September 13 In History
586
BCE
(3 Tishrei 3338): On the civil calendar assassination of Gedaliah ben Achikam. He had been appointed Governor of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar in an attempt to revitalize the Jewish community. His assassin, Ishmael ben Natanya, a descendent of the royal house, was convinced by neighboring nations that a revolt against the Babylonians could succeed. In fear of retribution, many of the remaining Jews fled to
Egypt
destroying what was left of the Judean government. This day is commemorated as a fast day, The Fast of Gedaliah. Yes, on the Jewish calendar, the first two days of Tishrei are days of Joy - Rosh Hashanah. This is immediately followed by a minor fast day - the Jew never forgets that life is a mixture of joy and sorrow.
81: The Roman Emperor Titus who gained fame for destroying the Second Temple passed away.
122: The building of Hadrian's Wall begins. The wall was named for Hadrian, the Roman Emperor who had it built as part of plan to set limits on the size of the Roman Empire and to essentially go over to a defensive posture. For the Jews, Hadrian was no “prince of peace” since he is the suppressed the Bar Kochba Revolt with vehemence and violence.
1438: King Duarte of Portugal passed away. During his reign he enacted laws prohibiting Jews from employing Christians. In 1433 Master Guedelha, a rabbi who served as doctor and astrologer for King Duarte prophesied “to King Duarte terrible events if he did not postpone his ascent to the throne of Portugal. A year later, Duarte and his army met with disaster at Tangiers and four years later - 1438 - King Duarte died of the plague - the Black Plague which decimated all of Europe.”
1503: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David. While the statue may win high marks as Renaissance heart, it gets a big “F” in Halakah since the statue of the Jewish king is of an uncircumcised male.
1600: The Jews of Klausenburg,
Hungary
, were massacred.
1625: Rabbi Isaiah Horowith and 15 other rabbis were arrested in
Jerusalem
by an Arab leader and held for ransom. Rabbi Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz, known as the Shlah after the title of one of his major works Shnei Luchos Ha-Bris, was a renowned Halachist, kabbalist and communal leader. Born in
Prague
in 1565, he made aliyah in 1621 after the death of his wife. Unlike most others, he settled in
Jerusalem
where he worked to rebuild the community. After his release he moved to Tiberius where he was buried next to the grave of the Rambam.
1635: The
Massachusetts General Court
banished Separatist preacher Roger Williams, 32, for criticizing the Massachusetts Bay Company charter and for perpetually advocating a separation of church and state. Williams would end up with his own colony,
Rhode Island
, where rules of religious toleration would become the template for the future
United States
. Of course, it was the values and vision of Williams that made the
United States
such a hospitable place for Jewish migration and development.
1759: At the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, the British defeat French near Quebec City in the Seven Years' War, known in the United States as the French and Indian War. This victory led to a peace treaty that made
Canada
an English Colony. English colonies were usually more hospitable venues for the growth of Jewish communities. In 1760, the first Jewish families arrived in
Montreal
and by 1768 they had formed the first congregation in
Canada
called Shearith
Israel
.
1768: In Newport Rhode, Island, Aaron Lopez closes his businesses on the Second Day of Rosh Hashanah.
1782:The Kahal Kadosh Mickvé Israel, the first Jewish congregation in Philadelphia, PA, its new building on Cherry near Third Street. Haym Salomon, of Revolutionary War fame, “agreed to pay one four of the cost” of the new building which had a price tag of £600. Gershom Mendez Seixas, the New York rabbi who had fled when the British occupied the city, was the spiritual leader of the congregation. Rabbi Jacob Raphael Cohen replaced Seixas when he returned to New York after the war.
1798(3rd of Tishrei, 5559): Tzom Gedaliah
1813: During the War of 1812, the British fail to capture
Ft.
McHenry
, the gateway to
Baltimore
. There were thirty Jews among the defenders of the famous fort.
