May 25
1085: PopeGregory VI passed away. Gregory opposedHenry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who saw himself as a protector of theJews. Henry contended that the Jews,regardless of where they lived, were his subjects. He granted them special dispensations andexemptions in matters of trade and taxes.
1085: AlfonsoVI of Castile took Toledo back from the Moors. As Moslem Spain came under thecontrol of increasingly intolerant religious leaders, Jews and liberal Moslemsfound refuge in the tolerant world of Christian Toledo. As many as 40,000 Jews are reported to havefought in the armies of Alfonso against the Almoravides. Ironically, there were thousands of Jewsfighting with the Almoravides as well.
1096: Massacreof the Jews of Worms who took refuge in the city's castle during the FirstCrusade. Simcha Bar Isaac haKohen was "torn to bits"byCrusaders in a church for stabbing the bishop's nephew while pretending tosubmit to compulsory baptism. (Editorialcomment: I’ll bet that scene is in not in any of the blockbuster hits about thenoble Crusaders and their noble Moslem opponents.)
1241: Firstattack on Jewish community of Frankfort-on-the-Main Germany.
1261: ThePapacy of Alexander IV, who brought the Inquisition to France, ended today.
1490: InToledo, 400 Judaizers and “many Hebrew books” were burned “1t a great auto dafé “where a woman who wished to die as a Jewess expired with the word"Adonai" on her lips.”
1648:Chmielnicki's pogroms, which resulted in the massacre of more than 300,000Jews, broke out. This slaughter took place in the Ukraine. This wasthe worst slaughter of Jews until the Holocaust.
1710(5thof Iyar): Rabbi Benjamin Ozer of Zolkiev, author of “Even ha-Ozer” passed away
1717: JohannChristian George Bodenschatz, the native of Hof, Germany who “devoted his lifeto Jewish antiquities, and is said to have made elaborate models of the Ark ofNoah and of the Tabernacle in the wilderness.”
1738(6thof Sivan, 5498): “Moshe Neta, the son of Avi passed away today in Yablonov.
1741(10thof Sivan): Daniel Christian Jabolonski, who printed the Talmud passed away inBerlin today.
1751: InLondon, Sarah Nunes Navaro and Aaron Nunez Cardozo who were married in 1739gave birth to Isaac Nunez Cardozo, the husband of Sarah Hart with whom he hadfive children – Michael, Rachel, Abigail, Esther and Judith.
1757(6thof Sivan, 5517): Shavuot
1757(6thof Sivan, 5517): Italian Rabbi and Poet Jacob Daniel Olmo Ben Abraham passedaway today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15085.html
1759: JudahLob Ben Nathan Krysa, an 18th century Frankist leader from Galacia“declared that the cross symbolized the "holy trinity" spoken of inthe Zohar, and the seal of the Messiah.”Krysa also “asserted before the ecclesiastical dignitaries that theTalmud prescribes the use of Christian blood. Like his master Jacob Frank andmost of the Frankists, Krysa” would later embrace Christianity.
1765(5thof Sivan, 5525): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1768: LeviSheftall and Sarah de la Motta, the parents of Savannah native Rachel Sheftallwere married today in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, the homeland of the bride.
1769(18thof Iyar, 5529): Lag B’Omer
1772(22ndof Iyar): Rabbi Aaaron ben Solomon Amarillo, author of “Penie Aharon” passedaway.
1776(7th ofSivan, 5536): Second Day of Shavuot observed for the first time during ameeting of the Second Continental Congress.
1779:In the United Kingdom, Jonathan Jones and the former Catherine Phillips gavebirth to Rachel Jones.
1784:Jews are expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek
1787:Opening session of the Philadelphia Convention which would become known as theConstitutional Convention because its fifty-five delegates would write the U.S.Convention. While there were no Jewish delegates at the Convention, the framerstook action that had a profound effect on the Jewish people that has lasted tothe 21st century. Article VI of the document states: “No religioustest shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trustunder the United States.” In otherwords, from the beginning of Jews, at least at the federal level, were eligibleto hold office. Lewis Charles Levinwould be the first Jew elected to Congress, winning election to the House ofRepresentatives in 1844.
1798:In St. Mary Axe, Raphael Raphael, and the former Ashe Julia gave birth to HenryRaphael.
1800:(1st day of Sivan, 5560): Rosh Chodesh Sivan observed for the firsttime in the 19th century.
1812:Recommendation were passed today related to the establishment of a charity to beknown as the Free School for German Jewswhich later became the Talmud Torah of the Great Synagogue.
1813:In Charleston, SC, Rebecca Philips and Isaiah Moses gave birth to Sarah Mosesthe wife of Aaron Alexander whom she married in 1836 and with she had ninechildren.
1815:One day after she had passed awat Leah bat ? was buried today at the BradyJewish Cemetery.
1817:Birthdate of Saul Solomon the native of St. Helena, the leader of SouthAfrica’s Liberal Party who is called the “Cape Disraeli” because, like BenjaminDisraeli, he converted to Christianity.And like Disraeli, he retained a sense of pride in his ethnicorigins. He passed away in 1892.
1820:In New York, David and Henriette Cromelien gave birth to Washington Cromelinwho is buried at Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1821: Influential 19theconomist David Ricardo the son of Anglo-Sephardic Jews who became a Unitarianwhen he married Priscilla Anne Wilkinson voted for the abolition of the deathpenalty for forgery.
1821: Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich began serving as 1stState Chancellor of the Austrian Empire. Metternich was an extremely complexcharacter whose treatment of Jews depended on the needs of the AustrianEmpire. Thus he could favor rights forJews in Germany while opposing them for Jews in Austria. Henry Kissinger, thefirst Jewish Secretary of State wrote his thesis on Metternich and eventuallypublished A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems ofPeace, 1812-22
1822(5thof Sivan, 5582): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot observed as the Greeks wagewar against the Ottomans for their independence.
1822(5thof Sivan 5582: Fifty-seven-year-old Miriam Marks, the daughter of RachelSolomon and Levy Marks who were married in 1764 and who was the wife ofBenjamin Abraham Nones whom she married in 1782 with whom she had 13 childrenpassed away today in her hometown of Philadelphia, PA.
1826(18thof Iyar, 5586): Lag B’Omer
1826:Bavarian Lewis Eisenmann, “took out his first papers” – a step to becoming acitizen of the United States.
1826:Uri Feivel ben David married Blumah bat Samuel today at the Western Synagogue.
1827:One day after he had passed away, Prague native Reuben Lyon was buried today atthe Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1827:In the Hague, Mozes Abraham Verveer, and Saartje Isaac van der Velden gavebirth to Benjamin Moses Verveer, the husband of Clara de Bok
1831:In Philadelphia, PA, Mary Levy Moss and Eleazer (Eugene) Moss gave birth to philanthropistLucien Moss “a machinist for the firm of Morris & Taws, Philadelphia, forwhom he superintended the erection of sugar-mills in Porto Rico” and thefounder firm of Wiler & Moss, brass-workers who “left the bulk of hismoderate fortune to the Jewish Hospital Association of Philadelphia, for thefounding and endowing of the Lucien Moss Home for Incurables of the JewishFaith.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11171-moss-lucien
1831:Henry Jones married Elizabeth Benjamin today at the Great Synagogue.
1832(25thof Iyar): Rabbi Jacob Lorberbaum of Lissa, author of “Netivot ha-Mishpat”passed away.
1833(7th of Sivan, 5593): Second day ofShavuot
1839: Birthdate of Vienna native Yehuda Porges, whogained famed as “Paris based financer” Jules Porgès and husband of Rose-AnneWodianer who played a major role in the development of diamond and gold miningin South Africa
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jules_Porgès_at_Rochefort75.jpg
1839: "The British Vice-Counsel in Jerusalem,William Tanner Young, wrote a report comparing the conditions of the Jews inPalestine to that of their counterparts in Egypt. Young wrote that theGovernor of Egypt, Ibrahim Pasha, showed 'more consideration' for the Jews thanthe Christians did. Young also wrote that he had heard several EgyptianJews acknowledge that 'they enjoy more peace and tranquility under thisGovernment, than they have ever enjoyed here before.' But he then observedthat, in contrast, 'the Jew in Jerusalem is not estimated in value much above adog - and scarcely a day passes that I do not hear of some act of tyranny andoppression against a Jew.'" (In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1841(5th of Sivan, 5601): Erev Shavuot
1842: Angel Haas married Elizabeth Cohen at the GreatSynagogue in London today
1843: In New York, Jonathan Nathan, the New York born sonof Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan and Sarah Mendes Nathan and his wife RebeccaGratz Nathan gave birth to Gratz Nathan, the husband of Eudora M. Nathan andfather of Constance and Frank Henry Nathan.
1844(7th of Sivan, 5604): Second Day ofShavuot
1844: In Schleswig-Holstein, Levi J. Unna and his wifegave birth to Johanne M. Loeb the husband of Moritz Loeb who settled in showwas she was a director of Michael Reese Hospital and a member of the ReliefCommittee of the Hebrew Charities.
1844: Today, during the reign of Louis Philippe, majorchanges were made in the way members were chosen for the Jewish consistorywhich Napoleon convened first as the Assembly of Jewish Notables and later as a“Grand Sanhedrin.”
1845(18th of Iyar, 5605): Lag B’Omer observedon the same day that “a theatre fire in Canton, China, kills 1,670.
1845: In New York City, Jane and Emanuel Boaz Pike gavebirth to Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike reportedly was the first Jewishbaseball player and the first baseball player to play the game for cash meaninghe was the first professional baseball who was the husband of Zila Pike withwhom he had three children – Boaz, Minnie and Emanuel.
1846: In Philadelphia, PA, Phillipa Minis and EdwardJohnson Etting gave birth to Theodore Minis Etting, \who served in the U.S.Navy from 1862 until 1877 when he resigned to pursue a career as a lawyer acivic leader that culminated in his election as member of the Select Councilwhile being Married to Jeanette Verplanck.
1849(4th of Sivan, 5609): Fifty-three-year-oldUniversity Pennsylvania trained attorney Elijah Gratz Etting, the Baltimoreborn son of Reuben Etting and the district attorney for Cecil County in thestate of Maryland, passed away today.
1852: In Chicago, fourteen Jews organized B’nai Sholom,the second oldest congregation in the city.
1852:“Jewish Disabilities” published today began with the sentence “No more accurategauge for advancing civilization could probably be chosen, than the politicalcondition of the Jews” is worth reading in its entirety for anybody seeking tounderstand the unique nature of the American Jewish experience.
1854: Todayduring the second reading of the Jewish Disabilities Bill sponsored by LordRussell, Benjamin Disraeli voiced his opposition to the measure. In part, Disraeli’s opposition was based on adesire to divorce the bill, which is designed to allow Jewish MP’s to sit inParliament, from a move to provide full rights of citizenship to British RomanCatholics.
1854:German author Paul Heyse arrived in Munich where he had been appointedprofessor of Romance philology at the city’s university. Heyse, who father was not Jewish and whosemother Julie was the daughter of the Prussian court jeweler Jakob Salomon, isconsidered by some to be the first Jew to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1854:In Gibraltar, Eliyahu Benoliel and Ester Baquis gave birth to Solomon Benolielthe husband of Rachel Pariente.
