May 19
363:For a second day in a row, a series of earthquakes that took place along afault-line stretching from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba shook the regionaround the Galilee. According to some, this seismic event was part of thereason the Temple in Jerusalem was not rebuilt despite Emperor Julian’s supportfor the project.
614:According to some date of the Christian led revolt in Jerusalem against theSassanids began today during which an untold number of Jews were killed
1103(10 Iyar 4063): Isaac Alfasi passed away. Born in Fez in 1013, he is also knownas the "RIF". He compiled the first codification of Jewish law,called Sefer Halachot. It still appears today in every volume of theTalmud. Joseph Caro later used it as a basis for his work. Sefer Halachot wasthe most important codex until Maimonides' Mishna Torah. Alfasi was 25years old when Hai Gaon died. He was called Gaon by many authorities and hisdeath marked the very end of that (Gaonic) period. His students included JudahHalevi and Josef ibn Migash.
1396:John I of Aragon who assigned Abraham Cresques and his son Jehuda “to make aset of nautical charts which would go beyond the normal geographic range ofcontemporary portolan charts to cover the East and the West, and everythingthat, from the Strait [of Gibraltar] leads to the West” for which “Cresques andJehuda were paid 150 Aragonese golden florins, and 60 Mallorcan pounds,respectively, as it is stated in 14th-century documents from the Prince and hisfather Peter IV of Aragon” passed away today.
1555:Today, “in a document…Nahum Psakohovich, as representative of all the Jews inthe grand duchy of Lithuania, lodged a complaint with the king against themagistrate and burghers of Kiev because, contrary to the old, establishedcustom, they had prohibited the Jews from coming to Kiev for trading in thecity stores and compelled them to stop at, and to their wares, in the citymarket recently erected by the burghers.”
1581:“The proclamation controlling usury was issued today” making the subject of“Three Ladies of London,” an Elizabethan comedy about usury by Robert Wilsonwhich is unusual and noteworthy as a philo-Semitic response to the prevailinganti-Semitism of Elizabethan drama and the larger contemporaneous Englishsociety” quite topical since it was first performed in 1581.
1588:The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon.The Armada was the most massive fleet of its day including 130 ships and30,000 soldiers and sailors. The Armadawas designed to take control of the English Channel and facilitate the invasionof England from the Netherlands. TheEnglish were at a great a disadvantage in terms of ships and manpower. The all-important question was when would theArmada begin its trip north? Until theEnglish knew this they would not when or where to make their first move. Dr. Hector Nunes, a secret Jew living inEngland provided the information about the Spanish departure. The Jews may have played a small part in oneof the great turning points in history, but it was a small part that made a bigdifference.
1604:The city of Montreal was founded today. Jews would not start arriving inMontreal until the 18th century following the British defeat of theFrench. Today Montreal boasts a vibrantJewish community number approximately 90,000 which some describe as the “mostOrthodox” in North America. However ithas lost its position as the leading Jewish community in Canada to Torontobecause of the rise of the French separatists and their political party, PartiQuebecois.
1707(17thof Iyar, 5647): Chief Rabbi Saul ben Joshua Heschel passed away today in Breslauwhile on his to Amsterdam.
1753(15thof Iyar, 5513): Parashat Behar
1753(15thof Iyar, 5513): Philip Ferree, the son of Daniel Ferree and Mair Warrembre whomarried Leah Dubois, the daughter New Paltz founder Louis Dubois, at Esopus NYin 1711 passed away today in Paradise Township, PA.
1762:Birthdate of German philosopher and anti-Semite Johann Gottlieb Fichte who “inhis defense of the ideals of the French Revolution in 1793, singled out Jewsand Judaism as constituting a ‘state-within-a-state’ that was ‘predicated onthe hatred of the entire human race’ and ‘spreading through almost all lands ofEurope and terribly oppressing its citizens.’”
1769:Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, who as councilor to the Holy Office hadissued a memorandum declaring that the Jews were innocent of the “Blood Libel”,was elected Pope Clement XIV today.
1771(6thof Sivan, 5531): Shavuot
1771:Birthdate of Rahel Levin, the prominent 19th century literary figurewho converted when she married and gained fame as Rahel Varnhagen who was thesubject of a biography by Hannah Arendt, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of aJewess.
1790(6thof Sivan,5550): Shavuot observed on the same day that Vice President John Adamswrote to Benjamin Lincoln expressing his alarm about “the sickness of thePresident” and expressing his appreciation to God for that the “he is betterand recovering fast.”
1792:The Russian army entered Poland. Ultimately Poland would be partitionedamong its three imperial neighbors. Much tothe dismay of theRussians, the partition brought them a large massof Jews, something theyfound quite upsetting to say the least.
1794(19thof Iyar, 5554): Fifty-four-year-old Hyam Simon passed away today in the UK.
1798:As the French Army set sail from Toulon in campaign designed to weaken Britishaccess to India by taking control of territory from Egypt to Syria thatincluded Palestine, Napoleon delivered one of those visionary speeches intendedto inspire the forces to perform beyond their capability.
1799(14thof Iyar, 5559): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time in the 18thcentury
1802:The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte. Among the Jewishrecipients are Rabbi Langer of New York’s Congregation Orach Chaim, Rabbi DavidFeuerwerker,a veteran of the French Army who served with the Marquis duringWorld War II, David Saul Marshall, political leader in Singapore and VictorAttias and Henry Smadja who were members of the Jewish Resistance in Tunisiaduring World War II.
1803:Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, was beheaded by a Muslim mob inCairo, Egypt.
1813:In Strasbourg, Babette Marx married Alexandre Blum and “moved with him toAlgiers.”
1818:Eliza Frances (née Campbell) and Mr. Lionel Prager Goldsmid, an officer in the19th Dragoons, and a scion of the well-known London family of that name whosematernal grandmother's father was Revolutionary War aide-de-camp David Franksgave birth to Sir John Goldsmid who would rise to the rank of Major General inthe British Army
1820(6thof Sivan, 5599): Jews in the United States celebrate Shavuot in tranquilitysince the nation has just avoided a potential breakup over the issue of slaverywith the adoption of the Missouri Compromise.
1825:In Amsterdam, Moses Jacob Pereira Mendoza and Sara Pereira Mendoza gave birthto Rebecca Mozes Gans the
wifeof Jacob Gans.
1832:Birthdate of German native Abraham Hart who rose to the rank of Captain in the73rd Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War and raised 6children with his wife Bertha Swope Hart.
1837(14thof Iyar, 5597): Pesach Sheni
1839(6thof Sivan, 5599): As American Jews celebrate Shavuot, they are forced to contendwith an economic panic that will continue to cause ripples into the nextdecade.
1842:Birthdate of Max Guggenehimer, the husband of Bertha V. Rosenbaum Guggenheimer.
1852:Isaak Ettinger and his wife Rebecca Schapiro gave birth to Shaye Ettinger.
1858(6thof Sivan, 5618): Less than a month before Abraham Lincoln delivered his “HouseDivided Speech” American Jews celebrate Shavuot
1860:The New York Times reviewed The Throne of David by Rev. J.H.Ingraham, which “illustrates the grandeur of the Hebrews at the height of theirpower and splendor.”
1861:In San Francisco, CA, J. P. Davis, the President of the Hebra Bikur Holim, (Society for Visitingthe Sick) presented a new Torah Scroll to Congregation of Sherith Israel.
http://www.theoccident.com/WildWest/san_francisco.html
1863(1stof Sivan, 5623): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1863(1stof Sivan, 5623): Jonas Ennery passed away. Born at Nancy, France, in 1801, heworked at the Jewish School of Strasbourg for 26 years. In 1843 he published “Le Sentier d’Israel”and he helped to edit "Prières d'un Cœur Israélite," (Prayers of aJewish Heart) which was published in 1848. Despite anti-Jewish rioting inAlsace, Ennery was elected representative to the French National Assembly as arepresentative for the department of the Lower Rhine. After the coup d'étatthat brought Louis Napoleon to power Ennery was exiled forced into exile. He moved to Brussels, where he lived as ateacher until his death. Ennery's brother, Marchand Ennery, was the chief rabbiof Paris.
1886(5thof Sivan, 5625): Parsashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1866(5thof Sivan, 5626): Seventy-six-year-old Solomon Ludwig Steinheim the Germanphilosopher passed away. The SalomonLudwig Steinheim Institute was named in his honor.
1867(14thof Iyar, 5627): Pesach Sheni
1867:Vernon and Herman Ehrenthal gave birth to Karolina Lina Hubsch
1867:According to reports published today, The Hebrew Educational Society ofBaltimore has adopted the Christian plan of Sabbath school instruction.
1869:Miss Rebecca Fenster of Charleston, SC was married this evening.
1870:In Kings County, NY, Solomon and Betty Loeb gave birth to Nina Jenny Loeb whobecame Nina Warburg when she married Paul Mortiz Warburg.
1871(28thof Iyar): Meir Halevi Letteris passed away.
1871:In “the Czech Republic. David Low, the son of David Low and his wife Helene Lowgave birth to Reise Low
1872:In Greenpoint, LI, Ernestine and Bernard Rosenthal gave birth to University ofCincinnati graduate and HUC ordained rabbi, Isadore Rosenthal, the husband ofFlorence Roesentein who served as the Rabbi at Temple Shaari Shomaymim inLancaster, PA for 28 years before becoming the leadr of Temple B’nai Israel inMcKeesport, PA.
1873:Sixty-two-year-old German psychiatrist Friedrich Karl Steel whose parents hadbecome Lutherans passed away today.
https://archive.org/stream/variety111-1933-09#page/n208/mode/1up
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FetPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=31QDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2362%2C1534076
1873:“The New Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews” published today described theopening of this facility in New York City which was first envisioned by Mrs.Henry Leo in 1870. She enlisted thesupport of the Bnai Jeshurun Benevolent Society to help her make the home areality. Unfortunately, Mrs. Leon didnot live to see her dream come tofruition.
1873:Sixty-two-year-old German psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Stahl, whose parents hadbecome Lutherans while he a small child, passed away today.
1874:Theodore Pincus and Sarah Hart were married today at the Great Portland StreetSynagogue in London.
1876:Edward Elias Samuel was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1877:Birthdate of London native Montague N. Cohen the graduate of Jews College whowhile serving as a rabbi in Tacoma, WA, in 1928 supported “the creation of aunited Jewish Agency for the rebuilding of Palestine.”
1878(16th of Iyar, 5638): Seventy-four-year-old RabbiSamuel Myer Isaacs, the Dutch born son of Rebecca and Meyer Isaacs, and the husband of Jane Symmons who was “aprofessor of Hebrew in London before coming to the United States where he ledCongregation B’nai Jeshurun, founded Congregation Shaaray Tefila and was thefirst rabbi to deliver sermons in English while also being a strongabolitionist while raising Judge Myer S. Isaacs and Rabbi Abram S. Isaacspassed away today.
1878:According to todays “Home and Foreign Events” column “at the suggestion of theBoard of Delegates of American Israelites, the Alliance IsraelitaUniverselle will issue invitations for a conference of representatives ofthe Jew Jewish organizations of Europe and America. The conference will be held in Paris and itwill be open to the discussion of all subjects affecting the interests ofJudaism.”
1877(7thof Sivan, 5637): Shabbat; Second Day of Shavuot observed for the first timeduring the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, “the first President to designatean ambassador for the designated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism.”
