July 18 In Jewish History
64: During the reign of Emperor Nero, the Great Fire begins in
Rome
. After the fire, Nero avoided the initial inclination to blame the blaze on the Jews. Instead, he targeted the nascent Christian sect which had recently become active in the city. Possibly Nero who saw himself as a god felt personally threatened by Christianity which also worshipped a Divinity who had come to earth in human form.
1195: The Moslem Almohads (‘Proclaimers of the Unity of Allah’) score a great victory over the Christian Catilian King Alfonso VIII at the Battle of Alacros. The Almohads were a sect of Moslem fundamentalists who invaded the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa. They were determined to defeat the Christian forces fighting to take Iberia back from the Moslems. As part of their agenda, the Almohads also punished the Moslems living in Spain for having become ‘soft’ and moderate in their views on Islam. They also punished the Jews of Spain who lived among the Moslems for being agents of their corruption. Many Jews would flee Spain as the Almodhades consolidated their power, thus marking the end of the Golden Age. One of those departing because of the Almodhades was Maimonides and his family.
1290: Edward I (
England
), pressured by his barons, the Church and possibly by his mother, announced the expulsion of all the Jews. The expulsion came on Tisha B’Av, adding to that days list of Jewish sorrows. By November approximately 4000 had fled. The Jews had to pay their own passage, mostly to
France
. They were allowed to take movables (i.e. clothing). A number of Jews were robbed and cast overboard during the voyage by the ship captains. The Jews did not return to
England
until 1659. This was the first national expulsion of the Jews.
1716: A decree banishing Jews from Brussels was today; but it was not enforced: a gift to the crown overcame all difficulties. A similar decree issued forty years later had the same result. Several Jews received the right of citizenship in Brussels. Among them was one named Philip Nathan, who, in 1783, requested the government to assign a place for a new cemetery for the Jews; the old one, situated near the Porte de Namur, having disappeared in consequence of the dismantling of the fortress1860: A report of the bankruptcy case of Lord William Godolphin Osborne includes a list of his creditors among whom was a “Jew money lender.”
1784: In New York, the Trustees of Shearith Israel met to discuss the expansion of the Jewish cemetery. After he was re-elected as Chairman, Myer Myers informed his colleagues that, “Mr. Hayman Levy and Mr. Solomon Simson had bargained with Mr. Isaac Roosevelt for the ground adjacent to the Burying place for eighty pounds, one half to be paid on delivery of the deed, and the other half in twelve months or sooner." “The board voted to purchase the land.”
1800: Birthdate of Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto. Born at Amsterdam, this eldest son of Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto gained fame as an American “physician, scholar, author, and philanthropist.” . He was educated in Curaçao under the direction of Professor Strebeck. He accompanied his father to New York and graduated from Columbia College at the age of sixteen, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1819. He was a member of the old Philolexian Society of the college, the membership of which society still includes the names of his descendants. Prior to taking his degree he had entered the office of Dr. David Hosack, at one time physician to George Washington. Peixotto was one of the editors of the "New York Medical and Physical Journal" and of "Gregory's Practice" (1825-26) and was a frequent contributor to the periodicals and newspapers of the day. Later on he edited "The True American," advocating the election of Gen. Andrew Jackson, and he was also connected with the "New York Mirror." Among the many offices held by him were the following: secretary of the Academy of Medicine (1825); physician to the City Dispensary (1827); and president of the New York Medical Society (1830-32); he was also one of the organizers of the Society for Assisting the Widows and Orphans of Medical Men. The title of Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine and Obstetrics was given him in 1836, and in the same year he was elected to honorary membership in the Medical Society of Lower Canada. Having accepted the appointment of president of the Willoughby Medical College, he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was dean of the faculty for a number of years. Returning to New York, he resumed his practice there, and continued it until his death in 1843> He married Rachel M. Seixas, the daughter of Benjamin Seixas, March 19, 1823.
1862: It was reported today that the will of Isidor Bemlord, which has now been admitted to probate, leaves $500 to the Jews' Hospital in New York City.
1864: A review of The History of Friedrich the Second, Called Friedrich the Great by Thomas Carlyle reports that “a closely printed chapter of twenty-two pages is devoted to M. Voltaire’s ‘powerful Jew law-suit,’ a wretched and obsolete stock-jobbing squabble.”
1870: The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility. The First Vatican Council had been summoned by Pope Pious IX who repealed certain laws aimed at limiting occupations open to Roman Jews and opened the doors of the Ghetto and yet was also known as the Pope who refused to return Edgardo Mortara and insisted on him being raised as a Catholic.
