OCTOBER 27 In HIstory
312: Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross which will join the Sword of Constantine to the Cross of Christ in the governing of the Roman Empire, much to the detriment of the Jews for centuries to come.
710: Islamic forces, variously described as Saracens, Berbers or Moors, raided Sardinia which was under the nominal control of the Byzantine (Christian) Empire. This is just one more in a series of raids that began in the first decade of the eighth century. Jews had been living on the island from the days of the Emperor Tiberius when 4,000 of them were banished from Rome. While information about the Jews living on Sardinia during this period is sketchy there were numerous Jewish communities including one at Cagliari, the capital of Sardinia. Toward the end of the sixth century, a converted Jew named Peter placed images of saints in the synagogue in Cagliari on Easter Monday. The Jews lodged a complaint with Pope Gregory the Great, who ordered Bishop Januarius of Cagliari to have the images at once removed. We also know that the Jews must have survived whatever damage was done to the island by marauding Moors because there is a record of the synagogue in Cagliari having been destroyed by a fire at the end of the 8thcentury.
1156: Birthdate of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence. He was considered to be so sympathetic to the Jews that Pope Innocent III caused him to take an oath "that he would deprive the Jews of their offices and that he would never appoint any Jews or in any way favor them.
1275: Founding of the modern city of Amsterdam. While there are reports of Jews living in the Low Countries an area that would have included the Netherlands, going back to Roman times, the Jewish community of Amsterdam dates from the 16th century when Marranos and Sephardim found there way to the Protestant city.
1430: Vytautas the Great, Grand Prince of Lithuania, passed away. According to some Jewish historians, the reign of Vytautas the Great was the golden age for Jews of Lithuania-Poland.
1466: Birthdate of Dutch humanist and theologian Desiderius Erasmus. While Erasmus may be revered by the world at large, he gets mixed notices from Jewish sources. On the one hand he spoke up for Jews when he said, “If it is Christian to hate the Jews, all of us are only too good Christians.” At the same time he was above a little Jew-bashing when wrote, “Jews are very numerous in
Italy
; in
Spain
there are hardly Christians. I am aft raid that when the occasion arise, that pest formerly suppressed, will raise its head again.”
1682: Founding of the city of
Philadelphia
by William Penn. The city’s name means “brotherly love.” Twenty-six years before William Penn, the Quaker leader who founded
Philadelphia
set foot in the
New World
in 1682, a few Jews were trading with the Native Americans along the
South River
, later known as the
Delaware River
. After the British took
New York
, merchants from the former Dutch city, included Jewish merchants, saw opportunity in
Philadelphia
. One of them was the New York-born son of Moses Levy, established merchant, active in the Jewish community of
New York
. In 1737, Nathan Levy settled permanently in
Philadelphia
where he built a business of his own. He and his cousin, David Franks, formed the first important Jewish company there, Levy and Franks, importers and merchants. In the 1740’s Levy would be the leader of the group that formed
Mikveh
Israel
Cemetery
.
Mikveh
Israel
Cemetery
would lead to the formation of the first Jewish congregation in
Philadelphia
, Mikveh
Israel
.
1765: The last public Auto da Fe was held in
Portugal
.
1858 RH Macy & Co opened its first store on Sixth Avenue in New York City. Gross receipts for the day totaled $1106. The Straus family, which had been leasing space in Macy's to operate a chinaware department, the store's most profitable section, acquired the Macy’s in 1896 and turned it into one of the country’s leading department stores. One sign of the change came in when they relocated the store to its Herald square location at 34th Street and Broadway in
1858: Birthdate of Theodore Roosevelt 26th President of the
United States
. In 1903,
Roosevelt
moved boldly to confront the Czar over the massacre of the Jews at
Kishinev
.
Roosevelt
’s intervention on behalf the Jews was unusual and won him and the Republican Party a great deal of support in years to come. Theodore Roosevelt was the first President to appoint a Jew to a presidential cabinet. In 1906 he named Oscar S. Straus Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Theodore Roosevelt was also the first President to contribute his own funds to a Jewish cause. In 1919, when he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts while President to settle the Russo-Japanese War, Roosevelt donated some of his prize money to the National Jewish Welfare Board.
