September 8 In History
70: On the secular calendar, Jerusalem is sacked by the 60,000 troops of Titus' Roman army after a six month siege. Over a million Jewish citizens perished in the siege and, following the city's capture, another 97,000 were sold into slavery. This event is commemorated on The Arch of Titus in Rome. [Date variations of one day, depend on the source.]
1207: Birthdate of King Sancho II of Portugal. Sancho II continued the struggle with the Church that had begun under his father Alfonso II which proved beneficial to the Jews. Sancho II ignored the Church’s prohibition against hiring Jews for positions of powers and appointed Jews as tax-farmers. “Probably it was he who appointed Don Joseph ibn Yaḥya as almoxarife; he also permitted him to build a magnificent synagogue in Lisbon.”
1140: While traveling to Palestine, Judah Halevi arrived in Alexandria (Egypt) where “he was enthusiastically greeted by friends and admirers.” He went on to Cairo where he turned down requests that he settle in the Egyptian city because he was determined to complete his journey to Jerusalem.
1157: Birthdate of King Richard I, the Lionhearted who decreed that the Jews of England should be left to live in peace. Unfortunately, he spent most of his time on Crusades or fighting in France which left the Jews to suffer at the hands of the Church and anti-Semitic nobles.
1264: The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz was issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Boleslaus the Pious today in Kalisz. The statute served as the basis for the legal position of Jews in Poland and led to creation of a Yiddish-speaking autonomous Jewish "nation within a nation", which lasted until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. The statute granted exclusive jurisdiction over Jewish matters to Jewish courts and established a separate tribunal for matters involving Christians and Jews. Additionally, it guaranteed safety and personal liberties for Jews such as freedom of religion, trade, and travel. The statute was ratified by subsequent Polish Kings: Casimir III of Poland in 1334, Casimir IV of Poland in 1453, and Sigismund I of Poland in 1539.
1425: King Charles III of Navarre passed away. Under his reign, the conditions of the Jews of improved over what they had been under his predecessor Charles II., who died in 1387. Soon after Charles II came to power, “the Jews presented him with 3,000 livres. In return he granted them several privileges, influenced, doubtless, by the fact that his court physician was Chief Rabbi Joseph Orabuena, whose son Judah was also a member of the royal retinue. During the king's journey to Paris in 1397 he was accompanied by four Jews—two physicians, a surgeon, and an astrologer. The Jewish residents of Navarre were so impoverished that they could no longer pay taxes; hence the king, while continuing a rigid collection from the Jews in Pamplona, who formed the richest community in the country, exempted their coreligionists of Tudela from the obligation to furnish beds, etc., during his stay in that city.”
1486:Joseph Günzenhäuser printed Hagiographa Variorum in Naples, Italy. [This probably was one of the first annotated copies of the section of the TaNaCh known as Ketuvim or Writings.]
1498: Torquemada died. Torquemada was descended from a family of Marranos which makes his role in history all the more ironic Torquemada is popularly known as the head of the Spanish Inquisition. In fact, he was not the first one to head the Inquisition; an act of evil that had the full support and control of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. According to some, the Queen was a stronger supporter of this activity than the King. More importantly, they let the Pope know that they and not he would control the Inquisition. After all, the monarchs had empty coffers to fill as well as souls to save.
1504: Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence. The naked statue of Israel’s greatest king has a flaw – David is uncircumcised. So did Michelangelo sculpt the likeness of a nude Florentine boy and call it David so as not to offend the sensibilities of Christian Italians? Considering that Moses is portrayed with Horns, anatomically and or texturally correct art was not the strong point of Renaissance artists.
1628: During the Eighty Years War, the Battle of Matanzas came to an end with Dutch defeating the Spanish and seizing their treasure fleet as spoils. Among those helping the Dutch was Moses Cohen Henriques a pirate whose family had been Sephardim from Portugal. Henriques moved to Brazil from the Caribbean when the Dutch captured it from the Portuguese. When the Portuguese recaptured Brazil, Henriques continued his pirating ways hooking up with the notorious Henry Morgan.
1636: New College is established in Massachusetts. Three years later it would change its name to Harvard in honor of clergy man John Harvard, one of the school’s earliest and most generous benefactors. Harvard has had an uneven history in terms of the Jewish people. At one time Harvard and its academic community were supporters of a quotas designed to limit Jewish enrollment. At the same time, Harvard boast numerous Jewish alumnae and faculty members. Today Harvard has approximately 2000 undergraduate students out of a population of almost 7,000 undergrads. There are 2,500 graduate students among Harvard’s approximately 11,000 grad students.
