October 2 In HIstory
825 BCE(22nd of Tishrei, 2936): According to traditionKing Solomon bid farewell to the Jewish people who had come to Jerusalem for a 14-day ceremony dedicating the Holy Temple (1-Kings 8:66). King David had brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, but as a warrior he was not permitted by God to erect the Temple. However, his son Solomon did so. The Temple was the most important site in Israel -- a spiritual magnet for the Jewish nation's yearnings. The magnificent structure took seven years to build, and stood for 410 years
322
BCE
: The Greek philosopher Aristotle dies of indigestion. (Is this what you get for eating traif?) Several Jewish philosophers and theologians would be influenced or be-deviled by Aristotelianism, not the least of whom would be
Judah
ha-Levi and Maimonides
1187: Sultan Saladin captured
Jerusalem
from the Crusaders. While the Crusaders had held
Jerusalem
, they had barred Jews from living in the city. Saladin allowed them to return. Saladin’s physician was none other than Maimonides.
1535: French explorer Jacques Cartier discovers Montreal, Quebec. The French did not allow Jews to settle in Canada. Jews were only able to settle in Montreal until after the British defeated the French in the 18th century. In 1768, 12 families arrive in Montreal from New York marking the start of one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in North America.
1656: Yom Kippur services were held for the first time in Amsterdam. Neighbors thinking they were secret Catholics reported them to the authorities and the leaders were arrested. Once it was explained that they were secret Jews rather then Papists, they were let alone and the leaders released. The oldest synagogue in
Amsterdam
(possibly all of
Western Europe
) is “The Great Synagogue” built in 1671. According to historians, it was built so that Jews would not have to worship in clandestine places.
1780(3rd of Tishrei, 5541):Tzom Gedaliah
1780: Colonel David Salisbury Franks, the aid-de-camp to General Benedict Arnold was arrested on suspicion of treason following the exposure of the Arnold’s plot to betray the Americans and turn West Point over to the British. Franks was the son of Jacob Franks, a prominent Jewish Philadelphia (PA) family. [You have to wonder if Colonel Franks was fasting on the day of his arrest.]
1791(4thof Tishrei, 5552): Tzom Gedaliah
1789: George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification. The First Amendment had particular for the small America Jewish community and has loomed large for the growth of the modern Jewish community. The Amendment opens with the following declaration “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” In other words, the government would not establish a state religion and at the same time, the citizens were free to practice whatever religion they individually chose. This simple clause, one part of a single sentence, is the legal underpinning for the reality that has made the American Jewish community different than all of its predecessors.
1798: Birthdate King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia who promulgated the Codice Albertino “which made Piedmont the first Italian state to grant its Jewish citizens equal rights and allow them to enter the military.”
1835(9th of Tishrei, 5596): Erev Yom Kippur
1835: The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzales. Jews were active participants in the Texas fight for freedom including Dr. Albert Levy became a surgeon to revolutionary Texan forces in 1835.
1853:
Austria
adopted laws forbidding Jews from owning land
1856: The New York Times reported that “The Hebrew New Year’s Festival ended yesterday and the shops and stores of Jews re-opened today.The ‘Reformed Jews’ do not carefully observe the occasion.
1858: A funeral notice is published today inviting the members of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society to attend the funeral of Mrs. Raphall the wife of Rabbi Morris Raphall which will be held tomorrow at her residence.
1862: The Board of Alderman in NYC referred to the Committee on Sewers a petition on behalf of the Hebrew Benevolent Society to build a drain on 77th street between 4th and 5th Avenue.
1864: An article published today entitled "Prussia and Her Poles" which described the trial of several Polish gentlemen from the Grand Duchy of Posen who have been charged with treason betrayed a strange admission about Germany's treatment of her Jews over the centuries. Dr. Gueist, the defense attorney demanded of the court, "Where are the facts?" And if there are no facts, then are these men being prosecuted for their thoughts and sentiments -- a mode of proceeding which would carry us back to the trials of the Jews in the dark ages." How strange to hear a German lawyer admit that the Jews had in fact been convicted of crimes when they were guilty of nothing else but being Jewish.