1862: In a report published today the New York Times special correspondent covering the Army of the Potomac described troop movements in and around Culpepper and Warrenton, VA as well as the disposition of Rebel troops in Richmond. The report is based on an interview that he had with a man whom he described as “a Jew” who has resided in the South for several years, “so that his statement are not considered the most reliable.” This Jew claimed that the reason he had taken refuge within the lines of the Union Army to escape the rebellion.
1866: Sir George Jessel, Solicitor-General and Master of the Rolls and Amelia Moses gave birth to Herbert Jessel, British soldier and Member of Parliament.
1872: An article entitled “A Startling Novelty” traces the history of embalming. Based on Genesis, “And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians to embalms his father; and the physicians embalmed Israel” and “So Joseph died, and being an hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” While the Israelites learned about embalming from the Egyptians, the latter used a much more elaborate process and “the embalmers were regarded as…sacred persons.”
1875: “Hebrews of New York” published today praised the record “which Jacob Hess has made for himself in one session of the Assembly” as “one of which any patriot may be proud.”
1878: It was reported today that the Hebrew Benevolent Society is among those organizations in New Orleans that is continuing to provide aid to those suffering during the region’s Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1878: Birthdate of Murray Seasongood, future Mayor of Cincinnati and Harvard law school professor.
1879: “Bull-Dozing In Mississippi” published today described a political meeting held at Bolivar Landing, in Bolivar Country, MS, where a resolution was allegedly passed denouncing Edward Storm as “a dishonest Jew, the servile tool of the slave-owner before the war, and the convenient and abandoned ally of the corrupt carpet bagger” since the end of the Civil War. (Since no record can be found of a Jew by this name, one has to wonder if labeling him as a “Jew” was an attempt to smear him by his political opponents who had already identified him with the aristocracy, carpetbaggers and Republicans)
1880: Henry Abbey and Louis de Bebian were among those who greeted the famous Jewish actress Sara Bernhardt when she arrived off the coast of the United States aboard the SS Amerique.
1880: An article published today entitled “Jewish Longevity” reported that the Jews “have become the admired and beloved of the life insurance companies…The reason is that the Christians, after paying one or two premiums, has an unpleasant way of dying…The insured Jew…pays his premium year after year and thus becomes a constant source of income.” There is a great deal of speculation as to why this is true. According to the author, it may be tied to the business practices of Jews which tend to be less speculative than those of Christians. This enables the Jew to sleep soundly at night while his Christian counterpart tosses and turns. Diet is another reason. Jews eat and drink in moderation as compared to their Christian counterparts and do not eat pork. Finally, Jews marry other Jews which preserves “the purity of their blood.”
1881: A woman who claimed to be Mrs. Amelia Goldberg, and English Jewish and her 11 year old child were found wandering the streets of New York dressed in rags today which led to them being taken into custody and “being committed to the care of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction.
1882: “Mordecai Lyons” published today reviewed Edward Harrigan’s new play which features “a Jew who, when he finds that his daughter has been betrayed” tries to avenge her. While the reviewer found the play disappointing he felt that Mr. Harrigan “was artistically effective as the Jew, Mordecai, though rather uncertain at the important situations.
1884: “A service was held at Ramsgate to-day in honor of Sir Moses Montifore. Chief Rabbi Adler read a special prayer. Sir Moses insisted upon standing through the entire service, at the conclusion of which he said in a very strong voice: "I cannot tell a thousandth or a ten thousandth part of what I feel when by the blessing of the almighty I have arrived at so full an age.” A reception followed the service. On this day alone, Montifore received more than 800 letters and 600 telegrams from a whole host of well-wishers, Jew and Gentile alike.
1884: “A Life Spent In Charity” published today described the various services held to honor Sir Moses Montefiore on his 100th birthday. Henry Ward Beecher, the leading Protestant minister of his time, described him as being “the distinguished citizen of the world” who “by his long life and by his splendid services in the way of humanity, has become himself a text that involves in it the truths both of the Old and the New Testament.”
1885: It was reported today “Miss Rebecca Rosenthal, a Baxter Street Blond” joined hands with Patrick Divver, the candidate for Ward 6 Alderman, to lead the opening march at the Patrick Divver Hebrew Association’s annual ball. Jewish political leader Coroner Levy addressed the attendees and urged them to vote for Divver.
1886: It was reported today that S.S. (Samuel Sullivan) Cox, the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, spoke to a meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association during which he said that the Jews enjoyed the protection of the Sultan, but that he was not as impressed by the Turkish Jews as he was by the Jews of Western Europe.
