May 7
833BCE (2 Iyar 2928): Traditional date on which King Solomon began building theTemple in Jerusalem.
351:Gallus, who had been appointed “Caesar” of the East by his cousin, the EmperorConstantius II arrived in Antioch. Antioch was the capital of his domain whichincluded Palestine. At the time of his arrival a revolt broke out among theJews of Sepphoris, a town in Palestine and spread to the Galilee andLydda. According to different sources,the revolt was led by Isaac who came from Sepphoris and a little known figurenamed Patricus. The revolt was notanti-Christian even though Constantius II had given the Church free reign in acampaign of persecution aimed at the Jews and other non-Christians. The revoltmay have been aimed at the corrupt rule by Gallus. Or it may have been a last gasp effort by theJews in Palestine to gain freedom from Rome.This was a period of great instability in the Empire and the Jewishleaders may have been encouraged by reports of Imperial defeats in the westernpart of the Empire. They also may havethought that the Persians, who were enemies of the Roman Empire, would come totheir aid. The revolt lasted only a yearand was put down by Uriscinnus, one of Gallus’ more seasoned commanders whoprobably defeated the Jewish forces at a battle near Acco. The Romans moved south laying waste toTiberia, Sepphoris and Lydda, each of which was rebuilt after the fightingstopped. [Editor’s Note: Considering thefact that this revolt took place 280 years after the Great Revolt and 215 yearsafter the Bar Kochba Revolt, it would seem to indicate that there was asizeable Jewish population still living in Palestine, that the population wasmade up of a handful of scholars, that the Nasi did not control all aspects ofJewish life, that Jews make lousy subjects and that Jews do not seem to learnfrom their “mistakes.”]
538:The Third Council of Orleans, “a synod of the Catholic bishops of France expressedits concern “about Christians adopting Jewish religious customs” by warning thefaithful against Jewish "superstitions” and establishing that ‘the bishopmust redeem a Christian slave in the service of a Jew if he takes refuge in thechurch” opwnws rosy.
962:Pope John XII crowns Otto I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Among hissubjects is Gershom ben Judah, who will gain fame as Rabbeinu Gershom Me'OrHagolah ("Our teacher Gershom the light of the exile") had been borntwo years earlier in Metz. Mainz, the city he would move to as an adult,was already the center of Talmudic learning in this part of the Holy RomanEmpire with Yehuda ben Meir serving as its leading scholar at this time.
973:Emperor Otto the First passed away. Under Otto Jews “were regarded aspossessions of the Emperor.” In 965,Otto “gave the Bishop of Magdeburg jurisdiction over all merchants and Jews fortaxation purposes. In general, the Jews were not expelled or forcibly convertedand were considered the personal property of the King. In the individual townsthe Jews were offered privileges, usually through a contract whereby they wouldbe protected by the crown in return for financial fealty.” (As reported by TheHistory of the Jewish People)
1205:Coronation of King Andrew II of Hungary. At first during his reign of KingAndrew II appointed Jews to serve as Chamberlains and mint-, salt-, andtax-officials. The nobles of the country, however, induced the king, in hisGolden Bull (1222), to deprive the Jews of these high offices. When Andrewneeded money in 1226, he farmed the royal revenues to Jews. This led to anoutcry from his Christian subjects. PopeHonorius III excommunicated him. In 1233, he took an oath promising the papalambassadors that he would enforce the decrees of the Golden Bull directedagainst the Jews and the Saracens. In addition to which he would enforce thenew pope’s decrees that forced Jews to wear badges of identification and forbidthem from buying or keeping Christian slaves.
1312:As he entered Rome today, Emperor Henry VII was hailed as a ‘deliverer” by thecitizens including the Jews who can be seen in illustrations in the Codex Balduini Trevirensis welcoming theruler.
1342:Clement VI, whose reign took place during the Black Death began his papacytoday. When pogroms erupted in Europe in response to the belief that the Jewswere responsible for the plague, Clement issued two bulls condemning the beliefand the violence and urged the Catholic clergy to take steps to protect theJews. (Editor’s note – I can find noreason for this unusual Papal behavior but it does stand out against theanti-Semitism that was so dominant in much of the Continent.)
1348:Charles University in Prague (Universitas Carolina/Univerzita Karlova) isestablished as the first university in Central Europe. Starting sometime duringthe last two decades of the 18th century Jews, as well asProtestants, were allowed to attend the University. In 1911, Einstein was appointed to a fullprofessorship at the school; a position he held until 1914. Today the CIEE Center at Charles Universityoffers courses in Jewish Though and Jewish History including one styled“The History of the Jews in Bohemia and Central Europe” and anotherstyled “Torah, Modern Jewish Religious Thought, and Czech Literature.”
1355:Twelve hundred Jews of Toledo Spain were killed by Count Henry ofTrastamara. The Jews were caught between the opposing forces in a fightbetween King Peter andCount Henry, his half-brother who sought the thronefor himself. The eventssurrounding this dynasticquarrelmarked the beginning of the decline ofthe Jewish communityin Spain.
1634:William Prynne, an opponent Jews settling in England was pilloried for thefirst time as part of his punishment for opposing the production of plays.
1680:An attempt to keep the Jews of Corfu from practicing law made in 1679 endedtoday when the Jews were granted that right today.
1718:The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. In1724, the French adopted The Code Noir which dealt primarily with the issue ofslaves but also mandate the expulsion of the Jews from the city. The arrival ofIsaac Rodrigues Monsanto in 1757 provides the first recorded evidence of Jewishsettlement in the Crescent City. Thereal birth of the Jewish community dates from the time of the LouisianaPurchase when the Americans took over and did away with the Black Code.
1727:Two years after the death of Peter Great, Jewswere expelled from Ukraineby his widow, Empress Catherine I of Russia. Catherine was merelyfollowing the wishes of her late husband whohad stated that he did notwant any Jews living in Russia. Daniil Pavlovich Apostol, the Hetman ofthe Cossacks, “was the first one to apply to the senate to modify the harshlaw.” Eighty years ago, the Cossacks had driven the Jews from their lands. Since then, they had found out “that theycould not get along very well without Jewish merchants” because they wereindispensable when it came to facilitating commerce between the Ukraine and thePolish and Lithuanian provinces.
1762(14thof Iyar, 5522): Pesach Sheni
1762:In New York City, Sarah and Moses Benjamin Franks gave birth to Rachel RitzelFranks who married David Heilron after the death of her first husband, HaymMoses Salomon, the Jewish merchant who bankrupted himself with his support ofthe American Revolution.
1769(30thof Nisan, 5529): Nathaniel Weil passed away at Rastatt. Born in 1687, this sonof Naphtali Zvi Hirsch Weil was a noted Talmudist who served as a rabbi inKarlsruhe and was the author Korban Netan’el
1773(14thof Iyar, 5533): Pesach Sheni
1785:In the Netherlands Liepman Benjamin de Vries and Henderina Miejer|Meijers BonsReindorp gave birth to Benjamin Wolf Liepman de Vries.
1786:“The Russian Senate published a decree defining the economic and civil rightsof the Jews of White Russia.” For much of its history, Russia had been almostfree of Jews due to the exclusionary and anti-Semitic policies of a successionof Czars. As an example of the law of unintended consequences, Russia acquireda large Jewish population following the partitions of Poland at the end of the18th century. This move bythe senate was the first in a series of official attempts to deal with this“Jewish problem.” Throughout the 19thcentury, Russian policy would vacillate regarding its Jews; but in the endanti-Semitism and bigotry would win the day. (As reported by AbrahamBloch)
1789:The Judenordnung provided for the abolition of discriminatory laws enactedagainst the Jews of Galicia
1802:Birthdate of Edinburgh, Scotland native and future resident of St. Louis, NancyHart Aloe, the wife of Sidney Zadoc Aloe with whom she had three children –Selina, Janet, Francie, Albert and Sarah.
1804:Ahmad Pasha al-Jazzar, “the Acre based Ottoman governor of Sidon” who forcedNapoleon to retreat from Palestine thus making null and void his promises tothe Jews and included among his advisors Haim Farhi passed away today.
1807:Lieutenant-General George FitzRoy, 2nd Baron Southampton and Frances Isabellagave birth to Henry Fitzroy the British politician. In 1839, he married Hannah, the daughter ofNathan Mayer Rothschild by whom he had two children Arthur Frederic FitzRoy andBlanche FitzRoy.
1811:Seventy-nine-year-old Richard Cumberland, the British dramatist who wrote “TheJew” passed away today. “The Jew” whichwas premiered in May of 1794 is the first play written for the English theatrethat portrayed a Jewish moneylender as a heroic figure.
1812:In London, Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) andRobert Browning gave birth to Robert Browning the author of “Rabbi ben Ezra”that begins with the immortal lines, “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be…” He was a friend ofEmma Lazarus and “both his verse and private correspondence show that he keptan interest in the” persecution of the Russian Jews. There are those whocontend that Browning was of Jewish descent. His father was a clerk in theemploy of the Rothschilds at a time when their bank “employed scarcely any butJews.” The name “Bruning” (a Germanicform of Browning) was very common among Jewish families in North Germany.”
1815:Birthdate of Marco Mortara, the Italian rabbi from Viadana who was a “disciple”of Samuel David Luzzatto.
1815:Isaac Solomon married Ann Barnett at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1817:In The Hague, Leonardus Levy Abraham Verveer and Caroline Elkan to MauritzLeonardus Verveer, “the Dutch 19th Century artist whose work hasbeen featured in exhibitions at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam
https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Maurits-Verveer/E67CA0DF45D797B8
1823:In London, Meyer Solomon, aLeghorn hat manufacturer and his wife Catherine gave birth to British painterAbraham Solomon, the older brother of painter Simeon Solomon.
1824:German rabbi Lazarus Jacob Riesser and his son Gabriel began a correspondencetoday that would include 20 letters before it ended.
1826:Moses Henry Myers married Sarah Abrahams to at the Hambro Synagogue.
1830(14thof Iyar, 5590): Pesach Sheni
1830:Today, in one of its first formal forays into the Middle East, the UnitedStates signed a treaty of commerce and navigation with the Ottoman Empire whoseAmerican diplomatic representatives have included Oscar S. Straus, SolomonHirsch, Henry S. Morgenthau, Sr. and Abram I. Elkus whose territory includedPalestine.
1833(18thof Iyar 5593): Lag B’Omer
1833:Samuel Michael Emanuel married Sarah Jacobs today which, according to some Jewsis the first time since the start counting the Omer on which weddings couldtake place.
1834:In Savanah, GA, in what must have seemed liked a joining of dynasties, thirtyseven year old Philadelphia born ophthalmologist Isaac Hays, a member of thedistinguished Gratz family married Sarah Ann “Sally” Minis, the daughter ofIsaac and Divinah (Cohen) Minis, descendants of the Minis family who “wereamong forty-one Jewish settlers who departed England in 1733” to settle inGeorga.
1839:Hyman Levy Seixas, the New York born Son of Benjamin Mendes Seixas and ZipporahMendes Seixas and his wife Abigail Nunez Seixas gave birth to Abraham H.Seixas.
1842(27thof Iyar, 5602): Today’s earthquake in Haiti “killed the only daughter of Frenchdiplomat Frédéric Cerfberr who would die from injuries sustained today as hesailed back to France.
