December 26 In History
1194: Birthdate of Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor who improved the conditions for the Jews of Palermo, Naples and Jerusalem.
1424: The city of Barcelona, Spain was granted the right to exclude Jews for all time.
1495: Savonarola expelled the Medici and the Jews from Florence. The Jews, who had previously served as the Medici's bankers, were replaced by a Monte di Pieta, a public loan bank.
1634: Religious freedom was granted to Jews and Catholics in Brazil. This was the period of time when Brazil was under the control of the Dutch. Things would change in 1654 when Portugal took Recife, Brazil and the Jews were forced to flee. One group of these refugees would arrive in New Amsterdam and the rest is history.
1751: Birthdate of Lord George Gordon who took the name Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon when he converted to Judaism in 1787
1776: In an act of daring-do Washington ferries his freezing, starving troops across the ice choked Delaware River and leads them to victory at the Battle of Trenton. There were certainly Jewish soldiers among those who joined in the Crossing of the Delaware two of whom may have been Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell. Since Washington’s Army was on the verge of destruction, defeat at Trenton would have meant the end of the American Revolution, a war which created a nation rightfully described as “the last best hope men” – an appellation with which the Jewish people would heartily agree. One of the most readable treatments of this turning point in American history is The Crossing by the Jewish author Howard Fast which was the source for a film by the same name.
1783: Áron Chorin, a Hungarian rabbi who sought to reform some Jewish practices, married today. Following his marriage he had short, unsuccessful career in business before making use of his Talmudic knowledge and rabbinic skills as the leader of the Jewish community of Arad.
1823: As the struggle between Reform movement and traditionalists became more pronounced, a party of Orthodox Jews obtained a royal cabinet order that frustrated attempts “to adapt the old ritual to new forms” including sermons preached in German. This forced Isaac Noah Mannheimer, a rabbi who was a leader in the Reform movement to leave Berlin for a pulpit in Hamburg which led him to a position in Vienna where he was able to fully display his intellectual and oratorical gifts.
1825: Several Imperial Russia army officers lead force of approximately3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising. Pavel Pestel, one of the leaders of the unsuccessful Decembrist revolt, proposed sending all Jews from Russia to some territory in Asia Minor, especially acquired for this purpose, where they would be able to establish independent state.
1843(24th of Kislev, 5595): In the evening, Kindle the first light of Chanukah
1852: The Reverend Samuel Osgood delivered a talk at the Church of the Messiah in NYC entitled “The Enigma of History- A Discourse on the Jewish Race.” Osgood based part of his talk on information provided by Rabbi Morris Raphall with whom Osgood had carried on a correspondence.
1853(25thof Kislev, 5614): Chanukah
1861: During the Civil War, in what was known as The Trent Affair, Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain. Slidell, the Louisiana politician who had been a power in the Democrat Party, before the war, was a close ally of August Belmont who had married his niece. During the war, Slidell would serve in Paris where his daughter would marry a leading French-Jewish financier.
1862: The Union “Army of the Cumberland” including the 79th Indiana Regiment under the command of Colonel Frederick Knefler left Nashville to face the Rebel “Army of Tennessee” which was camped at Murfreesboro.
1870(2nd of Tevet, 5631): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1870: Dr. Max Landsberg was chosen to serve as Rabbi at Berith Kodesh in Rochester, NY. He began serving in that capacity in March of 1871. Prior to his selection, the position had been vacant for 2 and a half years. Landsberg’s three predecessors were Marcus Tuska, Isaac Mayer and Aaron Ginbserg who completed his service in 1868.
1873: Rabbi Aron Chorin gets married and leaves the rabbinate for the world of Commerce. The change will be short-lived and will become the Rabbi in Arad in 1789.
1875: It was reported today that “an ‘English Jew’ had recently written an essay modern Judaism in which he asserted that it was utterly impossible to convert a respectable Jew to Christianity. When it was pointed out to the author that the Prime Minister of England was a convert to Christianity from Judaism, the ‘English Jew’ claimed that the Disraeli’s father, Isaac, had a quarrel with the Synagogue about money and that he had left the Synagogue. While the Prime Minister had somehow become a churchgoer, he had “never been baptized as a Christian.” [Editor’s note – “The English Jew” was right about Isaac but wrong about Benjamin. The father had the children baptized after his falling out with the syngagouge.]