1889: “A Patriarchal Scribe” published today described the work of an aged Hebrew working in the corner of a grocery store on Division Street in New York’s lower east side. For a small fee he wrote letters in Hebrew to be sent back to families in Europe while demonstrating the skill to complete the information on the envelope so that the epistle would arrive at its proper destination.
1889: It was reported today that while on their way back from raiding the offices of the Louisiana Lotter, police in Boston had arrested “Barnett Gompertz, the little English Jew eyeglass peddler who has had a stand at the head of Williams Court, otherwise known as Pie Alley, for over twenty years.”
1889: “Christians Made Jewess” published today described the process by which a young English woman converted to Judaism before she was married at the West London Synagogue on Upper Berkeley Street.
1895: Austrian Prime Minister Badeni revives the "Presse", forerunner and now out-lived rival of the "Neue Freie Press." Herzl is offered the editorship of the "Presse". After some days of negotiations with Moritz Benedikt, Herzl refuses the offer.
1902: Herzl arrives in
Vienna
having finished his trip to
London
.
1903: Herzl travels to
Edlach
,
Austria
.
1906: Mutilated bodies of Jewish women were found in the streets of Arzila, Tangier.
1908: Birthdate of abstract expressionist painter Lee Krasner who died in 1984.
1911: An article datelined Yuzivka, Russia, entitled “More Jews to be Expelled: Will Cuase Much Hardship,” reports that the Governor has signed a proclamation stating that all Jews in the Province of Ekaterinoslaff are subject to expulsion, with some limited exceptions.
1913: During the first Balkan war, practically the entire Jewish community of Itchip numbering 710 people fled to Salonica to avoid having to face the conquering Bulgarian army. Only 6 men and 2 youths stayed behind. Two of the old men were killed; all the Jewish homes were plundered and demolished. Synagogues were desecrated and burned, as were 24 Jewish stores and homes.
1923: Birthdate of Roy Lichtenstein. “From his studio in
New York City
, Roy Lichtenstein did cartoon inspired paintings that helped launch the Pop Art movement. He was unique in that he developed a new visual language in an avant-garde style that was disruptive to viewers and yet was accessible and popular with them. He also did innovative art work that incorporated many late 20th-century movements and addressed a number of social issues. His thirty-five year career of public recognition was celebrated in 1993-94 by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in
New York
with a large scale retrospective of his work.”
1924: Grigorii Zinoviev, the Jewish born head of the Comintern issued a denial that he authored the so called Zinoviev Letter that stated in part "The letter of 15th September, 1924, which has been attributed to me, is from the first to the last word, a forgery. Let us take the heading. The organization of which I am the president never describes itself officially as the "Executive Committee of the Third Communist International"; the official name is "Executive Committee of the Communist International." Equally incorrect is the signature, "The Chairman of the Presidium." The forger has shown himself to be very stupid in his choice of the date. On the 15th of September, 1924, I was taking a holiday in Kislovodsk, and, therefore, could not have signed any official letter...” The denial was finally published in the December 1924 issue of The Communist Review, the monthly theoretical magazine of the CPGB, well after the MacDonald government had fallen. Decades later, independent academic research proved that the letter was a forgery.
1929(23rd of Tishrei, 5690): Simchat Torah
1933: Arabs protesting Jewish immigration to Palestine clashed with police today resulting in at least twenty deaths and injuries to another 130 of the demonstrators. Among the dead and wounded were Arabs who had attacked a police station in Haifa where a policeman was stabbed in the back.
1935: One hundred and fifty Zionists honored Morris Rothenberg President of the Zionist Organization of America with banquet at New York’s Hotel Astor. After being introduced by Louis P. Rocker, Rothberg described the progress he had seen on his recent visit to the Palestine but said that “a concerted drive to unite all American Jews in support of the” development of Palestine was necessary for ultimate success.
1937: As the Arab violence against the Jews continued The Palestine Post reported that a Jew and an Arab constable were killed when some 15 Arab terrorists ambushed a six-truck convoy carrying 21 Jewish laborers from the Palestine Potash concession on the Dead Sea back to Jerusalem. A number of policemen were injured in various shooting incidents, reported throughout the country, and in particular in Safed where the Jewish community was almost under siege.
1937: The Palestine Postreported that in
Danzig
Jewish shops and houses were pillaged and windows smashed. This outbreak of violence against the Jews took place almost two years before the outbreak of World War II. The Nazis did not invent anti-Semitism. They exploited it and made it as efficient as an assembly line for automobiles.
