OCTOBER 26 In History
1235: King Andrew II of Hungary passed away. During the reign of King Andrew II (1205–1235) there were Jewish Chamberlains and mint-, salt-, and tax-officials. The nobles of the country, however, induced the king, in his Golden Bull (1222), to deprive the Jews of these high offices. When Andrew needed money in 1226, he farmed the royal revenues to Jews, which gave ground for much complaint. The pope (Pope Honorius III) thereupon excommunicated him, until, in 1233, he promised the papal ambassadors on oath that he would enforce the decrees of the Golden Bull directed against the Jews and the Saracens (by this time, the papacy had changed, and the Pope was now Pope Gregory IX; would cause both peoples to be distinguished from Christians by means of badges; and would forbid both Jews and Saracens to buy or to keep Christian slaves.
1407: Mobs attacked the Jews in Cracow, Poland. The so-called Cracow Accusations was one of the first libels in
Poland
. The Jews tried to defend themselves and were forced to take refuge in the
Church
of
St. Anne
which was surrounded and then set afire. Any children left alive were forcibly baptized.
1496: An edict expelling the Jews was signed in
Naples
.
1689: General Piccolomini of Austria burned down Skopje in Macadeonia to prevent the spread of cholera. Skopje was part of the Ottoman Empire and it was one of the towns where Jews fleeing from Spain after 1492 found refuge and were able to prosper in the fields of trade, finance and medicine. In the 21st century, most of the handful of Macedonian Jews lives in Skopje, the country’s capital.
1819: On the Isle of Jutland, Aaron Goldschmidt and Leah Rothschild gave birth to the “distinguished Danish poet, novelist and journalist,” Professor Meyer Aaron Goldschmidt.
1825: The Erie Canal opens with passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie. Eventually the canal would provide a water access to Buffalo, thus opening a water route that would stretch from the Atlantic Oceans to the all of the lands bordering on the Great Lakes. This would create immeasurable commercial opportunities for all Americans, including the Jews. It would lead to the creation of thriving Jewish communities in places like Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago. Mordachai M. Noah, one of the most prominient Jews of the early 19th century was originally an opponent of the canal but changed his mind when he saw that successful development of the land along the Canal would help make his dream of Ararat, A City of Refuge for Jews, a reality.
1826: John and Julia Solomons gave birth to Adolphus Simeon Solomons, the New York native who became “an influential Washingtonian with strong White House and Congressional connections.”
1841: Birthdate of Viennese born German dramatist Jacob Bettelheim
1853: Dr. Raphall, a New York Rabbi, delivered an address about Russia at a meeting of the Young Men’s Literary Association.
1853: Following Dr. Raphall’s address to the Hebrew Young Men’s Literary Association, Mr. Mosely Lyon delivered an address describing the purpose of the organizations.
1858: Albert Goldsmid was promoted to the rank of major-general in the British Army. Born in 1794, the son of Benjamin Goldsmid, he entered the army in 1811 which gave him the opportunity to fight the French in Spain to serve at the Battle of Waterloo.
1858: The Personal Column published today reported that a "A Moldavian Jew, Israel Benjamin SRAEL, is preparing for a journey through Afghanistan and China. Since 1845, he has gone over the Eastern countries of Europe, as well as Egypt, Palestine, Persia, the Regencies of Tripoli and Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco. The Geographical Society of Berlin have charged him to solve several geographical and ethnographical questions. He has just published Eight Years Travel in Asia and Africa by Israel Benjamin
1861: During the American Civil War, the 9th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment was mustered into service as part of the United States under the command of Colonel Frederick C. Salomon. When Salomon was appointed Brigadier General, he brother Charles became the Colonel commanding the regiment. This may have made the 9th Wisconsin the only unit on either side of the conflict to be commanded successively by two brothers who were Jewish.
1864: Myer Isaacs sent a strongly worded letter to President Lincoln warning him against a deal that he allegedly made with a group of New York Jews who, presenting themselves as leaders of the community, had promised to deliver the “Jewish vote” for him. This letter is one of the germinal documents of early Jewish participation in the American political process.
Your Excellency,
As a firm and earnest Union man, I deem it my duty to add a word ... with reference to a recent "visitation" on the part of persons claiming to represent the Israelites of New York or the United States and pledging the "Jewish vote" to your support, and, I am informed, succeeding in a deception that resulted to their pecuniary profit.
