May 17
142BCE: “Simon the Hasmonean captured the citadel of Jerusalem and expelled itsSyrian garrison ad the Hellenized Jews” who had fought with them. Simon was thelast surviving Hasmonean brother. Hisvictories completed the fight begun by the more famous Judah who had takenpossession of Jerusalem in 165 BCE but had not been able to take control of thecitadel.
1012:Benedict VIII began his papacy. During his reign, “a number of Roman Jews wereexecuted on Cecil Roth has called the ‘improbable charge of mocking acrucifix.’ The accuracy of this is opento debate since a contemporary chronicler, Ademar of Chabannes, “this occurredafter an earthquake accompanied by a severe storm erupted on Good Friday,prompting a Roman Jews to inform the papal palace that some of hiscoreligionist had mocked a crucifix in their synagogue. After those foundguilty were beheaded the earthquake ceased.
1220:Second coronation of King Henry III in Westminster Abbey which was ordered byPope Honorius III who did not consider that the first had been carried out inaccordance with church rites. In 1253, King Henry established The DomusConversorum (House of Conversion) which was a building and institution inLondon for Jews who had converted to Christianity. It provided a communal homeand low wages.
1257:Coronation of Richard Earl of Cornwall to whom Abraham of Berkhampstead “wasvery dear” and on whose behalf he intervened to get him released after beingcharged with desecrating an image of the Virgin Mary.
1315:Today, during the reign of Louis X, “an ordinance was issued” concerning therights and treatment of the Jews when and if they were allowed to return toFrance.
1338:The Bishop of Strasbourg formed an alliance for the pursuit of the Armlederassassins who were responsible for the massacring of Jews in Alsace.
1594:Today “The Jew of Malta” was entered in the Stationer's Register, a record bookmaintained by the Stationers' Company of London which a held monopoly over theprinting industry in England.
1500:In Mantua, “Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and Isabella d'Este” gavebirth to “Federico II of Gonzaga, the ruler of the Italian city of Mantua atthe time of the birth of Leone de' Sommi, the first “unapologetically Jewishplaywright and poet” and a ruler who enjoyed Jewish comedians enough to hire“Solly and Jacob,” two “ebrei istrioni” (ham actors) for a wedding celebrationin 1520.” (As reported by Simon Schama)
1607:Today for the third time the Inquisition took action against “Jorge de Almedia,a Portuguese residing in Mexico, the prosecuting attorney renewed the motionthat he be adjudged in contumaciam (in contempt) “but the Inquisitorsupon consideration of the antecedents of the case and wising to give the saidJorge de Almeida a further proof of kindness and benignity, decided to granthim sixty days more, during which he may come and appear in obedience to thesummons.”
1617(12thof Iyar, 5377): Rabbi Judah Löb Saraval passed away He translated Saadia’scommentary on “Canitcles” into Hebrew. [Canticles is another name for the Songof Songs.] “He is quoted in the ritual work "Mashbit Milḥamot," inconnection with a question in regard to the ritual bath. Although he wasreported to have died in Venice, Filosseno Luzzato found his tombstone inPadua.
1660:As the aftermath of Civil War raged across England the library of theArchbishop of Canterbury was taken from English preacher and political leaderHugh Peters who supported the ideas of Roger Williams which included “writingon behalf of the toleration of Jews.”
1695:In London, Jahacob Louzada and his wife gave birth to future New York residentAaron Louzada, the brother of Moses Louzada and father of Aaron and KittyLouzada.
1714:Michael Hasid who had “succeeded to the rabbinate of Frankfort after the deathof Aaron Benjamin Wolf” was appointed chief rabbi of Berlin.
1716:“More than 60 Crypto-Jews appeared in a single auto held at Coimbra today.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/spanish-and-portuguese-history-biographies/braganza
1716:TheJews of Prague held a procession today in honor of the birthday of ArchdukeLeopold.
1727:Catherine I of Russia, the second wife of Peter the Great passed away She ruledfor two years after Peter’s death. In that time, she issued an edict expellingthe Jews from the Ukraine and the rest of Russia and denying them the right toever return.
1756:On the day before Lag B’Omer Britain declared war on France marking the startof the Seven Years War from which you can draw a line to the AmericanRevolution, The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars all of which hadmajor impacts on Jews in Europe, the New World and the lands of the OttomanEmpire.
1767(18thof Iyar, 5527): Lag B’Omer observed on day after Ahmed al-Ghazzal, the emissaryfrom Sultan Mohammed ben Abdallah of Morocco to the Spanish Empire, had made atriumphant return to Marrakesh with almost 300 Muslims who had been heldcaptive in Spain, as well as sacred Islamic manuscripts that had been seized bythe Spanish in 1612.
1772(14thof Iyar, 5532): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time before Austria, Prussiaand Russia begin carving up Poland-Lithuania in a series of three partitionswith all that that would mean for the Jews living in what had become one of thelargest Jewish communities in Europe.
1774(7thof Sivan, 5534): Second Day of Shavuot observed on the same day that “thecolony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations issued the first call for an"Intercolonial Congress" that eventually met as the First ContinentalCongress
1779(2ndof Sivan, 5539): Raphael Levi Hannover the native of Franconia who was soskilled in mathematics and astronomy that he served as the secretary forGottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz and whose works included "Luḥot ha-'Ibbur,”passed away today.
1784:The Jewish public school was opened in Hungary
1786(19thof Iyar, 5546): Moses Zarah Eilitz, who taught Talmud without acceptingcompensation even though he was impoverished himself, passed away today.
1795:Rabbi Isaiah Berlin led a special service in the synagogue at Breslau in honorof the recently signed Peace of Basel that ended the War of the FirstCoalition. From a Jewish point of view,the service was unusual because Berlin permitted the use of instrumental music.
1776:During the American revolution the U.S. Congress called on Americans to raisetheir voices in prayer, and among the verses read by the "anxious"Jews of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of New York was, "…Andthey shall beat their swords into plow-shares."
1786(19thof Iyar): Moses Eidlitz, author of “Melehet Mah-shevet” passed away.
1792:The New York Stock Exchange is founded when the Buttonwood Agreement was signedby 24 stockbrokers outside of 68 Wall Street in New York under a buttonwoodtree on Wall Street. Benjamin Seixas, brother of Gershom Seixas, was one of thefive Jews included in the list of the twenty-four founders of the New YorkStock Exchange
1795:Rabbi Isaiah Berlin officiated at service celebrating the Peace of Basel wherehe allowed instrumental music to be played in the synagogue.
1799(12thof Iyar, 5559): Seventy-six-year-old Daniel Itzig, the husband of Miriam Wulff,the grandfather of Lea Solomon, the mother of Felix Mendelson and Fanny Hensel,the father-in-law of David Friedlander who was “court Jew” Frederick II, theGreat and Frederick William II of Prussia and one of the very few Jews inPrussia to receive full citizenship privileges, as a "Useful Jew"passed away today.
1805(18thof Iyar, 5565): Lag B'Omer observed as Lewis and Clark were traveling throughmodern day Montana as they made their way west towards the Pacific.
1812(6thof Sivan, 5572): First Day of Shavuot observed for the last time before theoutbreak of hostilities between the United States and the United Kingdom knownas The War of 1812.
1814:The Constitution of Norway is signed and the Danish Crown Prince ChristianFrederik is elected King of Norway by the Constitutional assembly. The firstJews arrived in what is now Norway in the last decade of the 15th century. Theywere Sephardim escaping the Inquisition and were referred to as “the PortugueseJews.” This constitution included in its second paragraph a general ban againstJews and Jesuits entering the country. In principle, Portuguese Jews wereexempt from this ban, but it appears that few applied for a letter of freepassage. When Norway entered into the personal union of Sweden-Norway, the banagainst Jews was upheld, though Sweden at that point had several Jewishcommunities. In 1844, the Norwegian Ministry of Justice declared: "... itis assumed that the so-called Portuguese Jews are, regardless of theConstitution’s §2, entitled to dwell in this country, which is also, to [our]knowledge, what has hitherto been assumed. “After tireless efforts by the poetHenrik Wergeland, the Norwegian parliament lifted the ban against Jews in 1851and they were awarded religious rights on par with Christian"dissenters." In 1852, the first Jew landed in Norway to settle, butit wasn't until 1892 that there were enough Jews to form a synagogue in Oslo.
1817:In Wilmington, Delaware, Charity Hays and Jacob da silva Solis who were marriedin 1811 gave birth to Judith Simha da silva Solis, the husband of Myer DavidCohen with whom she had eight children.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solis-cohen-judith
1823(7thof Sivan, 5583) Second Day of Shavuot and Shabbat
1826:In Nice, Rabbi Abraham Belais and Naomi Belais gave birth to Solomon Belais.
1829(14thof Iyar, 5589): Pesach Sheni observed on the same day that John Jay, the firstChief Justice of the United States passed away.
1830:The second reading of bill designed to free the Jews from their “civildisabilities” “was rejected” in the House Commons by a vote of 265 to 228despite the presentation of “a sizable petition it its favour from 14,000citizens of London.”
1830:In Kosiv, Rabbi Chaim Hager of Kosiv and his wife, the daughter of Rabbi IsraelFriedman of Ruzhyn gave birth to Menachem Mendel Hager who was named as Rebbeat the age of 24.
1835(18thof Iyar, 5595): Lag BaOmer
1835:Lewis Isaacs married Phoebe Davis today at the Great Synagogue.
1835:Samuel Magnus married Rose Cohen today at the Hambro Synagogue.
1836(1stof Sivan, 5596): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1836:Birthdate Prague native Wilhelm Steinitz the first official World Champion ofChess holding the title from 1886 to 1894. He suffered from a variety of mentalproblems after losing his championship. At one point he claimed to have playeda game of Chess with God. He passed away in 1900 while living in Brooklyn.
1836:In Karlsruhe, German, Caroline and David Aron Rothschild gave birth to WilhelmBenjamin Rothschild, the husband of Stella Rothschild
1840(14thof Iyar, 5600): Pesach Sheni
1844:Warder Cresson became the first person commissioned to serve as Consul atJerusalem by the United States State Department. Cresson would convert toJudaism while serving in Jerusalem and take the name Michael Boaz Israel ben Abraham.
http://www.jewish-history.com/cresson/warderc.html
1844: Birthdate of Julius Wellhausen, the German biblical scholar who, in his1878 "History of Israel," first advanced the JEDP Hypothesis,claiming that the Torah was a compilation of four earlier, literary sources.
1848(14th of Iyar, 5608): Pesach Sheni is observed as theRevolutions of 1848 swirl across Europe with the revolutionaries gaining grantsin Austria and parts of modern day German and Italy.
1849:In St, Louis, The Great Fire occurred when at 10 p.m. a fire broke out on thesteamboat "White Cloud". Within 30 minutes, 23 steamboats wereengulfed in flames. The fire swept up the levee, destroying tons of freight and15 blocks of residences, warehouses, and stores. Businesses destroyed that wereowned in whole or in part by Jews include: Isaac Jacobs, Abraham Jacobs, LewisM. Levy, Simon Lewis, Raborg & Shaffner, Helfenstein & Co., CharlesRoderman, Weil & Bros., L. Newman, Helfenstein, Gore & Co., Levy &Bros., H. Cohen, and Simon Abeles.