1938: Hitler expelled 18,000 Jews from
Germany
who were born in the former Polish provinces. The Jews were abused and tortured as they made their way to the border. The Poles did not want to admit the Jews and for a while many were left to languish on the border. This was a prelude to the statelessness that would help ensure the death of millions of Jews.
1938: The Germans began arresting Jews with Polish citizenship who had been living in Germany and began deporting them to Poland. The Polish authorities placed the Jews in the border town of Zbaszyn and forbade them from leaving in the hope that the large number of Jews near the border would pressure the Germans into beginning negotiations to allow them back into Germany. The negotiations ended in January 1939- some Jews had already been taken in by friends and family in Poland, while other deportees were permitted to return to Germany to wind up their affairs, and then return to Poland. For a photographic record see:
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/october/03.asp
1940: Ritual slaughter is banned in Belgium. Were the conquering Germans animal lovers or did they realize the importance of the dietary laws in maintaining Jewish identity.
1941: Jews of Sluzk, 60 miles south of
Minsk
,
Belorussia
, are annihilated by Einsatzkommando troops, half of whom are German, half Lithuanian.
1941: In the Polish town of Kalisz a large black truck drove up and took on a passenger load of Jews. Escorted by two Gestapo cars, the truck drove away. Its passengers were never heard from again. This was the first of the gas-wagons. This method of extermination was not efficient and would give way to that ultimate in German efficiency – the gas chamber.
1942: The Nazis sent 3,000 Jews from
Opoczno
,
Poland
to Treblinka. At the start of the war almost half the town of
Opoczno
was Jewish. Jews had lived there since the 14th century. The Jews had lived there continually since the start of the 18th century. At the time of the mass deportation in October 1942, scores of Jews fled to the forests and organized partisan units there. The best known unit, "Lions", under the command of Julian Ajzenman- Kaniewski, conducted a number of successful guerilla actions against Nazi forces and the Opoczno-Konskie railway line. After the war, the Jewish Community of Opoczno was not reconstituted.
1942: Seven thousand Kraków, Poland, Jews are deported to Belzec while another 600 are killed in Kraków.
1943: Germany announced that any Pole helping Jews to escape should be dealt with “without the necessary delay of court hearings.” The penalty for assisting Jews was death.
1944: In the parts of
Warsaw
still under German control the Nazis still search for hidden Jews. Seven would be found and shot. For those who doubt that the War Against the Jews was of primary consideration for the Germans, remember that they were busy tracking down Jews while the Soviet Army was breathing down their necks.
1946: Birthdate of Slovakian born Canadian producer-director Ivan Reitman. Reitman’s most famous cinematic effort was the hit comedy “Animal House.”
1947: At Petah Tikva a house belonging to a member of Haganah was blown up, reportedly by members of the Irgun. Haganah leaders said they will not back down despite warnings by Irgun of a looming civil war between the two Jewish organizations.
1947: The quiz show "You Bet Your Life", with Groucho Marx, premiered on
ABC
radio. The show would later move to television where a whole new generation would discover the rapier wit, the bushy eyebrows and the smoldering cigar of what some consider a comic genius.
1948: During Operation Yoav, Israeli forces capture the Egyptian held fort at Bet Guvrin. The Egyptians had taken the fort when the invaded
Israel
in May of 1948.
1948
Israel
recaptured Nizzanim in the
Negev
. Nizzanim is in southern
Israel
on the
Mediterranean. In 1990, the same people who high jacked the Achille Loro planned a terrorist attack on the beaches of Nizzanim. The attack was foiled.
1950: Birthdate of author Fran Lebowitz.
1952: The Jerusalem Postcommented in an editorial that a number of ugly incidents in
Nazareth
and the arrest of an Arab underground group, undergoing military training in the Majdal Krum area, drew less public attention than it deserved. There were obvious severe shortcomings in the management of the affairs of Arabs living in
Israel
. The government undertook to build 50,000 concrete dwellings within the next three years in order to accommodate the almost 80,000 families still living in ma’abarot.
