May 15
392:Theodosius I, who had been emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empirebecame the last ruler of the entire Roman Empire (east and west) “A general ofSpanish origin, and the son of another general, was chosen to replace Valenswho had been killed fighting the Visigoths. He refused to condemn Judaismbelieving that it was a legitimate religion. Theodosius prohibited thedestruction of synagogues by zealot Christians.
756CE: Abd Al-Rahman won the battle against his co-religionist outside the citywalls of Cordoba. He entered the city as victor. After he set uphis Umayyad administration, Abd Al-Rahman mandated all Jews and Christians paya ji*zya,a discriminatory mandated tax in accordance with the Koran fortheir "protected" status as dhimmis.
1004:In Pavia, Henry II, who as Holy Roman Emperor would expel Jews from variousGerman cities, was crowned King of Italy today.
1248:Odo of Chateaubroux "investigated" the Talmud and then condemned it.This was the second condemnation of the Talmud after an appeal was made by theJewish community of France.
1252: Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull AdExstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics as part of theInquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across CatholicEurope. There would be severalInquisitions during the Middle Ages and on into the Renaissance. The primaryaim was to destroy Christians who did not accept the doctrine as commanded bythe Popes at Rome. Of course, if youwere going to rack or dunk or flay Christians, certainly there were those whowould think that it would be alright to do the same to Jews. Interestingly, there were some Popes whodisagreed saying that it was alright to treat the Jews badly, but not toactually do them physical harm.
1429:The coronation of Queen Bianca, who in 1415 expelledthe Jews from Vizzinibegan today.
1648: The Treaty of Westphalia was signed as partof series of treaties that brought an end to the Thirty Years War and theEighty Years War between Spain and the Netherlands. The treaty officially recognized the independenceof the Dutch from the Spanish Empire.This guaranteed the independence of a European nation that had give Jewsa place to grow and prosper. Ironically,many of these were Sephardic descendants of those who had been expelled by theSpanish in 1492 or were Morrano refugees who had grown weary of the everpresent Inquisition. The end of the Thirty Years provided a respite to Jewsliving in Central Europe including the communities of Frankfort, Worms and Jenaeach of which was the scene of at least one pogroms.
1664: Because of the on-going attempts by the French and the Portuguese to controlGuiana, the Jewish community there carried out their plan to Suriname today.
1725: The foundation stoned was laid today by R.Zeeb, the son of Isaac Bimas of Praguefor the sanctuary of the Hambro Synagogue.
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/london/hambro/history1.htm
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7130-hambro-synagogue
1742: In Westphalia, Judah Zuntz and his wife gavebirth to Alexander Zuntz, the husband of Rachel Zuntz with whom he had sevenchildren, the Loyalist who worked with the Prussians during the Revolution andremained in his adopted homeland where he helped found the New York StockExchange.
1745:In Prague, after many appeals and petitions, Empress Maria Theresa revoked herdecree banishing all Jews in Moravia and Bohemia, allowing Jews to live therefor an unlimited time. Only the Jews in Prague itself who were actuallybanished 3 years earlier were still under the order, but they were soonpermitted to return on a restricted basis.
1755:Villa de San Agustin de Laredo which is now known as Laredo, Texas, was foundedby Don Tomás Sánchez while the area was part of the Nuevo Santander region inthe Spanish colony of New Spain. According to the Society for Crypto JudaicStudies, Sanchez came from a family with Jewish origins. For about this andother facets of Jewish life in this Texas border town see “Tomas Sanchez,founder of Laredo” by Carlos M. Larralde, PhD and “History of Laredo's JewishCommunity” by Stan Green.
1756: The Seven Years War begins when Englanddeclares war on France. In America, thewar is known as the French-Indian War. Officially there were no Jews living inCanada at the start of the war since Canada was a French colony and Jews wereforbidden by law to live there. This changed as a result of the war. The first Jews entered Canada with the forcesof Lord Jeffrey Amherst, the English military leader who conqueredMontreal. There were several serving inhis regiments including four officers.One of them, Aron Hart, remained, settled at Three Rivers where hebecame a large landowner and the father of four sons who helped to form thenucleus of the Jewish community in Montreal.On the other side of the line, some sources contend that a Converso wasin the Commissary General for the French forces.
1759:Manuel Josephson, one of theoriginal members of Congregation Mikveh Israel at the time of the constructionof the first synagogue building in 1782 marriedRachel (Ritzel) Judah, daughter of Baruch and Sarah Helbert Judah in NewYork City.
https://mikvehisraelhistory.com/2013/01/25/manuel-josephson-1729-1796/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/josephson-manuel
1767:In Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Dorthea Judah and Canadian businessman Aron gavebirth
entrepreneur and politician, Ezekiel HartJewish who “served as a colonel in the militia during the American War ofIndeipendence,” established the M and E Company, a brewery with his brothersMoses and Benjamin and who fought to maintain his Jewish identity when he tookhis seat in the Canadian legislature.
1773:Birthdate of Klemens Wenzel, Prince von Metternich, known to history simply asMetternich, a supporter of Jewish rights in the Jewish confederation but not inAustria itself.
http://www.guidetomusicaltheatre.com/shows_r/rothschilds.htm
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/metternich-prince-klemens-wenzel-von-x00b0
1774(5thof Sivan, 5534): Erev Shavuot is observed five days into the reign of KingLouis XVI who had assumed the throne five days earlier when King Louis XV passed away and at the sametime that British troops are sailing to Massachusetts to close the port ofBoston. (All three of these events would have their effect on the AmericanRevlution)
1778(18thof Iyar, 5538): Lag B’Omer is observed 11 days after the U.S. Congress ratifiedthe two treaties with France that ensured the Americans would have thefinancial, military and diplomatic support that would lead to victory over theBritish.
1785(6thof Sivan, 5545): Shavuot
1792:At Frankfurt-am-Main, Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Guttle Schnapper gave birthto their fifth and youngest son James Rothschild who established the Frenchbanking house for the family.
1798:In Edmonton, Greater London MosheEliezer Lieberman Solomon and Betsy (Elizabeth) Solomon gave birth to MauriceSolomon, the husband of Louisa Solomon and father of Nathan Maurice Solomon;Solomon Maurice Solomon; Samuel Solomon Solomon; Isabella Jones; RachelEssinger; Joseph Maurice Solomon and Charlotte Solomon.
1799:Birthdate ofAdolf B. Marx, composer and educator.Marxwassupposed to be a lawyer butchanged his mind after graduation andmoved to Berlin to begin his musical studies.While composing, healso served as a lecturer on Music at the famed University of Berlin andstarted the Stern Music Conservatory which became one of the leading musicalschools of its time. Marx died in 1866, two days after his 67th birthday.
1800:Today David Moses ben Meir Dyte “an English Jewish quill merchant whodistinguished himself by preventing the assassination attempt on George III byJames Hadfield.”
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/David_Moses_Dyte
OR
1800:An English Jew named D.M. Dyte saved the life of King George III when hethwarted an assassin’s attempt to shoot the monarch. “George III. attended theDrury Lane Theater to witness a comedy by Colley Cibber; and while the monarchwas acknowledging the loyal greetings of the audience, a lunatic named Hadfieldfired a horse pistol pointblank at his Majesty. Two slugs passed over theking's head and lodged in the wainscot of the royal box. The king escapedunhurt; but it was only subsequently realized that Hadfield had missed his aimbecause some man near him had struck his arm while in the act of pulling thetrigger. This individual was Dyte, father of Henry Dyte, at one time honorarysecretary to the Blind Society. It is said that Dyte asked as his sole rewardthe "patent" of selling opera-tickets, then a monopoly at the royaldisposal. (As reported by James Picciotto in Sketches of Anglo Jewish History)
1800:A community of Jewish slaves, captured over a period of two centuries and heldfor ransom by the Knights of St. John on the island of Malta, was officiallydissolved.
1804(5thof Sivan, 5564): Erev Shavuot observed as Thomas Jefferson prepares to run forre-election.
1808(18thof Iyar, 5568) Lag B’Omer
1808:Birthdate of Irish composer and conductor Michael Balfe who took the unusualstep of hiring a Jew, Max Maretzk as his assistant at Her Majesty’s Theatre inLondon which was a critical step on his road to success as an impresario andmusician in Europe and the United States.
1817:In Bavaria, Nanette Wexler, and Leser Lazarus Oschsenhorn, who were married in1803 gave birth to Jechiel Ochsenhorn
1817:Jean Lafitte moved from Matagorda Bay to Galveston today, after havingpurchased supplies from João da Porta.João da Porta (also José da Porta or Joseph de la Porta was a PortugueseJewish merchant, who along with his older brother, Morin, “played an importantin the early settlement of the Texan coast. João was born in Portugal butattended school in Paris, France, before moving to Brazil, the British WestIndies, and finally New Orleans, Louisiana. Along with his brother, Joãoprovided the financing for the privateer Louis Michel Aury, who established hisbase at the site of the future Galveston, Texas, in 1816. The same year,Mexican revolutionary general Francisco Javier Mina visited and successfullyencouraged Aury to join him in an invasion, which failed. Morim left Galvestonand soon died, and João sold Aury's camp and supplies to Jean Lafitte, In 1818,João was appointed supercargo for trade with the Karankawa Indians. João laterreturned to New Orleans after Lafitte had left Galveston.
1818:Birthdate of Bogumil Dawison, the native of Warsaw who became a leading actoron the German stage noted for his portrayals of Mark Antony, Richard III andKing Lear, amongst others.
1822:Birthdate of Bohemian-Jewish author Leopold Kompert.
1823(15thof Sivan, 5583): Erev Shavuot
1827(18thof Iyar, 5587): Lag B’Omer
1827:Joseph Harris married Elizabeth Levy today at the Great Synagogue.
1827:Alexander Levi married Esther Asher today at the Great Synagogue.
1829:Daniel O’Connell whose fight for Catholic Emancipation paralleled the fight ofthe Jews for the same rights tried to take his seat in the House of Commons“without taking the oath of Supremacy.”
1831:Birthdate of Scarborough native Sir Edward J. Harland who in 1861 joined withGustav Wilhelm Wolff, the nephew of German Jewish financier and merchant GustavChristian Schwabe, to form the ship building company Harland and Wolff whosemost famous vessel was the ill-fated RMS Titantic.
1832:Seventy-three-year-old German music teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter whose pupilsincluded Giacomo Mayerbeer, Fanny Mendelssohn and Felix Mendelssohn, who wassuch a favorite of his that he “wrote to Goethe boasting of the 12-year old’sabilities.”
1833(26thof Iyar, 5593): Anna Virginia Nones, the two week old daughter of Anna andHenry Benjamin Nones passed away today at East River, VA.
1833:Forty-five-year-old English actor Edmund Kean whose portrayal of Shylock whichfirst took place in 1824 was described as the personification of a character in“a chapter out of the Book of Genesis” passed away today.
1834:In Germany, Agatha Herz Felsenthal and Benjamin Wolf Felsenthal gave birth to HermanFelsenthal who in 1852 came to the United States, where he was a banker andschool board member in Chicago and the father of nine children that he raisedwith his wife Gertrude Hyman Felsenthal.
1842(6thof Sivan, 5602) Shavuot
1845:In Cairo, “founder of the dynasty” Jacob Menasche Cattaui, Bay, “a senioradministrator in the Egyptian government, a confidant of viceroys and khedives andson of Eliyahu Hadar El Cattaui and his wife Esther Morgana Cattaui gave birth to Pasha Joseph Cattaui, thehusband of Bida Cattaui and the father of Marie Tuby.
1845:In Ivanovka which is now part of Ukraine, “lya Ivanovich Mechnikov, a Russianofficer of the Imperial Guard” and “Emilia Lvovna (Nevakhovich), the daughterof the Jewish writer Leo Nevakhovich gave birth to Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov whogained fame as Nobel Prize winning immunologistÉlie Metchnikoff
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1908/mechnikov-bio.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/elie-metchnikoff
1847:Seventy-one-year-old Daniel O’Connell whose “Catholic Emancipation campaignserved as the precedent and model for the emancipation of British Jews, thesubsequent Jews Relief Act 1858 allowing Jewish MPs to omit the words in theOath of Allegiance "and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of aChristian" passed away today.
1853:One day she had passed away, 87 year old Hannah Ralph, the husband of JudahRalph and the mother of Samuel, Frederick, Amelia and Abraham Ralph was buriedtoday at the “Plymouth Hoe Burial Ground.”
