August 27 In History
410: The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ends after three days. Some view the Visigoths as just one more group of barbarians that helped to bring an end to the Roman Empire. But that is only part of the story. The Visigoths were Arians and they supplanted the anti-Jewish Catholic hierarchy, when they took control of parts of what is now Spain later in the 5th Century. For the Visigoths, the Catholics were synonymous with their Roman enemy but they had no animosity for the Jews. They took advantage of their unique skills and the Jews repaid them by taking a leading role in defending the passes of the Pyrenees against invasion from the Catholic Franks and Burundians. All this would come to an end in the last half of the sixth century when the Visigoth kings converted to Catholicism and adopted the anti-Jewish policies espoused by the Church.
1097(16th of Elul): Samuel ben Shealtiel ha-Nasi passed away.
1255: The day on which Hugh of Lincoln reportedly died. Discovery of his body two days later touched off one of the first, if not the first, Blood Libel.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7921-hugh-of-lincoln
1490: The Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada issued an indictment ordering the transfer of the prisoners from Segovia to Ávila to await trial on charges of having murdered an alleged victim of Jewish ritual murder who came to be known as The Holy Child of La Guardia.
1590: Papacy of Sixtus V came to end. There seem to be competing view on how he treated the Jews. According to one source “ the condition of the Jews was somewhat improved. He repealed many of the regulations established by his predecessors, permitted Jews to reside in all parts of his realm, and gave Jewish physicians freedom to practice their profession.” While another contends that “he revoked Pope Gregory’s policies allowing Jews to reside in the Papal states and to print the Talmud.”
1698: (18 Elul): Birthdate of Rabbi Yisroel (Israel) ben Eliezer (רבי ישראל בן אליעזר often called Baal Shem Tov or Besht. There is no way to even begin writing about his effect on Judaism.
1770: Birthdate of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In his article “Sublimity and Resentment: Hegel, Nietzsche, and the Jews,” Yirmiyahu Yovel offers the following comment about Hegel and the Jews. ‘According to the Hegelian dialectic, every cultural form makes some true, genuine contribution to world history (and the world Spirit), after which it is sublated (aufgehoben) and disappears from the historical scene. Yet the Jews continued to survive long after their raison d'tre had disappeared--indeed, after they no longer had a genuine history in Hegel's sense but merely existed as the dead corpse of their extinguished essence. With the French Revolution, the Jews were entering the modern world and claiming their rights and place within it. Hegel, despite his anti-Jewish bias, was perfectly disposed to grant these rights, but he did not know what to do with the Jews in modernity as Jews, nor could he explain their survival in terms of his system.”
1776: The British defeated American forces under the command of George Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn Heights in the first of a series of military actions that will lead to the British taking control of the city of New York for the duration of the war. While most of New York’s Jewish population favored independence, the community was split between Rebels and Tories; a splitt which was even felt at Shearith Israel.
1794: Simon Magruder Levy distinguished himself at the Battle of Fallen Timbers while serving as an Orderly Sergeant under General "Mad Anthony" Wayne.
1813: Birthdate of Moses Polydore Millaud, a native of Bordeaux who gained fame as the found of Le Petit Journal
1864: The New York Times published a letter in which the author complained about the difficulty in getting a naval substitute. He ties his complaints about the process to involvement of the Jews. He claimed that all of the locations where one goes to complete the forms are “all located either above or alongside of Jew clothing stores,” that the naval substitutes are coerced into buying their outfits at these Jewish clothing stores and that Jews attempt to extort cash from the participants that they then split with government officials. [Ed. Note – The author is a draft dodger. Under the law, a draftee could buy a substitute to serve in his place. This reinforced the concept that it was rich man’s war and poor man’s fight. The system was amazingly corrupt and led to the infamous Draft Riots of 1863 in New York City.]
1867: Following his trip to Romania, Sir Moses Montifore wrote a letter to Prince Charles concerning the treatment of the Jews of Romania. Prince Charles will eventually be crowned as King Carlos I.