1825(1st of Tishrei, 5586): Rosh Hashanah
1847(3rd of Tishrei, 5608): Tzom Gedaliah
1861(9th of Tishrei, 5622): During the Civil War, Erev Yom Kippur. Jewish soldiers serving with the Army of Northern Virginia are in the trenches because the Confederate general in command rejected the request of a rabbi in Richmond to allow them to leave to observe the holiday.
1863: Birthdate of Dr. Cyrus Adler who would become famous for his role as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., President of the Jewish Theological Society, a key player in the translation of the JPS Bible of 1917 and a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference (to name but a few of his accomplishments.) The irony is that this giant of Jewish culture was born in
Van Buren
,
Arkansas
.
1863(29thof Elul, 5623): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1864: Corporal Isaac Gause distinguished himself today when he captured the colors of the 8th South Carolina Infantry during a reconnaissance mission along the Berryville and Winchester Pike in Virginia.
1874(2nd of Tishrei, 5635) Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1874: An article published today entitled “The Jewish New Year” described the observance of the holiday by the Jews of New York City as well as a preview of the upcoming holiday of Yom Kippur, “the greatest and most solemn of all the Jewish religious days, it being the only one upon which Jews kneel in their devotions.
1874: It was reported today that there are upward of 100,000 Jews living in New York.
1874: Birthdate of composer Arnold Schonberg. Born
Vienna
Austria
, the composer of the Second Quartet anglicized his name when he became an American citizen. He is particularly remembered as one of the first composers to embrace atonality, and for his twelve tone technique of composition using tone rows. "As a Jewish intellectual, Schoenberg was passionately committed to the concept of unshaken adherence to an "Idea" (such as the concept of an inexpressible God) and the pursuance of Truth. He saw the development of music accelerating through the works of Wagner, Strauss and Mahler to a state of saturation. If music was to regain a genuine and valid simplicity of expression, as in the music of his beloved Mozart and Schubert, the language must be renewed." He passed away in 1951.
1874: An article entitled “The Hebrew Orphan Asylum describes the results of an investigation of this institution “which has always been regarded with especial pride by the Jewish community.” The investigation highlights the managerial shortcomings of Meyer Stern, President of this organization.
1874: An article published today questioned Myer Stern’s qualifications to serve as Commissioner of Charities and Correction in New York. Stern’s supporters had argued that his experience as President of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum qualified him for this public position. However, reports recently published in The New Era, a Jewish publication cite his failures as evidence by the inability of any of the 173 youngsters at the institution to be able to recite the Ten Commandments in English or Hebrew and the poor quality of the food served “in one of the most liberally endowed institutions in the country.”
1878(1stof Tishrei, 5548): Rosh Hashanah
1880(8thof Tishrei, 5641): Eighty-three year old Penina Moise, the Charleston native known for writing hymns and poetry, passed away.
http://www.scmuseum.org/women/Moise.html
http://www.discoveringpeninamoise.com/
1880: The New York Times publishes an article entitled “Teaching A Boy to Steal – One Blumenthal, Cigar Deal, Assumes the Character of Fagin the Jew.” The article presents the unsubstantiated claims of August Jambert, who was caught stealing by his employer, that he was led into this life of crime by William Blumenthal. The inflammatory and stereotypical headline shows that anti-Semitism was part and parcel of the American scene.
1882(29th of Elul, 5642): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1882: Members of Shearith Israel will attend services in their refurbished synagogue which has been undergoing alterations and repairs for the past three months.
1883(11thof Elul, 5643): Reb Avraham Yaakov Friedman zt’l a son of the Sabba Kadisha who led the Sadigur Chassidim for 30 years, passed away.
1883: It was reported today that the police in Agram have arrested the leaders of several secret societies which are “endeavoring to direct riots against the Jews.”
1885: Coroner Levy presided over a meeting at Pythagoras Hall that sought to take steps to protect the tens of thousands of newly arrived Jewish immigrants the bulk of whom come from Russia and Poland.
1889: At its meeting in Buffalo, NY, the Polish Alliance Convention amended its by-laws to exclude “Jews and infidels” from its membership.
