May 28
408: EmperorTheodosius issued a decree restricting Jewish activities related to Purim. Specifically, he banned the burning ofHaman’s effigy because early Christians felt the Jews were mocking theCrucifixion of Jesus
1247: “PopeInnocent IV wrote to the archbishop of the French province of Vienne to protestChristian excesses in dealing with Jews accused of the blood libel.” Innocent share the anti-Semitic views of hiscontemporaries but had reservations about the severity of the physical assaultson the Jews. (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1247: InnocentIV. issues the "Divina justitia nequaquam," against blood accusation.
1291: Crusadercontrol over the Holy Land appeared to come to an end when Henry II “the lastruling King of Jerusalem” fled to Cyprus after Acre fell to Al-Ashraf Khalil“the 8th Mamluk sultan of Egypt.”
1349:SixtyJews were murdered in Breslau, Silesia in riots which followed a disastrousfire which had destroyed part of the city.
1357: KingAlfonso IV whose subjects included more than 200,000 Jews and whose reign waspart of “Portugal’s Golden Age of Discovery” in which Jews paid a major rolepassed away today.
1501: InPilsen, the councilors together with the aldermen decided on matters concerningthose Jews living in the city. These matters included: interest rates, the loanof clothes, not loaning money on yarn and bed linen, not selling certain typesof clothing, overdue pledges, stolen items, not to wash themselves in gentiles'baths, not to buy clerical items, not to house foreign Jews without thepermission of the city mayor, that foreign Jews can stay in the city for amaximum of three days, and not to melt coins. The following interest rates wereagreed: two deniers per schock per week, one denier per half schock, and 20coppers or less for one heller (As reported by Rabbi Professor Dr. Max HOch
1524:Birthdate of Selim II, the Ottoman Sultan who named Joseph Nassi as Duke ofNaxos. Nassi negotiated the treaty signed by Selim and Charles IX ofFrance. Selim settled several hundred ofJewish families on the Cyprus after the Ottomans took control of theisland. He saw the Jews as being loyalsubjects who had the necessary business skills to develop this newly acquiredpossession.
1588: TheSpanish Armada, with 130 ships and 30,000 men, sets sail from Lisbon headingfor the English Channel. The Armada has a two-fold purpose – the defeat of theDutch and the conquest of England. ASpanish victory would doom the Jews who had taken refuge in Holland. The critical question for the English waswhen the Armada was leaving and when it was to reach the Channel. Marranos or Conversos reportedly suppliedthis desperately needed information which helped secure the ultimate Englishvictory.
1731: AllHebrew books in the Papal States were confiscated.
1750: In a referenceto Emanuel Mendes Da Costa Charles Lyttleton wrote to Dr. Thomas Birch today “theLittle Jew’s being over busy…”
1754(7thof Sivan, 5514): Second Day of Shavuot observed on the same day as GeorgeWashington led British forces against French Canadians at the Battle ofJumonville Glen which marked the opening of the French and Indian War.
1760: SolomonBarnet Gompertz and Martha Hyman were married today in the United Kingdom.
1764: Jews ofFrankfort on the Main, Germany, were permitted for the first time to appear inpublic at the coronation of Joseph II.
1765: BenjaminD’Israeli, married his second wife Sarah Siprut de Gabay Villareal, making themthe parents of Issac Di’Israeli and the grandparents of the British PrimeMinister Benjamin D’Israeli, the future Earl of Beaconsfield.
1769: Today’sconsecration of Pope Clement XIV was viewed as positive moment by Jewish peoplesince prior to his elevation to the Papacy he had decried the notion of theblood libel.
1773(6thof Sivan, 5633): Shavuot
1773: Thefirst Jewish sermon preached and published in America was delivered by RabbiHayyim Isaac Carigal in the Newport Synagogue.
1777: InMontreal, Ezekiel Solomon and Marie Elizabeth Louise Dubois gave birth toWilliam Solomon.
1781(4thof Sivan, 5541): Moses Mordecai, the German born American merchant who was onethe signatories of the Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765 (one of the steps tothe American Revolution) whose wife Esther, in a move unusual for its time, hadconverted to Judaism from Christianity, passed away today in Philadelphia, PA.
1783:Birthdate of Harriet Salomons, the native of Clapton, London who moved toSydney where she passed away I 1862.
1788: SarahMendes da Costa married Jacob da Fonseca Brandon
1792(7thof Sivan, 5552): Second Day of Shavuot and Yizkor
1797: MichaelOppenheim married Kitty Joseph at the Great Synagogue in London.
1815: WilliamLevin married Franny Joseph at the Great Synagogue in London.
1818: Formerpresident Thomas Jefferson set forth in a letter to a Jewish journalist hisopinion of religious intolerance: 'Your sect by its sufferings has furnished aremarkable proof of the universal point of religious insolence, inherent inevery sect, disclaimed by all while feeble and practiced by all when in power.Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religions,as they do our civil rights, by putting all on equal footing. But more remainsto be done.'
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/loc/madison.html
1820: Sixty-eight-year-oldChristian Wilhelm von Dohn, the Christian friend of Moses Mendelssohn, who wasa supporter of Jewish emancipation and author of On the Civil Improvement ofthe Jews passed away today.
1823: John andEsther Nathan were married today at the New Synagogue in London.
1827:Birthdate of Gustav Gottheil, the Prussian born Rabbi, who come to New YorkCity where he become one of the leaders of the Reform Movement. Gottheil was a bit of a maverick since heattended the First Zionist Congress and supported Herzl.
1831: JesuitPriest and social reformer Henri Grégoire “who was considered a friend of theJews” passed away today. “He argued that in his anti-Semitic society thesupposed degeneracy of Jews was not inherent, but rather a result of theircirc*mstances. He blamed the way the Jews had been treated, persecution byChristians, and the "ridiculous" teachings of their rabbis, for theircondition, and believed they could be brought into mainstream society and madecitizens.”
1833: InRhineland-Palatinate, Germany Caroline and David Israel Davis gave birth toLouis Davis the husband of Julia Berman with whom he had six children.
1844: AdamBernard Mickiewicz, the Polish nationalist who would later try and form aJewish military unit called the Hussars of Israel to fight against the Czar,gave his last lecture as a professor of Slavic languages and literature at theCollège de France.
1848:Birthdate of London native Morris Joseph, the graduate of Jews’ College whoserved as the rabbi at the North London Synagogue, the Old Hebrew Congregationof Liverpool and finally the West London Synagogue.
https://rabbisylviarothschild.com/tag/rabbi-morris-joseph/
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/european-judaism/48/1/ej480104.xml
1849(7th ofSivan, 5609): Second Day of Shavuot
1850: MauriceMoses Beddington, the “son of Esther and Henry Moses” and his wife Hannah gavebirth to Esther Hannah Beddington who became Esther Hannah Samuel after shemarried Henry Sylvester Samuel with whom she had four children – Marguerite,Edith, Hilda and Evelyn.
1855: SeligCassel who was the brother of Rabbi David Cassel, was baptized as a member ofEvangelical Church in Prussia today in the St. Peter's Church receiving thename "Paulus Stephanus" became known as Paulus Stephanus Cassel.
1855: In NewYork, Sarah Ottolengu and Jacob I. Moses who were married in Charleston, SC in1848 gave birth Jacob Isaiah Moses.
1855: Twenty-three-year-oldMarseilles born Aristide Felix Cohen, the brother of composer Jules Cohen, “was made auditor of the Conseil d’Etattoday.”
1857(5thof Sivan, 5617): Erev Shavuot observed “as mutiny of sepoys of British EastIndia Company’s army continued for an 18th day.
1858: InWisconsin Jewish immigrants “John and Mary (Perles) Black gave birth to LizzieBlack Kander, author of “The Settlement Cookbook.” “Like manymiddle-class Jewish women of her time, she was deeply involved in ProgressiveEra reform movements that sought to aid and Americanize immigrants. Kanderfirst became involved in local reform efforts in 1878, when she joinedMilwaukee's Ladies Relief Sewing Society. Under Kander's leadership, theSociety evolved into the Milwaukee Jewish Mission. It was as president of"the Settlement," Milwaukee's first settlement house, a multi-purposereform organization modeled on Jane Adams’s Hull House, that Kander made hermost lasting contribution. Among the Settlement's programs was a series ofcooking classes for immigrants. In 1901, Kander asked the Settlement's boardfor $18 to print a small booklet of recipes for her students. When the boardrefused, she raised money from the local business community and produced thefirst edition of The Settlement Cookbook,which combined her recipes with instructions on cleanliness and food storageand general housekeeping tips. The first edition of the Cookbook was published on
1859: AbrahamBerliner, the Berlin born son of Franziska and Baruch Benjamin Berliner and hiswife Henriette Berliner gave birth to Flora Berliner who became Flora Joelnbergwhen she married Siegfried Jolenberg.
1860(7thof Sivan, 5620): Second Day of Shavuot is observed 10 days after theRepublicans nominated Abraham Lincoln for President who unlike later iterationsof his party supported binding up the nation’s wounds while opposing armedinsurrection.
1861: The 11thRegiment of the New York State Militia commanded by Colonel Joachim Maidhofleft New York on its way to be mustered into the Union Army.
1861: Today,Iowan Joseph Meyers, who died during the battle of Fort Donaldson, enlisted inCompany C of the Second Infantry Regiment.
1861:Philadelphian Henry Jacques began serving as a Second Lieutenant with Company Gof the 26th Regiment.
