2012-09-24

September 25 In Jewish History

275: Marcus Claudius Tacitus appointed Roman emperor by the senate. By now the Roman Empire was in decline and Emperor’s served at the pleasure of the Army.  In the case of Tacitus, that meant a mere six months.  One of the Emperor’s greatest claims to fame was his relationship to the Tacitus, the famous first century Roman historian.  When it came to writing about the Jews, Tacitus (the historian) was not bothered by the facts.  He helped to propagate the claim that the ancient Israelites were a group of plague-infested Egyptians who were driven into the desert to die.  In his Histories sounded themes that would be the staple of anti-Semites for the next two thousand years.  Jewish customs were vile and disgusting.  The vileness of their customs were actually the source of their strength.  Jews were compassionate and honest when dealing within their own community, but have nothing but contempt for the rest of mankind.  He did not see them as a political threat, but saw them as a corrupting influence that would undermine the moral fiber of the empire.  For this reason he advocated that they become as far from the imperial capitol as possible.

1396: Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeats a Christian army at the Battle of Nicopolis. The Battle of Nicopolis is referred to as the Last Crusade.  The clash was between the Moslem Ottomans and a alliance of Hungarian and French knights.  This French connection is ironic considering other events taking place at that time. In 1394, two years before this climatic fight, “Sultan Yildirim Bayezid invited the French Jews who were molested by King Charles VI, to the
Ottoman Empire
. They were settled in

Edirne

and the Balkans. The French Kings had the habit of inviting the Jews to establish commerce and borrowing money from them. However often, when payment was due, they expelled them; only to re-invite them when they needed further financing.”

1506: Charles V began his reign as Lord of the Netherlands. In 1522, Charles issued a proclamation against Christians who were suspected of being lax in the faith and against Jews who had not been baptized in Gelderland and Utrecht; and he repeated these edicts in 1545 and 1549.

1534: Pope Clement
VII
passed away.  At the time of his death Pope Clement was attempting to free 1200 Marranos that he felt had been unjustly imprisoned by the Inquisitions in

Portugal

.  His unusual attempt to gain mercy for these people died with his death.

1669: Events began today that would result in another blood libel in Germany.  In the village of Glatigny, near Metz, Whilhelmina, the wife of Giles Lemoine, lost track of her three year old son Didier while she was doing laundry at the fountain in the village square. A search by the villagers proved fruitless. Then Daniel Payer told the searchers he had seen “a Hebrew with a heavy bear mounted on a white horse hurrying toward Metz and carrying in his arms a child about three years old.” The searchers then headed to Metz where they were told by a man who lived near the city gate that he had seen a Hebrew enter the city but he did not have a child. It was finally deduced that the man in question was Raphael Levi, a Jew living in Boulai, a village near Metz.  A warrant was then sworn out for his arrest. [see tomorrow’s blog for the next installment of this unfolding tragedy]

1694: Birthdate Henry Pelham who while serving as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom would oversee the passage of the Jew Act of 1753, which allowed Jews to become naturalized by application to Parliament.

1740: Nathan Levy who had applied for a plot of ground to be used as a place of burial for his family in 1738 obtained this grant today, and the plot was thenceforth known as the "Jews' burying-ground"; it was the first Jewish cemetery in the city, and was situated in Spruce street near Ninth street; it has been the property of the Congregation Mickvé Israel for more than a century.  Levy, who was born in 1704 and died in 1753, was one of the first Jews to live in Philadelphia.

1789: The establishment of religion on a national level was expressly prohibited in the U.S. with the adoption of the First Amendment, the opening words of which read: 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.'  This line from the Bill of Rights gave de jure recognition to a concept that has made the American experience different for the Jews than anything else that they had encountered during their centuries of living in the Diaspora.  There would be examples of discrimination against Jews in the

United States

such as covenanted real estate, college quotas, and oaths invoking the Christian deity.  But these proved to be minor compared  to what had happened elsewhere in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East where Jews were second class citizens because there was always a state religion be it Islam or Christian. Final ratification of the First Amendment would come in 1791.