1877:In London, Eugene Cohen and his wife gave birth to Jew’s College graduateMontague N.A. Cohen, who served as the Assistant Chaplain at Wormwood ScrubbsPrison in London and the Rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Victoria, BC before becomingthe leadr of Temple Beth Israel in Tacoma, WA in 1903.
1878(16thof Iyar, 5638): Seventy-four-year-old Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs the Dutch bornson of Rebecca and Myer Isaacs who was the rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun and thehusband of Jane Symmons passed away today in Manhattan.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8233-isaacs-samuel-myer
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/6427
1879:The Rothschild Family: The Greatest Financiers of the Age,” published today purportsto provide “an authentic history of the Rothschilds in Frankfort, London, Parisand Vienna” including how the founder of the family acquired his wealth andanecdotes about “family peculiarities
1879:Joseph H. De Meza “a young Cuban Jew” was arrested today for stealing clothingfrom Mrs. Charles A. Lillie in New York City. De Meza came to Mrs. Lillie’shome and asked for “an outfit of her husband’s clothing” claiming that thehusband had fallen into the East River at the Fulton Ferry and that he had sentDe Meza to get a dry outfit.
1879:“Sunday Services for Hebrews” published today described reaction among variousJewish leaders to the recently announced plans by Temple Emanuel to startholding “Sabbath” services on Sunday.
1880:Birthdate of Leopold Einstein who at the age of 62 was deported from Nurembergto Terezin where he was murdered at the age of 63. (Editor’s note – the next time somebodyrefers to people who carry Nazi flags or utter Nazi chants as “good” peoplethink of this 62-year-old man being loaded into a box car.)
1880:Eighteen-year-old Matthew Nathan, the son of Jonah Nathan joined the RoyalEngineers
1880:It was reported today that Joseph Seligman’s will names his widow, Babet, asexecutrix of his estate, and his brothers James and Jesse and his son David asexecutors. The will provides that they may use $25,000 for contributions to thecharities of their choice and sets up the terms for the disbursem*nt of hisestate so that it will provide for his wife and his children.
1881:In Paris, Adelaide and Baron Edmond de Rothschild gave birth to their secondchild Maurice de Rothschild, the husband of Noémie de Rothschild and father ofEdmond de Rothschild who was noted for his vineyards and who was able to escapethe Holocaust thanks to Aristides de Sousa, the Portuguese diplomat who defiedhis government and risked his career by issuing visas to an untold number ofJews fleeing the Nazis.
1881:In Alsace, France, Charles and Emilie Kahn Weill gave birth to Felix Weill whowas buried at “Hebrew Rest Cemetery” in the rural town of Opelousas, LA when hepassed away at the age of 18.
1882(1stof Sivan, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1882:The Leadville, CO Jewish community suffered a financial loss when a buildingowned by New Yorkers Caesar J. Kaskel and Jacob Michaels burned. The building was the home to a clothing storemanaged by Julius W. Kaskel.
1882:As part of a blood libel investigation an entourage of mounted policemenarrived in Tisza-Eszlar, a small Hungarian village. The investigation revolvedaround the disappearance of a fourteen-year-old Catholic housemaid named EstherSolymossy.
1882:In Tisza-EszlarJoszef Sharf, custodian of the local synagogue and his wife werearrested in connection with the disappearance of Esther Solymosi, a Christianpeasant girl fourteen years old whom the locals claim was the victim of aJewish blood lust.
1883:Yiddish actor Sigmund Mogulesko and his wife actress Amalia “Molly” Finkelsteingave birth Dr. Julius Lawrence “Mortimer” Mogulesko the graduate of ColumbiaMedical School who specialized in Bacteriology.
1885(5thof Sivan, 5645): Erev Shavuot
1886(14thof Iyar, 5646): Pesach Sheni
1886:The future Sir Mathew Nathan was promoted to the rank of Captain in the RoyalEngineers
1887:In New York City Sarah and Henry Friedman gave birth to MIT trained engineerFerdinand J. Friedman who served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during WW I.
1887:Birthdate of Lemberg native and University of Vienna trained physician DorianFeigenbam, the psychoanalyst and pupil of Freud, who in 1924 came to the UnitedStates where he became an “instructor in neurology” at Columbia and co-foundedthe Psychoanalytic Quarterly while raising two children – Daniel and LouEsther – with his wife Yaffa Feigenbaum.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/01/03/506511422.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21674086.1937.11925305
1887:Fifty-five-year-old Otto Stobbe, the gentile German historian who is best knownfor “a scholarly work on Jews in Germany during the Middle Ages called Die Juden in Deutschland während desMittelalters
1889(18thof Iyar, 5649): Lag B'Omer
1889:In Mogileff, Russia, Louis and Rose Rabinoff gave birth Sophie Rabinoff theAmerican “pediatrician and professor of medicine.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rabinoff-sophia
1890:Samuel Hutch, a Jewish peddler was seen alive for the last time nearWurtsborough, NY.
1890:“New Publications” published today includes a review of A Visit of Japhethto Shem and Ham
1891:Barney Greenman, a fourteen-year-old Jewish boy came to the Barge Office in NewYork and asked the immigration officials to send him back to Rotterdam.
1891:Three days after she had passed away, 76-year-old Julia Myers, the daughter ofHyman Collins and Mary Davis and the wife of Lionel Alman Myers was buriedtoday at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1891:The Czar has issued a new proclamation or “ukase” ordering the expulsion of theJews from the Asiatic provinces of the Russian Empire.
1894:Birthdate of Lothar Mendes, the German born British director whose worksincluded “The Man Who Could Work Miracles” and “International Squadron” whichchronicled the role of Americans serving as pilots in the RAF.
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Lothar%20Mendes&item_type=topic&sr=50
1894:“Literary Notes” published today described the upcoming publication of ChristopherColumbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and PortugueseDiscoveries by Dr. Meyer Kayserling, the German born rabbi and historian.
1895:“Hebrew Home to be Mortgaged” published today described plans by the managersof the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York City to build a newfacility with funds gained from taking out a mortgage on the property at 106thStreet and Columbus Avenue.
1895:Most of the 4,000 “uptown people” who had been invited to a tea at the HebrewInstitute attended this event which gave them a chance to observe the variousactivities of the educational organization.
1895:“In A Wide Labor Field” published today provided a detailed description of thework of the Educational Alliance which was formed in 1892 under the directionof the Hebrew Free School Association, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association andthe Aguillar Free Library Society
1895:In Cincinnati, OH, Carrie and Samuel Auer gave birth to University ofCincinnati graduate James Samuel Auer, a member of the Board of NationalFederation of Temples and the husband of Goldie E. Auer.
1896(7thof Sivan, 5656): Second Day of Shavuot
1896:Twenty-three-year-old architect David J. Varon, the Serbian born son of Isaacand Rachel Varon married Henriette Behar in Jerusalem today.
1898:In Baltimore, University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained Rabbi AdolfGuttmacher, the Polish born son of Dorthea and Manheim Guttmacher and his wifeLaura Guttmacher gave birth to Manfred Schanfarten Guttmacher and Alan FrankGuttmacher, the husband of Leonore Guttmacher.
1899:Today, David J. Varon, the Siberian born son of Isaacand Rachel (Mevorach Varon,”, the employee of the Edmond de Rothschild coloniesin Palestine who came to the United States in 1905 where he was a “Professor ofArchitectural Design at Syracuse University” and later lived in New York Citywhere he wrote Indication in Architectural Design, lectured on architecture atCooper Institute and became a member of the Association of Staten IslandArchitects married Henriette Behar.
1896:The village of Metula was founded with funds supplied by BaronRothschild. Metula was the northern most town in Palestine and wouldbecome the northern most town in Israel. Metula is close to the borderwith Lebanon.
1896:In Birmingham, England, Jewish immigrants Laura (nee Greenberg) and LouisBalcon gave birth to movie producer Sir Michael Elias Balcan
1896:Herzl is received by Agliardi, the Papal Nuncio in Vienna.
1897: Oscar Wilde is released from ReadingGaol. In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,”Wilde created a Jewish theatre manager named Isaacs whom he describes as “Ahideous Jew, in the most amazing waistcoat I ever beheld in my life, wasstanding at the entrance, smoking a vile cigar. He had greasy ringlets, and anenormous diamond blazed in the centre of a soiled shirt…He was such a monster.”This does not mean he was an anti-Semite.After all, Ada Leverson, the English Jewess, invited Wilde to her Salonafter he had been arrested.
1897:Birthdate ‘Polish-Jewish librarian and Bundist activist” Herman Kruk and chroniclerof his personal experiences during the Holocaust who was brutally murder at theKlooga concentration and whose “diary was first published posthumously in 1961by YIVO in original Yiddish” followed by publication 2002 of an expandedEnglish translation, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chroniclesfrom the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps 1939-1944.
1897:“Shearith Israel congregation consecrated its new edifice at Central Park Westand 70th street” today.
1897:Birthdate of Israel Schultz Becker who had held a series of more responsiblepositions at CBS culminating as the “vice president in charge of businessaffairs while raising his son Arnold with his wife Celia passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/06/05/89533497.pdf
1898:Birthdate of Langley, SC native Benet Polikoff, the graduate of the Universityof South Carolina and WW I veteran who was “a partner in the New York law firmof Polikoff and Clareman” and Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/18/archives/benet-polikoff-sr-counsel-to-actors.html
1898:During the Spanish American War, Privates Samuel Cowen, Michael G. Greenbergand Arthur S. Loeb were part of Battery A, 1st Regiment ConnecticutVolunteer Artillery which was mustered into federal service today.
1898:“Gladstone’s Career” published today contained a summary of the late Englishpolitical leader’s life including his rivalry with Disraeli which began with abattle over the budget when Gladstone was made Chancellor of the Exchequer andcontinued even after Disraeli took his seats in the House of Lords.
1899:The new Hebrew Charities Building that was dedicated yesterday “will provideaccommodation for the relief work of the United Hebrew Charities, affordconvenient offices and meeting rooms for…various Jewish charitable andphilanthropic enterprises” and to provide a meeting place large enough toaccommodate gatherings of those supporting various Jewish agencies andinstitutions.
1899:“At Grenoble, a hostile crowd” followed “notorious Jew baiter Max Regis” as hemade his way to the railway station following his acquittal “on the charge ofinciting murder and incendiarism.”
1899:At Grenoble “a mob marched to the Officers’ Club cheering for Dreyfus” whichtouched off a riot.
1899:In Algiers, fifty anti-Semitic rioters were arrested when a mob marched on theJewish quarter.
1900(20thof Iyar, 5660): Parshat Behar
1900:Lawrence Nadler, a recent arrival from Hungary was swindled for a second timein as many days which will probably hasten his return to his native land sincehe cannot locate the aunt with whom he was supposed to stay.
1901(1stof Sivan, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1901:In New Jersey, Benjamin Bacharach and Harriette "Hattie" Bacharachgave birth to Florence May Quinn, thewife of James Joseph Quinn.
1901:Herzl sends a letter to the Sultan and asks for a final audience before hisdeparture.
