August 18 In History
1201: Founding of
Riga
, capital of modern day
Latvia
. The first Jews appeared in
Riga
three centuries later and despite Czars, Nazis and Commissars continue to live in the city to this day.
1227: Genghis Khan dies. According to Arthur Koestler’s The Thirteenth Tribe, Genghis Khan wiped out the Khazar Empire.
1307: Jaime II (James) of Majorca expelled the Jews from the provinces of Rousillon and Montpellier. Many escaped to
Barcelona
where they were welcomed.
1393: King John I, in an effort to prevent "backsliding" by converted Jews, prohibited them from living in the same quarter or even eating together.
1533: The Queen of Poland granted the Jews of Pinsk all the rights already granted to the Jews of Lithuania.
1670: A church called the Leopoldskirche was dedicated today in Vienna. The church had been a synagogue but it was no longer used as such because the Jews had all been expelled from the Upper and Lower Austria.
1765(1st of Elul, 5525): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1765: Samuel Levy Maduro, son of Moses Levy Maduro married Leah Cohen Peixotto in Curacao
1775: The Spanish established a presidio (fort) and the town came to be called Tucson, Arizona. The first openly Jewish settlers did not arrive in Tucson until the 18th century. They included Nathan Appel, a noted merchant who served as a delegate to the first Arizona Territorial Legislature in 1863 and Chief of the Tucson Police, William Zeckendorf, the Tucson merchant who was the grandfather of the famous real estate magnate and the brewer Alex Levin, founder of Levin’s Park, the three-acre entertainment center that was the site of every important social and communal event in Tucson during Arizona’s territorial days. Country Singer Linda Ronstadt is one of Levin’s descendants.
1822(1st of Elul, 5582): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1822(1st of Elul, 5582): Joshua Zeitlin passed away. Born in 1742, he “was a Russian rabbinical scholar and philanthropist. He was a pupil of the Talmudist Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg who was the author of Sha'agat Aryeh; and, being an expert in political economy, he stood in close relations with Prince Potemkin, the favorite of Catherine II. During the Turko-Russian war Zeitlin furnished the Russian army with various supplies, and managed that business so cleverly that he was afterward appointed imperial court councilor. On retiring from business in civil rank of Court Counsellor, Zeitlin resided on his estate Ustzia, where he was consulted by the rabbis with regard to rabbinical questions. He rendered pecuniary assistance to many Talmudists and scholars, and supported a magnificent beit midrash, in which many Jewish scholars were provided with all the necessaries of life, so that they could pursue their vocations without worries of any kind. Among the scholars who benefited by his generosity: Rabbi Nahum, author of Tosafot Bikkurim; Mendel Lepin, author of Cheshbon ha-Nefesh; and the physician Baruch Schick. Zeitlin was the author of annotations to the Sefer Mitzwot Katan, printed with the text (Kopys, 1820), and supplemented by some of his responsa.”
1823: Birthdate of Phoebe Yates Levy Pember
http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/18/1823/phoebe-yates-levy-pember
1830: Birthdate of Franz Joseph I, the penultimate Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During his long reign, for whatever reason or reason(s), Franz Joseph improved the conditions of his Jewish subjects to the point that “three years after he celebrated his Jubilee the Jewish Chronicles’ Vienna correspondent wrote “the Jews owe a great deal to their Emperor Franz Joseph” and that they do not blame him for any “retrogressive measures” taken against them. At the same Franz Joseph’s enemies derisively referred to him as the “Judenkaiser.”
1834: Birthdate of department store owner, Marshall Field. Marshall Field was not Jewish but his partner Levi Ziegler Leiter was. In 1865 Field and Leiter bought a dry goods store which they named Field and Leiter. They built and re-built the signature State Street Store. When Leiter retired, the company was renamed Marshall Field and Company.
1835: Birthdate of Amalia Nathansohn Freud, the mother of Sigmund Freud.
1838: Birthdate of Emil Ganz a Civil War veteran who went West and became a successful businessman and three-time mayor of Phoenix, Arizona.
1846: The Jewish Oath, originally established by Charlemagne, was abolished in Austria. Until then, a Jew who took oath in a Christian court against a Christian was forced to stand on the skin of a dead animal or be surrounded by thorns and call down the curses of Korach or Naaman if he were not telling the truth. In
Romania
it was only repealed in the 20th century.