1844(18thof Iyar, 5604): Lag B’Omer which according to some Jews is the first day sincethe start of the counting of the Omer on which Jews can wed as can be seen bythe two entries that follow.
1844:Benjamin Woolf married Rachel Hart at the Great Synagogue today.
1844:Elias Mocatta married Rachel Goldsmid today at Bloomsbury, London, UK.
1844:Today, in Presburg, Archduch*ess Maria Dorothea attended the inauguralceremonies for a primary school for which Austrian financier and philanthropistHerman Todesco had paid 25,000 gulden
1844:Founding of New York State Normal School, now known as the Sate University ofNew York at Albany which according to a poll taken in 2015 ranks 17thon a list of the “top 60 Public Universities by Jewish Population.”
http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/list/record/university-at-albany
1844:Joshua Barnett married Nancy Benjamin today at the Great Synagogue.
1847:Birthdate of Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, 1st Earl ofMidlothian who in 1878 married Hannah, the only child of Baron Mayer deRothschild. She was one of thewealthiest women of her time since she was the primary heir of her father whohad passed away in 1874.
1848:Birthdate of William J. Stone, the U.S. Senator from Missouri who as Chairmanof the Foreign Relations Committee had held hearings on the resolution tocreate Jewish Relief Day in 1916 – a proposal which he supported – and who wasone of only six senators to vote against the U.S. declaration of war onGermany.
1849(15thof Iyar, 5609): Eighty-nine-year-old banker Olry-Hayem Worms, one of those whoattended the Grand Sanhedrin of Napoleon in 1807 passed away today in Paris.
1850:Caroline Goldsmid married Nathaniel Montefiore today after which they had twoson, Leonard and Claude-Joseph.
1852(18thof Iyar, 5612): Lag Ba Omer observed for the last time during the Presidency ofMillard Fillmore the only “Know Nothing” to reach the White House.
1854:In Baltimore, MD, Lemuel and Henrietta Mansbach Oppenheimer gave birth toAmelia Oppenheimer.
1854:In Cincinnati, OH, “Eva and William Solomon Milius” gave birth to GeorgeWashington Milius, the husband of Pauline Milius with whom he had four children– Evelyn, William, Dorothy and Helen.
1855:Birthdate of Max Schloss, the husband of Rose Sheuerman Shloss and father ofIrma Shloss Mannheimer.
1857:In New York “Nathan and Ernestine (Erdmann) Cohen gave birth to Dartmouthgraduate William Nathan Cohen, the Columbia trained attorney who served as a“Justice of the New York State Supreme Court.”
1861:It was reported that a man known as “Dollar Scott” because of “his smart transactionsin Mexican dollars” but who in fact is “a gentleman of fortune belonging to oneof the most distinguished families in England” and is “in point of fact aJewish money-lender’ was badly beaten by Lord Seymour in Naples while Scott wasseeing as an office in Garibaldi’s army.
1863:In Kovno, Abraham Goldberg and his wife gave birth to Samuel Louis Goldberg,the “Cantor of Congregation Ansche Nehen Nussach Ho-Ari” in Baltimore, MD.
1863(18thof Iyar, 5623): Lag B’Omer is observed one day after the Union Army’sdisastrous defeat at Chancellorsville during which Sergeant Henry Hiller hadfought with such distinction that he earned the Congressional Medal of Honorand Lt. Col. (later General) Edward Solomon led the forces of the 82nd Illinoiswhich contained an all Jewish company from Chicago.
1864:Birthdate of Henriette Levy, the wife of Lehman Berr and the mother of CaptainMaixme Beer who was killed at the of age of 28 during WW I.
1865:In New York, City, Francis Littman and Rubin R. Rosenthal gave birth to CityCollege graduate Rabbi Frank Lewis Rosenthal, the husband of Tillye Hollanderwho began his career at B’nai Israel Congregation in Hot Springs, AR and beganserving as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Israel in Columbus, GA in1907.
1865:The Vicar-General of Velletri issued an order permitting Jews to remain in thetown for ten days if they are conducting “lawful and honest business.” While intown they must return to their lodgings by one o’clock in the morning. They are forbidden to approach allmonasteries, academies and other “pious places under Episcopal jurisdiction.When having any contact or conversation with Christians, the Jews “are torefrain from familiarity. The violation of any of these regulations will bepunished by imprisonment and a fine of five crowns.
1867(2ndof Iyar, 5627): Twenty-four-year-old Sophie Neymarck the wife of Bordeaux nativeElie Camille Espir and the mother of Ferdinand and Daniel Lucien Espir who had livedin London pass away today in Paris.
1870:In Lithuania, Nachum and Freida Leah Hurwitz gave birth to future New YorkerEzra Hurwitz, the husband of Bertha Hurwitz.
1870:In New York City, Ida Lowenstein and Herman Loew gave birth to theatre ownerand film company executive, Marcus Loew, , who became involved with films atthe turn of the century when he opened his first "pennyarcades." Later he converted a penny arcade in Cincinnati into amovie theatre that drew an unheard of 5,000 customers on its first day.Loew began converting other penny arcades into movie theaters which became anational chain bearing the owner's name. In the 1920's, he and Louis B.Mayer joined forces to create the MGM Movie Studio. Loew needed thestudio to fill the public's demand for movies at his theatres. Loew diedof a heart attack at the age of 57, one of the many Jews who revolutionized theAmerican (and the world's) entertainment industry.
1872:Julian Henriques, the son of Jacob Quixano Henriques and Elizabeth Waley, wasburied today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1872:Two days after he had passed away, 82-year-old Isaac Salaman, the son of AaronSolomon and the husband of the former Jane Raphael with whom he had had fivechildren, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1874: Rabbi Sounescheim was one of the speakers attonight's session of the Unitarian Conference which is being held in St. Louis,MO.
1876: Frank Keenan, the future father-in-law of Ed Wynn“made his debut” today “as a spear carrier at the Tremont Street Opera House.
1876:In Leicester, Amy Foulds and Robert Gee gave birth to Captain Robert Gee, thehusband of Elizabeth Dixon whom he married in 1902 and the father of Edith andAmy Gee who as a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Fusilierswho served at Gallipoli and was awarded the Military Cross for service at theBattle of the Somme, the Vitoria Cross for service at the Battle of Cambrai afterwhich he “ran for Parliament in Woolwich East” as a member of the Conservative Party.
1876:The French government has ordered part of its Navy to sail to Salonica, aMediterranean seaport which is part of the Ottoman Empire and which has beenthe site of recent outbreaks of violence between Christians and Moslems. This is in keeping with the Frenchgovernment’s view of itself as the protector of Christians throughout theMiddle East i.e. those living under Ottoman rule. Salonica is home to 20,000Jews and their well-being is threatened any time there is an outbreak ofviolence among different groups of non-Jews.In this case, the Christians are primarily Greeks and the Greeks haveattacked the Jewish community in Salonica in the past. The presence of the French will serve topacify the situation, thus helping to protect the Jewish population.
1878(4thof Iyar, 5638): Samuel Jefferson,”“a farmer in the Mud Creek community ofLamar Co., AL who was “the secondof three sons born to Isaac and Zipporah Mordecai, the husband of the formerMartha Louisa Tarrant with whom he had ten children and the great-grandson ofRabbi Mordecai Moses Mordecai, passed away today.
1879(14thof Iyar, 5639): Pesach Sheni observed today as Californians went to the pollsand adopted the new constitution “by a vote of 77,959 to 67,134.
1881:The Symphony Society which had been co-founded by Leopold Damrosch in 1877“reached its climax” today “in the great musical festival held in the armory ofthe 7th regiment in New York City
1881:Clara Levine, the New York born son of Elizabeth and Moses Cohen and herhusband Julius Levine gave birth to Albert Julius Levine, the husband of JulieAdelaide Oppenheimer Levine and the father of John Henry Levine; Edward AlbertLevine Lawrence and Albert Julius Levine Jr.
1882(18thof Iyar, 5642): Lag B'Omer
1882:Gustave and Louisa Nelson Harrison gave birth to Gertrude Harrison Lilienthal,the wife of Harry Lilienthal.
1884(12thof Iyar, 5644): Judah P Benjamin passed away. "Born in the WestIndies in 1811 to observant Jewish parents, Benjamin was raised in Charleston,South Carolina. A brilliant child, at age 14 he attended Yale Law School and,on graduation, practiced law in New Orleans. A founder of the Illinois CentralRailroad, a state legislator, a planter, Benjamin was elected to the U.S.Senate from Louisiana during the 1850's. When the Southseceded,Benjamin joined the Confederate government serving as Attorney-General,Secretary of War and Secretary of State. He was called "oldbrains"by his admirers and an "Israelite in Egyptianclothing" by his detractors. After the war, Benjamin sought refugein England where he began life again as a barrister and writer. His onlyoffspring was a daughter who had him buried in a Parisian cemetery.
1884(12thof Iyar, 5642):Dov Ber Goldberg, the native of Poland who gained fame as theFrench scholar who “devoted himself to the publication of editions of Jewishmanuscripts in European libraries passed away today in Paris.
1885:In New Orleans, Wilhelmina Kock and railway engineer Julius Kruttschnitt gavebirth to Yale graduate and mining executive Julius Kruttschnitt, the husband ofEdna May Roger whom he married after the death of his first wife Marie RosePickering who made his mark in Australia where among other things he “was amember of the Australian Atomic Energy Commission's advisory committee onuranium mining and was a board-member of the faculty of engineering at theUniversity of Queensland.’
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/kruttschnitt-julius-7001
1886:In “Baranovka, Russia,” “Jacob and Brucha (Cantor) Gusman gave birth who in1901 came to the United States where he worked in a factory “makingpocketbooks,” before rising to the Presidency of Import Drug Specialties andthen becoming a banker in Cleveland where he lived with his wife Hanna C.Epstein served as Treasurer of the Cleveland United Palestine Appeal andPresident of B’nai B’rith.
1887: Birthdate Benjamin Glazer, the Belfast born born director and Oscarwinning writer who “was one of the founding members of the Academy of MotionPicture Arts and Sciences passed away today.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-10680141.html
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt4z09n74z/
1888:Sixty-six-year-old Leone Levi passed away.Born in Italy, as soon as he arrived in Liverpool, he applied forBritish citizenship and gave up Judaism for membership in the PresbyterianChurch. He may have seen this as theonly path to a successful legal career.
1889:In Charleston, SC, William Cecil Cohen married Agnes McKee.
1891:“Jewish Persecution Suspended” published today described the sudden decision ofthe Russian government to suspend the expulsion of the Jews from Moscow.
1892:In Glencoe, IL, Scottish-born Andrew MacLeish, a founder of the Chicagodepartment store Carson Pirie Scott and Martha Hillard, a college professor andwho had served as president of Rockford College gave birth to Yale and Harvardgraduate and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Archibald MacLeish author of ‘J. B.,’ a play in verse based on the biblicalstory of Job that “represents Archibald MacLeish’s responses to the horrors hesaw during two world wars, including the Holocaust and the bombings ofHiroshima and Nagasaki.”
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/j-b
1893In Ashville, North Carolina founding of CongregationBeth Ha Tephilla (House of Prayer) that owned a cemetery on Riverside Drive.
