August 6
1223: Coronation of Louis VIII, the French monarch “who issued an ordinance that prohibited his officials from recording debts owed to Jews” which deprived the Jews of income and set him at odds with Theobald IV, the powerful Count who ruled Champagne.
1243: After a ritual murder accusation in Kitzingen, Bavaria (Germany), fifteen Jews were tortured to death. Their corpses lay in the street for a fortnight before they were allowed to be buried.
1284: Genoa defeated Pisa at the Battle of Meloria. This battle took place when Genoa was at the height of period “mercantile expansion.” According to Cecil Roth, “Genoa was on the least hospitable and tolerant of Italian states as far as the Jews were concerned.” Not only did the Genoese not encourage the settlement of Jews, they may have actually actively discouraged them from settling so as to avoid introducing business competitors. There was no organized Jewish community in Genoa at this time and in fact, there may have only been two Jews living there. By the 13th century evidence exists that Pisa did have an organized Jewish community of at least 20 families. There are Jewish tombstones embedded in the town walls that date back to the middle of the 13th century. And a synagogue may have been located on the “Alley of the Jews” during this time.
1301(23rdof Av, 5061): Rabbi David ben Avraham Maimuni HaNagid passed away. Known variously as David Maimuni or Rabbi David Hanagid, this Rabbi was the grandson of the Rambam He was born in 1233 and followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father as Nagid or "Prince" over the Jewish congregations in
Egypt
. He was an ally of the powerful Rabbi of Barcelona, Solomon ben Abraham Ben Adret known as Rashba. In 1285, when those who opposed Rabbi Hanagid sought to depose him, Ben Adret supported his declarations of excommunications. An interesting legend has grown up around the Hanagid concerning these attacks. According to the legend the embattled Rabbi prayed at the
cave
of
Meron
in Eretz Yisrael. This cave was also known as the
cave
of
Rabbi Hillel
and Shammai. Supposedly its waters had magical powers. When cold water issued forth from the cave in response to the Rabbi’s prayers, he excommunicated five hundred of his opponents. On that day the five hundred who had slandered him in
Egypt
died. Surely a legend like that would have greatly troubled his rational and compassionate grandfather. Hanagid was scholar. For those of you have read Pirke Avot, you might remember Hillel’s comments about a floating skull. Maimonides' grandson, Rabbi David Hanagid, cited a tradition handed down by "the early ones" that the floating skull belonged to none other than Pharaoh himself. Hillel therefore told him: "Because you commanded that Jewish children be drowned in the
Nile
, you were drowned." It was specifically Hillel who confronted Pharaoh's skull, since as a reincarnation of Moses he was fit to confront Pharaoh.
1414: Ladsilas, the King of Naples who offered the Jews offered the Jews a charter which would have given them economic equality, passed away.
1724(5484): Samson Wertheimer who was chief rabbi of Hungary and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt as well as an Austrian financier, court Jew and Shtadlan to Austrian Emperor Leopold I passed away in Vienna.
1762: Myth meets myth. According to the non-Jewish world the sandwich was born today when the Earl of Sandwich has a servant bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so that he can eat without leaving the gambling tables. As anybody who has ever attended a Seder, the Earl was a Johnny-come-lately since Hillel began eating his sandwich – bitter herbs between two pieces of Matzah – during the days of the Second Temple.
1806: Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire. But this was not a great loss to this European monarch since he had already declared himself Francis I, Emperor of the Austrian Empire in 1804. It was in this more powerful role that he would have an effect on the life of European Jews, For example, in 1820, Francis I of
Austria
required rabbis to study sciences and use the language of the country in prayers and sermons. As a result, a rabbinical seminary opened in
Padua
in 1829. While moves such as this were supported by followers of the Haskalah, they were viewed with suspicion, if not outright dread, by those opposed to the modernists.
1810: Rabbi Issachar Dov Baer of Zloczow, author of Mevas-ser Zedek passed away
1819: Norwich University founded in Vermont. Rabbi Ken Spiro, the Jewish historian, has a Masters Degree in History from The Vermont College of Norwich University.
1825:
Bolivia
gains its independence from
Spain
. During the colonial period, the Jewish presence would have been made up of Marranos or Conversos some of whom worked in the silver mines and helped establish the city of
Santa Cruz
de la Sierra. Evidence of Jewish presence may be seen in reports of settlers following “Jewish customs” including “lighting candles on Friday nights and sitting on the ground in mourning when a close relative dies.” A truly recognizable Jewish community appeared in the country in the early 1900’s with the arrival of Russian Jews.
