December 2 In Jewish History
127 CE: In a document drawn up on this date at a government office in Rabbatg, east of the Dead Sea, four date groves in Maoza were registered by their owner as part of a provincial census ordered by the Roman governor. The date groves abutted the property of Tmar, daughter of Thamous (Tamar, daughter of Thomas). Record of this ancient document from an area the Romans called Palestine is proof that women did own property in their own right. Who was Tamar? Who was her father Thomas? These are questions for which, as yet, we have no answers.
499: (Kislev, 4427): Ravina II (Bar Shemuel), the nephew of Ravina passed away. According to tradition Ravina completed the final editing of the Talmud that had been begun by Rav Ashi about one year prior to this time. According to some authorities, Ravina committed the Oral Law (the Talmud) to writing, despite protests that only the Bible should be written down. His death marked the end of the period of the Amoraim ushered in the period of the Savoraim.
1264: In Sinsig, Germany, a convert to Judaism was arrested for preaching Judaism. Although tortured he refused to recant his belief in Judaism and is burned at the stake.
1763: The Touro Synagogue opened in Newport, Rhode Island. Sephardic Jews in Jamaica, Surinam, London and Amsterdam sponsored the building of this first major center of Jewish culture in America. It is the oldest synagogue in the United States.“The new edifice introduced an important innovation in synagogue design. The women’s gallery of this traditional synagogue featured a low balustrade that offered women an open view of the rest of the sanctuary.Women’s galleries in other “new world” and “old world” synagogues generally were constructed with high or opaque barriers meant to keep women out of the sight of men within the sanctuary. The change in Newport represented less a reform of traditional practice than a reflection of colonial American expectations for female religious expression. The strong presence of women in colonial American churches was an important way in which women demonstrated the religious piety expected of them by their society. Observing the behavior of their non-Jewish neighbors, colonial American Jewish women seemed to understand that it was more important that they be seen in the space of public worship than had been the case in their previous communities. Early American synagogue records suggest that unmarried young women both attended and asserted their presence in the synagogue. The open gallery layout of the Newport synagogue demonstrates a changing consciousness of what women’s synagogue role should be. Moreover, the open plan was imitated by most of the early American synagogues that followed Newport.”
1790: In Hungary, “the Diet drafted a bill showing that it intended to protect” the rights of the Jews as they had requested in the petition submitted to King Leopold II.
1796: Ezekiel Hart, the first Jew to be elected to public office in the British Empire, and his brothers Moses and Benjamin went into partnership to establish a brewery in Trois-Rivières, the M. and E. Hart Company. By the terms of the agreement the three agreed to hold equal shares in the firm. They had the financial backing of their father. Ezekiel Hart later withdrew from the M. and E. Hart Company. Ezekiel sold everything to Moses, apparently soon after their father's death in 1800. Subsequently Ezekiel followed in the footsteps of his father, who was in every respect his model. He went into the import and export trade, kept a general store, never let a good business deal pass, and acquired property. Besides inheriting the seigneury of Bécancour, he bought a great deal of land, mainly at Trois-Rivières and Cap-de-la-Madeleine.
1825: Birthdate of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. An opponent of slavery and a comparatively tolerant man, he was tolerant of both Jews and Muslims. “when asked why there were no laws against” the Jews of Brazil he answered: ‘I will not attack the Jews, as the God of my religion came from their people.’”
1839(25th of Kislev, 5600): Chanukah
1848: Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria. Born in 1830, Franz Josef reigned until his death in 1916. Most people think of him as the Austrian Emperor who declared war on Serbia in 1914 and started World War I. From the Jewish perspective, the last of the Hapsburg monarchs was one of the better rulers under which to live. Despite the rising tide of anti-Semitism in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Josef saw himself as the protector of his Jewish subjects. At one point he told his ministers, “I will tolerate no Jew-baiting in my empire!” He described anti-Semitism as “an illness” whose “excesses were awful.” He is reliably reported to have publicly walked out of a theatre when performers began a series of anti-Semitic songs. In 1895, he moved to block the anti-Semitic rabble-rouser Karl Lueger (one of Hitler’s early role-models) from becoming burgomeister of Vienna. In 1869, Franz Josef visited Jerusalem where he met with a group of local Jews and contributed to the building of a new synagogue. Austrian Jews spoke highly of the Emperor during his reign and at the time of his death. But his enemies provided the full measure of the monarch’s attitude towards his Jewish subjects. Behind his back, they called him the “Judenkaiser.”
