November 21 In History
164
BCE
: On the secular calendar, Judas Maccabaeus, son of Mattathias of the Hasmonean family, restores the Temple in Jerusalem. Events commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.
1272: Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward becomes King of England. As bad as Henry had been for the Jews, Edward would prove to be even worse. After squeezing all he could out of his Jewish subjects, Edward expelled them in 1290. England would remain officially Jew-free until for the next four centuries.
1384, Philip the Bold regulated the status of the Jews. He permitted fifty-two families to settle in the towns of his domain on payment of an entrance fee and an annual tax. He fixed the rate of interest; henceforth a Jew was to be believed on his oath, and the evidence of a single apostate was declared invalid. The chiefs of the Jews were called "masters of law"; the Jewish cemetery was separated from the others, and a noble of the court was instituted guardian of the Jews. The general expulsion of the Jews from France in 1394 put an end to their presence in Franche-Comté. Israel Lévi has proved that a certain number of well-known rabbis lived in this province in the first half of the fourteenth century—for instance, Joseph b. Jacob Tournoy and Joseph de Musidan.
1513: As Johann Reuchlin continued Johannes Pfefferkorn's drive to confiscate all books belonging to the Jews, Pope Leo ordered the Bishops of Speyer and Worms to hear the charge against Reuchlin. Reuchlin was a Christian German Scholar whose field of study included Greek and Hebrew. He had studied the Hebrew texts for the Emperor and found that most of them did not speak ill of Christiainity which meant that they should not be destroyed. This thwarted the aim of Pfefferkorn and his allies.
1619: Shah Abbasi (Sufi Dynasty, Persia) intensified persecution against the Jews. Many Jews were forced to live "Marrano-like" lives, outwardly practicing Islam. This policy was continued by his son, Abbas II.
1694: Birthdate of the French philosopher Voltaire. The great philosopher of the Enlightenment was a vicious anti-Semite. Not only that, he was an anti-Semite with a twist. Other Enlightenment philosophers that once Jews were no longer persecuted they would give up their religious trappings and meld into the mainstream of European culture. Voltaire believed that Jews were innately deformed and that they were beyond reform. However, Voltaire was humane, but he did not believe that they should be burned at the stake. In his own words he described Jews as “an ignorant, and barbarous people who have long exercised the most sordid avarice and detestable superstition, and an insurmountable hate for all peoples who have tolerated and enriched them.:
1789: North Carolina ratifies the U.S. Constitution to become the 12thstate in the Union. North Carolina has one of the oldest Jewish communities in the United States. The early history of the Jews in North Carolina is a mixed. In 1776, it was one the original thirteen colonies that could boast of having an organized Jewish community. In 1852, the Jews of Wilmington, N.C, purchased land for a burial plot. However, the congregation was not organized for another until 1867. This lengthy was not unusual in the South. In other ante-bellum communities, land was purchased for a cemetery, but with war clouds gathering, Jews waited before building synagogues and temples. Further delay was caused by the Civil War and the impoverishment that followed. In 1809, Jacob Henry was the first Jew elected to the legislature in the state. He accomplished this feat despite the state’s religious tests for office holders. Strangely enough, the Tar Heel state did not get around to removing religious tests until 1876. The Jewish Community of North Carolina has made great strides over the years. According to the Glenmary Research Center, which publishes Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States Guilford County (which includes Greensboro and High Point) ranked 99thon a list of the 100 counties in 2000 with the largest Jewish communities, based by percentage of total population. The thirty thousand Jews comprise 0.3% of the state’s population but pack enough clout to have gotten then Governor Jim Hunt to support a state agency designed to stimulate economic and cultural exchanges with the state of Israel.
1818: A petition written by Lewis Way, an English missionary, requesting the restoration of an independent Jewish nation in Palestine was submitted by Czar Alexander to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (p 40)
1822(7th of Kislev, 5583): Eighty year old Lazarus Solomon passed away in Jamaica today.
