193: Septimius Severus is proclaimed Roman
Emperor by the army in Illyricum. Severus is the first emperor to ban
proselytizing by Jews.
423: Emperor Theodosius II reaffirms the Roman
law according to which "No Jew may purchase Christian slaves because it is
abominable that religious slaves would be defiled by the ownership of impious
Jews. If anyone does this, they will be subject to the statutory punishment
without any delay."
423: Theodosius II and Honorious reaffirm the
Roman law which ban the seizure or burning of Synagogues but which also allows
the Jews to “be punished by confiscation and exile for life if it is discovered
that they have circumcised a” Christian.
614: According to “the Armenian bishop and
historian Sebos” one of two possible dates the residents of Jerusalem rebelled
during the war between the Byzantines and the Sasanians – a rebellion which
claimed an untold number of Jews living in the city.
1141(30th of Nisan): Rabbi Joseph ben Meir
Ha-Levi Ibn Migas “disciple and successor to Rabbi Isaac Alfasi” passed away
today
1336: Birthdate of Tamerlane or Timur, the
Mongol leader “under whose rule the Jewish people prospered” passed away today.
(For more see Tamerlane and the Jews by Michael Shterenshis)
1362: The Crown of Aragon (the name of the
realm ruled by the King of Aragon) examined a court case involving the murder
of a Jew by two Muslims. The widow of the man took the matter to the court
after unsuccessfully seeking justice in the town where the murder occurred.
https://www.yu.edu/news/once-more-unto-the-breach-dear-friends-henry-v-and-leadership
1500: A huge fleet under the command of
Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, accompanied by Gaspar da Gama, a
Polish born Jew whose slave name had been Yusuf ‘Adil before being forcibly
converted to Christianity, “crossed the Equator” today and sailed westward away
from the African coast.
1582(7th of Nisan): Lemberg Rabbi Naphtali Herz
ben Meir passed away today.
1609: “The Twelve Year’s Truce” which “was a
watershed in the Eighty Years' War, marking the point from which the
independence of the United Provinces received formal recognition by outside
powers” and helped to provide a Dutch haven for Marranos and Sephardi Jews
seeking physical safety and place from which to conduct their trade with the
Levant and North Africa, took effect today.
1609: The Expulsion of the Moriscos (Spanish:
Expulsión de los moriscos) was decreed by King Philip III of Spain
1723(4th of Nisan): Judah Loeb ben
David Neumark, author of Shoresh Yehuda which had been published at Frankfort
on the Main in 1692 and who had been the manager of the printing house
owned by Daniel Ernest Jablonski passed away today.
1723(4th of Nisan, 5483): Judah Loeb
ben David Neumark, author of Shoresh Yehuda which had been published at
Frankfort on the Main in 1692 and who had been the manager of the printing house owned by Dr. Daniel Ernest
Jablonski, passed away today. Jablonski
“a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin and a court preacher” was
critical to the success of Judah Loeb’s printing projects since Jews were
forbidden to have licenses showing ownership of a printing press. Together, they probably produced a copy of
Psalms and the Bible. Neumark was a trail-blazer in the field of Jewish
printing in Germany, as can be seen by the many people who followed in his
footsteps including his son Nathan Neumark.
1754(17th of Nisan, 5514): 3rd
day of Pesach observed on the same day that John Adams, future President of the
United States wrote in his diary “Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of nature
proved and illustrated, together with the application of them to the planets,
which are kept in their orbits by two forces acting upon them, viz that of
gravity and that which is call’d their Centrifugal force whereby <, Start deletion,
it, End,> they strives to recede from the Center of their orbits, and fly
off therefrom in tangents.”
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/02-01-02-0009-0001-0006
1762(16th of Nisan, 5522): Second
Day of Pesach
1765(18th of Nisan, 5525): Fourth
Day of Pesach
1768(22nd of Nisan, 5528): Eighth
Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1770(14th of Nisa, 5530): Erev Pesach
1773(16th of Nisan, 5533): Second
Day of Pesach
1774(28th of Nisan, 5534): Parashat
Shmini read on both sides of the Atlantic as British troops begin to make their
way to Boston where they will enforce the act of Parliament closing the port in
retaliation for the Boston Tea Party.
1776(20th of Nisan, 5536): Sixth Day
of Pesach observed as General Washington’s Army is marching south from Boston,
to take up positions in New York where they will face the invading English navy
and army.
1778(12th of Nisan, 5538): Fast of
the First Born observed because erev Pesach falls on Shabbat.
1782: Rabbi Isaac Hess Kugelmann and his wife
gave birth to German educator and author Michael Hess whose students included
“the young baron James von Rothschild.”
1787(21st of Nisan, 5547): Seventh
Day of Pesach
1792(17th of Nissan, 5552): Third
Day of Pesach
1792: On the same day that Jews were
celebrating their release from Egyptian bondage, President George Washington
was writing to the U.S. Consul consider the advisability of paying ransom for American
captives held by those whom in Algiers who were later described as pirates.
1796(1st of Nisan, 5556): Shabbat
HaChodesh
1796: Birthdate of Curacao native and New York
City resident Mordecai Frois, the husband of Cynthia Gomez and father of
Rachel, Morris and Abigail Frois.
1797: In Germany, Frommet Weil and Davis Hirsch
Lindauer gave birth to Jakob Hirsch Linaduer, the husband of Therese Einstein
and father of Babette, Manasse, Rebekka, David and Joseph Lindauer.
1799(4th of Nisan, 5559): Forty-nine-year-old
Abraham Mendes Seixas, the son of Isaac Mendes Seixas of Lisbon and Rachel
Franks Levy of London passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1800(14th of Nisan, 5560): Ta’anit
Bechorot observed for the first time in the 19th century and for the
last time during the Presidency of John Adams.
1803(17th of Pesach, 5563): Shabbat
Shel Pesach
1806(21st of Nisan, 5566): Seventh
Day of Pesach
1806(21st of Nisan): Rabbi Daniel of Horodno,
author of “Hamudei Daniel” passed away today.
1807: Joseph and Sophia Spyer were wed today at
the Great Synagogue today.
1807: Forty-five-year-old “Cornish historical
and portrait painter” John Opie who created “An Old Jew” passed away today.
http://www.cornishwonder.com/page6.htm
1808(12th of Nisan, 5568): Shabbat
HaGadol observed on the same day that “Mayor Wolters offered the French King
Louis Napoleon the townhall as a palace, and James Madison and George Clinton
were elected president and vice president (Democratic-Republican).”
1809: In Savannah, GA, Charleston native Perla
Sheftall and Norfolk native Isaac Russell gave birth to Levi Sheftall, the
husband of Anna Serena Martin with whom he had six children.
1811(15th of Nisan, 5571): First Day
of Pesach
1811: “The New York State Legislature granted
financial aid to the parochial school of Congregation Shearith Israel.” (As
reported by Abraham P. Bloch)
1816(11th of Nisan): Rabbi Simchah Bunim
Rapaport of Wuerzburg, author of Hiddushei Rashbaz passed away.
1819(14th of Nisan, 5579): Ta’anit
Bechorot; erev Pesach
1824: One day after he had passed away, a son
Yitzhak Cohen was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1824: In Westminster, Susannah Levi and Lewis
Durlacher gave birth to their third son Montague Durlacher, the
“surgeon-chiropodist to Queen Victoria’s household” and the husband of Anne
Louis whom he married after the death of Deborah Bennjamin who was the father of Frances Susannah
Durlacher, the wife of dentist Edward Newton Jones.
1825(21st of Nisan, 5585): Shabbat
Shel Pesach observed as Spain lost her control over Bolivia.
1826: After having laid the foundation stone
for the Stadttempel in the Seitensteingasse in 1825, today “the synagogue,
which had been designed by Joseph Kornhäusel, was sanctified by Rabbi
Mannheimer” after which “Salomon Sulzer from Hohenems was appointed hazzan at
the synagogue, where he served for 56 years”
1827: In Lenrburg, Germany, Abraham
Greensfelder and his wife gave birth to Isaac Greensfelder, the husband of
Amalia Blum who founded the Hebrew Relief Society in 1859, was charter member
of Sinai Congregation in Chicago where he served as the President of the United
Hebrew Charities for thirty-two years and director of Michael Reese Hospital
for 38 years.
1828: German natives Jan and Samuel Stiebel
gave birth to Rosetta Stiebel.
1830(16th of Nisan 5590): Second Day
of Pesach observed on the first day that the United States Senate debated the
“Indian Removal Act.”
1831: In London, Frances Cohen and Joel
Benjamin gave birth to Isaac Benjamin.
1833(20th of Nisan, 5593): Sixth Day
of Pesach celebrated on the same day that “the first tax-supported public library
was founded in Peterborough, N.H.
1836(22nd of Nisan, 5596): Shabbat
shel Pesach
1838(14th of Nisan, 5598):Ta'anit Bechorot /
Erev Pesach
1838(14th of Nisan, 5598): Sixty-year-old Hungarian
physician Leopold Bettelheim Hungarian physician “a Hebraist of some importance:
who “in 1830 Bettelheim was the recipient of a gold medal of honor from the
emperor Franz I. for distinguished services to the royal family and to the
nobility passed away today.
1842(29th of Nisan, 5602): Parashat
Shimini; Pirkei Avot Chapter 1
1842(29th of Nisan, 5602):
Sixty-seven-year-old Rachel Cornelia Bernard, the Amsterdam born daughter of
Bernard Pak and the wife of Abraham Levy whom she married in 1799 and with whom
she had eight children – Jacob, Julia, Rebeecca, Esther, Mary Louisa, Isaac, Lewis
and Moses – passed away today in Richmond, VA.
1844(20th of Nisan, 5604): Sixth Day
of Pesach
1845(2nd of Nisan, 5605):
Thirty-nine-year-old Dr. Henry Myers, the son of Samuel and Judith Moses Myers
passed away today.
1846: In Oberdorf, Germany, Jacob Weil and
Jette Pflaumlocher gave birth to Henry Wiel, the husband of Mina Rosenthal who
moved to North Carolina where he served as President of both the Carolina Rice
Mills and the Goldsboro Ice Company, trustee of the University of North
Carolina, Goldsboro City Alderman and a leader of the B’nai B’rith.
1849: Jeanetta Mallan and Kent native Joseph
Davis gave birth to Esther Davis.
1851: In Germany, Bertha and Joel Gutman gave
birth to Nathan S. Gutman, the husband of Emma Eleanor Gutman with whom he had
two children, Alice and Helen.
1855(21st of Nisan, 5615): Seventh
Day of Pesach
1855: In London Cecilia and David Woolf Marks
gave birth to Harry Hananel Marks, who founded the Financial News in
1884.
1857(15th of Nisan, 5617): Pesach
observed for the first time during the Presidency of James Buchanan.
1860(17th of Nisan, 5620): Third Day
of Pesach
1860: In Philadelphia, “Elias and Amelia
(Mayer) Wolf” gave birth to businessman and civic leader Clarence Wolf, a
member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, a member of the Pennsylvania State
Senate from 1908 to 1912 and a director of Congregation of Rodeph Shalom.
1863(20th of Nisan, 5623): 6th
day of Pesach
1863: In Galicia, Yete and Mendel Haber gave
birth to Morris Haber who in 1881 came to the United States where he became
“one of the largest manufacturers of shirt waists in Philadelphia,” a director
of both the People’s Bank and the People’s Trust Company and raised seven
children with his the former Ida Shapiro.
1863: As the Jews munch on Matzah, Samuel
Dupont whose fleet of nine ironclads had failed to take Forts Moultrie and
Sumter debated whether or not it was worth renewing the attack in Charleston
Harbor.
1864(3rd of Nisan, 5624): Parashat
Tazria
1864: Today, Jews in Keokuk, IA, chose “a Mr.