1893:“Tales The Rabbis Told” published today provides detailed review of StoriesFrom The Rabbis by Abram S. Isaacs, the Professor of Hebrew at theUniversity of the City of New York
1893:Based on cablegram from Harold Frederic, its London correspondent, the New YorkTimes reported that in February the Russian government had issued an edict ofexpulsion that will affect each of the 1,500,000 Jews living in Poland. For two months, the Russians kept the edictof expulsion a secret. Word only leakedout as the Jews began to approach the borders of various European countries. Today’s story in The Times was the firstreport of the expulsion to be published in an American newspaper. The report has fallen like a “thunderclapamong the Jews of New York.”
1893:“Polish Jews Thrust Out” published today verified that that “a wholesaleexpulsion of Jews has begun in the Kingdom of Poland.” There are approximatelya million and half Jews in Poland, “about four times the number affected by thePassover edicts of 1891 in Russia.”
1894(1stof Iyar, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1894(1stof Iyar, 5654): “A Jew-baiting” mob attacked the Jewish section of Grajewo,Poland “looting the shops and houses, beating the men and insulting the women”before setting fire to several stores.
1895:Seth Low and Isidor Straus opened the East Side Free Art Exhibition at theHebrew Institute on East Broadway and Jefferson.
1895:William Jack of Scotland received $600 as part of the Hebrew Fellowship awardedduring the Commencement exercises of the Princeton Theological Seminary inPrinceton, NJ
1896:Dr. Walter T. Scheele “who is a fierce and aggressive Jew hater” attacked theJews at Kruger’s Saloon” and was then “forced to leave the place” and “run forhis life.”
1896:Birthdate of Joe Jacobs, the manager of Max Schmeling.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jacobs-joe
1897: Eighty-year-old Ion Ghica “who was PrimeMinister of Romania five times” and who “was a valuable ally for Yiddishtheatre in Bucharest” having obtained, in 1881, for the National Theater thecostumes that had been used for a Yiddish pageant on the coronation of King Solomon,which had been timed in tribute to the actual coronation of Carol I of Romania”passed away today
1898:As the opening lecture in his series on “What Christendom Owes to the Jew” Dr.Madison C. Peters has chosen to talk on “The Jew as a Patriot.”
1898:Birthdate of Maclyn F. “Mac” Baker the NYU basketball star whose career wasinterrupted by two years of military service in World War who decided not playprofessional baseball to pursue a career a medical career as a surgeon and ateam doctor for Seton Hall University.
1898:Birthdate of Minsk native Samuel Leaf who “started various candy companiesbeginning in the 1920’s” and who founded Leaf Brands in Chicago in 1947 when hemerged his various candy making operations.
https://leafbrands.com/about-us/
1898:Captain Albert Steinhauser of New Ulm and Privates Joseph Abel and Henry Hellerof Winona were among those who were mustered into the service today as membersof the 12th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.
1898:Private Samuel O. Abrams of Minneapolis and Privates Herman E. Heller and FrankH. Wesenberg both of St. Paul were among those who were mustered into theservice today as members of the 13th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.
1899:Thanks to the efforts of the Mt. Zion Hospital Association the new Jewishhospital in San Francisco began accepting patients today including “poor personwho are admitted regardless of creed or color.
1899:Punch and Judy visited the Hebrew Infant Asylum this afternoon and “entertainedthe youngsters with their antics.”
1899:Sargent George M. Appel completed his service with the First United StatesVolunteer Engineers.
1899:Dr. Felix Adler is scheduled to “deliver an address on ‘More Light’” thismorning in the Music Hall.
1899:“The last Sunday service for this season” is scheduled to be held this morningat Temple Beth-El “when Rabbi Samuel Schulman will preach on the subject of‘Youth.’”
1899:“The East Side Physician” published today described the desperate conditions ofdruggists and physicians (some of whom get paid only five cents for patientvisit) who are working on the lower EastSide where the population is predominately Jewish.
1899:According to a summary of their April report published today, the United HebrewCharities received 2,510 applications for aid that impacted 8,637 individuals.
1899:Tonight, the Rev. Dr. Madison C. Peters of the Bloomingdale Reformed Churchbegan a series of Sunday evening lectures on "What Christendom Owes to theJew." Dr. Peters took for his subject "The Jew as a Patriot." Hesaid: "One of the gravest charges ever brought against the Jew is that heis not and cannot be a patriot.
1900:In Cincinnati, OH “at a joint meeting of the Executive Board of American HebrewCongregations, the Board of Governors of the Hebrew Union College and of theAlumni Association of the Hebrew College an appeal was issued “to the Jews ofthe United States” asking for their support “of the efforts now being made tocreate an endowment fund for the permanent support and maintenance of theHebrew Union College to be known as the Isaac M. Wise Memorial Fund.”
1901(18thof Iyar, 5661): Lag B’Omer
1901: Herzl finally receives an audience with theSultan.
1902:It was reported today that plans have been filed “for the new building to beerected for the Jewish Theological Seminary” and that name of Jacob H. Schiff,who has helped to endow the institution, “appeared as owner in connection ofthe plans” that were filed for the three story building designed by A.W.Brunnner which is projected to cost $75,000.
1903:Today, at the 135th annual meeting of the New York Chamber ofCommerce, August Blemont was named to serve on the Finance and CurrencyCommittee.
1904(22ndof Iyar, 5664): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1904:Paintings by J. Campbell Phillips, including “many from Palestine” are ondisplay at the new Hogarth Head art gallery.
1904:“A Biblical Story” published today provides a review of In Old Egypt by H.Pereira Menes which “is as the subtitle indicates a story about the Bible butnot in the Bible.”
1905:Anti-Jewish violence broke out today in Zhitomir, the capital of Volhynia,Russia.
1906(12thof Iyar, 5666): Fifty-four-year-old Max Judd passed away. Born in Galicia, he came to the United Statesin 1862 where he became a successful cloak manufacturer who found the St. LouisChess Club. President Cleveland refusedto bow to Austrian anti-Semitism and insisted on appointing Judd as U.S.Counsel to that kingdom.
1906:Birthdate of Sydney Harry “Syd” Cohen, the brother of New York Giants secondbaseman Andy Cohen who pitched for three years during the 1930’s with theWashington Senators where his teammates included Buddy Myer, Fred Sington andthe most mysterious baseball player of all times – Moe Berg!
1907:Today, the representatives of Jewish aid associations of Berlin, Frankfort,Paris and Bucharest who are meeting in Vienna, decided that they did not havethe funds available to aid the thousands of Romanian Jews who are fleeing theanti-Semitic violence in that country and sent letters to “Jewish associations”in New York and London apprising them of the situation.
1908(6th of Iyar, 5668): Adolf Arthur Abrahams, the one-year-old son ofFannie Danovitch and Max Abrahams passed away today a Riverside Hospital afterwhich he was buried in Beth El Cemetery in Queens.
1908:French author and playwright Ludovic Halévy passed away. His pedigree is not that unusual a tale forEuropean Jewry in the period between Waterloo and Sarajevo. His father was Jewish. He converted so that he could marry aChristian woman.
1908(6thof Iyar, 5668): Fifty-three-year-old Bohemian born “Arabist and archeologist”Eduard Glaser who made three separate expeditions to Yemen passed away today inMunich where his grave “contained the words ‘The greatest and the best man ofall has left us.’”
https://www.wdl.org/en/item/16771/
1909:Birthdate of Leo Henryk Sternbach, the Polish chemist who escaped Hitler’sEurope in 1941 and continued his career in the United States where hediscovered benzodiazepines.
1909:Birthdate of Edwin H Land. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., this Harvarddropout contributed to scientific advances in the fields of photography andhuman optics. His most famous invention wasin the field of instantphotography. In 1947, he unveiled an instant imagingcamera.Within two years, Polaroidwas producing the camera andit became acommercial success. Land passed away in March of 1991.
1910:Birthdate of Philadelphia native, Saul Nathan Lev, and the University ofPennsylvania trained electrical engineer.
1911:Porfirio Diaz, under whose Presidency (or dictatorship) the Jewish communitybegan to grow because of their connection with is call for foreign investors tocome to the country issued a manifesto giving the terms under which he wouldleave office.
1912:Columbia University approved plans for awarding the Pulitzer Prize in severalcategories. The awardwas established by Joseph Pulitzer.When hedied in 1911, Pulitzer left $2 million for the establishment of a school ofjournalism at Columbia University and a fund that established annual prizes forliterature, drama, music and journalism. Since 1922 Pulitzer Prizes have alsobeen awarded to cartoonists. Yes, the highest award in "AmericanLetters" was started by a German-Jewish immigrant.
1913:In Salt Lake City, Utah, Clara (Trestman) and Benjamin Ramo gave birth to SimonRamo who played a leading role in developing the ICBM and the founding of whatbecame TRW.
1913:Mrs. Charlotte E. Rubel sang for those attending the 17th annualmeeting of the Isaiah Women’s Club which Mrs. Victor Frankenstein was electedPresident and Mrs. Abraham Weil was elected Vice President
1914:Today, at the resumption of the hearing into charges that bribery was used toobtain affidavits exonerating Leo Franks of the murder of Mary Phagan thedefense “will introduce some new evidence bearing on the Epps, Isom and Allenaffidavits” before closing its case.
1915:It was reported today that Jewish Publication Society has announced “theforthcoming publication of a new English translation of the Bible, the annualAmerican Jewish Year Book and Max Radin history of the Jews among the Greeksand Romans.”
1915:The RMS Lusitania was torpedoed by“The German U-boat U-20” off the coast of Ireland “causing the deaths of 1,198passengers and crew” and helping to pave the way for the entrance of the UnitedStates into the war on the Allied side two years later. (For more read DeadWake: The Last Crossing of the RMSLusitania by Erik Larson which is available in both hardback and paperback)
http://www.sdjewishworld.com/2016/04/03/jewish-library-dead-wake/
1915(23rdof Iyar, 5675): A month and a week before his 59th birthday,American theatrical producer Charles Frohman died when the RMS Lusitania wastorpedoed by “The German U-boat U-20”off the coast of Ireland.
http://www.rmslusitania.info/people/saloon/charles-frohman/
1915:It was reported today that “among the many petitions” “received daily” by theGovernor of Georgia asking “for a commutation Leo Frank’s sentence” was one“signed by the members of the Cornell Alumni Association of WesternPennsylvania attesting to the character of Frank who was an alum of theuniversity.
1915:In Chicago, “plans for a ‘Leo M. Frank Day’ on which hundreds of women of allnationalities equipped with petitions will ask citizens to sign protestsagainst Leo Frank’s execution are being completed by the Leo M. FrankCommittee.”
1916:“Jews, Greeks, Romans” published today provides a review of The Jews Among theGreek and Romans by Max Radin which starts “at the time of Alexander when theJews as one of the Mediterranean nations began to come into closes contact withGreek civilization” and ends at with the beginning of the dominance ofChristianity.
1916:In Philadelphia, PA, Jacob H. Schiff is scheduled to deliver the address thisevening at the annual meeting of the Jewish Publication Society of America withHenry Miller Serving as President and Henry Fernberger as Treasurer.
