May 26
1096(1st ofSivan): The Crusaders massacred the Jews of Neuss, Germany
1135: Alfonso VII of León and Castile was crownedin the Cathedral of Leon as Imperatortotius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain". At the start of his reign,he curtailed “the rights and liberties which his father had granted the Jews.He ordered that neither a Jew nor a convert might exercise legal authority overChristians, and he held the Jews responsible for the collection of the royaltaxes.” After a few years, he adopted a more positive policy towards his Jewishsubject. He restored the rights grantedby his father and then granted new ones including the granting of a specialfuero (charter) in 1136 that permitted the Jews of Guadalajara to outfitthemselves like the Christian Knights of his kingdom. Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra(Nasi) was one of the King’s most influential advisors. After the conquest of Calatrava in 1147, theking placed Judah in command of the fortress, later making him his courtchamberlain. The king held Judah ben Joseph stood in such high esteem that hegranted Judah’s request to let the Jews who had fled from the Almohades tosettle in Toledo. The reigns of Alfonsoand his father are proof that Jews prospered, and suffered, under both Catholicand Moslem rule, depending upon the ruler and the time period.
1171: Thefirst ritual murder accusation in Europe occurred in Blois, France. Fifty-oneJews were burned, seventeen of them women. As they were burning, they chantedthe hymn 'Aleinu' (composed in Talmudic times). Rabbenu Tam declared a day offasting and prayer in England, France and the Rhineland. One of those killedwas Pulcinella (Puncelina), a favorite of Count Theobald, who tried to use herposition to convince the count to release the Jews. The count decided to expelall the Jews left in his county but "allowed" himself to be persuadedto change his mind by a payment of 2000 pounds.
1232: PopeGregory IX began the Inquisition in Aragon
1352: AfterJewish leaders promised the City Council in Nuremberg that if they were allowedto return to the city as citizens, “they would remit all debts the citizensowed them, would sell all houses held in pawn; agreed to settle only where thecitizens permitted, asking merely to be protected against the nobility” animperial edict was issued permitting the Jews to settle in the city.
1512: BayezidII, the Ottoman Sultan who welcomed the Jews to his realm after the expulsionfrom Spain passed away. He not only sent a fleet under the command of AdmiralKemal Reis to evacuate the Jews, he sent a firman to all provinces telling theleaders to welcome the Jews. When youconsider the large swath of territory he controlled (including much ofsoutheastern Europe) this was quite gift. His Jewish subjects included MordecaiComtino, Solomon ben Elijah Sharbit ha-Zahab, Shabbbethai ben Malkiel Cohen andpoet Menahem Tamar.
1552: Sixty-four-year-old“Christian Hebraist” Sebastian Münster, “a disciple of Elias Levita “who editedthe Hebrew Bible accompanied by a Latin translated” and who “in 1537 publisheda Hebrew Gospel of Matthew which he had obtained from Spanish Jews he hadconverted” passed away today.
1566:Birthdate of Sultan Mehmed III. During the reign of Sultan Mehmed III, GabrielBuonaventura was appointed ambassador and established contacts with Spain.Solomon Eskenazi, Doctor Benveniste and Doctor Moshe Korina held positions atthe palace. In 1597 Solomon Abenyaes (Marrano Name: Alvaro Mendez) prepared atreaty that was intended to ally the Ottoman Empire with England in the fightagainst king Philip of Spain.
1615(27thof Iyar): Abraham Samuel Bacharach, a leading Rabbi in Worms, passed away. Bornin the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1575, he had married Eva Bacharach, the daughterof Isaac ben Simson ha-Kohen and the granddaughter of Rabbi Judah Loew benBezalel. She was the mother of RabbiMoses Samson Bacharach and the grandmother of Rabbi Yair Bacharach, author of“Hawwot Yair.”
1648: As theCossack uprising continued to gain momentum a force of Cossacks and CrimeanTatars attacked and defeated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces at theBattle of Korsun. The defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian forces followed thepattern seen at the battle at Zhovti Vody. The Poles retreated and the Cossackscontinued moving westward gaining support as they went The slaughter of theJews was about to begin in earnest.
1697(16thof Sivan, 5457): The British colony of South Carolina issued naturalizationpapers to Simon Valentine.
1712: Theleaders of the Dutch Jewish community decided to dismiss Tzvi Hirsch ben YaakovAshkenazi as the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation of Amsterdam at theend of the three year term described in the letter of appointment he had beengiven in January of 1710. Ashkenazi vowed to fight the dismissal whichapparently had been orchestrated by Aaron Polak Gokkes.
1724:Beginning of the papacy of Benedict XIII, the pope who issued “Emanavit nuper,”a Papal Bull, dealing with “the necessary conditions for imposing Baptism on aJew.”
1744(15thof Sivan, 5504): Moses Abraham passed away today after he which he was buriedat the “Hoxton Old Jewish Burial Ground” where the tombstone shows the Hebrewcalendar date.
1751(2ndof Sivan, 5511): Lob Minden ben Moses the chazzan at Minden-on-the Weser whowas the author of Shire Yehuda, a collection of “Hebrew songs with Germantranslations” passed away today.
1753: InZhitomir, the castle court under the influence of Bishop Solik of Kievsentenced 33 Jews to death for the "ritual murder" of a Christianchild. The entire evidence was based on the "confessions" of theinnkeeper and his wife which had been made after being tortured, although theylater retracted their statements. Thirteen of them were released uponconverting. Many others, including the local Rabbi, were quartered alive. Onecouple converted on the spot and was granted a beheading.
1754(5thof Sivan, 5514): Erev Shavuot
1757(7th ofSivan): Rabbi Jacob Daniel of Ferrara author of “Eden Arukh” passed away.
1758(18thof Iyar, 5518): Lag B’Omer
1762: In NewYork City, Abraham Andrews and his wife gave birth to Cayle Abrahams.
1765(6thof Sivan, 5525): Shavuot
1775(26th ofIyar, 5535): Veitel-Heine Ephraim, the husband of Elke Fraenkel who had passedaway in 1769, the “Jeweler to the Prussian Court and Mint Master under thePrussian Kings Frederick William I and Frederick the Great” passed away todayin Berlin
1779: InLondon, Daniel Cohen D'Azevedo, the son of Haham Moses Cohen d'Azevedo and Sarade Haham Moses Cohen D'Azevedo married Ester Rodriques Cohen D'Azevedo
1786: InBaltimore, Md, Catherine Bush and Myer Solomon who were married in 1778 gavebirth to Baltimore, MD native Arabella Solomonthe wife of Zalegman Phillips whom she married in 1805 and with she hadeleven children.
1790: AbigailLopez, the daughter of Aaron Lopez married Isaac Gomez, Jr. today
1792(5thof Sivan, 5552): Parashat Bamidbar ; erev Shavuot is celebrated as GeorgeWashington was finishing his first term as the first President of the UnitedStates.
1796(18thof Iyar, 5556): Lag B’Omer is celebrated as Jefferson and Adams vie to becomethe successor to George Washington.
1799:Friedrich Wilhelm Grantzow, a tailor's apprentice in Berlin andgreat-grandfather of Oswald Spangler “married a Jewish woman named BräunchenMoses whose parents, Abraham and Reile Moses, were both deceased by that timeand who was baptized shortly before the wedding ceremony.”
1812(15thof Sivan, 5572): Beile Sibilla Duelken, the wife of Markus Duelken passed awaytoday.
1818: Birthdateof Baden, Germany native and future Baltimore resident Lemuel Benjamin Oppenheimer,the husband of Henrietta Mansbach Oppenheimer whom he married in 1846 and the fatherof Michael, Ameilia, Mary and Bessie Oppenheimer who spent most of his adultlife working “in the clothing business.”
1820:Birthdate of Dr. Samuel Kristeller, the native of Posen who graduated from theUniversity of Berlin in 1844.
1822(6thof Sivan, 5582): Shavuot is observed as Rothschild and others work to deal with“the deplorable Frankfort Jewish matter.”
1827(29thof Iyar, 5587: Parashat Bamidbar
1832(26thof Iyar, 5592): Parashat Bamidbar
1838(2ndof Sivan, 5598): Parashat Bamidbar
1841(6thof Sivan, 5601): Shavuot
1847: HyamHyams married Amelia Abrahams at the Great Synagogue in London.
1848: As partof its policy to force the Jews to assimilate, the Russian government issued adecree providing for the establishment of a rabbinical committee to be attachedto the Ministry of Interior who “was one of the founders of the Medical andGynecological Society of Berlin.”
1849(5thof Sivan, 5609): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1850: InCleveland, Ohio, founding of Tifereth Israel, a reform congregation createdafter Rabbi Isidor Kalisch and 47 families left Anshe Chesed, the city’sorthodox synagogue and whose most famous leader was Rabbi Abba Hillel Silverwho played a major role in gain U.S. support for the creation of Israel.
http://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/silver/temple.html
1853(18thof Iyar, 5613): Lag Baomer.
1853: GeorgeJoel Marks married Elizabeth Samuels at the Hambro Synagogue.
1854:Birthdate of Samuel Morais Hyneman a Philadelphia born lawyer who “was a member of the board of managers ofMikve Israel congregation, a member of the board of trustees the Jewish Theological Seminary at New York, andof the board of trustees of Gratz College, Philadelphia. He also served aspresident of the Young Men's Hebrew Association in Philadelphia and served asan officer of The Hebrew Education Society in Philadelphia.
1858: Birthdate of Philadelphia native and JeffersonMedical College trained physician Joseph B. Potsdamer the head of thePediatrics Department at the Jewish Hospital from 1884 until 1925, a foundingmember of he James Meigs Medical Society and the father of Louis S. Postdamer.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/02/17/88758500.html?pageNumber=18
1858: Eighty-one-year-old Sarah Levy, the wife of JonasLevy was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1860(5th of Sivan, 5620): Parashat Bamidbar:erev Shavuot observed at a time when southern firebrands are plotting to makesecession a reality if the results of the presidential election do not put anend to talk of freeing the slaves.
1860: It was reported today that “diligent efforts areput forth to establish the Church Mission to the Jews” in New York City “upon afirm basis” under the leadership of “Rev. John C. Jacobi and Israelite bybirth” who became a Baptist.
1861: In Karlsruhe, Germany, “Fanny and Josef JessesWeil” gave birth to Ferdinand Weil, the “husband of Hella Weil.”
1863: Rebecca Simon, the wife of Isaac Simon, was buriedtoday at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1865(1st of Sivan, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1867: In Hoboken, NJ, Edward Stieglitz and the formerHedwig Ann Werner gave birth to Leopold Stieglitz who “was attracted tomedicine” and his twin brother chemist Julius Stieglitz who were the youngerbrothers of photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/stieglitz-julius.pdf
1868(5th of Sivan, 5628): Erev Shavuot
1868: Daniel Angel, the husband of Rachel Angel and thefather of Morris, Jane, Josephine, Philip and Edward Angel was buried today atthe “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1869: Mark and Priscilla Collins were married today atMaiden Lane Synagogue.
