September 15 In History
53: Birthdate of Trajan who was Roman emperor from 98 until his death of 117. In the last decade of his rule, Trajan began a campaign against the Parthians, a people living east of the
Roman Empire
. Since this territory bordered
Judea
with its large Jewish population, Trajan sought to improve relations between
Rome
and his Jewish subjects. There were even reports that Trajan would allow a rebuilding of the
Temple
. However, as the Romans moved into
Parthia
, he met stiff military opposition, fueled, in part, by Jews living in
Parthia
who despised
Rome
for destroying the
Temple
. At the same time, Jews in
Egypt
also rebelled against
Rome
. The violence there forced Trajan to send legions to the land along the
Nile
which weakened his already doomed campaign as
Parthia
.
1254: Birthdate of Marco Polo. Marco Polo told of meeting Chinese Jews in his 1286 journey to
China
.
1348: On the Day of Atonement, three Jews and a Jewess in Chillon, a town near
Lake Geneva
were tortured in an attempt to get them to confess to charges of well poisoning that was the alleged cause of the Black Death.
1485: Pedro Arbues, Canon of the Cathedral of Saragossa was attacked while praying. He died two days later, and when the news went public, the Christian community gathered to swear revenge. The attack was planned by prominent Jews (Conversos) of Aragon including Sancho de Paternoy, Master of the Royal Household; Gabriel Sanches, the High Treasurer of the kingdom; and Francisco de Santa Fe, assessor to the Governor of Aragon. The results of this “were that nearly 200 people had revenge struck upon them, some were murdered outright and some were beheaded with their mutilated bodies put on display. Some were imprisoned, some committed suicide to alleviate their suffering, and some fled to
France
.” The Church later made Arbues into a Saint in 1867.
1497:Gershon Soncino published one of the first printed editions of “Selihot” in Braco, Italy.
1683: Germantown, Pennsylvania was founded by 13 immigrant families as a separate township outside of Philadelphia. In 1793, Isaac Franks, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War, opened his Germantown home to President George Washington, when a yellow fever epidemic gripped Philadelphia which was the capital of the United States of America at that time.
1730(4th of Tishrei, 5491): Sir Solomon de Medina passed away. A native of Bordeaux Medina was a wealthy Amsterdam Jew who went to England with William III, when he an Queen Anne gained the throne of the United Kingdom. According to Prince Charles, the heir to the British throng “The first Jewish knight, created by Queen Anne, was Sir Solomon de Medina. It was Sir Solomon who provided the supplies, including the food that enabled the British Army under the Duke of Marlborough to win the decisive Battle of Blenheim – a vital turning point in the War of Spanish Succession and a swift kick in the shins to Louis XIV’s aspirations.”
1735: Birthdate of Issachar Bär ben Judah Carmoly an Alsatian rabbi. At the age of 10, he was sufficiently advanced in his training for the rabbinate to follow the elaborate lectures of Jonathan Eybeschütz. Later, Carmoly studied successively at Frankfurt, under the direction of Jacob Joshua, author of Pene Yehoshu'a, and at Metz, under Samuel Helman, who conferred upon him the title of rabbi. On returning home, in compliance with the wish of his father, Carmoly began the study of medicine under the direction of Jacob Assur, a physician of Nancy, but had to give it up, being engrossed with his Talmudical studies. The only benefit he derived from his tutor was a fair knowledge of mathematics, of which he made use later. He passed away in May of 1781. Carmoly married the daughter of a rich banker named Joseph Raineau. The latter persuaded the bishop of Sulz to create a rabbinate in his see; and Carmoly was appointed rabbi of Sulz. Carmoly was the author of a commentary on the Tosefta to the treatise Betzah, published, together with the text, under the title Yam Yissakar (Sea of Issachar; Metz, 1769). The grandson of the author, Eliakim Carmoly, claimed to have had in his possession the following manuscripts of his grandfather
1752: The Merchant of Venice was presented in
Williamsburg
,
Virginia
. It was the first dramatic production by a professional troupe in the 13 Colonies. There is irony that Shylock made such an early appearance in the one place in the world where the stereotype did not even begin to fit.
1776: British troops occupied
New York City
disrupting Jewish life. Many Jewish supporters of the Revolution fled the city. Several of them took refuge in
Newport
,
Rhode Island
.
