OCTOBER 19 In History
1187: Pope Urban III passed away. Urban was a supporter of the Crusades, the cause of so much Jewish misery. A large part of his papacy was spent in struggle with Frederick I, the Emperor who issued “The Confirmation of Rights of the Jews of Regensburg” that stated, “We must make provision for them tom maintain their customs and secure peace for their persons and property.”
1216: King John of England died at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry. Richard's brother John's lack of judgment and popularity meant that he was always short of money and support. While his barons might grumble at John's incompetence and resist his ever-increasing demands for money, the Jews had no such leverage. When the Baron’s forced him to sign the Magna Carta they included a clause that restricted claims of Jews against debtors who died owing them money. John pressed his Jews to provide a royal dowry for his daughter, Joan, followed too quickly by the massive so-called Bristol Tallage, which depleted the wealthiest Jews upon which it largely fell. Henry was only a nine year old child. As Henry III will also clash with the Barons and will look to the Jews as a source of revenue to prop up his throne.
1298: Two hundred Jews were massacred in Germany. This was part of a period half century of violence aimed against the Jews of Germany. Much of the popular sentiment was aroused by claims that Jews were using Christian blood to make matzoth. The clerics were working to enforce laws against any kind of intercourse between Christians and Jews. And the royalty was trying to figure out ways to strip the Jews of their wealth. It was this kind of violence that would cause Asher ben Yechiel (see above) to flee
Germany
in 1303.
1329 (9th of Cheshvan 5090): Asher ben Yechiel passed away. Born in 1250 this great Talmudic commentator was known as Rabbenu Asher or the "Rosh". He fought against the over-philosophizing of his day. Asher was a unique case. He was Ashkenazi and had begun his work among the Jews of France of Germany. When his life was threatened in
Germany
he fled to
Spain
where he became rabbi of the Sephardic Jews of Toledo. His rabbinical academy attracted students from
Europe
and
Russia
. His works included "Diskei Rosh", discussions, over 1000 Responsa, a commentary of the MishnayotZerayim and Teharot, and notes on some Talmudic Tractates. He encouraged his pupil, Isaac ben Yoseph, to write Yesod Olam "Foundation of the World," a scientific work on astronomy and the calendar. At the time of his death he was preparing a codification of commentaries that for the first time included the views of the German and Spanish rabbinical authorities. His son, Jacob ben Asher, would finish his father’s task by writing a code called Turim.
1466: In Poland, the Thirteen Years War comes to an end with Polish forces victorious over the Teutonic Knights. This victory came during that period of time when Poland was on its way to becoming home to the largest Jewish population in Europe.
1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon wedded Isabella of Castile, a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain. The marriage also paved the way to Spanish Inquisition, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus. In other words, these two Hispanic lovebirds closed out the what had been one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in history and opened the door to what would become the most vibrant Jewish community in the history of the Diaspora.
1735(2ndof Cheshvan, 5496): Moses Kalman, grandfather of A.M. Rothschild passed away.
1739: In
Portugal
, Antonio Jose da Silva, who was a Converso born in
Brazil
to Converso parents was found guilty of heresy. He was a well known dramatist and his works were popularly referred to as those of “The Jew.” Da Silva whose parents had also been persecuted by the inquisition was arrested numerous times and tortured. Although the King himself was inclined toward leniency, he was burned. At the same time, one of his plays was playing in a popular theater in
Lisbon
. Despite the King’s inclination towards leniency Da Silva was garroted and burnt at a
Lisbon
auto-da-fe. His wife, who witnessed his death, did not long survive him. At the time of his death, one of da Silva’s plays was being performed in a popular
Lisbon
theatre. Da Silva's tragic story has inspired several modern writers, including the Portuguese Camilo Castelo Branco (author of the novel O Judeu), who was himself of Converso origin.
1767: Birthdate of Salomon Heine, the Hamburg born banker who was the father of Amalie Friedlander and the uncle of Heinrich Heine.
1781: Emperor Joseph II issues the Toleration Decree un which the Jews of Austria were accorded civil and political equality.
1791(21stof Tishrei, 5552): Hoshana Raba
1803: In
Great Britain
, an official fast for success in the war against
France
begins.
1810: The Grand Duke of Frankfurt, a French official, resisted granting full equality to the Jews. A.M. Rothschild was sure that the Grand Duke was just holding out for a larger bribe.