Having peculiar facilities for obtaining information as to the Israelites of the United States, from my eight years' connection with the Jewish paper of this city and my position as Secretary of their central organization, the "Board of Delegates" . . . I feel authorized to caution you, Sir, against any such representations as those understood to have been made.
There are a large number of faithful Unionists among our prominent coreligionists — but there are also supporters of the opposition, and indeed the Israelites are not as a body, distinctly Union or democratic in their politics ... the Jews as a body have no politics.
Therefore, Sir, I am pained and surprised to find that you had been imposed upon by irresponsible men ... such acts are discountenanced and condemned most cordially by the community of American Israelites ...
There is no "Jewish vote" — if there were, it could not be bought. As a body of intelligent men, we are advocates of the cherished principles of liberty and justice, and must inevitably support and advocate those who are the exponents of such a platform — "liberty and union, now and forever."
Pardon the liberty I take in thus trespassing on your attention, but I pray that you will attribute it to the sole motive I have, that of undeceiving you and assuring you that there is no necessity for "pledging" the Jewish vote which does not exist — but at the same time that the majority of Israelite citizens must concur in the attachment for the Union and a determination to leave no means untried to maintain its honor and integrity.
Yours most Respectfully,
Myer S. Isaacs
1865: Birthdate of businessman Benjamin Guggenheim. Guggenheim would die in 1912 as a passenger on the Titanic.
1872: It was reported today that the Jews of Rumania want to immigrate to the United States en masse. They have written to the Interior Department to see if they can acquire a large enough section of public lands to meet the needs of a large colony. Current laws preclude the granting of their request.
1881: The Gunfight at the OK Corral takes placed in
Tombstone
,
Arizona
. The most famous participant in the fight is Marshall Wyatt Earp. Earp was not Jewish but his last wife Josie was. When Earp died she had his remains buried in the Marcus family plot in a Jewish cemetery in
Coloma
,
California
. When Josie died, she was buried next to him. The man with the star lies under the star – of David that is.
1882: “Mordecai Lyons” was performed tonight before a very large crowd at Theatre Comique in New York City.
1883: It was reported today that when Sir Moses Montefiore celebrated his 99th birthday two days ago he was hailed as “the most celebrated Hebrew now living England” and the most celebrated Hebrew of our generation with the exception of Benjamin Disraeli. “He is more than an ornament to the Jewish race; he is an ornament to mankind…”
1884: It was reported today that “Sir Moses Montefiore received hundreds of telegrams congratulating him” on reaching his 100th birthday “from all parts of world” including a large number from the United States.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0DE3DB1038E033A25755C2A9669D94659FD7CF
1884: In a second day of celebration, Baltimore’s Hanover Street Synagogue was the scene of special ceremonies marking the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Sir Moses Montefio
1884: “An Anglican Bishop For Jerusalem” published today described the failure of efforts to convert “Jews and Turks” living in Palestine. The Church Missionary Society has spent more than £120,000 pounds in the last 33 years and “as can be proven from their own papers” has “never made a convert…
1884: “The Czar’s Views of Justice” published today describes efforts to ameliorate the sentences imposed on those who took part in the anti-Jewish riots at Novogrod. In what appears to be the first decision of its kind, the Czar “has at least to some extent taken sides with the oppressed Jew” by refusing to show any leniency and expressing his determination “to take measures to prevent these bloody excesses.”
1884: It was reported today that “the chief rabbi at Naples” has been “rebuked by ultra-orthodox Jews for shortening the fast on the recent Day of Atonement” as a measure to avoid the cholera outbreak plaguing the city. The precaution must have been “a good one since not a single Jews has yet died of the disease. [Editor’s note – Fourteen thousand peopled died from Cholera in Naples in 1884.
1884: It was reported today no Jews have died of cholera at Toulon, but five Jews died of the disease at Marseilles.
1884: It was reported today that “the reports of Sarah Bernhardt’s illness have been greatly exaggerated” and she will be able to perform in Sardou’s new play, “Theodroa” which is opening at the Porte Saint Martin Theatre.
1884: “Pereira, the Teacher of Deaf Mutes” published today traced the career of Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, the Portuguese born Sephardic French Jew whose first student was his sister who was born with the ability to speak or hear
1884: “Every pew was filled to over-flowing” and the galleries were completely filled as Temple Emanu-El held services to mark the one hundredth birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore.
1884: “Every seat…was occupied at Shearith Israel, the oldest synagogue in New York, when services honoring Sir Moses Montefiore began at three o’clock this afternoon.