1862: The Willof Commodore Uriah P. Levy was presented to the Surrogate today for probate. Itincludes the following provisions:
Mrs. Levyreceives only her right of dower and all the household furniture, plate,&c., so long as she shall remain unmarried, excepting what is otherwisebequeathed to revert upon her death or marriage. Capt. Levy's nephew, Ashel S.Levy, receives the Washington farm, in Albemarle, Va., with all the negroslaves, &c., and $5,000 in cash; also, his gold box with the freedom of theCity of New-York. He leaves to his brother, Joseph M. Levy, $1,000 in cash, andmortgage on his house in Baltimore; to his brother, Isaac Levy, $1,000, and alldebts due him on notes; to Mitchell M. Levy, son of his brother, Joseph P.Levy, $1,000 in cash; to Eliza Hendricks, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the income of$1,000; to his nephew, Morton Phillips, of New-Orleans, his gold hunting-watchand $500; to Col. T. Moses, of South Carolina, a large silver urn, formerlybelonging to Dr. Phillips, on which is to be engraved, "From Capt. UriahP. Levy, United States Navy, to his kinsman, Col. Franklin Moses, State Senatorof the State of South Carolina, as a testimony of my affection." There arealso legacies of $100 each to Capt. John B. Montgomery, Capt. Lawrence Kearneyand Capt. Francis Gregory, United States Navy, and Benjamin F. Butler, topurchase mourning rings. To Lieuts. Peter Turner and John Moffatt United StatesNavy, and Dr. J. Cohen and Jacob J. Cohen, Jr., Col. M. Cohen. United StatesNavy: Lieut. Lanier, Capt. William Mervine and Commodore Thomas Ap C. Jones,each $25, to purchase mourning rings. The will directs the executors to erect amonument at Cypress Hills, to consist of a full length statue of Capt. Levy, iniron or bronze, in the full uniform of a Captain of the United States Navy, andholding in his hand a scroll on which shall be inscribed: "Under thisMonument," or, "In Memory of Uriah P. Levy, Captain in the UnitedStates Navy, Father of the Law for the Abolition of the Barbarous Practice ofCorporeal Punishment in the Navy of the United States." The monument is tocost $6,000, and the body is to be buried under it. To the Historical Societyare bequeathed three paintings -- "The Wreck of the Medusa Frigate,"by Gericault; "The Descent of the Infant Jesus," and "VirginConfessing the Bishop of Rouen," and a Rural Scene, by Carl Bonner. Hethen bequeaths his farm and estate at Monticello, Virginia, formerly belongingto President Thomas Jefferson, with all the residue of his estate, "to thepeople of the United States," or such persons as Congress shall appoint toreceive it; and especially all his real estate in the City of New-York, intrust, for the sole and only purpose of establishing and maintaining at thefarm in Monticello, Virginia, an agricultural school for the purpose ofeducating as practical farmers children of the Warrant-office of the UnitedStates navy whose fathers are dead. "The children to be supported by thisfund from the ages of 12 to 16." For fuel and fencing said farm-school thewill bequeaths two hundred acres of woodland of his Washington farm, Virginia.The will especially requires that no professorships be established in saidschool, and no professors employed, the school being intended for charity, andnot for pomp. In case Congress refuses to carry out the intention of thisbequest, the property is bequeathed to the people of Virginia for the samepurpose; and in case the Legislature of Virginia declines to receive the trust,the property is to go to the Portuguese Hebrew congregation in this City, andthe old Portuguese Hebrew congregation in Cherry-street, Philadelphia, and thePortuguese Hebrew congregation of Richmond, Va., for the establishment of thesaid school at Monticello, for the children of all denominations, Hebrew andChristian. Should this fund be more than sufficient for the support of childrenof warrant officers of the navy, the children of sergeant-majors of the UnitedStates army are to be included in the benefit -- the balance to be for thebenefit of children of seamen. He further bequeaths $1,000 to the PortugueseHebrew Hospital of this City.
1863:Birthdate of Leo Paul Oppenheim, the native of Berlin who became a leadingGerman naturalist.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11733-oppenheim-leo-paul
1864: Sir SaulSamuel and his wife Henrietta gave birth to their third child “Henri Saul, amajor in the army pay department and the husband of the former Eva Fulton withwhom they raised one child “Gerald Glen.
1866: In NewYork, Raphael Peixotto and his wife gave birth to Sidney Peixotto who has spent almost his entire life in San Francisco, where hehas served as a major in the California National Guard and the founder andleader of The Columbia Park Boys' Club.
1866: In San Francisco, Lewis and Hannah Gerstle gavebirth to Harvard trained lawyer and WW I veteran “Marcus ‘Mark’ Lewis Gerstle,the father of Mark Lewis Gerstle Jr.
https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb4j49n9wb&brand=oac4&doc.view=entire_text
1868(7th of Sivan, 5628) Second Day of Shavuot
1868: In Neustadt, Lithuania, Sarah Liebstadt and WolfRittenberg gave birth to South Carolina General Assembly leader and DemocraticParty leader Sam Rittenberg, the husband of Sadie B. Pearlstine and Chairman ofthe Charleston, SC District of the ZOA.
1868; In London, the former Ellen Maragaret Smart and Hungarianborn wool merchant gave birth to Balliol College, Oxford educated philosopher HaroldHenry Joachim, “the husband of his first cousin, Elisabeth Anna Marie CharlotteJoachim, the daughter of his famous uncle” violinist Joseph Joachim, with whomhe had two daughters and one son and the holder of the Wykeham professorship oflogic from 1919 “until his retirement in 1935.”
1870: Birthdate of New York City businessman Samuel IsaacHyman the husband of the former Tillie M. Eudel with whom he had two children –George and Norma – who was leader of both Congregation Kehilath Jeshrun andCongregation Derech Emunoh and President of the Central Jewish Institute.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/13/96255425.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/07/13/96255424.html?pageNumber=9
1871: In Luka, Czech Republic, Aron Adolf Zentner Zentner and Sara Zentner gave birth to Julius Zentner,the husband of Emilie Zentner and “father of Arnost Zentner; Irma Kohn; PaulZentner; Egon Zentner; Hugo Zentner; Wilhelm Zentner; Walther Zentner; ArthurZentner; Erna Zentner; Gertrud Zentner; Marta Propper; Erhard Zentner; HerbertZentner and Elsa Zentner.”
1871: In New York, Yetta Hackes and Louis Stix who hadbeen married in 1852 in Cincinnati, OH gave birth Sylvan Louis Stix.
1876(5th ofSivan, 5636): Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the Presidency ofU.S. Grant
1877: In New York City. Caroline Reiss and AdolphS. Jager gave birth to Washington University trained physician Alfred SydenhamJaeger, the husband of Blanche Dorothy Keifer who settled in Indianapolis, INwhere he practiced obstetrics, served on the Indiana State Board of Health andwas a member of B’nai B’rith.
1877: According to the Gossip From London Columnpublished today "All London flocked to sit spellbound at the feet of theRussian Jew Rubenstein while he played his own works on the piano at theCrystal Palace."
1877: “The Gossip from London” column published todayreported on the success of a twenty-year-old English Jewish composer namedSolomon. Earlier in the month, he was greeted with a round of applause when heentered the Orchestra at the Folly Theatre based in part on his work "TheContempt of Court". According to the critic, "if Solomon hadbeen a German Jew instead of an English child of Israel the critics would havegushed over the promise exhibited by so young a man.” [Editor’s note –“Solomon” probably refers to Edward “Teddy” Solomon whose first work was “AWill With a Vengeance,” a musical comedy that appeared in 1876. His highly successful career came to a suddenend when he died at the age of 39.]
1877: The Board of Delegates of the American Israelitesmet in New York City today. One of the topics was the upcoming meeting of theInternational Conference of Israelites which is going to be held in December atParis where they will be seeking ways to improve the conditions the Jews livingin the European provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
1877: A critique published today of the June edition of TheCatholic World reported that themagazine continues to demonstrate Catholicism’s fascination with Judaism, ormore properly the passionate desire to convert Jews to the Church of Rome ascan be seen from a feature article entitled “The Present State of Judaism inAmerica.” According to the article “Thenumber of conversions from Protestantism to the holy Roman Catholic Church,here and in Great Britain is continually on the increase. But nothing is more rare than the conversionof a Jew. They are rapidly parting with their own faith, but very seldom dothey embrace any form of Christianity in its stead. In a few years the greatmajority of Jews in the United States will probably have ceased to be Jews savein name only. But all how many of themwill become Catholic? All roads lead toRome but very few Jews have made the journey.”The article concludes that eventually all of the Jews will “come intothe fold.” In order to help those whowant to convert Jews, the magazine provides an estimate of the number of Jewsin the United States, their wealth and “relative distribution throughout” thecountry.
1878:The annual meeting of the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New-York washeld this evening at their head-quarters, in St. Mark's-place. The variouscharitable institutions were fully represented by male and female delegates.During his report, Henry Rice, the President, laid special stress on the evilsof slum life.
1878:Birthdate of Louisville native Joseph Ainslie Bear, the husband of Julia Pamwho co-founded Bear Stearns with Harold C. Maye and Robert B. Sterns the Yaleeducated son of Virginia Michaels and Isaac Stearns, the founder of Stern’sDepartment Stores.
1878:John Russell, the first Earl Russell, the British Prime Minister who supportedlegislation removing the “disabilities of Jews passed away today.
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1853/feb/24/jewish-disabilities
1879: A jury in the Union County Court atElizabeth, NJ, had failed to reach a verdict in the case brought against HenryM. Levy. Levy had been charged withselling cigars on Sunday. Levy admittedthat he sold the cigars on Sunday but said that since he was Jewish he did notfeel bound to observe Sunday as the Sabbath.Furthermore, as a Jew, he did not sell goods on Saturday and kept hisstore closed. The Prosecution contendedthat Levy had to obey the Sunday closing law because he had sworn to obey alllaws when he took the oath of citizenship.
1879(6thof Sivan, 5639): Shavuot
1879: In Posenwhich at the time was part of Germany, Pauline and Isidor Sommerfeld gave birthto their “youngest son” Felix A. Sommerfeld,an engineer, “soldier of fortune” and agent of the Kaiser working fordifferent sides during the turbulent times in Mexico prior to and during WWI. (Editor’s note: If you did not knowthat Sommerfeld was a real peson, you would be sure that he had been inventedby some very creative fiction author.
1879:Philadelphia native Florence Liveright, the daughter of Abraham and RebeccahKan and Simon Liveright gave birth to Ben K. Liveright
1880: TheJewish Messenger reported that Congregation Orach Chaim "...is quietlyextending its influence and securing the objective for which it was organized -not the formation of a large congregation and the building of a handsomesynagogue, but the daily study and practice of the Law." Officials of the Congregation include LazarusHerzberg, first spiritual leader; Seligman Dannenberg, chazzan; AbrahamNussbaum, first president.
1880(18thof Sivan, 5640): Seventy-two year old Mortiz Rappaport who earned his medicaldegree in 1832 and wrote “Moses” an epic poem that appeared in 1842 passed awaytoday.
1881: InAmsterdam, Isaac Jacob Gans, “the son of Jacob and Rececca Mozes Gans” and hiswife Gogeltje Dooseman gave birth to Bethe “Isaac” Gans
1884: In NewYork, “American investment banker Samuel Sachs” and Louisa Goldman gave birthto Walter Edward Sachs, a partner at Goldman-Sachs and the husband of MaryWilliamson from 1939 to 1960.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/reminiscences-of-walter-edward-sachs-oral-history-1956/oclc/309726536
1885:Birthdate of Baltimore native and Johns Hopkins trained physician CharlesRobert Austrian, who maintained a life-long connection with his alma materwhile also serving as “physician-in-chief of Baltimore’s Sinai Hospital fortwenty years during which time “his chief interest was in the field ofinfectious diseases, particularly tuberculousis.”
https://portraitcollection.jhmi.edu/portraits/austrian-charles-robert
1886: InKieff, Gregory and Marie Sokoloff gave birth to Yale University School of Musictrained violinist and conductor Nikolai Sokoloff and husband of Lyda Marix whobegan his career with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and starting in 1918,serving as the conductor the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra while leading the NewYork Philharmonic in “Stadium Concerts” in 1925 and 1926.
1886: One oftwo possible birthdates for Solomon Zeitlin, the Russian born American historywho taught at Dropsie College and who works included The Rise and Fall ofthe Judean State.
1888: InGalicia, Saide and Jacob Ellias Weisstein gave birth to future Californiaresident Clara Weisstein Kaminker the mother of Ronal Reagan supporter andAmbassador to Austria Theodore E. Kaminker Cummings.
1890: Arepresentative of the Jewish congregation of Rondout is at Wurtsborough, NY iswaiting to take possession of the body of Samuel Hutch the Jewish peddler whosecause of death is being determined at inquest being conducted by Coroner JosephRosesh.