1794(1st of Tishrei, 5555): As they observe Rosh Hashanah today, French Jews can join their countrymen in a sense of a safety following the recent execution of Maximilien Robespierre and the end of the Reign of Terror

1798(15th of Tishrei, 5559): As Jews begin the observance of Sukkoth, the festival of thanksgiving, English Jews are thankful; for the victory that Lord Nelson has given them at the Battle of the Nile, while French Jews are thankful for Napoleon’s victories in Egypt

1832(1st of Tishrei, 5593): As English Jews observe Rosh Hashanah most of them are pleased with the recent passage of the Reform Act which created a Parliament more reflective of the changes in British society, but saddened because it did not deal with the issue of Jewish Disabilities.

1841(15th of Tishrei, 5602): Sukkoth

1843(1st of Tishrei, 5604): Rosh Hashanah

1847(15th of Tishrei, 5608): Sukkoth

1849(9th of Tishrei, 5610): Erev Yom Kippur

1860: Representatives of the Hebrew Benevolent were among those attending the meeting of the National Emigrant Benevolent Association which was held  this afternoon at the rooms of the German Society.

1861(21st of Tishrei, 5622): Hoshana Rabah

1861: At their meeting this evening, the Board of Alderman in New York adopted the report of the Finance Committee which included a recommendation that $30,000 should be given to the Hebrew Benevolent Society for the erection of a hospital.

1862(1st of Tishrei, 5623): Rosh Hashanah

1862: As the Jews of Louisville, KY, including members of the Brandeis and Dembitz families, observed the Jewish New Year, Union forces led by General Don Carlos Buell began moving into the city. They were part of an army that was moving to stop the advance of Confederate forces under Braxton Bragg. Ultimately Bragg’s “invasion” of Kentucky and Ohio would fail driving another nail in the Confederate’s coffin.

1863: Birthdate of Dr. Moses Hyamson, Senior Dayan or Chief Judge of the Ecclesiastical Court of the United Synagogue of London who would become the rival candidate  for the office of Chief Rabbi of Great Britain to which Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz would be chosen.  After losing out to Hertz, Hyamson would be named Rabbi of Congregation Orach Chaim in

New York

, the position that Hertz vacated when he became Chief Rabbi of

Great Britain

.

1864: “The Jewish Synagogue erected for the congregation, Aderath Eb, was dedicated” this afternoon. “The edifice is situated in Twenty-ninth-street, between Lexington and Third-avenues, built of brick, and capable of accommodating about fire hundred people. The interior fittings are neat and handsome, without being gaudy. The services …were the customary dedication exercises, according to the Hebrew ritual. The sacred scrolls of the law were carried in procession three times around the Synagogue, and the perpetual lamp lighted in front of the arch while the Chazan and the choir chanted the Psalms of David.” Rabbi Morris Raphall and Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs addressed the congregation.  Captain Burdick  “and a squad of the Twenty-first Precinct Police, rendered efficient aid in preserving order at the door and keeping out unbidden guests.”

1864: According to an article published today entitled, The Last Copperhead Plot and How it Miscarried, one of the plotters was a Jew named Rosenthal who had settled as a clothing dealer in Sandusky, Ohio about two years ago. He claimed to have been driven out of Richmond for Union sentiments but he is known to be an outspoken Copperhead.

1871(10th of Tishrei, 5632): Yom Kippur

1871: It was reported today that a bill has been introduced in the French Parliament to take away the rights of citizenship granted to the Jews born in Algeria.  The proposal was made in response to Moslem uprising in Algeria. A Jewish delegation that included the Chief Rabbi, Albert Cohn and Joseph Cohen testified before the committee that is reviewing the proposal.

1874: As the dispute over the management of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum escalated, Raphael Lewin, the editor of New Era wrote to the New York Times challenging the recently published resolution adopted by the Directors of that institution. The directors claimed that Lewin’s claims of mismanagement which were to appear in his magazine were false and brought with malicious intent.  Lewin responded that he stood ready to prove his charges “and the purity of” his “motives” in publishing them.

1874(14th of Tishrei, 5635): Erev Sukkoth and Erev Shabbat are celebrated on the same evening.

1874: Rabbi Isaacs led Sukkoth eve festivals at the 44thStreet Synagogue in New York City.

1874: At Temple Emanuel the prominent Reform congregation on 5thAvenue, a larger than usual crowd attended services which were augmented by the singing of a Choir.