1884: According to the dedicatory plaque, on this day “The Israelites of the City of New York” dedicated the Home for Chronic Invalids in honor of the centennial celebration of the birth of Sir Moses Montefiore
1885: The Patrick Divver Hebrew Association of the Sixth Ward held its annual ball today. (Divver who was Irish Catholic, was a Tammany Hall politician who understood the value of the Jewish vote)
1886: President M. Warley Platzek is scheduled to present an outline of the accomplishments of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association when it meets this evening.
1889: It was reported today that August Belmont has contributed $50,000 to New York City’s World’s Fair Fund and that Kuhn, Loeb & Co has contributed $60,000 to the same fund.
1889: It was reported today that that the Order of B’nai B’rith will take part in the upcoming Educational Fair being sponsored by the Jews of New York City
1889: It was reported today that a dinner is going to be held in honor of Sir Julian Goldsmid during his visit to New York City
1898: A Zionist Delegation led by Theodor Herzl arrives in the port of Yaffo (Jaffa). They visit Mikveh
Israel
and Rishon LeZion.
1898: After visiting Nes Zionah and Rehovot, Herzl returns to Yaffo where he met with Reverend William Hechler. William Hechler formed a committee of Christian Zionists to help move Russian Jewish refugees to
Palestine
after a series of pogroms. In 1884, Hechler wrote a pamphlet called “The Restoration of Jews to Palestine According to the Prophets.” A few years later, he befriended Theodor Herzl after reading Herzl’s book The Jewish State and joined Herzl to drum up support for Zionism. Hechler even arranged a meeting between Herzl and Kaiser Wilhelm II to discuss Herzl’s proposal to establish a Jewish state in
Palestine
. The two men remained close friends up until Herzl’s death in 1904.
1905; Norway becomes independent from Sweden. According to the census conducted at the turn of the century, there were 642 Jewish residents in a population totaling just over 2 million. In 1814, when control of Norway shifted from Denmark to Sweden, the Norwegians adopted “The Constitution of 1814 that contained “The Jew Clause” in the Constitution of 1814 which stated "No person of the Jewish creed may enter Norway, far less settle down there". The clause was repealed in 1851 which opened a trickle of Jewish immigration to
Norway
while it was still part of
Sweden
. In one of those quirks of history, the man most responsible for the repeal of the Jew Clause was the son of the man who led the fight to have included in the Constitution.
1909: The new ballroom of the Hotel Astor is the scene of an event celebrating the 25thanniversary of the founding of the Montefiore Home Gifts aggregating $101,500 were announced tonight as the birthday presents to the Montifore Home where . B.J. Greenhut, announces that gifts totaling $101,500 have been donated to support the institution. Greenhut, Chairman of the committee sponsoring the event, said that although he had not been authorized to make public the amount of the gifts and the names of the generous friends, he felt the occasion demanded it. The audience broke into applause when it was announced that J.H. Schiff had donated $50,000 to this worthy cause.
1910(23rdof Tishrei, 5671): Simchat Torah
1911: Birthdate of NFL Coach, Sid Gillman.
1911: By an order of the Governor all Jews in the
Russian
Province
of Ekaterinoslaff are subject to expulsion with some minor exceptions.
1912: As a result of the First Balkan War,
Thessaloniki
becomes part of modern day
Greece
. The leaders of the Jewish Community are immediately received by King George I and the Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos who promised to respect the rights of the community and offered full equality in the eyes of the Law.
1912: Birthdate of movie director Don Siegel who directed Clint Eastwood in several of his finest films.
1913: During the First Balkan War, Bulgarian forces begin bombarding the city of Adrianople in what will become the Siege of Adrianople which would last until March of 1914. Three thousand of the city’s Jews sought shelter in the local schools while another 9,200 were left with no place to go.
1913: Louis Marshall denied tonight that he would have any involvement Governor William Sulzer’s planned appeal of the decision of the High Court of Impeachment. Marshall, a prominent lawyer and leader of the Jewish Community, had reluctantly agree to represent the embattled governor.
1913: Rabbi Rudolph I. Coffee expressed his displeasure over the support that many New York rabbis had given to Governor Sulzer during his recent impeachment trial. Coffee felt that there involvement in this partisan political issue compromised their roles as spiritual leaders of the Jewish people especially when one considers the sleazy nature of the Tammany and anti-Tammany forces. Coffee, the rabbi at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, has been visiting the city during the trial. He ended his comments by saying that “these Rabbis have hurt their religion and they certainly do not each nor practice its ideals.”