1891: Gustav Jacob Born married Bertha Epstein. Born’s first wife, Gretchen Kauffmann had passed away five years earlier. This earlier union had produced Max Born, the Nobel Prize Laureate. The elder Born was famous in his own write for his work in the field of microscopy and embryology.
1894: Birthdate of Julian Tuwim, the Polish born Jewish poet.
1901(29th of Elul, 5661):Erev Rosh Hashanah
1902: Herzl writes to Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber. He encloses a copy of a letter Plehve addressed to Herzl. He expresses the hope that also
Austria
will support the Zionist undertaking.
1903: Birthdate of Fredric R. Mann, the Russian born Jewish-American industrialist and patron of the arts who helped finance music centers in Philadelphia and Tel Aviv.
1909: A total of 12,214 Jewish young men registered as recruits for the Turkish Army.
1913: After leaving the Army, Sir John Robert Chancellor, began serving as Governor of Mauritius, the first step on a diplomatic career that would lead to him being named High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine, a post from which he expressed his anti-Jewish views.
1914: Birthdate of American movie producer Max J. Rosenberg.
1919: Birthdate of Arthur George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, the Austrian native who came to Britain after the Nazis annexed Austria and became a major publisher and philanthropist. He has served as “Chairman of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (1996–2004), Governor of Tel Aviv University, Governor of the Weizmann Institute and Vice-Chairman of the EU-Israel Forum..”
1923(3rd of Tishrei, 5684): Tzom Gedaliah
1923: In Newark, NJ, Mr. and Mrs. Isadore Laufer gave birth to Charles Harry Laufer, the high school teacher who created Tiger Beat. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1924: Birthdate of Israel Tal, the IDF general who was an expert in Tank Warfare and took the lead in developing the Merkava Tank.
1925: Birthdate of Melvin Howard Tormé, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who gained fame as singer and jazz man Mel Tormé.
1925: The "Cinderella of the Sweatshop," Anzia Yezierska, received a glowing review in the New York Times for her best known novel, Bread Givers.
1925: Birthdate of Leon Levy, “a hedge fund pioneer who began investing at 13 with $200 and went on to make many millions, enough to make him one of the main individual backers of archaeological research…” “His father, Jerome, a dry goods merchant, amateur economist and successful investor, predicted the stock market crash of 1929 and sold much of his stock before it happened. He taught his son many financial lessons, particularly the importance of corporate profits in charting overall economic directions.”
1929:Today Rabbi Moses Blau and several Austrian Jewish refugees who had arrived in Vienna from Palestine gave their impressions of the situation in Eretz Israel. Blau was a leader among the oldest group of Jews who had settled in Palestine. His family had settled there more than a century ago, long before the birth of the modern Zionist movement.
1934: Nahum Goldmann met Jozef Beck, the Polish Foreign Minister, in Geneva today to try to persuade him not to repudiate the Minorities Treaty. He was not successful in his attempt.
1934: Poland revoked the minority treaty, fearing that Russia (now a League member) would become involved with her "private" affairs. This move meant more free-reign in the country's discrimination against the Jewish population.
1937: Laurence Steinhardt began serving U.S. Ambassador to Peru.
1937: Birthdate of Fred Silverman; one of host of Jews who rose to fame in the broadcasting industry. In Silverman's case he held top positions at both
ABC
and NBC.
1937: The
Palestine
Post's special correspondent, Molly Lyons, described in glowing terms how a group of American pioneers from Hadera established a new settlement on the hill of Jiara, a desolate, uninhabited area, some 22 kilometers away from Mishmar Ha'emek.
1937: In the Palestine Post, Lord Peel described the objective difficulties he and his colleagues faced as members of the Royal Commission, before they reached their unanimous decision recommending the partition of
Palestine
.
1938(17th of Elul, 5698): A Jewish policeman was shot dead tonight at Rishonlet Zion.
1938 (17th of Elul, 5698):Professor Samuel Alexander, O.M., Litt.D., who had served as a for Professor of Philosophy at Manchester University for over 30 years died at his home in Manchester, at the age of 79. He was the first Jewish fellow of an Oxbridge college.
