November 4 In History
1310: King Jaime II issued a royal decree exempting Judah Bonseynor from all taxes to which the Aljama of Barcelona was usually required to pay. “The king also ordered that neither Bonsenyor nor his children should be molested on account of unpaid taxes, and that he should be at liberty to enter or leave the "Juderia," or Jewish quarter, at will.” Bonseynor severed Alfonso II and his son Jaime as Notary General of Aragon. He was the official who provided the authoritative translation of documents from Arabic into Spanish. Considering the makeup of the Iberian Peninsula at this time, this was a position of great importance. (As reported by Richard Gottehil and Meyer Kayserling
1482: In Spain by this date, nearly 298 persons had been burned at the hand of the Inquisition, while 98 had been imprisoned in Inquisitional prisons.
1501: Catherine of Aragon, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella (the Spanish monarchs who expelled the Jews from Spain) meets Arthur Tudor, the oldest son of English monarch Henry
VII
, for the first time. One of the conditions of marriage between the two royal offspring is requirement by the Spanish monarchs that Henry
VII
promise that Jews would be forever banned from his kingdom.
1677: The future Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange. They would later be known as William and Mary who took the English throne after the Glorious Revolution. According to the historian Cecil Roth, the Glorious Revolution was financed, in part, by a Dutch Jew who lent the would-be monarchs an interest free loan of two million crowns and that “prayers were uttered in Dutch synagogues” for their success.
1806: M.J. Bing, one of Rothschild’s clients in Frankfurt wrote to Nathan Rothschild, head of the House of Rothschild in Great Britain, urging him to exercise caution in circumventing Napoleon’s ban on goods being shipped from England to Europe.
1843: In St. Louis, the United Hebrew Congregation assumed full ownership of the first Jewish cemetery which had been created in 1840. The cemetery was used until 1868. In 1867, the City of St. Louis prohibited further use of the grounds as a burial place. United Hebrew acquired land out in the county, which later became University City with the streets known as North and South Rd. and Canton Ave. Formal dedication of the new cemetery, called Mount Olive occurred in 1880. In 1880, the bodies in the original cemetery, as well as some of the stones were transferred to Mount Olive. In 1960, the name of the cemetery was changed from Mount Olive to United Hebrew.
1847: German composer Felix Mendelssohn passed away. Born in 1809, Felix was the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn, one of the leaders who provided the basis for what became the Reform Movement. Felix’s father wanted his children to be able to fully participate in German life, so he had them Baptized in 1816. Despite the trip to the Baptismal font and Felix’s brilliance, he lost out on at least one major appointment because he was Jewish. Also, such musical luminaries as Wagner did not accept him. They used his works as examples of misguided attempts to Judacize (and weaken) German culture in general and German music in particular.
1852: Count Cavour became Prime Minister of Piedmont. Along with Mazzini and Garibaldi, Cavour made up the trinity who unified the states of the Italian peninsula and created the modern nation of Italy. Jews were among the most active supporters of the creation of Italian nationalism. Despite Cavour’s complaints the tough banking practices of Baron James Rothschild, Rothschild supplied Cavour with financial backing for the impending war with Austria. Parts of Italy were in the Austrian Empire. The two disguised the expenditures as being funds for a tunnel through the Alps. Cavour appointed Jews to several top posts in his government, something hitherto unheard. Isaac Arton served as his confidential secretary and “faithful lieutenant.”
1861: The University of Washington opened in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University.. Today Washington has 2,000 Jewish undergrads and 1, 000 grad students out of student population of 31,000 undergraduates and 12,000 grad students. Washington offers approximately 20 Jewish studies courses with both a major and a minor in Jewish studies. The university also offers year-round study programs in Israel.
1863: Birthdate of Joseph Mendes da Costa, a Dutch born Sephardi sculptor.
1871: Mr. R. J. de Cordova, famed Jewish raconteur and humorist delivered an address tonight entitled "Our First Baby" to packed house at the Association Hall in New York City.