1916:Supreme Court Justice Hugo Pan of Illinois spoke on “Preparedness and the Jews”at tonight’s dinner sponsored by the Federation of Jewish Charities of Brooklynwhich was attended by more than 1,000 people including Rabbi Nehemiah Boyntonand Justice Luke B. Stapleton of Brooklyn.
1916:As of today, The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through theWar of which Harry Fischel is Treasurer has collected “more than $1,080,000
1916:In Peekskill, NY Louis and Gussie Rubenfield gave birth to the eldest of theirsix children, Leonard Rubenfeld, a graduate of the University of Alabam andFordham Law School and WW II Army combat veteran who held a variety of legaland judicial positions in and around Peekskill and Westchester Country.
1917:The mandate of Music Publisher’s Protective Association (NMPA) whose foundersincluded Harry Von Tilzer to put an “end to the practice of publishers havingto pay vaudeville theatres for performing their music” went into effect today.
1917:Three days after she had passed away, 78-year-old Rosa (Esther) Salomons thedaughter of Rueben Salomons and Sarah Hurwitz was buried today at the “BallsPond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1917:“Rabbi Stephen S. Wise came to Simsbury and delivered an address on “The WorldWar for the Liberation of Humanity” to a standing room only crowd. So manypeople turned out to hear him that his lecture was delayed as chairs were sentfor to accommodate the standing crowd at the rear of the hall. ‘It was the mostsuccessful mass meeting held in Simsbury’, wrote Julia E. Pattison, LeagueSecretary. There is a story attributed to Rabbi Wise that upon meeting a ratheraloof New England gentleman with ancestors that he wore on his sleeve the manannounced that his antecedent had signed the Declaration of Independence. RabbiWise paused and replied that his ancestors had signed the Ten Commandments.
1917:It was reported today that Russian Cantor Josef Rosnblatt is making a tour ofthirty American cities where his concerts are intended to raise part of the tenmillion dollars that the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews SufferingThrough the War needs to reach its goal for this year.
1917:In London, the Jewish Chronicleprovides further details based on eyewitness accounts of the plight of Jewsliving in Palestine, which is under the control of the Ottoman Empire. According to these accounts, the evacuationof the civil population of Jaffa that had been ordered by the Turks as amilitary measure was aimed against the Jews since all Jews including those ofTurkey’s allies – Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire – were forced toleave while Mohammedans and Christians, regardless of nationality, were allowedto stay. In all, 8,000 Jews were forcedfrom their homes in Jaffa. The homes of the Jews of Jaffa and neighboring TelAviv were looted by mobs as the authorities looked on without taking any action. Two Jews were hanged at the entrance to TelAviv as a warning to those who might resist and an ad hoc unit of Jewish guardswas arrested and imprisoned. The deportations stretched to the ancient Jewishcommunity in Jerusalem where three hundred Jews were deported “amidcirc*mstances of the utmost cruelty.”
1917(15thof Iyar, 5677): Retired stockbroker Agil Cantor, the “brother of former BoroughPresident Jacob A. Cantor of Manhattan” passed away today in his 63rdyear.
1917:It was reported today that “preparations for the election of delegates of theAmerican Jewish Congress are no proceeding and all through this week meetingswill be held here to stimulate enthusiasm and interest in this week.
1917:“The Annual meeting of the local section of the Council of Jewish Women tookplace today at Temple Emanu-El.
1918:During their convention in Philadelphia, The Mizrachi Zionist Organizationadopted the single tax plan of land control “as the best system under which theJews can return to take possession of Palestine under the protection of theAllies.” The plan is based on theconcept that “the land be assessed and valued at the figures at which it stoodbefore the war in 1914, making allowances for improvements.”
1919:Birthdate of Boris slu*tsky, a Russian poet, whose work incorporated Jewishthemes, including Jewish tradition, anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic phenomena inthe Soviet society and the Holocaust. He translated the works of Kvitko,Verghelis, Galkin, Shvartzman, Y.Sternberg and others from Yiddish intoRussian.
1919:President George Kurtzon declined re-election at Temple Judea’s annual meetingthis evening in Chicago.
1919:During the peace negotiations at Versailles, “when faced with conditionsdictated by the victors, including the “War Guilt Clause” Foreign MinisterUlrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau the head of the German delegation told the Allied Leaders – Clemenceau, LloydGeorge and Woodrow Wilson - "Weknow the full brunt of hate that confronts us here. You demand from us toconfess we were the only guilty party of war; such a confession in my mouthwould be a lie.” This treatment of theGermans at Versailles, contributed to the lack of support for the treaty andwould serve to strengthen the hand of the Hitlerites in their quest to destroythe Weimar Republic.
1920:“Jewish Actors In ‘Naomi’” published today described the debut performance “Naomi,”a new play by “a new playwright Mark Arnstein and introducing a new star,Henrietta Schnitzer” that included performances by Gerson Rubin, Bira Abramovitz,Jehiel Goldsmith, Ida Feldman and Lucy German.
1920:“More than $600,000 was added today to the total contributions thus farreceived toward the $7,500,000 sought as New York's quota of a giant fund forthe relief of Jewish war sufferers in Central and Eastern Europe.”
1921(29thof Nisan, 5681): Parashat Achrei Mot
1921(29thof Nisan, 5681): After a week of riots came to an end in Jaffa with 48 Arabsand 47 Jews killed and 73 Arabs and 140 Jews wounded.
1922:In Michigan, Samuel and Celia Kaufman gave birth to Donald Bruce Kaufman, thehusband of “Glorya Kaufman.”
1923(21stof Iyar, 5683): Eighty-three year old Adolf Neubauer, the son of Karl andTheresia Neubauer and husband of Klara Neubauer passed away today in what isnow the Czech Republic.
1923:Just days before her death, Mrs. Gussis Goldberg was taken to the RockawayBeach Hospital with an injured hip. The 106-year-oldwidow and mother of Joseph Goldberg, was “believed to the oldest resident ofFar Rockaway.” (As reported by JTA)
1924:“Dr. Chaim Weismann, President of the World Zionist Organization starts forhome today the Cunard vessel Aquitania.”
1924:In Upper Sielsia, David Lustiger and his wife gave birth to Arno LustigerHolocaust survivor, businessman and amateur historian who document “the historyof Jewish resistance under Nazi rule.”
1925:Birthdate of Norfolk, VA native andVirginia Polytechnic Institute graduate Stanley Ragone, the president ofVirginia Electric and Power Company who raised three children with his wifeBertha with whom he died in a traffic accident in 1980.
1926:Birthdate of Joseph Ehrenkranz, the native of Newark, NJ. who served as rabbiof Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford, CT and “who played a leading rolein Jewish Catholic dialogue.”
1927:In Cologne, Germany Marcus and Eleanora gave birth to Ruth Prawer who gainedfame as Ruth Prawer Jhabvala award winning novelist and Academy Award winningscreenwriter. She won Oscars for “Roomwith a View” and “Howards End.”
1928:In Philadelphia, Frieda Stern “a musician and homemaker” and “Jacob Siegel, anovercoat manufacturer who had immigrated from Romania” gave birth to LehighUniversity graduate ‘Herbert J. Siegel, a maverick investor who became abillionaire entertainment-industry mogul most notable for finally enabling themerger of Warner Communications and Time Inc. in 1989 and for selling 10television stations to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2000” who marriedJeanne Sorenson after the death of “Ann Levy whose father Isaac D. Levy hadbeen an organize of CBS.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1928:There is in New York State no spirit of intolerance that would preventelevation of one of Jewish faith to the highest office, former RepresentativeIsaac Siegel asserted tonight, at the eleventh anniversary dinner of theInstitutional Synagogue” where attendees also heard speeches by AttorneyGeneral Albert Ottinger and Dr. Herbert S. Goldstein, the rabbi of theInstitutional Synagogue.
1929:The Flonzaley Quartet which had played the String Quartet No. 1 by ErinSchulhoff “broadcast their farewell concert over radio station WEAF” today.
1930:Birthdate of Totie Fields. Born SophieFeldman, in Hartford Connecticut, Ms. Fields switched from mildly unsuccessfulsinger to highly successful comedienne.Her pudgy physique was her comedic “shtick” as made fun of her weight,appearance and the diet industry. Shedied from health problems. “I went on adiet for two weeks and all I lost was fourteen days.”
1931:Today, “Alfred M. Cohen, international president of B’nai B’rith wiredSecretary of State Stimson urging him to protest against the allegedmistreatment of Jews in Mexico City” following reports of ill-treatment ofJewish vendors in Mexico City that included the claim that a 12-year-old Jewishboy had been killed.
1932(1stof Iyar, 5692): Parashat Kedoshim; Rosh Chodesh observed for the last timeduring the President of Herbert Hoover.
1933(11thof Iyar, 5693): Thirty-four-year-old Nelly (nee Bamberger) Neppach the husband ofarchitect and producer Robert Neppach and “the first German female tennis playerto establish an international reputation” committed suicide after she “wasforced out of the sport” by the German federation which had announced in April “thatJewish players were no longer allowed to play international tournaments.”
1933:In Savannah, GA, a large crowd of Jews and Christians attend a ceremony atCongregation Mickve Israel to mark the 200th anniversary of thearrival of Jews in what was then the colony of Georgia.
1934:The district of Birobidzhan in Russiawas established as a JewishAutonomous Region which was to cover an area of 36,000 sq. km. Its officiallanguage would be Yiddish. Within two yearsStalinhad a change ofheart and its Jewish socialist leaders were liquidated. Although a library andtheater were established, it never reached a population of more than 18,000,less than one-fourth of the total population of the region, partly due to itsprimitiveness and remoteness.
1935:“In the presence of the entire Board of Estimate except Mayor La Guardia, whospoke by telephone from Washington, Bernard S. Deutsch, President of the Boardof Aldermen, was honored tonight as a public leader and a Jewish champion by1,000 friends at a dinner at the Hotel Commodore.”
1936:Despite the High Commissioner's warning Arab leaders at a general conferenceheld in Jerusalem representing all Arab towns unanimously called for a campaignof civil disobedience by all Arabs in Palestine including the refusal to paytaxes and “a boycott of everything Jewish.” Jerusalem Mayor Khalidi has becomeso active in the Arab cause that he did not attend the meeting of the JerusalemCity Council; an absence which was condemned by the six Jewish councilors.
1936:In Romania, “approximately 2,000 students belong to the Iron Guard” “assaultedJews in the streets today and attempted to prevent professors and otherstudents from entering buildings” at the “Bucharest University.”
1936:“A cheap diamond ring, said to have been pledged in a transaction involving$200 led” today “to the arrest of Miss Mary Berd, 36 year old secretary ofRabbi Zeida Schmellner” whose arrived in the United States from Rumania in 1925was an important enough event to rate a reception hosted by the Mayor
1936:Anti-Semitic students who had been arrested for assaulting Jews issued “amanifesto” from their jails today saying that “Rumanian students are preparedto die for their fatherland to free the country from corruption anddegeneration and wipe out these tools of Jews and Free Masons.” (Editor’s note – another clue as to why theGermans had so much success in murdering six million Jews.)
1936:After 169 performances the curtain came down on “Jubilee” a musical comedy witha book by Moss Hart at the Imperial Theatre.