1939:
Germany
occupied
Miclec
,
Poland
, and murdered its entire Jewish population. Among those killed 35 Jews were burned alive at the slaughterhouse and 20 more were burned alive in their synagogue.
1940: Italian forces begin their ill-fated invasion of
Egypt
. The Italian failure will draw
Germany
into the fighting in
North Africa
. Irwin Rommel will lead a drive that takes him figuratively to the gates of
Cairo
. These German successes are cheered by the Arabs. They also lead the British to enlist the aid of Jewish forces in
Palestine
. The training and arms that they Jews received would later help in the fight for Israeli independence.
1941: Suspicious that the Allies may be decoding its radio messages,
Berlin
orders German commanders in the
Soviet Union
to send future reports of Nazi executions of Jews and other Soviet civilians by courier instead of radio.
1941(21st of Elul, 5701): Eleven members of the Jewish Council of Piotrkow, Poland, who had cooperated with the Jewish underground, are executed following two months of Gestapo torture.
1941: Charles and Anne Lindbergh, members of the America First Committee, attend a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, at which Lindbergh blames the Jews for "agitating for war...for reasons that are not American....Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." [Ed. Note: Anybody seeking to understand FDR’s response to the plight of Europe’s Jews must factor in the depth of anit-Semitism that existed in the United States. Echoes of Lindbergh and the America First Movement can be heard today in the writings of Pat Buchanan a former Republican White House Speech writer who regularly appears on MSNBC.]
1942(2nd of Tishrei, 5703): Rosh Hashanah II
1942: The Jewish community at
Checiny
,
Poland
, is deported.
1942(2nd of Tishrei, 5703): Forty Rabbis of the ghetto of Lodz were killed by the Nazis
1943(13th of Elul, 5703): In the Lodz Ghetto, the Nazis hung Icek Bekerman, 34, for stealing a few pieces of leather with which he had planned to make himself a pair of shoelaces. The
Lodz
carpentry shop was ordered to build the gallows.
1944: The shipment of Jews from Westerbork, the Dutch concentration camp, to Auschwitz, Sobibor, Begen-Belsen and Thereisendstdat which had begun in 1942 came to an end. Over 100,000 Jews were shipped to the camps during this period. The Frank Family were among those who were shipped from Westerbrook to the death camps.
1945: Senator Guy Gillette of Iowa made public a letter that President Truman had written on August 31, 1945, to Britain's Prime Minister Clement Attlee that the issuance of 100,000 certificates of immigration to Palestine would help to alleviate the refugee situation.
1945:The U.S.S. President Warfield, the ship that would gain fame as the SS Exodus, left active service with the United States Navy.
1947:Mickey Rutner hit his only major league home run. He did it as a member of the Philadelphia Athletics in an 8-2 win over the Chicago White Sox. In the following interview with the NJ Jewish News, Rutner, who has made his retirement home in Georgetown, Tex., describes the big blow as well as providing insights on his diamond career.