1780: Birthdate of Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jew admitted to the Bar in the Netherlands. As a lawyer, he worked to help the Dutch Jews gain full emancipation.
1780(15th of Elul, 5540): Jacob Rodrigues Pereira or Jacob Rodrigue Péreire an academic and the first teacher of deaf-mutes in France, passed away. Born Jacob Rodrigues Pereira in 1715 at Peniche, Portugal, “he was a descendant of a Marrano (Portuguese Crypto-Jews) family and was baptized with the name of Francisco António Rodrigues. He returned to Judaism together with his mother. His parents were Magalhães Rodrigues Pereira and Abigail Ribea Rodrigues. After his father's death his mother fled with her son from Portugal to escape the Portuguese Inquisition and the charge that she had relapsed into heresy, and about 1741 she settled at Bordeaux. Jacob Rodrigue Péreire formulated signs for numbers and punctuation and adapted Juan Pablo Bonet's manual alphabet by adding 30 handshapes each corresponding to a sound instead of to a letter. He is therefore seen as one of the inventors of manual language for the deaf and is credited with being the first person to teach a non-verbal deaf person to speak. In 1759, he was made a member of the Royal Society of London. A lifelong devotee to the well-being of the Jews of southern France, Portugal, and Spain, beginning in 1749 he was a volunteer agent for the Portuguese Jews at Paris. In 1777, his efforts led to Jews from Portugal receiving the right to settle in France. In 1876 Pereira's remains were transferred from the Cimetière de la Villette (where he had been buried the year in which that cemetery was opened) to that of the Cimetière de Montmartre. In Bordeaux the street "Rodrigues-Pereire" was named in his honor. His grandsons, the Péreire brothers, Emile Péreire (1800–75) and Isaac Péreire (1806–80), were well-known French financiers and bankers during the second empire who encouraged the construction of the first railway in France in 1835. In 1852, they founded the Société Générale du Crédit Mobilier.”
1812(9th of Tishrei, 5573): Erev Yom Kippur
1812: The only Jews who would have chanted Kol Nidre tonight in Moscow would have been members of the French Army which had entered the Russian capital to find it devoid of the local population.
1814(1stof Tishrei, 5575): Rosh Hashana
1814: Jews in Baltimore, Maryland, have a special reason to rejoice as they welcomed the New Year, since today marked the end of the “Battle of Baltimore” when the Americans withstood the British bombardment of Fort McHenry and thwarted their planned attack on the American port.
1821:
Costa Rica
declares independence from
Spain
. The first Jewish settlers in
Costa Rica
were Sephardim from
Curacao
,
Jamaica
,
Panama
and the
Caribbean
who arrived in the 19th century. Jewish life in
Costa Rica
today is very vibrant and caters to the 2,500 Jews in the country.
1821: El Salvador declares independence from Spain. Except for the occasional transit of Portuguese Conversos, there were no Jews in the country until the first half of the nineteenth century when Sephardim from
France
settled in the town of
Chaluchuapa
. As of 2000, the Jewish population in
El Salvador
was approximately120.
1821: Guatemala declares independence from Spain. Documents in the archives of the Mexican Inquisition attest to the presence of Marranos in
Guatemala
during the colonial period. The origins of the present Jewish community, however, are from German immigrants who came to the country in the mid-19th-century. Approximately 1,200 Jews live in
Guatemala
today, and the majority of them reside in the capital
Guatemala City
.
1821: Honduras declares independence from Spain. Conversos, or New Christians, who converted to Christianity while secretly practicing Judaism, were believed to be among the Spaniards who succeeded in buying permits that allowed them to circumvent prohibitions against sailing to the
New World
during the period after the Jewish expulsion from
Spain
. Many of these conversos disembarked along the
Gulf of Mexico
, and the Honduran coast. It is possible that these were the first "Jews" to arrive in
Honduras
, but this is disputed by some historians. At the end of the 1800's
Honduras
experienced an influx of Jews. The majority emigrated from the Central European regions of
Russia
,
Poland
,
Germany
,
Romania
, and
Hungary
, while a few were of Sephardic origin, and came from
Greece
,
Turkey
and
North Africa
1821: Nicaragua declares independence from Spain. The Jewish population of
Nicaragua
reaches its peak in the 1920’ when it numbered approximately 270. During the Sandinista era, the population dwindled to ten. Today, there are approximately fifty Jews in
Managua
that gathers for Shabbat services, at last report; the community lacked a Sefer torah and a rabbi.