J. Falk of New York…to be their schochet at an annual salary of $300, payable
quarterly.”
1865: Robert E. Lee and U.S. Grant met at
Appomattox Court House and concluded the agreement the marked the end of Civil
War. While Jews fought on both sides of the conflict, the majority of Jews
supported the Union and fought for the North. At the same time, a
description of the Siege of Petersburg includes a notation that the Confederate
lines were so thin that the Jewish soldiers could not be allowed to be absent
to observe their Day of Atonement as they had been in past years. Simon
Wolf, a Jewish activist of the 19th Century, collected the names of over 7000
Jewish-Americans who fought on both sides during the Civil War. In 1895, he
published the list in a directory entitled The American Jew as Patriot,
Soldier, and Citizen.
1865: The Eighty-Second Regiment, whose members
included English born Louis Manly Emanuel, the graduate of the University of
Pennsylvania doctor who had been serving as surgeon with the Army of the
Potomac in every battle since Malvern Hill, “was at the extreme front of the
Union Army” when Lee surrendered today at Appomattox.
1865: Andrew Jackson “Jack” Moses was among the
Confederate soldiers who fought against the Union Army at Sumter, SC.
1865: In Philadelphia, PA, Jacob and Rebecca
“Betty” Bacharach gave birth to Benjamin Bacharach, the Atlantic City, NJ
banker, Republican political activist and President of Beth Israel Synagogue
who had three children with his wife Hattie Allman Bacharach.
1865(13th of Nisan, 5625): Lt.
Joshua Lazarus Moses was killed today as Confederate forces fought at Mobile,
Alabama. Moses had been with the army since the start of the war having fought
at the First Battle of Bull Run.
1865: Birthdate of Baltimore, MD native and
Baltimore University School of Law trained attorney Benjamin H. Hartogensis,
the 1886 graduate of Johns Hopkins University whose classmates included Woodrow
Wilson, who was an associate editor of The Jewish Exponent and president of the
Baltimore branch of the Alliance Israelite Universelle and the Hebrew Education
Society.
1865: Birthdate of Charles Proteus
Steinmetz, the native of Breslau Germany, who came to the United States in
1889. Viewed by some as brilliant theorist and mathematical genius,
Steinmetz held more than 200 patents when he passed away in 1923. He
experimented with AC electricity. His work was primarily in the field of improving
practical electrical devices and the transmission of energy. The
following comments provide some sense of his importance as a Jew and as an
America. "Where does our future lie! It lies in developing and making use
of men like the great Jews, Abram Jacobi, Charles Proteus Steinmetz and Louis
Brandeis, who are true to their own nature, and who respond to the American
environment. These men are not amateur Gentiles. They are Jews and they are
Americans."
1867: In Rochester, NY, Abram and Caroline
Stern gave birth to Cornell University trained architect, whose works included
the “Bausch and Lomb Optical Buildings in Rocheser” and “Berith Kodesh Temple.”
1867: The United States Senate ratified a
treaty with Russia that enabled the United States to purchase Alaska. “Jews
have been a prominent part of Alaska's history even before its acquisition by
the U.S. in 1867. San Francisco Jewish pioneering merchants Louis Sloss and
Lewis Gerstle (for whom Northeast Alaska's Gerstle River is named) are credited
with opening the Alaska Territory to settlers and commercial enterprises when
establishing the Alaska Commercial Company in 1868. Originally a
fur-transporting firm, ACC expanded to become a salmon cannery and fishing
fleet, operated a chain of trading posts providing general merchandise to
natives, trappers, miners, and explorers, and supplied Alaska's first fleet of
ships during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1901”.
1868(17th
of Nisan, 5628): Third Day of Pesach
1868: Birthdate of
Catskill, NY and Hudson, NY building and loan director William Kritzman.
1868: Miriam Isaacs,
the daughter of Joseph Simon Magnus and Bele Eliaser Cohen, the wife of Emanuel
Isaacs and the mother of Rosetta and Esther Isaacs was buried today in the
“West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1870(8th
of Nisan, 5630): Parashat Metzora; Shabbat HaGadol
1870: In
Philadelphia, of Oscar Ittleson and Eva Margaret Sterne gave birth to Emma
Cohen, the wife of Moses "Moshe" Cohn and mother of Rose Lenore
Brown; Freda S. Cronheim; Henrietta Cohn; Ethel "Etta" M. Cohn; Henry
Ittleson Cohn; Evelyn M. Weitzer Chasnoff; Arnold E. Cohn and Ralph Cole” who
passed away in St. Louis at the age of 74.
1870(8th
of Nisan, 5630): Forty-nine-year-old Esther G. Poznanski, the “daughter of
Rachel and Isaac Barret” and “the wife of Gustavus Poznanski” with whom she had
had four children passed away today after which she was buried in Charleston,
SC.
1871: The annual meeting of the "Hebrew
Benevolent Fuel Association" was held at Masonic Hall this morning. This
organization now has over 1,000 members and is now entirely supported by an
annual subscription of $3 per capita. The association will no long have to
resort to fairs, concerts, and other soliciting entertainments” for funding.
“Last year” the Association “distributed 1,000 half tons of coal” valued at
$3,375 to needy New York Jews.
1872: In New York, Nathan Goldberg’s home on
Division Street suffered $300 dollars’ worth of damage in a fire tonight.
1872: Two days after he had passed away, 77-year-old
Nathan Harris, the husband of Rebecca Harris with whom he had had six children
was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1872: Birthdate of Léon Blum the first Jew to
serve as French Premier. Imprisoned by the French and the Germans during
World War II, he returned to politics briefly after the war before passing
away in 1950.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWblum.htm
1872(1st of Nisan, 5632): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
observed on the same day that delegates approved a new constitution for the
state of West Virginia at time when Jews in Wheeling worshipped at Congregation
L’Shem Shomayim and Jews in Charleston had been using a Jewish cemetery since
1836 but were still a year away from formally organizing Congregation B’nai
Israel.
http://www.jpreisler.com/WVJewish.htm
1874(22nd of Nisan, 5634): Eighth
Day of Pesach observed for the first time while Benjamin Disraeli, who had
succeeded Gladstone, served as Prime Minister under Queen Victoria.
1875(4th of Nisan, 5635):
Sixty-seven-year-old Judith Luchs, the Laupheim born “daughter of Anselm
Anschel (Ascher) Rosenthal and Clara Klara Gietel (Gidel) Rosenthal, the wife
of Seligmann Pinchas Luchs and mother of Mina Bissinger; Sophie Bach; Anselm
Ascher Luchs; Samuel Salomon Luchs; Isak Luchs; Maier Loeb Luchs; Leopold
Luchs; Moritz Moses Luchs; Marx Max Luchs; Hirsch Luchs; NN Luchs; Isaak Luchs;
Pauline Bissinger; Lazarus Luchs; Gertraut Luchs; Klara Gitel Goldman and
Joseph Luchs” passed away today in Buttenwiesen, Germany
1876(15th of Nisan, 5636): First Day of Pesach
1876: According to a report published in the
Salt Lake Tribune, the forty Jewish families of Utah’s largest city celebrated
Pesach
1877(26th of Nisan, 5637): Henry Grass, a New
York clothier passed away today. He is survived by his wife Rebecca, six
children, his brothers Abraham and Jacob and their daughters.
1877(26th of Nisan): Rabbi Jacob Simchah of
Kempna, author of “Sha’arei Simchah” passed away
1878: In Pinsk, “Moses and Lifsha (Rosenkranz)
Chermerinsky gave birth to Jewish Teachers Institute of Vilna graduate and
Zionist Isaiah M. Chemerinsky, the “founder and principal of the Jewish High
School in Kiev” and Hebraist who in 1922 settled in the United States where he
became the Executive Director of the Jewish National Fund Educational Council
and joined several Zionist organizations including “Histadruth Ivrith.”
1879(16th of Nisan, 5639): Second
Day of Pesach
1879(16th of Nisan, 5639): Sixty-one-year-old
Viennese poet Karl Isidor Beck passed away.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Beck_Karl_Isidor
1881: In Hessen, Germany, Jakob and Ida
Edelchen Baruch gave birth to Siegfried Baruch.
1882: Three days after she had passed away, the
former Emily Esther, the wife of painter Phoebus Levin and the mother of
Victoria Levin was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1882: Two days after she had passed away, 56-year-old
Miriam (Nathan) Benjamin, the daughter of Nathan and Sarah Nathan and wife of
Solomon Benjamin with whom she had had fifteen children was buried today in the
Willesden Jewish Cemetery in London.
1883: Businessman Nathan Barnet who helped to
found the Miriam Barnert Hebrew Free School and the Barnert Memorial Hospital
and the Barnert Memorial Temple was elected Mayor of Paterson New Jersey.
1884(14th of Nisan, 5644): Fast of the First
Born
1884(14th of Nisan, 5644): “The Festival Of
Pesach” published in the New York Times today states reported to that
“the Jewish festival of Pesach, or the Passover will begin at sunset this
evening and continue for seven days…It is also known as the Feast of Matzoth on
account of the eating of the matzoth or cakes of unleavened bread during its
continuance.”
1884: In Budapest, Leopold Lipot Friediger and
Betti Bertha Friediger gave birth to Rabbi Max Moses Friediger, the husband of
Fanny Friediger and father of Charlotte "Lotte" Jacoby and Arthur
Friediger who while serving as Chief Rabbi of Denmark was shipped to
Theresienstadt by the Nazis.
https://gravsted.dk/person.php?navn=maxfriediger
https://lib.lsu.edu/sites/default/files/sc/findaid/3425.pdf
1887(15th of Nisan, 5647): Pesach
1887(15th of Nisan, 5647): Dr. Gustav Gottheil
preached a sermon at New York’s Temple Emanu-el.
http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/al-lichtman/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0509077/
1888: Birthdate of Ukrainian native Solomon
Gurkov who gained fame as Sol Hurok, the impresario who learned the meaning of
anti-Semitism at an early age. When he was 18, Hurok's father gave him
one thousand rubles to go to Kiev. Hurok took the money but went to
Philadelphia instead. Once in the States, Hurok began a career as an
impresario promoting everything from violinists, to opera, to Anna
Pavlova, to an Israel-Yemenite Singing and Dancing Troup that preserved the
Jewish-Yemenite Heritage. He passed away in 1974. Ironically, one of
the first performers whom Hurok promoted was the violinist Efrem Zimablist who
was also born on April 9 in another part of the Russian Empire.
1889: Birthdate of Efrem Zimbalist in
Rostov-on-Don Russia. Zimbalist studied with his father who was conductor
of note before coming to the United States in 1914. He made his
major musical debut in 1922. He was one of a long list Jewish violinist
to populate the musical cosmos in the last two centuries. He passed
away in 1985.
https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/23/arts/efrem-zimbalist-violinist-dies-at-94.html?pagewanted=print
1890: The will of the late Louis Lippman was
filed for probate today.
1890: An inquest was convened to determine the
culpability of Abraham Marks in the death of Henry Heppner. Marks claimed
he shot Heppner when he was trying to break into his tailor’s shop through a
rear window.
1890 Dr. Gustav Gottheil, “the rabbi of Temple
Emanuel” delivered a lecture today on “The Christian Mission to the Jews; or
Who Needs Conversion” in which he declared himself forcibly against the
missionary work among the Jews which is being carried on by the Christian
Churches.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/04/10/109698008.pdf
1890: In Elmwood, OH, “Alexander Tedesche and
Jeanette (Jennie) Greenfield gave birth Hebrew Union College graduate and St.