1855:In Baltimore, MD, Theresa (née Hutzler) and Elkan Bamberger gave birth toNewark, NJ merchant and philanthropist Louis Bamberger who when he sold L.Bamberger and Company split one million dollars among his employees and who wasthe brother of Caroline Bamberger and brother-in-law of fellow businessmanFelix Fuld.
https://www.brandeis.edu/press/books/brandeis-series-american-history/louis-bamberger.html
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/03/12/96574141.html?pageNumber=38
1857(21stof 5617): Eleanor Moses Cohen, the daughter of Myer Moses and Rachel AndrewsWoolf and the wife of Philip Cohen passed away today after which she was buriedat the Coming Street Cemetery in Charleston, SC.
1858(2ndof Sivan, 5618): Marcus Durloch, a member of the Independent Order of Free Sonsof Israel passed away today. His widowwas the person to receive benefits from the organizations Widows and OrdersFund that had been incorporated earlier in the year.
1859:Levi Goldsmith, the German born son of Seligmann Falcke Goldschmidt andSchönchen Hinka Alexander and his wife Henrietta Goldsmith gave birth toEstelle Goldsmith who became Estelle Rothschild when she married SolomonRothschild with whom she had four children
1861(6thof Sivan, 5621): Shavuot is observed for the first time during the Civil War.
1861:During the Civil War, Philadelphian Sergeant Oscar H. Benjamin began serving inCompany B of the 41st Regiment
1862:In Vienna, Hungarian laryngologist Johann Schnitzler and Luise Markbreiter gavebirth to playwright and novelist Arthur Schnitzler who was a central figure inthe Viennese literary community that spanned the last decades of the19thcentury and the first three decades of the twentieth century. Schnitzlerwas a contemporary of Herzl and used him as a character in one of hisnovels. Schnitzler passed away in 1931. His works were laterbanned by German and Austrian Nazis.
1864:Moses Jacob Ezekiel fought at the Battle of New Market as a member of the VMACadet Battalion.
1864: Emma Mordecai apologized to her sister-in-law fortheir quarrel over whether or not reports of General Lee's victory wereaccurate. Mordecai's apology pointed up the precarious position of thisunmarried Jewess who had sought refuge from the war at her relative's farm inrural Virginia.
1865: Captain Alfred A. Rinehard who had been wounded atPo River, Virginia while serving with Company D of the 148thRegiment completed his service in the Union Army today.
1866(1st of Sivan, 5626): Rosh Chodesh Sivanobserved on the same day that President Andrew Johnson, who had accused JudahP. Benjamin of being one of those responsible for the assassination ofPresident Lincoln, “today signed the bill amending the Habeas Corpus actprotecting military officers from prosecutions fort he acts done in theexecution of their official duties.”
1867: In a letter written to his wife today, abolitionistWilliam Lloyd Garrison described his shipboard encounter "with threeJewish former slaveholders. "Sitting opposite me at the table, arethree German Jews, Louisiana planters, who have lost all their slaves, now thatthey are free, will be unable to take care of themselves! Of theseIsraelites it cannot be said that they are without guile; ("Jews of theCivil War: A Reader")
1868: Birthdate ofVilna native Leon Zolotkoff, the “editor of the Jewish Daily News of New York, one-timeassistant district of Cook County and founder of the Chicago Jewish Courier”who was an early and ardent Zionist and the husband of Fannie Zolotkoff withwhom he had four children, “Julia, Sydney, Hyman and Albert.”
1869(5th of Sivan, 5629) Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1870: In Kovno, Solomon Selig Zeligsohn and his wife gavebirth to A.H. Seligsohn, the rabbi who led a congregation in Cory, PA beforemoving to Congregation B’nai Israel in Olean, NY.
1870: In Kovno, Simcha Margolis and Hyman Stern gave birthto clothing manufacture Morris Stern, thehusband of Celia Weisman and an executive with both the Dress and Waist ManufacturersAssociation and the United Waist League who was active in numerous Jewish organizationsincluding the American Committee supporting and maintaining a Yeshiva inHebron, the Uptown Talmud Torah, and the Kehillah and who “served as a member of the committeeof twenty-five to decide American-Zionist Policy in issues between ChaimWeizmann and Judge Mack.”
1872: “Jews in Romania” published today described thedecision of the Grant Administration, as conveyed Secretary of State HamiltonFish, to have its representative in Bucharest work with the other powers toalleviate the suffering being inflicted on the Jews living in Romania.
1873(18th of Iyar, 5633): Lag BaOmer
1873: Birthdate of Paris native, Victor David Hecht, themodernist watercolorist who studied at theAcadémie Julian-Student, Art Students League of New York and passed awayin New York in 1931.
1873: Birthdate of Romania native and resident of Albany,NY Samuel Zuckerman who was the husband of Ida Greenberg Zuckerman and thefather of Max H. Zuckerman.
1876: Professor Felix Adler delivered the opening addressat the first meeting of the Ethical Culture Society.
1877: In the Swiss Canton Aargau, the Grand Councilgranted citizens' rights to the members of the Jewish communities of Endigenand Lengnau, giving them charters under the names of New Endingen and NewLengnau
1878: In Kletzk, Russia, “Solomon and Goldie (Helfand)Adler gave to Rabbi turned businessman Joseph Adler, the husband of JennieResnick who in 1909 came to the United States where he returned to therabbinate leading several congregations including the New People’s Synagogue inNew York City while serving as director of the Downtown Keren Hayesod and theJewish Sabbath Alliance.
1879: Seventy-five year old German architect GottfriedSemper who designed a synagogue built in Dresden between 1838 and 1840 that “isnoted for its Moorish Revival interior style” known as the Semper Synagoguepassed away todayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semper_Synagogue
1879: Lewis Myer Myers and his cousin Ephraim Laman Zoxdissolved their partnership in a warehouse business after which Zox “set up hisown” business “as a financial agent and arbitrator” on Collins Street West inMelbourne, Australia.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/zox-ephraim-laman-4912
1880(5thof Sivan, 5640): Parashat Bamidbar; erev of Shavuot
1880:In Charleston, Rabbi Levy officiated at the marriage of Adolf Lederberger andAlbertine Levy.
1880:Birthdate of Bessarabia native and American labor union leader Morris Sigman who in 1903 came to the UnitedStates where he was one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the Wordand became president of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union.
https://ilgwu.ilr.cornell.edu/presidents/MorrisSigman.html
1881:Anti-Jewish riots break out in Odessa, Russia.
1882(NS):The May Laws, a series of anti-Semitic regulations proposed by Minister ofInternal Affairs Nikolai Ignatyev were signed into law today by Czar AlexanderIII.
1882:In Bialystok, “Jacob and Guth (Segal) Rosenbuam, gave birth to the Hebrew UnionCollege trained rabbi and hold of a Ph.D from the University of Chicago, DavidRosenbaum, the husband of Ida Adelman who led Reform congregations in Waco, TX,Amsterdam, NY and Austin, TX before settling in at Temple Judea in Chicago andalso served as an “instructors in Semitics at the University of Texas.”
1882:Alexander
1883:Birthdate of Latvia native Herman Gabriel Kretchmer who in 1907 came to theUnited States where he served thelong-time member of the editorial staff the Jewish Daily Forward “and was the authorof plays and novels written in Yiddish.
1883:Birthdate of Russian American painter, illustrator and WW I veteran AlfredFeinberg
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/04/07/archives/alfred-feinberg-87-anatomical-artist.html
1884:Birthdate of Russian native Joseph E. Drabkin who in 1904 came to the UnitedStates where he worked as printer in New Haven, CT and “became a manager of aYiddish troupe in Connecticut .” (Editor’snote: some sources show his DOB as 1885)
https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/D/drabkin-joseph.htm
1885:In Budapest, “Herman and Bertha (Atlas) Ungerleider gave birth to “SamuelUngerleider, the husband of Selma Dallet” who was the owner of Wheeling LiquorCompany in Wheeling, W. Va., the Aeon Liquor Company in Bridgeport, OH andfounder of an investment firm in Cleveland while serving as the “U.S. Asst.Fuel Administrator” in Ohio during WW I.
1885:In New Zealand, Samuel Shrimski was appointed to the Legislative Council today.
1886:Birthdate of Pinsk native Isidore Theodore Feingold, the husband of SoniaFeingold and father of Eugene and Henretta Feingold who in 1902 came to theUnited States where he attended the University of Chicago and served as adirector of the Hebrew Theological Seminary.
1887:Birthdate of Wilno native Dovid Leibowitz, a leading pre-war European rabbi whocame to the United States where he found “the Rabbinical Seminary of America.”
1887(21stof Iyar, 5647): Seventy-eight-year-old German philanthropist, WilhelmKönigswarter a native of Furth passed away at Meran.
1888(5thof Sivan, 5648): Erev Shavuot
1889:Birthdate Bessie Abramowitz, known as Bessie Hillman, who was active in thelabor movement designed to alleviate the sweatshop conditions in the garmentindustry. She was active in the 1910 strike against Hart-Shaftner andMarx. The strike paid two dividends - the creation of the AmalgamatedClothing Workers of America and the first meeting with her future husband,labor leader Sidney Hillman. An early role model for feminists, Hillmancontinued her labor work even after giving birth to her two daughters.
1889:Rabbi Mendelsohn of Wilmington, NC officiated at the wedding of William Fatmanand
FannieMantoue, the “daughter of Benjamin Mantoue of Charleston, SC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Vogel_(Russian_writer)
1889: President Benjamin Harrisonnamed Solomon Hirsch to serve as Minister to Turkey, making him “the third Jewto hold that diplomatic rank” – the other two being Benjamin Franklin Piexottoappointed by President Grant and Isidor Straus appointed by PresidentCleveland.
1890:Birthdate of Menasah Skulnik, the seventh of nine children who began histheatre career “by carrying drinks to actors” in a Warsaw theatre specializingin Shakespeare” and became a star in the Yiddish Theatre and on Broadway. (TheNYT shows his birthdate as 1892. I havenot been able to resolve this discrepancy.)
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C00EFDA103EE034BC4D53DFB066838B669EDE
1890:Birthdate of author Katherine Anne Porter whose novel Ship of Foolsportrays the rise of Nazism who described herself as “in direct, legitimateline” of the English language accused Jewish writers of “trying to destroy itand all other living things they touch.”
1891:The will of Nathan Littauer, a benefactor of many Jewish charities, was filedin the Surrogate’s office today.
1891: Isadoreand Hattie Kahn Carb gave birth to future Texas resident Gladys Carb Gugenheimthe wife of Albrt Dick Guggenheim Sr. a native of Mason, TX, “the watermelongrowing capital of the world and the sister of “Harvard graduate and New Yokplaywright and drama critic David Carb whose historical novel, Sunrise inthe West, is about his grandmother, Babette Carb, who emigrated from Alsaceto Mississippi, survived he Civil War, and made her way to Texas.
1891:Birthdate of David Vogel, the native of the Pale of Settlement who used Hebrewin his poetry Lifney Hasha'ar Ha'afel("Before the Dark Gate"), novels and diaries and who died atAuschwitz in 1944 after having been interred at Drancy.
1892(18thof Iyar, 5652): Lag B’Omer
1892:Birthdate of Nashville native and WW I veteran Julius Arky Haiman, the graduateof Peabody College and Vanderbilt University Medical School and WW I veteranwho pursued a career as an Otolaryngologist serving as an “adjunct professorfor ear, nose and throat at Polyclinic Hospital and an associate attendingphysician at the Hospital for Joint Diseases during the 1920's and 1930's.”
1892:“The Israelite Alliance has sent the Sultan of Turkey an address incommemoration of the admission of the exiled Spanish Jews to the Turkish Empirein 1492.”
1893:“Mission Work Among Jews” published today described a potential conflictbetween the New York Presbytery and the Presbyterian Home Board. The New York wants to begin a program toaggressively convert Jews. Up until now the national organization has notendorsed such an effort aimed directly at the Jews.
1893:Birthdate of Harry Rosenthal, the Belfast (Ireland) native who gained fame inLondon and the United States as an actor, composer and pianist.
1893:It was reported today the Jews have been coming to the United States fromPoland every month this year “in gradually increasing numbers.” Twenty –one came in January, seventeen inFebruary and 316 in March, 306 of whom had less than $30 when they arrived.
