July 22 In History
1099: During the First Crusade Godfrey of Bouillon elected first Defender of the Holy Sepulcher of The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Having driven out the Muslims and Jews (including the slaughter of innocent) the Soldiers of the Cross settle in for what they think is an eternity.
1209: Forces that included the fanatical monk, Arnold of Citeaux, stormed the city of Beziers as part of the war aimed at destroying the Albigensians. The destruction of the Jewish community, including the murder of two hundred Jews, was "collateral damage
1306 (10thof Av): Philip the Fair of France arrested all the Jews, confiscated their property, and expelled them from his lands. Most Jews left to the next Duchy. Gradually they were allowed to drift back.
1320: King James II of France – in reaction to the excesses in southern France, proscribed support for the Jewish survivors, including an exemption on taxes. At the same time he refused to allow forcibly baptized children to be returned to their parents
1456: During the Ottoman attempts to expand its power in Europe John Hunyadi, Regent of Kingdom of Hungary defeats Mehmet II of Ottoman Empire during the Siege of Belgrade. Mehmet’s reign was friendly to the Jewish people including opening his empire to refugees from Christian Europe. On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects.
1489: In Soncino, printer Joshua Solomon Soncino produced the first copy Talmud Bavil, Tractate “Niddah.”
1598; The Merchant of Venice is licensed for printing. However, it would be two years before the play featuring Shylock would be printed for the first time.
1648: Ten thousand Jews of Polannoe were killed in the Chmielnicki massacres.
1686: Albany, New York is formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan. Public records indicate the presence of Jews as early as 1658. Asser Levy owned property, obtained burgher's rights, and lived in Albany in the 1650s. Other early Jewish merchants and traders who resided in Albany included Jacob Lucena, Hayman Levy, Jonas Phillips, Asher Levy, Levi Solomons and Levi Solomons Albany’s most famous Jewish resident was Isaac Mayer Wise who began what would become the Reform Movement while serving as a Rabbi in New York’s capital city.
1823: Birthdate of Louis Raphael Bischoffsheim the Dutch born French banker who founded the Nice Observatory.
1833: the House of Commons passed a bill for the emancipation of the Jews of England. The House of Lords would reject the bill.
1849: Birthdate of the poet Emma Lazarus. She became famous as the author of "The New Colossus" written in 1883, four years before her death. This poem appears at the base of the Statue of Liberty and is a celebration of America as the land of the immigrant. To give one a sense of the times in which she lived the New York Times described her not as a Jew, but as who belonged "to one of the best known and oldest Hebrewfamilies of the city..."
1850: In New Olreans, the cornerstone is laid for a new Synagogue, Shangaray Chassed.
1853: In a sign of how quickly Jews were accepted into pre-Civl War American society an article published today describing events surrounding Columbia College’s upcoming commencement exercises reported that while most of the college’s trustees have been Episcopalians, members of other religious denominations have served in that capacity including one or more Jews.
1870: TheSt. Louis Democrat reported that a property dispute between two Jewish congregations in St. Louis that stretches back to the 1840’s has resulted in civil litigation. B’nai El Congregation is suing the trustees of Emanuel Congregation over the transfer of property that the plaintiffs contend the Respondents have never completed
1874(8th of Av, 5634): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1877: “Heine’s Love, Apostasy and Agony” published today described the two most painful events in the German poet’s life. The first was his star-crossed love affair with Amalie Heine. The second was his decision to convert to Christianity so that he could gain favor with his Prussian patrons. The conversion failed to bring the acceptance he sought. These frustrations led him to write “I often get up in the night, and stand before the glass and curse myself.”
1877: “The Hebrew Controversy” published today presented a fulsome account of the controversy created by Judge Hilton’s ban on Jewish guests at his hotel in Saratoga Springs that includes correspondence that reveals much about the attitude and values of those involved in the matter.