1879: A fire destroyed the business on Main Street in Deadwood, SD including “the wooden huts and muddy streets where the first Jewish inhabitants conducted their business.” The Jewish population had grown to over a hundred during the gold rush that enveloped the area. Reportedly “about one-third of all the early buildings on Main Street were owned or occupied by Jewish merchants. These were mostly traditional Jewish enterprises such as dry goods or those related to clothing.” The fire was probably not a case of anti-Semitic arson. Although no report exists as to the origin of the fire, such outbreaks were a common occurrence in the United States (see Chicago Fire, San Francisco Fire) at a time when there were no building codes and most buildings were wooden.

1886: “Jew And Catholic” published today reported that the marriage of David Bretzfelder, a  28 year old Jewish letter carrier and Kittie Cannon, a young Roman Catholic has caused a great deal of discussion today in New Haven, Connecticut since it is “the first of its kind that ever took place in this city.”

1889(29th of Elul, 5649): Erev Rosh Hashana

1889: The Jews of San Diego, California, gathered at Second and Beech Street to greet the Jewish New Year of 5650 and pray in their own house of worship.

1893(15TH of Tishrei, 5654): Sukkot

1895: In Lancaster, PA, Degel Israel an orthodox congregation was formed with about fifty members.

1897: Birthdate of American author William Faulkner.  Faulkner’s works were dotted with Jewish characters starting with a Jewish salesman in “Soldier’s Pay,” his first written novel published in 1926 to Barton Kohl, a Jewish pilot in “The Mansion,” published in 1959.  Faulkner’s treatment of Jewish characters changed over time. Alfred J. Kutzik reportedly published one of the definitive articles on anti-Semitism in Faulkner’s early works. For more on this topic, consult “Creative Awakening: The Jewish Presence in 20th Century American Literature” by Louis Harap.

1897: Jacob Aaron Cantor, a successful lawyer and New York political leader, married Lydia Greenbaum.  His first wife had passed away 8 years earlier.  The couple had three children.

1898(9th of Tishrei, 5659): Erev Yom Kippur

1898: As Jews prepared to observe Yom Kippur beginning this evening, Dr. Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El said of fasting and attending worship services, “It is matter of individual feeling and conscience.”

1898: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler delivered a sermon to the congregants of Temple Beth El entitled “His Song Is With Me At Night” in which “he contended that religion was the song of God in the night of human selfishness and error.”

1899:In order to continue "Die Welt", a syndicate in the form of a joint-stock company is founded by the Actions Committee.

1900: In

New York

, members of Temple Beth El continued to be dismayed by the long simmering breach between Rabbis Kaufman Kohler and Samuel Schulman that bubbled to the service during Rosh Hashanah Services on the previous day. According to accounts in the press, the breach was a generational matter.  Kaufman, who appealed to the older members, preached in German, a language incomprehensible to the younger generations.  Schulman, who had been brought from the west preached in English and was the choice of younger members.  “Both of the rabbis declined to discuss the matter.  H.S. Herman, one of the

Temple

Trustees

” publicly denied that there was any friction between the two rabbis.  This episode is not the first, nor the last, in generational conflicts that will arise in American congregations.

1903: Birthdate of Mark Rothko. Rothko was a painter who is often classified as an abstract expressionist, although he vociferously denied being an abstract painter. He was born Marcus Rothkowitz in Daugavpils (Dvinsk), Russia (now Latvia) and emigrated to the United States in 1916.His work concentrated on basic emotions, often filling the canvas with very few, but intense colors, using little immediately-apparent detail. In this respect, he can also be considered to presage the color field painters (see Helen Frankenthaler).Although respected by other artists, Rothko remained in relative obscurity until 1960, supporting himself by teaching art. In 1958, Rothko was commissioned by architect Philip Johnson to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building in New York. This substantial project was completed in late 1959. Ultimately, Rothko was not happy having his paintings as the backdrop to gourmet dining so he gave a set of nine of the maroon and black works to the Tate Gallery, where they are on permanent display in an installation designed by Rothko. In 1967, Rothko again collaborated with Johnson on a church in Houston, Texas, contributing 14 related works in an installation setting. The church has subsequently become known as "The Rothko Chapel". Numerous other works are scattered in museums throughout the world. Rothko's work was secretly supported by the
CIA
which considered it "free enterprise painting".  After a long struggle with depression, Rothko committed suicide by cutting his wrists in his New York studio on
February 25, 1970
. After his death, his son edited and released Rothko's novel, An Artist's Reality, which was incomplete at the time of his death, despite decades of work. Following his death the settlement of the Rothko estate became the subject of a famous court case.

