August 2
338 BCE: A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean. Phillip was the father of Alexander Great. His victory paved the way for Alexander’s conquests which had a major impact on the Jewish people of which we are reminded each year when we celebrate Chanukah.
1222: Raymond VI , Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence passed away. “He was so sympathetic to the Jews that Pope Innocent III caused him to take an oath ‘that he would deprive the Jews of their offices and that he would never appoint any Jews or in any way favor them.’”
1389: Catholic Archdeacon and Jew hater Ferran Martinez is denied the right to act as a judge or to preach after refusing to follow an order of the Pope. The Archbishop of Seville issued this strong punishment because
Martinez
refused to issue permits for Jews to build new synagogues, in accordance with the wishes of the Pope.
1492: According to some sources this day marked the beginning of the final expulsion of the Jews from Spain. According to tradition it was Tisha B’Av on the Jewish calendar.
1579(10th of Av): Joseph Nasi, duke of Naxos, passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/JosephNasi.html
1589: King Henry III of France passed away. Before he was King of France, as Henry of Anjou he was elected as the first King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He owed this victory to a Jew named Solomon Ashkenazi who was the principle adviser to the Emperor of the Ottoman Empire.
1675: The "Great Synagogue" was inaugurated in Amsterdam on Rapenburgerstraat. This was a Sephardic synagogue, home to K.K. Talmud Torah, which was a union of Congregations Neveh Shalom founded in 1608 and Bet Yisrael found in 1618.
1696: Birthdate of Mahmud I, Sultan of the
Ottoman Empire
. In 1739, Mahmud signed the Treaty of Belgrade that gave citizenship rights to the Ottoman Jews. Austrian Jews were so impressed with the grant of rights that many of them applied for citizenship in Mahmud’s empire.
1784(11th of Av): Rabbi Simcha ben Abraham, poet and linguist, passed away
1790: The United States conducts its first census. Out of a population of four million people, there are approximately 2,000 Jews.
1819: An anti-Semitic riot breaks out in the city of Wurzberg. It will be the first in string of such violent actions to plague the Jews of Germany
1853: Samuel Joseph Rubenstein, a Jew who arrived from Russian in 1829, was naturalized as a citizen of the United Kingdom.
1866: The New York Times quotes the Aroostook Pioneeras saying that a religious movement is forming in Maine with the intent of immigrating to Jerusalem. A ship is being fitted out at Jonesport which should be ready to sail by the middle of next month. Land has already been purchased near Jaffa where the immigrants plan on making their home. [Ed. Note - the article does not mention if any Jews were involved or note.]
1870: The report that police had apprehended the person responsible for the murder of prominent New York businessman Benjamin Nathan has turned out to be nothing more than an unfounded rumor. The police are continuing to vigorously investigate the murder but will not take any action against any individual until they are absolutely sure of their facts.
1873: “Life in Bohemia” published today provides an anecdotal account of conditions in this part of central Europe. The section “The Jews” described the contempt that many of the Bohemians have for the Jews, a contempt the author compares to that which Brian de Bois Guilbert had for Isaac of York and the other Jews of England in the novel Ivanhoe. Conditions are not better for the Jews of the newly created nation of Romania where Jews have been forbidden to take part in the newest commercial ventures.
1878: Mrs. Josephine Lewinski, the wife Phillip Lewinski, a member of the Lowery gang of counterfeiters applied for alimony and legal fees as part of the divorce proceedings she has brought against her notorious husband.
1878(3rd of Av: Shiye Mordecai Lifshits passed away
1879: In New York, Detectives Fogarty and Handy arrested a Jew named Louis Pollard because he had some shoes in his possession that matched the description of shoes stolen last September. Pollard first claimed that he had bought the shoes at an auction but later said he got the shoes from a woman named Lena Bezona. She was arrested and Pollard was released.
1879: The Medal of Honor was issued to David Orbansky for “his gallantry in action” at the Battle of Shiloh.
