July 16 In Jewish History
622: The Prophet Mohammed begins his Hijra from Mecca to Medina. This marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. The importance of this to Jewish history should require no explanation.
1099: As the Crusaders sacked Jerusalem, they burned an untold number of Jewish scrolls and books. According to Matti Friedman, the Christian soldiers spared the some of the texts with the hope that Jews in other communities would ransom them. Among these books was the Aleppo Codex. [For more on this topic see The Aleppo Codex by Matti Friedman]
1212: In Spain, an Almohades Army was defeated by a coalition of Catholic forces at The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa,. The Almohades were a puritanical Moslem sect that had taken control of the southern portion of the Iberian Peninsulas. As can be seen by their attack on the Jewish community of Castille during which they seized the Codes Hilleli, a 600 year old Biblical manuscript considered to be the oldest Hebrew copy of the Bible in Spain and the decision of the family of Maimonides to leave Spain rather than live under their rule, the Almohades did not practice the policies of religious acceptance attributed to other Islamic sects at this time. At the time the Christian victory seemed liked a plus for the Jews of Spain. However, this proved to be illusory since the victory was a major step in The Reconquista – the uniting of Spain under Christian monarchs which would culminate with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
1216: Pope Innocent III, a prelate who had an inimical effect on the Jewish people died. He presided over the Fourth Lateran Council which among other things which enacted a series of anti-Semitic canons including those that required the Jews to wear a distinctive badge on their clothing and to pay for unfunded Christian tithes. Other banned Jews from holding public office and denied Jews who had converted to Christianity the right to return to the faith of their fathers. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council, called by Pope Innocent III, decreed that, on the basis of Numbers 15:37-41, Jews should wear distinctive dress (a restriction also applied to Saracens and later to heretics, prostitutes and lepers. In addition, a distinctive mark was imposed on their clothing -- centuries before the Nazis' Yellow Star -- the badge of shame, the shape and color of which varied from country to country. The badge of shame made Jews social outcasts, exposing them to both physical and verbal abuse.(43)
1391: Valencia's King Pedro IV ordered that all Jews who had hidden in Christian houses were to be allowed to return to their homes unmolested. Furthermore he decreed that synagogues were not to be turned into churches. This did not prevent him from personably confiscating all the property of those Jews who had either been murdered or fled.
1782: First performance of Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio. Seventeen eighty-two also marked the beginning of the relationship between Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, the son of a Jewish convert who had trained as a priest. Together, they co-produced such classics as "The Marriage of Figaro", "Don Giovanni" and "Cosi fan tutte".
1790: The District of Columbia is established as the capital of the United States after the signing of the Residence Act. Isaac Pollock, the grandson of one of the founders of the Newport Jewish community, reportedly arrived in D.C. in 1795 making him the city’s first Jewish resident. [For more information about the Washington Jewish Community see Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington http://www.jhsgw.org/ ]
1825(1stof Av, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Av
1825(1stof Av, 5585): Ephriam Hart, one of the founders of the New York Stock Exchange, passed away today. Born in Furth, Bavaria, he served as a private in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. While living in Philadelphia, he joined Mickvé Israel in 1782 and married Frances Noah, sister of Manuel Noah in the following year. By 1787, he hand moved to New York where his success as a businessman led to him being one of the founders of the Board of Stock Brokers in 1792.
1829: Birthdate Graziadio Isaiah Ascoli, a native of Austria who was the “godfather” of all Italian philologists.
1832: Henry Clay, the Senator from Kentucky, wrote a letter to Solomon Etting a Jewish businessman from Baltimore, MD. Etting had written a letter to Clay complaining about the Senator’s derogatory use of the term “Jew.” In his letter, Clay apologized since his use of the term Jew was intended to describe one person name either Moses Meyers or Meyer Moses and was not used to cast aspiration on the Jewish people. Clay claimed that he judged people as individuals and he was sure that there were individual Jews, Christians and Moslems who were bad people. Furthermore, Clay claimed to have many Jewish friends and acquaintances including the Gratz’s of Lexington, KY who are relatives of the Gratz family of Philadelphia, PA.
