November 19 In History
1095: The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins. The Crusades ushered in one of the darkest periods in Jewish history. In the name of Christianity, the Crusaders would leave a path of death and destruction for the Jewish people that stretched from the Rhineland to the streets of Jerusalem.
1600: Birthdate of King Charles I. The English monarch who would be defeated by the Puritan forces commanded by Cromwell and eventually be executed in 1649. The death of Charles and the rise of the Puritans helped encourage Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel to approach Cromwell about allowing the Jewish people to return to England.
1621: Rabbi Isaiah ben Avraham Ha-Levi Horowitz, known as the Shlah after the title of one of his major works Shnei Luchos Ha-Bris arrived in Jerusalem. The Shlah was a renowned Halachist, kabbalist and communal leader. He was born in Prague in 1656 and eventually became head of the Jewish community in Frankfort. He moved to Jerusalem as the death of his wife. The Shlah was a wealthy philanthropist who stressed man’s ability to overcome the evil inclination and turn it into the good inclination. He passed away in 1650 and was buried in Tiberias near the tomb of the Rambam.
1816: Warsaw University is established in the part of Poland that was incorporated into the Russian Empire as part of the partitions that had taken place in the waning decades of the 18th century. The fortunes of the university would follow the ebb and flow of political and cultural events in Poland as it sought to regain and then maintain its independence. In 1968, the government would conduct and anit-Semitic and anti-democrat campaign at the university that would touch off a wave of student unrest. During the subsequent government crackdown professors of Jewish descent were removed from their positions and many of them were forced to emigrate.
1853(17th of Tishrei, 5614): Third day of Sukkoth
1863: President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the military cemetery dedication ceremony in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. One of the more interesting stories, if it is true involves Dr. M.L. Rossvally, a Jewish surgeon who saved the life of a Christian drummer boy. Rossvally went on to become the Surgeon General of the United States.
1869: It was reported today that in a manner similar houses of worship of other denominations, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun hosted a Thanksgiving Service where Rabbi Henry Vidaver delivered a sermon based on the words of Zechariah.
1872: A meeting was held tonight at the Thirty-fourth Street Synagogue in New York City to deal with impending immigration of Romanian Jews to the United States who were seeking refuge from the persecution in their native land. A twenty-five man Executive Committee was established that will contact various European Jewish Committees involved with this issue to ensure that the emigrants come from the “industrial classes” and to arrange for their transportation. Several hundred families are expected to arrive in the Spring and the committee will set the mechanism to provide them with employment and support.
1874: Nathan Aaronson, a wealthy Jew is spending tonight in the Tombs after having been arrested and charged with numerous counts of grand larceny, obtaining goods under false pretenses and other crimes related to a series of swindles. Aaronson was arrested after having posted bail on similar charges in New Jersey as he attempted to sail to Europe.
1876: The New York Times published a review of The Ethics of Benedict De Spinoza: From the Latin with an Introductory Sketch of his Life and his Writings published in New York by D. Van Nostrand. According to the review, this is believed to be the first translation of any of the writings that has appeared in the United States.
1876: A report published today attributed the change in the writing style of George Eliot( Mary Anne Evans) that resulted in Daniel Deronda was a product of a collaboration with her consort, George Henry Lewes. Lewes claims that “he wrote every line of the chapter which describes the discussion at the club to which Mordecai introduced Daniel. Such a club as this really had an existence in London under the presidency of a Jew upon whom Mr. and Mrs. Lewes modeled Mordecai.” The report concluded that many of Eliot’s admirers are not pleased with the new novel feeling that literary partnership “has destroyed the classic purity of the lady’s English.” Despite this, the novel is selling quite briskly.
1878(23rd of Cheshvan): Poet Abraham Dov Levenson (Adam ha-Kohen) passed away
1880: Based on information that first appeared in the Boersen Zeitung, it was reported today that “public quarrels and duels have taken place between Jews and Germans.”