1855:The New York Timesreported that Solomon Rothschild who died in Paris in July was buried "with a certain degree of financial pomp. The hearse was followed by a large number of artistic and literary celebrities by the old men supported at the hospital endowed by the deceased and by 1,200 children educated at his school. Then, in the procession, was the Grand Rabbi and the Israelite Consistory. The body was buried in the tomb of the Rothschild family, which is in the Jews' corner of Pere La chaise."
1856: Birthdate of Asher Zvi Hirsch Ginsberg who gained fame using the Hebrew pan name Ahad Ha'am (אחד העם,). A pre-eminent essayist he was the founder of Cultural Zionism with a vision of a Jewish "spiritual center" in Palestine. Ha'am strived for "a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews."
1860: An article entitled “Sunday at Newport” states that the Jews might teach the current inhabitants “a lesson of reverence; for, although long since departed from Newport, where their social and commercial position was once superior, by ample testamentary provision, their Synagogue and Cemetery are preserved in admirable order -- reproachful to Christian neglect and indifference…It was startling, when the remains of the benevolent Judah Turo were brought here for interment, to hear the Rabbi, who pronounced the funeral discourse -- alluding to his change of abode and the vicissitudes of his life -- say, as a matter of course, "Like his great ancestor, Jacob, he was a pilgrim and sojourner.”
1863: Birthdate of Victor-Guillaume Basch, the native of Budapest who was the son of journalist Raphael Basch and who became a professor at the Sorbonne and a French political leader.
1870: The Baltimore American reported that members of the Lloyd Street Synagogue had filed suit against various officers of synagogue in Circuit Court over what they considered violations of the charter as it pertains to matter of ritual and the hiring of a Chazan, among other matters.
1871: It was reported today that a large quantity of diamonds, rubies and other precious stones which had been concealed in the luggage of three French Jews has been seized by Custom House authorities on suspicion that they had been smuggled in to the country aboard the SS Italy.
1878: An article published today entitled “The Happy Californians” reported that Michael Reese, the recently deceased German-Jewish millionaire, surprised Christians in California by “bequeathing large sums to different institutions irrespective of their denomination.”
1878: During the Yellow Fever epidemic that has gripped New Orleans Rabbi J.K. Gutheim, Edward J. Krsheidt and other officers of the Hebrew Benevolent Assoication made the following appeal, “ Sickness, distressand suffering amont the poor are increasing daily. Our funds are nearly exhaustaed. In this sad calamity we deem it our melancholy dutry to appeal to the sympathies of our brethern throughout the United States for speedy aid.”
1879: The Notes of Foreign News column reported the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs has issued a circular to its missions abroad concerning the condition of the Jews living in the country. On the one hand the government claimes that “In the future every foreigner” Jewish or non-Jewish, will be eligible to become naturalized citizens regardless of religion. At the same time, the government claimes that “the Jews in Roumania at the present moment have never been Romanian citizens. The government questions how it can make them citizens “in one day” since it will that Moldavia will be over-run by 300,000 Jews who are “uneducated fanatics, having a different language, a different language, a different different customs, different sentiments and whom the” Romanians have always considered foreginers. Granting the Jews currently living in Romanaia would “stirke a terrible blow to the economic interest of the county…and would drive the population to revolt…” [The treatment of the Jews living in Romania was a cause that had been taken up by the Great Powers. The Romanians wanted recognition as an independent state while working tenanciously to avoid improving the lot of its Jewish citizens.
1879: It was reported today that The Pall Mall Gazette (an English publication) “says that a Mr. Austin Corbin has ‘gone so far as to exclude Jews from the Manhattan Beach Railway…’” The columnist concludes that this “will be news to Corbin and the Jews.” (Apparently, the English author did not know that report of Corbin’s ban was quite true.]
1880: A barge filled with children on an excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children narrowly avoided colliding with a yawl-boat as it came through the Narrows today.
1880: Mr. Mendel denied recent reports that the Sharon Hotel at Sharon Springs does not accept Jewish guests is false. He has been staying there for the last three summer seasons as have been several other guests whom the proprietors know are Jewish. (This comes on the heels of the Saratoga Springs incident)
1881: The SS Bellevue will leave for an excursion to Hart’s Island today at 11 am sponsored by the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society
1881: “A Pawnbroker Swindled” published today described the victimization of Ellis Silbertsein, a Jewish pawnbroker who owns a shop on North 9th Street in Philadelphia, PA.
1883: It was reported that “Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, Under Foreign Secretary stated in the House of Commons…that the government…has asked the Russian government to” explain why a British Jewish businessman who had “a proper British passport” was expelled.
