DECEMBER 6 In History
1060: Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary. In 1061 Bela changed the Market Day from the traditional Sunday to Saturday which may have been part of an attempt to remove the Jews from the commercial activity of the kingdom. Given the anti-Jewish decrees of his immediate successors, there is reason to believe such was the case.
1185: Alfonso I the Conqueror, king of Portugal passed away at the age of 76. Alfonso’s connection with Jewish history is indirect. Until he proclaimed himself king,
Portugal
was part of
Spain
. Alfonso’s successful secession came only after bitter fighting between him and the Spanish. This delayed the attempts by the Spanish monarchs to drive the Moors from the
Iberian Peninsula
. Also,
Portugal
offered a haven for Jews and Conversos in 1492. This haven proved to be short-lived but sometimes any port in a storm is better than no port at all.
1285: Birthdate of King Ferdinand IV of Castile who would earn the enmity of the Dowager Queen for employing a Jew as his treasurer and close advisor.
1424: Don Alfonso V of Aragon grants Barcelona the right to exclude Jews.
1672: King John II Casimir of Poland passed away. King John allowed the Jews to continue living in the fortified city of Kamnets where they had taken refuge during Khmelnytsky (Chmielnicki) Uprising. He also granted the Jews of Szydlowiec several privileges including the right to make and sell whiskey.
1812: Birthdate of Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman, the Baltimore born American actor and manager. Bateman was the manager of Henry Irving when the British actor gained his greatest success by playing Mathias in “The Bells” a play based on a translation of “The Polish Jew.”
1815: Emperor Frederick William III of Prussia closed the first Reform Temple in Berlin
1817 (27th of Kislev, 5578): Rabbi Chaim of Tchernovitz, a disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch and of Rabbi Yechiel Michel of Zlotchov passed away on the third day of Chanukah which was also Shabbat Shel Chanukah. He authored Be'er Mayim Chayim("Well of Living Waters"), a commentary on Torah.
1820: US President James Monroe re-elected. In 1850, a U.S. Senate Committee investigated the role played by Chaim Solomon during the American Revolution. According to a report issued by the committee James Monroe was one of several leaders of the Revolution who received financial assistance from Solomon. Like the other leaders listed,
Monroe
did not repay Solomon proving that while some may have talked about “pledging their fortunes” to the cause of liberty, Solomon actually did give his fortune.
1834(4th of Kislev, 5595): Dutch lawyer Jonas Daniel Meyer passed away at the age of 54. In
Amsterdam
, the
Jonas Daniel Meyer Square
was the center of the Jewish religious life.
1852: In Jersey City, Jersey, the committee that had been appointed to make arrangements for the lectures of Mr. Matthew A. Berk on “The Conditions of Jews” decided that they would begin this week. There will be no charge for admission but a voluntary collection will be taken to support the lectures. In 1846, Berk published The History of the Jews from the Babylonian Captivity to Present the Present Time.
1854: Birthdate of Jacob Aaron Cantor, New York attorney and political leader who served in the U.S. Congress for one term from 1913 through 1915.
1855(28th of Kislev, 5616): Amschel Mayer Rothschild, the second child and eldest son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, passed away. On the death of Mayer Amschel in 1812, Amschel Mayer succeeded as head of the bank at Frankfurt-am-Main, which was the original Rothschild house in the House of Rothschild.
1855: Birthdate of Nina Morais Cohen—the daughter of Sabato Morais, a prominent Orthodox rabbi and a leading exponent of traditional Judaism— who established her own strong voice as an advocate for women's rights within Judaism and American society. Born in
Philadelphia
where her father served the congregation Mikveh
Israel
, Nina Morais grew up very involved in her father's work and concerns. As a young woman she published widely on the subject of women's rights and roles in Judaism in both the Jewish and secular press. After her marriage to attorney Emanuel Cohen in 1885, she moved to
Minneapolis
, where she became a leader in the woman suffrage movement and in the Jewish community. She participated in the 1893 Jewish Women's Congress in
Chicago
and returned to
Minneapolis
to found a local section of the newly formed National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) in 1894. She served as section president until 1907. For 13 years she drew upon her extensive Jewish education to lead study sessions for local NCJW members in her home on Saturday afternoons (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
1859: Rabbi A. Fishcell presented a paper entitled “The History of the Jews in America” at tonight’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the New York Historical Society. He traced their history from the expulsion from Spain in 1492 to their settling in New Amsterdam. He concluded by reading the letter from George Washington to the Jews of Newport Rhode Island in which he praised the Jews for their patriotism.
