December 23 In History
1420: The Pope banned conversion of Jewish children done without consent of their parents
1736: In Peru, the last inquisition took place. Dona Ana de Castro, a former lover of the viceroy (among others) was accused of Judaizing and burned at the stake. It is probably that her execution had more to do with official embarrassment than with any religious devotion on her part.
1777: Birthdate of the anti-Semitic Tsar Alexander I who promulgated a decree drafting Jewish 12 year olds into the Russian Army.
1791: Catherine II created the Pale of Settlement. Jews were squeezed out of the major cities and ports into the area known as White Russia. Even within the Pale, Jews were excluded from certain cities and Crown Lands. The driving force behind the creation of the pale was the merchants in Moscow who demanded protection against Jewish competition. The Russian government followed the path of bigotry to the detriment of the nation. Creating the Pale meant that the Jews would not be available to help create a vigorous middle class which was so critical to the success of other modern nation-states including the U.S., Britain and Germany. The Pale of Settlement was Russia's response to having acquired a large Jewish population as a result of the partition of Poland. This upset what had been the Russian policy of trying to create a Russia without Jews. The Pale was on Russia's western frontier. In event of an invasion by Prussia, Russia would have this buffer zone that would absorb the first shock and devastation while the Russian Army was being fully mobilized. In one sense, the Jews of the Pale were the human shields of the Russian Empire. What is the “Pale” in the Pale of Settlement? “Pale” is the term for the fence boards.
1812: Jephtas Gelübde ('The vow of Jephtha') the first opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, the German Jewish composer, had its first performance at the Hoftheater in Munich
1820: Birthdate of Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy “a Hungarian rabbi and academic who became the first Jewish Reader in Talmudic and Rabbinic Literature at the University of Cambridge.
1837: Birthdate of Isaac Seldner who served with the 6th Virginia Infantry Regiment in the Civil War.
1844(13th of Tevet, 5605): Seventy-seven year old Salomon Heine, the Hamburg merchant and banker who was known as the “Rothschild of Hamburg” passed away today. He was the uncle of Heinrich Heine.
1850: Birthdate of Oscar Solomon Straus. One of the Straus brothers who were noted merchants, public servants, philanthropists and leaders of the Jewish community from the second half of the 19th century through the Roaring Twenties. Straus was ambassador to Turkey and the first American Jew to hold a cabinet post. He was appointed Secretary of Commerce and Labor by Teddy Roosevelt. He was active in the reform wing of the Republican party and became an advisor to President Woodrow Wilson. Straus was the found of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the American Jewish Committee. Among the books he authored was his autobiography Under Four Administrations. He passed away in 1926.
1851: The Young Men’s Hebrew Benevolent Association is hosting a benefit at the Broadway Theatre tonight. The entertainment includes a violin solo by Frederick Griebel and a performance of comedy, “All That Glitters Is Not Gold.”
1864(24thof Kislev, 5625): As night falls, the Jewish troops with General Sherman kindle the first light of Chanukah in Savannah, GA.
1867: Emancipation of the Jews of Hungary. After the Prussians defeated the Austrians, the Austrians reformed certain aspects of their imperial system. They created the dual monarchy so that the Austrian Empire became the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Hapsburgs tried this and other cosmetic reforms in an attempt to maintain control over their polyglot empire.
1868(9th of Tevet, 5629): Jacob Disraeli, the son of Isaac D’Israeli and Mary Basevi, passed away today.
1870: It was reported today that many of the women who had worked to make the Hebrew Fair such a success are now helping out at the fair being held to raise funds to support the orphans of soldiers and sailors.
1875: It was reported today that the Hebrew Charity Fair which was held at Gilmore’s Garden has come to a close. On the last evening the remaining items on hand were auctioned off for $542. The fair raised almost $135,000.
1875(25thof Kislev, 5636): First Day of Chanukah
1876: A fair that is designed to raise funds for Hebrew Charities is scheduled to take place tonight at the Masonic Hall in New York City.
1877(17th of Tevet, 5638): Yehuda Abraham Covo passed away. Born in 1832, he was a Rabbinical Judge and head of the Asher Covo Yeshiva.
1878: It was reported today that the Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews did not hold its monthly meeting. While no official announcement was made about the reason for this, it was assumed that board did not meet because of disagreement over whether or not to accept the donation from Mrs. Stewart that would necessitate the Jews accepting the money from Judge Hilton.
