August 14 In History
1385: In what might be called the “Battle of the Johns” The Portuguese forces commanded by King João I (King John I) defeat the Castilian army of King Juan I(King John I) at the Battle of Aljubarrota, leaving King Juan as ruler of Portugal. The victory of King João I guaranteed the existence of an independent Portugal which would provide a haven for Jews fleeing Christian persecution in Spain at the end of the 14th and start of the 15th centuries.
1433: John I (King João I) of Portugal passed away. As the following entry shows, King John I provided a haven for at least one Jew seeking to escape persecution in Spain.
In 1391, an anti-Jewish riot inspired and provoked by the church occured in Seville and spread rapidly throughout Spain. Jews were being beaten and killed by religious fanatics and many others who were just taking advantage of the rioting to rob the Jews. The streets were flowing with Jewish blood; synagogues, homes and businesses are being destroyed; Jewish property is being stolen. The rioters were yelling; "Convert or Die!" The church promised peace and safety to the Jews who convert. Don Samuel Abarbanel, an observant Jew and his family were forced to convert. At that time the Abarbanels was one of the most distinguished families in Spain. Its patriarch is Don Samuel Abarbanel, Treasurer of the State, Courtier, and friend to three kings of Spain. But even somebody as powerful as Don Samuel was not immune from the violence. He took the Christian name of Juan Sanchez de Seville and continued to serve King Henry III as his treasurer. He and his family attended church and mass on Sunday, but at great risk they were secret Jews, trying to eat kosher, observe the Sabbath and holidays and pray to Hashem. It was not an easy thing for them to do but they did so for about six years when it became increasingly more difficult. By 1397 Juan Sanchez de Seville and his family were able to escape to Portugal where they threw off their Christian customs and names and resumed their practice of Judaism.Don Samuel Abarbanel's reputation as a brilliant financier and statesman preceded him. King John I had his agents approach Don Samuel to ask him to be an advisor to the king. Don Samuel readily agreed, and a long personal friendship and relationship began. The relationship was not only between the king and Don Samuel, it was between their two families, their children, and their grandchildren. Samuel's son Judah followed in his father's footsteps. Don Judah was highly respected by King John I who frequently sought his advice. King John I was called "King John the Great." The title was well justified. During John I's reign Portugal prospered. Portugal was entering the age of exploration and acquiring new territories and becoming rich. Don Judah Abarbanel's advice to the king was invaluable in pursuing this course of action. One of King John's sons was Prince Henry the Navigator who ran a school of navigation and encouraged its Navy to explore, discover and settle new territories and to bring greater wealth and prestige to Portugal.
1447: Following a fire in Posen (Poland) where the original charter granting the Jews "privileges" was written, (by Casimir the Great), Casimir IV renewed all of their rights, making his charter one of the most liberal in Europe. This charter lasted less than a decade before it was revoked.
1484: The papacy of Sixtus IV came to an end. In 1482, Sixtus had issued “Numquam dubitavis “ that gave Ferdinand of Aragon the power to appoint inquisitors to backsliding Jewish converts to Christianity. This was the opening round of the Spanish Inquisition that would lead to the Expulsion in 1492.
1716: Italian Rabbi Isaiah Bassani wrote a poem in honor of Zebulon Conegliano passing his examination in medicine today in Padua.