1664: The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam was surrendered to the British who renamed it New York in 1669. Now you know how a handful of Dutch Jews became the first “New York Jews.”
1729:Congregation Shearith Israel laid the foundation stone of the first building specifically to be used as a synagogue on Mill Street in New York City.
1760: First official reports of Jews having settled in Canada.
1812(2ndof Tishrei, 5573): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1812: Birthdate of Rebekah Gumpert Hyneman, a Jew by choice who was a successful authoress.
1847: In Philadelphia, PA, Rodef Shalom, one of the first German congregations organized in the United States moved to its new building on Julianna Street. Rodef Shalom had been formed in 1801 by Ashkenazic Jews who were not comfortable attending Mickvah Israel, a Sephardic congregation.
1848: Birthdate of German scientist Viktor Meyer. He was a German chemist who contributed greatly to knowledge of both organic and inorganic chemistry and invented an apparatus for determining vapor densities (and hence molecular weights), now named after him. In 1871, Meyer experimentally proved Avogadro's hypothesis by measuring the vapor densities of volatile substances (molecular weight, or relative molecular mass, is twice the vapor density). He went on to determine the vapor densities of inorganic substances at high temperatures. From benzene obtained from petroleum, Meyer in 1883 isolated thiophene, a heterocyclic compound containing sulfur, which much later was to become an important component of various synthetic drugs. He passed away in 1897.
1850(2nd of Tishrei, 5611): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1852: Birthdate of Henri Moissan, the Parisian who became the second Jew to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
1858(29th of Elul, 5618): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1861(4thof Tishrei, 5622): Because the 3rd of Tishrei fell on a Saturday, the Tzom Gedaliah is observed today.
1867: Birthdate of Russian socialist Russian Aleksandr Izrail Lazarevich Gelfand who become famous as Alexander Israel Helphand, the man who negotiated with the Germans during World War I to gain Lenin’s return to Russia from Switzerland which brought about the Communist Revolution and took Russia out of World War I.
1871: Adath Israel (Congregation of Israel) dedicated its new home, a brick structure on 57thStreet between First and Second avenues in Manhattan. As part of the ceremony, Dr. Wasserman delivered a talk in German and Vidaver delivered a speech in English that explained the purpose of the various objects in the synagogue.
1873: The Wandering Jew is scheduled to be performed at the Grand Opera House as part of the "fall season" in NYC.
1876: Birthdate of Israel Friedlander, the Polish born rabbi, educator and biblical scholar who co-founded the Young Israel movement with Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.
1877(1stof Tishrei, 5638): Rosh Hashanah
1877: Rabbi Gottheil and Lewis May, President of the Congregation, led services this morning at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Services for the Reform temple began at 10 o’clock while services at the city’s orthodox syngagoues “began much earlier in the day.
1877: The Jewish inmates at Sing Sing Prison will celebrate the Rosh Hashanah this evening. Services will be led by a chaplain who has been specially appointed for this purpose. Mr. Gratz Nathan of the 19thStreet Synagogue and Mr. Adolph Levy of the 44th Street Synagogue will provide the funds for the service.
1879: It was reported today that Vasile Boerescui, the Romanian Foreign Minister has been “partially successful” in getting the France and Germany to agree to a compromise that would delay the promised emancipation of the Jews living in his country. After a meeting with Count Andrassy, it appears that Austria agrees as well.
1881: It was reported today New York Jewish wholesale liquor dealer Henry Lezinskye was arraigned before Justice Brimley in Long Branch on charges of having swindled John J. Wheeler out of $775. Chances of conviction would seem to be slim since the alleged offense took place more than seven years ago.
1881: A committee that has been formed to provide relief Russian Jewish immigrants who are expected to arrive in the next few days will have its first meeting this evening at the offices of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. Judge Myer S. Isaacs presided over the meeting
1884: “Democratic Reform Work” published today described the rebellion in New Orleans’ First Congressional District where Colonel Adolph Meyer, a Jewish wealthy cotton merchant, is seeking the nomination.