1850(6thof Sivan, 5610): Shavuot
1850(6thof Sivan, 5610): Forty-one-year-old Rabbi Yitzchok Tzvi Margaretten, theRomanian born “son of David Weiss and Frimet Weiss, the husband of Rachel LeaMargaretten and father of Chaya Sara Margareten; Rabbi David Margittai; RabbiMoshe Margaretten; Rabbi Yoel/Joel Margareten; Israel Margaretten; Mor MeyerMoritz Margitta; Amram Imre Margittai; Frimet Fani Kohn; Yeshia Joshua ShiaSamuel Margareten and Un Margareten” passed away today in Hungary.
1850:Rabbi Jacobs delivered a sermon at the Shavuot service using the text –Deuteronomy XVI 9.
1851:Birthdate of Bavaria native and future resident of St. Louis, Moritz Hellman,the husband of Beulah Hellman with whom he had two children – Jessie and Inez.
1852:The New York Times reported that the first reading of a bill designed toremove the disabilities imposed upon persons refusing to take the “oaths ofabjuration” (known as the Jews Bill) had taken place in the House of Lords.During the debate, Lord Lyndhurst cited the recent case of David Salomons, theJew who had refused to take the standard oath and sought to be seated in theHouse of Commons nonetheless. In what was seen as a turn for the better, LordDerby had not offered any opposition to the measure.
1852:Birthdate of Cincinnati native and 1870 Ohio University graduate Dr. PhilipZenner who “received his license to practice medicine in 1896” and who “was acharter the Jewish Hospital medical staff” and a Professor Neurology at theUniversity of Cincinnati.
1855:In New York ceremonies were held today marking the official opening firsthospital building in the United States devoted solely to alleviate thesuffering of poor Jews. The ceremoniesfeatured uniquely Jewish liturgical motifs including a display of TorahScrolls. In addition to all of the modern conveniences one would expect to findin a new hospital, there is a synagogue on the 2nd floor. John Hart is president of the board ofdirectors and Benjamin Hart is the vice president.
1855:Over five hundred ladies and gentlemen attended a banquet at Niblo’s Saloonthat was intended to raise funds for the newly opened Jew’s Hospital. The Grace before and after dinner werechanted in Hebrew by Rabbi J.J. Lyons and Anthony Leo.
1857:In Vienna, Josef and Eleanor Pick gave birth to Julia Pick who became JuliaHeller when she married Jakob Heller.
1860: Alliance Israelite Universelle was launched by a group of French Jewsunder the direction of Adolphe Cremieux. It was designed to defend Jewishrights and to establish world-wide Jewish educational facilities. CharlesNetter was one of the six founders of the organization which had been formed inresponse to anti-Semitic incidents such as the abduction of Edgardo Mortara andthe Damascus affair. The Franco-Prussian War diminished its universality andseparate organizations were formed in Germany and England.
1865:Sergeant Levi Arnold who had begun his service in the Union Army in 1862 andtransferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps in 1863 completed his military servicetoday.
1866(3rd of Sivan, 5626): Composer AdolfBernhard Marx passed away at the age of 70.
1868(25thof Iyar, 5628): Sixty-six-year-old Coswig-on-the-Elbe native and art criticManasse Unger who trained as an architect who was best known for his sketchesand his role as a captain of the artists' corps which protected the museums inBerlin during the Revolutions of 1848 passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14583-unger-manasse
1869(7thof Sivan, 5629): Second Day of Shavuot observed for the first time during thePresidency of U.S. Grant.
1870:Bernhard and Henrietta Siegel Goldman gave birth to future St. Paul, MNresident of Caroline Goldman Bechhoefer, the wife of Judge Charles Bechhoefer.
1872:Moss Ansell who had been born at London in 1823 to Hyam and Fanny Answell wasburied today at West Ham Jewish Cemetery, eight days after he had passed away.
1872:Birthdate of Polish born “Dr. Dr. Ludwick Silberstein, the internationallyknown physicist and an authority on the theory of relativity” who was thehusband of Rose Silberstein and the father of George and Hannah Silberstein.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/01/18/96584849.html?pageNumber=60
1872:In Hungary, Rabbi Joel Margareten and Julia Yetta Margareten gave birth toFrederick Fred Margareten, the husband of Regina Margareten and father of JuliaEllenbogen; Samuel Margaretten; Selma Margaretten; May Weiss and Lilian RoseSokolow
1872:"The Jews in Romania” published today reported that the Italian governmenthas sent a communication to to the government of Prince Charles of Romaniaprotesting against the persecution and oppression of the Jews in that country.
1873:Birthdate of “French novelist, French Communist Party member” and “lifelongfriend of Albert Einstein” who suffered the indignity of having his booksburned and blacklisted by the Nazis even though ye was not Jewish.
1874: In Lemberg, Galicia, “Solomon Klakah, a poor brush manufacturer andamateur violinist” and “Babette Halber Kalakh, a seamstress who often madecostumes for local theaters” gave birth to Beylke Kalakh who gained famed asBertha Kalich the wife of Leopold Spachner and the star of American Yiddishtheatre http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/17/1874/bertha-kalich
1875:Birthdate of New York native and Columbia educated adjunct professor ofcomparative literature at Columbia Joel Elias Spingarn, the author of AHistory of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance and an early fighter incause for racial justice.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joel-spingarn
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13961-spingarn-joel-elias
1876(23rdof Iyar): Aaron Zevi Friedman, the author of “Tuv Ta’am” passed away
1876:In Buel, Germany, Maurice and Bertha Gernsback gave birth Sidney Gernsback, thehusband of Lottie C. Auerbach who was the editor of the Radio Review and CallBook and the author of S. Gernsback’s Radio Encyclopedia.
https://www.amazon.com/Sidney-Gernsback/e/B001KMJNQ4/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
1877(5thof Sivan, 5637): Erev Shavuot
1877: Haemet was published for the first timein Vienna under the leadership of publisher Aaron Samuel Liebermann.
1877:In Lithuania, “Abraham and Sarah Malz” gave birth to Bernard M. Maltz who in1890 came to the United States where he married Lena Sherry and worked as asalesman for “National Biscuit Company and Standard Oil” before going into realestate development and the construction in Brooklyn while also serving as adirector with numerous organizations including the Federation of JewishCharities in Brooklyn, the Pride of Judea and Yeshiva College.
1877:An American Jewish couple living in England were parties to litigationsurrounding their marriage. BenjaminLevy sued his wife Deborah Isaacs Levy and her alleged lover on grounds thatthe two were partners in an adulterous relationship. After a few minutes ofdeliberation, the jury found that they had been guilty of adultery but alsofound that Levy “had contributed to his wife’s misconduct. Therefore, they declined to assess anydamages against either the respondent or the co-respondent.
1878(14thof Iyar, 5638): Pesach Sheni
1878:In Mariampol, Russia, Yetta Nemo and Hyman A. Kaplan gave birth to Lake Universitygraduate and first grand master of the Order of the Knights of Zion Nathan D.Kaplan, “one of he founders of the Chicago Hebrew Institute and vice presidentof the Board of Education of the Zion Sabbath School in Chicago.
1879:The third annual meeting of Felix Adler’s Society for Ethical Culture had itsfinal meeting in New York City.
1880(7thof Sivan, 5640): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1880(7thof Sivan, 5640): Seventy-four-year-old Amsterdam born French “numismatist andbibliographer” Henry Cohen passed away today in Paris.
http://www.virtualcohen.com/henry-cohen-s-work
1881:Today, Lazard Kahn, the brother and business partner of Felix, Saul and SamuelKahn, all of whom played an active role in the Estate Stove Company ofHamilton, OH, “married Coralie Alice Lemann of Donaldsonville, LA with whom heraised five children – Marie, Milton, Bertram, Lucian and Jerome.
1881:Abraham Erlanger, the German born son of Simon (Schimele) Erlanger and RosineReele Erlanger and his wife Bertha Bela Erlanger gave birth to Regina Gini Freyhan,the wife of Heinrich Freyhan and mother of Theo Freyhan and Mirjam Freyhan.
1882:Birthdate of New York native and NYU trained real estate lawyer AlexanderPfeiffer who “was a founder and boardchairman of the United Home for Aged Hebrews in New Rochelle and the husband ofthe “former Lilie Lowenfield” with whom he had three children – Fred, Paul andRoslyn.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/04/28/356684532.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1885:In New York City, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Guggenheim gave birth to Meyer RobertGuggenheim, a member of the famous Guggenheim family who served as U.S.Ambassador to Portugal at the beginning of the Eisenhower Administration
1885:Birthdate of Frederic Zelnik, a native of Czernowitz which was part of theAustro-Hungarian at the time who was a leading German movie producer anddirector until Hitler came to power and he moved to the United Kingdom.
1885:A week after she had passed away, Miriam bat Avraham was buried today at theBrompton Jewish Cemetery.
1888(7thof Sivan, 5648): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1888:Birthdate of Jeanette Goodman Brill, the wife of attorney Abraham Brilland “the second woman to be appointed a magistrate in New York and to thefirst to be appointed a magistrate in Brooklyn
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/brill-jeanette-goodman
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95981052/abraham_brill#view-photo=203084756
1890:C.J. Schwab is scheduled to conduct a 24-piece orchestra today at the 13thannual Strawberry Festival sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association atthe Lenox Lyceum a fundraising event for which E.B. Levy is in charge.
1890:In Helena, Montana, founding of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Society of TempleEmanu-El.
1891:It was reported today that contrary to official government announcement “Greektroops” in the Ionian Islands, are not “suppressing disturbances and punishingringleaders” but instead are “openly exhibiting sympathy with the Jew-baiters”and that the condition of the Jews “will be worse before they are better.”
1891:It was reported today that “all the latest news” from Russia regarding the Jews“is of the extension of edicts of expulsion to numerous districts hithertounmentioned and fresh cruelties and hardships” used “everywhere in themerciless enforcement of these dark-age decrees.”
1893:A delegation from New York led by Oscar S Straus met with Secretary of StateGresham in Washington, D.C. to discuss the situation of the Jews inRussia. They asked him to intervene ontheir behalf with Czar with the hope that he would take action mitigating the“severe edicts and penalties” that have been imposed upon them in the last fewyears.
1893:According to Dr. Joseph Senner, the Superintendent of Immigration at EllisIsland the SS Didam which arrived today “had brought the worst set of men,women and children he had ever seen” and that “many of them were Russian orPolish Jews.
1893:Explorer, journalist and advocate for democratic reform in Russia, GeorgeKennan and his wife are sailing for England today. Before leaving he expressed his firm beliefthat an influx of Russian Jews will be coming to the United States; forced todo so because of the Czar’s edicts. Inresponse to a question about aid for these immigrants he said that the Baron deHirsch Fund has a definite, major role to play in assisting Russian Jewishimmigrants.
1893:It was reported today that Myer S. Isaacs, Chairman of the Trustee of the BaronHirsh Fund expects that the only Jews who will immigrate to the United Statesfrom Russia will come of their own volition , will have money to take them towhere they desire to settle “or will have friends who can help them.” “Theywill not be a burden to anybody and…they will make very good citizens. He saidthat the fund is still experimenting with its trade schools and industrial farmwhich all the help they can offer for the foreseeable future. (This is neitherthe first, nor the last time that Jews in America would underestimate thedesperation of their European co-religionist)
1893:“A rich Jewish banker, who desired” to remain anonymous “for the present” wasreported to have said that if there should be an unusual increase in Jewishimmigration from Poland and Russia, he would be interested in meeting withfellow Jews “to devise ways and means of caring for all refugees that mightcome.