1893:“Jews of Poland” published today refutes claims from correspondents in Berlin“that there is no movement for the expulsion of Jews from Poland based oneyewitness accounts of the arrival in London of scores of Jews who have beenexpelled from Poland. They carry copiesof orders of expulsion some of which show that the movement against the Jewsbegan in January. “Russian officers will say that they are expelling no one butmerely moving subjects about inside of the empire.” However, “the ‘moved’ subjectstripped of his possessions and deprived of this home, must starve or get outof the country.”
1894:A policeman discovered that crockery store owned by the Rosenblatts on 10thAvenue was on fire. The officer enteredthe building which was also home to the Rosneblatts and dragged them to safety.
1894:A picture of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum was found in the studio of HenryAlexander who took his life today. Thepicture was one “that he prized dearly.”
1894:Francis Bedford passed away. Born in1816, he was a noted artist and photographer who helped to found the RoyalPhotographic Society in 1853. Heaccompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour of the Middle East. His photographs of Palestine were some of theearliest and best of those taken in the 19th century. They werepublished in 1865 providing many with their first real look at the Holy Land asit actually was.
1894(9thof Iyar, 5654): Seventy-two-year old Cecilia Marks, the Charleston, SC borndaughter of Catherine and Elias Abraham and the wife of Joseph Hart Markspassed today in New Orleans after which she was buried at the Judah Cemetery.
1894:Birthdate of Abraham Samuel Samuels, the native of Woltzin Poland who came tothe United States in 1922 where he served as Rabbi in Elmira, NY and was activein a number of Jewish organizations including the United Charities forPalestine.
1895:Birthdate of Polish native and Brooklyn Law School trained attorney EdwardManuel Kahn who in 1905 came to the United States where he settled in Atlanta,GA serving as the executive director of the Atlanta Federation for JewishSocial Services and the executive secretary of the South Regional Conference ofJewish Welfare Agencies.
1895:Birthdate of Fanny Goldstein, a librarian and the founder of Jewish Book Week.
1896:Today, Lazar Adler, the native of Austria Hungary and husband of Edith RosaSimsaretch came to Wilkes-Barre, PA where he eventual “opened a junk yard whichdeveloped into a larger firm operating under his name” while contributing tothe Denver Hospital, several Yeshivas and serving as a member of “CongregationHabra Anshe Hungarian Order of B’rith Abraham.”
1898:Two days after he had passed 39 year old Joseph Shapsowitz was buried today inLondon at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1898:In Harlem, Temple Israel completed its three day celebration of the 25thanniversary of the congregation and the 10th anniversary ofoccupying its current facility.
1899(6thof Sivan, 5659): Final observance of Shavuot in the 19th century.
1899:The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children of the City of New York which helps “sickand destitute” Jews as well as providing free summer excursions has releasedits annual report. It showed that lastsummer the sanitarium provided nine boat excursions and 24 trains excursionswhile aiding a total of 15,445 people.
1899:According to an article by Leopold Sanders, Jews are “the most ancientlycultured people” since in the Book of Genesis they were the first to give theworld various prehistoric legends of Babylonian origin.
1900:At the Speedway, today Malacca driven by Nathan Straus defeated Waco in a hotlycontested race.
1900:Birthdate of Holocaust victim Josef Bernfeld who was deported to Riga in 1942.
1901:At the Speedway, today “the famous trotting gelding Cobwebs driven by NathanStraus defeated Chance “by half a length” after which Struas “took the reinsover the spotted trotter Malacca.
1902:Rosa Strauss, the husband of Joseph Strauss and the mother of Otto, Augusta,Edward and Charles Strauss was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road JewishCemetery.”
1902:Jewish housewives on the Lower East Side poured into the streets, breakingwindows and throwing meat. The women were protesting a jump in the price ofkosher meat from 12 to 18 cents a pound http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/15/1902/kosher-beef-boycott-of-1902
1903:“Twenty-five thousand rubles were sent to Kishineff, Russia, by cable today forthe relief of the sufferers in the antiSemitic riots which raged throughoutthat city on April 19, 20, and 21, in which Jewish men, women, and childrenwere butchered by the Russian mob, and the entire Jewish quarter looted.”
1904(29thof Iyar, 5664): Hayyim Selig Slonimski passed away in Warsaw. Born in Poland in1810 when it was part of the Russian empire, his accomplishments included theinvention of a calculating machine for which the Russian Academy of Sciencesawarded him the Demidov Prize in 1844 and the establishment of Ha-Tsefirah, aweekly paper published in Hebrew.
1904:In Brooklyn pharmacist Isidore Michael and Grace Elizabeth Fadiman,Russian-Jewish immigrants gave birth to super-intellectual who gained fameduring the golden age of radio.
1905:Birthdate of businessman Abraham Zapruder, whose famed home movie documentedthe assassination of JFK
1905:Founding of Las Vegas, Nevada. According to an article in Hadassah Magazine there is little documented proof concerning thefirst Jewish families living in Las Vegas.Names like Bergman and Berman appear in the 1910 census In the 1920’s afamily named Goldring served kosher food and proudly announced that they hadproduced the first Jewish baby born in the town. Other sources provide a replica of cattlebrand found on bovines belonging to a Las Vegas Jew named Charles Field. The brand consisted of a diagonal “I” withthe letter “C” superimposed over it. Ofcourse the first two Jewish names that come to mind when mentioning Las Vegasare Meyer Lansky and his protégé Ben “Bugsy” Siegel. Today Las Vegas has one of the fastestgrowing Jewish communities in the United States.
1906:Kuhn, Loeb and Company as brokers for the sale of the $50,000,000 in notes thatwould provide the Pennsylvania Railroad with the fund for “the company to meetexpenses in connection with the extensive improvement work with the company hasunder way” including the New York tunnel and “additions to the terminal yards.
1907:Twenty-three-year-old George I. Dobsevage, the Russian born son of Sarah andAbraham Dosevage who worked on the Jewish Encyclopedia and the “abridgeeditions of the Standard Dictionary” married Elizabeth Breslow today in NewYork City.
1907:In Berlin, “Economist and Demographer Robert René Kuczynski and his wife BertaGradenwitz/Kuczynski, who was a painter” gave birth to their second childUrsula Maria Kuczynski who gained fame as author and WW II Soviet spy RuthWerner.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/jul/11/guardianobituaries.richardnortontaylor
1907:Birthdate of Philip “Phil” Piratin the son of a small Jewish businessman whobecame active in the Communist Party and was one of the leaders in the “Battleof Cable Street” --
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-phil-piratin-1526400.html
1907:In San Francisco, political boss Abraham “Abe” Reuf pled guilty to charges ofbribery, the day before he appeared a grand jury looking into corruption in thecity.
1908:Birthdate of Frank Glassman who “played college ball at Wilmington and BlissCollege and then played guard and tackle in the NFL with the Buffalo Bisons in1929.”
1909:The cornerstone for a new building to be used by the Hebrew Infant Asylum isscheduled to be laid today.
1910:“Dr. Felix Adler, head of the Ethical Culture Society, occupied the pulpit ofthe Free Synagogue in Eighty-first Street, between Columbus and AmsterdamAvenues, this morning, the occasion being the centenary of Abraham Geiger, thepathfinder of the Reform Judaism of Germany; or, as Dr. Adler put it, "thegeologist of Judaism.”
1910:“Mayor Gaynor opened the twenty-fourth annual convention of the IndependentOrder Brith Abraham, the largest Jewish fraternal organization in the world,this morning at 10 o'clock, at Cooper Union, with a speech that called forthgreat applause from the audience
1910:“Declaring that the American Reformed Judaism as exemplified in the HebrewUnion College of Cincinnati was really only "deformed Judaism," some200 members of that faith pledged financial support tonight to an institutionwhose purpose should be to counteract the influence of the Cincinnati school.”
1911:The United States dismissed Gompers v. Buck
Stoveand Range Company, an appeal by Samuel Gompers and to other labor leaders whohad been sentenced to prison for contempt during a labor dispute in St. Louis “in part, as moot because Buck's Stovepresident James Van Cleave had died in 1910 and his successor resolved hisdispute with the workers.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gompers_v._Buck%27s_Stove_%26_Range_Co.
1911:In Poland, Yiddish theatre personalities Yakov and Ruzha Fuchs gave birth toactor Leo Fuchs who came to the United States and began his career in theYiddishTheatre. Fuchs appeared in"Broadway Plays" in NewYork and in London. Hewas seen on the television hit Mr. Ed.His film credits includeThe Frisco*kid and Avalon. Hepassedaway in 1994.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-leo-fuchs-1568528.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruzha_Fuchs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakov_Fuchs
1912Morris Lasker and Nettie Heidenheimer Davis Lasker gave birth to film producerEdward Lasker.
1912(28thof Iyar, 5672): Eighty-two year old merchant Aaron Ullman, the son of SophiaSchatz Ullman, the husband of Mina Rothschild Ullman and Clarence Aaron Ullmanpassed away today after which he was buried in the “Mt. Zion” plot of theSpringdale Cemetery in Peoria, IL.
1912:In Lower Saxony, Frantz Seligmann and Erna Seligmann gave birth to WernerJulius Seligmann, the husband of Irma Seligmann.
1912:Birthdate of composer Arthur Victor Berger, the Bronx native and graduate of NYU and Harvard who was wellknown in his native America as a composer, teacher and music critic, but wasbetter known in Britain as a writer on music, particularly on the academic,musicological side. He passed away in 2003 at the age of 91.
1913:It was reported today that East SideEvening High School for Men which has a seventy percent Jewish student body wasclosed closed for the recent Jewish holidays which fell on April 22 and April28.
1914:In Lower Saxony Frantz and Erna Seligman gave birth to Werner Julius Seligman,the husband of Irma Seligman
1914:Premiere in Germany of The Miracle a British color silent film based on theplay by Max Reinhardt.
1914:Konrad von Preysing, who would become a leading anti-Nazi prelate was madeHonorary Chamberlain of His Holiness today.
1914:Architect Louis Isadore Kahn, who had been born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky inEstonia in 1901, became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
1914(19thof Iyar, 5674): Sixty-six year old Yitzhak Isaac Halevy Rabinowitz, a rabbi,Jewish historian, and founder of the Agudath Israel organization whose worksincluded Dorot Harishonim or Dorot Harischonim passed away today.
1915(2ndof Sivan, 5675): Parashat Bamidbar
1915(2ndof Sivan, 5675): Jeweler Abraham Price passed away today in Washington, DC.
1915: In Gary Indiana, the former Ella Lipton andpharmacist Frank Samuelson, “Jewish immigrants from Poland” gave birth to Americaneconomist Paul Samuelson who won theNobel Prize in Economics in1970.Jews account for40% of all winners of the NobelPrize for Economics. Fifty-four percent of the Americans who have won theaward are Jewish.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1970/samuelson/biographical/
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/business/economy/14samuelson.html
1915:As the United States wrestles with a decision to go to war with Germanyfollowing the sinking of the RMS Lusitania it was reported that A. I.Shiplikoff, Secretary of the United Hebrew Trades has said his members “are infavor of the abolition of war and the permanent establishment of internationalpeace..”
1915:It was reported today that Dr. S. N. Deinard is scheduled to preside over theupcoming meeting in Minneapolis designed to pressure the Governor of Georgia togrant clemency in the case of Leo M. Frank.
1916:In Solano County, CA Otto Oscar Dannenberg and Iceophine Elsie Dannenberg gavebirth to Iceophine Roberta Goepfert
1916:Five days after Charles E. Klein who was Jewish was told that there were noopenings in Battery D of the New York National Guard, Frank J. Conaton, who wasnot Jewish, was given an application blank by Captain Sullivan and told to gohome and have his mother sign it since he was underage and could only beaccepted with her consent.
1916:“Rabbi Stephen S. Wise drew a parallel between the Armenians and the Jews inRussia” saying that “My fellow Jews in Russia could gain relief by forsaking oftheir fathers” and “the Armenians could obtain surcease from sorrow by becomingMoslems.”
1916:It was reported today that Congressman Goldfogle, Rabbi Leventhal, HarryFischel and Leon Kamisky were among those who had spoken at a meeting of TheCentral Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War inPhiladelphia.
1916:Shalom Aleicheim was buried today at Old Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, NY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sholem_Aleichem_funeral.jpg
1917:Today, in London, “official sources” confirmed the rumors “that whole Jewishpopulation of Jaffa” had been expelled from Jaffa during Passover and forced toleave in a northerly direction.
1918:Birthdate of Saul Laskin, the native of Fort William who was the first mayor ofThunder Bay, Ontario.
