1220: Frederick II, who would become the protector of the Jews in Frankfurt in 1236, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor today by Honorius III.
1280: The 3 year reign of Pope Nicholas III whose bull Vineam sorce encouraged conversion through "sermons and other means" came to an end today. (Jewish Virtual Library)
1307: Pope Clement V issues the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets. The Templars were a group of Christian Knights who took their name from the fact that their first headquarters was located on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in an area believed to be on the site of the ruins of Solomon’s Temple.
1348: Riots reached the Germanic lands of Bavaria and Swabia. Eighty towns, including Augsburg, Munich, and Wurzburg were attacked
1547: Asolo, Italy was the scene of one of the few pogroms recorded in Italy. Ten Jews in a town of thirty were killed, and their houses robbed with no apparent motives.
1580: In Poland, the Council of the Four Lands adopted an ordinance that limits the extent of land leasing, known as arenda that is permitted to any individual. The prevention of competition for arenda was one of the council’s major concerns.
1617: Ahmed I, Ottoman Sultan, passed away. During his reign, Ahmed contracted small pox. The treatments prescribed by his physicians proved ineffectual. The widow of Solomon Eskenazi, who had served as a court physician was called in and she saved the Sultan.
1688: Birthdate of Nāder Shāh Afshār, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty who reversed the anti-Jewish policies and practices that had been put in place by the Safawid’s dynasty which had ruled during the previous century
1758: In New York, Sarah Nunes Navaro and Aaron Nunez Cardozo gave birth to Abraham Nunez Cardozo.
1761: In Philadelphia, Martha Lampley and Samson Levy gave birth to Arabella Levy.
1776: In New York City, “Figlah Levy” and Joseph Simons gave birth to “Hananel Simons.”
1781: In Philadelphia, Zipporah Levy and Benjamin Mendes Seixas gave birth to Isaac Benjamin Seixas the husband of Rebecca Judah with whom he had eight children.
1789: In Germany, Rosele Katz and Bernard Weil gave birth “Elcha Weil” the wife of Gedalia Hayim Bernheimer and the mother of Jakob and Jette Bernheimer.
1793: Strasbourg prohibited circumcision and the wearing of beards Further It ordered the burning of all books in Hebrew. Strasbourg is located on the border between Germany and France. As such it has changed hands numerous times.
1795(10th of Kislev, 5556): Vrouwtje Frumet David Lintz-Cohen passed away. Born at Amsterdam in 1737, she was the daughter of David Levie Juda-Moshe Lints-Cohen and Bele Simon Samson Levie-Drukker and the widow of Kalman Isaac Shochet
1797: In London, Levy Salomons and Matilda de Metz gave birth to Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet, a leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom who was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London, and one of the first two Jewish people to serve in the British House of Commons.
1798: In Baden, Sara and Michael Herzog gave birth to Minette Herzog, the wife “Lemuel Dinkelspiel with whom she had 18 children.
1800 (5th of Kislev): Forty-eight year old philosopher Solomon ben Joshua Maimon passed away
1805: Birthdate of Mary Anne Keely, the English actress and manager whose portrait was painted by the Anglo-Jewish artist Walter Goodman who also wrote a book about the family entitled The Keeleys, on the stage and at home
1808: In London Hanna Barent Cohen and Nathan Mayer Rothschild who “had just established the London branch of the banking business of the Rothschilds” to Baron Lionel Nathan Rothschild.
1809: Solomon Abraham married Sarah Harris today at the Great Synaogue.
1811(6th of Kislev, 5572): Seventy-three year old Wolf Isak Arnstein, the son of Isak Aron Arnsteiner and Ella Elsa Eleonora Arnsteiner who was the husband of Veronika Fradche Fradel Arnstein and Rifke Arnstein passed away today.
1811: In London, Polly Isaacs and Woolf Marks gave birth to David Woolf Marks the husband of Cecilia Sarah Wolf with whom he had had 12 children and longtime rabbi of the West London Synagogue which was considered to be the first “liberal” or “reform” congregation in the UK.
1813: Today, a codicil was attached to the original will of Benjamin D’Israeli, the grandfather of the Earl Beaconsfield, Great Britain’s first Prime Minister to have been born Jewish.
1819: Joseph Friedländer, a dealer in second-hand clothes renewed his application to be allowed to continue to live and do business in Saxony.
1819: Birthdate of Joseph Seligman, the native of Bavaria, who founded Seligman Brothers and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1819: Birthdate of Mary Anne Evans, who, under the pen name of George Elliot wrote Daniel Deronda is a novel by George Eliot, first published in 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the contemporary Victorian society of her day. Its mixture of social satire and moral searching, along with a sympathetic rendering of Jewish proto-Zionist and Kaballistic ideas has made it a controversial final statement of one of the greatest of Victorian novelists.
1820: Birthdate of Danish native Moses Abraham Cohn, the son of Abraham Cohm
1826: Birthdate of Italian patriot Enrico Guastalla who fought in the wars that led to the unification of Italy.
1826: Joseph Joseph married Hannah Cohen at the Great Synagogue today.
1830: Birthdate of James Picciotto, the son of Aleppo born Anglo-Jewish businessman and community leader Moses Haim Picciotto, who sat on the Council of Jews and wrote Sketches of Anglo-Jewish History published in 1875.
1830: Lord Palmerston who would defend David Pacifico “as this “man of Jewish persuasion” and about whom he “made a celebrated speech which concluded that all British subjects ought to be able to say, as did citizens of ancient Rome, "Civis Romanus sum" ("I am a citizen of Rome"), and thereby receive protection from the British government, “began his first term as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
1833: Two day after she had passed away, 59 year old “Elizabeth (Lazarus) Jacobs, the wife of Elias Jacobs with whom she had had four children, was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1837: Israel Benjamin Phillips, the son Abigail Seixas and Benjamin Jonas Phillips married Harriet Jackson today in New York after which they had one son Benjamin Phillips.
1838: Children of Löbl Strakosch and Julia Schwarz gave birth to Ludwig, the 15th of their 16 children.
1841: Birthdate of Theresa Wile, the wife of Levi Adler and mother of Isaac Adler the Harvard trained lawyer who served as Mayor of Rochester, NY.
1843: Joseph Belasco married Rachel Tolano at the Bevis Marks Synagogue today.
1843: Samuel Phillips married Rachel Davis today at the Great Synagogue.
1845: In the UK, Charlotte von Rothschild and Lionel de Rothschild gave birth to their third son Leopold de Rothschild who was also the youngest of their five children.
1847: Two days after she had passed away, 68 year old Sarah (Levin) Russell, the wife of Moses Russell, with whom she had had nine children was buried today at the Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1848: Jonas Phillips Levy married Frances (Fanny) Mitchell today. Born in 1807, he was the younger brother of Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy and the son of Michael Levy and Rachel Phillips. This native of Philadelphia, commanded the U.S.S. America during the Mexican-American War. He continued his career as a merchant and sea captain until his death in New York in 1883.
1850: In France, David and Gertrude Caroline Kahn gave birth to Lazard Kahn who in 1866 came to the United States where he eventually became President of the Estate Stove Company in Hamilton, OH and who was “made Chevalier of Legion of Honor by France” while raising a family with ihs wife Coarlie Alice Kahn
1852: The New York Times reported the Baron James Rothschild has just named as a recipient of the Order of the Iron Crown, Second Class. It is ironic that the award which conferred the status of nobility should have been awared at a time when the Jews of Austria are worried about a possible loss of rights.
1852: “The Austrian Jews” published today reported that Jews of Austria are worried that they will lose all of the gains they have made since the revolution and will be forced to return to the repressive status under which they lived prior to 1848. The author contends that the Jews will continue to enjoy most of their newly won rights including that of acquiring real estate and living where they please. They will once again be banned from holding any state position that “brings them in contact with the public in a judicial capacity.
1854: Two hundred people gathered at the Chinese Assembly Rooms tonight to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the Hebrew Benevolent Society in New York City.
1857(5th of Kislev, 5618): Forty-three year old Austrian published Wolf Pascheles passed away today.
1858: Denver, Colorado is founded. Jews have been active in Denver from its very beginning. Fred Z. Salomon and his brother Hyman led the first large pack train into the settlement that would become Denver. The two were "fifty-niners" who were later joined in Colorado by their brother Adolph. A native of Strelno, Posen, Prussia, Fred worked at various trading centers in New Mexico Territory before leading a supply train from Independence, MO to Auraria, the village across the river from the soon to be created Denver. Fred devoted his life to business and cultural ventures in the Mile High City. He started a brewery which the Rocky Mountain News “noted speedily decreased the local consumption of strychnine whiskey and Taos Lightning.” In 1860, Fred and Hyman started what would become the Denver Water Company. Fred “helped organize the Auriaria and Denver Chess Club and literary Society, later the Colorado Pioneer Society the Denver Public Library and the Denver B’Nai Brith Lodge.” In a time when rail travel was critical to commercial success, the elder Salomon helped lead the fight to bring the Denver Pacific and Kansas Pacific railroads to Denver. Fred also found time to serve as territorial treasurer. Such total identification with his adopted hometown stands in stark contrast with the decision of member of the Denver Club - the name of the “chess and literary society head helped found” to bar Jews starting in 1881. Other Jews connected with Denver in its early days were Otto Mears who arrived in Colorado in 1852, and Sam Flax, who after several false starts, meet success in the restaurant and hotel business. [For more information about Denver Jewry see the website of the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society and Pioneer Jews by Harriet and Fred Rochlin.]
1858: The New York Times published a copy of a letter that appeared in this week’s Jewish Messenger addressed to the President of the Hebrew Congregation in the United States and others from Sir Moses Montefiore, the President of the London Committee of Deputies for the Jews. The letter called for the American Jewish community to join its co-religionists in England, Holland France in seeking the support of their government in having the Mortara child returned to his parents and to avoid any such future seizures. It summarized the threat that the seizure Edgardo Mortara posed to Jews and “every other denomination of faith” except the Roman Catholics. Montefiore reiterated that this was not just a matter of religious freedom. The behavior of the Catholic Church placed “in peril, personal liberty, social relations and the peace of families.”
