April 22
404:Emperors Arcadiusand Honorius limit the opportunities of Jews to serve the Empire when theyissue the following: "We decreethat the Jews and Samaritans who flatter themselves with the privilege of beingin the secret service will be deprived of all employment with imperialservice." [CTh 16.8.16]
1073:Pope Gregory VII begins his twelve-year reign.While history may remember him for his role as a reformer and for his“battles” with the Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, others may also rememberhim as “The Jewish Pope” since he was reportedly “descended from an Italian Jewnamed Baruch” who started a bank in Rome and converted to Christianity in 1030
1213:Pope Innocent IIIissued the papal bull Quia maior, calling all of Christendom to join whatbecame the Fifth Crusade. The Crusades were a period of intermittent disasterfor the Jews of Europe and Palestine.
1391:King Wenceslausissued an edict affording protection to the Jews of Worms.
1451:Birthdate of Isabella I of Castile, the queen who played a key role in thedestruction of a seven century old civilization when she cruelly expelled theJews from Spain
1488(11thof Iyar, 5248): Almost a year after publishing Perush Rashi al ha-Torah(Rashi’s commentary on the Torah, Joshua Soncino finished printing “a completeBiblia Hebraica” (Hebrew Bible.
1490(1stof Iyar): Leo, Jewish court physician to Grand Duke Ivan II, was executedtoday.
1500:Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, accompanied by Gaspar da Gama, aPolish born Jew whose slave name had been Yusuf ‘Adil before being forciblyconverted to Christianity, sighted the mainland of Brazil for the first timetoday.
1509:Henry VIII ascended the English throne following the death of his father, HenryVII. While Jews were officially bannedfrom living in England, evidence exists that a small congregation of Marranoshad settled in London by 1540. Henry’scontact with Jews and Judaism was indirect but somewhat pivotal in the eventssurrounding his various wives. Henry’solder brother had married Catherine of Aragon in a state marriage designed toguarantee peaceful relations between England and Spain. When Henry’s older brother died, the Englishsought to keep the amicable relations alive by arranging a marriage between Henryand Catherine. The English got the Popeto approve of the marriage by invoking the Biblical law concerning the LevirateMarriage. Years later, Henry sought tohave the marriage annulled so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. He claimed that the marriage was a nullitybecause he had coveted his late brother’s wife and their marriage was a productof sin. Henry sought support from thosemost learned in these matters, a group of Italian rabbis. Regardless of the Halacha involved, theItalian rabbis were loath to anger the Pope who was their “neighbor” in a clashwith a monarch living in a distant land in which Jews were forbidden to live.
1585(23rdof Nisan or 3rd of Iyar 5345): Rabbi Moses (Trani) of Safed, authorof “Kiryat Sefer” passed away today.
1593: The first group of Marranos led by JacobTirado arrived in Amsterdam, Holland. This group was the first Jews to settlein Amsterdam after the Spanish Expulsion. Moses Uri Halevi soon joined them andhelped arrange for prayer services.
1610:Birthdate Alexander VIII. During hispapacy, Alexander was confronted with an unusual request. Instead of demanding that Jews be banishedfrom their town, the priors of Perugia appealed to Alexander to overrule PopeInnocent X and allow Jews to return to their city. The absence of Jews from thecity’s fairs was a having a negative impact on the area’s economy.
1619:Oliver St. John who as Chief Justice of Common Pleas was part of the St. JohnMission “was instructed to study the Jewish Question and in all probabilityentered to negotiations with the leading Jews of Amsterdam” was admitted atLincoln’s Inn today.
1625:Urban VIII issued “Sedes apostolica,” a papal bull concerning “hereticalPortuguese Jews.”
1710(3rdof Iyar, 5470): Amsterdam native Francisco Lopes Suasso, second Baron d'Avernasle Gras a banker and financier of the Dutch Republic” “also known within the Sephardic Jewishcommunity as Abraham Israel Suasso” the eldest son of “merchant banker AntonioLopes Susasso, the husband of Leonora da Costa whom he married after the deathof first wife Judit Francisco Teixeira of Hamburg and the father of tenchildren – Antonio, Alvaro, Manuel, Pedro, Jeronimo, David, Francisco, Leonora,Sara and Hannah – who provided financial support to William of Orange when he invadedEngland, passed away today after which “he was buried in the Portuguese-Jewishcemetery called Ets Haim at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel” and “succeeded in his business and as Baron d'Avernas leGras by his eldest son, Antonio Lopes Suasso the Younger,aliasIsaac Lopes Suasso.”
1724: Birthdate of German philosopher ImmanuelKant. Kant may have been one of the giants of theEnlightenment, but from a Jewish point of view, he was an intellectual pygmy.As Michael Mack of Hebrew University wrote, “Kant consistently equated Jewish identity with a host of undesirabletraits, including superstition, dishonesty, worldliness and even cowardliness.‘Every coward is a liar; Jews forexample, not only in business, but also in common life,’ Kant noted in alecture on practical philosophy… All the positive traits of Kantian philosophy(freedom, autonomy, reason) are formed by being contrasted with a negativeimage of unenlightened humanity, usually taking the form of an anti-Semitic orsome other racist caricature. For Kant, motives couldonly be good if they were not aimed at any material benefit. He saw Judaism asan inherently materialist religion, based upon a quid pro quo between God andHis chosen people .In order to fully define the formal structuresof his philosophy (autonomy, reason, morality and freedom), Kant almost unconsciously fantasized about the Jews as it’sopposite. He posited Judaism as anabstract principle that does nothing else but, paradoxically, desire theconsumption of material goods."
1756(22nd of Nisan, 5516)Eighth Day of Pesach and Yizkor
1758(14th of Nisan, 5518):Parashat Achrei-Mot; erev Pesach
1761(18th of Nisan, 5521):Fourth Day of Pesach
1762(29th of Nisan, 5522): JohannPhillip, the director of the Prussia mints to whom Veitel Ephraim, the sonof Nathan Veitel Ephraim and senior elderof the Berlin Jewry “delivered silver in 1752 and 1754” passed away today.
1762: In Prague, Jonas Jeiteles and hiswife gave birth to Talmudist Baruch Ben Jacob Benedict Jeitles, the father ofIgnaz Jeiteles.
1764(20th of Nisan, 5524):Sixth Day of Pesach
1769(15th of Nisan, 5529):First Day of Pesach
1770(17thof Nisan): Israel Ben Moses Zamsoc of Brody, author of “Nezah Yisrael” passedaway today.
1772(19thof Nisan, 5532): Fifth Day of Pesach
1775(22ndof Nisan, 5535): Eighth Day of Pesach and Shabbat; Yizkor is recited as moreAmerican minuteman arrive in Boston to seal the city in what became the siegeof Boston.
1777(15th of Nisan, 5537): Celebrationbegins of the first Pesach in the recently declared independent United Statesof America.
1783(20th of Nisan, 5543):Sixth Day of Pesach
1783: The Jews sent a petition toEmperor Joseph II which “expressed their gratitude…for his favors and remindinghim of his principle that religion should not be interfered with, askedpermission to wear beards.
1785: One day after he had passed away,Zvi ben Naphtali was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd.) JewishCemetery.
1786(24th of Nisan, 5546):Parashat Achrei Mot
1786: In New York, Reyna Ley and IsaacMoses gave birth to Lavinia Moses.
1787: Birthdate of German native MichaelSeligman Dettelbacher, the son of Mendel Dettelbacher, the husband of HindleRothschild and the father of Marx Hirsch Dettelbacher.
1792: In Philadelphia, PA, RachelPhillips a descendant from the Nunez family that arrived in Charleston in 1733and Michael Levy gave birth to Uriah Phillips Levy, the husband of Jamaicanative Virginia Lopes and the firstJewish Commodore in the US. Navy who was instrumental in ending whipping ofsailors in the U.S. Navy and who was the “savior of Monticello” the estate offounding father Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/uriah-phillips-levy
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/uriah-phillips-levy
1794(22nd of Pesach, 5554):Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
1794: In Vilnius, a city with a largeJewish population that is home to the Vilna Gaon, Polish and Lithuanian forcesrose up against the Russians in what became known as “The Vilnius Uprising of1794)
1799(17th of Nisan, 5559):Third Day of Pesach; Chol Hamoed Pesach begins for the last time in the 18thcentury.
1796: In Charleston, SC, Kingston,Jamaica native Hannah de Pass, the daughter of Ralph de Pass married Benjamin,Milhado today.
1801: Eleanor Moses Hart and SolomonCohen were married in Charleston in 1797 gave birth to Isaac S Cohen, thehusband of Virginia Jane Davis whom he married a Petersburg, VA in 1840 andwith whom he had eleven children all of whom were born in South Carolina.
1809(6th of Iyar, 5569):Parashat Tazria-Metzoria
1809(6th of Iyar, 5569: Breslauborn “Talmudist and Rabbi,” Aryeh Lob Ben Hayyim who was living in Rotterdamwhen the French army invaded Holland passed away today.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3684-breslau-aryeh-lob-ben-hayyim
1813(22nd of Pesach, 5573)Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor
1813: As Jews munched matzah, during theWar of 1812, the American naval squadron that was to take part on the attack onYork, Ontario was preparing to leave Sackets Harbor.
1818(16th of Nisan, 5578):Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of Omer
1818: In Livermore, Martha Benjamin andIsrael Washburn burn gave birth to Cadwallader Colden Washburn, the Wisconsinpolitical leader and businessman who founded what became General Mills, one ofthe companies operating in Judea-Samaria and the brother of Elihu B. Wasburne,the Illinois Congressman who defended U.S. Grant against charges ofanti-Semitism.
1821(20th of Nisan, 5581):Sixth Day of Pesach
1822(1st of Iyar, 5582): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1822: Shmuel ben Azreal married Fegelebat Yehuda at the Great Synagogue today.
1826(15th of Nisan, 5586):First Day of Pesach
1833: One day after she had passed away,Sarah (Abrahams) Leigh, the husband of Joseph Leigh was buried today in the“Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1834: Dr. Albert Moses Levy and his wife movedback to Virginia after he had completed his medical training at the Universityof Pennsylvania. After his wife’s death. Levy would make his way to Texas wherehe participate in the rebellion against Mexico and become a leading member ofthe new republic
1837: On Staten Island, Henry Benjamin Nones,the Philadlephia born son of Miriam and Abraham Nones, and his wife Anna M. Nones gave birth toSamuel Smith Nones
1839(8th of Iyar, 5599): HannahMontefiore Anconca, the mother of Moses Montefiore Aconca and the wife of JudahMoses Ancona whom she had married in 1887 passed away today after she wasburied in the Exeter Jewish Cemetery.
1840(19th of Nisan, 5600) Fifth Dayof Pesach
1841: Birthdate of Versailles native and Frenchjurist Edgar Demange, who served as co-counsel during the two trials of AlfredDreyfus.
1842: Birthdate of Alexander Kohut theHungarian born American rabbi and orientalist.
1843(22nd of Nisan, 5603): EighthDay of Pesach and Yizkor
1845(15th of Nisan, 5606): Pesach
1845(15th of Nisan, 5606): Nine-yearold Ezra Bierman, the son of David and Catherine Pick Bierman passed awaytoday.
1845: Birthdate of Rabbi Jakob Guttmann thenative of Beuthen who became the Chief Rabbi at Hildesheim who was the fatherof Rabbi Julius Guttmann.
1847: “Charles Vi,” a grand opera with musiccomposed by Fromental Halevy was performed in New Orleans for the first time.
1848(19th of Nisan, 5608) Shabbat Shel Pesach
1850: Birthdate of anatomist andembryologist Gustav Born who was the father of Max Born.
1851(20th of Nisan, 5611):Sixth day of Pesach
1851: Birthdate of Gustav Jacob Born“the German histologist and author whose first wife was Gretchen Kauffman, withwhom he had one son – Nobel Prize winning physicist Max Born.
1853(14th of Nisan, 5613): Ta’anitBechorot; erev Pesach
1853: Inthe House of Commons, following a third reading, the bill removing Jewishdisabilities was carried by a majority of 58.
1854: InMaitland, Australia, Julia Solomon and Lewis W. Levy gave birth so SamuelEleazer Lewis who was also known as Eliot S Levy.
1856: InNew York, Jacob Levy Seixas, the New York born son of Judith and Moses BenjaminSeixas and his wife Hortensia Seixaz gave birth to Katherine Seixas.
1859: Threedays before his own birthday, Mortimer M. Hendricks, the son of Montague M.Hendricks and Rachel Seixas Nathan and his wife Jessie Justina BrandlyHendricks gave birth to Walter Hendricks who tragically passed away at the ageof nine.
1860:Dr. George B. Cheever delivered an anti-slavery speech tonight at The Church ofthe Puritans in which he compared slaveholders to the anti-Semitic King John ofEngland who “who, to extort money from a Jew, pulled a tooth every day from outthe Hebrew's head until he complied with his demands.”