1787(30th of Av, 5547): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1787(30th of Av, 5547):Isaac de Pinto “a Dutch Jew of Portuguese origin, a scholar and one of the main investors in the Dutch East India Company” passed away. He had been born in 1717 in Amsterdam. In1748, Pinto helped stadholder William IV of Orange, sending or lending him money to defeat the French at Bergen op Zoom. In return he asked for uplifting measures against Jewish merchants forbidding them to sell clothes, gherkins or fish on the street. He proposed to send the poorest Jews to Surinam. Pinto was a man of broad learning, but did not begin to write until nearly fifty, when he acquired a reputation by defending his co-religionists against Voltaire. In 1762 he published his Essai sur le Luxe at Amsterdam. In the same year appeared his Apologie pour la Nation Juive, ou Réflexions Critiques. The author sent a manuscript copy of this work to Voltaire, who thanked him. Antoine Guenée reproduced the Apologie at the head of his Lettres de Quelques Juifs Portugais, Allemands et Polonais, à M. de Voltaire. In 1763 De Pinto became bankrupt as a result of speculation; he had to sell his house on Nieuwe Herengracht with five famous fixed wall-paintings by Jan Weenix. De Pinto moved to another fine mansion in The Hague; he and his family were invited to the palace when Mozart and his sister played. In 1768, Pinto sent a letter to Diderot on Du Jeu de Cartes. His Traité de la Circulation et du Crédit appeared in Amsterdam in 1771, and was twice reprinted, besides being translated into English and German. His Précis des Arguments Contre les Matérialistes was published at The Hague in 1774. Pinto's works were published in French (Amsterdam, 1777) and also in German (Leipzig, 1777).
1840: Birthdate of New York native Manuel Augustus Kursheedt
1855(30th of Av, 5615): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1862: Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, a native of Richmond, VA who had moved to Philadelphia with is father in 1850 enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. Unlike some other native Virginians, Hyneman was able to choose fighting for the Union as opposed to defending slavery.
1863: An article entitled "Affairs at Vicksburg” that describes conditions a month after the fall of the Confederate Citadel includes the following, "When the news reached the North that Vicksburg had fallen, a few thousand Hebrew patriots immediately made an exodus in this direction, with a view of opening a few hundred clothing stores at once. Greatly to their disgust Gen. Grant refused to allow any trade whatever, and much to their pecuniary grief they found that they had brought their shoddy to the wrong market. Something, however, must be done, and so fifty or sixty opened shops for the repair of watches, an equal number opened establishments for taking pictures, another quantity went to work gathering up the immense amount of old rags left everywhere by the rebels, while the balance stood disconsolately for a time around corners cursing Grant in every dialect originating at Babel, and then returned up the river. Those who went into the rag business had a good thing, for rags are high and the quantity left by Confederates in this place was enormous."
1865: Today's Foreign Items column reports that The Chief of Police in Warsaw has forbidden the Jews to wear their ancient dress and coiffure, (two curls sticking out from a velvet cap.
1865: Officer Thomas Ward who was murdered by a gang of felons in the line of duty, died at the Jew's Hospital. (Jew’s Hospital would later be known as Mt. Sinai. The hospital took on the role of treating New Yorker’s regardless of religion during the Civil War when it treated large numbers of Union soldiers wounded during McClellan’s ill-fated Peninsula Campaign.)
1872: A letter published today signed simply “A Jew” took issue with the New York Tribune’s characterization of President Grant’s views on, and relationships with, the Jewish people. The writer denied the Tribune’s claim that Grant had apologized for General Oder No. 11 by saying “that his chief of staff had issued and that he (Grant) had countermanded it. When questioned on the subject in 1868, Grant said that “he issued that order under misapprehension, and regretted his action. He took the responsibility and did not claim credit for countermanding it.” The Tribune, whose publisher Horace Greely, was running against Grant for the Presidency, was making the same claims against Grant that had failed to dissauade Jews from voting for the Civil War hero in 1868. The writer concludes by stating that The Tribune does not understand Jews. Jews think for themselves. Some will vote Democrat. Some will vote Republican. But none of them will be swayed by the Tribune’s re-hash of the claims left over from the 1868 Presidential Campaign.
1873: According to Chief of Police John Malloy, the man who was murdered in Albany is a Brooklynite named John D. Weston. He was allegedly murdered by Emil Lowenstein, a German-Jewish barber who had been enlisted by Mrs. Weston with enticements of sharing in the decedent’s property and enjoying her company.
1874: It was reported today that the police superintendent of New York had received a telegram from the Sheriff of McLean Country, Illinois, stating that he German Jew named Levy had confess to murdering Benjamin Nathan. The sheriff doubts that truth of the confession and thinks the man is “a humbug” looking for a free trip back to New York.