1878: A fair for the benefit of Shaare Rachmim which opened in Tammany Hall on December 9 is scheduled to come to an end this evening.
1879: An association of rabbis and prominent Jewish laymen was formed today with the goal of promoting a stricter observance of the Sabbath as proscribed by the Torah and other Jewish laws.
1882: Nineteen year old Annie Littlestein, a Jewish immigrant from Poland was rescued by James McCready after she jumped into the East River today.
1882: As New Yorkers wrestled with the Sunday Closing Laws, Superior Court Justice Arnoux rendered a decision “that the Penal Code prevents all persons including Hebrews who observe Saturday as ‘holy time’ from carrying on business on Sunday excepting for the sale of meats, fish, milk, drugs and food to be eaten on the premises where sold.”
1883: The first school of the Hebrew Technical Institute opened today at 206 East Broadway.
1883: Reverend R. Heber Newton preached a sermon on “The Traditions of Jacob” “the Hebrew Hercules who wrestled all night with an angel…and won a victory from his supernatural opponent.”
1885(15th of Tevet, 5646): Alois Feigelstock, a well-known New York Jewish businessman appears to have taken his own life at New-Lots, a town on Long Island.
1888; Laurence Oliphant, a British author diplomat and proto-Zionist passed away. Born in 1829, following a number of twists and turns, by 1879, Oliphant began working on a project to help Jews settle in Palestine. He raised money, vainly sought to obtain a lease on a portion of Palestine from authorities in the Ottoman capital and helped to settle one group of Jews in the Galilee. He hired Naftali Herz Imber, the author of Hatikvah, as his secretary.
1888: “A Jewish Freethinker” published today provides a detailed review of Salomon Maimon: An Autobiography which provides the life story of Rabbi Salomon Maimon and a picture of 19th century life for the Jews of Poland.
1888: It was reported today that a recitation by Louis Aldrich will be part of the upcoming theatrical and musical benefit program sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1889: It was reported today that in Russia “the Imperial Academy of Arts has decided to exclude Jews from membership.”
1889: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band led a procession of a thousand school children who were taking part in the cornerstone laying ceremony for the new public school located at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and 156th Street in New York City.
1889: It was reported today that the officers of the newly formed Montefiore and Lady Judith Hebrew Association are: Julius Harburger – President; Moses Mehrbach – First Vice President; Isaac Marx – Second Vice President; M.G. Landsberg – Secretary; H.C. Rosenzweig – Treasurer. The Association was formed to protect and aid the tide of arriving Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia.
1894(25thof Kislev, 5655): Chanukah
1900: Dr. Samuel Schulman, the associate rabbi of Temple Beth-El delivered a sermon this morning on the subject of “Judaism’s Message of Peace and Good-Will.”
1907: Birthdate of Avraham Stern. Stern was the leader of Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang a group of Zionist who lost their moral compass, to put it mildly. Others would say, that Zionists or not, the Stern Gang was a group of murderous thugs.
1909: Birthdate of Herman Barron, the Port Chester, NY native who became the first Jewish golfer to win a tournament on the PGA Tour when he won the Western Open at Phoenix, AZ in 1942.
1909: Birthdate of boxer Barney Ross. Born Barnet Rasofsky in Chicago, this son of Rabbi turned away from his Jewish studies at the age of 14. His father was killed in the family grocery store by robbers. Ross moved into the shadowy underworld of the street before emerging as welterweight boxer at the age of 18. Ross would become World Welterweight Champion of the Word during the 1930’s. After retiring he became a successful restauranteur. Although in his thirties at the outbreak of World War II, Ross enlisted in the Marines and earned the Silver Star during the campaign to take Guadalcanal. Ross’ successful battle with drug addiction provided the storyline for the film Monkey on My Back. He passed away in 1967.
1915: Birthdate of Sidney Shapiro, “an American author and translator who has lived in China since 1947.”
1916: During World War I, British Imperial forces (mostly ANZACs) captured the Turkish garrison during the Battle of Magdhaba on the Sinai Peninsula. This victory was part of the British plan to move west and eventually take Palestine from the Turks. Jewish forces would play a role in the final battles to liberate Palestine from Turkish rule.