1841(28thof Tammuz): Moshe Teitelbaum, the Rebbe of Ujhely in Hungary passed away today. Born in 1759 he also was known as the Yismach Moshe,(Moses Rejoiced) which was also the name of text containing homilies on the Torah which was first published in 1849. Some of his descendants became leaders of the Satmar Chassidim.
1848:Today, the Hebrew Education Society of Philadelphia was formally organized, with Solomon Solis as its first president.
1855(1st of Av, 5615): Rosh Chodesh Av
1858: An article published today entitled "Progress of Liberal Ideas in England" states that The Jew Bill, which has so often met its fate at the portals of the House of Lords, has at last managed to secure a majority of forty-six on a second reading, and all doubt as to its ultimate triumph may now be considered at an end. No measure, since the Reform bill, has met with so many reverses, and has had so little reason arrayed against it.
1874: In Cleveland, Ohio, the Council of American Hebrews heard the report of the Committee on Theological Institute which presented the laws for the organization and governance of an institution of higher learning which will be called the Hebrew Union College which is “to be permanently located in Cincinnati.”
1879(25thof Tammuz, 5639): Italian politician and journalist Giacomo Dina passed away. Born into poverty in 1824 at Turin, he became a teacher before founding Opinione, a journal that he edited for 30 years and used as a springboard to serving in the Parliament as deputy from Imola, Bologna.
1880: It was reported today that the National Rabbinical Association has elected Dr. Max Lilienthal as its President and chosen Chicago as the location for its meeting in 1881.
1880: “Not A Hebrew After All” published today described the confusion over the ethnic origins of an unidentified body found on the Newark, NJ Turnpike near Hackensack. Since the undertaker reported him to be Jewish, the Jews of Hoboken, NJ took up a collection to provide him with a decent burial. After finding out that this was not the case, the Jews asked the undertaker to return the money. He refused and told them that they would have to sue him.
1882: “Trouble in a Synagogue” published today described the impact of the addition of some prayers in English at the St. Constant Street Jewish Synagogue in Montreal. Police were stationed in the synagogue during services after some members who were upset by the change threatened to cause trouble.
1882: According to reports published today, there were 250,000 Jews living in the United States. Sixty thousand of them live in New York and another 14,000 live in Brooklyn. San Francisco, with a population of 16,000 and St. Louis with a population of 6,500 are the only two cities found in a list of 20 cities with the largest Jewish populations. New Orleans, with a population of 5,000 Jews is the only Southern city found in this same list. Cincinnati, the home of Reform Judaism has a Jewish population of 8,000. With a total population of over 80,000, New York State had the largest population while at the other end of the spectrum, the Dakota Territories were home to only 19 Jews.
1882: A young Jewish woman named Rudolpha Leischinsky who had come to New York from Europe several months again was taken to the Castle Garden Hospital today shortly before she had attempted to commit suicide by cutting her throat.
1882: As the Freight Handler’s Strike continues in New York, five hundred dollars will be given to the Jews today who have stopped working and joined the strikers.
1882. The Committee of Persuasion, made up of striking freight handlers sent out representatives to various ethnic groups, including the Jews, to convince them to join the strikers. The representatives are fluent in the language to the particular group to which they are appealing.
1884: Lazarus Lemisch, his wife and five children arrived in New York aboard the SS Amerique. Their passage had been paid for by the Hebrew Relief Society of Paris.
1884: It was reported today that a young un-named Jew has openly embraced Christianity at the Boston Industrial Home. This is believed to the first time in the history of Boston that a Jew has responded directly to conversion attempts by Christian missionaries. [The Boston Industrial Home may refer to a rescue mission]
1885: The will of Edward J. King was admitted to probate today. Among the bequests were $2,000 to Mount Sinai Hospital; $1,000 in cash and $2,000 in bonds to the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum; $2,000 to the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York; $2,000 to the United Hebrew Charities; $500 to Congregation B’nai Jeshrun; $500 to be held in trust by the congregation, the income of which is used to pay the expenses to maintain the testators cemetery plot. The bulk of the estate went to King’s wife, sons and son-in-law.
