December 28 In History
1235: A ritual murder massacre at Fulda resulted in the death of 32 Jews. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire established an investigation at Hagenau (located in modern Alsac) to confirm or disprove the charges. After hearing various experts he declared that since Jews are prohibited from eating animal blood, they would surely be banned from using human blood. He forbade anyone from accusing Jews of this charge. Who would have expected such logical conclusion from this particular source? Of course logic does not trump anti-Semitism and the blood libel continues to this day.
1703: Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan passed away. During his reign, the Turks conquered Belgrade and the Jews returned to the city. Mustafa continue the practice of his predecessors and employed Jews a court physicians including Doctor Tobias Cohen and Doctor Israel Koenigland
1800(12th of Tevet, 5561): Aaron Philip Hart, considered to be “the father of Canadian Jewry”passed away
1811: Civil rights were extended to Jews in Frankfurt, one of the most venerable Jewish communities in Europe. The change was initiated by a number of distinguished Jews including Meyer Anschel Rothschild; the result was that the New Duchy of Frankfort passed a law granting Jews "Civic rights and privileges equally with other citizens." The signing only took place after Rothschild and his co-religionist agreed to pay 400,000fl to the French official making the decision.
1833: Birthdate of Edward Levy-Lawson Burnham. He was the son of Joseph Levy chief proprietor of the Sunday Times. Joseph Levy put his son Edward in charge of the Daily Telegraph which was deliberately priced at one penny, making it the cheapest and the largest circulated paper in Britain, surpassing the Times.
1836: South Australia and Adelaide are founded. Jews were among the earliest settlers. Among them may have been Solomon Emanuel who would become a successful merchant was convicted of house-breaking in 1817 and sentenced to “seven years of transportation” and his brother Vaiben who had been convicted of larceny at the same time.
1846: Iowa enters the Union as the 29th state. “Iowa was reported to have suffered an ‘invasion’ of Jewish peddlers; about a hundred of them arrived in the first decade after statehood. The peddlers who hailed from Eastern Europe had one center, those from German another. The first congregation arose in 1855 in Keokuk which the ‘Eastern European’ center.” Iowa’s two most famous Jews were born in Sioux City and are known to the world as Dear Abbey and Ann Landers. Until 2008, Iowa was home to the largest kosher slaughtering operation in the United States.
1852: Henry FitzRoy, the son-in-law of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, became Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department.
1856: Birthdate of Thomas Woodrow Wilson. To the world, Wilson is famous for the New Freedom, his leadership of America during World War I and the Fourteen Points. For Jews, his greatest claim to fame was naming Louis Brandeis as a Supreme Court Justice. Wilson was also the first President to publicly endorse a national Jewish philanthropic campaign. In a letter to Jacob Schiff, on
November 22, 19
17, Wilson called for wide support of the United Jewish Relief Campaign which was raising funds for European War relief.
1860: The Jewish Messenger publishes an editorial by Samuel Mayer Isaacs supporting the Union. “The Union...has been the source of happiness for our ancestors and ourselves. Under the protection of the freedom guaranteed us by the Constitution, we have lived in the enjoyment of full and perfect equality with our fellow citizens. We are enabled to worship the Supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience; we can maintain the position to which our abilities entitle us, without our religious opinions being an impediment to advancement. This Republic was the first to recognize our claims to absolute equality, with men of whatever religious denomination. Here we can sit 'each under his vine and fig tree, with none to make him afraid.'”
1873: It was reported today that Anshe Chesed, one of New York’s oldest and most traditional congregations is merging with Temple Adath Jeshrurn, one of the city’s leading Reform congregation. Anshe Chesed is commonly known as the Norfolk Street Congregation.
1875(30th of Kislev, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1878(2nd of Tevet, 5639): 8th & final day of Chanukah
1885: Fifty-four year old Jules Glaser, a leading Austrian jurist and statesman passed away today. Glaser had converted from Judaism to Christianity because the attitude of his countrymen made it very difficult to advance professionally and because the government would not hire him because he was Jewish.