1866(23rd of Tishrei, 5627): Simchat Torah
1867(3rd of Tishrei, 5628): Tzom Gedaliah
1870: As part of the climax to the Risorgimento or Rebirth, the name given to the unification of Italy, the Italian government annexed Rome and the Papal States.
Rome
was the made Italian capital. Jews were active in the fight for the reunification of
Italy
. Mazzini, Garibaldi and Cavour, the leaders of the movement believed in liberty for all Italians including their Jewish compatriots.
1871: Birthdate of Cordell Hull. Among his other accomplishments,
Hull
was Secretary of State during World War II and winner of the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize.
Hull
was not Jewish, but his wife Frances was described as being “half-Jewish.” During the 1930’s when
Hull
entertained thoughts of following FDR to the White House,
Hull
’s opponents attacked him as a slave to Jewish interests. Other critics contended that he was not as aggressive as he might have been in opening the gates of the
U.S.
to Jewish refugees because he feared attacks that he was a pawn of Jewish interests; that these Jewish interests had gotten us into the war; and that these charges would impair FDR’s plans to win the war. Henry Morgenthau, who was Secretary of the Treasury at this time, was working to save the Jews of Europe. At a meeting in 1943, he became so exasperated with
Hull
’s lack of action that he told him that if this were
Germany
,
Hull
would not be in the Cabinet Room. Instead he would be in prison and who knew where his wife would be.
Hull
remained unmoved. The State Department, led by Breckinridge Long continued its policy of polite anti-Semitism and untold numbers of Jews perished who might have otherwise been saved.
1872(29thof Elul, 5632): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1872: An article published today entitled “Rosh Hashono” reported that “this evening the Hebrews throughout the globe will commence the celebration of their New Year festival. With..the solitary exception of the Day of Atonement…the New Year is more strictly observed than any other of the periods set apart for religious observances in the Jewish calendar.”
1874(21st of Tishrei, 5635): Hoshanah Rabbah
1875: It was reported today that the cattle sale was off at the end of this week with only a few carloads of Texas Cattle having been sold. The reason for this drop off in business was the absence of the “Hebrew butchers” from the market due to the observance of “a high Jewish festival.”
1875(3rdof Tishrei, 5636): Shabbat Shuvah
1879(15thof Tishrei, 5640): Sukkoth
1881: “The Jews in Germany” published today, described “the extent and progress of the new anti-
Semitic movement” and the motives of the men behind it. They claim they are worried about “Jewish tyranny” and “Jewish domination” as if the land led by Bismarck and possession “the most powerful military machine” could be taken over by “a handful of ‘the outcast people.’”
1882(19thof Tishrei, 5643): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1882(19thof Tishrei, 5643): French philanthropist Charles Netter passed away at Jaffa.Born at Strasburg in 1828, he” studied at Strasburg and Belfort, and then engaged in business in Paris. He was one of the founders of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and for a long time his house was its only home. The work with which his name is most closely connected is the foundation of the agricultural school at Jaffa; and he devoted several years of his life to promoting agriculture among the Jews of Palestine. It was Netter who, at the end of 1876, submitted to the conference at Constantinople the memorandum in favor of the Jews of the East, prepared by the meeting convened about that time by the Alliance Israélite at Paris. In 1878 he went to Berlin, with some other members of the central committee, to lay before the congress the memoir of the Alliance in favor of the same Jews and to support their claims, which had been formally recognized by the Treaty of Berlin. With two other members of the committee he went to Madrid in 1880 to maintain before a European conference the right of the Jews of Morocco to protection.In 1881, when the disturbances in Russia drove thousands of unfortunate Jews from Brody and the Alliance was desirous of sending them assistance, Netter volunteered to discharge the difficult mission. He was the first to arrive there, and lived for weeks among the unhappy refugees, arranging a plan of emigration to America. On his return to Paris he was appointed secretary of the special committee established in that city for the Russian work. From morning till night his house was besieged by the Russian refugees, who found in him an untiring protector. When death overtook him he was visiting the agricultural school at Jaffa. A monument has been erected over his grave by the Alliance Israélite Universelle (As reported by Isidor Singer and Jaques Kahn
1883(1stof Tishrei, 5644): Rosh Hashanah
1883: Rabbi Isaac Noot will deliver the Rosh Hashanah sermon at B’Nai Israel in New York City.