1869(20th of Elul, 5629); Rebecca Gratz passed away. Born in 1781 to a prominent Jewish family in
Pennsylvania
, Gratz spent most of her adult life in
Philadelphia
where she was the patron of many philanthropic and social organization aimed at benefiting the Jewish community. She is best known as the founder of the Jewish Sunday School. “In 1838 Gratz and the women of the congregation of Mikveh
Israel
established the first Hebrew Sunday School in the
United States
, which served as the model for all others that followed.” Gratz, who was quite lovely and never married, was reputed to be the model for Rebecca, the heroine in Sir Walter Scott’s novel, Ivanhoe. [Ed. Note – a Jewish connection: When Hollywood turned Ivanhoe into a big screen delight during the 1950’s, Elizabeth Taylor played the part of the Jewess Rebecca. Taylor would convert to Judaism when she married Mike Todd.]
1871: It was reported today that the editor of the Jewish Times supports “American Jewish Seminary” for the training of rabbis in America. The editor contends that the Hebrew Orphan Asylum would provide a platform for creating such an institution since it would have a ready-made group of candidates and the additional training could be added on to the courses already offered by the Asylum.
1877: Outfielder Jay Pike made his major league debut with the Hartford Dark Blues
Or
1877: Jacob Emanuel “Jay” Pike played in his first and last major league baseball game today when he took the field for the Brooklyn Hartfords of the National League. Pike went 1 for 4 giving him a batting average of .250. He was charged with 1 error but there is no record of his fielding average. Pike may have been part of the first Jewish Family entry in major league baseball. His brother was Lipman Emanuel Pike whose career spanned sixteen seasons. Pike “batted and threw left-handed. He is credited as the first ballplayer named Jay to appear in a major league game…Pike also played the outfield for the Lowell, Massachusetts team that won the 1875 state championship and claimed the New England title. That same year, he also served as an umpire in the National Association.”
1882: According to some, birthdate of movie mogul Sam Goldwyn. The confusion about his natal day was created by Sam himself. He is the ‘G’ in
MGM
. As has been noted in previous items, Goldwyn was one of many Jewish immigrants who created Hollywood and the American Entertainment Industry. He passed away in 1974.
1882: “The Jews of York” published today described the conditions under which “the persecuted race” lived in this English city during the 12th century. During the reign of Henry II and his son Richard the Lionhearted, they enjoyed royal protection and prospered as could be seen by the “splendid houses” on Jubbergate. All of that change when Richard left for the crusades and the citizens of York massacred the Jews. While Richard expressed his displeasure, “no serous punishment was inflicted on the murderous people of York for their fiendish cruelty.” Ironically, the city’s long term punishment came in the loss of commerce and prosperity. Without the Jews to lend money, business went elsewhere.
1882: It was reported that Professor Robertson Smith has written the article on “Lamentations” the new published edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica. According to Smith, Jeremiah is traditionally viewed as the author of the text. He sees a shift in the stance of the author as the book unfolds going from “an isolated figure among unsympathetic countrymen” to “a representative of Israel among the heathen.”
1882: It was reported today that little Jacob Greenhaldt a Hungarian Jewish immigrant “who was badly injured by a street car about a month ago” is out of the hospital and back at work on the streets of Cleveland. The boys are said to be “imbued with the spirit of trade” so characteristic of his race. They may make hard bargains but they are never beggars.
1882: “Facts About Street Gamins” published today described changing conditions on the streets of Cleveland, Ohio. Immigrant Jewish boys from Hungary have replaced the Irish. The Hungarians begin as shoe shine boys. But as soon as they learn enough English, they begin work selling newspapers.
1883: It was reported today that Nathan Gottgetren, a 35 year old Jew who uses the alias Nicholas Gilbert, will be appearing before the District Attorney in New York to faces multiple charges of forgergy.