1858: The New York Times reported that “our Jewish fellow-citizens will shortly hold a mass meeting in one of our large public halls, to denounce the unjustifiable abduction of Mortara’s child by the Roman inquisition. The Israelitish communities of France, Holland and England have already considered the subject, and a meeting of the Jews of Philadelphia has recently been held to take action in the same matter.
1859: In London Julia Messeena and William Flatau gave birth to Jeanette Flatau, the wife of Adolph Tuck and mother of Gladys, Sybil, Desmond and Mariel Tuck
1860(8th of Kislev, 5621): Sixty-seven year old historian Isaak Marcus Jost passed away today.
1862: First Lieutenant Levi Myers, began serving with Company of the 178th Regiment.
1863: The “First Hebrew Ladies’ Mutual Benefit Association” whose members included Mrs. Ike Adams was founded today in San Francisco.
1864: Philadelphian Isaac M. Abraham, who had been wounded “near Deep Bottom, VA, and who had risen to the rank of Major in the 85th Regiment completed his three year enlistment today.
1865(4th of Kislev, 5626): Seventy-eight year old Grace Seixas, the Newport, RI born daughter of Joachabed Levy and Moses Seixas and the wife of Benjamin Cohen passed away today in NYC.
1866: Ernest Abraham an English medical journalist who was the son of a London dentist was appointed as a poorlaw inspector today which provided him with the opportunity to the reform of the treatment of sick poor throughout England” and work for the successful adoption of the Infant Life Protection Act of 1872.
1869: In Boston, Simon K and Fannie (Bennett) Cohen gave birth to attorney and Special Justice for the Municipal Court of Boston Abraham K. Cohen, the husband of Sadie Rosnosky, the father of Sadie Cohen and the father-in-law of Max E. Bernkopf.
1870: In Reading, PA, “Raphael Austrian and Fannie Elizabeth Dreifoos” gave birth to “self-taught painter” who “began to paint at the age of nine” and whose works include “Temptations, “After the Race” and “The Intruder.”
1870: The Ladies Bikur Cholim Society held their 9th annual ball tonight at the Apollo Hall. Due to inclement weather, the event was not well attended.
1874: In Philadelphia, Isaac and Eva (Lowenstein) Bloch gave birth to Louis Bloch, the husband of Jeanette and “director of various building and loan associations who was a member of the board of directors of Congregation Adath Jeshurun.
1875: Vice President Henry Wilson passed away today making Thomas W. Ferry, the President pro tempore of the Senate, next in line if the President of the United States should pass. Perry, along with President Grant, would attend the services consecrating Adas Israel in Washington, DC in 1876. This meant that the two top leaders of the United States government attended the consecration of a Jewish house of worship for the first time in the nation’s history.
1875: Pavel Axelrod and his wife Nadezhda Ivanovna Kaminer, one of his former students gave birth to their child, Vera, today.
1877: Seligman Hirsch, a New York fur dealer was found guilty of receiving stolen goods. He was defended by Albert Jacob Cardozo. Under the law, Hirsch could have been sentenced to five years in prison but in response to the jury’s recommendation for mercy, the judge sentenced the Jewish businessman to only two years in the state prison.
1878: It was reported today that New York has 375 houses of worship, 25 of which are synagogues of Jewish Temples.
1878: In Frankfort, multi-millionaire Adolphe Benedict Hayum Goldschmidt, who permanently moved to London in 1895 and Alice Emma Moses Merton daughter of Joseph Benjamin Moses aka Moses Merton gave birth to Franck Adolphe Benedict Goldschmidt who gained famed Francis Benedict Hyam Goldsmith, a British MP and “luxury hotel tycoon.”
1879: David McAdam is scheduled to deliver a lecture tonight at the Young Men’s Hebrew Union in Clarendon Hall followed by musical and literary entertainment.
1879: The Young Ladies Charitable Union, an organization made up of 72 Jewish woman chaired by Julia Richman, are scheduled to host a fund raiser at the Opera House on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. The entertainment will include nine tableaux representing the nine muses and a children’s pantomime followed by an evening of dancing. The money raised will go to supply New York’s poor with shoes. Last winter the Union provided over 900 pairs of shoes for the needy.
1880: It was reported today that there are 3 and a half million people living in Holland, 100,000 of whom are Jews. A million are Catholics and the rest are Protestants.
1882: It was reported today that Herr Meyer killed Captain Emerich in a duel fought at Wurzburg. Meyer had challenged the gentile over a matter of honor.
1884: Sir Moses Montefiore has had another attack of the bronchial affection just after the celebration of his one hundredth birthday, and is now confined to his bed at his home near Ramsgate.
1885: The San Francisco Call reported today that the late Senator William Sharon had bequeathed $5,000 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of San Francisco.
1885: It was reported today that the annual Charity Ball sponsored by the Purim Association will be held in February of 1886.
1885: It was reported today that Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler will officiate at Temple Beth-El’s Thanksgiving Services in New York City.
1886(24th of Cheshvan, 5647): Samuel Isaac, the brother of Saul Isaac, the first Jew to be elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Conservative Party whose varied business activities included establishing “a large business as an army contractor” and the construction of the Mersey Railway Tunnel, passed away today.
1886: Birthdate of Los Angeles native Mendel B. Silberberg, the powerful entertainment industry attorney and fund raiser who “was a pallbearer at Louis B. Mayer’s funeral and a delegate to the Republican Presidential Conventions” from 1948 through 1960.
1886: Based on information that first appeared in the London Times, it was reported today that Levy Isaacs, an old German Jewish peddler who dealt in sponges and jewelry died as a result of house fire at his home on Ashburner Street, Bolton.
1886: Following the recent Massachusetts State Supreme Court decision requiring the enforcement of the state’s Sunday closing laws, it was reported that the police have been making a list of the peddlers who were buying supplies at the Jewish businesses on Salem Street yesterday, Sunday. Up until now, the police have not enforced the law where Jewish businessmen are concerned because the Jews closed their businesses on Saturday in observance of their Sabbath.
1887: Today, Mark Percy Da Maduro Peixotto, the Cleveland born son of Benjamin Franklin Peixotto and Hannah Straus and director general of the Equitable Life Assurance Company “married Katherine de Sadowska, daughter of General de Sadowska, on 22 Nov 1887 at his parents' home in New York City.”
1888: Rabbi Alexander Kohut will officiate at the funeral services for Simon Lederer who will be interred in Cypress Hills.
1889: In Denver, Rabbi Joseph Zeisler, the Hungarian born son of Eduard and Josefine Zeisler and his wife Irma Zeisler gave birth to Paula Zeisler.
1889(28th of Cheshvan, 5650): Seventy-two year old Levi Ali Cohen the Dutch physician and author who was also “a member of the committee on Jewish affairs in Holland” for twenty years.
1890:Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen, presented “a report of the past year’s work done by” the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of which she is the President. During the past year, home run by the society has admitted 153 children, discharged 179 children and is currently caring for 566 children.
1890: Birthdate of Baltimore native Edwin Posner “who began a 61-year Wall Street career as a $5-a-week runner and rose to the chairmanship of the American Stock Exchange.”
1891: Birthdate of German born historian Victor Ehrenberg whose illustrious family includes his sons Sir Geoffrey Elton, the British historian and physicist Lewis Elton.
1892: It was reported today that until the Hungarian parliament passes the bills for the state recognition of the Jewish religion “special regulations to enforce the registration of children of mixed marriages would be made.”
1893: Birthdate of Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich one of the original Bolshevik’s who survived all of the purges and would actually live longer than the Soviet Union existed.
1894: In Richmond, today, for the second Thanksgiving in a row, Christians and Jews prayed together at Beth Ahabah as Dr. Moses D. Hoge of the Second Presbyterian Church shared the pulpit with Rabbi Calisch and Rabbi Koplowitz “of Keneseth Israel Congregation offered a prayer.”
1894: Dr. Kerr of the First Presbyterian Church delivered the sermon and assisted in the conduct of religious services at Beth Ahabah Synagogue, in what was the first time that Jews and Christians worshipped together in the Virginia City.
1895: Samuel Greenbaum, a prominent New York lawyer was reported to have expressed the view that the Jews of New York would “take no notice” of the Dr. Hermann Ahlward the German anti-Semite who is scheduled to deliver a series of lectures in the United States. Echoing the sentiment of most other Jews, Greenbaum said “the Jewish people do not have anything to fear from…this disciple of German anti-Semitism” because “the American people are not like to be influenced by the wild and unfounded accusations which in the stock in trade of anti-Semites.”
1896: Michaelis Machol, the Rabbi of the Sparrow Avenue Temple, plans on delivering a talk today expressing his opposition to the Thanksgiving message issued by President Cleveland that invokes the image of Jesus “as a mediator between man and God.” This would not be his last entrance into the Separation of Church and State fray. In 1901, Machol joined other rabbis and lay leaders in “protesting the decision of the board of the Cleveland Public Schools to begin each school day with the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the 23rd Psalm.”
1896: “President Cleveland Criticized” published today provided expression of rabbinic displeasure over Grover Cleveland’s Christologically laced Thanksgiving proclamation including Cincinnati Rabbi David Phillipson’s state that the Jews “feel excluded from the invitation to observe the day.” (Full disclosure – some of his indignation might have been politically motivated since Phillipson was a Republican and Cleveland was a Democrat.)
1896: The Hebrew Institute will be the site of the Harmony Musical Society’s concert this evening.
1896:”Dr. Emil G. Hirsch, the rabbi at Temple Sinai, “predicts the downfall of the Jewish Sabbath. He declares that the seventh day tradition of the race is doomed, wiped from the Hebraic calendar swallowed up in the necessity of adapting the religion to the customs of the countries in it may be transplanted. (Just as the Jew has kept the Sabbath, so has the Sabbath kept the Jew – from the Saturday morning service.)
1897: In a speech delivered today, Reverend Samuel Frender, a convert to Christianity told a meeting of Methodist clergyman that “the average Jew believed that Christians had a prejudice against them.”
1897: Charles Schapiro…the young Russian Jew who shot and killed Louis Lieberman at a wedding at 123 Henry Street” and tried to kill his sweetheart Yetta Gordon was arraigned in the Essex Market Court” today.
1897: In London, the House Committee of the Jews’ Hospital and Orphan Asylum is scheduled to meet this afternoon.