1877: It was reported today that The Alliance Israélite Universelle or Universal Israelite Alliance “has become a very active and useful association. Among its many goals, the Alliances provides instruction for the children of destitute Jews living in “the East” with training in the Hebrew language and religious customs. According to the Jewish Messenger, the Association is supported by a wide range of Jews including Reform minded Germans, the Anglo-Jewish Associations, the growing American Jewish community and, of course, the French Jewish community.
1878: It was reported today the Industrial School of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum has printed copies of a pamphlet by Dr. Isaac Schwab entitled “Can Jews be Patriots.” The pamphlet was written as a refutation of Professor Goldwin Smith’s depiction of Jews as being unpatriotic. Goldwin Smith was a British-born Canadian college professor who was a notorious anit-Semite.
1879: Justice of the Peace, Nathan Colman who was also the lay religious leader for the Jewish community, officiated at the first Jewish wedding in the Black Hills, when Rebecca Reubens married David Holzman today.
1879: It was reported today that Rabbi David Einhorn’s funeral will take place at 9 o’clock on November 6. Services will be lead by two of Einhorn’s sons-in-law – Rabbi Kaufman Kohler of Temple Beth-El and Rabbi Emil Hirsch of Louisville – and Dr. Samuel Hirsch of Philadelphia who was one of Rabbi Einhorn’s closest friends.
1879: Birthdate of humorist, social commentator and vaudeville star, Will Rogers. Rogers owed his early fame and fortune to Flo Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld put Rogers in his famous Follies, leting Rogers stand on stage as a he twirled his lariat and came up with political zingers that would have made John Stewart smile. In 1924, the KKK was reaching the height of its power and was planning a large parade in New York. Using his wit to try and deflate the Klan, Rogers pointed out that the Klan’s anti-Semitism was misguided if not downright anti-American. As Rogers explained it, the Christians were beholden to the Jews for a successful Christmas. After all, it was the Jews (remember this is the days of Gimbals’ and Macys) who sold the Christians all of the presents which were critical to the holiday celebration.
1882: It was reported today that “drunken rioters have plundered” the shops owned by the Jews of Presburg, Hungary. The renewal of anti-Jewish violence has resulted in the death of at least one Jewess. Apparently the sentencing of those involved in the September riots to three months in prison has not brought matters under control.
1883: It was reported today that the Jews in New York “are solid” in their support for ex-Sheriff James O’Brien, the anti-Tammany Hall candidate for the position of Register.
1884: Grover Cleveland was elected to first of two terms as President of the United States. He is the only President to be defeated in his bid for re-election and then to come back and win the office on his “third try.” During his first term, Cleveland appoint Oscar Solomon Straus, the leading American Jew of his time, as envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Turkey. Cleveland intended the appointment “as an indirect rebuke to the government of Austria Hungary, which had refused to accept an appointee as United States ministers because the minister’s wife was Jewish. In his second term, Cleveland vetoed immigration bill aimed at keeping Jews, among others, from entering the United States. After he had left the White House, Cleveland continued to show support for Jewish causes by appearing at protest rallies against Russia’s treatment of her Jewish citizens.
1884: James Rubiner, a Polish Jew who owns a grocery store on Hester Street is still in jail today facing charges of having killed a youngster named Julius Silverman. Silverman was part of a gang that started a bonfire in front Rubiner’s store as part of their election-night hijinks.
1884: The New York Times reprints an article from the London Timesentitled “Montifore and the Jews” describes the Italian town in which the great philanthropists family had its roots an describes the growth and generosity of Moses Montifore.
1887: It was reported today that Michael Simon has been elected as a magistrate in Glasgow. “He is the first Jew elected to that office in Scotland.”
1888(30th of Cheshvan, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1888: Dr. Gustav Gottheil delivered a lecture at Temple Emanu-El this morning entitled “Government by the People and what it Owes to Judaism.
