July 28 In History
450: Theodosius II the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor from 408 to 450 passed away. His reign was not a good period for he Jews people. In 425 “on the death of the Jewish Patriarch Gamaliel II, the patriarchate, and the Jewish council associated with it, is ended.” In 429 the “Roman empire formally abolished the Jewish Patriarchate and diverted the Jewish temple tax to the imperial treasury. In 439 The Theodosian Code was “published which, among others, imposed the death penalty on any Jew who tried to convert a Christian to Judaism” and excluded Jews from holding public office.
http://www.lloydthomas.org/5-SpecialStudies/JewsIslam.html
1315:Nine years after he had expelled the Jews (1306), King Louis X of France issued an edict that permitted “the Jews to return for a period of twelve years, authorizing them to establish themselves in the cities in which they had lived before their banishment. He issued this edict in answer to the demands of the people. Geoffroy of Paris, the popular poet of the time, says in fact that the Jews were gentle in comparison with the Christians who had taken their place, and who had flayed their debtors alive; if the Jews had remained, the country would have been happier; for there were no longer any moneylenders at all (Bouquet, xxii. 118). The king probably had the interests of his treasury also in view. The profits of the former confiscations had gone into the treasury, and by recalling the Jews for only twelve years he would have an opportunity for ransoming them at the end of this period. It appears that they gave the sum of 122,500 livres for the privilege of returning. It is also probable, as Vuitry states, that a large number of the debts owing to the Jews had not been recovered, and that the holders of the notes had preserved them; the decree of return specified that two-thirds of the old debts recovered by the Jews should go into the treasury. The conditions under which they were allowed to settle in the land are set forth in a number of articles; some of the guaranties which were accorded the Jews had probably been demanded by them and been paid for. They were to live by the work of their hands or to sell merchandise of a good quality; they were to wear the circular badge, and not discuss religion with laymen. They were not to be molested, either with regard to the chattels they had carried away at the time of their banishment, or with regard to the loans which they had made since then, or in general with regard to anything which had happened in the past. Their synagogues and their cemeteries were to be restored to them on condition that they would refund their value; or, if these could not be restored, the king would give them the necessary sites at a reasonable price. The books of the Law that had not yet been returned to them were also to be restored, with the exception of the Talmud. After the period of twelve years granted to them the king might not expel the Jews again without giving them a year's time in which to dispose of their property and carry away their goods. They were not to lend on usury, and no one was to be forced by the king or his officers to repay to them usurious loans. If they engaged in pawnbroking, they were not to take more than two deniers in the pound a week; they were to lend only on pledges. Two men with the title "auditors of the Jews" were entrusted with the execution of this ordinance, and were to take cognizance of all claims that might arise in connection with goods belonging to the Jews which had been sold before the expulsion for less than half of what was regarded as a fair price. The king finally declared that he took the Jews under his special protection, and that he desired to have their persons and property protected from all violence, injury, and oppression.”
1586: The first potato arrived in Britain. Since the potato is indigenous to Peru and Bolivia this date means that European Jews could not have enjoyed such delicacies as Latkes and Potato Knishes until at least the 17thcentury.
1609: Bermuda is first settled, by survivors of the English Sea Venture, en route to Virginia. “Historically, few Jews moved to Bermuda because of the harsh policies of the English toward Jews on the island in the 18th century. There is one place on the island,
Jews
Bay
, which proves Jewish origins in
Bermuda
. The name of the bay dates back to the early 1600s, and is considered to be named after a group of Jews who did business on the island.”
1627: Emperor Ferdinand II, “the terror of the Protestants” sent a “threatening letter” to the senate in Hamburg expressing his indignation that “the Lutheran city on the Elbe would not allow Catholics to build a church” but would allow the Jews open a synagogue because of their importance in the trading life of the city. The city relied on the support of Portuguese Jews living in Amsterdam for financial support and had allowed a group of them to settle in the city.
1648: Three thousand Jewish children were killed by Chmeilnicki's hordes in Konstantnow.
1764: Birthdate of Solomon Etting, the Baltimore businessman and politician who led the successful fight to end Maryland’s laws that banned non-Christians from holding public office and practicing law.