1883: Dr. Kaufman Koehler will deliver the Rosh Hashanah sermon, in German, at Temple Beth-El in New York City.
1885(23rdof Tishrei, 5646): Simchat Torah
1890: Birthdate of Comedian Groucho Marx. The most famous of the Marx Brothers, Groucho enjoyed success in vaudeville, movies, radio and television. For millions of baby boomers, their first encounter with the famous Marx leer, cigar and wit including rapid fire double entendres came from watching his television show, “You Bet Your Life.”
1900: Birthdate of Arturo Rosenblueth Stearns “a Mexican researcher, physician and physiologist, who is known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics.”
1902(1st of Tishrei, 5663): Rosh Hashanah
1903: Dorothy Levitt won her class (cars costing between £400 and £550) at the Southport Speed Trials driving S.F.Edge's 12 (or 16) hp Gladiator.
1904(23rd of Tishrei, 5665): Simchat Torah
1906(13thof Tishrei, 5667): After having led the court of Sadigur for 24 years, Reb Yisrael, the youngest son of Reb Yitzchak, passed away.
1908 (7th of Tishrei, 5669): In Houston Texas Adath Yshurun Friday night services began at 7 p.m. with a sermon entitled “Ourselves.”
1912: Jacob Feuerwerker and Regina Neufeld gave birth to David Feuerwerker, the Swiss born Canadian Rabbi and Historian. He was the husband of Antoinette Feuerwerker, a French jurist and member of the resistance during World War II.
1913(1stof Tishrei, 5674): Jews observe what will be the last Rosh Hashanah before the torrent of World War I and all of the horrors that came in its aftermath struck the world.
1913: Birthdate of Chaim Yosef Zadok, the native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935. He pursued a career in government and jurisprudence that included service in the Knesset and government ministries including Religious Affairs and Justice.
1917: British Intelligence learned of a meeting in Berlin at which plans were made by the Germans and Turks to offer the Jews of Europe a German-sponsored Jewish National Home in Palestine. (This stimulated the British to finalize what became known as the Balfour Declaration.)
1918:General Allenby leaves his headquarters at Tiberias and drives to
Damascus
to install the Emir Feisal as head of the local government. Only later would the Arab leader learn that
Syria
was to be under French control and that his dreams of ruling the Arabs from this ancient city were merely that – dreams. It was the mischief making by the British and French that destabilized the entire region, not the promise of a Jewish homeland in
Palestine
.
1919: US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. Wilson suffered the stroke during a cross country speaking tour that was intended generate support for the ratification of the Versailles Treaty which included the creation of the League of Nations. With Wilson out of the picture, the forces favoring ratification lost their champion. The United States rejected the treaty and chose note to join the League. There is a large body of opinion that the America’s failure to join the League doomed the organization even before it had its first meeting and this was one of the causes of World War II, the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history since the destruction of the Second Temple.
1922: It was reported today that Samuel S. Koenig, Chairman of the New York County Republican Committee opposed an attempt by some of his fellow party members to propose a slate of Republican nominees to serve as Justices on the State Supreme Court. He claimed that it was party policy to endorse justices who had served well in the position regardless of their party affiliation. Koenig’s view carried the day. Koenig was a Hungarian born Jew who rose to a position of power in the New York State Republican Party.
1922: It was reported today that Justice Irving Lehman, a Democrat, who has successfully served one full term on the bench is one of three judicial candidates endorsed by the Republican Party. The Republicans base their endorsement for these positions on merit rather than party affiliation.