1824: [Editors note: Contrary to popular misconception, the American Jewish Community has deep, historic roots outside of New York and its immediate environs.] The first Reform Congregation, Beth Elohim, was established in Charleston, South Carolina. Beth Elohim congregation is the birthplace of Reform Judaism in America and the oldest surviving Reform congregation in the world. Its members have been eminent leaders in the city, state and nation. Among them: Moses Lindo, who helped develop cultivation of indigo, and Joseph Levy, the first Jewish military officer in America. The present beautiful Greek revival temple at 90 Hasell Street (pronounced Hazel) was built in 1840. The congregation began as a Sephardic group in 1749. George Washington wrote, "May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me rest upon your Congregation..." The Beth Elohim Coming Street cemetery is the largest pre-Revolutionary Jewish cemetery in America. The congregation's first rabbi, Moses Cohen, was the first person buried here, in 1762. Bernard Baruch's great grandfather, Rabbi Hartwig Cohen, is one of several other Beth Elohim rabbis here. Other noteworthy persons at this site are nine Charleston Jews who took part in the American Revolution, six who fought in the War of 1812, eight of the 180 Charleston Jews who fought in the Civil War, and three of the Jewish Masons who founded the Scottish Rite here in 1801. The history of Charleston Jewry is beautifully documented with ceremonial objects, records, paintings and photographs at the Beth Elohim Archives Museum. A three-story house at 89-91 Church Street in Charleston was the model for Catfish Row, the centerpiece of Porgy and Bess. George Gershwin wrote the opera while living in Folly Beach. As it moves into the 21st century, the Jewish Community shows its vibrancy through the construction of the College of Charleston, Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Center. Housed in a new three million dollar, 12,000 square foot building, the center offers college credit Jewish studies courses serving the entire community. The Robert Scott Small Library houses the largest archives of South Carolina Jewish history. Last but not least, Reuben Morris Greenberg has been Chief of Police in the city since 1982. He is the first African-American Jewish police chief in the city’s history.
1848: In New York, the "B'nai Jeshurun Ladies' Hebrew Benevolent Society," for the relief of indigent females was formed thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Henry Leo, Mrs. A.H. Lissak and Mrs. David Samson.
1861: Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Judah P. Benjamin Secretary of War. Before the Civil War, Benjamin had been the second Jewish member of the United States. After the war, he would refuse to surrender and would move to Great Britain where he became a barrister. Benjamin is always connected with Louisiana and New Orleans. However, there is also a strong connection with Charleston, South Carolina. Judah Philip Benjamin attended the Hebrew Orphan Society School in Charleston, as a boy. The building still stands at 88 Broad Street. High on the front is a Hebrew inscription. The house of Judah Benjamin's father can be seen nearby at 35 Broad Street.
1873: It was reported today that the Charity Committee of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society has issued an appeal to the Jewish community to provide aid to their less fortunate co-religionists who are suffering during the current economic depression which has resulted in a marked increase in unemployment. Because of the severity of the current economic crisis there is a large number of “industrious laborers and artisans” who are suffering and are not used to seeking aid and assistance. Contributions of money and clothing can be left a Number 6 Walker Street in Manhattan.
1875: According to reports published today, Emanuel B. Hart, a member of New York’s Jewish community will be in charge of entertainment at next month’s fund raiser for Mount Sinai Hospital.
1878: It was reported today that a copy of the “Kabbala Denudata” which was published in Frankfort in 1684 has been sold at auction for $19.00. (This probably refers to work entitled “The Kabbalah Unveiled” by Christian Knorr von Rosenroth.]
1879: “An assignment for the benefit of creditors, by Abraham Lager to Max Moses, with $,1850 preferences was filed in the County Clerk’s office” in New York today.
1879: A report was published today describing the worsening situation of the Jews in Germany. During the last month, at least 30 anti-Semitic pamphlets have been published in Berlin. An "Antisemiten-Liga" (“League of Antisemites”) has been formed the members of which are “many of the wealthiest and most prominent citizens.” Riots have taken place in which Jews have been not only insulted by severly maltreated. The origin of this commotion may be traced back directly to that current of reaction, both in Church and State, which is now setting in over all Germany.”
1879: The first edition of The American Hebrew is published in New York. Phillip Cowen was the first publisher of this weekly paper which was founded by F. de Sola Mendes.
1880: The annual reception and ball sponsored by the William Rothschild Association is scheduled to take place this evening in New York City’s Irving Hall.
1880: It was reported today that the government faced stiff questioning about the recent outbreak of anti-Semitism during a session of the lower house of the Prussian Diet. Deputies “denounced the revival of race hatred and pointed out the inconsistency” of a country that “had taken diplomatic action in favor of the removal of disabilities of the Jews in the Balkan Principalities” harboring such sentiments.
1881: “Jewish Legends” published today provides a detailed review of The Wandering Jew by Moncure Daniel Conway.
1882: Jehiel Brill left Rosinoi, Russian Poland, with eleven men—ten farmers and a "melamed" (teacher)—today, and arrived at Palestine the following month. The story of his journey and of its results is given in detail in his work, Yesod ha-Ma'aleh (The Base of the Slope). Brill was Russian journalist who had been chosen for his take by Rabbi Samuel Mohilever and Baron Edmond de Rothschild. (As reported by the Jewish Encylopedia)
1883: It was reported today that Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Nathan led the opening march at the charity ball hosted by the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1887: “Something About Prejudice” published today highlights the views of Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler on this subject. In his view, the Jews can do a great deal “to totally annihilate” prejudice “by not exhibiting prejudice in their turn”
1888: It was reported today that Conrad Ausorge performed Schubert’s “Wander Fanstasia” at the Metropolitan Opera House as part of concert that was a fundraiser of the Aguilar Free Library which was founded in 188 and named for Sephardic Jewish author Grace Aguilar.