1918:Two Jewish journalists – Landau and Goldsky – were among those who had workedfor the Bonnet Rouge newspaper whowere sentenced to prison today after being convicted of treason in Paris.
1918:In Montreal, Louis and Pearl Rubin (née Ruchwarger)gave birth to Joseph Wiseman, the American trained actor who played “Dr.No.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-joseph-wiseman21-2009oct21-story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/arts/20wiseman.html
1919:“The Jewish sports club Maccabi București was founded in Bucharest.”
1919:In the Winnipeg General Strike “virtually the entire working population ofWinnipeg had walked off the job. 30,000 to 35,000 people were on strike in acity of 200,000. Even essential public employees such as fire fighters went onstrike, but returned midway through the strike with the approval of the StrikeCommittee. The Winnipeg Police were technically on strike but remained onpatrol in practice.” Opponents of the strike, especially those in the pressincluding The New York Timesdemonized the strikers as Bolsheviks and Jews.Cartoons were produced depicting the strikers as hooked nosed Jews. In 2005, this historic event would becomepart of the popular entertainment world through a musical called “Strike” by Danny Schur. The hit play (in Canada) focused on thetreatment of the Jewish and Ukrainian workers and carried a message ofuniversal brotherhood.
1919:Birthdate of Samuel Abraham Goldblith a food scientist who studied malnutritionwhile after having been taken prisoner by the Japanese at Corregidor and whodeveloped the techniques for preserving food that were critical to the U.S.manned space program.
1919(15thof Iyar, 5679): Aaron Aaronsohn…”one of the most extraordinary figures of the20th century — a world-renowned scientist, a diplomat and a spy whose daringexploits enabled British General Edmund Allenby to capture Jerusalem, a turningpoint in WWI vanished without a trace
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aaron-aaronsohn
https://jewoughtaknow.com/aaron-aaronsohn
http://www.patriciagoldstone.com/?page_id=12
1920:It was reported that the funeral for Yiddish actor David Kessler who passedaway yesterday will take place tomorrow since today is the Sabbath – a day ofrest when Jews do not bury their dead.
1920:In address this afternoon “before a conference of the Keren Hayesod” being heldat the Stuyvesant High School, Chaim Weizmann issued “a challenge to theleaders of the American Zionist Organization, who recently split with the WorldZionist Organization, to specify their objections to the program of WorldZionist Organization.
1921:“Jews assert that” Anti-Semitic League’s call for one “Gentile resident ofevery house in Vienna draw up a complete list of all the Jews residing in thehouse” is being done as part of plan for pogrom this autumn.
1922:The German-Polish Convention signed today guaranteed all minorities in UpperSilesia, including the Jews, equal civil and political rights.
1922:In Los Angeles, the former Betty Heymanson, “a sales associate at Bullock’sdepartment store in Los Angeles” and Frank Silverstein, the owner of “an Army-Navystore in Hollywood” gave birth to merchant mariner and UCLA and Cornell graduate“Josef Silverstein, a scholar and outspoken critic of Myanmar’s repressivemilitary leaders over a turbulent half-century” who was the father of the formerMary Cooper and the father of Frank and Gordon Silverstein. (As reported bySeth Mydans)
https://www.amazon.com/Burma-Socialist-international-relations-Southeast/dp/0801498635
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/world/asia/josef-silverstein-dead.html?searchResultPosition=3
1923: In New York City, Jacob Israel Avedon, a Russian-born immigrant who advanced frommenial work to starting his own successful retail dress business on FifthAvenue, called Avedon’s Fifth Avenue and his wife Anna gave birth to “fashionand portrait photographer” Richard Avedon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/01/arts/01CND-AVED.html?_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/06/arts/design/richard-avedon-portraits-go-to-israel-museum.html
1924:“The Jewish Publication Society of America, which has distributed more than1,500,000 volumes of the best available literature of Jewish interest inEnglish, celebrated its thirty-fifth anniversary tonight with a dinner at theRitz-Carlton. Laboring under a large deficit and desirous of publishing anumber of noteworthy contributions to the Jewish literature of this country,including English commentaries on the Bible, the society made an appeal for$250,000.”
1925:“An appeal for books for the Palestine Workmen’s Organization, which “has amembership of 20,000, many of whom have universities in” the United States “andother countries to do pioneer work in Palestine” was made from the localoffices on second avenue in New York City.
1926:Leopold Damrosch Mannes was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow today for creativework in musical composition and a study of musical literature.
1926:Today, Herman Price, the Kovno born son Beer and Judith Price and the husbandof Ida Schneider who had been ordained at JTS began serving as the rabbi of theBeth El Congregation in Sunbury, PA
1926:In Liverpool, Reka (née Fredman) and Jack Shaffer, an estate agent gave birthto twins Sir Peter Levin Shaffer and Anthony Shaffter both of whom becameplaywrights.
1927:Judge Julian W. Mack is scheduled to be the principle speaker at the banquetthis evening that will mark the start of Philadelphia’s United Palestine Appealdrive.
1927:Birthdate of Bezalel Rakow “an orthodox rabbi who headed Gateshead’s Jewishcommunity and was the chair of the Council of Torah Sages of Agudas Yisroel ofGreat Britain.”
1928:Julius Rosenwald admitted today that he has given away so much money that hedoes not the dollar value of his philanthropies.
1928(25thof Iyar, 5688): Sixty-six year old Herione May, social worker and founder ofthe Jewish Women’s Federation passed away.
1928:Samuel Goldwyn hosted a testimonial dinner at Hollywood’s Roosevelt Hotel in honorof Al Lichtman, General Manager of Distribution in the United States and Canadafor United Artists Corporation.
1928:Birthdate of a French–born American “novelist and academic, known also forpoetry, essays, translations, and criticism who taught at the University atBuffalo, wrote in “the experimental style, that sought to deconstructtraditional prose” and whose books included “Double or Nothing.”
1929:David Wuntch of Tyler, TX, was elected president of theTexas Zionist Association which concluded its silver anniversary conventiontoday.
1930:It was announced today that “a request for anaudience with the Roumanian Regency in connection with continuing attacks onJews in various parts of the country will be made by the Union of RoumanianJews” Dr. William Filderman is President of the Union.
1930: “Eliel Loefgren, former foreign minister of Sweden;Charles Barde, a Swiss jurist, and A. Van Kempen, a former Dutch colonialofficial, were today announced as members of the international Wailing WallCommission to investigate the Moslem and Jewish claims to the Wailing Wall. Thenames were submitted to the Council of the League of Nations by ArthurHenderson, British foreign secretary.”
1930:The High Commissioner’s office has announced that, effective today, allimmigration into Palestine is suspended pending the completion of a reportbeing compiled by Sir John Simpson dealing with immigration and land settlementproblems.
1931:Birthdate Norma Diane Fox who gained fame as award winning author Norma FoxMazer.
1931:Italian born Giorgio Polacco, the conductor at the Met from 1915 to 1917, theChicago Civic Opera from 1921 to 1930 “remarried Edith Mason” today.
1932:Hitler’s "Voelkischer Beobachter" advised the Jews of Germany toleave the country because “we National Socialistswill certainly clear all Jews out of every position they occupy in Germany.
1933:The Secretariat of the League of Nations rejected petitions protesting thetreatment of the Jews of Silesia because the treaty guaranteeing them theirpolitical and civil rights requires that the citizens of Silesia file thegrievance and representatives of member nations. The League chose to ignore the reality of theclaims.
1933:In Germany, “a plan to expel Jewish barbers and tobacconists from theirpositions was initiated here today.”
1933(19th of Iyar, 5693): Dr. Alfred Strauss, a Jewish lawyer, was killed inDachau.
1934(1stof Sivan, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1934:Jewish candidates are running in both the Democratic and Republican primariesbeing held in New Jersey today. Amongthe candidates are Samuel Raff, a Republican seeking a seat in the GeneralAssembly and four candidates for the Justice of Peace Passaic County - David Ehrlich, Democrat, and BenjaminRosenfelt, Toby Schneider, and Morris Rosenberg, Republicans.
1935:“The Italian Crown Prince Umberto and the Crown Princess Maria, who are now onan official visit to Tripolitana, today visited the Jewish quarter in the townof Tripoli”.
1935:Representatives of several Jewish communities in Poland were considering takingpart in a project to plant a forest in Palestine in honor of Marshal JosefPilsudski
1935:Birthdate of Ingram Berg Shavitz, the Manhattan native who gained fame as BurtShavitz, the creator of a line of personal care products.
http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/311468/burt-shavitz-jewish-burts-bees-founder-dies-at-80/
1935:The Gazeta Warszawska, organ of theanti-Semitic National Democratic Party, was expelled today from the PressAssociation of the Polish Republic for its "tactless attitude" whilethe nation was mourning the death of Marshal Pilsudski. The Press Associationcomprises all newspapers in Poland. The expulsion was decided on at a specialsession called for this purpose (JTA)
1936:The Italian consul denied today in a statement to the press that Italian agentsare responsible for disorders in Palestine. London newspapers had chargedItalian agents with fomenting the outbreak in an attempt to embarrass GreatBritain in the Italo-Ethiopian situation. (JTA)
1936:As Arabs gather in their mosques for prayers today, “the curfew in the OldCity…was extended to a large outside the Old City Walls” due to the threat ofincreased violence.
1936:On the first day of the official Arab campaign of civil disobedience aimed atending Jewish immigration violence breaks out forcing the British to cordon offTel Aviv from Jaffa.
1937(5thof Sivan, 5697): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1937:Violinist Mischa Elan, his wife and their two children set sail today on theItalian liner Conte di Savoia, after having “recently returned to the United Statesfrom a concert tour in China and Japan.”
1937:In Cincinnati, Ohio, Richard Jacob Mack, the son of Jacob William Mack andBertha Mack and Elizabeth Mack gave birth to Alan Richard Mack
1937: In Prague gave Josef Korbel, a Czechdiplomat, and Anna Korbel (née Spieglová) gave birth to Marie Jana Korbelovawho gained fame Madeline Albright, the first woman to be name U.S. Secretary of State.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/madeleine-albright-dead.htm
1938:The Palestine Post reported thatwhile the armed Arab gangs continued to carry out robberies, commit arson, blowup culverts, dig holes in the roads and set up mines throughout the country, atleast one such gang suffered heavy casualties when engaged by British forces nearAcre. Many arrests were carried out in Tamra and the neighboring villages. TwoBritish officers were wounded in this operation. An Arab mukhtar, villageelder, was murdered near Nablus after he refused to pay ransom
1939:Giorgio Polacco, the conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and Chicago CivicOpera re-married Edith Mason today.
1939:Wilfrid Israel “an Anglo-German businessman whose father was the founder ofIsrael’s Department Store which was “one of the largest and oldest stores inpre-World War II Germany” and who was active in the rescue of Jews from NaziGermany “left Berlin for London” today where he would live until 1943 when hisflight was shot down by a Luftwaffe fighter while he was returning from Lisbon,where had been on a mission for the Jewish Agency for Palestine arranging entrycertificates for refugees.
1939The SS St. Louis leaves Hamburg. Mostof the thousand or so passengers are Jewish escapees from Nazi Germany. Theyhave landing passes for Cuba as well as quota numbers that could allow thementry into the United States three years hence.
1939A women's concentration camp opens at Ravensbrück, 50 miles north of Berlin.
1940:Thousands of refugee Jews from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia are trappedbehind German lines as Nazi forces push through Holland. The Dutch Armysurrenders
1941(18th of Iyar, 5701):On Lag B’Omer, 12Polish Jews who have traveled by sealed train from the Biala Podlaska JewishPOW camp to Konskowola are murdered after the train's Nazi overseers discoverthat four of the POWs have escaped.
1941:Paul and Irving Unger, brothers, who, through their bogus "LesterPlan" to solve the financial difficulties of small tradesmen, city andFederal employes and others, stole $75,000 or more, were sentenced today byJudge Saul S. Streit in General Sessions to penitentiary terms of one year eachamid the shrieks of six women relatives.
1941:Nazi occupiers in Netherlands forbid the playing Jewish music
1942:As of today, an additional 11,000 more Jews had been to Chelmno bringing thetotal shipped to the death camp from Lodz to approximately 55,000.
1943:In Rohatyn, Jewish ghetto police secretly plan to buy weapons and form escapeparties to the nearby woods. Three weeks later the plan is foiled and all 1,000Jews of the ghetto are killed.
1943:The Warsaw ghetto was reduced to ashes and the uprising came to an end after anactive resistance of four weeks.