1887: As of today, the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children had raised $1,944 to provide free summer excursions for poor Jewish children and their mothers.
1887: Berthold Riese was being held in the Jefferson Market Police Court on charges of abandoning his wife. Riese, who is Jewish, claimed that he had never married the woman because she had never divorced her first husband, John T. Kennedy. The woman in question is a Catholic who claims they were married by a Lutheran minister as an act of religious compromise.
1887: In New York, Simon Kleber and Judah Waser, two Jewish peddlers, have filed a complaint against Frederick Timme, a police officer stationed at the 14thPrecinct. According to the complaint the two men werea attacked by a bartender when they went into a liquor store to sell their wares. When they were driven into the street, they called out to the policeman for help. He responded by clubbing them and driving them away. This was not the first complaint filed against this police officer. [Note – charges of police brutality by immigrants are something that have survived into the 21stcentury; the only change is in the immigrant group.]
1897: Herzl publishes his article "Protest rabbiner" - "Protest Rabbis" in the German newspaper, “"Die Welt.” The Protest Rabbis refers to western Rabbis who were opposed to Zionism.
1897(16th of Tamuz, 5657): Emanuel Rich, co-founder of Rich’s Department Store, passed away.
1899(9th of Av, 5659): Tish'a B'Av
1899: Birthdate of comedian and movie director Larry Semon. Semon appeared with Laurel and Hardy. In the 1920’s he directed the silent screen version of “The Wizard of Oz.”
1903: The British Foreign Office sent a second telegram to Herzl informing him that his idea to establish a Jewish settlement in the Sinai as first step towards establishing a Jewish homeland in Eretz
Israel
was not practical.
1907: The will of the late Isidor Worsmer was filed with the Surrogate today. Among the bequests left by the successful banker were $5.000 to Temple Emanu-El; $2,500 to both the Mount Sinai Hospital and the United Hebrew Charities Association; $1,000 to the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, the Montefiore Home, the Hebrew Technical Institute, the Educational Alliance and the Tuskegee Institute. The rest of the sizable estate was left to family members and employees of I & S Wormser. [Contributions to non-Jewish institutions were par for the course. The surprise here is the contribution to Tuskegee, the newly established institution for African-Americans headed by Booker T. Washington in rural Alabama.]
1911: Eighty-five Jews from Shiraz, Persia appeal for assistance to go live in Palestine.
1912: Harry Horowitz and three other Jewish gangsters gunned down bookmaker Herman Rosenthal two days after he had complained that that “his illegal casinos had been badly damaged by the greed of New York City Police Lt. Charles Becker and his associates
1914: Dr. Schmarja Levin of Berlin who was a member of the first Russian Duma is scheduled to speak in Brooklyn, NY, tonight.
1916(15th of Tamuz, 5676): Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov Russian microbiologist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1908 passed away.
1918: The execution of Czar Nicholas II brought an end to a dynasty guilty of many crimes against Jews. Unfortunately, the regime that replaced it was no better for the Jews.
1922: German born American Jewish inventor and businessman Emil Berliner and his son Henry Berliner demonstrated a working helicopter for the United States Army. Berliner had moved from Hanover, Germany and settled in Washington, D.C. where he is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.
1924: Birthdate of Bess Myerson. Ms Myerson was crowned the first Jewess to be crowned Miss
America
. When she won the crown in 1945, it demonstrated a certain level of acceptance of Jews in the general American culture. She went on to a successful career that included hosting daytime game shows in the 1950’s.
1926: Birthdate of chemist and Nobel Prize Winner, Irwin Rose. When Rose won his Nobel Prize in 2004, five out of the six winners of Nobel Prizes in the sciences were Jewish.