John’s University trained attorney, Sidney Saul Tedesche, the holder of Ph.D.
from Yale who served as a rabbi at Brith Sholom in Springfield, Beth El in
Providence, Bethel El in San Antonio, Mishkan Israel in New Haven and Union
Temple in Brooklyn while raising two daughters – Carol and Jeanne – with his
wife “the former Irma Goldman.”
https://www.geni.com/people/Sidney-Tedesche/6000000002717858029
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/19/140578272.pdf
1891: Adolph Saphir, who had been born into a
Hungarian Jewish family in 1831 and converted in 1843 after which he “served as
“Missionary to the Jews” passed away today.
1892(12th of Nisan, 5652): Shabbat
HaGadol
1892: “Three City Hospitals” published today
described the efforts of New York City to provide treatment for those suffering
from contagious diseases including the construction of a new pavilion at
Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island for the benefit of Jewish immigrants
from Russia who are suffering from typhus.
1893: On the day after Passover, Rabbi. Gustav
G. Gottheil delivered a lecture entitled "The Christian Mission to the
Jews; or, Who Needs Conversion!" at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1893: It was reported today that the
anti-Semites in Vienna claim that the man who attacked Karl Lueger with a knife
was an agent of the Israelite Alliance.
1893: In New York City, Rebecca Rachel Blanc
and Joseph Fineman gave birth MIT and Harvard trained civil engineer Irving
Fineman and husband of author Helene Hughes who served in the U.S. Navy during
WW I after which he became a successful novelist.
https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/f/fineman_i.htm
1893: Four days after she had passed away, 61
year old Marianne (Goldshede) Abrahams, the daughter of Barnado and Annette
Goldshede and the wife of Samuel Benjamin Abrahams with whom she had had seven
children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery” today.
1893: Birthdate of Victor Gollancz, the son of
a London wholesale jeweler, “nephew of Rabbi Professor Sir Hermann Gollancz and
Professor Sir Israel Gollancz and grandson of Rabbi Samuel Marcus Gollancz” the
British author and publisher who was one of the first to issue warnings about
the impending mass murder of Jews by the Nazis.
http://web.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/ead/318.htm
1894(1st of Nisan, 5654): Shabbat
HaChodesh; Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1894: Birthdate of Lithuanian native and student
of rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva Yosef Lewib Bloch, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Katz, the
husband of Perel Leah Bloch, Chaya Kravitz who was murdered during the
Holocaust and Esther Mindle Mandel whom he married in 1946 and who founded the
Telz Yeshiva in Cleveland, OH after escaping the Nazis and the Soviets.
1894: Birthdate of Charlottenburg native, University of Berlin
graduate and WW I veteran of the German Army Alfred Theodor Brauer, the refugee
from Nazi Germany and University of North Carolina professor who “did work in
number theory” and who “was the brother of the mathematician Richard Brauer,
the founder of modular representation theory.”
1895: “Russian Anti-Jew Edict Enforced”
published today described the lasts step in the Czar’s anti-Semitic policy in
which the government has “instructed local military officials…to enforce most
strictly the ant-Jew edict of 1893” that “excluded Jews from the health resorts
in the Caucasus.”
1895(15th of Nisan, 5655): Pesach
1895: Birthdate of Meyer Loshie Casman, the
native of Russia who “attended University of PA, University of Michigan, and
the US Military Academy at West Point” and which he served as “a lawyer, army
engineer and prosecutor during the Nuremberg Trials.”
1895: Dr. Solomon H. Sonnenschein who is the
rabbi at Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis will deliver a Passover Sermon
entitled “The Root and Fruit of Freedom” in German at the Fifteen Street Temple
in New York City. (Sermons in German were still the norm in many Reform
congregations and the switch to English caused a schism in many
congregations. So much for equating Reform with being accepting of
change)
1895: In Hungary, Joseph Lichtman and Pepe (aka
Josephine) Zuckermandel gave birth to Alexander "Al" Lichtman a
pioneering cinema businessman and movie producer whose most famous work may
have been “The Young Lions.”
1898(17th of Nisan, 5658): Shabbat
Shel Pesach observed on the same day that Spain agreed to an armistice which
stop the fighting in Cuba but would only allow the Cuba to have limited
self-rule which was unacceptable to members of the United States Congress who were
leading their country down a path to what would become the Spanish-American
War.
1899: Twenty-two-year-old NYU trained attorney,
Abram Morgan Frumberg the Towanda, PA born of Simon and Rachaell Frumburg and
Democratic political activist who was a member of B’nai B’rith and Temple
Israel married Lillian Nebenzahl today in New York City.
1899: In Gainesville, TX, Nathan and Eva Baum
Lapowski gave birth to WW I Marine Corps veteran Errold Baum Lapowski, the
husband of Enid, OK native Eleanor Klein Lapowski, the President of the
National Council of Jewish Women and father of Emily and Jean Lapowski.
1900: Tonight, during a memorial service for
Dr. Isaac M. Wise, “Dr. Emil G. Hirsch made an appeal to the Jewish people to
raise $500,000 which is the amount yet required to lift the debt on Hebrew
Union College in Cincinnati which was an institution founded by the first
leader of Reform Judaism in the United States.
1901: Today, Mayor Low said that he was
sympathetic to the bill before the NY State Senate that authorizes the city to
aid the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society but he also said that it was
unnecessary because “section 230 of the charter gives the Board of Estimate
full power in the premises.
1902: In Philadelphia, Louis Bloch, the son Eva
Loewenstein and Isaac Bloch and the director of “various building and loan
associations” as well as a member of the board of directors of Adath Jeshurun
married Jeanette Brylawski today.
1902: Herzl wrote to Lord Rothschild in London
asking for a meeting in the British capital.
1903(12th of Nisan, 5663): Ta’anit
Bechorot
1903: Birthdate of Dr. Gregory Pincus.
Born in New Jersey, Dr. Pincus' parents where Jewish immigrants from
Russia. Dr. Pincus' father was an agronomist who hoped to train Russian
Jews to become farmers in the United States. A graduate of Cornell with a Ph.D.
from Harvard, Dr. Pincus is known as the "Father of the Pill."
Dr. Pincus and Dr. Chiang developed the first birth control pill; a discovery
that altered American and the world's sexual behavior forever. Pincus
continued his work until his untimely death in 1967.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0409.html
1904(24th of Nisan, 5664): Parashat
Shmini
1904: In “Paschal Lamb Forbidden” published
today the author takes issue with a statement by the New York Times saying that
the family feasted on the Paschal Lamb during the seder since the lamb has not
been sacrificed for 1,834 years” and that Jews “were forbidden to eat the lamb”
while “wine, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs are the really important
ceremonial features” of the Seder.
1905: Birthdate of J. William Fulbright,
former Senator from Arkansas. Fulbright gained fame as Chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Fulbright denied being pro-Arab or
anti-Israel. However, after he left the Senate, he became a highly paid
lobbyist for the Arab oil states.
1906(14th of Nisan, 5666): Fast of
the First Born – Erev Pesach
1906(14th of Nisan, 5666): Morris
Goldstein passed away.
1906: Austrian native Nettie Kinsbruner, the
daughter of Shmuel Meyer Stettner and Rachel Stettner and her husband David
(Aubie) Kinsbruner gave birth to Minna Katz, the older sister of American
college basketball star Mac Kinsbrunner.
1906: Louis J. Goldman was elected President of
the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1906: “When Gold Boils” published reported
today that Professor “Henri Moissan has been trying some interesting
experiments in vaporizing gold in the electric furnace.” A French born
Jew, Moissan won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1906.
1906(14th of Nisan, 5666): Mrs. Sarah Orenstein
and two of her children were almost asphyxiated this evening. While
cleaning her house in preparation for Pesach, Mrs. Orsenstein apparently failed
to replace a piece of tubing that she had taken from the stove causing a gas
leak. Fortunately, her husband figured out what had happened and called
an ambulance before the family was overcome by the fumes.
1906(14th of Nisan, 5666): Today in a Harlem
Police Court the needs of two religions clashed and the Jews lost twice.
The magistrate fined eight Orthodox Jews who had worked on done construction
work on new building yesterday. They were fined because they worked on
the Christian Sabbath even though they explained to the Judge that they had
only been working on Sunday so they could finish the job before the
Passover. The same magistrate fined Michael Garlick for killing chickens
yesterday, Sunday, which was the Christian Sabbath. In his defense
Garlick said that his boss had told him that the Deputy Police Commissioner
said it would be alright to slaughter the chickens on a Sunday because of the
approaching Passover holiday. The magistrate did not dispute the fact
that the Commissioner had made the statement. He said Garlick was guilty
because the Commissioner did nave “the right to interpret the law.”
1907: In St. Petersburg, “the attention of the
government has been called to the fact that thousands of Jewish families in the
southern provinces of Russia are selling their homes and departing in fear of
wholesale anti-Jewish attacks.”
1908: Birthdate of Jersey City, NJ native and
NYU alum Joseph Krumgold , the successful scriptwriter and winner of two
Newberry Medals who was the husband of “the former Helen Litwin” and husband of
Adam Krumgold.
1908: Hundreds of poor Jews received free
tickets at the offices of the United Hebrew Communities Charity which can be
exchanged for Matzoth, meat and other groceries. Most of the recipients are
women, many of whom who have brought their young children with them. The
distribution is an annual event intended to make it possible for even the
poorest Jew to be able to celebrate Passover. Tickets will be distributed
as long as funds are available to fund the purchase of the necessary food
items.
1909: Birthdate of Galicia native Jack Diamond,
the founder of “British Columbia’s largest meat packing firm – Pacific Meats,”
the Chancellor of Simon Fraser University and husband of Sadie Mandelbuam with
whom he had two son – Charles and Gordon.
1909(18th of Nisan, 5669): Fourth
Day of Pesach
1909(18th of Nisan, 5669): “Albert
Schoengold, Jewish actor from New York dropped dead on the stage of an east
side music hall” in Buffalo tonight after which he was buried at the Washington
Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY.
1910: Birthdate of Yosef Shalom “a Haredi rabbi
and posek who lives in Jerusalem, Israel.”
1910: Birthdate of Abraham A. Ribbicoff.
Born in New Britain, Connecticut, to Jewish immigrant parents from Poland,
Ribbicoff attended New York University and was awarded a law degree cum
laude from the University of Chicago in 1933. Starting in 1938, Ribbicoff
worked his way up the Connecticut political ladder. During the late
1950's was a popular two-term governor who became an early supporter of John F.
Kennedy. Ribbicoff served two years as Secretary of H.E.W. before
resigning to begin a two-decade long career in the U.S. Senate.
Ribbicoff was a champion of civil rights, Medicare and the American
workers. He passed away in 1998. Today we take the involvement of
Jews at all levels of the political process for granted. Such was not the
case when Ribbicoff began his career. An observant Jew, Ribbicoff was a
trail-blazer for the dozens of Jewish Representatives and Senators
who are in Washington today.
1911: Reverend Madison C. Peters, the Pastor
Bloomingdale Church, gave a lecture today at Temple Beth El on Haym Salomon,
“the financier of the American Revolution.” During his talk, Rev Peters
stated that “Haym Solomon…did for the Nation’s credit what Washington did on
the field for freedom.”
1912(22nd of Nisan, 5672): Eighth
Day of Pesach
1912(22nd of Nisan, 5672): Rabbi
Abraham E. Dunya passed away in Racine, WI.
1912: In New York City, Francis Nathan Wolff
and Joseph F. Cullman, Jr. gave birth to Joseph Frederick Cullman III, the
businessman who turned Philip Morris into a “tobacco powerhouse.”
https://www.nndb.com/people/509/000045374/
1912(22nd of Nisan, 5672): Sixty-four-year-old
Andrew Saks, the Baltimore born son of Helena and William Saks the President
and co-founder of Saks and Company best known for Saks 5th Avenue
and the husband of the former Jennie Rohr with whom he raised three children –
Horace ,William and Leila – passed away today.
https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/andrew-saks-dead-at-65.html
1912: Birthdate of Lew Kopelew, Russian author
and political dissident. Like many of his generation, Kopelew career was
a checkered one with his acceptance or rejection depending upon the prevailing
political winds. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Kopelew survived the
Soviet Union, dying peacefully in 1997.