1885: It was reported today that there were 80,000 Jews living in New York City; another 20,000 living in Brooklyn; and no more than 15,000 living in Philadelphia. At the same time, there are approximately two million Jews living in Russia.
1885: Based on information that first appeared in The Argonaut, it was reported today that Benjamin Disraeli and his wife attended a dinner where Mrs. Disraeli sat next to Bernal Osborne. When the men were alone after dinner, Osborn said to Disraeli, “Good God! What possessed you to marry that woman?” After a lengthy pause Disraeli replied, “Partly, Osborne, for reason which you are incapable of understanding – gratitude!” (Like Disraeli, Osborne was a Sephardic Jew and English poltician who had converted to Christianity.)
1885: “The Source of Republican Ideas” published today provided a lengthy review of The Origin of Republican Form of Government in the United States of America by Oscar Straus, leading Jewish businessman who was active in the Republican Party.
1887: The Brooklyn Board of Estimates met today and awarded funds to a variety of public charities including $111.68 to the Hebrew Benevolent Asylum and $78.80 to the Hebrew Benevolent Association
1888: “To His Hebrew Brethren” published today provided Elliott F. Shepard’s description of Palestine which he had visited in 1885. The climax of the trip came when his party visited Jerusalem a city of 210 ten acres surrounded by walls that were 32 feet high. It seemed odd that a city that was now “the size of a New Hampshire farm” had once been allegedly home to 2,300,000 souls. (Where Shepard found that figure is not disclosed in his discourse.)
1888: It was reported today that the Industrial School at 177 East Broadway is an institution supported by the Jews of New York City that currently provides different kinds of manual training to anywhere from 130 to 150 girls so that they may “support themselves.”
1893: The second annual meeting American Jewish Historical Society comes to a close. The two day event was held at the Columbia College Library Building in New York City.
1889(5th of Tevet, 5650): Seventy year old Jacob Lagowitz passed away today in New York City. Born at Frankfort in 1819, he came to the United in 1849 and started a company that manufactured trunks and luggage. He was a Director of the First National Bank of Newark and leaves behind a widow and seven daughters.
1899: Herzl meets with Oscar Straus, the American ambassador to Constantinople
1901: At the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basil, Max Nordau delivers a speech in which he called upon the Jewish people to “build a social structure of their own and to learn to know themselves sufficiently to think out their own future.” He lamented the fact that wealthy Jews too often turned their back on their less fortunate co-religionists and called upon these “millionaires” to support the causes of the Jewish people.
1902: Birthdate of philosopher, author and teacher Mortimer J Adler. Adler was born into a non-observant Jewish family. His Jewish origins, however limited they may be, are often left unmentioned.
1908: It was reported today that the Grand Duchy of Finland is taking part in of it “periodic expulsions of Hebrews.” Under Finnish law, Jews are denied the rights of citizenship including the right buy and own land and are only “permitted to reside in Finland under close restrictions.” The Finnish legislature has refused to consider a measure that would abolish “Jewish disabilities.”
1908: It was reported today that a bill has been introduced in the Finnish Legislature that contains a clause forbidding the method used by Jews for slaughtering Kosher meat.
1911: Birthdate of Sam Levenson. Levenson parlayed his experiences as teacher in New York into a career as a humorist and television star during the 1950’s.
1911: Birthdate of Felicja Blumental. Born in Warsaw, this Polish-born Brazilian pianist would be known for her performances of 19th-century rarities and music by contemporary composers
1912: The National Council of Young Israel convened for the first time. The Council was originally created to combat the wave of assimilation by providing a palatable synagogue experience that was user friendly to newly arrived immigrants and their subsequent generations.
1913: Birthdate of Louis Harold Jacobovitch the Canadian actor who gained fame as Lou Jacobi.
1915: A New York butcher named Ignatz Weiss was charged with violating a law that went into effect last September that required that meat sold as kosher must bear the imprint of the supervising rabbi officiating at the slaughter house that provided the meat. Bail was set at $100.00
1916: A meeting is scheduled to take place as part of the attempt to settle the dispute between Kosher Packing Houses and the Retail Kosher Butchers Federation during which an additional attempt will be made to reassure that charging them 15 cents a pound for kosher beef is justified. The 15 cents is 3 cents less than the price charged when the federation announced their refusal to make any purchases at that price, but some may feel that even that is too much.