1901:Today, Bernard M. Maltz, the Lithuanian born son of “Abraham and Sarah Malz”gave birth to Bernard M. Maltz who in 1890 came to the United States where heworked as a salesman for “National Biscuit Company and Standard Oil” beforegoing into real estate development and the construction in Brooklyn while alsoserving as a director with numerous organizations including the Federation ofJewish Charities in Brooklyn, the Pride of Judea and Yeshiva College marriedLena Sherry.
1902:As violent attacks were taking place, Mrs. Caroline Schitzberg presided over ameeting of the Ladies’ Ant-Beef Trust Association which was attended byapproximately six hundred men and women at the little Grand Street Hall.
1902:It was reported that 250 delegates from all across the United States hadattended “the Qin-Quintal Convention of the Free Sons of Israel” in AtlanticCity.
1903:Menachem Ussishkin arrives in Vienna to prepare for his visit to Palestine tomake land purchases for the Geulah Committee and to organize the Yishuv.
1904(5thof Sivan, 5664): Erev Shavuot
1904:Birthdate of Byelorussia native and starting in 1930 resident of MontevideoBenyomen Skuditski, the linotypist who was honored on his 50thbirthday with “the jubilee publication of A zester baym yidishntsaytung-vezn, a shrayber in der yidisher literatur, tsum 50 yorikn geboyrntogfun benyomen skuditski (A typesetter at a Yiddish newspaper, a writer ofYiddish literature, on the fiftieth birthday of Benyomen Skuditski), publishedby honorary committee, with articles dedicated to Skuditski’s service on behalfof Yiddish and for the Yiddish press in Montevideo.”
1905:The Bagatela Theatre, a Yiddish theatrewhere Mark Arnstein worked as a director opened today in Warsaw.
1905Birthdate of Vienna native Paul Phillip Gelles, who “came to the United Statesin 1920,” graduated from NYU after which he pursued a career in business thatled him to serve as Chairman of the Board at “B.V.D.” a company best known formanufacturing men’s underwear and who was the husband “of the former JeannePeterzell with whom he had two children – Harry and Leda.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/09/25/89647267.pdf
1906:Birthdate of Gerd Bucerius, the German journalist and lawyer whose Jewish wifetook refuge in the United Kingdom when the Nazis came to power. He remained behind and defended numerousJewish clients facing charges from the German authorities.
1906(24thof Iyar, 5666): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1906(24thof Iyar, 5666): Nine days after celebrating his 47th birthday,Isidore Bien, the Washington, DC born son of Amila Technor and Samuel Bien andthe husband of Pauline Jacobs Bien, with whom he had two sons – Morris andWalter – passed away after which he was buried in the Adath Jeshurun Cemeteryin Philadelphia.
1906:In Providence, R.I., “Adolph and Sophie (Himowitz) Bask” gave birth to Harvardtrained physician and WW II veteran Henry Jacob Bakst, the husband of RuthElene Miller and father of David Allan Bakst who rose from serving as aninstructor of medicine at Boston University to dean of the School of Medicineat Boston University.
1907(6thof Sivan, 5667): Shavuot
1907(6thof Sivan, 5667): Forty-five-year-old paleographer and “the first chair ofMedieval Latin at the University of Munich”, the Berlin born son of Cora Marckwaldand Dr. Ludwig Traube and the nephew of chemist Moritz Traube passed awaytoday.
1907:It was reported today that following allegations that the Jews of Odessa haveformed a self-defense league and that other Jewish communities were followingtheir example Count Konofonia wants to ask the Czar “authorize the Societies ofTrue Russian Men to disarm these enemies of the autocracy.”
1908(18thof Iyar, 5668): Lag B'Omer
1908:Dr. Jacob Haas who was supposed to marry his niece Fannie Thaller next month,despite the objections of her family and who had “three life insurance policiesin Jewish societies aggregating to $3,000” attempted to commit suicide today byslashing his wrists and taking ten grains of cocaine.
1908:Three days after had passed away, 57 year old Hyam Hart, the Australian bornson of Ashe Hart and Rachel Joseph was buried today at the “Willesden JewishCemetery.”
1908:Birthdate of Sylvan N. Friedman, the native of Natchez, LA, the father of SamFriedman and the nephew of Leon and J. Isaac Friedman who served in both theLouisiana State House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate
1909: Birthdate of composer Shlomo Yoffe or SchlomoJoffe. Born in Warsaw he studied pianotheory in Samara, Russia from 1918 until 1921 and, in 1924 in Warsaw joined theZionist movement Hashomer Hatza'ir, playing the mandolin, tuba, baritone andclarinet in its folk orchestras. He graduated from the Teachers' Seminarium inPoznan (Poland) in 1928, and in 1930, following agricultural studies in Brno(Czechoslovakia), moved to Palestine, helping to establish a kibbutz in 1932.Only after 1940 did he begin to be involved with music again, at first teachingand arranging music at the kibbutz Beit Alpha. After a period of concentratedstudy (1947-53), with Prof. J. Tal and Prof. O. Partos at the New JerusalemAcademy of Music, and privately with A.A. Boskovich, he devoted himself tocomposition and teaching at the district conservatory for kibbutzim atBeth-She'an Valley, where he was director until 1973. In the 1950s, underBoskovitch's influence, he used elements of Near Eastern Jewish song, maqam,heterophony and a form of chromatic modality, often in the expression ofbiblical and Israeli dramas, for example in the cantata "Tales of MountGilboa" (953), but also in his Prokofiev-like neo-classical symphonicworks. These features remained evident in later works, despite the influence ofSchoenbrg in the compositions of the 1960s and the influences that followed avisit to Darmstadt in 1962 and meetings with Lutoslawski and Penderecki. Hiscantata "Rising Night after Night" (1978), for example, exhibits manycontemporary aspects, including extended vocal techniques, clusters and adeformed folk melody, but despite these developments, Joffe always remained,through his teaching, association and biblical roots, a 'kibbutz composer'.
1909:Birthdate of Sir Nicholas George Winton, MBE a Briton who organized the rescueof 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve ofthe Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport.Winton found homes for them and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. TheUK press has dubbed him the "British Schindler".
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007780
1910:The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities inthe United States came to a close today in St. Louis, MO.
1910:Birthdate of Italian author Sion Segre Amar, the president of the JewishCommunity of Turin in the 1960’s who “survived the holocaust when he fled tomandatory Palestine in 1939.
1911:The Turkish government instructs its Minister at Teheran to protest the Persiangovernment attacks against lives and property of Ottoman Jews at Kermanshah.
1911: The King of Italy confers Knighthood of Order of Crown on Rabbi AbrahamElbgen, Chief Rabbi of Crete.
1911: Jews of Constantinople take a prominentpart in the celebrations of the anniversary of the Sultan's accession to thethrone.
1911: Plans are made in Cairo to form a Federation of Synagogues.
1912:Alterations in the ritual used at the New West End Synagogue was “agreed to ata meeting of seatholders” today in London.
1913(12thof Iyar, 5673): Fifty-four-year-old Rabbi and Editor Isaac Suwalsky passed awaytoday in London.
1913:Three days after she had passed away, 78 year old Phoebe (nee Neuberger) Duis,the husband of Levy Duis, was buried today in London at the “Plashet JewishCemetery.”
1914“Harry Rapf, an executive and film producer at MGM” and his wife gave birth toDartmouth alum and second-generation movie maker Maurice Rapf, “a founder ofthe Writers Guild of America.”
1914: Birthdate of Max Perutz, Austrian-bornBritish molecular biologist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962.
1915(6thof Sivan, 5675): Shavuot observed for the first-time during WW I.
1915:Birthdate of Irving Gertz, the native of Providence RI and graduate of theProvidence College of Music who gained fame for creating the scores for dozensof horror and sci-fi films.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/movies/21gertz.html
1915:Twenty-year-old Boston native Henry Landers Bostick the University of Denverstudent and right-handed infielder played his last major league baseball gamewith the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland A’s)
1915:“Petitions bearing 50,000 signatures have been obtained” in Buffalo, NY “in theeffort to save Leo M. Frank from execution.”
1915:“Mas Meeting to Aid Frank” published today described for a meeting to be heldby the League of Foreign Born Citizens that will “appeal for justice for Leo M.Frank” who has been “sentenced to die next month for the murder of MaryPhagan.”
1915:The text of a telegram to J.H. Slaton, the Governor of Georgia signed byseveral prominent leaders from Paterson, NJ, including Samuel Goldstein, MorrisA. Goldstein, Arnold Levy, Nathan Levine, Herman Orbach, David Gordon, HarryDunn, Benjamin Lowenthal, Solomon D. Stern and Isadore F. Rosenthal begging “tointercede with your Excellency to bestow clemency upon Leo Frank” was publishedtoday.
1915:While the State Prison Commission has not set a date for “the hearing of Leo M.Frank’s petition for a commutation of his sentence” today is the first possibledate on which the Commission might take such action.
1916:Birthdate of Victor Lucas, the son of a London drapery shop owner who “wasappointed inaugural President of the British Property Federation” in 1974 and“was one of the first Jews of Eastern European parentage” to play a major rolein “the Anglo-Jewish communal leadership” as can be seen by election to thevice presidency of the Board of Deputies and the presidency of Anglo-JewishAssociation.”
1917:The Central Committee of the Jewish Committee for the Care of the Fugitives forthe Galilee was elected today.
1917:It was reported today that the Turks have driven the Jews away from the coastforcing them to leave behind their property which is unprotected from lootersand to “suffer great destitution” as they tried to make their way to Jerusalemwhere conditions are not much better.
1917:“Further confirmation that the Turkish military authorities in Palestine” andthe civilian Turkish population “are committing terrible atrocities againstJews in Palestine reached Washington today in official reports”
1917(27thof Iyar, 5677): Fifty-year-old Adolph J. Meyers, the brother of Mrs. Abe Adlerand Mrs. H.M. Marks passed away today at North Chicago Hospital.
1917:“The Petrograd correspondent of the Jewish Daily Forward cabled” today that inRussia and Romania, “efforts were being made to provide equal rights for Jews.”
1918:Birthdate of Louis Sachwald, who was among the brave American soldiers whobattled the Japanese during the dark days of WW II at Corregidor and survived abrutal imprisonment to become a successful businessman in Maryland
1918:Benjamin Bernstein, the President of the Hebrew Association for the Blind andLeo Woolfson were among the speakers at “a patriotic meeting” sponsored by theassociation where attendees were urged to contribute to the $25,000 fund beraised to help care for blind Jewish soldiers returning from France who want tobe employed even though they have lost their sight in service of their country.
1918:Birthdate of Abraham (Bram) Pais a Dutch-born American physicist and sciencehistorian.
1918:Bainbridge Colby, the United States Shipping Commissioner spoke tonight “at thejoint memorial service of the Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the HebrewVeterans of the Spanish War…at Temple Beth El” where he assured attendees thatthe navy is on the verge of mastering the threat of the German submarines andthat at least “fifty ships of major size” would be commissioned in June.
1919:In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a fewfollowers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to theTurkish War of Independence and the creation of the modern Turkish state. Aspart of his reform programs Ataturk made religious faith a matter of individualconscience. He created a truly secular system in Turkey, where the vast Moslemmajority and the small Christian and Jewish minorities are free to practicetheir faith. As a result of Atatürk's reforms, Turkey -unlike scores of othercountries- has fully secular institutions.
1919:In Galilee, Haifa and Zichron Jacob, “the Jewish Committee for the Care of theFugitives made a survey of position of fugitives.”