1891: Herzl's comedy "Prinzen aus Genieland" - "Princes from Genius Land", is produced at the Carltheater in Vienna. It achieves only a short run.
1895: Herzl arrives in London and holds conversations with Israel Zangwill. Zangwill gives him the names of "several suitable men" with whom to meet including Colonel Goldsmid, Rabbi Singer and Chief Rabbi Adler.
1899: Herzl submits a memorandum for the Czar to explain the Zionist plans and to ask for an audience.
1905: Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal "Annalen der Physik". This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the famous equation e=mc².
1913: Supreme court Justice Seabury ordered the sale in foreclosure of the Bijou Theatre property in a suit brought by Felix M Warburg, Isaac N Seligman, Paul M. Warburg and Mortimer L. Schiff as trustees under the will of Alfred M. Heinsheimer against the Bijou Real Estate Company. [Seabury was the only non-Jew mentioned in this item.]
1915: Funeral services for Dr. Solomon Schechter were held this morning at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Four hundred mourners, including a “who’s who” of the Jewish community, packed the building while more than a thousand people stood outside waiting to pay homage to the deceased sage and scholar.
1916: Birthdate of Sid Luckman, legendary quarterback of the Chicago Bears.
1916: Emperor Franz Josef dies at the age of 85. He is followed to the throne by his 29 year old great nephew, Archduke Charles. Beginning with the start of regime of Franz Joseph I of Austria as the Emperor of the Austria–Hungary Empire his Jewish subjects enjoyed an unprecedented period economic, artistic and social success. “Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria bestowed on the Jewish population equality of rights saying, ‘the civil rights and the country’s policy is not contingent in the people’s religion.’ The emperor was well liked by the Jewish population, which as a token of appreciation wrote prayers and songs about him which were printed in Jewish prayer books. In 1849 the emperor canceled the prohibition against the Jewish population organizing within the community. In 1852 new regulations of the Jewish community were set. In 1867 the Jewish population formally received full equal rights. In 1869 the emperor visited Jerusalem and was greeted in great admiration by the Jewish population there. The emperor established a fund aimed at financing the establishment of Jewish institutions and in addition established the Talmudic school for rabbis in Budapest. During the 1890s several Jews were elected to the Austrian parliament.” But Franz Josef’s greatest impact on the Jewish people was his role in the start of World War I. The Emperor’s unwillingness to reach any compromise with Serbia and his determination to punish his Slavic neighbor unleashed the catastrophe that caused unprecedented suffering for the Jews of eastern Europe who were caught between the opposing imperial armies for four years, unleashed the forces that led to the Holocaust and led to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire that results of which reverberate across the Middle East as we approach the second decade of the 21st century.
1917: The Allied Forces (including Jewish soldiers) under General Allenby were fighting the Turks on the slopes of Nebi Samwil, the traditional site of the Tomb of the Prophet Samuel.
1918: After the fall of the Czar there was a strong movement in Ukraineto establish an independent political entity. The Jewish parties voted against the severance with Russia leading to direct attacks on the Jews in the form of Pogroms (lasting 2 years). One of the first attacks was in Lvov where 72 Jews were killed and 443 wounded.
1918: During the Polish-Ukrainian War, the Lwów or Lemberg Pogrom began.
1918: Polish soldiers organize a pogrom against Jews of Galicia, Poland.
1919: In an interview with the Sultan, Hahambashi assures him that Jews will never forget that when they were persecuted in other countries, Turkey welcomed them and that, if they had reason for complaint in recent years, it was directed rather against the regime which had been disastrous for all elements of the population, than against the Turkish people.
1924: In Baltimore Cantor Max Kotlowitz and his wife Debra gave birth to “Robert Kotlowitz, a novelist and editor who reluctantly became a public television executive in 1971 and went on to help shape a lineup of homegrown and imported shows — including “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report,” “Live at the Met,” “Dance in America” and “Brideshead Revisited” — that represent a high-water mark in American television” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1924: Today, the Febre Line vessel, SS Canada which is carrying the body of the late Dr. Menachem Mendel Scheinkin set sail for Jaffa which is to be the site for his burial.
1929: Birthdate of Brooklyn born comedian Stanley Myron Handelman. By the time he died on August 5, 2007 at the age of 77 Handeleman had enjoyed a successful career as a television and nightclub comedian.