1884(6thof Elul, 5644): Schaje Tripock an octogenarian Polish Jew living with his son in an apartment on Essex Street apparently took his own life today. He was reported to “suffering from senile insanity.”
1886: The Pope approved of the Hungarian Diet’s vote to reject a bill that would legalize marriages between Jews and Gentiles.
1887: It was reported today that The Board of Managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children has received a total of $3,238.95 in contributions.
1889(30thof Av, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1892: The first passenger train belonging to the Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway arrived in Jerusalem today. Reactions were mixed, with some local inhabitants declaring it to be the work of the devil. However, the Jewish Chronicle wrote: "The year 5653, which is about to burst upon us, will witness one of the grandest sights that have been known in many centuries. May it prove an unmixed blessing." The Jaffa-Jerusalem Railway was the first modern railway line to open in the Middle East. The railway was built in response to the increasing demand of all the pilgrims who began visiting the Holy Land and specifically Jerusalem starting in the middle of the 19th century. In writing about the history of the railroad Anthony S. Travis notes that “building the railway was a tremendously ambitious undertaking, considering the local conditions. Hundreds of tons of rails were brought from Belgium, coal from Britain and rolling stock from France. The unloading of all this in Jaffa's primitive harbor presented an immense challenge. A report in Railway Magazine said it was "a wonder that all the materials for the railway were safely and without loss conveyed to their destination... Bulky but light articles, such as boiler barrels or water tanks, were thrown into the sea and tugged ashore..." The weather also presented difficulties, as heavy rains washed away the jetty, and in some places along the track bridges were destroyed. Despite other problems related to construction crews leaving to tend their crops, and outbreaks of disease in the work camps, work progressed fairly rapidly, and by December 4, 1891, the line had reached Deir Aban (today's Beit Shemesh). From there, construction was much more difficult, owing to the mountainous terrain. While the first train did reach Jerusalem in August, the official opening would not take place until September of 1892. Theodor Herzl, who took the train in 1898 on his way to meet Kaiser Wilhelm II, was not very impressed, calling the line a "miserable little railway." It was in stark contrast to the earlier part of his journey, in the luxurious Orient Express, with dining cars and sleeping accommodation. The Jaffa-Jerusalem railway coaches did not have ashtrays or toilet facilities, and according to Herzl, not even drinking water. He said the heat was "frightful... sitting in the cramped, crowded, scorching compartment was torture." As if that were not enough, when Herzl and his party arrived at the hotel for which they had reservations, it turned out there were no rooms available, as they had been appropriated by Turkish officials and members of the Kaiser's entourage.” As an avid fan of science and technology, Herzl expressed his belief in the future of rail travel when in Altneuland he predicted that by the 1920s there would be high-speed electric railways throughout the country. Unfortunately even now, more than a century later, Israel has not yet reached that stage, although railway development has certainly come a long way in the last 20 years.
1902: Herzl wrote to the Polish writer Pauline Korvin-Piatrovska asking her to obtain an audience with the Czar.
1904: Rogers Adolphe Pinner, a senior partner of the Mutual Electric Company, was shot by his `former girlfriend', one Mrs. Augustina Hermann, a pretty hat-maker/designer of French extraction, who was a two-time widow.”
1908: Birthdate of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. Unbeknownst to most people, Johnson played an active role in rescuing Jews from Hitler’s Europe. According to Ladybird LBJ wept when he visited Auschwitz in 1945. . Lyndon Johnson was a staunch supporter of Israel. He helped the Israelis exhaust all diplomatic possibilities to avoid the Six Day War in June, 1967. The real test for Johnson came on June 10 when the Soviets threatened
Israel
unless the Jewish state would immediately surrender the gains it had made against the Syrians and Egyptians, which were their client-states. Unlike President Eisenhower in 1956, Johnson responded firmly by sending the Sixth Fleet towards
Syria
to thwart any Soviet moves. He also began supplying arms to
Israel
since DeGaulle had betrayed
Israel
by cutting if its supply of weapons. As
Israel
’s Ambassador to the
United States
wrote, “When it came to the crunch of 1967, the
United States
(thanks to Johnson) was firmly on
Israel
’s side, logistically and politically.” He passed away in 1973.