1883: Troops were called out to disperse rioters who attacked the Jews living in Ekaterinoslav, Russia.
1884: Twenty three year old Solomon Rintel, a Hungarian born fresco painter living in New York was seen alive for the last time as he retired to his room at boarding house on 6th Street.
1886(1st of Av, 5646): Rosh Chodesh Av
1888: Poor youngsters and their mothers will have the chance to enjoy a free excursion today sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children
1892: Birthdate of movie mogul Jack Warner. Born in
Canada
, Warner and his four brothers founded Warner Brothers, which became a giant in the film industry. Among other claims to fame Warner Brothers produced "The Jazz Singer," the first "talking" motion picture. Some of his stars included Bette Davis, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. Warner was known fir his frugality and was not necessarily that well liked. At one point his son and namesake said of his dad, "At times he gloried in being a no-good sonofabitch. If his brothers hadn't hired him, he'd have been out of work."
1903: Opening of the Bank Leumi’s first branch in Turkish Jaffa.
1911: In Great Britain, Alderman Henry Hart completes his jubilee of service on the Canterbury Council.
1913: An article entitled SOCIALISTS CAPTURE FIRE PROTEST RALLY; Rose Schneiderman Turns a Fire Prevention Meeting to Their Purposes published today While a number of well-known men, including Amos R. Pinchot, William Jay Schieffelin, Henry Moscowitz, and the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant, were listed as patrons and possible speakers at a fire-prevention mass meeting held at the north end of Union Square yesterday at noon, they were conspicuously absent from the speakers' platform when the meeting was called to order.
1913: Noble prize winning physicist Max Born married Martha E., née Ehrenberg. She had Jewish ancestors on her father’s side but was raised as a Lutheran. This may help explain why born converted to that sect of Christianity in 1914.
1918: Birthdate of Irving Harold Franklin, the native of Brockton, MA, who is credited with creating the modern glove worn by major league baseball players when they are at bat. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1918: During a debate in the House of Lords, “the subject of Sir Edgar Speyer’s membership on the Privy Council Sir was brought up by Lord Lincolnshire” who condemned his “brutal and insolent German manner.” [Editor’s Note – Considering what would happen in 30 years, there it is ironic to hear the Jewish Speyer being condemned for being a German.]
1919: Birthdate of Nehmiah Persoff, the Jerusalem native who became famous as an American actor appearing in numerous films and television series.
1922: Birthdate of Eugene Hirsch Kummel, chairman and chief executive of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies, McCann Erickson Worldwide. “Under Mr. Kummel’s leadership, McCann Erickson created memorable television commercials like Coca-Cola’s ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing’ campaign in the 1970s and, several years later, the Miller Lite campaign, ‘Everything you always wanted in a beer, and less,’ with personalities like George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin arguing, ‘Tastes great, Less filling.’”
1922(8th of Av, 5682): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1922(8th of Av, 5682): Emil Ganz, a businessman and three-time mayor of Phoenix, Arizona., passed away. The son of German Jews, he was a self-professed atheist.
1923: After falling ill, Warren Harding the 29th President of the United States passes away. During his brief tenure, Harding’s record regarding Jews and Jewish issues was mixed. He signed an immigration bill that was based on national origin quotas which put greatly limited Jewish immigration to the
United States
. On the other hand, he appointed famous
Chicago
advertising man Albert Lasker as Chairman of the U.S. Shipping Board. Under his tenure, the U.S. Merchant Marine was reorganized and improved. In 1922, Harding signed a congressional Joint Resolution “favoring the establishment in
Palestine
of a National Home for the Jewish people.”
1923 (20 Av, 5683): Birthdate of Shimon Peres.
