December 29 In History
584
BCE
(10 Tevet 3175): The Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, began his siege of Jerusalem leading to the destruction of the first Temple. This day is commemorated as one of the "minor" fasts, lasting from sunrise to sunset. Of course, the tenth of Tevet floats when it appears on the secular calendar.
1170: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II. While the movie about Becket gives the Archbishop “all of the good lines” the reality was a bit different, especially for the Jews. The reign of Henry II was a good period for the Jews of England. His view that the King and not the Church was the ultimate authority for the realm would have appeared to be the better case for the Jews given the inimical view that the Church held of the Jewish people. Death is always a tragedy, but we should understand the reality of those over whom we weep as opposed to an image created by later day dramatists and film makers.
1485: Joshua Solomon Soncino published Sefer ha-Ikkarim (Book of Principles) at Soncino, Italy. Sefer ha-Ikkarim ("Book of Principles") is a fifteenth century work by Rabbi Joseph Albo, a student of Crescas. It is an eclectic, popular work, whose central task is the exposition of the principles of Judaism. Rabbi Joseph Albo was probably born in Aragon in 1380 and reportedly took part in the religious debate held at Tortosa in 1413 and 1414. His date of death is given variously as 1430 or 1444.
1690: In Italy, “severe earthquakes” struck the town of Ancona. They are memorialized by the town’s Jews with the celebration of a “Purim of Ancona.” A description of the event and the special prayers recited on that day were printed in “Or Boker” was which was published in 1709.
1709: Birthdate of Empress Elizabeth of Russia. The daughter of Peter the Great was an enemy of the Jews. She reiterated and reinforced the decrees already in existence banning Jews from the Russian Empire. Despite requests from some of her advisors that Jewish merchants be allowed to visit the kingdom since it would enrich Russia, Elizabeth held firm. This is yet another example of Religious zeal over-ruling all other considerations. According to one account, at least 35,000 Jews were forced to leave Russia because of her. Her legacy was a Jew Free Russia – something that would not last because of Russian greed for the land of others.
1778: During the American Revolutionary War, 3,500 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia without firing a shot. Among those taken prisoner by the British as they secured Savannah was the Jewish patriot from Georgia, Morcechai Sheftall. “In 1778,having proven his skill and selflessness as Commissary General of Georgia, Mordechai Sheftall had been appointed to the post of Deputy Commissary General to the federal troops stationed in Georgia and South Carolina by General Robert Howe. Before the Continental Congress could confirm his role, however, he was captured in December 1778, along with his fifteen-year-old son, Sheftall Sheftall, in the battle to prevent Savannah from falling to British troops. Some of the outnumbered patriots escaped by swimming across the Savannah River, but the younger Sheftall could not swim. His father would not abandon him. With 185 other Americans, they were captured and imprisoned. The British interrogated the Sheftalls under great duress, depriving them of food for two days. At one point, they were almost bayoneted by a drunken British soldier. Still refusing to provide information about the American's sources of supplies and refusing to renounce the patriot cause, father and son were transferred to the dank prison ship Nancy where the British deliberately offered Mordecai no meat other than pork, which he refused. After several months, the elder Sheftall was paroled to the town of Sunbury, Georgia, where he was kept under close British surveillance; his son remained on the Nancy. At Mordecai's urging, Mrs. Sheftall took her other children to the relative safety of Charleston. Separation from family weighed heavily on Mordecai. Through the intervention of friends, he was finally able to arrange for his son's parole to Sunbury under the same restrictive conditions on his own freedom of movement. Things looked promising when American military pressure on Savannah forced the British garrison to withdraw from Sunbury, but freedom for the Sheftalls did not follow. Local Tories began to beat and even kill patriots in Sunbury, especially parolees like the Sheftalls. Father and son managed to flee on an American brig headed for Charleston and a hoped for reunion with their family, but were captured by a British frigate and transported to Antigua, where they remained prisoners until the Spring of 1780. In June, both Sheftalls were paroled once more. They headed for Philadelphia, to which Mrs. Sheftall and the children had fled, yet again, for safety. There, despite his own financial hardships, Mordecai helped fund a new synagogue for Congregation Mikve Israel. Mordecai spent the remainder of the war in Philadelphia, seeking to help both the American cause and his own financial condition by financing a privateer to capture and loot British vessels. His investment does not seem to have paid off; on its very first voyage, the ship ran aground. In1783, when the war ended, Mordecai returned with his wife and children to Savannah, where the family resumed its life for several generations. The state of Georgia granted him several hundred acres of land in recognition of his sacrifices on behalf of independence. When he died in 1797 at the age of 62, his beloved home city of Savannah buried him with full honors in the Jewish cemetery he created.”