“The guy threw me a curve ball, and I hit it quite well, and as I was rounding second I was thinking to myself, ‘Holy cow!’”He also had his first base hit, which had come a few days earlier in Yankee Stadium, against Joe Page. “That’s what you dream about. You always want to play at the Stadium against the Yankees,” said Rutner, who was born in Hempstead, NY, and attended St. John’s University. Actually, retirement is a relative term. Rutner, at 87, the oldest living Jewish ex-major leaguer, has been working for the public relations department of the Round Rock Express, the
AAA
affiliate of the Houston Astros owned by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. “I work as a greeter in the luxury suites,” he said. “I keep them away from Nolan so they don’t bother him during the game. I enjoy being out there. The people are very nice to me. I do a lot of handshaking.”Rutner played with Lou Limmer — who had been the oldest Jewish ex-major leaguer before passing away last April — in the Puerto Rican winter leagues. Like Limmer, he was a basically a New York kid who was shocked by the anti-Semitism he faced in the Deep South towns of the minor leagues. “It was an experience,” Rutner said. One of his teammates when he first started out was the author Eliot Asinof. “The manager of the team…said, ‘I can’t have two Yids on my team,’ so he released Eliot,” Rutner recalled. It turned out to be a good career move for his friend. “He was a bright man and he went on to play in a different league and then he wrote a few books.” One on those books, Eight Men Out, became the seminal account of the 1919 Black Sox gambling scandal. Rutner himself was the subject of a novel by Asinof, Man on Spikes, the fictional account of Mike Kutner, a good career minor leaguer struggling to break into the bigs. “[Asinof] was visiting us at the house…and he was taking notes and he asked me if it would be all right if he wrote this book about me — but he wouldn’t use my name.”In Memories of Summer: When Baseball Was an Art, and Writing about It a Game, author Roger Kahn cites Man On Spikes as one of his favorite baseball books and offers an insightful observation on the subtleties of discrimination.“Rutner was Jewish; apparently Connie Mack held that against him,” Kahn wrote. “Asinof’s hero is not Jewish. He wears eyeglasses. The techniques of novelists can be every bit as fascinating as the techniques of lefthanded pitchers and center fielders.”Rutner said he hoped the novel, originally published in 1955, will be turned into a movie some day. Although he still enjoys good health and as much as he still loves baseball, Rutner doesn’t know if he’ll return to the Express in 2008; it might interfere too much with his weekly golf game.
1948: Four Jews, including two children, were killed in Jerusalem today by shelling from the Arab Legion, the Jordanian army that had invaded Israel and has occupied the Old City. Another four children were wounded in the shell.
1948: Two unidentified Jewish women died in a Jerusalem hospital today from wounds sustained in last week-end’s Arab shelling.
1948: In a violation of the truce agreement, the Arab legion shelled Jerusalem’s northern residential quarter as well as positions in the southern part of the city held by Israeli troops.
1950:Israeli forces have occupied an area at Naharayim along the border of Jordan because it is Israel's territory under the Rhodes armistice agreement with King Abdullah, an Army spokesman said today. The territory controls the confluence of the Yarmuk and Jordan Rivers. “The confluence is about six miles south of the Sea of Galilee and” near the Rutenberg hydroelectric works.
1951: Ely Palmer, chairman of the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission meeting in Paris, “handed the Israelis a copy of five proposals that the commission drafted for the Arabs and Israelis in an effort to transform the armistice into a peace treaty.”
1951: As David Ben Gurion continues to establish a new coalition government six weeks after the last national election, the Mapam Workers party broke off negotiations with the Prime Minister paving the way for a coalition made up of Mapai and the General Zionists.
1967: Varian Fry passed away. Fry was an American journalist who ran a rescue network in
Vichy
France
that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi occupied
Europe
and the Holocaust. Among those Fry aided were the following:
Hannah Arendt
Andre Breton
Marc Chagall
Max Ernst
Lion Feuchtwanger
Heinz Jolles
Wilfredo Lam
Wanda Landowska
Jacques Lipchitz
Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel
Andre Masson
Otto Meyerhoff
Marcel Duchamp
Franz Werfel
Henrich Mann
Ylla
1969(1st of Tishrei, 5730): Rosh Hashanah
1970: Running of the first New York City Marathon. The famed running event was co-founded by Holocaust survivor Fred Lebow.
1973: Syrian and Israeli planes clash over the
Mediterranean
. The Israelis shoot down 13 Syrian
MIGS
while losing only one plane. The subsequent mobilization of the Syrian armed forces is seen as a response to the Israeli air victory and not what it really was – preparations for all-out war that would being on Yom Kippur, 1973.
1977(1stof Tishrei, 5738): Rosh Hashanah
1981: As his ten day trip to the
United States
was coming to a close Prime Minister Menachem Begin of
Israel
spent a busy day in
New York
seeking approval from sectors of opinion made wary by recent events in the
Middle East
while at the same time reassuring his followers that nothing had changed.