1881: “The Hebrew Union College” published today summarized plans to upgrade HUC, the Cincinnati educational institution that is only place in the United States dedicated to providing formal education for rabbis in the United States. The plan is to create a million dollar endowment by selling 200,000 “subscription certificates at $5 each.” (The rabbis trained here will be Reform and will not be able to address the needs of the traditional movements of Judaism)
1882: It was a reported today that the Public Prosecutor has applied to the court at Nyireghyhasa, for an order to disinter and re-examine the body of a Christian girl, who it is alleged, was by the Jews at Tiszaeszlar” in order to sift through the evidence “and put an end to a scandal which has lasted six months.” (This is a reference to The Tiszaeszlár Affair, a blood libel that began in April of 1882 and would actually resurface in the world of Hungarian politics in the 21stcentury.)
1882: It was reported today that a radical newspaper editor has fought a duel with a member of the parliament who defended Jews against charges in The Tiszaeszlár Affair.
1884(1st of Kislev, 5645): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1885: Upon his return to Cincinnati from the national of Reform Rabbis in Pittsburgh, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise said, “The meeting was an official expression and confirmation of principles which have been advanced and advocated by progressive Jews for a decade past.”
1885: It was reported today that the Reform movement has adopted a resolution that would effectively allow the substitution of Sunday morning services to replace the traditional Saturday morning Shabbat services.
1885: “The Hebrew Asylum Ball” published today provided a description of the fundraiser hosted for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” which was attended a large segment of notables including Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wechsler, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wechsler and Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Oppenheimer.
1886: It was reported today that based on information that first appeared in the Vossische Zeitung, Jews make up the largest contingent of the Hungarian immigrants crossing Germany on their way to the United States.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E0CE2D81F30E533A2575AC1A9679D94679FD7CF
1887(3rd of Kislev, 5648): Emma Lazarus passed away. Born in 1849, Lazarus is remembered as the poet who wrote the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. When Emma Lazarus died on November 19, 1887 at the age of 38, the obituary published in the New York Times referred to her as "an American Poet of Uncommon talent," but did not mention her poem, "The New Colossus," which today is indelibly associated with The Statue of Liberty. One of the first successful Jewish American authors, Lazarus was part of the late nineteenth century New York literary elite, and was celebrated in her day as an important American poet. In her later years, she wrote bold, powerful poetry and essays protesting the rise of anti-Semitism and arguing for Russian immigrants' rights. She called on Jews to unite and create a homeland in Palestine before the title Zionist had even been coined. She is best known today for her poem, "The New Colossus," which was written in 1883 as part of the effort to raise money for a pedestal to the Statue of Liberty. France was donating the statue to the United States, but Americans had to raise the funds for the pedestal. Her untimely death, probably from cancer, was mourned in both the Jewish and broader communities. It was only, however, after Lazarus's friend Georgina Schuyler installed a bronze memorial tablet inside the entrance to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty in 1903, inscribed with the lines from the "New Colossus," including "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," that Lazarus's memory became forever associated with her powerful vision of America as a symbol of hope for the down-trodden.
1890(7th of Kislev, 5651): Thirty-nine year old Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery, the daughter of Juliana and Mayer de Rothschild, who was rumored to be the richest woman in Britain, passed away. (There is no way that we can do justice to the life of this woman. She is far more fascinating than any fictional character created by Bronte sisters and those other writers of 19thcentury romance novels)
1895: While visiting Paris and London trying to gain Jewish support for a Jewish homeland, Herzl gained one “convert’ - Max Nordeau.
1896: The first national convention of the National Council of Jewish Women which was held at Tuxedo Hall in New York City between came to an end. Founded at the conclusion of the Jewish Women's Congress held at Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in November 1893, the National Council of Jewish Women was the first national open-membership organization for American Jewish women.
1897: Herzl publishes his article "Die jüdische Kolonialbank" -"The Jewish Colonial Bank" in Die Welt.
1904: Birthdate of Nathan Leopold. Leopold and Loeb, sons of wealthy Chicago families, saw themselves as a superior intellects not bound by the rules. Their murder of Bobby Franks and the trial that followed (where they were defended by Clarence Darrow) forever marked both of them as venal, vile killers. Leopold died in 1971.