1873(23rd of Tammuz, 5633): Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet, a leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation in the United Kingdom passed away. . He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London and Lord Mayor of London, and one of the first two Jewish people to serve in the British House of Commons.
1876: At today’s opening session of the American Philological Society in New York, Dr. George R. Euterl read a paper on “The Origin of the Hebrew Article” that disputed “the theory that the Hebrew article ‘ha’ has the same origin as the Arabic ‘al.’” According to Eutler, “in Hebrew both the article and the conjunction ‘vav’ are derived from the substantive ‘avah’ and connected with the demonstrative pronoun ‘hu.’”
1877(8th of Av, 5637):Erev Tish'a B'Av
1877: Rabbi H. P. Mendes of Manchester, England, officiated at Tisha B’Av services this evening at the synagogue on West 19th Street in New York City. The only light in the sanctuary came from “four candles on the reading desk and the little tapers” with which the worshippers were provided. Rabbi Mendes is the newly appointed assistant for Rabbi J.J. Lyons
1877: Judge Hilton denied reports that he was weakening or wavering in what he termed as his ban on “Seligman Jews” from the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY.
1877: It was reported today that M.A. Shaffenburg a German Jew who had been serving as U.S. Marshal for the Territory of Colorado, had played an active role in the election of Jerome B. Caffee to the U.S. Senate from Colorado.
1878: It was reported today that Isaac Schwartz who owned a dry goods store on 3rdAvenue in New York filed for bankruptcy today. He showed liabilities of $10,029 with no assets.
1880(10th of Av, 5640): Since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat, Tish'a B'Av is observed today.
1882: Samuel Obreight, a young Jew who became the subject of a sanity hearing after he married Mary Myers, a Christian, appeared in court today. The judge decided to release him in the custody of his wife until he can make a final ruling.
1882: Rudolpha Leischinsky, a young Jewish woman recently arrived from Europe, is scheduled to be transferred to the Emigrant Insane Asylum on Ward’s Island today. She had originally been taken to Bellevue after a failed suicide attempt.
1882: It was reported that Rebbeca Gold, the wife of a Russian Jew committed suicide last night in Athens, GA. The death remains a mystery but she left a mirror and two knives in a cradle by the side of her young infant.
1882: The striking freight handlers continued their efforts to keep foreign born workers away from the docks. While Italian workers were fed sandwiches, the Russian Jews were getting three meals including a dinner consisting of boil meat prepared by a Jewish cook. Both groups will be getting $.25 a day as an additional incentive not to cross the picket line.
1883: In Hungary, the court that is trying several Jews on charges that they murdered a Christian girl, Esther Salomossy, went to Tisza Ezlar today where Moritz Scharf was forced to look through the key-hole in the door of the synagogue through which he claims to have seen the murder committed. It was obvious that the witness could have only seen one person at a time and that it was impossible to have seen a group of people. [In early reports, Scharf claimed that his testimony came only after he had been abused and threatened.]
1885: Rebecca Marcus who owns a grocery store on Broome Street charged Solomon Schulman, a Russian born rabbi with larceny in Essex Market Court. She claimed he came into her store and stole $31. He denied the charge and said he was in the store to collect the $8 she owed him for tuition.
1887: It was reported today that the Hebrew Standardhas declared that “a diet of crabs and lobsters is not only un-Jewish” it is also unhealthy.
1888: At the bride’s home in St Kilda, Australia, the future Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs married 18-year-old Deborah (Daisy), daughter of Isaac Jacobs, a tobacco merchant who had been president of the St Kilda Hebrew Congregation and in 1889-90 was to be president of the Chamber of Manufactures.
1892: In his quest to create an anti-cholera vaccine, Dr. Waldemar Haffkine, a Russian born Jew, risked his own life by testing his vaccine for the first time on himself.
1894: Birthdate of Isaac Emmanuilovich Babel. Born in Odessa, Babel would survive the Pogroms of 1905 and go to become a journalist and author in the Soviet. Arrested by Stalin, he died in Siberia in 1940. He would be exonerated after Stalin’s death.
1896: First and only meeting between Herzl and Baron Edmond de Rothschild, whose financial sponsorship the Zionist leader was seeking.
1902: Mark Matveyevich Antokolski, the Litvak who became a world class sculptor was buried in St. Petersburg today. The train carrying his body from Paris where died made a special stop in his native Wilno before reaching its final destination.