1913(2nd of Nisan, 5673):
Sixty-five-year-old New York banker Leo Speyer, the husband of Sara Speyer, who
bought the house on 17 E. 82nd Street in 1898 passed away today.
1913: In Chicago, Adah Stern married Walter J.
Greenbaum at the Blackstone Hotel.
1913: Sixty-seven-year-old German
“philanthropist and art collector Henriette Hertz who converted to Christianity
in 1871 and “is now known mainly through her establishment of the Bibliotheca
Hertziana” passed away today in Rome.
1914: In “America Sung in Synagogues” published
today, Rabbi Edward M. Chapman, Ph.D. took issue with the statement that
“America” will be sung for the first time at Pesach eve services on April 10
since “America” has always been sung in his congregations “on national holidays
when services are held as well as on some of our own holidays.
1915: Rabbi Felix A. Levy led services this
evening at Temple Emanuel at Broadway and Buckingham Place.
1915: Rabbi A.R. Levy led services this evening
at Congregation B’nai Jehoshua in Chicago.
1916(6th of Nisan, 5676): Second Lt
Benjamin James Polack of the 9 Worcestershire was killed today during WW I
while serving for King and Country.
1916: Birthdate of Elliot Handler, who
co-founded the Mattel toy company.
1916: A mass meeting was held this afternoon at
the London Casino in the Bronx to protest against the Burnett Immigration Bill
which Justice Peter Sheil described as “class legislation” that “was aimed
primarily against the Jews” since “a large percentage of the immigration for
the past several years” has been made of Jews.
1916: Among the donations listed today by the
Special Million Dollar Fund of the American Jewish Relief Committee $25 from
the Mobile, Alabama council of Jewish Women, $50 from Goldstein and Kirshner
Co. of which Israel Kirshner was President and $1,000 from the Harriman
National Bank in New York City.
1916: Among the donations listed today the
Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War were $12
from the Ladies Aid Society of Spring Valley, $100 from the Provisional Zionist
Committee and $218 from the Rock Island, Illinois Committee for the Relief of
Jews Suffering Through the War.
1917: Three days after the United States
entered WW I, Samuel Untermyer, the head of The Jewish League of American
Patriots is scheduled to go to Washington to “confer with Secretary of War
Baker on plans to enroll and drill the young Jews of New York
1917: At a meeting of the leaders of most the
major Jewish organizations which had been called for by Samuel A. Goldsmith,
the Executive Secretary of the Army and Navy Department of the Council of the
Y.M.H.A. held today at the Astor Hotel it was decided that “all religious
welfare work growing out of the participation of Jews in the war will be under
the direction of a central board” with nine members
1917: During World War I, “Mark Sykes wrote to
Lord Balfour that ‘The situation now is therefore that Zionist aspirations are
recognized as legitimate by the French.’” Sykes was one of the leading British
diplomats in the Middle East. This correspondence with Lord Balfour was
part of the jockeying for Jewish support during World War I and possession of
parts of the Ottoman Empire after the war ended.
1917: It was reported today that Herbert S.
Goldstein who resigned as Associate Rabbi of the Congregation
Kehailath-Jeshurun so he could “dedicate his to a popular Jewish revival
movement in New York City” will be leasing a house where he will be holding
daily services and “a theatre for Sunday morning lectures.”
1918: Based on previously published reports
Samuel R. Travis is leading a drive supported by “200 prominent orthodox Jews”
to gain “additional members for the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.
1919: According to a cablegram made public
tonight by “the Palestine Anti-Zionism Society” “the latest census in Palestine
places Jews at less than 7 per cent of the population and shows that only one”
out of every thousand “possesses land.”
1920(21st of Nisan, 5680): Seventh
day of Pesach
1920: “The Man in the Fog,” a silent film directed by Mutz Greenbaum and produced by Jules Greenbaum was released today
in Germany.
1920(21st of Nisan, 5680):
Seventy-year-old Isaias Wolf Hellman the native of Bavaria who came to the
United States in 1859 where he became such a success as a banker and
philanthropist that he became one of the founders of the University of Southern
California passed away today.
http://www.jmaw.org/isaias-w-hellman-pioneer-investment-banker-part-2-san-francisco/
1920: In Vienna, university students delivered
a resolution “to the rector demanding that in the future Jews not be appointed
teachers, clerks or even servants; that academic distinctions not be conferred
on Jewish professors;” and that the number of Jewish students must be limited
so that it corresponds to their percentage in the general population. (Yes, 18 years before the Anschluss
ant-Semitism was alive and well in Austria.)
1920: Anti-Jewish mass meetings were held in
Vienna to commemorate “the 10th anniversary of the death of Karl
Lueger, the former Jew-baiting burgomaster.”
1921(1st of Nisan, 5681): Parashat
Tzaria; Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1921(1st of Nisan, 5681):
Seventy-two-year-old Italian political leader and the first Jewish Mayor of
Rome Ernesto Nathan, the London born of Sara Levi and Mayer Moses Nathan passed
away today in Rome.
1921: Birthdate of Polish native, Yeshiva
University graduate and Orthodox congregational rabbi Elihu Menashe Blachowitz
who gained fame as the chairman of the billion‐dollar United Brands
Company, which has vast interests in bananas and meatpacking and other
enterprises, Eli M. Black, the husband of Shirley Lubell, the father of Judy
and Leon Black and the in-law of Benedict I. Lubell and Grace Borgenicht
Brandt.
1921: Birthdate of George David Weiss the New
York native who “was an American songwriter and former President of the
Songwriters Guild of America.”
1921: In Jerusalem, Yosef and Myriam Navon,
descendants of distinguished Sephardi families who had been living in the city
since the 17th century gave birth to Yitzhak Rachamim Navon the
fifth President of Israel.
1921: Birthdate of Eugen Merzbacher, the Berlin
born American physicist.
http://www.aip.org/history/acap/biographies/bio.jsp?merzbachere
1922: In Brooklyn, Samuel and Shirley Mandel
gave birth to Doctor Irwin D. Mandel, an expert on Dental Chemistry.
1922: In Prague, Marie Grabenstein Epstein and
Dr. Moritz Epstein gave birth to Jindrich Epstein.
1922: Birthdate of Eleanor Chana Gordon — known
as Chana – who as Chana Mlotek became the
“music archivist at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and a columnist for the
Forward
http://yivo.org/about/index.php?tid=154&aid=1225
1923: A committee which had been formed in
response to the growing number of Jews, especially those from eastern Europe,
to “examine the principles and methods for more effectively sifting candidates
for admission” delivered its reported today which on the surface looked like a
victory for admission by merit but contained to “two key recommendations” –
raise the proportion of students from the interior of the United States and
limit the number of tram students – which would lead to a decline of Jewish students
to ten percent which was much more to the liking of President Lowell.
1923: It was reported today that Professor
Fodor of Halle University, who is a prominent chemist, will organize the
bio-chemical department at the new Hebrew University in Jerusalem and that that
“the American Jewish Physicians Committee has already raised a fund of $250,000
for the” establishment of the medical department.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/04/09/105990860.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1923: Birthdate of Toronto native Leonard
Williams Levy who won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1969 for Origins of
the Fifth Amendment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/obituaries/01levy.html
1924: Thirteen volumes purchased by Cotton
Mather from Harvard College in 1682, including Josephus’s History of the Jews,
were returned to the college today by the American Antiquarian Society.
1925(15th of Nisan, 5685): Pesach
1925: Birthdate of Winnipeg native Esther Ghan
Cohen who gained fame as Esther Ghan Firestone, the soprano and choral
conductor who served as Canada’s first female cantor.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/esther-ghan-emc/
1925: Rabbi Israel Goldstein, the President of
the Young People’s League of the United States of America, is scheduled to
deliver a sermon today on “A Plea for Poise” at Temple B’nai Jeshurun in
Manhattan.
1925: Based on a previous announcement by the
Palestine Foundation Fund, many rabbis are expected to deliver sermons “on the
significance of the Hebrew University which was dedicated in Palestine last
week.”
1925: The directors of the Southern Pacific
announced today that Julius Kruttshnitt would retire on May 31 as Chairman of
the railroad’s executive committee after 48 years of service to the
organization.
1925: “In Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg), in the
Ural Mountains” pediatric surgeon Iosif Neizvestny and “the former Bella
Dizhur, a biochemist, poet and children’s book author” gave birth to sculptor Ernst
Iosifovich Neizvestny
1926, The Rosenblums, a professional basketball
team “organized and owned by Cleveland department store owner Max Rosenblum, “won
the ABL's first championship by defeating the Brooklyn Arcadians by a score of
23–22 in the final game of the league's first championship series played at
Brooklyn's 71st Infantry Regiment Armory
1926: In Vilna, Max and Sonia Silverstein gave
birth to “Mike Silverstein, a founder of Nina Footwear, a women’s shoe company
that grew from a SoHo loft to an international concern selling around 10
million pairs of shoes a year.”
1926: It was reported today that “budgetary
allotments totaling $4,436,171.59 have been approved for 1926 by the Federation
for the Support of Jewish Charities under the chairmanship of Felix M. Warburg.
1927: Alfred Williams Anthony, Sidney L. Gulick
and John W. Herring who have been working with the Federal council of Churches
of Christ in America “sent a cablegram to John R. Mott, the General Secretary
of the International Young Men’s Christian Association” which is meeting in
Budapest expressing the “hope that you will recommend that the congress issue a
call to the Christians everywhere to purge the world of the curse of
anti-Semitism and to accord to the Jews that highly respected place in the brotherhood
of peoples which they rich deserve on the base of their sacred literature and
history and which is their inalienable right.”
1927: “Sacco and Vanzetti's final appeal was
rejected, and the two were sentenced to death. Felix Frankfurter, then a
professor at Harvard Law School, was considered to be the most prominent and
respectable critic of the trial. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by
Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939.” (The Atlantic)
1928(19th of Nisan, 5688): Fifth Day of Pesach
1928(19th of Nisan, 5688):
Ninety-three-year-old, Isaac Seligman the German born American banker who
became head of “Seligman Brothers, the London branch of the Seligman
merchant-banking empire” which led to his being a leading member of the Anglo-Jewish
community passed away today in London.
1928: In Manhattan, Anna Waller and Morris
James Leher, self-described secular Jews gave birth to Harvard educated singer-song
writer Thomas Andrew Lehrer who gained fame as side-splitting, clever satirist
Tom Leher.
1929: In Brooklyn, “Samuel Lichtenstein, an
immigrant from Poland, and Jennie Waldarsky, an immigrant from Ukraine” gave
birth to Harvey Lichtenstein, long-time President of the Brooklyn Academy of
Music.
1929: Betty and Walter Bridgland were married
at a synagogue in Adelaide, Australia
1930: In Brookline, MA, “The Temple Chabei
Shalom Congregation is scheduled to observe the tenth anniversary of its rabbi,
Samuel J. Abrams with an affair hosted by the Brotherhood and Sisterhood.
1930: Birthdate of Nathan Blumenthal, the
native of Ontario who gained fame as psychotherapist Nathan Branden, “the
romantic partner of Ayn Rand.”
1931(22nd of Nisan, 5691): Eighth
Day of Pesch
1931: “Results of experiments showing that
softening of the brain is due to a deficiency in the diet of some hitherto
undiscovered was presented” in Montreal today, by Professor A.M. Pappenheimer
of Columbia” and one on his associates from the Storrs Experimental Station at
“the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental
Biology.