1861:Philadelphian Abraham who would rise to the rank of Corporal began serving inCompany H of the 35th Regiment.
1862(22ndof Nisan, 5622): Eighth Day of Pesach observed as General McClellan’s Army ofthe Potomac slowly makes its way up the peninsula in what would be an abortedattempt to take Richmond while Union Forces future Admiral David Farragutprepare to successfully take the forts that will lead to the surrender of NewOrleans.
1863(3rdof Iyar, 5623): Fifty-seven-year-old Gabriel Riesser the first Jewish judge inGermany and an advocate of the emancipation of the Jews in Germany passed awaytoday.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/gabriel-riesser
http://jhom.com/personalities/riesser/index.htm
1863(3rdof Iyar, 5623: Soro Chano Szatan, the mother of Chanokh Heynekh Lewin (RebbeReb Heynekh of Aleksander) passed away.Born in 1779, her husband was Pinchas Lewin who passed away in 1837.
1864(16th of Nisan, 5624):Second day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer
1864: Captain Ezekiel Levy, his brotherIsaac J. Levy and other Jews serving with the 46th Virginia Infantryobserved Pesach at their camp in Adams Run, South Carolina, outside ofCharleston. On the first day of the holiday, they feasted on a “fine vegetablesoup” which contained “new onions, parsley, carrots turnips and a youngcauliflower … a pound and a half of fresh [kosher] beef, the latter articlesells for four dollars per pound in Charleston.”
1865: In Philadelphia, 16 German boysreportedly beat a Jewish named Bernadotte Glischman. Following the beating, the boys tookGlischman to his room where they stuck him with pins. Glischman said the boys did this to himbecause he was Jewish, and they said that the Jews had killed Christ.
1867: Eve Lipman was buried today at the“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1868: Birthdate of Friedrich Münzer the“German classical scholar” known “for his demonstrations of how familyrelationships in ancient Rome connected to political struggles.”
1868: Birthdate of Miles Poindexter, theSenator from Tennessee who was one of only three Republicans to vote for theconfirmation of Louis Brandeis as an Associate Justice of the U.S. SupremeCoutr.
1868: Woolf Elias of Camden, SC, marriedEmily Weinberg of Charleston, SC.
1869: Birthdate of Brest-Litovsk native Rabbi Julius T. Loeb who retired from the rabbinate in 1939after 40 years after which he “had been appointed executive secretary of a newcouncil to co-ordinate financial activities of Jewish institutions” in theDistrict of Columbia.
1869: Josef Kahn, the Czech born sonJacob Kohn and Franziska Kahn and his wife Julie Kahn gave birth to MathildeKahn, who became Mathilda Fanta which he married Doctor of Jursiprudence EmilFanta
1870: Birthdate of Vladimir Lenin, wholed the Bolshevik Revolution. Contraryto popular misconception, Lenin was not Jewish. Also, Lenin and the Communistsdid bring down the Czar. They overthrewthe Kerensky government, the democratic socialists, who had actually ended thethree hundred years of Romanov rule. Many people who were born Jews werefollowers of Lenin. The most famous was Trotsky. But Lenin’s impact on the Jewish people fartranscended the presence of these individuals. History would prove thatCommunist Russia was no more hospitable for those who wanted to practice theirJudaism than Czarist Russia had been.
1871(1st of Iyar, 5631): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1871: Bavaria grants equal rights to its Jewish citizenscompleting the process of emancipation in the German Empire.
1871: Clara Levine, the New York born daughter of Elizabetha Moses S. Cohn and her husband Julius Levine gave birth to Manhattan residentRebecca E. Guggenheimer, the wife of Alfred S. Guggenheimer and the mother ofClaire Guggenheimer Schlesinger Friend and Robert A. Guggenheimer
1872: Jews of Bavaria were granted equality
1872(14thof Nisan, 5632): Ta'anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1872(14thof Nisan, 5632): An article entitled “The Feast of Passover: Celebration ofIsrael’s Delivery From Bondage – Jewish Traditions and Observances” states that“At sundown today the people of Israel, wheresoever dispersed over the fact ofthe earth will begin the celebration of the feast of Pesach or the Passover,one of the most important festivals in the Jewish Calendar.”
1875(17thof Nisan, 5635): Third Day of Pesach
1876In Vienna, “Maria (née Hock), the daughter of a scientist, and Ignác Bárány” abanker who was the son of a Hungarian Jew gave birth to Robert Bárány, who wonthe Noble Prize for Medicine in 1914.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/barany.html
1878(19thof Nisan, 5638): Fifth Day of Pesach
1880:In Leadville, CO, the Bush-Trimble Building collapsed. The building Kaskel & Co, clothingbusiness co-owned by Caesar J. Kaskel and Jacob Michaelis of New York City andmanaged by Julius W. Kaskel one of the first Jews to settle in Leadville.
1881:It was reported today that an anonymous Jewish donor had sent a basket offlowers to Reverend William A. Barltett of Indianapolis’ Second PresbyterianChurch as a token of appreciation for the speech he gave on “the Jewishquestion.”
1881:Birthdate of Alexander Kerensky, the most prominent leader of the ProvisionalGovernment that replaced the government of the Czars. Kerensky was not Jewish but the failure ofthe democratic forces that he led certainly had a major impact on the Jews ofwhat would become the Soviet Union. Thisshort guide does not provide the space for further comment on this majorepisode in Jewish History.
1881:Visitors at the Hebrew Cemetery at Cypress Hills on Long Island heard shotsemanating from the house of the groundskeeper, Max Blecker. Further investigation led to the discovery ofBlocker’s body which had a large wound on the right side of his head and arevolver grasped tightly in his hand.Reportedly, he had been in ill health and he “told his friends that hewould be better off dead.”
1881:It was reported today that Tunisia with a population of about 2 million is oflittle financial value to the French who seem determined to annex theterritory. The little commercialactivity that does exist is primarily in the hands of the 25,000 Jews who makeup about a fifth of the population of Tunis.
1882:Birthdate of Jaques Hanak who was deported from Prague to the death camps wherehe was murdered at the age of 60.
1882:It was reported today, that in Berlin, a committee composed of leading citizensbelonging to all religious denominations has raised 100,000 marks to providedassistance for Jews seeking to leave Russia.
1882:It was reported today that reports have reached Vienna confirming the attackson Jews in towns near Odessa. In Balta,the riots lasted for two days leaving at least 2,000 Jewish families in ruin. “The riots almost assumed the character of astruggle for the annihilation of the Jews…”
1883(15thof Nisan, 5643): On the first day of Pesach an article entitled “The Feast ofthe Passover” reported that “the morning services at” the Jewish “places ofworship…will be peculiarly interesting.”
1884: In Nashville, TN, John Schoffner made afull confession to police concerning the murder of Meyer Friedman, a Jew livingin Nashville. According to Schoffner,Meyer Morris organized the killing, and that Mrs. Friedman wanted her husbanddead because “she did not love him” and he “treated her badly.”
1884: Birthdate ofVienna native Otto Rosenfeld who gained fame as psychoanalyst, Otto Rank who wrotethe firstpsychoanalytic book by a disciple of Freud and moved to the United States in the 1930’s where died at the age of 55, onemonth after Freud passed away.
1884: New Yorkdentist and founding member of B’nai Israel Dr. Lyon Berhard was laid to restat Cypress Hill this morning.
1885: Birthdate of“Lumzer, Russia native and Holyoke, MA businessman Charles Belsky, a partner inthe wholesale junk company of Belsky and Goldberg and the husband of EstherCohen with whom he had three children.
1885: Ninety-six-year-old Reverend LeonardWithington, the oldest Congregational Clergyman in the United States passedaway today. Withington was a scholarwell versed in Hebrew who had written a book entitled “Solomon Songs.” He was a prime example of the reality that in19th century America some of the people who were the mostknowledgeable about Hebrew as a language were Protestant ministers.
1886: Jess Seligman presided over tonight’scelebration of the second anniversary of the Hebrew Technical Institute whichwas held at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.Among the dignitaries attending the event was Carl Schurz, the famousGerman-American journalist and social reformer who gave the evening’s mainaddress. (The school would remain open until 1939)
1887: It was reported today that two Englishmancarrying an American flag recently imprisoned a Jewish merchant from AlcazarMorocco on charges of not paying a debt.The prisoner was paraded through various towns in chains as hje wastaken to Tangier. The event, which tookplace during Passover, has been condemned by the leading Jews of Tangier whohave sought the aid of the local British, French and Portuguese Consuls
1888: In Chicago, Iowa native Fannie Jacobson andrealtor Morris Jacobson gave birth to Dr. Edmund Jacobson, a specialist intension control, died last Friday at Northwestern University Hospital inChicago
1889: In Terre Haute, Indiana, “Max and Theresa(Ravitch) Blumberg gave birth to DePauw University graduate and University ofChicago trained attorney gave birth to Benjamin Blumberg the husband of FannieLouise Burgheimer who served as an officer realty and investment companieswhile being a member of Temple Israel and the Temple Israel Men’s Cub.
1889: The Literary Notes column reported that “TheJew in English Fiction” by Rabbi David Philipson will soon be issued by RobertClarke & Co of Cincinnati, Ohio.Among the characters discussed are Marlowe’s Jew of Malta, Shakespeare’sShylock, Cumberland’s Jew, Scott’s Jew in “Ivanhoe”, Dickens’ Jew in “OliverTwist’ and “Our Mutual Friend”, Disraeli’s in “Coningsby” and “Tancred andGeorge Eliot’s “Daniel Deronda”. (At thetime, Philipson was a young Reform rabbi from Wabash, Indiana)
1889: At high noon, thousands rush to claim land inthe Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie areformed with populations of at least 10,000. ‘Jewish settlers began coming toOklahoma and Indian Territory as early as 1875. The Jewish population grew asOklahoma blossomed into a boom area, after the famous Land Run of 1889 andstatehood in 1907. The early settlers came as peddlers and salesmen and laterbecame shopkeepers and retail merchants. According to the American Jewish YearBook, there were 1,000 Jews in Oklahoma Territory in 1901.” (Courtesy of theJewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City)
1890: In the UK, Sir Marcus Samuel, the futureSheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London and the former FannyElizabeth Benjamin gave birth to their fourth child and second daughter IdaMarie.
1891(14th of Nisan, 5651): “The Festival of Pesach:It will begin at Sunset To-Night and Last For A Week” published today reportedthat “all the reform temples and orthodox synagogues will be open for servicesthis evening…and appropriate sermons will be delivered by the spiritual headsof the communities.
1891: Birthdate of Nettie Yaniger who became NettiePanitz when she married Ezekiel Panitz and who was the David H. Panitz whoserved as the rabbi at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. during the late 1950’s.
1892: In Brooklyn, Adolph and Deborah (Spaine)Dannenberg gave birth to Oscar Asahel Halevy Dannenberg, the Yale alum andlawyer who served as a Sheriff in Bridgeport, CT.
1893(6th of Iyar, 5653): Marx MordechaiPfaelzer, the son of Feis Moses or Uri Pfaelzer; Fanny Pfaelzer and Hanna(Pfaelzer) Marx, the husband of Karoline / Gitel Pfaelzer and the father ofFannie Kind; Simon Pfaelzer; Sarah Schweizer; Morris Moses Pfaelzer; LinaStrouss; Clara Pfaelzer; Emilie Pfaelzer; Regina Pfaelzer; Fred Pfaelzer;Fredricke Pfaelzer and Adelheld Pfaelzer passed away today after which he wasburied at Hemsbach, Germany.
1893(6th of Iyar, 5653): Chaim Aronson passed awayat the age of 77. Born in Lithuania in 1825 when it was part of Russia,Aaronson was a gifted linguist (Hebrew, German, and Russian) with a penchantfor invention who went from being a clockmaker to developing a variety of machinesincluding one for making cigarettes and one that was a prototype for a moviecamera. Aronson was a better scholar andengineer than he was a businessman since none of his work brought himcommercial success. His most long-lastingcontribution was a literary work entitled A Jewish Life under the Tsars: TheAutobiography of Chaim Aronson, 1825-1888 that provides a picture of lifein the final century of Czarist Russia.
1893: Rabbi Raphael Benjamin delivered a sermon thismorning on the subject of the recent blackballing of Theodore Seligman by theUnion League.
1893: “Max Judd Objected To” published todaydescribed the reasons that the government of Austria provided for refusing torecognize the appointment of Max Judd as Consul General for the United Statesat Vienna. The Austrians claim that therefusal is based on that fact the Judd had been born in Austria and “is engagedin the emigration business.” The Austrians claim that the objection has nothingto do with Judd’s religion which is just as well because the U.S. governmenthas said that Mr. Judd’s replacement will not be of Austrian descent, but hewill be Jewish.
1894(16th of Nisan, 5654): Second Day ofPesach; 1st day of the Omer
1894: Hyman Blumenthal was arrested on charges thathe had deliberately tried to burn down the tenement at 28 East Broadway.