1858:In Vilna, Louis Cohen and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Abraham Cohn who in 1902 began serving as the spiritual leaderof Congregation Ansche Israel in Newark, NJ.
1859:Birthdate of Russian native Isaiah Agat, who served as the Rabbi at Chicago’sCongregation Moses Montefiore which had been founded in 1875 and which duringhis tenure offered a three-day religious school and looked to the Sisters ofMoses Montefiore, as an Auxiliary Service to help with congregational projects.
1859:In Philadelphia, PA, “David and Eva (Baum) Blumenthal” gave birth to “Hart Blumenthal,a trustee of the Jewish Publication Society, chairman of the Keneseth IsraelFree Library and a noted collector of Lincolniana” with his wife Ida Ratwitchraised Walter Hart Blumenthal, the Clinton, IA native precocious enough to the University of Pennsylvania at the ageof 16 before going on to a career as an author.
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/ead/ead.html?id=EAD_upenn_rbml_PUSpMsColl1104
1861(16thof Sivan 5621): Parashat Beha’alotcha read as word reaches New York City thatNorth Carolina has officially adopted an ordinance of secession.
1863:Birthdate of Parisian native and opera composer Camille Erlanger.
1863(7thof Sivan, 5623): Second Day of Shavuot
1863:In Kovno, Jehuda Zwie Finkelstein and his wife gave birth to Simon I.Finelstein who served as rabbi at a several American congregations includingCongregation Bikur Cholim, Baltimore, Md., 1886-1890; Beth T'flla, Cincinnati,Ohio, 1890-1897; and Poale Zedek, Syracuse, N. Y., 1897-1902 and CongregationOhave Sholom, Brooklyn NY
1865:Today the Jewish Messenger “publishedan appreciation of Abraham Lincoln in Hebrew by Isaac Goldstein which beganwith “Happy are thou, Lincoln, Who is like unto thee! Among Kings and princesthou art exalted…”
1867:In “Libau Courland, Hyman and Sarah Maltinsky gave birth to Samuel Maltinskywho in 1888 came to the United States where he went from being a peddler toserving as the President and Treasurer of the Crescent Jewelry Company inPittsburgh, PA.
1867:In Odessa, Nathan Sanders and his wife gave birth to Leon Sanders who wasadmitted to the New York bar in 1895, Married Bertha Fisher in 1896 and servedas Tammany Hall leader in a series of legislative capacities before beingelected “as justice of the Thirteenth District of the Municipal Court of theCity of New York.”
1868:The New York Times reviewed “The Book of Genesis,” translatedfrom the original Hebrew by Dr. T. J. Conant.The translation is accompanied “with copious notes and an introduction.”
1868:Birthdate ofPolish native Dawid “David” Markelowicz Janowski, theJewish chess champion who settled in Paris in 1890, and won his firsttournaments at Monte Carlo and Hanover..
https://www.chess.com/players/david-janowsky
https://www.chessgames.com/player/david_janowski.html?kpage=2
1868:In Camden, SC, Susan Hyams and Adolph Wittkowsky, gave birth to University ofSouth Carolina trained attorney and the husband of Pauline Heyman with whom hehad two children – George and Cecil – and City Attorney for Camden who waspresident of the Hebrew Benevolent Association an a member of the synagogue inCamden.
1870: In Hungary, Mayer Newman and his wife gave birth to Morris Newman whoserved congregations in McKeesport and Scranton, PA before becoming the “Cantorof the First Hungarian Congregation Agudath Achim” in Chicago.
1870:At 3 o'clock this afternoon the corner-stone of the Mount Sinai Hospital waslaid at the corner of Sixty-sixth-street and Lexington-avenue. The ceremonyincluded addresses by New York Mayor Abraham Hall and Judge Cardozo.
1871(5thof Sivan, 5631): 49th Day of the Omer; Erev Shavuot
1873:“A Jewish Ceremony” published today described “a very curious ceremony called‘The Burying of the Law.’” Such aceremony which takes place once every eight or ten years recently took place“in the Spanish Synagogue in Jerusalem” which has a “subterranean cave” inwhich “every old leaf torn out from any holy book, every old worn-out Bible,Gemara and phylactery” has been deposited “by all the Jewish residents ofJerusalem” regardless of their Minhag. Every 8 to 10 years, these materials aremade into bales and then, after following the applicable rituals, the bales arecarried out of the Zion Gate by a procession of Jews who descend “into thevalley of Jehoshaphat where a very deep well is located. The bales are then drop into the well “amidthe singing of the joyous crowd.
1874:Birthdate of Roemerstadt, Austria native Dr. Otto Marburg, the leadingneurologist who became a “clinical professor of neurology at Columbia” afterfleeing the Nazis in 1938 and who said of the United States, “I am full ofgratitude to this great nation which wants nothing for itself but helps as muchas possible those who need help.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/06/14/84538495.pdf
1875: This evening Professor Felix Adler, of Cornell University,addressed the American Geographical Society at Association Hall in New YorkCity. His topic was "The Influence of the Physical Geography of Palestineon Hebrew Thought." The opening of this address was devoted to thestatement and citation of the effects of climate on the character and thoughtsof people born in it.
1876:A meeting of delegates representing Hebrew congregations from various U.S.cities which was being held at The Harvard Rooms in New York City came to anend. The delegates discussed thepossibility of establishing a seminary that would teach Jewish theology and theHebrew language while preparing students to become Rabbis.
1876:In Breslau, Germany, Bertha Heppner and Baruch Fox gave birth to Boston publicschool educated pianist Felix Fox the head of the Felix Fox School ofPianoforete and a member of Temple Israel in Boston.
1877:“A Romance in Paterson: The Marriage of a PrettyJewess Under Peculiar Circ*mstances” published today described the suit for anannulment that Miss Rachel Blumenthal, the daughter of wealthy Montreal Jew, isbringing against Moses Tannenhoz a cigar dealer from Patterson, NJ. The 18 yearold Miss Blumenthal claimed that she was tricked into marrying Tannenhoz andthat she was not of the age of consent when the ceremony took place.
1879:Birthdate of Harry Lilienthal, the husband of Gertrude Harrison Lilienthal andthe son-in-law of Gustave and Louisa Nelson Harrison.
1879: The yearly meeting of the United Hebrew Charities was heldthis morning at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, in East Seventy-seventh Street.
1880:In Amsterdam, a merchant named Jacob Samuel Hillesum and his wife EstherHillesum-Loeza gave birth to their 4th and youngest child Levie(Louis) Hillesum, the father of Esther "Etty" Hillesum. Years later, Etty would keep a diary of lifeunder Nazi occupation that would not surface until after her death at the age of29 in Auschwitz.
1882(7thof Sivan, 5642): Second Day of Shavuot
1882(7thof Sivan, 5642): English publisher and convert to Judaism Thomas Jones passedaway
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8779-jones-thomas
1882:In Lithuania, Hannah-Dvorah Hersch (née Blumberg) and Meyer Dovid Hersch gavebirth to Pesach Liebmann Hersch who gained fame as the pioneering demographerand statistician Liebmann Hersch, the husband of Liba Lichetenbaum with whom hehad three children Irene, Joseph and philosopher Jeanne Hersch
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=34147
1883:Birthdate of Chicago native and University of Pennsylvania graduate HarryWalter Jastrow, the refrigerator manufacturer and husband of Henrietta Levy aswell as the father of Stanley L.Jastrow, the MIT graduate and president of Chicago Sinai Congregation and thegrandfather of Ellen Jastrow.
1885:In Kiev, Fannie Sacherenko and Isaac Molarsky gave birth to School ofIndustrial Art and Academy of Fine arts trained award winning painter MauriceMolarsky, the wife of Tina Maroglis, known for his “portraits, still lifes,landscapes and mural decoration
https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/linda
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Maurice-Molarsky/AB6D7F3839AC6294
1887:In “Ukraine, Pinchus and Chava (Geiro) Bodansky” gave birth to CornellUniversity educated biochemist Dr. Aaron Bodansky, the husband of Marie Syrkin,who worked at the Research Laboratories of Upjohn in Kalamazoo while writing“numerous scientific papers on enzymes and hormones” before going on to“enzymes and hormones.”
1889:Birthdate of Philadelphia native and NYU trained attorney Jacob Axelrad.
1889:In NYC, Louis and Miriam Deborah Friedman gave birth to CCNY and the NYU School of Commerce, Accountsand Finance trained investment banker Elisha Michael Friedman, a member of theAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Secretary of the AmericanCommittee for Hebrew University in Palestine.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/elisha-michael-friedman/2025689/
1890(6thof Sivan, 5650): First Day of Shavuot
1890:At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Gottheil will officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:At Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Kohler will officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:At Temple Ahawatch Chesed, Rabbi Kohut will officiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:At the Temple on East 15th Street, Rabbi Raphael Benjamin willofficiate at Confirmation Services.
1890:Rabbi H.S. Jacobs will lead Shavuot Services today at B’nai Jeshurun.
1890:Rabbi De Sola Mendes will lead Shavuot Services today at Shaarai-Tephilla.
1890:The body of Samuel Hotz, a Jewish peddler, was found in an old mining shaft atWurtsborough, NY.
1890:“Republican Origins” published today described the reaction to The Originsof the Republican Form of Government in the United States by Oscar Strauswhich has now been translated into French by Madame Jessie Catherine Couvreur
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40711FA395F10738DDDAC0A94DD405B8085F0D3
1890:It was reported today that President Carnot’s meeting with the Chief Rabbi ofFrance has “called forth a host of letters on the ‘second Babylonish captivity’and the freedom of the Jews in modern times.”
1890:It was reported today that the Republican Club in New York City continues torefuse to admit Jews with several members publicly committed to using theblackball to accomplish this end.
1890:It was reported today that the Internal Revenue Collector and “boss of one-halfof the Republicans of Kings County,” Ernst Nathan began his career as a cigarmaker. Today he owns several rows of houses, “has made many thousands ofdollars in real estate” and is worth a half-million dollars. His politicalpower stems from his ability to name those who will occupy important electedpositions including two state Assembly districts as well as the partycandidates for Senator and Third District Congressman.
1891:It was reported today that resolutions passed six months under the leadershipof the Duke of Westminster beseeching the Czar to show some pity for his Jewishsubjects have been met with “unseemly contempt” and no let-up in the expulsionof the Jews. In response, the HebrewLovers of Zion has been formed in London with the aim of finding a home for theJewish refugees in Palestine. Theirattempts have been met approval in England and the United States whereanti-immigrant sentiment is growing.
1891:It was reported today that the flood of refugees is gaining, not losing“headway.” During April 7,501 Russian and Polish immigrants arrived in theUnited States “an increase over 1890 of 3,291. While German immigrants aredescribed as “sturdy” and Scandinavians are described as “honest, lustyworkers” these immigrants are described as being poor, degraded and in“pitiable condition” who would be better settled in the lands of the Sultan(Palestine).
1892:“Mortally Wounded In A Duel” published today described the circ*mstances arounda duel fought in Hungary Baron Aczel, a member of the Diet and a rich Jewishlandowner named Karsay who was denied a chance to participate in thecelebration of the jubilee of the coronation of the King because of hisreligion.
1892:The building of the new sanitarium for Jewish children located at Rockaway Parkwhich cost $20, 975 was overseen by the Board of Managers whose officersinclude Nathan Lewis, President; Dr. Horatio Gomez, Vice President; HezekiahKohn, Treasurer; Joseph Davis, Secretary.
