September 12 In History
1213: During the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, defeated Peter II of Aragon, at the Battle of Muret. The Albigensian Crusade was a twenty effort by the Roman Catholic Church to suppress one of the many heresies that bubbled up to challenge its authority. The Jews were not the direct target of the Crusades but were the unintended victim of the effort. The Jewish subjects of the Counts of Toulouse enjoyed a certain amount of freedom which dismayed Rome. When Toulouse was defeated, the Catholics at Rome saw to it that the Jews lost their right to hold public office in this area in the south of France and that they would be treated like Jews in other parts of Europe dominated by the Church.
1229: James I of Aragon began his conquest of Majorca by landing an army at Santa Ponça. When he conquered the island on the last day of the year, “he gave the Jews a quarter in the neighborhood of his palace for their dwellings, granted protection to all Hebrews who wished to settle on the island, guaranteed them the rights of citizens, permitted them to adjudicate their own civil disputes, to kill cattle according to their ritual, and to draw up their wills and marriage contracts in Hebrew. Christians and Moors were forbidden, under severe penalties, to insult the Jews or to take earth and stones from their cemeteries; and the Jews were ordered to complain directly to the king of any act of injustice toward them on the part of the royal officials. They were allowed to charge 20 per cent interest on loans, but the amount of interest was not to exceed the capital.”
1362: Pope Innocent IV passed away. In a period when copies of the Talmud were being confiscated and burned, Innocent IV responded positively to petition submitted by Abraham Bedaresi of Provencal and Meir of Rothenberg that they be allowed to keep their Talmudic writings. He promulgated a decree banning forcible baptism of Jews which also stated that the Jews “should not be disturbed in the observance of their festivals.” And finally he issued a strongly worded Papal Bull that exonerated the Jews of the charges of the Blood Libel and condemned those who fabricated these charges. [Editor’s Note - Considering the era in which he lived and the position he held, we might assume that more than one Jew mourned the death of this prelate.]
1494: Birthdate of King Francis I of France. Strangely enough for a French monarch, Francis show an interest in the Hebrew language. After all, no Jew had legally lived in France for over a century. But this King invited August Justiniani, the Bishop of Corsica who was reputed to be a serious student of Hebrew literature to move to France. He also invited Elias Levita, the renowned Hebrew grammarian and poet, to move to France and accept a professorship in the Hebrew language. Levita declined the offer for obvious reasons.
1654(1st of Tishrei, 5415): Rosh Hashanah 5415
1654(1st of Tishrei, 5415): The Jews of what would become the United States celebrate the first Rosh Hashanah in New Amsterdam just five days after having arrived on September 7. It was also Shabbat. They held their service in secret in the second floor of a commercial building. Gov. Stuyvesant (Dutch) wanted the Jews gone and they were afraid to pray in public. Also, these were Sephardic Jews who had escaped the Inquisition so they knew about secrecy. Within a few months, the Dutch East India Company would tell the governor to let the Jews stay. Over time, the Jews would buy land for a cemetery, gain the right to serve in the militia and participate in the development of the Dutch colony.
1683: The second and final day of the Battle of Vienna. During the Austro-Ottoman War, a coalition of Christian European Armies defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vienna. Many historians date the beginning of the Ottoman Empire and therefore Islam from this event. The Christians marked the start of the final drive to push the forces of Islam out of central and eastern Europe. This was a mixed blessing for the Jewish people. On the one hand the Ottoman Empire had provided a haven for Jews forced to leave Spain and Portugal. On the other hand, the Christian victory had the unintended consequence ensuring that Europe would continue to be fertile ground for the growth of capitalism. This economic system helped to provide European Jews with unprecedented economic social and economic opportunity. “An oft-repeated story states that the bagel originated in 1683 in Vienna, Austria, when a local Jewish baker created them as a gift for King Jan III Sobieski of Poland to commemorate the King's victory over the Turks that year. The baked goods were fashioned in the form of stirrups (or horseshoe, tales vary) to commemorate the victorious cavalry charge. That the name bageloriginated from beugal (stirrup) is considered plausible by many, both from the similarities of the word and due to the fact that traditional handmade bagels are not perfectly circular but rather slightly stirrup-shaped. (This fact, however, may be due to the way the boiled bagels are pressed together on the baking sheet before baking.)”
1685: Jews in
New Amsterdam
petition to be allowed to worship their religion publicly. Their wishes were not approved, because they did not, "profess faith in Christ." During this time strict Christian observance was mandatory.