1894(16th of Nisan, 5654): Brooklyn bornJacob Hamburger, the father the successfulmanufacturer of robes and dresses Benjamin Hamburger and had he lived longenough, the father-in-law of Ray Marks and the grandfather of Sideny Hamburgerpassed away today.
1894: Birthdate of Max Weinreich, the Russian bornAmerican linguist and a founder of the Yiddish Institue (YIVO) and author whowas “the father of the linguist Uriel Weinreich, who edited the ModernYiddish-English English-Yiddish Dictionary.”
1894: Rabbi Joseph Silverman delivered a lecture atTemple Emanu-El in New York entitled “The Jewish Passover and Its ModernMessage to Jews and Christians” in which he described that observing Passoverwas “the celebration of the anniversary of the Jewish Independence Day.”
1894: “The Babylonian Element” published todayincluded Professor Archibald Sayce’s comparison of the narratives found onBabylonian Tablets and those found in Genesis which “assume an entirelydifferent complexion in the hands of the Biblical writers” who strip them oftheir polytheism, accommodate them to the Hebrew point of view and “make themthe vehicle of profound religious truths.
1895: It was reported today that the Hebrew OrphanAsylum is providing housing for 700 children at its building at 137thStreet and Amsterdam Avenue. TrusteesTheodore Seligman, Edward Lauterbach and Emanuel Leyman are considering aproposal to raise $250,000 to expand the facility in order to meet increaseddemand for its services.
1895: “Object To The McCall Bill” published todaydescribed the “vigorous protest” of “the American Anti-Semite Association” tothe passage of the McCall Educational Test bill and “recommends the passage ofthe Stone Consular Certificate bill” that “considers as desirable immigrantsonly those who for five years previous have been actively engaged inagricultural pursuits with their own manual labor.”
1896 (9th of Iyar, 5656): Gustave May passed awaytoday in New York City. Born in Paris in1845, he served as Quartermaster General with the forces fighting to protectthe Commune at the end of the Fanco-Prussian War. When the Commune forces were defeated, hefled to America with his brother where they started May Brothers, a firm ofcommission merchants that “was the first to import cigarette papers into theUnited States. Although born Jewish May saw himself as a “Freethinker” and wasactive in the French Exile community.His brother Elie had served as a General in the forces of the Commune.
1896: Cassie Ritter Weil and Adolphus Weil gavebirth to Adolphus Leo Weil, Jr who lived at Pennsylvania at the time of hisdeath.
1896: Herzl began a two-day journey to Karlsruhewhere he was received in audience by Grossherzog (Grand Duke) Friedrich ofBaden. Herzl was heartened by themeeting saying ("Jedenfalls nahm der Grossherzog meine Staatbildung vonAnfang an vollkommen ernst." - "In any case, the Grand Duke took myproposed formation of a state quite seriously from the beginning.")
1896: Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, cut short hisstate visit to Russia and left St. Petersburg for Paris so he could attend thefuneral of his friend Baron Hirsch.
1896: “Strong Tribute To His Memory” published todayprovided reminiscences by Oscar S. Straus about the late Baron de Hirsh sayingthat “it was my good fortune to enjoy the personal acquaintance of Baron deHirsch” whom he said gave away $25,000,000 to provide relief for Russian Jewswhich the Baron considered to be the most oppressed people in the world.
1897(20thof Nisan, 5657): Sixth Day of Pesach
1897(20th of Nisan,5657): Sixty-seven-year-old Simon Alexander passed away today having lost his 9month long battle with asthma and heart sickness. He was an editorial writer for The Hebrew Journal and member of TempleEmanu-El
1897: In New York City, the world'slargest Jewish daily newspaper, "The Forward," was first published.Abraham Cahan, 43, one of its founders, became editor of the paper in 1903,remaining until his death in 1951. The Forward began as a Yiddishpaper. By the 1930's it was one of the nation's leading dailies with areadership of 275,000 supplemented by a radio audience listening to WVED.One of its most famous features was the Bintel Briefs, a Yiddish DearAbby. The paper shifted its formant and became English weekly in the1980's. Later it added a Russian language edition for the new wave ofJewish immigrants. For more information see http://www.forward.com/.
1898(30thof Nisan, 5658): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1898(30thof Nisan, 5658): Simon Kayserling passed away. Kayserling was a German bornteacher and author. He was the brotherof Meyer Kayserling. Both brothers werehistorians. But Meyer also pursuedcareer in the Rabbinate while Simon followed a more secular career serving onthe faculty of the Jewish Free School while writing or translating books aboutthe history of Poland and the history of the Jews living in Spain and Portugal.
1898:N.S. Roenau of the United Hebrew Charities was one of the speakers whoaddressed a group Yale University students studying Sociology under thedirection of Professor William T. Blackman who visited New York City today.
1899:The sixth annual reunion banquet of the Hebrew Technical Institute AlumniAssociation was held this evening at the Broadway Central Hotel.
1899:Minnie Jacobs and her lawyer Joseph Moss appeared before William J. Youngs,Secretary to the Governor of New York to plead for a pardon for her father,Saul Jacobs.
1900(23rdof Nisan): Author Louis Bein passed away.
1900:District Grand Lodge No. 7 of B’nai Birth which includes the states of Alabama,Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas with over 1,700members opened its 27 convention today in New Orleans.
1900:“Mysterious Murder Leads to Jew Baiting in Prussia” published today describedhow “the anti-Semites have succeeded in provoking an outbreak of Jew-baiting byexploiting the mysterious murder of Ernst Winter at Konitz as a so-calledritual crime” because as one Berlin newspaper said “the crime is the work Jewswho require Christian blood.”
1900:Twenty-four-year-old Jacob Mack married 22 year old Bertha “Birdie” Ronsheim, anative of Cincinnati, Ohio.
1900:“In Memory of Dr. Wise” published today described plans for a public servicethat will be held in memory of Dr. I. M. Wise on April 29 under the directionsof New York Board of Jewish Ministers.
1901:“Assemblyman Charles Adler of New York City called on Governor Odell today andappealed to him to have the law closing the butcher shops on Sundays so amendedas to permit Jewish butchers who close on the Sabbath to open for a few hourson Sundays.
1901:Twenty-five-year-old Cornell trained physician Jacob Gutman, the Riga born sonof Abraham and Sarah (Gator) Gutman and member of Temple Israel married RebeccaDogin today in New York City.
1902(15thof Nisan, 5662): On the first day of Passover The New York Times tookexception to a letter that Mayor Seth Low had sent to Police Commissioner JohnN. Partridge advising him not to enforce “blue laws” on Sunday April 20 becauseJews needed to shop and conduct such activities as killing chickens as theyprepared for their holiday which would begin on Monday evening, April 21. The Times said that the Mayor’s ruling “wasuncalled for” and “was wrong in principle and conclusion. [Editor’s Note: Thoseof us living in the 21st century with its 24/7 schedule probablyhave difficulty that power of Sunday closing laws; laws that were enforced wellinto the closing decades of the 20th century.”
1902:Birthdate of Madeline Samuel, the daughter of Julius Juda Dukas and the wife ofJacob A. Samuel.
1903: Herzl meets Lord Rothschild whotells him that Edmond de Rothschild is delighted with his plan.
1903:Birthdate of Marcus Polak, the native of Goor who would be murdered at BergenBelsen.
1904:Birthdate of Robert J. Oppenheimer.Born in New York, Oppenheimerwas the son of a prosperous German-Jewish textile importer and an artisticBaltimore Jewess who died when Oppenheimer was a child. Arenownedphysicist, Oppenheimerbordered on the brilliant and enjoyed a wide rangeof intellectual pursuits. His claim to fame is the ManhattanProject. He was the scientific overlord of the American racetodevelop and build the Atomic Bomb. After the war, Oppenheimer hadreservations aboutadditional military uses of science. He opposedthebuilding of the Hydrogen Bomb, a project that was brought to asuccessful conclusion by yet anotherJewish scientist, EdwardTeller. Oppenheimer fell victim to the post-War Red Scare and lost hissecurity clearance.Oppenheimer's security clearance was regained duringthe Kennedy years and his reputation was publicly rehabilitated. Hepassedawayin 1967 at the age of 62. As to the Jewish influence in hislife, consider the following. Prior to the 1930's, Oppenheimer had led thecloistered life of the privileged and the scientist in his ivory tower.During the 1930's Oppenheimer became involved in liberal and social justicecauses.According to him, the change came about, in part became, "Ihad had a continuing smoldering fury about the treatment of Jews in Germany, Ihad relatives there, and was later to help in extricating them and bringingthem to this country...I began to participate more fully in the life of thecommunity."
1905(17thof Nisan, 5665): Third Day of Pesach and Shabbat
1905:“The Doukala, Chiadma and M’touga tribes are in full revolt near Mogador,” alsoknown as Suira which “is a seaport on the west coast of Morocco” that “has apopulation of 19,000, 8,000 of whom are Jews.”
1906:In Montreal, Shlomo Chaim Caplan and Chaya Bluma Routtenberg gave birth toJonah Ephraim Caplan the Yeshiva University graduate who had come to the UnitedStates in 1924 served as the rabbi at several congregations including oneAstoria, NY and was “active in the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.
1907:Abram Biju did not marry Angelita Wertheim today as planned because the groom’sfather Isaac Bijur had passed away on the previous Saturday.
1907:A bill introduced tonight in the New York State Legislature designed toregulate pushcart peddlers in New York City that allow for “special temporarylicenses to be issued for Jewish and Italian holidays” for a fee less than thestandard charge of $10.
1907:It was reported today that Ida Highwood, driven by Nathan Strauss “was almostinvincible” when she faced competitors as the Speedway. (Editor’s note – IdaHighwood was a trotter.
1908:Birthdate of Leonard Schapiro, the native of Glasgow, Scotland “who spend inhis childhood in Riga and St. Petersburg but returned to Britain with hisparents in 1920 where he carved out a career in economics and political studiesthat led to his being named Professor of Political Science at the London Schoolof Economics.
1908:Birthdate of New York native and award-winning authority on providing healthcare of the aged and chronically ill, William Adelman the long-time executivedirector of Beth Abraham Hospital in the Bronx and husband of the former DorisMensch with whom he had three sons – Richard, Mark and Robert.
1909(1stof Iyar, 5669): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1909:Twenty-eight-year-old Benjamin Winter, Sr., the Lodz born son of Michael andBeatrice Oshner Winter, who in 1901 came to the United States where he wentfrom painting apartment buildings to becoming a real estate mogul who lostforty million dollars while going bankrupt during the Depression and thenmaking it all back and more just before his death, today married Dora Nisselwith whom he had
fourchildren – Marvin, Beatrice, Ethel and Natalie.
1909: In Turin, Italy, Adamo Levi, an engineer, and AdeleMontalcini, a painter, both Italian Jews who traced their roots to the RomanEmpire gave birth to Rita Levi-Montalcini, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize inphysiology or medicine. (As reported by Benedict Carey)
1910:Today Rabbi Haim (Henry) Pereira Méndez, President of the Union of OrthodoxCongregations wrote a letter to New York Mayor William Gaynor on behalf of theOrthodox congregations in the United States and Canada thanking him for hisletter rejecting the request of Rev. Thomas M Chalmers for a license to “preachfor the conversion Jews” on street corners in some of the city’s most heavily“Jewish” communities. Mendez expressedhis appreciation for the tone of the letter which was sympathetic to the Jewishpeople and said that he would work with the Christian ministers to lift thelevel of modern society to a level closer to that expressed by Judaism andChristianity.
1910:Rabbi Hyman Gerson Enelow completed his service as The Temple “Louisville, Kentucky Jewish weekly that firs appearedin July of 1909.
1911(24thof Nisan, 5671): Parashat Shimini
1911:The Jewish World to-day published an interview with Herman Bernstein,the author and translator, who passed through London on his way to Russiaduring which he said “that since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem theJes have not had a better home than they have in the United and that Jewishimmigrants become Americanized more rapidly than the immigrants of other creedsand languages” but “there seems to be a policy for the restriction ofimmigration which sometimes goes byon the law and which turns the misery of theimmigrant into tragedy.”
1912:The Wage Earner's League for Woman Suffrage held a major rally at New York'sCooper Union. Clara Lemlich, Rose Schneiderman, and three others founded theLeague which sought to encourage working women to join the political process aswell as to agitate for the right to vote. Lemlich, a shirtwaist maker, becamethe League's vice president. Drawing on their background in the Socialistmovement, the founders of the Wage Earners' League emphasized the specialconcerns of working women. They argued in speeches and pamphlets that womenneeded the vote in order to secure basic human rights like safe workingconditions. In doing so, League leaders came into conflict with both Socialistmen and middle-class women. The men who counted on female allies in Socialistcauses bluntly suggested that suffrage activists return to their kitchens.Middle-class women showed their class bias in suggesting that their wealth andeducation made them more capable activists than these working women. Wary ofhaving their specific concerns sidestepped, League members agreed that anywoman could join their group, but that only workers could vote, ensuring thatworking women would remain in control of the League's agenda and tactics.Today’s rally at Cooper Union brought together thousands of cheering women tolisten to arguments for women's suffrage. The location was symbolic; CooperUnion was the site of the rally that had kicked off the "Uprising of the20,000," one of the first and most influential strikes of industrialgarment workers, just three years before. Despite a large and enthusiasticturnout at the rally, the League dissolved soon afterward. Lacking a full-timeorganizer and a steady source of funding, the League ceased to be active.Schneiderman went on a speaking tour for another suffrage organization; hercolleagues likewise turned their energies to other groups. Ultimately, thefight for suffrage would depend on alliances across class and gender lines.