1864: A meeting was held in Philadelphia “which resulted in the establishment of the first Jewish theological seminary in America. The need of such an institution was strongly felt, as there were numerous synagogues in the country, but few persons capable of filling the rabbinical office. The seminary was established under the joint auspices of the Hebrew Education Society and the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, and was named Maimonides College." The school began operating in 1867 with Isaac Leeser as its provost. The school ceased operations in 1873 due to lack of support and funds.
1870: It was reported today that the Hebrew Fair has raised $75,000 so far and the sponsors are sure that they will reach the goal of $100,000. Over 450 items have been raffled off so far including a $200 silver service. Mrs. Joseph Steiner won a canvas on which Constant Meyer will paint the winner’s portrait.
1873: According to a report published today there were 73,265 Jews living in the United States in 1870 as compared with 34,412 living in the U.S. in 1860 and 18,871 living in the U.S. in 1850. These figures come from a religious census that reported on the religious preferences of 21,665,062 people living in the United States in 1870 out of a total population of 38,555,983 as tabulated by the U.S. Census Bureau.
1874: The annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association was held today at Metropolitan Hall in New York. The association supports five afternoon and evening schools with 519 students, 375 of whom were boys and 144 were girls.
1874: Mrs. P.J. Joachimsen was elected President at today’s annual meeting of the Society of the Home for the Aged and Infirm Hebrews located on Lexington Avenue. The number of residence has increased from 300 to 700 in the last year. The total assets of the society are $18,361.39. The President expressed the hope that before the lease has expired on the current facility the society will have built a suitable building of its own.
1875: A fund raiser for the benefit of Mount Sinai Hospital is scheduled to be held today at Gilmore’s Garden.
1875: The Hebrew Charity Fair, a fund-raiser for Mt. Sinai Hospital opened tonight at the Hippodrome, the pleasure palace erected by P.T. Barnum in Manhattan.
1875: The sister of Abram and Aaron Dietz identified their burned bodies at the City Morgue today. The two Jewish men were among the victims of yesterdays Brooklyn Theatre Fire which claimed the lives of 278 people.
1877: First publication of The Washington Post. In 1933, The Post would be purchased in a bankruptcy auction by Eugene Meyer, who restored the paper's health and reputation. Philip L. Graham, Meyer's son-in-law, would work his way up to become publisher upon Graham's death in 1959. After Graham’s death, his widow Katherine would take over the paper and the communication conglomerate that would include Newsweek Magazine the
Washington
affiliate of CBS.
1878: At 11:30 this morning, a fire broke out in the basement of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York. The fire was quickly extinguished by the staff. None of the 50 children in the building at the time were in any danger and little damage was sustained to the structure.
1880: It was reported today that at a meeting hosted by Socialists in New York City where the speakers were all refugees from political oppression in Germany, Carl Welki enumerated a list of grievances including Prince Bismarck’s support of the attacks on the Jews.
1880: It was reported today that in Germany, “the Provincial School Commission has recommended the Government to dismiss two teachers for displaying animosity against the Jews.”
1880: In New York,“Max Mansfeld, editor of the Hanover Tageszeitung, delivered a lecture” this evening at Steinway Hall on the modern persecution of the Jews in Germany.”
1882(25th of Kislev, 5643): Chanukah
1882: Mrs. Abraham Bronstein remained in the custody of the Harlem Police today after having been arrested yesterday. Her husband, whom the police were still seeking, remained at large. The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society had requested the police take the couple into custody because they refused to leave the barracks at Ward’s Island despite the fact that Mr. Bronstein had a job and could have provided for his family without further assistance from the Jewish charity.
1884: Birthdate of Rose Schneiderman who served as New York State Department of Labor Secretary from 1937 through 1944.
