Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
| PentecostalTheology.com
December 22
69: Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered by the Gemonian stairs in Rome.
244: Birthdate of Diocletian, the Roman Emperor who ordered all of his subjects to accept his divinity and offer sacrifices to him. He exempted the Jews from this decree. According to Meir Holder, “his regime was comparatively favorable to the Jewish people
1095: Birthdate of Roger II whose reign over the Kingdom of Sicily was unique for its religious tolerance which allowed native Jews, Byzantine Greeks, Muslim Arabs, Normans, Longobards and “native” Sicilian peoples to live in harmony. (As reported by Luigi Mendola)
1135: Coronation of Stephen as the King of England during whose reign Jewish communities were established in Norwich, Cambridge and Oxford.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/6081-ferdinand-iii
1603: Mehmed III Sultan of the Ottoman Empire passed away. Born in 1566, Mehmed III continued the Turkish practice of taking advantage of the skills of his Jewish subjects. He appointed a Jew named Gabriel Buonaventura as ambassador to Spain which may seem counter-intuitive considering that Spain had expelled her Jews a century earlier. Two Jewish doctors named Benveniste and Korina were in palace service. In 1597 a Morrano named Alvaro Mendez who had taken the Turkish appellation Solomon Abenyaes prepared a treaty of alliance with England aimed at King Philip of Spain.
1603: Ahmed I becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire following the death of Mehmed III. During his reign, Sultan Ahmed I caught small pox, a highly fatal disease. When his palace physicians could not help him, Ahmed sought help from Buha Eskenazi, the widow of Solomon Eskenazi who had been one of his doctors. The widow Eskenazi was able to affect a cure and she remained in the Sultan’s service.
1639: Birthdate of French dramatist Jean Racine. Racine chose two very different Jewish women as topics for two of his plays both of whose names provided the title for the respective works. In 1689, he wrote Esther. In 1689, he wrote his last play Athaliebased on the life of the wicked Queen Athalia, daughter of Jezebel.
1653:Nethaneel ben Benjamin ben Azriel Trabot the Rabbi of Modena who was the uncle of Solomon Graciano, and the author of “the collection of response entitled ‘Kenaf Renamin’” passed away today.
1666: Founding of the French Academy of Sciences which “in 1833 the Académie des Sciences awarded Danish surgeon Ludwig “Lewin Jacobson one of the Monthyon prizes (4,000 francs), having previously awarded him a gold medal for his important researches into the venal system of the kidneys in birds and reptiles.”
1696: Birthdate of James Oglethorpe, founder of the colony of Georgia. “In July, 1733, a month after Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe, forty Sephardic Jews arrived in Savannah.” A year later German Jews arrived in the colony.” The trustees of the colony wanted to discourage the Jewish settlement. Oglethorpe had the courage and good sense to ignore their wishes.
1723: Seventy year old Normandy native Jacques Basnage de Deauval, the Protestant minister and author whose works included L’Histoire des Juifs (History of the Jews) which the author said is “a survey of all that pertains to the religion and the history of the Jews since Herod the Great” passed away today. (Editor’s note- other sources show 1725. I have not been able to resolve the disparity.)
1762: In New York City, Caty Hays and Abraham Sarzedas gave birth to Judah Sarzedas.
1764(28th of Kislev, 5525): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1765(10th of Tevet, 5526): Asara B’Tevet observed as Colonists and Parliament clash over the Stamp Act.
1767(1st of Tevet, 5528): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1769: Jacob and Abigail Pinto gave birth to Thankful Pinto who had been named after Jacob Pinto’s first wife.
1772(26th of Kislev, 5533): Second Day of Chanukah
1772: As Jews prepared to kindle the third light of Chanukah, The Belfast News Letter reported that in South Carolina there is “a great crop of rice” but a lack of ships to carry the product to market.
1775(29th of Kislev, 5536): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1775: As Jews prepared to kindle the sixth Chanukah candle and light the Shabbat candles, today the Continental Congress commissioned the first officers in the United States Navy.
1779: Rebecca Franks and English native Lucius Levy Solomons who passed away in Montreal, gave birth to Elizabeth (Betsy) Solomons.
1780(24th of Kislev, 5541): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah candle.
1791(26th of Kislev, 5552): Second Day of Chanukah
1791: As Jews prepare to kindle the third Chanukah candle, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson wrote to President Washington telling him of the progress of the negotiations with Spain that will allow Americans to use the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans which was a significant milestone in the growth of the newly created federal government.
1793(19th of Tevet, 5554): “Mistress Heneli Sarah bat Moses from Lohzin passed away today after which she was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”
1794(30th of Kislev, 5555) Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1795(10th of Tevet, 5556): Asara B’Tevet observed on the same day that President Washington wrote to Alexander Hamilton on a number of subjects including the behavior of John Jay who had just successfully negotiated the Jay Treaty and was now serving as governor of New York.
1799(24th of Kislev, 5560): In the evening the first Chanukah candle is lit for the last time in the 18th century.
1808: Abraham Jacobs married Rachel Raphael at the Great Synagogue today.
1810(25th of Kislev, 5571): Chanukah
1811: In Falmouth, Cornwall, Sarah and Moses Hyman gave birth to Harriet Elizabeth Hyman.
1813: William Collins married Priscilla Marks at the Western Synagogue today.
1816(3rd of Tevet, 5577): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1819: Zadock Jessel married Mary Harris at the Great Synagogue today.
1822: In Berlin, Samuel Bleichröder, founder of the banking firm of S. Bleichröder in 1803 and his wife gave birth to Gerson von Bleichröder who followed in his father’s footsteps.
1823: Birthdate of Chaim David Lippe, the Hungarian born cantor he moved to Vienna where he opened a Jewish publishing house.
1827: Birthdate of Russian native Samuel Lasker, the husband of Augusta Lasker and the father of Henry, Sallie, Harry, Bettie and Esther Lasker, who settled in Little Rock, AR,
1830: In Bavaria, Abraham Feineman and Sibila Oswald gave birth to B.A. Feineman, the husband of Bettie Binswanger, the President of the congregation in St. Joseph, MO for several years and the congregation in Kansas City, MO for seventeen years who was also a vice president of banks in Kansas City and a member of the City Council in Kansas City for two years.
1830(6th of Tevet, 5591) Bordeaux native Moise Rodrigues, the husband of Esther Rodrigues passed away today in South Carolina.
1833: In Prussia, a proclomation was issued prohibiting Jews from assuming the “names of Christian saints as first names.”
1837(24th of Kislev, 5598): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1837(24th of Kislev, 5598): Mrs. Anne Jones (Yentela bat Benjamin) passed away today after which she was buried at the Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1838: In Hackney, London, Hannah Isaac Simons and 38 year old Samson Genese gave birth to Isaac Samson Geneses.
1840: In London, Sarah Boam and Morris Van Praagh gave birth to Rebecca Van Praagh.
1841: Joel Jewell married Mary Solomon at the Great Synagogue today.
1841: La reine de Chypre,(The Queen of Cyprus) “a grand opera in five acts composed by Fromental Halevy was first performed today at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra
1842: In New York, Benjamin Bloomingdale and Hannah Weil gave birth to their third child, Joseph Bernard Bloomingdale, the husband of Clara Kaufman and Vice President of the Hebrew Technical Institute who along with his brother Lyman founded Bloomingdale’s Department Store.
1842: In Bavaria, Loew Affelder and Rosalia Regine Rosenberg gave birth to Jacob Affelder who came to the United States in 1858 and was the husband of Catherine Fleishman Affelder.
1843: In London, Rachel and Joseph Rosinbloom gave birth to Esther Jeanette Rosinbloom.
1844: In Paddington, London, Isabella Lloyd and Henry Russell gave birth to Fanny Marcella Russell.
1848: Birthdate of Hungarian born and Viennese trained doctor Arpad G. Gerster a surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital as well as a Professor of Clinical Surgery at Columbia while writing such books as Recollections of a New York Surgeon and while raising a son with his wife, the former “Anna Barnard Wynne of Cincinnati.”
1848: In Germany, Dorothea Indig and Philip Hirsh gave birth to attorney Hugh Hirsch, “the head of the firm of Hirsh, Newman and Reass” and an active Republican political leader who served as Chairman of the Kings County Republican Executive Committee and the Republican candidate for Supreme Court Judge while being a director of the Jewish Hospital.
1849: The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky is called off at the last second. The Russian author had been imprisoned for his involvement with a “liberal intellectual literary group” feared by the Tsar Nicholas I. Whatever their political and intellectual differences Dostoyevsky and the Czar had at least one thing in common, they were both anti-Semites. Dostoyevsky believed that “Jews were behind just about every attempt to disrupt Europe’s order.” As he wrote, “The Jews have everything to gain from every cataclysm and coup d’état…and profit from anything that serves to undermine gentile society.”
1852(11th of Tevet, 5613): Solomon ben Akiba Eger who first served as the Rabbi of Kalish before succeeding his late father as the rabbi in Posen, a position he held when he passed away today.
1855: “Mr. Gottschalk Soiree” published today reviewed the performances of Louis Moreau Gottschalk saying that “in Mr. Gottscahlk we have an artist who doubly claims our attention and our respect.
1861: In Cincinnati, Edward and Henrietta Bloch gave birth Charles Edward Bloch, the husband of the former Bertha Eisendrath, who joined the family business, Bloch and Company which led him to publishing the Chicago Israelite and founding The Reform Advocate.
1862(30th of Kislev, 5623): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1862: In Lancashire, Rosetta and Lewin Barnet Mozely gave birth to Frank Lewis Mozely.
1863: In London, Hannah Belasco, Abraham Haim Nieto gave birth to Jews College of London and CCNY educated rabbi, Jacob Nieto, the husband of Rose Frankel and since 1893, the spiritual leader of Temple Tefirith Israel in San Francisco who was a leader in the movement to abolish capital punishment and an organizer of the Y.M.H.A as well as President of the Western Association of Jewish Ministers.
1867: In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the lower house of the Parliament adopted a bill favoring the emancipation of the Jews today.
1870: Birthdate of Sara Hyamson, the Polish born daughter of Avrohom Gordon and wife of Rabbi Moses Hyamson who was President of the Joint Passover Fund and an officer in the New York Federation of Jewish Organizations.
1873: In England, Ellen Cohen and Samuel Montague, the banker and member of the House of Commons gave birth to Lillian Helen “Lily” Montague, a leader of Liberal (Reform) Judaism in the United Kingdom where she as a co-founder of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage and prgesidnt of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
1878(26th of Kislev, 5639): Second Day of Chanukah
1878: Naphtali Herz Imber, (1856-1909) a Hebrew poet, wrote the words for Hatikvah. The poem eventually became the national anthem of the State of Israel.