1893(2ndof Sivan, 5653): Jacob Reinowitz, affectionately known as Reb Yankele, thenative of Wilkowisk, Poland who served his hometown as rabbi for 30 yearsbefore moving to England in 1876 where he became the “Preacher” for a TalmudTorah “established by Eastern European immigrants at Whitechapel and a memberof the London Beth Din under the leadership of Chief Rabbi N. M. Adler, passedaway today.
1894:In Philadelphia, PA, Anne Behrend and Leo Bamberger gave birth to the University of Pennsylvania trained CivilEngineer and Chairman of the Engineering Department of the PennsylvaniaRailroad System who during WW I “fought overseas with Company B, 103rdEngineers, 28th Division of the AEF.”
1895:“Rubinstein’s Religion” published today discussed the religious beliefs of thelate Anton Rubinstein, the Russian pianist, composer and conductor. Althoughborn a Jew, he “was baptized when a mere infant…and was forced…to follow theprescribed” religious “forms once a year.”“It is worthy of notice and stands greatly to his credit, that inRussia, where it is better to be born a dog than a Jew, Rubinstein, despite hisbaptism, never sought to deny his Jewish origin. In a certain way he was proud of it, andalways boldly acknowledged it.”
1895(23rdof Iyar, 5655): Sixty-eight-year-old Wilhelm von Gutman who founded the largestcoal company in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and served as President of theJewish Community of Vienna passed away today.
1895:“W.W. Wilson Becomes a Convert to Judaism” published today described thedecision of Brooklyn lawyer Wayne W. Wilson to join the Jewish faith. The ceremony took place at Temple Israel inBrooklyn. Wilson said that he “joined Temple Israel because the doctrine of theReformed Jew my views exactly.”
1895:Birthdate of Saul Adler, the Russian born Israeli who helped find a cure formalaria.
1896(5thof Sivan, 5656): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the PresidencyGrover Cleveland, a supporter of the rights for Jews living in Russia.
1897:USS Holland (SS-1) the United States Navy's first modern commissioned submarinewhich was built by the Electric Company under its president, German-Jewish bornAmerican businessman Issac Leopold Rice was launched today.
1897:Birthdate of Oswald Rothaug, the Nazi Jurist who eagerly “presided over thetrial of Leo Katzenberger in March 1942, ordering his execution for"racial defilement" in May 1943.”
1898:In New York City, “a Yiddish-speaking animal skinner who had fled Russia in1889 to escape the pogroms” and his wife gave birth to Abraham Isaac “Abe”Lasfogel who began with the William Morris Agency in 1912 and worked his to thepresidency of the world’s leading talent agency.
1898:During the Spanish American War Jacob Schrob and Bernard Schwarzenberg weremustered into federal service along with the other members of Battery B of the1st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Artillery.
1899:Sixty-one-year-old Bessarabia native Joseph Rabinowitz who had been baptized inBerlin in 1885 and was the founder of a sect called Novy Israel which wasthinly veiled disguise for getting Jews to convert passed away today
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/messianic-book-review/v04-n01/kjaer
1899:Following his conversion to Christianity earlier in the year German architectAlfred Messel “received the Order of the Red Eagle, 4th Class.”
1899:Private Nathan Levy began serving with Company F, 18th Infantrytoday following which he would fight in the Philippines for 3 months.
1900(18thof Iyar, 5660): Lag B’Omer
1900:Birthdate of Herberts Cukurs, the Latvian aviator who was never punished forhis crimes during the Holocaust.
1901:Temple Beth Elohim, “the oldest synagogue in Brooklyn” began today began thecelebration of “its golden jubilee.
1901:Birthdate of Hugh Joseph Schonfied a London born Bible expert and one of thefirst people to work on the Dead Scrolls who was “a liberal Hebrew Christian”and who “was expelled from the Executive Committee of the International HebrewChristian Alliance.”
1901:Herzl met with the Sultan of Turkey to discuss the establishment of a Jewishstate and the obtaining of a charter. He failed in both attempts. However, TheSultan bestows on Herzl the Grand Cordon of the Mejidiye and authorized Hertzlto declare that the ruling Khalif was a friend and protector of the Jewishpeople. Herzl believed that a Jewish homeland could be created by gettingapproval of the venture from the political leaders of the day. That is why hesought out the support of the Kaiser. The state of Israel would eventually be aproduct of changed realities on the ground – the settling of the land by theZionists – and political support from various political leaders such as HarryTruman in 1948.
1902:“During Shabbat Torah services women interrupted prayers with a call to supportthe boycott” of kosher butcher shops on the Lower East Side. “Women left their seats in the balcony to persuade men toback their cause and gain communal support.” (As reported by Jewish Women’sArchives)
1903: In Brooklyn, Sophie and Morris H. Levine, “a clothingmanufacturer, gave birth to Hunter graduate and University and BellevueHospital Medical College trained physician Lena Levine the gynecologist, psychiatrist, and pioneer of thebirth control movement, who married Dr. Louis Ferber in 1929.
1903:Birthdate of Arthur “Artie” Auerbach, the newspaper photographer “who becamefamous as ‘Mr. Kitzel’ on the Al Pearce and Jacky Benny radio shows.”
http://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2014/11/he-didnt-like-mr-kitzel.html
1904:“Dinner To Leroy-Beaulie” published today described the dinner given atDelmonico’s in honor M. AnatoleLeroy-Beaulie which was held under the direction of Oscar S. Straus, theChairman of the Dinner Committee who delivered the address welcoming thedistinguished French leader
was the guest of honor at a dinner held lastnight at Delmonico's, where a silver loving cup was presented to him on behalfof his friends in New York. Oscar S. Straus, as Chairman of the DinnerCommittee, delivered the address of welcome and Nathan Bijur delivered prior tothe presentation of a silver loving cup to “one of the foremost champions inall of Europe of ‘liberty, equality and fraternity.’”
1904:In New York, William Spiegelberg, Sr, the Santa Fe, NM born son of Bertha andLevi Spiegelberg and his wife Beulah V. Barnard gave birth to WilliamSpiegelberg, Jr.
1905:Wolf Perelberg, who gained famed as movie producer William Perlberg, the son ofIsrael Jakob Perelberg, came to the United States today “with his mother andthree siblings.”
1905:The Pall Mall Gazette published “A Street in the East End” today by M.J. Landa
1906:Dr. Felix Adler and Dr. Abraham Jacobi delivered addresses at funeral reformerand Republican leader Carl Schurz who had spoken at the dedication of theMontefiore Home in New York City in 1888.
1907:Rabbi Maurice Harris officiated at tonight’s services dedicating the newsanctuary at Temple Israel of Harlem which began with the officers and trusteesof the congregation placing the Torah scrolls in the ark followed by thekindling of the Eternal Light “by one of the young women of the congregation.
1907:Birthdate of Austrian native Murray Gross the vice president of theInternational Ladies Garment Workers Union, a member of New York City's HumanRights Commission from 1962 through 1978 and the husband of “the former AnneRahal-Kouri.
1907(4thof Sivan, 5667): David Krupsaw passed away today.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_1344412
1908:The Jewish American Historical Society held its 16th annual meetingtoday at the Hotel Astor. During themorning session, Leon Huelmer presented a paper on “Jewish Privaterring in theEighteenth Century.” During theafternoon session Dr. Herbert Friedenwald presented a paper on “Why This Is Nota Christian Country.” At the evening session, the attendees approved a measurechampioned by Cyrus Adler, the society’s President to amend the constitutionallowing the society to study “Jewish history in general instead of limiting itto” the study of American Jewish history.
1908:Charles Towne and Daniel P. Hays were the principle speakers at tonight’smemorial service sponsored by the Hebrew Union Veteran Association and theHebrew Veterans of the War with Spain to honor the soldiers and sailors who haddied in the service of their country.The service was held at New York’s Rodeph Shalom and guests includedRear Admiral Joseph B. Coghlan and Grand Marshal Isidore Isaacs of the GrandArmy of the Republic and his staff. TheGrand Army of the Republic was large national Civil War veterans associationthat was a forerunner to the American Legion formed after WW I.
1908(16thof Iyar, 5668): Percival Menken the eldest son of Jules and Cornelia Menken andhusband of Getrude Davies Menkien, who was born at Philadelphia, PA in 1865,passed away today in New York City where he was a member of the bar, Presidentof the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and a director of the Jewish TheologicalSeminary. He was laid to rest at Beth Olom Cemetery in Queens, NY.
1908:“Charles Louis-Dreyfus a merchant and ship-owner, and Sarah Germaine Hément”gave birth French Resistance fighter and businessman Pierre Louis-Dreyfus thegrandson of Leopold Dreyfus, the founder of the Louis Dreyfus Group.
1909:The Jewish Communal Council “of which Supreme Court Justice Samuel Greenbaum isChairman is responsible for the settling “the differences between Mrs. WilliamEinstein who recently formed the Widow Mothers’ Fund and the United HebrewCharities which she served as Vice President until her recent resignation.
1910:Sir Charles Walston, the Anglo-American archaeologist married Florcence Walston
1910:The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities inthe United States opened today in St. Louis, MO.
1911:The Vice Director of the Imperial Department of Police and some of the chiefdetectives of the department are in Kieff today endeavoring to solve themystery of the murder of the boy Yushchinsky, a Christian and a student at thelocal Orthodox seminary, whose body, horribly mutilated, was found on Feb. 28in a cave near the Jewish quarter of the city” which has given rise to claimsthat he was the victim of “ritual murder” by the Jews.
1911:“It became known today” that General Clarence R. Edwards of the Bureau ofInsular Affairs resigned from the Board of Governors of the Metropolitan Clubafter President Taft had delivered a speech at meeting of B’nai B’rith in“which he bitterly assailed clubs which excluded from their membership men ofsuperior mold simply because of racial or social prejudice.”
1912:“Merchants in southern Russia” protested to the “Premier and Minister ofCommerce against the expulsion” of the Jews and the confiscation of theirproperty.
1912:The Governor of Kiev, declared that he “will expel and confiscate the propertyof every Jewish merchant “who is unable to produce a certificate ofuninterrupted payment of the First Guild fee for fifteen years.”
1913(10thof Iyar, 5673): Parashat Behar
1913:The Annual Meeting of the Associated Jewish Charities of Chicago is scheduledto take place this evening at the Auditorium Hotel where attendees will amongother things, vote on those who will serve as directors for the next threeyears.
1914:" We should remember that the Mexicans are not worth fighting when weconsider all this war talk of upholding the honor of our flag," NathanStraus said tonight in an impromptu address at the joint memorial services ofthe Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the Hebrew Veterans of the War withSpain at the Temple Rodeph Sholomo, Sixty-third Street and Lexington Avenue.”
1915:In response to a request from Leo Frank’s attorneys “members of the StatePrison Commission” is scheduled to “hold a conference” this “morning to decideon the date for hearing arguments on the petition of Leo M. Frank for acommutation of his sentence to life imprisonment.”
1915:In Pittsburgh, PA, “Oscar William Oppenheimer and Claude Siesel” gave birth toJames Siesel Oppenheimer the father of Thomas James Oppenheimer.
1915:A tribute in praise of Woodrow Wilson’s “peaceful policies” offered by the Jewsattending the cornerstone laying ceremony for the Yorkville Jewish Instituteand Talmud Torah were published today.
1915:The last British government formed by the Liberal Party fell from power. Theparty of reform, the Liberal Party produced the first openly Jewish Member ofParliament. Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was first elected in 1847. However,Rothschild would not take his seat until 1858 since it took 11 years to passthe Jewish Disabilities Bill that made it possible for Jews to swear an oaththat was not Christian. After World War I, the Labour Party would supplant theLiberal Party as the chief opposition to the Conservatives.