1825(3rd of Tishrei, 5586):Tzom Gedaliah
1825: The foundation stone for Ararat was laid in
Buffalo
,
New York
. Ararat was to be a city of refuge for displaced Jews. It was to be on
Grand Island
in the
Niagara River
. Apparently Mordechai Noah, the self-appointed leader of the Jewish community was not bothered by the conflict with today’s fast.
1849: The first synagogue in
South Africa
, Tikvat Yisrael, was dedicated in Capetown.
1850(9th of Tishrei, 5611): Erev Yom Kippur
1854: The second Jewish synagogue built in Boston was concecrated today. The synagogue was erected by German Jews who had left the city’s other synagogue which was controlled by Polish Jews.
1856: Mina (Halfin) and Abraham Levi gave birth to Levi Napoleon Levi in Victoria, Texas. Young Levi went “north” for college (The University of Virginia) where he earned an undergraduate and law degree by the age of 20. Levi returned to the Lone Star State where he practiced law in Galveston and became a leader of the civil and Jewish communities. Eventually he would become President of the National Order of B’nai Brith. He passed away in 1904,
1857: James Finn of the British Council in
Jerusalem
wrote to the foreign ministry offering a plan to settle Jews in agriculture in Eretz-Israel to help the land prosper.
1857: Birthdate of William Howard Taft. Taft is the only man to serve as President and then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taft served one term of President sandwiched between Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Taft was the first President to attend a Seder. In 1912, when he visited
Providence
,
RI
, he participated in the family Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish Welfare Board. Nineteen- twelve was an election year and possibly Taft’s attendance at Cutler’s Seder was an attempt to shore up his political support among Jewish voters. In 1911, he had angered many Jewish leaders with his stand on the issue of passports for Jews wanting to go to
Russia
. As part of a series of anti-Semitic actions, Russians were refusing to issue passports to American Jews who want to go to
Russia
for business reasons. Taft basically told a meeting of American Jewish leaders to call off their pressure to get the Russians to stop this discrimination against American citizens. To Taft’s credit he vetoed an immigration bill that contained a literacy requirement designed to keep Jews and others from
Eastern Europe
out of the
United States
. The proposal came as Jews were seeking to flee the rising tide of pogroms that had swept
Russia
during the opening decade of the 20th century.
1863(2nd of Tishrei, 5624): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1870: Birthdate of Rachel Hirsch, the daughter Mendel Hirsch, the director of the girls’ school serving the Jewish religious community in Frankfurt am Main. In a move that was unusual for her time, she became a doctor in German and a professor at Charité.
1871(29th of Elul, 5631): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1872: It was reported today that presidential candidate Horace Greely had “indecently insulted the Hebrews” while speaking in Chappaqua, NY. [Greely was running against U.S. Grant who would garner the majority of Jewish votes]
1876: Birthdate of German born American composer and conductor Bruno Walter
1878: “Lessing’s Dramas” published today reviews the three finest plays by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing which include “Nathan the Wise” which was written in 1779. In Nathan the Wise, Lessing succeeds in his “aim is to present a perfect ideal embodiment of the spirit of toleration” which this “a powerful drama.” “The Germans love this drama” which features “this wise and noble hearted Jew” “and place it beside Faust as one of their two finest classics.”
1879: It was reported today that the population of Romania is 4,582,602 of which 270,000 are Jewish.
1879: It was reported today that the Foreign Minister of Romania is continuing to offer arguments for not allowing Jews to become citizens of his country as was agreed to during the meeting of the European Powers in Berlin. He contends that they can be subjects without being citizen of the country. He describes the Jews “by their customs, their traditions and their aspirations” as forming a “foreign colony, a species of German colony” in Romania. (This charge comes at the same time that the growing anti-Semitic movement in Germany is attacking Jews as being aliens)
1880(10thof Tishrei, 5641): Yom Kippur
1881: It was reported today that leaders of several Jewish communities in the eastern provinces of Germany have appealed to their co-religionist in Berlin “to exert their influence” with the authorities to provide them protections during riots which they fear will come during the upcoming holiday season which begins on September 23, Erev Rosh Hashanah
1882(2nd of Tishrei, 5643): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1885: it was reported today that 4 year old John Franze and Abraham Schmidt caught smallpox from a fellow student with whom they attend Hebrew School at 127 Pitt Street in New York.