1812: Napoleon begins his retreat from
Moscow
. This marks the beginning of the end for the emancipation of the Jews of Europe that had followed in the wake of
France
’s military victories. The defeat at
Moscow
would hasten the return of the reactionaries. Figuratively, if not literally, ghetto doors that had been thrown open would be closed again.
1826: Birthdate German Jewish philosopher Manuel Joel
1842: Birthdate of Adolph Meyer, the native of Natchez, Mississippi, who served represented Louisiana’s First Congressional District for 18 years.
1851(23rdof Tishrei, 5612): Simchat Torah
1854: Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention in Philadelphia which ended today. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive) http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/19/1854/ernestine-rose
1859: Birthdate of Alfred Dreyfus, the French army officer whose trumped up treason trial would split French society and become a prime catalyst for the creation of the Zionist movement under Herzl. He died in 1935.
1863(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah
1863: During the American Civil War, on the same day marking the end of the Jewish “holiday season” General U.S. Grant replaces William Rosecrans as Commander of the Army of the Cumberland with General George Thomas. Thomas will appoint Major Alfred Mordecai Junior, Senior and Supervising Ordinance Officer of the Army of the Cumberland. Young Mordecai was a West Point Graduate and the son of one of the Army’s highest ranking Jewish officers in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army.
1864(19th of Tishrei, 5625): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
1864: During the American Civil War, under the command General Sheridan decisively and dramatically defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Cedar Creek. This victory marked the end of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. From this time on no Confederate Army could threaten Washington with invasion through the Shenandoah Valley and the rich valley farms would no longer be a source of supply for the armies of Robert E. Lee. The defeated Confederate was commanded by a general with a name straight out of Bereshit – Jubal Early. Major Lyon Levy Emanuel, a member of a prominent Jewish family from Philadelphia was among those fighting with Union in the Shenandoah Valley
1864: A column styled "Our Paris Correspondence" published today reported that "Baron Erlanger and his fair bride, Miss Slidell, were the prime pets of the brilliant feudal throng, and the joy at Baden-Baden knew no bounds…nothing remains of all the Summer's gay humbug but Erlanger’s courtship with Miss Slidell. The Erlangers are German Jews, originally from Marburg, a University town in the Electorate of Hessen, but the academical glories of that town made but little intellectual impression upon the Erlanger stock, who took themselves to Frankfort, where they attained to wealth by stock-jobbing, and to a baronetcy by the grace of the King of Portugal, to the great distress of Rothschild-- he being no longer the only Jew Baron…” Erlanger was a member of family of German-Jewish bankers who was head of the leading banking house in France. Miss Slidell was the daughter of John Slidell of Louisiana, a Confederate diplomat living in France who tried unsuccessfully to get the French to recognize the South’s independence during the Civil War. Erlanger was not the first Jew to marry into Slidell’s family. August Belmont was his brother-in-law. The Rothschild’s claim to the title Baron stemmed from the Austrian house of the famous banking family.
1876: Argentina completed legal reforms that would permit the establishment and consolidation of Jewish agricultural settlements.
1877: The report of a correspondent who is traveling with the Russian Army during the Czar’s war with the Ottoman Empire reported that there are more Jews at the Bulgarian town of Sistova now than on his last visit. He described the Jews as “more bestial than before.” Once he had reached the Czar’s headquarter encampment, the correspondent found himself eating food provided by “a firm of enterprising Israelites” that charges “Fifth Avenue Hotel prices.”
1878(22nd of Tishrei, 5639): Shemini Atzeret
1879: In Bucharest, the Chamber of Deputies is scheduled to vote on a measure designed to resolve the issue of Jewish emancipation. Under the proposal, the Jews will have to apply individually for naturalization except for those who have served in the army. Jewish veterans will be granted full citizenship en bloc.
1880: It was reported today that in the past year St. Luke’s Hospital treated 1,114 patients in the last year, four of whom were Jewish.
1880: An article published today described the bustling commercial activity in Smyrna, a Turkish city where trade “is chiefly in the hands of the Greeks and the Jews.” Smyrna, according to the article, was the scene of “one of the most striking episodes in the history” of the Jews – the rise to prominence of Shabbetai Zvi.
1881: Birthdate of Harold Hirsch the University of Georgia football player who studied law at Columbia and went to serve as the General Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company. According to some, Hirsch played a role in designing Coke’s uniquely shaped bottle.
1882: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association is sponsoring tonight’s concert at Chickering Hall in New York.
1882: Israel Ettler, is scheduled to return to court today where he will face charges involving his role in the recent “riot” among the immigrants on Ward’s Island.