1924: The first issue of the Saturday Review of Literature appeared. This famous literary publication was formed by Amy Lovemean and three colleagues who had worked together on The
New York
Evening Post. Loveman was listed as an associate editor. She remained at the Saturday Review for three decades, becoming the magazine's poetry editor in 1950. In the first two decades alone, she wrote close to 800 items for the Review. These included editorials, reviews, and answers to readers' questions. Born in 1881, Amy Loveman shaped the literary choices of generations of readers through her work with two important institutions: The Saturday Review and the Book-of-the-Month Club. Educated at
Barnard
College
, where she earned a B.A. in 1901, Loveman's first literary work was as an assistant to an uncle who was revising The New International Encyclopedia. From that job, she moved to the New York Evening Post, where she became a book reviewer and then associate editor of the newspaper's literary review. In addition to her work at the Saturday Review, Loveman played an important role in the Book-of-the-Month Club, where she joined the reading committee soon after its founding in 1926. In 1939, she became head of the Club's editorial department, a job she balanced with her ongoing work at the Review. In this role, she helped to select books for the Club as well as writing frequent reviews herself. In 1951, she joined the Club's editorial board. Loveman's compelling writing style and devotion to literature were recognized by several awards. In 1946, she received both the Columbia University Medal for Excellence and the Constance Lindsay Skinner Achievement Award of the Women's National Book Association. Loveman died in 1955.
1926: The American Jewish Congress cabled a message of condolence to Mrs. Israel Zangwill over the death of her husband. The cablegram was signed by Carl Sherman, Acting Chairman and Bernard G. Richards, Executive Secretary. Dr. Stephen Wise, the President of the AJC is England and is expected to represent the organization at the funeral.
1926: Birthdate of Betsy Bloomingdale of department store fame. Her husband was part of President Regan’s kitchen cabinet and she was a close friend of
Nancy
.
1929(25th of Tammuz, 5689): Seventy-one year old George W. Seligman, the son of the late Joseph Seligman who was one of the founders of the Seligman banking house, passed away today.
1931: Einstein urges all scientists to refuse military work.
1932: “Lillian Copeland set new world and Olympic records in discus, with a throw of 133 feet, 1 5/8 inches, winning a gold medal. It was not the first time Copeland had set new records; as one of the earliest female athletes to excel in track and field events, she had established a name for herself at several earlier competitions. Born in
New York City
in 1904, Copeland moved with her mother and stepfather to
Los Angeles
, where she attended high school. A consummate athlete, she held National Amateur Athletic Union titles in shot put, discus, and javelin by 1926. While a student at the
University
of
Southern California
, she won every women's track event that she entered. By the 1928
U.S.
Olympic trials, Copeland was a four-time national champion in the shot put. However, shot put was not yet an Olympic event, so she entered the trials in discus, and set a new world record. She was also a member of the world-record-setting 400-meter-relay team at the trials. At the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, the first at which women were allowed to compete in track and field events, Copeland won a silver medal in discus.Returning to college after the Olympics, Copeland earned a B.A. in political science in 1930, and then entered the U.S.C. Law School. In 1931, she won two more national championships, in shot put and in javelin. At the 1932 Olympics, where shot put was still not among the events, Copeland won her gold medal in discus. It was a crowning achievement for the woman who between 1925 and 1932 had set six world records each in shot put, discus, and javelin. Though she won the discus, shot put, and javelin titles at the 1935 World Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv, Copeland did not compete in the 1936 Olympics. Like many others, Copeland boycotted that year's Games, held in
Berlin
, to protest Nazi Germany's exclusion of Jewish athletes from German Olympic teams. She never competed again. In 1936, Copeland joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, where she worked until her retirement in 1960. She spent sixteen of those years in the Juvenile Bureau, and the rest at other assignments. Copeland died on
July 7, 19
64
. She was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1980 and the United States Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1994.
1933: In Vilna, Ministry of Education announces that the Yiddish secondary school and the Hebrew gymnasium have been granted equality with the governmental high schools, and will therefore have the right to issue university admission certificates to their students.
1933. The Ministry of Justice announces that Jewish students engaged in the study of law or economics will not be permitted to take the final examinations in Prussia, if they intend to become lawyers or university teachers.