1933: A delegation representing all elements of the Jewish community including members of the Vaad Leumi, representatives of Agudath Israel, leaders of the agricultural community and Israel Rokach, the Vice Mayor of Tel Aviv, met with the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfell Wauchope. They were protesting British immigration policy including plans to deport Jews already living in Palestine as well as the negative impact of that immigration policy on the economic well-being of all those living in Palestine including the Arab populace.
1935: U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, NYC Mayor Fiorello La Guardia and 800 others honored Rebekah Kohut's 50 years of communal work at a special dinner. Chaired by the novelist Fannie Hurst, the dinner assembled a wide array of political, cultural, and philanthropic notables who spoke of Kohut's varied contributions and her efforts to apply scientific principles to charitable work. Kohut was a notable activist in the Jewish and secular communities in the areas of education, social welfare and women's organizational life. She came to the United States from Hungary as a child, growing up in Richmond and San Francisco where her father served as a rabbi. In her early twenties, she married the traditionalist New York rabbi Alexander Kohut, a widower with 8 children, 6 under the age of 13. Rebecca devoted herself chiefly to these children and to her husband's scholarly work until his death in 1894. In succeeding years, Kohut immersed herself in the expanding world of Jewish women's organizational life and in the financial support of her family. She was the first president of the New York Section of the National Council of Jewish Women, gave public lectures on Jewish subjects, and opened a private school in cooperation with her stepchildren. During World War I, she became involved in employment work, which led to her role as an advisor on unemployment to New York governor Franklin D. Roosevelt in the early 1930s. Her efforts to bring relief to devastated European Jewish communities after World War I led to her leading role in convening the World Congress of Jewish Women in Vienna in 1923 and being elected as the organization's first president.
1937: Henri Caïn, who the libretto for “Le Juif Polonais” (The Polish Jew) passed away today.
1937: Birthdate of Ingrid Pitt, the daughter of a Polish Jew who survived the Stutthof Concentration Camp to become the first lady of British horror cinema, who starring in sanguinary classics of the 1970s like “The Vampire Lovers,” “Countess Dracula” and “The House That Dripped Blood.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1938: The British House of Commons objects to German persecution of minorities.
1938(27th of Cheshvan, 5699): Pianist Leopold Godowsky passed away,
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60914FF3C5F1B7A93C0AB178AD95F4C8385F9
1938: In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, Time published an article entitled “German: These Individuals!”
"The civilized world stands revolted by a bloody pogrom against a defenseless people. Every instinct in us cries out in protest against the outrages which have taken place in Germany during the last five years and which sank to new depths in the organized frenzies of the last few days. . . . If you saw a gang of cowardly ruffians set upon a helpless man in a public street and proceed to beat him, you wouldn't long remain silent. If you saw a fanatical mob pillage and burn a church or a synagogue you wouldn't long remain silent. If you saw a brutal band drive helpless families from their own homes, you would speak out, and promptly." Thus last week outspoke New York State's defeated gubernatorial candidate, Republican Thomas E. Dewey, and was joined in vehement indignation by Democratic Senator William H. King of Utah who proposed that the U. S. forthwith break off diplomatic relations with the German Government. Outspoke ex-U. S. President Herbert Clark Hoover: "The blame is squarely up to the political agencies in power [in Germany]. These individuals are taking Germany back 450 years in civilization to Torquemada's expulsion of the Jews from Spain. They are bringing to Germany not alone the condemnation of the public opinion of the world. These men are building their own condemnation by mankind for centuries to come." One, Two, Three. But no active head of State,* and no No. 1 official associates of any head of State chose to speak out last week against "these individuals" who shocked an almost shockproof world with a display of deliberate and unprovoked mass cruelty. "These individuals" are four. Adolf Hitler is the World's No. 1 anti-Semite by temperament and conviction, whose intimate friend Julius Streicher publishes Der Stunner, the grossly fanatical No. 1 anti-Semitic newsorgan of the world. No. 3 Nazi Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels is a part-time virtuoso of antiSemitism, using his Ministry for Propaganda & Public Enlightenment alternately to incite and to calm German anti-Semitic mobs. And No. 2 Nazi Hermann Wilhelm GÖring is a ruthless German activist who signs the most drastic anti-Semitic decrees and has them legally enforced by the courts, the police and the army. "I Am Not A Dog!" The Führer was beside himself last week because a Polish Jew, once a resident of Germany, had put two bullets into Ernst vom Rath, third secretary to the Germany Embassy in Paris. Herr Hitler immediately sent his personal physician, Dr. Brandt, to Paris accompanied by the eminent German