Hatikva התקווה “The Hope”
|
כל עוד בלבב פנימה עוד לא אבדה תקותנו, |
Kol ‘od balevav P’nimah – ‘Od lo avdah tikvatenu |
As long as in the heart, within, Our hope has not yet been lost, |
1871(10thof Tevet, 5632): Asara B’Tevet
1871: Birthdate of Sophie Grünbaum one of the last Jewish inhabitants of Kleinsteinach who was deported in 1942.
1871: It was reported today that B.L. Solomon & Sons (a partnership of Barnet L., Solomon B. Judah H. and Simon B. Solomon) has a “superb store” in the 600 block of Broadway which offers a “stock of furniture” that includes the most “’costly and luxurious” furniture and materials for decorating the home.
1871: French orientalist Dr. Joseph (Naftali) Derenburg, the son of Hartwig (Ẓebi-Hirsch) Derenburg, the grandson of Jacob Derenbur and the younger brother of French attorney Jacob Derenburg was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettrestoday.
1872: Two days after she had pass away, 67 year old Elizabeth Manuel, the widow of Moses Emanuel with whom she had had five children, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1872: In “Pirot, Serbia, Isaac and Rachel (Mevorach Varon,” gave birth to David J. Varon, the employee of the Edmond de Rothschild colonies in Palestine and husband of Henriette Behar who came to the United States in 1905 where he was a “Professor of Architectural Design at Syracuse University” and later lived in New York City where he wrote Indication in Architectural Design, lectured on architecture at Cooper Institute and became a member of the Association of Staten Island Architects.
1873: It was reported today that in England, there has been some talk of making Sir Moses Montefiore and Baron Rothschild “peers of the realm.” Before this happens, the Oath of Allegiance taken by members of the House of Lords will have to be modified as has already happened with the House of Common. The current oath requires all knew members of Lords to swear “on the true faith of a Christian.” Dropping these words was what made it possible for Rothschild to finally take his seat in the House of Commons.
1873: In Great Britain, Ellen Cohen Montague and Samuel Montague, the founder of Samuel Montagu & Co gave birth Lilian Helen Montagu, the sister of Louis and Edwin Montague.
1873: Three days after he had passed away, 94 year old Lewis Schultz, the husband of Louisa Schultz, was buried today at the “Exeter Jewish Cemetery.”
1875(24thof Kislev, 5636): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1874: Birthdate of German socialist leader Erhard Auer who was imprisoned by the Nazis for his role in the July 20 assassination and was murdered by them in March of 1945.
1875: This evening when the Hebrew Charity Fair comes to a close in New York City, all unsold items will be sold at auction to the highest bidder.
1876: It was reported today that New York Governor Samuel Tilden, New York City Mayor William Wickham and Mayor-elect Smith Ely, Jr. had attended the Hebrew Charity Ball at the Academy of Music. The ball, which raised funds for Jewish and non-Jewish charities, was sponsored by the Purim Association and marked the start of the fashionable ball season in New York. The Purim Association is one of the oldest of such Jewish organizations in the city. The society used to sponsor a annual masquerade ball but has not done so since 1871 do to the enactment of the Masquerade law which made it impossible to sponsor such events.
1877: Birthdate of economist Karl Primbram, the Prague native who in 1934 moved to the United States where “he was successively connected with the Brookings Institution, Social Security Administration and the United States Tariff Commission.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pribram-karl
1878: In Wien, Austria, Gustav Przibram, the son of Salomon and Marie Przibram and Charlotte Przibram gave birth to Professor Karl Przibram
1878: Per the request of the deceased, Reverend A. J. Lyman, pastor of the South Congregational Church officiated at the funeral of the late Randolph Herr who had taken his own life. Reverend Lyman chose passages from the Old Testament for the service. Mr. Herr’s brother tired to stop the funeral proclaiming that his brother was Jewish and he should be buried as Jew. The widow and the former partner of the deceased assured the brother that Lyman was there because this was a request of the late Mr. Herr. After the ceremony, Mr. Herr was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. No reason was given for this apparently odd request.
1878: Three days after he had passed away, 70 year old Simeon Samson was buried at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1878: The Board of Directors of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital held a lengthy meeting today during which they agreed to reject the five hundred dollar donation offered by Mrs. Stewart through Judge Hilton. There was no question that the board would reject the donation. The only matter up for discussion was how strongly to word the letter of rejection. The Directors will make up the shortfall resulting from the rejection of the donation. Rejection was a matter of pride since a large segment of the Jewish community had expressed their opposition to accepting money from the man who banned them from being guests at his fashionable hotel in Saratoga Springs. If the board had accepted the money, several of the donors who contribute to the institutions annual budget of ten thousand dollars would no longer support the hospital.
1878: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger has issued a called for a “united effort” to provide religious training for the city’s poor Jewish children. The Messenger said that “there should be 10,000 children attending the Jewish free schools instead of only 1,000.” The paper took the community to task for arguing about “the length of a prayer or the position of a seat” while Christian missionaries are busy converting these young Jews.
1879: An anonymous correspondent wrote to the Jewish Messenger of New York that: “Mr. S. L. Lewis . . . died on Saturday, November 29th [1879] . . . funeral . . . the following day with Jewish rites, Mr. C. J. Fishel, of the firm of Mellis and Fishel, opening the services by reading a prayer. . . . Deceased carne here about fourteen years ago and has resided here ever since. Mrs. Rebecca Green, wife of Mr. Mark Green, of the firm of Phillips and Company, [died] on the 8th [of December, 1879]. Mr. J. Hyman opened the services. . . . The deceased was born in San Francisco, Cal., and was the daughter of Mr. I. Salomon, a wealthy merchant. Her body will be sent to San Francisco for interment.” These are believed to be the first Jewish funerals that took place in what was then known as the Sandwich Islands, or as we know them today, the Hawaiian Islands, our 50th state.
1879: It was reported today that “The Jews, Their Customs and Ceremonies” by E. M. Myers is now available in New York.
1880:In New York Rebecca Goldsmith and actor “Joseph Frankau, a cousin of London cigar importer Arthur Frankau” gave birth to pioneering Broadway designer Aline Bernstein.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aline-bernstein
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bernstein-aline
1880: Mary Anne Evans, better known by her pen-name George Eliot, under which she wrote her last novel Daniel Deronda which was published in 1876 and presented a presented a positive view of Jews and was sympathetic to the cause that would later be labeled as Zionism, passed away today.
1881(30thof Kislev, 5642): Sixth Day of Chanukah; Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1882: It was reported today that in Russia, the legislature “has decided to accede to the request of certain Jewish chemists to rescind the order…forbidding Jews from keeping chemists’ shops outside of those part of the empire set aside for Jews to reside in.” (This is an example of the crazy-quilt of regulations with which Jews coped with during the 19thcentury. There never was a sense of permanence to any of the gains made by Jews since the government was autocratic and the society was dominated by ant-Semites.)
1882(12thof Tevet, 5643): Eighty year old “German orientalist” Justus Olshausen, author of several works including a commentary on the Psalms which “was epoch-making in its textual and historical criticism and its keen exegetical insight based upon a profound grammatical knowledge” passed away today in Berlin.
1883: Birthdate of New York City native Emil Salomon, the Executive Director of the Tulsa, Oklahoma Jewish Federation starting in 1949 who “argued with the USNA (United Service New American, which was founded to help Jewish refugees after WW II) that Tulsa Jews were too few and the employment opportunities too limited to absorb the number of refugees that USNA requested” which was a total of 24.
1883: William Goldsmidt found the body of his father Isidor in his room at the home they shared on 2nd Avenue in New York. Based on notes that were found and the examination by the coroner, it was deduced that he had died of a self-induced overdose of laudanum. It would appear that he had never gotten over the death of his wife which was soon followed by the death of his daughter.
1885: Birthdate of old Riga native and Cornell undergraduate Samuel Berkowitz the holder of a Masters from Columbia and public school principal who was the husband Frances Berkowitz with whom he raised three children, Henry, Arthur and Evelyn
1885: In what is now Latvia, Esther Bernstein and Abraham Shuman gave birth to John Marshall Law School trained attorney the husband of Jennie Lebsohn and Vice President of the Z.O.A who served as secretary of the Federated Orthodox Jewish Charities of Chicago and chairman of the Chicago Keren Hayesod Committee.
1885: In Great Britain, the first passenger train ran through the Mersey Railway Tunnel which had been built under the superintendence of Samuel Isaacs.
1886(25thof Kislev, 5647): Chanukah
1886: The first passenger train ran through the Mersey tunnel owned by Samuel Isaac
1886: A review of “Leah the Forsaken” panned the performance of Margaret Mather in the title role. On the other hand, Milnes Levick performed the role “bore the role of the apostate Jew with dignity and skill of a sound experienced actor.”
1888: It was reported today that the Seligman Solomon Society will be providing an evening of entertainment at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum later this month.
1888: “Members of the highest of London’s Jewish circles” attended the reception that followed the marriage of “Brandon Thomas, one of the best known of the younger actors on the English stage and Marguerite Blanche Leverson, the beautiful daughter” diamond merchant James Leverson and his wife Henrietta” who had previously opposed the marriage on religious grounds.
1888: Among the allocations made by the Brooklyn Board of Estimates were $134.39 to the Hebrew Benevolent Association of Brooklyn and $703.49 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society.
1889(29thof Kislev, 5650): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1889: It was reported today that the Hebrew Educational Fair, a fund raiser for several Jewish charities in New York City raised $125,000
1889: Birthdate of avant garde Russian artist Nathan Altman who decades long career spanned the Czars and the Commissars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Altman#/media/File:Natan_Altman_(selfportrait,_1911,_GRM).jpg
1889: The Montefiore and Lady Judith Hebrew Association was formed by a group of Jews who met tonight at the Florence Building in New York City.
1889: It was reported today that during the month of November, the United Hebrew Charities had provide aid to 2,77i adults and children who comprised 639 families
1889: It was reported today that Henry Rice is the President of the United Hebrew Charities, and that I.S. Isaacs serves as secretary of the organization.
1889: It was reported today that the newspapers are filled with “reminiscences” of Robert Browning who passed away earlier this month. These include articles which “tend to support the theory that he is of Jewish descent.” His father was a clerk in the employ of the Rothschild at a time when their bank “employed scarcely any but Jews.” The name “Bruning” (a Germanic form of Browning) was very common among Jewish families in North Germany.” He was a friend of Emma Lazarus and “both his verse and private correspondence show that he kept an interest in the” persecution of the Russian Jews.