1919:The Sinai Choral Club is scheduled to provide the closing program this eveningat the meeting of the Sinai Open Forum in Chicago.
1919:The twenty-sixth biennial council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregationsbegins in Boston.
1919:Today, Russian born and Columbia and NYU trained biochemist William MariasMalisoff, married Sally Juster with she raised three children – Marias, Eda andVera Malifsoff.
1920:Following Britain’s refusal to allow an American prospector to look for oil inPalestine, U.S. Ambassador Davis “pointed out that the American as not askingfor any concession and suggested that the British authorities might well make adistinction between concession-hunters and individuals who were merelyconducting investigations.”
1920:It was reported today that “seventy-five delegates and alternates to theAll-Russian Zionist Congress, which met here late in April, have been arrested.”
1921:The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotason immigration. Because of the convoluted quota system established by this law,immigration from southern and eastern Europe effectively came to an end. This had the effect of closing the AmericanDoor for the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia.The strict enforcement of this law would also mean that European Jewswould have no place to go when Hitler came to power.
1921:Today “the congress of Jews from the Old Kingdom met in Bucharest and electedJ. Niemirover as chief rabbi.”
1922:A new department of the Keren Hayesod has been established “to mobilize theJewish workingmen for the Palestine Foundation Fund.”
1922:It was reported today that S. Stanwood Menken, the Memphis born Jewish convertto Christianity had “criticized Premier Lloyd George for what he termed bargainingin the interests of British trade and said the economic breakdown of Europevitally affected America.
1923(4thof Sivan, 5683): Parasaht Bamibar
1923:Abraham Cahan, the editor of Jewish Daily Forward addressed the Convention ofthe Socialist Party of America today denouncing the Soviet regime anddescribing Lenin and Trotsky as “failures.”
1924:“Research working covering ten years and costing $40,000 was dedicated tonightwhen “The History of the Jews of Chicago” was presented to the ChicagoHistorical Society.
1925:“More than 500 delegates to the National Child Welfare Conference at the HotelBiltmore brought their dinner to an end tonight with a tribute to Miss SophieIrene Loeb of The Evening World as the pioneer of the movement to provide"a home for every child" in the United States.
1925:“The Vienna Technical College closed today on account of the unruliness of thestudents who decided to shut out the Jewish students for one day in order toavenge a German professor” whom they claimed “was attacked in the Jewishpapers.
1925:The Joint Distribution Committee which announced on May 17 that was planninganother nationwide campaign to continue its relief activities abroad said today“that the appeal would be made in the Fall and the amount sought would be$15,000,000.”
1926(6thof Sivan, 5686): Shavuot
1926:“As part of the observance of the Shavuot holiday, appeals will be made todayin Jewish temples and synagogues throughout the city on behalf of the UnitedJewish Campaign for $15,000,000 to aid the needy Jews of Eastern Europe.”
1927:”Thefourth of the series of Watson Clair Foundation lectures on "British andAmerican Rivalries in the American Revolution" was delivered by ProfessorVan Tyne at the Arts School at Cambridge today” during which he said that “inthe patriot ranks could be found most Western European Races” including the“Jews.”
1928:In the Bronx, Romanian Jewish immigrants “Tina (née Michel), a homemaker, andCarl Schayes, a truck driver for Consolidated Laundries” gave birth to NBAgreat Adolph "Dolph" Schayes.
1929:“The Valiant” starring Paul Muni is his film debut and produced by William Foxwas released today in the United States.
1930:In Frankfurt am Main, Yerachmiel and Chana Kranzler of Würzburg gave birth toDr. David H. Kranzler the holder of Ph.D from Yeshiva University and professorof library science at Queensborough Community who authored numerous books onthe rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.
https://books.google.com/books?id=s4Cx3yenDCQC
1930:The world executive of the Mizrachi (Orthodox Zionists) sent a telegram to Dr.Chaim Weizmann today calling for an immediate meeting of Zionist congress thatwould address the announcement by the British High Commissioner to suspendimmigration to Palestine. The appealstated that “the new immigration ban reveals a new British government tendencyto disregard the principles of the mandate.”This “tendency endangers the Zionist work.” Protests against the new British policy arealready taking place in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Emek Valley. The JewishAgency and the Vaad Leumi are meeting in a joint session to deal with thisissue.
1931:Announcement was made today by former Attorney General Albert L. Ottinger,chairman of the New York Campaign for the Relief of Jews in Europe, of receiptof a cablegram from Poland saying that forty-eight Jewish hospitals there…mightbe compelled to closed unless financial aid was obtained for them.”
1931(3rdof Sivan, 5691): Sixty-eight-year-old Russian born American newspaperwoman andsocialist Mrs. Adella Kean Zametkin, the author of A Woman’s Handbook and thewife of Michael Zametkin, the first editor of The Jewish Daily Forward passed away today in NYC.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/05/20/96200629.pdf
1931:Birthdate of Jerome Kurtz, the native of Philadelphia who became a successfultax lawyer and Commissioner of the IRS.
1932:“Adolf Hitler told National Socialist members of the new Prussian Diet todaythat his party would not participate in the formation of a new government.”
1933:“Leaders of American Jewry in a statement tonight, on the eve of the conveninghere tomorrow of an emergency session of the American Jewish Congress, assertedthat efforts to arouse public opinion against Adolf Hitler would be continueduntil Jews were restored "to complete equality with all other inhabitantsof Germany."
1934:In Brooklyn Rabbi Isaac Landman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “TwoSets of Commandments” at Congregation Beth Elohim.
1934:Rabbi I. Mortimer Bloom is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “The Reign ofLaw” at Temple Oheb Shalom.
1934:Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled,"Goebbels' Speech and the Madison Square Garden Meeting-What Do TheyConceal?" at Congregation Rodeph Sholom
1934:Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Who isWho-With Respect to Life's Values" at New York’s Temple Emanu-El.
1934(5thof Sivan, 5694): Erev Shavuot
1934:Rabbi Milton Steinberg is scheduled to lead Shavuot Services at Park Avenue Synagogueat 6 p.m. this evening.
1935:Representative Manny Celler spoke at the annual memorial service of the JewishWar Veterans which was held today at Temple Emanuel
1935: T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence ofArabia, died from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. Lawrence isconnected in the popular mind with his role in providing British support forthe Arab Revolt during World War I. ButLawrence was not one of those British Arabists who were, at best, disdainful ofthe Jewish people. As can be seen from the following, Lawrence welcomed thesettlement of the Jewish community in Palestine. “In 1919 Lawrence drafted aletter for Emir Feisal for a meeting with Felix Frankfurter, a leader ofAmerican Zionists. In his letter Feisal wished “the Jews a hearty welcome home”and asserted “our two movements complete one another.” “There is room in Syriafor both of us” he concluded. The letter was published in the New York Times on
1936(27th of Iyar, 5696): “A 43-year-old Jewnamed, Feivil Schnitzer, was shot and killed early this morning by an Arab inthe Armenian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was the twenty- sixthmurder of a Jew by Arabs since the present disturbances began, and in everycase the assassins are still at large.”
1936: “Love in Exile” produced by Max Schach,with a script co-authored by Herman J. Mankiewicz and music by Benjamin Frankelwas released today in the United Kingdom.
1936: Carl J. Austrian, chairman of the GreaterNew York campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to act asthe toastmaster for the this evening’s testimonial dinner at theWaldorf-Astoria honoring merchant Edwin Goodman, the President ofBergdorf-Goodman who is also chairman of the dress industry division of theJoint’s fundraising campaign.
1936: It was reported today that the“publication of the periodical Judenkenner (Observe of Jews) the organ of theAnti-Jewish World Alliance has been discontinued until after the Olympic Games”but that it is understood that publication will resume “after the Olympic Gamesare over and competitors and visitors have gone home.”
1936: “Tel Aviv celebrated the inauguration ofits new port today. Tens of thousandsgathered around a provisional jetty to watch the arrival and unloading of twosteamers with cargoes of cement.” Tel Aviv’s aged and ailing Mayor, MeirDizengoff, left his sick bed to watch the Jewish porters unloading bags ofcement. “Now that my eyes have sevenths, I am ready to die.”
1936: Today “The Stuermer, Julius Steicher’santi-Semitic weekly published a list of thirty two Jews who had been arrestedor punished on charge of ‘race defilement’ under the Nuremberg racial laws”including one who had committed suicide after arrest” and nineteen who had been“sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to two years.”
1937: Today George wrote on his last letters tohis mother in which he asked. "How is brother Arthur these days? I am gladto hear that he is writing a lot of tunes and I hope that he can find a marketfor some of them."
1937: Premiere of “Room Service” a play featuringSam Levene as “Gordon Miller” which was “the basis of the Marx Brothers film ofthe same title.”
1937(9th of Sivan, 5697): Eighty-three-year-oldEmilie Badt, the daughter of Fanny and Rabbi Wolf Landau passed away today inher hometown of Dresden, Germany
1937(9th of Sivan, 5697): Eighty-two-year-oldSamuel Sale who had served as the Rabbi for Congregation Shaare Emeth in St.Louis from 1887 to 1919 passed away today.
1938: Simon W. Gerson, an aide to ManhattanBorough President Stanley M. Isaacs spent three hours testifying before theJoint Legislative Committee on Law Administration and Enforcement chaired bystate senator John J. McNaboe. Thecommittee spent very little time questioning Gerson about the alteration of hisname on Municipal Court records in the a rent case which was supposed to be thefocus of the hearing and a lot of time questioning Gerson about his politicalviews. Gerson, who was Jewish, was aself-described Communist who, along with his wife, has been very critical ofthe American political and economic system. His boss, Borough President Isaacswas also Jewish but he was a leading member of the Republican Party.
1939(1st of Sivan, 5699): RoshChodesh Sivan
1939(1st of Sivan 5699): Fifty-three-year-oldKarl Radek, the Lemberg born Communist who “was sentenced to years of penallabor” after being convicted in a show trial during Stalin’s great purgereportedly was killed today by a fellow inmate/
http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSradek.htm
1939: Services marking the installation ofNorman Gerstenfeld as the Rabbi of Washington Hebrew Congregation were heldtoday in the District of Columbia.
1939: In defiance of the White Paper, 309“illegal Jewish immigrants” landed on the “shores of Southern Palestine.” Before they were discovered by Britishtroops, the group, including 74 women and 14 children were attacked by an armedmob of Arab villagers.
1940: One thousand peoples, paying $50 a coupleattended “the seventeenth annual of the Beth-El Hospital held tonight at theHotel Waldorf-Astoria for the purposed of reducing the $74,000 deficit incurredby the Brooklyn institution during the last year.”
1940: Today is the last day on which Hans Reywould paint his illustrations on French soil.
1941:In New York, “noted playwrights and screenwriters Henry and Phoebe (néeWolkind) Ephrom” gave birth award winning novelist, screenwriter and directorNora Ephron whose second marriage to award winning journalist Carl Bernsteinprovided the fodder for the novel and movie Heartburn.
https://www.biography.com/writer/nora-ephron
1941:The Palmach ("peluggot mahaz" - "assault companies")commando unitswere established by Yitzhak Sade as a defense from any Axis(Germany and Italy) attack on Eretz Israel. Later they assisted in planning andexecuting the dropping of Parachutists in occupied Europe. At its peak(November 1947) it had approximately 5000 members which were mainly responsiblefor capturing Safed and Tiberias as well helping to open the road to Jerusalem.