1923(22nd of Tishrei, 5684):Shmini Atzeret
1923(22nd of Tishrei, 5684): This morning, while he was on his way to his beloved "bondage," as he used to call his work, Abraham Solomon Freidus collapsed and died almost immediately at the foot of the Library stairs. He was the “custodian of the Jewish Room at the New York Public Library.”
1926: In New York today, “Joseph M. Levy, manager for Clark’s Tours in Palestine and Syria” who has just arrived from Jerusalem, reported that there was “keen interest” revolving around the first municipal to be held “under the British mandate.” According to his figures Jerusalem had a population of 60,000, 37,000 of whom were Jewish. He also described progress being made on railroad being built between Jaffa and Haifa, with a junction at Tel Aviv that will connect the line with Jerusalem.
1927: The New York Times describes the vibrant music scene among the Jewish community in Palestine which includes jazz bands playing at a dance hall near Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate and a group of musicians in Tel Aviv who have established a company that performs grand opera in which is described as “a most acceptable manner.”
1930(10thof Tishrei, 5691): As economic conditions continued to worsen after one of the what will become known as the Great Depression, the Yom Kippur supplications uttered today take an extra poignancy.
1938: Pitcher Sam Nahem made his major league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1938(7th of Tishrei, 5699): “Twenty one Jews including three women and ten children, ranging in age from 1 to 12 years were killed and three others were wounded” tonight “on the shores of Lake Galilee in the old Jewish quarter of Tiberias in a massacre by stabbing shooting and burning perpetrated by Arabs.” The Arab violence was described as the worst since 1929 when “Arabs fell on Jewish men, most of whom were rabbinical students as well woman an children in the ancient towns of Hebron and Safed.” Among those killed by the Arab attackers were Jacob Zaltz, the beadle of the central synagogue; Menachem Kabin, “an elderly American Jew” who had recently moved to Palestine and his sister who was stabbed and then burned to death; Joshua Ben Ariah, his wife and two sons, one of whom was an infant; the three children of Shlomo Leimer, “aged 8,10 and 12” who “were stabbed and burned to death; Shimon Mizrahi, his wife and five children ranging in ages from 1 to 12 years; Jacob Gross and two as yet to be identified Jewish constables.
1940(29thElul, 5700): Erev Rosh Hashanah
1941:SS Chief Helmut Knochen ordered the systematic destruction of synagogues in Paris (As reported by Aish.com)
1941: Six Parisian synagogues were bombed. At this time,
Paris
was occupied by the Nazis. As we have seen in our own time, bombing synagogues takes place in
Paris
regardless of who is in power.
1941(11th of Tishrei, 5702): In Zhager, a small town on the Lithuanian-Latvian border, over 3000 Jewish men, women and children were massacred by members of the Lithuanian militia. They lie in a mass grave in
Naryshkin
Park
, the heart of the shetl.
1941(11th of Tishrei, 5702): A Nazi raid on the Jewish ghetto at Vilna, Lithuania, leaves 3000 dead at nearby Ponary. One victim, Serna Morgenstern, is shot in the back by an SS officer after he complimented her beauty and told her she was free to go.
1942(21st of Tishrei, 5703): Hoshana Rabah
1942(21st of Tishrei, 5703): At the Treblinka death camp, Jews from Zelechów, Poland, are murdered.
1943: In
Holland
, the families of Jewish men drafted for forced labor are sent to the concentration camp in Westerbork,
Holland
.
1943: The first Jewish paratroopers from Palestine landed in the Balkans. Many of them had been chosen because they were born in the region and spoke the languages of the land like natives. These Jews agreed to help organize non-Jewish underground units on behalf of the British war effort. The British agreed to let them aid other Jews once they had completed their primary mission. The British also made it clear that they would not offer support for this secondary party of the mission.
1943(3rd of Tishrei, 5704): Shabbat Shuvah; given the events that took place on this date in Denmark –see item below – the day lives up to its name of The Sabbath of Return.