1874(1st of Elul, 5634): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1878: It was reported today that the government is doing nothing to alleviate the suffering from the effects of the famine in southern Morocco. The Jews of the region are receiving some assistance from co-religionists
1879: Harris Levy, a 28 year old Polish Jew was shot in the arm on Forsyth Street in New York. Levy was as a night watchman for Louis Solomans, a manufacturing tailor whose businesses occupied three rooms on the building’s 6th floor.
1881: It was reported today that donations to help defray the cost of the next excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children can be sent to the offices of the Jewish Messenger on Walker Street.
1881: A concert sponsored by several prominent Jews is scheduled to be held today to raise funds for a cemetery at the popular resort town of Long Branch, NJ. The cemetery, “The Strangers’ Cemetery, will be open to all – rich or poor, Jew or Gentile
1882: It was reported today that there are forty Jews living in Hoboken.
1882: It was reported today that yesterday’s account in the Congressional Record of speech given by S.S. Cox in defense of the Jews of Russia could not have happened since Congress had already adjourned. This was an example of the time-honored technique of entering things into the Congressional Record that were not actually said on the floor of the House and/or Senate.
1882: It was reported that a barrel of gunpowder had accidentally exploded at a shop in Grodeno, Russia killing an untold number of Jewish children attending a nearby school
1884: It was reported today that Rabbi Henry Zindorf of Detroit’s Temple Beth El has been chosen as Professor of History and Hebrew Literature at Hebrew Union College.
1886: On the Lower East Side, Louis and Mary Strauss Frankenthaler gave birth to George Frankenthaler who served as the State Supreme Court Justice and New York County Surrogate.
1887: The members of the jury that convicted Israel Lipski of murder are scheduled to meet with the condemned man’s solicitor today.
1887: It was reported today that that Israel Lipski’s solicitor has “sent a telegram to the Queen” asking her to stay the execution because “he is in possession of facts which will enable him to establish” Lipski’s innocence.
1888: An excursion for sick children under the age of six sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will take place this morning at nine.
1889: The seventh free excursion of the summer sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to leave from the Fifth Street pier of the East River. Only children without contagious diseases and six years of age or younger will be allowed on the boat.
1889: One hundred twenty Jewish families arrived in Buenos Aires giving birth to the modern Argentinean Jewish community. In 1889, 824 Russian Jews arrived in Argentina on the S.S. Weser from Podolia in western Russia. Many of them became gauchos (Argentine cowboys). The gauchos bought land and established a colony, which they named Moiseville. Due to lack of funding, the gauchos appealed to Baron Maurice de Hirsch for funds and the Baron subsequently founded the Jewish Colonization Association. During its heyday, the Association owned more than 600,000 hectares of land, populated by more than 200,000 Jews. While many of these cooperative ranches are now owned by non-Jews, Jews continue to run some of the properties.
1893: Birthdate of Samuel Simon Leibowitz, American attorney and jurist who would gain fame as the lawyer who defended the Scottsboro Boys.
1904: Lillie Solomon, the daughter of Anna and I.E. Solomon, who was born in Solomonville, Arizona Territory in 1879, married Jewish merchant Max Lantin of Globe.
1905(13th of Av, 5665): English painter Simeon Solomon passed away. For examples of his art and a whole lot more see
http://simeonsolomon.com/default.aspx
1910: Birthdate of French-Jewish photographer Willy Ronis
1910: Birthdate of Natan Alterman the Warsaw native who gained fame as an Israeli poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.
1910: Birthdate of Herta Herzog, the author of “The Jews as 'Others': On Communicative Aspects of Anti-Semitism” and the wife of Paul Felix Lazarsfeld.
1911: In Richmond, Indiana, a meeting of the Society of Friends adopts a resolution protesting the treatment of the Jews of Russia.
1917: In the Bronx, Harry and Molly Glickmann give birth to Martin “Martry” Glickman. A graduate of S
Syracuse University, where he played football, Glickman was best known for his skills in track & field. In 1936, Glickman was one of two Jews on the U.S. 400 yard relay team at the 1936 Olympics. The two were replaced just before the event. According to Glickman, this was in response to pressure Avery Brundage, an anti-Semite and supporter of the Nazi regime. Glickman went on to a very successful career as a sports broadcaster. Glickman’s parents came from Jassy where the Germans and their Romanian allies slaughtered over twenty thousand Jews during the summer of 1941.