1869: BostonUniversity is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BU was founded bythree Methodist businessmen who had been active in the abolitionist movement.“From the day of its opening, Boston University has admitted students of bothsexes and every race and religion.”According to one source, BU has the second largest enrollment (bypercentage) of any private university in the United States. According to the Hillel Foundation, which hasa chapter on campus, three thousand of the school’s twenty thousand undergradsare Jewish and five hundred of the ten thousand grad students are Jewish. Theschool offers approximately thirty Jewish studies courses. The school offers both a major and a minor inJewish Studies.
1871(6th ofSivan, 5631): First Day of Shavuot
1871: Anarticle entitled “The Pentecost Festival” published today in the secular press givesan amazingly detailed description of the Jewish festival of Shavuot.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C02E5DA173AE63BBC4E51DFB366838A669FDE
1871: TheNew York Times reported that “the feast of Pentecost, in Jewish parlance,”Shavuot, “or, as the German Jews call it” Shavuos, “began last evening and willbe observed in all Jewish houses of prayer today.
1877: In NewYork City, David and Sarah Brickner gave birth Bienvenida Solis Davis, the wifeof Goodman Richard Davis and the mother of Walter Alan Davis and GoodmanRichard Davis, Jr.
1874: JudgeP.J. Joachimsen presided over the annual meeting of the Board of Delegates ofAmerican Israelites which was being held tonight at New York’s Temple ShaarayTefillah. The Executive Committee recommended sending funds to aid the Jews ofRomania and to support an agricultural school in Jaffa. (The funds for Romaniareflected the concern of western Jewry for the worsening conditions of theirco-religionists in that newly independent eastern European country. Funding for the school in Jaffa is one of theearliest examples of American Jewish support for what became the Zionistmovement).
1875: InMobile, AL Herman and Mollie Kaufmangave birth to Lottye Kaufman who became Lotty Loeb when she marriedLeopold Loeb.
1876: It wasreported today that at a recently adjourned meeting of delegates representingHebrew congregations from various U.S. cities the possibility wasdiscussed of establishing a seminarythat would teach Jewish theology and the Hebrew language while preparingstudents to become Rabbis.
1878(23rdof Iyar, 5638): One day before his 67th birthday Dutch juristAbraham de Pinto who had been president of the Sephardic congregation passedaway at the Hague
1881: InBreslau, Germany, Max and Fanny Landau Braun gave birth to “composer, conductorand voice teacher” Leo Braun who in 1903 cam to the United States where he“wrote secular and sacred instrumental and vocal music, including a Sabbathservice, ‘Shir Yisrroel,’ dedicated to Rabbi Max Meyer, spiritual leader of theFree Synagogue” and served as the choir master for the Hebrew Orphan Asylumwhile being married to “the former Helen Donhoe with whom he raised three sons– Alan, Richard and Robert.
1881(27th ofIyar, 5641): Jakob Bernays a German philologist and philosophical writer passedaway. The native of Hamburg German was born in 1824. His father, Isaac Bernaysthe first orthodox German rabbi to preach in the vernacular (German) his brother,Michael Bernays, was also a distinguished scholar. “Jakob studied from 1844 to1848 at the University of Bonn, whose philological school, under FriedrichGottlieb Welcker and Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl was the best in Germany. In 1853he accepted the chair of classical philology at the newly founded JewishTheological Seminary of Breslau, where he formed a close friendship withTheodor Mommsen. In 1866, when Ritschl left Bonn for Leipzig, Bernays returnedto his old university as extraordinary professor and chief librarian. Heremained at Bonn until his death.”
1881:Birthdate of Washington, DC native and Cornell trained surgeon Dr. Harry E.Isaacs, “founder of the American Jewish Physicians Committee, an affiliate ofthe American Friends of the Hebrew University and the Chief of Surgery at BethEl Hospital.
1881:Birthdate of Sophie Munk, who gained fame as Austrian-American therapist andwrite Sophie Lazarsfeld, the wife of attorney Robert Lazarsfeld and the motherof Paul Lazarsfeld.
1882: In Galicia,theatre director Chaim “Charles” Treitler and Taube Treitler gave birth toactress Malvina Lobel, the wife of New York City physician Julius Broder whosettled in Dorchester, MA.
https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/L/lobel-malvina.htm
1882(8thof Sivan, 5642): Seventy-six-year-old John Mayer, the German born son of SimonLevy and Johanetta Mayer whose birth name was Meyer Levy, and who was thehusband of Janette Ries Mayer passed away today after which he was buried on“Jewish Hill” in the Natchez, MS, Cemetery.
1885:Australian political leader Simeon Phillips, the “son of Solomon Phillips andCaroline Solomon” and his wife Rosetta gave birth to Maurice Lewis Phillipstoday
1885: Birthdayof Berditchev native and journalist Nathan Lynder who in 1904 came to the U.S.where he served on the staff of The Day.
1886:Birthdate of Asa Yoelson, better known as Al Jolson. Jolson's father wasa cantor at B'nai IsraelSynagogue at Fifth and Eye Street in Washington,D.C. Instead of following in his father's footsteps, Jolson ranawayto New York where he beganhis career in show business.His greatest claim to fame was his starring role in The Jazz Singer, the firsttalking motion picture.Although Jolson never served in the Army (hewas turned down when he tried to enlist during the Spanish American War forbeing too young) Jolson was an active participant in Bond Drives duringsubsequent wars. He also entertained the troops during World War IandKorea. In fact, he died after a trip to Korea in 1950.
1888: InDarlington Town, SC, Abram Weinberg, the Charleston born son of Fannie adBendix Weinberg and his Rosa Weinberg gave birth to Amelia Weinberg who died sixteendays before her first birthday.
1889:Birthdate of Warsaw native Jacques Maliniac, the American plastic surgeon.
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/06/archives/jacques-maliniac-a-plastic-surgeon.html
1890(7thof Sivan, 5650): Second Day of Shavuot
1890: Foundingof the Samuel Kristeller Fund which aimed “to assist young Jews who wish tolearn a trade and to help Jewish mechanics” trying to establish themselves. Itwas named for the Berlin physician who “was a member of the executive committeealso of the Society for Propagation of Handicrafts Among the Jews
1890: In NewYork City, “Dr. Abram Brothers, a well-known surgeon who was also a writer, anactor, and a violinist” and Minnie Epstein Brothers gave birth to ViolaBrothers who gained fame as writer Viola Brothers Shore.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/Shore-Viola-Brothers
1890(7thof Sivan, 5650): Hirschel Eliazer Kann, one of the co-founders of the Dutch banking house Lissa & Kannpassed away today.
1890: “NewPublications” published today included a detailed review of Jeremiah and HisTimes by Dr. T.K. Chenye a Professor at Oxford. He divided his work into two parts: “Judah’sTragedy Down to the Death of Josiah” and “The Close of Judah’s Tragedy.”
1890: It wasreported today that Rabbi Kaufman Kohler will be officiating at the upcomingconfirmation services for the students at the Hebrew Free School.
1890: At adinner held this evening by the Grand Army of the Republic in Lowell, MA,General Benjamin Butler delivered a speech in which he claimed that during theCivil War the soldiers had been paid “in depreciated currency while Jew bankerswere paid in gold with interest.” During the Civil War, Lincoln had toleratedButler as a general because he needed his political support. He was a politician, not a general as couldbe seen by his inept performance in the field.
1891(18thof Iyar, 5651): Lag B’Omer
1891:Birthdate of Washingtonian Dr. Harry E. Isaacs, “founder of the American JewishPhysicians Committee, an affiliate of the American Friends of the HebrewUniversity and the former Chief of Surgery at Beth El Hospital>
1891: InBudapest, “Mária (née Zilahy) and János Lukács, an advertising executive” gavebirth to Pál Lukács” who gained fame as Paul Lukas who an Oscar for Best Actorfor his role in WW II film “Watch on the Rhine.”
1891: “RussiaHome Policy” published today described the various aspects of the Czar’santi-Semitic policies. Police are beingsent throughout St. Petersburg with orders to arrest an Jews they find and shipthem back to the Pale. Conditions are so bad in Kiev that even Jews who have alegal right to live there are allowing themselves to be expelled. The governor of Kiev has said “I will makeKiev too hot for the whole brood of rascals, rights or no rights.”
1892:Opposition was expressed today in the House of Representatives to anappropriation for the upcoming World’s Fair since exhibits would be open onSunday in violation of the Christian Sabbath.No such concern was expressed for being open on Saturday.
1892: “Romeand the Hebrews” published today described the recent meeting that JesseSeligman and Dr. O’Connell rector of the American College had with CardinalRampolla, Papal Secretary of State. Inresponse to a request for protection of the Jews by the Catholic Church,Rampolla said that “the Popes…had always been the protectors of the Jews.” (Considering the behavior of the Popesfollowing the revolts of 1848, this statement can best be described as, atbest, “disingenuous”
1893:According to Israel Schwartz, a 13 year old boy who has been living at theLadies’ Deborah Nursery for the last 9 years, he made up his mind to run awayafter having been called into Superintendent Engel’s office where he was beatenafter having refused to write to his father and tell him about his “badconduct” which ad consisted of talking to other boys in class which is againstthe rules.
1893: “PaulusMeyer Arrested” published today described the arrest of Paulus Meyer a Jewishconvert and ex-Russian Talmudist “who asserted that he was an eyewitness to aterrible massacre of Jews in Russia. Hewas arrested at the request of the German Supreme Tribunal at Leipzig.
1893:Birthdate of Viennese native and movie producer Isadore Goldsmith, who like somany of his generation fled the Nazis living first in Britain and then theUnited States where he met his wife, novelist and fellow screenwriter VeraCaspary.
1894:Emanuel Lasker became a World Champion chess player. Born in Germany, Lasker’s father was a cantorwho feared that his son’s love of chess would take him away from hisstudies. Lasker won the championshipwhen he was 26 which made him the youngest champion of his time.
1894:Theodore Seligman who is one of the executors of the will of his father, thelate Jesse Seligman, filed “a statement of the condition of the estate” and “anitemized list of the bequests to the family and charitable societies in theSurrogate’s Office.
1894:Birthdate of Bessarabia native and University of Pennsylvania graduate HarryViteles who worked with Joint Distribution Committee before moving to Palestineto serve as bank general manager while serving with the United Hebrew Charitiesof Philadelphia.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/03/archives/harry-vitele-77-in-coop-movement.html
1894:In Hermanville, Mississippi, “Solomon W. and Caroline S. (Herman Bodenheim)gave birth to thrice married poet and author Maxwell Bodenhiem who “co-foundedThe Chicago Literary Times” withanother Jewish author and later Zionist activist Ben Hecht.
https://poets.org/poet/maxwell-bodenheim
1895:Three days after she had passed away, 71 year old Matilda Jacobs, the daughterof John and Frances Nathan and the wife of Myer Jacobs was buried today at the“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1895:Esther Walenstein delivered the opening remarks at the dedication of HebrewInfant Asylum on Mott Avenue and 149th Street in the Bronx afterwhich the board presented with a portrait of herself which she could see everyday for the next 8 years during which ran the institution.
1895:“In The World Of Art” published today acknowledgement is made of the generosityof the men who arranged the East Side Art Exhibition in the auditorium of theHebrew Institute which attracted a large throng of the less fortunate for whomthis was the first opportunity to see such works.