1916: At a luncheon held at New York’s Union Square Hotel, it was announced that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association had raised $35,000 in the last two weeks. The funds are part of the $85,000 that are needed to build a new clubhouse in the Bronx. The money came from 2,500 contributors, most of whom gave $10 or less. Only twelve contributions were larger than $100.
1917: “Having beaten back the Turkish attempt to recapture Jerusalem, Allenby ordered his men to advance to make the perimeters of the city secure.”
1922: Birthdate of Stan Lee. Born Stanley Martin Lieber, Lee created the cartoon figures The Hulk and Spider-Man.
1924(1st of Tevet, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1924(1st of Tevet, 5685): Léon Bakst, Russian costume designer an painter, passed away. To see examples of his work go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Bakst
1925 George and Ira Gershwin's musical "Tip-Toes" premieres in New York, NY
1927: The New York Times describes the importance and significance of the gift of $2,000,000 recently made by John D. Rockefeller Jr. for the building of a museum in Jerusalem.
1927: George Kaufman and Moss Hart's "Royal Family" premiered in New York
1928: Birthdate of Canadian jazz musician and composer Moe Koffman.
1929: Birthdate of Albert Edmund Wolf.
1929: According to Joseph M. Levy a reporter for the New York Times, Americans have replaced Englishmen as the greatest travelers visiting Palestine, particularly Jerusalem. In a change from pre-World War I days, “it is estimated that seven out of every ten visitors to Palestine are from the United States.”
1938: Birthdate of Yehoram Gaon “an Israeli singer and actor” a Sephardic Jew from Jerusalem
1938: As Leon Trotsky prepares to depart for Norway, one of the countries that had offered him refuge from the murderous wrath of Stalin, Trotsky writes in his diary, “Stalin wishes to strike not at the ideas of his opponent, but at his skull, at his very life force” Ironically, when Stalin’s assassin killed Trotsky he accomplished the deed by driving an ax into Trotsky’s brain.
1939: Birthdate of Yehoram “Yoram” Gaon, an Israeli singer, actor, director, producer, television and radio personality who has also written and edited books on Israeli culture.
1940: In Chile, Erick Kreutzberger and Anna Blumenfeld Neufeld, gave birth to Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld, the Chilean television personality known as Don Francisco.
1941: The Nazis sanctioned performances known asKameradschaftsabende (evenings of fellowship) in Terezín, reasoning that the prisoners would cause less trouble.
1942: Two Jews are shot for mutiny at the Stalowa Wola, Poland, slave-labor camp.
1942: Dr. Carl Clauberg begins his sterilization experiments on women prisoners at Auschwitz.
1943: Reports out of Ankara, Turkey say the Germans are rushing material and reinforcement troops onto the Island of Rhodes by air, due to sea difficulties. At the time there were 10,000 Germans on the island.
1944: Members of Hungary's Arrow Cross abduct 28 Jews in a Budapest hospital. They will murder them two days later.
1944: On the Town opened on Broadway. It was lyricist Betty Comden's first hit. It was also the first big success for her three collaborators: Composer Adolph Green, Leonard Bernstein, and Jerome Robbins. Comden and Green also acted in the show, which featured the hit song "New York, New York." The musical, which followed a day in the lives of three sailors on leave in New York, ran for 462 performances on Broadway before going on tour. This success marked the beginning of Comden and Green's long career working together on Broadway and in Hollywood. When
MGM
turned On the Town into a movie with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in 1949, it was the first feature-length musical to be filmed on location. In 1953, Comden and Green worked again with Bernstein, creating the show Wonderful Town, which won a Tony Award for Outstanding Musical. Collaborating with Green in a decades-long partnership, Comden wrote lyrics and librettos for numerous additional Broadway musicals and movies, including Singin' in the Rain (1952), Peter Pan (1953), Auntie Mame (1958), Say Darling (1958), and The Will Rogers Follies(1991). Their work garnered five more Tony Awards and two Academy Award nominations. In 1991, Comden and Green were awarded Kennedy Center Honors.