1927: An out of court settlement was announced today in the defamation suit that Aaron Sapiro had brought against Henry Ford, Sr. after The Dearborn Independent had published claims that Sapiro and a group of Jewish bankers and merchants were seeking to control the nation’s wheat farming. Ford would eventually close his anti-Semitic newspaper and apologize for his role in published The International Jew. Those who thought this demonstrated a change in Ford’s hatred of Jews were disabused of that notion when Ford accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from the Nazis in 1938. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1929: Victor Luitpold Berger, the first member of the Socialist Party to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives suffered a fracture skull today when he was hit by streetcar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The injury would prove to be fatal.
1933: In an interview with a deputation of representatives of the Jewish Community of Briinn, Czech President Thomas G. Masaryk declares that the waves of anti-Semitism “will not overflow into the country's borders”.
1934: The body of Chaim Nachman Bialik arrived in Tel Aviv today. Tens of thousands of Jews from all walks of life and from all parts of the political spectrum were on hand to mark this historic moment. It was the largest funeral in the history of the Jewish homeland. While there was no lack of notables in attendance, at the request of the widow, no speeches were delivered.
1934: Morris Rothenberg, President of the ZOA, presided over the memorial service for Chiam Nachman Bialik held at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The near capacity crowd heard a wide spectrum of speakers and then listened to Canter David Putterman of the Park Avenue Synagogue chant the Hazkarah and Jewish actress Miriam Elias recite two of Bialik’s poems including “When I am Dead.”
1936: The Palestine Post reported that British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden declared that the British Mandate in Palestine would not be relinquished. Two British officers and a Jewish driver were wounded near
Nablus
when Arabs opened fire on a military patrol. Shots were fired on a train near Lydda. The High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, visited the new Tel Aviv port. He hoped that over a million cases of citrus would be handled there in the next season. The Manchester Guardian wrote that Jewish immigration to
Palestine
had never been allowed to keep pace with the "absorptive capacity." The Arab population had increased from 500,000 in 1922 to 850,000 in 1936, because
Palestine
became more attractive by the Jewish influx
1936: At a meeting in the Hotel New Yorker, Rose Schneiderman was elected vice chairman of the New York State Labor Party. The newly formed party declared its support for President Franklin Roosevelt and New York Governor Herbert Lehman, but called on all working people to desert the two established parties and join in a new coalition. The party's platform, developed during the same meeting, supported New Deal legislation and called for the extension of Social Security, further economic reform, and unemployment relief. The platform also defined the party's purpose as "to mobilize the political power of labor and the progressive forces of the people everywhere, in the cities and on the farms, against reaction and for freedom, against economic oppression and for recovery and democracy. "When she was elected to the vice chairmanship of the New York State Labor Party, Schneiderman was already president of the National Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) and an established figure in labor activism. Born in
Poland
in 1882, Schneiderman left school at thirteen to help support her siblings and widowed mother by taking a job as a salesclerk at a
New York City
department store. After three years, she found a higher-paying job as a cap maker, and immediately became involved in union politics. In 1903, she organized the workers in her shop, and the following year, she became involved with the New York WTUL. The WTUL was a mostly middle-class organization that hoped to gain credibility with workers by bringing women like Schneiderman on board. For the next two decades, Schneiderman worked alternately for the WTUL and the working-class International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), gaining a national reputation as "the Red Rose of Anarchy," and becoming a central figure in both labor and feminist politics. It was through the WTUL that Schneiderman became friends with Eleanor Roosevelt, and when Franklin Roosevelt became President in 1933, he named Schneiderman as the only woman on the National Labor Advisory Board. In that role, Schneiderman had a profound influence on New Deal legislation, writing the labor codes for every industry that had a predominantly female work force. She also helped to shape Social Security and the Fair Labor Standards Act. In 1937, though she had publicly called for laborers to leave the Democratic Party for the new Labor Party, she was named secretary of labor for
New York
State
under the Democratic governor. In that post, she supported unionization efforts and equal pay campaigns. Later, she was active in efforts to rescue and resettle European Jews. Schneiderman retired from public life in 1949. In her later years, she wrote her memoirs and spoke occasionally on the radio and to union groups. She died on
August 11, 1972
. At the time of her death, large numbers of American women were beginning to take up the fight for equal pay in the workplace and recognition of women's labor in the home, causes in which Schneiderman was a pioneer. While there is still no independent Labor Party in
U.S.
politics, the workers' protections that Schneiderman helped to create are now an integral part of
U.S.
law.
