December 19 In History
324: Licinius abdicates his position as Emperor leaving Constatine I, “the first Christian Emperor” in control of the Roman Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people.
1154: Coronation of Henry II, King of England. "With the restoration of order under Henry II, conditions of the Jews improved markedly. Within five years of his accession Jews are found at London, Oxford, Cambridge, Norwich, Thetford, Bungay, Canterbury, Winchester, Newport, Stafford, Windsor, and Reading. Yet they were not permitted to bury their dead elsewhere than in London, a restriction which was not removed till 1177. Their spread throughout the country enabled the king to draw upon them as occasion demanded; he repaid them by demand notes on the sheriffs of the counties, who accounted for payments thus made in the half-yearly accounts on the pipe rolls (see Aaron of Lincoln). Richard "Strongbow" de Clare's conquest of
Ireland
in 1170 was financed by Josce, a Jew of Gloucester; and the king accordingly fined Josce for having lent money to those under his displeasure. As a rule, however, Henry II does not appear to have limited in any way the financial activity of Jews. The favourable position of the English Jews was shown, among other things, by the visit of Abraham ibn Ezra in 1158, by that of Isaac of Chernigov in 1181, and by the resort to England of the Jews who were exiled from France by Philip Augustus in 1182, among them probably being Judah Sir Leon of Paris. When he asked the rest of the country to pay a tithe for the crusade against Saladin in 1186, he demanded a quarter of the Jewish chattels. The tithe was reckoned at £70,000, the quarter at £60,000. In other words, the value of the personal property of the Jews was regarded as one-fourth that of the whole country. It is improbable, however, that the whole amount was paid at once, as for many years after the imposition of the tallage arrears were demanded from the recalcitrant Jews. The king had probably been led to make this large demand upon English Jewry by the surprising windfall which came to his treasury at the death of Aaron of Lincoln. All property obtained by usury, whether by Jew or by Christian, fell into the king's hands on the death of the usurer; Aaron of Lincoln's estate included £15,000 of debts owed to him. Besides this, a large treasure came into the king's hands, which, however, was lost on being sent over to Normandy. A special branch of the treasury, constituted in order to deal with this large account, was known as "Aaron's Exchequer". In this era, Jews lived on good terms with their non-Jewish neighbours, including the clergy; they entered churches freely, and took refuge in the abbeys in times of commotion. Some Jews lived in opulent houses, and helped to build a large number of the abbeys and monasteries of the country. However, by the end of Henry's reign they had incurred the ill will of the upper classes. The anti-Jewish sentiment fostered by the crusades, during the latter part of the reign of Henry, spread the anti-Jewish sentiment throughout the nation."
1187: Clement III elected Pope. Clement III was no friend of the Jews. In the aftermath of the First Crusaders' violent march through the Rhine, Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor sought to allow Jews who had been forced to convert to return to Judaism. Pope Clement III opposed Henry on this insisting that the Jews, no matter how they had come to the Church, could not leave it. To his credit, Henry ignored the Pope. He went so far as to find those who had killed his Jewish subjects and bring them to justice. From the Jewish point of view, Henry was the exception to the norm among European Princes and Prelates. We should remember him for this and not for shivering in the winter as he did penance before an arrogant prince of the Church.
1370: Pope Urban V passed away. Urban issued a bull entitled “Sicuti judaeis non debet” that forbade the molestation of Jews and condemned the forced baptism of Jews.
1483: The first edition of Talmud Babli Berakot was published in Soncino, Italy by Joshua Solomon Soncino. This is the tractate of the Babylonia Talmud that discusses the laws of Kriat Shema, Prayers and Blessing.
1483: The first edition of Talmud Betzah was published in Soncino, Italy by Joshua Solomon Soncino. Betzah is the tractate that deals rules concerning Festivals.
1488: The first edition of the Sefer Mitzvoth Gadol was published in Soncino, Italy. The Sefer Mitzvoth Gadol (The Great Book of the Commandments) was written by Rabbi Moses ben Jacob of Coucy'. Rabbi ben Jacob lived in the first half of the 13th century in
Coucy
,
France
. This work--usually designated by its acronym, the Semag—classifies Jewish law according to the traditional enumeration of 613 commandments. The work is divided into two sections. The first deals with the 365 negative precepts of the Torah, and the second with the 248 positive precepts. References to the Semag are by Section. The publishing of this and other such texts helped to enhance the culture of education that has been the hallmark of Judaism since its earliest days. Guttenberg and his printing press were definitely “friends” of the Jews.