1932: Birthdate of Jerzy Feliks Urman, the
native of the “East Galician town of Stanislow” under Polish rule who ended his
own life by taking cyanide at the age of 11 during the Holocaust.
http://thediaryjunction.blogspot.com/2016/05/jerzyks-tragic-story.html
1932: Birthdate of the multi-talented Paul
Krassner
1933: As negotiations for a Concordat between
Hitler and the Vatican began Ludwig Kass met with Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the
future pope.
1934: Israel B. Brodie announced that “more
than a score of industrial nations will be represented at the third biennial
Levant Fair to be held in Palestine.” Participating countries include
Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Czechoslovakia.
1935: Birthdate of comedian Avery Schreiber
1935: In an interview at the Hotel Commodore,
“Norman Bentwich, a close associate of James McDonald in the work of the League
of Nations for Refugees, a former Attorney General of Palestine and a Professor
of International Law at Hebrew University agreed that Palestine was the
‘pivotal center’ for Jewish refugee settlement” but that the “greatest urgency”
is the need to establish a fund to the 4,000 non-Jewish refugees in France,
Czechoslovakia and other countries.”
1935: Americans took two first place finishes
in the swimming events at the 2nd Maccabiah. George Sheinberg
won the 100-meter back-stroke and Janice Lifson won the 100-meter free style
competition.
1936(17th of Nisan, 5696): Third Day
of Pesach
1936: Based on a survey conducted by economist
Jacob Lestschinsky the total world Jewish population is 16,240,000 “of whom
5,000,000 or 30 per cent live in the Americas” of which 4,450,000 live in the
United States.
1936: “The official Nazi organ, the Angriff announced today” that Germany is to have ‘pure Easter eggs’”
because the 7,000 Jews who “composed 24 per cent of the industry” have been
eliminated “from the egg trade.”
1937: “Striptease Held Indecent by Court”
published today described the legal outcome of a raid on Minsky’s Burlesque,
precipitated in part, by the performance of Roxana Sand. Sand was born
Golda Glickman and for five weeks in 1934 she had been the wife of the Jewish
boxer King Levinsky.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that
over 10 million boxes of citrus were shipped out from Palestine from the
beginning of the citrus season 8,951,597 boxes of oranges and 1,218,896 of
grapefruit.
1937: “The Girl From Scotland Yard,” with a
screenplay by co-authored by Dore Schary and produced by Emanuel Cohen was
released today in the United States.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that
after Poland inaugurated a thrice-weekly air service to Palestine, the Italian
airline Ala Littoria started a regular weekly hydroplane service to Haifa.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that
the largest-ever single pilgrimage from England since 1888 including 1,050
English and Welsh tourists arrived in Haifa aboard the S.S. Duchess of
Richmond. The pilgrims proceeded to Jerusalem by two special trains, 70 cars
and 15 buses, accompanied by 70 guides. They took over, for three days, all
available Jerusalem hostels and hotels.
1937: “Elephant Boy” a Kiplingesque film
directed by Zoltan Korda and produced by Alexander Korda was released in the
United Kingdom today.
1938: “Arturo Toscanini, who came to Palestine
to conduct a series of concerts with the Palestine Orchestra, arrived in Haifa
by plane this afternoon accompanied by his wife.” Among those greeting
Toscanini was H.W. Steinberg, the conductor who has been rehearsing the
orchestra and who will leave Palestine to become conductor of the N.B.C.
Symphony Orchestra which Toscanini had been conducting.
1939: Illinois Democrat J. Hamilton “Ham” Lewis
who as a Congressman had supported a “proviso in the Balfour Declaration that
Jews going to Palestine to live could retain their original citizenship instead
of automatically becoming British subjects” and who as U.S. Senator led “a
protest against the possible transfer of American Jews from their present homes
in Palestine to other parts of the country” passed away today.
1940(1st of Nisan, 5700): Rosh
Chodesh Nisan
1940: “Denmark and Norway were invaded by Nazi
Germany. Realizing that successful armed resistance was impossible and wishing
to avoid civilian casualties, the Danish government surrendered after a few
token skirmishes on the morning of the invasion.”
1940: As the Germans invade Norway, Sigrid
Helliesen Lund burnt the entire list of Czech Jews who had taken refuge in the
country.
1940: The Danish cabinet decided “to accept
cooperation with German authorities” today leading to the Danish police
cooperating with the German occupation forces.
1940: As a result of Operation Weserübung,
Germans take control of Denmark. Three years later, the Danes will save
their Jewish population from extermination by the Nazis in one of the most
famous and daring rescue operations of the war.
1941: “The Ghetto in Częstochowa was set up”
today.
1941: In one of the steps that would lead to
the destruction of the Jewish community in Thessaloniki, the Germans occupied
Central Macedonia and entered Thessaloniki today.
1942(22nd of Nisan, 5702): 8th
Day of Pesach
1942(22nd of Nisan, 5702):
Seventy-two-year-old Harvard trained, attorney Edwin S. Mack, the Cincinnati
born son of Herman and Jennie (Wolf) Mack, the member of the University of
Wisconsin Law School faculty and husband of the former Della Adler with whom he
had three daughters – Theresa, Elizabeth and Jean." passed away today
after which he was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Milwaukee, WI.
1942: When the outnumbered U.S. and Filipino
forces surrendered at Bataan today, Sergeant Louis Sachwald was among those who
escaped capture as he was moved to Corregidor. Eventually he would be taken
prisoner and would survive the infamous Bataan Death March and years of
Japanese imprisonment.
1943(4th of Nisan, 5703):
Sixty-four-year-old Philadelphia born pediatrician Harry Lowenburg, Sr. the
medical director of the Northeastern Hebrew Orphans Home passed away today.
1943(4th of Nisan, 5703): Sixty-two-year-old
Dutch mathematician Emmanuel Lodewijk Elte, the Amsterdam born son of Hartog
Elte, and the husband of Rebecca Stork who “is noted for discovering and
classifying semiregular polytopes in dimensions four and higher” was murdered
today at Sobibor while his two children were murdered at Auschwitz.
1943: “Cabin in the Sky” the movie version of
the 1940 Broadway musical, produced by Arthur Freed and Albert Lewis was
released today in the United States.
1943: Forty-nine-year-old Anna Skobisova was
transported from Prague to Terezin today on what would be next to the last stop
before being murdered at Auschwitz.
1944: “The military authorities, with
headquarters at Munkacs, began the rounding up of 320,000 Jews into Ghettoes
within the operational area. In order to prevent any armed resistance by the
Jews, they were concentrated in brick factories (as at Kassa, Ungvar,
Kolozsvar) or under the open skies (as at Nagybanyam, Marosvasarchely, and
Des).”
1944: Today, twenty-year-old Lily Elbert, who
lived to be 100, and her family arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau” after which her
mother, younger sister and brother were murdered in the gas chambers.
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/auschwitz-survivor-who-shared-her-testimony-with-millions-dies-at-100/
1944: The 490 Bombardment Group whose members
included bombardier Howard, the American historian and college professor, left
its training base today.
1945: Forty-eight-year-old “German jurist” Karl
Sack who took part in the July 20 plot to kill Hitler was executed in
Flossenbürg concentration
1945: Formation of the United States Atomic
Energy Commission. Two of the first three Chairman of the Commission are
Jewish. President Truman appointed David Lilienthal and President
Eisenhower appointed Lewis Strauss. Neither of them were atomic scientists.
1945: The Battle of Konigsberg, the last
Russian offensive of WW II during which Asael Bielski one of the famous Belski
partisans had been killed, came to an end today.
1945: Fifty-eight-year-old Admiral Wilhelm
Franz Canaris, the head of the Abwehr “was executed in Flossenbürg concentration
camp for high treason
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/wilhelm-canaris
1946: Eleven hundred Jewish refugees who had
been sailing from Spezia to Palestine and who were now being detained in Italy
went on a hunger. The leaders of the Jewish agency them not continue the
fast for their own safety. They promised the refugees that the Jews of
Eretz-Israel would fast in their place until they were allowed to continue to
the Jewish homeland.
1946: “The Dark Corne black-and-white film
noir” based on a story by Leo Rosten with music by Emil Newman was released
today in the United States.
1947(19th of Nisan, 5707): Fifth Day
of Pesach
1947(19th of Nisan, 5707): On his 63rd
birthday Budapest born Rabbi Max Moses
Friediger, the husband of Fanny Friediger and father of Charlotte
"Lotte" Jacoby and Arthur Friediger who while serving as Chief Rabbi
of Denmark was shipped to Theresienstadt by the Nazis passed away today
1947: In a criminal libel suit brought against
L.M. Birkehad, “national director of the Friends of Democracy”
sixty-six-year-old Lambert Fairchild a former NYC Alderman defended himself
against claims that he was an anti-Semite, testifying under oath “that he had
been elected alderman in 1934 in a predominately Jewish district and that he
was associated with Jews in the American Legion.”
1948: The presiding of judge at the Nuremberg
Military Tribunal announced the sentence on Eduard Strauch who was a commander
of a unit of the Einsatzgruppen liquidated 55,000 Jews in a ten-week period
during 1943, as death by hanging – a sentenced he avoided due to other trials
which enable to die in a hospital in Belgium in 1955.
1948: In what “was the first major Irgun attack
against the Arabs, today, “The Irgun decided to attack Deir Yassin while the
Haganah was still engaged in the battle for Kastel.
https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-capture-of-deir-yassin
1948(29th of Adar II, 5708): During the
fighting that preceded the actual creation of the state of Israel, the Jewish
defenders of Kastel had exhausted their supplies and were forced to
withdraw. Kastel was a village that dominated the eastern end of the Tel
Aviv – Jerusalem highway. The Haganah had taken at the start of Operation
Nachshon, and the Arabs were determined to retake the village. The last
order given to the Jewish soldiers “by their platoon commander Shimon Alfasi,
‘All privates will retreat – all commanders will cover their withdrawal.’
Alfasi was killed in the battle, covering the retreat. His order became a
watchword during many future actions. Abdel Kader, the commander of the
Arab forces was killed in the closing moments of the battle. Without his
leadership the Arabs gave up the village a couple of days later. The Jewish
forces who were preparing to re-take the village were surprised to find that
the village was there without any further loss of life.
1948: During the battle for Mishmar HaEmek,
Israeli forces captured and destroyed Ghubayya al-Tahta
1949(10th of Nisan, 5709): Parashat
Tzav, Shabbat HaGadol
1949: U.S. premiere of “Champion,” directed by
Mark Robson, produced by Stanley Kramer, starring Kirk Douglas with a
screenplay by Carl Foreman and music by Dimitri Tomkin.
1949: “They Knew What They Wanted” for which
Bernard Simon served as Press Representative was performed for the last time on
Broadway at the Music Box Theatre which had been in the 1920’s by Sam H. Harris
and Irving Berline.
1950(22nd of Nisan, 5710): Eighth
Day of Pesach
1950(22nd of Nisan, 5710):
Seventy-one-year-old Russian born Dr. Tua Shargorowska “one of the originators
of the Hebrew shorthand system who in 1928 came to Palestine she was the author
of “many Hebrew textbooks” passed away today in Tel Aviv.
1950(22nd of Nisan, 5710):
Sixty-seven-year-old Warsaw born pianist Bernard Ravitch, the husband of Elsie
Peck Ravitch who in 1911 came to the United States where “formed the Ravitch
Ensemble Music Club and trained many eighty-hand and two-piano teams passed
away today at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore………
1951(3rd of Nisan, 5711): Seventy-four-year-old
Henry Englander the native of Hungary and 1901 graduate of the University of
Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the rabbi of Temple Beth-El
in Providence, RI and lectured at Brown University, passed away today.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0151/ms0151.html
1952(14th of Nisan, 5712): Fast of the First
Born
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported
the Israeli official announcement that the reparation talks at The Hague had
only been suspended.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported
that Israel observed the Pesach festival with all traditional holiday foods
severely rationed and in a very short supply. Wine shops were well-stocked, but
only the more expensive brands were available. Pesach chocolates, sweets and
biscuits were completely absent. The sole bright spot was an ample supply of
vegetables. Citrus fruit was either very hard to get or completely unavailable.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported
that the rubber industry, which employs over 1,000 workers, faced a complete
shut-down owing to the shortage of raw materials.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported
The Palestine Conciliation Commission decided to consider an Israeli request
that the Jewish property confiscated in Iraq would be charged against the
abandoned Arab property in Israel.