1917: Having already met with the Mufti of Jerusalem, Colonel Storrs, the newly appointed British governor of Jerusalem, attended a gathering of Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbis. The rabbis hoped to enlist Storrs’ support in their conflict with local Zionists.
1920: As British support for the Balfour Declaration waned, the 17th Earl of Derby, a prominent Conservative politician wrote Winston Churchill expressing his opposition to the Palestine Mandate in general and the Zionist cause in particular.
1922: Four members of the Salonica Jewish community were elected to the Greek Assembly: Isaac Alhanati, Jonas Jamnelides, Joshua Laias and M. Levy.
1922: Birthdate of Leonard Stern. Stern was successful television writer and producers. Two of his better known shows were comedies – The Phil Silvers Show and Get Smart.
1923: Birthdate of pundit, commentator and editor, Bill Kristol
1923: Birthdate of Meshulam Riklis, the Turkish born Israeli-American businessman
1927: A statement was issued today announcing the sale of the Daily Telegraph by Lord Burnham the grandson of J.M. Levy.
1927(29th of Kislev, 5688): On the fifth day of Chanukah, 89 year old Nathan Barnet, a native of Posen, who was a successful businessman and Mayor of Paterson, NJ, passed away today. He is scheduled to be buried at Mt. Neboh Cemetery in Paterson, NJ.
1928(10th of Tevet, 5689): Asara B'Tevet
1933: Governor Herbert H. Lehman spoke at the annual Maccabean Festival at Madison Square Garden where he denounced the treatment of the Jews of Germany “whose loyalty an love for their country has been betrayed. Dr. Albert Einstein was the guest of honor at the event which he described as a “demonstration of Jewish solidarity. Governor Lehman’s neice, Mrs. Benjamin J. Buttenweiser, was chairman of the event’s hostess committee. The evening’s entertainment included “a dramatic and musical panorama of modern Jewish life in Palestine entitled ‘Reunion in Tel Aviv.’”
1934: According to reports published today, “athletes throughout the country are training for the elimination finals which will be held here during February to choose the American Jewish team to complete in the second Maccabiah at Tel Aviv in April 1935. The National Sports Board, whose membership includes Irving Jaffee, Nat Holman Abel Kiviat, Joseph Alexander and Pincus Sober, is headed by Benny Leonard.
1935(27th of Kislev, 5696): Rabbi Joshua Joffe who had retired in 1917 from JTS after 24 years of teaching and then returned to Germany passed away in Freiburg, Germany. After his death, his wife and daughter returned to the United States.
1937: The Palestine Postreported that the British government denied that it was deliberately postponing the establishment of a new Palestine Commission which was to submit a plan for the partitioning of the country, as authorized by the League of Nations. Another Arab leader, Isouk Ayash, was shot in cold blood by an Arab gang in the village of Beit Immar, near Hebron.
1937: The British army begins a three day effort to suppress Arab bands in the Galilee.
1937: In Mount Vernon, NY, Clara and Sol Trager gave birth to David Gershon Tagera, the federal judge in Brooklyn whose rulings were pivotal in a racially charged case in Crown Heights and in the first civil suit to challenge the Bush administration’s practice of sending terrorism suspects to countries that employ torture. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1938: Birthdate of Robert Elliot “Bob” Kahn. Kahn is an American computer scientist who co-created the packet-switching protocols that enable computers to exchange information on the Internet. In the late 1960s Kahn realized that a packet-switching network could effectively transmit large amounts of data between computers. Along with fellow computer scientists Vinton Cerf, Lawrence Roberts, Paul Baran, and Leonard Kleinrock, Kahn built the ARPANET, the first network to successfully link computers around the country. Kahn and Cerf also developed the Transmission Control Protocol (
TCP
) and the Internet Protocol (IP), which together enable communication between different types of computers and networks;
TCP
/IP is the standard still in use today.
1939: Thirty-five German refugees, victims first of German anti-Semitism and then of the war, arrived here this afternoon on the Italian liner Conte di Savoia, ending a voyage that began at Italian ports more than two months ago
1940: Martha Sharp met 6 adults and 27 children including 14-year-old Eva Rosemary Feigl, all of whom were refugees from the Nazis, at the port of New York.
1943: The Jewish community at Pinsk, Poland, is liquidated.