1912:In London, those attending a “meeting of the East End Jewish shopkeepers”passed a “resolution petitioning the local Borough Council to grant Jewish EastEnd traders an exemption under the Shops Act.”
1912:The Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis, whose purpose was “to offer areaffirmation of the member’s faith in the permanent character and value toIsrael and to the world of Liberal or Reform Judaism” was organized today.
1913(15thof Nisan, 5673): Pesach
1913(15thof Nisan, 5673): Seventy-four-year-old “manufacturer” Gabriel Hirsch passedaway today in Philadelphia.
1913:Rabbi Tobias Schanfarber is scheduled to lead Passover services this morning atK.A.M. Temple in Chicago, Illinois
1913:Founding of Beth Aaron Synagogue in Minneapolis, MN.
1913:Jacob Adler and Sara Adler are scheduled to begin a weeklong run at theHaymarket Theatre where he will perform “Style” by Abraham Shomer.
1914:In the Netherlands, Professor Arnold Hendrik and Lucretia de Hartog gave birthto author Jan de Hartog who wrote “Skipper Next to God” in which WolfeBarzell’s performance provided the inspiration for his nephew Emanuel “Manny”Azenberg to become interested in theatre; an interest that would lead to athirty-three relationship with playwright Neil Simon.
1915:” An application for a commutation of Leo Frank's deathsentence was submitted to a three-person Prison Commission in Georgia.”
1915:During WW I, at Ypres, the Germans used gas for the first time on thebattlefield.
1915(8thof Iyar, 5675): David S. Lehman, the native of Portsmouth, Ohio, the husband ofthe former Alma Schlesinger, the son-in-law or Rabbi Max Schlesinger of Albany,NY and the Vice President of the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives diedin Denver today “form intestinal trouble after several months’ of illness.
1915:“Seventy Jews” who are seeking to emigrate to America or Australia arrived inAlexandria today from Jerusalem and described the “terrible economic situation”with flour costing fifteen dollars a sack, potatoes being sold for “six timesthe ordinary cost” and the appearance of huge swarms of locusts.
1916(19thof Nisan, 5676): Fifth day of Pesach; Shabbat
1916:It was reported today that Dr. Straus a native of Germany now living in NewYork provided the $25,000 to start the Alpha and Omega Publishing Company whichwill publish The American Jewish Chronicle, a weekly publication thatwill serve as an advocate for the rights of European Jews after the World Warcomes to an end.
1916: In New York, Marutha Sher and Moshe Menhuingave birth to Yehudi Menuhin famed violin virtuoso and conductor.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yehudi-Menuhin
1917(30thof Nisan, 5677) Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1917:Rabbi Samuel Schulman is scheduled deliver a talk on “The War and Religion” atTemple Beth-El.
1917:At Carnegie Hall, the Free Synagogue is scheduled to host “Tenth AnniversaryExercise” that will include a sermon by Rabbi Wise on “Is the Free SynagogueWorthwhile?”
1917:Dr. Silverman is scheduled to deliver a talk on “What the Jews Have Done forthe World” at Temple Emanu-El.
1917:“Students from Adelphi College, College of the City of New York, ColumbiaUnivesity, Hunter College and New York University” attended “the second annualdinner of the Menorah Society in Greater New York” which was held this eveningat the Hotel Netherland in New York City
1917:In Cardiff, Wales, “solicitor and cinema owner” Rudolf Abse gave birth to LeoAbse, the husband of Marjorie Davis with whom he had two children – Tobias andBathsheba – who was a lawyer and a 30 Welsh Labour Member of Parliament whopromoted laws to liberalize divorce and decriminalize hom*osexual behavior.
1917:Professor Philip Boas of Whitman University delivered a speech entitled “Youthand Judaism” at the Spring Assembly of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis atTemple Emanu-El this evening in which he “said that he did not believe thatJewish youths were deserting the synagogue.”“He asserted there signs of greater consciousness of Judaism among theyoung than there were ten years ago, but the youth wanted to see resulted andwanted to see how religion was benefiting the world.”
1917:“The American Jewish Historical Society began its 25th conventiontoday at the Hotel Ansonia.
1917:Max J. Kohler, the son of the President the Hebrew Union College, presented apaper on “Jewish Rights at the Congress of Vienna” today.
1917:Dr. Cyrus Adler, Oscar S. Straus, Dr. Jacob H. Hollander and Daniel P. Hayesspoke at this evening’s reception hosted by the Judean Society under theleadership of its President, Dr. Henry M. Leipziger for members of the AmericanJewish Historical Society.
1917:Jacob H. Schiff, a long-time opponent of creating a “Jewish nation inPalestine” delivered a speech at a meeting of the League of the Jewish Youth ofAmerica at the Century Theatre in which expressed his support for the creationof a “center for Jewish culture” in Palestine because he believed “in theJewish people, in the mission of the Jewish people” and in the need for a placewhere “Jewish culture might be further and developed, unhampered by thematerialism of the world.”
1918:Austrian native Nettie Kinsbruner, the daughter of Shmuel Meyer Stettner andRachel Stettner and her husband David (Aubie) Kinsbruner gave birth toBeatrice, the sister of American college basketball star Mac Kinsbrunner.
1918:Birthdate of Solomon Aaron Berson, the New York born physician who worked withRosalyn Yallow on “major advances in clinical biochemistry.”
1919(22ndof Nisan, 5679): Eighth Day of Pesach
1919:In one of those great calendar coincidences, today in New York, Frederick andMargareten, part of the matzah empire, gave birth to Muriel V. Margareten whobecame Muriel V. Nusbaum which she married Goodwin Nusbaum
1919:I. Edwin Goldwasser, the executive director of the Federation for the supportof Jewish Philanthropic Societies is scheduled to lecture on “Co-ordination inJewish Philanthropy” at this evening’s meeting of the Council of Jewish Womenat the Sinai Center in Chicago.
1919:Jacob H. Schiff, Abram I.Elkus and Dr. Stephen S. are scheduled to speak at thereception for the Earl of Reading sponsored by the Judaeans which will bepresided over by President Samson Lachman
1920:During the San Remo Conference, Chaim Weizmann has a private meeting with LloydGeorge and Lord Balfour during which he presses the British leaders “for acivil administration in Palestine, run by the British under a League of Nationsmandate. This stood in stark contrastwith the French leaders who did not want the Balfour Declaration to be part ofthe peace treaty with the Ottomans.
1920:In Washington, the Tacoma News Tribune reported that Leach Cross (born LouisCharles Wallach” whose boxing nickname was “The Fighting Dentist” “had signedwith Universal Pictures in Los Angeles to appear in an 18-episode serialentitle “The Vanishing Dagger.”
1921(14thof Nisan, 5681):Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1921:Today, an Englishman who “believed in the Jewish origin of the British RoyalFamily” considered Saeki Yoshiro’s theory of the Jewish origins of the Japanesepeople, Israel’s Messenger carried aletter from former lady-in-waiting Elizabeth A. Gordon.
1921:In Manhattan, Minna (Harlib) Koenig and Judge Morris Koenig gave birth toDartmouth undergraduate and Columbia Law School trained attorney Julian NormanKoenig the WW II Army veteran and creative advertising man credit with comingup with the campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle and Earth Day, which was firstcelebrated for the first time on his 49th birthday. (As reported byWilliam Yardley)
1922:Birthdate of American microbiologist Wolf Vladimir Vishniac, the Berlin bornson of photographer Roman Vishniac, husband of Helen Vishniac and the father ofastronomer Ethan Vishniac.
1923:In Nuremberg Jewish businessman Gustav Kahn and the former Beatrice Freudenthal(both of whom were murdered in the Holocaust gave birth to Robert Ludwig Kahn, whosurvived the Holocaust because of the Kindertransport and went on to became aProfessor of German at Rice University in Houston while raised two children,Peter and Beatrice, with his wife, poet Lieselotte Maragrete Kupfer.
1922:The national board of Hadassah voted "no confidence" in theleadership of ZOA President Louis Lipsky.
1923:In Manhattan, novelist Paul Hervey Fox and “the former Elsie de Sola” gavebirth to novelist Paula Fox.
1923(6thof Iyar, 5683): Fifty-seven-year-old Charleston SC born Baltimore attorneyLouis H. Levin the “Executive Secretary of the Association of Jewish Charities,”“the second editor of Jewish Comment,” the husband of Bertha Szold with whom hehad five children – Benjamin, Marcus, Harriet, Sarah and Eva – and thebrother-in-law of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah, passed away todayin Baltimore.
1924:“Arguing that this Government and others had made costly mistakes in dealingwith Oriental peoples because they did not know enough about them, andintimating his belief that the United States was on the verge of committinganother similar blunder with relation to the Japanese for the same reason, Dr.Cyrus Adler, President of Dropsie College, appealed today for a change in theviewpoint with which the Western nations looked at those in the East,”
1925:In Sosnowiec, Poland, Herschel Krysztal, an accountant and the former DoraGrossman gave birth to Henyek Krysztal who gained famed as psychiatrist Dr.Henry Krystal. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1926:In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, “Russian Jewish immigrants Esther (née Ottenstein),who was a childhood friend of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and MeyerLubotsky, a retail tire business owner gave birth to Charlotte Rae Lubotsky whogained fame as Emmy nominated actress Charlotte Rae and the mother of LarryStraus who co-authored her autobiography The Facts of My Life.
1927(20thof Nisan, 5687):Sixth Day of Pesach
1928: In Dallas Texas, David Sperling, “a tailorwho had changed his surname from Spurling to Spelling” and his wife Pearl Wald,both of whom were Russian Jewish immigrants gave birth to SMU graduate “Aaron Spelling,the TV executive producer who gave us “Charlie's Angels.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/24/arts/television/24spelling.html
1928:In the Hell’s Kitchen section of New YorkPolish Jewish immigrants Anna and Isaac “Ira” Nussbaum” gave birth toEstelle Nussbaum who gained fame as Estelle Harris the actress best known forher role “as Estelle Costanza the mother Seinfeld sidekick George Costanza” whoraised three children – Eric, Glen and Taryn – with her husband Sy Harris.
1928:Banker Jacques Stern who had run “on the Left Republic List” began serving as adeputy for the Dinge “district of Bassess-Alpes” today.
1928:Following Hadassah President Irma Levy Lindheim’s recent declaration that theadministration of the ZOA was "not an effective instrument for theachievement of world Zionist aims for the up-building of Palestine" todaythe National Board of Hadassah registered a vote of no confidence in theleadership of ZOA President Louis Lipsky.
1929(12thof Nisan, 5689): Sixty-nine-year-old Cleveland clothing manufacturer JohnAinsfeld, the Vienna born son of Israel and Amelia (Geldwerth) Ainsfeld whomarried Edith Karolyn after his first wife, Daniela Guttenberg had passed awayand who was President of Mt. Sinai Hospital and the Jewish Infant Orphan’s Homeas well as a member of the Hebrew Free Loan Association and the treasurer ofthe of Federation for Jewish Charities, passed away.
https://case.edu/ech/articles/a/anisfield-john
1930:In Brooklyn, Jacob Goetz who “lost his men’s clothing store during the GreatDepression and then sold ties on street corners until his death in 1943” andRose Feldman who “worked at the store and, after her husband’s death, at theBrooklyn Navy Yard during World War II” gave birth to WW II Army veteran andCCNY graduate Martin Alvin Goetz “who joined the computer industry in itsinfancy in the mid-1950s as a programmer working on Univac mainframes and wholater received the first U.S. patent for software…” (As reported by RichardSandomir)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/21/technology/martin-goetz-dead.html
1930:Release date for the all-star revue “Paramount on Parade” written by JosephMankiewicz and co-produced by Jesse Lasky, Adolph Zucker, Albert S. Kaufman andB.P. Schulberg.
1930:In Manhattan, The Warner Bros. Hollywood Theatre, which was later re-named TheMark Hellinger Theatre, opened today.
1931:A charity dinner is scheduled to be held at the Hotel Biltmore today “under theauspices of the New York Campaign for the Relief of Jews in Eastern Europe”which is trying to raise one million dollars.
1931:JBI Internationalwas founded as the Jewish Braille Institute of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBI_International
1932(16thof Nisan, 5692): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer is observed forthe last time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover, who without fanfare orcontroversy, appointed the second Jewish Supreme Court Associate Justice.