1909: At the request of the Hahambashi, the Grand Vizier of Turkey directs the Minister of War to appoint Jewish chaplains to battalions where Jews serve, to grant soldiers the ability to observe the high holidays and to facilitate they be provided with kosher food. The Hahambashi also requested that all teachers in Jewish school and rabbinical students be granted an exemption from military service.
1911: Herman Bernstein, who has written for such publications as The Nation and The New York Evening Post delivered an address to the Mikve Israel Association in Philadelphia, PA, entitled “Anti-Semitism in Russia, Germany and Elsewhere.” According to Bernstein, while political and social progress has been made “in every part of the world” anti-Semitism is the one age-old evil “for which no remedy has been found.” [Bernstein would go to a distinguished career as a foreign correspondent with the New York Times and as U.S. Ambassador to Albania. His History of a Lie provides an account of the history of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.]
1913: Serbian troops enter and loot Monastir. As part of the violence, Jewish shops were burned and robbed.
1913: Birthdate of Morris Ziff, the Brooklyn native, who was an award winning expert in rheumatic diseases and who investigated how the body sometimes turns on itself to cause such illnesses (As reported by Jeremy Pearce)
1915 (12th of Kislev, 5676): A wide variety of Jewish and gentile leaders including Louis Marshall, Jacob Schiff, John H. Finley, President University of the State of New York at Albany and Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia, expressed their sense of sorrow and deep admiration for Dr. Solomon Schechter who passed away today in New York. Schechter’s original fame rested on his work with the Cairo Geniza. As President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, he was the driving force behind Conservative Judaism. He was an early Zionist who played an active role in the work of the Jewish Publication Society. This brief entry cannot do justice to his impact on the world at large or the Jewish community in particular.
1916: Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn established Goldwyn Company which would become one of the most successful independent filmmakers.
1919: The U.S. Senate, under the leadership of the Republicans, fails to ratify the Versailles Treaty. This meant that the United States would not be joining the League of Nations which meant that the League was DOA. It also signaled America’s return to isolationism. The rejection of the Versailles Treaty was a contributing cause to the rise of Hitler, World War II and the Holocaust.
1919: Birthdate of Judge Wapner of People’s Court Fame. Considering the Torah’s injunctions about Judges, what do we make of the fact that both Judge Judy and Judge Wapner are Jewish?
1921: Today Joseph Missrahi Orpahli, an Oriental Jew, became the first Jew to receive the death penalty for murder in connection with the August riots. “Orphali was accused of firing from a rooftop into a mob of Jaffa Arabs who had congregated supposedly for an attack on Tel Aviv.” Three British police officers Dixon had testified that “they had heard no shots besides those of the police who fired on the mob, but relatives of Arabs killed declared the accused had killed on Arab purposely and another unintentionally.”
1921: “Thirty-seven Arabs of the Tireh village, near Haifa who had previously been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, had their sentences reduced on appeal today to three months. They had been accused of participating in an attack on Bath Gilim, a suburb of Haifa.”
1921: Pinchas Ruthenberg, director of the Palestine Electric Corporation and chairman of the Palestine National council, told the commission of inquiry” sent from London to find the reasons for the Arab August riots and the lack of preparation on the part of the police, “how he had warned H.C. Luke, acting High Commissioner, of the gravity of the situation developing over the Wailing Wall, an was told by Mrs. Luke that he was exaggerating the danger. Mr. Rutenberg’s suggestions for precautions were not followed.”
1925: Birthdate of Zygmunt Bauman the Polish born sociologist who was forced to take refuge in England in 1970 following an anti-Semitic purge orchestrated by the Polish Communist Party. Bauman “has made some of the most important observations about the Holocaust and modernity.”
1928: A concert featuring Alexander Baerwald and Thelma Yellin was held in Jerusalem as the European born Jews of Jerusalem celebrated the centenary of the death of Schubert.
1929: Birthdate of medieval scholar, Norman Cantor. Cantor did step out of his expertise when he wrote The Sacred Chain: The History of the Jews. Based on the reviews, Cantor would have been better off if he had stuck to works on the Middle Ages.