1888(10thof Tishrei, 5649): Yom Kippur
1889: Judge Henry M. Goldfogle and Mr. Warley M. Patzek addressed the attendees at the ceremonies celebrating the dedication of the Temple to be used by Congregation of Mount Sinai which is located on 72nd Street in Manhattan.
1889: Members of Shaar Hashomyim (Gates of Heaven) gathered today to celebrate the dedication of their new sanctuary on East 15th Street near Third Avenue. The congregation was founded in 1839 and was moving from current facility on Rivington Street. Built in 1865 with seating for 1,000, the congregation was forced to move again because it had outgrown this facility.
1894: Birthdate of Oskar Klein. The famed Swedish physicist was the son of the chief rabbi of
Stockholm
, Dr. Gottlieb Klein and Antonie (Toni) Levy.
1896: Colonel George Picquart met with General Charles-Arthur Gonse, deputy chief of the French general staff. Picquart presented the general with evidence proving that Dreyfus was innocent. The general did not dispute the proof but told Picquart that it really did not matter. The case was closed.
1901(2nd of Tishrei, 5662): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1911: In New York City, Supreme Court Justice Goff refuses the incorporation of congregation “Agudath Achim Kahal Adath Jeshurun on the grounds that the title should be in English.
1911: The police at Munich expel a large number of Jewish families who had migrated from Russia and Galicia on charges of peddling without a license.
1913: The trial of Melvin Bellis began. Called the “Russian Dreyfus Affair”, the trial is covered by hundreds of journalist from
Russia
,
Europe
and the
United States
.
1917: Felix Warburg, the Chairman of the Joint Distribution committee of the Funds for Jewish War Sufferers issued a statement today directed the Jewish population of the United States. So far the committee has disbursed over $8,000,000 to alleviate the suffering their co-religionist trapped in war-torn Europe. He reassured that representatives of the committee were directly, or indirectly, in contact with and providing aid to, Jewish communities in Russia, Palestine, Rumanian and various states in the Balkans. He commended the American Jewish community for raising money for war relief while still meeting the demands of their local charities. At the end of the statement he extended them “my most cordial good wishes for the New Year.”
1917: Birthdate of David Flusser, a professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who passed away in 2000.
1918(9th of Tishrei, 5679): Erev Yom Kippur
1918: As Jews prepared to go to the synagogue for Kol Nidre, General John Pershing commander of the American Expeditionary Force fighting in Europe sent the following cablegram to Colonel Harry Cutler of Providence, Rhodes Island, Chairman of the Jewish Welfare Board, “The stirring message of greetings from the Jewish Welfare Board is much appreciated…The constant support and cordial assistance of our brothers of the Jewish faith and the thought that all creeds are united one banner gives courage to our army and urges us on to victory.” Colonel Cutler replied by saying, “This message coming on the eve of the most sacred day of the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement will bring cheer to the hearts of millions of American citizens of the Jewish faith.”
1919: Birthdate of Heda Bloch, the native of Prague who gained fame as “Heda Margolius Kovaly, a Czech writer and translator whose memoir, “Under a Cruel Star,” described her imprisonment by the Nazis during World War II and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s.”
1924: Birthdate of Mordechai Hankovich-Hendin who as Mordechai Tzipori served in the Knesset and as Minister of Communication. Tzipori was born at Petak Tikva, served with the Irgun before pursuing a career with the IDF.
1929: Birthdate of famed physicist Murray Gell-Mann. Murray Gell-Mann was born in
New York City
. This physicist studied and clarified the puzzling phenomenon of elementary subatomic particles; classifying them as “quarks” within an ordering system he called the Eightfold Way. The achievement earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1969. He also served on the faculties of
Chicago
University
,
Princeton
University
and the California Institute of Technology.
1929: Pitcher Ed Wineapple made his major league debut with the Washington Senators.