1878: Birthdate of Janusz Korczak, Polish born Jewish pediatrician who used the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit as an author of children’s book. He died in August, 1942
1879: Mr. Austin Corbin, President of of the Manhattan Beach Railway Company, says that Jews, as a class, have made themselves offensive to those who patronize his railroad and hotel on Coney Island.” He said “that they are vulgar and unclean…and that he will leave nothing undone to get ride of them in order to save his business from ruin. While no official action has been taken by the Board of Directors to support Corbin’s position, “many stockholders agree with him.
1879: Prominent Jews have condemned Austin Corbin’s derogatory comments, calling him “a narrow-minded bigot whose proper country is Romania.” Abram Dittenhoefer, the former judge and leader of the Jewish community, said Corbin “has not insulted the Jews, but all Americans who are opposed to intolerance.
1880: Michael Gernsheim, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Co is scheduled to leave for Europe today aboard the SS Scythia. He plans to be gone for four months.
1881: I.A. Engelhardt was elected President of the Society for Improving the Sanitary Conditions of Poor Israelites in New York at its meeting today. The society seeks to improve “the sanitary conditions” of the city’s poor Jews “by providing them with the necessary information” regarding housing, including the enforcement of sanitary regulations and the means of eradicating the causes and sources of disease from their homes.
1881: Based on information supplied by the Daily News, an English paper, it was reported today that England, Austria, Holland, and possibly some other European powers are planning on sending a joint communique to Russia express their concern over that nation’s “harsh laws against the Jews.”
1882:”The Vicar of Bray,” a comic opera by Anglo-Jewish composer and conductor Edward Solomon opened at the Globe Theatre in London.
1883: It was reported today that Julius Hallgarten, a Jewish Philanthropist has established a trust in the amount of $5,000 to support the Art Schools of the National Academy of Design. Dr. Felix Adler is among those who have been appointed to serve as trustees to manage the gift.
1883: “Not Fond of Israelites” published today described a lawsuit Louis Batist has filed a suit against the Manhattan Railway Company seeking $5,000 in damages after a conductor pushed him back so that he could not board the elevated train after saying “You are a Jew! We don’t permit Jews on this train.”
1884: Pinkerton agents arrested Mrs. Fredericka Mandelbaum on charges of receiving and distributing stolen goods. A German born Jewess, the New York resident is the sister-in-law of Hirsch Mandelbaum who has a reputation of being a leading “fence.”
1884: Rabbis Wise and Huebsch are scheduled to officiate at the funeral retired merchant Mayer Schutz who passed away in his 80th year while vacationing at Coney Island.
1886: It was reported today that 40 Russian Jews who had arrived in the United States yesterday will be sent back to Europe on the next State Line Steamer because they are destitute and “had no definite ideas as to how they were to earn a living.”
1887(1stof Av, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Av
1887: Birthdate of Gustav Hertz, th German-born quantum physicist who won the Nobel Prize in 1925.
1888: “Hearing the New Rabbi” published today described the first sermon of Rabbi Jacob Joseph as being delivered in “a language which is a mixture of Hebrew, German and Polish.” The younger members of the audience complained that they “had difficulty in understanding…the language” he used. [It would appear that the sermon was delivered in Yiddish which would have had a strange sound to those used to hearing such talk in German.]
1888: Approximately 1,500 Jews living on the Lower East Side, including a large number of children took an excursion boat to Raritan Beach. The trip was sponsored by a liquor dealer named Ehrlich. According to eyewitness accounts, Ehrlich, who had the drink concession, salted the drinking water, forcing mothers to buy beer and soda to slake the thirst of their children.
1888: Rabbi De Sola Mendes, of New York’s 44th Street Synagogue officiated at ceremonies dedicating The House of Miriam, the new synagogue in Long Branch, NJ. S.T. Meyer of New York contributed the land and several wealthy New York Jews who spend their summers at the New Jersey resort defrayed the cost of Construction. [The congregation exists today as Beth Miriam, a Reform Temple.]