1908: Samuel Gompers today announced that he would take to the stump in a personal effort to drive Speaker Cannon from the House. The President of the American Federation of Labor will open the campaign, which he intends to make a general fight for the Democratic ticket, at the Labor Day exercises at
Danville
,
Ill.
, the home of "Uncle Joe."
1919(1st of Elul, 5679): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1919: During the Russian Civil War, forces of the White Army occupied Boguslav a Ukrainian city, “pillaged all the houses” and “massacred” approximately forty Jews. [This was the war between the Reds (Bolsheviks) and the Whites (supporters of the former Czarist regieme). The Jews were often caught in the middle and slaughtered by both sides]
1921: The New York Times published a letter from Samuel Gompers in which he corrects the Times report of his speech to the Kiwanis Club of Atlantic City. Gompers contends that the “misquote” of his remarks changes them so that they read like support for business instead of support for the workers of
America
.
1922: "The League of Nations is a Jewish idea, and Jerusalem someday will become the capital of the world's peace," declared Dr. Nahum Sokolow, Chairman of the Zionist Executive Committee, at a special meeting of the Zionist Conference today. Dr. Sokolow “said the Jews of the world will back the League and that Jerusalem will be the International Peace Capital.”
1929: Birthdate of Ira Levin, author of many popular novels including Rosemary's Baby
1929: While Moslem leaders in
Jerusalem
have issued an appeal to Arab raiders to return to work and cease their attacks, widespread disorders occurred in
Palestine
. Marauding band of Arabs have left hundreds of victims, dead and wounded, from Dan to Beersheba while British troops have been unable to stop the violence.
1933: Birthdate of magazine editor, author and Presidential speech writer, Ben Wattenberg.
1933: Birthdate of Leonard Irving Weinglass who was according to some “the nation’s pre-eminent progressive defense lawyer, who represented political renegades, government opponents and notorious criminal defendants in a half century of controversial cases, including the Chicago Seven, the Pentagon Papers and the Hearst kidnapping.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1933: In Prague, The economic development of Palestine is outlined in a report of the Zionist Executive to the Congress, which reveals the following: During the past two years £3,252,000 has been invested in Palestine, of which £1,350,000 or 42% went into agriculture, mainly citrus planting, £1,400,000 or 43% went into building, and the remainder into industry and handicraft. A survey of 213 immigrants of the capitalist class shows that 54% of their total capital of £697,000 was invested in agriculture. During this period 21,767 immigrants came into the country; 11,384 workers on labor schedule, 3,122 capitalists, 2,697 certificates went to relatives of residents and 4,168 people came under unspecified classifications.
1933: Testimony given in the magistrate's court at Jaffa, on August 25th,alleging that Revisionist extremists had contemplated recourse to murder over shadowed all other issues here as the eighteenth World Zionist Congress entered its second week of deliberations today
1934: In Iraq many Jews were dismissed from public service[ and quotas were set up in colleges and universities
1935: The Federal Theatre Project is established. Elmer Rice, the Manhattan born son of Jacob and Fanny Lion Reizenstein, was the first director of the New York office of the Federal Theatre Project, but resigned in 1936 to protest government censorship of the FTP's "Living Newspaper" Ethiopia, about Mussolini's invasion of that country. The FTP included a Yiddish Unit.
1936: “Leaders of the Arab Youth party began collecting signatures for a memorandum demanding an Arab boycott of the Royal Commission” coming to Palestine to investigate the causes of the violence begun by the Arabs in April, 1936. The Arabs are demanding that Jewish immigration and land sales must be stopped before there will be any negotiations.