1886: Birthdate of poet and author Siegfried Sassoon. Sassoon’s father was Jewish but his mother was not. Alfred Sassoon, Siegfried’s father was a member of the well-to-do Sassoon family of merchants. However, among English Jews, wealth was not an excuse of assimilation and Alfred was disinherited for marrying a Christian, even she did belong to one of England’s leading family of sculptors. Whether out of spite, or just plain insensitivity, Theresa Sassoon named her son for a leading character in a Wagner opera. His middle name was taken from that of a Christian clergyman with whom she was friendly.
1909: Jews in Aleppo telegraph the Hahambashi requesting he intervene with the government respecting taxes for exemption for military service, on account of their precarious financial situation. The Hahambashi prevailed and the Minister of Finance telegraphed the Aleppo authorities to collect only 20% of debt Jews owed, and to release prisoners from prison who could not pay.
1911: The German Emperor confers the Order of Red Eagle, Second Classs, on Professor Hugo Munsterberg who has been serving as Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. “The Order of the Red Eagle was an order of chivalry that the Kingdom of Prussia awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful service to the kingdom, or other achievements.” World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, is probably the most famous recipient of the award. Hugo Münsterberg was an early leader in the fields of applied and industrial pyschology. He died suddenly in December, 1916 while giving a lecture at Harvard.
1893(27thof Elul, 5653): William Mordecai passed away
1911: Monsieur Levy, Advocate-General at the Court of Appeals in Indo-China is appointed Procureur General and Chielf of Judicial Service in French Guiana.
1911: F.C. Hollander was re-elected Mayor of Durban, South Africa
1911: The cornerstone of the first synagogue in Alberta, Canada was laid.
1916: Salonica government declares compulsory military service is now required and that all Jews over 21 cannot leave from its newly acquired provinces.
1917(21stof Elul, 5677): Seventy-six year Talmudic scholar Israel Lewy, the author of Ueber Einige Fragmente aus der Mischna des Abba Saul passed away today.
1918(2ndof Tishrei, 5679): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1921: Birthdate of Lou Goldstein, the native of Warsaw whose career became synonymous with Borscht Belt humor (As reported by Joseph Berger)
1922: Birthdate of comedian Sid Caesar. Caesar's greatest fame came in the 1950's when he starred in the weekly Sunday night, "Your Show of Shows."
1925: Outfielder Si Rosenthal made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.
1926(29thof Elul, 5686): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1927:The funeral of Marcus Loew, will be held this morning at his estate in Glen Cove. Burial will be at Maimonides Cemetery, Cypress Hills. “No estimate was obtainable of the size of Mr. Loew's fortune, but the extent of his interests and operations indicate it is a very large one. In 1924, Mr. Loew bought "Pembroke," the late Captain Joseph R. de Lamar estate for an announced price of $1,000,000 and he is said to have spent several millions more on it since. In February of this year he was reported to be carrying life insurance of $5,000,000, being one of the nine men in the country insured for that much or more. His holdings are said to be concentrated in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corporation and Loew's, Inc.”
1929: Rothschild is in Yugoslavia where the London banker is believed to have discussed the possibilities of a loan with King Alexander I.
1930: Birthdate of Sanford “Sandy” C. Sigoloff, a corporate turnaround expert who called himself the Skillful Scapel. (As reported by Mary Williams Walsh)
1930: Public schools in New York City began teaching classes in Hebrew.
1931: Birthdate of Jack Morris Rosenthal CBE, an English playwright, who wrote 129 early episodes of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and over 150 screenplays, including original TV plays, feature films, and adaptations
1932: After spending part of the summer in Palestine Rabbi Israel Goldstein, the spiritual leader of Congregation B’Nai Jershurun and the President of the Jewish Conciliation court report returned to the United States yesterday on board the SS Europa and reported that Jewish life was developing a sense of strength and permanence. He also noted that the major building activities have changed the complexion of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.
1933: The Second World Jewish Congress met in Geneva and votes to organize a world-wide boycott of German goods in response to the actions of the Hitler government.
1939: Two hundred Jews were forced into the synagogue in Bedzin, Poland. The synagogue was then set on fire.
1939: Jews in Germany were ordered to mark all businesses with a Star of David
1942: In the House of Commons, Winston Churchill referred to the deportation of French Jews. No mention was made of the fate of rest of the Jews of Europe. This silence was not for lack of information available to the Allied governments.
1942: During a session of Britain's House of Commons, Prime Minister Winston Churchill remarks angrily about Nazi deportations of French Jews.