1917: In England, The Times “published a leading article attacking” the government for its repeated delays in issuing a statement support the Zionist cause. Ironically, the delay was caused, in part, by the concern among some English Jews that support for Zionism would call into question their loyalty to the Crown.
1918: During World War I, William Sawelson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for service at
Grand-Pre
,
France
. Sawelson served as a Sergeant, United States Army, Company M, 312th Infantry, 78th Division. His citation reads: “Hearing a wounded man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water, Sgt. Sawelson, upon his own initiative, left shelter and crawled through heavy machinegun fire to where the man lay, giving him what water he had in his canteen. He then went back to his own shell hole, obtained more water, and was returning to the wounded man when he was killed by a machinegun bullet.”
1922: Judge Bernard A. Rosenblatt, the accredited representative for Tel Aviv in the United states announced that “Harvey Fisk & Sons, Inc have been appointed commercial and fiscal agency in the United States for Tel Aviv, the modern section of Jaffa which is the principal port of Palestine.” The announcement is important to commercial interests in the United States since Jaffa has become the principal port in Asia Minor following the destruction of Smyrna.
1926: In Paris, France, the trial of Sholom Schwartzbard comes to an end. A jury of 12 petit-bourgeois Parisians acquitted the Ukrainian-born Jewish immigrant and anarchist of the charge of murder for shooting to death former Ukrainian president Symon Petliura.
1932: The Canada Dry Program, starring Jack Benny is broadcast for the last time on the NBC Blue Network
1939: The Nazis prohibited Sh'chita in
Poland
supposedly on humanitarian grounds.
1939: The Nazis abolished its military government in
Poland
. It is replaced by the Military Generalgouvernment under the command of Hans Frank. In his first speech he announced that “there will be no room for . . . Jewish exploiters in a territory under German sovereignty."
1939: The Labor Department of the Generalgouvernement of Occupied Poland issues the Arbeitspflicht (Work obligation) decree, which makes slave labor mandatory for all Polish men and women over the age of 14 and under age 60.
1939: Following a plan devised by Adolf Eichmann, the Nazis deport and "resettle" some 78,000 Jews to a "reservation" located in the Lublin-Nisko region of southeast Poland in a three and half month period ending in the middle of February, 1940. The project is temporarily suspended when rolling rail stock is needed for German military campaigns against the
Low Countries
.
1941: After the Odessa Action which started on October 23 and ended on October 25 leaving 20,000 murdered Jews, another 10,000 more were sent to various concentration camps from that City.
1941: Germans inform Jews of Kalisz, Poland, that elderly Jews in convalescent homes are to be moved to another home the next day
1942: Birthdate of The Rev. Lawrence Boadt, a Roman Catholic priest, publisher and Bible scholar who used his study of the Old Testament as a vehicle for promoting understanding between Christians and Jews,
1942: In
Oszmiana
,
Poland
, 400 Jews were deported. To save the remaining 600, the head of the ghetto decided to send only the old so to make up the quota.
1943: At the Janowska camp in
Lvov
, the Nazis continued to shoot Jews and burn them on pyres. After the mothers and children would undress, the Germans would swing small children, smashing their heads into trees until they died. All this was done in front of the mothers who themselves would be beaten, hung or shot.
1943: Three thousand Jews are deported from
Kovno
,
Lithuania
, to the slave-labor camp at
Klooga
,
Estonia
.
1946: Kurt Daluege, former SS-Obergruppenführer and deputy Reichsprotektorof
Bohemia
and
Moravia
, is hanged in
Prague
,
Czechoslovakia
, after being convicted of war crimes.
1946: “A Jewish agency spokesman said today the inner Zionist Council would call on Palestine Jews…to take certain specified measures in cooperation with the Government against the use of violence…” The move was part of bargain to gain the release of 700 Jews who have been held by the British without charges or trial since last June. Among those who would be released is Moshe Shertok, head of the Jewish Agency’s political department.” The deal would also allow Moshe Sneh head of the Haganah and David Ben-Gurion to return to Palestine from France where they have endured a self-imposed exile in an attempt to avoid imprisonment by the British.
1947: The British ended their occupation of
Iraq
. The British departure made it possible for the Arab population to move against the Jews of Iraq. The situation would only grow worse once the Israelis defeated the Arab Armies, including the Iraqis the following year. However, the violence against the Jews began before the UN partition and before there was a state
Israel
.
1947: Arabian King Ibn Saud warned President Harry Truman that American support of partition of
Palestine
was an unfriendly and useless act. “The Arabs will isolate such a state from the world and lay siege to it until it dies by famine.”