1933: In a public address to foreign diplomats and journalists Dr. Anzesoria, Bolivian minister to Germany, indicates that his Government is prepared to open its doors to German emigrants, provided the German Government is ready to negotiate the transfer.
1933: Der Angriff, a newspaper owned by Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment, carries a story that Jews are organizing themselves into military units to "attack Germany at the first opportunity."
1933 The Breslauer Judengemeindeblatt is closed down by the Nazi state president "in the interest of public security."
1938(5th of Av, 5698): Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky, an old line Bolshevik best known as the man who organized the execution of Czar Nicholas II passed away.
1939: Eugene Wigner introduced Leó Szilárd to Albert Einstein; a meeting which further the cause of getting America to develop the Atomic Bomb ahead of the Axis.
1939: Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urging creation of an atomic weapons research program. Einstein’s support was critical to getting
Roosevelt
’s support for what would become "The Manhattan Project." (What a difference eight years can make.)
1941: The Jews were ordered expelled from Hungarian Ruthenia.
1941(9th of Av, 5701): Over 200 Jews were shot in Kovno on Shabbat.
1942: After twelve days, approximately 75,000 Jews had been deported to the death camp at Treblinka.
1942: A large group of Jews who were trapped under Spanish and German rule in
Morocco
sent an eloquent appeal for help to the AJDC in
New York
. "Gentlemen, please excuse our daring attitude in addressing this pathetical letter to you, in our distressful hour; but it is written in the Talmud, 'when trouble comes upon
Israel
like a rushing stream, look for someone to help you.'."
1943: Harpers announced that Geoffrey Bles, Ltd will release the English edition of Bella Fromm’s Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Social Diary which was published last year in the United States.
1943: Led by a small group of prisoners using primitive weapons and pistols, inmates at Treblinka attacked the guards and burned down the barracks. Between 300 and 500 prisoners escaped although most of them were either captured or turned over by Polish peasants. Though the revolt did not stop all activities, the German government decided to liquidate the camp, which it did in October. [Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of those slaughtered at the camp.]
1944: A handful of Jewish survivors of the Kovno ghetto - including Rabbi Efrayim Oshri, author of Responsa from the Holocaust - emerged from hiding. Rabbi Oshri was one of several Rabbis who wrote answers to those with troubling ethical dilemmas growing out of life under the Nazis. To some, such behavior might seem ludicrous when you consider the conditions. To others, it is a tribute to the vitality of Judaism and even a form of resistance.
1944: Felix Nussbaum, the surrealist painter and his wife arrived at Auschwitz.
1945: Birthdate of Alan F. Segal the Ingeborg Rennert Professor of Jewish Studies at Barnard College and author of Life After Death: A History of the Afterlife in Western Religion.
1945: Birthdate of U.S. Army Colonel Jack Howard Jacobs who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Viet Nam War.
1945: The Potsdam Conference, the meeting of the leaders of the Big Three – U.S., U.K. and U.S.S.R. – comes to an end. Among other things the leaders agreed to the complete denazification of Germany and the prosecution of war criminals.
1951(29th of Tammuz, 5711): Heinrich Loewe a German born journalist, publicist, folklorist, linguist, philosopher, librarian and political figure passed away in Tel Aviv.
1945: Birthdate of Alan F. Segal, “a leading scholar known for his comparative studies of how religions view the afterlife.”
1948: Birthdate of Dennis Prager. While he is Jewish, this popular author and talk show host is a major proponent of a Judaeo- Christian culture and ethic.
1948: “The Israeli Government proclaimed the areas of Jerusalem under Israeli control to be Israeli-occupied territory and appointed Bernard Joseph as Military Governor.
1949: Under a plan of the new Israeli government, part of the old city of Beersheba will be flooded as a 500-acre water reservoir for the projected new Negev city on the heights overlooking Beersheba. The reservoir would be formed by damming the Wadi Saba, rocky watercourse through which 10,000,000 cubic meters of rainwater sweep into the
Mediterranean
every winter.