1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to
Valley Forge
,
Pa.
, to camp for the winter. Hanukkah at Valley Forge is a children’s book by Stephen Krensky about an event that took place during that fateful winter. “On a cold December night during the height of the Revolutionary War, General George Washington surveys his weary troops at
Valley Forge
. He spies a soldier lighting a candle. Curious, he asks the soldier what he is doing. The soldier explains that he is celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. He goes on to relate a miraculous story—how long ago a ragtag army of Jewish soldiers defeated a much larger force of powerful Greeks, a tale that provides just the kind of inspiration General Washington needs. Stephen Krensky's fictionalized version of a poignant historical anecdote is brought vividly to life in Greg Harlin's brilliant watercolor illustrations.” The thirty two page book is designed for children from 4 to 7. While we may not know the names of all the Jews who spent the winter freezing in the Pennsylvania cold, we do know that Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell were among those who stuck it out. When the army marched out in the spring, some of the soldiers carried rifles supplied by Joseph Simon who crafted them at this forge in Lancaster, PA.
1781: Joseph II abolished Leibzoll (body tax) along with the "special law taxes, the passport duty, the night duty and all similar oppressive imposts which had stamped the Jews as outcasts."
1831: The Privy Council in England granted the Jewish community official recognition and equality on the island. Jews were then permitted to vote in the elections and, by 1849, eight of the 47 members of House of Assembly were Jewish, including the Speaker of the House. Jews became so prominent in society that in 1849, the House of Assembly did not gather on Yom Kippur.
1844 (9th of Tevet, 5605): The Czar abolished all Kahals in the Russian Empire
1852: Birthdate of Albert A. Michelson. The Russian born Michelson taught at the U.S. Naval Academy. He calculated the Speed of Light and won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1907.
1855(10thof Tevet, 5616): Aasara B’Tevet
1856: The Huntington Trial a case being heard before Judge Capron was in recess today “because on of the jurors was a Jew and had conscientious scruples about working on his Sabbath…”
1857: Under a modification of the 1855 Naval Reform designed to remove superfluous officers, Uriah Phillips Levy began the first of three days before a Board of Inquiry that had been convened to see if he should be reinstated. Fifty -three character witnesses, including former Secretary of the Navy and historian George Bancroft, governors, senators, congressmen, bank presidents, merchants, doctors, and editors had already testified on his behalf before Phillips began testify. The most shocking statement had come from Bancroft who confirmed Levy had been purged "because he was of the Jewish persuasion." The most moving part of the testimony came with the statement of Phillips, "My parents were Israelites, and I was nurtured in the faith of my ancestors." "I am an American, a sailor, and a Jew," At the end, there was a moment's silence before the explosion of cheers, the hats flung in the air, the wild applause.
1870(25thof Kislev, 5631): First Day of Chanukah
1876: It was reported today that William J. Ree, “one of the most daring and expert swindlers and forgers” ever to operate in New York City, is among the many convicts paroled by Governor Tilden without informing the District Attorney or the criminals’ victims. Ree is reportedly from Denmark and a member of a wealthy Jewish who has two brothers who are successful merchants in London. He married the wealthy widow of the late Commodore Uriah P. Levy and proceeded to run through her fortune of $400,000. He also was the heir to a fortune left to him by one of his wife’s aunts – a fortune that he dissipated with equal speed which led him to turn to active swindling.
1876: A fair to raise funds for Hebrew Charities is to be held this evening at the Masonic Hall in NYC.
1878: It was reported today that most of the Jews of Cincinnati, Ohio, approved decision of the Hebrew Benevolent Societies decision to refuse the contributions offered by Mrs. A.T. Stewart. They feel that the involvement of Judge Hilton makes it impossible for Jews to accept the money. Several Jews have offered to make up any short-fall. A minority, including Louis Kramer and Henry Mack Southern, have expressed the opinion that charities have no right to reject contributions regardless of the source. Jews have refused to do business with Hilton and his company since he banned Jews from being guests at his fashionable New York hotel.
1880: It was reported today that Mt. Sinai Hospital, which was opened in 1852 was the third private hospital opened that provided for New York City’s destitute. St Vincent’s which was opened by the Roman Catholics in 1859 and St. Luke’s which opened in 1850 are the only two such institutions that are older than the facility funded by the Jewish community that is opened to all regardless race or creed.