1897: Four days after she had passed away, 41 year old Sarah Franks, the wife of Abraham Franks was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery.
1897: In London, the Board of Management of the Home and Hospital for Jewish Incurables is scheduled to meet this evening
1897: In a move that might surprise some advocates of the separation of church and state, a summary of Rabbi Gustave Gottheil published included his expression of displeasure over Tammany Hall’s victory “in the recent election” saying that “he had wished the election had gone the other way.”
1899: In Paris, the Senate sitting as a High Court for the trial of the conspiracy, which has already heard testimony from the President of the League of Anti-Semitic that the demonstrations he arranged were anti-Dreyfus protests and not a plot to overthrow the Republic, resumed its deliberations today. The Senate was investigating charges of treason that included many leaders of the anti-Semitic movement in France who were also anti-democratic rightists.
1900(30th of Cheshvan, 5661) Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1900: An entertainment and reception by the Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore Home” under the leadership of Mortimer Haymen,, Miss A.R. Rosenthal, Miss Flora Blinn, B. J. Greenhut and Selon May, is scheduled to take place this evening at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
1901: The St. Petersburg correspondent of The Times of London said today that General Vannovsky, the Minister of Education “refused to discuss the request that Jews be admitted on a more liberal scale” with a group of Moscow students.
1902: Birthdate of Galicia native Emanuel Feuermann, the world class cellist who found fame playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and who died unexpectedly in 1942 as the result of an infection contracted during a minor surgical procedure.
1903: “The Sons and Daughters of Zion of Sioux City, IA held a grand ball and mass meeting” today “in honor of the grand master of the Order of the Knights of Zion, Mr. Leon Zolotkoff of Chicago who spoke for two hours.”
1903: Sigismund Kalischer and Helen Teresa Kalischer gave birth to Iowa State University trained refrigeration engineer and Westinghouse employee Milton Kalischer whose place of birth has been given as either Denver, CO or Huntington, Massachusetts.
1903: Birthdate of Warsaw native Joshua Gelbfarb-Gilad, the Yiddish and Hebrew author who served on the faculty of the Ramaz School.
1904: Birthdate of Ukraine native Isaiah Rabinovich, the graduate of the University Toronto and JTS who taught modern Hebrew at the college level while writing for a number of Yiddish publications.
1905: In Russia, it was a reported today that a cabinet minister explained the attacks on the Jews by saying that “the prejudice against the Jews among the ignorant lower classes of Russia is not imaginary. It is deplorable but true that the people under the old regime were saturated with the idea that the Jews were their oppressors. If the Jews were to receive equal rights with Russians, the latter would accept it as confirmation of the suspicions they already harbor on account of recent developments that the Emperor has been betrayed and nothing the Central Government could do would prevent the most frightful massacres.”
1905: Three days after he had passed away, 67 year old Levi Cohen, the husband of the former “Bloom Woolf” with whom he had had four children was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1905: It was reported today that Prince Ursoff, the new Assistant Minister of the Interior said “that the Jews were to a certain extent to blame” for the anti-Semitic violence “on account of their too open exultation over their new-found liberties.”
1905: Dr. J.L. Magnes, the President of the Jewish Defense Association and Treasurer Joseph Barondess have issued another appeal for funds which agents of the Bund and the Zionists will use to purchase arms and ammunition to be used by the Jews of Russia to defend themselves from the attacks of mobs from which the government has failed to protect them.
1905: Edward A. Lauterbach presided over a mass meeting tonight at Temple Israel sponsored by “a committee of university men” seeking to provide aid for the Russian Jews.
1905: Max Stern who lives at 286 Hunterdon Street in Newark, NJ, received a letter today from Benjamin Rappaport of Nicolaiev, Russia describing the recent riots that took place in that city where the “mob broke open the doors of the stores, smashed the windows and scattered the good” while taking “babies and children” and throwing “them as high in the air as they could and letting them come down on the paving stones to be crushed to death.”
1905: Hundreds of Russian Jewish families are reported leaving or preparing to leave for Palestine.
1906: It was reported today that Isaac N. Seligman will serve as Treasurer for the Memorial Committee that has been formed to erect a bronze monument in either Washington or New York that will honor the late Carl Schurz.
1907: It was reported today that “the Anti-Clericals who had gained a great victory in the municipal elections” have decided to elect Ernest Nathan who was a native of England and who had only recently become an Italian subject Mayor of Rome making him the first Jew to hold this position.
1908: “Paris Has Yiddish Theatre” published today reported that “Parisians were astonished to learn that a Hebrew theatre of the sort which exists on the Bowery in New York has been open” in the French capital for quite “some time” at the corner of Rue Saint Denis and Rue Etienne Marcle where performances of both Yiddish translations of classics such as “Hamlet” and original plays based on “Jewish historical subjects” that have already been performed in New York and London take place on an irregular basis
1908: In Bessarabia, “pharmacist David Ackerman and Bertha (Greenberg) Ackerman gave birth to Columbia trained psychiatrist Nathan Ward Ackerman, who served as the “chief psychiatrist at the Menninger Clinic” as well as serving in the capacity for “the Jewish Board of Guardians in New York City”
1909: Birthdate of Mikhail Leontyevich Mil a founder of the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, which is responsible for many of the well-known Russian helicopter models, notably the Mil Mi-24 'Hind'. He passed away in 1970.
1909(9th of Kislev, 5670): Six year old Itzig Rabinowitz passed away today.
1909: Speaking in Yiddish, twenty-three-year-old Clara Lemlich addressed a crowd of thousands of restless laborers at New York City's Cooper Union. “I am one of those who suffer from the abuses described here, and I move that we go on a general strike.” The audience of workers had been listening for hours as numerous labor leaders decried current working conditions in New York's garment industry but who nonetheless advocated caution when considering a strike. Lemlich's words and passion stirred the crowd. The chairman of the event came to her side and called out “Will you take the old Hebrew oath?” Although not an exclusively Jewish gathering, most in the crowd raised their right arms and pledged with him in Yiddish: “if I turn traitor to the cause I now pledge, may my hand wither from the arm I now raise.” And so began the “Uprising of the 20,000,” a critical turning point in American labor activism. In the months that followed, thousands of garment workers, mainly young Jewish and Italian women walked picket lines and confronted police brutality. The Jewish women, including Lemlich, Rose Schneiderman, and Pauline Newman, who worked tirelessly to organize and sustain the strike effort, insisted that their concerns extended beyond wages and hours. They fought for dignity in working conditions and for women's right to union recognition. While the strike was only partially successful, it set off a wave of general strikes from 1909-1915 in cities across the United States. As a result, U.S. labor leaders who had long dismissed the needs of women workers and ignored the work of female activists had to accept the centrality of women's needs within the American labor movement.
1910: Birthdate of Ervin György Patai, who as Raphael Patai would gain fame as an ethnographer and anthropologist.
1911: “There was a well-defined report in Washington today that President Taft in his forthcoming message to Congress might have something to say on the subject of probable negotiations between the United States and Russia looking to a revision of the treaty of 1832, principally to remove the present restrictions upon the rights of travel and domicile of American Jews in Russia.”
1912(12th of Kislev, 5673): Civil War veteran Alfred Pels passed away today in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1912(12th of Kislev, 5673): Eighty-nine year old merchant Zachary Bruenn passed away today in New Orleans, LA.
1912(12th of Kislev, 5673): Civil War veteran Morris Pfaelzer passed away today in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1913(22nd of Cheshvan, 5674): Parashat Chayei Sara
1913(22nd of Cheshvan, 5674: Eighteen year old Moshe Barsky, “a member of Degania Alef, the kibbutz founded in 1909” who had ridden off on a mule to get medication for Shmuel Dayan, the father of Moshe Dayan was killed today by “persons unknown” who left his body “lying with a stick and a pair of shoes on his head.”
1913: “Our Financial Oligarchy” by Louis Brandies which would become the first chapter in Other People's Money And How the Bankers Use It was published today in Harper’s Weekly.
1914: A review of Zionism by Professor Richard H. Gottheil was published today.
1914: “Stamp Tax for Jewish Relief” published today described positive response to “the one self-taxation stamp issued by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews” that has included the formation by the Young Men’s Hebrew Associations of “Enlistment Clubs” where each members has pledged to contribute 10 cents a week.
1914: According to an announcement made tonight by the American Jewish Committee “the Turkish Government has assured the State Department…that is will not expel Russian Jews residing in the Ottoman Empire. (The important impact of this was on the Jews of Palestine, a large number of whom had come from Russia starting in the 1880’s and were viewed as potential enemies by the Turks who were fighting the Czar)
1914: For the second time in two weeks, Al McCoy the New Jersey born Jewish Middleweight World Champion successfully defended his crown.
1914: As the First Battle of Ypres sputtered to a close on the Western Front, Jews in the BEF and the Kaiser’s Army settled in for what would be the first of several long winters on the Western Front that would not end until November, 1918,
1914: “At a conference of the lodges affiliated with the Workmen’s Circle and other Rumanian organizations representing 5,000 members” held today, “it was decided to protest against the loan that a delegation from Rumania will be requesting from the United States.
1915: A memorial service will be held this morning and this evening in honor of Dr. Solomon Schechter.
1915: Maurice Blumenthal, the general counsel of the Independent Order Free Sons of Israel was reported to have said that his organization would lead a nationwide non-sectarian campaign against the Gary Plan saying that “the separation of religion from American institutions is regarded as one of the safeguards of American progress” and that “the church and the home must remain the place for religious instruction and activity” while “the public schoolroom must be the last place in which discussions on religious distinctions shall be made possible or tolerated.
1915: In Germany Dr. Israel Abraham Rabin and Dr. Ester Else Rabin gave birth to Professor Chaim Menachem Rabin
1915: “Jews Oppose Gary Plan” published today described the Sons of Israel’s plans for a national campaign to bring an end to the education program fostered by William Wirt.
1915: “The seventh annual meeting of the Sisterhood of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue was held” this evening “in the basement of the Synagogue of Shearith Israel at 2 West Seventieth Street.
1915: “A movement to raise millions of dollars for the relief of Jewish war sufferers in Europe was inaugurated” tonight “at a meeting of Jewish business and professional men in the Hotel McAlpin attended by among others, Jacob H. Schiff, Congressman Meyer London, Herman Bernstein and Colonel Harry Cutler of Provident presided over by Dr. J.L. Manges.