1889: Jacob Adler and Dinah Shtettin gave birth to Celia Feinman Adler “an American Jewish actress known as the ‘first Lady of the Yiddish Theatre.’”
1890: The New York Times reported that Baron Hirsch is considering a plan to settle Russian Jews in agricultural settlements in
Argentina
. Hirsch has sent a commission to the South American republic to investigate the feasibility of the plan to which he is reportedly willing to spend $20,000,000 to bring it to a successful conclusion.
1895: Birthdate of Max Kadushin, the native of Minsk who became a successful American Rabbi in the Conservative Movement.
1896: Birthdate of Ira Gershwin. The brother of George Gershwin, Ira carved out his own career as a lyricist for Broadway and
Hollywood
musicals. He passed away in 1983.
1898: Birthdate of Alfred Eisenstaedt, “father of photojournalism." Born in West Prussia, he was one of the first to use the 35mm camera. He came to the United States in 1935 where he became
1909: In response to the complaints by the Alliance Israelite Universelle on behalf of the Jews in Fez, the Sultan calls for the chief rabbis, then tells them the Jews will never again have to suffer injustice again, and that Sabbaths and festivals will be respected.
1917: During World War I, British forces entered Hebron as Allenby continued his advance on Jerusalem.
1917: Birthdate of ice cream mogul Irvin Robbins, the back part of Baskin & Robbins. According to family legend the Canadian born entrepreneur used money from his Bar Mitzvah to fund the start of the legendary “31 Flavors.”
1917: Finland declares independence from Russia. With the establishment of an independent state of Finland, Jews living in Finland were finally granted rights of full citizenship, something that had not been possible under Swedish and Russian rule.
1920: Birthdate of American Jazz great Dave Brubeck, the non-Jew who created “The Gates of Justice.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/reviews/Brubeck.html
1922: Birthdate of Benjamin Gilman of
New York
who served in the House of Representatives from 1973 through 2003.
1922: Birthdate of Abdallah Hay Simon, the Baghdadi born Jew who became the longtime chairman of the Seagram Chateau & Estate Wines Company was a commanding figure in the American wine trade and a leading importer of fine Bordeaux to the United States.
1928: Sir Harry Charles Luke completed his service as the acting Chief Secretary to the Government of Palestine. He had previously served as Assistant Governor of Jerusalem and was appointed a member of the Haycraft Commission which was established by Herbert Samuel to investigate the cause of the riot which started in Jaffa in May of 1921.
1931: A World Islamic Conference opened in
Jerusalem
under the Mufti who had succeeded in characterizing the Jews as the enemy of Islam in
Jerusalem
.
1931: In its Sunday edition, the New York Timesreported on plans by Jews throughout the world to celebrate the upcoming 100th anniversary of the birth of Baron Maurice de Hirsch on Wednesday, December 9.
1933:
U.S.
federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that the novel Ulysses by James Joyce was not obscene. The novel features Leopold Bloom a Jewish advertising agent.
1937: The Palestine Post reported on the visit to
Damascus
of the Nazi German youth leader Baldur von Schirach, accompanied by a large entourage. There was little doubt that the Syrian Arab youth seemed to be particularly vulnerable to this latest Nazi effort to spread their propaganda throughout the entire Middle Eastern area. Shots were fired at the Beit Alfa and Kfar Baruch settlements.
1937: The Jerusalem Post’s leading economists found it rather strange that while the Palestine government's highly satisfactory yearly budget of £6,900,000 was due in most part to the participation of Jewish capital and investment, the official policy was marked by apathy and an almost total lack of encouragement for further progress in investment and economy. On the contrary, the government was slowing down further successful development by a continuous curtailment of the Jewish immigration and a half-hearted struggle against the Arab terror.
1938:William Cooper of the Yorta Yorta tribe and members of the Australian Aborigines League were denied entry to the German Consulate where they had come to protest the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis at the time of
1938: Fourteen year old Ernest Stock and his ten year old sister leave
Frankfurt
to stay with friends in
Alsace
,
France
. Ernest’s mother sent the children out of the country following Kristallnacht, a night which was made double horrific for the Stocks because Ernest’s father was arrested and taken to
Buchenwald
. In response to the worsening situation in
Germany
following Kristallnacht, the mother of 14 year old Ernest Stock sent her son and his 10-year-old sister Lotte to family friends who lived in
Alsace
,
France
.
