July 19 In History
362: The Roman Emperor Julian, known to Christians as Julian the Apostate, left Constantinople and arrived in Antioch to prepare for the invasion of Persia. While preparing for the invasion he met Jewish leaders to whom he promised he would re-build the Temple. Julian’s short reign would come to an end in the following year and nothing came of his plans for the Third Temple.
711: Muslim forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeat the Christian Visigoths led by their king Roderic at the Battle of Guadalete. This decisive Moorish victory was the key to the Moslems establishing their rule over the Iberian Peninsula. Jews living in Christian Spain had suffered under the Visigoths and helped the Moors. The Battle of Gaudalete was one of the events that led to the five century period known as the Golden Age of Spain for the Jewish people.
1195: In Spain the Almohades defeat the Christians under Alfonso I of Toledo. The Jews of Toledo had willingly helped to finance the impoverished Alfonso ini his fight against the Almohades despite recent anti-Jewish violence that had claimed the life if Abraham Ibn-David among others.
1385 (10th of Av): Rabbi Menachem ben Aaron ibn Zerah, author of Zeidah la-Derekh passed away.
1490: Yucef Franco, aged 20, a cobbler who had been arrested by the Inquisition, along with his 80 year old father at the beginning of the month, fell ill. He asked the doctor who was treating him if he would arrange for a Rabbi to visit him.
1510: In
Brandenburg
,
Prussia
, Joachim the Elector burned 38 Jews at the stake on a charge of desecrating the host. Another two accepted Christianity and were mercifully beheaded.
1785: Birthdate of Mordecai Manuel Noah, the native Philadelphian who, according to some “was the most influential Jew in the United States in the early 19th Century.” Educated as a lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina, Noah settled in New York where he was a politician, newspaper editor, diplomat and the visionary who wanted to create a Jewish colony in New York called Ararat.
1797:While visiting Amsterdam, Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto, a rabbi and merchant born in Curaçao, married Judith Lopez Salzedo. Eventually Peixotto would settle in the United States where he served as the head of Congregation Shearith Israel
1817: “Romilda e Costanza,” an opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer premiered in Padua, Italy
1821: George IV is crowned King of Great Britain and Ireland. King George would actively oppose legislation introduced in the 1830’s designed to grant Jews full rights of civil and political citizenship.
1849: In Islington, London, Samuel Meldola and Ella Rederica who had married in 1886 gave birth to their only , Raphael Meldola who served as Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of London and invented Meldola’s Blue Dye.
1865: Birthdate of Yisroel Aaron Fishel, the native of Meretz (Russia) who came to the United States at the age of 20 where he gained fame and fortune as Harry Fishel, New York businessman and supporter of numerous Jewish causes. In 1931 he founded The Harry Fischel Institute for Talmudic Research. He passed away in 1948.
http://fischelfoundation.org/about_bio3.htm
1870: The Franco-Prussian War begins when Napoleon
III
declares war on the Germans. The two states were each looking to be the dominant power in
Europe
. The immediate cause of the conflict was a clash over who would rule
Spain
. The war, which ended in May, 1871, was a total disaster for the French. In addition to the general humiliation of having her capital occupied by the Prussians, the French were force to give up the provinces of
Alsace
and
Lorraine
and to pay a large indemnity to the German state. This loss of territory and the desire to avenge the humiliation of 1870 were part of the causes of
World
War
I.
“A number of Jews, including Jules Moch and Leopold See, attained high rank in the French army. See later became Secretary General of the Ministry of the Interior. The war also marked the beginning of Rabbis serving as chaplains in the German army.” After the War, Many Jewish families preferred to emigrate from
Alsace
and
Lorraine
rather than be under German rule.
1870: A “Hebrew clothier” from Albany was taken to court today by his maid who claimed he had prevented her from carrying away her clothing despite the fact that he owed her for two years in back wages.
1874: Har Sinai, a Reform Congregation in Baltimore, Maryland, unanimously elected Joseph Meyer of Cleveland to serve as its rabbi.