1920: Birthdate of actor Nehemiah Persoff. Born in
Jerusalem
, Persoff came to the
United States
in 1929. He was trained as an electrician, but developed an interest in acting which led to a very successfully career in theatre and film.
1928: The original production of “The Front Page,” directed by George S. Kaufman, opened at the Times Square Theatre
1929: The Jewish Agency for Palestine was founded. The Jewish Agency “became the main organization through which Palestinian Jewry maintained its contacts with world Jewry and with the Mandatory authorities and foreign governments. It was, in fact, the de facto government of the Jews in the Jewish homeland.
1933: While speaking in Prague, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, honorary president of the American Jewish Congress, approves of the boycott against German goods and services.
1933: The Government prohibits the circulation in Germany of all Jewish newspapers printed in foreign countries, irrespective of language, and commands Jewish libraries to remove such periodicals from their quarters.
1937: In his closing statement to the 20th Zionist Congress, held in
Zurich
, David Ben-Gurion said that the subject of a passionate debate regarding the proposed Jewish state was not the integrity of
Palestine
, which no Zionist can forgo, but the methods for securing the quicker achievement of the common aim. He welcomed the decision of the two-thirds majority of the Executive to negotiate the precise contents of the scheme, while this did not imply any assent to the principle of Partition.
1937: Nazis continued to harass the Zionist delegates in
Zurich
.
1937: While the
League of Nations
debated the recommendations of the Peel Report, Arab attacks against Jews in
Palestine
continued. Shots were fired at Motza and other Jewish settlements in a significant number of increased terrorist attacks all over the country.
1938: Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, announced today that the Jewish children who were among the Austrian exiles expelled from Burgenland by Nazis and set drift on the Danube four months ago will be cared for by the Youth Aliyah (immigration) of movement and sent to Palestine before Sept. 30.
1938: Arab terrorists conducted a series of early morning attacks including one by 200 armed Arabs at “the tiny Jewish colony of Shimroon” and another at Kfar Yabetz where Arabs “burned an orange pakcing house and uprooted four hundred trees on the grounds of the Kibbutz.”
1939: A resolution expressing "deep regret" that the executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine did not resign immediately upon publication of the terms of the recent British White Paper was adopted today by the World Mizrachi. Mizrachi announced plans to fight the White Paper and calls on World Zionists to refuse to cooperate with the British in Palestine.
1939: Birthdate of Eric Weissberg the American banjo player, best known for the theme from the movie Deliverance.
1941: All residents of the Jewish community of
Lesko
,
Poland
, are transported to
Zaslaw
,
Poland
, and executed.
1942(1stof Elul, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1942: Esther "Etty" Hillesum returned to Amsterdam from Westerbork
1942: The Archbishop of Lvov provided hiding places for Jewish children and Sifrei Torah.
1942: The entire Jewish community from
Gorlice
,
Poland
, is deported to the Belzec extermination camp.
1942: A woman named Rivka Yosselevska is one of just four Jews to survive a bloody burial-pit massacre outside
Zagrodski
,
Poland
, near
Pinsk
.
1945: From
Larissa
,
Greece
it was reported: "One synagogue is completely destroyed, not even the foundation exists, so thorough has been the German destruction. The other synagogue has been almost-completely destroyed, also- It cannot be used in its present condition
1945:
Japan
surrendered unconditionally to end WW II. It took two atomic bombs and the invasion of
Manchuria
by the Soviet Army to finally convince the Japanese that all was lost. The official surrender ceremony would not take place until September, 1945 on the decks of U.S.S. Missouri which would be anchored in
Tokyo
Bay
. While there is general agreement as to what the official start dates were for World War II, we have seen that the end dates both the war in
Europe
and in the Pacific get a little fuzzy.