1886: Birthdate of Sholom Schwartzbard a Bessarabian-born Jewish anarchist known primarily for the assassination of the Ukrainian politician Symon Petliura. Schwartzbard held Petliura responsible for the death of his parents who had been murdered in a pogrom in 1919.
1887(28th of Av, 5647): Julius Weisbaden a miser who has no friends or family in the United States died today Bellevue Hospital
1887: It was reported today that Adolph Stern a commercial traveler who passed away yesterday will be buried by the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society at the Salem Fields Cemetery. Stern, who was a member of the society, died alone since his wife and grown daughter still lived in Germany.
1888(11th of Elul, 5648): Prominent New York merchant Marks Laski died suddenly today at his home on West 36th Street.
1888: “Jews in Prussia” published today relied on reports from the London Times to report that in 1880 there were 363,790 Jews living in Prussia which made them 1.33 percent of the population. Five years later the number of Jews had grown to 366,543 but they were now only 1.29 per cent of the population.
1889:“Right or Left” published today described Dr. Friedrich Erlenmeyer’s “proof” that “the ancient Hebrews” were “a left-handed people.”
1889: Jacques Damala, the non-Jewish husband of Sarah Bernhardt, passed away.
1890: “Baron Hirsch, the well-known Jewish financier and philanthropist sent the Hebrew Young Men’s Benevolent Society of Montreal a check for $20,000 after it was discovered that the Canadian society could not participate in the benefits of the American trust fund which he had created.”
1890: Birthdate of Solomon Rosenthal, the Lithuanian born chess master.
1894: Seventy-one year old Eugene Lawrence, the author of The Jews and Their Persecutors, passed away in New York City.
1895: An article published today entitled “Kesher Shel Barzel” that traces the history of the organization from its founding in 1860 as a mutual aid society in New York City to one the largest national Jewish benevolent and protective societies in the United States. Kesher Shel Barzel means “Iron Knot.”
1899: The meeting of the Third Zionist Congress comes to an end.
1902: Herzl receives a letter from Rothschild, filled with warnings against ambitious and over-hasty plans, and characterizing the idea of
Palestine
as a myth.
1904: Max Factor, Sr. moved to the
United States
and opened a small perfume and cosmetics concession at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Over time, this would grow into Max Factor and Company, one of the leading makers of cosmetics in the world.
1904: Birthdate of Max Factor Jr. Max Factor, Jr. would follow in his father’s footsteps as
CEO
of Max Factor Cosmetics. He passed away in 1996.
1908: The
New Jersey
convention of the American Federation of Labor adopted a resolution endorsing Samuel Gompers and his policies. The real issue was Gompers’ support William Jennings Bryan’s bid to be elected President in the race against William Howard Taft.
1910:Ossip Gabrilowitsch and his wife Clara Clemens (the daughter of Mark Twain) gave birth to their daughter Nina who turn out to be the last known lineal descendant the great American humorist and author.
1911: In
Great Britain
, the
University
of
Birmingham
conferred an honoree degree on Professor Dr. Hermann Oppenheim, a leading neurologist.
1911: The Alliance Israelite Universelle sends ten thousands francs to relive the suffering resulting from the fires at
Constantinople
.
1911: Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres awards Captain Raymond Weill a grant of six thousand francs to continue excavations in
Egypt
. Weill would go on to lead archaeological expeditions in
Palestine
in 1913-1914 and 1923-1924 that would include exploration of the part of the ancient
Jerusalem
water system known as the Siloam Channel.
1911: Anti-Semitism took on many faces in Russia as Jewish families were expelled from two more cities that had been part of the Pale of Settlement. The Czar’s government also enforced restrictions on the number of Jewish students attending high schools and confiscated property owned by Jews outside of the Pale.
1911: James Simon, President of Hilfsverein der Deuteshcne Juden, gave one hundred thousand marks to the Technical Institute in
Haifa
.
1916: Rabbinical seminaries in Florence and Leghorn, Italy merged due to lack of funds.
1917: A Great Fire in
Thessaloniki
,
Greece
destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless. The downfall of the Jewish community in
Thessaloniki
started with a fire in the Jewish quarter in 1917. Prior to the start of the fire
Thessaloniki
had been one of the two o most important Jewish communities in pre-World War II Greece. In the 1600s,
Thessaloniki
, a Sephardi community, became one of the largest Jewish communities in the world and was known as "ir v’em beyisral," metropolis and mother of
Israel
. By 1900, more than half of the town’s population was Jewish, which was about 80,000 Jews. In 1900-1910 Thessaloniki had more than 50 synagogues, 20 Jewish schools and numerous Jewish institutions and associations. It was a center of Torah learning for all of
Europe
. Business was generally conducted in the Sephardi language of Ladino and, on Friday afternoons, almost all commercial life stopped since most of the city’s workers were Jewish. A sprawling Jewish cemetery that was destroyed during World War II to make room for a new university lay in the center of the city (. The Jewish population was varied and included both Kararites and followers of the false messiah Shabbatai Zevi. The city had a strong Judaeo-Spanish culture. For all intents and purposes, this all disappeared with the Holocaust.