1939: In an article entitled “New Bach Arrangement,” Dr. Peter Gradenwitz describes a performance by the Palestine Symphony Orchestra in Tel Aviv of Bach’s “Art of the Fugue” using a new orchestration by Swiss composer Roger Vuataz. The orchestra performed under the baton of Dr. Hermann Scherchen the famous German musician who left his native land in protest over the policies of the current régime.
1942: The first train with Jews from
Holland
left for a killing camp.
1942: On order from Pierre Laval, the Prime Minister of the Vichy French government, between 13,000 and 20,000 Jews living in
Paris
were rounded up by the French police for deportation. This was known as “La Grande Rafle” or the Big Sweep. The group of Jews in this round up is primarily German and Austrian born Jews who were living in the French capital. The first one thousand would be deported three days later on a so-called "Eichmann Train." There were no protests from the Parisians.
1942(2nd of Av, 5702): A large number of Jews were killed in Molxzadz.
1943: In Vilna, Lithuanian police raided a meeting of the United Partisan Organization attended by the head of the Jewish Council. Jewish partisans rescued the head of the resistance.
1943: Theophil Wurm, bishop of the
Evangelical
Church
in
Württemberg
,
Germany
, sends a letter to
Berlin
in which he asks that the persecution of "members of other nations and races" be halted immediately.
1944: The first five thousand Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF) soldiers, the 6th Regimental Combat team that had left on July 2nd arrived in Italy. Among the members of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force was Salomao Nauslausky who served so courageously that he was “mentioned in dispatches.”
1945: The
United States
successfully tested an atomic bomb at the Trinity sit near
Alamogordo
,
New Mexico
. The Jewish involvement in the decision to build and the actual construction of the bomb is a well-documented fact. Thanks to these Jews,
America
beat
Germany
in the race to build the bomb. Regardless of how some may view the decision to use the bomb against
Japan
, the fact is that a lot of Allied service men lived through the war because there was no invasion of
Japan
. The estimated casualties for the invasions and pacification were in the million plus category.
1948: After fierce fighting, the Israelis successfully took
Nazareth
.
1948: The Arab Liberation Army completed its evacuation of Ein Kerem, a village which would be incorporated into the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.
1948: During Operation Dekel, the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade took the villages of Amqa, al-Damun and Lubya.
1948: While
Israel
was waging its War of Independence (and survival) world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv.
1950:Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett declined to commit himself today on Israel's answer to the request of United Nations Secretary General Trygve Lie for aid in the Korean War. He said that the matter would be considered by the Cabinet this week, but implied that Israel's defense needs must be considered
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that thousands of apartment-seeking Israelis registered for the government's popular housing scheme. There were long queues for domestic ice delivery in
Jerusalem
. Shoe sales increased considerably after 17 new shoe ration points went into effect.
1951: J.D. Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye was published. Jerome David Salinger was born in
New York
in 1919. His father was Jewish. His was mother was Irish-Catholic. This genealogy according to some critics was the source of some of Salinger's inner-conflict that came out in his writings and in his decision to become the most famous literary hermit of the century.
1955: Birthdate of Zohar Argov “a popular Israeli singer” who provided “a distinctive voice in the Mizrahi music scene.”
1956(8th of Av, 5716): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1956: Birthdate of Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Tony Kushner. One of his most notable works was “Angels in America.”
1957(17th of Tamuz, 5717): Tzom Tammuz
1967: A young Kibbutznik got out of his jeep at Aalleiqa, an abandoned Syrian Army base on the Golan Heights, and became the first settler in the Golan. He would be joined by other secular Jews in the next few days and they would form the kibbutz now known as Merom Golan.
1970(12th of Tammuz, 5730): Haim-Moshe Shapira, an Israeli political leader who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1948 passed away. Born in Grodno in 1902, he was a founder of Young Mizrachi who made Aliyah in 1925. He was Israel’s first Minister of Health and Minister of Immigration.