1893: Birthdate of László Jenő Ocskay of Ocskó andFelsődubován a Hungarian army officer, captain of the Royal Hungarian Army whosaved approximately 2500 Jews in Budapest in 1944–45, thus being one of thoseHungarians who saved the most Jews during the Holocaust.”
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/h13kskds9?utm_source=Taboola_internal&utm_medium=organic
1893:According to Israel Schwartz who has been living at the Ladies’ Deborah Nurseryfor nine years, today, “in school I talked to other boys against” followingwhich “my teach Byron Reilly wrote to Superintendent Engel of the nursery aboutme.”
1894:“Annoyed by a Sausage Dealer” published today described the store owned byFlorian Sicher, the Yorkville butcher which includes signage advertising“Anti-Semitic Sausages” as well as banners on the awning reading “Do Not BuyFrom Jews” and “No Sales Made to Jews.”
1894:Two days after she had passed away, 35 year old Sophia Isaacs, the daughter ofLewis and Sarah Isaacs was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1894:Samuel Maltinsky, the chief proprietor, President and Treasurer of the CrescentJewelry Company in Pittsburgh, PA married Gerturde Kunst today on histwenty-seventh birthday.
1894:The Longman publishing company will publish Christopher Columbus and theParticipation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries byRabbi Meyer Kayserling today.
1894(19th of Iyar, 5654): Alexander Kohut, the Hungarian bornRabbi who was elected rabbi of Congregation Ahavath Chesed in New York in 1885and helped to found the Jewish Theological Seminary passed away. He was thefather of the scholar and author George Alexander Kouth.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9436-kohut-alexander
1895:Andrew McCran, the next-door neighbor of Samuel Samuelson, has been arrested onsuspicion of shooting the Jew living in Miles Alley.
1896:The New York Times reported thatBaron Hirsch had left “only” thirty million pounds to his heirs andbeneficiaries, the primary one of which is his widow. While there are rumors floating around Londonthat the Baron had destroyed the IOU’s of a prominent royal personage (possiblythe Crown Prince) those in the know do not believe that the Baron was of such aforgiving nature.
1898:Birthdate of French writer Robert Aron
1898(4thof Sivan, 5658): Seventy-year-old Middlesex native Joel Woolf, the husband of HelenSolomons whom he married at the Great Synagogue in 1851 passed aa today.
1898: InManhattan, “Gustave Cerf, a lithographer and Frederika Wise, the heiress to atobacco-distribution fortune” Bennet Alfred Cerf, the founder and CEO of RandomHouse” who was best known for being a panelist on the Sunday night televisionshow, “What’s My Line?”
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/nny/cerfb/profile.html
1898:In“Kremenchug, Russia, Jacob and Anna Smeilansky gave birth to composer andconcert pianist Mischa Levitzki who “made his American debut at the AeolianHall in New York” in 1916.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/01/03/85238153.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1899: Dr.Henry M. Leipziger was re-elected as President of the Judeans who held theirannual meeting this evening at the Tuxedo. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise spoke of thepolitical progress being made by the Jews as can be seen by the appointment ofOscar S. Straus as U.S. Minister to Turkey and the election of Joseph Simon asU.S. Senator from Oregon, making him the fourth Jew to serve in Upper House ofCongress. He compared the Jewish condition in the United States to Russia whichis in the grips of the “outrage of anti-Semitism and France where Dreyfus isstill not free.
1899(16thof Sivan, 5659): Rosa Bonheur French realist painter and sculptor passed away.Born in Bordeaux in 1822, she was one of four children all of whom wereartists. According to some reports, as achild she was known as Rosa Mazeltov.
1900: Thefour daylong meeting of the Actions Committee and Trust began today. During themeeting a new Bank Commission was appointed, and a decision was reached to holdthe next Zionist Congress in London.
1901(7thof Sivan, 5661): Second day of Shavuot
1901(7thof Sivan, 5661): Samuel Joseph Rubinstein passed away. Born in Mitau in 1817, his father sent him tothe U.K. when he reached the age of 12 – the age at which he would have beenforced to join the Russian Army. He traveled with his aunt who was joining herhusband in Glasgow. When Rubinsteinreached the Scottish city, he was befriended by the Davis family who members ofthe local Jewish congregation. They tookhim in, gave him work to do so that he could earn some money and treated him asif he were a member of the family.
1902(18thof Iyar, 5662): Lag B’Omer
1902: InLisbon, a foundation stone is laid for the first synagogue built in Portugalsince the expulsion of the Jews in 1497.
1902: AtTemple Rodeph Sholom in Manhattan, Joseph J. Corn presided over the firstpublic meeting of the Israelite Alliance of America where resolutions wereadopted “approving the passage of the resolution of Congressman Henry M.Goldfogle urging the government of the United States to insist that Russia endits discrimination against American Jews and observe the treaty of 1832.”
1903: InIslington, Rosa Enoyce and George Barnes, a Jewish policeman gave birth toEnglish actress Gertrude Maude “Binnie” Barnes.
1904: “Myer S.Isaacs Dead” published today recounted the life of the recently deceased JudgeMyer S. Isaacs who had served as President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund,President of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites and of the HebrewFree School Association. A lifelongRepublican, Governor Cornell had appointed him to the Marine Court in1880. He was nominated to the SuperiorCourt in 1891 and the Supreme Court in 1895.
1905:Birthdate of future Virginia resident Alice Rice Jaffe the wife of Louis IsaacJaffe and the mother of Louis Lawson Jaffe.
1905: InBaden-Wurttemberg, Samuel and Malchen Jeselsohn gave birth to Sigmund “Shimon”Jeselsohn the husband of Karolina Jeselsohn.
1905: Today,the New Music Society announced that Modest (Moisei Isaacovich) Altschulerwould be retained as director of the Russian Symphony Orchestra for anotherthree years.
1906(1st ofSivan, 5666): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1906: Oscar S.Straus is scheduled to be member of the committee planning to create apermanent national memorial for the late Carl Schurz.
1907(12thof Sivan, 5667): Parashat Naso
1907: It wasreported today that a group of prominent Jews have appointed a committeechaired by Michael Furst “to raise the sum of $18,000 to build an addition tothe Jewish Protectory at Hawthorne, NY which will be maintained by Jewishcharitable societies in Brooklyn.”
1908: It wasreported today that The Jewish Publication Society of America has “announcedthat the Board of Publication had finally completed arrangements for thesuccessful carrying on of the Bible translations, which it is expected will nowbe accomplished in a short time.”
1909(5thof Sivan, 6669): Erev Shavuot
1909:Birthdate of Holocaust victim, the student Roza Ail.
1909: In NewYork City, Max and Fannie Danovitch Abrahams gave birth to Jesse Abrahams, thehusband of Estelle Sheikowitz whom he married in 1938.
1909: Today,Jacob H. Schiff, who is staying at the Ritz in London, told the New York Timescorrespondent “that the report that he had committed himself to the plan forplanting Jewish colonies in Mesopotamia was erroneous.”
1910: It wasreported today that the Presbyterian General Assembly has “passed a resolutioncondemning the persecution of the Jews in Russia” by a unanimous vote.
1910: Birthdateof Memphis native, and University of Cincinnati graduate Jack H. Hexter, theholder of advanced degrees from Harvard and husband of Ruth Mullin Hexter who as a professor of history at WashingtonUniversity and Yale University “launched a major scholarly effort to chroniclethe history of modern freedom” and who was “known as a specialist in Britishhistory, conducting research and teaching at major American universities formore than 60 years…”
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/14944
https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hexter-j-h-jack
1910: TheChief Rabbi of Salonica protests that despite assurances to the contrary,during his departure, Jews were enrolled in the Army on Saturday. The Ministerof Interior telegraphs the Governor General and instructs him to not let thisbe repeated. Of 1,908 Jews enrolled at Salonica, 1,719 entered active service;the remaining 189 went into the reserves.
1911: In St.Louis, MO, Rose Pfeiffer and Samuel Elijah gave birth to “coin collector” EricNewman. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1912(9thof Sivan, 5672): Parashat Nasso
1912: Austrianjurist Hans Kelsen married Margarete Bondi, few days after converting “toLutheranism of the Augusburg Confession,” – a conversion that would not savehim from being treated as a Jew the Nazis.
1912: Foundingof the East Boston Hebrew Free School
1913: TheIndependent Order of B’rith Abraham which had been organized in 1887 opened its26th Annual Convention today in New York City.
1913:Birthdate of Lee Tabor Shalom, the Paris, Illinois, native who as a directorwas known as “Roll ‘Em” Sholem.
1913:Birthdate of film and television screenwriter Sidney Carroll
1913:Dedication of the Sarah Morris Hospital for Children of Michael Reese Hospital
1913:Dedication of B’nai Jacob synagogue in New Haven, CT.
1913:Dedication of Beth David Hospital in New York City.
1913Dedication of Tifereth Israel in Lincoln, Nebraska.
1914: Today,ten years after Herzl wrote in his diary that Pope Pius X had said “Jerusalemmust not get into the hands of the Jews” Pius created 25 new cardinals.
1915: Theconclusion of Judge Ben B. Lindsey asking for clemency for Leo Frank which read“I was born and raised in the South and I haven’t any doubt of the sincerityand certainty of the people of Georgia as well as your Excellency and thehonorable Board of Pardons, doing anything but justice in this matter. That is why I join the appeal in behalf ofthe commutation of the sentence of Frank with perfect confidence that youraction will be in accord with what seems to me to be the universal opinionthroughout the country and that the sentence of Frank should at least becommuted to life imprisonment.”
1915: The listof candidates published today of those of who might replace M.S. Stern as theGrand Master of the United States Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Sonsof Israel who has held the office forthirteen years includes Solon J. Liebeskind, Louis Hess and Emil Tausig of NewYork City.
1915: One ofthe last acts of the Michigan Legislature which “formally concluded its 1915session today” “was the adoption of resolutions urging the Governor of Georgiato commute the death sentence of Leo M. Frank to life imprisonment.”
1915: InSpringfield, Illinois, Governor Edward F. Dunne addressed a mass meeting at theState Arsenal tonight in behalf of Leo M. Frank during which he “declaredcapital punishment to be ‘barbarism’ and asking that the Governor of Georgia tocommute his sentence to life imprisonment.”
1916:Dedication of the Grace Aguilar Home in Philadelphia, PA.
1916: “AsChairman of the Board of Delegates of the Union of American HebrewCongregations and as resident member of the Executive Committee of theInternational Order B’nai B’rith” Simon Wolf wrote to President Woodrow Wilsonasking him to express himself “as far as is consistent and proper at thisjuncture” as supporting the “securing of equal rights for” the Jews throughoutthe world, “especially those in Russia and Romania” when the terms of peaceending the World War are agreed upon.
1916(22ndof Iyar, 5676): Fifty-five-year-old Morris Weslosky, the native or Riddleville,GA, who was the husband of Julia Weslosky passed away today in New York City.
1916: It wasreported today that “there are about 1,500,000 Jews” in New York City” andthere “about 3,500 Jewish organizations of all kinds – religious educational,social philanthropic, industrial and mutual aid.”