1915:Birthdate of Joseph Liegbott who was a Tech Sergeant with the 101stAirborne during WW II. Although he wasthe Catholic son of Austrian immigrants many of his comrades assumed he wasJewish because of his name, his appearance and his hatred of Germans. (What’s worse than being Jewish – not beingJewish but having people think you are.)
1915:Today, following yesterday’s Leo M. Frank Day, petitions will be circulatedamong the citizens of Chicago calling for the commutation of Frank’s sentence.
1915:“Today’s early mail brought…more than 3,000 letters seeking clemency for LeoFrank” to the office of Georgia Governor Slaton, including ones from PhilanderC. Knox, ex-Senator and Secretary of State, Myron T. Herrick the formerGovernor of Ohio and Ambassador to France, Frank Walsh, Chairman of the UnitedStates Industrial Relations Commission; Fred A. Delano of the Federal ReserveBoard and Senators Borah, Thomas, Reed and Newlands.
1915:It was reported today 5,000 men would go on strike because “at present there isno limit on the hours” which kosher butchers must work and that “many of themhad to work ninety-six hours a week
1915:David Ben Gurian and Yitahak Ben Tzvi: arrived in New York today from Egypt andwere allowed to enter the U.S. as immigrants even though they lacked the properpapers.
1916(14thof Iyar, 5676): Pesach Sheni
1916:Birthdate of Frances Kroll Ring, the last secretary of F. Scott Fitzgerald whotold her tale in Against the Current: AsI Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald which was turned into a really slick littlefilm, “Last Call.” (Editor’s note -double bias since I am intrigued by Fitzgerald and I like the movie)
1917:The 1916-1917 academic year for The Teacher’s Institute of the Hebrew UnionCollege is scheduled to come to an end today.
1917:In Wilson, NC, Morris and Nessie Barker Popkin gave birth to future New Jerseyresident Abraham Popkin, the husband of Ann Matlin Popkin.
1917:Based on information dispatch sent from Amsterdam, it was reported today thatReichstag Deputy Cohn, an Independent Socialist, said that at the end of MarchDjemal Pasha, commander of the Turkish forces in in Syria had ordered all Jewsremoved from Jaffa saying that this was required by “military conditions” eventhough “his German Chief of Staff said” such a move “was unnecessary.”
1917:Twenty-two year old featherweight box Danny Frush (born David Frush, Jr) madehis boxing debut at the Clermont Avenue Rink in Brooklyn, NY.
1918(6thof Sivan, 5678): Last Shavuot of World War I
1918:According to reports published today, the American Jewish Relief Committee forSuffers from the War has raised $2,786,400 for its 1918 fund but that thecommittee will have to raise an additional fifteen million dollars in thecoming year to deal with the increased suffering among the Jews of Poland andRussia.
1918:“While speaking at an official dinner for the Governor of Jerusalem, Dr. ChaimWeizmann said Jewry was returning to Palestine to build up a great moral andintellectual center which would not be a determent to any of the communitiesalready established in Palestine and that Arab fears that they would be oustedfrom their present position were unfounded.
1919:It was reported today that Dr. Joseph Merzbach, the heart and throat specialistat the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn has passed away – ironically a victim ofheart disease.
1919:It was reported today that Dr. Haim I. Davis of Chicago “who is the firstAmerican to return to New York with a personal account of conditions” in Polandsaid Jews “in Warsaw, Pinsk, Brest-Litovsk and other parts of the new Poland”are “dying like flies” having in many cases “neither seen or eaten bread formonths.”
1920:Today, “Herbert Cooper Thompson” who just returned to the United States afterspending two months in the Ukraine and Poland, “reported to Judge otto Arosalsky, chairman of the campaign to raise more than seven million dollars inNew York for the Jewish was sufferers that in no part of the world is sufferingamong Jews so acute or the ne for relief so great as in the territory east andsouth of Poland.”
1920:More than one hundred patrolmen were needed to manage the crowd that hadgathered for the burial of famed Yiddish actor David Kessler.
1921:Fannie Hurst was among the first to join the Lucy Stone League, an organizationthat fought for women to preserve their maiden names which had its initialmeeting today at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City.
1921:In Atlantic City, NJ, Sadie Abrahams and James Arthur Levan gave birth to HenryRobert Merrill Levan who gained fame as songwriter Bob Merrill
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Bob_Merrill
1921:Birthdate of New York native and NYU and University of Florida trained attorneyPhilip Ephraim Heckerling, who raised two children – Dale and Ruth – with hiswife Ruth.
1921:Birthdate of Judith Coplon, the native of Brooklyn and former JusticeDepartment employee who became a sensation in 1949 when she was accused ofbeing a Soviet spy.
1922:Birthdate of Irene Gut Opdyke, “a Polish nurse who gained internationalrecognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World WarII” and “was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for riskingher life to save twelve Jews from certain death.”
1922:The USS Celtic, a navy supply ship on which Lt. Jr. Grade Stanford Moses hadserved during the Spanish American War was “taken out of service today.”
1922(19thof Iyar, 5682): Forty-year-old motor car pioneer Dorothy Levitt passedaway today.
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Dorothy_Levitt
1923:The Wiener Morgenzeitung (The ViennaMorning Newspaper) was highly critical of The London house of Rothschild andthe Paris representatives of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. ‘for what the paper regardsas excessive cordiality shown towards the representatives of the Horthy regime,who are negotiating a loan in European capitals. Heinrich Margulies edited thepaper before he moved to Palestine in 1925 where he became a Director of theAnglo-Palestine Bank.
1923:Sir Wyndham Deedes, who has just resigned as the Civil Secretary of thePalestine Administration, addressed a meeting at the Grand Central Hotel calledby the English Zionist Federation. Declaring that he favored Zionism because byenabling Jews to return to Palestine the world was righting a wrong committedby Christians 2,000 years ago, Sir Wyndham said only lack of money washampering Zionist progress in all directions. (JTA)
1924(13thof Iyar, 5684): Parashat Emor
1924:It was reported today that “the Jewish neighborhood of Teheran” was attackederev Shabbat “by a Mohammedan mob” that intended to massacre and plunder thepopulation.
1925:“Welcome Home,” a movie based on the play “Minick” by Edna Ferber and George S.Kaufman and produced by Adolph Zuker and Jesse Lasky was released today in theUnited States.
1925:“Garrick Gaieties, a revue with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by LorenzHart” who were creating their first Broadway hit, opened at the Garrick Theatretoda.
1926(4thof Sivan, 5685) Sixty-four-year-old Isaac Aaron passed away today after whichhe was buried at the Scholemoor Jewish Cemetery Bradford.
1926:David M Bressler announced that nearly $6,000,000was raised in New York toward the $25,000,000 United Jewish Campaign at a rallyof 1,500 workers.
1926:Leading Jews of the East Side were guests at dinner tonight of Max Bernstein,proprietor of Libby's Hotel, the first modern Jewish hotel on the East Side,which was opened to the public yesterday. The hotel is at Delancey and ChrystieStreets. The hotel will serve kosher food. It was built at a cost of$3,000,000. (JTA)
1927:It was reported today that Louis Levy, Adolph S. Ochs, George Blumenthal and Abram I. Elkus were among the newcontributors to the funded is being raised to build an 11-story annex to theY.M.H.A. building at 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue.
1927(15thIyar, 5687): “Sam Rernard, for fifty years a favorite comedian, who worked hisway from a Coney Island music hall to the stages of foremost New York andLondon theaters, died of apoplexy tonight on board the North German Lloydsteamship Columbus, which had left New york for Plymouth. Cherbourg and Brementhe preceding night. He was on his way to Carlsbad to take the baths forrheumatism. (JTA)
1928(27thof Iyar, 5688): Belarus native Jacob “Yankel” Butler, the husband of MenuchahButler with whom he had four children – Hode, Isaac, Anna and Rose – passedaway today after which he was buried in the Chevra Kadusha of Chelsea Cemeteryin Wobum, MA.
1928:“Seventy-five men and women assembled at” the New York home of Aaron Kheel this“evening to bid farewell to Dr. Chaim Weizmann who is returning to Europe nextweek.
1929:In Manhattan, attorney Frederick Weinberg and the firmer Lillian Hyman gavebirth to George Henry Weinberg, the psychotherapist who invented the word“hom*ophobia.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1930: Today Hadassah announced that a new hospitalwill be opened in Tiberias on May 25.The hospital will be named in honor of Peter J. Schweitzer and his widowwill be going to Palestine to attend the dedication ceremonies
1930)19th of Iyar, 5690): On Shabbat, 73year old Florence Liveright the daughter Abraham and Rebeccah Kahn and the wifeof Simon Liveright passed away today in Philadelphia.
1931(1st of Sivan, 5691): Rosh ChodeshSivan
1931: “Dr. P.A. Levene Wins Honor” published todaydescribed plans to present Dr. Phoebus A. Leven of the Rockefeller Institutefor Medical Research with the Willard Gibbs Medical at the Steuben Club on May22.
1931(1st of Sivan, 5691: Seventy-year-oldFrances Corinne “Fannie” Peixotto Bloom, the Cleveland, OH born daughter ofBenjamin and Hannah Straus Peixotto and the wife of Isadore Nathan Bloom passedaway today after which she was buried in The Temple Cemetery in Louisville, KY.
1933:In Norway, Vidkun Quisling establishes the Norwegian Fascist Party as well asthe Hirdmen (King's Men), a collaborationist organization that's modeled on theNazi Sturmabteilung (SA). When the Nazis invade Norway during World War IIQuisling will become the head of the Norwegian government. Quisling was such anotorious traitor that his name has now become a word in the English languagethat means “traitor.”
1933(21stof Iyar, 5693): Communal worker George W. Patke passed away today in Milwaukee,Wisconsin.
1933: A petition is submitted to theLeague of Nations by representatives of the Comite des Delegations Juivesprotesting Germany’s anti-Jewish legislation, called the Bernheim Petition,named for imprisoned Silesian Jew Franz Bernheim.
1934:Today Mrs. Edgar Lowell was elected chairman of the Women’s Auxiliary Councilof the Jewish Braille Institute of America at the inaugural meeting of anorganization that “will solicit support for the Jewish Braille Review, the only Anglo-Jewish magazine in Braillewhich is distributed without charge to English reading Jewish blind personsthroughout the world.”
1934: At New York's Madison Square Garden,thousands attend a pro-Nazi rally sponsored by the German-American Bund.Critics of Roosevelt’s policy towards Jewish refugees often overlook thereality of anti-Semitism in the United States. The Bund rally was merely themost public venue for this reality of the pre-war American landscape.
1935:Birthdate of Avraham Heffner, the native of Haifa who went to be an awardwinning director and screenwriter
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/185197/avraham-hefner-israeli-cinema
1936(25thof Iyar): Seventy-seven-year-old Zionist leader Nachum Sokolow passed away
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sokolow.html
1936: A curfew order, forbidding residents ofJerusalem to leave their homes at night, was issued today by Sir ArthurGrenfell Wauchope, the High Commissioner of Palestine, following the killing ofthree Jews last night at a motion-picture theatre.