1937:“Café Metrople” a drama written by Gregory Ratoff who also appeared in the roleof “Paul” was released in the United States today.
1937:During the Spanish Civil War, The German Condor Legion, arrived in Spain toprovide air cover for the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. The Germans used the Spanish Civil War as atraining ground for its forces which accounted for some of their earlysuccesses starting in 1939. The failure of the western liberal regimes tocounter the German efforts was one more step on the road to the war that wouldlead to the Holocaust. Hitler thoughtthat the Spanish should have become active members of the Axis alliance aspayment for his help.
1938: TodayOhio St. alum Sidney Bernard Finn, the award winning Harvard trained dentistwho was the married Irma Harriet Rubens with whom he had two children –Catherine and Andrew.
1938(6thof Iyar, 5698): “Moses Phillip Ginzburg, founder and publisher of the Daily Jewish Courier and a leader ofChicago’s Jewish community for more than half a century passed away today atthe age of 75.” Born in Poland, Ginzburgcame to Chicago in 1883. Five yearslater he founded the Jewish daily which would play a major role in his and hiswife, Feige Rachel Levin’s, lives. Amonth before his death, the couple was honored at a dinner attended by 1,500guests who celebrated their golden wedding anniversary.
1938:Birthdate of Gordon Davidson, the Brooklyn born electrical engineer who becamea Tony Award winning director.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/gordon-davidson-moses-of-las-theater-scene-dies-at-83/
1939(18thof Iyar, 5699): Lag B’Omer
1939:In Montreal, “Ray (Arlin), atextile worker, and Victor Altman, a grocer” gave birth to SidneyAltman, the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and DevelopmentalBiology and Chemistry at Yale University who shared in the Nobel Prize forChemistry in 1989.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1989/altman/biographical/
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sidney-altman
1940:President Roosevelt me with Nathan Straus, the Administrator of the U.S.Housing Authority this morning at the White House.
1940(29thof Nisan, 5700): Seventy-one-year-old Homanna, Hungary native Morris Newfieldwho in 1894 came to the United Stateswhere graduated from Hebrew Union College, became the rabbi at TempleEmanu-El, married Leah Ullman, the daughter of Samuel Ullman, with whom heraised four children, Emma, Mayer, Lena and John Newfield passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/newfield-morris
http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/2007_59_01_02_doc_langston.pdf
1941: As Arab continued their violent attacks on the Jewsof Iraq, "a number of Arabs youths burst into a circumcision ceremony,knives in hand, murdering a young boy and wounding his brother." (InIshmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1942:Nazi decree orders all Jewish pregnant women of Kovno Ghetto executed
1943:During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Pawel Burskin led a group of Jewish fightersthrough the sewers to the "Aryan ‘sector. Theywere ambushed byGerman troops, captured and shot.
1943:“About 860 men, women and children categorized as “gypsies and gypsyhalf-breeds” arrived at the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz nearthe Polish city of Oświęcim, to where they were deported from Moravia and the"gypsy camp" Lety u Písku in Bohemia, by then “Protectorate ofBohemia and Moravia”. On this occasion, and to commemorate their fates, wepublish a text by the historian Michal Schuster on the history of the “gypsycamp” in Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
1943:Sephardic-Jewish homes in Tunisia are ransacked and looted by departing Germantroops.
1944(21stof Iyar, 5704): Pesach Sheni
1944(21stof Iyar, 5704): Twenty-three-year-old Philadelphia born Flying Officer ElmerOscar Aaron (RCAF) who had enlisted in 1942, received his commission in 1943and flown 14 mission was killed while “participating in a raid on Tours,France.
1944:During WW II, one month before the Normandy invasion, 1,500 bombers from theU.S, 8th Air Force attacked Berlin today.
1945:Hitler makes the cover of Time Magazine again but this time with a giant Xacross the cover.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19450507,00.html
1945:Under the headline “Foreign News: Dachau” published today, Time magazinegave its readers the following description of the German concentration camp.
Whenall other German prison camps are forgotten the name of Dachau will still beinfamous. It was the first concentration camp set up for Hitler, and its merename was a whispered word of terror through all Germany from the earliest daysof Nazi control. It was one of the largest of the camps to which opponents ofNaziism were sent. And here, too, was concentrated the flower of Nazi sad*stswhose business was torture and death. Last week the U.S. Seventh Army enteredDachau and liberated 32,000 of its still living inmates. With them went TIMECorrespondent Sidney Olson. His report: Beside the highway into Dachau thereruns a spur line off the Munich railroad. Here a soldier stopped us and said:"I think you better take a look at these box-cars." The cars werefilled with dead men. Most of them were naked. On their bony, emaciated backsand rumps were whip marks. Most of the cars were open-top cars like Americancoal cars. I walked along these cars and counted 39 of them which were filledwith these dead. The smell was very heavy. I cannot estimate with anyreasonable accuracy the number of dead we saw here, but I counted bodies in twocars and there were 53 in one and 64 in another. The main entry road runs pastseveral largish buildings. These had been cleared; and now we began to meet theliberated. Several hundred Russians, French, Yugoslavs, Italians and Poles werehere, frantically, hysterically happy. They began to kiss us, and there isnothing you can do when a lot of hysterical, unshaven, lice-bitten, half-drunk,typhus-infected men want to kiss you. Nothing at all. You cannot hit them, andbesides, they all kiss you at the same time. It is no good trying to explainthat you are only a correspondent. A half-dozen of them were especially happyand it turned out they were very proud: they had killed two German soldiersthemselves. Skeleton Stacks. We went on, and the great size of the establishmentof Dachau began to open before us. Buildings and barracks spread on and on.Outside one building, half covered by a brown tarpaulin, was a stack about fivefeet high and about 20 feet wide of naked dead bodies, all of them emaciated.We went on around this building and came to the central crematory. The roomshere, in order, were: 1) the office where the living and the dead were passedthrough and where all their clothing was stripped from them; 2) the Brausebad(shower) room, where the victims were gassed; and 3) the crematory. In thecrematory were two large furnaces. Before the two furnaces were hooks andpulleys on rafters above them. Here, according to a number of Frenchmen, the SSmen often hanged prisoners by the necks or by the thumbs or whatever theirfancy dictated. From here the victims could watch while being whipped andtortured as their comrades were slid into the furnace. Each of these pitiful,happy, starved, hysterical men wanted to tell us his home country, his homecity, and ask us news and beg for cigarets. The eyes of these men defy mypowers of description. They are the eyes of men who have lived in a super-hellof horrors for many years, and are now driven half-crazy by the liberation theyhave prayed so hopelessly for. Again & again, in all languages, they calledon God to witness their joy. Heart of Darkness. But though we were tired fromthe long journey, we were lured on and on and on, from building to building.What lured us was a sound which at first we had thought was the wind in thepines of Dachau. Then after a while we knew it was cheering — the sound ofthousands of men cheering and cheering again. At last we came to a high woodenwall and went through the gates'. Before us stretched the great prison compoundof Dachau. This must be at least one square mile in extent. In & out ofthis vast stretch of open compound studded with low barracks were swarming theliberated men of Dachau. I cannot pre tend to estimate the number with anyexactness. But there were many thousand. These men, cheering as hard as theirfeeble strength would permit, tore them selves getting through the barbed wireto touch us, to talk to us. Some of them were nearly mad with joy. Here werethe men of all nations whom Hitler's agents had picked out as prime opponentsof Naziism; here were the very earliest Hitler haters. Here were German socialdemocrats, Spanish survivors of the Spanish Civil War, a correspondent for theParis Soir, who cried so hard I could not get his name. Joy in the Inferno. Wewent into one barracks after another. So many men were sick and possibly dyingof starvation and beatings that they merely lay or leaned or sat shoulder toshoulder, too weak to do more than grin glassily. It was here that we evenfound some Hindus. All this time the cheering went on, and we were beingforcibly mobbed by hundreds of men strong as only the half-insane can be,kissed and kissed again by men who stank like the inferno, obviously sicktoward death of all kinds of illnesses. One giant Russian held me for at least30 seconds while he kissed all over the U.S. insignia on my coat. They shoutedin all languages but sometimes in American phrases; one little Pole ran besideus until he dropped flat, shouting desperately: "Hello, boys!"
1945:At 02:41 in the morning at SHAEF headquarters in Reims, France, theChief-of-Staff of the German Armed Forces High Command, General Alfred Jodl,signed the unconditional surrender documents for all German forces to theAllies. The surrender would go into effect on the following day, May 8, 1945which would mean the end of the Holocaust.
1945(24thof Iyar, 5705): Hungarian novelist Andor Endre Gelleri, age 38, dies atthe Mauthausen, Austria, slave-labor camp two days after liberation.
1945:One day before her 21st birthday Gerda Weissman Klein, “aPolish-born American writer and human rights activist whose autobiographicalaccount of the Holocaust, All but My Life was adapted for the 1995 shortfilm, One Survivor Remembers, which received an Academy Award” met her futurehusband Lieutenant Kurt Klein, whose parents had been murdered at Auschwitz andwhose part of the force liberating in Volary, Czechoslovakia..
1946:Birthdate of English author Michael Rosen.
1946:“A rise in discrimination against Jews, including veterans of the war, wasreported today in the regular monthly bulletin of the National CommunityRelations Advisory Council following a survey of employment conditions infifteen major industrial centers.”
1947:“Observance of the second anniversary of V-E Day must be tempered by therealization that most of Europe's Jews "still know no peace," leadersof the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York said” today in statement signedby Mrs. David M. Levy, Barney Balaban, Samuel Hausman, Herbert H. Lehman andEdward M.M. Warburg, “the five co-chairman of the local drive for $65 millionwhich is part of a national campaign for $170 million.
1948:“American opposition to the partition of Palestine is blocking the hopes ofArabs and Jews alike for freedom from ‘colonial oppression’ the Moscow radiocharged in an English-language broadcast tonight.”
1948:“The Arabs agreed today to a cease-fire in all Jerusalem beginning at noontomorrow, and the Jews said they would comply if the Arabs actually haltedtheir firing.”
1948:“Berta Gersten will be co-starred with Ver a Rosanko in ‘The Jolly Gang,’ a newYiddish musical comedy by Israel Rosenberg and Philip Laskofsky which” isscheduled to open this evening at the Clinton Theatre.
1949(8thof Iyar, 5709) Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim
1949:Two thousand Jews who have escaped from Communist Hungary are getting to spendtheir first celebrated their first Shabbat in the free city of Vienna.
1949:Officials of the American Jewish Committee, reported today at the openingsession of the spring meeting of its executive body, that only permanent peace between the Arabnations and Israel could assure the solution of Israel's pressing economic andrehabilitation problems.
1950:“The Damned Don’t Cry,” an “American film noir crime-drama directed by VincentSherman” who also co-authored the script, produced by Jerry Wald and edited byRudi Fehr
1950:In the Terrace Room at Hotel Thayer, Rabbi Maurice Bloom of Newburgh officiatedat the wedding of Phyllys Shapiro and Donald G. Weiss.
1950:The government is scheduled to send its formal reply to the United Nationsconcerning “the Palestine Conciliations Commission’s proposal for peacenegotiations.” Israel is willing to senddelegates to a meeting that is held without pre-conditions while the Arabstates have announced that they will only come if the “return of Palestinerefugees is the first item on the agenda.”