1970: Golda Meir replaced the late Haim Moshe Shapira as Minister of Internal Affairs.
1970: Yosef Goldschmidt completed his first term as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that
Israel
and the
US
were pleased at the outcome of the UN Council's debate in which a resolution censuring
Israel
for the raid on
Entebbe
failed to receive the necessary nine votes. It was in effect an acknowledgement of "
Israel
's right to act in the way it did."
1971: Birthdate of actor Corey Feldman.
1973: During the Watergate Scandal former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate of the existence of heretofore unknown recording system that taped all conversations that took place in the White House’s Oval Office. The system had been installed by President Nixon. The tapes would prove to be Nixon’s undoing and lead to his leaving office. The tapes all revealed a nasty anti-Semitic streak in President Nixon. They also revealed anti-Semitic remarks by the Reverend Billy Graham.
1976: Birthdate of Russian born, Israeli tennis player, Anna Smashnova.
1994(8th of Av, 5754): Julian Schwinger winner of the 1965 winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics passed away.
1995(18th of Tammuz, 5755): Since the 17th of Tamuz fell on Shabbat today is Tzom Tammuz
1995(18th of Tammuz, 5755): Lt. Gen. Mordechai "Motta" Gur, former Chief of Staff of the IDF passed away. He is best remembered as the commander of the brigade that liberated the Old City of Jerusalem in June, 1967.(As reported by Joel Greenberg)
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/17/obituaries/mordechai-gur-is-dead-at-65-army-chief-and-entebbe-planner.html
1999:Morocco's King Hassan II passed away. The king's father, Mohammed V, is widely credited with having saved Morocco's Jews from deportation during World War II, and Hassan continued the philo-Semitic policies of his father. Although there was an outbreak of anti-Jewish incidents following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jewish community was generally safe under the protection of both Mohammed and Hassan, who proudly considered the Jews "Moroccans of Jewish origin." “Hassan was considered a moderate in the Middle East. During his 38-year reign, he at first discreetly, then openly, promoted ties with Israel at a time when most of the rest of the Arab world rejected such contact. His efforts helped pave the way for the 1978 Camp David accord between Israel and Egypt. King Hassan also played a role in preparing for the 1991 Madrid peace conference and welcomed Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in September 1993, making Morocco the first Arab nation outside of Egypt to officially receive an Israeli leader. In 1994, Hassan hosted the first Middle East regional economic conference, which included Israel, in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. After the euphoria of the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel was allowed to establish a consular office in Rabat, and an estimated 40,000 Israeli tourists visited Morocco in 1995 and 1996.” “The Moroccan Jewish community in Israel observed a seven-day period of mourning for the late king.”
2000: “Music; Still a Sly Wit, Now Mostly for Himself” published today described the career of Tom Lehrer, the Harvard mathematician who has entertained generations of listeners with his satirical, musical wit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/16/arts/music-still-a-sly-wit-now-mostly-for-himself.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2000: The New York Times features reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including My Love Affair With America: The Cautionary Tale of a Cheerful Conservative by Norman Podhoretz and The Harold Letters,1928-1943: The Making of an American Intellectual by Clement Greenberg
2001: Opening of the 16th Macaabiah
2002: Simon and Garfunkel released the album "Live In New York City."
2002: The New York Times reports in an obituary: "The American Sephardi Federation joins with all Sephardim of the world in mourning the loss of the eminent Chief Rabbi David Asseo, the spiritual leader of the vital Jewish community of
Turkey
. We recall his warmth, his grace and words of wisdom on the many occasions he received our delegations from
America
.
2005: The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that Professor Chanan Eshel, an archeologist from Tel Aviv’s Bar Ilan University, had announced the discovery of two scroll fragments near the Dead Sea. “The two small pieces of brown animal skin inscribed I Hebrew with verses from the book of Leviticus, are from the “refugee” caves in Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea where Jews hid from the Romans in the second century…The scrolls are being tested by Israel’s Antiquities Authority” to determine their authenticity and era in which they were written. In a repeat of history, the fragments were discovered by a Bedouin who may have been looking for artifacts in the area. If the documents prove to be authentic, they will be the first scrolls discovered in the Judean Desert since the 1960’s.