1883: It was reported today that Mrs. Martin Scherbner has filed for a divorce in New Jersey Chancery Court because her husband deceived her before they were married. Before their wedding he assured his Catholic bride that he was not Jewish, but Catholic like her. After the wedding, he confessed that he was Jewish.
1883: Sir Moses Montefiore has given a gift of 99 English pounds to the London Sheriffs' charitable fund. That sum represented 1 pound for each year of the giver's age. Nearly 50 years ago the aging philanthropist had held the office of Sheriff for
London
and Middlesex.
1884: It was reported today that 40 year old Benjamin Levy “is lying at his home…dangerously near death.” According to Levy and those who witnessed the event, Levy was beaten by a policeman in plain clothes. The officer claimed he had been provoked by Levy and his companions “who were full of liquor” The officer’s claim is questionable since the beating took place on Yom Kippur.
1884: “Statistic of the Deaf and Dumb” published today reported that “in Berlin the greater proportion of deaf-mutes is found the Israelites where consanguineous marriages are frequent and the smaller number among the Catholics to whom such marriages are forbidden.” In evaluating these statistics it should be noted that the same article said that the causes of “deaf-mutism” are “damp atmosphere, uncleanliness, bad air in dwellings and” parents who are laundresses, excavators, miners and weavers.
1885(10th of Cheshvan, 5646): A mounted officer serving with the New York Park Police found the dead body of a man identified as 29 year old Albert Unger prompt against a treat just south of Camp Grant.
1886: Birthdate of Reb Velvel (Yitzchok Zev) Soloveitchik, the native of Belarus and son Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk
1886:”A Thrifty Prince” published today erroneously reported that the Princess of Battenburg, the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse “was the daughter of a German Jew” named Haucke. (Actually her father was a German professional soldier).
1886: “Violated the Sunday Law” published today described the plight of Wolf Bloom, a 26 year old Jewish immigrant from Russia who had been arrested on charges brought Cornelious Leary for having violated the Sunday Law (aka Blue Laws) by having the employees of his cloak factory work on Sunday. In his defense Bloom said that as a Jew he observed Saturday as “his holy day” which is why he worked on Sunday. (In a world where everything seems to be open 7/24/36, it is hard to remember that Sunday closing laws were the norm in many parts of the U.S. well into the second half of the 20th century)
1888: Moshav Gederah was attacked by Arabs. Gederah was one of the first agricultural settlements developed by Jewish pioneers. It was established by a Russian-born Jew named Yehiel Michael Pines in 1884. Money for purchasing the land came from the Moses Montifore Testimonial Fund. Grapes and grain were the principal products of the moshav.
1888: As charges of financial mismanagement swirl around the theatrical productions that the Jewish Order of the Harp of David have been sponsoring at Poole’s Theatre in New York, a threatened injunction brought by one group of claimants might cancel tonight’s performance of “King Solomon.”
1888: It was reported today that Mrs. John Jacob Astor has made a bequest of $25,000 to St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City.
1888: It was reported today that of the 1,793 patients treated at St. Luke’s, an Episcopal Hospital in New York, 19 of them were Jewish
1889: It was reported today that property valued at $27,500 owned by the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and property valued at $4,000 owned by the Talmud Torah on East Broadway, were among those charitable and educational institutions granted an exemption from paying property taxes.
1896: The Vitascope Theatre opened in Buffalo, New York. It was one of the first buildings built deliberately for the showing of motion pictures. The theatre was owned by Mitchell Mark. In 1906 this Jewish entrepreneur teamed with his brother Moe, Adloph Zucker and Marcus Lowe to for the Automatic Vaudeville Company.
1898: The Zionist Delegation aboard the "Emperor Nicolai II" is on its way to
Palestine
.
1904: Birthdate of Hayyim Schirmann, the Russian born Jewish scholars who specialized in Hebrew Poetry of the Middle Ages. Schirmann, worked in Berlin until the rise of the Nazis when he moved to Palestine and began teaching at Hebrew University. He passed away in 1981.
1905: A two day Pogrom began at Kishinev. This was the second Pogrom at Kishinev in two years. The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 is the more famous (or infamous) of the two.
1907: Birthdate of Roger Wolfe Kahn, jazz bandleader and composer.