1916: In New York plans were reported for memorial services to be held this Saturday in numerous synagogues on the east side to mark the passing of Emperor Franz Josef.
1917(7th of Kislev, 5678): Seventy-seven year old chief rabbi and Chevalier of the Legion of Honor Joseph Lehmann passed away today in Paris.
1917: As Allenby’s forces, including the 38th and 39th Battalions known as the Jewish battalions, made their way towards Jerusalem, Turkish forces made three fruitless counter-attacks in an attempt to dislodge the British from Nebi Samwil.
1917: Woodrow Wilson became the first president to publicly endorse a national Jewish philanthropic campaign when he sent a letter to Jacob Schiff, today calling for wide support of the United Jewish Relief Campaign, which was raising funds for European War relief.
1917: Birthdate of St. Louis native and Bronze Star WW II Army Veteran, Melvin Kranzberg, the Harvard trained founder of the “Society for the History of Technology” who was a history professor at Case Western Reserve and Georgia Tech.
1917: Felix M. Warburg, President of the Federation of Jewish Charities, issued an appeal today for the eighty-four societies for which the federation had raised $2,300,000 during the past year to carry on with their work despite the increasing challenges being faced by the Jewish community.
1918: In Prague, “the Jewish National council for the Czecho-Slovak State” sent a “telegram to the International Zionist Organization” thanking “the British Government for its declaration on Palestine.”
1918: As Poles and Ukrainians clash in the anarchy that followed the breakup of the Russian Empire Polish forces began a two day attack on the Jewish community of Lemberg (Lvov).
1920: “The Parents’ Association of the Free Synagogue of the Bronx” is scheduled to “give a theater party for its members and friends” today.
1921: Birthdate of comedian and comedic actor Rodney Dangerfield. Dangerfield passed away in 2004. His ill-fitting black suits and shirts with the too-tight collar were as much a part of his comedic signature as was the lament, “I don’t get no respect.”
1922: Grigori Sokolnikov began serving as People’s Commissar for Finance of the RSFSR.
1923: In Edmonton, Alberta, Rose (Garfin) and Harry Hiller gave birth to movie director Arthur Hiller whose best known movie was the saccharine film of the 70’s – Love Story for which he can be forgiven because he also direct Paddy Chayefsky’s “The Americanization of Emily.”
1923: Birthdate of Hanna Meierzak, the German child actress who made Aliyah in 1933 where she gained fame as actress Hanna Maron.
1923: At the Commonwealth Sporting Club, Charlie Phil Rosenberg, born Charles Green on the Lower East Side won a twelve round decision on points as he advanced toward becoming the World Bantamweight Champion.
1924: Birthdate of Alfred G. Paulson, the husband of Jacqueline Boklan and the father hedge fund manager John Alfred Paulson
1926: Featherweight Harry Blitman fought and won his seventh straight bout.
1926: “Pals in Paradise” a silent film starring Rudolph Schildkraut “as Abraham Lezinsky” was released in the United States today.
1927: George Gershwin's "Funny Face," premieres in New York City.
1927: “The Racket” a three-act drama co-starring Edward G. Robinson playing the first of the gangster roles which would he would make famous in numerous films, opened on Broadway the Ambassador Theatre.
1928: “A dispatch to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Bucharest” today “said that the Zionist groups of Transylvania and Bukovina had made a political alliance with the National Peasant Party assuring six parliamentary seats to the Zionists.”
1929: Birthdate of Polish native Ben Helfgott, a survivor of Buchenwald and Theresienstadt who went to compete as a weightlifter in the Olympics for the United Kingdom and who was knighted in 2018.
1930(2nd of Kislev, 5691): Parashat Toldot
1930: The Northwestern Wildcats with Hy Crizevksy playing guard lost their last game of the season when they were defeated by Notre Dame.
1930: Michigan State University, led by running back Abe Eliowitz, finished the season with a tie against Detroit Mercy which meant their record for the year was 5-1-2.
1931: In article entitled “Palestine Goes to the Theatre”, Jean Jaffe reports approvingly on the wide scope of theatrical productions offered by the Jewish community including productions of Shaw’s “Devil’s Desciple” which was produced under the Hebrew names “Bechor Hasatan”, Upton Sinclair’s “The Pot Boiler” and Zweig’s “Jeremiah.”
1932: It was reported today, that “Professor Gustav Klausner of St. Louis University” has been elected president of the newly created organization designed to consolidate “all work for the building of the Jewish national home in Palestine that will impact seven national Jewish organizations.
1933: In Paris, Elisabeth Pelletier de Chambure, a French Catholic aristocrat and Phillipe de Rothschild, who were not married to each other yet gave birth to Baroness Philippine Mathilde Camille de Rothschild.
1933: Incorporation of the Anti-Nazi League
1933: Birthdate of Dr. David Reuben author of the ground-breaking Everything You Always Wanted To About Sex (but were afraid to ask).
1934: "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" was first heard on Eddie Cantor's radio program. And you thought that “White Christmas” was the only Christmas song with a Jewish connection.
1934: In an effort to curb “excessive rentals,” Tel Aviv’s Municipal Council vote to impose “regulations for the fixing of a maximum rate of rent for all business and residential property.”
1935: “Crime and Punishment,” a film based on the novel of the same name directed by Josef von Sternberg, produced by B.P. Schulberg and starring Peter Lorre was released in the United States.
1935: Following his unexpected demise yesterday, today “Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch was praised by civic leaders and officials as a public servant who had made himself a martyr to duty, a conscientious citizen and as a leader of the Jewish effort in New York.”
1935: “The Perfect Gentleman” produced by Harry Rapf was released today in the United States.
1936: Emir Abduallah fails in his attempt to convince Palestinian Arabs to give testimony before the Peel Commission.
1936: Birthdate of Fred Wilpon the Bensonhurst native who made his fortune in real estate before he purchased the New York Mets.
1936: Birthdate of Dr. Albert Bernard Ackerman. A native of Elizabeth, NJ who graduated from Princeton and Columbia Medical School, Ackerman was a founding figure in the field of dermatopathology who trained a generation of doctors to recognize skin diseases under the microscope
1937: The Palestine Post reported that in Beirut four persons lost their lives and more than 60 were wounded in demonstrations protesting the closing down by French authorities of several Lebanese political organizations. Over 300 arrests were made. Palestine was not the only scene of unrest in the Middle East prior to World War II.
1937(18th of Kislev, 5698):
1937: Mathematician Fritz Noether was arrested on charges of being a German spy who not only spied on the Russian armament industry but committed acts of sabotage against it
1937: The Palestine Post reported that in Vienna the local Jewish community conducted a winter relief appeal for funds to feed some 1,800 needy residents daily.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that 2,000 delegates attended the Palestine Conference in Warsaw. They were addressed by Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. Ben-Zvi would gain fame as the second President of Israel.
1938: Beersheba, after having been in the hands of Arab rebels since it was abandoned by the government civil authorities six weeks ago, was occupied by British troops today. All towns in Palestine that the Arab rebels had seized are now controlled by the British military although Arab terrorists are still active.
1938: “Robert Ley, the Nazi Minister of Labour declared the today in Vienna: "No compassion will be tolerated for the Jews. We deny the Pope's statement that there is but one human race. The Jews are parasites." Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Schuster of Milan, Cardinal van Roey in Belgium and Cardinal Verdier in Paris, backed the Pope's strong condemnation of Kristallnacht.”
1939: While on the witness stand in General Sessions Court today, Fritz Kuhn, the German-American Bund leader admitted “he had lied to Mrs. Florence Camp…and had lied again to the jury hearing evidence of larceny charges against him
1939: The Balfour Players are scheduled to perform “Trial,” “a play concerning the Jews, Arabs and English in Palestine by Miss Shoshanah Bat Dori at the Heckschler Theatre on Fifth Avenue.
1939(10th of Kislev, 5700): Moissaye Joseph Olgin, a Russian-born writer, journalist, and translator in the early 20th century passed away. He found the Morgen Freiheit, a New York City Yiddish Newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party, among whose stated aims was the promotion of the Jewish labor movement and the defeat of racism in the United States.
1939(10th of Kislev, 5700): Seventy-five year old Louis Pokroisky, a native of Lithuania the president of the Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Roxbury and managing director of the Hebrew Free Loan Society of Boston who had been married to Deborah H. Brody for 54 years passed away today in Boston
1939: Supreme Court Justice Julius Miller said today that “payment to the German government of $3,700 from the $60,000 estate of Mrs. Lucy A. Peck will be authorized if proof is submitted that such a payment will result in the release of Mrs. Peck’s brother,” 71 year old Rudolf A. Strauss, a Jew currently being held in a German prison.
1939: In Newark, NJ, Alice (née Lavroff) and Philip Goorwitz gave birth to Allen Goorwitz who gained fame as actor Allen Garfield
1939: “Harry A. Jung, honorary general manager of the American Vigilant Intelligence Federation…made public today letters to Representative Martin Dies,” chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee denying “that he or the federation had any connection with Nazi organizations.”
1939(10th of Kislev, 5700): In Warsaw, Poland a Jew killed an officer. As punishment for the crime, all 53 male inhabitants of his building were summarily shot.
1940: “Little Nellie Kelly” a musical comedy directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Arthur Freed was released in the United States by MGM.
1940: Prime Minister Winston Churchill writes to Lord Lloyd, the Secretary of State for the Colonies who is an opponent of Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel, cautioning him to make that Jewish internees on island of Mauritius be treated humanely.
1941(2nd of Kislev, 5702): Kurt Koffka passed away. Koffka was born and educated in Germany. The famed psychologist moved to America in 1928. With Wolfgang Köhler and Max Wertheimer, he co-founded the Gestalt school of psychology. Koffka became in time the most influential spokesman of Gestalt psychology. He applied it to child development, learning, memory and emotion. The name Gestalt, meaning form or configuration, emphasizes that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychology grew as reaction against the traditional atomistic approach to the human being where behavior was analyzed into constituent elements called sensations. He made an influential distinction between the behavioral and the geographical environments - the perceived world of common sense and the world studied by scientists.