1877(9th of Av, 5637): Tish'a B'Av;
1877: “The Fast of AAB,” an article published in today’s New York Times reported that “Today is the ninth day of Aab” the fast marking “the anniversary of the temple and of Jerusalem. The reformed Israelites have abandoned the observance, but it is held in veneration and kept by both orthodox Jews, both in Europe and America with fasting and gloomy services…Today is the 1,825thanniversary of the second destruction of the temple.”
1877: At sunset, with the end of Tisha B’Av the black crepe draperies will be removed from the pulpit and furniture at the synagogue on West 19th Street in New York and the usual lighting will be returned to the structure.
1880: It was reported today that the August edition of the Atlantic Monthly will include “The Preceptor of Moses” in which Francis H. Underwood “reconstructs a chapter of Hebrew History.” [Underwood was an American biographer who founded the Atlantic Monthly as part of the fight against slavery. In its comments about the article, the Uitca (NY) Gazette, said that it should been included as a work of fiction since “it does not possess any particular value as a historical study.”
1881: Two thousand people attended an “anti-Jewish” meeting in Berlin today.
1882: As the Freight Handler’s Strike continued, today was a bad day for the Russian Jews. An extra detachment of police had to be called out protect the Jews from the strikers at one of the piers in Jersey City while 35 Jews were fired at the Star Union Pier in New York.
1883: Birthdate Max Fleischer, pioneer animator and film producer. He passed away in 1992.
1884(26thof Tammuz): Mayer Schutz, passed away today at the Brighton Beach Hotel on Coney Island. Born in Bavaria in 1814, he came to the United States in 1840 where he “made his fortune” in the wholesale dry goods business. He retired fifteen years so he could devote himself “to charitable and benevolent work” including membership in the Hebrew Benevolent Society, serving as a director of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Mount Sinai Hospital and holding the Presidency of Rodef Sholom. [All glory is fleeting]
1885: It was reported today that among the new rules that theatrical director Heinrich Conried has imposed on the performers of the Casino Company is one that states, “Any principle member seen talking with a rival manager will be regarded…as lukewarm to the present management” and “will subject himself to being talked about in Hebrews.” [Note - No explanation is given for this apparently odious use of the language of the Bible. Conried was no crackpot since he would later serve as director the Metropolitan Opera. He was from a Jewish family in Silesia, so this may have been his way of saying they would be subject to verbal abuse that they would not understand.]
1887: A free excursion for underprivileged Jewish children sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children and partially underwritten by the staff of the Hebrew Journal will take place today.
1887:Louis Keptlovwitch a Jewish immigrant working as a printer in upstate New York was arrested today after his wife and child arrived today. The charge was bigamy. It seems that Mr. Keptlovwitch had forgotten about his Polish family and had married a Jewish woman from Newburg, NY.
1888: The third free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will leave at nine o’clock this morning from a pier at 5th Street and the East River. [There were usually three such boat trips each summer intended to get poor little children and their mothers out of the tenements on the Lower East Side. These Jewish efforts mirrored the work of Julia Hull.]