1942:In the Bronx, “homemaker Dorothy (Serating) Shopsin” and “Kenneth HenryShopsin, the owner of a paper manufacturing company” gave birth to KennethHenry Shopsin, who with is wife created the restaurant Shopsin’s General Store. (AS reported by Neil Genzlinger)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/obituaries/kenny-shopsin-dead.html
1943(14thof Iyar, 5703): Pesach Sheni
1943:Liberal Judaism, a new illustratedmonthly journal of opinion and letters, has been issued by The Union of HebrewCongregations, it was announced today. The cover of the first, or May, issue,published last Saturday, is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise,founder of Reform Judaism in the United States.
1943:Berlin was declared "Judenrein", Jew Free.
1943:Inthe House of Commons, the courageous Eleanor Rathbone attacked the Britishgovernment for the defeatist attitudes expressed at the Bermuda Conference andnoted that the Allies are responsible for the deaths of any Jews if they refuseto help.
1943:Ben Hecht’s “We Will Never Die” was performed at the Chicago Stadium, withguest stars John Garfield and Burgess Meredith in the lead roles. An estimated20,000 people attended as the stadium, “scene of many a hectic convention andgaudy circus, was turned into a house of worship,” as the Chicago Daily Newsput it.[Jewish Virtual Library]
1944(26thof Iyar, 5704):Jews deported from Paris to Kovno, Lithuania, are machine-gunned by guards in afenced enclosure after some of the prisoners attack SS troops.
1944:George Henry Lane, a Hungarian born English Jew serving with the Britishcommandos was captured on a pre-D-Day raid on the French coast but was able toavoid being executed under Hitler’s Commando Order by hiding his Jewish originsand fooling no less an authority than Field Marshall Rommel that he was Welshwhich led to his being imprisoned instead of executed.
1944:TheGermans transported Hungarian Jew Joel Brand to Turkey so he could deliver aproposal from Adolf Eichmann that would have required the Western Allies toexchange 10,000 trucks for one million Eastern European Jews. Eichmann calledit "blood for trucks." Arrested by the British, Brand was sent toLord Moyne (resident minister of state in the Middle East), who comments:"What shall I do with those million Jews?"
1944: Mel Mermelstein the man who woulddefeat the Institute for Historical Review in an American court and had theoccurrence of gassings in Auschwitz duringthe Holocaust declared a legally incontestable fact was deported to Auschwitzalong with the rest of the Jewish community of Munkacs, which was part of Czechoslovakia at that time.
1945(7thof Sivan, 5705): For the first time since VE Day, Yizkor is recited on the 2ndday of Shavuot.
1945:It was reported today that French government has forbidden Jews in Algeria tohold “a meeting to discuss the future of Palestine” which was to be addressedby David Ben Gurion because such a meeting “might lead to a clash with theAlgerian Arabs”
1946(18thof Iyar, 5706): Lag BaOmer
1946:Seventy-six-year-old Pulitzer Prize winning author Boot Tarkington, whom somewould say engaged socially acceptable genteel anti-Semitism, passed away today.
http://dramatic-insights.org/tarkington/index.php/2012/tarkington-antisemite/
1947:Italy which had been on both sides during the war and at one time emulated therace laws of their German ally, applied for membership in the United Nationstoday.
1948:Israeli forces abandoned Bet ha-Aravah and the potash works on the northern endof the Dead Sea.
1948:The provisional government of Israel declared a state of emergency.
1948:As the undermanned and outgunned Israeli units sought to keep the Syrians andIraqis from taking the Jordan Valley, a second raid, by a Yiftach company,crossed the Jordan and struck the Syrian camp at the Customs House, near themain Bnot Yaakov Bridge After a short battle, the Syrian defenders (one or twocompanies) fled. The Palmachniks destroyed the camp and several vehicles,including two armored cars, without losses.”
1948:In Jerusalem, “the Arabs recaptured the Sheikh Jarrah area”
1948:The Iraqis, who were about to drive west through Nablus toward Tulkarm, “askedthe Syrians to make a diversion in the Degania area to protect their rightflank. The Syrians complied, their main objective being to seize the bridgeacross the river north of Degania Alef, thus blocking any Israeli attack fromTiberias against the Iraqi line of communications.”
1948:During the War for Independence two civilian leaders from Kibbutz Deganyaarrive at Ben Gurion’s offices begging for help in fighting off the attackingSyrian armored column. Ben Gurionresponded candidly “We don’t have enough artillery, enough airplanes. Everyfront needs reinforcements. Thesituation is extremely grave in the Negev, in the Jerusalem area and in theUpper Galilee.” And if anything, BenGurion was understating the desperate situation. So far the only help he had to send toDeganya was Moshe Dayan who had little more than his eye-patch with which toface the Syrians, Iraqis and Jordanians.Ben Gurion sent the two leaders to Yigal Yadin, his Chief of Staff. Yadin listens to the report and then advisesthem to let the Syrian tanks breach the kibbutz so that the defenders candisable them with Molotov co*cktails.Their angry response shocks Yadin into action. If Daganya is lost the North is lost. With the Egyptians advancing from the Negevand the Arab Legion besieging Jerusalem, Yadin’s position seems more likeCuster than King David. Yadin meets withBen Gurion. In a table-pounding dispute, Yadin attempts to convince the Old Manto send four 65 millimeter artillery pieces that had been intended forJerusalem north to Deganya. This is thesum total of the Israeli artillery reserve and the weapons lack sights (youknow, the things you aim the gun with).Ben Gurion agrees to send two of the canon North with Dayan under thecondition that they be returned promptly to help with the fighting aroundJerusalem.
1948:The provisional government council of Israel proclaimed a state of emergency.
1948:The Scotsman quoted a report byThomas Wasson Consul General for the United States in Jerusalem “saying theBritish Consul had a “narrow escape” when the Consulate came under gunfire.”
1948:"A tiny force of the Palmach took Mount Zion and broke through to theJewish Quarter." The unit wasforced to withdraw several hours later when reinforcements could not come totheir aid.
1949:“Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American HebrewCongregations, called on American Jews tonight for greater support of theorganization's religious and cultural institutions.”
1950(3rdof Sivan, 5710): Eighty-year-old “German-born rabbi, Jewish theologian, andphilosopher of religion” Julius Guttman, the son of Rabbi Jakob Guttman who wasserving Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University passed away today.
1950(3rdof Sivan, 5710): The Aliyah of IraqiJews began. The first deportation of Eretz Yisrael Jews to Babylonia took placein 597 B.C.E. The bulk of Eretz Yisrael Jewry followed them to Babylonia 11years later, in 568 B.C.E. The first return of some Babylonian Jews to EretzYisrael took place in 539 B.C.E. The majority, however, remained in Babylonia,where they were destined eventually to make a major contribution to Judaismthrough the creation of the “Babylonian Talmud” and the “Geonic Responsa.” Itwas not until 1951, 2,548 years after the arrival of the first Jewish deporteesin Babylonia, that this ancient Jewish community began its own liquidationthrough an Aliyah to Israel.
1951(13thof Iyar, 5711): David Remez passed away.Born David Drabkin in Russia in May of 1886, he made Aliyah in 191. Trained as a lawyer and teacher, he worked asfield hand on several agricultural settlements. A founding member of Mapai anda leader of Histadrut, he was a true founding father as one of the signatoriesto Israel’s Declaration of Independence.He was the first Minister of Transportation and was serving as Ministerof Education at the time of his death.
1951:Menachem Cohen became an MK replacing the deceased David Remez.
1952:Moshe Keren, Israel’s Charge d’affairs in London is scheduled to be one of theIsraeli and Jewish observers attending “the conference on Germany’s pre-warexternal debts which opens today in London
1952:In South Africa, “the Minister of Justice, served two notices on Emil SolomonSachs in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. The first was anorder to resign as an official of the GWU within 30 days. It also prohibitedhim from participating in the activities of various organizations. The secondrestricted his movements to the Transvaal and prohibited him from attending anymeetings other than religious, recreational and social gatherings.”
1953(5thof Sivan, 5713): Erev Shavuot
1953: A call went to 3,750Jewish communities throughout the country, to assure the successful financingthis summer of the most important agricultural development program to belaunched in Israel since the establishment of the state, was issued here todayby the United Jewish Appeal on the eve of Shavuos, the Festival of Pentecost,which in the ancient days celebrated the appearance of the first fruits ofsummer.The appeal was made by Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, a national chairman of theUJA. "There can be no greater observance of this ancient festivalcommemorating Jewish attachment to the soil than support of the United JewishAppeals current special effort to help Israel achieve agriculturalself-sufficiency and maturity." he said.Rabbi Wise called specificattention to a special emergency drive for $25,000,000 in cash launched by theUJA for a five-week period beginning May 1. The cash fund is being sought forestablishment in Israel by the end of June of 36 new agricultural settlements,for the immediate channeling to the new colonies of large, recently discoveredwater sources, and for speeding a rise in the productivity both of the soil andthose newly placed on it as immigrant farmers.
1954:Nicholas Winton, a Briton who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewishchildren from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World Warrelinquished his commission of “flying officer” in the RAF while retaining therank of “flight lieutenant.”
1955(27thof Iyar, 5715): Eighty-one-year-old Max Heller, the chairman of the board ofthe Dover (NJ) Trust Company and former president of the American Food Companyand father four passed away today.
1956:“The Killing,” a crime film directed by Stanley Kubrick who also wrote thescreenplay and featuring Jay Adler, the son of Jacob and Sarah Adler, wasreleased today in the United States.
1957(18th of Iyar, 5717): Lag B’Omer
1957: Colonel Robert Henriques, the author of100 Hours to Suez which described and analyzed Israel’s victory in the recentSinai Campaign is scheduled to the principal speaker at the Israel bond dinnertoday.
1957:Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Greenberg of Brooklyn announced the engagement of theirdaughter Marilyn Greenberg, the Brooklyn College graduate to Maurice J.Gerstein, the holders of a B.S. from Long Island University and an M.S. fromSouthern Illinois University.
1959:As reported in today’s New York Times, Richard Tucker was among those whoappeared at the “Puccini Night” open air concert at Lewisohn Stadium in NewYork City. The stadium was named in honor of Adolph Lewisohn, the German-Jewishbanker who donated the money to pay for its construction.
1962:Birthdate of French journalist and musician Ariel Wizman the Sephardic Jew fromCasablanca, Morocco.
1962: “Bravo Giovanni,” directed by StanleyPrager opened on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.
1962:In Minneapolis, MN, Jack and Bette Kozlen gave birth to Amy Kozlen who becameAmy Barnum when she married her college Joel Barnum with whom she settled inCedar Rapids, where they raised three wonderful children – Emma, Sasha and Gail– and she became a pillar of the Jewish community which she infused with her ownunique brand of kindness, warmth and joy.
1964:In Manhattan, “Beverly and Peter Panken” gave birth to Aaron David Panken, agraduate “from Johns Hopkins University electrical engineering program” whobecame “Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, the president of the Hebrew Union College-JewishInstitute of Religion.”
1966:It was reported today that 75 year old Lazarus Joseph who served as New YorkCity Comptroller from 1946 to 1953 had fallen ill.