1851: French President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
1851: In France, Adolphe Crémieux was arrested and was imprisoned for his opposition to Louis Napoleon.
1852: Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Napoleon
III
. In one sense, he was a comic opera figure who used his name to gain power, Napoleon was not as weak as his enemies thought nor as wily a politician as he himself thought. He did not dabble in anti-Semitism and counted Jews among his friends and supporters, especially if they were wealthy and successful. His relations with the House of Rothschild were strained by the fact that the Jewish bankers had supported one of his opponents. But Napoleon overlooked this since he needed their financial support. On the other hand, Louis Napoleon was the sole supporter of reactionary Pope Leo IX who pursued a number of anti-Semitic practices. However, this was more a case of power politics than personally held beliefs. In the end the greatest impact Louis Napoleon had on the Jews was tangential. Louis Napoleon led France to defeat in the disastrous Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The French desire to avenge this humiliation and regain its lost provinces was one of the contributing factors to World War I. And of course, World I begot World War II and the Holocaust.
1859: Abolitionist John Brown was hung after his unsuccessful raid on the armory at Harpers Ferry that was intended to be the first step in an uprising that would free the slaves. Three Jews – August Bondi, Jacob Benjamin and Theodore Weiner – had fought alongside Brown in his first armed attack that took place at Osawatomie, Kansas.
1868: Disraeli’s first British government resigns. Disraeli’s father may have had him baptized, but Disraeli’s enemies would never let him forget his Jewish ancestry.
1869: Birthdate of Jonas Cohen German-born, English philosopher.
1877: Over 500 people attended the annual meeting of the Society of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews. Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen, the President of the society, chaired the meeting. The unusually large turnout was precipitated by concerns over financial irregularities combined with the election of officers. In her annual report, the President expressed her concern over financial irregularities involving other officers and the home’s superintendent. Despite request that she serve another term, Mrs. Joachimsen has decided to end her service due to the contention she has had to deal with.
1877: It was reported today that The Board of Delegates of American Israelites and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations have met and agreed to unite their organizations. The new organization will meet every three years. A committee with 30 members from all four sections of the country will be empowered to handle administrative matters.
1878: The New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals is scheduled to hand down a ruling today in the case of Erie v Dringer which is on appeal from Vice Chancellor Van Fleet. Erie is the Erie Railroad. Dringer is an Austrian born Jew who came to the United States in 1867 and went from driving a junk wagon in New York to owning his own junk yard in Paterson. He invented a unique machine for cutting up old iron which made it possible for him to buy large amount of scrap and made him the largest scrap dealer in the United States. Eventually some of his less successful competitors brought suit against him, claiming among other things that he was effectively stealing scrap metal from the Erie Railroad. The trial court ruled in favor of Dringer and his co-defendants. The Plaintiffs appealed and now that case has been argued, a decision is awaited by all parties.
1893: Birthdate of Russian-born, American composer Leo Ornstein. He was one of the leading American experimental composers and pianists of the early twentieth century. Though he gave his last public concert around the age of forty, he continued to compose through his late nineties. He passed away in 2002.
1895: Birthdate of English-born pianist Harriet Cohen.
1900: Herzl First visit of the Turkish agent Eduard Crespi in Vienna.
1902: In order to renew the connection with Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber, Herzl sends him a copy of "Altneuland".
1905: Birthdate of Moses ("Moe") Asch, the founder of Folkways Records. He was the son of Yiddish language novelist and dramatist Sholem Asch and the younger brother of novelist Nathan Asch.
1906: Birthdate of award-winning engineer, Peter Carl Goldmark. Born in Hungary, Goldmark came to the United States in the 1930’s. Goldmark is best known for his invention of the l.p. or long-playing record which revolutionized the recording industry. He also help develop the first commercial color television. He passed away in December of 1977.
1908: Daoud Effendi Molho, First Dragoman of the Imperial Divan, Constantinople was nominated to serve as a Senator in Turkey. The functions of the First Dragoman were mainly political; he accompanied the ambassador or minister at his audiences of the sultan and usually of the ministers, and was charged with the core of diplomatic negotiations
1910: A Jew, Jacob Effendi de Vidas, ex-Censor of the Jewish Press at Smyrna is appointed Inspector of Elementary Schools at Mitylene (Lesbos).
1911 Big Jack Zelig, a Jewish gangster murdered Italian gangster Julie Morrell at the Stuyvesant Casino. Zelig believed Jack Sirocco and Chick Tricker had hired Morrell to kill him so he struck first. This killing was part of the fight by the Jewish dominated Eastman gang to control the Five Points section of New York.