1943(10thof Iyar, 5703): After days of being crammed in a box car, Salamo Arouch, aGreek-born Jewish boxer, his parents, three younger sisters and his brotherarrived at Auschwitz at 6 p.m. His mother and sisters were immediately taken tothe gas chambers.
1943:The first issue of Liberal Judaism, anew illustrated monthly journal of opinion and letters appeared today.
1943:The Adelaide Advertiser publishedexcerpts from the pamphlet “Let My People Go” published in 1942 in which VictorGollancz wrote “that between one and two million Jews had already been murderedin Nazi controlled Europe and "unless something effective is done, withina very few months these six million Jews will all be dead.”
1944:In a letter, dated today, addressed to the Zionist leadership in Palestine(under British rule) Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl called on the Zionistleadership to take stronger action on behalf of European Jewry which wassystematically being destroyed by the Nazi lead genocide:
Andyou - our brothers in Palestine, in all the countries of freedom, and you,ministers of all the kingdom — how do you keep silent in the face of this greatmurder ? Silent while thousand on thousands, reaching now to six million Jews,were murdered. And silent now while tens of thousands are still being murderedand waiting to be murdered? Their destroyed hearts cry to you for help as theybewail your cruelty. Brutal you are and murderers too you are, because of thecold-bloodedness of the silence in which you watch.
1944:Nazi deportation of Jews from greater Hungary began with the deportation of14,000 Jewsfrom Munkacs to Auschwitz. The roundup is directed by Eichmanwith “the full cooperation of the Hungarian police.”
1944:“Joseph Pulvermacher, president of the Sterling National Bank and leader inJewish communal and philanthropic work” is scheduled to take office this at theannual meeting of the congregation as president of Temple Rodeph Sholom” and“Jacob S. Manheimer, an attorney” is scheduled to be installed as vicepresident.
1944:As part of the Nazi proposal to swap Jews for supplies including ten thousandtrucks, Joel Brand is flown from Budapest to Istanbul to meet with tworepresentatives of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. The two will listen to Brand and take theoffer back to Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv.
1944:On the eve of the Allied invasion of Europe, 878 Jews are deported from Drancy,France, to the Reval, Estonia, slave-labor camp. At the very time when Rommel,the Nazi General who is in charge of preparing to face the Allied onslaught, isbemoaning the lack of men and equipment, the Germans are busy shipping Jews totheir death. This provides further proofthat the creation of a Jew-Free Europe was an integral part of the Germaneffort and not some tangential activity.
1944:Dr. Salomon Gluck, the brother of Rose Warfman, was deported on convoy 73 whichleft Drancy today. He would reportedlydie five days later.
1945:Reb David Werdyger was liberated todayat the Linz Labor Camp
1945:The Soviet NKWD arrested Otto Armster, a German intelligence officer who tookpart in the July 20 to kill Hitler and subsequently took him back to theU.S.S.R.
1945:Birthdate of Gail J. Koff, who would be considered the silent partner in thenational law firm Jacoby & Meyers after she opened their New York officessix years after the firm, began operations in Los Angeles, California.
1945:In Yugoslavia, fighting between 30,000 Nazi soldiers and a group of Yugoslavpartisans known as the Battle of Poljana came to end when the Axis surrenderedin what may have been the last formal combat operation in the European Theatreduring WW II.
1946(14thof Iyar, 5706): Pesach Sheni
1946:”The Austrian Parliament disclosed today that it had discovered a closerelationship between Austria's future treatment of Jewish restitution claimsand the treatment that Austria herself could expect to receive.”
1946:“Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, director of the Community on Unit for Palestine ofthe ZOA criticized the American Council of Judaism” tonight “in an address atthe East Midwood Jewish Center for it announced support of the Anglo-Americaninquiry in the Near East” which “would delay the transfer of 100,000 EuropeanJews to Palestine…”
1947:The government in Palestine is scheduled to publish “the new immigration quotafor the month ending June 14” which will allow “for the admission of 1,500Jews, 200 Arabs and others.”
1947:It was reported today that the United States has refused to grant a visa “RazimKhalidi” because of his activities in Germany during the war “that have beenregarded as pro-Nazi.
1947:“Jewish farming communities, the Jewish Agricultural Society and trustees ofthe Baron de Hirsch Fund paid tribute” today to Dr. Gabriel Davidson in whatwas “a testimonial meeting to honor him for having served forty years as anexecutive of the society.”
1947:Today “the UN General Assembly formally established an 11-nation committee ofinquiry into the Palestine questions” while urging the “Palestinians” (Jews andArabs) to refrain from violence pending a decision” this autumn.
1948(6thof Iyar, 5708): Parashat Kedoshim
1948:Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade the state ofIsrael on its second day of existence. As soon as the Mandate ended, theArab armies attacked with the aim of driving the Jews into the sea.
1948:As the first day dawned on the new Jewish state, the Israeli military force hadgrown from 4.500 to 36,600 in the six months since the partition vote. Thisseemingly impressive total includes everybody, not just combat troops. And it pales in comparison to the size (notto mention the equipment) of the invading Arab armies. At least 1,200 Jews hadfallen in fighting during the same period, and this does not count civiliancasualties.
1948:On Cyprus, the British open the gates of the detention camps. Thousands of Jews who had been imprisoned intheir attempt to reach Eretz Israel, would now be free to leave for the newnational Jewish home. Within days, manyof those released would be fighting in the front lines against the invadingArab armies.
1948:Mordechai Ruttenberg took part in one of those small actions, described below,which helped to change history.
In Jerusalem, a youngteenager and a member of Gadna (Gedudei Noar--Israeli youth corps offeringpre-military training of teenagers) helping to defend Jerusalem “found a crateof Molotov co*cktails in the Notre Dame Monastery, got really scared, and hid it.The Jordanians tried every possible way to break into the city, and on that dayarmored vehicles arrived via Damascus Gate and took up positions below thewindows of the monastery. Someone shouted from the street, 'Hey, kid, where arethe co*cktails?' I didn't know what to do, so he explained to me how to throwthem. From the window I threw one of the bottles onto the first armoredvehicle, which immediately started to burn, and the Jordanians beat a hastyretreat. Afterward people wrote that the Molotov co*cktails saved Jerusalem,because otherwise the Jordanians would have entered the city. I pretty muchforgot the whole thing, but one day I heard a tour guide telling about the boywith the bottle, and I came out of the closet and said, 'I am that boy.'" That boy was the future Professor MordechaiRotenberg who Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who taught at Hebrew Universityin the social work school, the criminology institute and the department ofpsychology.
1948:The American office of Magen David Adom (the Israeli equivalent of the RedCross) opened a blood bank for Israel in New York City that was soon packedwith donors.
1948:Voice of Israel (Kol Israel) was born simultaneously with the birth of theState of Israel. Operations for Kol Israel were in the old PalestineBroadcasting Service facilities left behind when the British left Palestine.The first Kol Israel broadcast was made from Tel Aviv as David Ben-Gurion readthe Declaration of Independence for the Jewish State.
1948:In a radio Broadcast Menachem Began said today "It is Hebrew arms whichdecide the boundaries of the Hebrew State; so it now in this battle; so it willbe in the future."
1948:On the day after Israel declared its independence Jews in Baghdad "walkedliked shadows, terrified about their own destiny and that of their brothers inthe Land of Israel."
1948:The Battles of the Kinarot Valley began tonight when Israeli observers reportedthat “many vehicles with full lights” were “moving along the Golan ridge eastof the Sea of Galilee.” The observers were describing the movement of a Syrianinfantry brigade accompanied by at least one tank battalion and one artillerybattalion that was on its way to attack Kibbutz Ein Gev. Among the Jewish forces facing the Syrianswere elements of the Golani Brigade.Thanks to an arms embargo, the Israelis had no artillery, tanks orcombat aircraft to face this onslaught.
1948:Moshe Sharett became Israel’s first Foreign Minister.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/sharett.html
1948:Etan Liivni who had been freed from Acre Prison in 1947 during the great prisonbreak, returned to Israel today from his hiding place in Europe so he couldfight in the War for Independence.
1948:An Iraqi brigade invaded at Naharayim on May 15, 1948, in an unsuccessfulattempt to take the kibbutz and fort but the Arabs were able to occupy and lootthe power plant which was the creation of Pinhas Rutenberg.
1948:On the first day of the invasion of Israel by five Arab Armies, the Egyptian 6thBattalion, “backed by armored vehicles, mortars, cannons and aircraft, attackedKibbutz Nirm which was defended by a force of forty Jewish fighters who afterseven hours drove the attackers who retread “leaving behind somewhere between30 and 35 dead.”
1948(6thof Iyar, 5708): Holocaust survivor Rivka Salzman died today during the crucialBattle of Nirim – the only woman to die in the successful thwarting of Egypt’sinitial attempt to destroy the state of Israel.
http://www.izkor.gov.il/HalalKorot.aspx?id=23546
1948:Mr. Ben-Star, the Israeli actor and director” who “developed his one-man actingtechnique while serving the Jewish Brigade during WWII” is scheduled to performin “a one-man presentation of Othello in Hebrew at Times Hall.
1949:In Philadelphia, PA, opening of “3rd Sculpture International” which includesthe works of Chaim Gross, Jacob Epstein, Jacques Lipschitz and William Zorach.
1949(16thof Iyar): Seventy-eight-year-old Lithuanian born founder and editor of theAmerican Hebrew monthly Rabbi Chaim Tchernowitz, author of “ToledothaHalakah” and father of five children -Saul, Maurice, Emanuel, Myriam and Rachel – passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/05/16/86771090.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1949:Sixty-seven-year-old Mary Antin, a champion of immigrant rights and authorwhose work included The Promised Land, the 1912 autobiographical tomeabout her “Americanization “ passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00C13F93B5F177B93CAA8178ED85F4D8485F9
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/antin-mary
1950:The remains of Oscar Grusenberg, the Russian Jewish lawyer who defended MendelBeilis against blood-ritual charges were interred in Israel
1951: Birthdate of Frank Wilczek winner of the 1973Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory ofthe strong interaction.
1951:Pitcher Saul Rogovin is traded from the Tigers to the White Sox and stillcompiled a league leading 2.78 Earned Run Average.
1952:Abba Khoushy, Mayor of Haifa, attended the United States Conference of Mayorsat the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
1952(20thof Iyar, 5712): Fifty-three-year-old Brooklyn born Maurice D. “Red” Kann, the“original editor of Motion Picture Daily and the husband of Frances Kann passedaway today in Los Angeles.
1952:Founding of Sde Boker (Cattle Rancher's Field) in the central Negevhills. Sde Boker began as a horse-breeding community. Later sheepwere added to the breeding activity. As the desert was reclaimed orchardswere planted by the settlers. Sde Boker's most famous settler was DavidBen-Gurion who first moved there in 1952 when he resigned as Prime Minister in1952. Ben Gurion saw Sde Boker as a key to reclaiming the Negev. Inturn Ben Gurion saw reclamation of the Negev - making the desert bloom - as akey to the ultimate success of the new Jewish state.
1952:“A resolution proposing the establishment of a small body in the United Stateswith full authority to bring about co-ordination between the United JewishAppeal and the Israel Bond Drive was presented to the Zionist Actions Committeeby Nahum Goldmann on behalf of the Jewish Agency executive.” (JTA)
1953(1st of Sivan, 5713): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported that anew railway line linked Hadera with Tel Aviv. The entire new track wasconstructed out of the French-manufactured material acquired with the aid ofFrench railways. The funds came from the Development Budget.
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported that theBavarian Cabinet had decided to ban the return to Bavaria of Jewish DisplacedPersons who left Germany for Israel after World War II and now decided toreturn to Germany.
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported that KfarSaba celebrated its 50th anniversary.
1956(5thof Sivan, 5716): Erev Shavuot
1956:Those living in the Jewish quarter of Constantine, Algeria are spending theirfirst full day living behind an Army cordon put up yesterday on orders fromMaj. Gen. Jean Noiret, commandant of French troops in eastern Algeria in anattempt to “prevent any repetition of the violence that occurred on May 12 andMay 14.
1957(14thof Iyar, 5717): Pesach Sheni
1957(14thof Iyar, 5711): Seventy-two-year-old Bessarabia Jewish immigrant Frank Duchin,the husband of the former Tillie Baron and the father of pianist and bandleaderEddy Duchin passed away today six years after his illustrious son had died of leukemia.(Editor’s note: The Tyrone Power biopic of the pianist made no mention of thefact that he was Jewish.0
1957:“Prime Minister Harold Macmillan said today Israel’s right of free passagethrough the Suez Canal ‘must be assured’” and “he pledged that Britain will doeverything possible to see that this happens.” (JTA)
1958:Premiere of the film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical “Gigi’ produced byArthur Freed and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.