1890:Birthdate of Isaac Pacht, the native of Millie, Austria who graduated fromBrooklyn Law School and moved to California where he became a jurist andadvocate for prison reform.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pacht-isaac
1891:Birthdate of Ostoge Ukraine native “Hebrew educator, poet and scholar IsraelIsaac Efros who in 1905 came to the Unites States where “he founded theBaltimore Hebrew College and Teachers Training School and served as rabbi of Temple Beth El inBuffalo before settling in Israel in 1955 where he served as rector of Tel Aviv University whileco-authoring a “definitive Hebrew-English dictionary.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/efros-israel-isaac
1891:Boise Penrose who in 1911 described “discrimination by the Russian Governmentagainst American Hebrews as an assault on American principles and traditions”and assured a delegation of Jews from Philadelphia “that he agreed with theircontention that the violation of their treaty rights as American citizens wasnot a proper subject for an arbitration tribunal but should result in thepassing of a resolution by Congress denouncing the present treaty” with Russia completedhis service as President pro tempore of the Pennsylvania Senate.
1892: InCincinnati, Lena Bardenstein Levand gavebirth to Max Levand, the husband of Lillian Eppstein Leavand with whom he hadthree sons – Elliot, Jack and Marvin – who went from being a newspaper boy inDenver to being president and general manager of The Beacon NewspaperCorporation which produced the Wichita (KS) Beacon.
1892: It wasreported today that the prohibition against the entry of Russian Jews intoGermany has been withdrawn.
1892:Birthdate of Lutzk, Poland native and WW I veteran Morris Brooks, the LongIsland College Hospital trained physician who in 1896 came to Brooklyn wherepracticed medicine and worked with Metropolitan Life.
1893:Professor Felix Adler delivered a speech to the Russian American HebrewAssociation in front of a packed house at the Hebrew Institute on East Broadwayand Jefferson.
1893: “NewParties In German” published today described the rise of new politicalformations as the Centerists fracture. Among them is the German Reform Party,led Herr Simmerman the anti-Semite who used to sit in the Reichtsag. Zimmermanhas been “wildly cheered” “at massmeetings held in Dresden” and other population centers.
1895(5thof Sivan, 5655): Erev Shavuot
1895:Birthdate of Brooklynite Robert Kates, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants whoserved in Palestine during WW I with the Jewish Legion or the 38thRoyal Fusiliers who lived in Montreal after the war.
1897: Birthdateof Romania native Edith Jacobs who became Edith Mandel when she married AbrahamMandel.
1897: InAuckland, NZ, “Henry and Ethelred Frances Bolitho” gave birth to HectorBolitho, the author of Beside Galilee: A First-hand Survey of Zionism andModern Palestine published in 1933.
1898(7thof Sivan, 5658): Second day of Shavuot
1898: Volumeone of A Dictionary of the Bible edited by James Hastings with theassistance of Professors of Hebrew at Oxford and Cambridge has just been issuedby Scribners and Sons.
1898:Approximately 500 people attended the confirmation services at the BrooklynHebrew Orphan Asylum this afternoon.
1898:Birthdate of Saul Lieberman the native of Motal, the Israeli Talmudist “knownas Rabbi Shaul Lieberman or, among some of his students, The Gra"sh (GaonRabbeinu Shaul.”
http://www.joshyuter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Saul-Lieberman-and-the-Orthodox-31.pdf
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/slieberman.html
1899:Anti-Semitic riots began in Jassy, Romania
1899(19thof Sivan, 5659): Hungarian tailor and immigrant to America Herman Lichtnerbecame despondent today while returning to Europe on the SS Cymric and jumpedoverboard leaving behind his little daughter to fend for herself.
1899: Theexercises marking the closing of the religious school at Congregation B’naiJeshurun took on a patriotic air when they were combined with a reception forthe Hebrew Union Veteran’s Association which was part of the upcomingobservance of Decoration Day.
1899: AsAmerican’s prepare to celebrate Decoration Day, Assistant District AttorneyMaurice B. Blumenthal was the main speakers at the memorial services heldtonight by the Independent Order of the Free Sons of Israel at CongregationRodoph Sholom.
1899: “HarshTreatment of Jews” published today described the renewed complaints made byGermany concerning the unreasonable treatment of German Jews who need to go toRussia for business or cultural reasons. For example, “the well-known Berlinimpresario Wolff, who is a German-Jew” organized the current tour of the BerlinPhilharmonic in Russia. Wolff found theimpediments place in his path by the Russian government to be so onerous thathe did not accompany the orchestra, but sent one of his Christian assistants inhis place.
1900: It wasreported today that almost 3,000 people most of whom were Jews were recentlywitnessed “the impressive ceremonies attending the laying of the cornerstone ofthe new Beth Israel Hospital at Jefferson and Cherry Streets.”
1901: Aprovisional Executive Committee was named at meeting this evening chaired byDr. Isadore Singer which will help to work for the established of “a JewishUniversity” in New York City which “which will be on a higher plane than eitherthe Hebrew Union college or the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1902: InDetroit, “Cyrus Sulzberger of New York painted such a vivid word picture of theghetto in New York before the National Conference of Jewish Charities todaythat when he finished his appeal for aid in removing the poor Jews from theGhettos to the country districts there was scarcely a dry eye among thosepresent in Temple Beth-El.”
1903:Birthdate of Bisbee, AZ native and booking agent turned movie producer LeonardGoldstein whose memorable movies included sever of the “Ma and Pa Kettle”series and the “Francis the Talking Mule” comedies.
1903:Birthdate of Berlin native Walter Goehr “the composer and conductor” who“studied with Arnold Schoenberg” and found refuge in Great Britain after theNazis came to power.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/454981-Walter-Goehr
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Goehr-Walter.htm
1904(14thof Sivan, 5664): Parashat Nasso
1904: Funeralarrangements have not been made for 44-year-old Henry Hendricks who droppeddead yesterday.
1904: Thismorning, at the conclusion of services at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, “anumber of ladies and gentlemen assembled in the schoolroom to witness apresentation to Mr. Shefton Louis Cohen of an engraved “silver backed brush asmeasure of appreciation for his work with the Sydney Jewish Sabbath School’prior to his sailing for England.
1905: Soldiersfired on a crowd in the neighborhood of a synagogue killing two Jews at Lodz.
1906:“Louisville Keeps Sabbath” published today described how rigidly the Sabbathhad been informed on Sunday with the only exception being a Jew who hadobserved Saturday as the Sabbath who had been arrested for operating his saloonbut who was, strangely enough “allowed to continue selling throughout the day.”
1906: It wasreported today that “Sylvia Neuman, the daughter of Emanuel Newman” had playeda “key” role in the dedication of Temple Adath Israel’s dedication of its newhouse of worship which had been constructed under the leadership of Joseph L.Schneider, president of the congregation and Henry Love, Chairman of theBuilding Committee.
1907:Birthdate of New York City native and NYU trained attorney Lilia H. Axinn.
1908:Birthdate James Bond creator Ian Fleming “who, like many Englishmen of hisgeneration, wore his anti-Semitism on his sleeve” and whose books “unlike themuch more popular films they spawned, occasionally trade in vulgar and hatefulJewish stereotypes, and whenever a character does seem Jewish, he is always avillain.”
https://forward.com/culture/film-tv/453228/on-her-majesty-s-semitic-service/
1909:Hahambashi Haim Nahoum of Turkey met with Prime Minister and Interior Ministerof Turkey to discuss the practice of limiting the residence of foreign Jews tothree months.
1909: It wasreported today that “Ahmed Riza, President of the Chamber of Deputies visitedHahm Pasha, the ritual head of the Jews in Turkey and on behalf of the TurkishGovernment extended an invitation to the Jews of Russia and Rumania to migrateto Turkey” and promised that the government “will confer full citizenship onthe Jewish immigrants immediately on their arrival in Turkey.
1910: InChicago Rose Alice Alschuler, the daughter of Charles and Mary Haas and AlfredSamuel Alschuler, Sr. gave birth to Francis Gudeman
1911: It wasreported today that “in a peace sermon” given at Temple Emanu-El, Dr. JosephSilverman “praised President Taft for his successful efforts in inducing Russiato admit Jews with American passports, and accord them the same treaty rightsas other American citizens.”
1911 “A NewLife of Rachel” published today provides a review of Rachel: Her Stage Life andHer Real Life, Francis Gribble’s “exhaustive biography of the famous Frenchactress of the nineteenth century.”
1912: AgudathIsrael was formed as the world organization of Orthodox Jewry at Katowitz.Jacob Rosenheim was its first president.
1913: The Georgianreported that E.F. Holloway, the plant day watchman, believed Jim Conley hadstrangled Mary Phagan when he was drunk. This should have gone a long waytowards exonerating Leo Frank.
1913: TheIndependent Order of B’rith Abraham which had been organized in 1887 ended its26th Annual Convention today in New York City
1913: “RabbiHyamson, the Dayan of the United Synagogue in London” is scheduled to “delivera lecture on ‘A Comparison of Hebrew Law’” today at the Dropsie College inPhiladelphia.
1913: InPennsylvania, dedication ceremonies begin for the Philmont Country Club.
1914: SamuelS. Koenig, the President of the Republican Committee is one of those attendingtoday’s Republican conference at the Waldorf Hotel.
1915: Joseph“Joe, the Greaser” Rosenzweig, the first of the east side gang leaders known as“starkers’ “to furnish hired thugs to the unions” “appeared before JusticeShearn in the Criminal Term of the Supreme Court and pleaded guilty tomanslaughter in the first degree.
1915: A“telegram directed to the State Prison Commission was received in theGovernor’s office late this afternoon from United States Senator John W. Kearnof Indiana, which began “I have followed proceedings in the Leo Frank case stepby step with great and increasing interest and as a lawyer with forty years ofexperience I beg you to spare this man’s life.”
1915: JosephS. Schwab, the Chairman of a New York committee supporting the commutation ofthe sentence of Leo M. Franks sent a telegram to President Wilson today whichread “Will you add another laurel wreath to your fame as a broad-mined man byrequesting the authorities of Georgia in your individual capacity to commutethe sentence of Leo Frank, who it universally conceded, has not had a fairtrial.”
1915: Birthdate of linguist Joseph HaroldGreenberg.
1916: Theninth annual convention of the Federation of Rumanian Jews of America continuedfor a second day in New York where attendees have heard an array of speakersincluding Dr. Julius Weiss, Dr. Henry Moskowitz, Congressman William s. Bennet,Judge Jacob S. Strahl, Albert Lucas, D.J. Hermalin and Samuel Goldstien.
1916: “BernardTurkel, President of the Har Moriah Hospital…announced” today “at the meetingof the 13th annual convention of the Federation of Galician andBukowinean Jews of America that the hospital directors have decided to build anew hospital costing about $400,000” which will be located “south of FourteenthStreet and east of the Bowery.”
1916: The listof contributions to the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews SufferingThrough the War published today included $350 from the Jewish Alliance ofOntario, Canada, $80 from the Sisters of Peace and $23 from the ReliefAssociation of Sioux City, Iowa.
1916: “SolomonSchechter Home Appeals” published today described the solicitation forcontributions by the managers of the Solomon Schechter Memorial Jewish Home forConvalescents located “at Grand View on the Hudson which was established by theFederation of Rumanian Jews in America.