1917(30th of Av, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1918: Due to massive fires in Salonica, 50,000 Jews are homeless. This represents nearly the entire Jewish population of the city
1920: In Holyoke, Vincent and Antoinette D’Addario gave birth to Raymond D’Addario, “an Army photographer whose images of Hitler’s top henchmen during the Nuremberg war crimes trials put their faces before the world as it became increasingly aware of Nazi atrocities.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1920: Alfred Mond was the subject of a cartoon in Punch.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alfred_Mond_cartoon_from_Punch_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_16707.png
1922: Birthdate of Shelley Winters. Born Sylvia Schrift, in
St Louis
Mo
, Ms. Winters enjoyed a long and varied career. Unlike her fellow acting student Marilyn Monroe, Winters was able to make the transition from female leading lady to character actress. She made over 130 films in career that spanned five decades.
1926: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service reported that “the number of families to be settled in the Ukraine during the years 1927 and 1928 is not to be less than during the present year, that is, not less than 4,000 families each year, the Ukrainian Government Commission for Jewish Land Settlement decided at its meeting here. Since the number to be settled outside the Ukraine during 1927 will not exceed 1,000 families, and in 1928 will be 3,000 families, it has been decided that sufficient land should be allocated in the Ukraine for the settlement in 1927 of 3,000 families and in 1928 of 1,000 families.”
1926: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service reported that “The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America has this year produced a new form of collapsible Succah, which can be erected within an hour. These Succahs give an opportunity to the Jews of America to have their observance not only in the Synagogue, but at their homes. Applications can be made to the office of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, 131 West 86th St., New York City.”
1929:Arabs, following their attack Friday on the Wailing Wall and on groups of Jews yesterday, today stoned Rabbi Nical of the College of Torah Chaim.
1929(12th of Av, 5689) A young Sephardic Jew named Abraham Mizrachi who was stabbed at the Maccabi grounds near Mea Shearim, in the Bukharan Quarter on Shabbat by Arab rioters died of his wounds today.
1930: Birthdate of Liviu Librescu, Israeli professor, who was killed in the Virginia Tech massacre
1933: Birthdate of director Roman Polanski
1933: According to press reports published in Jerusalem, Mrs. Sarah Levi of Singapore has set aside her fortune of £100,000 to rebuild Safed, which suffered during the 1929 riots.
1933:It was reported from Jerusalem that Aba Achimeir, a Revisionist, has been charged with having conspiring to assassinate Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff.
1933: The British High Commissioner issued an order that in all towns of mixed population a third of the wages spent in public works shall be assigned to Jewish labor.
1933:According to the official count, there are a total of 297 accredited Zionists delegates to the Zionist Congress meeting in Prague: 139 are Laborites, 79 General Zionists, 47 Revisionists and 32 Mizrachi.
1933: The meeting of the International Congress of Mizrachi meeting in Cracow, Poland, comes to an end. Before adjourning delegates the delegates called for the reorganization of the Jewish Agency, expressed opposition to the leadership of Chaim Weizmann and called for a world Orthodox religious congress to be held in Jerusalem no later than 1935.
1933: In Germany, the Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment prohibits the filming of a scenario based on Stefan Zweig's "Amok."
1936: Fifty thousand Jewish residents of Tel Aviv attended the funeral today of two nurses killed by Arab snipers yesterday. “Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope, British High Commissioner in Palestine, expressed his ‘deepest sorrow and abhorrence of the recent brutal murders and attacks on a perfectly innocent people.’”
1937: In Geneva, the Permanent Mandates Commission had completed its sessions and submitted a secret report on the British partition of Palestine scheme to the Council of the League of Nations.
1937: In
Zurich
, Dr. Chaim Weizmann opened the fifth session of the Jewish Agency Council and announced that it would support the Zionist Congress policy of negotiating with
Britain
, in principle, the terms of the establishment of a Jewish state. He was opposed by Dr. Felix Warburg, of the council’s non-Zionist representation.