1889: “Pilgrims by the Sea” published today described the thriving ocean resort scene in New York and New Jersey including the presence of Jewish guests at Brighton Beach Hotel. Mr. Breen, one of the new managers of the hotel said that reports that Jewish guests were unwelcomed and had been excluded were false. They had been circulated by a disgruntled former employee. The hotel admitted guests strictly on the basis of their behavior and not ethnicity.
1889: In Boston, MA, Rabbi Raphael Lasker officiated at the funeral of Count L.B. Schwab. Burial took place at the cemetery of the Union Park Street temple. Among the pallbearers were Nathan Waxman and George Adams of the Hebrew Benevolent Society; Alexander Simons and James H. Cohen of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association; and Isaac Young and Usher Hyman of Adath Israel.
1890: Birthdate of Theda Bera. Born Theodosia Goodman Theda Bara had a brief but shining career as the star of dozens of silent films. Raised in Cincinnati, Bara moved to New York City at age eighteen to pursue an acting career. Only marginally successful on the stage, she became an overnight sensation when director Frank Powell cast her as the star of A Fool There Was in 1915. In the film, which was based on a stage melodrama that was in turn based on a Rudyard Kipling poem, Bara played a temptress who squeezed money, dignity, and finally life out of men. As the sensuous, cruel seductress, Bara created the original "vamp." Over the next five years, Bara starred in forty films, almost always as a "vamp," an exotic woman luring men to ruin. Her films were considered scandalous, and at least one critic advocated censoring them. However, Bara was wildly popular with the public, who flocked to her films. She was said to have received over a thousand marriage proposals from adoring fans. Others named children after her. One critic called her "a clever actress with ... a marvelously mobile and expressive face." Despite Bara's popularity, the Fox studio refused to renew her contract after 1919. The film industry had moved on to a cleaner image of sexuality. Seductresses would abound in later Hollywood films, but without the aura of mystery and menace that had defined Bara's roles. After 1920, Bara starred in only two more films, in 1925 and 1926. She died on April 7, 1955. Today, the only surviving Bara film is A Fool There Was, her first success
1896: Herzl visits Karlsbad, where he obtains an audience with Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The prince is a well-connected “royal” who will actually sit on the Bulgarian throne. This appears to be one more attempt on Herzl’s part to use influence and connection to create the Jewish homeland.
1902: Herzl and Wolffsohn leave for Constantinople with hopes that the Sultan will support a Jewish Homeland in the Ottoman Empire. The trip did not go well as can be seen when Herzl writes his conclusions when the visit ends on August 5.
1903: Francis Lewis Cardozo, the first African American to hold statewide office in South Carolina passed away today. The son Isaac Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew working in the customhouse in Charleston and Lydia Weston, a free black woman, Cardozo’s life reads more like a novel than anything else. He was raised as Christian and is the “Cardozo” in Washington, DC’s Cardozo Senior High School.
1907(11th of Av): Rabbi Isaac Blaser, leader of the Musar movement and the author of Peri Yizhak, passed away
1913(17th of Tammuz, 5673): Tzom Tammuz
1917: In Russia, Kerensky, the Jewish former Minister of War became the premier. After the Czar abdicated, he took over the Russian government and formed a liberal provisional government, which lasted four months. Although well intentioned, he was not a strong leader and couldn't negotiate between the subversive forces between right and left. His government would be ousted by Lenin, ending Russia’s brief flirtation with Western style democracy.
1918: British General Allenby approves a town-planning scheme for Jerusalem complete with an expanded road network, new parks and municipal and residential buildings.
1920: Establishment of Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund)
1921: Winston Churchill, Lloyd George and Lord Balfour met with Chaim Wiezmann at Balfour’s House in London in an attempt “to reassure Wiezmann that British policy in support of the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish home in Palestine had not changed.”
1921: Birthdate of Phillip Burgher, a native of Niles, Illinois who served in World War II.