1897: Birthdate of Theresa Wolfson, professor of economics and labor relations at
Brooklyn
College
. Born in
Brooklyn
just three years after her parents had emigrated from
Russia
, she earned her bachelor's degree at
Adelphi
College
(1917). During college, she spent a summer investigating wage standards in the
New York
garment industry; it was the beginning of a long career in labor relations. After her graduation from Adelphi, Wolfson took a position as a health worker in
New York City
, then worked for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating child labor across parts of the South and
Midwest
. Then, from 1920 to 1922, Wolfson served as executive secretary of the New York State Consumers League, where she lobbied for minimum wage and maximum hour legislation. For her M.A. degree (1924) at
Columbia
University
, Wolfson conducted a study of posture, lighting, and fatigue in
New York
's garment factories. After
Columbia
, Wolfson became director of education at the
Union
Health
Center
of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. At the same time, she conducted research on the barriers to organizing women workers; this research, published in 1926, brought Wolfson her Ph.D. from the Brookings Institution. Wolfson joined the faculty of the
Brooklyn
branch of
Hunter
College
in 1928. When this branch became
Brooklyn
College
soon thereafter, Wolfson helped to develop the curricular and organizational design of the new institution. Her scholarly work also took her into public life. She served on the public panel of the War Labor Board (1942 to 1945), was involved in the New York State Board of Mediation (1946-1953) and the Kings Country Council Against Discrimination (1949-1953), and served as president of the
New York
chapter of the Industrial Relations Research Association. She won the John Dewey Award from the League for Industrial Democracy in 1957 for her work in mediating labor disputes. Throughout her career, Wolfson combined academic expertise with a concrete approach to the workings and status of labor unions and to the dynamics of gender in labor and labor organizing. Combining research and social action, her focus on worker education was designed to break down barriers to the advancement of women in the workplace and gender inequality within trade unions. Wolfson believed that a worker's ability to deal effectively with society depended on a sound education. Thus, in addition to her scholarly teaching and writing, she also taught in non-academic settings, including classes for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, the Summer School for Office Workers, and, after her retirement, for a continuing education program at
Sarah
Lawrence
College
. Theresa Wolfson died on
May 14, 1972
at the age of 74. A scholarship in her name allows a
Brooklyn
College
student to pursue graduate studies in labor economics each year.
1898: "Novelist Emile Zola fled
France
after being convicted of libel against the French Army in the...Dreyfus affair." Zola had written a famous letter to the newspaper entitled "J'Accuse" (I Accuse). The letter exposed the conspiracy at the highest level of the French military establishment to convict Dreyfus and then to cover up the fact that he another officer was guilty of crime of which Dreyfus had been accused.
1908: Emma Goldman's personal manifesto, "What I Believe," was published by the New York World. The first paragraph began as follows. "It is too bad that we no longer live in the times when witches were burned at the stake or tortured to drive the evil spirit out of them. For, indeed, Emma Goldman is a witch! True, she does not eat little children, but she does many worse things. She manufactures bombs and gambles in crowned heads. B-r-r-r!" Thus ran the first paragraph of Emma Goldman's personal manifesto, "What I Believe," written in response to "widespread public misconceptions about anarchism," the article systematically combated slanders against Goldman and outlined her anarchist approach to issues of property, government, militarism, free speech, the church, marriage and love, and violence. Born on
June 27, 18
69, in Lithuania, Goldman experienced the czar's Anti-Semitic policies and economic instability, which forced her family to move from Lithuania to Prussia and then to Russia in search of economic stability. These displacements and her distaste for the role of women in traditional Jewish families led Goldman to immigrate to
America
when she was sixteen. While working as a garment worker she became involved in the labor movement. Most tellingly, the trial, conviction, and execution, on specious evidence, of a group of anarchists for an 1886 bombing in
Haymarket Square
in
Chicago