1890: Abraham B. Arnold, the graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine was among those granted a certificate to practice medicine and surgery in California at todays “regular meeting of the Board of Examiners.
1891: Founding of Congregation Kenesseth Israel in Minneapolis, MN.
1891: Sixty-four year old Paul Anton de Lagarde who “argued that Germany should create a “national” form of Christianity purged of Semitic elements and insisted that Jews were “pests and parasites” who should be destroyed “as speedily and thoroughly as possible”.
1891: The NYPD police station on East 22nd Street appeared to a monument to ecumenism since it was filled with three carloads of loot stolen from Churches and Synagogues by a thief who styled himself as “Pastor John Weih.”
1892: In a move that will have an impact on Russian Jews trying to reach the United States, Secretary of the Treasury Charles Foster has told the Secretary of State that officials at Hamburg are prepared to let ships sail for the United State even though a few cases of Cholera have been reported and recommended that German officials be told that ships would not be admitted to the United States until cholera was no longer presence in Hamburg.
1892: In Palestine, Rivka and Moshe David “Morris” Gelman gave birth to Joseph Gelmanm, the husband of Said Sid Simons.
1892: Birthdate of NYC native and Columbia trained Pharmacist, Miss Fanchon Hart, the bacteriologist and food and drug analyst who served on the faculty of her alma mater.
1893: A representative of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who signed a letter addressed to the Mayor calling on him to help provide more relief for all the newly unemployed who have lost their jobs as a result of the Panic of 1893.
1893: In Osterholz-Scharmbeck, “merchant and cigar manufacturer Bernhard Reemtsma” and his wife gave birth to Philipp Fürchtegott Reemtsma, “the tobacco industrialist” whose son Jan described Phillip’s art collection as “stolen” and who has been part of the work to return art to its rightful Jewish owners who were forced to part with it during the Nazi era.
1894: On the last day of the Dreyfus Court Martial his defense attorney Edgar Demange “spent three hours arguing that the very contents of the bordereau showed that it could not be the work of Dreyfus” while prosecutor Brisset abandoned “the moral proofs” presenting an emotional appeal the Judges.
1894: In France, The Dreyfus affair moved to a new level when Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly convicted of treason.
1894: At Shabbat morning services in New York, erev Chanukah, “rabbis earnestly and vigorously pleaded for the better observance of the Sabbath.”
1894: Today’s announcement “that the whole village of Halberton in Cumberland Country, New Jersey has been sold by the Sheriff” provides the public with proof that another of the Russian Jewish colonies in the state has failed.
1895: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a sermon today at Temple Emanu-El entitled “On What Basis Can Christian and Jews Unite?”
1895: Wolf Avener of Philadelphia and Isaac Falpe were arraigned today before the Magistrate at the Centre Street Court on charges of trying to blackmail Aris Lichtenstein, a Jew who converted to Christianity.
1895: Birthdate of Viennese native Trude Fleischmann, the noted American photographer. (Editor’s note – thanks to Cedar Rapids photographer par excellence Steve Eckert for helping to increase our awareness of Jewish photographers and the role of Jews in photography.)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/fleischmann-trude
1895: Based on reports published today the charity fair sponsored by the New York Jewish community for the last couple of weeks has raised more than $150,000, two thirds of which will go to the Education Alliance and one third to the Hebrew Technical Institute.
1897(27thof Kislev, 5658): Third Day of Chanukah
1897: In Charleston, SC, Dr. Mendes of Savanah officiated at the marriage of Isabelle Nathan and Benjamin Mantoue.
1897: In London, Rabbis Marks and Joseph officiated at the wedding of George Frederick Hart, “the eldest son of the late Neville Hart” and Emily Frances, the daughter of the Late Michael Abrahams of Regent’s Park.
1898: Thirty-three year old Columbia trained surgeon Alexis Victor Moschcowitz, the Hungarian born son of Morris and Rosa Moschowtiz who would become the attending surgeon at Mt. Sinai Hospital in 191 and serve as Lt. Col. in the Medical Corps of the Army during WW I married Milly Loewi today.
1898: Schenectady, NY native Frank B. Yovits who had enlisted in 1897 and served with the “13th U.S. Infantry in Cuba” was promoted to Corporal today after which he was ship to the Philippines. (Editor’s note – this is during the Spanish American War and the subsequent Moro Uprising)
1899: Birthdate of Austrian native Jay Daniel Federbush, who in 1912 came to the New York city where he attended NYU before going to be a realtor.
1900(30thof Kislev, 5661): Parshat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1900: It was reported today that “the Fleming H. Revell Company has published a number of books especially for the benefit of travelers or prospective travelers in Palestine as well as for thos who wish to study the country without going there” including the Land of Israel by Dr. Robert Laird and Jerusalem, the Holy by Edwin S. Wallace, the former United States Consul in Jerusalem.
1900: Emil Jellinek”s delivery of the first new Mercedes which had been sold to racecar driver Baron Henry de Rothschild took place at the railway station in Nice. [The car was called Mercedes in honor of the Jewish automobile developer’s daughter. Somehow, this naming convention escaped the notice of the Nazis who were proud to ride in Mercedes-Benz vehicles.]
1901: In “Lutheran View Of Sunday” published today, William Dallmann, a Lutheran pastor wrote “as to the Sabbath: There is no “Sabbath.” The law of Moses touching the Sabbath given to the Jews in the Old Testament is not binding on the Christians in the New Testament.”
1902: In New York, Louis Napoleon Levy, the New York born son of Jonas Phillips Levy and Frances Allen Levy and Lillian Hendricks Levy gave birth to Alma Levy, who became Alma Bookman when she married Robert Bookman.
1903: It was reported today that “two Russians named Gnetschin and Marosjeik, who have been on trial charged with murder as the authors of the massacre of Jews here last Spring, were sentenced to seven and five years’ penal servitude respectively.”
1904: Approximately 100 students met in Earl Hall today and formed the Zionist Society of Columbia after listening to speeches by Dr. P.H. Mendes, Dr. L.J. Magnes and Professor Israel Friedlander.
1905(24thof Kislev, 5666): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1905: A special matinee performance of “La Tosca” starring Sarah Bernhardt, who along with Mark Twain, had appeared earlier in the week at a benefit performance for the fund for the suffering Jews of Russia, is scheduled to take place this afternoon at the Lyric Theatre.
1905: An additional $3,367.41 was added to the fund for the relief of the persecuted Jews in Russia today.
1905: The Novoe Vremya published a series of articles alleging that the Jews are at the bottom of the whole revolutionary movement” in Russia and “would alone benefit from it.”
1906(5thof Tevet, 5667): Parashat Vayigash
1906: Birthdate of German native Salomon (Solomon) Flink who in 1927 came to the United States where he earned a PhD from Columbia and was a member of the faculties of the University of Newark and Yeshiva College while serving as the edito the Jewish Forumn.
1906: Through the Jewish papers of “New York” city, the rabbis and prominent Jews who have been trying to have” the Christmas exercises in public schools “abolished, issued statements tonight advising all Jewish parents to keep their children out of school” on December 24 which is ’when the children have been asked to come to school in their best clothes to take part in the Christmas festivities.”
1906: It was reported today that the present concessions made by the Russian government “fall so far short that “they can be of no value in strengthening the government or in aiding the Jews”
1907: It was reported today that Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El has taken issue with a speech delivered by Harvard President Eliot to members of the Menorah Society “in which he said, among other things, the Jews are inferior physical to almost any other race in the world and that through the oppression of centuries they have lost the warlike spirt which they once had had.
1908: At tonight’s meeting of the New York Milk Committee of the Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor Dr. Wilbur C Phillips paid tribute to Nathan Straus for his efforts to bring fresh milk to the poor and said that he believed that “if Mr. Nathan Straus could join with the Milk Committee in issuing an appeal for funds money would be lacking to feed every starving mother and underfed baby…”
1909(10thof Tevet, 5670): Asara B’Tevet
1909: A fare-well banquet in honor of Rabbi Martin A Meyers was held tonight at the Hotel Premier in New York City. The 31-year old Meyers has been serving as the Rabbi at Temple Israel in Brooklyn. He is moving to San Francisco to begin serving as the Rabbi at Temple Emanuel, the Pacific Coast’s largest Jewish congregation. Rabbi De Sola Mendes served as Toastmaster at the event which was attended by 22 rabbis including Stephen Wise, Joseph Silverman, Alexander Lyons, and Rudolph Grossman.
1910(21stof Kislev, 5671): Fifty-three year old David Günzburg the 3rd Baron de Günzburg, a noted orientalist and leader of the Jewish community in Russia passed away today in St. Petersburg
1910: It was reported today that The Jewish Immigrants’ Information Society which provides quarters for Jews at Galveston: had taken an active role in helping Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel reach the decision to admit thirteen of the twenty Russian Jewish immigrants seeking admission to the United at Galveston.
1911(1stof Tevet, 5672): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1911: Mrs. Leopold de Rothschild was awarded the Order of Mercy.
1911: At Cape Town, the council of the university, confirmed its “resolution to include Hebrew among the optional subjects in its syllabus for matriculation.”
1911: Anglo-American Archeologist Charles Waldstein resigned the Slade of Professorship of Fine Arts at Cambridge University.
1912: Report that in response to joint representations by foreign Ambassadors, the Turkish government repeals order expelling Italian subjects, majority of whom are Levantine Jews.
1912: In Philadelphia, founding of Adath Zion.
1912: The K.A.M. Club is scheduled to meet today at the K.A.M. Temple
1912: Arthur Dunham is scheduled to be the conductor this evening at the Tenth Sinai Orchestral Concert being held at Sinai Temple on Chicago’s south side.
1912: Rabbi Schanfarber officiated at the wedding of Henry Horwitz of Cleveland, Ohio and Mrs. Carrie Baldauf of Oskaloosa, Iowa. (Editor’s note – you have to be a real Hawkeye to understand this one.)
1912: Bernard Jadwin of New York married Adeline Horwich at the Ashland Club today in Chicago.
1912: In Chicago, Rabbi Julius Rappaport officiated the wedding of Milton E. Kauffer, the son of “Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Kauffer of Milwaukee, WI” and Marie Unger, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bert Unger.
1912: Birthdate of Joseph Wulf, the native of Chemnitz who was a resistance fighter in the Krakow Ghetto and a survivor of the Auschwitz death marches and as an award winning historian in the post-war fought to make the site of the Wannsee Conference “into a Holocaust memorial and document center.
1913: It was reported today that George McAney, the President-elect of the of the Board of Alderman spoke at a dinner of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association which was attended by Marcus M. Marks, Borough-elect President where he called for “a new city charter” to bring progess to New York.