1938: Birthdate of Marcia Lewis who received an RN from the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing in Cincinnati before gaining fame as a Tony nominated actress and singer. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1938: A British military column was ambushed this afternoon by a gang of well armed Arabs near Acre. The troops assisted by aircraft fought back and in the battle at least twenty-seven Arabs were killed by the fliers and ten more by the troops.
1938: As Arab violence continued, an eight year old Jewish boy was killed and four others were wounded when a bomb was thrown at a crowd on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa while another Arab threw a bomb at truck carrying eleven Jewish workers, wounding nine of them.
1938: As Arab violence continued to escalate in Palestine, hundreds of Moslems took to the streets of London shouting “Down with the ignorant Wells” as they protested the publication of A Short History of the World by H.G. Wells. At the same time a Moslem delegation complained to the High Commissioner of India that the book “insulted the memory of Mohammed and the Koran.”
1941: The Nazis took over authority of Kovno and sealed off the ghetto. Five hundred Jews were taken from the ghetto to be killed. Looting and killing of the Intelligentsia would soon follow.
1941: Adolf Hitler ordered the end to the systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped persons due to protests within
Germany
. This change in policy at least raises the question as to what effect similar protests by Church leaders and others might have had in averting the Final Solution.
1942: The Nazis deported 998 Jews, including 287 children, to the East from
Belgium
.
1943: Thousands of more Jews were deported from
Bialystok
to Treblinka. This was last train to ever be sent there. All the Jews were sent to the gas chambers. Afterwards, the camp closed down for good.
1943: The last transport from
Salonika
arrived in
Auschwitz
consisting of 1,800 laborers, the last of 48,533 people to be deported from that town. Almost 38,000 of them would be exterminated on arrival.
1943: The process of destroying the evidence of mass murder that took place at
Babi Yar
, a suburb of
Kiev
in the Soviet Ukraine, began. Jewish and Soviet prisoners were set to work, unearthing thousands of bodies and burning them in huge pyres. The Jewish prisoners attended to the horrible task knowing that they too would be shot and burned at the end they tried an escape. During attempt to hide the evidence of genocide, 311 out of 325 Jewish and Soviet prisoners would be killed in their break-out attempt.
1945:A group of refugees in the “Beriha” movement in Komo, Italy were captured by the camera.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/august/15.asp
1950: First performance of "The Village I Knew," choreographed by Sophie Maslow.
1951: Dr. Nahum Goldmann, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive's American section, appealed tonight to the delegates to the twenty-third World Zionist Congress to shelve the ideological debate on whether it was the duty of all Zionists to settle in
Israel
.
1952: The
US
granted
Israel
over $73 million for the relief and resettlement of immigrants and for technical cooperation.
1952: Birthdate of comedic talent Elayne Boosler
1957(21st of Av, 5717): English born film composer Louis Levy passed away
1957(21st of Av, 5717): Rabbi Aharon Rokeach the fourth Rebbe of the Belz Hasidic dynasty passed away. Born in 1877, he led the movement from 1926 until his passing in 1957.
1963(28th of Av, 5723): Clifford Odets passed away. Clifford Odets, the son of Jewish immigrants, was born in Philadelphia, on 18th July, 1906. He left school at the age of 17 to become an actor. After a series of small parts working in the theatre and on radio, Odets helped form the Group Theatre in New York. Members held left-wing political views and wanted to produce plays that dealt with important social issues. Odets, who joined the American Communist Party in 1934, had his first play produced, Waiting for Lefty, in 1935. The play that dealt with trade union corruption was an immediate success. With his next two plays, “Awake and Sing!” and “Till the Day I Die,” Odets established himself as a champion of the underprivileged. After the production of Paradise Lost (1935), Odets accepted a lucrative offer to become a film screenwriter and while in Hollywood met and married the actress, Luise Rainer. However, he continued to write plays and with Golden Boy (1937) he had his greatest commercial success. This was followed by Rocket to the Moon (1938), Night Music (1940), Clash By Night (1941), The Big Knife (1949), and The Country Girl (1950). Investigated by Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953, Odets argued that he had never been under the infuence of the American Communist Party and his work had been based on his deep sympathy for the working classes. Unlike many writers and actors who had been members of the party, Odets was not blacklisted and continued to work in Hollywood. This included the screenplay for the acclaimed, Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
1969: The Woodstock Music and Art Fair which was held on the land of Max B. Yasgur came to an end.