1943: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau is informed by his staff that, "when you get through with it, the [State Department's] attitude to date is no different from Hitler's attitude."
1943: Birthdate of actor Harry Shearer whose credits include work with “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons.”
1944: Birthdate of General Wesley Clark, NATO chief and unsuccessful Presidential candidate. Late in life Clark learned the truth about his lineage. His father was a Jewish lawyer living in Chicago. He died when Clark was four. His mother moved to Little Rock where she married Viktor Clark. Clark adopted young Wesley and changed his name. Clark’s Methodist mother hid Clark’s Jewish heritage from him because she was concerned about the KKK which was active in Arkansas.
1945: Birthdate of Bernie Fine the long-term associate head basketball coach for Syracuse University who terminated following charges of sexual abuse.
1945: Sumner Welles, chairman of American Christian Palestine Committee, advises that UN Trusteeship Council should establish Jewish commonwealth in Palestine with armed force to give security.
1946(30th of Kislev, 5707): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1946(30th of Kislev, 5707): In the evening, kindle seven Chanukah lights
1946: It was reported today that “a group of Jewish children in the displaced-persons’ center in the French sector” celebrated Chanukah “with a couple of doughnuts, a few pieces of candy and a cup of hot chocolate.”
1947(10th of Tevet, 5708): Asara B'Tevet
1947: The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories. The first three patents for the field-effect transistor principle were registered in Germany in 1928 by the Jewish physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld. At the time, they attracted little attention. It would take two more decades of work in Germany and the United States before the giant step in miniaturization could take place.
1947(10th of Tevet, 5708): Frances Stern, social worker, nutritionist, educator, and pioneering dietician passed away.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/stern-frances
1948:Efforts of UN Truce Committee to arrange Israel-Egypt armistice conference break down.
1948: Israel attacks Egyptian troops near Gaza, Nirim, Rafah, and Khan Yunis.
1949(3rd of Tevet, 5710): 8th day of Chanukah
1949(3rd of Tevet, 5710): Arthur Eichengrün, the German Jewish chemist who claimed that he invented aspirin passed away. Fifty years after his death, Walter Sneader of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow re-examined the case and came to the conclusion that indeed Eichengrün's account was convincing and correct and that Eichengrün deserved credit for the invention of Aspirin. Bayer continued to reject his claim. Born in 1867, Eichengrün was one of the few Jews to survive the war even though he lived in Berlin until 1944 when he was shipped to Theresienstadt.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that David Ben-Gurion introduced a new Mapai-General Zionists-Progressive government coalition to the Knesset. Hapoel Hamizrahi was still considering an option whether to join the coalition. During a heated debate, Ben-Gurion complained that the absurd fragmentation of political factions was the root of all Israeli parliamentary troubles.
1953: Dr. Robert Oppenheimer was notified that his security clearance had been suspended. (He had directed the Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bombs used during WW II). There were allegations questioning his trustworthiness for association with Communists. By telegram dated 29 Jan 1954, he requested a hearing. On 4 Mar 1954, he submitted his answer to the original notification. Within two weeks, the Commission informed him who would conduct the hearing, to be led by Gordon Gray. The hearing before the Gray Board began 12 Apr 1954. It returned a result on 29 Jun 1954 that by a vote of 4 to1, it had made a decision against reinstating Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's access to classified information
1954: The State of Israel Bond Drive sponsored the 3rd annual Chanukah festival which was held at Madison Square Garden tonight.
1956: The French Jewish Community honored David Feuerwerker on the 20thanniversary of his service as a Rabbi.
1962(26thof Kislev, 5723): On the second day of Chanukah Leivick Halpern, who used the pen name “H.Leivick” passed away today. One of the best known works of the Yiddish author was “The Golem,” a “dramatic poem in eight scenes”
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/igumen/igumen_leyvik.htm
1968: Pinchas Rosen resigned from the Knesset.
1968(2nd of Tevet, 5729): 8th day of Chanukah
1969: As part of the Cherbourg Project retired Israeli Admiral Mordecai Limon, Martin Siemm and Amiot met again to secretly sign contracts undoing everything they had signed the day before.
1970: Release date for “Little Young Man” starring Dustin Hoffman, whose ancestors were Jews from the Ukraine and Romania.