1947: The day before the Hollywood 10 began testifying, the anti-HUAC celebrities aired the first of a two-part national broadcast called "Hollywood Fights Back!," co-written by Norman Corwin and Robert Presnell Jr., and featuring Garland, Kelly, Bacall, "Bogie," Robinson, Lancaster, Henreid, John Beal and William Holden. HUAC’s investigation into the Communist influence in the film business was tainted in many ways including a predilection for anti-Semitism.
1948(23rdof Tishrei, 5709): Simchat Torah
1951: Winston Churchill “became Prime Minister for the second time.” Chaim Weizmann, the first President of Israel, sends a message of genuine congratulations. In his reply, Churchill refers to the Zionist leader as “my old friend.”
1951: Esta Greenberg and Jack Schnabel gave birth to American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel in Brooklyn. He grew up in Brownsville, Texas. Such a culture clash must have had an effect on his artistic creativity.
1955: The last American occupation troops left Austria and Austria enacts laws of proclaiming permanent neutrality. The American occupation had been a rather benign affair since the Austrians had been declared the first victim of Nazi aggression rather than a willing partner of the Third Reich. Considering the number of Austrian Nazis, the number of Austrians who served in with the German military and the zeal with Austrian Nazis attacked and helped to exterminate the Jewish population, this was a total misreading of the situation.
1957(1st of Cheshvan, 5718): Dr. Gerty Theresa Cori, the first Jewish-American woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology passed away today at the age of 61. An internationally known biochemist she and her husband Dr. Carl F. Cori and Dr. B.A. Houssay shared the 1947 Nobel Prize.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10913F63F5511708DDDAE0A94D8415B8789F1D3
1959: Dr. Arthur Kornberg is awarded the Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine 1959 for his discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (
DNA
)" together with Dr. Severo Ochoa of
New York
University
.
1972: Dutifully playing his part to ensure the re-election of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in
Vietnam
. The November elections would come and go and the war would drag on.
1974: In an article entitled “
Israel
and the River Plate,” C. L. Sulzberger writes from Herzliya that “it would probably astonish most people to know that
Israel
counts on
Argentina
as potentially the largest remaining source of Jewish immigration that can answer this dynamic little country's constant clamor for more people.” To make things even better, the Argentinean Jewish community would provide an already-educated cadre of immigrants.
1975“A Talk With Amos Oz,” by Hebert Mitgang published today provides interesting insights into the life and thoughts of one Israel’s most prominent authors:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/26/home/oz-interview.html
1978(25th of Tishrei, 5739): Alexander Gerschenkron a Russian-born American Jewish economic historian and professor at Harvard who was trained in the Austrian School of economics passed away. He is the grandfather of author Nicholas Dawidoff
1984: Birthdate of Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen.
1986(23rdof Tishrei, 5747): Simchat Torah
1990(7th of Cheshvan, 5751: William Paley, the founder and
CEO
of CBS died of a heart attack at the age of 89.
1992: The Timesquoted Jewish born financier George Soros as saying: "Our total position by Black Wednesday had to be worth almost $10 billion. We planned to sell more than that. In fact, when Norman Lamont said just before the devaluation that he would borrow nearly $15 billion to defend sterling, we were amused because that was about how much we wanted to sell."
1994: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of
Israel
and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of
Jordan
signed a peace treaty in a ceremony attended by President Clinton.
1995: Fathi Shikaki, a leader of the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad was assassinated while staying on the
island
of
Malta
. It is claimed that Mossad agents were responsible for his death.
1997: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interesting including Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir by Doris Kearns Goodwin, The Stolen Legacy of Anne Frank: Meyer Levin, Lillian Hellman, and the Staging of the ''Diary” by Ralph Melnick and Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz; translated by Nicholas de Lange.
2003: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interesting including And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Steve Oney and Gellhorn: A Twentieth-Century Life by Caroline Moorehead.
2004: Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco celebrates its 60thanniversary.
2004:
Israel
's parliament approved Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and parts of the
West Bank
.
2005: Jerry Reinsdorf’s Chicago White Sox win the World Series replacing Theo Epstein’s Red Sox at the top of the major league heap.
2005(22nd of Tishrei, 5766): Shmini Atzeret
2005(22nd of Tishrei, 5766): A suicide bomber struck in Hadera killing five and wounding 55. The killer had been released from an Israeli prison a month ago and lived on the
West Bank
. The cabinet approved military responses including restrictions on Arab travel in the
West Bank
and strike against terrorist missile launching sites in the Gaza Strip.