1939: As an example of its policy of blocking all Jewish escape routes in
Central Europe
, the British Foreign Office warns
Bulgaria
that if it ships its Jews to
Palestine
, the British will "expect the Bulgarian government to take the immigrants back."
1942: The Germans locked 23 Poles suspected of helping Jews in a cell. They then burned it to the ground.
1942: In
Parczew
,
Poland
, the Germans undertook a four day manhunt for hidden Jews.
1942: Germans in Salonica steal all the marble tombstones so they can line a swimming pool for their soldiers.
1943: Birthdate of Richard Anthony Goldman, the adopted son of Charles and Tillie Goldman, “whose investor’s eye for spotting battered neighborhoods prime for rejuvenation led him to help revive SoHo in Manhattan in the 1970s and South Beach in Florida in the ’80s.” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman.
1943: In one of the last major Italian deportations, 212 Jews from Milan and Verona were sent to Auschwitz. In all, out of a population of 35,000 before the war, approximately 8500 Jews were killed. An estimated 2000 Jews fought with the partisans, five of them winning
Italy
’s highest medals for bravery.
1944: A
Liberty
ship bearing the name of the late Isaac Mayer Wise was launched this afternoon at the St. John's River Shipbuilding Company yards, with his son, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise of the Central Synagogue of New York City, as the principal speaker on the christening program.
1945: In a speech delivered at the commencement exercises of Hebrew University, Dr. Judah B. Magnes, president of the university, “declared that the aims of Jews in Palestine, namely the establishment of a national home, could not be achieved by acts of terrorism. He urged passive resistance rather than the resort to force.”
1945: Former Iowa Senator Guy Gillette, Judge William S. Bennet of New York and Representative Andrew L. Somers of Brooklyn, leaders of the American League for A Free Palestine held a press conference during which they expressed the belief that the committee’s approach to solving the problem of displaced Jews in Europe and the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine had had a positive effect on changing British policy. In discussing their aims they stated that “The Hebrews of Europe must be saved at once.”
1947: Members of the Haganah and Arab soldiers clash
1948: On the second day of Operation Assaf carried Israeli forces captured another important position, thus completing all the operation's objectives. However, the Israelis met stronger resistance at another position (which was not captured) and were forced to stop their advance when they hit a minefield in another location. On the same day, the Egyptians counter-attacked the captured positions from their main positions in the west, with an infantry battalion, a tank company and some accurate artillery. The attack came very close to breaking the Israeli defenders, but broke off at dusk. The IDF’s Operation Assaf was designed to clear Egyptian troops from the Western Negev.
1948: Representatives of Israel and Iraq sign a cease-fire agreement. The Iraqi troops were the largest contingent of troops from an Arab state with no contiguous border with Israel to take part in the war aimed at crushing the Jewish state. The Iraqi failure to defeat the Jews of Israel led to their attacking their own Jewish population forcing them to flee. Most of the refugees came to Israel.
1949: Demobilised Palmach soldiers founded Gan Yoshiya, a moshav near the Green Line. It was named in honor of the Anglo-Jewish leader Josiah Wedgewood.
1953:Mordechai Maklef completed his service as Chief of Staff of the IDF>
1953: At Ben-Gurion’s insistence, Moshe Dayan was appointed Chief of Staff of the IDF.
1955:
New York
psychologist Joyce Brothers won "$64,000 Question" on boxing
1966: Zvi Dinstein was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense.
1967: Birthdate of director/producer Judd Apatow.
1967: When Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz removed the heart of a brain-dead baby and implanted it into the chest of a baby with a fatal heart defect, he became the first doctor to perform a human heart transplant in the
United States
.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s declaration that as peace with
Israel
was forthcoming, he was not concerned about being isolated in the Arab world. Consequently
Egypt
had severed diplomatic ties with
Syria
,
Iraq
,
Libya
,
Algeria
and
South Yemen
.