1903: Wenzel von Plehv is ready to receive Herzl. Von Plehv was the Czar’s Minister of the Interior, and like many of his class and nationality, an active anti-Semite.
1906: Birthdate of Clifford Odets, the son of Jewish immigrants born in Philadelphia. He left school at the age of 17 to become an actor. After a series of small parts working in the theatre and on radio, Odets helped form the Group Theatre in New York. Members held left-wing political views and wanted to produce plays that dealt with important social issues. Odets, who joined the American Communist Party in 1934, had his first play produced, Waiting for Lefty, in 1935. The play that dealt with trade union corruption was an immediate success. With his next two plays, Awake and Sing! and Till the Day I Die, Odets established himself as a champion of the underprivileged. After the production of Paradise Lost (1935), Odets accepted a lucrative offer to become a film screenwriter and while in Hollywood met and married the actress, Luise Rainer. However, he continued to write plays and with Golden Boy (1937) he had his greatest commercial success. This was followed by Rocket to the Moon (1938), Night Music (1940), Clash By Night (1941), The Big Knife (1949), and The Country Girl (1950). Investigated by Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953, Odets argued that he had never been under the influence of the American Communist Party and his work had been based on his deep sympathy for the working classes. Unlike many writers and actors who had been members of the party, Odets was not blacklisted and continued to work in Hollywood. This included the screenplay for the acclaimed, Sweet Smell of Success (1957). Clifford Odets died on 18th August, 1963.
1911(22nd of Tammuz, 5671): Rabbi Dr. Hermann Adler CVO, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1891 to 1911 passed away. The son (and successor as Chief Rabbi) of Nathan Marcus Adler, the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica writes that he "raised the position [of Chief Rabbi] to one of much dignity and importance. “Born in Hanover, like his father, he had both a rabbinical education and a university education in Germany, and like him he subscribed to a modernized Orthodoxy. He attended University College School in London from 1852-54. He graduated at Leipzig; he later received honorary degrees from Scottish and English universities, including Oxford. He was head of a congregation in Bayswater during his father's lifetime, and his father's assistant from the time his father's health began to deteriorate in 1879, before succeeding him on his death in 1891.In 1909 he was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. Adler wrote extensively on topics of Anglo-Jewish History and published two volumes of sermons. He was a vigorous defender of his co-religionists and their faith, as well as their sacred Scriptures.
1913(13th of Tammuz, 5673): Edward Selig Salomon “a German immigrant to the United States who served as a Union brigadier general in the American Civil War and later became governor of Washington Territory and a California legislator” passed away. In an unusual twist, Salomon fought with Union Armies in the East and the West. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Gettysburg where he had two horses shot out from under him. He then led his regiment in Sherman’s victorious campaign that led to the capture of Atlanta. Salomon was appointed to his post as territorial governor of Washington by President Grant which provides further proof that the latter was not an anti-Semite.
1917: A draft of what would become the Balfour Declaration was submitted to Lord Balfour.
1921: In Brooklyn, Solomon Goldman, a jeweler, and the former Sarah Goldstein, who had immigrated from Russia gave birth to “Jacob E. Goldman, a physicist who as Xerox’s chief scientist founded the company’s vaunted Palo Alto Research Center, which invented the modern personal computer…” (As reported by John Markoff)
1922: Birthdate of American academic and philosopher, Thomas Samuel Kuhn.
1923: Birthdate of William M. Birenbaum, the product of the Waterloo, Iowa school system who became the nationally known university administrator who helped rescue Antioch College from looming insolvency during his tenure as president there in the 1970s and ’80s. (As reported by Maraglit Fox)
1925: Adolf Hitler publishes his personal manifesto Mein Kampf.
1928(1stof Av, 5688): Rosh Chodesh Av
1934: In one of several efforts by Zionist leaders to reach a compromise with the Arabs, David Ben-Gurion and Dr. Magnes met with Auni Abdul Hadi, the leader of the movement devoted to Palestinian Arab independence.
1934: A lengthy article in a Nazi newspaper attacked Egyptian Jews. The Germans stated some Jewish boys insulted the Swastika flag on the German Consul's car. The paper stated the boys were arrested.
1937(10thof Av, 5697): Tisha B’Av observed because the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat.
1939: The entire Jewish community of Palestine, regardless of political persuasion, participated in a general strike aimed at protesting Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald’s announcement that Jewish immigration would be banned for the next six month.