1905: Birthdate of Professor Nahman Avigad Israeli archeologist famed for his work at Masada, on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and most important of all the excavation of the Old City starting in 1969. Among his discovries were the great menorah from the Second Temple and the Broad Wall mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah. He passed away in 1992.

1905: Pitcher Moxie Manuel made his major league debut with the Washington Senators.

1906:  In

Philadelphia

, a box containing an infernal machine addressed to Jacob H. Schiff, the

New York

financier, was stolen to-day from a Chestnut Hill mail box by a boy, who thereby unwittingly upset a plot against Mr. Schiff's life. The box, disguised as a Rosh Hashanah candy gift, contained enough explosives to blow up the entire house.

1909: Four new Jewish schools open in

Turkey

.

1912:

Columbia

University

Graduate

School

of Journalism is founded in

New York

. The school and the Pulitzer Prizes which it awards were possible because of an endowment by publish Joseph Pulitzer.

1913:  Charlie Chaplin signed his first movie contract for $175.  Within three years he would be making $10,000 a week at Amutual Studios.  The Little Tramp was no bum.

1917(9th of Tishrei, 5678): Erev Yom Kippur

1917: At noon today, U.S. soldiers and sailors begin furloughs granted so that they can observe Yom Kippur.

1918: In WW I, “Australian and New Zealand cavalrymen crossed the Jordan River and entered Amman.”  From the Mediterranean to the Jordan, Eretz Israel was now under the control of the British who had promised that this would be site of the Jewish home after the end of hostilities.

1919: President Wilson suffers a stroke and collapses after a giving a speech calling for the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles.

Wilson

had returned from the Paris Peace Conference with a peace treaty designed not just to end the hostilities of World War I but to avoid future conflicts through the creation of the
League of Nations
.  Republicans led by Senator Lodge opposed the treaty and had the votes to block passage.

Wilson

began a cross-country campaign of public appearances designed to bring the weight of public opinion into the battle for ratification.  With the stroke,

Wilson

could no longer appear in public.  Lodge and the isolationists triumphed.  The treaty was rejected.  The

United States

did not join the
League of Nations
which rendered the international body virtually powerless even before it held its first meeting.

Wilson

predicted that if the treaty and the League were rejected there would another world war within twenty years.  He would not live to see his tragic prophecy come true.  Would World War II have been avoided if the League had been the organization envisioned by

Wilson

?  Would the Holocaust have not happened if

Wilson

’s health had not failed?  We will never know.

1920 (13th of Tishrei, 5681):  On Shabbat, Jacob H. Schiff, banker and philanthropist passed away.

1923(15th of Tishrei, 5684): Sukkoth

1925(3rd of Tishrei, 5683): Tzom Gedaliah

1926: Birthdate of Mel Mermelstein a Hungarian-born Jew who was the sole-survivor of his family's extermination at Auschwitz. He defeated the I.H.R. in an American court and had the occurrence of gassings in Auschwitz during the Holocaust declared a legally incontestable fact.

1929: Birthdate of Irving Louis Horowitz, the Rutgers professor who was “an eminent sociologist and prolific author.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)

1928: Birthdate of Robert Zuckerkandle, who gained fame and fortune as Robert Chandler, the CBS executive who played a crucial role in creating the highly rated and critically acclaimed weekly newsmagazine “60 Minutes,”

1930:  Birthdate of humorist and author Shel Silverstein.  His works covered a broad range of topics and interests.  They ranged from the children's book The Giving Tree to the country hit "A Boy Named Sue."

1931:  Birthdate of broadcaster Barbara Walters.

1932: Birthdate of Canadian concert pianist, Glen Gould.

Russia

,

America

, even

Canada

– a Jew, a piano and viola, a concert performer.

1933: Rabbi Simcha Solovetchick, who studied under Rabbi Israel Meir HaCohen Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim, helped to lead the memorial services for his mentor which were held at Synagogue Tifereth Israel in Brooklyn.

1936(10th of Tishrei, 5697): Yom Kippur

1936: The Maccabee soccer team of Palestine goes through its final drill this afternoon at Yankee Stadium in preparation for its Sunday match with the All Stars which will be played in the House that Ruth Built.