1695 (3rd of Tishrei, 5456): As Jews observed the Fast of Gedaliah, Jacob Abendana “hakam” (chief rabbi) of London passed away.
1695: The governor of
New York
was petitioned to allow the Jews to exercise their religion in public. It seems that the Charter of Liberties granted by James I of
England
in 1683, applied only to Christians. Therefore, the governor declined the petition. Apparently this ban was not enforced since by the end of the 17th century, a building on
Beaver Street
in
Manhattan
was known as the Jewish Synagogue." In 1730, Congregation Shearith
Israel
(Remnant of Israel) publicly dedicated its new house of worship.
1759: British soldiers capture the town of Quebec from the French. This victory would play a key role in the British gaining control of Canada from the French thus opening the way for Jewish settlement of what those living in the “lower 48”call “their neighbor to the North.” Under the French, the Jews were officially banned from settling in Canada.
1762: (21 Elul 5524): On the secular calendar, Rabbi Jonathan Eybeshutz passed away. Born in 1690, in
Cracow
,
Poland
, Eybeshutz took his last name from the town in which his father served as a rabbi. Eyebshutz was a child prodigy and was considered a great Talmudic scholar and kabbalist. He became head of the
Prague
yeshiva at the age of twenty-one and the was named Rabbi of the Triple Community -
Altona,
Hamburg
and Wandesbeck. Unfortunately, Eybeshutz was caught up in the controversy of his time and some claimed that he had come under the influence of He was a kabbalist, author and Rabbi. Considered a brilliant authority on many subjects, Eybeshutz came under the influence of Shabbetianism. This meant that he was a secret follower of the false messiah, Shabbetai Tzevi. The depth of this controversy is meaningless to us today, but it was quit intense during the 18th century. An accusation like this was akin to calling somebody a Communist back in the 1940's or 1950's. Although Eybeshutz was cleared of the charge, it stained his reputation and the controversy followed him to the grave. In a collection of sermons published after his death, we might a clue to why some of his colleagues did not like Eybeshutz. In his talks, he "assailed materialism praying by heart and the tendency of colleagues to preach only on safe topics."
1768 (1st of Tishrei, 5529 Rosh Hashanah 5529
1768: In Newport, Rhode Island, Aaron Lopez closed his businesses on the first day of Rosh Hashanah.
1798(2nd of Tishrei, 5559): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1798: In the wake of the French capture of Mainz the gates of the ghetto were torn down. The Jews of Mainz remained French citizens until the end of the occupation in 1814.
Mainz
was (and is) a German city. Wherever the French armies went, they carried the message of the French Revolution - "
Liberty
, Fraternity, and Equality." This was a message of liberation for the Jews of Europe many of whom were living in ghettos and in an environment of something less than second class citizenship. After the French were defeated, the conditions of the Jews in many of these countries reverted to the pre-Revolutionary state. It would take several decades before the disabilities attached to the Jews would be removed in many of the countries of Central and
Southern Europe
.
1820(4th of Tishrei, 5581): Abraham Ben Jehield Danzig passed away. Born in Lithuania in 1748, he was a noted author and codifier of Jewish Law who ranked just behind Joseph Caro and Mordecai Yafe. His high level of personal ethics can be seen in his decision not to accept a paid position as a rabbi in Vilna because he “considered it improper to receive a stipend” for serving in that capacity. He supported himself as a merchant while he pursuing his Jewish studies and writings
1823: King Frederick William III of Prussia continued his policy of repudiating that Edict of 1812 that gave Jews the full rights of citizens by making “the minister of the interior responsible for ensuring that ‘no sects among the Jewries (Judenschaften) of my lands be tolerated.’”
1825(29th of Elul, 5585): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1830: Birthdate of William Sprague IV, the Senator from Rhode Island who said the Jews were to blame for the fact that they had been attacked by peasants in Romania.
1832: In Scotland, Joseph Levi, a quill merchant who had died of cholera was the first person to be buried at the Glasgow Necroplis
1836 (1st of Tishrei, 5597): Rosh Hashanah
1836: A rented room was over Max's Grocery and Restaurant, on the corner of Second and Spruce Streets was the site of the first known minyan in St. Louis, MO as Jews gathered to observe Rosh Hashanah, 5597.