1953: Warner Brothers premieres the first 3-D
film, entitled House of Wax.
1954(5th of Nisan, 5714):
Seventy-two-year-old Polish born Rabbi Solomon Krevsky, the former “spiritual
leader of Congregation Agudas Achim” and the “dean of the rabbis” in the
Allentown, PA area passed away tonight.
1954: President Eisenhower appointed Edward B.
Lawson to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1955(17th of Nisan, 5715): Shabbat
Shel Pesach
1956(28th of Nisan, 5716): Yom
HaShoah
1957: The Suez Canal was cleared for all
shipping. This marked one of the final acts of the Suez Crisis that
began in October of 1956 and resulted in a swift victory of the Israelis over
the Egyptians. The Egyptians blocked the Suez Canal in attempt to
get support from the world. In the end the Israelis left the Canal
and the Sinai. The Egyptians would fail to honor their promises of peace
and when they tried to destroy Israel again in 1967, the result was an
even more devastating defeat for the Arabs.
1957: Release date for “The Bachelor Party”
Paddy Chayefsky’s screen adaptation of his 1953 teleplay of the same name.
1958(19th of Nisan, 5718):
Sixty-seven-year movie producer Solomon Max "Sol" Wurtzel passed away
today. Such was his importance that none other than renowned director
John Ford delivered his eulogy.
1958(19th of Nisan, 5718): Fifth day
of Pesach
1958: Birthdate of Fairbanks, Alaska native and
“American cross-country skier” Judy Rabinowitz, who “finished seventh in the 4
× 5 km relay at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.
1958: “Love Me Little” a comedy produced
Alexander H. Cohen, the New York City Jewish born son of Laura Tarantous is
scheduled to open at the Helen Hayes Theatre.
1958(19th of Nisan, 5718):
Sixty-nine-year-old Clarence Yale Palitz, the native
of Lavia who came to the United States in 1900 where he became a lawyer,
alderman and active member of the Jewish community holding leadership positions
with the Jewish Ladies Day Nursery and the Jewish Social Service Association
while raising three children – Lillian, Bernard and Clarence, Jr. – with his
wife Ruth Krumnas Palitz passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/04/10/89074647.pdf
1959(1st of Nisan, 5719): Rosh
Chodesh Nisan
1959: In a plea made to 3,000 persons over a
telephone hook-up to fifty communities “the leaders of seventeen American
Jewish organizations called on their members today to increase their support of
the United Jewish Appeal.
1960: Dr. Julius Marks who is the senior rabbi
of Temple Emanu-El was the guest
preacher at the service honoring the 30th anniversary of Dr. William
F. Rosenblum as the “spiritual leader of” New York’s Temple Israel.
1961: Two days before the start of Adolf
Eichman’s trial in Israel, today, the city government of Frankfurt “issued a pamphlet
denying assertions that most Germans knew nothing about Nazi brutalities toward
the Jews until after World War II.”
1962: “Israel and South Korea announced tonight
they would establish diplomatic relations on the embassy level.”
1962: “Israeli Hospital Barred to A Sect,”
published today describes a declaration by the Jerusalem Rabbinate that has declared the Hadassah-Hebrew
University Medical Center "out of bounds" to descendants of Aaron,
who comprise the priestly class called Kohanim, since “they would be defiled by
entering the building because the mortuary is part of the hospital.”
1963(15th of Nisan, 5723): Pesach
1963(15th of Nisan, 5723):
Eighty-three-year-old Mosi Moses Erlanger, the son of Abraham and Bertha Bela
Erlanger and husband of Margaret Erlanger with whom he had three children –
Edith, Lilly and Berta – passed away today.
1963: Birthdate of New York native and Parsons
School of Design trained American fashion designer Marc Jacobs.
1964(27th of Nisan, 5724): Yom
HaShoarh
1964: U.S. premiere of “The Carpetbaggers” the
move version of Harold Robbins novel produced by Joseph E. Levine with music by
Elmer Bernstein.
1965: In Homestead, FL, Mathew Zucker, “a
cardiologist” and Arline Zucker, “a schoolteacher gave birth to Harvard
graduate and television executive Jeff Zucker
1965: “The Greatest Story” a Biblical epic
movie featuring Martin Landau, Ed Wynn and Joseph Schildkraut in his last movie
with music by Alfred Newman was released in the United Kingdom today.
1966: Today, the Security Council adopted
resolution 221 which put an end to British diplomat Henry Walston’s attempts
“to negotiate an end to sanction-breaking pumping of oil Southern Rhodesia.
1967: In Los Angeles, actor Berley Harris, who
came from a “Quaker background” and writer producer Susan Harris whose Jewish
parents had named her Susan Spivak birth
to Stanford University graduate Samuel Benjamin “Sam” Harris the “American philosopher,
neuroscientist, author, and podcast host
1968: The Jewish Orthodox Home for the Aged
moved from Cleveland to a 37-acre site in Beachwood Village “and adopted the
name Menorah Park Jewish Home for the Aged.”
1969(22nd of Nisan 5729): Seventh
Day of Pesach
1969: The "Chicago Eight" pleaded not
guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic
National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Three of the “Eight” - Abbie Hoffman,
Jerry Rubin and Lee Weiner – were Jewish. The two lead defense attorneys
were Jewish and the Judge hearing the case was also Jewish.
1970: “An intergovernmental European organization
for the promotion of research into molecular biology announced that Israel is
being accepted as a member state.”
1971(14th of Nisan, 5731): Ta’anit
Behorot; erev Pesach and erev Shabbat
1971: “Rabbi Bernard Berzon, president of the
Rabbinical Council of America, Orthodox group, appealed to the Soviet Union to
allow Jews to pursue their religious and cultural life and to permit them to
emigrate to Israel” while “the president of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew
Congregations of America, Rabbi Joseph Karasick, spoke out against “the ugly
specter of racism and oppression which still haunts mankind.”
1972: “Sugar” a musical produced by David
Merrick with tunes by Jule Styne opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre.
1973(7th of Nisan, 5773):
Eighty-seven-year-old “Samuel Ungerleider, the husband of Selma Dallet and
Budapest born son of “Herman and Bertha
(Atlas) Ungerleider who was the owner of Wheeling Liquor Company in Wheeling,
W. Va., the Aeon Liquor Company in Bridgeport, OH and founder of an investment
firm in Cleveland while serving as the “U.S. Asst. Fuel Administrator” in Ohio
during WW I passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/04/11/79849261.html?pageNumber=50
1973: Israel Defense Forces Special Forces
units attacked several Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) targets in
Beirut and Sidon, Lebanon in an action thought “to be part of the retaliation
for the Munich massacre at the Summer Olympics in 1972.”
1974(17th of Nisan, 5734): Third day
of Pesach
1974: Sixty-eight-year-old Marvin Lewis Kline,
the 34th mayor of Minneapolis who was “criticized by journalist
Arthur Kasherman” for his close connection to the “Minneapolis Mob” some of
whose members were Jewish passed away.
1975(28th of Nisan, 5735):
Seventy-two-year-old Henry Temin, the Russian born son of May Temin, the
husband of Annette Temin and the father of three children two of whom were
Peter and Howard Temin passed away today in Philadelphia after which he was
buried at the Haym Salomon Memorial Park in Chester County, PA.
1976: In Israel, a car bomb was dismantled on
Ben Yehudah Street shortly before it was to have exploded.
1976: “All The President’s Men” co-starring
Dustin Hoffman with a screenplay by William Goldman and music by David Shire
was released today in the United States.
1976: “Family Plot” a thriller with a script by
Ernest Lehman was released in the United States today.
1976: NBC broadcast “The First Easter Rabbit”
an animated tale co-starring Stan Freberg as “Flops.”
1978: “Rabbit Test,” directed and written by
Joan Rivers, produced by Edgar Rosenberg, starring Billy Crystal in his film debut
and featuring Norman Fell was released today in the United States.
1982: Birthdate of Canadian Jay Burchel who
numbers a Sephardic Jewish grandfather among his ancestors.
1983(26th of Nisan, 5743): Parashat
Shmini
1983(26th of Nisan, 5743): Seventy-four-year-old
Gertrude Adelman Shapiro, the wife of former Illinois governor Samuel Harvey
Shapiro passed away today in Kankakee, Il after which she was buried at the
Waldheim Cemetery.
1984(7th of Nisan, 5744): Joseph G. Weisberg,
editor and publisher of The Jewish Advocate, passed away Massachusetts
General Hospital after becoming ill at his desk in Boston, where The Advocate
is published. He was 73 years old. Mr. Weisberg, a graduate of Harvard College
and the Harvard Law School, was head of The Advocate, an English-
language weekly, for more than four decades. He was a founder and past
president of the American Jewish Press Association and a director of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, a worldwide news service.
1984(7th of Nisan, 5744): In Portland, OR, 76-year-old
Sheindel Reznick, the wife of Hyman Reznik and the mother of Naomi Blumberg
passed away.
1984: Refusnik,“Ida Nudel was summoned to the
police station for interrogation.
1985(18th of Nisan, 5745): Fourth Day of Pesach
1985: In an example of a Jew slamming a Jew,
Frank Rich panned “Leader of the Pack” the musical with music and lyrics by
Ellie Greenwich.
1986: Fred Friendly began serving as Montgomery
Fellow at Dartmouth College today.
1987(10th of Nisan, 5747):
Eighty-three-year-old Louis Nathan Cohen, the Irish born son of Leba Rubin
Cohen and Joseph Morris Cohen, the husband Edith Greenlee Saunders Cohen and
the Joyce, David and Phillip Nathan Cohen passed away today in Albany, NY after
which he was buried in the Riverside Cemetery.
1987(10th of Nisan, 5747):
Eighty-four-year-old Nathan Solomon Kern, the son of Joseph and Clara Bloch
Kern and the spouse of Novie Cobb Kern passed away today after which he was
buried at the Riverview Cemetery in Monroe, LA.
1988: Pitcher Jose Bautista, a native of the
Dominican Republic, played his first major league game with the Baltimore
Orioles.
1988(22nd of Nisan, 5748): Eighth
Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1988(22nd of Nisan, 5748):
Eighty-one-year-old Sydney Harry “Syd” Cohen who spent parts of three seasons
during the 1930’s pitching for the Washington Senators where his only act of
distinction was striking out Babe Ruth in 1934, making him the last American
League pitcher to whiff the great Bambino passed away today.
1989(4th of Nisan, 5749): Eighty-six-year-old
Moshe Ziffer, a native of Przemyśl, who came to Palestine in 1919 where he
became an artist and sculptor whose works included busts of Einstein,
Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weismann passed away today.
1989: In “Unearthing a Roman City in Israel,” published
today Matthew J. Reisz described the history of Beit Shean including the latest
archeological discoveries at this ancient city whose ties to the Jewish people
date back to the days of Saul and David.
1990(14th of Nisan, 5750): Fast of
the First Born; erev Pesach
1990: “Telling the Seder's Story In the Voice
of a Woman” published today provides Nadine Brozan’s description of the
celebration of Pesach with a unique, feminist twist.
1990(14th of Nisan, 5750): Louis Rappaport, called Calev Ben-David and asked
him to join him in interviewing Barbara Walters just hours before the start of
the first Seder.