1942: During WW II, “a Soviet counteroffensive” trapped “about a quarter of a million German soldiers” within Stalingrad marking the slow beginning of the turning point that will lead to the ultimate defeat of the Nazis and the saving of the remnant of European Jewry.
1942 (13th of Kislev, 5703): “Dr. Benzion Mossinsohn, noted Hebrew educator, Zionist leader and a member of the Jewish National Council died…today in the Hadassah Hospital at the age of 64, after a long illness. He was the found and head of the Herzlia Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, the leading secondary school in Palestine.” Dr. Mossinsohn visited New York for the first time in 1912 as a representative of the Gymnasium of Jaffa “the first strictly Jewish school to be established in Palestine in 2,000 years.” During the visit, Mossinsohn addressed a gathering at Cooper Union during when he declared “Palestine is the land in which to solve the Jewish problem. It will be the land of our salvation if we make it a center of culture and not merely a center for immigration.” Mossinsohn visited the United States again in 1936, the same year in which his son was killed by a land mine explosion that took place during the multi-year long Arab uprising. By now he was President of the World Confederaton of General Zionists and head of the Herzlia Gymnasium in Tel Aviv.
1943: Lebanon gains its independence from France
1943: Birthdate of former MK Naomi Blumenthal who “was one of the founders of the Beersheba theatre” and who served as Deputy Minister of National Infrastructure under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
1943: More than 1000 Jewish patients at a Berlin mental hospital are deported to Auschwitz.
1943(24th of Cheshvan, 5704): Professor Martin Pappenheim, the Viennese psychiatrists passed away today in Tel Aviv at the age of 62. He was the father of Else Pappenheim, MD Austrian-American psychiatrist and neurologist and a colleague of Sigmund Freud.
1943(24th of Cheshvan, 5704): Lyricist Lorenz Hart passed away New York at age 48.
1944: The U.S. Sixth Army Group notified the Alsos Mission that the capture of Strasbourg which was home to a German nuclear laboratory was imminent.
1944(6th of Kislev, 5705): Fifty-eight year old “Dr. Benjamin H. Mann, an ophthalmologist at Methodist Hospital” passed away today at Graduate Hospital “after being ill for six weeks.”
1944: Birthdate of Yitzchak Mordechai, a native of Iraq who made Aliyah in 1949. He became a decorated member of the IDF before beginning a political career that included service as Minister of Defense and Minister of Transport.
1944: Protectors of Jews in Budapest, Hungary, meet with Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg at the city's Swedish legation
1945: In Brooklyn, Morty and Sylvia Okun Bernstein gave birth to Allen J. Bernstein who greatly expanded the high-end Morton’s of Chicago steakhouse chain during his 17 years as chairman, applying what some in the industry called a Big Mac approach to filet mignon. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1945: “The Day Before Spring,” a Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical opened on Broadway at the National Theatre.
1945: The British claim that members of “Jewish underground” took arms from the RAF stationed in Ras el Ain, Syria.
1946: Five days after its premiere in New York City “The Chase” a film noir written by Philip Yordan was released in the rest of the United States today.
1946: Birthdate of Denver born political cartoonist Ed Stein.
1947: “A responsible information asserted tonight” that Soviet “officials have been in direct contact with the Stern group” and that he considered it “an obvious Communist” attempt to influence the group.
1947 Michigan, led by Fullback and Linebacker Dan Dworsky concluded the regular season with a 21-0 win at home against rival Ohio State.
1948: Operation Lot (also known as operation Dabambam in memory of Gershon Dabbenbaum) did not begin today because reinforcements had not arrived which meant the attack would not take place until the following day.
1949: The Petersberg Agreement is an international treaty that extended the rights of the Federal Government of Germany vis-a-vis the occupying forces of Britain, France, and the United States, and which was viewed as the first major step of Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) towards sovereignty was signed by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of the CDU/CSU and the Allied High Commissioners Brian Hubert Robertson (Britain), André François-Poncet (France), and John J. McCloy (United States of America) today in a step meant to return Germany to the family of nations following WW II.
1949: Birthdate of David J. Skorton, who had served as President of the University of Iowa before becoming the 12th president of Cornell University in 2006.
1952(4th of Kislev, 5713): Parashat Tolodot
1952(4th of Kislev, 5713): Forty two year old Louis Edwin Finerman the New York born son of Ida Joffe Finerman and Nathan Feinerman, the President of the Workmen’s Circle passed away today
1954: “Aunt Clara” a British comedy with music by Benjamin Frankel was released in the United Kingdom today.
1955(7th of Kislev, 5716): Sixty year old Shemp Howard, a member of the Three Stooges, died of a heart attack following an evening out with friends watching boxing matches.
1955(7th of Kislev, 5716): Eighty-three year old Isadore “Izzy” Cohen, who along with Samuel Lehrman created the Giant Food grocery chain which a major Washington, DC chain that was the first story of its type to carry challah and where the men in the fish market knew what you need to make gefitle fish, passed away today.
1955(7th of Kislev, 5716): Eighty-six year old Wilmington, Illinois native “Dr. Isaac A. Abt, an international authority on children’s diseases” and a pioneer in the field of pediatrics passed away today in Chicago.
1955: Today, two year after the death of Joseph Stalin, a “Military collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union withdrew the indictments against the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) members due to the lack of evidence.”
1956: "A new Egyptian Nationality Code barred so called 'Zionists' from Egyptian nationality.
1956: The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, which were boycotted by Egypt, Iraq and Lebanon “in response to the Suez Crisis” that had been precipitated by the Egyptian nationalization of the Suez Canal, opened in Melbourne today.
1957: “Bombers B-52” a “Cold War” movie written by Irving Wallace and music by Leonard Rosenman was released today in the United States.”
1957: Simon & Garfunkel appear on "American Bandstand" as "Tom & Jerry"
1958(10th of Kislev, 5719): Parshat Vayetzei
1958(10th of Kislev, 5719): Washington born philanthropist Helen Sonneborn who was “active in bringing German Jewish children to Palestine” and who was “benefactor of Hebrew University and the Technion” passed away today in New York City.
1961: “The George Raft” story, a biopic starring Julie London and featuring Hershel Bernardi and Jack Albertson was released today in the United States.
1963: Filming of the pilot for “Bewitched” created by Sol Saks began today.
1963: John F Kennedy 35th U.S. President was shot dead in Dallas, Texas – a national tragedy which Abraham Zapruder inadvertently filmed. Kennedy enjoyed a great of deal of political support among Jewish voters. He appointed two Jews to his cabinet – Abe Ribicoff to H.E.W. and Arthur Goldberg to Labor. Kennedy would appoint Goldberg to the Supreme Court as a replacement for Felix Frankfurter.
1963: In Austin, TX, “the women of Audas Achim…were working in their new kosher kitchen, mixing potato salad for the several hundred people including Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who were expected to attend the dedication of the new synagogue which was to take place tomorrow. (As reported by Cathy Schechter; full disclosure – I taught pre-bar mitzvah at Agudas Achim five years later)
1964(17th of Kislev, 5725): Seventy-two year old Rabbi Samuel S. Mayerberg, the long-time rabbi at B’nai Jehuda Temple and opponent of corrupt political boss Tom Pendergast passed away today in Kansas City, MO.
1965: Man of La Mancha” a musical with a book by Dale Wasserman and music by Mitch Leigh opens” at the ANTA Washington Square Theatre in Greenwich Village Irving Jacobson, a veteran of the Yiddish Theatre playing “Sancho Panza” (Only in America could a Jew play a major role in play set in what would become the Land of the Inquisition)
1965: Steve Sabol “was the subject of a humorous articled his self-promotion exploits in today’s issue of Sports Illustrated.
1967: Birthdate of tennis star Boris Becker. According to an interview Becker gave in 1999, his mother was Jewess from Czechoslovakia.
1967: English professional football player George Cohen”s “37th and final England appearance came in a 2–0 win over Northern Ireland at Wembley” today
1967: The U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242 as a result of the Six Day War fought in June of that year. The resolution would provide the basis for Israel’s attempts to trade land for peace.
1967: U.N. Secretary General Thant raises issue of restrictions placed on Syrian Jews at the U.N. Security Council during Resolution 242 on the Israeli-Arab conflict. Intervention on behalf of the Jews fails.
1968(1st of Kislev, 5729): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1968(1st of Kislev, 5729): Twelve people were killed and 55 more were injured when terrorists set off a car bomb at the Mahaneh Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.
1968: First interracial kiss on network television takes place between Captain Kirk played by William Shattner, and Lt. Uhura. (Shatner is Jewish.)
1969(12th of Kislev, 5730): Parashat Vayetzei
1969(12th of Kislev, 5730): Bertha Solomon passed away today at the age of 77.
1971: Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971), an Equal Protection case in the United States for which Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the plaintiff’s brief was decided today with the Supreme Court ruling “that the administrators of estates cannot be named in a way that discriminates between sexes.”
1974: The United Nations General Assembly grants the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status. For the PLO, this was a reward for a variety of terrorist acts including the slaughter at the Munich Olympics. What the UN members failed to understand was that others would see this as an approval of terrorism as an instrument for the advancement of their own agendas. There is a direct line between the UN’s action and the radical Islamic terrorists that are confronting the West in the 21st century
1974: “Israeli pop start” Mike Brant suffered fractures after attempting to commit suicide by “jumping out the window of his manager's hotel room in Geneva
1976: Today Izvestia published an article entitled “Formula of betrayal: propagandist ‘of the Zionist paradise’ in the mantle of the scientist”.
1977: Lucio Flaviom a Brazilian film directed by Héctor Babenco premiered at The São Paulo International Film Festival today
1978: “Same Time, Next Year,” a comedy produced by Walter Mirish and with music by Marvin Hamlisch was released today.
1978(22nd of Cheshvan, 5739): San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was Jewish, were assassinated in City Hall by a former city supervisor, Dan White. Dianne Feinstein, who was then the President of the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, was the first to discover Harvey Milk's body. Feinstein who was the first female president of the Board of Supervisors was then sworn in as the first female mayor of San Francisco in Moscone's stead. In 1979, she was elected to the first of two full terms as mayor. In 1992, she won a special Senate election to replace Pete Wilson who had left his seat to become governor of California. She was re-elected in 1994 and 2000.