1895:Birthdate of Professor Salo Wittmayer Baron, the author of a sweepingmultivolume history of the Jews who “was undoubtedly the greatest Jewishhistorian of the 20th century…” (As reported by Peter Steinfels)
1895:Rabbi Joseph Silverman is scheduled to deliver the opening prayer at today’sceremony dedicating the new Hebrew Infant Asylum. Following remarks by New YorkCity Mayor Strong, Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and N.S. Rosenau will address theattendees. Cecilia Goldsmith is among those responsible for providingrefreshments at the end of the event.
1896:Eben Israel Cemetery, the Jewish Cemetery in Cedar Rapids that served both theOrthodox Beth Jacob and Reform Temple Judah congregations opened. Max Oshman was one of the founders of thecemetery which is still in use at the start of the 21st century.
1896: NicholasII becomes Tsar of Russia. Nicholas wasthe last of the Tsars. He was a weak manwho lacked the skill to rule. He wasalso totally out of touch with what was going on in his country. The fact that he had three rabbis at hiscoronation did not mean that his views about Jews were any different from thoseof his predecessors. There were Pogromsboth before and after the first uprising against the Tsar in 1905. The Tsar spent a great deal of money onanti-Semitic literature including mass distribution of the Protocols of theElders of Zion. He also supported thetrumped up charges in the Bellis Case, the scandalous trumped charges in one ofthe last “Ritual Murder” of the 20th century. During his reign, the Tsar declared,” Duringmy reign Jews in Russia will not enjoy equal rights.”
1898: The Chicago Jewish Courier opened adrive to help defray the expenses of a newly formed Jewish militaryorganization that is volunteering to serve in an Illinois Regiment that willprobably join the fight against Spain.
1898; One dayafter he had passed away, seventy-year-old Joel Woolf, the Middlesex born sonof Jane and Isaac Woolf was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery inLondon.
1898: Duringthe Spanish American War Sergeant George M. Klein and Corporal Isaac Bradfieldof Company A of the 1st Mississippi Volunteer Infantry were amongthose mustered into federal service in Jackson, Mississippi.
1898: Threedays after he had passed away, 70 year old Joel Woolf, the son of Isaac andJane Woolf and the husband of Helen Solomons was buried today in London at the“Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1899: TheHebrew Union Veterans’ Association held its annual memorial service tonight atTemple Emanu-El. The event, which waswell attended, began with the veterans marching en masse to house of worship bya drum and bugle corps.
1899: A listpublished today of the institutions receiving aid from the state of New Yorkand the amount they are getting included: Sanitarium for Hebrew Children -$5,080; Hebrew Benevolent Society - $100,000; Hebrew Sheltering GuardianSociety - $99,500;
1899: IsaacWallach, the President of the Mt. Sinai Hospital Association said today that“the land on which the hospital will be built consists of thirty city lotssituated between one Hundred and One Hundred and First Streets and Madison andFifth Avenues” which cost about $400,000 and that buildings will cost onemillion dollars of which $750,000 “has already been subscribed.”
1899: As of today,the officers of the Judaens are Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, President; ProfessorGottheil, Vice President; Philip Cowen, Secretary; Albert Ulmann, Treasurer;and Samuel Greenbaum, Samson Lachman and Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Directors.
1900: SamuelElfenbein, the “son of Moses and Rosa Elfenbein” and Celia Elfenbein gave birthtoday to Maurice Elfenbein.
1901(8thof Sivan, 5661): Eighty-year-old Ludwig Lewysohn, the native of Posen whoserved as the rabbi Frankfort-on-Oder, Worms and Stockholm passed away today inthe Swedish city.
1901: “For thefirst time in its history Lafayette Post, a famous Grand Army of the Republicpost held its memorial services tonight at a Jewish congregation; in the caseTemple Beh-El on Fifth Avenue where Chaplain Wilbur Fiske Wood who said “ Ifeel a peculiar pleasure in celebrating this memorial in a Jewish place ofworship.”
1902: TheNożyk Synagogue which “would be the only surviving prewar Jewish house ofprayer in Warsaw” “was officially opened to the public” today.
1902: Afterhaving graduated from NYU Law School in 1901, future Congressman Isaac Siegel,“was admitted to the bar” today.
1902: Twenty-two-year-oldNew York City native and NYU trained attorney Isaac Siegel, the Republicanleader who served in Congress was admitted to the bar today.
1902:“Russia’s Treatment of American Jews” published today described a speechUnitarian minister Thomas R. Slicer in which he declared that he “would nothave been a Christian but for the teachings of the Hebrews” and that while “theRussians are nominally Christians with a strong prejudice against the Jews andit is impossible to reason against prejudice.”
1903: Herzlmeets the Portuguese ambassador in Vienna to ask for a territory habitable andcultivable by Europeans.
1903: InNewport News, VA, Charles Friedlander and Blanche Peyser gave birth to MarkPeyser Friedlander who would be buried in Washington, D.C’s Hebrew Cemetery.
1904: Interior Minister de Plehve “proposed to theCouncil of the Empire an important project for the repeal of the law underwhich Jews are forbidden to reside with thirty-two miles of the frontier.”
1905(21stof Iyar, 5665): French banker Mayer Alphonse de Rothschild passed away. Born in 1827, Alphonse was the son of James,the founder of the French branch of the House of Rothschild. He succeeded his father just before theFranco-Prussian War. After the Frenchwere defeated, Alphonse arranged the financing to pay for the indemnity theGermans extracted from the French as part of the peace settlement. The loan was a key to the re-emergence ofFrance as a major European power.Rothschild also served as head of the French Jewish Community and wasfamed for his generous philanthropy. Asa patron of the arts, he donated major works of art to over two hundred museumsand galleries throughout France.
1905: A pogrombroke out in Minsk, Russia.
1906(2ndof Sivan, 5666): Parashat Bamidbar
1906: “TheBlack Hundreds are attempting to invite the people to attack the Jews by thecirculation of false paper money purporting to have been issued by an allegedJewish republic in Tula Province…”
1907: “JacobH. Schiff was the principal speaker at a dinner given tonight in the Tuxedo,Fifty-ninth Street and Madison Avenue, by the local members of District GrandLodge 1, Independent Order B'nai B'rith, to members of the lodge from out oftown who had been attending the lodge's convention” in New York.
1908:Birthdate of Viennese native Otto Kurz who” fled to London from the Nazis,where was Librarian at the Warburg Institute, 1944–65 and Professor of theHistory of Classical Tradition with special reference to the Near East,University of London, 1965–75. He was Slade Professor of Fine Art at theUniversity of Oxford for 1971–72.
1908: AtMasjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia (Iran), the first major commercial oilstrike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quicklyacquired by the United Kingdom. Theconnection between the oil strike the quest to establish a Jewish homeland inEretz Israel is too obvious to have to explain.
1909(6thof Sivan, 5669): Shavuot
1909(6thof Sivan, 5669): Jacob Meyberg, the son of Jonas and Emma Kornick Meybergpassed away today after which he was at the New Mount Sinai Cemetery in Affton,MO.
1909:Birthdate of Richard Maibum, the New York City native, who came to theUniversity of Iowa in 1930 where he studied in the Speech and Dramatic ArtsDepartment, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1931, earning a Master’s in 1931 andwho gained fame “for his screenplay adaptations of Ian Fleming's James Bondnovels.”
1910:Birthdate of Adolph Ignatievich Rosner, the native of Berlin who gained fame asjazz musician Eddie Rosner.
http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=ba13d322ff1efbe114aeb6779&id=727854ab29&e=632ced0f1f
1910:Political trailblazer Belle Moskowitz wins passage of bill regulating New Yorkdance halls
1911: In theBronx, Gittle “Gussie” Weinstein and Yithak Asher “Isaac” Ephron gave birth toHenry Ephron. While he was a notedplaywright, screenwriter and producer, his greatest claim to fame may be thathe was the father of four daughters – Nora, Dilia, Hallie and Amy – who becamefamous writers in their own right.
1911: InWilkes-Barre, PA, Jacob and Bessie Kushner gave birth to Aid Kushner, the OakPark, Michigan, resident “who for many years…constructed models of famoussynagogues from around the world including the state of Michigan as well as amodel of President Truman’s home in Independence and an early British fortbuilt at Detroit before it became part of the United States.
1912: Theannual meeting of the Jewish Publication Society of America was held thisevening at Keneseth Israel Temple in Philadelphia, PA. Edwin Wolfe, the president of the society,called the meeting to order. OscarSolomon was the only member from Cedar Rapids, IA.
1912: Serviceswere this morning “in the synagogue of the Montefiore Congregation in the Bronxwhen a window dedicated to the memory of Isidor Straus and his wife Ida Straus”who had died on board the Titanic “was unveiled by Edward Lauterabch in the presenceof several members of the Straus family.”
1913: Today, “afterintense questioning, Jim Conley admits that he wrote the notes found next toMary’s body, but claims that he wrote them at the order of Leo Frank.”
1913: Theannual meeting of the Home for Jewish Friendless and Working Girls of whichJennie Mandel is the secretary is scheduled to take place this evening at theStandard Club.
1914:Anglo-Jewish art dealer said today “that dispatches from New York were hisfirst intimation that a syndicate of dealers heady by Duveens would hold a saleof the Morgan art treasures in London.”He said that in his opinion, “the story is false.”
1915: HerbertSamuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, began serving as Postmaster-Generalunder Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith.
1915: It wasreported today that former Governor Richard Yates was among the thousands ofpeople who had attended a mass meeting in Springfield, Illinois where speecheswere delivered calling for clemency for Leo M. Frank.
1915: FormerCongressman W. M. Howard who is in charge of Leo Frank’s appeal to the StatePrison Commission announced today that Leo Frank’s wife, who was not allowed totestify at his trial under Georgia law, will submit an affidavit at the hearingand that Frank himself appear in person.
1915: InBoston, Mayor James M. Curley, ex-Governor Eugene N. Foss, Dr. John W.Coughlin, a member of the Democratic National Committee and Dr. Samuel Goodmanof Atlanta were among the speakers at tonight’s meeting in Faneuil Hallprotesting against the execution of Leo M. Frank.
1915: Today,the American Jewish Relief Committee of New York received word from Secretaryof State William Jennings Bryan that “American Ambassador at Constantinoplecables as follows” There are approximately 1,500 Jews from Gallipolis andDardanelles who have been obliged to leave their homes. They are quartered at Pauderma, Rodosto andConstantinople and they are in absolute want.The Grand Rabbi and committee beg for prompt assistance for them and forindigent Jews in Constantinople who number about 5,000.”
1915: The textof a letter from “the Board of Governors, the Georgia Society of the State ofNew York, Inc., an association in New York City whose membership is composedexclusively of Georgians, the descendants of Georgians and person who have beeneducated in Georgia or have married a Georgian” to the Prison Commission ofGeorgia calling for the commutation to Leo M. Frank’s sentence, was publishedtoday.
1915: “LouisMarshall, President of the American Jewish Committee received a letter from theState Department in regard to the numerous inquiries from men in this countryas to the unfortunate condition of their wives and children who were caught inGalicia when the war broke out and have been unable to come to this country.”
1916: The ZionMule Corps was disbanded after the end of the Gallipoli Campaign. The disbanding of this Jewish group did notrepresent a failure. The British wereimpressed with the bravery and diligence of the Jews and this led to theformation of a Jewish combat force in the British Army later in World WarI. This was one more of the haltingsteps that would lead to the creation of the modern IDF.