1776: Jonas Phillips “sent a letter to a relative and business correspondent of his in Holland, Gumpel Samson by way of the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius. The letter begins by discussing his last letter and other business matters. He moves on to discuss the conflict with England and laconically mentions that the Americans have 100,000 soldiers to the British 25,000. He finishes the letter with an appendix of items he want sent to America so he may sell them. There are two important things about this letter. First, Jonas enclosed within the letter a newly-minted copy of the Declaration of Independence. And secondly, Jonas wrote the letter in Yiddish. Since at war with Britain Jonas would have expected the letter to be intercepted, but by writing in Yiddish they would not be able to read it. The British did intercept the letter and not knowing in language it was written concluded it was in code.” Phillips was born in Germany in 1736 and came to America in 1756. After working as an indentured servant in Charleston SC, he moved North, eventually settling in New York City where he became a successful merchant who was active in the Jewish community of both NYC and Philadelphia and supporter of the American Revolution. He was the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.
1794: French political leader and revolutionary, Maximilien Robespierre meets his fate with the guillotine. Whatever his other shortcomings, Robespierre took the unpopular stance of advocating full rights for the Jews of France when the subject first was debated in 1789. In part he stated, “How can you blame the Jews for the persecution they have suffered in certain countries? These are, on the contrary, national crimes that we must expiate by restoring to them the imprescribable rights of man of which no human authority can deprive them…Let us give them back their happiness, their country and their virtue by restoring them their dignity as men and citizens…The vices of the Jews are born of the abasement in which you [Christians] have plunged them. Raise their condition and they will speedily rise to it!”
1789 (5th of Av): Rabbi Meir ben Saul Barby of Pressburg, author of Sefer Hiddushei Halakhot, passed away
1808: Birthdate of Salomon (Solomon) Formstecher, “a German rabbi and student of Jewish theology.”
1821: Jose de San Martin declares Peru’s independence from Spain. San Martin was one of the great leaders in the fight to free South America from Spanish rule. At the time of Peru’s liberation from Spanish rule, whatever Jewish population existed in “the land of the Incas” was made of conversos or secret Jews. The Jewish Peruvians slowly made their presence known but it was not until the middle of the 19th century that they would become an open, functioning community.
1836(14thof Av, 5596): Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the founder of the London branch of the House of Rothschild passed away. The Jewish Virtual Library provides an interesting synopsis of his life. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/RothschildN.html
1849: The First National Assembly of Hungary led by the revolutionary leader Kossuth, granted complete political and civil rights to the Jews in recognition of their loyalty.
1851: Birthdate of Samuel Sachs, the Maryland native who gained fame as part of Goldman-Sachs.
1855(13th of Av, 5615): Salomon Mayer von Rothschild passed away in Paris. Born in in 1774 in Frankfurt/Main, he was the founder of the Viennese branch of the House of Rothschild.
1855: Today’s “Foreign Extracts” column reported that John Abrams, a Polish Jew, has been charged with trying to induce members of the Foreign Legion stationed at Shorncliffe to desert. Based on the questioning of officers and enlisted men, it is believed that Abrams is an agent of the Russian government. [This episode took place during the Crimean War when Britain and France were fighting Russia.]
1861:A review of History of Civilization by Thomas Buckle reports that "Jews and heretics were persecuted with unrelenting vigor" in pre-711 Spain when Arian Visigoths and the orthodox Franks were contesting for power.
1863: As the United States implemented a draft during the Civil War that resulted in a major riot in July of 1863, The New York Times reported that “a Jew broker, from New-York, reached West Chester with a dozen men to hire out as substitutes. The men boasted that they were from New-York, and were engaged in the late riots.”
1868: The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is certified, establishing African-American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law. The “Due Process Clause” prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the individual states, which was a boon for Jewish interests because of the language in the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of religion.
1870: On what would turn out to be the last night of his life, prominent New Yorker Benjamin Nathan went to sleep on mattresses on the second floor reception room of his mansion. Nathans’ house was being renovated so he could not spend the night in his bedroom. His son Frederick returned to the house to before midnight. His other son, Washington, returned after midnight when his father was already asleep.
1875: Sir Moses Montefiore visited the large Ashkenazi synagogue in Jerusalem where he was greeted by Haham Bashi who later entertained the British nobleman at his home. A crowd of 20,000 that included Jews, Muslims and Christians, greeted the Baronet as he walked the streets of the City of David.