1933 (24 Elul 5693): Israel Meir Hacohen, the Hafetz Hayim passed away. Born in 1838, he was prominent Talmudic leader and author who among other accomplishments wrote commentaries on the Sifraand Musser. Earning his living as a teacher and later founding a yeshiva, he consistently refused a rabbinical position. This was partly based on his belief that "he who hates gifts shall live." Rabbi Yisroel Meir HaKohen was one of the greatest figures in modern Jewish history. He was recognized as both an outstanding scholar and an extraordinarily righteous man. His impact on Judaism was phenomenal. It is interesting to note that, despite his great stature; he refused to accept any rabbinical position and supported himself from a small grocery run by his saintly wife in the town of
Radin
where they lived. Rabbi Yisroel Meir devoted himself to the study and teaching of Torah. “Rabbi Yisroel Meir is perhaps best known for his campaign to teach his fellow Jews about the laws of Lashon Hara (forbidden speech). His first book, Chofetz Chaim, was devoted to this topic. (The name comes from T’hilim (Psalms) 34, "Who is the man that desires life (chofetz chaim)… keep your tongue from evil…." He later published two more books on this subject. The Chofetz Chaim wrote on many subjects and ultimately published over 20 books. Some important ones are Ahavas Chesed (Love of Kindness) on the mitzvah of lending money, Machaneh Yisroel (The Jewish Camp) for Jews serving in non-Jewish armies, and Nidchei Yisroel(The Scattered of Israel) for Jews who moved to places where there were few religious Jews, particularly America. He wrote books about the importance of Torah study and many other important issues. Probably the most important book he wrote was the Mishna Berurah, a six volume commentary on Shulchon Aruch, Orach Chaim(which deals with the laws of daily life and holidays).”
1935: The anti-Semitic
Nuremberg
racial laws were passed by the Nazis. The Nuremberg Laws defined Reich Citizenship. Citizens of
Germany
had to be of kindred blood. All Jews were defined as not being of German blood as a matter of law. This legalized the division between Aryans and non-Aryans. Jews were defined as anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent. The Jews are returned to the legal position they had occupied in
Germany
before their emancipation in the 19th century. Jews can no longer exist as German citizens or marry non-Jews. At this time, the swastika was adopted as the official symbol of
Germany
; a symbolic sign of the Nazification of Germany.
1936:Accompanied by officials and prominent members of the Federation of Polish Jews in America, the Maccabees of Tel Aviv, soccer champions of Palestine received an official welcome to New York from Mayor La Guardia at the City Hall.
1937(10thof Tishrei, 5698): Yom Kippur
1937: The Palestine Post reported that British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden addressed the League of Nations Council, meeting in Geneva.
Eden
said that in the search for a successful solution to the
Palestine
crisis
Britain
was not committed to any definite scheme. He urged sending a new, special League of Nations Commission to
Palestine
to seek the ways to implement the Royal (Peel) Commission's recommended partition and to negotiate with Jews and Arabs on the provisional boundaries of their proposed states.
1937: Abdel Barkawi, one of the leaders of the opposition to the Husseini family, was killed by an Arab terrorist in Jenin.
1938: In an article entitled “Arab Nations Lose Zeal on Palestine,” Joseph M. Levy reports that based on reliable information provided by sources in Syria, which is the “headquarters of the Palestinian Arab rebellion,” German and Italian money is subsidizing Arab terrorism in Palestine.
1940:Two massive waves of German attacks were decisively repulsed by the RAF. The German defeat caused Hitler to order, two days later, the postponement of preparations for the invasion of Britain. Although the Blitz would last until October, the decision to call of the invasion meant, among other things, that the Jews of the British Isles would not fall victim to the Shoah. Henceforth, in the face of mounting losses in men, aircraft and the lack of adequate replacements, the Luftwaffe switched from daylight to night-time bombing. There was a significant number of Jews (for the size of their population) serving with the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Among the Jews who flew for the RAF was Lt Michael Oser Weizmann, the son of Chaim Weizmann who was killed when his plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay in 1942. The body was never recovered.
1941(23rd of Elul, 5701): The Nazis killed 800 Jewish women at Shkudvil, Lithuania
1941(23rd of Elul, 5701): Eighteen thousand Jews are murdered at Berdichev, Ukraine.
1942: The Nazis begin deporting the Jewish community of Kalush, Ukraine, to the Belzec death camp. It will take 48 hours to complete this vile task.
1942(4th of Tishrei, 5703): The Nazis began the week long process of murdering the Jewish community from Kamenka, Ukraine, at the Belzec death camp.