1846: Elizabeth Barrett elopes with Robert Browning. Relax; neither of them was Jewish. But one of Browning’s most famous poems is “Rabbi ben Ezra” which begins with the immortal words. “Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be…”
1847(2nd of Tishrei, 5608) Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1853: The New York Times published a review of Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews by a Congregationalist minister named Enoch Cobb Wines
1864: A party of Royal Engineers under the command of Captain Charles W. Wilson left England for Jerusalem where they were to begin the first modern survey of the ancient city including a variety of Biblical sites.
1873: Rabbi I.M. Wise and Cantor Mortiz Goldstein officiated at today’s consecration of Anshe Chesed’s new sanctuary. The congregation has moved from the old Norfolk Street Synagogue to is new location on the corner of Lexington and 63rd in Manhattan.
1874(1st of Tishrei, 5635): Rosh Hashanah
1874: In New York, Jewish businesses in the Bowery on Grand, Chatham and Catherine streets as well as those on 6th & 8th avenues and on Broadway were closed today because of the Jewish New Year.
1874: In the United Kingdom, Joseph Guedalla and Rowena (Florance) Guedalla gave birth to Abraham Guedalla.
1875: An article published today entitled “The Jews of Lincoln” which first appeared in Macmillan’s Magazine provides a brief history of the Jews of that part of England beginning with the loss of part of treasure that had belonged to Aaron of Lincoln in 1187 when some of the King’s ships were sunk during a voyage back to Normandy. Like the Jews of York, Lynn and Stamford, the Jews of Lincoln had been slain and plundered by young Englishman who were going to King Richard on his Crusade to the Holy Land. The Jews of Lincoln have the additional memory of the slaughter tied Hugh of Lincoln, the Christian child whose death resulted in the first blood libel in the British Isles.
1878(29th of Elul, 5547):Erev Rosh Hashanah
1879: A large number of New York’s most prominent Jews attended this morning’s funeral for Leonard Montefiore, the nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore. Rabbi Gustav Gottheil officiated at the services which were held at Temple Emanu-El. Several of the city’s rabbis attended including Dr. Daniel Einhorn, H.S. Jacobs, Samuel Adler, H.S. Isaacs and Aaron Wise. Montefiore’s coffin was taken to the SS Britannic which will take it back to England for final interment. Montefiore had come to the United States to study the republican social and political institutions that have developed in the United States so that he could write about them for his fellow Englishman. Just prior to his death, the Times of London had published an article of his about the Oneida Community.
1880: In New York, police arrested Mina Blumenthal, for her role in her husband’s activities that included fencing stolen goods.
1881: According to a review of Our Nationalities by James Bonwick, Milesius, the founder of the Milesians “was intimate with Moses.”
1883: It was reported today that in Hungary, “the Bishop of Veszprim has issued a pastoral letter in which he declares that Jew-baiting is most unchristian.
1890: Birthdate of Solomon Myer “Sol” Wurtzel, the New York native who became a successful movie producer.
1891: In an editorial The London Times praised the scheme of “Baron Hirsch for colonizing in
America
the Jews for whom there is no place in
Europe
that it is the most remarkable scheme of the kind ever attempted by practical men.” The Times saw this as an example of Jewish leaders to” spend money as generously as they can accumulate it.”
1892: Birthdate of Alfred A. Knopf, founder of Alfred Knopf, Inc., the famous American publishing house. “He went to college to become a lawyer, but he fell in love with literature and decided to devote his life to it. At the time, the publishing world was a kind of gentlemen's club and Knopf had a hard time fitting in because he was Jewish. He was the first Jewish employee at Doubleday. One of his first projects was to republish all of Joseph Conrad's books in a set, which he did with the help of H.L. Mencken. At the time that Knopf got into the publishing business, before television and widespread radio, people said that Americans didn't read books—they just read the newspapers. Knopf thought that Americans might be more likely to read good books if books were beautiful to look at. He used beautiful, easy to read type and high quality paper, and he was the first publisher to cover his books with brightly colored jackets. When Knopf founded his own publishing company, he didn't have enough money to publish big-name American authors, so he published European authors instead. Most American publishers didn't care about European literature, so Knopf was able to cheaply publish writers like Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka, and Albert Camus. When several of his authors won the Nobel Prize for Literature, Alfred A. Knopf Inc. became known as one of the best literary publishing houses.” It was his Jewish wife Blanche Wolf Knopf who encouraged him to follow his dream and start his own publishing house. She was more than just a cheerleader. She was President of Alfred A. Knopf, while her husband served as chairman of the board. She understood the publishing and was a driving force behind many of its major achievements. Although the publishing company was sold in the 1960's it remains as a known imprint to this day. Blanche died in 1966. Alfred Knopf passed away in 1984.