1914: The American Jewish Relief Committee has raised a total of $222,122.06 as of today.
1914: Following the outbreak of WW I, General John Monash, who had “acted as censor for four weeks” “before being appointed to command the 4th Infantry Brigade of the Australian Imperial Force” set sail for Egypt where it would join the forces fighting the Ottomans and protecting the Suez Canal.
1914: The Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs remitted $26, 144.42 to various entities in Palestine.
1914: Twenty-four year old author and published Samuel Ornitz, the New York City born son of Morris and Deborah (Badish) Ornitz married Sadie Florence at the same time he was serving as Assistant Superintendent for the Brooklyn Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
1914: A group of 300 citizens from Waco, TX submitted a petition to Georgia Governor John M. Slaton listing seven reasons why they “believe that the verdict of the jury, of the death penalty based upon the evidence was not justified” and that “it would be a blot on the escutcheon of the fair State of Georgia to permit Leo M. Frank to executed.”
1915: At the headquarters of the Campaign Committee working to raised five million dollars before the end of 1916 for the millions of Jews suffering in Europe due to the work, and in the offices of Felix Warburg, the clerks were busy all day today “opening letters offering help in tie and money and answering telephone calls from persons who wanted to work on the drive and contribute to the fund.
1916: More than 1000, members of the Hebrew Retail Kosher Butchers’ Association of the East Side met today and voted to boycott the beef offered by the local slaughterhouses since the price has continued to rise. In the last month, chuck has gone from 12 and a half cents a pound to 17 and a half cents a pound.
1916: Herbert H. Lehman, Treasurer of the Joint Distribution Committee representing the American Jewish, Central and People’s Relief Committees announced today that his work of tabulating the contributions and pledges from the mass meeting in Carnegie Hall on December 21 had gone far enough to prove that predictions about having raised three million dollars were accurate.
1916: It was reported today that “the publishers of the Jewish Daily Forward” had promised to contribute the gross income of their issue of April 22, the value of which is estimated to be between ten and fifteen million dollars, to the ten million dollars fund being raised for Jewish War Relief.
1916: The 26th Annual Assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society opened in New Orleans today.
1917(7thof Tevet, 5678): Parashat Vayigash
1917: Dr. Samuel Schulman is scheduled to deliver the sermon at Temple Beth-El.
1917: “Word was received at the headquarters of the Jewish War Relief Committee” on New York’s fifth avenue “that the bulk of the subscriptions obtained by Adolph Zukor” one of the founders of Paramount Pictures, totaling more than $50,000” were ready to be turned over the committee’s Treasuer.
1917: Marcus Loew reported to the Jewish War Relief Committee that he and his managers had collected approximately $42,000 from “actors, directors, musicians and” others in the entertainment industry with whom they do business.
1917: Today, in discussing the impact on Zionism of the capture of Jerusalem by the British at Temple Israel in Harlem, Dr. Maurice H. Harris said “There will be less need now of a Jewish homeland because the days of Jewish persecution are over” and that “the Jew who bends his steps to Judea today will be the idealist who feels that ‘not on bread alone doth man live’ seeking to “got there not to make money but because it is the Holy City” with all that the name Jerusalem conjures up.
1917: Vice Chairman Mrs. Leopold Stern presented “an illuminated book of old Italian design…to Jacob H. Schiff at reception…this afternoon at Delmonico’s” given in honor of the women who worked on the campaign to raise five million dollars for the war relief fund.
1917: Colonel Ronald Storrs, the newly appointed British Military Governor of Jerusalem toured the city for the first time meeting with wounded Turkish soldiers being treated at the Grand New Hotel and the Mufti of Jerusalem, Kamel al-Husseine, the spiritual leader of the city’s Muslims.
1917: Formal peace negotiations begin at Brest-Litovsk between the Germans and the Russians whose chief delegate is Adolf Joffe, a Jewish born Bolshevik.
1917: Having crossed the Auju River, outside of Jaffa the British position was made even more secure when the 54th (East Anglian) Division captured Bald Hill to the right of the 52nd and in doing so the Ottoman defenders lost fifty-two killed and forty-four more were taken prisoner.
1917: Isaac Steinberg began serving as People’s Commissar for Justice of the RSFSR
1917: In the newly independent Finland, Parliament approved an Act concerning “Mosaic Confessors.” Under the Act, Jews could for the first time become Finnish nationals, and Jews not possessing Finnish nationality were henceforth in all respects to be treated as foreigners in general.
1918: “A gold medal was presented to Felix M. Warburg” tonight” at a dinner at the Hotel Biltmore by a group of the division heads and workers, who under his leadership have just completed a successful campaign for $5,000,000 for Jewish war sufferers.”
1919: The United States deported 250 alien radicals, including anarchist Emma Goldman.
1919(30th of Kislev, 5680): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Sixth Day of Chanukah
1920(11thof Tevet, 5681): Sixty-nine year old Rabbi Abram S. Isaacs who edited The Jewish Messenger and published several books including A Modern Hebrew Poet: The Life and Writings of Chaim Luzzatto passed away today in Paterson, NJ.
http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=5525
1921: Future State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthaler married Martha Lowenstein today in New York. The couple had three children – Marjorie, Gloria and Helen.
1921: Birthdate of Lee Wolff Wattenberg the cancer fighting doctor. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1922(3rd of Tevet, 5683): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1922: What is described by the bankers as the first Jewish bond issue in history was announced for today by Harvey Fisk & Sons, Inc. The bond issue is valued at 75,000 pounds and is issued by the city of Tel Aviv which plans to use the funds for public works projects including the construction of sewage systems, streets and roads and installations to produce electricity.
1922: In Lynn, MA, Mary Pauline (née Gold) Roman, a dancer and Abraham Roman, a barker in a family owned carnival gave birth to Ruth Roman, the sister of Ann and Eve Roman.
1922: Birthdate of Heinz Bernard, the son of the Hazzan of the Orthodox Synagogue in Nuremberg who as Heinz Bernard Lowenstein gained fame in the UK as an actor and director. The name change came about after his natural father died when the boy was two years old and he was adopted Max Lowenstein.
1923(14thof Tevet, 5684): Parashat Vayechi
1923: President Ben Altheimer, presided over a meeting at Temple Beth-El this afternoon where it decied to honor Rabbi Samuel Schulman with a life time appointment in honor of his twenty-five years of service to the congregation.
1924: The Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University is opened in Jerusalem, although the university has not yet officially opened.
1924: “The Wonderful Adventure” a silent film directed by Manfred Noa and written by Robert Liebmann was released today in Germany.
1924: Birthdate of attorney Jack Greenberg, the Brooklynite son of Jewish immigrants, who argued many of the landmark Civil Rights cases
http://www.forumonlawcultureandsociety.org/bio/jack-greenberg/
http://web.law.columbia.edu/faculty/jack-greenberg
1925: Birthdate of financier Lewis Glucksman, a trader with Lehman Brothers and
1925(5thof Tevet, 5686): Sixty-five year old Paul Nelke, the Berlin-born British stockbroker who was a senior partner in Nelke, Phillips and Bendix and who was the father of socialite and patron of the arts Maude Julia Augusta Nelke, passed away today.
1925(5thof Tevet, 5686): Eighty year old Benjamin W. Fleisher, the husband of Ida Maria Fleisher passed away after which he was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.
1926: Part I of “Queen Louise” a biopic produced and written by Max Glass was released in Germany today.
1927(28thof Kislev, 5688): 4th day of Chanukah
1927: One thousand friends and associates of builder Abraham Bricken. who had arrived from Kiev in 1905 as a penniless immigrant and had gone on to form Bricken Construction Company which erected such edifices as “the forty-five -story Transportation Building at Barclay Street and Broadway, “gathered tonight for a testimonial dinner in his onor.
1927(28thof Kislev, 5688): Eighty-nine year old Dr. Jacob Da Silva Solis-Cohen, founder of laryngology in the United States passed away today.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v141/n3565/abs/141361b0.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9213113
1928: The American Advisory Committee of the Hebrew University announced today that the archaeological department had sent to the Newark Museum a collection of potsherds and other other material from the excavations at tel el Jerish, a Middle Bronze Age, mound north of Tel Aviv. Dr. Eleazar Sukenik, field archaeologist of the university recently cleared a cave in the Wady-en-Nar. A number of ossuaries with Hebrew inscriptions were removed. Of particular intnerest is an ossuary bearing the name Shamai be Jehosaf. The fragments have been added to the university collection.
1928: Felix Warburg, Chairman of the American Advisory Committee announced today that Societies of Friends of the Hebrew University had been formed in Boston under the chairmanship of Dr. Milton J. Rosenau of Harvard Medical School and in New Haven under the chairmanship of Colonel Isaac M. Ullman.
1928: Bing Crosby and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra (who were not Jewish) recorded “Makin Whoopee!” the Eddie Cantor hit with lyrics by Gus Kahn
1929: Anita Pollitzer, the South Carolina feminists and patron of the arts and her husband were photographed today at Muir Woods.
http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/lcdl/catalog/lcdl:32862
1929: Tillie and Barney Balaban gave birth to American Jazz man, Leonard “Red” Balaban, he husband of Maxine “Micki” Israel and father of Michael, Steven, and Rachel Balaban.
1929: U.K. flyweight Moe Mizler fought his final bout of the year – a bout which resulted in a loss.
1930(2ndof Tevet, 5691): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1930: “The Royal Family of Broadway” the cinema version of the play by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, directed by George Cukor and with a screenplay by Herman Mankiewicz was released today in the United States today.
1930: Kosher Prime Butchers Corporation was among the business that was incorporated today in the state of New York.
1931(12thof Tevet, 5692): Forty-nine year old Lithuania native and Omaha businessman Harry Lapidus, the president of the Omaha Fixture Supply Company and leader of the Jewish community who “was a member of the American Jewish National Council of Americanization and a member of the executive committee of the United Palestine Appeal while raising two children – Earl and Estelle – with his wife, the former Minnie K. Kooler “was found mysteriously shot to death late tonight near a viaduct” in Omaha.
1932: Premiere of “The Rebel,” a German historical film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and Edwin H. Knopf and co-produced by Joe Pasternak.
1932: “The Mummy” a horror film directed by Karl Freund and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr. was released in the United States today.
1932: Seventy-six Major General Erwin von Heimerdinger, the father of Gertrude von Heimerdinger was employed in the German Foreign Office as assistant Chief of the Diplomatic Courier Section. An anti-Nazi, she secretly arranged for special passes to enable diplomat Fritz Kolbe (the main Allied source of intelligence) to make frequent trips to Switzerland to pass on information to Allen Dulles, head of American O.S.S.