1917(7thof Sivan, 5677): Second Day of Shavuot
1917: RabbiRosenstein conducted the “Memorial Service” this morning at B’nai YehoshuaTemple.
1917: RabbiJulius Newman conducted services this morning at Congregation Moses Montefiore.
1917: At theManhattan Casino in New York City Benny Leonard won the World Lightweight Titlewith a TKO in the 9th round.
1917: InBrooklyn, Goldie Yarmolinsky and Isidore Commoner, Jewish immigrants fromRussia, gave birth to Barry Commoner, one of the founders of the ecologymovement. (As reported by Daniel Lewis)
1917: InManhattan Mark and Mariam Villchur gave birth to “Edgar M. Villchur, whoseinvention of a small loudspeaker that could produce deep, rich bass tonesopened the high-fidelity music market in the 1950s to millions of everydaylisteners…” (As reported to DennisHevesi)
1917: InLondon, The Times published theresponses of Lord Rothschild, Rabbi Joseph Hertz and Chaim Weizmann to a letterthat had appeared in the Times on May 24 signed by Claude Montefiore and DavidLindo Alexander in which they express their opposition to Zionism and theconcepts that will be embodied in the Balfour Declaration.
1917: Dr.Chaim Zhitlowsky addressed “a mass meeting of Jewish workingman” at ClintonHall who are in the process of choosing delegates to the Jewish Congress whichis scheduled to meet this September in Washington, DC.
1917: “GreatBritain, France Italy and the Catholic Church are in full sympathy with theZionist plan for the establishment in Palestine of a publicly recognized,legally assured homeland for the Jewish people and are prepared to give thisproject their support and co-operation according to a statement issued” today“by the Provisional Committee for General Zionist Affairs” which had beenapproved by “Dr. Chaim Weitzman, President of the English Zionist Federationand Nahum Sokolow, a member of the Zionist Actions Committee.”
1917: InLondon, the Palestine Wine and Trading Co. received from its representative inSwitzerland a “telegram from the Rishon-le-Zion colony that that reports ofpersecution of Jews are completely false” and that the government “gives everyprotection to our vine growers and has not molested any of the laborers engagedin the industry.” (Editor’s note: During WW I there was great concern about thewell-being of the Jewish community in Palestine, but this telegram seems to runcounter the general picture painted of ill treatment at the hands of theOttoman)
1918: Duringthe Battle of Cantigny, one of the first major offensives involving the U.S.Army, Abraham Kauffman “refused to leave his gun after he had lost a finger”and continued to perform his duty until so severely wounded as to be unable toassist in serving” his weapon.
1918:Birthdate of Toronto native Louis Weingarten, who gained fame as Johnny Wayne,the “Wayne” in the comedy duo of “Wayne and Shuster.
1918: InCincinnati, OH, the mayor married Rabbi Henry Joseph Berkowitz to his firstwife Claire Henle.
1918: Morethan 2,000 attended “the final session of the three-day convention of theUnited States Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of B’rtih Abraham” wherethey heard New York Governor Whitman say that “the Jews deserved great praisefor standing behind President Wilson” and “that the loyalty of American Jewrycould never be questioned.”
1918: Ameeting of “prominent Jews” at the Metropolis Club heard “Ittamar Ben Aizi, anative Palestine and the editor of the first daily paper ever published inJerusalem” pay “a glowing tribute to the British Army for the conquest ofPalestine” before declaring that “We are living again in Palestine just asJoshua lived.”
1919: InVienna, Austria, Israel and Leah Heller gave birth Max Moses Heller the refugeefrom Hitler’s Europe and husband for sixty-nine years of the former TrudeSchonthal who founded the Maxon Shirt Company and Mayor of Greenville, SC from1971 to 1979 during which he courageously “desegregated all municipaldepartments and commissions.”
1919: “Jewishworkers laid down their tools at 2 o’clock” this “afternoon and Jewishstorekeepers closed theirs shops as a protest against the pogroms in Poland,Romania and other countries” while 25,000 people including Jewish students fromthe University of Chicago marched to the Auditorium Theatre
“where a mass meeting was held.”
1920: TheJewish community in Constantinople published a letter to the former Hahambashi,Haim Nahoum Effendi who had stepped down from his post a few weeks prior. Theydeclared his departure a calamity. They expressed regret at his departure andtheir gratitude for his past services, attributing to him the prestige whichthe community has acquired in the eyes of the Turkish government.
1920: “Aspecial Memorial Service” was held this evening Sinai Temple of the Bronx whereCivil War veteran Edward Boyer spoke on “Sacrifice and Service,” Spanish Warveteran Maurice Simmons spoke on “The Jewish Soldier” and Rabbi Max Reichlerspoke on “After-War Optimism” after which a special Kadidish was recited forfour members of the congregation who had made the ultimate sacrifice – JeromeHeine, Erwin Lowenstern, Joseph Shops and Melvin Spitz.
1921(20thof Iyar, 5681): Parashat Behar
1921(20thof Iyar, 5681): One Hundred and one year old New Orleanean Elizabeth D.A.Cohen, the New York born daughter of David and Phoebe Cohen and the mother ofDr. Aaron Cohen, who became the first woman to practice medicine in Louisianapassed away today after which she was buried in the Gates of Prayer Cemetery.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/cohen-elizabeth-da
1922(1st ofSivan, 5682): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1922: “At thebiennial meeting of the Directors of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society,which operates the cottage plan institution” J”udge Samuel D. Levy of theChildren's Court and Vice President of the organization, was presented todaywith a silver tea service by Adolph Lewisohn” as a sign of appreciation for his25 years of service as a director of the orphanage.
1922: “In HilaireBelloc Writes About the Jews” published today noted scholar Dr. H.G. Enelow whoplayed a key role in the establishment of chairs of Jewish History at Harvardand Columbia provides a lengthy review of The Jews by Hilaire Belloc whois “sore afraid of the Jews,” who “would like to see the Jews segregated” andwho blames them for the Russian Revolution.
1922: The BneiAkiva youth movement was founded. The youth branch of the Mizrachi wasoriginally established to train its members in agriculture and crafts. Its goalwas the synthesis of Torah and Avodah (Torah and labor). Soon, the movementformed its own kibbutzim within the structure of "Kibbutz Hadati,"the religious kibbutz movement.
1923: InBrooklyn, whole produce worker Meyer Schneiderman and his wife Bess gave birthto Irwin Schneiderman, “a self-described ‘kid from the Jewish Ghetto’” whobecame a highly successful attorney and philanthropist whose passions includedthe New York City Opera. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1924: Thecornerstone laying ceremonies for the new building to house the Chachmel LublinYeshiva came to an end.
1924: Funeralservices are scheduled to be held this afternoon at the B’nai B’rithHeadquarters on Broadway for Samuel Fleishman
1925(5thof Sivan, 5685): In Camden, NJ, Beth El Congregation is scheduled to hold aShavuot “Service at Sunset.”
1925:Birthdate of Lydia Csato Gasman, the native of Foccsani Romania who gained fameas a painter and scholar.
1926: TheBurnside Bridge, a bridge that “spans the Willamette River in Portland, OR,”which incorporated a bascule lift mechanism designed by Joseph Strauss openedtoday.
1927(26thof Iyar, 5687): Parashat Bamidbar
1927: It wasreported today that the Minorities Committee of the League of Nations has heardreports from “anti-Semitic forces in Rumania charging Jews with lack ofpatriotism, trading with the enemy and shirking military duties” whichjustifies the restrictions under which Jews live and their inability to “enjoythe liberties of other peoples.”
1928: In Brooklynthe former Florence Goldstein and Fred Fisher “a law clerk who became a Hollywoodstuntman gave birth to Anna Fisher who gained fame as “Florence Fisher, anadoptee who spent decades searching for her birth parents and then spentanother half century fighting to open adoption records for millions of others…”(As reported by Clay Risen)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/us/florence-fisher-dead.html
1928: U.S.premiere of the German Film “Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis” with a script byCarl Mayer and Karl Freund.
1928:Birthdate of Alfred Gilbert Aronowitz, an American rock journalist best knownfor introducing Bob Dylan and The Beatles in 1964.
1929(18thof Iyar, 5689): Lag B’Omer
1929:In Hartford, Connecticut, Thomas Birmingham and Editha Gardner Birmingham gavebirth to Stephen Birmingham author of OurCrowd’: The Great Jewish Families of New York, The Grandees: America’sSephardic Elite and The Rest of Us: The Rise of America’s EasternEuropean Jews.
1930:Premiere of “À propos de Nice” asilent documentary depicting daily in the French city of Nice filmed bycinematographer Boris Kaufman.
1931:In Cracow, Poland, Ignac and Felicia Karp gave birth to their “only child”Celina Karp,“the youngest of the roughly 1,200 Jews” rescued by Oscar Schindlerwho became Celina Biniaz after marryingdentist Amir Biniaz in 1953.
1931:Birthdate of actress Carroll Baker who converted to Judaism when she marriedHolocaust survivor Jack Garfein with whom she had two children – Blanche Bakerand Herschel Garfein
1932:Birthdate of Brooklyn native and College of William and Mary graduate“Timesman” and author Arnold Lubasch. (As reported by Daniel Slotnik)
1932:The Licensed Trade News, theBirmingham based publication that “gives news from all over England about thebrewing trade” reported today that former British Olympic weightlifter EdwardLawrence Levy who later went to work the brewer’s trade association had passedaway.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/EdwardLawrenceLevy.htm
1933:“Dr. Friedrich von Winterfeld, leader of the Nationalist party as Dr. AlfredHugenberg's deputy, declared in a speech here today that the boycott of theJews had harmed Germany more than its intended victims.”
1934:“I. Edwin Goldwasseer, Nathan Straus, Jr. and Ira M. Younker, co-chairman ofthe United Jewish
Appealwhich is seeking to raise $1,200,000 in New York City which will go “for therelief and rehabilitation of German Jews and their settlements in Palestineannounced today that so far they have raised $302,000.
1935:The Italian newspaper Popolo di Romapublished a report describing the funeral held aboard Italian ship Domenico for a Jewish cadet who haddrowned while training at the Betar Naval Academy. The academy had beenestablished at Civitavecchia, Italy in 1934 in an agreement worked out betweenBenito Mussolini and Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist ZionistMovement.
1935(25th ofIyar, 5695): Sixty-eight year old Bella Mehrbach passed away in White Plains,NY.
1936(7th ofSivan, 5696): Second Day of Shavuot
1936(7th ofSivan, 5696): Bertha Pappenheim “an Austrian-Jewish feminist, a social pioneer,and the founder of the Jüdischer Frauenbund (League of Jewish Women) passedaway. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freuds-patients-serial/201201/bertha-pappenheim-1859-1936
1936: StrikingArabs said they would send “a protest to the British Administration demandingits withdrawal from the Levant Fair” now being held in Tel Aviv. The Palcor (news) Agency) reported that atleast 48 people had died to date since the Arab uprising began in April.
1936: As of today,it was reported that 24 Jews have been killed since the outbreak of the ArabRiots and another 110 have been wounded.