1904(26th of Cheshvan, 5665): Willy Bambus passed away. Bambus Willy Bambus was born in Berlin in 1862. Not much is known of his family and youth. Apparently he came from a modest background, had only a limited formal education and was to a large extent self-taught. Already in the mid-1880s Bambus was attracted to Zionist ideas and supported the idea of reclaiming the Land of Israel by the establishment of Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine. He became a leading member of Verein Esra, a society founded in 1884 for the advancement of Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine and Syria. To further their ideas and to disseminate them Bambus, with other members of Verein Esra, established the journal Serubabel in 1886. Their aim was "to raise Jewish national consciousness and assist the Yishuv in Erez Israel". Bambus edited Serubabelin the period 1887-1888. In 1891 he became the general secretary of the Komitee zur Abwehr antisemitischer Angriffe, an organization established by his life-long friend and patron Paul Nathan. At about the same time he became general secretary of Verein Esra as well, which changed its name to Esra, Verein zuer Unterstuetzung ackerbautreibender Juden in Palaestina und Syrien. In addition, in 1892 together with Heinrich Loewe he established Jung Israel, juedisch-nationaler Verein) (a pre-Herzlian Zionist organization). The first contact between Max Bodenheimer and Bambus was made in 1892. Their relationship outlasted Bambus' later rift with Herzl and his estrangement from the Zionist movement, until Bambus' death in 1904. In 1894 together with Hirsch Hildesheimer, Emile Meyerson, and Isaak Turoff, Bambus initiated the establishment of the Central Committee of Hovevei Zion in Paris. The Committee initiated the establishment of the colony Beer Tuvia in 1896. Bambus was involved in the establishment and development of a great number of Jewish associations in Berlin, some of which were quite successful, among others, the Verein fur juedische Geschichte und Literatur and the Juedische Lesehalle. He also published brochures and pamphlets, among others "Antisemitismus und Zionismus", "Palaestina in der Gegenwart - Kurzgefasster Abriss der politischen und physischen Geographie des heiligen Landes", and the article "Die Juedische Ackerbaukolonisation in Palaestina und ihre Geschichte". He also published articles in the Jewish press on Jewish and Zionist subjects. In March 1897 he participated in the conference convened by Herzl in Vienna to prepare the First Zionist Congress. Although he antagonized Herzl, he nonetheless attended the First (1897) and the Second (1898) Zionist Congress, during which he disputed some of Herzl's policies, especially Herzl's categorical rejection of small-scale settlement in Palestine. He expressed his ideas in the periodical Zion, which he edited from 1896. When Herzl dispatched Leo Motzkin to Palestine on behalf of the Zionist Organisation to investigate the state of the Jewish colonies, Bambus was deeply offended. In reaction to Motzkin's report at the Second Zionist Congress in 1898, he published a brochure entitled "Herr Motzkin und die Wahrheit ueber die Kolonisation Palaestinas" in which he sharply criticized the report. In view of the weakening of his position among the Zionists in Berlin and his refusal to accept Herzl's notion according to which settlement activities in Palestine should be delayed until legal political guarantees were obtained, he withdrew from the Zionist Organization sometime after the Second Zionist Congress. Bambus visited Palestine in 1895, 1899 and 1904. In 1896 he initiated and organized an exhibition of products from Palestine in several cities in Germany. In 1898 he established Eliada, a wholesale outlet marketing wines from Palestine in Hamburg, and in 1900 he exhibited wines and other agricultural products from Palestine at the World Fair in Paris. Even though he withdrew from the Zionist Organization, he continued until his death to advocate and assist Jewish settlement activities in Palestine and the development of manufacturing and industry. In 1900 he wrote a brochure entitled "Industrielle Kolonisation in Palaestina". In 1901, upon the creation of the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden, he became its first general secretary. His works include Palaestina, Land und Leute (1898), Die Kriminalitaet der Juden (1896), Die Juden als Soldaten (1897), and publications on Jewish settlement in Palestine mentioned above.
1908: Birthdate of nuclear physicist and anti-nuclear activist Joseph Rotblat.
1910: Attack made on the Jewish bank in Sophia, Bulgaria.
1912: Birthdate of singer Frances Faye, who died on November 8, 1991.