1916: It wasreported today that Adjutant General Louis Stotesbury who opened a publicinvestigation in charges made by Maurice Simmons, Chairman of the KehillahCommittee for the Protection of the Good Name of Immigrant Peoples, thatanti-Semitism exists in the New York National” said that now is the time for“any evidence of the exclusion of any man physical and morally qualified forsever in the National Guard on account his religious belief” to be presented.
1916(Iyar 23):Judah Leib Kantor, editor of Ha-Yom, passed away.
1917(5thof Sivan, 5677): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1917:“Shabuoth Festival Today” provides a secular newspapers description of theJewish holiday of Shavuot.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9401EFD8123AE433A25755C2A9639C946696D6CF
1917: “A WordAbout Our Schools” published today provides a sketch of various Jewish institutions of higher educationincluding Hebrew Union College, Jewish Theological Seminary, The RabbinicalCollege of America, The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning and TheGratz College
1917: It wasreported today that Tulane University has a total enrollment of 2,708 studentsof whom 54 or 2% are Jewish.
1918: TheGeorgian Republic declared its independence. With independence came freedom ofspeech, press, and organization, which improved the economic situation of theJews of Georgia.
1918:Following the Russian Revolution, “the Georgian Republic declared itsindependence” today which led to “improved economic conditions for the Jews ofGeorgia” – a situation that would come to an end when the Red Army invadedGeorgia in 1921 “prompting a mass exodus” of between 1,500 and 2,000 GeorgianJews.
1918: The NewYork Chapter of Hadassah which “is preparing to a send a complete medical unitto Palestine” sent out a public appeal for an additional $1,000 to pay for atruck which is the only piece of equipment that has not been acquired.
1918: HenryMorgenthau, the former Ambassador to Turkey; “Dr. Boris Bogen of the JointDistribution Committee of the Jewish War Relief Funds; Jacob Billikopf,Executive Chairman of the American Jewish Relief Fund and Rabbi Nathan Krasswere the featured speakers this “afternoon at a luncheon at the Robert TreatHotel in Newark, NJ,” “where 150 prominent Jews from all parts of New Jersey”gathered to express their support for the 1918 campaign that was raising “fundsfor the relief of Jews in the war-stricken countries of Europe.”
1919: TheConference of Jewish Women’s Organizations is scheduled to meet this afternoonat the Congress Hotel in Chicago.
1919:Birthdate of New York native and WW II veteran Donald Samuel, an investmentcompany exctuive and a trustee of the Jewish Family and Children Services.
1919: La LaLucille, a George Gershwin musical opened on Broadway today at Henry Miller’sTheatre.
1920: Dr. H.Pereira Mendes resigns as Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in NewYork after 43 years.
1920:Birthdate of Jan Wiener, a Czech Jew who fought in the British air force duringWorld War II after fleeing Nazis in Germany and Czechoslovakia.
1920(9thof Sivan, 5680): Julius J. Lyons, the son of the late Rabbi Jacques J Lyons,who had served as Director and legal counsel to the State Bank passed away atSan Diego, CA. He was born in New Yorkin 1843 and was active in several Jewish institutions including the MontefioreHome, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Technical Institute. He had gone to California a year ago to stayat the ranch of his son Edwin where he had hoped to regain his health.
1921(18th ofIyar, 5681): Lag B'Omer
1921: In whatwas then Breslau, Germany, overalls manufacturer Fritz Laqueur and “homemakerElsa (Berliner) Laqueer gave birth to Walter Ze'ev Laqueur the Americanhistorian who escaped his native Prussia for Palestine but whose parents weretrapped and died in the Holocaust. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1922: “Aresolution directing Secretary of State Hughes to make immediate inquiry of theFrench government as to the correctness of reports concerning the imposition ofa twenty-year sentence upon Charles R. Crane by a French military court wasintroduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Adolph JoachimSabath, the Czech born Jewish Congress from Illinois.
1923(11thof Sivan, 5683): Dr. Hugh L. Wintner, the native of Kortvelyek, Hungary whocame to the United States in 1863 and “officiated at various congregations inthe western and southern United States” before coming to “Brooklyn in 1878 toserve as the Rabbi at Temple Beth Ehlohim,” “the oldest synagogue in Brooklynwhich celebrated its golden jubilee in 1901,” passed away today.
1923: Thirty-four-year-oldColumbia trained physician Isidor Cherniac Brill, the Russian born son ofAbraham and Deborah Brill, who served overseas as first lieutenant with theMedical Corps during WW I and who has an assistant professor of medicine at theUniversity of Oregon Medical School since 1919 today married Ruth Lowengart atPortland, OR.
1924(22ndof Iyar, 5684): Forty-three-year-old St. Louis native Aaron Hoffman, “one ofthe most prolific writers for the American stage, the author of a score of playand countless vaudeville sketches” and the husband of Minna Z. Hoffman withwhom he had one child, Phyllis, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/05/28/104252367.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1924(22nd ofIyar, 5684): Eighty-four-year-old Rosa Bloom, the daughter of Lob and BinaOppenhimer and husband of Simon Marx and Isidor Bloom passed away in New YorkCity.
1924: TheImmigration Act of 1924, or Johnson–Reed Act, including the National OriginsAct, and Asian Exclusion Act which was “vigorously opposed” by CongressmanEmanuel Cellar and severely limited the number of Jews who could enter theUnited States was enacted today.
1925: InBayonne, NJ, Isaac and Lillian Goodman Cohen gave birth to Robert B. Cohenwhose chain of Hudson News shops at airports, bus terminals and railroadstations across the country offered untold numbers of people a respite from thetedium of travel…(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1925: TheCamden, NJ, Section of the Council of Jewish under the leadership of Mrs.Philip Wendkos held a banquet this even in the Beth-El auditorium which willmark the end of the organization’s business year.
1926: “Tenstudents received their degrees tonight at the first graduation exercises ofthe Jewish Institute of Religion founded four years ago by Rabbi Stephen S.Wise as the only liberal Jewish theological seminary in New York.” Honorary degrees were conferred on Calude G.Montefiore, nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore and Chaim Nachman Bialik.
1926: ShalomSchwarzbard traveled from the Ukraine to Paris to avenge his parents' death atthe hands of S. V. Petlura. He wasresponsible for the Ukrainian anti-Jewish riots of 1919-1920. After days ofstalking, Shalom confronted Petlura, shot him and surrendered to the police. Hewas acquitted by the court of Assizes on all charges. The court may have beeninfluenced by the fact that S.V. Petlura, and his followers were responsiblefor 493 pogroms in which 50,000 Jews lost their lives.
1927: It wasreported today that Sir Alfred Davis, the British educator, told a meeting ofthe New York Chapter of Hadassah that he took issue with Dr. Harry EmersonFosdick’s statement “that conditions in Palestine were unpromising foragriculture and this was doubtful if thecolonies there could ever be self-supporting.”
1927: In NewYork City, Alice Manheim, Jacob Kaplan, rabbi’s son, who “dropped out of schoolin the eighth grade, made a fortune in South America in the molasses businessand later bought out the owners of Welch’s Grape Juice” gave birth to Joan Kaplanwho gained fame as “Joan Kaplan Davidson, a preservationist and philanthropistwho set projects in motion that upgraded the quality of life…” (As reported byEnid Nemy)
https://www.socialsciencesinstitute.org/news/2023/8/15/in-memoriam-joan-kaplan-davidson-1927-2023
1928(7thof Sivan, 5688): Second Day of Shavuot including recitation of Yizkor for thelast time during the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge.
1929:Approximately four hundred delegates attending today’s 21st annualconvention of the Federation of Polish Jewish In America at the YorkvilleTemple heard an address by John J. Goldstein of the Joint DistributionCommittee.
1930: “Therevocation by the British Colonial Office of more than 3,000 labor certificatesafter they had been approved by the High Commissioner on the basis of theeconomic needs of the country is a violation of the letter and spirit ofArticle VI of the Palestine mandate specifically charging the mandatory powerwith the facilitation of Jewish immigration, according to resolutions adopted”tonight “by delegates of the Zionist Organization of New York” at a meetingheld at the Hotel Pennsylvania over which former city magistrate BernardRosenblatt served as presiding officer.
1931:Elections began today in forty-five countries in Europe to selected delegatesfor the World Zionist Congress to be held in June.
1931: “A largeattendance is expected the garden party to be held” this “afternoon atWillowpond, the country place of Mrs. Harold Lehman in Tarrytown, NY, for thebenefit of the compaign for fund of the American Jewish Joint DistributionCommittee.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/05/25/98332950.html?pageNumber=25
1932(20thof Iyar, 5692): Five days after celebrating his 82nd birthdayGerman-Jewish banker Hermann Frankel passed away. Ironically, he owned the Wannsee Villa, whichten years later would be the site of the conference that would establish themetrics for the final act of the Final Solution.
1933(1st ofSivan, 5693): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1933: HelenDora Cohen married fellow student and future bookstore owner Louis Schucman “ina ten minue ceremony in a local rabbi’s office” today.
1934: In TelAviv, the third biennial Levant Fair comes to an end.
1935: EdmondI. Jabes, who was born in 1912 was married today “in Zamalek, Cairo.”
1935: EgyptianChief Rabbi Haim Nahum officiated at services in the Ashkenazi Synagogue ofCairo. He was there to lead a memorial service for the Polish Jews of Egypt,who were honoring Marshal Josef Piludski. The respected Russian revolutionistand Polish nationalistic military leader had died May 12, 1935 and was buriedin Lithuania.
1935: In TelAviv a group of Yiddish authors sponsored a lecture in observance of the 70thbirthday of Dr. Chaim Zhitlowski, social critic, political activist and authorwho was a “Yiddishist.” Members of Betarim, “a young militaryRevisionist-Zionist group” were responded violently to the fact that thelecture was conducted in Yiddish instead of Hebrew. They cut off the electricity, pelted membersof the audience with stones and were so disorderly that police had to break upthe meeting.
1935: It wasreported today that in Cedar Rapids, IA, “Mrs. Raymond Klass has beenunanimously re-elected president of the local chapter of the Senior Hadassah”while Mrs. A.W. Basss was elected Vice President, Mrs. Nathan Greenberg waselected recording secretary, Mrs. Jack Yager was elected recording secretaryand Mrs. Ted Yarowsky was elected treasurer.”
1936: For thefirst time ever, the Mandatory government in Palestine today mobilized Jewishsettlers for self-defense as an open Arab revolt swept the country. Settlers atRehoboth were armed and prepared to repel further assaults by Arabs after twodays' of their marauding had resulted in the destruction of various“agricultural enterprises.”
1936: InLondon, “Emanuel List, a naturalized American singer who is now appearing atCovent Garden has…declined an invitation to attend a function at the GermanEmbassy” saying “I left after the Nazi regime came in. My mother is a Jewess. I could not there remain in a country wherenot only Jews members of other religions are so cruelly treated.
1936: “Thefirst mass attack on a Jewish settlement took place” today “at Kfar Tabor atthe foot of Mount Tabor in the Galilee district” when “a band of hundreds ofBedouins began firing at” the Jews “but police supported by the young Jewishfarmers, repelled the attackers without casualties.