1809: Birthdate of William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Gladstone is known primarily as the political rival of Benjamin Disraeli and this tends to color the view of him held by some Jews. Gladstone was a complicated man. He began his political career who opposed Jews sitting in the House of Commons. At considerable political risk, he modified that position and voted in favor of removing the Christian religious qualification as long as the number of Jews in Parliament would never be so great as to lead Christians from their faith. Although Disraeli was raised as an Anglican, Gladstone was suspicious of what he described as his radical Jewish policies. Considering the level of English anti-Semitism, Gladstone should go into the plus column.
1845: Texas is admitted as the 28th U.S. state. Considering their numbers, Jews played an active role in the affairs of Texas at this time. Moses Albert Levy served as surgeon-general for Sam Houston’s forces at the Battle of San Jacinto – the victory that gave Texas her independence. Isaac Lyons served as the surgeon –general for another Texas leader, Tom Green. At least one Jew, Abraham Wolf, died at the Alamo. David Kaufman fought at the Battle of Neches, served in Republic of Texas legislature and was one of the state’s first Congressmen when she joined the Union. Kaufman County is named for him. With the support of Sam Houston, Henry Castro helped settle 5,000 Germans in Texas between 1843 and 1848. Castro County and Castroville both bear witness to the successful effort of this Sephardic Jew. During the 1850’s Jewish congregations were established in Houston, Galveston and San Antonio. In each case, the building of the cemetery preceded the building of the house of worship.
1847: Seventy-two year old English composer William Crotch passed away. Among his students was the Jewish composer Charles Kensington Salman who created the musical setting for “Adonai Malakh” (Psalm 93). Crotch drew on Biblical related themes for some of his works including “The Captivity of Judah” and an oratorio entitled “Palestine.”
1848: Birthdate of Calude Reigner, the an officer with the Corps of Royal Engineers who served two tours of duty with the Palestine Exploration Fund where he took part in some of the first modern surveys of Jerusalem and other parts of this part of the Ottoman Empire.
1849: Birthdate of British economist William Cunningham the author of The Growth of English Industry and Commerce in which he described the role of Jewish moneylenders in Medieval England and the manner in which King John, among others, exploited them for his own gain.”
1857: An article entitled “A Legal Decision” published today told the story of the son of a wealthy London Jewish banker who had fallen in love with a Christian girl whom he was going to marry despite the father’s threat to disinherit him. Taking advantage of a little known law that required Jewish fathers to support their Christian children, the boy told his father he would become a Christian which meant he would be “entitled to one-half of the father’s fortune.” The father sought help from lawyer who said that for a fee of ten guineas he would tell him how to thwart the son’s plan. Once the fee was paid, the lawyer told the father that he could become a Christian would leave him free to disinherit the son. The father left the lawyer without any further comment.
1860: The New York Times reported that one of the manifestations of excitement shown by the Poles following the Warsaw Conference was “a hatred of Jews and Germans that knew no bounds.”
1864(30thof Kislev, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1870: New York City authorities warned Jews about incompetent and unscrupulous mohalim who were causing the deaths of many Jewish infants.
1871: Birthdate of Meyer London, the Brooklyn Congressman who was one only two members of the Socialist Party elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
1874: A review of “The Travels of the Shah of Persia” by J.W. Redhouse which uses the Shah’s diary to recount the monarch’s 1873 tour of Europe by the Shah included a description of his meeting with Lord Rothschild. After praising Rothschild for his wealth, the Shah told Rothschild that “the best thing to do would be that you should” use your money “and buy a territory in which you could collect all the Jews of the whole world, you becoming their chief and leading them on their way in peace, so that you should not longer thus scattered and dispersed.” (Compare this sentiment with the Iranian -modern day Persia- view on the Jewish state.)