1943: On the day that Eisenhower announced that Italy had surrendered unconditionally, "six battalions of German paratroopers" marched into Rome causing panic among the citizenry including a report that "The Jews are in a panic and trying to leave the city.
1943: The five thousand Jews deported from the Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia Ghetto arrive at Auschwitz
1944: Jermie Adler returned to Liege after it was liberated by U.S. troops today. Adler was a Hungarian Jew who moved with his family to Liege before WW II. The Nazis would kill them all except for one of his daughters.
1944: There were more reprisals in reaction to the Slovakia Uprisings. Einsatzkommando broke into Jewish homes and deported the Jewish population of Topolcany, Slovakia
1945(1st of Tishrei, 5706): Rosh Hashanah
1945(1st of Tishrei,5706): Lt. Col. Louis Geffen, a judge advocate in the US Army conducted “improvised High Holiday services” on board his ship which was sailing across the Pacific from California to the Philippines.
1945: On Rosh Hashanah, 5706, Bess Myerson was the first (and only) Jew to be crowned Miss America. Miss Myerson went on to enjoy a successful modeling and television career before take an active role in New York City politics.
1947: The refugee ship Exodus is returned to Hamburg and its cargo of 4500 holocaust survivors removed by force. Some claim that this act more than any other helped force international public opinion against British policy. Others would contend that this is a slightly romanticized view of the outcome of this episode. The saga of the Exodus did supply the opening scenes, and title for, Leon Uris' epic novel Exodus
1950: In a letter to the editor published on this date in the New York Times, Alfred Wener is critical of those who think removing Dr. Bernard (Dov) Josepher as Minister of Supply and Rationing will solve Israel’s economic crisis. He reminds the readers that Israel was created a year ago as a result of a long, expensive war and that it has been absorbing tens of thousands of immigrants most of whom are indigent. Part of the solution to the crisis could be found in massive financial aid and assistance from “the world at large.”
1951: It was announced today that Israel's acceptance of the United Nation's Palestine Conciliation Commission's invitation to a conference in Paris next week to discuss possible settlement of outstanding Israeli-Arab problems will be delivered to the commission tomorrow or Monday.
1952: Israel agreed to accept reparation money from West Germany. The issue of accepting reparation money from West Germany was the cause of much acrimonious debate. Many in Israel did not want to take the money because they felt that no amount of funds could "buy" forgiveness for the Holocaust.
1952: Leonard Bernstein becomes a father with the birth of his daughter, Jamie Anne Maria.
1962: Having gained its independence from France, Algerians voted to adopt a new constitution. “When Algeria attained independence in 1962, legislation granted Algerian citizenship only to those residents whose father or paternal grandfather were Muslims. Moreover, the Supreme Court of Justice of Algeria declared that the Jews were no longer under the protection of the Law. Most of Algeria's 140,000 Jews left the country for France together with the pied-noirs; only about 10,000 stayed, a number that would rapidly decrease.” When the issue of “Palestinian refugee” is discussed, facts like these are never mentioned.
1964: Birthdate of professional wrestler Scott Levy.
1965(11th of Elul, 5725): Joshua Lionel Cowen passed away. Born in 1880, he was the American inventor of electric model trains who founded the Lionel Corporation (1901), which became the largest U.S. toy train manufacturer. At age 18, he had invented a fuse to ignite the magnesium powder for flash photography, which the Navy Department bought from him to be a fuse to detonate submarine mines. He designed an early battery tube light, but without practical application. (His partner, Conrad Hubert, to whom he gave the rights improved it and founded the Eveready Flashlight Company.) At age 22, he created a battery-powered train engine intended only as an eye-catcher for other goods in a store window. To his surprise, many customers wanted to purchase the toy train. Thus he started a model railroad company
1965: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Martin Ginsburg gave birth to record producer James Steven Ginsburg,
1971: In Washington, DC, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is inaugurated with the opening feature being the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass. Yes, only in America would a civic opera house feature a Catholic themed musical creation written by a Jewish citizen.
1972(29th of Elul, 5732): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1977(25th of Elul, 5737): Zero Mostel whose most famous role came as Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" passed away.