1942: One thousand Jews were deported from Lille, France to Auschwitz. Among the deportees were Mozes Hirschsprung, his wife Helene and their two little children. Mozes had been born at Auschwitz in 1901 and Helene had been born there in 1909. At that time, it was border town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Between the world wars, the family had moved to Amsterdam. They moved to Lille after the start of the war because it would be safer there. In the end, they would be murdered two miles from the place of their birth. Forty-eight year old Fanny Yerkowski was also among the deportees. A native of London, she had married a French man before WW II and had settled in Lille. Twenty-one year old Bernice Winer was also a deportee. She was a citizen of neutral Switzerland. To the Nazis, a Jew was a Jew was a Jew regardless of his or her nationality. [Source – Holocaust Journey by Martin Gilbert]
1943: By the middle of September members of the corpse-burning detail at the Sobibór death camp, had built an escape tunnel intended to lead them into the camp minefield. Most of the 150 members of the detail are killed.
1943: Commandant Kappler, the SS attaché at the German embassy in
Rome
summoned Ugo Foa, President of the Rome-Jewish Community to his office and informed him that the Jews of Rome might avoid deportation if they could give him fifty kilograms of gold with the next thirty-six hours.
1944: One thousand, five hundred young boys were taken to the Children's Block at Birkenau. Three days later, on Rosh Hashanah Eve, they would be sent to the gas chambers.
1948: Catcher Joe Ginsberg made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.
1950: Today, Jordan’s King Abdullah said that if Israel did not remove its forces from the disputed land near the confluence of the Yarmuk and Jordan Rivers within four days, his government would take military action to dislodge the Israelis.
1951: On the eve of Hadassah’s 37th annual convention, delegates received congratulatory telegrams expressing support for the organizations and its goals from Monnett B. David, United States Ambassador to Israel and President Chaim Weizmann.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the government decided to form a Reparations from Germany Purchasing Mission, attached to the Ministry of Finance. The mission undertook that it would purchase and use the received goods exclusively for the development in four fields: agriculture, industry, transportation and power.
1953(6th of Tishrei, 5714): Erich Mendelsohn a German Jewish architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas passed away.
1955:Betty Robbins, the world's first female cantor, led Rosh Hashanah evening services at
Temple
Avodah
of
Oceanside
,
New York
. Her appointment as cantor marked the first time that a woman performed the traditional role of cantor in a synagogue anywhere in the world. It generated a tremendous amount of publicity, even making the front page of the New York Times. Robbins had been unanimously approved as the Reform congregation's cantor by its board of trustees the previous July, after the congregation found itself without a cantor for the High Holidays. Although Robbins did not have formal training as a cantor, she had spent her childhood in
Germany
singing with her synagogue's boys' choir, eventually becoming its soloist (once she adopted a boy's haircut to please the choir's director, who was reluctant to allow a girl to join). Robbins spent much of the rest of her career teaching religious school, and formed and directed several adult and children's choirs. In her retirement, Robbins has conducted religious services on many worldwide Jewish holiday cruises.
1968: "Barbra Streisand: A Happening in
Central Park
" Show appeared on CBS TV.
1971: A new paperback version of Tillie Olsen's classic short story collection Tell Me a Riddle was issued
1977(3rd of Tishrei, 5738):Tzom Gedaliah
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Moshe Dayan, the new foreign minister, left for
Washington
with his draft of a proposed peace treaty with Arab states. He had also carried "an accompanying letter" explaining
Israel
's stance on the territorial question. In a special interview with this newspaper Dayan explained that there was some identity between his "functional ideas" and US thinking along the lines of a trusteeship for the
West Bank
.
1978: Meir Amit who had been appointed Minister of Transportation and Minister of Communications in Menachem Begin's government, resigned both posts today after the Democratic Movement for Change broke up. Before entering politics Amit had held the top post in military intelligence before serving as Director of Mossad.
1982: A memorial service is scheduled to be held today at the Riverside Memorial Chapel, to honor the memory of Louis Waldman, a former Socialist State Assemblyman who became one of the city's foremost labor lawyers,
1982: Israeli forces began pouring into west
Beirut
. This was part of an ill-fated attempt by the Begin government to pacify
Lebanon
and destroy the PLO.
1983: Israeli premier Menachem Begin resigns.