1936: This morning in Jerusalem, more than 30,000Jews marched in the funeral procession for three Jews murdered the night beforeat a local move theatre. Isaac Ben Zvi,President of the National Jewish Council, told the mourners that he held theBritish government responsible for this because it was the duty of thegovernment to protect its citizens. Aneditorial published in today’s Palestine Post said that “ if this is a war ofextermination declared by the Arabs on Jews, the Arabs had better know that theshooting down of 400,000 Jews will not alter the course of history and will notshake the Jews’ determination to resettle the land of their fathers…Thismovement of the Arab Supreme Council seeks to not only to terrorize theJews. It aims to throw the land back tothe Dark Ages.”
1936: This morning, at the Free Synagogue inCarnegie Hall, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon“President Roosevelt’s Leadership of American: Is It Good or Bad?”
1936(25th of Iyar, 5695): Twenty-seven-year-oldIsaac Jalowski who was married six weeks ago, Dr. Svi Spachowski a recentarrival from Poland whose wife is an expectant mother and Alexander Polonski,“a student at the School of OrientalStudies at Hebrew University” were all killed by Arabs today inJerusalem.
1936: Oswald Garrison Villar, associate editor ofThe Nation delivered a speech tonight at a dinner of the American CommitteeAppeal for the Relief of Jews of Poland at the Hotel Commodore in which heasked the United States “to protest to the Polish Government about thepersecution of the Jews in Poland.
1936: This evening, Temple Adath Israel, on theGrand Concourse in the Bronx is scheduled to celebrate its fortieth anniversarywith a concert of liturgical music presented by the Cantors’ Association ofAmerica.
1936: In Cleveland, OH, a celebration was held markingthe 25th anniversary of the establishment of Jewish Star, aYiddish weekly which was the forerunner of the Yiddish daily, Jewish World.
1936: Two thousand people filled the pews at TempleEmanu-El on Fifth Avenue for the 41st annual memorial services ofthe Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
1937(7th of Sivan, 5697) Second Day ofShavuot, Yizkor
1937: Hundreds of Jews were injured during riots atBrest-Litovsk which is now located in Poland
1938: In Newark, NJ, union organizer Phillip Princeand Anne Silver gave birth to NYU graduate Marcia Judith Prince, the husband ofBill Freedman who gained fame as Marcia Freedman, “ a radical gay feminist” whowas the “first American woman to serve in the Knesset.” (As reported byKatharine Q. Seelye)
1938: A. H. Skinner, organizer and manager of the“newly organized American Palestine Securities Company which was registeredwith the SEC last week” and is designed “to deal in securities originating inthe Holy Land” descried “the rapid growth of large-scale undertakings inPalestine in the last five years. Inreporting on the economic conditions in Palestine, Skinner said that there weretwelve companies with capital of more than $500,000 and that population hadgrown from 40,000 in 1920 to 400,000 in 1938.
1938: ArthurSweetser, a director of the secretariat of the League of Nations wrote in his diary, “The President’s proposaltook a large place in the League’s refugee deliberations this past week.” By the“President’s proposal” Sweetser was referencing Roosevelt’s plan to “get allthe democracies to unite” in an effort to settle all of the Jewish refugeesfrom Europe in their respective territories.”
1938(16th of Iyar, 5698): Sixty-year-oldJakob Ehrlich, the Viennese Zionist leader who was deported after the Anschlusspassed away today at Dachau.
1939:The British government issues a White Paper (commonly called the MacDonaldWhite Paper) that limits Jewish immigration to 10,000 a year for five years.The White Paper allows 75,000 Jewish immigrants (up to 10,000 per year, plus anadditional 25,000 if certain conditions are met) to enter Palestine. The WhitePaper also restricts Jewish land purchases in Palestine. British governmentpolicy will succeed in keeping the actual numbers of Jewish immigrants farbelow the quotas for settlement in England and Palestine. The White Paper wasissued after two years of orchestrated Arab violence. Recognizing the WhitePaper as a death sentence for a Jewish homeland, the leaders of the Yishuvprepare to bring “illegal immigrants” into Palestine. The White Paper alsosealed the fate for Europe’s Jews as it closed the last place of refuge. WhenWorld War II broke out Jewish leaders were caught on the horns of a dilemma. Intrue Jewish fashion when confronted with two choices, the Zionists came up witha third solution. “We will fight the war as if there is no White Paper and wewill fight the White Paper as if there is no war.” The Arabs had no suchproblems as the fact that the Grand Mufti spent the war in Berlin proves.
1939:There were only 679 Jews still living in Magdeburg. Eleven years earlier, therewere more than three thousand Jews living in this ancient German city in whichJews had been living since the 10th century.
1939:Fighting broke out in Jerusalem as police sought to disperse 5,000demonstrators who had gathered to protest the White Paper.
1940“My Favorite Wife” with a script by Samuel and Bella Spewack and filmed bycinematographer Rudolph Mate was released today in the United States.
1940:Today, Portugal's Premier Antonio de Oliveira Salazar issued an order that"Under no circ*mstances" was any visa to be granted, unlesspreviously authorized by Lisbon on a case-by-case basis which meant he wascurrying favor with the Axis powers but leaving the Jews trapped north of thePyrenees with one less hope of escape
1940:In New York, “Composer Eric Zeisl and his wife Dr. Gertrud S Zeisl (Jellinek)gave birth to Barbara Zeisl Schoenberg, the wife of Ronald R. Schoenberg andthe mother of E. Randol Schoenberg who “received her PhD in German Language andLiterature from University of California, Los Angeles and taught at PomonaCollege.”
http://zeisl.home.mindspring.com/pomona1.html
1940:Birthdate of Tama Gottlob, the younger sister of Salomon Gottlob. At age 2 shejoined her 7-year-old brother on Convoy 25 that left Drancy with 285 childrenall of whom were going to Auschwitz.
1940:“Waterloo Bridge,” based on 1930 play of the same name directed by MervinLeory, with a script by S.N. Behrman and George Froseschel and filmed bycinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today.
1941:“The Grand Rabbi of Salonika, Zvi Koretz, was arrested by the Gestapo today andsent to a Nazi concentration camp near Vienna, from where he returned in lateJanuary 1942 to resume his position as rabbi,”
1941(20thof Iyar, 5701): In cooperation with British Army intelligence, David Raziel,the commander of the I.Z.L. (Irgun Zva-i Leumi) led a group to sabotage the oildepots on the outskirts of Baghdad. Raziels car was bombed and both he and theliaison British officer were killed. Yes, this is Menachem Begin’s Irgun, thesame Irgun that will attack the British in Palestine after the war is over; thesame Irgun that blew up the British headquarters in the King David Hotel in1947
1942(1stof Sivan, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1942:Fifty-six-year-old Prague resident Ludmila Pickova was transported today from Terezin to Lublinwhere she was murred.
1942:“Whispering Ghosts” a mystery produced by Sol Wurtzel, starring Milton Berleand with music by Emil Newman was released today in the United States.
1942: Two thousand Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to Sobibor, 500 milesaway. Also, 2,000 Jews from Pabianice reached the Lodz Ghetto. All childrenunder 10 were torn away from their parents and sent "elsewhere."
1942:Liane Berkowitz, and Otto Gollnow, two members of the anti-Nazi Resistance weregiven the task of putting up about 100 posters in theKurfürstendamm-Uhlandstraße section of west-central Berlin which protestedagainst the Nazi "Soviet Paradise" propaganda exhibition being heldin the city. Six months later, Berkowitz would be arrested for the act. Despiteattempts to gain clemency for her because she was pregnant, Berkowitz wouldultimately be executed.
1943:The United States Army contracted with the University of Pennsylvania's MooreSchool to develop the ENIAC. Herman Heine Goldstine who passed away in 2004 atthe age of 90 was one of the orginial developers of ENIAC. Adele Goldstine, hiswife, wrote the technical description for ENICA.
1943: The Nazis deport 395 Jews from Berlin to the extermination camp atAuschwitz.
1944: Joel Brand was flown in a German courier plane from Budapest to Istanbulwhere he met with two representatives from the Jewish “agency for Palestine,Wnja Pomeranz and Menahem Bader. Brand was a Hungarian Jew active in Va’adah(Vadat Ezra Vehatzala), the Jewish Rescue Agency in Hungary who was carryingthe terms of Eichmann’s offer to trade a million European Jews for 10,000trucks, 1,000 tons of coffee or tea and 1,000 tons of soap. Eichmann assuredBrand that the trucks would only be used on the Eastern Front. At the sametime, he told Brand that the Jews could go anywhere except Palestine because Hitler“had promised his friend the Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini” that he would notpermit that. Pomeranz and Bader took the proposal back to Ben Gurion who theninformed the British of the proposal. British Foreign Minster Eden andSecretary of State Hull would not pursue the offer because they feared that ifthe Russians got wind of the negotiations, they would become even moresuspicious of the western Allies (remember this was before the Second Front hadopened) and might still make their own peace with Hitler. To ensure that nobodyelse heard about the negotiations, the British sent Brand to Syria for“temporary internment.” Of course, the Soviets might have already known aboutthe negotiations since Brand had been a Communist agent working in Berlinduring the 1930’s.
1945:U.S. Army Corporal Edward Belfer photographed “a German girl who is overcome asshe walks past the exhumed bodies of some of the 800 slave workers murdered bySS guards near Namering, Germany, and laid here so that townspeople may viewthe work of their Nazi leaders."
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-183.jpg
1946(16thof Iyar, 5706):Eighty-six year old Lewiston, Maine “clothing merchant” andformer state legislator Isaac B. Isaacson, the father of Harriet M. Joseph andthe brother of Anna Klein passed awaytoday
1947:“Hatikvah” which in a former life had been the Coast Guard cutter Tradewindsused as an icebreaker on the St. Lawrence River, was intercepted by the Britishtoday and taken to Haifa after which its cargo of 1,414 Jewish refugees whomthe English labeled as “illegals” were interned in Cyprus.
1947:At the Adelphi Theatre, after 148 performances the curtain came down on “StreetScene” an American by Kurt Weill with choreography by Anna Sokolow.
1948(8thof Iyar 5708): Twenty-year old Private Meir Ben Bassat was killed today as thethird battalion of the Yiftach Brigade finished taking Metzudat Koach, a Tegartfort built by Solel Boneh during the British Mandate” that “was a keyobservation point on the Naftali heights, overlooking the Hula Valley” whichhad been seized by the Arabs thus threatening the existence of kibbutzim in theUpper Galilee.
1948:Egyptian warplanes were strafing and dive-bombing Tel Aviv for the thirdstraight day. Arab sources were claimingunverified as yet, the surrender of the Jews of Old Jerusalem, with claims andcounterclaims flying on both sides on the progress of the invading armies ofEgypt, Syria and Transjordan.
1948:During the Battles of the Kanarot Valley, as the Syrians attempted to wipe outEin Giv, a company attacked the Israeli-held water station with heavy weaponskilling all but one of the workers.
1948: At dawn, the Syrians renewed their attack on Tzemah as they attempted totake control of the Jordon River Valley.In an attempt to limit damage to their tanks, the Syrian infantrywithout armor to lead them, attacked the village's northern positions. Despitea shortage of ammunition and suffering heavy casualties, the Israelis haltedthe Syrian advance.
1948:In Tel Aviv, as Battles of the Kinarot Valley rage into their third day. David Ben Gurion orders Moshe Dayan, theHaganah commander in the area, to ‘Hold the Jordan Valley’ no matter the cost.
1948:Russia recognized Israel. Much to Stalin’s dismay, he lost the recognition raceto the United States. Stalin had not fallen in love with the Jews. He sawIsrael as a wedge that would lead to the breakup of one his nemesis, theBritish Empire. With its large population of refugees from Russia, the state ofIsrael was never in danger of being seduced by Stalin or the Communists.