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Full Swing: Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life by Ira Berkow and the recently released paperback edition of Salonica, City Of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950 by Mark Mazower. “For over half a millennium Salonika, a port city in northern Greece, was a place where Europe met the Middle East. Mazower, a professor of history at Columbia University, sets the history of Salonika and its Orthodox Greeks, Egyptian merchants and Spanish Jews within a "single encompassing historical narrative." He reconstructs this once vibrant city as it thrived under the Ottoman Empire (1430-1912), reverted to Greek control after World War I, and saw its Jewish population deported en masse by the Nazis in 1943
2006: In an article entitled “Marching as to War,” The Washington Post reported on the efforts of Mikey Weinstein, graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the father of an academy graduate, to stop the missionary work of Christian ministers at the Air Force Academy. In particular he is targeting the Officer’s Christian Fellowship who says its goal is a “spiritually transformed military with ambassadors for Christ in in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit.”
2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war:Eight railway workers in Haifa: Shmuel Ben-Shimon, 41; Asael Damti, 39; Nissim Elharari, 43; David Feldman, 28; Dennis Lapidus, 24; Rafi Hazan, 30; Reuven Levy, 46; and Shlomo Mansura, 35.
2007: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in
Israel
and the Palestinian Authority for her first visit to the region since Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip.
2007(1st of Av, 5767): Rosh Chodesh Av.
2007: On the first anniversary of the Hezbollah-Israel War a “Free the Soldiers Rally” takes place in
New York City
. It commemorates the “one long year has passed since Israel Defense Forces soldiers Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev were kidnapped by Hamas and Hezbollah.”
2007: A group representing thousands of children of Holocaust survivors filed a class-action lawsuit against the German government demanding that Germany pay for their psychiatric care. The Israelis, calling themselves second-generation Holocaust survivors, say the scars of the Nazi genocide on their parents have crossed generations. Many still live with an irrational fear of starvation and incapacitating bouts of depression, the lawsuit claims. The lawsuit marks "the very first time that the German government will be asked to take responsibility and to care for those of the second generation in Israel and indeed, worldwide," attorney Gideon Fisher said before filing the suit at the Tel Aviv District Court. In Berlin, the German Foreign Ministry declined comment, but the country was likely to see the suit as a window for an indefinite number of future claims. The suit seeks to set up a German-financed fund to pay for biweekly therapy sessions for 15,000 to 20,000 people, or about $10 million annually for three years."If they will not do it voluntarily, and unfortunately they have not done it so far, then I really hope the president of the court here in Tel Aviv would make them take responsibility," said Fisher, a child of Auschwitz survivors who founded the Fisher Fund, the nonprofit group behind the lawsuit. Baruch Mazor, the fund's director, said 4 to 5 percent of the 400,000 children of survivors in Israel require treatment. Since many cannot hold steady jobs, they cannot pay for their own treatment, and aid from the Israeli government and health insurance have been inadequate, he said. About 4,000 people have joined the suit, he said. "The only thing we are asking for is some kind of financial help in order to give them psychiatric treatment. There will be no money passed from hand to hand," Mazor said Monday. It was unclear what standing the Israeli court would have in a damages case against a foreign country. Mazor said the Tel Aviv suit was a first step aimed at winning recognition that Germany bears responsibility for the suffering of survivors' children. The plaintiffs will then try to negotiate a settlement, or will take their case to a German or an international court, he said. Since the 1950s, Germany has paid more than $60 billion in reparations to concentration camp survivors, families of the some of the 6 million Jewish victims, and to the state of Israel. Much of that money went to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a New York-based organization that negotiates with Germany and distributes the payments. Mazor said money handled by the Claims Conference is earmarked for survivors, and their children did not want to detract from those funds. The suit says the second generation grew up "in the shadow of depression, grief and guilt of their parents, which created a powerful inclination among the children for pain and suffering." Children had a "twisted relationship with their parents" that impeded their development and led to severe psychological problems, the suit claims. One 58-year-old woman told her story to Israel Radio Sunday, saying she inherited the fear of starvation experienced by her parents in Auschwitz, where inmates prized any crust of bread they could obtain. "If you come to my house and open the freezer, loaves of bread fall on you, without any proportion to what I really need," the woman said. She declined to disclose her name, but Mazor said she spoke for thousands. She said she felt as if she had no childhood, and jumped directly into adolescence. The feeling conveyed by her father was: "I went through hell, and what you are going through is nothing," she said. Others of the second generation say they cannot ride buses because it reminds them of the transports their parents took to the concentration camps, or they fear dogs because they were used by the Nazis to control crowds. Mazor said the Fisher Fund held lengthy negotiations with the German Embassy over the compensation claims, but the talks were cut off by the Germans.