1952:A cheering crowd of 5,000 greeted Haifa’s Mayor Abba Khoushy and New York’sMayor Impellitteri at official ceremonies at City Hall. Speakers at City Halland a luncheon that followed at the Waldorf-Astoria “emphasized Israel’sdevotion to democratic concepts and the need to consolidate the nation’seconomic position as a bulwark of democracy in the Middle East.”
1953:Birthdate of Boston native James Braidy “Jim Steinberg, the Harvard and YaleLaw School graduate who has served Democratic presidents in a variety offoreign policy positions including United States Deputy Secretary of State.
1954:Birthdate of movie director Amy Heckerling, the Bronx native whose firstcommercial success was “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”
1955(15thof Iyar, 5715): Parashat Emor
1955(15thof Iyar, 5715): Eighty-four-year-old Sophie Adle, the Springfield, IL born daughterof Samuel Rosenwald and Augusta Rosenwald, the wife of Manasseh Max Adler and motherof Cyrus Max Adler; Robert Samuel Adler; Lois Maxine Feingold and RosebudSperry passed away today in Beverly Hills.
1956:In the suburbs of South Manchester, UK, “barrister Benet Hytner and his wifeJoyce gave birth to director Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner.
1958:TodayIsraeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurionrejected a request by B’nai Brith that Ze’ev Jabotinsky be reinterred in Israelexplainingin a letter written B’nai Brith Vice President, Joseph Lamm,that"Israel does not need dead Jews, but living Jews, and I see no blessing inmultiplying graves in Israel." Could Ben Gurion’srefusal to grant what was a wish contained in Jabotinsky’s last will andtestament been nothing more than a measure of revenge exacted against theRevisionist leader whose followers would become the Irgun. With the approval of Levi Eshkol, Jabotinskyand his wife were finally laid to rest in Jerusalem at Herzl Cemetery in 1964.
1958: U.S. premiere of “The Left Handed Gun” starringPaul Newman as “Billy the Kid.”
1959: Paul Newman and Joan Woodward gave birth to EilinorTeresa Newman who “runs Newman’s Own Organics.”
1960:After only 21 performances the curtain came down on the original Broadwayproduction of “From A to Z” a musical revue with a book by Woody Allen.
1960:Los Angeles Dodger Catcher Norm Sherry hitsan 11th inning homeruntogive his brother, Pitcher Larry Sherry, a 3 to 2 victory overthePhillies. At the time, the Sherry brothers were the first andonly Jewish battery (pitcher and catcher) in major league baseball. From1959 to 1962 the Dodgers had three Jewish players on their roster (the otherwas Sandy Koufax) which some felt made them the "Jewish" baseballteam.
1960:Birthdate of Adam Bernstein, the native of Brooklyn who “won a Primetime EmmyAward for Outstanding Comedy Series” and who “married actress Jessica Hecht in1995.”
1960:Larry Blyden appeared for the last time in the role of “Sammy Fong” in FlowerDrum Song; a portrayal for which he received a Tony Nomination for Best Actorin a Musical.
1960(10thof Iyar, 5720): Seventy-six-year-old Charles Edward Sebag-Montefiore passedaway.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00B16FC3E5916738DDDA00894DD405B808AF1D3
1962:“Rabbi Moshe Yaffe, the executive director of the Chief Rabbinate at Jerusalem”opened “a week-long ‘Festival of Israel’ in celebration of that country’sanniversary was opened today at Sterling Forest Park, a botanical garden insuburban Tuxedo” featuring daily programs “of costumed folk dancing and folksinging by Zionist youth groups lectures on and about modern Israel,photographic displays and exhibits of Israeli books, postage stamps and Israeliexports
1963(13thof Iyar, 5723): Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American engineer andphysicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics andastronautics passed away.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/learnmore/lm-vonkarman.php
1964: Birthdateof Elliot Perlman, anAustralian author and barrister.
1965(5thof Iyar, 5725): Seventy-five-year-old Samuel Lewin-Epstein the Jerusalem bornson of Eliyahu Ze'ev (Wolf) Lewin-Epstein and Judith Lewin-Epstein, the husbandof Madeline Lewin-Epstein and “the father of Professor Jacob Lewis-Epstein andNoah Lewin-Epstein” passed away today in “Rechovot, Israel.”
1965:Funeral services are scheduled to be held at the Riverside Chapel for MartinAnenberg, the husband of Violet Anenberg who was a member of Temple Beth El inCedarhurst.
1967(27thof Nisan,5727): Eighty-one-year-old London born Alfred e. Lyon, the “formerchairman of the board and president of Philip Morris passed away today inConnecticut.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/05/09/89663586.html?pageNumber=46
1968:Sixty-seven-year-old English actress Olga Lindo, the daughter of Jewish actorFrank Lindo and his non-Jewish wife passed away today.
1968:Premiere of “Where It’s At,” a comedy directed by Garson Kanin co-starring DonRickles.
1970:NBC broadcast the final episode of “Daniel Boone” a television series based onthe American frontiersman produced by Aaron Rosenberg and Barney Rosenzweigwith a theme song co-authored by Lionel Newman.
1972:“Jeremiah Johnson,” an off-beat western directed by Sydney Pollack premieredtoday at Cannes.
1973(5thof Iyar, 5733): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1973(5thof Iyar, 5733): Sixty-four-year-old Egon Hostovský a Czech author and distantrelative of Stefan Zweig who was memorialized by the creation of the EgonHostovsky (Literary) Prize passed away today.
1973:Liora Reich became the first woman to win the International Bible Quiz
1973: Carl Bernstein shares in the Pulitzer Prizefor his reporting on the Watergate Scandal.
1973:Maxine Kumin won the Pulitzer Prize for her volume of poetry entitled Up Country: Poems of New England.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/07/1973/maxine-kumin
1974(15thof Iyar, 5734): Seventy-five-year-old Inez M. Hellman Lasky, the Natchez, MSborn daughter of Moritz and Beulah Benjamin Hellman and the wife of FrederickW. Feibelman passed away today in Indianapolis after which she was buried inthe Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation South.
1975: “The Day of the Locust” a film version ofNathaniel West’s novel by the same name, directed by John Schlesinger, producedby Jerome Hellman and featuring Natalie Schafer as “Audrey Jennings” wasreleased today in the United States.
1977: The musical version of Happy End, a play byKurt Weill who was Jewish and Elisabeth Hauptman and Berolt Brecht who were refugeesfrom the Nazis premiere today on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre.
1978(30th of Nisan, 5738): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1978(30th of Nisan, 5738): Sixty-three-year-oldMortimer “Mort” Weisinger ” an American magazine and comic book editor bestknown for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s” passedaway today.
http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Mort_Weisinger
1978: “Stamps” by Samuel Tower published todaydescribed Israel’s philatelic offers in honor of her 30thanniversary including the issuance of five stamps honoring “five heroes of theIsraeli Underground Movement including Abraham Stern, Yitzhak Sadeh, DavidRaziel, Dr. Moshe Sneh and Eliyahu Golomb
1981(3rd of Iyar, 5741): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1981: Jewish Heritage Week came to an end.
1981: A revival of Lillian Hellman’s “The LittleFoxes” opened at the Martin Beck Theatre with Elizabeth Taylor as “Regina.”
1981(3rd of Iyar, 5741): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1982: “Paradise” a romantic adventure film starringPhoebe Cates and featuring Yosef Shiloach as “Ahmed” which was filmed bycinematographer Adam Greenberg was released today.
1982: “Death Valley” a horror film written byRichard Rothstein was released today in the United States.
1983: At Cannes, premiere of “War Games” one of the first movies to centeraround computer hacking produced by Leonard Goldberg, featuring Maury Chaykinand with music by Arthur B. Rubinstein
1983: Today a recording of “It Might Be You” whichwas performed in “Tootsie” starring Dustin Hoffman “with music written by DaveGrusin, and lyrics written by Alan & Marilyn Bergman” which “was nominatedfor an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1983” hit the number 25 spot onthe Billboard Hot 100 chart.
1984(5th of Iyar, 5744): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1984(5th of Iyar, 5744): Painter and art directorMarvin Israel passed away today.
1985:”Memory of the Camps,” a documentary dealingwith “Dachau and other Nazi concentration camps” was broadcast during seasonthree of “Frontline.”
1986: John Corry reviewed “The Precious Legacy ofCzech Jews” a film directed by Dan Wiessman and co-produced by Weissman andNelson E. Breen.
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/07/arts/the-precious-legacy-of-czech-jews.html
1987: NBC broadcast the final episode of Season 3of “The Cosby Show” co-created by Ed Weinberger.
1986: Jerry Herman and Harvey Fierstein’s “La Cageaux Folles” had its West End premiere at the London Palladium today with thesame creative team as the Broadway production.
1988(20th of Iyar, 5748): Parashat Emor
1988(20th of Iyar, 5748): CentenarianColumbia trained attorney Saul B. Ackerman, “a founding partner of Ackerman,Salwen and Glass” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/10/obituaries/saul-b-ackerman-lawyer-100.html
1989(2nd of Iyar, 5749): Just 23 three days beforehis 76th birthday CCNY basketball star Moe Goldman who went on toplay professionally for the Philadelphia Spa and pursue a career as a New YorkCity school teacher passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/09/obituaries/moe-goldman-ex-basketball-player-75.html
1990:Solomon Blatt, Jr. the son of Solomon Blatt, Sr who was speaker of the SouthCarolina House of Representatives becameSenior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of SouthCarolina.
1992:The Chicago Sun Times reports thatEddie Schwartz is leaving WGN for WLUP.
1994(27thof Iyar, 5754): Seventy-three-year-old Aharon "Aharale" RabinovichYariv passed away. The Moscow native made Aliyah at the age of 15 and thenpursued a career in the military and politics that included service in theKnesset.
1994(27thof Iyar, 5754): Clement Greenberg, the most famous American art critic sinceBernard Berenson who was born in 1909 to a Yiddish-speaking socialist familyand was brought up in Brooklyn and the Bronx passed away today. (As reported byRaymond Hernandez)
1994(27thof Iyar, 5754): Haim Bar Lev, the IDF's Chief of General Staff from 1968 to1971, passed away. Bar Lev played a key role in the Yom Kippur War., He cameout of retirement and served as the Chief of the Southern Command at therequest of Prime Minister Meir. Heprovided the steadying influence and keen perception that was necessary to haltthe Egyptian advance and snatch victory from the apparent jaws of defeat. (Asreported by Joseph Finkleston)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-ltgen-haim-barlev-1434903.html?printService=print
1998:Un crisantemo estalla en cinco esquinas (A Chrysanthemum Bursts inCincoesquinas) with a screenplay Daniel Burman who also served as director wasreleased in Argentina today.
1998:The 6th Annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival began today.
1999: “Rabbi Jacob Lustig and five others fromhis Kneseth Israel Congregation stood side by side as they entered the pleas inHamilton County Common Pleas Court” in what prosecutors describe as a “massivefraud” involving instant bingo games throughout Greater Cincinnati. (Asreported by Dan Horn)
1999: “The Mummy” a classic horror filmco-starring Rachel Weisz and music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in theUnited States today.
