
resort” and the “land of the out of doors.”
1909: Birthdate of Norman Krasna “an American screenwriter, playwright, and
film director” who won the Oscar for screenwriting in 1943 for “Princess
O’Rourke” and who married Al Jolson’s widow Erle in 1951 and stayed with her
until his death in 1984.
1909(23rd of Cheshvan, 5670): Behre Preischach passed away today.
1909: In Leipzig, Gertrud Jakoby and Ephraim Carlebach, a rabbi and founder
of Höhere Israelitische Schule , gave
birth to Esriel Gotthelf Carlebach who as Ezreiel Carlebach “was the first
editor of Israel's two largest newspapers, beginning with Yediot Ahronot which he left to found Ma’ariv.
1910: Oscar Hammerstein’s “Naughty Marietta” opened on Broadway at the New
York Theatre where it lasted for 136 performances.
1910: A statement was issued tonight at Tammany Hall saving that “there was
indignation among Hebrew businessman me, religious leaders and philanthropist
because of the very broad insinuation in the Hearts newspapers that the
endorsement of John A. Dix by members of the Union League indicated that Mr.
Dix’s having secured such an endorsement must be regarded as having
anti-Semitic sympathies since the Hearst newspaper charged that there were
anti-Semitic sympathizers in the Union League.”
1911: In Baltimore, MD, Myer J. Block was re-elected Judge of Orphans’
Court.
1911:
University of Pittsburgh trained attorney, Maurice Louis Avner , the
Pittsburgh, PA born son of David and Anna Leah (Pittler) Avner, who was
President of Congregation Beth Shalom and a member of the national executive
committee of the Federation of American Zionists, married Rose Sarah Goldstein
today.
1912: M. Benveniste who was the president of
the Alliance school in Ionia wrote on the conditions in his locale. Everything
"becomes more and more serious and has taken a disquieting turn. We are
absolutely isolated…Greece is about to blockade the only road which remains
open….Everything has quadrupled and even quintupled in price. Flour is
lacking…."
1912: A Tel-Aviv magazine reported that an
association had been founded to establish a new neighborhood in Jerusalem
called Talipot. Talipot was to be located on tract of land near the German
Colony and the railroad tracks.
Construction on the newly purchased land was slated to begin in the
spring of 1913.
1913(7th of Cheshvan, 5674): Ninety-one-year-old
Austrian banker and businessman Max von Gomprez who had been awarded the Grand
Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph, passed away today in Vienna.
1913: Birthdate of French Philosopher Albert
Camus. According to Adam Krisch “Albert
Camus, who worked on the resistance newspaper Combat, is the most famous
example of the few French writers who actively worked against the German
occupation” For more about Camus and the Jews seehttp://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/82555/camus-the-jew
1913: Eleven Jewish students “gathered at New
York University to found the first official chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi
(AEPi).” (As reported by Rachel Cohen)
1914: The first issue of The New Republic Magazine was published. Walter Lippmann, an assimilated Jew, was one
of the cofounders. The current owner and
editor-in-chief is Martin Peretz, a man who is aggressively proud of his Jewish
background. Leon Wieseltier, the author
of the book Kaddish is a longtime literary editor.
1914: Birthdate of London native Leslie Harman
who gained fame as Avraham Haman the 3rd Israeli Ambassador to the
United States and president of Hebrew University and whose wife Zina Harman and
daughter Naomi Chazan were both members of the Knesset.
1915: Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman
presided over “the eighth semi-annual assembly of the Eastern Council of Reform
Rabbis” which opened at Temple Emanu-El in New York City tonight and where the
attendees heard addresses by Rabbi Maurice H. Harris, the President of the
Council and Professor Morris Jastrow of the University of Pennsylvania.
1915: Jacob Grossman, 27 years old, a shoemaker
by trade, disappeared from Richmond, Virginia leaving his wife Annie and their
small baby. Mr. Grossman took everything his wife owned and left her without a
penny. He was born in Russia and came to America eight years ago.
1915: Birthdate of New York native Leo “Moose”
Disend the Albright College lineman whose two years with the Brooklyn Dodgers
included playing professional football’s first televised game and were followed
by one final season in 1940 with the Green Bay Packers.
1915: Among those reported today to have signed
a circular calling for the organization of a federation of Jewish charities in
New York were Max Adler, Louis Auerbach, Nathan Bijur Jefferson Seligman, Elias
Spingarn and Jacob Wetheim.
1916: Birthdate of jazz musician Joe Bushkin.
1916: Chicago Law School graduate Joseph,
Sabath, the Bohemian born son of Joachim and Barbara Sabath and husband
of Regina Mayer was elected to a full term as Judge for the Superior Court of
Cook County, Illinois.
1916: Woodrow
Wilson was re-elected President of the United States. From a Jewish
perspective, Wilson is best known for his appointment of Louis Brandeis to the
Supreme Court. Wilson enjoyed the
support of many of Jewish leaders and Jews played an active role in the peace
negotiations at Versailles that marked the conclusion of World War I
1916:
It was reported today that newly formed Kingdom of Poland which has been
created by the joint-action of the German and Austro-Hungarian Emperors whose
armies have conquered the land in the fight with Russia will benefit the Jews
of Eastern Europe because the new country will grant “equal rights to the Jews”
according to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C.
1917: In
Russia, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
and Leon Trotsky ousted Kerensky and took over the government. The Kerensky forces were the ones who had
actually made the revolution against the Czars. The Mensheviks (Kerensky’s
party) and the Bolsheviks (aka the Communists) had Jews in top leadership
positions. The victorious Communists would turn on the Jews and subject them to
treatment that was little better or even worse than what they had experience
under the Czars.
1917: In a letter sent to Samuel Untermyer
today, Dr. Samuel Schulman, the Rabbi of Temple Beth-El, “reiterated his charge
that Mr. Untermyer in a campaign speech had injected a Jewish religious issue
into the municipal campaign in an unjustifiable manner” asserting “that his
pre-election prophecy that ‘Jews as Jews’ will not be responsible for the
result had been borne out and urged that never again should the names of Jews,
as such be dragged into any political fight.”
1917: During World War I, the British captured
Gaza from Turkey. The Jewish Legion was
part of the British Army that was making its way across Palestine, heading for
Jerusalem and beyond.
1917(22nd of Cheshvan, 5678): During
WW I, 26 year old French Captain Guy Reittinger passed away today.
1917: As Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force
fought its way toward Jerusalem units of the British Army completed their
victory at Hareira and Sheira.
1918: Louise Levy “who along with hundreds of
others 95 and older was part of a study to understand how their genetic makeup
led to their good physical and cognitive health during extremely long lives”
posed today with an American Flag.
1918: Birthdate of Reverend Billy Graham who
was caught on tape discussing “the total Jewish domination of the media” after
he had previously denied making such comments when visiting the Nixon White
House. These and other similar remarks came as a shock to some Jews since the
American Jewish Committee had honored Graham in 1977 for his role in improving
Protestant-Jewish relations.
http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/02/02/Graham_Nixon.html
1918:
“In Munich, Kurt Eisner, a Prussian Jew and follower of Lenin, who in his
professional life was the theatre critic of the Munchener Post, declared the establishment of a Bavarian Soviet
Republic.
1919:
In Denver, CO, Tillie (Bienenstock) Klausner and Josef Klausner gave birth to
Aaron Klausner, the husband of Pearl Klausner.
1920:
Joseph Ransohoff of Cincinnati, Ohio, received “an honorary degree of LL.D.
from the Medical College of the University of Cincinnati” today.
1920:
“The Triennial Convention of the Council of Jewish Women” is scheduled to begin
at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, CO, where the first event will a meeting
of the National Board.
1920:
This evening the Y.M. and Y.W.H.A. of
Borough Park is scheduled to celebrate the third anniversary of the opening of
its new building” with “a banquet for the founders followed” by a “social
evening: that will include a musical program
1920:
Birthdate of Marion Philippina van Binsbergen who gained fame as Marion
Pritchard, “a Dutch social work student who was recognized by Yad Vashem for
“saving dozens of Jews during the Holocaust.
1920:
Birthdate of Max Kampelmacher who gained fame as diplomat and foreign
negotiator Max Kampelman.
1921:
Leach Cross, “the fighting dentist”(born Louis Charles Wallach) won his last
fight tonight ending a career that had covered 49 bouts.
1921:
It was reported today that “an investigation will be made by Acting Federal
Prohibition Director E.C. Yellowley
1921:
Birthdate of Harrisburg, PA native Eugen
Gurkoff the WW II veteran and
manufacturing executive who was the husband of Louis Buch Gurkoff.
1922:
Birthdate of Louis Stettner, the Brooklyn native who turned photographs of
ordinary street scenes into art.
http://www.loustettner.com/biography.htm
”
into reports “of trafficking in bogus rabbinical wine permits.”
1922:
In Manhattan, Adrian Michelsohn, “Yiddish speaking Romanian who got his start
in the family hosiery business” and “homemaker Theresa (Roth) Michelsohn” gave
birth to Annette Michelsohn, who as Anette Michelson helped to establish cinema
studies as a legitimate academic field of study. (As reported by Neil
Genzlinger)
https://tisch.nyu.edu/cinema-studies/faculty/annette-michelson
1922:
Socialist Meyer London was defeated in his bid to be re-elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives from New York’s 12th Congressional
District.