1933(1st of Kislev, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1933: Birthdate of Gerald "Jerry" Sheindlin who served as a judge on the television show The People’s Court and is married to Judith Sheindlin, known as television’s Judge Judy.
1933(1st of Kislev, 5694): “Samuel Leib Gordon, noted Hebraist, teacher and scholar who translated Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ and Zangwill’s ‘Children of the Ghetto died’ in Tel Aviv today.” The sixty-six year old intellectual had lived in Tel Aviv since 1924. “Mr. Gordon was born in Lida, Lithuania in 1890. He taught Hebrew in Jaffa from 1898 to 1910 and wrote and edited many textbooks in Hebrew. For a time he edited Olam Kata, a Hebrew magazine for Jewish youth, published in Warsaw. Several volumes of a scientific commentary on the Bible which he began in 1903 have also been published. His son, Moses Gordon, has followed in his father footsteps by serving as general secretary of Tarbuth, the Hebrew education movement.
1933: Birthdate of television personality Larry King.
1937: Today marked the end of the first of a four week London Season for the Habima Players. They had demonstrated what is known as the "Habima Method" in their performances of the Dybbuk.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the country was generally quiet, but the Jerusalem curfew continued for the eighth day in succession. Telephone lines were cut between Hebron and Beersheba and Beersheba and Gaza.
1937: In an article critical of the Jewish development of Galilee The Postpointed out that the Jewish settlement of Mahanayim had been completely deserted since the riots of 1929. Mishmar Hayarden, "The Watch Over the Jordan," was almost a dead village with many of the farmyards burned to the ground. The Post demanded rapid development of this area, with particular attention given to the settlement of those Jewish lands which belonged to persons who did not live in Palestine.
1938(25th of Cheshvan, 5699): Existentialist philosopher Lev Isaakovich Shestov passed away. Born in Czarist Russia in 1886, he fled from the Bolshevicks in 1921 and settled in France where he continued to work until his death. While not well-known today, Shestov influenced many more famous philosophers and writers including Albert Camus.
1940: A Christian is killed by German soldiers for throwing bread into the Warsaw ghetto. Close to 400,000 Jews would be contained within approximately 37,200 apartments.
1941: In the West, gassing has become the popular method of exterminating the Jews. Eichmann moved forward on his plans for the deportation of Jews.
1942: Birthdate of Calvin Klein, the Bronx born son of Jewish-Hungarian immigrants who went on to became a leading figure in the American fashion industry.
1942: Birthdate of Congressman Gary Ackerman who represents New York’s Fifth District.
1942(10th of Kislev, 5703):The Germans shoot 100 Jews from Potrkow outside of the town.
1942: Germans in Debica, Poland, announce that as of December 1, any Pole who assists Jews "will be punished by death."
1942(10th of Kislev, 5703):Bruno Schulz, the brilliant Polish Jewish author and artist, was gunned down by a Nazi officer in the Drohobycz ghetto.
1943: Jewish prisoners at Janowska, a labor and extermination camp, revolted against their captors. The revolt failed and the camp was liquidated. One thousand of the survivors were taken to the town of Sandomierz .
1943: One thousand Jews are shot at the Jewish cemetery outside Sandomierz, Poland.
1943: Birthdate of fashion designer Calvin Klein
1945: Five months after World War II ended in Europe, Anti-Jewish riots erupt in Lublin, Poland. Jan T. Gross would document post Holocaust anti-Semitism in Poland in Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland after Auschwitz published in 2006.
1945: It was announced today that the curfew imposed on Tel Aviv after rioting last week will lifted effective tomorrow.
1945: “Five thousand officers and men of a Jewish brigade in the British Army of the Rhine began a hunger strike today in protest against Foreign Minister Bevin’s declaration on Palestine.” Some did not go to the mess hall “while others sat idly before full plates. The Jewish brigade is deployed in a swath of territory from northwest Belgium and through southwest Netherlands
1945:: In London members of the American League for a Free Palestine called on Great Britain to immediately allow 100,000 Jews to settle in Palestine. Guy Gillette, a former U.S. Senator from Iowa and head of the league warned the British that any delay would be unpopular with the citizenry of the United States.