1913: Jacob Aaron Cantor began his first term a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1913: Benjamin Cardozo was elected Justice of State Supreme Court of New York. In February of the following year he was made a judge on the Court of Appeals
1918: The German Revolution began when forty-thousand sailors took over the port in Kiel. During the revolt, the Communist Party which included “Jewish members” would try and seize power much as their counterparts in Russia had done a year earlier. The revolt would fail and eventually the Weimar Republic which also had Jewish leaders would come to power in the 1920’s. Hitler would use the German fear of disorder and the presence of Jews in both of these movements to whip anti-Semitism and justify the Final Solution.
1918: In Germany, Bavaria became the first (state to become a socialist “republic” under the leadership of moderate, non-Bolshevik Jew named Kurt Eisner
1919: Birthdate of Martin Balsam one of the finest and most prolific television and movie character actors of the 20thcentury. From a juror in Twelve Angry Men, to Admiral Kimmel in Tora, Tora, Tora, to an officer in the wacky comedy Catch 22, Balsam played them all with skill and aplomb. He passed away in 1996.
1921: Hadassah nurses and their teachers join the funeral procession which ends with the burial of the four victims of Arab violence at the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
1923: Rabbi Samuel Schulman at Temple Beth-el and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise at the Free Synagogue defended Israel Zangwill's recent address at Carnegie Hall in which the Jewish publicist declared that political Zionism was dead.
1924: Republican candidate Jesse H. Metcalf was elected to the United States by the citizens of Rhode Island. In June of 1933, during a Senate debate on the treatment of Jews in Germany, Metcalf would join those who condemned the Nazi government. “We as a national can only declare the existence of racial or religious prejudice to be untenable as a national ideal.”
1924: Republican candidate Albert Ottinger was elected Attorney General for the State of New York.
1926:Rabbi Bernard Drachman and Rabbi B.A. Tinter are scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Harry Houdini which will take place at the Machpelah Cemetery in the borough of Queens.
1927: Rabbi David Cohen and Sarah Elkin gave birth to She’ar Yashuv Cohen, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Haifa.
1928(21st of Cheshvan, 5689): Arnold Rothstein passed away. Rothstein was one of New York City's most notorious gamblers. He was a crook and a mobster; certainly not a credit to the Jewish people. He was rumored to have been the brains behind the fixing of the 1919 World Series also known as the Black Sox Scandal. He was shot to death over a poker game or gambling debts.
1932(5th of Cheshvan, 5693): Seventy Four year old Salomon Reinach, the distinguished French archaeologist passed away. The brother of author and politician Jospeh Reinach and archaeologist Theodore Reinach, he was an active member of the Jewish community serving as vice president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle
1932: Birthdate of actor and director Noam Pitlik. Pitlik appeared in a variety of sit-coms including the Bob Newhart Show. His directorial work included several episodes of the detective comedy series, Barney Miller. He passed away in 1999.
1937: Birthdate of Fred Kaplan, the son of an attorney, Isaac Kaplan, who was the first member of his family to go to college, and of Bessie Zwirn Kaplan. Fred Kaplan grew up in the lower-middle-class environment of third-generation Jewish Ashkenazic immigrant culture, first in the Bronx and then in Brooklyn, where his family moved when he was ten. He was one of four sons, the other three of whom became lawyers. His avid reading of novels and other books at home, in the public library, in the public schools of Brooklyn, and at Brooklyn College, where he majored in classics and philosophy (B.A., 1959), led to his partial assimilation into Anglo-American culture; he then earned an M.A. Fred Kaplan's biographies of Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens are part of a projected biographical quartet charting the sweep of Anglo-American culture from the Romantic to the modern era. Kaplan is committed to biography as a literary form and draws upon the techniques of narrative art; he aspires to combine the power and dramatic resources of narrative prose and the rigorous intellectual requirements of historical literary scholarship and cultural analysis.