1979(2nd of Kislev, 5740): Eighty-eight year old George Froeschel, the Viennese born Jewish screenwriter who won an Oscar for the script he wrote for WWII favorite “Mrs. Miniver.”
1981: Sir Hans Adolf Krebs passed away. The son of a Jewish physician, Krebs was forced in 1933 to leave Nazi Germany for England. The German-born British biochemist who received (with Fritz Lipmann) the 1953 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery in living organisms of the series of chemical reactions known as the tricarboxylic acid cycle (also called the citric acid cycle, or Krebs cycle) - the basic system for the essential pathway of oxidation process within the cell.. These reactions involve the conversion - in the presence of oxygen--of substances that are formed by the breakdown of sugars, fats, and protein components to carbon dioxide, water, and energy-rich compounds. The Krebs cycle explains two simultaneous processes: the degradation reactions which yield energy, and the building-up processes which use up energy
1984: In New York, Karsten Johansson and Melanie Sloan whose Ahskenazi family had lived in the Bronx gave birth to actress Scarlett Johansson.
1985: “Fever Pitch” that last film directed by Richard Brooks, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Hyman and Esther Sax was released today in the United States.
1985: “Bad Medicine,” the cinema version the novel Calling Dr. Horowitz by Steven Horowitz, MD starring Steve Guttenberg and Alan Arkin was released in the United States today.
1985: According to the Tower Report Al Schwimmer, a middleman and consultant for Israel's Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, fouled up one arms shipment today when he allowed the lease to expire on three transport planes in Tel Aviv. At the time, weapons for Iran were en route to Tel Aviv: when they arrived, there were no planes to take them to Iran. As a result, the arms delivery to Iran was days late, and no hostages were released. Mr. Schwimmer had been trying to save what amounted to a day's leasing cost. ''I have never seen anything so screwed up in my life,'' General Secord is reported to have said.
1988: William Andreas Brown was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel
1988: ABC broadcast the sixth episode of “War and Remembrance,” “an American miniseries based on the novel of the same name written by Herman Wouk”
1989: The Mirage, Steve Wynn’s “first major casino on the Las Vegas Strip” opened today.
1990: Margaret Thatcher resigns as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Thatcher was seen by many as philo-Semitic and a supporter of Israel. She had been a member of Anglo-Israel Friendship League of Finchley and Conservative Friends of Israel and during her career had five Jewish members of her cabinet.
1991: Mark Rydell’s “For the Boys” co-starring Bette Midler, James Caan and George Segal was released today in the United States.
1991: “Beauty and the Beast, an “animated musical romantic fantasy film” with music by Alan Menken was released today in the United States.
1991: “The Addams Family” a comedy based “on the cartoon of the same name” directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, co-produced by Scott Rudin, with music by Marc Shaiman was released today in the United States.
1992(26th of Cheshvan, 5753): Luise (Lissy) Cohn the German born “daughter of Gustave and Paula Cohn” and wife of Bernard Kaufmann passed away today in Amsterdam.
1993: Edward P. Djerejian was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1993: In an example of Jews telling the tale of other Jews Neil Simon’s “Laughter on the 23rd Floor” a comedy based on his experience as a writer for Sid Caesar opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
1994(19th of Kislev, 5755): Eighty-eight year old Viola Spolin, leading innovator in American theatre passed away today in Los Angeles.
1995: “Two Bits” a drama produced by Arthur Cohn, the namesake of his grandfather who was the Chief Rabbi of Basel.
1995(29th of Cheshvan, 5756): Eighty-three year old Israel Cohen, a co-founder of Giant Food Stores, a grocery chain known to all of those living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area which was the first store of its kind to sell fresh baked Challah and whose fresh fish department employees knew which aquatic creatures were necessary for Gefilte Fish passed away today.
1995: Ehud Barak finished his term as Minister of Internal Affairs.
1995: Ehud Barak replaced Shimon Peres as Minister of Foreign Affiars.
1995: Chaim Ramon began serving as Minister of Internal Affairs in a government headed by Shimon Peres.
1995: Gonen Segev began serving his second term as Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.
1996: After having premiered at the Mall of America on November 16, “Jingle All the Way” a Christmas comedy featuring Laraine Newman and Harvey Korman with music by David Newman was released in the United States
1997: It was reported today the President Bill Clinton was the first recipient …of the Man of Peace Award, established by the Rabin Foundation and the Peres Foundation, two ''peace centers'' financed in part with money from the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize the men shared with Mr. Arafat. Mr. Clinton asked the foundations to devote the $75,000 in prize money to pay for scholarships for Americans to study in Israel.”
1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years 1933-1941 by Victor Klemperer, Freud: Conflict and Culture, edited by Michael S. Roth in association with the Library of Congress and A Likely Story: One Summer With Lillian Hellman by Rosemary Mahoney
1999: In “Final Sabbath for a Spiritual Hub; A Synagogue That Embodied an Earlier Bronx Is Closed” published today Barbara Stewart provided the following description of the Mosholu Jewish Center.
The sign, printed in pencil and taped to the front door of the Mosholu Jewish Center in the north Bronx, said ''Sale.'' But there were no customers, only four women, mostly over 70, who sorted through jumbles of dishes, fabric remnants and memorabilia. There were menorahs for $2 and red Depression-glass cups and dessert plates, $10 for the whole stack. There were china teapots, 75 cents each, with floral designs faded from years of use at B'nai B'rith meetings, and boxes of Hanukkah tablecloths, satin Passover wall hangings, and plaques listing board members of 35 or 40 years ago. ''How about Shirley and Irving Peck?'' one of the women said, paging through a book of black-and-white photographs, bound in red with gold letters: ''Jewish War Veterans, 1974.'' She asked, ''Does anyone know where they are?'' ''They moved to Florida,'' another said. ''Irving died.'' ''Shirley died, too, I think,'' the third said. Seventy-two years ago, scores of newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Europe founded the synagogue. Seventy-two years later, its few remaining members dispensed with its memories. One of the last vestiges of the old Jewish Bronx, the Orthodox synagogue on Hull Avenue in Norwood had outlived nearly all of its neighbors, the synagogues that once dotted the east Bronx and Grand Concourse neighborhoods, along with the kosher butchers, the Yiddish libraries and the leftist groups like the Workmen's Circle. Had it not been for the stubborn devotion of Rabbi Herschel Schacter, who had led it since 1947, the Mosholu Jewish Center would have closed at least 10 years ago. Rabbi Schacter, for years one of the country's most prominent and powerful rabbis, kept showing up as the membership shrank from thousands to hundreds, hundreds to handfuls, raising money from outside sources and preparing the same impressive sermons week after week. But last year, with fewer than 50 members, nearly all in their 70's or 80's, the 80-year-old rabbi agreed to begin the laborious process of closing the synagogue, finding an acceptable buyer and disposing of the sacred objects. The tag sale late last month was the final step in getting rid of the remaining odds and ends before the new owner, a Head Start program, moves in. ''Such a vibrant shul this was,'' said Florence Rudich, who at 66 is considered the baby of the congregation. We had so many clubs. The men's clubs, the women's clubs, the Saturday night dances. On Sabbaths and holidays, four different services we had, one after another, and each one would be filled, with people out around the block.'' But like the others, the synagogue -- where people once waited years for a permanent seat in the sanctuary -- could not survive the migration of Jews from the Bronx. During the Depression and World War II, 600,000 Jews lived in the Bronx, accounting for nearly half the population of the borough. By the early 1960's, thousands began leaving for the suburbs. By 1980, there were fewer than 100,000 Jews in the Bronx, and since then, the population has declined even further, except in Riverdale, where the Jewish presence has always been strong and Orthodox Judaism in particular is growing. But except for a handful of synagogues, the old Jewish Bronx is a memory. The closing has left the few members without a place of worship. Traveling to a more distant synagogue is difficult because of their age and the Orthodox proscription against traveling on the Sabbath. While Head Start is reserving the little downstairs chapel for them on Saturday mornings and holidays, the remnants of Mosholu's congregation would have to organize and run the services themselves. But they say it is inconceivable to imagine Mosholu Jewish Center without its rabbi. ''Rabbi Schacter and the synagogue are one and the same,'' said David C. Cook, a lawyer who grew up in the neighborhood. ''Mosholu Jewish Center wouldn't be what it was without him, and he wouldn't be what he is without it.'' At one time, it was both a social nexus and a center of moral and spiritual gravity. As Rabbi Schacter gained national prominence, he shared his secular and spiritual insights in his sermons. From his pulpit in Norwood, he rose to chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. He met with Golda Meir and every president from Kennedy on, and was especially close to Richard Nixon, becoming his confidant and emissary to Russia. The rabbi said that when people asked him why he did not move to a larger, more famous synagogue, he replied that Mosholu gave him ''the freedom to find fulfillment outside.'' But in reality, he made the synagogue his life's work. Rabbi Schacter, recalled Steven M. Licht, who joined during the 60's, ''was a kind of Renaissance man. He had a spiritual presence and was a man of the world.'' Even those who thought he was rigid and overbearing -- which, at one point or another, was nearly everybody -- could not help respecting him. ''We fell in love with each other,'' the rabbi said. ''I threw myself into the work. I grew with the congregation and they grew with me and it was fine.'' The members, too, made the synagogue an important part of their lives, building it up at the same time they built their families and careers. They were, by and large, an educated, affluent group. Many lived in the Art Deco buildings along the Grand Concourse, which was once the Jewish equivalent of the Upper East Side. Mosholu Jewish Center thrived, becoming one of the most desirable synagogues in the Bronx. On High Holy Days, thousands gathered. Others spilled out of the lobby and onto the sidewalk. The decline in membership began around 1974, and for years was barely noticeable. But gradually, from its peak of 3,500, the congregation dwindled. Pews remained empty, then entire sections. Finally, by the mid-1980's, the rabbi was preaching to a little gray-haired group clustered in the center of the sanctuary's expanse. Meanwhile, synagogues throughout the Bronx were closing, and residents who had once had their choice of kosher butchers within walking distance had to drive to Riverdale to buy ingredients for a Sabbath supper. By 1989, when the synagogue had fewer than 100 members, the board was in favor of shutting it. But Rabbi Schacter tightened his grip. He sought out former members, from Manhattan to Florida, and asked for donations to keep the synagogue going. But in the end, it was not the lack of money; it was the nearly empty sanctuary. ''He used to look out and see the place jammed,'' Mr. Licht said.It must have been demoralizing, but he didn't let anybody know. He didn't shorten the service. He gave the same sermons he had when it was full.'' Rosh Hashana 1998 was the beginning of the end. Remembering the crowds of bygone years, Rabbi Schacter made an all-out effort, sending thousands of pamphlets inviting former members to come for holiday services. Seats that once cost $50 to reserve would be free. On Rosh Hashana morning, the rabbi looked out from the pulpit onto the little huddle of 17 men and about a dozen women. ''Tragic,'' he remembered. ''That was the death knell.'' The closing of a synagogue, like the death of a family member, involves many legal and practical tasks that must be done in the midst of mourning. Jewish law forbids synagogues to become houses of worship for other faiths, and the rabbi was opposed to selling it to a commercial buyer. It took a year to find an acceptable buyer -- Head Start -- and negotiate the sale. Then, sacred objects had to be properly disposed of. Torahs and prayer books in good condition were donated to Jewish schools, and battered ones were buried, said David Pollock, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Board, who helped with the closing. A few days before the tag sale, the eternal light, a candle symbolizing God's presence, was extinguished and the candleholder put aside to be given to a school. By late afternoon, Mrs. Rudich and Helen Weintraub gave up on the tag sale and began packing the items to give to the Salvation Army. ''This reminds me of an older person who passes on,'' Mrs. Rudich said, putting a stack of glass plates in a box.. The death of a shul, it's the saddest thing.'' The rabbi, meanwhile, had unlocked the sanctuary doors and was slowly pacing the aisles, flanked by the carved pews. He walked over to one of the stained-glass windows, read an inscription, and gazed up at the balcony, where the women once sat apart from the men, following the Orthodox custom. ''This is what hurts,'' he said. ''Every time I walk in here, I remember. These pews -- they're magnificent. Fifty-two years I stood in that pulpit. You have to realize how I feel.''