1880: In New York, Reverends John Cotton Smith, R. Heber Newton and L.D. Devan expressed their concern from their respective pulpits about the wave of “anti-Jewish agitation” currently sweeping Germany. (Compare this to the relative silence that one “heard” during the 1930’s)
1880: “First Chandlery Factory In America” published today credited Jews who had come to Newport from Portugal between 1745 and 1750 with introducing this “lucrative…business” in which they had an advantage because they knew “the art of preparing the sperm for candles.” “Of the 16 people” originally “engaged in this business” three were Jews named Riveria, Lopez and Siexas.
1881: It was reported today that police in New York, Brooklyn Staten Island and Jersey City are all looking for thirty eight year old Louis Hammel, the Jewish foreman of J. Beck & Sons who has been reported missing by his relatives.
1881: In New York, Sarah and Julius Goldman gave birth to Hetty Goldman “a well know archaeologist who unearthed many new excavations that gave historians a better insight of the past in Greece” and who “was very active in sponsoring Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.” (As reported by Seymour Brody)
1882: In New York Superior Court, Judge Arnoux heard the argument of Abraham Meyer who is seeking an injunction that will restrain police from enforcing that part of the Penal Code that would force him to close on Sunday. Meyer is Jewish and claims that under the law he can “sell goods on Sunday because he observes Saturday as his ‘holy time.’”
1882: Birthdate of Bronislaw Huberman, the Polish born violinist who founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936. After the creation of the state of Israel, a year after Huberman’s death, the orchestra would change its name to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
1883: D. Wiley Travis, the attorney for Theodore Hoffman who was sentenced to death for murdering Jewish peddler Zife Marks, “will take the case to the Court of Appeals.”
1883:Madame Fanny Janauschek will appear in “Zillah, The Hebrew Mother” today at the Third Avenue Theatre.
1885: At least a thousand people attended tonight’s session of the fair being held to raise funds for the kindergarten and industrial schools of the Hebrew Free School Association.
1886: First meeting of the “Emin Pasha Relief Committee.” Mehmed Emin Pasha was the name of a German Jew Eduard Schnitzer had taken when he had converted to Islam to further his career in the world of the Ottomans.
1886: Five hundred prominent Jews met at Temple Israel in Brooklyn, NY, this afternoon and formed the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1886: It was reported today that the Hebrew Fee School Association is now supporting a “Ladies Hebrew Seminary” in addition to its industrial branches for manual training and kindergartens.
1886: An auction will held today, the day after the close of the charity fair held to raise funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, which is expected to raise an additional $15,000. The fair raised $168,000 for the Home.
1887: It was reported today that the Ladies’ Deborah Nursery, founded by Mrs. Deborah Alexander, is currently providing care “for 150 young boys and babies.”
1888: It was reported today that Benjamin F. Peixotto and James W. Moses were blackballed from the Republican Club on 5th Avenue because they “had enough Jews in the club at present.” Peixotto is a member of a distinguished Sephardic family that has served the United States for three generations. But Moses, a prominent member of the Cotton Exchange, is a Yankee from Maine without a drop of Jewish “blood in his veins.”
1888: It was reported today that the following have made donations to the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids: Lazarus Straus, $2,500; Louis Stern, $500, W.J. Cholle, $200; Henry Newman, $100 and M.W. Mendel and Jacob H. Schiff, $1,000 each.
1888: Birthdate of Fritz Reiner, Hungarian born American symphony conductor who passed away in 1963.
1902: Birthdate of British violinist and orchestra leader, Leonard Hirsch. He was a conductor of the Royal Air Force Symphony Orchestra.
1903:Chaim Zelig Louban, a 27 year old student, attempts to assassinate Max Nordau at a Chanukah ball of the Paris Zionist society. He approaches Nordau, cries "Death to Nordau, the East African" and fires two shots. Nordau writes to Herzl: "Yesterday evening I got an installment on the debt of gratitude which the Jewish people owe me for my selfless labors on its behalf. I say this without bitterness, only in sorrow. How unhappy is our people, to be able to produce such deeds." This incident goes to show the depth of feeling surrounding the “Uganda Plan.”
1903: Herzl publishes an account of the
Kharkov
conference in "Die Welt", together with a declaration calling upon those who had voted for the ultimatum to surrender their mandates. In a subsequent issue a digest of the minutes of the Conference appears.