1933(26thof Nisan, 5693): Parashat Shmini
1933(26thof Nisan, 5693): A Jewish merchant,Salomon Rosenstrauch was shot dead in Wiesbaden, Germany.
1933:In Nazi Germany, the government adopted measures excluding Jewish students fromschool.
1933:“A conference of executive directors of Y.M.H.A.’s, Y.W H.A’s and JewishCommunity Centers” is scheduled to begin this evening at the 92ndStreet Y.
1933(26thof Nisan, 5693): Fifty-nine year old Sándor Ferenczi, the “son of Baruch -Bernát Ferenczi and Róza Frenkel” and “husband of Gizella Palos – Propper”passed away today.
1934:Cleveland E. Dodge, President of the of the Greater New York Y.M.C.A. and JudgeIrving Lehman, President of the Jewish Welfare Board are scheduled to two ofthe speakers at the is evening’s dinner at the Hotel Commodore at theanniversary dinner of the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association ofthe Bronx.
1935:In Los Angeles, the premier of “Bride of Frankenstein,” the sci-fi thriller”produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr and filmed by cinematographer Franz Waxman.
1936(30thof Nisan, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1936:“As the racial rioting stormed in its third week, a communique issued by the(British) police declared that masses of Arabs were still attacking Jewishsettlements” including at “Hatikvah Settlemet” and “Shechunath Areyh, midwaybetween Tel Aviv and Petach Tikvah” were “Jews successfully defended thesettlement until police arrived and beat off the invaders.”
1936:“At Jenin, on the main highway to Jerusalem, a large crowd of Arab villagershelp up and stone Jewish buses, wounding two passengers.”
1936:Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, national chairman of the United Palestine Appealannounced today that the Palestine Foundation Fund and the Jewish National Fundhad sent $100,000 to Palestine” from funds that were being collecting in theUnited States for the settlement of Jews from German, Poland and countries inPalestine.
1936:“At 5 o’clock this morning a Jewish-owned cardboard factory near Tel Aviv wasburned by Arabs.”
1936:“A Jewish merchant in the old city of Jerusalem who tried to open his shop wasbeaten by young Arab agitators and forced to close.”
1937(11thof Iyar, 5697): Ninety-four-year-old Albany, NY native Simon Wolfe Rosendalethe New York State Attorney General who was the first Jew elected to astate-wide office in “the Empire State” and who was active in Jewish communalaffairs even though he was an anti-Zionist passed away today.
http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/10075964
1937(11thof Iyar, 5697): Sixty-seven-year-old Mrs. Marcus M. Marks (Esther Friedman),the “widow of the Borough President of Manhattan” who was also called by some“the father of day-light saving plans” passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9502E7D6133AE23ABC4B51DFB266838C629EDE
1938(21stof Nisan, 5698): Seventh Day of Pesach.
1938:“Nazis prohibit Aryan 'front-ownership' of Jewish businesses.”
1938:It was reported today that a “lawyer’s group” to raise funds for the AmericanOrt Foundation “was formed at meeting in the office former Judge Grossman” anda “dentists group” was formed at offices on offices at 212 Fifth Avenue where“Dr. John L. Kaufman was elected chairman.”
1939:Birthdate of Uri Orr, the native of Kfar Haim who rose to the rank of generalin the IDF before pursuing a political career that included serving as an MKand Deputy Minister of Defense.
1939:“Dark Victory,” a melodrama produced by David Lewis, with music by Max Steinerwas released today in the United States.
1939:“The Greek cattleboat Assimi which attempted to land 263 illegal Jewishimmigrants” in Palestine “twelve days ago was ordered to leave Haifatonight.” When the police announcedthe decision, “the passengers tore off their clothing and screamed that theywould rather be killed than be sent back to sea. Some prayed and recitedpsalms. When the Jewish residents of Haifa heard the screams and prayers aboardthe Assimi” they spontaneously proclaimed a strike that took hold throughoutthe city. Protesters carried signsreading ‘Open the gates to the Jewish illegals’ and ‘Down with the barbaricattitude toward illegals. The captain had been fined and imprisoned for hisrole in bringing the Jews to Palestine. To add insult to injury the captain hadbeen fined and imprisoned for his role in bringing the Jews to Palestine.
1940(14thof Nisan, 5700): The Sommer family sits down to their first Seder inLiechtenstein. How this family of GermanJewish refugees from Munich came to be there was chronicled by SusiPugatsch-Sommer in an article entitled “A Pesach Miracle in Nazi Germany.”
Myfamily - my parents Binyamin and Friedl Sommer, myself (13) my sister Ella(10), my brother Alfred (7), and my grandmother, Rachel - lived in temporaryquarters in Munich, after our home had been confiscated by the Nazi dailynewspaper, Völkischer Beobachter in 1939. My father had been arrested andincarcerated in the Dachau Camp in 1938 for a short time. Once he was released,he realized that he and the family had to leave Germany as quickly as possible,but he could not find a way to get out. In November 1939, my father left homefor a few days, and hid the forest near Munich, since he was informed that theNazis would arrest all male Jews again and send them to a concentration camp.By chance, he met a man in the forest who identified himself only as anengineer. This man told him that he could arrange an entry permit into neutralLiechtenstein only if he had enough money to open a building materials factoryand pay salaries to 100 workers, since unemployment was high in Liechtenstein.My father agreed immediately, since he had no other option to save our lives.Miraculously, we received visas for Liechtenstein in the beginning of April1940, in the middle of World War II, our passes to relative safety. We had 14days to leave Germany, and each person was allowed to take one suitcase and 10reichmarks. We boarded the train in Munich three days before Pessah. We werefrisked at the German border and after the Nazis didn't find anythingforbidden, were allowed to cross the border to Liechtenstein on foot. We werecompletely exhausted when we arrived in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and went to sleepin a simple hotel. We did not know if there were any Jewish families inLiechtenstein, and we had no idea how we would keep Pessah properly and buymatzot. Then our next miracle happened. The following morning, as we wanderedaround town, a young girl stopped us and asked if we were Jewish and if shecould help us. Immediately, she introduced us to her parents and some otherJewish families. The Schönwalder family invited us into their home, to theirSeder and we continued to have all our meals and prayers there during the weekof Pessah. We continued to reside in Liechtenstein for 10 years. At this time,only 40 to 50 Jews lived there. I met with the Schönwalders' daughter, Edith,almost every day, and she is still a very good friend of mine. Today, we bothlive in Israel. I'll never forget the miracle that happened to us - my father'schance meeting with the engineer, an emigration visa in the midst of the war,and the wonderful families who helped us celebrate Pessah as religious Jews.
1940: SS official OdiloGlobocnik announced a plan to increase the use of Jewish forced labor and toestablish separate work camps for Jewish men and women.
1940:Detroit Tigers Pitcher Dick Conger appeared in his first major league baseballgame.
1940:Ten members of the staff of Ben Shemen Youth village, including the directorare sentenced to serve prison terms of up to seven years. The British hadraided Ben Shemen in January and found weapons belonging to the Haganah. Theprison sentences were for their role in hiding the weapons.
1941(25th ofNisan, 5701): Fifty-nine-year-old Struchin, Russia native and social workerElias Trotzkey who in 1912 came to the United States where he served assupervisor at the Marks Nathan Jewish Orphan Home and wrote several bookspassed away today.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Trotzkey%2C%20Elias%20L%2E
1941:Birthdate of Israeli Amir Pnueli an Israeli scientist who developed a “criticaltechnique for verifying the reliability of computers.”
1941:“The Lady from Louisiana,” produced and directed by Bernard Vorhaus son of anAmerican “lawyer of Jewish-Austrian extraction” was released today in theUnited States.
1942(5thof Iyar, 5702): Fifty-nine-year-old Romanian born Isadore Wexler, the thirty-yearresident of Toledo, HO where he owned the Wexler Ice company and the husband ofYetta Leffner Wexler with whom he had eight children -- Louis, Joseph, Ralph,David, Morris, Oscar, Max and William A. Wexler – passed away today.
1942:U.S. premiere of “Saboteur,” a WW II spy thriller with a screenplay co-authoredby Peter Viertel and Dorothy Parker.
1943(17thof Nisan, 5703) Third Day of Pesach
1943:“We Will Never Die” was performed in Philadelphia's Convention Hall, with gueststars Claude Rains and Edward G. Arnold in the lead roles. More than 15,000people attended--it was the largest Jewish public event in the city in manyyears — and it received extensive coverage in the local press.
(Asreported by Jewish Virtual Library)
1943: The Nazis deported theJews of Amersfoort, Holland.
1943:Day four of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
1943: In New York City, Daniel Gluck, the inventor,along with his brother-in-law Sundel Doniger, of the X-Acto Knife and his wifegave birth to Louise Elisabeth Gluck the American Pulitzer Prize winning poetwho “was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library ofCongress in 2003, after serving as a Special Bicentennial Consultant threeyears prior in 2000.”
1944:It was reported today that Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr. hasannounced that “principles on which a program for world currency stabilizationcan be based have been agreed on by most of the experts of some thirty Alliedand associated nations” marking a major step forward in creating a stableeconomic for a post-war world which will be critical to “winning the peace.”
1945: The Big Red One,whose members included Samuel Fuller, “finished clearing the Harz Mountains” beforeturning south to join up with the U.S. Third Army.
1945: Sidney Bernstein, a cinema entrepreneur, had been an advisorto the Ministry of Information since 1940 who producing “German ConcentrationCamps Factual Survey,” “the official British documentary film on the NaziConcentration Camps” “visitedthe Bergen Belsen concentration camp today a week after it was liberated byBritish forces.”
1945: Six hundred of the remaining inmates atJasenovac Concentration Camp rose up against their Croatian killers.TheCroatians killed over five hundred of them. This camp waslocated in a breakaway republic from Yugoslavia called Coratia. TheCroatians ran the camp for their Axisallies and were responsible for thedeaths of tens of thousands of Jews.For those of you who rememberthe fighting in the 1990's in Yugoslavia, you will now understand that genocideis no stranger to the Balkans.Only a thousand Jews and Serbs remained.Tens of thousands of them were killed over the past five years. Six hundredrose in revolt. The Germans killed 520 of them.
1945: The Soviet Army liberated the ConcentrationCamp at Sachsenhausen in Germany. The camp was about 35 kilometers fromBerlin and was established in 1938. Approximately thirty to thirty-fivethousands people including Jews perished in the camp.
1945:Birthdate of Donald E. Graham, the grandson of Eugene Meyer and the son ofKatherine Graham
1946(21stof Nisan, 5706) Seventh Day of Pesach
1946:Opening of Kibbutz Beitar in Bruna.
1946:Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter joined the Chief Justice and anotherAssociate Justice in dissenting in Girouard v. United States – a case involvinga the application of a pacifist for naturalization.
1946: Composer Ezra Laderman was discharged from the U.S. Armytoday. He then studied composition under Stefan Wolpe of New York and MiriamGideon of Brooklyn College where he earned his B.A.in 1950. He then went on tostudy under Otto Luening of Columbia University where he earned his M.A. in1952.
1947: Another 769 illegal Jewish immigrants arriving on board theGalata in Eretz Israel were trans-shipped to Cyprus.
1948(13th of Nisan, 5708): Sixty-six-year-old San LuisObispo, CA native and Harvard Ph.D. Barry Cerf, the husband of Emily Cerf withwhom he raised three children including “Edward Owen Cerf, an editor of Timemagazine” and who has been a Professor of Literature at Reed College since 1921where he wrote “his best known work, Anatole France,” passed away todayin Portland.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/04/24/84536103.html?pageNumber=15
1948: Operation Misparayim (scissors) was launched by the Haganahas part of the Yishuv’s attempt to assume control of Haifa after Britishwithdrawal and attacks had been made by Arab forces to control this portcity. By the end of the day, Haifa wasin the hands of the mainline Zionist forces.
1949: Writing in Haaretz, Arye Gelblum described immigrantsfrom North Africa as dirty, disease ridden and prone to drunkenness andprostitution.
1949: It was reported that Berta Gersten will be starring in thetitle role of “The Silent Woman,” a dramatization of Louis Frieman’s new Jewishradio play of the same which will open on April 25 at the Parkway Theatre inBrooklyn.
1949: The NBC Television Network broadcast the final episode ofthe panel show “Stop Me If You’ve Hear this One” on which Morey Amsterdam, LewLehr and Benny Rubin appeared as regular panelists.
1949: Hebrew University reopened in temporary quarters in westJerusalem
1950: Tonight, after the end of Shabbat, Israel began thecelebration of her second year of independence.In his address to the nation, President Weizmann called upon Israelis“to celebrate in joy and happiness the great salvation wrought to our peopleafter centuries of exile and affliction.”In Jerusalem, Joseph Sprinzak, Speaker of the Knesset, lit a torch onMt. Herzl which lit from fire provided by veterans of the Masada Battalionwhich had defended Jerusalem from attacks by Egyptians and Arab Irregularsduring the dark days of the siege of the City of David. Similar festivitiestook place throughout the country including open air performances, torch lightparades and the sounding of sirens by ships of many nations docked in Israel’smajor ports.