1951: Birthdate of Andrew Gold, a musical wizard who played backup with Linda Ronstadt before embarking on career of his own that included recording hits like “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You for Being a Friend.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1957: British oil interests were warned today that they might forfeit ownership of their refinery plants in
Haifa
if they suspended operations in
Israel
.
1967: Birthdate of professional tennis star Aaron Krickstein
1970: Birthdate of Colorado native and PGA tour member Jonathan Andrew Kaye
1972: Catcher Bob Yeager made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1979: “Gilda Radner Live From New York” opens on Broadway.
1980:Egypt has asked for at least a temporary postponement of the talks with Israel and the United States on autonomy for the occupied areas to give the two countries time to respond to President Anwar el-Sadat's protest...
1986(26th of Tammuz, 5746): Roy Cohn passed away. Born in 1927, Cohn gained fame (or notoriety) as the counsel for the McCarthy Hearings. He portrayed himself as a rabid anti-Communist. Ironically, it was his high jinks with David Schine that helped to lead to McCarthy’s downfall and his loss of power.
1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, eventually leading to conflict with coalition forces in the Gulf War.
1990(11th of Av, 5750): Lucy Goldschmidt Moses, a philanthropist, died at her home in Manhattan. She was 103 years old. Mrs. Moses's philanthropic interests largely reflected the activities of her husband, Henry L. Moses, whom she married in 1914. A lawyer and financier, he was president of
Montefiore
Hospital
for many years. After his death in 1961 she established the Henry L. Moses Research Institute at the hospital. Mrs. Moses was born in
New York
. As a child she was accompanied by a governess when she went skating in
Central Park
or took walks. Later, as a young woman beginning a 40-year career as a volunteer in settlement-house work, she cared for the children of poor families. Beginning in the 20's, she also worked as a volunteer at Montefiore, first in the wards and later in the epilepsy clinic. She donated tens of millions of dollars to philanthropy, a major part going to the medical field. In addition to gifts to Montefiore, she established the
Lucy
G.
Moses
Cardiothoracic
Center
, an advanced research and training institution, at the
Mount Sinai
Medical
Center
, She also contributed to health programs in
Burma
,
Israel
and
South Korea
. After her husband's death, she became president of the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, which the couple established in 1942 to support education, music and the arts. Mrs. Moses contributed for projects like the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and providing a wheelchair lift and other equipment for the handicapped at Carnegie Hall. She donated to
New York
University
for studies in Egyptian art.
Columbia
University
also received gifts for its housing program and a study hall in the
Law
School
. Mrs. Moses was a leading supporter of the opera and
Lincoln
Center
. In 1983 she received the first Frederick Law Olmstead award for helping to restore the
Bow
Bridge
over the
Central Park
Lake
. ''They called me the Florence Nightingale of the trees,'' Mrs. Moses said at the time. ''I've also been called Mother of the Park. I've had such fun.''
1992: Birthdate of American actress Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
1992(3rd of Av, 5752): French singer and songwriter Michel Berger died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 44.
1997: “Lady in the Dark,” a musical with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart, is performed for the last time at the Royal National Theatre in London.
1998(10th of Av, 5758): Tish'a B'Av (The 9th of Av fell on Shabbat)
1998(10th of Av, 5758): Television puppeteer Shari Lewis passed away. Born Shari Hurwitz in 1933, Lewis is best remember for her creations – Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and the ever-popular Lamb chop.
1998: The New York Times featured a review of A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey From the Inner City to the Ivy League by Jewish author Ron Suskind
2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that an Israeli financial consortium announced that two Spanish companies were joining the group in preparing a bid for a massive desalinization project. The need for new supplies of fresh water is critical to the growth of the Israeli economy and the survival of the Jewish state.
2005: Haaretz reported that
Tunisia
is the new hotspot for Israeli tourists.
2006(8th of Av, 5766):Some 210 rockets and missiles were launched toward northern communities - the largest number since the beginning of the fighting. Dave Lalchuk, 52, of Kibbutz Sa'ar, was killed and 16 others were wounded, three moderately, in the attacks, as Jews begin to prepare for the observance of Tisha B’Av.