1977: The
US
formally and publicly rebuked
Israel
’s decision to extend certain new services to the
West Bank
and the Gaza Strip and to approve, by the Ministerial Committee for Settlement, the three new settlements on the
West Bank
: south of Tulkarm, at Mevo Horon and between
Hebron
and
Beersheba
. The
US
expressed deep disappointment that
Israel
ignored President Jimmy Carter¹s appeal to avoid such actions before the reconvening of the Geneva Peace Conference.
1977: The ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, lashed out at UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, who had also expressed regret that
Israel
set up new settlements. Herzog reminded Waldheim that double standard and discrimination had long been a norm at the UN.
1981: Jerry Lewis appears on "Donahue" to defend Telethons.
1994(11th of Elul, 5754): Latvian born Israeli scientist and philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz passed away.
1996: Devorah Zlochower, Leora Bednarsh, and Laura Steiner were recognized for completing a three-year program of Talmud study at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York City
1996(3rdof Elul, 5756): Sixty-six year old Hugo Gabriel Gryn , a leader in the Reform movemtn, passed away. A native of Berehovo, he survived Auschwitz, trained in America and served as the Rabbi for West London Synagogue for 32 years
1999: The Drisha Institute for Jewish Education graduated its first class. According to its mission statement the Drisha Institute “provides women with the opportunity to engage in traditional Jewish text study in an environment which encourages seriousness of purpose, free inquiry and respect for classical texts. Drisha offers a wide variety of study options for women of all backgrounds and levels.”
2002: The Sunday New York Times featured a review of Stone Kiss by Jewish mystery writer Faye Kellerman and a printing of the poem “Like a Seal” by Abba Kovner translated from the Hebrew by Eddie Levenston
2004: Composer Elmer Bernstein passed away. Born in 1922, the Academy Award winning composer gave us memorable scores for many movies including The Magnificent Seven, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Escape, The Man With A Golden Arm.
2004(1stof Elul, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Elul
2005: Kfar Darom was evacuated as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan.
2006: Congressman Steve Rothman married Jennifer Beckenstein, the community affairs coordinator at the Center for Food Action in
Englewood
,
New Jersey
. The couple met through JDate, an online dating website for Jewish singles. Between them, Rothman and Beckenstein have five teenage children and two dogs, who plan to live in Rothman's home, which is being expanded to accommodate the blended family
2006: Haim Ramon resigned as Justice Minister.
2006: “On Sontag: Essayist as Metaphor and Muse” published today provides Holland Cotter’s description of the photography show at the Metropolitan Museum designed to honor the memory of Susan Sontag.
2007: In Jerusalem, "Music in All the Shades" presents "A Musical Trip in the Balkan Countries," featuring Constantine Kitlin on the clarinet, Olga Dshbeski on the flute, Yulia Sinaibeski on the mandolin, and Yuri Pobolotskion on the accordion.
2007: The Shabbat observance of the San Diego Humanistic Jewish Congregation will celebrate Individualism with an investigation of the Essenes, Jews who settled at
Qumran
and created the Dead Sea Scrolls.
2008: James B. Cunningham presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
2008(17th of Av, 5768): Manny Farber, a painter whose spiky, impassioned film criticism waged war against sacred cows like Orson Welles and elevated American genre-movie directors like Howard Hawks and Sam Fuller to the Hollywood pantheon, died today at his home in Leucadia, Calif. He was 91.
2008: Time magazine includes an article about the critical swing vote that begins, “The most important demographic for Barack Obama in November might be old Jews in Florida, and the most important old Jew in Florida is my grandmother” and a review of Neillie Hermann’s novel, The Cure for Greif featuring Ruby Bronstein, her “strong, loving family” including her father a “Holocaust survivor father, whose observance of Jewish customs persists despite his professed loss of faith” with whom she visits the camp where he was interred as a young boy
2008: Tzfat [Safed] Klezmer Festival opens.
2008: In an article entitled “Under ‘Kafkaesque’ Pressure, Heir to Kafka Papers May Yield Them,” Ethan Bronner described the fate Franz Kafka’s personal papers which had been rescued by Max Brod and eventually became the property to Esther Hoffe who has now passed away,\.
2009(28thof Av, 5769): Ninety-eight year old Rose Friedman, the widow of Milton Friedman with whom she was an intellectual and personal soul-mate, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/business/19friedman.html
2009: Dan Zofi and Jack Germany led and evening of Israeli & International Folk dancing at Beit Shalom Synagogue, the Jewish Congregation of Maui.
2009: Today Israeli novelist David Grossman was named a finalist for the only internati