1957: Psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers put her boxing trivia to the test and came away with $64,000. Dr. Brothers, who was appearing on the game show The $64,000 Challenge, took the top prize, competing against a team of seven boxers on boxing lore. This was her second time winning the program's top prize — two years earlier she had claimed her first victory (when the show was called The $64,000 Question), also on the subject of boxing. Brothers' appearance on The $64,000 Question not only garnered her a substantial prize, but also sparked her career as a talk-show psychologist. After her appearance on Challenge, Brothers was picked to co-host WATV's show, Sports Showcase. In 1958, NBC offered Brothers her own talk show, The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show. The show, which counseled viewers on childrearing, marriage, and sex, was an instant success and soon became syndicated nationally. In 1963, Brothers began writing a monthly column for Good Housekeeping, which remains a feature of the magazine today. She also writes a daily column that is published in more than 350 newspapers, and has written several books, including What Every Woman Should know About Men (1982) and How to Get Whatever You Want Out of Life (1978). Her most personal and popular work was Widow (1990), which described Brothers' emotional journey after the death of her husband in 1989 after thirty-nine years of marriage.
1968(5th of Cheshvan, 5729): Lise Meitner, a physicist who played a key role in the discovery of Nuclear Fission passed away at the age of 89.
1978: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1983: Four days after the attack on the Marine Barracks the White House team that visited Beirut, led by Vice President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, asked Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff to write a report on the attack and its aftermath
1986: In an article published today. Time magazine correspondent provides background on the life of Elie Wiesel as describes the Nobel Laureate’s work on behalf of mankind and the Jewish people including his efforts on behalf of Cambodian refugees, the Miskito Indians in Nicaragua and starving children in Africa. “Last week he exhorted Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to allow five Soviet Jews, as well as Dissident Physicist Andrei Sakharov, to emigrate, and this week he is traveling to Moscow to help organize a conference on non-Jewish victims of Nazism.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962649,00.html#ixzz1bqTDkv6O
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962649,00.html#ixzz1bqT3kgNd
1987: Actor Dustin Hoffman and Lisa Gottsegen Hoffman give birth to Alexandra Lydia.
1988(16th of Cheshvan, 5749) Just days before her 93rd birthday, Hadassah and ZOA leader Judith G. Epstein passed away. (As reported by Susan Fox)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/epstein-judith-g
1992(30th of Tishrei, 5753): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1992(30th of Tishrei, 5753): David Bohm, American-born physicist, philosopher, and neuropsychologist passed away.
1994: Judith R. Shapiro, a widely respected cultural anthropologist who has done pioneering research on gender differences, was inaugurated as president of
Barnard
College
. Dr. Shapiro came to Barnard after eight years as provost of
Bryn
Mawr
College
where she had taught in the department of anthropology since 1975. Before that, she was the first woman to teach anthropology at the
University
of
Chicago
. Shapiro became president of a school that owed its initial existence to another Jewish woman, Annie Nathan Meyer. Meyer had petitioned, lobbied and raised funds for the creation of Barnard, as a woman's college associated with
Columbia
College
, back in 1889.
1995: Prime Minister Rabin took the courageous step of agreeing “that when the time came for Palestinian elections, election posters could be placed anywhere in East Jerusalem and that the voting in the city would be supervised by the Palestinian Central Elcetion Commission.
1996(15th of Cheshvan, 5757): Comedian Morey Amsterdam passed away. For millions of Americans,
Amsterdam
was the writing sidekick of Dick Van Dyke on the Dick Van Dyke Show. He was 74.
2002: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds by Harold Bloom.
2002: Two Israeli police officers and a soldier were killed, and 20 bystanders were wounded in a suicide bombing at a gas station near the settlement of Ariel in the West Bank. The two officers and soldier were killed while trying to prevent the terrorist from detonating the bomb. Hamas and the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
2004: The Jerusalem Postreported that
Israel
's Knesset approved a plan for disengagement from
Gaza
. Those citing the Bible for opposing this decision should re-read the text. From David to David - from King David to David Ben Gurion- Jewish leaders have avoided taking control of
Gaza
. Furthermore, the wise King Solomon is reported in the Book of Kings to have given up 23 towns in
Israel
to Hiram. And I do not remember any Rabbi threatening to assassinate King Solomon over the issue.
2004: Under the executive leadership of Theo Epstein, the Red Sox win the World Championship for the first time since 1918.
2006: The Anti-Defamation League posthumously presented to Hiram "Harry" Bingham IV its "Courage to Care" award at the ADL’s national conference in Atlanta. As Vice Consul in Marseille, he helped to save 2,500 Jews from the Nazis as they swept through France at the start of WW II.