1912: Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire. “According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Jews were first settled in Cyrene and other parts of present-day eastern Libya by the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy Lagos (323-282 B.C.E.) With their numbers likely bolstered by Berbers who had converted to Judaism, later supplemented by Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, and, from the seventeenth century, by Jews from Leghorn and other Italian cities, Jews lived continuously in Libya for well over two millennia, predating the Muslim conquest in 642 C.E. by centuries. In 1911, 350 years of Ottoman rule ended and the Italian colonial period began. At the time, Libya’s Jewish population numbered 20,000. The next quarter century was to prove a golden age for Libya’s Jews. By 1931, nearly 25,000 Jews lived in Libya.” For more about the Jews of Libya see
http://web.mac.com/anahum/iWeb/The%20Forgotten%20Jews/Welcome/ECB31A70-6A60-45EF-B142-86EF37813E16.html
1915: Birthdate of major league pitcher Samuel Ralph "Subway Sam" Nahem
1916: Birthdate of pianist Emil Gilels. Born in
Odessa
, Gilels is variously described as a Ukrainian, and a great artist who made his career in the
Soviet Union
until his death in 1985. But his name appears on the list of Jewish Pianist. This litany of origins points once again to the difficulty of answering the question, “Who is A Jew?”
1918: Birthdate of Democratic political leader Robert Strauss who capped his career by serving as U.S. Ambassador to the
Soviet Union
.
1918: In the Bronx, Samuel and Molly Eisen gave birth to their only child, Max. Max Eisen was one of the nation’s leading press agents who “from 1954 to 1997… was the press agent for more than 60 Broadway shows and dozens of Off Broadway productions.”
1919: The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago White Sox, 5 games to 3 in the16th World Series. This series is known as the Black Sox Scandal since 7 White Sox players threw the series. Supposedly the Series was fixed by Arnold Rothstein. Although raised as an observant Jew, Rothstein turned his back on his Jewish upbringing after his Bar Mitzvah. A son of wealthy middle class parents, Rothstein hung out with “Irish gangsters” and married out of the faith. Did Rothstein fix the series? Or was this part of a pattern of blaming Jewish and other foreign influences for corrupting a pristine
America
. This was a common theme among Natavists during the 1920’s.
1922: Birthdate of author and historian Ruth Gay, a writer known for her nonfiction books documenting Jewish life in the Old World. Ms. Gay's books include Safe Among the Germans: Liberated Jews After World War II which dealt with a little-studied subject - the more than 250,000 Jews who returned to Allied-occupied Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She also wrote The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait which chronicled Jewish life in
Germany
from the fall of
Jerusalem
in A.D. 70 to the rise of Hitler in 1933. Reviewing the book in The New York Times Book Review, Peter Filkins called it "moving and lively." "What emerges is the portrait of a culture very much alive and aware of its own rich heritage," he wrote. In 1997, Ms. Gay received the National Jewish Book Award for nonfiction for Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America. In that book, she examined the immigrant experience through the lens of her own girlhood in the Bronx. Ms. Gay has also coauthored a book with her daughter, Sophie, entitled Ms. Gay's book The Jewish King Lear Comes to America. She passed away in 2008.
1923:Czernowitz born author Rosalie Beatrice Scherzer married Ignaz Ausländer. Her increasingly famous works were published under her married name, Rose Ausländer even though her marriage proved to be short-lived.
1923: Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett completed his service as Minister of Health in the government led by David Lloyd George.
1924(21st of Tishrei, 5685): Hoshana Rabah
1926: Birthdate of American moral philosopher Joel Feinberg.
1927(23rdof Tishrei, 5688): Simchat Torah
1928(5th of Cheshvan, 5689): Sixty-seven year old Chess Champion Berthold Lasker passed away. Chess must have been in his genes since he was the brother of Emanuel Lasker.
1929(15thof Tishrei, 5690): Sukkoth
1937: Haj Amin el Huseini, the Mufit of Jerusalem, leader of the latest wave of Arab violence who is currently in Syria, is trying to get permission to take refuge in Italy, where Mussolini’s fascist government has expressed support for the Arabs.
1937: Arab violence continues as bombs were thrown in the Shimon Hazadik quarter of Jerusalem, in Safed at group of reserve Jewish policeman and in the Tel Aviv/Jaffa area.
1937: Birthdate of Peter Max. The American Pop Artists was born in Berlin, and raised in Shanghai, China and in Israel before his family settled in the United States in 1953. Max's art work was influential and much imitated in advertising design in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His artwork may be viewed at numerous websites.
1938: The National Council of Catholic Men sent a letter to President Roosevelt today asking him “to exercise his influence to avert the closing of the doors of Palestine to Jewish refugees and the abandonment of the Jewish national home policy Great Britain.”