2008: In Los Angeles, Hadassah’s 94th Annual Convention comes to an end.
2008: The
John
W.
Kluge
Center
at the Library of Congress sponsors a lecture, "The Moral Conscience of the World: The United Nations and
Palestine
in 1947," by William Roger Louis, a professor of English history and culture at the
University
of
Texas
at
Austin
.
2008: Dr. Rory Miller, senior lecturer at King’s College in London gave a presentation at the Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs as part of its fourth annual series of lectures on changing Jewish communal policies and attitudes in which he said that “the future of the Jewish community in Ireland is bleak as its committed members age and the young immigrate to other European countries and Israel.” The average age of the Jewish community is 65. According to the 2006 census the Jewish population in
Ireland
has dwindled down to about 2,000 and has gone from being the third largest religious group to number 15.
2008: At the WorkShop Theatre, as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival, the world premier of “Yom Kippur,” Meri Wallace’s new drama based on the 1973 war.
2009: At the 18th Maccabiah Games, in Rugby, South Africa plays Australia, Israel plays Canada and the USA plays Chile.
2010: Taglit-Birthright Israel alumni and young professionals plan to gather at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue for “Shabbat Hoppin’: Summer Style.”
2011: The work of Tel Aviv native Dana Levy is scheduled to be part of the Art Omni Weekend which is scheduled to open today.
2011: The Jerusalem Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end this evening.
2011: A group of closed to 800 ultra-Orthodox protestors tried to block a central Jerusalem thoroughfare today, in an attempt to prevent what they consider the desecration of Shabbat. In a unique observance of Shabbat as a Day of rest, Orthodox Jews were throwing rocks and other objects at officers Police arrived on horseback to disperse the crowd on the central Neviim Street, using a water-spraying vehicle to push the ultra-Orthodox protesters back toward the curb and allow traffic to resume. Protesters yelled out "Shabbos" and "Nazis" and threw objects as police remained in the vicinity to keep the peace. Last week, an arrest for tax evasion in Mea Sha’arim degenerated into violence when hundreds of ultra Orthodox protesters threw rocks, steel bars, and Molotov cocktails at municipality officials and police. Although police have successfully prevented the total closure of Neviim Street in the past, secular drivers have complained of ultra-Orthodox zealots kicking, hitting, and throwing bottles on their cars when they attempt to drive through the street.
2011:An IDF spokeswoman confirmed that an aerial attack was launched today under cover of darkness against Gaza terrorists preparing to fire a rocket into Israel, from near Gaza City. The IDF said 16 rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel this month some of which damaged buildings. Israel said it responded to shooting two days ago with aerial strikes on tunnels dug beneath Gaza's border with Egypt.
2012: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet with top Israeli leaders in Jerusalem to discuss a panoply of issues.
2012 Director Dan Cohen is scheduled to discuss “An Article of Hope,” his documentary about Israeli astronaut Illan Ramon after a noon-time showing at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
2012: A memorial service will held today for Alex Okrent, the 29 year old Evanston native who has been working for President Obama since his senatorial campaign in 2004, at the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston.
Copyright; July, 2012; Mitchell A. Levin melech3@mchsi.com