2006: The Jewish Daily Forward reported “that in a startling move, Primo Levi’s 1975 book The Periodic Table, was named ‘best science book ever written’ by the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
2006: “The Last Virgin”, “a bluntly satirical comedy about Jews and Muslims in the Middle East” is performed for the last time in Frankfurt, Germany. The play was written by Tuvia Tenenbom and Maria Lowry. Tenenbom is an Israeli and founder the Jewish Theatre in
New York
.
2007:
New York
’s Erez Safar celebrates the launch of his new website called Shemspeed (www.shemspeed.com) with a gala event in
London
.
2007: The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra performs Broadway show music from Evita, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera,
Chicago
, Cats, Cabaret and more at the Performing Arts Center in
Jerusalem
2007: An exhibition entitled “The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson: Constructing a Legend” opens at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.
2008: In Washington, D.C., opening of the Ethics and War Reading and Discussion Series, an interfaith reading series co-sponsored by Theatre J that deals with questions concerning “ethical behavior” when a nation is at war.
2008: The winter session of the Knesset opens with President Shimon Peres calling for early elections since Kadima leader Livini cannot form a government.
2008: Time magazine includes a review of “All My Sons” by Jewish playwright Arthur Miller which is “now getting a starry revival on Broadway.”
2009: At The Hyman S. &; Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival Dara Horn reads from and discusses her novel "All Other Nights" (Jewish spies in the Civil War)
2009: At Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, a screening of "Paper Clips" was held in the Rathskeller. Paper Clips is the moving and inspiring documentary that captures how students from Whitwell, Tenn. responded to lessons about the Holocaust—with a promise to honor every lost soul by collecting one paper clip for each individual exterminated by the Nazis. The amazing result: a memorial railcar filled with 11 million paper clips.
2009: Iran-backed Hezbollah based in southern Lebanon fired a Katyusha rocket into Israel today. Lebanese and United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) discovered four more rockets close to the launch site, three of which were ready in launching position. The rocket launched today was the ninth one launched into Israel since its defensive war again Hezbollah in 2006
2009: Today, a right-wing comedian was fined 10,000 euros by a French court for "public anti-Semitic insults" after he invited Robert Faurisson, an academic and Holocaust denier, on stage during a comedy show to receive an "award" from an actor dressed as a Jewish deportee.
2010:Award winning author Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, is scheduled to deliver The Gerald L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture entitled “36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction” on the closing night of the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival
2010:Comedian Jon Stewart is the most influential man of 2010, according to a poll released today by AskMen.com, an American online magazine. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, were in the second and third places. [Stewart and Zuckerberg are Jewish; Gates is not)
2010:The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid (IsraAID) announced on today that it will send a team to Haiti, despite the current cholera outbreak.
2011: Robert Lipsyte and John Bloom are scheduled to take part in “Telling It Like It Is; Jews, Sports and Writing,” a panel discussion that is part of The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival.
2011: Dr. Hasia Diner the Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of American Jewish History at New York University, and founder and Director of the Goldstein-Goren Center for American Jewish History is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Between History and Memory: Rethinking the American Jewish Past” in Washington, D.C.
2011: Ilan Grapel, an American-Israeli citizen jailed in Cairo on suspicion of espionage for over four months, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on today after he was released. (As reported by Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya)
2011 The Israel Air Force targeted three centers of terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip and a weapons storage site in the South early this morning, IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement. The attacks hit their precise targets and all planes returned safely to base. The activity came in retaliation to one Grad rocket that was fired from the Gaza Strip at Ashdod and Bnei Aish areas shortly before midnight.
2011: As the death toll in the deadly earthquake in eastern Turkey rose today, an Israeli cargo plane landed in Ankara, carrying humanitarian aid that Turkish officials at first had declined to accept.
2011(29th of Tishrei, 5772): Eighty-five year old Allen Mandelbaum, the award winning translator of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/arts/allen-mandelbaum-translator-of-divine-comedy-dies-at-85.html
2012: “Youth movements and social NGOs are scheduled to gather in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square for an alternative ceremony to honor the anniversary of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination” this evening. (As reported by Lahav Harkov)
2012: Israeli cellist Elad Kabilio is scheduled to perform at the Joyce Theatre in NYC.
2012: The Edent-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to present “Musica Antiqua” featuring Zohar Shefi on the harpsichord and Drora Bruck on the recorder.
2012: Andras Sch