1984: Yitzhak Shamir completed his first term as Prime Minister
1984: Moshe Shahal replaced Yitzhak Moda’I as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1984: Gideon Patt replaced Yuval Ne’eman as Minister of Science and Technology
1984: Amnon Rubinstein replaced Mordechai Tzipori as Minister of Communications.
1984: Leonard Bernstein conducts the 40th anniversary concert of Jeremiah Symphony with PSO.
1985: The original hand-written copy of the lines that have inspired millions and served for generations as a symbol of America - ''Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free'' - are among the highlights of an exhibition opening today at the New-York Historical Society honoring the centennial celebration of the Statue of Liberty. Emma Lazarus's famous poem, ''The New Colossus,'' was later inscribed on a bronze tablet on an interior wall of the pedestal, but the original copy will be on view in this exhibition.
1986: Leonard Bernstein led the premiere of Jubilee Games with IPO.
1986: Pee-Wee’s Playhouse starring Pee-wee Herman (real name – Paul Rubens) was broadcast for the first time on CBS.
1987: ''Jacob Epstein: Sculpture and Drawings'' an exhibition at the White Chapel Art Gallery which is part of the Jewish East End Celebration was scheduled to close today.
1989(13th of Elul, 5749): Arye Leon Dulzin, a former Israeli Government official and former chairman of the World Zionist Organization and of Israel's Jewish Agency, died after a prolonged kidney illness today in Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. He was 76 years old and had lived in Tel Aviv. Born in
Minsk
in 1913, Mr. Dulzin had a lifelong interest in Zionism and in the plight of Russian Jews. He immigrated with his parents to
Mexico
in 1928 and in time became secretary general of the Zionist Federation of Mexico, serving as president of the organization from 1938 to 1942. He later became chairman of the political committee and president of the Mexican branch of the World Jewish Congress and was a delegate to several sessions of the Zionist Congress in
Jerusalem
. Mr. Dulzin settled in
Israel
in 1956 and joined the Jewish Agency, where he headed the economic department and investment bureau until 1965. He then served as head of immigration, absorption and resettlement for the agency and was its treasurer from 1968 to 1978. As a member of the Israeli Liberal Party, Mr. Dulzin joined the Cabinet of Prime Minister Golda Meir as a Minister Without Portfolio in 1969 and was later affiliated with the Likud coalition headed by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In 1986, he broke with the Liberals, and he and several other leaders formed the Liberal Center Party. Role in Settlements Mr. Dulzin was elected chairman of the World Zionist Federation in 1978 and a short time later became chairman of the Jewish Agency. As head of that organization, he was deeply involved in Jewish emigration to
Israel
, and as chairman of the World Zionist Organization, he was responsible for furthering the spread of the Hebrew language and Jewish culture and with promoting new Jewish settlements in
Israel
's occupied Arab territories. He retired in 1987. In 1980, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by
Yeshiva
University
in
New York
for his role in directing immigration and resettling Jews in
Israel
. Bernice S. Tannenbaum, chairman of the American section of the World Zionist Orgnization, described Mr. Dulzin as a leading force in modern Zionism who had helped draw the major religious streams of Judaism into the Zionist ranks.
1991(5th of Tishrei, 5752): Movie producer Joseph Pasternakmovie producer at the age of 89, a victim of cancer
1992: The Jerusalem Post reported that
US
President George Bush proposed legislation to Congress granting
Israel
a $10 billion loan guarantee for the absorption of Soviet immigrants. He also announced a proposed sale of 72 F-15s to
Saudi Arabia
with "compensatory steps to ensure
Israel
's military edge." For those looking for evidence of Bush and Saudi ties, look no further. President Bush would use aid to
Israel
as lever to for that government to take a "more conciliatory" view towards the Arabs.
1993: Public unveiling of the Oslo Accords, an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement initiated by
Norway
1993:In a triumph of hope over history, Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the P.L.O., shook hands today on the White House lawn, sealing the first agreement between Jews and Palestinians to end their conflict and share the holy land along the River Jordan that they both call home.