1896: Birthdate of Ella Kagan, the daughter of Jewish lawyer and music teacher living in Moscow, who gained fame as the French authoress Elsa Yur’evna Triolet.
1896: J. B. Greenhut opened its first store. The company was founded by Joseph B. Greenhut a native of Austria, who had served as Captain with the 12th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War.
1898: Birthdate of Ben Shahn, famed painter, muralist and printmaker. Born in Kovno
Russia
(now part of Lithuanian), Shahn’s family moved to
New York
in 1906. Although not just a Jewish artist," much of Shahn's works contained Jewish themes, and his calligraphy frequently used the Hebrew alphabet as in the Alphabet of Creation, and Haggadah which was handwritten and illustrated by him in the 1967 Ecclesiast. In addition, he created murals for Jewish congregations including Mishkan
Israel
in
New Haven
,
Connecticut
, and Ohab Shalom in
Nashville
,
Tennessee
, as well as two mosaics for the Israeli oceanic ship Shalom. These mosaics were purchased by the
New Jersey
State
Museum
when the Shalom went out of service." Shahn was a social activist as well as an artist. "Ben Shahn said, 'I hate injustice. I guess that's about the only thing that I really do hate. and I hope I will go on hunting it all my life." His work reflects his concern with injustice, political freedom, and the state of humanity.'" He passed away in 1969. There are numerous websites where you can view his art.
1901: Birthdate of comedian Ben Blue. Ben Blue was one of several Jewish vaudeville stars who found fame and fortune in the early days of television. Like Milton Berle, Blue starred in his own television variety program. However, "all fame is fleeting," especially in the world of entertainment. Blue died in 1975 and today this once successful star is a mere memory to even the most avid trivia maven.
1901: Gedera was attacked by Arabs. Gedera was a moshav founded in 1884 by members of the BILU Movement from
Russia
. It is several miles south of city of
Rehovot
. The settlers chose the name because it was near the site of a biblical town with that same name that had been in land belonging to the tribe of
Judah
. In its early years, the settlers struggled to grow grapes and grains. Gedera survived the attack and early privations and today is a thriving town with a population of 6,500.
1909: Adolph Kaluber writes a negative review of Israel Zangwill’s latest play, "The Melting Pot."
1911: Birthdate of Gerhart Moritz Riegner
1912(1stof Tishrei, 5673): As William Howard Taft, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson take part in a rare Presidential campaign with three, rather than two, viable candidates, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah. Each of the candidates enjoyed support from the Jewish community.
1912: King of
Italy
makes Commanders Guido, Rava, Sforni,
Mantua
and Signor Sereni, Presidents of the Jewish Community at
Rome
, Grand Officers in the Crown of Italy.
1915: Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden (Aide Association of German Jews) was informed that the inhabitants of Strumitza, fearing its occupation by Bulgarians, set fire to the town and fled. One hundred families went to Salonica and Doiran
1921: Birthdate of Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem. Born in
Lviv
,
Poland
(now
Ukraine
) he studied to be a doctor, but had to go undercover and hide his Jewish identity when the Nazis invaded
Poland
. During World War II, he pretended to be a Christian mechanic and sabotaged as much Nazi machinery as he could without getting caught. After the war, he began to write fiction. He decided that regular realistic fiction wasn't sufficient to describe the world anymore, so he wrote fiction that took place thousands of years in the future. He's best known for his novel Solaris (1961), about a scientist who travels to a space station near a strange planet and meets the ghost of his wife. His most recent novel is Peace on Earth(1987), about a future where all wars are fought on the moon by machines, so that humans don't get hurt.”
1922: Birthdate of Mark Richard Rosenzweig, the Rochester born research psychologist whose studies in animals found that the brain reshapes itself in response to experience, in adulthood as well as in early childhood.
1923: Sir Herbert Samuel, the High Commissioner, is expected to arrive in Palestine today.
1923(2ndof Tishrei, 5684): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1926(4thof Tishrei, 5687): Since the third of Tishrei fell on Shabbat, Tzom Gedaliah is observed today.