1840: As Europeans – Jews and non-Jews – attempted to deal with the Blood Libel in Damascus, Moses Montefiore sought an interview with Mehmet Ali in Cairo. When the two met Montefiore “handed him a petition in the name of the Jewish community rerrqauestion permission to go to Damasacus” so he could investigate the charges that had been. The Jewish leaders need a guarantee of safe conduct so that they could meet with prisoners.
1842(30th of Av, 5602): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1847(24thof Av, 5607): Baltimore communal leaders Samuel Etting passed away at the age of 83. “Maryland had a ban on non-Christians holding office or practicing law, and from 1797, Etting campaigned persistently to have this barrier removed. He finally succeeded in 1826 and was immediately elected to the Baltimore City Council. By the time of his election the American Jewish population numbered 6,000.”
1855: Birthdate of Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs. The son of a Polish Jew named Alfred Isaacs, Sir Isaac “was an Australian judge and politician, was the third Chief Justice of Australia, ninth Governor-General of Australia and the first born in Australia to occupy that post.”
1857:The New York Timesreported that Baron Rothschild had resigned his seat in the House of Commons and a noticed had been posted for the election of a replacement. A public meeting of electors in London pledged to return Rothschild to his seat in Parliament and called upon Lord Russell to resolve the matter that was keeping Jews from serving in Parliament.
1863: As part of the day of National Thanksgiving which was celebrated today Rabbi Samuel Isaacs of B’nai Jeshurun addressed his congregation in New York City.
1867: Isaac and Julia Elkus gave birth to Abram I. Elkus, the New York lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
1867: Solomon and Betty Loeb gave birth to their second son, James Loeb who joined Kuhn, Loeb & Co in 1888 and became a partner in 1894 before retiring because of health problems in 1904. A patron of the arts, he endowed the Loeb Classical Library founded the Institute of Musical Art, which later became part of the Juilliard School of Music
1871: It was reported today that The Jewish Messenger has proposed a national conference aimed a promoting “the unity and welfare of the Hebrews” living in the United States. Among the proposals that the Messenger feels should be considered are that delegates from the various congregations from across the country should meet regularly to discuss measures that would “bring order from chaos, union from discord” as regards the differences between different Jewish groups and that efforts should be started to provide trained rabbis who can meet the needs of the American Jewish community,
1873: Approximately 700 Jewish youngsters including students who attend the six New York schools that make up the Free Hebrew Association and the children living at the Jewish Orphan Asylum and Industrial School went on an excursion up the Hudson River to Excelsior Park. Among those traveling with this well behaved group were Abraham Oetlinger, President of the Hebrew Free School Associations and several Jewish philanthropists who had raised the funds for the trip.
1878: The case of Lewinski v Lewinski is scheduled to be held in Brooklyn, New York. Mrs. Josephine Lewinski is suing her husband Philip Lewinski for divorce. As part of the divorce decree she is seeking alimony and the payment of her legal fees. The Lewinski’s are both Jewish. Six years ago, when Lewinski was a successful businessman he met Josephine Schauffer at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, where she was a ward. The trustees gave them permission to marry after Lewinski told them that he loved her and she had happily consented to the marriage. However, Lewinski’s business affairs went sour and he became a counterfeiter. He was caught and imprisoned. Mrs. Lewinski stood by him and went to various officials seeking his release. After he got out of prison, he began spending time with his old associates which is why she is seeking a divorce.
1881: It was reported today that the excursion sponsored by the Athletic Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem which had been scheduled to take place on August 4 has been re-scheduled for later this month. (August 4 was Tish’a B’Av which probably accounted for the scheduling change)
1881: The government of Argentina appointed a special agent to attract Jewish immigrants from Russia.
1881: It was reported today that Englishmen have developed a more positive attitude towards beef imported from the United States. Part of that improvement is attributed to the fact that between April and October of 1880, English Jews bought cattle from 15 different shipments without any complaint. Not one of the animals was rendered not Kosher or “unsound.” Apparently, the strict observance of Jewish laws concerning the inspecting and slaughter of meat is well enough known among the general populace for this fact to have had a positive impact on the sale of American cattle in the United Kingdom
1883: It was reported today that the Town Council of Ekaterinoslva, Russia has voted to give the Jews 5,000 rubles to compensate them for the losses suffered during a recent attack by an ant-Semitic mob.