1937: The Palestine Post reported the British government’s announcement that there would be no retraction of the measures taken against members of the Arab Higher Committee and that the recent restrictions on Jewish immigration were only temporary. (The British must have had their fingers crossed on this last part of the statement since not only wouldn’t the restrictions be lifted they would actually be tightened.) It was decided, however, not to put pressure on the French authorities in Lebanon for the extradition of the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, from Beirut to Jerusalem (even though he was the architect of much of the Arab terrorism).
1941: Stanley M. Isaacs won a seat on the New York City Council as an At-Large representative from Manahattan.
1941: Last of a twenty train convoy made its way from Germany to the Lodz ghetto. In all, 19,837 Jews were taken. Banishment became official as the Reich Treasury issued directives that "Jews not employed in businesses of importance to the people's economy will be banished to one of the cities in the East. The property of the Jews who are to be banished will be confiscated
1942: During World War II, Axis forces retreated from El Alamein in North Africa in a major victory for British forces commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. This would mark the end of the Axis threat to the Jewish community in Eretz Israel. Reluctantly, the British had turned to the leaders of the Yishuv to help prepare for the defense of the Middle East if Rommel had broken through at El Alamein and seized Egypt and the Suez Canal. Many Egyptians were prepared to welcome what they would be a victorious German army and there wee reports of Nazi flags being flown in parts of Cairo. The defeat of the Axis at El Alamein, along with the battles at Midway and Stalingrad, was considered a major turning point in the war. The Allied victory in the spring of 1943 would free the Jews of North Africa from the threat of the Nazis and the Vichy French.
1943: In Poland, 3,898 Jews were deported from the Szebnie labor camp to Birkenau
1943: The Jews of Florence, Italy were rounded up and deported,
1943: The Germans put down an inmate revolt at the slave-labor camp at Szebnie, Poland. The camp is liquidated; about 3000 Jews are deported to Auschwitz.
1944: The ‘Death March' from Bor, Hungary, makes its way to Gyor, Hungary after a six week journey. Here hundreds of survivors were beaten or shot to death. The bodies were thrown into massive graves that the prisoners had dug just before their extermination. Five thousand people would start the march and only nine would survive to the end of the war. Many other similar marches would follow. After being forced to dig their own graves, hundreds of Jews from the copper-mine labor camp at Bor, Hungary, are shot or beaten to death at Györ, Hungary. Among the victims is a noted poet named Miklós Radnóti, age 35.
1944: Weizmann and Churchill met to discuss the future of Palestine.
1944 (18th of Cheshvan, 5705): Hannah Szenes, Hungarian born Palestinian who parachuted into occupied Europe as a British soldier with a mission to help anti-Nazi partisans is executed in Budapest after extensive torture.
1945: Reports of of anti-Semitic “demonstrations in Syria, Lebanon and Egypt published today in Tarabaulus el Gharb, a Libyan newspaper helped “to fan the flames of existing anti-Jewish feeling” that led to an outbreak of anti-Semitic riots.
1945: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in seven cities in Libya, including Tripoli. The riots would last for four days during which ten synagogues were burned an looted and Jewish homes and businesses were broken into and looted.
1945: Drastic measures including imposing an extended curfew upon a wide strategic area southward and northward of the central harbor town of Haifa were announced by Maj. Gen. C.F. Loewen, British military commander of Northern Palestine.
1948: The United Nations Security Council called for the withdrawal of all forces to the positions they had held on
October 14, 19
48. It also called for negotiations to be conducted between the combatants. The Israelis rejected the first part. They were going to hold on to their gains in the Negev. The Arabs refused to negotiate with the Israelis since they claimed that to do so would provide legitimacy to “the Zionist entity.”
1948: Birthdate of Shaul Mofaz, the native of Tehran who became the IDF’s 16th Chief of the General Staff in 1998.
1949: Elyahu Elath, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States asked George McGhee, the United States Assistant Secretary of the State for Near Eastern, South Asian and African Affairs if the United States would raise the question of the plight of Iraqi Jewry aat the United Nations, McGhee replied that he ‘strongly’ recommended not raising the issue, because ‘a debate in the Gerneral Assemly would stir up feelings and do Iraq’s Jews more harm than good.”