1916: It wasreported today that “Governor Whitman will be asked to broaden the inquiry intodiscrimination against Jews alleged to have practice in selecting recruits forBattery D, Second Field Artillery, New York National Guard to a generalinvestigation of similar conditions alleged to exist in other companies andregiments” including the 22nd regiment of the National Guard.
1916: It wasreported today that “an Army and Navy Committee of the Young Men’s Hebrew andKindred Associations is being formed to continue the work of a specialcommittee that takes care of the wants of the estimated 5,000 Jews in theUnited States Army and Navy.
1916: IsidoreHershfield, the Director of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society ofAmerica, returned to New York, “after being abroad for many months” duringwhich, “with the permission of the military authorities of both theAustro-Hungarian and German Government, he established a means of communicationbetween the war sufferers and their friends and relatives in the UnitedStates.”
1917: InMinsk, Russia, Yiddish was recognized as a second official language.
1917: Funeralservices are scheduled to be held for Minnie Weil, the widow of Benjamin Weil at the home of her son IsaacWeil followed by burial at Free Sons’ Cemetery in Chicago.
1917: Funeralservices are scheduled to be held today for 47-year-old Dwight S. Hirsch, thehusband of Mae Hirsch followed by interment at Mount Maariv.
1917:“Diversions of the Turk” summarized “the account sent to Jewish bodies in theUnited States by the British Ambassador at Washington” that “shows the Turksdriving the Jews out of Jaffa during Passover” sacking their houses and robbingthem while the Jews who resisted the pillagers “were hanged.”
1918: TheProvisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs announced tonightthat an uncensored letter from a correspondent with the British Army inPalestine, reported that General Allenby’s army had renewed its offensive inPalestine and that the campaign will carry these forces beyond the borders of“the Holy Land.” This marked the end of three-monthhalt in the campaign during which the British troops had plenty of time toestablish good relations with the Jewish population including the people of TelAviv, the site of a major English encampment.
1919: KAM(Kehilath Anshe Ma’arav or "Congregation of the Men of the West"),“the oldest Jewish congregation in Chicago” is scheduled to host the lastregular meeting of its Junior Alumni today.
1920: “MaxPine and Harry Kagan, representative of the Joint Distribution committee forall Jewish Relief Funds” both of whom are Americans “are now in Moscow engagedin work preparatory to taking up the relief of the Jews and investigating thereported pogroms in the Ukraine.”
1921: Birthdate of Jack Steinberger, German-bornAmerican physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988. In talking abouthis escape from Germany, Steinberger said, “In 1934, the American Jewishcharities offered to find homes for 300 German refugee children. We were on theSS Washington, bound for New York by Christmas 1934.”
1921:“Austrian Jewish immigrants Lina Goldberg and delicatessen owner Gedalier Davidgave birth to lyricist and song writer, Harold Lane “Hal” David a prolificproducer of tunes, many of which were written in collaboration with BurtBacharach. "Raindrops Keep Fallin'on My Head" won an Academy Award as the score for the movie “Butch Cassidyand the Sundance Kid,” “Don't Make Me Over", "Close to You", and"Walk on By" are all in the Grammy Hall of Fame. "What's Newpuss*cat,” “Alfie” and "The Look of Love" received Oscar nominations.He also wrote many country music hits, including Willie Nelson's "To AllThe Girls I've Loved Before".
1921The Hurwitz Educational League sponsored a lecture and recital featuring Dr.A.A. Roback of Harvard University and his wife on “Folk Music Among Jews andOther Nations” in the auditorium of the Young Women’s Hebrew Association on 31West 110 Street in New York City.
1922(27thof Iyar, 5682): In Chicago, political economist Joseph Pedott passed awaytoday.
1923: Britainrecognized Transjordan with Abdullah as its leader.In this illegalaction, Britain paid off part of its debt toone Arab family for its partinfighting the Turks during World War I.There are those whocontend thatby this actBritain effectively portionedPalestineand createdan Arab state out of it.
1924: LouisMarshall, President of Temple Emanu-El presided at the memorial services heldin the temple this afternoon by the New York County united of the AmericanLegion in which “he praised the heroic deeds of the soldiers in the World War…”
1924: “Severalhundred public school teachers and principals listened” this afternoon “to halfa dozen speakers on the need for religious training of Jewish children a t ameeting in the Town Hall under the auspices of the Jewish EducationAssociation.”
1925: TheCamden Section of the Junior Hadassah met this evening at the Beth-ElSynagogue.
1926: "Noattempt toward the economic reconstruction of European Jewries will succeedunless we stem the anti-Semitic wave," declared Dr. William Filderman,president of the Union of Rumanian Jews, on the eve of his departure for Europeon the Berengaria today. "There is no use educating Jewish artisans ifanti-Semitic prejudice deprives them of any market for their products," heexplained.
1926:Sholom Schwartzbard assassinated Symon Petliura, the head of the Paris-basedgovernment-in-exile of Ukrainian People's Republic. Schwartzbard had lost both of his parents in pogroms,and he held Petliura accountable for the anti-Semitic violence that had beenpart of the war in the Ukraine.Anti-Semitic violence was part and parcel of life in the Ukraine, as canbe seen in the Chmielnicki'spogroms of 1648, the pogroms in Kiev at the start of the 20thcentury and the slaughter at Babi Yar during World War II. Schwartzbard’s case was taken up by theFrench Jewish community and he was acquitted of the charges.
1926: Molecularbiologist Alfred Ezra Mirsky married children’s author Reba Paeff
1927: The UnitedPalestine Appeal in Philadelphia, PA is scheduled to come to an end today.
1927: Three weeks afterits first screening in Los Angeles of “7th Heaven” a movie thatproduced at least one Oscar with a screenplay written by Benjamin Glazer openedat New York City.
1928(6th ofSivan, 5688): Shavuot
1928: Birthdate ofHenry Baron, the first Jew to sit on the Irish Supreme Court
1929: Today, thecurtain came down at the Vanderbilt Theatre on “Lady Fingers,” produced by LewLevinson with music by Joseph Meyer which had opened on Broadway in January.
1929:Birthdate of Belle "Bubbles" Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn NY whogained fame as fame as operatic sopranoand patroness of the arts Beverly Sills.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/25/1929/beverly-sills
1929:According to reports published today “industrial establishments in Palestinehave increased to 513, employing 5,000 workers” with a total of $7,500,000 ininvested capital. The actual figurescould have been higher but the Ruttenberg Works which has 700 employees was notincluded in the survey.
1930:Birthdate of John Strugnell who would become editor-in-chief of the Dead SeaScrolls in 1984. Strungell was notJewish but he spent a major portion of his academic life working with thesetexts and his comments about Judaism in Haaretz turned into a major causecélèbre.
1930:Birthdate of Sonia Fils, the native of Paris who gained fame as fashiondesigner Sonia Rykiel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/26/fashion/sonia-rykiel-dies.html?_r=0
1930: ThePeter J. Schweitzer Memorial Hospital, a modern health institution operated atlevel comparable to those found in an American hospital, opened today inTiberius in the Valley of the Galilee.
1931: Birthdate of Herbert Eser Gray, “Canada's first Jewishfederal cabinet minister, and one ofonly a few Canadians ever granted the title The Right Honourable who was not soentitled by virtue of a position held.
1931: New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker is scheduled to chair a conferenceat City Hall this afternoon which he “expects to be attended by a large and representativegroup of rabbis and Jewish layman wit whom he will discuss” the need for more rigorousenforcement the state statute governing the sale of kosher meat.
1931: In New York City, Sol and Anna Winkler gave birth movieproducer and director Irwin Winkler who “won an Oscar for Best Picture for‘Rocky’.”
1931: InPalestinevoting began to select the representatives to the 17th ZionistCongress to be held in June. When the voting ends, the Yishuv delegation of 36consists of 24 Mapai and HaShomer HaTzair, 7 Revisionists, 2 Mizrachi, 2 HapoelHaMizrachi and 1 Yemenite.
1932(19thof Iyar, 5692): Sixty-four-year-old “Joseph Cowen, one of the first EnglishJews to be associated with the late Theodore Herzl who became the guardian ofHerzl’s son Hans and brought him up in his own home passed away today inLondon.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/cowen-joseph
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/05/26/100748666.html?pageNumber=25
1932:“Sixty-nine persons were injured today in communal rioting after Arabs attackJewish inhabitants of the Crater district of Aden whom they accused of defilinga mosque.”
1933(29th ofIyar, 5693): Louis Schloss, a Jewish lawyer wasmurdered in Dachau.
1934:Funeralservices are scheduled to be held this afternoon for sixty-six-year-old UnitedStates Judge Simon Louis Adler of the Western New York District Court and“former Republican majority leader in the State Assembly who had suffered afatal heart attack on May 23.
1934: ErnestPeixotto of the Fontainebleau School arrived in New York after having crossedthe Atlantic Ocean on the same liner that carried the chairman of the board ofthe French Line. Peixotto reported thathe had offered American student of the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts thehonor of decorating one of the cabins on the Normandie, the largest ship in the world which is now underconstruction.
1935(22ndof Iyar, 5695): Parashat Bechukotai
1935(22ndof Iyar, 5695): Fifty-six-year-old Russian born NYU trained attorney and NewYork City municipal judge Abraham Harawitz passed away today. (Some sourcesshow May 24)
https://www.jta.org/1935/05/26/archive/judge-harawitz-dies-elected-over-panken
1936: TheJewish Auxiliary Police, "Ghaffirs", was established to guard Jewishsettlements and rural roads.
1936: “HannahGluckstein (the artist known as Gluck) “married Nesta Obermer, a socialitemarried to an American businessman” – an event that provided the inspirationfor Gluck’s work “Medallion” that “pictured the two together at a performanceof Don Giovanni.”
1936: The bodyof thirty-six-year-old Jacob Rasili, a laborer belonging to the JewishFederation of Labor, was found this morning near the Hebrew University libraryand the doctors reported he had been murdered when “he had been struck on thehead with a heavy cane or iron bar.”
1936: It wasreported today that Governor Lehman has contributed $3,500 to the UnitedPalestine Appeal and that Maurice Levin and his half-brother J.M. Kaplan havecontributed $50,000 to the same cause.
1937: “TheLeague of Frightened Men” co-starring Lionel Stander the Bronx born son RussianJewish immigrants was released in the United States today.
1938(24thof Iyar, 5698): Shihata Abdalla Saltoun passed away today after which he wasburied in Khartoum, Sudan
1938: InBrooklyn Jack and Rose Israel gave birth to “living theatre performance artist”Steven Ben Israel (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1938: As Arab violence continued unabated The Palestine Post reported that in Jerusalem 30 yearold Moshe Proper was killed and there were other casualties including 12 Arabvictims and seven Jewish victims. A curfew was imposed to stop stoning andshooting incidents. A number of Jewish youths were arrested and a 120 poundsfine was imposed on the Jewish quarter of Montefiore. A number of Revisionists,just released from the Acre prison, were rearrested. Nahum Bibi, a Jewishlaborer was fatally shot at Safed and a Bedouin sheikh was murdered by an Arabgang roaming Galilee.