1879(8th of Av, 5639): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1881: “The Troubles In Russia” published today described “the disinclination” of the United States to join European governments in a proposed communique being sent to the Czar to protest Russia’s treatment of her Jews since it has “already instructed its Minister to Russia on the subject.”
1882: The Polish Jews traveling in steerage got the fright of their life today when the SS. Gellert caught fire as it sailed from New York to Hamburg. The fire which was caused by smoldering tobacco melted part of the iron deck before it was extinguished
1883: At Nyireghyhaza, Hungary, where a group of Jews has been charged with murdering a Christian girl the prosecution and defense gave their summations today. The prosecution contended that for the Jews, “ritual murder was common and frequent.” The defense “derided the charge” that Jews shed Christian blood as part of their rituals and said the charge was a lie used to “excite Christians against Jews.”
1884: James R. Osgood & Company has published Stray Leaves from Strange Literature, a collection of myths and legends including some from the Jewish people, by Lafacdio Hearn.
1884:A court circular from Marlborough House dated today noted that Walter Goodman had submitted the portrait of The Duke of Albany to the Prince and Princess of Wales, from where it was currently displayed at The Guildhall. Goodman was the second generation of Jewish painters in his family since his mother was Julia Salaman.
1885(16th of Av, 5645): Sir Moses Monteifore, one of the most famous and influential Jew of the 19th century passed away in the 101st year of his long and fruitful life. Ironically, while many Jews living in the 21stcentury have heard the name Monteifore in connection with a particular institution or building, including the famous Windmill in Jerusalem, few know much about his lifetime of accomplishments. There is no way that this Blog can do him justice. These websites should help fill in some of the gaps.
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/770671/jewish/Sir-Moses-Montefiore.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/montefiore.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD4ERPVUGHM
1886: “Europeans in Persia” published today described the impact that westerners were having on Tehran including the local Jewish population which has benefited from the arrival of a Jewish dentist, doctor and “chemist” (pharmacist).
1886: The Castle Garden Committee of the Commissioners of Emigration is scheduled to meet today to consider the offer of several New York rabbis to provide financial guarantees for recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia so that they would not be deported as paupers.
1887: Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike, reportedly one of the first professional Jewish players played his last game today as a member of the New York Metropolitans. (This 19th century team should not be confused the modern day NY Mets)
1889: Dr. Cyrus Adler of John Hopkins University will deliver a lecture on “The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser” at Cooper Union in New York. The lecture is part of the Summer Course sponsored by JTS.
1893:“The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent announced that Henrietta Szold would be moving to Philadelphia from her home in Baltimore to serve as the secretary and first paid employee of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS). Szold had been elected as the only female member of the JPS publication committee when the organization was founded in 1888 in order to provide a steady series of substantive works of Jewish culture to an American audience. Despite the initial apathy and opposition that the JPS encountered, Szold committed herself to the society, at one point "personally addressing eleven hundred circulars and membership blanks" although in the end they only yielded 75 responses. She had already served the organization as an author, translator, and editor, but now she would be a paid employee. While Henrietta Szold's most significant impact on Jewish life would come after she founded Hadassah, the Zionist women's organization in 1912, her work at JPS constituted a major contribution to the creation of an American Jewish culture. The Jewish Exponent article about her move to JPS suggests that, even before the formal commencement of this work, Szold was recognized as a woman who had and would continue to play an important role in the American Jewish community. Szold had already established herself as an educator and, through newspaper columns, as an astute observer of Jewish life. According to the Exponent article, "no one better equipped could be found than Miss Szold." Upon being offered the job of secretary in 1893, Szold withdrew from her positions in
Baltimore
, including her role as superintendent of the Russian night-school of the Hebrew Literary Society. As the school's founder, superintendent, fundraiser and one of its teachers, she had, according to the article, surrounded herself with teachers "whom she has made thoroughly conversant with her masterful manner of teaching English to Russo-Jewish immigrants and in the sympathetic manner of engaging their undivided attention so as to develop in them an appreciation of American ideals." Szold's work for JPS was monumental. Although she worked under the title and salary of secretary, she served as translator, indexer, fact checker, proofreader, statistician, administrator, and editor, overseeing the publication of 87 books during her tenure. Szold's clear mind, exhaustive dedication, and meticulous attention to detail enabled the Society to offer a remarkable literary and scholarly array. Many of the translations and original works published by JPS during this time still inform contemporary American Jewish culture and scholarship. A new Bible translation and the series of American Jewish Year Books that commenced publication in 1900 began to define the contours of a distinctive American Jewish intellectual world. After twenty-two years, Szold withdrew from JPS work in 1916 when a group of Zionists offered to provide her with an annuity in order to support her growing work for Hadassah.”