1945: Arnold Hans Weiss, who left Nazi German at the age of 13 and returned as an officer in the United States Army’s Counter-Intelligence Corps completed a mission for which he received a Commendation Ribbon for assuming “the responsibility of apprehending a personality high in the annals of the Nazi system..” The Nazi was “Wilhelm Zander, chief aide to Martin Bormann, the Nazi Party official who had controlled access to Hitler.”
1945: Moshe Shertock, head of the Jewish Agency policitcal department was released today at 9 am after having been arrested last night along with 1,500 other Jews following the bombing of British installations in Palestine. Shertock could have been released as early as 4 in the morning but he “refused to leave until most the prisoners were freed; something that did not happen until 9 o’clock.
1946(5th of Tevet, 5707): Elie Nadelman, the Polish-born American sculptor and founder with his wife of the Museum of Folks Arts passed away today in NC at the age of 64.
1946: Joseph Clark Baldwin a Congressman from New York and a member of the Political Action Committee for Palestine appealed to Menachem Begin to end “terrorists activities.”
1947: As the Arabs continue their violent reaction to the UN partition vote, a convoy of Jewish trucks was ambushed near Dier Balah. The Jews fought their way through the ambush in which two Arabs were killed and another nine were wounded.
1947: Five Arabs were killed in Jerusalem by members of the Stern Gang who forced their way into an Arab house and shot those inside.
1947(15th of Tevet, 5708): Five Jews are killed in random terror attacks in Jerusalem. One was stabbed to death while on his way to a funeral. Another, Miriam Meir, the mother of six, was hanging her washing on a line when she was shot by an Arab sniper. Dr. Hugo Lehrs, a British government medical officer was walking with an Arab doctor and an Arab nurse when they were confronted by three armed Arabs. “Which is the Jew?” They asked. The two Arabs stood aside and Dr. Lehrs was gunned down.
1947: Moshe Sneh resigned as Jewish Agency executive. He criticized the Agency for emphasis on a friendship with the West and says they should pay more attention to Soviet Union
1948: As the fortunes of war turned against the invading Arab armies, the IDF crosses the Egyptian border moving into the Sinai Peninsula.
1948: As the fortunes of war turned against the invading Arab armies, the IDF crosses the Egyptian border moving into the Sinai Peninsula.1948: During Operation Horev, the Negev brigade followed the tanks of the 8th brigade across the Egyptian border tonight and moved towards El-Arish
1949: Birthdate of Rachel Elior an Israeli professor of Jewish philiosophy and mysticism at Hebrew University.
1952(10th of Tevet, 5713): Asara B’Tevet
1956: J. Sinclair Armstrong, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Joseph B. Levin as an Assistant General Counsel of the Commission.
1959: First graduation ceremony at Bar-Ilan University
1963: German-born composer Paul Hindemith passed away. The very successful Hindemith was not Jewish but his wife and many of his friends were. Hindemith fled Germany when the Nazis came to power. He started a new career in the United States.
1967: Muriel 'Mickie' Siebert became the first woman member of the New York Stock Exchange, one of many firsts that have earned the feisty Siebert the moniker "The First Woman of Finance."
1968: Israeli forces conducted a commando raid aimed at Beirut Airport as part of its war against Palestinian terrorists.
1969: Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" premieres in New York City.
1971(10th of Tevet, 5732): Asara B'Tevet
1971(10th of Tevet, 5732): Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner passed away at the age of 83. The Austrian born Steiner composer was nominated for 26 Oscars. He won six. Two of his most famous scores were for the movies Gone With the Wind and Casablanca.
1972: Martin Bormann's skeleton was found in Berlin. Bormann was one of Hitler’s closest associates in the waning days of World War II. He was last seen alive leaving Hitler’s Berlin Bunker as the Soviet forces were closing in for the kill. For almost a quarter of century, Nazi hunters looked for Bormann because they assumed that he might be hiding in South America or some place in the Middle East.