1943: The Danish people rescue about 7000 Jews, only 500 of whom are captured by the Germans. The 500 seized by the Germans are sent to the Theresienstadt,
Czechoslovakia
, camp/ghetto; all but 77 will survive the war. The Danish government will persistently check on the health and welfare of the Jews who were sent to Theresienstadt, enabling almost all of them to survive to war's end.
1944 (15th of Tishrei, 5705): Sukkoth
1944: On the first day of Sukkoth Jews in Palestine attempt to celebrate the Chag while dealing with a British curfew.
1945: “Several thousand troops of the British Sixth Airborne Division disembarked at Haifa” today. For all intents and purposes, this elite military unit had been sent to Palestine to put an end to “illegal Jewish immigration.”
1946: “Hundreds of heavily armed British soldiers and police raided as fashionable Tel Aviv café today and seized fifty Jews, thirty of whom were immediately sent to the Rafa detention camp on the Egyptian frontier.” The raid at the Ginati Café was aimed at capture leaders of the Irgun.
1947: Cleveland Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and a leading spokesman for the Zionist cause appeared before the United Nations during hearings on the proposed partition of Palestine. Silver spoke in a favor the partition, which was the two state solution that was rejected by the Arabs.
1947: Birthdate of Sergio Kerbis
1948: Birthdate of American fashion designer, Donna Karan
1948: Birthdate of Jack Leon Terpins, a native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, who serves as President of the Latin American Jewish Congress.
1949(9th of Tishrei, 5710): Erev Yom Kippur
1949: Birthdate of photographer Annie Leibovitz. Leibovitz was chief photographer for Rolling Stones Magazines for ten years. She later moved on to Vanity Fair Magazine. She was named Photographer of the Year in 1984 by the American Society of Magazine Photographers.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that
Israel
had purchased 27 Mustang fighters from the Swedish Air Force. The propeller driven fighters, known as the P-51 during WW II, were obsolete in a world of Jet Age aircraft. But for the fledgling Israeli Air Force, they would have to do as they confronted their better armed and equipped Arab neighbors.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the overwhelming majority of the 34,000 immigrants who arrived in
Israel
from October 1951 to the end of September 1952 were members of Oriental communities. There were 9,800 immigrants from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, 3,800 from Libya, 1,350 from Egypt, 5,800 from Iran, 1,000 from Iraq, 650 from Turkey, 6,800 from Romania, 650 from Bulgaria, 160 from Poland, 170 from the US and the rest from other countries. This rapidly growing Sephardic population would eventually change the demographics of the new state. The early settlers had been primarily of Russian, Polish and later German origins. In other words the Ashkenazim, or those whose roots were found among the Ashkenazim, dominated the Yishuv and the state of
Israel
in its early decades. Many Sephardim felt that they were treated like second-class citizens. Interestingly enough, it would be Likud under the leadership of Menachem Begin that would give voice to these feelings. And it would the votes of these Oriental Jews that would bring Begin to power in 1977.
1959: The anthology series The Twilight Zone premieres on CBS television. The show was created by Rod Serling who was raised as a Reform Jew. “At high school, where he edited the newspaper, Serling experienced anti-Jewish discrimination when he was blackballed from the Theta Sigma fraternity. In an interview in 1972 he said of this incident, "it was the first time in my life that I became aware of religious difference." Serling did not consider himself to be a practicing Jew and he and his future wife Carol Kramer became Unitarians.
1968(10thof Tishrei, 5729): Yom Kippur
1973: Birthdate of relief pitcher Scott Schoeweiss who played for the 2002 World Champion Anaheim Angels.
1972 "From Israel with Love" opens at Palace Theater New York City for 8 performances
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
US
and the
Soviet Union
, in a formal communiqué issued simultaneously in
Washington
and
Moscow
, announced that any Arab-Israeli peace settlement would have to ensure "the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."
Israel
sharply criticized this statement as likely to harden the Arabs¹ stance and impede the peace-making progress.
Jordan
informed the
US
that it would not agree to the incorporation of Palestinian negotiators within its own Geneva Peace Conference delegation. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who had a heart attack shortly before his election, was again admitted to hospital, suffering from exhaustion.