1878(30th of Kislev, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1878: An article published today entitled “A Romance of Rascality” described the life and times of South Carolina’s Franklin J. Moses, “a Jew” who “held his own among the planter aristocracy.”
1880: “The annual meeting of the patrons and members of the Mount Sinai Hospital” is scheduled “to be held at the Standard Club” at eleven o’clock this morning.
1880: Tonight’s “driving snow-storm” did not keep a throng from filling the Plymouth Church this evening to hear Reverend Henry Ward Beech deliver his talked entitled “Persecution of the Jews in Germany.”
1880: It was reported today that the growth in attendance at the opera in New York City is attributable, in part, to the growth of the German-Jewish population in New York. After all, the members “of this ancient race were drawn to New York because of its rapid development in literature, in art and…in operatic music.”
1881: It was reported today that a riot broke out in Warsaw when a pickpocket who was allegedly a Jew was caught plying his trade during the recitation of high mass in the Church of the Holy Cross. During the violence four shops owned by Jews were destroyed and 30 people were injured.
1881: It was reported today that the Directors of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York have agreed to provide a doctor to work at the offices of the Society for the Aid of the Russian Hebrew Immigrants and Refugees.
1881: It was reported today that during the 3,182 patients were admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital, of whom 1,566 were not charged for treatment.
1883: “Georgia In Early Times” published today provided a detailed review The History of Georgia by Charles C. Jones, Jr. which included a description of the arrival of the first Jews in 1733. Governor Oglethorpe championed their cause despite opposition from some of his English supporters because he saw that as being “peaceful,” “orderly” and industrious.
1885: It was reported today that the population of Sofia has grown from 15,000 to 25,000 since it became the capital of Bulgaria. Approximately half of the citizens are Jewish.
1886: Paul Heyse, the German-Jewish writer, is one of the “eminent authors of the 19th century according to Dr. George Brandes, whose book Eminent authors of the nineteenth century: Literary portraits was reviewed in today’s New York Times. (Brandes is Georg Morris Cohen Brandes, a Danish born Jews who was a leading literary critic)
1886: “When To Go Long Or Short” published today traces the career and financial dealings of Solomon Mopus a Polish born Jew living in New York City.
1886: In “Mr. Tooker on Religion” published today, Joseph Tooker a leading New York merchant, writer and theatre managers provided his views on the celebration of Christmas. Among other things he believes that the Jewish merchants “are heart glad over every return of this jubilee season of their Christian fellow-citizens” since “they make so much money.” He also marveled at the fact that some Jewish children hang up stockings on Christmas eve which he sees as an example of “where ignorance is bliss ‘tis folly to be wise.”
1887: It was reported today the society providing financial support for Mt. Sinai Hospital had grown by 101 during the year and now totaled 3,564.
1888: It was reported today that children under the care of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum will be among those New York youngsters who will attend upcoming performances of “Little Lord Fauntleroy.”
1889: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association had assets of $58,682.37 which it uses to support three schools that are open daily from 3:30 in the afternoon until 6 in the evening.
1891(25thof Kislev, 5652): First day of Chanukah
1897: The American Jewish Historical Association held its seventh annual meeting in Philadelphia. The meeting was chaired by First Vice President Simon W. Rosendale who read a letter of resignation from the association’s President, Oscar S. Straus who can no longer fulfill his duties because he is serving as United States Minister at Constantinople
1898: President Albert F. Hochstadter presided over the annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association which was held today at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. With but one dissenting vote, the association voted to decide on a plan that would lead to a merger with the Educational Alliance. The Association had ended the year with a shortfall of $5,000 and it is believed that the merger might allow the two groups to meet their goals in a more economic manner. Uriah Hermann volunteered to pay for the new prayerbooks needed for the People’s Synagogue
1898: Birthdate of Ernst Fraenkel, German born political scientist, lawyer and university lecturer who fled Nazi Germany but returned to Germany after the war and resumed his career.
1899:In New York City Clara and David Mannes gave birth to Leopold Mannes, the “American musician” who played a leading role in creating “the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome.”