1903: The
Williamsburg
Bridge
was opened in
New York City
. This was
America
's first major suspension bridge using steel towers instead of the customary masonry towers. It was built to alleviate traffic on the
Brooklyn
Bridge
and to provide a link between
Manhattan
and the
Williamsburg
section of
Brooklyn
, and was the second of three steel-frame suspension bridges to span the
East River
. Designed by Leffert L. Buck and Henry Hornbostel, it had taken over seven years to complete. The 1,600 foot
Williamsburg
Bridge
was the world's longest suspension bridge until the 1920s. It had cost $24,100,000 for the land and construction. For Jews it meant a connection between the
Lower East Side
and what would become the thriving Jewish neighborhoods of 20th century
Brooklyn
.
1916(24thof Kislev, 5677): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1916: The New York Times reported, “the celebration of the Jewish festival of Chanukah, or Feast of Dedication known also as the Feast of Lights, will being this evening and will continue for eight days.
1919: Victor Berger was elected for a second time to serve in the House of Representatives for a district in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The House had denied Berger the right to serve after having been elected in 1918 because he a convicted felon and opponent of the Great War.
1919: Zionist office opened in
Constantinople
for Jews wanting to move to
Palestine
.
1919: The SS Ruslam reached
Jaffa
with 671 people aboard. The ship was loaded with doctors, artists, and academics and had been called
Israel
’s Mayflower. Its arrival marked the period of what is known as the "Third Aliyah," which lasted four years. Approximately 50% of the 35,000 immigrants were from
Russia
and 35% from
Poland
. The "Third Aliyah" was idealistic and marked the time when the first Kibbutzim and Moshavim were established.
1920: Birthdate of David Susskind. Susskind was known primarily as movie, stage and television producer. But during the late 1950’s he hosted one of the original late-night talk shows. It was a high-brow event with no singers, no book pluggers and no comedy monologues. The set would become wreathed in a haze of cigarette smoke as the guests discussed weighty and artsy issues of the day. Susskind passed away in 1987.
1924: Governor General Primo de Rivera of
Spain
offered all Sephardim the possibility of reacquiring Spanish nationality provided they acquired this nationality before
December 31, 19
30
.
1926: Birthdate of Mina Arison Sapir, the native of Belz Bessarabia, Romania who is the wife Yekutiel Sapir and the mother of Micky and Shari Arison. Her daughter is reported to be one of the richest women in the world.
1934:The projected Jewish republic in Biro-Bidjan, Russia, constitutes no menace to the Zionist movement, E.Z. Goldberg, associate editor of The Day, who recently returned from the Soviet, declared today. He was interviewed at 285 Madison Avenue, the office of the American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in the U.S.S.R., of which he is a member. Mr. Goldberg said that the Soviet territory of Biro-Bidjan was an improvement over Palestine as a home for the Jews because it was three times larger than Palestine, “had no Arab problem” and benefited from support from the government. At the same time he said that Biro-Bidjan would not be a homeland for all Jews since there would no place for Orthodox Jews “who are capitalistically minded” and can go to Tel Aviv to make money.
1934: Thomas Lovejoy, Vice Chancellor of Bristol, wrote to Churchill that he would not be able to help him in his quest to find any more places for German-Jewish medical students because “there had been a heavy rush on entry to the Faculty of Medicine that year and we have had to refuse applications for entry from all foreign counties and even from some of the Dominions.” If the German-Jewish students could gain admission to the college than they could get out of
Germany
and gain entrance into the safe haven of
Great Britain
.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that out of the three Arab constables ambushed by an Arab terrorist gang, two were "tried" and killed on the spot, while the third was released after he promised to report on the "trial" and undertook to leave the police force within the next three days. All three constables were robbed of all their belongings. A punitive fine of £500 was imposed on the Jureina quarter of
Haifa
, where Sheikh Khatib was murdered. Jewish and German Protestant residents were exempted.
1939: The Nazi government officially gave Heydrich the responsibility for centralizing the implementation of his deportation plans. This was one of the basic steps in creating the organization that would lead to the slaughter of European Jewry. German efficiency and detailed planning was one of the hallmarks of the Final Solution.
1939: Three months after the German invasion of
Poland
, Chaim Weizmann meets with Winston Churchill who is now a member of the British Cabinet. Weizmann thanks Churchill for his consistent support of the Zionist cause. Churchill reiterates his support by agreeing that after the war he will support the Zionist “wish to have a State of some three or four million Jews in
Palestine
.”
1940:Zygmund William “Bill” Birnbaum married Hilde Merzbach. The two had met in Seattle while both of them were involved in assisting Jewish refugees arriving from Europe.
1940: Birthdate of Phil Ochs, singer, songwriter and social activist.