1883: “The Nyireghyhaza Tiral” published today described the feelings and treatment of Jews in Europe in the wake of the “blood libel” trial recently held in Hungary.
1884: General Sir William John Codrington passed away. Codrington served as the Governor General of Gibraltar in 1859 when he provided food and shelter for Jews who had taken refuge in the colony because of the war between Spain and Morocco.
1884: “Hotel Rent By Religious War” published today described the conflicts between Jewish and Gentile society matrons at one of the leading resort hotels in Long Branch, NJ
1884: Rabbi Henry S. Jacobs delivered the principle address this afternoon at the cornerstone laying ceremony for the new synagogue to be used by Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun. The building is located at Madison Avenue, between 64th and 65thStreets in Manhattan. The Chairman of the Building Committee, Newman Cohen, deposited a variety of items including newspapers, coins and a scroll containing the history of the congregation into the cornerstone before it was put in place. Unlike many of the other Jewish congregations in the area, B’Nai Jeshrun will follow Orthodox ritual.
1886: Superintendent Jackson, the chief immigration officer at Castle Garden received a cable today from Hamburg informing him that a large number of Romanian and Polish Jews were waiting for a ship at the German port that would take them to America. According to the message, most of them were paupers.
1886: A major fire in Phoenix, Arizona, finally convinced the city council to accept the proposal of Mayor Emil Ganz to establish a waterworks and fire department.
1887: Today’s “Short Cuts” column contained an excerpt from the American Hebrew about the quality of meals served at the various resort “the mountains.” While patrons complain about the food, they come back year and year out. The paper concluded that the vacationers except too much for the small amount of money they pay. (The mountains refers to the Catskills which will later be known as The Borscht Belt)
1888: Stern Brothers of West 23rd Street in New York,have promised to provide the fund for today’s excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.
1889(9th of Av, 5649): Tish’a B’Av
1901: Birthdate of gangster Dutch Schultz. Born Arthur Flegenheimer, Schultz made his money as a violent bootlegger during the dry days of the Roaring 20’s. Even his fellow gangsters saw him as being out of control and they gunned him down in 1935. Actually, the Jews dodged the bullet on this one. Schultz converted to Catholicism before he died and is buried in a
Catholic
Cemetery
in the state of
New York
.
1911: Birthdate of Norman Gordon a “South African cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1938 to 1939.”
1912: The Bull Moose Party meets at the Chicago Coliseum. The Bull Moose Party was formed by Teddy Roosevelt after he lost the Republican nomination to Taft. The formation of the party would lead to a three way race for the Presidency in 1912 between Taft, Roosevelt and Wilson. Roosevelt had enjoyed strong support among Jewish leaders going back to his days as Chief of Police in New York and his two terms in the White House where appointed a Jew to the cabinet and championed the rights of Russian Jews. So strong was his support among the Jewish reform leaders that Oscar Straus “led the New York delegation down the aisles at Roosevelt’s breakaway Progressive convention in Chicago and then agreed to run for governor of New York on the Progressive ticket.” Jewish reformers were obviously in this election as can be seen by the support of Brandies for Wilson. In the end T.R. lost, but he never lost the good will of a significant part of the Jewish community. According to one source, a Jewish police officer, Otto Raphael, said Kaddish over Roosevelt's body the night before he was buried.
1915: As part of the Gallipoli Campaign, the Allies mount a diversionary attack timed to coincide with a major Allied landing of reinforcements at Suvla Bay. Despite the courage of the troops, the landings were botched due to the ineptitude of the generals in charge. The campaign ultimately failed with the hopes of knocking the Ottoman Empire out of the war and breaking the stalemate on the Western Front. The Zion Mule Corps, an all Jewish supply unit gained the respect of the British during the campaign and this helped lay the groundwork for the creation of all Jewish Battalions in the British Army that would distinguish themselves while fighting with Allenby.
1916: Birthdate of historian Richard Hofstadter. Hofstadter’s father was Jewish. His mother was not. Hofstadter was a professor at
Columbia
University
where he had earned his Ph.D. Hofstadter came of age during the Great Depression. He embraced communism because it was the enemy of capitalism, a system that Hofstadter had failed the working men and women of
America
. As the thirties wore on, he became equally disenchanted with the Party and the
Soviet Union
. The final break came, as did with so many others, over Stalin’s pact with Hitler in 1939. Hofstadter’s writings were quite influential during the mid 20thcenturies. Two of his works, The Age of Reform and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life won Pulitzer Prizes and were on the required reading list in many of the history and political science departments at American colleges and universities. His influence would have been greater had he lived longer. He died at tragically at the age of 54.