1896: The City of Miami is incorporated. According to one source Samuel Singer was reportedly the first Jew to move to Miami, arriving there in 1895. Others report that Isidor Cohen who signed the city’s charter in 1896 deserves the honor. There were enough Jews in the city when it was founded to hold regular religious services. But the population dwindled in the first decade of the 20th century. The anti-Semitic practices of early developers hampered the growth of what today is one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States.
1899: Messrs. Heinemann announces the publication of two books of interest because of the Dreyfus case. One is by Lionel Decle, an Anglicized Frenchman. The other is The Modern Jew, by Arnold White.
1902(23rd of Tammuz, 5662): Rabbi Jacob Joseph passed away. Born in Krozhe, a province of Kovno, in 1840, he studied in the Volozhin yeshiva under the Netziv, where he was known as "Rav Yaakov Charif" because of his sharp mind. He was one of the foremost students of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. He became successively rabbi of Vilon in 1868, Yurburg in 1870, Zhagory and then Kovno. His fame as a preacher spread, so that in 1883 the community of Vilna selected him as its maggid. He came to the United States in 1888 where he served as chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues. The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is named after him, and a playground is named after and honors the memory of a great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph who carried his name.
1903: The High Commissioner delivered an address at the opening meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal
1904: Birthdate of Austrian born, British philosopher, Sir Karl Raimund Popper. In an all too common pattern, Popper left Austria in 1937 to avoid the pending Nazi takeover. He made his was to New Zealand where he continued his academic work. In 1946 he moved to England where he gained further fame as a member of the faculty of the London School of Economics.
1904: Vyacheslav von Plehve, the director the Czar’s Secret Police and Interior Minister was killed by a bomb thrown by a revolutionary. Plehve was the Interior Minister during the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903. He reportedly gave orders for government forces not to interfere with the rioters during the three days of carnage.
1905:The New York Timesreported that Max Nordau gave an “eloquent eulogy” in memory of Dr. Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement at the opening session of the Seventh Annual Zionist Congress. Herzl passed away in 1904 .
1909: British Ambassador Sir Gerald Lowther visited the Hahambashi (Chief Rabbi) in Constantinople.
1909: Birthdate of Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, a contract killer for Murder, Inc.
1911: The King of Spain, who exercises sovereignty in Mellila, Morocco, replies favorably to the petition of these Moroccan Jews for equal rights since they pay taxes and serve in the army.. The liberal press commends the Spanish Monarch's attitude, and hopes for annulment of discriminatory laws still in force against the Jews.
1914: According to an appraisal filed today by the State Tax Assessor, the estate of the late Dr. Morris Loeb has a gross value of $2, 474, 585. The largest beneficiary of the estate was his widow, Mrs. Eda K. Loeb and Harvard College. He left several bequests to numerous Jewish and non Jewish charities the Hebrew Technical Institute and the Solomon and Betty Loeb Memorial Home for Convalescents. "Mrs. Loeb, Felix M. Warburg, Paul Warburg and Julius Goldman are the executors of the estate."
1914: The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on
Serbia
thus starting World War I. The war will prove devastating for the Jews of Eastern Europe. Even worse, it will sow the seeds for the Second World War. There is a straight line between the decisions reached in the heat of the summer of 1914 and the ashes of
Auschwitz
.
1915: The infamous Leo Frank trial began today in Georgia.
1916: Birthdate of Gerhart Friedlander, “a veteran of the Manhattan Project…and a pioneer of nuclear chemistry who later exploited the first particle accelerators to do major research as head of the chemistry department at Brookhaven National Laboratory.”
1918: Gavrilo Princip, “the assassin who started WW I” by killing the Archduke Ferdinand died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt, the same Theresienstadt that would the show ghetto during World War II.
1922: Birthdate of William Coblentz, one of California’s most influential lawyers who battled Govenor Ronald Reagan, represented hostage/fugitive Patti Hearst and was “a donor both to the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.”