1977: In London, Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced that while Israel would refuse to consider the establishment of a PLO-dominated state on the West Bank, it wished to solve the problem of the Palestine Arabs “in justice and dignity.”
1981: Philip C. Habib, President Reagan's special envoy to the Middle East, arrived in Israel tonight from Saudi Arabia. The Government said he would meet Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Jerusalem on Monday.
1981: Prisoner Without A Name, Cell Without A Number by Jacobo Timerman and Zuckerman Unbound by Philip Roth are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review to the best books published in the country during the preceding year.
1982: It was reported that “The U.S. failure to start negotiations for the withdrawal of Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian forces from Lebanon is worrying senior Reagan Administration officials. They said that because of the impasse it was now virtually impossible that the troops would leave by the end of the year, the date set by the State Department.”
1982: It was reported that “Israel cleared a close Lebanese ally of any involvement in the massacre of hundreds of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps near Beirut last September. The state commission investigating the massacre said it had no evidence that forces of Maj. Saad Haddad, leader of a Lebanese Christian militia, had participated in the killings.”
1983(30th of Kislev, 5744): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1983: A bomb planted on a bus in Jerusalem explodes, killing 6 Israelis
1987: The Counterlife by Philip Roth, The Embarrassment of Riches An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama and More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow are among the twelve books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year
1988: Yassar Arafat meets with “prominent American Jews” in Stockholm, Sweden
1991(29th of Kislev, 5752: Charles A. Levine, who became aviation's first trans-Atlantic passenger in 1927 when he sponsored an attempt to beat Col. Charles A. Lindbergh to Europe, died today at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He was 94 years old and had moved to Washington from New York City this fall. Mr. Levine flew into history with Clarence D. Chamberlin at the controls of a monoplane designed by Giuseppe Ballanca and owned by Mr. Levine, then a millionaire businessman. Their 225-horsepower craft, named Columbia, had been ready for weeks. But the race to be the first to fly the Atlantic was lost to Colonel Lindbergh when a suit filed by one of Mr. Chamberlin's would-be co-pilots, Lloyd Bertaud, marooned the Columbia in its hangar at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. Mr. Levine got a sheriff's attachment quashed hours after Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St. Louis, lifted off from the same airfield. Lindbergh's arrival in Paris on May 21 astounded the world and overshadowed the Chamberlin-Levine venture. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
1992: Kissinger: A Biography by Walter Isaacson is among the nine books chosen by the New York Times Book Review as the best books published in the country during the preceding year
1993(22nd of Kislev, 5754): Mordechai Lapid and his son Shalom Lapid, age 19, were shot to death by terrorists near Hebron. Hamas publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.
1995:Today, Dennis Ross, the chief Middle East mediator in the United States State Department, held talks with President Hafez Assad of Syria to assess his reactions to initiatives for peace talks made by Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Mr. Ross returned to Jerusalem later in the day to talk with Mr. Peres. Details were not immediately known, though the Israeli coordinator of talks with the Arabs, Uri Savir, cautioned at the outset that "there is curiosity, but I wouldn't say any great expectations at this stage."
1995:Prosecutors filed charges of premeditated murder against Yitzhak Rabin's confessed assassin today as Israel marked the end of the 30-day mourning period for the slain Prime Minister. In addition to the murder charge against Yigal Amir, indictments filed by the District Attorney at Tel Aviv District Court also charged Mr. Amir's brother Hagai and their friend Dror Adani with conspiring to kill Mr. Rabin and to attack Palestinian Arabs. The only other charge brought so far was against a soldier, Sgt. Arik Schwartz, who was indicted by a military court on Monday for supplying stolen arms and ammunition to the Amirs.
1996(25thof Kislev, 5757): Chanukah
1998: The New York Times list of the Best Books of 1998 contains the following works about Jewish related subjects or by Jewish authors including Titan:The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow and To End A War by Richard Holbrooke.
1998: The New York Times book section featured a review of Hot Seat:Theater Criticism for the New York Times-1993 by Frank Rich.