1948: During the War for Independence, Israeli forces liberated Acre, NebiYusha, and Tel el-Kadi, Yes; this is the same Acre where Maimonides and hisfamily landed when they first arrived in Eretz Israel.
1948:A convoy consisting of 12 trucks filled with military supplies arrived inJerusalem. It would be the last convoy to reach the city. "The siege ofJerusalem was now complete."
1949:In Beirut, authorities today allowed five Lebanese Jews who were suspected ofbeing pro-Israel to emigrate to the Jewish state so they could avoidprosecution for their political sympathies.
1949:For "saving the dignity and the structure of the United Nations" byhis success in restoring peace to Palestine, Dr. Ralph J. Bunche received thethanks of Mayor O'Dwyer yesterday at City Hall.
1950:The special committee reinvestigating the assassination of Count Bernadotte in1948 submits its report to the Israeli cabinet today.
1950:“Annie Get Your Gun,” the film version of the Broadway musical directed byGeorge Sidney, “with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a screenplay bySidney Shelton” was released today in the United States.
1950:Israeli fighter planes forced down a four-engine Royal Air Force Sunderlandthat was flying outside ‘the prescribed air corridor.”
1950:In Baltimore, MD, “Shirley Thelma (née Glass) and Raymond Albert Ashman, an icecream cone manufacturer” gave birth to playwright and lyricist Howard Ashman.
1951:The Tales of Hoffmann “a British Technicolor film adaptation of JacquesOffenbach's opera The Tales of Hoffmann,” co-directed by Emeric Pressburger wasreleased today in the United Kingdom.
1951:The Prince Who Was A Thief, directed by Rudolph Mate, produced by LeonardGoldstein, filmed by cinematography Irving Glassberg and starring Tony Curtispremiered today in San Francisco.
1952(22ndof Iyar, 5712): Parashat Behard-Bechukotai
1954(14thof Iyar, 5714): Pesach Sheni
1954:Birthdate of American lyricist David Zippel.
1954(14thof Iyar, 5714): Sixty-three-year-old Latvian native, WW I Army Chaplain andattorney Maurice Hirsh Gelfand, the son of of Isaac and Ida Gelfand and thehusband of Rachel Shapiro Gelfand passed away today in Cleveland.
1956: In Philadelphia, PA supermarket executive Benjamin Saget and his wifeRosalyn “Dolly” Saget gave birth comedian Robert Lane “Bob” Saget.
1956(7thof Sivan, 5716): Second Day of Shavuot
1956(7thof Sivan, 5716): Poet and author Jacob Fichman passed away.
1956:Sixty-seven-year-old Dickinson College and JTS graduate Louis Jacob Haas whoserved as a rabbi for congregations in “Harrisburg and Reading, PA, Stamford,CT and Woodside, Queens” as well a chaplain at Bellevue Hospital and as “vicepresident of the National Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs” passed away todayin Gloucester, MA.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/20/90501336.pdf
1956(7thof Sivan, 5716): Dr. Judah David Eisenstein, the self-educated Hebrew scholar,writer, editor and publisher passed away today at the age of 101. In 1891, he published the first Hebrew andYiddish translations of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S.Constitution. Born in Poland, he came tothe U.S. in 1872 where he became a successful businessman by day and aself-taught scholar by night. “He wasthe editor and publisher of ‘Otzar Yisrael,’ a ten volume HebrewEncyclopedia that was last revised in 1951.
1958(27thof Iyar, 5718): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1958(27thof Iyar, 5718): Eighty-nine-year-old New York City and Harvard trainedattorney Marcus C. Sloss the “former justice of the California Supreme Court”and “a former president of the Jewish National Welfare Fund” passed away todayin San Francisco.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/05/18/91388559.html?pageNumber=86
1959:The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School was opened in the western sectionJerusalem. The original facility had been on Mt. Scopus. When the JordanianArmy illegally captured the eastern section of Jerusalem, the facility on Mt.Scopus became untenable. The Israelis would return in June, 1967.
1960:Today at the request of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and the Sephardic Chief RabbiYithak Nissim, Chaim Yosef David Azulai known as “the hida was laid to rest atHar HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.”
1961:“Professor Mamlock” a film about a Jewish surgeon living in the last days ofthe Weimar Republic directed by Konrad Wolf who co-authored the script alongwith Friedrich Wolf was released today in East (Communist) Germany.
1962
1962(13thof Iyar, 5722): Fifty-nine year old Marcus Rayner Caro, the Polish born son ofAlbert and Ernestine (Rayner) Caro who in 1912 came to the U.S where he earneda B.S. in 1925 and a M.D. in 1927 and pursued a career in dermatology whilebeing married to Adeline B. Cohen with whom he raised two children – Ethel andWilliam – passed away today.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/527630
1964(6thof Sivan, 5724): Shavuot is celebrated for the first time during the Presidencyof Lyndon Johnson.
1965:In New York City, “Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the co-founder of Ms. magazine, andBert Pogrebin, a management-side labor lawyer” gave birth to Abigail Pogrebin,“the author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About BeingJewish.”
1965:In New York City, “Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the co-founder of Ms. magazine, andBert Pogrebin, a management-side labor lawyer” gave birth to Robin Pogrebin,the ABC producer and New York Times reporter who is the twin sister of AbigailPogrebin.
1966:“And Now Miguel,” the movie version of novel by Joseph Krumgold was releasedtoday in the United States.
1961:“The Harry Weinberg interests were charged today “with using their suit againstFifth Avenue Coach Lines, Inc., as a propaganda weapon in a simultaneous proxyfight to curb or oust management. Fifth Avenue Coach made this accusation inState Supreme Court.”
1965:Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for 48-year-old “authorand critic” David Boroff an assistant professor of English at NYU.
1967: In what would be a prelude to the Six Day War, President Abdul Nasser ofEgypt demands dismantling of the peace-keeping UN Emergency Force in Egypt. TheUN force had been established as part of the peace agreement following the SuezWar of 1956. Much to Nasser’s surprise, U Thant, the UN Secretary Generalimmediately gave into Nasser’s demand an removed the peace keeping force.Israelis viewed the UN as the umbrella that closes when it starts to rain. Thedeparture of the UN force gave the Arabs carte blanche to move large forcesinto the Sinai threatening the survival of Israel.
1968: Funeral services are scheduled to be heldthis morning “in Musicants Jewish Memorial Chapel in Hackensack, NJ” for seventy-five-year-oldBen Dalgin, the New York City born son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Dalgin who workedhis way up from being a teenage “printer’s apprentice” to serving as “directorof art, photography and reproduction for the New York Times.”
1970(11thof Iyar, 5730): Seventy-five-year-old Dr. Dr. Heinz Hartmann, an internationallyknown psycho analyst and author, the Vienna born son of historian Ludo Hartmansuffered a fatal heart attack today.
1970)11thof Iyar, 5730): Seventy-eight-year-old Nobel Prize winning poet Nelly Sachspassed away today.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1966/sachs-bio.html
1971:”Godspell” with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz opened at the Cherry LaneTheatre in NYC.
1971(22ndof Iyar, 5731): Sixty-one-year-old “Alfred A. Tananbaum, one of three brotherswho built Yonkers Raceway into a leading harness track” passed away today afterwhich he was buried at Westchester Hills Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/05/18/81941365.pdf
1973(15thof Iyar, 5733): Sixty-four-year-old ‘an Austrian-British photographer,communist-sympathiser and spy for the Soviet Union’ passed away today.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Edith_Tudor_Hart.htm
1974:“Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry” a car chase movie co-starring Vic Morrow was releasedin the United States today.
1975(7thof Sivan, 5735): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1975:The anti-Zionist trial of Lev Roitburd began in Odessa today.
1975:Terrorist bombings taking place in Ramallah and El Bira.
1975:“The Man in the Glass Booth” directed by Arthur Hiller and produced by ElyAbraham Landau was released in the United States today.
1975:Twenty people were injured when a bomb hidden in a picnic box went off at EinFashkha,
1976:Birthdate of Jeremiah Luber, the grandson of Harvey and Elaine Luber, pillarsof the Little Rock Jewish community.
1977:“Legislative elections were held in Israel today to elect the ninth Knesset andfor the first time in Israeli political history, the right wing, led by Likud,won a plurality of seats, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wingAlignment and its predecessor, Mapai.”
1978(10thof Iyar, 5738): Eighty-seven-year-old Jennie Paykel Krasnick, the daughter ofAbraham Paykel and the wife of Sam Krasnick, the Russian born American clothingmerchant who in 1906 moved to Sheboygan where he was a leader of the Jewishcommunity, passed away today after which she was buried in the Sheboygan HebrewCemetery in Kohler, Wisconsin.
1980:In Washington, DC, first release of “The Empire Strikes Back” directed by IrvinKershner, with a script co-authored by Lawrence Kasdan, filmed bycinematographer Peter Suschitzky featuring Frank Oz as the voice of “Yoda.”
1980:“Union City” a crime film with music by Chris Stein was released today in theUnited States.
1980:Dr. Nancy Beth Feiman, who graduated from the Columbia University College ofPhysicians and Surgeons, and Dr. Jeffrey Paul Kahn, an intern at OverlookHospital in Summit, N.J., were married this evening at Temple Emanu-El by RabbiRonald B. Sobel.
1981:Birthdate of Shiri Maimon, the Sephardic Jewess born at Haifa and raised aKiryat Haim, who is a popular Israeli singer, actress and televisionpersonality.
1981:In “Fiddler Plays at Darien Dinner Theatre,” Haskel Frankel expresses his lovefor this musical based on the life of Tevye but is less than enthusiastic aboutthe version now on view at the Darien Dinner Theatre in Connecticut.
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/17/nyregion/theater-fiddler-plays-at-darien-dinner-theater.html
1983:Representatives of the United States, Lebanon and Israel signed an agreementthat was supposed to bring peace to the two warring Middle East nations. The government of Lebanon was not able tohonor the terms of the agreement so the peace was “still born.”
1984:Lia van Leer inaugurated the first Jerusalem Film Festival.
1985(26th of Iyar, 5745): Abe Burrows, (Abram Solman Borowitz)songwriter, composer, and writer passed away. Known in his own right for suchhits “How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying” Burrows was the fatherof James Burrow the director of the hit sitcom “Cheers.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/19/nyregion/abe-burrows-broadway-writer-director-is-dead.html
1985:“Goodbye, New York,” an “Israeli-American comedy-drama produced, directed andwritten by Amos Kollek, who also co-stars in his directorial debut” wasreleased today in the United States.
1991:Premier of “What About Bob?” a comedy directed by Frank Oz, produced by LauraZiskin and co-starring Richard Dreyfus
1992(14thof Iyar, 5752): Pesach Sheni
1992(14thof Iyar, 5752): Ninety-one year old Canadian Olympic athlete and journalistSydney David Pierce who when appointed as Canada’s ambassador to Mexico becamethe first Canadian Jew to such a diplomatic position passed away today.
1992:NBC broadcast the first episode of Cruel Doubt, a two-part mini-seriesco-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.
1993(26thof Iyar, 5753): Eighty-five-year-old native of Brest-Litovsk, seventy yearresident of the Nation’s Capital,WW II Navy Veteran and sports reporter for theWashington Daily News Louis Abraham Litman, the son of Jacob Litman whoconverted “the family’s grocery store on Wisconsin Avenue” into Luros CarryoutShop & Restaurant passed away today having been pre-deceased by his wifeRose Litman with whom he had four children
1994(7thof Sivan, 5754): Second day of Shavuot
1994:In Cannes, premiere of “Cold Water” directed and written by Olivier Assayas.