2007(18th of Av, 5767): Frank Rosenfelt, a top movie executive at studios including
MGM
passed away at the age of 85. One of his proudest moments was the acquisition of the movie rights for “Dr. Zhivago.” One of his biggest disappointments was the failure of the 1976 film “Network” to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
2008: In
Cedar Rapids
, at
Temple
Judah
Triple Header Shabbat Morning Service
Rosh Chodesh Av
Completion of Bamidbar
Observance of Raoul Wallenberg Day (actual date is
August 4, 2008
by proclamation of the Governor of the State of
Iowa
2009: Cantor Jacob Chomsky of Tifereth Israel sings the National Anthem as part of Jewish Community Day during a Columbus Clippers’ home game.
2009: The Los Angeles Times features books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, the Brazilian-Jewish author, by Benjamin Moser
2009: Two Arab families were evicted from Jewish-owned homes in the Shimon HaTzaddik neighborhood of Jerusalem this morning. The evictions took place following a Supreme Court ruling in which the court found in favor of Jewish families who claimed ownership of homes in the area. The evictions took place without unusual disturbances; police said. The Arab families claimed that they owned the houses in which they lived. Jewish families argued that they were the legal owners of the homes, and that the Arabs had squatted there illegally in an attempt to wrest control of the property from its rightful owners. The Arab families presented documents that appeared to show Arab ownership of the homes dating back to the Ottoman period. However, the court found that the documents had been forged, and that the documents presented by the Jewish plaintiffs were legitimate. The neighborhood in question is located near the 2,000-year-old gravesite of the sage Shimon HaTzaddik. The neighborhood was founded in the first half of the 20th century by Jewish families, but fell under Jordanian rule following the 1948 War of Independence and was quickly populated by Jordanian Arabs. Since the reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule in 1967, a number of Jewish families have moved back into the area. Their arrival has been greeted with hostility from local Arabs and from the Palestinian Authority, which has demanded control over the neighborhood as part of a future Arab capital city in Jerusalem. Jewish activists have fought several legal battles in recent years regarding properties in Jerusalem and in Shimon HaTzaddik in particular. Activists say they are undeterred by the difficulties of regaining control of Jewish property, and plan to continue their efforts to reestablish a Jewish presence in historic Jerusalem neighborhoods.
2009: The Times of London features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Judas by Susan Gubar.
2009(12thof Av, 5769): Seventy-five year old journalist and author Sidney Zion passed away. (As reported by Robert McFadden)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/nyregion/03zion.html
2009(12thof Av, 5769): Seventy-one year old Michael A. Wiener, broadcasting mogul and patron of the arts passed away.(As reported by Geraldine Fabrikant)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/business/03wiener.html
2010: “Ahead of Time,” a documentary about author, journalist and photographer Ruth Gerber is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010:The “First Jewish Women's Music Festival” is scheduled to begin at Falls Village, CT.