1973: Birthdate of actor Seth Meyers, a SNL regular.
1975: A revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” which was an all African-American production came to a close in New York City.
1976 "Fiddler on the Roof" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 167 performances.
1981(28th of Tevet, 5742): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1981(28th of Tevet, 5742): David Abraham Cheulkar, a Jewish-Indian film star passed away. Born in 1909, his career began in 1941 when he made the first of over 110 films.
1982: The New York Times featured a review of The Belarus Secret by John Loftus which explains “how some Nazi war criminals and collaborators were able to make their way to the United States after World War II, attain citizenship and live undetected or unmolested” by the authorities.
1986: It is reported that A gift of eight colorful and high-spirited children's books for each day of Hanukkah is available from the Ktav Publishing House. The books are ''Chanukah Fun and Story Book: Stories, Poems, Games & Things to Do for Chanukah,'' edited by Bernard Scharfstein ($6.50), and the following books written by his brother, Sol, a resident of Livingston: ''Chanukah Game and Story Book'' ($7.95), ''What Do You Do on a Jewish Holiday,'' a flip-flap book ($8.95), ''Let's Do a Mitzvah'' ($10.95), ''See, Smell and Touch Hanukah'' ($8.95), ''The Draydel'' ($6.95) and ''Hanukah Popup'' ($6.95).
1986: It was reported today that the following are now available just in time for Chanuka
''The Hallah Book: Recipes, History and Traditions,'' by Freda Reider which tells about the ''ceremonial loaves that grace the Jewish Sabbath and the holiday tables.'
''Jewish Holiday Treasure Box: How to Be Jewish,” an attractively boxed package of 16 items for year-long fun and learning that includes 8 picture books, 6 play-and-learn magazines, a cassette tape of songs and stories and a parent handbook to be used with children from 4 through
''A History of America's Jews: This Land of Liberty,'' by Helene Schwartz which is packed with illustrations that include many historic photographs.
''The Guide to Everything Jewish in New York,'' by Nancy Davis and Joy Levitt, a thoroughly resourceful guide and fun to read reference book that helps even the most assimilated yuppie to find ''Jewish-style food'' and almost anything else you could think of that might be needed or wanted by the Jewish community.
1987: Israeli officials said today that Israeli soldiers had resorted to using live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrators when their own lives were endangered. The comments by Shimon Peres, Israel's Foreign Minister, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Defense Minister, were made after two weeks of rioting in the occupied territories Mr. Rabin, interviewed from Tel Aviv on the NBC News program ''Meet the Press,'' said the Israeli Army had sought to use minimum force against the rioters, but he defended the use of live ammunition in situations when the lives of soldiers were in jeopardy. ''I believe we have tried and will continue to try in coping with violent public disorder with minimum measures -rubber bullets, tear gas,'' Mr. Rabin said. ''But whenever our soldiers are in danger, their life is in danger, they are allowed to open fire with live ammunition.''