1994(7thof Sivan, 5754: Rafael Yairi (Klumfenbert), age 36, of Kiryat Arba and MargalitRuth Shohat, age 48, of Ma'ale Levona were killed when their car was fired uponby by terrorists in a passing car near Beit Haggai, south of Hebron.
1996(28thof Iyar, 5756): Yom Yerushalayim
1996:NBC broadcast the final episode of season four of “Homicide: Life on theStreet” based on David Simon's book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streetsco-starring Richard Belzer and Yaphet Kotto
1998(21stof Iyar, 5758): Seventy-six-year-old Rabbi Moshe, the long-time president ofa*gudath Israel of America passed away this afternoon. (As reported by GustavNiebuhr)
1998:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers including “Jews: The Essence and Characterof a People” by Arthur Hertzberg and Aron Hirt-Manheirmer and “Richard Rodgers”by William G. Hyland
1998:Funeral services for Harry Wagreich, the Professor Emeritus of Chemistry atCCNY are scheduled to be held this afternoon in New York City.
1999:Avigdor Kahalani completed his services as an MK.
1999:Labor Party leader Ehud Barak unseated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu inIsraeli elections
1999:CBS broadcast the final episode of season 1 of “The King of Queens” co-starringJerry Stiller
2000:“Stardom” featuring Benjamin David “Jamie” Elman was released today in Canadaand France.
2001:“Late Marriage,” a film directed by Dover Kosashvili” was released today inIsrael and France.
2002(6thof Sivan, 5762): First Day of Shavuot
2002:Maria Grullich and Alberto Kusnier participated at a Shavuot celebration todayin Buenos Aires' Belgrano neighborhood organized by the local Tzedaka socialservice organization and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.Grullich, 63, lost her drugstore last year after it was robbed and she had nomoney to restock it.Optician Kusnier, 54, was fired a few months ago fromanother drugstore and hasn't been able to find a new job. This Shavuot eventwas meant to bring together an Argentine Jewish community that has beendevastated by the country's economic crisis. The organizations sponsored packedShavuot celebrations in 26 Jewish institutions in Buenos Aires and another 14elsewhere in the country. But the Argentine crisis was a special guest that noone could avoid. Grullich and Kusnier both were invited to attend the Shavuotcelebration in Belgrano, where six institutions -- including synagogues,schools and clubs -- were celebrating together.
2002:Alan Joseph Shatter completed his service as a member of Teachta Dala todayafter almost eleven years.
2002(6thof Sivan, 5762) Dave Berg passed away. Born in 1920, the cartoonist may be bestknown for his work in Mad Magazine
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/24/local/me-berg24
2003(15thIyar, 5736): “A pregnant Israeli woman and her husband were killed when asuicide bomber detonated himself next to them in a public square in Hebron.Hamas claimed responsibility.”
2003:Eighty-one-year-old Irene Gut Opdyke a Polish nurse who gained internationalrecognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World WarII for which she was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem forrisking her life to save twelve Jews from certain death passed away today.
http://polish-jewish-heritage.org/eng/june_03_Irene_Opdyke_Washington_Post.htm
2004(25th of Iyar, 5764) Tony Randall passed away. Born LeonardRosenbeg in 1920, this native of Tulsa, Oklahoma enjoyed a successful career infilm, theatre and television. Most people know him as Felix Unger in thetelevision version of “The Odd Couple.”
2005:As the Leo Baeck Institute at the Center for Jewish History marked the 50thanniversary, an exhibition entitled “Starting Over: The Experience of GermanJews in America, 1830-1945” opened today.The exhibit includes photos, letters, documents, sketches, paintings,maps, medals and other rare artifacts of German-Jews who settled across theUnited States, many of which are being viewed by the public for the first time.
2006:Opening of the first Sydney Jewish Writers’ Festival
2006(19thof Iyar, 5766): Ninety-five-year-old Broadway producer Cy Feuer passed awaytoday. (As reported by Richard Severo and Jesse McKinley)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/arts/18feuer.html?pagewanted=all
2006:David Blaine was submerged in an 8 feet (2.4 m) diameter, water-filled sphere(isotonic saline, 0.9% salt) in front of the Lincoln Center in New York Cityfor a planned seven days and seven nights, using tubes for air and nutrition.
2006:Eliot Yamin was eliminated from American Idol” today, after the tightest race;each of the three top contestants received an almost exactly equal percentageof the viewer votes necessary for advancement to the remaining two spots
2006:In Congress, Representative Daniel Lipinski rose “today to honor Joel M. Carpof the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago for his outstandingcontributions to the Federation, as well as to the community at large” who 28years of outstanding service is retiring.
2007:Bernard Kouchner began serving as French Minister of Foreign and EuropeanAffairs.
2007:As part of Jewish Heritage Month, the National Archives presents a lectureentitled “Julius Rosenwald: The Man Who Built Sears, Roebuck and Advanced theCause of Black Education in the South.” Peter M. Ascoli, grandson of JuliusRosenwald, tells the remarkable story of Rosenwald’s lifelong devotion to hardwork and success and of his giving back to the nation in which he prospered.The son of German Jewish immigrants, Julius Rosenwald—president and CEO ofSears, Roebuck & Co.—was an exemplary businessman, pioneeringphilanthropist, and true humanitarian who played an important part in thehistory of America at the start of the 20th century. Yet few know the story ofthis immensely talented figure. His commitment to social justice and equalityled him to involvement in a wide range of philanthropic projects—among them thebuilding of more than 5,300 schools for African Americans in the rural Southand the issuing of an unprecedented $1 million challenge grant to aid Jewishvictims of World War I.
2007:Rabbi Simon Jacobson presents “Mysteries of Sinai: Find Revelations in theEveryday “at The Sixth Street Community Synagogue in New York City.
2007:An exhibition opens at the Museum of Modern Art by photographer BarryFrydlender, the first Israeli to have a solo show at the museum
2008:The Jerusalem Cinematheque presents “A Sacred Duty \ חובה מקודשת” a majordocumentary on current environmental threats and how Jewish teachings can beapplied in responding to these threats.
2008(12th of Iyar): Anniversary of the Jews of Rome being granted additionalprivileges by the head of the Catholic Church. On the 12th of Iyar, 1402, theJews of Rome were granted "privileges" by Pope Boniface IX. They weregiven legal right to observe their Shabbat, protection from local oppressiveofficials, their taxes were reduced and orders were given to treat Jews asfull-fledged Roman citizens.
2008:At the JCC in Manhattan the international premiere of new episodes from theIsraeli comedy series “Arab Labor (Avoda Aravit)” followed by a conversationwith writer and creator Sayed Kashua. “Arab Labor” is a satirical look at theArab status In Israeli society, the controversy surrounding issues of identityand the sensitivities of both populations. Through humor, the series exploresthe daily conflicts that Arabs face between the desire to integrate and theirown values and traditions.
2009: An exhibition at Williams College Museum ofArt entitled “The ABCD’s of Sol LeWitt” that features artist’s drawing andsculptures as well as items from his private art collection comes to an end.
2009: Hadassah meets in the Twin Cities where itsmembers celebrate Jewish Women in the Arts and recognize the Charter Member ofthe Region Chai Society
2009:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers including “The Third Reich At War” byRichard J. Evans, “A Failure of Capitalism” by Richard A. Posner and therecently released paperback editions of “Reappraisals: Reflections on theForgotten Twentieth Century” by Tony Judt and “The Dream: A Memoir” by HarryBernstein.2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books byJewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “PaulNewman: A Life” by Shawn Levy and “Valkyrie” by Philipp Freiherrvon Boeselager 2009: Atleast five people were arrested today after a clash between anti-Semiticdemonstrators and Jews in Argentina. “The fighting broke out when demonstratorswaving anti-Semitic signs crashed a Buenos Aires ceremony held by a Jewishgroup marking Israel's 61st Independence Day, which was celebrated last month.An anti-discrimination police unit had to escort Israeli Ambassador DanielGazit away from the scuffle, AFP reported. Argentina's large Jewish communityhas been targeted by two deadly terror strikes. In 1994, 85 people were killedand 300 were wounded in a car bombing at the AMIA Jewish center in BuenosAires, and two years earlier, 22 people were killed and 200 were hurt in anattack on the Israeli embassy.”
2009(23rd of Iyar), 5769: Daniel Carasso passed away today at the ageof 105. The member of a famed Sephardic family, this native of Salonica who wasthe son of Isaac Carasso created the company that many of us know for one ofits most famous products, Dannon Yogurt. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/business/21carasso.html?_r=1
2010: Professors Raanan Rein and Jeffrey Lesser are scheduledto deliver a lecture entitled Jewish-Latin American Historiography: TheChallenges Ahead Lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
2010: “The Associated Press reported today that thesynagogue in Worms had been firebombed.
2010: Elena Kagan completed her service as the 45thUnited States Solicitor General.
2010: In “Reading to Recall the Father of Tevye”, ClydeHaberman explores the life Bel Kaufman and her grandfather Shalom Aleichem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/nyregion/18nyc.html
2010: A Facebook group called “Comedy Central – I.S.R.A.E.L.Attack game is offensive. Remove it” had more than 1,500 members as of today.The game, “Drawn Together,” which is currently available on Comedy Central’s websiteis based on the network’s politically incorrect animated series of the samename, depicts “Jew Producer,” a character that has a speaker for a head and istaken to task for failing to kill certain animated characters. A robot called“the Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser Lady” (I.S.R.A.E.L.) is then sentin to do the job, unleashing destruction and murdering children
2011: Jenna Weissman Joselit, Charles E. Smith Professorof Judaic Studies and Professor of History at The George Washington Universityis scheduled to deliver a lecture at Beth Sholom in Potomac, MD, entitled“Romancing the Stone: America's Embrace of the Ten Commandments” during whichshe will explain “The cultural and historical processes by which a covenantwith the ancient Israelites became a covenant with America.”
2011: Sam Brylawski and Karen Lund are scheduled todeliver a lecture entitled “Emile Berliner and the Birth of the RecordingIndustry” under the auspices of The Hebraic Section, African and Middle Easternduring which they will discuss the role of Emile Berliner “an unsung hero ofrecorded sound …Emile who invented the gramophone.”
2011: The building housing the world’s firstgreen-certified synagogue Congregation Beth David in San Luis Obispo, Calif.,is scheduled to be up for auction today to satisfy an unpaid loan of 3.3million dollars.
2011: A course entitled “Oasis in Time: The Gift ofShabbat in a 24/7 World” is scheduled to be held at the Center for Jewish Life,the Chabad center in Little Rock, AR under the leadership of Rabbi PinchasCiment.
2012: DeLeon, a Sephardic Indie Rock Band is scheduled toappear at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2012: Premiere of Yossi an Israeli film directed by EytanFox starring Ohad Knoller, Oz Zehavi and Lior Ashkenazi.
2012: A production of Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys”opened in the West End today.
2012: Elio Toaff, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome wasawarded the Prize Culturae within the Italian National Festival of Cultures inPisa today.
2012: The Jewish Community Relations Council of GreaterWashington, The American Jewish Committee and The American Association ofJewish Lawyers and Jurists are scheduled to sponsor a lecture by Irvin B. Nathan entitled “The Challenges of aD.C. Attorney General
2012(25th of Iyar, 5772): Seventy-four-year-oldIsraeli politician Gideon Ezra passed away today.