1918: Birthdate of Norman Granz, American jazz musician and record producer
1920: In Bucharest, the government of Romania decides to consider Turkish Jews as enemy aliens. The Romanians intern the Jews, sequester their property and threaten to expel them. The Union of Native Jews of Romania intervenes to help their co-religionist.
1923: American delegates to the "World Zionist Congress, as well as hundreds of other American Jews who have come to
Carlsbad
for the gathering took part in a memorial service to President Harding held here yesterday, to which all Americans were invited.
1924: The Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor made public the text of a letter sent with its approval by Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor to former Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson, who had asked the council not to make a decision on Presidential endorsements until it had the acceptance speech of John W. Davis before it, a request which was refused
1926: In New York, the Warner Brothers’ Vitaphone system premieres with the movie Don Juanstarring John Barrymore
1926: Harry Houdini performs his greatest feat, spending 91 minutes underwater in a sealed tank before escaping.
1929: A month before his death, Louis Marshall wrote a letter to Julius Rosenwald in which traced the history of the Jewish Theological Seminary, praised its many accomplishment and expressed his fear that adequate funding would not be available to ensure the growth of this unique educational institution. (This letter would inspire Rosenwald to contribute a half million dollars to JTS after Marshall passed away in September of 1929)
1930: Birthdate of Marvin Pomerantz, the Des Moines, Iowa native who would become a successful businessman, public benefactor, a friend and adviser to Republican governors and presidents for four decades, who twice served as president of the Iowa Board of Regents. He was the eighth of nine children of Jewish immigrants who came to
Iowa
from
Poland
in 1912. In 2006, he published his autobiography entitled The Best I Can Do.
1933: In Springfield, New Jersey, an undetified plane flies over an open-air meeting of United Singers Society and scatters German language pamphlets protesting against the decision of the Society to prohibit representatives of the Friends of New Germany from attending its meetings. The Friends of the New Germany was a pro-Nazi organization formed at the behest of Berlin that would morph into the German-American Bund. The United Singers Society was a German organization made up conservatives who are not sympathetic to the Friends of New Germany. Attendees complained that the noise of the plane interrupted the community sing-along taking place below.
1937(29th of Av, 5697):Miss Eleanor Septima Cohen, prominent for many years in Jewish and non-sectarian benevolent activities, died today at a Baltimore hospital at the age of 79. Her grandfather, Benjamin I. Cohen, was one of the founders and president of the Baltimore Stock Exchange. A philanthropist who supported numerous Jewish and non-Jewish causes and institutions, Miss Cohen was a descendant of Solomon Etting (her great-grandfather) and Jacob I. Cohen (her great-uncle) who were instrumental in the fight for Jews to obtain religious rights in Maryland.
1938: Near Hedaria, several Jewish laborers were wounded when they were fired on by and a band of Arabs.
1938: In Danzig, “the Gestapo raided a number of hotels, restaurants and cafes and frequented by Hews and demanded that all present establish their identity and explain their presence in the Free City.” This was the first of two nights of what were described as “harsh anti-Jewish measures.
1939: “The Dinah Shore Show” starring the singer of the same name debuted on NBC Radio. Dinah Shore was the stage name of France Rose Stein, the Jewish lass from Tennessee who was a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
1940: As more than 12,000 persons stood out in the street, a funeral service was held today for Vladimir Jabotinsky, author, soldier and world leader of the New Zionist Organization, at the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel in New York.
1942: Three thousand Jews were slaughtered in the streets of
Minsk
. One hundred would escape and form a partisan unit
1942: The Palestine Regiment consisting of, three Palestinian Jewish battalions and one Palestinian Arab battalion was officially formed as part of the British military armed forces. Despite the efforts by the British to enlist an equal number of Jews and Arabs into the Palestine Regiment, three times more Jews volunteered than Arabs. Arab reluctance and Jewish enthusiasms accounts for the numerical disparity. At the time of its formation, the Regiment was principally involved in guard duties in Egypt and North Africa. The British also wanted to undermine efforts of Hajj Amin al-Husayni who successfully drummed up Arab support for the Axis Powers against the Allies.