1966:The emblem for the Israeli town of Arad, a square with a hill and a flame, wasadopted today.
1969:Palestinian terrorists from Jordan bombard the Musa Alami School near Jericho.
1969:Today, in the Klingstein Pavilion, the former Laurie Jean Katcher and Stephen J.Kornreich, a partner in the law firm of Klotz and Gould gave birth to Robert JamesKornreich.
1970:Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for seventy-five-year-oldpsychoanalyst and author, Dr. Hein Hartmann, the Vienna born historian anddiplomat Ludo M Hartman and husband psychoanalyst Dr. Dora Karplus with whom heraised to sown, Dr. Ernst Hartmann and Dr. Lawrence Hartmann both of whom workin the field of psychiatry.
1972(6thof Sivan, 5732): Shavuot
1972:The Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York scheduledfinal exams today. It was the onlycollege in the system to do so. (Theexams would be moved to May 30 after a major protest led by Hillel, the ADL andother major Jewish organizations.)
1974(27thof Iyar, 5734): Sandy Sasso was ordained as the first female Reconstructionistrabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/19/1974/sandy-sasso
1975:The New Yorker published “The NewYork Review of Gossip” by Marshall Brickman.
1976(19thof Iyar, 5736): Eighty-eight-year-old Jeanette Wolf, “one of the best-knownGerman Jewish women in post-war Germany” passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wolff-jeanette
1977:Bella Abzug received 5 out of 231 votes for Mayor at the convention of theLiberal Party held today.
1977:A bi-national foundation, designed to promote joint industrial research anddevelopment between the United States and Israel was established in Washingtontoday at a formal ceremony between Assistant Secretary of the Treasury forInternational Affairs C. Fred Bergsten and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz.The move to establish the Bi-national Industrial Research and DevelopmentFoundation, followed President Carter's signing into law Congressionallegislation which stipulated that Israel and the U.S. would each contribute $30million to create an endowment to promote activities of mutual interest andbenefit to both countries. An agreement for the project was signed in JerusalemMarch 3, 1976. The Joint Israel-American Committee for Investment and Trade,whose objective is to foster economic ties, initiated the project which isexpected to provide direct mutual economic gains such as the development andparticipation in new external markets and increase the flow of materials andservices between the two countries. According to a spokesman for the Governmentof Israel Investment Authority, which is headquartered in New York, theFoundation "is the first of its kind established between the United Statesand another country." For a project to be supported by the Foundation itmust show promise of tangible direct benefits to the national economies of bothcountries, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Treasury Department. TheFoundation will be governed by a board consisting of three officials of eachgovernment (JTA)
1978:Leonard B. Sand began serving as Judge of United States District Court for the SouthernDistrict of New York.
1978:“The Committee of Concerned Scientists said today that it had sent a telegramsigned by 15 Nobel laureates expressing “our grave concern” over the trial of,Yuri F. Orlov, the Russian physicist who was sentenced on Thursday to sevenyears in prison and five years in exile for “anti‐Soviet agitation.”
1987:“Thank God It’s Friday,” a musical comedy co-produced by Rob Cohen, co-starringJeff Goldblum and Debra Winger and featuring Valerie Landsburg was released inthe United States today.
1980:Time magazine reported today that “Died: Arthur Levitt, 79, New York Statecomptroller from 1955 to 1978, whose nonpartisan dedication, thrift with publicfunds and relentless criticism of fiscal chicanery endeared him to voters, whor*turned him to office five times with huge majorities; in New York City. ABrooklyn lawyer and nominal Democrat, Levitt served under four Governors,tightening the state's auditing procedures, including "performanceaudits" of state agencies, and eventually giving his office prestige andpower virtually beyond politics.”
1981:Former Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz joins Moshe Dayan's Telem party.
1983(7thof Sivan, 5743): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1983:“President Reagan said today that he would notify Congress ''in a day or two''that he wants to go ahead with the sale to Israel of 75 F-16 fighter jets thathe held up after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last June.”
1985(28thof Iyar, 5745): Yom Yerushalayim
1985:Two famous Jewish men of letters are joined together in Harold Bloom’s reviewof Zuckerman Bound by Philip Roth
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/19/books/his-long-ordeal-by-laughter.html?pagewanted=all
1987:The Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production of “Kiss Me, Kate” with abook by Samuel and Bella Spewack at London's Old Vic Theatre, which openedtoday.
1988:Shimon Peres is scheduled to address commencement ceremonies at the JewishTheological Seminary this afternoon.
1989(14thof Iyar, 5749): Pesach Sheni
1989(14thof Iyar, 5749): Dr. Abel J Herzberg passed away. Dr. Abel J. Herzberg was a lawyer inAmsterdam when he was arrested in 1943, along with his wife, and taken to theDutch transit camp at Westerbork. He was sent to Bergen-Belsen in January 1944and, as a Zionist, he was put on the list of 1300 Jews who were available to besent to Palestine in exchange for German citizens held as prisoners by theAllies. He was on the list of 272 Jews who were selected in April 1944 to go toPalestine, but at the last minute 50 names were crossed off the list and Dr.Herzberg had to go back into the Star Camp with the other Dutch Jews. Dr.Herzberg survived and after the war, he went back to being a lawyer inAmsterdam. He published the diary that he kept in Bergen-Belsen. Itappeared in English under the title, “Between Two Streams: A DiaryFromBergen-Belsen.”
1989:Morton Isaac Abramowitz completed his term as Director of the Bureau ofIntelligence and Research which left him free to accept appointment as U.S.Ambassador to Turkey.
1989:After having first been seen at the Toronto Film Festival, “The Miracle Mile”featuring Alan Rosenburg was released today in the United States.
1991(6thof Sivan, 5751): First Day of Shavuot
1992:Broadcast of the second and final installment the miniseries “Cruel Doubt”co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow
1993:“Fiorile” an Italian drama co-starring Michael Vartan that premiered at theCannes Film Festival was released in several European countries today
1993(28thof Iyar, 5763): Yom Yerushalayim
1994:NBC broadcast the final episode of season five of “Seinfeld.”
1996(1stof Sivan, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1996:Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, “the first American sailor to have risen throughthe enlisted ranks to become the Chief of Naval Operations, the highest-rankingbillet in the U.S. Navy” “was interred at Arlington National Cemetery” today“with a tombstone marked with the Star of David.”
1997:David Blaine's first television special, David Blaine: Street Magic aired on NBC
1999:Conductor Yakov Kreizberg made his debut appearance with the New YorkPhilharmonic Orchestra.
1999:Members of the of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to attenda “Special Tribute commemorating the 10th anniversary of the passingof Dina Haplern and honoring Danny Newman for his contribution to Yiddishculture today at the Harold Washington Library Centrer.
1999:U.S. premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace starring NataliePortman as Queen Padmé Amidala and Frank Oz as the voices of “Yoda.”
2000:“One Day in September,” a documentary that examined the murder of the Israeliathletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics was released today in the UK
2000:“Shanghai Noon” the first in series of buddy films produced by Roger Birnbaum,Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman and with music by Randy Edelman was releasedtoday in Malaysia.
2001(26thof Iyar 5761): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
2001(26thof Iyar, 5761): It was reported that “a Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 5Israelis and wounded more than 100” and Israeli army officer was killed on aWest Bank Road, which led to Israeli retaliating by sending aircraft to attack“the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the first time since the 1967 war.
2002:In The Observer Michael Sfard the lawyer representing Israeli conscriptswho refuse to serve beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines explains why a growingnumber of soldiers are disobeying orders, in order to protect the basic valueson which Israel was founded.
2002(8thof Sivan, 5762): Yosef Haviv, 70, Victor Tatrinov, 63, and Arkady Vieselman,40, all of Netanya, were killed and 59 people were injured - 10 seriously -when a suicide bomber, disguised as a soldier, blew himself up in the market inNetanya. Both Hamas and the PFLP took responsibility for the attack. “Viselman,a chef at the Park Hotel had survived the Passover bombing” that had takenplace in March.
2003:Forensic experts said today that the second terrorist who had participated inthe bombing of Mike’s Place had met death by drowning. Hamasand Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who had claimed joint responsibility for themurderous attack identified the terrorist and his compatriot as being Muslimsfrom Great Britain.
2003(17th of Iyar, 5763): Avi Zerihan, 36, ofBeit Shean, Hassan Ismail Tawatha, 41, of Jisr a-Zarqa[2]
Kiryl Shremko, 22, of Afula were murdered today andseventy others were injured by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a mall in Afula– an act of terror for which at least two Arab organizations took credit.
2003: A Palestinian suicide bomber riding a bike failedto blow up a jeep near Kfar Darom when he detonated his explosives.
2003: Broadcast of the final episode of season five ofThe King of Queens” co-starring Jerry Stillar
2004(28th of Iyar, 5764): Yom Yerushalyim
2004: In response to a request from the online sciencemagazine “Seed,” psychologist Steven Pinker “engaged in a four dialogue withnovelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.”
2004(28th of Iyar, 5764): Yom Yerushalayim -Jerusalem Day - is the anniversary of the liberation and unification ofJerusalem under Jewish sovereignty that occurred during the Six Day War. YomYerushalayim is celebrated on the 28th of the month of Iyar (one week before Shavuot).In2004Iyar 28corresponds to May 19 on the secular calendar.
2004:Broadcast of the final episode of season 6 of The King of Queens co-starringJerry Stillar.
2005(10thof Iyar, 5765): Steven Budeysky, a member of the U.S. Army’s 105th MilitaryIntelligence Battalion was killed today while serving in Iraq. “Budeysky was born in Moldova in the formerSoviet Union and went on to learn English as part of a singing group thattoured Europe. When Budeysky was 12 years old, he and his family immigrated tothe United States, settling in Chicago, where he attended Ida Crown JewishAcademy. He was also known as Baruch or Boris to his friends. A 2001 graduateof Northwestern University with a degree in economics and history, Budeysky waspursuing a graduate degree in political science from Troy University when heenlisted in the Army in 2002.”
2005:“Free Zone,” a film about relations between Arabs and Jews directed by AmosGitai and co-starring Natalie Portman “made its debut today at the 200t CannesFilm Festival.”
2005:North American premiere of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith starringNatalie Portman as Padmé Amidala and Frank Oz as the voice of Yoda.
2006:The Jewish Chronicle revealed thatthe Claims Conference highest-paid official, executive vice-president GideonTaylor was awarded $437,811 (£240,000) in salary and pension (2004numbers). An advisor to Britishsurvivors in compensation claims in the 1990s, Dr Pinto-Duschinsky, commented:"It is wrong for the executive vice-president to earn annually the same asthe compensation for several hundred former slave laborers. The moral authorityof the leading Jewish organizations is gravely weakened by excessively highsalaries for top officials."
2006:In “Long, long ago, when basketball was kosher” published today Haaretz reported on a gathering of about125 Yeshiva University (YU) alumni and friends at the school's Jerusalemcampus for a nostalgic evening with"The YU Dream Team of the 1950s" - six former basketball players fromNew York City who later immigrated to Israel.
2006:Two days after being shown at Cannes, The Davinci Code with a script by AkivaGoldsman was released today in the United States.