1922:
“Rabbi On Race Restriction” published today described Rabbi James G. Heller’s
reaction to college entrance restrictions aimed at limiting Jewish attendance
which he described as being contrary to “the American ideal”
1922(16th
of Cheshvan, 5683): Seventy-two year old Jacob Gimbel the Vincennes, IN, born
son Fridolyn Khan-Wheeler and Adam
Gimbel who had “resigned the Presidency of Gimbel Brothers two years ago due to
ill health” passed away today in Atlantic City
1922:
Australian philanthropist Merlyn Myer and Sydney Myer who created “Myer” the
leading Australian department store chain gave birth to their second child
Neilma, the future wife of Vallejo Gantner by whom she had two children –
Carrillo and Vallejo.
1923:
“The collapse of anti-Semitic agitation In the United States, and the fact that
no organized attempt was made during the last year to revive this propaganda,
has had a most salutary effect In minimizing' anti-Jewish activities in Europe,
according to the sixteenth annual report of the American Jewish Committee, made
public” today.
1924:
Birthdate of British multi-dimensional writer Cyril Wolf Mankowitz.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-wolf-mankowitz-1158253.html
1925(20th
of Cheshvan, 5686): Parashat Vayera
1925:
Dr. Henry Moskowitz, the Chairman of the Ort Reconstruction Fund, who “has just
returned from a trip to Russia, Poland and Rumania” spoke at luncheon given in
his honor today where “he told of the work being done for the Jews in the
orphanages and schools and their progress in trade and industry.”
1926:
In his sermon this morning at the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall, Dr. Stephen
S. Wise “held up the late Charles W. Elliot, President Emeritus of Harvard
University and Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis as the highest
representatives of American idealism.”
1927:
According to Stalinist historians, today, on the anniversary of the Bolshevik
Revolution, “Trotsky, Kameneneff, Zinovieff and other committed a flagrant act
of illegality in attempting a public appeal to the masses in the streets” that
“was a complete fiasco” as well as “counter-revolutionary agitation” that
eventually led to their exile, imprisonment and/or execution” which “was
universally approved of. (This version justifies the murderous excesses of the
Stalinist regime that would include several waves of good old fashioned Russian
anti-Semitism.)
1927:
As it continued its pre-Broadway run, “Funny Face,” the George and Ira Gershwin
musical comedy opened today in Atlantic City.
1927:
“The largest sum ever given for higher Jewish education in the state of New
Jersey was announced to by theatre owner and Jewish philanthropist Jacob
Fabian.
1928:
As the final results of the vote in Massachusetts were tallied today, Al
Smith’s victory in that state was attributed to defection “in what were called
the foreign groups, citizens of foreign extraction” including the Jews in Wars
12 and 14 in Boston and suburban Brookline.
1929:
In Vienna “-Anti-Semitic rioting by Heimwehr students today reached a climax
when startled pedestrians heard cries for help coming from the first floor
windows of the university.”
1930: “A
demand that the forthcoming 17th World Zionist Congress be held in
the United States was mad by the opposition members of the Zionist Actions
Committee at todays session of the emergency meeting of the Committee called to
consider the crisis in the Zionist movement arising from the new British policy
in Palestine.”
1930: Birthdate
of Senator Rudy Boschwitz. In his day
Boschwitz was a double anomaly. He was a
Jew elected to the Senate from Minnesota, hardly a place with a big Jewish
base. And he was a Republican at a time
when most Jewish voters were Democrats.
In 1990, he was involved in one of the strangest (from a Jewish
perspective) Senatorial elections. The
Jewish Boschwitz ran against the Jewish Democrat, Paul Wellstone. In other words, in America’s heartland, the
winner was going to be a Jew no matter what.
1931(27th
of Cheshvan, 5692): Parashat Chaeyi Sara
1931:
Birthdate of Sunderland native Sgt. Harold Colin Ross who served with the “26th
Field Ambulance of the 1st Commonwealth Division during the Korean
War where he treated casualties from both sides during the 1953 Battle of the
Hook.
1931:
The Guardsman an American film based on the play Testőr by Ferenc Molnár which
was co-produced by Irving Thalberg was released today in the United States.
1931: With Sid Gillman playing End, Ohio State
defeated the Naval Academy.
1931:
“The Mad Genius” a horror film directed by Michael Curtiz and featuring Carmel
Meyers was released in the United States by Warner Brothers.
1932:
In Budapest, “Minister of Education Homan conferred” today “with the Rector of
the University of Budapest, deans of various faculties in an effort to prevent
a renewal anti-Semitic disturbances.”
1932:
In Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932) decided today the United States
Supreme Court reversed the convictions of nine young "ignorant and
illiterate" black men for allegedly raping two white women on a freight
train near Scottsboro, Alabama in what is known as the Scottsboro Boys
case. Samuel Leibowitz worked for 4
years with no reimbursement and great personal danger to save them from a
judicial system stacked against and/or the real threat of a lynching.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/SB_bLieb.html
1933(18th of Cheshvan): Zionist leader Leo
Motzkin passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/motzkin.html
1933: “The official
silence which has separated the United States and Russia for more than fifteen
years was ended at the White House this afternoon when President Roosevelt and
Maxim Litvinoff, the second son of Jewish banker Moses Wallach and Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, clasped
hands cordially and extended greetings on behalf of their respective
governments.”
1934: Italian nuclear
physicist Bruno Pontecorvo, the son of Jewish textile manufacturer “was listed as co-author of a landmark paper
on slow neutrons that reported that hydrogen slowed neutrons more than heavy
elements, and that slow neutrons were more easily absorbed.”
1935(11th of Cheshvan, 5696): Sixty-one-year-old Brooklyn
resident Simon Levy, longtime partner in the meat packing firm of Aaron Levy
and Company and director of the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum” while assisting
many other Jewish charities passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1935/11/09/93500058.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1935: German introduced a new “Reich war flag” that incorporated the Nazi
Swastika with “elements of the old Imperial war flag” in what may have been an
attempt to further unite the “new Germany”
1936(29th of Cheshvan, 5697): Parashat Toldot
1936: Sophomore Harry Shorten, and the rest of his NYU teammates lost
their third game of the football season.
1936: “The flower of the Red Army(the largest regular force under arms in
Europe and the organized proletariat celebrated today in the Red Square of
Moscow the nineteenth anniversary of the Bolshevist Revolution” which “was also
a tribute to Stalin, the Red leader whose authority and influence are greater
than those of any Czar.”
1936: In Wilkes-Barre, PA, seventy-seven-year-old the Very Reverend
Monseigneur John J. Curran , the militant Catholic who was a great supporter of
the working man and who uniquely for this time in history, “was reputed to have
as many friends among Protestants and Jews as among Catholics.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported that two
unarmed British soldiers of the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) were shot
at and killed at the entrance to the Animal Hospital, at the foot of Mount Zion
in Jerusalem. Their murderers escaped to the Silwan village. A police van was
fired at on the Jerusalem-Hebron road.
1938(13th of Cheshvan, 5699):
“Talmudist Samuel M. Paley” passed away in Brookline MA
1938: One thousand mourners filled Forward Hall
the site of the funeral for Abraham Liessin which drew an additional 5,000
mourners who stood outside in the rain. (As reported by JTA)
1938: A
distraught young Jew named Herschel Grynszpan, whose family has just been
deported to Zbaszyn, enters the German Embassy in Paris and mortally wounds
Third Secretary of Legation Ernst vom Rath. The Nazis will exploit this event
by instigating a long-planned terror campaign against all Jews in Germany and
Austria.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/november/03.asp
1938: In Rome, “the cabinet met this morning
under the chairmanship of Premier Mussolini and approved a decree conforming
the decision of the Fascist Grand Council declaring that Jews are ineligible
for membership in the Fascist Party.” (So much for the myth that Mussolini et
al weren’t anti-Semites.)
1939: The Germans began expelling Jews from
Western Poland. Jews in Sierpc were ordered to wear a yellow patch on which is
written "JUDE".
1940: As of today, “scant information is
obtainable regarding former French Premier Leon Blum who is among those
“administratively detained” by the Vichy government at Chateau Chzeron.
1940: A private funeral service was held today for forty-year-old “Robert
Irving Warshow, the Indianapolis born son of Benjamin and Rose Cohen Warshow
who was a New York author, publisher, economist and a research editor in
Washington for the Securities and Exchange Commission since 1936, died on today
at the home of- a brother, H. Thomas Warshow, at 1 Fifth Avenue, after an
illness of seven months
1941(17tho of Cheshvan, 5702): Sixty-four-year-old Hungarian native and
American artist Maurice Braun “who became known for his impressionist
landscapes of southern California” passed away today.
https://www.invaluable.com/artist/braun-maurice-kokg4xg4u4/sold-at-auction-prices/
1941: George Mandel whom Winston Churchill
referred to as “the first resister” was sentenced to life imprisonment by the
Vichy regime as part of it plan to curry favor with its Nazi allies.