1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson. At the end of his first term, President Eisenhower would turn against the Israelis during the Suez Crisis. He would side with the Soviets and save Nasser.
1952 (16th of Cheshvan, 5713): Aaron Nusbaum passed away. The Elgin, Illinois native was a vice president of Sears Roebuck & Co. and brother in law of Julius Rosenwald. A noted philanthropist, he played a key role in the creation of the Adler Planetarium.
1956: It was reported today that an Egyptian communique claimed Egyptian forces “had sunk four Biritish naval vessels and captured three troop landing craft at Suez.
1956: During the Suez Crisis, it was reported that the British and French paratroopers would drop into the Canal Zone within the next 48 hours now that the British had neutralized the Egyptian air forice.
1956: During the Sinai Campaign, a.k.a. The Hundred Hours War, Israeli forces reached the Suez Canal.
1956:An IDF force of 180 vehicles successfully made the trek through the Sinai wilderness and took Sharm es Sheikh from the Egyptians. After six hours of fighting, the IDF prevailed and opened the Straits of Tiran.
1956: Soviet Army units unleashed a massive attack on Budapest as part of their move to suppress the Hungarian Revolution. Jewish students had been prominent participants in the uprising. Seeing that the revolt had failed and fearing a Stalinist style reprisal approximately 40,000 Jews joined the 170,000 Hungarians who fled to Austria.
1960: Marilyn Monroe finishes her last film, The Misfits.
1974: New Yorker Richard Ottinger was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
1977: The Vatican appealed to Israel to release Greek Catholic Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who had just completed three years of his 12-year prison sentence for smuggling arms for Arab terrorists from Beirut to Jerusalem. An undertaking was given that Capucci, if released, would no longer engage in any anti-Israeli activity and would be posted to a monastery outside the Middle East.(The statement speaks for itself in terms of analyzing Vatican-Israeli relations).
1980(25th of Cheshvan, 5741): A suicide operation carried out by the Shiite Muslims and supported by Syria killed thirty six Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. The attack came after both sides had agreed to a cease-fire.
1990(16th of Cheshvan, 5751): Shalom-Avraham Shaki passed away. Born in Yemen in 1906, he made Aliyah in 1914, he worked as teacher before pursuing a career in politics that included service in the Knesset from 1962 until 1965.
1991: Mid East peace conference ends in Madrid Spain
1993(20th of Cheshvan, 5754): Seventh-three year old Peabody award winning producer Ely A. Landau passed away. (As reported by Eric Pace)
http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/08/obituaries/ely-landau-producer-73-dies-filmed-plays-for-tv-and-theaters.html
1994: Unveiling of a sculpture of Fred Lebow created by Jesus Ygnacio Dominguez designed to honor the Holocaust survivor who founded the NYC Marathon. The sculpture depicts Lebow timing runners with his watch. In 2001, the statue was moved to its permanent location on the East Side Central Park Drive at 90th St. Every year, however, the statue is moved to a spot in view of the finish line of the Marathon
1995 (11th of Cheshvan, 5756): Yitzchak Rabin, Prime Minster of Israel, was assassinated by a right wing fanatic who was opposed to Rabin’s efforts to bring peace to Israel and its Arab neighbors. Rabin was born in Jerusalem in 1922, making him Israel’s first sabra Prime Minister. Rabin’s distinguished career in the IDF included serving as Chief of Staff during the Six Day in 1967. Rabin’s first stint as Prime Minister during the during the 1970’s ended with him being forced to leave office do to a personal financial scandal. His defeat opened the way for Begin and the Likud to come to power for the first time in Israel. Rabin did not have any illusions about the PLO and Arafat. We will never know if Rabin’s vision would have borne fruit. Instead a killer took it upon himself to end the life of man who had spent his life risking his life in defense of Israel and the Jewish people.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0301.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/rabin.html
1995: Shimon Peres began serving as Minister of Defense in Israel.