1939(7thof Sivan, 5699): Second Day of Shavuot
1939(7thof Sivan, 5699): Sir Joseph Duveen passed away. The son of Sir Joseph Joel Duveen,who had 13 children, he followed in the footsteps of his father and his uncleHenry J. Duveen and became one of the leading art dealers of his time.
http://snbehrman.com/library/newyorker/51.10.6.NY.htm
1940(17thof Iyar, 5700): Parashat Bechukotai
1940:As the Allied position in Western Europe crumbles before Hitler’s Blitzkrieg,Churchill’s War Cabinet meets to decide if Britain should continue to the fightagainst Germany. The ‘peace party’ isled by Foreign Minister Lord Halifax who will make a strong case for a dealwith Germany as the debate rages for three days.
1940:FDR began his day in the White House by meeting with Associate Justice FelixFrankfurter.
1940:Judge Samuel I. Rosenman was among the five people who had dinner in the WhiteHouse with FDR.
1940:U.S. premiere of “Torrid Zone” featuring George Tobias as “Rosario La Mata.”
1940:Hans Biebow today issued orders for factories to be set up in the ghetto(called Arbeitsressorte, or work sections). Provided with very cheap labor,these factories were to serve the Nazis as a source of easy profits andexploitation. The Jews in the ghetto, cut off as they were from all otherpossible sources of livelihood, were prepared to work for no more than a loafof bread and some soup. The exploitation of the Jews imprisoned in the ghettoyielded a profit to the ghetto administration estimated at 350 millionreichsmarks ($14 million). (As reported by Yad Vashem)
1941:Koestler’s anti-Soviet novel “Darkness at Noon” received a rave cover reviewin the New York Times Book Review Section: “A splendid novel,” Harold Straussdeclared, “written with such dramatic power, with such warmth of feeling andwith such persuasive simplicity that it is as absorbing as melodrama. It is afar cry from the bleak topical commentaries that sometimes pass as novels.”
1942:Birthdate of Barry K. Schwartz, the Bronx native who joined with his boyhoodfriend Calvin Klein to form Calvin Klein, Inc. in which he enjoyed so muchsuccess that he could indulge his passion for thoroughbred horse racing.
1942:Edgard J. Nathan, Jr., the Borough President of Manhattan was among theofficials who “opened the final link of the East River Drive today with a noonceremony at Forty-seventh Street, on the crest of an elevated section of thedrive.”
1943:“At the Auschwitz a group of 1,035 Gypsies (507 men and 528 women) were killedin a single day.”
1943:Four deportations of Jews from Holland to the death camps at Auschwitz andSobibór total 8000 people.
1943:The expulsion of the Jews from Sofia, Bulgaria, began today. 1944: Birthdate of Actor Frank Oz
1944:Release date of “Mr. Skeffington,” a film about Job Skeiffington, a Jew livingin high society directed by Vincent Sherman with a script by Julius and PhilipEpstein who produced it along with Jack L. Warner with music by Franz Waxmanand Paul Dessau.
1944:In Budapest, the German representative, General Edmund Veesnmayer reported that138,870 Jews had been deported in the past 10 days.
1944:Hundreds of fleeing Hungarian Jews are killed during a revolt at Auschwitz.
1944:“The Kolozsvár Ghetto was liquidated in six transports to Auschwitz (nowOświęcim, Poland), with the first deportation occurring” toda.
1944:Pioneer television station WPTZ (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia presented aspecial, all-star telecast which was also seen in New York over WNBT (now WNBC)and featured cut-ins from their Rockefeller Center studios. Cantor, one of thefirst major stars to agree to appear on television, was to sing "We'reHavin' a Baby, My Baby and Me". Arriving shortly before airtime at the NewYork studios, Cantor was reportedly told to cut the song because the NBC NewYork censors considered some of the lyrics too risqué. Cantor refused, claimingno time to prepare an alternative number. NBC relented, but the sound was cutand the picture blurred on certain lines in the song. This is considered thefirst instance of television censorship.
1945:Just three weeks after the surrender of the German capital, pharmacist ErichZwilsky became the Berlin Jewish Hospital’s managing director, assumingresponsibility for the only Jewish institution that had remained in operationthroughout World War II.
1945:“Investigating Team 6822, part of the U.S. War Crimes Program to create legalstandards and judicial systems to prosecute Nazi crimes” completed itsinvestigation into the murder of prisoners being moved from Rottleberodesubcamp to Neuengamme concentration and sent a report to General William HoodSimpson, the Supreme Commander of the United States 9th Army.
1946: Abdullah I becomes King of the Kingdom ofTransjordan. From 1921 until 1946 Abdullah had been Emir of the Emirate ofTransjordan. On the eve of the creation of state of Israel in 1948, Abdullahmet secretly with Golda Meir. Meirsought to keep the Jordanians from attacking the soon to be created Jewishstate when the British withdrew.Abdullah offered to let the Jews peacefully as subjects of JordanianKingdom that would include all the land of the Palestine mandate. Abdullah’s army invaded Israel seized what iscalled the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem. In 1951, Abdullah would be assassinated by anArab fanatic at the Al Aqsa Mosque. He thought Abdullah was involved in secretpeace talks with the Israelis.
1946:Switzerland signs the Washington Agreement, under which the Swiss governmentwill voluntarily contribute $58.1 million in gold to an Allied commissionestablished to help rebuild Europe. The Allies are aware that this payment willcome from Swiss stores of looted gold taken from Jews and other victims of Nazipersecution. Regardless, the Allies agree not to press the Swiss for additionalclaims. At this time, Switzerland holds between $300 and $400 million in lootedgold.
1947(6thof Sivan, 5707): Shavuot
1947: “TheWeb,” a “film noir thriller” filmed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg wasreleased in today in the United States.
1947: PerryBelmont, the former Congressman and diplomat who was the son of August Belmontpassed away. The Belmonts had passed outof the Jewish world when August married Caroline Slidell, the daughter of aConfederate diplomat and descendant of American naval hero Matthew C. Perry,the man who “opened up Japan.”
1948: The OldCity of Jerusalem falls. Defended by local residents, Etzel members and about80 Haganah soldiers, they were outnumbered and out-gunned by the Arablegionaries. After weeks of desperate fighting, it was decided to surrender andsave the almost 2000 mostly elderly Jews who were still living in the Old City.
1948: BritishForeign Minister Ernest Bevin says that the Negev should not be included in aJewish state because no Jews lived there and that Jaffa and Acre “should begiven back to the Arabs” because they were “purely Arab towns.
1948: The attack on Latrun, begun the night beforecontinues. The forces of the Arab Legionare able to fire down on the attacking Jews.As the Jews fall victim to the barrage of bullets, they are forced toconfront a second enemy, the searing heat which many of these recent refugeesfrom Europe are not used to. To makematters worse, many of them went into battle without canteens. Their pleas for water are met by sniper firefrom the Arabs. Realizing that theattack has failed, the Israelis withdraw with eighty dead and uncounted otherswounded. Among the dead is ReuvenOppenheim who had survived the Holocaust.He fought with partisan forces in that part of the Soviet Union known asWhite Russia. Miraculously, Oppenheim’simmediate family (mother, father and sister) survived with him and came toPalestine in 1947. The price for aJewish state was high indeed.
1948: The government of Egypt "issued a proclamationstipulating that no Jew could leave Egypt with a special visa from the Ministryof the Interior. This...applied to the many thousands of Jews who heldforeign passports." (In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1948: The Scotsman,a newspaper published in Edinburgh, “quoted an Israeli government statementthat Thomas C. Wasson,” the Counsel General for the United States in Jerusalemwho days before “had attempted to stop the Arab Legion shelling of the HadassahHospital and Hebrew University on Mount Scopus”"was killed by Arab bullets."
1949:Chaim Weizmann went to the White House as President of Israel at the invitationof President Harry Truman.
1950:“Israel's mounting immigration troubles became more apparent today with theinterim report of Malben, which handles the country's hard core cases. Thisorganization has discovered that its six month-old budget of $17,500,000 isabout half what it needs to handle the handicapped immigrants under its care.”
1950:Tonight, “The decision of the United States, Britain and France to includeIsrael in their over-all plan for supplying the countries in the Middle Eastwith arms for defense purposes was greeted” in Israel “with satisfaction by aForeign Ministry spokesman.”
1950:“In an effort to further stabilize the Armistice Agreements, and to control theflow of arms to the Middle East, France, Britain and the United Statesannounced, today, their decision to stabilize the situation in the region by anagreement among themselves not to supply weapons to a state harboringaggressive designs. They also agreed to take action both within and outside theU.N. to prevent any change in the armistice lines. Text of the Declarationfollows.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/tripartite-declaration-may-1950
1951:In a handwritten letter proposes, Abba Eban proposed periodic meetings betweenhimself and the leaders of major American Jewish organizations “to exchangeviews and impressions about the American-Israeli relationship.”
1952:King Features launched the Sunday version of the comic strip “Big Ben Bolt”written by Elliot Caplin, the brother of Al Capp.
1953:In New York City, Arthur Ensler, a Jewish food industry executive and hisnon-Jewish wife Christ gave birth to award winning playwright Eve Ensler, “bestknown for her play The vagin* Monologues.”
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported that theCabinet was discussing the deteriorating security situation in border areas.
1953:The Jerusalem Post reported thatThomas Harlan, son of Veit Harlan, a notorious Nazi film producer, was inIsrael working on a film which would "atone" for the sins of hisfather.
1954:The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Cal Abrams to the Baltimore Orioles.
1954(22ndof Iyar, 5714): Robert Capa, possibly the most famous photojournalist of the 20thcentury was killed while on assignment cover the French- Indochina War. The Jewish native of Hungary waded ashorewith the first wave of troops at Omaha Beach, providing the first photographicrecord of the assault.
Fromthe Spanish Civil War, “Death of Loyalist Soldier”
”D-DayLanding - 1944
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capa,_Death_of_a_Loyalist_Soldier.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Capa,_D-Day2.jpg
http://www.army-photographer.com/index.php/robert-capa
http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL535353
1955(4thof Sivan, 5715): Eighty-five-year-oldRegina “Rae” Mayer Sabath, the Baden-Wurttemberg born daught of Willamand Sarah (Stern) Mayer and wife of Judge Joseph Sabath who whom she married in1888 and whom she had three children -Albert, Stella and Milton Sabath -passed away after which she was buried in Chicago at the RosehillCemetery and Mausoleum.
1957: NBCbroadcast the final episode of “Caesar’s Hour” starring Sid Caesar and hiscomedic sidekicks Howard Morris and Carl Reiner.
1957: After49 performances at the Broadway Theatre, the curtain came down on “ShinboneAlley,” a musical with a book by Mel Brooks orchestrated by Irwin Kostal.
1958(6thof Sivan, 5718): Shavuot
1958: Afteronly 4 months, ABC broadcast the final episode of “Sid Caesar Invites You”which “briefly united” the comedian with a group of writers that included CarlReiner, Neil Simon and Mel Brooks.
1962(21stof Iyar, 5722): Eighty-seven-year-oldEmanuel S. Hartman, the husband of Mabel Hartman and “a lawyer active inthe affairs of the American Society of Composers who “helped to establishcopyright laws for the society” passed away today in Chicago.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/28/82764891.html?pageNumber=29
1963(2ndof Sivan, 5723): Parashat Bamidbar
1963(2ndof Sivan, 5723): Fifty-year old New York Times publisher Orvil Dryfoos, thehusband of Marian Sulzberger and son-in-law of Arthur Hays Sulzberger whoguided the paper through the 114 day long newspaper strike passed away today.