1941: “The first news of the Eastern killings reached England through intercepted German police messages which told of the mass shooting of ‘Jews, Jewish plunderers, Jewish bolshevists’…in numbers ranging from a hundred to several thousand at a time.”
1942: Nine hundred Jews fled to the woods near Szarkowszczynzna as the Germans entered the town. Six hundred of them did not make it to safety and were killed
1943(15th of Tamuz, 5703): Two hundred slave laborers are murdered at Miedzyrzec, Poland.
1943: One thousand Jews are deported to
Auschwitz
from
Paris
1944: The Jews living on the
island
of
Rhodes
were ordered to assemble for what would become a transport of
Hungary
. The community dated back to 1492, the time of the expulsion of the Jews from
Spain
.
1947: The British seized the SS Exodus carrying 4000 "illegal" immigrants. Its defiance of the British navy and its ultimate return to
Germany
formed one of the most dramatic episodes in post-war Jewish history. This was only one of many ships seized, turned around or actually sunk as the Jews defied the British blockade and tried to make their way to
Palestine
. This episode gained additional fame because it provided the core for the famous novel and film Exodus.
1947: Dr. Joshua Cohen was among those on board the SS Exodus when it was seized by the British. “With limited medical equipment, Cohen” had “set up impromptu clinics on every deck to care for more than 4,500 passengers, including 655 children.” Following the seizure of the ship, After the British had seized the ship, Cohen negotiated with the British doctors to have many of the wounded sent by ambulance to Haifa. Following his experience on the Exodus, Cohen returned to the UK, only to be recruited by the British Army. He eventually returned to Israel and served for four years in the Israeli Medical Corps. Later, he was director general of the Poriya Hospital outside Tiberias, as well as deputy director of Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
1947: Mordechai (Motke) Eldar who had survived Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen and Gunskirchen and his sisters were among the passengers on the Exodus whom the British would forcibly ship back to Hamburg. Eldar returned to Tel Aviv a year later. He joined the IDF where he served for thirty years reaching the rank of Colonel.
1948: On the final day of Operation Dekel, Israeli forces take the villages Sh’ab and Al-Birwa.
1948: Israeli forces went on the offensive in the
Negev
attacking Egyptian invaders at Kharatya. After initial Israeli success, the Egyptians counter-attacked with tanks. An Israeli soldier named Ron Feller risked his life in a successful effort to destroy two of the tanks using a hand held anti-tank weapon for which he had only two rounds.
1948: A fourth and final attack by Israelis on the fortress of Latrun failed. Latrun would remain in the hands of
Jordan
’s Arab Legion until 1967.
1948: Israeli forces take Ayin Karem ending the threatened Egyptian invasion of
Jerusalem
.
1948: During the War of Independence, after ten days of fighting (July 8- July 18), a second truce went into effect.
1948: As of today, the entire lower Galilee from Haifa Bay to the Sea of Galilee was under Israeli control.
1948: Over the next thirty-six hours, Dr. Stanley Levin, a volunteer surgeon from South Africa “performed 28 successive surgeries” without stopping for a break.
1948: Modi Alon scored his third aerial victory today when he shot down a Royal Egyptian Air Force Spit fired piloted by Wing Commander Said Afifi al-Janzuri. The Spitfire had been the backbone of the RAF during the Blitz in 1940. Alon had received served in the RAF during the war but had flown the American made P-51.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that while the Knesset voted for equal rights for women, the word ba'al (the word for husband which literally means also a master) was replaced with ish (man, meaning husband as well). The Women's Equal Rights Bill was unanimously opposed at the annual conference of four Israeli kadis (Moslem religious officials), held in
Jerusalem
. The kadis, however, eased the divorce laws for separated wives. Henceforth
Israel
's Arab women whose husbands were abroad would become eligible to remarry, if they wished to press divorce proceedings.
1967:Germaine Ribière, a French Catholic member of the Resistance born in 1917 “was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/ribiere.asp
1970: Menahem Eini was taken prisoner when his F-4E Phantom II was shot down during the War of Attrition.
1970(14th of Tammuz, 5730): Shmuel Hetz was killed when his F-4E Phantom II was shot down during the War of Attrition.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that during his electoral campaign, Jimmy Carter, the US presidential candidate, announced that he believed strongly that "Israel made enough concessions, and it was time that Arabs made some." In
Montreal
, an angry walkout by most large African nations scarred the opening of the biggest, costliest and most controversial Olympic Games in history. The African nations pulled out after the International Olympic Committee rejected their demand to bar
New Zealand
because of its sporting links with
South Africa
.