1990: Twenty-year-old pitcher Scott Radinsky
made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1991: Statements made in an interview with
James Randi published in the International Herald Tribune resulted in a suit
being filed by illusionists Uri Geller.
1992: Nigel Lawson retired as Member of
Parliament for Blaby.
1992: Peter Benjamin Mandelson began serving as
an MP for Hartlepool.
1993: “This Boy’s Life” a film version of the
memoir by Tobias Wolff who did not find that his was Jewish until he was an
adult co-starring Ellen Barkin was released today in the United States.
1993(18th of Nisan, 5763): Fourth
Day of Pesach
1993(18th of Nisan, 5763): Ninety-year-old
Rabbinic heavyweight Joseph Ber Soloveitchik passed away today in Boston.
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/10/nyregion/no-headline-684393.html
http://www.manfredlehmann.com/news/news_detail.cgi/110/0
1993(18th of Nisan, 5763): Eight-six-year-old
middle-weight Abie Bain who lost a title bout to Maxie Rosenbloom passed away
today.
http://www.njboxinghof.org/abie-bain/
1995(9th of Nisan, 5755): Alisa Flatow, 20, was
riding a public (Jewish) bus near the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom when an
Arab suicide bomber plowed his car into that bus. Alisa and seven Israeli
soldiers, all under the age of 21, were killed. Alisa was one of 20
American victims of the so-called "Peace" process!
1995(9th of Nisan, 5755): Staff-Sgt. Yuval
Regev, 20, of Holon; Staff-Sgt. Meir Scheinwald, 20, of Safed; Sgt. Itai
Diener, 19, of Rishon Lezion; Sgt. Zvi Narbat, 19, of Rishon Lezion; Sgt. Netta
Sufrin, 20, of Rishon Lezion; Cpl. Tal Nir, 19, of Kibbutz Miflasim; Sgt.
Avraham Arditi, 19, of Jerusalem; and Alisa Flatow, 20, of the United States
were killed when a bus was hit by an explosives-laden van near Kfar Darom in
the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.
1996: Today Jessica Mathews, the daughter of
historian Barbara Tuchman delivered the Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World
Affairs Fellowship Lecture in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy
Hall at Cornell University
1997(2nd of Nisan, 5757): Eighty-year-old
screenwriter and author Helene Hanff best known for 84, Charing Cross Road
passed away in New York City.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-helene-hanff-1267169.html
1998(13th of Nisan, 5758): Fast of the First
Born takes place today because the 14th of Nisan falls on a Friday.
1999: “Never Been Kissed” a comedy co-starring
Michael Vartan, Leelee Sobieski and James Franco was released in the United
States today.
2000: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including the recently released paperback editions of “For the Relief of
Unbearable Urges” by Nathan Englander in which the author “combines a
compassionate grasp of the Orthodox Jewish world with the skeptical irreverence
of one estranged from yet still oddly defined by it,'' “The Last of the Just”
by Andre Schwarz-Bart a French novel that chronicles the agonies of a Jewish
family from 12th-century England to Nazi Germany,” and “Picture This” by Joseph
Heller.
2001(16th of Nisan, 5761): Second
Day of Pesach
2001(16th of Nisan, 5761): Eighty-six-year-old
Communist Party member and Buchenwald survivor Emil Carlebach passed away today
in Frankfurt am Main.
2002(27th of Nisan, 5762): Yom Ha Shoah
2002: During Operation Defensive Shield a
battalion commanded by Major Oded Golomb was ambushed by terrorists in Jenin
2002(27th of Nisan, 5762):
Maj.(res.) Oded Golomb, 22, of Kibbutz Nir David; Capt.(res.) Ya'akov
Azoulai, 30, of Migdal Ha'emek; Lt.(res.) Dror Bar, 28, of Kibbutz Einat;
Lt.(res.) Eyal Yoel, 28, of Kibbutz Ramat Rachel; 1st Sgt.(res.) Tiran Arazi,
33, of Hadera; 1st Sgt.(res.) Yoram Levy, 33, of Elad; 1st Sgt.(res.) Avner
Yaskov, 34, of Be'er Sheva; Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Ronen Alshochat, 27, of
Ramle; gt. 1st Class (res.) Eyal Eliyahu Azouri, 27, of Ramat Gan; Sgt. 1st
Class (res.) Amit Busidan, 22, of Bat Yam; Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Menashe Hava,
23, of Kfar Sava; Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Shmuel Danny Meizlish, 27, of Moshav
Hemed; Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Eyal Zimmerman, 22, of Ra'anana were killed today
while fighting at Jenin. (Jewish Virtual Library)
2002(27th of Nisan, 5762): Thirty-year-old
Major Assaf Assoulin of Tel Aviv was killed during fighting at Nablus.
2002(27th of Nisan, 5762): Twenty-one-year-old
Staff Sergeant Malik was killed today.
2002: A pro-Israel drew 4,000 supporters today
in Miami Beach, FL.
2003: “A Little Plantain At the Passover Table”
https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/dining/a-little-plantain-at-the-passover-table.html?searchResultPosition=2 “How to Boil an Egg:
So Simple, but Not Easy” https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/dining/how-to-boil-an-egg-so-simple-but-not-easy.html?searchResultPosition=3 and “Nostalgia, the
Secret Ingredient of Matzo Brei” https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/09/dining/nostalgia-the-secret-ingredient-of-matzo-brei.html?searchResultPosition=4 published today
provide food history and cooking tips for the upcoming Passover holiday.
2003: Said Aldin al-Arabid, the Hamas leader
whom has been accused “of directing dozens of attacks that killed many Israelis
when the Subaru he was riding in was reported hit by a salvo of two missiles
fired from an Israeli aircraft.
2004: “The Alamo” an epic about
the Texas war for independence co-produced by Brian Grazer and with a script
co-authored by Leslie Bohem was released in the United States today.
2004: U.S. premiere of “The Girl
Next Door” with a screenplay co-authored by Stuart Blumberg.
2005(29th of Adar II, 5765): Fifty-eight-year-old
author Andrea Dworkin who was variously an anarchist, anti-war activist,
radical feminists and an outspoken critic of pornography which viewed as being
a cause of the violent attacks suffered by women passed away today. (As
reported by Margalit Fox)
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/arts/andrea-dworkin-writer-and-crusading-feminist-dies-at-58.html
2006: The Washington Post featured
a review of Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City and the Conflict that
Divided America by Eyal Press. The book is an account of the battle
over abortion in the United States. The book is written by the son of Dr.
Shalom Press, one of two doctors who performed abortions in Buffalo, New
York. The other was Dr. Barnett Slepian who was murdered in his kitchen
when he came home from Friday night Shabbat services. Interestingly enough, the
local leaders of the anti-abortion movement are twin brother who had grown up
in a Jewish home and had converted to Christianity before becoming “pro-life.”
2006: The New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky; translated by Sandra
Smith
2006: Concentration camp survivor Emil Alperin
of the Ukraine is pictured in an AP photo laying down flowers at Buchenwald
near Weimar in eastern Germany as part of the commemoration ceremonies for the
61st anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration
camp.
2007: Haaretz reported that
archeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered evidence of a
3,000-year-old beekeeping industry, including remnants of ancient honeycombs,
beeswax and what they believe are the oldest intact beehives ever found.
2007(21st of Nisan, 5767: Seventh Day of
Pesach: Reform Jews recite Yizkor on what is for them, is the last day of the
holiday.
2007: In “Girls: Israel’s Racy New PR Strategy
Israel” published today Kevin Peraino describes Israel’s flirtation with a new
public-relations strategy”
2008: Madeleine M. Kunin, the former governor
of Vermont, the first Jewish woman governor and an ambassador under the
Clinton administration, discusses and signs her new book, “Pearls, Politics,
and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead,” at Busboys and Poets in Washington,
D.C.
2008(4th of Nisan, 5768): 21-year-old Staff Sgt. Bisan Sayef from the village
of Jatt was killed during clashes with Palestinian gunmen.
2008: April will be known as Jewish Heritage
Month in New Jersey, thanks to legislation Gov. Jon Corzine signed at Passaic’s
Ahavas Israel in front of a multi-ethnic group.
2009: “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” with a
screenplay co-authored y David Benioff and co-starring Liev Schreiber was
released today in Sydney.
2009: In “So You Think Know Matzo?”
published today in Time magazine, Claire Suddath provides a brief
history of this famous unleavened bread.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1890268,00.html
2009(15 Nisan 5769): First Day of Pesach
2009(15th of Nisan, 5769): US President Barack
Obama will celebrate Passover tonight with staff and friends in what is
believed to be the first White House Seder attended by an American president.
President Obama is not the first US President to attend a Seder. That
honor belongs to William Howard Taft who was the first president to attend a
Seder while in office. In 1912, when he visited Providence, RI, he participated
in the family Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish
Welfare Board. Why did Taft go? Was it an act of brotherhood and good
will or was it an act of political fence mending brought on by Taft’s support
of measures that were harmful to Jewish immigration. Since 1912 was an
election year and Taft was faced with a stiff challenge from Theodore
Roosevelt, he needed all of the support he get from Jewish voters who had
supported the Republican Party.
2010(25th of Nisan, 5770):
Ninety-year old British soldier and diplomat Sir Peter Ramsbotham whose “mother
was the daughter of Jewish banker Sgismund de Stein of London” passed away
today.
2010: The Westchester Film Festival is
scheduled to show “Hello Goodbye” a romantic comedy about a Jewish couple from
Paris who go through a midlife crisis and move to Tel Aviv staring Gérard
Depardieu and Fanny Ardant.
2010: Three days after premiering in New York “Date
Night,” a comedy directed and co-produced by Shawn Levy was released to
theatres throughout the United States.
2010: Rich Recht is
scheduled to lead a musical and interactive Shabbat evening at the Historic
Sixth and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2011: Vadim Gluzman is
scheduled to perform with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
2011: Machaya Klezmer,
“the premier klezmer band,” is scheduled to perform at The Jewish Study Center
Spring Fund Raiser at Tifereth Israel Congregation in Washington, DC.
2011: In Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, the Jewish community gathered for shiva minyan at the home of Kate and
Gary Goldstein in memory of Gary’s father, Harold Goldstein of blessed memory.
2011: Hamas said today that it “did not intend
to target Israeli schoolchildren when they fired a rocket at a bus two days
ago, critically wounding a teenager and moderately wounding the bus driver, in
an attack that sparked the latest round of border fighting."
2011: Today the Israel Defense Forces
spokesman's office confirmed that IAF jets attacked three top Hamas officials
in the Gaza strip, as well as a smuggling tunnel and a truck carrying
ammunition, after southern Israel suffered a barrage of rockets overnight.
2011: This morning two
additional Grad rockets were fired at Ofakim and 25 mortar shells were fired
into the Eshkol Regional Council. Fifteen Grad-model rockets had been fired
from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory during the night. The Iron Dome
rocket-defense system intercepted five of them in the Beersheba and Ashkelon
areas, Israel Radio reported.
2011(5th of
Nisan, 5771): Eight-six-year-old move director Sidney Lumet passed away today.
2012: In the third and
final event in Adam Gopnik’s “Table Comes First” series, Padma Lakshmi and
Amanda Hesser are scheduled to discuss the unique strengths and differences of
our culinary masters and mavens at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan.
2012: At least 70,000 people from Israel and
abroad gathered at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City today for the
traditional priestly blessing.
2013: “The Last Flight of Petr Ginz” is
scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival
2013: An exhibit of letters, manuscripts,
images, and objects about the life and literary career of Hyam Plutzik opened
at Connecticut’s Trinity College of which he was one of the first Jewish alums.
2013: “Melting Away” an Israeli film with
English subtitles is scheduled to be shown at the 17th Mandell JCC
Hartford Jewish Film Fest.