1941: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. It is realties like this that put the lie to those who apologist who tried to separate the Whermacht from the Nazi death machine.
1942: After three weeks trapped in a synagogue by hostile Ukrainian troops, 42 Jewish men are marched to the
Rakow
Forest
and ordered to dig ditches. They resist and are then shot. A few manage to escape. Later in the day, 560 more Jews are led from the synagogue to the forest and murdered.
1942: In
Norway
, new tenants moved into the home of the Isak Plesansky family who had already been shipped to
Auschwitz
. Within three weeks the clothing of the Plesanksy family would be in the hands of the superintendent of the Berg Concentration Camp. Needless to say, the heirs of the Plesansky family were never compensated for the loss after the war.
1944: Birthdate of Mitchell Feigenbaum. Born in
Philadelphia
, Feigenbaum is a mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constant. Makes you wonder how many more Jewish boys named Mitchell were born in
Philadelphia
in December, 1944.
1945: The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution on Palestine which had been approved by the U.S. Senate.
1946: Johan J. Smertenko, vice president of American League for a Free Palestine, is barred from England where he had planned to start British branch of organization. He says terrorism is justified.
1946: William B. Ziff declares that negotiation by Jewish Agency would be opposed by Palestinian underground groups. Revisionists say that Ziff had been expelled for breaches of party discipline.
1947: In an attempt to deal with the looming threat to its water supply,
Jerusalem
householders respond to a request by communal leaders to open and clean their cisterns “in preparation for water storage.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the resolution of the UN General Assembly's Political Committee urging direct Arab-Israeli peace negotiations was hindered by a sudden Philippine and Catholic Bloc countries' amendment demanding the implementation of all old UN resolutions, including the internationalization of Jerusalem.
Israel
complained to the
US
and
Britain
that they continue to arm the Arab states, despite their promise that there should be no arms race in the region.
1957:Aharon Remez, the second commander of the Israeli Air Force, resigned his seat in the Knesset. He had been elected in 1955 as a member of Mapai and was followed in office by Amos Degani.
1968: American Socialist Party leader and social critic Norman Thomas passed away. While he may have been a visionary liberal on many issues including the need to end racial segregation, his record regarding the Jews is more of a mixed bag. During the 1930’s, Thomas actively opposed the United States entering World War II, a view that he changed after Pearl Harbor. Thomas campaigned…in favor of opening the United States to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in the 1930s. Thomas was also very critical of Zionism and of Israel's policies towards the Arabs in the postwar years (especially after the Suez Crisis) and often collaborated with the American Council for Judaism.
1969: Two pharmacists were killed in a bloody robbery. In 1974, Pierre Goldman, the illegitimate son of Jewish WW II Resistance Leader Alter Mojze Goldman, was given a life-sentence by the Paris cour d'assises, after being convicted of this crime. He denied having committed this robbery, although he admitted to three earlier robberies. He was finally acquitted of the murders that took place during the robbery, but condemned to twelve years in prison for the other three robberies
1971(1st of Tevet, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1971(1st of Tevet, 5732): James G. Heller an American composer and rabbi passed away in Cincinnati, Ohio. “James Gutheim Heller was born in New Orleans on January 4, 1892, to the famous Reform rabbi Maximilian H. Heller. He received an undergraduate degree from Tulane University, a graduate degree from the University Of Cincinnati College Conservatory Of Music, and was ordained a rabbi at Hebrew Union College. Heller was rabbi of Congregation Bene Yeshurun (Isaac M. Wise Temple) in Cincinnati from 1920-1952, and was involved with several organizations including the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Labor Zionist Organization of America, and the State of Israel Bonds Organization. He was an active Zionist, and introduced Youth Temple, which was designed to bring young individuals together for religious education. Heller was also a composer and musician who wrote program notes for the Cincinnati Symphony.”
1971: Stanley Kubrick's X-rated "A Clockwork Orange" premieres
1977: The Jerusalem Post published details of Menachem Begin's peace plan which outlined a mutual Arab-Jewish right of settlement in
Judea
and
Samaria
and a united
Jerusalem
. Palestinian Arabs were to enjoy "self-rule," their own administration and freedom to vote in
Jordan
.
Israel
was to retain full responsibility for internal and external security of the
West Bank
and
Gaza
, and recognized Egyptian sovereignty over all of Sinai.
Israel
was willing to consider, but not to initiate, a military defense pact with the
US
.