1941: The Nazis murder 2,580 Jews at Nemyriv,
Ukraine.
1941: Twelve thousand
Jews are transported from Minsk, Belorussia, to burial pits in the nearby
Tuchinka Forest and murdered.
1941: In Bobruisk,
Belorussia, 20,000 Jews are executed.
1941: In Minsk, the Nazis shot 13,000 Jews.
1941: More than 17,000
Jews are forced from Rovno, Ukraine, and murdered at burial pits in the Sosenki
Forest, outside of town.
1941: Close
to 5000 Jews are killed in Pogulanka, outside Dvinsk, Latvia
1942(27th of Cheshvan, 5703):
Parashat Chayei Sara
1942: Ceremonies marking the installation of
Abraham Haskel Feinberg as Rabbi of Rodef Sholem continue for a second day.
1942: Birthdate of American economist Donald
Lewis Kohn
1942: Between
now and the end of November, more than 50,000 Jews in Poland and the Ukraine
are deported to death camps at Belzec, Treblinka, and Majdanek.
1943: Birthdate of Boston native and Yale
educated Pulitzer Prize winning author Stephen Jay Greenblatt.
1943: “Doctor’s Memoir,” published today
provided a review Dr. Max Thorek’s autobiography, A Surgeon’s World.
1944 (21st of Cheshvan, 5705): Chana (or Hannah) Senesh
(Szenes) was executed in Budapest, by the Nazis. Born in Hungary in 1921, Senesh was the
daughter of intellectual, middle class, non-observant Jews. Although the Senesh family was assimilated,
anti-Semitic sentiment in Budapest led her to involvement in Zionist
activities. Hannah Senesh left Hungary for the Land of Israel in 1939 where she
lived on Kibbutz Sdot Yam. In 1943 Senesh joined the British Army and volunteered to
be parachuted into Europe. The purpose of this operation was to help the Allied
efforts in Europe and establish contact with partisan resistance fighters in an
attempt to aid beleaguered Jewish communities. Senesh was parachuted in March,
1944 into Yugoslavia, and spent three months with Tito's partisans. At this
time, she wrote a poem called "Blessed is the Match" that
memorializes her idealism and commitment to her cause. Senesh then crossed the
border into Hungary where she was caught almost immediately by the Hungarian
police. Although tortured repeatedly and cruelly over the next several months,
Senesh refused to reveal information. She did not cooperate even when the
police threatened to harm her mother. When she was executed by a firing squad
on November 7, she chose to stare at her executors rather than be blindfolded.
In 1950, Senesh's remains were brought to Israel and re-interred in the
military cemetery on Mount Herzl. Her diary and literary works were later
published, and many of her more popular poems, including "Towards Caesarea,"
"Eli, Eli," and "Blessed is the Match," have been set to
music. She was a brave young woman who captured the imagination because of her
valor and because of the ardor which she expressed in her poetry.
“Walk to Caesarea” by
Hannah Sensh
Eli,
Eli, she loh yigamer leolam
Hachol
vehayam,
Rishroosh
shel hamayim
Berack
hashamayim
Tfilat
haadam
My Lord, my Lord let it never end
The
sand and the sea,
The
water’s whisper
The
sky’s glitter
Man’s
Prayer.
Blessed Is the Match
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame
Blessed is the flame that burns in the heart's secret places.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor's sake
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
A Poem Written While in Prison
One - two - three . . . eight feet long,
Two strides across, the rest is dark
. . .Life hangs over me
like a question mark.
One - two - three . . . maybe another week,
Or next month may still find me here,
But death, I feel, is very near.
I could have been twenty-three next July;
I gambled on what mattered most,
The dice were cast. I lost.
Words
Written While Waiting to Die
“There are stars
whose radiance is visible on Earth though they have long been extinct. There
are people whose brilliance continues to light the world though they are no
longer among the living. These lights are particularly bright when the night is
dark. They light the way for humankind.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/szenes.html
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/szenes-hannah
1944: The Birkenau gas chambers ceased being
operational. Jews who arrived there were all now given tattoo numbers, a
practice usually reserved for those who were not selected for immediate death
1944: Albert Montefiore Hyamson, Basil
Henriques, Sir Brunel Cohen, Joseph Leftwich, Louis Gluckstein, and Rabbi
Israel Mattuck were among the leaders who founded The Jewish Fellowship today
as a way “to campaign against (political) Zionism from a Jewish perspective.
1945: Today, a defecting Soviet espionage told
FBI investigators “that in late 1942 or early 1943” from two Soviet spies, one
of whom was Nathan Silvermaster, “that one source of the government documents
they were photographing and passing on to her and NKVD spymaster Jacob Golos
was Harry Dexter White.”
1945(2nd of Kislev, 5706): Sixty-sixty-year
song writer and “talent scout” Gus Edwards, whose discoveries included Eddie
Cantor and George Jessel and who would have celebrated his 40th
wedding anniversary in December with his wife, the former Lilian Boulanger,
passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/11/08/103602025.pdf
1945:
“Graduates of the Jewish Theological Seminary and members of the Rabbinical
Council of America in the armed forces” are scheduled to be honored at the
annual dinner of the seminary” held tonight at the Waldorf Astoria where they
will hear the reading of tributes of General “Hap” Arnold, head of the Army Air
Forces, General Brehon D. Somervell head of the Army Service Forces and Admiral
Ernest J. King.
1945: “The Secret Room” directed by Moss Hart
opened on Broadway at the Royale Theatre.
1945: After having been elected New York City
Comptroller, the New York Times today “praised Lazarus Joseph “stating that ‘In
the eleven years that he served as a member of the State Senate, Lazarus Joseph
earned a reputation as an expert in budgetary and financial matters and as an
authority on real estate law and finance.’"
1945: The unnamed infant child of Sylvan and
Elizabeth Friedman, the parent of Sam Friedman passed away today and is buried
next to his parent in at the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA.
1946: The Irgun “said in a manifesto issued
tonight in Tel Aviv that it was ‘lifting its curfew against British soldiers’
by ending the mining of roads, but that it planned to continue attacks on
trains.”
1946: “While the number of Jews passing through
France en route to other countries may not at any one time exceed 8,000 under a
new decree, these displaced persons wlll not be herded into concentration camps
or jails "like assassins or common criminals," a spokesman for the
Foreign Ministry said today.
1947: Birthdate of Israeli actor and comedian
Sefi Rivlin.
1947: Mrs. Gerda Schairer, the executive
director of the World Festivals for Friendship, Inc. announced today that
500,000 presents have been collected by children throughout the United States
which are awaiting to shipment to Europe where they will be distributed as
Christmas and Chanukah gifts in what might be called a mini “Marshall Plan.”
1947(24th of Cheshvan, 5708): Sixty
tow year old Harvard graduate Jerome Tanenbuam, the New York born son of Leon
Tanenbaum whose real estate brokerage he joined at the outset of his career and
treasurer and director of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls who had one
son, Charles, with his wife Helen passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/11/08/104367019.html?pageNumber=17
1948: Egyptian forces retreat from Majdal and
take refuge in Gaza, leaving IDF forces in control of this portion of the
Mediterranean coast.
1948: Twenty-nine-year-old Yale trained lawyer
and WW II USAAF Captain, Edgar J. Nathan III, the son of Mabel and Edgar J.
Nathan Jr. married Ruth Gottesman today.
1949: It was reported today that 29,000
Yemenite Jews have been “transferred” to Israel “by plane” in less than a year.
1950(11th of Cheshvan, 5753): Twenty-six-year-old
violinist Josef Hassid passed away.
http://webstudio.il4u.org.il/projects/_pers/joseph_hassid/engl_version.html
http://www.avakesh.com/2009/08/josef-hassid---achron---hebrew-melody-op33.html
1950: Republican Nathaniel Lawrence Goldstein
won re-election as New York State Attorney General.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported a group of
immigrants that had been demonstrating for a long time against the Jewish
Agency¹s absorption activities and asked to be returned to their native India,
and was finally allowed to do so last April, had now pleaded to be allowed to
return from India to Israel again.
1952: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the Arab Legion opened fire on children
playing near no-man¹s-land in the Musrara quarter of Jerusalem. One boy was hit
and slightly wounded. The Arab Legion was the name of the Jordanian Army.
1955: The election of 34-year-old Milton Kamen,
who has been serving as vice president of sales and advertising, a president of
Max Udell Sons and Company, a manufacturer of men’s closing was announced”
today.
1956: During the Sinai Campaign, Prime Minister
David Ben Gurion responded to Eisenhower’s demand for an immediate end to the
fighting and the immediate withdrawal of the IDF from the Sinai Peninsula. Israel was prepared to stop fighting
immediately, abide by the UN Cease Fire Resolution and advance no further. But Israel would only withdraw from the Sinai
with appropriate assurances. The
Israelis wanted an end to terror raids from Gaza, the opening of the Straits of
Tiran and end to Egyptian restrictions on the use of the Suez Canal by ships
stopping at Israel’s ports.
1957: It was reported today that J. Irwin
Shapiro has been elected to City Court in Queens.
1958: The movie version of the Broadway comedy
“the Tunnel of Love” produced by Martin Meclcher and Joseph Fields who also
wrote the script premiered today in Chicago.