1947:
India
granted independence within
British Commonwealth
. According to some historians, the end of British rule in
India
had an impact on British policy in
Palestine
. The reason the British had wanted to control
Palestine
, according to them, was to protect the
Suez Canal
which was part of the route connecting
Britain
and
India
. Once
India
was independent, the imperative for holding on to
Palestine
was no longer there and the British were no longer quite so keen to spend blood and bullets on rocks and sands of
Palestine
. There other imperial holdings including
Transjordan
, et al were enough to meet English commercial and political needs.
1948(9th of Av, 5708): Since it is Shabbat, the fast will begin in the evening and be observed on Sunday. There is an irony in this since it is the first time the this day of mourning will be observed in an independent Jewish state.
1948: Habib Vidal, "the owner of a printing shop and the custoidan of the synagogue at Helwan" was one of the Jews arrested in Egypt. Vidal was sentenced to 15 months at the Huckstep Prison despite the fact that he had not been formally charged or tried in a court of law. (In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1948: The Pan York, a ship filled with Jewish DPs as well as American volunteers for the Israeli army, arrived in Haifa.
1948: Birthdate of Kathi Kamen Goldmark who “had made a lot of friends in the literary world by shepherding authors on book tours when one day inspiration struck: what the very best authors yearn to be, she realized, are rock stars.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1951: The Jerusalem Program for Zionism, which is to replace the Basel Program drawn up at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, was to be presented at the meeting of the 23rdZionist Congress meeting today in Jerusalem.
1952(23rd of Av, 5712): On the civil calendar, David Zvi Pinkas passed away. At the time of his death at the age of 57, Pinkas was Minister of Communication in the Israeli government.
1952:
Israel
and the representatives of the World Jewry announced that they reserved the right to demand restitution payment for the undeclared and heirless property in
Austria
.
1952: At this time, life in
Israel
was very difficult. The Jewish settlers were pioneers in the truest sense of that term. For example, The Medical Advisory Council told the government that a large section of the Israeli population, mainly those who depended solely on the government’s rationing scheme, did not receive sufficient nutrition.
1969(30th of Av, 5729): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1972(4th of Elul, 5732): Actor, composer and musician Oscar Levant passed away.
http://www.pictureshowman.com/articles_personalities_levant.cfm
1977: The new Likud cabinet had announced a policy of equalization of services for the inhabitants of the
West Bank
and
Gaza
. Officials claimed that this did not mean annexation or a change in the legal status of these areas, an opinion which was disputed by Arabs, foreign observers and the press.
1977: The American Jewish leadership asked US President Jimmy Carter to clarify his position on his possible recognition of the PLO.
1977: According to Time MagazineIsrael provided Lebanese Christians with $30 million to $35million in direct aid.
1979(21st of Av, 5739): Sixty-seven year old Yehoshua Rabinovitz, who had served a Minster of Housing and Minister of Finance, passed away today.
1980: Jimmy Carter, the man who brokered the Camp David Peace Accords, was nominated by the Democrats for a second term.
1982: Birthdate of Benjamin Cohen who became known for his dot.com enterprises as a teenager and for a dispute with Apple computers over the domain itunes.co.uk. In 2006, he became technology correspondent for Channel 4 News in the UK
1983: Birthdate of Mila Kunis who plays “Jackie” on the television hit, That 70’s Show.
1986(9th of Av, 5746): Tish'a B'Av
1987(19th of Av, 5747): In Little Rock, Arkansas, Sheldon Luber, son of Elaine and Harvey Luber passed away. He left us too soon, but he will always be remembered.
1989(13th of Av, 5749): Sir Dove-Myer Robinson passed away. Born in 1901, he “was Mayor of Auckland City from 1959 to 1965 and from 1968 to 1980, the longest tenure of any holder of the office. He was a colorful character and became affectionately known across New Zealand as "Robbie". He was one of several Jewish mayors of Auckland, although he rejected Judaism as a teenager and became a lifelong atheist. He has been described as a "slight, bespectacled man whose tiny stature was offset by a booming voice and massive ego.”
1990: Leonard Bernstein conducted Copland's Symphony No. 3, BMCO
1991: Comedian Jackie Mason marries his manager Jyll Rosenfeld.