1971: Birthdate of actor Corey Haim whose father was Canadian and mother was Israeli.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet approved the peace plan as prepared by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. This scheme, which was to be presented to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in Ismailia, was prematurely leaked to the press. It reportedly contained, among other suggestions, a proposal for municipal autonomy for the Arab part of Jerusalem.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in Cairo Egyptian officials described the Israeli security proposals, presented by Defense Minister Ezer Weizmann, as "extremely disappointing." The Egyptian view was that only very minor changes of the pre-1967 borders could ever be considered.
1977: It was reported today that the Chanukah holidays have spurred contributions from Jewish citizens to the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Among other donations, the fund has received a gift of $100 from the Henry and Nell Feder Foundation Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund. A note accompanying the donation said that the “Jewish Communal Fund is dedicated to the support of the voluntary system of philanthropy and is happy to be of help to you in achieving your goals.”
1979(3rd of Tevet, 5740): Art collector Peggy Guggenheim passed away.
1979(3rd of Tevet, 5740): Chaim Leib Shmuelevitz passed away. Born in 1902, “he was a member of the faculty of the Mirrer Yeshiva for more than 40 years, in Poland, Shanghai and Jerusalem, serving as Rosh yeshiva during its sojourn in Shanghai from 1941 to 1947, and again in the Mirrer Yeshiva in Jerusalem from 1965 to 1979.”
1982: In Sydney, the Israeli Consulate and a Jewish social club were bombed today.
1985: It was reported today that Biederman & Company has become the first ad agency for Tower Air, which flies its 747 aircraft primarily out of Kennedy International Airport and has regular service to Brussels and Tel Aviv. It also does charter work as well as worldwide ferrying of military personnel under a Defense Department contract. The agency says that the three-year-old carrier will be spending more than $1 million for advertising.
1985: Time magazine describes the recently concluded UNESCO Conference held in Paris to honor the memory of the Rambam. “Maimonides was one of the few Jewish thinkers whose teachings also influenced the non-Jewish world; much of his philosophical writings in the Guide were about God and other theological issues of general, not exclusively Jewish, interest. Thomas Aquinas refers in his writings to “Rabbi Moses,” and shows considerable familiarity with the Guide. In 1985, on the 850th anniversary of Maimonides's birth, Pakistan and Cuba — which do not recognize Israel — were among the cosponsors of a UNESCO conference in Paris on Maimonides. Vitali Naumkin, a Soviet scholar, observed on this occasion: “;Maimonides is perhaps the only philosopher in the Middle Ages, perhaps even now, who symbolizes a confluence of four cultures: Greco-Roman, Arab, Jewish, and Western.” More remarkably, Abderrahmane Badawi, a Muslim professor from Kuwait University, declared: “I regard him first and foremost as an Arab thinker.” This sentiment was echoed by Saudi Arabian professor Huseyin Atay, who claimed that “if you didn't know he was Jewish, you might easily make the mistake of saying that a Muslim was writing.” That is, if you didn't read any of his Jewish writings. Maimonides scholar Shlomo Pines delivered perhaps the most accurate assessment at the conference: “Maimonides is the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, and quite possibly of all time” As a popular Jewish expression of the Middle Ages declares: “From Moses [of the Torah] to Moses [Maimonides] there was none like Moses.”
1987(2ndof Tevet, 5748): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1988: Shimon Peres completed his service as the Foreign Affairs Minister.
1988: Moshe Arens began serving as the Foreign Affairs Minister of Israel.
1993(9th of Tevet, 5754): Two Israeli men were killed in the West Bank by Palestinian gunmen today in a drive-by shooting that ended a 10-day lull in attacks by opponents of the peace talks between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The two Israelis, Meir Mendelevitch and Eliyahu Levine, both rigorously Orthodox men in their 20's, were said to have been driving home to Bnei Brak, outside Tel Aviv, when they were overtaken by a car of Palestinians and riddled with bullets. They had reportedly visited the West Bank settlement of Ofra, and were killed as they drove through Beituniya, an Arab village. Two Palestinian groups claimed responsibility for the attack -- the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, based in Syria, and the Islamic Resistance Movement, known by its acronym Hamas. Israeli officials said they presumed that it was a Hamas assault, a suspicion reinforced by a telephone call to a foreign news agency saying it was in retaliation for the killing of a Hamas commander by Israeli soldiers last month.