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1963/05/26/page/3/article/orvil-dryfoos-dies-head-of-n-y-times
1963: During his ShabbatSermon, at Tremont Temple in the Bronx, Rabbi Maurice J. Bloom declared thatbecause of his divorce and recent remarriage GovernorRockefeller is morally obligated to press for an easing of New York State'sdivorce laws. If New York State had aproper marriage and divorce code neither the Governor nor his first wife, norhis current wife would be forced to participate in actions that are variancewith the laws that the Governor is sworn to uphold as the state’s chiefexecutive. Furthermore, the Rabbicontended that it is not fair that divorce is only open to the wealthy who canafford to take up temporary residence in other states with more lenient lawsrelated to terminating a marriage. Tyingthe contemporary issue to Jewish tradition, Rabbi Bloom said, “Judaism believesin making strict marriage laws to safeguard marriage and easy divorce laws to make it possibleto repair mistakes made by the application of those strict laws. Judaismstresses the sanctity ofmarriage, and for that reason it does not condemn people to live together wherestrife and incompatibility wouldmar good family life.”
1964: “TheSubject Was Roses,” the Pulitzer Prize winning play directed by Israel UluGrosbard and starring Jack Albertson “premiered on Broadway at the RoyaleTheatre” today.
1965(23rdof Iyar, 5725): Sixty-four-year-old Irving Isaacs, the husband of the “formerBertha Goldman” and the father of Albert and Morton Goldman, who was the “ownerof Abalon Kosher Caterers in the Bronx” passed away today “in WestchesterSquare Hospital.”
1965:Shimon Peres completed his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1966(6thof Sivan, 5726): Shavuot
1966:Opening in the United Kingdom, “It Happened Here” a film based on a mythicsuccessful invasion of England by the Nazis filmed by Peter Suschitzky wasreleased today in Australia.
1966: U.S.premiere of “The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming” co-starring CarlReiner, Alan Arkin and Theodore Bikel with music by Johnny Mandel.
1966: HelenReddy, who had converted to Judaism before the ceremony married Jeff Waldtoday.
1967: U.S.premiere of “Barefoot in the Park” the movie adaption of the play by NeilSimon, directed by Gene Saks, produced by Hal B. Wallis, featuring HerbEdeleman as “Harry Pepper”, Mabel Albertson as “Harriet” and Fritz Feld.
1968(27thof Iyar, 5728): Parashat Emor
1968(27thof Iyar, 5728): Sixty-four-year-old agent and movie producer Charles K.Feldman, the husband of Clotilde Barot, whose film credits included “AStreetcar Named Desire,” the timeless comedy “The Seven Year Itch” and cowboyclassic “Red River” passed away today.
https://www.fandango.com/people/charles-k-feldman-204477
1969:Release date of “Midnight Cowboy” directed by John Schlesinger and starringDustin Hoffman.
1969: An Israeli vehicle was damaged Sunday night after hitting amine near Maoz Chaim in the valley. There were no casualties.
1971(1stof Sivan, 5731): Seventy-six-year-old New York Institute of Musical Art trained songwriter, composer, pianist, and organist Muriel Pollack, theKingsbridge, NY born daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants Joseph Pollock andRose Graff who began her career playing “the organ in silent movie theatres” beforeon to a creative career that began with the 1914 musical “Carnival” and “Mme.Pom Pom” passed away today in Los Angelese.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/2556482-Muriel-Pollock
https://www.ragpiano.com/comps/mpollock.shtml
1971: Theboard of directors of Yonkers Raceway announced today that 51-year-old StanleyTananbaum has been named president replacing his late brother Martin Tananbaum
1972:Filming of “Ciao! Manhattan” co-directed, co-produced and co-written by DavidWeisman was completed today after which it premiered “in Amsterdam…to criticalacclaim.”
1975(15thof Sivan, 5735): Ninety-one-year-old Rabbi Samuel Baskin who had served as thespiritual leader “of Temple B’nai Israel in Brooklyn from 1933 until hisretirement in 1955, passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/05/27/archives/rabbi-samuel-baskin.html?searchResultPosition=1
1976(25thof Iyar, 5736): A guard at Ben Gurion Airport was killed and nine others wereinjured when a bomb planted in a suitcase by a terrorist went off prematurely.
1977:Samuel W. Lewis, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel presented his credentials today.
1977: StarWars opened. This would be the first ina whole series of films that would include the villain Darth Vader. Accordingto Adams Walls, “Even though it's too small to see on screen, part of DarthVader's chestplate features three lines of Hebrew, one of which appears to beupside down. What the lines say is a matter of much online debate among Jewish"Star Wars" fans. On TheForce.net, which features photos of theHebrew script in question, one blogger believes it's a play on a section fromExodus 16 about repentance, while another thinks the lines read: "Hisactions/deeds will not be forgiven until he is proven innocent" and"One shall be regarded innocent until he is proven guilty."
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported the officialdenial of reports that Israel sought control over the West Bank's absenteeproperty owned by Arabs residing abroad, and that there were plans to establisha Jewish urban quarter near Nablus. Officials of the Land Administration wereinstructed to lift a ban on transactions affecting property owned by local Arabresidents, residing abroad.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that TheKnesset Speaker, Mr. Yitzhak Shamir, accepted an invitation to visit Germany atthe head of the Knesset delegation.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that asix-lane divided highway, which would cut through the Sacher Park and expandthe Kirya, was approved in Jerusalem.
1978(18thof Iyar, 5738): Lag B’Omer
1978(18thof Iyar, 5738): Eighty-two-year-old Columbia University graduate MelvinKrulewith, the Manhattan born son ofAnne and Harry Krulewitch and the U.S. Marine Corps General who served in WW I,WWII and Korea and Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission passedaway today.
1979(28th of Iyar,5739): Yom Yerushalayim
1979: “The Brood” asci-fi film directed by David Cronenberg who also wrote the script was releasedin the United States today.
1979:Israel begins to return the Sinai to Egypt as part of the Camp David PeaceAccords.
1979:A graveside funeral service is scheduled to held “at the Jewish MemorialCemetery in Racine, Wisconsin today for seventy-four year old Dr. Ralph PRosenberg, the son of “Barnet and Rose (Weislander) Rosenberg and the husbandof Leah (Davidson) Rosenberg, the holder of a Ph.D. from the University ofWisconsin who was a “Professor of German and the Humanities at YeshivaUniversity in New York for 38 years.
1979(28thof Iyar, 5739): Yom Yerushalayim
1979:Six-year-old Etan Kalil Patz disappeared in Lower Manhattan, New York City ashe walked to catch the school bus. . Hewould be the first missing child to be pictured on the side of a milk carton.
1981(21stof Iyar, 5741): Sixty-five-year-old UK native Leonard Blake, the son of Harryand Gertrude Balke and the husband of Gabrielle Blake passed away today inMarbella, Spain.
1981:“News Summary” published today included charges by Prime Minister MenachemBegin made for the first time that “Soviet advisers are entering Lebanonaccompanying large Syrian Army Units.”
1982:In a meeting today with Alexander Haig, Philip Habib repeatedwhat he had already said many times before: "Terrorist attacks againstIsraelis and Jews in Europe are not included in the cease-fire agreement.”
1983(13thof Sivan, 5743): Eighty-four-year-old journalist and author Zelda F. Popkinwhose works included Quiet Street which “was based on the siege ofJerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence.”
1983:“Demonstrations protesting against the persecution of refuseniks were heldsimultaneously in New York, Washington, Paris, London and Lisbon.”
1983: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi with a script byLawrence E. Kasdan and Frank Oz performing as “Yoda” was released today in theUnited States.
1985(5thof Sivan, 5745): Erev of Shavuot
1985(5thof Sivan, 5745):Robert Gruntal Nathan “an American novelist and poet”passed away. “Nathan was born into a prominent New York family. He was educatedin the United States and Switzerland and attended Harvard University forseveral years beginning in 1912. It was there that he began writing shortfiction and poetry. However, he never graduated, choosing instead to drop outand take a job at an advertising firm to support his family (he married while ajunior at Harvard). It was while working in 1919 that he wrote his firstnovel—the semi-autobiographical work Peter Kindred—which was a criticalfailure. But his luck soon changed during the 1920s, when he wrote seven morenovels, including The Bishop's Wife, which was later made into a successful filmstarring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young. During the 1930s, hissuccess continued with more works, including fictional pieces and poetry. In1940, he wrote his most successful book, Portrait of Jennie, about aDepression-era artist and the woman he is painting, who is slipping throughtime. Portrait of Jennie is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fictionand was made into a film, starring Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. In January1956 the author wrote, as well as narrated, an episode of the CBS RadioWorkshop, called "A Pride of Carrots or Venus Well-Served." Nathan'sseventh wife was the British actress Anna Lee, to whom he was married from 1970until his death. He came from a talented family — the activist Maud Nathan andauthor Annie Nathan Meyer were his aunts, and the poet Emma Lazarus and SupremeCourt Justice Benjamin Cardozo his cousins.”
1986(16thof Iyar, 5746): Polish born Rabbi Nisson Alpert, a student of Rabbi MosheFeinstein and the husband of Zeldi Scheinberg who was Rosh Yeshiva at RIETSpassed away today in New York after which he was buried in Jerusalem.
1987:James Levine is scheduled to conduct the IPO tonight in a performance that willinclude Mahler’s Third Symphony.
1990(1stof Sivan, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1990:Showtime broadcast the last episode of “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” a sitcom“created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel.”
1990(1stof Sivan, 5750): Seventy-nine-year-old Vienna born and refugee from the NazisHarry Bachrach, the husband of Katherine Bachrach and the father of Alfred,George and Frances Bachrach who was “the president of Harry Bachrach Inc., aManhattan textile company specializing in neckties” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/29/obituaries/harry-bachrach-necktie-maker-79.html
1991: Israelbegan the evacuation 14,000 Ethiopian Jews.This was done as a secretoperation and served as a reminder of the role of Israel as a haven for allJews.
1991: Finalbroadcast of “Out of This World” a sitcom co-starring Donna Pescow.
1993(5th ofSivan, 5753): Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Friedman, the founder and former spiritualleader of the Garment Center Synagogue in Manhattan, passed away today at theage of 95. He was a rabbinical graduate of Yeshiva University's Rabbi IsaacElchanan Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1921 and, a decade later,founded the Garment Center Synagogue. The synagogue, at 205 West 40th Street,was established primarily to serve the many Jews who worked in the garmenttrade. Born on Nov. 13, 1897, in Jerusalem, Rabbi Friedman came to the UnitedStates with his mother and brother in 1918 to escape famine in his homeland.His father had arrived a year earlier. Trained as a scribe, Rabbi Friedmanbegan his rabbinical studies in 1919. After his ordination, he was appointedrabbi of Congregation Ezrath Israel in Ellenville, N.Y., a position he held forfour years before moving to Brooklyn. In 1931, after serving at severalsynagogues in New York City, Rabbi Friedman founded the Garment CenterSynagogue. In the mid-1950's, he was named rabbi emeritus. Rabbi Friedman'swife, Charlotte, died in 1980.
1994: InNeedham Massachusetts, Lynn (née Faber), a former high school gymnast, and RickRaisman gave birth to Alexandra Rose Raisman who gained fame as Olympic gymnastAly Raisman, the victim of sexual abuse who was “awarded the Arthur AsheCourage Award.”