1929: Jonah J. Goldstein, an attorney who is a member of the Executive Committee of the Joint Distribution Committee and the administrative committee of the ZOA sailed on the steamship Bremen tonight as he began his trip to Palestine. Goldstein is going to aid in the investigation of recent uprising as well as to ensure those working for the Palestine Emergency Fund are providing the requisite support for the victims of the violence. Goldstein is traveling at the behest of Felix Warburg the financier who also chairs the administrative committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
1930(19th of Elul, 5690): Ninety-five year old Amalia Nathansohn Freud, the wife of Jacob Freud and the mother of Sigmund Freud passed away.
1931: First organized attack by Nazi storm troopers against Jews took place in Berlin.
1933: While waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, Leó Szilárd conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction. The Hungarian born Jew would settle in the United States and work on the Manhattan Project.
1934: Birthdate of Abraham Telvi, the mobster who was one of those responsible for the vile crime of blinding Victor Riesel
1935: The New Zionist Organization is founded in
Vienna
by Zev Jabotinsky. For many years there was tension between the World Zionist Organization and the Revisionist Party. Some of it was the result tactical differences, including the expansion of the Jewish Agency to include "non-Zionists." In addition there was still strong resentment and political tensions in the aftermath of the Alosoroff murder. The actual break came with a resolution to prohibit any independent political activity of Zionist organizations. Eleven years later they rejoined the WZO. The formation of this organization was just another example of differences between Jabotinsky and his supporters (including Menachem Begin) on the one hand and the Labor Zionists on the other. These differences have continued to this day and may be seen in the electoral politics of
Israel
in the 21st century
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the future of
Palestine
was discussed by the delegates of various countries at the League of Nations Council in
Geneva
. But British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden postponed his most important and much-awaited opening statement to the next meeting.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that at a meeting
Bludan
,
Syria
, Arab Foreign Ministers from
Egypt
,
Syria
,
Lebanon
and
Iraq
decided to send special delegations to
Geneva
,
London
and other important European capitals in order to explain their opposition to Palestine¹s partition and to seek support for the Arab cause.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Shanghai Jews had created a special, volunteer Jewish Zionist defense force to protect their community. Many of the Jews living in
Shanghai
had either come from
Russia
during the First World War or during the Civil War following the Russian Revolution. Both of these upheavals had closed the western paths of immigration leaving Jews with no choice but flea across Asiatic Russia and cross into
China
. Another group of Jews living in
Shanghai
were refugees from Hitler's Final Solution. With the normal westerly routes closed, the flight east before and during World War II was an escape route. Many of these refugees and their offspring came to the
United States
, including Michael Blumenthal, Secretary of the Treasury under the Carter Administration.
1938: Ben Cohen and Thomas “Tommy the Cork” Corcoran two members of FDR’s Brain Trust known as the Gold Dust Twins appeared on today’s cover of Timemagazine. Cohen was Jewish. Corcoran wasn’t.
1938: In an article titled “Troubles of Jews,” Time magazine reported that:
· People "of the Hebraic race" who have settled in the Kingdom of Italy, Libya or Italian Aegean Islands since Jan. 1, 1919 were last week ordered by the Italian Cabinet to depart before March 1, 1939 or be forcibly expelled. Commented No. 1 Fascist Newspundit Virginio Gayda: "These Jews, political or racial refugees of other countries, represent a foreign and perilous body and spirit inserted in the body and spirit of the Italian nation." The decree will oust about 20,000 of the estimated 85,000 persons in Italy "born of both parents of the Hebrew race." Next day the Cabinet decreed the ousting from all State-licensed schools of Jewish instructors and Jewish students numbering about 10,000. Jews who were already enrolled last year in Italian institutes of higher learning will be permitted to complete their courses.
· Jews from all over the World met in Antwerp last week to launch an appeal for $10,000,000 in behalf of the Palestine Foundation Fund. Dr. Kurt Blumenfeld, Director of the Fund, urged a change in "Jewish methods of propaganda" to oppose Communism as well as Fascism. Treasurer Eliezer Kaplan of the Jewish Agency for Palestine complained: "Jews because of their indifference and failure to provide adequate funds are equally responsible with the British Government for the decline of Jewish immigration to Palestine."
· In Brazil last week, wealthy Jews received extortion notes threatening physical violence, destruction of property unless they sent large "voluntary contributions" to Brazilian groups with allegedly Nazi affiliations. In Sao Paulo, police at once marched out to guard the premises of Jews who received threat-letters.