1999: “The David Adler Estate,” “the house and property of American architect David Adler in Libertyville, Illinois, was added to the NRHP(National Register of Historic Places) today.
2000: “Quills” a film version of the Obie award winning play, directed by Philip Kaufman was released in the United States today.
2000(24th of Cheshvan, 5761): Sarah Katz, the wife of Henry Katz, the sister-in-law of Bert Katz and the aunt of Toni Neta passed away today in Cedar Rapids, IA.
2000(24th of Cheshvan, 5761):Shoshana Reis, 21, of Hadera, and Meir Bahrame, 35, of Givat Olga, were killed, and 60 wounded when a powerful car bomb was denotated alongside a passing bus on Hadera's main street, when the area was packed with shoppers and people driving home from work. 60 were wounded in the blast.
2001(7th of Kislev, 5762): Eighty-three year old Norman Granz, American jazz musician and record producer passed away.(As reported by Richard Severo)
2002(17th of Kislev, 5763): IDF tracker Sgt.-Maj. Shigdaf (Shai) Garmai, 30, of Lod, was killed when an Israel Defense Forces Givati Brigade patrol near Tel Qateifa, in the Gaza Strip, came under Palestinian gunfire. Hamas claimed responsibility.
2002: U.S. Premiere of “The Emperor’s Club” starring Kevin Kline.
2002: “Gimmel's first album Lentoon came out today and, just after it was published, it went to the number one spot in the Finnish Albums Chart, remaining there for three weeks.”
2003(27th of Cheshvan, 5764):Two Israeli security guards, Ilya Reiger, 58, of Jerusalem, and Samer Fathi Afan, 25, of the Bedouin village Uzeir near Nazareth, were shot dead at a construction site along the route of the security fence near Abu Dis in East Jerusalem. The Jenin Martyrs' Brigades, affiliated with Fatah, claimed responsibility for the attack.
2004: Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson began serving as European Commissioner for Trade.
2004: Having assembled the largest and most comprehensive listing of the names of Jewish victims of the Holocaust, along with biographical details, photographs and nutshell memoirs, Yad Vashem makes the information available online at .
2005: Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany. In 2007, Merkel would receive an honorary doctor of philosophy degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem "in recognition of her lifelong dedication to the principles of democracy and in appreciation of her warm and constant friendship for the people and State of Israel."
2005: After 26 years, Ted Koppel calls it quits as host of
2006(1st of Kislev, 5767): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
2006: During an exclusive interview with members of the University of Wisconsin Hillel staff, Ben Karlin ('93), a Senior Writer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” admits that Sukkot is his favorite Jewish holiday because he “likes lulavs and loves etrogs.”
2006: “The Fountain” directed by Darren Aronofsky who also wrote the screenplay and co-starring Rachel Weisz was released today in the United States.
2007: In Jerusalem, as part of the International Oud Festival, the Yuval Ron Ensemble present an evening of pan-Middle-Eastern Diaspora music anchored by Haifa-born vocalist Najwa Gibran.
2007: (12 Kislev 5768) Yahrzeit of Solomon Schechter founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and architect of the American Conservative Jewish movement.
2008: The movie, “Old Days,” set in a retirement home with a decidedly Jewish feel opens at the Big Apple Film Festival in New York
2008: As part of the Israeli Voices series the 92nd Street Y presents Yoni Rechter who has made a great contribution to the Israeli music scene.
2008: In Arlington, Virginia, children's author and illustrator Sallie Lowenstein, author of Waiting for Eugene and The Festival of Lights, leads a discussion, "From Memory to Story: How a Childhood in Burma Became a Novel in the Future," on the origins of her new young-adult book, In the Company of Whispers.
2008: 45th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy’s pro-civil rights stance attracted and energized a significant segment of the Jewish populace. His sympathy for the state of Israel can be seen in the following speech which he delivered during his campaign for the presidency.
Prophecy is a Jewish tradition, and the World Zionist movement, in which all of you have played so important a role, has continued this tradition. It has turned the dreams of its leaders into acts of statesmanship. It has converted the hopes of the Jewish people into concrete facts of life. When the first Zionist conference met in 1897, Palestine was a neglected wasteland. A few scattered Jewish colonies had resettled there, but they had come to die in the Holy Land, rather than to make it live again in greatness. Most of the governments of the world were indifferent. But now all is changed. Israel became a triumphant and enduring reality exactly 50 years after Theodore Herzl, the prophet of Zionism, had proclaimed the ideal of nationhood. It was the classic case of an ancient dream finding a young leader, for Herzl was then only 37 years of age. Perhaps I may be allowed the observation that the Jewish people - ever since David slew Goliath - have never considered youth as a barrier to leadership, or measured experience and maturity by mere length of days. I first saw Palestine in 1939. There the neglect and ruin left by centuries of Ottoman misrule were slowly being transformed by miracles of labor and sacrifice. But Palestine was still a land of promise in 1939, rather than a land of fulfillment. I returned in 1951 to see the grandeur of Israel. In 3 years this new state had opened its doors to 600,000 immigrants and refugees. Even while fighting for its own survival, Israel had given new hope to the persecuted and new dignity to the pattern of Jewish life. I left with the conviction that the United Nations may have conferred on Israel the credentials of nationhood; but its own idealism and courage, its own sacrifice and generosity, had earned the credentials of immortality… Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom; and no area of the world has ever had an overabundance of democracy and freedom. It is worth remembering, too, that Israel is a cause that stands beyond the ordinary changes and chances of American public life. In our pluralistic society, it has not been a Jewish cause - any more than Irish independence was solely the concern of Americans of Irish descent. The ideals of Zionism have, in the last half century, been repeatedly endorsed by Presidents and Members of Congress from both parties. Friendship for Israel is not a partisan matter. It is a national commitment. Yet within this tradition of friendship there is a special obligation on the Democratic Party. It was President Woodrow Wilson who forecast with prophetic wisdom the creation of a Jewish homeland. It was President Franklin Roosevelt who kept alive the hopes of Jewish redemption during the Nazi terror. It was President Harry Truman who first recognized the new State of Israel and gave it status in world affairs. And may I add that it would be my hope and my pledge to continue this Democratic tradition - and to be worthy of it….The Middle East needs water, not war; tractors, not tanks; bread, not bombs. There is already little enough available in the way of financial and physical resources for either side to be devoting its energies to huge defense budgets. The present state of tensions serves only the worst interests of Arab and Israeli alike. But a new spirit of comity could well serve the highest ideals of both. For the original Zionist philosophy has always maintained that the people of Israel would use their national genius not for selfish purposes but for the enrichment and glory of the entire Middle East. The earliest leaders of the Zionist movement spoke of a Jewish state which would have no military power and which would be content with victories of the spirit. The compulsions of a harsh and inescapable necessity have compelled Israel to abandon this hope. But I cannot believe that Israel has any real desire to remain indefinitely a garrison state surrounded by fear and hate. And I cannot believe that the Arab world would not find a better basis for unity in a united attack on all their accumulated social problems - an attack in which they could benefit immensely from a closer cooperation with the people of Israel. The technical skills and genius of Israel have already brought their blessings to Burma and to Ethiopia. Still other nations in Asia and in Africa are eager to benefit from the special skills available in that bustling land. Why should the Middle East alone be cut off from this partnership? And why should not the people of Israel receive the blessings available to them from association with the Arab world? When we think of the possibilities of this association, an emotion of soaring hope replaces our somber anxieties about the Middle East. Ancient rivers would give their power to new industries. The desert would yield to civilization. Disease would be eradicated, especially the disease that strikes down helpless children. The blight of poverty would be replaced by the blessings of abundance…”For the entire text see
2008: An experimental Israeli music ensemble, the Givol Choir and David Moss, an innovative American singer and percussionist perform three separate shows at the historic Ha'adumim Building near the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv.
2008: Seeking to ensure that President George W. Bush's promises to Israel are transferred to the new US administration, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert left for Washington tonight for his final meeting with the outgoing American leader.