specialist, Professor Georg Magnus of the university at Munich. Four blood transfusions failed to save Ernst vom Rath. He died in a coma without being able to understand a message from the Führer promoting him to First Class Embassy Counselor. The assassin, Herschel Grynszpan, meanwhile told his French jailers: "Being a Jew is not a crime. . . . I hoped President Roosevelt would take pity on us refugees. . . . I am not a dog. I didn't mean to kill. I lost my head." "Mobs" and Mobs. Nazi bigwigs have often said off the record that if a Jew should ever assassinate the Fuhrer, "next day not a single member of the Jewish race would be left alive in the Reich." Last week only a handful of Jews were reported killed in the avenging of Ernst vom Rath. But in every part of Germany mobs smashed, looted, burned Jewish property. The purpose was to wreak final ruin on a section of the German population which had already been systematically persecuted to the brink of ruin. Synagogues were everywhere fired or dynamited. Numberless Jews of both sexes were beaten by mobs from the Baltic to the Brenner and from Sudetenland to the North Sea. The complicity of the German Government was proved by the fact that in most cases police made no effort to restrain the so-called "mobs." These consisted mostly of young Germans who drove up in cars. Heavy boots of the sort worn by party members when in uniform gave a good clue to the identity of the window smashers and firebugs. The synthetic "mobs" were in some cases joined by genuine mobs but these were mostly Germans who simply grabbed what they could after Jewish shop fronts had been smashed by the "mobs." Some mobsters tossed Jewish goods out of smashed windows to passersby with guffaws and cries of: "Here are some cheap Christmas presents. Get yours early!" Not all German Aryans countenanced this depravity. Said an Aryan Berlin housewife despondently as she watched Aryan children making off with the contents of a Jewish shop: "So that is how they teach our children to steal!". A few poorly-clad men jogged the elbow of a New York Times Berlin correspondent and whispered: "The German people do not approve of such treatment of the Jews." Bad Neighbor Policy. The harsh, explosive epithets in which the German language is rich, were heaped, together with obscenities, upon Jewish men, women and children in every part of the Reich. They were spat upon, cuffed, nose-jerked, kicked and given black eyes. The atrocities stopped short of rape or firing squads. Some Jews were so affected by the Nazi terror that, notably along the German-Netherlands frontier, they pitifully got down on their knees and crawled some distance, wailing and lamenting, to supplicate Dutch frontier guards to let them in. These guards were adamant in every case, on instructions of Her Majesty's Government, for The Netherlands has good reason to fear Bad Neighbor Germany. Damage & Indemnity. In Germany, insurance companies reported damage claims of more than $5,000,000 from Jewish policy holders in Berlin, more than $4,000,000 in Vienna. The New York Times estimated that total damage to Jewish property in Germany "may possibly reach one billion marks" ($400,000,000). The Times thought that the Jewish community this week, after all depredations, still owned property in Germany worth perhaps four billion marks ($1,600,000,000) and, before Hitler, may have owned 20 billions. But the spoliation did not end with the three-day pogrom. At the Air Ministry in Berlin last week, Air Minister Goring signed, as Economic Chief of the German Four-Year Plan for Self-Sufficiency. decrees providing: 1) that Jews of German citizenship as a community pay to the State a billion marks indemnity for the assassination of Rath; 2) that the State confiscate whatever is payable to Jews by insurance companies for damage done last week; 3) that Jewish owners of damaged premises must repair them at their own cost; 4) that after Jan. 1, 1939 Jews be excluded from "operation of retail shops, mail-order houses and independent exercise of handicrafts. . . . Jewish shops operated in violation of this order will be closed by the police" [and presumably turned over to Aryans]. He planned ultimately to move into ghettos all Jews who can or must tolerate life in Germany. And Jews were also forbidden to go to theatres, concert halls, art galleries, public schools, high schools, universities. In Paris, when the assassin of Rath heard of these decrees, he vowed in anguish: "I will pray every Monday for forgiveness for what I have done to my people." In England meanwhile Lord Rothschild said that nothing short of the execution of the Jews of Germany could be worse than what has now been done. Let Jews Starve? In Frankfort, where the assassin once resided, every male Jew between the ages of 18 and 60 was taken into custody. The same was done in certain other German cities. With many Jewish breadwinners torn from their families, with many of those families hungry, Der An griff, personal organ of Dr. Goebbels, coldly noted: "Noticeably large is the number of Jewish women with many children who ask for relief. . . . Our laws give even a foreigner the right to relief. . . . [Jewish] progeny and their [obscene synonym for "females"] become a burden on German funds." By holding the Jewish community of Germany in a state of general inability to earn a living wage, Nazis obviously hope to force the international Jewish community to remit to Germany huge enough sums in "good money" to keep their Jewish relatives in the Reich from going too hungry or too cold. The