1943: In Vilna, over a dozen Jews were shot as they attempted to resist deportation orders.
1945: The Atomic Bomb named Little Boy is dropped on
Hiroshima
. The “Jewish Bomb” as some call it hastened the end of the war and save the lives of untold numbers of Allied soldiers and sailors who would have died during an invasion of Japan as well as the millions of lives of Japanese who would have also died. Without the work of Oppenheimer, et al, the war would have lasted anywhere from three to five years longer.
1946(9th of Av, 5706): Tish'a B'Av
1946: Leonard Bernstein conducted American premiere of Britten's Peter Grimes, BMC.
1952: Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett denied that Israel was constructing air bases for atomic bombs on its soil and that it had agreed in the past, or will agree in the future, to serve a foreign power for such purposes.
1952: Over 500 members of the World Assembly of Jewish Choirs turned
Jerusalem
into a city of song.
1952: The first English draft of the text of the agreement between Israel and West Germany was drawn up and agreed to at The Hague.
Israel
announced that a special German Goods Purchasing Commission would be appointed as soon as the Jewish negotiating team returned from
The Hague
. The issues of reparations from the Germans and diplomatic relations between the two governments were two of the most contentious items confronting Israeli and Jewish society.
1959(2nd of Av, 5719): Salman Schocken passed away at Pontresina, Switzerland. Born in 1877 in Margonin, Province of Posen, German Empire (today Poland) , he was a German Jewish publisher and businessman. Salman Schocken was the son of Jewish shopkeeper in Posen. In 1901, he went to Zwickau, a German town in southwest Saxony, to help run a department store owned by his brother, Simon. Together they built up the business and established a chain of stores all over Germany. In Chemnitz and Stuttgart, Schocken commissioned the German Jewish architect Erich Mendelsohn to build branches of the Kaufhaus Schocken. In 1915 Schocken was co-founder of the Zionist journal Der Jude (with Martin Buber). After Simon's death in 1929 Salman Schocken became sole owner of the firm. The same year, in which Schocken's friend Franz Rosenzweig also died, 1929 he established the Schocken Institute for Research on Jewish Poetry. In 1931, he founded the publishing company Schocken Verlag, which reprinted the recently completed Buber-Rosenzweig translation of the Bible.In 1934, after the rise of Nazism, Schocken left Germany for Palestine. In 1940, he settled in the United States. In Jerusalem, he built the Schocken Library, also designed by Erich Mendelsohn. He was a board member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and bought the newspaper Haaretz, which is still owned by his family. He also founded Schocken Publishing House Ltd. and opened another branch in New York (Schocken Books). The Nazis forced him to sell his German enterprises to Merkur AG but he managed to recover some of his property after the war. Schocken became the patron of Shmuel Yosef Agnon when he was a struggling writer in Palestine. Recognizing Agnon's literary talent, Schocken paid him a stipend that relieved him of financial worries and allowed him to devote himself to writing (Agnon went on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature).
1960: Shabbat Nachamu: Bar Mitzvah of David Levin at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C. – the words of Isaiah never sounded so sweet! This was the first time that a large group of adults got a chance to be dazzled by his voice and skill. Fifty years later, he is still dazzling us. This also marked the first Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel that was officiated by Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz.
1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The passage of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Right Act of 1964 marked one of the high water marks in the battle for equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, religion, national origin and sex. Both of these landmark laws were supported by Jewish voters, communal leaders and elected officials.
1967: Birthdate of sportscaster David Greenberg
1969(22nd of Av, 5729): A month before his 66th birthday, Theodor W. Adorno, passed away.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/
1970: Elimelekh Rimalt completed his service as the Minister of Postal Services in Israel.
1973: Birthdate of sportscaster Max Kellerman
1974: Birthdate of Max Kellerman, boxing commentator and sports talk radio host.
1977: The United States officially disclosed that the nuclear facilities in the US were unable to trace more than 3,000 kilograms of highly enriched uranium and plutonium. A number of American newspapers speculated that the minerals might have found their way to
Israel
.
1985: Thomas R. Pickering presented his credentials as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1986: Bernard Lewis publishes his seminal work Semites and Anti-Semites, which explores modern anti-Semitism in the Arab world.
1986(1st of Av, 5746): Rosh Chodesh Av
1995(10th of Av, 5755): Tish’a B’Av
1998: Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with President Bill Clinton.