1939(12th of Tishrei, 5700): Harold U. Hirsch who played football at the University of Georgia from 1900 to 1901, studied law at Columbia University and was the general counsel for The Coca-Cola Company for more than thirty years passed away today.  According to some Hirsch was instrumental in the development of the unique shape of the Coca-Cola bottle and the logo in 1913. In 1932, a new building was completed for the University of Georgia School of Law, a building named Harold Hirsch Hall in honor of Hirsch.

1941: In Kovno, the Germans gave the Jewish Council 5,000 work passes, placing upon them the burden of choosing who shall work and live, and who shall die.

1942: While sailing from Newfoundland to the United Kingdom the SS President Warfield was attacked by a German submarine 800 miles west of Ireland.  The ship evaded the torpedoes and made it safely to port.  The SS SS President Warfield would gain fame in 1947 as the SS Exodus.

1942(14th of Tishrei, 5703): Erev Sukkoth

1942(14th of Tishrei, 5703): Four hundred eighty-one French Jews, including Rene' Blum, the brother of the former French Prime Minister were killed in Birkenau.

1942: Despite growing resistance, 2,000 Jews from Kaluszyn were sent to be killed at Treblinka. Kaluszyn was a predominantly Jewish town in

Poland

about thirty miles from

Warsaw

.   The Jewish population grew as Jews from other areas sought refuge there.  Unfortunately most of them ended up at Treblinka. The Sefer Kalushin or Book of Kaluszyn describes the fate of the community in grim detail.

1942: Two thousand more Jews were deported from the "show ghetto" at Theresienstadt.

1942: Learning about the impending liquidation of their ghetto, some Jews of Korets, Ukraine sought refuge in the woods while others resist by setting the ghetto ablaze. Resistance is led by Moshe Gildenman.

1942: Swiss police decree that race alone does not guarantee refugee status, thus preventing Jews from crossing the Swiss border to safety.

1942: Seven hundred Romanian Jews, interned at

Drancy

, are deported to
Auschwitz
.

1942(14th of Tishrei, 5703): Abraham Gamzu, chairman of the Jewish Council at Kaluszyn, Poland, is executed after refusing to deliver Jews for deportation. Six thousand of the town's residents are deported to the Treblinka death camp and later killed.

1942: Lian Berkowitz, a member of the anti-Nazi Red Orchestra was arrested and formally charged today in Berlin.

1942(14th of Tishrei, 5703): 475 French Jews are gassed at Auschwitz. One of the victims is ballet director René Blum, the brother of former French Prime Minister Léon Blum.

1942:  The SS Warfield,  an American coastal ship that had been “lent” to the British avoided being sunk  during a U-boat  torpedo attack as steamed  towards the British Isles.  The SS Warfield would enter historyfive years later as the SS Exodus.

1943: The Chief Rabbi of

Athens

, Ilia Barzilai, escaped from the city disguised as a peasant. He reached
Thessaly
where he promoted the Greek partisans, saving some 600 Jews by smuggling them across the
Aegean
to

Turkey

. The smuggled boats and money came from the Jewish Labor Federation in

Palestine

.

1943: After two days of selections, only 2,000 out of 10,000 Jews remained in the Vilna Ghetto. They were placed in local labor camps.

1944: Birthdate Eugenia Zukerman, the multitalented flutist, author, and journalist. Zukerman was born in

Cambridge
,
Massachusetts

. She started to study English at Barnard, but later transferred to the

Julliard

School

where she studied with flutist Julius Baker. Zukerman went on to win the Young Concert Artist Award in 1971, beginning her career with rave reviews and a warm welcome by the music world. During her career, Zukerman has performed with orchestras, in solo and duo recitals, and in chamber music ensembles in
North America
,
Europe
, and
Asia
. Since 1998, Zukerman has served as Artistic Director of the international Vail Valley Music Festival in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Zukerman's talent and career cannot be condensed into one area, however. In addition to her musical achievements, Zukerman is an author of two novels and several screenplays, and is also a journalist, reporting as the arts correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning since 1980.

1945: A parade was held at Bergen-Belsen in the British zone of occupied German marking the first Congress for Survivors.

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/september/15.asp

1948:As Dmitri Shostakovich celebrates his birthday today while awaiting arrest by the Soviet secret police, he listens to a performance of “From Jewish Folk Poetry,” a medley of tunes which he had written as sign of solidarity with the Jewish artists being persecuted by Stalin.