inspired her to become an anarchist activist. In "What I Believe," Goldman sought to explain and defend her struggle for "freedom in the large sense of the word" through anarchism. The struggle for universal freedom served as the basis for her radical critique of property and capitalism: "It is the private dominion over things that condemns millions of people to be mere nonentities ... who pile up mountains of wealth for others and pay for it with a gray, dull and wretched existence for themselves." Since in her opinion government did nothing to further individual liberty or social harmony, Goldman saw it as nothing more than a protector of property and monopoly, and thus as an obstacle to freedom. Goldman's article also spoke out against the growing tendency of militarism that she viewed as "the most merciless, heartless and brutal [spirit] in existence." She stood particularly opposed to militarism because she believed that the military must necessarily be antidemocratic and antithetical to freedom. In Goldman's view, anarchism advocated for peace by offering a call for universal human brotherhood and solidarity rather than dividing people into economic and political rivals requiring military protection. Just as she saw the government as an invasive institution based on economic inequality, Goldman saw the institution of marriage in the same way. Making sure to differentiate between marriage and love, Goldman felt that marriage prevented a woman's freedom. She wrote, "marriage, or the training thereto, prepares the woman for the life of a parasite, a dependent, helpless servant, while it furnishes the man the right of a chattel mortgage over a human life." Goldman's radical views on marriage, as well as on religion, which she called "a nightmare that oppresses the human soul and holds the mind in bondage," and on other topics, brought her renewed criticism. In February, a few months before Goldman's manifesto, a Washington Post editorial had called her "a menace" with "enormous powers of hate ... set against law and order and government." Already under constant police harassment for their views, Goldman and her anarchist allies suffered further interference with their public lectures in the following months. At a
New York City
rally for the unemployed in September, 1908, for example, Goldman's partner Alexander Berkman was arrested; Goldman herself fled the hall just ahead of the police. Ultimately, Goldman's vocal endorsement of anarchism and opposition to World War I would lead to her arrest, denaturalization, and deportation under the 1918 Alien Act, which authorized the expulsion of any alien found to be an anarchist. Sent to
Russia
in 1919, Goldman soon became disillusioned with the Bolshevik regime. Throughout the rest of an itinerant life, Goldman continued to advocate through speech and writing for the possibility of a more just world. She died in
Canada
on
May 14, 19
40
, and was buried in Chicago
1909(1st of Av, 5669): Rosh Chodesh Av
1918: Persian Jews in
Hamadan
wire the Zionist headquarters in
Petrograd
, asking that representation be made to the Russian government on behalf of 20,000 Jews who were robbed and left homeless by the Bolshevik troops before their departure.
1919: Lawyer-statesman, Louis Marshall, addressed an overflow crowd of Jews at Carnegie Hall. They were there to celebrate
Marshall
’s achievement of having the rights of Polish Jews recognized by the Minorities Treaty.
1921: Birthdate of Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Rosalyn Sussman Yalow. When she won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1977, she was only the second woman to win the prize in the field of Medicine. "Her achievement was the development of RIA, an application of nuclear physics in clinical medicine that makes it possible for scientists to use radio tropic tracers to measure the con- concentration of hundreds of pharmacologic and biologic substances in the blood and other fluids of the human body and in animals and plants. She invented this technique in 1959 to measure the amount of insulin in the blood of adult diabetics." As can be seen from the following excerpt from the New York Times, Dr.Yalow is proud of being Jewish. “As a Jew, I share a strong commitment to the Jewish intellectual tradition. That tradition places emphasis on learning--learning for the sake of understanding and perfecting our world, and learning for its own sake. Through the ages, we have taken pride in being known as the "People of the Book" and have carried our Torah and our traditions with dignity and affection. Even in the face of persecution and dispersion, and often denied access to centers of learning, the Jewish people, never satisfied with conventional answers, have always valued intellectual inquiry and continued to honor wisdom and learning. Moreover, being Jewish means to me having a deep attachment to family. I grew up in an era of tightly-knit families which shaped our values and world-view. Today, the family, including the Jewish family, is said to be an endangered institution. It is time for us to rededicate ourselves to strengthening Jewish family life. Surely this is our best investment in the Jewish future." Finally, Judaism represents a great synthesis of universal and Jewish values. For me as a Jew, there need be no conflict between science and religion. Moses Maimonides, philosopher and codifier of Halacha (Jewish law), also graced the world of medicine. He is a role model of living in two worlds, Jewish and universal, and of making them one. The greatness of this country is that here we can be fully Jewish and fully American. American Jews are blessed to be living in a country where one need not compromise one's Jewishness to enjoy the opportunities of an open, pluralistic society. In a world which is too often concerned with instant pleasures and self-gratification, Jews have long believed in the importance of scholarship and disciplined learning. Accordingly, let us rededicate ourselves to the traditional values of our people and the service of humanity. "
1928:Sir Harry Charles Luke, a British colonial official, assumed the position acting Chief Secretary to the Government of Palestine today. In 1929, he would make an unsuccessful attempt to mediate an agreement between Jewish and Arab leaders.