2000: Emmy award winner Werner Klemperer passed away. Oddly enough, Klemperer gained his greatest fame as Col. Klink, the German head of a POW Camp on the television hit Hogan’s Heroes.
2001:A fire and subsequent fire-fighting efforts severely damaged the roof, ceiling, mural paintings and decorative plasterwork of the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol in New York City.
2002: Actress Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz) was sentenced to community service as part of a probationary term for stealing more than $5,500 worth of merchandise from a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills.
2004: As a result of a law suit growing out of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a federal jury ruled in favor of developer Larry Silverstein giving him an additional $1.1 billion from nine insurers, declaring the attack to be two "occurrences".
2005: The United States Ambassador to the United Nations announced that
Algeria
prevented the release of a statement by the UN Security Council condemning Monday's suicide bombing in Netanya.
Algeria
objected reportedly because the proposed condemnation mentioned that the instructions for the attack came from
Damascus
. Earlier in the day, a senior Islamic Jihad figure in
Gaza
City
denied that the organization had offices in
Syria
, claiming that their secretary general Ramadan Shalah left the country months ago. However, the Islamic Jihad, who took responsibility for the bombing openly admitted that it received its orders from
Syria
.
2006: A panel of rabbis gave permission today for same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination of gays within Conservative Judaism, a wrenching change for a movement that occupies the middle ground between orthodoxy and liberalism in Judaism.
2006(15th of Kislev, 5767): Photojournalist Leonard Freed passed away at the age of 77. Born to immigrant parents in
Brooklyn
, Freed often chose subjects related to his Jewish ancestry, including a study of Orthodox Jews around the world published in 1980.
2006(15th of Kislev, 5767): Robert Rosenblum, an influential and irreverent art historian and museum curator known for his research on subjects ranging from Picasso to images of dogs, passed away at the age of 79 at his home in Greenwich Village.
2006: Jerry Stiller entertains at the Center for Jewish History’s Board of Overseers and Board of Governors dinner.
2006: The New York Times publishes Alex Witchel’s latke receipe.
http://www.marthastewart.com/348886/potato-pancakes
2007: As part of Chanukah festivities, the Givatayim Theatre stages a festival of children’s plays including “Stories of Itamar and of Ruthie” and a new musical, “Puss in Boots” directed by Adi Leviathan
2007(26th of Kislev, 5768): Eighty-four year old “Murray Klein, who helped transform Zabar’s from a typical Jewish delicatessen on the Upper West Side of Manhattan into a culinary and cultural landmark, died today in Manhattan. (As reported by Julia Moskin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/nyregion/07klein.html?_r=0
2007: Israel’s Radio Kol Chai reported today, that in response to a request by France’s Chief Rabbi Yosef Sitruk, Shimon Peres has agreed to keep Shabbat this week (for the first time in his life) as part of an outreach campaign by European rabbis. The initiative was started by Rabbi Yosef Sitruk to try and unite Jews all over the world to preserve that Sabbath day. Even more incredibly, Peres announced he will officially call upon all Jews worldwide to observe Shabbat preceding
Israel
’s Independence Day, and to pray for peace.
2008: In
Cedar Rapids
, Jewish Book Month Shabbat at
Temple
Judah
is usurped by a gas leak that causes those who braved the snow flurries and frigid temperatures to go home early. It was the first time in the history of
Cedar Rapids
that more than a minyan gathered and the Torah was not read.
2008 (9th of Kislev): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch, the son of and successor to the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman·of Liadi.
2008: In Washington, D.C., Itzhak Perlman performs with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.
2008: Tonight Arabs fired rockets into Ashkelon and Sderot. IAF aircraft then carried out two air-strikes against Palestinian rocket-launching squads in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources reported that two terrorists were injured in the second attack, one of them critically. Over 20 Kassam rockets and mortar shells pounded the western Negev over the weekend as Palestinian terror factions in the Gaza Strip intensified their attacks on Israel.
2008: Today, Egyptian police found a massive arms cache in Sinai, according to the Falastin al-Youm news Web site. According to the report, Egyptian troops found two weapons caches in the north and center of the peninsula, one of which, buried deep underground, contained more than 250 kilograms of dynamite. In the other cache, 211 anti-aircraft missile shells were discovered. The weapons were in all likelihood intended for the Gaza Strip, and the smugglers who hid them in the desert were still at large.