1914: Birthdate of composer of Adolph Green. With his partner Betty Comden, he wrote numerous hits, including "New York, New York" (the version from the musical On The Town) and the screenplay for the film Singin' in the Rain.
1915(25thof Kislev, 5676): Chanukah
1915: Second night of a “fete” featuring historical tableaux held for the benefit of the Spanish and Portuguese Sisterhood which is chaired by Mrs. Mortimer M. Meken.
1915: Albert Einstein published the general theory of relativity.
1916:Isaiah "Jacques" Pais married Kaatje "Cato" van Kleeff. This union of a Sephardic Jew and Ashkenazi Jew produced a son named Abraham Pais, the famed Dutch born physicist.
1923: Birthdate of Meshulam Riklis, chief executive of McCrory Corporation. After serving in the military during World War II, Riklis majored in mathematics at Ohio State University. He worked his way through college as a Hebrew teacher before starting out on his very successful business career.
1933: Release of “Dancing Lady,” a musical comedy that showed the Jewish involvement in the movied industry. It featured the Three Stooges (all Jewish) in one of their first film. Louis Silvers provided the music and David O. Selznick coproduced this film that was distributed by MGM.
1934: Birthdate of Salomon Gottlob, who at the age of seen boarded Convoy 25 that left Drancy for Auschwitz on August, 28, 1942
1937: The Palestine Post reported that out of the three Arab constables ambushed and kidnapped by an Arab terrorist gang near Shfaram, two were "tried" and murdered. The third constable was released to inform the authorities of the murder and the "trial."
1937: The Palestinian Post reported that scores of bullets hit the Haifa-Kiryat Haim bus, but no one was wounded.
1939: Birthdate of Yael Dayan. This daughter of Moshe Dayan has made a career in her own right including that of an Israeli politician.
1940: Prime Minister Churchill replied to General Wavell’s concerns about letting the survivors of the Patria remain in Palestine. Churchill wondered if even the most militant of Arabs could find fault with what Churchill described as a humanitarian gesture. He wondered if the Arab commitment to the cause of the fight against the Nazis was so slender that such an event as this could have such disastrous consequences. At the same time, Churchill assured Wavell that there would not be a repetition of the Patria since all future illegal Jewish immigrants would be imprisoned in Mauritius for the duration of the war.
1940(2nd of Kislev): Fifty-five year old Rabbi Bernard Revel passed away. Born in Lithuania, he came to the United States after the Russian Revolution of 1905, entered NYU and received an MA in 1909. In 1915, he was named the first President of Yeshiva College, a position he held at the time of his death. This blog cannot do justice to his life and contributions to the Jewish people. You can begin to learn more about him at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/revel.html
1942: Jews in 30 countries hold a day of prayer and fasting for European Jews.
1942: The first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated in Chicago, Illinois. At the University of Chicago, Enrico Fermi and his team achieved the world's first artificial nuclear chain reaction, in a makeshift lab underneath the University's football stands at Stagg Field. Work on the experimental pile had begun on 16 Nov 1942. It was a prodigious effort. Physicists and staffers, working around the clock, built a lattice of 57 layers of uranium metal and uranium oxide embedded in graphite blocks. A wooden structure supported the graphite pile. The chain reaction was part of the Manhattan Project, a secret wartime project to develop nuclear weapons, which initiated the modern nuclear age. This was a discovery that changed the world.
1943: The first RSHA transport reached Birkenau from Vienna.
1943: One hundred Jews from Vienna arrive at Auschwitz.
1944: In Budapest, three Jews were killed when gangs attacked the building in which they were living even though it was under Swiss Protection. Some Swiss diplomats, like their Swedish counterparts, used the diplomatic concept of extra-territoriality to provide safe haven for Hungarian Jews. Unfortunately, the various forces of anti-Semitism operating in the Hungarian capital did not always respect the niceties of international law.
1944(16th of Kislev, 5705): Russian born painter and pianist Josef Lhévinne, whose birth name was Joseph Arkadievich Levin passed away in New York City just a few days before his 70th birthday.
1947: First day of a three-day general strike called by the Arab Higher Committee to protest the UN vote for partition.