1928: Joseph Lefkowitz is scheduled to be executed today at Sing Song for arranging the drowning of Benjamin Goldstein so that he could collect on an $80,000 insurance policy issued by Metropolitan Life.
1934: Birthdate of Larry Zolf, a Canadian journalist and commentator.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that four more Jews were killed by Arabs in various separate murderous assaults throughout the country. This raised the number of Jewish victims of Arab disturbances to 47 since April 19. Guards at Ein Harod and Kfar Saba repulsed Arab attacks. Six Arab terrorists were killed when they bombed a military convoy near Tulkarm. A gaping hole was reported to have been made by Arab terrorists in their first attempt to sabotage the Iraqi Petroleum Co.'s pipeline. Police protection was promised for the traditional visit of religious Jews to Rachel's Tomb on the
Bethlehem
road, during the month of Av.
1937: Dr. Chaim Weizmann records the details of conversations held with William Ormsby-Gore, the British Colonial Secretary in which the two leaders discussed the recommendations of the recently released report by the Royal Commission.
1942: Himmler sent a directive to SS Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Kruger, head of the German police forces in the General Government. The directive ordered "the resettlement of the entire Jewish population of the General Government be carried out and completed by December 31.The General Government was the term for the Nazi administration in occupied
Poland
. The order was issued "in the name of the New Order, security and cleanliness of the German Reich."
1941:Vinnitsa, Ukraine was captured by German troops which would eventually lead to the massacre of the town’s 28,000 Jews.
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/last-jew-in-vinnitsa/
1942: Deportations to the
Auschwitz
death camp begin for Parisian Jews who have been held at
Drancy
,
France
, since July 16.
1942: The Family Hostage Law is announced in Occupied France. Under its provisions, fugitive "terrorists" who do not surrender to German authorities can expect their male relatives to be killed, female relatives sent to work camps, and children sent to special schools for political reeducation.
1943: Three thousand, five hundred Jews were taken from the Birkenau camp to the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. Their task is to comb the ruins for valuables left by the Jews
1944: Twelve hundred Hungarian Jews from Kistarcsa are trucked to
Rákoscsaba
,
Hungary
, and then loaded onto trains bound for
Auschwitz
.
1944: Relying on information leaked by British intelligence, “BBC Radio broadcast a story that two emissaries of the Hungarian government had appeared in Turkey, proposing that all Jews in Hungary would be allowed to leave if England and America supplied pharmaceuticals and transport to the Germans, with a promise from the Germans that the equipment would not be used on the Western front. The proposal, which the BBC called "humanitarian blackmail," was reported as a crude attempt to set the Allies against each other. The report added that it was not clear whether the plan had the approval of the German and Hungarian authorities.” [This is part of one of the most improbable tales from the Shoah in which Eichmann supposedly was ready to swap a half million Hungarian Jews for equipment that he could only have been used to fight the Soviets]
1944: Angelo Roncalli, the future Pope John XXIII, appeals to Admiral Miklós Horthy on behalf of 5000 Hungarian Jews with Palestinian visas. Roncalli provides baptismal certificates for Jews in hiding.
1947: Birthdate of famed trumpeter and leading conductor, Gerard Schwarz. In addition to his many professional honors and accomplishments, Schwarz is active in the Jewish community. “Schwarz was a founding member of Music of Remembrance, an organization dedicated to remembering Holocaust victim musicians. He is also an active member of
Seattle
’s Temple De Hirsch Sinai and has lectured on Jewish music there and at various Jewish Federation events, both local and regional.”
1947:The Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour and Empire Rival, three deportation ships under British control, which were filled with Jewish refugees from the SS Exodus, set sail from Haifa bound for Port-de-Bouc, France.
The British sailed the commandeered ship into Haifa port, where its passengers were transferred to three more seaworthy deportation ships, Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour and Empire Rival. The event was witnessed by members of UNSCOP. These ships left Haifa harbour on July 19 for Port-de-Bouc. Foreign Secretary Bevin insisted that the French get their ship back as well as its
1948: After ten days of fighting, the road from
Haifa
to
Nazareth
was firmly in Israeli hands.