1901: The Fifth Zionist Congress convenes in Basel. The Jewish National Fund is established. The Jewish Colonial Trust, the monetary arm or bank of the World Zionist Organization, finally raises sufficient sums to be established. By the end of the year, 250.000 English Pounds have been collected.
1902; Birthdate of Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, the Russian painter whose work often reflect his Jewish origins.
1902: Final publication of the American Hebrew which would merge with The Jewish Messenger and resume publication in 1903 as The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger
1905: Winston Churchill was approached by a leading Jewish constituent, Dr. Joseph Dulberg of Manchester, who was seeking British support for a Jewish national home.
1910(25thof Kislev, 5671): Chanukah
1907: Months of organizing work by sixteen-year-old Pauline Newman culminated in the start of the largest rent strike New York City had ever seen. One reason for the strike's success was Newman's enlistment of neighborhood housewives. While working-class activists like Newman had to work during the day, the impassioned housewives that they organized could go from tenement to tenement to convince others to strike. Thus, the success of the strike depended on shop floor networks of teenaged girls and on networks of neighborhood housewives and mothers. The strike, involving 10,000 families in lower Manhattan, lasted only until January 9, but about 2,000 families succeeded in having their rents reduced. More importantly, the strike attracted the attention of leading figures in the settlement house movement who suggested capping rents at 30% of a family's income. Though their suggestion was not implemented, it introduced the idea of rent control into New York politics. The idea stayed alive into the 1930s, when rent control was finally implemented in New York City. Newman's leadership of the strike began a lifetime of activism. It brought her to the attention of the Socialist party, which ran her for secretary of state of New York the following year (despite the fact that women did not yet have the vote in New York). She used the opportunity to call for woman's suffrage. Newman also began organizing female garment workers and was a key organizer in the 1909 Uprising of the 20,000.
1915: In an attempt to “weaken Russia internally, the authorities in Berlin handed Russian Jewish Bolshevik, Alexander Helphand, a million rubles to spread anti-war propaganda through Russia.
1916(1st of Tevet, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1916: In a protest against the high cost of kosher beef, nearly 3,000 shops refused to receive or sell kosher meat today. “Many kosher butchers closed theirs shops and put up signs in their windows reading ‘Because of the high prices on kosher-killed products, this shot will be closed until further notice.’”
1916: Inspectors working for Joseph Hartigan, New York City’s Commissioner of Weights and Measures, reported to him tonight that the people had virtually all stopped buying kosher meat.
1917: Orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem establish the Ashkenazi Community Council to oppose the Zionist dominated City Council of Jerusalem Jews.
1917: Fresh Turkish troops attack the British hoping to take back Jerusalem. After eight hours of fierce nighttime combat, the British beat them back.
1918: Following the British elections, Churchill wrote Prime Minister Lloyd George cautioning him against appointing three Jews to a cabinet that had only seven openings. This was not based on any anti-Semitic feelings on Churchill’s part. He was merely expressing concerns for the reality of British politics at a time when Lloyd George needed to build a broadly supported government that could “win the peace” now that the World War had been won. In the end, Lloyd George appointed only one Jew to the first post-war cabinet.
1919: Sir John Monash, Australia’s ranking General on the Western Front in World War I, who served with great distinction, returned home to a hero’s welcome. Monash was the son of a German-Jewish couple who had arrived in Australia two years before Monash’s birth.
1919: Birthdate of Sam Aaronovitch, the native Londoner who became a leading economist and a “senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
1919: Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox, sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Boston fans never forgave Frazee for the sale of the Bambino which was the start of the Yankee dynasty. On top of everything else Frazee was one of those gentiles who had the dubious distinction of being smeared for being Jewish. “The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper published by one of this nation’s most infamous anti-Semites, automobile pioneer Henry Ford, published an article titled “The Jewish Degradation of Baseball”, which insisted that Frazee was a Jew, that he was out to “get” Ban Johnson and that he was part of a grand Jewish conspiracy designed to place Organized Baseball under Jewish control. Frazee was in fact Presbyterian and a Mason and, though he was not Jewish, being a Freemason branded him guilty by association. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery originating in Russia that detailed a Jewish plot to dominate the world, claimed that Jews and Freemasons were acting in concert. Judaism and Freemasonry were so intertwined in Europe, even as far back as the 1860s, that the Nazis eventually adopted the slogan “All Masons Jews—All Jews Masons,” and Hitler abolished Freemasonry in Germany in 1935. But, as evidenced by Ford and his newspaper, bigotry wasn’t just endemic of Europe, and Organized Baseball certainly was no stranger to it.”