1981: ''Ya'acobi and Leidental,'' a comedy by the Israeli playwright Hanoch Levine, will begin a two-week American premiere engagement tonight at the La Mama Annex, 74A East Fourth Street. The play,about three unhappy people who have let life slip by, will be performed in English by the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv, regarded as the national theater of Israel. The actors, Zaharirah Charifai, Albert Cohen and Joseph Carmon, were also featured in the original Tel Aviv production in 1972. Mr. Levine, winner of Israel's highest artistic award, the President's Prize, has directed the production, which features music by Alex Cagan.
1983(1stof Tishrei, 5744): Rosh Hashanah
1985(22nd of Elul, 5745): Joseph B. Levin, former Assistant General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission, attorney at law and the most demanding teacher I ever had at Adas Israel Religious School passed away. Husband of Deborah and father of Judy, Mitchell and David Levin amongst other things he predicted that “someday somebody will pay you to write a simple declarative sentence.” Much to my surprise, he turned out to be right in a way he never could have imagined.
1986: Dr. Arthur M. Sackler “participated in ground-breaking ceremonies for the Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University and the Jill Sackler Sculpture Court and Garden.”
1987: As employers search for qualified workers in the Northeast, the New York Times reports on the creative ways that employers are dealing with the labor shortage seeking including that of a small-business executive Brian Waxler, vice president of Bruegers Bagel Bakery, a chain of four profitable bagel-and-coffee shops in downtown Boston. For several weeks this summer, signs in the shops offered a dozen free bagels ''for any information leading to the hiring of a bookkeeper.'' A customer finally won the bagels by providing the name of a man who was hired for $21,000 a year, Mr. Waxler said. ''If he had wanted much more money, we would have gotten by without a bookkeeper,'' Mr. Waxler added.
1995(13thof Elul, 5755): Eighty-nine year old Israeli historian and archeologist Benjamin Mazar passed away. (As reported by Joel Greenberg)
1996: Moses Montefiore, who made a fortune in the 19th century as an associate of the banking house of Rothschild, is the subject of an exhibition at Temple Israel in New Rochelle that opens with a reception today. “Montefiore, for whom the hospital in the Bronx is named, was born in Italy in 1784, but acquired his wealth and reputation as a diplomat and international advocate for Jews in his adopted country, England, where he lived for most of his 100 years. In 1837 he was knighted by Queen Victoria for his diplomatic work on behalf of the British Government, and in ameliorating the suffering of persecuted Jews in Russia, Syria and Morocco. He attained the rank of baronet in the 1840's and continued to travel around the world on diplomatic missions until he was 93, ceasing only because he was restrained by family and doctors.”
1998: Pitcher Keith Glauber made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds
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2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Longitudes and Attitudes Exploring the World After September 11 by Thomas L. Friedman, The Fall of Berlin: 1945by Antony Beevor and Bronx Boy: A Memoir by Jerome Charyn.
2003(11th of Elul, 5763): Canadian actress Jaclyn Michelle Linetsky passed away at the age of 17.
2004:Full of pride and joy, members and friends of Congregation Chasam Sopher celebrated the completed first phase of the restoration of the 150-year-old synagogue at 6 Clinton St. today and the beginning of a 12-month writing of a new Torah scroll. The gathering included government and business luminaries, rabbis of several Lower East Side Orthodox synagogues, neighborhood preservation advocates and longtime members of the congregation.mFor Eugene Weiser, president of the congregation, whose late father, Morris Weiser, was responsible for reviving a dwindling group of worshippers 35 years ago, it was especially poignant. “My father would have loved to see this,” he said, overcome for a moment with emotion. “Him and my brother are watching from upstairs.” Hank Sopher, the developer who became Congregation Chasam Sopher’s main benefactor in 1976, recalled how he was inspired by Morris Weiser’s devotion. Sopher is funding the complete restoration of the synagogue, expected to be finished by next year, and is also paying for the writing by hand of a new scroll. Sopher said he had discovered that his family is descended from the 19th-century rabbinical scholar Moshe Schreiber, for whom the congregation was named in 1891. Schreiber in German means “scribe,” which translates into Hebrew as sopher. Moshe Schrieber was popularly known as Chasam Sopher. Originally built in 1853 by a German Reform Jewish congregation that moved uptown in 1891, the Clinton St. building was then acquired by two orthodox congregations that merged to form Chasam Sopher. Hank Sopher proudly told the gathering that even during the 1970s when the congregation was struggling and the building was decaying, the synagogue was secure. “We haven’t had a break-in in 35 years,” he said, “partly because of our wonderful police, and partly because of the