1958(24th of Cheshvan, 5719): A week
before her 86th birthday, Emma Mueden, a sister of Mrs. Theodore
Moritz passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/11/09/92655388.pdf
1959(6th of Cheshvan, 5720):
Parashat Noach
1959(6th of Cheshvan, 5720): Seventy-nine-year-old
Arthur Benjamin Cohen, the St. Louis born son of Henry and Anna Coh, the
husband of Louise Cohn whom he married in 1922 and the father of Arthur B.
Cohen passed away today after which he was buried in Waynesville, MO.
1960: “Clu-de-sac,” which was financed by
Michael Klinger, directed by Roman Polanski and co-starred Lionel Stander was
released today in the United States.
1961: Republican Louis J. Lefkowitz was
defeated in today’s New York City Mayoral election.
1961: Republican Stanley M. Isaacs was elected
to the New York City Council.
1961: “Ex-Magistrate on City Board” published
today described the appointment of Morris Ploscowe, the vice president of the
American Jewish Committee by NYC Mayor Wagner to the New York City Commission
on Intergroup Relations – a position for which the former city magistrate will
received no pay.
1962:
Eleanor Roosevelt, widow of FDR, passed away. She was mourned by many Jews because she was
a champion of number of social and political causes they supported and because of
the high regard in which her husband was held.
More to the point, Mrs. Roosevelt championed the cause of Jewish
refugees during World War II. Unfortunately, FDR lagged behind his wife on this
and it cost the Jews of Europe dearly.
1963(20th of Cheshvan, 5724):
Russian born actor Vladimir Dubinsky known for his role in “Arch of Triumph”
directed by Lewis Milestone.
1964(2nd of Kislev, 5725): Parashat
Toldot
1964(2nd of Kislev, 5725): Sixty-three-year-old
Warsaw born author “Yosef Vinyetski aka Jose Winieck” and Hebrew teacher at the
University of Mexico passed away today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2016/06/yoysef-vinyetski-jose-winiecki.html
1965(12th of Cheshvan, 5726): Eighty-year-ols
Leopold Phillip, the Hanoverian engineer turned American realtor whose civic
achievement earned him the “Man of the Year Award” from the Uptown Young Men’s
Christian Association passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9907E7DF1639E33ABC4053DFB767838E679EDE
1965: “A Fatah cell that infiltrated from
Jordan blew up a house in Moshav Givat Yeshayahu, south of Beit Shemesh.”
1966: “Cul-de-sac” a comedy directed by Roman
Polanski who co-authored the script and co-starring Lionel Stander was released
today in the United States.
1967: ITV broadcast the last episode of “At
Last the 1948 Show” a show known for its satire that co-starred Marty Feldman
who helped to create the program.
1968: It was reported today that the first
concert in the “Music for the 20th Century Violin” series featuring
Paul Zukofksy, “the champion of the view and adventurous in violin music”
included “a work of Motzart – the Duo for Violin and Violia in G” which is
hardly considered 20th century music.
1972: “The Divine Miss M” “the debut studio
album by American singer and actress Bette Midler” was released today.
1973: “Executive Action” a movie about the
Kennedy assassination with a script co-authored by Dalton Trumbo and Donald
Freed with music by Randy Edelman was released in the United States today.
1974: Eighty-five-year-old Helene Thimig, the
Austrian actress who was the widow of Max Reinhardt who had died in the United
States where the two sought refuge during the Nazi era passed away today in her
native Vienna.
1975: “Hey, I’m Alive” a made for television
movie co-starring Edward Asner and Milton Seltzer was broadcast for the first
time today on ABC.
1975: Birthdate of French singer and actor Raphaël Haroche “known under his mononym
Raphaël.”
1976:
“21 Hours at Munich,” “a dramatization” of the seizure and murder of 11
athletes by Arab terrorist at the Munich Olympics based on The Blood of Israel
by Serge Groussard premiered on ABC Televsion.
1976:
Rabbi Ronald B. Sobel of Temple Emanu-El officiated at the wedding of Nancy
Ellen Gerstein, who was formerly employed by the fiction department of The New
Yorker and attorney John Campner Novogrod, the co-author of “Law and Vietnam.”
1977: The Israeli government reluctantly sent
aircraft on a retaliatory mission against the PLO bases from which rockets had
been launched against northern Israel.
While the Sinai had been quiet, citizens in the north could be blasted
at a moment’s notice. This was
unacceptable.
1977. In
a speech marking the opening of the Egyptian Parliament, Anwar Sadat expressed
his desire and his willingness to address the Knesset. Despite doubts among some Israeli leaders,
Prime Minister Begin responded by sending an invitation to Sadat that very
evening using American diplomats to carry the message.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that
Hilarion Capucci, the Greek Orthodox archbishop who had served three years out
of his 12-year sentence for smuggling arms for terrorists from Lebanon to
Israel, was released and flown to Rome, in a goodwill gesture towards the pope
and the Vatican. Assurances were given that he would no longer engage in any
anti-Israeli activities. (This promise was never kept properly).
1979: In Budapest, 95-year-old orientalist
Gyula Germanus who converted from Judaism to Islam passed away today.
1979: “The Rose,” a musical drama directed by
Mark Rydell was released today in the United States.
1980: “Christmas Evil,” a an American flasher
filmed by cinematographer Ricard Aronovich, an Argentinian born Jew was
released today in the United States.
1982: Birthdate of outfield Brian Jeffery
Horowitz whose nickname was “The Rabbi.”
1984: Madeleine Kunin was elected as the first
Jewish and first female governor of Vermont.
Born in Switzerland, she was brought to the United States as a child in
1940 as her mother sought to escape the growing Nazi threat. After graduating
from the University of Massachusetts and Columbia University, Kunin moved to
Vermont to work for the Burlington Free Press. After marriage and four
children, Kunin devoted herself both to her domestic responsibilities and involvement
as a community organizer, educating neighbors and community leaders on current
health care legislation and a number of communal safety concerns. Elected to
the state legislature in 1972, Kunin sought to mobilize support for the ERA,
the environment, education, and the welfare of families and children. Kunin was
elected the lieutenant governor of Vermont in 1978 and governor in 1984. She
is, to date, the only woman elected to three terms as governor in any state. As
governor, Kunin focused on education, environmental concerns, the development
of a family court, and the implementation of new land use planning laws. She
provided a strong feminist voice in state government. Kunin left the governor’s
office in 1991 and became the U.S. deputy secretary of education in 1993. In
1996 she was appointed the US ambassador to her native country of Switzerland.
Kunin currently leads the Institute for Sustainable Communities and teaches
political science at two Vermont colleges
1985: Seventy-one-year-old Vladimir Sokolov, “a
former lecturer at Yale University went on trial today on Federal charges that
he willfully concealed his activities as a Nazi collaborator who wrote articles
calling for the annihilation of Jews.”
1987: Birthdate of Larry Cohen, a South African
footballer, who is the son of Martin Cohen, one of South Africa's prominent
footballers in the 1970s
1987: In Tunisia, President Habib Bourgiba is
overthrown ending two decades of power.
When Tunisia gained its independence from France in 1956, Bourgiba
promised his 90,000 Jewish citizens full civil and political rights in the new
republic. Jews occupied prominent
positions in government and journalism.
After six years of increasing economic instability, a third of the Jews
had left the country. By 1965, the
Jewish population had dwindled to 8,000.
After 13 years of rule by Bourgiba’s successors, the once proud Jewish
population had dwindled to a few hundred.
1987: CBS broadcast the final episode of
“Everything’s Relative” starring Jason Alexander
1988: Bob Hope was a “surprise” guest at the
“Broadway Tribute to Lee Guber” at the Minskoff Theatre. He joined such stars
as Robert Merrill, Eli Wallach,
Theodore Bikel, Charles Strouse
and Henny Youngman, in
acclaiming Broadway producer Guber “a man of the theater with the mind of a
philosopher and the heart of a social scientist” who had died in March of that
year. The evening’s proceeds were to benefit the YM-YWHA’s Emanu-El Midtown Y
and its [then] newly renamed Lee Guber Jewish Repertory Theater.
1988: Nita M. Lowey was re-elected to the House
of Representatives from New York.
1989: Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg asked President
Ronald Reagan to withdraw his nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing the
clamor that arose over Ginsburg's admission that he had smoked marijuana. As
chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, Ginsburg upheld the decision of Secretary of State Powell designating
Meir Kahan’s Kahane Chai as a
terrorist organization.
1990: Ack Ack “the United States Horse of the
Year” in 1971 which was bred in Kentucky by Harry F. Guggenheim and owned by
Guggenheim's Cain Hoy Stable died today.
1990(19th of Cheshvan, 5751):
Ninety-eight-year-old of Quincy, MA native Joseph Gossman, “treasurer of
Grossman's, a building materials company’’ and the husband of Esther Starr whom
he married after the death of his first wife, Esther Loman who was a
benefactor of Beth Israel Hospital, Quincy City “Hospital, Jewish Memorial
Hospital, New England Sinai Hospital, Brandeis University, and the Combined
Jewish Philanthropies” and who was a member of the Massachusetts House of
Representatives as well as “the first Jewish member of the Governor's Council”
passed away today.