1959:The movie version of the Broadway comedy “the Tunnel of Love” produced byMartin Meclcher and Joseph Fields who also wrote the script was released todayin Germany.
1959(7thof Iyar, 5719): Eighty-year-old interior decorator and follower of Emma Goldman,the famed revolutionary passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/lipsky-charlotte
1960(18thof Iyar, 5720): Lag B’Omer is celebrated for the last time during thePresidency of Dwight David Eisenhower.
1960:“The Swiss post office” is scheduled to “issue a special Herzl Day stamp” which“will have seven start within a Star of David and a Lion of Judah” today “tocommemorate the 100th birth of the founder of political Zionism.”
1960:Dr. Nahum Goldman the president of the World Zionist Organization and PinchasRosen, the Israel Minister of Justice are scheduled to address “a centralmemorial meeting organized by the Jewish Agency and the Israel Government inBasel’s historic Casino Hall.” (JTA)
1962:NBC broadcast the final episode of “Cain’s Hundred,” a crime series withscripts by Eliot Asinof, Fred Freiberg, directed by Irvin Kershner, SydneyPollack and Boris Sagal, and featuring appearances by Edward Asner, MartinBalsam, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jack Klugman, Leonard Nimoy, Norman Fell and DonRickles.
1963: In Los Angeles, businesswoman Jerrie Rosen and Arthur Heslov, D.D.S., gavebirth to University of Southern California educate actor and movie producerGrant Heslov and husband of Lysa Hayland-Heslov who has earned four Oscarnomination and who received the AcademyAward for Best Picture in 2013 for “Argo,” a marvelous little film set duringthe Iran hostage crisis.
1963(21stof Iyar, 5723): Eighty-three-year-old “pioneeringGerman-Jewish medical doctor, feminist and writer” Rahel Straus, the Karlsruheborn daughter of schoolteacher Ida Lowenfeld and Hungarian Orthodox Rabba GaborGotlein and the wife of attorney Elias Straus with whom she raised fivechildren – Isa, Hannah, Frederick, Gabriel and Ernst – in a traditional JewishHome who made Aliyah after the death of her husband and the rise of the Nazispassed away today in Jerusalem.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/straus-rahel
1964(4thof Sivan, 5724): Fifty-nine-year-oldBrooklyn Law School trained attorney Moses A. Feuer, a partner in a firm whoseother named partners were his wife Gertrude Caesar Feuer and his son-in-lawMilton Fischel passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/16/archives/moses-a-feuer-lawyer-headed-queens-bar-unit.html
1965(13thof Iyar, 5725): Parashat Emor
1965(13thof Iyar, 5725): Forty-eight-year-old David Boroff, an assistant professor ofEnglish at NYU and “a contributor to several magazines” suffered a fatal heartattack tonight.
https://www.americanheritage.com/users/david-boroff
1967:Israel holds the Independence Day parade in Jerusalem without the usual numbersof heavy artillery and tanks. The full parade is not held because of an agreedlimitation of tanks in the city, as laid down in the armistice agreement withJordan. Egypt accuses Israel of having sent the "missing tanks and otherweaponry to the north." Egypt names May 17 as the day on which Israel willinvade Syria. A new song is born: "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" -"Jerusalem of Gold" by Naomi Shemer is performed for the first timeon Independence Day. It soon becomes a kind of second national anthem.
1967:During a parade in Jerusalem marking the 19th anniversary of Israeliindependence, a messenger brings word to Prime Minister Eshkol that “largeEgyptian forces were moving into Sinai and advancing westward.” The messagecontinued that in Cairo rumored reports had Nasser ordering the removal of the UNEmergency Forces from the Sinai and the Straits of Tiran.
1967:“While on a photo assignment in London, Linda Eastman met Beatle Paul McCartneyat the Bag O’Nails.
1968:U.S. premiere of “The Swimmer” for which Sydney Pollack provided uncrediteddirectorial work and for which producer Sam Spiegel hired Marvin Hamlisch towrite the music.
1969:Associate Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas resigned over a controversyconcerning past legal fees.
1969:“Thirty-five Arabs were injured by terrorist grenade attacks in Gaza, Jabaliya,Kahn Yunis, Rafa, and Deir el Balah,”
1970:“(They Long to Be) Close to You,” a Billboard topper by Burt Bacharach and HalDavid was released today.
1971:“70, Girls, 70” closed today Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre with StanleyPrager serving as the production supervisor.
1973(13thof Iyar, 5733): Seventy-three-year-old Ralph Kahn, the son Baruch Kahn andConstance Kenendel Lang and the husband of Edith Sommer passed away today inMontpellier, France.
1973:President Richard Nixon awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor to Air ForceSergeant John L. Levitow, the only enlisted airman to be so honored during theViet Nam War. The citation reads asfollows: “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk ofhis own life above and beyond the call of duty. Sergeant John L. Levitow (thenAirman First Class), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptionalheroism on February 24, 1969, while assigned as a loadmaster aboard an AC-47aircraft flying a night mission. On that date, Sgt. Levitow's aircraft wasstruck by a hostile mortar round. The resulting explosion ripped a hole throughthe wing and fragments mad over 3,500 holes in the fuselage. All occupants ofthe cargo compartment were helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage.The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember, who hadbeen launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged incombat. Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast andsuffering from over forty fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered tohis feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him, who had been knocked downand was bleeding heavily. As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and awayfrom the open cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him inthe aisle. Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his ownwounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare. Sgt. Levitow struggledforward despite the loss of blood. Unable to grasp the flare with his hands, hethrew himself bodily upon the burning flare. Hugging the deadly devise to hisbody, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flarethrough the open cargo door. At that instant, the flare separated and ignitedin the air, but clear of the aircraft. Sgt. Levitow, by selfless and heroicactions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction.Sgt. Levitow's conspicuous gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmenand his intrepidity at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call ofduty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Air Forceand reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of hiscountry.” Born in in 1945, Levitowpassed away at the age of 55 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
1974(23rdof Iyar, 5734): A cell from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestineinfiltrated into Israel from Lebanon. They entered an apartment in Ma’a lot,killing the Cohen family including their four year old son. The terrorist thenstormed Netiv Meir School. “They took105 students and 10 of their teachers hostage.They were from a religious high school in Safed and who were staying theschool during a class trip.” Theterrorists killed 22 students and three of the teachers before the IDF couldmount an effective rescue mission.
1975(5thof Sivan, 5735): Erev Shavuot
1978:In Queens, “Michael Krumholtz, a postal worker and his wife Judy, a dentalassistant gave birth to actor David Krumholtz whose portrayal of math wizard“Charlie Epps” in the crime-comedy series “Numbers” might be seen as a bit ofethnic stereotyping.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that theIsraeli Embassy in Washington reiterated that "the supply of advancedweapons to Saudi Arabia and Egypt creates a serious threat to the security ofIsrael." President Sadat of Egypt, in a major policy speech, threateneddomestic critics of his policy of negotiating with Israel, and took great painsin explaining why he had deposited one million pounds, received from Katar, inhis personal account.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that theIsraeli Cabinet, by a vote of 14 to three, backed the Chief of Staff, RaphaelEitan's declaration that Israel cannot defend itself without Judea, Samaria,and the Golan.
1979(18thof Iyar, 5739): Lag BaOmer
1979:ABC broadcast the last episode of the first season of “Taxi” the sit comcreated by James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels and Ed Weinberger and starring JuddHirsch.
1979:The building housing Lit Brothers, a Philadelphia department store stat by Rachel,Samuel and Jacob Lit in 1891 “was added to the National Register of HistoricPlaces” today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lit
1981:President Anwar el-Sadat called on Syria and Israel today to adopt a policy of''hands off Lebanon'' and urged the Palestinians to form a provisionalgovernment because ''the day will come when Israel will sit with you.'' Mr.Sadat's remarks came in a two-and-a-half-hour address to Parliament, which wasdevoted in large measure to a scathing denunciation of Egypt's small oppositionSocialist Labor Party. The President dealt only briefly with the Lebanesecrisis and did not address himself to a question that has been arising withsome frequency here - What would Egypt do if Syria and Israel went to war?
1982(22ndof Iyar, 5742): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1982(22ndof Iyar, 5742): Eight-eight-year-old Yale Law School graduate and worker’s compspecialist who was survived by his wife Jessie passed away today in New Haven,CT.
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/17/obituaries/louis-sachs.html
1983:Rabbi Charles Kroloff of Temple Emanu-El in Westfield officiated at the weddingof Lisa Ehrich and Robert Bernstein. Hewas assisted by cantorial student Jill Spasser.
1983:In “Psychological and Moral Dilemmas” published today, Robert Alter reviews EightGreat Hebrew Novels edited by Alan Lelchuck and Gershon Shaked.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/books/psychological-and-moral-dilemmas.html?pagewanted=all
1983:In “New Life For A Prescient Novel About Nazism” published today Frederick S.Roffman described the film being made based on The Oppermanns by LionFeuchtwanger.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/15/books/new-life-for-a-prescient-novel-about-nazism.html
1986:NBC broadcast the final episode of season 2 of the “Cosby Show” co-created byEd Weinberger which was the number sitcom for the 1985-1986 season
1986(6thof Iyar, 5746): Seventy-one-year-oldauthor and journalist Theodore White passed away. White first gained fame covering China duringWorld War II for the Time/Life media empire.His honest reporting got him in trouble with Right Wing Americans and heended up coming back to the States after the war. White had been so effective as a reporterbecause he spoke Chinese, a language he learned quite by accident whilestudying at Harvard. A whole newgeneration of Americans came to know him for his prize winning popularpolitical science treatise, The Making in President which told the storyof the Nixon-Kennedy campaign in 1960.It provided many Americans with their first insight as to how theAmerican electoral system really worked.Although he was to write several “making of a President” books, nonewould come close to the original effort which spawned a whole new genre ofpolitical reporting.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-16/news/mn-5696_1_white-house
1988(28thof Iyar, 5748): Yom Yerushalayim
1989:French premiere of “Brenda Starr” a film based on the comic strip reporter witha script by “Jenny Wolkind,” better known as Delia Ephron.
1990:The Cemetery Club produced by Philip Rose opened on Broadway at the BrooksAtkinson Theatre.
1994(5thof Sivan, 5754): Erev Shavuot
1994(5thof Sivan, 5754): Seventy-eight-year-old Russian born British economistAlexander Nove whom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher described as “one of themost significant scholars of 'Soviet' studies in its widest sense and beyond”passed away today.
http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0168&type=P
1995:The Chicago Sun Times reports thatEddie Schwartz has left WLUP after having failed to obtain the same success hehad enjoyed with WGN.
1995(15thof Iyar, 5755): Eighty-one-year-old “American real estate investor” Seymour B.Durst, “a philanthropist and the inventor of the National Debt Clock” passedaway today.
1995:“My so-called Life” a teen drama created by Winnie Hotlzman and produced byEdward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz was officially canceled today.
1997:NBC broadcast the final episode of season seven of “Seinfeld.”
1998:“The Horse Whisperer” a movie version of the novel of the same name with ascript by Eric Roth and featuring Jessalyn Gilsig.
1998:“Quest for Camelot” an animated musical fantasy with a script by David Seidlerand starring Jessalyn Gilsig and Don Rickles was released in the United Statestoday.
1998:“Clockwatchers” a comedy co-starring Lisa Kudrow was released in the UnitedStates today.
1999:In the West End at the Lyric Theatre final performance of a revival of “AnimalCrackers” a musical with lyrics and music by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby and thebook by George S. Kaurfman and Morrie Ryskind.
2000:Israel and Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) reestablished diplomatic relations.
2000:By decree of the French Republic President, Israeli diplomat, Dr Meir Rosenne,has been made Commander in the National Order of the Legion of Honour.
2001(22ndof Iyar, 5761): Twenty-year-old Idit Mizrahi of Rimonim was murdered today whenterrorists fired bullets at car carrying her, her father and her brother whowere traveling to attend a family wedding.
2001:One Israel, a party formed by Ehud Barak in 1999 ceased to exist today.
2001:The BBC broadcast “Revolutions” the 9th episode of “A History ofBritain a documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama” which beganits second season earlier this month.