1996: In article entitled “A Man Who Makes Us Worry” published in The Information Bulletin of the Library of Congress, Harry Katz reports on the decision by Jules Feiffer to donate his papers to the library and describes the importance of the collection.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest including Old Men At
Midnight
by Chaim Potok and Where The Stress Falls by Susan Sontag
2002: On his 54th birthday, Shaul Mofaz began serving as Israel’s Minister of Defense
2003: A ketubbah (Jewish marriage contract) printed in Utica, New York in 1863, is showcased as a "Second Guest of Honor" at the Louis Marshall Award Dinner at the Pierre Hotel. The "Second Guest of Honor" program is another effort to further expose the treasures of The JTS Library that the Board instituted in which a rare piece from The Library's collection will appear at an event outside JTS.
2005(2nd of Cheshvan, 5766): Earl Leslie Krugel the West Coast coordinator of the Jewish Defense League was murdered by a fellow inmate, who struck him in the head with a block of concrete.
2005: The Center for Tel Aviv History organized a special tour to mark the anniversary of the assassination of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
2005: In Cedar Rapids, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) began hosting "The Tragedy of Slovak Jews," a special, temporary exhibition from the Museum of the National Uprising in Banska Bystrica, Slovak Republic. The exhibition addresses the tragic demise of the Jewish communities in Slovakia. Prior to World War II, Jews held an important and significant position in Slovak culture. The exhibit focuses on Slovak society and the solution of the Jewish question in the years 1938 – 1945, the first wave of deportations (March – October 1942), the origination of working and prison camps, the second wave of deportations in 1944, and the fascist reprisals in Slovakia.
2005: As further proof of the changing face of Reform Judaism in Israel, the four new Reform rabbis ordained at Jerusalem’s Hebrew Union College half are women and include three native Israelis and one of Iraqi heritage.
2006: Opening of the 10thAnnual UK Jewish Film Festival
2007: Publication of Flotsam, by David Wiesner.
2007: Author E.L. Doctorow, the son of parents “of Russian-Jewish origin,” receives the Chicago Tribune Literary Prize.
2007: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of the following books by Jewish authors and/or that featured Jewish topics including The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of the New New York by Joseph Berger and Proust Was a Neuroscientist in which author Jonah Lehrer the son of former Los Angeles ADL chief David Lehrer argues that artists predict the scientific future.
2007: The Sunday Washington Post features reviews of the following books by Jewish authors and/or that featured Jewish topics including Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon and Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore.
2007: At the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington 38th annual Book Festival, Pulitzer Prize winning David Vise discusses The Google Story: Inside the Hottest Business, Media and Technology Success.
2007: In a festive ceremony at the Weizmann Institute of Science, 11 young women scientists, who had completed their PhD studies with honors at several Israeli universities and academic institutions, each received an award of about $20,000 per year for two years. These awards are being granted within the framework of the new Weizmann Institute Women in Science Program aimed at assisting highly talented young women to work toward a career in the natural or exact sciences. The goal of the program is to begin closing the gap between male and female scientists in the highest ranks of academia.
2007: The New York city Marathon Minyan celebrates its 25th year of enabling runners to a join a minyan, lay tefillin and shout out the blessing ‘hanoten layaef koakh – He who gives strength to the weary’ prior to setting out on the 26.2 mile course through the city’s five boroughs.
2007: National Jewish Book Month begins.
2008: America chooses between John McCain and Barack Obama in the U.S. Presidential election. Regardless of the outcome, Obama is the first major presidential candidate whose closest political advisor – David Axelrod – is Jewish and who has a rabbi - Capers Funnye – as a family member.
2008: Agriprocessors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
2008: A record number of Jews were elected to Congress. The next session of Congress will include 45 Jewish lawmakers, a new record, after Democrats Alan Grayson of Florida and John Adler of New Jersey took two House seats from the Republican column. Jared Polis, also a Democrat, was widely expected to win his Colorado House seat to match the previous record, set in the 2006 elections. The House will have 32 Jewish members. Only the class of 1990 had more Jewish members - 34 - but there were fewer Jewish senators at the time. The next Senate will have 13 Jewish members, the same as the previous session, despite a toss-up race in Minnesota, where both Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger, comedian Al Franken, are Jewish.