1978:Syrian & Palestinians battle in East Beirut with a total of 1,300 killed. (For those who blame Israel for the unrest in the MIddle East, please note who is killing whom and why)
1981(4th of Tishrei, 5742): Harry Golden passed away passed away at the age of 79. Born Harry Goldhirsch in what is now the
Ukraine
, Golden gained famed as the publisher of the Carolina Israelite. Golden used his publication to advocate desegregation in the days when Jim Crow dominated the South and to provide folksy tales about his days growing up on the
Lower East Side
. Two of his better known books were Only in
America
and for Two Cents Plain. Sometimes Golden combined his passion for social justice with his satiric wit. One such example was the Vertical Negro Plan. In the days of the segregated South, African-Americans were not allowed to sit down in a restaurant and eat their meals. African-Americans were allowed to go to a window at the side or in the back of many eating establishments, order their food and take it to eat elsewhere. Golden decided that the problem was with African-Americans and Whites eating together, but of sitting together while they were eating. He proposed removing all chairs and stools from eating establishments. That way, the races could eat in the same establishment without violating the time honored tradition of not sitting down to eat together.
2000(3rd of Tishrei, 5761): Tzom Gedaliah
2001(15th of Tishrei, 5762): Sukkoth
2001: Osama Awadallah, a college student with no criminal record who was one of dozens Arab men detained around the country in the days after 9/11 as potential witnesses in terrorism investigations appeared in the Federal District Courtroom of Judge Michael B. Mukasey. Responding to Awadallah’s claims that he had been beaten, the judge said, “I will tell you he looks fine to me…If you to file a lawsuit, you can file a lawsuit.” Mukasey, an Orthodox Jew did not recues himself from this case which should have come as no surprise since he did not recues himself during the trials of the “Blind Sheik” was part of the conspiracy to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993.
2001: In a statement issued today, Aipac officials criticized President Bush's advisers who advocated support for the creation of a Palestinian state. Those advisers ''are encouraging the president to reward, rather than punish, those that harbor and support terrorism,'' the statement said.
2002: Randy Lerner succeeded his father Al as the leader of the Cleveland Browns football team
2005: The New York Times reported that Franzi Groszman had passed away at the age of 100. Mrs. Groszman is believed to be one of the last survivors of the parents who put their children on the Kindertransport, the London bound trains that took Jewish children out of Nazi Germany before World War II.
2005: Books by Jewish authors or on Jewish topics were featured in several newspapers. The New York Times Book Review Section included a review of Party In The Blitza memoir by Elijah Canetti. The winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature is described as “a Spanish Jewish Viennese Swiss Bulgarian Refugee. The Times also reviewed Blood Relation a biography of Harold “Heshy” Konigsberg, a Jewish racketeer and hit man. As the review points out, Jews may be criminals, but they are not heroes. Hehsy’s family describes him as a “shanda” which is Yiddish for ‘Shame.”
2006: The Washington Postreviewed Dogs of War by James Reston. It is subtitled, “Columbus, the Inquisition and the Defeat of the Moors.” As the reviewer says, “in 1492, Sapin expelled its Jews and crushed a caliphate.” Finally the Post also reviewed The Last Days of Dogtown by Anita Diamant. “In The Red TentDiamant used a gaudy, Technicolor style to engineer her Old Testament visions of sex and violence, while The Last Days of Dogtown is as plain as sunlight on polished wood. But in both books, she has managed to find an appropriate (if not a true) vocabulary to conjure up a world. Like
Las Vegas
reproductions of old
Venice
or ancient
Egypt
, these novels are proudly inauthentic yet still entirely original.”
2006(10th of Tishrei, 5767:) Yom Kippur,
2006: The first Yom Kippur is observed with all IDF Troops out of Lebanon.