1936: Twenty-three-year-oldBritish Constable Robert Bird, who “shot from ambush by an Arab” in the OldCity of Jerusalem was among the five people murdered today.
1936: “Themandates commission of the League of Nations received” a letter from the JewishAgency for Palestine appealing to the British Government “to make the Jewishnational home immune from further attack” at the opening of its 29thsession today in Geneva.
1937(18thof Sivan, 5697): Mrs. Louise G. Pollak, the Baltimore born wife of Dr. BertholdS. Pollak, medical director of the Hudson County Tuberculosis Hospital, andmother of mother of Theresa Pollak and Mrs. Rosa Birnbaum passed away ‘this afternoonof a heart ailment at her home on the hospital grounds at Secaucus, N. J.’
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/05/29/118973198.html?pageNumber=17
1937(18th ofSivan, 5697): Alfred Adler an Austrian medical doctor, psychologist andfounder of the school of individual psychology passed away (As reported byKendra Cherry)
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesal/p/alfred-adler.htm
1937: Neville Chamberlain becomes British PrimeMinister. Chamberlain is remembered for Munich Agreement which immediatelyimperiled those Czech Jews who now came under Hitler’s sway and helped lead toWorld War II and the Shoah. In the besttradition of “realistic British leaders” he was pro-Arab as can be seen whentold a meeting of the Cabinet’s Palestine Committee that it was “of immenseimportance to have the Muslim world with us. If we must offend one side, let usoffend the Jews rather than the Arabs.This led to the adoption of policy designed to “ensure a permanent Arabmajority and a permanent Jewish minority in Palestine.”
1938: InFrankfurt, caricatures of Jews drawn with insulting inscriptions on Jewish shopwindows. Gangs threatened Jews to move out of Frankfurt.
1938:Foundation for Tel Aviv harbor was `laid
1938:Jewishbusinesses in Frankfurt, Germany, are boycotted.
1939: Inreaction to the White Paper the Jewish Agency declares: "The need of theJewish People for a Home was never more acute and its denial at this time isparticularly sharp." The White Paper is denounced as illegal as itcontradicts the terms of the Mandate, which can only be changed with theagreement of the Council of the League of Nations.
1939(10thof Sivan, 5699): Russian native David Hayyim Bachrach whom came to the UnitedStates in 1889 and served as a rabbi in Trenton, NJ and Providence, RI, passedaway today.
1939: The"Atrato", a ship under the command of the Haganah, is captured by theBritish navy, after having completed seven voyages during six months andbringing more than 2,400 illegal immigrants to Palestine.
1940:Birthdate of Steven Riskin, who as Shlomo Riskin founded the Lincoln SquareSynagogue in 1964 and became the first chief rabbi of Erfat. Supreme CourtJustice Elena Kagan had her bat mitzvah at the Lincoln Square Synagogue.
1940: IrvingBerlin's musical "Louisiana Purchase" premiered in New York City.
1940: Mr. andMrs. P. Irving Grinberg of White Plains, NY announced the engagement of theirdaughter Carol Grinberg, “agreat-granddaughter of Mors. Esther Herrman, one of the founders of BarnardCollege and Richard M. Lederer, Jr, the controller of the Woodside NationalBank in Queens.
1940: Afterthree days of debate, Churchill’s War Cabinet decides to continue the waragainst Germany. Churchill prevailedover formidable forces led by Foreign Minister Lord Halifax that sought toreach an accommodation with the Nazi regime.Eventually Halifax would see the logic of Churchill’s position and become a strongadvocate of the war against Hitler. Ifthe debate had gone otherwise, for the Jews, there would have been even morefinality to the Final Solution than was suffered with the loss of the SixMillion.
1940:Realizing that the Lord Lloyd will not end his opposition to arming the Jews ofPalestine so they can defend themselves, Churchill writes his ColonialSecretary urging him to meet with Weizmann to see what can be done to end theimpasse. Churchill wanted to bring most of the British troops in Palestine backto England to face the expected cross-Channel invasion by the Nazis. He realized that these British troops wereoften all that stood between the Jews and the forces of the Grand Mufti andArab marauders who had a history of attacking the Jewish settlers. Churchillends the letter by reminding Lord Lloyd of his continued opposition to theWhite Paper.
1941(2ndof Sivan, 5701): Thirty-seven year old Dudley Joel, a member of a prominent andwealthy Anglo-Jewish family and Member of Parliament who “joined the RoyalNaval Volunteer Reserve” at the start of WW ii was killed today off the CapeCornwall today when his ship was bombed by Nazi aircraft after which he wasburied at the Wilesden Jewish Cemetery.
1941: In aprelude to the Fahrud, the Iraqi name for this year’s pogrom, Yunus al-Sabawi, “thegovernor of Baghdad and head of the Nazi groups in Baghdad (indeed, al-Sabawitranslated Mein Kampf into Arabic), summoned Hakham Sassoon Khedouri, leader ofthe Jews in Baghdad, informing him that Jews were to stay home on May 31, June1 and 2 (Shabbat and Shavuot)” and also him told to inform the Jews to pack onesuitcase, and to be prepared to attend detention centers.”
1942(12thof Sivan, 5702): Sixty-five year old New York born glass maker Charles H.Harris “who opened his home” in Norwalk, CT “as a vacation farm forundernourished girls sent by social service departments of hospitals andwelfare associations in New York” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/05/29/85558322.pdf
1942:Birthdate of Dr. Stanley B. Prusiner, native of Des Moines, Iowa, who won theNobel Prize Physiology and Medicine in 1997.
1943: Today,“Aaron Copland's ballet Rodeo was performed for the first time, with symphonicaccompaniment by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops.”
1943: Today,for the first time in modern history the city of Tluste is “Jew Free” followingyesterday’s murder of the 3,000 Jews lving in the town.
1944(6thof Sivan, 5704): Last Shavuot of WW II
1944: AtBerkenau, some Jews tried to revolt as theywere marched to the gaschambers. They were machine-gunned to death.
1945(16thof Sivan, 5705): Fifty-eight year old Alexander Warshawsky, the Cleveland bornson of Jewish immigrants Ida and Ezekiel Warshawsky, who along with his brotherAbel “attended the Cleveland School of Art and New York’s National Academy ofDesign” and moved to Europe before WW II when he returned to the United Stateswhere he settled in Los Angeles and raised his son Ivan with his wife Berthe.
http://www.askart.com/artist/Alexander_Warshawsky/26765/Alexander_Warshawsky.aspx
1945: InQuebec, Harry Cohen, “an immigrant from Lithuania who owned an auto partsbusiness” and his wife gave birth to Stephen Philip Cohen, the “professor whosecretly brokered peace talks between Arab and Israeli officials.” (As reportedby Sam Roberts)
1945: In aletter made public today “by Charles Schwager, a member of the administrativecommittee of the National Council of Organizations for Palestine” Governor TomDewey, the 1944 Republican candidate for President who was planning another runin 1948 declared that “the problems of the unfortunate, homeless and persecutedJews of eastern Europe should be on the agenda of our internationaldeliberation and their representatives should be invited to plead their cause.”
1946(27thof Iyar, 5706): Sixty-eight-year-old Benjamin Joseph Altheimer, Sr. who enjoyedsuccessful legal career in his native Pine Bluff, AR and Chicago , Illinois andestablished “the Ben J. Altheimer Foundation, which has provided funding forcivic, legal, and agricultural endeavors” in Arkansas passed away today.
1946: “At theroyal estate at Inchass, about 25 miles from Cairo, 26-year old King Farouk”hosted a first ever meeting of the rulers of seven Arab states where the agendaincluded: Reconciliation of the Hashimites and Saudis, an Anglo-Egyptian treat,the attitude of the big powers toward the Arabs, adequate representation ofArabs in the peace conference and the inevitable Palestine question, whichmeant putting to any attempt to settle one hundred thousand Jews in the countryimmediately.
1946(27thof Iyar, 5706): Eighty-one year old NYU and Columbia trained industrial chemistDr. Maximilian Toch, the New York born son of Moses and Caroline Levy Toch, the“president and chief chemist of Toch Brothers, Inc. and chairman of StandardVarnish Works “called America’s first camofleur” for his work in camouflagingthe Panama Canal and developing the gray paint used to “hide” U.S. Navy shipswho raised four daughters – Elain, Constance, Alma and Maxine – with his wife“the former Hermine E. Levy” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/05/31/88366766.pdf
1947: At theHotel Sheraton in Manhattan, “Dr. Mordecai Soltes, executive director ofYeshiva University presented Rabbi S. Felix Mendlesohn” the rabbi at TempleBeth Israel in Chicago, with “a scroll and recalled how he had started NationalJewish Book Week in 1927” which led Rabbi Mendelsohn to decry “the apathy ofthe Jewish people toward Jewish Liberation
1948: Israeliforces captured the Arab village of Zar'in on Mt. Gilboa.
1948: (19thof Iyar, 5708) The commander of the Jewish defense of Jerusalem, “Yitzhak Rabinwent up to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, where he later wrote, ‘I witnessed ashattering scene. A delegation wasemerging from the Jewish Quarter bearing white flags. I was horrified to learn that consisted ofrabbis and other residents on their way to hear the Legion’s terms for theircapitulation. That same night, theJewish Quarter surrendered to the Arab Legion.’” The loss of the Jewish Quarter in the OldCity meant that the spiritual heart of Jerusalem with the Western Walls and itsmany synagogues was now under Jordanian control. This was the Arab Legion’s first victory inJerusalem. It would prove to be its lastas the Jewish forces were able to strengthen their defenses around the rest ofthe city. Esther Cailingold, a 22 yearold English woman was one of the defenders who lost her life in the fight forthe Old City. In a letter to her parents she wrote, “’We had a difficultfight. I have tasted hell, but it hasbeen worthwhile because I am convinced that in the end we will have a Jewishstate…I have lived my life fully, and very sweet it has been to be in ourland.’”. Under the U.N. Partition Resolution, Jerusalem was supposed to beunder international control. Instead the Jordanians invaded the city andheld the eastern section for 19 years. During that time they defaced theJewish quarter and denied the Jews access to the area under theircontrol. The world community did nothing to remedy the situation.Only with the Six Day War in 1967 were Jews able to have access to the entireCity of David.
1948: WithJewish Quarter completely cut off, Mordechai Weingarten led a delegation thatmet with Abdulla el Tell, the commander of the Arab Legion that had illegallyattacked Jerusalem to discuss surrender terms.Under the terms of the surrender which Weingarten had no choice butaccept “all men capable of bearing arms were made prisoners of war. WhenEl-Tell saw how few Jewish fighters he had been confronting he told MosheRussnak, the Haganah commander that “If I had kown you were so few would havecome after with sticks, not guns.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Weingarten_and_el_Tell.JPG
1948: TheJewish Quarter suffered a scourge of looting after the departure of its Jewishresidence.
1948: Afterthe surrender of the Jewish Quarter today, “Esther Calingold and the otherwounded were moved to the nearby Armenian School, just outside of the JewishQuarter.”