1992(11 Cheshvan, 5753): Just twelve days
before his 86th birthday, violinist Henri Temianka passed away.
1992: Solomon Wachtler the Republican
politician who was serving as Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals was
arrested “on charges including extortion, racketeering, and blackmail.”
1993(30th of Cheshvan, 5754):
Seventy-three-year-old Rabbi Herschel Leibowitz, the leader of the Ner Tamid Greenspring Valley Synagogue Center
and Lubawitz Nusach Ari Congregation passed away today.
1993(30th of Cheshvan, 5754): Efraim Ayubi of
Kfar Darom, Rabbi Chaim Druckman's personal driver, was shot to death by
terrorists near Hebron. HAMAS publicly claimed responsibility for the murder.
1995: Israel’s Acting Prime Minister Shimon
Peres “said he would not call elections quickly, a step that would have taken
advantage of the wave of sympathy aroused by the assassination of…Yitzhak
Rabin” (As reported by Serge Schemann)
1997: Haaretz
published, on its front page, a letter from Sir Isaiah Berlin to his
close friend Professor Avishai Margalit expressing his final thoughts the
"Israeli Palestinian Situation.”
1997:
ABC broadcast “Before Women Had Wings,” starring Ellen Barkin in her Emmy award
winning portrayal of “Glory Marie Jackson” for the first time this evening.
1999:
President Rand Harris declared today “a special day in the history of Adat Ari
El” during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the David
Familian Chapel which has been designated “as a Point of Historical Interest by
the California Assembly.”
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/nov/08/local/me-31284
1999:
The New York
Times featured reviews of books by Jewish
authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939 by David Vital and Women:
Photographs by Annie Leibovitz, including an introductory essay by Susan
Sontag.
1999: Judith Anne Shulevitz and Nicholas Lemann, writers in New York, were
married today by Rabbi Marion R. Shulevitz, the bride's mother, at the
University Club in New York. The bride, 36, is the New York editor and cultural
columnist for Slate, the online
magazine. The bridegroom, 45, is a staff writer at The New Yorker magazine.
1999: Governor Gray Davis proclaimed today “David Familian Chapel Day” two
months after The David Familian Chapel had been made a California State
Landmark
2000: Judge Roy Moore, of Ten Commandments Memorial Fame who does not
understand the concept of separation of church and state and believes that the
government should promote Christianity is elected Chief Justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court.
2000: When President Clinton called Pacifica’s WBAI today on Election Day
morning to shore up the vote for Vice President Al Gore and his running mate
Joe Lieberman as well as First Lady Hillary Clinton, he did not expect to spend
30 minutes defending his administration’s record on the death penalty, the
Middle East and racial profiling, among other issues. But that is exactly what
happened when he encountered Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and Gonzalo
Aburto, host of WBAI’s La Nueva Alternativa.
2001: “Gosford Park,” a clever who-done-it that was the brain-child of Bob
Balaban who co-produced and co-starred in the film premiered today in London.
2002: Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in today as Israel's foreign minister,
and he promised to work with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon even while campaigning
to unseat him.
2003: Eretz Nehederet (ארץ נהדרת, lit. A Wonderful Land) “a satirical
Israeli television show, made its debut today.
2003: “Elf, a Christmas comedy” co-starring James Caan and Ed Asner and
directed by Jon Favreau who followed in the faith of his mother by attending
Hebrew School and having a Bar Mitzvah was released in the United States today.
2004:
In “Mein Kampf': The Italian Edition,” published today Lila Azam
Zanganeh explores the relationship between Hitler and Mussolini especially as
it regarded issues of nationalism and racial purity; issues that have special
bearing on the road to the Shoah.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/07/books/review/07ZANGANE.html
|
|
Were Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini
ideological soul mates or uneasy allies? Did they share a vision of national
and ethnic purity or was theirs a pact hardened in the crucible of political
expedience? Although their formal partnership lasted only four years -- from
1939 to 1943 -- it has taken on an enduring afterlife, particularly among
Italians, who have never quite settled the issue of just how ideologically
connected the two dictators truly were. This question is now the subject of
fresh speculation, fomented by a provocative book, ''Il Contratto: Mussolini
Editore di Hitler'' (''The Contract: Mussolini, Publisher of Hitler'').
Released by Dedalo in Italy this summer, it was written by Giorgio Fabre, a
journalist at the well-respected newsweekly Panorama and the author of several
books on Italian Fascism. To research ''Il Contratto,'' Fabre burrowed deep
into Italian Foreign Ministry archives and emerged with evidence documenting a
previously unnoted literary partnership between Hitler and Mussolini. It dates
from February 1933, less than a week after Hitler had become chancellor of
Germany, when two of his confidants, one of them Rudolf Hess, secretly traveled
to Rome and asked Mussolini to buy the rights to Hitler's manifesto, ''Mein
Kampf.'' First published in 1925 by the Nazi publishing house, Franz Eher
Verlag, the book became a best seller in Germany, helping Hitler, a fringe
extremist best known for staging a failed putsch in Munich, gain political
clout. By 1933, with Hitler in power and a player on the world stage, foreign
publishers were suddenly interested. The British house Hurst & Blackett
paid the German publisher an advance of 2,611 marks ($1,000). In the United
States, Houghton Mifflin & Company paid an advance of $500 on a first
printing of 7,000 copies. Mussolini, however, outspent them all. According to
documents unearthed by Fabre and reproduced in the book, Il Duce ordered that
53,625 marks (about $20,000) be wired to Franz Eher Verlag, the highest fee
paid for any foreign translation during those years in Italy. Why did Mussolini
use the power of the state to buy ''Mein Kampf'' and why did he spend so
lavishly? Because, Fabre argues, the purchase was in fact a campaign
contribution to the Nazi Party made ahead of the legislative elections of March
1933, which would complete Hitler's ''legal revolution,'' in the words of his
biographer Joachim Fest. Both regimes kept the deal utterly secret. Mussolini,
who had been in touch with Hitler for several years, insisted the money be
transferred ''anonymously and in cash.'' Hitler, wary of appearing beholden to
Mussolini, eventually declined to touch the money during the campaign. It was
only after the Nazis won the elections that the translation went forward. The
Italian office of foreign affairs wrote up a contract, signed by the Germans on
May 30, 1933, stipulating, among other things, that the Italian translator not
be a Jew. The renowned publisher handling the project, Valentino Bompiani, was
not told about this provision, and -- in one of the great ironies of the era --
hired Angelo Treves, a distinguished translator who happened to be Jewish. When
the Germans objected, Bompiani allegedly removed Treves's name from the book
when it was first published in March 1934 as ''La Mia Battaglia,'' with a new
introduction by Hitler. The book quickly conquered the Italian market, going
into a third printing within six months of its release. Had the episode ended
there it would be merely a sordid footnote in the chronicle of a dark
partnership. But in Fabre's view, Mussolini's involvement with the ''Mein
Kampf'' translation is part of a larger story. When I interviewed him in Rome,
Fabre mapped out how the translation marked the beginning of a campaign of
covert anti-Semitic measures within Italy, culminating in the racial laws of
1938, which effectively banned Jews from all public positions. This remains a
conspicuously shameful chapter in Italian history, but one whose complexities
many in Italy have consistently played down. Mussolini, they say, was acting
pragmatically and only doing Hitler's bidding, while he himself steered clear
of ideological anti-Semitism. The late Renzo De Felice, the pre-eminent Italian
biographer of Mussolini, has written that Mussolini deemed ''Mein Kampf''
''illegible,'' and thought its author was ''literally sick with racist and
anti-Semitic ideologies.'' Fabre disagrees. He says the archival material
proves that while Mussolini -- who knew German -- may not have read ''Mein
Kampf'' cover to cover, he was shown a summary of its contents along with
excerpts from the book's chilling racial theories, which he underlined in his
own hand in late 1933. Fabre argues that during his alliance with Germany,
Mussolini was intent on fashioning his own brand of anti-Semitism, one more
''political'' and less overtly brutal than Hitler's. As early as 1934,
Mussolini removed several Jews from highly visible positions in government,
finance and academia. He also had his alleged former mistress, Margherita
Sarfatti, who was Jewish, dismissed from Il Popolo d'Italia, the Fascist Party
newspaper, and forbade the Fascist Jewish journalist Anita Levi Carpi from
representing Italy on an official trip to Japan. ''One does not send a Jew
around,'' Mussolini jotted in an official document Fabre quotes in the book.
(Before the 1938 racial laws, many Italian Jews in fact belonged to the Fascist
Party.) Unsurprisingly, the Italian response to ''Il Contratto'' has fallen
along political lines. Writing in Corriere della Sera, Italy's leading centrist
daily, the well-known critic Dino Messina called Fabre's book ''enthralling,''
and its archival findings ''truly significant.'' He said that, as a result,
Italians would have to reassess their history. But more conservative
publications, including Il Domenicale, the weekly cultural newspaper started by
a close political associate of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, have been
skeptical of Fabre's conclusions, as have many scholars, politicians and
journalists. When I interviewed him in his elegant Roman apartment, Giano
Accame, a historian and a founding member of the Movimento Sociale Italiano, a
postwar neo-Fascist party, characterized Fabre's thesis as ''exaggerated.''