1939: At the World’s Fair in New York, members of the New York Council Pioneer Women’s Organization meet this morning for a ceremony at the Palestine Pavilion followed by a luncheon at the Café Tel Aviv.
1939: A Jewish ghetto at
Lublin
,
Poland
, is established.
1939: The American film classic “Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington
” starring Jimmie Stewart premiered. Claude Raines, who was Jewish, played a supporting part as the evil Senator who had sold out to the special interests. Like so many of the roles played by Raines, there was nothing Jewish about the character. The real Jewish connection comes from Columbia Studios the production company that made the movie. Harry Cohn owned and ran the studios. He was one of a group of Jewish movie moguls who helped to create the middle brow American culture and the myths that were a part of it.
1939: Otto Blumenthal and his wife moved from Utrecht to Delft because they had been able to find a flat in that Dutch city. Blumenthal could only find one student to tutor which left them so impoverished that they had to live on charity. After the Nazi invasion, the Blumenthals would be forced to left Delft because of ethnic cleansings. The tragic life of the mathematician would end at Theresienstadt in 1944 where he had gone voluntarily to care for his sister.
1940: Air raid sirens sounded tonight in Jerusalem as Axis planes were spotted approaching the coast of Palestine. No bombs fell on the City of David.
1941: During the Battle of Moscow, Stalin institutes martial law, ordering the NKVD to shoot looters and anybody else who looked suspicious. Yes, this was more of Stalin the brutal. But it replaced Stalin, the confused, the supreme leader of the Soviets who had so supremely bungled everything in the fight against Hitler. Although the
Battle
for
Moscow
would rage into the spring of 1942, these aggressive tactics provided the impetus for the defense that brought the seemingly invincible Nazi military machine to a grinding halt. From a Jewish perspective (and from the point of view of the western democracies as well) whatever was good for the Russians was good for the Jews and the West in the fight against fascism in general and the Holocaust in particular.
1943: In
Trieste
, the Nazis conduct a round up Jewish citizens.
1943: Streptomycin the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University by a Jewish research student from Connecticut named Albert Schat. However, according to academic tradition, Schatz's supervisor, Professor Selman Abraham Waksman, took credit for his student's discovery and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1952. Schatz was belatedly awarded the Rutgers medal in 1994, at the age of 74.
1944(2nd of Cheshvan, 5705): Sixty-seven year old screen writer Isadore Bernstein, passed away today.
1948: In some of the fiercest fighting of the War of Independence Israeli forces are victorious at Huleikat after fighting both Egyptian and Saudi army units. This victory opened the road to rest of the Negev.
1948: A naval battle took place between three Israeli warships near Majdal, and an Egyptian corvette with air support. An Israeli sailor was killed and four wounded, and two of the ships were damaged. One Egyptian plane was shot down, but the corvette escaped. This naval clash was part of the Israeli attempt to thwart the Egyptian drive up the coast through Gaza with the aim of taking Tel Aviv. [While people have heard of the Israeli Air Force and the accomplishments of the IDF’s armored and infantry units, they are unaware of the fact that Heil HaYam HaYisrael (the Israeli Navy) has played an active role in the defense of Jewish people going back to the days of the British Mandate.
1948: In Iraq, “the discharge of all Jewish officials and workers from all governmental departments was ordered.’
1966: Birthdate of actor Jon Favreau.
1970: Birthdate of SNL cast member Chris Kattan the son of an Iraqi born Jew
1970: After thirteen previews, the Broadway production “The Rothschilds” produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened today at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for 505 performances. Hal Linden, who happened to be Jewish, played Mayer Rothschild. “The Rothschilds” is a musical that tells the story of the rise of the famous Jewish banking family
1973 (23rd of Tishrei, 5734): Simchat Torah
1973: The Yom Kippur War continued to exact its toll. By nightfall, the Syrian counterattack on the Golan Heights had been repelled with losses that included thirty Jordanian and Iraqi attacks. Israel may have been alone, but the Syrians certainly were not. On the Suez front seventy Egyptian tanks were knocked out and fourteen of Sadat’s aircraft had been shot down. With the war entering the end of its second week, the Arabs were looking to the Soviets to bring about a face-saving cessation of hostilities. Secretary of State Kissinger, who had arrived in Moscow, joined the Soviets in issuing a call for the end of hostilities.