people who live here and watch out for the building because Chasam Sopher is such a respected part of the neighborhood.” For that reason, Sopher said, the restoration project will include an adjacent neighborhood park open to the public. Irma Lobell, a resident of Penn South in Chelsea, became involved with the congregation because she worked for Hank Sopher 35 years ago when the synagogue was struggling. “Morris Weiser used to pull them off the street for a minyan [a quorum of 10 men required for a service],” she recalled, adding that Eugene Weiser was his father’s constant companion. Rabbi Azriel Siff conducts daily prayers at the synagogue where minyans are always on hand these days. Siff introduced Rabbi Shmuel Wolfman, the sopher who will write the scroll, which will be used in services at the synagogue. Wolfman, 54, a father of seven children and grandfather of three, lives in Manhattan and is one of about 60 sophers in the U.S. and about 300 in the world. A secular Jew born in Russia, Wolfman emigrated at the age of 20 to Israel with his wife. “I didn’t know anything about religion,” he recalled. “I wanted to go to Calcutta to study yoga, but it took three years for exit visas and by that time we had a baby, so we went to Israel,” he said. In Jerusalem, he met a Russian-speaking rabbi, Yitzchak Zilber, who influenced him. To learn a trade to support his family, he apprenticed himself to a great Jewish calligrapher, Rabbi Abraham Snee. Wolfman, said he became interested in the craft of the sopher “because of its beauty — its energy.” The scroll of the first five books of the Bible is written according to rules prescribed by oral tradition. The ink is made from the outer bark of a wasp’s nest, the quill from a goose or turkey feather. “Mostly turkey because goose quills are hard to find,” said Wolfman. The velum upon which it is written is made from the skin of a calf slaughtered for food. Wolfman will do the writing in the downstairs sanctuary of the building for several hours each day except for the Sabbath and holidays. The synagogue will be open to people who want to see the scribe writing the scroll. Visitors who want one of the 304,805 letters of the Torah inked in their honor will be asked for donations, which will go towards the restoration of the 1853 building. The celebration attracted such luminaries as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, City Councilmember Alan Gerson, Assemblymember Richard Brodsky of Westchester, Judge Jerome M. Becker and Howard Rubenstein, founder of Rubenstein Associates public relations.(As reported by Albert Amateau)
2005: Today Robert Magnus began serving as the 30th Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps
2005: New Jersey state senator Byron Baer resigned from the New Jersey State Senate for reasons of health. “Shortly before he retired from the Senate, the New Jersey Association of Jewish Federations presented Baer with the Shem Tov and Distinguished Service awards. Jeffrey Maas, then executive director of the association, said Baer was responsible for making sure Jewish community centers, nursing homes, and social service agencies received extensive state funding.”
2005: In one of the most monumentally stupid remarks ever made by a Jewish leader (or anybody else for that matter) “Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a former chief rabbi and the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas movement, said today that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for U.S. President George W. Bush's support for Israel's Gaza pullout.”
2006(15th of Elul, 5766): Hilda Bernstein passed away at the age of 91. She wan anti-apartheid activist and author whose husband was tried for treason alongside Nelson Mandela.
2007: Ruth Messinger speaks at Durham's Judea Reform Congregation on "Jews as Global Citizens." Messinger is challenging Jews to increase their commitment to solving world crises. Messinger the former Manhattan borough president and a one-time challenger to Rudolph Giuliani for New York City mayor, now leads the American Jewish World Service. The nonprofit organization is the premier Jewish relief and development fund, active in providing health care, literacy, clean water and nutrition programs in 36 developing countries.
2007: In Jerusalem the sixth and the closing concert of Jewish Music Days is held at the Beit Avi Chai. This last concert, closest to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is aptly entitled Song and Prayer. The focus of this concert is a contemporary look at Spanish and Ethiopian poets of the Middle Ages combined with jazz and Jewish soul music.
2007(25th of Elul, 5767): In the evening, Selichot.
2008: The Yeshiva University Museum and the Center for Jewish History in cooperation with The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German National Tourist Office hosts a reception for a program styled, “Erfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz .” Concealed within the foundation of a 12th century house in the former Jewish quarter of Erfurt, in Germany, a hoard of medieval coins and gold and silver jewelry was discovered a decade ago. This treasure, which lay buried for over 600 years, was hidden there by a Jewish merchant just before the vicious massacre of Erfurt's Jews in 1349, in the time of the Black Death.