2010:A huge explosion destroyed the home of a senior Hamas commander and injured 24, Palestinians reported today. Palestinians said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike, but this has been denied by the IDF. The explosion early today wrecked the house of Ala Adnaf, a commander of the Hamas military wing, Palestinian security officials said. At least 24 people were rushed to a hospital, and unconfirmed reports said two people were killed. Rescue teams were digging through the rubble.The security officials said a missile fired by an Israeli warplane hit the house. The Israeli military said there was no airstrike or any other Israeli activity in the area. The officials spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
2010:Palestinian militants fired five rockets into the Israeli port city of Eilat with one of them landing in nearby Jordanian city of Aqaba, flaring up tensions in the Middle East anew. Though there were no immediate reports of casualties from the beach resort of Eilat, five persons were injured, four of them seriously, when one of the rockets strayed off course and hit the Jordanian city of Aqaba. Israeli officials said that they were investigating where the rockets were fired from, Eilat police chief, Mr Moshe Cohen, said initial reports suggested that they had been fired from the South, an apparent reference to Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. "It's a little early to say, but it is reasonable to assume that it came from the southern area," Cohen said. Two of the fired rockets apparently struck the Red Sea, another exploded in an open area near Eilat, and the other two hit the hotel district in Aqaba. There were no reports of injury or damage in Eilat, Cohen said. Jordanian authorities said a Grad rocket landed near vehicles parked at the entrance to the InterContinental Hotel in Aqaba. Security Sources here believe that the rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula by Global Jihad terrorists. Residents of Eilat reported hearing loud explosions on Monday morning. "There was a series of booms. The building shook a little. There is a lot of complacency in the city at the moment, but if rockets fired from Sinai start exploding here, this is liable to ruin the tourist economy during the best month of the year. We mustn't forget that the French are on their way," Eilat Resident, Mr Avi Cohen, told local media expressing concern that the development may badly hit the coastal city dependent on tourism. Eilat, the Jordanian port of Aqaba and nearby Egyptian Red Sea resorts have in the past seen violence perpetrated at the hands of militants. At least one rocket struck Aqaba on April 22, causing no casualties. Amman said the rocket had been fired from outside Jordan and Israeli media spoke of the Egyptian Sinai as a possible launch point
2011: “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness,” “a riveting portrait of the man who transformed Yiddish from a vernacular language into a literary one” and “The Hangman,” a fascinating and complex portrait of Shalom Nagar, a Yemeni Jew, who as a young man worked as prison guard and was the execution of Adolf Eichmann.
2011(2ndof Av, 5771): Ninety year old Nobel Prize winning immunologist Dr. Baruj Benacerraf, passed away. (As reported by Denise Gellene)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/us/03benacerraf.html
2011: The 2011 Security Briefing for Jewish Institutions is scheduled to take place at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue. Scheduled presenters included local police commanders and senior FBI security personnel.
2011:The IDF spokesperson confirmed today that the air force attacked several targets in Gaza overnight, including a smuggling tunnel in the southern Strip and a terrorist center in the north. No information was been given on possible casualties, but the statement confirmed that the planes returned to their bases safely and that the hits were on target. The attack was in response to a Kassam rocket fired at southern Israel from Gaza last night.
2011:Today Israel's Supreme Court issued an unprecedented ruling ordering the state to dismantle the largest illegal settlement outpost in the West Bank by April 2012. The decision follows a petition filed by Peace Now movement. Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch harshly criticized the Israeli government for failing to dismantle the outpost of Migron, which is home to some 50 families, despite earlier promises it would do so and after it had admitted that it was in fact built on lands belonging to Palestinians. Beinisch said the Supreme Court has tried to show restraint despite the blatant illegality of the outpost. "There is no doubt, that according to Israeli law, no settlements can be built on private lands of Palestinians," Beinisch said. In the court ruling, the Supreme Court justices said that they recognize the difficulties surrounding the dismantling of such an outpost, which has already expanded to 50 families, but said this could have been avoided if the state had initially worked to better enforce the law and prevented the construction of Migron in the first place. This is the first time the Supreme Court has ordered the state to dismantle an outpost in the West Bank, and the move brings the subject back onto the court's agenda. The decision to dismantle an outpost as large as Migron is likely to cause a political storm in the West Bank settlements.
2011:A senior officer in the Israeli Navy said today that terrorists groups close to Israel are in possession of missiles capable of hitting all Israeli ports and offshore infrastructure such as oil rigs. Brigadier General Yaron Levi, the Navy's intelligence chief, spoke about the matter on today at a conference in Tel Aviv University that focused on the naval theater
2011: In “Shame on Me, and Your for Taking Pleasure in It,” Dwight Garner reviewed Humiliationby Wayne Koestenbaum.
2012: “The Moon is Jewish” is among the movies scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2012: “Fiddler on the Roof” with Cantor Joel Colman in the title role is scheduled to open in a production sponsored by Tulane University’s Summer Lyric Theatre.