1936: After alumber yard was set on fire and nine bombs were tossed by Arab attackers inNevei Shalom, Jewish settlers fled to Tel Aviv.
1936(5th ofSivan, 5696): Erev Shavuot; in Jerusalem, the British relaxed the curfew in theJewish section of the city delaying its start from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. so thatthe Jews could gather to observe the start of the festival.
1936: Britishwomen and children were evacuated tonight from the troubled town of Nablus inan atmosphere made increasingly tense by bold Arab terrorists. They were sentto Jerusalem where it was thought they would be safe from Arab attacks.
1936: “MalcomMacDonald, Secretary for the Dominions announced in the House of Commonstonight that order had been restored at Gaza and that in addition to othermeasures the High Commission for Palestine had taken steps to restrict themovements of agitators and strike leaders.”
1936:Premiere of “Kid Galahad” directed by Michael Curitz, produced by SamuelBischoff, Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, with music by Max Steiner andstarring Edward G. Robinson.
1937:Birthdate of composer Yehuda Yannay
1938:Birthdate of West Philadelphia native and a Haverford and Harvard trainedlinguist, author and teacher Richard Lederer whose “Jewish parents from Polandand Germany” saw to it that he had a bar mitzvah.
1938: The House Un-American Activities Committeemet for the first time. HUAC wouldbecome the tool of right-wing political leaders who would use it attack “theCommunist Conspiracy,” something that many of them equated with a Jewishconspiracy.
1939(8th ofSivan, 5699): Rabbi Ya'akov Meir, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, passedaway. Jacob Meir was born in Jerusalem in 1856 when it was part of the OttomanEmpire. Born to a notable merchant of the community, Mercad Meir, young Jacobgrew to be a merchant who worked in Yaffa. He worked as a merchant for over tenyears, then in his thirties wealthy Jew he knew talked him into going into therabbinate. After becoming a rav he traveled to countries raising funds forthose in Jerusalem. From the mountains of Bokhara to the deserts of Tunis andAlgeria he collected charity funds, and in Jerusalem acted as civil assessor tothe Bet Din. On the death in 1906 of his friend and advisor Chief Rabbi SaulEliasher, Rav Jacob Meir, age 50, was unanimously chosen to fill his place.Soon after a dispute arose, and resigned to accept a "call" to thelarge Jewish community at Salonica. In years later when the Sultan of Turkeyvisited Salonica, he presented Meir with a gold watch emblazoned with the royalarms as a mark of esteem. In 1920 Meir was appointed by Sir Herbert (laterLord) Samuel to be head of the Spanish Jewish Community of Palestine and soonafter received the Commander of the Order of the British Empire award forservice to the British. Herbert Samuel was appointed as the first British HighCommissioner of Palestine in 1920. He was Jewish and also a Zionist. Under hisdirection, thousands of Jewish immigrants settled in the land. In each of theyears between 1920 and 1923, about 8,000 Jews entered Palestine. In 1924 thenumber jumped to 13,000 and the following year to more than 33,000. Sadly, manyJewish people came to Palestine because they could go nowhere else. Americaclosed its doors to mass immigration in 1924. After he died, over 10,000 Jewishresidents of Jerusalem, representing all sections of the population took partin his funeral. The Blue and white colors hung from half-mast from the officesof all Sephardic associations and other Jewish public institutions. His bodywas brought to the large synagogue at the Sephardic orphanage on Yaffa Road.Around his coffin which stood on the stage gathered members of the ChiefRabbinical Council, other rabbis, and groups of youths in the uniforms of theirorganizations, acting as honor guards.
1940(18thof Iyar, 5700): Lag B’ Omer is celebrated on the same day that “Anthony Edentold General Lord Gort, Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) of the BEF, that he mightneed to "fight back to the west", and ordered him to prepare plansfor the evacuation” in what would become known as “Dunkirk,” Jews
1940: TodayJames Rosenman and Samuel I. Rosenman were FDR’s “houseguests” at the WhiteHouse.
1941:Approximately one thousand people attended a tea at the Hotel Commodoresponsored by “the metropolitan branch of the Women’s League of the UnitedSynagogue of America where attendees heard national president Mrs. SamuelSpiegel said that seven thousand dollars has been raised “in supported of theCyprus Adler Scholarship Fund.”
1941: “Jewsand gypsies were forbidden today to participate in press, theatre, film andradio activity in Serbia by order of the German military commander.”
1942: BelgianJewswere required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star.
1943(21stof Iyar, 5703): Sixty-seven-year-old Tufts Medical trained physician IsadorHenry Coriat, the Philadelphia born son of Clara Einstein and Hyram Coriat andthe husband of Etta, who was a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysts passedaway today.
1943: Jewsrioted against Germany in Amsterdam.
1943(21stof Iyar, 5703): Seventy-one year old Jennie Mannheimer, the New York City borndaughter of Hebrew Union College Professor Sigmund Mannheimer and Prague bornauthor Louise Hershman Mannheimer, “the sister of two rabbis” and “one of thefirst two women to earn a bachelor’s degree in Hebrew Letters from HUC, whogained famed as “Jane Manner, the “acting coach and teacher of speech anddrama” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/05/28/88538424.pdf
1943(21stof Iyar, 5703): Tosia Altman, who smuggled weapons into the Warsaw Ghettoand served as messenger once the uprising began was captured by the SS diedtoday “injuries she sustained while on the run.” (As reported by RobertPhilpot)
1944: InBogota, Columbia, Polish refugees Rifka and Israel Joseph Lederman gave birthto David Mordechai Lederman, the doctor “who led the team of scientists thatdeveloped the first fully implantable artificial heart.” (As reported by David Hevesi)
1944:Mordechai and Yehuda Eldar arrived at Auschwitz. Mordechai Adler was slated to die in Octoberbut through a fluke received a reprieve when he was one of 50 prisoners chosento work in “Canada,” the warehouse operation where the Nazis greedily storedthe belongings of their Jewish victims. In 1947, Eldar and two of his sisters(the only surviving members of his extended family) sailed to Palestine on theSS Exodus. Sent back to Hamburg by theBritish, he returned to Tel Aviv in June of 1948. He joined the IDF and served for 30 yearsbefore retiring as a colonel in 1978.
1944:Birthdate of Jan Schakowsky, Congresswoman representing the 9thDistrict of Illinois.
1945(7thof Sivan, 5705) Second Day of Shavuot
1945: “Aftershowing concern over the alleged intentions toward Palestine of the newly formArab League, leaders of Jewish organizations voiced satisfaction today over‘safeguards’ which, they said the United Nations Conference was erecting aroundthe rights, notonly ofp resent Jewish inhabitants of Palestine but of thosewho might emigrate there in the post-waryears to set up a national home.”
1946(25thof Iyar, 5706): Sixty-eight year old Galcian born “Sigmund Thau, the founderand president of the Mutual Lamp Manufacturing Company and leader of the Jewishcommunity as can be seen by his service as “treasurer of the JNF” and founderand director of the Jewish Settlement House of the East Side who married RoseThau after the death of his first wife Devorah and who was the father of Sophieand Morris Thau passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/05/27/94052727.pdf
1946: “Demandsthat governmental and intergovernmental agencies assume full responsibility forbasic assistance to Jewish survivors abroad and permit voluntary agencies toconcentrate on supplementary aid and rehabilitation were made” in AtlanticCity, NJ “tonight at the opening session of the four-day National Conference ofJewish Social Welfare.”
1947(7thof Sivan, 5707): Second Day of Shavuot
1947(7thof Sivan, 5707): Seventy-two-year-old Louis Satenstein, the Kovno born son ofHarris Satenstein and the former Pauline Schaffer and husband of the formerHarriet Johnson with whom he raised five children while serving as “president,treasurer and chairman of the board of American Book-Stratford Press andPresident of the Jewish maternity hospital passed away today.
1947: GershonHirshon, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency that “there has been no split in theExecutive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine” when David Ben-Gurion “had saidthat a Jewish state in the areas populated principally by Jews, in addition tothe barren desert, might be acceptable in lieu of a Jewish state in allPalestine” because the Chairman was merely expressing his personal views.
1948: At theUnited Nations, the Arabs “indicated a willingness to stop the fighting oncondition that the Jews would regard the proclamation of statehood as null andvoid and that no further Jewish immigration would be accepted. Abba Eban responds publicly; “If the Arabstates want peace with Israel, they can have it. If they want war, they have that, too. But whether they want peace or war, theycould have only with the sovereign independent state of Israel.”
1948: EstherCailingold, the British born daughter of Jews from Poland who had gone toJerusalem to teach in 1946 who stayed to fight in defense of the city in 1948had her spine severed when the building she was in collapsed following anexplosion.
1948: The position of Jewish forces in the Old City wasbeyond desperate. "There was nothing to eat; nothing to shootwith..." One hundred Haganah troopers had been killed with even morewounded as the Arab Legion pressed its attack on all sides.
1948: As part of a plan to avoid fighting among differentmilitary forces that had been established during the Mandate, the newly formedgovernment of Israel asserted its control over military force with the issuanceof “Defense Army of Israel Ordinance No. 4” that “established the IsraelDefense Forces, which would be comprised of "land forces, a navy and anair force".
1949: “Tulsa” a drama set in the oil fields produced byWalter Wagner was released in the United States today.
1950: TheUnited States, Great Britain and France announced a plan to regulate arms salesin the Middle East which would equalize sales between the Arab states andIsrael. The three western powers also promised to see to it that the frontiersor armistice lines dividing the states would not be violated.
1950: TheIsraeli government announced that Aubrey S. Eban has been appointed as Israel’sAmbassador to the United States. [Yes, Aubrey Eban is the man whom we know asAbba Eban.]
1952:President Harry S. Truman addressed a dinner sponsored by the Jewish Nationalfund.
1952: EmilSachs, the Secretary of the Garment Workers’ Union of South Africa, andopponent of Apartheid appeared in court today following his arrest at massmeeting “on the steps of the Johannesburg City Hall.”
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. DovJoseph, the Acting Minister of Finance, introduced in the Knesset a Bill on"Income Tax Advances for Relief Works" and described the scheme whichwas expected to provide 2,650,000 work days for the country's unemployed forthe next six months.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that therationing of potatoes came to an end and potatoes were put on the free marketsale for the first time in four years. Over 250 immigrants were expected toarrive from Iran.
1954: MeirHar-Zion was part of ten-man squad “from the newly formed 890thParatroop Battalion led by Ariel Sharon which carried out a raid near KhirbetJinba” today.
1954(23rdof Iyar, 5714): Eighty-year-old Marguerite F. Falk, the wife of Gustave Falkpassed away today after which she was buried with her husband at Hebrew RestCemetery#2 in New Orleans.
1954(23rdof Iyar, 5714): Joseph Titlebaum passed away today after which he was buried inthe Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1955(5thof Sivan, 5715): Erev Shavuot
1955: NewYork City premiere “Love Me or Leave Me” directed by Charles Vidor, Produced byJoe Pasternak with a script by Daniel Fuchs and Isobel Lennart.