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/its-official-the-worlds-most-famous-jewish-sports-star-is/
1996(7thof Sivan, 5756): Second Day of Shavuot
1997(18thof Iyar, 5757): Lag B’Omer
1997: The New York Times featured reviews ofbooks by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including TheActual by Saul Bellow and the Wisdom of the Body by Sherwin B.Nuland
1999: Finalbroadcast of season one of “Felicity” created by J.J. Abrams staring GregGrunberg as “Sean Blumberg.
1999: Aproduction of “The Phantom of the Opera” starring Paul Stanley (Stanley BertEisen) opened today in Toronto.
2000:Publication of Bee Season by Myla Goldberg.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/06/18/reviews/000618.18garnert.html
2000(20thof Iyar, 5760): Centenarian Francis Lederer, an actor who enjoyed successfulcareers in Europe and the United States passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/27/arts/francis-lederer-dies-at-100-actor-known-for-suave-roles.html
2000: Israelwithdraws the last of its forces from Lebanon.
2001: Theterrorists of Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for the bombing today theHadera bus station where 65 people were injured but nobody was killed.’
2001:The 54th Cannes Film Festival where Dover Kosashvili’s “LateMarriage was screened in the Un Certain Regard Section” came to an end today
2001:The terrorists of Hamas took credit for the bombing at a mall in Hadera todaywhere there were no reports of any fatalities.
2002:“Last Call,” the film version of the book by Frances Kroll, the F. ScottFitzgerald’s last secretary and personal assistant, who portrayed herself asplaying a key role in his last and uncompleted novel, The Last Tycoon, wasreleased in the United States today.(Editor’s note – watched on Amazon or Netflix and for some reason reallyenjoyed it.)
2002: An exhibition opens at the Tate in Londonentitled “Ori Gersht: Afterglow” which features the work of Israeli artist OriGersht.
2003: TheNew York Times featured books by Jewish writers and/or of special interestto Jewish readers including The Last Good Season by Michael Shapiro.
2004(5th of Sivan, 5764): Roger Williams Straus, Jr. passed away.Born in 1917, “Strauss was co-founder of Farrar, Straus and Giroux a New Yorkbook publishing company. Straus, along with John Farrar, began the influentialfirm of Farrar and Straus in 1945. In 1955, the company hired editor RobertGiroux away from rival Harcourt, Brace, who brought along authors such as T. S.Eliot and Flannery O'Connor, among others. Ultimately, in 1994, twenty yearsafter his partner Farrar had died, Straus determined he could no longer run thecompany, retired, and sold the business to a German publishing conglomerate,Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, the type of company he had longdisdained and spoke out against. Straus was regarded as one of the last,old-fashioned publishers, faithful to his company and tight with his money, butemphasizing quality over commercial success. His dedication to the publishingbusiness earned him several Nobel Prize-winning authors, including IsaacBashevis Singer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, Nadine Gordime,Czeslaw Milosz and T. S. Eliot, and Pulitzer Prize authors such as RobertLowell, John McPhee, Philip Roth, and Bernard Malamud. Straus grew up in awealthy and influential family. His mother was Gladys Guggenheim, heir to oneof the largest fortunes in America. His father, Roger W. Straus, was chairmanof the American Smelting and Refining Co., which was owned by his wife'sfamily. Straus' paternal grandfather, Oscar S. Straus, served as Secretary ofCommerce and Labor under President Theodore Roosevelt.”
2004(5thof Sivan, 5674): Erev Shavuot
2004(5thof Sivan, 5674): Eighty-seven-year-old publisher Roger Williams Straus, Jr, the“son of Gladys and Roger Williams Straus” and the “brother of Oscar SolomonStraus, II” passed away today after which was buried in Manhattan.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/roger-straus-k9zn5b9g9r7
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1463001/Roger-W-Straus-Jr.html
2004:In Israel, striking lifeguard returned to work today as part of what theycalled “a goodwill gesture” for Shavuot which begins this evening.
2005(16thof Iyar, 5765): Sixty-seven year old concert pianist Ruth Laredo whose careerspanned three decades lost her battle with ovarian cancer today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701445.html
2005:At U.C Santa Cruz, The Jewish Studies Program is scheduled to present a lectureby Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, titled “Seduced into Eden: The Beginning ofDesire.” Zornberg's first book, Genesis: The Beginning of Desire won theNational Jewish Book Award for nonfiction in 1995.
2006(27thof Iyar, 5766): Rabanit Yocheved 'Jackie' Wein z"l, the first wife ofRabbi Berel Wein passed away today.
2006:In “New Stamp to Honor WWII Envoy” published today Christopher Lee describedplans to honor “Hiram Bingham IV, a blue-blood American diplomat in France whodefied U.S. policy by helping Jews escape the Nazis in the early years of WorldWar II.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/24/AR2006052402467.html
2006:During the Sydney Writers’ Festival at the Sydney (Australia) Jewish MuseumProfessor Konrad Kwiet leads a discussion with editors and journalists frommajor Sydney newspapers where they examine the role of free press in ademocratic society including the need, if ever, for limits on freedom of thepress and the need for the media to demonstrate a sense social responsibility.
“Bookscan be entertaining, insightful and at their best, life changing. But are theresome books that just should not be read? Are they indeed dangerous? Books likeAdolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, have spawned some of the most evil Books can beentertaining, insightful and at their best, life changing. But are there someregimes the world has known. Yet should we limit our access to these ideas? Theintrinsic virtues of free speech are often touted throughout the West, howeverin countries such as Australia Anti Racial Vilification Legislation limits whatcan and cannot be said in public forums. What can or should be the role of themedia in these kinds of debates? A free press is one of the basic tenets of ademocratic society, but are there times when this freedom is taken too far?Does the press have a social responsibility and if so, what is it?
2007: InIsrael, Avner Itai the lead Israel Chamber Orchestra oboist, one of thegreatest conductors in Israel and a professor for choir conducting joins Ora Seitner and guitarist Oded Schub inperforming folk songs and works from Catalonia and France at the Abu GoshFestival. He will play an oboe d'amorethat he bought this year. Itai will conduct instrumentalists from thePhilharmonic and his choir, Collegium Tel Aviv, in Bach's "Mass in BMinor."
2007: RyanJoseph Braun made his major league debut with the Milwaukee Brewers.
2008 Efram“Sneh announced that he would be leaving the Labor Party and creating a newparty, Yisrael Hazaka.”
2008: The WolfPrizes were awarded today at the Chagall Hall by the President of the State ofIsrael, Mr. Shimon Peres, in the presence of the Minister of Education andChairperson of the Wolf Foundation Council, Prof. Yuli Tamir, and the Chairmanof the Board of Trustees, Mr. Zeev Schleisner.
2008: BarryLevinson's tale of an embattled Hollywood producer entitled “What Just Happened?” closes this year's Festival deCannes. The movie is based onhis memoir about his experiences as a producer.
2008: Thewinner of the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award is announced in NewOrleans at the 62nd Reuben Awards Ceremony. MadMagazine Veteran Al Jaffee is one of the nominees for this year's ReubenAward for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. The Reuben Award (a statuettedesigned by and named after the
2008: TheCedar Rapids Jewish community watches with pride as Daniel DeClue takes part inthe graduation ceremonies at Prairie High School. A dedicated student of Judaica, a regular atSaturday morning services and an all-around great guy, he will be truly missedwhile he is away at college.
2009:As Americans gather to observe Memorial Day, the following we are reminded ofthe role that Jews have played in defense of this country from Asher Levy inNew Amsterdam to Corporal Mark Evnin, the first Jewish casualty in Iraq.
2009:Israel is likely to face simultaneous missile strikes and terror attacks acrossthe country in the event of a war breaking out, Deputy Defense Minister MatanVilnai said today. Hanegbi concluded.
2009(2ndof Sivan, 5769): Amos Elon, author of “The Israelis: Founders and Sons,”passed away at the age of 82.
2010:"The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer," a new musical adaptation ofthe classic Yiddish play by Moyshe Gershenson, is scheduled to premiere tonightat The Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City.
2009:Conference 2009 hosted by The Philadelphia Kehilla For Secular Jews came to anend.
2010:Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., officially reopened the Etan Patzcase today.
2010:American Olympic figure skating champion Sarah Hughes “graduated from Yale andreceived a bachelor's degree in American studies with a concentration in U.S.politics and communities.”
2010:Elizabeth Holtzman announced that she had decided not to run for New York StateAttorney General.
2010:The 49th Israel Festival, arguably one of Israel's most important cultural andartistic events, will commence with performances by Nuevo Tango, Ahavat Olamim,a tribute to Charlie Parker by Anchipolosvky, the King's Singers, and a danceperformance entitled Vertigo, Birth of the Phoenix. The three week festival centered in Jerusalemwill feature music, dance, and theater from Israeli and international artiststhat hail from the U.S., Britain, Lithuania, Germany, Denmark, France, Iceland,India, Japan and Korea. Events willoccur in venues throughout the city.
2011:Jonathan D. Sarna is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “That ObnoxiousOrder”: Ulysses S. Grant and the Jews at Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim inCharleston, SC.
2011:Joan Nathan is scheduled to sign copies of “Quiches,Kugels, and Couscous” at the National Archives following a presentation that“explores the rich tapestry of more than three centuries of Jewish cooking inAmerica.
2011: The NewEngland Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled topresent a lecture, “Among Mishpocha: At Home in the Boston Jewish Community” byDr. Michael Feldberg in the Education Center of the New England HistoricGenealogical Society in Boston.
2011:Ken Spiro is scheduled to deliver a lecture on the accomplishments of the Jewsthroughout history entitled “What Would the World be Like without the Jews?” inGreenwich, CT.
2011:Six Israeli women from Beit Shemesh-Mateh Yehuda are scheduled be at the JCCNVto cook foods from different origins (Moroccan, Kurdish -Iraqi, Persian,Russian
andYemenite) as part of “Taste of Israel: Ethnic Cooking at its Best.”
2011:Opening of “Jews, Slavery and the Civil War” a conference hosted by the Collegeof Charleston.
2011:US President Barack Obama said today that a resolution to theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict was "more urgent than ever." And whileexpressing confidence that a two-state solution was achievable, the USpresident made it clear that seeking Palestinian statehood in the UnitedNations would be "a mistake." Speaking alongside UK Prime MinisterDavid Cameron at a press conference in London after the two met privately,Obama stated that the Palestinians must understand "they have obligationsas well."
2012:Gil Shohat is scheduled to conduct a Brahms Marathon at the Henry Crown ConcertHall as part of the Israel Festival.
2012:The Centre Daily Times reported that Graham Spanier “is suing” Penn StateUniversity in order to force them the school to turn over some e-mails relatedto the Jerry Sandusky scandal. The paperalso reported that Spanier “was listed as one of four officials at the centerof the school’s faiure to respond to Sandusky’s predatory behavior.” Spanier had been President of Penn Stateuntil he was forced to resign for his failure to act to react to reports ofJerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of young boys. (Spanier is Jewish, Sandusky isnot)
2012:As Americans begin their Memorial Day Weekend by Cantor Larry Paul and musicianRobyn Helzner are scheduled to lead a special Shabbat Eve service at theHistoric 6th & I Synagogue honoring the memory of the JewishFallen Heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan. National Museum of American JewishMilitary History President, Norman Rosenshein, is scheduled to deliver theopening remarks. During the service, the names of the more than 40 fallenheroes will be read as a sign of solemn remembrance.