1922: On being released from prison after serving a four week long sentence, Hitler declares, “The Jewish people stands against us as our deadly foe and will so stand against us always, and for all time.”
1922: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, writes Churchill expresses his (and other un-named supporters) opposition to Zionist activity in
Palestine
.
1923: In Moscow, Victoria and Isaac Raeff gave birth to Marc Raeff who became one of America’s “scholars of Russian history.” (As reported by Bruce Weber
1923: Opera life began in pre-statehood Israel today with the performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata. The performance brought to life the vision of Mordechai Golinkin described in his thesis “The Vision of the Hebrew Art Temple of Opera Work in Palestine.” Since there were opera houses in the new Jewish city, the performance took place in a movie theatre.
1925: Birthdate of Baruch “Barry” Samuel Blumberg, “the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and medical anthropologist who discovered the hepatitis B virus, showed that it could cause liver cancer and then helped develop a powerful vaccine to fight it, saving millions of lives.”
1931(14thof Av, 5691): German Jewish physicist Emil Gabriel Warburg, a member of the famous Warburg family, passed away today.
1929: Charles M. Bender is the delegate from Texas attending the 16th World Zionist Congress in Zurich.
1936(9th of Av, 5696): Tisha B’Av
1936: It was reported today that this September, Henry Holt will publish Spring Up Oh Well by Dorothy Ruth Kahn. The book describes the growth of the Jewish community in Palestine, including the development of Tel Aviv and surrounding “hamlets.”
1939: On the Mediterranean Sea north of Tel Aviv, “authorities detained 373 Jews today as unauthorized immigrants after the British destroyer Imperial halted the Colorado, a vessel flying” the Panamanian flag.
1940: Hitler called for an intensification of anti-Jewish actions in
Slovakia
.
1941:David Rose marries Judy Garland. It is the second of Rose’s three trips to the altar. The third visit will be the one that lasts.
1941: In Lithuania, the Nazis killed the Jews living in Aniksht and Vilkovishk.
1941: As German troops over run Russian territory, the killings of Jews increased in frequency and numbers.
1941: Local police and militiamen, acting with the acquiescence of SS troops at the prison at
Drogobych
,
Ukraine
, use guns, clubs, and fists to slaughter hundreds of Jews. The streets are choked with badly injured fleeing Jews and mangled corpses.
1941(4th of Av, 5701): German occupation troops in and around Belgrade, Yugoslavia, execute 122 Communists and Jews for resistance.
1941(4th of Av, 5701): Forty mental patients from Lódz, Poland, are taken from a hospital and executed in a nearby forest.
1942(14th of Av, 5702): The Nazis killed 10,000 Jews in Minsk.
1942: SS chief Heinrich Himmler writes to a senior SS official that the
Occupied
Eastern
Territories
"are to become free of Jews."
1942(14th of Av, 5702): Jewish parents in Tarnów, Poland, are forced to watch as their children are shot by Gestapo agents. The parents and other adults are subsequently deported to the camp at Belzec for extermination.
1942: In the Lódz (
Poland
) Ghetto, two male Jews, one just 16 years old, are hanged after escaping a work gang.
1942: Young members of the Warsaw Ghetto establish Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB; Jewish Fighting Organization). At this time, the only weapon in the ghetto is a single pistol.
1942: Over the next three days 30,000 Jews are killed in
Minsk
,
Belorussia
.
1942: As Operation Reinhard entered its sixth day, a Jewish resistance group was set up. Their arsenal consisted of two pistols. Operation Reinhard was the name given to the German plan to wipe out the Jewish population of occupied
Poland
.
1942(14th of Av, 5702): In Tarnow, Poland, the Jewish children were taken to the edge of town and shot. The rest of the town's Jews were taken to Belzec
1942: Eighty-nine year old Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie passed away. The famed archaeologist made his first of many trips to Palestine in 1890 when led a dig at Tell el-Hesi. His most discovery came in 1896 when he identified the ‘Israel’ or Merneptah stele.
1943: Using the information they found on the dead bodies of the members of the Leon Group, the Nazis entered the ghetto at Vilna and arrested 32 friends and family members of the murdered partisans. The 32 were taken to the killing grounds of Ponar where they were executed. The Germans published an announcement warning the family and friends of anybody else who planned to escape the ghetto that a one-way ticket to Ponar would be their reward as well.