1949(2ndof Tishrei, 5710): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah

1951: New York’s Mayor Impellitteri left Rome today aboard an Israeli government plane which was flying him to Tel Aviv.

1956(20th of Tishrei,): A Jordanian patrol crossed the border into Israel and opened fire on a group of women picking olives near the village of Aminadav killing Zohara Umri, an immigrant from Yemen.

1956: The Israeli Cabinet discussed a reprisal mission for the terrorist attacks.  Ben-Gurion called for a “vigorous” response in the upcoming night time attack.

1959: Shaaray Tefila dedicated its new sanctuary on the corner of East 79thStreet and Second Avenue.

1960(4th of Tishrei, 5721):Tzom Gedaliah

1967: Following the Six Days War, Kfar Etzion was reestablished by the children of the original settlers. The Kibbutz was destroyed and its defenders (including women) massacred after surrendering in May 1948 during the War for

Independence

.

1968(3rd of Tishrei, 5729): Tzom Gedaliah

1970: The PLFP released the Jewish and Israeli hostages it had been holding since the so-called Dawson Field Hijackings.  The PLFP had previously released the other hostages on September 11.

1970 (24th of Elul, 5730): Ninety year old Estelle Liebling famed soprano and a member of a prominent Jewish musical family passed away today.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/liebling-estelle

1970 (24th of Elul, 5730): Erich Paul Remarkpassed away at the age of 72.  Using the the pseudonym of Erich Maria Remarque he gained fame as the German author of “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Writing from his experiences as a German soldier in World War I, Remarque wrote a novel about the folly of war.  The novel was later turned into a Hollywood hit movie.  The Nazis disapproved of the book and banned and burned copies of it. For the Nazis it was not enough to brand Remarque, a Catholic, as a pacifist.  They created the myth that he was a Jew named Kramer and even worse, the Kramers had originally been French Jews.  What is worse than being a Jew?  Not being a Jew but being branded as one.

1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet was expected to accept a new American plan for the reconvening of the Geneva Peace Conference.

1980: Leonard Bernstein conducts the premiere performance of Divertimento for Orchestra.

1985(10th of Tishrei, 5746): Yom Kippur

1993(10thof Tishrei, 5754): Yom Kippur

1995(1st of Tishrei, 5756): Rosh Hashanah

1995:In Atlanta, GA,Dr. Stan Fineman, his head and shoulders draped with a traditional prayer shawl, will raise a shofar to his lips and join with millions of other Jews around the world today in carrying out a tradition that has been used to usher in the Jewish New Year since biblical days.

1998: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Sabrina and Todd Thalbum give birth to their daughter Gabriella Elizabeth (Gavriella Elisheva) Thalblum

1999(15thof Tishrei, 5760): Sukkoth

2003(28th of Elul, 5763): Franco Modigliani, winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Economics, passed away. In 1939, Modigliani was forced to flee from his native

Italy

because of his Jewish ancestry and anti-fascists views.  Active until the end, Modigliani enlisted fellow Nobel laureates Paul Samuelson  and Robert Solowin 2003 to write a letter published in The New York times chiding the Anti-Defamation League for honoring Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi had recently defended Mussolini’s conduct toward Jews during World War II.

2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest includingThe March by E. L. Doctorow and The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol.

2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that a research grant of $5.6 million in the field of bio-defense has been awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), to a Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher for the development of a broadly effective drug against a family of toxins called super antigens.

2005 (21st of Elul, 5765): Jewish psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner, founder of Head Start, passes away.

2006(3rd of Tishrei, 5767):Tzom Gedaliah

2007: In Washington, D.C., Bloomingdale’s under the leadership of
CEO
Michael Gould holds a private reception for “local officials and other bigwigs” prior to the public opening of its new store in the Friendship Heights neighborhood.  Of the store and its opening Gould said, “We have a lot of faith in this community.  This is our best foot forward in

Washington

.’” Gould serves on the Board of Trustees of Hebrew College in

Boston

is a sustaining Fellow of Harvard University’s Center for Jewish Studies and serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Jewish Committee.