2012(25th of Iyar, 5772): Eighty-seven-year-oldpublicist and theatrical manager Herbert Breslin passed away today. (Asreported by Daniel Wakin)
2013; “No Place On Earth” is scheduled to premiere attheatres in Atlanta, GA and Key West, FL.
2013: The 3rd annual Celebrating India inIsrael Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to dowhatever it takes to protect Israelis in the unstable Middle East, following ameeting with the German foreign minister in Jerusalem today (As reported byYoel Goldman)
2013: Multiple clashes broke out across the West Bank todaythat involved, Palestinians, the IDF, Border Police and settlers.
2013: Today “Frances Ha,” a “comedy–drama” directed, produced and written by Noah Baumbach which had “premiered atthe Telluride Film Festival” had a limited release in the United States
2013: Today, “the Washington Post reported that theUnited States Department of Justice had monitored the activities” of“journalist and television correspondent” James Samuel Rosen “by tracking hisvisits to the State Department through phone traces, timing of calls and hispersonal emails.”
2013(8th of Sivan, 5773): Ninety-four-year-oldAlbert Seedman who served as the New York Police Department’s chief ofdetectives during a time when the Black Liberation Army killed four policeofficers and the gangland shooting of Joseph A. Colombo, Sr. and Joey Gallorocked the Big Apple and who was an anomaly – “the Jewish cop…in an Irishuniverse” passed away today.
2014: Chabad is scheduled to host the second of athree-day retreat in West Des Moines, Iowa.
2014(17th of Iyar, 5774): Eighty-four-year-oldbiologist Gerald Edelman 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine passed awaytoday.
2014: According to police estimates, “hundreds ofthousands of people were headed to Mount Meron in the Gallilee to celebrate theholiday of Lag B’Omer in a gathering which marks the passing away of Kabbalistsage Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai who is buried at the site.
2014: “A newly revealed NSA document highlights andcorroborates allegations carried by Newsweek that Israel aggressively spies onthe US, the magazine reported today.”
2014: In Springfield, VA, Congregation Adat Reyim isscheduled to host “Adat on the Rocks.”
2015: In Portland, Oregon, the Oregon Jewish Museum andCenter for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host a gala celebrating theirone year anniversary as a combined organization.
2015: The 2015 Washington Jewish Music Festival isscheduled to come to an end today.
2015: Dr. Robert Cargill is scheduled to lecture on “FromShalem to Jerusalem: The Etymology and the Historiography of the NameJerusalem” at Agudas Achim in Coralville, Iowa.
2015: “When Comedy Went to School,” a 2013 documentaryabout the Borscht Belt’s role as the birthplace of modern stand-up comedy,featuring interviews with top comics who once performed on its stages,including Robert Klein, Jerry Stiller, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, and DickGregory – is scheduled to be shown this afternoon at the Borscht Belt FilmFestival.
2015:In Dimona, a city-wide strike to show “solidarity with the striking workers ofIsrael Chemicals and about 60 employees of Meteor, a local producer ofa*gricultural netting that is in danger of shutting down” is scheduled to takeplace today.
2015:London barrister, Jonathan Arkush was elected today to serve as Presdient ofthe Board of Deputies of British Jews.
2015:The New York Times featured reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks, Goebbels: A Biographyby Peter Longerich and Voices in the Night: Stories by Steven Millhauser
2015:The funeral session for Rabbi Moshe Levinger is scheduled to begin this morningat the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and will end “at the city’s ancientcemetery.”
2015(28thof Iyar, 5775): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Day
2016:The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host “God, Faith& Identity from the Ashes: Reflections of Children and Grandchildren ofHolocaust Survivors.”
2016:In New York, the Jewish Book Council and Drisha are schedule to host a lectureand discussion with National Jewish Book Award finalist Dr. Benjamin D. Sommerabout his book Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture andTradition.
2016:In Seattle, the Washington State Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to hostan event featuring Cynthia Flash Hemphill author of A Hug from Afar inthe new WSJHS exhibit gallery.
2017:As a sign of the vitality of small Jewish communities, in Coralville, Iowa, theAgudas Achim book group is scheduled to discuss Here I Am by JonathanSafran Foer.
2017:Holocaust survivor Nat Shaffir is scheduled to speak in Washington as part ofthe U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museums “First Person Series.”
2017:“Shabtai Shavit, who led the Mossad in the 1990’s” today “fired off harshcriticism aimed at Donald Trump aying his actions put internationalinformation-sharing efforts at risk, in light of reports that the US presidentdivulged classified intelligence to Russia last week.” (As reported by JudahAri Gross)
2017:The “Made in Jerusalem Festival” is scheduled to open at Beit Avi Chair.
2017:David G. Dalin is scheduled to “introduce his new book Jewish Justices of theSupreme Court: From Brandeis to Kagan” at lecture in the Kovno Room of theCenter for Jewish History.
2018:The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “The Annual ShavuotCheesecake Bake-Off this evening.
2018:The Center for Jewish History, Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute,and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to host “Searching forJoseph Heritage with Joseph Berger” in which the “former New York Times reporter and author of Displaced Persons: GrowingUp American after the Holocaust shares stories and photos from his trip tohis parents’ hometown in Poland.
2018(3rdof Sivan, 5778): Ninety-four-year-old Richard Pipes, a Jewish refugee from NaziPoland who specialized in the history of Russia, especially the period startingwith the Revolution in 1917 and the Communist take-over passed away today. (Asreported by William Grimes)
https://spongobongo.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/professor-richard-pipes/
2018:In Memphis, TN, Rabbi Feivel Straus is scheduled to “lead a discussion onShavuot: The Holiday about Owning Your Judaism” at Temple Israel.
2018:As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Jewish Historical Society ofGreater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a lecture on “Before the FreedomFighters: The Fight to Integrate Glen Echo Amusem*nt Park.”
2018:Holocaust Survivor Sam Ponczak is scheduled to lecturer at the US HolocaustMemorial Museum.
2019:The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host a performance of“Nabucco,” “an operaby Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by and starring David Serero as Nabucco” whichbuilds on the Biblical accounts of the Babylonian Exile found in Jeremiah andDaniel” and which “combines political and love intrigues with some of thegreatest songs ever written (including “Va, pensiero, The Chorus of the HebrewSlaves”).”
2019(12th ofIyar, 5779): Just ten days before his 104th birthday, Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright and author Herman Wouk, the Bronx born son Abraham andEsther Wouk and husband of Betty Wouk Z”L best known for The Caine Mutiny(novel, Broadway play and movie) who loved his Judaism and the United Statespassed away today. (Editor’s note – There is no way that this blog can dojustice to him as an author or as person.Besides which, I am a big fan so anything more would not be “objective”history.)
2019: In Norway, members ofthe Jewish community are scheduled to follow their annual procedure of “layingroses on the grave of Henrick Wergeland, the author of the poem “Christmas Eve”which helped to end “Norway’s constitutional ban on Jews.”
2020: Via Zoom, Congregation Beth Am is scheduledto present “a discussion led by Rabbi Janet Marder, of Congregation Beth Am inLos Altos Hills, on “The New Order” by Karen Bender and New York 1,Tel Aviv 0 by Shelly Oria.
2020: “ Yair Lapid becamethe Leader of the Opposition, after the thirty-fifth government of Israel wassworn in today.”
2020: “David Wolff’s finalcantorial concert at Hebrew College is scheduled to be live-streamed onFaceBook from Framingham’s Temple Beth Am, where David will be installed as cantorin July.”
2020: CongregationShearith Israel’s Sexton Zachary Edinger is scheduled to lead a virtual tour ofthe Chatham Street Cemetery.
2020: Due to the Pandemic, in, the Breman’s“Historic Jewish Atlanta Tour: The Beltline” has been canceled.
2020: The National Public Library of Israel isscheduled to reopen today.
2020: As part of its “Virtual Family ProgramSeries,” The American Jewish Historical Society” is scheduled to host “MeetEmma Lazarus,” a “live interactive program, children have the opportunity toengage with the famous poetess about her life and the issues of her time.”
2020: In Amsterdam, an exhibition at the JewishHistorical Museum featuring the works of photographer and artist Sarah MeiHerman is scheduled to come to an end today.
https://www.mutualart.com/Exhibition/Sarah-Mei-Herman--Germano/2BD1C696A746BA41
2021(6thof Sivan 5781): First Day of Shavuot; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2021:Chabad of Palo Alto is scheduled to present “an outdoor, socially distancedShavuot observation with a reading of the Ten Commandments and dairy desserts.”
2021:YJP is scheduled to present “Shavuot Under the Stars,” “an evening dairybuffet” for “Boston’s young professionals.”
2021:Despite having a wall smashed in by a rocket fired from Gaza, Yad MichaelSynagogue in Ashkelon is scheduled to be open for the celebration of Shavuot.
2021:Chabad of Contra Costa is scheduled to present “an in-person outdoor reading ofthe Ten Commandments, followed by an ice cream party.”
2022: The Thaler HolocaustCommittee is scheduled to partner with Orchestra Iowa to present a concert thatwill feature “a 50-minute piece called Quartet for the End of Time, that waswritten and premiered in a German prisoner of war camp during WW2 by OlivierMessiaen, with fellow prisoners performing.
2022: The “Jewish Rally forAbortion” plans which had been announced last month by the National Council ofJewish Women is scheduled to take place today in Washington, D.C.
2022: The Center for JewishHistory is scheduled to host the opening of an exhibition “Invited to Life:Holocaust Survivors in America” featuring the photography of B.A. Van Sise.
2022: LBI is scheduled topresent a screening of “Familie Brasch: A Documentary Film About AGerman-Jewish Family.”
2023: A motion is scheduledto be put forward at today’s meeting of the Golders Green Beth Hamedrash that askedthe synagogue to clarify its position relating to the Union of Orthodox HebrewCongregations (UOHC), in light of the time lag on the investigation intoallegations of sexual impropriety made by another Golders Green rabbi, ChaimHalpern.”
2023: The Charles BronfmanAuditorium in Tel Aviv is scheduled to be the venue for a very special tributeto the late R&B legend Whitney Houston, whose songs will be performed byDutch songstress Glennis Grace that will take place today.
2023: Lockdown University isscheduled to host a webinar during which Philip Rubenstein will deliver alecture on “Abomination of Abominations, Germany and Israel: The RepatriationControversy.”
2023: Following itstriumphant debut at The Joyce last season, New York's Gibney Company isscheduled to return with a powerful program of three works, including SharonEyal and Gai Behar's SARA, a minimalist work that manages to be gentle,hardcore, and old fashioned all at the same time.
2023: At Temple Judea, Rabbi Feivel is scheduled to host a lunch andlearn featuring “Jewish innovator, Joe Shuster.
2023: Sotheby’s is scheduledto hold a live auction of the “Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Most Complete HebrewBible.”
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/codex-sassoon-the-earliest-most-complete-hebrew-bible
2024:The second session of “Run Write Read Repeat, a four-day running and writingseminary is scheduled to take place today.
2024:The City Club of Cleveland is scheduled to hear from Jodi Rudoren, the editor-in-chief ofthe Forward since 2019 “about thecomplexities journalists have faced in reporting on the war abroad andantisemitism here in the United States.”
2024: As spring turns tosummer, Temple Judea in scheduled to host “Beach Shabbat” with Rabbi Yaron andCantor Abbie at Carlin Park
2024:As May 17th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps theUnited States and the Hamas held hostages begin day224 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.)