2006(21stof Iyar, 5766): Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, the last founding giant of Israel’s leftwing, died two months short of his 100th birthday. A controversial figure onthe Israeli political scene, he was one of the first to call for the return ofall territories occupied by Israel in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, andreached the peak of his career as secretary-general of the Histadrut, Israel’strade union federation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/world/middleeast/19aharon.html?_r=0
2007:After a two-month tryout at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, aLondon revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” opened today at the Savoy Theatre starring Henry Goodmanas Tevye, Beverley Klein as Golde, Alexandra Silber as Hodel, Damian Humbley asPerchik and Victor McGuire as Lazar Wolf. The production was directed byLindsay Posner. Robbins' choreography was recreated by Sammy Dallas Bayes (whodid the same for the 1990 Broadway revival), with additional choreography byKate Flatt.
2007:After 13 performances at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Felicja BlumentalInternational Music Festival comes to a close.
2008:At the Israel Museum opening of an exhibition entitled “Swords into Plowsharesthe Isaiah Scroll and Its Message of Peace.
2008: At the StephenWise Free Synagogue in New York, an evening of Israeli music entitled “TheSharett Sisters in Concert.”
2008 (5768): Pesach Sheini
2008: Today “it was reported that Haim Saban had "offered $1million to the Young Democrats of America during a phone conversation in whichhe also pressed for the organization's two uncommitted superdelegates toendorse Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president.”
2008: Laura Weisberger’s 3rd novel, Chasing HarryWinston, was released today in the United Kingdom.
2009: Time magazine reports onthe recent passing of “Jewish boxer Salamo Arouch” at the age of 86. Arouch survived the Holocaust by winningboxing matches staged by the guards at Auschwitz. “He was the subject of the film ‘Triumph ofthe Spirit’ starring Willem Dafoe.”
2009: At Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington,D.C., children's author AmyKrouse Rosenthal reads from and discusses her new picture book, “Duck! Rabbit!”
2009: Rivka Galchen discusses her debut novel, “Atmospheric Disturbances,” inconversation with Ron Charles, Book World's deputy editor, as part of theNextbook series at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.
2009: Today the Edinburgh International Film Festival returned a 300-poundgrant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director KenLoach. The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate TaliShalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate.Ezer's film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic, and makes no reference towar or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women'sfilm festival in Israel.
2009: This evening, Israel Air Force (IAF) jets attacked targets throughoutGaza after a woman was lightly injured from a rocket explosion in Sderot.During the attack, the IAF succeeded in hitting two weapons factories and foursmuggling tunnels, used by Hamas terrorists to restock their supply ofarmaments.
2009(15th of Iyar, 5769):Shlomo Shamir whose life reads like something out a James Bond novel, passedaway. Born Shlomo Rabinowitch in Russia in 1915, he made aliyah ten yearslater. He was an active member of theHaganah from 1929 until 1940 when he joined the RAF and rose to the rank ofmajor before his discharge in 1946. During the War of Independence he played akey role in the fighting around Latrun and the creation of the Burma Road.After the war, he served as the 3rd commander of the Israeli Navy andthe 3rd commander of the Israeli Air Force. After leaving themilitary he graduated from Tel Aviv University and Harvard. He was an entrepreneur who developed severalsuccessful businesses.
2009(15th of Iyar, 5769):Ninety-two year old Noble Prize winning bio-chemist Robert Francis Furchgottpassed away today.
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1998/furchgott-bio.html
2009: Ninety year old Sheikh Jabr Muadi,a Druze Israeli politician who served in the Knesset from 1951 to 1981 passedaway today.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770):First day of Shavuot
2010: Tulane alum Martin Leach-CrossFeldman assumed the position of Judige of the United States ForeignIntelligence Surveillance Court.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770): At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,IA, Melanie Abzug, Miriam Maikon and Sam Sarasin are scheduled to Confirmedduring Evening Shavuot Services.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770):Martin Cohan, 77, who co-created the ABC sitcom "Who's the Boss?" andwas a prolific TV writer and producer, died today at his home in PacificPalisades after a two-year battle with large-cell lymphoma, his familyannounced."
2010: The Washington Postreviewed Jules Feiffer's account of his multifaceted career which will delightthat generation of readers for whom his whimsical, sardonic and oftenpolitically barbed Village Voice cartoons were a cultural touchstone.Those whose understanding of Feiffer's achievements is not enhanced by the warmglow of nostalgia, however, may have less patience with this shambling, highlyepisodic book. “Backing Into Forward” starts with the author's account ofgrowing up urban and Jewish, complete with a domineering mother and ragingadolescent hormones. This back story has the ill fortune of sounding remarkablysimilar to that of Feiffer's friend Philip Roth: not a face-off that Feiffer --or anyone else -- is likely to win. Feiffer is an energetic storyteller, butstructurally the book is so haphazard that it's often hard to keep track ofwhere we are in the arc of the artist's career. Feiffer wins points, though,for the acuity of his insights on the craft of cartooning. He's also remarkablymodest. He repeatedly speaks of encounters with Marlene Dietrich, LaurenBacall, George Plimpton and many others with a fan's sense of awe and goodfortune
2010:“The Frozen Rabbi” by Steve Stern is among the books briefly reviewed intoday’s “Newly Released” Column.
2011:The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is scheduled tohonor Dennis Berman, The Kramer Family and Esther B. Newman at tonight’s annualfundraising dinner in Potomac, MD.
2011:Ed Goldberg and the Odessa Klezmer Band are scheduled to perform at theMarlboro branch of the Monmouth County (NJ) Library.
2011:The Second Annual Atlanta Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to take place atEddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA.
2011:“A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-65” a “colorful newexhibition that celebrates the many Jewish composers of the American Songbookand their great contribution to American popular culture including Jerome Kern,Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein isscheduled to open today at TheBainbridge Library in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
2011:The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to present“Follow the Fugue” a concert featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble.
2011:Prosecutors announced today that a grand jury had indicted Mr. DominiqueStrauss-Kahn on charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a hotel housekeeperat the Sofitel New York.
2011:A judge granted Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail today, allowing the former managingdirector of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island tostay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending.
2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today Israel would object to anywithdrawal to "indefensible" borders, adding he expected Washingtonto allow it to keep major settlement blocs in any peace deal. In a statement after President Barack Obama'sspeech outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said before heading toWashington that "the viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expenseof Israel's existence".
2011:Lars von Trier was expelled from the Cannes Film Festival today, a day afterjoking at a news conference that he was a Nazi and expressing sympathy forHitler. The Danish director’s film “Melancholia” is in competition at thefestival and seen as a contender for the top prize. (As reported by Melena Ryzik)
2011:Swiss producer Arthur Cohn, a six-time Oscar winner, was honored for his bodyof work by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Cohn’s grandfatherthe chief rabbi of Basel. He invited Theodor Herzl to hold the first ZionistCongress there after rabbis elsewhere objected.
2012:Mendy Cahan is scheduled to at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New YorkCity.
2012:In Springfield, VA, Congregation Ada Reyim is scheduled to present “A Night ofMagic and More.”
2012:As part of the Ahavat Yisrael Weekend, Moshav is scheduled to perform at AdasIsrael in Washington, DC.
2012:In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the family and many friends of Amy Barnum have a chanceto celebrate her birthday. An ayshishchayil she has raised three marvelous daughters, provided leadership for TempleJudah and Hadassah and is the glue for the annual traditional High Holidayservices. “Her children (and everybody else) call her blessed.”
2012:Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to"married" today.
2013:The New York Times features reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker and the recentlyreleased paperback edition of The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
2013:The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform for the Jewish CommunityAssociation at Riderwood Village in Silver Spring, MD.
2013:David Senesh, the nephew Hannah Senesh is scheduled to Dr. Louis D. Levine in atalk about the brave young Jewish poet and paratrooper and whose life and workare being honored at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie with an exhibition“Fire In My Heart.”
http://www.mjhnyc.org/hannah/poetry.html
2013:The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor awalking tour of Downtown Jewish Washington which will give participants achance to experience the neighborhood along Seventh Street, NW as it was from1850 to 1950.
2013:In Little Rock, AR, the friends and family of Rabbi PInchus and Estie Cimentare scheduled to gather to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of their daughterZissie. The Ciments are thequintessential “lamplighters” who have brought the light of Chabad Lubavtich tothe Arkansas Jewish Community.
2013:Israel will go ahead with its candidacy for an unprecedented seat on the UNSecurity Council in 2019 despite Germany’s determination to run against it,diplomatic officials told The Jerusalem Post today
2013:Iran’s state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spyingfor Israel’s Mossad and the American CIA spy agency. Today’s report saysMohammad Heidari, who was accused of providing Mossad with classifiedinformation in return of money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, who allegedly gave the CIAintelligence on Iran, were hanged.
2013:“With Wheelchair and Lively Baton, Levine Commands Carnegie Hall” publishedtoday described the return of the famous conductor.
2013:Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, “The Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature andHistory at the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute ofReligion in Los Angeles” “was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew UnionCollege-Jewish Institute of Religion” toda.
2013:Damascus has put a number of advanced weapons on standby to strike Israel,should Jerusalem hit targets inside Syria again, the UK’s Sunday Timesreported. According to the report, satellite images show Syria has readied itsstock of Tishreen missiles for use against Tel Aviv
2014:The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to “host a special preview screeningof Watchers of the Sky, the SundanceFilm Festival award-winning documentary that uncovers the forgotten life ofRaphael Lemkin who coined the term “genocide” and campaigned for internationallaws that would prevent and punish this crime against humanity.”
2014:On the second day of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival AyeletWaldman and Lihi Lapid are scheduled to participant in discussion entitled “BadMother-Good Mother.” (As reported by David B. Green)
2014:On Nicholas Winton's 105th birthday, it was announced he was to receive theCzech Republic’s highest honour, for giving Czech children "the greatestpossible gift: the chance to live and to be free
2014:“In Honor of Jewish American History Month,” Marvin Kalb is scheduled tomoderate a panel discussion with Martin Goldsmith and Dr. Diane Afoumado“Voyage of the St. Louis” marking the 75th anniversary of “of thesailing of the SS St. Louis, ‘the saddest ship afloat.’”
2014:A survey released today by the Paris based Siona organization of SephardicFrench Jews showed that 75% of the participants are considering making Aliyah.(As reported by JTA and Times of Israel.)
2014:“Warning that the army was operating under unprecedented financial constraints,IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that he had cancelled reservetraining for the rest of the year because of cuts to the defense budget.” (Asreported by Times of Israel)
2014:At the Library of Congress, Sanford Sternlicht, Emeritus English Professor atSyracuse University, is scheduled to discuss his book, The Tenement Saga:The Lower East Side and Early Jewish-American Writers.
2014:A poll of 3,833 French Jews reveals 74 percent have considered emigrating.(Tablet)
2015:Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, Davis Professor of Jewish Studies, University ofGeorgia, and Rabbi David S. Sperling, Professor of Bible, Hebrew Union Collegeare schedule to discuss “Exodus: What Really Happened” at the Skirball Center.
2015:The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Sara Levy’s World” Music,Gender and Judaism in Enlightenment Berlin.”