Taiwan
also pulled out from the Olympics after
Canada
ruled that it could not take part under the name of the "
Republic
of
China.
" extensive readership survey
1978: Egyptian & Israeli officials begin 2 days of talks.
1979: A fifteen-day conference co-sponsored by Sarah Lawrence, the Women's Action Alliance and the Smithsonian Institution, began on this date at
Sarah
Lawrence
College
. Intended for female leaders, it was attended by a diverse range of participants representing 43 different women's organizations. The institute was organized by Sarah Lawrence professor Gerda Lerner One of the pioneers of women's history, Lerner hoped to introduce a diverse group of varied backgrounds to the possibilities of women's history. Lerner described the 15-day course as equivalent to a semester-long seminar. In addition to ongoing afternoon workshops and evening cultural events, each morning's program featured one lecture by the seminar instructors. Joining Lerner as the principle instructors were Alice Kessler-Harris and Amy Swerdlow, both pioneering feminists and women's historians.
1982(27th of Tammuz, 5742): Eighty-five year old “Roman Jakobson, an internationally known authority on Slavic languages and literatures” passed away today at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston which was not far from his home in Cambridge, Mass. Best known as the founder of phonology, the study of abstract properties of the sounds of speech, Dr. Jakobson was Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fields of linguistics and philosophy and was the Samuel Hazzard Cross Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and General Linguistics Emeritus at Harvard University. He was Thomas G. Masaryk Professor of Czechoslovak Studies at Columbia University before he joined the Harvard faculty in 1950. Harvard called the appointment a major step in the expansion of the university's Slavic studies. In 1957, Dr. Jakobson was invited to join M.I.T.'s faculty, and he taught at both institutions. He retired from Harvard in 1967 and from M.I.T. in 1970. Dr. Jakobson could read 25 languages, and in one of his works he analyzed poetry in 16 languages. His study of phonology was only a facet of his work, which continued until his death. In 1981-82, he added to the list of his publications two books and 15 articles, the last of about 500 he produced in his lifetime. One of his last books, ''Dialogues,'' consisting of conversations between him and his wife, Krystyna Pomorska, professor of Russian literature at M.I.T., will be published by M.I.T. in September
1983(8th of Av, 5743):Erev Tish'a B'Av
1994(10th of Av, 5754): In Buenos Aires a car bomb exploded outside the building housing the AMIA, the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA) building killing 85 people and wounding more than 200 others in what remains the most deadly anti-Semitic incident anywhere since World War II and came two years after 29 people died in a similar attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina.
1995:Ehud Barak succeeded David Libai as Interior Minister.
1997(13th of Tammuz, 5757): Sir James Goldsmith, a flamboyant British-French financier who maintained three families, homes in four countries and used his billions to fight the European Union, passed away today at the age of 64 after having battled pancreatic cancer for four years. His father was Jewish. His mother was not.Sir James made his fortune as a highly successful corporate raider before turning to politics. He formed his own Referendum Party in Britain with the single mission of combatting further European integration while maintaining a seat from France in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Although his party polled over 800,000 votes in the British elections in May, it did not win a single seat in the House of Commons. Born into a prosperous banking family, Sir James went on to amass a personal fortune estimated at up to $2.5 billion. Having frequented luxurious hotels in his youth, he briefly flirted with the idea of working in one, but soon turned to finance, excelling in the art of taking over troubled companies. He was a brilliant investor of his profits too and accurately forecast the American stock market crash of 1987, turning his assets into cash just before the market plunged. In the United States, he was best known for his 1986 raid on the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, which became an issue in Congressional hearings on takeovers.
1999: The New York Times reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Spinoza: A Life” by Steven Nadler.
2001: Daniel C. Kurtzer presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
2004: At the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the fifth and final performance of the Biblical opera "Nabucco" by Giuseppe Verdi in which acclaimed Israeli theatre and opera director Jacobo Kaufmann, directs and designs the scenery. He is the first Israeli ever to be hired to direct an opera in Italy.
2004: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of “In Praise of Nepotism:: A History of Family Enterprise From King David to George W. Bush” by Adam Bellow, the son of novelist Saul Bellow, who succeeds in canvassing much of Western history (not to mention Confucian and Hindu traditions) to argue that kinship is ''both natural and necessary.''