2007: Yuval Baruch, an achaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, announced the discovery of a quarry compound which provided King Herod with the stones to renovate the second Temple. It houses the Temple Mount Coins, pottery and iron stake found proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BC. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the large outlines of the stone cuts is evidence that it was a massive public project worked on by hundreds of slaves.

2007: The Jewish Film Festival in Dallas, TX comes to a close.

2008: Yehuda Amital officially announced his retirement in the yeshiva, to take effect on the last day of the Jewish month of Tishrei, in the year 5769 (October 28, 2008). He also announced that Mosheh Lichtenstein, the son of his co-Rosh Yeshiva Aharon Lichtenstein, would assume the position as the fourth Rosh Yeshiva on that same day.

2008: Paul McCartney appears in concert in Tel Aviv “43 years after being banned by the Israeli government.”  At the time, Yaakov Sarid, the Education Ministry’s director was blamed for the cancellation.  According to Sarid’s son, the concert was cancelled because of a dispute between two Israeli concert promoters, Yaakov Uri and Giora Godik.

2008: At Columbia University’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, The Sylvia and Joseph Radov Lectures present Amos Oz the renowned Israeli author, Agnon Professor of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University whose topic for the evening is entitled “Between Israel and Palestine “

2008: Students and visitors at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem will be able to look at the stars through Albert Einstein's long lost telescope starting this evening. University officials said it had been completed renovated after being retrieved from a storage shed. The legendary physicist who theorized the famous relations among energy, speed and mass received the telescope in 1954, the year before he died. It was a gift from a friend named Zvi Gizeri, who probably made it himself, university officials said. .

2008:Natural population growth in Israel that was partially canceled out by negative growth in the Diaspora resulted in a net increase in the past year of 70,000 Jews, according to data released today by the Jewish Agency ahead of Rosh Hashana. There are 13.3 million people around the world who define themselves as Jewish and who do not belong to any other faith. Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski said the data proved that a "tangible danger of assimilation was hanging over the Jewish people." The survey was conducted by Prof. Sergio Della Pergola from the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute and the Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University. Over the past year, the Jewish population in Israel grew by 85,000, while there was a decrease of 15,000 in the Diaspora. There are 5.55 million Jews in Israel and 7.75 million in the Diaspora, meaning 41.3 percent of World Jewry now resides in the Jewish state. The United States is next, with 5.3 million Jews, or 39.8%, then France with 490,000, Canada with 375,000, Britain with 295,000, Russia with 215,000 (340,000 in the entire FSU), Argentina with 183,000, Germany with 120,000, Australia with 107,000 and Brazil with 96,000. There are about 1.5 million people in North America who are either Jews married to a non-Jew or are the offspring of a mixed Jewish-non-Jewish couple. According to the Jewish Agency, this is proof that assimilation is growing. Bielski said the agency would "step up its efforts to provide Jewish education in Diaspora communities and to strengthen the Jewish identity of the new generation and tighten the ties between Israel and the Diaspora." Other data released by the agency: There is one Jew living in Afghanistan, 95 countries have 100 or more Jews, there are 11 million people living in the US who are eligible for automatic citizenship under the Law of Return, and another million in the FSU.

2009: In New Orleans, Touro Synagogue celebrates Shabbat Shuvah with services and a Friday night dinner.

2009: In Jerusalem, Boris and Friends and the Klezmerim appear at the Alrov Mamilla Avenue amphitheater.

2009: The Guggenheim presents “It Came from Brooklyn” a multi-dimensional cultural event that features cellist Yoed Nir and readings from Rivka Galchen.

2009: An Israeli airstrike to night killed three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement who were on their way to fire rockets into Israel. The three men were hit near their vehicle in the Tufah area east of Gaza City .A fourth man was injured. The men were part of a group responsible for firing homemade Qassam rockets and mortar rounds into Israel in recent weeks, including two that fell on the border town of Sderot over the Rosh Hashanah holiday last weekend. The Islamic Jihad movement confirmed that the men were part of the group's armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades, but did not comment further.

2009:Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister of Israel, appeared in court today  for the opening of his trial on charges of corruption, a spectacle that could mark a new low in the annals of Israeli public life.

2010:Ed Miliband and David Miliband are two of the Laborite MP’s who are awaiting today’s announcement as to who would be the party’s new leader.

2010(17th of Tishrei, 5771): Shabbat Chol Ha-Moed Sukkoth.

2010: This evening the DC young professional Jewis

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