1947: Bands of Arabs engage in violent protests and murderous attacks on the Jewish populace. Three Jews were shot dead in the Old City. Hundreds of Arab youths marched towards Zion Square in the center of Jerusalem chanting “Death to the Jews.” Fighting broke out in Jerusalem’s Commercial Centre between marauding Arab mobs and Jews seeking to protect their property.
1947: On the second day of general strike called by the Arab Higher Committee 200 Arabs broke into the commercial center in Jerusalem, looting and burning Jewish owned shops. The British troops made no effort to intervene. They did prevent a platoon of Haganah troops from coming to the aid of the embattled Jews.
1948: The Iraq government “suggested” to oil companies operating in Iraq, that no Jewish employees be accepted
1951: "Borscht Capades" closes at Royale Theater in New York City after 90 performances. Mickey Katz and his son Joel Grey both appeared in this short-lived musical.
1952:The Jerusalem Post reported on the new Israeli peace initiative which urged the scrapping of all old UN resolutions and provided for negotiations based on the consideration of all security, territorial, refugee, economic and regional questions, as well as scientific, cultural and technical cooperation.
1957(9th of Kislev, 5718): Fifty-seven year old Dr. Manfred J. Sakel passed away. Born in 1900, Manfred Joshua Sakel was a Polish born neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who introduced insulin-shock therapy for schizophrenics and other mental patients in 1927, while a young doctor in Vienna. Insulin-induced coma and convulsions, due to the low level of glucose attained in the blood (hypoglicemic crisis) improved the mental state of drug addicts and psychotics, sometimes dramatically. His findings indicated that up to 88% of his patients improved with insulin shock therapy. His method became widely applied for many years in mental institutions worldwide. He immigrated to the U.S. ahead of WW II. in 1936. "Sakel's Therapy" is still used in Europe, but in the U.S. it has been superseded by electroconvulsive therapy and other means of treatment.
1968: President Nixon names Henry Kissinger security advisor. Kissinger was a surprise choice for the job for two reasons. He had supported Nelson Rockefeller and strongly questioned Nixon’s fitness for the job. And, as we have found out from the Nixon Tapes, Richard Nixon had an anti-Semitic streak that bordered on the paranoid.
1968: Birthdate of actress Rena Sofer who appears on the soap “General Hospital.” She is the daughter of Martin Sofer, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. “Sofer is a descendant of Baal Shem Tov and of the Chasam Sofer through her father's family.”
1970: Birthdate of comedic actress Sarah Silverman.
1971: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.
1973: King Hussein of Jordan said that there could no peace in the area until Israeli forces had completely withdrawn from all lands taken in 1967 including all of Jerusalem
1973: Yonatan Netanyahu wrote to his brother Benjamin
"We're preparing for war, and it's hard to know what to expect. What I'm positive of is that there will be a next round, and others after that. But I would rather opt for living here in continual battle than for becoming part of the wandering Jewish people. Any compromise will simply hasten the end. As I don't intend to tell my grandchildren about the Jewish State in the twentieth century as a mere brief and transient episode in thousands of years of wandering, I intend to hold on here with all my might.”
1977: In the aftermath of Sadat’s visit to Jerusalem, Moshe Dayan and Hassan Tuhami, the Egyptian Deputy Prime minister held a second secret meeting in Morocco. Dayan provided a proposal for the restoration of Egyptian sovereignty over the Sinai. Much to Dayan’s chagrin, Tuhami is less than thrilled with the offer. It is obvious that there is big gap between Sadat’s spectacular flight to Jerusalem and his claims to want piece and the achievement of that stated outcome.
1978: "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" featuring Neil Diamond & Barbra Streisand makes it to the top spot on the charts.
1981(6th of Kislev, 5742): Hershey Kay, American born composer and arranger, passed away
1982(16th of Kislev, 5743): Marty Feldman, the comedic actor featured in the film Young Frankenstein, passed away.
1983: Dr. Moisés Carlos Bentes Ruah and Catarina Lia Azancot Korn gave birth to Daniela Sofia Korn Ruah a Portuguese-American Jewish actress best known for playing NCIS Special Agent Kensi Blye in the CBS series NCIS: Los Angeles.
1984: Him With His Foot In His Mouth and Other Stories by Saul Bellow and Lives of the Poets: Six Stories and a Novella by E. L. Doctorow are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year.
1987(11th of Kislev, 5748):Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, a Soviet scientist who played a key role in the development of nuclear weapons in the U.S.S.R. passed away.
1988: Bank Leumi, Tel Aviv, named Moshe Zanbar chairman and David Friedman managing director.