1948: The “Second Truce” goes into effect. The state of
Israel
had survived for two months despite two rounds of fighting with invading Arab Armies. The Jewish state was still not one contiguous unit. Egyptian forces were still in the
Negev
. The
Jerusalem
corridor was a slender strip of land and some northern settlements were cut-off from the rest of the country by Arab forces. Despite the truce, there would still be more fighting before the armistice documents would be signed in 1949. Still and all, the Jewish nation, even a precarious state, was a reality.
1948: In
Jerusalem
, Israeli forces drive off an Arab attack designed to penetrate the new, modern, Jewish section, of the city
1948:The main Cairo store owned by Cicurel family was damaged by a bomb today. The attack was thought to be the work of the Muslim Brothers. The store was part of a chain started by the family of Moreno Cicurel had migrated to Cairo from Izmir in the mid-nineteenth century
1951:The US, Britain and France were prepared to back Israel's protest to the UN Security Council against the Egyptian blockage of the Suez Canal for shipping destined for Israel. The Egyptian blockade was a violation of international law. It would take the war in 1967 to finally establish
Israel
’s right to have access to the international waterway.
1951: In
New York
, John Blandford, the new director of UNWRA, was planning a tour of the Arab countries in order to provide the Palestine Arab refugees with homes and constructive work. This was the beginning of the "Arab Refugee Problem" created, in part, by the unwillingness of Arab states to allow the Palestinians to live in the homelands of their fellow Arabs.
1953:Birthdate of Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks.
1955: The Yarkon water project was opened. The
Yarkon
River
flows near Tel Aviv.
1969: Israeli commandos begin a night attack on
Green
Island
, a major military installation in the
Gulf of Suez
. The attack is one of the most difficult undertaken by
Israel
’s special operations forces. It would be a joint attack included forces from the Army’s Sayeret Matkla unit (a cross between the Green Berets and the Rangers) and the Navy’s Sayetet 13 or Flotilla 13, commonly known as Ha’commando Ha’yami, similar to the U.S. Navy’s SEALS.
1970: Yosef Goldschmidt began his second term as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
1973: Ninth Maccabiah comes to a close.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli pound was again devalued by 2 percent, to IL 8.12 to the dollar. But the cabinet ended its exclusive linkage to the dollar, and altered the year-old system of creeping devaluations to make their dates harder to guess. The pound was linked to a basket of currencies (including the dollar). The special ministerial committee was empowered to devalue the pound by up to 8 percent within the set four-month period in any way it chose. The Histadrut Executive decided to increase the membership dues and allowed Kupat Holim to charge its members for doctors' prescriptions
1981(17th of Tammuz, 5741): Tzom Tammuz
1981(17th of Tammuz, 5741): A boy of 17 was killed and 15 people were injured as a result of Katyusha bombardments on western Galilee.
1983(9th of Av, 5743): Tish'a B'A
1985(1st of Av, 5745): Rosh Chodesh Av
1985(1st of Av, 5745): Captain (Hon). Ewen Edward Samuel Montagu, RNR, CBE, QC, DL passed away. Born in 1901, he was a British judge, writer and Naval intelligence officer. Montagu was the second son of the prominent peer Louis Samuel Montagu, 2nd Baron Swaythling. During World War II, Montagu served in the Naval Intelligence Division of the British Admiralty, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander RNVR. While Commanding Officer of NID 17M, Squadron Leader Charles Cholmondely, RAFVR and he conceived Operation Mincemeat, on the war’s most successful act’s of deception. Thanks to Operation Mincemeat, the forces of Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily, enjoyed the element of surprise that helped to make the invasion a success. For his role in Mincemeat, he was awarded the Military Order of the British Empire. He wrote The Man Who Never Was in 1953 which was an account of Operation Mincemeat that was made into a movie three years later. He was president of the United Synagogue, 1954-62, and vice-president of the Anglo-Jewish Association.