1948: Israeliforces captured Zar’in on Mt. Gilboa
1948: Iraqitroops captured Ge’ulim
1948: At theU.N. Security Council, following the third or fourth Arab rejection of a ceasefire, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Arthur Austin rejected the Arab position inmost undiplomatic language. He accusedthe Arabs of having only one goal – overwhelming the government of Israel byarmed power. “An existing governmentcannot be blotted out this way…We know this is a violation of the Charter…Thisis equivalent in its absurdity to a legend that these five armies are there tomaintain peace and at the same time are conducting a bloody war.”
1949:Birthdate of television performer Sandy Helberg, the father of actor SimonHelberg
1950: In anattempt to promote peace in the region, the government of Israel proposes thatcertain religious sites in Jerusalem be placed under internationalcontrol. Everybody from the Arabs to theCatholic Church rejects the proposal.
1950: The planof the three major western powers to tie shipment of arms to Israel andsurrounding Arab states to pledges of non-aggression has met with mixed, mostlynegative reactions from various Arab nations.While the Egyptians have gone along with this tripartite declaration,the Iraqis, Lebanese and Syrians have all condemned the western-backed policy.
1951: The BBCHome Service broadcast the first episode of “Crazy People” a radio comedyprogram starring Peter Sellers.
1953: The WestEnd premiere of “Guys and Dolls” “a musical with music and lyrics by FrankLoesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows” opened today at the London Coliseum.”
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that oneIsraeli soldier was killed and another wounded when Israeli units clashed with,and inflicted considerable losses on an armed Jordanian unit near Hebron. TheJordanians had previously crossed the armistice lines, but were forced to fleein the ensuing exchange of fire.
1954: Ninety-eight-year-oldPoultney Bigelow, the American journalist who in the 1890’a described thepersecution of non-Orthodox Russians but who portrayed “the Czar as a kindlyman overruled by fierce and venal bureaucrats.”
1955(7thof Sivan, 5715): Second Day of Shavuot
1955:“Egyptian and Israeli forces exchanged heavy mortar fire for twenty minutestoday across the demarcation in the Egyptian-held strip of Palestine.”
1957(27thof Iyar, 5717): Fifty-nine-year-old Minsk native and Yale trained attorneySamuel H. Markle, the Connecticut regional director of the Anti-DefamationLeague, the husband of Bertha Markle and father of Lois Markle “collapsed anddied of heart attack while at tending a session of the 105th annualconvention of District 1 of B’nai B’rith at the Concord Hotel.
1958: “TheProud Rebel” a movie set in post- Civil War America directed by Michael Curtiz,produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. with music by Jerome Moross and featuring EliMintz as “Mr. Gorman” was released in the United States today.
1959(28thof Iyar, 5719): Sixty-year-old Des Moines, IA, native and Yale Universitygraduate Elliot E. Cohen, the founding editor of Commentary magazine passed away today.
1959: InBrooklyn, the former Hilma Liebman, who gained fame as the novelist HilmaWolitzer and psychologist Morton Wolitzer gave birth to Brown Universitygraduate and novelist Meg Wolitzer whose works include the novel Sleepwalkingand The Wife.
1959:Birthdate of Meg Wolitzer, author of The Wife. She followed in thefootsteps of her mother Hilma Wolitzer “whose novels include Ending, Inthe Flesh, The Doctor's Daughter and Hearts
1962: IsraelBar-Yehuda replaced Yitzhak Ben-Aharon as Minister of Ransportation
1962: EnterConversing, “a collection thirty-two essays by Clifton Fadiman” isscheduled to “be issued by World” today,
1962: ArthurJulian Andrew began serving as the Canadian Ambassador to Israel.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that inWashington, the U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. John Foster Dulles, claimed thatthe Egyptian Prime Minister, Naguib, was ready to "make a deal withIsrael." (Ed note: Not for the first time and certainly not for the lasttime, Secretary Dulles "got it wrong, big time.")
1955(7thof Sivan, 5715): Second day of Shavuot and Shabbat
1955(7thof Sivan, 5715): Seventy-five-year-old Philadelphia resident Moses LawrenceBlumenthal, the Wilmington, NC born son of Samuel Blumenthal and the husband ofCatherine Wallerstein, whom he married at Richmond in 1915 and with whom he hadtwo children, passed away today.
1955: Herutand Maki factions presented no-confidence motions, in which the GeneralZionists, a coalition member, abstained — leading to Prime Minister Sharett’sresignation.
1958: “TheProud Rebel” an off-beat Western film directed by Michael Curtiz, produced bySamuel Goldwyn, Jr and with music by Jerome Moross was released today in theUnited States.
1959: InBrooklyn novelist Hilma (Liebman) Wolitzer and psychologist Morton Wolitzergave birth to author and college writing instructor Meg Wolitzer.
1960:Birthdate of Gail Sheryl Asper, OC, OM “a director and corporate secretary ofCanWest Global Communications Corp, president of the CanWest Global Foundation,and managing director and secretary of The Asper Foundation, the privatecharitable foundation spearheading the establishment of the $310 millionCanadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, thedaughter of entrepreneur and philanthropist Izzy Asper, she attended KelvinHigh School before receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1981 and a Bachelorof Laws degree in 1984 from the University of Manitoba. She was called to theNova Scotia bar in 1985 and is a member of the Law Society of Manitoba. Shearticled with Halifax, Nova Scotia law firm of Cox Downie & Goodfellow in1984 and was an Associate Lawyer in Halifax with Goldberg McDonald from 1985 to1989. In 1989, she joined her father's firm, CanWest, as a corporate secretaryand director. She has long been associated with arts and culture as avolunteer, performer, and fund-raiser. She is associated with the Liberal Partyof Canada and endorsed Scott Brison's bid to become leader in 2006. Ms. Asperhas received numerous community service and humanitarian awards and was the2005 recipient of the Governor-General Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award forVoluntarism in the Performing Arts. In 2007, she was awarded the Order ofManitoba. In 2008, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.”
1962: ArthurJulian Andrew began serving as Canada’s ambassador to Israel.
1962: In PhiladelphiaMardell and Richard L. Baum, Sr gave birth to Michael Baum, the holder of a computerscience degree from Drexel University and an MBA from Wharton “an American businessman and investor, bestknown as the founder & CEO of Splunk, a big data software technology usedfor understanding machine-generated data primarily for systems management,security forensics, compliance reporting and real-time operationalintelligence.”
1963(5thof Sivan, 5723): Erev Shavuot
1963(5thof Sivan, 5723): Sixty-four year old HUC trained Rabbi Ernest R. Trattner, theDenver born “son of Louis and Rosa (Levy) Trattner” who began his careerleading Temple Beth Israel in San Diego and who had been leading West Temple inLos Angeles since 1948 while raising three children – Elinor, Louise and RosaJean – with his wife the former Johanna Gronsky passed away today after whichhe was buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, CA
1963: U.S.premiere of “Hud” co-starring Paul Newman and Melvyn Douglas, co-produced byIrving Ravetch who also wrote the screenplay with music by Elmer Bernstein.
1964:Birthdate of Israeli born “Action painter” Rotem Reshef who in 1987 “wasawarded a promising young artist scholarship from the America-Israel CulturalFoundation.
1964:Palestine National Congress formed the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization)inthe eastern section Jerusalem. The PLO charter called for thedestruction of the state of Israel. At the time of itsfounding,Arab countries controlled the West Bank and Gaza.Yetno attempt was made to create a Palestinian state in these two areas.
1965: “Funeralservices” are scheduled to “be held” in Brussels today for “former BelgianChief Rabbi and former Chief Jewish Chaplain of the Belgian army Dr. SolomonUllman.” (As reported by JTA)
1965:Birthdate of actor Alon Moni Aboutboul, the native of Kiryat Ata who “in 2000won the ‘Film actor of the decade’ award at the Haifa International FilmFestival.”
1966(9thof Sivan, 5626): Parashat Nasso
1966: In NewSouth Wales, Australia, Gwen Ford and “Desmond Ford, a noted Seventh-dayAdventist theologian gave birth to author Luke Ford, who converted to Judaismwhile living in Los Angeles.
1966: “Rivalsin Democratic Race for Surrogate” published today describe Arthur George Kleinand Samuel Joshua Silverman the candidates forthe Democratic nominated for Manhattan Surrogate both of whom happen tobe Jewish.
1967(18th ofIyar, 5727): Lag B’Omer observed as thecrisis builds that will lead to war in June, a war in which Israel’senemies again failed to destroy the country.
1968(1stof Sivan, 5728): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1969: Katyusharockets fired from Jordan bombard Jericho twice.
1969: “April’sFools,” a romantic comedy directed by Stuart Rosenberg with a score by MarvinHamlisch and featuring Harvey Korman as “Matt Benson” was released today in theUnited States.
1972: Anapparent terrorist attack was foiled today when a Lebanese woman in possessionof weapons was apprehended in Rome.
1973: At theBroadway Theatre, final performance of “Henry IV” with David Hurst in the roleof ”Dr. Dionysius Genoni”
1974(7thof Sivan, 5734): Second Day of Shavuot
1974: Morethan 30 Moscow Jews launched a one-day hunger strike in solidarity withAlexander Feldman.
1974: YitzhakRabin announced the formation of a three-party coalition government that willreplace the government led by fellow Laborite, Golda Meir. The new government represents a bit of agenerational change in the Israeli power structure. The new leaders are all younger than thosethey are replacing. Rabin is 52. YigalAllon, the new Foreign Minister is 55 and the new Defense Minister,Shimon Peres is 52. Among the marqueenames missing from the new collation are Moshe Dayan and Abbe Eban.
1976(28thof Iyar, 5736): Yom Yersushalayim
1976(28thof Iyar, 5736): Two police officers were killed today while attempting todefuse a terrorist bomb.
1976: OnFriday night, an historic event happened in Madrid, Spain. Her Majesty, QueenSofia, attended Friday Night Services at Madrid's only synagogue. It was ahighly emotional event for many of the congregation that night since it wasanother Spanish monarch who expelled their ancestors some 500 years ago.
1977: Fivepeople were injured when a bomb went off while they were riding on a bus inJerusalem.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that theCabinet embarked on a major political debate on the future of the West Bank andthe Gaza Strip. There were indications that unless Israel addresses itself tothe question of the sovereignty of these territories, the U.S. will step in withits own ideas to get the negotiations for a Middle Eastern settlement movingagain. In New York, the HIAS (Hebrew Immigrants Aid Society) rejected theIsraeli request to stop helping the Soviet drop-outs in Vienna from going toother countries, instead of going, as they stated in the Soviet Union, thatthey intended to leave for Israel.
1979: Sixty-year-oldHerbert S. Landsman, the New York born son of Nathan and Sara Landsman the WW II U.S. Navy Commander and Ivy Leagueeducated executive vice president of Federated Department Stores who marriedMadeline Rollman Stricker after his first wife Claire Zimmerman passed away andraised four children – John, Herbert, Jr, Margaret and Julie – passed away today.
1979(2ndof Sivan, 5739): Seventy-five year old German born Berthold “Bert” Adler, “theson of Salomon and Julie Adler” and the husband of Ruth Adler passed away todayin New York City.
1980: MenachemBegin replaced Ezer Weizman as Minister of Defense
1982(6thof Sivan, 5742): Shavuot
1983: In “LaMort de Louise Weiss: Européenne et féministe” published today the Frenchnewspaper Le Monde reported the death of “French journalist and lifelongchampion of European union and women’s rights, Louise Weiss” who had passedaway two days ago.