2001:In “Let the Circle Be Unbroken,” published today Mimi Sheraton laments thelatest assault on “The Bagel” – Pillsbury’s Toaster Filled Bagels.
Bagel purists have hada lot to swallow as their favorite nosh has come in for its share of creativerethinking. The basic flour-water-salt-yeast-malt dough that should be shapedand then boiled before being baked is now often steamed or not moistened atall, so that it lacks the inimitable yeasty, chewy inner texture. Pizza orpumpernickel doughs are often used now, and the traditional crust that shouldbe plain, with a golden, shiny finish, may be pockmarked with poppy or sesameseeds, garlic or onions, while the correctly neutral, cool interior isadulterated with cinnamon and raisins, nuts and berries. Economicconsiderations, like high labor costs, have fostered mammoth bagels that fetchmammoth prices even though they resemble inner tubes more than they do thecompact, true bagel that ideally measures about 3.5 inches in diameter. It's awonder we permit these versions to be called bagels at all. But the singlecharacteristic of the bagel that has always been honored, no matter what otherattributes go by the board, is its shape. A bagel is ring-shaped -- round witha hole in the center. At least until now;The Pillsbury Company’s''filled bagels'' -- described in the advertising copy as ''highly evolved'' --are more like Pop-Tarts than bagels. Each 3- by 4-inch rectangle of ''tastybagel crust'' is filled with cream cheese and, of all things, strawberry jelly.Although sweetness is antithetical to true bagel connoisseurship, the jelly andthe cheese suggest the red-and-white color combination (visible through threeslashes on the top crust) of cream cheese and smoked salmon. Real fish, ofcourse, would not work, being too perishable for both freezer and toaster. Thegreatest attribute of these ''filled bagels,'' promises the ad copy, is: ''Nogloppy mess. Next breakfast, it's freezer, toaster, done.'' FollowingPillsbury's instructions, this highly evolved taster found the crust (neitherbaked nor steamed, I bet) to have the flavor and texture one might expect froma dampened, heated manila folder enclosing a crowd-pleasing, sweet and creamyfilling. But please, Pillsbury Doughboy, go back to your creative copywritersand marketing talents and come up with another name. The new product you soproudly hail may not be totally terrible, but it is totally not a bagel. Whereis the circle? Where is the hole?
2002:President Bush welcomes forty-five leaders from the United Jewish Communitiesto the White House.
2003:Today, a Paris court rejected a lawsuit brought by Kurt Werner Schaechter, 82,an Austrian-born French Jew, charging France's national railroad company withthe equivalent of complicity in crimes against humanity for deporting Jews toNazi death camps during Germany's wartime occupation of France.”
2004:After being called up from Triple-A Pawtucket today Kevin Edmund Youkilis “went2 for 4 in his major league debut” with the Boston Red Sox.
2005(6thof Iyar, 5765): Alan B. Gold, ChiefJustice of the Quebec Superior Court passed away at the age of 87.
2005:“Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” co-starring Natalie Portman andFrank Oz premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
2005: The New York Timesincluded reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest toJewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of “AfterSuch Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust,” EvaHoffman’s essay that “thoughtfully conveys the conflicted inner lives of ageneration of children of Holocaust survivors” and “The Sea House” Esther Freud’s “intricate English novel,inspired by the letters of Esther Freud's grandfather (Sigmund's son), which isset along the Suffolk coast and tells two stories separated by half a century.”
2006:Over 150,000 people attended the celebrations at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon BarYochai on Mount Meron in the Galilee, where a large feast is traditionallyheld.
2006:Daniel Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house,in Milan,
2006:Daniel Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house,in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation
2007:In Washington, D.C. Theater J presents the last of performances of ArnoldWesker's “Shylock,” a landmark re-imagining of the three stories which inspiredShakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Featuring beloved internationalperformer Theodore Bikel in the title role and Edward Gero as Antonio, thisstaged concert reading is presentedin conjunction with the Shakespeare in Washington Festival.
2007:In London, the ZF presents “A Special Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary ofthe Reunification of Jerusalem” featuring a speech by Moshe Arens, formerIsraeli Ambassador to the United States who also served as the Israeli DefenseMinister and Foreign Minister.
2007:Four people were wounded by a barrage of at last 19 Qassam Rockets fired byHamas terrorists at the western Negev town of Sderot. Palestinian leaders said that Hamas wastrying to divert attention from internecine fighting in the Gaza Strip byrenewing hostilities between Israel and the Palestine Authority.
2007(27thof Iyar, 5767): Ninety-five-year-oldItalian-Jewish architect Giorgio Cavaglieri, passed away today. (As reported byDouglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/arts/design/18cavaglieri.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print
2008:In Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem, The First International Writers Festivalcomes to a close.
2008: The Jewish Historical Society ofGreater Washington marks the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel with aseries of book talks by Laura Cohen Apelbaum on “Jewish Washington: Scrapbookof an American Community” (the companion to the award-winning exhibit of thesame name) beginning at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. It isco-sponsored by the Embassy of Israel and the B'nai B'rith Klutznick NationalJewish Museum
2008:President George Bush is schedule to address the Knesset on the second day ofhis visit to Israel; a visit designed to honor Israel on its sixtiethanniversary as well as to try and advance peace talks with the Palestinians.
2008:A conference is held at the Beit Chail Haavir in Herzlia by the National RoadSafety Authority, Or Yarok, and the Institute of Technological Studies in orderto promote new technological advances to improve road safety in Israel.
2008:Lindsay Gottlieb was named head coach of the University of California, SantaBarbara.
2008:Google co-founder Sergey Brin lauded Israeli innovations in technology andenvironmental efforts, saying Israel "takes our climate challenges veryseriously." Brin, visiting as a delegate to President Shimon Peres'Presidential Conference, told Haaretzthat these challenges have "great geopolitcal ramifications on thiscountry, in addition to environmental ones."
2008:Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch told a panel in Jerusalem on Thursdaythat promoting technology throughout the Middle East could help advance peace."When people have the skills - to build better lives for themselves andtheir families, their societies become more peaceful and Israel will havebetter neighbors," Murdoch said during a debate on new media and theinternet at President Shimon Peres' "Facing Tomorrow" conference."We'll continue to do what we can to help Israel maintain its competitiveedge. Yet we must also look for new ways to expand human capital throughout theMiddle East."
2008:"Waltz With Bashir” a daring new animated documentary which followsIsraeli director Ari Folman as he tries to piece together memories of the 1982massacre of Palestinians in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila camps is screened at theCannes Film Festival.
2009:Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of FourMeals,” discusses his most recent book, In Defense of Food: An Eater'sManifesto, at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Md., in an event sponsoredby Politics and Prose Bookstore.
2009: RabbiShefa Gold, a leader in Aleph, The Alliance for Jewish Renewal leads Fridaynight services for Congregation Bet Mishpachah at the Jewish Community Centerin Washington, D.C.
2009(21stof Iyar): Ninety-one-year-old Edwin S. Shneidman, a psychologist who gave newdirection to the study of suicide and was a founder of the nation’s firstcomprehensive suicide prevention center, passed away today at his home in LosAngeles. (As reported by William Dicke)
2010:Before Shabbat morning services start at Temple Emanuel in Denver, Rabbi StevenFoster is scheduled to discuss "Reform Responsa: Applying Jewish Text toModern Day Questions."
2010(2ndof Sivan, 5770): Moshe Greenberg, one of the most influential Jewish biblicalscholars of the 20th century, died today at his home in Jerusalem at the age of81. As reported by Dennis Hevesi
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/arts/20greenberg.html?pagewanted=print
2011:Joel and Ethan Coen, the Oscar award-winning producer-director team thatcreated films like The Big Lebowski and A Serious Man are expected to attendthe ceremony in Israel today at which they will be formally awarded The DanDavid Prize “for their contribution in film making.”
2011: A Brazilian production of the musical “Baby” withmusic by David Shire opened today.
2011: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled topresent a symposium entitled: “2,000 Years of Jewish Life in Morocco: An EpicJourney.”
2011: In what would prove to be a case of “rush to judgment” the New York PoliceDepartment arrested Dominique Strauss-Kahn at 2:15 a.m. today “on charges ofcriminal sexual act, attempted rape, and an unlawful imprisonment in connectionwith a sexual assault on a 32-year-old chambermaid in the luxury suite of a MidtownManhattan hotel yesterday” about 1 p.m., Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne,the department’s chief spokesman, said.(As reported by Al Baker and Steven Erlanger)
2011: Young Jewish Professionals are scheduled to takepart in The Lox, Stock & Bagel Scavenger Hunter where they will “explorethe heart of the Lower East Side that is changing right before your eyes.Highlights include Russ & Daughters, Katz's Deli, the birthplace of B'naiB'rith, Economy Candy, and much more.”
2011: Avraham Granted was fired today as Manager of WestHam United “after the club was relegated to the Football League Championship
2011: In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month, theMizel Museum will open its doors free of charge” today “for visitors to tourits new permanent exhibit 4,000 Year Road Trip: Gathering Sparks,” which offers“a dynamic journey through art, artifacts and digital media that narrates andcelebrates Jewish culture and history.”
2011: The New York Times features reviews of booksby Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “TheWizards of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust” by Diana B. Henriquesand the recently released paperback edition of “The Sabbath World: Glimpsesof a Different Order of Time” by Judith Shulevitz
2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews ofbooks by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including'Say Her Name' by Francisco Goldman.
2011: Four people were reportedly shot dead by Israel DefenseForces troops today as they opened fire on large numbers of infiltrators tryingto breach Syria's southern border with Israel. Another four people were said tohave been killed on the Lebanese side of its shared frontier with Israel, asPalestinian protests for the annual Nakba Day, which mourns the creation of theState of Israel, took hold across the region.
2011: Cedar Rapids native, John Lipsky, brother of TempleJudah congregant Ann Lipsky is named as acting managing director of the IMF.
2011(11th of Iyar, 5771): Eighty-year-old Rebbetzin HesaHalberstam, the widow of Grand Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Halberstam passed away today.
2011: Dozens of Im Tirtzu activists gathered outside theoffices of UNRWA in Jerusalem holding signs and chanting, "They expelled,they attacked, they lost.” Im Tirtzu takes its name from the saying of TheodorHerzl "If you will it, it is no dream."
2012: The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession,Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Book by Matti Friedman went on saletoday.
http://www.workman.com/products/9781616200404/
2012: Basya Schecter is scheduled to perform “Songs ofWonder” which sets the Yiddish poetry of the civil rights activist and Jewishphilosopher Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to music at the Washington DCJCC.
2012: Cellist Yoed NIr is scheduled to join ReginaSpektor in tonight’s performance at the United Palace Theatre.
2012: Ellen Cassedy is scheduled to read from and sign her newbook, We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust at the NationalMuseum of American Jewish Military History
2012: Jill Abramson, the executive editor of the New YorkTimes will receive an honorary degree to at Farleigh Dickinson University’s 69thcommencement exercises.
2012: Arab terrorists attacked southern Israel with a Kassamrocket early today and attacked Jews in the Hevron area with two firebombsovernight as “Nakba Day” began
2012: Twenty-four-year-old Majid Jamali Fashi was hungtoday by Iran after having been “convicted for Israel and assassinating anIranian nuclear scientist.”
2012: “Sisters Joined by Tumult, Grown Apart in Time”published today provides a detaile review of I Am Forbidden, a noble byAnouk Markovits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/books/i-am-forbidden-a-novel-by-anouk-markovits.html?ref=books
2012(23rdof Iyar, 5772): Eighty-eight year old Holocaust survivor and scholar ArnoLustiger passed away today.
http://www.northjersey.com/obituaries/Holocaust_survivor_and_scholar_Arno_Lustiger_dies_at_88.html
2013(6thof Sivan, 5773): First Day of Shavuot
2013:Scheduled opening of the Ein Gev Shavuot Festival
2013:“Pedro Hernandez, Charged With Murder Of Etan Patz, To Face Trial”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/15/pedro-hernandez-etan-patz-murder-case-trial_n_3278117.html
2013:For the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising, two mortar shellsexploded in the Mount Hermon area this morning. There were no reported injuriesor casualties. The area in the Hermon, the mountain range that straddles theLebanese-Syrian border and the Golan Heights, was promptly closed to hikers forseveral hours on the Shavuot holiday.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/for-first-time-since-syrian-uprising-2-mortars-hit-mt-hermon/
2013:Israel will continue to take military action to prevent the transfer ofadvanced weaponry to Syria, The New York Times quoted a senior Israeli officialas saying today, a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met RussianPresident Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss the troubled situation.