1945: Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met twice today to discuss the situation in Palestine. Among the attendees were Robert F. Wagner the Democratic Senator from New York and Robert A. Taft the Republican Senator from Ohio “co-authors of a proposed Senate resolution favoring immediate unlimited Jewish immigration to Palestine.” [Wagner, who was a Liberal and Taft, who was a Conservative, were polar opposite on most issues. Dealing with the DP Jews of Europe and Palestine brought them together in common cause.]
1947: Chaim Weizmann “rose from his sickbed” and went to Washington to meet with President Truman to talk about the creation of a Jewish state that included the Negev.
1948:UN mediator Ralph Bunche accepts Israel's proposal made yesterday that included the Jewish state’s stated readiness to begin an armistice with the Arabs.
1948: In an unprecedented move that would have serious consequences for the region th UN General Assembly approves $30 million fund for relief of Palestinian refugees forming the UNRPR. Assembly asks UN member countries for contributions. No money would be provided for Jewish citizens forced to flee from their homes in Arab and/or Moslem countries. These funds would create a permanent and ever-growing refugee population on Israel’s borders and would keep the Arab and Moslem states of the region of offering a home to their Palestinian brethren.
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that Albert Einstein had declined to accept the offer of the Israeli Presidency. Einstein said that while he was deeply touched by the offer, he felt unsuited for such an office.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the minister of social affairs, Mrs. Golda Myerson, promised that the new immigrants’ tent cities would completely disappear within the next half year. Mrs. Myerson was a former school teacher from Milwaukee who would change her name to Meir and go to serve as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister.
1953: As tensions mounted between Israel and Jordan because Palestinian terrorists repeatedly crossed from Jordan in to Israel, Prime Minister Churchill cautioned against sending British troops to support the Jordanians lest they be caught in a cross-fire between Israeli and Arab forces.
1954: Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr. loses his left eye in an automobile accident.
1962: S(amuel) N(athaniel) Behrman’s "Lord Pengo," premiered in New York City.
1971(1st of Kislev, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1971 (1st of Kislev): Yiddish poet and essayist Jacob Glatstein passed away
1971(1st of Kislev, 5732): Sportscaster Bill Stern passed away at the age of 64.
1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement.
1980: CBS TV bans Calvin Klein's jeans ad featuring Brooke Shields. [He is Jewish; she is not.]
1988: Alter Mojze Goldman was elected to the Légion d'Honneur on for his role in the French Résistance. He died barely a month later at the age of 79.
1998: During the Mona Lewinsky scandal, The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton.
1998(30th of Cheshvan, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1998(30th of Cheshvan, 5759): American film producer, writer and director Alan J. Pakula the Yale educated son of Jewish parents from Poland passed away. Some of his more memorable efforts included “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Sophie’s Choice,” “Klute” and “The Pelican Brief.”
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including At Memory’s Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architectureby James E. Young, Highlanders:A Journey to the Caucasus in Quest of Memory by Yoav Karny, Lying Awake by Mark Saltzman and Louisa by by Simone Zelitch
2001: During the investigation of Jack Abramoff’s business dealings in Guam, U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Black, the chief prosecutor for Guam and the instigator of the indictment, was unexpectedly demoted and removed from the office he had held since 1991. The federal grand jury investigation was quickly wound down and took no further action.
2004(6th of Kislev, 5765): Children’s book illustrator Trina Schart Hyman passes away.
2004: The Wall Street Journalpublishes “They Call It Chrismukkah: ‘The O.C.’ launches a new interfaith holiday” in which columnist Jonathan Eig describes another response to the confluence of Christmas and Chanukah in America. "The O.C.," is a television show which traces the lives of some hip teens in Orange County, Calif. One of them is Seth Cohen, the fictional son of a Protestant mother and a Jewish father.
2005: The movement that was the first to welcome intermarried families into its synagogues nearly three decades ago now will focus on actively inviting non-Jews to convert to Judaism. That was one of the initiatives announced by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, during his Shabbat sermon at the movement’s 68th biennial in Houston.