1924: Birthdate of Israeli spy Eli Cohen. Since we cannot do justice to this heroic figure you might want to go to http://www.elicohen.org
for more information about his contribution to the survival of the Jewish state.
1927: Birthdate of Alan King. King was equally adept as a comedic actor and as monologist. One of his most famous lines was, “It is not how long you live, but how well you live” that counts. After uttering that bon mot, he would take a deep, long pull on his signature cigar and give you that knowing smile. His philanthropic commitments included founding the Alan King Diagnostic Medical Center in Jerusalem, establishing a scholarship fund for American students at Hebrew University, and establishing a Dramatic Arts Chair at Brandeis University. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He passed away in 2004.
1931:George and Ira Gershwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play "Of Thee I Sing" premieres on Broadway
1934: Anna Birshtein married Louis Geffen. Anna’s uncle was a rabbi and Louis was the son of Tobias Geffen had been who had been an orthodox rabbi in Atlanta, GA, since 1910. Geffen and his brother Samuel formed the Atlanta law firm of Geffen and Geffen, a firm founded out of the need for the brothers to be able to practice law while remaining observant Jews.
1936: Founding of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The Polish born violinist Bronislaw Huberman is credited with founding the orchestra. It was originally called the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra but changed its name after the founding of the state of Israel.
1936: In Tel Aviv, Arturo Toscanini, who had fled Mussolini’s Italy, conducted the first performance of the Palestine Philharmonic. At the end of the concert Bronislaw Huberman, declared that "Nothing could describe this concert except the word divine."
1936: Birthdate of Kitty Dukakis, wife of U.S. Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. She is Jewish; he isn’t.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that over 1,000 British troops, police and troopers of the Transjordan police force, spent Christmas under pouring rain in a raging battle in the Wadi Hamud area, north-west of Tiberias, where nearly forty Arab terrorists were killed. The troops and police suffered five wounded.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that Taleb Nanini, a local notable, was killed by an Arab terrorist in his village of Akraba. Yehuda Mintz and his two sons, Isaac, 35, and Eliahu, 27, watchmen of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives were wounded on their way to work. In Haifa, Private Mott, a British soldier of the Essex Regiment, picked up a bomb with a burning fuse and threw it off the pavement, saving by his bold action lives of numerous passersby.
1938: In Montreal, Sarah and Jack Lev gave birth to Judy Feld Carr, the “Canadian woman” who “would rescue more than three thousand five hundred Syrian Jews between 1975 and 2000.” (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/carr-judy-feld
1940(26thof Kislev, 5701): On the second day of Chanukah, 89 year old Daniel Frohman, the “Jewish American theatrical producer and manager and early film producer’ passed away today.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19401227&id=ijtPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=W00DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6934,7784907
1940: The British government suspended the quota for legal immigration for three months, thus halting all immigration until March, 1941.
1940: Birthdate of record producer Phil Spector.
1945: The Jewish Agency charges that Palestinian government has stopped issuing immigration certificates despite British foreign minister Ernest Bevin's declaration that monthly quota would be permitted.
1946: Diamond factories in Natanya and Tel Aviv are raided, reportedly by Jews who would have been using the proceeds of the raid to finance the fight against the British.
1946: Peter H. Bergson, Hebrew Committee of National Liberation, formed exile government for Hebrew Republic of Palestine in France. In the wake of British intransigence, he promises a revolt.
1946: Bronislaw Huberman the Polish born violinist who was President and founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra returned as a soloist performing in Tel Aviv on the tenth anniversary of Arturo Toscanini’s first appearance as conductor of the orchestra.
1947(13th of Tevet, 5708): Hans Beyth, a central figure in welcoming newly arrived immigrant children to Eretz Israel, was one of seven Jews killed by Arab snipers as they traveled in convey coming from the coast up to Jerusalem. Beyth had just completed arrangements for the care of 20,000 young survivors of the Holocaust and other youngsters from Europe.