2012:The confirmands and their families attended Shabbat evening services at PlumStreet Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2013:Zubin Mehta is scheduled to conduct the IPO at a gala concert in Israelfeaturing Itzhak Perlman.
2013:The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at the Potomac Overlook RegionalPark in Arlington, VA.
2013: Syrian web activists loyal to the regimeof Basher Assad launched a failed cyber-attack on Haifa's water supply system,a senior scientist and web expert revealed today.
2013:Dozens of protesters demonstrated tonight in Ramat Gan around Energy and WaterMinister Silvan Shalom's residence over the government's intention to approvethe export of natural gas from Israel, Army Radio reported
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Protest-around-ministers-home-over-gas-exports-314346
2014:Forty-six-year-old Carla Brui, the Italian born former first lady of France isscheduled to perform in Tel Aviv.
2014:The funeral for Don Levine, the creator of “GI Joe” is scheduled to be held atTemple Beth-El in Providence, RI
2014:French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve “condemened” yesterday’s atrack infront a synagogue in Créteil, a Paris suburb on what he describe as members of“the Jewish faith.” (Tmes of Israel)
2014:“Prosecutors today said they are looking for a lone suspect in the lethalweekend shooting spree at the Brussels Jewish Museum that left three peopledead and one in critical condition. “ Two of the victims have been identifiedas an Israeli couple Mira and Emmanuel Riva.The other victims have only beenidenitied as a murdered French woman and an injured Belgian.
2014;“AOL Inc said today it is starting a program in Israel to assist start-ups, andthat it will invest at least $100,000 in as many as 10 projects at a time.”
2014:At Ben Gurion Airport President Shimon Peres “welcomed Pope Francis, saying"On behalf of the Jewish people and in the name of all the people ofIsrael, I welcome you with the age old words from the Book of Psalms: 'Welcomein the name of the Lord.' Welcome at the gates of Jerusalem." (As reportedby Attila Somfalvi)
2014:In Durham, NC, Hundreds of people are scheduled “to witness the internment of acake of ashes given to an American soldier by a Dachau survivor in 1945” at theDurham Hebrew Cemetery. (As reported by Rene Ghert-Zand)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/dachau-human-remains-come-to-rest-in-north-carolina/
2014:The New York Times features reviewsof books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding Sons of Wichita by Daniel Schulman (reviewed by Nicholas Lemann) andin-depth interview of Leah Hager Cohen author of No Book but the World.
2014:In a front-page ad in today’s edition of Haaretz, “the New Association For a Better Future” “called on MKs” to support 88 year old former Defense Minister MosheArens for the Presidency of Israel.
2014:In Spain, residents of the town of Castrillo Matajudos (Castrillo Kill Jews)will vote on changing the town’s name to Mota Judios or Mota Judious, both ofwhich means Mound of the Jews.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/spanish-town-of-kill-jews-to-vote-on-name-change/
2015(7thof Sivan, 5775): Second Day Shavuot – Yizkor
2015(7thof Sivan, 5775): Ninety-year-old Morris Wilkins passed away today. (As reportedby Sam Roberts)
2015:Today, “judges sentenced former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to serve anadditional eight months of prison over a graft conviction, tacking the sentenceonto a separate six-year jail term the ex-politician is set to serve foranother conviction.”
2015:This evening the Historic 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, DC isscheduled to host Café Nite, an exploration of several learning options withMesorahDC.
2015:Memorial Day observed as Americans remember those who made the supremesacrifice for the United States and her citizens.
https://kaplancenter.org/memorial-day-and-united-jewish-people
http://forward.com/news/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1DeAMPaIh
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/07/18/jews-in-the-military/
2016: Despite the issuance of a “severe travel advisor forTunisia” by Israel’s Counter-Terroirsm Bureau, “many Jews who” come the formerFrench colony are scheduled to travel, as they do “each year to the island ofDjerba in the country’s south, the historic home of an ancient community ofJewish priestly families, to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday, which” beginsthis evening.
2016: The Skirball Center is scheduled to present Dr.Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg speaking on “Lech Lecha: Becoming Abraham,”anexamination of “Abraham’s odyssey through a combination of psychoanalysis,rabbinic commentary, art history and other disciplines…”
2016: The Leo Baeck Institute and the American Society forJewish Music are scheduled to present “An Erwin Schulhoff Retrospective withthe Downtown Chamber Players” who will perform compositions of theCzechoslovakian composer and pianist who died in 1942 in the Wurzburgconcentration camp in Bavaria.
2017(29th of Iyar, 5777): Ninety-three year oldEliezer David Jaffe “the founder and president of The Israel Free LoanAssociation and a professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem” passed awaytoday.
2017: “The premiere of Nania” and a performance of “TechIt Away” is scheduled to take place tonight at “Catamona Rave, a one-nightparty at Beit Alliance” in Jerusalem.
2017: “The annual Shavuot Festival in White” is scheduledto begin today.
2017: “A Night of Philosophy” is scheduled to “be held atseveral locations throughout Tel Aviv, including Beit Alma and the NachumGutman Museum.”
2017: The USHMM is scheduled to host a talk by Holocaustsurvivor Marcel Drimer as part of its “Fist Person Series.”
2017: ELI Talks is scheduled to host presentations byAndrew Belifnfante, Director of Public Programs at Mechon Hadar, Amy Reichertand singer and songwriter Neshama Carlebach.
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a pre-Shabbat screening of“Entebbe” this afternoon in London.
2018: Professor Dr. Robert Harris of JTS is scheduled toteach present the final session of “Medieval Jewish Commentaries of the HebrewBible.”
2018: The 14th Street Y is scheduled to presenta performance of “The Labor of Life” by Hanoch Levin and directed by RonitMuszka Tblit
2018: In Iowa, as part of the Jewish Federation of theQuad Cities Jewish Culture Series Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss a step-sisterof Anne Frank, and creator of the exhibit "Paintings Created in Hiding byErich and Heinz Geiringer" which will be permanently housed at theDanville Station Museum in Danville, Iowa” is scheduled to speak this eveningat the Tri-City Jewish Center in Rock Island, Illinois.
2019(20th of Iyar, 5779): Parashat Behar andChapter Four of Pirke Avot; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2019: In Washington, DC, the Avalon Theatre is scheduledto host a screening of Aviv Kempner’s “The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host apresentation by Leonie Bergman as part of their Survivor Speaker series.
2019: On Shabbat,Israelis prepared to deal with the third day of massive wildfires, PrimeMinister is reported to have thanked the international community for theirresponse, including two helicopters sent by Egypt to fight the conflagration
2020: The VirtualSonoma County JCC Israeli Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of“Turn Left at the End of the World,” a 2004 drama about culture clashes betweenIndian and Moroccan Jews who have immigrated to Israel and the love between twogirls on opposite sides
2020: Memorial Day isscheduled to be observed in the United States since the start of the pandemic
https://kaplancenter.org/memorial-day-and-united-jewish-people
http://forward.com/news/135331/profiles-of-our-fallen/#ixzz1DeAMPaIh
http://www.algemeiner.com/2011/07/18/jews-in-the-military/
2020: The HistoryChannel is scheduled to host the first in a three-part miniseries about U.S.Grant, infamous for Order Number 11 but also known for his positiverelationship with the Jewish community that led to its support for him at theballot box and included his attendance at the dedication of Adas Israel towhich he made a contribution.
2020: Aish is scheduleto host a “special live class with Rabbi Benjamin Blech” who will speak on “Howthe Torah Changed the World,” “a 40-minute exploration on the 10 commandmentsand personal fulfillment.
2020: As they arisethis morning, Israelis will be confronting the realities of the Pandemic andthe reality of Prime Minister standing on trial for corruption.
2020: The ASF Instituteof Jewish Experience is scheduled to present a Webinar on “Value andConsequences in the Halakhic Process: A Sephardi Perspective” with ProfessorZvi Zohar.
2021: Kerem Shalom isscheduled to present online “Voter Rights and Suppression” with Nancy Brumbeck,the voting rights specialist at the Massachusetts League of Women Voters.
2021: The Laura andAlvine Siegal Lifelong Learning Program at Case Western Reserve University isscheduled to present “Finding God in Our Relationships: Insights from MartinBuber.”
2021: The YIVOInstitute is scheduled to present, live on Zoom, “Salomea Perl and WomenYiddish Prose Writers.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/salomea-perl-2021-05-25
2021: Stanfordhistorian Steven Zipperstein is scheduled to be the guest this evening at“conversation” hosted by the Jewish Review of Books.
021: The JewishHeritage Alliance is scheduled to present “Our of the Dungeons” with GenieMilgrom.
2021: In partnershipwith the Consulate General of Israel to New England, The Zamir Chorale ofBoston us scheduled to host “a virtual concert and conversation withinternational artists Achinoam Nini, Benjie Ellen Schiller and others,including a discussion about Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer.”
2021: The JCC ofGreater Boston is scheduled to present online “Cancel Culture Through a JewishLens.”
2021: The Taube Centerfor Jewish Studies at Stanford is scheduled to present Cecile Kuznitz from BardCollege Jewish studies department lecturing on various aspects of Yiddishculture and scholarship.
2021: The Jewish ArtsCollaborative is scheduled to present online a “Tribute to Leonard Cohen withDavid Broza and Friends.”
2021: Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken athis Jerusalem office today at 10 a.m. local time.
2022: The WienerHolocaust Memorial Library and HGRP are scheduled to host the second and finalday of “Recovery and Repair: Supporting Jewish Family Histories of theHolocaust Throughout Britain.”
2022: The ASF Instituteof Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “New Works Wednesday with Racheland Frankel and JJCPF (Jamaican Jewish Cemeteries Preservation Fund.”
2022: LSJS is scheduledto a lecture by Dr. Shalva Weil on “Baghdadi Jews under the Raj: Religion,Opium and Bollywood.”
2022: In New Orleans,the Jewish Community Day School is scheduled to hold its 6th gradegraduation.
2022:Today, Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu is scheduled to “meet with IsraeliForeign Minister Yair Lapid, visit Israel's main Holocaust memorial and pay aprivate visit to Jerusalem's flashpoint holy site, known to Muslims as theAl-Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount.”
2023:“Gateway Shavuos 2023 is scheduled to begin at the Armon Motel in Stamford, CT.
2023:“Etz Chayim, Beth Am, Hausner, JCC, Keddem, Kehillah and Kol Emeth” isscheduled to present an “all-night learning session centered on stories ofconversion and Jewish identity completed with film screening, kiddush, snack,seven species tasting and blintzes.”
2023:Congregation Kehillath Israel is scheduled to present “Community Tikkun LeilShavuot in Brookline.”
2023:Hebrew College is scheduled to present “Tikkun Leyl Shavuot 2023/5783”
2023(5thof Sivan, 5783): Erev Shavuot
2024:Tickets are available today for The Nova Music Festival Exhibition, an in-depthremembrance of the brutal October 7th attack
2024(17thof Iyar, 5784): Parashat Behar; Pirke Avot Chapter Four
formore see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2024:As May 25th begins in Israel,an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 232 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this situation is too fluidfor this blog to cover so we are just providing a snapshot as of the posting atmidnight Israeli time.)