2000(2nd of Iyar, 5760): Eighty-three-year-oldHolocaust survivor and champion “Race Walker” Henry Laskau passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/09/sports/henry-laskau-race-walker-is-dead-at-83.html
2000: TheNew York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or ofspecial interest to Jewish readers including “The Human Stain” by Philip Roth and the recently publishedpaperback edition of “A Journey to the End of the Millennium: A Novel of theMiddle Ages”
A. B. Yehoshua’s novel about a North African Jewish merchant “who travels toEurope with his two wives and his Muslim partner in the year 999 explores thegaps between Jews and Christians, Jews and Muslims and men and women.”
2000: The curtain came down on a revival ofArthur Laurents “The Time of the Cuickoo” at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre.
2000: ABC broadcast “Geppetto” “a made fortelevision musical” version of Pinocchio starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus today forthe first time.
2000: Bruce Fleisher won The Home DepotInvitational.
2000: “War and Love,” a Malayalam language filmfilmed by cinematographer Adam Greenberg was released today in India.
2001: Dalia Rabin-Pelossof joined “One Israel”which later became Labor Meimad.”
2001: IDF naval commandos captured theSantorini, a fishing boat used for smuggling weapons into Gaza that includedKatyusha rocket launchers, surface-to-air (SAM-7) anti-aircraft missiles androcket-propelled grenade launchers.
2002: Israeli Prime Minister met with PresidentGeorge Bush at the White House.
2002:Psychologist Carol Gilligan published "The Birth of Pleasure"
2002:Perhaps the moment that signaled open season for Jews on campuses occurredtoday at San Francisco State University when “Muslim students and their leftistsupporters launched a mini-pogrom against pro-Israel Jewish students.” (Asreported by Caroline B. Glick)
2002(25thof Iyar, 5762): Hamas claimed responsibility for today’s bombing at RishonLeZion where 15 people were killed and another 55 were wounded.
PninaHikri (60), Sharuk Rassan (42), Shoshana Magmari (51), Anat Temporush (36),Haim Rafael (64), Daliah Massah (64), Nir Lobatin (31), Avi Biaz (26), RahamimKimche (58), Edna Cohen (61), Yisrael Shikar (45), Yitzhak Bablar (58), EstherBablar (54), Regina Malka Boslan (62), Nawa Hinawi (51)
2003(5thof Iyar, 5763): Yom HaAtzma’ut
2003:In Tel Aviv, Mike’s Place re-opened after suffering a suicide bombing attack onApril 30.
2004(16thof Iyar, 5764): Twenty-six-year-old Nicholas Evan “Nick” Berg was decapitatedby Islamist terrorists in Iraq today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25401-2004May13.html
2005(28thof Nisan, 5765): Parashat Kedoshim
2005(28thof Nisan, 5765): Eighty-seven-year-old Brooklyn native and CCNY grad HarryMinkoff, the veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, founder of Gift-Pax andhusband of Ruth Minkoff with whom he raised three children – Jane, Larry andGeorge – and who was an active member of Temple Beth El in Great Neck and theUJA Federation of New York passed away today.
2006:Jacobo Kaufman delivered a major address at the "Colloquium in Memory ofAntonio José da Silva (the Jew)", on the occasion of this great Portugueseplaywright´s 300th anniversary celebration at Bar Ilan University.The event was supported by both Portugal and Brazil whose ambassadors attendedthe event.
http://www.jewish-theatre.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleid=1819
2006: Israel disappeared…from the news and opinionsections of the New York Times. In one of those rare Sundays, the Jewishstate was not a subject of any news stories in the Times.
2006:The New York Times featuredreviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding “Everyman” by Phillip Roth and “The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of theSettlements, 1967-1977” by Gershom Gorenberg.
2006:The World Zionist Organization announce the 2006 winners of the third annualHerzl Award, initiated by the Department for Zionist Activities to commemoratethe Centenary of Herzl's passing. Thewinners are Owen Kevin Futeran, South Africa, Andrea Uzan, Denmark, TedEkeroth, Sweden, Adrian Gluck, Argentina, Moises Mitrani, Mexico, StanislavSkibinski, Germany, Nathan Feldman, Mexico, Phil Koningham, New Zealand and Stephen Rosenthal, United Kingdom
2006: In Los Angeles, a community-wide celebrationof Israel’s 58th Independence ‘dayis kicked off by the LA County Sheriff Department Golden Stars Skydivingteam floating into Woodley Park while the Tampa Jewish Community Center bringsIsrael to downtown Tampa for the first time with independence day activities featuring Israelivendors, an Israeli rock band and Israeli cuisine.
2007:Time Magazine featured an articleentitled “The End of a Zionist Idyll.” The article reported on the Israelireaction Degania’s announcement that it was giving up its socialist ideals andgoing private. In the future, members couldown homes and earn salaries based on how hard they worked. Degania was thefirst Kibbutz to be founded during the Second Aliyah. It was the paradigm for the new Jew and thenew Jewish way of life. Thisannouncement represents the closing of a chapter in Jewish and Israeli history.
2007:Newsweek Magazine featured a reviewof The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon.
2007(19thof Iyyar, 5767): Donald Ginsberg a physicist who became a leading expert on theproduction and functioning of superconductors passed away at the age of 73 inUrbana, Illinois.
2008(2ndof Iyar, 5768): Yom Hazikaron – Israel Remembrance Day. A two-minute memorialsiren sounds at 11 a.m. Wednesday, followed by official ceremonies at 43military cemeteries. The Defense Ministry said that since 1860, when the firstJewish settlers began establishing Jewish neighborhoods outside the Jerusalemcity walls, 22,437 men and women have been killed in defense of the Land ofIsrael. Sixteen Israeli civilians were killed in terrorist attacks in the firstfour months of the year, bringing the total of civilian terror-related deathsto 1,634 since the creation of the state 60 years ago. Remembrance Day draws toa close Wednesday night at 8 p.m. with the traditional torch-lighting ceremonyat Jerusalem's Mount Herzl marking the sudden transition from sadness to joywith the start of Israel's 60th Independence Day.
2008:As Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary, the population nears 7.3million with 76% of the population being Jewish On the eve of its independenceday, Israel's population numbers 7,282,000, 75.5 percent of which is Jewish,and 20.1 percent Arab, Central Bureau of Statistics show. The remaining 4.4percent is made up largely of immigrants and their children who are notregistered as Jews in the Interior Ministry's population rolls. By 2030, theprojected population will be some 10,000,000.Over the past year, 156,400 babieswere born in Israel. At present, some 69 percent of the Jewish population ismade up of native-born Israelis, as opposed to only 35 percent in 1948. About18,000 people immigrated to Israel over the past year. The figure for totalpopulation does not include foreign nationals in Israel, whose number, in 1996,was found to be 186,000.
2008: Elie Wiesel is the guest speaker at a fund raising dinner designed tobenefit the new Padres Katz Special Education campus of Aleh, an organizationdedicated to helping disabled children in Israel.
2008:Release date for “Waves of Freedom,” a film that “is a reminder of the AmericanJewish sailors who braved British soldiers and the high seas to transportHolocaust survivors and refugees from Europe to the shores of prestatePalestine.”
2009:Ruth Reichl, a former restaurant critic and now the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, discusses and signs“Not Becoming My Mother: And Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way” atPolitics and Prose bookstore in Washington, D.C.
2009:The Jacob’s ladder Spring Festival opens. http://jlfestival.com/index.asp
2009:After Etan: The Missing Child Case that Held America Captive by LisaCohen was published by Grand Central Publishing. A native of Manitoba, Cohen is a graduate ofthe University Pennsylvania who has made a career in electronic journalism withstints at ABC and CBS news.
2009,Madoff Bankruptcy Trustee, Irving Picard filed a lawsuit against J. Ezra Merkinseeking to recover almost $500 million withdrawn from Madoff accounts in thelast six years
2010:In Tel Aviv, the three-day Good Life Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2010(23rdof Iyar, 5770): Bernard Schoenbaum, who in hundreds of cartoons in The NewYorker needled the relatively affluent, the media-conscious, the irony-besottedand the socially competitive — in other words, the readers of The New Yorkerpassed away today at the age of 89.(As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/books/18schoenbaum.html?pagewanted=print
2010:In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is schedule to host a Potluck Dinner beforeFriday Night Services where Samuel Horowitz of the Jewish Federation isscheduled to be the guest speaker.
2011:In Potomac, MD, Congregation B’Nai Tzedek is scheduled to hosts theSpring Galawhich will feature The “Second City” from Chicago.
2011:Bruce Raynor is scheduled to resign as president of Workers United and asexecutive vice president of the Service Employees International Union.
2011:“The Matchmaker” is scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Festival.
2011:The Traditional Minyan at Temple Judah is scheduled to host its annual“Mother’s Day Shabbat.”
2012:Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich, Israeli violinist Itamar Zorman and theJupiter musicians will perform are scheduled to perform at the Good ShepherdChurch in New York City.
2012:James Carroll, author of Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews isscheduled to deliver an address entitled “The Church and the Jews: A PersonalJourney and Assessment” as part of the Northern Virginia Hebrew CongregationSpring Speaker Series.
2012:Jews and the Left, a two-day conference sponsored by the YIVO Institute forJewish Research with
AmericanJewish Historical Society, is scheduled to come to an end.
2012:Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson isscheduled to be among the community leaders attending this evening’s JewishAmerican Heritage Month Celebration at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.
2013:Pamela Weisberger (President and Research Coordinator, Gesher Galicia) isscheduled to speak on “Unique & Unusual Resources in Galician Genealogy” atthe Weiner Library in London.
2013:“Street Labs” an outdoor exhibition featuring Israel’s top Sci-Tech studentspresenting their award winning inventions is scheduled to play at Union SquarePark.
2013:San Jose City Hall is scheduled to celebrate the history of Jewishcontributions to American culture and the Jewish American heritage that hashelped shape the San Jose community with the raising of the Israeli flag atCity Hall followed by a kosher lunch.
2013:A “Garden of Ellie" that contains a statue of Ellie Greenwich was placednext to Hofstra University's music school. The sculpture was commissioned byGreenwich's family and created by Peter Homestead
2013:According to Image Books, On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Familyand the Church in the 21st Century, will be available today in the UnitedStates and Canada. “The book is the transcript of wide-ranging conversationsbetween then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina and Rabbi Abraham Skorka,the rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary. Topics include God,atheism, abortion, the Holocaust, same-sex marriage, fundamentalism andglobalization. Francis previously has published 11 books, all in Spanish.Francis, who was elected pope last week, has referred to Skorka as his “brotherand friend.” As the archbishop of Buenos Aires, he attended services atSkorka’s synagogue and also arranged for Skorka to receive an honorarydoctorate from the Catholic University of Argentina. The two also sharedbilling on an Argentinian TV talk show on religious issues.” (As reported byJTA)
2013:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has ordered a freeze in tenders for West Banksettlement construction amid a US push to renew the Israeli-Palestinian peaceprocess, Army Radio reported today.
2013:Seventy years ago the Jewish people could not protect itself and had to pleadfor others to “save them.” Today that is no longer the case, Prime MinisterBinyamin Netanyahu said today, just days after allegations that Israeli warplanes attacked weapons depots near Damascus.