1922: The League of Nations Council confirmed the British Palestine Mandate. The Balfour Declaration is part of the terms of the mandate.
1923: Tisha B’Av, 9th of Av, 5683
1927: The convention of Palestine Jewish Labor Federation which had been meeting in Tel Aviv for the past fortnight comes to an end. The convention adopted several resolutions including ones calling for greater freedom for Jews to immigrate to Palestine and more aggressive government action to deal with the problems of unemployment.
1934(10th of Av, 5694):Tish'a B'Av
1936: The Palestine Post reported that the insurrection of Monarchists and Fascists in Spain was gaining momentum and was seriously threatening the democratic regime. Arabs killed Abraham Donagi, a watchman at Even Yehuda, and severely wounded Abraham Bauer in Jerusalem. Bombs exploded in Jaffa and the Iraqi Petroleum Co. pipeline was severely damaged. All this was part of the on-going Arab Riots aimed at destroying the Jewish community in Palestine.
1936: A British soldier was killed in an Arab ambush near Tulkarm. Arab attacks were reported from Ein Harod and Kfar Yehezkel. Arabs celebrated the 100th day of their insurrection with demonstrations, calls for prayer and donations. But the Arab Nashashibi Party proposed that the Arab Higher Committee should resign as a protest against the non-fulfillment of their promises and leave the people to decide the fate of their prolonged general strike by themselves
1939: Eichmann’s Central Office for Emigration, (of Jews) in Prague, officially opened
1941 France's Vichy government begins expropriation of Jewish businesses.
1942: On the day before Tisha B’Av German authorities and Ukrainian and Latvian guards in SS uniforms surround the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. Six thousand Warsaw Jews were told to gather for deportation. Over the next seven weeks as many as 300,000 Jews would be sent by train to the three gas chambers of Treblinka. The railway master at Treblinka was notified of a shuttle line being set up between Warsaw and its railroad station for "Settlers.” THIS WAS THE LARGEST SLAUGHTER OF ANY SINGLE COMMUNITY DURING THE HOLOCAUST. From July 22 through September 12, 1942: 4,000 Warsaw Jews per day would be gassed in Treblinka. Only those with special cards stamped with ‘Operation Reihnard', an eagle and the swastika were saved from deportation. Resisters or those taking flight would be shot on the spot by Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians and German SS officers. Orphanages, children homes, hospitals, were all emptied. Each train was comprised of sixty cars. Each car was packed with human cargo.
1943: Because the U.S. State Department continues to delay any action on the Riegner Plan to save 70,000 Jews, American Rabbi Stephen Wise pleads with President Franklin Roosevelt to support the plan. Roosevelt allows the plan to be killed because of "strenuous British objections."
1944: German troops withdraw from Parczew Forest, Poland, the site of numerous Nazi searches for Jewish fugitives and partisans.
1944: Survivors of a July 13 mass execution of Jewish slave laborers at Bialystok, Poland, reach Red Army lines after crawling for nine nights.
1944: The Red Army occupied Chelm. The 68,000 Jews left in Vilna hope the Soviets will arrive before the Nazis can finish them off.
1944: During the so-called “Blood for Goods” negotiations Edmund Veesenmayer a member of the SS sent a cable to the German Foreign Office stating that Joel Brand and Andor Grosz had been sent to Turkey on the orders of Himmler
1946: The Irgun bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The King David was the headquarters of the British civil and military administration. Ninety people, including Jews, lost their lives. The Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, claimed that they had called ahead to warn of the bombing. The British denied receiving any such call. The Jewish Agency, the de facto government of the Jews in Palestine and other Jewish leaders, denounced the attack. There was a "moment of mourning" on July 23 as the Jewish community paused to honor the dead. The attack marked a split between the recently agreed to alliance between the Haganah and the Irgun. What is amazing about the response of the Jewish community was that in the weeks prior to the bombing the British had imprisoned all a couple of the leaders of the Jewish Agency and seized its records in an attempt to squelch the Zionist movement. However terrible the British occupation was, the terrorism of the Irgun was not to be the Jewish answer.