· The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg barred its frontier to further Jewish refugees from Germany last week, continued to care for 315.
· Swiss authorities declared that an estimated 140 Jews per day had been "clandestinely" fleeing from Germany into Switzerland, announced that barbed wire is being strung along the frontier to stem this "Jewish flood." Jewish refugee camps in Switzerland were reported jam-packed last week. The camp at Diepoldsau hoisted a banner reading: "THANKS TO THE SWISS PEOPLE."
· Fearing Nazi oppression, about 30% of the Jewish population of the Free City of Danzig were announced to have fled abroad last week. Danzig Nazis of the Hitler Youth raided a synagogue, trampled and tore up the sacred Hebrew scrolls. Notice was served on 400 Jews owning houses in Danzig that next month Aryans will "purchase" their property. The Jews will be forced to sell out at Nazi-dictated prices.
· Soviet police last week jailed numerous Komsomol (Communist Youth Organization) leaders in the Ukraine and White Russia, who were accused of fomenting pogroms, according to Swedish press reports from Moscow. Stirred up by Young Communists, citizens of Pedobanya of the River Nemiljana started beating up Jews and attacking their homes. Moscow dispatched a commission of inquiry which reported that in the Ukraine there is "organized and fairly widespread" anti-Semitism. In Kiev, the Soviet Ukrainian Capital, anti-Jewish riots were suppressed by Red Army troops.
1939: Thirty-two Jews taken away in trucks at Pilca, Poland, shot dead and left in woods
1939: Birthdate of California Congressman Henry Waxman
1940: Birthdate of Congressman Stephen J. Solarz, who represents the largest Jewish congressional constituency in the country.
1941: One thousand, two hundred, sixty seven Jews were taken from Vilna and sent to Polna to be shot. General Keitel informed his commanders, "The struggle against Bolshevism demands ruthless and energetic measures, above all against the Jews." William Keitel rose to the rank of Field Marshall in the German Army. Statements such as these provide further proof of the complicity of the German military in "The War against the Jews". Keitel was hung in 1946 after being convicted at
Nuremberg
.
1942(1st of Tishrei, 5703): Rosh Hashanah
1942: After seven straight weeks of uninterrupted deportation of close to 265,000 Jews from
Warsaw
and other towns to Treblinka, the transports stop. Being the Jewish New Year (5,703) was only a coincidence. No trains would arrive for another nine days.
1942: More than 4800 Polish Jews are deported from
Warsaw
to the Treblinka extermination camp. A young Jew named Abraham Jakób Krzepicki escapes from Treblinka and makes his way to
Warsaw
, where ghetto historian Emanuel Ringelblum sees that Krzepicki's eyewitness camp testimony is taken down
1943: Sid Luckman out-tossed Slingin' Sammy Baugh of the Washington Redskins in an aerial duel today before 56,000 fans in Baltimore Stadium as the Chicago Bears defeated the National Football League champions, 21 -- 14, in an exhibition game.
1943: Abraham (Avrom) Sutzkever, the famous Yiddish poet and his wife escaped from the Vilna Ghetto. Sutzkever’s mother and infant son had already been killed by the Nazis. Before leaving the ghetto, Sutzkever hid a diary by Theodore Herzl and drawings by Marc Chagall from the Germans. After escaping, Sutzkever joined with his fellow Yiddish poet Shmerke Kaczerginsky to fight against the Nazis as part of Jewish partisan unit under the command of Moshe Judka Rudnitski.
1944: Jewish slave laborers work near
Lieberose
,
Germany
, to build a vacation complex for German officers
1946: Birthdate of Jerry Edwin Abramson, the three-term Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky and the first Metro Mayor “of the merge city-county government known as Louisville Metro.
1948: “Present Jose Figueres of Costa Rica has assured a representative of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society that the status of some 1,000 Jewish immigrants who arrived in that country since the end of the war in Europe will be legalized soon, HIAS announced here today. The announcement followed a visit here by Louis Feigenblatt, HIAS representative in Costa Rica. Feigenblatt, who is also president of the Jewish community of San Jose, revealed that the status of the immigrants was challenged after the former government was overthrown by a revolution last May and Figueres installed.” (As reported by JTA)
1949: The Knesset passed a compulsory education law. As soon as the guns of the War for
Independence
were silent, the new Jewish state was validating the centuries old commitment of Jews to the importance of learning. When the anti-Semites would burn copies of the Torah and the Talmud during the Middle Ages, they were not merely burning things, they were assaulting a basic form of Jewish identity; a form that they knew was part of the key to the on-going existence of the Jewish people regardless of their location.