1875(1stof Tevet, 5636) Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1878: In New York City, the Young Men’s Hebrew Union hosted a well attended reception and ball in Irving Hall which was a celebration of Chanukah.
1882: It was reported today that in Russia, “the senate has decided that no court can authorize the transfer of land to a Jew.”
1882: It was reported today that in Russia “the railway companies have ordered the discharge of their Jewish employees.”
1888: In New York, the Excise Commissioners heard the protest of the Pastor of St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church to the granting of a liquor license to Charles Goldstein, the owner of Webster Hall, an edifice designed to for Jewish weddings and other such social events.
1888: Santa Clause will distriube toys to the 600 children at the Christmas Party being held today at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City.
1888: The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City will the site of tonight’s theatrical and musical productions the proceeds of which will go to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1889: Six hundred youngsters attended an evening of entertainment in the chapel of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum sponsored by the Seligman Solomon Society.
1889: The officers and managers of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society hosted a reception in honor of state Senator Jacob A. Cantor and Assemblyman Joseph Blumenthal.
1889: It was reported today the one of the highlights of this year’s New York theatrical season was Edwin Booth’s portrayal of Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice.”
1893(20th of Tevet, 5654): Adolf Jellinek passed away. Born in 1821, he was an Austrian rabbi and scholar who became a preacher at the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna in 1856.
1894: A two week revival of “Quite an Adventure,” a one-act comic opera by Edward Solomon, came to an at the Savoy Theatre in London.
1895: Arthur Scholem and Betty Hirsch Scholem gave birth to Werner Scholem, German political leader, member of the Reichstag during the Weimer Republic and the brother of Gershom Scholem. Werner would die in Buchenwald.
1898: Richard J. H. Gottheil, a professor of languages at Columbia University and a leader in the early American Zionist movement gathered together a group of Jewish students from several New York City universities to form a Zionist youth society. The society was called Z.B.T. which most people know as Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.
1901: The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was founded. “The Jewish National Fund is the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners - Jewish People everywhere.” After several false starts, the delegates to the Fifth Zionist Congress passed a motion that a fund to be called Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) should be established, and that "the fund shall be the property of the Jewish people as a whole". The purpose of the fund would be to be purchase land in the land of Palestine that would belong to the Jewish people. The JNF's first undertaking was the collection of £200,000. One of the delegates immediately pledged £10 in memory of Zvi Hermann Schapira who had been one of the prime mover’s behind the creation of the JNF. Theodore Herzl made the second donation and his aide, the third. And with this, the dream of a national fund--and a Jewish Homeland--became a reality.
1903(10thof Tevet, 5664): Asara B’Tevet
1908: Louis A. Hensheimer, a member of the bnaking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company spent his last day “at his desk” prior to undergoing surgery for appendicitis.
1909: Birthdate of Johtje (pronounced YO-tya) Vos, a Dutch woman who along with her husband hid three dozen Jews from the Nazis during World War II. In addition to which they provided assistance to an unknown number of Jews escaping through part of the Netherlands from 1940 through 1945. Mrs. Vos moved to Woodstock, NY in 1951 and passed away at the age of 97 in 2007. She never saw herself as a Righteous Gentile or a particularly brave person.
1911: The Chamber of Commerce of Salonica rendered a decision that Jewish porters do not need to work on Shabbat.
1915: It was reported that M. Maldwin Fertig, the president of The Young Men’s Hebrew Association, has said the campaign to raise funds for a new facility in the would continue until it has reached its goal of $85,000.
1918: During the Freedom Wars, Lithuania's government called for volunteers to defend the Lithuanian state. Of the 10,000 volunteers who responded more than 500 of them were Jews. Altogether more than 3000 Jews served in the Lithuanian army between 1918 and 1923.
1921: In Tulsa, OK, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Friedman gave birth to Staley Friedman the author of Martin Buber: The Life of Dialogue which “marked the first effort to explain and popularize the humanistic and religious concepts Martin Buber.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1922(10th of Tevet, 5683): Asara B'Tevet
1922(10th of Tevet, 5683): The Chief Rabbi of Alexandria, Rodolfo Compagnano, passed away.
1923: Birthdate of Shlomo Venezia, the native of Thessaloniki, Greece who survived Auschwitz and wrote Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz.