''Mussolini surely did not share Hitler's opinions on the Jews,'' he said, as
we sat in his study, which was adorned with a bust and an autographed picture
of Mussolini. ''But he realized that in striking an alliance with the Germans,
he had made an enemy of Jews worldwide. At that point he made the contemptible
decision to enact racial laws.'' As for Mussolini's decision to publish ''Mein
Kampf,'' it was ''a diplomatic gesture of friendship'' with Hitler. Fabre, on
the other hand, maintains that Mussolini was ''a failed Hitler'' who regretted
never writing his own ''Mein Kampf.'' Either way, the two dictators'
collaboration set the stage for the 1938 racial laws. Five years later, Victor
Emmanuel III, king of Italy, had Mussolini arrested and signed a hasty
armistice with the Allies. Italy was soon occupied by the Nazis, who reinstated
Mussolini at the helm of the puppet Republic of Salo. More than 8,000 Italian
Jews were deported; 5,644 of them died at Auschwitz. Fabre's work has doubtless
shed new light on a sinister chapter of Italian history, one long distorted and
dulled in the country's collective memory. Alessandra Mussolini, the dictator's
granddaughter and a European parliament deputy from a far-right party, declined
to comment on her grandfather's legacy and Fabre's book. ''I don't want to say
things that will get me in trouble later,'' she told me. Others have been
almost as cautious. Fabre is not surprised. ''Once you begin investigating, you
face a tremendous problem,'' he said. ''A part of the ruling class completely
falsified the truth after the war and refuses to this day to acknowledge the
facts of the partnership between Mussolini and Hitler.'' ''Il Contratto'' is
thus more than a provocative book: it is an invitation to come to terms with
the demons of patriotic self-deception.
2005: Author Jonathan Rosen won the 2005 Reform
Judaism Prize for Jewish Fiction for Joy
Comes in the Morning his second novel. The prize carries a $5,000
award.
2005: According to published reports, Israel
will give the Holy See possession of the Coenaculum, or the Room of the Last
Supper (also known as the Upper Room or the Cenacle), on Mount Zion. In
exchange, Israel is to gain control of a 12th-century synagogue in Toledo,
Spain, which is currently the Santa Maria la Blanca Church, says the Times of
London. The synagogue became a church during the 15th-century expulsion of Jews
from Spain.
2006: As America gathers to vote in the
Congressional elections, one thing seems to be certain. Vermont will elect its first Jewish Socialist
to the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders.
The 65-year-old Sanders was born in Brooklyn and raised by Jewish
immigrants from Poland who had lost a large part of their family in the
Holocaust. Sanders is currently serving
as Vermont’s only member of the House of Representatives.
2006: Elliot Spitzer was elected Governor of
New York with 69% of the vote.
2006: Ed Rendell wins a second term as Governor
of Pennsylvania by defeating football hero Lynn Swann.
2006: After three days the 19th International
Catholic-Jewish Liaison Committee (ILC) Meeting came to an end in Cape Town,
South Africa.
2006: In an apparent reversal of the decision
to discontinue the manufacture of the Merkava tank, Haaretz reported that the
IDF General Staff had decided to defer a decision on the fate of the battle
tank based on an assessment “if properly deployed” the Merkava Mark IV “can
provide its crew with better protection than in the past.”
2007: The Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra under Doron
Salomon presents an evening of Balkan Music at Beit Shean, a kibbutz in the
shadow of Mt. Gilboa famed for its olive production and the fact that Michael
Levin of Lubbock, Texas, spent his junior year in high school living, working
and studying at this monument to Zionist idealism.
2007: At the Center for Jewish History the American Jewish Historical
Society and the Jewish Women's Archive cosponsor a panel discussion entitled “You
Never Call! You Never Write! An Exploration of the Contemporary Jewish Mother.”
Through personal reflection and stories, an illustrious panel of mothers and
daughters provide an intimate, heartfelt, affectionate and---of course---
critical look at the contemporary Jewish Mother based on Joyce Antler's recent
book: You Never Call! You Never Write!
2007: At the Jewish Community Center
of Greater Washington 38th annual Book Festival, Pulitzer Prize
winning author Thomas Friedman discusses his best-selling work The World Is
Flat.
2007: Interpol issued six warrants
five Iranian and one Lebanese terror suspects connected with bombing Jewish
buildings in Argentina.
2007(26th of Cheshvan,
5768): Eighty-seven-year-old American producer George W. George, the son of
cartoonist Rube Goldberg passed away today. (As reported by Allison J.
Peterson)
2007: At the Jerusalem Theatre, The
Emet Prize for Arts and Science were awarded to Prof. Micha Sharir - Exact
Sciences, Prof. Shmuel Agmon - Exact Sciences, Prof. Vitali Milman - Exact
Sciences, Former Justice Aharon Barak -
Social Sciences, Prof. Shlomo Giora Shoham - Social Sciences,
Prof. Eliora Ron - Life Sciences, Prof. Yosef Yarden - Life Sciences, Prof.
Myriam Yardeni – Humanities, Prof. Avishai Margalit – Humanities, David
Grossman - Culture & Arts, and Sami Michael - Culture & Arts. Grossman, whose son was kiled during fighting
in the Second Lebanon War refused to shake the hand of the Pime Minister or the
Supremem Court Presdient as a means of protests.
2008: The
"Architecture Is Made For People: A Holistic-Phenomenological
Approach to Architecture"
2008: After premiering in Westwood in October, “Role Models,” directed and
written by David Wain was released today in the United States.
2008: In Chicago, premier showing of “The boy in the Striped Pajamas.” The
“able adaption” of the 2006 young adult noble by John Boyne “shows the
Holocaust through a child’s eyes.”
2008: On the eve of the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht Duke Helfand
writes the following article entitled “L.A. Jews celebrate Yanov Torah's
survival,” in which he describes how “Los Angeles Jews celebrate the story of a
Torah that was pieced together from scattered texts smuggled into a Nazi labor
camp.”
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2008/nov/07/local/me-torah7
2009: In Rockville, MD, the Magen David Sephardic Synagogue presents a
screening of “Women from Sarajevo,” the story of how two families – one Jewish,
one Muslim- save each other during slaughters in the Balkans.
2009: The New York City Opera presents a revival performance of Hugo
Weisgall”s “Esther” in the recently renovated David H. Koch Theatre. “The opera, which originally premiered in
1993 to universal acclaim, was especially praised for addressing questions of
Jewish identity and assimilation, as well as its refusal to exult over the
massacre of an enemy.”
2009:
When the World Series of Poker opens today in Las Vegas, four of the nine
players will be Jewish – Jeff Shulman, Steven Begleiter, Eric Buchman and Kevin
Schaffel.
http://www.forward.com/articles/117886/
2009: “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for
Gaza” a play panned by The Sunday Times,
condemned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and described as “a blood
libel” by Jeffrey Goldberg of The
Atlantic was performed for the last time at Gustavus Adolphus College today
2010: Gomez Mill House is scheduled to present “Jewish Merchants in the New
World, 1800-1900.”
2010:
Hulin, which deals with the laws of slaughtering animals, the last Talmud
tractate in the Steinsaltz series is scheduled to be completed. Ceremonies celebrating the event will be held
around the world.
2010: The
2010 General Assembly (GA) and the International Lion of Judah Conference
(ILOJC) of the Jewish Federations of North America are scheduled to begin in
New Orleans, LA.
2010: Cathleen Schine is scheduled to discuss The Three
Weissmanns of Westport at the opening session of the Jewish
Community Center of Northern Virginia Book Festival.
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books
by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including Cleopatra:
A Life by Stacy Schiff, Scorpions: The Battles and
Triumphs of FDR’s Great Supreme Court Justices
by Noah Feldman and The Instructions by Adam Levin.
2010: German soldiers, including one wearing a skullcap with his uniform, filed
silently through a leaf-covered cemetery in Frankfurt today to lay wreaths at a
memorial for 467 Jewish soldiers killed fighting for the Kaiser during World
War I.
2010(30th of Cheshvan, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
2011: Gilad Sharon, author of Sharon: Life of a Leader
is scheduled to appear at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival.
2011: In New York City, leading Adlerian psychoanalyst and president of the
Alfred Adler Institute of New York Ellen Mendel is scheduled to present a
comprehensive introduction to Alfred Adler, the man, his theories and his impact,
providing attendees of the lecture with a broad understanding of Adler’s
psychology and philosophy. In New York
City
2011(10th of Cheshvan, 5772):
Ninety-year-old “Dov Schwartzman also called Berel Schwartzman, a Haredi Jewish
rabbi and rosh yeshiva of Bais Hatalmud” passed away in Jerusalem.
http://www.yated.com/rav-dov-schwartzman-zt.0-497-0-.html
2011: All Israeli government and security-related websites that crashed
yesterday started working once again today after long hours of malfunctions.
2011: A general strike by Israel's public sector ended today after four hours
of near paralysis across in the economy.