1990: Funeral services are held at Temple Emanu-El for philanthropist Lucy Goldschmidt Moses
1995(10th of Av, 5755): Since the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat today Tish'a B'Av is observed.
2000: The New York Times book section featured reviews of In Search of Deep Throat: The Greatest Political Mystery of Our Time by Leonard Garment, one of a handful of Jews who worked for Richard Nixon, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering by Norman G. Finkelstein, Benjamin Zucker's first novel, Bluewhich is at once a spiritual challenge and a gorgeous typographical object. Echoing the style of the Talmud, the book presents a continuing narrative in the center of each right-hand page, where a passage from the Mishna -- ancient commentary on the Torah -- would ordinarily be placed.
2001: President George W. Bush receives President's Daily Briefing entitled Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US and does nothing in response. It will be left to future historians to determine if a response might have avoided the first successful attack on Washington, D.C. since the British burned the city in 1814. To paraphrase Elie Weisel, the only thing we know for sure is that now the world knows what it feels like to be Jewish in the worst sense of that term.
2005(1st of Av, 5765):Rosh Chodesh Av:
2005: In Cedar Rapids, despite summer vacations and myriad of other distractions, the small Jewish community at Temple Judah mustered more than a minyan for the Traditional Shabbat morning services.
2006 12th of Av, 5766): Fifteen Israelis are killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks. Among them were the following twelve soldiers:
Sgt. Gregory Aharonov, 34, of Or Akiva, moved to
Israel
from the
Ukraine
in 1991. Despite concerns about serving, Aharanov obliged when he was called up. Aharanov was named after his grandfather who died, also at the age of 34, in World War One. Aharanov was the manager of a cosmetics factory and is survived by his wife, two children, parents and older sisters. He was laid to rest at
4 p.m.
on Monday.
Sgt.-Maj. Marian Berkowitz, of
Ashdod
, was called up Wednesday and has a younger brother who is currently serving in
Lebanon
. Friends described him as fun loving and that he "loved challenges." Berkowitz is survived by his parents and two brothers. He was laid to rest at
4 p.m.
on Monday in the
Ashdod
military cemetery.
CWO Yosef Karkash, 41, of Afula, met with Shlomo Buchris, his cousin and fellow reservist, early Sunday. Later that day, both cousins were killed by the Katyusha. Relatives are devastated, and were quoted as saying that they "don't know which family to visit and console first." Karkash is survived by his wife and two daughters. He was laid to rest at
5 p.m.
in the Afula military cemetery.
Sgt.-Maj. Ro'i Yaish, 27, of Herzliya got his call up order last week. "He loved his motorcycle," friends said. "You couldn't touch his bike or his helmet. Whenever we heard his bike, we knew he was coming and everyone would get excited." Ro'i is survived by his parents and three brothers. Ro'i was laid to rest at
5 p.m.
in his hometown.
Despite being recently hurt in a field trip to the
Judean
Desert
, St.-Sgt. Yehuda Greenfeld, 27, of Maale Michmas, was called to duty. Greenfeld leaves behind a two and a half year old daughter and a four month old son. Greenfled is survived by his wife and two kids, along with his parents and five brothers. He was laid to rest at
5 p.m.
in the Herzliya cemetery.
St.-Sgt. Shaul Shai Michlowitz, 21, of Netanya, had finished his army service three months ago, and was waiting for his request to serve additional time as a career soldier to be authorized. Instead, he received an emergency call-up order last week. Shaul is survived by his parents and two sisters. He was buried at
5 p.m.
in the Netanya military cemetery.
St.-Sgt.Maj. Daniel Ben-David, 38, of Moshav Ahituv, volunteered to join fellow paratroopers in
Lebanon
, despite his family's objections. Ben-David was described by a neighbor as "always laughing and hugging" and as someone who "loved to help people." Ben-David is survived by his wife and three children. He was buried at
5:30 p.m.
in the Ahitub cemetery.
Warr.Ofc. Shmuel Halfon, 41, of
Bat Yam
, was called up two weeks ago, only to be told that he could return home last week. One day after he went home, Halfon was called up again. Family members said that Halfon loved the army and liked serving reserve duty. Halfon left behind three sons, one of whom is 11 months old. Halfon is survived by his wife and three sons. He was laid to rest at
7 p.m.
in the military section of the
Holon
cemetery.