1947: Birthdate of Albert Brooks. Born Albert Einstein, this successful actor, comedian, writer and director grew up in California as part of the show business community. He went to school with Rob Reiner and Larry Bishop, Joey Bishop’s son. He changed his name to Brooks after leaving college in the late 1960’s to become a stand-up comedian.
1948: The Israelis opened the refineries at Haifa. They had been closed since the British shut them down on April 26 in the waning days of the Mandate.
1950: Captain Moshe Idelovitch, Assistant Superintendent of Police in Israel said that “Arab infiltration of Israeli territory could be stopped within twenty-four hours if Jordan cooperated.” Captain Idelovitch is commander of the Petah Tigva area, where most of the border marauders and murderers penetrate
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that 69-year-old King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was assassinated inside al-Aksa Mosque in the Jordanian-held Old City of Jerusalem. Emir Naif, his second son, was declared regent. King Abdullah was known for his efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. In his memoirs he wrote: "I have been astonished at what I saw of the Jewish settlements: They have colonized sand dunes, drawn water from them, and transformed them into paradise..."
1951: As ceremonies were being planned for the burial of King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman, the Arab Legion turned the Jordanian-occupied Old City of Jerusalem into an armed camp in pursuit of the suspected Palestinian assassins.
1951: Israel observed the 47th anniversary of Theodore Herzl's death with a solemn ceremony held on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
1967: Poet Carl Sandburg passes away. Sandburg was not Jewish. In 1999 a group of previously unknown Sandburg poems was published. The collection included a poem entitled “To Jacob M. Loeb” that contains the same raw power of such poems as “Chicago” – the one that begins: “Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat...”
“To Jacob M. Loeb” has that same kind of elemental power, but takes on the form of a letter challenging Loeb. Before reading it, a little background is in order courtesy of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society. Loeb was a real person. He was born in Chicago to German-Jewish parents who had enjoyed economic success. Loeb himself went into the insurance business where he too was quite successful. The Loeb’s were active in the community giving both of their time and their money. Loeb’s mother worked a B’nai Brith type organization that provided educational and recreational opportunities for the children of Chicago’s immigrant (largely eastern European) population. Along with the famous Julius Rosenwald, Loeb helped to found the Jewish Institute and followed Rosenwald in the presidency. Loeb was a major fund raiser in the fight to aid the Jews of Europe during and after World War I. Loeb was also active in the civic affairs of the city of Chicago. In 1914 he was appointed to School Board and later became President of that body. And that is the source of the conflict described in the poem. During Loeb’s time on the board, the school teachers went on strike for the right to unionize. Loeb led the successful fight to give the board the right to fire any teacher who joined the union. Sandburg could not understand how a Jew, whose people had a history of being part of the downtrodden, could turn on the working class once they had money and power. He saw Loeb’s behavior as a betrayal of his Jewish origins. The poem is not anti-Semitic. There were plenty of Jews among the ranks of the teachers and the poem sites by name several Jewish labor leaders. The conflict between the teachers and the school district highlighted an anomaly of Jewish history that was seen most often in the garment industry. The owners were Jewish (usually Germans who arrived earlier) and the workers were also Jewish (eastern Europeans.) The strike at Hart, Shaftner and Marx had pitted Jewish owners against Jewish garment workers. The poem highlights this dichotomy. Sandburg wanted to believe that Jews, of all people, would, once they had power and influence, support the less fortunate and not, in his view “sell out.” He was expressing the same kind of outrage that other generations of Jews have expressed over southern Jews owning slaves. How could the descendants of Pharaoh’s chattel take other human beings as chattel. Since the purpose of these little daily exercises is to provide some context as well as raw information about Jewish history, you will find the poem quoted in its entirety below. Those who know me, know that I am a fan of Sandburg’s so this poem took on special meaning for me.