1933: “A decree of the Prussian Ministry puts an end to the last possibility for the Jews to have any voice in the school administration of Prussia” because “it repeals the law of 1920” that “provided that in every district where at least twenty Jewish children attend the common schools, the rabbi with the logest service should belong to the board of school inspectors and all to the board of directors.”
1934(16thof Tevet, 5695): Parashat Veyechi
1934: “Morris Rothenberg, the President of the ZOA, made public today a message from David Lloyd George” the former Prime Minister of Great Britain in which he declared “that mankind would be aided by the re-establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine.”
1934: Yehuda Sheftei and Moshe Dayan were wounded today in a clash with Arabs which broke in the neighborhood of Nahal, when Arabs…invaded land belong to the Jewish National Fund.”
1935: In Amsterdam Leo Speyer, the “son of Isak Itzig Speier and Flora Speier and Elize Nanette Speyer gave birth Isaac Alfred Speyer who had the dubious honor of having his father murdered at Auschwitz and his mother murdered at Sobibor.
1935: Birthdate of Jamaica, NY native Rabbi Joel Mathew Chazin, the JTS graduate and “strong advocate for social justice” who served for 22 years as chaplain and director of religious services at Montefiore and who raised three children with his wife Linda while living in Shaker Heights, OH.
1936: “Balalaika” a musical play co-authored by Eric Maschwitz opened today in London at the Adelphia Theatre where it ran for 569 performances.
1936(8thof Tevet, 5679): Sixty eight year old Milton S. Florshiem, the founder and chairman of the board of Florsheim Shoe Company passed away today.
http://www.florsheim.com/shop/index.html
1936: At a dinner at the Hotel Commodore attended by 1,000 guests in honor of British Labor leader Lord Marley, “the project to settle oppressed Jews in the autonomous territory of Birobidjan in the Soviet Union” appeared to move forward with the announcement that “the U.S.S.R. had authorized admittance of 2,000 families and 500 individuals from Poland for 1937.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported no fewer than 16 terrorist attacks over the weekend. An Arab police inspector, Sa¹ad al-Arab, was killed in Haifa. A second victim of the attack on the Haifa-Nahalal bus, Aaron Sloverson, died in a hospital. Isaac Orphali, 26, was badly wounded when an Egged bus was shot at near Motza.
1938: Attorney Seymour Barkin represented the Park Terrace Improvement Company led by President William Barkin the purchase of “a plot of about 8,750 square feet at the northwest corner of Park Terrace East and 217th Street.
1938: “The United States abruptly rejected a sharp protest the German Government sought to deliver to the State Department in which the Boys from Berlin complained about a speech by Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes which he “had criticized Henry Ford and Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh for having accepted decorations from Germany and then had trained his guns on Germany” for persecuting the Jews.
1939: In New York, Helena Nuischa Kustanovich and Herman Segal gave birth to Lilian Lijn, “the American artist who pioneered the se of technology to make moving art.”
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/liliane-lijn-1511/introducing-liliane-lijn
1939: “Everything Happens at Night” an espionage mystery featuring Maurice Moscovitch as “Dr. Hugo Norden” was released in the United States today.
1940(22nd of Kislev, 5701): Author Nathanael West dies in auto accident at the age of 37. In his short career West produced Miss Lonely Hearts, Cool Million and The Day of the Locust.
1941(2nd of Tevet, 5702): Eight Day of Chanukah
1941: Massacres of the Jews of Vilna ended leaving 32,000 dead Jews.
1941: Ten days after Romania declared war on the United States the former U.S. ambassador died at Bucharest before he could return to the U.S.
1941: Over the next eight days, more than 40,000 Jews are murdered at Bogdanovka in the Transnistria region of Romania.
1942: The Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO) lead by Aharon Liebeskind attacked Nazi troops gathered at Cyganeria, a coffee house in Kraków, Poland, killing several SS officers.
1942: German Rockefeller scholar Arvid Harnack, the husband of Milwaukee native Mildred Fish-Harnack, both of whom were members of the Red Orchestra, “was hanged” along with eight others “from meat hooks suspended from a T-bar acress the ceiling of the executive chamber at Plotzensee Prison.”
1942: Franz Boas, “father of modern Anthropology” passed away. Born in 1858, Boas never converted to Christianity, but he was one of those German Jews who saw himself as a German first and foremost. Of course, the last decade of his life might have caused him to re-think that concept.
1943(25thof Kislev): 5704): First day of Chanukah, a holiday that was celebrated in the Lodz Ghetto this year with a party according to a photo provided by Yad Vashem.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/december/08.asp
1943: Rabbi Louis Wefel, the “flying Chaplain” spends his last Chanukah in Casablanca leading services. A few days later, Werfel would become one of only 6 Jewish chaplains to actually die in combat in World War II.
1943: After the family of Adolfo Kaminsky had been interned in Drancy, which was a prelude to deportation to the death camps, the family was freed today and moved to Paris thanks to the “support from the Consul of Argentina…”
1943: The Gestapo discovered 62 Jews hiding in a cellar of a building on Krolewska Street in Warsaw. All are murdered.
1943: Birthdate of Paul Wolfowitz, a sub-cabinet official in the Bush Administration who was named President of the World Bank, a position from which he was forced to resign in disgrace.
1943: United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau confronted U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long, telling him to his face that “the impression is all around that you, particularly, are anti-Semitic!”
1943: As Jews light the second Chanukah candle, the Women’s League for Palestine takes over tonight’s performance of Carmen Jones in New York City with the proceeds to be used to support their centers in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv which feed needy children.
1944(26thof Tevet, 5704): Parashat Vaera
1944(26thof Tevet, 5704): Fifty-five year old German born dentist Fritz Pfeffer who was in hiding in with Anne Frank died today of “enterocolitis” at the “Neuengamme concentration camp, Hamburg, Nazi Germany” today.
http://www.annefrankguide.net/en-GB/bronnenbank.asp?oid=3072
1944: “Irving L. Levey, who was elected last November to a fourteen-year term as Justice of the Supreme Court, was sworn in t0day in a brief ceremony by Presiding Justice Francis Martin of the Appellate Division Court.”
1944: Modi Alon, completed his RAF flight training at a base in Rhodesia. Four years later, Alon would become the first member of the fledgling IAF to score an aerial victory.
1944: “Winged Victory” the cinematic adaptation of Moss Hart’s stage play was released today in the United States.
1944: Together Again” a film based on a story co-authored by Herbert J. Biberman and directed by Charles Vidor was released today in the United States.
1945: The American Displaced Persons Act makes it easier for Nazi war criminals to immigrate to the United States. It particularly benefits Balts, Ukrainians, and ethnic Germans–many of whom had engaged in a “high level of collaboration” with the Germans. The act discriminates against Jewish refugees. When the bill is debated, many congressmen and members of the Departments of State, Justice, and Interior express their anti-Jewish feelings indirectly and in private.
1945(18th of Tevet, 5706):Otto Neurath an Austrian philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist passed away. “Before he was forced to flee his native country for Great Britain in the wake of the Nazi occupation, Neurath was one of the leading figures of the Vienna Circle.”
1945(18thof Tevet, 5706): Seventy-three year old Vilna born and educated pioneer Zionist leader David Podolsky who came to the United States in 1896 where he combined work as a realtor with support of such organization of Yeshiva College and HIAS while raising three daughters and a son with his wife Fannie passed away today.
1945: Today Colliers magazine published “I’m Crazy” a story by J.D. Salinger “that contained material later used in The Cather in the Rye.”
1946(29thof Kislev, 5707): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1946(29thof Kislev, 5707): Phillip Langh, the graduate of Columbia and JTS who served as the rabbi at Chicago’s Anshe Emet Synagogue from 1920 to 1928 passed away today.
1947: The new leader of the Jewish Community (Dr. Ghingold) appeared at the residence of the Chief Rabbi, Dr. Alexandru Safran, bearing words from the government that he must leave Romania within two hours! The expulsion of Dr. Safran from the country, and his replacement by Rabbi Moses Rosen represented a turning point in the life of the Jewish community in Romania”
1948: Mordechai Hod was among a group of IAF pilots who flew several Spitfires and Messerschmitts from Czechoslovakia to Israel. The planes, which were war surplus clandestinely purchased in Czechoslovakia, were some of the first modern warplanes acquired by the infant Jewish state.
1948: At night, Operation Horev began with an attack by the IDF against Hill 86, an Egyptian position overlooking the Gaza-Rafa Road.
1948: Syria banned Life and Newsweek because of “their increased Zionist propaganda”
1949: “East Side, West Side” a film based on a novel by Marcia Davenport (Marcia Glick) and directed by Mervyn Leroy was released today in the United States today.
1950: Eighty-eight year old conductor and arranger Walter Damrosch whose father was Lutheran but whose grandfather was Jewish (a common German sequence) passed away today
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Cyclopædia_of_American_Biography/Damrosch,_Walter_Johannes
1952: “The Member of the Wedding” directed by Fred Zinnemann and produced by Stanley Kramer was released today in the United States.
1952: Beginning of the national syndication of Ding Dong School. Created by and starring Frances Horwich, it was one of the first television shows to offer quality educational programming for young children. It appeared locally on the NBC affiliate in Chicago beginning in the fall of 1952. 2. The Chicago Tribune estimated that 2.4 million preschoolers and their mothers were watching the daily program by January 1953. Ding Dong School ran nationally for four years, until December 1956. It continued on a Chicago station for two years and ran in syndication until 1965. Equipped with an old-fashioned brass school bell and simple props, Horwich—whom viewers knew as “Miss Frances”—addressed her young audience directly, asking questions, telling stories, and leading them in simple games and activities. Through crafts and movement, she encouraged children to participate rather than passively watch. Her respect for children’s abilities was a crucial aspect of Horwich’s philosophy and of her program. In a 1966 interview, she commented that “too many programs on television rob children of their own ideas, without giving them a chance to create and think for themselves.” Horwich, who left a position as head of the education department at Roosevelt College to appear on the show, became NBC’s Supervisor for Children’s Programming in 1955. In the meantime, Ding Dong School won a Peabody Award in 1952; the citation called the show “simple, sincere, and unpretentious.” The Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored Horwich with a “Silver Circle” award for lifetime achievement in June, 2001. She died in Scottsdale, Arizona, later that month, at age 94.
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that the UN General Assembly failed to give the needed two-thirds majority to its Political Committee¹s resolution, which required that the Arab states enter into immediate and direct peace negotiations with Israel, and without any preconditions. The vote was 24 for, 21 against and 15 abstentions.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that a Negev settler, Yosef Yairi, 24, of Sde Boker, was killed by marauders. Infiltrators stole 80 sheep and irrigation equipment from the kibbutz. Israel protested that meat purchased in Ethiopia was seized by Egyptian authorities in Port Said.