1994: Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, the terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal", is captured. Carlos involvement with Arab Terrorists, specifically the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began in 1970. By July 1970 Ramirez was at a training camp in
Jordan
and after a meeting with Abu-Sharif the PFLP's recruiting officer he became known as Carlos the Jackal. The PFLP gained strength and started to form alliances with other terrorist groups such as the Baader-Meinhof gang and the Italian Red Brigade. Carlos' reputation within the organization grew after "Black September" where he fought against the Jordanian army trying to purge their country of terrorists. In 1972, the PFLP ordered Carlos to kill a respected member of the Jewish community in
London
, Edward Sieff the president of Marks & Spencer. In December 1973 Carlos went to Sieffs house and shot him, luckily not fatally. Carlos had preceded this by a hand grenade attack on the
London
headquarters of an Israeli bank and a car bomb in
Paris
in 1972, which injured 63 people. His international reputation was born. In 1976 he was involved in a skyjacking of an Air France jet to
Uganda
that lead to the famous raid on
Entebbe
by Israeli Special Forces
1994(7th of Elul, 5754): Hamas took credit for the murder of 18 year old Ron Saval today in an ambush near the Kissufim Junction.
1994(7th of Elul, 5754): Eighty-nine year old Elias Canetti, a novelist, playwright and cultural historian who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, passed away today (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/19/obituaries/elias-canetti-89-nobel-winner-who-wrote-of-social-forces.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm1999
1996(29th of Av, 5756): Eighty-eight year old Albert Neuberger, the German born physician who was a Professor of Chemical Pathology and a Fellow of the Royal Society, passed away.
http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/obituaries/?&minit=&utm_source=109390&utm_medium=surnm_obits_text&utm_campaign=affil&kbid=109390&m=26&fname=Albert&lname=Neuberger
1999(2nd of Elul, 5759): Phillip Klutznick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Carter, passed away
2002: “In an….interview with American Journalist Amy Goodman Shulamit Aloni described how she believes the charge of antisemitism is used to suppress criticism of Israel.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2002/8/14/stream
2003(16th of Av, 5763): Moshe Carmel “an Israeli soldier and politician who served as Minister of Transportation for eight years” passed away today.
2005(9th of Av, 5765): Tish'a B'Av:
2005: Members of the Ukrainian Conservative party demanded that Jews be prevented from teaching the Tanya in Jewish schools and synagogues. While Ukrainian officials denied any anti-Semitic intentions, others saw a link between this policy and those being...
2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that “members of the Ukrainian Conservative Party and several far right-wing editors demanded that Jews be prevented from teaching the Tanya in Jewish schools and synagogues.” While Ukrainian officials at the embassy in Tel Aviv offered assurances that their government was opposed to any anti-Semitic behaviors, others saw a similarity between these demands and those being made in other republics of the former
Soviet Union
.
2005: The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that the Library of American will publish an eight volume collection Phillip Roth’s novels and stories beginning later this summer. Roth joins Saul Bellow and Eudora Welty as the only American to have their complete works preserved by the Library of America during their lifetimes.
2005: The Sunday New York Times book section included a review of The Last Expedition: Stanley’s Mad Journey Through the Congo by Daniel Liebowitz and Charles Pearson which describes the quest to find Emin Pasha who was a Silesian born Jew named Isaak Eduard Schnitzer
2006: A U.N. sponsored cease fire takes place along the border between
Israel
and
Lebanon
marking an end to five weeks of fighting.
2006: A Polish humanitarian organization is working to provide humanitarian assistance to hard-hit residents of northern
Israel
. The non-governmental Polish Humanitarian Organization will ask the Polish government as well as private donors for about
NIS
1 million in aid for residents in the north for two projects, in addition to separate funding for Lebanese civilians, said Janina Ochojska, the group's founder and president.
2006: It was reported today that Randy Lerner had agreed to purchase the Ashton Villa football club for £62.6 million
2006: Cease fire goes into effect intended to end the “war” between
Israel
and Hezbollah in
Lebanon
.