2006: The New York Times book section featured reviews of Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg by Bill Morgan, Collected Poems:1947-1997by Allen Ginsberg, and I, Goldstein: My Screwed Life by A Goldstein and Josh Alan Friedman
2007: In Jerusalem, as part of the International Oud Festival, Dovid Broza and Yair Dalal present an evening of love songs in Spanish, Hebrew and Arabic.
2007(9th of Kislev, 5768): Ido Zuldan, a 29 year old resident of Shavei Shomron was killed by Palestinian gunman while traveling between two villages on the West Bank while in a separate incident, five Qassam rockets and 18 mortar shells struck the western Negev including at least one rocket that struck the city of Ashkelon.
2008: Barney Rosset receives a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Foundation in honor of his many contributions to American publishing, especially his groundbreaking legal battles to print uncensored versions of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. He is also the subject of “Obscene,” a documentary by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O’Connor.
2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Hadassah Book Club discusses The History of Love by Nicole Krauss at the home of Amy Barnum.
2008: On its final night the Ninth Annual Rutgers New Jersey Jewish Film Festival presents “Four Seasons Lodge”, a movie about a bungalow colony in New York’s Catskill Mountains, has provided idyllic refuge to a group of Holocaust survivors and their families for nearly three decades. With inspiring openness, this film offers an insightful portrait of their summers at the lodge, documenting their love of life, family, mahjong, and dance as well as their commitment to their community and their special bond with the lodge itself and Love and Dance a coming-of-age story that follows Chen, the young son of a Russian-born mother and an Israeli father, who falls in love with a Russian girl and joins her dance class. As his interest in ballroom dancing blossoms, he begins to come to terms with his own identity and tries to bridge the cultural divide that pervades life in his immigrant town.
2008: Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor won his race to become the new minority whip today, becoming the second-ranking Republican in the US House of Representatives. While the House Republican leadership has been set, the party's own transition has just begun. Wednesday's moves shift the House delegation further to the right, with the elevation of conservatives such as Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives. The Republican Party as a whole is now debating whether it needs to consolidate its conservative base or reach out to moderates, and the outcome could determine if Jews other than Cantor feel comfortable in the Grand Old Party.
2008: Facing a tight economic crunch, the New York-based Anti Defamation League has laid off nearly 10 percent of its staff at its national headquarters, the organization said today. The cuts at the non-profit organization, which like other American Jewish groups is reliant on private donations, were the starkest indication to date on how the US economic malaise has forced these groups to carry out staff cuts. The organization has laid off 18 employees, 17 of whom worked at the New York headquarters, a spokeswoman said. "In anticipation of the economic crunch we have to be financially responsible," ADL spokeswoman Myrna Shinbaum said. She added that the layoffs did not affect any of the ADL's 30 regional offices across the US, although the spokesman of the Jerusalem office was among those let go. In all, more than 300 people work at the organization. The ADL is only one in a string of American Jewish groups feeling the brunt of the economic difficulties, even though they have taken the most extreme measure to date. American Jewish Committee spokesman Kenneth Bandler said his organization had not carried out any staff cuts so far, but it was looking at other ways to cut costs, including reduced travel worldwide.
2008: Israeli archaeologists excavating what they believe is the tomb of biblical King Herod said today they have unearthed lavish Roman-style wall paintings of a kind previously unseen in the Middle East and signs of a regal two-story mausoleum, bolstering their conviction that the Jewish monarch was buried here. .
2008: Brigadier-General Eyal Eisenberg replaced Moshe Tamir as commander of The Israel Defense Forces Gaza Division (Territorial) which is subordinate to the Southern Regional Command.
2008: Today, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan for operation cast lead was brought for Barak's final approval.
2009: Melvin Urofsky, a professor of law and public policy, discusses and signs "Louis D. Brandeis: A Life," his new biography of the Supreme Court justice, at the National Archives
2009: At the Trade Fair and Convention Center in Tel Aviv the Fifth International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Exhibition - WATEC Israel 2009 comes to an end.
2009: Moshe Holtzberg, son of Barvriel and Rivka Holztberg of blessed memory who were murdered by the terrorists in Mumbain in 2008, receives his first haircut at a ceremony called upshiren.