2009: The Lost Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors or/of special interest to Jewish readers including A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis byLouis Breger
2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors or/of special interest to Jewish readers including Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Foer is part of literary family. His brother Franklin is an editor with the New Republic. His brother Joshua is a journalist. And is if that was not enough, he married novelist Nicole Krauss in 2004:
2009: An experienced guide from the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy, a nonprofit Jewish educational organization, led a tour in which attendees “discover 150 years of Lower East Side history on Shteibl Row, noted for its abundance of 19th-century one- and two-room synagogues.”
2010: Salman Rushdie, the author living under the threat of a fatwa, is scheduled to speak at the 92nd Street Y in NYC.
2010: NoVA State Legislators' Reception 2010 which gives the Jewish community a chance to Hear our state legislators identify their top priorities and address the Jewish community's state platform, is scheduled to take place at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia (JCCNV)
2010: The Leo Baeck Institute in cooperation with Manhattan School of Music is scheduled to present “Adventures in Listening: Kurt Masur, A Film by Amit Breuer”
2010: The IDF's new Head of Military Intelligence, Major-General Aviv Kochavi, formally assumed his new position today and was promoted from the rank of brigadier-general.
2011: A forum hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency on the subject of ridding the world of nuclear weapons which representatives from Israel and Arab states are schedule to attend is scheduled to come to an end in Vienna.
2011: Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper a teacher at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem and serves as the spiritual leader of Kehillat HaTzur VeHaTzohar in Tzur Hadassah is scheduled to deliver the first in a series of lectures entitled “Maharal: The Mystic as Legal Scholar” at Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
2011: Sharon Steinberg, the Cantor at Beth El Hebrew Congregation in Alexandria, VA, is scheduled to give the last lecture in the series entitled “An Overview of Jewish Liturgical Music” as the JCC of Northern Virginia.
2011: Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein decided today to open a criminal investigation against Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, for alleged incitement to racism.
2011: The Military Advocate General filed indictments today against two Palestinians from the village of Halhoul near Hebron, who confessed to throwing a rock that killed Asher Hillel Palmer and his son as they drove near Kiryat Arba in September.
2012: In Melbourne, Australia, “The One That Got Away” is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2012: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to offer an introductory course for students and researchers wishing to use its extensive photo archive.
2012: In the U.S., Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim holiday based on Sukkoth
2012: The IDF Spokesman’s Office said today it was looking into a photograph circulating widely on Facebook in which 16 IDF soldiers arranged their uniformed bodies on the sand, to spell out the Hebrew words “Bibi loser” — in a deft physical critique of Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s failure to send ground troops into Gaza during the just-ended Operation Pillar of Defense.
2012: Shin Bet officers and police arrested the terrorists who bombed a bus in Tel Aviv on Wednesday several hours after the device exploded, the agency revealed this evening
2012(8th of Kislev, 5773): Twenty-eight year old Boris Yarmolnik, the IDF reserve officer who was wounded in a rocket attack yesterday, passed away today following an unsuccessful surgical process designed to save his life.
2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host “Discovery and Recovery” – a behind the scene tour of the Iraqi Jewish Archive at the National Archives.
2013: “Fox Dedicates Music Building to Oscar-Winning Composer Lionel Newman” published today described the ceremony during which “Twentieth Century Fox renamed its historic Fox Music Building in honor of film and television composer Lionel Newman.”
2013: “Kol HaMusica” is scheduled to broadcast a noontime concert by Tatiana Rubina.
2013: “The archaeologists who have been exploring the Canaanite site, known as Tel Kabri, announced today that they had found one of civilization’s oldest and largest wine cellars.” (As reported by John Noble Wilford)
Isaac Herzog, the son of a former president, took the helm of Israel’s Labor Party and thus Parliament’s opposition today, vowing to restore the party’s historic focus on promoting peace with the Palestinians and to mount a vigorous challenge to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-leaning government.” (As reported by Jodi Rudoren)
2014: Lewis Black is scheduled to appear the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, DE.
2014: In Melbourne, “The Last Mentsch” and “The Go-Go Boys” are scheduled to be shown at the Jewish International Film Festival.
2014: US Secretary of State John Kerry called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this evening and updated him on the ongoing negotiations in Vienna for a deal with Iran on its contested nuclear program.
2014: Six Palestinian youths have been arrested after graffiti “in Arabic praising the Islamic State terror group was found on a memorial monument for fallen Druze IDF soldiers along the Carmel Scenic Route, located east of the predominantly Druze village of Daliyat al-Karmel.”
2014: “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn and “Hora 79” are scheduled to be shown at the 18th annual UK Jewish Film Festival
2014(29th of Cheshvan, 5775): Eighty-five year old “Israeli journalist and author Israel Zamir, the only son of Isaac Bashevis Singer” passed away today.
2014(29th of Cheshvan, 5775): Ninety-four year old Claire Barry who along with her sister Merna formed the singing group known as the “Barry Sisters” passed away today.
2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath by Ted Koppel, Charlie Mike: A True Story of Heroes Who Brought Their Mission Home by Joe Klein and the recently released paperback edition of The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson and CHINA 1945: Mao’s Revolution and America’s Fateful Choice by Richard Bernstein
2015: the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host a screening of “The Life of Emile Zola” followed by a “post-screening discussion led by David Chack.”
2015: The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society hosted a Wikipedia edit-a-thon centered on the American Soviet Jewry movement in celebration of the recently-completed digitization of over 75,100 items and 500 hours of audio from the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement.
2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host “Cantors Cabaret: From the Bimah to Broadway,” featuring Jewish and Broadway music, ranging from the classical Hazzanut of Israel Alter to Broadway's "Annie Get Your Gun;” from the songbooks of cantorial favorite, Sol Zim, to Yiddish icon, Molly Picon performed by Hazzan Elisheva Dienstfrey, Agudas Achim Congregation; Cantor Jason Kaufman, Beth El Hebrew Congregation; Cantor Rachel Rhodes and Cantor Michael Shochet, Temple Rodef Shalom; and a special guest appearance by Hazzan Sidney G. Rabinowitz.
2016: Just a couple of weeks before his 93rd birthday Menahem Pressler is slated to play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” at Symphony Hall in Boston where doctor’s saved his life by repairing an aneurysm in his aorta.
2017(4th of Kislev, 5778): Eighty-nine year old Mary Adelman, the Antwerp born daughter of tailor Morris Golinkski and Caroline Golinskisi, the owner of Osner Business Machines, one of that dying breed of typewriter repair shops, passed away today.(As reported by James Barron)
2017: “During an interview with i24 News” today, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely despairingly “depicted US Jews as being removed from the sacrifices other Americans make as well as the threats that govern life in Israel.”
2017: The Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to close at noon today as part of the observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Rabbi Michael Hattin leading a discussion on “From Harlot to Heroine: Rachav’s Remarkable Transformation.”
2017: “A Bag of Marbles” and “1945” are scheduled to be shown at the 21st UK International Jewish Film Festival.
2017: Jewish Book Month, an annual event that provides us with a chance to contemplate Jewish books and the lives of authors such as Michael Oren who works included Six Days of War and Power, Faith and Fantasy continues today.
2018: The Chaplains of the Oxford University Jewish Society are scheduled to host a Thanksgiving this evening at their house!
2018: “A rare sword, which was given as a present by SS commander Heinrich Himmler to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Muhammad Amin al-Husseini during his visit to Nazi Germany in March 1943,” is scheduled to continue to be offered for sale for a third day on a British website—The Saleroom— by the German auction house Hermann Historica, which specializes in selling historical items.” (As reported by Itamar Eichner)
2018(14th of Kislev, 5779): On the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the birth of Reuben, Jacob’s first-born son.
2018: Following screenings of “Humor Me,” “The Resistance” and “Shelter,” the UK Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an with a festival awards ceremony at the Curzon Mayfair in London sponsored by the Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Turst.
2018: In Jerusalem, OU Israel is scheduled to host “an authentic Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin” followed by Torah Insights from Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz.
2018: Beit Hillel is scheduled to host a Thanksgiving Dinner for Hebrew University students
2018: In Jerusalem, Olive and Fish, Mike’s Place and the Inbal Hotel are scheduled to offer diners a Thanksgiving Dinner while the Beer Bazaar is scheduled to host a “Thanksgiving Happy Hour.”
2019: In Palo Alto, CA, the First Presbyterian Church is scheduled to host “Roses and Almonds” with Tres Hermanicas and Aquila which includes a mix of “centuries-old Sephardic music
2019: In San Francisco, the Sydney Goldstein Theatre is scheduled to host “Mandy Patinkin in Concert” Diaries with Adam Ben-David on piano.”
2019: For the first time in its history, Israel begins the first full day of being led by a Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) who has been indicted on charges of corruption.
2019: Ninetieth birthday of Sir Ben Helfgotth
2020: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Arrest by Jonathan Lethem and The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel.
2020: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “Tour Nahlaot: A Walk Through the Communities that Make a Neighborhood” a virtual event with Miriam Safira Simon.
2020: Rabbi Georgette Kennebrae of Curaçao is scheduled to lead an Urban Adamah workshop on applying the concepts of tashlich and shmita to understanding one’s financial situation
2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a virtual commemoration “Remembering the Holodomor: Commemorating the Famine – Genocide in Ukraine.”
2020: Hillel International is scheduled to launch its first virtual Hillel College Fair for high school students today.
2020: In Cleveland, First Congregational Church of Hudson, Christ Church Episcopal and Temple Beth Shalom are scheduled to host an online interfaith Thanksgiving service at 7 p.m.
2020: Limmud Toronto is scheduled to open with “More than Menorahs: A Conversation with Authors of Jewish Children’s Literature,” feature Sidura Ludwig, Tziporah Cohen, Anne Dublin and Kath Kacer.
2020: Peninsula JCC, Peninsula Temple Beth El and PJ Library are scheduled to present virtually Children’s musician Alison Faith Levy and Todah the Sloth leading a Thanksgiving singalong.
2020: The American Society for Jewish Music is scheduled to the last of a four part Digital Conference on “Psalmody Through Ages: Music and the Book of Psalms.”
2020: Via Zoom, The Breman is scheduled to host “Unforgettable Stories from the Holocaust featuring Polish born George Rishfeld.
2020: Observance of National Cranberry Relish Day serves as a reminder of how Leah Koenig’s Ashkenazi mother-in-law made this uniquely North American “berry” an integral part of her potted meatballs.