2008: The American Israeli Paper Mills Group (AIPM; Niyar Hadera) showed President Shimon Peres their newest invention, pipes made of paper fibers and plastic. They are so strong, CEO Avi Brener told Peres, they are almost as tough as steel. The company's R&D department discovered what they claim is a unique bonding agent which gives the material the resilience of paper fibers and the flexibility of plastic.
2009: Journalist and videographer Max Blumenthal discusses and signs Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington D.C.
2009: The Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem's Old City, hosts a nighttime concert of some of the best cantors, or hazzanim, around, singing those very songs that make the High Holiday services so long, yet special, and throwing in a few other "hits" as well.
2009: The British military announced today that it has installed its first-ever Jewish Civilian Chaplain to the armed forces. Rabbi Arnold Saunders will be responsible for the spiritual and pastoral care of serving Jewish personnel in all three services - army, navy and air force.
2009: Germany's parliament unanimously passed a blanket measure today overturning Nazi-era verdicts convicting people of treason, nearly 65 years after the end of World War II. Treason convictions carried the death penalty and were handed down in Nazi Germany for any act deemed harmful to the nation or helpful to the enemy. Under that umbrella, people were convicted of treason for political resistance, aiding Jews, helping prisoners of war, selling products on the black market and scores of other acts
2010(29th of Elul, 5770): Erev Rosh Hashanah
2010:A mortar shell fired from the Gaza Strip this morning landed near several childrens' school buildings in a Sha'ar Hanegev regional council kibbutz, some 30 minutes prior to the students' scheduled arrival. One of the buildings sustained light damage, and no injuries were reported. The school building impacted by the mortar was reinforced only at the roof and not at the side walls, like other protected buildings in the area
2010(29th of Elul, 5770): Major General Israel Tal, “who helped lay the foundations for the IDF” and played a key role in the Merkava, Israel’s premier battle tank, passed away today in Rehovet. (As reported by Ethan Bronner)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/middleeast/09tal.html?pagewanted=print
2010(29th of Elul, 5770): Eighty-four year old the literary magazine maven Thomas Guinzburg who founded The Paris Review, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/arts/10guinzburg.html?pagewanted=print
2010(29thof Elul, 5770): Eighty-four year old folk music maven Irwin Silber passed away. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/arts/music/11silber.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
2011:A unique concert featuring the stirring words of Holocaust survivors is scheduled to take today place at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. It will be performed by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and soloists and choirs from Israel and the United States. Gil Shohat and the orchestra will perform Lawrence Siegel’s Kaddish
2011: “Fallen Empires,” the second solo exhibition by Shai Kremer, is scheduled to open at the Julie Saul Gallery in New York City.
2011: An exhibition of new photography by Tal Shochat, “In Praise of a Dream” is scheduled to open at The Andrea Meislin Gallery in New York.
2011: Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum are scheduled to appear at the 6th& I Historic Synagogue where they will promote In That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back another in a series of books by Mr. Friedman that offer the roadmap to save the world.
2011:This evening the Tel Aviv District Court issued a temporary injunction preventing the removal of the protest tents on Rothschild Boulevard, pending a response to a petition filed by protesters.
2011: A French court handed out a 6,000 euro ($8,421) suspended fine to John Galliano today after finding him guilty of anti-Semitic behavior , marking the end in a fall from grace for the former head designer of fashion house Dior. For Galliano, whose worth is estimated in the millions of dollars, the penalty -- suspended for several years -- avoids any financial burden and is unlikely to constrain his liberty.
2011:Noam Shalit told a news conference today that he came to New York to meet with diplomats from many countries and UN officials to press for his son's release ahead of expected Palestinian moves seeking UN recognition later this month.
2011: The pro-Israel organization J Street decided to reject the Palestinian statehood bid in its new position paper, aligning with the Obama administration's position to oppose the unilateral move.
2012: Kandi Abelson & David Kilimnick are scheduled to perform in Jerusalem at the Off the Wall Comey Basement
2012: An evening of Jerusalem Folk Music featuring Caanan Country and The Heeby Gee Bees is scheduled to take place Motzei Shabbat at Beit Yehudit.
scheduled to take place Motzei Shabbat at Beit Yehudit.
2012: In the evening, Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is scheduled to observe Selichot with it