2004: With President Néstor Kirchner looking on, Argentine Jewish leaders today marked the 10th anniversary of a deadly anti-Semitic attack here by delivering blistering attacks on his predecessors and European institutions they say have blocked efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. The bombing killed 85 people and wounded about 300 at a Jewish recreation and education center, commonly known as AMIA, its Spanish initials. Though a group of police officers are on trial for having procured the vehicle in which the bomb was placed, Argentina has been thwarted in efforts to prosecute Iranian government officials it says organized the attack.In a sharp speech, Abraham Kaul, the president of the community group, criticized Britain's refusal to allow the extradition of a former Iranian ambassador to Argentina who was indicted here last year, and also complained about a lack of cooperation in Switzerland in determining how the attack was financed. ''They have betrayed us,'' Mr. Kaul said. But the harshest criticisms were reserved for Carlos Saúl Menem, who was president of Argentina at the time of the bombing and has been accused by a defector from Iranian intelligence of having deliberately undermined the official inquiry into the attack. Mr. Menem is now living in self-imposed exile in neighboring Chile rather than submitting to questioning in relation to corruption charges pending against him here.'' Carlos Menem is the culprit and is a criminal fugitive,'' said Marina Degtiar, who spoke on behalf of relatives of the victims. Because of Mr. Menem's efforts to cover up the case, she said, ''so many facts still lie with impunity beneath the ruins.'' There has long been resentment here over the botched investigation, but the anger has grown in recent months as a result of the train bombings that killed 190 people in Madrid in March. Although the Spanish government initially blamed the attack on Basque separatists, its ability to identify and apprehend fairly quickly the people suspected of being Islamic militant organizers has been repeatedly contrasted here with the Argentine government's ineptitude or unwillingness to act. In recent months, there has also been talk here of seeking ''a Lockerbie solution,'' in which Argentina would relinquish some of its legal claims so that the accused Iranians could stand trial in a third country. But Iran, which threatened to ''adopt appropriate measures'' if Argentina did not revoke the indictments, has offered no indication it is interested in such a deal. With the recent release of government documents, ordered by Mr. Kirchner, Jewish community groups are also pushing for a belated investigation into a Syrian link to the attack. Among the questions they have raised is why Mr. Menem, himself of Syrian descent, allowed various Syrian citizens who were then under surveillance to leave Argentina in the wake of the bombing, including one who is said to be a cousin of Hafez al-Assad, who was then the president of Syria. Mr. Kirchner, who took office 14 months ago, is the first Argentine president to attend the annual AMIA ceremonies. In April, he described the unsolved case as such ''a national disgrace'' that it required him to ''find the historical truth,'' and on Sunday he was hugged, kissed and greeted with cries of ''keep on pushing, Mr. President,'' by relatives of many of the victims. But his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, generated criticism last week when in an interview with a local Jewish publication she suggested that some Jewish leaders aided in the cover-up. Mrs. Kirchner, a prominent senator and member of a legislative commission that also investigated the bombing, was understood to be referring to an ally of Mr. Menem who controlled a financially troubled bank that received questionable government support. Mr. Kirchner is scheduled to meet Monday with members of a delegation representing the American Jewish Committee. In an interview, David A. Harris, executive director of the group, said resolving the AMIA case will ''require extraordinary political will and courage'' and urged Mr. Kirchner ''to translate good intentions into concrete results.'' ''That is going to be a mountain of a challenge,'' Mr. Harris said. ''It's late in the day.''
2005: The air is filled with anticipation and excitement as Rabbi Aaron Sherman officially assumes the pulpit at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
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:Andrei Zelinsky, 36, of Nahariya.
2007: The 93rdannual national Hadassah Convention comes to an end.
2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, weather permitting, Temple Judah is scheduled to celebrate Friday night Shabbat Services in the new Silber Family Outdoor Sanctuary.
2008: In an article entitled “The Floods of 2008,” George C. Ford describes the impact of the worst natural disaster in the history of Cedar Rapids on the Siegel family, who have been prominent members of the business community for over six decades and pillars of the Jewish community.