1953: Yitzhak Pundak was appointed head of the IDF’s Armored Corps.
1955: “The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell” a movie based on the life of the air power advocate who proved you cannot be a prophet in your own time directed by Otto Preminger, produced by Milton Sperling who also co-authored the script and with music by Dimitri Tiomkin was released in the United States by Warner Bros.
1955: “Lola Montès,” an epic historical romance film and the last completed film of director Max Ophüls and featuring Anton Walbrook as “Ludwig I, King of Bavaria” was released in France today.
1955: “Dementia” a horror film co-starring Shelly Berman was released today in the United States.
1956: After six months, the curtain came down on the Broadway production of “New Faces of 1956” produced by Leonard Sillman.
1956: Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Wrong Man” co-starring Nehemiah Persoff and featuring Werner Klemperer with music by Bernard Hermann was released today in the United Sates
1956: Oswald Rothuag, the Nazi jurist who perverted justice for the sake of the Reich and “who presided over the trial of Leo Katzenberger” and ordered “his execution for ‘racial defilement’” was released on parole today after his life sentence was reduced to twenty years of which he served less than ten.
1958(11thof Tevet, 5719): Eighty-three-year old Edinburgh born Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist David A. Brown the former president of the General Necessities Corporation of Detroit and chairman of the Board of Broadway National Bank and Trust Company who was the president and publisher of The American Hebrew and Jewish Tribune and was active in numerous Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the Palestine Economic Corporation and the Jewish Agency for Palestine passed away today.
1959: In one of those only in America moment NBC broadcast “Christmas Startime” a “musical Christmas special that featured conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein.”
1960: “Two Women” which was released today in Italy produced the Oscar Winning Actress thanks to the “the heavy promotions by its North American distributor Joseph E. Levine.”
1961: In today’s issue of The Jewish Chronicle, editor William Frankel led with the story of Rabbi Louis Jacobs’ resignation from the staff of Jew’s College due to the Chief Rabbi’s ongoing opposition and then followed a week later with an editorial expressing “regret” at “the loss of another spiritual leader followed by the pointed comment that “a religious revival will never be brought about prohibitions and denunciations, by exclusive claims to authenticity, or by mutual recriminations between different sections of the community.”
1961: In Washington, DC, Carl and Joan Fastow gave birth to Andrew Fastow, a key figure in the Enron debacle who pleaded guilty and went to jail for his part in the Enron’s demise.
1962(25thof Kislev, 5723): Chanukah
1962: Birthdate of Buenos Aires native Andrés Cantor, the grandson of refugees from Nazi occupied Poland and “sportscaster and pundit who works in the United States providing Spanish-language commentary and analysis in sports.”
1963: In one of those cultural ironies that can only happen in America, a special rendition of “Steam Heat,” the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross hit was performed today on the Judy Garland Christmas Show.
1964: Release date for “Kiss Me Stupid” a comedic film written by I.A.L. Diamond and Billy Wilder and produced and directed by Billy Wilder.
1964: Comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted on obscenity charges.
1964: In Israel, Levi Eshkol formed the 12th government today.
1964: As the 11th government gives way to the 12th government Golda Meir continues to serve as Foreign Minister.
1965: Birthdate of David Samuel Goyer, “an American screenwriter, film director, novelist, and comic book writer.”
1965(28thof Kislev, 5726): Fourth day of Chanukah
1965: Simon and Garfunkel recorded “Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall” today.
1965(28thof Kislev, 5726): Sixty-four year old Al Ritz, the oldest of the Ritz Brothers passed away today in New Orleans.
1967: “The Graduate,” directed by Mike Nichols, with a screenplay co-written by Buck Henry, co-starring Dustin Hoffman and with songs by Paul Simon was released today in the United States.
1968(1stof Tevet, 5729): Rosh Chodesh Tevet and the 7th day of Chanukah
1968(1stof Tevet, 5729): Fifty-nine year old Cornell University and University of Chicago (Ph.D.) trained economist and WW II Army Air Forces officer Oscar L. Altman, one of the “first economist to see the importance of the Eurodollar” and “treasurer of the International Monetary Fund” passed away today.
1969: As part of the Cherbourg Project, retired Israeli Admiral Mordecai Limon met in Paris with Martin Siemm and Amiot. The owner of the Cherbourg shipyard signed a contract with Limon canceling the original sale of the boats to Israel. Amiot then signed a contract with Siemm selling the boats to the Norwegian for the same price. Copies of the contracts were immediately dispatched to the relevant French authorities.
1969(13thof Tevet, 5730): Seventy-five year old Austrian-born, American movie director Josef von Sternberg best known for his two versions of “The Blue Angel” and “discovering actress Marlene Dietrich, passed away today.
http://www.hollywoodsgoldenage.com/moguls/von_sternberg.html
1970(24thof Kislev, 5731): Kindle the first Chanukah candle.
1970: The S.S. commander of Treblinka was sentenced to life imprisonment.
1971: Kurt Waldheim was elected Secretary General of the UN. Waldheim became a controversial figure after being exposed by the Austrian Weekly Profile and the New York Times. Although he denied any Nazi past, the World Jewish Congress contended they had proof that he had been a member of the S.A. and Army group E that was involved with deportation of Greek Jews and Yugoslavian partisans. Despite the WJC’s proof that the United Nations War Crimes Commission had wanted Waldheim for murder, he denied any direct involvement with such actions. Although he did not succeed in his bid for a third term, he was elected President of Austria in May 1986. Waldheim was denied entry to the U.S. and many diplomats refused to call on him. A notable exception was the Pope who received him in 1987.
1973(27th of Kislev, 5734): Sixty-five year old Philip Rahv, born Ivan Greenberg, the co-founder of “The Partisan Review” passed away today.
1973: “Rabbi Daniel J. Fingerer” officiated at the wedding of Carole Drucker, the Assistant State Attorney General and chief of the Civil Rights Bureau in the State Attorney General’s office and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Drucker and George D. Zuckerman the University of Michigan and Harvard Law School graduate and son of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Drucker,
1974: An American child was injured today in Jerusalem during a terrorist grenade attack on a bus.
1974: “Jacob the Liar,” an East German-Czechoslovak Holocaust film based on the novel of the same name by “concentration camp survivor Jurek Becker was shown on GDR TV today for the first time.
1975(18thof Tevet, 5736): Eighty-year old Johns Hopkins trained obstetrician and gynecologist Jacob Pearl Greenhill, the New York City born son of Charles Greenhill and Fanny Pearlberg, who was on the faculty of Loyal Medical School passed away today.
1976(1stof Tevet, 5737): Sixth Day of Chanukah
1976: Yosef Burg, a member of the National Religious Party, completed his term as Internal Affairs Minister.
1976: In Israel, the government head by Yithak Rabin resigned today “after ministers of the National Religious Party were sacked because the party had abstained from voting on a motion of no confidence, which had been brought by Agudat Yisrael over a breach of the Sabbath on an Israeli Air Force base.”
1977(12thof Tevet, 5738): Eighty-three year old Leo Perper, the native of Odessa who became the President of the Roger Kent clothing-store chain passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E03E6DE173BE036A05750C2A9649D946690D6CF
1979(2ndof Tevet, 5740): Parashat Miketz; 8th and final day of Chanukah
1979: Darryl Zanuck passed away. Zanuck was not Jewish. He is the movie mogul who produced “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” the 1947 film about anti-Semitism that Jewish movie makers all turned down.
1981(26thof Kislev, 5742): Second Day of Chanukah
1981: In his review of “Elephants” a play now appearing at the Jewish Repertory Theatre which tells the story of “an otherwise upstanding, aging janitor in a Chicago synagogue who steals cocaine from a children’s hospital in order to finance a trip to Tel Aviv to visit his dying sister” Mel Gussow describes David Rush’s dramatic effort as being “about as far-fetched a play as one could imagine.”
1982(6th of Tevet, 5743):Robert Weltsch an important European Zionist passed away.
1984(28thof Kislev, 5745): Parashat Miketz, Fourth Day of Chanukah
1984(28thof Kislev, 5745): Eighty-six year old Edith Elliot Lindeman Calish, the author of Jewish children’s books, and writer of popular song lyrics who was the entertainment editor the Richmond Times-Dispatch for over three decades passed away today.
http://www.outsidethewalls.org/obit.pdf
1985: Richard F. Shepard described an exhibition at the Bronx Museum “Between the Wars: The Bronx Express a Portrait of the Jewish Bronx.”
1985: “Capturing the Holiday Spirit” by Moshe Brilliant published today describes the unique celebration of Christmas in Israel.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/22/travel/capturing-the-holiday-spirit-israel.html?pagewanted=print
1985: John Koenig published a review of Jesus and Judaism by E.P. Sanders.
1987(1stof Tevet, 5748): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1987: Hundreds of thousands of Arabs inside Israel joined others in the occupied territories today in a general strike protesting Israel’s handling of a wave of protests.
1988: After numerous appeals by Dr. Herman D. Noether, the eldest son of Professor Fritz M. Noether who had been convicted of being a German spy in 1938, today “the Plenum of the USSR Supreme Court passed a decree No. 308-88 which determined that Professor Fritz M. Noether had been convicted on groundless charges and voided his sentence, thus fully rehabilitating him.”
1988: Likud’s Yitzhak Shamir formed the twenty-third government including the Alignment, the National Religious Party, Shas, Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah in his coalition, with 25 ministers
1988: The Labor Party gave final approval today to a new coalition government led by the Likud party.
1988: Ezer Weizman replaced Gideon Patt as the Science and Technology Minister of Israel
1988: Yithak Shamir, a member of Likud, completed his service as Internal Affairs Minister.
1988: Areyh Deri, a member of Shas, began serving as Internal Affairs Minister.
1988: “Burning Secret,” a filmed “based on the short story Brennendes Geheimnis by Stefan Zweig” was released today in the United Kingdom and West Germany.
1989(24thof Kislev, 5750): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle.
1989: During the American invasion of Panama the United States Embassy in Panama reported that Mike Harari, a 62-year-old retired agent of the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad was an American ”prisoner of war.”
1989: “Music Box,” produced by Irwin Winkler and with a screenplay by Joe Eszterhas was released today in the United States.
1990 (5th of Tevet, 5751): Seventy-eight year old “Gershom G. Schocken, an influential Israeli journalist who was the editor and publisher of the daily newspaper Haaretz for half a century, passed at Shiba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv, where he lived.” (As reported by Peter B. Flint)
1990: The New York Times reported today on a sudden surge in the number of Soviet Jewish immigrants arriving in Israel this month may well bring the total of Jews settling here this year to more than 200,000, making it perhaps the largest influx of immigrants in 40 years.