1924(2ndof Tevet, 5685): 8th and last day of Chanukah
1928: “The fourth national labor convention for Palestine held under the auspices of the national labor committee for the Organized Jewish Workers in Palestine opened tonight in New York. Abraham Shiplacoff, chairman of the national committee gave the welcoming address to the five hundred delegates. Among the visitors was David Bloch, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Israel Merminsky general secretary of the Palestine Federation both of whom have been visiting the United States for the last ten days.
1929: Roger W. Straus addressed the Chicago Conference of Temple Brotherhoods at their Chanukah Dinner which was being held at the Palmer House Hotel. Mr. Straus, a New Yorker, is the son of the late Oscar S. Straus and President of the National Federal of Temple Brotherhoods which, has 22,000 members. In his speech, Mr. Straus connected the meritorious service of many members in the World War with the valor of the Maccabees in issuing a call to show the same kind of dedication in combating “the corrosive, brutal theory of materialism and thereby to serve again our religion, our country and humanity.”
1929: Lt. Governor Herbert H. Lehman of New York, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson of Pittsburgh, Joshua Kantrowitz, Ben Altenheimer and Jean Wise will address the Third Annual Chanukah Dinner sponsored by the Metropolitan Conference of Temple Brotherhoods which is being held at the Astor Hotel in New York City.
1931: The first Hebrew-language feature-film "Oded Hanoded" - "Oded the Wanderer", directed by Chaim Halahmi, premiered in Tel Aviv.
1937: Willliam Dodd completed his term as U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Dodd was the first U.S. Ambassador appointed to serve as after Hitler came to power. (For more see, In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson)
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the General Council for Palestine Jews (Va'ad Leumi) decreed that in view of certain developments, the council was the sole body authorized to reach an agreement with the Arabs.
1937: The British press reported that the Foreign Office had become increasingly alarmed at the extent of Arab and Moslem opposition to Palestine's partition. It had not yet decided whether to appoint a new Palestine Commission, expected to implement the plan, as agreed upon with the Mandatory Commission of the League of Nations.
1937: Heavy fines and prison sentences were imposed on German Jews, accused of illegal ritual slaughtering practices.
1941(9th of Tevet, 5702): Tullio Levi-Civita passed away. Born in 1873, Levin-Civita was an Italian mathematician who was one of the founders of absolute differential calculus (tensor analysis) which had applications to the theory of relativity. In 1887, he published a famous paper in which he developed the calculus of tensors. In 1900 he published, jointly with Ricci, the theory of tensors Méthodes de calcul differential absolu et leures applications in a form which was used by Einstein 15 years later. Weyl also used Levi-Civita's ideas to produce a unified theory of gravitation and electromagnetism. In addition to the important contributions his work made in the theory of relativity, Levi-Civita produced a series of papers treating elegantly the problem of a static gravitational field. On September 5, 1938 the Racial Laws were passed in Italy which excluded all those of Jewish background from universities, schools, academies and other institutions. Levi-Civita was dismissed from his professorship, forced to leave the editorial board of Zentralblatt für Mathematik, and prevented from attending the Fifth International Congress of Applied Mechanics in the United States. He wrote to a former student in May 1939 “I live as a retired person and I do not move; except in summer, however, if my personal conditions allow me to move. As you maybe know, Jews have been completely expelled from Italian cultural life; in particular, I will not participate in the "Volta Congress" and will not be in Rome in September”. In the last years of his life, in spite of his moral and physical depression, Levi-Civita remained faithful to the ideal of scientific internationalism and helped colleagues and students who were victims of anti-Semitism; thanks to him, many of them found positions in South America or in the United States.
1941(9th of Tevet, 5702): A Jewish physician from Prague, Czechoslovakia, Dr. Karol Boetim dies of spotted typhus while treating patients at a Gypsy camp near the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto.