1947: Golda Meyerson, acting head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department escaped injury today when the convoy in which she was traveling came under attack by Arabs.
1947: One Jew was killed and two were wounded today when Arabs attacked a Jewish patrol at Imara in the Negev.
1947: A four year old Jewish girl, whose name has not been made public was killed today a bullet in Tel Aviv. The assailant has not been identified.
1947: In Jerusalem, an Arab Legion truck that had illegally entered the city, was fired on by Jews manning a Haganah outpost. No casualties were reported by either side.
1948: Despite defending itself against a war of annihilation, immigrants keep coming as can be seen by the fact that today; Israel greeted the arrival of its 100,000th immigrant since its declaration of statehood in May.
1948: The International Ladies' Garment Workers, Union (of American Federation of Labor) donates $250,000 and lends an $500,000 to Israel.
1948(24th of Kislev, 5709): In the evening, the Chanukah light is kindled for the first time in almost 2,000 years in an independent Jewish state.
1948: The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, which had been meeting in Tel Aviv moves to Jerusalem.
1948: King Abdullah of Jordan attended a Palestinian conference in Ramallah that “declared its support for the Jericho Conference resolution, calling for unification of the two banks of the Jordan under the Hashemite crown.” (And that is what happened. The West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem were annexed by Transjordan which changes its name to Jordan. No state of Palestine was created or contemplated by a large swath of the Arab leadership.)
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Mapam Council voted, by 232 to 49, to support a very carefully worded "protest" against the Czech anti-Zionist trials and activities while identifying itself completely with "the world's revolution." The Sneh-Riftin bloc justified the trials and advocated a complete acceptance of the accusations.
1953: Monnett B. Davis passed away while serving as the second U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1953(20th of Tevet, 5714): Dr. Alexander Marx, the director libraries and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of History at the Jewish Theological Seminary passed away today at the age of 75. A native of Germany, Marx served in the Prussian Army and earned his Ph.D. in 1903 following which he came to the United States where he took up his position with JTS. When he arrived, the library contained 5,000 volumes. At the time of his death, the collection had grown to 144,000 books and 8,000 manuscripts making it one of the finest collections of Judaica in the world.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0A1FF73C58117A93C5AB1789D95F478585F9\
1959(25thof Kislev, 5720): Chanukah
1965: "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand closes on Broadway. The Broadway hit had a Jewish diva portraying Fanny Brice, the Jewish comedic star of the Follies and radio-fame.
1968(5th of Tevet, 5729):Arthur Fellig, known by his pseudonym Weegee passed away.
http://backflashes.tumblr.com/post/15053833751/weegee-was-the-pseudonym-of-arthur-fellig-june
1968(5th of Tevet, 5729):Arab terrorists in Athens fire on El Al plane, killing 1.
1972: Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States passed away in Kansas City, Mo. Truman’s activist, anti-Communist policy and his progressive domestic program earned Truman the support of Jewish voters. But his greatest moment, from a strictly Jewish perspective, came when he decided that the U.S. would support the creation of the state of Israel and single-handedly ensured that the U.S. was the first nation to recognize the new Jewish state
1974(12th of Tevet, 5735): Comedian Jack Benny passed away at age 80
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Ismailia that Prime Minister Menachem Begin, after a meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, saw "peace in a few months." Begin had also expressed his anger and disappointment with Knesset members who leaked details of his peace plan before he could hand it over to Sadat. The Egyptian president described the meeting as "one of the happiest days of his life" and added that he was now ready for full ties and normalization with Israel.
1978: Birthdate of Alan Senitt, a British political activist and volunteer in the campaign of Virginia’s Mark Warner. Senitt was stabbed to death in Washington, D.C. defending his female campaign co-worker from street thugs.
1982: The New York Times published a review of Leon Blum by Jean Lacouture.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/26/books/herbert-r-lottman-herbert-r-lottman-longtime-paris-resident-author-left-bank.html
1985: It was reported today that “Moscow may restore diplomatic ties with Israel and dramatically increase the number of Jews permitted to emigrate to Israel, according to reports of a conversation between a representative of an American Jewish group and a Soviet diplomat. The Jewish representative met a few days ago with an unidentified Soviet official who predicted the restoration of full Soviet-Israeli diplomatic relations and an increase in emigration to Israel.