1993(9th of Tevet, 5754): Anatoly Kolisnikov, an Ashdod resident employed as a relief watchman at a construction site there, was stabbed to death by terrorists while on duty.
1994: It was reported today that Lucy Kroll an agent for writers, playwrights and performers for more than 50 years, has given the Library of Congress a big gift: 110 boxes full of letters, manuscripts, albums, contracts and other memorabilia. Her clients have included Carl Sandburg, Ben Hecht, William Schuman, Martha Graham, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, James Earl Jones, Jerry Garcia and Barney Clark, the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart. Ms. Kroll, an octogenarian who sold her New York agency in October to Barbara Hogenson, who had worked for her, said: "For Christmas, I am divesting myself. Possessions are heavy, so instead of buying gifts, I am giving things that belong to me -- jewelry, books, clothes. I am also donating my 1940's couturier clothes to a university in Tel Aviv to train students how to design."
1995(30th of Kislev, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1995: Prime Minister Shimon Peres said today that Israel would be prepared to close its nuclear program if there was a regional peace in the Middle East, though he stopped short of confirming that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. Mr. Peres made his comments at a lunch with Israeli journalists in Tel Aviv, after one of them asked whether his new priorities include a change in nuclear policy. Yes," he said. "Give me peace and we'll give up the nuclear program. That's the whole story."
1997(24th of Kislev, 5758): Kindle the first light of Chanukah in the evening
1997: Woody Allen aged 62 married Soon-Yi Previn aged 27. The bride was the adopted daughter of Woody Allen’s long time paramour, Mia Farrow. For all of those who point to Woody as a Jewish man of letters, they must assume that he skipped that day in Sunday School when they talked about forbidden marriages.
1997: Andrew Tobias publishes the “Jewish Parrot” Joke:
Meyer, a lonely widower, was walking home one night when he passed a pet store and heard a squawking voice shouting out in Yiddish, "Quawwwwk ... vus machst du ... yeah, du ... outside, standing like a schlemiel ... eh?"
Meyer rubbed his eyes and ears. He couldn’t believe it. The proprietor sprang out of the door and grabbed Meyer by the sleeve. "Come in here, fella, and check out this parrot."
Meyer stood in front of an African Grey that cocked his little head and said, "Vus? Ir kent reddin Yiddish?"
Meyer turned excitedly to the store owner. "He speaks Yiddish?"
In a matter of moments, Meyer had placed five hundred dollars down on the counter and carried the parrot in his cage away with him. All night he talked with the parrot in Yiddish. He told the parrot about his father’s adventures coming to America, about how beautiful his mother was when she was a young bride, about his family, about his years of working in the garment center, about Florida. The parrot listened and commented. They shared some walnuts. The parrot told him of living in the pet store, how he hated the weekends. Finally, they both went to sleep.
Next morning, Meyer began to put on his tefillin, all the while saying his prayers. The parrot demanded to know what he was doing, and when Meyer explained, the parrot wanted to do it too. Meyer went out and handmade a miniature set of tefillin for the parrot. The parrot wanted to learn to daven, so Meyer taught him how read Hebrew, and taught him every prayer in the Siddur with the appropriate nussach for the daily services. Meyer spent weeks and months sitting and teaching the parrot the Torah, Mishnah and Gemara. In time, Meyer came to love and count on the parrot as a friend and a Jew.
On the morning of Rosh Hashanah, Meyer rose, got dressed and was about to leave when the parrot demanded to go with him. Meyer explained that Shul was not a place for a bird, but the parrot made a terrific argument and was carried to Shul on Meyer’s shoulder. Needless to say, they made quite a sight when they arrived at the Shul, and Meyer was questioned by everyone, including the Rabbi and Cantor, who refused to allow a bird into the building on the High Holy Days. However, Meyer convinced them to let him in this one time, swearing that the parrot could daven.
Wagers were made with Meyer. Thousands of dollars were bet (even money) that the parrot could NOT daven, could not speak Yiddish or Hebrew, etc. All eyes were on the African Grey during services. The parrot perched on Meyer’s shoulder as one prayer and song passed - Meyer heard not a peep from the bird. He began to become annoyed, slapping at his shoulder and mumbling under his breath, "Daven!"
Nothing.
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