1942: Today Jan Komski and three comrades, Mieczyslaw Januszewski, Boleslaw Kuczbara, and Otto Küsel, participated in one of the most famous escapes in the history of that infamous camp. This escape was significant because it was among the first to be organized by the illegal camp resistance movement, and with the help of the local population. “In the morning of Dec 29, 1942, a two wheel cart drawn by two horses passed the gate at Auschwitz in the afternoon. It carried Kuczbara, dressed in a stolen SS uniform. Alongside walked three inmates, seemingly being escorted by the SS-man. They aroused no suspicion as Otto Küsel was known to all the Blockführers (SS Block Commanders). When they reached the check point at the border of the big sentry chain, Kuczbara showed the guards a cleverly forged pass. His uniform and the pass convinced them to allow the cart and the prisoners through. The men simply walked out of the camp.They made it to the village of Broszkowice where they met a resistance woman who gave them civilian clothes. They spent the night at the home of Andrzej Harat, who actually rented the apartment above them to an SS officer. Mr. Komski eventually reached the city of Krakow, where he was arrested in a routine roundup as he was sitting on a train awaiting departure for Warsaw. Any escaped prisoner would have been hanged very soon after his return to Auschwitz. But, Komski was not recognized and his identity papers now bore a different name.”
http://www.remember.org/komski/jan-komski.html
1945: Just before dawn today British Sixth Airborne Division troops threw a cordon around Ramat Gan a town of 10,000 and searched every part of it, looking for terrorists who blew up police and military installations in near-by Tel Aviv and Jaffa Thursday night. Authorities arrested more than 800 men between the ages of 16 and 40 making this the largest action of its kind in Palestine.
1946: In Palestine, Major Paddy Brett and three non-commissioned officers serving in the British Army were flogged by attackers alleged to have been members of the Irgun.
1947: Five Jewish doctors driving back to Jerusalem from Hadassah Hospital came under attack from Arab gunman. The doctors found sanctuary with a nearby Jewish family while their attackers burned their car.
1947: "The 29th of November", a ship filled with "illegal" Jewish immigrants, was driven off the coast of Eretz Israel by the British. The ship was named in honor of the date when the U.N. approved the partition resolution that effectively created the Jewish state of Israel.
1947: Two ships with 7,000 immigrants are boarded by British forces before they can reach the coast of Palestine. The Jewish Agency wants to avoid confrontation with the British, knowing that immigration will open on 1 February 1948. Ben Gurion gives orders that there has to be no resistance.
1947(16th of Tevet, 5708): Moshe Rembach, a Jew who had been working for Barclays Bank since it opened in 1918, was shot and killed by Arab gunman at the entrance to bank.
1948: It was reported today that Dr. Edwin J. Cohn of the Harvard Medical School has been chosen to deliver the 1949 Julius Stieglitz Memorial Lecture at the University of Chicago.
1948: Israeli troops pushed deep into the Sinai and established a base at Abu Ageila, 20 miles west of the border between Egypt and Israel.
1948: As Israeli forces finally were driving out the Egyptian invaders, the United Nations called for a cease fire between the Jewish state and the Arab aggressor in the Negev.
1948: Israel responded to the UN call for a ceasefire in the Negev by saying it will continue fighting until Egypt agrees to peace talks while the British government, in a move that shows its pro-Arab and anti-Jewish bias, insists that Israel accept the UN call for an immediate ceasefire.
1948: Ralph Bunche urges the Palestine Conciliation Committee to begin its work..
1952(11th of Tevet, 5713): Beryl Rubinstein composer and piano virtuoso passed away at the age of 54. A native of Athens, Georgia, Rubinstein was the son of a rabbi.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel protested to the West on its intensified supply of arms to the Arab states. Britain offered to sell jet planes to Israel, and in an equal number to each separate Arab state, and this would obviously give the combined Arab forces great superiority.
1953: Yosef Serflin replaced Yosef Sapir as Minister of Health
1953: Yosef Sapir replaced Yosef Serline as Minister of Transportation
1955: Barbra Streisand makes her first recording, "You'll Never Know" at age 13
1955: In a speech to the Supreme Soviet, Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev condemns Israel as a tool of imperialist states used to threaten its Arab neighbors.
1957: Singer Steve Lawrence, born Sydney Liebowitz in Brooklyn, married fellow entertainer Eydie Gorme. He was Jewish. She was not.
1960: The Israeli cabinet appointed a full committee “to examine the possibility of settlement in the northeastern Negev desert and the Arad area.”
1961: Jerry Herman’s off-Broadway musical “Madame Aphrodite” opened at the Orpheum Theatre.
1966: Birthdate of actor Jason Gould, the son of Elliot Gould and Barbra Streisand.