1950: In Germany, Holocaust survivors Joseph and Elizabeth Wilfgave birth to real estate developer Zygmunt “Zygi” Wilf who bought theMinnesota Vikings football team in 2005
1951(16th of Nisan, 5711): Second Day of Pesach
1951: Philadelphia Athletics first baseman Lou Limmer played inhis first major league baseball game.
1952(27th of Nisan, 5712): Yom HaShoah
1952(27th of Nisan, 5712): Forty-nine-year-old JakobRosenfeld the Lemberg born Jewish doctor who survived Dachau and Buchenwald andgained fame as General Luo, the Minister of Health under Chairman Mao, passedaway today. (Editor’s note – an exciting life like is certainly worthy of abiography and a NETFLIX series)
https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=302
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3330950,00.html
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the"past seven days was the bloodiest week along Israeli borders for a longtime." Two Israelis were murdered at Mevuot Betar, the marauders wereactive in the South, in Galilee and Jerusalem. There was a general outcry whenGeneral Bennet L. de Ridder, the U.N. Chairman of the Israel-Jordan MixedArmistice Commission refused to comply with the Israeli request to call anemergency meeting of the Commission to discuss the latest developments and, inparticular, the murder of Zvi Genauer and his niece, Dvora, in Jerusalem. Thisincomprehensible U.N. decision was taken despite the fact that the tracks ofthe three marauders, responsible for this murder, were discovered by an U.N.observer and an Israeli officer who noted that they led to the Jordanian-occupiedvillage of Beit Iksa. The General claimed that it was not the duty of hisCommission to deal with incidents "of this type."
1953:In New York, Sylvia and John Katzman gave birth to Columbia and Harvard alumand Yale Law School trained attorney and jurist Robert Allen Katzman who was SeniorJudge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at the timeof his death in 2021.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel'sthree-years-long land survey, conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture, hadalmost been completed.
1953:Herman Pekarsky, the director of the Jewish Community Council of Essex County,NJ, was among the speakers at the 25th birthday celebration held atthe Park Sheraton, honoring The Welcome Wagon organization.
1953:Birthdate of Steve Bond, the native of Haifa who gained fame while appearing inthe soap opera General Hospital.
1953:“It Happens Every Thursday” a comedy directed by Joseph Pevney, produced byLeonard Goldstein and with music by Herman Stein was released today in theUnited States.
1954(19thof Nisan, 5714): Fifth Day of Pesach
1954(19thof Nisan, 5714: Sixty-nine-year-old Congressman, NY State Supreme Court Justiceand accused Soviet Spy, Samuel Dickstein, the Vilna born son “Rabbi IsraelDickstein and Slata B. Gordon” passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/samuel-dickstein
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0008/ms0008.html
https://spartacus-educational.com/Samuel_Dickstein.htm
1954:Leo Lerman, the Jewish editor and writer for such glossy fashion magazines as Vogue, Mademoiselle and Vanity Fairmet famed American author William Faulkner for the first time.
1954: The so-calledArmy-McCarthy Hearings began. These hearings, which helped bring an end toMcCarthy’s abuse of power was triggered by two of his Jewish supporters. One was the powerful Roy Cohn, the McCarthyCommittee’s chief counsel. The other wasCohn’s close friend, G. David Schine.
1955(30th of Nisan, 5715): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1955(30th of Nisan, 5715): Sixty-five-year-old Columbiaalum and Rochester School of Optometry Dr. Joseph Irving Pascal, the son ofLithuanian rabbi Chaim Hochstein and Celia Rubinson passed away today.
https://www.ajo.com/article/0002-9394(55)92142-5/pdf
1955: ABC broadcast the final episode of “Where’s Raymond,” thesit-com produced by Stanley Shapiro.
1956: While speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony for theBirchwood Jewish Ceremony, State Controller Arthur Levitt today urged monetaryand moral support for Israel in her ‘trying times.’”
1956: “Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion said today the cease-firewith Egypt negotiated by Dag Hammarskjold "does not reduce in theslightest" the danger of war.”
1957(21st of Nisan, 5717): Seventh Day of Pesach
1957: Today, “in his sermon at Congregation Zichron Ephraim, RabbiZev Zahavy said that individuals and nations were in need of redemptions.”
1957: On Long Island, Rabbi Samuel M. Silver who is the directorof public information for Union of American Hebrew Congregations “voicedcriticism of the State Department” saying that its “agreement to bar Jewishservice men from Saudi Arabia was a concession to bigotry.
1958: “Jordanian soldiers shot and kill two fishermen near Aqaba.”
1959(14th of Nisan, 5719): Fast of the First Born; erevPesach
1960: In Quebec, Dr. Harry J. Stern led the services dedicatingthe new home of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, the oldest Reform or Liberalcongregation in Canada.
1961: Lucille Ball collapsed while performing in “Wildcast” themusical with lyrics by Carolyn Leigh and music by Cy Coleman.
1963(28th of Nisan, 5723): Yom HaShoah
1965(20th of Nisan, 5725): Sixth Day of Pesach
1965(20th of Nisan, 5725): Silesia native and BreslauTheological Seminary trained rabbi, Dr. Arthur Loewenstamm, who served a asrabbi in Pless from 1917 until 1939 when he came to London as a refugeeand “worked as the Director of Jewish Studies based at West London Synagoguepassed away today.
1967(12th of Nisan, 5727): Shabbat HaGadol
1967(12th of Nisan,5727): Eighty-four-year-old Ukraine born agricultural economist andstatistician Dr. Naum Jasny, “a specialist in the study of the Soviet economy”passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jasny-naum
1969(4th of Iyar, 5729): Yom HaZikaron
1969: As of today, Samuel Dalsimer begins serving as nationalchairman of the ADL.
1970(16th of Nisan, 5730): Second Day of Pesach
1970: Arthur Krock “was presented with the Presidential Medal ofFreedom by President Richard Nixon.”
1971(27th of Nisan, 5731): Yom HaShoah
1971(27th of Nisan, 5731): Seventy-two-year-old JosephGinsburg the father of French entertainer Serge Gainsbourg passed away today.
1973: Birthdate of Ofer Talker, the native of Ashdod who gained fameplaying football for several teams the last of which was Hapoel Kfar Saba fromwhich he retired in 2009.
1973: Birthdate of Delmar, NY native Anita Lynn Kaplan, the 6’5”center on the Stanford University Basketball team who played professionally forthe San Jose Laser and Chicago Condors and was released by the WNBA ClevelandRockers before league play began.
1974: Birthdate of Israeli Arab MK Mansour Abbas, the leader ofRa’am, or United Arab List.
1974: Israeli political leader Amir Peretz was severely injured inaccident at the Mitla Pass.
1975: Barbara Walters signed a five-year $5 millioncontract with the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), becoming the highestpaid television newsperson.
1975: Eighty-two-year-oldSir Godfrey Rolles Driver the Old Testament scholar who was a Professor ofSemitic Philology at Oxford whose expertise included a knowledge of the Semiticlanguages of the Biblical period passed away today.
http://www.theologicalstudies.org.uk/article_driver_bruce.html
1976(22ndof Nisan, 5736): Eighth Day of Pesach observed for the last time during thePresidency of Gerald Ford.
1977:Shimon Peres became premier of Israel.
1977:“The Late Show,” a mystery co-starring Bill Macy was released today in theUnited States.
1978: In Paris, France, Izhar Cohen & Alphabetawon the twenty-third Eurovision Song Contest for Israel by singing"A-ba-ni-bi".
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that anagreement was reached to end the 18-days-long El Al lockout which had alreadycost the national airline more than IL100m, and the tourist industry hundredsof millions more.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israelwon the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time with an entry called"A-Ba-Ni-Bi". Israel scored 157 points, Belgium 121 and France 119.
1978:After six seasons, CBS broadcast the final episode of “Maude” a sitcom createdby Norman Lear and starring Beatrice Arthur in the title role.
1979:The President’s Commission on the Holocaust has set today as the first day ofthe week entitled “Days of Remembrance” for honoring the victims of Nazism.
1979(25thof Nisan, 5739): Seventy-seven-year-old Kiev born and Birkbeck College trainedsolicitor Sir Leon Bagrit who led “Elliot-Automation Ltd” one of the worldlargest computer manufacturers pass away today.
1979(25thof Nisan, 5739): Shamir Kuntar was part of a cell that raided the northernIsraeli town of Nahariya, fatally shooting a civilian, Danny Haran, while hisdaughter Einat, 4, watched, then smashing the girl’s head, killing her as well.Mr. Haran’s wife, Smadar, hid with their 2-year-old daughter, accidentally suffocatingher in an effort to stop her from crying out.
1980(6thof Iya, 5740): Seventy-three-year-old NYC born Columbia and Long Island CollegeHospital trained physician Louis Elliott Siltzbach, who “established thespecific diagnostic value of the Kevi test in 1954 which is now appropriately calledthe Kevim Silzbach Test” passed away today.
1981(18thof Nisan, 5741): Fourth Day of Pesach
1981:Birthdate of Parisian native and baritone opera singer David Serero who wasresponsible for creating a version “Cyrano De Bergerac,” that features“Sephardi and jazz standards.”
1982(29thof Nisan, 5742): Eighty-two-year-old Irish film director and actor HaroldGoldblatt passed away today.
1982(29thof Nisan, 5742): Seventy-nine-year-old Gertrude Nadler Perlman, the daughter ofAbraham and Shaindel Buchalter Nadler and wife of Harry Perlman who she marriedin 1929 passed away today after which she was buried at the Baron de HirschCemetery in Montreal.
1982:“Six refuseniks in Odessa joined the hunger strike begun by Kiev refuseniks onMarch 15th.”
1983:“The Hunger,” a horror story filmed by South African born Jewish CinematographerStephen Goldblatt was released in theUnited States today.
1984:In Israel Al HaMishmar published the first report of allegations that thehijackers of Bus 300 had been shot after being captured.
1985:According to Israeli businessman Yaacov Nimrodi, today was the day when achartered merchant ship, the Westline, was scheduled to leave Eilat filled withweaponry for Iran as part of a deal that Americans would come to know asIran-Contra.
1985:Birthdate of Chicago native and Stanford University drop-out Samuel Harris Altman“an American entrepreneur and investor best known as the CEO of OpenAI since2019…”
1985:The United States Trade Representative and the Israeli Minister of Industry andTrade signed a Free Trade Agreement today that “eliminated all duties andvirtually all other restrictions on trade in goods between” their two respectivecountries.
1988:U. S. premiere of “White Mischief” directed by Michael Radford who co-authoredthe screenplay.
1988:“Permanent Record,” the highly praised drama directed by Marisa Silver wasreleased today in the United States.
1988:“Two Moon Junctions,” directed by Zalman King who co-authored the screenplaywas released today in the United States.
1989(17thof Nisan, 5749): Third Day of Pesach
1989(17thof Nisan, 5749): Eighty-four-year-old Emilio Gino Segrè the Italian refugee whowas part of the Manhattan Project and who was awarded the Nobel Prize forPhysics in 1989 passed away today.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1959/segre-bio.html
1990:At the Royale Theatre, after 476 performances the curtain came down on theoriginal Broadway of “Lend Me a Tenor" produced by Jerry Zaks andfeaturing Tova Feldshuh and Victor Garber
1991(8thof Iyar, 5751): Eighty-one-year-old Judah Bergman, the London born boxer knownwas Jack Kid Berg “who became the World Light Welterweight Champion in 1930”passed away today in his hometown.
1991: Shalom America (Jewish cable network) waslaunched in Brooklyn & Queens.
1993:The Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in Washington,D.C.There is no way to do this justice. For more informationsee http://www.ushmm.org/.
1993(1stof Iyar 5753): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1993(1stof Iyar, 5753): Miles Lerhman served as chairman of the Holocaust MemorialMuseum from its opening today until 2000, eight years before his death in 2008at the age of 88.
1994:“Chasers” a comedy featuring Betty Schram as “Flo” was released in the UnitedStates today.
1994:“The Inkwell,” a romantic comedy produced by Irving Azoff was released today inthe United States
1994(11thof Iyar, 5754): Dr. Lewis Barth, Professor of Midrash and Related Literature atHUC-JIR in Los Angeles delivered the 1994 Rabbi Max Nussbaum Memorial Lecture.
http://bcf.usc.edu/~lbarth/nussbaum/nussbaum.html
1994: Richard Nixon, 37th President of the UnitedStates passed away. Nixon's relations with Jews and the Jewish communityranged from uneven to stormy. In his first campaign for the U.S. Senate,Nixon supporters smeared his opponent with the tar brush ofanti-Semitism. Nixon did have Jews working on White House Staff. Hewas frustrated by is inability to gain support among Jewish voters and some ofhis comments on the White House tapes about Jews are, to be charitable, lessthan complimentary. At the same time, in 1973, he came through forIsrael. Thanks toNixon, the Americans conducted a mammoth airliftof supplies that enabled the IDF to turn the tide after the Arab sneak attackand gain a military victory in the Yom Kippur War.