1985 (29th of Elul, 5745): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1985: A DC-8 cargo plane returning from
Iran
and supposedly bound for
Malaga
,
Spain
, made an emergency landing in Tel Aviv. Investigation revealed that the plane— recently acquired from an obscure
Miami
firm by a shadowy Brussels-based "Nigerian" company—had been flying Hawk missiles from the
US
to
Iran
via
Israel
. A Boeing 707 registered to the company had been carrying loads of 1,250 TOW missiles from
Israel
to
Iran
via
Malaga
.
1991: An article published today entitled “Jewish History in Provence” provides a history of the Cavaillon synagogue which was still standing in the last decade of the 20th century.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/15/travel/jewish-history-in-provence.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1993(29th of Elul, 5753): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1993: Two days after the Oslo Agreements were signed at the White House, at the 1,000-person Reconstructionist University Synagogue in Los Angeles, an American, an Israeli and an Arab were scheduled to read the speeches President Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat had given at Monday's signing ceremony. Rabbi Arnold Rachlis planned to retell the biblical stories of Abraham's banishment of his son Ishmael--said to be the father of the Arab nation--and Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac--the ancestor of the Jews--to show contemporary connections.
1994(10th of Tishrei, 5755): Yom Kippur
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay byDaniel Mark Epstein, Middle Age A Romance by Joyce Carol Oates, An Old Wife’s Tale: My Seven Decades in Love and War by Midge Decter and Venus In Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in Twentieth-Century Art by Wendy Steiner.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including The Brotherhood of the Bomb: The Tangled Lives and Loyalties of Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence, and Edward Teller by Gregg Herken, Why Terrorism works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge by Alan M. Dershowitz and Sharon: Israel's Warrior-Politician by Anita Miller, Jordan Miller and Sigalit Zetouni.
2004: Gary Bettman, the Jewish commissioner of the National Hockey League, announced that the owners again locked the players out prior to the start of the 2004–05 season. Three months later, Bettman announced the cancellation of the entire season with the words "It is my sad duty to announce that because a solution has not yet been attained, it is no longer practical to conduct even an abbreviated season. Accordingly, I have no choice but to announce the formal cancellation of play." The NHL became the first North American league to cancel an entire season because of a labor stoppage.
2004: The Seventh Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, under the musical direction of pianist Elena Bashkirova comes to an end.
2004: In the evening, Jews around the world begin the observance of Rosh Hashanah. This marks the start of the year 5765.
2005:
Israel
's two chief rabbis meet with Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a landmark
Vatican
document on relations with Jews, and urge him to support the fight against anti-Semitism and terrorism. The meeting follows the historic visit by Benedict to the central synagogue in Cologne, Germany last month, the second time a pope had entered a Jewish house of worship. It also follows a diplomatic altercation between the Vatican and Israel that erupted over the pope's omission of Israel in a list of countries hit by terrorism. Prior to the meeting Israeli said the dispute had been resolved.
2005(11th of Elul, 5765): Hundreds of mourners gathered at Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot cemetery to bury Cyril Harris, the former chief rabbi of South Africa whose body was flown from Cape Town after he died of cancer Tuesday. Harris, credited by many with aiding the transition process in
South Africa
from apartheid to a free democracy, was a close friend of former South African president Nelson Mandela and one of the only people to speak at Mandela's inauguration in 1994.
2005: The Bergen County Democratic Organization caucused today, to select a candidate to fill the seat for District. In balloting to fill the position on an interim basis, Loretta Weinberg lost by a 114-110 margin to Charles Zisa. In a separate vote, by a 112-111 margin, Zisa was selected over Weinberg to be the party's candidate on the November ballot. (Weinberg was Jewish; Zisa was not).
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that
China
has lodged a strong protest with
Israel
following this week's trip to
Taiwan
by a Knesset delegation that its ambassador learned about in The Jerusalem Post.
2007: The winners of the 2007 Lasker Awards, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious medical prizes, were announced to the public. The awards are funded by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. Born in 1880, Lasker, a Jew who made his home in
Chicago
, is considered by many to be the father of modern advertising. He passed away in 1952.
2008: On the second night of The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival Adam Langer reads from his novel
Ellington Boulevard
.
2008: As part of the Annual Primo Levi Conference, Centro Primo Levi presents: Primo Levi: Historian and Public Figure. The event features the premiere screening of a documentary on Primo Levi from the archives of the Italian Broadcasting Company followed by a discussion of Primo Levi's public profile vis-à-v