2014: The Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to host PeterZisa in program celebrating the music of two Jewish composers – AlexandreTansman and Mario Castlenuovo-Tedesco.
2014:The Israel Action Center at the JCRC is scheduled to present “Israel at 66:Spies and Defenders” with CBS News correspondent Dan Raviv and Israelijournalist Yossi Melman.
2014:Today, “in the wake of outcry from the public, gay rights organizations andpoliticians, Yaakov Ariel, the rabbi of Ramat Gan who “advised a landlord notto rent…an apartment to a lesbian couple” was “summoned by Ramat Gan MayroIsrael Singer to explain his remarks.”(As reported by Gavriel Fiske)
2014:“A Jewish woman was attacked at a bus stop in Paris’ Montmartre district by aman who shook her baby carriage and said, “Dirty Jewess, enough with yourchildren already, you Jews have too many children, screw you.” (Tablet)
2014:“Two IDF soldiers from the 50th Battalion of the Nahal Brigade have beendismissed from their unit for campaigning on Facebook against orders to evictJewish settlers on the West Bank, the army said today”
2014:Tatiana Maslany was cast in a principal role as the younger version of HelenMirren's character, “Maria Altmann” in the upcoming film “Woman in Gold.”
2014:The Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism is scheduled to host alecture by Professor Maud Mandel of Brown University entitled “Muslims and Jewsin France: History of a Conflict.”
2015:Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Paramount Theatre inCharlottesville, VA.
2015:“The Kindergarten Teacher” is scheduled to be shown on the final day of the 18thAnnual Film Festival sponsored by the National Center for Jewish Film’s.
2015:Centenarian Elisabeth Bing, whose parents fled Nazi Germany because they hadbeen Jewish before converting to Christianity and was leader in the naturalchildbirth movement, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/health/elisabeth-bing-mother-of-lamaze-dies-at-100.html
2015:Today “at an art storage facility in southern Germany. “more than 70 yearsafter its disappearance and after a year and a half of hard-nosednegotiations,” "Femme Assise," was handed over to Christopher A.Marinello, an attorney representing the descendants of Paul Rosenberg, “one ofthe world’s leading dealers in Modern art…whose collection was looted by theNazis.”
2015:In “Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s New Justice Minister, Shrugs Off Critics in HerPath” published today Jodi Rudoren provided a profile of a rising politicalstar.
2015:Rabbi Barry Fruendal is scheduled to be sentenced to after “pleading guilty to52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism for installing secret cameras in the showerroom of the mikvah adjacent to Kesher Israel, the prominent Washington Orthodoxsynagogue he led for some 25 years”
2016:The New York Times featured reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding Little Labors by Rivka Galchen, The Secret War: Spies,Cyphers and Guerrillas 1939-1945 by Max Hastings, A Self-Made Man” ThePolitical Life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849 by Sidney Blumenthal and WeWere Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to Covergirl, the Buying and Selling of aPolitical Movement by Andi Zeisler
2016:Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host the firstannual city-wide 5K Race for Humanity.
2016:The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to sponsor an IsraelIndependence Day Celebration Lunch featuring Israeli falafel followed by ascreening of the Mickey Marcus biopic “Cast a Giant Shadow” starring KirkDouglas.
2016:In New York, B’nai Jeshurun is scheduled to host “an interactive performance ofLea Goldberg’s Israeli children’s book “Dira Lehaskir -Apartment to Let”!narrated by actress Shira Averbuch”
2016:Ari Shavit, author of A Promised Land , Georgetown Hillel Rabbi Rachel Gartner,and emerging leader Harry Reis are scheduled to participate in “Israel Forum:Zionism and Liberalism
fora New Generation” at JCC Manhattan.
2016:The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled tohost “Gala 2016.”
2016:At the Jewish Women’s Circle in Malta, NY, the Chabads of Saratoga County isscheduled to “Finding Your Small Miracles” featuring, Yitta HalberstamCo-author of the Small Miracles Series: Heartwarming stories ofExtraordinary Coincidences from everyday Life
2017: TheOxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to co-sponsor a weekly interfaithdiscussion, thisweek's topic TBC,from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, looked at in avariety of texts and scriptures “at the Harold Wilson Room, Jesus College.”
2017: (19thof Iyar, 5777): In Los Angeles, graduation ceremonies are scheduled to takeplace at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion
2017: Aspart of the lecture series “Israel: The Land and its People” Henry Abramson isscheduled to lecture on “Theodore Herzl: Father of Zionism” at the Avenue Jcampus of Touro College
2017:MJE is scheduled to host “Conversations Remix” with Rabbi Mark Wildes.
2017:Joan Nathan is scheduled to talk about her new book King Solomon’s Tablewhich “explores Jewish cooking from around the world.”
2017:The Association for Jewish Studies and Center for Jewish History is scheduledto host a lecture by Yael Landman on “Is There a Biblical "Law"? Lawin the World of the Bible.”
2017:The exhibit “Menorah: Worship, History, Legend” is scheduled to opensimultaneously at both the Jewish Museum and the Braccio de Carlo Magno Museumin the Vatican.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/europe/vatican-rome-menorah-exhibit-jewish-museum.html
2017:Obituary writer Margalit Fox is among those scheduled to speak at a symposiumdescribing how the Times Obituary Team “captures a life in 500 words.” (Editor’s note- this is one time I wish Ilived in New York. The Times obits arenot only literary gems and they are an invaluable tool for historicalresearch. In addition to which, thewriters are very patent people who take their time to respond to inquiries evenwhen they come from an “am ha’aretz in eastern Iowa.)
2017:“MGM Television and Daniel Silva announced today that MGM had acquired theadaption rights for the Allon series, a series of spy novel whose “main focusis Gabriel Allon, an Israeli art restorer, spy and assassin” whose executiveproducers would be Silva and his Jewish wife Jamie Gangel, the televisionjournalist.
2017:At the start of the weekly Yisrael Beytenu meeting today, Defense MinisterAvigdor Liberman rebuked “his fellow ministers for publicly going head-to-headwith Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the upcoming Trump visit, in anapparent reference to Education Minister Naftali Bennett.”
2017:“Eliran Saada, the owner of Express Target Marketing, which has operated thebinary options companies InsideOption and SecuredOptions, was arrested in TelAviv on suspicion of fraud, false accounting, forgery, extortion andblackmail.”
2018:Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host Gettysburg College professor KerryWallach discussing her latest work Passing Illusions: Jewish Visibility inWeimar Germany in which she “challenges the notion that Jews in Weimar-eraGermany sought to be invisible or indistinguishable from other Germans by“passing” as non-Jews.”
2018:The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host another session of“Shtisel Watch and Learn” where the chaplains lead a discussion after viewingan episode of “the award-winning Israeli Television series” about a “haredifamily” living “in Jerusalem’s religious neighborhood of Geula.”
2018(1stof Sivan, 5778): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2019:“The Orthodox Jewish of Commerce Committee and JBNF are scheduled to host the2nd OJC Jerusalem Annual Anglo Israeli American -Expo and Conference today atthe Jerusalem Gardens Hotel.
2019:In South Bend, IN, at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University ofNotre Dame, the Michiana Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screeningof “From Cairo to the Cloud” this evening.
2019:In London, the Phoenix is scheduled to host “a special preview screening of‘Rory's Way,’ a new film from Israeli directors Mihal Brezis and Oded Binnun.”
2019:The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by“architectural historian and author Anthony W. Robins” on “Urban Genealogy –Researching New York City’s Buildings.”
2019:The East Bronx History is scheduled to host “a presentation by Joan Adler about Nathan Straus, Jr. and hisrole in the creation of Hillside Homes, one of the first subsidized housingprojects in the United States.”
2019: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim isscheduled to host its “first monthly Bereavement Support Group” and its firstgathering of the “Anti-Semitism Discussion Group.”
2020: In keeping with the sentiments expressedby Rabbi David Kaufman when Vice President Pence was in Iowa peddling plans for“re-opening” in Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host virtual Fridaynight services.
2020: Temple Israel of Boston is scheduled topresent on-line “Qabbalat Shabbat.”
2020: The Batsheva Dancers are scheduled tohost the opening of their Online Festival.
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled topresent, on-line Dr. Mark Weisstuch as he lectures on “The Trial of Jesus – AJewish Perspective.”
2020: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduledto a host a piano recital with Malachi Rozenbaum.
2020: As part of its “Online Speaker Series,”the Breman Museum is scheduled to present “Jews of the American South” duringwhich Jeremy Katz, Director of the Cuba Family Archives, delves into SouthernJewish History” and describes how families, culture, and life succeeded andpersevered in The American South”
2021: Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto isscheduled to present an in-person, small-group Shavuot event to rekindlecommunity connections.
2021: As the CDC issues new guidelines, inColumbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host in person andZOOM Shabbat Services.
2021: JCCContra Costa is scheduled to host an in-person hike at a local park inDanville, followed by ice cream and refreshments.
2021: As Gaza terrorists continue rainingrockets on Israeli civilians, over half of the homes in the country don't havea residential secure space in which to take cover in case of an attack”including Jerusalem with some 180,000 apartments without shelter, followed byTel Aviv with 160,000, Haifa with over 98,000, Petah Tikva with close to 50,000and Rishon Lezion with some 46,000 apartments that do not have a bomb shelter
2021: Jessica Herren, who is the realembodiment of what is the best in Judaism, is scheduled to have her virtualgraduation from the University of Iowa.
2021: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduledto host a “Mostly Mozart” concert.
2021(4th of Sivan, 5781): ParashatBamidbar; Perkei Avot- Chapter 6; for more see
2021: Based on previously published todayduring the second week of May approximately 2,000 rockets have been fired intoIsrael from terrorists in Gaza, including Hamas, and Lebanon.
2022: LBI is scheduled to present a lecture byKarina Urbach on “Alice’s Book: How the Nazis Stole My Grandmother’s Cookbook.
2022(14thof Iyar, 5782): Pesach Sheini
2022:JHMOC is scheduled to present “A Night of Cake and Comedy with Comedian LarryDonsky.”
2022:The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is scheduled to present “Strengthening YourArtistic Voice” with Emma Goldman-Sherman
2022:The Edlavitch JCC is scheduled to host a screening of “Picking Up the Pieces,”which is a work in progress that tells the story of director Aviva Kempner’smother, Hanka Ciesla, who survived the Holocaust as a Polish Catholic and heruncle, Dudek Ciesla, who survived Auschwitz” and how “they miraculously foundeach other after liberation in Berlin.
2022:“The Hare with Amber Eyes,” an exhibition at the Jewish Museum that “tells thestory of the Ephrussi family celebrated in the bestselling memoir of the samename by Edmund de Waal” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2022:The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to the English language premierof “The Ten Commandments, The Musical.”
2022:The Baltimore Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the final screenings of“Wet Dog” and “Greener Pastures.”
2022:Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is scheduled to present The SeventhAnnual Greek Jewish Festival.
2022:In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host a “tree planting party atEben Israel Cemetery” during which 28 trees will be planted to replace thosedestroy by the derecho.
2022:The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers including the recently issued paperbackedition of Monkey Boy by Francisco Goldman.
2023:As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Lappin Foundation is scheduledto present “an informative, entertaining and colorful program during whichattendees will “learn about Rube Goldberg, iconic Jewish American illustrator,cartoonist, author, inventor and sculptor.”
2023:In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is scheduled to host the “SiliconValley Jewish Playwriting Contest” during which attendees will “watch threeJewish-themed plays then vote for your favorite as part of a competition thatspans U.S., Israel and beyond.”
2023:The Israeli American Council – Boston is scheduled to present “Act and ImpactSession” during which attendees will “learn all about the importance ofstorytelling and narratives.”
2023:Since Palestinian terrorists launched rockets yesterday six hours after a ceasefire went into effect, Israelis awake today wondering if “it is really over.”
2024:The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a conversation with Pulitzer Prizewinning author and journalist Nicholas Kristoff and “memoirist and historianTara Westover.
2024:“The Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, the Kennedy Center,and the Recording Academy are scheduled to host the “Free Jewish AmericanHeritage from the Nation’s Capital.
2024:Convicted perjurer and former Trump fixeMichael Cohen is scheduled to continuetestifying in the “Trump Hush Money” trial in NYC.
2024:As May 15th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps theUnited States and the Hamas held hostages begin day222 in captivity. (Editor’snote: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are justproviding a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