2015:At Beth Shalom in Columbia, MD, Rabbi Susan Grossman is scheduled to discussHeroines and Harlots: Women in the Book with Rabbi Susan Grossman
2015:Philadelphia’s PBS station, WHYY, is scheduled to host a free screening of “AWing and A Prayer” open to the public at 6:30 p.m.
https://www.aptonline.org/catalog.nsf/vLinkTitle/WING+AND+A+PRAYER+A
http://aboveandbeyondthemovie.com/
2015(1stof Sivan, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2015(1stof Sivan, 5775): Seventy-year-old Robert S. Wistrich, the Hebrew UniversityProfessor whose expertise in the field of anti-Semitism can be seen the 29volumes he wrote on the topic passed away today. (A reported by Sam Roberts)
2016(11thof Iyar, 5776): Eighty-four year old Morley Safer, the Toronto born son ofAustrian Jewish immigrants Anna (nee Cohn) and Max Safer, the award winning CBSjournalist passed away today in Manhattan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/business/media/morley-safer-dies.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-morley-safer-dies-at-84/
2016:The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a session ofthe First Person 2016 Series featuring a “conversation with Holocaust survivorIrene Weiss.”
2017:For the second day in a row, “farmers, vintners and cheesemakers from theModiin region are scheduled to bring their crops, goods and crafts to the TelAviv port at Hangar 2.”
2017:“Open House Tel Aviv, or Batim Mibifnim, an urban festival of architecture anddesign…showcasing the city’s chic style” is scheduled to continue for a secondday.
2017: “A food and literature festival at TheBanquet as Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim” where visitors can “hear chef EyalShani and musician Asaf Roth debate the poetics of food and recipes, or listento author Meir Shalev and chef Haim Cohen discuss food motifs in Shalev’sbooks” is scheduled to come to a close today.
2017:The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinnerduring “Interfaith Week.”
2017(23rdof Iyar, 5777): Seventy-seven-year-old poet and Hebrew translator Chana Blochpassed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2017:In announcing that “Jesse Eisenberg will play Marcel Marceau in ‘Resistance,’ afilm…that focuses on the legendary mime’s involvement in the French resistanceduring World War II,” writer anddirector Jonathan Jakubowicz today “toldthe Associated Press” that “the story of Marceau and the resistance is one ofthe most striking secrets of World War II.”
2018:Stacy Hart offered a cheesecake recipe fit for today’s Royal Wedding and thisevening erev Shavuot celebrations.
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/bake-off-star-stacey-harts-cheesecake-fit-for-the-royal-wedding/
2018:Forty-ninth Day of the Omer
2018:Bernard Lewis, the historian and prolific author who specialized in the worldof Islam, long before there was any real interest in the subject passed awaytoday at the age of 101. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/obituaries/bernard-lewis-islam-scholar-dies.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/06/bernard-lewis-obituary
https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Lewis/e/B000AP9JRK
2018(5thof Sivan, 5778): Parasahat Bamidbar – begin the Book of Numbers;
2018(5thof Sivan, 5778: Seventy-nine-year-old music publicist turn newspaper publisherMichael Goldstein, the husband of Nancy (Arnold) Goldstein and father ofJocelyn, Marissa and Gillian Goldstein passed away today. (As reported by Vincent M. Mallozzi)
2018:In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Shavuot Celebration andHavdalah Concert with Dan Nichols.
2019(14thof Iyar, 5779): Pesach Sheni
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pesach-sheni
2019:The New York Times featured reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding Rabbits For Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum and the recentlyreleased paperback edition of Robin by Dave Kitzkoff.
2019:The Loft at City Winery is scheduled to host a performance by award winningJerusalem born singer and musician Tamar Eisenman.
2019:Starting this morning, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host“Legacies of Violence: The Pogroms of the Russian Civil War at 100.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/legacies-of-violence-2019-05-19
2019:The Jewish Genealogical Society and American Sephardi Federation are scheduledto host “What's in a Name? A Case Study of (Re)Discovering Jewish Identity on(and off) an Unlikely African Archipelag”
2019:The Jewish Review of Books is scheduled to host a presentation by ProfessorJack Wertheimer, author of The New American Judaism at its 4thannual conference
2019:The Guy Mintus Trio, led by Israeli pianist and composer Guy Mintus isscheduled to perform tonight at a “New York release party.”
2019:Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is scheduled to host the “fifthannual Greek Jewish Festival.”
2020:The Breman museum is scheduled to host “a live virtual show from local musicianand Executive Director of the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, Joe Alterman.”
2020:Via Zoom, the Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Judith Viorst, author ofthe New York Times bestseller NecessaryLosses, who “will talk about her new book, Nearing 90, which tacklesthe complicated joys and everyday tribulations of becoming a nonagenarian withsignature savvy and humor.”
2020:The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is scheduled to host “Livestream: TheGlobal Resurgence of Anti-Semitism.”
2020:In San Rafael, CA, Congregation Rodef Shlom is scheduled to host, via Facebook,“Chasidic Tales and Melodies with Rabbi Elana Rosen-Brown,:
2020:Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a “discussionvia Zoom with Dr. Jordan Kassalow, founder of VisionSpring.”
2020:Via Zoom The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to host Debbie Meyeras she lectures on “The Trials of King David: Hands of Blood.”
2020:“The inaugural Great Big Jewish Food Fest featuring Jewish culinary talentslike Michael Solomonov, Joan Nathan and Michael Twitty” is scheduled to begintoday. (As reported by Joe Bauer)
2021:Hebrew College is scheduled to present online “Faith – Here and Now: AnInterreligious Exploration.
2021:As part of GTU’s Madrassa-Midrasha program, U. of Toronto professor NaomiSeidman, formerly of GTU, is scheduled to talk about Jewish languages inFreud’s dreams and UC Davis professor Omnia El Shakry's is scheduled to explorepsychoanalysis’ intersections with Islamic mysticism.
2021:Congregation Beth Elohim is scheduled to present online “Modern-Day Refugeeswith Emma Tobin” talking about the impact of the Refugee Act of 1980 thatcreated the Federal Refugee Program.
2021:S.F.-based JIMENA and U.K.-based Hari are scheduled to present Diplomat Efrat Sopher as she talks “abouther late grandfather, Meir Ezri, who, as Israel’s ambassador to Iran(1958-1973) assisted fleeing Jews and marshaling aid for earthquake survivors.”
2021: The Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival isscheduled to open tonight “with two documentaries: “Aulcie” (with Englishsubtitles), plus taped Q&A with former Israel basketball star Aulcie Perryand director Dani Menkin; and “Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words,” plusQ&A with daughter Jane Ginsberg and judge Abe Sofaer.”
2021: Live on Zoom, the YIVO Institute isscheduled to present “Embodying Liberty: American Jewish Attorneys and the Casefor Humanizing Public Charge.”
2021: Office of Cultural Affairs, ConsulateGeneral of Israel in New York, in partnership with the National Arts Club inNew York is scheduled to host a performance of the Vertigo Dance Company.
2021: Based on reports published yesterday, whileHamas has allegedly agreed to cease fire for tomorrow, as of today Israel maybe facing a multi-pronged conflict that includes assaults from Jordan, Lebanonand the various terrorist groups operating in Gaza.
2022(18th of Iyar, 5782) Traditionaldate on the Hebrew calendar for ending the annual pilgrimages to the tomb ofJoseph Saragossi which had begun on the 22nd of Nisan.
2022: The Streicker Center Israel Culinary Tripis scheduled to begin today.
2022: The Center for Jewish History is scheduledto host a gala evening honoring Professor Saul Friedlander and Sid Lapidus.
2022: The Weiner Holocaust Library, YaleUniversity and Institute of Historical Research are scheduled to present “ahybrid event” which examines “the future of Holocaust History and celebratesthe 100th anniversary of the IHR.
2022: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduledto host a virtual discussion with Philippe Sands, Baillie Gifford Prize-winningauthor of The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a NaziFugitive which is based on Sands’ successful BBC Radio Podcast and delvesinto the life and mysterious death of Otto von Wächter – a devoted Nazi turnedman on the run.
2022: The JWA book club is scheduled to host CindyRizzo, author of The Papercutter (The Split, #1), a blend of fantasy, romance,and Jewish imagination that imagines a world where a deeply polarized andungovernable United States of America has separated into two nations—the GodFearing States and the United Progressive Regions.
2022: Chabad of Iowa City is scheduled to host aLag BaOmer BBQ this evening at City Park.
2022: In Akron, OH, Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin isscheduled to lead a drum band through the streets as
Anshe Safard-Revere Synagogue holds “A Day ofJewish Unity” in celebration of Lag b’Omer.
2022: In Postville, IA, Chabad in honor of LabBaOmer is scheduled to host a Jewish Pride Parade followed by a BBQ.
2022: In response to violent attacks on medicssuch as the one that occurred at a Jerusalem hospital when members of thefamily of a patient who had diedattacked the medical staff “and caused significant damage to the ICU, “staff atpublic hospitals and clinics” are scheduled to go on strike today.
2022(18th of Iyar, 5782): Lag BaOmer
2023(28th of Iyar, 5783): YomYerushalayim
2023: Emmy Award-winning television host andproducer Andy Cohen is scheduled to discuss his new memoir, “The Daddy Diaries:The Year I Grew Up,” which details his experience as a glamorous butall-too-human father at the Sydney Goldstein Theatre.
2023: In Brookline, MA, Congregation MshkanTefila is scheduled to celebrate thededication of new Torah covers donated by by Florence Kaitz Greenberg z”l.
2023: Israeli DJ and music producer Guy Judah,known as Guy J, is scheduled to perform Israeli progressive house, techno andelectronic dance music in San Francisco.
2023: Once again Shabbat at Temple Judea iaa “family affair” as the Strausses–Rabbi Feivel and Canto Abbie – are scheduled to lead services.
2023: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host a“Community Klezmer Concert and Dance Party.”
2024: The Jewish Community Legacy Projects’Regional Small Congregation Cohorts is scheduled to take part in “a Zoom tourof the National Library of Israel.”
2024: The exhibition Kindertransport - RescuingChildren on the Brink of War is scheduled to open today at the IllinoisHolocaust Museum.
2024: Arno Rosenfeld, Forward enterprise reporteris scheduled to chronicle the Jewish American response to rising fears ofantisemitism and Jewish college students confronting hostile political climateson campus.
2024: “A festive Night at the Museum” a benefitfor Hebrew Free Loan which will honor Laura Lauder is scheduled to take placethis evening at the California Academy of Sciences.
2024: JHMOMC is scheduled to host “My Family'sLife in Wartime Germany with Joseph McCloskey” who “
will share a captivating story about how his grandparents were matched togetherin Nazi-occupied Germany.”
2024: Today the Academy Museum of Motion Pictureswhich opened in Los Angeles in September 2021, and “drew criticism for failingto feature Jews, who played essential roles developing the film industry in Hollywood’is scheduled “to open the exhibit “Hollywoodland: Jewish Founders and theMaking of a Movie Capital,” which “traces the history of filmmaking in LosAngeles back to its roots at the beginning of the 20th century, illustratinghow and why the city became a global epicenter of cinema.”
https://www.academymuseum.org/en/exhibitions/hollywoodland
2024: Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum arescheduled to present a “Greek Jewish Festival.”
2024: JNF’s “Womenfor Israel Volunteer Mission” is scheduled to begin today.
2024: Alliance for Jewish Theatre is schedule to host a day-long “BakeOff” for actors and directors/
2024:As May 19th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps theUnited States and the Hamas held hostages begin day226 in captivity. (Editor’snote: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are justproviding a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