dollars, pounds, francs to be secured by thus "shaking down the whole Jewish race" (as some Nazis term it) are wanted to pay for such vital imports as Germany cannot get by barter deals. The Schwarze Korps, influential Nazi newsorgan of Adolf Hitler's personal Elite Guard and the Blackshirt Storm Troops, has openly hinted at the burgeoning of this gangster-blackmail scheme for several years. "Intellectual Originators." Referring to the assassin, Der Angriff libelously insinuated: "It is no coincidence that Grynszpan took the same line followed by Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Alfred Duff Cooper and their associates!" Der Angriff went on with a long list of "the intellectual originators of the crime'' which included, strangely enough, certain French Rightists like Henri de Kerillis but not the French Jewish Socialist on whom Nazis usually vent spleen, Leon Blum. Obvious reason: Blum and his Socialists last week had not broken with French Premier Edouard Daladier, one of the Munich "Big Four." In Paris the Jewish aunt and uncle of the assassin were arrested and it was revealed that just prior to the killing of vom Rath they were held under arrest for five days on suspicion of harboring an undesirable alien. Their papers were seized and the French Surete Generale probed to discover who really were the "intellectual originators" of the crime—if any. Meanwhile, French editors were not behind those of Britain and the U. S. in denouncing German pogroms in the strongest possible language and showing they felt even that to be inadequate. It was suggested that Charles Augustus Lindbergh and other Aryans who have recently received high German decorations ought to send them back to the Führer. Funk No. 2? The Great Powers plainly funked when Germany was permitted to dismember Czechoslovakia. On the issue of Jewish persecutions in Germany, Funk No. 2 raised its head this week. Typically funking was a statement issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of All England: "Would that the rulers of the Reich could realize that such excesses of hatred and malice put upon the friendship which we are ready to offer them an almost intolerable strain!"
*Britain's Neville Chamberlain did say: "No one in this country would seek to defend the senseless crime of the murder of vom Rath, but at the same time there will be deep and widespread sympathy for those being made to suffer for it."
1940: A cargo of 1,771 stateless Jews mostly from Austria, Slovakia, Bohemia, Hungary and Rumania are loaded aboard the Patria, a French steamer chartered by the British to ship them from Palestine to detainment camps on the British island of Mauritius.
1943: Future Nobel Prize winner Dr. Arthur Kornberg married Sylvy Ruth Levy, also a biochemist of note. She worked closely with Kornberg and contributed significantly to the discovery of
DNA
polymerase.
1943: In a review entitled “A Revolutionist’s Testament” Saul Bellow examines the newly published Arrival and Departure by Arthur Koestler.
1946: Birthdate of Actress Goldie Hawn.
1947: “Against Palestine Partition” a letter from several prominent Americans published today provides a panoply of reasons of why the United States should oppose the creation of a Jewish state including the fact that four –fifths of the proven oil reserves are in Arab hands and the fact that there are 40 million people inhabiting the Arab League States. The letter writers “all have intimate Jewish friends” but warn that any outbreak of violence in the Middle East that hampers American business interests will lead to a wave of anti-Semitism in the United States.
1948: The Sunday morning religious program "Lamp Unto My Feet" first aired over CBS television. It became one of TV's longest-running network shows, and aired through January 1979.
1948: Israeli soldiers jam the biblical city of Beersheba to hear piano concertos played by Leonard Bernstein.
1948: Israeli premier David Ben-Gurion praises King Abdullah of Transjordan and says he will meet with Abdullah and other Arab leaders anytime they wish.
1948: It was announced in Tel Aviv today that “the picking of citrus fruit will begin throughout Israel this week, with the prospect of a crop almost equaling last season's in Jewish-owned groves but altogether of a little more than one-third of the pre-war production in Palestine.”
1949: The United Nations voted to give Libya its independence within 14 months triggering a mass exodus of Jews who were so fearful of their future in the Moslem state that they left even though it meant giving up most of their property and wealth. Over 30,000 of these Jews found refuge in the state of Israel.
1955: It was reported today that a two-day conference under the auspices of the American Tenchnion Society, the financial arm Technion, which was being held at the Statler Hotel in Washington, D.C. has come to an end.
1959(20th of Cheshvan, 5720): Max Baer passed away. Baer was heavyweight boxing champion in 1934. He was 49 at the time of his death.
1959: Jack Benny, on the violin, played a duet with pianist Richard Nixon, then Vice President of the United States.
1961: Alexander Bittelman was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to provide testimony about his former organization today but he refused to testify, citing his rights under the 1st and 5th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
1961: New Square, the first Chassidic town in the U.S., elected its mayor.
1965: The port of Ashdod port opened for business when a freighter docked at the port for the first time.