2011: An IDF force spotted a terrorist
squad today around noon, as it planted two explosive charges near the northern
section of the security fence separating Gaza and Israel. The IDF Spokesman's
Unit said that the Israeli soldiers fired tank shells at the terrorists and
identified hits on target. Arab news sources said that three people had been
hurt in the incident but claimed that it had taken place in an agricultural
field. "The presence of terror
elements in proximity to the security fence is exploited for placing explosive
charges, planning terror attacks and attempts to abduct soldiers," the
Spokesman's Unit said. "It endangers the residents of Israel and the
security forces operating in the area."
2012: The staff of Maariv has gone on strike for the first time in the Israeli
daily newspaper's 64-year history.The Hebrew-language paper was not printed
today and its website NRG has not been updated since yesterday evening, when
the employees walked off the job.
2012: Israeli leaders congratulated
President Obama on his reelection. "The strategic alliance between Israel
and the U.S. is stronger than ever," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said in a short statement issued today morning in Israel shortly after Obama
delivered his victory speech. "I will continue to work with President
Obama in order to assure the interests that are vital to the security of the
citizens of Israel."
2012: Jose Ramon was arrested in
connection with the disappearance with the disappearance of Etan Patz.
2012: “The World Is Funny” is scheduled
to be shown at the Melbourne Opening Night of the Jewish International Festival
in Australia.
2012: Start of Jewish Book Month
sponsored by the Jewish Book Council
2012: British premiere of “Aliyah” at
the UK Jewish Film Festival
2013: In honor of the 20th
anniversary of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, The Religious Action
Center of Reform Judaism is scheduled to host a panel discussion “Restored or
Endangered? The State of Free Exercise of Religion in America”
2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum
& Education Center “with special cooperation from the Consulate General of
the Republic of Bulgaria in Chicago,” is scheduled to add the names of two
Bulgarian rescuers to the Ferro Fountain of the Righteous.
2013: The Center for Jewish History is
scheduled to host a panel discussion “The Vilna Gaon and the Make of Modern
Judaism.”
2013: Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of The
Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism, is
scheduled to speak at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair.
2013: Terrorists fired on IDF soldiers overnight and attempted to run one
officer down (As reported by Gil Ronen)
2013: A terrorist was shot dead
Thursday evening after he used a flare gun to fire at Israeli civilians at a
hitchhiking stop (As reported by Gil Ronen)
2014: Today marks the 70th anniversary
of the murder of Hannah Senesh at the hands of her fascist captors
2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to
perform at the Peppermill Hotel Casino.
2014:
Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef today called on Jews to stop their
attempts to visit Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, in order to restore calm to the
capital after weeks of violence and religious clashes surrounding the holy
site” and because it “was religiously forbidden for Jews to ascend to the mount
at all, reiterating a long-held consensual rabbinical view that today’s impure
Jews should not risk defiling the holiest site in Judaism.” (As reported by
Itamar Sharon and Times of Israel staff)
2014(14th
of Cheshvan, 5775): Seventeen-year-old yeshiva student Shalom Ba’adan, the
nephew of Shas Rabbi Shimon Ba’adani died of wounds he sustained two days ago
when a 48-year-old Hamas terrorist “plowed into pedestrians at a light rail
station along the seam-line between East and West Jerusalem.”
2014:
While giving his closing argument today in a Detroit federal court, Assistant
U.S Attorney Jonathan Tukel told jurors that it is “ridiculous” to be lieve
that Rasmieth Odeh “didn’t think she had to disclose conviction for bombings in
Israel when she applied for U.S. Citizenship in 2004.”
2014:
Thanks in no small measure to efforts of Steven Shepard, Congregation Beth
Shalom in Clearwater, FL is among those who are scheduled to observe “Hannah
Senesh Shabbat.”
2015:
Timothy Snyder, award-winning author of the new book Black Earth, the
validity of which has been challenged by Walter Laqueur http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/11/timothy-snyder-the-newton-of-the-holocaust/ is scheduled to
deliver a lecture on “The Holocaust as History and Warning” in Chicago,
Illinois.
2015:
In Toronto, Beth Avraham is scheduled to host a showing of “Robert Clary: A
Memoir of Liberation followed by a Q & A led by Jewish History teacher
Chaim Klein.
2015:
“Phoenix” will be shown at the Rutgers Jewish Film Festival.
2015(25th
of Cheshvan, 5776): Parsahat Chayei Sara
2015(25th
of Cheshvan, 5776): Seventy-year publishing executive Rena Wolner passed away
today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015:
Hannah Senesh Shabbat: Today marks the 71st anniversary of the murder of Hannah
Senesh at the hands of her fascist captors. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if
temples and synagogues all across the globe could dedicate their Shabbat
services to memorializing this marvelous young woman? She not only
embodied bravery, patriotism and loyalty to both her comrades in arms and the
Jewish people, she left behind a corpus of poetry and song lyrics that have
enriched us for decades. Imagine the joy the heavenly hosts would feel if
the whole House of Israel were to join in singing אלי, אלי. It might serve as reminder that there is more that binds us together as the
Jewish People than separates us as individual Jews.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.
Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of
the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating
for honor's sake.
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Hannah Sensesh
2016:
The Exhibition “All About Golda” is scheduled to officially open today at the
Skirball Center.
2016:
“The Future of Holocaust Memory” a panel discussion whose participants included
Karen
Jungblut,
the Director of Collections at USC Shoah Foundation and Holocaust survivor
Pinchas Gutter is scheduled to take place at the Anne Tanenbaum Center for
Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto as part of HEW (Holocaust Education
Week)
2016(6th
of Cheshvan, 5777): Eighty-two-year-old Canadian “singer, songwriter, musician,
novelist and painter Leonard Cohen passed away today.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/leonard-cohen-dead-at-82-w449792
2016:
“The Tenth Man” and “The Small World Sammy Lee” are scheduled to be shown at
the 20th UK International Jewish Film Festival.
2016:
Today, Theo Epstein “is set to be saluted” at “the annual general managers
meeting” after having ended “the championship drought” in Chicago just as he
had done in Boston.
2017(18th
of Cheshvan, 5778): Sixty-year-old “award winning documentarian Debra Chasnoff”
passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2017:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “No Friends But the
Kurds: A Story of Surviving Saddam” which includes “researchers from the Diarna
Geo-Musuem of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life presenting a virtual
guided tour of Jewish historical sites in Iraqi-Kurdistan, ranging from
synagogues and communal caves to the purported shrines of Biblical prophets and
the tomb of the first woman rabbi.”
2017:
In Philadelphia, PA, the “27th Conference of the Society for Crypto-Judaic
Studies
“Crypto-Judaism
in the Americas” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2017:
Peninnah Schram, “an internationally known storyteller, educator, recording
artist and author whose most recent book is Jewish Stories of Love and
Marriage: Folktales, Legends and Letters (co-authored with Sandy Eisenberg
Sasso)” is scheduled to lecture on “Have I Got A Story For You: Exploring The
Jewish Oral Tradition.”
2018(30th
of Cheshvan, 5779: Rosh Chodesh Kislev I
2018(30th
of Cheshvan, 5779): Eighty-four year old Christopher Lehman-Haupt, the
Edinburgh born son of Leticia Jane Hargrave Grierson, a Scottish teacher and
editor from Edinburgh, and Hellmut Otto Emil Lehmann-Haupt, a German-born
graphic arts historian and bibliographer” who was one of the Monument’s Men,
the husband of Natalie Robins and the father of Rachel and Noah Lehmann-Haupt
who was a nationally influential literary critic for The New York Times for three decades, who wrote some 4,000 reviews
and essays, mostly for the daily column Books of The Times” passed away today.
(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/obituaries/christopher-lehmann-haupt-dead.html
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1992-03-15-1992075115-story.html
2018:
Today marked the 74th anniversary of the murder of Hannah Senesh at
the hands of her fascist captors on the secular calendar.
For
more see http://www.hannahsenesh.org.il/Sc.asp?ID=1750
2018:
The Breman Museum is scheduled to host “a tour of Congregation Or VeShalom, the
first Sephardic synagogue in Atlanta” which is celebrating its 100th
anniversary.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a
Kristallnacht Commemoration featuring “Cantorial Soloist Kenneth Lyonswright of
Congregation Sukkat Shalom and a discussion led by Mark Weitzman, the Director
of Government Affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal, on attempts to “discredit the
facts of the Holocaust” and “whitewash history.”
2018:
Today, the 12th Annual Other Israel Film Festival is scheduled to
host the New York premier of “Death of a Poetess.”
2018:
Dr. Daniel Rynhold is scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures on
“Nietzsche and Judaism” at the Streicker Center.
2018:
In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “The Summoning.”
2018:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a “Gala” honoring founder
Bruce Slovin.
2019:
In Beverly Hills, CA, The Paley Center for Media is scheduled to host “Denise
Kiernan, Writer and producer, as well as author of the New York Times bestsellers The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold
Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II and Gretchen Skidmore,
Director, Education Initiatives, at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
as they present “How Did American Women Act? Heroism on the Home Front.”