“To Jacob M. Loeb:
You are one of the Jews sore at Georgia for the way
they hanged Leo Frank and called him a damned Jew
there in Atlanta.
And you’re talking a lot about liberty and the rights
of school children.
You came from Kovno in Russia and you ought to
know something about liberty;
And how school boards, police boards, military
boards and czars have gone on year after year
To choke the Jews from having societies,
organizations, labor unions,
Shoving bayonets into the faces of the Jews and
driving them to the ghettoes.
You know what I mean. You know these European
cities where they call the Jews a despised race;
And anybody who spits in a Jew’s face is not
touched by the police.
D’ye get me? I’m reminding you what you already
know.
You’re the man who is leading the school board
fight on the Teachers’ Federation.
And you forget, your memory slips, your heart
doesn’t picture
How you and your fathers were spit upon in the
face.
And how the soldiers and police misused your
women––
Just because they were Jews, and in Kovno
Anybody could get away with what they did to a
Jew woman or a Jew girl;
And now you, a Jew stand up here in Chicago and
act proud
Because you have in effect spit in the faces of
Chicago women, accused them, belittled them.
First you tried to cut their wages, back here in May,
a seven-and-a-half per cent cut,
And now you’re going to make it a law that teachers
can’t have a labor union;
And they got to take what you and Rothmann and
Myer Stein hand ‘em.
I don’t think you’ll get away with it.
Sam Gompers, an English Jew, will speak tonight at
the Auditorium,
And Jacob LeBosky and Sam Alschuler and other
Jews in this town
Are against the game of shackling the teachers and
repeating Kovno and Kiev and Odessa here in Chicago.
In fact, five hundred Jews are already in revolt at
your Kovno trick
Of slamming the door on the free speech at the
Hebrew Institute.
These five hundred are the real blood of the Jew
race
That give it a clean flame of heroism.
You belong with the trash of history, the oppressors
and the killjoys.
1976: The visiting governor of the Bank of Spain, Luis Coronel del Palma, expressed hope of "a considerable improvement of relations between Spain and Israel."
1976: According to American experts the recent events in Lebanon and the Syrian intervention there threatened the total dismemberment of the PLO and the demise of Yasser Arafat who had lost control of all his forces.
1976: Mossad hit teams were reported to have been waging a concerted assassination program against all Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympiad. For those who consider the Israeli behavior "cold blooded" remember what happened. The Munich Olympics went on almost as if the terrorists had not struck. The response of the world community was to invite Yassar Arafat, complete with is pistols, to address the UN General Assembly. And for good measure the UN passed the Zionism is Racism Resolution.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Ministry of Agriculture had decided to enforce the law against squatting to counter the widespread increase in the illegal Arab settlement on state lands. The popular TV show Kolbotek was suspended following the discovery of irregularities in connection with one of its programs. The Mossad was reported to have informed Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan of Arab plans to attack Israel two days before the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but this information was disregarded.
1980(9th of Av, 5740): Tish'a B'Av
1980: The Knesset voted by ninety-nine votes to fifty-one to annex east Jerusalem declaring that ‘Jerusalem, complete and undivided, is the capital of Israel.’
1981:Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth “was created a life peer in 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, of Regent's Park in Greater London, becoming the first rabbi to receive this honor.”
1993: Israeli Supreme court Justice, Aharon Barak, was present at Yad Vashem to watch seventy-six-year-old Ceslovas Rakevicius plant a tree. Rakevicius had saved the eight year old Barak, his brother and his parents and more than twenty other Jewish families by smuggling them out of the Kovno Ghetto in 1944.
1997(17th of Tammuz, 5757): Tzom Tammuz
1999(9th of Av, 5759): Tish'a B'Av
1999(9th of Av, 5759): David N. Myers of Cleveland, OH passsed away at the age of 99. He was a dedicated leader and benefactor of the Jewish and secular communities. As a long-time supporter of American Friends of the Hebrew University, he supported numerous programs and established the David Meyers Skin Laboratory and David and Inez Meyers Scholarship Endowment at The Hebrew University.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including ''Regarding Film'' by Stanely Kauffmann and “Walking the Bible” by Bruce Feiler.