2006: A concert entitled “The Yiddish Voice of Love: Songs of Beyle Shaechnter-Gottesmanon ” is presented at the
92nd Street
Y in
New York City
. “Schaechter-Gottesman is known as one
America
’s premier Yiddish poets and her work has been a source of inspiration for many Yiddish musicians. A native of
Vienna
, raised in pre-war
Romania
, Schaechter-Gottesman won the National Heritage Fellowship in 2005.
2007: The New York Timesfeatured a review of World War IV: The Long Struggle against Islamofasacism by Norman Podhoretz.
2007: In the evening, five kassam rockets fired b the Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip landed in open fields south of Ashkelon and near Sderot.
2008: Rutgers University presents a lecture on the psychological effects of terrorism on Israelis entitled "Does the War End When the Shooting Stops?" by Zahava Solomon, director of the Adler Research Center for Child Welfare & Protection at Tel Aviv University.
2008: The Center for Jewish History presents Jewish Youth and Cultural Change:
A Conference on Rethinking American Jewish History: This conference brings together historians, anthropologists, and scholars of culture in order to reflect on the ways in which young Jews experienced their lives as Jews and Americans over the past two centuries, and how communal and cultural change were reflected in anxieties about Jewish youth.
2008: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interesting including My Father’s
Paradise
:A Son's Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish
Iraq
by Ariel Sabar, Hitler’s Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life by Timothy W. Ryback, and the paperback edition of Janet Malcolm's dual biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, entitled Two Liveswhich is "a meditation on literature and morality, built around the disquieting fact that Stein and Toklas, both Jewish, remained in Europe throughout World War II without either hiding or being swept up in the Holocaust."
2008: Kadima leader Tzipi Livni announced that her efforts to build a coalition government were unsuccessful, and recommended that early general elections be held.
2009: The Center for Jewish History and The Center for Traditional Music and Dance present “Celebrating a Lifetime in Yiddish Song,” conversation and performance featuring Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, America's leading Yiddish poet and songwriter, who will be joined by her son Itzik Gottesman, Associate Editor of the Yiddish Forward. In 2006, Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman was awarded the prestigious N.E.A. National Heritage Fellowship, our nation's highest honor in the traditional arts.
2009: Steven D. Levitt (a professor of economics at the University of Chicago) and Stephen J. Dubner (a former writer and editor at the New York Times Magazine) discuss their new book, "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance," in a program at The Washington Post Conference Center.
2009: At The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival Melvin Urofsky discusses "Louis D. Brandeis: A Life," his biography of the Supreme Court Justice (which is the annual Bernard Wexler Lecture on Jewish History)
2009: An activist in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Eda Haredit community was conditionally released from prison today, a day after his arrest for allegedly spraying an ultra-Orthodox woman with tear gas in the capital's Mea She'arim neighborhood. Yoel Kraus was arrested after the woman filed a police complaint.
2010: The Historic 6th & I Synagogue is scheduled to host Challah & Chutney: An Indian Jewish cooking class where Shulie Madnick, an Indian Jewish food blogger, provides lessons in how to prepare a vegetarian Indian meal, traditional to the Jewish community of India.
2010: The annual trade show of the kosher food industry opened today at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J. More than 6,000 visitors are expected at the two-day gathering, according to organizers. This year’s focus is on the kosher foods of Canada. The winners in 18 categories of new kosher food products reflect growing trends in kosher food, including general health and wellness, reduced fat, soy replacements, natural, gluten-free, spelt and organic. An Australian natural foods producer won best new product at this year’s Kosherfest. The 2010 Best in Show prize went to Mountain Bread Wraps, a gourmet food product that is distributed by No Worries Natural Foods of Fremantle, Wash. There are eight varieties of Mountain Bread, which are soft flatbreads that roll up. Along with best overall product, No Worries Natural Foods took home the prize for best baked good, bread, grain or cereal. The Best in Show runner-up was Lily Bloom’s Kitchen of Shoreview, Mont., honored for its chocolate macaroons.
2011: A program featuring a discussion “Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams” by Charles Kings is scheduled to take place at the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, D.C.
2011: Rabbi Nissan Antine, the Associate Rabbi and Director of Education at Beth Sholom Congregation, is scheduled to lead a class entitled Responsa of the Holocaust at the JCC of Greater Washington.
2011: The International Conference on the Life and Work of Israeli author Aharon Applefeld is scheduled to open at the Universi