1984: “One Dayat a Time,” a unique sit-com starring Bonnie Franklin aired for the last timein prime t.v.
1984: George“Soros signed a contract between the Soros Foundation (New York) and theHungarian Academy of Sciences, the founding document of the Soros FoundationBudapest.”
1985(8thof Sivan, 5745): Seventy-six-year-old “Georges Devereux, a Hungarian-Frenchethnologist and psychoanalyst, often considered the founder of ethnopsychiatry”who converted to Catholicism in 1933 passed away today.
1986: Today,the U.S Court of Appeals upheld “the conviction of writer R. Foster Winans for securities fraud which had consisted ofhim giving advance information about his influential Wall Street Journal column to two brokers, one of whom was PeterBrant, the Buffalo, NY native who was born Peter Bornstein, the second son “ofMartin Bornstein, “a middle-class Jewish insurance salesman.”
1987: DanielBarenboim is scheduled to conduct the IPO during one of several concertscelebrating the orchestra’s 50th anniversary.
1988: For thefirst time HBO broadcast “Blood Money” co-starring Ellen Barkin as “NadinePowers.”
1988: At theCircle in the Square Theatre, final Broadway performance of “Ghetto” “a play byIsraeli playwright Joshua Sobol about the experiences of the Jews of the VilnaGhetto during Nazi occupation in World War II” which “focuses on the Jewishtheatre in the ghetto, incorporating live music and including as charactershistorical figures such as Jacob Gens, the chief of the Jewish Police and laterHead of the ghetto.”
1991: ABCbroadcast the final episode of the hit sitcom “Thirtysomething” created byEdward Zwick and Marshal Herskovitz
1995(28thof Iyar, 5755): Yom Yershualayim
1997(21st ofIyar, 5757): Ninety-two-year-old Dr. Kurt Adler, the son of Alfred Adler,passed away today. (As reported by Ford Burkhart)
1998:According to “Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship,”which won the George Polk Award, prepared by Amy Goodman, “that documentedChevron Corporation's role in a confrontation between the Nigerian Army andvillagers who had seized oil rigs and other equipment belonging to oilcorporations” “the company provided helicopter transport to the Nigerian Navyand Mobile Police (MOPOL) to their Parabe oil platform, which had been occupiedby villagers who accused the company of contaminating their land.”
1998: “TheEternal Road, an opera-oratorio with spoken dialogue in four acts by Kurt Weillwith a libretto (originally in German: Der Weg der Verheißung – The Way of theCovenant), by Austrian novelist and playwright Franz Werfel and translated intoEnglish by Ludwig Lewisohn” was first performed today in Vienna.
1999: Todaythe REMORA II, a remote operated vehicle, took the first picture of the INSDakar after the wreck was found four days ago. The submarine “rests on herkeel, bow to the northwest. Her conning tower was snapped off and fallen overthe side. The stern of the submarine, with the propellers and dive planes,broke off aft of the engine room and rests beside the main hull. Some smallartifacts were recovered, including the boat's gyrocompass.” But the pictures did not reveal the cause ofthe sinking.
2000:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of “Hitler 1889-1936:Hubris” by Ian Kershaw and Village of a “Million Spirits: A Novel of theTreblinka Uprising” by Ian MacMillan harrowing account of the daily operationsof the infamous Treblinka concentration camp in Poland, and the 1943 revolt byhundreds of Jewish prisoners.
2001(6th ofSivan, 5761): First Day Shavuot, 5761
2001(6thof Sivan, 5761): Ninety-one-year-old Hyman Lazarus passed away after which hewas buried at the New Tifereth Israel Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.
2002: MarianePearl gave birth to Adam Daniel Pearl almost four months after his father andher husband Daniel Pearl was murdered by terrorist in Pakistan.
2003: The 19thIsrael Film Festival opens at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciencesin Beverly Hills.
2003: “Wicked:The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz”“a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz” was performed forthe first time at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco “as the start of SHNpre-Broadway tryouts.”
2004: Jewishbusinessman and community leader, Earle I. Mack was sworn-in as Ambassador toFinland
2005(19th of Iyar, 5765): Seventy-nine-year-oldAvner-Hair Shaki, a native of Safed who became a governmental leader in Israelpassed away today.
2005: HBO broadcast the first episode of “Empire Falls” amovie adaptation of the novel of the same name co-starring Paul Newman.
2006(1st of Sivan, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2006: The New York Times featured reviews ofbooks by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingthe recently released paperback editions of What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethicsof Nation Building by Noah Feldman and 1962: The Night of 100 Points andthe Dawn of a New Era by Gary M. Pomeranz
2006: PopeBenedict XVI visited Auschwitz-Birkenau where he delivered a speech in Italianto Holocaust survivors and members of the Jewish community in Poland.
2006: Haaretz reports haredim rioted outsidethe Ashdod cemetery and stole the body of a baby girl from the cemetery’stahara room to prevent
2007: The lastMonday in May is celebrated as Memorial Day. The federal holiday began in 1868as a way to honor the Union Soldiers who had died in the Civil War. Accordingto at least one source, over 7,000 soldiers served on both sides during theCivil War, with the bulk of them fighting on the side of the United States.(Rabbi Fred Davidow, who has a great deal more expertise on the subject than Ido, can vividly describe the role of Jews in the Confederacy.)
2007: At NewHaven, Benjamin Levin, son of David Levin, graduates from Yale!
2008:The Walter Reade Theatre in New York features a screening of “Late Marriage,” “ a ribald dark and subversive comedy thatpits tradition against modernity” in a film featuring Zasa, a Tel Aviv bachelorand his Georgian born mother and “ThreeSisters,” a film that tells the tale of three Sephardic sisters born into anaffluent Egyptian family in the 1940’s and who end their lives sharing acramped apartment in Israel half a century later.
2008:Shachiv Shnaan, an Israeli-Druse political leader entered the Knesset today “followingthe resignation of Efraim Sneth.
2008:Laura Ellen Ziskin was among those who joined in today’s announcement of thecreation of “Stand Up To Cancer.”
2008:Following further revelations about cash payments by a U.S. businessman to EhudOlmert, coalition partner Ehud Barak called on the Prime Minister to resign orface the collapse of his government.
2008:In “Pressure Seen Mounting Against Kosher Meat Giant” published today, DebraNussbaum Cohen described the hostile reaction of some observant Jews to theillegal activities of AgriProcessors.
http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/pressure-seen-mounting-against-kosher-meat-giant/
2008:During a goodwill visit to Israel that included a visit to the Western Wall, DrJ, Julius Erving, met with Shimon Peres at the presidential mansion.
2008: Associate Press writerReem Khalifa reports Bahrain has nameda Jewish woman as ambassador to US
2009(5thof Sivan, 5769): Erev Shavuot
2009:As part of the Tel Aviv Centennial Celebrations many of the “Tikun” (learningsessions) that are held as part of the observance of Shavuot willexplore the Jewish facets of Tel Aviv, and the spiritual heritage of the FirstHebrew City.
2009: IDF gunfire wounded four Palestinians in the GazaStrip today, medics said, in an incidentthat ruptured the calm of a shaky truce achieve after a spasm of cross-borderviolence earlier this month.
2010: In Cedar Rapids, IA, on Friday night, Dr. BobSilber, a mensch in the truest sense of the word is scheduled to lead servicesas Temple Judah hosts it last Musical Shabbat for 5770.
2010: Joshua Joel Siegel, son of Kris and Kenny Siegel and afourth generation Temple Judah member, will be giving the Valedictorian speechat the Commencement Cermonies at Kennedy High School today. He is the brotherof David Siegel; the grandson of the late Oscar and Lillian Siegel and thegrandson of Jerolyn Selkirk. Josh will be attending Stanford University in PaloAlto, CA.
2010: The Israeli Air Force bombed weaponsmanufacturing site and a terror tunnel tonight following further Hamas rocketattacks on the Western Negev, despite announcements by the terroristorganization and its allies they would cease the rocket attacks
2011: The Amerigo Trio- InbalSegev, cellist; Glenn Dicterow, violinist; Karen Dreyfus, violist -with Pianist AlonGoldstein is schuedled to perform inNew Lebanon, NY.
2011: For the firsttime in the Israel Festival, Yasmin Levy is scheduled to “offer a specialperformance including a selection of Ladino songs, well-loved classics, andoriginal compositions, together with songs from the repertoire of YiannisKotsiras, one of the leading Greek singers. Yiannis, who is considered one ofhis country’s most outstanding performers, will join the special performance atthe festival, and the two artists will offer joint renditions of each other’ssongs. The two singers will be accompanied by Levy’s band, which includes someof the best ethnic instrumentalists in Israel, together with guestmusicians.
2011: Egypt opens the border with Gaza toPalestinians after four years of closure.
2011: In “The Secret Life of Cairo’s Jews,”Anthony Julius reviewed the marvelous new work by Adina Hoffman and Peter Coleentitled Sacred Trash.
2011(24th of Iyar, 5771): ParashatBechukotai
2011(24th of Iyar, 5771): Ninety-seven-year-old,Leo Rangell, a dominant force in the field of psychiatry during the second halfof the 20th century passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/us/05rangell.html
2011(24th of Iyar, 5771): Sixty-four-year-oldMilt Avruskin, “the voice of Superstars of Wrestling in the 1970s andInternational Wrestling in the 1980s, as well as the key player behind ProWrestling Canada, died suddenly” today. (As reported by Greg Olive
2011(24th of Iyar, 5771): Seventy-year-oldaward winning, controversial painter Uri Lifschitz, passed away.
2012(7thof Sivan, 5772): Second Day of Shavuot
2012: As part of theIsrael Festival, Les Deux Mondes is scheduled to perform “Living Memory” at theRebecca Crown Auditorium.
2012: Sports Illustrated reported that theInternational Olympic Committee has rejected requests for a moment of silenceat the London Olympics “in recognition of the 40th anniversary ofthe 1972 terrorist attacks that killed11 Israeli coaches and athletes. The IOCis “reluctant to alienate other members of the Olympic community with anyspecific references to the attacks.” 2012: The HBO biopic “Hemingway &Gellhorn” directed by Philip Kaufman with a script co-authored by Jerry Stahlaired for the first time tonight.
2012: “An uncertain and uncomfortable calm descended on Tel Aviv today, asIsrael's paramilitary police unit Magav ("Border Guard") deployedthroughout the city's southern neighbourhoods and tensions between residentsand a large population of African migrants simmered just below boiling point.The deployment follows years of festering resentment by the poverty-strickenresidents of the area, who believe they are unfairly being forced to shoulderthe burden of the tens of thousands of Sudanese and Eritrean refugees andeconomic migrant who have arrived in Israel.”
2012: The Virginia Holocaust Museum in Richmond, VA, celebrated JewishAmerican Heritage Month by unveiling a Jewish-American Hall of Fame plaquehonouring Nobel Prize Winner in Medicine Dr. Gertrude Elion.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/28/2012/gertrude-elion
2013: The 4th International Conference of the GlobalForum for Combating Antisemitism is scheduled to open in Jerusalem.