2008: Today, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund warned that Gaza's severe cash shortage might cause local banks to collapse. The warnings came in response to
Israel
's continued refusal to allow Palestinian banks to transfer cash to their
Gaza
branches. The cash shortage means thousands of Palestinian civil servants may not be able to withdraw their salaries before the Id el-Adha holiday this week. Monetary officials estimate Gaza banks hold less than a quarter of the cash needed to pay government wages.
2009 (19 Kislev): The 19th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev is celebrated as the "Rosh Hashanah of Chassidism." It was on this date, in the year 1798, that the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), was freed from his imprisonment in Czarist Russia. More than a personal liberation, this was a watershed event in the history of Chassidism, heralding a new era in the revelation of the "inner soul" of Torah. For more about the Lubavitch view of their leader see http://www.arjewishcenter.com/library/article_cdo/AID/63817
2009 (19 Kislev): Yom Hillula (יום הילולא) of the Maggid of Mezritch, the successor of the Baal Shem Tov. Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch passed away in December of 1772. For more see www.JewishEncyclpolida.com orhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggid_of_Mezritch
2009: The 20th Washington Jewish Film Festival includes screenings of a documentary entitled “Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist” and “Filmed by Yitzhak,” a documentary composed of hitherto unseen 8mm movies filmed by Yitzhak Rabin during the 1960’s that include images from his years as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.
2009:The 24th Annual New York Israeli Film Festival includes screenings of “A History of Israel Cinema, Part I” and “Adam Resurrected” starring Jeff Goldblum.
2009:Ensemble a la Carte, featuring bassoonist Robin Gelman, holds its fifth annual concert, at Congregation Sha'are Shalom, in Leesburg, Virginia.
2009: Writer, composer, actor, director, and producer Mel Brooks is among those who receives 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors this evening in Washington, D.C.
2009: David Mamet's "Race" opened tonight at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in New York.
2010: American Sephardi Federation and Yeshiva University Museum in collaboration with the Sephardic Music Festival are scheduled to present a program entitled Sepharad: Voices From Across the Strait as part of the Sephardic Music Festival Scholar Series. “As a part of the sixth annual Sephardic Music Festival, this evening provides an opportunity to explore aspects of Sephardic musical culture through performances by singer and scholar, Vanessa Paloma, and the d'Safi Takht Ensemble, performing North African and Jewish music in a contemporary way. An audience-interactive panel discussion follows with the artists, led by ethnomusicologist and curator, Samuel R. Thomas.
2010: Ezra Klein, The Washington Post and Newsweek economics and domestic affairs columnist, is scheduled to speak at Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in Reston, VA.
2010: The Jewish Study Center of Washington is scheduled to offer a course entitled “Biblical Themes in Literature, Opera, Art and Film” which will trace the use of biblical themes across a wide variety of Western cultural masterpieces, old and new, with examples including John Milton's poetic drama "Samson Agonistes" (1671), Rembrandt's painting "The Binding of Isaac" (1635), Arnold Schoenberg's opera "Moses und Aron" (1932) and Cecil B. DeMille's movie "The Ten Commandments" (1956).
2010(29th of Kislev, 5711): Lester Ziffren, 85, an attorney and civic leader who was devoted to his alma mater, UCLA, and many other causes, died today of natural causes at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his family said. “After earning his law degree in 1952 from UCLA, Ziffren served as a deputy attorney general from 1953 to 1959 under California Atty. Gen. Pat Brown. Ziffren then formed a law firm with two brothers, Leo Ziffren, an entertainment lawyer, and Paul Ziffren, who would chair the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. (Paul died in 1991 at 77.) Later, Lester Ziffren became a partner in the prominent local firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. An administrative corporate attorney, he continued practicing law until a few years ago. Born in 1925 in Davenport, Iowa, Ziffren was the youngest of six children. His mother, who spoke only Yiddish, ran the family's grocery store. During World War II, he did intelligence work in Paris for the Army, said Mi