1982: Yitshak Moda’I began serving as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1984(23rd of Tishrei, 5745): Simchat Torah
1986(16thof Tishrei, 5747): Second Day of Sukkoth
1986(16thof Tishrei, 5747): Eighty-one year old Moses Asch, the driving force behind Folkways Records passed away today.. (As reported by Jon Pareles) Eighty-one year old
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/21/obituaries/moses-asch-who-founded-folkways-records-dies-at-81.html
1988: Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
1992(22nd of Tishrei, 5753): Shemini Atzeret
1994: Sivan Horesh survives the No. 5 bus bombing on
Dizengoff Street
in central Tel Aviv.
1995: A revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
1996: “The Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed, produced and written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L.Diamond and co-starring Walter Matthau was released to theatres today.
1996: The talents of cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Jules Feiffer were on display as he spoke to a gathering at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The lecture was sponsored by the Center for the Book and coincided with the exhibition of Mr. Feiffer's gift to the Library, a major portion of his works, including manuscripts, typescripts and a large selection of original cartoon drawings. ." Mr. Feiffer opened his lecture with a showing of his animated film "Munro," about a 4-year-old boy who finds himself drafted into the Army, which refuses to discharge him. During the lecture, Feiffer reported that "My mother, Rhoda Davis Feiffer, saved all of my drawings and every scrap of paper. She was the only Jewish mother that thought that being a cartoonist was an honorable profession.” From the time he was a child, Mr. Feiffer aspired to be a cartoonist. "I was a boy cartoonist living in the
Bronx
during the Depression with friends living in the other boroughs of
New York
," he said. Mr. Feiffer used to sell his comics on street corners, competing with the boys who were selling real comic books. In the 1930s many Jews began producing comics as a way of assimilating into American society. According to Mr. Feiffer, two Jewish men, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, created "Superman" as a way of opposing anti- Semitism in
America
and abroad. "Every boy wants to be invincible, to fight, kill and maim … and Superman does those things, except he is heroic," said Mr. Feiffer. Superman was a metaphor for fighting evil, such as the Nazis. "Superman really came not from Krypton, but from the planet
Poland
," he said.
1997: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history or culture including Perfidia by Judith Rossner, Miriam’s Kitchen A Memoir by Elizabeth Ehrlich and The World Is The Home Of Love and Death by Harold Brodkey.
2003(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah
2003: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history or culture including Blacklist by Sara Paretsky, Arthur Miller: His Life and Work by Martin Gottfried and The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon R. Kass.
2004: Archivists in the
Dutch
City
of
Tilburg
announced the discovery of the diary of a Holocaust victim that has an eerie similarity to that of Anne Frank. The Holocaust era diary and love letters written by Helga Deen, a Jewish woman, for her Dutch boyfriend while she imprisoned in a Dutch internment camp were donated by the family of the now deceased Dutch man. Deen died at Sobibior.
2005: Second Day Sukkoth 5766.
2006: The Times of London reported on the premier of the documentary “Spell Your Name” by the Ukrainian director Sergei Bukovsky. The 90 minute film records testimonies of Jews who survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The highlight of the event was the appearance of Steven Spielberg whose grandparents came from the Ukraine.
2007: The Washington Post featured a review of Jezebel: The Untold story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen by Leslie Hazelton.
2007: The New York Times featured a review of Young Stalin by Jewish historian Simon Sebag Montifore. This book could be viewed as a prequel to Mr. Montifore’s Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.
2007: “The Last Jews of
Libya
” opens at São Paulo International Film Festival in
São Paulo
,
Brazil
. “The Last Jews of Libyadocuments the final decades of a centuries-old North African Sephardic Jewish community through the lives of the remarkable Roumani family, who lived in Benghazi, Libya, for hundreds of years. Thirty-six thousand Jews lived in
Libya
at the end ofWorld War II, today none remain. The film traces the story of the Roumanis from Turkish Ottoman rule through the age of Mussolini and Hitler to the final destruction and dispersal of
Libya
's Jews in the face of Arab nationalism.”
2008: The New York Times includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein and Explainers a new anthology “which gathers all of Jules Feiffer’s Village Voice strips from 1956 to 1966.
2008:A former Israeli soldier, Marti Mintz, who was trained in a counter-terror unit of the IDF and is married to an Australian risked his own life today to save five people during during a fire that had broken out in supermarket in Perth, Australia.
2009(1st of Cheshvan, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
2009(1st of Cheshvan, 5770): Joseph Wiseman a Canadian ac