1989(30th of Cheshvan, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1989(30th of Cheshvan, 5750): Ninety eight year old Solomon Birnbaum, the oldest son of Nathan Birnbaum, who was a noted “Yiddish linguist and Hebrew paleographer” passed away today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Birnbaum
1989: An Israeli widely regarded as Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega's closest associate has been seized by United States troops in Panama, a senior American Embassy official said today. The prisoner, Mike Harari, 62 years old, who formerly was an Israeli intelligence official, played an important advisory role in developing Panama's armed forces. He is known to have recruited and trained the general's personal security detail, which at one time included former Israel soldiers as well as Cuban military advisers. Mr. Harari, who retired in 1979 as head of the Israeli intelligence service in Central America and Mexico, has also been identified as a longtime business associate of the deposed Panamanian leader. Beginning in the early 1980's, he served as General Noriega's commercial attache and honorary consul in Tel Aviv. Israeli officials have denied any official connection with Mr. Harari, describing him as a private citizen, but some Panamanian officials say he was an unofficial go-between for General Noriega to the Israeli Government. Panamanian officials said that another Israeli citizen close to General Noriega, identified as Eliezer Ben Gaitan, left the Papal Nunciature here, where he had taken refuge with the general and about 30 other loyalists, and surrendered to American troops. Mr. Ben Gaitan was said to be a civilian supervisor of the Noriega security detail. In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said they had not received formal notification of the detention of any Israeli citizen in Panama. Eduardo Herrera Hassan, a former Panamanian envoy to Israel who returned here last week on an American military aircraft to help rebuild the national police force, has asserted that Mr. Harari took kickbacks from Israeli businessmen seeking to invest in Panama during the 1980's and split the proceeds with General Noriega. What, if anything, Mr. Harari has been charged with or whether his reported arrest came at the initiative of the United States or at the request of the new Panamanian Government is not clear.The embassy report of Mr. Harari's capture seemed to catch American authorities off guard and there were indications that they may possibly have hoped to keep word of the arrest secret, at least for a time. Israeli officials said they were puzzled why American authorities had not formally notified the Israeli Government if Mr. Harari and Mr. Ben Gaitan were in custody. Mr. Harari is said to have been introduced to General Noriega in 1973 when the general was chief of intelligence for Brig. Gen. Omar Torrijos Herrera, the Panamanian leader who died in a 1981 plane crash. Led Commando Operation In the 1970's, Mr. Harari, a specialist in antiterrorist tactics, helped lead an Israeli commando operation aimed at hunting down the Black September terrorists who killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Mr. Harari was among those blamed after the commandos killed a Moroccan waiter in Norway whom they mistakenly identified as a Black September commander. Mr. Harari, who shunned publicity, is said to have begun his military career in the late 1940's as a member of the Palmach force, which smuggled arms and illegal immigrants into what was then British-controlled Palestine. According to reports in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, he joined the Mossad after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and served in the 1950's as security director of Israel's Foreign Ministry. (As reported by David E. Pitt)
1989: An Israeli Government official said today that Mike Harari was ''absolutely not connected in any way to the Government, and his activities in Panama have no connection to any official Israeli organization or body.'' The Israeli Government has vigorously renounced any responsibility for Mr. Harari since his relationship with General Noriega was again publicized last week.''He's definitely not on the Government payroll,'' said the official, who asked not to be further identified. ''He's definitely a private citizen,'' The Israeli press has focused on Mr. Harari's role in the Noriega Government, reporting that he deposited drug profits belonging to the Panamanian leader in Israeli banks and bought real estate for General Noriega in Herzliya, a seaside town north of Tel Aviv. The press here also reported that Mr. Harari was plotting to help General Noriega escape to Israel.
1992: Shmuel Zailer, a director of Raz-Lee Ltd., an Israeli software company tells the New York Times, "It's easier exporting to the moon than to America." This complaint is often heard at Israel's software companies, even though the industry expects to export about $130 million in programs this year, up from $75 million in 1990. About 40 percent goes to the United States. Israel has one of the largest concentrations of software engineers, with about 12,000 people employed in the field. Of these, about 5,000 are actively involved in research and development. The recent boom of Russian immigration added considerably to the talent pool, although many immigrants, while highly educated in mathematics and computer science, need at least a year's training, said David Assia of Magic. Experts in high technology say the best training ground for computer engineers here is the Israeli military. Computer giants including Microsoft, I.B.M., Motorola, Intel and Digital Equipment have opened subsidiaries in Israel. Rosh Intelligence Systems Ltd., a Jerusalem company that develops programs for maintenance technicians, now has its management in Boston and conducts research and development in Jerusalem. Its chief executive, Ira Palti, says that with 75 percent of its sales in the United States, the company, like others in the field, had to provide clients easier access by going American.
1992: The Southwestern Bell Corporation and Clal Industries of Israel will jointly bid for control of Israel's national telephone company, Clal said today. Clal and Southwestern Bell International Development will bid for a controlling interest in Bezeq, the Israeli telecommunications concern. The Israeli Finance Minister, Abraham Shohat, recommended this month that the Government sell its 75 percent stake in Bezeq but no deadline was set. The five-month-old Labor Government has vowed to speed privatization but has yet to sell any of the big Government-owned enterprises. The former Likud Government sold 25 percent of Bezeq shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
1993: William L Shirer passed away at the age of 89. Shirer was born in Chicago and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he graduated from Coe College. Shirer is not Jewish. However, as radio correspondent for CBS in the 1930’s, Shirer was one of the first to warn of the threat posed by Hitler and Nazi Germany. His massive tome, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich continues to be one of the best books ever written on that period. His incisive writing on the collapse of the French Third Republic is an under appreciated classic.