1967: Birthdate of Evan Seinfeld actor, director and heavy metal bassist in the bands Biohazard and Damnocracy
1968: Israeli commandos destroyed 13 Lebanese airplanes
1971: Birthdate of Jay Fiedler, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles.
1973: Birthdate of baseball executive Theo Epstein
1973: While Prime Minister Golda Meir was not averse to some form of territorial compromise to gain peace with the Arabs, she said today that Israel would not descend from the Golan, will not partition Jerusalem and will not allow the distance from Natanya to the border be a mere 18 kilometers.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset endorsed the peace plan, as drafted by Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and presented to the US and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, by 64 to eight votes with 40 abstentions. More than 1,000 settlers from the administered territories protested against the plan outside the Knesset's gates.
1977: Poland was reported to be seeking to renew relations with Israel that had been severed during the 1967 war.
1982(13th of Tevet, 5743): Movie producer Sol. C. Siegel passed away. His cinematic productions included “High Society,” “No Way to Treat A Lady” and “Alvarez Kelly.”
1985: “The Jew Who Spied for the Nazis” published today provided a review of Arrows of the Almighty: The Most Extraordinary True Spy Story of World War II by Michael Bar-Zohar which tells “the tragic true story of Paul Ernst Fackenheim
1988:William Andreas Brown, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, presented his credentials today.
1989(1stof Tevet, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
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 in 1990.
1993: Yuval Goldan was stabbed today by a terrorist near Adarim in the Hebron area.
1995(6th of Tevet, 5756): Composer Shlomo Yoffe died in Beit-Alpha.
1995: The family of Yigal Amir, the man who murdered Prime Minister Rabin celebrated the wedding of Vardit Amir and Yithak Cohen in Tel Aviv.
1997(30thof Kislev, 5758) Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1998(10th of Tevet, 5759): Asara B'Tevet
1999: In an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal,Ira Stoll criticized a speech Rabbi Yitz Greenberg gave last November at the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly in Chicago.
2002: The New York Times featured books reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including the paperback edition of Middle Age: A Romance, by Joyce Carol Oates
2004(17th of Tevet, 5765): Chemist Julius Axelrod passed away. Axelrod was a co-winner of the Noble Prize for Chemistry in 1970.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/axelrod.html
2005: A suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at an IDF checkpoint on the West Bank. An IDF soldier and two Palestinians were killed in addition to the bomber.
2005: Alice Loeb, daughter of Ernst Loeb and wife of John Strugnell passed away today in Grasse, France, two days after celebrating her 85th birthday.
2006: The Jewish Daily Forward, featured a review of Jewish Ireland in the Age of Joyce: A Socioeconomic History by Cormac Ó. Gráda. “Gráda’s new economic chronicle, “traces the history of the Jews in Ireland from 1079, when they first arrived, up until the present day. The book’s main focus is the Jewish community from the 1870s through the 1940s, roughly during the Ulysses author’s lifetime. While much has been written about the Jewishness of James Joyce’s Leopold Bloom, one of the most famous characters in all of literature, few know anything about the remarkable community in Ireland that inspired Joyce to create him.”
2007: The Chicago Tribune features a review of People of the Book, Geraldine Brook’s new novel that follows the tortuous path of the Sarajevo Haggadah.
2007: The Chicago Tribune reported that the 47,000 square foot property housing Streit’s, the last matzo factory on the New York’s Lower East Side, is going on the marked for $25 million in part of the city that is becoming increasingly gentrified. The factory will keep producing matzo until the owners build a new one in about a year, probably in New Jersey.
2008: In “Anatomy of a Scam,” Time magazine offers a pictograph description of a Ponzi scheme as it reports that “…Bernard Madoff was arrested for allegedly bilking investors out of up to $50 billion in a Ponzi scheme described as one of history’s largest swindles.”
2008: The stars of the hit Broadway musical “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” – Stephen Bogardus, Kerry O’Malley, Jeffry Denman & Meredith Patterson ring The Closing Bell at the NYSE in celebration of the holiday season. “Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas,’” a new musical stage reinvention of the classic film, is now playing a limited engagement on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre.
2008(2nd of Tevet, 5769): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2008: A bottle of flammable liquid was hurled at Temple Sholom one of Chicago's oldest synagogues. The building caught fire but did not suffer “major damage.”
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