1979: Results of a comparison test of White Pekin Ducks published today it was reported that the Kosher Empire Duckling (frozen) had an “extremely mushy exterior, with skin broken in several areas. It was poorly cleared with many pin feathers remaining. The meat was very mush and flavorless. At $2.25 a pound it was by far the most expensive of the ducks in the test group. [Editor’s Note – as a consumer of Empire poultry, I can honestly say that this comes as a complete surprise. In my experience, their products have always been first rate.
1980: Birthdate of actress Marla Sokoloff.
1982: At Congregation Schomre Israel in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Rabbi Morris Bekritsky officiated at the marriage of Grett Evonne Singer and David Rapport Lachterman.
1982: Edward Rothstein reviewed the Carnegie debut of Israeli cellist Ofra Harnoy and the 92nd Street Y debut of pianist Sofia Cosma.
1984(25thof Kislev, 5745): First Day of Chanukah
1987: As Congress tries to finish its business before adjourning for the holidays, the House holds a rare Saturday session which has made many members re-consider their travel plans including House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas who wonders if he will be able to make his scheduled Sunday evening flight for Tel Aviv.
1990: Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 18 Palestinians today during a strike to protest Israeli plans to expel four Arabs, residents said.
1991: Professor Avishair Margalist of the Hebrew University publishes a plan in the New York Review of Books suggesting a form of joint sovereignty whereby Jerusalem would be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian State.
1992: A Hamas terrorist kidnapped and murdered a policeman in Jersualem.
1995:Roval Elimelech who lives in Kfar Saba, a suburban town north of Tel Aviv, found out that a new border had sprung up overnight not far from her doorstep. About a mile away, Palestinian policemen had moved into Qalqilya, a town on the West Bank's border with Israel, taking it over from Israeli soldiers who had withdrawn in keeping with an agreement signed in September on expanding Palestinian self-rule.
1996(9th of Tevet, 5757: Sefton D. Temkin, an author and scholar of American Jewish history, passed away in his native
Liverpool
,
England
. He was 79 and a resident of
Albany
. Dr. Temkin, who was associate professor emeritus of Judaic studies at the university, was chairman of the department of judaic studies in the 1970's and had continued his research at Albany since retiring a few years ago. Dr. Temkin was an expert on the life and work of Isaac Mayer Wise, who founded Reform Judaism in the
United States
in the nineteenth century and oversaw its spread across the country as the founder and longtime leader of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
1997(20th of Kislev, 5758): Physicist David Norman Schramm passed away at the age of 52. He had a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother.
1999: The New York Times book section includes a review of Mailer: A Biography by Mary V. Dearborn which tells “How a nice Jewish boy from
Brooklyn
grew up to be you-know-who.”
2004: The New York Times features a review of the paperback edition of American Music by Annie Leibovitz
2004(7th of Tevet, 5765): Herbert Brown passed away. He discovered organoboranes and received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979. Brown was born Herbert Brovarnik in London to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He moved to the United States at a young age and was educated at the University of Chicago, earning a B.S. and Ph.D. in 1936 and 1938, respectively. He became professor at Purdue University in 1947, a position he had held emeritus until his death.
2005: Having pulled out of Gaza, the Israeli government announced further measures to improve relations with the Palestinians. The IDF announced that Israel will ease access to Bethlehem during the upcoming Christmas celebrations in a "calculated risk" intended to let Christian pilgrims worship the holiday freely in the West Bank town. IDF Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said pilgrims will not need permission from the army to enter the town, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. The military will try to speed the process by not checking every tourist bus, but conducting spot checks of random buses instead, he said. The Israelis are doing this despite the fact that half of the Israeli terror fatalities in 2004 came from attackers who entered
Jerusalem
from
Bethlehem
.
2006(28th of Kislev, 5767): The joy of Chanukah was marred as three yeshiva students belonging to the Lubavitch Hasidic sect were killed in a car accident on their way to light Hanukkah candles and distribute doughnuts for the holiday at Israel Defense Forces bases in the south of the country. Five other Lubavitchers traveling in the same vehicle were injured in the accident.
2007: Yonatan Dagan performs in his capacity as lead DJ of the J.Viewz proejcted, a ensenbmle that defies any clear musical classification at Jerusalem’s Yellow Submarine a venue for some of the most clectic and innovative music styles available.
2007(10thof Tevet, 5768): Fast of the Tenth of Tevet
2007(10thof Tevet, 5768): Yarhtzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin)
2008: Temple Beth Rishon, in North West Bergen County, NJ, presents the Marvin Gastman Memorial Concert <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: ita