1937(22nd of Elul, 5697): Lionel Walter Rothschild passed away. The 2nd Baron Rothschild was a British zoologist who became a great collector and founded the Rothschild Natural History Museum in
London
. The museum was opened to the public in 1892. As the eldest son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, he was somewhat of a disappointment to his father as his life was devoted to natural history and not banking. His interest in natural history began when he was a child, collecting butterflies. Numerous species and sub-species of animals were named after him. He issued Novitates Zoologicae from Tring, his country estate and published scores of scientific papers. He received his titles on the death of his father in 1915. The
Walter
Rothschild
Zoological
Museum
became part of the Natural History Museum.
1938(30thof Av, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1938: As British forces sought to bring an end to the latest wave of Arab terror two Arab youths were wounded, one fatally, when troops today opened fire on a group that refused to disperse when caught setting fire to a closed wine shop at Jaffa. Meanwhile “armed Arab completed the evacuation of the Jewish settlement of Jamam in the Beersheba district and set fire to every building there.”
1940(23rd of Av, 5700): One of first to reprisals against the Germans, Israel Karp was shot by Germany military authority in France.
1940(23rd of Av, 5700): Sixty-seven year Alice Lillie Seligsberg “a social worker and Zionist who helped to found Hadassah:” passed away today. (As reported by Marilyn J. Sladowsky)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/seligsberg-alice-lillie
1940: The Vichy French government rescinded the law forbidding racial hatred. This made hating Jews legal.
1941(4th of Elul, 5701): First group of 11,000 Jews from Kamenets are taken out of town to a pit and gunned down in bomb craters.
1941(4th of Elul, 5701): The Nazis massacred the Jewish community of Posvol, Lithuania
1942(14th of Elul, 5702): Eight thousand Jews from Wieliczka, Poland, are killed at the Belzec death camp.
1942(14th of Elul, 5702): When a transport train carrying 6000 Jews from Miedzyrzec, Poland, arrives at the Treblinka extermination camp, guards discover that all 6000 have died of suffocation during the 75-mile journey.
1942(14th of Elul, 5702): Several thousand Jews from Chortkov, Poland, are assembled in the town square and forced to witness the murders of the community's children
1943(26th of Av, 5703): All the Jews working at a cement factory at Drogobych, Ukraine, near the Janówska labor camp, are murdered. One of the victims is Dr. Mojzesz Bay, a 36-year-old graduate of the Sorbonne.
1944: As of today Victor Cavendish Bentinck, assistant under-secretary in the British Foreign Office , was still doubting the existence of gas chambers when he said, 'I think we weaken our case against the Germans by publicly giving credence to atrocity stories for which we have no evidence.
'These mass executions in gas chambers remind me of the story of the employment of human corpses during the last (1914-18) war for the manufacture of fat, which was a grotesque lie and led to the true stories of German enormities being brushed aside as being mere propaganda.'
1945 Hermann Göring is the first
Nuremberg
defendant to be interrogated intensively by the Allies.
1946(30th of Av, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1947: Birthdate of actress Barbara Bach
1951: Rabbi Israel Goldstein was re-elected today president of the World Confederation of General Zionists, and Mrs. Rose Halprin and Dr. Emanuel Neumann vice presidents. They are all from
New York
.
1952: Birthdate of comic actor Paul Reubens who gained fame as Pee-Wee Herman.
1952: The Knesset endorsed by an overwhelming vote the agreement with the
US
for the purchase of arms and for the negotiations in
Washington
for military aid, within the framework of the Mutual Security Act. The vote came in the form of a vote of no confidence in the government, introduced by Mapam and supported by the Communists, which was defeated by 69 votes to 13.
1952: Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg; West Germany to pay 3 billion Deutschmarks.
1957(30th of Av, 5717): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1967: Brian Epstein, manager of The Beatles, passed away. Yes, the lads from Liverpool were managed by an English Jew.