1956: InLondon, “Jonathan Charkham, an adviser to The Bank of England and economist,and Moira Elizabeth Frances Salmon, daughter of Barnett Alfred and MollySalmon” gave birth to Fiona Sara Charkham who gained fame English SolicitorFiona Sara Shackleton, Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia known as the SteelMagnolia.”
1957: “Inthe Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago…Edward Wasserman, a psychoanalyst, andthe former Eileen Kronberg, a homemaker” gave birth to “historian and filmmakerSuzanne Wasserman.” (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/nyregion/suzanne-wasserman-dead.html
1958(7thof Sivan, 5718): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1958(7thof Sivan, 5718): “Four Israeli police officers were killed in a Jordanianattack on Mount Scopus, in Jerusalem.”
1958: “At1654 Local time Lieutenant-Colonel Flint of the Mixed Armistice Commission waskilled apparently by a single sniper round while trying to evacuate the deadand wounded Israelis from an Israeli police patrol.”
1959(18thof Iyar, 5719): Lag B’Omer
1960:Birthdate of Amnon Shashua an Israeli computer scientist and businessman who isthe Sachs Professor of Computer Science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalemas well as Senior Vice President at Intel Corporation and President and ChiefExecutive Officer (CEO) of Mobileye and co-founder of OrCam.
1960(29thof Iyar, 5720): Seventy-year-old Esther Cohen Belsky the Russian born daughterof Moshe Kaplan and Frieda Goldberg and the wife of Charles Eizia Belsky passed away todayin Holyoke, MA after which she was buried at the Rodephy Sholom Cemetery inChicopee, MA.
1960(29thof Iyar, 5720): Pittsburg born Abraham Oseroff, the holder of BS from theUniversity of Pennsylvania and a Masters from the University of Pittsburg whowas a veteran of WW I and a hospitaladministrator in Pittsburgh, New York City and Philadelphia passed away.
1964 Thethird AFC Asian Cup football (what Americans call soccer) tournament opened inIsrael today.
1964:Birthdate of musician Lenny Kravitz
1964: SylviaRothschild’s novel “Sunshine and Salt” was released today
1965(24thof Iyar, 5725): Eighty-three-year-old Dr. Solomon Ullman, the native of Hungarywho became the Belgian Chief Rabbi and Chief Jewish Chaplain of the BelgianArmy passed away today in Brussels. (As reported by JTA)
1965: “Mirage”a thriller based on a novel by Howard Fast co-starring Walter Matthau wasreleased today in the United States.
1966:Fifty-nine year old of director and screenwriter Edmond T. Greville who based“on 23andMe genetic testing of his daughter and grandson in 2017, was infact Ashkenazim Jewish from the likely area of Odessa, a fact never known tohim during his life time passed away today.
1967: As the crisisthat would result in the Six Day War intensified, President Nasser of Egyptdeclared, “the battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be todestroy Israel.” While President Johnsonworked to develop an international response that would open the Straits ofTiran, the Soviet Union let the members of the Security Council know thatMoscow would veto any proposal that was not in accord with the wishes of Syriaand Egypt.
1967: As the crisisthat will lead to the Six Days War worsens, Military intelligence chief AharonYariv tells the Israeli cabinet that “the roots of the current situation areconnected to the active Soviet regional initiative” that began “over a year ago.”
1968(28th of Iyar,5728): Yom Yerushalayim
1968: Afuneral service is scheduled to be held this afternoon at Temple Emanu-El foreighty-two-year-old Morris Haft, the Russian born son of Jennie and Max H. Haftand “a major figure in the garment industry” whose ladies coat and suitcompany, “Morris W. Haft and Bros. was known for many years on Seventh Avenueas ‘the General Motors’ of the industry because of its size” and who was activein New York politics, a major art collector and such a supporter of Israel thatthe city of Herzliya named a street in his honor passed.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/05/24/77102682.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1968: Eighty-two-year-old“Austrian ethnologist, ancient historian, and archaeologist, and a grandnephewof poet Heinrich Heine” Robert von Heine-Geldern passed away today
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/19123/AP-v13n1-obit.pdf?sequence=1
1969: Abdel el Rahmanel Latifi, a 65-year-old Jerusalem Arab who stabbed a soldier outside theDamascus gate last year, was sentenced today to 10 years' imprisonment by thedistrict court here. There was no apparent reason for the act, but the courtrejected the defense plea of insanity.
1970: InManhattan, Joan and Morton I. Hamburg gave birth to screenwriter and directorJohn Hamburg
1971: InHuston, “economics professor Gerald Whitney Stone and Sheila Lois Belasco” whowas Jewish gave birth to cartoonist Matt Stone co-creator of South Park,
1971: “ManFrom La Mancha” with music by Mitch Leigh moved to the Mark Hellinger Theater(named in honor of the Jewish theatre critic) for the last month of itsoriginal Broadway run of 2,329 performances.
1973: The BBCbroadcast the first episode of “That’s Life!” a mixture of news and satirefeaturing Esther Rantzen as Presenter.
1973:The IDF announced a state of emergency today “and reserve troops were called upin response to a movement of Egyptian troops. The state of emergency wascancelled when it became clear that this was only an exercise. This event had amajor impact on the General Staff, as it led them to believe that the Egyptianforces were not preparing for war, later that year, on Yom Kippur. After thewar however, it became apparent that these frequent maneuvers carried out bythe Egyptians were part of an elaborate ruse meant to induce complacency in theIsraelis regarding the true intentions of Egyptian troop movements at the timethe actual attack took place.”
1974:“Mr. and Mrs. Max Gerstein: announced the engagement of their daughter NewYorker magazine fiction department employee Nancy Ellen Gerstein to LawrenceKudlow in what might described as clothing merger since the bride’s mother “ispresient of Petrie Stores Corpoation, a retail chain of women’s clothing store”and the groom’s father, Irving H. Kudlow “is a partner of Sondra Incorporated,manufacturer of textiles for men's clothing.”
1975:Lisa Selesner, the model and actress known as Lisa S, was born in Monaco to aFrench father and a Jewish American mother today.
http://www.alivenotdead.com/lisas
1976:“Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood” directed by Michael Winner, writtenby Arnold Schulman and co-starring Madeline Kahn, Phil Silvers and Ron Leibmanwas released in the United States today.
1976: Germanphilosopher Martin Heidegger passed away.Although considered a major force in the world of philosophy by some,Heidegger was a member of the Nazi Party and remained in Germany during thewar. Strangely enough, Heidegger hadseveral extramarital affairs, including two very important ones with Jewishwomen who were his students, Hannah Arendt and Elisabeth Blochmann. ApparentlyArendt knew more about Nazis than she let on when she was writing about “thebanality of evil.”
1977: Thefourth of the Nixon Interviews which were arranged by Swifty Lazar and producedby Bob Zelnick was broadcast today.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported how JohnHenry Weidner, 65, a Dutchman now living in U.S. led so many groups of Jews,allied pilots and other victims of the Nazi persecution across the border ofthe German-occupied France into Switzerland that he knew the way"blindfolded." He was awarded the Righteous Gentile Medal by the YadVa'shem Chairman, Gideon Hausner, who told him: "You are a soldier ofhumanity in the world's darkest years."
1980: AnIsraeli police officer was injured in a stabbing attack at Hebron
1980: InMonaco, Gary and Peggy Selesner gave birth to Lisa Selesner, the internationalmodel known as “Lisa S.” Her mother wasJewish, her father was not
http://www.alivenotdead.com/lisas/blog.html
1981: Afterreceiving a knighthood in 1980, Max Beloff “was created a life peer, taking thetitle Baron Beloff, of Wolvercote in the County of Oxfordshire” today.
1982(4thof Sivan, 5742): Cantor Adolph Block passed away today.
1983(14thof Sivan, 5743): Ninety-year-old Louise Weiss the daughter of Protestant miningengineer Paul-Louis Weiss and Jeanne Javal a member of an Alsatian Jewishfamily gave birth to “who was an influential voice in French and internationalaffairs from the 1920s” passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/weiss-louise
1983: AmnonRubenstein completed his term as Communications Minister in Israel.
1985(6thof Sivan, 5745); Shavuot
1985(6thof Sivan, 5745): Seventy-seven-year-old Oscar award winning producer HaroldHecht passed away today.
1987(27thof Iyar, 5747): Seventy-three-year-old psychiatrist, entrepreneur andphilanthropist Arthur Sackler passed away. (As reported by Grace Glueck)
1987: AmnonRubinstein completed his service as Communications Minister.
1990: Afterthree years, Fox network broadcast the last episode of “The Tracey Ullman Show”whose creators included James L. Brooks, Jerry Belson and Heide Perlman.
1991:“Fund Guides Jobless SovietImmigrants,” published today KathleenTeltsch describes the challenges facing the Baron de Hirsch Fund in helpingthe latest wave of Jewishimmigrants from Russia “make newlives in America.” “The fund was created in 1891 by BaronMaurice De Hirsch, a prosperous German Jewish financier who wanted to helpJewish families fleeing Czarist Russia make a fresh start by becoming farmers.Thousands came to the United States at the turn of the century and becamepoultry farmers, mainly in southern New Jersey.” This latest influx of refugees from the Soviet Union will be lookingfor help in fitting into the urban environment including jobs in the healthcare and construction industries.
1991: In New York City, at the Plaza Rabbi Amy Wallkand Cantor Kurt Silberman officiated at the wedding of Nancy Gail Samson, a graduatedof the University of Pennsylvania and the public relations director of theOklahoma City 89ers, and Joshua WilliamCohen, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/27/style/nancy-g-samson-weds-j-w-cohen.html?searchResultPosition=8
1992: Harvardgraduate Michael Boudin, the son of Jean Roisman and attorney Leonard Boudinand the sister of terrorist Kathy Boudin began serving as a Judge of the UnitedStates Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
1993(6th ofSivan, 5753): Shavuot is observed for the first time during the Presidency ofBill Clinton
1994: “Astreamlined Off-Broadway revival” of “Merrily We Roll Along,” a StephenSondheim musical “based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufmanand Moss Hart” opened today “at the York Theatre in St. Peter’s Church where itran for 54 perfromaces.
1995(26thof Iyar, 5755): Eighty-seven-year-old Mordechai Surkis, the veterans of theHaganah and the Jewish Brigade who was the first mayor of Kfar Saba passed awaytoday.
1995(26thof Iyar, 5755): Eighty-nine-year animator Friz Freleng, the man behind suchicons as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Yosemite Sam to name but a few, passed awaytoday
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-friz-freleng-1621602.html
1996(8th of Sivan, 5756): Resistance fighter and politician HalkaGrossman passed away at the age of 76.
1998(1st of Sivan, 5758): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2000:After premiering a week ago in Malaysia, “Shanghai Noon” the first in series of buddyfilms produced by Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman and withmusic by Randy Edelman was released today in the United States.
2000: Two daysafter she lost her battle with breast cancer, funeral services are scheduled tobe held this morning for Sandra Zuckerman Rothstein, the “adored wife ofEdward” Zuckerman, in Woodbury, LI.
2001: In “Latest Disaster Tests Resiliency of Jerusalem's Residents,” publishedtoday Deborah Sontag describes how the residents of Israel’s capital city arecoping with the latest wave of Arab terror
2001:At the Tribeca Rooftop, Rabbi Joshua Davidson officiated at the marriage of Dr.Debra Baron Nevas, a clinical psychologist, and Dr. Jonathan Todd Abrams, ananesthesiologist.