The following is a list of the 45 Jewish members —13 senators and 32 representatives — who will serve in the 111th U.S. Congress that convenes in January:
U.S. SENATE
Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.)
Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.)
Norm Coleman (R-Minn.)**
Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.)
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)
Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.)**
Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.)
Carl Levin (D-Mich.)**
Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.)
Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.)
John Adler (D-N.J.)*
Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.)
Howard Berman (D-Calif.)
Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
Stephen Cohen (D-Tenn.)
Susan Davis (D-Calif.)
Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.)
Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)
Bob Filner (D-Calif.)
Barney Frank (D-Mass.)
Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.)
Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)
Jane Harman (D-Calif.)
Paul Hodes (D-N.H.)
Steve Israel (D-N.Y.)
Steve Kagen (D-Wisc.)
Ron Klein (D-Fla.)
Sander Levin (D-Mich.)
Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.)
Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)
Jared Polis (D-Colo.)*
Steve Rothman (D-N.J.)
Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)
Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.)
Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)
Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.)
Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)
Robert Wexler (D-Fla.)
John Yarmuth (D-Ky.)
* Elected to Congress for the first time
** Senators who were re-elected (Coleman defeated Democratic challenger Al Franken in Minnesota by fewer than 700 votes, triggering a state-mandated recount. Franken also is Jewish, leaving 13 Jewish senators regardless of who emerges as the winner.)
2009: Opening session of Union for Reform Judaism's 70th Biennial Convention in Toronto, Canada.
2009: Nancy Lieberman broke yet another barrier when she became the first woman head coach of the Dallas Mavericks’ D-League affiliate team, a male professional basketball team.
2009: Israeli navy commandos seized a cargo ship early today in the Mediterranean Sea that Israeli officials said was carrying rockets and ammunition bound for militants from Hezbollah.
2010: Jeffrey Rosen, Professor of Constitutional Law at The George Washington University, is scheduled to speak on Religious Freedom and the Right to Worship, Freedom of Speech, Press, Assembly, and how the Supreme Court impacted the First Amendment of the Constitution, at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation, in Reston, VA.
2010: The Center for Jewish History, Centro Primo Levi and PEN World Voices Festival in collaboration with the Consulate General of Slovenia are scheduled to present: “Boris Pahor's Necropolis: A Slovenian Story of Culture, Conflict, and Persecution on the Northeastern Border of Italy.”
2010: Germany's burgeoning Jewish community ordained its first female rabbi since the Holocaust today, a major step for a religious group that until recently imported its leaders from abroad - most of them men. The ordination of Alina Treiger, a Ukrainian-born 31-year-old, is a sign of the growing diversity of Germany's largely conservative Jewish community, observers say, though some warned she will face an uphill battle among worshippers used to being led by male rabbis.
2011: George Schindler, the dean of the Society of American Magicians, other magicians and members of the general public are scheduled to visit Harry Houdini’s grave at the Machpelah Cemetery in the Queens borough of New York City on the 85thanniversary of his funeral. The visit used to take place on Halloween, Houdini’s Yahrtzeit
2011: The Phoenix Ensemble is scheduled to perform at Studio Hecht in Haifa.
2011: The “Excellence Concert Series” is scheduled to present “Young Piano Masters” at the Aldwell Institute of the Jerusalem Conservatory of Music and Dance
2011: This afternoon the Israel Navy intercepted two boats that approached the coast of the Gaza Strip with the intent to violate Israel's naval blockade of the territory. After the boats failed to heed calls to turn around or dock in Egypt or Israel, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz ordered naval forces to board the ships.
2011:Immediately following his return from Cyprus today, President Shimon Peres joined the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the monument erected on the site of Rabin's assassination. Peres, who had been at a huge peace rally in Tel Aviv with Rabin onthe fateful night of November 4, 1