1988: A man carrying the passport of a former Israeli official linked to the Iran-contra scandal was killed in a plane crash, Government officials said today. The man was tentatively identified by a passport found on his body as Amiram Nir, said a statement from the Attorney General's office in the state of Michoacan.
1990: The New York Times reported that Israel has undertaken an investment initiative designed to lure high-tech American and European companies to invest in its economy. The program was developed by Moshe Nissim, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade.
1990(15th of Kislev, 5751): Composer Aaron Copland passed away at the age of 90. Some of his works include Rodeo, Billy the Kid, Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring.
1994: Jury finds Heidi Fleiss guilty of running a call girl ring
1994: Tonight, “with a rousing encore of Johann Strauss Sr.'s "Radetzky March" that had a stadium audience of 14,000 people chanting for more, Zubin Mehta put the finishing touch to a long-standing ambition: bringing the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to India, and better still to Bombay, the hometown Mr. Mehta left 40 years ago to begin his musical career.
1997: MCI Center opens in Washington, DC, as the Wizards played the Seattle SuperSonics. The Wizards are owned by Abe Pollin and the MCI Center, which helped to rejuvenate downtown Washington, was the product of this forty year fixture of the basketball and Jewish community.
2001: The New York Timeslist of the Best Books of 2001 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald and Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks a physician and author raised as an Orthodox Jew.
2001(17th of Kislev, 5762): A bomb went off aboard a bus in Haifa, killing 15 Israelis. Same terrorists as described above attacking the same kind of targets.
2005(1st of Kislev, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
2005(1st of Kislev, 5766): American painter Nat Mayer Shapiro passed away at the age of 86.
2005:On this date Haaretzreported that thousands of Ethiopian immigrants gathered along the Sherover-Haas Promenade overlooking Jerusalem's Old City to celebrate Sigad - the Ethiopian Jewish holiday that for 2,500 years in exile marked the yearning for Zion.
2005: Nicholas F Taubman began serving as United States Ambassador to Romania.
2006: After 11 months, Kaddish is recited for the last time by the family of Judy Rosenstein, of blessed memory.
2006: The Economist Magazine of this date reviewed Jonathan I. Israel’s Enlightenment Contested in which he contends that the Dutch led by Spinoza were the real “torchbearers of the enlightenment” and not the English of the time whom he describes as apologists for colonialism and enemies of equality.
2007: Jewish Book Month comes to an end.
2007: After 20 years of renovation work that cost US$20 million, and that was overseen by the non-profit Museum at Eldridge Street the Eldridge Street Synagogue reopened today to the public. It continues to serve as an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, with regular weekly services on the Sabbath and Holidays, and is also the Museum at Eldridge Street offering informative tours that relate to American Jewish history, the history of the Lower East Side and immigration
2007: In Kensington, MD, children's author and illustrator Sallie Lowenstein, author of Waiting for Eugeneand The Festival of Lights,discusses the evolving state of children's books. Lowenstein, also a keen book collector, will have a number of her treasures on display to help enliven the discussion.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of books on Jewish topics and/or by Jewish authors including A Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman by veteran underground cartoonist Sharon Rudahl, Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan one of the founders of the Actus Tragicus collective of Israeli cartoonists and I Killed Adolf Hitler by the Norwegian cartoonist known simply as Jason
2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section lists the Books of 2007 including the following books on Jewish topics and/or by Jewish authors including Lost Genius, by Kevin Bazzana, The Worlds of Lincoln Kirstein, by Martin Duberman, Einstein, by Jurgen Neffe, Calvin Coolidge, by David Greenberg, Ike, by Michael Korda, Opening Day by Jonathan Eig, Reality Show by Howard Kurtz, The Art of Political Murder, by Francisco Goldman, Power, Faith, and Fantasy, by Michael B. Oren, The Grand Surprise, edited by Stephen Pascal, Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks, A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories, by Primo Levi, Away, by Amy Bloom, Imposture, by Benjamin Markovits and The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon.
2008: As part of the Oud Festival sponsored by Confederation House, Violet Salameh will perform a program of works dedicated to the three great divas of the classical Arabic music world - Layla Morad, Asmahan and Oum Koulthoum at the Jerusalem Theater
2008: In New York, AFHUS Einstein Award Gala Honoring Bill Gates. Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson will is the guest speaker. Proceeds will benefit pioneering research at The Hebrew University's Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and the Environment, developing innovative solutions to feeding the world through sustainable agriculture.