2002:The New York Times featured reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding the recently released paperback edition of “O’Neill: Life WithMonte Cristo” by Arthur and Barbara Gelb.
2002:An exhibition of the work of 18th century New York silversmith MyerMyers came to a close at the Skirball Cultural Center.
2003:According to “Battle of Brooklyn” published today Ari Taub has receivedthe Best New Director award at theBrooklyn International Film Festival for his new film “Letter from the Dead”which “focuses on a doomed unit of German and Italian soldiers” fighting inItaly in 1944.
2004(6th of Sivan, 5764): First Day of Shavuot
2004: What is believed to be the largestcheesecake in the world has been baked in Haifa for Shavuot. The cake measuredmore than three yards in diameter and was more than one yard high.
2004: A five-foot tall safe belonging toBrooklyn’s Kane Street Synagogue founded in 1856 was opened with a crowbartoday and officials “discovered the seven books and assorted loose leaf paperswritten in the terse shorthand common to meetings minutes” which revealed someof the challenges faced by the congregation in the 19th century (Asreported by Jake Mooney)
2004: As the controversy surroundingJudith Miller’s coverage of the Iraq war continues to grow “a New York Timeseditorial acknowledged that some of the paper's coverage in the run-up to thewar had relied too heavily on Ahmed Chalabi and other Iraqi exiles, who werebent on regime change” and “expressed "regret" that "informationthat was controversial [was] allowed to stand unchallenged."
2005: Closingsession of Biotech-Israel 2005
2005(17thof Iyar, 5765): Ninety-year-old journalist and political activist IsraelEpstein passed away in Beijing, China (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/international/asia/02epstein.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1491973/Israel-Epstein.html
2005: In his,joint press conference welcoming Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to the WhiteHouse, President Bush said “The imminent Israeli disengagement from Gaza, partsof the West Bank, presents an opportunity to lay the groundwork for a return tothe road map.... To help ensure that the Gaza disengagement is a success, theUnited States will provide to the Palestinian Authority $50 million to be usedfor new housing and infrastructure projects in the Gaza.” But he also said,“Any final status agreement must be reached between the two parties, andchanges to the 1949 Armistice lines must be mutually agreed to. A viabletwo-state solution must ensure contiguity of the West Bank, and a state ofscattered territories will not work. There must also be meaningful linkagesbetween the West Bank and Gaza. This is the position of the United Statestoday, it will be the position of the United States at the time of final statusnegotiations.”
2005:Percussionist, composer and Grammy nominee Roberto Rodriguez, brings hissignature blend of Latin rhythms and Jewish melodies to the Skirball CulturalCenter’s World Mosaic series. In 2002Rodriguez recorded his first album “El Danzon de Moies” or “The Dances ofMoses.” The cover of the album combinesLatin and Jewish images. It is the red,white and blue of Cuba but the Star of David replaces the star usually found onthe Cuban flag.
2006(28thof Iyar, 5766): Yom Yerushalayim –Jerusalem Reunification Day
2006:In Congress today, Representative Rahm Emanuel delivered a speech inrecognition of the contributions of Joel M. Capr who is retiring “from theJewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago after almost thirty years ofservice.”
2006: TheJerusalem Post reported that Holocaust victims' names may remain in Mormondatabase.
2007:Ryan Braun hit his first major league home run with the Milwaukee Brewers.
2007:As part of an escalating wave of violence, a Border Policeman and an Israelisecurity guard were moderately to seriously wounded this evening when twoPalestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli roadblock near the East Jerusalemneighborhood of Sheikh Saad. The security forces - two security guards and twoBorder Policemen - were manning the roadblock on the Jerusalem bypass road whenthey were ambushed by militants. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimedresponsibility for the attack.
2007(9thof Sivan, 5767)::British foreign correspondent Edward Behr, the Parisian native who was the sonof Russian Jewish refugees passed away at the age of 81. His wide travels andreporting experiences inspired a number of books, including The AlgerianProblem(1961), The Last Emperor (1987), Hirohito: Behind the Myth(1989) and Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite (1991) about the now-fallenRomanian dictator and his wife .He provided a telling look at his own tradewith Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English? (1981), a queryreportedly called out by a British reporter looking for sources during a crisisin Congo.
2008: Today, Texas Rangers All Star second baseman Ian Kinslerknocked one out of the ballpark in a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, in theprocess slugging the 2,500th home run by a Jewish player in the game’s history,according to Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc.
2008(21stof Iyar, 5768):Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director,producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like "The Way WeWere," "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa" were among themost successful of the 1970s and '80s, passed away today at the age of 73.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/movies/26cnd-pollack.html?_r=0
2008: Tensions rose between Egypt and Israel when 45elderly Jews, most of whom were born in Egypt, were forced to cancel theirfour-day trip to Egypt
2008:Memorial Day observed. The National Museum ofAmerican Jewish Military featured a Memorial Day tribute to those Jewishservicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. http://www.nmajmh.org/docs/jahm08/May%2026%20Memorial%20Day.pdf
2009: The 92nd Street Ypresents “Women’s Prominence, Women’s Femininity: From Biblical Times to Today”during which Israeli novelist Eva Etzioni-Halevy, theauthor of the novels “The Song of Hannah,” “The Garden of Ruth” and “TheTriumph of Deborah,” and Maggie Anton, the author of the Rashi’s Daughtersseries, engage in a spirited conversation about Biblical women who brokethrough the glass ceiling and the lessons we can learn from them today. MaggieAnton is the award-winning author of “Rashi’s Daughters, Book I: Joheved,”“Rashi’s Daughters, Book II: Miriam,” and for younger readers, “Rashi’sDaughter: Secret Scholar.
2002: Michael Sandel gave the Reith Lecture on “A New Citizenship”at Newcastle upon Tyne.
2009: For the firsttime since its founding, the Knesset is officially marking today as YiddishLanguage and Culture Day. A Yiddish-Hebrew Knesset lexicon was released for theoccasion. The date for the parliamentary nod to Yiddish, a language once spokenbymore than12 million Jews, was selected to mark 150 years sincethe birth of the Yiddish author Shalom Aleichem. This past week was also the20th anniversary of the founding of Yiddishshpiel, Tel Aviv's all-Yiddishtheater. The day's events include a joint meeting of the Knesset's Absorption,Immigration and Diaspora Committee and the Education and Culture Committee todiscuss Yiddish culture. The Knesset is also holding a special session todiscuss the place of Yiddish in modern Israeli society. Foreign MinisterAvigdor Lieberman and Deputy Minister of Pensioners Affairs Leah Ness are deliveringthe main speeches of the session. Ahead of the unique Knesset session, alexicon of the Yiddish translations of several key phrases often used byIsraeli parliamentarians was distributed to all Knesset members. A few keyphrases from the lexicon that veteran MKs may find useful include:
Ich hob eich nisht geshtert, toshter nisht mir! - "I didn't interrupt you,don't interrupt me!"
Ich ruf eich tzum seder dus ershte mol.... -"I am calling you to order for the first time...."
Ordners, derveitert im fun zal! -"Ushers, remove him from the hall!"
Vehr siz far, zol veilen 'far'. Vehr sizkeigen, zol veilen 'keigen'. - "Whoever is in favor, vote 'in
favor'. Whoever is opposed, vote'opposed'."
2010(13th of Sivan, 5770):Eighty-three year old author Arthur Herzog III, who may best known for writingthe novel that inspired the sci-fi thriller “The Swarm” the son of song-writerArthur Herzog Jr and the husband of Leslie Mandel Herzog passed away today. (Asreported by Dennis Hevesi)
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/09/arts/09herzog.html
2010: Zemer Chai, Washington, DC’s premier Jewish Choir is scheduled to presenta concert entitled “Psalm Enchanted Evening” at Ohr Kodesh Congregation inChevy Chase, Maryland.
2010: The STS-132 mission that included twospace walks by Garret Reisman came to an end today.
2011: “The Great Kugel Throwdown” isscheduled to take placed at the Washington State Historical Society in Seattle,Washington.
2011: Congressdecided tonight that a memorial commemorating US Jewish chaplains who died inbattle will be erected at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia,. “Thismemorial will be a fitting commemoration of 13 chaplains who have made theultimate sacrifice for their nation,” bill sponsor Sen. Charles Schumer said.
2011: "Jews, Slavery, and the CivilWar" is scheduled to have its final sessions in Charleston, SouthCarolina.
2011: The JCC in Manhattan is scheduled topresent an evening with Eran Zur& Korin Alal, two of the freshest musicalvoices in Israeli culture.
2011: Gail Barnum,daughter of Joel and Amy Barnum, NataleeBirchansky, daughter of Lee and Cyndie Birchansky and Marissa Carson, daughterof Bill and Laura Carson, each of whom is part the Temple Judah “family” arescheduled to graduate from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, IA thisevening.
2011: Benjamin Levin,son of David R. Levin graduated from Harvard Law School making him the thirdgeneration of Levin Lawyers!
2011(22ndof Iyar, 5771): Eighty-nine year old dental expert Irwin D. Mandel passed away.(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/nyregion/dr-irwin-d-mandel-expert-on-dental-chemistry.html
2011: The New YorkMets announced that David Einhorn had agreed to buy a minority share of thebaseball team for $200 million
2011: David Einhorncalled for Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, to step down after Microsoft hadbeen passed by both IBM and Apple in market value
2011:Elaine’s the restaurant that the late Elaine Kaufman turned into a New Yorkicon will close tonight.
2011: VermontGovernor Peter Elliot Shumlin “signed a bill to establish a state health careexchange under the Affordable Care Act and to develop future universalinsurance coverage for all residents, making Vermont the first state toinitiate a plan for single-payer health care.”
2012(5thof Sivan, 5772): Erev of Shavuot
2012(5thof Sivan, 5772): “Award-winning author, teacher, mentor and fierce fighter forsocial justice, Ellen Levine” passed away today.
2012:The Chabad Center of Rechavia, 8 Ramban Street is scheduled to host atraditional all-night learning session as part of the Shavuot celebration.
2012:Can Bonomo “placed seventh” singing “Love Me Back” as Turkey’s representativein the Eurovision Song Contest of 2012.
2012:The Carlebach Minyan of the Old City is scheduled to offer an all-night Shavoutlearning session.
2012(5thof Sivan): Tessa Cohen, Curtis Litow and Sarah Maikon were confirmed tonight atTemple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2012(5thof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-six year old educator Irving I. Lipskind passed awaytoday.
2013: “Threshold to the Sacred: The ArkDoor of Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue” is scheduled to come to an end at theWalters Museum in Baltimore, MD.
http://thewalters.org/events/eventdetails.aspx?e=2568
2013: The finalperformance of “Sherlock Holmes” by the late Greg Kramer is scheduled to cometo an at The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.