2019:
“My Polish Honeymoon” is scheduled to be shown as part of the Manchester
Opening Night Gala of the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2019:
In San Francisco, Georgetown Jewish studies professor Rabbi Julia Watts Belser
is scheduled to deliver “Swig Program’s annual Human Rights Lecture, looking at
ancient Jewish texts from a framework of disability studies, queer theory and
feminist climate ethics.”
2019:
The Greater New Orleans Clergy Council and Limmud New Orleans are scheduled to
host a course linked to “929” where a “Rabbi, mental health professional and
political scientist “ will examine the life of King Saul, “a reluctant and
challenged leader?”
2019:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker is scheduled to present “Jewish Mysticism: How
the Zohar Reimagines God.”
2019:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and the Jewish United Fund are scheduled to
“commemorate the 81st anniversary of the “Night of Broken Glass” with a program
of remembrance, featuring a cantorial performance by Hazzan Benjamin A. Tisser,
and a performance of “Silenced Voices” by Black Oak Ensemble.:
2019:
“Back to Marcana” is scheduled to shown on the opening night of the Northern
Virginia Jewish Film Festival.
2019:
The Sonoma State University Jewish Music series is scheduled to present “Breath
in a Ram’s Horn,” a “song cycle based on the words of poet Paul Pines, with
themes of Jewish identity and family.”
2019:
“Love in Suspenders” is scheduled to be shown in Leeds as part of the UK Jewish
Film Festival.
2019:
At Vanderbilt University, the Program in Jewish Studied is scheduled to host a
lecture by Professor Jonathan Sarna, on “That Obnoxious Order: Ulysses S. Grant
and the Jews.”
2019:
On the secular calendar, 75th anniversary of the murder of Hanna
Senesh at the hands of her fascist captors. Like Abraham, her life was a
journey. Like Abraham, she left her home
in Hungary and journeyed to Palestine where she worked to build a Jewish
commonwealth in the same land that God promised to Abraham in this week’s
portion. And like Abraham, who went to
Egypt, she too left Eretz Israel. Only
in her case, she left and returned to Hungary to help in the fight against the
Nazis and to save her fellow Jews from the Darkest of the Dark Night. Unfortunately, the God who spared Abraham’s
while he was in Egypt could not, for whatever reason, spare her life so she
could return to her Jewish homeland.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if temples and synagogues all across the globe
could take a moment to memorialize this marvelous young woman? She not only embodied bravery, patriotism and
loyalty to both her comrades in arms and the Jewish people, she left behind a
corpus of poetry and song lyrics that have enriched us for decades. Imagine the joy the heavenly hosts would feel
if the whole House of Israel were to join in singing אלי, אלי. It might serve as a reminder that there is
more that binds us together as the Jewish People than separates us as
individual Jews. “Blessed is the match
consumed in kindling flame
http://www.hannahsenesh.org.il/Sc.asp?ID=1750
2020:
In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to celebrate
Veteran’s Shabbat on the same day Camryn Zidel is called to the Torah as a bat
mitzvah.
2020:
The Men’s Club and Sisterhood of B’nai Jershurun Congregation are scheduled to
co-sponsor an hour with Tovah Feldshuh “as she talks about her 45-year career
on Broadway including her portrayal of Golda Meir in “Golda’s Balcony.”
2020:
The final performance of “State of Darkness” co-sponsored by the office of
Cultural Affairs of the Consulate of Israel in New York is scheduled to take
place today.
2020:
The screening window for “Those Who Remained” is scheduled to open this evening
at the Columbus Jewish Film Festival.
2020l:
The Reclaimed Room is scheduled to host the in-person opening reception for a
two-artist exhibit that includes Sofia Carmi’s “Dead Sea Scrolls” paintings,
which reinterpret the scrolls and add comments on global warming.
2020:
The Long Beach Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2020:
Hannah Senesh Shabbat – On the secular calendar, November 7 marked the 76th
anniversary of the murder of Hannah Senesh at the hands of her fascist captors.
Like Abraham, her life was a journey.
Like Abraham, she left her home in Hungary and journeyed to Palestine
where she worked to build a Jewish commonwealth in the same land that God
promised to Abraham in this week’s portion.
And like Abraham, who went to Egypt, she too left Eretz Israel. Only in her case, she left and returned to
Hungary to help in the fight against the Nazis and to save her fellow Jews from
the Darkest of the Dark Night.
Unfortunately, the God who spared Abraham’s while he was in Egypt could
not, for whatever reason, spare her life so she could return to her Jewish
homeland. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if
temples and synagogues all across the globe could take a moment during their
Shabbat services to memorialize this marvelous young woman? She not only embodied bravery, patriotism and
loyalty to both her comrades in arms and the Jewish people, she left behind a
corpus of poetry and song lyrics that have enriched us for decades. Imagine the joy the heavenly hosts would feel
if the whole House of Israel were to join in singing אלי, אלי. It might serve as a reminder that there is
more that binds us together as the Jewish People than separates us as
individual Jews. “Blessed is the match
consumed in kindling flame.”
2020:
The UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the UK premiere of “Shiva
Baby.”ed
2020:
In Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host a Torah Study with
Rabbi Feivel Strauss while Skyler Taylor, Gavin Venoff and David Venoff are
scheduled to be Bar Mitzvahed.
2020(20th
of Cheshvan, 5781): Parashat Vayera;
2021:
The MJCAA Book Fest is scheduled to present via Zoom Lucy Adlington, the author
of The Dressmaker of Auschwitz and Mark Oppenheimer, the author of Squirrel
Hill.
2021:
The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Midnight in Washington: How We
Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could
by
Adam Schiff and People Love Dead Jews: Reports From a Haunted Present by
Dara Horn.
2022:
The Conference on Jewish Leadership in the Past Millennium sponsored by Touro
University is scheduled to come to an end today.
2022: The Terezin Music Foundation is scheduled to
present “an evening of music by Gideon Klein, Erwin Schulhoff, Kurt Weill and
Pavel Haas, performed by celebrated artists, saxophonist Philipp Stäudlin and
pianist Yoko Hagino with music accompanied by newly translated writings and
rarely seen (stunning!) art from Terezín in what is a tribute to the remarkable
cultural community that persevered in this Nazi camp.”
2022:
The 2022 Jewish Writers Conference sponsored by the Jewish Book Council is
scheduled to begin today.
2022:
The All Jewish Theatre organization is scheduled to host “Macher Lab Showing of
Theatremacher Works in Progress.
2022:
Holocaust Education in Florida which is held annually the second November which
coincides with the anniversary of Kristallnacht is scheduled to begin today.
2022:
America-Israel Cultural Foundation (AICF) Celebration and ICA Awards is
scheduled to take place today at The Robert H. Smith Auditorium, in the
New-York Historical Society in New York City.
2023:
As part of the Women on the Move series, the Streicker Center is scheduled to
host a lecture by Naomia Ragen, author of The Enemy Beside Me.
2023:
As part of the Jewish Values and Strategy in Wartime series, the Tikvah online
Forum is scheduled is scheduled to host a lecture by Dore Feith on “Arab
Terrorism and the Jewish Iron Wall.”
2023:
Author Marlene Trestman is scheduled to take part in the Honorable Sol and
Jacqueline Gothard JWV Women’s Speakers Series At Temple Sinai, 6227 St.
Charles Avenue, this evening during which Trestman, whose “Most Fortunate
Unfortunates: The Jewish Orphans’ Home of New Orleans” has just been published
by LSU Press, will speak on the service of Southern Jewish orphans during World
War II, highlighting the difficulties and triumphs they endured.
2023:
As November 7, begins in Israel, tensions increase on Israel’s northern border
after “ Hamas has claimed responsibility for launching 16 projectiles yesterday,
triggering sirens in Nahariya, Acre and nearby towns” while Kiryat Shmona urges remaining residents to
evacuate due to attacks, “ as Israel
presses on with its offensive in the south against the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror
group” and the Hamas hostages begin day 32 in captivity. (As reported by
Emanuel Fabian)
(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:
ANU - Museum of the Jewish People is schedule to host “YOM Ha-Aliyah.”
2024:
The Museum at Eldridge Street Annual Gala is scheduled to host its annual gala
at the Bryant Park Grill which will feature “a special tribute to Dr. Aaron
Feingold, whose remarkable collection of Hanukkah menorahs are on view in its
historic Main Sanctuary.”
2024:
The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to be open today.
2024:
Homecoming Weekend is scheduled to begin at Tulane University, the academic
home of Professor Brian Horowitz, the former leader of the Department of Jewish
Studies and whose alumnae include Dr. Stephen Whitfield.
https://www.wgbh.org/people/stephen-whitfield
2024:
The Weiner Holocaust Memorial Library is scheduled to host an “Exhibition Talk”
by Dr Niccola Shearman, a historian of twentieth-century European art, with a
focus on Germany and Austria to 1945, on “The woodcut print in Germany after
WWI: Remorse, redemption, reparation”
2024:
YIVO is scheduled to host a book talk by Rebeca Margolis, author of The
Yiddish Supernatural on Screen: Dybbuks, Demons and Haunted Jewish Pasts led
by Olga Gershenson.
2024:
As November 7th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of
anti-Semitism that has included Hamas supporters calling for Zionist passengers
on a New York subway to raise their hands, sweeps the United States and the
Hamas held hostages begin day 398 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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