2013: Today a top Israeli minister condemned Russia’sdeclared intention to deliver advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, andanother senior minister said Israel would “know what to do” if the weapons weredelivered. Minister of Intelligence, International Relations and StrategicAffairs Yuval Steinitz told reporters the Russian decision to press on with thedeal was an “odd” and unjustifiable move, which he said was “totally wrong” onmoral and strategic grounds. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2013(19th of Sivan, 5773): Seventy-year-oldphotographer Abigail Heyman passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
2013(19th of Sivan, 5773): Ninety-year-oldHolocaust survivor and physician Henry Morgentaler passed away today. (Asreported by Robert D. McFadden)
2013: Archaeologists expressed deep concern overconstruction and renovation works at the Western Wall enclosure in Jerusalem’sOld City, Maariv reported today. The work, they said, would greatly damageartefacts under the plaza floor, which would be lost forever. The IsraelAntiquities Authority said in response that extensive preservation work wasbeing conducted at the site. (As reported by Aaron Kalman)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/western-wall-project-threatens-history-archaeologists-warn/
2014: Professor Marat Grinberg is scheduled to discuss hisbiography of Wood Allen, Woody on Rye at the Oregon Jewish Museum.
2014: “Zemer Chai, DC’s Premier Jewish Choir” is scheduledto perform “In Every Age!” at Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase Maryland.
2014: The Kaufman Music Centre is scheduled to present TheIsraeli Chamber Project.
2014(28th of Iyar, 5774): One hundred one yearold published Oscar Dystel passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2014(28th of Iyar, 5774): Yom Yerushalayim
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Modern_Holidays/Yom_Yerushalayim.shtml
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/yomyerushalayim.html
2014: In honor of JerusalemDay, University of Iowa Professor Robert Cargill speaks on “The Water System ofAncient Jerusalem” this evening.
2014: In “Posin’s: Legen-dairyin DC” published today Zachary Paul Levine provided a brief history of thislegendary Jewish institution which provided the offer of this blog withimmeasurable amounts of corned beef, bakery fresh bagels, and mouth-wateringsmoked white fish.
http://jewishfoodexperience.com/posins-legen-dairy-dc/
2014: “The Foreign Ministryblamed the Jewish Agency today for endangering eastern Ukraine’s Jewishcommunity and provoking accusations of dual loyalty. “
2014: “Over a thousand peopleon Wednesday attended a state ceremony honoring Ethiopian Jews who died enroute to Israel during two major waves of immigration in 1984 and 1991.”
2014(28th of Iyar,5774): Eighty –five-year-old Malcolm Glazer the president and chief executiveofficer of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for his varied businessinterests, and owner of both Manchester United of the Premier League and TampaBay Buccaneers of the NFL passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/manchester-united-owner-malcolm-glazer-dies-at-85/
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/may/29/malcolm-glazer
2015:“An Evening of Exploration” featuring a performance by Itamar Borochov, amember of Yemen Blues and the New Jerusalem Orchestra and a discussion by RabbiMarc Angel and Rabbi Yamin Levy about The David Berg Rare Books Room's latestexhibit, “Sephardic Journeys” is scheduled to take place at the Center forJewish History.
2015(10thof Sivan, 5775): Ninety-year-old Esther Ghan Firestone, “Canada’s first femalecantor” passed away today.
2015:“In a lengthy interview with Egypt's Mehwar TV today - segments of which weretranslated by MEMRI - historian Maged Farag insisted it was time for Egyptiansto leave "the old ideology and cultural heritage on which we wereraised" - namely, rabid anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism - in favor of amore rational focus on Egypt's own national interests.”
2015:“The right-wing American philanthropist Irving Moskowitz purchased an abandonedchurch near Hebron for future use as a Jewish West Bank settlement, employing avariety of shell corporations and charitable organizations to cover up theacquisition of the property, the Haaretz daily reported” today.
2015:“The Israel Festival” which “is subsidized by the government and Jerusalemmunicipality” is scheduled to open today.
2016(20thof Iyar, 5776): Parasha Behar
2016:Ninety-four-year-old banker and pillar of the Jewish community Harold M. Beckerpassed away today.
http://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2016/May/Harold-Becker/
2016:“Meeting You” a work choreographed by and featuring Israeli Ori Flomin isscheduled to open at The Club in New York City this evening.
2017:“To Be or Not To Be” and “Fanny’s Journey” are scheduled to be shown on thelast night of the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2017:The New York Times Book Sectionfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest toJewish readers including Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront theOccupation, The Six-Day War: The Breaking of the Middle East by GuyLaron, A Land Without Borders: My Journey Around East Jerusalem and the WestBank by Nir Baram, The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromisein Israel and Palestine by Nathan Thrall, Salt Houses by Hala Alyan,Where the Line is Drawn: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships and Fifty Years ofOccupation in Israel-Palestine by Raja Shehadeh, and A Stricken Fieldby Martha Gellhorn as well as an interview with Senator Al Franken
2018: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/
2018:The Oxford University Jewish Society is not scheduled to provide a weekday mealtoday because students will be attending the Iftar dinner sponsored by theIslamic Society that will include Kosher meals for the Jewish attendees.
2018:JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Entebbe” in London this evening.
2018:In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to be open on Memorial Day wherevisitors can the permanent exhibition “Absence of Humanity: The Holocaust Years1933-1945” and “Eighteen Artifacts: A Story of Jewish Atlanta.”
2019:In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening starring Noa Koler who has beennominated by the Israeli Film Academy for the Best Actress Award.
2019:The Comedy For Koby tour is scheduled to reach Tel Aviv this evening.
2019:In Canada, the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screeningof “The Waldheim Waltz,” Ruth Beckermann’s documentary about “the process ofuncovering former UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim’s wartime past.”
2019:“Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum, the Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies” isscheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Invasion of Tilgath-Pileser III andShalmaneser V” as part of a series on “The Ten Lost Tribes.
2019:The Veterans Games are scheduled to continue for a second day in “Tel Aviv andJerusalem at rehabilitation centers run by Beit Halochem.”
2019:President Zelenskyy, the Jewish leader of Ukraine restored the Ukrainiancitizenship of Mikheil Saakashvili
2019:If all has gone well with the airlines Jacob Levin returning to his familyafter spending a gap-year in Israel on an intensive work/study program. – GoBobcats!
2019:As a glimmer of hope appears in Arab-Israeli relations with the Egyptiansproviding assistance in putting the raging wildfire, a shadow also appears asIsraelis look to the skies to see if the firing of an anti-aircraft missile bySyria was a “fluke” or a muscle-flexing move by the Assad regime.
2020:The Jewish Arts Collaborative and the Vilna Shul are scheduled to host “SimonaDi Nepi, the Museum of Fine Arts Charles and Lynn Schusterman Curator ofJudaica, as he virtually talks about the stories behind Jewish American objectsin the collection as part of Jewish American Heritage Month.
2020:S.F. JFCS Holocaust Center scheduled to host a virtual talk by author GlennKurtz, who wrote the book Three Minutes in Poland after discovering a homemovie of his grandparents’ 1938 trip to Poland.
2020:Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host a Shavuot panel featuring three localJewish leaders discussing women in leadership roles, from the Bible to SiliconValley, followed by cheesecake-baking class.
2020:The Switzerland Independent Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of“The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2020:The Guy Mintus Show featuring the young Israeli piano virtuoso is scheduled tobegin this afternoon.
2020:The inaugural Great Big Jewish Food Fest featuring Jewish culinary talents likeMichael Solomonov, Joan Nathan and Michael Twitty is scheduled to come to anend today.
2020:Live on Zoom, the Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host “Refuge in theHeights” Migration Memory and Authoritarianism in the 20th Century.”
2020(5thof Sivan, 5780): Erev Shavuot.
2021:Tonight, His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, isscheduled to attend a special Shabbat service at Temple Emanu-El “in solidarityagainst anti-Semitism…”
https://emanuelnyc.ticketleap.com/may-28---in-person-shabbat-services/details
2021:Kan Kol Hamusika is scheduled to broadcast “Young Artists in Concerts”featuring Alon Petrillin – Piano; Tom Shamarkov – Violin; Etai Kimmel – Cello;Malachi Rozenbaum – Piano.
2021:Bestselling author Anita Diamant is scheduled to appear on JLive to speak abouther new book, Period. End of Sentence., which will be available thismonth.
2021:“A week after a ceasefire brought an end to 11 days of hostilities betweenIsrael and Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces is reportedly preparing for thenext round of fighting, with senior army officials said concerned an escalationfrom the Gaza-based terror group could come at any time.”
2022:In Jerusalem, The Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to host “The Best of ChamberMusic” performed by violinist David Radynski, cellist Simca Hele and pianistMichael Zartsekel.
2022(27th of Iyar, 5782): Parasha Bechukotai and Chapter 5 Pirke Avot
2022:In the evening, start of Yom Yerushalayim, “the Israeli national holidaycommemorating the reunification of Jerusalem which had been divided fornineteen years as a result of an illegal occupation by Jordan.
2023:The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host an All-of-a-Kind FamilyWalking Tour in which participants “follow in the footsteps of Ella, Henny,Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie, the beloved sisters depicted in Sydney Taylor’schildren’s classic.”
2023:The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers includingHappily: A Personal History, With Fairy Tales by Sabrina OrahMark, who grew up “in Brooklyn in an orthodox Jewish community” where she wentto a Hebrew day school and King: A Life by Jonathan Eig, the new definitivebiography of Martin Luther King Jr.
2023:In Israel, the fire and rescue services are scheduled to deal with more blazesand the possibility of flash flooding in the south as the “the country sweltersunder a heat wave.
2023:The final performance of “Hidden,” written and directed by Marc Weiner isscheduled to take place at Theatre in Manhattan.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hidden-tickets-549457511207
2024:A screening of "A Pocketful ofMiracles: A Tale of Two Siblings" which is a family memoir focusing on thepre-war and wartime experiences of siblings Hanka Ciesla, who passed as aPolish Catholic within Germany, and Dudek Ciesla, who survived Auschwitz, andthe story of Harold Kempner, who captured their reunion in Berlin as a militarygovernment journalist is scheduled to be shown this evening at Bethesda-ChevyChase High School in suburban Maryland.
2024:Even as Israel is fighting for its very existence Reichman University isscheduled to hold online information session for those seeking to in a BA in Government.
2024:In Walnut Creek, CA, the Lesher Center for the Arts is scheduled to host theopening night of the Center Repertory Company presentation of “Cabaret” “theTony-winning musical about two doomed romances set in a seedy cabaret calledthe Kit Kat Klub during the emergence of antisemitism and fascism in 1920sBerlin.”
2024:Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Jonathan Schanzer on “Iran’sMultifront War Against Israel.”
2024;In San Francisco, the American Conservatory Theatre is scheduled to present “TheLehman Trilogy,” a play that follows “the lives of three immigrant brothersfrom when they arrive in America and start an investment firm through thecollapse of the company in 2008.”
2024:At the Einan Theater - Azrielli Modiin, Modiin, The Koby Mandell Foundation isscheduled to host fundraiser featuring Jann Karam, Buddy Lewis and John Roy -hosted by Avi Liberman.
2024:As May 28th begins in Israel,an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day 235 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.)