2013: The IPO isscheduled to perform a special concert with violinist Itshak Perlman
2013: The New YorkTimes featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest toJewish readers including Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939 by ThomasDoherty, The Guns At Last Light” The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 byRick Atkinson and ‘Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage IsTransforming America by Naomi Schaefer Riley
2013: Hundreds gathered at AmmunitionHill in the capital this evening to witness the swearing-in of the NetzahYehuda Battalion, the only haredi (ultra-Orthodox) unit in the IDF. Thebattalion, currently numbering close to 1,000, is responsible for military operationsin and around Jenin
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/IDFs-only-ultra-Orthodox-battalion-sworn-in-314443
2013: A rocket wasfired from south Lebanon towards Israel today, Lebanese residents and securitysources said, but it was not clear where the rocket landed and there were noimmediate reports of damage inside Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Report-Rocket-fired-from-south-Lebanon-towards-Israel-314448
2014: Hubbard StreetDance Chicago 12 days of performance at the Joyce Theatre, which included twoprograms that feature Three to Max, a work by Ohad Naharin, the ArtisticDirector of Israel's Batsheva Dance Company, and Too Beaucoup by choreographerSharon Eyal, a former company dancer” is scheduled to come to an end.
2014(26thof Iyar, 5774): Ninety-one-year-old actress Anna Berger passed away today. (Asreported by Daniel E. Slotnik)
2014: A “500-pagereport authored by historians Martin Kukowski and Rudolf Boch and publishedtoday, revealed that German car giant Audi’s predecessor company used slavelabourers from concentration camps during World War II on a massive scale, anew report has found.”
2014: Pope Francis isscheduled to visit the Grand Mufti, the Dome of the rock, the Western Wall,Mount Herzl Cemetery, Yad Vashem, Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef and David Lau, PresidentShimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several priests and Christianleaders before departing for Rome this evening.
2014: “ThePalestinians will demand that Israel be suspended from soccer’s internationalassociation unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recognizes the status ofthe Palestinian Football Association, PFA Chairman Jibril Rajoub threatenedtoday.” (As reported by Avi Isaacharoff)
2014: Pope Francis spent today inIsrael visiting the Temple Mount, Yad Vashem, a terror victims’ memorial andother sites, as well as holding meetings with Israeli leaders and others.Throughout the day the pontiff prayed and urged for peace in the region.
2015:“The world premiere of the 30 minute musical history of Jews in Rock and Rollby Ben Sidran, musician and author of There was a Fire: Jews, Music and theAmerican Dream” is scheduled to take place at City Winery in New York
http://jewsrockandroll.com/#info
2015:“Air raid sirens sounded in towns across southern Israel this eveningat9:02 p.m, as the IDFconfirmed that at least one Grad rocket fired fromGazastruck near the community of Gan Yavneh, nearAshdod.” (Asreported by Ari Soffer)
2015:“Journeys” is scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum in London.
http://jewishmuseum.org.uk/journeys
2015:Ruth Porat, the former chief financial officer of Morgan Stanely is scheduledto begin serving as Google’s CFO today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/new-google-cfo-ruth-porats-family-a-mirror-of-american-jewry/
2016(18th of Iyar, 5776): Lag b’Omer
2016(18th of Iyar, 5776): Seventy-six year oldphotographer John Margolies passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2016: Lubavitch of Arkansas is scheduled to host itsannual Lag B’omer Bar Bar-B-Que Festival – an event which was the first publiccelebration hosted by Rabbi Pinchas Ciment when he brought the torch of “thelamplighter” to Little Rocks more than twenty years ago!
2016: Tunisian Jews who traveled “to the island ofDjerba…the historic home of an ancient community of Jewish priestly families”to celebrate Lag B’Omer did so despite “a severe travel advisory” that had beenissued by Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau.”
2016: Yeshiva University Museum, The Straus Center forTorah and Western Thought and the Center for Israel Studies are scheduled topresent a lecture in which “Rabbi Meir Soloveichik reflects on the relationship between RabbiJoseph B. Soloveitchik - the Rav - and Israel, and the significance the Rav'sviews on Israel have for future generations.
2016: Barnes & Noble Bookstore is scheduled to hostPeter Doran who will discuss Breaking Rockefeller: The Incredible Story of theAmbitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire in which he “traces Marcus Samuel,Jr.'s rise into the British aristocracy, Henri Deterding's conquest andRockefeller's collapse.”
2016: Producer and actor Yaniv “Nev” Schulman the youngerbrother of “actor and filmmaker” Ariel "Rel" Schulman became engagedtoday.
2016: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Centeris scheduled to host the Midwest premiere of “Munich ’72 and Beyond” the “newdocumentary film that provides a fresh perspective on the story of the 11Israeli athletes killed during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.”
2016: The Harold Schnitzer Family Programin Judaic Studies at Portland State University is scheduled to present “authorAyelet Waldman who will be giving the 2016 Sara Glasgow Cogan Memorial Lecture,"There's No Business Like Shoah Business: Why Is a Nice Jewish Girl fromNew Jersey So Obsessed With her People's Greatest Tragedy?"
2017: “Norway’s foreign minister today condemned thePalestinian Authority for naming a women’s center in the West Bank, funded inpart by the Scandinavian country, after a female terrorist.”
2017(1st of Sivan, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2017: “The Women’s Balcony,” “#1 film of the year inIsrael” is scheduled to open at the Lincoln Plaza and Quad cinemas.
2017: In Jerusalem, the Bible Lands Museum is scheduled tohost a lectures on “Who Were You, Bar Kochva?”
2017: David Orlowski, the son of Miriam Winter isscheduled to sign copies of Trains, his mother’s memoir, at the US HolocaustMuseum.
http://www.miriamwinter.com/reviews.htm
2018(12th of Sivan, 5778): Parashat Naso; 2018:In honor of Shabbat, admission is free today at the Jewish Museum in NYC.
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduledShabbat service followed by lunch, Mincah and Seudah Shlish*t
2018:This evening the 14th St Y is scheduled to host the penultimateperformance of Hanoch Levin’s “The Labor of Life.”
2018(12th of Sivan, 5778): After having “suffered a severe head injurywhen an Arab terrorist threw a marble block at his head,” twenty-year-oldSergeant Ronen Luvarski, a Rehovot resident succumbed to his wounds and diedtoday.
2019:In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “Magic in the DeathCamp,” an interview with Holocaust survivor Werner Reich who “was captured andimprisoned when he was 15 years old and spent time in three differentconcentration camp” including Auschwitz where “he saw a magician--the GreatNivelli--do a card trick, and this spawned a lifelong interest in magic.”
2019:The New York Times featured reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis by JaredDiamond and Feast Your Eyes byMyla Goldberg.
2019:In Iowa City, a memorial service is scheduled to be held at Oaknoll for GustiKollman who made her way to Iowa after escaping the Nazis and built a long,fulfilling life.
https://www.lensingfuneral.com/obituaries/Gusti-Kollman?obId=4263536#/obituaryInfo
2019: A screening of “The Tobacconist” is scheduled to part of the closingnight of the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2019:In Amsterdam “the Arts and Dialogue Foundation” and the “Menasseh ben IsraelInstitute” are scheduled to present a screening of “From Cairo to the Cloud,”that tells the story of the “World of the Cairo Geniza.
2020:Alone Together, part of the Covid-19 Concert Series, the Eli Degibri Quartet,led by the Israeli jazz saxophonist is scheduled to showcase “four incrediblemusicians.”
2020:Live on Zoom, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Rescue theSurviving Souls: The Great Jewish Refugee Crisis of the 17th Century.”
2020:The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action is scheduled to present online“Schmoozefest: Social Justice Conversation, Music and Comedy.”
2020:The ASF’s Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “The GlobalNação’s
WesternSephardi Synagogues Tour with Joshua Mendes.”
2020:The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a virtual poetrywriting workshop inspired by Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus.”
2020:The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to present “Whole In One”during which Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis will address the meaning of Shavuottoday “and give us advice about how we can personally maintain and renew ourconnection to the Torah, the central text of Judaism.”
2020:S.F. JFCS Holocaust Center is scheduled to co-present a virtual talk by WarsawGhetto escapee George Elbaum, author of the Holocaust memoir NeitherYesterdays Nor Tomorrows
https://neitheryesterdays.com/about/
2021:The Consulate General of Israel to New England is scheduled to host a screeningof “Marry Me However” followed by a panel discussion.
2021:In Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Temple Judea anotherLunch and Learn with Rabbi Feivel Strauss lecturing on Sir MosesMontefiore as part of the Great Jewish Leaders series.
2021:Russian literature scholar Julie Zigoris is scheduled to lead a JewishCommunity Library discussion of Paul Goldberg’s 2016 satirical, madcap novel,The Yid, “about a ragtag band that tries to assassinate Stalin.”
2021:As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the National Museum of AmericanJewish History and Jews of All Hues are scheduled to present “The Torah ofBluces with Rabbi Sandra Lawson and Jeron Blindboy Paxton https://www.nmajh.org/events/the-torah-of-blues/
2022:The Wiener Holocaust Memorial Library is scheduled to host a hybrid book talkwith Lord Daniel Finkelstein and Karina Urbach author of Alice’s Book.
2022:The 2022 Annual Campaign Dinner for Major Donors of the Jewish Federation isscheduled to take place in New Orleans.
2022:The Weitzman National Museum of American History is scheduled to host in-personand online the Joey Weisenberg Album Release Cocert..
2022:The Steicker Center is scheduled to present “Anti-Semitism, Then and Now: IsHatred of the Jews Eternal?” with Abe Foxman and Simone Rodan-Benzaquen,Managing Director of the American Jewish Committee for Europe.
2023:This afternoon “JCC East Bay in partnership with more than 20 partnerorganizations is scheduled to offer dozens of classes on myriad topics, plusprograms for preschool through 5th grade.
2023:Illinois Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a “free admission day”so that visitors can explore “the newly opened exhibition, The Girl in theDiary: Searching for Rywka from the Łódz Ghetto, a teenage girl's story ofnever giving up hope during the Holocaust.”
2023:This evening in Santa Rosa, CA, the Chabad Jewish Center is scheduled to host a“family-friendly Shavuot celebration with dairy buffet, ice cream party andreading of the 10 Commandments.
2023(6thof Sivan, 5783): Shavuot;
2024:The New York Times “6 New Books We Recommend This Week list includes New ColdWars: China’sRise, Russia’s Invasion, and America’s Struggle to Defend the West by David E.Sanger the grandson of Elliot E. Sanger, the Jewish co-founder of WQXR-FM and EleanorNaumburg, grandniece of Elkan Naumburg, the Bavarian born Jewish founder of E.Naumburg & Co, a major rival of Goldman Sachs.
2024:In Los Angeles, the Der Nister Downtown Jewish Center is scheduled to host a YiddishSing-Along with Cindy Paley
2024:The Great Lag B’Omer Parade is scheduled to take place today in Postville, IAfollowed by a Community BBQ at the Beis Chaya Mushka School Playground.
2024:The Berkley Moshav is scheduled to host a Lag B’Omer Picnic where attendees cancelebrate and “lean how to join this vibrant Jewish community.
2024(18thof Iyar, 5784): Today’s usual Lag B’Omer joy is turned upside down by the IDF’srevelation that “the three deceased hostages −Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaumand Orion Hernandez Radoux − who werekidnapped near Mefaslim were recovered in a joint operation by the army and theintelligence services in northern Gaza,”
2024:As May 26th begins in Israel,an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 233 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluidfor this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting atmidnight Israeli time.)