2013: In Mandeville, LA, the Northshore Jewish
Congregation is scheduled to host its Yom HaShaoah Holocaust Remembrance
Program.
2013: Jack Tytell, an American-born Israeli Jew
who was convicted in January of murdering two Palestinians and wounding two
Israelis, was sentenced today by the Jerusalem District Court to two
consecutive life sentences plus 30 years jail time, and was ordered to pay NIS
680,000 ($190,000) compensation to the victims’ families.
2013: Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky was in
the United States today to present to American Jewish leaders part of his
proposal to resolve the issue of nontraditional prayer at the Western Wall in
Jerusalem, which will reportedly include a greatly enlarged section for
egalitarian services.
2014: “Holy Ground: Woody Guthrie's Yiddish
Connection” is scheduled to best shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Women Unchained” is scheduled to be
shown at The JCC Rockland International Jewish Film Festival.
2014(9th of Nisan, 5774): Eighty-seven-year-old
Jacob Birnbaum passed away today.
http://forward.com/articles/196373/soviet-jewry-activist-jacob-birnbaum-dies-at-/
2014: The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund
chaired by Dr. Bob Silber is scheduled to co-host a speech by Holocaust
survivor Cesare Frustaci at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2015: In Orono, ME, Lewis Black is scheduled to
perform at the Collins Center for Arts at the Univeristy of Main.
2015: “When a Plane Seat Next to a Woman Is
Against Orthodox Faith” published today described the conditions aboard planes
flying to Israel when men insist on preferential treatment because they do not
want to sit next to women for religious reasons.
2015: Shoah survivor Margit Meissner is
scheduled to speak today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2015: “Blumenthal,” “A Place in Heaven” and
“Famous Nathan” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film
Festival.
2015: The Argentine government announced today
that it “will declassify all intelligence documents about the March 17, 1992,
attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires that killed 29 people and wounded
hundreds. (As reported by JTA)
2015: Vandals smashed a window and scrawled
anti-Semitic messages at Copenhagen’s only kosher deli, police said today, less
than two months after a man was killed in an attack outside a synagogue on the
Danish city.”
2015: Funeral series are scheduled to take
place for Bernice Tannenbaum, the past National President of Hadassah who
passed away at the age of 101 at Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York City.
2016(1st of Nisan, 5776): Rosh
Chodesh Nisan and Shabbat HaChodesh
2016: “Rock in the Red Zone” is scheduled to be
shown at the Hartford Jewish Film Festival.
2016: “JeruZalem” and “Baba Joon” are scheduled
to be shown for the first time at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2016: “Laugh Lines” and “Suicide” are scheduled
to be shown at the Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival
2017: “In a statement timed just ahead of
Passover, the Temple Mount Sifting Project said today it had found a stone
finger that may have belonged to a Bronze Age Egyptian statue, but conceded it
wasn’t sure.”
2017: The
New York Times published reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Rules Do Not Apply: A
Memoir by Ariel Levy and Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein,
2017: The Autohaus on Edens is scheduled to be
the venue “for an exclusive event benefiting the Women's Leadership Committee
of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.”
2017: In “Keep Your Politics Out of Passover,”
published today Shmuel Rosner, the political editor at The Jewish Journal
and a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute examines the problems
with using what are supposed to be unifying Jewish customs and ceremonies to
promote partisan political views.
2018: JW3
is scheduled to host a screening of “Bye, Bye, Germany” in London today.
2018: The
Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society are
scheduled to host Psoy Korolenko and Anna Shternshis performing “satirical
Yiddish anti-fascist songs from the lost Archive of the Bureau for Jewish
Culture at the Ukrainian Academy of Science, written during World War II in the
Soviet Union”
2018: The Jupiter
Symphony Chamber Players which was founded by Jens Nygaard who directed the
Washington Heights YW-YMHA concerts for 25 years is scheduled to perform “The
Great vs. The Five” featuring the music of Tchaikovsky versus the music of Mily
Balakirev, César Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, and Alexander
Borodin.
2018: JW3
is scheduled to host a screening of “1945” in London today.
2018:
“From Poland to Israel: The March of the Living” sponsored by the Temple
Emanu-El Streicker center is scheduled to begin today.
http://assets.emanuelstreickernyc.org/publications/Poland_2018/#page=1
2019: The
Skirball Center is scheduled to host the first session of “Modern Jewish
Philosophy” during which Dr. Daniel Rynhold examines “what got Spinoza in
trouble, and how thinkers like Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Martin Buber
and Franz Rosenzweig responded.”
2019: In
New York, the City Winery is scheduled to host an evening, with Keren Ann
(Zeidel) the Caeserea born singer and composer.
2019: The
Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host an “Educators Open House” where,
among other things attendees will receive “Ready-to-Use lesson plans and free
access to online lessons and lectures.”
2020
2019: The
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host the “debut of ‘And All
The Days Were Purple,’ new album by composer Alex Weiser featuring Yiddish and
English poems set to music.”
https://yivo.org/and-all-the-days-were-purple
2019: As Israelis
prepare to go to the polls, scientists make corrections in the orbit of the
Beresheet lunar lander in preparation for the events of April 11.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5491242,00.html
2020(15th
of Nisan, 5780): First Day of Pesach
2020:
Based on the number of funerals carried out by burial societies, where covid-19
appeared on the deceased’s death certificate as of the last figures released
before Pesach, at least 152 Jews in the UK have died because of the virus.
2020: “Rabbi
Danny Gottlieb and Ricki Weintraub of S.F. Congregation Beth Israel Judea are
scheduled to host a Seder on Facebook Live.
2020: As
of seven o’clock this morning Israelis are scheduled to be able to leave their
houses after having been confined to their homes since six o’clock yesterday
evening.
2020: In
the evening, the ASF Young Leaders are scheduled to host a “Virtual Sephardic
Passover Seder.”
https://www.facebook.com/events/270815277260614/
2020: 155th
anniversary of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox where Grant showed the
kind of magnanimity that he hoped would quickly bind up the nations’ wounds --
a hope that others defeated.
2021: In
Palm Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host two ways to welcome Shabbat
-- Shabbat B’Yachad
(Shabbat Together) and Shabbat Worship services with Rabbi Yaron and Cantorial
Soloists Abbie.
2021: As we mark Yom
Ha’Shoah, Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to to welcome Abe Foxman, now VP of the Board at
the Museum of Jewish Heritage, as he talks about his life, his life’s work and
about keeping Jews and Judaism alive.
2021: In Beachwood, OH, Anshe
Chesed Fairmount Temple is scheduled to begin the ceremonies marking the
installation of Cantor Vladimir Lapi.
2021: “Many of the curbs on the education system are set
to expire tomorrow in Israel (As reported by Tamar Trabelsi Hadad and Adir
Yanko)
2022: Modern JewISH Couples and Repair the World Boston
are scheduled to present a “Couples Social Justice Shabbat Brunch” with Rabbi
Jen Gubitz.
2022: The Eden-Tamir Center is scheduled to host
violinist Yevgenia Pikovsky, cellist Alexander Kaganovsky and pianist Michel
Zartsekel playing “the Best of Chamber Music.
2022: Temple Israel of Boston is scheduled to present
online “Poetry for Your Seder” during which attendees “explore and discover new pieces for this
year’s seder around the themes of Passover, including freedom, slavery, spring,
spiritual memory and more” followed by Havdalah..
2022: Based on today being Shabbat HaGadol, 91st
anniversary of the Bar Mitzvah of Joseph B. Levin.
2022: Grateful Labs is scheduled to host “Tel Aviv’s
largest ever guided gratitude gathering” at the Gratitude Wall in Habima
Square.
2022: As Jews celebrate Shabbat HaGadol, they
remember Tomer Morad 28, Eytam Magini 27 and Barak Lufan, 35 who were murdered
this week by a terrorist in Tel Aviv.
2022(8th of Nisan, 5782): Shabbat HaGadol;
2023(18th of Nisan, 5783): Fourth Day of
Pesach.
2023: Bank Hapoalim is scheduled to continue to sponsor
free entrance to 170 museums, national parks, and heritage sites in Israel,
including ANU - Museum of the Jewish People.
2023: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to
host an adult ed event on the spiritual perspective of Buddhism, led by Naomi
Bloom
2023: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker invites all who are
interested “to see the highly anticipated Broadway run of “Parade,” which
revolves around the story of Leo Frank.
2023: Twenty-year-old
Maya Dee and her fifteen-year-old sister Rina Dee who were murdered by a
terrorist on April 7 in an attack that has left their 48-year-old mother Lucy
fighting for her life are scheduled to be buried this afternoon at Kfar Ezion
Cemetery.
2023: In Brookline, MA, Congregation Kehillath Israel is
scheduled to present “What is Happiness and Why Does It Elude Us?” with the
father and son team of authors Michael and Adam Sandel.
2023: The New York Times features books by Jewish
authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Dirty
Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS and the Masterminds of World War II
Secret Warfare by John Lisle and The Collaborators: Three Stories of
Deception and Survival in World War II by Ina Buruma
2024: Lockdown
University is scheduled to host a lecture by Trudy Gold on “bar Kokhba/ben
Zakkai: Who are the Heroes of the Jews?
2024: Online David
Williams, Cook County State’s Attorney Special Investigations Bureau, Adjunct
Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice at UIC, Co-Founder, Regional
Antisemitism Taskforce, and IHMEC LEAD Training Facilitator is scheduled to discuss
“case studies about hate crimes that have occurred in the Chicago area
including the damage at the Loop Synagogue and vandalism on Devon Avenue.”
2024: As part of the
New York Klezmer Series, the Hudson Yards Synagogue is scheduled to host “Tantshoyz
with Steve Weintraub!”
2024: The Weitzman
National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host the fourth
session of “Telling Our Stories,” during which attendees can discover “their
family's stories with Tribe 12's Mick Brewer, the Weitzman's Director
2024: The Jewish Book
Council is scheduled to host a conversation with Brett Gelman, author of The
Terrifying Realm of the Possible and Andrew Silow-Carroll, Managing Editor
for Ideas at JTA
2024: In New Orleans
the board of Tulane Hillel is scheduled to meet this evening.
2024(1st of
Nisan, 5784): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
2024: As April 9th
begins in Israel, the Hamas held hostages begin day
186 in captivity. (Editor’s
note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just
providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
2025: The Center for
Jewish-Multicultural Affairs is scheduled to host a Community Town Hall with
Leah Sobel, the founder and CEO of Fuente Latina which works to ensure
Spanish-speaking journalist and influencers around the world can access the
tools and stories necessary to provide accurate coverage of Israel, the Middle
East, and the Jewish world, regardless of geographic location.
2025: The JDC Global
Briefing featuring its “field professionals in Israel and Ukraine” is scheduled
to take place this morning.
2025: The Eldridge
Street Museum is scheduled to host a
virtual program in honor of Passover, that “explores the story of the Exodus.”
2025: Agnon House is
scheduled to host “a special lecture in honor of Passover, Prof. Miron H.
Isaacson will talk about the limits of human freedom.”
2025: Lockdown
University is scheduled to host a lecture by Jeremy Rosen on “The Biblical
Prophets: 1 Samuel 15:30, David is Annointed.”
2025: The Center for
Jewish History and the Yeshiva University Museum are scheduled to host a
screening of “Gentleman’s Agreement,” followed by a discussion of the
ground-breaking film about anti-Semitism.
2026: Sinai of Brookline (MA) is scheduled to host the week
study group with Rabbi Andy Vogel
2026: This evening, Chabad of Iowa City is scheduled to
host the “Moshiach Meal – A Taste of Redemption.”
2026: As April 9th begins in Israel, the Netanyahu government
is dealing with the cease fire announced by President Trump (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)
2026(22nd of
Nisan, 5786): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
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