2013:Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky presented his proposal on the Women ofthe Wall to the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women today
Readmore: http://forward.com/articles/176123/confusion-reigns-as-women-plan-monthly-prayer-at-w/#ixzz2SeO5uTUx
2014:The Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society isscheduled to present “Native Genius,” “a night of entertainment celebrating thehistory of the Jewish contributions to American Theatre from 1800-1860.
2014:President Obama “will be honored by Stephen Spielberg as Ambassador forHumanity at the USC Shoah Foundation’s 20th anniversary gala event”which is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles today.
2014:“Over the Ocean,” a film about a Canadian family contemplating Aliyah isscheduled to shown at the Israel Film Festival sponsored by Agudas Achim inCoralville, Iowa.
2014:In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month “A Call to Serve: Florida Jews andthe U.S. Military is scheduled to be shown in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
2014:“Rock the Casbah” is scheduled to be shown at The National Center for JewishFilm’s 17th Annual Film Festival.
2014:The 16th annual Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival is scheduled tocome to an end in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2014:“Amid a spate of violent altercations between IDF soldiers and settlers fromYitzhar in the northern West Bank, an Israeli report said today that residentsof the radical settlement were mulling the legality — according to Jewish law —of attacking, and even killing, IDF soldiers “under certain circ*mstances.” (Asreported by Yifa Yaakov)
2014:Mark Lewis is scheduled to discuss his prizewinning book, The Birth of theNew Justice, a history of international criminal courts and newinternational criminal laws from the end of World War I to the beginning of theCold War at The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide inLondon.
2015:As voters in the U.K. are scheduled to go to the polls today, Laborite EdMiliband seeks to become the nation’s first Jewish Prime Minister.
2015:Joan Adler, Executive Director of the Straus Historical Society is scheduled todiscuss her latest work For the Sake of the Children, The Letters Between OttoFrank and Nathan Straus Jr., at The Illinois Holocaust Museum and EducationCenter
2015:In Atlanta, GA, Israeli-Ethiopian singer Ester Rada is scheduled to present“The Birth of Ethio-Soul.”
2015:Dr. Jonathan Sarna is scheduled to lead a discussion about his newest bookLincoln and the Jews: A History at the National Archives.
2015:“À la Vie (To Life)” is scheduled to be shown at 18th Annual FilmFestival of the National Center for Jewish Film’s
2015:The Washington Jewish Music Festival kicks is scheduled to start its 16th yearto with Neshama Carlebach the Glory to God Baptist Choir
2015:As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the Spertus Institute in Chicago isscheduled to host cartoonist Liana Fink who will talk about the creativeprocess behind "A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York,"
2015:At the National Museum of American Jewish History Simon Malkes, author of TheRighteous of the Wehrmacht is scheduled to tell the amazing true story ofhow a Nazi officer helped save the lives of a hundred Jews, including Simon andhis family during the Holocaust
2015:In keeping with a tradition that began with his arrival in Little Rock morethan two decades ago, Chabad, under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment isscheduled to host its “BBQ Festival” complete “with all of the trimmings.”
2015(18thof Iyar, 5775): Lag B’Omer
2016:As we get ready for the “Run for the Roses’ this afternoon, we remember theKentucky Derby of 80 years ago (1936) which was won by the “Sons of Moses.” Thewinning horse was Bold Venture, owned by Morton Schwartz, trained by Max Hirschand ridden by Ira Hanford. All of the human beings involved in this equestrianevent were Jewish. And even though it was Shabbat, some say that for the dayBold Venture was Jewish too.
2016:The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host an“Interactive Survivor Experience” featuring Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter.
2016(29thof Nisan, 5776): Machor HaKodesh;
2016(29thof Nisan, 5576): Ninety-two-year-old Holocaust survivor and fundraiser ErnestMichel passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016(29thof Nisan, 5576): Eighty-six year old Howard Garfinkel the high schoolbasketball scout who had an impact on the careers of such stars as MichaelJordan, LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/sports/basketball/howard-garfinkel-who-discovered-and-groomed-top-basketball-talent-dies-at-86.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
2017:The New York Times featured books written by Jewish authors and/or of specialinterest to Jewish readers including Stranger in a Stranger Land: Searchingfor Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem by George Prochnik, The Ideas ofIndustry by Daniel W. Drezner, Allthe Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan and recently published paperback editions of BlackHole Blues: And Other Songs From Outer Space by Janna Levin and InPraise of Forgetting: Historical Memory and Its Ironies by David Rieff.
2017:At the Breman Museum, Eugen Schoenfeld is scheduled to tell how he survivedAuschwitz and Dachau, refused to kill one of the brutes guarding him and roseto become the Chair of the Department of Sociology at Georgia State University.
2017:Natan Sharansky is scheduled to speak at the Hirsch Theatre this evening onEliyahu Shama Street in Jerusalem.
2017:“German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid a solemn visit to Jerusalem'sYad Vashem Holocaust memorial” today.
2017:The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host a lecture by Eric Goldmanentitled “Lens on Israel: A Society Through Its Cinema.”
2018:The Center for Jewish History and YIVO are scheduled to “five-time spaceshuttle astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman” who will discuss “his experiences as a Jewin orbit who brought a Torah, a tallis, a dreidel, and other Judaica on histrips into space.”
2018:The Yerushalmi Theatre Group is scheduled to present “Good Morning Mr. Heimer,”“a theatrical adaption of the work by Amnon Shmoosh “at Beit Mazia.”
2018: As part of the 25th anniversaryobservance, the U.S. Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host “a discussion aboutthe complexities of Holocaust history with leading scholars.”
2018:“In cooperation with the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington, NewYork University professor Hasia Diner is scheduled to present a lecture titled“Roads Taken: Jewish Peddlers and their American Journeys.”
2018:“GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II” is scheduled to be shown thisevening at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2018:“Libya: The Last Exodus” is scheduled to be shown at the 26thToronto Jewish Film Festival.
2018:The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to co-host an “interfaithdiscussion of scripture from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity andIslam.”
2019:In Walnut Creek, CA, Congregation B’nai Shalom is scheduled to host an IsraelMemorial Day program featuring a talk by “Lt. Col. (IDF Retired) Amos Guiora on‘The Role of the IDF in Israel.’”
2019:The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans and the Jewish Children’s RegionalService are scheduled to participate in “GiveNOLA Day!”
2019:In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Above and Beyond” producedby Nancy Spielberg (Elusive Justice) and directed by Roberta Grossman (BlessedIs the Match), that tells the story of the pilots who risked their lives tocreate Israel’s air force at the time of the creation of the state in 1948.
2019:The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics, and the Law That Kept Two Generationsof Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America by DanielOkren is scheduled to go on sale today.
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Guarded-Gate/Daniel-Okrent/9781476798035
2020:Virtually using Zoom, the Streicker Center is scheduled to host Amy-Jill Levineas she lectures on “Jesus and the Jews.”
2020:Temple Emanuel of Newton is scheduled to present a virtual “Paper Mosaic ‘Treeof Life’ Workshop.”
2020:The Neiman Marcus Group, Inc filed for bankruptcy today “due to high debts.”
2020:The Vilna Shul is scheduled to host a virtual lecture by Layah Kranz Lipsker asshe discusses “Unorthodox,” the newly released four-part series on Netflix” and“the Chassidic world of her childhood and answer questions about theauthenticity of this series and others like it.”
2020:The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host viaFacebook Live the first lecture in its Scholar Series as part of JAHM.
2020:Via Zoom, Rabbi Roger Klein of Temple Terfieth Israel is scheduled to host anhour of poetry readings and interactive discussion of this art form.
2020:Israelis are scheduled to make alternative plans for celebrating Lag B’Omerfollowing yesterday’s approval by the government to ban “all traditionalbonfires.”
2020:Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be able to forward today following the HighCourt of Justice found that Netanyahu's unity government deal with his electionrival Benny Gantz does not violate the law, dismissing arguments that itunlawfully shields him in a corruption trial.”
2020:The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “a live streamed program fromthe home of pianist Roman Rabinovich in Canada; featuring works that includeHaydn’s B Minor and E-flat Major sonatas, a new piece by Israeli composer MatanPorat, and a Sonatina by Rabinovich himself.
2020:The San Francisco Fringe festival is scheduled to host a virtual performance of“Marla,” “Ali Littman’s play about the 2002 Hebrew University bombing thatkilled nine people, including 24-year-old UC Berkeley graduate Marla Bennett.”
2020:In Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to a social hour overZoom.
2020:Today marks the deadline for Hillel at the University to raise $25,000 duringthe Global Giving Week.
2021:As Israelis prepare for Shabbat YeshAtid leader Yair Lapid is busy using the 28 days he has he has to form a newgovernment following Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure “to form a coalition thatwould have allowed him to hang onto power.”
2021:“The Human Factor,” a “documentary that tells the saga of a US-led Middle Eastflops” is scheduled to open at the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Franciscotoday.
2022:Lockdown University is scheduled host webinar with Professor David Peimerlecturing on the “Portrayal of Jesus in Film.’
2022:Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to “The Best of Chamber Music” with pianistEmanuel Krasovsky and violinist Vera Vaidman.
2022:The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is scheduled to co-host ascreening of “Born In Jerusalem and Still Alive.”
2022:Value Culture, Taube Philanthropies, JCCSF, J. and others are scheduled topresent “Krakow’s Jewish Culture Festival Pop-Up in S.F.” which is “A miniversion of the huge Jewish festival in Poland”
2022:Brandeis University is scheduled to present a “Benefit Concert to LaunchInitiative on Antisemitism With Boris Berman.”
2022(6thof Iyar, 5782): Parashat Kedoshim and Pirke Avot chapter two; for more 2023:Menorah Park’s annual run and walk fundraiser which originally was a Montefioreevent to support operating costs is scheduled to take place this morning atUrsuline College in Pepper Pike, OH.
2023:The Partnership2gether Book Club is scheduled to host a discussion of BeautyQueen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi.
2023: Tikvah’s 2023 Leadership Mission trip toIsrael is scheduled to come to an end.
2023:The 25th ASF New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled tobegin today at the Center for Jewish History.
2023:In Coralville, IA, Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its Kids’Shavuot complete with ice cream, a petting zoo and a fire pit.
2023:In Columbus, OH, the Tifereth Israel Birding Club is scheduled to meet thisevening
2023:The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host a workshop where childrencan learn about the history in thehistoric Eldridge Street Synagogue.
2024:the JDC Archives and the Brandeis University Initiative on the Jews of theAmericas is scheduled to host an in-person lecture exploring JDC’s current rolein Latin America during which “Sergio Widder will discuss JDC’s recent historyof rescue in Latin America and its partnerships with Jewish communities acrossthe region to accomplish sustainability and renewal programs.’
2024:In honor of the release of Haim Be’er’s new book Before the Curtain,Agnon House is scheduled to host Be’er “in a new series of online lectures,during which we will read the beloved novel Tamul Yesterday
2024:YIVO is scheduled to host “a concert exploring Yiddish and Hebrew songs of theWeimar Republic.”
2024:As May 7th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps theUnited States and the Hamas held hostages begin day214 in captivity. (Editor’snote: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are justproviding a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