1990: An Israeli ferry capsized killing 21 US servicemen.
1990: While taping an interview with a crew from Tele 5, the Spanish television station, President Hussein says Tel Aviv would be Iraq’s first target whether or not Israel joins the war effort against Iraq.
1991(15thof Tevet 5752): Three days after celebrating her 74th birthday, Selma Goldmaker, the Youngstown, OH born daughter of Sarah and Jacob Grobstein, the wife of Harry Grobstein passed away today.
1991: Ninety-two year old Helen P. Silvermatser, the wife of Nathan Silvermaster both of whom were alleged to have been spies for the Soviet Union passed away today.
1992(27thof Kislev, 5753): Third Day of Chanukah
1992(27thof Kislev, 5753): Eighty-one year old Polish born English actor, director and writer Milo Sperber, the brother of Manes Sperber passed away today.
1992: “The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany has issued a statement detailing the criteria for eligibility of Jewish victims of Nazi persecution for German Government compensation under an agreement concluded in November. The conference, based in New York, had previously announced the agreement, which it negotiated with the German Finance Ministry, in a brief statement. In the newer, detailed statement, issued two weeks to Jewish newspapers, the conference noted that the agreement provides funds for “severely persecuted Jewish Nazi victims who received no compensation or only minimal indemnification.” It said claimants must prove that they were confined for six months or more in Nazi concentration camps, 18 months or more in ghettos, or spent 18 months in hiding from the Nazis. Such people will remain eligible for this compensation even if they have already received one-time payments up to 5,000 marks — about $$3,200 — under the German Federal Indemnification Law from the Claims Conference Hardship Fund, or payments above 5,000 marks for extended incarceration. These categories appear to cover some Jews from Eastern European countries who were unable to take advantage of the original German compensation act of 1952. That measure expired in 1965. The claims conference made clear that there are several important exclusions in the new agreement. Its statement says, “Individuals who receive pensions under the German Federal Indemnification Law or under the Israeli Law for Invalids of Nazi Persecution are not eligible.” Some Dislocation Required It adds, “Nazi victims who never left their original countries or returned to these countries are also not eligible.” The conference said that beginning in August 1995, those found eligible would indefinitely receive monthly payments of 500 marks — now $320 — plus “a limited interim payment.” Claimants living in the United States can submit applications to: Claims Conference, 15 East 26th Street, Room 1303A, New York, N.Y. 10010Those in Israel may write to: Claims Conference Article 2 Fund, P.O. Box 74, Tel Aviv, Israel 61 000. People in other countries may write to: Claims Conference, Article 2 Fund, Wiesenau 53, 6000 Frankfurt 1, Germany ( As reported by David Binder)
1992: “American Samurai,” a “martial arts action film directed by Polish born, Jerusalem raised American filmmaker Sam Firstenberg was released today in Germany
1993: Eliahu Levin and Meir Mendelovitch were killed by shots fired at their car by terrorists from a passing vehicle for which Hamas claimed responsibility.
1993: “Italian Fascism Didn’t Practice Anti-Semitism” published today described Louis Jay Herman’s view on Mussolini and the Jews.
1993: Two were left dead following a shooting attack near Ramallah.
1993: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators worked in secret today on a compromise plan for control of border checkpoints between Israel and parts of the occupied territories where Palestinians are soon to have autonomy. Shortly after midnight, Uri Savir, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, emerged from the talks to say that both delegations would leave Versailles this morning and “a statement would be issued.” He seemed discouraged but declined to elaborate on how the talks were progressing.
1993: Seventy-eight year old Bangladesh native Sir Reginald Michael Hadow, the British diplomate who was Ambassador to Israel from 1965 to 1969 passed away today.
1994(19thof Tevet, 5755): Eighty-two year Haham Rabbi Dr. Solomon Gaon, the Bosnian born son of Isaac and Rahela Gaon, both of whom died in the Holocaust, and the husband of Regina Gazon with whom he had two children – Isaac and Raquel – who was “a world leader of Sephardic Jews and Professor of Sephardic Studies at Yeshiva University” passed away today in New York.
1995(29thof Kislev, 5756): Fifth Day of Chanukah
2000: “The Family Man” a romantic comedy directed by Brett Ratner, co-produced by Howard Rosenmen with a script co-authored by David Weisman and music by Danny Elfman was released today in the United States.
2001(7thof Tevet, 5762): Parashat Vayigash
2001(7thof Tevet, 5762): Eighty-six year old WW II Captain Leonard “Len” Maidman, the NYU forward and member of the 1935 National Championship team who was described by University of California head coach Nibs Price as, “the best player I’ve seen around” and who “practiced medicine until his retirement in 1985” passed away today.
2002: Yael Weiss, a pianist, and Mark Kaplan, a violinist, who met at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 1999 were married at the Americas Society in Manhattan to strains of Bach.
2002: The New York Times book section featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Analyzing Freud: Letters of H.D., Bryher, and Their Circle edited by Susan Stanford Friedman, Nobody’s Perfect: Billy Wilder: A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler, and Kafka Goes to the Movies by Hanns Zischler; translated by Susan H. Gillespie.
2003(27thof Kislev, 5764): Third Day of Chanukah
2003: “After a day of meeting with Israel’s leaders, Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, was attacked and heckled this evening by Muslim radicals inside the Aksa Mosque here, one of the holiest sites in Islam.”
2004(10th of Tevet, 5765): Asara B’Tevet
2004: “Meet the Fockers” based on a story by Jim Herzfeld and Marc Hyman with music by Randy Newman and co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand was released in the United States today.
2005: An immigration judge order John Demjanjuk deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.
2005: Israeli Harry Potter fans have something to be in high spirits about this Hanukah. The Hebrew version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling’s sixth book in her magical series hits the bookstores just two days before the first night of Chanukah.
2006(1stof Tevet, 5767): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, 2006: Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni announced that Italy’s Holocaust Museum will be located in Rome at the Villa Torlonia.
2006: Alan G. Hevesi completed his term as State Comptroller for the State of New York.
2006: STS-116 Discovery under the command of Mark Lewis “Roman” Polansky completed its twelve day mission today.
2006: Today, “the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld” John Demjanjuk’s deportation order.
2007: Chazak Shabbat observed by Conservative Synagogues across the United States. Chazak Shabbat always falls on the Shabbat when Vayechi is the weekly portion. Congregations honor members who are fifty-five years and older and the special programs designed to encourage their continued participation in the Jewish community.
2007: The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that “the head of the largest branch of Americana Judaism is urging members of the movement to do more to observe Shabbat. Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism told those attending the group’s Biennial convention that stressed out families need a day when they can stop running around long to see what God is doing. Among other things, Yoffie urged Reform Jews to make a commitment to attend Saturday morning worship
2008: Eric Alterman “announced that his blog Altercation would be moving to The Nation’s website in 2009 and would appear on a less regular basis than its previous Monday through Friday schedule.[
2008: The AJS (Association for Jewish Studies) Women’s Caucus Breakfast and The Sephardi/Mizrahi Caucus Lunch are held on the second day of the AJS (Association for Jewish Studies) 40th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
2008: Happy Birthday “Hatikvah” – 130th anniversary of the creation of the poem “Hatikvah” by Naphtali Herz Imber.
2008(25thof Kislev, 5769): First Day of Chanukah
2008: Jewish Book Month comes to an end.
2008: Gaza gunmen fired at IDF soldiers patrolling the security fence near the Sufa crossing late this afternoon, seemingly refuting reports of a 24-hour ceasefire
2008: Abdel Aziz Yehia Hamoud al-Abdi, the suspected murderer of Yemeni Jew Moshe Yaish Nahari told a court on today that he had warned Jews to convert to Islam or leave the country and that if they didn’t, he would kill them..
2008: The scandal at Agriprocessors makes Timemagazine’s list of Top 10 Religion Stories in 2008. At #9, “When Kosher Wasn’t Kosher – A raid on a kosher-meat-processing plant in Iowa highlighted unethical practices.”
2008: Time quotes Ehud Olmert’s reaction to Jewish attacks in Hebron. “As a Jew, I was ashamed at the scenes of Jews opening fire at innocent Arabs.”
2009: In Washington, D.C. at the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue students in the conversion class at Tifereth Israel Congregation share their stories and celebrate their first December holiday season as Jews in America in a program entitled “Journeys to Judaism: Jews by Choice Tell Their Stories.”
2010: “Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln’s City,” an exhibition sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to come to an end today.
2010: The Coen Brothers’ version of “True Grit” is scheduled to be released today.
2010: Jamal Hussein Ahmad, a 49-year-old tailor, who was charged with trying to bomb a synagogue in the heart of Cairo, is scheduled to go trial today.
2010:The president of Austria’s tiny Jewish community wrote a letter today to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressing a feeling of “betrayal” and “outrage” at deputy minister Ayoub Kara’s current visit to Vienna at the invitation of the right-wing Freedom Party, formerly the political home of Jorge Haider.
2010: Master classes at the Stage-Center International Theatre in Tel Aviv which are being taught by Michael Mayer, the director who has become the toast of Broadway with his megahit musicals Spring Awakening and American Idiot begin today.
2010:Tensions were rising today between Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian political factions, over a leaked American diplomatic cable and ongoing accusations by each side regarding the other’s arrests, plans and statements. Fatah denied the assertions of a Wikileaks cable from 2007 in which the head of the Israeli Shin Bet Security Service, Yuval Diskin, is quoted as saying that Fatah forces asked Israel to attack Hamas in Gaza and that the Palestinian Authority shared its intelligence with Israel. Fatah said that none of its members had ever acted in that way and that the leak was part of a Shin Bet plot to undermine the Palestinian Authority.
2010: A stage adaptation of Romain Gary’s novel, “The Life Before Us” (“La vie Devant Soi”), about an orphaned Arab boy’s devotion to a terminally ill Auschwitz survivor and ex-prostitute, featuring Myriam Boyer was broadcast across Europe today.
2011: In New Orleans, Gates of Prayer is scheduled to host its Sisterhood Chanukah Dinner
2011: In New Orleans, Touro Synagogue is scheduled to host its Sisterhood Chanukah Family Dinner
2011: Moshav, Soulfarm & DeScribe are scheduled to perform at the Highline Ballroom as part of the Sephardic Music Festival.
2011:In San Francisco, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a Houdini-themed Hanukkah concert, with Leonard Cohen tunes performed by all-male musical group, Conspiracy of Beards
2011: The final weekend of Hamshoushalayim is scheduled to begin today in Jerusalem with activities especially geared for families.