2001(13th of Tevet, 5762): Samuel A. Goldblith, an American food scientist who had been captured at Corregidor and survived being a Japanese POW passed away.
2003(3rd of Tevet, 5764): Seventy-three year old “Manny Dworman, a nightclub owner, musician and long a colorful fixture on the Greenwich Village scene” passed away today at New York Hospital in Manhattan.(As reported by Stephen Holden)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/02/arts/manny-dworman-73-musician-who-owned-the-comedy-cellar.html
2003: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. by Wil Haygood and Gonna Do Great Things The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. by Gary Fishgall.
2004(16th of Tevet, 5765) Jerry Orbach, the American actor who may be best remember for his role as a detective on the long-running series, “Law & Order,” passed away.
2004(16th of Tevet, 5765): Susan Sontag, feminist, author and social critic passed away.
2004(16th of Tevet, 5765): Tzvi Tzur, the 6th Chief of Staff of the IDF passed away.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141509
2006: The annual Limmud Conference held at Nottingham, England, featuring presentations by 52 Israeli speakers, comes to a close. Based in the UK, Limmud is a global leader in innovative, inclusive Jewish education.
2007(19th of Tevet, 5768): Two Israelis were killed and a third was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the south Hebron Hills. The victims, David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai, were in elite units of the IDF, with Rubin serving as a sergeant in the Israeli Naval commandos and Amihai as a corporal in the Israel Air Force commandos unit. The two soldiers were on leave. Before being fatally wounded, the two managed to return fire and wounded one or more of the four Palestinian gunmen. The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade took responsibility for that attack.
2008: In Clayton, MO, The New Jewish Theatre presents “The Last Seder.”
2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Michael Lewis’ Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity.
2008: The Israeli Air Force today blew up 40 tunnels that have been used to smuggle arms and terrorists into Gaza. In addition, these tunnels have been important for shoring up Hamas economically. In return for being allowed to open and operate tunnels, Palestinians were forced to pay exorbitant sums to Hamas, which aided the terrorist organization's military capabilities.
2008: Gaza terrorists continued firing rockets at the western Negev this afternoon, although the pace of the attacks had slowed by 4:00 p.m. Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, suffered shrapnel wounds and several others suffered traumatic shock this afternoon when the missiles bombarded the coastal city of Ashkelon at mid-day. The terrorists are using 122-mm Grad-type Katyusha missiles, of the type that can reach a range of up to 40 kilometers. Several cars were also damaged after one of the missiles struck the southern end of the port city. The second missile landed in an unidentified location. Less than an hour later, two rockets exploded in the Eshkol region. No one was injured and no damage was reported. At least 16 missiles had exploded in southern Israel by 4:00 p.m. A Kassam rocket struck a kibbutz in the Eshkol region just before 4:00 p.m. No one was injured but there were reports of damage in the community.
2009: Famed dancer and choreographer Kobi Rozenfeld, a native of Rehovot, Israel, conducts a hip hop workshop at the Peridance Center in New York. Kobi Rozenfeld is coming from LA to teach three guest Street-Jazz classes:
2009: Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Brooklyn-based Grand Rebbe of the Spinka sect, was sentenced to two years in federal prison today for a decade-long fraud and money-laundering scheme. Weisz, 61, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter in Los Angeles last August. ,Weisz and six associates in Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Israel admitted to participating in a fraudulent kickback scheme in which donors to Spinka charities were refunded up to 95 percent of their donations, while claiming the full amounts as deductions on their income tax. In 2006, Spinka charities received nearly $8.5 million in donations and made $744,596 in "profits," after deducting amounts paid back to contributors.