1965: The Central Council of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America created a Golden Jubilee Committee to celebrate the Brotherhood's fiftieth anniversary. At the time there were over 2,500 members of the Brotherhood.
1970: Birthdate of Israeli actress and comedienne Alma Zack.
1973: The Agranat Commission, a national committee charged with investigating the failures of the IDF prior to the Yom Kippur War, was established today.
1982: Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff delivered the closing prayer at the official dedication of “The Wall,” the Vietnam memorial in Washington, DC
1985: Jonathan Pollard and his wife were arrested and charged with spying for Israel. Pollard, who had worked for Naval Intelligence, had passed on information to Israel regarding Arab capabilities. Pollard was caught as he was trying to enter the Israeli Embassy in Washington. The Pollard affair caused great embarrassment to Israel both from the American perspective and also due to Israel's refusal to support him once he was caught. He was given a life sentence, and despite numerous requests from Israel for clemency he is still in prison.
1988: Michael Dekel completed serving his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1988: Weizman Shiry completed serving his term as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1990: Michael Milken was sentenced to 10 years for security law violations
1991: William Caldwell Harrop was named U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1991(14th of Kislev, 5752): David "Sonny" Werblin passed away. For most Americans, Werblin is best remembered for his purchase of the New York Jets in 1963. Werblin then used his fortune to draft the
AFL
’s first super-star, Joe Namath. Namath would lead Werblin’s Jets to victory in Super Bowl
III
, an event that would change the face of professional football.
1997: Speaking “at a ceremony at which he recalled the push for peace made by” the late Yitzhak Rabin President Clinton “warned the Israelis and Palestinians today that they were running short of time” to reach come to an agreement.
1998(2nd of Kislev): Eighty-eight year old Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, the Lakewood Mashgiach, passed away.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Yosl Rakover Talks To God by Zvi Kolitz; translated by Carol Brown, Village of a Million Spirits: A Novel of the Treblinka Uprisingby Ian MacMillan and In The Family Way: An Urban Comedy by Lynne Sharon Schwartz.
2002(16th of Kislev, 5763): A Palestinian bomber killed 11 people aboard a bus in Jerusalem.
2004: In an article entitled “At Holocaust Museum, Turning a Number Into A Name,” the New York Times reports on plans for Yad Vashem to make its lists of Jewish victims of the Holocaust, along with biographical information available on line.
2004: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics of special Jewish interest including Breath: Poems by Philip Levine
2005: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked President Moshe Katsav to dissolve the Knesset, just hours after he sent shockwaves across the political system with his decision to quit the Likud and form a new centrist party. Sharon formally announced that he had left the Likud and had formed a new party called National Responsibility.
2005:Shaul Mofaz rejected Sharon's invitation to join his new party, Kadima, and instead announced his candidacy for the leadership of Likud.
2006: Southern California coastal authorities have decided to allow a beachfront eruv - a boundary that makes it possible for observant Jews to carry objects on Shabbat - to be built in the state for the first time. The eruv will surround sections of Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Marina del Rey.
2007: The planned chopping down of the chestnut tree that comforted Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis did not take place thanks to a court order issued on November 20,2007 ordering city officials to into ways to save the 150 year old tree.
2007: “Yiddish Theatre: A Love Story” opens at the Two Boots Pioneer theater in Manhattan. This new documentary film is about Zypora Spaisman the amazing woman who has kept the oldest running Yiddish Theater in America alive. Zypora Spaisman is a Holocaust survivor who conquers all hearts in her passion for art, life and Yiddish.
2008: President Shimon Peres returns to Israel after a three-day state visit to Great Britain where he met with dignitaries, visited Parliament, delivered a lecture at Balliol College, Oxford University's oldest college, and met with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and the Prime Minister.
2008:In Manhattan, the 92nd Street Y presents “An Exploration of the Seven Deadly,” during which Aviad Kleinberg, one of the most prominent intellectuals in Israel examines the seven deadly sins with his trademark insight and deadpan humor. “What is wrong with a little sloth? Where would haute cuisine be without gluttony? Where would we all be without our parents’ lust? Can consumer culture survive without envy and greed? And with all humility, why shouldn’t we be proud? Journey through Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman thoughts on sin, and examine the unchanging passions that make us human.”Aviad Kleinberg is Professor of History at Tel Aviv University and the author of Prophets in Their Own Country: Living Saints and the Making of Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages and Flesh Made Word: Saints' Stories and the Western Imagination
2008:Dozens of synagogues and mosques across the United States and Canada are to take part in a first-of-its-kind three-day joint public relations campaign against anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim xenophobia beginning today.