Sixty-eight years after Siegel’s Jewelry & Loan opened in downtown Cedar Rapids, the business was forced to relocate following last month’s flooding. Ken Siegel and his brother, Jary, who operated the store at 105 Third Ave. SE, signed a lease for a vacant store at 3525 First Ave. SE within days after learning the extent of the damage to their business. “When we were finally allowed back into downtown to check our business on June 16, we found the windows were broken and blackened,” Ken Siegel said. “Looking inside the store, we saw the walls were buckled in, display cases had been flipped upside down and torn apart and there was really complete devastation.” Although Jary Siegel and store employees had moved merchandise like plasma televisions and guitars from the basement to the top of the showcases on the first floor, the floodwaters destroyed virtually everything but jewelry stored in two safes. “All of our retail jewelry and diamonds were stored in the safes,” Ken Siegel said. “Unfortunately, the safes had digital locks that were shorted out by the floodwaters and we were stuck for about a week. We looked all over the country for someone to get the safes open until Jeremy at John’s Lock & Key in Cedar Rapids was able to get them open.” Siegel said more than 3,000 envelopes containing diamonds and other jewelry had to be opened by hand. “We had between 10 and 12 people cleaning the jewelry, matching the diamonds with certificates, creating new paperwork and cataloging each item,” he said. “We also had about 3,000 or 4,000 DVDs in our inventory. We were able to recover about 2,000, but we had to throw away the cases because they were submerged. “We literally lost thousands of items. I would estimate that we lost at least $250,000 worth of merchandise.” Cy Christenson, 92, who has repaired watches at Siegel’s since 1976, lost all of his tools as well as “enough parts and crystals for five shops,” according to Siegel. “We’re still recovering customers’ watches left for repair.” Siegel said getting the business up and running was a priority. “We’re in essence like a bank, so if a bank closes, customers get upset when they can’t get their money,” he said. “We’re also a loan institution as well, so we had hundreds of people calling to find out if they could get their merchandise.” Siegel said customers who pawned merchandise other than jewelry likely will not be able to redeem their items.
“The national pawn contract says that we’re not responsible for catastrophic events like fire and floods,” he said. “We have insurance for everything but flooding.” Siegel said customers who pawned merchandise usually were loaned anywhere from 50 percent to 60 percent of the value when it was pawned. “Most of the customers we have talked with have been very understanding,” he said. Asked if the business will return to the building it bought in 2005 after being a tenant for 65 years, Siegel does not have an answer. “We’re trying to rescue a $500,000 investment,” he said. “We would like to go back downtown. We love the downtown area, but we will have to see what develops over the next few years.”
2009: Fifteenth anniversary of the AMIA bombing attack. The following was sent to us by an anonymous Argentine Jew whose pain has not been dimmed by the passing of time.
The AMIA Bombing was an attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA) building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, that killed 85 people. Carried out under Carlos Menem's presidency (1989-1999), it was Argentina's deadliest bombing. Argentina is home to a Jewish community of 200,000, the largest in Latin America. It was one of the Largest Attacks against Jews after the holocaust. I'm an Argentine Jew, not only I've lost people close to my life in this attack but our lives as Jews in Argentina changed forever, we lost everything we had, including our voices. As we continue to hear the silence of the international community and the lack of care of our own community. Now isn’t it sad to read the level of ignorance that the Jewish community worldwide has about this. I have questioned myself every year, why? Why would people care so little about this? They attacked us for not only being Jews but as they see us as a way to attack Israel, so at least for that basic reason, even if you don't care about the Jews in Argentina, don't you care about an attack towards Israel? Even if Israelis didn't die.. We died due to that... As every year not only I ask tons of people if they know about this day, and obviously they are totally ignorant, Do you think you might have a little place in your heart to remind yourselves that we as well represent the Jewish population, that 85 people died and 300 severely injured and put this solemn day of remembrance in your little calendar... I'd say just for respect. Just at least for respect even if you don't care....I'm the daughter of a holocaust survivor... the same way I remember all of my family and all of the victims of the holocaust, I as well make a very special place in my heart to remember the AMIA and the Bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina. And we still don't have support, and we still don't have justice, and still the world continues to ignore our cries of help....Shame shame, shame on ignorance... shame that people just don't care.
[Ed. Note; We hope that by publishing this as it was written, we have in some small way atoned for previous failure to note this tragic event in our people’s history. Zachor – Remember and remember we will.]
2009: The Jerusalem Film Festival features a screening of Harlan-In the Shadow of the Jew Suss. “At the height of WWII, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, harnessed the mass medium of cinema to convey his party’s anti-Semitic ideology. He was behind the productions of The Eternal Jew and The Rothschilds, while the clear-cut pinnacle was Jud Süss. Director Veit Harlan took the novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, which was published before the Nazi rise to power, twisted the plot, spiced it with heavy German sentimentality, and created an allegory about Jewish cunning and hubris. No less than 20 million Germans rushed to the box office, and the same number watched the film in the Nazi-occupied territories. With the end of the War, Harlan was twice tried and twice acquitted. ‘We have dug already deep into our history as a nation, but still haven’t done enough when it comes to our family stories,’ claims German documentarist Felix Moeller. Harlan is a fascinating cinematic mosaic containing clips of films by Goebbels’s collaborator, old interviews, news footage, home movies, and meetings with relatives. His son Thomas lives in the shadow of his father’s heinous film; his other sons don’t see the need to defend his deeds; his niece Christina, the widow of Stanley Kubrick (a Jew, for those wondering); and his granddaughters, must ponder their shameful inheritance.”