1998: The New York Times book section included reviews by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including A History of Palestine From Bonaparte and Muhammad Ali to Ben-Gurion and the Mufti by Thomas A. Idinopulos and The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up by Andrew Tobias
2000: At a meeting of the High Follow-up Committee for Arab citizens in Israel in Kafar Manda, United Arab List's MK Abdulmalik Dehamshe declared: "We will beat or forcefully attack any policeman and we will break his hands if he comes to demolish an Arab house … we are on the verge of an Intifada among Israel’s Arabs following Alik Ron’s incitement."
2004: The leadership of the National Religious Party approved the party’s remaining “in the government on condition that the government would not hold a general referendum (משאל עם, Meshal Am) regarding removal of the Israeli settlements, which would require a special majority, before the issue could be brought to a decision in the Knesset. If such a referendum would not be held, or if the government would approve a de-facto removal of Israeli settlements, the party would resign from the government.”
2005: Despite the desecration and destruction of Synagogues in Gaza by Palestinians, the Jerusalem Post reported that Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar announced he was considering ostracizing any Jew that attacks mosques in retaliation. “I and other rabbis are considering putting a Cherem [ban] on any Jew that desecrates Mosques or other holy places…What right do Jews have to hurt the places of worship of other faiths? It is a good thing that the peoples of the world pray to God." This is the latest example of Jewish leaders following an ethical path that differentiates the Children of Israel from its antagonists.
2005: In “How Curious George Escaped the Nazis,” published today, Dinitia Smith recounts the harrowing trip Hans and Margret Rey took to avoid being victims of the Holocaust.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/books/13geor.html
2006: Today’s offerings of the 2006 OyHoo Festival in
New York
includes
Homage to Lenny Bruce & Free Speech;
Jewish Music Showcase featuring some of the best Jewish Music from many great Jewish Labels such as Tzaddik and such performers as Paul Brody, Chana Rothman and Gary Lucas
By the Rivers of Babylon featuring Jewish Poetry as Music and Music as Poetry
The Big Quiz Thing, NYC's live-trivia spectacular, pitting Jewish bigwigs against each other in a game-show smack down of all things
2007(1st of Tishrei, 5768): Rosh Hashanah 5768
2007: According to Peter Applebome, Kehillat Lev Shalem, the Jewish congregation in Woodstock, NY, is scheduled to again hold the High Holy Days ceremonies outdoors in their beloved tent. The Rosh Hashanah service is scheduled to begin with the singing of the ’60s anthem “Turn! Turn! Turn!” with the congregation’s leader, Rabbi Jonathan Kligler playing guitar. Mr. Applebome sees this as “a tale of modern Jewish life” in a hippie outpost
2008: An historic event takes place in
Vienna
when the first festival devoted to Jewish and Israeli music ever held in
Austria
opens.
2008: Temple Judah hosts it first annual rustic “Barbecue and Havdalah Service” at Woodpecker Lodge, Pinicon Ridge Park, in Central City.
2008: “The King and I,” opens at the Englert Theatre in
Iowa City
featuring
Temple
Judah
’s very own Cyndie and Bentlee Birchansky.
2008: At ZOA House in Tel Aviv, the curtain comes down on “Setting the Stage,” Beit Lessin's ninth annual revelation of new plays by local playwrights.
2009: Religious School begins at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA
2009: Jack Black led the audience at the MTV Video Music Awards in a Satanic prayer.
2009: The Sisterhood and Men's Club of Olam Tikvah presents historian, world traveler, and lecturer Claire Simmons who leads a discussion of "The Mystery of the Jewish Knapsack: What the Jews Packed for Their Journey into the Diaspora.”
2009: In Teaneck, NJ, a Beshert Moment as Debbie Rosenbloom and David Levin join together under the Chupah to begin a life together that should be marked only by health, happiness and the most sublime sense of joy possible. Mazel tov.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why Jews Are Liberals by Norman Podhoretz, Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow and The Magicians by Lev Grossman.
2009: The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times book sections each featured a review of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression by Morri