2002: Israel assassinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
2005: In the evening, with the start of Shabbat, Rabbi Aaron Sherman officiates at his first service as the new spiritual leader of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Jewish Community.
2006: Israel ousted Hezbollah guerrillas from a stronghold just inside Lebanon after several days of fierce fighting, the army said, as it bombarded targets across the south of the country. Israel Defense Forces ground forces commander Major-General Benny Gantz said troops took the hilltop village of Maroun Ras, where four soldiers were killed last Thursday, inflicting dozens of casualties on Hezbollah. IDF troops took positions in the vicinity of Maroun Ras, in southern Lebanon, on Saturday and carried out operations to detect rocket launchers and underground bunkers where Hezbollah militants are holed up.
2006: At least 100 Katyusha Rockets fired by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon land in northern Israel. At least nineteen Israeli civilians are reported injured. In his weekly radio address, President Bush blames Hezbollah and its supporters – Iran and Syria – for the latest round of violence in the Middle East. In the mean time Israeli forces continue operations in Gaza in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and the launching of rockets by Hamas.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers including The House that George Built With a Little Help From Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed describing a musical era dominated by George Gershwin “and a few of his friends” and
POP
! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy by Daniel Gross whose earlier writings included “Can the Jews Save Christmas: Chanukah is Late this Year. Will this help retailers?”
2008: The Karmiel Dance Festival opens. This year, this most Israeli of festivals celebrates the country's 60th birthday via a retrospective of Israeli dance from 1948 to the present day, yet the central event - Let Us Grow in Peace - is a poignant reminder that for most of those 60 years, our land has known conflict.
2008. Senator Barack Obama begins his visit to Israel where he is expected to meet the country's top leaders: President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The publicity of this trip is a far cry from the comparatively anonymous trip the Senator made to Israel in 2006 when he visited the town of Fassouta,
2008: For the second time in three weeks, an Arab bulldozer driver from east Jerusalem rammed his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars on a central thoroughfare in the capital on Tuesday, wounding 15 people before being shot dead by a Druse border police officer and a civilian passerby. The early afternoon attack on King David Street was seen as a failed copy of July 2's lethal bulldozer rampage on Jaffa Road in which Husam Taysir Dwayat killed three people and wounded dozens before he was killed.
2009(1st of Av, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Av
2009(1st of Av, 5769: Lynn Pressman Raymond, a leading toy manufacturing executive , passed away today at the age of 97. (As reported by William Grimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/02pressman.html
2009: U.S. congressman Henry Waxman discusses his new book, “The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works,” at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue,
2009: The Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival features a screening of “Holyland Hardball,” which describes what happens “when a Boston baker with no sports management experience wanted to form the Israel Baseball League”
2009: Gen. Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff of the Air Force and the first Jewish commander of the U.S. Air Force completed a four-day visit to Israel. He was a guest of the Israel Air Forces' commander, Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan. Norton met with the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, to discuss the cooperation between the two armies and to update each other on regional and strategic issues. It was Schwartz’s first visit to Israel since assuming his position in June 2008. Schwartz toured Air Force bases and spoke with the senior Israeli command and pilots. He flew over the security fence, the West Bank and Jerusalem as Nechushtan explained the security realities of the region and demonstrated its security challenges, according to an IDF spokesman. Schwartz also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem.
2010: In Metro-Detroit, MI, The Jean and Theodore Weiss Partners in Torah Program is scheduled to sponsor a program entitled "Life After Death," which will cover such topics as: The journey of the soul, a study of scriptural passages referencing the World to Come, the eternal nature of the soul, a look at testimonials of near death experiences, the relevance of the soul.
2010: The