1968(21st of Av, 5727): Movie Director Robert Z. Leonard passed away
1971(6th of Elul, 5731): Bennett Cerf, founder of Random House and panel member on the television hit What’s My Line, passed away at the age of 73
1973: “The Recipes of Chairman Mao" by Marshall Brickman's appeared in The New Yorker. (Brickman was Jewish; Mao was not)
1977: The US State Department confirmed that a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization had applied for a visa to the
US
in order to be allowed to open a
PLO
Information
Center
there. But the PLO¹s rejection, at a special meeting held in Damascus, of both UN Resolution 242 and Israel¹s right to exist was seen here as a serious setback to President Carter¹s Middle East peace efforts. He was reported to be in a rather pessimistic mood.
1977: In Bucharest Prime Minister Menachem Begin described his Sabbath visit to the
Bucharest
synagogue as the most moving day in my life since the day
Israel
announced its independence. Begin sought to comfort Romanian Jews and praised President Ceausescu for his policy of tolerance toward religious practice. Ceausescu would lose much of his luster and ultimately be killed during a anti-Communist revolt.
1980(15th of Elul, 5740): Sam Levenson passed away at the age of 68. Levenson was a
Brooklyn
school teacher who became a television star in the 1950’s. The Sam Levenson Show was quite popular in its day. This was quite since surprising considering the source of Levenson’s humor. He was the son of Jewish immigrants who had worked as a school teacher in
Brooklyn
. These experiences were the basic material for his witty stories and quips.
1995(1st of Elul, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1997(24th of Av, 5757): Television whiz-kid executive Brandon Tartikoff passed away.
2000: The New York Times book section featured reviews of Left Back: A Century of Failed School Reforms by Jewish born education reformer Diane Ravitch. The Secret Parts of Fortune
Three Decades of Intense Investigations and Edgy Enthusiasms by Ron Rosenbaum and The Presidential Difference: Leadership Style From FDR to
Clinton
by Fred Irwin Greenstein
2000(26th of Av, 5760):Sixty-five year old Gilbert de Botton, the financial manager who was a descendant of the rabbinical scholar Abraham de Botton passed away. (As reported by Paul Lewis)
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/30/business/gilbert-de-botton-65-money-manager-for-rich-dies.html:http:/www.nytimes.com/2000/08/30/business/gilbert-de-botton-65-money-manager-for-rich-dies.html?pagewanted=print
2001: Israeli helicopters fired a pair of rockets through office windows and killed Mustafa Zibri, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was also known as Abu Ali Mustafa. “The PFLP is designated a terrorist organization by Israel and many western states. Israel held Mustafa personally responsible for 10 different car-bomb attacks undertaken by the PFLP during his time as general secretary.” He had been allowed to return to the West Bank in a deal worked out between Arafat and Barak. But apparently killing Israelis was more attractive than following the path of peace.
2002: Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon told Haaretz; "The Palestinian threat harbors cancer-like attributes that have to be severed. There are all kinds of solutions to cancer. Some say it's necessary to amputate organs but at the moment I am applying chemotherapy."
2005: The Jerusalem Post reported on the Red Sea Jazz Festival at
Eilat
,
Israel
’s southern seaport. This marked the 19thyear for this annual event and the response of the crowd indicated that Jazz is a live, well and thriving in
Israel
. Apparently the rocket attack in
Jordan
which resulted in an errant warhead hitting Eilat by mistake did not dampen the spirit of the attendees who ranged in age from teens to grandmothers swaying in the aisles.