1988: Benjamin Netanyahu began serving as Deputy Foreign Minister
1990: Tele 5, a Spanish television station, is scheduled to broadcast an interview with President Hussein that had been taped on December 22nd in Baghdad during which the Iraqi leaders says Tel Aviv will be Iraq's first target if war breaks out in the Persian Gulf.
1992: New York Jet announcer Marty Glickman retires at 75
1992:The standoff between Lebanon and Israel over the fate of 415 Palestinian deportees trapped in a snow-covered valley in southern Lebanon, continued today as both sides again rejected appeals to allow relief agencies to deliver food or medicine.
1993: Comedian Rodney Dangerfield weds Joan Child.
1999: The New York Times book section includes a review of My First 79 Years by Isaac Stern with Chaim Potok.
2001: In Moscow, a monument honoring Shalom Aleichem was unveiled at a public ceremony attended by Nathan Meron, the Israeli Ambassador. The Moscow newspapers reporting the event described Solomon Rabinovich as “the great Russian Jew” and “a sagacious writer.”
2002: In “The Cultural Spoils of War,” Ronald Lauder the chairman of the Commission for Art Recovery and co-chairman of the Research Project on Art and Archive describes attempts to reclaim and return cultural treasures stolen during the Holocaust.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/26/opinion/the-cultural-spoils-of-war.html
2003(1st of Tevet, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2004(14th of Tevet, 5765): Ninety-five year old Simon “Si” Gerson a leading member of the Communist Party USA whose political activism spanned 7 decades passed away today.
2005: “Builders Reveal Hidden Synagogue and Dark Era of Portugal's Past” published today describes the fate of Medieval Jewish Community of Porto.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/international/europe/26portugal.html
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2006: Two boys, both 14, were injured about 9 p.m. when a Qassam rocket landed in the street near where they were walking. Both were treated by Magen David Adom paramedics and taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. A total of eight Qassams were fired at Israel during the day, the most in a single day since the cease-fire was declared about a month ago. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the missiles from the Gaza Strip at the western Negev town. One of the Qassams fired at Israel Tuesday landed in the industrial area in south Ashkelon, close to a strategic infrastructure installation.
2007 (17 Tevet): Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Aaron Zelig Ben Joel Feivush, author of Toldot Aaron and Rabbi Yaakov Wolf Krantz, Maggid of Dubna
2008:HaTzofe (The Observer) printed its last edition today.
2008: Closing session of the Hazon Jewish food conference in Pacific Grove, California.
2008: The New York Times publishes a review of Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally
2008: “Waltz With Bashir” opens in selected movie theatres across the United States.
2008: The final decision to launch Operation Cast Lead was made on this morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders. Opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.
2008:In “Author Defends Disputed Memoir,” Dave Itzkoff describes the controversy surrounding the soon to be published Angel at the Fence by Herman Rosenblat.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7D6103AF934A15751C1A96E9C8B63
2009: The Gilad Barkan Band, led by Israeli native Gilad Barkan, appears at the Café Vivaldi in New York City. Barkan's band includes Israeli flutist Amir Milstein, co-leader of Bustan Abraham, who bestows the music with a mesmerizing and soulful new dimension.
2009: Itamar Jobani makes his final appearance at the “Open Studios: Artist at Work program hosted by New York’s Museum of Art and Design.
2009: The Israeli military killed six Palestinians today, three in the West Bank whom it accused of killing a Jewish settler and three in Gaza who it said were crawling along the border wall planning an attack.
2010: Klezcamp is scheduled to open today in the Catskills. Henry Sapoznik, a Ukrainian cantor’s son who founded KlezKamp in 1984, calls it a “Yiddish Brigadoon.”
2010: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Letters: Saul Bellow edited by Benjamin Taylor and When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
2010: IDF troops, with the help of a helicopter gunship, fired on insurgents who detonated an explosive device against a passing Israeli patrol near the border in the southern Gaza Strip today.The IDF Spokesperson Unit said that "a terrorist cell was attacked in the northern Gaza Strip, and a smuggling tunnel in southern Gaza." "Specific targets were identified, and all planes returned safely to their base," the statement continued. "The attack is in response to a high level of attacks against Israeli targets
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