1943: During World War II the British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians. In a twist of irony, the mission is named Operation Gomorrah. (There is no record of an air mission called Operation Sodom.)
1943: Birthdate of guitar playing composer Mike Bloomfield.
1948: “United Nations peace envoy, Folke Bernadotte, issued a statement which said that there was ‘no evidence to support claims of massacre’” at al-Tira, a village near Haifa, that had been made by Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of the Arab League.
1949: Today’s proposal by the Ben-Gurion to the UN that would allow 100,000 Arabs to return to Israel touched off a wave of opposition that would later lead to its withdrawal.
1956(20th of Av, 5716): Abraham Telvi “a Jewish-American mobster and hitman for New York labor racketeer Johnny Dio, known most notably for blinding crusading New York journalist Victor Riesel with acid” was gunned down today.
1969: Opening of the Eighth Maccabiah
1971: Marvin Israel discovered the body of photographer Diane Arbus two days after she had taken her own life.
1982(8th of Av, 5742): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1988:
Jordan
canceled a $1.3 billion development plan in the
West Bank
.
1988: Israeli diplomats arrived in Moscow for their first visit in 21 years.
1989: Units of the IDF crossed into
Lebanon
and seized Sheik Abd al-Karim Obeid a Hizballah cleric and military commander of Islamic Jihad. This took place during what is now called the First Infitada.
1993: Catcher Brad Ausmus made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres.
1995(1st of Av, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Av
1995(1st of Av, 5755): Ninety-three year old Harry Zimmerman, the physician who helped found Albert Einstein College of Medicine and made major contributions in dealing with diseases of the nervous system, passed away today. (As reported by Robert Thomas, Jr.)
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/31/obituaries/dr-harry-zimmerman-93-dies-founded-albert-einstein-college.htm
1996: The newly opened William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is the site of a reception for the Israeli Olympic team and a commemoration of the 1972 massacre at the Games in Munich when terrorists killed 11 of the country's athletes and officials.
1998: Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity so that she can testify against President Clinton.
2000(25th of Tamuz, 5760): Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist and science historian passed away. Pais was the son of a father from the old Dutch Sephardic community while his mother was Ashkenazik. His trials and tribulation during World War II are the kind of harrowing tale that would make a great adventure novel. Yet they were true. His academic achievements were equally amazing.
2002: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Sonnets by Jewish poet Gerald Stern and Man Walks Into A Room, the first novel by Jewish poet Nicole Krauss
2003: “Monitoring Calls in New World of Quality Assurance” described the role that software is playing in fulfilling Shlomo Shamir’s vision of changing call centers from being “cost centers” to being “strategic centers.” Shamir is the President of the American arm of Nice, an Israeli company that is the leader in this software field. (As reported by Claudia H. Deutsch)
2005: As reported in the Oakland (CA) Tribune, Pacifica resident Lillian Greenwald is praised for having volunteered at the Jewish Home for nearly 25 years. Although this is a significant achievement by itself, it is the quality of her service that is exceptional. Lillian Greenwald is an exemplary role model for any volunteer program, and the Jewish Home is fortunate to have her.”
2006: Five Katyushas struck Peki'in and one directly hit a home next the yard where a family was preparing for an afternoon wedding. Ten people were lightly wounded and treated for shock. Peki'in is an agricultural settlement in the Upper Galilee. Recognized for hundreds of years as an area where Druze and Jews lived peacefully together, Peki'in is notable for its place in Jewish history. The Zohar- the most important book of the Kabbalah - was written by Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai in a cave suspected to be in the town where he hid during the 2nd century to avoid persecution by the Romans. Peki'in is frequently mentioned in historical sources, specifically in reference to its small Jewish community that has existed there almost continuously since the
Second
Temple
period. Near the village, there are significant sites for Druze and Jews, including a restored Jewish synagogue dating back to the Roman Period. The oldest Druze school in the region was established in Peki'in by the Russian church at the end of the 19th century. Arab riots in 1936 forced the Jews of Peki'in to leave their homes for safer parts of the country.