1950 (1st of Tishrei, 5711): As UN forces led by U.S. and the ROK armies are breaking out of the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1950: The Israeli radio broadcasts Rosh Hashanah services. According to published reports Israelis have shown up the nation’s synagogues in unusually large numbers possibly as a sign of thanksgiving for the great strides the country has made in the past year.
1951:The Cabinet approved today a declaration by Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan that funds raised through the sale of Israeli bonds in the United States would be invested mainly in industrial and agricultural expansion and not diverted to meet "current and pressing emergency needs." Despite the worsening food situation, Mr. Kaplan said this action was necessary if Israel was to “achieve economic independence for our rapidly growing population.” Prime Minister Ben Gurion endorsed the plan even though it could mean a great deal of privation for the current generation.
1952: The Jerusalem Post published the full text of the agreement on German reparations to
Israel
.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the bodies of Haviva Reik and Raphael Reiss, who during World War II died on an Allied parachute mission against the Nazis in
Slovakia
, were laid to rest on
Mount
Herzl
in
Jerusalem
.
1954: Leonard Bernstein conducts the IPO in performance of Serenade featuring Isaac Stern at Teatro La Fenice, Venice.
1959: Premier of the western television hit “Bonanza.” The popular Sunday cowboy show starred a father and his three sons. Two of the four actors in the lead roles were Jewish. Lorne Greene played Pa Cartwright and Michael Landon played Little Joe.
1961: German physicist Carl Hermann passed away. Hermann and his wife hid Jews during the World War II. Hermann was arrested and imprisoned for this crime. He survived and continued his work in the field of crystallography.
1977(29th of Elul, 5737): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet was officially notified by Prime Minister Menachem Begin of the appointment of his two pre-1948 Irgun Zva'i Leumi comrades to top government posts: Ya'acov Aknin, an IDF brigadier, was appointed director-general of the Israel Lands Administration and Amihai Paglin was appointed the premier's adviser on the war against terror.
1981: In the following article entitled “Israeli Comedy at La Mama Annex, critic Frank Rich provides a review of “Ya’acobi and Leidenthal.”
1982(24th of Elul, 5742): Ninety-year old Louis Waldman, leading labor lawyer and founding member of the Socialist Party of America, passed away today.(As reported by Edward Gargan)
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/14/obituaries/louis-waldman-90-counsel-to-labor.html?pagewanted=print
1986: Birthdate of actress and singer and Emmy Rossum.
1995:Bella Abzug's plenary address to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijingset a tone of international cooperation and commitment that helped define both the conference and its influential legacy. After a historic career as a pioneering
U.S.
Congresswoman and activist, Abzug approached
Beijing
as a symbolic moment of feminist possibility. A long-time advocate for women's equality as well as human rights, she insisted on taking part in the
Beijing
conference despite illness and her confinement to a wheelchair. The conference focused primarily on probing the living conditions for women including women's health, education, and economic status. Success in defusing the tensions over Zionism that had marked previous United Nations women's conference facilitated constructive dialogue among the 7,000 delegates. The
Beijing
conference managed to synthesize numerous conflicting nationalistic feminist approaches into an international human rights feminist vision, offering resolutions that have continued to define national agendas for changing women's lives around the world. In her address Abzug stated that, "Imperfect though it may be, the Beijing Platform for Action is the strongest statement of consensus on women's equality, empowerment and justice ever produced by governments. The Beijing Platform is a consolidation of the previous UN conference agreements in the unique context of seeing it through women's eyes... We are bringing women into politics to change the nature of politics, to change the vision, to change the institutions. Women are not wedded to the policies of the past."
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including two children’s books, Moses and the Angels by Ileene Smith Sobel; Illustrated by Mark Podwal and Journeys With Elijah Eight Tales of the Prophet, retold by Barbara Diamond Goldin; Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
2000: “Israel Police Northern District Commander Alik Ron requested an investigation of Hadash MK Mohammad Barakeh for inciting violence against police.”
2002: Eyal Golan married the Miss Israel of 2001 Ilanit Levi. The couple's eldest son Liam was born in 2003 and their youngest daughter Alin was born in 2006.
2004: An exhibition styled “Photographs of Otto Frank” closes in
Amsterdam
. The exhibition was part of the commemoration of Anne Fran