2009: In the face of far-left, Arab and Muslim opposition, the New York Mets organization has decided to honor its commitment to rent its Caesar's Club for a fundraiser benefiting the Jewish community of Hebron that is schedule to be held tonight. “Shortly after the venue for the Hebron Fund dinner in support of the Jews of Hebron was publicized, eleven organizations sent a letter to the Mets management calling upon them to disallow the event at Citi Field. Signatories included organizations from Israel, the US and the Palestinian Authority, some of which oppose Israeli sovereignty altogether and others which oppose any Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria. Despite their own opposition to a minority of Jews living among the Arabs of Hebron, in their November 3 letter the organizations attempted to present the planned fundraiser as "actively promoting racial discrimination". They further presented the argument that the "New York Mets will be facilitating activities that directly violate international law and the Obama administration's call for a freeze in settlement construction...." The warning that the fundraiser would run counter to the US president's stated policy position was repeated throughout the letter. Nonetheless, the Mets organization stood firm in the face of the call to boycott the event supporting a Jewish presence in the Biblical city of Hebron. The news of the Mets' decision was greeted by both Jewish organizations and individuals with expressions of great admiration. The National Council of the Young Israel Movement, representing organized Jewish communities and synagogues in the United States, wrote to the New York Mets management: "Your refusal to be intimidated by abhorrent acts of coercion by the groups calling for the cancellation of the Hebron Fund event is extremely noteworthy. By rejecting the hate-filled calls to inhibit the Hebron Fund’s freedom of expression and standing firm in its beliefs of what is right, the New York Mets organization displayed a degree of intestinal fortitude that is genuinely appreciated not just by our organization, but by the greater Jewish community." In his official letter, National Council of Young Israel President Shlomo Z. Mostofsky, Esq., noted, "In essence, the Hebron Fund dinner is a celebration of the human spirit. The New York Mets organization is not facilitating a political event; rather it is enabling a salute to a group of men, women, and children whose determination and inner strength have allowed them to remain in their communities, despite desperate attempts by Israel's adversaries to drive them from their homes." The new Jewish advocacy organization, Z Street, called upon supporters of Israel "to thank the New York Mets... for standing up against intimidation by defamers of Israel, posing as 'civil and human rights' activists. ...Thank you for stepping up to the plate and hitting a home run for truth and the Jewish people!" Last year's Hebron Fund dinner was held at the Marriott Marquis in New York. Eight far-left and Arab organizations called for a boycott at the time and gathered a handful of people to protest outside the venue. The Hebron Fund claims that last year's anti-Hebron Fund pressure was "organized by a few anti-Israel Jews affiliated with the Arab Adalah organization, whose main work is fighting against consensus organizations such as Friends of the IDF and pushing their Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel." Hebron Fund Director Yossi Baumol claimed that last year one of the far-left activists smashed the headlights of his vehicle.
2009: At the 92nd St Y in Manhattan Alan Dershowitz, the self-described “top defender of Israel in the court of public opinion,” and Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and director of J Street, debate issues surrounding America’s policy in the Middle East with special emphasis on matters surrounding Israel and its relationship with the United States.
2009: Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, in collaboration with the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, gives two performances of the children’s opera, Brundibar, sponsored by the Joan & David Thaler Holocaust Remembrance Fund, Bradley & Riley, P.C and Dr. Ronald and Sue Reider, two pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community.
2010: Michael Makovsky is scheduled to delve into Winston Churchill's complex relationship with Zionism, his impact on the creation of the State of Israel and the modern Middle East that emerged from the two world wars of the 20th century during a program entitled Winston Churchill, Zionism & the Modern Middle East at the 92ndStreet Y in New York City.
2010: Avrom Bendavid-Val, author of The Heavens are Empty: Discovering the Lost Town of Trochenbrod is scheduled to deliver a lecture based on his writings at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick and Saul Bellow: Letters edited by Benjamin Taylor.
2010: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Dangerous Otto Katz: The Many Lives of a Soviet Spy by Jonathan Miles. “The son of a prosperous Czechoslovakian manufacturer, Katz, who was Jewish, was drawn to the theatrical (and cabaret) life of Berlin, where he aspired to playwriting. What politicized him was the rise of Nazism in the 1920s, in particular its vicious anti-Semitism. He gravitated toward the Soviet Union, which seemed to him — not incorrectly at the time — the only nation mounting any sort of effective opposition to Hitler. In his accurate view, all the other major European states were, albeit somewhat more politely, anti-Semitic as well.”
2010:Outgoing head of Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin issued a warning at his final cabinet meeting today, saying that Israel should not be lulled into complacency by the relative quiet that the country has recently enjoyed. Yadlin said that Israel's enemies, with Iran under the leadership of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being chief among them, are "getting more powerful and better arming themselves."
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