2007 In Jerusalem, a classical music concert entitled "Music in All the Shades" took place at the Sisters of Zion convent presented "Songs, Trombone, and Piano," featuring Galina Chipper Blat, mezzo-soprano, Natalia Jadanov on piano, and Olga Melchovski and Yuri Prokofchok on the oboe.
2007(13th of Av, 5767): Shabbat Nachamu
2008:In
Washington
,
D.C.
, veteran Jewish photography editor Leora Kahn discusses and signs Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan
2008: In Washington, D.C., Michaele Weissman discusses and signs her new book, God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee
2009: Father Patrick Desbois, secretary to the French Conference of Bishops for relations with Judaism as well as an adviser to the Vatican on the Jewish religion, discusses The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews, an investigation of German atrocities in the Ukraine in World War II, at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2009: Police dismantled the West Bank outpost of Mitzpe Avihai near the town of Hebron Tuesday night. The outpost had consisted for several months of just one tin shack, inhabited by several single males, but it was expanded Tuesday to include another tin shack on an adjacent hilltop to accommodate two families. Two hundred people, including the chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, Rabbi Dov Lior, attended a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the move.
2010: Hadassah 95th annual convention is scheduled to come to a close today.
2010: "Surviving Hitler: A Love Story,” is scheduled to be shown today at The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010: A former Nazi death camp guard has been charged with participating in the murder of 430,000 Jews and other crimes during the Third Reich, German prosecutors said today. Samuel Kunz, 90, was informed last week of his indictment on charges including participation in the murder of 430,000 Jews at the Belzec death camp in occupied Poland, where he served as a guard from January 1942 to July 1943, prosecutor Christoph Goeke in Dortmund said. Kunz is also charged with murder over ''personal excesses'' in which he allegedly shot a total of 10 Jews in two other incidents, Goeke told The Associated Press. Kunz is number 3 on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted Nazi suspects. He lives near the western German city of Bonn. When reached by phone, he said he did not want to talk about the allegations and hung up. Goeke said the case has been sent to the state court in Bonn, where officials were checking whether and when to hold a trial -- a standard procedural step in Germany. Bonn court spokesman Matthias Nordmeyer said the court did not want to comment now on the case. Efraim Zuroff, the top Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said Kunz participated in the so-called Operation Reinhard to eliminate Polish Jewry. ''The indictment of Samuel Kunz is a very positive development,'' Zuroff told AP from Jerusalem. ''It reflects recent changes in the German prosecution policy, which have significantly enlarged the number of suspects who will be brought to justice.'' Zuroff said Kunz had never previously been on trial because of his allegedly Nazi past and that his name first came up in investigations connected to the trial of John Demjanjuk. Demjanjuk, also age 90, is currently on trial in Munich on charges of being an accessory to the murder of 28,060 Jews as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He denies he was ever a camp guard. Prosecutors allege that both Kunz and Demjanjuk trained as guards at the Trawniki SS camp.
2010: The New York Times featured a review of 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman
2010: Terra Olivio, the first Mediterranean international olive oil competition and conference, which attracted over 120 people from Israel and abroad was held today a Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel. Dr. Shaul Eger – a trained physiologist who has been spending many years developing olive-oil based products said that Israel can play a prominent role in the development of new foods and therapeutic products based on the health promoting oil.
2011: “LIVE FROM JERUSALEM: An Evening with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra,” conducted by Zubin Mehta With Renee Fleming and Joseph Calleja is scheduled to be shown at more than 480 select movie theaters nationwide this evening.
2011: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present “Always: Irving Berlin,” an evening filled with the music of one of America’s great composers and lyricists.
2011: The Foreign Ministry announced today that Israel has established full diplomatic relations with the government of the newly UN-recognized South Sudan.
2011: Histadrut Labor Federation Chairman Ofer Eini told Army Radio today that he does not intend on "bringing down the government" by joining the housing protests, but stressed that it must take action to lower housing prices and cost of living. Yesterday, the Histadrut and the Union of Local Authorities joined the campaign against the high price of housing and the general cost of living that has taken Israel by storm in recent weeks. Tent city protest sites have sprouted in numerous cities and towns across Israel, and the struggle is intensifying every day. Meanwhile today, dozens of people gathered in front of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and chanted in protest of rising prices.
2012: The California premiere of “Six Million and One” is scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2012(8th of Av, 5772): Shabbat Chazon; Fast of Tish’a B’Av begins at sundown
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