2007: Haaretz reported that fifty-nine years after they were killed in the War of Independence near the Arab
village
of
Tel Arish
, the Israel Defense Forces has identified the bodies of five fighters. The men were soldiers in Battalion 52 of the Givati Brigade, and have been identified as First Lieutenant Yehiel Rosenfeld, Private David Kohavi, Private Itzhak Hamami, Private Yehoshua Lustig and a fifth soldier. The remains of the soldiers, who up until now were considered missing, were identified in unmarked graves in the Nahalat Itzhak cemetery. Their families have been notified. The mission to locate the bodies has gone on for approximately ten years. Nine months ago, the graves of the five were dug up, and samples from the bodies were sent to a laboratory in the
United States
, where
DNA
from the bones was compared to samples from family members. The decision to dig up the graves was made after lengthy debates between the Chief Rabbinate and the IDF unit that searches for missing people. During the debates, it was determined "beyond reasonable doubt" that the IDF knew the identities of the missing soldiers. The breakthrough was made thanks to the possibility of carrying out the tests in the
United States
, using technology unavailable in
Israel
. "These were nine months of taut nerves, during which consistent contacts were maintained with the families," said a source from the IDF unit carrying out the searches. The five soldiers fell during a battle over "Pillbox Hill" near the Arab
village
of
Tel Arish
, near
Holon
. The battle was fought to gain free access between
Jerusalem
and
Jaffa
. The remains of Corporal Amos Danieli and Private Itzhak Kandler, also of Batallion 52, are still missing. The remains of a total of 109 fallen soldiers are currently missing, and the fates of ten soldiers are unknown.
2007: Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5767
2008: In Becket, MA, Gallim Dance appears at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. “Prior to founding Gallim Dance, artistic director Andrea Miller danced with master choreographer Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva, in Tel Aviv. Now, Miller presents her own explosive movement vocabulary, which hangs somewhere between elegance and insanity, in this smart, powerful program.”
2008(13th of Av, 5768):Marvin Pomerantz, 78, a friend and adviser of Republican governors and presidents for four decades who twice served as president of the Iowa Board of Regents, passed away today in Iowa City.
2009: In New York, opening performance of “Peace Warrior” by Israeli Professor Doron Ben-Atar of Fordham University. a historian of the early American republic and a playwright.
2009: In New York, Rooftop Films presents a screening of “Bloomfield or a Childhood Memory" by Eran Barak.
2009: Willy Ronis "the sole survivor of a generation of famous French photographers that included Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau," celebrated his 99th birthday today.
2009(24th of Av, 5769): Erev Shabbat, Leonard Arik Karp, 59, was accosted and murdered by a gang of youths while walking with his wife and daughter along the Tel Aviv beachfront tonight.
2010: The 35th Hutzot Hayotzer International Craft Fair is scheduled to come to an end.
2010(4th of Elul, 5770): Eighty-eight year old Moshe “Misha” Lewin, Polish born Holocaust surviror and noted Russian history professor passed away today.
http://www.upenn.edu/emeritus/memoriam/Lewin.html
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/faids/upt/upt50/lewinm.html
2010: The Daily Mail rates Issac Rosenberg as one of the ten greatest British poets.
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/faids/upt/upt50/lewinm.html
2011: The headstone unveiling for Rose Becker is scheduled to take place today at Eben Israel Cemetery
2011: The 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy is scheduled to open today in Washington hosted by the Jewish Genealogy Society of Greater Washington.
2011: The JCC Maccabi Games are scheduled to open in Philadelphia, PA and Springfield, Mass.
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz: Volume I, 1915-1933edited by Sarah Greenough and recently released paperback editions of Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century, by Ruth Harris, Where I Live: New and Selected Poems 1990-2010 by Maxine Kumin and The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman.
2011: Twenty high-school teachers brought to Israel by the UK-based Holocaust Education Trust will complete a 10-day education training seminar at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.
2011: Israeli NBA star Omri Casspi is returning to Maccabi Tel Aviv, David Federman, one of the club's owners said in an interview with Army Radio today. According to Federman, the majority of Casspi's contract has been negotiated and he will be joining Maccabi for the upcoming season