2006: In an article entitled “Green's Chase Revives Greenberg's Name and Fame,” Murray Chass notes that “Shawn Green, with 314 career home runs, is only 17 from matching Hank Greenberg's standard as the career leader among Jewish players? '’I would say the chances are outstanding; he'll probably do it as a New York Met next year,'’ said Steve Greenberg, Hank's son and the former deputy baseball commissioner. Green's passing his father would not bother him, Greenberg added. ''Why would it bother me?'' he said. ''Ed Kranepool broke my dad's record at
James
Monroe
High School
.'' ''I'm fine with it,'' he added. ''I think it's great. I'm fine with anything that keeps my dad's name in the news. The last 10 years have been incredible. I think my dad is better known among sports fans who never saw him play than he was 20 years ago with a generation that never saw him play.'' Hank Greenberg, who played from 1933 through 1947, missing nearly four seasons during World War II, nearly matched Babe Ruth's single-season record in 1938 when he hit 58 home runs. But, his son said, Hank didn't care much about home runs. ''Runs batted in is what he lived for,'' Greenberg said. ''If you had asked him what accomplishments he was proudest of, it would be R.B.I. for a single season and career. That's why I grew up not thinking about home runs as his legacy.'' Hank Greenberg led the American League in runs batted in four times, driving in 170 and 183 sandwiched around a season in which injuries limited him to 12 games. In 1935, he had 103 R.B.I. by the All-Star Game. Greenberg, an investment banker, is engaged in selling naming rights for the Mets' new park. He said his father was once asked about being known as the greatest Jewish slugger ever. '' 'I don't think of myself that way,' '' he quoted his father as saying. '' 'I think of myself in terms of Gehrig, DiMaggio and Williams.' '' If Green does pass Greenberg for career home runs, the name of the standard-bearer won't change all that much. In fact, Green's grandfather shortened the family name from Greenberg.
2006: The Sunday New York Times book section included a review of Selected Letters of Martha Gellhorn (
St. Louis
born Jewish novelist, travel writer and journalist), edited by Caroline Moorehead.
2006: As those who study history know, history is determined, in no small part, by the person writing the history. With that in mind, please excuse this shameless orgy of self-adulation in publishing the following letter as it appeared in The New York Times Sunday Book Review.
Letters
A Man in
Cedar Rapids
To the Editor:
After a lifetime of reading about Jewish lawyers, doctors, brilliant writers and Nobel Prize winners, I cannot tell you how excited I was to read about A Woman In Jerusalem by A. B. Yehoshua (Aug. 13). I am totally blown away — a novel where the leading character is a Jewish human resources manager. I am a longtime Jewish human resources director and I never thought I would make it as a character in a novel, let alone the main character. Of course, I do this in
Cedar Rapids
, which is not exactly
Jerusalem
. But if you ever want to know what it is like to be Jewish in the heartland, hey, that’s a book I could write.
Mitchell A. Levin
Cedar Rapids
,
Iowa
2007: An article published today entitled “The Kibbutz Sheds Socialism and Gains Popularity,” described the changing face of kibbutz movement in Israel.
2007: In
Cedar Rapids
, Harold Becker, a pillar of the Jewish community and Guaranty Bank & Trust was honored for donating $75,000 to The Arc of East Central Rapids. This is just one more example of Mr. Becker’s philanthropic efforts on behalf of both the Jewish Community and the people of
Cedar Rapids
and its environs.
2007: The New Republic featured a review of Davide Ferrairo’s film, “Primo Levi’s Journey,” which follow, figuratively, Levi’s footsteps as made his way from
Auschwitz
back to his home in
Turin
.
2007(13th of Elul, 5767): Seventy-two year old, Gad Yaacobi passed away. A native of Kfar Vitkin he was an MK and held several ministerial positions.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3442660,00.html
2008: Second night of the inaugural Gilboa Coexistence Festival taking place throughout the Gilboa region featuring David Broza with Yair Dalal and Ibrahim Eid.
2008 Florida Congressman Robert Wexler addressed the Democratic National Convention for the first time on the subject of national security and foreign policy. Wexler represents
Florida
’s 19thdistrict, one of the most heavily Jewish congressional districts in the
United States
and I considered a strong advocate for
Israel
in
Washington
.
2008: The Washington Postfeatured a review of The End of the Jews, the new novel by Adam Mansbach.
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