1995: Yagil Amir, who had sworn to kill PrimeMinister Rabin, unsuccessfully tried to enter a hall in Jerusalem where Rabinwas present as the guest of honor.
1995(22ndof Nisan, 5755): 8th Day of Pesach
1995(22ndof Nisan, 5755): Ninety-two-year-old Sir Horace Kadoorie, scion of the Kdooriefamily that migrated from Baghdad to Mumbai to Hong Kong passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/26/obituaries/horace-kadoorie-philanthropist-92.html
1997(15th of Nisan, 5757): Pesach
1997: ‘Déjà Vu,” an “American dramatic romance filmdirected by Henry Jaglom” was released in the United States today.
1998: Five days after premiering in the UnitedStates, “Paulie” a fantasy film co-starring Hallie Eisenberg was released inGermany today.
1999(6th of Iyar, 5759): Seventy-one-year-oldMatthew A. Margolis the Akron, OH born son of Elias H. Margolis and DoraMargolis passed away today in his home town.
1999: In Manhattan, jurors awarded a patient of Dr.Pamela Lipkin, an East Side plastic surgeon $600,000 in damages.
2000(17th of Nisan, 5760): Third day ofPesach
2000(17th of Nisan, 5760): Seventy-nine-year-oldtheatrical producer Alexander H. Cohen passed away today. (As reported by AlexWitchel)
http://archives.nypl.org/the/21770
2001: The New York Times featured reviews ofbooks by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including CountryMatters: The Pleasures and Tribulations of Moving From a Big City to an OldCountry Farmhouse by Michael Korda, Teacha!: Stories From a Yeshiva byGerry Albarelli and Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestraby
Shareen Blair Brysac.
2001(29th of Nisan, 5761): Dr. Mario Goldin, 53, of Kfar Sava, was killed when a terrorist detonateda powerful bomb he was carrying near a group of people waiting at a bus stop onthe corner of Weizman and Tchernichovsky streets. About 60 people were injuredin the blast. Hamas claimed responsibility.
2001: The National Football League Draft ended todaywith Iowa State University Quarterback Sage Rosenthal becoming a WashingtonRedskin.
2002: During Operation “Defensive Shield,” IDF endedthe curfew at Nablus which had begun on April 4.
2002 “Mideast Turmoil: American Jews; Unusually Unifiedin Solidarity With Israel, but Also Unusually Unnerved” published todaydescribes the feelings an action of the Jewish community in the wake of attackson Israel and anti-Semitism in the United States.
2002(10th of Iyar, 5762): Ninety-three-year-oldVictor Frederick Weisskopf’ an Austrian-born Jewish American theoreticalphysicist, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/25/obituaries/25WEIS.html
2002(10thof Iyar, 5762): Twenty-two-year-old Sgt. Mag. Nir Kirchmann of Hadera waskilled when the IDF entered a village north of Nablus to arrest Hamasterrorists.
2003:Charles “Krauthammer predicted that the President would have a"credibility problem" if weapons of mass destruction were not foundin Iraq within the next five months.”
2004:In North Korea, a freight train exploded killing technicians from Syria who hadcome the country to take possession of fissionable material which they were totake home as part of nuclear program that could lead to the creation ofwarheads for the Assad regime
2004:The Roundabout Theatre Company’s Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s“Assassins” opened today
2005:After premiering in Israel yesterday, “A Lot Like Love” co-starring Amanda Peetwas released in the United States today. today
2005:“The Interpreter” a complex mystery set at the UN directed by Sydney Pollackwho also made a cameo appearance was released in the United State today.
2005:Jews of Omaha, Nebraska celebrated Israel’s 59th year of Independence as theJewish Community Center hosts the Jewish Arts Festival and Yom Ha’Atzmautactivities designed for the whole family. This year’s Yom Ha’Atzmautcelebration is a unique and exciting compilation of an Arts Festival with morethan 25 vendors, plus the usual exciting assortment of carnival games,first-class entertainment, and delicious foods from a variety of Omaharestaurants.
2006:On Shabbat, thousands of police were positioned around the Church of the HolySepulcher in east Jerusalem on Holy Saturday, hoping to prevent confrontationsbetween various groups of worshippers making their way to the church onSaturday afternoon.
2007:At the Yeshiva University Museum the exhibition entitled “Reuben Kadish’s Holocaust Sculpture” comes to anend.
2007:Yom Hazikaron begins tonight in Israel with a special memorial ceremony at Mt.Herzl in Jerusalem.
2007:The Sunday New York Times BookSection featured reviews of The Grand Surprise: The Journals of Leo Lerman, edited by Stephen Pascal, Positively American: Winning Back theMiddle-Class Majority One Family at a Time by Chuck Schumer (the Jewish Senator from New York) withDaniel Squadron, Black and White a novel by Jewish author Dani Shapiro and The Lady Upstairs: Dorothy Schiff andThe New York Post by Marilyn Nissenson. Schiff was the granddaughterof the German Jewish banking magnate Jacob H. Schiff.
2007: TheSunday Washington Post Book Section featured a review of The Worlds ofLincoln Kirstein by Martin Duberman. This “rich and revelatory biography ofone of the crucial cultural figures of the twentieth century” provides anotherexample of an American Jew who has had a major impact on our culture.
2008: Earth Day; Third Day of Pesach – suggesteddate for Street Seders designed to address the Global Climate Crisis.
2008: The Jerusalem Cinematheque presents “Refusenik”first retrospective documentary to chronicle the thirty-year movement to freeSoviet Jewry between the early 60s and the fall of the Iron Curtain..
2009: At Yale Hagai El-Ad, Israeli civil rights activist, founding director ofJerusalem Open House and director of the Association for Civil Rights inIsrael, delivers a talk entitled “Civil Rights in Israel.”
2009: The Tribeca Film Festival opens with the world premiere of WoodyAllen’s “Whatever Works.”
2009:Holocaust Survivor Irene Furst speaks at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowaand Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2009:In Cedar Falls, Iowa, Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum presents “TheHolocaust and Contemporary Ethics: Legal, Religious, Political and MedicalEthical Implications of the Holocaust,” the inaugural address for the NormanCohn Family Holocaust Remembrance and Education Lecture Series at theUniversity of Northern Iowa.
2009:“Author Jared Diamond Sued for Libel” published today described the litigationface by the Pulitzer-Prize winning author.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20090422/us-jared-diamond-lawsuit/
2009:Rome’s city hall was the site for the Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini’s 100thbirthday party.
2009:Five hundred Jews who were making their monthly visit to Joseph’s Tomb inNablus arrived at the shrine this evening and found that it had been subjectedto anti-Semitic vandalism including being painted with swastikas.
2010:Professor JasonRosenblatt, author of Renaissance England's Chief Rabbi: John Selden isscheduled to speak at the Washington DCJCC as part of the
DistinguishedScholar Series
2010:The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host thereception marking the opening of the Annual NoVa International Jewish FilmFestival.
2011:On the 41stannual Earth Day and the first anniversary of the BP oil spill Reformcongregations and their rabbis are scheduled to implement “tried-and-true EarthDay ideas, innovative programs in education and advocacy, and ways to continueour service and commitment to the Gulf Coast” some of which had been presentedin a workshop that featured Margo Wolfson of Temple Shalom, Aberdeen, NJ (aGreenFaith Pilot Program congregation), Stephen Fox of Temple Isaiah, LosAngeles, CA, Rabbi Andy Koren, Temple Emanuel, Greensboro and Rabbi DanielSwartz, Temple Hesed, Scranton, PA.”
2011:The MaccabeeQueen is scheduled to be performed 12 noon at Beit Avi Chai in Jerusalem. “Writtenand directed by Lauri Donahue, the play chronicles the rule of the last queenof Judea.”
2011:The Beit Yisraelsynagogue in Netanya has been pelted with rocks, allegedly by ultra-Orthodoxyouths waging a battle to scare the congregants into leaving.
2012:Amy Irving, star of “Crossing Delancey” is scheduled to take part in a Q&Afollowing a showing of this Jewish romantic comedy featuring “Sam, thepickleman” at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2012:The Iowa JewishHistorical Society and the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines arescheduled to host a special event to recognize and honor Iowa’s Jewish men andwomen who serve and have served in all branches of the United States military,during times of both war and peace.
2012:Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at theNorthern Virginia’s 2012 Holocaust Observance at Gesher Jewish Day School
2012(30th of Nisan, 5772): RoshChodesh Iyar
2013: Fifty-three years after its founding theCanadian Jewish News “issued termination notices to its 50 staff and announcedthat it will cease printing with its June 20 edition due to financialconstraints.”
2013: The American Jewish Historical Society andYeshiva University Museum are scheduled to present a performance by The MomentaQuartet featuring the music of Stefan Wolpe, Aaron Copland and Darius Milhaud.
2013: “Portrait of Wally” and “A Bottle in theGaza Sea” are scheduled to be shown at the Northern Virginia Jewish FilmFestival.
2013:” Dressing America: Tales from the GarmentCenter” is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Daniel Mendelsohn, author of the internationalbestseller The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, is scheduled tojoin award- winning journalist Leslie Maitland, author of Crossing theBorders of Time: A True Love Story of War, Exile and Love Reclaimed in adiscussion of their true stories of lives and loves lost in the Holocaust atthe Washington DCJCC.
2013:Twentieth anniversary of the dedication of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
2013:The Histadrut labor federation today threatened to shut down Ben-GurionInternational Airport as a show of solidarity with Israeli airline employees,who are striking against Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's Open Skiesagreement with the European Union that was approved by the cabinet yesterday
2013: Jordan has allowed Israel to fly militarydrones over the country en route to Syria in order to monitor the situationthere and, should the need arise, target chemical weapons caches in the civilwar-torn country, the French daily Le Figaro reported today.
2014:In New York, Temple Shaaray Tefila is scheduled to host the Yom HaShoahScreening of “No Place On Earth.”
2014(22ndof Nisan, 5774): 8th day of Pesach – Yizkor
2014:In Serbia, Holocaust Remembrance Day
2014(22ndof Nisan): Circumcision of Isaac (Rosh Ha-Shannah 10b)
2015:Shoah survivor Marcel Drimer is scheduled to speak at the U.S. HolocaustMemorial Museum.
2015:Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host a tour “Modeling the Synagogue –From Dura to Touro.” http://www.yumuseum.org/programs/2015/04/22/curators-tour-modeling-the-synagogue-from-dura-to-touro-4
2015:“Belle and Sebastian” and “Famous Nathan” are scheduled to be shown at theWestchester Jewish Film Festival.
2015(3rdof Iyar, 5775): Seventy-eight-year-oldperformer Lois Lilienstein passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2015:Rabbi Lance J. Sussman is scheduled to teach the second session “Jews, Judaismand American Law” in Philadelphia, PA.
2015:Today, anotherofficial memorial ceremony is scheduled to be held at the Mount Herzl militarycemetery in Jerusalem and will be attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. GadiEisenkot, as well as senior Israel Defense Forces officers and politiciansfollowed by a separate commemoration for Israel’s terror victims will takeplace at Mount Herzl.(As reported by Times of Israel)
2015:Memorial Day is scheduled to end at sundown today with the start ofIndependence Day, traditionally ushered in with fireworks and streetcelebrations nationwide. (As reported by Times of Israel)
2016(14thof Nisan, 5776): Ta’anit Berchorot; Erev Pesach and Erev Shabbat
2016(14thof Nisan): Yahrzeit for the thirty people murdered by terrorists at a Seder atthe Park Hotel in Netanya in 2002 and this does not include the 140 who werewounded.
2016(14thof Nisan, 5776): 99th anniversary of the United States entry intoWorld War I. As Jews were fasting forthe first born, searching for chametz and getting ready for their first Seder,Congress was declaring war on Germany.This would usher in a three-year period of dynamic change and growth forthe American Jewish community.
2016;“Mr. Church,” an underappreciated cinematic gem film by cinematography bySharone Meir premiered today at the Tribeca Film Festival.
2017(26thof Nisan, 5777): Parashat Shemini; Start of Pirke Avot Cycle – Read ChapterOne;
2017(26thof Nisan, 5777): Eighty-seven-year-old Professor of Philosophy Hubert LedererDreyfus passed away today in Berkeley.
https://philosophy.berkeley.edu/people/detail/12
https://philosophy.fas.harvard.edu/news/memoriam-hubert-l-dreyfus-1929-2017
2017:The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to provide a full day ofevents including lunch following Shachrit and Mussaf capped off by a Seduah anbefore the end of Shabbat
2017: The Jerusalem Opera Festival is scheduled tocontinue its opening week events with another concert dedicated to EnricoCaruso.