2011: In Linn County, the first area wide Chanukah Candle Lighting Ceremony is scheduled to take place in Springville, Iowa.
2011:Hamas has moved to join the Palestine Liberation Organization – a key step toward unifying the long-divided Palestinian leadership, the Associated Press reported today.
2011:Today, Defense Minister Ehud Barak criticized statements made by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which said the “bickering” of European Union members of the UN Security Council over Israeli settlement was making them “irrelevant.”
2012: “Aya” is schedule to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: “World’s second-oldest Bible fragment posted online” published today described the posting online of thousands of pages from fragile religious manuscripts including a 2,000 year old copy of portions of the 10 Commandments and the Shema by Cambridge University (As reported by JTA)
2012: “Dreaming in Yiddish,” a concert in tribute to singer, teacher, feminist and activist Adrienne Cooper featuring the leading artists in the Yiddish music world is scheduled to take place at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College.
2012: The head of the nationalist Jewish Homes Party denied calling for insubordination in the army tonight, rebuffing accusations that he endorsed refusing orders when he said two days earlier that he would not evacuate settlements
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon, The Empty Chair by Bruce Wagner and The Myth of America’s Decline: Politics, Economics, and a Half Century of False Prophecies by Josef Joffe.
2013: “The Escape,” a movie about eight young Israelis from different backgrounds who retrace the routes of those trying to escape the Holocaust, is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Jerusalem Municipality and the Jewish National Fund are scheduled to distribute free Christmas trees to Christian residents of Jerusalem today between 09:00 am and 12:00 pm at College Des Freres – De La Salle High School, 20 Bab El-Jadid Rd.
2013: A bomb exploded on a bus in Bat Yam this afternoon, but nobody was injured because an alert passenger had spotted the device and the bus driver had ordered the vehicle evacuated.
2013: Police are investigating an attempt by three Palestinian Authority Arabs to stab officers, this evening at a police roadblock at the Mishor Adumim Junction, next to the eastern Jerusalem suburb of Ma’alei Adumim. (As reported by Gil Roen)
2014: The Washington DC, Jewish Community Center is scheduled to present “World Music for Chanukah with Avram Penga” the “Greek-born guitarist and bouzouki virtuoso.
2014: “Night of Fools” and “The Outrageous Sophie Tucker” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014 The public Chanukah lighting is scheduled to take place at Cosenza.
2014: In London, “Rabbi Santa Comedy Night,” consisting entirely of Jewish comedians, an evening organized by Bennett Arron, is due to open today.
2014: “Less than a week after the National Insurance Institute published statistics saying that 1.65 million Israelis lived under the poverty line in 2013, umbrella aid group Latet released its own report today, claiming nearly a million more Israelis — totaling a third of the country — are living in poverty.
2014: “Two hundred and twenty-six immigrants, 76 of which are children, landed this afternoon in Israel on a special flight from Ukraine.”
2015: “Apples from the Desert” a tale of tradition versus modernity is scheduled to be shown for the last time at the UK Jewish Film Festival.
2015(10thof Tevet, 5776): Yahrzeit of Judy Levin Rosenstein, gone too soon but never forgotten.
2015: “Twelve selected pieces from the Valmadonna Trust Library — an unrivalled library of some 300 handwritten Hebrew documents and 13,000 rare printed Hebrew books, with some dating as far back as 1,000 years — is scheduled to go on sale in New York today.
2015: “Sotheby’s set a new world auction record for any piece of Judaica in New York, when of the finest copies of Daniel Bomberg’s Babylonia Talmud sold for $9.3 million” today.
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/valmadonna-trust-library-part-i-n09443.html
2015(10thof Tevet, 5776): The Tenth of Tevet is a communal fast day, commemorating the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem in the era of the First Beis HaMikdash, the Holy Temple.
http://www.arjewishcenter.com/library/article_cdo/AID/91427
2016: The Temple Israel of Memphis Family Tour of Israel is scheduled to leave the United States today.
2016: Jonathan Brent, YIVO’s Executive Director, is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “YIVO, Liberalism and the Jewish Response to Fascism.
2016: Rachel Freirer, a mother of six and former lawyers who practiced commercial and residential estate law “officially became the first Chasidic women to be sworn in as a Judge in New York State” when she “was sworn in today as the Civil Court judge in Kings County’s 5th judicial district.”
2016: Lipa “Schmeltzer sang “God Bless America” in Yiddish (as “Gott Bensch Amerike”) in Brooklyn Borough Hall at the inauguration of New York Civil Court Judge Rachel Freier.
2016: In Coralville, IA, The Augdas Achim is scheduled to discuss The Schocken Book of Modern Sephardic Literature edited by Ilan Stavans.
2017: FOX news announced that James Rosen was “exiting the company at the end of the year” without making any references to charges of sexual misconduct.
2017: A special exhibition “The Capture and Trial of Adolf Eichmann” is scheduled to come a close at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
2016: Today, “in Warsaw, Polish culture minister Piotr Glinski signed a contract with Michal Laszczkowski, head of the Cultural Heritage Foundation” that formalized the Polish government’s donation of 100 million zlotys “to restore and protect” the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery which was “established in 1806 and is the resting spot of 250,000 Polish Jews.”
2017: In Jerusalem, Hansen House is scheduled to host “Context with Mindy Weisel.
2017(4thof Tevet, 5778): Eighty-eight year old Laborite and MP Eric Moonman, the Liverpool born son of Leah and Borach Moonman who left school at the age of 13 to become an apprentice priner and who was chair of both Poale Zion and president of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland passed away today.
2017(4thof Tevet, 5778): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Joshua Isaac Shapira
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_4.html
2017(4thof Tevet, 5778): Yahrzeit of Yiddish playwright Solomon Ettinger who passed away on the 4th of Tevet, 5617.
2018(14thof Tevet, 5779): Parashat Vayechi;
2018: Ninety-four year old Simcah Rosten,”the last surviving Warsaw Ghetto uprising fighter” passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/simcha-rotem
2018: As a sign of the vitality of Judaism Southern Style, in Memphis, Rachel Perlman is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Temple Israel.
2018: In New York, Symphony Space is scheduled to host Israeli singer “David Broza and Friends Not Exactly Christmas Show.”
2018: In Atlanta, the Oakland Cemetery homed to “the second oldest Jewish burial ground in Georgia, is scheduled to host a tour featuring the “Sights, Symbols and Stories of Oakland.
2018: This year’s Yiddish New York Festival is scheduled to officially open tonight with a Yiddish Dance Party at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
2018: Following her an operation which in which “she had two cancerous growths removed from her lung” yesterday, Jews everywhere, regardless of their political views, offer a prayer for “refuah shlema” or “perfect healing,” for Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
2019: Yiddish New York and the Yiddish Artists and Friends-Actor Club is scheduled to host a “Celebration of Molly Picon.”
2019: The Mayor of London is scheduled to attend Chanukah in the Square hosted by Rachel Creeger at Trafalgar Square.
2019(24thof Kislev, 5780): Ninety year old Ronald Hyman Melzack, the Montreal born son Joseph and Annie (Mandel) Melzack and the McGill University trained psychologist best known for his 1973 book The Puzzle of Pain who was husband of interior designer Lucy Birch passed away tody.
https://www.cdnmedhall.org/inductees/ronaldmelzack
2019: The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host a “Family Concert,” featuring “Hanukkah music from around the world with Elad Kabilio and the musicians from MusicTalks.”
2019: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through the Twentieth Century by Sara Abrevaya Stein.
2019(24thof Kislev, 5780): First time lighting the Chanukah menorah without Deb Levin Z”L.
2020: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth Country is scheduled to begin present an online views of “the documentary film, Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema.”
2020: FIDF Engage is scheduled to present Maj. Gen. (Res.) Nadav Padan, Former Head of IDF Central Command, who will discuss Cyber Warfare: A New Dimension in Modern War which given the hack just suffered by the United States is a very timely presentation.
2020: The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present online “Not Your Bubbe’s Book Club.
2020: The first direct flight from Israel to Morocco marking the establishment “of ties between the two Mideast countries” is scheduled to depart today.
2020: Judaism Your Way in Colorado which is offer virtual cooking classes to make Jewish comfort foods is scheduled to provide instruction for making homemade pita and hummus this evening.
2020: YIVO is scheduled to present “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese Food” in which author Andrew Cohen traces “this delicious history from the turn-of-the-century Lower East Side to today’s take-out lo mein”
2020: In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host online “Perek Yomi” with Rabbi Skoinik
2021: For a second night, The Emerson Colonial Theatre is scheduled to host a new production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Boston.
2021. The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to present a concert with Klezmer musician Abigale Reisman, the violinist who is also a composer, arranger and performer in the International Musical Festival award-win band Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band which can be enjoyed in person or online
2021: The American-Israel Friendship League is scheduled to present “Stitching a New Identity: Fashion in Israel’s Nation Building” during was Keren Ben Horin “investigates the relationship between fashion, national identity and diplomacy.”
2021: As of today, Israelis could become the first people in the world to be able to get a fourth vaccine shot in the wake of the outbreak of the Omicorn variant of COVID.
2021: LIB is scheduled to present Professor Atina Grossman and Dr. Max Czollek as they discuss “Perspectives on Jewish Life in Germany Today.”
2021: After having arrived last night, .U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is scheduled to hold talks with Israeli officials including President Herzog who “plans to inform” him of the request of the family of Yehuda Dimentman, the victim of a terrorist attack, that Israeli legalize the Homesh Yeshiva which is located on an isolated West hilltop near Jenin.”(As reported by Tovah Lazaroff)
2022: The Center for Jewish History and the Polish Cultural Institute of New York are scheduled to present “Mechitza: Individual and Collective Resistance of Women During the Shoah” by Vivian J. Prins Artistic Resident Zuzanna Hertzberg – Installation & Spoken Word Performance.”
2022: YIVO is scheduled to present an online lecture by David Biale on “A Very Jewish Christmas: Jesus and Shabbtai Zvi, from Heretic to Hero”
2022: The Museum for Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host a screening of “The Man Without a World” a film with a life score by Alicia Svigals and Donald Sosin.
2022: The New Conservatory Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of “Oy Vey in a Manger.”
2022: Chabad of Downtown Boston, Back Beacon Hill and South End are scheduled to host the Seaport Menorah Lighting with Governor Charlie Baker.
2022: Temple of Emanuel of Newton is scheduled to present “Hanukkah Happens: Hazzan Elias Rosemberg with the Zamir Chorale of Boston.”
2022(28thof Kislev, 5783): Fourth Day of Chanukah https://jeopardylabs.com/play/chanukah10
.jpg){kind=link}