Sgt.-Maj. Ziv Balali, 28, of Kfar Sava, was about to celebrate his 29th birthday next month. Ziv recently completed a degreee in Middle East Studies. He is survived by his parents and sister. He was laid to rest at
7 p.m.
in the military cemetery in his hometown.
St.-Sgt.Maj. Shlomo Buchris, 36, of Moshav Sde Yitzchak, reassured his brother that while other troops had gone into
Lebanon
, he had not yet entered and was fine. Just a short time later, Buchris was killed. Buchris was named after his father, who fell in the Six Day war.
He was buried at
7:15 p.m.
in the Sde Yitzhak cemetery.
F.-Sgt. Mordechai Abutbul, 28, of Shlomi who was buried at
10 p.m.
in the military section of the Shlomi cemetery.
Captain Eliyahu Elkariaf, 34, of Moshav Granot. He will be laid to rest on Tuesday at
5 p.m.
in the military section of the Kfar Ata cemetery.
2006: Surprisingly, the Chicago Tribune published an op-ed article by David Memet entitled, “Bigotry Pins Blame on Jews.”
2006: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Spoiling For A Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer by Brooke A. Masters and Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography byDavid S. Brown. (Hofstadter’s father was Jewish.)
2006: Anglo-Jewish author Michael Rosen was the subject of the BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs program.
2007: In article entitled “Climates” that appeared in The New Republic, Leon Wieseltier, takes issue with the behavior and media treatment of the “super-rich” citing specifically Sanford Weill and “the obscene Stephen Schwarzman, who is very bad for the Jews.”
2007: The New Republic published a review of Jesus in the Talmud by Peter Schafer.
2007(22nd of Av, 5767): Mose Fishman, who as a 21 year-old from New York fought Fascists in Spain with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, passed away at the age of 91.
2007: At a meeting in the synagogue of the Novominsker Rebbe, more than a dozen religious heavyweights – including Rabbi Aryeh Kotle and Rabbi David Zwiebel – consider evidence that that chickens may have been mistreated in past Kapparot ceremonies and acknowledged that the problem rose to a level that could violate rabbinic law. After the conference, the rabbis collectively issued a call for members of the community to clean up the process during this year’s holiday season.
2008: After a meeting today between Prime Minister Ehud Omert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials from both sides announced that Israel will release about 150 Palestinian prisoners at the end of the month as a gesture to President Abbas
2009: In Jerusalem Beit Avi Chai presents Part 4 of “Symbolically Speaking": Visual images of Israel, Hebrew culture, Zionism, and Judaism in which art scholar Dr. Gideon Ofrat traces the course of five icons of Jewish art until they reached Israeli galleries, thereby telling the story of modern Hebrew culture with its hopes and disappointments, highs and lows.
2009: Final night of the Israeli Wine Tasting Festival at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
2009: Funeral is held for Amos Kenan at a Kibbutz in central Israel.
2009: Voting closes for the selection of those who will appear in the Only In America Gallery of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.
2009: Israel's largest political party, Kadima, shut down its official Web site today, claiming it had been infiltrated by Palestinian hackers. The Web site was invaded early Thursday and littered with inciting slogans and pictures aimed against it and its leader, Tzipi Livni. Livni's blog was also hacked, said the sources. Kadima now has its internet team working to restore the site, said the party. Among images implanted in the site were those from suicide bombings in Israel and of Palestinians wounded from Israel Defense Forces operations in Gaza. There were also slogans in Hebrew and Arabic such as "God will defeat Israel". The hacked Web page was signed: Gaza Hacker Team. Kadima won 28 seats in Israel's February election, one more than the ruling Likud. Livni is Israel's opposition leader.
2009: A Cobb, GA rabbi is seeking to declare Georgia’s Kosher Food Labeling Act unconstitutional, saying it de-legitimizes interpretations of “kosher” by different Jewish communities. Shalom Lewis, rabbi of Congregation Etz Chaim, filed suit today in Fulton County Superior Court. He is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia and Atlanta law firm King and Spalding. The Kosher Food Labeling Act, enacted in 1980, mandates that any food sold as kosher must meet “orthodox Hebrew religious rules and requirements.” Lewis, a conservative Jew, said he cannot fulfill his rabbinical duties because his theological interpretation of the state’s kosher laws differs from that of Orthodox Judaism. He said he violates state law when he approves some foods as kosher that are not kosher under Orthodox definitions. Ac