2018:The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present the final performanceof “Cyrano De Bergerac” starring David Serero in the title role.
2018:“The entire Twin Cities Jewish Community” is scheduled to celebrate “Israel@70”at the Minneapolis Event Center this evening in an event featuring the singingof Abbie Strauss.
2018:The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by “JeffreyShandler, Rutgers University Professor of Jewish Studies, which will examinethe USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive as a major project of publicmemory situated in a series of contexts: Jewish ethnographies, public memoryprojects at the turn of the millennium, and the different media used todocument the Holocaust.”
2018:In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host the “8th AnnualConcert of Commemoration.”
2018:The New York Times published reviewsof books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readersincluding The Bible of Dirty Jokes by Eileen Pollack and Who We Areand How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past byDavid Reich
2019:The Center for Jewish History, ALL*ARTS, YIVO and Burke Cohen Entertainment arescheduled to present “award winning actors Ed Asner and Tovah Feldshuh star ina concert reading of The Soap Myth, a powerful play about survival, memory, andtruth” which is set more than fifty years after WWII, when a young Jewishreporter grapples with different versions of the same story - did the Nazismake soap from the corpses of murdered Jews?”
2019:The Temple Emanu-El Streicker is scheduled to present “Modern Matters --Ancient Jewish Wisdom with Rabbi David Wolpe
2019:Earth Day 2019
http://www.arcworld.org/faiths.asp?pageID=81
https://www.jewishboston.com/whats-jewish-about-earth-day/
2019(17thof Nissan, 5779): Third Day of Pesach; Second Day of the Omer;
2020:In Coralville, IA it will take more than a pandemic stop the quest for learningsince the Agudas Achim Wednesday Book Group is scheduled to meet via Zoom this afternoon.
2020:One day after Yom HaShoah the celebration of Earth Day is scheduled to takeplace which was first celebrated on the 49th birthday of JulianKoenig, the creator of the original advertising event for this event.
2020:The Streicker Center is scheduled to host Dr. Michael Berenbaum as he leads avirtual presentation on “Not Your Father’s Anti-Semitism.”
2020:Live via Zoom, the Center for Jewish History and Fordham University’s Centerfor Jewish Studies are scheduled to host “Epidemics, Disease and Plagues inJewish History and Memory.”
2020:As Israel’s death toll from Covid-19 moves past 180, it was reported that RanSaar, the CEO of Maccabi Helathcare Services, an HMO, has said that “theeconomic crisis stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic will more people than thevirus itself.
2020:As Israelis contend with the Pandemic and unprecedented period of politicaldeadlock they will be considering whether to follow the words of Yair Lapid who“slammed” Benny Gantz “for going back on all of his election promises andallying himself with Prime Minister Netanyahu or to accept the explanation ofGantz that he made the deal because “he felt compelled to bring out Israel ofthe political deadlock of the past year in order to tackle the immensechallenges ahead” specifically those presented by the coronavirusepidemic.
2021:GraduateTheological Union is scheduled to present a conversation with U. of Chicagoprofessor Michael Fishbane, a scholar of modern Jewish thought, Jewishmysticism, Biblical studies and other areas.
2021:The Jewish Community Library is scheduled to present educator Ilan Vitembergtalking about Yehuda Amichai’s poetry in general, and specifically how itinfluenced a generation of songwriters who turned it into popular Israelisongs.
2021:Chabad of North Peninsula. Is scheduled to present “Escape from Cairo,” during Cairo-bornHussein Aboubakr Mansour will about how the Egyptian government persecuted,harassed and jailed him for his studies of Israel and how he got asylum.
2021:JCC East Bay and Reboot are scheduled to present a program that reflects on howclimate change is causing grief, over issues such as “new normal” wildfires andthe loss of biodiversity that will include a meditation led by Rabbi DorothyRichman and an art project.
2021:The Temple Emanu-El Streicker is scheduled to host Jerald Walker talking abouthis latest book How to Make A Slave and Other Essays.
2021:In preparationfor Lag B’Omer, today, the Jewish Studio Project in Berkeley is scheduled tolead a class for making art that explores uncertainty and the countdown betweenPassover and Shavuot.
2021:The JCC Contra Costa is scheduled to present “Music As Midrash: Behind theMusic of Prayer”
Duringwhich Rabbi Josh Warshawsky will provide a lesson about the text and stories ofthe traditional Jewish songs we sing, with a song session.
2021:Based on reports published yesterday, Israelis are confronting a new trend that“seems to be gaining momentum among Arab youths in Jerusalem, who videotapethemselves harassing ultra-Orthodox Jews in the capital as a"challenge", which they then upload to the social media platformTikTok.” (As reported by Nir Cohen,Alexandra Lukash)
2021:Despite the fact that “Spring has Sprung,” in Columbus, OH, CongregationTifterth Israel will not be holding its outdoor minyan today “due to coldtemperatures.”
2022(21stof Nisan, 5782): Seventh Day of Pesach and Earth Day 2022
https://www.jewishboston.com/whats-jewish-about-earth-day/
2022: The International Conferences onMetallurgy, Technology and Materials is scheduled to begin today in Tel Aviv.
2022:As they await to if “Palestinian protesters” who have been egged on byterrorist leaders in Gaza will throw stones while at the Al Aqsa Mosque as theydid last Friday, Israeli security forces remain on high alert.
2023:Israel braces for the possibility of another round of Saturday night protest bythose opposed to the proposed reform judicial legislation.
2023:The exhibition “Two Grains of Wheat” that includes the work of Hinda Weiss isscheduled to open at 601 Artspace.
2023:In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host the religious school'sspecial, musical, intergenerational service.
2023:The exhibition “This Place We Once Remembered” that includes the work of DanaLevy is scheduled to open today.
2023(1stof Iyar, 5783): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2024:120th anniversary of the birth of J. Robert Oppenheimer who was thesubject of the biopic “Oppenheimer” which strangely enough won the best pictureOscar in a time of rising anti-Semitism and growing anti-intellectualism.
2024:This afternoon, JCCSF is scheduled to present ““J. Robert Oppenheimer: FromHero to Outcast” during which Attorney Oak Dowling will discuss the life andwork of “Father of the Atomic Bomb,” with clips from a 2009 PBS documentary.
2024:As Jews prepare to celebrate Pesach, the nonprofit Security Community Network(SCN) which is the “official homeland security and safety initiative of theorganized Jewish community in North America,” hosted a call from FBI director warningof increased threats including those from “lone actors who could target largegatherings, high profile events or symbolic or religious locations for violence…”
2024:The Seder Seat for a Hostage campaign sponsored by “the leading Jewish organizationin the United Kingdom” is scheduled to begin tonight.”
2024:As April 22nd begins in Israel, the Hamas heldhostages begin day 199 in captivity.(Editor’s note: this situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so weare just providing a snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
2024(14thof Nisan, 5784):Fast of First born; erev Pesach
2024(14thof Nisan, 5784):On the Jewish calendar, anniversary of the second most important Pesach of thetwentieth century. On the 14th of Nisan, 5677(April 6, 1917)the United States entered WW I on the side of the Allies. Ironically, most Jewswere fixated on the recent revolution in Russia and the message of freedom thatit sent to the Jews in the country and their kinsman around the world.Indeed the year 1917 which included two Russian Revolutions, the U.S. entryinto the war and the Balfour Declaration could be said to be one of the seminalyears in the four thousand years of Jewish history.
14th of Nisan, 5622(1862): In the evening, duringthe Civil War, Pesach begins with 21 Union soldiers of the 23rd Ohio VolunteerRegiment celebrating with a Seder in Fayette, West Virginia.
14th of Nisan, 5660(1900): Poor Jews livingon the Lower East Side were relieved to find that free matzoth were beingdistributed at Charles “Silver Dollar” Smith’s “old place on EssexStreet.” There was concern that the distribution would end since Smithhad passed away last year. Before he had changed his name, Smith wasknown as variously as Charles Goldschmidt or Charles Solomon. A New Yorkalderman who was part of the Tammany Hall machine, he was called “SilverDollar” because of the “2,400 silver dollars used as a studded inlay in hissaloon…”
14thof Nisan, 5671(1911):This evening, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association host a public Seder in NewYork and “special services” for the Jewish immigrants currently detained atEllis Island.
14thof Nisan, 5631(1871):As the Jews of Newark, New Jersey, begin the celebration of Passover thisevening, it is estimated that they will consume 10,000 to 15,000 pounds ofmatzoth during the eight days of the holiday
14thof Nisan, 5671(1911):This evening, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association host a public Seder in NewYork and “special services” for the Jewish immigrants currently detained atEllis Island.
14thof Nisan, 5674(1914):Four hundred and fifty Jewish servicemen including sailors from the battleshipsTexas, North Dakota, Washington, Ohio, Wyoming and Louisiana are scheduled totake part in a seder specifically for military personnel at Tuxedo Hall inManhattan.
14thof Nisan, 5700(1940):The Sommer family sit down to their first Seder in Liechtenstiein. Howthis family of German Jewish refugees from Munich came to be there waschronicled by Susi Pugatsch-Sommer in an article entitled “A Pesach Miracle inNazi Germany.”
14thof Nisan, 5703(1943):Members of Belgium Jewish underground aided by Christian railroad men deraileda train filled with Jewish deportees bound for the extermination camps. Severalhundred Jews were saved.
14thof Nisan, 5703(1943): PASSOVER, WARSAW Ghetto UPRISING; The Jews weredetermined not to be moved without giving up a fight. 2,100 Germans, fullyarmed, enter the Ghetto. The Jews fighting force consisted of about 700 men andwomen. They were armed with 17 rifles, 50 pistols and several thousandgrenades and Molotov co*cktails. A small group of Jewish fighters openfire on the entering German troops. After an hour of skirmishing, the Germansretreated. The final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto began on the Eve ofPassover, April 19, 1943. The deportation did not come as a surprise. TheGermans had amassed a military force to carry it out, but did not expect toengage in a confrontation that included street battles. Armed German forcesringed the ghetto at 3:00 a.m. The unit that entered the ghetto encounteredarmed resistance and retreated. The main ghetto, with its population of 30,000Jews, was deserted. The Jews could not be rounded up for the transport; therailroad cars at the deportation point remained empty. After Germans and rebelsfought in the streets for three days, the Germans began to torch the ghetto,street by street, building by building. The entire ghetto became a sizzling,smoke-swathed conflagration. Most of the Jews who emerged from their hideouts,including entire families, were murdered by the Germans on the spot. The ghettoJews gradually lost the strength to resist. On April 23, Mordecai Anielewiczthe ZOB commander wrote the following to Yitzhak Zuckerman, a member of the ZOBcommand who was stationed on the "Aryan" side: "I cannotdescribe the conditions in which the Jews are living. Only a special few willhold out; all the others will perish sooner or later. Their fate is sealed.None of the bunkers where our comrades are hiding has enough air to light acandle at night.... Be well, my dear, perhaps we shall yet meet. The dream ofmy life has risen to become fact. Self - defense in the ghetto will have been areality. I have been a witness to the magnificent, heroic fighting of Jewishmen of battle". The rebels pursued their cause, even though they knew fromthe outset that they could not win. The Jewish underground would continue tofight the Nazis until the middle of May. The Polish underground only gaveminimal help because of anti-Semitism prevalent among many. Although the Allieswill neither publicize events nor try to help, even before the war ended, theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising became a symbol of Jewish resistance.
14thof Nisan, 5708(1948):Erev Pesach the rations given out in Jerusalem for the observance of Passoverincluded 2 lbs. of potatoes, ½ lb of fish, 4 lb. of matzo, 1 ½ oz. dried fruit,½ lb. meat, and ½ lb. of matzo flour. As one who was there later wrote, “Forthe trapped citizens of Jerusalem, who had become accustomed to privation, thePassover provisions seemed like a banquet. However, for the citizens ofJerusalem, it was not a particularly merry affair. On the verge of theirnational freedom, the inhabitants of Jerusalem sat somberly around theirtables. This was the first time since the nightly shellings that the city'scitizens had come together in assembly in the various homes throughout the citythat had been the dream of two thousand years' Seders. Tonight is a holiday, buttomorrow the struggle will go on. As they sat to begin the Seder, they heardthe beginning of the snipers bullets looking for a straggler in the streets.But tonight was different. As they opened the door, as they had done for scoresof generations, to welcome in Elijah, there was no fear. Tonight is a night ofdivine protection. As the Holy One protected the Jews in Egypt, so shall heprotect us here in the war torn city of Jerusalem. "Once we were slaves,but today we are free men" recited in the Haggadah, took on new meaning.The British are leaving, the Arabs are attacking, and we are beginning our newnational lives as free men in our own country. "Next year inJerusalem" had a meaning that we never before understood. We meant it; wewould not relinquish our dream to return to our homeland, to the city that hasbeen in our hearts throughout the two-thousand-year exile. Now we are free men,tomorrow we must continue the fight to remain free.