2008: Hours after voting began this morning, the Labor party postponed the primary elections after computerized voting systems malfunctioned in several locales around the country.
2008: Throngs of mourners packed the funerals of the six Jews killed in last week's terror attack in India. The six died after gunmen struck the Chabad House, the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Lubavitch movement, last Wednesday. After a two-day standoff, four Israelis, an American Jew and a Mexican woman were dead. The dead included Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, his 28-year-old wife, Rivka, 38-year-old Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, 28-year old Bentzion Kruman and 50-year-old Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich.
2009: The trial of Heinrich Boere, a man accused of murdering Dutch civilians as a member of a Waffen SS hit squad and has said that he was proud about being chosen to fight for the Nazis is scheduled to resume today.
2009(15thof Kislev, 5770): Eighty-one year old “Harold A. Ackerman, a federal judge in New Jersey for three decades whose hundreds of cases included trials of crooked politicians, corrupt union officials and reputed organized crime chieftains, died today at his home in West Orange, N.J. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/nyregion/10ackerman.html
2009: David Wessel, the economics editor at the Wall Street Journal and author of the Capital column, discusses and signs his new book, In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic, at the Arlington Central Library in Arlington, VA.
2009: Chabad and JCCNV present “Extreme Makeover: Spiritual Edition” featuring Laibl Wolf, noted Australian Mystic, author of “Practical Kabala” and originator of Mind-Yoga.
2010: Lynda Barry and Maira Kalman are scheduled to “show slides of their work, compare notes and talk about their experiences as creators in many genres” in a program entitled “Words and Pictures” at the 92nd Street Y.
2010: Jewish children's author Jacqueline Jules is scheduled to read from her book, The Ziz and the Hanukkah Miracle at the Historic 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2010: A huge brushfire was raging across the Carmel Mountains near Haifa this afternoon, resulting in the death of some 40 people and hurting dozens of others, among them prison guards and firemen. Firefighting crews were still battling with the flames into the evening hours and expressed no hope of controlling the fire soon. "We lost all control of the fire," said the Haifa firefighting services spokesman on Thursday. "There aren't enough firefighting resources in Israel in order to put out the fire," he said. The 40 individuals who died were students in the Prison Service's prison guard course who were being brought to the Damon Prison to aid in evacuating the prisoners there. According to an initial investigation of the events, a tree fell down in the middle of the road the bus was taking, trapping the bus between the flames. As a result, 40 of the 50 prison guards who were on the bus died from the flames. Seven individuals were evacuated from the scene in serious condition and transferred to Haifa hospitals. Firefighting forces have been working without success on putting out the flames since the afternoon hours, trying to battle the massive blaze which has already burned down at least 7,000 dunams of natural forest. Magen David Adom Director General Eli Bin defined the fire as "the worst disaster in Israel's history."
2010: Two Palestinian terrorists were killed on the Gaza border this morning, when IDF troops opened fire on a number of suspects on the northern end of the Strip. The terrorists were apparenlty trying to infiltrate a kibbutz on the Gaza border.
2010: In Gainesville, FL, The Lubavitch Chabbad Jewish Center celebrated the second of the eight day Hanukah holiday with a twelve foot Menorah filled with toys for hospitalized children. "I know when I get toys it's very exciting and I can imagine even more so to these children in the hospital so we're trying to bring the happiness of Hanukah to them." said Medel Goldman, who donated toys. The Menorah is the largest in Alachua County and organizers say it's a creative way to share the universal message of warmth and hope. "Not only are we thinking about our own family or ourselves but we're actually translating the spirit of the holiday into joy for others Tonights pride filled celebration is also known as the festival of lights, it commerates the victory of a small Jewish force against a large army "The menorah's message is a message of religious freedom and of good over evil." Rabbi Goldman said. The Jewish community and city commissioners joined in the festive songs, dance and food. "We're giving out jelly donuts and all the oily fried foods because Hanukah is known as the miracle of the oil." New toys and donations toward the purchase of new toys can be dropped off at the center until next week.
2010: Today marked the 30th anniversary the death of French-Jewish novelist Romain Gary,
2010: As Irving Picard sought to get control of funds related to the Madoff Ponzi Scheme non-profits targeted by clawback suits yesterday and today include the Joseph Persky Foundation, the Miles and Shirley Fitterman Charitable Foundation, and the Melvin B. Nessel Foundation. In all, over 20 charities and foundations were sued.
2011: The Heist Project is scheduled to perform works by Israeli choreographer Idan Sharabi