2009: The Iowa Department of Economic Development Board approved state incentivizes of more than $600,000 that will help kosher meatpacker Agri Star Meat & Poultry in Postville launch a $6.7 million expansion to add a line of oven-baked beef and poultry. Agri Star is the successor the defunct Rubashkin operations in Postville. The new Canadian owners have made a commitment to operate in a manner that is Kosher in name and as well as spirit since they have promised to follow federal, state and local laws and regulations.
2010: Israeli/International Folk Dance for Seniors is the scheduled activity for today at The Jewish Folk Arts Festival.
2010: An exhibition featuring the work of Ayala Gazit, the Haifa born photographer, entitled “Was It A Dream,” is scheduled to open in New York City.
2010: Following multiple rockets and mortar shells being fired into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip today, the IDF confirmed that IAF jets successfully struck three terror-related targets in Gaza in response.The IDF also reported that the four mortar shells that landed in the Ashkelon Regional Council area earlier today contained white phosphorous. The Salah al-Din Brigade claimed responsibility for the four mortar shells, which they said came in response to the IDF assassination of two members of the Army of Islam, an al-Qaida affiliated group, earlier this week. In addition to the four mortar shells containing white phosphorous fired into Israel on Friday, three additional mortar shells were fired towards the western Negev. All the the shells exploded in open land. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused. Earlier today a Grad rocket was shot from Gaza towards Israel. The Grad rocket was the first since July, and the first to land near Ofakim since Operation Cast Lead. The rocket exploded in an open area, injuring three cows and damaging a building. In addition, two Kassam rockets landed in the Merhavim Regional Council of the western Negev. No injuries and damage were reported. Another rocket was shot this morning. It landed in Palestinian territory. Kassam rockets have been shot from Gaza towards the western Negev almost daily since 2001. The IDF Spokesperson's unit reported that over 180 rockets have landed in Israel since the beginning of the year.
2010(12th of Kislev, 5771): Seventy six year old Marvin Levin, a real estate developer who wore a wire in his cowboy boots during a major FBI anti-corruption sting of California’s state government in the 1980s, passed away today
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/11/local/la-me-marvin-levin-20101211
2011: “Now I Am Talking, Memories of a Woman Partisan” a film that tells the story of Vitka Kovner, the Jewish resistance fighter who was the wife of Abba Kovner, is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Eye World Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Adat Reyim is scheduled to host its annual Autumn Art Auction in Springfield, VA.
2011: Cellist Inbal Segev is scheduled to perform selected string trios as part of the Amerigo trio with Glenn Dicterow and Karen Dreyfus at the music for Youth Concert in New York.
2011: Israel sees cracks in Syrian power structures amid increasingly violent unrest, and there are signs President Bashar Assad may not be in power for long, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said today.
2011: Israel Police and the Communications Ministry cut off the broadcasts of Kol Hashalom radio station today, claiming that they are pirate broadcasts. Kol Hashalom’s operators claim that their offices, which are located in the Palestinian Authority, are not subject to Israeli law, but Palestinian law, and therefore the Communications Ministry does not have the authority to shut it down.
2011(22nd of Cheshvan, 5772): Ninety-three year old “Sanford D. Garelik, a former New York City mayoral candidate and a City Council president who served the city amid the fiscal and criminal turmoil of the 1970s” passed away today. (As reported by Matt Flegenheimer)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/nyregion/sanford-garelik-former-new-york-city-mayoral-candidate-dies-at-93.html?_r=0
2012: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Jewish World in Action: Facing the Polish-Jewish Refugee Crisis, 1648-1683.”
2012: The Wiener Library and the University of London are scheduled to host "The Strongest Possible Terms": The Evolving Role of Parliamentary Condemnations of Atrocities Past and Present a debate marking the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Persecution of the Jews.
2012: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a musical evening celebrating 100 years of Woody Gutherie.
2012: To date, since the start of the year, more than 1,700 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza.
2012: As Sunday gives way to Monday, Israel continues to defend itself during Operation Pillar of Defense.