2006: As the sun set on Yom Kippur the last Rabbi in
Baghdad
, Emad Levy, sat down for his last “break the fast’ meal in
Iraq
. As he ate the piece of cake and ranks the two glasses of milk he shared his thoughts with a Washington Post reporter realizing that next year he would be doing this in another land.
2006: Allegations arose that Alan Hevesi had fired Alexander McHugh, a receptions who had filed a sexual harassment charge. Hevesi’s office contended that she had not cooperated with their investigation and that no evidence had been found to support her claim.
2007: The Special Olympics open in
Shanghai
where the 2,000-strong Jewish community has raised $20,000 to support
Israel
’s Special Olympics team. The community, headed by Maurice Ohama, has provided the 38 Israeli athletes with uniforms, sports shoes as well as access to a Sukkah and kosher food.
2007:
Israel
eased a strict news blackout on an airstrike on stories related to the September airstrike against
Syria
that has been described as destroying shipments of arms for Hezbollah or a nuclear facility built with North Korean technology.
2007:Frank Lowy received the Henni Friedlander Award for the Common Good at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, United States.
2007: “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel opens at the American Folk Art Museum under the aegis of guest cuator Murray Zimilies From gilded lions to high-stepping horses, the sacred to the secular, and the Old World to the New, "Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel" traces the journey of Jewish woodcarvers and other artisans from Eastern and Central Europe to America and the unsung role they played in establishing a distinct Jewish culture in communities throughout the United States. The exuberant artworks stand as a testament to a history of survival and transformation and provide a surprising revelation of the link that was forged between the synagogue and the carousel as immigrant Jewish artists transferred symbolic visual elements into this vernacular American idiom.
The first major study of this important aspect of the Jewish contribution to American folk art, the exhibition features approximately one hundred artworks and objects, including rare documentary photographs of Eastern European synagogue arks and carved gravestones, sacred carvings, paper-cuts, and carousel animals. The show is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog co- published with Brandeis University Press, an imprint of the University Press of New England.
2008: At Columbia University, the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies presents an address by renowned Israeli author Amos Oz, Agnon Professor of Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University entitled “A Tale of Love and Darkness” as part of the Syliva and Joseph Radov Lectures
2008(3, Tishrei, 5769): Fast of Gedaliah,
2008: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced today that he would abandon his earlier opposition to changing the term limits law and seek a third term as mayor, arguing that the economic crisis buffeting the nation called for continuity in municipal leadership.
2008: In an article entitled “Rabbi Has Message, So Does Cellphone,” James Barron describes how Jewish businessmen are coping with the financial meltdown during the High Holidays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/nyregion/02holidays.html?_r=0
2009:Singer-songwriter Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul & Mary fame) reads from and discusses his new song-inspired children's picture book, Day is Done, (illustrated by Melissa Sweet) at Politics and Prose Bookstore, in Washington, D.C.
2009:Icelandic experimental band mum (with a lower-case "m" and pronounced moom) is scheduled to open its European tour at Tel Aviv's Barby Club today.
2009: The Coen Brothers latest film, “A Serious Man,” opens in theatres throughout the United States.
2009: According to reports published in today’s Washington Post, “Israeli writer Amos Oz is the favorite to be picked for the 2009 Nobel literature prize next Thursday, but with the judging notoriously hard to predict, he is far from a safe bet. Oz, who deals with life in modern Israel in his novels, and reflects decades of commitment to the Israeli peace movement in his political writing, is quoted at 4/1 by the British bookmaker Ladbrokes, meaning he has one chance in five of winning.”
2009(14th of Tishrei, 5770): Erev Sukkoth
2009(14th of Tishrei, 5770): Captain Benjamin Sklaver was killed in Afghanistan.
2009: Thin and wan, but lucid and very much alive, Gilad Shalit, the captured Israeli soldier whose fate has gripped Israel for more than three years, appeared in a video today holding a Palestinian newspaper dated Sept. 14. Israel obtained the DVD today in a deal brokered by German and Egyptian mediators. In return, Israel released 19 Palestinian women from its jails and was to release a 20th on Sunday.
2009(14th of Tishrei, 5770