1985: Five children were stabbed and wounded by a terrorist from Dura in the centre of
Jerusalem
.
1994(11th of Av, 5754) Gottfried Reinhardt, the German born film director and producer who was the son of the Austrian theater director Max Reinhardt, passed away in Los Angeles
1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Stephen Sondheim: A Lifeby Meryle Secrest, Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evilby Ron Rosenbaum, Summer Sisters by Judy Blume and The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler
2004(1st of Av, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Av
2004: Eliezer Sanburg swapped ministerial portfolios today. began serving as Minister of Energy and Infrastructure after completing his term as Minister of Science and Technology
2006: The second in a series of three concerts takes place at
Jerusalem
’s Confederation House featuring bakashot (prayers of request in the Sephardic fashion). This concert focuses on the bakashot of
Morocco
.
Morocco
was the only Arab country not conquered by the Ottomans and Jewish Moroccan music, having avoided centuries of Turkish influence, retains an older style harking back to the Golden Age of Spain before the expulsion. The cantors for this concert are Rabbi Meir Eliezer Attia, Maimon Cohen, David Attia, Haim Elon and Moshe Louk.
2006: The following were among the total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers who were killed in the Israel-Hezbollah war: St.-Sgt. Yonatan Hadassi, 21, of Kibbutz Merhavia; St.-Sgt. Yotam Gilboa, of Kibbutz Maoz Haim, Rabiya Abed Taluzi, three, and his brother Mahmoud, 7, of Nazareth.
2007: In
Jerusalem
, The Zeek Gallery at the Yellow Submarine presents an exhibition entitled "Chance Music."
2008: Police arrested seven IDF soldiers on suspicion of involvement in a quarrel with civilians which took place on Friday night near Atlit Navy base. The soldiers claimed they tried to prevent the citizens from entering a closed military area; however the civilians, members of two Druze families from Bet Ja'an, claimed that the soldiers had attacked them for racial reasons. The families said that they visit
Atlit
Beach
without incident almost every week, and that the place where they pitched tents was more than 200 meters from the fence of the base. One of the family members, a border policeman, was injured in the altercation, and was taken to
Haifa
's
Rambam
Hospital
in a moderate condition. Police opened an investigation into the event, and said that traces of alcohol were found in two of the soldiers' blood.
2008: Less than a month after meeting the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff in
Israel
, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi left for the
United States
for a week of talks - with a focus on
Iran
- with top
US
defense and diplomatic officials. The visit is Ashkenazi's first to the
US
as chief of General Staff and comes following two visits Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen has made to
Israel
in the past seven months. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to visit the
US
at the beginning of August. As a sign of the friendship the two military chiefs have developed over the past year, Mullen will host Ashkenazi and his wife Ronit for a private dinner at his house in the
Washington
,
DC
area. When Mullen was here three weeks ago, Ashkenazi and his wife hosted him for a private dinner at their Kfar Saba apartment. Ashkenazi will be accompanied during the trip by IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Avi Benayahu and IDF Strategic and Foreign Liaison Department head Brig.-Gen. Yossi Heiman. The talks, officials said, would focus on a wide range of regional issues, including Hizbullah and Hamas's military buildup,
Syria
's continued support of terrorism and the Iranian nuclear program, which would top the agenda. The officials said that the main purpose behind the trip was exchanging views on the different issues and maintaining relations with the
US
,
Israel
's strongest ally. Ashkenazi will also discuss different means that
Israel
has developed to counter roadside bombs - known in the
US
as improvised explosive devices (IED) - which is one of the greatest threats to American troops operating in
Iraq
and
Afghanistan
. "The purpose is to continue to create and maintain the deep military-level dialogue with the
US
," a senior official said.
2009:A stretch of Vienna’s Danube River will be transformed into a sunny beachfront from April through October. Today’s official launch party pays tribute to Tel Aviv’s Centennial with Israeli music, concerts and an upbeat summer party.