2010:“Controlled Chaos and Brawny Braininess Watcha Clan with Charming Hostess” are scheduled to appear on the final day of the 25th Annual Jewish Music Festival in San Francisco.
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Maxine Kumin, the Phildelphia born Jewish poet.
2010:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaves for Egypt today to discuss with President Hosni Mubarak the possibility of launching direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also due to meet with Mubarak in Cairo.
2010:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today said he opposes the conversion bill proposed by Yisrael Beiteinu, which would give sole authority over Israel's conversions to the Chief Rabbinate, saying it will "tear apart the Jewish people." "The bill could tear apart the Jewish people," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. "We will make the effort to stop the bill from reaching the Knesset, but if it is not removed, I will ask the Likud members and members of other parties to vote against it."
2011: In an article published today entitled “Roseanne’s New Reality” the aging Jewish born comedian reveals that “every Friday night for Shabbat from sundown until 2 a.m., she gets high, drinks red wine, and does a meditation Rav Berg taught her.”
2011: In an article published today entitled “Egypt’s Rising Power” examined the career of Amr Moussa the leading candidate to be the next President of Egypt. According to the article what his “supporters love most “ about him “is his long and vocal history of anti-Israel diatribes.” Moussa insisted that he would honor the treaty despite his opposition to Sadat’s peace moves.
2011:A 50-year-old Jewish man from the Beit Zayit suburb of Jerusalem was arrested by police today afternoon on suspicion of being responsible for the forest fire in Jerusalem on Sunday. Police believe the fire started in the man’s courtyard, where he had piled trash next to his house, and then was carried by the wind, jumping from place to place before raging out of control. Police and fire investigators initially believed that the fire was the result of arson, as it started simultaneously in four different areas. “It seems that the fire jumped from place to place, which is why they thought it was arson,” said Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben Ruby. The large forest fire in Jerusalem that burned more than 150 dunams yesterday afternoon was extinguished around midnight on Sunday, firefighters said on Monday. After conducting patrols throughout the night, firefighters announced there was “not even a coal glowing” in the Jerusalem forest early this morning. The largest area of damage was around the House of the Forest Ranch, a rural agriculture attraction and educational center located in the heart of the forest. Firefighters discovered 20 canisters of gas, some of which had exploded from the heat of the fire. None of the firefighters were injured by the exploding gas canisters. “We had a lot of luck that there weren’t any incidents,” said Jerusalem Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Lt. Asaf Abras. Five firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation. Three workers from Yad Vashem, which has their own firefighting equipment and trained professionals, also suffered from mild smoke inhalation after battling part of the blaze that encroached on the western perimeter of the campus. The fire did not enter the campus, though hundreds of visitors to the holocaust museum were evacuated.
2011:The Malaysian government-backed newspaper said in an editorial that foreign Jewish groups will try to use a current push for reform to interfere in the country."At a time when the drumbeats in the name of human rights are getting boisterous, it will give the best opportunity for pro-Jewish groups to interfere in any Muslim countries," the Utusan Malaysia daily said in an editorial today. "Muslims and Malaysians should not allow any party, especially the Jews, to discreetly interfere in the country’s administration." "The success and prosperity of Malaysia as a model Islamic nation has created jealousy to a certain country and this is made worse by Malaysia’s firm stand in fighting against violence by the Jews in Palestine," the editorial continues. "The Jews will find ways to destroy our prosperity and well-being. "We probably think that this is a misplaced concern, but we must not forget the fate of certain countries which have been victims of the hidden hands," it concludes. The editorial does not provide evidence of a Jewish plot. Malaysia has no diplomatic ties with Israel and supports the Palestinian cause. Some 20,000 people marched in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on July 9 demanding electoral reform.
2012: Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present screenings of “Hester Street” and “Sweatshop Cinderella.”
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present “A Magical Eve with James Conlon” during which the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival and Executive Director of the OREL Foundation. Maestro Conlon will share insights about his "Breaking the Silence" series featuring music from composers whose work had been silenced by the Nazis. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Janai Brugger and Miah Im<br /