2009: At the 18th Maccabiah Games the Israel cricket team plays a team from South Africa and Great Britain plays India as the round robin matches continue.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Kissinger: 1973, the Crucial Yearby Alistair Horne.
2010: An advanced screening of “Lebanon,” a film based on Post-screening discussion with director Samuel Maoz’s own experience during the war with Lebanon in 1982, is scheduled to take place at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
2010: It was announced today that The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have arrested a Hamas terror cell that was operating in the West Bank and was behind a shooting attack last month in the southern Hebron Hills which killed policeman Shuki Sofer. The Shin Bet revealed in the investigation that the Hamas operatives had several years ago established a terror cell that had stockpiled weaponry hidden in nearby mountains to use in attacks. Among the weaponry found were three Kalashnikov rifles that were used by the perpetrators of the attack in June. IDF sources said that Hamas was continuing to try and reestablish its terror infrastructure in the West Bank but was encountering difficulties due to continued IDF operations in the area as well as increased activity by Palestinian Authority security forces.
2010(8th of Av, 5770): Eighty-six year old particle physicist Gerson Goldhaber, whose accomplishments earned him the title of California Scientist of the Year and the Panofsky Prize of the American Physical Society. (As reported by Jascha Hoffman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/science/26goldhaber.html
2011: In New York City, The Dor Chadash Book Salon series is scheduled to present Dorit Rabinyan, the Israeli author of A Strand of a Thousand Pearls,
2011:IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz ordered the Israel Navy to intercept the French yacht Dignite-Al Karame after it had refused to stop heading toward the Gaza shore. Elite troops from Shayetet 13, a naval commando unit, boarded the vessel minutes after the IDF chief issued the order, and took it over quickly with no resistance on the part of the passengers. When the Karame was some 50 miles away from Gaza, the Israel Navy began trailing the yacht and contacted the passengers on board, demanding they state their final destination and disclose if they are carrying any weapons.
2011:The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) suspected that Israeli spies may have been among the Israeli casualties in the powerful 6.3 earthquake which hit New Zealand earlier this year, killing 181 people including three Israelis, New Zealand newspaper The Southland Times reported today. Israel's Ambassador to New Zealand, Shemi Tzur dismissed the charge as "science fiction." According to the report, the police national computer has been "under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake," for fears that Israeli agents may have hacked into the network providing backdoor entrance to sensitive information, The Southland Times said. Four Israelis who were in the central city of Christchurch when the earthquake hit have been a central focus of the SIS, which suspects they may have managed to hack the national information network. One of those four Israelis, Ofer Benyamin Mizrahi, 24, was killed instantly when their van was crushed by falling masonry. The three others, one man and two women, managed to escape the vehicle and, after photographing the smashed car, made their way to Latimer Square where The Southland Times said an Israeli officials had set up an "emergency meeting point." The newspaper called the Israeli government's response to the three deaths following the earthquake - which included the deaths of two backpackers as well - "extraordinary," citing four calls from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to his New Zealand counterpart in the first hour after the quake, and a complete Israeli urban search and rescue squad that was flown to Christchurch. Meanwhile, the Israeli Ambassador said any claim that the four Israelis were Mossad agents was "science fiction," and that he was "shocked and upset," the SIS would even consider the idea, the Times reported. According to Tzur, "These were youngsters holidaying in your beautiful country," adding that Israel encourages tourism to New Zealand.
2011(17thof Tammuz, 5771) Fast of the 17th of Tammuz
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present “Seeking Justice,” a lecture by Eli Rosnebam, “the longest-serving prosecutor and investigator of Nazi criminals and other perpetrators of human rights violations.”
2012: “Hava Nagila” (the movie) is scheduled to be shown on the opening night of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Twenty of those “lightly injured” in yesterday’s terrorist attack in Bulgaria are scheduled to be flown to Israel starting today.
Copyright; July, 2012; Mitchell A. Levin melech3@mchsi.com
